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A BIBLICAL AND THEOLOGICAL 

DICTIONARY: 



EXPLANATORY OF THE 






HISTORY, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS OF THE JEWS, 

AND NEIGHBOURING NATIONS. 

WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE MOST REMARKABLE PLACES AND PERSONS 
MENTIONED IN SACRED SCRIPTURE; 

OF THE 

PRINCIPAL DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY: 

AND NOTICES OP JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN SECTS AND HERESIES. 
BY RICHARD WATSON. 

[revised by the AMERICAN EDITORS.] 

AIM'HN hiv SiKvuavTos, Kal -rslx^i appayli, koL zsvpyos aaei^os, Kai 66^a ava<palptTOSi Kal 8 nXa 
arpwra, koI £>''flV'* dudpavros, Koi fi6ovft SirjveKris, KOi zsavra aaa av einoi us KoXd, rSv ^aiwv 
fif^^0v f] avvuala. — ChRYSOSTOM. 

[An intimate acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures is a secure haven, and an impregnable bulwark, 
and an immovable tower, and imperishable glory, and impenetrable armour, and unfading joy, and 
perpetual delight, and whatever other excellence can be uttered."! 



NEW-YORK, 



PUBLISHED BY B. WAUGH AND T. MASON, 

FOR THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, AT THE CONFERENCE 

OFFICE, 14 CROSBY-STREET. 



J. Collord, Printer. 

1833. 






"Entered accoraing to Act of Congress, in the year 1832, by B. Waugh and T. Mason, in 
the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New- York." 



PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR. 



In the following Dictionary, compiled from the best sources ancient and modern, 
with the addition of many original articles, the selections have been made with 
reference to what was thought most useful ; and thus many things of minor 
importance, usually found in similar works, have been excluded. Every article 
too, taken from preceding Dictionaries, has been carefully weighed, and in a great 
number of instances modified, corrected, or enlarged ; and numerous other writings 
variously illustrative of the Holy Scriptures have been made to contribute a portion 
of their information under different heads. This general acknowledgment renders 
a particular reference to the works made use of unnecessary. The fact is, that 
many of the most valuable of them are compilations from preceding compilations, 
and so have no title to be referred to as original authorities ; while in other 
instances the articles in this Dictionary have been collected from several sources, 
and so altered, or combined with original corrections or enlargements, that it would 
be difficult to assign each portion to its proper original. Where, however, any 
particulars of fact or history required confirmation, the authority has been given. 

It will be observed that all the places and persons mentioned in the Bible have 
not been noticed, for this would only have made the same unprofitable display of 
proper names which is seen in several other Dictionaries ; but those have been 
selected on which any thing important for the right understanding of the Scriptures 
seemed, more or less, to depend. The same rule has been observed as to the 
natural history of the Bible, on which department great light has been thrown by 
Dr. Harris, whose learned work has been rather freely used. The leading sects 
and heresies, ancient and modern, have also been introduced ; but with no design 
to embody a complete account of religious opinions : those only, therefore, have 
been inserted with which it is most necessary that the theological student should 
have a general acquaintance. 

All that is important in those useful modern works which have been published 
upon the manners and customs of the east will be found embodied under different 
heads so far as it tends to elucidate the sacred volume ; and many interesting 
extracts are given from the most intelligent of our modern travellers in Palestine, 
and neighbouring countries, pointing out the present condition of places celebrated 
in sacred geography, and especially when the account illustrates and render? 
remarkable the fulfilment of prophecy. 

At the close of the whole, a complete alphabetical list of proper names occurring 
in the Bible, with their significations and right pronunciation, is appended. 

London, August 20, 1831. 



ADVERTISEMENT TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 



No other improvements have been attempted in this edition of Mr. Watson's 
BibUcal and Theological Dictionary, than adding a few notes in relation to some 
matters existing in this country, which had escaped the attention of the author, and 
rendering those passages and phrases into English which had been left untranslated. 
Such translations are included in brackets. It may be proper to remark, that only 
that part of the work from the eight hundred and forty second page has been printed 
under the superintendence of the present editor ; the former part having passed 
through the press previous to the last general conference. 

It is not necessary to say any thing in commendation of this work. Whatever 
merit, however, may be attached to others of a similar character which have preceded 
it, we thmk it will be conceded by all, that Mr. Watson, by furnishmg this Dic- 
tionary, has suppUed a desideratum, in the department of Biblical and Theological 
literature, which had long been felt, and for doing which the religious community 
will not be backward in acknowledging its obligations. 

N. Bangs. 

New-York, Sept. 25, 1832. 



BIBLICAL AND THEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY, 



AAR 

AARON, the son of Amram and Jochebed, 
of the tribe of Levi. Aaron was three years 
older than his brother Moses ; and when God 
appeared in the burning bush, 'Moses having 
excused himself from the undertaking commit- 
ted to him, by urging that he was slow of speech, 
Aaron, who was an eloquent man, was made 
his interpreter and spokesman ; and in effecting 
the deliverance of the Hebrews we therefore find 
them constantly associated. During the march 
of the children of Israel through the wilderness, 
Aaron and his sons were appointed by God to 
exercise for ever the office of priests in the 
tabernacle. 

Moses having ascended the mountain to re- 
ceive the law from God, Aaron, his sons, and 
seventy elders, followed him, Exod. xxiv, 1, 2, 
9-1 1 ; not indeed to the summit, but " afar off," 
" and they saw the God of Israel," that is, the 
glory in which he appeared, "as it were the 
paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were 
the body of heaven for clearness ;" — a clear and 
dazzhng azure, a pure, unmingled splendour 
like that of the heavens. " And upon the nobles 
of Israel," Aaron, his sons, and the seventy 
elders, "he laid not his hand," — they were not 
destroyed by a sight which must have over- 
whelmed the weakness of mortal men had they 
not been strengthened to bear it; "and they 
did eat and drink," — they joyfully and devoutly 
feasted before the Lord, as a religious act, upon 
the sacrifices they offered. Afler this they de- 
parted, and Moses remained "vvith God on the 
very siumnit of the mount forty days. 

Diiriug this period, the people, grown impa- 
tient at the long absence of Moses, addressed 
themselves to Aaron in a tumultuous manner, 
saying, " Make us gods which shall go before 
us : for, as for this Moses, the man that brought 
us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what 
is become of him." Aaron sinfully yielded to 
the importunities of the people ; and having 
ordered them to bring the pendants and the ear- 
rings of their wives and children, he melted 
them down, and then made a golden calf, pro- 
bably in imitation of the Egyptian Apis, an ox 
or calf dedicated to Osiris. In this instance the 
image was dedicated to Jehovah the true God ; 
but the guilt consisted in an attempt to establish 
image worship, which, when even ultimately 
referring to God, he has forbidden. Neither are 
images to be worshipped, nor the true God by 
images ; — ^this is the standing unrepealed law 
of Heaven. The calf was called a golden calf, 
as being highly ornamented with gold. Having 
finished the idol, the people placed it on a pedes. 
2 



AAR 

tal, and danced around it, saying, " These be thy 
gods, O Israel ;" or, as it is expressed in Nehe- 
miah, " This is thy God," the image or symbol 
of thy God, "which brought thee up out of the 
land of Egypt." Moses, having hastened from 
the mount by the command of God, testified to 
the people, by breaking the tables of the law 
in their presence, that the covenant between 
God and them was now rendered of none effect 
through their offence. He also indignantly re- 
proved Aaron, whose sin indeed had kindled 
against him the anger of the Lord, so that he 
would "have destroyed him but that Moses 
prayed for him." 

After the tabernacle was built, Moses conse- 
crated Aaron to the high priesthood with the 
holy oil, and invested him with his priestly 
robes, — his garments *' of glory and beauty ;" 
but Aaron's weakness was again manifested in 
concurring with Miriam, his sister, to censure 
and oppose Moses, through envy. Aaron, as 
being the elder brother, could not perhaps brook 
his superiority. What the motive of Miriam 
might be does not appear ; but she being struck 
with leprosy, this punishment, as being imme- 
diately from God, opened Aaron's eyes ; he ac- 
knowledged his fault, and asked forgiveness of 
Moses both for himself and his sister. 

Aaron himself became also the object of jeal- 
ousy; but two miraculous interpositions con- 
firmed him in his office of high priest, as of 
Divine appointment. The first v^'as the destruc- 
tion of Korah, who sought that office for him. 
self, and of the two hundred and fifly Levites 
who supported his pretensions. Num. xvi. The 
second was the blossoming of Aaron's rod, 
which was designed "to cause the murmarings 
of the Israelites against him to cease," by show- 
ing that he was chosen of God. Moses having, 
at the command of God, taken twelve rods of 
an almond tree from the princes of the twelve 
tribes, and Aaron's separately, he placed them 
in the tabernacle before the sanctuary, afler 
having written upon each the name of the tribe 
which it represented, and upon the rod of Aaron 
the name of Aaron. The day following, when 
the rods were taken out, that of Aaron " was 
budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed 
blossoms, and yielded almonds." This rod 
therefore was laid up by the ark, to perpetuate 
the remembrance of the miracle, and to be a 
token of Aaron's right to his office. 

Aaron married Elisheba, the daughter of 
Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah, by whom he 
had four sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and 
Ithamar, Exodus vi, 23. The tAvo first were 



AAR 



AAR 



killed by fire from heaven, as a punishment for 
presuming to offer incense with strange fire in 
their censers, Lev. x, 1, 2. From the two others 
the succession of high priests was continued in 
Israel. 

The account of the death of Aaron is pecu- 
liarly solemn and affecting. As he and Moses, 
in striking the rock at Meribah, Num. xvi, had 
not honoured God by a perfect obedience and 
faith, he in his wrath declared unto them that 
they should not enter into the promised land. 
Soon after, the Lord commanded Moses, " Take 
Aaron, and Eleazar his son, and bring them up 
to mount Hor ; and strip Aaron of his garments," 
— his splendid pontifical vestments, — " and put 
them upon Eleazar, his son ; and Aaron shall 
be gathered unto his people, and shall die there." 
This command was carried into effect in the 
presence of all Israel, who were encamped at 
the foot of the mountain ; and his son being 
invested with the father's priestly dress, Aaron 
died, and all the people mourned for him thirty 
days. His sepulchre was lefl unmarked and 
unknown, perhaps to prevent the superstitious 
reverence of future ages. In Deuteronomy it 
is said that Aaron died at Mosera ; because that 
was the name of the district in which mount 
Hor was situated. 

2. The PRIESTHOOD being established in Aaron 
and his family, the nature of this ofiice among 
the Israelites, and the distinction between the 
high' priest and the other priests, require here 
to be pointed out. 

Before the promulgation of the law by Moses, 
the fathers of every family, and the princes of 
every tribe, were priests. This was the case both 
before and after the flood ; for Cain and Abel, 
Noah, Abraham, Job, Abimelech, Laban, Isaac, 
and Jacob, themselves offered their own sacri- 
fices. But after the Lord had chosen the family 
of Aaron, and annexed the priesthood to that 
line, then the right of sacrificing to God was 
reserved to that family only. The high priest- 
hood was confined to the first-born in succes- 
sion ; and the rest of his posterity were priests 
simply so called, or priests of the second order. 
Both in the high priest and the second or in- 
ferior priests, two things deserve notice, — their 
consecration and their office. In some things 
they differed, and in others agreed. In their 
consecration they differed thus : the high priest 
had the chrism, or sacred ointment, poured upon 
his head, so as to run down to his beard, and 
the skirts of his garment, Exod. xxx, 23 ; Lev. 
viii, 12 ; Psa. cxxxiii, 2. But the second priests 
were only sprinkled v/ith this oil, mixed with 
the. blood of the sacrifice. Lev. viii, 30. They 
differed also in their robes, which were a neces- 
sary adjunct to consecration. The high priest 
wore at the ordinary times of his ministration 
in the temple, eight garments ; — linen drawers 
— a coat of fine linen close to his skin — an em- 
broidered girdle of fine linen, blue and scarlet, 
to surround the coat — a robe all of blue with 
seventy-two bells, and as many embroidered 
pomegranates upon the skirts of it ; this was 
put over the coat and girdle — an ephod of gold, 
and of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen, 
curiously wroujjht, on tlie shoulders of which 



were two stones engraved with the names of 
the twelve tribes ; this was put over the robe, 
and girt with a curious girdle of the same — a 
breastplate, about a span square, wrought with 
gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen, and 
fastened upon the ephod by golden chains and 
rings ; in this breastplate were placed- the urini 
and thummim, also twelve several stones, con- 
taining the names of the twelve tribes — a mitre 
of fine linen, sixteen cubits long, to wrap round 
his head — and lastly, a plate of gold, or holy 
crown, two fingers broad, whereon was engrav- 
ed, " Holiness to the Lord ;" this was tied with 
blue lace upon the front of the mitre. Beside 
these garments, which he wore in his ordinary- 
ministration, there were four others, which he 
wore only upon extraordinary occasions, viz. 
on the day of expiation, when he went into the 
holy of holies, which was once a year. These 
were : linen drawers — a linen coat — a linen 
girdle — a linen mitre, all white, Exod. xxviii ; 
Lev. xvi, 4. But the inferior priests had only 
four garments : linen drawers — a linen coat — 
a linen girdle — a linen bonnet. The priest and 
high priest differed also in their marriage re- 
stHctions ; for the high priest might not marry 
a widow, nor a divorced woman, nor a harlot, 
but a virgin only ; whereas the other priests 
might lawfully marry a widow, Lev. xxi, 7. 

In the following particulars the high priest 
and inferior priests agreed in their consecra- 
tion : both were to be void of bodily blemish — 
both were to be presented to the Lord at the 
door of the tabernacle — ^both were to be washed 
with water — both were to be consecrated by ^ 
offering up certain sacrifices — both were to 
have the blood of a ram put upon the tip of the 
right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the 
great toe of the right foot, Exod. xxix, 20. In 
the time of consecration, certain pieces of the 
sacrifice were put into the priest's hand, which 
was called "filling his hand;" hence the He- 
brew phrase, "to fill the hand," signifies con- 
secration. 

In the discharge of their offices, the high 
priest differed from the other priests in these 
particulars : the high prietst only, and that but 
once a year, might enter into the holy of holies 
— the high priest might not mourn for his near- 
est relations by uncovering his head, or tearing 
any part of his garments, except the skirt ; 
whereas the priest was allowed to mourn for 
these six, — father, mother, son, daughter, bro- 
ther, and sister if she had no husband. Lev. 
xxi, 2, 10, 11 ; but they agreed in these respects : 
they both burnt incense and offered sacrifices— 
they both sounded the trumpet, either as an 
alarm in war, or to assemble the people and 
their rulers — they both slew the sacrifices — 
both instructed the people— and both judged 
of leprosy. 

For the more orderly performance of these 
offices, the high priest had his sagan, who, in 
case of the high priest's pollation, performed 
his duty. The high priest and his sagan re- 
sembled our bishop and his suffragan. 

3. Aaron was a type of Christ, not personally, 
but as the high priest of the Jewish church. 
All the priests, as offering gifts and sacrifices. 



ABA 



ABE 



were in their office types of Christ ; but Aaron 
especially, 1. As the high priest, 2. In entering 
into the holy place on the great day of atone- 
ment, and reconciling the people to God; in 
making intercession for them, and pronouncing 
upon them the blessing of Jehovah^ at the ter- 
mination of solemn services, 3. In being anoint- 
ed with the holy oil by effusion^ which was pre- 
figurative of the Holy Spirit with which our 
Lord was endowed. 4. In bearing the names of 
all the tribes of Israel upon his breast and upon 
his shoulders, thus presenting them always be- 
fore God, and representing them to him. 5. In 
being the medium of their inquiring of God by 
urim and thummim ; and of the communication 
of his will to them. But though the offices of 
Aaron were typical, the priesthood of Christ is 
of a different and higher order than his, name- 
ly, that of Melchizedeck. See Calf, Priest, 
Type. Ephod, Breastplate, Urim. 

ABj in the Hebrew chronology, the eleventh 
month of the civil year, and the fifth of the 
ecclesiastical year, which began with Nisan. 
This month answered to the moon of July, 
comprehending part of July and of August, and 
contained thirty days. 

The first day of this month is observed as a 
fast by the Jews, in memory of Aaron's death ; 
and the ninth, in commemoration of the de- 
struction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar, in 
the year before Christ 587. Josephus observes, 
that the burning of the temple by Nebuchad- 
nezzar happened on the same day of tlie year 
on which it was afterward burned by Titus. 
The same day was remarkable for Adrian's 
edict, which prohibited the Jews to continue in 
Judea, or to look toward Jerusalem and lament 
its desolation. The eighteenth day is also kept 
as a fast, because the sacred lamp was extin- 
guished on that night, in the reign of Ahaz. 
On the twenty-first, or, according to Scaliger, 
the twenty-second day, was a feast called Xylo- 
phoria, from their laying up the necessary wood 
in the temple : and on the twenty-fOurth, a feast 
in commemoration of the abolishing of a law by 
the Asmoneans, or Maccabees, which had been 
introduced by the Sadducees, and which enact- 
ed, that both sons and daughters should alike 
inherit the estate of their parents. 

ABADDON, Heb. corresponding to Apollyon, 
Gr. that is. Destroyer, is represented, Rev. ix, 
11, as king of the locusts, and the angel of the 
bottomless pit. Le Clerc and Dr. Hammond 
understand by the locusts in this passage, the 
zealots and robbers who infested and desolated 
Judea before Jerusalem was taken by the Ro- 
mans ; and by Abaddon, John of Gischala, who 
having treacherously left that town before it 
was surrendered to Titus, came to Jerusalem 
and headed those of the zealots who acknow- 
ledged him as their king, and involved the Jews 
in many grievous calamities. The learned 
Grotius concurs in opinion, that the locusts are 
designed to represent the sect of the zealots, 
who appeared among the Jews during the siege, 
and at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem. 
But Mr. Mede remarks, that the title Abaddon 
alludes to Obodas, the common name of the 
ancient monarchs of that part of Arabia from 



which Mohammed came ; and' considers thd 
passage as descriptive of the inundation of the 
Saracens. Mr. Lowman adopts and confirms 
this interpretation. He shows that the rise and 
progress of the Mohammedan religion and em- 
pire exhibit a signal accomplishment of this 
prophecy. All the circumstances here recited 
correspond to the character of thie Arabians, 
and the history of the period that extended from 
A. D. 568 to A. D. 675. In conformity to this 
opinion, Abaddon may be understood to denote 
either Mohammed, who issued from the abyss, 
or the cave of Hera, to propagate his pretended 
revelations, or, more generally, the Saracen' 
power. Mr. Bryant supposes Abaddon to have 
been the name of the Ophite deity, the worship 
of whom prevailed very anciently and very 
generally. 

ABANA. Naaman, the leper, on being di- 
rected to wash in the river Jordan, says, 2 Kings 
V, 12, "Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of 
Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel ?" 
Probably the Abana is a branch of the Barrady, 
or Chrysorrhoas, which derives its source from 
the foot of mount Libanus, eastward ; runs round 
and through Damascus, and continues its course 
till lost in the wilderness, four or five leagues 
south of the city. Benjamin of Tudela will have 
that part of Barrady which runs through Damas- 
cus to be the Abana, and the streams which 
water the gardens without the city, to be Phar- 
par ; but perhaps the Pharpar is the same with- 
Orontes, the most noted river of Syria, which, 
taking its rise a little to the north or north-east 
of Damascus, glides through a delightful plain, 
till, after passing Antioch, and running about 
two hundred miles to the north-west, it loses 
itself in the Mediterranean sea, 2 Kings v, 12. 

ABBA, a Syriac word, which signifies/aiAer. 
The learned Mr* Selden, from the Babylonian 
Gemara, has proved that slaves were not allowed 
to use the title abba in addressing the master 
of the family to which th^y belonged. This 
may serve to illustrate Rom. viij, 15, and Gal. 
iv, 6, as it shows that through faith in Christ all 
true Christians pass into the relation of sons ; 
are permitted to address God with filial con- 
fidence in prayer ; and to regard themselves as 
heirs of the heavenly inheritance. This adop. 
tion into the family of God, inseparably follows 
our justification ; and the power to call God our 
Father, in this special and appropriative sense, 
results from the inward testimony given to our 
forgiveness by the Holy Spirit. St. Paul and 
St. Mark use the Syriac word abba, a term wliich 
was understood in the synagogues and primitive 
assemblies of Christians ; but added to it when 
writing to foreigners the explanation, father. 
Figuratively, abba means also a superior, in 
respect of age, dignity, or affection. It is more 
particularly used in the Syriac, Coptic, and 
Ethiopic churches as a title given to their 
bishops. The bishops themselves bestow the 
title abba more eminently upon the bishop ot 
Alexandria, which occasioned the people to 
give him the title of baba, or papa, that is, 
grandfather ; a title which he bore before the 
bishop of Rome. 

ABEDNEGO, the Chaldee name given by 



ABE 



ABE 



the king of Babylon's officer to Azariah, one 
of Daniel's companions, Dan. i, 7. This name 
imports the servant of Nago, or Nego, which is 
supposed to signify the sun, or morning star, so 
called from its brightness. Abednego was 
thrown into a fiery fiirnace, at Babylon, with 
his two companions Shadrach and Meshach, 
for refusing to adore the statue erected by the 
command of Nebuchadnezzar. God suffered 
them not to be injured by the flames ; but made 
the whole to redound to his own glory, and the 
ehame of the idols of Babylon. One like unto 
the Son of God, or a Divine person, probably 
the Angel of the Divine presence himself, ap- 
peared in the midst of them ; and they came 
out of the furnace, which had been heated 
seven times hotter than usual, so completely 
preserved from the power of the flames, that 
not even "the smell of fire had passed upon 
them." This was an illustrious instance of the 
courageous and hallowed spirit of martyrdom ; 
and the interposition was no doubt designed to 
encourage the Jews while in captivity, living 
among idolaters, to hold fast their religion. It 
is an instance also of those gracious visitations 
to the old Heathen world, by which it was 
loudly called from its idolatries, and aroused 
to the acknowledgment of the true and only 
Jehovah, who, in various ways, "left not him- 
self without witness" among them. A great 
temporary effect was produced by this and other 
miracles related in the book of Daniel ; but the 
people relapsed again into idolatry, and justly 
brought upon themselves all those wasting 
judgments which in succession swept over the 
mightiest and most ancient states. 

ABEL. He was the second son of Adam 
and Eve, and born probably in the second or 
third year of the worM ; though some will have 
it that he and Cain were twins. His name 
signifies vapour, vanity, and might be given 
either because our first parents now began so 
to feel the emptiness and vanity of all earthly 
things, that the birth of another son reminded 
them painfully of it, although in itself a matter 
of joy; or it was imposed under prophetic im- 
pulse, and obscurely referred to his premature 
death. His employment was that of a shepherd ; 
Cain followed the occupation of his father, and 
was a tiller of the ground. Whether tliey re- 
mained in their father's family at the time when 
they brought their offerings to the Lord, or had 
establishments separate from that of Adam, 
does not clearly appear. Abel was probably 
unmarried, or had no children ; but Cain's wife 
is mentioned. "At the end of the. days," — 
which is a more literal rendering than "in 
process of time," as in our translation, that is, 
on the Sabbath, — both brothers brought an offer- 
ing to the Lord. Cain "brought of the fruit of 
the ground;" Abel "the firstlings of his flock, 
and of the fat thereof" " And the Lord had 
respect to Abel and to his offering ; but unto 
Cain and his offering he had not respect." As 
Cain afterward complains that " he should be 
hid from the face or presevce of the Lord," it is 
probable that the worship of the first family was 
performed before some visible manifestation of 
the glory of God, which thus consecrated a par- 



ticular place for their services. Some have 
thought that this was at the east gate of Eden, 
where "Cherubim and a flaming SM'^ord were 
placed ;" but this was a vengeful manifestation, 
and could only have inspired a dread of God 
inconsistent with the confidence and hope with 
which men through the promise of redemption 
were now encouraged to draw nigh to him. 
The respect which God was pleased to show to 
Abel's offering, appears from the account to 
have been sensibly declared; for Cain must 
have known by some token thai the sacrifice 
of Abel was accepted, the absence of which 
sign, as to his own offering, showed that it was 
rejected. Whether this was by fire going forth 
from "the presence of the Lord," to consume 
the sacrifice, as in later instances recorded in 
the Old Testament, or in some other way, it is 
in vain to inquire ; — that the token of accept, 
ance was a sensible one is however an almost 
certain inference. The effect of this upon Cain 
was not to humble him before God, but to ex- 
cite anger against his brother; and, being in 
the field with him, or, as the old versions have 
it, having said to him, "Let us go out into the 
field," " he rose up against Abel his brother, 
and slew him ;" and for that crime, by which 
the first blood of man was shed by man upon 
the earth, — a murder aggravated by the rela- 
tionship and the "righteous" character of the 
sufferer, and having in it also the nature of re 
ligious persecution, — he was pronounced by the 
Lord " cursed from the earth." 

2. As the sacrifice of Abel is the first on re- 
cord, and has given rise to some controversy, it 
demands particular attention. It was offered, 
says St. Paul, "in faith," and it was "a more 
excellent sacrifice" than that of Cain. Both 
these expressions intimate that it was expiatory 

and PREFIGURATIVE. 

As to the matter of the sacrifice, it was an ani- 
mal offering. " Cain brought of the fruit of the 
ground ; and Abel also brought of the firstlings 
of his flock, and of the fat thereof;" or, more 
literally, "the fat of them," that is, according 
to the Hebrew idiom, the fattest or best of his 
flock; and in this circumstance consisted its 
specific character as an act of faith. This is sup- 
ported by the import of the phrase, j^'Xelova ^o-mv, 
used by the Apostle in the Epistle to the He- 
brews, when speaking of the sacrifice of AbeL 
Our translators have rendered it, "a more ex- 
cellent sacrifice." Wickliffe translates it, as 
Archbishop Magee observes, uncouthly, but in 
the full sense of the original, "a much more 
sacrifice ;" and the controversy which has arisen 
on this point is, whether this epitliet of "much 
more," or " fuller," refers to quantity or quality ; 
whether it is to be understood in the sense of a 
more abundant, or of a better, a wore excellent 
sacrifice. Dr. Kennicott takes it in the sense 
of measure and quantity, as well as quality; and 
supposes that Abel brought a double offering of 
the firstlings of his flock, and of the fruit of the 
ground also. His criticism has been very satis- 
fiictorily refuted by Archbishop Magee. The 
sacrifice of Abel was that of animal victims, and 
it was indicative not of gratitude but of " faith :" 
a quality not to be made manifest by the quan^ 



ABE 



ABE 



tity of an offering, for the one has no relation 
to the other. 

3. This will more flilly appear if we consider 
the import of tlie words of the Apostle, — "By 
FAITH Abel offered unto God a more excellent 
sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained wit- 
ness that he was righteous, God testifying of his 
gifts ; and by it, he, being dead, yet speaketh." 
Now what is the meaning of the Apostle, when 
he says that it was witnessed or testified to Abel 
that he Avas righteous? His doctrine is, that 
men are sinners; that all, consequently, need 
pardon ; and to he declared, witnessed, and ac- 
counted righteous, are, according to his style of 
writing, the same as " to be justified, pardoned, 
and dealt with as righteous." Thus he argues 
that Abraham believed God, "and it was ac- 
counted to him for righteousness," — " that faith 
was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness," — 
"that he received the sign of circumcision, a 
seal,''* a visible confirmatory, declaratory, and 
witnessing mark "of the righteousness which 
he had by faith." In these cases we have a 
similarity so striking, that they can scarcely fail 
to explain each other. In both, sinfiil men are 
placed in the condition of righteous men ; the 
instrument, in both cases, is faith; and the trans- 
action is, in both cases also, publicly and sensi- 
bly witnessed, — as to Abraham, by the sign of 
circumcision ; as to Abel, by a visible accept- 
ance of his sacrifice, and the rejection of that 
of Cain. 

Abel had faith, and he expressed that faith by 
the kind of sacrifice he offered. It was in this 
way that his faith "pleased God;" it pleased 
him as a principle, and by the act to which it led, 
which act was the offering of a sacrifice to God 
different from that of Cain. Cain had not this 
faith, whatever might be its object ; and Cain, 
accordingly, did not bring an offering to which 
God had "respect." That which vitiated the 
offering of Cain was the want of this faith ; for 
his offering was not significant of faith : that 
which "pleased God," in the case of Abel, was 
his faith; and he had "respect" to his offering, 
because it was the expression of that faith ; and 
upon his faith so expressing itself, God wit- 
nessed to him "that he was righteous." So 
forcibly do the words of St. Paul, when com- 
menting upon this transaction, show, that Abel's 
sacrifice was accepted, because of its immediate 
connection with his faith, for by faith he is said 
to have offered it; and whatever it might be, 
which made Abel's offering differ from that of 
Cain, whether abundance, or kind, or both, this 
was the result of his faith. So evident also is 
it from the Apostle, that Abel was witnessed to 
be " righteous," not with reference to any pre- 
vious " habit of a religious life," as some say, 
but with reference to his faith; and to this faith 
as expressing itself by his offering " a more ex- 
cellent sacrifice." 

4. If, then, the faith of Abel had an immedi- 
ate connection with his sacrifice> and both with 
his being accepted as "righteous," — that is, ^Ms- 
tified, in St. Paul's use of the term, — to what had 
his faith respect ? The particular object of the 
faith of the elders, celebrated in Hebrews xi, is 
to be deduced from the circumstances mention- 



ed by St. Paul as illustrative of the existence and 
operation of this great principle, and by which 
it manifested itself in them. Let us explain this, 
and then ascertain the object of Abel's faith also 
from the manner of its manifestation, — from 
the acts in which it embodied and rendered itself 
conspicuous. 

Faith, in this chapter, is taken in the sense 
of affiance in God, and, as such, it can only be 
exercised toward God, as to all its particular 
acts, in those respects in which we have some 
warrant to confide in him. This supposes revela- 
tion, and, in particular, promises or declarations 
on his part, as the ground of every act of affiance. 
When, therefore, it is said that "by faith Enoch 
was translated that he should not see death," it 
must be supposed that he had some promise or 
intimation to this effect, on which, improbable 
as the event was, he nobly relied ; and in the 
result God honoured his faith in the sight of all 
men. The faith of Noah had immediate respect 
to the threatened flood, and to the promise of 
God to preserve him in the ark which he was 
commanded to prepare. The chapter is filled 
with other instances, expressed or implied ;*'and 
from the whole, as well as from the nature of 
things, it will appear, that, when the Apostle 
speaks of the fkith of the elders in its particular 
acts, he represents it as having respect to some 
promise, declaration, or revelation of God. 

This revelation was necessarily antecedent 
to the faith ; but it is also to be observed, that 
the acts by which the faith was represented, 
whenever it was represented by particular acts, 
and when the case admitted it, had a natural 
and striking conformity and correspondence to 
the previous revelation. So Noah built the ark, 
which indicated that he had heard the threat 
of the world's destruction by water, and had re- 
ceived the promise of his own preservation, and 
that of his family, as well as that of a part of the 
beasts of the earth. When Abraham went into 
Canaan at the command of God, and upon the 
promise that that country should become the in- 
heritance of his decendants, he showed his faith 
by taking possession of it for them in a.nticipa- 
tion, and his residence there indicated the kind 
of promise which he had received. Thus these 
instances show, that when the faith which the 
Apostle commends exhibited itself in some par- 
ticular act, that act had a correspondency to the 
previous promise or revelation which was the 
ground of faith. We must therefore interpret 
the acts of Abel's faith so as to make them also 
correspond with an antecedent revelation. His 
faith had respect to some previous revelation, 
and the nature of the revelation is to be collect- 
ed from the significant manner in which he de- 
clared his faith in it. 

Now that which Abel did " by faith," was, 
generally, to perform an act of solemn worship, 
in the confidence that it would be acceptable to 
God. This supposes a revelation, immediate 
or by tradition, that such acts of worship were 
acceptable to God, or his faith could have had 
no warrant, and would not have been faith, but 
fancy. But the case must be considered more 
particularly. His faith led him to offer " a more 
excellent sacrifice" than that of Cain ; but this 



ABE 



ABI 



&B necessarily implies, that there was some an. 
lecedent revelation to which his faith, as thus 
expressed, had respect, and on which that pecu- 
liarity of his offering, which distinguished it 
from the offering of Cain, was founded ; a re- 
velation which indicated that the way in which 
God would be approached acceptably, in solemn 
worship, was by animal sacrifices. Without 
this, the faith to which his offering, which was 
an offering of the firstlings of his flock, had a 
special fitness and adaptation, could have had 
no warrant in Divine authority. But this reve- 
lation must have included, in order to its being 
the ground .of faith, as " the substance of things 
hoped for," a promise of a benefit to be confer- 
red, in which promise Abel might confide. But 
if so, then this promise must have been connect- 
ed, not with the worship of God in general, or 
performed in any way whatever indifferently, 
but with his worship by animal oblations ; for it 
was in this way that the faith of Abel specially 
and distinctively indicated itself. The antece- 
dent revelation was, therefore, a promise of a 
benefit to be conferred, by means of animal sa- 
crifice ; and we are taught what this benefit was, 
by that which was actually received by the 
offerer, — "He obtained witness that he was 
righteous;''^ which must be interpreted in the 
sense of a declaration of his personal justifica- 
tion, and acceptance as righteous, by the for- 
giveness of his sins. The reason of Abel's 
acceptance and of Cain's rejection is hereby 
made manifest ; the one, 'm seeking the Divin-e 
favour, conformed to his established and ap- 
pointed method of being approached by guilty 
men, and the other not only neglected this, but 
profanely and presumptuously substituted his 
own inventions. 

5. It is impossible, then, to alloiv the sacrifice 
of Abel, in this instance, to have been an act 
of FAITH, without supposing that it had respect 
to a previous revelation, which agreed with all 
the parts of that sacrificial action by which he 
expressed his faith in it. Had Abel's sacrifice 
been eucharietis merely, it would have express- 
ed gratitude, but not faith ; or if faith in the 
general sense of confidence in God that he would 
receive an act of grateful worship, and reward 
the worshippers, it did noi more express faith 
than the offering of Cain, who surely believed 
these two points, or he would not have brought 
an offering of any kind. The offering of Abel 
expressed a faith which Cain had not ; and the 
doctrinal principles which Abel's faith respect- 
ed were such as his sacrifice visibly embodied. 
If it was not an eucharistic sacrifice, it was an 
expiatory one ; and, in fact, it is only in a sacri- 
fice of this kind, that it is possible to see that 
faith exhibited which Abel had, and Cain had 
not. If then we refer to the subsequent sacri- 
fices of expiation appointed by Divine authority, 
and their explanation in the New Testament, it 
will be obvious to what doctrines and principles 
of an antecedent revelation the faith of Abel 
had respect, and which his sacrifice, the exhi- 
bition of his faith, proclaimed: confession of 
the fact of being a sinner, — acknowledgment 
that the demerit and penalty of sin is death, — 
Bubmiasion to an appointed mQde pf expiation, — 



animal sacrifice offered vicariously, but in itself 
a mere type of a better sacrifice, "the Seed of 
the woman," appointed to be offered at some 
future period, — and the efficacy of this appoint- 
ed method of expiation to obtain forgiveness, 
and to admit the guilty into the Divine favour. 

" Abel," Dr. Magee justly says, " in firm reli- 
ance on the promise of God, and in obedience 
to his command, offered that sacrifice which 
had been enjoined as the religious expression 
of his faith ; whilst Cain, disregarding the gra- 
cious assurances that had been vouchsafed, or 
at least disdaining to adopt the prescribed mode 
of manifesting his belief, possibly as not ap- 
pearing to his reason to possess any efficacy or 
natural fitness, thought he had sufficiently ac- 
quitted himself of his duty in acknowledging 
the general superintendence of God, and ex- 
pressing his gratitude to the Supreme Benefac- 
tor, by presenting some of those good things 
which he thereby confessed to have been de=. 
rived from his bounty. In short, Cain, the first- 
born of the fall, exhibits the first fruits of his 
parents' disobedience, in the arrogance and 
self-sufficiency of reason rejecting the aids of 
revelation, because they fell not within its ap- 
prehension of right. He takes the first place 
in the annals of Deism, and displays, in his 
proud rejection of the ordinance of sacrifice, 
the same spirit which, in later days, has actu- 
ated his enlightened followers, in rejecting the 
sacrifice of Christ." 

Abel was killed about the j^ear of the world, 
130. 

ABEL-MISRAIM, the floor of Atad, beyond 
the river Jordan, where Joseph, his brethren, 
and the Egyptians mourned for the death of 
Jacob, Gen. 1, 11. On this occasion the fimeral 
procession was, at the command of Joseph, at- 
tended by *' all the elders of Egypt, and all the 
servants of Pharaoh, and all his house, and the 
house of Jiis brethren, chariots and horsemen, 
a very great company ;" an afiecting proof, as 
it has been remarked, of Joseph's simplicity and 
singleness of heart, which allowed him to give 
to the great men of Egypt, over whom he bore 
absolute rule, an opportunity of observing his 
own comparatively humble origin, by leading 
them in attendance upon his father's corpse to 
the valleys of Canaan, the modest cradle of his 
race, and to their simple burial places. 

ABEL-SHITTIM, a city situate in the plains 
of Moab, beyond Jordan, opposite to Jericho, 
Num. XXV, 1, &c ; xxiii, 49 ; Joshua xi, 1. Eu- 
sebius says it stood in the neighbourhood of 
mount Peor. Moses encamped at Abel-Shittim 
some time before the Hebrew army passed the 
Jordan. Here the Israelites fell into idolatry, 
and worshipped Baal-peor, for which God pun. 
ished them by the destruction of twenty-four 
thousand persons in one day. 

ABIAH, the second son of the prophet Sa, 
muel, and brother of Joel. Samuel having en- 
trusted to his sons the administration of public 
justice, and admitted them to a share in the go- 
vernment, they behaved so ill, that the people 
demanded a king, 1 Sam. viii, 2. A. M. 2909. 

ABIATHAR, the son of Ahimelech, and the 
tenth high priest among the Jews, and fpurtJi 



ABI < 

in descent from Eli, 2 Sam. viii, 17 ; 1 Chron. 
xviii, 16. When Saul sent to Nob to murder 
all the priests, Abiathar escaped the massacre, 
and fled to David in the wilderness. There he 
continued in the quality of high priest; but 
Saul, out of aversion to Ahimelech, whom he 
imagined to have betrayed his interests, trans- 
ferred the dignity of the high priesthood from 
Ithamar's family into that of Eleazar, by con- 
ferring this office upon Zadok. Thus there 
were, at the same time, two high priests in Is- 
rael, Abiathar with David, and Zadok with 
Saul. In this state things continued, until the 
reign of Solomon, when Abiathar, being at- 
tached to the party of Adonijah, was, by Solo- 
mon, divested of his priesthood, A. M. 2989 ; 
and the race of Zadok alone performed the 
functions of that office during the reign of So- 
lomon, to the exclusion of the family of Itha- 
mar, according to the word of the Lord to Eli, 
1 Sam. ii, 30, &c. 

ABIB, the name of the first Hebrew sacred 
month, Exod. xiii, 4. This month was after- 
ward called Nisan ; it contained thirty days, 
and answered to part of our March and April. 
Abib signifies green ears of corn, or fresh fruits, 
according to Jerom's translation, Exod. xiii, 4, 
and to the LXX. It was so named because 
corn, particularly barley, was in ear at that 
time. It was an early custom to give names 
to months, from the appearances of nature; 
and the custom is still in force among many 
nations. The year among the Jews com- 
menced in September, and consequently their 
jubilees and other civil matters were regulated 
in this way. Lev. xxv, 8-10 ; but their sacred 
year began in Abib. This change took place 
at the redemption of Israel from Egypt, Exod. 
xii, 2, " This shall be to you the beginning of 
months." Ravanelli observes, that as this de- 
liverance from Egypt was a figure of the re- 
demption of the church of Jesus Christ, who 
died and rose again in this month, it was made 
the " beginning of months," to lead the church 
to expect the acceptable year of the Lord. On 
the tenth day of this month the paschal lamb 
was taken ; and on the fourteenth they ate the 
passover. On the seven succeeding days they 
celebrated the feast of unleavened bread, on the 
last of which days they held a solemn convo- 
cation, Exod. xii, xiii. On the fifteenth they 
gathered the sheaf of the barley fia:st fruits, and 
on the following day presented an offering of 
it to the Lord, which having done they might 
begin their harvest. Lev. xxiii. 

ABIHU, the son of Aaron, the high priest, 
was consumed, together with his brother Na- 
dab, by fire sent from God, because he had 
offered incense with strange fire, instead of 
taking it from the altar. Lev. x, 1, 2. This ca. 
lamity happened A. M. 2514 ; within eight days 
after the consecration of Aaron and his sons. 
Some commentators believe that this fire pro. 
ceeded from the altar of burnt offerings ; others, 
that it came from the altar of incense. Several 
interpreters, as the Rabbins, Lyra, Cajetan, and 
others, are of opinion, that Nadab and Abihu 
were overtaken with wine, and so forgot to take 
the sacred fire in their censers. This conjee- 



ABI 

ture is founded on the command of God deliver- 
ed immediately afterward to the priests, for- 
bidding them the use of wine during the time 
they should be employed in the service of the 
temple. Another class allege, that there was 
nothing so heinous in their transgression, but 
it was awfully punished, to teach ministers 
fidelity and exactness in discharging their of- 
fice. It had a vastly more important mean- 
ingj — this instance of vengeance is a standing 
example of that divine wrath which shall con- 
sume all who pretend to serve God, except with 
incense kindled from the one altar and offer- 
ing by which he for ever perfects them that 
are sanctified. 

ABIJAH, the son of Jeroboam, the first king 
of the ten tribes, who died very young, 1 Kings 
xiv, 1, &c, A. M. 3046.— 2. The son of Reho. 
boam., king of Judah, and of Maachah, the 
daughter of Uriel, who succeeded his father, 
A. M. 3046, 2 Chron. xi, 20 ; xiii, 2, &c. The 
Rabbins reproach this monarch with neglecting 
to destroy the profane altar which Jeroboam 
had erected at Bethel ; and with not suppress- 
ing the worship of the golden calves there 
after his victory over that prince. 

ABILENE, a small province in Coelo Syria, 
between Lebanon and Antilibanus. Of this 
place Lysanias was governor in the fifteenth 
year of Tiberius, Luke iii, 1. Abela, or Abila, 
the capital, was north of Damascus, and south 
of Heliopolis. 

ABIMELECH. This seems to have been 
the title of the kings of Philistia, as Caesar 
was of the Roman emperors, and Pharaoh of 
the sovereigns of Egypt. It was the name 
also of one of the sons of Gideon, who became 
a judge of Israel, Judges ix ; and of the Jew- 
ish high priest, who gave Goliah's sword, which 
had been deposited in the tabernacle, and part 
of the shew bread, to David, at the time this 
prince was flying from Saul, 1 Sam. xxi, 1. 

ABIRAM, the eldest son of Hiel, the Beth- 
elite. Joshua having destroyed the city of Jeri- 
cho, pronounced this curse : " Cursed be the 
man, before the Lord, that riseth up and build- 
eth this city, Jericho : he shall lay the founda- 
tion thereof in his first-born, and in his young- 
est son shall he set up the gates of it," Joshua 
vi, 26. Hiel of Bethel, about five hundred and 
thirty-seven years after this impi-eGation, hav- 
ing undertaken to rebuild Jericho, whilst he 
was laying the foundation of it, lost his eldest 
son, Abiram, 1 Kings xvi, 34 ; and Segub, the 
youngest, when they set up the gates of it : a 
remarkable instance of a prophetic denuncia- 
tion fulfilled, perhaps on a person who would 
not credit the tradition, or the truth of the pre- 
diction. So true is the word of the Lord; so 
minutely are the most distant contingencies 
foreseen by him ; and so exact is the accom- 
plishment of Divine prophecy ! 

2. Abiram, the son of Eliab, of the tribe of 
Reuben, was one of those who conspired with 
Korah and Dathan against Moses in the wil- 
derness, and was swallowed up alive, with his 
companions, by the earth, which opened to re- 
ceive them, Num. xvi. 

ABISHAG, a young woman, a native of 



ABN 



ABO 



Shunam, in the tribe of Issachar. David, at the 
age of seventy, finding no warmth in his bed, 
was advised by Ms physicians to procure some 
young person, who might communicate the 
heat required. To this end Abishag was pre- 
eented to him, who was one of the most beau- 
tiful women in Israel, 1 Kings i, 3 ; and the 
king made her liis wife. After his death, Ado- 
nijah requested her in marriage, for which he 
lost his life ; Solomon perceiving in this a de- 
sign upon the crown also. Adonijah was his 
.elder brother, an intriguing man, and had as- 
pired to be king before the death of David, 
and had had his life spared only upon the con- 
dition of his peaceable conduct. By this re- 
quest he convinced Solomon, that he was still 
actuated by political views, and this brought 
upon him the punishment of treason. I 

ABISHAI, the son of Zeruiah, David's sis- 
ter, who was one of the most valiant men 
of his time, and one of the principal generals 
in David's armies, 

ABLUTION, purification by washing the 
body, either in whole or part. Ablutions ap- 
pear to be almost as ancient as external wor- 
ship itself. Moses enjoined them ; the Hea- 
thens adopted them ; and Mohammed and his 
followers have continued them : thus they havcv 
been introduced among most nations, and 
make a considerable part of all superstitious re- 
ligions. The Egyptian priests had their diurnal 
and nocturnal ablutions j the Grecians, their 
sprinklings ; the Romans, their lustrations and 
lavations ; the Jews, their washings of hands 
and feet, beside their baptisms ; the ancient 
Christians used ablution before communion, 
which the Romish church still retains before 
the mass, sometimes after ; the Syrians, Copts, 
&c, have their solemn washings on Good Fri- 
day; the Turks their greater and less ablu- 
tions, &c. 

Lustration, among the Romans, was a solemn 
ceremony by which they purified their cities, 
fields, armies, or people, after any crime or 
impurity. Lustrations might be performed by 
fire, by sulphur, by water, and by air ; the last 
was applied by ventilation, or fanning the 
thing to be purified. All sorts of people, slaves 
excepted, might perform some kind of lus- 
tration. When a person died the house was 
to be swept in a particular manner ; new mar- 
ried persons were sprinkled by the priest with 
water. People sometimes, by way of purifica- 
tion, ran several times naked through the 
streets. There was scarcely any action per- 
formed, at the beginning and end of which 
some ceremony was not required to purify 
themselves and appease the gods. 

ABNER was the uncle of king Saul, and the 
general of his army. After Saul's death, he 
made Ishbosheth king; and for seven years 
supported the family of Saul, in opposition to 
David ; but in most of his skirmishes came off 
with loss. While Ishbosheth's and David's 
troops lay near each other, hard by Gibeon, 
Abner challenged Joab to select twelve of Da- 
vid's warriors to fight with an equal number 
of his. Joab consented : the twenty-fou? en- 
gaged ; and fell together on the spot. A fierce 



battle ensued, in which Abner and his troops 
were routed, Abner himself was hotly pursued 
by Asahel, whom he killed by a back stroke of 
his spear. Still he was followed by Joab and 
Abishai, till he, who in the morning sported 
with murder, was obliged at even to entreat that 
Joab would stay his troops from the effusion of 
blood, 2 Sam. ii. 

Not long after, Abner, taking it highly amiss 
for Ishbosheth to charge him with lewd be- 
haviour toward Rizpah, Saul's concubine, vow- 
ed that he would quickly transfer the v/hole 
kingdom into the hands of David. He there- 
fore commenced a correspondence with David, 
and had an interview with him at Hebron. Ab- 
ner had just left the feast at which David had 
entertained him, when Joab, informed of the 
matter, warmly remonstrated, asserting, that 
Abner had come as a spy. On his own authori- 
ty he sent a messenger to invite him back, to 
have some farther communication with the 
king ; and when Abner was come into Joab's 
presence, the latter, partly from jealousy lest 
Abner might become his superior, and partly 
to revenge his brother Asahel's death, mortally 
stabbed him in the act of salutation. David, to 
show how heartily he detested the act, honour- 
ed Abner with a splendid funeral, and composed 
an elegy on his death, 2 Sam. iii. 

ABOMINATION. This term was used with 
regard to the Hebrews, who, being shepherds, 
are said to have been an abomination to the 
Egyptians ; because they sacrificed the animals 
held sacred by that people, as oxen, goats, sheep, 
&c, which the Egyptians esteemed unlawful. 
This word is also applied in the sacred writings 
to idolatry and idols, not only because the wor- 
ship of idols is in itself an abominable thing, but 
likewise because the ceremonies of idolaters 
were almost always of an infamous and licen- 
tious nature. For this reason, Chrysostom af- 
firms, that every idol, and every image of a man, 
was called an abomination among the Jews. 
The "abomination of desolation" foretold by 
the Prophet Daniel, x, 27, xi, 31, is supposed by 
some interpreters to denote the statue of Jupiter 
Olympius, which Antiochus Epiphanes caused 
to be erected in the temple of Jerusalem. The 
second of the passages above cited may proba- 
bly refer to this circumstance, as the statue of 
Jupiter did, in fact, "make desolate," by ban- 
ishing the true worship of God, and those who 
performed it, from the temple. But the former 
passage, considered in its whole connection, 
bears more immediate reference to that which 
the evangelists have denominated the "abomi 
nation of desolation," Matt, xxiv, 15, 16; Mark 
xiii, 14. This, without doubt, signifies the en- 
signs of the Roman armies under the command 
of Titus, during the last siege of Jerusalem. 
The images of their gods and emperors were 
delineated on these ensigns ; and the ensigns 
themselves, especially the eagles, which were 
carried at the heads of the legions, were objects 
of worship ; and, according to the usual style of 
Scripture, they were therefore an abomination. 
Those ensigns were placed upon the ruins of 
the temple after it was taken and demolished ; 
and, as Josephus informs us, the Romans sacri= 



ABR 



9 



ABR 



iiced to them there. The horror with which 
the Jews regarded them, sufficiently appears 
from the account which Josephus gives of Pi- 
late's introduchig them into the city, when he 
sent his army froirCresarea into winter quar- 
ters at Jerusalem, ivcv<i of Vitellius's proposing 
to march through Judea, after he had received 
orders from Tiberius to attack Aretas, king of 
Petra. The people supplicated and remonstrat- 
ed, and induced Pilate to remove the army, and 
Vitellius to march his troops another way. The 
Jews applied the above passage of Daniel to the 
Romans, as we are informed by Jerome. The 
learned Mr. Mede concurs in the same opinion. 
Sir Isaac Newton, Obs. on Daniel ix, xii, ob- 
serves, that in the sixteenth year of the empe- 
ror Adrian, B. C. 132, the Romans accomplish, 
ed the prediction of Daniel by building a temple 
to Jupiter Capitolinus, where the temple of God 
in Jerusalem had stood. Upon this occasion the 
Jews, under the conduct of Barchochab, rose up 
in arms against the Romans, and in the war had 
fifly cities demolished, nine hundred and eighty- 
five of their best towns destroyed, and five 
hundred and eighty thousand men slain by the 
sword; and in the end of the wax-, B. C. 136, 
they were banished from Judea upon pain of 
death ; and thenceforth the land remained de- 
solate of its old inhabitants. Others again have 
applied the prediction of Daniel to the invasion 
and desolation of Christendom by the Moham- 
medans, and to their conversion of the churches 
into mosques. From this interpretation they 
infer, that the religion of Mohammed will pre- 
vail in the east one thousand two hundred and 
sixty years, and be succeeded by the restoration 
of the Jews, the destruction of antichrist, the 
full conversion of the Gentiles to the church of 
Christ, and the commencement of the millen- 
nium. 

In general, whatever is morally or ceremo- 
nially impure, or leads to sin, is designated an 
abomination to God. Thus lying lips are said 
to be an abomination to the Lord. Every thing 
in doctrine or practice which tended to corrupt 
the simplicity of the Gospel is also in Scripture 
called abominable ; hence Babylon is represent- 
ed. Rev. xvii, 4, as holding in her hand a cup 
" full of abominations." In this view, to "work 
abomination," is to introduce idolatry, or any 
other great corruption, into the church and 
worship of God, 1 Kings xi, 7. 

ABRAM, onaN, a high father; and ABRA- 
HAM, ann^N, father of a great multitude, the 
son of Terah, born at Ur, a city of Chaldea, 
A. M. 2008. The account of this eminent pa- 
triarch occupies so large a part of the book of 
Genesis, and stands so intimately connected 
with both the Jewish and Christian dispensa- 
tions, — with the one by a political and religious, 
and with the other by a mystical, relation, — that 
his history demands particular notice. Our ac- 
count may be divided into his personal history, 
and his typical, and mystic character. 

I. Abraham's personal history. 

1. Chaldea, the native country of Abraham, 
was inhabited by a pastoral people, who were 
almost irresistibly invited to the study of the 
motions of the heavenly bodies, by the peculiar 



serenity of the heavens in that climate, and their 
habit of spending their nights in the open air in 
tending their flocks. The first rudiments of as- 
tronomy, as a science, is traced to this region ; 
and here, too, one of the earliest forms of idola- 
try, the worship of the host of heaven, usually 
called Tsabaism, first began to prevail. During 
the three hundred and fifty years which elaps- 
ed between the deluge and the birth of Abra- 
ham, this and other idolatrous superstitions had 
greatly corrupted the human race, perverted the 
simple forms of the patriarchal religion, and 
beclouded the import of its typical rites. The 
family of Abraham was idolatrous, for his "fa- 
thers served other gods beyond the flood," that 
is, the great river Euphrates ; but whether he 
himself was in the early period of his life an 
idolater, we are not informed by Moses. The 
Arabian and Jewish legends speak of his early 
idolatry, his conversion from it, and of his zeal 
in breaking the images in his father's house ; but 
these are little to be depended upon. Before 
his call he was certainly a worshipper of the 
true God; and that not in form only, but "in 
spirit and in truth." Whilst Abraham was still 
sojourning in Ur, " the God of glory" appeared 
to him, and said unto him, " Get thee out of thy 
country and from thy kindred, and go into the 
land which I shall show thee ;" and so firm was 
his faith in the providence and care of God, that 
although the place of his future abode was not 
indicated, nor any information given of the na- 
ture of the country, or the character of its in- 
habitants, he nevertheless promptly obeyed, and 
"went out, not knowing whither he went." 
Terah his father, Nahor his brother, and Lot his 
nephew, the son of Haran his deceased brother, 
accompanied him ; a circumstance which indi- 
cates that if the family had formerly been idola- 
trous it had now received the faith of Abraham. 
They first migrated to Haran, or Charran, in 
Mesopotamia, a flat, barren region westward of 
Ur ; and after a residence there of a few years, 
during which Terah had died, Abraham left 
Haran to go into Palestine, taking with him 
Sarah his wife, who had no child, and Lot, with 
his paternal property. Nahor appears to have 
been left in Haran. To this second migration 
he was incited also by a Divine command, ac- 
companied by the promises of a numerous issue, 
that his seed should become a great nation, and, 
above all, that "in him all the families of the 
earth should be blessed ;" in other words, that 
the Messiah, known among the patriarchs as the 
promised "seed of the woman," should be born 
in his line. Palestine was then inhabited by 
the Canaanites, from whom it was called Ca- 
naan. Abraham, leading his tribe, first settled 
at Sechem, a valley between the mountains Ebal 
and Gerizim, where God appeared to him and 
promised to give him the land of Canaan, and 
where, as in other places in which he remained 
any time, he built an altar to the Lord. He 
then removed to a hilly region on the north of 
Jericho ; and as the pastures were exhausted, 
migrated southward, till a famine drove him 
into Egypt, probably the earliest, certainly the 
most productive, corn country of the ancient 
world. 



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10 



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2. Here it may be observed, that the migra- 
tions of Abraham and his sons show the manner 
in which the earth was gradually covered with 
people. In those ages some cities had been 
built, and the country to some extent about them 
cultivated; but wide spaces of unoccupied land 
lay between them. A part of society following 
therefore the pastoral life, led forth their flocks, 
and, in large family tribes, of which the parent 
was the head, uniting both the sovereign power 
and the priesthood in himself, and with a 
train of servants attached to the tribe by he- 
reditary ties, pitched their camps wherever a 
fertile and unappropriated district offered them 
pasture. A few of these nomadic tribes appear 
to have made the circuit of the same region, 
seldom going far from their native seats ; which 
would probably have been the case with Abra- 
ham, had he not received the call of God to de- 
part to a distant country. Others, more bold, 
followed the track of rivers, and the sweep of 
fertile valleys, and at length some built cities 
and formed settlements in those distant regions ; 
whilst others, either from attaclmnent to their 
former mode of life, or from necessity, continu- 
ed in their pastoral occupations, and folloAved 
the supplies afforded for their flocks by the still 
expanding regions of the fertile earth. Wars 
and violences, droughts, famines, and the con- 
stant increase of population, continued to im- 
pel these innumerable, but at first, small streams 
of men into parts still more remote. Those 
who settled on the sea coast began to use that 
element, both for supplying themselves with a 
new species of food, and as a medium of com- 
munication by vessels with other countries for 
the interchange of such commodities as their 
own lands afforded with those offered by mari- 
time states, more or less distant. Thus were laid 
the foundations of commerce, and thus the mari- 
time cities were gradually rendered opulent and 
powerful. Colonies were in time transported 
from them by means of their ships, and settled 
on the coasts of still more distant and fertile 
countries. Thus the migrations of the three 
primitive families proceeded from the central 
regions of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria ; 
and in succession they established numerous 
communities,— the Phenicians, Arabians, Egyp- 
tians, Ethiopians, and Lybians southward; — 
the Persians, Indians, and Chinese eastward; — 
the Scythians, Celts, and Tartars northward ; — 
and the Goths, Greeks, and Latins westward, 
even as far as the Peruvians and Mexicans of 
South America, and the Indians of North Ame- 
rica. 

3. Abraham, knowing the dissolute charac- 
ter of the Egyptians, directed Sarah to call 
herself his sister^ which she was, although by 
another mother ; fearing that if they knew her 
to be his wife, they would not only seize her, 
but kill him. This circumstance indicates the 
vicious state of morals and government in 
.Egypt at this early period. In this affair Abra- 
*ham has been blamed for want of faith in God ; 

but it was perhaps no more than an act of com- 
mon prudence, as the seraglio of the Egyp- 
tian monarch was supplied by any means, how- 
ever violent and lawless. Sarah, upon the 



report of her beauty, was seized and taken into 
his harem ; and God sent great plagues upon 
his house, which, from their extraordinary 
character, he concluded to be divine judgments. 
This led to inquiry, and ou. discovering that he 
was detaining another man's wife by violence, 
he sent her back, and dismissed Abraham laden 
with presents. 

4. After the famine Abraham returned to 
Canaan, and pitched his tents between Bethel 
and Hai, where he had previously raised an 
altar. Here, as his flocks and herds, and those 
of Lot, had greatly increased, and strifes had 
arisen between their herdsmen as to pasturage 
and water, they peaceably separated. Lot re- 
turning to the plain of the Jordan, which before 
the destruction of Sodom was as "the garden 
of God," and Abraham to Mamre, near Hebron, 
after receiving a renewal of the promise, that 
God would give him the whole land for a pos- 
session. The separation of Abraham and Lot 
still farther secured the unmingled descent of 
the Abrahamitic family. The territories of the 
kings of the cities of the plain were a few years 
afterward invaded by a confederacy of the petty 
kings of the Euphrates and the neighbouring 
countries, and Lot and his family were taken 
prisoners. This intelligence being brought to 
Abraham, he collected the men of his tribe, 
three hundred and eighteen, and falling upon 
the kings by night, near the fountains of Jeri- 
cho, he defeated them, retook the spoil, and 
recovered Lot. On his return, passing near 
Salem, supposed to be the city afterward called 
Jerusalem, he was blessed by its king Mel- 
chizedec, who was priest of the most high God ; 
so that the knowledge and worship of Jehovah 
had not quite departed at that time from the 
Canaanitish nations. To him Abraham gave 
a tithe of the spoil. The rest he generously 
restored to the king of Sodom, refusing, in a 
noble spirit of independence, to retain so much 
as a " shoe lachet," except the portion which, 
by usage of war, fell to the young native sheiks, 
Aner, Eschal, and Mamre, who had joined him 
in the expedition. 

5. After this he had another encouraging 
vision of God, Gen. xv, 1 ; and to his complaint 
that he was still childless, and that his name 
and property would descend to the stranger 
Eliezer, who held the next rank in his tribe, 
the promise was given, that he himself should 
have a son, and that his seed should be count- 
less as the stars of heaven. And it is emphati- 
cally added, "He believed in the Lord, and he 
counted it to him for righteousness," He was 
then fully assured, that he stood before God, a 
pardoned and accepted man, " whose iniquities 
were forgiven," and to whom "the Lord did 
not impute sin." Still the fulfilment of the 
promise of a son was delayed ; and Sarah, per- 
haps despairing that it would be accomplished 
in her person, and the revelation which had 
been made merely stating that this son should 
be the fruit of Abraham's body, without any 
reference to her, she gave to him, according to 
the custom of those times, one of her hand, 
maids, an Egyptian, to be his secondary wife, 
who brought forth Ishmael. Children borp in 



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11 



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this manner had the privileges of legitimacy ; 
but fourteen years afterward, when Abraham 
was a hundred years old, and Sarah ninety, 
the Lord appeared to him again, established his 
covenant with him and with his seed, changed 
his name to Abraham, "the father of many 
nations," promised that Sarah herself should 
bring forth the son to whom the preceding 
promises had referred ; instituted circumcision 
.as the sign of the covenant ; and changed the 
name of his wife from Sarai, my princess, to 
Sarah, the princess, that is, of many people to 
descend from her. 

6. At this time Abraham occupied his former 
encampment near Hebron. Here, as he sat in 
the door of his tent, three mysterious strangers 
appeared. Abraham, with true Arabian hospi- 
tality, received and entertained them. The chief 
of the three renewed the promise of a son to be 
born from Sarah, a promise which she received 
with a laugh of incredulity, for which she was 
mildly reproved. As Abraham accompanied 
them' toward the valley of the Jordan, the same 
divine person, for so he manifestly appears, 
announced the dreadful ruin impending over 
the licentious cities among which Lot had taken 
up his abode. No passage, even in the sacred 
writings, exhibits a more exalted view of the 
divine condescension than that in which Abra- 
ham is seen expostulating on the apparent in- 
justice of involving the innocent in the ruin of 
the guilty : " Shall the city perish, if fifty, if 
forty-five, if forty, if thirty, if twenty, if ten 
righteous men be found within its walls ?" 
"Ten righteous men shall avert its doom." 
Such was the promise of the celestial visitant ; 
but the guilt was universal, the ruin inevitable ; 
and the violation of the sacred laws of hospi- 
tality and nature, which Lot in his horror 
attempted to avert by the most revolting ex- 
pedient, confirmed the justice of the divine 
sentence. 

7. Sarah having conceived, according to 
the divine promise, Abraham left the plain of 
Mamre, and went south to Gerar, where Abi- 
melech reigned ; and again fearing lest Sarah 
should be forced from him, and himself be put 
to death, her beauty having been, it would ap- 
pear, preternaturally continued, notwithstand- 
;ng her age, he here called her, as he had done 
in Egypt, his sister. Abiraelech took her to 
his house, designing to marry her; but God 
having, in a dream, informed him that she was 
Abraham's wife, he returned her to him with 
great presents. This year Sarah was delivered 
of Isaac ; and Abraham circumcised him, ac- 
cording to the covenant stipulation ; and when 
he was weaned, made a great entertainment. 
Sarah, having observed Ishmael, son of Hagar, 
mocking her son Isaac, said to Abraham, 
"Cast out this bondwoman and her son, for 
Ishmael shall not be heir with Isaac." After 
great reluctance, Abraham complied ; God hav- 
ing informed him that this was according to 
the appointments of his providence, with re- 
spect to future ages. About the same time, 
Abimelech came with Phicol, his general, to 
conclude an alliance with Abraham, who made 
that prince a present of seven ewe lambs out 



of his flock, in confirmation that a well he had 
opened should be his own property ; and they 
called the place Beer-sheba, or "the well of 
swearing," because of the covenant there rati- 
fied with oaths. Here Abraham planted a 
grove, built an altar, and for some time resided, 
Gen. XX, xxi. 

8. More than twenty years after this, (A. M. 
2133,) God, for the final trial and illustration 
of Abraham's faith, directed him to offer up his 
son Isaac. Abraham took his son, and two 
servants, and went toward mount Moriah. 
When within sight of the mountain, Abraham 
left his servants, and ascended it with his son 
only; and there having bound him, he pre- 
pared for the affecting sacrifice ; but when he 
was about to give the blow, an angel from hea- 
ven cried out to him, " Lay not thine hand upon 
the lad, neither do thou any thing to him. Now 
I know that thou fearest God, since thou hast 
not withheld thine only son from me." Abra- 
ham, turning, saw a ram entangled in the bush 
by his horns ; and he offered this animal as a 
burnt offering, instead of his son Isaac. This 
memorable place he called by the prophetic 
name, Jehovah-jirek, or the Lord will see — or 
provide, Gen. xxii, 1-14, having respect, no 
doubt, to the true sacrifice which, in the ful- 
ness of time, was to be offered for the whole 
world upon the same mountain. 

9. Twelve years afterward, Sarah, wife of 
Abraham, died in Hebron. Abraham came to 
mourn and to perform the funeral offices for 
her. He addressed the people at the city gate, 
entreating them to allow him to bury his wife 
among them ; for, being a stranger, and having 
no land of his own, he could claim no right of 
interment in any sepulchre of that country. 
He, therefore, bought of Ephron, one of the 
inhabitants, the field of Machpelah, with the 
cave and sepulchre in it, at the price of four 
hundred shekels of silver, about forty-five 
pounds sterling. And here Abraham buried 
Sarah, witli due solemnities, according to the 
custom of the country. Gen. xxiii. This whole 
transaction impressively illustrates the dignity, 
courtesy, and honour of these ancient chiefs ; 
and wholly disproves the notion that theirs was 
a rude and unpolished age. 

10. Abraham, having grown old, sent Eliezer, 
his steward, into Mesopotamia, with directions 
to obtain a young woman of his own family, as 
a wife for his son Isaac. Eliezer executed his 
commission with fidelity, and brought back 
Rebecca, daughter of Bethuel, grand-daughter 
of Nahor, and, consequently, Abraham's niece, 
whom Isaac married. Abraham afterward mar- 
ried Keturah ; by whom he had six sons, Zim- 
ran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and 
Shuah ; who became heads of different people, 
which dwelt in Arabia, and around it. He died, 
aged a hundred and seventy-five years, and 
was buried, with Sarah his wife, in the cave of 
Machpelah, which he had purchased of Ephron, 
Gen. xxiv, xxv, A. M. 2183, before Christ 1821. 

11. From the personal history of Abraham 
we may now proceed to the consideration of 
the TYPICAL circumstances which were con, 
nected with it. 



ABR 



12 



ABR 



1. Abraham himself with his family may be 
regarded as a type of the church of God in 
future ages. They indeed constituted God's 
ancient church. Not that many scattered pa- 
triarchal and family churches did not remain : 
such was that of Melchizedec ; and such pro- 
bably was that of Nahor, whom Abraham left 
behind in Mesopotamia. But a visible church 
relation was established between Abraham's 
family and the Most High, signified by the 
visible and distinguishing sacrament of circum- 
cision, and followed by new and enlarged reve- 
lations of truth. Two purposes were to be 
answered by this, — the preservation of the true 
doctrine of salvation in the world, which is the 
great and solemn duty of every branch of the 
church of God, — and the inamfestation of that 
truth to others. Both were done by Abraham. 
Wherever he sojourned he built his altars to 
the true God, and publicly celebrated his wor- 
ship ; and, as we learn from St. Paul, he lived 
in tents in preference to settling in the land of 
Canaan, though it had been given to him. for 
a possession, in order that he might thus pro- 
claim his faith in the eternal inheritance of 
which Canaan was a type ; and in bearing this 
testimony, his example was followed by Isaac 
and Jacob, the " heirs with him of the same 
promise," who also thus " confessed that they 
were strangers and pilgrims," and that "they 
looked" for a continuing and eternal city in 
heaven. So also now is the same doctrine of 
immortality committed to the church of Christ ; 
and by deadness to the world ought its mem- 
bers to declare the reality of their own faith 
in it. 

2. The numerous natural posterity promised 
to Abraham was also a type of the spiritual 
seed, the true members of the church of Christ, 
springing from the Messiah, of whom Isaac 
was the syrobol. Thus St. Paul expressly dis- 
tinguishes between the fleshly and the spiritual 
seed of Abraham ; to the latter of which, in 
their ultimate and highest sense, the promises 
of increase as the stars of heaven, and the 
sands of the sea shore, are to be referred, as 
also the promise of the heavenly Canaan. 

3. The intentional offering up Isaac, with 
its result, was probably that transaction in 
which Abraham, more clearly than in any 
other, " saw the day of Christ, and was glad." 
He received Isaac from the dead, says St. Paul, 
"in a figure." This could be a figure of 
nothing but the resurrection of our Lord ; and, 
if so, Isaac's being laid upon the altar was a 
figure of his sacrificial death, scenically and 
most impressively represented to Abraham. 
The place, the same ridge of hills on which 
our Lord was crucified ; the person, an only 
son, to die for no offence of his own ; the sa- 
crificer, a father ; the receiving hack, as it were, 
from death to life ; the name impressed upon 
the place, importing, " t?ie Lord will provide," 
in allusion to Abraham's own words to Isaac, 
"the Lord will provide a lamb for a bui-nt 
offering;" all indicate a mystery which lay 
deep beneath this transaction, and which Abra- 
ham, as the reward of his obedience, was per- 
mitted to behold. "The day" of Christ's hu- 



miliation and exaltation was thus opened to 
him; and served to keep the great truth in 
mind, that the true burnt ofiering and sacrifice 
for sin was to be something higher than the 
immolation of lambs a,nd bulls and goats, — nay, 
something more than what was merely human. 

4. The transaction of the expulsion of Ha- 
gar was also a type. It was an allegory in 
action, by which St. Paul teaches us to under- 
stand that the son of the bondwoman repre- 
sented those who are under the law ; and the 
child of the freewoman those who by faith in 
Christ are supernaturally begotten into the 
family of God. The bondwoman and her son 
being cast out, represented also the expulsion 
of the unbelieving Jews from the church of 
God, which was to be composed of true belie v- 
ers of all nations, all of whom, whether Jews 
or Gentiles, were to become "fellow heirs." 

III. But Abraham appears before us invested 
with a MYSTIC character, which it is of great 
importance rightly to understand. 

1. He is to be regarded as s\;anding in a 
federal or covenant relation, not only to his 
natural seed, but specially and eminently to all 
believers. " The Gospel," we are told by St. 
Paul, "was preached to Abraham, saying. In 
thee shall all nations be blessed." "Abraham 
believed in God, and it was accounted to him 
for righteousness ;" in other words, he was jus- 
tified. A covenant of gratuitous justification 
through faith was made with him and his be- 
lieving descendants; and the rite of circum- 
cision, which was not confined to his posterity 
by Sarah, but appointed in every branch of his 
family, was the sign or sacrament of this cove- 
nant of grace, and so remained till it was dis- 
placed by the sacraments appointed by Christ. 
Wherever that sign was it declared the doc- 
trine, and offered the grace, of this covenant — 
free justification by faith, and its glorious re- 
sults — to all the tribes that proceeded from 
Abraham. This same grace is offered to us by 
the Gospel, who become " Abraham's seerf," his 
spiritual children with whom the covenant is 
established, through the same faith, and are 
thus made "the heirs with him of the same 
promise." 

2. Abraham is also exhibited to us as the 
representative of true believers ; and in this 
especially, that the true nature of faith was 
exhibited in him. This great principle was 
marked in Abraham with the following charac- 
ters : — An entire unhesitating belief in the 
word of God ; — an unfaltering trust in all his 
promises; — a steady regard to his almighty 
power, leading him to overlook all apparent 
difficulties and impossibilities in every case 
where God had explicitly promised ; — and ha- 
bitual and cheerful and entire obedience. The 
Apostle has described faith in Heb. xi, 1 ; and 
that faith is seen living and acting in all its 
energy in Abraham. 

A few miscellaneous remarks are suggested 
by some of the circumstances of Abraham's 
history : — 

1. The ancient method of ratifying a cove- 
nant by sacrifice is illustrated in the account 
given in Gen. xv, 9, 10. The beasts were slain 



ABR 



13 



ABS 



and divided in the midst, and the persons co- 
venanting passed between the parts. Hence, 
after Abraham had performed this part of the 
ceremony, the symbol of the Almighty's pre- 
sence, "a smoking fnrnace, and a burning 
lamp, passed between the pieces," verse 18, 
and so both parties ratified the covenant. 

2. As the beauty of Sarah, which she re- 
tained so long as quite to conceal her real age 
from observers, attracted so much notice as to 
lead to her forcible seizure, once by Pharaoh in 
Egypt, and again by Abimelech in Palestine, it 
may appear strange, that, as in the east women 
are generally kept in seclusion, and seldom ap- 
pear without veils, she exposed herself to ob- 
servation. But to this day the Arab women do 
not wear veils at home in their tents ; and Sa- 
rah's countenance might have been seen in the 
tent by some of the officers of Pharaoh and 
Abimelech, who reported her beauty to their 
masters. 

3. The intentional offering up of Isaac is 
not to be supposed as viewed by Abraham as an 
act sanctioned by the Pagan practice of human 
sacrifice. The immolation of human victims, 
particularly of that which was most precious, 
the favourite, the first-born child, appears to 
have been a common usage among many early 
nations, more especially the tribes by which 
Abraham was surrounded. It was the distin- 
guishing rite among the worshippers of Mo- 
loch ; at a later period of the Jewish history, it 
was practised by a king of Moab ; and it was 
undoubtedly derived by the Carthaginians from 
their Phenecian ancestors on the shores of Sy- 
ria. Where it was an ordinary usage, as in the 
worship of Moloch, it was in unison with the 
character of the religion, and of its deity. It 
was the last act of a dark and sanguinary su- 
perstition, which rose by regular gradation to 
this complete triumph over human nature. The 
god, who was propitiated by these offerings, 
had been satiated with more cheap and vulgar 
victims ; he had been glutted to the full with 
human suffering and with human blood. In 
general it was the final mark of the subjuga- 
tion of the national mind to an inhuman and 
domineering priesthood. But the Mosaic reli- 
gion held human sacrifices in abhorrence ; and 
the God of the Abrahamitic family, uniformly 
beneficent, had imposed no duties which en- 
tailed human suffering, had demanded no offer- 
ings which were repugnant to the better feel- 
ings of our nature. The command to offer 
Isaac as " a burnt offering," was for these rea- 
sons a trial the more severe to Abraham's faith. 
He must therefore have been fully assured of 
the divine command ; and he left the mystery 
to be explained by God himself. His was a 
simple act of unhesitating obedience to the 
command of God ; the last proof of perfect re- 
liance on the certain accomplishment of the 
divine promises. Isaac, so miraculously be- 
stowed, could be as miraculously restored; 
Abraham, such is the comment of the Christian 
Apostle, "believed that God could even raise 
him up from the dead." 

4. The wide and deep impression made by 
the character of Abraham upon the ancient 



world is proved by the reverence which people 
of almost all nations and countries have paid to 
him, and the manner in which the events of 
his life have been interwoven in their mytho- 
logy, and their religious traditions. Jews, 
Magians, Sabians, Indians, and Mohammedans 
have claimed him as the great patriarch and 
founder of their several sects ; and his history 
has been embellished with a variety of fictions. 
One of the most pleasing of these is the follow, 
ing, but it proceeds upon the supposition that 
he was educated in idolatry: "As Abraham 
was walking by night from the grotto where 
he was born, to the city of Babylon, he gazed 
on tlie stars of heaven, and among them on the 
beautiful planet Venus. ' Behold,' said he with- 
in himself, * the God and Lord of the universe !' 
but the star set and disappeared, and Abraham 
felt that the Lord of the universe could not 
thus be liable to change. Shortly after, he be- 
held the moon at the full : ' Lo,' he cried, ' the 
Divine Creator, the manifest Deity!' but the 
moon sank below the horizon, and Abraham 
made the same reflection as at the setting of 
the evening star. All the rest of the night he 
passed in profound rumination ; at sunrise he 
stood before the gates of Babylon, and saw the 
whole people prostrate in adoration. 'Won- 
drous orb,' he exclaimed, ' thou surely art the 
Creator and Ruler of all nature ! but thou, too, 
hastest like the rest to thy setting! — neither 
then art thou my Creator, my Lord, or my 
God!'" 

ABRAHAMITES, reported heretical sects 
of the eighth and ninth centuries, charged with 
the Paulician errors, and some of them with 
idolatry. For these charges we have, however, 
only the word of their persecutors. Also the 
name of a sect in Bohemia, as late as 1782, 
who professed the religion of Abraham before 
his circumcision, and admitted no scriptures 
but the decalogue and the Lord's prayer. As 
these were persecuted, they too were probably 
misrepresented, and especially as their con- 
duet is allowed to have been good, even by their 
enemies. 

ABSALOM, the son of David by Maachah, 
daughter of the king of Geshur; distinguished 
for his fine person, his vices, and his unnatural 
rebellion. Of his open revolt, his conduct in 
Jerusalem, his pursuit of the king his father, 
liis defeat and death, see 2 Sam. xvi-xviii, at 



ABSOLUTION, in the church of Rome, is 
a sacrament, in which the priests assume the 
power of forgiving sins. The rite of absolution 
in the church of England is acknowledged to 
be declarative only — "Almighty God hath 
given power and commandment to his minis- 
ters to declare and pronounce to his people, be- 
ing penitent, the absolution and remission of 
their sins : He pardoneth," &c. In this view 
it is innocent ; and although any private Chris- 
tian has a right to declare and pronounce the 
same doctrine to his neighbour, the official pub- 
lication of the grace of the Gospel is the public 
duty of its ministers in the congregation, since 
they are Christ's " ambassadors." 

ABSTINENCE, forbearance of any thing 



ABY 



14 



ABY 



It is generally used with reference to forbear- 
ance from food under a religious motive. The 
Jewish law ordained that the priests should ab- 
stain from the use of wine during the whole 
time of their being employed in the service of 
the temple, Lev. x, 9. The same abstinence 
was enjoined upon the Nazarites, during the 
time of their Nazariteship, or separation, Num. 
vi, 3. The Jews were commanded to abstain 
from several sorts of animals. See Animal. 

The fat of all sorts of animals that were 
sacrificed was forbidden to be eaten. Lev. iii, 
17 ; vii, 23 ; and the blood of every animal, in 
general, was prohibited under pain of death. 
Indeed blood was forbidden by the Creator, 
from the time of the grant of the flesh of beasts 
to man for food ; this prohibition was continued 
under the Jewish economy, and transmitted to 
the Christian church by Apostolic authority, 
Acts XV, 28, 29. (See Blood.) The Jews also 
abstained from the sinew which is upon the 
hollow of the thigh. Gen. xxxii, 25 ; because of 
the shrinking of the sinew of Jacob's thigh 
when touched by the angel, as though by that 
the part had been made sacred. 

Among the primitive Christians, some denied 
themselves the use of such meats as were pro- 
hibited by the law; others treated this absti- 
nence with contempt. St. Paul has given his 
decision on these questions in his epistles, 
1 Cor. viii, 7-10 ; Rom. xiv, 1-3. The council 
of Jerusalem, which was held by the Apostles, 
enjoined the Christian converts to abstain from 
meats strangled, from blood, from fornication, 
and from idolatry. Acts xv, 20. 

The spiritual monarchy of the western world 
introduced another sort of abstinence which 
may be termed ritual, and which consists in 
abstaining from particular meats at certain 
times and seasons, the rules of which are called 
rogations. The ancient Lent was observed 
only a few days before Easter. In the course 
of the third century, it extended at Rome to 
three weeks ; and before the middle of the suc- 
ceeding age, it was prolonged to six weeks, 
and began to be called quadragesima, or the 
forty days' fast. 

ABYSS, or deep, a^vacog, without hottom. 
The chaos ; the deepest parts of the sea ; and, 
in the New Testament, the place of the dead, 
Rom. X, 7 ; a deep place of punishment. The 
devils besought Jesus that he would not send 
them into the abyss, a place they evidently 
dreaded, Luke viii, 31 ; where it seems to mean 
that part of Hades in which wicked spirits are 
in torment. See Hell. 

In the opinion of the ancient Hebrews, and 
of the generality of eastern people at this day, 
the abyss, the sea, or waters, encompassed the 
whole earth. This was supposed to float upon 
the abyss, of which it covered a small part. 
According to the same notion, the earth was 
founded on the waiters, or at least its founda- 
tions were on the abyss beneath, Psalm xxiv, 
2 ; cxxxvi, 6. Under these waters, and at 
the bottom of this abyss, they represented the 
wicked as groaning, and suffering the punish- 
ment of their sin. The Rephaim were confined 
there, those old giants, who, whilst living, 



caused surrounding nations to tremble, Prov. 
ix, 18 ; xxi, 16, &c. Lastly, in these dark dun. 
geons the kings of Tyre, Babylon, and Egypt 
are described by the Prophets as suffering the 
punishment of their pride and cruelty, Isaiah 
xxvi, 14 ; Ezek. xxviii, 10, &c. 

These depths are figuratively represented as 
the abodes of evil spirits, and powers opposed to 
God : " I saw," says St. John, " a star fall from 
heaven unto the earth, and to him was given 
the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened 
the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke 
out of it, as the smoke of a great furnace ; 
and the sun and the air were darkened by 
reason of the smoke of the pit. And there 
came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth. 
And they had a king over them, which is the 
angel of the bottomless pit," Rev. ix, 1, 2, 11. 
In another place, the beast is represented as 
ascending out of the bottomless pit, and 
waging war against the two witnesses of God, 
Rev. xi, 7. Lastly, St. John says, " I saw an 
angel come down from heaven, having the key 
of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his 
hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that 
old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and 
bound him a thousand years, and cast him into 
the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a 
seal upon him, that he should deceive the na- 
tions no more till the thousand years should 
be fiilfilled : and after that he must be loosed a 
little season," Rev. xx, 1-3. 

ABYSSINIAN CHURCH, a branch of the 
Coptic church, in Upper Ethiopia. The Abys- 
sinians, by the most authentic accounts, were 
converted to the Christian faith about the year 
330; Avhen Frumentius, being providentially 
raised to a high office, under the patronage of 
the queen of Ethiopia, and ordained bishop of 
that country by Athanasius, patriarch of Alex- 
andria, established Christianity, built churches, 
and ordained a regular clergy to officiate in 
them. The Abyssinian Christians themselves, 
indeed, claim a much higher antiquity, having 
a tradition, that the doctrine of Christ was first 
introduced among them by Queen Candace, 
Acts viii, 27 ; or even preached there by the 
Apostles Matthew and Bartholomew ; but the 
former is supported by no collateral evidence, 
and the latter is in opposition to high authority. 
Some of them claim relation to the Israelites, 
through the queen of Sheba, so far back as the 
reign of Solomon. 

The Abyssinian Christians have always re- 
ceived their abuna, or patriarch, from Alexan- 
dria, whence they sprang, and consequently 
their creed is Monophysite, or Eutychian; 
maintaining one nature only in the person of 
Christ, namely, the divine, in which they con- 
sidered all the properties of the humanity to be 
absorbed ; in opposition to the Nestorians. 

On the power of the Saracens prevailing in 
the east, all communication being nearly cut 
off" between the eastern and western churches, 
the Abyssinian church remained unknown in 
Europe till nearly the close of the fifteenth 
century,, when John II, of Portugal, acciden- 
tally hearing of the existence of such a cliurch, 
sent to make inquiry. This led to a corre&- 



ACA 



15 . 



ACC 



pondence between the Abyssinians and the 
church of Rome ; and Bermudes, a Portuguese, 
was consecrated by the pope patriarch of Ethio- 
pia, and the Abyssinians were required to re- 
ceive the Roman Catholic faith, in return for 
some military assistance afforded to the empe- 
ror. Instead of this, however, the emperor 
sent for a new patriarch from Alexandria, im- 
prisoned Bermudes, and declared the pope a 
heretic. 

About the middle of the sixteenth century, 
the Jesuits attempted a mission to Abyssinia, 
in the hope of reducing it to the pope's au- 
thority ; but without success. In 1588 a second 
mission was attempted, and so far succeeded as 
to introduce a system of persecution, which 
cost many lives, and caused many troubles to 
the empire. In the following century, how- 
ever, the Jesuits were all expelled, Abyssinia 
returned to its ancient faith, and nothing more 
was heard of the church of Abyssinia, till the 
latter part of the last century. 

After the expulsion of the Jesuits, all Euro- 
peans were interdicted ; nor does it appear that 
any one dared to attempt an entrance until the 
celebrated Mr. Bruce, by the report of his 
medical skill, contrived to introduce himself to 
the court, where he even obtained military pro- 
motion ; and was in su-ch repute, that it was 
with great difficulty he obtained leave to return 
to England. ■ ^-^ — ^^ 

Encouraged, perhaps, by this circtmistance, 
the Moravian brethren attempted a mission to 
this country, but in vain. They were compelled 
to retreat to Grand Cairo, from whence, by 
leave of the patriarch, they visited the Copts 
at Behrusser, and formed a small society ; but 
in 1783, they were driven thence, and com- 
pelled to return to Europe. More recently, 
however, the late king of Abyssinia (Itsa Tak- 
ley Gorges) addressed a letter to Mr. Salt, the 
British consul in Egypt, and requested copies 
of some parts of both the Old and New Testa- 
ments. Copies of the Psalms, in Ethiopic, as 
printed by the British and Foreign Bible So- 
ciety, w^ere also sent to him. 

ACADEMICS, a name given to such phi- 
losophers as adopted the doctrines of Plato. 
They were so called from the Academia, a 
grove near Athens, where they frequently in- 
dulged their contemplations. Academia is said 
to derive its name from one Academus, a god 
or hero so called. Thus Horace, — 

Atque inter sylvas Academi qucB-rere verum. 
[And in the groves of Academus to search for truth,] 
The academics are divided into those of the 
first academy, who taught the doctrines of 
Plato in their original purity ; those of the se- 
cond or middle academy, who differed materi- 
ally from the first, and inclined to skepticism ; 
and those of the new academy. The middle 
school laid it down as a principle, that neither 
our senses, nor our reason, are to be trusted; 
but that in common affairs we are to conform 
to received opinions. The new academy main, 
tained that we have no means of distinguishing 
truth, and that the most evident appearances 
may lead us into error ; they granted the wise 
man opinion, but denied him certainty. They 



held, however, that it was best to follow the 
greatest probability, which was sufficient for 
all the usefiil purposes of life, and laid down 
i-ules for the attainment of felicity. The dif. 
ference betwixt the middle academy and the 
new seems to have been this, that though they 
agreed in the imbecility of human nature, yet 
the fijst denied that probabilities were of any 
use in the pursuit of happiness ; and the latter 
held them to be of service in such a design : 
the former recommended a conformity with re- 
ceived opinions, and the latter allowed men an 
opinion of their own. In the first academy, 
Speusippus filled the chair, in the second, Ar- 
cesilaus; and in the new or third academy, 
Carneades. 

ACCAD, one of the four cities built by Nim- 
rod, the founder of the Assyrian empire. (See 
Nimrod.) "And the beginning of his king, 
dom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and 
Calneh, in the land of Shinar," Gen. x, 10. 
Thus it appears that Accad was contemporary 
with Babylon, and was one of the first four 
great cities of the world. 

It would scarcely be expected that any thing 
should now remain to guide us in our search 
for this ancient city, seeing that Babylon itself, 
with which it was coeval, is reduced to heaps ; 
and that it is not mentioned under its ancient 
name by any profane author. But the discove- 
ries of modern travellers may be brought to aid 
us in our inquiry. At the distance of about 
six miles from the modern town of Bagdad, is 
found a mound, surmounted by a tower-shaped 
ruin, called by the Arabs Tell Nimrood, and by 
the Turks Nemrood Tepasse ; both terms im- 
plying the Hill of Nimrod. This gigantic mass 
rises in an irregularly pyramidal or turreted 
shape, according to the view in which it is taken, 
one hundred and twenty- five or one hundred and 
thirty feet above the gently inclined elevation on 
wiiich it stands. Its circumference, at the bot- 
tom, is three hundred feet. The mound which 
constitutes its foundation is composed of a col- 
lection of rubbish, formed from the decay of 
the superstructure ; and consists of sandy earth, 
fragments of burnt brick, pottery, and hard 
clay, partially vitrified. In the remains of the 
tower, the different layers of sun-dried brick, of 
which it is composed, may be traced with 
great precision. These bricks, cemented to- 
gether by slime, and divided into courses vary- 
ing from twelve to twenty feet in height, are 
separated from one another by a stratum of 
reeds, similar to those now growing in the 
marshy parts of the plain, and in a wonderfial 
state of preservation. The resemblance of this 
mode of building to that in some of the struc. 
tures at Babylon, cannot escape observation ; 
and we may reasonably conclude it to be the 
workmanship of the same architects. The so- 
lidity and the loftiness of this pile, unfashioned 
to any other purpose, bespeak it to be one of 
those enormous pyramidal towers which were 
consecrated to the Sabian worship; which, as 
essential to their religious rites, were probably 
erected in all the early cities of the Cuthites ; 
and, like their prototype at Babylon, answered 
the double purpose of altars and observatories. 



ACC 



16 



ACC 



Here then was the site of one of these early 
cities. It was not Babylon ; it was not Erech ; 
it was not Calneh. It might be too much to 
say that therefore it must be Accad ; but the 
inference is at least warrantable; which is 
farther strengthened by the name of the place, 
Akarkouff; which bears a greater affinity to 
that of Accad than many others which are 
forced into the support of geographical specu- 
lations, especially when it is recollected that 
the Syrian name of the city was Achar. 

ACCESS, free admission, open entrance. 
Our access to God is by Jesus Christ, the way, 
the truth, and the life, Rom. v, 2 ; Eph. ii, 18. 
Under the law, the high priest alone had ac- 
cess into the holiest of all ; but when the veil 
of the temple was rent in twain, at the death 
of Christ, it was declared that a new and living 
way of access was laid open through the veil, 
that is to say, his flesh. By his death, also, the 
middle wall of partition was broken down, and 
Jew and Gentile had both free access to God ; 
whereas, before, the Gentiles had no nearer 
access in the temple worship than to the gate 
of the court of Israel. Thus the saving grace 
and lofty privileges of the Gospel are equally 
bestowed upon true believers of all nations. 

ACCHO, afterward called Ptolemais, and 
now Akka by the Arabs, and Acre by the Turks. 
It was given to the tribe of Asher, Judges i, 31. 
Christianity was planted here at an early period, 
and here St. Paul visited the saints in his way 
to Jerusalem, Acts xxi, 7. It is a seaport of 
Palestine, thirty miles south of Tyre, and, in 
the first partition of the holy land, belonged to 
the tribe of Asher; but this was one of the 
places out of which the Israelites could not 
drive the primitive inhabitants. In succeeding 
times it was enlarged by the first Ptolemy, to 
whose lot it fell, and who named it after him- 
self, Ptolemais. 

This city, now called Acre, which, from the 
convenience of its port, is one of the most con- 
siderable on the Syrian coast, was, during 
almost two centuries, the principal theatre of 
the holy wars, and the frequent scene of the 
perfidies and treacheries of the crusaders. 

Among its antiquities. Dr. E. D. Clarke 
describes the remains of a very considerable 
edifice, exhibiting a conspicuous appearance 
among the buildings on the north side of the 
city. "In this structure the style of the archi- 
tecture is of the kind we call Gothic. Perhaps 
it has on that account borne among our coun- 
trymen the appellation of ' King Richard's 
Palace,' although, in the period to which the 
tradition refers, the English were hardly capa- 
ble of erecting palaces, or any other buildings 
of equal magnificence. Two lofty arches, and 
part of the cornice, are all that now remain to 
attest the former greatness of the superstruc- 
ture. The cornice, ornamented with enormous 
stone busts, exhibiting a series of hideous dis- 
torted countenances, whose features are in no 
instances alike, may either have served as allu- 
sions to the decapitation of St. John, or were 
intended for a representation of the heads of 
Saracens suspended as trophies upon the walls." 
Maundrell and Pococke consider this building 



to have been the church of St. Andrew ; but 
Dr. E. D. Clarke thinks it was that of St. John, 
erected by the Knights of Jerusalem, whence 
the city changed its name of Ptolemais for 
that of St. John d'Acre. He also considers 
the style of architecture to be in some degree 
the original of our ornamented Gothic, before 
its translation from the holy land to Italy, 
France, and England. 

Mr. Buckingham, who visited Acre in 1816, 
says, " Of the Canaanitish Accho it would be 
thought idle perhaps to seek for remains ; yet 
some presented themselves to my observation 
so peculiar in form and materials, and of such 
high antiquity, as to leave no doubt in my own 
mind of their being the fragments of buildings 
constructed in the earliest ages. 

"Of the splendour of Ptolemais, no perfect 
monument remains ; but throughout the town 
are seen shafts of red and grey granite, and 
marble pillars. The Saracenic remains are 
only to be partially traced in the inner walls 
of the town ; which have themselves been so 
broken down and repaired, as to leave little visi. 
ble of the original work ; and all the mosques, 
fountains, bazaars, and other public buildings, 
are in a style rather Turkish than Arabic, ex- 
cepting only an old, but regular and well-built 
khan or caravanserai, which might perhaps be 
attributed to the Saracen age. The Christian 
ruins are altogether gone, scarcely leaving a 
trace of the spot on which they stood." 

Acre has been rendered famous in our own 
times by the successful resistance maiie by our 
countryman Sir Sydney Smith, aided by the 
celebrated Djezzar Pasha, to the progress of the 
French under Buonaparte. Since this period, 
the fortifications have been considerably in- 
creased ; and although to the eye of an engi. 
neer they may still be very defective. Acre 
may be considered as the strongest place in 
Palestin,e. 

Mr. Conner says, on the authority of the 
English consul, that there are about ten thou- 
sand inhabitants in Acre, of whom three thou- 
sand are Turks, and the remainder Christians, 
chiefly Catholics. 

ACCUBATION, the posture used at table 
by the ancients. The old Romans sat at meat 
as we do, till the Grecian luxury and softness 
had corrupted them. The same custom, of 
lying upon couches at their entertainments, 
prevailed among the Jews also in our Saviour's 
time ; for having been lately conquered by 
Pompey, they conformed in this, and in many 
other respects, to the example of their masters. 
The manner of lying at meat among the Ro- 
mans, Greeks, and more modern Jews, was the 
same in all respects. The table was placed 
in the middle of the room, around which stood 
three couches covered with cloth or tapestry, 
according to the quality of the master of the 
house ; upon these they lay, inclining the su- 
perior part of their bodies upon their left arms, 
the lower part being stretched out at full length, 
or a little bent. Their heads were supported 
and raised with pillows. The first man lay at 
the head of the couch ; the next man lay with 
his head toward the feet of the other, from 



A€e 



17 



ACR 



which be was defended by the bolster that 
supported his own back, commonly reaching 
over to the middle of the first man ; and the 
rest after the same manner. The most honour- 
able place was the middle couch — and the mid- 
die of that. Favourites commonly lay in the 
bosom of their friends ', that is, they were placed 
next below them : see John xiii, 23, where St. 
John is said to have lain in our Saviour's bo- 
som. The ancient Greeks sat at the table ; for 
Homer observes that when Ulysses arrived at 
the palace of Alcinous, the king dispatched his 
son Laodamas to seat Ulysses in a magnificent 
chair. The Egyptians sat at table anciently, 
as well as the Romans, till toward the end of the 
Punic war, when they began to recline at table. 

ACCURSED, in the Scriptures, signifies 
that which is separated or devoted. With re- 
gard to persons, it denotes the cutting off or 
separating any one from the communion of the 
church, the number of the living, or the privileges 
of society ; and also the devoting an animal, 
city, or other thing to destruction. Anathema 
was a species of excommunication among the 
Jews, and was often practised after they had 
lost the power of life and death, against those 
persons who, according to the Mosaic law, 
ought to have been executed. A criminal, af- 
ter the sentence of excommunication was pro- 
nounced, became anathema: and they had a 
full persuasion that the sentence would not be 
in vain ; but that God would interfere to punish 
the ofiender in a manner similar to the penalty 
of the law of Moses : a man, for instance, whom 
the law condemned to be stoned, would, they 
believed, be killed by the falling of a stone 
upon him ; a man to be hanged, would be 
choked ; and one whom the law sentenced to 
the flames, would be burnt in his house, «&c. 
Maranatha, a Syriac word, signifying the Lord 
Cometh, was added to the sentence, to express 
their persuasion that the Lord God Would come 
to take vengeance upon that guilt which they, 
circumstanced as they were, had not the power 
to punish, 1 Cor. xvi, 22. 

According to the idiom of the Hebrew lan- 
guage, accursed and crucified were synonymous 
terms. By the Jews every one who died upon 
a tree was reckoned accursed, Deut. xxi, 23. 

Excommunication is a kind of anathema 
also among some Christians ; and by it the 
offender is deprived, not only of communicat- 
ing in prayers and other holy offices, but of 
admittance to the cliurch, and of conversation 
with the faithful. The spirit of Judaism, rather 
than that of the Gospel, has in this been imi- 
tated ; for among the Hebrews, they who were 
excommunicated could not perform any public 
duty of their employments ; could be neither 
judges nor witnesses ; neither be present at 
funerals, nor circumcise their own sons, nor sit 
down in the company of other men, nearer than 
within the distance of four cubits. If they died 
under excommunication, they were denied the 
rites of burial ; and a large stone was left on 
their graves, or a heap of stones was thrown 
over them, as over Achan, Joshua vii, 26. The 
Apostolical excommunication was simply to 
deny to the offender, after admonition, the right 



of partaking of th« Lord's Supper, which was 
excision from the church of Christ. 

ACELDAMA, a piece of ground without the 
south wall of Jerusalem, on the other side of 
the brook Siloam. It was called the Potter's 
Field, because an earth or clay was dug in it, 
of which pottery was made. It was likewise 
called the Fuller's Field, because cloth was dried 
in it. But it having been afterward bought with 
the money by which the high priest and rulers 
of the Jews purchased the blood of Jesus, it was 
called Aceldama, or the Field of Blood. 

ACHAIA. This name is used to denote the 
whole of Greece, as it existed as a Roman pro- 
vince ; or Achaia Proper, a district in the 
northern part of the Peloponnesus, on the bay 
of Corinth, and in which the city of that name 
stood. It appears to have been used in the 
former sense in 2 Cor. xi, 10 j and in the latter, 
in Acts xix, 21. 

ACHAN, the son of Carnii, of the tribe of 
Judah, who having taken a part of the spoils of 
Jericho, against the injunction of God, who had 
accursed or devoted the whole city, was, upon 
being taken by lot, doomed to be stoned to 
death. The whole history is recorded, Joshua 
vii. It would appear that Achan's family were 
also stoned; for they were led out with him, 
and all his property, " And all Israel stoned him 
with stones, and burned them with fire, after 
they had stoned them with stones." Some of 
the critics have made efforts to confine the 
stoning to Achan, and the burning to his goods ; 
but not without violence to the text. It is pro- 
bable, therefore, that his family were privy to 
the theft, seeing he hid the accursed things 
which he had stolen in the earth, in his tent. 
By concealment they therefore became partak- 
ers of his crime, and so the sentence was justified. 

ACHMETHA. See Ecbatana. 

ACHOR, Valley of, between Jericho and Ai. 
So called from the trouble brought upon the 
Israelites by the sin of Achan ; Achor in the 
Hebrew denoting trouble. 

ACHZIB, a city on the coast of the Mediter- 
ranean, in the tribe of Asher, and one of the 
cities out of which that tribe did not expel the 
inhabitants, Judges i, 31. It was called Ecdippa 
by the Greeks, and is at present termed Zib. It 
is situated about ten miles north of Accho, or 
Ptolemais. Mr. Buckingham, who passed by 
this place, says that it is small, and situated on 
a hill near the sea ; having a few palm trees 
rearing themselves above its dwellings. 

ACRA, "AKpa. This Greek word signifies, in 
general, a citadel. The Syrians and Chaldeans 
use Nnpn, in the same sense. King Antiochus 
gave orders for building a citadel at Jerusalem, 
north of the temple, on an eminence, which 
commanded the holy place ; and for that reason 
was called Acra. Josephus sayt^, that this emi- 
nence was semicircular, and that Simon Mac- 
cabeeus, having expelled the Syrians, who had 
seized Acra, demolished it, and spent three 
years in levelling the mountain on which it 
stood ; that no situation in future should com- 
mand the temple. On mount Acra were after- 
ward built, the palace of Helena ; Agrippa's pa- 
lace, the place where the public records were 



ACT 



18 



ADA 



lodged ; and that where the magistrates of Je- 
rusalem assembled. 

ACRABATENE, a district of Judeea, extend, 
ing between Shechem (now Napolose) and Jeri- 
cho, inclining east. It was about twelve miles 
in length. The Acrabatene had its name from 
a place called Akrabbim, about nine miles from 
Shechem, eastward. Tlais was also the name 
of another district of Judea on the frontier of 
Idiimea, toward the northern extremity of the 
Dead Sea. 

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. This book, 
in the very beginning, professes itself to be a 
continuation of the Gospel of St. Luke ; and its 
style bespeaks it to be written by the same per- 
son. The external evidence is also very satis- 
factory ; for besides allusions in earlier authors, 
and particularly in Clement of Rome, Poly carp, 
and Justin Martyr, the Acts of the Apostles 
are not only quoted by Irenaeus, as written by 
Luke the evangelist, but there are few things 
recorded in this book which are not mentioned 
by that ancient father. This strong testimony 
in favour of the genuineness of the Acts of the 
Apostles is supported by Clement of Alexan- 
dria, Tertullian, Jerome, Eusebius, Theodoret, 
and most of the later fathers. It may be added, 
that the name of St. Luke is prefixed to this 
book in several ancient Greek manuscripts of 
the New Testament, and also in the old Syriac 
version. 

2. This is the only inspired work which gives 
us any historical account of the progress of 
Christianity after our Saviour's ascension. It 
comprehends a period of about thirty years, but 
it by no means contains a general history of 
the church during that time. The principal 
facts recorded in it are, the choice of Matthias 
to be an Apostle in the room of the traitor Ju- 
das ; the descent of the Holy Ghost on the day 
of pentecost; the preaching, miracles, and suf- 
ferings of the Apostles at Jerusalem ; the death 
of Stephen, the first martyr; the persecution 
and dispersion of the Christians ; the preaching 
of the Gospel in different parts of Palestine, espe- 
cially in Samaria ; the conversion of St. Paul ; 
the call of Cornelius, the first Gentile convert ; 
the persecution of the Christians by Herod 
Agrippa ; the preaching of Paul and Barnabas 
to the Gentiles, by the express command of the 
Holy Ghost ; the decree made at Jerusalem, de- 
claring that circumcision, and a conformity to 
other Jewish rites and ceremonies, were not 
necessary in Gentile converts ; and the latter 
part of the book is confined to the history of St. 
Paul, of whom St. Luke was the constant com- 
panion for several years. 

3. As this account of St. Paul is not continu- 
ed beyond his two years' imprisonment at Rome, 
it is probable that this book was written soon 
after his release, which happened in the year 
63 ; we may therefore consider the Acts of the 
Apostles as written about the year 64. 

4. The place of its publication is more doubt- 
ful. The probability appears to be in favour of 
Greece, though some contend for Alexandria 
in Egypt. This latter opinion rests upon the 
subscriptions at the end of some Greek manu- 
scripts, and of the copies of the Syriac version ; 



but the best critics think, that these subscrip- 
tions, which are also affixed to other books of 
the New Testament, deserve but little weight ; 
and in this case they are not supported by any 
ancient authority. 

5. It must have been of the utmost import- 
ance in the early times of the Gospel, and cer- 
tainly not of less importance to every subse- 
quent age, to have an authentic account of the 
promised descent of the Holy Ghost, and of the 
success which attended the first preachers of 
the Gospel both among the Jews and Gen- 
tiles. These great events completed the evi- 
dence of the divine mission of Christ, establish- 
ed the truth of the religion which he taught, and 
pointed out in the clearest manner the compre- 
hensive nature of the redemption which he pur- 
chased by his death. 

CEcumenius calls the Acts, the " Gospel of 
the Holy Ghost ;" and St. Chrysostom, the "Gos- 
pel of our Saviour's resurrection," or the Gospel 
of Jesus Christ risen from the dead. Here, in 
the lives and preaching of the Apostles, we 
have the most miraculous instances of the 
power of the Holy Ghost; and in the account of 
those who were the first believers, we have re- 
ceived the most excellent pattern of the true 
Christian life. 

ADAM, the name given to man in general, 
both male and female in the Hebrew Scrip- 
tures, Gen. i, 26, 27 ; v, 1, 2 ; xi, 5 ; Josh, xiv, 15 ; 
2 Sam. vii, 19; Eccl. iii, 21; Jer. xxxii, 20; 
Hosea vi, 7 ; Zech. xiii, 7 : in all which places 
mankind is understood ; but particularly it is 
the name of the first man and father of the 
human race, created by God himself out of the 
dust of the earth. Josephus thinks that he was 
called Adam by reason of the reddish colour of 
the earth out of which he was formed, for Adam 
in Hebrew signifies red. God having iTiade 
man out of the dust of the earth, breathed into 
him the breath of life, and gave him dominion 
over all the creatures of this world. Gen. i, 26, 
27 ; ii, 7. He created him after his own image 
and resemblance ; and having blessed him, he 
placed him in a delicious garden, in Eden, that 
he might cultivate it, and feed upon its fruits. 
Gen. ii, 8 ; but under the following injunction : 
" Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely 
eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good 
and evil, thou shalt not eat of it ; for in the day 
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." The 
first thing that Adam did after his introduction 
into paradise, was to give names to all the 
beasts and birds which presented themselves 
before him, Gen. ii, 19, 20. 

But man was without a fellow creature of his 
own species ; wherefore God said, "It is not 
good for man to be alone ; I will make him a 
help meet for him." And the Lord caused a 
deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and while he 
slept, he took one of his ribs, "and closed up 
the flesh instead tliereof ;" and of that substance 
which he took from man made he a woman, 
whom he presented to him. Then said Adam, 
"This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of 
my flesh : she shall be called woman, because 
she was taken out of man," Gen. ii, 21, &c. 

The woman was seduced by the tempter; 



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and she seduced her husband to eat of the for- 
bidden fruit. When called to judgment for this 
transgression before God, Adam attempted to 
cast the blame upon his wife, and the woman 
upon the serpent tempter. But God declared 
them all guilty, and punished the serpent by 
degradation ; the woman by painful childbear- 
irtg and subjection ; and the man by agricul- 
tural labour and toil ; of which punishments 
every day witnesses the fulfilment. As their 
natural passions now became irregular, and 
their exposure to accidents was great, God made 
a covering of skins for Adam and for his wife ; 
and expelled them from the garden, to the 
country without ; placing at the east of the gar- 
den cherubims and a flaming sword, which 
turned every way, to keep the way of the tree 
of life. It is not known how long Adam and 
his wife continued in paradise : some say, many 
years ; others, not many days ; others, not many 
hours. Adam called his wife's name Eve, which 
signifies "the mother of all living." Shortly 
after, Eve brought forth Cain, Gen. iv, 1, 2. It 
is believed that she had a girl at the time, and 
that, generally, she had twins. The Scriptures 
notice only three sons of Adam : Cain, Abel, 
and Seth ; and omits daughters ; except that 
Moses tells us, " Adam begat sons and daugh- 
ters ;" no doubt many. He died, aged nine 
hundred and thirty, B. C. 3074. 

Upon this history, so hateresting to all Adam's 
descendants, some remarks may be olFered. 

1. It is disputed whether the name Adam is 
derived from red earth. Sir W. Jones thinks 
it may be from Adim, which in Sanscrit signi- 
fies, the first. The Persians, however, denomi- 
nate him Adamah, which signifies, according 
to Sale, red earth. The term for woman is 
Aisha, the feminine ofAish, man, and signifies, 
therefore, maness or female man. 

2. The manner in which the creation of Adam 
is narrated indicates something peculiar and 
emuaent in the being to be formed. Among 
the heavenly bodies the earth, and above ail 
the various productions of its surface, vegetable 
and animal, however perfect in their kinds, 
and beautiful and excellent in their respective 
natures, not one being was found to whom the 
rest could minister instruction ; inspire with 
moral delight ; or lead up to the Creator him- 
self. There was, properly speaking, no intel- 
lectual being ; none to whom the whole frame 
and fiirniture of material nature could minister 
knowledge ; no one who could employ upon 
them the generalizing faculty, and make them 
the basis of inductive knowledge. If, then, it 
was not wholly for himself that the world was 
created by God ; and if angels were not so im- 
mediately connected with this system, as to 
lead us to suppose that it was made for them ; 
a rational inhabitant was obviously still want, 
ing to complete the work, and to constitute a 
perfect whole. The formation of such a being 
was marked, therefore, by a manner of proceed- 
ing which serves to impress us with a sense of 
the greatness of the work. Not that it could 
be a matter of more difficulty to Omnipotence 
to create man than any thing beside ; but prin- 
cipally, it i3 probable, because he was to be the 



lord of the whole and therefore himself account- 
able to the original proprietor ; and was to be 
the subject of another species of government, a 
moral administration ; and to be constituted an 
image of the intellectual and moral perfections, 
and of the immortality, of the common Maker. 
Every thing therefore, as to man's creation, is 
given in a solemn and deliberative form, and con- 
tains also an intimation of a Trinity of Persons 
in the Godhead, all equally possessed o? creative 
power, and therefore Divine, to each of whom 
man was to stand in relations the most sacred 
and intimate : — " And God said. Let us make 
man in our image, after our likeness ; and let 
them have dominion," &lc. 

3. It may be next inquired in what that image 
of God in which man was made consists. 

It is manifest from the history of Moses, that 
human nature has two essential constituent 
parts, the body formed out of preexisting mat- 
ter, the earth ; and a living soul, breathed into 
the body by an inspiration from God. "And 
the Lord God formed man out of the dust of 
the ground, and breathed into his nostrils (or 
face) the breath of life, (lives,) and man became 
a living soul." Whatever was thus imparted 
to the body of man, already ^^ farmed,^' and per- 
fectly finished in all its parts, was the only 
cause of life ; and the whole tenor of Scripture 
shows that this was the rational spirit itself, 
which, by a law of its Creator, was incapable 
of death, even after the body had fallen under 
that penalty. 

The "image" or likeness of God in which 
man was made has, by some, been assigned to 
the body ; by others, to the soul. It has, also, 
been placed in the circumstance of his having 
'■'■dominion''^ over the other creatures. As to 
the body, it is not necessary to prove that in 
no sense can it bear the image of God ; that is, 
be "ZiAre" God. An upright form has no more 
likeness to God than a prone or reptile one ; 
God is incorporeal, and cannot be the antitype 
of any thing material. 

Equally unfounded is the notion that the 
image of God in man consisted in the " domi- 
nion " which was granted to him over this lower 
world. Limited dominion may, it is true, be 
an image of large and absolute dominion ; but 
man is not said to have been made in the image 
of God's dominion, which is an accident merely, 
for, before creatures existed, God himself could 
have no dominion : — he was made in the image 
and likeness of God himself. Still farther, it 
is evident that man, according to the history, 
was made in the image of God in order to his 
having dominion, as the Hebrev/ particle im- 
ports ; and, therefore, his dominion was conse- 
quent upon his formation in the "image" and 
" likeness" of God, and could not be that image 
itself. 

The notion that the original resemblance of 
man to God must be placed in some one essen- 
tial quality, is not consistent with holy writ, 
from which alone we can derive our information 
on this subject. We shall, it is true, find that 
the Bible partly places it in what is essential to 
human nature ; but that it should comprehend 
nothing else, or consist in one quality only, has 



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no proof or reason ; and we are, in fact, taught 
that it comprises also what is so far from being 
essential that it may be both lost and regained. 
When God is called "the Father of spirits," a 
likeness is suggested between man and God in 
the spirituality of their nature. This is also 
impliied in the striking argument of St. Paul 
with the Athenians : " Forasmuch, then, as we 
are the offspring of God, we ought not to think 
that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, 
or stone, graven by art and man's device;" — 
plainly referring to the idolatrous statues by 
which God was represented among Heathens. 
If likeness to God in man consisted in bodily 
shape, this would not have been an argument 
against human representations of the Deity ; 
but it imports, as Howe well expresses it, that 
" we are to understand that our resemblance to 
him, as we are his offspring, lies in some higher, 
more noble, and more excellent thing, of which 
there can be no figure ; as who can tell how to 
give the figure or image of a thought, or of the 
mind or thinking power 1" In spirituality, and, 
consequently, immateriality, this image of God 
in man, then, in the first instance, consists. 
Nor is it any valid objection to say, that " im- 
materiality is not peculiar to the soul of man ; 
for we have reason to believe that the inferior 
animals are actuated by an immaterial princi- 
ple." This is as certain as analogy can make 
it : but though we allow a spiritual principle to 
animals, its kind is obviously inferior ; for that 
spirit which is incapable of induction and moral 
knowledge, must be of an inferior order to the 
spirit which possesses these capabilities ; and 
this is the kind of spirit which is peculiar to man. 
The sentiment expressed in Wisdom ii, 23, 
is an evidence that, in the opinion of the an. 
cient Jews, the image of God in man comprised 
immortality also. "For God created man to 
be immortal, and made him to be an image of 
his own eternity :" and though other creatures 
were made capable of immortality, and at least 
the material human frame, whatever we may 
think of the ease of animals, would have es- 
caped death, had not sin entered the world; 
yet, without admitting the absurdity of the 
"natural immortality" of the human soul, that 
essence must have been constituted immortal 
in a high and peculiar sense which has ever 
retained its prerogative of continued duration 
amidst the universal death not only of animals, 
but of the bodies of all human beings. There 
appears also a manifest allusion to man's im- 
mortality, as being included in the image of 
God, in the reason which is given in Genesis 
for the law which inflicts death on murderers : 
"Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall 
his blood be shed : for in the image of God 
made he man." Tlie essence of the crime of 
homicide is not confined here to the putting to 
death the mere animal part of man ; and it must, 
therefore, lie in the peculiar value of life to an 
immortal being, accountable in another state 
for the actions done in this, and whose life 
ought to be specially guarded for this very rea- 
son, that death introduces him into changeless 
and eternal relations', which were not to be left 
to the mere}' of luunaii passiojis. 



To these we are to add the intellectual pow 
ers, and we have what divines, in perfect ac- 
cordance with the Scriptures, have called, " the 
NATURAL image of God in his creatures," which 
is essential and ineiFaceable. Man was made 
capable of knowledge, and he was endowed 
with liberty of icill. 

This natural image of God was the founda- 
tion of that moral image by which also man 
was distinguished. Unless he had been a spi- 
ritual, knowing, and willing being, he would 
have been wholly incapable of mmal qualities. 
That he had such qualities eminently, and that 
in them consisted the image of God, as well as 
in the natural attributes just stated, we have 
also the express testimony of Scripture : " Lo 
this only have I found, that God made man 
UPRIGHT ; but they have sought out many in- 
ventions." There is also an express allusion to 
the moral image of God, in which man was at 
fiiTst created, in Colossians iii, 10 : " And have 
put on the new man, which is renewed in 
knowledge, after the image of Him that cre- 
ated him ;" and in Ephesians iv, 24 : " Put on 
the new man, which after God is created in 
righteousness and true holiness." In these 
passages the Apostle represents the change 
produced in true Christians by the Gospel, as 
a "renewal of the image of God in man; as a 
new or second creation in that image ;" and he 
explicitly declares, that that image consists 
in "knowledge," in "righteousness," and in 
"true holiness." 

This also may be finally argued from the 
satisfaction with which the historian of the 
creation represents the Creator as viewing 
the works of his hands as "rcry good," which 
was pronounced with reference to each of them 
individually, as well as to the whole : " And 
God saw every thing that he had made, and 
behold it was very good." But, as to man, this 
goodness must necessarily imply moral as 
well as physical qualities. Without them he 
would have been imperfect as 7nan; and had 
they, in their first exercises, been perverted 
and sinful, he must have been an exception, 
and could not have been pronounced " very 
good." The goodness of man, as a rational 
being, must lie in devotedness and consecration 
to God; consequently, man was at first holy. 
A rational creature, as such, is capable of 
knowing, loving, serving, and living in com- 
munion with the Most Holy One. Adam, at 
first, did or did not exert this capacity ; if he did 
not, he was not very good, — not good at all. 

4. On the intellectual and moral endow- 
ments of the progenitor of the human race,, 
erring views appear to have been taken on both 
sides. 

In knowledge, some have thought him little 
inferior to the angels ; others, as furnished 
with but the simple elements of science and of 
language. The truth seems to be that, as to 
capacity, his intellect must have been vigorous 
beyond that of any of his fallen descendants ; 
which itself gives us ver}^ high views of the 
strength of his understanding, although we 
should allow him to have been created " lower 
than the angels." As to his ncinal hiowledgCf 



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that would depend upon the time and opportu- 
nity he had for observing the nature and laws 
of the objects around him; and the degree in 
which he was favoured with revelations from 
God on moral and religious subjects. 

On the degree of moral excellence also in 
the first man, much license has been given to 
a warm imagination, and to rhetorical embel- 
lishment ; and Adam's perfection has sometimes 
been fixed at an elevation which renders it ex- 
ceedingly difficult to conceive how he could 
fall into sin at all. On the other hand, those 
who either deny or hold very slightly the doc- 
trine of our hereditary depravity, delight to 
represent Adam as little superior in moral per. 
fection and capability to his descendants. JBut, 
if we attend to the passages of holy writ above 
quoted, we shall be able, on this subject, to as- 
certain, if not the exact degree of his moral 
endowments, yet that there is a certain stand- 
ard below which they cannot be placed. — 
Generally, he was made in the image of God, 
which, we have already proved, is to be under- 
stood morally as well as naturally. Now, 
however the image of any thing may be limited 
in extent, it must still be an accurate repre- 
sentation as far as it goes. Every thing good 
in the creation must always be a miniature 
representation of the excellence of the Creator ; 
but, in this case, the " goodness," that is, tffe 
perfection, of every creature, according to the 
part it was designed to act in the general as- 
semblage of beings collected into our system, 
wholly forbids us to suppose that the image of 
God's moral perfections in man was a blurred 
and dim representation. To whatever extent 
it went, it necessarily excluded all that from 
man which did not resemble God; it was a 
likeness to God in "righteousness and true 
holiness," whatever the degree of each might 
be, and excluded all admixture of unrighteous- 
ness and unholiness. Man, therefore, in his 
original state, was sinless, both in act and in 
principle. Hence it is said that "God made 
man upright." That this signifies moral recti- 
tude cannot be doubted ; but the import of the 
word is very extensive. It expresses, by an 
easy figure, the exactness of truth, justice, and 
obedience ; and it comprehends the state and 
habit both of the heart and the life. Such, 
then, was the condition of primitive man ; 
there was no obliquity in his moral principles, 
his mind, or affections; none in his conduct. 
He was perfectly sincere and exactly just, ren- 
dering from the heart all that was due to God 
and to the creature. Tried by the exactest 
plummet, he was upright ; by the most perfect 
rule, he was straight. 

The " knowledge" in which the Apostle Paul, 
in the passage quoted above from Colossians 
iii, 10, places " the image of God" after which 
man was created, does not merely imply the 
faculty of understanding, which is a part of the 
natural image of God ; but that which might 
be lost, because it is that in which we may be 
" renewed." It is, therefore, to be understood 
of the faculty of knowledge in right exercise ; 
and of that willing reception, and firm retain- 
ing, and hearty approval, of religious truth, in 



which knowledge, when spoken of morally, is 
always understood in the Scriptures. We may 
not be disposed to allow, with some, that Adam 
understood the deep philosophy of nature, and 
could comprehend and explain the sublime 
mysteries of religion. The circumstance of 
his giving names to the animals, is certainly 
no sufficient proof of his having attained to a 
philosophical acquaintance with their qualities 
and distinguishing habits, although we should 
allow their names to be still retained in the 
Hebrew, and to be as expressive of their pecu- 
liarities as some expositors have stated. Suffi- 
cient time appears not to have been affiarded 
him for the study of the properties of animals, 
as this event took place previous to the forma- 
tion of Eve ; and as for the notion of his acquir- 
ing knowledge by intuition, this is contradicted 
by the revealed fact, that angels themselves ac- 
quire their knowledge by observation and study, 
though no doubt, with great rapidity and cer- 
tainty. The whole ofthis transaction was super- 
natural ; the beasts were " brought" to Adam, 
and it is probable that he name'd them under a 
Divine suggestion. He has been also supposed 
to be the inventor of language, but his history 
shows that he was never without speech. From 
the first he was able to converse with God ; and 
we may, therefore, infer that language was in 
him a supernatural and miraculous endowment. 
That his understanding was, as to its capacity, 
deep and large beyond any of his posterity, 
must follow from the perfection in which he 
was created ; and his acquisitions of knowledge 
would, therefore, be rapid and easy. It was, 
however, in moral and religious truth, as being 
of the first concern to him, that we are to sup- 
pose the excellency of his knowledge to have 
consisted. "His reason would be clear, his 
judgment uncorrupted, and his conscience up- 
right and sensible." The best knowledge would, 
in him, be placed first, and that of every other 
kind be made subservient to it, according to its 
relation to that. The Apostle adds to know- 
ledge, "righteousness and true holiness ;" terms 
which express, not merely freedom from sin, 
but positive and active virtue. 

Sober as these views of man's primitive state 
are, it is not, perhaps, possible for us fully to 
conceive of so exalted a condition as even this. 
Below this standard it could not fall ; and that 
it implied a glory, and dignity, and moral great- 
ness of a very exalted kind, is made sufficiently 
apparent from the degree of guilt charged upon 
Adam when he fell : for the aggravating cir- 
cumstances of his offence may well be deduced 
from the tremendous consequences which fol- 
lowed. 

5. The salvation of Adam has been disputed ; 
for what reason does not appear, except that 
the silence of Scripture, as to his after life, has 
given bold men occasion to obtrude their specu- 
lations upon a subject which called for no such 
expression of opinion. As nothing to the con- 
trary appears, the charitable inference is, that 
as he was the first to receive the promise of re- 
demption, so he was the first to prove its virtue. 
It is another presumption, that as Adam and 
Eve were clothed with skins of beasts, which 



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could not have been slain for food, these were 
the skins of their sacrifices ; and as the offering 
of animal sacrifice was an expression of faith in 
the appointed propitiation, to that refuge we 
may conclude they resorted, and through its 
merits were accepted. 

6. The Rabbinical and Mohammedan tradi- 
tions and fables respecting the first man are as 
absurd as they are numerous. Some of them 
indeed are monstrous, unless we suppose them to 
be allegories in the exaggerated style of the 
orientals. Some say that he was nine hundred 
cubits high; whilst others, not satisfied with 
this, affirm that his head touched the heavens. 
The Jews think that he wrote the ninety-first 
Psalm, invented the Hebrew letters, and com- 
posed several treatises ; the Arabians, that he 
preserved twenty books which fell from heaven ; 
and the Musselmen, that he himself wrote ten 
volumes. 

7. That Adam was a type of Christ, is plainly 
affirmed by St. Paul, who calls him "the figure 
of him who was to come." Hence our Lord is 
-sometimes called, not inaptly, the Second 
Adam. This typical relation stands sometimes 
in SIMILITUDE, sometimes in contrast. Adam 
was formed immediately by God, as was the 
humanity of Christ. In each the nature was 
spotless, and richly endowed with knowledge 
and true holiness. Both are seen invested with 
dominion over the earth and all its creatures; 
and this may explain the eighth Psalm, where 
David seems to make the sovereignty of the 
first man over the whole earth in its pristine 
glory, the prophetic symbol of the dominion 
of Christ over the ivorld restored. Beyond 
these particulars fancy must not carry us ; and 
the typical contrast must also be limfied to that 
which is stated in Scripture, or supported by its 
allusions. Adam and Christ were each a pub- 
lic person, a federal head to the whole race of 
mankind ; but the one Avas the fountain of sin 
and death, the other of righteousness and life. 
By Adam's transgression "many were made sin- 
ners," Rom. v, 14-19. Through him, " death 
passed upon all men, because all have sinned" 
in him. But he thus prefigured that one man, 
by whose righteousness the "free gift comes 
upon all men to justification of life." The first 
man communicated a living soul to ail his pos- 
terity ; the other is a quickening Spirit, to re- 
store them to newness of life now, and to raise 
them up at the last day. By the imputation of 
the first Adam's sin, and the communication of 
his fallen, depraved nature, death reigned over 
those who had not sinned after the similitude 
of Adam's transgression ; and through the right- 
eousness of the Second Adam, and the com. 
munication of a divine nature by the Holy Spi- 
rit, favour and grace shall much more abound 
in Christ's true followers unto eternal life. See 
Redemption. 

AD AM A, one of the five cities which were 
destroyed by fire from heaven, and buried un- 
der the waters of the Dead Sea, Gen. xiv, 2 ; 
Deut. xxix, 23. It was the most easterly of 
all those which were swallowed up; and there 
is some probability that it was not entirely sunk 
under the waters ; or that the inhabitants of the 



country built a new city of the same name upon 
the eastern shore of the Dead Sea : for Isaiah, 
according to the Septuagint, says, " God will 
destroy the Moabites, the city of Ar, and the 
remnant of Adama." 

ADAMANT, n^Dty, 'A^a>af, Ecclus. xvi, 16. 
A stone of impenetrable hardness. Sometimes 
this name is given to the diamond ; and so it is 
rendered, Jer. xvii, 1. But the Hebrew word 
rather means a very hard kind of stone, proba- 
bly the smiris, which was also used for cutting, 
engraving, and polishing other hard stones and 
crystals. The word occurs also in Ezek. iii, 9, 
and Zech. vii, 12. In the former place the 
Lord says to the Prophet, "I have made thy 
forehead as an adamant, firmer than a rock;" 
that is, endued thee with undaunted courage. 
In the latter, the hearts of wicked men are de- 
clared to be as adamant ; neither broken by the 
threatenings and judgments of God, nor pene. 
trated by his promises, invitations, and mercies. 
See Diamond. 

ADAMITES, sects reputed to have profess- 
ed the attainment of a perfect innocence, so that 
they wore no clothes in their assemblies. But 
Lardner doubts their existence in ancient, and 
Beausobre in modern, times. 

ADAR, the twelfth month of the ecclesiasti- 
cal, and the sixth of the civil, year among the 
Hebrews. It contains but twenty.nine days, 
and answers to our February, and sometimes 
enters into March, according to the course of 
the moon, by which they regulated their seasons. 

ADARCONIM, dijidtin, a sort of money, 
mentioned 1 Chron. xxix, 7, and Ezra viii, 27. 
The Vulgate translates it, golden pence, the LXX, 
pieces of gold. They were darics, a gold coin, 
which some value at twenty drachms of silver. 

ADER. Jerom observes, that the place where 
the angels declared the birth of Jesus Christ to 
the shepherds, was called by this name, Luke ii, 
8, 9. The empress Helena built a church on 
this spot, the remains of which are still visible. 

ADDER, a venomous serpent, more usually 
called the viper. In our translation of the Bible 
we find the word adder five times ; but without 
sufficient authority from the original. 

p£)''StJ', in Gen. xlix, 17, is probably the ceras- 
tes ; a serpent of the viper kind, of a light brown 
colour, which lurks in the sand and the tracks 
of wheels in the road, and unexpectedly bites 
not only the unwary traveller, but the legs of 
horses and other beasts. By comparing the 
Danites to this artful reptile, the patriarch in- 
timated that by stratagem, more than by open 
bravery, they should avenge themselves of their 
enemies and extend their conquests. — ipij, in 
Psalm Iviii, 4 ; xci, 13, signifies an asp. We 
may perhaps trace to this the Python of the 
Greeks, and its derivatives. (See Asp.) — Ditt'D;?, 
found only in Psalm cxl, 3, is derived from a 
verb which signifies to bend back on itself. The 
Chaldee Paraphrasts render it if uojj, which we 
translate elsewhere, spider : they may therefore 
have understood it to have been the tarantula. 
It is rendered asp by the Septuagint and Vul- 
gate, and is so taken, Rom. iii, 13, The name 
is from the Arabic achasa. But there are seve- 
I ral serpents which coil themselves previously 



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to darting on their enemy ; if this be a charac- 
ter of the asp, it is not peculiar to that reptile. 
— yo'S, or ''yjo^s, Prov. xxiii, 32 ; Isaiah xi, 8 ; xiv, 
29 ; lix, 5 ; and Jer. viii, 17, is that deadly ser- 
pent called the basilisk, said to kill with its very 
breath. See Cockatrice. 

In Psalm Iviii, 5, reference is made to the 
effect of musical sounds upon serpents. That 
they might be rendered tame and harmless by 
certain charms, or soft and sweet sounds, and 
trained to delight in music, was an opinion 
which prevailed very early and universally. 

Many ancient authors mention tliis effect; 
Virgil speaks of it particularly, JEn. vii, v, 750. 

Quin et Marrubia venit de gente sacerdots, 
Fronde siijier galeam et felici. compius oliva, 
Archippi regis missu foiiissimus Uinbro ; 
Vipereo generi, et graviter spirantibus hydris 
Spargere qui somnos cantuque niamtque solebat, 
Mulcebatque iras, et morsus arte levabat. 

" Umbro, the brave Marrubian priest, was there, 
Sent by tlie Marsian monarch to the war. 
The soiiUng olive with her verdant boughs 
Shades his bright helmet and adorns his brows ; 
His charms in peace the furious serpent keep ; 
And lull the envenom'd viper's race to sleep : 
His healing hand allay'd the raging pain, 
And at his touch the poisons fled again." Pitt. 

Mr. Boyle quotes the following passage from 
Sir H. Blunt's Voyage into the Levant : — 

" Many rarities of living creatures I saw in 
Grand Cairo ; but the most ingenious was a nest 
of serpents, of two feet long, black and ugly, 
kept by a Frenchman, who, when he came to 
handle them, would not endure him, but ran 
and hid in their hole. Then he would take his 
cittern and play upon it. They, hearing his 
music, came all crawling to his feet, and began 
to climb up him, till he gave over playing, then 
away they ran." 

The wonderful effect wliich music produces 
on the serpent tribes, is confirmed by the testi- 
mony of several respectable moderns. Adders 
swell at the sound of a flute, raising themselves 
up on the one half of their body, turning them- 
selves round, beating proper time, and follow- 
ing the instrument. Their head, naturally 
round and long like an eel, becomes broad and 
flat like a fan. The tame serpents, many of 
which the orientals keep in their houses, are 
known to leave their holes in hot weather, at 
the sound of a m.usical instrument, and run 
upon the performer. Dr. Shaw had an oppor- 
tunity of seeing a number of serpents keep 
exact time with the Dervishes in their circula- 
tory dances, running over their heads and 
arms, turning when they turned, and stopping 
when they stopped. The rattlesnake acknow- 
ledges the power of music as much as any of" 
his family ; of which the following instance is 
a decisive proof: When Chateaubriand was in 
Canada, a snake of that species entered their 
encampment ; a young Canadian, one of the 
party, who could play on the flute, to divert his 
associates, advanced against the serpent with 
his new species of weapon : on the approach 
of his enemy, the haughty reptile curled him- 
self into a spiral line, flattened his head, in- 
flated his cheeks, contracted his Ups, displayed 



his envenomed fangs, and his bloody throat, 
his double tongue glowed like two flames of 
fire ; his eyes were burning coals ; his body, 
swollen with rage, rose and fell like the bel- 
lows of a forge ; his dilated skin assumed a 
dull and scaly appearance ; and his tail, which 
sounded the denunciation of death, vibrated 
with so great rapidity as to resemble a light 
vapour. The Canadian now began to play 
upon Ills flute, the serpent started with surprise, 
and drew back his head. In proportion as he 
was struck with the magic effect, his eyes lost 
their fierceness, the oscillations of his tail be- 
came slower, and the sound whicli it emitted 
became weaker, and gradually died away. Less 
perpendicular upon their sjiiral line, the rings 
of the fascinated serpent were by degrees ex- 
panded, and sunk one after another upon the 
ground, in concentric circles. The shades of 
azure, green, white, and gold, recovered their 
brilliancy on his quivering skin, and slightly 
turning his head, he remained motionless, in 
the attitude of attention and pleasure. At this 
moment, the Canadian advanced a few steps, 
producing with his flute sweet and simple 
notes. The reptile, inclining his variegated 
neck, opened a passage with his head through 
the high grass, and began to creep after the 
musician, stopping when he stopped, and be- 
ginning to follow hun again, as soon as he 
moved forward. In this manner he was led 
out of their camp, attended by a great number 
of spectators, both savages and Europeans, 
who could scarcely believe their eyes, when 
they beheld this wonderful effect of harmony. 
The assembly unanimously decreed, that the 
serpent which had so highly entertained them, 
should be permitted to escape. Many of them 
are carried in baskets through Hindostan, and 
procure a maintenance for a set of people who 
play a ^gw simple notes on the flute, with 
which the snakes seem much delighted, and 
keep time by a graceful motion of the head, 
erecting about half their length from the 
ground, and following the music with gentle 
curves, like the undulating lines of a swan's 
neck. 

But on some serpents, these charms seem to 
have no power ; and it appears from Scripture, 
that the adder sometimes takes precautions to 
prevent the fascination which he sees preparing 
for him : " for the deaf adder shutteth her ear, 
and will not hear the voice of the most skilful 
charmer." The threatening of the Prophet 
Jeremiah proceeds upon the same fact : " I will 
send serpents" (cockatrices) "among you, 
which will not be charmed, and they shall bite 
you." In all these quotations, the sacred wri- 
ters, while they take it for granted that many 
serpents are disarmed by charming, plainly ad- 
mit that the powers of the charmer are in vain 
exerted upon others. 

It is the opinion of some interpreters, that 
the word 'rnt:', which in some parts of Scripture 
denotes a lion, in others means an adder, or 
some other kind of serpent. Thus, in the 
ninety-first Psalm, they render it the basilisk : 
"Thou shait tread upon the adder and the 
basilisk, the young lion and the dragon thou 



ADO 



24 



ADO 



slialt trample under foot." Indeed, all the an- 
cient expositors agree, that some species of ser- 
pent is meant, although they cannot determine 
what particular serpent the sacred writer had 
in view. The learned Bochart thinks it ex- 
tremely prohable that the holy Psalmist in this 
verse treats of serpents only ; and, by conse- 
quence, that both the terms 'jnt^ and -y"»i5:i mean 
some kind of snakes, as well as |ns and ^ijn ; 
because the coherence of the verse is by this 
view better preserved, than by mingling lions 
and serpents together, as our translators and 
-other interpreters have commonly done ; nor is 
it easy to imagine what can be meant by tread- 
ing upon the lion, and trampling the young 
Jion under foot ; for it is not possible in walk- 
ing to tread upon the lion, as upon the adder, 
the basilisk, and other serpents. 

To ADJUEE, to bind by oath, as under the 
penalty of a fearful curse, Joshua vi, 26 ; Mark 
V, 7. 2. To charge solemnly, as by the au- 
thority, and under pain, of the displeasure of 
God, Matt, xxvi, 63; Acts xix, 13. 

ADONAI, one of the names of God. This 
word in the plural number signifies my Lords. 
The Jews, who either out of respect or super- 
stition, do not pronounce the name of Jehovah, 
read Adonai in the room of it, as often as they 
meet with Jehovah in the Hebrew text. But 
the ancient Jews were not so scrupulous. 
Neither is there any law which forbids them to 
pronounce any name of God. 

ADONIS. The text of the Vulgate in Ezek. 
viii, 14, says, that the Prophet saw women sit- 
ting in the temple, and weeping for Adonis ; 



women weeping for this infamous god, even m 

his temple. 

Fabulous history gives the following account 
of Adonis : He was a beautifiil young shepherd, 
the son of Cyniras, king of Cyprus, by his own 
daughter Myrrha. The goddess Venus fell in 
love with this youth, and frequently met him 
on mount Libanus. Mars, who envied this 
rival, transformed himself into a wild boar, and, 
as Adonis was hunting, struck him in the groin 
and killed him. Venus lamented the death of 
Adonis in an inconsolable manner. The east- 
ern people, in imitation of her mourning, ge- 
nerally established some solemn days for the 
bewailing of Adonis. After his death, Venus 
went to the shades, and obtained from Proser- 
pine, that Adonis might be with her six months 
in the year, and continue the other six in the 
infernal regions. Upon this were founded 
those public rejoicings, which succeeded the 
lamentations of his death. Some say that 
Adonis was a native of Syria; some, of Cy- 
prus ; and others, of Egypt. 

ADOPTION. An act by which one takes 
another into his family, owns him for his son, 
and appoints him his heir. The Greeks and 
Romans had many regulations concerning 
adoption. It does not appear that adoption, 
properly so called, was formerly in use among 
the Jews. Moses makes no mention of it in 
his laws ; and the case of Jacob's two grand- 
sons, Gen. xlviii, 14, seems ratlier a substitution, 

2. Adoption in a theological sense is that act 
of God's free grace- by w^hich, upon our being 
justified by faith in Christ, we are received into 



but a<jcording to the reading of the Hebrew the family of God, and entitled to the inherit 



text, they are said to weep for Thamu2 
Tammuz, the hidden one. Among the Egyp- 
tians Adonis was adored under the name of 
Osiris, tlie husband of Isis. But he was some- 
times called by the name of Ammuz, or Tam- 
muz, the concealed, probably to denote his death 
or burial. The Hebrews, in derision, some- 
times call him the dead, Psalm cvi, 28; Lev. 
xix, 28 ; because they wept for him, and repre- 
sented him as dead in his coffin ; and at .other 
times they denominate him the image of jeal- 
ousy, Ezek. viii, 3, 5, because he was the 
object of the jealousy of Mars. The Syrians, 
Phoenicians, and Cyprians, called him Adonis ; 
and Calmet is of opinion that the Ammonites 
and Moabites designated him by the name of 
Baal-peor. 

The manner in which they celebrated tiie 
festival of this false deity was as follows : They 
represented him as lying dead in his coffin, 
wept for him, bemoaned themselves, and sought 
for him with great eagerness and inquietude. 
After this, they pretended that they had found 
him again, and that he was still living. At 
this good news they exhibited marks of the 
most extravagant joy, and were guilty of a 
thousand lewd practices, to convince Venus 
how much they congratulated her on the return 
and revival of her favourite, as they had before 
condoled with her on his death. The Hebrew 
women, of whom the Prophet Ezekiel speaks, 
celebrated the feasts of Tammuz, or Adonis, in 
Jerusalem ; and God showed the Prophet these 



ance of heaven. This appears not so much a 
distinct act of God, as involved in, and neces- 
sarily flowing from, our justification ; so that 
at least the one always implies the other. Nor 
is there any good ground to suppose that in the 
New Testament the term adoption is used with 
QMj reference to the civil practice of adoption 
by the Greeks, Romans, or other Heathens, and 
therefore it is not judicious to illustrate the 
texts in which the word occurs by their for- 
malities. The Apostles in using the term appear 
to have had before them the simple view, that 
our sins had deprived us of our sonship, the 
favour of God, and the right to the inheritance 
of eternal life ; but that, upon our return to 
God, and reconciliation with him, our forfeited 
privileges were not only restored, but greatly 
heightened through the paternal kindness of 
God. They could scarcely be forgetful of the 
affecting parable of the prodigal son ; and it is 
under the same view that St. Paul quotes from 
the Old Testament, "Wherefore come out 
from among them, and be ye separate, saith 
the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and 
I will receive you, and I will be a Father unto 
you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, 
saith the Lord Almighty." 

Adoption, then, is that act by which we who 
were alienated, and enemies, and disinherited, 
are made the sons of God, and heirs of his 
eternal glory. "If children, then heirs, heirs 
of God and joint heirs with Christ;" where it 
is to be remarked, that it js not in our owi> 



ADO 



25 



ADO 



right, nor in the right of any work done in us, 
or which we ourselves do, though it should be 
an evangelical work, that we become heirs ; 
but jointly with Christ, and in his right. 

3. To this state belong, freedom from a ser- 
vile spirit, for we are not servants but sons; 
the special love and care of God our heavenly 
Father ; a filial confidence in him ; free access 
to him at all times and in all circmnstances ; 
a title to the heavenly inJieritance ; and the 
Spirit of adoption, or the witness of the Holy 
Spirit to our adoption, which is the foundation 
of all the comfort we can derive from those 
privileges, as it is the only means by which we 
can know that they are ours. 

4. The last mentioned great privilege of 
adoption merits special attention. It consists 
in the inward witness or testimony of the Holy 
Spirit to the sonship of believers, from which 
flows a comfortable persuasion or conviction of 
our present acceptance with God, and the hope 
of our future and eternal glory. This is taught 
in several passages of Scripture : — 

Rom. viii, 15, 16, " For ye have not received 
the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the 
Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Fa- 
ther. The Spirit itself beareth witness with 
our spirit that we are the children of God." In 
this passage it is to be remarked, 1. That the 
Holy Spirit takes awav " fear," a servile dread 
of God as offended. s/That the " Spirit of God" 
here mentioned, is not the personified spirit or 
genius of the Gospel, as some would have it, 
but "the Spirit itself," or himself, and hence 
he is called in the Galatians, "the Spirit of his 
Son," which cannot mean the genius of the 
Gospel. 3. That he inspires a filial confidence 
in God, as our Father, which is opposed to 
" the fear" produced by the " spirit of bondage." 
4. That he excites this filial confidence, and 
enables us to call God our Father, by witness- 
ing, bearing testimony with our spirit, '* that 
we are the children of God." 

Gal. iv, 4-6, "But when the fulness of the 
time was come, God sent forth his Son, made 
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem 
them that were under the law, that we might 
receive the adoption of sons ; and because ye 
are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his 
Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." 
Here also are to be noted, 1. The means of 
our redemption from under (the curse of) the 
law, — the incarnation and sufferings of Christ. 
2. That the adoption of sons follows upon our 
actual redemption from that curse, or, in other 
words, upon our pardon. 3. That upon our 
being pardoned, the "Spirit of the Son" is 
"sent forth into our hearts," producing the 
same effect as that mentioned in the Epistle to 
the Romans, viz. filial confidence in God, — 
" crying, Abba, Father." To these texts are to 
be added all those passages, so numerous in the 
New Testament, which express the confidence 
and the joy of Christians ; their friendship with 
God; their confident access to him as their 
God ; their entire union and delightful inter- 
course with him in spirit. 

This has been generally termed the doctrine 
of assurance, and, perhaps, the expressions of 



St. Paul, "the full assurance of faith," and 
" the full assurance of hope," may warrant the 
use of the word. But as there is a current and 
generally understood sense of this term, imply- 
ing that the assurance of our present accept- 
ance and sonship implies an assurance of our 
final perseverance, and of an indefeasible title 
to heaven ; the phrase, a comfortable persua- 
sion, or conviction of our justification and 
adoption, arising out of the Spirit's inward and 
direct testimony, is to be preferred. 

There is, also, another reason for the sparing 
and cautious use of the term assurance, which 
is, that it seems to imply, though not necessa- 
rily, the absence of all doubt, and shuts out all 
those lower degrees of persuasion which may 
exist in the experience of Christians. For, our 
faith may not at first, or at all times, be equally 
strong, and the testimony of the Spirit may 
have its degrees of clearness. Nevertheless, 
the fiilness of this attainment is to be pressed 
upon every one : "Let us draw near," says St. 
Paul to all Christians, " with full assurance of 
faith." 

It may serve, also, to remove an objection 
sometimes made to the doctrine, and to correct 
an error which sometimes pervades the state- 
ment of it, to observe that this assurance, per- 
suasion, or conviction, whichever term be 
adopted, is not of the essence of justifying 
faith ; that is, justifying faith does not consist 
in the assurance that I am now forgiven, 
through Christ. This would be obviously con- 
tradictory. For we must believe before we 
can be justified ; much more before we can be 
assured, in any degree, that we are justified : — 
this persuasion, therefore, follows justification, 
and is one of its results. But though we must 
not only distinguish, but separate, this persua- 
sion of our acceptance from the faith which 
justifies, we must not separate it, but only dis- 
tinguish it, from justification itself With that 
come in as ooncomitants, adoption, the " Spirit 
of adoption," and regeneration. 

ADORATION, the act of rendering divine 
honours ; or of addressing God or any other 
being as supposing it to be God. (See Worship.) 
The word is compounded of ad, "to," and os, 
"mouth;" and literally signifies to apply the 
hand to the mouth ; manum ad os admovere, 
" to kiss the hand ;" this being in eastern coun- 
tries one of the great marks of respect and sub- 
mission. To this mode of idolatrous worship 
Job refers, xxxi, 26,27. See alsol Kings xix, 18. 

The Jewish manner of adoration was by 
prostration, bowing, and kneeling. The Chris- 
tians adopted the Grecian, rather than the 
Roman, method, and always adored uncovered. 
The ordinary posture of the ancient Christians 
was kneeling; but on Sundays, standing. 

Adoration is also used for certain extraordi- 
nary acts of civil honour, which resemble those 
paid to the Deity, yet are given to men. 

We read of adorations paid to kings, princes, 
emperors, popes, bishops, abbots, &c, by kneel- 
ing, falling prostrate, kissing the feet, hands, 
garments, &c. 

The Persian manner of adoration, introduced 
by C3mis, was by bending the knee, and falling 



ADO 



26 



ADU 



on the face at the prince's feet, striking the 
earth with the forehead, and kissing the ground. 
This was an indispensable condition on the part 
of foreign ministers and ambassadors, as well 
as the king's own vassals, of being admitted to 
audience, and of obtaining any favour. This 
token of reverence was ordered to be paid to 
their favourites as well as to themselves, as we 
learn from the history of Haman and Mordecai, 
in the book of Esther ; and even to their sta- 
tues and images ; for Philostratus informs us 
that, in the time of Apollonius, a golden statue 
of the king was exposed to all who entered 
Babylon, and none but those who adored it 
were admitted within the gates. The ceremony, 
which the Greeks called rzpocKwelv, Con on re- 
fused to perform to Artaxerxes, and Callis- 
thenes to Alexander the Great, as reputing it 
impious and unlawful. 

The adoration performed to the Roman and 
Grecian emperors consisted in bowing or kneel- 
ing at the prince's feet, laying hold of his pur- 
ple robe, and then bringing the hand to the 
lips. Some attribute the origin of this practice 
to Constantius. They were only persons of 
rank or dignity that were entitled to the honour. 
Bare kneeling before the emperor to deliver a 
petition, was also called adoration. 

It is particularly said of Dioclesian, that he 
had gems fastened to his shoes, that divine 
honours might be more willingly paid liim, by 
kissing his feet. And this mode of adoration 
was continued till the last age of the Greek 
monarchy. When any one pays his respects 
to the king of Achen in Sumatra, he first takes 
off his shoes and stockings, and leaves them at 
the door. 

The practice of adoration may be said to be 
still subsisting in England, in the custom of 
kissing the king's or queen's hand. 

Adoration is also used in the court of Rome, 
in the ceremony of kissing the pope's feet. It 
is not certain at what period this practice was 
introduced into the church : but it was proba- 
bly borrowed from the Byzantine court, and ac- 
companied the temporal power. Dr. Maclaine, 
in the chronological table which he has sub- 
joined to his translation of Mosheim's Ecclesi- 
astical History, places its introduction in the 
eighth century, immediately after the grant of 
Pepin and Charlemagne. Baronius traces it to 
a much higher antiquity, and pretends that 
examples of this homage to the vicars of Christ 
occur so early as the year 204. These prelates 
finding a vehement disposition in the people to 
fall down before them, and kiss their feet, pro- 
cured crucifixes to be fastened on their slippers ; 
by which stratagem, the adoration intended for 
the pope's person is supposed to be transferred 
to Christ. Divers acts of this adoration we find 
offered even by princes to the pope ; and Gre- 
gory XIII, claims this act of homage as a duty. 

Adoration properly is paid only to the pope 
when placed on the altar, in which posture the 
cardinals, conclavists, alone are admitted to 
kiss his feet. The people are afterward admit- 
ted to do the like at St. Peter's church; the 
ceremony is described at large by Guicciardin. 

Adoration is more particularly used for kiss- 



ing one's hand in presence of another as a 
token of reverence. The Jews adored by kiss- 
ing their hands, and bowing down their heads ; 
whence in their language kissing is properly 
used for adoration. This illustrates a passage 
in Psalm ii, "Kiss the Son lest he be angry;" 
— that is, pay hun homage and worship. 

It was the practice among the Greek Chris- 
tians to worship with the head uncovered, 
1 Cor. xi ; but in the east the ancient custom of 
worshipping with the head covered was retained. 

ADRAMMELECH, the son of Sennacherib, 
king of Assyria. The king returning to Nine- 
veh, after liis unhappy expedition made into 
Judea against king Hezekiah, was killed by his 
two sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, whilst 
at his devotions in the temple of his god Nis- 
roch, Isaiah xxxvii, 38 ; 2 Kings xix. It is 
not known what prompted these two princes to 
commit this parricide ; but after they had com- 
mitted the murder, they fled for safety to the 
mountains of Armenia, and their brother, Esar- 
haddon, succeeded to the crown. 

Adrammelech was also one of the gods 
adored by the inhabitants of Sepharvaim, who 
were settled in the country of Samaria, in the 
room of the Israelites, who were carried beyond 
the Euphrates. The Sepharvaites made their 
children pass through the fire in honour of this 
idol, and another, called Anammelech, 2 Kings 
xvii, 31. The Rabbins say, that Adranrunelech 
was represented under the form of a mule ; but 
there is much more reason to believe that 
Adrammelech meant the sun, and Anammelech 
the moon; the first signifying the magnificent 
king, the second the gentle king, — ^many east- 
ern nations adoring the moon as a god, not as 
a goddess. 

ADRAMYTTIUM, a city on the west coast 
of Mysia, in Lesser Asia, over against the isle 
of Lesbos. It was in a ship belonging to this 
place, that St. Paul sailed from Cesarea to pro- 
ceed to Rome as a prisoner. Acts xxvii, 2. It 
is now called Edremit. 

ADRIA. This name, which occurs in Acts 
xxvii, 27, is now confined to the gulf lying 
between Italy on the one side, and the coasts 
of Dalmatia and Albania on the other. But in 
St. Paul's time it was extended to all that por- 
tion of the Mediterranean between Crete and 
Sicily. Thus Ptolemy says that Sicily was 
bounded on the east by the Adriatic, and Crete 
in a similar manner on the west ; and Strabo 
says that the Ionian Gulf was a part of what, 
in his time, was called the Adriatic Sea. 

ADULLAM, a city in the tribe of Judah, to 
the west of Hebron, whose king was slain by 
Joshua, Josh, xii, 15. It is frequently men- 
tioned in the history of Saul and David ; and 
is chiefly memorable from the cave in its neigh- 
bourhood, where David retired from Achish, 
king of Gath, when he was joined by the dis- 
tressed and discontented, to the number of four 
hundred, over whom he became captain, 1 Sam. 
xxii, 1. Judas Maccabeus encamped in the 
plain of Adtillam, where he passed the Sabbath 
day, 2 Mac. xii, 38. Eusebius says that, in his 
time, Adullam was a very great town, ten miles 
to the east of Eleutheropolis. 



ADU 



27 



ADU 



ADULTERY, the violation of the marriage 
bed. The law of Moses punished with death 
both the man and the woman who were guilty 
of this crime, Lev. xx, 10. If a woman was 
betrothed to a man, and was guilty of this in- 
famous crime before the marriage was com- 
pleted, she was, in this case, along with her 
paramour, to be stoned, Deut. xxii, 22-24. 

When any man among the Jews, prompted 
fey jealousy, suspected his wife of the crime of 
adultery, he brought her first before the judges, 
and informed them that, in consequence of his 
suspicions, he had privately o,dmonished her, 
but that she was regardless of his admonitions. 
If before the judges she asserted her innocency, 
he i-equired that she should drink the loaters of 
jealousy, that God might by these means dis- 
cover what she attempted to conceal. Num. v, 
12, &:.c. The man then produced his witnesses, 
and they were heard. After this, both the man 
and the woman were conveyed to Jerusalem, 
and placed before the sanhedrim ; the judges of 
which, by threats and other means, endea- 
voured to confound the woman, and make her 
confess. If she persisted in denying the fact, 
she was led to the eastern gate of the court of 
Israel, stripped of her own clothes, and dressed 
in black, before great numbers of her own sex. 
The priest then told her, that if she was really 
innocent, she had nothing to fear ; but if guilty, 
she might expect to suffer all that the law had 
denounced against her, to which she answered, 
"Amen, amen." The priest then wrote the 
terms of the law in this form : — " If a strange 
man hath not come near you, and you are 
not polluted by forsaking the bed of your hus- 
band, these bitter waters, which I have cursed, 
will not hurt you : but if you have polluted 
yourself by coming near to another man, and 
gone astray from your husband, — may you be 
accursed of the Lord, and become an example 
for all his people ; may your thigh rot, and your 
belly swell till it burst ; may tli^se cursed wa- 
ters enter into your belly, and being swelled 
therewith, may your thighs putrefy." 

Afler this, the priest filled a pitcher out of 
the brazen vessel, near the altar of burnt offer- 
ings, cast some dust of the pavement into it, 
mingled something with it as bitter as worm- 
wood, and then read the curses, and received 
her answer of Amen. Another priest, in the 
meantime, tore off her clothes as low as her 
bosom — ^made her head bare^— untied the tresses 
of her hair — fastened her clothes, which were 
thus torn, with a girdle under her breasts, and 
then presented her with the tenth part of an 
ephah, or about three pints, of barley meal. 
The other priest then gave her the waters of 
jealousy^ or bitterness, to drink ; and as soon 
as the woman had swallowed them, he gave 
her the meal in a vessel like a frying-pan into 
her hand. This was stirred before the Lord, 
and part of it thrown into the fire of the altar. 
If the wife was innocent, she returned with 
her husband, and the waters, so fa^ from injur- 
ing her, increased her health, and made her 
more fruitful ; but if she was guilty, she grew 
pale immediately, her eyes swelled ; and, lest 
she should pollute the temple, she was instantly 



carried out, with these symptoms upon her, and 
died instantly, with all the ignominious circum- 
stances related in the curses. 

On this law of Moses, Michaelis has the fol- 
lowing remarks : — 

"This oath was, perhaps, a relic of some 
more severe and barbarous consuetudinary 
laws, whose rigours Moses mitigated ; as he 
did in many other cases, where an established 
usage could not be conveniently abolished alto- 
gether. Among ourselves, in barbarous times, 
the ordeal, or trial by fire, was, notwithstand- 
ing the parity of our married people, in com- 
mon use ; and this, in point of equity, was 
much the same in effect, as if the husband had 
had the right to insist on his wife submitting 
to the hazardous trial of her purity, by drink- 
ing a poisoned potion ; which, according to an 
ancient superstition, could never hurt her if 
she was innocent. And, in fact, such a right 
is not altogether unexampled ; for, according 
to Oldendorp's History of the Mission of the 
Evangelical Brethren, in the Caribbee Islands, 
it is actually in use among some of the savage 
nations in the interior parts of Western Africa. 

" Now, when in place of a poisoned potion 
like this, which very few husbands can be very 
willing to have administered to their wives, we 
see, as among the Hebrews, an imprecation- 
drink, whose avenger God himself promises to 
become, we cannot but be struck with the con- 
trast of wisdom and clemency which such a 
contrivance manifests. In the one case, (and 
herein consists their great distinction,) inno- 
cence can only be preserved by a miracle ; 
while, on the other, guilt only is revealed and 
punished by the hand of God himself. 

"By one of the clauses of the oath of pur- 
gation, (and had not the legislator been perfect- 
ly assured of his divine mission, the insertion 
of any such clause would have been a very bold 
step indeed,) a visible and corporeal punish- 
ment was specified, which the person swearing 
imprecated on herself, and which God himself 
was understood as engaging to execute. To 
have given so accurate a definition of the pun- 
ishment that God meant to inflict, and still 
more one that consisted of such a rare disease, 
would have been a step of incomprehensible 
boldness in a legislator who pretended to have 
a divine mission, if he was not, with the most 
assured conviction, conscious of its reality. 

" Seldom, however, very seldom, was it likely 
that Providence would have an opportunity of 
inflicting the punishment in question. For the 
oath was so regulated, that a woman of the 
utmost effrontery could scarcely have taken it 
without changing colour to such a degree as to 
betray herself. 

" In the first place, it was not administered 
to the woman in her own house, but she was 
under the necessity of going to that place of 
the land where God in a special manner had 
his abode, and took it there. Now, the solem- 
nity of the place, unfamiliarized to her by daily 
business or resort, would have a great effect 
upon her mind. In the next place, there was 
offered unto God what was termed an execra- 
tion offering, not in order to propitiate his 



ADU 



MRA 



mercy, but to invoke his vengeance ,on the 
guilty. Here the process was extremely slow, 
which gave her more time for reflection than 
to a guilty person could be acceptable, and that, 
too, amidst a multitude of unusual ceremonies. 
For the priest conducted her to the front of the 
sanctuary, and took holy water, that is, water 
out of the priests' laver, which stood before it, 
together with some earth oiF its floor, which 
was likewise deemed holy ; and having put the 
earth in the water, he then proceeded to un- 
cover the woman's head, that her face might 
be seen, and every change on her countenance 
during the adnunistration of the oath accurately 
observed : and this was a circumstance which, 
in the east, where the women are alvv'ays veiled, 
must have had a great effect ; because a woman, 
accustomed to wear a veil, could, on so extra- 
ordinary an occasion, have had far less com- 
mand of her eyes and her countenance than a 
European adulteress, who is generally a perfect 
mistress in all the arts of dissimulation, would 
display. To render the scene still more awflil, 
the tresses of her hair were loosened, and then 
the execration offering was put into her hand, 
while the priest held in his the imprecation 
water. This is commonly termed the bitter 
toater; but we must not understand this as if 
the water liad really been bitter ; for how could 
it have been so ? The earth of the floor of the 
tabernacle could not make it bitter. Among 
the Hebrews, and other oriental nations, the 
word hitter was rather used for curse : and, 
strictly speaking, the phrase does not mean 
bitter toater, but the ivater of bitternesses, that is, 
of curses. The priest now pronomiced the oath, 
which was in all points so framed that it could 
excite no terrors in the breast of an innocent 
woman ; for it expressly consisted in this, that 
the imprecation water should not harm her if 
she was innocent. It would seem as if the 
priest here made a stop, and again left the wo- 
man some time to consider whether she would 
proceed with the oath. This I infer from the 
circumstance of his speech not being directly 
continued in vei"se 21st, which is rather the 
apodosis of what goes before ; and from the 
detail proceeding anew in the words of the his- 
torian. Then shall the priest pronounce the rest 
of the oath and the curses to the woman; and 
proceed thus. — After this stop he pronounced 
the curses, and the woman was obliged to de- 
clare her acquiescence in them by a repeated 
Amen. Nor was the solemn scene yet altoge- 
ther at an end ; but rather, as it were com- 
menced anew. For the priest had yet to write 
the curses in a book, which I suppose he did 
at great deliberation ; having done so, he 
washed them out again in the very impreca- 
tion water, which the woman had now to 
drink ; and this water being now presented to 
her, she was obliged to drink it, with this warn- 
ing and assurance, in the name of God, that if 
she was guilty, it would prove within her an 
absolute curse. Now, what must liave been 
her feelings, while drinking, if not conscious 
of purity ? In my opinion she must have con- 
ceived that she already felt an alteration in the 
state of her body, and the germ, as it were, of 



the disease springing within her. Conscience 
and imagination would conspire together, and 
render it almost impossible for her to drink it 
out. Finally, the execration offering was taken 
out of her hand, and burnt upon the altar. I 
cannot but think that, under the sanction of 
such a purgatorium, perjury must have been a 
very rare occurrence indeed. If it happened 
but once in an age, God had bound himself to 
punish it ; and if this took place but once, (if 
but one woman who had taken the oath was 
attacked with that rare disease which it threat- 
ened,) it was quite enough to serve as a deter- 
ment to all others for at least one generation." 

This procedure had also the effect of keep- 
ing in mind, among the Jews, God's high dis- 
pleasure against this violation of his law ; and 
though some lax moralists have been found, in 
modern times, to palliate it, yet the Christian 
will always remember the solemn denuncia- 
tions of the New Testament against a crime 
so aggravated, whether considered in its effects 
upon the domestic relations, upon the moral 
character of the guilty parties, or upon society 
at large, — "Whoremongers and adulterers God 
will judge." 

Adultery, in the prophetic scriptures, is often 
metaphorically taken, and signifies idolatry, 
and apostasy from God, by which men basely 
defile themselves, and wickedly violate their 
ecclesiastical and covenant relation to God, 
Ho^. ii, 2 ; Ezek. xvi. 

ADVOCATE, UapdK\r]TOi, a patron, one who 
pleads the cause of any one before another. In 
this sense the term is applied to Christ our in- 
tercessor, 1 John ii, 1. It signifies also a com- 
forter, and an instructer ; and is used of the 
Holy Spirit, John xiv, 16, and xv, 26. 

ADYTUM is a Greek word, signifying inac 
cessible, by which is understood the most retir 
ed and secret place of the Heathen temples, into 
which none but the priests were allowed to 
enter. The adytum of the Greeks and Romans 
answered to the sanctum sanctorum of the Jews, 
and was the place from whence oracles were 
delivered. 

jERA, a series of years, commencing from a 
certain point of time called an epocha : thus we 
say, the Christian sera ; that is, the munber of 
years elapsed since the birth of Christ. The 
generality of authors use the terms sera and 
epocha in a synonymous sense; that is, for 
the point of time from which any computation 
begins. 

The ancient Jews made use of several eeras 
in their computation ; sometimes they reckon- 
ed from the deluge, sometimes from the division 
of tongues ; sometimes from their departure out 
of Egypt ; and at other times from the building 
of the temple ; and sometimes from the restora- 
tion after the Babylonish captivity : but their 
vulgar sera was from the creation of the world, 
which falls in with the year of the Julian 
period 953 ; and consequently they supposed the 
world created 294 years sooner than according 
to our computation. But when the Jews be- 
came subject to the Syro-Macedonian kings, 
they were obliged to make use of the sera of 
1 the Seleucidse in all their contracts^which from 



AFF 



29 



AGA 



thence was called the aera of contracts. This 
eera begins with the year of the world 3692, of 
the Julian period 4402, and before Christ 312. 
The sera in general use among the Christians 
is that from the birth of Jesus Christ, concerning 
the true time of which chronologers differ ; some 
place it two years, others four, and again others 
five, before the vulgar aera, which is fixed for the 
year of the world 4004 ; but Archbishop Usher, 
and afler him the generality of modern chrono- 
logers, place it in the year of the world 4000. 

The ancient Heathens used several aaras : 
1. The aera of the first olympiad is placed in 
the year of the world 3228, and before the vul- 
gar eera of Jesus Christ 776. 2. The taking of 
Troy by the Greeks, in the year of the world 
2820, and before Jesus Christ 1884. 3. The 
voyage midertaken for the purpose of bringing 
away the golden fleece, in tlae year of the world 
2760. 4. The foundation of Rome, in 2856. 
5. The eera of Nabonassar, in 3257. 6. The aera 
of Alexander the Great, or his last victory over 
Darius, in 3674, and before Jesus Christ 330. 

AERIANS, a sect which arose about the mid- 
dle of the fourth century, being the followers of 
Aerius, (who must be distinguished from Arius 
and Aetius,) a monk and a presbyter of Sebas- 
tia, in Pontus. He is charged with being an 
Arian, or Semi-Arian ; but the heaviest accusa- 
tion against him is an attempt to reform the 
church ; and, by rejecting prayers for the dead, 
with certain fasts and festivals then supersti- 
tiously observed, to reduce Christianity as near- 
ly as possible " to its primitive simplicity ; a 
purpose, indeed, laudable a.nd noble," says Dr. 
Mosheim, " when considered in itself: tlxough 
the principles from whence it springs, and the 
means hy which it is executed, are sometimes, 
in many respects, worthy of censure, and may 
have been so in the case of this reformer." 
This gentle rebuke probably refers to a report 
that the zeal of Aerius originatcid in his being 
disappointed of the bishopric of Sebastia, (con- 
ferred on Eustathius,) which led him to affirm 
that the Scriptures make no distinction between 
a presbyter and a bishop, which he founded 
chiefly on 1 Tim. iv, 14. Hence he is consider- 
ed by many, as the father of the modern Pres- 
byterians. — " For this opinion, chiefly" says Dr. 
Turner, "he is ranked among the heretics, by 
Epiphanius, his contemporary, who calls it a 
notion full of folly and madjiess. His followers 
were driven from the churches, and out of all 
the towns and villages, and were obliged to as- 
semble in the woods, caverns, and open defiles." 

AETIANS, another branch (as it is said) of 
Arians, so called from Aetius, bishop of An- 
tioch, who is also charged with maintaining 
*' faith without works," as " sufficient to salva- 
tion," or rather justification ; and with maintain- 
ing "that sin is not imputed to believers." It 
is added, that he taught God had revealed to 
him things which he had " concealed from the 
Apostles ;" which, perhaps, is only a misrepre- 
sentation of what he taught on the doctrine of 
divine influences, 

AFFINITY. There are several degrees of 
affinity, wherein marriage was prohibited by 



his mother, nor his father's wife, Lev, xviii, 7, 
&c. The brother could not marry his sister, 
whether she were so by the father only, or only 
by the mother, and nmch less if she were his 
sister both by the same father and mother. The 
grandfather could not marry his granddaughter, 
either by his son or daughter. No one could 
marry the daughter of his father's wife ; nor 
the sister of his father or mother; nor the uncle, 
his niece ; nor the aunt, her nephew,* nor the 
nephew^, the wife of his uncle by the father^s 
side. The father-in-law could not marry his 
daughter-in-law ; nor the brother the wife of his 
brother, while living ; nor even after the death 
of his brother, if he left children. If he left no 
children, the surviving brother was to raise up 
children to his deceased brother by marrying his 
widow. It was forbidden to marry the mother 
and the daughter at one time, or the daughter 
of the mother's son, or the daiighter of her 
daughter, or two sisters, together. 

It is true the patriarchs, before the law% mar- 
ried their sisters, as Abraham married Sarah, 
who w^as his father's daughter by another mo- 
ther; and two sisters together, as Jacob rnar- 
ried Rachel and Leah; and their own sisters, 
both by father and mother, as Seth and Cain. 
But these cases are not to be proposed as ex- 
amples ; because in some they were authorized 
by necessity ; in others, by custom ; and the law 
as yet was not in being. If some other examples 
may be found, either before or since the law, 
the Scripture expressly disapproves of them ; as 
Reuben's incest with Balah, his father's concu- 
bine ; and the action of Amnon with his sister 
Tamar ; and that of Herod Antipas, who mar- 
ried Herodias, his sister-in-law, his brother 
Philip's wife, while her husband was yet living ; 
and that which St. Paul reproves and punishes 
among the Corinthians, 1 Cor. v, 1. 

AGABUS, a prophet, and as the Greeks say, 
one of the seventy disciples of our Saviour. He 
foretold that there would be a great famine over 
all the earth ; which came to pass accordingly, 
under the emperor Claudius, in the fourth year 
of his reign, A. D. 44, Acts xi, 28, 

Ten years after this, as St. Paul was going 
to Jerusalem, and had already landed at Caesa- 
rea, in Palestine, the same prophet, Agabus, 
arrived there, and coming to visit St. Paul and 
his company, he took this Apostle's girdle, and 
binding himself hand and feet, he said, " Thus 
saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at 
Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this gir- 
dle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the 
Gentiles," Acts xxi, 10. We know no othcF 
particulars of the life of Agabus. Tlie Greeks 
say that he suffered martyrdom at Antioch. 

AGAG. This seems to have been a commore 
name of the princes of Amalek, one of whom 
was very powerful as early as the time of Moses, 
Num. xxiv, 7. On account of the cruelties ex- 
ercised by this king and his army against the 
Israelites, as they returned from Egypt, a bloody 
and long contested battle took place between 
Joshua and the Amalekites, in which the former 
was victorious, Exod. xvii, 8-13. At the same 
time, God protested with an oath to destroy 



the law of Moses : thus the son could not marry | Amalek, verses 14-1 6 ; Deut. xxv, 17-19, A. M 



AGE 



30 



AGR 



2513. About four hundred years after this, the 
Lord remembered the cruel treatment of his 
people, and his own oath ; and he commanded 
Saul, by the mouth of Samuel, to destroy the 
Amalekites. Saul mustered his army, and 
found it two hundred thousand strong, 1 Sam. 
XV, 1, &c. Having entered into their country, 
he cut in pieces all he could meet with from 
Havilah to Shur. Agag their king, and the 
best of their cattle, were however spared, an act 
of disobedience on the part of Saul, probably 
dictated by covetousness. But Agag did not 
long enjoy this reprieve ; for Samuel no sooner 
heard that he was alive, than he sent for 
him; and notwithstanding his insinuating ad- 
dress, and the vain hopes with which he flat- 
tered himself that the bitterness of death was 
past, he caused him to be hewed to pieces in 
Gilgal before the Lord, saying, "As, ntyN^, in 
the same identical mode as, thy sword hath made 
women childless, so shall thy mother be child- 
less among women." This savage chieftain had 
hewed many prisoners to death ; and, therefore, 
by command of the Judge of the whole earth, 
he was visited with the same punishment which 
he had inflicted upon others. 

AGAPiE. See Love Feast. 

AGAR, mount Sinai, so called, Gal. iv, 24, 
25. But this reading is doubtful, many MSS. 
having the verse, "for this Sinai is a mountain 
of Arabia." Some critics however contend for 
the reading of the received text, and urge that 
Agar, which signifies " a rocky mountain," is 
the Arabic name for Sinai. 

AGATE, Uiy, Exod. xxviii, 19 ; xxxix, 12. 
In the Septuagint axdrm, and Vulgate, achates. 
A precious stone, semi-pellucid. Its variega- 
tions are sometimes most beautifully disposed, 
representing plants, trees, rivers, clouds, &c. 
Its Hebrew name is, perhaps, derived from the 
country whence the Jews imported it ; for the 
merchants of Sheba brought to the market of 
Tyre all kinds of precious stones, Ezek. xxvii, 
22. The agate was the second stone in the 
third row of the pectoral of the high priest, 
Exod. xxviii, 19, and xxxix, 12. 

AGE, in the most general sense of the term, 
denotes the duration of any substance, animate 
or^inanimate ; and is applied either to the whole 
period of its existence, or to that portion of it 
which precedes the time to which the description 
of it refers. In this sense itisused to signify either 
the whole natural duration of the life of man, 
or any interval of it that has elapsed before the 
period of which we speak. When age is under- 
stood of a ce.'-tain portion of the life of man, its 
whole duration is divided into four different 
ages, viz. infancy, youth, manhood, and old 
age : the first extending to the fourteenth year ; 
the second, denominated youth, adolescence, 
or the age of puberty, commencing at fourteen, 
and terminating at about twenty-five ; manhood, 
or the virile age, concluding at fifty ; and the 
last ending at the close of life. Some divide 
the first period into infancy and childhood ; and 
the last likewise into two stages, calling that 
which succeeds the age of seventy-five, decrepit 
old age. Age is applicable to the duration of 
things inanimate or factitious ; and in this use 



of the term we speak of the age of a house, of 
a country, of a state or kingdom, &c. 

Age, in chronology, is used for a century, or 
a period of one hundred years : in which sense 
it is the same with seculum, and differs from 
generation. It is also used in speaking of the 
times past since the creation of the world. 
The several ages of the world may be reduced 
to three grand epochas, viz. the age of the. law 
of nature, called by the Jews the void age, 
from Adam to Moses. The age of the Jewish 
law, from Moses to Christ, called by the Jews 
the present age. And the age of grace, from 
Christ to the present year. The Jew^s call the 
third age, the age to come, or the fiiture age ; 
denoting by it the time from the advent of the 
Messiah to the end of the world. The Romans 
distinguished the time that preceded them into 
three ages : the obscure or uncertain age, which 
reached down as low as Ogyges king of Attica, 
in whose reign the deluge happened in Greece ; 
the fabulous or heroic age, which ended at the 
first olympiad; and the historical age, which 
commenced at the building of Rome. Among 
the poets, the four ages of the world are, the 
golden, the silver, the brazen, and the iron age. 

Age is sometimes used among the ancient 
poets in the same sense SlS generation, or a period 
of thirty years. Thus Nestor is said to have 
lived three ages, when he was ninety years old. 

The period preceding the birth of Jesus 
Christ has been generally divided into six 
ages. The first extends from the creation to 
the deluge, and comprehends 1656 years. The 
second age, from the deluge to Abraham's en- 
tering the land of promise, A. M. 2082, com- 
prehends 426 years. The third age from Abra- 
ham's entrance into the promised land to the 
Exodus, A. M. 2512, includes 430 years. The 
fourth age, from the Exodus to the building of 
the temple by Solomon, A. M. 2992, contains 
480 years. The fifth age from the foundation of 
Solomon's temple to the Babylonish captivity, 
A. M. 3416, comprehends 424 years. The sixth 
age, fi-om the Babylonish captivity to the birth 
of Jesus Christ, A. M. 4000, the fourth year be- 
fore the vulgar aera, includes 584 years. Those 
who follow the Septuagint, or Greek version, 
divide this period into seven ages, viz. 1. From 
the creation to the deluge, 2262 years. 2. From 
the deluge to the conftision of tongues, 738 
years. 3. From this confiision to the calling 
of Abraham, 460 years. 4. From this period 
to Jacob's descent into Egypt, 215 years ; and 
from this event to the Exodus, 430 years, 
making the whole 645 years. 5. From the Exo- 
dus to Saul, 774 years. 6. From Saul to Cyrus, 
583 years. 7. From Cyrus to the vulgar aera 
of Christians, 538 years ; the whole period from 
the creation to this period containing 6000 
years. 

AGRIPPA, surnamed Herod, the son of 
Aristobulus and Mariamne, and grandson of 
Herod the Great, was born A. M. 3997, three 
years before the birth of our Saviour, and seven 
years before the vulgar sera. After the death 
of his father Aristobulus, Josephus informs us 
that Herod, his grandfather, took care of his 
education, and sent him to Rome to make his 



AGR 



31 



AGU 



court to Tiberius. Agrippa, having a great in- 
clination for Caius, the son of Gcrraanicus, and 
grandson of Antonia, chose to attach himself 
to this prince, as if he had some prophetic 
views of the future elevation of Caius, who at 
that time was beloved by all the world. The 
great assiduity and agreeable behaviom* of 
Agrippa so far won upon this prince, that he 
was unable to live without him. Agrippa, 
being one day in conversation with Caius, was 
overheard by one Eutychus, a slave whom 
Agrippa had emancipated, to say that he should 
be glad to see the old emperor take his depar- 
ture for the other world and leave Caius master 
of this, without meeting with any obstacle from 
the emperor's grandson, Tiberius Nero. Euty- 
chus, some time after this, thinking he had 
reason to be dissatisfied with Agrippa, com- 
municated the conversation to the emperor ; 
whereupon Agrippa was loaded with fetters, 
and committed to the custody of an officer. 
Soon after this, Tiberius dying, and Caius 
Caligula succeeding him, the new emperor 
heaped many favours and much wealth upon 
Agrippa, changed his iron fetters into a chain 
of gold, set a royal diadem on his head, and 
gave him the tetrarchy which Philip, the son of 
Herod the Great, had been possessed of, that 
is, Batanaea and Trachonitis. To this he added 
that of Lysanias ; and Agrippa returned very 
soon into Judea, to take possession of his new 
kingdom. The emperor Caius, desiring to be 
adored as a god, commanded to have his statue 
set up in the temple of Jerusalem. But the 
Jews opposed this design with so much resolu- 
tion, that Petronius was forced to suspend his 
proceedings in this affair, and to represent, in 
a letter to the emperor, the resistance he met 
with from the Jews. Agrippa, who was then 
at Rome, coming to the emperor at the very 
time he was reading the letter, Caius told him 
that the Jews were the only people of all man- 
kind who refiised to own him for a deity ; and 
that they had taken arms to oppose his resolu- 
tion. At these words Agrippa fainted away, 
and, being carried home to his house, continued 
in that state for a long time. As soon as he 
was somewhat recovered, he wrote a long let- 
ter to Caius, wherein he endeavoured to soften 
him ; and his arguments made such an impres- 
sion upon the emperor's mind, that he desisted, 
in appearance, from the design which he had 
formed of setting up his statue in the temple. 
Caius being killed in the beginning of the fol- 
lowing year, A. D. 41, Agrippa, who was then at 
Rome, contributed much by his advice to main- 
tain Claudius in possession of the imperial digni- 
ty, to which he had been advanced by the army. 
The emperor, as an acknowledgment for his 
kind offices, gave him all Judea, and the king- 
dom of Chalcis, which had been possessed by 
Herod his brother. Thus Agrippa became of 
a sudden one of the greatest princes of the 
east, and was possessed of as much, if not more 
territory, than had been held by Herod the 
Great, his grandfather. He returned to Judea, 
and governed it to the great satisfaction of the 
Jews. But the desire of pleasing them, and a 
mistaken zeal for their religion, induced him 



to put to death the Apostle James, and to cast 
Peter into prison with the same design ; and, 
but for a miraculous interposition, which, how- 
ever, produced no effect upon the mind of the 
tyrant, his hands would have been imbrued in 
the blood of two Apostles, the memory whereof 
is preserved in Scripture. At Ceesarea, he had 
games performed in honour of Claudius. Here 
the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon waited on 
him to sue for peace. Agrippa being come 
early in the morning into the theatre, with a 
design to give them audience, seated himself 
on his throne, dressed in a robe of silver tissue, 
worked in the most admirable manner. The 
rising sun darted his golden beams thereon, 
and gave it such a lustre as dazzled the eyes of 
the spectators; and when the king began his 
speech to the Tyrians and Sidonians, the para- 
sites around him began to say, it was "the 
voice of a god and not of man." Instead of 
rejecting these impious flatteries, Agrippa re- 
ceived them with an air of complacency ; and 
the angel of the Lord smote him because he 
did not give God the glory. Being therefore 
carried home to his palace, he died, at the end 
of five days, racked with tormenting pains in 
his bowels, and devoured with worms. Such 
was the death of Herod Agrippa, A. D. 44, 
after a reign of seven years. He left a son of 
the same name, and three daughters — Bernice, 
who was married to her uncle Herod, her 
father's brother ; Mariamne, betrothed to Julius 
Archelaus; and Drusilla, promised to Epi- 
phanius, the son of Archelaus, the son of 
Comagena. 

AGRIPPA, son of the former Agrippa, was 
at Rome with the emperor Claudius when his 
father died. The eniperor, we are told by 
Josephus, was inclined to give him all the do- 
minions that had been possessed by his father, 
but was dissuaded from it, Agrippa being only 
seventeen years of age ; and he kept him there- 
fore at his court four years. 

Three years after this, Herod, king of Chal- 
cis, and uncle to young Agrippa, dying, the 
emperor gave his dominions to this prince, 
who, notwithstanding, did not go into Judea 
till four years after, A. D. 53 ; when, Claudius 
taking from him the kingdom of Chalcis, gave 
him the provinces of Gaulonitis, Trachonitis, 
Batanaea, Paneas, and Abylene, which formerly 
had been in the possession of Lysanias. After 
the death of Claudius, his successor, Nero, who 
had a great affection for Agrippa, to his other 
dominions added Julias in Persea, and that part 
of Galilee to which Tarichsea and Tiberias be- 
longed. Festus governor of Judea, coming to 
his government, A. D. 60, king Agrippa and 
Bernice, his sister, went as far as Csesarea to 
salute him ; and as they continued there for 
some time, Festus talked with the king con- 
cerning the affair of St. Paul, who had been 
seized in the temple about two years before, and 
within a few days previous to his visit had ap- 
pealed to the emperor. Agrippa wishing to hear 
Paul, that Apostle delivered that noble address 
in his presence which is recorded. Acts xxvi. 

AGUR. The thirtieth chapter of Proverbs 
begins with this title: "The words of Agur, 



AGU 



32 



AGU 



the son of Jakeh ;" and the thirty-first, with 
"the words of king Lemuel;" with respect to 
which some conjecture that Solomon describes 
himself under these appellations ; others, that 
these chapters are the productions of persons 
whose real names are prefixed. Scripture his- 
tory, indeed, afibrds us no information respect, 
ing their situation and character; but there 
must have been sufficient reason for regarding 
their works in the light of inspired productions, 
or they would not have been admitted into the 
sacred canon. 

They are called Massa, a term frequently 
applied to the undoubted productions of the 
prophetic Spirit ; and it is not improbable that 
the authors meant, by the adoption of this term, 
to lay claim to the character of inspiration. A 
succession of virtuous and eminent men, fa- 
voured with divine illuminations, flourished in 
Judea till the final completion of the sacred 
code ; and, most likely, many more than those 
whose writings have been preserved. Agur 
may then have been one of those prophets 
whom Divine providence raised up to comfort 
or admonish his chosen people ; and Lemuel 
may have been some neighbouring prince, the 
son of a Jewish woman, by whom he was 
taught the Massa contained in the thirty-first 
chapter. These, of course, can only be con- 
sidered as mere conjectures ; for, in the absence 
of historic evidence, who can venture to pro- 
nounce with certainty ? The opinion, however, 
that Agur and Lemuel are appellations of So- 
lomon, is sanctioned by so many and such 
respectable writers, that it demands a more 
particular examination. 

The knowledge of names was anciently re- 
garded as a matter of the highest importance, 
in order to understand the nature of the per- 
sons or things which they designate; and, in 
the opinion of the rabbins, was preferable even 
to the study of the written law. The Heathens 
paid considerable attention to it, as appears 
from the Cratylus of Plato ; and some of the 
Christian fathers entertained very favourable 
notions of such knowledge. The Jewish 
doctors, it is true, refined upon the subject with 
an amazing degree of subtilty, grounding upon 
it many ridiculous ideas and absurd fancies ; 
yet it is unquestionable that many of the proper 
names in Scripture are significant and charac- 
teristic. Thus the names Eve, Cain, Seth, 
Noah, Abraham, Israel, &c, were imposed by 
reason of their being expressive of the several 
characters of the persons whom they represent. 
Reasoning from analogy, we may infer that all 
the proper names in the Old Testament, at 
their original imposition, were intended to de- 
note some quality or circumstance in the per- 
son or thing to which they belong ; and though 
many, from transference, have ceased to be 
personally characteristic, yet are they all sig- 
nificative. 

As the custom of imposing descriptive 
names prevailed in the primitive ages, it is not 
impossible that Agur and Lemuel may be ap- 
propriated to Solomon, and Jakeh to David as 
mystic appellations significative of their respec 
tive characters. It is even some confirmation 



of tixis opinion, that Solomon is denominated 
Jedidiah (beloved of the Lord) by the Prophet 
Nathan ; and that in the book of Ecclesiastes, 
he styles himself Koheleth, or the Preacher. 
Nevertheless, this hypothesis does not appear 
to rest upon a firm foundation. It is foreign to 
the simplicity of the sacred penmen, and con- 
trary to their custom in similar cases, to adopt 
a mystic name, without either explaining it, or 
alleging the reasons for its adoption. In the 
names Ea^c, Cain, Seth, Noah, «fcc, before allud- 
ed to ; in the appellation Nabal ; in the enigma- 
tical names in the first chapter of Hosea ; in 
the descriptive names given to places, as Beer- 
sheba, Jehovah-jireh, Peniel, Bethel, Gilgal; 
and in many other instances, the meaning of 
the terms is either explained, or the circum- 
stances are mentioned which led to their selec- 
tion. When Solomon is called Jedidiah, it is 
added that it was " because of the Lord ;" and 
when he styles himself Koheleth, an explana- 
tory clause is annexed, describing himself "the 
son of David, the king of Jerusalem." But if 
Solomon be meant by the titles Agur and Lem- 
uel, he is so called without any statement of the 
reasons for their application, and without any 
explanation of their import ; a circumstance un- 
usual with the sacred writers, and the reverse to 
what is practised in the book of Proverbs, where 
his proper name, Solomon, is attributed to him 
in three diffierent places. Nor is anything cha- 
racteristic of the Jewish monarchs discoverable 
in the terms themselves. Jakeh, which denotes 
obedient, is no more applicable to David than 
to Nathan, or any other personage of eminent 
worth and piety among the Israelites. The 
name of Agur is not of easy explanation ; some 
giving it the sense of recollectus, that is, reco- 
vered from his errors, and become penitent ; an 
explanation more applicable to David than to 
Solomon. Simon, in his lexicon, says it may 
perhaps denote " him who applies to the study 
of wisdom ;" an interpretation very suitable to 
the royal philosopher, but not supported by 
adequate authority; and in his Onomasticon 
he explains it in a different manner. Others 
suppose that it means collector ; though it has 
been argued, that, as it has a passive form, it 
cannot have an active sense. But this is not 
a valid objection, as several examples may be 
produced from the Bible of a similar form with 
an active signification. If such be its mean- 
ing, it is suitable to Solomon, who was not the 
collector or compiler, but the author, of the 
Proverbs. With respect to the name Lemuel, it 
signifies one that is for God, or devoted to God ; 
and is not, therefore, peculiarly descriptive of 
Solomon. It appears, then, that nothing can 
be inferred from the signification of the names 
Agur and Lemuel in support of the conjecture, 
that they are appellations of Solomon. The 
contents, likewise, of the two chapters in 
question strongly militate against this hypo- 
thesis. 

When all these circumstances are taken into 
consideration, together with the extreme impro- 
bability that Solomon should be denominated 
three times by his proper name, and aflerward, 
in the same work, by two different enigmatical 



AHA 



33 



AHA 



names, we are fully warranted in rejecting the 
notion, that the wise monarch is designed by 
the appellations Agur and Lemuel. And it 
seems most reasonable to consider them as 
denoting real persons. 

AHAB, the son and successor of Omri. He 
began his reign over Israel, A. M. 3086, and 
reigned 22 years. In impiety he far exceeded 
all the kings of Israel. He married Jezebel, 
the daughter of Ethbaal, king of Zidon, who 
introduced the whole abominations and idols 
of her country, Baal and Ashtaroth. 

2. Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and Zedekiah the 
son of Maaseiah, were two false prophets, who, 
about A. M. 3406, seduced the Jewish captives 
at Babylon with hopes of a speedy deliverance, 
and stirred them up against Jereaniah. The 
Lord threatened them with a public and igno- 
minious death, before such as they had deceiv- 
ed; and that their names should become a 
curse ; men wishing that their foes might be 
made like Ahab and Zedekiah, whom Nebu- 
chadnezzar king of Babylon roasted in the fire, 
Jer. xxix, 21, 22. 

AHASUERUS was the king of Persia, who 
advanced Esther to be queen, and at her request 
delivered the Jews from the destruction plotted 
for them by Haman. Archbishop Usher is of 
opinion that this Ahasuerus was Darius Hy- 
staspes ; and that Atossa was the Vashti, and 
Artystona the Esther, of the Scriptures. But, 
according to Herodotus, the latter was the 
daughter of Cyrus, and therefore could not be 
Esther; and the former had four sons by Da- 
rius, besides daughters, born to him after he 
was king ; and therefore she could not be the 
queen Vashti, divorced from her husband in 
the third year of his reign, nor he the Ahasue- 
rus who divorced her. Besides, Atossa retained 
her influence over Darius to his death, and 
obtained the succession of the crown for his 
son, Xerxes ; whereas Vashti was removed from 
the presence of Ahasuerus by an irrevocable 
decree, Esther i, 19. Joseph Scaliger main- 
tains that Xerxes was the Ahasuerus, and Ha- 
raestris his queen, the Esther, of Scripture. The 
opinion is founded on the similitude of names, 
but contradicted by the dissimilitude of the cha- 
racters of Hamestris and Esther. Besides, Hero- 
dotus says that Xerxes had a son by Hamestris 
that was marriageable in the seventh year of his 
reign ; and therefore she could not be Esther. 
The Ahasuerus of Scripture, according to Dr. 
Prideaux, was Artaxerxes Longimanus. Jose^ 
phus positively says that this was the person. 
The Septuagint, through the whole book of 
Esther, uses Artaxerxes for the Hebrew Aha- 
suerus wherever the appellation occurs; and 
the apocryphal additions to that book every 
where call the husband of Esther Artaxerxes ; 
and he could be no other than Artaxerxes Lon- 
gimanus. The extraordinary favour shown to 
the Jews by this king, first in sending Ezra, 
and afterward Nehemiah, to relieve this people, 
and restore them to their ancient prosperity, 
affords strong presumptive evidence that they 
had near his person and high in his regard 
such an advocate as Esther. Ahasuerus is also 
a name given in Scripture, Ezra iv, 6, to Cam- 1 
4 



byses, the son of Cyi-us ; and to Astyages, king' 
of the Modes, Dan. ix, 1. 

AHAVA. The name of a river of Babylo- 
nia, or rather of Assyria, where Ezra assembled 
those captives whom he afterward brought into 
Judea, Ezra viii, 15. The river Ahava is 
thought to be that which ran along the Ada- 
bene, where a river Diava, or Adiava, is men- 
tioned, and on which Ptolemy places the city 
Abane or Aavane. This is probably the coun- 
try called Ava, whence the kings of Assyria 
translated the people called Avites into Pales- 
tine, and where they settled some of the captive^ 
Israelites, 2 Kings xvii, 24 ; xviii, 34 ; xix, 13 ; 
xvii, 31. Ezra, intending to collect as many 
Israelites as he could, who might return to Ju- 
dea, halted in the country of Ava, or Aahava, 
whence he sent agents into the Caspian mount- 
ains, to invite such Jews as were willing to 
join him, Ezra viii, 16. The history of Izates,^ 
king of the Adiabenians, and of his mother 
Helena, who became converts to Judaism some 
years after the death of Jesus Christ, sufficiently 
proves that there were many Jews still settled 
in that country. 

AHAZ succeeded his father Jotham, as king 
of Israel, at the age of twenty years, reigned 
till the year before Christ, 726, and addicted 
himself to the practice of idolatry. After the 
customs of the Heathen, he made his children 
to pass through fire ; he shut up the temple, 
and destroyed its vessels. He became tributary 
to Tiglath-pileser, whose assistance he suppli- 
cated against the kings of Syria and Israel. 
Such was his impiety, that he was not allowed 
burial in the sepulchres of the kings of Israel, 
2 Kings xvi ; 2 Chron. xxviii. 

AHAZIAH, the son of Ahab, king of Israel. 
Ahaziah reigned two years, partly alone, and 
partly with his father Ahab, who appointed him 
his associate in the kingdom a year before his 
death. Ahaziah imitated his father's impieties, 

1 Kings xxii, 52, &c, and paid his adorations 
to Baal and Ashtaroth, the worship of whom 
had been introduced into Israel by Jezebel his 
mother. The Moabites, who had been always 
obedient to the kings of the ten tribes, ever 
since their separation from the kingdom of 
Judah, revolted after the death of Ahab, and 
refused to pay the ordinary tribute. Ahaziah 
had not leisure or power to reduce them, 2 Kings 
i, 1, 2, &c, for, about the same time, having 
fallen through a lattice from the top of his 
house, he was considerably injured, and sent 
messengers to Ekron to consult Baalzebub, the 
god of that place, whether he should recover, 

2 Kings i, 1-17. Elijah met the messengers, 
and informed them he should certainly die ; 
and he died accordingly. 

2. Ahaziah, king of Judah, the son of Jeho- 
ram and Athaliah. He succeeded his father in 
the kingdom of Judah, A. M. 3119; being in 
the twenty-second year of his age, 2 Kings 
viii, 26, &c ; and he reigned one year only in 
Jerusalem. He w^alked in the ways of Ahab's 
house, to which he was related, his mother 
being of that family. Joram, king of Israel, 
2 Kings viii, going to attack Ramoth Gilead, 
which the kings of Syria had taken from his 



AHI 



34 



AHO 



predecessors, was there dangerously wounded, 
and carried by his own appointment to Jezreel, 
for the purpose of surgical assistance. Ahaziah, 
Joram's friend and relation, accompanied him 
in this war, and came afterward to visit him at 
Jezreel. In the meantime, Jehu, the son of 
Nimshi, whom Joram had left besieging the 
fortress of Ramoth, rebelled against his master, 
and set out with a design of extirpating the 
house of Ahab, according to the commandment 
of the Lord, 2 Kings ix. Joram and Ahaziah, 
who knew nothingof his intentions, went to 
meet him. Jehu killed Joram dead upon the 
spot : Ahaziah fled, but Jehu's people overtook 
him at the going up of Gur, and mortally 
wounded him ; notwithstanding which, he had 
strength enough to reach Megiddo, where he 
died. His servants, having laid him in his 
chariot, carried him to Jerusalem, where he was 
buried with his fathers, in the city of David. 

AHIJAH, the prophet of the Lord, who 
dwelt in Shiloh. He is thought to be the per- 
son who spoke twice to Solomon from God, 
once while he was building the temple, 1 Kings 
vi, 11, at which time he promised him the 
divine protection ; and again, 1 Kings xi, 11, 
after his falling into his irregularities, with 
great threatenings and reproaches. Ahijah was 
one of those who wrote the history or annals 
of this prince, 2 Chron. ix, 29. The same 
prophet declared to Jeroboam, that he would 
usurp the kingdom, 1 Kings xi, 29, &c ; and, 
about the end of Jeroboam's reign, he also pre- 
dicted the death of Abijah, the only pious son 
of that prince, as is recorded 1 Kings xiv, 2, 
&LC. Ahijah, in all probability, did not long 
survive the delivery of this last prophecy ; but 
we are not informed of the time and manner 
of his death. 

AHIKAM, the son of Shaphan, and father 
of Gedaliah. He was sent by Josiah, king of 
Judah, to Huldah the prophetess, 2 Kings xxii, 
12, to consult her concerning the book of the 
law, which had been found in the temple. 

AHIMAAZ, the son of Zadok, the high 
priest. Ahimaaz succeeded his father under 
the reign of Solomon. He performed a very 
important piece of service for David during the 
war with Absalom. While his father Zadok 
was in Jerusalem, 2 Sam. xv, 29, Ahimaaz and 
Jonathan continued without the city, xvii, 17, 
near En-Rogcl, or the fountain of Rogel ; thi- 
ther a maid servant came to tell them the reso- 
lution which had been taken in Absalom's 
council : whereupon they immediately departed 
to give the king intelligence. But being dis- 
covered by a young lad who gave information 
concerning them to Absalom, that prince sent 
orders to pursue them : x^himaaz and Jona- 
than, fearing to be taken, retired to a man's 
house at Baharim, in whose court-yard there 
was a well, wherein they concealed themselves. 
After the battle, in which Absalom was over- 
come and slain, xviii, Ahimaaz desired leave 
of Joab to carry the news thereof to David. 
But instead of him Joab sent Cushi to carry 
the new^s, and told Ahimaaz that he would send 
him to the king upon some other occasion ; but 
soon after Cm?hi was departed, Ahimaaz ap- 



plied again to Joab, praying to be permitted to 
run after Cushi ; and, having obtained leave, 
he ran by the way of the plain, and outran 
Cushi. He was succeeded in the priesthood by 
his son Azariah. 

AHIMELECH. He was the son of Ahitub, 
and brother of Ahia, whom he succeeded in 
the high priesthood. He is called Abiathar, 
Mark ii, 26. During his priesthood the taber- 
nacle was at Nob, where Ahimelech, with 
other priests, had tlieir habitation. David, 
being informed by his friend Jonathan that 
Saul was determined to destroy him, thought 
it prudent to retire. He therefore went to Nob, 
to the high priest Ahimelech, who gave him 
the shew bread, and the sword of Goliath. One 
day, when Saul was complaining of his officers, 
that no one was affected with his misfortunes, 
or gave him any intelligence of what was car- 
rying on against him, 1 Sara, xxii, 9, &c, Doeg 
related to him what had occurred when David 
came to Ahimelech the high priest. On this 
information, Saul convened the priests, and 
having charged them with the crime of treason, 
ordered his guards to slay them, which they 
refusing to do, Doeg, who had been their ac- 
cuser, at the king's command became their 
executioner, and with his sacrilegious hand 
massacred no less than eighty-five of them ; 
the Septuagint and Sj'-riac versions make the 
number of priests slain by Doeg three hundred 
and five. Nor did Saul stop here ; but, send- 
ing a party to Nob, he commanded them to 
slay men, women, and children, ,and even cat. 
tie, with the edge of the sword. Only one son 
of Ahimelech, named Abiathar, escaped the 
carnage and fled to David. 

AHITHOPHEL, a native of Giloh, who, 
after having been David's counsellor, joined 
in the rebellion of Absalom, and assisted him- 
with his advice. Hushai, the friend of David, 
was employed to counteract the counsels of 
Ahithophel, and to deprive Absalom, under a 
pretence of serving him, of the advantage that 
was likely to result from the measures which 
he proposed. One of these measures was cal- 
culated to render David irreconcilable, and 
was immediately adopted ; and the other to 
secure, or to slay hun. Before the last coun- 
sel was followed, Hushai's advice was desired; 
and he recommended their assembling together 
the whole force of Israel, putting Absalom at 
their head, and overwhelming David by their 
number. The treacherous counsel of Hushai 
was preferred to that of Ahithophel ; with 
which the latter being disgusted he hastened 
to his house at Giloh, Vvhere he p\it an end to 
his life. He probably forcsaAV Absalom's de- 
feat, and dreaded the punishment which would 
be inflicted on himself as a traitor, when David 
was resettled on the throne. A. M. 2981. B. C. 
1023. 2 Sam. xv, xvii. 

AHOLIBAH. This and Aholah are two 
feigned names made use of by Ezekiel, xxiii, 4, 
to denote the two kingdoms of.Tndah and Sa- 
maria. Aholah and Aholibah are represented 
as two sisters of Egyptian extraction. Aholah 
stands for Samaria, and Aholibah for Jerusa- 
lem. The first signifies a tent, and the second, 



AIC 



35 



AIC 



my tent is in her. They both prostituted them- 
selves to the Egyptians and Assyrians, in imi- 
tating their abominations and idolatries ; for 
which reason the Lord abandoned them to 
those very people for whose evil practices they 
had shown so passionate an affection. They 
were carried into captivity, and reduced to the 
severest servitude. 

AI, called by the LXX, Gai, by Josephus 
Aina, and by others Ajah, a town of Palestine, 
situate west of Bethel, and at a small distance 
north-west of Jericho. The three thousand 
men, first sent by Joshua to reduce this city, 
were repulsed, on account of the sin of Achan, 
who had violated the anathema pronounced 
against Jericho, by appropriating a part of the 
spoil. After the expiation of thisoffence, the 
whole army of Israel marched against Ai, with 
orders to treat that city as Jericho had been 
treated, with this difference, that the plunder 
was to be given to the army. Joshua, having 
appointed an ambush of thirty thousand men, 
marched against the city, and by a feigned re- 
treat, drew out the king of Ai with his troops; 
and upon a signal given by elevating his shield 
on the top of a pike, the men in ambush enter- 
ed the city and set fire to it. Thus the soldiers 
of Ai, placed between two divisions of Joshua's 
army, were all destroyed ; the king alone being 
preserved for a more ignominious death on a 
gibbet, where he hung till sunset. The spoil 
of the place was afterward divided among the 
Israelites. The men appointed for ambush 
are, in one place, said to be thirty thousand, 
and in another five thousand. For reconciling 
this apparent contradiction, most commentators 
have generally supposed, that there were two 
bodies placed in ambuscade between Bethel 
and Ai, one of twenty-five thousand and the 
other of five thousand men ; the latter being 
probably a detachment from the thirty thou- 
sand first sent, and ordered to lie as near to the 
city as possible. Masius allows only five thou- 
sand men for the ambuscade, and twenty-five 
thousand for the attack. 

AICHMALOTARCH, ' AixtJ^aXordpxvs, signi- 
fies the prince of the captivity, or chief of the 
captives. The Jews pretend that this was the 
title of him who had the government of their 
people during the captivity of Babylon ; and 
they believe these princes or governors to have 
been constantly of the tribe of Judah, and fami- 
ly of David. But they give no satisfactory 
proof of the real existence of these Aichmalo- 
tarchs. There was no prince of the captivity 
before the end of the second century, from 
which period the office continued till the 
eleventh century. The princes of the captivity 
resided at Babylon, where they were installed 
v/ith great ceremony, held courts of justice, 
&.C, and were set over the eastern Jews, or 
those settled in Babylon, Chaldsea, Assyria, and 
Persia. Thus they affected to restore the splen- 
dour of their ancient monarchy, and in this 
view the following account may be amusing. 
The ceremonial of the installation is thus de- 
scribed : The spiritual heads of the people, the 
masters of the learned schools, the elders, and 
the people, assembled in great multitudes within 



a stately chamber, adorned with rich curtains, 
in Babylon, where, during his days of splen- 
dour, the Resch-Glutha fixed his residence. 
The prince was seated on a lofty throne. The 
heads of the schools of Sura and Pumbeditha 
on his right hand and left. These chiefs of 
the learned men then delivered an address, 
exhorting the new monarch not to abuse his 
power; and reminded him that he v/as called 
to slavery rather than to sovereignty, for he 
was prince of a captive people. On the next 
Thursday he was inaugurated by the laying on 
of hands, and the sound of trumpets, and accla- 
mations. He was escorted to his palace with 
great pomp, and received magnificent presents 
from all his subjects. On the Sabbath all the 
principal people being assembled before his 
house, he placed himself at their head, and, 
with his face covered with a silken veil, pro- 
ceeded to the synagogue. Benedictions and 
hymns of thanksgiving announced his en- 
trance. They then brought him the book of 
the law, out of which he read the first line, 
afterward he addressed the assembly, with his 
eyes closed out of respect. He exhorted them 
to charity, and set the example by offering 
liberal alms to the poor. The ceremony closed 
with new acclamations, and prayers to God 
that, under the new prince, he would be pleased 
to put an end to their calamities. The prince 
gave his blessing to the people, and prayed for 
each province, that it might be preserved from 
war and famine. He concluded his orisons in 
a low voice, lest his prayer should be repeated 
to the jealous ears of the native monarchs, for 
he prayed for the restoration of the kingdom of 
Israel, which could not rise but on the ruins of 
their empire. The prince returned to his pa- 
lace, where he gave a splendid banquet to the 
chief persons of the community. After that 
day he lived in a sort of stately oriental seclu- 
sion, never quitting his palace, except to go to 
the schools of the learned, where, as he entered, 
the whole assembly rose and continued stand- 
ing, till he took his seat. He sometimes paid 
a visit to the native sovereign in Babylon (Bag. 
dad.) This probably refers to a somewhat later 
period. On these great occasions his imperial 
host sent his own chariot for his guest ; but the 
prince of the captivity dared not accept the in- 
vidious distinction, he walked in humble and 
submissive modesty behind the chariot. Yet 
his own state was by no means wanting in 
splendour : he was arrayed in cloth of gold ; 
fifty guards marched before him ; all the Jews 
who met him on the way paid their homage, 
and fell behind into his train. He was received 
by the eunuchs, who conducted him to the 
throne, while one of his officers, as he marched 
slowly along, distributed gold and silver on all 
sides. As the prince approached the imperial 
throne, lie prostrated himself on the ground, 
in token of vassalage. The eunuchs raided 
him and placed him on the left hand of the 
sovereign. After the first salutation, the prince 
represented the grievances, or discussed the 
affairs, of his people. 

The court of the Resch-Glutha is described 
as splendid. In imitation of his Persian mas. 



ALE 



36 



ALE 



ter, ho had his officers, counsellors, and cup- 
bearers; and rabbins were appointed as satraps 
over the different communities. This state, it 
is probable, was maintained by a tribute raised 
from the body of the people, and substituted for 
that which, in ancient times was paid for the 
temple in Jerusalem. His subjects in Babylonia 
were many of them wealthy. 

AIJALON, a city of the Canaanites ; the 
valley adjoining to which is memorable in 
sacred history from the miracle of Joshua, in 
arresting the course of the sun and moon, that 
the Israelites might have sufficient light to pur- 
sue their enemies, Joshua x, 12, 13. Aijalon 
was afterward a Levitical city, and belonged to 
the tribe of Dan ; who did not, however, drive 
out the Amorite inhabitants. Judges i, 35. 

AIR, that thin, fluid, elastic, transparent, 
ponderous, compressible body which surrounds 
the terraqueous globe to a considerable height. 
In Scripture it is sometimes used for heaven; 
as, "the birds of the air;" "the birds of heaven." 
To "beat the air," and "to speak to the air," 
1 Cor. ix, 26, signify to fatigue ourselves in 
vain, and to speak to no purpose. "The prince 
of the power of the air" is the head and chief 
of the evil spirits, with which both Jews and 
Heathens thought the air was filled. 

ALABASTER, 'AXafiarpov, the name of a 
genus of fossils nearly allied to marble. It is 
a bright elegant stone, sometimes of a snowy 
whiteness. It may be cut freely, and is capa- 
ble of a fine polish ; and, being of a soft nature, 
it is wrought into any form or figure with ease. 
Vases or cruises were anciently made of it, 
wherein to preserve odoriferous liquors and oint- 
ments. Pliny and others represent it as peculiar- 
ly proper for this purpose ; and the druggists in 
Egypt have, at this day, vessels made of it, in 
which they keep their medicines and perfumes. 

In Matt, xxvi, 6, 7, we read that Jesus being 
at table in Bethany, in the house of Simxon 
the leper, a woman came thither and poured an 
alabaster box of ointment on his head. St. 
Mark adds, " She brake the box," which merely 
refers to the seal upon the vase which closed it, 
and kept the perfume from evaporating. This 
had never been removed, but was on this occa- 
sion broken, that is, first opened. 

ALBIGENSES. See Waldenses. 

ALEPH, N, the name of the first letter in the 
Hebrew alphabet, from which the alpha of the 
Syrians and Greeks was formed. This word 
signifies, prince, chief, or thousand, expressing, 
as it v/ere, a leading number. 

ALEXANDER, commonly called the Great, 
son and successor of Philip, king of Macedon, 
is denoted in the prophecies of Daniel by a 
leopard with four wings, signifying his great 
strength, and the unusual rapidity of his con- 
quests, Dan. vii, 6 ; and by a one-horned he-goat 
running over the earth so swiftly as not to touch 
it, attacking a ram with two horns, overthrow- 
ing him, and trampling him under foot, without 
any being able to rescue him, Dan. viii, 4-7. 
The he-goat prefigured Alexander ; the ram, 
Darius Codomannus, tlie last of the Persian 
kings. In the statue beheld by Nebuchadnezzar 
in his dream, Dan. ii, 39, the belly of brass was 



the emblem of Alexander. He was appointed 
by God to destroy the Persian empire, and to 
substitute in its room the Grecian monarchy. 

Alexander succeeded his father Philip, A. M. 
3668, and E. C. 336. He was chosen, by the 
Greeks, general of their troops against the Per- 
sians, and entered Asia at the head of thirty- 
four thousand men, A. M. 3670. In one cam. 
paign, he subdued alirxost all Asia Minor; and 
afterward defeated, in the narrow passes which 
led from Syria to Cilicia, the army of Darius, 
which consisted of four hundred thousand foot, 
and one hundred thousand horse. Darius fled, 
and left in the hands of the conqueror, his camp, 
baggage, children, wife, and mother. 

After subduing Syria, Alexander came to 
Tyre ; and the Tyrians refusing him entrance 
into their city, he besieged it. At the same 
time he wrote to Jaddus, high priest of the 
Jews, that he expected to be acknov/ledged by 
him, and to receive from him the same submis- 
sion which had hitherto been paid to the king 
of Persia. Jaddus refusing to comply under the 
plea of having sworn fidelity to Darius, Alexan- 
der resolved to march against Jerusalem, when 
he had reduced Tyre. After a long siege, this 
city was taken and sacked ; and Alexander 
entered Palestine, A. M. 3672, and subjected it 
to his obedience. As he was marching against 
Jerusalem, the Jews became greatly alarmed, 
and had recourse to prayers and sacrifices. The 
Lord, in a dream, commanded Jaddus to open 
the gates to the conqueror, and, at the head of 
his people, dressed in his pontifical ornaments, 
and attended by the priests in their robes, to 
advance and meet the Macedonian king. Jad- 
dus obeyed ; and Alexander perceiving this com 
pany approaching, hastened toward the high 
priest, whom he saluted. He then adored God, 
whose name was engraven on a thin plate of 
gold, worn by the high priest upon his fore- 
head. The kings of Syria who accompanied 
him, and the great officers about Alexander, 
could not comprehend the meaning of his con- 
duct. Parmenio alone ventured to ask him 
why he adored the Jewish high priest ; Alex- 
ander replied, that he paid this respect to God, 
and not to the high priest. " For," added he, 
" whilst I was yet in Macedonia, I saw the God 
of the Jews, who appeared to me in the same 
form and dress as the high priest at present, 
and who encouraged me and commanded me 
to march boldly into Asia, promising that he 
would be my guide, and give me the empire of 
the Persians. As soon, therefore, as I perceived 
this habit, I recollected the vision, and under- 
stood that my undertaking was favoured by God, 
and that under his protection I might expect 
prosperity." 

Having said this, Alexander accompanied 
Jaddus to Jerusalem, where he offered sacrifices 
in the temple according to the directions of the 
high priest. Jaddus is said to have showed 
him the prophecies of Daniel, in which the de- 
struction of the Persian empire by Alexander is 
declared. The king was therefore 'confirmed 
in his opinion? that God had chosen .him to 
execute this great work. At his departure^ 
Alexander bade the Jews ask of him what they 



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37 



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would. The high priest desired only the liberty 
of living under his government according to 
their own laws, and an exemption from tribute 
every seventh year, because in that year the 
Jews neither tilled their grounds, nor reaped 
their fruits. With this request Alexander readily 
complied. 

Having left Jerusalem, Alexander visited 
other cities of Palestine, and was every where 
received with great testimonies of friendship 
and submission. The Samaritans who dwelt at 
Sichem, and were apostates from the Jewish 
religion, observing how kindly Alexander had 
treated the Jews, resolved to say that they also 
were by religion Jews. For it was their practice, 
when they saw the affairs of the Jews in a pros- 
perous state, to boast that they were descended 
from Manasseh and Ephraim ; but when they 
thought it their interest to say the contrary, 
they failed not to affirm, and even to swear, 
that they were not related to the Jews. They 
came, therefore, with many demonstrations of 
joy, to' meet Alexander, as far almost as the 
territories of Jerusalem. Alexander commend- 
ed their zeal ; and the Sichemites entreated him 
to visit their temple and city. Alexander pro- 
raised this at his return ; but as they petitioned 
him for the same privileges as the Jews, he asked 
them if they were Jews. They replied, they 
were Hebrews, and were called by the Phoeni- 
cians, Sichemites. Alexander said that he had 
granted this exemption only to the Jews, but 
that at his return he would inquire into the 
affair, and do them justice. 

This prince having conquered Egypt, and 
regulated it, gave orders for the building of the 
city of Alexandria, and departed thence, about 
spring, in pursuit of Darius. Passing through 
Palestine, he was informed that the Sanoaritans, 
in a general insurrection, had killed Androma- 
chus, governor of Syria and Palestine, who had 
come to Samaria to regulate some affairs. This 
action greatly incensed Alexander, who loved 
Andromachus. He therefore commanded all 
those who were concerned in his murder to be 
put to death, and the rest to be banished from 
Samaria; and settled a colony of Macedonians 
in their room. What remained of their lands 
he gave to the Jews, and exempted them from 
the payment of tribute. The Samaritans who 
escaped this calamity, retired to Sichem, at the 
foot of mount Gerizim, which afterward became 
their capital. Lest the eight thousand men of 
this nation, who were in the service of Alex- 
ander, and had accompanied him since the 
siege of Tyre, if permitted to return to their 
own country, should renew the spirit of rebel- 
lion, he sent them into Thebais, the most re- 
mote southern province of Egypt, where he 
assigned them lands. 

Alexander, after defeating Darius in a pitched 
battle, and subduing all Asia and the Indies with 
incredible rapidity, gave himself up to intemper- 
ance. Having drunk to excess, he fell sick 
and died, after he had obliged " all the world to 
be quiet before him," 1 Mace, i, 3. Being sen. 
sible that his end was near, he sent for the 
grandees of his court, and declared that " he 
gave the empire to the most deserving." Some 



affirm that he regulated the succession by a will.' 
The author of the first book of Maccabees says, 
that he divided his kingdom among his gene- 
rals while he was living, 1 Mace, i, 7. l^is he 
might do ; or he might express his foresight of 
what actually took place after his death. It is 
certain, that a partition was made of Alexan. 
der's dominions among the four principal offi- 
cers of his army, and that the empire which he 
founded in Asia subsisted for many ages. Alex- 
ander died, A. M. 3684, and B. C. 323, in the 
thirty-third year of his age, and the twelfth of his 
reign. The above particulars of Alexander are 
here introduced because, from his invasion of 
Palestine, the intercourse of the Jews with the 
Greeks became intimate, and influenced many 
events of their subsequent history. 

On the account above given of the interview 
between Alexander and the Jewish high priest, 
by Josephus, many doubts have been cast by 
critics. But the sudden change of his feelings 
toward them, and the favour with which the 
nation was treated by him, render the story not 
improbable. 

ALEXANDRIA, a famous city of Egypt, 
and, during the reign of the Ptolemies, the regal 
capital of that kingdom. It was founded by 
Alexander the Great: who being struck with 
the advantageous situation of the spot where 
the city afterward stood, ordered its immediate 
erection ; drew the plan of the city himself, and 
peopled it with colonies of Greeks and Jews : to 
which latter people, in particular, he gave great 
encouragement. They were, in fact, made free 
citizens, and had all the privileges of Mace. 
donians granted to them ; which liberal policy 
contributed much to the rise and prosperity of 
the new city ; for this enterprising and com- 
mercial people knew much better than either 
the Greeks or the Egyptians how to turn the 
happy situation of Alexandria to the best ac- 
count. The fall of Tyre happening about the 
same time, the trade of that city was soon drawn 
to Alexandria, which became the centre of com- 
mercial intercourse between the east and the 
west ; and in process of time grew to such an 
extent, in magnitude and wealth, as to be second 
in point of population and magnificence to none 
but Rome itself. 

Alexandria owed much of its celebrity as well 
as its population to the Ptolemies. Ptolemy 
Soter, one of Alexander's captains, who, after 
the death of this monarch, was first governor 
of Egypt, and afterward assumed the title of 
king, made this city the place of his residence* 
about B. C. 304. This prince founded an aca- 
demy,* called the Museum, in which a society 
of learned men devoted themselves to philoso- 
phical studies, and the improvement of all the 
other sciences ; and he also gave them a library, 
which was prodigiously increased by his suc- 
cessors. He likewise induced the merchants 
of Syria and Greece to reside in this city, and 
to make it a principal mart of their commerce. 
His son and successor, Ptolemy Pliiladelphus, 
pursued the designs of his father. 

In the hands of the Romans, the successors 
of the Macedonians in the government of 
Egypt, the trade of Alexandria continued to 



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38 



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flourish, until luxury and licentiousness paved 
the way, as in every similar instance, for its 
overthrow. 

Alexandria, together with the rest of Egypt, 
passed from the dominion of the Romans to 
that of the Saracens. With this event, the sun 
of Alexandria may be said to have set : the 
blighting hand of Islamism was laid on it ; and 
although the genius and the resources of such a 
city could not be immediately destroyed, it con- 
tinued to languish until the passage by the 
Cape of Good Hope, in the fifteenth century, 
gave a new channel to the trade which for so 
many centxiries had been its support ; and at 
this day, Alexandria, like most eastern cities, 
presents a mixed spectacle of ruins and wretch- 
edness, — of fallen greatness and enslaved hu- 
man beings. 

Some idea may be formed of the extent and 
grandeur of Alexandria, by the boast made by 
Amrou: "I have taken," said he, "the great 
city of the west. It is impossible for me to 
enmnerate the variety of its riches and beauty. 
I shall content myself with observing, that it 
contains four thousand palaces, four thousand 
baths, four hundred theatres or places of 
amusement, twelve thousand shops for the 
sale of vegetable foods, and forty thousand 
tributary Jews." 

It was in Alexandria chiefly that the Grecian 
philosophy was engrafted upon the stock of 
ancient oriental wisdom. The Egyptian me- 
thod of teaching by allegory was peculiarly 
favourable to such a union : and we may well 
suppose that when Alexander, in order to pre- 
serve by the arts of peace that extensive empire 
which he had obtained by the force of arms, 
endeavoured to incorporate the customs of the 
Greeks Avith those of the Persian, Indian, and 
other eastern nations, the opinions as well as 
the manners of this feeble and obsequious race 
would, in a great measure, be accommodated 
to those of their conquerors. This influence 
of the Grecian upon the oriental philosophy 
continued long after the time of Alexander, 
and was one principal occasion of the confu- 
sion of opinions which occurs in the history of 
the Alexandrian and Christian schools. Alex- 
ander, when he built the city of Alexandria, 
with a determination to make it the seat of his 
empire, and peopled it with emigrants from 
various countries, opened a new mart of phi- 
losophy, which emulated the fame of Athens 
itself. A general indulgence was granted to 
the promiscuous crowd assembled in this rising 
city, whether Egyptians, Grecians, Jews, or 
others, to profess their respective systeins of 
philosophy v/ithout molestation. The conse- 
quence was, that Egypt was soon filled with 
religious and philosophical sectaries of every 
kind ; and particiilarly, that almost every Gre- 
cian sect found an advocate and professor in 
Alexandria. The family of the Ptolemies, as 
we have seen, who after Alexander obtained 
the government of Egypt, from motives of 
policy encouraged this new establishment. 
Ptolemy Lagus, who had obtained the crown 
of Egypt by usurpation, was particularly care- 
fiil to secure the interest of the Greeks in his 



favour, and with this view invited people from 
every part of Greece to settle in Egypt, and 
removed the schools of Athens to Alexandria. 
This enlightened prince spared no pains to 
raise the literary, as well as the civil, military, 
and commercial credit of his country. Under 
the patronage first of the Egyptian princes, 
and afterward of the Roman emperors, Alex- 
andria long continued to enjoy great celebrity 
as the seat of learning, and to send forth emi- 
nent philosophers of every sect to distant coun- 
tries. It remained a school of learning, as well 
as a commercial emporium, till it v/as taken, 
and plundered of its literary treasures by the 
Saracens. Philosophy, during this period, suf- 
fered a grievous corruption from the attempt 
which was made by philosophers of different 
sects and countries, Grecian, Egyptian, and 
oriental, who were assembled in Alexandria, to 
frame, from their different tenets, one general 
system of opinions. The respect which had 
long been universally paid to the schools of 
Greece, and the honours with which they were 
now adorned by the Egyptian princes, induced 
other wise men, and even the Egyptian priests 
and philosophers themselves, to submit to this 
innovation. Hence arose a heterogeneous mass 
of opinions, under the name of the Eclectic 
'philosophy, and which was the foundation of 
endless confusion, error, and absurdity, not 
only in the Alexandrian school, but among Jews 
and Christians ; producing among the former 
that specious kind of philosophy, which they 
called their Cabala, and among the latter in- 
numerable corruptions of the Christian faith. 

At Alexandria there was, in a very early 
period of the Christian sera, a Christian school 
of considerable eminence. St. Jerome says, 
the school at Alexandria had been in being 
from the time of St. Mark. Pantsenus, placed 
by Lardner at the year 192, presided in it. St. 
Clement of Alexandria succeeded Pantaenus in 
this school about the year 190 ; and he was 
succeeded by Origen. The extensive com. 
merce of Alexandria, and its proximity to Pa- 
lestine, gave an easy entrance to the new 
religion, and when Adrian visited Egypt, ho 
found a church composed of Jews and Greeks, 
sufficiently important to attract the notice of 
that inquisitive prince. The theological sys- 
tem of Plato was introduced into both the phi- 
losophical and Christian schools of Alexandria; 
and of course many of his sentiments and ex. 
pressions were blended with the opinions and 
language of the professors and teachers of 
Christianity. 

Alexandria was the source, and for some 
time the principal stronghold, of Arianism ; 
which had its name from its founder, Arius, a 
presbyter of the church of this city, about the 
year 315. His doctrines were condemned by 
a council held here in the year 320 ; and after, 
ward by a general council of three hundred 
and eighty fathers, held at Nice, by order of 
Constantine, in 325, These doctrines, how- 
ever, which suited the reigning taste for dis- 
putative theology, and the pride and self-suffi- 
ciency of nominal Christians, better than the 
unsophisticated simplicity of the Gospel, spread 



ALE 



39 



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widely and rapidly notwithstanding. Arius was 
steadfastly opposed by the celebrated Athana- 
sius, bishop of Alexandria, the intrepid cham- 
pion of the catholic faith, who was raised to 
the archiepiscopal throne of Alexandria in 326. 

This city was, in 415, distinguished by a 
fierce persecution of the Jews by the patriarch 
Cyril. They who had enjoyed the rights of 
citizens, and the freedom of religious worship, 
for seven hundred years, ever since the founda- 
tion of the city, incurred the hatred of this 
ecclesiastic ; who, in his zeal for the extermi- 
nation of heretics of every kind, pulled down 
their synagogues, plundered their property, 
and expelled them, to the number of forty 
thousand, from the city. 

It was in a ship belonging to the port of 
Alexandria, that St. Paul sailed from Myra, a 
city of Lycia, on his way to Rome, Acts xxvii, 
5, 6. Alexandria was also the native place of 
Apollos. 

ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY. This cele- 
brated collection of books was first founded by 
Ptolemy Soter, for the use of the academy, or 
society of learned men, which he had founded 
at Alexandria. Beside the books which he 
procured, his son, Ptolemy Philadelphus, add. 
ed many more, and left in this library at his 
death a hundred thousand volumes ; and the 
succeeding princes of this race enlarged it still 
more, till at length the books lodged in it 
amounted to the number of seven hundred 
thousand volumes. The method by v/hich 
they are said to have collected these books 
was this : they seized all the books that were 
brought by the Greeks or other foreigners into 
Egypt, and sent them to the academy, or mu- 
seum, where they were transcribed by persons 
employed for that purpose. The transcripts 
were then delivered to the proprietors, and the 
originals laid up in the library. Ptolemy Eu- 
ergetes, for instance, borrowed of the Athenians 
the works of Sophocles, Euripides, and ^schy- 
lus, and only returned them the copies, which 
he caused to be transcribed in as beautiflil a 
manner as possible ; the originals he retained 
for his own library, presenting the Athenians 
with fifteen talents for the exchange, that is, 
with three thousand pounds sterling and upl 
wards. As the museum was at first in the 
quarter of the city called Bruchion, the library 
was placed there ; but when the number of 
books amounted to four hundred thousand 
volumes, another library, within the Serapeum, 
was erected by way of supplement to it, and, 
on that account, called the daughter of the 
former. The books lodged in this increased 
to the number of three hundred thousand 
volumes ; and these two made up the number 
of seven hundred thousand volumes, of which 
the royal libraries of the Ptolemies were said 
to consist. In the v/ar which Julius Cgesar 
waged with the inhabitants of Alexandria, the 
library of Bruchion was accidentally, but un- 
fortunately, burnt. But the library in Sera, 
peum still remained, and there Cleopatra de. 
posited the two hundred thousand volumes of 
the Pergamean library with which she was 
presented by Marc Antony. These, and 



others added to them from time to time, ren. 
dered the new library more numerous and con- 
siderable than the former ; and though it was 
plundered more than once during the revolu. 
tions which happened in the Roman empire, 
yet it was as frequently supplied with the same 
number of books, and continued, for many 
ages, to be of great fame and use, till it was 
burnt by the Saracens, A. D. 642. Abulpha- 
ragius, in his history of the tenth dynasty, 
gives the following account of this catastrophe : 
John Philoponus, surnamed the Grammarian, 
a famous Peripatetic philosopher, being at 
Alexandria when the city was taken by the 
Saracens, was admitted to familiar intercourse 
v^^ith Amrou, the Arabian general, and pre- 
sumed to solicit a^ gift, inestimable in his 
opinion, but contemptible in that of the barba- 
rians ; and this was the royal library. Amrou 
was inclined to gratify his wish, but his rigid 
integrity scrupled to alienate the least object 
without the consent of the caliph. He accord- 
ingly wrote to Omar, whose well known an- 
swer was dictated by the ignorance of a fanatic : 
" If these writings of the Greeks agree with 
the Koran, or book of God, they are useless, 
and need not be preserved ; if they disagree, 
they are pernicious, and ought to be destroyed." 
The sentence of destruction was executed with 
blind obedience : the volumes of paper or parch- 
ment were distributed to the four thousand 
baths of the city ; and such was their number, 
that six months were barely sufficient for the 
consumption of this precious fiiel. 

ALGUM, QJ^N ora^Dij'^x, 1 Kings x, 11, 12. 
This is the name of a kind of wood, or tree, 
large quantities of which were brought by the 
fleet of Solomon from Ophir, of which he made 
pillars for the house of the Lord, and for his own 
palace ; also musical instruments. See Almug. 
ALLEGORY, a figure in rhetoric, whereby 
we make use of terms which, in their proper 
signification, mean something else than what 
they are brought to denote ; or it is a figure 
whereby we say one thing, expecting it shall 
be understood of another, to which it alludes ; 
or which, under the literal sense of the words, 
conceals a foreign or distant meaning. An 
allegory is, properly, a continued metaphor, or 
a series of several metaphors in one or more 
sentences. Such is that beautiful allegory in 
Horace, lib. i, Od. 14. 

" O navis, referent in mare ie novi 
Flucius," SfC. 
[O ship, shall new billows drive thee again to sea, &c.] 
Where the ship is usually held to stand for the 
republic ; waves, for civil war ; port, for peace 
and concord ; oars, for soldiers ; and mariners 
for magistrates. Thus, also, in Prior's Henry 
and Emma, Emma describes her constancy to 
Henry in the following allegorical manner : — 
" Did I but purpose to embark with thee 
On the smooth surface of a summer's sea, 
While gentle zephyrs play with prosperous gales, 
And fortune's favour fills the swelling sails ; 
But would forsake the ship, and make the shore, 
When the winds whistle, and the tempests roar V 

Cicero, likewise, speaking of himself, in Pison. 
c. 9, torn, vi, p. 187, uses this allegorical Ian- 



ALL 



40 



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guage: "Nor was I so timorous, that, after I 
had steered the ship of the state through the 
greatest storms and waves, and brought her 
safe into port, I should fear the cloud of your 
forehead, or your colleague's pestilential breath. 
I saw other winds, I perceived other storms, I 
did not withdraw from other impending tem- 
pests ; but I exposed myself singly to them for 
the common safety." Here the state is com- 
pared to a ship, and all the things said of it 
under that image, are expressed in metaphors 
made use of to denote the dangers with which 
it had been threatened. We have also a very 
fine example of an allegory in Psalm Ixxx ; in 
which the people of Israel are represented un- 
der the image of a vine, and the figure is sup- 
ported throughout with great correctness and 
beauty. Whereas, if, instead of dfiscribing the 
vine as wasted by the boar from the wood, and 
devoured by the wild beasts of the field, the 
Fsalmist had said, it was afflicted by Heathens, 
or overcome by enemies, which is the real 
meaning, the figurative and the literal meaning 
would have been blended, and the allegory 
ruined. The learned Bishop Lowth, De Sacra 
Poesi HelrcBorum, PtcbI. 10, 11, has specified 
three forms of allegory that occur in sacred 
poetry. The fiirst is that which rhetoricians 
call a continued metaphor. When several 
metaphors succeed each other, they alter the 
form of the composition ; and this succession 
has very properly, in referance to the etymology 
of the word, been denominated by the Greeks 
aWiryo^ia, an allegory ; although Aristotle, in- 
stead of considering it as a new species of 
figure, has referred it to the class of metaphors. 
The principle of allegory in this sense of the 
term, and of the simple metaphor, is the same ; 
nor is it an easy matter to restrict each to its 
proper limit, and to mark the precise termina- 
tion of the one, and the commencement of the 
other. This eminently judicious critic observes, 
that when the Hebrew poets use the congenial 
figures of metaphor, allegory, and comparison, 
particularly in the pr£)phetic poetry, they adopt 
a peculiar mode of doing it, and seldom regu- 
late the imagery which they introduce by any 
fixed principle or standard. Not satisfied with 
a simple metaphor, they ofl^n run it into an 
allegory, or blend with it a direct comparison. 
The allegory sometimes follows, and som.etimes 
precedes the simile : to this is added a frequent 
change of imager}", as well as of persons and 
tenses ; and thus are displayed an energy and 
boldness, both of expression and m.eaning, 
which are unconfined by any stated rules, and 
which mark the discriminating genius of the 
Hebrew poetry. Thus, in Gen. xlix, 9, " Judah 
is a lion's whelp ;" this metaphor is immediately 
drawn out into an allegory, with a change of 
person : " From the prey, my son, thou art 
gone up," that is, to the mountains, which is 
understood; and in the succeeding sentences 
the person is again changed, the image is 
gradually advanced, and the metaphor is joined 
with a comparison that is repeated. 
" He stoopeth down, he coucheth as a lion ; 
And as a lioness ; who shall rouse him '?" 
A similar instance occurs in the prophecy, re- 



corded in Psalm ex, 3, which explicitly foretels 
the abundant increase of the Gospel on its first 
promulgation. This kind of allegory, how- 
ever, sometimes assumes a more regular and 
perfect form, and then occupies the whole 
subject and compass of the discourse. An ex. 
ample of this kind occurs in Solomon's well 
known allegory, Eccles. xii, 2-6, in which old 
age is so admirably depicted. There is also, in 
Isaiah xxviii, 24-29, an allegory, which, with 
no less elegance of imagery, is more simple and 
regular, as well as more just and complete, 
both in the form and the method of treating it. 
Another kind of allegory is that which, in the 
proper and more restricted sense, may be called 
a parable ; and consists of a continued narra= 
tion of some fictitious event, accommodated, 
by way of similitude, to the illustration of some 
important truth. The Greeks call these alle- 
gories aivoi or apologues, and the Latins /a6«Z<B, 
or fables. (See Parable.) The third species 
of allegory, which often occurs in the pro- 
phetic poetry, is that in which a double mean, 
ing is couched under the same words, or when 
the same discourse, differently interpreted, de= 
signates different events, dissimilar in their 
nature, and remote as to time. These different 
relations are denominated the literal and mys~ 
tical senses. This kind of allegory, which the 
learned prelate calls mystical, seems to derive 
its origin from the principles of the Jewish 
religion ; and it differs from the two former 
species in a variety of respects. In these alle- 
gories the writer may adopt any imagery that 
is most suitable to his fancy or inclination ; 
but the only proper materials for this allegory 
must be supplied from the sacred rites of the 
Hebrews themselves ; and it can only be intro. 
duced in relation to such things as are imme- 
diately connected with the Jewish religion, or 
their immediate opposites. The former kinds 
partake of the common privileges of poetry ; 
but the mystical allegory has its foundation in 
the nature of the Jewish economy, and is adapt- 
ed solely to the poetry of the Hebrews. Be- 
sides, in the other forms of allegory, the exterior 
or ostensible imagery is mere fiction, and the 
truth lies altogether in the interior or remote 
sense ; but in this allegory each idea is equally 
agreeable to truth. The exterior or ostensible 
image is itself a reality ; and although it sus- 
tains another character, it does not wholly lay 
aside its own. There is also a great variety in 
the use and conduct of the mystical allegory ; 
in the modes in which the corresponding images 
are arranged, and in which they are obscured 
or eclipsed by one another. Sometimes the 
obvious or literal sense is so prominent and 
conspicuous, both in the words and sentunents, 
that the remote or figurative sense is scarcely 
permitted to glimmer through it. On the other 
hand, the figurative sense is more frequently 
found to beam forth with so much perspicuity 
and lustre, that the literal sense is quite 
cast into the shade, or becomes indiscernible. 
Sometimes the principal or figurative idea is 
exhibited to the attentive eye with a constant 
and equal light ; and sometimes it unexpectedly 
glares upon us, and breaks forth with Budder> 



ALM 



41 



ALM 



and astonishing coruscations, like a flash of 
lightning bursting from the clouds. But the 
mode or form of this figure which possesses the 
chief beauty and elegance, is, when the two ima- 
ges, equally conspicuous, run, as it were, parallel 
throughout the whole poem, mutually illustrat- 
ing and correspondent to each other. The learn- 
ed author has illustrated these observations by 
instances selected from Psalms ii, and Ixxii. 
He adds, that the mystical allegory is, on ac- 
count of the obscurity resulting from the nature 
of the figure, and the style of the composition, 
so agreeable to the nature of the prophecy, that 
it is the form which it generally, and indeed 
lawfully, assumes, as best adapted to the pre- 
diction of future events. It describes events in 
a manner exactly conformable to the intention 
of prophecy ; that is, in a dark, disguised, and 
intricate manner, sketching out, in a general 
way, their form and outline ; and seldom de- 
scending to a minuteness of description and 
exactness of detail. 

ALLELUIA, or Hallelu-jah, n^-i'?'7n, praise 
the Lord ; or, praise to the Lord : compounded 
of i'?'7n, praise ye, and n>, the Lord. This word 
occurs at the beginning, or at the end, of many 
Psalms. Alleluia was sung on solemn days of 
rejoicing : " And all her streets shall sing Alle- 
luia," says Tobit, speaking of the rebuilding of 
Jerusalem, Tob. xiii, 18. St. John, in the 
Revelation, xix, 1, 3, 4, 6, says, "I heard a 
great voice of much people in heaven, who 
cried, Alleluia ; and the four living creatures 
fell down, and worshipped God, saying. Alle- 
luia." This expression of joy and praise was 
transferred from the synagogue to the church. 
At the funeral of Fabiola, "several psalms 
were sung with loud alleluias," says Jerom, in 
Epitaphio PaulcB, " The monks of Palestine 
were awaked at their midnight watchings, with 
the singing of alleluias." It is still occasion- 
ally used in devotional psalmody. 

ALMAH, hdV;?, a Hebrew word signifying 
properly a virgin, a young woman unacquainted 
with man. In this sense it occurs in the fa- 
mous passage of Isaiah, vii, 14: "Behold a 
virgin shall conceive and bear a son." The 
Hebrew has no term that more properly signi- 
fies a virgin than almah. St. Jerom, in his 
commentary on this passage, observes, that the 
Prophet declined using the word bethaul which 
signifies any young woman, or young person, 
but employed the term almah, which denotes a 
virgin never seen by man. This is the import 
of the word almah, which is derived from a 
root which signifies to conceal. It is very well 
known, that young women in the east do not 
appear in public, but are shut up in their 
houses, and their mothers' apartments, like 
nuns. The Chaldee paraphrast and the Sep- 
tuagint translate almah " a virgin ;" and Akiba, 
the famous rabbin, who was a great enemy to 
Christ and Christians, and lived in the second 
century, understands it in the same manner. 
The Apostles and Evangelists, and the Jews 
of our Saviour's time, explained it in the same 
sense, and expected a Messiah born of a virgin. 

The Jews, that they may obscure this plain 
text, and weaken this proof of the truth of the 



Christian religion, pretend that the Hebrew 
word signifies a young woman, and not a vir- 
gin. But this corrupt translation is easily con- 
futed. 1. Because this word constantly denotes 
a virgin in all other passages of Scripture in 
which it is used. 2. From the intent of the 
passage, which was to confirm their faith by a 
strange and wonderful sign. It surely could 
be no wonder, that a young woman should 
conceive a child ; but it was a very extraordi- 
nary circumstance that a virgin should con- 
ceive and bear a son. 

ALMIGHTY, an attribute of the Deity, 
Gen. xvii, 1. The Hebrew name, iijj', Shaddai, 
signifies also all-sufficient, or all-bountiful. See 
Gen. xxviii, 3; xxxv, 11; xliii, 14; xlix, 25. 
Of the omnipotence of God, we have a most 
ample revelation in the Scriptures, expressed in 
the most sublime language. From the annun. 
elation by Moses of a divine existence who was 
" in the beginning," before all things, the very 
first step is to the display of his almighty power 
in the creation out of nothing, and the imme- 
diate arrangement in order and perfection, of 
the " heaven and the earth;" by which is meant, 
not this globe only with its atmosphere, or 
even with its own celestial system, but the uni- 
verse itself; for "he made the stars also." We 
are thus at once placed in the presence of an 
agent of unbounded power ; for we must all 
feel that a being which could create such a 
world as this, must, beyond all comparison, 
possess a power greater than any which we 
experience in ourselves, than any which we 
observe in other visible agents, and to which we 
are not authorized by our observation or know- 
ledge to assign any limits of space or duration. 

2. That the sacred writers should so fre- 
quently dwell upon the omnipotence of God, 
has important reasons which arise out of the 
very design of the revelation which they were 
the means of communicating to mankind. 
Men were to be reminded of their obligations 
to obedience ; and God is therefore constantly 
exhibited as the Creator, the Preserver, and 
Lord of all things. His solemn worship and 
fear were to be enjoined upon them; and, by 
the manifestation of his works, the veil was 
withdrawn from his glory and majesty. Idola- 
try was to be checked and reproved, and the 
true God was therefore placed in contrast with 
the limited and powerless gods of the Heathen : 
"Among the gods of the nations, is there no 
god like unto thee ; neither are there any works 
like thy works." Finally, he is exhibited as 
the object of trust to creatures constantly re= 
minded by experience of their own infirmity 
and dependence ; and to them it is essential to 
know, that his power is absolute, unlimited, and 
irresistible, and that, in a word, he is "mighty 
to save." 

3. In a revelation which was thus designed 
to awe and control the wicked, and to afford 
strength of mind and consolation to good men 
under all circumstances, the omnipotence of 
God is therefore placed in a great variety of 
impressive views, and connected with the most 
striking illustrations. 

It is declared by the fact of creation, the 



ALM 



42 



ALM 



creation of beings out of nothing; which itself, I 
though it had been confined to a single object, 
however minute, exceeds finite comprehension, 
and overwhelms the faculties. This with God 
required no effort : " He spake and it was done, 
he commanded and it stood fast." The vast- 
ness and variety of his works enlarge the con- 
ception : " The heavens declare the glory of 
God, and the firmament showeth his handy 
work." "He spreadeth out the heavens, and 
treadeth upon the waves of the sea ; he maketh 
Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the cham- 
bers of the south ; he doeth great things, past 
finding out, yea, and wonders without number. 
He stretcheth out the north over the empty 
place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. 
He bindeth up the waters in the thick clouds, 
and the cloud is not rent under them ; he hath 
compassed the waters with bounds until the 
day and night come to an end." The ease with 
which he sustains, orders, and controls the 
most powerful and unruly of the elements, 
arrays his omnipotence with an aspect of in- 
effable dignity and majesty : " By him all things 
consist." " He brake up for the sea a decreed 
place, and set bars and doors, and said, Hitherto 
shalt thou come and no farther, and here shall 
thy proud waves be stayed." "He looketh to 
the end of the earth, and seeth under the whole 
heaven, to make the weight for the winds, to 
weigh the waters by measure, to make a decree 
for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the 
thunder." " Who hath measured the waters in 
the hollow of his hand, meted out heaven with 
a span, comprehended the dust of the earth 
in a measure, and weighed the mountains in 
scales, and the hills in a balance." The de- 
scriptions of the divine power are often terri- 
ble : "The pillars of heaven tremble, and are 
astonished at his reproof; he divideth the sea 
by his power." " He remove th the mountains, 
and they know it not ; he overturneth them in 
his anger; he shaketh the earth out of her 
place, and the pillars thereof tremble ; he com- 
mandeth the sun and it riseth not, and sealeth 
up the stars." The same absolute subjection 
of creatures to his dominion is seen among the 
intelligent inhabitants of the material universe ; 
and angels, mortals the most exalted, and evil 
spirits, are swayed with as much ease as the 
most passive elements : " He maketh his angels 
spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire." They 
veil their faces before his throne, and acknow- 
ledge themselves his servants : " It is he that 
sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the in- 
habitants thereof are as grasshoppers," " as the 
dust of the balance, less than nothing and 
vanity." "He bringeth princes to nothing." 
" He setteth up one and putteth down another ;" 
"for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he is go- 
vernor among the nations." " The angels that 
sinned he cast down to hell, and delivered them 
into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto 
judgment." The closing scenes of this world 
complete these transcendent conceptions of 
the majesty and power of God. The dead of 
all ages rise from their graves at his voice : and 
the sea gives up the dead which are in it. Be- 
fore his face heaven and earth fly away ; the 



stars fall from heaven, and the powers of hea- 
ven are shaken. The dead, small and great, 
stand before God, and are divided as a shepherd 
divideth the sheep from the goats. The wicked 
go away into everlasting punishment, but the 
righteous into life eternal. 

4. Of these amazing views of the omnipo- 
tence of God, spread almost through every page 
of the Scriptures, the power lies in their truth. 
They are not eastern exaggerations, mistaken 
for sublimity. Every thing in nature answers 
to them, and renews from age to age the energy 
of the impression which they cannot but make 
on the reflecting mind. The order of the astral 
revolutions indicates the constant presence of 
an invisible but incomprehensible power. The 
seas hurl the weight of their billows upon the 
rising shores, but every where find a " bound 
fixed by a perpetual decree." The tides reach 
their height ; if they flowed on for a few hours, 
the earth would change places with the bed of 
the sea ; but, under an invisible control, they 
become refluent. The expression, " He touch- 
eth the mountains and they smoke," is not 
mere imagery : — every volcano is a testimony 
of its truth ; and earthquakes proclaim, that, 
before him, "the pillars of the world tremble." 
Men collected into armies, or populous nations, 
give us vast ideas of human power ; but let an 
army be placed amidst the sand storms and 
burning winds of the desert, as, in the east ; 
or, before ^^ his frost, ^^ as in our own day in 
Russia, where one of the mightiest armaments 
was seen retreating before, or perishing under, 
an unexpected visitation of snow and storm ; 
or let the utterly helpless state of a populous 
country which has been visited by famine, or 
by a resistless pestilential disease, be reflected 
upon ; and we feel that it is scarcely a figure 
of speech to say, that "all nations before him 
are less than nothing and vanity" 

5. Nor, in reviewing this doctrine of Scrip- 
ture, ought the great practical uses made of the 
omnipotence of God, by the sacred writers, to 
be overlooked. By them nothing is said for 
the mere display of knowledge, as in Heathen 
writers ; and we have no speculations without 
a subservient moral. To excite and keep alive 
in man the fear and worship of God, and to 
bring him to a felicitous confidence in that 
almighty power which pervades and controls 
all things, are the noble ends of those ample 
displays of the omnipotence of God, which roll 
through the sacred volume with a sublimity 
that inspiration only could supply. " Declare 
his glory among the Heathen, his marvellous 
works among all nations ; for great is the Lord, 
and greatly to be praised. — Glory and honour 
are in his presence, and strength and gladness 
in his place. — Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds 
of the people, give unto the Lord glory and 
strength ; give unto the Lord the glory due unto 
his name. — The Lord is my light and my sal- 
vation ; whom shall I fear ? — The Lord is the 
strength of my life ; of whom shall I be afraid ? 
If God be for us, who then can be against us ? 
Our help standeth in the name of the Lord, who 
made heaven and earth. — What time I am 
afraid, I will trust in thee." — Thus, as one ob- 



ALM 



43 



ALM 



serves, " our natural fears, of which we must 
have many, remit us to God, and remind us, 
since we know what God is, to lay hold on his 
almighty power." 

6. Ample, however, as are these views of the 
power of God, the subject is not exhausted. 
As, when the Scriptures speak of the eternity 
of God, they declare it so as to give us a mere 
glimpse of that fearful peculiarity of the divine 
nature, that God is the fountain of being to 
himself, and that he is eternal, because he is 
the "I am;" so we are taught not to measure 
God's omnipotence by the actual displays of it 
which we see around us. These are the mani- 
festations of the fact, but not the measure of 
the attribute ; and should we resort to the dis- 
coveries of modern philosophy, which, by the 
help of instruments, has so greatly enlarged 
the known boundaries of the visible universe, 
and add to the stars which are visible to the 
naked eye, those new exhibitions of the divine 
power in the nebulous appearances of the hea- 
vens which are resolvable into myriads of 
distinct celestial luminaries, whose immense 
distances commingle their light before it reach- 
es our eyes ; we thus almost infinitely expand 
the circle of created existence, and enter upon 
a formerly unknown and overwhelming range 
of divine operation. But still we are only re- 
minded, that his power is truly almighty and 
measureless — "Lo, all these are parts of his 
ways ; but how little a portion is known of him, 
and the thunder of his power who can under- 
stand?" It is a mighty conception that we 
form of a power from which all other power is 
derived, and to which it is subordinate ; which 
nothing can oppose ; which can beat down 
and annihilate all other power whatever; 
which operates in the most perfect manner, at 
once, in an instant, with the utmost ease ; but 
the Scriptures lead us to the contemplation of 
greater and even unfathomable depths. The 
omnipotence of God is inconceivable and 
boundless. It arises from the infinite perfec- 
tion of God, that his power can never be actu- 
ally exhausted ; and, in every imaginable instant 
in eternity, that inexhaustible power of God 
can, if it please him, be adding either more 
creatures to those in existence, or greater per- 
fection to them; since " it belongs to self-exist- 
ent being, to be always full and communicative, 
and, to the communicated contingent being, to 
be ever empty and craving." 

7. One limitation of the divine power it is 
true we can conceive, but it detracts nothing 
from its perfection. Where things in them- 
selves imply a contradiction, as that a body 
may be extended and not extended, in a certain 
place and not in it, at the same time ; such 
things cannot be done by God, because contra- 
dictions are impossible in their own nature. 
Nor is it any derogation from the divine power 
to say, they cannot be done ; for as the object 
of the understanding, of the eye, and the ear, 
is that which is intelligible, visible, and audi- 
ble ; so the object of power must be that which 
ie possible ; and as it is no prejudice to the most 
perfect understanding, or sight, or hearing, that 
it does not understand what is not intelligible. 



or see what is not visible, or hear what is not 
audible ; so neither is it any diminution to tho 
most perfect power, that it does not do what is 
not possible. In like manner, God cannot do 
any thing that is repugnant to his other perfec- 
tions : he cannot lie, nor deceive, nor deny 
himself; for this would be injurious to his truth. 
He cannot love sin, nor punish innocence ; for 
this would destroy his holiness and goodness : 
and therefore to ascribe a power to him that in 
inconsistent with the rectitude of his nature, is 
not to magnify but debase him ; for all unright- 
eousness is weakness, a defection from right 
reason, a deviation from the perfect rule of ac- 
tion, and arises from a want of goodness and 
power. In a word, since all the attributes of 
God are essentially the same, a power in him 
which tends to destroy any other attribute of 
the divine nature, must be a power destructive 
of itself. Well, therefore, may we conclude him 
absolutely omnipotent, who, by being able to 
effect all things consistent with his perfections, 
showeth infinite ability, and, by not being able to 
do anything repugnant to the same perfections, 
demonstrates himself subject to no infirmity. 

8. Nothing certainly in the finest writings of 
antiquity, were all their best thoughts collected 
as to the majesty and power of God, can bear 
any comparison with the views thus presented 
to us by divine revelation. Were we to forget, 
for a moment, what is the fact, that their noblest 
notions stand connected with fancies and vain, 
speculations which deprive them of their force, 
still their thoughts never rise so high ; the cur- 
rent is broken, the round of lofty conception is 
not completed, and, unconnected as their views 
of divine power were with the eternal destiny 
of man, and the very reason of creation, we 
never hear in them, as in the Scriptures, "the 
THUNDER of his powcr." 

ALMOND TREE, nV. Arabic, lauz. Trans, 
lated hazel, Gen. xxx, 37; iptt', rendered almond, 
Gen. xliii, 11; Exod. xxv, 33, 34; xxxvii, 19, 
20 ; Num. xvii, 8 ; Eccles. xii, 5 ; and Jer. i, 11. 
The first name may be that of the tree; the 
other, that of the fruit, or nut. 

A tree resembling the peach tree in its leaves 
and blossoms, but the fruit is longer and more 
compressed, the outer green coat is thinner and 
drier when ripe, and the shell of the stone is 
not so rugged. This stone, or nut, contains a 
kernel, which is the only esculent part. The 
whole arrives at maturity in September, when 
the outer tough cover splits open and discharges 
the nut. From the circumstance of its blossom- 
ing the earliest of any of the trees, beginning 
as soon as the rigour of winter is past, and be- 
fore it is in leaf, it has its Hebrew name shakad, 
which comes from a verb signifying to make 
haste, to be in a hurry, or to awake early. To 
the forwardness of the almond tree there seems 
to be a reference in Jeremiah : " The word of 
the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what 
seest thou ? And I said, I see a rod of an almond 
tree. Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast 
well seen : for I will hasten my word to perform 
it ;" or rather, " I am hastening, or watching 
over my word to fulfil it," Jer. i, 11, 12. In 
this manner it is rendered by the Seventy; 



ALO 



44 



ALO 



and by the Vulgate, Vigilaho ego super verbum 
meum. [I will watch over my word.] This is 
the first vision with which the Prophet was 
honoured ; and his attention is roused by a very 
significant emblem of that severe correction 
with which the Most High was hastening to 
visit his people fiar their iniquity ; and frorii the 
species of tree to v/hich the rod belonged, he is 
warned of its near approach. The idea which 
the appearance of the almond rod suggested to 
his mind, is confirmed by the exposition of God 
himself: " I am watching over, or on account 
of, my word to fulfil it ;" and this double mode 
of instruction, first by emblem, and then by 
exposition, was certainly intended to make a 
deeper impression on the mind both of Jeremiah 
and of the people to whom he was sent. 

It is probable that the rods which the princes 
of Israel bore, were scions of the almond tree, at 
once the ensign of their office, and the emblem 
of their vigilance. Such, we know from the testi- 
mony of Scripture, was the rod of Aaron ; which 
renders it exceedingly probable, that the rods of 
the other chiefs were from the same tree. 

The hoary head is beautifully compared by 
Solomon to the almond tree, covered in the ear- 
liest days of spring with its snow white flowers, 
before a single leaf has budded : "The almond 
tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall 
be a burden, and desire shall fail," Eccl. xii, 5. 
Man has existed in this world but a few days, 
when old age begins to appear, sheds its snows 
upon his head, prematurely nips his hopes, 
darkens his earthly prospects, and hurries him 
into the grave. 

ALMUG TREE, a certain kind of wood, 
mentioned 1 Kings, x, 11 ; 2 Chron. ii, 8; ix, 
10, 11. Jerom and the Vulgate render it, ligna 
thyina, and the Septuagint ^vXa zseXcKrjru, wrought 
iDood. Several critics understand it to mean 
gummy wood; but a wood abounding in resin 
must be very unfit for the uses to which this is 
said to be applied. Celsus queries if it be not 
the sandal ; but Michaelis thinks the particular 
species of M^ood to be wholly unknown to us. 
Dr. Shaw supposes that the almug tree was the 
cypress ; and he observes that the wood of this 
tree is still used in Italy and other places for 
violins, harpsichords, and other stringed instru- 
ments. 

ALOE, -\7^, a plant with broad leaves, near- 
ly two inches thick, prickly and serrated. It 
grows about two feet high. A very bitter gum 
is extracted from it, used for medicinal pur- 
poses, and anciently for embalming dead bo- 
dies. Nicodemus is said, John xix, 39, to have 
brought one hundred pounds' weight of myrrh 
and oloes to embalm the body of Jesus. The 
quantity has been exclaimed against by certain 
Jews, as being enough for fifty bodies. But 
instead of iKarbv it might originally haye been 
written Sikutov, ten pounds' weight. However, 
at the fimeral of Herod there were five hundred 
apw/^rtrd^opyf, spice hearers ; and at that of R. Ga- 
maliel, eighty poundsofopobalsamiun were used. 

The wood which God showed Moses, that 
with it he might sweeten the waters of Marah, 
is called alvah, Exod. xv, 25. The word has 
some relation to aloe ; and some interpreters are 



of opinion that Moses used a bitter sort of wood, 
that so the power of God might be the more 
remarkable. Mr. Bruce mentions a town, or 
large village, by the name of Elvah. It is thickly 
planted with trees ; is the oasis parva of the 
ancients ; and the last inhabited place to the 
west that is under the jurisdiction of Egypt. 
He also observes that the Arabs call a shrub or 
tree, not unlike our hawthorn, either in wood 
or flower, by the name of elvah. " It was this," 
say they, "with which Moses sweetened the 
waters of Marah ; and with this, too, did Kalib 
Ibn el Walid sweeten those of Elvah, once bit- 
ter, and give the place the name of this circum- 
stance." It may be that God directed Moses to 
the very wood proper for the purpose. M. Nei- 
buhr, when in these parts, inquired after wood 
capable of this effect, but could gain no informa- 
tion of any such. It will not, however, from 
hence follow that Moses really used a bitter 
wood ; but, as Providence usually works by the 
proper and fit means to accomplish its ends, it 
seems likely that the wood he made use of was, 
in some degree at least, corrective of that quali- 
ty which abounded in the water, and so rendered 
it potable. This seems to have been the opinion 
of the author of Ecclesiasticus, xxxviii, 5. That 
other water, also, requires some correction, and 
that such a correction is applied to it, appears 
from the custom in Egypt in respect to that of 
the Nile, which, though somewhat muddy, is 
rendered pure and salutary by being put into 
jars, the inside of which is rubbed with a paste 
made of bitter almonds. The first discoverers 
of the rioridas are said to have corrected the 
stagnant and fetid water they found there, by 
infusing in it branches of sassafras ; and it is 
understood that the first inducement of the Chi- 
nese to the general use of tea, was to correct 
the water of their ponds and rivers. 

The Lign-Aloe, or agallochum, Num». xxiv, 
6 ; Psalm xlv, 9 ; and Cantic. iv, 14. nSnN, mas- 
culine, 'joN, whose plural is D^VnN, is a small 
tree about eight or ten feet high. That the 
flower of this plant yielded a fragrance, is assur- 
ed to us in the following extract from Swin- 
burne's Travels, letter xii: "This morning, 
like many of the foregoing ones, was delicious. 
The sun rose gloriously out of the sea, and all 
the air around was perfumed with the effluvia of 
the aloe, as its rays sucked up the dew from the 
leaves." This extremely bitter plant contains 
under the bark three sorts of wood. The first 
is black, solid, and weighty ; the second is of 
a tawny colour, of a light spongy texture, very 
porous, and filled with a resin extremely fra- 
grant and agreeable ; the third kind of wood, 
which is the heart, has a strong aromatic odour, 
and is esteemed in the east more precious than 
gold itself. It is used for perfiiming habits and 
apartments, and is administered as a cordial in 
fainting and epileptic fits. These pieces, called 
calunbac, are carefully preserved in pewter 
boxes, to prevent their drying. V^hen they are 
used they are ground upon a marble with such 
liquids as are best suited to the purpose for 
which they are intended. This wood, mention- 
ed Cantic. iv, 14, in conjunction with several 
other odoriferous plants there referred to, was 



ALT 



45 



ALT 



in high esteem among the Hebrews for its ex- 
quisite exhalations. 

The scented aloe, and each shrub that showers 
Gum from its veins, and odours from its flowera 
Thus the son of Sirach, Ecclesiasticus xxiv, 15 : 
" I gave a sweet smell like the cinnamon and 
aspalathus. I yielded a pleasant odour like the 
best myrrh; like galbanum and onyx, and 
fragrant storax, and like the fume of frankin- 
cense in the tabernacle." It may not be amiss 
to observe that the Pei-sian translator renders 
ahalim, sandal wood ; and the same was the 
opinion of a certain Jew in Arabia who w^as 
consulted by Neibuhr. 

ALPHA, the first letter of the Greek alpha- 
bet; Omega being the last letter. Hence 
Alpha and Omega is a title which Christ ap- 
propriates to himself, Rev. i, 8 ; xxi, 6 ; xxii, 13 ; 
as signifying the beginning and the end, the 
first and the last, and thus properly denoting 
his perfection and eternity. 

ALPHEUS, father of James the less, Matt. 
X, 3 ; Luke vi, 15. Alpheus was the husband 
of Mary, believed to have been sister to the 
mother of Christ ; for which reason, James is 
called the Lord's brother ; but the term brother 
is too general in its application to fix their 
relation, though the fact is probable. Many 
are of opinion that Cleopas, mentioned Luke 
xxiv, 18, is the same as Alpheus ; Alpheus be- 
ing his Greek name, and Cleopas his Hebrew, 
or Syriac name, according to the custom of 
this pro\nnce, (or of the time,) where men often 
had two names ; by one of which they were 
known to their friends and countrymen, by the 
other to the Romans or strangers. 

2. Alpheus, father of Levi, or Matthew, 
whom Jesus took to be an Apostle and Evange- 
list, Mark ii, 14. 

ALTAR. Sacrifices are nearly as ancient 
as worship, and altars are of almost equal an- 
tiquity. Scripture speaks of altars, erected by 
the patriarchs, without describing their form, 
or the materials of which they were composed. 
The altar which Jacob set up at Bethel, was 
the stone v/hich had served him for a pillow; 
Gideon sacrificed on tlie rock before his house. 
The first altars which God commanded Moses 
to raise, were of earth or rough stones ; and it 
was declared that if iron were used in con- 
structing them they would become impure, 
Exod. XX, 24, 25. The altar which Moses 
enjoined Joshua to build on Mount Ebal, was 
to be of unpolished stones, Deut. xxvii, 5 ; Josh, 
viii, 31 ; and it is very probable that such were 
those built by Samuel, Saul, and David. The 
altar which Solomon erected in the temple 
was of brass, bat filled, it is believed, with 
rough stones, 2 Chron. iv, 1-3. It was twenty 
cubits long, twenty wide, and ten high. That 
built at Jerusalem, by Zerubbabel, after the 
return from Babylon, was of rough stones ; as 
was that of Maccabees. Josephus says that 
the altar which in his time was in the temple 
was of rough stones, fifteen cubits high, forty 
long, and forty wide. 

Among the Romans altars were of two kinds, 
the higher and the lower; the higher were 
intended for the celestial gods, and were called 



altaria, from alius; the lower were for the 
terrestrial and infernal gods, and were called 
arce. Those dedicated to the heavenly gods 
were raised a great height above the surface of 
the earth ; those of the terrestrial gods were 
almost even with the surface ; and those for 
the infernal deities were only holes dug in the 
ground called scrohiculi. 

Before temples were in use the altars were 
placed in the groves, highways, or on tops of 
mountains, inscribed with the names, ensigns, 
or characters of the respective gods to whom 
they belonged. The great temples at Rome 
generally contained three altars; the first in 
the sanctuary, at the foot of the statue, for 
incense and libations; the second before the 
gate of the temple, for the sacrifices of victims ; 
and the third was a portable one for the offer- 
ings and sacred vestments or vessels to lie 
upon. The ancients used to swear upon the 
altars upon solemn occasions, such as confirm- 
ing alliances, treaties of peace, (fee. They 
were also places of reflige, and served as au 
asylum and sanctuary to all who fled to them, 
whatever their crimes were. 

The principal altars among the Jews were 
those of incense, of burnt-offering, and the 
altar or table for the shew bread. The altar 
of incense was a small table of shittim wood 
covered with plates of gold. It was a cubit 
long, a cubit broad, and two cubits high. At 
the four corners were four horns. The priest, 
whose turn it was to officiate, burnt incense on 
this altar, at the time of the morning sacrifice 
between the sprinkling of the blood and the 
laying of the pieces of the victim on the altar 
of burnt-offering. He did the same also in the 
evening, between the laying of the pieces on 
the altar and the drink-offering. At the same 
time the people prayed in silence, and their 
prayers were offered up by the priests. The 
altar of burnt-offering was of shittim M^ood 
also, and carried upon the shoulders of the 
priests, by staves of the same wood overlaid 
with brass. In Moses's days it was five cubits 
square, and three high : but it was greatly en- 
larged in the days of Solomon, being twenty 
cubits square, and ten in height. It was cover- 
ed with brass, and had a horn at each corner 
to which the sacrifice was tied. This altar was 
placed in the open air, that the smoke might 
not sully the inside of the tabernacle or tem- 
ple. On this altar the holy fire was renewed 
from time to time, and kept constantly burn- 
ing. Hereon, likewise, the sacrifices of lambs 
and bullocks were burnt, especially a lamb 
every morning at the third hour, or nine of the 
clock, and a lamb every aflernoon at three, 
Exod. XX, 24, 25; xxvii, 1, 2, 4; xxxviii, 1, 
The altar of burnt-offering had the privilege of 
being a sanctuary or place of refuge. The 
wilful murderer, indeed, sought protection there 
in vain ; for by the express command of God 
he might be dragged to justice, even from the 
altar. The altar or table of shew bread was of 
shittim wood also, covered with plates of gold, 
and had a border round it adorned with sculp- 
ture. It was two cubits long, one wide, and 
one and a half in height. This table stood in 



AMA 



46 



AMA 



the sanctum sanctorum, [holy of holies,] and 
upon it were placed the loaves of shew bread. 
After the return of the Jews from their cap- 
tivity, and the building of the second temple, 
the form and size of the altars were somewhat 
changed. 

Sacrifices according to the laws of Moses, 
could not be oiFered except by the priests ; and 
at any other place than on the altar of the 
tabernacle or the temple. Furthermore, they 
were not to be oiFered to idols, nor with any 
superstitious rites. See Lev. xvii, 1-7 ; Deut. 
xii, 15, 16. Withoyt these precautionary mea- 
sures, the true religion would hardly have been 
secure. If a different arrangement had been 
adopted, if the priests had been scattered about 
to various altars, without being subjected to the 
salutary restraint which would result from a 
mutual observation of each other, they would 
no doubt some of them have willingly con- 
sented to the worship of idols ; and others, in 
their separate situation, would not have been 
in a condition to resist the wishes of the multi- 
tude', had those wishes been wrong. The 
necessity of sacrificing at one altar, (that of 
the tabernacle or temple,) is frequently and 
emphatically insisted on, Deut. xii, 13, 14 ; and 
all other altars are disapproved, Lev. xxvi, 30, 
compare Joshua xxii, 9-34. Notwithstanding 
this, it appears that, subsequently to the time 
of Moses, especially in the days of the kings, 
altars were multiplied; but they fell under 
suspicions, although some of them were perhaps 
sacred to the worship of the true God. It is, 
nevertheless, true, that prophets, whose cha- 
racters were above all suspicion, sacrificed, in 
some instances, in other places than the one 
designated by the laws, 1 Sam. xiii, 3-14; 
xvi, 1-5 ; 1 Kings xviii, 21-40. 

AMALEKITES, a people whose country 
adjoined the southern border of the land of 
Canaan, in the north-western part of Arabia 
Petraea. They are generally supposed to have 
been the descendants of AJmalek, the son of 
Eliphaz, and grandson of Esau. But Moses 
speaks of the Amalekites long before this 
Amalek was born ; namely in the days of 
Abraham, when Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, 
devastated their country. Gen. xiv, 7 ; from 
which it may be inferred that there was some 
other and more ancient Amalek, from whom 
this people sprang. The Arabians have a 
tradition that this Amalek was a son of Ham ; 
and when we consider that so early as the 
march from Egypt the Amalekites were a peo- 
ple powerful enough to attack the Israelites, it 
is far more probable that they should derive 
their ancestry from Ham, than from the then 
recent stock of the grandson of Esau. It may 
also be said, that the character and fate of this 
people were more consonant with the dealings 
of Providence toward the families of the for- 
mer. This more early origin of the Amalek- 
ites will likewise explain why Balaam called 
them the " first of the nations." 

They are supposed by some to have been a 
party or tribe of the shepherds who invaded 
Egypt, and kept it in subjection for two hundred 
years. This will agree with the Arabian tra- 



dition as to their descent. It also agrees with 
their pastoral and martial habits, as well as 
with their geographical position; which was 
perhaps made choice of on their retiring from 
Egypt, adjoining that of their countrymen the 
Philistines, whose history is very similar. It 
also furnishes a motive for their hostility to the 
Jews, and their treacherous attempt to destroy 
them in the desert. The ground of this hos- 
tility has been very generally supposed to have 
been founded in the remembrance of Jacob's 
depriving their progenitor of his birthright. 
But we do not find that the Edomites, who had 
this ground for a hatred to the Jews, made any 
attempt to molest them, nor that Moses ever 
reproaches the Amalekites for attacking the 
Israelites as their brethren ; nor do we ever 
find in Scripture that the Amalekites joined 
with the Edomites, but always with the Ca- 
naanites and the Philistines. These consider- 
ations would be sufficient, had we no other 
reasons for believing them not to be of the stock 
of Esau. They may, however, be deduced 
from a higher origin; and viewing them as 
Cuthite shepherds and warriors, we have an 
adequate explanation both of their imperious 
and warlike character, and of the motive of 
their hostility to the Jews in particular. If 
expelled with the rest of their face from Egypt, 
they could not but recollect the fatal c /erthrow 
at the Red Sea ; and if not participators in that 
catastrophe, still, as members of the same 
family, they must bear this event in remem- 
brance with bitter feelings of revenge'. But an 
additional motive is not wanting for this hos- 
tility, especially for its first act. The Amalek- 
ites probably knew that the Israelites were 
advancing to take possession of the land of 
Canaan, and resolved to frustrate the purposes 
of God in this respect. Hence they did not 
wait for their near approach to that country, 
but came down from their settlements, on its 
southern borders, to attack them unawares at 
Rephidim. Be this as it may, the Amalekites 
came on the Israelites, when encamped at that 
place, little expecting such an assault. Moses 
commanded Joshua, with a chosen band, to 
attack the Amalekites; while he, with Aaron 
and Hur, went up the mountain Horeb. During 
the engagement, Moses held up his hands to 
heaven ; and so long as they were maintained 
in this attitude, the Israelites prevailed, but 
when through weariness they fell, the Ama- 
lekites prevailed. Aaron and Hur, seeing this, 
held up his hands till the latter were entirely 
defeated with great slaughter, Exod. xvii. 

The Amalekites were indeed the earliest and 
the most bitter enemies the Jews had to en- 
counter. They attacked them in the desert ; 
and sought every opportunity afterward of 
molesting them. Under the judges, the Ama- 
lekites, in conjunction with the Midianites, 
invaded the land of Israel; when they were 
defeated by Gideon, Judges vi, vii. But God, 
for their first act of treachery, had declared 
that he would "utterly put out the remem- 
brance of Amalek from under heaven;" a 
denunciation which was not long af..er accom- 
plished. Saul destroyed their entire army, 



AMA 



47 



AMB 



with the exception of Agag their king ; for 
sparing whom, and permitting the Israelites to 
take the spoil of their foes, he incurred the 
displeasure of the Lord, who took the sceptre 
from him. Agag was immediately afterward 
hewn in pieces by Samuel, 1 Sam. xv. It is 
remarkable, that most authors make Saul's 
pursuit of the Amalekites to commence from 
the lower Euphrates, instead of from the south- 
ern border of the land of Canaan. (See Havi- 
lah.) David a few years after, defeated another 
of their armies ; of whom only four hundred 
men escaped on camels, 1 Sam. xxx ; after 
which event, the Amalekites appear to have 
been obliterated as a nation. 

AMAS A, the son of Ithra and Abigail, Da- 
vid's sister, whom Absalom, when he rebelled 
against his father, appointed general of his 
army, 2 Sam. xvii, 25. Amasa having thus re- 
ceived the command of Absalom's troops, engag- 
ed his cousin Joab, general of David's army, 
and was worsted. But, after the defeat of Ab- 
salom's party, David, being angry at Joab for 
killing Absalom, pardoned Amasa, and gave 
him the command of his own army. Upon the 
revolt of Sheba, the son of Bichri, David gave 
orders to Amasa to assemble all Judah and 
march against Sheba. Amasa not being able to 
form his army in the time prescribed, David 
directed Abishai to pursue Sheba with the 
guards. Joab, with his people, accompanied 
him ; and these troops were scarcely got as far 
as the great stone in Gibeon, before Amasa came 
and joined them with his forces. Then said 
Joab to Amasa, "Art thou in health, my bro- 
ther ?" and took him by the beard with his right 
hand to kiss him ; and treacherously smote him 
under the fifth rib, so that he expired. 

AMAZIAH, one of the kings of Judah, 2 
Chron. xxiv, 27, son of Joash, succeeded his 
father A. M. 3165, B. C. 839. He was twenty, 
five years of age when he began to reign, and 
reigned twenty-nine years at Jerusalem. " He 
did good in the sight of the Lord, but not with 
a perfect heart." When settled in his kingdom, 
he put to death the murderers of his father, but 
avoided a barbarous practice then too common, 
to destroy also their children ; in which he had 
respect to the precept, " The fathers shall not 
be put to death for the children, neither shall 
the children be put to death for the fathers; 
every man shall be put to death for his own 
sin," Deut. xxiv, 16; 2 Chron. xxv, 1-3. 

In the muster which Amaziah made of his 
people, he found three hundred thousand men 
able to bear arms. He hired, besides, one hun- 
dred thousand men of Israel ; for which he paid 
the king of Israel a hundred talents, about 
thirty-four thousand pounds English. His de- 
sign was to employ these troops against Edom, 
which had revolted from Judah, in the reign of 
Joram, about fifty-four years before, 2 Kings, 
viii, 20. But a prophet of the Lord came to 
him, and said, " O king, let not the army of 
Israel go with thee ; for the Lord is not with 
Israel." Amaziah, hereupon, sent back those 
troops ; and they returning, strongly irritated 
against Amaziah, dispersed themselves over the 
cities of Judah, from Bethoron to Samaria, 



killed three thousand men, and carried off a 
great booty, to make themselves amends for 
the loss of the plunder of Edom. Amaziah, 
with his own forces gave battle to the Edom- 
ites in the Valley of Salt, and defeated them ; 
but having thus punished Edom, and taken their 
idols, he adored them as his own deities. This 
provoked the Lord, who permitted Amaziah to 
be so blinded as to believe himself invincible. 
He therefore sent to defy the king of Israel, 
saying, " Come, let us look one another in the 
face." The motive of this challenge was pro- 
bably to oblige Joash, king of Israel, to repair 
the ravages which his troops had committed 
on their return homewards. Joash answered 
him by the fable of the cedar of Lebanon, and 
the thistle trodden down by a beast, 2 Kings 
xiv, 8, 9. But Amaziah, deaf to these reason- 
ings, advanced to Bethshemesh, and was defeat, 
ed and taken prisoner there, by Joash, who 
carried him to Jerusalem. Joash ordered the 
demolition of four hundred cubits of the city 
wall, carried to Samaria all the gold and silver, 
the rich vessels of the house of God, the trea- 
suries of the royal palace, and the sons of those 
among his own people who had been hostages 
there. Amaziah reigned after this, fifteen or 
sixteen years at Jerusalem, but returned not to 
the Lord. He endeavoured to escape from a 
conspiracy to Lachish ; but was assassinated. 
He was buried with his ancestors in the city of 
David, and Uzziah, or Azariah, his son, about 
sixteen years of age, succeeded him. 

AMBASSADOR, a messenger sent by a 
sovereign, to transact affairs of great moment. 
Ministers of the Gospel are called ambassadors, 
because, in the name of Jesus Christ the King 
of kings, they declare his will to men, and pro- 
pose the terms of their reconciliation to God, 
2 Cor. V, 20 ; Eph. vi, 20. Eliakim, Shebna, 
and Joah, the servants of king Hezekiah, were 
called " ambassadors of peace." In their mas- 
ter's name they earnestly solicited a peace from 
the Assyrian monarch, but were made " to weep 
bitterly" with the disappointment and refusal, 
Isaiah xxxiii, 7. 

AMBER, '7Dtt'n, Ezek. i, 4, 27 ; viii, 2. The 
amber is a hard inflammable bitumen. When 
rubbed it is highly endowed with that remark- 
able property called electricity, a word which 
the moderns have formed from its Greek name 
h^iKTpov. But the ancients had also a mixed 
metal of fine copper and silver, resembling the 
amber in colour, and called by the same name. 
From the version of Ezekiel i, 4, by the LXX, 

Kai £V ru) fiiau) dvry ws bpaais >yXf>crps iv fxiau) tov rzvpoi, 
"And in the midst of it as the appearance of 
electrum in the midst of the fire," it appears that 
those translators by v'KeKrpov, could not mean 
amber, which grows Jim as soon as it feels the 
fire, and quickly dissolves into a resinous or 
pitchy substance ; but the mixed metal above 
mentioned, which is much celebrated by the 
ancients for its beautiflil lustre, and which, 
when exposed to the fire like other n.etals, 
grows more bright and shining. St. Jerom, 
Theodoret, St, Gregory and Origen think, that, 
in the above cited passages from Ezekiel, a 
precious and highly polished metal is meant. 



AMM 



48 



AMM 



AMEN. |CN, in Hebrew, signifies true, faith- 
ful, certain. It is used likewise in affirmation ; 
and was often thus employed by our Saviour : 
" Amen, amen," that is, "Verily, verily." It is 
also understood as expressing a wish, " Amen ! 
so be it!" or an affirmation, "Amen, yes, I 
believe it :" Num. v, 22. She shall answer, 
" Amen ! Amen !" Deut. xxvii, 15, 16, 17, &c. 
*' All the people shall answer, Amen ! Amen !" 
1 Cor. xiv, 16. " How shall he who ocoupieth 
the place of the unlearned, say. Amen ! at thy 
giving of thanks ? seeing he understandeth not 
what thou sayest." " The promises of God are 
Amen in Christ;" that is, certain, confirmed, 
granted, 2 Cor. i, 20. The Hebrews end the 
five books of Psalms, according to their distri- 
bution of them, with "Amen, amen;" which 
the Septuagint translate, VivoiTo, yivoiro, and the 
Latins, Fiat, fat. The Gospels, &c, are ended 
with AMEN. The Greek, Latin, and other 
churches, preserve this word in their praj^ers, 
as well as alleluia and hosanna. At the conclu- 
sion of the public prayers, the people anciently 
answered with a loud voice, "Amen!" and 
Jerom says, that, at Rome, when the people 
answered, " Amen I" the sound was like a clap 
of thunder, in siniilitudinem cmlestis tonitrui 
Amen reboot. [Amen rings again like a peal 
of thunder.] The Jews assert that the gates 
of heaven are opened to him who answers, 
" Amen !" with all his might. 

The Jewish doctors give three rules for pro- 
nouncing the word : 1 . That it be not pronounc- 
ed too hastily and rapidly, but with a grave and 
distinct voice. 2. That it be not louder than 
the tone of him that blesses. 3. That it be ex- 
pressed in faith, with a certain persuasion that 
God would bless them, and hear their prayers. 
Amen is a title of our Lord , " The Amen, 
the true and faithful witness," Rev. i, 14. 

AMETHYST. nD'?nJs, Exod. xxviii, 19; and 
xxix, 12 ; and once m the New Testament, Rev. 
xxi, 20, aniBv^oi. 

A transparent gem, of a colour which seems 
composed of a strong blue and deep red ; and, 
according as either prevails, affords different 
tinges of purple, sometimes approaching to vio- 
let, and sometimes even fading to a rose colour. 
The stone called amethyst by the ancients was 
evidently the same with that now generally 
known by this name ; which is far from being 
the case with regard to some other gems. The 
oriental is the hardest, scarcest, and most valu- 
able. It was the ninth stone in the pectoral of 
the high priest, and is mentioned as the twelfth 
in the foundations of the New Jerusalem. 

AMMINADAB, or ABINADAB, a Levite, 
and an inhabitant of Kirjath-jearim, with whom 
the ark was deposited after it was brought back 
from the land of the Philistines, 1 Sam. vii. This 
Amminadab dwelt in Gibeath, that is to say, in 
the highest part of the city of Kirjath-jearim. 

2. The chariots of Amminadab are mention- 
ed. Canticles vi, 12, as being extremely light. 
He is thought to have been some celebrated 
charioteer, whose horses were singularly swift. 
AMMON, or HAMMON, or JUPITER- 
AMMON, an epithet given to Jupiter in Lybia, 
where was a celebrated temple of that deity 



under the denomination of Jupiter Ammon, 
which was visited by Alexander the Great. 

The word Amoun, which imports " shining," 
according to Jablonski, denoted the effects pro- 
duced by the sun on attaining the equator, such 
as the increase of the days ; a more splendid 
light ; and, above all, the fortunate presage of 
the inundation of the Nile, and its consequent 
abundance. 

Ammon is by others derived from Ham, the 
son of Noah, who first peopled Egj'pt and Lybia, 
after the flood; and, when idolatry began to 
gain ground soon after this period, became the 
chief deity of those two countries, in wliich his 
descendants continued. A temple, it is said, 
was built to his honour, in the madst of the 
sandy deserts of Lybia, upon a spot of good 
ground, about two leagues broad, which form- 
ed a kind of island or oasis in a sea of sand. 
He was esteemed the Zeus of Greece, and the 
Jupiter of Latium, as well as the Ammon of the 
Egyptians. In process of time, these two names 
were joined ; and he v/as called Jupiter Ammon. 
For this reason the city of Ammon, No-ammon, 
or the city of Ham, was called by the Greeks 
Diospolis, or the city of Jupiter. Plutarch says, 
that of all the Egyptian deities which seeded 
to have any correspondence with the Zeus of 
Greece, Araon or Ammon was the most pecu- 
liar and appropriate. From Egypt his name and 
worship were brought into Greece; as indeed 
were almost all the names of all the deities that 
were there worshipped. Jupiter Ammon, or 
the Egyptian Jupiter, was usually represented 
under the figure of a ram ; though in some 
medals he appears of a hmnan shape, having 
only two ram's horns growing out beneath his- 
ears. The Egyptians, says Proclus, in the 
Timaeus of Plato, had a singular veneration for 
the ram, because the image of Ammon bore its 
head, and because this first sign of the zodiac was 
the presage of the fruits of the earth. Eusebius 
adds, that this symbol marked the conjunction 
of the sun and moon in the sign of the ram. 

2. Ammon, or Ben-Ammi, the son of Lot, by 
his youngest daughter. Gen. xix, 38. He was 
the father of the Annnonites, and dwelt on the 
east side of the Dead Sea, in the mountains of 
Gilead. 

AMMONIANS, the disciples of Amraonius 
Saccas, of the Alexandrian school. His cha- 
racter was so equivocal, that it is disputed 
whether he was a Heathen or a Christian. Mr. 
Milner calls him "a Pagan Christian," who 
imagined "that all religions, vulgar andphilo- 
sophical, Grecian and barbarous, Jewish and 
Gentile, meant the same thing in substance. 
He undertook, by allegorizing and subtilizing 
various fables and systems, to make up a coali- 
tion of all sects and religions ; and from his 
labours, continued by his disciples, — some of 
whose works still remain, — his followers were 
taught to look on Jew, philosopher, vulgar, 
Pagan, and Christian, as all of the same creed," 
and worshippers of the same God, whether de- 
nominated " Jehovah, Jove, or Lord." 

AMMONITES, the descendants of Ammon, 
the son of Lot. They took possession of the 
country called by their name, after having 



AMM 



49 



AMM 



driven out the Zamzummims, who were its 
ancient inhabitants. The precise period at 
which this expulsion took place is not ascer- 
tained. The Ammonites had kings, and were 
uncircumcised, Jer. ix, 25, 26, and seem to 
have been principally addicted to husbandry. 
They, as well as the Moabites, were among the 
nations whose peace or prosperity the Israelites 
were forbidden to disturb, Deut. ii, 19, &c. 
However, neither the one nor the other were 
to be admitted into the congregation to the 
tenth generation, because they did not come 
out to relieve them in the wilderness, and were 
implicated in hiring Balaam to curse them. 
Their chief and peculiar deity is, in Scripture, 
called Moloch. Chemosh was also a god of 
the Ammonites. Before the Israelites entered 
Canaan, the Amorites conquered a great part 
of the country belonging to the Ammonites 
and Moabites ; but it was retaken by Moses, and 
divided between the tribes of Gad and Reuben. 
Previous to the time of Jephthah, B. C. 1188, 
the Ammonites engaged as principals in a war, 
under a king whose name is not given, against 
the Israelites. This prince, determining to re- 
cover the ancient country of the Ammonites, 
made a sudden irruption into it, reduced the 
land, and kept the inhabitants in subjection for 
eighteen years. He afterward crossed Jordan 
with a design of falling upon the tribes of 
Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. The Israel- 
ites resis-ted the invader; and, assembling at 
Mizpeh, chose Jephthah for their general, and 
sent an expostulatory message to the king of 
the Ammonites, Judges x, xi. The king re. 
plied, that those lands belonged to the Ammon- 
ites, who had been unjustly dispossessed of 
them by the Israelites, when they came out of 
Egypt, and exhorted Jephthah to restore them 
peaceably to the lawful owners. Jephthah re- 
monstrated on the injustice of his claim ; but 
finding a war inf>vitable, he fell upon the Am- 
monites near Aroer, and defeated them with 
great slaughter. On this occasion the Ammon- 
ites lost twenty cities ; and thus an end was 
put, after eighteen years' bondage, to the 
tyranny of Ammon over the Israelites beyond 
Jordan. In the days of Saul, 1 Sam. xi, B. C. 
1095, the old claim of the Ammonites was re- 
vived by Nahash their king, and they laid siege 
to the city of Jabesh. The inhabitants were 
inclined to acknowledge Nahash as their sove- 
reign; but he would accept their submission 
only on condition that every one of them 
should consent to lose his right eye, and that 
thus he might fix a lasting reproach upon 
Israel : but from this humiliating and severe 
requisition they were delivered by Saul, who 
vanquished and dispersed the army of Nahash. 
Upon the death of Nahash, David sent ambas- 
sadors to his son and successor Hanun, to con- 
gratulate him on his accession; but these 
ambassadors were treated as spies, and dis- 
missed in a very reproachful manner, 2 Sam. x. 
This indignity was punished by David with 
rigour. Rabbah, the capital of Hanun, and 
the other cities of Ammon, which resisted the 
progress of the conqueror, were destroyed and 
razed to the ground ; and the inhabitants were 
5 



put to death or reduced to servitude. In the 
reign of Jehoshaphat the Ammonites united 
with their brethren, the Moabites, and the 
inhabitants of Mount Seir, against the king of 
Judah ; but they were completely routed. They 
were afterward overthrown by Uzziah, king 
of Judah, and made tributary, 2 Chron. xxvi, 
8 ; and rebelling in the reigii of his son Jotham, 
they were reduced to the necessity of purchas- 
ing peace at a very dear rate. After the tribes 
of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manas- 
seh, were carried into captivity by Tiglath 
Pileser, B. C. 740, the Ammonites and Moab- 
ites took possession of the cities belonging to 
these tribes, and were reproached for it by 
Jeremiah, xlix, 1. Their ambassadors were 
exhorted to submit to Nebuchadnezzar, and 
threatened, on their refusal, with captivity and 
slavery, Jer. xxvii, 2, 3, 4. The Prophet Ezekiel, 
XXV, 4-10, denounces their entire destruction, 
and informs them, that God would deliver them 
up to the people of the east ; and that the Am- 
monites should no more be mentioned among 
the nations : and this punishment they were to 
suffer for insulting the Israelites on account of 
their calamities, and the destruction of their 
temple by the Chaldeans. This malediction 
began to be inflicted upon them in the fifth 
year after the taking of Jerusalem, when Nebu- 
chadnezzar made war against all the people 
around Judea, A. M. 3420 or 3421, B. C. 583. 
It is probable that Cyrus granted to the Ammon- 
ites and Moabites liberty to return into their 
own covintry, whence they had been removed 
by Nebuchadnezzar ; for they were exposed to 
the revolutions that were common to the peo- 
ple of Syria and Palestine, and were subject 
sometimes to the kings of Egypt, and some, 
times to the kings of Syria. Polybius informs 
us, that Antiochus the Great took Rabboth, or 
Philadelphia, the capital of the Ammonites, 
demolished the walls, and put a garrison into 
it, A. M. 3806, B. C. 198. During the persecu- 
tions of Antiochus Epiphanes, the Ammonites 
manifested their hatred to the Jews, and exer- 
cised great cruelties against such of them as 
lived in their parts. At length their city Jaser, 
and the neighbouring town, fell a prey to the 
Jews, who smote the men, carried their wives 
and children into captivity, and plundered and 
burned the city. Thus ended their last conflict 
with the descendants of Israel. Ammon was, 
however, a highly productive and populous 
country when the Romans became masters of 
all the provinces of Syria ; and several of the 
ten allied cities, which gave name to the cele- 
brated Decapolis, were included within its 
boundaries. Even when first invaded by the 
Saracens, this country, including Moab, was 
enriched by the various benefits of trade, 
covered with a line of forts, and possessed some 
strong and populous cities. Volney bears Avit- 
ness, "that in the immense plains of the Hau- 
ran, ruins are continually to be met with, and 
that what is said of its actual fertility perfectly 
corresponds with the idea given of it in the 
Hebrew writings." The fact of its natural fer- 
tility is corroborated by every traveller who has 
visited it. And " it is evident," says Burck- 



AMM 



50 



AMM 



hardt, " that the whole country must have been 
extremely well cultivated in order to have 
afforded subsistence to the inhabitants of so 
many towns," as are now visible only in their 
ruins. While the fruitfulness of the land of 
Amnion, and the high degree of prosperity and 
power in which it subsisted long prior and long 
subsequent to the date of the predictions, are 
thus indisputably established by historical evi- 
dence and by existing proofs, the researches of 
recent travellers (who were actuated by the 
mere desire of exploring these regions and ob- 
taining geographical information) have made 
known its present aspect ; and testimony the 
most clear, unexceptionable, and conclusive, 
has been borne to the state of dire desolation 
to which it is and has long been reduced. 

It was prophesied concerning Ammon, " Son 
of man, set thy face against the Ammonites, 
and prophesy against them, I will make Kab- 
bah of the Ammonites a stable for camels and 
a couching place for flocks. Behold, I will 
stretch out my hand upon thee, and deliver 
thee for a spoil to the Heathen ; I will cut thee 
off from the people, and cause thee to perish 
out of the countries; I will destroy thee. The 
Ammonites shall not be remembered among 
the nations. Rabbah" (the chief city) "of the 
Ammonites shall be a desolate heap. Ammon 
shall be a perpetual desolation," Ezek. xxv, 2, 
5, 7, 10 ; xxi, 32 ; Jer. xlix, 2 ; Zeph. ii, 9. 

Ammon was to be delivered to be a spoil to 
the Heathen — to be destroyed, and to be a per- 
petual desolation. " All this country, formerly 
so populous and flourishing, is now changed 
into a vast desert." (Seetzen's Travels.) Ruins 
are seen in every direction. The country is 
divided between the Turks and the Arabs, but 
chiefly possessed by the latter. The extortions 
of the one, and the depredations of the other, 
keep it in "perpetual desolation," and make it 
"a spoil to the Heathen." "The far greater 
part of the country is uninhabited, being aban- 
doned to the wandering Arabs, and the towns 
and villages are in a state of total ruin." (Ibid.) 
" At every step are to be found the vestiges of 
ancient cities, the remains of many temples, 
public edifices, and Greek churches." (Burck- 
hardVs Travels.) The cities are left desolate. 
" Many of the ruins present no objects of any 
interest. They consist of a ?qw walls of dwell- 
ing houses, heaps of stones, the foundations of 
some public edifices, and a few cisterns filled 
up ; there is nothing entire, though it appears 
that the mode of building was very solid, all 
the remains being formed of large stones. In 
the vicinity of Ammon there is a fertile plain 
interspersed with low hills, which for the great- 
er part are covered with ruins." (BnrcTihardVs 
Travels in Syria.) While the country is thus 
despoiled and desolate, there are valleys and 
tracts throughout it which "arc covered with 
a fine coat of verdant pasture, and are places 
of resort to the Bedouins, where they pasture 
their camels and their sheep." {BvckinghanCs 
Travels in Palestine.) "The whole way we 
traversed," says Scetzen, "we saw villages in 
ruins, and met numbers of Arabs with their 



camels, 



Mr. Buckingham describes a 



building among the ruins of Ammon, " the ma- 
sonry of which was evidently constructed of 
materials gathered from the ruins of other and 
older buildings on the spot. On entering it at 
the south end," he adds, " we came to an open 
square court, with arched recesses on each side, 
the sides nearly facing the cardinal points. 
The recesses in the northern and southern wall 
were originally open passages, and had arched 
door ways facing each other ; but the first of 
these was found wholly closed up, and the last 
was partially filled up, leaving only a narrow 
passage, just sufficient for the entrance of one 
man and of the goats, which the Arab keepers 
drive in here occasionally for shelter during 
the night." He relates that he lay down among 
" flocks of sheep and goats," close beside the 
ruins of Ammon ; and particularly remarks 
that, during the night, he " was almost entirely 
prevented from sleeping by the bleating of 
flocks." So literally true is it, although Seet- 
zen, and Burckhardt, and Buckingham, who 
relate the facts, make no reference or allusion 
whatever to any of the prophecies, and travelled 
for a different object than the elucidation of 
the Scriptures, — that "the chief city of the 
Ammonites is a stable foi- camels, and a couch- 
ing place for flocks." 

"The Ammonites shall not be remembered 
among the nations." While the Jews, who 
were long their hereditary enemies, continue 
as distinct a people as ever, though dispersed 
among all nations, no trace of the Ammonites 
remains; none are now designated by their 
name, nor do any claim descent from them. 
They did exist, however, long after the time 
when the eventual annihilation of their race 
was foretold ; for they retained their name, and 
continued a great multitude until the second 
century of the Christian sera. {Justin Martyr.) 
"Yet they are cut off from the people. Am- 
mon has perished out of the countries ; it is 
destroyed." No people is attached to its soil ; 
none regard it as their country and adopt its 
name: "And the Ammonites are not remem- 
bered among the nations." 

"Rabbah" (Rabbah Ammon, the chief city 
of Ammon) "shall be a desolate heap." Situ- 
ated, as it vv^as, on each side of the borders of 
a plentiful stream, encircled by a fruitful region, 
strong by nature and fortified by art, nothing 
could have justified the suspicion, or warranted 
the conjecture in the mind of an uninspired 
mortal, that the royal city of Ammon, what- 
ever disasters might possibly befal it in the fate 
of war or change of masters, w^ould ever un- 
dergo eo total a transmutation as to become a 
desolate heap. But although, in addition to 
such tokens of its continuance as a c\\y, more 
than a thousand years had given uninterrupted 
experience of its stability, ere the prophets of 
Israel denounced its fate ; yet a period of equal 
length has now marked it out, as it exists to 
this da}', a desolate heap, a perpetual or per- 
manent desolation. Its ancient name is still 
preserved by the Arabs, and its site is now 
"covered with the ruins of private buildings — 
nothing of them remaining except the founda- 
tions and some of the door posts. The build 



AMO 



51 



AMY 



ings, exposed to the atmosphere, are all in 
decay," (BurckhardVs Travels in Syria,) so that 
they may be said literally to form a desolate 
heap. The public edifices, which once strength- 
ened or adorned the city, after a long resistance 
to decay, are now also desolate ; and the re- 
mains of the most entire among them, sub- 
jected as they are to the abuse and spoliation 
of the wild Arabs, can be adapted to no better 
object than " a stable for camels." Yet these 
broken walls and ruined palaces, says Mr. 
Keith, which attest the ancient splendour of 
Ammon, can now be made subservient, by 
means of a single act of reflection, to a far 
nobler purpose than the most magnificent edi- 
fices on earth can be, when they are contem. 
plated as monuments on which the historic and 
prophetic truth of Scriptui'e is blended in one 
bright inscription. 

AMORITES, the descendants of Amori, or 
Hsemorri, or Amorrhseus, Gen. x, 16, the fourth 
son of Canaan, whose first possessions were in 
the mountains of Judea, among the other fami- 
lies of Canaan : but, growing strong above their 
fellows, and impatient of confinement within 
the narrow boundaries of their native district, 
they passed the Jordan, and extended their 
conquests over the finest provinces of Moab 
and Ammon ; seizing and maintaining posses- 
sion of that extensive and almost insulated por- 
tion of country included between the rivers 
Jordan, Jabbok, and Arnon. This was the 
kingdom, and Heshbon the capital, of the 
Amorites, under Sihon their king, when the 
Israelites, in their way from Egypt, requested 
a passage through their country. This request, 
however, Sihon refused ; and came out against 
them with all his force, when he was slain, his 
people extirpated, and his kingdom taken pos- 
session of by the Israelites. It was subse- 
quently divided between the tribes of Reuben 
and Gad, Nmn. xiii, 29 ; xxi, 13, 25 ; Joshua 
V, 1 ; xi, 3 ; Judges xi, 19, 22. 

AMOS, the fourth of the minor prophets, 
who in his youth had been a herdsman in Te- 
koa, a small town about four leagues southward 
of Jerusalem. He was sent to the people of 
Samaria, to bring them back to God by repent- 
ance, and reformation of manners. Hence it 
is natural to suppose that he must have been 
born within the terrik)ries of Israel, and that 
he only retired to Tekoa, on being expelled 
from Bethel by Amaziah, the priest of the calves 
at Bethel. He frequently complains of the vio- 
lence offered him by those who endeavoured 
to impose silence on him. He boldly inveighs 
against the crying sins of the Israelites, such 
£LS idolatry, oppression, wantonness, and obsti- 
nacy. Nor does he spare the sins of Judah, 
euch as their carnal security, sensuality, and 
injustice. He utters frequent threatenings 
against them both, and predicts their ruin. It 
is observable in this prophecy, that, as it begins 
with denunciations of judgment and destruc- 
tion against the Syrians, Philistines, Tyrians, 
and other enemies of the Jews, so it concludes 
with comfortable promises of the restoration of 
the tabernacle of David, and the establishment 
of the kingdom of Christ. Amos v/as called to 



the prophetic office in the time of Uzziah, kmg 
of Judah, and Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king 
of Israel. 

Some writers, in adverting to the condition 
of Amos, have, with a minute affectation of 
criticism, pretended to discover a certain rude- 
ness and vulgarity in his style ; and even Je- 
rom is of opinion that he is deficient in mag. 
nificence and sublimity. He applies to him 
the words which St. Paul speaks of himself, 
that he was rude in speech, though not in 
knowledge ; and his authority, says Bishop 
Lowth, "has influenced many commentators 
to represent him as entirely rude, and void of 
elegance ; whereas it requires but little atten 
tion to be convinced that he is not a whit be 
hind the very chiefest of the prophets ;" equal 
to the greatest in loftiness of sentiment, and 
scarcely inferior to any in the splendour of hia 
diction, and in the elegance of his composition, 
Mr. Locke has observed, that his comparisons 
are chiefly drawn from lions, and other ani 
mals, because he lived among, and was convers 
ant with, such objects. But, indeed, the finest 
images and allusions, which adorn the poetical 
parts of Scripture, in general ^re drawn from 
scenes of nature, and from the grand objects 
that range in her walks ; and true genius ever 
delights in considering these as the real sources 
of beauty and magnificence. The whole book 
of Amos is animated with a fine and masculine 
eloquence. 

AMULET, a charm or supposed preservative 
against diseases, witchcraft, or any other mis- 
chief. They were very frequent among the 
Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans, and were 
made of stone, metal, animal substances, or, in 
short, any thing which a weak imagination 
suggested. The Jews were very superstitious 
in the use of amulets, but the Mishna forbids 
them, unless received from some person of 
whose cures, at least, three instances could be 
produced. The phylacteries worn by the Pha- 
risees and others of the Jewish nation were a 
sort of amulets. 

Amulets among the Greeks were called, 

(pvXaKTrjpia, mpidiTTa, ctnorfXtCjxata, neptdix/xata, Ppfj- 

6ta, and e^KdX-ma. The Latins called them a?nu- 
leta, appensa, pentacula, ^c. Remains of this 
superstition continue among ignorant people 
even in this country, which ought to be strongly 
discountenanced as weak or wicked. The word 
amulet is probably derived from amula, a small 
vessel with lustral water in it, anciently carried 
in the pocket for the sake of purification and 
expiation. 

AMYRALDISM, a name given by some 
writers to the doctrine of universal grace, as 
explained and asserted by Amyraldus, or Mo- 
ses Amyraut, and his followers, among the 
reformed in France, toward the middle of the 
seventeenth century. This doctrine princi- 
pally consisted of the following particularti, 
viz. that God desires the happiness of all men, 
from which none arc excluded by a divine de- 
cree ; that none can obtain salvation without 
faith in Christ ; that God refuses to none the 
power of believing, though he does not grant 
to all his assistance, that they may improva 



ANA 



52 



ANA 



this power to saving purposes ; and that many 
perish through their own fault. Those who 
embraced this doctrine were called Universal- 
ists, although,, it is evident that they rendered 
grace universal in words, but partial in reality, 
and are chargeable with greater inconsisten- 
cies than the Supralapsarians. Amyraldus is 
said to have formed his system with a view of 
producing a reconciliation between the Luther- 
ans and Calvinists. This theory was supported 
in England by Baxter. . See Baxterianism. 

ANABAPTISTS, a name given to those 
Christians who maintain that baptism ought 
always to be performed by immersion ; that it 
ought not to be administered to children before 
the age of discretion ; and that at this age it ought 
to be readministered to those who have been 
baptized in their infancy. They affirm that the 
administration of this sacrament is neither valid 
nor useful, if it be done by sprinkling only, and 
not by immersion ; or if the persons who receive 
it be not in a condition to give the reasons of 
their belief. The Anabaptists of Germany 
brought the name into great odium by their 
turbulent conduct ; but by the people of this 
persuasion generally, the conduct of these 
fanatics was at all times condemned. In Eng- 
land they form a most respectable, though not 
a very numerous body. 

The w^ord Anabaptist is compounded of ava, 
new, and (ia-ri^m, a baptist ; and has been in- 
discriminately applied to people of very differ- 
ent principles. Many of them object to the 
name, because tJic baptism of infants by sprink- 
ling is, in their opinion, no baptism ; and others 
hold nothing in common excepting some one 
or other of the above mentioned opinions con. 
cerning baptism. See Baptism. 

ANAGOGICAL. Tliis is one of the four 
senses in which Scripture may be interpreted, 
viz. the literal, allegorical, anagogical, and 
tropological. The anagogical sense is given 
when the text is explained with regard to the 
end which Christians should have in view, that 
is, eternal life : for example, the rest of the 
Sabbath, in the anagogical sense, corresponds 
to the repose of everlasting blessedness. 
' ANAK, ANAKIM, famous giants in Pales- 
tine. Anak, father of the Anakim, was son of 
Arba, who gave his name to Kirjath-Arba, or 
Hebron. Anak had three sons, Sheshai, Ahi- 
man, and Talmai, whose descendants were 
terrible for their fierceness and stature. The 
Hebrew spies reported that in comparison of 
those monstrous men, they themselves were 
but grasshoppers. Some have thought that 
the name Phoenician, given to the Canaanites, 
and particularly to the Sidonians, was origi- 
nally from Bene-Anak, sons of Anak. Caleb, 
assisted by the tribe of Judah, took Kirjath- 
Arba, and destro3'ed the Anakim, A. M. 2559. 
Josh. XV, 14 ; Judg. i, 20. 

ANALOGY OF FAITH. This has been 
often and largely descanted upon as an import- 
ant rule for interpreting Scripture, founded, as it 
is said, upon Rom. xii, 6, " Let us prophesy ac- 
cording to the proportion" (analogy) "of faith." 
The principle of this rule has been thus 
Btated: It is evident the Almighty doth not 



act without a design in the system of Chris- 
tianity, any more than in the works of nature. 
Now this- design must be uniform ; for as in the 
system of the universe every part is propor- 
tioned to the whole, and made subservient to 
it, — so, in the system of the Gospel, all the 
various truths, doctrines, declarations, precepts, 
and promises must correspond with, and tend 
to, the end designed. For instance, supposing 
the glory of God in the salvation of sinners by 
free grace be the grand design, — then, what- 
ever doctrine, assertion, or hypothesis agrees 
not with this, it is to be considered as false. 
The effect however of this view of the case 
appears to be often delusive. If nothing more 
be meant than that, what is obscure in a reve- 
lation should be interpreted by that which is 
plain, the same rule applies to all sober inter- 
pretations of any book whatever ; but if we call 
our opinions, perhaps hastily taken up, or ad- 
mitted on some authority without examination 
by the light of Scripture, " the analogy of faith," 
we shall greatly err. On this subject Dr. Camp- 
bell remarks : — 

" In vain do we search the Scriptures for 
their testimony concerning Christ, if, independ- 
ently of these Scriptures, we have received a 
testimony from another quarter, and are deter- 
mined to admit nothing as the testimony of 
Scripture which will not perfectly quadrate 
with that formerly received. This was the very 
source of the blindness of the Jews in our Sa- 
viour's time. They searched the Scriptures as 
much as we do ; but, in the disposition they 
were in, they would never have discovered 
what that sacred volume testifies of Christ, 
Why? because their great rule of interpreta- 
tion was the analogy of the faith; or, in other 
words, the system of the Pharisean scribes, the 
doctrine then in vogue, and in the profound 
veneration of which they had been educated. 
This is that veil by which the understandings 
of that people were darkened, even in reading 
the law, and of which the Apostle observed, 
that it remained unremoved in his day, and of 
which we ourselves have occasion to observe, 
that it remains unremoved in ours. And is it 
not precisely in the same way that the phrase 
is used by every sect of Christians, for the par- 
ticular system or digest of tenets for which 
they themselves have the greatest reverence? 
The Latin church, and even the Greek, are ex- 
plicit in their declarations on this article. 
With each, the analogy of the faith is their own 
system alone. And that different parties of 
Protestants, though more reserved in their 
manner of speaking, aim at the same thing, is 
undeniable ; the same, I mean, considered rela- 
tively to the speakers; for, absolutely con- 
sidered, every party means a different thing. 
' But,' say some, ' is not this mode of interpre- 
tation warranted by Apostolical authority? 
Does not Paul, Rom. xii, 6, in speaking of the 
exercise of the spiritual gifts, enjoin the pro- 
phets to prophesy Kara riiv ava'Soyiav rrjs k/j-ewj, 
according to the proportion of faith, as our 
translators render it, but as some critics ex. 
plain it, according to the analogy of the faith ?' 
Though this exposition has been admitted into 



ANA 



53 



ANA 



some versions, and adopted by Hammond and 
other comrmentators, and may be called literal, 
jt is suited neither to the ordinary meaning of 
the words, nor to the tenor of the context. 
The word avaXoyia strictly denotes proportion, 
measure, rate, but by no means that complex 
notion conveyed in the aforesaid phrase by the 
term analogy, which has been well observed by 
Whitby to be particularly unsuitable in this 
place, 'C\'here the Apostle treats of those who 
speak by inspiration, not of those who explain 
what has been thus spoken by others. The 
context manifestly leads us to understand 
dvoXoyttt rzis-e(i}s, verse 6, as equivalent to iiirpov 
Tsis-£(j)i, verse 3. And for the better understand- 
ing of this phrase, the measure of faith, it may 
be proper to observe, 1. That a strong convic- 
tion of any tenet, from whatever cause it arises, 
is in Scripture sometimes termed faith. Thus 
in the same epistle, Rom. xiv, 22, the Apostle 
says, ' Hast thou faith ? have it to thyself be- 
fore God.' The scope of his reasoning shov/s 
that nothing is there meant by faith, but a con- 
viction of the truth in regard to the article of 
which he had been treating, namely, the equal- 
ity of days and meats, in point of sanctity, un- 
der the Gospel dispensation. The same is 
evidently the meaning of the word, verse 23, 
'Whatsoever is not of faith, is sin;' where, 
without regard to the morality of an action 
abstractly considered, that is concluded to be 
sin which is done by one who doubts of its 
lawfulness. 2. As to spiritual gifts, prophecy 
and inspiration in particular, they appear to 
have been accompanied with such a faith or 
conviction that they came from the Spirit, as 
left no room for hesitation. And indeed it is 
easy to perceive that something of this kind 
was absolutely necessary to enable the inspired 
person to distinguish what proceeded from the 
Spirit of God, from what was the creature of 
his own imagination. The prophets of God 
were not acted upon like machines in deliver- 
ing their predictions, as the diviners were sup- 
posed to be among the Heathen, but had then, 
as at other times, the free use of their faculties, 
both of body and mind." This caution is 
therefore with great propriety given them by 
the Apostle, to induce them to be attentive in 
prophesying, not to exceed the precise measure 
allowed them, (for different measures of the 
same gift were committed to different persons,) 
and not to mingle aught of their own with the 
things of God's Spirit. Let him prophesy ac- 
cording to the proportion in which he has 
received this gift, which is in proportion to his 
faith. Though a sense somewhat different has 
been given to the words by some ancient Greek 
expositors, none of them seems to have formed 
a conception of that sense, which, as was ob- 
served above, has been given by some moderns. 
This has, nevertheless, a sound and sober prin- 
ciple included in it, although capable of great 
abuse. Undoubtedly there is a class of great 
and leading truths in the Scriptures so clearly 
revealed as to afford principles of interpreta- 
tion in doubtful passages, and these are so 
obvious that persons of sound minds and hearts 
will n.ot need those formal rules for the appli- 



cation of the analogy of faith to interpretation, 
which have been drawn up by several writers, 
and which when not misleading, are generally 
superfluous. 

ANANIAS was the son of Nebedseus, high 
priest of the Jews. According to Josephus, he 
succeeded Joseph, the son of Camith, in the 
forty-seventh year of the Christian sera ; and 
was himself succeeded by Ishmael, the son of 
Tabceus, in the year 63. Quadratus, governor 
of Syria, coming into Judaea, on the rumours 
which prevailed among the Samaritans and 
Jews, sent the high priest Ananias to Rome, to 
vindicate his conduct to the emperor. The 
high priest justified himself, was acquitted, and 
returned. St. Paul being apprehended at Jeru- 
salem by the tribune of the Roman troops that 
guarded the temple, declared to him that he 
was a citizen of Rome. This obliged the offi- 
cer to treat him with some regard. As he was 
ignorant of what the Jews accused him, the 
next day he convened the priests, and placed 
St. Paul in the midst of them, that he might 
justify himself. St. Paul began as follows: 
" Men and brethren, I have lived in all good 
conscience before God until this day." He had 
scarcely spoken this, when the high priest, 
Ananias, commanded those who were near him 
to smite him on the face. The Apostle imme- 
diately replied, " God shall judge thee, thou 
whited wall ; for, sittest thou to judge me after 
the law, and commandest me to be smitten 
contrary to the law ?" They that stood by 
said, "Revilest thou God's high priest?" And 
Paul answered, "I wist not, brethren, that he 
Avas the high priest; for it is written, Thou 
shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people," 
Acts xxii, 23, 24 ; xxiii, 1-5 ; by which words 
many suppose that the Apostle spake in bitter 
irony ; or at least that he considered Ananias 
as a usurper of the office of the priesthood. 

After this, the assembly being divided in 
opinion, St. Paul was sent by the tribune to 
Caesarea, that Felix, governor of the province, 
might take cognizance of the affair. When it 
was known that the Apostle had arrived at 
Cassarea, Ananias the high priest, and other 
Jews, went thither to accuse him ; but the af- 
fair was adjourned, and St. Paul continued two 
years in prison in that city, Acts xxiv. 

The Apostle's prediction that God would 
smite Ananias, was thus accomplished: Albi- 
nus, governor of Judaea, being come into that 
country, Ananias found means to gain him by 
presents; and Ananias, by reason of this pa- 
tronage, was considered as the first man of his 
nation. However, there were in his party 
some violent persons, who plundered the coun- 
try, and seized the tithes of the priests ; and 
this they did with impunity, on account of the 
great credit of Ananias. At the same time, 
several companies of assassins infested Judaea, 
and committed great ravages. When any of 
their companions fell into the hands of the 
governors of the province, and were about to 
be executed, they failed not to seize some do- 
mestic or relation of the high priest Ananias, 
that he might procure the liberty of their asso- 
elates, in exchange for those whom they de- 



ANA 



54 



ANG 



Gained. Having taken Eleazer, one of Ana- 
nias's sons, they did not release him till ten of 
their companions were liberated. By this means 
their number considerably increased, and the 
country was exposed to their ravages. At 
length, Eleazer, the son of Ananias, heading a 
party of mutineers, seized the temple, and for- 
bade any sacrifices for the emperor. Being 
joined by the assassins, he pulled down the 
house of his father Ananias, with his brother, 
hid himself in the aqueducts belongingto the roy- 
al palace, but was soon discovered, and both of 
them were killed. Thus God smote this whited 
wall, in the very beginning of the Jewish wars 

2. Ananias, one of the first Christians of 
Jerusalem, who being converted, with his wife 
Sapphira, sold his estate; (as did the other 
Christians at Jerusalem, under a temporary 
regulation that they were to have all things in 
common ;) but privately reserved a part of the 
purchase money to himself. Having brought 
the remainder to St. Peter, as the whole price 
of the inheritance sold, the Apostle, to whom 
the Holy Ghost had revealed this falsehood, 
rebuked him severely, as having lied not unto 
men but unto God, Acts v. At that instant, 
Ananias, being struck dead, fell down at the 
Apostle's feet ; and in the course of three hours 
after, his wife suffered a similar punishment. 
This happened, A. D. 33, or 34. It is evident, 
that in this and similar events, the spectators 
and civil magistrates must have been convinced 
that some extraordinary power was exerted ; 
for if Peter had himself slain Ananias, he would 
have been amenable to the laws as a murderer. 
But, if by forewarning him that he should im. 
mediately die, and the prediction came to pass, 
it is evident that the power which attended this 
word of Peter was not from Peter, but from 
God. This was made the more certain by the 
death of two persons, in the same manner, and 
under the same circumstances, which could 
not be attributed to accident. 

3. Ananias, a disciple of Christ, at Damas- 
cus, whom the Lord directed to visit Paul, then 
lately converted. Ananias answered, "Lord, 
I have heard by many of this man, how much 
evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem ; 
and how he hath authority from the chief 
priests to bind all that call upon thy name." 
But the Lord said unto him, " Go thy way, for 
he is a chosen vessel unto me." Ananias, 
therefore, went to the house in which God had 
revealed unto him that Paul was, and putting 
his hands on him, said, "Brother Saul, the 
Lord Jesus who appeared unto thee in the way, 
hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy 
tiight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost," Acts 
ix, 10-12, &c. We are not informed of any 
other circumstance of the life of Ananias. 

ANATHEMA, from amridiini, signifies some- 
thing set apart, separated, or devoted, Mic. iv, 
13, or the formula by which this is effected. 
To anathematize is generally understood to 
denote the cutting off or separating any one 
from the communion of the faithful, the num- 
ber of the living, or the privileges of society ; or 
the devoting of an animal, city, or other thing, 
to destruction. See Accursed. 



ANATHEMA MARANATHA. , " If any 

man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him 
be Anathema Maranatha," 1 Cor. xvi, 22. Why 
these two words, one Greek and the other Sy- 
riac, were not translated, is not obvious. They 
are the words with which the Jews began their 
greater excommunication, whereby they not 
only excluded sinners from their society, but 
delivered them up to the divine cherem, or 
anathema, that is, to misery in this life, and 
perdition in the life to come. " Let him be 
Anathema" is, "Let him be accursed." Ma- 
ranatha signifies, " The Lord cometh," or, " will 
come;" that is, to take vengeance. See Ac- 
cursed. 

ANDREW, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, a 
native of Bethsaida, and the brother of Peter. 
He was at first a disciple of John the Baptist, 
whom he left to follow our Saviour, after the 
testimony of John, "Behold the Lamb of God 
which taketh away the sin of the world," John 
i, 29, and was the first disciple received by our 
Saviour. Andrew then introduced his brother 
Simon, and they went with him to the marriage 
in Cana, but afterward returned to their ordi- 
nary occupation, not expecting, perhaps, to be 
farther employed in his service. However, 
some months after, Jesus meeting them, while 
fishing together, called them to a regular at- 
tendance upon him, and promised to make 
them fishers of men, Matt, iv, 19. 

After our Saviour's ascension, tradition states 
that Andrew was appointed to preach in Scy- 
thia and the neighbouring countries. Accord- 
ing to Eusebius, after this Apostle had planted 
the Gospel in several places, he came to Patrse, 
in Achaia, where, endeavouring to convert the 
pro-consul >^geas, he was, by that governor's 
orders, first scourged, and then crucified. The 
time of his suffering martyrdom is not known ; 
but all the ancient and modern martyrologies 
of the Greeks and Latins agree in celebrating 
his festival on the 30th of November. His 
body was embalmed, and decently interred at 
Patree, by Maximilla, a lady of great quality 
and estate. It was afterward removed to Con- 
stantinople, by Constantine the Great, who 
buried it in the great church which he had built 
to the honour of the Apostles. It is not known 
for what reason painters represent St. Andrew's 
cross like an X. Peter Chrysologus says that 
he was crucified upon a tree ; and the spurious 
Hippolytus assures us that it was an olive tree. 
Nevertheless, the tradition which describes him 
to have been nailed to a cross is very ancient. 

ANGEL, a spiritual, intelligent substance, 
the first in rank and dignity among created 
beings. The word angel, iyyiXos, is not pro- 
perly a denomination of nature but of oflSce ; 
denoting as much as nuncivs, messenger, a 
person employed to carry one's orders, or de- 
clare his will. Thus it is St. Paul represents 
angels, Heb. i, 14, where he calls them " minis- 
tering spirits ;" and yet custom has prevailed 
so much, that angel is now commonly taken 
for the denomination of a particular order of 
spiritual beings, of great understanding and 
power, superior to the souls or spirits of men. 
Some of these are spoken of in Scripture in 



ANG 



55 



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such a manner as plainly to signify that they 
are real beings, of a spiritual nature, of high 
power, perfection, dignity, and happiness. 
Others of them are distinguished us not hav- 
ing kept their first station, Jude 6. These are 
represented as evil spirits, enemies of God, and 
intent on mischief The devil as the head of 
them, and they as his angels, are represented 
as the rulers of the darkness of this world, or 
spiritual wickednesses, or wicked spirits, to. 

ZuVKVjiaTiKu TYji Zoovripias iv to7s iirupaviois, Eph. vi, 12 ; 

which may not be unfitly rendered, "the spi- 
ritual managers of opposition to the kingdom 
of God." 

The existence of angels is supposed in all 
religions, though it is incapable of being proved 
a priori. Indeed, the ancient Sadducees are 
represented as denying all spirits ; and yet the 
Samaritans, and Caraites, who are reputed 
Sadducees, openly allowed them : witness 
Abusaid, the author of an Arabic version of 
the Pentateuch ; and Aaron, a Caraite Jew, in 
his comment on the Pentateuch ; both extant 
in manuscript in the king of France's library. 
In the Alcoran we find frequent mention of 
angels. The Mussulmen believe them of dif- 
ferent orders or degrees, and to be destined for 
different employments both in heaven and on 
earth. They attribute exceedingly great power 
to the angel Gabriel, as that he is able to de- 
scend in the space of an hour from heaven to 
earth ; to overturn a mountain with a single 
feather of his wing, &c. The angel Asrael, 
they suppose, is appointed to take the souls of 
such as die ; and another angel, named Esra- 
phil, they tell us, stands with a trumpet ready 
in his mouth to proclaim the day of judgment. 
The Heathen philosophers and poets were 
also agreed as to the existence of intelligent 
beings, superior to man ; as is shown by St. 
Cyprian in his treatise of the vanity of idols ; 
from the testimonies of Plato, Socrates, Tris- 
megistus, &c. They were acknowledged under 
different appellations ; the Greeks calling them 
daemons, and the Romans genii, or lares. Epi- 
curus seems to have been the only one among the 
old philosophers who absolutely rejected them. 
Authors are not so unanimous about the na- 
ture as about the existence of angels. Clemens 
Alexandrinus believed they had bodies ; which 
was also the opinion of Origen, Csesarius, Ter- 
tullian, and several others. Athanasius, St. 
Basil, St. Gregory Nicene, St. Cyril, St. Chry- 
sostoni, «fcc, held them to be mere spirits. It 
has been the more current opinion, especially 
in later times, that they are substances entirely 
spiritual, who can, at any time, assume bodies, 
and appear in human or other shapes. Ecclesi- 
astical writers make a hierarchy of nine orders of 
angels. Others have distributed angels into nine 
orders, according to the names by which they 
are called in Scripture, and reduced these 
orders into three hierarchies ; to the first of 
which belong seraphim, cherubim, and thrones; 
to the second, dominions, virtues, and powers ; 
and to the third, principalities, archangels, and 
angels. The Jews reckon four orders or com- 
panies of angels, each headed by an archangel ; 
the first order being that of Michael; the second, j 



of Gabriel ; the third, of Uriel ; and the fourth, 
of Raphael. Following the Scripture account, 
we shall find mention made of different orders 
of these superior beings; for such a distinction 
of orders seems intimated in the names given 
to different classes. Thus we have thrones, 
dominions, principalities, or princedoms, ^07/)er5, 
authorities, living ones, cherubim and seraphim. 
That some of these titles may indicate the 
same class of angels is probable ; but that they 
all should be but different appellations of one 
common and equal order is improbable. We 
learn also from Scripture, that they dwell in 
the immediate presence of God ; that they 
" excel in strength ;" that they are immortal ; 
and that they are the agents through which 
God very often accomplishes his special pur- 
poses of judgment and mercy. Nothing is 
more frequent in Scripture than the missions 
and appearances of good and bad angels, whom 
God employed to declare his will ; to correct, 
teach, reprove, and comfort. God gave the 
law to Moses, and appeared to the old patri- 
archs, by the mediation of angels, who repre- 
sented him, and spoke in his name, Acts vii, 
30, 35 ; Gal. iii, 19 : Heb. xiii, 2. 

Though the Jews, in general, believed the 
existence of angels, there was a sect among 
them, namely, the Sadducees, who denied the 
existence of all spirits whatever, God only ex- 
cepted, Acts xxiii, 8. Before the Babylonish 
captivity, the Hebrews seem not to have known 
the names of any angel. The Talmudists say 
they brought the names of angels from Baby- 
lon. Tobit, who is thought to have resided in 
Nineveh some time before the captivity, men- 
tions the angel Raphael, Tob. iii, 17 ; xi, 2, 7 ; 
and Daniel, who lived at Babylon some time 
after Tobit, has taught us the names of Michael 
and Gabriel, Dan. viii, 16; ix, 21; x, 21. In 
the New Testament, we find only the two latter 
mentioned by name. 

There are various opinions as to the time 
when the angels were created. Some think 
this took place when our heavens and the earth 
Avere made. For this opinion, however, there 
is no just foundation in the Mosaic account. 
Others think that angels existed long before 
the formation of our solar system ; and Scrip. 
ture seems to favoiu* this opinion. Job xxxviii, 
4, 7, where God says, " Where wast thou when 
I laid the foundations of the earth ? — and all 
the sons of God shouted for joy." Though it 
be a universal opinion that angels are of a spi- 
ritual and incorporeal nature, yet some of the 
fathers, misled by a passage in Gen. vi, 2, 
w^here it is said, "The sons of God saw the 
daughters of men, that they were fair, and they 
took them wives of all which they chose," 
imagined them to be corporeal, and capable of 
sensual pleasures. But, without noticing all 
the wild reveries which have been propagated 
by bold or ignorant persons, let it suffice to 
observe, that by " the sons of God " we are evi- 
dently to understand the descendants of Seth, 
who, for the great piety wherein they continued 
for some time, were so called ; and that " the 
daughters of men" were the progeny of wicked 
Cain. 



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56 



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As to the doctrine of tutelary or guarding 
angels, presiding over the affairs of empires, 
nations, provinces, and particular persons, 
though received by the later Jews, it appears 
tc be wholly Pagan in its origin, and to have 
no countenance in the Scriptures^ The pas- 
sages in Daniel brought to favour this notion 
are capable of a much better explanation ; and 
when our Lord declares that the '^angels" of 
little children "do always behold the face of 
God," he either speaks of children as being the 
objects of the general ministry of angels, or, 
still more probably, by angels he there means 
the disembodied spirits of children ; for that the 
Jews called disembodied spirits by the name of 
angels, appears from Acts xii, 15. 

On this question of guardian angels. Bishop 
Horsley observes: "That the holy angels are 
often employed by God in his government of 
this sublunary world, is indeed to be clearly 
proved by holy writ. That they have power 
over the matter of tlie universe, analogous to 
the powers over it which men possess, greater 
in extent, but still limited, is a thing which 
might reasonably be supposed, if it were not 
declared. But it seems to be confirmed by 
many passages of holy writ ; from which it 
seems also evident that they are occasionally, 
for certain specific purposes, commissioned to 
exercise those powers to a prescribed extent. 
That the evil angels possessed before their fall 
the like powers, which they are still occasion- 
ally permitted to exercise for the punishment 
of wicked nations, seems also evident. That 
they have a power over the human sensory, 
which they are occasionally permitted to exer- 
cise, and by means of which they may inflict 
diseases, suggest evil thoughts, arid be the in- 
struments of temptation, must also be admitted. 
But all this amounts not to any thing of a dis- 
cretional authority placed in the hands of 
tutelar angels, or to an authority to advise the 
Lord God with respect to the measures of his 
government. Confidently I deny that a single 
text is to be found in holy writ, which, rightly 
understood, gives the least countenance to the 
abominable doctrine of such a participation of 
the holy angels in God's government of the 
world. In what manner then, it may be asked, 
are the holy angels made at all subservient to 
the purposes of God's government ? This ques- 
tion is answered by St. Paul in his Epistle to 
the Hebrews, in the last verse of the first chap- 
ter ; and this is the only passage in the whole 
Bible in which we have any thing explicit upon 
the office and employment of angels : ' Are 
they not all,' saith he, ' jninistering spirits, sent 
forth to minister for them tiiat shall be heirs of 
salvation ?' They are all, however high in 
rank and order, nothing more than ' minister- 
ing spirits,' or, literally, 'serving spirits;' not 
invested with authority of their own, but 'sent 
forth,' occasionally sent forth, to do such serv- 
ice as maybe required of them, 'for tli^ni that 
shall be Iwsirs of salvation.' " 

The exact number of angels is no where 
mentioned in Scripture] but it is always repre- 
sented as very great. Daniel, vii, 10, says of 
the Ancient of Days, " A fiery stream came from 



before him ; thousand thousands ministered 
unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand 
stood before him." Jesus Christ says, that his 
heavenly Father could have given him more 
than twelve legions of angels, that is, more 
than seventy-two thousand, Matt, xxvi, 53; 
and the Psalmist declares, that the chariots of 
God are twenty thousand, even thousands of 
angels, Ixviii, 17. These are all intended not 
to express any exact number, but indefinitely 
a very large one. 

Though all the angels were created alike 
good, yet Jude informs us, verse 6, that some 
of them "kept not their first estate, but left 
their own habitation," and these God hath 
"reserved in everlasting chains under dark- 
ness, unto the judgment of the great day." 
Speculations on the cause and occasion of their 
fall are all vain and trifling. Milton is to be 
read on this subject, as on others, not as a 
divine, but as a poet. All we know, is, that 
they are not in their first " estate," or in their 
original place ; that this was their own fault, 
for "they left their own habitation;" that they 
are in chains, yet with liberty to tempt ; and 
that they are reserved to the general judgment. 
Dr. Prideaux observes, that the minister of 
the synagogue, who officiated in oflTering the 
public prayers, being the mouth of the congre- 
gation, delegated by them, as their representa. 
tive, messenger, or angel, to address God in 
prayer for them, was in Hebrew called sheliack- 
zibhcr, that is, the avgel of the church; and that 
from hence the chief ministers of the seven 
churches of Asia are in the Revelation, by a 
name borrowed from the synagogue, called 
angels of those churches. 

THE ANGEL OF THE LORD, or the 
Angel Jehovah, a title given to Christ in his 
diflerent appearances to the patriarchs and 
others in the Old Testament. 

When the Angel of the Lord found Hagar 
in the wilderness, "she called the name of 
Jehovah that spake to her. Thou God seest 
me." — ^Jehovah appeared unto Abraham in the 
plains of Mamre. Abraham lifted up his eyes, 
and three men, three persons in human form, 
"stood by him." One of the three is called 
Jehovah. And Jehovah said, " Shall I hide from 
Abraham the thing that I do ?" Appearances 
of the same personage occur to Isaac and to 
Jacob under the nam.e of "the God of Abra- 
ham, and of Isaac." After one of these mani- 
festations, Jacob says, "I have seen God face 
to face;" and at another, " Surely the Lord 
(Jehovah) is in this place." The same Jehovah 
was made visible to Moses, and gave him his 
commission ; and God said, " I am that I am; 
thou shalt say to the children of Israel, I am 
hath sent me unto you." The same Jehovah 
went before the Israelites by day in a pillar of 
cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire ; and by 
Him the law was given amidst terrible displays 
of power and majesty from Mount Sinai. "I 
am the Lord (Jehovah) thy God, which have 
brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of 
the house of bondage : Thou shalt have no 
other gods before me," &c. The collation of 
a few passages, or of the different parts of the 



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6*7 



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same passages, of Scripture, will show that ] 
Jehovah, and "the Angel of the Lord," when 
used in this eminent sense, are the same person. 
Jacob says of Bethel, where he had exclaimed, 
" Surely Jehovah is in this place ;" " The Angel 
of God appeared to me in a dream, saying, I 
am the God of Bethel." Upon his death bed 
he gives tlie names of God and Angel to this 
same person : "The God which fed me all my 
life long unto this day, the Angel which re- 
deemed me from all evil, bless the lads." So 
in Hosea xii, 2, 5, it is said, " By his strength 
he had power with God; yea, he had power 
over the Angel, and prevailed." "We found 
him in Bethel, and there he spake with us, 
even the Lord God of Hosts ; the Lord is his 
memorial." Here tlie same person has the 
names, God, Angel, and Lord God of Hosts. 
"The Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a 
second time from lieaven, and said, By myself 
have I sworn, saith the Lord, (Jehovah,) that, 
since thou hast done this thing, in blessing will 
I bless thee." The Angel of the Lord appeared 
to Moses in a flame of fire ; but this same 
Angel " called to him out of the bush, and said, 
I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abra- 
ham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ; 
and Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to 
look upon God." To omit many other pas- 
sages, St. Stephen, in alluding to this part of 
the history of Moses, in his speech before the 
council, says, "There appeared to Moses in 
the wilderness of Mount Sinai, an Angel of the 
Lord in a flame of fire," showing that that 
phraseology was in use among the Jews in his 
day, and that this Angel and Jehovah were re- 
garded as the same being ; for he adds, " Moses 
was in the church in the wilderness with the 
Angel which spoke unto him in Mount Sinai." 
There is one part of the history of the Jews in 
the wilderness, which so fully shows that they 
distinguished this Angel of Jehovah from all 
created angels, as to deserve particular atten- 
tion. In Exodus xxiii, 20, God makes this 
promise to Moses and the Israelites : " Behold, 
I send an Angel before thee to keep thee in 
the way, and to bring thee into the place which 
I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey 
his voice ; provoke him not ; for he will not 
pardon your transgressions, for my name is in 
him." Of this Angel let it be observed, that 
he is here represented as the guide and pro- 
tector of the Israelites ; to him they were to 
owe their conquests and their settlement in the 
promised land, which are in other places often 
attributed to the immediate agency of God; 
that they are cautioned to "beware of him," 
to reverence and stand in dread of him ; that 
the pardoning of transgressions belongs to him ; 
finally, "that the name of God was in Imn." 
This na7ne must be understood of God's own 
peculiar name, Jehovah, I am, which he as- 
sumed as his distinctive appellation at his first 
appearing to Moses ; and as the names of God 
are indicative of his nature, he who had a right 
to bear the peculiar name of God, must also 
have his essence. This view is put beyond all 
doubt by the fact, that Moses and the Jews so 
understood the matter; for afterward when 



their sins had provoked God to threaten not to 
go up with them himself, but to commit them 
to " an angel who should drive out the Canaan- 
ite," &c, the people mourned over this as a 
great calamity, and Moses betook himself Co 
special intercession, and rested not until he 
obtained the repeal of the threat, and the re- 
newed promise, " My presence shall go with 
thee, and I will give thee rest." Nothing, 
therefore, can be more clear than that Moses 
and the Israelites considered the promise of the 
Angel, in whom was "the name of God," as a 
promise that God himself wonld go with them. 
With this uncreated Angel, this presence of the 
Lord, they were satisfied, but nbt with "an 
angel" indefinitely, who was by nature of that 
order of beings usually so called, and therefore 
a created being ; for at the news of God's de- 
termination not to go up with them, Moses 
hastens to the tabernacle to make his inter- 
cessions, and refuses an inferior conductor : — 
" If thy presence go not with me, carry us not 
up hence." 

The Jews held this Word, or Angel of the 
Lord, to be the future Messiah, as appears from 
the writings of their older rabbins. So that 
he appears as the Jehovah of all the three dis- 
pensations, and yet is invariably described as a 
separate person from the unseen Jehovah who 
sends him. He was then the Word to be made 
flesh, and to dwell for a time among us, to 
open the way to God by his sacrifice, and to 
rescue the race, whose nature he should assume, 
from sin and death. This he has now actually 
effected; and the Patriarchal, Mosaic, and 
Christian religions are thus founded upon the 
same great principles, — the fall and misery of 
mankind, and their deliverance by a Divine 
Redeemer. 

ANGELICS, worshippers of angels. Those 
who consider this as a sect of the Apostolic 
age, think St. Paul, Coloss. ii, 18, cautions 
Christians against a superstitious reverence of 
these celestial agents of the Deity, which they 
conceive to have been borrowed from the idola- 
trous reverence paid by the Heathen to genii 
and demons. The Jews of that time are also 
accused of worshipping angels, and probably 
this superstition might through them influence 
the Judaizing members of some of the Apostolic 
churches. This idolatry may now be too justly 
charged upon the Romish and some other cor- 
rupt churches. 

ANGER, a resentful emotion of the mind, 
arising upon the receipt, or supposed receipt, 
of an affront or injury; and also simple feel- 
ing of strong displacency at that which is in 
itself evil, or base, or injurious to others. In 
the latter sense it is not only innocent but com- 
mendable. Strong displeasure against evil 
doers, provided it be free from hatred and 
malice, and interferes not with a just placable, 
ness, is also blameless, Eph. iv, 26. When it 
is vindictive against the person of our neigh- 
hour, or against the innocent creatures of God, 
it is wicked. Matt, v, 22. When anger, hatred, 
wrath, and fiiry, are ascribed to God, they de- 
note no tumultuous passion, but merely his 
holy and just displeasure with sin and sinners ; 



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58 



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and the evidence of it in his terrible threaten- 
ings, or righteous judgments, Psalm vi, 1, and 
vii, 11. We must, however, take care that we 
refine not too much. These are Scriptural 
terms, and are often used of God ; and though 
they express not a tumultuous, much less an 
unjust, passion, there is something in God 
which answers to them. In him they are 
principles arising out of his holy and just na- 
ture ; and for this reason they are more steady 
and uniform, and more terrible, than if they 
were emotions, or as we say passions. Nor 
can we rightly regard the severity of the judg- 
ments which God has so often executed upon 
sin without standing in awe of him, "as a 
consuming fire" to the ungodly. 

ANIMAL, is an organized and living body, 
endowed with sensation. Minerals are said to 
grow or increase, plants to grow and live, and 
animals alone to have sensation. The Hebrews 
distinguished animals into pure and impure, 
clean and unclean ; or those which might be 
eaten and oifered, and those whose use was 
prohibited. The sacrifices which they offered, 
were, 1. Of the beeve kind; a cow, bull, or 
calf. The ox could not be offered, because it 
w^as mutilated ; and when it is said oxen were 
sacrificed, we are to understand bulls. Lev. 
xxii, 18, 19. Calmet thinks, that the mutila- 
tion of animals was neither permitted, nor used, 
among the Israelites. 2. Of the goat kind ; 
a he-goat, a she-goat, or kid. Lev. xxii, 24. 
3, Of the sheep kind; a ewe, ram, or Iamb. 
When it is said sheep are offered, rams are 
chiefly meant, especially in burnt- offerings and 
sacrifices for sin ; for as to peace-offerings, or 
sacrifices of pure devotion, a female might be 
sometimes offered, provided it was pure, and 
without blemish. Lev. iii, 1. 

Besides these three sorts of animals, used in 
sacrifices, many others might be eaten, wild or 
tame ; as the stag, the roe-buck, and in gene- 
ral all that have cloven feet, or that chew the 
cud. Lev. ix, 2, 3, &c. All that have not 
cloven hoofs, and do not chew the cud, were 
esteemed impure, and could neither be offered 
nor eaten. The fat of all sorts of animals 
sacrificed was forbidden to be eaten. The 
blood of all kinds of animals generally, and in 
all cases, was prohibited on pain of death. 
Lev. iii, 17; vii, 23-27. Neither did the 
Israelites eat animals which had been taken 
and touched by a devouring or impure beast, 
as a dog, a wolf, a boar, &.c. Exodus xxii, 3 ; 
nor of any animal that died of itself. Whoever 
touched its carcass was impure until the even- 
ing ; and till that time, and before he had 
washed his clothes, he did not return to the com- 
pany of other Jews, Lev. xi, 39, 40 ; xvii, 15 ; 
xxii, 8. Fish that had neither fins nor scales 
were unclean. Lev. xi, 20. Birds which 
walk on the ground with four feet, as bats, 
and flies that have many feet, were impure. 
The law, however, excepts locusts, which have 
their hind feet higher than those before, and 
rather leap than walk. These were clean, and 
might be eaten. Lev. xi, 21, 22, as they still 
are in Palestine. The distinction between 
clean and unclean animals has been variously 



accounted for. Some have thought it symboli. 
col, intended to teach the avoidance of those 
evil qualities for which the unclean animals 
were remarkable ; others, that, in order that 
the Hebrews might be preserved from idolatry^ 
they were commanded to kill and eat many 
animals which were sacred among the Egyp- 
tians, and were taught to look with abhorrence 
upon others which they reverenced. Others 
have found a reason in the unwholesomeness 
of the flesh of the creatures pronounced by the 
law to be unclean, so that they resolve the 
whole into a sanative regulation. But it is 
not to be forgotten that this division of ani- 
mals into clean and unclean existed both before 
the law of Moses, and even prior to the flood. 
The foundation of it was therefore clearly sa- 
crificial; for before the deluge it could not have 
reference to health, since animal food was not 
allowed to man prior to the deluge ; and as no 
other ground for the distinction appears, ex- 
cept that of sacrifice, it must therefore have 
had reference to the selection of victims to be 
solemnly offered to God, as a part of worship, 
and as the means of drawing near to him by 
expiatory rites for the forgiveness of sins. 
Some it is true, have regarded this distinction 
of clean and unclean beasts as used by Moses 
by way of prolepsis, or anticipation, — a notion 
which, if it could not be refiited by the con- 
text, would be perfectly arbitrary. Not only 
are the beasts, which Noah was to receive, 
spoken of as clean and unclean ; but it will be 
noticed, that, in the command to take them 
into the ark, a difference is made in the num- 
ber to be preserved — the clean being to be 
received by sevens, and the unclean by two of a 
kind. This shows that this distinction among 
beasts had been established in the time of Noah ; 
and thus the assumption of a prolepsis is refut- 
ed. The critical attempts which have been 
^lade to show that animals were allowed to 
man for food, previous to the flood, have 
wholly failed. 

A second argument is furnished by the pro- 
hibition of blood for food, after animals had 
been granted to man for his sustenance along 
with the " herb of the field." This prohibition 
is repeated by Moses to the Israelites, with 
this explanation : — " I have given it upon the 
altar to make an atonement for your souls." 
From this it has indeed been argued, that the 
doctrine of the atoning power of blood was 
new, and was then, for the first time, announc- 
ed by Moses, or the same reason for the pro- 
hibition would have been given to Noah. To 
this we may reply, 1. That unless the same be 
supposed as the ground of the prohibition of 
blood to Noah, as that given by Moses to the 
Jews, no reason at all can be conceived for 
this restraint being put upon the appetite of 
mankind from Noah to Moses. 2. That it is 
a mistake to suppose, that the declaration of 
Moses to the Jews, that God had " given thom 
the blood for an atonement," is an additional 
reason for the interdict, not to be found in the 
original prohibition to Noah. The whole pas- 
sage in Lev. xvii, is, " And thou shalt say to 
them. Whatsoever man there be of the house 



ANI 



59 



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of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among 
you, that eateth any manner of blood, I will 
ev^en set my face against that soul that eateth 
blood, and I will cut him off from among his 
people : for the life of the flesh is in the 
blood ; and I have given it upon the altar, to 
make atonement for your souls : for it is the 
BLOOD (or life) that maketh atonement for the 
soul." The great reason, then, of the prohibi- 
tion of blood is, that it is the life ; and what 
follows respecting atonement is exegetical of 
this reason ; the life is in the blood, and the 
blood or life is given as an atonement. Now, 
by turning to the original prohibition in Gene- 
sis, we find that precisely the same reason is 
given : " But the flesh with the blood, which is 
the life thereof, shall ye not eat." ' The reason, 
then, being the same, the question is, whether 
the exegesis added by Moses must not neces- 
sarily be understood in the general reason 
given for the restraint to Noah. Blood is 
prohibited for this cause, that it is the life; and 
Moses adds, that it is "the blood," or life, 
" which makes atonement." Let any one 
attempt to discover any cause for the prohibi- 
tion of blood to Noah, in the mere circumstance 
that it is " the life," and he will find it impos- 
sible. It is no reason at all, moral or institut- 
ed, except that as it was life substituted for 
life, the life of the animal in sacrifice for the 
life of man, and that it had a sacred appropria- 
tion. The manner, too, in which Moses in- 
troduces the subject is indicative that, although 
he was renewing a prohibition, he was not 
publishing a "new doctrine ;" he does not 
teach his people that God had then given, or 
appointed, blood to make atonement ; but he 
prohibits them from eating it, because he had 
made this appointment, without reference to 
time, and as a subject with which they were 
familiar. Because the blood was the life, it 
was sprinkled upon, and poured out at, the 
altar : and we have in the sacrifice of the pas- 
chal lamb, and the sprinkling of its blood, a 
sufficient proof, that, before the giving of the 
law, not only was blood not eaten, but was 
appropriated to a sacred sacrificial purpose. 
Nor was this confined to the Jews ; it was 
customary with the Romans and Greeks, who, 
in like manner, poured out and sprinkled the 
blood of victims at their altars, a rite derived, 
probably, from the Egyptians, as they derived 
it, not from Moses, but from the sons of Noah. 
The notion, indeed, that the blood of the vic- 
tims was peculiarly sacred to the gods, is im- 
pressed upon all ancient Pagan mythology. 

If, therefore, the distinction of animals into 
clean and unclean existed before the flood, and 
was founded upon the practice of animal sa- 
crifice, we have not only a proof of the antiquity 
of that practice, but that it was of divine insti- 
tution and appointment, since almighty God 
gave laws for its right and acceptable perform- 
ance. Still farther, if animal sacrifice was of 
divine appointment, it must be concluded to 
be typical only, and designed to teach the 
great doctrine of moral atonement, and to 
direct faith to the only true sacrifice which 
could take away the sins of men ; — " the Lamb 



slain from the foundation of the world," — the 
victim "without spot," who suffered the just, 
for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. 
See Sacrifices. 

ANISE, an annual umbeliferous plant, the 
seeds of which have an aromatic smell, a plea- 
sant warm taste, and a carminative quality. 
But by avrjOov, Matt, xxiii, 23, the dill is meant. 
Our translators seem to have been first misled 
by a resemblance of the sound. No other ver- 
sions have fallen into the mistake. The Greek 
of anise is aviaov ; but of dill, avtjdov. 

ANNA, the daughter of Phanuel, a prophetess 
and widow, of the tribe of Ashei*, Luke ii, 36, 
37. She was married early, and had lived only 
seven years with her husband. Being then 
disengaged from the ties of marriage, she 
thought only of pleasing the Lord ; and con- 
tinued without ceasing in the temple, serving 
God night and day, with fasting and prayer, 
as the Evangelist expresses it. However, her 
serving God at the temple night and day, says 
Dr. Prideaux, is to be understood no otherwise 
than that she constantly attended the morning 
and evening sacrifice at the temple ; and then 
with great devotion offered up her prayers to 
God ; the time of morning and evening sacri- 
fice being the most solemn time of prayer 
among the Jews, and the temple the most 
solemn place for this devotion. Anna was 
fourscore years of age when the holy virgin 
came to present Jesus in the temple ; and en- 
tering accidentally, while Simeon was pro- 
nouncing his thanksgiving, she likewise began 
to praise God, and to speak of the Messiah to 
all those who waited for redemption in Jeru- 
salem. We know nothing more either of the 
life or death of this holy woman. 

ANNAS, or ANANUS, as Josephus calls 
him, was the son of Seth, and high priest of 
the Jews. He succeeded Joazar, the son of 
Simon, enjoyed the high priesthood eleven 
years, and was succeeded by Ishmael, the son 
of Phabi. After he was deposed, he still pre- 
served the title of high priest, and had a great 
share in the management of public affairs. He 
is called high priest in conjunction with Caia- 
phas, when John the Baptist entered upon the 
exercise of his mission ; though Calmet thinks 
that at that time he did not, strictly speaking, 
possess or officiate in that character, Luke iii, 2. 
On the contrary, Macknight and some others 
are of opinion, that at this time Caiaphas was 
only the deputy of Annas. He was father-in- 
law to Caiaphas ; and Jesus Christ was carried 
before him, directly after his seizure in the 
garden of Olives, John xviii, 13. Josephus 
remarks, that Annas was considered as one of 
the happiest men of his nation, for five of his 
sons were high priests, and he himself pos- 
sessed that great dignity many years. This 
was an instance of good fortune which, till 
that time, had happened to no person. 

ANOINT, to pour oil upon. Gen. xxviii, 18 ; 
xxxi, 13. The setting up of a stone and 
anointing it by Jacob, as here recorded, in 
grateful memory of his celestial vision, proba- 
bly became the occasion of idolatry in succeed- 
ing ages, and gave rise to the erection of tern- 



ANO 



60 



ANT 



pies composed of shapeless masses of unhewn 
stone, of which so many astonishing remains 
are scattered up and down the Asiatic and the 
European world. 

Under the law persons and things set apart 
for sacred purposes were anointed with the 
holy oil ; which appears to have been a typical 
representation of the communication of the 
Holy Ghost to Christ and to his church. See 
Exod. xxviii, xxix. Hence the Holy Spirit is 
called an unction or anointing, 1 John ii, 20, 
27 ; and our Lord is called the " Messiah," or 
" Anointed One," to denote his being called to 
the offices of mediator, prophet, priest, and 
king, to all of which he was consecrated by the 
anointing of the Holy Ghost, Matt, iii, 16, 17. 
When we hear of the anointing of the Jew- 
ish kings, we are to understand by it the same 
as their inauguration ; inasmuch as anointing 
was the principal ceremony on such an oc- 
casion, 2 Sam. ii, 4 ; v, 3. As far as we are 
informed, however, unction, as a sign of inves- 
titure with the royal authority, was bestowed 
only upon Saul and David, and subsequently 
upon Solomon and Joash, who ascended the 
throne under such circumstances, that there 
was danger of their right to the succession be- 
ing forcibly disputed, 1 Sam. x, 24; 2 Sam. ii, 
4; V, 1-3; 1 Chron. xi, 1, 2; 2 Kings xi, 12- 
20 ; 2 Chron. xxiii, 1-21. The ceremony of 
regal anointing needed not to be repeated in 
every instance of succession to the throne, be- 
cause the unction which the first one who held 
the sceptre in any particular line of princes had 
received was supposed to suffice for the sue- 
ceeding incumbents in the same descent. 

In the kingdom of Israel, those who were 
inducted into the royal office appear to have 
been inaugurated with some additional cere- 
monies, 2 Kings ix, 13. The private anoint- 
ings which we learn to have been performed 
by the prophets, 2 Kings ix, 3, comp. 1 Sam. 
X, 1 ; xvi, 1-13, were only prophetic symbols 
or intimations that the persons who were thus 
, anointed should eventually receive the kingdom. 
The holy anointing oil which was made by 
Moses, Exod. xxx, 22-33, for the maintaining 
and consecrating of the king, the high priest, 
and all the sacred vessels made use of in the 
house of God, was one of those things, as Dr. 
Prideaux observes, which was wanting in the 
second temple. The oil made and consecrated 
for this use was commanded to be kept by the 
children of Israel, throughout their genera, 
tions, and therefore it was laid up in the most 
holy place of the tabernacle and the first temple. 
ANOMCEANS, the name by which the pure 
Arians were called in the fourth century, in 
contradistinction to the Semi- Arians. The word 
is formed from the Greek av6noiog, different. 
For the pure Arians asserted, that the Son was 
of a nature diffigrent from, and in nothing like, 
that of the Father ; whereas the Semi-Arians 
acknowledged a likeness of nature in the Son, 
at the same time that they denied, with the 
pure Arians, the consubstantiality of the Word. 
The Semi-Arians condemned the Anomoeans 
in tiie council of Seleucia ; and the Anomceans, 
in their turn, condemned the Semi-Arians in 



the councils of Constantinople and Antioch, 
erasing the word like out of the formula of 
Rimini and Constantinople. 

ANSWER. Beside the common usage of 
this word, in the sense of a reply, it has other 
significations. Moses, having composed a 
thanksgiving, after the passage of the Red Sea, 
Miriam, it is said, answered, " Sing ye to the 
Lord," &c, — meaning, that Moses, with the 
men on one side, and Miriam, with the women 
on the other side, sung the same song, as it 
were, in two choruses, or divisions ; of which 
one answered the other. Num. xxi, 17, " Then 
Israel sung this song, Spring up, O well, answer 
unto it ;" that is, sing responsively, one side 
(or choir) singing first, and then the other. 
1 Sam. xxix, 5, " Is not this David of whom 
they sung one to another in dances, saying, 
Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his 
ten thousands?" They sung this song to his 
honour in distinct choruses. 

This word is taken likewise for, to accuse or 
to defend any one, judicially. Gen. xxx, 33, 
" My righteousness shall answer for me ;" it 
shall be my advocate before thee. Deut. xxxi, 
21, "The song which thou shalt compose and 
teach them shall testify (answer) against them 
as a witness." Isaiah says, "The show of 
their countenance will testify (answer) against 
them ;" their impudence will be like a witness 
and an accuser. Hosea, v, 5, "The pride of 
Israel doth testify (answer) to his face." 

To answer, is likewise taken in a bad sense ; 
as when it is said that a son answers his father 
insolently, or a servant his master. Rom. ix, 
20, "Who art thou that repliest against God?" 
that is, to contest or debate with him. John 
xviii, 22, " Answerest thou the high priest so ?!' 
St. Paul declares that he " had in himself the 
answer (or sentence) of death ;" 2 Cor. i, 9 ; 
like a man who has had notice of condemna- 
tion, he had a certain assurance of dying. 

To answer is also used in Scripture for the 
commencement of a discourse, when no reply 
to any question or objection is intended. This 
mode of speaking is often used by the evangel- 
ists, "And Jesus answered and said." It is a 
Hebrew idiom. 

ANT, n^DJ, in the Turkish and Arabic, neml, 
Prov. vi, 6; xxx, 25. It is a little insect, fa- 
mous from all antiquity for its social habits, its 
economy, unwearied industry, and prudent fore- 
sight. It has affiDrded a pattern of commenda- 
ble frugality to the profuse, and of unceasing 
diligence to the slothful. Solomon calls the 
ants " exceeding wise ; for though a race not 
strong, yet they prepare their meat in the sum- 
mer." He therefore sends the sluggard to 
these little creatures, to learn wisdom, foresight, 
care, and diligence. 

" Go to the ant ; learn of its ways, be wise ; 
It early heaps its stores, lest want surprise. 
Skill'd in the various year, the prescient sage 
Beholds the summer chill'd in winter's rage. 
Survey its arts ; in each paitition'd cell 
Economy and plenty deign to dwell." 

That the ant hoarded up grains of corn 
against winter for its sustenance, was very 
generally believed by the ancients, though 



ANT 



61 



ANT 



modern naturalists seem to question the fact. 

Thus Horace says, 

" Sicut 

Parvula (nam cxemplo est) magni formica laboris 
Ore trahitquodcunque potest, atque addit acervo 
Q,uem struit, haud ignara ac non incauta futuri ; 
Q.u(&, simul inversum contristat aquarius annum,, 
Non usquam prorepit, et Mis utitur ante 
Quccsitis sapiens." 

Sat. i, 1. i, V. 33. 

" For thus tlie little ant (to human lore 
No mean example) forms her frugal store, 
Gather'd with mighty toil on every side, 
Nor ignorant nor careless to provide 
For future want ; yet, when the stars appear 
That darkly sadden the declining year, 
No more she comes abroad, but wisely lives 
On the fair stores industrious summer gives." 
The learned Bochart, in his Hierozoicon, has 
displayed his vast reading on this suhject, and 
has cited passages from Pliny, Lucian, jElian, 
Zoroaster, Origen, Basil, and Epiphanius, the 
Jevi^ish rabbins and Arabian naturalists, all 
concurring in opinion that ants cut off the 
heads' of grain, to prevent their germinating; 
and it is observable that the Hebrew name of 
the insect is derived from the verb Vdj, which 
signifies to cut off, and is used for cutting off 
ears of corn. Job xxiv, 24. 

The following remarks are from " the Intro- 
duction to Entomology," by Kirby and Spence : 
" Till the manners of exotic ants are more 
accurately explored, it would be rash to affirm 
that no ants have magazines of provisions ; for, 
although, during the cold of our winters in this 
country, they remain in a state of torpidity, and 
have no need of food, yet in warmer regions, 
during the rainy seasons, when they are proba- 
bly confined to their nests, a store of provisions 
may be necessary for them. Even in northern 
climates, against wet seasons, they may provide 
in this way for their sustenance and that of the 
young brood, which, as Mr. Smeatham ob- 
serves, are very voracious, and cannot bear to 
be long deprived of their food ; else why do 
ants carry worms, living insects, and many 
other such things, into their nests ? Solomon's 
lesson to the sluggard has been generally ad- 
duced as a strong confirmation of the ancient 
opinion: it can, however, only relate to the 
species of a warm climate, the habits of which 
are probably different from those of a cold one ; 
so that his words, as commonly interpreted, 
may be perfectly correct and consistent with 
nature, and yet be not at all applicable to the 
species that are indigenous to Europe." 

The ant, according to the royal preacher, is 
one of those things which are little upon the 
earth, but exceeding wise. The superior wis- 
dom of the ant has been recognised by many 
writers. Horace in the passage from which 
the preceding quotation' is taken, praises its 
sagacity ; Virgil celebrates its foresight, in pro- 
viding for the wants and infirmities of old age, 
while it is young and vigorous : — 

atque inopi metuens formica senectcB. 

[And the ant dreading a destitute old age.] 
And we learn from Hesiod, that among the 
earliest Greeks it was called Idris, that is, wise, 
because it foresaw the coming storm, and the 



inauspicious day, and collected her store 
Cicero believed that the ant is not only fur- 
nished with senses, but also with mind, reason 
and memory : — In formica non modo sensus sed 
etiam mens, ratio, memoria. [The ant possesses 
not only senses, but also mind, reason, me- 
mory.] The union of so many noble qualities in 
so small a corpuscle, is indeed one of the most 
remarkable phenomena in the works of nature. 
ANTHROPOMORPHITES, a sect of an- 
cient heretics, who were so denominated from 
two Greek words ar0pw7ro?, man, and fidpcprj, shape. 
They understood every thing spoken in Scrip- 
ture in a literal sense, and particularly that 
passage of Genesis in which it is said, "God 
made man after his own image." Hence they 
maintained, that God had a human shape. 

ANTHROPOPATHY, a metaphor by which 
things belonging to creatures and especially to 
man are ascribed to God. Instances of this 
abound in the Scriptures, by which they adapt 
themselves to human modes of speaking, and 
to the limited capacities of men. These an- 
thropopathies wo must however interpret in a 
manner suitable to the majesty of the divine 
nature. Thus, when the members of a human 
body are ascribed to God, we must understand 
by them those perfections of which such mem- 
bers in us are the instruments. The eye, for 
instance, represents God's knowledge and 
watchful care ; the arm, his power and strength ; 
the ears, the regard he pays to prayer and to 
the cry of oppression and misery, &c. Farther, 
when human affections are attributed to God, 
we must so interpret them as to imply no im- 
perfection, such as perturbed feeling in him. 
When God is said to repent, the antecedent, 
by a frequent figure of speech, is put for the 
consequent; and in this case we are to under- 
stand an altered mode of proceeding on the part 
of God, which in man is the effect of repenting. 
ANTICHRIST, compounded of dvTi, con- 
tra, against, and Xpts-oj, Christ, in a general 
sense, denotes an adversary of Christ, or one 
who denies that the Messiah is come. In this 
sense, Jews, infidels, «fec, may be said to be 
antichrists. The epithet, in the general sense 
of it, is also applicable to any power or person 
acting in direct opposition to Christ or his doc- 
trine. Its particular meaning is to be collected 
from those passages of Scripture in which it 
occurs. Accordingly, it may either signify one 
who assumes the place and office of Christ, or 
one who maintains a direct enmity and oppo- 
sition to him. The Fathers all speak of anti- 
christ as a single man ; though they also assure 
us, that he is to have divers precursors, or fore- 
runners. Yet many Protestant writers apply 
to the Romish church, and the pope who is at 
the head of it, the several marks and signa- 
tures of antichrist enumerated in the Apoca- 
lypse, which would imply antichrist to be, not 
a single person, but a corrupt society, or a long 
series of persecuting pontiffs, or rather, a cer- 
tain power and government, that may be held 
for many generations, by a number of indivi- 
duals succeeding one another. The antichrist 
mentioned by the Apostle John, first Epistle ii, 
18, and more particularly described in the book 



ANT ^ 



62 



ANT 



of Revelation, seems evidently to be the fame 
with the man of sin, &c, characterized by St. Paul 
in his Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, 
chap, ii ; and the whole description literally 
applies to the Papal power. A late writer, after 
collecting the principal prophecies relating to 
antichrist, infers from them that a power, some- 
times represented as the little horn, the man of 
sin, the antichrist, the beast, the harlot, the star 
falling from heaven, the false prophet, the dra- 
gon, or as the operation of false teachers, was 
to be expected to arise in the Christian world 
to persecute and oppress, and delude the disci- 
pies of Christ, corrupt the doctrine of the primi- 
tive church, enact new laws, and establish its 
dominion over the minds of mankind. He 
then proceeds to show, from the application of 
prophecy to history, and to the remarkable 
train of events that are now passing in the 
world, how exactly Popery, Mohammedanism, 
and Infidelity, correspond with the character 
given in Scripture of the power of antichrist, 
which was to prevail a certain time for the 
especial trial and punishment of the corrupted 
church of Christ. Upon this system, the dif- 
ferent opinions of the Protestants and Papists, 
concerning the power of antichrist, derived 
from partial views of the subject, are not wholly 
incompatible with each other. With respect 
to the commonly received opinion, that the 
church of Rome is antichrist, Mede and New- 
ton, Daubuz and Clarke, Lowman and Hurd, 
Jurieu, Vitringa, and many other members of 
the Protestant churches who have written upon 
the subject, concur in maintaining, that the 
prophecies of Daniel, St. Paul, and St, John, 
point directly to this church. This was like- 
wise the opinion of the first reformers ; and it 
was the prevalent opinion of Christians, in the 
earliest ages, that antichrist w^ould appear soon 
after the fall of the Roman empire. Gregory 
the Great, in the sixth century, applied the 
prophecies concerning the beast in the Reve- 
lation, the man of sin, and the apostasy from 
the faith mentioned by St. Paul, to him who 
should presume to claim the title of universal 
priest, or universal bishop, in the Christian 
church ; and yet his immediate successor, Boni- 
face III, received from the tyrant Phocas the 
precise title which Gregory had thus censured. 
At the synod of Rheims, held in the tenth cen- 
tury, Arnulphus, bishop of Orleans, appealed to 
the whole council, whether the bishop of Rome 
was not the antichrist of St. Paul, " sitting in 
the temple of God," and perfectly correspond- 
ing with the description of him given by St. 
Paul. In the eleventh century, all the charac- 
ters of antichrist seemed to be so united in the 
person of Pope Hildebrand, who took the 
name of Gregory VII, that Johannes Aven- 
tinus, a Romish historian, speaks of it as a 
subject in which the generality of fair, candid, 
and ingenuous writers agreed, that at that 
time began the reign of antichrist. And the 
Albigenses and Waldenses, who may be called 
the Protestants of the twelfth and thirteenth 
centuries, expressly asserted in their declar- 
ations of faith, that the church of Rome was 
the whore of Babylon. The Papists imagine 



they view in the prophetical picture of anti 
Christ, imperial Rome, elated by her victories, 
exulting in her sensuality and her spoils, pol- 
luted by idolatry, persecuting the people of 
God, and finally falling like the first Babylon ; 
whilst a new and holy city, represented by 
their own communion, filled with the spotless 
votaries of the Christian faith, rises out of its 
ruins, and the victory of the cross is completed 
over the temples of Paganism. This scheme 
has had its able advocates, at tlie head of whom 
may be placed Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, Gro- 
tius, and Hammond. Some writers have main- 
tained, that Caligula was antichrist ; and others 
have asserted the same of Nero. But in order 
to establish the resemblance, they violate 
the order of time, disregard the opinions of 
the primitive Christians, and overlook the ap- 
propriate descriptions of the Apostles. After 
the point had been maturely debated at the 
council of Gap, held in 1603, a resolution was 
taken thereupon to insert an article in the con- 
fession of faith, whereby the Pope is formally 
declared to be antichrist. Pope Clement VIII 
was stung with this decision; and even king 
Henry IV, of France was not a little mortified, 
to be thus declared, as he said, an imp of 
antichrist. 

In the book of Daniel it is foretold, that this 
power should exercise dominion until a time 
and times, and the dividing of time, Dan. vii, 
25. This expression is generally admitted to 
denote 1260 years. The Papal power was com. 
pletely established in the year 755, when it 
obtained the exarchate of Ravenna. Some, 
however, date the rise of antichrist in the year 
of Christ 606 ; and Mede places it in 456. If 
the rise of antichrist be not reckoned till he 
was possessed of secular authority, his fall will- 
happen when this power shall be taken away. 
If his rise began, according to Mede in 456, he 
must have fallen in 1716 ; if in 606, it must be 
in 1866 ; if in 755, in 2015. If, however, we 
use prophetical years, consisting of three hun- 
dred and sixty days, and date the rise of anti- 
christ in the year 755, his fall will happen in 
the year of Christ 2000. Every thing however 
in the state of the world betokens a speedy 
overthrow of the Papal and Mohammedan pow- 
ers, both of which have indeed been already 
greatly weakened. 

ANTI-LIBANUS. The Greeks give this 
name to that chain of mountains east of Liba- 
nus, which, properly speaking, forms, together 
with Libanus, but one ridge of mountains, ex- 
tending from north to south, and afterward 
from south to north, in the shape almost of a 
horse shoe, for the space of about fourscore 
leagues. The western part of these mountains 
was called Libanus ; the eastern was called An- 
tilibanus ; the fonner reached along the Medi- 
terranean, from Sidon, almost to Arada, or 
Symira. The Hebrew text never mentions An- 
tilibanus ; but uses the general name Libanus : 
and the coins struck at Laodicea and Hierapo- 
lis, have the inscription, "cities of Libanus," 
though they belong rather to Antilibanus. The 
Septuagint, on the contrary, puts Antilibanus 
often instead of Libanus. The valley which 



ANT 



63 



ANT 



Beparates Libanus from Antilibanus is very fruit- 
flil : it was formerly, on the side of Syria, in- 
closed with a wall, whereof there are now no 
traces. Strabo says, that the name of Coelo- 
Syria, or "the hollow Syria," belongs principally 
to the valley between Libanus and Antilibanus. 
ANTINOMIANS are those who maintain 
that the law is of no use or obligation under 
the Gospel dispensation, or who hold doctrines 
that clearly supersede the necessity of good 
works and a virtuous life. The Antinomians 
took their origin from John Agricola, about 
the year 1538, who taught that the law was in 
no wise necessary under the Gospel ; that good 
works do not promote our salvation, nor ill ones 
hinder it ; that repentance is not to be preach- 
ed from the decalogue, but only from the Gos- 
pel. This sect sprung up in England during 
the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell ; and ex- 
tended their system of libertinism much farther 
than Agricola, the disciple of Luther. Some 
of their teachers expressly maintained, that as 
the elect cannot fall from grace nor forfeit the 
divine favour, the wicked actions they commit 
are not really sinful, nor are to be considered 
as instances of their violation of the divine law; 
and that consequently they have no occasion 
either to confess their sins, or to break them off 
by repentance. According to them, it is one of 
the essential and distinctive characters of the 
elect, that they cannot do any thing which is 
displeasing to God. Luther, Rutherford, Schlus- 
selburgh, Sedgwick, Gataker, Witsius, Bull, 
Williams, &c, have written refutations ; Crisp, 
Richardson, Saltmarsh, &c, defences, of the 
Antinomians ; Wigandus, a comparison be- 
tween ancient and modern Antinomians. 

The doctrine of Agricola was in itself obscure, 
and is thought to have been represented worse 
than it really was by Luther, who wrote against 
him with acrimony, and first styled him and his 
followers Antinomians. Agricola, in defending 
himself, complained that opinions were imput- 
ed to him which he did not hold. The writings 
of Dr. Crisp in the seventeenth century are con- 
sidered as highly favourable to Antinomianism, 
though he acknowledges that, " in respect of 
the rules of righteousness, or the matter of 
obedience, we are under the law still, or else," 
as he adds, " we are lawless, to live every man 
as seems good in his own eyes, which no true 
Christian dares so much as think of." The 
folloAving sentiments, however, among others, 
are taught in his sermons: "The law is cruel 
and tyrannical, requiring what is naturally 
impossible," "The sins of the elect were so 
imputed to Christ, as that though he did not 
commit them, yet tliey became actually his 
transgressions, and ceased to be theirs." " The 
feelings of conscience, which tell them that sin 
is theirs, arise from a want of knowing the 
truth." "It is but the voice of a lying spirit in 
the hearts of believers, that saith they have yet 
sin wasting their consciences, and lying as a 
burden too heavy for them to bear." " Christ's 
righteousness is so imputed to the elect, that 
they, ceasing to be sinners, are as righteous as 
he was, and all that he was." " An elect per- 
son is not in a condemned slate while an un- 



believer ; and should he happen to die before 
God call him to believe, he would not be lost." 
" Repentance and confession of sin are not 
necessary to forgiveness. A believer may cer- 
tainly conclude before confession, yea, as soon 
as he hath committed sin, the interest he hath 
in Christ, and the love of Christ embracing him." 
These dangerous sentiments, and others of a 
similar bearing, have been fully answered by 
many writers ; but by none more ably than by 
the Rev. John Fletcher, in his "Checks to 
Antinomianism." 

ANTIOCH, a city of Upper Syria, on the 
river Orontes, about twenty miles from the 
place where it discharges itself into the Mediter- 
ranean. It was built by Seleucus Nicanor, about 
three hundred years before Christ ; and became 
the seat of empire of the Syrian kings of 
the Macedonian race, and afterward of the 
Roman governors of the eastern provinces ; 
being very centrally and commodiously situat- 
ed midway between Constantinople and Alex- 
andria, about seven hundred miles from each, 
in 37° 17' north latitude, and 30"= 45' east lon- 
gitude. No city perhaps, .Terusalem excepted, 
has experienced more frequent revolutions, oi 
suffered more numerous and dire calamitiey, 
than Antioch ; as, besides the common plagues 
of eastern cities, pestilence, famine, fire, and 
sword, it has several times been entirely over- 
thrown by earthquakes. 

In 362, the emperor Julian spent some months 
at Antioch ; which were chiefly occupied in his 
favourite object of reviving the mythology of 
Paganism, The grove at Daphne, planted by 
Seleucus, which, with its temple and oracle, 
presented, during the reigns of the Macedonian 
kings of Syria, the most splendid and fashion- 
able place of resort for Pagan worship in the 
east, had sunk into neglect since the establish- 
ment of Christianity. The altar of the god was 
deserted, the oracle was silenced, and the sacred 
grove itself defiled by the interment of Chris, 
tians. Julian undertook to restore the ancient 
honours and usages of the place; but it was 
first necessary to take away the pollution occa- 
sioned by the dead bodies of the Christians, 
which were disinterred and removed ! Among 
these was that of Babylas, a bishop of Antioch, 
who died in prison in the persecution of Decius, 
and after resting near a century in his grave 
within the walls of Antioch, had been removed 
by order of Gallus into the midst of the grove 
of Daphne, where a church was built over hun ; 
the remains of the Christian saint effectually 
supplanting the former divinity of the place, 
whose temple and statue, however, though ne- 
glected, remained uninjured. Tlie Christians of 
Antioch, undaunted by the conspiracy against 
their religion, or the presence of the emperor 
himself, conveyed the relics of their former 
bishop in triumph back to their ancient reposito- 
ry within the city. The immense multitude who 
joined in the procession, chanted forth their 
execrations against idols and idolaters ; and on 
the same night the image and the temple of the 
Heathen god were consumed by the flames. A 
dreadful vengeance might be expected to have 
followed these scenes; but the real or aflfected 



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clemency of Julian contented itself with shut- 
ting up the cathedral, and confiscating its 
wealth. Many Christians, indeed, suffered from 
the zeal of the Pagans ; but, as it would appear, 
without the sanction of the emperor. 

In 1268, Antioch was taken by Bibars, or 
Bondocdar, sultan of Egypt. The slaughter 
of seventeen thousand, and the captivity of one 
hundred thousand of its inhabitants, mark the 
final siege and fall of Antioch; which, while 
they close the long catalogue of its public woes, 
attest its extent and population. From this 
time it remained in a ruinous and nearly de- 
serted condition, till, with the rest of Syria, it 
passed into the hands of the Ottoman Turks, 
with whose empire it has ever since been in- 
corporated. 

To distinguish it from other cities of the 
same name, the capital of Syria was called 
Antiochia apud Daphnem, or Antioch near 
Daphne, a village in the neighbourhood, where 
was a temple dedicated to the goddess of that 
name ; though, in truth, the chief deity of the 
place was Apollo, under the fable of his amor- 
ous pursuit of the nymph Daphne ; and the 
worship was worthy of its object. The temple 
stood in the midst of a grove of laurels and 
cypresses, where every thing was assembled 
which could minister to the senses ; and in 
whose recesses the juvenile devotee wanted 
not the countenance of a libertine god to aban- 
don himself to voluptuousness. Even those of 
riper years and graver morals could not with 
safety breathe the atmosphere of a place where 
pleasure, assuming the character of religion, 
roused the dormant passions, and subdued the 
firmness of -virtuous resolution. Such being 
the source, the stream could scarcely be ex- 
pected to be more pure ; in fact, the citizens of 
Antioch were distinguished only for their lux- 
ury in life and licentiousness in manners. 
This was an unpromising soil for Christianity 
to take root in. But here, nevertheless, it was 
planted at an early period, and flourished vigor- 
ously. It should be observed, that the inhabit- 
ants of Antioch were partly Syrians, and partly 
Greeks ; chiefly, perhaps, the latter, who were 
invited to the new city by Seleucus. To these 
Greeks, in particular, certain Cypriot and Cy- 
renian converts, who had fled from the perse- 
cution which followed the death of Stephen, 
addressed themselves; "and a great number 
beheved, and turned unto the Lord." When 
the heads of the church at Jerusalem were in- 
formed of this success, they sent Barnabas to 
Antioch, who encouraged the new disciples, 
and added many to their number ; and finding 
how great were both the field and the harvest, 
went to Tarsus to solicit the assistance of Paul. 
Both this Apostle and Barnabas then taught 
conjointly at Antioch; and great numbers were, 
by their labours during a whole year, added to 
the rising church, Acts xi, 19-26 ; xv, 22-35. 
Here they were also joined by Peter, who was 
reproved by Paul for his dissimulation, and his 
concession to the Jews respecting the observ- 
ance of the law. Gal. ii, 11-14. 

Antioch was the birthplace of St. Luke and 
Theophilus, and the see of the martyr Ignatius. 



In this city the followers of Christ had first the 
name of Christians given them. We have the 
testimony of Chrysostom, both of the vast in- 
crease of this illustrious church in the fourth 
century, and of the spirit of charity which con- 
tinued to actuate it. It consisted at this time 
of not less than a hundred thousand persons, 
three thousand of whom were supported out of 
the public donations. It is painfiil to trace the 
progress of declension in such a church as this. 
But the period now referred to, namely, the 
age of Chrysostom, toward the close of the 
fourth century, may be considered as the bright- 
est of its history subsequent to the Apostolic 
age, and that from which the church at Anti- 
och may date its fall. It continued, indeed, 
outwardly prosperous ; but superstition, secular 
ambition, the pride of life ; pomp and formality 
in the service of God, in place of humility and 
sincere devotion ; the growth of faction, and 
the decay of charity ; showed that real religion 
was fast disappearing, and that the foundations 
were laid of that great apostasy which, in two 
centuries from this time, overspread the whole 
Christian world, led to the entire extinction of 
the church in the east, and still holds dominion 
over the fairest portions of the west. 

Antioch, under its modern name of Antakia, 
is now but little known to the western nations. 
It occupies, or rather did till lately occupy, a 
remote corner of the ancient enclosure of its 
walls. Its splendid buildings were reduced to 
hovels ; and its population of half a million, to 
ten thousand wretched beings, living in the 
usual debasement and insecurity of Turkish 
subjects. Such was nearly its condition when 
visited by Pocock about the year 1738, and 
again by Kinneir in 1813. But its ancient 
subterranean enemy, which, since its destruc- 
tion in 587, never long together withheld its 
assaults, has again triumphed over it : the earth- 
quake of the 13th of August, 1822, laid it once 
more in ruins ; and every thing relating to An- 
tioch is past. 

ANTIOCH, of Pisidia. Beside the Syrian 
capital, there was another Antioch visited by 
St. Paul when in Asia, and called, for the sake 
of distinction, Antiochia adPisidiam, as belong, 
ing to that province, of which it was the capi- 
tal. Here Paul and Barnabas preached; but 
the Jews, jealous, as usual, of the reception of 
the Gospel by the Gentiles, raised a sedition 
against them, and obliged them to leave the 
city. Acts xiii, 14, to the end. There were 
several other cities of the same name, sixteen 
in number, in Syria and Asia Minor, built by 
the Seleucidse, the successors of Alexander in 
these countries ; but the above two are the only 
ones which it is necessary to describe as oc- 
curring in Scripture. 

ANTIOCHUS. There were many kings of 
this name in Syria, much celebrated in the 
Greek, Roman, and Jewish histories, after the 
time of Seleucus Nicanor, the father of Antio- 
chus Soter, and reckoned the first king of Syria, 
after Alexander the Great. 

1. Antiochus Soter was the son of Seleucus 
Nicanor, and obtained the surname of Soter, 
or Saviour, from having hindered the invasion 



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t)i Asia by the Gauls, Some think that it was 
on the following occasion : The Galatians hav- 
ing marched to attack the Jews in Babylon, 
wliose army consisted only of eight thousand 
men, reinforced with four thousand Macedon- 
ians, the Jews defended themselves with so 
much bravery, that they killed one hundred 
and twenty thousand men, 2 Mac. viii, 20. It 
was perhaps, too, on this occasion, that Antio- 
chus Soter made the Jews of Asia free of the 
cities belonging to the Gentiles, and permitted 
them to live according to their own laws. 

2. Antiochus Theos, or, the God, was the 
son and successor of Antiochus Soter. He 
married Berenice, daughter of Ptolemy Phila- 
delphus, king of Egypt. Laodice, his first wife, 
seeing herself despised, poisoned Antiochus, 
Berenice, and their son, who was intended to 
succeed in the kingdom. After this, Laodice 
procured Seleucus Callinicus, her son by Antio- 
chus, to be acknowledged king of Syria. These 
events were foretold by Daniel: "And in the 
end of years," the king of Egypt, or of the 
south, and the king of Syria, or of the north, 
" shall join tliemselves together ; for the king's 
daughter of the south shall come to the king 
of the north to make an agreement : but she 
shall not retain the power of the arm; neither 
shall he stand, nor his arm : but she shall be 
given up, and they that brought her, and he 
that begat her, and he that strengthened her in 
these times," Dan. xi, 6. 

3. Antiochus the Great was the son of 
Seleucus Callinicus, and brother to Seleucus 
Ceraunus, whom he succeeded in the year of 
the world 3781, and before Jesus Christ 223. 
He made war against Ptolemy Philopator, king 
of Egypt, but was defeated near Raphia, 3 Mac. i. 
Thirteen years after, Ptolemy Philopator being 
dead, Antiochus resolved to become master 
of Egypt. He immediately seized Ccelo-Sj/ria, 
Phenicia, and Judea ; but Scopas, general 
of the Egyptian army, entered Judea while 
Antiochus was occupied by the war against 
Attains, and retook those places. However, 
he soon lost them again to Antiochus. On 
this occasion happened what Josephus relates 
of this prince's journey to Jerusalem. After a 
victory which he had obtained over Scopas, 
near the springs of Jordan, he became master 
of the strong places in Ccelo-Syria and Sama- 
ria ; and the Jews submitted freely to him, re- 
ceived him into their city and furnished his 
army plentifully with provisions. In reward 
for their affection, Antiochus granted them, 
according to Josephus, twenty thousand pieces 
of silver, to purcliase beasts for sacrifice, one 
thousand four hundred and sixty measures of 
meal, and three hundred and seventy-five mea- 
sures of salt to be offered with the sacrifices, 
and timber to rebuild the porches of the Lord's 
house. He exempted the senators, scribes, and 
singing men of the temple, from the capitation 
tax ; and he permitted the Jews to live accord- 
ing to their own laws in every part of his do- 
minions. He also remitted the third part of 
their tribute, to indemnify them for their losses 
in the war ; he forbade the Heathens to enter 
the temple without being purified, and to bring 



into the city the fJesh of mules, asses, and horses 
to sell, under a severe penalty. 

In the year of the world 3815, Antiochus 
was overcome by the Romans, and obliged to 
cede all his possessions beyond Mount Taurus, 
to give twenty hostages, among whom was his 
own son Antiochus, afterward surnamed Epi, 
phanes, and to pay a tribute of twelve thousand 
Euboic talents, each fourteen Roman pounds 
in weight. To defray these charges, he re- 
solved to seize the treasures of the temple of 
Belus, at Elymais ; but the people of that coun- 
try, informed of his design, surprised and de- 
stroyed him, with all his army, in the year of 
the world 3817, and before Jesus Christ 187. 
He left two sons, Seleucus Philopator, and 
Antiochus Epiphanes, who succeeded him. 

4. Antiochus Epiphanes, the son of Antio- 
chus the Great, having continued a hostage at 
Rome fourteen years, his brother Seleucus re- 
solved to procure his return to Syria, and sent 
his own son Demetrius to Rome in the place 
of Antiochus. Whilst Antiochus was on his 
journey to Syria, Seleucus died, in the year of 
the world 3829. When, therefore, Antiochus 
landed, the people received him as some pro- 
pitious deity come to assume the government, 
and to oppose the enterprises of Ptolemy, king 
of Egypt, who threatened to invade Syria. For 
this reason Antiochus obtained the surname of 
Epiphanes, the illustrious, or of one appearing 
like a god. 

Antiochus quickly turned his attention to 
the possession of Egypt, which was then en- 
joyed by Ptolemy Philometor, his nephew, son 
to his sister Cleopatra, whom Antiochus the 
Great had married to Ptolemy Epiphanes, king 
of Egypt. He sent Apollonius, one of his 
officers, into Egypt, apparently to honour Pto- 
lemy's coronation, but in reality to obtain 
intelligence whether the great men of the king- 
dom Avere inclined to place the government of 
Egypt in his hands during the minority of the 
king his nephew, 2 Mac. iv, 21, &.c. Apollo- 
nius, however, found them not disposed to 
favour his master ; and this obliged Antiochus 
to make war against Philometor. He came to 
Jerusalem in 3831, and was received there by 
Jason, to whom he had sold the high priest- 
hood. He designed to attack Egypt, but re- 
turned without effecting any thing. The am- 
bition of those Jews who sought the high 
priesthood, and bought it of Antiochus, was 
the beginning of those calamities which over- 
whelmed their nation under this prince. Jason 
procured himself to be constituted in this dig- 
nity in the stead of Onias III ; but Menelaus 
offering a greater price, Jason was deprived, 
and Menelaus appointed in his place. These 
usurpers of the high priesthood, to gratify the 
Syrians, assumed the manners of the Greeks, 
their games and exercises, and neglected the 
worship of the Lord, and the temple service. 

War broke out between Antiochus Epiphanes 
and Ptolemy Philometor. Antiochus entered 
Egypt in the year of the world 3833, and re- 
duced almost the whole of it to his obedience, 
2 Mac. V, 3-5. The next year he returned; 
and whilst he was engaged in the siege of 



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66 



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Alexandria, a false report was spread of his 
death. The inhabitants of Jerusalem testifying 
their joy at this news, Antiochus, when re- 
turning from Egypt, entered this city by force, 
treated the Jews as rebels, and commanded his 
troops to slay all they met. Eighty thousand 
were killed, made captives, or sold on this 
occasion. Antiochus, conducted by the cor- 
rupt high priest Menelaus, entered into the 
holy of holies, whence he took and carried off 
the most precious vessels of that holy place, 
to the value of one thousand eight hundred 
talents. In the year 3835, Antiochus made a 
third expedition against Egypt, which he en- 
tirely subdued. The year following, he sent 
Apollonius into Judea, with an army of twenty- 
two thousand men, and commanded him to kill 
all the Jews who were of full age, and to sell 
the women and young men, 2 Mac. v, 24, 25. 
These orders were too punctually executed. It 
was on this occasion that Judas Maccabseus 
retired into the wilderness with his father and 
his brethren, 2 Mac. v, 29. These misfortunes 
were only preludes of what they were to suffer ; 
for Antiochus, apprehending that the Jews 
would never be constant in their obedience to 
him, unless he obliged them to change their 
religion, and to embrace that of the Greeks, 
issued an edict, enjoining them to conform to 
the laws of other nations, and forbidding their 
usual sacrifices in the temple, their festivals, 
and their Sabbath. The statue of Jupiter 
Olympus was placed upon the altar of the tem- 
ple, and thus the abomination of desolation 
was^ seen in the temple of God. Many corrupt 
Jews complied with these orders ; but others 
resisted them. Mattathias and his sons retired 
to the mountains. Old Eleazar, and the seven 
brethren, suffered death with great courage at 
Antioch, 2 Mac. vii. Mattathias being dead, 
Judas Maccabaerus headed those Jews who con- 
tinued faithful, and opposed with success the 
generals whom king Antiochus sent into Judea, 
The king, informed of the valour and resist- 
ance of Judas, sent new forces ; and, finding 
his treasures exhausted, he resolved to go into 
Persia to levy tributes, and to collect large 
sums which hei had agreed to pay to the Ro- 
mans, 1 Mac. iii, 5-31 ; 2 Mac. ix, 1, &c ; 
1 Mac. vi, 1, &c. Knowing that very great 
riches were lodged in the temple of Elymais, 
he determined to carry it off; but the inhabit- 
ants of the country made so vigorous a resist- 
ance, that he was forced to retreat toward 
Babylonia. When he was come to Ecbatana, 
he was informed of the defeat of Nicanor and 
Timotheus, and that Judas Maceabeeus had 
retaken the temple of Jerusalem, and restored 
the worship of the Lord, and the usual sacrifi- 
ces. On receiving this intelligence, the king 
was transported with indignation ; and, threat- 
ening to make Jerusalem a grave for the Jews, 
commanded the driver of his chariot to urge 
the horses forward, and to hasten his journey. 
However, divine vengeance soon overtook 
him : he fell from his chariot, and bruised all 
his limbs. He Avas also tormented with such 
pains in his bowels, as allowed him no rest ; 
and his disease was aggravated by grief and 



vexati<)n. In this condition he wrote to the 
Jews very humbly, promised them many things, 
and engaged even to turn Jew, if God would 
restore him to health. He earnestly recom- 
mended to them his son Antiochus, who was 
to succeed him, and entreated them to favour 
the young prince, and to continue faithful to 
him. He died, overwhelmed with pain and 
grief, in the mountains of Paratacene, in the 
little town of Tabes, in the year of the wojjd 
3840, and before Jesus Christ 164. 

5. Antiochus EhjpATOR, son of Antiochus 
Epiphanes, was only nine years old when his 
father died and left him the kingdom of Syria, 
Lysias, who governed the kingdom m the name 
of the young prince, led against Judea an army 
of one hundred thousand foot, twenty thousand 
horse, and thirty elephants, 1 Mac. vi; 2 Mac. 
xiii. He besieged and took the fortress of 
Bethsura, and thence marched against Jerusa- 
lem. The city was ready to fall into his hands 
when Lysias received the news that Philip, 
whom Antiochus Epiphanes had entrusted 
with the regency of the kingdom, had come to 
Antioch to take the government, according to 
the disposition of the late king. He therefore 
proposed an accommodation with the Jews, 
that he might return speedily to Antioch and 
oppose Philip. After concluding a peace, he 
immediately returned into Syria, with the 
young king and his army. 

In the meantime, Demetrius Soter, son of 
Seleucus Philopator, and nephew to Antiochus 
Epiphanes, to whom by right the kingdom 
belonged, having escaped from Rome, came 
into Syria. Finding the people disposed for 
revolt, Demetrius headed an army, and marched 
directly to Antioch, against Antiochus and 
Lysias. However, the inhabitants did not wait 
till he besieged the city ; but opened the gates, 
and delivered to him Lysias and the young king 
Antiochus Eupator, whom Demetrius caused 
to be put to death, without suffering them to 
appear in his presence. Antiochus Eupator 
reigned only two years, and died in the year of 
the world 3842, and before Jesus Christ 162. 

6. Antiochus Theos, or the Divine, the son 
of Alexander Balas, king of Syria, was brought 
up by the Arabian prince Elmachuel, or, as he 
is called in the Greek, Simalcue, 1 Mac. xi, 
39, 40, &c, Demetrius Nicanor, king of Syria, 
having rendered himself odious to his troops, 
one Diodotus, otherwise called Tryphon, came 
to Zabdiel, a king in Arabia, and desired him 
to entrust him with young Antiochus, whom 
he promised to place on the throne of Syria, 
which was then possessed by Demetrius Nica- 
nor. Afler some hesitation, Zabdiel complied 
with the request ; and Tryphon carried Antio- 
chus into Syria, and put the crown on his 
head. The troops dismissed by Demetrius, 
came and joined Tryphon, who, having formed 
a powerful army, defeated Demetrius, and 
forced him to retreat to Seleucia. Tryphon 
seized his elephants, and rendered himself 
master of Antioch, in the year of the world 
3859, and before Jesus Christ 145. Antiochus 
Theos, to strengthen himself in his new acqui- 
sition, sent letters to Jonathan Maccabseus, 



ANT' 



67 



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high priest and prince of the Jews, confirming 
him in the high priesthood, and granting him 
four toparchies, or fom* considerable places, in 
Judea. He also received Jonathan into the 
nmnber of his friends, sent him vessels of gold, 
permitted him to use a gold cup, to wear purple, 
and a golden buckle ; and he gave his brother, 
Simon Maccaboeus, the command of all his 
troops on the coast of the Mediterranean, from 
Tyre to Egypt. Jonathan, engaged by so many 
favours, declared resolutely for Antiochus, or 
rather for Tryphon, who reigned under the 
name of this young prince; and on several 
occasions, he attacked tlie generals of Deme- 
trius, who still possessed many places beyond 
Jordan and in Galilee, 1 Mace, xi, 63, «fec ; xii, 
24, 34. Tryphon, seeing young Antiochus in 
peaceable possession of the kingdom of Syria, 
resolved to usurp his crown. He thought it 
necessary, in the first place, to secure Jonathan 
Maccabaeus who was one of the most powerful 
supporters of Antiochus's throne. He came, 
therefore, with troops into Judea, invited Jona- 
than to Ptolemais, and there, on frivolous pre- 
tences, made him prisoner. However, Simon, 
Jonathan's brother, headed the troops of Judea, 
and opposed Tryphon, who intended to take 
Jerusalem. Tryphon, being disappointed, put 
Jonathan to death at Bassa or Bascama, and 
returned into Syria, where, without delay, he 
executed his design of killing Antiochus. He 
corrupted the royal physicians, who, having 
published that Antiochus was torriiented with 
the stone, murdered him, by cutting him with, 
out any necessity. Thus Tryphon was left 
master of Syria, in the year of the world 3861, 
and before Jesus Christ 143. 

7. Antiochus Sidetes, or Soter the Saviour, 
or Eusehes the pious, was the son of Demetrius 
Soter, and brother to Demetrius Nicanor. Try- 
phon, the usurper of the kingdom of Syria, 
having rendered himself odious to his troops, 
they deserted him, and offered their services to 
Cleopatra, the wife of Demetrius Nicanor. 
She lived in the city of Seleucia, shut up with 
her children, while her husband Demetrius was 
a prisoner in Persia, where he had married 
Rodeguna, the daughter of Arsaces king of 
Persia. Cleopatra, therefore sent to Antiochus 
Sidetes, her brother-in-law, and offered him the 
crown of Syria, if he would marry her ; to 
which Antiochus consented. This prince was 
then at Cnidus, where his father, Demetrius 
Soter had placed him with one of his friends. 
He came into Syria, and wrote to Simon Mac- 
cabfieus, to engage him against Tryphon, 1 Mace. 
XV, 1, 2, 3, &c. lie confirmed the privileges 
■which the kings of Syria had granted to Simon, 
permitted him to coin money with his own 
stamp, declared Jerusalem and the temple 
exempt from royal jurisdiction, and promised 
other favours as soon as he should obtain 
peaceable possession of the kingdom which had 
belonged to his ancestors. Antiochus Sidetes 
having married his sister-in-law, Cleopatra, in 
the year of the world 3865, the troops of Try- 
phon resorted to him in crowds. Tryphon, 
thus abandoned, retired to Dora, in Phoenicia, 
v^hither Antiochus pursued him with an army 



of 190,000 foot, 800 horse, and a powerful 
fleet. Simon Maccabseus sent Antiochus two 
thousand chosen men, but the latter refused 
them and revoked all his promises. He also 
sent Athenobius to Jerusalem to oblige Simon 
to restore to hini Gazara and Joppa, with the 
citadel of Jerusalem ; and to demand of him five 
hundred talents more, as reparation for injuries 
the king had suffered, and as tribute for his 
own cities. At the same time he threatened 
to make war upon hkii, if he did not comply. 
Simon showed Athenobius all the lustre of his 
wealth and power, told him he had in his pos- 
session no place which belonged to Antiochus^ 
and said that the cities of Gazara and Joppa 
had greatly injured his people, and he would 
give the king for the property of them one' 
hundred talents. Athenobius returned with 
great indignation to Antiochus, who was ex-j 
tremely offended at Simon's answer. In the 
meantime, Tryphon having escaped privately 
from Dora, embarked in a vessel and fled. An . 
tiochus pursued him, and sent Cendebeus with 
troops into the maritime parts of Palestine, and- 
commanded him to rebuild Cedron, and fight 
the Jews. John liircanus, son of Simon Mac- 
cabaeus, was then at Gaza, and gave notice to 
his father of the coming of Cendebeus. Simon- 
furnished his sons, John Hircanus and Judas 
with troops, and sent them against Cendebeus, 
whom they routed in the plain and pursued to 
Azotus. 

Antiochus followed Tryphon, till he forced 
him to kill himself in the year of the world 
3869. After this, Antiochus thought only of 
reducing to his obedience those cities which, in 
the beginning of his father's reign, had shaken 
off their subjection. Simon Maccabaeus, prince 
and high priest of the Jews^ being treacherously 
murdered by Ptolemy, his son-in-law, in the 
castle of Docus, near Jericho, the murderer 
iimnediately sent to Antiochus Sidetes to de- 
mand troops, that he might recover for him the 
country and cities of the Jews. Antiochus came 
in person with an army, and besieged Jerusa- 
lem, which was bravely defended by John Hir- 
canus. The siege was long protracted; and 
the king divided his army into seven parts, and 
guarded all the avenues of the city. It being 
the time for celebrating the feast of taberna- 
cles, the Jews desired of Antiochus a truce 
for seven days^ The king not only granted 
this request, but sent them bulls with gilded 
horns, and vessels of gold and silver filled with 
incense, to be offered in the temple. He also 
ordered such provisions as they wanted, to be 
given to the Jewish soldiers. This courtesy of 
the king so won the hearts of the Jews, that 
they sent ambassadors to treat of peace, and to 
desire that they might live according to their 
own laws. Antiochus required that they should 
surrender their arms, demolish the city walls, 
pay tribute for Joppa and the other cities they 
possessed out of Judea, and receive a garrison 
into Jerusalem. To these conditions, except 
the last, the Jews consented; for they could 
not be induced to see an army of strangers in 
their capital, and chose rather to give hostages 
and five hundred talents of silver. The king^ 



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entered the city, beat down the breast work 
above the walls, and returned to Syria, in the 
year of the world 3870, and before Jesus Christ 
134. Three years after, Antiochus marched 
against the Persians, or Parthians, and demand- 
ed the liberty of his brother Demetrius Nicanor, 
who had been made prisoner long before by 
Arsaces, and was detained for the purpose of 
being employed in exciting a war against Antio- 
chus. This war, therefore, Antiochus thought 
proper to prevent. With an army of eighty 
thousand, or, as Orosius says, of one hundred 
thousand men, he marched toward Persia, and 
no sooner appeared on the frontiers of that 
country, than several eastern princes, detesting 
the pride and avarice of the Persians, came and 
surrendered. Antiochus defeated his enemies 
in three engagements, and took Babylon. He 
was accompanied in these expeditions by John 
Hircanus, high priest of the Jews, who, it is 
supposed, obtained the surname of Hircanus 
from some gallant action which he performed. 
As the army of Antiochus was too numerous 
to continue assembled in any one place, he was 
obliged to divide it, to put it into winter quar- 
ters. These troops behaved with so much in- 
solence, that they alienated the minds of all 
men. The cities in which they were, privately 
surrendered to the Persians ; and all resolved to 
attack, in one day, the garrisons they contained, 
that the troops being separated might not assist 
each other. Antiochus at Babylon obtained 
intelligence of this design, and, with the few 
soldiers about him, endeavoured to succour his 
people. He was attacked in the way by Phraa- 
tes, king of Persia, whom he fought with great 
bravery ; but being at length deserted by his 
own forces, according to the generality of his- 
torians, he was overpowered and killed by the 
Persians or Parthians. Appian, however, says 
that he killed himself, and ^Elian, that he threw 
himself headlong from a precipice. This event 
took place in the year of the world 3874, and 
before Jesus Christ 130. After the death of 
Sidetes, Demetrius Nicanor, or Nicetor, reas- 
cended the throne of Syria. 

ANTIP^DOBAPTISTS, a denomination 
given to those who object to the baptism of in- 
fants. The word is derived from avn, against, 
zsais, sJai^os, a child, (^a-rrTi^w, I baptize. See 
Baptism. 

ANTIPAS, Antipas-Herod, or Herod -Anti- 
pas, was the son of Herod the Great, and Cleo- 
patra of Jerusalem. Herod the Great, in his 
first will, declared him his successor in the king. 
dom ; but he afterward named his son Arche- 
laus king of Judea, and gave to Antipas only 
the title of tetrarch of Galilee and Perjea. Ar- 
chelaus going to Rome, to persuade the empe- 
ror to confirm his father's will, Antipas also 
went thither. The emperor bestowed on Ar- 
chelaus one moity of what had been assigned 
him by Herod, with the quality of ethnarch, and 
promised to grant him the title of king when 
he had shown himself deserving of it by his 
virtues. To Antipas, Augustus gave Galilee and 
Peraea ; and to Pliilip, Herod's other son, the 
Batanaea, Trachonitis, and Auranitis, with some 
other places. 



Antipas, returning to Judea, took great pains 
in adorning and fortifying the principal places 
of his dominions. He married the daughter oi; 
Aretas, king of Arabia, whom he divorced about 
A. D. 33, that he might marry his sister-in-law, 
Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, who 
was still living. John the Baptist, exclaiming 
against this incest, was seized by order of An- 
tipas, and imprisoned in the castle of Machaerus. 
Josephus says, that Antipas caused John to be 
taken, because he drew too great a concourse 
after him ; and Antipas was afraid he should use 
his influence over the people to induce them to 
revolt. But Josephus has reported the pretence 
for the true cause. The evangelists, who were 
better informed than Josephus, as being eye 
witnesses of what passed, and particularly ac- 
quainted with John and his disciples, assure 
us, that the true reason of imprisoning John 
was the aversion of Herod and Herodias against 
him, on account of his liberty in censuring their 
scandalous marriage, Matt, xiv, 3, 4 ; Mark vi, 
14, 17, 18; Luke iii, 19, 20. When the king 
was celebrating his birth day, with the princi- 
pal persons of his court, the daughter of He- 
rodias danced before them, and pleased him so 
well that he swore to give her whatever she 
should ask. She consulted her mother, who 
advised her to ask the head of John the Bap- 
tist. Returning, therefore, to the hall, she ad- 
dressed herself to the king, and said, " Give rae 
here John Baptist's head in a charger." The 
king was afflicted at this request ; but in con- 
sideration of his oath, and of the persons at 
table with him, he sent one of his guards, who 
beheaded John in prison. The head was 
brought in, and given to the young woman, 
who delivered it to her mother, Matt, xiv, 5, &y 
&c. Aretas, king of Arabia, to revenge the 
affront which Herod had offered to his daugh- 
ter, declared war against him, and vanquished 
him in a very obstinate contest. Josephus tells 
us, that the Jews attributed the defeat of Herod 
to the death of John the Baptist. In the yeajr 
of the Christian sera 39, Herodias being jealous 
of the prosperity of her brother Agrippa, who 
from a private person had become king of Ju- 
dea, persuaded her husband, Herod-Antipas, to 
visit Rome, and desire the same dignity of the 
emperor Caius. She resolved to accompany 
him ; and hoped that her presents and appear- 
ance would contribute to procure the emperor's 
favour. However, Agrippa obtaining intelli- 
gence of this design, wrote to the emperor and 
accused Antipas. The messenger of Agrippa 
arrived at Baiss, where the emperor was, at the 
very time when Herod received his first audience . 
Caius, on the delivery of Agrippa's letters, read 
them with great earnestness. In these letters, 
Agrippa accused Antipas of having been a par- 
ty in Sejanus's conspiracy against Tiberius, and 
said that he still carried on a correspondence 
with Artabanus, king of Partha, against the 
Romans. As a proof of this, he affirmed that 
Antipas had in his arsenals arms for seventy 
thousand men. Caius being angry, demanded 
hastily of Antipas, if it were true that he had 
such a quantity of arms ? The king not daring 
to deny it, was instantly banished to Lyons iri' 



APE 



69 



APO 



Gaul. Tlie emperor offered to forgive Hero- 
dias, in consideration of her brother Agrippa; 
but she chose rather to follow her husband, and 
to share his fortune in banishment. This is 
tliat Antipas, who, being at Jerusalem at the 
time of our Saviour's passion, ridiculed Jesus 
whom Pilate had sent to him, dressed him in 
worn-out royalty, and sent him back to Pilate 
as a mock king, whose ambition gave him no 
umbrage, Luke xxiii, 7, 11. The year of the 
death of Antipas is unknown ; but it is certain 
that he, as well as Herodias, died in exile. Jo- 
sephus says, that he died in Spain, whither 
Caius, on his coming into Gaul the first year 
of his banishment, might order him to be sent. 

2. Antipas, the faithful martyr or witness 
mentioned in the book of Revelation, ii, 13. 
He is said to have been one of our Saviour's 
first disciples, and to have suffered martyrdom 
at Pergamus, of which he was bishop. His Acts 
relate that he was burnt in a brazen bull. 
Though ancient ecclesiastical history furnishes 
no account of this Antipas, yet it is certain 
that, according to all the rules of language, 
what is said concerning him by St. John must 
be understood literally, and not mystically, as 
some interpreters have done. 

ANTIPATRIS, Acts xxiii, 31, a town in Pa. 
lestine, anciently called Caphar-Saba, accord- 
ing to Josephus ; but named Antipatris by He- 
rod the Great, in honour of his father Antipater. 
It was situated in a pleasant valley, near the 
mountains, in the way from Jerusalem to Caesa- 
rea. Josephus places it at about the distance of 
seventeen miles from Joppa. To this place St. 
Paul was brought in his way to the governor of 
Judea at Cajsarea, Acts xxiii, 31. 

ANTITYPE, that which answers to a type 
or figure. A type is a model, mould, or pat- 
tern ; that which is formed according to it is 
an antitype. See Type. 

ANTONIA, one of the towers of Jerusalem, 
called by Herod after M. Antony. The Romans 
generally kept a garrison in this tower ; and 
from thence it was that the tribune ran with his 
soldiers to rescue St. Paul out of the hands of 
the Jews, who had seized him in the temple, and 
designed to have murdered him, Acts xxi, 31, 32. 

APE, dp, Krj^oi and Krjirog, cephus, 1 Kings x, 
22 ; 2 Chron. ix, 21. This animal seems to be 
the same with the ceph of the Ethiopians, of 
which Pliny speaks, 1. viii, c. 19 : " At the 
games given by Pompey the Great," says he, 
"were shown cephs brought from Ethiopia, 
which had their fore feet like a human hand, 
their hind legs and feet also resembled those 
of a man." The Scripture says that the fleet of 
Solomon brought apes, or rather monkeys, &c, 
from Ophir. The learned are not agreed re- 
specting the situation of that country ; but 
Major Wilford says that the ancient name of 
the River Landi sindh in India was Cophes. 
May it not have been so called from the otflp 
inhabiting its banks ? 

We now distinguish this tribe of creatures 
into 1. Monkeys, those with long tails ; 2. Apes, 
those with short tails ; 3. Baboons, those with- 
out tails. The ancient Egyptians are said to 
have worshipped apes; it is certain that they 



are still adored in many places in India. Maf- 
feus describes a magnificent temple dedicated to 
the ape, with a portico for receiving the victims 
sacrificed, supported by seven hundred columns. 
" Widi glittering gold and sparkling gems they shine, 

But apes and monkeys are the gods within." 
FigTires of apes are also made and reverenced 
as idols, of which we have several in Moore's 
" Hindoo Pantheon ;" also in the avatars, given 
in Maurice's " History of India," &c. In some 
parts of the country the apes are held sacred, 
though not resident in temples ; and incautious 
English gentlemen, by attempting to shoot 
these apes, (rather, perhaps, monkeys,) have 
been exposed, not only to all manner of insults 
and vexations from the inhabitants of the vil- 
lages, &c, adjacent, but have even been in 
danger of their lives. 

APHARSACHITES, a people sent by the 
kings of Assyria to inhabit the country of Sa- 
maria, in the room of those Israelites who had 
been removed beyond the Euphrates, Ezra v, 6. 
They, with the other Samaritans, opposed the 
rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, Ezra iv, 9. 

APIS, a symbolical deity worshipped by the 
Egyptians. It was an ox, having certain ex- 
terior marks, in which animal the soul of the 
great Osiris was supposed to subsist. The ox 
was probably made the symbol of Osiris be- 
cause he presided over agriculture. 

APOCALYPSE, ' AiTOKd'Xvxpis, signifies revela- 
Hon. It is, however, particularly applied to 
the Revelations which St. John had in the isle 
of Patmos, whither he had been banished. The 
testimonies in favour of the book of the Reve- 
lation being a genuine work of St. John the 
Evangelist are very full and satisfactory. An- 
drew, bishop of Csesarea in Capadocia, in the 
fifth century, assures us that Papias acknow- 
ledged the Revelation to be inspired. But the 
earliest author now extant who mentions this 
book is Justin Martyr, who lived about sixty 
years after it was written, and he ascribes it to 
St. John. So does Iraeneus, whose evidence 
is alone sufficient upon this point ; for he was 
the disciple of Polycarp, who was the disciple 
of John himself; and he expressly tells us that 
he had the explanation of a certain passage in 
this book from those who had conversed with 
St. John the author. These two fathers are 
followed by Clement of Alexandria, Theophi- 
lus of Antioch, Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian, 
Lactantius, Jerome, Athanasius, and many 
other ecclesiastical writers, all of whom concur 
in considering the Apostle John as the author 
of the Revelation. Some few persons, how- 
ever, doubted the genuineness of this book in 
the third and fourth centuries; but since that 
time it has been very generally acknowledged 
to be canonical ; and, indeed, as Mr. Lowman 
observes, " hardly any one book has received 
more early, more authentic, and more satisfac- 
tory attestations." The omission of this book 
in some of the early catalogues of the Scrip- 
tures, was probably not owing to any suspicion 
concerning its authenticity or genuineness, but 
because its obscurity and mysteriousness were 
thought to render it less fit to be read publicly 
and generally. It is called the Revelation of 



APO 



70 



APO 



John the Divine ; and this appellation was 
first given to St. John by Eusebius, not to dis- 
tinguish him from any other person of the 
«ame name, but as an honourable title, inti- 
mating that to him was more fully revealed 
the system of divine counsels than to any other 
prophet of the Christian dispensation. 

St. John was banished to Patmos in the 
latter part of the reign of Domitian, and he 
retm-ned to Ephesus immediately after the 
death of that emperor, which happened in the 
year 96 ; and as the Apostle states, that these 
visions appeared to him while he was in that 
island, we may consider this book as written in 
the year 95 or 96. 

In the first chapter, St. John asserts the 
divine authority of the predictions which he 
is about to deliver; addresses himself to the 
churches of the Proconsular Asia ; and describes 
the first vision, in which he is commanded to 
write the things then revealed to him. The 
second and third chapters contain seven epis- 
ties to the seven churches in Asia ; namely, of 
Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamus, Thyatira, Sardis, 
Philadelphia, and Laodicea, wlxich relate chiefly 
_to their then respective circumstances and 
situation. At the fourth chapter the prophetic 
visions begin, and reach to the end of the book. 
They contain a prediction of all the most re- 
markable revolutions and events in the Chris- 
tian church from the time of the Apostle to 
the final ci)n summation of all things. An 
attempt to explain these prophecies does not 
fall within the design of this work; and there- 
fore those who are disposed to study this sub- 
lime and niysteaious book are referred to Mede, 
Daubuz, Sir Isaac Newton, Lowman, Bishop 
Newton, Bishop Hurd, and many other excel- 
lent commentators. These learned men agree 
in their general principles concerning the in- 
terpretation of tills book, although they differ 
in some particular points ; and it is not to be 
expected that there should be a perfect coinci- 
dence of opinion in the explanation of those 
predictions which relate to still future times ; 
for, as the incomparable Sir Isaac Newton ob- 
serves, " God gave -these and the prophecies 
of the Old Testament, not to gratify men's 
curiosity, by enabling them to foreknow things, 
but that after they were fulfilled they might be 
interpreted by the event, and his own pre- 
science, not that of the interpreters, be then 
manifested thereby Lo the world." " To explain 
this book perfectly," says Bishop Newton, " is 
not the work of one man, or of one age ; but 
probably it never will be clearly understood, 
till it is all fulfilled." It is graciously designed, 
that the gradual aecompiishment of these pre- 
dictions should afford, in every succeeding 
period of time, additional testimony to the 
divine origin of ouv hxjly religion, 

APOCRYPHA, books not admitted into the 
sacred canon, being either spurious, or at least 
not acknowledged to be divine. The word 
Apocrypha is of Greek origin, and is either 
derived from the words airb rT^g KpvTTTr^i, because 
Ihe books in question were removed from the 
crypt, chest, ark, or other receptacle in which 
^he sacred book^:a/ere deposited whose authority 



was never doubted, or more probably from tne 
verb a-ROKpviTro}, to hide or conceal, because thev 
were concealed from the generality of readers, 
their authority not being recognised by the 
church, and because they are books which are 
destitute of proper testimonials, their original 
being obscure, their authors unknown, and 
their character either heretical or suspected. 
The advocates of the church of Rome, indeed, 
affirm that some of these books are divinely 
inspired ; but it is easy to account for this : the 
apocryphal writings serve to countenance some 
of the corrupt practices of that church. The Pro- 
testant churches not only account those books 
to be apocryphal and merely human composi- 
tions v/hich are esteem.ed such by the church 
of Rome, as the Prayer of Manasseh, the third 
and fourth books of Esdras, the addition at the 
end of Job, and the hundred and fifly-first 
Psalm ; but also the books of Tobit, Judith, the 
additions to the book of Esther, Wisdom, Ec- 
clesiasticus, Baruch the Prophet, with the 
Epistle of Jeremiah, the Song of the Three 
Children, the Story of Susanna, the Story of 
Bel and the Dragon, and the first and second 
books of Maccabees. The books here enume- 
rated are unanimously rejected by Protestants 
for the following reasons : — 

1. They possess no authorit}'- whatever, 
either external or internal, to procure their 
admission into the sacred canon. None of 
them are extant in Hebrew ; all of them are in 
the Greek language, except the fourth book of 
Esdras, which is only extant in Latin. They 
were written for the most part by Alexandrian 
Jews, subsequently to the cessation of the pro- 
phetic spirit, though before the promulgation 
of the Gospel. Not one of the writers in direct 
terms advances a claim to inspiration ; nor 
were they ever received into the sacred canon 
by the Jewish church, and therefore they were 
not sanctioned by our Saviour, No part of the 
apocrypha is quoted, or even alluded to, by him 
or by any of his Apostles ; and both Philo and 
Josephus, who flourished in the first century of 
tlie JChristian sera, are totally silent concerning 
them. 

2. The apocryphal books were not admitted 
into the canon of Scripture during the first 
four centuries of the Christian church. They 
are not mentioned in the catalogue of inspired 
writings made by Melito bishop of Sardis, who 
flourished in the second century, nor in those 
of Origen in the third century, of Athanasius, 
Hilary, Cyril of Jerusalem, Epiphanius, Gre- 
gory Nazianzen, Amphilochius, Jerom, Rufi- 
nus, and others of the fourth century ; nor in 
the catalogue of canonical books recognised by 
the council of Laodicea , held in the same cen- 
tury, whose canons v>^ere received by the catho- 
lic church ; so that as Bishop Burnet well 
observes, we have the concurring sense of the 
whole church of God in this matter. To this 
decisive evidence against the canonical autho- 
rity of the apocryphal books, we may add that 
they were never read in the Christian church 
until the fourth century ; when, as Jerom in- 
forms us, they were read " for example of life, 
and instruction of manners ; but were not 



APO 



71 



APO 



applied to establish any doctrine.'" And con- 
temporary writers state, that although they 
were not approved as canonical or inspired 
writings, yet some of them, particularly Judith, 
Wisdom, and Ecclesiasticus, were allowed to 
be perused by catechumens. As a proof that 
they were not regarded as canonical in the 
fifth century, Augiastine relates, that when the 
book of Wisdom and other writings of the 
same class were publicly read in the church, 
they were given to the readers or inferior eccle- 
siastical officers, who read them in a lower 
place than those which were universally ac- 
knowledged to be canonical, which were read 
by the bishops and presbyters in a more emi- 
nent and conspicuous manner. To conclude : 
notwithstanding the veneration -in which these 
books Avere held by the western church, it is 
evident that the same authority was never 
ascribed to them as to the Old and New^ Tes- 
tament until the last council of Trent, at its 
fourth session, presmned to place them all 
(except the Prayer of Manasseh and the tliird 
and fourth books of Esdras) in the same rank 
with the inspired writings of Moses and the 
Prophets. 

APOLLINARIANS, or Apollinarists, or, as 
they are called by Epiphanius, Dimaritae, a sect 
who derive their principal name from Apolli- 
naris, bishop of Laodicea, in the fourth century. 
Apollinaris strenuously defended the divinity of 
Christ against the Arians ; but by indulging 
too freely in philosophical distijictions and 
subtleties, he denied in some measure his hu- 
manity. He maintained that the body which 
Christ assumed was endowed with a sensitive, 
and not a rational, soul ; and that the divine 
nature performed the functions of reason, and 
supplied the place of the intellectual principle 
in man. Hence it seemed to follow, that the 
divine nature in Christ was blended with the 
human and sufiered with it the pains of cruci- 
iLxion and death. Apollinaris and his follow- 
ers have been charged w^ith other errors by 
certain ancient writers ; but it is not easy to 
determine how far their charge is worthy of 
credit. The doctrine of Apollinaris was first 
condemned by a council at Alexandria in 362, 
and afterward in a more formal manner by a 
council at Rome in 375, and by another council 
in 378, which deposed Apollinaris from his bi- 
shopric. In short, it was attacked at the same 
time by the laws of the emperors, the decrees 
of councils, and the writings of the learned ; 
and sunk by degrees under their united force. 

APOLLOS was a Jew of Alexandria, who 
came to Ephesus in the year of our Lord 54, 
during the absence of St. Paul, who had gone 
to Jerusalem, Acts xviii, 24. He was an elo- 
quent man, and mighty in the Scriptures ; but 
he knew only the baptism of John, and was 
not fiilly informed of the higher branches of 
Gospel doctrine. However, he acknowledged 
that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, and declar- 
ed himself openly as his disciple. At Ephesus, 
therefore, he began to speak boldly in the 
synagogue, and demonstrated by the Scriptures 
that Jesus was the Christ. Aquila and Pris- 
cilla, having heard him there, took him with 



them, and instructed him more fully in the 
ways of God. Some time after, he was inclined 
to go into Achaia, and the brethren wrote to 
the disciples there, desiring them to receive 
him. He was very useful at Corinth, where 
he watered what St. Paul had planted, 1 Cor. 
iii, 6. It has been supposed, that the great 
admiration of his disciples for him tended to 
produce a schism. Some said, " I am of Paul ;" 
some, " I am of Apollos ;" and others, " I am 
of Cephas." But this division, which St. Paul 
mentions and reproves in his First Epistle to 
the Corinthians, did not prevent Paul and 
Apollos, personally, from being closely united 
in the bonds of Christian charity and affection. 
Apollos, hearing that the Apostle was at Ephe- 
sus, went to meet him, and was there when 
St. Paul wrote the First Epistle to the Corin- 
thians ; in which he observes, that he had earn- 
estly entreated Apollos to return to Corinth : 
but though he had not prevailed with him, 
Apollos gave him room to hope that he would 
visit that city at a favourable opportunity. 
Some have supposed, that the Apostle names 
Apollos and Cephas, not as the real persons in 
whose name parties had been formed in Co- 
rinth, but that, in order to avoid provoking a 
temper which he wished to subside, he trans- 
fers "by a figure" to Apollos and himself what 
was really meant of other parties, whom from 
prudence he declines to mention. However 
this might be, the reluctance of Apollos to 
return to Corinth seems to countenance the 
general opinion. St. Jerom says that Apollos 
was so dissatisfied with Ihe division which had 
happened on his account at Corinth, that he 
retired into Crete with Zeno, a doctor of the 
law; but that the evil having been corrected 
by the letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, 
Apollos returned to that city, of which he after- 
ward became bishop. The Greeks say that he 
v/as bishop of Duras ; some, that he was bishop 
of Iconium, in Phrygia; and others of Cassarea. 
APOLLYON. See Abaddon. 
APOLOGIES, in ecclesiastical history, 
were defences (so the Greek word means) of 
Christianity, presented to Heathen emperors, 
by the Christian fathers, who were therefore 
called Apologists. The first was presented to 
the emperor Adrian, by Quadratus, A. D. 126, 
a fragment of which is preserved by Eusebius; 
but another, presented soon after to the same, 
by Aristides, a converted Athenian philosopher, 
is totally lost. Justin Martyr wrote two apolo- 
gies; the latter (to the Rmnan senate) is im- 
perfect at the beginning; but the former, ad- 
dressed to Antoninus Pius, is preserved entire, 
and was published in English, in 1709, by the 
Rev. W. Reeves, together with one by Ter- 
tullian, the Octavius (a dialogue) of Minucius 
Felix, and the Commentary of Vincentius 
Lirinensis, with notes and preliminary disser- 
tations to each, in 2 vols. 8vo. The Apologies 
are curious and valuable remains of antiquity, 
as showing what were the objections of the 
Heathens, and the manner in which they were 
rebutted by the early Christians. 

APOSTASY, a deserting or abandoning of 
the true religion. The w^ord is borrowed from 



APO 



72 



APO 



4he Latin apostatare, or apostare, to despise or 
violate any thing. Hence apostatare leges 
anciently signified to transgress the laws. The 
Latin apostatare, again, comes from anb, from, 
and 'is-rijxi, I stand. Among the Romanists, 
apostasy also signifies the forsaking of a re- 
ligious order, whereof a man had made pro- 
fession, without a lawful dispensation. The 
ancients distinguished three kinds of apostasy : 
the first, a supererogatione, is committed by a 
priest, or religious, who abandons his profes- 
sion, and returns to his lay state ; the second, 
a mandatis Dei, by a person of any condition, 
who abandons the commands of God, though 
he retains his faith ; the third, a fide, by him 
who not only abandons his works, but also the 
faith. There is this diflference between an 
apostate and a heretic; that the latter only 
abandons a part of the faith, whereas the former 
renounces the whole. The primitive Chris- 
tian church distinguished several kinds of 
apostasy. The first was that of those who 
relapsed from Christianity into Judaism; the 
second, that of those who blended Judaism and 
Christianity together; and the third was that 
of those who, after having been Christians, 
voluntarily relapsed into Paganism. 

APOSTLE, en-ds-aXof, one of the twelve dis- 
ciples of Jesus Christ, commissioned by him to 
preach his Gospel, and propagate it to all parts 
of the earth. The word originally signifies a 
person delegated or sent ; from anos-iXXw, mitto ; 
in which sense it occurs in Herodotus, and 
other profane authors. Hence, in the New 
Testament, the term is applied to divers sorts 
of delegates; and to the twelve disciples by 
way of eminence. They were limited to the 
number twelve, in allusion to the twelve tribes 
of Israel. See Matt, xix, 28 ; Luke xxii, 30 ; 
Rev. xxi, 12-14; and compare Exod. xxiv, 
4 ; Deut. i, 23 ; and Josh, iv, 2, 3. Accord- 
ingly care was taken, on the death of Judas, to 
choose another, to make up the number. Acts 
i, 21, 22, 26. Of the first selection and com- 
mission of the twelve Apostles, we have an 
account, Luke vi, 13, &c; Matt, x, 1, &c. 
Having chosen and constituted twelve persons, 
under the name of Apostles, our blessed Lord 
determined that for some time they should be 
continually with hjm, not only to attend upon 
his public ministry, but to enjoy the benefit of 
his private conversation, that he might furnish 
them the better for the great work in which 
they were to be employed ; and that, at length, 
after suitable preparation, he might, with 
greater advantage, send them abroad to preach 
his Gospel, and thus make way for his own 
visits to some more distant parts, where he had 
not yet been ; and to enable them more effec- 
tually to do this, he endowed them with the 
power of working miracles, of curing diseases, 
and casting out demons. About the com- 
mencement of the third year of his ministry, 
according to the common account of its dura- 
tion, he sent them out two by two, that they 
might be assistants to each other in their work ; 
and commanded them to restrict their teaching 
and services to the people of Israel, and to 
avoid going to the Gentiles or to the Samari- 



tans ; to declare the approach of the kingdom 
of heaven, and the establishment of the Gos- 
pel dispensation; to exercise the miraculous 
powers with which they had been endowed 
gratuitously ; and to depend for their subsists 
ence on the providence of God, and on the 
donations of those to whom they ministered. 
Their names were, Simon Peter ; Andrew, his 
brother ; James the greater, the son of Zebedee ; 
and John his brother, who was the beloved 
disciple ; Philip of Bethsaida ; Bartholomew ; 
Thomas, called Pidymus, as having a twin 
brother; Matthew or Levi, who had been a 
publican ; James, the son of Alpheus, called 
James the less ; Lebbeus, surnamed Thaddeus, 
and who was also called Judas or Jude, the 
brother of James ; Simon, the Canaanite, so 
called, as some have thought, because he was 
a native of Cana, or, as Dr. Hammond thinks, 
from the Hebrew Njp, signifying the same with 
Zelotes, or the Zelot, a name given to him on 
account of his having before professed a dis- 
tinguishing zeal for the law ; and Judas Isca- 
riot, or a man of Carioth, Josh, xv, 25, who 
afterward betrayed him, and then laid violent 
hands on himself Of these, Simon, Andrew, 
James the greater, and John, were fishermen ; 
Matthew, and James the son of Alpheus, were 
publicans ; and the other six were probably 
fishermen, though their occupation is not dis- 
tinctly specified. 

After the resurrection of our Saviour, and 
not long before his ascension, the place of Ju- 
das the traitor was supplied by Matthias, sup- 
posed by some to have been Nathanael of 
Galilee, to whom our Lord had given the dis- 
tinguishing character of an " Israelite indeed, 
in whom there was no guile ;" and the twelve 
Apostles, whose number was now completed, 
received a new commission, of a more exten- 
sive nature than the first, to preach the Gospel 
to all nations, and to be witnesses of Christ, 
not only in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and in 
Samaria, but unto the uttermost parts of the 
earth ; and they were qualified for the execu- 
tion of their office by a plenteous effusion of 
miraculous powers and spiritual gifts, and par- 
ticularly the gift of tongues. In consequence 
of this commission, they preached first to the 
Jews, then to the Samaritans, and afterward 
to the idolatrous Gentiles. Their signal suc- 
cess at Jerusalem, where they opened their 
commission, alarmed the Jewish sanhedrim, 
before which Peter and John were summoned, 
and from which they received a strict charge 
never more to teach, publicly or privately, in 
the name of Jesus of Nazareth. The noble 
reply and subsequent conduct of the Apostles 
are well known. This court of the Jews was 
so awed and incensed, as to plot the death of 
the twelve Apostles, as the only effectual mea- 
sure for preventing the farther spread of Chris- 
tianity, Gamaliel interposed, by his prudent 
and moderate counsel ; and his speech had so 
good an effect upon the sanhedrim, that, in. 
stead of putting Peter and John to death, they 
scourged tliem, renewed their charge and 
threats, and then dismissed them. The Apos- 
tles, however, were not discouraged nor re- 



APO 



73 



APO 



strained ; they counted it an honour to suffer 
such indignities, in token of their affection to 
their Master, and zeal in his cause ; and they 
persisted in preaching daily in the courts of the 
temple, and in other places, that Jesus of 
Nazareth was tlie promised and long expected 
Messiah. Their doctrine spread, and the num. 
ber of converts in Jerusalem still increased. 
During the violent persecution that raged at 
Jerusalem, soon after the martyrdom of St. 
Stephen, several of the leading men among 
the Christians were dispersed ; some of them 
travelled through the regions of Judea and 
Samaria, and others to Damascus, Phoenicia, 
the Island of Cyprus, and various parts of 
Syria ; but the twelve Apostles remained, with 
undaunted firmness, at Jerusalem, avowing 
their attachment to the persecuted interest of 
Christ, and consulting how they might best 
provide for the emergencies of the church, in 
its infant and oppressed state. 

When the Apostles, during their abode at 
Jerusalem, heard that many of the Samaritans 
had embraced the Gospel, Peter and John were 
deputed to confer upon them the gift of the 
Holy Spirit ; for to the Apostles belonged the 
prerogative of conferring upon others spiritual 
gifts and miraculous powers. In their return 
to Jerusalem, from the city of Samaria, they 
preached the Gospel in many Samaritan vil- 
lages. The manner of its being s^nt to Ethiopia, 
by the conversion of the eunuch who was chief 
treasurer to Candace, queen of the country, is 
related in Acts viii, 26, &c. After the Chris- 
tian religion had been planted in Jerusalem, 
Judea, and Samaria, and sent into Ethiopia, 
one of the uttermost parts of the earth, Acts 
i, 8 ; and after it had been preached about eight 
years to the Jews only, God, in his wise and 
merciful providence, disposed things for the 
preaching of it among the Gentiles. Csesarea 
was the scene in which the Apostle Peter was 
to open his commission for this purpose; and 
Cornelius, one of the devout Gentiles, and a 
man distinguished by l^is piety and charity, 
was the first proselyte to Christianity. After 
Peter had laid the foundation of a Christian 
church among the devout Gentiles, others imi- 
tated his example, and a great number of per- 
sons of this description embraced the Christian 
faith, more especially at Antioch, where the 
disciples, whom their enemies had hitherto 
called Galileans, Nazarenes, and other names 
of reproach, and who, among themselves, had 
been called " disciples," " believers," " the 
church," "the saints," and "brethren," were 
denominated, probably not without a divine 
direction. Christians. 

When Christianity had been preached for 
about eight years among the Jews only, and 
for about three years more among the Jews and 
devout Gentiles, the next stage of its progress 
wa^ to the idolatrous Gentiles, in the year of 
Christ 44, and the fourth year of the emperor 
Claudius. Barnabas and Saul were selected 
for this purpose, and constituted in an extra- 
ordinary manner Apostles of the Gentiles, or 
uncircumcision. Barnabas was probably an 
elder of the first ranfe ; he had seen Christ in 



the flesh, had been an eye witness of his being 
alive again after his crucifixion, and had re- 
ceived the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, 
as being one of the hundred and twenty. Saul 
also, since his conversion had preached as a 
superior prophet, about seven years to the Jews 
only, and about two years more to the Jews 
and devout Gentiles. They had both been born 
in Gentile countries ; and therefore may be 
supposed to have had more respect and affec- 
tion for the Gentiles than most of the Jews, 
who were natives of Judea. Saul had been 
converted, and had hitherto preached chiefly 
on Gentile ground ; and he had joined with 
Barnabas in teaching devout Gentiles for a 
whole year, at Antioch in Syria ; by all which 
previous steps they were regularly conducted 
to the last gradation, or the conversion of the 
idolatrous Gentiles. But it was necessary, in 
order to the being an Apostle, to have seen our 
Lord Jesus Christ alive after his crucifixion, 
for the Apostles were in a peculiar manner the 
witnesses of his resurrection. Some have sup- 
posed that Saul saw the person of Jesus, when 
he was converted, near the city of Damascus ; 
but others, who conceive from the history of 
this event, that this could not have been the 
case, as he was instantly struck blind, are of 
opinion that the season, when his Apostolic 
qualification and commission were completed, 
was that mentioned by himself. Acts xxii, 17, 
when he returned to Jerusalem the second time 
after his conversion, saw the Lord Jesus Christ in 
person, and received the command to go quick- 
ly out of Jerusalem, that he might be sent unto 
the Gentiles. See also Acts xxvi, 16-20, where 
he gives an account of the object of his com- 
mission. He also received a variety of gifts 
and powers, which, superadded to his own 
genius and learning, as well as fortitude and 
patience, eminently qualified him for the office 
of an Apostle, and for that particular exercise 
of it which was assigned to him. St. Paul is 
frequently called the Apostle, by way of emi- 
nence ; and the Apostle of the Gentiles, because 
his ministry was chiefly employed for the con« 
version of the Gentiles, as that of St. Peter was 
for Jews, who is therefore styled the Apostle of 
the circumcision. 

The Apostles having continued at Jerusalem 
twelve years after the ascension of Christ, as 
tradition reports, according to his command, 
determined to disperse themselves in different 
parts of the world. But what were the pai*= 
ticular provinces assigned to each, does not 
certainly appear from any authentic history, 
Socrates says, that Thomas took Parthia for 
his lot ; Matthew, Ethiopia, and Bartholomew, 
India. Eusebius gives the following account; 
" Thomas, as we learn by tradition, had Parthia 
for his lot ; Andrew, Scythia ; John, Asia, who 
having lived there a long time, died at Ephe- 
sus. Peter, as it seems, preached to the dis- 
persed Jews in Pontus and Galatia, Bithynia, 
Cappadocia, and Asia ; at length, coming to 
Rome, he was crucified with his head down- 
ward, as he had desired. What need I to speak 
of St. Paul, who fully preached the Gospel of 
Christ, from Jerusalem to Illyricum, and at last 



APO 



74 



APP 



died a martyr at Rome, in the time of Nero ?" 
From this passage we may conclude, that at 
the beginning of the fourth century, there were 
not any certain and well attested accounts of 
the places out of Judea, in which several of the 
Apostles of Christ preached ; for if there had, 
Eusebius must have been acquainted with them. 

The stories that are told concerning their 
arrival and exploits among the Gauls, the Eng- 
lish, the Spaniards, the Germans, the Americans, 
the Chinese, the Indians, and the Russians, are 
too romantic in their nature, and of too recent 
a date, to be received by an impartial inquirer 
after truth. These fables were for the most 
part forged after the time of Charlemagne, 
when most of the Christian churches contend- 
ed about the antiquity of their origin, with as 
much vehemence as the Arcadians, Egj^ptians, 
and Greeks disputed formerly about their se- 
niority and precedence. 

It appears, however, that all of the Apostles 
did not die by martyrdom, lieraclion, cited 
by Clemens Alexandrinus, reckons among the 
Apostles who did not suffer martyrdom, Mat- 
thew, Thomas, Philip, and Levi, probably 
meaning Lebbeus. 

To the Apostles belonged the peculiar and 
exclusive prerogative of writing doctrinal and 
preceptive boolcs of authority in the Christian 
church ; and it sufficiently appears that no 
epistles or other doctrinal writings of any per- 
son who was of a rank below that of an Apos- 
tle, were received by Christians as a part of 
their rule of faith. With respect to the writ- 
ings of Mark and Luke, they are reckoned 
historical, not doctrinal or dogmatical ; and 
Augustine says, that Mark and Luke wrote at 
a time when their writings might be approved 
not only by the church, but by Apostles still 
living. 

The appellation of Apostles was aLso given to 
the ordinary travelling ministers of the church. 
Tims St. Paul, m the Epistle to the Romans, 
xvi, 7, says, "Salute Andronicus and Junia, 
my kinsmen and fellow prisoners, who are of 
note among the Apostles." In this inferior 
sense the appellation is applied, by Clement of 
Alexandria, to Barnabas ; who was not an 
Apostle in the highest sense of the word, so as 
the twelve and Paul were Apostles. Tertullian 
calls all the seventy disciples Apostles; and 
Clement calls Barnabas Apostolical merely in 
another place, and says that he was one of the 
seventy, and fellow labourer of Paul. These, 
says Dr. Lardner, are the highest characters 
which he really intends to give to Barnabas, 
end what he means when he styles him Apos- 
tle ; therefore he need not be supposed to 
ascribe to Barnabas that large measure of in- 
spiration and high authority, which was pecu- 
liar to the Apostles, strictly and properly so 
called. In a similar subordinate form, St. 
Clement of Rome is called Apostle. Timothy 
also is called by Salvian, Apostle, meaning 
merely Apostolical, or a companion and disci- 
ple of Apostles. 

Apostle \^3i^ likewise a title given to those 
sent by the churches, to carry their alms to 
the poor of other churches. This usage they 



borrowed from the synagogues, who called 
those whom they sent on this message, by the 
same name ; and the function or office itself 
ano^oXfi, that is, mission. Thus St. Paul, writ- 
ing to the Philippians, tells them, that Epa- 
phroditus, their Apostle, had ministered to his 
wants, chap, ii, 25. It is applied in like man- 
ner to those persons who first planted the 
Christian faith in any place. 

Apostle is also used among the Jews, for a 
kind of officer anciently sent into the several 
parts and provinces in their jurisdiction, by 
way of visiter, or commissary ; to see that the 
laws were duly observed, and to receive the 
moneys collected for the reparation of the tem- 
ple, and the tribute payable to the Romans. 
Thess apostles were a degree below the officers 
of the synagogues, called patriarchs, and re- 
ceived their commissions from them. Some 
authors observe, that St. Paul had borne this 
office ; and that it is this he alludes to in the 
beginning of the Epistle to the Galatians: as 
if he had said, Paul, no longer an apostle of 
the synagogue, nor sent by men to maintain 
the law of Moses, but now an Apostle and en- 
voy of ,Tesus Christ, &,c. St. Jerom, though he 
does not believe that St. Paul had been an 
apostle of this kind, yet imagines that he al- 
ludes to it in the passage just cited. 

APOSTLES' CREED. See Creed. 

APPELLATIO, an appeal. The Sempro- 
nian law secured this privilege to the Roman 
citizens, that they could not be capitally con- 
victed, but by the suffrage of the people ; and 
in whatever provinces they happened to reside, 
if the governor showed a disposition to con- 
demn them to death, to scourge, or deprive 
them of their property, they had liberty to ap- 
peal from his jurisdiction to the judgment of 
the people. This law, which was enacted un- 
der the republican form of government, con- 
tinued in force under the emperors ; so that if 
any freeman of Rome thought himself ill used 
and aggrieved by the presidents in any of the 
provinces, he could, by appeal, remove his 
cause to Rome, to the determination of the 
emperor. A number of persons, we are told, 
were delegated by Augustus, all of consular 
rank, to receive the appeals of the people in 
the provinces. These observations will explain 
the nature of St. Paul's appeal in the Acts of 
the Apostles. 

APPII FORUM, a place about fifly miles 
from Rome, near the modern town of Piperno 
on the roaxi to Naples. It probably had its 
name from the statue of Appius Claudius, a 
Roman consul, who paved the famous way 
from Rome to Capua, and whose statue was 
set up here. To this place some Christians from 
Rome came to meet St. Paul, Acts xxviii, 15. 

APPLE TREE, nion, Prov. xxv, 11 ; Cant, 
ii, 3, 5 ; vii, 8 ; viii, 5 ; Joel i, 12. As the best 
apples of Egypt, though ordinary, are brought 
thither by sea from Rhodes, and by land from 
Damascus, we may believe that Judea, an in- 
termediate country between Egypt and Da- 
mascus, has none that are of any value. Can 
it be imagined, then, that the apple trees of 
which the Prophet Joel speaks, i, 12, an4 



APR 



•75 



AQU 



whicli he mentions among the things that 
gave joy to the inhabitants of Judea, were 
those that we call by that name ? Our trans- 
lators must surel}'^ have been mistaken here, 
since the apples which the inhabitants of Judea 
eat at this day are of foreign growth, and at 
the same time but very indifferent. 

There are five places, beside this in Joel, in 
which the word occurs ; and from them we 
learn that it was thought the noblest of the 
trees of the wood, and that its fruit was very 
Bweet or pleasant, Cant, ii, 3 ; of the colour of 
gold, Prov. XXV, 11 ; extremely fragrant, Cant, 
vii, 8 ; and proper for those to smell that were 
ready to faint. Cant, ii, 5. We may be sure that 
the taphuach was very early known in the holy 
land, as it is mentioned in the book of Joshua 
as having given name to a city of Manasseh 
and one of Judah. Several interpreters and 
critics render iin YV '''^S, Lev. xxiii, 40, branches, 
or fruit, of the beautiful tree; and understand 
it of the citron ; and it is known that the Jews 
still make use of the fruit of this tree at their 
yearly feast of tabernacles. 

Citron trees are very noble, being large, their 
leaves beautiful, ever continuing on the trees, 
of an exquisite smell, and affording a most de- 
lightful shade. It might well, therefore, be 
said, "As the citron tree is among the trees of 
the wood, so is my beloved among the sons." 
This is a delicate compliment, comparing the 
fine appearance of the prince, amid his escort, 
to the superior beauty with which the citron 
tree appears among the ordinary trees of the 
forest ; and the compliment is heightened by an 
allusion to the refreshing shade and the exhi- 
larating fruit. 

The exhilarating effects of the fruit are men- 
tioned Cant, ii, 5, " Comfort me with citrons." 
Egmont and Heyman tell us of an Arabian who 
was in a great measure brought to himself, when 
overcome with wine, by the help of citrons and 
coffee. 

To the manner of serving up these citrons in 
his court, Solomon seems to refer, when he says, 
" A word fitly spoken is like golden citrons in 
silver baskets ;" whether, as Maimonides sup- 
poses, in baskets wrought with open work, or 
in salvers curiously chased, it nothing concerns 
us to determiue ; the meaning is, that an excel- 
lent saying, suitably expressed, is as the most 
acceptable gift in the fairest conveyance. So 
the rabbins say, that the tribute of the first ripe 
fruits was carried to the temple in silver baskets. 

APRIES, a king of Egypt, called in the 
sacred writings Pharaoh Hophrah, Jer. xliv, 30. 
Apries was the son of Psammis, and grandson 
of Necho, or Nechao, who Avaged war against 
Josiah, king of the Jews. He reigned twenty- 
five years, and was long considered as one of 
the happiest princes in the world ; but having 
equipped a fleet for the reduction of the Cyre- 
nians, he lost in this expedition almost the 
whole of his anny. The Egyptians resolved to 
make him responsible for this ill success, re- 
belled, and pretended that he undertook the 
war only to get rid of his subjects, and that he 
might govern the remainder more absolutely. 
Apries deputed Amasis, one of his officers, to 



suppress the rebellion, and induce the people to 
return to their allegiance. But, while Amasis 
was haranguing them, one of the multitude 
placed a diadem about his helmet, and proclaim- 
ed him king. The rest applauded him; and 
Amasis having accepted their offer, continued 
with them, and confirmed them in their rebel- 
lion. Amasis put himself at the head of the 
rebels, and marched against Apries, whom he 
defeated and took prisoner. Amasis treated 
him with kindness ; but the people were not 
satisfied till they had taken him from Amasis 
and strangled him. Such was the end of Apries, 
according to Herodotus. Jeremiah threatened 
this prince with being delivered into the hands 
of his enemies, as he had delivered Zedekiah, 
king of Judah, into the hands of Nebuchadnez- 
zar, king of Babylon. 

Apries had made a league with Zedekiah, and 
promised him assistance, Ezek. xvii, 15. Zede- 
kiah, therefore, relying on his forces, revolted 
from Nebuchadnezzar, in the year of the world 
3414, and before Jesus Christ 590. Early in 
the year following, Nebuchadnezzar marched 
against Hezekiah ; but as other nations of Sy- 
ria had shaken off their obedience, he first re- 
duced them to their duty, and toward the end 
of the year besieged Jerusalem, 2 Kings'xxv, 5 ; 
2 Chron. xxxvi, 17 ; Jer. xxxix, 1 ; lii, 4. Zede- 
kiah defended himself in Jerusalem, long and 
obstinately, that he might give time to Pharaoh 
Hophrah, or Apries, to come to his assistance. 
Apries advanced with a powerful army ; and the 
king of Babylon raised the siege, and marched 
to meet him. But Apries not daring to hazard 
a battle against the Chaldeans, retreated into 
Egypt, and abandoned Zedekiah. Ezekiel re- 
proaches Egypt severely with this baseness, and 
says that it had been a staff of reed to the house 
of Israel, and an occasion of falling ; for when 
they took hold of it by the hand, it broke and 
rent all their shoulder. He therefore prophe- 
sies that Egypt should be reduced to a solitude, 
and that God would send against it the sword, 
which would destroy in it man and beast, Ezek. 
xxix. This was afterward accomplished, first, 
in the time of Apries ; and secondly, in the 
conquest of Egypt by the Persians. 

AQUILA. This person was a native of Pon- 
tus in Asia Minor, and was converted by St. 
Paul, together with his wife Priscilla, to the 
Christian religion. As Aquila was by trade a 
tentmaker. Acts xviii, 2, 3, as St. Paul was, the 
Apostle lodged and wrought with him at Co- 
rinth. Aquila came thither, not long before, 
from Italy, being obliged to leave Rome upon 
the edict which the emperor Claudius had pub- 
lished, banishing the Jews from that city. St, 
Paul afterward quitted Aquila's house, and abode 
with Justus, near the Jewish synagogue at Co- 
rinth; probably, as Calmet thinks, because 
Aquila was a converted Jew, and Justus was a 
convert from Paganism, that in this case the 
Gentiles might come and hear him with more 
liberty. When the Apostle left Corinth, Aquila 
and Priscilla accompanied him as far as Ephe- 
sus, where he left them with that church while 
he pursued his journey to Jerusalem. They 
rendered him great service in that city, so far 



ARA 



76 



ARA 



as to expose their own lives to preserve his. 
They had returned to Rome when St. Paul 
wrote his Epistle to the Romans, xvi, 4, where- 
in he salutes them with great kindness. Lastly, 
they^were come back to Ephesus again, when 
St. Paul wrote his Second Epistle to Timothy, 
iv, 19, wherein he desires him to salute them 
in his name. What became of them after this 
time is not known. 

AR, the capital city of the Moabites, situat- 
ed in the hills on the south of the river Arnon. 
This city was likewise called Rabbah or Rab- 
bath Moab, to distinguish it from the Ammon- 
ite Rabbah. It was afterward called by tj^e 
Greeks Areopolis ; and is at present termed EL 
Rabba. See Moab. 

ARABIA. A vast country of Asia, extend- 
ing one thousand five hundred miles from north 
to south, and one thousand two hundred from 
east to west ; containing a surface equal to four 
times that of France. The near approach of 
the Euphrates to the Mediterranean constitutes 
it a peninsula, the largest in the world. It is 
called Jezirat-el-Arab by the Arabs ; and by the 
Persians and Turks, Arebistan. This is one 
of the most interesting countries on the face of 
the earth. It has, in agreement with prophecy, 
never been subdued; and its inhabitants, at 
once pastoral, coimnercial, and warlike, are the 
same wild, wandering people as the immediate 
descendants of their great ancestor Ishmael are 
represented to have been. 

Arabia, or at least the eastern and northern 
parts of it, were first peopled by some of the 
numerous families of Cush, who appear to have 
extended themselves, or to have given their 
na,me as the land of Cush, or Asiatic Ethiopia, 
to all the country from the Indus on the east, 
to the borders of Egypt on the west, and from 
Annenia on the north to Arabia Deserta on 
the south. By these Cushites, whose first plan- 
tations were on both sides of the Euphrates 
and Gulf of Persia, and who were the first that 
traversed the desert of Arabia, the earliest com- 
mercial communications were established be- 
tween the east and the west. But of their 
Arabian territory, and of the occupation de- 
pendent on it, they were deprived by the sons 
of Abraham, Ishmael, and Midian ; by whom 
they were obliterated in this country as a dis- 
tinct race, either by superiority of numbers after 
mingling with them, or by obliging them to re- 
cede altogether to their more eastern posses. 
;sions, or over the Gulf of Arabia into Africa. 
Ji'rom this time, that is, about five hundred and 
fifty years after the flood, we read only of Ish- 
maelties an4 Midianites as the shepherds and 
carriers of the deserts ; who also appear to have 
been intermingled, and to have shared both the 
territory and the traffic, as the traders who 
bought Joseph are called by both names, and 
the same are probably referred to by Jeremiah, 
XXV, as "the mingled people that dwell in the 
desert." But Ishmael maintained the superi- 
ority, and succeeded in giving his name to the 
whole people. > 

Arabia, it is well known, is divided by geo- 
graphers into three separate regions, called Ara- 
bia Petrsea, Arabia Deserta, and Arabia Felix. 



The first, or Arabia Petrsea, is the north- 
western division, and is bounded on the north 
by Palestine and the Dead Sea, on the east by -. 
Arabia Deserta, on the south by Arabia Felix, 
and on the west by the Heroopolitan branch of 
the Red Sea and the Isthmus of Suez. The 
greater part of this division was more exclu- 
sively the possession of the Midianites, or land 
of Midian ; where Moses, having fled from 
Egypt, married the daughter of Jethro, and 
spent forty years keeping the flocks of his fa- 
ther-in-law : no humiliating occupation in those . 
days, and particularly in Midian, which was a 
land of shepherds ; the whole people having no 
other way of life than that of rearing and tend- 
ing their flocks, or in carrying the goods they 
received from the east and south into Phenicia 
and Egypt. The word flock, used here, must 
not convey the idea naturally entertained in our 
own country of sheep only, but, together with 
these or goats, horned cattle and camels, the 
most indispensable of animals to the Midian- 
ite. It was a mixed flock of this kind which 
was the sole care of Moses, during a third part 
of his long life; in Which he must have had 
abundance of leisure, by night and by day, to 
reflect on the unhappy condition of his own i 
people, still enduring all the rigours of slavery | 
in Egypt. It was a similar flock also which 
the daughters of Jethro were watering when k 
first encountered by Moses ; a trifling event in : i 
itself, but important in the history of the future 
leader of the Jews; and showing, at, the same ' 
time, the simple life of the people among 
whom he was newly come, as well as the scanty 
supply of water in their country, and the strifes 
frequently occasioned in obtaining a share of it. 
Through a considerable part of this region, the 
Israelites wandered after they had escaped from 
Egypt ; and in it were situated the mountains 
Horeb and Sinai. Beside the tribes of Midian,. 
which gradually became blended with those of 
Ishmael, this was the country of the Edomites, 
the Amalekites, and the Nabathsei, the only 
tribe of pure Ishmaelites within its precincts. 
But all those families have long since been con- 
founded under the general name of Arabs. The 
greater part of this district consists of naked 
rocks and sandy and flinty plains ; but it con- 
tained also some fertile spots, particularly in 
the peninsula of Mount Sinai, and through the 
long range of Mount Seir. 

The second region, or Arabia Deserta, is 
bounded on the north and north-east by the 
Euphrates, on the east by a ridge of mountains 
which separates it from Chaldea, on the south 
by Arabia Felix, and on the west by Syria, Ju- 
dea, and Arabia Petraea. This was more par- 
ticularly the country first of the Cushites, and 
afterward of the Ishmaelites; as it is still of 
their descendants, the modern Bedouins, who 
maintain the same predatory and wandering 
habits. It consists almost entirely of one vast 
and lonesome wilderness, a boundless level of 
sand, whose dry and burning surface denies 
existence to all but the Arab and his camel. 
Yet, widely scattered over this dreary waste, 
some spots of comparative fertility are to be 
found, where, spread around a feeble spring, of . 




En4^ hyV,^ Chapia. SIX 



ARA 



77 



ARA 



brackish water, a stunted verdure, or a few 
palin trees, fix the principal settlement of a 
tribe, and afford stages of refreshment in these 
otherwise impassable deserts. Here, with a 
few dates, the milk of his faithful camel, and 
perhaps a little corn, brought by painful jour- 
neys from distant regions, or plundered from a 
passing caravan, the Arab supports a hard ex- 
istence, until the failure of his resources impels 
him to seek another oasis, or the scanty herb- 
age furnished on a patch of soil by transient 
rains ; or'else, which is frequently the case, to 
resort, by more distant migration, to the banks 
of the Euphrates; or, by hostile inroads on the 
neighbouring countries, to supply those wants 
which the recesses of the desert have denied. 
The numbers leading this wandering and pre 
carious mode of life are incredible. From these 
deserts Zerah drew his army of a million of 
men ; and the same deserts, fifteen hundred 
years after, poured forth tlie countless swarms, 
which, under Mohammed and his successors, 
devastated half of the then known world. 

The third region, or Arabia Felix, so de- 
nominated from the happier condition of its 
soil and climate, occupies the southern part of 
the Arabian peninsula. It is bounded on the 
north by the two other divisions of the country ; 
on the south and south-east by the Indian 
Ocean ; on the east by part of the same ocean 
and the Persian Gulf; and on the west by the 
Red Sea. This division is subdivided into the 
kingdoms or provinces of Yemen, at the south- 
ern extremity of the peninsula ; Hejaz, on the 
north of the former, and toward the Red Sea; 
Nejed, in the central region; and Hadramant 
and Oman, on the shores of the Indian Ocean. 
The four latter subdivisions partake of much 
of the character of the other greater divisions 
of the country, though of a more varied surface, 
and with a larger portion capable of cultivation. 
But Yemen seems to belong to another country 
and climate. It is very mountainous, is well 
watered with rains and springs, and is blessed 
with an abundant produce in corn and fruits, 
and especially in coffee, of which vast quanti- 
ties are exported. In this division were the 
ancient cities of Nysa, Musa or Moosa, and 
Aden. This is also supposed to have been the 
country of the queen of Sheba. In Hejaz are 
the celebrated cities of Mecca and Medina. 

Arabia Felix is inhabited by a people who 
claim Jotkan for their father, and so trace their 
descent direct from Shem, instead of Abraham 
and Ham. They are indeed a totally different 
people from those inhabiting the other quarters, 
and pride themselves on being the only pure 
and unmixed Arabs. Instead of being shep- 
herds and robbers, they are fixed in towns and 
cities ; and live by agriculture and commerce, 
chiefly maritime. Here were the people who 
were found by the Greeks of Egypt enjoying 
an entire monopoly of the trade with the east, 
and possessing a high degree of wealth and 
consequent refinement. It was here, in the 
ports of Sabaea, that the spices, muslins, and 
precious stones of India, were for many ages 
obtained by the Greek traders of Egypt, before 
they had acquired skill or courage sufficient to 



pass the straits of the Red Sea ; which were 
long considered by the nations of Europe to be 
the produce of Arabia itself. These articles, 
before the invention of shipping, or the esta- 
blishment of a maritime intercourse, were con- 
veyed across the deserts by the Cushite, Ish- 
maelite, and Midianite carriers. It was the 
produce partly of India, and partly of Arabia, 
which the travelling merchants, to whom Jo- 
seph was sold, were carrying into Egypt. The 
balm and myrrh were probably Arabian, as they 
are still the produce of the same country ; but 
the spicery was undoubtedly brought farther 
from the east. These circumstances are ad- 
verted to, to show how extensive was the com- 
munication, in which the Arabians formed the 
principal link: and that in the earliest ages of 
which we have any account, in those of Joseph, 
of Moses, of Isaiah, and of Ezekiel, "the 
mingled people" inhabiting the vast Arabian 
deserts, the Cushites, Ishmaelites, and Midian- 
ites, were the chief agents in that commercial 
intercourse which has, from the most remote 
period of antiquity, subsisted between the ex- 
treme east and west. And although the cur- 
rent of trade is now turned, caravans of 
merchants, the descendants of these people, 
may still be found traversing the same deserts, 
conveying the same articles, and in the same 
manner as described by Moses ! 

The singular and important fact that Arabia 
has never been conquered, has already been 
cursorily adverted to. But Mr. Gibbon, un- 
willing to pass by an opportunity of cavilling 
at revelation, says, " The perpetual independ- 
ence of the Arabs has been the theme of praise 
among strangers and natives ; and the arts of 
controversy transform this singula,r event into 
a prophecy and a miracle in favour of the pos- 
terity of Ishmael. Some exceptions, that can 
neither be dissembled nor eluded, render this 
mode of reasoning as indiscreet as it is super- 
fluous. The kingdom of Yemen has been 
successively subdued by the Abysstnians, the 
Persians, the Sultans of Egypt, and the Turks ; 
the holy cities of Mecca and Medina have re- 
peatedly bowed under a Scythian tyrant ; and 
the Roman province of Arabia embraced the 
peculiar wilderness in which Ishmael and his 
sons must have pitched their tents in the face 
of their brethren." But this learned writer has, 
with a peculiar infelicity, annulled his own ar- 
gument ; and we have only to follow o)i the 
above passage, to obtain a complete refutation 
of the unworthy position with which it begins : 
" Yet these exceptions," says Mr. Gibbon, " are 
temporary or local ; the body of the nation has 
escaped the yoke of the most powerful mo- 
narchies : the arms of Sesostris and Cyrus, of 
Pompey, and Trajan, could never achieve the 
conquest of Arabia ; the present sovereign of 
the Turks may exercise a shadow of jurisdic- 
tion, but his pride is reduced to solicit the 
friendship of a people whom it is dangerous to 
provoke, and fruitless to attack. The obvious 
causes of their freedom are inscribed on the 
character and country of the Arabs. Many ages 
before Mohammed, their intrepid valour had 
been severely felt by their neighbours, in offen. 



ARA 



78 



ARA 



sive and defensive war. The patient and ac- 
tive virtues of a soldier are insensibly nursed in 
the habits and discipline of a pastoral life. The 
care of the sheep and camels is abandoned to 
the women of the tribe ; but the martial youth, 
under the banner of the emir, is ever on horse- 
back and in the field, to practise the exercise 
of the bow, the javelin, and the scimitar. The 
long memory of their independence is the 
firmest pledge of its perpetuity ; and succeed- 
ing generations are animated to prove their 
descent, and to maintain their inheritance. 
Their domestic feuds are suspended on the ap- 
proach of a common enemy ; and in their last 
hostilities against the Turks, the caravan of 
Mecca was attacked and pillaged by four score 
thousand of the confederates. When ihey ad- 
vance to battle, the hope of victory is in the 
front, in the rear the assurance of a retreat. 
Their horses and camels, who in eight or ten 
days can perform a march of four or five hun- 
dred miles, disappear before the conqueror; 
the secret waters of the desert elude his search ; 
and his victorious troops are consumed with 
thirst, hunger, and fatigue, in the pursuit of 
an invisible foe, who scorns his efforts, and 
safely reposes in the heart of the burning soli- 
tude. The arms and deserts of the Bedouins 
are not only the safeguards of their ov/n free- 
dom, but the barriers also of the happy Arabia, 
whose inhabitants, remote from war, are ener- 
vated by the luxury of the soil and climate. 
The legions of Augustus melted away in dis- 
ease and lassitude ; and it is only by a naval 
power that the reduction of Yemen has been 
successfully attempted. When Mohammed 
erected his holy standard, that kingdom was 
a province of the Persian empire ; yet seven 
princes of the Homerites still reigned in the 
mountains ; and the vicegerent of Chosroes 
was tempted to forget his distant country and 
his unfortunate master." 

Yemen was the only Arabian province which 
had the appearance of submitting to a foreign 
yoke ; but even here, as Mr. Gibbon hhnself 
acknowledges, seven of the native princes re- 
mained unsubdued: and even admitting its 
subjugation to have been complete, the per- 
petual independence of the Ishraaelites remains 
unimpeached. For this is not their country. 
Petra, the capital of the Stony Arabia, and the 
principal settlement of the Nabatha^i, it is true, 
was long in the hands of the Persians and Ro- 
mans ; but this never made them masters of 
the country. Hovering troops of Arabs con- 
fined the intruders within their walls, and cut 
off their supplies ; and the possession of this 
fortress gave as little reason to the Romans to 
exult as the conquerors of Arabia Petrsea, as 
that of Gibraltar does to us to boast of the con- 
quest of Spain. 

The Arabian tribes were confounded by the 
Greeks and Romans under the indiscriminate 
appellation of Saracens; a name whose ety- 
mology has been variously, but never satisfac- 
torily, explained. This was their general name 
when Mohammed appeared in the beginning 
of the seventh century. Their religion at this 
time was Sabianism, or the worship of the sun, 



moon, &c ; variously transformed by the dif- 
ferent tribes, and intermingled with some Jew- 
ish and Christian maxims and traditions. The 
tribes themselves were generally at variance, 
from some hereditary and implacable animosi- 
ties ; and their only warfare consisted in de- 
sultory skirmishes arising out of these feuds, 
and in their predatory excursions, where supe- 
riority of numbers rendered courage of less 
value than activity and vigilance. Yet of such 
materials Mohammed constructed a mighty em- 
pire ; converted the relapsed Ishmaelites into 
good Musselmen ; united the jarring tribes un- 
der one banner ; supplied what was v/anting in 
personal courage by the ardour of religious 
zeal ; and out of a banditti, little known and 
little feared beyond their own deserts, raised an 
armed multitude, which proved the scourge of 
the world. 

Mohammed was born in the year 569, of the 
noble tribe of the Koreish, and descended, ac- 
cording to eastei-n historians, in a direct line 
from Ishmael. His person is represented as 
beautiful, his manners engaginj, and his elo- 
quence powerful ; but he w^as illiterate, like the 
rest of his countrymen, and indebted to a Jew- 
ish or Christian scribe for penning his Koran. 
Whatever the views of Mohammed might have 
been in the earlier part of his life, it was not 
till the fortieth year of his age that he avowed 
his mission as the Apostle of God: when so 
little credit did he gain for his pretensions, that 
in the first three years he could only number 
fourteen converts ; and even at the end of ten 
years his labours and his friends were alike 
confined within the walls of Mecca, when the 
designs of his enemies compelled him to fly to 
Medina, where he was favourably received by 
a party of the most considerable inhabitants, 
who had recently imbibed his doctrines at Mec- 
ca. This flight, or Hegira, was made the Mo- 
hammedan sra, from which time is computed, 
and corresponds with the 16th of July, 622, of 
the Christian sara. Mohammed now found 
himself sufiiciently powerful to throw aside all 
reserve; declared that he was commanded to 
compel unbelievers by the sword to receive the 
faith of one God, and his prophet Mohammed ; 
and confirming his credulous followers by the 
threats of eternal pain on the one hand, and 
the allurements of a sensual paradise on the 
other, he had, before his death, whicli happened 
in the year 632, gained over the whole of Ara- 
bia to his imposture. His death threw a tern- 
porary gloom over his cause, and the disunion 
of his followers threatened its extinction. Any 
other empire placed in the same circum- 
stances would have crumbled to pieces ; but 
the Arabs felt their power ; they revered their 
founder as the chosen prophet of God ; and 
their ardent temperament, animated by a re- 
ligious enthusiasm, gave an earnest of fiiture 
success, and encouraged the zeal or the ambi- 
tion of their leaders. The succession, after 
some bloodshed, was settled, and unnumbered 
hordes of barbarians were ready to carry into 
execution the sanguinary dictates of their pro- 
phet ; and, with " the Koran, tribute, or death," 
as their motto, to invade the countries of the 



ARA 



79 



ARA 



infidels. -During the whole of the succeeding 
centuiy, their rapid career was unchecked ; the 
disciplined armies of the Greeks and Romans 
were unable to stand against them ; the Chris- 
tian churches of Asia and Africa were annihi- 
lated ; and from India to the Atlantic, through 
Persia, Arabia, Syria, Palestine, Asia Minor, 
Egypt, with the whole of northern Africa, 
Spain, and part of France, the impostor was 
acknowledged. Constantinople was besieged ; 
Rome itself was plundered ; and nothing less 
than the subjection of the whole Cluistian 
world was meditated on the one hand and 
tremblingly expected on the other. 

All this was wonderful ; but the avenging 
justice of an incensed Deity, and the sure word 
of prophecy, relieve our astonishment. It was 
to punish an apostate race, that the Saracen 
locusts were let loose upon the earth ; and the 
countries which they were permitted to ravage 
were those in which the pure light of revela- 
tion had been most abused. The eastern church 
was sunk in gross idolatry; vice and wicked- 
ness prevailed in their worst forms ; and those 
who still called themselves Christians trusted 
more to images, relics, altars, austerities, and 
pilgi'images, than to a crucified Saviour. 

About a hundred and eighty years from the 
foundation of Bagdad, during which period the 
power of the Saracens had gradually declined, 
a dreadful reaction took place in the conquered 
countries. The Persians on the east, and the 
Greeks on the west, were simultaneously roused 
from their long thraldom, and, assisted by the 
Turks, who, issuing from the plains of Tar- 
tary, now for the first time made their appear- 
ance in the east, extinguished the power of the 
caliphate, and virtually put an end to the Ara- 
bian monarchy in the year 936. A succession 
of nominal caliphs continued to the year 1258 : 
but the provinces were lost ; their power was 
confined to the walls of their capital ; and they 
were in real subjection to the Turks and the 
Persians until the above year, when Mostacem, 
the last of the Abbassides, was dethroned and 
murdered by Holagou, or Hulaku, the Tartar, 
the grandson of Zingis. This event, although 
it terminated the foreign dominion of the Ara- 
bians, left their native independence untouched. 
They were no longer, indeed, the masters of 
the finest parts of the three gi-eat divisions of 
the ancient world : their work was finished ; 
and returning to the state in which Moham- 
med found them three centuries before, with 
the exception of the change in their religion, 
they remained, and still remain, the unconquer- 
ed rovers of the desert. 

It is not the least singular circumstance in 
the histoiy cf this extraordinary people, that 
those who, in the enthusiasm of their first suc- 
cesses, were the sworn foes of literature, should 
become for several ages its exclusive patrons. 
Almansor, the founder of Bagdad, has the merit 
of first exciting this spirit, which was encou- 
raged in a still greater degree by his grandson 
Almamon. This caliph employed his agents 
in Armenia, Syria, Egypt, and at Constantin- 
ople, in collecting the most celebrated w^orks 
on Grecian science, and had them translated 



' into the Arabic language. Philosophy, astro- 
nomy, geometry, and medicine, were thus in- 
troduced and taught ; public schools were 
established ; and learning, which had altogether 
fled from Europe, found an asylum on the 
banks of the Tigris. Nor was this spirit con- 
fined to the capital : native works began to 
appear ; and by the hands of copyists were mul- 
tiplied out of number, for the information of 
the studious, or the pride of the wealthy. The 
rage for literature extended to Egypt and to 
Spain. In the former country, the Fatimites 
collected a library of a hundred thousand manu- 
scripts, beautifully transcribed, and very ele. 
gantly bound ; and in the latter, the Ommiades 
formed another of six hundred thousand vo- 
lumes ; forty-four of which were employed in 
the catalogue. Their capital, Cordova, with 
the towns of Malaga, Almeria, and Murcia, 
produced three hundred writers ; and seventy 
public libraries were established in the cities of 
Andalusia. What a change since the days of 
Omar, when the splendid library of the Ptole- 
mies was wantonly destroyed by the same peo- 
ple I A retribution, though a slight one, was 
thus made for their former devastations ; and 
many Grecian works, lost in the original, have 
been recovered in tlieir Arabic dress. Neither 
was this learning confined to mere parade, 
though much of it must undoubtedly have been 
so. Their proficiency in astronomy and geo- 
metry is attested by their astronomical tables, 
and by the accuracy with which, in the plain 
of Chaldea, a degree of the great circle of the 
earth was measured. But it was in medicine 
that, in this dark age, the Arabians shone most : 
the works of Hippocrates and Galen had been 
translated and commented on ; their physicians 
were sought after by the princes of Asia and 
Europe ; and the names of Rhazis, Albucasis, 
and Avicenna are still revered by the members 
of the healing art. So little, indeed, did the 
physicians of Europe in that age know of the 
history of their own science, that they were 
astonished, on the revival of learning, to find 
in the ancient Greek authors those systems for 
which they thought themselves indebted to the 
Arabians ! 

The last ren ns.nt of Arabian science was 
found in Spain ; from whence it was expelled 
in the beginning of the seventeenth century, 
by the intemperate bigots of that country, who 
have never had any thing of their own with 
which to supply its place. The Arabians are 
the only people who have preserved their de. 
scent, their independence, their language, and 
their manners and customs, from the earliest 
ages to the present times ; and it is among 
them that we are to look for examples of pa- 
triarchal life and manners. A very lively sketch 
of this mode of life is given by Sir R. K. Por- 
ter, in the person and tribe of an Arab sheik, 
whom he encountered in the neighbourhood of 
the Euphrates. " I had met this warrior," says 
Sir R. K. P., "at the house of the British re- 
sident at Bagdad ; and came, according to his 
repeated wish, to see him in a place more con- 
sonant with his habits, the tented field ; and» 
as he expressed it, 'at the head of his children.* 



A$IA 



80 



ARA 



As soon as we arrived in sight of his camp, we 
Were met by crowds of its inhabitants, who, 
with a wild and hurrying delight, led us toward 
the tent of their chief. The venerable old 
man came forth to the door, attended by his 
subjects of all sizes and descriptions, and greet- 
ed us with a countenance beaming kindness ; 
while his words, which our interpreter explain- 
ed, were demonstrative of patriarchal welcome. 
One of my Hindoo troopers spoke Arabic ; 
hence the substance of our succeeding discourse 
was not lost on each other. Having entered, 
I sat down by my host ; and the whole of the 
persons present, to far beyond the boundaries 
of the tent, (the sides of which were open,) 
seated themselves also, without any regard to 
those more civilized ceremonies of subjection, 
the crouching of slaves, or the standing of 
vassalage. These persons, in rows beyond 
rows, appeared just as he had described, the 
offspring of his house, the descendants of his 
fathers, from age to age ; and like brethren, 
whether holding the highest or the lowest rank, 
they seemed to gather round their common 
parent. But perhaps their sense of perfect 
equality in the mind of their chief could not be 
more forcibly shown, than in the share they 
took in the objects which appeared to interest 
his feelings ; and as I looked from the elders 
or leaders of the people, seated immediately 
around him, to the circles beyond circles of 
brilliant faces, bending eagerly toward him 
and his guest, (all, from the most respectably 
clad to those with hardly a garment covering 
their active limbs, earnest to evince some at- 
tention to the stranger he bade welcome,) I 
thought I had never before seen so complete an 
assemblage of fine and animated countenances, 
both old and young : nor could I suppose a 
better specimen of the still existing state of 
the true Arab ; nor a more lively picture of the 
scene which must have presented itself, ages 
ago, in the fields of Haran, when Terah sat in 
his tent door, surrounded by his sons, and his 
sons' sons, and the people born in his house. 
The venerable Arabian sheik was also seated 
on the ground with a piece of carpet spread 
under him ; and, like his ancient Chaldean an- 
cestor, turned to the one side and the other, 
graciously answering or questioning the groups 
around him, with an interest in them all which 
clearly showed the abiding simplicity of his 
government, and their obedience. On the 
smallest computation, such must have been 
the manners of these people for more than 
three thousand years ; thus, in all things, veri- 
fying the prediction given of Ishmael at his 
birth, that he, in his posterity, should ' be a wild 
man,' and always continue to be so, though 
' he shall dwell for ever in the presence of his 
brethren.' And that an acute and active peo- 
ple, surrounded for ages by polished and luxu- 
rious nations, should from their earliest to their 
latest times, be still found a wild people, dwell- 
ing in the presence of all their brethren, (as we 
may call these nations,) unsubdued and un- 
changeable, is, indeed, a standing miracle : 
one of those mysterious facts which establish 
the truth of prophecy." But although the 



manners of the Arabians have remained un- 
altered through so many ages, and will proba- 
bly so continue, their religion, as we have seen, 
has sustained an important change; and must 
again, in the fulness of time, give place to a 
faith more worthy of the people. 

St. Paul first preached the Gospel in Arabia, 
Gal. i, 17. Christian churches were subse- 
quently founded, and many of their tribes em- 
braced Christianity prior to the fifth century ; 
most of which appear to have been tinctured 
with the Nestorian heresy. At this time, how- 
ever, it does not appear that the Arabians had 
any version of the Scriptures in their own 
language, to which some writers attribute the 
ease with which they were drawn into the Mo- 
hammedan delusion ; while the " Greeks, Sy- 
rians, Armenians, Abyssinians, Copts, and 
others," who enjoyed that privilege, were able 
to resist it. 

ARAM, the fifth son of Shem, Gen. x, 22. 
He was the father of the Syrians, who from 
him were called Aramseans, or Aramites. 

ARARAT, a mountain of Asia, in Armenia, 
on which the ark of Noah rested after the ces- 
sation of the deluge. Concerning the etymo- 
logy of the name. Dr. Bryant observes, that it 
is a compound oi Ar-Arat, and signifies "the 
mountain of descent," being equivalent to 
Ti^-nn, of the Hebrews. Of the precise situation 
of this mountain, different accounts have been 
given. Some have supposed that it was one 
of the mountains which divide Armenia on the 
south from Mesopotamia, and that part of As- 
syria inhabited by the Curds, from whom those 
mountains took the name of Curdue, or Cardu ; 
by the Greeks denominated Gordyeei. It is 
called by the Arabs Al-Judi, and also Thama- 
nin. In confirmation of this opinion, it is 
alleged that the remains of the ark were to be 
seen on these mountains ; and it is said, that 
Berosus and Abydenus both declare, that such 
a report existed in their time. Epiphanius 
pretends, if we may credit his assertion, that 
the relics of the ark were to be seen in his 
day ; and we are farther told, that the emperor 
Heraciius went from the town of Thamanin, 
up the mountain Al-Judi, and saw the place of 
the ark. Others maintain, that mount Ararat 
was situated toward the middle of Armenia, 
near the river Araxes, or Aras, about twelve 
miles from it, according to Tournefort, above 
two hundred and eighty miles distant from 
Al-Judi, to the north-east. Ararat seems to 
be a part of that vast chain of mountains call- 
ed Caucasus and Taums; and upon these 
mountains, and in the adjacent country, were 
preserved more authentic accounts of the ark 
than in almost any other part of the world. The 
region about Ararat, called Araratia, was es- 
teemed among the ancients as nearly a central 
part of the earth ; and it is certainlj'^ as well 
calculated as any other for the accommodation 
of its first inhabitants, and for the migration of 
colonies, upon the increase of mankind. The 
soil of the country was very fruitful, and espe- 
cially of that part where the patriarch made 
his first descent. The country also was very 
high, though it had fine plains and valleys 



ARA 



81 



ARC 



between the mountains. Such a country, there- 
fore, must, after the flood, have been the soon- 
est exsiccated, and, consequently, the soonest 
habitable. 

The mountain which has still the name of 
Ararat, has retained it through all ages. Tour- 
nefort has particularly described it, and from 
his account it seems to consist chiefly of free- 
stone, or calcareous sandstone. It is a de- 
tached mountain in form of a sugar loaf, in the 
midst of a very extensive plain, consisting of 
two summits ; the lesser, more sharp and point- 
ed ; the higher, which is that of the ark, lies 
north-west of it, and raises its head far above 
the neighbouring mountains, and is covered 
with perpetual snow. When the air is clear, 
it does not appear to be above two leagues from 
Erivan, and may be seen at the distance of 
four or five days' journey. Its being visible at 
sjuch a distance, however, is ascribed not so 
much to its height, as to its lonely situation, 
in a large, plain, and upon the most elevated 
part of the country. The ascent is difficult 
and fatiguing. Tournefort attempted it ; and, 
after a whole day's toil, he was obliged, by the 
snow and intense cold, to return without ac- 
complishing his design, though in the middle 
of summer. On the side of the mountain that 
looks toward Erivan, is a prodigious precipice, 
very deep, with perpendicular sides, and of a 
rough, black appearance, as if tinged with 
smoke. 

The summit of Ararat has never been reach- 
ed, though several attempts have been made ; 
and if the ark rested on the summit, it is certain 
that those who have spoken of its fragments 
being seen there in different ages, must have 
been imposed upon. It is, however, not neces- 
sary to suppose that the ark rested upon either of 
its tops ; and that spot would certaijily be chosen 
which would afford the greatest facility of de- 
scent. Sir Robert Ker Porter is among the 
modern travellers who have given us an ac- 
count of this celebrated mountain : — " As the 
vale opened beneath us in our descent, my 
whole attention became absorbed in the view 
before me. A vast plain, peopled with count- 
less villages ; the towers and spires of .the 
churches of Eitch-mai-adzen, arising from 
amidst them ; the glittering waters of the Arax- 
es, flowing through the fresh green of the vale ; 
and the subordinate range of mountains, skirt- 
ing the base of the awful monument of the 
antediluvian world. It seemed to stand a stu- 
pendous link in the history of man, uniting the 
two races of men before and after the flood. 
But it was not until we had arrived upon the 
flat plain, that I beheld Ararat in all its ampli- 
tude of grandeur. From the spot on which I 
stood, it appeared as if the hugest mountains 
of the world had been piled upon each other, 
to form this one sublime immensity of earth, 
and rock, and snow. The icy peaks of its 
double heads rose majestically into the clear 
and cloudless heavens; the sun blazed bright 
upon them; and the reflection sent forth a 
dazzling radiance, equal to other suns. This 
point of the view united the utmost grandeur 
of plain and height. But the feelings I expe- 



rienced while looking on the mountain, ar6 
hardly to be described. My eye, not able to 
rest for any length of time upon the blinding 
glory of its summits, wandered down the appa- 
rently interminable sides, tiil I could no longer 
trace their vast lines in the mists of the hori- 
zon ; when an inexpressible impulse, immedi- 
ately carrying my eye upward again, refixed 
my gaze upon the awful glare of Ararat ; and 
this bewildered sensibility of sight being an- 
swered by a similar feeling in the mind, for 
some moments I was lost in a strange suspen- 
sion of the powers of thought." 

The separate peaks are called Great and 
Little Ararat, and the space between them is 
about seven miles. " These inaccessible sum- 
mits," continues Sir R. K. Porter, "have never 
been trodden by the foot of man since the days 
of Noah, if even then ; for my idea is, that the 
ark rested in the space between these heads, 
and not on the top of eitlier. Various attempts 
have been made in different ages to ascend 
these tremendous mountain-pyramids, but in 
vain : their form, snows, and glaciers, are in- 
surmountable obstacles : the distance being so 
great from the commencement of the icy region 
to the highest points, cold alone would be the 
destruction of any person who should have the 
hardihood to persevere. On viewing mount 
Ararat from the northern side of the plain, its 
two heads are separated by a wide cleft, or 
rather glen, in the body of the mountain. The 
rocky side of the greater head runs almost 
perpendicularly down to the north-east, while 
the lesser head rises from the sloping bottom of 
the cleft, in a perfectly conical shape. Both 
heads are covered with snow. The form of the 
greater is similar to the less, only broader and 
rounder at the top; and shows to the north- 
west a broken and abrupt front, opening, about 
half way down, into a stupendous chasm, deep, 
rocky, and peculiarly black. At that part of 
the mountain, the hollow of the chasm receives 
an interruption from the projection of minor 
mountains, which start from the sides of Ara- 
rat like branches from the root of a tree, and 
run along, in undulating progression, till lost in 
the distant vapours of the plain." Dr. Shuck- 
ford argues that the true Ararat lies among the 
mountains of the north of India ; but Mr. Faber 
has answered his reasoning, and proved by a 
comparison of geographical notices incidentally 
mentioned in the Old Testament, that the Ara- 
rat of Armenia is the true Ararat. 

ARCHANGEL, according to some, means 
an angel occupying the eighth rank in the 
celestial order or hierarchy ; but others reckon 
it a title only applicable to our Saviour ; Jude 
9 ; Dan. xii, 1 ; 1 Thess. iv, 16. On this point 
Bishop Horsley has the following observa- 
tions : — " It has been for a long time a fashion 
in the church to speak very frequently and 
familiarly of archangels as beings of an order 
with which we are perfectly well acquainted. 
Some say there are seven of them. Upon what 
solid ground that assertion stands, I know not ; 
but this I know, the word ' archangel' is not 
to be found in any one passage of the Old Testa. 
j ment : in the New Testament it occurs twice. 



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and only twice. One of the two passages is in 
the First Epistle to the Thessalonians ; where 
the Apostle, among the circumstances of the 
pomp of our Lord's descent from heaven to the 
final judgment, mentions * the voice of the arch- 
angel ;' the other passage is in the Epistle of St. 
Jude, where the title of archangel is coupled 
with the name of 'Michael the archangel.' 
This passage is so remarkably obscure that I 
shall not attempt to draw any conclusion from it 
but this, which manifestly follows, be the par- 
ticular sense of the passage what it may : since 
this is one of the two texts in which alone the 



him fighting with the old serpent, the deceiver 
of the world, and victorious in the combat. 
That combat who was to maintain ? in that 
combat who was to be victorious, but the seed 
of the woman? From all this it is evident, 
that Michael is a name for our Lord himself, 
in his particular character of the champion of 
his faithfiil people, against the violence of the 
apostate faction and the wiles of the devil." 
To this opinion there is nothing irreconcilable 
in the " voice of the archangel" mentioned in 
1 Thess. iv, 16 : since the " shout," the " voice," 
the " trump of God," may all be the majestic 



word * archangel' is found in the whole Bible ; summons of the Judge himself. At the same 



since in this one text only the title of archan 
gel is coupled with any name; and since the 
name with which it is here coupled is Michael ; 
it follows undeniably that the archangel Mi- 
chael is the only archangel of whom we know 
any thing from holy writ. It cannot be prov- 
ed from holy writ, and, if not from holy writ, 
it cannot be proved at all, that any archangel 
exists but the one archangel Michael, and this 
one archangel Michael is unquestionably the 
Michael of the book of Daniel. 

" I must observe by the way, with respect to 
the import of the title of archangel, that the 
word, by etymology, clearly implies a supe- 
riority of rank and authority in the person to 
whom it is applied. It implies a command 
over angels ; and this is all that the word of 
necessity implies. But it follows not, by any 
sound rule of argument, that, because no other 
superiority than that of rank and authority is 
implied in the title, no other belongs to the 
person distinguished by the title, and that he 
is in all other respects a mere angel. Since 
we admit various orders of intelligent beings, 
it is evident that a being highly above the an- 
gelic order may command angels. 

" To ascertain, if we can, to what order of 
beings the archangel Michael may belong, let 
us see how he is described by the Prophet 
Daniel, who never mentions him by that title ; 
and what action is attributed to him in the 
book of Daniel and in another book, in which 
he bears a principal part. 

" Now Daniel calls him ' one of the chief 
princes,' or ' one of the capital princes,' or 
* one of the princes that are at the head of all :' 
for this I maintain to be the fiill and not more 
than the full import of the Hebrew words. Now 
w^e are clearly got above the earth, into the 
order of celestials, who are the princes that are 
first, or at the head of all 7 Are they any 
other than the three persons in the Godhead ? 
Michael, therefore, is one of them ; but which 
of them? This is not left in doubt. Gabriel, 
speaking of him to Daniel, calls him * Michael 
your prince,' and * the great prince which 
standeth for the children of thy people ;' that 
is, not for the nation of the Jews in particular, 
but for the children, the spiritual children, of 
that holy seed the elect people of God ; a de- 
scription which applies particularly to the Son 
of God, and to no one else ; and in perfect 
consistence with this description of Michael 
in the book of Daniel, is the action assigned 
to him in the Apocalypse, in v/hich we find 



time we must feel that the reasoning of Bi- 
shop Horsley, though ingenious, is far from 
being conclusive against the existence of one 
or more archangels. 

ARCHBISHOP, a bishop of the first class, 
who superintends the conduct of other bishops. 
Archbishops were not known in the east till 
about the year 320; and though there were 
some soon after this, who had the title, yet it 
was only a personal honour^ by which the 
bishops of considerable cities were distinguish- 
ed. It was not till of late that archbishops 
became metropolitans, and had suiFragans un- 
der them. Athanasius appears to have been 
the first who used the title archbishop, which 
he gave occasionally to his predecessor. Gre- 
gory Nazianzen, in like manner, gave it to 
Athanasius ; not that either of them was en- 
titled to any jurisdiction, or even any prece- 
dency, in virtue of this title. Among the 
Latins, Isidore Hispalensis is the first who 
speaks of archbishops. 

ARCHELAUS, son of Herod the Great, and 
Maltace, his fifth wife. Herod having put to 
death his sons Alexander, Aristobulus, and 
Antipater, and expunged out of his will Herod 
Antipas, whom he had declared king, he sub- 
stituted Archelaus, and gave Antipas the title 
of tetrarch only. After the death of Herod, 
Archelaus ordered that king's will to be read, 
wherein he, Archelaus, was declared king, on 
condition that Augustus consented. Hereupon 
the assembly cried, "Long live king Arche. 
laus!" and the soldiers promised the same 
fidelity to him as they had shown to his father. 
Archelaus buried his father magnificently, 
came to Jerusalem, and there mourned seven 
days, according to custom. He then gave a 
splendid entertainment to the people, went to 
the temple, harangued the multitude, promised 
them good treatment, and declared he would 
not assume the title of king till the emperor 
had confirmed it, A. M. 4001 ; B. C. 3. The 
people, notwithstanding, tumultuously demand- 
ed the execution of those who advised Herod 
to slay certain zealots, who had pulled down a 
golden eagle from one of the temple gates. 
They also required Archelaus to divest Joazar 
of the high priesthood ; and they vehemently 
reproached the memory of the late king. Ar- 
chelaus sent troops to suppress the mutineers, 
and killed near three thousand of them about 
the temple. After this he embarked at Csesa- 
rea for Rome, to procure from Augustus the 
confirmation of Herod's will. Antipas, his 



ARC 



S3 



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brother, went to Rome likewise, to dispute his 
title, pretending that Herod's first will should 
be preferred to his last, which he alleged to 
have been made by him when his understand- 
ing was not sound. 

The two brothers, Archelaus and Antipas, 
procured able orators to display their preten- 
sions before the emperor ; and when they had 
done speaking, Archelaus threw himself at 
Augustus's feet. Augustus gently raised him, 
said he would do nothing contrary to Herod's 
intention or his interest, but refused to decide 
the affair at that time. Some time afterward, 
the Jews sent a solemn embassy to Rome, to 
desire Augustus would permit them to live ac- 
cording to their own laws, and on the footing 
of a Roman province, without being subject to 
kings of Herod's family, but only to the go- 
vernors of Syria. Augustus heard them, and 
likewise heard Archelaus in reply ; then broke 
up the assembly without declaring himself. 
Afler some days, he sent for Archelaus, gave 
him the title, not of king, but of ethnarch, witli 
one moiety of the territories which his father 
Herod had enjoyed; promising him the crown 
likewise, if his good conduct deserved it. Ar- 
chelaus returned to Judea, and, under pretence 
that he had countenanced the seditious against 
him, he deprived .Toazar of the high priesthood, 
and gave that dignity to his brother Eleazar. 
He governed Judea with so much violence, 
that, after seven years, the chiefs of the Sama- 
ritans and Jews accused him before Augustus. 
The emperor immediately sent for his agent at 
Rome, and without condescending to write to 
Archelaus he conmianded the agent to depart 
instantly for Judea, and order Archelaus to 
Rome, to give an account of his conduct. On 
his arrival at Rome, the emperor called for his 
accusers, and permitted him to defend himself; 
which he did so insufficiently, that Augustus 
banished him to Vienne, in Gaul, where he 
continued in exile to the end of his life. See 
Antipas. 

ARCHI-SYNAGOGUS, the ruler ofasyna^ 
gogve. See Synagogue. 

ARCHITRICLINUS, ap;(;£r(3/«Xtvof, generally 
translated steward, signifies rather the master 
or superintendent of the feast; "one," says 
Gaudentius, "who is the husband's friend, and 
commissioned to conduct the order and econo- 
my of the feast." He gave directions to the 
servants, superintended everything, command- 
ed the tables to be covered, or to be cleared of 
the dishes, as he thought proper: whence his 
name, as regulator of the triclinium, or festive 
board. He also tasted the wine, and distribut- 
ed it to the guests. The author 6f Ecclesias- 
ticus thus describes this office, xxxii, 1, 2: "If 
thou be made the master of a feast, lift not 
thyself up, but be among them as one of the 
rest : take diligent care of them, and so sit 
down. And when thou hast done all thy office, 
take thy place, that thou raayest be merry with 
them, and receive a crown for the well order- 
ing of the feast." This ofiice is mentioned, 
John ii, 8, 9, upon which Theophylact re- 
marks : " That no one might suspect that their 
taste was vitiated by having drunk to excess, 



so as not to know water from wine, our Sa^ 
viour orders it to be first carried to the govern- 
or of the feast, who certainly was sober ; for 
those who on such occasions are intrusted with 
this office, observe tlie strictest sobriety, that 
they may be able properly to regulate the 
whole." 

AREOPAGUS, the high court at Athens, 
famed for the justice of its decisions ; and so 
called, because it sat on a hill of the same 
name, or in the suburbs of the city, dedicated 
to Mars, the god of war, as the city was to 
Minerva, his sister. St. Paul, Acts xvii, 19, 
«fcc, having preached at Athens, was carried 
before the Areopagites, as "a setter forth of 
strange gods." On this occasion he delivered 
that fine sermon which is in substance record, 
ed in Acts xvii. Dionysius, one of the judges, 
was converted ; and the Apostle was dismissed 
without any fartlier trouble. 

ARGOB, a canton lying beyond Jordan, in 
the half tribe of Manasseh, and in the country 
of Bashan, one of the most fruitful on the 
other side of Jordan. In the region of Argob 
there were sixty cities, called Bashan-havoth- 
Jair, which had very high walls and strong 
gates, without reckoning many villages and 
hamlets, which were not inclosed, Deut. iii, 
4-14; 1 Kings iv, 13. But Argob w^as more 
peculiarly the name of the capital city of the 
region of Argob, which Eusebius says was fif- 
teen miles west of Gerara. 

ARIANS, this ancient sect, was unquestion- 
ably so called from Arius, a presbyter of Alex- 
andria, in the early part of the fourth century. It 
is said that he aspired to episcopal honours ; 
and after the death of Achilles, in A. D. 313, 
felt not a little chagrined that Alexander 
should be preferred before him. Whether this 
circumstance had any influence on his opinions, 
it i% impossible to say ; but one day, when his 
rival (Alexander) had been addressing the 
clergy in favour of the orthodox doctrine, and 
maintaining, in strong and pointed language, 
"that the Son of God Was co-eternal, co-essen- 
tial, and co-equal with the Father," Arius con- 
sidered this as a species of Sabellianism, and 
ventured to say, that it was inconsistent and 
impossible, since the Father, who begat, must 
be before the Son, who was begotten : the lat- 
ter, therefore, could not be absolutely eternal. 
Alexander at first admonished Arius, and en- 
deavoured to convince him of his error ; but 
without effect, except that he became the more 
bold in contradiction. Some of the clergy 
thought their bishop too forbearing, and it is 
possible he felt his inferiority of talent ; for 
Arius v/as a man of accomplished learning, 
and commanding eloquence ; venerable in per- 
son, and fascinating in address. At length 
Alexander was roused, and attempted to silence 
Arius by his authority ; but this not succeed- 
ing, as the latter was bold and pertinacious, 
Alexander, about the year 320, called a coun- 
cil of his clergy, by whom the reputed heretic 
was deposed and excommunicated. Arius now 
retired into Palestine, where his talents and 
address soon made a number of converts ; and 
among the rest, the celebrated Eusebius, bishop 



ARI 



84 



ARI 



of Nicomedia, and other bishops and clergy of 
those patts, who assembled in council, and re- 
ceived the excommunicated presbyter into 
their communion. Eusebius also, having great 
interest with Constantia, the sister of Constan- 
tino, and wife of Licinius, recommended Arius 
to her protection and patronage; through 
which, and by his own eloquent letters to tiae 
clergy in various parts, his system spread with 
great rapidity, and to a vast extent. The em- 
peror Constantino, who had no great skill in 
these matters, was grieved to see the Christian 
church (but just escaped from the red dragon 
of persecution) thus torn by intestine animosi- 
ty and dissensions ; he therefore determined to 
summon a general council of the clergy, which 
met at Nice, A. D. 325, and contained more 
than 300 bishops. Constantino attended in 
person, and strongly recommended peace and 
unanimity. Athanasius was the chief oppo- 
nent of the Arians. Both parties were v^illing 
to subscribe to the language of the Scriptures, 
but each insisted on interpreting for them- 
selves. "Did the Trinitarians," says Mr. 
Milner, " assert that Christ was God ? The 
Arians allowed it, but in the same sense as 
holy men and angels are styled gods in Scrip- 
ture. Did they affirm that he was truly God ? 
The others allowed that he was made so by 
God. Did they aflEirm that the Son was natu- 
rally of God ? It was granted : Even we, said 
they, are of God, ' of whom are all things.' " 
At length the Athanasians collected a number 
of texts, which they conceived amounted to 
full proof of the Son being of one and the same 
substance with the Father ; the Arians admit- 
ted he was of like substance, the difference in 
the Greek phrases being only in a single let- 
ter, — hjxoovaioi, homoousios, and bfioiovmos, homoi- 
ousios. At length the former was decreed to 
be the orthodox faith, and the Nicene cr«ed 
was framed as it remains at this day so far as 
concerns the person of the Son of God, who is 
said to be "begotten of his Father before all 
worlds ; God of God, Light of Light, very God 
of very God, begotten, not made, of one sub- 
stance with the Father, by whom all things 
were made," &c. 

Arius was now excommunicated. The sen- 
tence of the council pronounced against him 
and his associates was followed by another of 
the emperor, whereby the excommunicated per- 
sons were condemned to banishment, that they 
might be debarred the society of their country- 
men whom the church had judged' unworthy to 
remain in her communion. Soon after which, 
Eusebius of Nicomedia, andTheognis of Nice, 
being found to continue their countenance and 
protection to the Arian cause, to communicate 
with those whom they had anathematized, and 
to concur in those sentiments which they had 
condemned by their subscriptions ; they v/ere 
both subjected to the same penalty of exile by 
the emperor, and were actually deposed, (as we 
learn from Athanasius,) and had successors or- 
dained to their sees, though history is silent as 
to the council by which this was done. But 
such was the good nature and credulity of Con- 
^tantine, that these men, by their usual artifices. 



easily imposed upon him, and brought him to 
such a full persuasion of their agreement with 
the Nicene faith, that in about three j'^ears' time 
they were not only recalled from banishment, 
but restored to their sees, and to a considerable 
degree of interest at court. Their thorough 
attachment to the cause of Arius, and their 
hatred of Athanasius, who had so vigorously 
v/ithstood them in the council, and was now 
advanced to the see of Alexandria, made them 
watchful of every opportunity to defeat the de- 
cisions of the council. 

In the meantime one who wished well to 
their designs, and whom Constantia had upon 
her death bed recommended to the emperor, did 
so far prevail upon the easy credulity of Con- 
stantino, by complaining that Arius had been 
misrepresented, and differed nothing in his sen- 
timents from the Nicene fathers, that the indul- 
gent emperor recalled him from his banishment, 
and required him to exhibit in writing, a con- 
fession of his faith. He did this in such terms 
as, though they admitted of a latent reservation, 
yet bore the appearance of being entirely catho- 
lic ; and therefore not only gave satisfaction to 
the emperor, but even offended some of his own 
followers, who from that time forth separated 
from him. The discerning Athanasius was not 
so easily imposed upon as Constantino ; but, 
well assured of the heretic's prevarication, was 
resolute in refusing to admit him to commu- 
nion, whom the Nicene council had so openly 
condemned. Upon this the emperor sent for 
Arius to Constantinople, and insisted upon his 
being received into communion, by Alexander, 
bishop of that city. Howevei-, on the day be- 
fore this was to have taken place, Arius died sud- 
denly from a complaint in his bowels. Some 
attributed this to poison; others to the judg- 
ment of God. The emperor did not long sur- 
vive ; and Constantius, his successor, became 
warmly attached to the Arian cause, as were 
all the court party. Successive emperors took 
different sides, and thus was the peace of the 
church agitated for many years, and practical 
religion sacrificed alternately to the dogmas or 
the interests of one party or the other ; and each 
was in turn excommunicated, fined, imprisoned, 
or banished. Constantius supported Arianism 
triumphantly. Julian laughed at both parties, 
but persecuted neither. Jovian supported the 
Nicene doctrine. Valentinian, and his brother 
Valens, took contrary sides ; the former sup- 
porting Athanasianism in the west, and the 
latter Arianism in the east ; so that what was 
orthodoxy at Rome was heresy at Constantino, 
pie, and vice versa. The Arians themselves were 
not unanimous, but divided into various shades 
of sentiment, under their respective leaders ; as 
Eusebians, Eudoxians, Acasians, Aetians, &c ; 
but the more general distinction was into Ari- 
ans and Semi-Arians ; the former sinking tlie 
character of the Son of God into that of a mere 
creature, while the latter admitted every thing 
but the homoousian doctrine, or his absolute 
equality with the Father. After this period wo 
hear little of Arianism, till it was revived in 
England in the beginning of the last century by 
the eccentric Mr Whiston, by Mr. Emlyn, nnd 



ARK 



85 



ARK 



Dr. Samuel Clarke. The latter was what may 
be called a high or Semi-Arian, who came with- 
in a shade of orthodoxy ; the two former were 
low Arians, reducing the rank of our Saviour 
to the scale of angelic beings — a creature " made 
out of nothing." Since this time, however, both 
Arians and Socinians are sunk into the com- 
mon appellation of Unitarians, or rather Hu- 
manitarians, Avho believe our Saviour (as Dr. 
Priestley expresses it) to be " a man like them- 
selves." The last advocates of the pure Arian 
doctrine, of any celebrity, were Mr. Henry Tay- 
lor, (under the signature of Ben Mordecai,) and 
Dr. Richard Price, in his " Sermons on the 
Christian Doctrine." It may be proper to ob- 
serve, that the Arians, though, they denied the 
absolute eternity oi ih.Q Son, strongly contended 
for his preexistence, as the Logos, or the Word 
of God, "by whom the worlds were made ;" and 
admitted, more or less explicitly, the sacrifice 
which he offered for sin upon the cross. 

ARIEL, the capital city of Moab, frequently 
mentioned in Scripture, Ezraviii, 16. See Moab. 

ARIMATHEA, or RAMAH, now called 
Ramie, or Ramla, a pleasant town, beautifully 
situated, on the borders of a fertile and exten- 
sive plain, abounding in gardens, vineyards, 
olive and date trees. It stands about thirty 
miles north-west of Jerusalem, on the high road 
to Jaffa. At this Rama, which was likewise 
called Ramathaim Zophim, as lying in the dis- 
trict of Zuph, or Zoph, Samuel was born, 
1 Sam. i. This was likewise the native place 
of Joseph, called Joseph of Arimathea, who 
begged and obtained the body of Jesus from 
Pilate, Matt, xxvi, 57. There was another 
Ramah, about six miles north of Jerusalem, in 
a pass which separated the kingdoms of Israel 
and Judah, which Baasha, king of Israel, took 
and began to fortify ; but he was obliged to re- 
linquish it, in consequence of the alliance form, 
ed between Asa, king of Judah, and Benhadad, 
king of Syria, 1 Kings xv. This is the Ramah, 
supposed to be alluded to in the lamentation of 
Rachel for her children. 

ARISTARCHUS, spoken of by St. Paul in 
his Epistle to the Colossians, iv, 10, and often 
mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. He 
was a Macedonian, and a native of Thessalo- 
nica. He accompanied St. Paul to Ephesus, 
and there continued with him during the two 
years of his abode in that place, sharing with 
him in all the dangers and labours of the minis- 
try, Acts xix, 29 ; XX, 4 ; xxvii, 2. He was near 
losing his life in a tumult raised by the Ephe- 
sian silversmiths. He lefl Ephesus with the 
Apostle, and went with him into Greece. From 
thence he attended him into Asia ; from Asia 
into Judea, and from Judea to Rome. 

ARK, area, denotes a kind of floating vessel 
built by Noah, for the preservation of himself 
and family, with several species of animals 
during the deluge. The Hebrew word by which 
the ark is expressed, is n2n or na>n, the con- 
structive form of nan, which is evidently the 
Greek ^//J;, ; and so the LXX render the word in 
Exod. ii, 3, where only it again occurs. They 
also render it KiSutrbv ; Josephus, Xa^uKa ; and 
the Vulgate, arcam; signifying an ark, coffer, 



or chest. Although the ark of Noah answered, 
in some respepts, the purpose of a ship, it is 
not so certain that it was of the same form and 
shape. It has been inconclusively argued by 
Michaelis and some others, that if its form had 
not been like that of a ship, it could not have 
resisted the. force of the waves ; because it was 
not intended to be conducted, like a ship, from 
one place to another, but merely "to float on 
the surface of the waters," Gen. vii, 17. It 
appears to have had neither helm, nor mast, 
nor oars; but was merely a bulky capacious 
vessel, light enough to be raised aloft with all 
its contents, by the gradual rise of the deluge. 
Its shape, therefore, was of little importance ; 
more especially as it seems to have been the 
purpose of Providence, in this whole transac- 
tion, to signify to those who were saved, as well 
as to their latest posterity, that their preservation 
was not in any degree effected by human con- 
trivance. The ark in which Moses Was expos- 
ed bears the same name ; and some have thought 
that both were of the same materials. With 
respect to the etymology of the Hebrew word, 
the most rational seems to be that of Clodius, 
who derives it from the Arabic word asn, " he 
collected," from which is formed nan, or n3>n, 
denoting a place in which things are collected. 
Foster deduces it from two Egyptian words, 
thoi, "a ship," and hai, "a palm tree branch;" 
and such ships are still to be seen not only in 
Egypt, but in India and other countries ; par- 
ticularly in some isles of the Pacific Ocean. 

To the insufficiency of the ark to contain all 
the creatures said to have been brought into it, 
objections have, at different times, been made. 
Bishop Wilkins and others have learnedly dis- 
cussed this subject, and afforded the most satis, 
factory answers. Dr. Hales proves the ark to 
have been of the burden of forty -two thousand 
four hundred and thirteen tons; and asks, 
" Can we doubt of its being sufficient to contain 
eight persons, and about two hundred or two 
hundred and fifty pair of four-footed animals, (a 
number to which, according to M. Buffon, all 
the various distinct species may be reduced,) 
together with all the subsistence necessary for 
a twelvemonth, with the fowls of the air, and 
such reptiles and insects as cannot live under 
water ?" All these various animals were con- 
trolled by the power of God, whose special agen- 
cy is supposed in the whole transaction, and 
" the lion was made to lie down with the kid." 

Whether Noah was commanded to bring with 
him, into the ark, a pair of all living creatures, 
zoologically and numerically considered, has 
been doubted. During the long period between 
the creation and the flood, animals must have 
spread themselves over a great part of the an- 
tediluvian earth, and certain animals would, as 
now, probably become indigenous to certain 
climates. The pairs saved must therefore, if 
all the kinds were included, have travelled from 
immense distances. But of such marches no 
intimation is given in the history ; and this 
seems to render it probable that the animals 
which Noah was " to bring with him'* into the 
ark, were the animals clean and unclean of the 
country in which he dwelt, and which, from 



ARIC 



86 



ARK 



the capacity of the ark, must have been in great 
variety and number. The terms used, it is true, 
are universal ; and it is satisfactory to know, 
that if taken in the largest sense there was 
ample accommodation in the ark. Neverthe- 
less, universal terms in Scripture are not always 
to be taken mathematically, and in the vision 
of Peter, the phrase zsdvra ra rerpd-KoSa TTJg yrjg, — 
all the four-footed beasts of the earth, must be 
understood of varii generis quadrupedes, as 
Schleusner paraphrases it. Thus we may easily 
account for the exuviae of animals, whose spe- 
cies no longer exist, which have been discover- 
ed in various places. The number of such 
extinct species probably has been greatly over- 
rated by Cuvier ; but of the fact, to a consider- 
able extent, there can be no doubt. It is also 
to be observed that the presumptive evidence 
of the truth of the fact of the preparation of 
such a vessel, and of the supernatural circum- 
stances which attended it, is exceedingly strong. 
It is, in truth, the only solution of a difficulty 
which has no other explanation ; for as a uni- 
versal deluge is confirmed by the general his- 
tory of the world, and by a variety of existing 
facts and monuments, such a structure as the 
ark, for the preservation and sustenance of 
various animals, seems to have been absolutely 
necessary ; for as we can trace up the first im- 
perfect rudiments of the art of ship building 
among the Greeks, there could be no ships be- 
fore the flood ; and, consequently, no animals 
could have been saved. Nay, it is highly im- 
probable that even men and domestic animals 
could be saved, not to mention wild beasts, 
serpents, &g, though we should admit that the 
antediluvians had shipping, unless we should 
suppose, also, that they had a divine intimation 
respecting the flood, such as Moses relates ; but 
this would be to give up the cause of infidelity. 
Mr. Bryant has collected a variety of ancient 
historical relations, which show that some re- 
cords concerning the ark had been preserved 
among most nations of the world, and in the 
general system of Gentile mythology. Abyde- 
nus, with whom all the eastern writers concur, 
informs us that the place of descent from the 
ark was Armenia ; and that its remains had 
been preserved for a long time. Plutarch men- 
tions the Noachic dove, and its being sent out 
of the ark. Lucian speaks of Deucalion's going 
forth from the ark, and raising an altar to God. 
The priests of Ammonia had a custom, at par- 
ticular seasons, of carrying in procession a 
boat, in which was an oracular shrine, held in 
great veneration : and this custom of carrying 
the deity in an ark or boat was in use also 
among the Egyptians. Bishop Pococke has 
preserved three specimens of ancient sculpture, 
in which this ceremony is displayed. They 
were very ancient, and found by him in Upper 
Egypt. The ship of Isis referred to the ark, 
and its name, "Baris," was that of the mount- 
ain corresponding to Ararat in Armenia. Bry- 
ant finds reference to the ark in the temples of 
the serpent worship, called Dracontia; and also 
in that of Sesostris, fashioned after the model 
pf the ark, in commemoration of which it was 
i^pjlt, and consecratecj to Osiris at Theba ; and 



he conjectures that the city, said to be one of 
the most ancient in Egypt, as well as the pro- 
vince, was denominated from it, Theba being 
the appellation of the ark. In other countries, 
as well as in Egypt, an ark, or ship, was intro- 
duced in their mysteries, and often carried about 
in the seasons of their festivals. He finds, also, 
in the story of the Argonauts several particulars, 
that are thought to refer to the ark of Noah. 
As many cities, not in Egypt only and Boeotia, 
but in Cilicia, Ionia, Attica, Phthiotis, Cata- 
onia, Syria, and Italy, were called Theba ; so 
likewise the city Apamea was denominated 
Cibotus, from kiBwtos, in memory of the ark, and 
of the history connected with it. The ark, ac- 
cording to the traditions of the Gentile world, 
was prophetic ; and was regarded as a kind of 
temple or residence of the deity. It compre- 
hended all mankind, within the circle of eight 
persons, who were thought to be so highly 
favoured of Heaven that they at last were re- 
puted to be deities. Hence in the ancient my- 
thology of Egypt, there were precisely eight 
gods ; and the ark was esteemed an emblem of 
the system of the heavens. The principal terms 
by which the ancients distinguished the ark were 
Theba, Baris, Arguz, Aren, Arene, Arni, Laris, 
Boutas, Boeotus, and Cibotus ; and out of these 
they formed different personages. See Deluge. 
ARK OF THE COVENANT, a small chest 
or coffer, three feet nine inches in length, two 
feet three inches in breadth, and two feet three 
inches in height ; in which were contained the 
golden pot that had manna, Aaron's rod, and 
the tables of the covenant. Num. xvii, 10 ; Heb. 
ix, 4. This coffer was made of shittim wood, 
and was" covered with a lid, called the mercy 
seat, Exod. xxv, 17-22, &c, which was of solid 
gold, at the two ends whereof were two figures, 
called cherubim, looking toward each other, 
with expanded wings, which, embracing the 
whole circumference of the mercy seat, met in 
the middle. The whole, according to the rab- 
bins, was made out of the same mass, without 
any of the parts being joined by solder. Over 
this it was that the Shechinah, or visible dis- 
play of the divine presence in a luminous cloud 
rested, both in the tabernacle and in the tem, 
pie, Lev. xvi, 2 ; and from hence the divine 
oracles were given forth by an audible voice, 
as often as God was consulted in behalf of his 
people. Hence it is that God is said in Scrip- 
ture to dwell between the cherubim, on the 
mercy seat, because there was the seat or 
throne of the visible appearance of his glory 
among them, 2 Kings xix, 15 ; 1 Chron, xiii, 6; 
Psalm Ixxx, 1, &c ; and for this reason the 
high priest appeared before the mercy seat once 
every year, on the great day of expiation, at 
which time he was to make his nearest ap. 
proach to the divine presence, to mediate and 
make atonement for the whole people of Israel. 
On the two sides of the ark there were four 
rings of gold, two on each side, through which 
staves, overlaid with gold, were put, by means 
whereof they carried it as they marched through 
the wilderness, &c, on the shoulders of the 
Levites, Exod. xxv, 13, 14 ; xxvii, 5. After the 
passage of the Jordan, the ark continued for 



ARK 



87 



ARM 



some time at Gilgal, from whence it was re- 
moved to Shiloh. From this place the Israel, 
ites carried it to their camp, where, in an 
engagement with the Philistines, it fell into 
their hands. The Philistines, having gotten pos- 
session of the ark, carried it in triumph to one 
of their principal cities, named Ashdod, and 
placed it in the temple of Dagon, whose image 
fell to the ground and was broken. The Phi- 
listines also were so afflicted with emerods, that 
they afterward returned the ark with various 
presents; and it was lodged at Kirjath-Jearim, 
and afterward at Nob. David conveyed it to 
the house of Obededom, and from thence to 
liis palace at Zion ; and lastly, Solomon brought 
it into the temple which he had built at Jeru- 
salem. It remained in the temple till the times 
of the last kings of Judah, who gave themselves 
up to idolatry, and even dared to place their 
idols in the holy temple itself. The priests, 
being unable to bear this profanation, took the 
ark and carried it from place to place, to pre- 
serve it from the hands of those impious princes. 
Josiah commanded them to bring it back to the 
sanctuary, and it was accordingly replaced, 
2 Chron. xxxv, 3. What became of the ark 
at the destruction of the temple by Nebuchad- 
nezzar, is a dispute among the rabbins. Had 
it been carried to Babylon with the other ves- 
sels of the temple, it would, in all probability, 
have been brought back with them at the close 
of the captivity. But that this was not the 
case, is agreed on all hands; whence it is pro- 
bable that it was destroyed with the temple. 

The ark of the covenant was, as it were, the 
centre of worship to all those of the Hebrew 
nation who served God according to the Le- 
vitieal law ; and not only in the temple, when 
they came thither to worship, but every where 
else in their dispersions through the whole 
world ; whenever they prayed, they turned their 
faces toward the place where the ark stood, 
and directed all their devotions that way, Dan. 
vi, 10. Whence the author of the book of 
Cosri, justly says, that the ark, with the mercy 
seat and cherubim, were the foundation, root, 
heart, and marrow of the whole temple, and 
all the Levitical worship performed therein ; 
and, therefore, had there been nothing else 
wanting in the second temple but the ark only, 
this alone would have been a sufficient reason 
for the old men to have wept when they re- 
membered the first temple in which it stood ; 
and for the saying of Haggai, ii, 3, that the 
second temple was as nothing compared with 
the first ; so great a share had the ark of the 
covenant in the glory of >Solomon's temple. 
However, the defect was supplied as to the out- 
ward form, for in the second temple there was 
also an ark of the same dimensions with the 
first, and put in the same place ; but it wanted 
the tables of the law, Aaron's rod, and the pot 
of manna ; nor was there any appearance of 
the divine glory over it; nor any oracles de- 
livered from it. The only use that was made 
of it was to be a representation of the former 
on the great day of expiation, and to be a re- 
pository of the Holy Scriptures, that is, of the 
original copy of that collection of them made 



by Ezra after the captivity ; in imitation of 
which the Jews, in all their synagogues, have 
a like ark or coffer in which they keep their 
Scriptures. 

For the temple of Solomon a new ark was 
not made ; but he constructed cherubim in the 
most holy place, which were designed to give 
additional state to this most sacred symbol of 
God's grace and mercy. These cherubim were 
fifteen feet high, and were placed at equal dis- 
tance from the centre of the ark and from each 
side of the wall, so that their wings being ex- 
panded, the two wings which were extended 
behind touched the wall, and the other two met 
over the ark and so overshadowed it. When 
these magnificent cherubim were finished, the 
ark was brought in and placed under their 
wings, 2 Chron. v, 7-10. 

The ark was called the ark of the covenant, 
because it was a symbol of the covenant be- 
tween God and his people. It was also named 
the ark of the testimony, because the two tables 
which were deposited in it were witnesses 
against every transgression. 

ARM. As it is by this member of the body 
that we chiefly exert our strength, it is there- 
fore used in Scripture for an emblem of power. 
Thus God is said to have delivered his people 
from Egyptian bondage " with a stretched-out 
arm," Deut. v, 15 ; and he thus threatens Eli 
the high priest, " I will cut off thine arm, and 
the arm of thy father's house," 1 Sam. ii, 31 ; 
that is, I will deprive thee and thy family of 
power and authority. 

ARMAGEDDON, a place spoken of, Rev. 
xvi, 16, which literally signifies " the mountain 
of Mageddon," or " Megiddo," a city situated in 
the great plain at the foot of Mount Carmel, 
where the good prince Josiah received his mor- 
tal wound, in the battle against Necho, king 
of Egypt. At Armageddon, the three unclean 
spirits coming out of the dragon's mouth shall 
gather together the kings of the earth, to the 
battle of the great day of God Almighty, Rev. 
xvi, 13, 14 ; where the word Armageddon, ac- 
cording to Mr. Pool, does not signify any par- 
ticular place, but is used in allusion to Megiddo, 
mentioned Judges v, 19, where Barak overcame 
Sisera with his great army, and where Josiah 
was slain, 2 Kings xxiii, 30. If so, the term 
must have been a proverbial one for a place of 
destruction and mourning. 

ARMENIA, a considerable country of Asia, 
having Colchis and Iberia on the north. Media 
on the east, Mesopotamia on the south, Pontus 
and Cappadocia on the west, and the Euphrates 
and Syria on the south-west. Armenia is often 
confounded with Aramsea, the land of Aram 
or Syria; but they are totally different. Ar- 
menia, which is separated from Aram by Mount 
Taurus, was so denominated from Ar-Men, the 
mountainous country of Meni or Minni, the 
people of which country are mentioned under 
this name by Jeremiah, when summoning the 
nations against Babylon. 

The people of this country have in all ages 
maintained a great similarity of character, 
partly commercial and partly pastoral. They 
have, in fact, in the northern parts of the Asi- 



ARM 



88 



ARM 



atic continent, been what the Cushites and 
Ishmaelites were in the south, tenders of cat- 
tle, living on the produce of their flocks and 
herds, and carriers of merchandize between the 
neighbouring nations ; a part living at home 
with their flocks, and a part travelling as mer- 
chants and dealers into distant countries. In 
the flourishing times of Tyre, the Armenians, 
according to Ezekiel, xxvii, 14, brought horses 
and mules to the markets of that city ; and, ac- 
cording to Herodotus, they had a considerable 
trade in wine, which they sent down the Eu- 
phrates to Babylon, &c. At the present day, 
the Armenians are the principal traders of the 
,east ; and are to be found in the capacity of 
merchants or commercial agents all over Asia, 
a patient, frugal^ industrious, and honest peo- 
ple, whose known character for these virtues 
has withstood the tyranny and extortions of 
the wretched governments under which they 
chiefly live. 

The religion of the Armenians is a corrupt 
Christianity of the sect of Eutyches ; that is, 
they own but one nature in Jesus Christ. 
Their rites partake of those of the Greek and 
Latin churches, but they reject the idolatries 
of both. It is indeed a remarkable instance of 
the firmness of this people, that while the sur- 
rounding nations submitted to the religion as 
well as the arms of the Turks, they have pre- 
served the purity of their ancient faith, such as 
it is, to the present day. It cannot be supposed 
but that the Turks used every effort to impose 
on the conquered Armenians the doctrines of 
the Koran. More tolerant, indeed, than the 
Saracens, liberty of conscience was still not to 
be purchased of them but by great sacrifices, 
which for three centuries the Armenians have 
patiently endured, and exhibit to the world an 
honourable and solitary instance of a success- 
ful national opposition of Christianity to Mo- 
hammedanism. 

ARMENIAN CHURCH, a branch, origin- 
ally, of the Greek church, residing in Armenia. 
They probably received Christianity in tlie 
fourth century, Mr. Yeates gives the most 
recent account of them : — 

" Their whole ecclesiastical establishment is 
under the government of four patriarchs ; the 
first has his residence in Echmiadzin, or Eg- 
miathin, near Irivan ; the second, at Sis, in the 
lesser Armenia; the third, in Georgia; and 
the fourth, in Achtamar, or Altamar, on the 
Lake of Van ; but the power of the two last is 
bounded within their own diocesses, while the 
others have more extensive authority, and the 
patriarch of Egmiathan has, or had, under him 
eighteen bishops, beside those who are priors 
of monasteries. The Armenians every where 
perform divine service in their own tongue, 
in which their liturgy and offices are written, 
in the dialect of the fourth or fifth centuries. 
They have the whole Bible translated from 
the Septuagint, as they say, so early as the 
time of Chrysostom. The Armenian confes- 
sion is similar to that of the Jacobite Chi-is- 
tjans, both being Monophysites, acknowledg- 
ing but one nature in the person of Christ; 
knt this, according to Mr. Simon, is little more 



than a dispute about terms ; few of them bemg 
able to enter into the subtilties of polemics. 

"In the year 1664, an Armenian bishop, 
named Uscan, visited Europe for the purpose 
of getting printed the Armenian Bible, and 
communicated the above particulars to Mr. 
Simon. In 1667, a certain patriarch of the 
lesser Armenia visited Rome, and made a pro, 
fession of faith which was considered ortho- 
dox, and procured him a cordial reception, 
with the hope of reconciling the Armenian 
Christians to the Roman church ; but, before 
he got out of Italy, it was found he had pre- 
varicated, and still persisted in the errors of 
his church. About this time, Clement IX, 
wrote to th« king of Persia, in favour of some 
Catholic converts in Armenia, and received a 
favourable answer; but the Armenian church 
could never be persuaded to acknowledge the 
authority of Rome. 

"They have among them a number of mo- 
nasteries and convents, in which is maintained 
a severe discipline ; marriage is discounte- 
nanced, though not absolutely prohibited ; a 
married priest cannot obtain promotion, and 
the higher clergy are not allowed to marry. 
They worship in the eastern manner, by 
prostration : they are very superstitious, and 
their ceremonies much resemble those of the 
Greek church. Once in their lives they gene- 
rally perform a pilgrimage to Jerusalem ; and 
in 1819, the number of Armenian pilgrims was 
thirteen hundred, nearly as many as the Greeks. 
Dr. Buchanan, however, says, 'Of all the 
Christians in central Asia, they have preserved 
themselves most free from Mohammedan and 
Papal corruptions.' " 

ARMIES. In the reign of David, the He- 
brews acquired such skill in the military art, 
together with such strength, as gave them a 
decided superiority over their competitors on 
the field of battle. David increased the stand- 
ing army, which Saul had introduced. Solo- 
mon introduced cavalry into the military force 
of the nation, also chariots. Both cavalry and 
chariots were retained in the subsequent age ; 
an age, in which militarj'^ arms were improved 
in their construction, the science of fortifica- 
tion made advances, and large armies were 
mustered. From this period, till the time 
when the Hebrews became subject to the 
Assyrians and Chaldeans, but little improve- 
ment was made in the arts of war. The 
Maccabees, after the return of the Hebrews 
from the captivity, gave a new existence to 
the military art among them. But their de- 
scendants were tender the necessity of submit- 
ting to the superior power of the Romans. 

Whenever there was an immediate prospect 
of war, a levy was made by the genealogists, 
Deut. XX, 5-9. In the time of the kings, there 
was a head or ruler of the persons, that made 
the levy, denominated itDiBTi, who kept an ac- 
count of the number of the soldiers, but who 
is, nevertheless, to be distinguished from the 
generalissimo, noion, 2 Chron. xxvi, 11. Com- 
pare 2 Sam. viii, 17 ; xx, 25 ; 1 Chron. xviii, 16. 
After the levy was fully made out, the geneal- 
ogists gave public notice, that the following 



ARM 



89 



ARM 



persons might be excused, from military service, 
Deut. XX, 6-8 : 1. Those who had built a house, 
and had not yet inhabited it. 2. Those wlio 
had planted a 0"ID, that is, an olive or vine gar. 
den, and had not as yet tasted the fruit of it ; 
an exemption, consequently, which extended 
through the first five years after such planting. 

3. Those who had bargained for a spouse, but 
had not celebrated the nuptials ; also tliose who 
had not as yet lived with their wife, for a year. 

4. The faint-hearted, who would be likely to 
discourage others, and who, if they had gone 
into battle, where, in those early times, every 
thing depended on personal prowess, would 
only have fallen victims. 

At the head of each rank or file of fifty, was 
the captain of fifty. The other divisions con- 
sisted of a hundred, a thousand, and ten thou- 
sand men, each one of which was headed by 
its appropriate commander. These divisions 
ranked in respect to each other according to 
their families, and were subject to the authority 
of the heads of those families, 2 Chron. xxv, 5 ; 
xxvi, 12, 13. The centurions, and chiliarchs 
or captains of thousands, were admitted into 
the councils of war, 1 Chron. xiii, 1-3 ; 1 Sam. 
xviii, 13. The leader of the whole army was 
denominated N:js,-na;-'7N, the captain of the host. 
The genealogists, (in the English version, offi. 
cers,) according to a law in Deut. xx, 9, had 
the right of appointing the persons who were 
to act as officers in the army ; and they, un. 
doubtedly, made it a point, in their selections, 
to choose those who are called heads of fami- 
lies. The practice of thus selecting military 
officers ceased under the kings. Some of them 
were then chosen by the king, and in other in- 
stances the office became permanent and he- 
reditary in the heads of families. Both kings 
and generals had armour bearers, D'*'?^ Nt^j. 
They were chosen from the bravest of the 
soldiery, and not only bore the arms of their 
masters, but were employed to give his com. 
mands to the subordinate captains, and were 
present at his side in the hour of peril, 1 Sam. 
xiv, 6 ; xvii, 7. The infantry, the cavalry, and 
the chariots of war were so arranged, as to 
make separate divisions of an army, Exod. xiv, 
6, 7. The infantry were divided likewise into 
light-armed troops, omiJ, and into spearmen, 
Genesis xlix, 19 ; 1 Samuel xxx, 8, 15, 23 ; 
2 Sam. iii, 22 ; iv, 2 ; xxii, 30 ; Psalm xviii, 30 ; 
2 Kings v, 2; Hosea vii, 1. The light-armed 
infantry were furnished with a sling and jave- 
lin, with a bow, arrows, and quiver, and also, 
at least in latter times, with a buckler. They 
fought the enemy at a distance. The spear- 
men, on the contrary, who were armed with 
spears, swords, and shields, fought hand to 
hand, 1 Chron. xii, 24, 34 ; 2 Chron. xiv, 8 ; 
xvii, 17. The light-armed troops were com- 
monly taken from the tribes of Ephraim and 
Benjamin, 2 Chron. xiv, 8; xvii, 17. Compare 
Gen. xlix, 27; Psalm Ixxviii, 9. 

The art of laying out an encampment ap. 
pears to have been well understood in Egypt, 
long before the departure of the Hebrews from 
that country. It was there that Moses became 
acquainted with that mode of encamping, 



which, in the second chapter of Numbers, i8 
prescribed to the Hebrews. In the encamp- 
ment of the Israelites, it appears that the holy 
tabernacle occupied the centre. In reference 
to this circumstance, it may be remarked, that 
it is the common practice in the east, for the 
prin.ce or leader of a tribe to have his lent 
pitched in the centre of the others ; and it 
ought not to be forgotten, that God, wiiose 
tent or palace was the holy tabernacle, was 
the prince, the leader of the Hebrews. The 
tents nearest to the tabernacle were those of 
the Levites, whose business it was to watch it, 
in the manner of a Pretorian guard. The 
family of Gershom pitched to the west, that of 
Kehath to the south, that of Merari to the north. 
The priests occupied a position to the east, op- 
posite to the entrance of the tabernacle, Num. 
i, 53 ; iii, 21-38. At some distance to the east, 
were the tribes of Judah, Issachar, and Zebu- 
Ion ; on the south were those of Reuben, Si- 
meon, and Gad; to the west were Ephraim, 
Manasseh, and Benjamin; to the north, Dan, 
Asher, and Napthali. The people were thus 
divided into four bodies, three tribes to a divi- 
sion ; each of which divisions had its separate 
standard, 'jjn. Each of the large family asso- 
ciations likewise, of which the different tribes 
were composed, had a separate standard, termed, 
in contradistinction from the other, mN ; and 
every Hebrew was obliged to number himself 
with his particular division, and follow his ap- 
propriate standard. Of military standards, 
there were, — 1. The standard, denominated 
"jJl ; one of which pertained to each of the 
four general divisions. The four standards of 
this name were large, and ornamented with 
colours in white, purple, crimson, and dark 
blue. The Jewish Rabbins assert, (founding 
their statement on Genesis xlix, 3, 9, 17, 22, 
which in this case is very doubtful authority,) 
that the first of these standards, namely, that 
of Judah, bore a lion ; the second, or that of 
Reuben, bore a man ; that of Ephraim, which 
was the third, displayed the figure of a bull ; 
while that of Dan, which was the fourth, ex- 
hibited the representation of cherubim. They 
were wrought into the standards with embroid- 
ered work. 2. The standard, called mx. The 
ens-ign of this name belonged to the separate 
classes of families. 3. The standard, called dj. 
This standard was not, like the others, borne 
from place to place. It appears from Num. 
xxi, 8, 9, that it was a long pole, fixed into the 
earth. A flag was fastened to its top, which 
was agitated by the wind, and seen at a great 
distance, Jer. iv, 6, 21; li, 2, 12, 27; Ezek. 
xxvii, 7, In order to render it visible, as far 
as possible, it was erected on lofty mountains, 
and was in this way used as a signal, to assemble 
soldiers. It no sooner made its appearance on 
such an elevated position, than the war-cry 
was uttered, and the trumpets were blown, 
Isaiah v, 26; xiii, 2; xviii, 3; xxx, 17; xlix, 
22 ; Ixii, 10-13. 

Before battle the various kinds of arms were 
put into the best order; the shields were 
anointed, and the soldiers refreshed themselves 
by taking food, lest they should become weary 



ARM 



90 



ARM 



and faint under the pressure of their labours, 
Jer. xlvi, 3, 4 ; Isaiah xxi, 5. The soldiers, 
more especially the generals and kings, except 
when they wished to remain unknown, 1 Kings 
xxii, 30-34, were clothed in splendid habili- 
ments, which are denominated, tt>-ip-mn, the 
sacred dress, Psalm ex, 3. It was the duty of 
the priests, before the commencement of the 
battle, to exhort the Hebrews to exhibit that 
courage which was required by the exigency 
of the occasion. The words which they used 
were as follows: — "Hear, O Israel; ye ap- 
proach this day unto battle against your ene- 
mies ; let not your hearts faint ; fear not, and 
do not tremble ; neither be ye terrified, because 
of them. For the Lord your God is he that 
goeth with you, to fight for you against your 
enemies, to save you," Deut. xx, 2, &c. The 
last ceremony, previous to an engagement, was 
the sounding of the sacred trumpets by the 
priests, Num. x, 9, 10 ; 2 Chron. xiii, 12-14 ; 
1 Mace, iii, 54 

ARMINIANISM, strictly speaking, is that 
system of religious doctrine which was taught 
by Arminius, professor of divinity in the uni- 
versity of Leyden. If therefore we would learn 
precisely what Arminianism is, we must have 
recoxirse to those writings in which that divine 
himself has stated and expounded his peculiar 
tenets. This, however, will by no means give 
us an accurate idea of that which, since his 
time, has been usually denominated Arminian- 
ism. On examination, it will be found, that 
in many important particulars, those who have 
called themselves Arminians, or have been 
accounted such by others, differ as widely from 
the nominal head and founder of their sect, as 
he himself did from Calvin, and other doctors 
of Geneva. There are, indeed, certain points, 
with regard to which he has been strictly and 
uniformly followed by almost all his pretended 
adherents ; but there are others of equal or of 
greater importance, dogmatically insisted on 
by them, to which he unquestionably never 
gave his sanction, and even appears to have 
been decidedly hostile. Such a distinction, 
obvious as it must be to every attentive reader, 
has yet been generally so far overlooked, that 
the memory of Arminius is frequently loaded 
vv^ith imputations the most unreasonable and 
unjust. He is accused, by the ignorant and 
the prejudiced, of introducing corruptions into 
the Christian church, which he probably never 
thought of, and which certainly have no place 
in his works. And all the odium which his 
followers have from time to time incurred 
by their varied and increasing heterodoxy, 
has been absurdly reflected upon him, as if 
he could be responsible for every error that 
may be sent abroad under the sanction of his 
name. Whatever be the number or the spe- 
cies of these errors, and in whatever way they 
may be associated with his principles, it is fair 
to the character of Arminius, and usefiil to the 
interests of religioub truth, to revert to his own 
writings as the only source from which we 
ought to derive information concerning the 
Arminian scheme ; and by doing so, it may be 
discovered, that genuine unadulterated Armi- 



nianism is not that great and dangerous heresy 
which among a certain class of Christians it 
is too often represented to be. 

Arminianism, in its proper sense, is to be 
considered as a separation from Calvinism, with 
regard to the doctrines of unconditional elec- 
tion, particular redemption, and other points 
necessarily resulting from these. The Calvinists 
held that God had elected a certain portion of the 
human race to eternal life, passing by the rest, 
or rather dooming them to everlasting destruc 
tion ; that God's election proceeded upon no pre- 
science of the moral principles and character 
of those whom he had thus predestinated, but 
originated solely in the motions of his free and 
sovereign mercy ; that Christ died for the elect 
only, and therefore that the merits of his death 
can avail for the salvation of none but them ; 
and that they are constrained by the irresisti- 
ble power of divine grace to accept of him as 
their Saviour. To this doctrine, that of Armi- 
nius and his legitimate followers stands op- 
posed. They do not deny an election ; but 
they deny that it is absolute and unconditional. 
They argue, that an election of this kind is 
inconsistent with the character of God, that it 
destroys the liberty of the human will, that it 
contradicts the language of Scripture, and that 
it tends to encourage a careless and licentious 
practice in those by whom it is believed. They 
maintain that God has elected those only who, 
according, not to his decree, but to his fore- 
knowledge, and in the exercise of their natural 
powers of self-determination, acting under the 
influence of his grace, would possess that faith 
and holiness to which salvation is annexed in 
the Gospel scheme. And those who are not 
elected are allowed to perish, not because they 
were not elected, but merely and solely in con- 
sequence of their infidelity and disobedience ; 
on account, indeed, of which infidelity and 
disobedience being foreseen by God, their elec- 
tion did not take place. They hold, that Christ 
died for all men in the literal and unrestricted 
sense of that phrase ; that his atonement is 
able, both from its own merit, and from the 
intention of him who appointed it, to expiate 
the guilt of every individual ; that every indi- 
vidual is invited to partake of the benefits 
which it has procured ; that the grace of God 
is offered to make the will comply with this 
invitation, but that this grace may be resisted 
and rendered ineffectual by the sinner's per- 
versity. Whether true believers necessarily 
persevered, or whether they might fall from 
their faith, and forfeit their state of grace, was 
a question which Arminius left in a great mea- 
sure unresolved, but which was soon deter- 
mined by his followers in this additional pro- 
position, that saints may fall from the state of 
grace, in which they are placed by the opera- 
tion of the Holy Spirit. This, indeed, seems 
to follow as a corollary, from what Arminius 
maintained respecting the natural freedom and 
corruption of the will, and the resistibility of 
divine grace. 

It may now be proper to mention some ten- 
ets with regard to which Arminianism has been 
much misrepresented If a man hold tha? 



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good \v0rk3 are necessary to justification ; if he 
maintain that faith includes good works in its 
own nature ; if he reject the doctrine of original 
sin ; if he deny that divine grace is requisite 
for the whole work of sanctification ; if he 
spe^k of human virtue as meritorious in the 
sight of God ; it is very generally concluded, 
that he is an Arrainian. But the truth is, that 
a man of such sentiments is properly a disciple 
of the Pelagian and Socinian schools. To such 
sentiments pure Arminianism is as diametri- 
cally opposite as Calvinism itself. The genu- 
ine Arminians admit the corruption of human 
nature in its full extent. They admit, that we 
are justified by faith only. They admit, that our 
justification originates solely in the grace of 
God. They admit, that the procuring and meri- 
torious cause of our justification is the right- 
eousness of Christ. Propter quam, says Armini- 
us, Deus credentibus peccatum condonat, eosque 
pro justis reputat non aliter atque si legem per- 
fecte implevissent. [For the sake of which God 
pardons believers, and accounts them as right- 
eous precisely as if they had perfectly obeyed 
the law.] They admit in this way, that justifi- 
cation implies not merely forgiveness of sin, but 
acceptance to everlasting happiness. Junctam 
habet adoptionem in filios, et collationem juris 
in hereditatem vitcB eterncB. [It has connected 
with it adoption to sonship, and the grant of a 
right to the inheritance of eternal life.] They 
admit, in fine, that the work of sanctification, 
from its very commencement to its perfection 
in glory, is carried on by the operation of the 
Holy Spirit, which is the gift of God by Jesus 
Christ. So sound, indeed, are the Arminians 
with respect to the doctrine of justification, a 
doctrine so important and essential in the 
opinion of Luther, that he scrupled not to call 
it, articulus ecclesice stantis vel cadentis ; [the 
article with which the church stands or falls ;] 
that those who look into the writings of Armi- 
nius may be disposed to suspect him of having 
even exceeded Calvin in orthodoxy. It is 
certain, at least, that he declares his willing, 
ness to subscribe to every thing that Calvin 
has written on that leading subject of Chris- 
tianity, in the third book of his Institutes; and 
with this declaration the tenor of his writings 
invariably corresponds. 

The system of Arminius, then, appears to 
have been the same with that which was gene- 
rally maintained in the reformed churches at 
that time ; except in so far as the doctrine of 
the divine decrees was concerned. But the 
most eminent of those who became Arminians, 
or ranked among his professed followers, by 
embracing and avowing his peculiar tenets 
with respect to election and redemption, soon 
began to depart widely from the other tenets 
of his theological creed. They adopted views 
of the corruption of man, of justification, of 
the righteousness of Christ, of the nature of 
faith, of the province of good works, of the 
necessity and operations of grace, that are 
quite contrary to those which he had enter- 
tained and published. Many of them, in pro- 
cess of time, differed more "or less from one 



so diversified are the forms which Arminian- 
ism, as it is called, h^as assumed in the course 
of its progress, that to describe precisely what 
it has been since the synod of Dort, or what it 
is at the present day, would be a most difficult, 
if not an impossible, task. Even the confes- 
sion of faith, which was drawn out for the 
Arminians by Episcopius, and is to be found in 
the second volume of his works, cannot be 
referred to as a standard. It was composed 
merely to counteract the reproach of their 
being a society without any common principles. 
It is expressed chiefly in the words and phrases 
of Scripture, to which, of course, every one 
would annex his ov/n meaning. Beside, no 
person, not even a pastor, was obliged, by any 
form, to adhere strictly to it ; but every one 
was left entirely at liberty to interpret its lan- 
guage in the manner that was most agreeable 
to his own private sentiments. Accordingly, 
so various and inconsistent are their opinions, 
that could Arminius peruse the unnumbered 
volumes which have been written as exposi- 
tions and illustrations of Arminian doctrine, 
he v/ould be at a loss to discover his own sim- 
pie system, amidst that heterogeneous mass of 
error with which it has been rudely mixed ; 
and would be astonished to find, that the con- 
troversy which he had conscientiously intro- 
duced, had wandered far from the point to 
which he had confined it, and that with his 
name dogmas were associated, the unscriptural 
and dangerous nature of which he had pointed 
out and condemned. 

The same temper of mind which led him to 
renounce the peculiarities of Calvinism, in- 
duced him also to adopt more enlarged and 
liberal views of church communion than those 
which had hitherto prevailed. While he main- 
tained that the mercy of God is not confined 
to a chosen few, he conceived it to be quite 
inconsistent with the genius of Christianity, 
that men of that religion should keep at a dis- 
tance from each other, and constitute separate 
churches, merely because they diifered in their 
opinions as to some of its doctrinal articles. 
He thought that Christians of all denomina- 
tions should form one great community, united 
and upheld by the bonds of charity and brother- 
ly love ; with the exception, however, of Ro- 
man Catholics, who, on account of their idola- 
trous worship and persecuting spirit, must be 
unfit members of such a society. That this 
was not only agreeable to the wishes of Ar- 
minius, but one chief object of his labours, is 
evident from a passage in his last will, which 
he made a little before his death : — Ea proposui 
et docui qucB ad propagationem amplificationem. 
que veritatis religionis Christiana, veri Dei cul- 
tus, communis pietatis, et sanctcB inter homines 
convers[at]ionis, denique ad convenientem Chris- 
tiana nomini tranquillitatem et pacem juxta 
verbum Dei possent conferre, excludens ex iis 
papatum, cum quo nulla unitas fidei, nullum 
pietatis aut Christiana pads vinculum servari 
potest. [I have advanced and taught those 
things which might contribute to the propaga. 
tion and spread of the truth of Christianity, 



Another, on some or all of these points. And the worship of the true God, general piety, and 



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a holy fellowship among men ; — in fine, to a I off the yoke of civil and spiritual despotism, 

tranquillity and peace according to God's word | and where the received confession of faith had 

and becoming the Christian name, excluding 

the Papacy, with which no unity of faith, no 

bond of piety, or of Christian peace can be 

maintained.] 

Mosheim lias stated this circumstance in a 
note to his history of the Arminian church ; 
but his statement, or rather the conclusion 
whicli he deduces from it, is evidently unfair 
and incorrect. He alleges, that Arminius had 
actually laid the plan of that theological sys- 
tern which was afterward embraced by his fol- 
lowers; that he had inculcated the main and 
leading principles of it on the minds of his dis- 
ciples; and that Episcopius and others, who 
rejected Calvinism in more points than in that 
which related to the divine decrees, only pro- 
pagated, with greater courage and perspicuity, 
the doctrines whicli Arminianism, as taught 
by its founder, already contained. These alle- 
gations, it is clear, have no sort of connection 
with the passage from which they are drawn 
as inferences; and they are wholly inconsist- 
ent with the assertions, and reasonings, and 
declarations of Arminius, when he is discuss- 
ing the merits of the question that was agitated 
between him and the Geneva school. Armi- 
nius, in addition to the scheme of doctrine which 
he taught, was anxious to establish this maxim, 
and to reduce it to practice, that, with the ex- 
ception above mentioned, no difference of 
opinions should prevent Christians from re- 
maining in one church or religious body. He 
did not mean to insinuate, that a difference of 
opinion was of no consequence at all; that 
they who thought one way were just as right 
as they who thought a contrary way ; or that 
men have no occasion to be solicitous about 
the religious tenets which they hold. He did 
not mean to give up his own system as equally 
true, or equally false, with that of Calvin ; and 
as little could he be supposed to sanction those 
sentiments of his followers which were in di- 
rect opposition to the sentiments which he 
himself had maintained. But he endeavoured, 
in the first place, to assert liberty of conscience, 
and of worship ; and then, upon that funda- 
mental principle, to persuade all Christians, 
however divided in opinion, to lay aside the 
distinctions of sect and party, and in one united 
body to consult that tranquillity and peace 
which is so agreeable to the Christian name. 
This we conceive to have been the object of Ar- 
minius ; an object so indicative of an enlight- 
ened mind, so congenial to that charity which 

hopeth all things, and thinketh no evil, and so 

conducive to the interests of religion and the 

peace of the world, as to reflect the highest 

honour on him by whom it was first pursued, 

and to constitute the true glory of Arminianism. 
The controversy to which Arminianism had 

given rise, was carried on after the death of 

its founder, with the greatest eagerness, and 

produced the most bitter and deplorable dis- 
sensions. The Arminians requested nothing 

more than a bare toleration. This moderate 

demand, at all times reasonable and just, was 

particularly so in Holland, which had thrown 



not determined the questions under debate. It 
was strongly urged by Grotius, Hoogerbeets, 
Olden Barnevelt, and other persons of respect- 
ability and influence. And Maurice, prince of 
Orange, and his mother the princess dowager, 
giving countenance to the claim, there was 
some prospect of the Calvinists being persuad- 
ed to enter into pacific measures, and to treat 
their dissenting brethren with forbearance. 
Accordingly, in the year 1611, a conference 
between the contending parties was held at 
the Hague, on which occasion, it is commonly 
asserted, the toleration required was offered to 
the Arminians, provided they would renounce 
the errors of Socinianism, — though the papers 
which passed between the parties at that con- 
ference, as authenticated by each of them, 
contain no proviso of that description. An- 
other conference was held at Delft, in 1613. 
And in 1614, the States of Holland promul- 
gated an edict, exhorting the disputants to the 
exercise of mutual charity. But these and 
other expedients employed for the same pur- 
pose, had not the desired effect. The Calvin, 
ists expressed great indignation at the magis- 
trates, for endeavouring, by their authority, to 
promote a union with such adversaries. The 
conduct of the States was ably and eloquently 
defended by Grotius, in two treatises, entitled, 
" De Jure Summarum Potestatum circa sacra,''* 
and " Ordinum Hollandice, ac West-Frisi<B 
Pietas a multorum calumniis vindicata." 

The hopes of success which the Arminians 
entertained from the indulgent manner in 
which they were treated by the civil authori- 
ties, were soon blasted by a misunderstanding 
which had secretly subsisted for some time be- 
tween the stadtholder and the principal magis- 
trates, and at last broke forth into an open 
rupture. Maurice, being suspected of aiming 
at sovereign power, was firmly opposed by the 
leading persons in the government, who had 
been the friends and patrons of the Arminians, 
and to whom, therefore, these adhered at this 
difficult crisis. On the other hand, the Go- 
marists, or Calvinists, attached themselves to 
Maurice, and inflamed the resentment which 
he had already, for various reasons, conceived 
against the Arminians. The prince was re- 
solved, at once to ruin the ministers who had 
ventured to oppose his schemes of usurpation, 
and to crush the Armenians, by whom those 
statesmen had been warmly supported. For 
this purpose he got the leading men cast into 
prison. Barnevelt, whose long and faithful 
services deserved a better fate, died on the 
scaffold : and Grotius and Hoogerbeets, under 
pretexts more plausible than solid, were un- 
justly condemned to perpetual imprisonment, 
from which, however, the former afterward 
escaped, and fled into France. The alleged 
crime of the Arminians being of an ecclesias- 
tical nature, it was thought proper to bring 
their cause before a national assembly of di- 
vines by which their religious opinions might 
be regularly and finally condemned. 
Under the auspices of Maurice, therefore, 



ARM 



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and by the authority of the states general, a 
synod was convoked at Dort, in the year 1618. 
Before this meeting, which consisted of depu- 
ties from the United Provinces, from England, 
Scotland, Switzerland, and other places, the 
Arminians appeared, with Episcopius at their 
head, to answer to the accusations brought 
against them, of departing from the establish- 
ed religion. For a full account of the pro- 
ceedings of this synod, the reader may consult 
the second and third volumes of Brandt's His- 
tory of the Reformation, and the Remains of 
Mr. John Hales of Eaton, who was present at 
the meeting, and gives a simple narrative of 
what he saw and heard. The conduct of the 
synod has been applauded by some,, and con- 
demned by others. On the one hand, it has 
been placed above every other synod since the 
Apostolic age, for its temper, moderation, and 
sanctity ; on the other, it has been charged 
with injustice and cruelty, and burlesqued in 
such lines as these : — 

Dordreckti synodus nodtis; chorus integer, cBger ; 

Convenlus, ventus ; sessio, stramen, Amen, 
[The point of this doggrel, which consists 
chiefly in the gingle of the Latin words, is lost 
in a translation. The following is a literal 
version : — 

The synod of Dort, a knot; the whole assembly, sick ; 
The convention, wind ; the session, straw. Amen.] 

Neal remarks, that it behaved as well as most 
assemblies of a similar kind have done, " who 
have pretended to establish articles for other 
men's faith, with penal sanctions." This says 
very little for the synod of Dort; though, per- 
haps, it is even more than can be said with 
truth. Martinius of Bremen seems to have 
upokeii much more correctly, when he told his 
friends, "I believe now what Gregory Nazian- 
len says, that he had never seen any council 
attended with good effects, but that it always 
increased the evil rather than removed it. I 
declare as well as that father, that I will never 
set my foot in any synod again. O Dort! 
Dort ! would to God that I had never seen 
;hee !" The Arminians, it is contended, asked 
nore indulgence than they had reason to ex- 
pect ; however it is certain that the treatment 
ivhich they received from tLie synod, was arbi- 
trary, faithless, and oppressive. They were at 
length found guilty of heresy, and of hostility 
to their country and its religion. And the 
measures adopted against them, in consequence 
of this sentence, were of the most severe and 
rigorous kind. They were excommunicated ; 
they were driven from all their offices, civil 
and ecclesiastical; their ministers were pro- 
hibited from preaching; and their congrega- 
tions were suppressed. Refusing to submit to 
the two last of these hard decrees, they were 
subjected to fines, imprisonments, and various 
other punishments. To avoid this tyrannical 
treatment, many of them retired to Antwerp, 
others to France, and a considerable number 
luto Holstein, where they were kindly received 
by Frederick the duke, and where, in the form 
of a colony, they built for themselves a hand- 
some town, naming it Frederickstadt, in com- 
pliment to their friend and protector. The 



history of this colony may be found in a work 
entitled Epistolce Prcestantium et Eruditorum 
Virorum Ecclesiastica et TheologiccB, and pub- 
lished by Limborch and Hartsoeker. 

The tenets of the Arminians may be com- 
prised in the following five articles relating to 
predestination, universal redemption, the cor- 
ruption of men, conversion, and perseverance, 
viz. 1. That God, from all eternity, determin- 
ed to bestow salvation on those whom he fore- 
saw would persevere unto the end in their 
faith in Christ Jesus ; and to inflict everlasting 
punishment on those who should continue in 
their unbelief, and resist unto the end his di- 
vine succours ; so that election was conditional, 
and reprobation in like manner the result of 
foreseen infidelity and persevering wickedness. 
2. That Jesus Christ, by his sufferings and 
death, made an atonement for the sins of all 
mankind in general, and of every individual in 
particular ; that, however, none but those who 
believe in him can be partakers of the divine 
benefits. 3. That true faith cannot proceed 
from the exercise of our natural faculties and 
powers, nor from the force and operation of 
free will; since man, in consequence of his 
natural corruption, is incapable either of think- 
ing or doing any good thing ; and that, there- 
fore, it is necessary, in order to his salvation, 
that he be regenerated and renewed by the 
operation of the Holy Ghost, which is the gift 
of God through Jesus Christ. 4. That this 
divine grace or energy of the Holy Ghost 
begins and perfects every thing that can be 
called good in man, and consequently all good 
works are to be attributed to God alone ; that, 
nevertheless, this grace is offered to all, and 
does not force men to act against their inclina- 
tions, but may be resisted and rendered inef- 
fectual by the perverse wills of impenitent sin- 
ners. 5. That God gives to the truly faithful, 
who are regenerated by his grace, the means 
of preserving themselves in this state; and 
though the first Arminians made some doubt 
with respect to the closing part of this article, 
their followers uniformly maintain, that the 
regenerate may lose true justifying faith, forfeit 
their state of grace, and die in their sins. The 
Arminians are also called Remonstrants, from 
an humble petition entitled their Remonstrance, 
which, in the year 1610, they addressed to the 
States of Holland. Their principal writers 
are, Arminius, Episcopius, Uitenbogart, Grotius, 
CurcellcBUs, Limborch, Le Clerc, Wetstein, 
Goodwin, Whitby, Wesley, Fletcher, Tomline, 
^c. The works of Arminius, with a copious 
account of his life and times, have been recent, 
ly translated into English, by Mr. James 
Mchols ; and have not only served to dissipate 
many misconceptions respecting the sentiments 
of this celebrated divine, which had prevailed 
in England, where the Pelagianism of some 
eminent divines, generally called Arminian, 
had been unjustly charged upon him ; but have 
added a most valuable collection of treatises to 
our theological literature. 

ARMS. The Hebrews do not appear to have 
had any peculiar military habit. As the flow, 
ing dress which they ordinarily wore would 



ARM 



94 



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iiave impeded their movements, they girt it 
closely around them when preparing for battle, 
and loosened it on their return, 2 Sam. xx, 8 ; 
1 Kings XX, 11. They used the same arms as 
the neighbouring nations, both defensive and 
offensive ; and these were made either of iron 
or of brass, principally of the latter metal. Of 
the defensive arms of the Hebrews, the follow- 
ing were the most remarkable ; namely, 

1. The helmet, ;?:3i3, for covering and de- 
fending the head. This was a part of the 
military provision made by Uzziah for his vast 
army, 2 Chron. xxvi, 14; and long before the 
time of that king, the helmets of Saul and of 
the Philistine champion were of the same metal, 
1 Sam. xvii, 38. This military cap was also 
worn by the Persians, Ethiopians, and Libyans, 
Ezek. xxxviii, 5, and by the troops which An- 
tiochus sent against Judas Maccabeus, 1 Mac. 
vi, 35. 

2. The breastplate or corslet, pniy, was an- 
other piece of defensive armour. Goliath, and 
the soldiers of Antiochus, 1 Sam. xvii, 5 ; 1 Mac. 
vi, 35, were accoutred with this defence ; which, 
in our authorized translation, is variously ren- 
dered hahergeon, coat of mail, and brigandine, 
1 Sam. xvii, 38 ; 2 Chron. xxvi, 14 ; Isa. lix, 
17; Jer. xlvi, 4. Between the joints of this 
harness, as it is termed in 1 Kings xxii, 4, the 
profligate Ahab was mortally wounded by an 
arrow, shot at a venture. From these various 
renderings of the original word, it should seem 
that this piece of armour covered both the back 
and breast, but principally the latter. The 
corslets were made of various materials : some- 
times they were made of flax or cotton, woven 
very thick, or of a kind of woollen felt : others 
again were made of iron or brazen scales, or 
laminas, laid one over another, like the scales 
of a fish ; others were properly what we call 
coats of mail ; and others were composed of two 
pieces of iron or brass, which protected the 
back and breast. All these kinds of corslets 
are mentioned in the Scriptures. Goliath's 
coat of mail, 1 Sam. xvii, 5, was literally a 
corslet of scales, that is, composed of numerous 
laminae of brass, crossing each other, It was 
called by Virgil, and other Latin writers, squa- 
ma lorica. Similar corslets were worn by the 
Persians and other nations. The breastplate 
worn by the unhappy Saul, when he perished 
in battle, is supposed to have been of fax, or 
cotton, woven very close and thick, 2 Sara, i, 9, 
marginal rendering. 

3. The shield defended the whole body dur- 
ing the battle. It was of various forms, and 
made of wood covered with tough hides, or of 
brass, and sometimes was overlaid with gold, 
1 Kings X, 16, 17 ; xiv, 26, 27. Two sorts aie 
mentioned in the Scriptures; namely, the njx, 
great shield or buckler, and the pD, or smaller 
shield. It was much used by the Jews, Baby- 
lonians, Chaldeans, Assyrians, and Egyptians. 
David, who was a great warrior, often men- 
tions a shield and buckler in his divine poems, 
to signify that defence and protection of Heaven 
which he expected and experienced, and in 
which he reposed all his trust. Psalm v, 12; 
and when he says, " God will with favour com 



pass the righteous as with a shield," he seems 
to allude to the use of the great shield tsinnah, 
(which is the word he uses,) with which they 
covered and defended their whole bodies. 
King Solomon caused two different sorts of 
shields to be made ; namely, the tsinnah, (which 
answers to clypeus among the Latins,) such a 
large shield as the infantry wore, and the ma- 
ginnim, or scuta, which were used by the horse- 
men, and were of a much less size, 2 Chron. ix, 
15, 16. The former of these are translated 
targets, and are double in weight to the other. 
The Philistines came into the field with this 
weapon : so we find their formidable champion 
was appointed, 1 Sam. xvii, 7. One bearing a 
shield went before him, whose proper duty it 
was to carry this and some other weapons, 
with which to fiarnish his master upon occasion. 

The loss of the shield in fight was excessively 
resented by the Jewish warriors, as well as la- 
mented by them ; for it was a signal aggrava- 
tion of the public mourning, that "the shield 
of the mighty was vilely cast away," 2 Sam. 
i, 21. David, a man of arms, who composed 
this beautiful elegy on the death of Saul, felt 
how disgraceful a thing it was for soldiers to 
quit their shields in the field. 

These honourable sentiments were not con- 
fined to the Jews. We find them prevailing 
among most other ancient nations, who con- 
sidered it infamous to cast away or lose their 
shield. With the Greeks it was a capital crime, 
and punished with death. The Lacedemonian 
women, it is well known, in order to excite the 
courage of their sons, used to deliver to them 
their fathers' shields, with this short address : 
"This shield thy father always preserved : do 
thou preserve it also, or perish." Alluding per- 
haps to these sentiments, St. Paul, when ex- 
horting the Hebrew Christians to steadfastness 
in the faith of the Gospel, urges them not to 
cast away their confidence, which "hath great 
recompense of reward," Heb. x, 35. 

4. Another defensive provision in war wa» 
the military girdle, which was for a double pur- 
pose : first, in order to hold the sword, which 
hung, as it does this day, at the soldier's girdle 
or belt, 1 Sam. xvii, 39 : secondly, it was ne- 
cessary to gird the clothes and the armour to- 
gether. To gird and to arm are synonymous 
words in Scripture ; for those who are said to 
be able to put on armour are, according to the 
Hebrew and the Septuagint, girt with a girdle ; 
and hence comes the expression of " girding 
to the battle," 1 Kings xx, 11; Isa. viii, 9; 
2 Sam. xxii, 40 ; 1 Sam. xviii, 4. There is ex. 
press mention of this military girdle, where it 
is recorded that Jonathan, to assure David of 
his entire love and friendship by some visible 
pledges, stripped himself not only of his usual 
garments, but of his military habiliments, his 
sword, bow, and girdle, and gave them to David. 

5. Boots or greaves were part of the ancient 
defensive harness, because it was the custom 
to cast certain tjxnoSia, impediments, (so called, 
because they entangled the feet,) in the way 
before the enemy. The military boot or shoe 
was therefore necessary to guard the legs and 
feet from the iron stakes placed in the way to 



ARM 



95 



ART 



gall and wound them ; and thus we are enabled 
to account for Goliath's greaves of brass which 
were upon his legs. 

The offensive weapons were of two sorts ; 
namely, such as were employed when they 
came to a close engagement, and those with 
which they annoyed the enemy at a distance. 
Of the former description were the sword and 
the battle-axe. 

1. The sword is the most ancient weapon of 
offence mentioned in the Bible. With it Ja- 
cob's sons treacherously assassinated the She- 
chemites. Gen. xxxiv, 2. It was worn on the 
thigh. Psalm xlv, 4 ; Exod. xxxii, 27 ; and, it 
should seem on the lefl thigh ; for it is par- 
ticularly mentioned that Ehud put a dagger or 
short sword under his garments on his right 
thigh, Judges iii, 16. There appear to have been 
two kinds of swords in use, a larger one with 
one edge, which is called in Hebrew the mouth 
of the sword, Joshua vi, 21 ; and a shorter one 
with two edges, like that of Ehud. The modern 
Arabs, it is well known, wear a sabre on one 
side, and a cangiar or dagger in their girdles. 

2. Of the battle-axe wo have no description 
in the sacred volume : it seems to have been a 
most powerful weapon in the hands of cavalry, 
from the allusion made to it by Jeremiah : 
" Thou art my battle-axe and weapons of war ; 
for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, 
and with thee will I destroy kingdoms: and 
with thee will I break in pieces the horse and 
his rider, and with thee will I break in pieces 
the chariot and his rider," Jer. li, 20, 21. 

3. The spear and javelin (as the words hdt 
and n^jn are variously rendered in Num. xxv, 7 ; 
1 Sam. xiii, 19, and Jer. xlvi, 4) were of differ- 
ent kinds, according to their length or make. 
Some of them might be thrown or darted, 

1 Sam. xviii, 11; others were a kind of long 
swords, Num. xxv, 8 ; and it appears from 

2 Sam. ii, 23, that some of them were pointed 
at both ends. When armies were encamped, 
the spear of the general or commander-in-chief 
was stuck into the ground at his head. 

4. Slings are enumerated among the military 
stores collected by Uzziah, 2 Chron. xxvi, 14. 
In the use of the sling David eminently ex- 
celled, and he slew Goliath with a stone from 
one. The Benjaminites were celebrated in 
battle because they had attained to great skill 
and accuracy in handling this weapon ; '• they 
could sling stones to a hair's breadth, and not 
miss," Judges xx, 16 ; and where it is said that 
they were left-handed, it should rather be ren- 
dered ambidexters ; for we are told they could 
use " both the right hand and the left," 1 Chron. 
xii, 2 ; that is, they did not constantly use the 
right hand as others did, when they shot arrows 
or slung stones ; but they were so expert in their 
military exercises, that they could perform them 
with their left hand as well as with their right. 

5. Bows and arrows are of great antiquity ; 
indeed, no weapon is mentioned so early. 
Thus Isaac said to Esau, "Take thy weapons, 
tby quiver and thy bow," Gen. xxvii, 3 ; though, 
it is true, these are not spoken of as used in 
war, but in hunting ; and so they are supposed 
and implied before this, where it is said of 



Ishmael, that he became an archer, he used 
bows and arrows in shooting of wild beasts. 
Gen. xxi, 20. This afterward became so use- 
ful a weapon, that care was taken to train up 
the Hebrew youth to it betimes. When David 
had, in a solemn manner, lamented the death 
of King Saul, he gave orders for teaching the 
young men the use of the bow, 1 Sam. i, 18, 
that they might be as expert as the Philistines, 
by whose bows and arrows Saul and his army 
were slain. These were part of the military 
ammunition ; for in those times bows were used 
instead of guns, and arrows supplied the place 
of powder and ball. From the book of Job, 
XX, 24, it may be collected, that the military 
bow was made of steel, and consequently was 
very stiff and hard to bend, on which account 
they used their foot in bending their bows ; 
and therefore when the prophets speak of 
treading the how and of boxes trodden, they are 
to be understood of bows bent, as our trans- 
lators rightly render it, Jer. 1, 14 ; Isa. v, 28 ; 
xxi, 15 ; but the Hebrew word which is used in 
these places, signifies to tread upon. This 
weapon was thought so necessary in war, that 
it is there called, " the bow of war," or the 
" battle-bow," Zech. ix, 10; x, 14. 

ARNON, a river or brook, mentioned Num. 
xxi, 24, and elsewhere. Its spring head is in 
the mountains of Gilead, or of the Moabites, 
and it discharges itself into the Dead Sea. 

ARROW. See Arms. Divination with ar- 
rows was a method of presaging future events, 
practised by the ancients. Ezekiel, xxi, 21, in- 
forms us, that Nebuchadnezzar, putting himself 
at the head of his armies, to march against 
Zedekiah, king of the Jews, and against the 
king of the Ammonites, stood at the parting of 
two ways, to mingle his arrows together in a 
quiver, in order to divine from tlience which 
way he should march. Jerom, Theodoret, and 
the modern commentators after them, believe 
that this prince took several arrows, and upon 
each of them wrote the name of the king, town, 
or province, which he was to attack : for ex- 
ample, upon one, Jerusalem; upon another, 
Rabbali, the capital of the Ammonites ; and 
upon another, Egypt, «Silc. After having put 
these into a quiver, he shook them together, 
and then drew them out ; and the arrow which 
was drawn was thought to declare the will of 
the gods to attack first that city, province, or 
kingdom, with whose name it was inscribed. 

ARTAXERXES, or Ahasuerus, a king of 
Persia, the husband of Esther, who, in the 
opinion of the learned Usher and Calmet, was 
the Darius of profane authors. See Ahasuerus. 

2. Artaxerxes Longimanus is supposed by 
Dr. Prideaux to be the Ahasuerus of Esther. 
He was the son of Xerxes, and grandson of 
Darius Hystaspes, and reigned in Persia from 
the year of the world 3531 to 3579. He per- 
mitted Ezra, with all those inclined to follow 
him, to return into Judea, in the year of the 
world 3537, Ezra vii, viii. Afterward, Nehe- 
miah also obtained leave to return, and to build 
the walls and gates of Jerusalem, in the year 
of the world 3550, Nehem. i, 11. From this 
year, chronologers reckon the beginning of 



ASA 



96 



ASA 



Daniel's seventy weeks, Daniel xi, 29. These 
are weeks of years, and make four hundred and 
ninety years. Dr. Prideaux, who discourses 
very copiously, and with great learning, on 
this prophecy, maintains that the decree men- 
tioned in it for the restoring and rebuilding of 
Jerusalem, cannot be understood of that granted 
to Nehemiah, in the twentieth year of Artax- 
erxes ; but of that granted to Ezra, by the 
same Artaxerxes, in the seventh year of his 
reign. From that time to the death of Christ, 
are exactly four hundred and ninety years, to 
a month : for in the month Nisan the decree 
was granted to Ezra ; and in the middle of the 
same month Nisan, Christ suffered, just four 
hundred and ninety years afterward. 

The easterns think that the surname of 
Longimanus was given to Artaxerxes by rea- 
son of the extent of his dominions ; as it is 
commonly said that princes have long hands : 
but the Greeks maintain that this prince had 
really longer hands or arms than usual ; and 
that, when he stood upright, he could touch 
his knees. He is said to have been the hand- 
somest man of his time. The eastern people 
call him Bahaman, and give him the surname 
of Ardschir-diraz-dest, or the long-handed. 
He was the son of Asfendiar, sixth king of 
the second dynasty of the Persians. After 
having extinguished the family of Rostam, 
which was formidable to him on account 
of the great men who composed it, he carried 
his arms into the western provinces, Meso- 
potamia and Syria, which formed part of his 
empire. He took Babylon from Belshazzar, 
son of Nebuchadnezzar; and he put in his 
place Kiresch, who by us is called Cyrus. 
Some Persian historians assert that the mother 
of Artaxerxes was a Jewess, of the tribe of 
Benjamin, and family of Saul ; and that the 
most beloved of his wives was of the tribe of 
Judah, and race of Solomon, by Rehoboam, 
king of Judah. If this be true, we need not 
wonder that he should recommend to Cyrus to 
favour the Jewish nation. This Cyrus per- 
formed, by sending back the people into their 
own country, and permitting them to rebuild 
their temple. But the truth of this story is 
doubtful; and were it true, the interference of 
the special providence of God must still be 
acknowledged. Artaxerxes reigned forty-seven 
years, and died in the year of the world 3579, 
and before Jesus Christ 425. 

ARTEMAS, St. Paul's disciple, who was 
sent by that Apostle into Crete, in the room of 
Titus, chap, iii, 12, while he continued with 
St. Paul at Nicopolis, where he passed the 
winter. We know nothing particular of the 
life or death of Artemas ; but the employment 
to which he was appointed by the Apostle is a 
proof of his great merit. 

ASA, the son and successor of Abijam, king 
of Judah, began to reign in the year of the 
world 3049, and before Christ 955. He reigned 
forty-one years at Jerusalem, and did right in 
the sight of the Lord. He purged Jerusalem 
from the infamous practices attending the 
worship of idols ; and he deprived his mother 
of her office and dignity of queen^ because she 



erected an idol to Astarte, which he burnt m 
the valley of Hinnom, 1 Kings xv, 8, &c. 

The Scripture reproaches Asa with not de- 
stroying the high places, which, perhaps, he 
thought it politic to tolerate, to avoid the great- 
er evil of idolatry. He carried into the house 
of the Lord the gold and silver vessels which 
his father Abijam had vowed to consecrate. 
He fortified several cities, and repaired others, 
encouraging his people to this labour while the 
kingdom was at peace ; and the Lord favoured 
them with his protection. After this he levied 
three hundred thousand men in Judah, armed 
with shields and pikes ; and two hundred and 
eighty thousand men in Benjamin, armed with 
shields and bows, all men of courage and Va- 
lour. About this time, Zerah, king of Ethi- 
opia, or rather of Cush, which is part of Arabia, 
marched against Asa with a million of foot, 
and three hundred chariots of war, and ad- 
vanced as far as Mareshah. This probably 
happened in the fifteenth year of Asa's reign, 
and in the year of the v/orld 3064, 2 Chron, 
XV, 10. Asa advanced to meet Zerah, and en- 
camped in the plain of Zephathah, or rather 
Zephatah, near Mareshah, and having prayed 
to the Lord, God struck the forces of Zerah 
with such a panic that they began to flee. Asa 
and his army pursued them to Geran, and slew 
of them a great number. After this, Asa's 
army returned to Jerusalem, laden with booty. 
The prophet Azariah met them, and said, 
"Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benja- 
min, The Lord is with you while ye be with 
him, and if ye seek him he will be found of 
you ; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake 
you. — Be ye strong, therefore, and let not your 
hands be weak : for your work shall be reward- 
ed," 2 Chron. xv, 2, 7. After this exhortation, 
Asa, being animated with new courage, de- 
stroyed the idols of Judah, Benjamin, and 
Mount Ephraim ; repaired the altar of burnt- 
offerings ; and assembled Judah and Benjamin, 
with many from the tribes of Simeon, Ephraim, 
and Manasseh, and on the third day, in the 
fifteenth year of his reign, celebrated a solemn 
festival. Of the cattle taken from Zerah, they 
sacrificed seven hundred oxen , and seven thou- 
sand sheep ; they renewed the covenant with 
the Lord; and, with cymbals and trumpets 
sounding, they swore to the covenant, and de- 
clared that whoever should forsake the true 
worship of God, should be put to death. The 
Lord gave them peace ; and, according to the 
Chronicles, the kingdom of Judah had rest till 
the thirty-fifth year of Asa. Concerning this 
year, however, there are difficulties ; and some 
think that we should read the twenty-fifth, in- 
stead of the thirty -fifth; since Baasha, who 
made war on Asa, lived no longer than the 
twenty-sixth year of Asa, 1 Kings xvi, 8. 

In this year Baasha, king of Israel, began 
to fortify Ramah, on the frontiers of the two 
kingdoms of Judah and Israel, that he might 
prevent the Israelites from resorting to the 
kingdom of Judah, and the temple of the Lord 
at Jerusalem. When Asa was informed of 
this, he sent to Benhadad,- king of Dam-ascus, 
all the gold and silver of his palace, and of the 



ASC 



97 



ASH 



temple, to induce him to break his alliance 
with Baasha, and to assist him against the king 
of Israel. Benhadad accepted Asa's presents, 
and invaded Baasha's country, where he took 
several cities belonging to the tribe of Naph- 
tali. Tliis obliged Baasha to retire from Ra- 
mah, that he might defend his dominions nearer 
home. Asa immediately ordered his people to 
Ramah, carried off" all the materials prepared 
by Baasha, and employed them in building 
Geba and Mizpah. This application to Ben- 
hadad for assistance was inexcusable. It im- 
plied, that Asa distrusted God's power and 
goodness, which he had so lately experienced. 
Therefore the Prophet Hanani was sent to re- 
prove him for his conduct. Asa, however, was 
so exasperated at his rebukes that he put the 
Prophet in chains, and at the same time or- 
dered the execution of several persons in Judah. 
Toward the latter part of his life, he was in- 
commoded with swellings in his feet, which, 
gradually rising upwards, killed him. The 
iScripture reproaches him with having had re- 
course to physicians, rather than to the Lord. 
He was buried in the sepulchre which he had 
provided for himself in the city of David ; and 
after his death they placed on the bed great 
quantities of perfumes and spices, with which 
his body was burned. His bones and ashes 
were then collected, and put into his grave. 

ASAHEL, the son of Zeruiah, and brother 
of Joab. He was killed by Abner, in the bat- 
tle of Gibeon, 2 Sam. ii, 18, 19, while he ob- 
stinately persisted in the pursuit of that general. 
To revenge his death, his brother Joab, some 
years after, treacherously killed Abner, who 
had come to wait on David at Hebron, in order 
to procure him to be acknowledged king by all 
Israel, 2 Sam. iii, 26, 27. See Aener. 

ASAPH, a celebrated musician in the time 
of David, was the son of Barachias of the tribe 
of Levi. Asaph, and also his descendants, 
presided over the musical band in the service 
of the temple. Several of the psalms, as the 
fiftieth, the seventy-third to the eighty-third, 
have the name of Asaph prefixed ; but it is not 
certain whetlier the words or the music were 
composed by him. With regard to some of 
them, which were written during the Babylon- 
ish captivity, they cannot in any respect be 
ascribed to him. Perhaps they were written 
or set to nuisic by his descendants, who bore 
his name, or by some of that class of musicians 
of which the family of Asaph was the head, 
1 Chron. vi, 39 ; 2 Chron. xxix, 30 ; xxxv, 15 ; 
Neh. xii, 46. The psalms which bear the 
name of Asaph are doctrinal or preceptive : 
their style, though less sweet than that of 
David, is more vehement, and little inferior to 
the grandeur of Isaiah. 

ASCENSION OF CHRIST, his visible 
elevation to heaven. Our Saviour, having 
repeatedly conversed with his Apostles after his 
resurrection, and afforded them many infallible 
proofs of its reality, led them from Jerusalem 
to Bethany, and was raised up to heaven in 
their sight ; there to continue till he shall de- 
scend at the last day to judge the quick and 
the dead. The evidences of this fact were I 
8 



numerous. The disciples saw him ascend, 
Acts i, 9, 10. Two angels testified that he 
did ascend, Acts i, 11. Stephen, Paul, and 
Jo)m saw him in his ascended state. Acts vii, 
55, 56 ; ix ; Rev. i. The ascension was de- 
monstrated by the descent of the Holy Ghost, 
John xvi, 7, 14; Acts ii, 33; and the terrible 
overthrow and dispersion of the Jewish nation 
is still a standing proof of it, John viii, 21 ; 
Matt, xxvi, 64. The time of Christ's ascen- 
sion was forty days after his resurrection. He 
continued so many days upon earth that he 
might give repeated proofs of his resurrection, 
Acts i, 3 ; instruct his Apostles in every thing 
of importance respecting their office and minis- 
try. Acts i, 3 ; and might open to them the 
Scriptures concerning himself, and renew their 
commission to preach the Gospel, Acts i, 5, 6 ; 
Mark xvi, 15. As to the manner of his ascen- 
sion, it was from mount Olivet to heaven, not 
in appearance only, but in reality, and that 
visibly and locally. It was a real motion of 
his human nature ; sudden, swift, glorious, and 
in a triumphant manner. He was parted fron> 
his disciples while he was solemnly blessing 
them ; and multitudes of aagels attended him 
with shouts of praise. Psalm Ixviii, 17 ; xlvii, 

5, 6. 

The effects or ends of his ascension were, 
1. To fulfil the types and prophecies concern- 
ing it; 2. To "appear" as a priest "in the 
presence of God for us ;" 3. To take upon him 
more openly the exercise of his kingly oflSce ; 
4. To receive gifts for men, both ordinary and 
extraordinary. Psalm Ixviii, 18 ; 5. To open the 
way to heaven for his people, Heb. x, 19, 20 ; 

6. To assure the saints of their ascension to 
heaven after their resurrection from the dead, 
John xiv, 1, 2. 

ASHDOD, AzoTH, according to the Vul- 
gate, or Azotus, according to the Greek, a city 
which was assigned by Joshua to the tribe of 
Judah, but was possessed a long time by the 
Philistines, and rendered famous for the temple 
of their god Dagon, Joshua xv, 47. It lies 
upon the Mediterranean Sea, about nine or 
ten miles north of Gaza ; and in the times 
when Christianity flourished in these parts was 
made an episcopal see, and continued a fair 
village till the days of St. Jerom. Here the 
ark of Jehovah triumphed over the Philistine 
idol Dagon, 1 Sam, v, 2. 

ASHER, tribe of. The province allotted to 
this tribe was a maritime one, stretching along 
the coast from Sidon on the north to Mount 
Carmel on the south ; inclading'the cities Ab- 
don, Achshaph, Accho, Achzib, Sarepta, Sidon, 
and Tyre. But of the northern half of this ter- 
ritory, that is, from Tyre northward, this tribe 
never became possessed, not having expelled 
the Phoenician inhabitants, who are supposed 
not to have been pure Canaanites, but a mix. 
ture of this people with a Cuthite colony from 
Egypt. Asher was the most northerly of the 
tribes ; and had that of Naphtali on the west, 
and Zebulun on the south. 

ASHES. Several religious ceremonies, and 
some symbolical ones, anciently defended upon 
the use of ashea. To repent in sackcloth and 



ASH 



98 



ASM 



ashes, or, as an external sign of self-affliction 
for sin, or of suffering under some misfortune, 
to sit in ashes, are expressions common in 
Scripture. "I am but dust and ashes," ex- 
claims Abraham before tlie Lord, Gen. xviii, 
27 ; indicating a deep sense of his own mean- 
ness in comparison with God. God threatens 
to shower down dust and ashes on the lands 
instead of rain, Deut. xxviii, 24 ; thereby to 
make them barren instead of blessing them, to 
dry them up instead of watering them. Tamar, 
after the injury she had received from Amnon, 
covered her head with ashes, 2 Sam. xiii, 19. 
The Psalmist, in great sorrow, says poetically, 
he had "eaten ashes as it were bread," Psalm 
cii, 9 ; that is, he sat on ashes, he threw ashes 
on his head ; and his food, his bread, was 
sprinkled with the ashes wherewith he was 
himself covered. So Jeremiah introduces Jeru- 
salem saying, "The Lord hath covered me 
with ashes," Lamentations iii, 16. Sitting on 
ashes, or lying down among ashes, was a token 
of extreme grief. We find it adopted by Job, 
ii, 8 ; by many Jews when in great fear, Es- 
ther iv, 3 ; and by the king of Nineveh, Jonah 
iii, 6. He arose from his throne, laid aside his 
robe, covered himself with sackclotli, and sat 
in ashes. This token of affliction is illustrated 
by Homer's description of old Laertes grieving 
for the absence of his son, " Sleeping in the 
apartment where the slaves slept, in the ashes, 
near the fire." Compare Jer* vi, 26, " Daugh- 
ter of my people, wallow thyself in ashes." 
There was a sort of ley and lustral water, made 
with the ashes of the heifer sacrificed on the 
great day of expiation ; these ashes were dis- 
tributed to the people, and used in purifications, 
by sprinkling, to such as had touched a dead 
body, or had been present at funerals, Num. 
xix, 17. 

ASHKENAZ, one of the sons of Gomer, 
and grandson of Japheth, who gave his name 
to the country first peopled by him in the north 
and north-western part of Asia Minor, answer- 
ing to Bithynia ; where were traces long after 
of his name, particularly in that of Ascanius, 
applied to a bay and city, as well as to some 
islands lying along the coast. It was also 
from this country, most probably, that the king 
Ascanius, mentioned by Homer, came to the 
aid of Priamus at the siege of Troy. From the 
same source, likewise, the Pontus Euxinus, or 
Black Sea, derived its name. It may farther 
be remarked on the identity of these countries, 
that the Prophet Jeremiah, predicting the cap- 
ture of Babylon, and calling by name the 
countries which were to rise against it, ex- 
claims, "Call together against her the king- 
doms of Ararat, (or Armenia,) Minni, and 
Ashkenaz :" which was literally fulfilled ; as 
Xenophen informs us that Cyrus, after taking 
Sardis, became master of Phrygia on the Hel- 
lespont, and took along with him many soldiers 
of that country. 

ASHTAROTH, or Astarte, a goddess of 
the Zidonians. The word Ashtaroth properly 
signifies flocks of sheep, or goats ; and some- 
times the grove, or woods, because she was 
goddess of woods, and groves were her temples. 



In groves consecrated to her, such lasciviousnese 
was committed as rendered her worship infa- 
mous. She was also called the queen of heaven ; 
and sometimes her w^orship is said to be that of 
" the host of heaven," She was certainly repre- 
sented in the same manner as Isis, with cows' 
horns on her head, to denote the increase and 
decrease of the moon. Cicero calls her the 
fourth Venus of the Syrians, She is almost 
always joined with Baal, and is called a god, 
the Scriptures having no particular word to 
express a goddess. It is believed that the 
moon was adored in this idol. Her temples 
generally accompanied those of the sun ; and 
while bloody sacrifices or human victims were 
offered to Baal, bread, liquors, and perfumes 
were presented to Astarte. For her, tables 
Were prepared upon the flat terrace roofs of 
houses, near gates, in porches, and at cross- 
ways, on the first day of every month ; and 
this was called by the Greeks, Hecate's supper. 

Solomon, seduced by his foreign wives, in- 
troduced the worship of Ashtaroth into Israel ; 
but Jezebel, daughter of the king of Tyre, and 
wife to Ahab, principally established her wor- 
ship. She caused altars to be erected to this 
idol in every part of Israel ; and at one time 
four hundred priests attended the worship of 
Ashtaroth, 1 Kings xviii, 7. 

ASHUR, the son of Shem, who gave his 
name to Assyria. It is believed that Ashur 
originally dwelt in the land of Shinar and about 
Babylonia, but that he was compelled by the 
usurper Nimrod to depart from thence, and 
settle higher toward the springs of the Tigrisj, 
in the province of Assyria, so called from him, 
where some think he built the famous city of 
Nineveh, and those of Rehoboth, Calah, and 
Resen, Gen. x, 11, 12. 

ASIA, one of the four grand divisions of the 
earth. It is also used in a more restricted 
sense for Asia Minor, or Anatolia. In the 
New Testament it always signifies the Roman 
Proconsular Asia, in wliich the seven Apoca- 
lyptic churches were situated. 

ASKELON, a city in the land of the Phi- 
listines, situated between Azoth and Gaza, 
upon the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, about 
520 furlongs from Jerusalem. The tribe of 
Judah, after the death of Joshua, took the city 
of Askelon, Judges i, 18, being one of the five 
governments belonging to the Philistines. The 
place at present is in ruins. 

ASMONiEANS, a name given to the Mac- 
cabees, the descendants of Mattathias. After 
the death of Ezra and Nehemiah, the Jews 
were governed by their high priest, in subjec- 
tion, however, to the Persian kings, to whom 
they paid tribute } but with full enjoyment of 
their liberties, civil and religious. Nearly 
three centuries of prosperity ensued, until they 
were cruelly oppressed by Antiochus Epipha- 
nes, king of Syria, when they were compelled 
to take up arms in their own defence. Under 
the able conduct of Judas, surnamed Macca- 
beus, and his valiant brothers, the Jews main- 
tained a religious war for twenty-six years with 
five successive kings of Syria; and afler de- 
t^troying upwards of two hundred thousand of 



ASP 



90 



ASS 



their best troops, the Maccabees finally esta- 
Wished the independence of their own country, 
and the aggrandisement of their family. This 
illustrious house, whose princes united the 
regal and pontifical dignity in their own per- 
sons, administered the affairs of the Jews during 
a period of a hundred and twenty-six years ; 
until, disputes arising between Hyrcanus II, 
and his brother Aristobulus, the latter was 
defeated by the Romans, who captured Jerusa- 
lem, and reduced Judea to a military province, 
B. C. 59. 

ASNAPPER, the king of Assyria, who sent 
the Cutheans into the country belonging to the 
ten tribes, Ezra iv, 10. Many take this prince 
to be Shalmaneser; but others, with more 
probability, think him to be Esar-haddon. 

ASP, ins. Deut. xxxii, 33; Job xx, 14, 16; 
Psalm Iviii, 4; xci, 13; Isaiah xi, 8. A very 
venomous serpent, whose poison is sc subtle as 
to kill within a few hours with a universal 
gangrene. This may well refer to the hcBten 
of the Arabians, vvhich M. Forskai describes 
as spotted with black and white, about one foot 
in length, and nearly half an inch in thickness, 
oviparous, and whose bite is death. It is the 
aspic of the ancients, and is so called now by 
the literati of Cyprus, though the common 
people call it kuji, (Ky<prj,) deaf. With the pE- 
THEN we may connect the python of the Greeks, 
v/hich was, according to fable, a huge serpent 
that had an oracle at mount Parnassus, famous 
for predicting future events. Apollo is said to 
have slain this serpent, and hence he was call- 
ed " Pythius." Those possessed with a spirit 
of divination were also styled nuflwre?. The 
word occurs in Acts, xvi, 16, as the character- 
istic of a young vfoman who had a pythonic 
spirit. It is well known that the serpent was 
particularly employed by the Heathens in their 
enchantments and divinations. See Serpent. 

Pethen, pfl, is variously translated in our 
version ; but interpreters generally consider it 
as referring to the asp. Zophar alludes to it 
more than once in his description of a wicked 
man : *' Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, 
it is the gall of asps within him. He shall suck 
the poison of asps ; the viper's tongue shall slay 
him." The venom of asps is the most subtle 
of all ; it is incurable ; and, if the wounded part 
be not instantly amputated, it speedily termi- 
nates the existence of the sufferer. To these 
circumstances, Moses evidently alludes in his 
character of the Heathen : " Their wine is the 
poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps." 
To tread upon the asp is attended with extreme 
danger ; therefore, to express in the strongest 
manner the safety which the godly man enjoys 
under the protection of his heavenly Father, it 
is promised, that he shall tread with impunity 
upon these venomous creatures. No person of 
his own accord approaches the hole of these 
deadly reptiles ; for he who gives them the 
smallest distvirbance is in extreme danger of 
paying the forfeit of his rashness with his life. 
Hence, the Prophet Isaiah, predicting the con- 
version of the Gentiles to the faith of Christ, 
and t e glorious reign of peace and truth in 
those regions which, prior to that period, were 



full of horrid cruelty, marvellously heightens 
the force of the whole description by declaring, 
"The sucking child shall play on the hole of 
the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand 
on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt 
nor destroy in all my holy mountain ; for the 
earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, 
as the waters cover the sea." 

ASS, -non, Arabic, chamara and hamar. 
There are three words referred by translators 
to the ass: 1. •nran, which is the usual appella- 
tion, and denotes the ordinary kind ; such as is 
employed in labour, carriage, and domestic ser- 
vices. 2. ^.-\D, rendered onager, or "wild ass." 
3. pnN, rendered she ass. To these we must 
add, Nnij?, rendered wild asses, Dan. v, 21. 
The prevailing colour of this animal in the 
east is reddish ; and the Arabic word, chamara, 
signifies to be red. 

In his natural state he is fleet, fierce, formi- 
dable, and intractable ; but when domesticated,- 
the most gentle of all animals, and assumes a 
patience and submission even more humble 
than his situation. Le Clerc observes, that the 
Israelites not being allowed to keep horses, the 
ass was not only made a beast of burden, but 
used on journeys ; and that even the most ho 
nourable of the nation were wont to be mounted 
on asses, which in the eastern countries were' 
much larger and more beautiful than they are 
with us. Jair of Gilead had thirty sons who- 
rode on as many asses, and commanded in thirty 
cities, Judges x, 4. Abdon's sons and grand- 
sons rode also upon asses, Judges xij, 4. And 
Christ makes his solemn entry into Jerusalem^ 
riding upon an ass. Matt, xxi, 4 ; John xii, 14. 
To draw with an ox and ass together was pro, 
hibited in the Mosaic law, Deut. xxii, 10. This 
law is thought to have respect to some idola. 
trous custom of the Gentiles, v/ho were taught 
to believe that their fields would be more fruit- 
ful if thus ploughed ; for it is not likely that 
men would have 3^oked together two creatures 
so different in their tempers and motions, had 
they not been led to it by some superstition. 
There might be, however, a physical reason for 
this injunction. Two beasts of a different spe- 
cies cannot well associate together ; and on 
this account never pull pleasantly either in the 
cart or plough, and are not therefore " true 
yoke fellows." Le Clerc considers this law as 
merely symbolical, importing that we are not 
to form improper alliances in civil and religious 
life ; and he thinks his opinion confirmed by 
these words of St. Paul, 2 Cor. vi, 14 : " Be ye 
not unequally yoked with unbelievers ;" which 
are simply to be understood as prohibiting all 
intercourse between Christians and idolaters, 
in social, matrimonial, and religious life. To 
teach the Jews the propriety of this, a variety 
of precepts relative to improper and heteroge- 
neous mixtures were interspersed through their 
law ; so that in civil and domestic life they 
might have them ever before their eyes. 

The wild ass, called para, is probably the 
onager of the ancients. It is taller and a much 
more dignified animal than the common or do. 
m.estic ass ; its lege are more elegantly shaped | 
and it bears its head higher. It is peculiarly 



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ASS 



distinguiehed by a dusky woolly mane, long 
erect ears, and a forehead highly arched. The 
colour of the hair, in general, is of a silvery 
white. These animals associate in herds, under 
a leader, and are very shy. They inhabit the 
mountainous regions and desert parts of Tar- 
tary, Persia, &c. Anciently they were like- 
wise found in Lycaonia, Fhrygia, Mesopotamia, 
and Arabia Deserta. They are remarkably 
wild ; and Job, xxxix, 5-8, describes the liberty 
they enjoy, the place of their retreat, their man- 
ners, and wild, impetuous, and untamable spi- 
rit. *' Vain man would be wise, though he be 
born a wild ass's colt," Job xi, 12 ; Nns nt^, " ass 
colt," not " ass's colt ;" "i> being in apposition 
with Nifi, and not in government. The whole 
is a proverbial expression, denoting extreme 
perversity and ferocity, and repeatedly alluded 
to in the Old Testament. Thus, Gen, xvi, 12, 
it is prophesied of Ishmael that he should be 
CDI^ N"Tfi, a wild ass mah ; rough, untaught, 
and libertine as a wild ass. So Hosea, xiii, 15 ; 
" He (Ephraim) hath run wild (literally assified 
himself) amidst the braying monsters." So 
again, Hosea viii, 9, the very same character is 
given of Ephraim, who is called " a solitary 
wild ass by himself," or perhaps a solitary wild 
ass of the desert; for the original will bear to 
be so rendered. This proverbial expression has 
descended among the Arabians to the present 
day, who still employ, as Schuitens has remark- 
ed, the expressions, "the ass of the desert," or 
•* the wild ass," to describe an obstinate, indo- 
cile, and contumacious person. The Prophet 
Isaiah, xxxii, 14, describes great desolation by 
saying that "the wild asses shall rejoice where 
a city stood." There is another kind of ass 
called, pnJ<. Abraham had atonoth, Gen. xii, 
16; Balaam rode on an aton, Num. xxii, 23. 
We find from 1 Ghron. xxvii, 30, that David 
had an officer expressly appointed to superin- 
tend his ATONOTH ; not his ordinary asses, but 
those of a nobler race ; which implies at least 
equal dignity in this officer to his colleagues 
mentioned with him. This notion of the aton 
gives also a spirit to the history of Saul, who, 
when his father's atonoth were lost, was at no 
little pains to seek them ; moreover, as beside 
being valuable, they were uncommon, he might 
the more readily hear of them if they had been 
noticed or taken up by any one ; and this leads 
to the true interpretation of the servant's pro- 
posed application to Samuel, verse 6, as though 
he said, "In his office of inagistracy this ho- 
nourable man may have heard of these strayed 
rarities, and secured them ; peradventure he 
can direct us." 

Thus we find that these atonoth are men. 
tioned in Scripture, only in the possession of 
judges, patriarchs, and other great men ; inso- 
much that where these are tliere is dignity, 
either expressed or implied. They were also a 
present for a prince ; for Jacob presented Esau 
with twenty. Gen. xxxii, 15. What then shall 
wc say of the wealth of Job, wlio possessed a 
thousand ? Another word which is rendered 
*^wild «s.9" by our translators, Job xxxix, 5, is 
ORUD ; which seems to be the same, that in the 
€haldce of Daniel, v, '31, is called oredia, Mr. 



Parkhurst supposes that this word denotes the 
hroyer, and that para and orud are only tv/o 
names for the same animal. But these names 
may perhaps refer to different races, though of 
the same species ; so that a description of the 
properties of one may apply to both, though not 
without some variation. 

Who sent out the para free ? 
Or who hath loosed the bands of the orud 7 
Whose dwelling I have made the wilderness, 
And the barren land (salt deserts) his resort : 
The range of open mountains are his pasture, 
And he searcheth after every green thing. 

Gmelin observes that the onager is very fond 
of salt. Whether the " deserts" of the above 
text were salt marshes, or salt deserts, is of very 
little consequence ; the circumstance shows the 
correctness of the Hebrew poet. In Daniel we 
read that Nebuchadnezzar dwelt with the ors- 
dia. We need not suppose that he was banish- 
ed to the deserts, but was at most kept safely 
in an enclosure of his own park, where curious 
animals were kept for state and pleasure. If 
this be correct, then the orud was somewhat, 
at least, of a rarity at Babylon ; and it might 
be of a kind different from the para, as it is 
denoted by another name. Blay it not be the 
Gicquetei of Professor Pallas, the wild mule of 
Mongalia ? which surpasses the onager in size, 
beauty, and perhaps in swiftness. 

ASSIDEANS, by some named Chasideans, 
from chasidim, "merciful, pious." They were 
a kind of religious society among the Jews, 
whose chief and distinguishing character was, 
to maintain the honour of the temple, and ob- 
serve punctually the traditions of the elders. 
They were therefore not only content to pay 
the usual tribute for the maintenance of the 
house of God, but charged themselves with far- 
ther expense upon that account ; for every day, 
except that of the great expiation, they sacri- 
ficed ajamb, in addition to the daily oblation, 
which was called the sin offering of the Assi- 
deans. They practised greater hardships and 
mortifications than others ; and their common 
oath was, " By the temple ;" for which our Sa- 
viour reproves the Pharisees, who had learned 
that oath of them, Matt, xxiii, 16. From this 
sect the Pharisees sprung. The Assideans are 
represented as a numerous sect, distinguished 
by its valour, as well as by its zeal for the law, 
1 Mac. ii, 42. A company of them resorted to 
Mattathias, to fight for the law of God, and the 
liberties of their country. This sect arose either 
during the captivity, or soon after the restora- 
tion, of the Jews; and were probably in the 
commencement, and long afterward, a truly 
pious part of the nation ; but they at length 
became superstitious. 

ASSURANCE. The sense in which this 
term is used theologically is that of a firm per- 
suasion of our being in a state of salvation. 
The doctrine itself has been matter of dispute 
among divines, and when considered as imply- 
ing not only that we are now accepted of God 
through Christ, but that we shall be finally 
saved, or when it is so taken as to deny a state 
of salvation to those who are not so assured as 
to be free from all doubt, it is in many views 



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questionable. Assurance of final salvation must 
stand or fall with the doctrine of personal un- 
conditional election, and is chiefly held by di- 
vines of the Calvinistic school ; and that nothing 
is an evidence of a state of present salvation 
but so entire a persuasion as amounts to assur- 
ance in the strongest sense, might be denied 
upon the ground that degrees of grace, of real 
saving grace, arc undoubcdly mentioned in 
Scripture. Assurance, however, is spoken of 
in the New Testament, and stands prominent 
as one of the leading doctrines of religious ex- 
perience. We have "full assurance of under- 
standing ;" that is a perfect knowledge and en- 
tire persuasion of the truth of the doctrine of 
Christ. The " assurance of faith," in Hebrews 
ix, 22, is an entire trust in the sacrifice and 
priestly office of Christ. The " assurance of 
hope," mentioned in Hebrews vi, 11, relates to 
the heavenly inheritance, and must necessarily 
imply a full persuasion that we are " the chil- 
dren of God," and therefore "heirs of his glo- 
ry;" and from this passage it must certainly 
be concluded that such an assurance is what 
every Christian ought to aim at, and that it is 
attainable. This, however, does not exclude 
occasional doubt and weakness of faith, from 
the earlier stages of his experience. 

A comforting and abiding persuasion of pre- 
sent acceptance by God, through Christ, we 
may therefore affirm, must in various degrees 
follow true faith. In support of this view, the 
following remarks may be offered : — 

If it is the doctrine of the inspired records, 
that man is by nature prone to evil, and that 
in practice he violates that law under which 
as a creature he is placed, and is thereby ex- 
posed to punishment ; — if also it is there stated, 
that an act of grace and pardon is promised on 
the conditions of repentance toward God, and 
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ ; — if that repent- 
ance implies consideration of our ways, a sense 
of the displeasure of Almighty God, conti-ition 
of heart, and consequently trouble and grief of 
mind, mixed, however, with a hope inspired by 
the promise of forgiveness, and which leads to 
earnest supplication for the actual pardon of 
sin so promised, it will follow from these pre- 
mises — either, 1. That forgiveness is not to be 
expected till after the termination of our course 
of probation, that is, in another life ; and that, 
therefore, this trouble and apprehension of 
mind can only be assuaged by the hope we 
may have of a favourable final decision on our 
case ; — or, 2. That sin is, in the present life, 
forgiven as often as it is thus repented of, and 
as often as we exercise the required and spe- 
cific acts of trust in the merits of our Saviour ; 
but that this forgiveness of our sins is not in 
any way made known unto us : so that we are 
left, as to our feelings, in precisely the same 
state as if sin were not forgiven till after death, 
namely, in grief and trouble of mind, relieved 
only by hope ; — or, 3. The Scriptural view is, 
that when sin is forgiven by the mercy of God 
through Christ, we are, by some means, assured 
of it, and peace and satisfaction of mind take 
the place of anxiety and fear. 

The first of these conclusions is sufficiently 



disproved by the authority of Scripture, which 
exhibits justification as a blessing attainable in 
this life, and represents it as actually experi- 
enced by true believers. " Therefore being 
justified by faith." " There is now no con- 
domnation to them who are in Christ Jesus." 
" Whosoever believcth is justified from all 
things," &LC. The quotations might be multi- 
plied, but these are decisive. The notion that 
though an act of forgiveness may take place, 
we are unable to ascertain a fact so important 
to us, is also irreconcilable with many scrip- 
tures in which the writers of the New Testa- 
ment speak of an experience, not confined 
personally to themselves, or to those Christians 
who were endowed with spiritual gifts, but 
comrnon to all Christians. " Being justified by 
faith we have peace with God." " We joy in 
God, by whom we have received the reconcilia- 
tion." " Being reconciled unto God by the 
death of his Son." " We have not received 
the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but the 
spirit of adoption, by which we cry, Abba, Fa- 
ther." To these may be added innumerable 
passages which express the comfort, the confi- 
dence, and the joy of Christians ; their " friend- 
ship" with God; their "access" to him; their 
entire union and delightful intercourse with 
him; and their absolute confidence in the suc- 
cess of their prayers. All such passages are 
perfectly consistent with deep hmnility, and 
self-diffidence ; but they are irreconcilable with 
a state of hostility between the parties, afid with 
an unascertained and only hoped-for restoration 
of friendship and favour. 

An assurance, therefore, that the sins which 
are felt to "be a burden intolerable" are for- 
given, and that the ground of that apprehension 
of fiiture punishment which causes the peni- 
tent to " bewail his manifold sins," is taken 
away by restoration to the favour of the offend- 
ed God, must be allowed, or nothing would be 
more incongruous and impossible than the com- 
fort, the peace, the rejoicing of spirit, which in 
the Scriptures are attributed to believers. 

Few Christians of evangelical views have, 
therefore, denied the possibility of our becom- 
ing assured of the favour of God in a sufficient 
degree to give substantial comfort to the mind. 
Their differences have rather respected the 
means by which the contrite become assured 
of that change in their relation to Almighty 
God, whom they have offended, which in Scrip- 
ture is expressed by the term justification. The 
question has been, (where the notion of an as- 
surance of eternal salvation has not been under 
discussion,) by what means the assurance of 
the divine favour is conveyed to the mind. 
Some have concluded that we obtain it by 
inference, others by the direct testimony of the 
Holy Spirit to the mind. See Holy Spirit. 

ASSYRIA, a kingdom of Asia, of the ex- 
tent, origin, and duration of which very dif- 
ferent accounts have been given by ancient 
writers. Ctesias and Diodorus Siculus affirm, 
that the Assyrian monarchy, under Ninus and 
Semiramis, comprehended the greater part of 
the known world: but, if this had been the 
case, it is not likely that Homer and Herodotus 



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would have omitted a fact so remarkable. The 
sacred records intimate that none of the ancient 
states or kingdoms were of considerable extent; 
for neither Chederlaomer, nor any of the neigh- 
bouring princes, were tributary or subject to 
Assyria ; and *' we find nothing," says Playfair, 
"of the greatness or power of this kingdom in 
the history of the judges and succeeding kings 
.of Israel, though the latter kingdom was op- 
pressed and enslaved by many different powers 
in that period." It is therefore highly probable 
that Assyria was originally of small extent. 
According to Ptolemy, this country was bound- 
fid on the north by part of Armenia and Mount 
Niphates ; on the west by the Tigris ; on the 
south by Susiana ; and on the east by part of 
Media and the mountains Choatra and Zagros. 
Of the origin, revolutions, and termination of 
Assyria, properly so called, and distinguished 
from the grand monarchy which afterward bore 
this appellation, the following account is given 
by Mr. Playfair, as the most probable : — " The 
founder of it was Ashur, the second son of 
Shem, who departed from Shinar, upon the 
usurpation of Nimrod, at the head of a large 
body of adventurers, and laid the foundations of 
Nineveh, where he resided, and erected a new 
kingdom, called Assyria, after his name. Gen. 
X, 11. These events happened not long afler 
Nimrod had established the Chaldean monar- 
chy, and fixed his residence at Babylon ; but it 
does not appear that Nimrod reigned in As- 
syria. The kingdoms of Assyria and Babylon 
were originally distinct and separate, Micah 
V, 6 ; and in this state they remained until 
Ninus conquered Babylon, and made it tribu- 
tary to the Assyrian empire. Ninus, the suc- 
cessor of Ashur, Gen. x, 11, seized on Chaldea 
after the death of Nimrod, and united the king- 
doms of Assyria and Babylon. This great 
prince is said to have subdued Asia, Persia, 
Media, Egypt, «fec. If he did so, the effects of 
his conquests were of no long duration ; for, 
in the days of Abraham, we do not find that 
any of the neighbouring kingdoms were sub- 
ject to Assyria. Ninus was succeeded by Se- 
miramis, a princess bold, enterprising, and 
fortunate ; of whose adventures and exploits 
many fabulous relations have been recorded. 
Playfair is of opinion that there were two 
princesses of this name, v/ho flourished at dif- 
ferent periods : one, the consort of Ninus ; and 
another, who lived five generations before 
Nitocris, queen of Nebuchadnezzar. Of the 
successors of Ninus and Semiramis nothing 
certain is recorded. The last of the ancient 
Assyrian kings was Sardanapalus, who was 
besieged in his capital by Arbaces, governor of 
Media, in concurrence with the Babylonians. 
These united forces defeated the Assyrian 
army, demolished the capital, and became 
masters of the empire, B. C. 821. 

" Afler the death of Sardanapalus," says Mr. 
Playfair, " the Assyrian empire was divided 
into three kingdoms; namely, the Median, 
Assyrian, and Babylonian. Arbaces retained 
the supreme authority, and nominated govern- 
ors in Assyria and Babylon, who were honoured 
v/ith the title of kings, while they remained 



subject and tributary to the Persian monarchs 
Belesis," he says, " a Chaldean priest, who as- 
sisted Arbaces in the conquest of Sardanapalus, 
received the government of Babylon as the 
reward of his services ; and Phul was intrusted 
with that of Assyria. The Assyrian governor 
gradually enlarged the boundaries of his king- 
dom, and was succeeded by Tiglath-pileser, 
Salmanasar, and Sennacherib, who asserted 
and maintained their independence. After the 
death of Assar-haddon, the brother and succes» 
sor of Sennacherib, the kingdom of Assyria 
was split, and annexed to the kingdoms of 
Media and Babylon. Several tributary princes 
afterward reigned in Nineveh ; but we hear no 
mere of the kings of Assyria, but of those of 
Babylon. Cyaxares, king of Media, assisted 
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, in the siege 
of Nineveh, which they took and destroyed, 
B. C. 606." 

The history of Assyria, deduced from Scrip- 
ture, and acknowledged as the only authentic 
one by Sir Isaac Newton and many others, 
ascribes the foundation of the monarchy to 
Pul, or Phul, about the second year of Mena- 
hem, king of Israel, twenty-four years before 
the sera of Nabonassar, 1579 years after the 
flood, and, according to Blair, 769, or, accord- 
ing to Newton, 790, years before Christ. Mena- 
hem, having taken forcible possession of the 
throne of Israel by the murder of Shallum, 
2 Kings XV, 10, was attacked by Pul, but pre- 
vented the hostilities meditated against him by 
presenting the invader with a thousand talents 
of silver. Pul, thus gratified, took the king- 
dom of Israel under his protection, returned to 
his own country, after having received volun- 
tary homage from several nations in his march, 
as he had done from Israel, and became the 
founder of a great empire. As it was in the 
days of Pul that the Assyrians began to afflict 
the inhabitants of Palestine, 2 Kings xi, 9 ; 
1 Chron. V, 26, this was the time, according to 
Sir Isaac Newton, when the Assyrian empire 
arv-^se. Thus he interprets the words, " since 
the time of the kings of Assyria," Nehem. ix, 32 ; 
that is, since the time of the kingdom of As- 
syria, or since the rise of that empire. But 
though this was the period in which the Assy, 
rians afflicted Israel, it is not so evident that 
the time of the kings of Assyria must neces- 
sarily be understood of the rise of the Assyrian 
empire. However, Newton thus reasons ; and 
observes, that "Pul and his successors afflicted 
Israel, and conquered the nations round about 
them ; and upon the ruin of many small and 
ancient kingdoms erected their empire ; con- 
quering the Mcdes, as well as other nations." 
It is farther argued, that God, by the Prophet 
Amos, in the reign of Jeroboam, about ten or 
twenty years before the reign of Pul, (see Amos 
vi, 13, 14,) threatened to raise up a nation 
against Israel ; and that, as Pul reigned pre- 
sently after the prophecy of Amos, and was 
the first upon record who began to fulfil it, he 
may be justly reckoned the first conqueror and 
founder of this empire. See 1 Chron. v, 26. 
Pul was succeeded on the throne of Assyria 
by his elder son Tiglath-pileser ; and at the 



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game time he left Babylon to his younger son 
Nabonassar, B. C. 747. Of the conquests of 
this second king of Assyria against the kings 
of Israel and Syria, when he took Damascus, 
and subdued the Syrians, we have an account 
in 2 Kings xv, 29, 37 ; xvi, 5, 9 ; 1 Chron. v, 26 ; 
by which the prophecy of Amos was fulfilled, 
and from which it appears tlxat the empire of 
the Assyrians was now become great and 
powerful. The next king of Assyria was Shal- 
maneser, or Salmanassar, who succeeded Tig- 
lath-pileser, B. C. 729, and invaded Phoenicia, 
took the city of Samaria, and, B. C. 721, car- 
ried the ten tribes into captivity, placing them 
in Chalach and Chabor, by the river Gazon, 
and in the cities of the Modes, 2 Kings xvii, 6. 
Shalmaneser was succeeded by Sennacherib, 
B. C. 719 ; and in the year B. C. 714, he was 
put to flight with great slaughter by the Ethio- 
pians and Egyptians. In the year B. C. 711 the 
Medes revolted from the Assyrians; Senna- 
cherib was slain ; and he was succeeded by his 
son Esar-Haddon. Asserhaddon, Asordan, As- 
saradin, or Sarchedon, by which names he is 
called by different writers. He began his reign 
at Nineveh, in the year of Nabonassar 42 ; and 
in the year 68 extended it over Babylon. He 
then carried the remainder of the Samaritans 
into captivity, and peopled Samaria with cap- 
tives brought from several parts of his king- 
dom ; and in the year of Nabonassar 77 or 78 
he seems to have put an end to the reign of the 
Ethiopians over Egypt. " In the reign of Sen- 
nacherib and Asser-Hadon," says Sir I. New- 
ton, " the Assyrian empire seems arrived at its 
greatness ; being united under one monarch, 
and containing Assyria, Media, Apolloniatis, 
Susiana, Chaldea, Mesopotamia, Cilicia, Syria, 
Phoenicia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and part of Arabia ; 
and reaching eastward into Elj^mais, and Pa- 
rsBtaecene, a province of the Medes ; and if 
Chalach and Chabor be Colchis and Iberia, as 
some think, and as may seem probable from 
the circumcision used by those nations till the 
days of Herodotus, we are also to add these 
two provinces, with the two Armenias, Pontus, 
and Cappadocia, as far as to the river Halys : 
for Herodotus tells us that the people of Cap- 
padocia, as far as to that river, were called 
Syrians by the Greeks, both before and after 
the days of Cyrus ; and that the Assyrians were 
also called Syrians by the Greeks." Asser- 
Hadon was succeeded in the year B. C. 668 by 
Saosduchinus. At this time Manasseh was 
allowed to return home, and fortify Jerusalem; 
and the Egyptians also, afler the Assyrians had 
harassed Egypt and Ethiopia three years, Isa. 
XX, 3, 4, were set at liberty. Saosduchinus, 
after a reign of twenty years, was succeeded 
at Babylon, and probably at Nineveh also, by 
Chyniladon, in the year B. C. 647. This 
Chyniladon is supposed by Newton to be the 
Nebuchadonosor mentioned in the book of Ju- 
dith, i, 1-15, who made war upon Arphaxad, 
J^ing of the Medes ; and, though deserted by 
his auxiliaries of Cilicia, Damascus, Syria, 
Phoenicia, Moab, Ammon, and Egypt, routed 
the army of the Medes, and slew Arphaxad. 
This Arphaxad is supposed to be either Dejoces 



or his son Phraortes, mentioned by Herodotus. 
Soon after the death of Phraortes, in the year 
B. C. 635, the Scythians invaded the Medes 
and Persians ; and in 625, Nabopolassar, the 
commander of the forces of Chyniladon in 
Chaldea, revolted from him, and became king 
of Babylon. Chyniladon was either then or 
soon after succeeded at Nineveh by the last 
king of Assyria, called Sarac by Polyhistor. 
The authors of the Universal History suppose 
Saosduchinus to have been the Nebuchadono- 
sor of Scripture, and Chyniladon or Chynala- 
dan to have been the Sarac of Polyhistor. At 
length Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabopo- 
lassar, married Amyit, the daughter of Astya- 
ges, king of the Medes, and sister of Cyaxares ; 
and by this marriage the two families having 
contracted affinity, they conspired against the 
Assyrians. Nabopolassar being old, and As- 
tyages dead, their sons Nebuchadnezzar and 
Cyaxares led the armies of the two nations 
against Nineveh, slew Sarac, destroyed the 
city, and shared the kingdom of the Assyrians. 
This victory the Jews refer to the Chaldeans ; 
the Greeks, to the Medes ; Tobit, xiv, 15, Poly- 
histor, and Ctesias, to both. With this victory 
commenced the great successes of Nebuchad- 
nezzar and Cyaxares, and it laid the foundation 
of the two collateral empires of the Babylonians 
and Medes, which were branches of the Assy- 
rian empire ; and hence the time of the fall of 
the Assyrian empire is determined, the con- 
querors being then in their youth. In the reign 
of Josiah, when Zephaniah prophesied, Nineveh 
and the kingdom of Assyria were standing ; 
and their fall was predicted by that Prophet, 
Zeph. i, 3 ; ii, 13. And in the end of his reign, 
Pharaoh-Necho, king of Egypt, the successor 
of Pgammitichus, went up against the king of 
Assyria to the river Euphrates, to fight against 
Carchemish, or Circutium ; and in his way 
thither slew Josiah, 2 Kings xxiii, 29 ; 2 Chron. 
XXXV, 20 ; and therefore the last king of As- 
syria was not yet slain. But in the third and 
fourth years of Jehoiakim, the successor of 
Josiah, the two conquerors having taken Nine, 
veh, and finished their war in Assyria, prose- 
cuted their conquests westward ; and, leading 
their forces against the king of Egypt, as an 
invader of their right of conquest, they beat 
him at Carchemish, and took from him what- 
ever he had recently taken from the Assyrians, 
2 Kings xxiv, 7 ; Jer. xlvi, 2 ; " and therefore 
we cannot err," says Sir Isaac Newton, " above 
a year or two, if we refer the destruction of 
Nineveh, and fall of the Assyrian empire, to 
the third year of Jehoiakim," or the hundred 
and fortieth, or, according to Blair, the hun- 
dred and forty-first year of Nabonassar ; that 
is, the year B. C. 607. 

Of the government, laws, religion, learning, 
customs, &c, of the ancient Assyrians, nothing 
absolutely certain is recorded. Their kingdom 
was at first small, and subsisted for several 
ages under hereditary chiefs ; and their go- 
vernment was simple. Afterward, when they 
rose to the sublimity of empire, their govern- 
ment seems to have been despotic, and the 
empire hereditary. Their laws were probably 



AST 



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ATH 



few, and depended upon the mere will of the 
prince. To Ninus we may ascribe the division 
of the Assyrian empire into provin,Ges and go- 
vernments ; for we find that this institution 
was fully established in the reigns of Semi- 
j-amis and her successors. The people were 
distributed into a certain number of tribes ; and 
their occupations or professions were hereditary. 
The Assyrians had several distinct councils, 
and several tribunals for the regulation of pub- 
lic affairs. Of councils there were three, which 
were created by the body of the people, and 
who governed the state in conjunction with 
the sovereign. The first consisted of officers 
who had retired from military employments ; 
the second, of tlie nobility; and the third, of 
the old men. The sovereigns also had three 
tribunals, whose province it was to watch over 
the conduct of the people. The Assyrians 
have been competitors with the Egyptians for 
the honour of having invented alphabetic 
writing. It appears, from the few remains now 
extant of the writing of these ancient nations, 
that their letters had a great affinity with each 
other. They much resembled one another in 
shape; and they ranged them in the same 
manner, from right to left. 

ASTROLOGY, the art of foretelling future 
events, from the aspects, positions, and influ- 
ences of the heavenly bodies. The word is 
compounded of d?-np, star, and Xdyog, discourse ; 
whence, iu the literal sense of the term, as- 
trology should signify no more than the doc- 
trine or science of the stars. Astrology judi- 
ciary, or judicial, is what we commonly call 
simple astrology, or that which pretends to fore- 
tel mortal events, even those which have a de- 
pendence on the free will and agency of man ; 
as if they were directed by the stars. This 
art, which owed its origin to the practice of 
knavery on credulity, is now universally explod- 
ed by the intelligent part of mankind. Judicial 
astrology is commonly said to have been in- 
vented in Chaldea, and thence transmitted to 
the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romeins ; though 
some will have it of Egyptian origin, and as- 
cribe the invention to Cham. But we derive 
it from the Arabians. The Chaldeans, and 
the Egyptians, and indeed almost all the na- 
tions of antiquity, were infatuated with the 
chimceras of astrology. It originated in the 
notion, that the stars have an influence, either 
beneficial or malignant, upon the affairs of 
men, which may be discovered, and made the 
ground of certain prediction, in particular 
cases ; and the whole art consisted in applying 
astronomical observations to this fanciful pur- 
pose. Diodorus Siculus relates, that the Chal- 
deans learned these arts from the Egyptians ; 
and he would not have made this assertion, if 
there had not been at least a general tradition 
that they were practised from the earliest 
times in Egypt. The system was, in those re- 
mote ages, intimately connected with Sabaism, 
or the worship of the stars as divinities ; but 
whether it emanates from idolatry or fatality, 
it denies God and his providence, and is there- 
fore condemned in the Scriptures, and ranked 
with practices the most offensive and pro- 
voking to the Divine Majesty. 



ASTYAGES, otherwi.se, Cyaxares, king of 
the Medes, and successor to Phraortes. He 
reigned forty years, and died A. M. 3409. 
He was father to Astyages, otherwise called 
Darius the Mede. He had two daughters, 
Mandane and Amyit i Mandane married Cam- 
byses, the Persian, and Vv'as the mother of 
Cyrus ; Amyit married Nebuchadnezzar, the 
son of Nabopolassar, and was the mother of 
Evilmerodach. 

Astyages, otherwise called Ahasuerus in the 
Greek, Dan. ix, 1, or Cyaxares in Xenophon, or 
Apandus in Ctesias, was appointed by his 
father Cyaxares governor of Media, and sent 
with Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, against 
Saracus, otherwise called Chynaladanus, king 
of Assyria. These two princes tesieged Sa- 
racus in Nineveh, took the city, and dismem- 
bered the Assyrian empire. Astyages was with 
Cyrus at the conquest of Babylon, and sue- 
ceeded Beishazzar, king of the Chaldeans, as 
is expressly mentioned in Daniel, v, 30, 31, 
A. M. 3447. After his death Cyrus succeeded 
him, A. M. 3456. 

ASUPPIM, a word which signifies gather- 
ings, and the name of the treasury of the tem- 
ple of Jerusalem, 1 Chron. xxvi, 15. 

ATHALIAH, the daughter of Omri, king of 
Samaria, and wife to Jehoram, king of Judah. 
This princess, being informed that Jehu had 
slain her son Ahaziah, resolved to take the 
government upon herself, 2 Kings xi ; which 
that she might effect without opposition, she 
destroyed all the children that Jehoram had by 
other wives, and all their offspring. But Je- 
hosheba, the sister of Ahaziah, by the father's 
side only, was at this time married to Jehoiada, 
the high priest; and while Athaliah'n execu- 
tioners were murdering the rest, she conveyed 
Joash the son of Ahaziah away, and kept him 
and his nurse concealed in an apartment of 
the temple, during six years. In the seventh 
year, his uncle Jehoiada being determined to 
place him on the throne of his ancestors, and 
procure the destruction of Athaliah, he en- 
gaged the priests and Levites, and the leading 
men in all the parts of the kingdom in his 
interest, and in a public assembly produced 
him, and m.ade them take an oath of secrecy 
and fidelity to him. He then distributed arms 
among the people, whom he divided into three 
bodies, one to guard the person of the king, 
and the other two to secure the gates of the 
temple. Afler this, he brought out the j^oung 
prince, set the crown on his head, put the 
book of the law into his hand, and with sound 
of trumpet proclaimed him ; which was se- 
conded with the joyful shouts and acclamations 
of the people. Athaliah, hearing the noise, 
made all haste to the temple ; but when, to her 
astonishment, she saw the young king seated 
on a throne, she rent her clothes and cried out, 
" Treason !" But, at the command of Jehoiada, 
the guards seized and carried her out of the 
temple, putting all to the sword who offered to 
rescue or assist her ; and then taking her to 
the stable gate belonging to the palace, there 
put her to death, A. M. 3126. 

ATHANASIANS, the orthodox followers 
of St. Athanasius, the great and able antagon- 



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ist of Arius. The Athanasian Creed, though 
generally admitted not to be drawn up by this 
father, (but probably, as Doctor Waterland 
says, by Hilary, bishop of Aries, in the fifth 
centuiy,) is universally allowed to contain a 
fair expression of his sentiments. This creed 
says, " The Catholic faith is this : that we 
worship One God in Trinity, and Trinity 
in Unity : neither confounding the persons, 
nor dividing the substance. For there is one 
person of the Father, another of the Son, and 
another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead 
of the Fathei*, of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost, is all one; the glory equal, the majesty 
co-eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the 
Son, and sue** is the Holy Ghost;" namely, 
"uncreate, incomprehensible, eternal," &c. 
The true key to the Athanasian Creed lies in 
the knowledge of the errors to which it was op- 
posed. The Sabellians considered the Father, 
Son, and Holy Spirit as one in person ; — this 
was "confounding the persons:" the Arians 
considered them as differing in essence — three 
beings; — this was "dividing the substance:" 
and against these two hypotheses was the creed 
originally framed. And since every sect was 
willing to adopt the language of Scripture, it 
was thought necessary to adopt scholastic terms, 
in order to tix the sense of Scripture language. 
Many, however, hold the doctrine of the Atha- 
nasian Creed, and approve its terms, who ob- 
ject to its damnatory clauses. See Arians. 

ATHANASIUS,'the celebrated patriarch of 
Alexandria, resisted Arius and his erroneous 
doctrines ; and his sentiments as to the Trinity 
are embodied in the creed which, bears his 
name, though not composed by him. At the 
Council of Nice, though then but a deacon of 
Alexandria, his reputation for skill in contro- 
versy gained him an honourable place in the 
council, and with great dexterity he exposed 
the sophistry of those who pleaded on tlie side 
of Arius. Notwithstanding the influence of 
the emperor, who had recalled Arius from 
banishment, and upon a plausible confession 
of his faith, in which he affected to be orthodox 
in his sentiments, directed that he should be 
received by the Alexandrian church, Atha- 
nasius refused to admit him to conununion, 
and exposed his prevarication. The Arians 
upon this exerted themselves to raise tumults 
at Alexandria, and to injure the character of 
Athanasius with the emperor, who v/as pre- 
vailed upon to pronounce against him a sen- 
tence of baniskinent. In the beginning of the 
reign of Constantius he was recalled ; but was 
again disturbed and deposed through the influ- 
ence of the Arians. Accusations were also 
sent against him and other bishops from the 
east to the west, but they were acquitted by 
Pope Julius in full council. Athanasius was 
restored to his see upon the death of the Arian 
bishop, who had been placed in it. Arian- 
ism, however, being in favour at court, he 
was condemned by a council convened at Ar- 
lee, and by another at Milan, and was obliged 
to fly into the deserts. He returned with the 
other bishops whom Julian the apostate recall- 
ed from banishment, and in A. D. 362, held a 



council at Alexandria, where the belief of a 
consubstantial Trinity was openly professed. 
Many now were recovered from Arianism, and 
brought to subscribe the Nicene Creed. During 
the reign of Jovian also Athanasius held an- 
other council, which declared its adherence to 
the Nicene faith ; and with the exception of a 
short retirement under Valens he was permitted 
to sit down in quiet and govern his affectionate 
church of Alexandria. Athanasius was an 
eminent instrument of maintaining the truth 
in an age when errors aftecting the great 
foundation of our faith were urged with great 
subtlety. He was by his acuteness able to trace 
the enemy through his most insidious modes 
of attack ; and thus to preserve the simple and 
unwary from being misled by terras and distinc- 
tions, which, whilst they sounded in unison with 
the true faith of the Gospel, did in fact imply, 
or at least open the door to, the most deadly 
errors. The Scripture doctrine of the Trinity, 
as explained by him, at length triumphed over 
the heresies which at one time met with so 
much support and sanction ; and the views of 
Athanasius have been received, in substance, 
by all orthodox churches to the present time. 

ATHEIST, in the strict and proper sense of 
the word, is one who does not believe in the 
existence of a God, or who owns no being 
superior to nature. It is compounded of the 
two terms, a negative, and Qm, God, signify- 
ing roithout God. Atheists have been also 
known by the name infidels ; but the word 
infidel is now commonly used to distinguish a 
more numerous party, and is become almost 
synonym.ous with Deist. He who disbelieves the 
existence of a God, as an infinite, intelligent, 
and a moral agent, is a direct or speculative 
Atheist ; he who confesses a Deity and provi- 
dence in words, but denies them in his life and 
actions, is a practical Atheist. That Atheism 
existed in some sense before the flood, may be 
suspected from what we read in Scripture, aa 
well as from Heathen tradition ; and it is not 
very unreasonable to suppose, that the deluge 
was partly intended to evince to the world a 
heavenly power, as Lord of the universe, and 
superior to the visible system of nature. This 
was at least a happy consequence of that fatal 
catastrophe ; for, as it is observed by Dean 
Sherlock, "The universal deluge, and the 
confusion of languages, had so abundantly 
convinced mankind of a divine power and pro= 
vidence, that there was no such creature as au 
Atheist, till their ridiculous idolatries had tempt- 
ed some men of wit and thought, rather to own 
no God than such as the Heathens worshipped." 

Atheistical principles were long nourished 
and cherished in Greece, and especially among 
the atomical, peripatetic, and skeptical phi- 
losophers ; and hence some have ascribed the 
origin of Atheism to the philosophy of Greece. 
This is true, if they mean that species of re- 
fined Atheism, which contrives any impious 
scheme of principles to account for the origin 
of the world, without a divine being. For 
though there may have been in former ages, 
and in other countries, some persons irreligious 
in principle as w«ll as in practice, yet we know 



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of none who, forming a philosophical scheme of 
impiety, became a sect, and erected colleges of 
Atheistical learning, till the arrogant and en- 
terprising genius of Greece undertook that 
detestable work. Carrying their presumptuous 
and ungoverned speculations into the very 
essence of the divinity, at first they doubted, 
and at length denied, the existence of a first 
cause independent of nature and of a provi- 
dence that superintends its laws, and governs 
the concerns of mankind. These principles, 
with the other improvements of Greece, were 
transferred to Rome ; and, excepting in Italy, 
we hear little of Atheism, for many ages after 
the Christian tera. " For some ages before 
the Reformation," says Archbishop Tillotson, 
*' Atheism was confined to Italy, and had its 
chief residence at Rome. But, in this last age. 
Atheism has travelled over the Alps and infect- 
ed France, and now of late it hath crossed the 
seas, and invaded our nation, and hath pre- 
vailed to amazement." However, to Tillotson, 
and other able writers, we owe its suppression 
in this country ; for they pressed it down with 
a weight of sound argument, from which it has 
never been able to raise itself. For although in 
our time, in France and Germany a subtle 
Atheism was revived, and spread its unhallow- 
ed and destructive influence for many years 
throughout the Continent, it made but little 
progress in this better-instructed nation. 

Atheism, in its primary sense, comprehends, 
or at least goes beyond, every heresy in the 
world ; for it professes to acknowledge no reli- 
gion, true or false. The two leading hypothe- 
ses which have prevailed, among Atheists, 
respecting this world and its origin, are, that 
of Ocellus Lucanus, adopted and improved by 
Aristotle, that it was eternal ; and that of Epi- 
curus, that it was formed by a fortuitous con- 
course of atoms. " Thai the soul is material 
and mortal, Christianity an imposture, the 
Scripture a forgery, the worship of God super- 
stition, hell a fable, and heaven a dream, our 
life without providence, and our death without 
hope, like that of asses and dogs, are part of 
the glorious gospel of our modern Atheists." 

The being of a God may be proved from the 
marks of design, and from the order and beauty 
visible in the world ; from universal consent ; 
from the relation of cause and effect ; from 
internal consciousness ; and from the necessity 
of a final as well as an efficient cause. 

Of all the false doctrines and foolish opi- 
nions that ever infested the mind of man, no- 
thing can possibly equal that of Atheism, which 
is such a monstrous contradiction of all evi- 
dence, to all the powers of understanding, and 
the dictates of common sense, that it may be 
well questioned Avhether any man can really 
fall into it by a deliberate use of his judgment. 
All nature so clearly points out, and so loudly 
proclaims, a Creator of infinite power, wisdom, 
and goodness, thai whoever hears not its voice, 
and sees not its proofs, may well be thought 
wilfiilly deaf, and obstinately blind. If it be 
evident, self-evident to every man of thought, 
that there can be no effect without a cause, 
trhat shall we say of that manifold combina- 



tion of effects, that series of operations, that 
system of wonders, which fill the universe, 
which present themselves to all our perceptions, 
and strike our minds and our senses on every 
side ? Every faculty, every object of every 
faculty, demonstrates a Deity. The meanest 
insect we can see, the minutest and most con- 
temptible weed we can tread upon, is really 
sufficient to confound Atheism, and baffle all 
its pretensions. How much more that astonish, 
ing variety and multiplicity of God's works 
with which we are continually surrounded ! 
Let any man survey the face of the earth, or 
lift up his eyes to the firmament ; let him con- 
sider the nature and instincts of brute animals, 
and afterward look into the operations of his 
own mind, and will he presume to say or sup- 
pose that all the objects he meets with are 
nothing more than the result of unaccountable 
accidents and blind chance ? Can he possibly 
conceive that such wonderful order should 
spring out of confusion ? or that such perfect 
beauty should be ever formed by the fortuitous 
operations of unconscious, unactive particles of 
matter ? As w^ell, nay better, and more easily, 
might he suppose that an earthquake might 
happen to build towns and cities ; or the ma- 
terials carried down by a flood fit themselves 
up without hands into a regular fleet. For 
what are towns, cities, or fleets, in comparison 
of the vast and amazing fabric of the universe ! 
In short, Atheism offers such violence to all 
our faculties, that it seems scarce credible it 
should ever really find any place in' the human 
understanding. Atheism is unreasonable, be- 
cause it gives no tolerable account of the ex- 
istence of the w^orld. This is one of the great- 
est difficulties with which the Atheist has to 
contend. For he must suppose either that the 
world is eternal, or that it was formed by 
chance and a fortuitous concourse of the parts 
of matter. That the world had a beginning, 
is evident from universal tradition, and the 
most ancient history that exists ; from there 
being no memorials of any actions performed 
previously to the time assigned in that history 
as the sera of the creation ; from the origin of 
learning and arts, and the liability of the parts 
of matter to decay. That the world was not 
produced by chance, is also evident. Nothing 
can be more unreasonable than to ascribe to 
chance an effect wliich appears with all the 
characters of a wise design and contrivance. 
Will chance fit means to ends, even in ten 
thousand instances, and not fail in a single 
one ? How often might a man, after shaking 
a set of letters in a bag, throw them on the 
ground, before they would become an exact 
poem, or form a good discourse in prose ? In 
sliort, the arguments in proof of Deity are so 
numerous, and at the same time so obvious to 
a thinking mind, that to waste time in dis- 
puting with an Atheist, is approaching too 
much toward that irrationality, which may be 
considered as one of the most striking charac- 
teristics of the sect. 

The more noted Atheist, since the Reforma- 
tion, are Machiavel, Spinoza, Hobbes, Blount, 
and Vanini. To these may be added Hume_o 



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107 



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and Voltaire the corypheus of the sect, and the 
great nursing father of that swarm of them 
which has appeared in these last days. 

Dr. Samuel Clarke, in his "Demonstration 
of the Being of a God," says, that Atheism 
arises either from stupid ignorance, or from 
corruption of principles and manners, or from 
the reasonings of false philosophy ; and he 
adds, that the latter, who are the only Atheisti- 
cal persons capable of being reasoned W'ith at 
all, must of necessity own that, supposing it 
cannot be proved to be true, yet it is a thing 
very desirable, and which any wise man would 
wish to be true, for the great benefit and hap. 
piness of man, that there was a God, an intel- 
ligent and wise, a just and good Being, to 
govern the world. Whatever hypothesis these 
men can possibly frame, whatever argument 
they can invent, by which they would exclude 
God and providence out of the world; that 
very argument or hypothesis, will of necessity 
lead them to this concession. If they argue, 
that our notion of God arises not from nature 
-and reason, but from the art and contrivance 
of politicia ns ; that argument itself forces them 
to confess, that it is manifestly for the interest 
of htmian society, that it should be believed 
there is a- God. If they suppose that the world 
was made by chance, and is every moment 
subject to be destroyed by chance again ; no 
man can be so absurd as to contend, that it is 
as comfortable and desirable to live in such an 
uncertain state of things, and so continually 
liable to ruin, without any hope of renovation, 
as in a world that is under the preservation 
and conduct of a powerful, wise, and good 
God. If they argue against the being of God, 
from the faults and defects which they imagine 
they can find in the frame and constitution of 
the visible and material w^orld ; this supposition 
obliges them to acknowledge that it would 
have been better the world had been made by 
an intelligent and wise Being, who might have 
prevented all faults and imperfections. If they 
argue against providence, from the faultiness 
and inequality which they think they discover 
in the management of the moral world ; this is 
a plain confession, that it is a thing more fit 
and desirable in itself, that the world should 
be governed by a just and good Being, than 
by mere chance or unintelligent necessity. 
Lastly, if they suppose the world to be eternally 
and necessarily self-existent, and consequently 
that every thing in it is established by a blind 
and eternal fatality ; no rational man can at 
the same time deny, but that liberty and choice, 
or a free power of acting, is a more eligible 
state, than to be determined thus in all our 
actions, as a stone is to move downward, by 
an absolute and inevitable fate. In a tford, 
which way soever they turn themselves, and 
whatever hypothesis they make, concerning 
the original and frame of things, nothing is so 
certain and undeniable, as that man, considered 
without the protection and conduct of a supe- 
rior Being, is in a far worse case than upon 
supposition of the being and government of 
God, and of men's being under his peculiar 
conduct, protection, and favour. 



ATHENS, a celebrated city of Greece, too 
well known to be here described. St. Paul's 
celebrated sermon, Acts xvii, was preached on 
the Areopagus, or Hill of Mars, where a cele. 
brated court was held which took cognizance 
of matters of religion, blasphemies against the 
gods, the building of temples, &c. (See Are. 
opagus.) The inscription on the altar, " to the 
unknown God," wiiich St. Paul so appropriate- 
ly made the text of his discourse, was adopted 
on the occasion of the city having been re- 
lieved from a pestilence; and they erected 
altars to "the God unknown," either as not 
knowing to whichof their divinities they were 
indebted for the favour, or, which is more pro- 
bable, because there was something in the cir- 
cumstances of this deliverance, which led them 
to refer it to a higher power than their own 
gods, even to the supreme God, who was not 
unfrequently styled, the "unknown," by the 
wiser Heathens. The existence of such altars 
is expressly mentioned by Lucian. On the 
place where the great Apostle bore his noble 
testimony against idols, and declared to them 
the God whom they ignorantly worshipped, 
Dr. E. D. Clarke, the traveller, remarks, " It 
is not possible to conceive a situation of great- 
er peril, or one more calculated to prove the 
sincerity of a preacher, than that in which the 
Apostle was here placed ; and the truth of this, 
perhaps, will never be better felt than by a 
spectator, who from this eminence actually 
beholds the monuments of Pagan pomp and 
superstition by which he, whom the Athenians 
considered as the setter forth of strange gods, 
was then surrounded : representing to the 
imagination the disciples of Socrates and of 
Plato, the dogmatist of the porch, and the 
skeptic of the academy, addressed by a--poor 
and lowly man, who, ' rude in speech,' without 
the ' enticing words of man's wisdom,' enjoined 
precepts contrary to their taste, and very hostile 
to their prejudices. One of the peculiar privi- 
leges of the Areopagitse seems to have been 
set at defiance by the zeal of St. Paul on this 
occasion ; namely, that of inflicting extreme 
and exemplary punishment upon any person 
who should slight the celebration of the holy 
mysteries, or blaspheme the gods of Greece. 
We ascended to the summit by means of steps 
cut in the natural stone. The sublime scene 
here exhibited is so striking, that a brief de- 
scription of it may prove how truly it offers to 
us a commentary upon the Apostle's words, as 
they were delivered upon the spot. He stood 
upon the top of the rock, and beneath the ca- 
nopy of heaven. Before him there was spread 
a glorious prospect of mountains, islands, seas, 
and skies ; behind him towered the lofty Aero- 
polls, crowned with all its marble temples. 
Thus every object, whether in the face of na- 
ture, or among the works of art, conspired to 
elevate the mind, and to fill it with reverence 
toward that Being who made and governs the 
world. Acts xvii, 24, 28 ; who sitteth in that 
light which no mortal eye can approach, and 
yet is nigh unto the meanest of his creatures ; 
in whom we live, and move, and have ouf 
being." 



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108 



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ATONEMENT, the satisfaction offered to 
divine justice by the death of Christ for the 
sins of mankind, by virtue of which all true 
penitents who believe in Christ are personally 
reconciled to God, are freed from the penalty 
of their sins, and entitled to eternal life. The 
atonement for .sin made by the death of Christ, 
is represented in the Christian system as the 
means by which mankind may be delivered 
from the awful catastrophe of eternal death ; 
from judicial inflictions of the displeasure of a 
Governor, whose authority has been contemned, 
and whose will has been resisted, which shall 
know no mitigation in their degree, nor bound 
to their duration. This end it professes to ac- 
complish by means which, with respect to the 
Supreme Governor himself, preserve his cha- 
racter from n)istake, and maintain the authority 
of his government; and with respect to man, 
give him the strongest possible reason for hope, 
and render more favourable the condition of 
his earthly probation. These are considera- 
tions which so manifestly show, from its own 
internal constitution, the superlative import- 
ance and excellence of Christianity, that it 
would be exceedingly criminal to overlook 
them. 

How sin may be forgiven without leading to 
such misconceptions of the divine character as 
would encourage disobedience, and thereby 
weaken the influence of the divine govern- 
ment, must be considered as a problem of very 
difficult solution. A government which ad- 
mitted no forgiveness, would sink the guilty to 
despair; a government which never punishes 
offence, is a contradiction, — it cannot exist. 
Not to punish the guilty, is to dissolve au- 
thority ; to punish without mercy, is to destroy, 
and where all are guilty, to make the destruc- 
tion universal. That we cannot sin with im- 
punity, is a matter determined. The Ruler of 
the world is not careless of the conduct of his 
creatures ; for that penal consequences are at- 
tached to the offence, is not a subject of argu- 
ment, but is matter of fact evident by daily 
observation of the events and circumstances of 
the present life. It is a principle therefore 
already laid down, that the authority of God 
must be preserved ; but it ought to be remarked, 
that in that kind of administration which re- 
strains evil by penalty, and encourages obe- 
dience by favour and hope, we and all moral 
creatures are the interested parties, and not the 
divine Governor himself, whom, because of his 
independent and all-sufficient nature, our trans- 
gressions cannot injure. The reasons, there- 
fore, which compel him to maintain his au- 
thority do not terminate in himself. If he 
treats offenders with severity, it is for our sake, 
and for the sake of the moral order of the uni- 
verse, to which sin, if encouraged by a negli- 
gent administration, or by entire or frequent 
impunity, would be the source of endless dis- 
order and misery ; and if the granting of par- 
don to offence be strongly and even severely 
guarded, so that no less a satisfaction could be 
accepted than the death of God's own Son, we 
are to refer this to the moral necessity of the 
case as arising out of the generaj welfare of 



accountable creatures, liable to the deep evil 
of sin, and not to any reluctance on the part 
of our Maker to forgive, much less to any 
thing vindictive in his nature, — charges which 
have been most inconsiderately and unfairly 
said to be implied in the doctrine of Christ's 
vicarious sufferings. If it then be true, that 
the release of offending man from future pun- 
ishment, and his restoration to the divine fa- 
vour, ought, for the interests of mankind them- 
selves, and for the instruction and caution of 
other beings, to be so bestowed, that no license 
shall be given to offence ; — that God himself, 
whilst he manifests his compassion, should not 
appear less just, less holy, than he really is ; — ■ 
that his authority should be felt to be as com- 
pelling, and that disobedience should as truly, 
though not unconditionally, subject us to the 
deserved penalty, as though no hope of forgive- 
ness had been exhibited; — we ask, On what 
scheme, save that which is developed in the 
New Testament, are these necessary conditions 
provided for ? Necessary they are, unless we 
contend for a license and an impunity which 
shall annul all good government in the uni- 
verse, a point for which no reasonable man 
will contend ; and if so, then we must allow 
that there is strong internal evidence of the 
truth of the doctrine of Scripture, when it 
makes the offer of pardon consequent only upon 
the securities we have before mentioned. If 
it be said, that sin may be pardoned in the ex- 
ercise of the divine prerogative, the reply is, 
that if this prerogative were exercised toward 
a part of mankind only, the passing by of the 
rest would be with difficulty reconciled to the 
divine character ; and if the benefit were ex- 
tended to all, government would be at an end. 
This scheme of bringing men within the ex- 
ercise of a merciful prerogative, does not there- 
fore meet the obvious difficulty of the case ; 
nor is it improved by confining the act of 
grace only to repentant criminals. For in the 
immediate view of danger, what offender, sur- 
rounded with the wreck of former enjoyments, 
feeling the vanity of guilty pleasures, now past 
for ever, and beholding the approach of the 
delayed penal visitation, but would repent? 
Were the principle of granting pardon to re- 
pentance to regulate human governments, every 
criminal would escape, and judicial forms would 
become a subject for ridicule. Nor is it re- 
cognised by the divine Being in his conduct to 
men in the present state, although in this 
world punishments are not final and absolute. 
Repentance does not restore health injured by 
intemperance ; property, wasted by profnsion ; 
or character, once stained by dishonourable 
practices. If repentance alone could secure 
pardon, then all must be pardoned, and govern, 
ment dissolved, as in the case of forgiveness 
by the exercise of mere prerogative ; but if an 
arbitrary selection be made, then different and 
discordant principles of government are in- 
troduced into the divine administration, which 
is a derogatory supposition. 

The question proposed abstractedly, How 
may mercy be extended to offending creatures, 
the subjects of the divine government, without 



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109 



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encouraging vice, by lowering the righteous 
and holy character of God, and the authority 
of his government, ie-. the maintenance of 
which the whole universe of beings are inter- 
ested ? is, therefore, at once one of the most 
important and one of the most difficult that 
can employ the human mind. None of the 
theories which have been opposed to Chris- 
tianity affords a satisfactory solution of the 
problem. They assume principles either de- 
structive of moral government, or which can- 
not, in the circumstances of man, be acted 
upon. The only answer is found in the Holy 
Scriptiires. They alone show, and, indeed, 
they alone profess to show, how God may be 
"just," and yet the "justifier" of the ungodly. 
Other schemes show how he may be merciful ; 
but the difficulty does not lie there. The Gos- 
pel meets it, by declaring "the righteousness 
of God," at the same time that it proclaims his 
mercy. The voluntary sufferings of the Divine 
Son of God "for us," that is, in our room and 
stead,- magnify the justice of God ; display his 
hatred to sin ; proclaim "the exceeding sinful- 
ness" of transgression, by the deep and painful 
manner in which they were inflicted upon the 
Substitute ; warn the persevering offender of 
the terribleness, as well as the certainty, of his 
punishment ; and open the gates of salvation 
to every penitent. It is a part of the same 
divine plan also to engage the inflvience of the 
Holy Spirit, to awaken penitence in man, and 
to lead the wanderer back to himself; to re- 
new our fallen nature in righteousness, at the 
moment we are justified through faith, and to 
place us in circumstances in which we may 
henceforth "walk not afler the flesh, but after 
the Spirit." All the ends of government are 
here answered — no license is given to offence, 
— the moral law is unrepealed, — a day of judg- 
ment is still appointed, — future and etei'nal 
punishments still display their awful sanctions, 
— a new and singular display of the awful purity 
of the divine character is afforded, — yet par- 
don is offered to all who seek it; and the 
whole world may be saved. 

Witli such evidence of suitableness to the 
case of mankind, under such lofty views of 
connection with the principles and ends of 
moral government, does the doctrine of the 
atonement present itself. But other important 
considerations are not wanting to mark the 
united wisdom and goodness of that method of 
extending mercy to the guilty, which Chris- 
tianity teaches us to have been actually and 
exclusively adopted. It is rendered, indeed, 
"worthy of all acceptation," by the circum- 
stance of its meeting the difficulties we have 
just dwelt upon, — difficulties which could not 
otherwise have failed to make a gloomy im- 
preBsion upon every offender awakened to a 
sense of his spiritual danger; but it must be 
very inattentively considered, if it does not 
farther commend itself to us, by not only re- 
moving the apprehensions we might feel as to 
the severity of the divine Lawgiver, but as ex- 
alting him in our esteem as "the righteous 
Lord, who loveth righteousness," who sur- 
rendered his beloved Son to suffering and 



death, that the influence of moral goodness 
might not be weakened in the hearts of his 
creatures ; and as a God of love, affording in 
this instance a view of the tenderness and 
benignity of his nature infinitely more impres- 
sive and affecting than any abstract descrip- 
tion could convey, or than any act of creating 
and providential power and grace could ex- 
hibit, and, therefore, most suitable to subdue 
that enmity which had unnaturally grown up 
in the hearts of his creatures, and which, when 
corrupt, they so easily transfer from a law 
which restrains their inclination to the Law- 
giver Iiimseif. If it be important to us to know 
the extent and reality of our danger, by the 
death of Christ it is displayed, not in descrip- 
tion, but in the most impressive action ; if it 
be important that we should have an assurance 
of the divine placability toward us, it here 
receives a demonstration incapable of being 
heightened ; if gratitude be the most powerful 
motive of future obedience, and one which 
renders command on the one part, and active 
service on the other, " not grievous but joy- 
ous," the recollection of such obligations aa 
those which the "love of Christ" has laid us 
under, is a perpetual spring to this energetic 
affection, and will be the means of raising it 
to higher and more delightful activity for ever. 
All that can most powerfully illustrate the 
united tenderness and awful majesty of God, 
and the odiousness of sin ; all that can win 
back the heart of man to his Maker and Lord, 
and render future obedience a matter of affec 
tion and delight as well as duty ; all that can 
extinguish the angry and malignant passions 
of man to man ; all that can inspire a mutual 
benevolence, and dispose to a self-denying 
charity for the benefit of others ; all that can 
arouse by hope, or tranquillize by faith ; is to 
be found in the vicarious death of Christ, and 
the principles and purposes for which it was 
endured. 

The first declaration, on this subject, after 
the appearance of Christ, is that of John the 
Baptist, when he saw Jesus coming unto him, 
" Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away 
the sin of the world :" where it is obvious, that 
when John called our Lord, "the Lamb of 
God," he spoke of him under a sacrificial 
character, and of the effect of that sacrifice as 
an atonement for the sins of mankind. This 
was said of our Lord, even before he entered 
on his public office ; but if any doubt should 
exist respecting the meaning of the Baptist's 
expression, it is removed by other passages, iir 
which a similar allusion is adopted, and in' 
which it is specifically applied to the death of 
Christ, as an atonement for sin. In the Acts^ 
of the Apostles, the following words of Isaiah 
are, by Philip the evangelist, distinctly applied 
to Christ, and to his death : "He was led as a 
sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb- 
before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth . 
in his humiliation his judgment was taken 
away : and who shall declare his generation ? 
for his life is taken from the earth." Tliis par- 
ticular part of the prophecy being applied t& 
our Lord's death', the whole muLt relate to the 



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same subject; for it is undoubtedly one entire 
prophecy, and the other expressions in it are 
still stronger : " He was wounded for our 
transgressions ; he was bruised for our iniqui- 
ties ; the chastisement of our peace was upon 
him ; and with his stripes we are healed : the 
Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." 
In the First Epistle of Peter, is also a strong and 
very apposite text, in which the application of 
the term " lamb" to our Lord, and the sense in 
which it is applied, can admit of no doubt : 
" Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not re- 
deemed with corruptible things, but with the 
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without 
blemish and without spot," 1 Peter i, 18, 19. 
It is therefore evident that the Prophet Isaiah, 
six hundred years before the birth of Jesus ; 
that John the Baptist, on the commencement 
of his ministry ; and that St. Peter, his friend, 
companion and Apostle, subsequent to the 
transaction ; speak of Christ's death as an 
atonement for sin, under the figure of a lamb 
sacrificed. 

The passages that follow, plainly and dis- 
tinctly declare the atoning efficacy of Christ's 
death : " Now once in the end of the world 
hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacri- 
fice of himself." " Christ was once offered to 
bear the sins of many ; and unto them that 
look for him shall he appear the second time 
without sin unto salvation," Heb. ix, 26, 28. 
"This man, after he had offered one sacrifice 
for sin, for ever sat down on the right hand of 
God ; for by one offering he hath perfected for 
ever them that are sanctified," Heb. x, 12. It 
is observable, that nothing similar is said of 
the death of any other person, and that no 
such eflicacy is imputed to any other martyr- 
dom. "While we were yet sinners Christ 
died for us ; much more then, being now justi- 
fied by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath 
through him : for if, when we were enemies, 
we were reconciled to God by the death of his 
Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall 
be saved by his life," Rom. v, 8-10. The 
words, "reconciled to God by the death of his 
Son," show that his death had an efficacy in 
our reconciliation ; but reconciliation is only 
preparatory to salvation. "He has reconciled 
us to his Father in his cross, and in the body 
of his flesh through death," Col. i, 20, 22. 
What is said of reconciliation in these texts, is 
in some others spoken of sanctification, which 
is also preparatory to salvation. "We are 
sanctified," — how? "by the offering of the 
body of Christ once for all," Heb. x, 10. In 
the same epistle, the blood of Jesus is called 
" the blood of the covenant by which we are 
sanctified." In these and many other passages 
that occur in different parts of the New Testa- 
ment, it is therefore asserted that the death of 
Christ had an efficacy in the procuring of hu- 
man salvation. Such expressions are used 
concerning no other person, and the death of 
no other person ; and it is therefore evident, 
that Christ's death included something more 
than a confirmation of his preaching ; some- 
thing more than a pattern of a holy and patient 
martyrdom ; something more than a necessary 



antecedent to his resurrection, by which he 
gave a grand and clear proof of our resurrec- 
tion from the dead. Christ's death was all 
these, l)ut it was something more. It was an 
atonement for the sins of mankind ; and in 
this way only it became the accomplishment 
of our eternal redemption. See Day of Expia- 
tion. 

ATJGSBURGH, or AUGUSTAN CONFES. 
SIGN. In 1530, a diet of the German princes 
was convened by the emperor Charles V, to 
meet at Augsburgh, for the express purpose of 
composing the religious troubles which then 
distracted Germany. On this occasion Melanc- 
thon was employed to draw up this famous con. 
fession of faith which may be considered as the 
cre^ed of the German reformers, especially of 
the more temperate among them. It consist- 
ed of twenty-one articles, including the follow- 
ing points ; — The Trinity, original sin, the 
incarnation, justification by faith, the word and 
sacraments, necessity of good works, the per- 
petuity of the church, infant baptism, the Lord's 
Supper, repentance and confession, the proper 
use of the sacraments, church order, rites and 
ceremonies, the magistracy, a future judgment, 
free will, the worship of saints, &c. It then 
proceeds to state the abuses of which the re- 
formers chiefly complained, as the denial of the 
sacramental cup to the laity, the celibacy of the 
clergy, the mass, auricular confession, forced 
abstinence from meats, monastic vows, and the 
enormous power of the church of Rome. The 
confession was read at a full meeting of the 
diet, and signed by the elector of Saxony, and 
three other princes of the German empire. 

John Faber, afterward archbishop of Vienna, 
and two other Catholic divines, were employed 
to draw up an answer to this confession, which 
was replied to by Melancthon in his " Apology 
for the Augsburgh Confession" in 1531. This 
confession and defence ; the articles of Smal- 
cald, drawn up by Luther ; his catechisms, &c, 
form the symbolical books of the Lutheran 
church ; and it must be owned that they con- 
tain concessions in favour of some parts of 
popeiy, particularly the real presence, that few 
Protestants in this country would admit. 

AUGUSTINE, or, as he is sometimes called 
in the court style of the middle ages, St. Aus- 
tin, one of the ancient fathers of the church, 
whose writings for many centuries had almost 
as potent an influence on the religious opinions 
of Christendom as those of Aristotle exercised 
over philosophy. Indeed, it has often been men- 
tioned as a fact, with expressions of regret, that 
the writings of no man, those of the Stagirite 
excepted, contributed more than those of St. 
Augustine to encourage that spirit of subtle dis- 
quisition which subsequently distinguished the 
era of the Schoolmen. He was born, Novem- 
ber 13th, A. D. 354, at Tagasta, an episcopal 
city of Numidia in Africa. His parents, Patri- 
cius and Monica, were Christians of respect, 
able rank in life, who afforded their son all the 
means of instruction which his excellent genius 
and wonder fill aptitude for learning seemed to 
require. He studied grammar and rhetoric at 
Madura, Until he was sixteen years old ; and 



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afterward removed to Carthage, to complete his 
studies. In both these cities, in all the fervour 
of unregenerate youth, he entered eagerly into 
the seducing scenes of dissipation and folly 
with which he was surrounded, and became not 
only depraved but infamous in his conduct. In 
this respect he was not improved by his subse- 
quent connection with the Manichees, whose 
unhallowed principles afforded an excuse for 
his immorality, and threw a veil over the vilest 
of his actions. The simplicity and minuteness 
with which he has narrated the numerous inci- 
dents of his childhood, youth, and mature age, 
in his celebrated book of " Confessions," have 
afforded abundant matter of ridicule to the pro- 
fane and infidel wits of this and the last age. 
The reflections, however, which accompany his 
narrative, are generally important and judi- 
cious, and furnish to the moral philosopher 
copious materials for a history of the varieties 
of the human heart, and are of superior value 
to the humble Christian for the investigation 
and better knowledge of his own. With a 
btrange though not uncommon inconsistency, 
few books have been more frequently quoted 
as authority on matters relating to general liter- 
ature and philosophy by infidels themselves, 
than St. Augustine's otherwise despised " Con- 
fessions," and his " City of God." But, what- 
ever else is taught in this remarkable piece of 
autobiography, every pious reader will be de- 
lighted with the additional proofs which it con- 
tains of the ultimate prevalence of faithful 
prayer, especially on the part of Christian pa- 
rents. Monica's importunate prayers to heaven 
followed the aberrations of her graceless son, 
— when he settled at Carthage as a teacher of 
rhetoric ; when he removed to Rome, and lodg. 
ed with a I\Ianichee ; — and when he finally set- 
tled at Milan as professor of rhetoric. St. 
Ambrose was at that time, A. D. 384, bishop 
of Milan, and to his public discourses Augus- 
tine began to pay much attention. His heart 
became gradually prepared for the reception of 
divine truth, and for that important change of 
heart and principles which constitutes " con- 
version." The circumstances attending this 
change, though often related, are not unwor- 
thy of being repeated, if only to show that the 
mode of the Holy Spirit's operations was in 
substance the same in those early days as they 
are now ; and time was when some of the sound- 
est divines and most worthy dignitaries of the 
church of England were in the habit of refer- 
ing with approbation to this well attested in- 
stance of change of heart. One of his Chris- 
tian countrymen, Pontinius, who held a high 
situation at court, having perceived a copy of 
St. Paul's Epistles lying on the table, entered 
one day into conversation with him and his 
friend Alipius about the nature of faith and the 
happiness of those who lived in the enjoyment 
of religion. Augustine was deeply affected at 
the close of this visit ; and when Pontinius had 
retired, giving vent to liis feelings he address- 
ed Alipius in a most animated strain: "How 
is this ? What shall we do ? Ignorant people 
come, and seize upon heaven ; and we, with 
our learning, (senseless wretches that we are ') 



behold we are' immersed in flesh and blood I 
Are we ashamed to follow them ? Yet is it not 
a still greater shame, not even to be able to fol- 
low them?" Full of remorse and contrition 
Augustine left the house and retired to a secret 
part of the garden, followed by his friend, who 
seemed on this occasion to be a partaker of his 
grief only because he saw him grieved in spi- 
rit. Unwilling to unman himself, as he ac- 
counted it, before Alipius, he left him; and 
throwing himself down under the branches of 
a large fig tree he poured out a torrent of tears 
which he was unable any longer to restrain, 
and exclaimed in bitterness of soul, " When, O 
Lord, when will thy anger cease? Why to- 
morrow ? Why not at this time ?" He instantly 
heard what he considered to be the voice of 
a child, saying Tolle, lege^ "Take and read." 
These two Latin words were repeated several 
times ; Augustine reflected upon them, check- 
ed his tears, received them as the voice of God, 
and i-unning into the house, opened, according 
to the divine direction, the Epistles of St. Paul 
which he had left on the table, and attentively 
read the first passage which he found. It was 
Romans xiii, 13, 14 ; a passage peculiarly ap- 
plicable to him, in reference to his former habits 
and present state of mind : " Not in rioting and 
drunkenness, not in chambering and wanton- 
ness, not in strife and envying : but put ye on 
THE Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provi- 
sion for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof." He 
shut up the book, and was amazed that all his 
doubts and fears had vanished. Alipius was 
speedily informed of this wonderfial change in 
his feelings and views ; and after having desir- 
ed to see the two verses, in the spirit of a true 
seeker he pointed out to Augustine the passage 
which immediately follows, and which he con- 
sidered as peculiarly adapted to his own case : 
"Him that is weak in the faith receive ye," 
&c, Rom. xiv, 1. The two friends then ran to 
acquaint Monica with these circumstances, the 
knowledge of which transported her with joy. 
In a frame of mind not unfamiliar to those 
who have themselves had " much forgiven," 
Augustine wished to retire at once from so 
wicked a world as that in which he had passed 
the first thirty -two years of his dissolute life. 
His secession, however, was only a temporary 
one ; for he and Alipius were, a few months 
afterward, received by baptism into the Chris- 
tian church. After having composed several 
religious treatises in his retreat near Tagasta, 
especially against the errors of the Manichees, 
from which he had been so recently reclaimed, 
he was, in the year 392, ordained priest by Va- 
lerius, bishop of Hippo, now a part of the Bar- 
bary States on the coast of Africa. He there 
held a public disputation with Fortunatus, a 
celebrated priest among the Manichees, and 
acquitted himself with great spirit and success , 
he also wrote and preached largely and to great 
effect against the Donatists and Manichees. 
His reputation as a divine increased ; and he 
was, at the close ofthe year 395, ordained bishop 
of Hippo, in which high station he continued 
with great advantage to wage war against va- 
rious orders of heretics. 



AUG 



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aog 



Augustine had hitherto directed his theolo- 
gical artillery principally against the predesti- 
narian errors of the Manichees ; but he was soon 
called upon to change his weapons and his mode 
of warfare, in attacking a new and not l«4ss dan- 
gerous class of heretics. In the year 412 he 
began to write against the injurious doctrines 
of Pelagius, a native of Britain, who had resided 
for a considerable time at Rome, and acquired 
universal esteem by the purity of his manners, 
his piety, and his erudition. Alarmed at the 
consequences which seemed to him obviously 
to result from allowing that Adam's sin is trans- 
mitted to all his posterity, and fortified in his 
sentiments on this subject by those of Origen 
and Ruffinus, with the latter of whom he had 
associated, he boldly denied tenets which he 
did not believe. In the defence of his opinions, 
Pelagius, was seconded by Celestius, a man 
equally eminent for his talents and his virtues. 
Their principles wore propagated at first rather 
by hints and intimations, than by open avowal 
and plain declarations ; but this reserve was 
laid aside when they perceived the ready recep- 
tion which their doctrines obtained ; and Celes- 
tius began zealously to disseminate them in 
Africa, while Pelagius sowed the same tares in 
Palestine, whence they were speedily trans- 
planted to almost every corner of Chi-istendom. 
If the brief notices, which have come down to 
us respecting their tenets, in the writings of 
their adversaries, be correct, they affirmed, *' It 
is not free will if it requires the aid of God ; 
because every one has it within the power of 
his own will to do any thing, or not to do it. 
Our victory over sin and Satan proceeds not 
from the help which God affords, but is owing 
to our own free will. The prayers which the 
church offers up either for the conversion of 
unbelievers and other sinners, or for the perse- 
verance of believers, are poured forth in vain. 
The unrestricted capability of men's own free 
will is amply sufficient for all these things, and 
therefore no necessity exists for asking of God 
those things which we are able of ourselves to 
obtain ; the gifts of grace being only neces- 
sary to enable men to do that more easily and 
completely which yet they could do themselves 
though more slowly and with greater difficulty ; 
and that they are perfectly free creatures," in 
opposition to all the current notions of predes- 
tination and reprobation. These novel opin- 
ions were refuted by St. Augustine and St. Je- 
rom, as well as by Orosius a Spanish presbyter, 
and they w^ei-e condemned as heresies in the 
council of Carthage and in that of Milevum. 
The discussions which then arose have been 
Warmly agitated in various subsequent periods 
of the Christian church, though little new light 
has been thrown upon them from that age to 
the present. In his eagerness to confute these 
opponents St. Augustine employed language so 
strong as made it susceptible of an interpreta- 
tion wholly at variance with the accountability 
of man. This led to farther explanations and 
modifications of his sentiments, which were 
multiplied when the Semi-Pelagians arose, who 
thought that the truth lay between his doctrines 
and those of the Pelagians. Concerning origi- 



nal sin, he maintained that it was derived from 
our first parents ; and he believed he had ascer- 
tained in what the original sin conveyed by 
Adam to his posterity consisted. In his senti- 
ments, however, upon the latter point he was 
rather inconsistent, at one time asserting that 
the essence of original sin was concupiscence, 
and at another expi;essing doubts respecting 
his own position. This subject was bequeath- 
ed as a legacy to the schoolmen of a subsequent 
age, w^ho exercised their subtle wits upon ail 
its ramifications down to the period of the coun- 
cil of Trent. On the consequences of the fall 
of our first parents, St. Augustine taught that 
by it human nature was totally corrupted, and 
deprived of all inclination and ability to do 
good. Before the age in wliich he lived, the 
early fathers held what, in the language of 
systematic theology, is termed the synergestic 
system, or the needfulness of human coopera- 
tion in the works of holiness ; but though the 
freedom of the will was not considered by them 
as excluding or rendering unjiecessary the 
grace of God, yet much vagueness is percepti- 
ble in the manner in which they express them- 
selves, because they had not examined the 
subject with the same attention as the theolo- 
gians by whom they were succeeded. Those 
early divines generally used the language of 
Scripture, the fertile invention of controversial 
writers, not having as yet displayed itself, ex- 
cept on the divine nature of Jesus Christ, and 
subsidiary terms and learned distinctions not 
being then required by any great difierences of 
opinion. But as soon as Pelagius broached his 
errors, the attention of Christians was natur- 
ally turned to the investigation of the doctrine 
of grace. The opinions of St. Augustine on 
this subject, which soon became those of the 
great body of the Christian church, admitted 
the necessity of divine grace, or the influence 
of the Holy Spirit, for our obedience to the law 
of God. He ascribed the renovation of our 
moral constitution wholly to this grace, denied 
all cooperation of man with it for answering 
the end to be accomplished, and represented it 
as irresistible. He farther affirmed that it was 
given only to a certain portion of the human 
race, to those who showed the fruits of it in 
their sanctification, and that it secured the per- 
severance of all upon whom it was bestowed. 
Plaifere in his '* Appello EvangelimrC has given 
the following a& the substance of that opinion 
of the order of predestination of which "many 
do say that St. Austin was the first author : 
1. That God from fill eternity decreed to cre- 
ate mankind holy and good. 2. That he fore- 
saw man, being tempted by Satan, would fall 
into sin, if God did not hinder it ; he decreed 
not to hinder. 3. That out of mankind, seen 
fallen into sin and misery, he chose a certain 
number to raise to righteousness and to eternal 
life, and rejected the rest, leaving them in their 
sins. 4. That for these his chosen he decreed 
to send his Son to redeem them, and his Spirit 
to call them and sanctify them ; the rest he 
decreed to forsake, leaving them to Satan and 
themselves, and to punish them for their sins." 
I Afler St, Augustine had thus in a great de 



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gree new moulded the science of theology, and 
had combined with it as an essential part of 
divine truth, that the fate of mankind was de- 
termined by the divine deci-ee independently of 
their own eiforts and conduct, and that they 
were thus divided into the elect and reprobate, 
it became necessary, in order to preserve con- 
sistency, to introduce into his system a limita- 
tion with respect to baptism, and to prevent 
the opinions concerning it from interfering 
with those which flowed from the doctrine of 
predestination. He accordingly taught, that 
baptism brings with it the forgiveness of sins ; 
that it is so essential, that the omission of it 
will expose us to condemnation ; and that it is 
attended with regeneration. He also affirmed 
that the virtue of baptism is not 'in the water; 
that the ministers of Christ perform the external 
ceremony, but that Christ accompanies it with 
invisible grace ; that baptism is connnon to all, 
whilst grace is not so ; and that the same ex- 
ternal rite may be death to some, and life to 
others. By this distinction he rids himself of 
the difficulty which would have pressed upon 
his scheme of theology, had pardon, regenera- 
tion, and salvation been necessarily connected 
with the outward ordinance of baptism ; and 
limits its proper efficacy to those who are com- 
prehended, as the heirs of eternal life, in the 
decree of the Almighty, Many, however, of 
those who strictly adhere to him in other parts 
of his doctrinal system, desert him at this 
point. Bishop Bedell speaks thus in disparage- 
ment of his baptismal views, in a letter to Dr. 
Ward : " This I do yield to my Lord of Sarum 
most willingly, that the justification, sanctifi- 
cation, and adoption which children have in 
baptism, is not univoce [univocally] the same 
with that which adulti [adults] have. I think 
the emphatical speeches of Augustine against 
the Pelagians, and of Prosper, are not so much 
to be regarded (who say the like of the eucha- 
rist also) touching the necessity and efficacy 
in the case of infants ; and they are very like 
the speeches of Lanfranc and Guitmund of 
Christ's presence in the sacrament, opposing 
veraciter, [truly] and vere [truly] to sacramenta- 
liter ; [sacramcntally ;] which is a false and 
absurd contraposition. The opinion of the 
Franciscans out of Scotus and Bernard, men- 
tioned in the council of Trent, seems to be 
the true opinion; for they make the sacra- 
ments to be effiictual, ' because God gives them 
effectus regulariter concomitantes,^ [regularly 
accompanying effi^cts,] and to contain grace 
no otherwise than as an effiictual sign; and 
that grace is received by them as an investiture 
by a ring or staff, which is obsignando, [by 
signation.] Consider that if you will aver, that 
baptism washes away otherwise than sacra- 
mcntally, that is, obsignatorily, original sin ; 
yet you must allow that manner of washing 
for ftiture actual sins ; and you must make two 
sorts of justification, one for children, another 
for adulti; [adults;] and (which passes all the 
rest) you must find some promise in God's 
covenant wherein he binds himself to wash 
Away sin without faith or repentance. By this 
doctrine, you must also maintain that children 
9 



do spiritually eat the flesh of Christ and drink 
his blood, if they receive the eucharist, as for 
ages they did, and by the analogy of the pass- 
over they may ; and sith [if] the use of this 
sacrament toties quoties [as often as it is used] 
must needs confer grace, it seems it were 
necessary to let them communicate, and the 
oftener the better, to the intent they might be 
stronger in grace : which opinion, though St. 
Austin and many more of the ancients do 
maintain, I believe you will not easily conde- 
scend unto, or that children dying without 
baptism are damned." These remarks are im- 
portant, as proceeding from the pen of the 
personal friend of P'ather Paul, who wrote the 
History of the council of Trent. 

In the various discussions which have arisen 
concerning predestination and the doctrines 
with which it is connected, some modern di- 
vines have quoted the arguments of St. Agus- 
tine against the Manichees, and others those 
which he employed against the Pelagians, ac- 
cording to the discordant views which the 
combatants severally entertain on these contro- 
verted points. One of them has thus expressed 
himself, in his endeavour to reconcile St Au- 
gustine with himself: — " The heresy of Pela- 
gius being .suppressed, the catholic doctrine in 
that point became more settled and confirmed 
by the opposition ; such freedom being left to 
the will of man, as was subservient unto grace, 
cooperating in some measure with those hea- 
venly influences. And so much is confesi3ed 
by St. Augustine himself, where he asks this 
question, ' Doth any man affirm that free will 
is perished utterly from man by the fall of 
Adam ?' And thereunto he makes this answer : 
' Freedom is perished by sin ; but it is that 
freedom only which we had in paradise, of 
having perfect righteousness with immortality.' 
For, otherwise, it appears to be his opinion, 
that man was not merely passive in all the acts 
of grace which conduced to glory, according 
to the memorable saying of his, so common in 
the mouths of all men, ' He who first made us 
without our help will not vouchsafe to save us 
at last without our concurrence.' If any harsher 
expressions have escaped his pen, (as commonly 
it happeneth in the heats of a disputation,) 
they are to be qualified by this last rule, and 
by that before, in which it was affirnied, that 
' God could not with justice judge and con- 
demn the world, if all men's sins proceeded 
not from their own free will, but from some 
overruling providence which inforced them to 
it.' " Another admirer of this father offers the 
following as an attempt at reconciliation : " St. 
Augustine denied that the cooperation of man 
is at all exerted to produce the renewal of our 
nature ; but, when the renewal had been pro- 
duced, he admitted that there was an exercise 
of the will combined with the workings of 
grace. In the tenth chapter of his Avork 
against the Manichseans, the bishop of Hippo 
thus expresses himself: 'Who is it that will 
not exclaim. How foolish it is to deliver precepts 
to that man who is not at liberty to perform what 
is commanded ! And how unjust it is to con- 
demn him who had not power to fulfil the com,' 



AUG 



114 



AUG 



mands I Yet these unhappy persons [the Mani- 
chees] do not perceive that they are ascribing 
such injustice and want of equity to God. But 
what greater truth is there than this, that God 
has delivered precepts, and that human spirits 
have freedom of will?' Elsewhere he says, 
* Nothing is more within our power than our 
own will. The will is that by which we com- 
mit sin, and by which we live righteously.' 
Nothing can be plainer than that the writer of 
these passages admitted the liberty of the hu- 
man will, and the necessity of our own exer- 
tions in conjunction with divine grace. How 
this is to be reconciled with his general doc- 
trine, is perhaps indicated in the following 
passage from his book De Gratia et lib. Arbi- 
trio, c. 17. Speaking of grace he says, ' That 
we may will God works without us ; but when 
we will, and so will as to do^ he co-works with 
us ; yet unless he either works that we may 
will, or co-works when we do will, we are 
utterly incapable of doing any thing in the 
good works of piety .^" These are but very 
slight spechnens of the mode in which learned 
and ingenious men have tried to give a kind 
of symmetrical proportion to this father's doc- 
trinal system. Several large treatises have 
been published with the same praiseworthy 
intention ; the pious authors of them either 
entirely forgetting, or having never read, the 
rather latitudinarian indulgence of opinion 
which St. Augustine claims for himself in his 
"Retractations," in which he has qualified the 
harshness of his previous assertions on many 
subjects. If, however, an estimate may be 
formed of what this father intended in his va- 
rious pacifacatory doctrinal explanations from 
what he has actually admitted and expressed, 
it may be safely affirmed that no systematic 
writer of theology seems so completely to have 
entered into the last and best views of the 
bishop of Hippo, or so nearly reconciled the 
apparent discordances in them, as Arminius 
has done ; and few other authors have rendered 
more ample justice to his sentiments, talents, 
and character, than the famous Dutch Professor. 

Many were the theological labours to which 
he was invited by the most eminent of his con- 
temporaries ; and hastily as some of his lucu- 
brations were executed, it is not surprising that 
among two hundred and seventy-two treatises 
on different subjects, some are of inferior value 
and unworthy of the fame which he had ac- 
quired in the church. After a life of various 
changes, and of a mixed character, he died 
A. D. 430, in the seventy-sixth year of his age ; 
having been harassed at the close of life by 
seeing his country invaded by the Vandals, 
and the city of which he was the bishop be- 
sieged. Though those barbarians took Hippo 
and burned it, they saved his library, which 
contained his voluminous writings. 

St. Augustine was a diligent man in the 
sacred calling ; and that the office of a bishop 
even in that age of the church was no sinecure, 
is evident from several notices in his letters. 
At the close of one addressed to Marcellinus 
he gives the subjoined account : " If I were 
able to give you a narrative of the manner in 



which 1 spend my time, you would be both sur- 
prised and distressed on account of the great 
number of affairs v/hich oppress me without 
my being able to suspend them. For when 
some little leisure is allowed me by those who 
daily attend upon me about business, and who 
are so urgent with me that I can neither shun 
them nor ought to despise them, I have always 
some other writings to compose, which indeed 
ought to be preferred, [to those which Marcel- 
linus requested,} because the present juncture 
will not permit them to be postponed. For the 
rule of charity is, not to consider the greatness 
of the friendship, but the necessity of the affair. 
Thus I have continually something or other to 
compose which diverts me from writing what 
would be more agreeable to my inclinations, 
during the little intervals in that multiplicity 
of business with which I am burdened either 
through the wants or the passions of others." 
He frequently complains of this oppressive 
weight of occupation in which his love of his 
flock had engaged him, by obeying the Apos- 
tolical precept, which forbids Christians from 
going to law before Pagan tribunals. In refer- 
ence to this employment his biographer, Posi- 
donius, says: "At the desire of Christians, or 
of men belonging to any sect whatever, he 
would hear causes with patience and attention, 
sometimes till the usual hour of eating, and 
sometimes the whole day without eating at all, 
observing the dispositions of the parties, and 
how much they advanced or decreased in faith 
and good works ; and when he had opportunity 
he instructed them in the law of God, and gave 
them suitable advice, requiring nothing of them 
except Christian obedience. He sometimes 
wrote letters, when desired, on temporal sub- 
jects; but looked upon all this as unprofitable 
occupation, which drew him aside from that 
which was better and more agreeable to him- 
self" 

The character of this eminent father has 
been much misrepresented both as a man and 
as a writer. Whoever looks into his writings 
for accurate and enlarged views of Christiarr 
doctrine, looks for that which could not be ex. 
pected in the very infancy of Biblical criticism. 
He was a rhetorician by profession, and the 
degenerate taste of that age must be blamed, 
rather than the individual who wrote in the 
style vv^hich then prevailed. The learning of 
St. Augustine, and particularly his knowledge 
of Greek, have been disputed ; and hence the 
importance of his Biblical criticisms has been 
depreciated. In the account of the early part 
of his life he confesses his great aversion to 
the study of that language ; and as he tells us, 
in his maturer age, that he read the Platonists 
in a Latin version, it has perhaps been too 
hastily concluded that he never made any great 
proficiency in it. But though it be allowed 
that his comments on Scripture consist chiefly 
of popular reflections, spiritual and moral, or 
allegorical and mystical perversions of the lite- 
ral meaning ; yet the works of this father are 
not wholly destitute of remarks and critical' 
interpretations, that are pertinent and judi- 
cious : to such, after a series of extracts from hi* 



AVE 



115 



AZA 



writings, Dr. Lardner has referred his readers. 
With regard to his knowledge of Greek, this 
impartial and candid author is of opinion, that 
he understood that language better than some 
have supposed; and he has cited several pas- 
sages from which it may be perceived, that St. 
Augustine frequently compared his copies of 
the Latin version with those of the Greek ori- 
ginal. Le Clerc himself allows that he some- 
times -explains Greek words and phrases in a 
very felicitous manner. Indeed, the com- 
mencement of his correspondence with St. 
Jerom proves him to have been no contempti- 
ble critic. In this he besought him, in the 
name of all the African churches, to apply 
himself to the translation into Latin of the 
Greek interpreters of Scripture, rather than to 
enter upon a new translation from the original 
Hebrew ; and to point out those passages in 
which the Hebrew differed from the Septua- 
gint, as he had previously done in the book of 
Job. Voltaire and other profane wits have, in 
the exercise of their buffoonery, impeached his 
moral conduct ; but their charges, when impar- 
tially examined, will be seen to be founded in 
ignorance or in malice. They resemble those 
which the same parties prefer against Prophets, 
Apostles, and against Christ himself. Mosheim 
observes that Augustine's high reputation filled 
the Cliristian world ; and " not without reason, 
as a variety of great and shining qualities were 
united in the character of that illustrious man. 
A sublime genius, an uninterrupted and zeal- 
ous pursuit of ti-uth, an indefatigable applica- 
tion, an invincible patience, a sincere piety, 
and a subtle and lively wit, conspired to esta- 
blish his fame upon the most lasting founda- 
tions." Such a testimony as this far outweighs 
the vituperative remarks and petty sneers of a 
thousand infidels. See Pelagians and Sy- 
nods. 

AUGUSTUS, emperor of Rome, and suc- 
cessor of Julius Caesar. The battle ofActium, 
which he fought with Mark Antony, and which 
made him master of the empire, happened fif- 
teen years before the birth of Christ. This is 
the emperor wlio appointed tlie enrolment 
mentioned Luke ii, 1, which obliged Joseph 
and the Virgin Mary to go to Bethlehem, the 
place where Jesus Christ was born. Augustus 
procured the crown of Judea for Herod, from 
the Roman senate. After the defeat of Mark 
Antony, Herod adhered to Augustus, and was 
always faithful to him ; so that Augustus load- 
ed him with honours and riches. 

AVEN, a city of Egypt, afterAvard called 
Heliopolis, and On, Ezek. xxx, 17. Herodotus 
informs us that in this city there was an annual 
assembly in honour of the sun, and a temple 
dedicated to him. It appears, however, highly 
probable, by the behaviour of Pharaoh to Jo- 
seph and Jacob, and especially by Joseph's 
care to preserve the land to the priests. Gen. 
xlvii, 22, 26, that the true religion prevailed 
"1 Eg}'pt in his time ; and it is incredible that 
Joseph should have married the daughter of 
the priest of On, had that name among the 
Egyptians denoted only the material light; 
which, however, no doubt they, like all the 



rest of the world, idolized in after times, and 
to which we find a temple dedicated among the 
Canaanites, under this name, Joshua vii, 2. 

AVENGER OF BLOOD. He who prose- 
cuted the man-slayer under the law was called 
the avenger of blood, and had a right to slay 
the person, if he found him without a city of 
refuge. See Goel. 

AVIMS, a people descended from Hevus, the 
son of Canaan. They dwelt at first in the 
country which w^as afterward possessed by the 
Caphtorims, or Philistines. The Scripture says 
expressly, that the Caphtorims drove out the 
Avims, who dwelt in Hazerim, even unto 
Azzah, Deut. ii, 23. There were also Avims, 
or Hivites, at Shechem, or Gibeon, Joshua 
xi, 19 ; for the inhabitants of Shechem were 
Hivites. Lastly, there were some of them 
beyond Jordan, at the foot of Mount Hermon. 
Bochart thinks, that Cadmus, who conducted 
a colony of the Phoenicians into Greece, was 
a Hivite. His name, Cadmus, comes from the 
Hebrew Kedem, " the east," because he came 
from the eastern parts of the land of Canaan. 
The name of his wife Hermione was taken from- 
Mount -Hermon, at the foot w^hereof the Hivites^ 
dwelt. The metamorphoses of the companions 
of Cadmus into serpents is founded upon the 
signification of the name of Hivites, which, in 
the Phoenician language, signifies serpents. 

AZARIAH, or UZZIAH, king of Judah, 
son of Amaziah. He began to reigii at the age 
of sixteen years, and reigned fifty -two years in 
Jerusalem ; his mother's name being Jecholiah, 
2 Kings XV. Azariah did that which was right 
in the sight of the Lord ; nevertheless he did 
not destroy the high places ; and, against the 
express prohibition of God, the people con- 
tinued to sacrifice there. Having taken upon 
him to offer incense in the temple, which office 
belonged entirely to tlie priests, he was struck 
with a leprosy, and continued without the city, 
separated from other men until the day of his 
death, 2 Chron. xxvi. Josephus says, that upon 
this occasion a great earthquake happened ; 
and that the temple opening at the top, a ray 
of light darted upon the king's forehead, the 
very inoment he took the censer into his hand, 
and he instantly became a leper ; nay, that the 
earthquake was so very violent, that it tore in 
sunder a mountain west of Jerusalem, and 
rolled one half of it over and over to the dis- 
tance of four furlongs, till at length it was 
stopped by another mountain which stood over 
against it ; but choked up the highway, and 
covered the king's gardens with dust. This 
is what Josephus adds to the history related in 
the Chronicles ; but the truth of it may be 
justly suspected. We know, indeed, that there 
was a very great earthquake in the reign of 
Uzziah ; for Amos, chap, i, 1, and Zechariah, 
chap, xiv, 5, make mention of it : however, it 
is not certain that it happened at the very time 
that Uzziah took upon him to offer incense. 

During the time that Uzziah was a leper, his 
son Jotham, as his father's viceroy, took the 
public administration upon himself, and suc- 
ceeded him after his death, which happened in 
the fifty-second year of his reign, A. M. 3246, 



BAA 



116 



BAA 



He was not buried in the royal sepulchre ; but 
in the same field, at some distance, on account 
of his leprosy. 

The first part of Uzziah's reign was very 
successful : he obtained great advantages over 
the Philistines, Ammonites, and Arabians. 
He made additions to the fortifications at Je- 
rusalem, and always kept an army on foot of 
three hundred and seven thousand men, and 
upwards, 2 Chron. xxvi; and he had great 
magazines, well stored with all sorts of arms, 
as well offensive as defensive ; and he was a 
great lover of agriculture. 

^ BAAL, BEL, or BELUS, denoting lord, a 
divinity among several ancient nations ; as the 
Canaanites, Phoenicians, Sidonians, Cartha- 
ginians, Babylonians, Chaldeans, and Assy- 
rians. The term Baal, which is itself an 
appellative, served at first to denote the true 
God, among those who adhered to the true re- 
ligion. Accordingly, the Phoenicians, being 
originally Canaanites, having once had, as 
well as the rest of their kindred, the knowledge 
of the true God, probably called him Baal, or 
lord. But they, as well as other nations, gra- 
dually degenerating into idolatry, applied this 
appellation to their respective idols ; and thus 
were introduced a variety of divinities, called 
Baalim, or Baal, with some epithet annexed to 
it, as Baal Berith, Baal Gad, Baal Moloch, 
Baal Peor, Baal Zehub, &c. Some have sup- 
posed that the descendants of Ham first wor- 
shipped the sun under the title of Baal, 2 
Kings xxiii, 5, 11 ; and that they afterward as- 
cribed it to the patriarch who was the head of 
their line ; making the sun only an emblem 
of his influence or power. It is certain, how- 
ever, that when the custom prevailed of deify- 
ing and worshipping those who were in any 
respect distinguished among mankind, the ap- 
pellation of Baal was not restricted to the sun, 
but extended to those eminent persons who 
were deified, and who became objects of wor- 
ship in different nations. The Phoenicians had 
several divinities of this kind, who were not 
intended to represent the sun. It is probable 
that Baal, Belus, or Bel, the great god of the 
Carthaginians, and also of the Sidonians^ 
Babylonians, and Assyrians, who, from the 
testimony of Scripture, appears to have been 
delighted with human sacrifices, was the Mo- 
loch of the Ammonites ; the Chronus of the 
Greeks, who was the chief object of adoration 
in Italy, Crete, Cyprus, and Rhodes, and all 
other countries where divine honours were paid 
him ; and the Saturn of the Latins. In process 
of time, many other deities, beside the princi- 
pal ones just mentioned, were distinguished 
by the title of Baal among the Phoenicians, 
particularly those of Tyre, and of course 
among the Carthaginians, and other nations. 
Such were Jupiter, Mars, Bacchus, and Apollo, 
or the sun. 

The templfes and altars of Baal were gene- 
rally placed on eminences: they were places 
inclosed by walls, within which was maintained 
a perpetual fire ; and some of them had statues 
or images, called in Scripture *' Chamanim." 



Maundrell, in his journey from Aleppo to Je- 
rusalem, observed, some remains of these en- 
closures in Syria. Baal had his prophets and 
his priests in great numbers ; accordingly, we 
read of four hundred and fifty of them that 
were fed at the table of Jezebel only ; and they 
conducted the worship of this deity, by offering 
sacrifices, by dancing round his altar with vio- 
lent gesticulations and exclamations, by cutting 
their bodies with knives and lancets, and by 
raving and pretending to prophesy, as if they 
were possessed by some invisible power. 

It is remarkable that we do not find the 
name Baal so much in popular use east of 
Babylonia ; but it was general west of Baby- 
lonia, and to the very extremity of western 
Europe, including the British isles. The wor- 
ship of Bel, Belus, Belenus, or Belinus, was 
general throughout the British islands ; and 
certain of its rites and observances are still 
maintained among us, notwithstanding the 
establishment of Christianity during so many 
ages. A town in Perthshire, on the borders 
of the Highlands, is called Tillieheltane or 
Tullieheltane ; that is, the eminence, or rising 
ground, of the fire of Baal. In the neighboui'- 
hood is a Druidical temple of eight upright 
stones, where it is supposed the fire was kin- 
dled. At some dista^nce from this is another 
temple of the same kind, but smaller ; and near 
it a well still held in great veneration. On 
Beltane morning, superstitious people go to 
this well, and drink of it; then they make a 
procession round it nine times. After this they 
in like manner go round the temple. So deep- 
rooted is this Heathenish superstition in the 
minds of many who reckon themselves good 
Protestants, that they will not neglect these 
rites, even when Beltane falls on the Sabbath. 

In Ireland, Bel-tein is celebrated on the 
twenty-first of June, at the time of the solstice. 
There, as they make fires on the tops of hills, 
every member of the family is made to pass 
through the fire ; as they reckon this ceremony 
necessary to ensure good fortune through the 
succeeding year. This resembles the rites used 
by the Romans in the Palilia. Bel-tein is also- 
observed in Lancashire. 

In Wales, this annual fire is kindled in au- 
tumn, on the first day of November ; which 
being neither at the solstice nor equinox, de- 
serves attention. It may be accounted for by 
supposing that the lapse of ages has removed 
it from its ancient station, and that the observ- 
ance is kept on the same day, nominally, 
though that be now removed some weeks back, 
ward from its true station. However that may 
be, in North Wales especially, this fire is at- 
tended b}'^ many ceremonies; such as running' 
through the fire and smoke, each participator 
casting a stone into the fire. 

The Hebrews often imitated the idolatry of 
the Canaanites in adoring Baal. They offered 
human sacrifices to him in groves, upon high 
places, and upon the terraces of houses. Baal 
had priests and prophets consecrated to his 
service. All sorts of infamous and immodest 
actions were committed in the festivals of Baal 
and Astarte. See Jcr. xxxii, 35 ; 2 Kings xvii. 



BAA 



117 



BAB 



16; xxiii, 4, 5, 12; 1 Kings xviii, 22 ; 2 Kings 
X, 19 ; 1 Kings xiv, 24 ; xv, 12 ; 2 Kings xxiii, 
7 ; Hosea iv, 14. This false deity is frequently 
mentioned in Scripture in the plural number, 
Baalim, which may intimate that the name 
Baal was given to several different deities. 

There were many cities in Palestine, whose 
names were compounded of Baal and some 
other word : whether it was that the god Baal 
was adored in them, or that these places were 
looked upon as the capital cities, — lords of 
their respective provinces, — is uncertain. 

BAAL BERITH, the god of the Shechem- 
ites. Judges viii, 33 ; ix, 4, 46. 

BAAL PEOR. Peor is supposed to have 
been a part of Mount Abarim ; ,and Baal was 
the great idol or chief god of the Phoenicians, 
and was known and worshipped under a similar 
name, with tumultuous and obscene rites, all 
over Asia. He is the same as the Bel of the 
Babylonians. Baal, by itself, signifies lord, 
and was a name of the solar or principal god. 
But it was also variously compounded, in allu- 
sion to the different characters and attributes 
of the particular or local deities who were 
known by it, as Baal Peor, Baal Zebub, Baal 
Zephon, &lc. Baal Peor, then, was probably 
the temple of an idol belonging to the Moab- 
ites, on Mount Abarim, which the Israelites 
worshipped when encamped at Shittim ; this 
brought a plague upon them, of which twenty- 
four thousand died, Num. xxxv. Chemosh, 
the abomination of Moab, to whom Solomon 
erected an altar, 1 Kings xi, 7, is supposed to 
have been tlie same deity. Baal Peor has been 
farther supposed by some to have been Priapus ; 
by others, Saturn ; by others, Pluto ; and by 
others again, Adonis. Mr. Faber agrees with 
Calmet in making Baal Peor the same with 
Adonis ; a part of whose worship consisted in 
bewailing him with funeral rites, as one lost or 
dead, and afterward welcoming, with extrava- 
gant joy, his fictitious return to life. He was 
in an eminent degree the god of impurity. 
Hosea, speaking of the worship of this idol, 
emphatically calls it "that shame," Hos. ix, 10. 
Yet in the rites of this deity the Moabite and 
Midianite women seduced the Israelites to join. 

BAAL ZEBUB, BEELZEBUB, or BEL- 
ZEBUB, signifies the god of flies, and was an 
idol of the Ekronites. It is not easy to dis- 
cover how this false deity obtained its name. 
Some commentators think that he was called 
Baal Samin, or the lord of heaven ; but that 
the Jews, from contempt, gave him the name 
of Baal-zebub. Others with greater reason be- 
lieve that he was denominated "the god of 
flies" by his votaries, because he defended them 
from flies, which are extremely troublesome in 
hot countries ; in the same manner as the 
Eleans worshipped Hercules under the appella- 
tion of ^kTi6ixvioi, the fly chaser. Pliny is of 
opinion, that the name of Achor, the god in- 
voked at Cyrene against flies, is derived from 
Accaron, or Ekron, where Baal-zebub was 
worshipped, and where he had a famous temple 
and oracle. Winkelman has given the figures 
of two heads, "both of them images of Jupiter, 
called by the Greeks 'K-nbfivios, and by the Ro- 



mans Mascarius ; that is to say, ^y driver; for 
to this Jupiter was attributed the function of 
driving away flies." 

It is evident that Beelzebub was considered 
as the patron deity of medicine ; for this is 
plainly implied in the conduct of Ahaziah, 2 
Kings i. The Greek mythology considered 
Apollo as the god of medicine, and attributed 
also to him those possessions by a pythonic 
spirit which occasionally perplexed spectators, 
and of which we have an instance in Acts xvi, 
19. Apollo, too, was the sun. Hence we pro- 
bably see the reason why Ahaziah sent to Beel- 
zebub to inquire the issue of his accident ; since 
Beelzebub was Apollo, and Apollo was the god 
of physic. The Jews, who changed Beelzebub 
into Beelzebul, "god of a dunghill," perhaps 
had a reference to the Greek of pytho, which 
signifies putrefied. In Scripture Beelzebub is 
called "the prince of devils," Matt, xii, 24; 
Luke xi, 15; merely, it would seem, through 
the application of the name of the chief idol of 
the Heathen world to the prince of evil spirits. 
This was natural, since the Jews were taught 
in their own Scriptures to consider all the idols 
of the Heathens " devils." Those commenta- 
tors who think that the idol of Ekron himself 
is intended, have indulged in an improbable 
fancy. See Hornet. 

BAAL ZEPHON, or the god of the watch 
tower, was probably the temple of some idol, 
which served at the same time for a place of 
observation for the neighbouring sea and coun- 
try, and a beacon to the travellers by either. 
It was situated on a cape or promontory on the 
eastern side of the western or Heroopolitan 
branch of the Red Sea, near its northern ex. 
tremity, over against Pihahiroth, or the open- 
ing in the mountains which led from the de- 
sert, on the side of Egypt, to the Red Sea. 

BAASHA, the son of Ahijah, commander- 
in-chief of the armies belonging to Nadab, the 
son of Jeroboam, king of Israel. Baasha kill- 
ed his master treacherously at the siege of 
Gibbethon, a city of the Philistines, A. M. 
3051, and usurped the crown, which he pos- 
sessed twenty-four years, 1 Kings xv, 27, &c. 
And, to secure himself in his usurpation, he 
massacred all the relatives of his predecessor ; 
which barbarous action proved the accomplish- 
ment of the prophecy denounced against the 
house of Jeroboam by Ahijah, the prophet, 
1 Kings xiv, 1, &c. 

BABEL, the tower and city founded by the 
descendants of Noah in the plain of Shinar. 
The different tribes descended from Noah were 
here collected, and from this point were dis- 
persed, through the confusion of their language. 
The time when this tower was built is differ- 
ently stated in the Hebrew and Samaritan 
chronologies. The former fixes it in the year 
101 after the flood, which Mr. Fabef thinks 
encumbered with insuperable difficulties. This 
writer then goes on to show, that the chrono- 
logy of the Samaritan Pentateuch reconciles 
every date, and surmounts every difficulty. It 
represents Shem as dying nearly a century and 
a half before the death of Peleg, instead of 
more than that number of years afterward, and 



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;almost four centuries and a half before the 
death of Abraham; whom, in accordance with 
the history, it makes to survive his father 
Terah precisely a hundred years. It removes 
the difficulties with which the Hebrew chro- 
nology invests the whole history, by giving 
time, while it allows the dispersion to have 
taken place in the latter part of Peleg's life, for 
the thirteen sons of his younger brother Joktan 
to have become heads of families ; for Noah 
and his sons to have died, a« it is proved they 
must have done, prior to the emigration from 
Armenia ; for Nimrod, instead of being a boy, 
to have been of an age suitable to his exploits, 
and to have acquired the sovereign command, 
not, in the face of all probability, while the 
four great patriarchs were living, but after 
their decease ; and for the families of mankind 
to have multiplied sufficiently to undertake the 
stupendous work of the tower. It explains 
also the silence respecting Shem in the history 
of Abraham, by making the former die in Ar- 
menia four hundred and forty years before the 
latter was born, instead of surviving him thirty- 
five years ; and, lastly, it makes sacred history 
accord with profane ; the Babylonic history of 
Berosus, an^d the old records consulted by 
Epiphanius, both placing the death of Noah 
and his sons before the emigration from 
Armenia. 

The sum of the whole is as follows : All the 
descendants of Noah remained in Armenia in 
peaceable subjection to the patriarchal religion 
and government during the lifetime of the 
four royal patriarchs, or till about the begin- 
ning of the sixth century after the flood; 
when, gradually failing off from the pure 
worship of God, and from their allegiance to 
Ihe respective heads of families, and seduced 
by the schemes of the ambitious Nimrod, and 
farther actuated by a restless disposition, or a 
desire for a more fertile country, they migrated 
in a body southwards, till they reached the 
plains of Shinar, probably about sixty years 
after the death of Shem. Here, under the 
command of their new leader, and his domi- 
nant military and sacerdotal Cuthites, by 
whom the original scheme of idolatry, the 
groundwork of which was probably laid in 
Armenia, was now perfected ; and, with the 
express view to counteract the designs of the 
Almighty in their dispersion into different 
countries, they began to build the city and 
tower, and set up a banner which should serve 
as a mark of national union, and concentrate 
them in one unbroken empire ; when they 
were defeated and dispersed by the miraculous 
confusion of tongues. All this probably occu- 
pied the farther space of twenty or twenty-one 
years; making eighty-one from the death of 
Shem, and five hundred and eighty-three after 
the flood. All of which also will come within 
the -life of Peleg, who, according to the Sama- 
ritan Pentateuch, died in the year 640. The 
tower of Belus in Babylon, mentioned by 
Herodotus, was probably either the original 
tower of Babel repaired, or it was constructed 
upon its massive foundations. The remains 
of this tower are still to ])o seen, and are thus 



described by Captain Mignan, in his Travels 
in Chaldea: — 

" At day light I departed for the ruins, with 
a mind absorbed by the objects which I had 
seen yesterday. An hour's walk, indulged in 
intense reflection, brought me to the grandest 
and most gigantic northern mass, on the east= 
ern bank of the Euphrates, and distant about 
four miles and a half from the eastern suburb 
of Hillah. It is called by the natives. El Mv- 
jellihah, 'the overturned;' also Haroot and 
Maroot, from a tradition handed down, with 
little deviation, from time immemorial, that 
near the foot of the ruin there is a well, invisi- 
ble to mortals, in which those rebellious angels 
were condemned by God to be hung with their 
heels upward, until the day of judgment, as a 
punishment for their wickedness. This solid 
mound, which I consider, from its situation 
and magnitude, to be the remains of the Tower 
of Babel, (an opinion likewise adopted by that 
venerable and highly distinguished geographer, 
Major Rennell,) is a vast oblong square, com- 
posed of kiln-burnt and sun-dried bricks, rising 
irregularly to the height of one hundred and 
thirty-nine feet, at the south-west; whence it 
slopes toward the north-east to a depth of one 
hundred and ten feet. Its sides face the four 
cardinal points. I measured them carefully, 
and the following is the full extent of each 
face : that to the north, along the visible face, 
is two hundred and seventy-four yards ; to the 
south, two hundred and fifty-six yards ; to the 
east, two hundred and tv/enty-six yards ■ and 
to the west, two hundred and forty yards. 
The summit is an uneven flat, strewed with 
broken and unbroken bricks, the perfect ones 
measuring thirteen inches square, by three 
thick. Many exhibited the arrow-headed 
character, which appeared remarkably fresh. 
Pottery, bitumen, vitrified and petrified brick, 
shells, and glass, were all equally abundant. 
The principal materials composing this ruin 
are, doubtless, mud bricks baked in the sun, 
and mixed up with straw. It is not difficult 
to trace brick work along each front, particu- 
larly at the south-west angle, which is faced by 
a wall, composed partly of kiln-burnt brick, 
that in shape exactly resembles a watch tower 
or small turret. On its summit there are still 
considerable traces of erect building; at the 
western end is a circular mass of sold brick 
work, sloping toward the top, and rising from 
a confused heap of rubbish. The chief ma- 
terial forming this fabric appeared similar to 
that composing the ruin called Akercouff, a 
mixture of chopped straw, with slime used as 
cement; and regular layers of unbroken reeds 
between the horizontal courses of the bricks. 
The base is greatly injured by time and the 
elements ; particularly to the south-eastj where 
it is clovim into a deep flirrow from top to 
bottom. The sides of the ruin exhibit hol- 
lows worn partly by the weather, but more 
generally formed by the Arabs, who are inces- 
santly digging for bricks, and hunting for 
antiquities." 

BABYLON, 2 Kings xxiv, 1. The capital 
of Chaldea, built by Nimrod, Gen. x, 10. It 



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was under Nebuchadnezzar that Babylon, then 
become the seat of universal empire, is sup- 
posed to have acquired that extent and mag- 
nificence, and that those stupendous works 
were completed which rendered it the wonder 
of the world and of posterity : and accordingly, 
this prince, then the most potent on the earth, 
arrogated to himself the whole glory of its 
erection ; and in the pride of his heart ex- 
claimed, " Is not this great Babylon that I have 
built ?" The city ut this period stood on both 
sides of the river, which intersected it in the 
middle. It was, according to the least compu- 
tation, that of Diodorus Siculus, 45 miles in 
circumference ; and according to Herodotus, 
the older author of the two, 60 miles. Its 
shape was that of a square, traversed each 
way by 25 principal streets ; which of course 
intersected each other, dividing the city into 
626 squares. These streets were terminated 
at each end by gates of brass, of prodigious 
size and strength, with a smaller one opening 
toward the river. The walls, from the most 
moderate accounts, were 75 feet in height and 
32 in breadth ; while Herodotus makes them 
300 in height and 75 in breadth : which last 
measurement, incredible as it may seem, is 
worthy of credit, as Herodotus is much the 
oldest author who describes them, and who 
gives their origmal height; whereas, those 
who follow him in their accounts of these 
stupendous walls, describe them as they were 
after they had been taken down to the less 
elevation by Darius Hystaspes. They were 
built of brick, cemented with bitumen instead 
of mortar ; and were encompassed by a broad 
and deep ditch, lined with the same materials, 
as were also the banks of the river in its course 
through the city : the inhabitants descending 
to the water by steps through the smaller 
brazen gates before mentioned. The houses 
were three or four stories high, separated from 
each other by small courts or gardens, with 
open spaces and even fields interspersed over 
the immense area enclosed within the walls. 
Over the river was a bridge, connecting the 
two halves of the city, which stood, the one on 
its eastern, and the other on its western, bank ; 
the river running nearly north and south. The 
bridge was 5 furlongs in length, and 30 feet in 
breadth, and had a palace at each end, with, it 
is said, a subterraneous passage beneath the 
river, from one to the other : the work of Se- 
miramis. Within the city was the temple of 
Belus, or Jupiter, which Herodotus describes 
as a square of two stadia, or a quarter of a 
mile : in the midst of which arose the cele- 
brated tower, to which both the same writer, 
and Strabo, give an elevation of one stadium, 
or 660 feet ; and the same measure at its base ; 
the whole being divided into eight separate 
towers, one above another, of decreasing 
dimensions to the summit ; where stood a 
chapel, containing a couch, table, and other 
things of gold. Here the principal devotions 
were performed ; and over this, on the highest 
platform of all, was the observatory, by the 
help of which the Babylonians arrived to such 
perfection in astronomy, that Calisthenes the 



philosopher, who accompanied Alexander to 
Babylon, found astronomical observations for 
1903 years backwards froii) that time ; which 
reach as high as the 115th year after the flood. 
On either side of the river, according to Dio- 
dorus, adjoining to the bridge, was a palace ; 
that on the western bank being by much the 
larger. This palace was eight miles in cir- 
cumference, and strongly fortified with three 
walls one within another. Within it were the 
celebrated pensile or hanging gardens, enclosed 
in a square of 400 feet. These gardens were 
raised on terraces, supported by arches, or 
rather by piers, laid over with broad flat stones ; 
the arch appearing to be unknown to the Baby- 
lonians : which courses of piers rose above one 
another, till they reached the level of the top 
of the city walls. On each terrace or platform, 
a deep layer of mould was laid, in which flow- 
ers, shrubs and trees were planted ; some of 
which are said to have reached the height of 
50 feet. On the highest level was a reservoir, 
with an engine to draw water up from the 
river by which the w^hole was watered. This 
novel and astonishing structure, the work of a 
monarch who knew not how to create food for 
his own pampered fancy, or labour for his de- 
based subjects or unhappy captives, was under- 
taken to please his wife Amyitis ; that she 
might see an imitation of the hills and woods 
of her native country. Media. 

Yet, while in the plenitude of its power, and, 
according to the most accurate chronologers, 
160 years before the foot of an enemy had en- 
tered it, the voice of an enemy had entered it, 
the voice of prophecy pronounced the doom of 
the miglity and unconquered Babylon. A 
succession of ages brought it gradually to the 
dust ; and the gradation of its fall is marked 
till it sinks at last into utter desolation. At a 
time when nothing but magnificence was 
around this city, emphatically called the great, 
fallen Babylon was delineated by the pencil of 
inspiration exactly as every traveller now de- 
scribes its ruins. 

The immense fertility of Chaldea, which 
retained also the name of Babylonia till after 
the Christian aera,. corresponded with the great- 
ness of Babylon. It was the most fertile re- 
gion of the whole east. Babylonia was one 
vast plain, adorned and enriched by the Eu- 
phrates and the Tigris, from which, and fi-om 
the numerous canals that intersected the coun- 
try from the one river to the other, water was 
distributed over the fields by manual labour and 
by hydraulic machines, giving rise, in that 
warm climate and rich exhaustless soil, to an 
exuberance of produce v/ithout a known paral- 
lel, over so extensive a region, either in ancient 
or modern times. Herodotus states, that he 
knew not how to speak of its wonderful fer- 
tility, which none but eye witnesses would 
credit ; and, though writing in the language of 
Greece, itself a fertile country, he expresses his 
own consciousness that his description of what 
he actually saw would appear to be improbable, 
and to exceed belief. Such was the " Chaldees' 
excellency," that it departed not on the first 
conquest, nor on the final extinction of its 



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capital, but one metropolis of Assyria arose after 
another in the land of Chaldea, when Babylon 
had ceased to be "the glory of kingdoms." 

2. Manifold are the prophecies respecting 
Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans ; and 
the long lapse of ages has served to confirm 
their fulfilment in every particular, and to ren- 
der it at last complete. The judgments of 
Heaven are not casual, but sure ; they are not 
arbitrary, but righteous. And they were de- 
nounced against the Babylonians, and the in- 
habitants of Chaldea, expressly because of their 
idolatry, tyranny, oppression, pride, covetous- 
ness, drunkenness, falsehood, and other wick- 
edness. The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah 
the son of Amos did see : " The noise of a 
multitude in the mountains, like as of a great 
people : a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of 
nations gathered together : the Lord of Hosts 
mustereth the host of the battle. They come 
from a far country, from the end of heaven, 
even the Lord and the weapons of his indigna- 
lion, to destroy the whole land. Behold, the 
day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath 
and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate : and 
he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it, 
Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of 
the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God 
overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall 
never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in 
from generation to generation : neither shall 
the Arabian pitch tent there : neither shall the 
shepherds ma.ke their fold there. But wild 
beasts of the desert shall lie there : and their 
iiouses shall be full of doleful creatures ; and 
owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance 
there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall 
cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in 
jtheir pleasant palaces." " Thou shalt take up 
this proverb against the king of Babylon, and 
say. How hath the oppressor ceased ! the golden 
city ceased ! Thy pomp is brought down to 
the grave, and the n_oise of thy viols : the worm 
is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. 
Thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the 
sides of the pit„ Thou art cast out of the grave 
like an abominable branch. — I will cut oftfrom 
Babylon the name, and remnant, the son, and 
nephew, saith the Lord. I will also make it a 
possession for the bittern, and pools of water : 
and I will sweep it with the besom of desti-uc- 
tion, saith the Lord of Hosts." "Babylon is 
fallen, is fallen ; and all the graven images of 
her gods he hath broken unto the ground." 
" Thus saith the Lord, that saith unto the deep, 
Be dry ; and I will dry up thy rivers : that 
saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall 
perform all my pleasure, — and I will loose tlie 
loins of kings, to open before him the two- 
leaved gates ; and the gates shall not be shut." 
"Bel boweth down," &c. "Come down, and 
sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon : 
sit on the ground, there is no throne, O daugh- 
ter of the Chaldeans. Sit thou silent, and get 
thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chal- 
deans ; for thou shalt no more be called the 
lady of kingdoms." 

Many other prophecies against Babylon, and 
the whole land of Chaldea, are found in the 



Old Testament ; and though the limits of this 
article v.ill only allow a reference to be made 
to the exact fulfilment of a few, there is not 
one of the great number of predictions on 
record, the accomplishment of which has not 
been remarked by numerous writers, and more 
especially by those who have visited the spot. 
For, though for many centuries the site of 
Babylon was unknown, or the ruins of other 
Chaldean cities mistaken for its remains, its 
true situation and present condition have been, 
within a few years, satisfactorily ascertained, 
and accurately described, by several most intel- 
ligent and enterprising travellers. 

When in the plenitude of its greatness, 
splendour and strength, Babylon first yielded 
to the arms of Cyrus, whose name, and the 
mancEuvre by which the city was taken, were 
mentioned by Isaiah nearly two hundred years 
before the event ; which was also predicted by 
Jeremiah: " Go up, O Elam, (or Persia,) be- 
siege, O Media. The Lord hath raised up the 
spirit of the kings of the Modes, for his device 
is against Babylon, to destroy it." The kings 
of Persia and Media, prompted by a common 
interest, freely entered into a league against 
Babylon, and with one accord entrusted the 
command of their united armies to Cyrus, the 
relative and eventually the successor of them 
both. — But the taking of Babylon was not 
reserved for these kingdoms alone : other na- 
tions had to be " prepared against her." " Set 
up a standard in the land ; blow the trumpet 
among the nations, prepare the nations against 
her, call together against her the kingdoms of 
Ararat, Minni, and Aschenaz : Lo, I will raise 
and cause to come up against Babylon an as- 
sembly of great nations from the north coun- 
try," &c. Cyrus subdued the Armenians, who 
had revolted against Media, spared their king, 
bound them over anew to their allegiance, by 
kindness rather than by force, and incorporated 
their army with his own. — "The mighty men 
of Babylon have foreborne to fight. They have 
remained in their holds ; their might hath fail- 
ed, they became as -women." So dispirited 
became its people, that Babylon, which had 
made the world to tremble, was long besieged, 
without making any effort to drive off" the 
enemy. But, possessed of provisions for twenty 
years, which in their timid caution they had 
plentifully stored, they derided Cyrus from their 
impregnable walls, within which they remained. 
Their profligacy, their wickedness and false 
confidence were unabated ; they continued to 
live carelessly in pleasures : and Babylon the 
great, unlike to many a small fortress and un- 
walled town, made not one struggle to regain 
its freedom or to be rid of the foe. — Much time 
having been lost, and no progress being made 
in the siege, the anxiety of Cyrus was strongly 
excited, and he was reduced to great perplexity, 
when at last it was suggested and ianmediately 
determined to divert the course of the Euphra. 
tes. And while the unconscious and reckless 
citizens were engaged in dancing and merri- 
ment, the river was suddenly turned into the 
lake, the trench, and the canals ; and the Per- 
sians, botl;i foot and horse, so soon as th« sub- 



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siding of the water permitted, entered by its 
channel, and were followed by the allies in 
array, along the dry part of the river. " I will 
dry up thy sea, and make thy springs dry. That 
saith to the deep, Be dry, I will dry up thy 
rivers." — One detachment was placed w^here 
the river first enters the city, and another 
where it leaves it. And " one post did run to 
meet another, and one messenger to meet an- 
other, to show the king of Babylon that his 
city is taken at the end, and that the passages 
are shut." "They were taken," says Herodo- 
tusj " by surprise ; and such is the extent of the 
city, that, as the inhabitants themselves affirm, 
they who lived in the extremities were made 
prisoners before any alarm was communicated 
to the centre of the place," where the palace 
stood. Thus a "snare was laid for Babylon, 
it was taken, and it was not aware ; it was 
found and also caught ; for it had sinned against 
the Lord. How is the praise of the whole 
earth surprised!" — "In their heat I will make 
their feasts, and I will make them drunken, 
that they may rejoice and sleep a perpetual 
sleep, and 2iot wake, saith the Lord. I will 
bring them down like lambs to the slaughter," 
&c. " I will make drunken her princes and 
her wise men, her captains and her rulers, and 
her mighty men, and they shall sleep a per- 
petual sleep," &c; Cyrus, as the night drew 
on, stimulated his assembled troops to enter 
the city, because in that night of general revel 
within the walls, many of them were asleep, 
many drunk, and confusion universally pre- 
vailed. On passing, without obstruction or 
hinderance, into the city, the Persians, slaying 
some, putting others to flight, and joining with 
the revellers, as if slaughter had been merri- 
ment, hastened by the shortest way to the 
palace, and reached it ere yet a messenger had 
told the king that his city was taken. The 
gates of the palace, which was strongly forti- 
fied, were shut. The guards stationed before 
them, were drinking beside a blazing light, 
when the Persians rushed impetuously upon 
them. A louder and altered clamour, no longer 
joyous, caught the ear of the inmates of the 
palace, and the bright light showed them the 
work of destruction, without revealing its 
cause. And not aware of the presence of an 
enemy in the midst of Bab3'lon, the king him- 
self, (who had been roused from his revelry by 
the hand writing on the wall,) excited by the 
warlike tunmlt at the gates, commanded those 
within to examine from whence it arose ; and 
according to the same word, by which "the 
gates" (leading from the river to the city) 
" were not shut, the loins of kings were loosed 
to open before Cyrus the tvv^o-leaved gates" of 
the palace. The eager Persians sprang in. 
"The king of Babylon heard the report of 
them ; anguish took hold of him ;" he and all 
who were about him perished ; God had " num- 
bered" his kingdom and finished it; it was 
"divided," and given to the Modes and Per- 
sians; the lives of the Babylonian princes, and 
lords, and rulers, and captains, closed with 
that night's festival ; the drunken slept " a per- 
petual sleep, and did not wake."—" I will fill 



thee v/ith men as with caterpillars." Not only 
did the Persian army enter with ease as cater- 
pillars, together with all the nations that had 
come up against Babylon, but they seemed 
also as numerous. Cj^rus, after the capture of 
the city, made a great display of his cavalry" 
in the presence of the Babylonians, and in the 
midst of Babylon. Four thousand guards stood 
before the palace gates, and two thousand on 
each side. These advanced as Cyrus approach- 
ed ; two thousand spearmen followed them. 
These were succeeded by four square masses 
of Persian cavalry, each consisting of ten 
thousand men : and to these again were added, 
in their order, the Median, Armenian, Hyrca- 
nian, Caducian, and Sacian horsemen, — all, as 
before, " riding upon horses, every man in 
array," — with lines of chariots, fou.r abreast, 
concluding the train of the numerous hosts. 
Cyrus afterward reviewed, at Babylon, the 
whole of his army, consisting of one hundred 
and twenty thousand horse, two thousand 
chariots, and six hundred thousand foot. Baby- 
lon, which was taken when not aware, and 
within whose walls no enemy, except a cap- 
tive, had been ever seen, was thus " filled with 
men as with caterpillars," as if there had not 
been a wall around it. The Scriptures do not 
relate the manner in which Babylon was taken, 
nor do tliey ever allude to the exact fi.iifilment 
of the prophecies. But there is, in every par- 
ticular, a strict coincidence between the pre- 
dictions of the prophets and the historical 
narratives, both of Herodotus and Xenophon. 

3. Every step in the progress of the decline 
of Babylon was the accomplishment of a pro- 
phecy. Conquered, for the first time, by Cyrus, 
it was afterward reduced from an imperial to a 
tributary city. " Come down and sit in the 
dust, O daughter of Babylon : sit on the ground, 
there is no throne, O daughter of the Chal- 
deans." After the Babylonians rebelled against 
Darius, the walls were reduced in height, and 
all the gates destroyed. "The wall of Baby- 
lon shall fall, her walls are thrown down." — 
Xerxes, after his ignominious retreat from 
Greece, rifled the temples of Babylon, the 
golden images alone of which were estimated 
at 20,000,000Z, beside treasures of vast amount. 
" I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring 
forth out of his mouth that which he has swal- 
lowed up ; I will do judgment upon the graven 
images of Babylon." — Alexander the Great at. 
tempted to restore it to its former glory, and 
designed to make it the metropolis of a uni- 
versal empire. But while the building of the 
temple of Belus, and the reparation of the em., 
bankments of the Euphrates, were actually 
carrying on, the conqueror of the world died, 
at the commencement of this his last undertak- 
ing, in the height of his power, and in the 
flower of his age. " Take balm for her pain, 
if so be that she may be healed. We would 
have healed Babylon, but she is not healed." 
The building of the neighbouring city of Se- 
leucia was the chief cause of the decline of 
Babylon, and drained it of a great part of its 
population. And at a later period, or about 130 
years before the birth of Christ, Humerus, a 



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Parthian governor, who was noted as excelling 
all tyrants in cruelt)'-, exercised great severities 
on the Babylonians ; and having burned the 
forum and some of the temples, and destroyed 
the"' fairest parts of the city, reduced many of 
the inhabitants to slavery on the slightest pre- 
texts, and caused them, together with all their 
households, to be sent into Media. "They 
shall remove, they shall depart, both man and 
beast." The " golden city" thus gradually 
verged, for centuries, toward poverty and deso- 
lation. Notwithstanding that Cyrus resided 
chiefly at Babylon, and sought to reform the 
government, and remodel the manners of the 
Babylonians, the succeeding kings of Persia 
preferred, as the seat of empire, Susa, Persepo- 
lis, or Ecbatana, situated in their own country : 
and in like manner the successors of Alexan- 
der did not attempt to complete his purpose of 
restoring Babylon to its preeminence and glo- 
ry ; but, after the subdivision of his mighty em- 
pire, the very kings of Assyria, during their 
temporary residence even in Chaldea, deserted 
Babylon, and dwelt in Seleucia. And thus the 
foreign inhabitants, first Persians and afterward 
Greeks, imitating their sovereigns by deserting 
Babylon, acted as if they verily had said, " For- 
sake her, and let us go every man unto his own 
country ; for her judgment is reached unto 
heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies." 

4. But kindred judgments, the issue of com- 
mon crimes, rested on the land of Chaldea, as 
well as on its doomed metropolis. " They come 
from a far country, from the end of the earth, to 
destroy the whole land. Many nations and great 
kings shall serve themselves of thee also," &c. 
The Persians, the Macedonians, the Parthians, 
the Romans, the Saracens, and the Turks, are 
the chief of the many nations who have un- 
scrupulously and unsparingly "served them- 
selves" of the land of the Chaldeans : and Cyrus 
and Darius, kings of Persia ; Alexander the 
Great ; and Seleucus, king of Assyria ; De- 
metrius and Antiochus the Great ; Tragan, Se- 
vei*us, Julian, and Heraclius, emperors of Rome ; 
the victorious Omar, the successor of Moham. 
med ; Holagou, and Tamerlane, — are " great 
kings" v^^ho successively subdued or desolated 
Chaldea, or exacted from it tribute to such an 
extent, as scarcely any other country ever paid 
to a single conqueror. And though the names 
of some of these nations were unknown to the 
Babylonians, and unheard of in the world at 
the time of the prophecy, most of these " many 
nations and great kings" need now but to be 
named, to show that, in local relation to Chal- 
dea, "they came from the utmost border, from 
the coasts of the earth." — " I will punish the 
land of the ChaldeanSj and will make it per- 
petual desolations ; cut off the sower from Ba- 
bylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the 
time of harvest. A drougiit is on her waters, 
and they shall be dried up. Behold the hinder- 
most of the nations, a dry land and a desert." 
The land of the Chaldeans was indeed made — 
perpetual, or long continued, desolation. Ra- 
vaged and spoiled for ages, the Chaldees' excel- 
lency finally disappeared, and the land became 
desolate, as still it remains. Rauwolff, who 



passed through it in 1574, describes the coun 
try as bare, and " so dry and barren that it can- 
not be tilled." And tlie most recent travellers 
all concur in describing it in similar terms. On 
the one side, near to the site of Opis, "the 
country all around," says Mr. Buckingham, 
" appears to be one wide desert, of sandy and 
barren soil, thinly scattered over with brush- 
wood and tufts of reedy grass." On the other, 
between Bussorah and Bagdad, " immediately 
on either bank of the Tigris," observes Mignan, 
" is the vntrodden desert. The absence of all 
cultivation, the sterile, arid, and wild character 
of the whole scene, formed a contrast to the 
rich and delightful accounts delineated in Scrip- 
ture. The natives, in travelling over these 
pathless deserts, are compelled to explore their 
way by the stars." " The whole country be- 
tween Bagdad and Hillah is a perfectly flat and 
(with the exception of a few spots as you ap- 
proach the latter place) nncvltivated waste. 
That it was at some former peiiod in a far 
different state, is evident from the number of 
canals by which it is traversed, now dry and 
neglected ; and the quantity of heaps of earth 
covered with fragments of brick and broken tiles, 
which are seen in every direction, the indis- 
putable traces of former population. At present 
the only inhabitants of the tract are the Sobeide 
Arabs. Around, as far as the eye can reach is 
a tracJdess desert.'''' — " Her cities are desola- 
tions." The course of the Tigris through Ba- 
bylonia, instead of being adorned with cities, 
is marked with the sites of " ancient ruins." 
Sitace, Sabata, Narisa, Fuchera, Sendia, "no 
longer exist." A succession of longitudinal 
mounds, crossed at right angles by others, mark 
the supposed site of Artemita, or Destagered. 
Its once luxuriant gardens are covered with 
grass; and a higher mound distinguishes "the 
royal residence" from the ancient streets. " Ex- 
tensive ridges and mountains, (near to Hou- 
mania,) varying in height and extent, are seen 
branching in every direction." A wail, with 
sixteen bastions, is the only memorial of Apol- 
lonia. The once magnificent Seleucia is now a 
scene of desolation. There is not a single en- 
tire edifice, but the country is strewed for miles 
with fragments of decayed buildmgs. " As 
far," says Major Keppel, "as the eye could 
reach, the horizon presented a broken line of 
mxounds ; the whole of this place was a desert 
flat." On the opposite bank of the Tigris, where 
Ctesiphon its rival stood, beside fragments of 
walls and broken masses of brick work, and re- 
mains of vast structures encumbered with heaps 
of earth, there is one magnificent monument 
of antiquity "in a remarkably perfect state of 
preservation," "a large and noble pile of build- 
ing, the front of which presents to view a wall 
three hundred feet in length, adorned with four 
rows of arched recesses, with a central arch, 
in span eighty-six feet, and above a hundred 



feet high, supported by walls sixteen feet thick, 
and leading to a hall which extends to the depth 
of a hundred and fifty-six feet," the width of 
the building. A great part of the back wall, 
and of the roof, is broken down ; but that which 
remains " still appears much larger than West. 



BAB 



123 



BAB 



minster Abbey." It is supposed to have been 
the lofty palace of Chosroes ; but there desola- 
tion now reigns. " On the site of Ctesiphon," 
says Mignan, " the smallest insect under heaven 
would not find a single blade of grass wherein 
to hide itself, nor one drop of water to allay its 
■thirst." In the rear of the palace, and attach- 
ed to it, are mounds two miles in circumference, 
indicating the utter desolation of buildings, 
formed to minister to luxury. 

5. But let us come to the fulfilment of these 
wonderful prophecies in the present condition 
of Babylon itself, as described by those who 
have most recently visited it. 

" Babylon shall become heaps." Babylon the 
glory of kingdoms is now the greatest of ruins. 
** Immense tumuli of temples, palaces, and ha- 
bitations of every description," are every where 
seen, and form " long and varied lines of ruins," 
which, in some places, says Sir R. K. Porter, 
"rather resemble natural hills than mounds 
which cover the remains of great and splendid 
edifices." These buildings, which were once 
the labour of slaves and the pride of kings, are 
now misshapen heaps of rubbish. " The whole 
face of the country," observes Rich, "is cover- 
ed with vestiges of building, in some places 
consisting of brick walls surprisingly fresh, in 
others, merely a vast succession of mounds of 
rubbish, of such indeterminate figures, variety, 
and extent, as to involve the person who should 
have formed any theory in inextricable confu- 
sion." — "Let nothing of her be left." "Vast 
heaps constitute all that norv remains of ancient 
Babylon," says Rich. All its grandeur is de- 
parted ; all its treasures have been spoiled ; all 
its excellence has utterly vanished; the very 
heaps are searched for bricks, when nothing 
else can be found ; even these are not left, 
wherever they can be taken away ; and Baby- 
lon has for ages been " a quarry above ground," 
ready to the hand of every successive despoiler. 
Without the most remote allusion to this pro- 
phecy, Captain Mignan describes a mound at. 
tached to the palace, ninety yards in breadth 
by half that height, the whole of which is deeply 
furrowed, in the same manner as the generality 
of the mounds. "The ground is extremely 
soft, and tiresome to walk over, and appears 
completely exhausted of all its building mate- 
rials ; nothing now is left, save one towering- 
hill, the earth of which is mixed with, fragments 
of broken brick, red varnished pottery, tile, 
bitumen, mortar, glass, shells, and pieces of 
mother of pearl," — worthless fragments, of no 
value to the poorest. " From thence shall she 
be taken, let nothing of her be left." While 
the workmen " cast her up as heaps" while ex- 
cavating for bricks, that they mo,y " take" them 
"from thence," and that "nothing may be 
left ;" they labour more than trebly in the fulfil- 
ment of prophecy : for the numerous and deep 
excavations form pools of water, on the over- 
flowing of the Euphrates, and, annually filled, 
they are not dried up throughout the year. 
"Deep cavities are also formed by the Arabs, 
when digging for hidden treasure." Thus " the 
ground," says Buckingham, "is sometimes 
covered with pools of water in the hollows." 



"Sit in the dust, sit on the ground, O daugli 
ter of the Chaldeans." The surface of the 
mounds which form all that remains of Baby- 
lon, consists of decomposed buildings, reduced 
to dust; and over all the ancient streets and 
habitations, there is literally nothing but the 
dust of the ground on which to sit. — " Thy 
nakedness shall be uncovered." "Our path," 
says Captain Mignan, "lay through the great 
mass of ruined heaps on the site of ' shrunken 
Babylon ;' and I am perfectly incapable of con- 
veying an adequate idea of the dreary, lonely 
nakedness that appeared before me." — " Sit 
thou silent, and get thee into darkness." 
"There reigns throughout the ruins," says Sir 
R. K. Porter, " a silence profound as the grave." 
"Babylon is now a silent scene, a sublime 
solitude." — "It shall never be inhabited, nor 
dwelt in from generation to generation." From 
Rauwolfi''s testimony it appears that, in the 
sixteenth century, " there was not a house to 
be seen." And now "the eye wanders over a 
barren desert, in which the ruins are nearly 
the only indication that it had ever been in- 
habited." " It is impossible," adds Major Keppel, 
"to behold this scene and not to be reminded 
how exactly the predictions of Isaiah and Je- 
remiah have been fulfilled, even in the appear- 
ance Babylon was doomed to present, that ' she 
should never be inhabited;' that 'the Arabian 
should not pitch his tent there ;' that she 
should ' become heaps ;' that her cities should 
be ' a desolation, a dryland, and a wilderness.'" 
"Babylon is spurned alike by the heel of the 
Ottomans, the Israelites, and the sons of Ish- 
mael." It is " a tenantless and desolate me- 
tropolis," remarks Mignan. " It shall not be 
inhabited, but be wholly desolate. Neither 
shall the Arabian pitch tent there, neither shall 
the shepherds make their folds there." It was 
prophesied of Ammon that it should be a stable 
for camels and a couching place for flocks ; 
and of Philistia, that it should be cottages for 
shepherds, and a pasture of flocks. But Baby- 
lon was to be visited with a far greater desola. 
tion, and to become unfit or unsuited even for 
such a purpose ; and that neither a tent would 
be pitched there, even by an Arab, nor a fold 
made by a shepherd, implies the last degree of 
solitude and desolation. "It is common in 
these parts for shepherds to make use of ruined 
edifices to shelter their flocks in." But Baby- 
lon is an exception. Instead of taking the 
bricks from thence, the shepherd might very 
readily erect a defence from wild beasts, and 
make a fold for his flock amidst the heaps of 
Babylon ; and ':he Arab who fearlessly traverses 
it by day, might pitch his tent by night. But 
neither the one nor the other could now be 
persuaded to remain a single night among the 
ruins. The superstitious dread of evil spirits, 
far more than the natural terror of the wild 
beasts, effectually prevents them. Captain 
Mignan was accompanied by six Arabs, com- 
pletely armed ; but he " could not induce them 
to remain toward night, from the apprehension 
of evil spirits. It is impossible to eradicate 
this idea from the minds of this people, who 
are very deeply imbued with superstition," 



BAB 



124 



BAD 



"Wild beasts of the deserts shall lie there, 
and their houses shall be full of doleful crea- 
tures ; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs 
(goats) shall dance there," &c. " There are 
many dens of wild beasts in various parts. 
And while the lower excavations are often 
pools of water, in most of the cavities are num. 
bers of bats and owls." The king of the forest 
now ranges over the site of that Babylon which 
Nebuchadnezzar built for his own glory. And 
the temple of Belus, the greatest work of man, 
is now like unto a natural den of lions. Two 
or three majestic lions were seen upon its 
heights by Sir Robert Ker Porter, as he was 
approaching it ; and " the broad prints of their 
feet were left plain in the clayey soil." Major 
Keppel saw there a similar foot-print of a lion. 
It is also the unmolested retreat of jackalls, 
hyenas, and other noxious animals. "Wild 
beasts are numerous at the Mujelibe, as well as 
on Birs Nimrood. " The mound," says Kinneir, 
"was full of large holes: we entered some of 
them, and found them strewed with the car- 
casses and skeletons of animals recently killed. 
The ordure of wild beasts was so strong, that 
prudence got the better of curiosity ; for we 
had no doubt as to the savage nature of the 
inhabitants. Our guides, indeed, told us, that 
all the ruins abounded in lions, and other wild 
beasts: so literally has the divine prediction 
been fulfilled, that wild beasts of the deserts 
should lie tliere, and their houses be full of 
doleflil creatures ; that the wild beasts of the 
islands should cry in their desolate houses." 

"The sea is come upon Babylon. She is 
covered with the multitude of the waves there- 
of." The traces of the western bank of the 
Euphrates are now no longer discernible. The 
river overflows unrestrained ; and the very 
ruins, wath "every appearance of the embank- 
ment," have been swept awa,y. "The ground 
there is low and marshy, and presents not the 
.'^lightest vestige of former buildings, of any 
description whatever." " Jvlorasses and ponds," 
says Porter, "tracked the ground in various 
parts. For a long time after the general sub- 
siding of the Euphrates, great part of this plain 
is little better than a swamp," &c. " The ruins 
of Babylon are then inundated, so as to render 
many parts of them inaccessible, by converting 
the valleys among them into morasses." But 
while Babylon is thus "covered with the mul- 
titude of waves, and the waters come upon it ;" 
yet, in striking contrast and seeming contra- 
diction to such a feature of desolation, (like 
ihe- formation of "pools of water," from the 
"casting up of heaps,") are the elevated sun- 
burnt ruins, which the waters do not overflow, 
and the " dry waste" and " parched and burn, 
ing plain," on which the heaps of Babylon lie, 
equally prove that it is "a desert, a dry land, 
and a wilderness." One part, even on the 
western side of the river, is "low and marshy, 
and another," says Mignan, "an arid desert." 
Many other striking particulars might be 
collected ; and we may conclude in the words 
of Mr. Keith, from whose work on the prophe- 
cies several of the above particulars have been 
extracted: — "Is it possible that there can be 



any attestation of tlie truth of prophecy, if it be 
not witnessed here ■? Is there any spot on earth 
which has undergone a more complete trans- 
formation ? ' The records of the human race,' 
it has been said with truth, ' do not present a 
contrast more striking than that between the 
primeval magnificence of Babylon and its long 
desolation.' Its ruins have of late been care- 
fully and scrupulously examined by different 
natives of Britain, of unimpeached veracity ; 
and the result of every research is a more 
striking demonstration of the literal accom- 
plishment of every prediction. How few spots 
are there on earth of which we have so clear 
and faithful a picture as prophecy gave to fallen 
Babylon at a time when no spot on earth re- 
sembled it less than its present desolate solitary 
site ! or could any prophecies respecting any 
single place have been more precise, or won- 
derflil, or numerous, or true, or more gradually 
accomplished throughout many generations ? 
And when they look at what Babylon was, and 
what it is, and perceive the minute realization 
of them all, may not nations learn wisdom, 
may not tyrants tremble, and may not skeptics 
think ?" 

The reasons why prophecies so numerous 
and particular were recorded concerning Baby- 
lon, appear to have been, 1. That Babylon was 
the great oppressor of the Jew^s. 2. That it 
was the type of all the powerful persecuting 
enemies of the church of God, especially of 
Rome ; and in its fate they may read their own. 
3. That the accomplishment of prophecy in the 
destruction of so eminent an empire might give 
a solemn testimony to the truth of the Scrip, 
tures to the whole earth, and to all ages. 

BACKSLIDING, a falling off, or defection 
in matters of religion ; an apostasy, Acts xxi, 
21 ; 2 Thess. ii, 3 ; 1 Tun. iv, 1. This may be 
either partial or complete : partial, when it is 
in the heart, as Prov. xiv, 14 ; complete, as that 
described in Heb. vi, 4, &c ; x, 6, &c. On the 
latter passage Chrysostom observes, " When a 
house has a strong foundation, suppose an arch 
fall, some of the beams break, or a wall decline, 
while the foundation is good, these breaches 
may be repaired ; so in religion, whilst a per. 
son maintains the true doctrines, and remains 
on the firm rock, though he fall, true repent, 
ance may restore him to the favour and image 
of God : but as in a house, when the foimdation 
is bad, nothing can save the building from ruin ; 
so when heretical doctrines are admitted for a 
foundation, nothing can saA'-e the professor from 
destruction." It is important in interpreting 
these passages to keep it steadfastly in mind, 
that the apostasy they speak of is not only moral 
but doctrinal. 

BADGER, tj'nn. This word in a plural form 
occurs, Exod. xxv, 5 ; xxvi, 14 ; xxxv, 7, 23 ; 
xxxvi, 19 ; xxxix, 34 ; Num. iv, 6, 8, 10-12, 
14, 25; Ezek. xvi, 10; and is joined with my, 
skins used for the covering of the tabernacle in 
the wilderness. The Jewish interpreters are 
agreed as to its being some animal. Jarchi 
says it was a beast of many colours, which no 
more exists. Kimchi holds the same opi- 
nion. Aben Ezra thinks it some animal of the 



BAL 



125 



BAL 



bovine kind, of whose skins shoes are made ; 
alluding to Ezek. xvi, 10. Most modern inter- 
preters have taken it to be the badger, and 
among these our English translators; but, in 
the first place, the badger is not an inhabitant 
of Arabia ; and there is nothing in its skin pe- 
culiarly proper either for covering a tabernacle 
or making shoes. Hasseus, Michaelis, and 
others, have laboured to prove that it is the 
mermaid, or homo marinus, the tricheJcu^ of 
Linnaeus. Faber, Dathe, and Rosenmuller, 
think that it is the seal, or sea calf, vitulus 
marinus, the skin of which is both strong and 
pliable, and was accounted by the ancients as 
a most proper outer covering for tents, and 
was also made into shoes, as Rau has clearly 
shov/n. Niebahr says, " A mercTiant of Abu- 
shahr called dahash that fish which the cap- 
tains in English vessels call porpoise, and the 
Germans, sea hog. In my voyage from Mas- 
kat to Abushahr, I saw a prodigious quantity 
together near Ras ^lussendom, that were all 
going the same way, and seemed to swim with 
great veliemence." Bochart thinks that not 
an animal, but a colour, was intended, Exodus 
XXV, 5; so that the covering of the tabernacle 
was to be azure, or sky blue. 

BAG, a purse or pouch, Dent, xxv, 13 ; 
1 Sam. xvii, 40 ; Luke xii, 33 ; Job xiv, 17. 
The money collected in the treasuries of eastern 
princes was reckoned up in certain equal sums, 
put into bags and scaled. These are, in some 
parts of the Levant, called purses, where they 
estimate great expenses by so many purses. 
The money collected in the temple in the time 
of Joash, for its reparation, seems, in like man. 
ner, to have been told up in bags of equal value ; 
and these were probably delivered sealed to 
those who paid the workmen, 2 Kings xii, 10. 
In the east, in the present day, a bag of money 
passes, for some time at least, currently from 
hand to hand, under the authority of a banker's 
seal, without any examination of its contents. 
See Tobit ix, .5 ; xi, 16. 

BAKING BREAD. Abraham directed Sa- 
rah to bake cakes upon the hearth, for the use 
of the strangers who had visited him, Genesis 
xviii, 6. Elijah requests the same of the v;idow 
of Zarephath, 1 Kings xvii, 13. Amnon tlie son 
of David requests Tamar his sister to come and 
meike cakes in his sight, that he might eat at 
her hand, 2 Sam. xiii, 6. These and other allu- 
sions to the preparation of bread will be ex- 
plained by referring to eastern customs. Rau- 
wolff observes that travellers frequently bake 
bread in the deserts of Arabia, on the ground 
heated for that purpose by fire, covering their 
cakes of bread with ashes and coals, and turn, 
ing them several times till they are baked. 
The eastern bread is made in small thm cakes, 
and is generally eaten new. Sometimes it was 
however made to keep several days, as the 
shew bread ; and a sort of rusks, or bread for 
travelling, Joshua ix, 12. The eastern ladies 
of rank otlen prepare cakes, pastry, &c, in their 
own apartments. 

BALAAM, a prophet of the city of Pethor, 
or Bosor, upon the Euphrates, whose inter- 
course with Balak, king of the Moabites, who 



sent for him to curse the Israelites, is recoxded 
at large by Moses, Num. xxii-xxiv. It has 
been a subject of controversy, whether Balaam 
was a true prophet or a mere diviner, magician, 
or fortune teller. Origen says that his whole 
power consisted in magic and cursing. Theo- 
doret is of opinion that Balaam did not consult 
the Lord, but that he was supernaturally in- 
spired, and constrained to speak against his 
own inclination. Cyril says that he was a ma- 
gician, an idolater, and a false prophet, who 
spoke truth against his will ; and St. Ambrose 
compares him to Caiaphas, who prophesied 
without being aware of the import of what he 
said. Jerom seems to have adopted the opinion 
of the Hebrews ; which was, that Balaam knew 
the true God, erected altars to him, and that he 
was a true prophet, though con-upted by ava- 
rice. Num. xxii, 18. St. Austin and other com- 
mentators have inclined to this opinion. Dr. 
Jortin supposes that Balaam was a worshipper 
of the true God, and a priest and propliet of 
great reputation ; and that he was sent for by 
Balak from a notion which generally prevail- 
ed, that priests and prophets could sometimes, 
by prayers and sacrifices duly and skilfiilly ap- 
plied, obtain favours from God, and that their 
imprecations were efficacious. He conceives 
that the prophet had been accustomed to reve- 
lations, and that he used to receive them in 
visions, or in dreams of the night. It cannot 
be denied that the Scripture expressly calls him 
a prophet, 2 Pet. ii, 15, and therefore those are 
probably right who think that lie had once been 
a good man and a true prophet, till, loving the 
wages of unrighteousness, and prostituting the 
honour of his office to covetousness, he aposta- 
tized from God, and, betaking himself to idola- 
trous practices, fell under the delusion of the 
devil, of whom he learned all his magical en- 
chantments : though at this juncture, when the 
preservation of his people was concerned, it 
might be consistent with God's wisdom to ap- 
pear to him and overrule his mind by the im- 
pulse of real revelations. As to what passed 
between him and his ass, when that animal 
was miraculously enabled to speak to its mas- 
ter, commentators are divided in their opinions ; 
whether it really and literally happened as Mo- 
ses relates it, or whether it be an allegory only, 
or was the mere imagination or vision of Ba. 
laam. But St. Peter evidently mentions it as 
a fact literally and certainly occurring: "the' 
dumb ass, speaking with man's voice, when she 
forbade the madness of the prophet," 2 Pet. ii,. 
16. This, it is true, has frequently been made- 
the subject of profane banter by those whose' 
skepticism leads them to scoff at all prodigies. 
But how absurd is it to subject a miraculous^ 
event to the ordinary rules of reasoning ! " Say 
what you will of the formation of the tongue 
and jaws being unfit for speaking," says Bishop- 
Newton, "yet an adequate cause is assigned 
for this wonderful event ; for it is expressly 
said that ' the Lord opened the mouth of the 
ass ;' and who that beheves a God, can daubt 
his power to do this and much more ? The 
miracle was by no means needless or superflu- 
ous ; it was well adapted to convince Balaam 



J3AL 



126 



BAL 



that the mouth and tongue were under God's 
direction, and that the same divine power which 
caused the dumb ass to speak contrary to its 
nature, could, in like manner, make him utter 
blessings contrary to his inclination. And, 
accordingly, he was overruled to bless the peo- 
ple, though he came prepared and disposed to 
curse them ; which was the greater miracle of 
the two ; for the ass was merely passive, but 
Balaam resisted the good motions of God." 
The prophecy which Balaam delivered con- 
cerning Israel on this remarkable occasion, and 
which is contained in Numbers xxiv, 5-9, has 
been greatly admired by critics. Bishop Lowth, 
in particular, remarks that he knows nothing 
in the whole scope of the Hebrew poetry more 
exquisite or perfect. " It abounds," says he, 
" in splendid imagery, copied immediately from 
the tablet of nature ; and is chiefly conspicuous 
for the glowing elegance of the style, and the 
form and diversity of the figures." 

After his predictions, Balaam returned into 
his own country ; but before he left the land 
of Moab, as if vexed with his own disappoint- 
ment in missing the promised reward, and with 
a purpose of revenging himself on the Israel- 
ites, as the cause of it, he instructed the Moab- 
ites and Midianites in a wicked scheme, which 
was to send their daughters into the camp of 
the Israelites, in order to draw them first into 
lewdness, and then into idolatry, the cer- 
tain means of depriving them of the help of 
that God who protected them. This artifice 
succeeded; for as the Israelites lay encamped 
at Shittim, many of them were deluded by these 
strange women, not only to commit whoredom 
with them, but to assist at their sacrifices, and 
worship their god Baal-Peor, Num. xxv, 1-3 ; 
xxxi, 16 ; Mic. vi, 5 ; 2 Pet. ii, 15 ; Jude 11 ; Rev. 
ii, 14 ; Deut. xxiii, 4, 5 ; Joshua xxiv, 9, 10 ; Neh. 
xiii, 2. God commanded Moses to avenge this 
crime. He therefore declared war against the 
Midianites, killed five of their princes, and a 
great number of other persons without distinc- 
tion of age or sex, among whom was Balaam 
himself. 

Moses says that Balaam consulted the Lord, 
and calls the Lord his God : "I cannot go be- 
yond the commandment, of the Lord my God," 
Num. xxii, 18. The reason why Balaam calls 
Jehovah, " my God" may be, because he was of 
the posterity of Shem, who maintained the 
worship of Jehovah, not only in his own per- 
son, but among his descendants ; so that while 
the posterity of Ham fell into idolatry, and the 
posterity of Japhet were settled at a distance in 
Europe, the Shemites generally, though not 
universally, retained the worship of God. 

BALDNESS is a natural effect of old age, in 
which period of life the hair of the head, want- 
ing nourishment, falls off, and leaves the head 
naked. Artificial baldness was used as a token 
of mourning ; it is threatened to the voluptu- 
ous daughters of Israel, instead of well set hair, 
Isaiah iii, 24. See Mic. i, 16 ; and instances 
of it occur, Isaiah xv, 2 ; Jer. xlvii, 5. See 
Ezek, vii, 18 ; Amos viii, 10. 

The insult offered to Elisha by the young 
people of Bethel, improperly rendered *' little 



children," who cried out after him, " Go up, 
thou bald head," may here be noticed. The 
town of Bethel was one of the principal nur- 
series of Ahab's idolatry, and the contempt was 
offered to Elisha in his public character as a 
prophet of the Lord. If in the expression, " Go 
up," there was also a reference to the transla- 
tion of Elijah, as turning it into jest, this was 
another aggravation of the sin, to which these 
young people were probably instigated by their 
parents. The malediction laid upon them by 
the prophet was not an act of private resent- 
ment, but evidently proceeded from prophetic 
impulse. 

BALM, n^. Gen. xxxvii, 25 ; xliii, 11 ; Jer. 
viii, 22 ; xlvi, 11 ; Ii, 8 ; Ezek.xxvii, 17. Balm, 
or balsam, is used with us as a common name 
for many of those oily resinous substances, 
which flow spontaneously or by incision, from 
certain trees or plants, and are of considerable 
use in medicine and surgery. It serves there- 
fore very properly to express the Hebrew word 
ns, which the LXX have rendered priThtj, and 
the ancients have interpreted resin indiscrimi- 
nately. 

BALSAM TREE, pm-^V^ ; in Arabic, abus- 
cham, that is, " father of scent," sweet-scented. 
According to Mr. Bruce, the balessan, balsavi, 
or balm, is an evergreen shrub, or tree, which 
grows to about fourteen feet high, spontane- 
ously and without culture in its native country, 
Azab, and all along the coast to Babelmandel. 
There w^ere three kinds of balsam extracted 
from this tree. The first was called opobalsa- 
mwn, and was most highly esteemed. It was 
that which flowed spontaneously, or by means 
of incision, from the trunk or branches of the 
tree in summer time. The second was carpo- 
balsammn, made by expressing the fruit when in 
maturity. The third, and least esteemed of all, 
was hylobalsamum, made by a decoction of the 
buds and small young twigs. The great value 
set upon this di'ug in the east is traced to the 
earliest ages. The Ishmaelites, or Arabian 
carriers and, merchants, trafficking with the 
Arabian commodities into Egypt, brought with 
them i~\i as a part of their cargo, Gen. xxxAdi, 
25; xliii, 11. Josephus, in the history of the 
antiquities of his country, says that a tree of 
this balsam was brought to Jerusalem by the 
queen of Saba, and given among other presents 
to Solomon, who, as we know from Scripture, 
was very studious of all sorts of plants, and 
skilful in the description and distinction of 
them. And here, indeed, it seems to have been 
cultivated and to have thriven ; so that the place 
of its origin, through length of time, combined 
with other reasons, came to be forgotten. Not- 
withstanding the positive authority of Josephus, 
and the great probability that attends it, we 
cannot put it in competition with what we have 
been told in Scripture, as we have just noAV seen 
that the place where it grew, and was sold to 
merchants, was Gilead in Judea, more than 
1730 years before Christ, or 1000 before the 
queen of Saha ; so that in reading the verse, 
nothing can be plainer than that it had been 
transplanted into Judea, flourished, and had 
become an article of commerce in GUead, long 



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before the period he mentions. "A company 
of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their 
camels, bearing spicery and bahn, and myrrh, 
going to carry it down to Egypt," Gen. xxxvii, 
25. Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny, Strabo, 
Diodonis Siculus, Tacitus, Justin, Solinus, and 
Serapion, speaking of its costliness and medi- 
cinal virtues, all say that this balsam came from 
Judea. The words of Pliny are, " But to all 
other odours whatever, the balsam is preferred, 
produced in no other part but the land of Ju- 
dea, and even there in two gardens only ; both 
of them belonging to the king, one no more 
than twenty acres, the other still smaller." The 
whole valley of Jericho was once esteemed the 
most fruitful in Judea ; and the obstinacy with 
which the Jews fought here to prevent the bal- 
sam trees from falling into the possession of 
the Romans, attests the importance which was 
attached to them. This tree Pliny describes as 
peculiar to the vale of Jericho, and as "more 
like a vine than a myrtle." It was esteemed 
so precious a rarity, that both Pompey and Ti- 
tus carried a specimen to Rome in triumph; 
and the balsam, owing to its scarcity, sold for 
double its weight in silver, till its high price led 
to the practice of adulteration. Justin makes 
it the chief source of the national wealth. He 
describes the country in which it grew, as a 
valley like a garden, environed with continual 
hills, and, as it were, enclosed with a wall. 
"The space of the valley contains 200,000 
acres, and is called Jericho. In that valley, 
there is wood as admirable for its fruitfulness 
as for its delight, for it is intermingled with 
palm trees and opobalsamum. The trees of the 
opobalsamum have a resemblance to fir trees ; 
but they are lower, and are planted and hus- 
banded after the manner of vines. On a set 
season of the year they sweat balsam. The 
darkness of the place is beside as wonderful as 
the fruitfulness of it ; for although the sun 
shines no where hotter in the world, there is 
naturally a moderate and perpetual gloominess 
of the air." According to Mr. Buckingham, 
this description is most accurate. " Both the 
heat and the gloominess," he says, " were ob- 
served by us, though darkness would be an im- 
proper term to apply to this gloom." 

BANGORIAN CONTROVERSY, a con- 
troversy that arose with Dr. Hoadly, bishop of 
Bangor. That pi"elate, in a sermon preached 
before George I, asserted that Christ was su- 
preme in his own kingdom ; that he had not 
delegated his power, like temporal lawgivers 
during their absence, to any persons as his 
vicegerents or deputies ; and that the church 
of England, as all other national churches, 
was merely a civil or human institution, esta- 
blished for the purpose of diffusing and per- 
petuating the knowledge and belief of Chris- 
tianity. On the meeting of the convocation, a 
committee was appointed to examine this pub. 
iication. A heavy censure was passed against 
it, as tending to subvert all government and 
discipline in the church of Christ, to reduce 
his kingdom to a state of anarchy and confu- 
sion, and to impugn and impeach the royal 
supremacy in matters ecclesiastical, and the au- 



thority of the legislature to enforce obedience 
in matters of religion, by severe sanction. To 
these proceedings a sudden stop was put by 
proroguing the convocation ; but the contro- 
versy which had been commenced was con- 
tinued for several years. 

BANNER, an ensign, or standard, used by 
armies or caravans on their journeys in the 
eastern countries. The original '?Jn, is ren- 
dered by lexicographers and translators vmder 
this word, as a noun, in which form it often 
occurs, a standard, banner; as a verb, once, to 
set up a banner; Psalm xx, 5 ; as a participle 
pahul, vexillatus, one distinguished by a ban- 
ner, the chief; as a participle niplial, bannered, 
or with banners. The meaning of the root is 
illustrated by the very ingenious and sensible 
author of " Observations on Divers Passages 
of Scripture," who shows, from Pitts and Po- 
cocke, that, " as in Arabia and the neighbouring 
countries, on account of the intense heat of the 
sun by day, people generally choose to travel 
in the night; so, to prevent confusion in their 
large caravans, particularly in the annual one 
to Mecca, each company, of which the cara- 
van consists, has its distinct portable beacon, 
which is carried on the top of a pole, and con- 
sists of several lights, which are somewhat like 
iron stoves, into which they put short dry 
wood, with which some of the camels arc 
loaded. Every company has one of these poles 
belonging to it; some of which have ten, some 
twelve, of these lights on their tops, more or 
less ; and they are likewise of different figures, 
as well as numbers ; one, perhaps, in an oval 
shape ; another, triangular, or in tho form of 
an M, or N, «Stc, so that by these every one 
knows his respective company. They are car. 
ried in the front, and set up in the place where 
the caravan is to pitch, before that comes up, 
at some distance from one another. As tra- 
veiling then in the night must be, generally 
speaking, more agreeable to a great multitude 
in that desert, we may believe a compassionate 
God, for the most part, directed Israel to move 
in the night. And in consequence, must we 
not rather suppose the standards of the tribes 
were movable beacons, like those of the Mecca 
pilgrims, than flags or any thing of that kind ?" 
This ingenious author seems, however, to for- 
get, 1. That the pillar of fire was with the 
Israelites to direct their marches. 2. That the 
Israelites were not a mere caravan, but an ar.. 
my ; and, as such, for order, required standards 
as well by day as by night. See Armies. 

BANQUET. The hospitality of the present 
day in the east exactly resembles that of the 
remotest antiquity. The parable of the "great 
supper" is in those countries literally realized. 
And such was the hospitality of ancient Greece 
and Rome. When a person provided an en- 
tertainment for his friends or neighbours, he 
sent round a number of servants to invite the 
guests ; these were called vocatores by the Ro- 
mans, and K\riTU}^ei by the Greeks. The day 
when the entertainment is to be given is fixed 
some considerable time before ; and in the even- 
ing of the day appointed, a messenger cornea 
to bid the guests to the feast. The custom is 



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thus introduced in Luke: "A certain man 
made a great supper, and bade many ; and sent 
his servant at supper time to say to them that 
were bidden, Come, for all things are now 
ready." They were not now asked for the first 
time ; but had already accepted the invitation, 
when the day was appointed, and were there- 
fore already pledged to attend at the hour when 
they might be summoned. They were not 
taken unprepared, and could not in consistency 
and decency plead any prior engagement. They 
could not now refuse, without violating their 
word, and insulting the master of the feast, 
and, therefore, justly subjected themselves to 
punishment. The terms of the parable exactly 
accord with established custom. The Jews did 
not always follow the same method ; sometimes 
they sent a number of servants different ways 
among the friends they meant to invite ; and at 
other times, a single male domestic. 

The Persians send a deputation to meet their 
guests : this deputation are called openers of 
the way ; and the more distinguished the per- 
sons sent, and the greater the distance to which 
they go, so much greater is the honour. So it 
is proclaimed, "Go forth and behold king So- 
lomon, with the crown wherewith his mother 
crowned him." " The bridegroom cometh, go 
ye forth to meet him." The names of the per- 
sons to be invited were inscribed upon tablets, 
and the gate was set open to receive those who 
had obtained them ; but to prevent any getting 
in that had no ticket, only one leaf of the door 
was left open ; and that was strictly guarded by 
the servants of the family. Those who were 
admitted had to go along a narrow passage to 
the room ; and after all who had received tick- 
ets of admission were assembled, the master of 
the house rose and shut to the door ; and then 
the entertainment began. The first ceremony, 
after the guests arrived at the house of enter- 
tainment, was the salutation performed by the 
master of the house, or one appointed in his 
place. Among the Greeks, this was sometimes 
done by embracing with arms around ; but the 
most common salutation was by the conjunc- 
tion of their right hands, the right hand being- 
reckoned a pledge of fidelity and friendship. 
Sometimes they kissed the lips, hands, knees, 
or feet, as the person deserved more or less 
respect. The Jews welcomed a stranger to 
their house in the same way ; for our Lord com- 
|)lainsto Simon, that he had given him no kiss, 
had welcomed him to his table with none of 
the accustomed tokens of respect. 

The custom of reclining was introduced from 
the nations of the east, and particularly from 
Persia, where it seems to have been adopted at 
31 very remote period. The Old Testament 
Scriptures allude to both customs; but the}' 
furnish undeniable proofs of the antiquity of 
sitting. As this is undoubtedly the most 
natural and dignified posture, so it seems to 
have been universally adopted by the first ge- 
nerations of men ; and it was not till after the 
lapse of many ages, and when degenerate man 
had lost much of the firmness of his primitive 
character, that he began to recline. 

The tables were constructed of three dif- 



ferent parts or separate tables, making but one 
in the whole. One was placed at the upper 
end crossways, and the two others joined to its 
ends, one on each side, so as to leave an open 
space between, by which the attendants could 
readily wait at all the three. Round these 
tables were placed beds or couches, one to each 
table; each of these beds Vv'as called clinium; 
and three of these being united, to surround 
the three tables, made the triclinivm. At the 
end of each clinium was a footstool, for the 
convenience of mounting up to it. These beds 
were formed of mattresses, and supported on 
frames of wood, often highly ornamented; the 
mattresses were covered with cloth or tapestry, 
according to the quality of the entertainer. At 
the splendid feast which Ahasuerus made for 
the nobles of his kingdom, beds of silver and 
gold were placed round the tables ; according 
to a custom in the east of naming a thing from 
its principal ornament, these must have been 
couches profusely ornamented with the precious 
metals. Each guest inclined the superior part 
of his body upon his left arm, the lower part 
being stretched out at length, or a little bent ; 
his head was raised up, and his back sometimes 
supported with pillows. In conversation, those 
who spoke raised themselves almost upright, 
supported by cushions. When they ate, they 
raised themselves on their elbow, and made use 
of the right hand ; which is the reason our 
Lord mentions the hand of Judas in the singu- 
lar number : " He that dippeth his hand with 
me in the dish, the same shall ' betray me," 
Matt, xxvi, 23. See Accusation. 

When a Persian comes into an assembly, and 
has saluted the house, he then measures with 
his eye the place ip which his degree of rank 
entitles him ; he straightway wedges himself 
into the line of guests, without offering any 
apology for the general disturbance which he 
produces. It often happens that persons take 
a higher seat than that to which they are en- 
titled. The Persian scribes are remarkable for 
their arrogance in this respect, in which they 
seem to bear a striking resemblance to the 
Jews of the same profession in the days of our 
Lord. The master of the entertainment has, 
however, the privilege of placing any one as 
high in the rank of the assembly as he may 
choose. And Mr. Morier saw an instance of 
it at a public entertainment to which he Avas 
invited. When the assembly was nearly flill, 
the governor of Kashan, a man of humble 
mien, although of considerable rank, came in 
and seated himself at the lowest place ; when 
the master of the house, after numerous ex- 
pressions of welcome, pointed with his hand to 
an upper seat in the assembly, to which he de- 
sired him to move, and which he accordingly 
did. These circumstances furnish a beautifixl 
and striking illustration of the parable which 
our Lord uttered, when he saw how those that 
were invited chose the highest places. 

Before the Greeks went to an entertainment, 
they washed and anointed themselves; for it 
was thought very indecent to appear on such 
an occasion, defiled with sweat and dust ; but 
they who came off a journey were washed, an^ 



BAN 



129 



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clothed with suitable apparel, in the house of 
the entertainer, before they were admitted to 
the feast. When Telemachus and Pisistratus 
arrived at the palace of Menelaus, in the course 
of their wanderings, they were immediately 
supplied with water to wash, and with oil to 
anoint, themselves, before they took their seats 
by the side of the king. The oil used on such 
occasions, in the palaces of nobles and princes, 
was perfumed with roses and other odoriferous 
herbs. They also washed their hands before 
they sat down to meat. To these customary 
marks of respect, to which a traveller, or one 
wlio had no house of his own, was entitled, our 
Lord alludes in his defence of Mary : " And he 
turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, 
Seest thou this woman ? I entered into thine 
house ; thou gavest me no water for my feet, 
but she hath washed my feet with her tears, 
and wiped them with the hairs of her head. 
Thou gavest me no kiss ; but this woman, since 
the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my 
feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint ; 
but this woman liath anointed my feet with 
ointment," Luke vii, 44. Homer mentions it 
as a custom quite common in those days, for 
daughters to wash and afterward to anoint the 
feet of their parents. Our Saviour was in the 
circumstances of a traveller ; he had no home 
to wash and anoint himself in, before he went 
to Simon's house ; and, therefore, liad a right 
to complain that his ejitertainer had failed in 
the respect that was due to him as a stranger, 
at a distance from the usual place of his resi- 
dence. The Jervi's regularly washed their hands 
and their feet before dinner ; they considered 
this ceremony as essential, which discovers the 
reason of their astonishment, when they ob- 
served the disciples of Christ sit down at table 
without having observed this ceremony : " Why 
do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the 
eiders? for they wash not their hands when 
they eat bread," Matt, xv, 2. After meals they 
wash them again : for, says the evangelist, 
"the Pharisees and all the Jews, except they 
wash their hands oflt, eat not, holding the tra- 
dition of the elders," Mark vii, 3, 4. When 
they washed their liands themselves, they 
plunged them into the water up to the wrists ; 
but when others performed this office for them, 
it was done by pouring it upon their hands. 
The same custom prevailed in Greece, for 
Homer says, the attendants poured water on 
the hands of their chiefs. This was a part of 
the service which EHslia performed for his 
master Elijah ; and in every instance under the 
law where water was applied to the body by 
another, it was done, not by plunging, but by 
pouring or sprinkling. To wash the feet w^as 
a mean and servile office, and, therefore, gene- 
rally performed by the female servants of the 
family. It was occasionally performed, how- 
ever, by females of the highest rank; for the 
daughter of Cleobulus, one of the Grecian 
sages, and king of Lindus, a city on the south- 
east part of Rhodes, was not ashamed to wash 
the feet of her father's guests. And it was 
customary for them to kiss the feet of those 
to whom they thought a more than common 
10 



respect was due ; for the daughter of Philocleofi, 
in Aristophanes, washed her father, anointed' 
his feet, and, stooping down, kissed them. 
The towel which was used to wipe the feet 
after washing, w^as considered through all the 
east as a badge of servitude. Suetonius men- 
tions it as a sure mark of the intolerable pride 
of Caligula, the Roman emperor, that wlien at 
supper he suffered senators of the highest rank, 
sometimes to stand by his couch, sometimes at 
his feet, girt with a towel. Hence it appears 
that this honour was a token of humiliation, 
which was not, however, absolutely degrading 
and inconsistent with all regard to rank. Yet 
our blessed Redeemer did not refuse to give his 
disciples, and Judas Iscariot himself, that proof 
of his love and humility. 

The entertainment was conducted by a sym- 
posiarch, or governor of the feast. He was, 
says Plutarch, one chosen among the guests, 
the most pleasant and diverting in the com- 
pany, that would not get drunk, and yet would 
drink freely ; he was to rule over the rest, to 
forbid any disorder, but to encourage their 
mirth. He observed the temper of the guests, 
and how the wine worked upon them ; how 
every one could bear his wine, and to endea^ 
vour accordingly to keep them all in harmony, 
and in an even composure, that there might be 
no disquiet nor disturbance. To do this effect- 
ually, he first proclaimed liberty to every one 
to drink what he thought proper, and then ob- 
serving who among them was most ready to 
be disordered, mixed more water with his wine, 
to keep him equally sober with the rest of the 
company; so that this officer took care that 
none should be forced to drink, and that notie, 
though left to their own choice, should get 
intoxicated. Such, v/e have reason to believe, 
was the goA'^ernor of the feast at the marriage 
in Cana of Galilee, \\'hich our Lord honoured 
with his presence. Tiie term ap;(^trp(KX(vo5 lite- 
rally signifies the governor of a place furnished 
with three beds ; and he acted as one having 
authority ; for he tasted the wine before he 
distributed it to tlie comj^any, which, it is uni- 
versally admitted, was one of the duties of a 
symposiarch. Neither the name nor the act 
accords with the character and situation of a 
guest ; he must, therefore, have been the sym- 
posiarch, or governor of the feast. The exist- 
ence of such an officer among the Jews is 
placed beyond a doubt, by a passage in the 
apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus, where his 
office is thus described : "If thou be made the 
master of a feast, lift not thyself up, but be 
among them as one of the rest ; take diligent 
care of them, and so sit down. And when 
thou hast done all thine office, take thy place, 
that thou mayest be merry with them, and re- 
ceive a crown for the well-ordering of the feast," 
Ecclesiasticus xxxii, L See Architriclinus. 
BAPTISM, from the Greek word panri^o), is 
a rite or ceremony by which persons are 
initiated into the profession of the Christian 
religion ; or, it is the appointed mode by which 
a person assumes the profession of Christianity, 
or is admitted to a participation of the privi- 
leges belonging to the disciples of Christ. It 



BAP 



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BAP 



was by this mode that those who beheved the 
Gospel were to be separated from unbelievers, 
and joined to the visible Christian church ; and 
the rite accompanying it, or washing with wa- 
ter, was probably intended to represent the 
washing away, or renouncing, the impurities 
of some former state, viz. the sins that had 
been committed, and the vicious habits that 
had been contracted; and to this purpose it 
may be observed, that the profession of repent- 
ance always accompanied, or was understood 
to accompany, the profession of faith in Christ. 
That our Lord instituted such an ordinance as 
baptism, is plain from the commission given to 
the Apostles after his resurrection, and record- 
ed in Matt, xxviii, 19, 20. To this rite there 
is also an allusion in Mark xvi, 16 ; John iii, 5 ; 
Acts ii, 41 ; viii, 12, 36-38 ; xxii, 16. The de- 
sign of this institution, which was to express 
faith in Christ on the part of those who were 
baptized, and to declare their resolution of 
openly professing his religion, and cultivating 
real and universal holiness, appears from Rom. 
vi, 3, 4; 1 Peter iii, 21; Ephes. v, 26; and 
Titus iii, 5. We find no account of baptism 
as a distinct religious rite, before the mission 
of John, the forerunner of Christ, who was 
called the " Baptist," on account of his being 
commanded by God to baptize with water all 
who should hearken to his invitation to repent. 
Washing, hov/ever, accompanied many of the 
Jewish rites, and, indeed, was required after 
contracting any kind of uncleanness. Also, 
soon after the time of our Saviour, we find it 
to have been the custom of the Jews solemnly 
to baptize, as well as to circumcise, all their 
proselytes. As their writers treat largely of 
the reasons for this rite, and give no hint of its 
being a novel institution, it is probable that 
this had always been the custom antecedent 
to the time of Moses, whose account of the 
rite of circumcision, and of the manner of per- 
forming it, is by no means circumstantial. Or, 
baptism, after circumcision, might have come 
into use gradually from the natural propriety 
of the thing, and its easy conformity to other 
Jewish customs. For if no Jew could approach 
the tabernacle, or temple, after the most trifling 
uncleanness, without washing, much less would 
it be thought proper to admit a proselyte from 
a state so impure and unclean as Heathenism 
was conceived to be, v/ithout the same mode 
of purification. The antiquity of this practice 
of proselyte baptism among the Jews, has been 
a subject of considerable debate among divines. 
It is strenuously maintained by Lightfoot. Dr. 
John Owen considers the opinion, that Chris- 
tian baptism came from the Jews, as destitute 
of all probability. On the other hand, Mr. Wall 
has made it highly probable, to say the least, 
from many testimonies of the Jewish writers, 
who without one dissenting voice allow the 
fact, that the practice of Jewish baptism ob- 
tained before and at, as well as after, our Sa. 
viour's time. There is also a strong intimation, 
even in the Gospel itself, of such a known prac- 
tice among the Jews in the time of John the 
Baptist, John i, 25. Tlie testimonies of the 
Jewish writers are of the greater weight, be- 



cause the practice, reported by them to have 
been of so ancient a date, did still remain 
among them ; for if it had not been of thai 
antiquity to which it pretends, viz. before the 
time of Christ, it is not likely that it woulc 
ever have become a custom among the Jewe 
afterward. Would they begin to proselyte per 
sons to their religion by baptism in imitatior 
of the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth, whoir 
they held accursed ? And yet if this proselytt 
baptism were adopted by the Jews since tht 
time of Christ, it must have been a mere inno. 
vation in imitation of Christians, which is no' 
very likely. This ceremony is performed bj 
immersion in the oriental churches. The prac 
tiee of the western churches is, to sprinkle th« 
water on the head or face of the person to b« 
baptized, except in the church of Milan, ir 
whose ritual it is ordered, that the head of th< 
infant be plunged three times into the water 
the minister at the same time pronouncing th< 
words, " / baptize thee in the 7iame of the Fa 
iher, the Son, and the Holy Ghost;" importing 
that by this ceremony the person baptized ii 
received among the professors of that religioi 
which God, the Father of all, revealed to man 
kind by the ministry of his Son, and eonfirme« 
by the miracles of his Spirit. 

2. It is observable that the baptismal form 
above cited from St. Matthew, never occurs h 
the same words, either in the book of the Acts 
or in any of the Epistles. But though the forn 
in St. Matthew never appears elsewhere, th* 
thing intended thereby is alVvays implied 
There are many ceremonies delivered by ec 
clesiastical writers, as used in baptism, whicl 
were introduced after the age of Justin Martyr 
but which are now disused ; as the giving mill 
' and honey to the baptized, in the east ; win( 
and milk, in the west, &c. They also adde( 
unction and the imposition of hands. Ter 
tullian is the first who mentions the signing 
with the sign of the cross, but only as used ii 
private, and not in public worship; and b 
particularly describes the custom of baptizing 
without it. Indeed, it does not appear to hav( 
been used in baptism till the latter end of th( 
fourth or fifth century; at which time grea 
virtue was ascribed to it. Lactantius, wh< 
lived in the beginning of the fourth century 
says the devil cannot approach those who hav( 
the heavenly mark of the cross upon them a 
an inipregnable fortress to defend them ; bu 
he does not say it was used in baptism. Afte 
the council of Nice, Christians added to bap 
tismthe ceremonies of exorcism and adjuration 
to make evil spirits depart from the persons t( 
be baptized. They made several signings witl 
the cross, they used lighted candles, they gaY( 
salt to the baptized person to taste, and th( 
priest touched his moulh and ears with spittle 
and also blew and spat upon his face. At tha 
time also baptized persons wore white garment 
till the Sunday following. They had also va 
rious other ceremonies ; some of which an 
now abolished, though others of them remaii 
in the church of Rome to this day. 

3. The Quakers assert, that water baptisn 
was never intended to continue in the churcl 



BAP 



131 



BAP 



of Christ any longer than while Jewish preju- 
dices made such an external ceremony neces- 
sary. They argue from Eph. iv, 5, in which 
one baptism is spoken of as necessary to Chris- 
tians, that this must be a baptism of the Spirit. 
But from comparing the texts that relate to 
this institution, it will plainly appear that 
water baptism was instituted by Christ in more 
general terms than vnll agree with this expli- 
cation. That it was administered to all the 
Gentile converts, and not confined to the Jews, 
appears from Matt, xxviii, 19, 29, compared 
with Acts X, 47 ; and that the baptism of the 
Spirit did not supersede water baptism appears 
to have been the judgment of Peter and of 
those that were with him; so that the one 
baptism spoken of seems to have been that of 
water ; the communication of the Holy Spirit 
being only called baptism in a figurative sense. 
As for any objection which may be drawn from 
1 Cor. i, l7, it is sufficiently answered by the 
preceding verses, and all the numerous texts, 
in which, in epistles written long after this, 
the Apostle speaks of all Christians as baptized ; 
and argues from the obligation of baptism, in 
such a manner as we can never imagine he 
would have done, if he had apprehended it to 
have been the will of God that it should be 
discontinued in the church. Compare Rom. 
vi, 3, &c ; Col. ii, 12 ; Gal. iii, 27. 

4. Baptism, in early times, was only admi- 
nistered at Easter and Whitsuntide, except in 
cases of necessity. Adult persons were pre- 
pared for baptism by abstinence, prayer, and 
other pious exercises. It was to answer for 
them, says Mosheim, that sponsors, or god- 
fathers, were first instituted in the second cen- 
tury, though they were afterward admitted 
also in the baptism of infants. This, according 
to M. Daille, was not done till the fourth cen- 
tury. Wall refers the origin of sponsors, or 
godfathers, on the authority of Tertullian, to 
the commencement of the second century ; who 
were used in the baptism of infants that could 
not answer for themselves. The catechumens 
were not forward in coming to baptism, St. 
Ambrose was not baptized before he was elect- 
ed bishop of Milan ; and some of the fathers 
not till the tune of their death. Some deferred 
it out of a tender conscience ; and others out 
of too much attachment to the world ; it being 
the prevailing opinion of the primitive times, 
that baptism, whenever conferred, washed 
away all antecedent stains and sins. Accord- 
ingly they deferred this sanctifying rite as long- 
as possible, even till they apprehended they 
were at the point of death. Cases of this kind 
occur at the beginning of the third century. 
Constantino the Great was not baptized till he 
was at the last gasp, and in this he was fol- 
lowed by his son Constantius ; and two of his 
other sons, Constantino and Constans, were 
killed before they Avere baptized. As to the 
necessity of baptism, we may observe, how- 
ever, that, though som.e seem to have laid too 
great stress upon it, as if it were indispensa- 
bly necessary in order to salvation ; it must be 
allowed, that for any person to omit baptism, 
when he acknowledges it to be an institution 



of Christ, and that it is the will of Christ that 
he should submit to it, is an act of disobedience 
to his authority, which is inconsistent with 
true faith. 

5. The word hapiisrn is frequently taken for 
sufferings, Mark x, 38; Luke xii, SO"; Matt. 
XX, 22, 23. Of expressions like these we find 
some traces in the Old Testament also, where 
waters often denote tribulations, Psalm Ixix, 1, 
15 ; cxxiVj 4, ,5 ; and where to be swallowed 
up by the waters, and to pass through the great 
waters, signify to be overwhelmed with mise- 
ries and calamities. 

6. St. Paul, endeavouring to prove the re- 
surrection of the dead, among several other 
reasons in support of the doctrine, says, " If 
the dead rise not at all, what shall they do who 
are baptized for the dead?" 1 Cor. xv, 29. Of 
this phrase various interpretations have been 
given ; three of which only shall be here men- 
tioned. "It means," say some, " 'baptized in 
the room of the dead just fallen in the cause of 
Christ, and who are thus supported by a suces- 
sion of new converts, immediately offering 
themselves to fill up their places^ as ranks of 
soldiers who advance to combat in the room of 
their companions, who have just been slain in 
their sight.' " Others think it signifies, " In 
hope of blessings to be received after they are 
numbered with the dead." Dr. Macknight 
supplies the words, Trig avas-ao-tw?, and reads the 
clause, " Who are baptized for the resurrection 
of the dead ;" or in consequence of their be- 
lieving in the doctrine of the resurrection of 
the dead ; on account of which faith, and their 
profession of it, they are exposed to great suf- 
ferings, for which they can have no recom 
pense, if there be no resurrection of the dead, 
nor any future life at all. 

7. As to the subjects of baptism, the anti- 
paedobaptists hold that believing adtilts only 
are proper subjects, because the commission of 
Christ to baptize appears to them to restrict 
this ordinance to such only as are taught, or 
made disciples ; and that, consequently, infants, 
who cannot be thus taught, ought to be ex- 
cluded. " It does not appear," say they, "that 
the Apostles, in executing the commission of 
Christ, ever baptised any btit those who were 
first instructed in the Christian faith, and pro- 
fessed their belief of it." They contend that 
infants can receive no benefit from baptism, 
and are not capable of faith and repentance, 
which are to be considered as prerequisites. 

8. As to the rhode, they observe that the 
meaning of the word (Sa-KTi^o) signifies to m. 
merse or dip, and that only ; that John baptized 
in Jordan ; that he chose a place where there 
was much water; that Jesus came up out of 
the water ; that Philip and the eunuch went 
down both into the water ; that the terms, 
washing', purifying, hurying in baptism, so often 
mentioned in the Scriptures, allude to this 
mode ; that immersion only was the practice 
of the Apostles and the first Christians ; and 
that it was only laid aside from the love of 
novelty, and the coldness of climate. These 
positions, they think, are so clear from Scrip, 
ture, and the history of the church, that thej 



BAP 



132 



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stand in need of but little argument for their 
support. Farther, they also insist that all 
positive institutions depend entirely upon the 
will and declaration of the institutor ; and that, 
therefore, reasoning" by analogy from previously 
abrogated rites is to be rejected, and the ex- 
press command of Christ respecting baptism 
ought to be our rule. 

9. The Psedobaptists, however, are of a dif- 
ferent opinion. As to the subjects of baptism, 
they believe that qualified adults, who have 
not been baptized before, are certainly proper 
subjects ; but then they think, also, that infants 
ought not to be excluded. They believe that, 
as the Abrahamic and Christian covenants are 
the same. Gen. xvii, 7; Heb. viii, 12; that as 
children were admitted under the former ; and 
that as baptism is now a sign, seal, or confirma- 
tion of this covenant, infants have as great a 
right to it as the children of the Israelites had 
to the seal of circumcision under the law, Acts 
ii, 39; Rom. iv, 11. Farther, if children are 
not to be baptized because there is no positive 
command for it, for the same reason they say 
that women should not come to the Lord's 
Supper ; nor ought we to keep holy the first 
day of the week ; neither of these being ex- 
pressly commanded. If baptizing infants had 
been a human invention, they also ask, how 
such a practice could have been so universal in 
the first three hundred years of Ihe church, 
and yet no record have remained when it was 
introduced, nor any dispute or controversy 
about it have taken place? Some reduce the 
matter to a narrower compass; urging, (l.)That 
God constituted in his church the membership 
of infants, and admitted them to that privilege 
by a religious ordinance. Gen. xvii; Gal. iii, 
14, 17. (2.) That this right of infants to church 
membership was never taken away : and this 
being the case, they argue, that infants must 
be received, because God has appointed it ; and, 
since they must be received, it must be either 
with baptism or without it ; but none must be 
received without baptism ; therefore, infants 
must of necessity be baptized. Hence it is 
clear that, under the Gospel, infants are still 
continued exactly in the same relation to God 
and his church in which they were originally 
placed under former dispensations. That in- 
fants are to be received into the church, and 
as such baptized, is also inferred from the fol- 
lowing passages of Scripture : Gen. xvii ; Isa. 
xliy, 3 ; Matt, xix, 13 ; Luke ix, 47, 48 ; Acts 
ii, 38, 39 ; Rom. xi, 17, 21 ; 1 Cor. vii, 14. 

10. Though there are no express examples 
in the New Testament of Christ and his Apos- 
tles baptizing infants, yet there is no proof that 
they were excluded. Jesus Christ actually 
blessed little children ; and it is difficult to be- 
lieve that such received his blessing, and 5^et 
were not to be members of the Gospel church. 
If Christ received them, and would have us 
"receive" them, how can we keep them out of 
the visiblis church ? Beside, if cliDdren were 
not to be baptized, it is reasonable to expect 
that they would have been expressly forbidden. 
As whole lioiiseholds were baptized, it is also 
probable tliore were children among them. 



From the year 400 to 1150, no society of men, 
in all that period of seven hundred and fifty 
years, ever pretended to say it was unlawfiil to 
baptize infants : and still nearer the time of 
our Saviour there appears to have been scarcely 
any one who advised the delay of infant bap- 
tism. Irenseus, who lived in the second cen- 
tury, and was well acquainted with Polycarp, 
who was John's disciple, declares expressly, 
that the church learned from the Apostles to 
baptize children. Origen, in the third century, 
affirms, that the custom of baptizing infants 
was received from Christ and his Apostles, 
Cyprian, and a council of ministers, held about 
the year 254, no less than sixty-six in number, 
unanimously agreed that children might be 
baptized as soon as they were born. Ambrose, 
who wrote about 274 years from the Apostles, 
declares that the baptism of infants had been 
practised by the Apostles themselves, and by 
the church down to that time. "The catho- 
lic church every where declares," says Chry- 
sostom, in the fifth century, "that infants 
should be baptized;" and Augustine affirmed, 
that he never heard or read of any Christian, 
catholic or sectarian, but who always held that 
infants were to be baptized. They farther be- 
lieve that there needed no mention in the New- 
Testament of receiving infants into the church, 
as it had been once appointed and never re- 
pealed. So far from confining baptism to 
adults, it must be remembered that there is not 
a single instance recorded in the New Testa- 
ment, in wiiich the descendants of Christian 
parents were baptized in adult years. The 
objection that infants are not proper siabjects 
for baptism, because they cannot profess faith 
and repentance, falls with as much weight 
upon the institution of circumcision as infant 
baptism ; since they are as capable or are as fit 
subjects for the one as the other. Finally, it 
is generally acknowledged, that if infants die, 
(and a great part of the human race die in 
their infancy,) they are saved : if this be the 
case then why refuse them the sign of union 
with Christ, if they be capable of enjoying the 
thing signified ? 

11. As to the mode, the Psedobaptists deny 
that the term PaTrn^ia, which is a derivative of 
Pdnrix), and, consequently, must be something 
less in its signification, is invariably used in 
the New Testament to express plunging. It 
is denied, therefore, that dipping is its only 
meaning ; that Clirist absolutely enjoined im- 
mersion ; and that it is his positive will that 
no other mode should be used. As the word 
jSuTTTi'^w is used to express the various ablutions 
among the Jews, such as sprinkling, pouring,, 
&c, Heb. ix, 10, for the custom of washing 
before meals, and the washing of household 
furniture, pots, &c, it is evident from hence 
that it does not express the manner of doing a 
thing, whether by immersion or effiision, but 
only the thing done ; that is, washing ; or the 
application of water in some form or other. It 
no where signifies to dip, but in denoting a mode 
of, and in order to, washing or cleansing; and 
the mode or use is only the ceremonial part 
of a positive iuRtitute ; jiist as in the Lord's 



BAP 



133 



BAP 



Supper, the time of day, the number and pos- 
ture of the communicants, the quantity and 
quality of bread and wine, are circumstances 
not accounted essential by any part of Chris- 
tians. If in baptism there be an expressive 
emblem of the descending influence of the 
Spirit, pouring must be the mode of adminis- 
tration ; for that is the Scriptural term most 
commonly and properly used for the commu- 
nication of divine influences, Matt, iii, 11 ; 
Mark i, 8, 10; Luke iii, 16-22; John i, 33; 
Acts i, 5; ii, 38, 39; viii, 12, 17; xi, 15, 16. 
The term sprinkling, also, is made use of in 
reference to the act of purification, Isa. Iii, 15 ; 
Ezek. xxxvi, 25 ; Heb. ix, 13, 14 ; and there- 
fore cannot be inapplicable to baptismal purifi- 
cation. But, it is observed, that .Tohn baptized 
"m Jordan:" to this it is replied, To infer 
always a plunging of the whole body in water 
from this particle, would, in many instances, 
be false and absurd. The same Greek preposi- 
tion, £1', is used when it is said they should be 
"baptised with fire;" but few will assert that 
they should be plunged into it. The Apostle, 
speaking of Christ, says, he came not, kv, "by 
water only;" but, h, "by water and blood." 
There the same word, ir, is translated hy ; and 
with justice and propriety ; for we know no 
good sense in which we could say he came in 
water. It has been remarked that h is, more 
than a hundred times, in the New Testament, 
rendered at ; and in a liundred and fifty others 
it is translated rcith. If it be rendered so here, 
John baptized at Jordan, or v/ith the water of 
Jordan, there is no proof that he plunged his 
disciples in it. 

Jesus, it is said, came up out of the W' ater ; 
but this is no proof that he was immersed, as 
the Greek terra, otto, often signifies from : for 
instance, "Who hath warned you to flee /ro?72," 
not out of, "the wrath to come?" with many 
others that might be mentioned. Again : it is 
urged that Philip and the eunuch went down 
both into the water. To this it is answered, 
that here also is no proof of immersion : for, 
if the expression of their going down into the 
water necessarily includes dipping, then Philip 
was dipped, as well as the eunuch. The pre- 
position £(V, translated into, often signifies no 
more than to, or unto: see Matt, xv, 24; Rom. 
x, 10; Acts xxviii, 14; Matt, iii, 11; xvii, 27: 
so that from none of these circumstances can 
it be proved that there was one person of all 
the baptized, who went into the water ankle 
deep. As to the Apostle's expression, "buried 
witli him in baptism," that has no force in the 
argmnent for immersion, since it does not 
allude to a custom of dipping, any more than 
our baptismal crucifixion and death has any 
such reference. It is not the sign, but the 
thing signified, that is here alluded to. As 
Christ was buried, and rose again to a heavenly 
life, so we by baptism signify that we are sepa- 
rated from sin, that we may live a«iew life of 
faith and love. 

To conclude : it is urged, against the mode 
of immersion, that, as it carries with it too 
much of the appearance of a burdensome rite 
for the Gospel dispensation ; as it is too inde- 



cent for so solemn an ordinance ; as it has a 
tendency to agitate the spirits, often rendering 
the subject unfit for the exercise of proper 
thoughts and affections, and indeed utterly in- 
capable of them ; as in many cases the immer- 
sion of the body would, in all probability, be 
instant death; as in other situations it would 
be im.practicable, for want of water; it cannot 
be considered as necessary to the ordinance of 
baptism, and there is the strongest improbabil- 
ity that it was evtr practised in the times of 
the New Testament, or in the earliest periods 
of the Christian church. 

BAPTISTS, or ANTIP^DOBAPTISTS, 
so called from their rejecting the baptism of 
infants. The Baptists in England form one of 
"the three denominations of Protestant Dis- 
senters." The constitution of their churches, 
and their modes of worship, are congregational, 
or independent. They bore a considerable 
share in the sufferings of the seventeenth and 
preceding centuries : for there were many 
among the Lollards and Wickliffites who dis- 
approved of infant baptism. There were also 
many of this faith among the Protestants and 
Reformers abroad. In Holland, Germany, and 
the north, they w^ent by the names of Anabap- 
tists and Mennonites; and in Piedmont and 
the south, they were found among the Albi- 
genses and Waldenses. The Baptists subsist 
chiefly under two denominations, — the Particu- 
lar or Calvinistical, and the General or Armi- 
nian. The former is by far the most numerous. 
Some of both denominations. General and Par- 
ticular, allow of free or mixed communion ; 
admitting to the Lord's table pious persons who 
have not been immersed, while others consider 
that as an essential requisite to communion. 
These are sometimes called Strict Baptists. 
Other societies of this denomination observe 
the seventh day of the week as their Sabbath, 
apprehending the original law of the Sabbath 
to remain in force, unaltered and unrepealed. 
These are called Seventh-day Baptists. A 
considerable number of the General Baptists 
have gone into Unitarianism ; in consequence 
of w^hich, those who maintained the doctrines 
of the Trinity and atonement, in the latter 
part of the eighteenth century, formed them- 
selves into what is called "The New Connec- 
tion," or Association. These preserve a friendly 
correspondence with their other brethren in 
things which concern the general interests of 
the denomination, but hold no religious com- 
munion with them. Some congregations of 
General Baptists admit three distinct orders 
of church officers : messengers or ministers, 
elders, and deacons. Tlie Baptists in America, 
and in the East and West Indies, are chiefly 
Calvinists ; but most of them admit of free 
connnunion. The Scottish Baptists form a 
distinct denomination, and are distinguished by 
several peculiarities of church government. 
"No trace can be found of a Baptist church in 
Scotland," says Mr. Jones, "excepting one 
which appears to have been formed out of 
Cromwell's army, previous to 1765, when a 
church was settled at Edinburgh, under the 
pastoral care of Mr. Carmichael and Mr. Archi- 



BAR 



134 



BAR 



feald M'Lean. Others have since been formed 
at Dundee, Glasgow, and in most of the princi- 
pal towns of Scotland :" also at London, and in 
various parts of England. Tiiey think that 
the order of public worship, which uniformly 
obtained in the Apostolic churches, is clearly 
set forth in Acts ii, 42-47 ; and therefore they 
endeavour to follow it out to the utmost of 
their power. They require a plurality of elders 
in every church, administer the Lord's Supper, 
and make contributions for the poor every first 
day of the week. The prayers and exhortations 
of the brethren form a part of their church 
order, under the direction and control of the 
elders, to whom it exclusively belongs to pre- 
side in conducting the worship, to rule in cases 
of discipline, and to labour in the word and 
doctrine, in distinction from the brethren ex- 
horting one another. The elders are all lay- 
men, generally chosen from among the bre- 
thren ; but, when circumstances require, are 
supported by their contributions. They approve 
also of persons who are properly qualified for 
it, being appointed by the church to preach the 
Gospel and baptize, though not vested with 
any pastoral charge. The discipline and go- 
vernment of the Scottish Baptists are strictly 
congregational. 

BARACPIIAS, the father of Zacharias, 
mentioned Matt, xxiii, 3.5, as slain betv/een the 
temple and the altar. There is a great diversity 
of opinions concerning the person of this 
Zacharias, the son of Barachias. Some think 
him to be Zacharias, the son of Jehbiada, who 
was killed by the orders of Joasli, between the 
temple and the altar, 2 Chron. xxiv, 21. Camp- 
bell thinks, with Father Simon, that Jehoiada 
had two names, Barachias and Jehoiada. See 
Zacharias. 

BARAK, son of Abinoam, chosen by God to 
deliver the Hebrews from that bondage under 
which they were held by Jabin, king of the 
Canaanites, Judges iv, 4, 5, &c. He refused 
to obey the Lord's commands, signified to him 
by Deborah, the prophetess, unless she con- 
sented to go with him. Deborah accompanied 
Barak toward Kedesh of Naphtali ; and, having 
assembled ten thousand men, they advanced to 
mount Tabor. Sisera, being informed of this 
movement, marched with nine hundred cha- 
riots of war, and encamped near the river Ki- 
shon. Barak rapidly descended from mount 
Tabor, and the Lord having spread terror 
through Sisera's army Barak easily obtained a 
complete victory. Sisera was killed by Jael. 
Barak and Deborah composed a hymn of 
thanksgiving; and the land had peace forty 
years from A. M. 2719 to 2759, B. C. 1245. 

BARBARIAN. The word tjjV (rendered 
barbarian; LXX, (idpSapo?,) in the Hebrew sense 
of it, signifies a stranger; one who knows 
neither the holy language nor the law. Ac- 
cording to tlie notions of the Greeks, all 
nations who were not Greeks, or not govern- 
ed by laws like the Greeks, were barbarians. 
The Persians, Egyptians, Hebrews, Arabians, 
Gauls, Germans, and even the Romans, were, 
in their phraseology, barbarians, however learn- 
ed or polite they might be in themselves. St. 



Paul comprehends all mankind under the 
names of Greeks and barbarians : "I am a 
debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbari- 
ans ; to the wise and to the unwise," Rom. i, 14. 
St. Luke calls the inhabitants of the island of 
Malta barbarians, Acts xxviii, 2, 4. St. Paul, 
writing to the Colossians, uses the terms bar- 
barian and Scythian almost in the same signifi- 
cation. Li 1 Cor. xiv, 11, he says, that if he 
who speaks a foreign language in an assembly 
be not understood by those to whom he dis- 
courses, with respect to them he is a barbarian ; 
and, reciprocally, if he understand not those 
who speak to him, they are to him barbarians, 
Barbarian, therefore, is used for every stranger 
or foreigner who does not speak our native 
language, and includes no implication what- 
ever of savage nature or manners in those re- 
specting whom it is used. It is most probably 
derived from berbir, " a shepherd ;" whence 
Barbary, the country of wandering shepherds ; 
Bedouins, Sceni, Scythei, as if, wanderers in 
tents ; therefore barbarians. 

BAR-JESUS, or, according to some copies, 
BAR-JEU, was a Jewish magician in the 
island of Crete, Acts xiii, 6, St. Luke calls 
him Elymas. He was with the pro-consul Ser- 
gius Paulus, who, sending for Paul and Barna- 
bas, desired to hear the word of God. Bar- 
Jesus endeavouring to hinder the pro-consul 
from embracing Cliristianity, Paul, filled with 
the Holy Ghost, " set his eyes upon him, and 
said, O fiill of all subtilty and mischief, thou 
child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteous- 
ness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right 
ways of the Lord ? Behold, the hand of the Lord 
is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing 
the sun for a season ;" which took place im- 
mediately. The pro-consul, who saw this 
miracle, was converted. Origen and Chrysos- 
tom think that Elymas, or Bar-Jesus, was con- 
verted likewise ; and that St. Paul speedily 
restored his sight. 

BARLEY, n-ij;!i», Exod. ix, 31 ; Lev. xxvii, 
16, &c ; a well-known kind of grain. It de- 
rives its Hebrew name from the long hairy 
beard which grows upon the ear. Pliny, on 
the testimony of Menander, says that barley 
was the most ancient aliment of mankind. In 
Palestine the barley was sown about October, 
and reaped in the end of March, just after the 
passover. In Egypt the barley harvest was 
later ; for when the hail fell there. Exodus ix, 
31, a few days before the passover, the flax and 
barley were bruised and destroyed : for the flax 
was at its full growth, and tlie barley began ta 
form its green ears ; but the wheat, and more 
backward grain, were not damaged, because 
they were only in the blade, and the hail 
bruised the young shoots which produce the 
ears. 

The rabbins sometimes called barley the 
food of beasts, because in reality they fed their 
cattle with' it, 1 Kings iv, 28 ; and from Homer 
and other ancient v/riters we learn, that barley - 
was given to horses. The Hebrews, however, 
frequently used barley bread, as we find by 
several passages of Scripture : for example, Da- 
vid's friends brought to him in his flight wheat, 



BAR 



135 



BAR 



barley, flour, &c, 2 Sam. xvli, 28. Solomon 
sent wheat, barley, oil, and wine, to the labour- 
ers King Hirarn had furnished him, 2 Chron. 
ii, 15. Elijah had a present made him, of 
twenty barley loaves, and corn in the husk, 
2 Kings iv, 22. And, by miraculously increas- 
ing the five barley loaves, Christ fed a multi- 
tude of about five thousand, John vi, 8-10. 
The jealousy-offering, in the Levitical institu- 
tion, was to be barley meal. Num. v, 15. 
The common mincha, or offering, was of fine 
wheat flour, Lev. ii, 1 ; but this was of barley, 
a meaner grain, probably to denote the vile 
condition of the person in whose behalf it was 
offered. For which reason, also, there was no 
oil or frankincense permitted to be offered with 
it. Sometimes barley is put for a low, con- 
temptible reward or price. So the false pro- 
phets are charged with seducing the people for 
handfuls of barley, and morsels of bread, Ezek. 
xiii, 19. Hosea bought his emblematic bride 
for fifteen pieces of silver, and a homer and a 
lialf of barley, Hosea iii, 2. 

BARNABAS, a disciple of Jesus Christ, and 
companion of St. Paul in his labours. He was 
a Levite, born in the isle of Cyprus. His pro- 
per name was Joses, to which the Apostles 
added Barnabas, signifying the son of consola- 
tion. He is generally considered one of the 
seventy disciples, chosen by our Saviour. He 
was brought up with Paul at the feet of Ga- 
maliel. When that Apostle came to Jerusalem, 
three years after his conversion, Barnabas in- 
troduced him to the other Apostles, Acts ix, 
26, 27, about A. D. 37. Five years afterward, 
the church at Jerusalem, being informed of the 
progress of the Gospel at Antioch, sent Barna- 
bas thither, who beheld with great joy the 
wonders of the grace of God, Acts xi, 22, 24. 
He exhorted the faithful to perseverance. 
Some time afterward, he went to Tarsus, to 
seek Paul, and bring him to Antioch, where 
they jointly laboured two years, and converted 
great numbers ; and here the disciples were 
first called Christians. They left Antioch 
A. D. 44, to convey alms from this church to 
that at Jei-usalem. At their return they brought 
John Mark, the cout;in of Barnabas. While 
they were at Antioch, the Holy Ghost directed 
that they should be separated for those labours 
among the Gentiles to which he had appoint- 
ed then). They departed into Cyprus, where 
they converted Sergius Paulus, the- pro-consul. 
They preached at Perga in Pamphylia without 
much success, by reason of the obstinacy and 
malice of the Jews ; but being come to Iconium, 
they made many converts. Here the Jews 
stirred up a sedition, and obliged them to retire 
to Derbe and Lystra, in Lycaonia, where St. 
Paul curing one ^neas, who had been lame 
from his birth, the people of Lystra regarded 
them as gods; calling Barnabas, Jupiter; and 
Paul, Mercury; and would have sacrificed to 
them, which the two Apostles with great difli- 
culty hindered: nevertheless, soon afterward, 
they were persecuted in this very city. Having 
revisited the cities through which they had 
nassed, and where they had preached the Gos- 
pel, they returned to Antioch in Syria. 



In A. D. 51, Barnabas was sent with PaiL 
from Antioch to Jerusalem, on occasion of dis- 
putes concerning the observance of legal rites, 
to which the Jews wished to subject the Gen- 
tiles. Paul and Barnabas were present in the 
council at Jerusalem, and returned immediately 
to Antioch. Peter, arriving there soon after- 
ward, was led to countenance, in some degree, 
by his conduct, the observance of the Mosaic 
distinctions. Barnabas, too, (who, being by 
descent a Levite, might retain some former no- 
tions,) used the like dissimulation : but Paul 
reproved Peter and Barnabas with great free- 
dom. Paul afterward determining to visit the 
churches in the isle of Cyprus, and in Asia 
Minor, Barnabas desired that^ohn Mark might 
accompany them : but Paul objected, becauso 
Mark had left them on the first journey. Here- 
upon the two Apostles separated : Paul went 
toward Asia; and Barnabas, with Mark, to 
Cyprus. This is all we know certainly concern- 
ing Barnabas. 

There is extant among the writings of the 
fathers an epistle which is attributed to Bar- 
nabas; though, being without an inscription, 
it is not known to whom it professes to havo 
been addressed. It was first published by Arch- 
bishop Usher, in Greek and Latin, and trans- 
lated by Archbishop Wake, in his "Genuine 
Epistles of the Apostolical Fathers," and has 
often been reprinted. That it is not the pro- 
duction of Barnabas, the companion of Paul, 
may be safely concluded from internal evi- 
dence ; though it may have been written by 
some other person of the same name. There 
is also a tract which goes by the name of, 
" The Gospel of Barnabas," still extant ; from 
which Dr. White, at the end of his Bampton 
Lectures, has given extracts sufiiciently copi- 
ous to satisfy any impartial mind that it is spu- 
rious. 

BARRENNESS. This was looked upon as 
reproachful among the Greeks and Romans, 
but more particularly so among the Jews; 
which may be accounted for by the constant 
expectation of Messiah, and the hope that 
every woman had, that she might be the mother 
of the promised seed. This constant hope of 
the speedy coming of the great " Seed of the 
woman" serves also to account for many cir- 
cumstances in the Old Testament history. 
"Couple it," says the Rev. J. J. Blunt, "with 
this consideration, and I see the scheme of 
revelation, like the physical scheme, proceed- 
ing with beautiful uniformity: a unity of 
plan ' connecting,' as it has been well said by 
Paley, ^the chicken roosting upon its perch 
with the spheres revolving in the firmament ;* 
and a unity of plan connecting in like man- 
ner the meanest accidents of a household with 
the most illustrious visions of a prophet. Ab- 
stracted from this consideration, I see in the 
history of Moses details of actions, some tri- 
fling, some even offensive, pursued at a length 
(when compared with the whole) singularly 
disproportionate ; while things which the an- 
gels would desire to look into are passed over 
and forgotten. But this principle once admit- 
ted, all is consecrated ; all assumes a new as- 



BAH 



136 



BAR 



pect ; trifles, that seem at first not bigger than 
a man's hand, occupy the heavens ; and where- 
fore Sarah laughed, for histance, at the pros- 
pect of a son, and wherefore that laugh was 
rendered, immortal in his name ; and wherefore 
the sacred historian dwells on a matter so 
trivial, whilst the world and its vast concerns 
were lying at his feet, I can fully understand. 
For then I see the hand of God shaping every 
thing to hjs own ends, and in an event thus 
casual, thus easy, thus unimportant, telling 
forth his mighty design of salvation to the 
world, and working it up into the web of his 
noble prospective counsels, Gen. xxi, 6. I see 
that nothing is great or little before Him who 
pan bend to his purposes whatever he willeth, 
and convert the light-hearted and thoughtless 
mockery of an aged woman into an instrument 
of his glory, effectual as the tongue of the seer 
which he touched with living coals from the 
altar. Bearing this master-key in my hand, I 
can interpret the scenes of domestic mirth, of 
domestic stratagem, or of domestic wickedness, 
with which the history of Moses abounds. 
The Seed of the woman, that was to bruise the 
serpent's head, Geji. iii, 15, however indistinct- 
ly understood, (and probably it was understood 
very indistinctly,) was the one thing longed for 
in the families of old ; was ' the desire of all 
nations,' as the Prophet Haggai expressly calls 
it, Hag. ii, 7 ; and, provided they could accom- 
plish this desire, they (like others, when urged 
by an overpowering motive) were often reck- 
less of the means, and nislied upon deeds which 
they could not defend. Then did the v.'ife for- 
get her jealousy, and provoke, instead of re- 
senting, the faithlessness of her husband, Gen. 
xvi, 2 ; XXX, 3, 9 ; then did the mother forget 
a parent's part, and teach her own child treach- 
ery and deceit, Gen. xxv, 23 ; xxvii, 13 ; then 
did daughters turn the instincts of nature back- 
ward, and deliberately work their ov/n and 
their father's shame, Gen. xix, 31 ; then did 
the daughter-in-law veil her face, and court the 
incestuous bed, Gen. xxxviii, 14 ; and to be 
childless, was to be a by-word, Gen. xvi, 5 ; 
XXX, 1 ; and to refuse to raise up seed to a 
brother, was to be spit upon, Gen. xxxviii, 26 ; 
Deut. xxv, 9; and the prospect of the prom.ise, 
like the fulfilment of it, did not send peace 
into families, bat a sword ; and three were set 
against two, and two against three, Gen. xxvii, 
41 ; and tlie elder, who would be promoted unto 
honour, was set against the younger, whom 
God would proiuote, Gen. iv, 5 ; xxvii, 41 ; and 
national differences were engendered by it, as 
individuals grew into nations. Gen. xix, 37; 
xxvi, 35 ; and even the foulest of idolatries may 
be ti*aced, perhaps, to this hallowed source ; for 
the corruption of the best is the worst corrup- 
tion of all, Num. xxv, 1, 2, 3. It is upon this 
principle of interpretation, and I know not 
upon what other so well, that we may put to 
silence the ignorance of foolish men, who Jiave 
made those parts of the Mosaic history a stum- 
bling-block to many, which, if rightly under- 
stood, are the very testimony of the covenant ; 
and a principle which is thus extensive in its 
application and successful in its results, which 



explains so much that is difficult, and answers 
so much that is objected against, has, from this 
circumstance alone, strong presumption in its 
favour, strong claims upon our sober regard." 

BARSABx\S. Joseph Barsabas, suriiamed~ 
Justus, was one of the first disciples of Jesus 
Christ, and probably one of the seventy. When 
St. Peter proposed to the disciples to fill up the 
place of Judas the traitor, by choosing another 
Apostle, Acts i, 21, Barsabas was nominated 
along with Matthias ; but the lot fell on Mat- 
thias, who was therefore numbered with the 
eleven Apostles. We know nothing farther of 
the life of this Barsabas. 

2. Barsacas was also the surname of Judas, 
one of the principal disciples mentioned, Acts 
XV, 22, &c. Barsabas and some others were 
sent by the Apostles, with Paul and Barnabas, 
to Antioch, and carried a letter with them from 
the Apostles, signifying what the council at 
Jerusalem had decreed. After the reading of 
the letter to the brethren, which was received 
with joy, Barsabas and Silas continued here 
some time longer, instructing and confirming 
the brethren ; after which Silas and Barsabas 
returned to Jerusalem. This is all we know 
of Barsabas Judas. 

BARTHOLOMEW, one of the twelve Apos- 
ties, Matt. X, 3, is supposed to be the same per- 
son wIjo is called Nathanael, one of the first 
of Christ's disciples. This opinion is founded 
oh the circumstance, that as the evangelist 
John never mentions Bartholomew in the num- 
ber of the Apostles, so the other evangelists 
never mention Natlianael. And as in John 
i, 45, Philip and Nathanael are mentioned to- 
gether as coming to Jesus, so in the other evan- 
gelists Philip and Bartholomew are constantly 
associated together. The supposition also ac 
quires additional probability from considering, 
that Nathanael is particularly mentioned among 
the Apostles to whom Christ appeared at the 
sea of Tiberias, after his resurrection ; Simon 
Peter, Thomas, and Nathanael, of Cana in 
Galilee ; the sons of Zebedee, namely, James 
and John ; with two other of his disciples, pro- 
bably Andrew and Philip, John xxi, 2. It is 
an early tradition, that Bartholomew propa- 
gated the faith as far as India, and also in the 
more northern and western parts of Asia, and 
that h e final] y suffered martyrdom . But all the 
particulars respecting the life and labours of the 
Apostles, not mentioned in the New Testament, 
are exceedingly uncertain, 

BARUCH, the son of Neriah, and grandson 
of Maaseiah, was of illustrious birth, and of 
the tribe of Judah. He had a brother of the 
name of Seraiah, who occupied an important 
statio)\ in the court of King Zedekiah ; but he 
himself adhered to the person of the Prophet 
Jeremiah, and was hismost steady friend, though 
his attachment to him drew on himself several 
persecutions and much ill treatment. He ap- 
pears to have acted as his secretary during a 
great part of his life, and never left him till 
they were parted by death. In the reign of 
Jehoiakim, king of Judah, A. M. 3398, Jere- 
miah having been thrown into prison, the Lord 
commanded him to commit to writing all the 



BAR 



137 



BAS 



prophecies that he had dehvered until that time. 
He accordingly sent for Baruch, and dictated 
them to him by word of mouth. Some time 
afterward he instructed the latter to go and 
read them to the people, who were then as. 
sembled in the temple ; on which Michaiah, 
who happened to be present, and heard thcin, 
instantly gave notice of them to the king's 
counsellors. Tiic latter immediately sent for 
Baruch, and cominanded him to repeat to them 
what he had been reading to the people in the 
temple ; which he accordingly did, to their great 
astonishment : and, finding that they contained 
some very unwelcome tidings respecting the 
fate of the kingdom, they inquired how he came 
into possession of tJiem ; intimating that their 
duty to the king required that they should make 
him acquainted therewith. Baruch was at the 
same time advised to consult his own safety, 
and to let no man know where he was to be 
found ; after which they took from him the 
roll of his prophecies, and deposited it in the 
clramber of Elishama, the scribe. They next 
waited on the king, and told him what had 
passed. The latter sent Jeliudi to fetch the 
book ; .which being brought, Jehoiakim com- 
manded it to be read in his presence, and in 
the presence of his nobles who surrounded 
him. But Jelmdi had not proceeded far before 
the king took tlie book, cut it with his secre- 
tary's penknife, and threw it into the fire, 
where it was consumed before their faces. He 
at the same time gave orders to have both 
Baruch and Jeremiah seized; but the hand of 
Providence concealed them from his fury. 

Jeremiah was instructed a second time to 
commit his prophecies to writing ; and Baruch 
wrote them as before, with the addition of 
several others which were not contained in 
the former book. In the fourth year of the 
reign of Zcdekiah, Baruch went to Babylon, 
carrying with him a long letter from Jeremiah, 
in which the Prophet foretold the judgments 
that should come upon Babylon, and promised 
the Jews, who were then captives in that coun- 
try, that they sliould again be restored to their 
own land. The latter were exceedingly affect- 
ed at hearing Jeremiah's letter read to them, 
and returned an answer to their brethren at 
Jerusalem. After his return to Jerusalem, Ba- 
ruch continued liis constant attendance on 
Jeremiah ; and when Jerusalem was besieged^ 
by Nebuchadnezzar, and Jeremiah thrown into 
prison, Baruch also was confined with him : 
but when the city had surrendered, Nebuzarad- 
dan showed him much kindness, granted him 
his liberty, and permitted him l.o go with Jere- 
miah wherever he chose. 

The remnant of the people who had been left 
in Judea under the care of Gedaliah, liaving 
adopted the resolution of going into Egypt, 
and finding that Jeremiah opposed their taking 
that journey, threw the blame upon Baruch ; 
insinuating that the latter had influenced the 
Prophet to declare against it. They were, 
liowever, both of them at last compelled to fol- 
low the people into Egypt, where Jeremiah 
soon afterward died ; on which Baruch retired 
to Babylon, where the rabbins say he also died 



in the twelfth year of the captivity, Jer. xxxvi ; 
xliii. The book of Baruch is justly placed 
among the apocryphal writings. Grotius thinks 
it a fiction written by some Hellenistic Jew ; 
and St. Jerome gives as the reason why he did 
not write a commentary upon it, that tlie Jews 
themselves did not deem it canonical. 

BASHAN, or BAS AN, one of the most fer- 
tile cantons of Canaan, which was bounded on 
the west by the river Jordan, on the east by the 
mountains of Gilead, on the south by the brook 
of Jabbok, and on the north by the land of 
Geshur. The whole kingdom took its name 
from the hill of Bashan, which is situated in 
tlie middle of it, and by the Greeks is called 
Batanaea. It had no less than sixty walled 
towns in it, beside villages. It afforded an 
excellent breed of cattle, and stately oaks, and 
was, in short, a plentiful and populous country. 
Og, king of the Amorites, possessed this coun- 
try when Moses made the conquest thereof. 
In the division of the Holy Land, it was as- 
signed to the half tribe of Manasseh. Of the 
present state of this portion of the ancient pos- 
sessions of the Israelites, Mr. Buckingham, in 
his Travels, gives the following account : " We 
ascended the steep on the north side of the 
Zerkah, or Jabbok ; and, on reaching the sum- 
mit, came again on a beautifiil plain, of an 
elevated level, and still covered with a very 
rich soil. We had now quitted the land of 
Sihon, king of the Amorites, and entered into 
that of Og, the king of Bashan, both of them 
well known to all the readers of the early Scrip- 
tures. We had quitted too, the districts appor- 
tioned to the tribes of Reuben and of Gad, and 
entered that part which was allotted to the 
half tribe of Manasseh, beyond Jordan east- 
ward, leaving the land of the children of Am- 
nion on our right, or to the east of the Jabbok, 
which, according to the authority before quoted, 
divided Amnion, or Philadelphia, from Gerasa. 
The mountains here are called the land of 
Gilead in the Scriptures, and in Joseplius ; and, 
according to the Roman division, this was the 
country of the Decapolis, so often spoken of 
in the New Testament, or the province of 
Gaulonitis, from the city of Gaulon, its early 
capital. We continued our way over this ele- 
vated tract, continuing to behold, with surprise 
and admiration, a beautiful country on all sides 
of us : its plains covered with a fertile soil, it.si 
hills clothed with forests ; at every new turn 
presenting the most magnificent landscapes 
that could be imagined. Among the trees, the 
oak was frequently seen ; and we know that 
this territory produced them of old. In enu, 
merating the sources from which the supplies 
of Tyre were drawn in the time of her great 
wealth and naval splendour, the Prophet says. 
'Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine 
oars,' Ezek. xxvii, 6. Some learned commenta- 
tors indeed, believing that no oaks grew in 
these supposed desert regions, have translated 
the word by ' alders,' to prevent the appearance 
of inaccuracy in the inspired writer. The ex- 
pression of ' the fat bulls of Bashan,' which 
occurs more than once in the Scriptures, 
seemed to us equally inconsistent, as applied 



BAT 



138 



BAX 



to the beasts of a country generally thought to 
be a desert, in common with the whole tract 
which is laid down in our modern maps as 
such between the Jordan and the Euphrates ; 
but we could now fully comprehend, not only 
that the bulls of this luxuriant country might 
be proverbially fat, but that its possessors, too, 
might be a race renowned for strength and 
comeliness of person. The general face of this 
region improved as we advanced farther in it ; 
and every new direction of our path opened 
upon us views which surprised and charmed 
us by their grandeur and their beauty. Lofty 
mountains gave an outline of the most magni- 
ficent character ; flowing beds of secondary 
hills softened the romantic wildness of the pic- 
ture ; gentle slopes, clothed with wood, gave a 
rich variety of tints, hardly to be imitated by 
the pencil ; deep valleys, filled with murmur- 
ing streams and verdant meadows, offered all 
the luxuriance of cultivation ; and herds and 
flocks gave life and animation to scenes as 
grand, as beautiful, and as highly picturesque 
as the genius or taste of a Claude could either 
invent or desire." 

BASILIDEANS, the followers of Basilides 
of Alexandria, a gnostic leader of the early 
part of the second century. See Gnostics. 

BASTARD, one born out of wedlock. A 
bastard among the Greeks was despised, and 
exposed to public scorn, on account of his 
spurious origin. In Persia the son of a concu- 
bine is never placed on a footing with the 
legitimate offspring ; any attempt made by pa- 
rental fondness to do so would be resented by 
the relations of the legitimate wife, and out- 
rage the feelings of a whole tribe. Tlis .Tew- 
ish father bestowed as little attention on the 
education of his natural children as the Greek : 
he seems to have resigned them, in a great 
measure, to their own inclinations ; he neither 
checked their passions, nor corrected their 
faults, nor stored their minds with useful know- 
ledge. This is evidently implied in these words 
of the Apostle : " If ye endure chastening, God 
dealeth with you as with sons ; for what son 
is he whom the father chasteneth not ? But if 
ye be without chastisement, whereof all are 
partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons," 
Heb. xii, 7, 8. To restrain the licentious de- 
sires of the heart, Jehovah by an express law 
fixed a stigma upon the bastard, which was not 
to be removed till the tenth generation ; and 
to show that the precept was on no account to 
be violated, or suffered to fall into disuse, it is 
emphatically repealed, "A bastard shall not 
enter into the congregation of the Lord ; even 
to his tenth generation shall he not enter into 
the congregation of the Lord," Deut. xxiii, 2. 

BASTINADO, the punishment of beating 
with sticks. It is also called tympanum, [a 
drum,] because the patient was beaten like a 
drum. Upwards of a hundred blows were often 
inflicted, and sometimes the beating wa,s unto 
death. St. Paul, Heb. xi, 35, says that some 
of the saints were tortured, rvunavi^io, suffered 
the tympanum, that is, were stretched on an 
instrument of torture, and beaten to death. 

BAT, fpay. Lev. xi, 19 ; Deut. xiv, 18 ; Isaiah 



ii, 20 ; Baruch vi, 22. The Jewish legislator 
having enumerated the animals legally unclean^ 
as well beasts as birds, closes his catalogue 
with a creature whose equivocal properties 
seem to exclude it from both those classes : it 
is too much a bird to be properly a mouse, and 
too much a mouse to be properly a bird. The 
^bat is therefore well described in Deut. xiv, 
18, 19, as the passage should be read, " More- 
over the othelaph, and every creefing thing that 
flieth, is unclean to you : they shall not be 
eaten." This character is very descriptive, 
and places this creature at the head of a class 
of which he is a clear and well-known instance. 
It has feet or claws growing out of its pinions, 
and contradicts the general order of nature, by 
creeping with the instruments of its flight. 
The Hebrew name of the bat is from 'jtoj; darli- 
ness, and fij; to Jly, as if it described "the flier 
in darkness." So the Greeks called the crea- 
ture vvKTEpis, from w|, night; and the Latins, 
vespertilio, from vesper, "evening." It is 
prophesied, Isaiah ii, 20, "In that day shall 
they cast away their idols to the moles and to 
the bats ;" that is, they shall carry them into 
the dark caverns, old ruins, or desolate places, 
to which they shall fly for refiige, and so shall 
give them up, and relinquish them to the filthy 
animals that frequent such places, and have 
taken possession of them as their proper habi- 
tation. 

BATH, a measure of capacity for things 
liquid, being the same with the ephah, Ezek. 
xiv, 11, and containing ten homers, or seven 
gallons and four pints. 

BATH-KOL, 9ip-n3, daughter of the voice. 
By this name the Jewish writers distinguish 
what they called a revelation from God, after 
verbal prophecy had ceased in Israel ; that is, 
after the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and 
Malachi. The generality of their traditions 
and customs are founded on this Bath-Kol. 
They pretend that God revealed them to their 
elders, not by prophecy, but by the daughter of 
the voice. The Bath-Kol, as Dr. Prideaux 
shows, was a fantastical way of divination, 
invented by the Jews, like the Sortes Virgilia- 
7i(B [divination by the works of Virgil] among 
the Heathen. For, as with them, the words 
first opened upon in the works of that poet, 
was the oracle whereby they prognosticated 
those fiature events which they desired to be 
informed of; so with the Jews when they ap. 
pealed to Bath-Kol, the next words which they 
should hear drop from any one's mouth were 
taken as the desired oracle. With some it is 
probable that Bath-Kol, the daughter of the 
voice, was only an elegant personification of 
tradition. Others, however, more bold, said 
that it was a voice from heaven, sometimes 
attended by a clap of thunder. 

BATTLE. See Armies. 

BAXTERIANISM, a modification of the 
Calvin istic doctrine of election advocated by 
the celebrated Baxter in his treatise of " Uni- 
versal Redemption," and in his " Methodus 
Theologioi." The real author of the scheme, 
at least in a systematized form, was Caraero, 
who taught divinity at Saumur, and itwasujiT 



BAX 



139 



BAX 



folded and defended by his disciple Amyraldus, 
whom Curcellaeus refuted. Baxter says, in his 
preface to his " Saint's Rest," " The middle way 
which Camero, Crocius, Martinius, Amyral- 
dus, Davenant, with all the divines of Britain 
and Bremen in the synod of Dort, go, I think 
is nearest the truth of any that I know who 
have written on these points." Baxter first 
differs from the majority of Calvinists, though 
not from all, in his statement of the doctrine 
of satisfaction : — 

"Christ's sufferings were not Ql fulfilling of 
the law^s threatening ; (though he bore its curse 
materially ;) but a satisfaction for our not ful- 
filling the precept, and to prevent God's fulfill- 
ing the threatening on us. Christ paid not, 
therefore, the idem, but the tantundem, or 
tsquivalens ; not the vet'y debt which we owed 
and the law required, but the value : (else it 
were not strictly satisfaction, which is redditio 
(zquivalentis : [the rendering of an equivalent :] 
and (it being improperly called the paying of 
a debt, but properly a suffering for the guilty) 
the idcju is nothing but supplicium delinquentis. 
{The punislmient of the guilty individual.] 
In criminals, dum alius sohet simul aliud sol. 
vitur. [When another suffers, it is another 
thing also that is suffered.] The law knoweth 
no vicarius poencs ; [substitute in punishment ;] 
though the law maJier may admit it, as he is 
above law ; else there were no place for par- 
don, if the proper debt be paid and the law not 
relaxed, but fulfilled. Christ did neither obey 
nor suffer in any man's stead, by a strict, pro- 
per representation oi his person in point of law ; 
so as that the law should take it, as done or 
suffered by the party himself. But only as a 
tJiird person, as a mediator, he voluntarily bore 
what else the sinner should have borne. To 
assert the contrary (especially as to particular 
persons considered in actual sin) is to over- 
throw all Scripture theology, and to introduce 
all Antinomianism ; to overthrow all possi- 
bility of pardon, and assert justification before 
we sinned or were born, and to make ourselves 
to have satisfied God, Therefore, we must 
not say that Christ died nostra loco, [in our 
stead,] so as to personate us, or represent our 
persons in law sense; but only to bear what 
else we must have borne." 

This system explicitly asserts, that Christ 
made a satisfaction by his death equally for 
the sins of every man ; and thus Baxter essen- 
tially differs both from the higher Calvinists, 
and, also, from the Sublapsarians, who, though 
they may allow that the reprobate derive some 
benefits from Christ's death, so that there is a 
vague sense in which he may be said to have 
died for all men, yet they, of course, deny to 
such the benefit of Christ's satisfaction or 
atonement which Baxter contends for : — 

"Neither the law, whose curse Christ bore, 
nor God, as the legislator to be satisfied, did 
distinguish between men as elect and reprobate, 
or as believers and unbelievers, de presenti vel 
de futitro; [with regard to the present or the 
future ;] and to impose upon Christ, or require 
from him satisfaction for the sins of one sort 
more than of another, but for mankind in 



general. God the Father, and Christ the Me 
diator, now dealeth with no man upon the 
mere rigorous terms of the first law ; {obey per- 
fectly and live, else thou shalt die;) but giveth 
to all much mercy, which, according to the 
tenor of that violated law, they could not re- 
ceive, and calleth them to repentance, in order 
to their receiving farther mercy offered them. 
And accordingly he will not judge any at last 
according to the mere law of works, but as 
they have obeyed or not obeyed his conditions 
or terms of grace. It was not the sins of the 
elect only, but of all mankind fallen, which lay 
upon Christ satisfying. And to assert the 
contrary, injuriously diminisheth the honour 
of his sufferings ; and hath other desperate ill 
consequences." 

The benefits derived to all men equally, from 
the satisfaction of Christ, he thus states : — 

"All mankind, immediately upon Christ's 
satisfaction, are redeemed and delivered from 
that legal necessity of perishing which they 
were under, (not by remitting sin or punish- 
ment directly to them, but by giving up God's 
jus puniendi [right of punishing] into the hands 
of the Redeemer ; nor by giving any right 
directly to them, but per meram resultantiam 
[by mere consequence] this happy change is 
made for them in their relation, upon the said 
remitting of God's right and advantage of jus- 
tice against them,) and they are given up to 
the Redeemer as their owner and ruler, to be 
dealt with upon terms of mercy which have a 
tendency to their recovery. God the Father 
and Christ the Mediator hath freely, without 
any prerequisite condition on man's part, en- 
acted a law of grace of universal extent, in 
regard of its tenor, by which he giveth, as a 
deed or gift, Christ himself, with all his follow- 
ing benefits which he bestoweth ; (as benefac- 
tor and legislator ;) and this to all alike, with- 
out excluding any ; upon condition they believe 
and accept the offer. By this law, testament, 
or covenant, all men are conditionally pardoned, 
justified, and reconciled to God already, and no 
man absolutely ; nor doth it make a difference, 
nor take notice of any, till men's performance 
or non-performance of the condition makes a 
difference. In the new law Christ hath truly 
given himself with a conditional pardon, justifi- 
cation, and conditional right to salvation, to all 
men in the vnorld, without exception.^'' 

But the peculiarity of Baxter's scheme will 
be seen from the following farther extracts : — 

"Though Christ died equally for all men, in 
the aforesaid law sense, as he satisfied the 
offended legislator, and as giving himself to all 
alike in the conditional covenant; yet he never 
properly intended or purposed the actual justify- 
ing and saving of all, nor of any but those that 
come to be justified and saved; he did not, 
therefore, die for all, nor for any that perish, 
with a decree or resolution to save them, 
much less did he die for all alike, as to this in- 
tent. Christ hath given faith to none by his 
law or testament, though he hath revealed, 
that to some he will, as benefactor and Domin- 
us Absolutus, [absolute Lord,] give that grace 
which shall infallibly produce it; and God 



BAX 



140 



BAX 



hath given some to Christ that he might pre^ 
vail with them accordingly ; yet this is no 
giving it to the person, nor hath he in himself 
ever the more title to it, nor can any lay claim 
to it as their due. It belongeth not to Christ 
as satisfier, nor yet as legislator, to make wick- 
ed refusers to become willing, and receive him 
and the benefits which he offers ; therefore he 
may do all for them that is fore-expressed, 
though he cure not their vmbelief. Faith is a 
fruit of the death of Christ, (and so is all the 
good which we do enjoy,) but not directly, as 
it is satisfaction to justice ; but only remotely,. 
as it proceedeth from that jus dominil [right of 
dominion] which Christ has received to send 
the Spirit in what measure and to whom he 
WILL, and to succeed it accordingly ; and as it 
is necessary to the attainment of the farther 
ends of his death in the certain gathering and 
saving of the elect." 

Thus the whole theory amounts to this, that, 
although a conditional salvation has been pur- 
chased by Christ for all men, and is offered to 
them, and all legal difficulties are removed out 
of the way of their pardon as sinners by the 
atonement, yet Christ hath not purchased for 
any man the gift of faith, or the poioer of per- 
forming the condition of salvation required ; but 
gives this to some, and does not give it to otl>ers, 
by virtue of that ahsolute dominion over men 
which he has purchased for himself, so that, as 
the Calvin ists refer the decree of election to the 
sovereignty of the Father, Baxter refers it to the 
sovereignty of the Son; one makes the decree 
of reprobation to issue from the Creator and 
Judge, the other, from the Eedeemer himself. 
If, however, any one expects to find some- 
thing in the form of system in Baxter's opinions 
on the five disputed points, he will be much dis- 
appointed. The parties to whom he refers as 
the authors of this supposed "middle way," 
differ as much among themselves as Baxter oc- 
casionally does from hiinself. Bishop Davenant 
and Dr. S. Ward differed from Amyraut, Mar- 
tinius, and others of that school, on the topic 
of baptismal regeneration ; and, as the subjects 
- of baptism, according to the sentiments of the 
two former, are invested with invisible grace, 
and are regenerated in virtue of the ordinance 
when canonically performed, such divines far 
more easily disposed of their baptized converts 
in the ranks of strict predestination, than the 
others could who did not hold those sentiments. 
But they exhibited much ingenuity in not suf- 
fering it to " intrench upon the question of 
perseverance." Their friend Bishop Bedell, 
however, maintained, that "reprobates coming 
to years of discretion, after baptism, shall be 
condemned for original sin ; for their absolu- 
tion and wasliing in baptism was. but condi- 
tional and expectative ; which doth truly inte- 
rest them in all the promises of God, but under 
the condition of repenting, believing and obey- 
ing, which they never perform, and therefore 
never attain the promise." Bishop Overal has 
also been claimed as a patron of this diversifi- 
ed "middle system;" but it will be evident to 
every one who peruses his productions, that his 
chief endeavour was to display the doctrines of 



the English church as identical with those of 
St. Augustine, yet basing them upon the ante- 
cedent toill of God and conditional decrees. 
After all the refined distinctions which Baxter 
employed to render the theory of common and 
special grace plausible and popular, the real 
meaning of the inventors was frequently elicit- 
ed when such a question as this was asked, 
" Have any men in the world grace sufficient 
to repent and believe savingly who do not?" 
After asserting that he knows nothing about 
the matter, the reply of Baxter is, "If we may 
conjecture upon probabilities, it seemeth most 
likely that there is such a sufficient grace, or 
power, to repent and believe savingly, in some 
that use it not, but perish." " This," says one 
of Baxter's apologists, " seems to me very in- 
explicable !" and in the same light it will be 
viewed by all who recollect that this " sufficient 
grace or power" is that " portion of special 
grace which never fails to accomplish its de- 
sign, — the salvation of the individual on whom 
it is bestowed!" Baxter's celebrated "Apho- 
risms of Justification," published in 1649, 
afforded employment to himself and his theo- 
logical critics till near the close of his life ; and 
in the many modifications, concessions, and 
alterations which were extorted from him by 
men of different religious tenets, he sometimes 
incautiously proved himself to be more Calvin- 
istic than Calvin, and at others more Arminian 
than Arminius. The following observations, 
from " Orme's Life of Baxter,'''' are on the whole 
just and instructive : — 

" Thus did Baxter, at a very early period of 
his life, launch into the ocean of controversy, 
on some of the most interesting subjects that 
can engage the human mind. The manner in 
which he began to treat them was little favour- 
able to arriving at correct and satisfactory con- 
clusions. Possessed of a mind uncommonly 
penetrating, he yet seems not to have had the 
faculty of compressing v/ithin narrow limits 
his own vieAvs, or the accounts he was dispos- 
ed to give of the views of others. All this arose, 
not from any indisposition to be explicit, but 
from the peculiar character of his mind. He 
is perpetually distinguishing things into physi- 
cal and moral, real and nominal, material and 
formal. Hov/ever important these distinctions 
are, they often render his writings tiresome to 
the reader, and his reasonings more frequently 
perplexing than satisfactory. Baxter is gene- 
rally understood to have pursued a middle course 
between Calvinism and Arminianism. That 
he tried to hold and adjust the balance between 
the two parties, and that he was most anxious 
to reconcile them, are very certain. But it 
seems scarcely less evident, that he was much 
more a Calvinist than he was an Arminian. 
While this seems to me very apparent, it must 
be acknowledged, that if certain views which 
have often been given of Calvinism are neces- 
sary to constitute a Calvinist, Richard Baxter 
was no believer in that creed. 

" While satisfied that among Baxter's senti- 
ments, no important or vital error will be found, 
yet in the style and method in which he too 
generally advocated or defended them, there is 



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141 



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much to censure. The wrangling and disputa- 
tious manner in which he presented many of 
his views, was calculated to gender an unsanc- 
tified state of mind in persons who either abet- 
ted or opposed his sentiments. His scholastic 
and metaphysical style of arguing is unbefit- 
ting the simplicity of the Gospel, and cannot 
fail to injure it wherever such is employed. It 
not only savours too much of the spirit of the 
schools, and tJio philosophy of this world ; but 
places the truths of revelation on a level with 
the rudiments of human science. I am not 
sure whether certain effects which began early 
in the last century to appear among the Pres- 
byterian part of the Nonconformists, may not 
be traced, in some degree, to the speculative 
and argumentative writings of Baxter. His in- 
fluence over this class of liis brethren was evi- 
dently very great. He contributed more than 
any other man to mitigate the harsh and forbid- 
ding aspect which the Presbyterians presented 
during the civil wars and the commonwealth. 
This was well, but he did not step here. He 
was inimical to all the existing systems of doc- 
trine and discipline then contended for, or ever 
before known in the world ; while he did not 
present any precisely defined system as his own. 
He opposed Calvinism ; he opposed Arminian- 
ism ; he would not allow himself to be consider- 
ed an Episcopalian, in the ordinary acceptation 
of the word ; he denied that he was a Presby- 
terian, and scorned to be thought an Independ- 
ent. He held something in common with them 
all, and yet he was somewhat different from all. 
He contended for a system more general, and 
more liberal, than was then approved; and, as 
we have stated, wished to place a variety of the- 
ological truths on grounds belonging rather to 
philosophy or metapliysics, than to revelation. 

" On himself, this species of latitudinarian. 
ism produced little injurious effect, but I fear 
it had a baneful influence on others. The re- 
jection of all human authority and influence in 
religion, requires to be balanced by a very strong 
sense of the divine authority, to prevent its ge- 
nerating a state of mind more characterized by 
pride of intellect, and independence of spirit, 
than by the humility and cUffidence which are 
essential features in the Christian character. It 
is a singidar fact, that the Presbyterians, though 
at first more rigid in their doctrinal views, and 
more exclusive in their spirit and system of 
church government, than the Independents, 
became before the death of Baxter the more 
liberal party. High views began to be ascrib- 
ed by them to their now moderate brethren ; 
and, to avoid the charge of Antinomianism, 
which Baxter w^as too ready to prefer against 
such as differed from some of his views, the 
Presbyterians seem gradually to have sunk into 
a state of low, moderate orthodoxy, in which 
there was little of the warmth or vitality of 
evan^'elical religion. 

" In farther illustration of the influence now 
adverted to, it must be remarked, that the first 
stage in that process of deterioration which 
took place among the Presbyterian Dissenters, 
was generally characterized by the term Bax- 
terianism ; a word to which, it is difficult to 



attach a definite meaning. It denotes no sepa- 
rate sect or party, but rather a system of opi- 
nions on doctrinal points, verging toward 
Arminianism, and which ultimately passed to 
Arianism and Socinianism. Even during Bax- 
ter's own life, while the Presbyterians taxed the 
Independents with Antinomianism, the latter 
retorted the charge of Socinianism, or at least 
of a tendency toward it, in some of the opinions 
maintained both by Baxter and others of that 
party. To whatever cause it is to be attribut- 
ed, it is a melancholy fact, that the declension 
which began even at this early period in the 
Presbyterian body, went on slowly, but surely, 
till, from the most fervid orthodoxy, it finally 
arrived at the frigid zone of Unitarianism. 

" I wish not to be understood as stating that 
Baxter either held any opinions of this descrip- 
tion, or was conscious of a tendency in his 
sentiments toward such a fearful consumma- 
tion ; but, that there was an injurious tendency 
in his manner of discussing certain important 
subjects. It was subtle, and full of logomachy ; 
it tended to unsettle, rather than to fix and de- 
termine ; it gendered strife, rather than godly 
edifying. It is not possible to study such books 
as his ' Mcthodus,'' and his ' Catholic Theology,' 
without experiencing that we are brought into 
a different region from Apostolic Christianity ; 
a region of fierce debate and altercation about 
words, and names, and opinions ; in which all 
that can be said for error is largely dwelt upon, 
as well as what can be said for truth. The am- 
biguities of language, the diversities of sects, 
the uncertainties of human perception and ar- 
gument are urged, till the force of revealed 
truth is considerably weakened, and confidence 
in our own judgment of its meaning greatly im- 
paired. Erroneous language is maintained to 
be capable of sound meaning, and the most 
Scriptural phrases to be susceptible of unscrip- 
tnral interpretation, till truth and error almost 
change places, and the mind is bewildered, 
confounded, and paralyzed. Into this mode of 
discussing such subjects, was this most excel- 
lent man led, partly by the natural constitution 
of his mind, which has often been adverted to ; 
partly by his ardent desire of putting an end 
to the divisions of the Christian world, and pro- 
ducing universal concord and harmony. He 
failed where success was impossible, however 
plausible might have been the means Avhich he 
employed. He understood the causes of differ- 
ence and contention better than their remedies ; 
hence the measures which he used frequently 
aggravated instead of curing the disease. While 
a portion of evil, however, probably resulted 
from Baxter's mode of conducting controversy,, 
and no great light was thrown by him on some- 
of the dark and difficult subjects which he so- 
keenly discussed, I have no doubt he contribut- 
ed considerably to produce a more moderate 
spirit toward each other, between Calvinists and 
Arminians, than had long prevailed. Though 
he satisfied neither party, he must have con- 
vinced both, that great difficulties exist on the 
subjects in debate, if pursued beyond a certain 
length ; that allowance ought to be made by 
each, for the weakness or prejudices of the 



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142 



BEA 



other ; and that genuine religion is compatible 
with some diversity of opinion respecting one 
or all of the five points." A similar effect as 
that which Mr. Orme ascribes to Baxter's writ- 
ings on the English Presbyterians, followed 
also, on the continent among the reformed 
churches. It was the same middle system with 
its philosophical subtleties, which Camero and 
Amyraut taught abroad, and which produced 
in them those effects that have been falsely as- 
cribed, both in England and abroad, to Armi- 
nianism. See Amyraut and Cameron. 

BAY-TREE. n-iiN. It is mentioned only in 
Psalm xxxvii, 35, 36: "I have seen the un- 
godly in great power, and flourishing like a 
green bay-tree. Yet he passed away, and lo, 
he was not. Yea, I sought him, but he could 
not be found." Aben Ezra, Jarchi, Kimchi, 
Jerom, and some others say that the original 
may mean only a native tree; a tree growing 
in its native soil, not having suffered by trans- 
plantation. Such a tree spreads itself luxu- 
riantly. The Septuagint and Vulgate render 
it cedars; but the high Dutch of Luther's Bi- 
ble, the old Saxon, the French, the Spanish, 
the Italian of Diodati, and the version of Ains. 
worth, make it the laurel. 

BDELLIUM, nb-13, occurs Gen. ii, 12, and 
Num. xi, 7. Interpreters seem at a loss to 
know what to do with this word, and have ren- 
dered it variously. Many suppose it a mineral 
production. The Septuagint translates in the 
first place, uvO^dKa, a carbuncle, and in the 
second, K^i^aWov, a crystal. The rabbins are 
followed by Reland in calling it a ciystal ; but 
some, instead of bedolak, read herolah, chang- 
ing the 1 into n, which are not always easily 
distinguished, and are often mistaken by trans- 
cribers ; and so render it the heryl, which, say 
they, is the prime kind of crystal. The hedoleh, 
in Genesis, is undoubtedly some precious stone ; 
and its colour, mentioned in Numbers, where 
the manna is spoken of as of the colour of 
bdellium, is explained by a reference to Exod. 
xvi, 14, 31, where it is likened to hoar frost, 
which being like little fragments of ice, may 
confirm the opinion that the bdellium is the 
beryl, perhaps that pellucid kind, called by Dr. 
Hill the ellipomocrostylu, or beryl crystal. 

BEAN, Vic, occurs 2 Sam. xvii, 28, and 
Ezek. iv, 9. A common legume. Those most 
usually cultivated in Syria are the white horse- 
bean, faba rotunda oblonga, and the kidney- 
bean, phaseolis minimus, frucfu viridi ovato, 
called by the natives masch. The Arabic ban, 
the name of the coffee berry, corresponds with 
our bean, and is probably its etymon. 

BEAR. That bears v/ere common in Pales- 
tine appears from several passages of the Old 
Testament. Their strength, rapacity, and 
fierceness, furnish many expressive metaphors 
to the Hebrew poets. The Hebrew name of 
this animal is taken from his growling; so 
Varro deduces his Latin name ursus by an 
onomatopoeia from the noise which he makes : 
*'ursi Lucana origo, vcl unde illii, nostri ab 
ipsius voce :" [the origin of the term ursus (bear) 
is Lucanian, (whence also the bears them- 
selves,) from the noise made by the animal.] 



David had to defend his flock against bears as 
well as lions, 1 Sam. xvii, 34. -^nd Dr. Shaw 
gives us to understand that these rugged ani- 
mals are not peculiar to the bleak regions of the 
north, being found in Barbary ; and Thevenot 
informs us that they inhabit the wilderness ad- 
joining the Holy Land, and that he saw one near 
the northern extremities of the Red Sea. The 
ferocity of the bear, especially when hungry or 
robbed of its whelps, has been mentioned by 
many authors. The Scripture alludes in three 
places to this furious disposition. The first is, 
2 Sam. xvii, 8, "They be mighty men, and 
they be chafed in their minds as a bear robbed 
of her whelps in the field." The second, Prov. 
xvii, 12, " Let a bear robbed of her whelps 
meet a man rather than a fool in his folly." 
And the third, Hosea xiii, 8, " I will meet them 
as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and 
will rend the caul of their heart." 

BEARD. The Hebrews wore their beards, 
but had, doubtless, in common with other 
Asiatic nations, several fashions in this, as in 
all other parts of dress. Moses forbids them, . 
Lev. xix, 27, "to cut off entirely the angle, or 
extremity of their beard;" that is, to avoid the 
manner of the Egyptians, who left only a little 
tuft of beard at the extremity of their chins. 
The Jews, in some places, at this day suffer a 
little fillet of hair to grow from below the ears 
to the chin : where, as well as upon their lower 
lips, their beards are long. When they mourn- 
ed, they entirely shaved the hair of their heads 
and beards, and neglected to trim their beards, 
to regulate them into neat order, or to remove 
what grew on their upper lips and cheeks, Jer. 
xli, 5 ; xlviii, 37. In times of grief and afflic- 
tion, they plucked away the hair of their heads 
and beards, a mode of expression common to 
other nations under great calamities. The 
king of the Ammonites, designing to insult 
David in the person of his ambassadors, cut 
away half of their beards, and half of their 
clothes ; that is, he cut off all their beard on 
one side of their faces, 2 Sam. x, 4, 5 ; 1 Chron. 
xix, 5. To avoid ridicule, David did not wish 
them to appear at his court till their beards 
were grown again. When a leper was cured 
of his leprosy, he washed himself in a bath, 
and shaved off all the hair of his body ; after 
which, he returned into the camp, or city ; 
seven days afterward, he washed himself and 
his clothes again, shaved off all his hair, and 
offered the sacrifices appointed for his purifica- 
tion. Lev. xiv, 9. The Levites, at their con- 
secration, were purified by bathing, and wash- 
ing their bodies and clothes ; after which, they 
shaved off all the hair of their bodies, and then 
offered the sacrifices appointed for their con^ 
secration, Num. viii, 7. 

Nothing has been more fluctuating in the 
different ages of the world and countries than 
the fashion of wearing the beard. Some have 
cultivated one part and some another; some 
have endeavoured to extirpate it entirely, while 
others have almost idolized it ; the revolutions 
of countries have scarcely been more famous 
than the revolutions of beards. It is a greafe 
mark of infamy among the Arabs to cut offtho 



BED 



143 



BEE 



beard. Many people would prefer death to 
this kind of treatment. As they would think 
it a grievous punishment to lose it, they carry 
things so far as to beg for the sake of it : " By 
your beard, by the life of your beard, God pre- 
serve your blessed beard." When they would 
express their value for any thing, they say, 
"It is worth more than a man's beard," And 
hence we may easily learn the magnitude of 
the offence of the Ammonites in their treat- 
ment of David's ambassadors, as above men- 
tioned ; and also the force of the emblem used 
Ezek. V, 1-5, where the inhabitants of Jerusa- 
lem are compared to the hair of his head and 
beard. Though they had been dear to God as 
the hair of an eastern beard to its owner, they 
should be taken away and consumed, one part 
by pestilence and famine, another by the sv,^ord, 
another by the calamities incident on exile. 

BEASTS. When this word is used in op- 
position to man, as Psalm xxxvi, 5, any brute 
creature is signified ; when to creeping things, 
as Lev. xi, 2, 7 ; xxix, 30, four-footed animals, 
from the size of the hare and upward, are in- 
tended ; and when to wild creatures, as Gen. 
i, 25, cattle, or tame animals, are spoken of. 
In Isaiah xiii, 21, several wild animals are 
mentioned as dwelling among the ruins of 
Babylon ; " Wild beasts of the desert," CDi-is, 
those of the dry wildernes?, as the root of the 
word implies, " shall dwell there. Their houses 
shall be full of doleful creatures," □"•nn, marsh 
animals. " Owls shall dwell there," ostriches, 
"and satyrs," an^yti', shaggy ones, "shall 
dance there. And the wild beasts of the isl- 
ands," D^-iN, oases of the desert, " shall cry in 
their desolate houses, and dragons," CD^jn, cro- 
codiles, or amphibious animals, " shall be in 
their desolate places." St. Paul, 1 Cor, xv, 32, 
speaks of fighting with beasts, &c : by which 
he does not mean his having been exposed in 
the ampitheatre to fight as a gladiator, as some 
have conjectured, but that he had to contend 
at Ephesus with the fierce uproar of Demetrius 
and his associates. Ignatius uses the same 
figure in his Epistle to the Romans : " From 
Syria even imto Rome I fight with wild beasts, 
both by sea and land, both night and day, 
being bound to ten leopards;" that is, to a 
band of soldiers. So Lucian, in like manner, 
says, " For I am not to fight with ordinary 
wild beasts, but with men, insolent and hard 
to be convinced," In Rev. iv, v, vi, mention 
is made of four beasts, or rather, as the word 
^Sa signifies, living creatures, as in Ezek, i ; 
and so the word might have been less harshly 
translated. Wild beasts are used in Scripture 
as emblems of tyrannical and persecuting pow- 
ers. The most illustrious conquerors of anti- 
quity also have not a more honourable emblem. 

BED. Mattresses, or thick cotton quilts 
folded, were used for sleeping upon. These 
were laid upon the duan, or divan, a part of 
the room elevated above the level of the rest, 
covered with a carpet in winter, and a fine mat 
in summer. (See Accuhation and Banquets.) 
A divan cushion serves for a pillow and bolster. 
They do not keep their beds made ; the mat- 
tresses are rolled up, carried away, and placed 



in a cupboard till they are wanted at night. 
And hence the propriety of our Lord's address 
to the paralytic, " Arise, take up thy bed," or 
mattress, "and walk," Matt, ix, 6. The duan 
on which these mattresses are placed, is at the 
end of the chamber, and has an ascent of seve- 
ral steps. Hence Hezekiah is said to turn his 
face to the wall when he prayed, that is, from 
his attendants. In the day the duan was used 
as a seat, and the place of honour was the 
corner, Amos iii, 12. 

BEELZEBUB, Matt, x, 25. See Baalzebub. 

BEERSHEBA, or the well of the oath ; so 
named from a well which Abraham dug in this 
place, and the covenant which he here made 
with Abimelech, king of Gerar, Gen. xx, 31. 
Here also he planted a grove, as it would ap. 
pear, for the purpose of retirement for religious 
worship. In process of time, a considerable 
town was built on the same spot, which retain, 
ed the same name. Beersheba was given by 
Joshua to the tribe of Judah, and afterward 
transferred to Simeon, Joshua xv, 28. It was 
situated twenty miles south of Hebron, in the 
extreme south of the land of Israel^ as Dan 
was on the north. The two places are fre- 
quently thus mentioned in Scripture, as " from 
Dan to Beersheba," to denote the whole length 
of the country. 

BEE, mu-!, occurs Deut. i, 44 ; Judges xiv, 
8 ; Psalm cviii, 12 ; Isa. vii, 18. A well known, 
small, industrious insect ; whose form, propa- 
gation, economy, and singular instinct and 
ingenuity, have attracted the attention of the 
most inquisitive and laborious inquirers into 
nature. Bees were very numerous in the east. 
Serid, or Seriad, means " the land of the hive ;" 
and Canaan was celebrated as " a land flowing 
with milk and honey." The wild bees formed 
their comb in the crevices of the rocks, and in 
the hollows of decayed trees. The passage in 
Isa. vii, 8, which mentions the "hissing for 
the bee," is supposed to involve an allusion to 
tlie practice of calling out the bees from their 
hives, by a hissing or whistling sound, to their 
labour in the fields, and summoning them again 
to return when the heavens begin to lower, or 
the shadows of evening to fall. In this man- 
ner Jehovah threatens to rouse the enemies of 
Judah, and lead them to the prey. However 
widely scattered, or far remote from the scene 
of action, they should hear his voice, and with 
as much promptitude as the bee that has been 
taught to recognise the signal of its owner 
and obey his call, they should assemble their 
forces ; and although weak and insignificant 
as a swarm of bees, in the estimation of a proud 
and infatuated people, they should come, with 
irresistible might, and take possession of the 
rich and beautiful region which had been aban- 
doned by its terrified inhabitants. 

The bee is represented by the ancients as a 
vexatious and even a formidable enemy; and 
the experience of every person who turns his 
attention to the temper and habits of this in- 
sect attests the truth of their assertion. The 
allusion, therefore, of Moses to their fierce hos- 
tility, Deut. i, 44, is both just and beautiful: 
" The Amorites, which dwelt in that mount- 



BEH 



144 



BEH 



ain, came out against you, and chased you as 
bees do, and destroyed you in Seir even unto 
Hormah." Tlie Amorites, it appears, were the 
most bitter adversaries to Israel of all the na- 
tions of Canaan. Like bees that are easily 
irritated, that attack with great fury and in- 
creasing numbers the person that dares to mo- 
lest their hive, and persecute him in his flight 
to a considerable distance, the incensed Amo- 
rites had collected their hostile bands, and 
chased the Israelites from tlieir territory. The 
Psalmist also complains that his enemies com- 
passed him about like bees; fiercely attacking 
him on every side. From these allusions it 
would however appear, that the bees of the east 
were of a more quarrelsome temper than ours, 
which exist chiefly in a domesticated state. 

BEETLE. '7jnn. It occurs only Lev. xi, 22. 
A species of locust is thought to be there spoken 
of. The word still remains in the Arabic, and 
is derived from an original, alluding to the vast 
number of their swarms. Golius explains it of 
the locust without wrings. The Egyptians paid 
a superstitious worship to the beetle. Mr. 
Molyneaux, in the "Philosophical Transact 
tions," says, "It is more than probable that 
this destructive beetle we are speaking of was 
that very kind of scarabaeus, which the idola- 
trous Egyptians of old had in such high vene- 
ration as to pay divine worship unto it, and so 
frequently engrave its image upon their obe- 
lisks, Sec, as we see at this day. For nothing 
can be supposed more natural than to imagine 
a nation, addicted to polytheism, as the Egyp. 
tians were, in a country frequently suffering 
great mischief and scarcity from sAvarms of 
devouring insects, should, from a strange sense 
and fear of evil to come, (the common princi- 
ple of superstition and idolatry,) give sacred 
worship to the visible authors of these their 
sufferings, in hopes to render them more pro- 
pitious for the future. See Fly and Locust. 

BEHEMOTH, nicn^. This term has greatly 
tried the ingenuity of the critics. By some, 
among whom are Bythner and Reiske, it is 
regarded in Job xl, 16, as a plural noun for 
beasts in general : the peculiar name of the 
animal immediately described not being men- 
tioned, as vmnecessary, on account of the de- 
scription itself being so easily applied at the 
time. In this sense it is translated in various 
passages in the Psalms. Thus, 1, 10, in which 
it is usually rendered cattle, as the plural of 
nnnj it means unquestionably a beast or brute, 
in the general signification of these words : 
" For every beast of the field is mine, and the 
cattle," behemoth, "upon a thousand hills." 
So again, Isa. Ixxiii, 22: "So foolish was I, 
and ignorant ; I was as a beast," behemoth, 
"before thee." It is also used in the same 
sense in chap, xxxv, 11, of the book of Job: 
" Who teacheth us more than the beasts," be- 
hetnoth, ^^ of the earth." The greater number 
of critics, however, have understood the word 
behemoth, in the singular number, as the pe- 
culiar name of the quadruped described, Job xl, 
of whatever kind or nature it may be ; although 
they have materially differed upon this last 
point, some regarding it as the hippopotamus. 



or river horse, and others as the elephant. 
The evidence in favour of the hippopotamus 
appears, however, to predominate. The hip- 
popotamus is nearly as large as the rhinoceros. 
The male has been found seventeen feet in 
length, fifteen in circumference, and seven in 
height. The head is enormously large, and 
the jaws extend upwards two feet, and are 
armed with four cutting teeth, each of which 
is twelve inches in length. The body is of a 
lightish colour, thinly covered with hair. The 
legs are three feet long. Though amphibious, 
the hoofs, which are quadrifid, are not con- 
nected by membranes. The hide is so thick 
and tough as to resist the edge of a sword or 
sabre. Although an inhabitant of the waters, 
the hippopotamus is well known to breathe air 
like land animals. On land, indeed, he finds 
the chief part of his food. It has been pre- 
tended that he devours vast quantities of fish ; 
but it appears with the fullest evidence, both 
from the relations of many travellers, and from 
the structure of the stomach, in specimens that 
have been dissected, that he is nourished solely, 
or almost solely, on vegetable food. Though 
he feeds upon aquatic plants, yet he very often 
leaves the waters, and commits wide devasta- 
tions through all the cultivated fields adjacent 
to the river. Unless when accidentally pro- 
voked, or wounded, he is never offensive ; but 
when he is assaulted or hurt, his fiiry against 
the assailants is terrible. He will attack a 
boat, break it in pieces with his teeth; or, 
where the river is not too deep, he will raise it 
on his back and overset it. If he be irritated 
when on shore, he will immediately betake 
himself to the water ; and there, in his native 
element, shows all his strength and resolution. 
BEHMENISTS, a name given to those 
mystics who adopted the explication of the 
mysteries of nature and grace, as given by Ja- 
cob Behmen. This writer was born in the 
year 1575, at Old Siedenburg, near Gorlitz, in 
Upper Lusatia. He was a slioemaker by trade, 
and is described as having been thoughtfiil and 
religious from his youth up, taking peculiar 
pleasure in frequenting the public worship. At 
length, seriously considering within himself 
that speech of our Saviour, " Your heavenly 
Fa,ther will give the Holy Spirit to them that 
ask him," he was thereby awakened to desire 
that promised Comforter; and, continuing in 
that earnestness, he was at last, to use his own 
expression, " surrounded with a divine light 
for seven days, and stood in the highest con- 
templation and kingdom of joys !" After this, 
about the year 1600, he was again surrounded 
with a divine light and replenished with the 
heavenly knowledge ; insomuch as, > going 
abroad into the fields, and viewing the herbs 
and grass, by his inward light, he saw into their 
essences, uses, and properties, which were dis- 
covered to him by their lineaments, figures, 
and signatures. In the year 1610, he had a 
third special illumination, wherein still farther 
mysteries were revealed to him ; but it was not 
till the year 1612 that Behmen committed these 
revelations to writing. His first treatise is en- 
titled, " Aurora," which was seized by the 



BEH 



145 



BEL 



senate of Gorlitz before it was completed. His 
next production is called, "The Three Princi- 
ples," by which he means the dark world, or 
hell ; the light world, or heaven ; and the ex- 
ternal, or visible world, which we inhabit. In 
this work he more fully illustrates the subjects 
treated of in the former, and supplies v/hat is 
wanting in that work, showing, 1. How all 
things came from a working will of the holy, 
triune, incomprehensible God, manifesting him- 
self as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, through 
an outward, perceptible, working, triune power 
of fire, light, and spii'it, in the kingdom of 
heaven. 2. How and what angels and men 
were in their creation ; that they are in and 
from God, his real offspring ; that their life 
begun in and from this divine fire, which is 
the Father of Light, generating a birth of light 
in their souls; from both which proceeds the 
Holy Spirit, or breath of divine love, in the 
triune creature, as it does in the triune Creator. 
3. How some angels, and all men, are fallen 
from God, and their first state of a divine triune 
life in him ; what they are in their fallen state, 
and the difference between the fall of angels 
and that of man. 4. How the earth, stars, and 
elements were created in consequence of the 
fall of angels. 5. Whence there is good and 
evil in all this temporal world ; and what is 
meant by the curse that dwells in it. 6. Of 
the kingdom of Christ, how it is set in opposi- 
tion to the kingdom of hell. 7. How man, 
through faith in Christ, is able to overcome the 
kingdom of hell, and thereby obtain eternal 
salvation. 8. How and why sin and misery 
shall only reign for a time, until God shall, in 
a supernatural way, make fallen man rise to 
the glory of angels, and this material system 
shake off its curse, and enter into an everlast- 
ing union with that heaven from whence it fell. 
The next year, Behmen produced his "Three- 
fold Life of Man," according to the three prin- 
ciples above mentioned. In this work he treats 
more largely of the state of man in this world: 
that he has, 1. That immortal spark of life, 
which is common to angels and devils. 2. That 
divine life of the light and Spirit of God, which 
makes the essential difference between an an- 
gel and a devil; and, 3. The life of this exter- 
nal and visible world. The first and last are 
common to all men ; but the second only to a 
true Christian, or child of God. Behmen wrote 
several other treatises ; but these are the basis 
of all his other writings. His conceptions are 
often clothed under allegorical symbols ; and, 
in his later works, he frequently adopted che- 
mical and Latin phrases, which he borrowed 
from conversation with learned men. But as 
to the matter contained in his writings, he dis- 
claims having borrowed it either from men or 
books. He died in the year 1624 ; and his last 
words were, " Now I go hence into paradise !" 
Belnnen's principles were adopted by Mr. Law, 
who clothed them in a more modern dress, and 
in a style less obscure . The essential obscurity 
of the subjects indeed he could not remedy. 
If they were understood by the author himself, 
he is probably the only one who ever made that 
attainment. 

11 



BEL, or Belus, a name by which many 
Heathens, and particularly the Babylonians, 
called their chief idol. But whether under this 
appellation they worshipped Nimrod, their first 
Baal, or lord, or Pul, king of Assyria, or some 
other monarch, or the sun, or all in one, is un- 
certain. It is, however, probable, that Bel is 
the same as the Phenician Baal, and that the 
worship of the same deity passed over to the 
Carthagenians, who were a colony of Pheni- 
cians. Hence the names Hannibal, Asdrubal, 
&.C, compounded with Bel or Baal, according 
to the custom of the east, where great men 
added the names of the gods to their own. 
Bel had a temple erected to him in the city of 
Babylon, on the very uppermost range of the 
famous tower of Babel, wherein were many 
statues of this pretended deity ; and one, among 
Ihe rest, of massy gold, forty feet high. The 
whole flirniture of this magnificent temple was 
of the same metal, and valued at eight hundred 
talents of gold. This temple, with its riches, 
was in being till the time of Xerxes, who, re- 
turning from his unfortunate expedition into 
Greece, demolished it, and carried off the im- 
mense wealth which it contained. It was, 
probably, the statue of this god which Nebu- 
chadnezzar, being returned to Babylon after 
the end of the Jewish war, set up and dedicated 
in the plain of Dura ; the story of which is re- 
lated at large, Dan. iii. See Babel. 

Bel and the Dragon, an apocryphal and un- 
canonical book. It was always rejected by the 
Jewish church, and is extant neither in the He- 
brew, nor in the Chaldee languages; nor is 
there any proof that it ever was so, although 
the council of Trent allowed it to be part of 
the canonical book of Daniel, in which it 
stands in the Latin Vulgate. There are two 
Greek texts of this fragment, that of the Sep- 
tuagint, and that found in Theodotion's Greek 
version of Daniel. The Latin and Arabic ver- 
sions are from the text of Theodotion. Da- 
niel probably, by detecting the mercenary con- 
trivances of the idolatrous priests of Babylon, 
and by opening the eyes of the people to the 
follies of superstition, might fiirnish some 
foundation for the story ; but the whole is evi- 
dently charged with fiction, though introduced 
with a pious intent. St. Jerom gives it no bet- 
ter title than, "The fable of Bel and tlie Dra- 
gon." Selden thinks that this history ought 
rather to be considered as a poem or fiction, 
than a true account : as to the dragon, he ob- 
serves, that serpents, dracones, made a part of 
the hidden mysteries of the Pagan religion, as 
appears from Clemens Alexandrinus, Julius 
Firmicus, Justin Martyr, and others. See 
Serpent. 

BELIAL. The phrase, "sons of Belial," sig. 
nifies wicked, worthless 7nen. It was given to 
the inhabitants of Gibeah, who abused the Le- 
vite's wife. Judges xix, 22 ; and to Hophni and 
Phineas, the wicked and pi-ofane sons of EJi, 
1 Samuel ii, 12. In later times the name Be- 
lial denoted the devil: "What concord hath 
Christ with Belial?" 2 Cor. vi, 15; for as the 
word literally imports " one who will do no one 
good," the positive sense of a doer of evil was 



BEL 



146 



BEL 



applied to Satan, who is the author of evil, and, 
eminently, "the Evil One." 

BELLS. Moses ordered that the lower part 
of the blue robe, which the high priest wore in 
religious ceremonies, should be adorned with 
pomegranates and bells, intermixed alternately, 
at equal distances. The pomegranates were of 
wool, and in colour, blue purple, and crimson ; 
the bells were of gold. Moses adds, " And it 
shall be upon Aaron to minister; and his sound 
shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy 
place before the Lord, and when he cometh 
out ; that he die not." Some of the Hebrews 
believe that these little bells are round ; others, 
that they were such as were commonly in use. 
The ancient kings of Persia are said to have 
had the hem of their robes adorned like that of 
the Jewish high priest, Avith pomegranates and 
golden bells. The Arabian ladies, who are 
about the king's person, have little gold bells 
fastened to their legs, their neck, and elbows, 
which, when they dance, make a very agree- 
able harmony. The Arabian women of rank, 
generally, wear on their legs large hollow gold 
rings, containing small flints, that sound like 
little bells when they walk ; or they are large 
circles, with little rings hung all round, which 
produce the same effect. These, when they 
walk, give notice that the mistress of the house 
is passing, that so the servants of the family 
may behave themselves respectfully, and stran- 
gers may retire, to avoid seeing the person who 
advances. It was, in all probability, with some 
such design of giving notice that the high priest 
was passing, that he also wore little bells at the 
hem of his robe. Their sound intimated also 
when he was about to enter the sanctuary, and 
served to keep up the attention of the people. 
A reverential respect for the Divine Inhabitant 
was also indicated. The palace of kings was 
not to be entered without due notice, by striking 
some sonorous body, much less the sanctuary 
of God ; and the high priest did, by the sound 
of his bells at the bottom of his robe, ask leave 
to enter. " And his sound shall be heard when 
he goeth into the holy place before the Lord, 
and when he cometh out ; that he die not." 

Bells were a part of the martial furniture of 
horses employed in war. The Jewish warrior 
adorned his charger with these ornaments ; 
and the prophet foretels that these in future 
times should be consecrated to the service of 
God: "In that day shall there be upon the 
bells of the horses, Holiness unto the Lord." 
Chardin observes that something like this is 
seen in several places of the east ; in Persia, 
and in Turkey, the reins of their bridles are of 
silk, of the thickness of a finger, on which are 
wrought the name of God, or other inscriptions. 
A horse which had not been trained was by the 
Greeks called, " one that had never heard the 
noise of bells." 

BELLY is used in Scripture for gluttony, 
Titus i, 12 ; Philip iii, 16; Rom. xvi, 18. For 
the heart, or the secrets of the mind, Prov. xx, 
27, 30 ; xxii, 18. The " belly of hell" signifies 
the grave, or some imminent danger, or deep 
distress, Jon:ih ii, 3; Ecclus. ii, 5. 

BELSHAZZAR, the last king of Babylon, 



and, according to Hales and others, the grands 
son of Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. v, 18. During 
the period that the Jews were in captivity at 
Babylon, a variety of singular events concurred 
to prove that the sins which brought desolation 
on their country, and subjected them for a 
period of seventy years to the Babylonish yoke, 
had not dissolved that covenant relation which, 
as the God of Abraham, Jehovah had entered 
into with them ; and that any act of indignity 
perpetrated against an afflicted people, or any 
insult cast upon the service of their temple, 
would be regarded as an affront to the Majesty 
of heaven, and not suffered to pass with 
impunity, though the perpetrators were the 
princes and potentates of the earth. Belshaz- 
zar was a remarkable instance of this. He had 
an opportunity of seeing, in the case of his 
ancestor, how hateful pride is, even in royalty 
itself; how instantly God can blast the dignity 
of the brightest crown, and reduce him that 
wears it to a level with the beasts of the field; 
and consequently how much the prosperity of 
kings and the stability of their thrones depend 
upon acknowledging that "the Most High 
ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it 
to whomsoever he will." But all these awfiil 
lessons were lost upon Belshazzar. 

The only circumstances of his reign, re- 
corded, are the visions of the Prophet Daniel, 
in the first and third years, Dan. vii, 1 ; viii, 1 ; 
and his sacrilegious feast and violent death, 
Dan. V, 1-30. Isaiah, who represents the Ba- 
bylonian dynasty as " the scourge of Palestine," 
styles Nebuchadnezzar "a serpent," Evil Me- 
rodach " a cockatrice," and Belshazzar " a fiery 
flying serpent," the worst of all, Isaiah xiv, 
4-29. And Xenophon confirms this prophetic 
character by two atrocious instances of cruelty 
and barbarity, exercised by Belshazzar upon 
some of his chief and most deserving nobles. 
He slew the only son of Gobryas, in a trans- 
port of rage, because at a hunting match he 
hit with his spear a bear, and afterward a lion, 
when the king had missed both ; and in a fit of 
jealousy, he brutally castrated Gadatus, because 
one of his concubines had commended him as 
a handsome man. His last and most heinous 
offence was the profanation of the sacred ves- 
sels belonging to the temple of Jerusalem, 
which his wise grandfather, and even his fool- 
ish father Evil Merodach, had respected. 
Having made a great feast for a thousand of 
his lords, he ordered those vessels to be brought 
during the banquet, that he, his princes, his 
wives, and his concubines, might drink out of 
them, which they did ; and to aggravate sacri- 
lege by apostasy and rebellion, and ingrati- 
tude against the Supreme Author of all their 
enjoyments, " they pi*aised the gods of gold, 
silver, brass, iron, and stone, but the God in 
whose hand was their breath, and whose were 
all their ways, they praised or glorified not." 
For these complicated crimes his doom was 
denounced in the midst of the entertainment ; 
a divine hand appeared, which wrote on the 
plaister of the wall, opposite to the king, and 
full in his view, a mysterious inscription. This 
tremendous apparition struck Belshazzar with 



ML 



147 



BEN 



the greatest terror and agony: "his counte- 
nance was changed, and his thoughts troubled 
him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, 
and his knees smote against each other." This 
is one of the liveliest and finest amplifications 
of dismay to be found throughout the sacred 
classics, and infinitely exceeds, both in accu- 
racy and force, the most admired of the Hea- 
then ; such as " et corde et genihus tre7nit,^' of 
Horace, and " tarda trementi genua lahant" of 
Virgil. 

Unable himself to decypher the writing, Bel- 
shazzar cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, 
the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers, promising 
that whosoever should read the writing, and 
explain to him its meaning, should be clothed 
with scarlet, have a chain of gold about his 
neck, and be the third ruler in his kingdom. 
But the writing was too difficult for the Magi ; 
at which the king was still more greatly trou- 
bled. In this crisis, and at the instance of the 
queen mother, the Prophet Daniel was sent for, 
to whom honours were promised, on condition 
of 'his explaining the writing. Daniel refused 
the honours held out to him ; but having with 
great faithfulness pointedly reproved the mo- 
narch for his ingratitude to God who had con- 
ferred on him such dignity, and particularly for 
his profanation of the vessels which were con- 
secrated to his service, he proceeded to the in- 
terpretation of the words which had been writ- 
ten, and still stood visible on the wall. They 
were, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. "This is the 
interpretation of the thing, Mene, ' God hath 
numbered thy kingdom and finished it ;' TeJcel, 
* thou art weighed in the balances and art found 
wanting ;' Peres, ' thy kingdom is divided, and 
given to the Modes and Persians.' " In that 
very night, in the midst of their mirth and re- 
velling, the city was taken by surprise, Bel- 
shazzar himself put to death, and the kingdom 
transferred to Darius the Mede. If the cha- 
racter of the hand-writing was known to the 
Magi of Babylon, the meaning could not be 
conjectured. Perhaps, however, the character 
was that of the ancient Hebrew, or what we 
now call the Samaritan; and in that case it 
would be familiar to Daniel, though rude and 
unintelligible to the Chaldeans. But even if 
Daniel could read the words, the import of this 
solemn graphic message to the proud and im- 
pious monarch could only have been made 
known to the prophet by God. All the ideas 
the three words convey, are numbering, weigh- 
ing, and dividing. It was only for the power 
which sent the omen to unfold, not in equivo- 
cal terms, like the responses of Heathen ora- 
cles, but in explicit language, the decision of 
the righteous Judge, the termination of his long 
suffering, and the instant visitation of judg- 
ment. See Babylon. 

BELUS, a river of Palestine, On leaving 
Acre, and turning toward the south-east, the 
traveller crosses the river Belus, near its mouth, 
where the stream is shallow enough to be easily 
forded on horseback. This river rises out of a 
lake, computed to be about six miles distant, 
toward the south-east, called by the ancients 
Palus Cendovia. Of the sand of this river, ac- 



cording to Pliny, glass was first made; and 
ships from Italy continued to convey it to the 
glass houses of Venice and Genoa, so late as 
the middle of the seventeenth century. 

BENEDICTION, in a general sense, the 
act of blessing in the name of God, or of giving 
praise to God, or returning thanks for his fa- 
vours. Hence benediction is the act of saying 
grace before or after meals. Neither the an- 
cient Jews, nor Christians, ever ate without a 
short prayer. The Jews are obliged to rehearse 
a hundred benedictions every day ; of which, 
eighty are to be spoken in the morning. Rabbi 
Nehemiah Baruch, in 1688, published a dis. 
course on the manner wherein the sacerdotal 
benediction is to be pronounced. In the syna- 
gogue of Ferrara, it is rather sung than spoken. 
Among the ancient Jews, as well as Christians, 
benedictions were attended with the imposition 
of hands ; and Christians, in process of time, 
added the sign of the cross, which was made 
with the same hand, elevated or extended. 
Hence, in the Romish church, benediction was 
used to denote the sign of the cross, made by 
a bishop or prelate, from an idea that it con- 
ferred some grace on the people. The custom 
of receiving benediction by bowing the head 
before the bishops, is very ancient; and was 
so universal, that emperors themselves did not 
decline this mark of submission. Under the 
name benediction the Hebrews also frequently 
understood the presents which friends made to 
one another; in all probability because they 
were generally attended with blessings and 
prayers, both from those who gave and those 
who received them. The solemn blessing pro- 
nounced by the Jewish high priest upon the 
peeple, is recorded Num. vi, 22, &c : " The 
Lord bless thee, and keep thee : the Lord make 
his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious 
unto thee : the Lord lift up his countenance 
upon thee, and give thee peace." The great 
Christian benediction is, " The grace of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, 
and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with 
you always." See Blessing. 

BENHADAD, the son of Tibrimon, king of 
Syria, came to the assistance of Asa, king of 
Judah, against Baasha, king of Israel, obliging 
the latter to return home and succour his own 
country, and to abandon Ramah, which he had 
undertaken to fortify, 1 Kings xv, 18. This 
Benhadad is thought by some to have been the 
same person with Hadad the Edomite, who 
rebelled against Solomon toward the end of 
that prince's reign, 1 Kings xi, 25. 

2. Benhadad, king of Syria, son of the pre- 
ceding, made war upon Ahab, king of Israel, 
but was defeated. In the following year, how- 
ever, he came with a most powerful army to 
Aphek, where Ahab again engaged him, killed 
a hundred thousand of his men, and the re- 
mainder endeavouring to take refuge in Aphek, 
the walls of the city fell upon them, and killed 
twenty-seven thousand more. Thus completely 
defeated, Benhadad submitted to beg his life of 
the king of Israel, who not only granted his 
request, but gave him his liberty, and restored 
him to his crown upon certain conditions, 



BEN 



148 



BEN 



1 Kings XX. Twelve years afterward, A. M. 
3115, Benhadad declared war against Jehoram, 
the son and successor of Ahab, 2 Kings vi, 8 ; 
but his designs were made known to Jehoram by 
the Prophet Elisha, and they were accordingly 
frustrated. Suspecting some treachery in this 
affair, Benhadad was informed that all his pro- 
jects were revealed to his enemy by Elisha, 
and getting intelligence that the latter v/as at 
Dothan, he sent a detachment of his best troops 
to invest the city and apprehend the prophet ; 
but they were struck with blindness at Elisha's 
prayer, so that they were unable to distinguish 
him, when he was in the midst of them and 
held a conversation with them. He then led 
them into the city of Samaria, and having con- 
ducted them safely there, he prayed to God again 
to open their eyes, and induced Jehoram to dis- 
miss them without violence. Generous as this 
conduct was, it produced no salutary effect on 
the infatuated Benhadad ; for about four years 
afterward, he laid close siege to Samaria, 
and reduced the city to such distress that the 
head of an ass, which the Israelites considered 
to be an unclean animal, was sold for fourscore 
pieces of silver, about 2Z. 9s. sterling ; and the 
fourth part of a cab of dove's dung, or rather 
three quarters of a pint of chick pease, as Bo- 
chart understands the word, for five pieces of 
silver. In fact, such was the pressure of the 
famine at this time in Samaria, that mothers 
were constrained t© eat their own children. 
Jehoram, hearing of these calamities, attributed 
them to Elisha, and sent orders to have him put 
to death ; but before his messengers could reach 
the prophet's house, he came thither himself. 
Elisha predicted that the next day, about the 
same hour, a measure of fine flour would be 
sold at the gate of Samaria for a shekel, which, 
however incredible at the moment, proved to 
be the case ; for in the night, a general panic, 
supernaturally induced, pervaded the Syrian 
camp ; they imagined that Jehoram had pro- 
cured an army of Egyptians to come to his 
assistance, and, abandoning their horses, tents, 
and provisions, they all took to flight. Four 
lepers, whose disease did not permit them to 
live within the city, and being ready to perish 
with hunger, ventured into the Syrian camp; 
and finding it deserted, and at the same time 
abounding with all sorts of provisions, commu- 
nicated the information to Jehoram. The king 
immediately rose, though in the middle of the 
night ; but reflecting that probably it was only 
a stratagem of Benhadad to draw his people 
out of the town, he first sent parties to recon- 
noitre. They, however, speedily returned, and 
informed him that the en«my was fled, and that 
the roads Avere every where strewed with arms 
and garments, which the Syrians had aban- 
doned to facilitate their flight. As soon as 
the news was confirmed, the Samaritans went 
out, pillaged the Syrian c:;mp, and brought in 
such quantities of provisions, that a measure 
of fine flour was, at the time specified by Eli- 
sha, sold at the gate of Samaria for a shekel, 
2 Kings vii. 

The following jear, A. M. 3120, Benhadad 
fell sick, and went Hazael, one of his officers. 



with forty camels, loaded with valuable pre- 
sents, to the Prophet Elisha, to interrogate 
him, whether or not he should recover of his 
indisposition. Elisha fixed his eyes steadfastly 
on Hazael, and then burst into tears: "Go," 
said he, "and tell Benhadad, Thou may est 
certainly recover ; though the Lord hath show- 
ed me that he shall assuredly die." He at the 
same time apprised Hazael that he himself 
would reign in Syria, and do infinite mischief 
to Israel. Hazael on this returned and told 
Benhadad that his health should be restored. 
But on the next day he took a thick cloth, 
which, having dipped in water, he spread over 
the king's face and stifled him. He then took 
possession of the kingdom of Syria, according 
to the prediction of Elisha, 2 Kings viii. 

3. Benhadad, the son of Hazael, men-tioned 
in the preceding article, succeeded his father 
as king of Syria, 2 Kings xiii, 24. During his 
reign, Jehoash, king of Israel, recovered from 
him all that his father Hazael had taken from 
Jehoahaz his predecessor. He defeated him in 
three several engagements, and compelled him 
to surrender all the country beyond Jordan, 
2 Kings xiii, 25. 

BENI KHAIBIR, sons of Keber, the de- 
scendants of the Rechabites, to whom it was 
promised, Jer. xxxv, 19, " Thus saith the Lord, 
Jonadab, the son of Rechab, shall not want a 
man to stand before me for ever." They were 
first brought into notice in modern times by 
Mr. Samuel Brett, who wrote a narrative of 
the proceedings of the great council of the 
Jews in Hungary, A. D. 1650. He says of the 
sect of the Rechabites, " that they observe their 
old rules and customs, and neither sow, nor 
plant, nor build houses ; but live in tents, and 
often remove from one place to another with 
their whole property and families." They are 
also mentioned in Neibuhr's travels. Mr. 
Wolff, a converted Jew, gives the following 
account in a late journal. He inquired of the 
rabbins at Jerusalem, relative to these wander- 
ing Jews, and received the following informa- 
tion : "Rabbi Mose Secot is quite certain that 
the Beni Khaibir are descendants of the Re- 
chabites ; at this present moment they drink no 
wine, and have neither vineyard, nor field, nor 
seed ; but dwell, like Arabs, in tents, and are 
wandering nomades. They receive and ob- 
serve the law of Moses by tradition, for they 
are not in possession of the written Jaw." Mr. 
Wolff afterward himself visited this people, 
who have remained, amidst all the changes of 
nations, a most remarkable monument of the 
exact fulfilment of a miaiute, and apparently at 
firat sight an unimportant, prophecy. So true 
is it, that not one jot or tittle of the word of 
God shall pass away ! See Rechabites. 

BENJAMIN, the youngest son of Jacob and 
Rachel, who was born, A. M. 2272. Jacob, 
being on his journey from Mesopotamia, as he 
was proceeding southward with Rachel in the 
company. Gen. xxxv, 16, 17, «&c, the pains of 
child-bearing came upon her, about a quarter 
of a league from Bethlehem, and she died after 
the delivery of a son, whom, with her last 
breath, she named Benoni, that is, " the son of 



BET 



149 



BET 



my sorrow ;" but soon afterward Jacob changed 
his name, and called him Benjamin, that is, 
"the son of my right hand." See Joseph. 

BEREA, a city of Macedonia, where St. 
Paul preached the Gospel with great success, 
and where his hearers were careful to compare 
what they heard with the scriptures of the Old 
Testament, Acts, xvii, 10 ; for which they are 
commended, and held out to us as an example 
of subjecting every doctrine to the sole test of 
the word of Qod. 

BERNICE, the daughter of Agrippa, sur- 
named the Great, king of the Jews, and sister 
to young Agrippa, also king of the Jews. This 
lady was first betrothed to Mark, the son of 
Alexander Lysimaclius, albarach of Alexan- 
dria ; afterward she married , Herod, king of 
Chalcis, her own uncle by the father's side. 
After the death of Herod, v/hich happened 
A. D. 48, she was married to Polemon, king 
of Pontus, but did not long continue with him. 
She returned to her brother Agrippa, and with 
him heard the discourse which Paul delivered 
before Festus, Acts xxv. 

BERYL, tyiiynn, a pellucid gem of a bluish 
green colour, whence it is called by the lapi- 
daries, aqua marina. Its Hebrew name is a 
word also for the same reason given to the sea. 
Psalm xlviii, 7. It is found in the East In- 
dies, Peru, Siberia, and Tartary. It has a 
brilliant appearance, and is generally transpar- 
ent. It was the tenth stone belonging to the 
high priest's pectoral, Exod. xxviii, 10, 20 ; 
Rev. xxi, 20. 

BETHABARA, or BETHBARAH, signifies 
in the Hebrew a place of passage, because of its 
ford over the river Jordan, on the east bank of 
which river it stood over against Jericho, Joshua 
ii, 7; iii, 15, 16. To this place Gideon sent a 
party to secure the passage of the river, pre. 
vious to his attack on the Midianites, Judges 
vii, 24. Here John commenced his baptizing, 
and here Christ himself was baptized, John i, 
28. To this place, also, Jesus retired, when 
the Jews sought to take him at the feast of 
dedication ; and many who resorted there to 
him believed onhira, John x, 39-42. 

BETHANY, a considerable place, situated 
on the ascent of the mount of Olives, about 
tvv^o miles froin Jerusalem, John xi, 18 ; Matt. 
xxi, 17; xxvi, 6, &c. Here it was that Mar- 
tha and Mary lived, with their brother Lazarus, 
whom Jesus raised from the dead ; and it was 
here that Mary poured the perfume on our Sa- 
viour's head. Bethany at present is but a very 
•small village. One of our modern travellers tells 
us, th.at, at the entrance into it, there is an old 
ruin, called the castle of Lazarus, supposed to 
have been the mansion house where he and his 
sisters resided. At the bottom of a descent, 
not far from the castle, you see his sepulchre, 
which the Turks hold in great veneration, 
and use it for an oratory, or place for prayer. 
Here going down by twenty-five steps, you 
come at first into a small square room, and from 
thence creep into another that is smaller, about 
a yard and a half deep, in which the body is 
said to have been laid. About a bow-shot from 
hence you pass by the place which they say 



Was Mary Magdalene's house ; and thence de 
scending a steep hill, you come to the fountain 
of the Apostles, which is so called because, as 
the tradition goes, these holy persons were 
wont to refresh themselves there between Jeru- 
salem and Jericho, — as it is very probable they 
might, because the fountain is close to the road 
side, and is inviting to the thirsty traveller. 
Bethany is now a poor village, but pleasantly 
situated, says Dr. Richardson, on the shady 
side of the mount of Olives, and abounds in 
trees and long grass. 

BETHAVEN, the same with Bethel. This 
city, upon the revolt of the ten tribes, belong- 
ed to the kingdom of Israel, and was therefore 
one of the cities in which Jeroboam setup his 
golden calves. Whence the prophet in derision 
calls it, "Bethaven," the house of vanity or 
idols, Hosea iv, 15, instead of " Bethel," the 
house of God, the name which Jacob formerly 
gave it, when he had the vision of the myste- 
rious ladder, reaching from earth to heaven, 
Gen. xxviii, 19. 

BETHEL, a city which lay to the west of 
Ai, about eight miles to the north of Jerusa- 
lem, in the confines of the tribe of Ephraim 
and Benjamin. Here Jacob slept and had his 
vision. The name of this city had formerly 
been Luz, which signifies an almond, and was 
probably so called from tlie number of almond. 
trees which grew in those parts. See Jacob. 

BETHESDA. This word signifies the hou^e 
of mercy, and was the name of a pool, or pub- 
lic bath, at Jerusalem, which had five porticos, 
piazzas, or covered walks around it. This 
bath was called Bethesda, because, as some 
observe, the erecting of baths was an act of 
great kindness to the common people, whose 
infirmities in hot countries required frequent 
bathing; but the generality of expositors think 
it had this name rather from the great good- 
ness of God manifested to his people, in be- 
stowing healing virtues upon its waters. The 
account of the evangelist is, "Now there was 
at Jerusalem, by the sheep market, a pool, 
which is called in the Hebrew tongue, Bethes- 
da, having five porches. In these lay a multi- 
tude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, 
waiting for the moving of the water ; for an 
angel v/ent down at a certain season into the 
pool : whosoever then first after the troubling 
of the water stepped in was made whole of 
whatsoever disease he had," John v, 2-4. The 
genuineness of the fourth verse has been dis- 
puted, because it is wanting in some ancient 
MSS, and is written in the margin of another 
as a scholion ; but even were the spuriousness 
of this verse allowed, fo<r which, however, the 
evidence is by no means satisfactory, the su- 
pernatural character of the account, as it is 
indicated by the other parts of the narrative, 
remains unaffected. The agitation of the 
water; its suddenly healing virtue as to all 
diseases; and the limitation to the first that 
should go in, are all miraculous circumstances. 
Commentators have however resorted to vari 
ous hy7)otheses to account for the whole with- 
out divine agency. Dr. Hammond saye, "The 
sacrifices were exceedingly numerous at the 



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passover, Kara Kaipbv, (once a year, Chrysostom,) 
when the pool being warm from the immediate 
washing of the blood and entrails, and thus 
adapted to the cure of the blind, the withered, 
the lame, and perhaps the paralytic, was yet 
farther troubled, and the congelations and 
grosser parts stirred up by an officer or mes- 
senger, ayyeXos, to give it the full effect." To 
this hypothesis Whitby acutely replies, 1. How 
could this natural virtue be adapted to, and 
cure, all kinds of diseases ? 2. How could the 
virtue only extend to the cure of one man, 
several probably entering at the same instant ? 
3. How unlikely is it, if^natural, to take place 
only at one certain time, at the passover ? for 
there was a multitude of sacrifices slain at other 
of the feasts. 4. Lastly, and decisively, Light- 
foot shows that there was a laver in the temple 
for washing the entrails ; therefore they were 
not washed in this pool at all. 

Others, however, suppose that the blood of 
the victims was conveyed from the temple to 
this pool by pipes ; and Kuinoel thinks that it 
cannot be denied that the blood of animals 
recently slaughtered may impart a medicinal 
property to water; and he refers to Richter's 
'■^ Dissertat. de Balneo Anijnali,^' and Michaelis 
in he. But he admits that it cannot be proved 
y/hether the pool was situated out of the city 
at the sheep gate, or in the city, and in the 
vicinity of the temple ; nor that the blood of 
the victims was ever conveyed thither by ca- 
nals. Kuinoel justly observes, that though in 
Josephus no mention is made of the baths here 
described, yet this silence ought not to induce 
us to question the truth of this transaction ; 
since the historian omits to record many other 
circumstances which cannot be doubted ; as, 
for instance, the census of Augustus, and the 
murder of the infants. This critic also sup- 
poses that St. John only acts the part of an 
historian, and gives the account as it was cur- 
rent among the Jews, without vouching for its 
truth, or interposing his own judgment. Mede 
follows in the track of absurdly attempting to 
account for the phenomenon on natural prin- 
ciples : — " I think the water of this pool ac- 
quired a medicinal property froin the mud at 
its bottom, which was heavy with metallic 
salts, — -sulphur perhaps, or alum, or nitre. 
Now this would, from the water being per- 
turbed from the bottom by some natural cause, 
perhaps subterranean heat, or storms, rise up- 
ward and be mingled with it, and so impart a 
sanative property to those who bathed in it be- 
fore the metallic particles had subsided to the 
bottom. That it should have done so, kutu 
Kaipbv^ is not strange, since Bartholin has, by 
many examples, shown, that it is usual vv^ith 
many medicinal baths, to exert a singular force 
and sanative power at stated times, and at 
periodical, but uncertain, intervals." Dod- 
dridge combines the common hypothesis with 
that of Mede ; namely, that the water had at 
all times more or less of a medicinal property; 
but at some period, not far distant from that in 
which the transaction liere recorded took place, 
it was endued with a miraculous power ; an 
extraordinary commotion being probably ob- 



served in the water, and Providence so order- 
ing it, that the next person who accidentally 
bathed here^ being under some great disorder, 
found an immediate and unexpected cure : the 
like phenomenon in some other desperate case, 
was probably observed on a second commo- 
tion : and these commotions and cures might 
happen periodically. 

All those hypotheses which exclude miracle 
in this case are very unsatisfactory, nor is there 
any reason whatever to resort to them ; for, 
when rightly viewed, there appears a mercy 
and a wisdom in this miracle which must strike 
every one who attentively considers the ac- 
count, unless he be a determined unbeliever in 
miraculous interposition. For, 1. The miracle 
occurred KaTu Kaipbv, from tim.e to time, that is, 
occasionally, perhaps frequently. 2. Though 
but one at a time was healed, yet, as this might 
often occur, a singularly gracious provision 
was made for the relief of the sick inhabitants 
of Jerusalem in desperate cases. 3. The angel 
probably acted invisibly, but the commotion in 
the waters was so strong and peculiar as to 
mark a supernatural agent. 4. There is great 
probability in what Doddridge, following Ter- 
tullian, supposes, that the waters obtained 
their healing property not long before the 
ministry of Christ, and lost it after his rejec- 
tion and crucifixion by the Jews. In this case 
a connection was established between the heal- 
ing virtue of the pool and the presence of 
Christ on earth, indicating him to be the source 
of this benefit, and the true agent in conferring 
it ; and thus it became, afterward at least, a 
confirmation of his mission, 5. The whole 
might also be emblematical, "intended," says 
Macknight, " to show that Ezekiel's vision of 
waters issuing out of the sanctuary w^as about 
to be fulfilled, of which waters it is said. They 
shall be healed, and every thing shall live 
where the river cometh." It cannot be object, 
ed that this was not an age of miracles; and 
if miracles be allowed, we see in this particu- 
lar supernatural visitation obvious reasons of 
fitness, as well as a divine compassion. If 
however the ends to be accomplished by so 
public and notable a miraculous interposition 
were less obvious, still we must admit the fact, 
or either force absurd interpretations upon the 
text, or make the evangelist carelessly give his 
sanction to an instance of vulgar credulity and 
superstition. 

Maundrell and Chateaubriand both describe 
a bason or reservoir, near St. Stephen's gate, 
and bouaiding the temple on the north, as the 
identical pool of Bethesda ; which, if it really 
be what it is represented to be, is all that now 
remains of the primitive architecture of the 
Jews at Jerusalem. The latter says, " It is a 
reservoir, a hundred and fifty feet long and 
forty wide. The sides are walled, and these 
walls are composed of a bed of large stones 
joined together by iron cramps; a wall of 
mixed materials runs up on these large stones ; 
a layer of flints is stuck upon the surface of 
this wall ; and a coating is laid over these 
flints. The four beds are perpendicular with 
the bottom, and not horizontal: the coating 



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was on the side next to the water; and the 
large stones rested, as they still do, agahistthe 
ground. This pool is now dry, and half filled 
up. Here grow some pomegranate trees, and 
a species of wild tamarind of a bluish colour : 
the western angle is quite full of nopals. On 
the west side may also be seen two arches, 
which probably led to an aqueduct that carried 
the water into the interior of the temple." 

BETH-HORON. About tw-elve miles from 
Jerusalem, lies the Arab village of Bethoor, 
where Dr. E. D. Clarke was by accident com- 
pelled to pass a night. It is noticed by no 
other traveller ; and yet, there is the highest 
probability that this is the Beth-horon of the 
Scriptures. St. Jerom associates it with Rama, 
in the remark that they were 'in his time, to- 
gether with other noble cities built by Solomon, 
only poor villages. Beth-horon stood on the 
confines of Ephraim and Benjamin; which, 
according to the learned traveller, exactly an- 
swers to the situation of Bethoor. He sup- 
poses it, from its situation on a hill, to be 
Beth-horon the upper, the Beth-horon superior 
of Eusebius, of which frequent notice occurs 
in the apoci-yphal writings. Josephus men- 
tions that Cestius, the Roman general, march- 
ed upon Jerusalem by way of Lydda and Beth- 
horon. 

BETHLEHEM, a city in the tribe of Judah, 
Judges xvii, 7 ; and likewise called Ephrath, 
Gen. xlviii, 7 ; or Ephratah, Micah v, 2 ; and 
the inhabitants of it, Ephrathites, Ruth i, 2 ; 
1 Sam. xvii, 12. Here David was born, and 
spent his early years as a shepherd. And here 
also the scene of the beautiful narrative of Ruth 
is supposed to be laid. But its highest honour 
is, that here our divine Lord condescended to 
be born of woman : — "And thou, Bethlehem 
Ephratah, though thou be little among the 
thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he 
come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in 
Israel, whose goings forth have been of old, 
from everlasting." Travellers describe the 
first view of Betlilehem as imposing. The town 
appears covering the ridge of a hill on the 
southern side of a deep and extensive valle}'', 
and reaching from east to west. The most 
conspicuous object is the monastery erected 
over the supposed "Cave of the Nativity;" its 
walls and battlements have the air of a large 
fortress. From this same point, the Dead Sea 
is seen below on the left, seemingly very near, 
"but," says Sandys, "not so found by the tra- 
veller ; for these high, declining mountains are 
not to be directly descended." The road winds 
round the top of a valley which tradition has 
fixed on as the scene of the angelic vision which 
announced the birth of our Lord to the shep- 
herds ; but different spots have been selected, 
the Romish authorities not being agreed on this 
head. Bethlehem (called in the New Tes- 
tament Bethlehem Ephrata and Bethlehem 
of Judea, to distinguish it from Bethlehem 
of Zabulon) is situated on a rising ground, 
about two hours' distance, or not quite six 
miles from Jerusalem. Here the traveller meets 
with a repetition of the same puerilities and 
disgusting mummery which he has witnessed 



at the church of the sepulchre. " The stable," 
to use the words of Pococke, "in which our 
Lord was born, is a grotto cut out of the rock, 
according to the eastern custom." It is as- 
tonishing to find so intelligent a writer as Dr. 
E. D. Clarke gravely citing St. Jerom, who 
wrote in the fifth century, as an authority for 
the truth of the absurd legend by which the 
cave of the nativity is supposed to be identified. 
The ancient tombs and excavations are occa- 
sionally used by the Arabs as places of shelter ; 
but the Gospel narrative affords no counte- 
nance to the notion that the Virgin took refuge 
in any cave of this description. On the con- 
trary, it was evidently a manger belonging to 
the inn or khan : in other words, the upper 
rooms being wholly occupied, the holy family 
were compelled to take up their abode in the 
court allotted to the mules and horses, or other 
animals. But the New Testament was not the 
guide which was followed by the mother of 
Constantine, to whom the original church owed 
its foundation. The present edifice is repre- 
sented by Chateaubriand as of undoubtedly 
high antiquity ; yet Doubdan, an old traveller, 
says that the monastery was destroyed in the 
year 1263 by the Moslems ; and in its present 
state, at all events, it cannot lay claim to a 
higher date. The convent is divided among 
the Greek, Roman, and Armenian Christians, 
to each of whom separate parts are assigned as 
places of worship and habitations for the monks ; 
but, on certain days, all may perform their de- 
votions at the altars erected over the conse- 
crated spots. The church is built in the form 
of a cross ; the nave being adorned with forty- 
eight Corinthian columns in four rows, each 
column being two feet six inches in diameter, 
and eighteen feet high, including the base and 
the capital. The nave, which is in possession 
of the Armenians, is separated from the three 
other branches of the cross by a wall, so that 
the unity of the edifice is destroyed. The top 
of the cross is occupied by the choir, which he- 
longs' to the Greeks. Here is an altar dedi- 
cated to the wise men of the east, at the foot 
of which is a marble star, corresponding, as the 
monks say, to the point of the heavens where 
the miraculous meteor became stationary, and 
directly over the spot where the Saviour was 
born in the subterranean church below ! A flight 
of fifteen steps, and a long narrow passage, 
conduct to the sacred crypt or grotto of the 
nativity, which is thirty-seven feet six inches 
long, by eleven feet three inches in breadth, 
and nine feet high. It is lined and floored with 
marble, and provided on each side with five 
oratories, " answering precisely to the ten cribs 
or stalls for horses that the stable in which our 
Saviour was born contained !" The precise spot 
of the birth is marked by a glory in the floor, 
composed of marble and jasper encircled with 
silver, around which are inscribed the words. 
Hie de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est. 
[Here Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary.] 
Over it is a marble table or altar, which rests 
against the side of the rock, here cut into an 
arcade. The manger is at the distance of seven 
paces from the altar ; it is in a low recess hewn 



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out of the rock, to which you descend by two 
steps, and consists of a block of marble, raised 
about a foot and a half above the floor, and 
hollowed out in the form of a manger. Before 
it is the altar of the Magi. The chapel is 
illuminated by thirty-two lamps, presented by 
different princes of Christendom. Chateau- 
briand has described the scene in his usual 
florid and imaginative style : " Nothing can be 
more pleasing, or better calculated to excite 
devotional sentiments, than this subterraneous 
church. It is adorned with pictures of the 
Italian and Spanish schools, which represent 
the mysteries of the place. The usual orna- 
ments of the manger are of blue satin, em- 
broidered with silver. Incense is continually 
burning before the cradle of our Saviour. I 
have heard an organ, touched by no ordinary 
hand, play, during mass, the sweetest and most 
tender tunes of the best Italian composers. 
These concerts charm the Christian Arab, who, 
leaving his camels to feed, repairs, like the 
shepherds of old, to Bethlehem, to adore the 
King of kings in the manger. I have seen 
this inhabitant of the desert communicate at 
the altar of the Magi, with a fervour, a piety, 
a devotion, unknown among the Christians of 
the west. The continual arrival of caravans 
from all the nations of Christendom ; the pub- 
lie prayers ; the prostrations ; nay, even the 
richness of the presents sent here by the Chris- 
tian princes, altogether produce feelings in the 
soul, which it is much easier to conceive than 
to describe." 

Such are the illusions which the Roman 
Kuperstition casts over this extraordinary scene ! 
In another subterraneous chapel, tradition 
places the sepulchre of the Innocents. From 
this, the pilgrim is conducted to the grotto of 
St. Jerom, where they show the tomb of that 
father, who passed grgat part of his life in this 
place ; and who, in the grotto shown as his 
oratory, is said to have translated that version 
of the Bible which has been adopted by the 
church of Rome, and is called the Vulgate. 
He died at the advanced age of ninety-one, 
A. D. 422. The village of Bethlehem contains 
about three hundred inhabitants, the greater 
part of whom gain their livelihood by making 
beads, carving mother-of-pearl shells with sa- 
cred subjects, and manufacturing small tables 
and crucifixes, all which are eagerly purchased 
by the pilgrims. 

Bethlehem has been visited by many modern 
travellers. The following notice of it by Dr. 
E. D. Clarke will be read with interest : "After 
travelling for about an hour from the time of 
our leaving Jerusalem, we came in view of 
Bethlehem, and halted to enjoy the interesting 
sight. The town appeared covering the ridge 
of a hill on the southern side of a deep and 
extensive valley, and reacliing from east to 
west; the most conspicuous object being the 
monastery, erected over the cave of the na- 
tivity, in the suburbs, and upon the eastern 
side. The battlements and walls of this build- 
ing seemed like tliose of a vast fortress. The 
Dead Sea below, upon our lefl, appeared so 
near to us that we thought we could have rode 



thither in a very short space of time. Still 
nearer stood a mountain upon its western shore, 
resembling in its form the cone of Vesuvius 
near Naples, and having also a crater upon its 
top v/hich was plainly discernible. The dis- 
tance, however, is much greater than it ap- 
pears to be ; the magnitude of the objects 
beheld in this fine prospect causing them to 
appear less remote than they really are. The 
atmosphere was remarkably clear and serene ; 
but we saw none of those clouds of smoke, 
which, by some writers, are said to exhale from 
the surface of the lake, nor from any neigh- 
bouring mountain. Every thing about it was 
in the highest degree grand and awful. Beth- 
lehem is six miles from Jerusalem. Josephus 
describes the interval between the two cities 
as equal only to twenty stadia ; and in the pas- 
sage referred to, he makes an allusion to a 
celebrated well, which, both from the account 
given by him of its situation, and more espe- 
cially from the text of the sacred Scriptures, 
2 Sam. xxiii, 15, seems to have contained the 
identical fountain, of whose pure and delicious 
water we were now drinking. Considered 
merely in point of interest, the narrative is not 
likely to be surpassed by any circumstance of 
Pagan history. David, being a native of Beth- 
lehem, calls to mind, during the sultry days of 
harvest, verse 13, a well near the gate of the 
town, the delicious waters of which he had 
often tasted ; and expresses an earnest desire 
to assuage his thirst by drinking of that limpid 
spring. 'And David longed, and said, O that 
one would give me to drink of the water of the 
well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate !' 
The exclamation is overheard by 'three of 
the mighty men whom David had,' namely, 
Adino, Eleazar, and Shamnah, verses 8, 9, 11. 
These men sallied forth, and having fought 
their way through the garrison of the Philis- 
tines at Bethlehem, verse 14, ' drev/ water from 
the well that was by the gate,' on the other 
side of the town, and brought it to David. 
Coming into his presence, they present to 
him the surprising testimony of their valour 
and affection. The aged monarch receives 
from their hands a pledge they had so dearly 
earned, but refuses to drink of water every 
drop of which had been purchased with blood, 
2 Sarn. xxiii, 17. He returns thanks to the 
Almighty, who had vouchsafed the deliverance 
of his warriors from the jeopardy they had en- 
countered ; and pouring out the water as a liba- 
tion on the ground, makes an offering of it to 
the Lord. The well still retains its^ pristine 
renown ; and many an expatriated Bethlehem- 
ite has made it the theme of his longing and 
regret." 

BETHPHAGE, so called from its producing 
figs, a small village situated in Mount Olivet, 
and, as it seems, somewhat nearer Jerusalem 
than Bethany. Jesus being come from Beth- 
any to Bethphage, commanded his disciples to 
seek out an ass for him that he might ride, in 
his triumphant entrance into .Jerusalem, Matt, 
xxi, 1, &c. The distance between Bethphage 
and Jerusalem is about fifteen furlongs. 

BETHSAIDA, a city whose name in He- 



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brew imports a place of fishing or of hunting, 
and for both of these exercises it Avas well 
situated. As it belonged to the tribe of Naph- 
tali, it was in a country remarkable for plenty 
of deer ; and as it lay on the north end of the 
lake Gennesaretli, just where the river Jordan 
runs into it, it became the residence of fisher- 
men. Three of the Apostles, Philip, Andrew, 
and Peter, were born in this city. It is not 
mentioned in the Old Testament, though it 
frequently occurs in the New : the reason is, 
that it was but a village, as .Tosephus tells us, 
till Philip the tetrarch enlarged it, making it a 
magnificent city, and gave it the name of Julias, 
out of respect to Julia, the daughter of Augus- 
tus Caesar. 

The evangelists speak of Bethsaida ; and yet 
it then possessed that name no longer : it was 
enlarged and beautified nearly at the same time 
as Caesarea, arid called Julias. Thus was it 
called in the days of our Lord, and so would 
the sacred historians have been accustomed to 
call it. But if they knew nothing of this, what 
shall we say of their age ? In other respects 
they evince the most accurate knowledge of 
the circumstances of the time. The solution 
is, that, though Philip had exalted it to the rank 
of a city, to which he gave the name of Julias, 
yet, not long afterward, this Julia, in whose 
honour the city received its name, was banished 
from the country by her own father. The 
deeply wounded honour of Augustus was 
even anxious that the world might forget that 
she was his daughter. Tiberius, whose wife 
she had been, consigned the unfortunate prin- 
cess, after the death of Augustus, to the most 
abject poverty, under which she sank with- 
out assistance. Thus adulation must under 
two reigns have suppressed a name, from 
which otherwise the eity might have wished to 
derive benefit to itself; and for some time it 
Was called by its ancient name Bethsaida in- 
stead of Julias. At a later period this name 
again came into circulation, and appears in the 
catalogue of Jewish cities by Pliny. By such 
incidents, which are so easily overlooked, and 
the knowledge of which is afterward lost, do 
those who are really acquainted with an age 
disclose their authenticity. " But it is strange," 
some one will say, " that John reckons this 
Bethsaida, or Julias, where he was born, in 
Galilee, John xii, 21. Should he not know to 
what province his birthplace belonged?" Phi- 
lip only governed the eastern districts by the 
sea of Tiberias; but Galilee was the portion of 
his brother Antipas. Bethsaida or Julias could 
therefore not have been built by Philip, as the 
case is ; or it did not belong to Galilee, as John 
alleges. In fact, such an error were sufficient 
to prove that this Gospel was not written by 
John. Julias, however, was situated in Gaul- 
onitis, which district was, for deep political 
reasons, divided from Galilee ; but the ordinary 
language ef the time asserted its own opinion, 
and still reckoned the Gaulonitish province in 
Galilee. When, therefore, John does the same, 
he proves, that the peculiarity of those days 
was not unknown to him; for he expresses 
himself after the ordinary manner of the period. 



Thus Josephiis informs us of Judas the Gaulo- 
nite from Gamala, and also calls him in the 
following chapters, the Galilean ; and then in 
another work he applies the same expression to 
him; from whence we may be convinced that 
the custom of those days paid respect to a more 
ancient division of the country, and bade de- 
fiance, in the present case, to the then existing 
political geography. Is it possible that histo- 
rians who, as it is evident from such examples, 
discover throughout so nice a knowledge of 
geographical arrangements and local and even 
temporary circumstances, should have written 
at a time when the theatre of events was un- 
known to them, when not only their native 
country was destroyed, but their nation scat- 
tered, and the national existence of the Jews 
extinguished and extirpated ? On the contrary, 
all this is in proof that they wrote at the very 
period which they profess, and it also proves 
the usual antiquity assigned to the Gospels. 

BETHSHAN, a city belonging to the half 
tribe of Manasseh, on the west of Jorda^n, and 
not far from the river. It was a considerable 
city in the time of Eusebius and St. Jerom, and 
v/as then, as it had been for several ages be- 
fore, called Scythopolis, or the city of the Scy- 
thians, from some remarkable occurrence when 
the Scythians made an irruption into Syria. It 
is said to be six hundred furlongs from Jerusa- 
lem, 2 Mace, xii, 29. After the battle of Mount 
Gilboa, the Philistines took the body of Saul, 
and hung it against the wall of Bethshan, 
1 Sam. xxxi, 10. Bethshan is now called By- 
san, and is described by Burckhardt as situated 
on rising ground on the west of the Ghor, or 
valley of Jordan. 

BETHSHEMESH, a city of the tribe of Ju- 
dah, belonging to the priests, Joshua xxi, 16. 
The Philistines having sent back the ark of 
the Lord, it was brought to Bethshemesh, 
1 Sam, vi, 12, where some of tlie people out of 
curiosity having looked into it, the Lord de- 
stroyed seventy of the principal men belonging 
to the city, and fifty thousand of the common 
people, verse 19. It is here to be observed that 
it was solemnly enjoined, Num. iv, 20, that not 
only the common people but that even the Le- 
vites themselves should not dare to look into the 
ark, upon pain of death. " It is a fearful thing," 
says Bishop Hall, "to use the holy ordinances 
of God with an irreverent boldness ; fear and 
trembling become us in our access to the ma- 
jesty of the Almighty." 

BETHUEL, the son of Nahor and Milcah. 
He was Abraham's nephew, and father to La- 
ban and Rebekah, the wife of Isaac, Genesis 
xxii, 20, 23. 

BETROTHMENT, a mutual promise or 
compact between two parties for a future mar- 
riage. The word imports as much as giving 
one's troth ; that is, true faith, or promise. 
Among the ancient Jews, the betrothing was 
performed either by a writing, or by a piece of 
silver given to the bride. After the marriage 
was contracted, the young people had the liber- 
ty of seeing each other, which was not allow- 
ed them before. If, after the betrothment, the 
bride should trespass against that fidelity ^he 



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owed to her bridegroom she was treated as an 
adulteress. See Marriage. 

BEZER, or Bozra, or Bostra, a city beyond 
Jordan, given by Moses to Reuben : this town 
was designed by Joshua to be a city of reflige ; 
it was given to the Levites of Gershom's fami- 
ly, Deut. iv, 43. When Scripture mentions 
Bezer, it adds, " iia the wilderness," because it 
lay in Arabia Deserta, and the eastern part of 
Edom, encompassed with deserts. Eusebius 
places Bozra twenty-four miles from Adraa, or 
Edrai. This city is sometimes said to belong 
to Reuben, sometimes to Moab, and sometimes 
again to Edom; because, as it was a frontier 
town to these three provinces, it was occasion- 
ally in the hands of one party, and then was 
taken by another. The bishops of Bostra sub- 
scribed the decrees of several councils. 

BIBLE, the hook, byway of eminence so call- 
ed, as containing the sacred Scriptures, that is, 
the inspired writings of the Old and New Tes- 
tament ; or the whole collection of those which 
are received among Christians as of divine au- 
thority. The word Biole comes from the Greek 
Bt'SXof, or BlBXIov, and is used to denote any 
book ; but is emphatically applied to the book 
of inspired Scripture, v/hich is "the book" as 
being superior in excellence to all other books. 
BtjSXiov again comes from Bi6\og, the Egyptian 
reed, from v^hich the ancient paper was pro- 
cured. The word Bible seems to be used. in 
the particular sense just given by Chrysostom : 
" I therefore exhort all of you to procure to 
yourselves Bibles, B(6Ata. If you have nothing 
else, take care to have the New Testament, 
particularly the Acts of the Apostles and the 
Gospels, for your constant instructors." And 
Jerome says, "that the Scriptures being all 
written by one Spirit, are one book." Augustine 
also informs us, "that some called all the ca- 
nonical Scriptures one book, on account of 
their wonderful harmony and unity of design 
throughout." It is not improbable that this 
mode of speaking gradually introduced the 
general use of the word Bible for the whole 
collection of the Scriptures, or the books of the 
Old and New Testament. By the Jews the 
Bible, that is, the Old Testament, is called 
Mikra, that is, "lecture, or reading;" By 
Christians the Bible, comprehending the Old 
and New Testament, is usually denominated 
" Scripture ;" sometimes also the " Sacred Ca- 
non," which signifies the rule of faith and prac- 
tice. These, and similar appellations, are de- 
rived from the divine original and authority of 
the Bible. As it contains an authentic and 
connected history of the divine dispensations 
with regard to mankind ; as it was given by 
divine inspiration ; as its chief subject is reli- 
gion ; and as the doctrines it teaches, and the 
duties it inculcates, pertain to the conduct of 
men, as rational, moral, and accountable be- 
ings, and conduce by a divine constitution and 
promise, to their present and future happiness ; 
the Bible deserves to be held in the highest es- 
timation, and amply justifies the sentiments of 
veneration with which it has been regarded, 
and the peculiar and honourable appellations 
bj which it has been denominated. 



2. The list of the books contained ^ in the 
Bible constitutes what is called the canon of 
Scripture. Those books that are contained in 
the catalogue to which the rame of canon has 
been appropriated, are caPed canonical, by way 
of contradistinction from others called deutero- 
canonical, apocryphal, pseudo-apocryphal, &c, 
which either are not acknowledged as divine 
books, or are rejected as heretical and spurious. 
(See Apocrypha.) The first canon or catalogue 
of the sacred books was made by the Jews ; 
but the original author of it is not satisfacto. 
rily ascertained. It is certain, however, that 
the five books of Moses, called the Pentateuch, 
were collected into one body within a short 
time after his death ; since Deuteronomy, which 
is, as it were, the abridgment and recapitulation 
of the other four, was laid in the tabernacle 
near the ark, according to the order which he 
gave to the Levites, Deut. xxxi, 24. Hence 
the first canon of the sacred writings consist- 
ed of the five books of Moses : for a farther 
account of which see Pentateuch. It does not 
appear that any other books were added to 
these, till the division of the ten tribes, as the 
Samaritans acknowledged no others. How- 
ever, after the tune of Moses, several prophets, 
and other writers divinely inspired, composed 
either the history of their own times, or pro- 
phetical books and divine writings, or psalms 
appropriated to the praise of God. But these 
books do not seem to have been collected into 
one body, or comprised under one and the same 
canon, before the Babylonish captivity. This 
was not done till after their return from the cap- 
tivity, about which time the Jews had a certain 
number of books digested into a canon, which 
comprehended none of those books that were 
written since the time of Nehemiah. The book of 
Ecclesiasticus affords sufficient evidence that the 
canon of the sacred books was completed when 
that tract was composed ; for that author, in 
chapter xlix, having mentioned among the fa- 
mous men and sacred writers, Isaiah, Jeremiah, 
Ezekiel, adds the twelve minor prophets who 
follow those three in the Jewish canon ; and 
from this circumstance we may infer that the 
prophecies of these twelve were already collect- 
ed and digested into one body. It is farther 
evident, that in the time of our Saviour the ca- 
non of the Holy Scriptures was drawn up, since 
he cites the law of Moses, the Prophets, and 
the Psalms, which are the three kinds of books 
of which that canon is composed, and which 
he often styles, "the Scriptures," or, "the Holy 
Scripture," Matt, xxi, 42 ; xxii, 29 ; xxvi, 54 ; 
John V, 39 ; and by liim therefore the Jewish 
canon, as it existed in his day, was fully au- 
thenticated, by whomsoever or at what time 
it had been formed. 

3. The person who compiled this canon is 
generally allowed to be Ezra. According to 
the invariable tradition of Jews and Christians, 
the honour is ascribed to him of having collect- 
ed together and perfected a complete edition of 
the Holy Scriptures. The original of the Pen- 
tateuch had been carefully preserved in the side 
of the ark, and had been probably introduced 
with the ark into the temple at Jerusalem, 



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165 



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After having been concealed in the dangerous 
days of the idolatrous kings of Judah, and par- 
ticularly in the impious reigns of Manasseh and 
Amon, it was found in the days of Josiah, the 
succeeding prince, by Hilkiah the priest, in the 
temple. Prideaux thinks, that during the pre- 
ceding reigns the book of the law was so de- 
stroyed and lost, that, beside this copy of it, 
there was then no other to be obtained. To 
this purpose he adds, that the surprise mani- 
fested by Hilkiah, on the discovery of it, and 
the grief expressed by Josiah when he heard it 
read, plainly show that neither of them had 
seen it before. On the other hand, Dr. Kenni- 
cott, with better reason, supposes, that long be- 
fore this time there were several copies of the 
law in Israel, during the separa'tion of the ten 
tribes, and that there were some copies of it also 
among the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, par- 
ticularly in the liands of the prophets, priests, 
and LcAdtes ; and that by the instruction and 
authority of these MSS, the various services in 
tlie temple were regulated, daring the reigns of 
the good kings of Judah. He adds, that the 
surprise expressed by Josiah and the people, at 
his reading the copy found by Hilkiah, may be 
accounted for by adverting to the history of 
the preceding reigns, and by recollecting how 
idolatrous a king Manasseh had been for fifty- 
five years, and that lie wanted neither power 
nor inclination to destroy the copies of the law, 
if they had not been secreted by tlie servants 
of God. The law, after being so long conceal, 
ed, would be unknown almost to all the Jews ; 
and thus the solemn reading of it by Josiah 
would awaken his own and the people's earnest 
attention; more especially, as the copy pro- 
duced was probably the original written by 
Moses. From this time copies of the law were 
extensively multiplied among the people ; and 
though, within a few years, the autograph, or 
original copy of the law, was burnt with the 
city and temple by the Babylonians, yet many 
copies of the law and the prophets, and of all 
the other sacred writings, were circulated in 
the hands of private persons, who carried them 
with them into their captivity. It is certain that 
Daniel had a copy of the Holy Scriptures w^ith 
him at Babylon ; for he quotes the law, and men. 
tions the prophecies of Jeremiah, Dan. ix, 2, 11, 
13. It appears also, from the sixth chap, of Ezra, 
and from the ninth chap, of Nehemiah, that co- 
pies of the law were dispersed among the people. 
The whole which Ezra did may be comprised in 
the following particulars : He collected as many 
copies of the sacred writings as he could find, 
and compared them together, and, out of them 
all, formed one complete copy, adjusted the va- 
rious readings, and corrected the errors of 
transcribers. He likewise made additions in 
several parts of the different books, which ap- 
peared to be necessary for the illustration, cor. 
rection, and completion of them. To this class 
of additions we may refer the last cliapter of 
Deuteronomy, which, as it gives an account of 
the death and burial of Moses, and of the suc- 
cession of Joshua after him, could not have 
been written by Moses himself. Under the 
eame head have also been included some other 



interpolations in the Bible, which create diffi- 
culties that can only be solved by allov/ing 
them ; as in Gen. xii, 6 ; xxii, 14 ; xxxvi, 3 ; 
Exodus xvi, 35; Deut. ii, 12; iii, 11, 14; Prov. 
XXV, 1. The interpolations in these passages 
are ascribed by Prideaux to Ezra ; and others 
which were afterward added, he attributes to 
Simon the Just. Ezra also changed the old 
names of several places that were become ob- 
solete, putting instead of them the new names 
by which they were at that time called; in- 
stances of which occur in Genesis xiv, 4, where 
Dan is substituted for Laish, and in several 
places in Genesis, and also in Numbers, where 
Hebron is put for Kirjath Arba, &c. He like- 
wise wrote out the whole in the Chaldee charac- 
ter, changing for it the old Hebrew character, 
which has since that time beeri retained only by 
tlie Samaritans, and among whom it is preserv- 
ed even to this day. The canon of the whole 
Hebrew Bible seems, says Kennicott, to have 
been closed by Malachi, the latest of the Jew- 
ish prophets, about fifty years after Ezra had 
collected together all the sacred books which 
had been composed before and during his time. 
Prideaux supposes the canon was completed by 
Simon the Just, about one hundred and fifty 
years after Malachi: but, as his opinion is 
founded merely on a few proper names at the 
end of the two genealogies, 1 Chron. iii, 19 ; 
Nehem. xii, 22, which few names might very 
easily be added by a transcriber afterward, it is 
more probable, as Kennicott thinks, that the 
canon was finished by the last of the prophets, 
about four hundred years before Christ. 

4. It is an inquiry of considerable import- 
ance, in its relation to the subject of this arti- 
cle, what books were contained in the canon 
of the Jews. The Old Testament, according 
to our Bibles, comprises thirty-nine books, viz. 
the Pentateuch or five books of Moses, called 
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and 
Deuteronomy, the books of Joshua, Judges, 
Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 
Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, 
Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of 
Solomon, the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah 
with his Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, 
Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, 
Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and 
Malachi. But, among the ancient Jews, they 
formed only twenty-two books, according lo 
the letters of their alphabet, which were 
twenty-two in number ; reckoning Judges and 
Ruth, Ezra and Nehemiah, Jeremiah and his 
Lamentations, and the twelve minor prophets, 
(so called from the comparative brevity of their 
compositions,) respectively as one book. Jose-. 
phus says, "We have not thousands of books, 
discordant, and contradicting each other: but 
we have only tiventy-hvo, which comprehend 
the history of all former ages, and are justly 
regarded as divine. Five of them proceed from 
Moses ; they include as well the laws, as an 
account of the creation of man, extending to 
the time of his (Moses) death. This period 
comprehends nearly three thousand years. 
From the death of Moses to that of Artaxerxes, 
who was king of Persia after Xerxes, the pro- 



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phefs, who succeeded Moses, committed to writ- 
ing, in thirteen books, what was done in their 
days. The remaining four books contain 
hymns to God, (the Psalms,) and instructions 
of life for man." The threefold division of the 
Old Testament into the LaAV, the Prophets, and 
the Psalms, mentioned by Josephus, was ex- 
pressly recognised before his time by Jesus 
Christ, as well as by the subsequent writers of 
the New Testament. We have therefore suffi- 
cient evidence that the Old Testament existed 
at that time ; and if it be only allowed that 
Jesus Christ was a teacher of a fearless and 
irreproachable character^ it must be acknow- 
ledged that we draw a fair conclusion, when We 
assert that the Scriptures v/ere not corrupted in 
his time : for, when he accused the Pharisees 
of making the law of no effect by their tradi- 
tions, and when he enjoined his hearers to 
search the Scriptures, he could not have failed 
to mention the corruptions or forgeries of 
Scripture, if any had existed in that age. 
About fifty years before the time of Christ 
were written the Targums of Onkelos on the 
Pentateuch, and of Jonathan Ben-XJzziel on the 
Prophets ; (according to the Jewish classifica- 
tion of the books of the Old Testament ;) which 
are evidence of the genuineness of those books 
at that time. We have, however, unquestion- 
able testimony of the genuineness of the Old 
Testament, in the fact that its canon was fixed 
some centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ. 
Jesus the son of Sirach, author of the book of 
Ecclesiasticus, makes evident references to the 
prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, 
and mentions these prophets by name : he 
speaks also of the twelve minor prophets. It 
likewise appears from the prologue to that 
book, that the law and the prophets, and other 
ancient books, were extant at the same period. 
The book of Ecclesiasticus, according to the 
best chronologers, was written in the Syro- 
Chaldaic dialect A. M. 3772, that is, two hun- 
dred and thirty-two years before the Christian 
8Bra, and was translated by the grandson of 
Jesus into Greek, for the use of the Alexan- 
drian Jews. The prologue was added by the 
translator ; but this circumstance does not di- 
minish the evidence for the antiquity of the Old 
Testament : for he informs us, that the law 
and the prophets, and the other books of their 
fathers, were studied by his grandfather ; a suf- 
ficient proof that they were extant in his time. 
Fifty years, indeed, before the age of the au- 
thor of Ecclesiasticus, or two hundred and 
eighty-two years before the Christian tera, the 
Greek version of the Old Testament, usually 
called the Septuagint, was executed at Alex- 
andria, the boolcs of which are the same as in 
■our Bibles ; whence it is evident that we still 
have those identical books, which the most an- 
cient Jews attested to be genuine. The Chris- 
tian fathers too, Origen, Athanasius, Hilary, 
Gregory, Nazianzen, Epiphanius, and Jerom, 
speaking of the books that are allowed by the 
Jews as sacred and canonical, agree in saying 
that they are the same in number with the let- 
ters in the Hebrew alphabet, that is, twenty- 
two, and reckon particularly those books which 



we have already mentioned. Nothing can be 
more satisfactory and conclusive than all the 
parts of the evidence for the authenticity and in- 
tegrity of the canon of the Old Testament scrip- 
tures. The Jews, to whom they were first com- 
mitted, never varied respecting them; while 
they were fully recognised by our Lord and his 
Apostles ; and, consequently, their authenticity 
is established by express revelation. And that 
we now possess them as thus delivered and au- 
thenticated, we have the concurrent testimony 
of the whole succession of the most distin- 
guished early Christian writers, as well as of 
the Jews to this day, who, in every age, and 
in all countries, the most remote from one 
another, have constantly been in the habit of 
i-eading them in their synagogues. 

5. The five books of the law are divided into 
fifty-four sections, which division is attributed 
to Ezra, and was intended for the use of their 
synagogues, and for the better instruction of 
the people in the law of God. For, one of 
these sections was read every Sabbath in their 
synagogues. They ended the last section with 
the last words of Deuteronomy on the Sabbath 
of the feast of the tabernacles, and then began 
anew with the first section from the beginning 
of Genesis the next Sabbath after, and so went 
round in this circle every year. The number 
of these sections was fifty-four, because in their 
intercalated years (a month being then added) 
there were fifty-four Sabbaths. On other years 
they reduced them to the number of the Sab- 
baths which were in those years, by joining 
two short ones several times into one. For 
they held themselves obliged to have the whole 
law thus read over in their synagogues every 
year. Till the time of the persecution of An- 
tiochus Epiphanes, they read only the law ; but 
being then prohibited from reading it any more, 
they substituted in the room of the fifty- four 
sections of the law, fifty-four sections out of 
the prophets, the reading of which they ever 
after continued. Thus, when the reading of 
the law was restored by the Maccabees, the 
section which was read every Sabbath out of 
the law served for their first lesson, and the 
section out of tlie prophets for their second les- 
son; and this practice was continued to the 
times of the Apostles, Acts xiii, 15, 27. These 
sections were divided into verses, called by the 
Jews pesuJcim, and they are marked out in the 
Hebrew Bible by two great points at the end of 
them, called from hence, soph-pasuk, that is, 
the end of the verse. This division, if not made 
by Ezra, is very ancient ; for when the Chal- 
dee came into use in the room of the Hebrew 
language, after the return of the Jews from 
their captivity in Babylon, the law was read to 
the people first in the Hebrew language, and 
then rendered by an interpreter into the Chal- 
dee language; and this was done period by 
period. The division of the Holy Scriptures 
into chapters is of a much later date. The 
Psalms, indeed, appear to have been always di- 
vided as they are at present, Acts xiii, 33 ; but 
as to the rest of the Bible, the present division 
into chapters was unknown to the ancients. 

6. From the time when the Old Testament 



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was completed by Malachi, the last of the pro- 
phets, till the publication of the New Testa- 
ment, about four hundred and sixty years 
elapsed. During the life of Jesus Christ, and 
for some time after his ascension, nothing on 
the subject of his mission was committed to 
writing. The period of his remaining upon 
earth may be regarded as an intermediate state 
between the old and new dispensations. His 
personal ministry was confined to the land of 
Judea; and, by means of his miracles and dis- 
courses, together with those of his disciples, the 
attention of men, in that country, was suffi- 
ciently directed to his doctrine. They were also 
in possession of the Old Testament scriptures ; 
which, at that season, it was of the greatest 
importance they should consult, in order to 
compare the ancient predictions with what 
was then taking place. Immediately after the 
resurrection of Jesus Christ, his disciples, in 
the most public manner, and in the place where 
he had been crucified, proclaimed that event, 
and. the whole of the doctrine which he had 
commanded them to preach. In this service 
they continu.ed personally to labour for a con- 
siderable timoj first among their countrymen the 
Jews, and then among the other nations. Dur- 
ing the period between the resurrection and the 
publication of the New Testament, the churches 
possessed miraculous gifts, and the prophets 
svere enabled to explain the predictions of the 
Old Testament, and to show their fiiliilment. 
After their doctrine had every where attracted 
attention, and, in spite of the most violent 
opposition, had forced its way through the 
civilized world ; and when churches or socie- 
ties of Christians were collected, not only in 
Judea, but in the most celebrated cities of Italy, 
Greece, and Asia Minor, the scriptures of the 
New Testament were written by the Apostles, 
and other inspired men, and intrusted to the 
keeping of these churches. 

The whole of the New Testaiiient v/as not 
written at once, but in different parts, and on 
various occasions. Six of the Apostles, and 
two inspired disciples who accompanied them 
in their journeys, were employed in this work. 
The histories which it contains of the life of 
Christ, known by the name of the Gospels, 
were composed by four of his contemporaries, 
two of whom had been constant attendants on 
his public ministry. The first of these was 
published within a few years after his death, in 
that very country where he had lived, and 
among the people who had seen him and ob- 
served his conduct. The history called the 
Acts of the Apostles, which contains an ac- 
count of their proceedings, and of the progress 
of the Gospel, from Jerusalem, among the 
Gentile nations, was published about the year 
64, being thirty years after our Lord's cruci- 
fixion, by one who, though not an Apostle, 
declares that he had "perfect understanding 
of all things, from the very first," and who had 
written one of the Gospels. Tliis book, com- 
mencing with a detail of proceedings, from the 
resurrection of Jesus Christ, carries down the 
evangelical history till the arrival of Paul as a 
prisoner at Rome, The Epistles, addressed to 



churches in particular places, to believers scat- 
tered up and down in different countries, or to 
individuals, in all twenty.one in number, were 
separately written, by five of the Apostles, 
from seventeen, to twenty, thirty, and thirty- 
five years after the death of Christ. Four of 
these writers had accompanied the Lord Jesus 
during his life, and had been " eye witnesses of 
his majesty." The fifth was the Apostle Paul, 
who, as he expresses it, was *' one born out of 
due time," but who had likewise seen Jesus 
Christ, and had been empowered by him to 
work miracles, which were "the signs of an 
Apostle," One of these five also wrote the 
book of Revelation, about the year A, D, 96, 
addressed to seven churches in Asia, contain- 
ing Epistles to these churches from Jesus Christ 
himself, with various instructioiis for the im- 
mediate use of all Cln-istians, together with a 
prophetical view of the kingdon> of God till 
the end of time. These several pieces, which 
compose the scriptures of the New Testament, 
were received by the churches v^ith the highest ^ 
veneration ; and, as the instructions they con- 
tain, though partially addressed, were equally 
intended for all, they were immediately copied, 
and lianded about from one church to another, 
till each was in possession of the whole. The 
volume of the New Testament was thus com- 
pleted before the death of the last of the Apos- 
tles, most of whom had sealed their testimony 
with their blood. From the manner in which 
these scriptures were at first circulated, some 
of their parts were necessarily longer in reach- 
ing certain places than others. These, of 
course, could not be so soon received into the 
canon as the rest. Owing to this circumstance, 
and to that of a few of the books being address, 
edto individual believers, or to their not having 
the names of their writers affixed, or the de- 
signation of Apostle added, a doubt for a time 
existed among some respecting the genuineness 
of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistle of 
James, the second Epistle of Peter, the second 
and third Epistles of John, the Epistle of Jude, 
and the book of Revelation. These, however, 
though not universally, were generally acknow 
ledged ; while all the other books of the New 
Testament were without dispute received frora 
the beginning. This discrimination proves the 
scrupulous care of the first churches on this 
highly important subject. 

At length these books, which had not at first 
been admitted, were, like the rest, universally 
received, not by the votes of a council, as is- 
sometimes asserted, but after deliberate and? 
free inquiry by many separate churches, under 
the superintending providence of God, in dif . 
ferent parts of tlie world. It is at the same 
tune a certain fact, that no other books beside 
those which at present compose the volume of 
the New Testament, were admitted by the- 
churches. Several apocryphal writings were 
published under the name of Jesus Christ and 
his Apostles, which are mentioned by the writ- 
ers of the first four centuries, most of whicb 
have perished, though some are still extant. 
Few or none of them were composed before 
the second century, and several of them were 



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forged as late as the third century. But they 
v/ere not acknowledged as authentic by the 
Bv4 Christians ; and were rejected by those 
who have noticed them, as spurious and he- 
retical. Histories, too, as might have been 
expected, were written of the life of Christ ; 
and one forgery was attempted, of a letter 
said to have been written by Jesus himself to 
Abgarus, king of Edessa ; but of the first, 
none w^ere received as of any authority, and 
the last was universally rejected. "E':!-ide 
our Gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles," says 
Paley, "no Christian history claiming to be 
written by an Apostle, or Apostolical man, 
is quoted v/ithin three hundred years after the 
birth of Christ, by any writer now extant or 
known, or, if quoted, is quoted with marks of 
censure and rejection." This agreement of 
Christians respecting the Scriptures, when we 
consider their many differences in other re- 
spects, is the more remarkable, since it took 
place v;ithout any public authority being inter- 
posed. "We have no knowledge," says the 
above author, " of any interference of authority 
in the question before the council of Laodicea, 
in the year 363. Probably the decree of this 
council rather declared than regulated the 
public judgment, or, more properly speaking, 
the judgment of some neighbouring churches, 
the council itself consisting of no more than 
thirty or forty bishops of Lydia and the adjoin- 
ing countries. Nor does its authority seem to 
have extended farther." But the fact, that no 
public authority was interposed, does not re- 
quire to be supported by the above reasoning. 
The churches at the beginning, being widely 
separated from each other, necessarily judged 
for themselves in this matter, and tlie decree 
of the council was founded on the coincidence 
of their judgment. In delivering this part of 
his written revelation, God proceeded as he 
had done in the publication of the Old Testa- 
ment scriptures. For a considerable time, his 
will was declared to mankind through the me- 
dium of oral tradition. At length he saw meet, 
in his wisdom, to give it a more permanent 
form. But this did not take place till a nation, 
separated from all others, was provided for its 
reception. In the same manner, when Jesus 
Christ set up his kingdom in the world, of 
which the nation of Israel was a type, he first 
made known his will by means of verbal com- 
munication, tlirough his servants whom he 
commissioned and sent out for that purpose ; 
and when, through their means, he had pre- 
pared his subjects and collected them into 
churches, to be the depositaries of his word, he 
caused it to be delivered to them in writing. 
His kingdom was not to consist of any particu- 
lar nation, like that of Israel, but of all those 
individuals, in every part of the world, who 
should believe in his name. It was to be ruled, 
not by means of human authority, or compul- 
sion of any kind, but solely by his authority. 
These sacred w^ritings were thus intrusted to a 
people prepared for their reception, — a nation 
among the nations, but singularly distinct from 
all the rest, who guarded and preserved them 
with the same inviolable attachment as the 



Old Testament scriptures had experienced from 
the Jews. 

7. Respecting the lateness of the time when 
the scriptures of the New Testament were 
written, no objection can be offered, since they 
were published before that generation passed 
away which had witnessed the transactions 
they record. The dates of these writings fall 
within the period of the lives of many who 
were in full manhood when the Lord Jesus was 
upon earth ; and the facts detailed in the his. 
tories, and referred to in the Epistles, being of 
the most public nature, were still open to full 
investigation. It must also be recollected, that 
the Apostles and disciples, during the whole 
intermediate period, were publicly proclaiming 
to the world the same things which were after- 
ward recorded in their writings. Thus were 
the Scriptures, as w^e now possess them, deli- 
vered to the first churches. By the concurrent 
testimony of all antiquity, both of friends and 
foes, they were received by Christians of differ, 
ent sects, and were constantly appealed to on 
all hands, in the controversies that arose among 
them. Commentaries upon them v,'ere written 
at a very early period, and translations made 
into different languages. Formal catalogues 
of them were published, and they were attack- 
ed by the adversaries of Christianity, who not 
only did not question, but expressly admitted, 
the facts they contained, and that they were 
the genuine productions of the persons whose 
names they bore. In this manner the Scrip- 
tures were also secured from the danger of 
being in any respect altered or vitiated. " The 
books of Scripture," says Augustine, " could 
not have been corrupted. If such an attempt 
had been made by any one, his design would have 
been prevented and defeated. His alterations 
would have been immediately detected by many 
and more ancient copies." The difiiculty 
of succeeding in such an attempt is apparent 
hence, that the Scriptures were early translated 
into divers languages, and copies of them were 
numerous. The alterations which any one 
attempted to make w^ould have been soon per- 
ceived ; just even as now, in fact, lesser faults 
in some copies are amended by comparing 
ancient copies or those of the original. " If 
any one," continues Augustine, " should charge 
you with having interpolated some texts alleged 
by you as favourable to your cause, what would 
you say ? Would you not immediately answer 
that it is impossible for you to do such a thing 
in books read by all Christians; and that if 
any such attempt had been made by you, it 
would have been presently discerned and de- 
feated by comparing the ancient copies ? Well, 
then, for the same reason that the Scriptures 
cannot be corrupted by you, neither could they 
be corrupted by any other people." Accord- 
ingly, the uniformity of the manuscripts of 
the Holy Scriptures that are extant, which are 
incomparably more numerous than those of 
any ancient author, and which are dispersed 
Chrough so many countries, and in so great a 
variety of languages, is truly astonishing. It 
demonstrates both the veneration in which the 
Scriptures have been always held, and the sin- 



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gular care that has been takeii in transcribing' 
them. The number of various readings, that 
by the most minute and laborious investigation 
and collations of manuscripts have been dis- 
covered in them, are said to amount to one 
hundred and fifty thousand; though at first 
sight they may seem calculated to diminish 
confidence in the sacred text, yet in no degree 
whatever do they affect its credit and integrity. 
They consist almost wholly in palpable errors 
in transcription, grammatical and verbal differ- 
ences, such as the insertion or omission of a 
letter or article, the substitution of a word for 
its equivalent, or the transposition of a word 
or two in a sentence. Taken altogether, they 
neither change nor affect a single doctrine or 
duty announced or enjoined in the word of 
God. When, therefore, we consider the great 
antiquity of the sacred books, the almost infi- 
nite number of copies, of versions, and of edi- 
tions, which have been made of them in all 
languages, in languages which have not any 
analogy one with another, among nations 
differing so much in their customs and their 
religious opinions, — when we consider these 
things, it is truly astonishing, and can only be 
ascribed to the watchful providence of God 
over his own word, that, among the various 
readings, nothing truly essential can be dis- 
cerned, which relates to either precept or doc- 
trine, or -which breaks that connection, that 
unity which subsists in all the various parts of 
divine revelation, and which demonstrates the 
whole to be the work of one and the same Spirit. 

8. Having considered the appellations by 
which the Bible is distinguished, the books of 
which it consists, the time and manner in which 
they were collected, it may not be improper to 
subjoin a few observations on the genuineness 
and authenticity of the Scriptures, on their high 
original and divine authority, and on their great 
importance and utility. 

It should here be considered, that the genu- 
ineness of the Scriptures proves the truth 
of the principal facts contained in them ; to 
which purpose we may observe that it is 
very rare to meet with any genuine writings 
of the historical kind, in which the principal 
facts are not true, unless it be in instances 
where both the motives which engaged the au- 
thor to falsify, and the circumstances which 
gave some plausibility to the fiction, are appar- 
ent ; neither of which can be alleged in the 
present case with any colour of reason. As 
this is rare in general, it is more rare when the 
writer treats of things that happened in his 
own time, and under his own cognizance and 
direction, and connnunicates his history to per., 
sons under the same circumstances ; all which 
may be said of the writers of the Scripture his. 
tory. Beside, the great hnportance of the facts 
mentioned in the Scriptures makes it more im- 
probable, that the several authors should either 
have attempted to falsify, or have succeeded in 
such an attempt. The same observation may 
be applied to the great number of particular cir- 
cumstances of time, place, persons, &c, men- 
tioned in the Scriptures, and to the harmony of 
the books with themselves, and with each otlier. 



These are arguments both for the genuineness 
of the books, and truth of the facts distinctly 
considered, and also arguments for deducing 
the truth from the genuineness. Moreover, if 
the books of the Old and New Testaments 
were written by the persons to whom they have 
been ascribed, that is, if they be genuine, the 
moral characters of these writers aftbrd the 
strongest assurance, that the facts asserted by 
them are true. The sufferings which several 
of the writers underwent both in life and in 
death, in attestation of the facts delivered by 
them, furnish a particular argument in favour 
of these facts. Again, the arguments here 
alleged for proving the tnith of the Scripture 
history from the genuineness of the books, are 
as conclusive in respect of the miraculous facts, 
as of the common ones. It may also be ob- 
served, that if we allow the genuineness of the 
books to be a sufficient evidence of the com- 
mon facts which they record, the miraculous 
facts must also be allowed from their close con- 
nection with the others. It is necessary to 
admit both or neither. We cannot conceive 
that Moses should have delivered the Israelites 
from their slavery in Egypt, or conducted them 
through the wilderness for forty years, at all in 
such manner as the common history repre- 
sents, unless we suppose the miraculous facts 
intermixed with it to be true also. In like man- 
ner, the fame of Christ's miracles, the multi 
tudes which followed him, the adherence of his 
disciples, the jealousy and hatred of the chief 
priests, scribes, and Pharisees, with many other 
facts of a common nature, are impossible to be 
accounted for, unless we allow that he did real- 
ly work miracles And the same observations 
hold, in general, of the other parts of the Scrip- 
ture history. We might urge that a particular 
argument in favour of the miraculous part of 
the Scripture history, maybe deduced from the 
reluctance of mankind to receive miraculous 
facts ; which would put the writers and readers 
very much upon their guard, and would ope- 
rate as a strong check upon the publication of 
a miraculous history at or near the time when 
the miracles were said to be performed ; and 
thus it would serve as a strong confirmation of 
such a history, if its genuineness be previously 
granted. 

9. In connection with the preceding propo- 
sition we may observe, that the genuineness of 
the Scriptures proves their divine authority. 
Porphyry in effect acknowledges the truth of 
this proposition, in its reference to the book of 
Daniel, by being unable to devise a m.ethod of 
invalidating its divine authority implied in the 
accomplishment of the prophecies which it con- 
tains, without asserting that they were written 
after the event, or that they were forgeries. 
Many of the other books of the Old and New 
Testaments have unquestionable evidences of 
the divine foreknowledge, if they be allowed 
genuine ; such are those supplied by IV^oses's 
prophecy concerning the captivity of the Israel- 
ites, or of a state not yet erected ; Isaiah's con- 
cerning Cyrus; Jeremiah's concerning the du- 
ration of the Babylonish captivity; Christ's 
concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, and 



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the captivity that was to follow ; St. John's con- 
corning the great corruption of the Christian 
church ; and Daniel's concerning the fourth 
empire in its declension ; which last was ex- 
tant in the time of Porphyry, at least ; that is, 
before the events which it represents. The truth 
of the proposition might also be argued from the 
sublimity and excellence of the doctrines con- 
tained in the Scriptures ; in no respect suiting 
the supposed authors, or the ages in which they 
lived, their education or occupation ; so that, 
if they were the real authors, we are under the 
necessity of admitting the divine assistance. 
The converse of this proposition, namely, that 
the divine authority of the Scriptures infers 
their genuineness, will be readily and univer- 
sally acknowledged. Moreover, the truth of 
the principal facts contained in the Scriptures 
proves their divine authority. Such is the frame 
of the human mind, that the Scripture history, 
allowed to be true, must convince us that 
Christ, the Prophets, and the Apostles, were 
endued with a power greater than human, and 
acted by the authority of a Being of the high- 
est wisdom and goodness. By such mode of 
reasoning it is shown that the genuineness of 
the Scriptures, the truth of the princpal facts 
contained in them, and their divine authority, 
appear to be so connected with each other, 
that, any one being established upon independ- 
ent principles, the other two may be inferred 
from it. On the subject of the inspiration of 
the Scriptures, see Inspiration. 

10. Another argument in favour of the genu- 
ineness of the books of the Old and New Testa- 
ments, and of the truth of the principal facts 
contained in them, may be deduced from the 
manner in which they have been transmitted 
down from one age to another ; resembling 
that in which all other genuine books and true 
histories have been conveyed down to posterity. 
As the works of the Greek and Roman writers 
were considered by these nations as havmg 
been transmitted to them by their ancestors in 
a continued succession from the times when 
the respective authors lived, so have the books 
of the Old Testament been accounted by the 
Jews, and those of the New by the Christians ; 
and it is an additional evidence in the last case, 
that the primitive Christians were not a distinct 
nation, but a great multitude of people dispers- 
ed through all the nations of the Roman em- 
pire, and even extending itself beyond the 
bounds of that empire. As the Greeks and 
Romans always believed the principal facts of 
their historical books, so the Jews and Chris- 
tians did more, and neAi^er seem to have doubt- 
ed of the truth of any part of theirs. In short 
— whatever can be said of the traditional au- 
thority due to the Greek and Roman writers — 
something analogous to this, and for the most 
part of greater weight, may be urged for the 
Jewish and Christian. Now, as all sober mind- 
ed persons admit the books usually ascribed to 
the Greek and Roman historians, philosophers, 
&c, to be genuine, and the principal facts re- 
lated or alluded to in them to be true, and that 
one chief evidence for this is the general tradi- 
tionary one here recited, they ought, therefore. 



to pay the same regard to the books of the Old 
and New Testaments, since there are the same, 
or even greater, reasons for it. Beside, these 
traditionary evidences are sufficient ; and we 
thus obtain a real argument, as well as one ad 
hominem, for receiving books thus handed down 
to us. For it is not conceivable, that whole 
nations should either be imposed upon them- 
selves, or concur to deceive others by forgeries 
of books or of facts. These books and facts 
must therefore, in general, be genuine and true; 
and it is a strong additional evidence of this, 
that all nations must be jealous of forgeries for 
the same reasons as we are. 

11. We may proceed to state farther, that 
the great importance of the histories, precepts, 
promises, threatenings, and prophecies con- 
tained in the Scriptures, is in evidence both of 
their genuineness, and of the truth of the prin- 
cipal facts mentioned in them. The history 
of the creation, fall, deluge, longevity of the 
patriarchs, dispersion of mankind, calling of 
Abraham, descent of Jacob with his family into 
Egypt, and the precepts of abstaining from 
blood, and of circumcision, were of such con- 
cern, either to mankind in general, or to the 
Israelites in particular, and some of them of so 
extraordinary a nature, as that it could not be 
a matter of indifference to the people among 
whom the account given of them in Genesis 
was first published, whether they received them 
or not. On the supposition that this account 
was first published among the Israelites by 
Moses, and then confirmed by clear, universal, 
uninternipted tradition, it will be easy to con- 
ceive how it should be handed down from age 
to age among the Jews, and received by them 
as indubitable. But, supposing the account to 
be false, or that there were no such vestiges 
and evidences of these histories and precepts, 
it will be difficult to conceive how this could 
have happened, let the time of publication be 
what it may. If early, the people would reject 
at once the account, for want of a clear tra- 
dition ; if late, it would be natural to inquire 
how the author was informed of things never 
known before to others. As to other cosmo- 
gonies and theogonies current among Pagans, 
which are evident fictions, they furnish no just 
objection against the Mosaic history, because 
they were generally regarded merely as amus- 
ing fictions ; and yet they concealed in figures, 
or expressed in plain words, some truths which 
agree with the book of Genesis, and afford a 
strong presumptive evidence in favour of this 
book. With respect to the law of Moses, this 
was extremely burdensome, expensive, and 
severe, particularly in its reference to the 
crime of idolatry, to which mankind were then 
extravagantly prone ; and it was absurd, ac- 
cording to human judgment, in the instances 
of prohibiting their furnishing themselves with 
horses for war, and of commanding all the 
males of the whole nation to appear at Jerusa- 
lem three times a year. Nevertheless, it claims 
a divine authority, and appeals to facts of the 
most notorious kind, and to customs and cere- 
monies of the most peculiar nature, as tlie 
memorials of these facts. Can we then con- 



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ceive that any nation, with such motives to 
reject, and such opportunities of detecting, the 
forgery of the books of Exodus, Leviticus, 
Numbers, and Deuteronomy, should yet receive 
them, and submit to this heavy yoke ? That 
the Jews did submit to the law of Moses in 
these circumstances, is evident from the books 
of the Old and New Testaments, if we allow 
them the least truth and genuineness, or even 
from profane writers, and from the present 
observance of it by the Jews scattered through 
all the kingdoms of the world. Should it be 
said that other nations have ascribed divine 
authority to their lawgivers, and submitted to 
very severe laws, it may be alleged in reply to 
this, that the pretences of lawgivers among 
the Pagans to inspiration, and ,the submission 
of the people, may be accounted for from their 
peculiar circumstances at the time, without 
recurring to real inspiration ; and more espe- 
cially if we admit the patriarchal revelations 
related by Moses, and his own divine legation, 
as Heathen lawgivers copied after these, and 
hence we derive a strong argument in their 
favour. Beside, no instance occurs among 
the Pagans of a body of laws framed at once 
and remaining invariable ; whereas the body 
politic of the Israelites assumed a complete 
form at once, and has preserved it, with little 
variation, to the present time, and under many 
external disadvantages ; thus supplying us with 
an instance altogether without parallel, and 
showing the high opinion which they enter- 
tained of the great importance of their law. 
In short, of all the fictions or forgeries that 
can happen among any people, the most im- 
probable is that of the Jewish body of civil 
laws, and seems to be utterly impossible. 

12. If we farther examine the history con- 
tained in the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 
Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehe- 
miah, and extending from the death of Moses 
to the recstablishment of the Jews after the 
Babylonish captivity by Ezra and Nehemiah, 
we shall find a variety of important facts, most 
of which must be supposed to leave such ves- 
tiges of themselves, either external and visible, 
or internal in the minds and memories of the 
people, as would verify them if true, or cause 
them to be rejected if false. The conquest of 
the land of Canaan, the division of it, and the 
appointment of cities for the priests and Le- 
vites by Joshua ; the frequent slaveries of the 
Israelites to the neighbouring kings, and their 
deliverance by the judges ; the creation of a 
kingdom by Samuel ; the translation of this 
kingdom from Saul's family to David, with his 
conquests; the glory of Solomon's kingdom; 
the building of the temple ; the division of the 
kingdom ; the idolatrous worship set up at Dan 
and Bethel ; the captivity of the Israelites by 
the kings of Assyria ; the captivity of the Jews 
by Nebuchadnezzar ; the destruction of their 
temple ; their return \inder Cyrus, rebuilding 
the tample under Darius Hystaspes, and re- 
establishment under Artaxerxes Longimanus, 
by Ezra and Nehemiah : — these events are 
some of them the most glorious, and some of 
them the most reproachful, that can happen to 
12 



any people. How can we reconcile forgeries 
of such opposite kinds, and especially as they 
are interwoven together by various complicated 
and necessary connections, which do not ad- 
mit of separation ? The facts, indeed, are of 
such importance, notoriety, and permanency 
in their effects, that no particular persons 
among the Israelites could first project the 
design of feigning them, that their own people 
would not concur with such a design, and that 
neighbouring nations would not permit the fic- 
tion to pass. Nothing but the invincible evi- 
dence of the facts here alleged, could induce 
a jealous multitude among the Israelites or 
neighbouring nations to acquiesce. This must 
be acknowledged upon the supposition that the 
several books were published in or near the 
times when the facts that are recorded in them 
happened. But suppose all these historical 
books forged by Ezra ; the hypothesis is evi- 
dently impossible. Things so important and 
notorious, so honourable and so reproachful to 
the people for whose sake they were forged, 
would have been rejected with the utmost in- 
dignation, unless there were the strongest and 
most genuine traces of these things already 
among the people. They must therefore, in 
part at least, be true. If it be said that addi- 
tions were made by Ezra, these additions must 
have been either of important or trivial mat- 
ters. On the first supposition, the difficulty 
already stated recurs ; and if the important 
facts are true, what possible motive could have 
induced Ezra to make additions of no impor- 
tance ? Beside, if any ancient writings were 
extant, Ezra must either copy after them, which 
destroys the present supposition, or differ from 
and oppose them, which would betray him. If 
there were no such ancient writings, the peo- 
ple would be led to inquire with regard to mat- 
ters of importance, for what reason Ezra was 
so particular in things of which there was 
neither any memory, nor account in writing. 
Should it be said that the people did not regard 
what Ezra had thus forged, this reduces the 
subject in question to matters of small or of no 
importance. Beside, why should Ezra write 
if no one would read or regard ? Farther : Ezra 
must have had, like other men, friends, ene- 
mies, and rivals ; and some, or all of these, 
would have been a check upon him, and a se- 
curity against him, in matters of importance. 
If we suppose these books, instead of having 
been forged at once, to have been forged suc- 
cessively, at the interval of one, two, or three 
centuries after the facts related, we shall in- 
volve ourselves in the same or similar difficul- 
ties. Upon the whole, then, we may conclude, 
that the forgery of the annals of the Israelites 
appears to be impossible, as well as that of the 
body of their civil laws. It is needless to ex- 
amine the books of Esther, Job, the Psalms, 
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Canticles ; and we 
might proceed to the Prophecies ; but this will 
be resumed under the article Prophecy. For 
the subjects comprehended in the books of the 
New Testament. See Gospel, and Chris- 
tianity. 

13. We shall here subjoin some general evt^ 



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dences in attestation of the truth of the books 
of Scripture. That Jews and Christians have 
thought their sacred books very highly impor- 
tant, most genuiiie, and true, appears from the 
persecutions and sufferings which they have 
undergone on account of their attachment to 
them, and because they would not be prevailed 
upon to surrender them. The preservation of 
the law of Moses, probably the first book writ- 
ten in any language, whilst many others of a 
later date have been lost, shows the great re- 
gard that has been paid to it ; and from this 
circumstance we may infer that this and the 
other books of the Old Testament have been 
preserved on account of their importance, or 
from some other cause, equally evincing their 
genuineness and truth. The great value set 
upon these books appears also from the many 
early translations and paraphrases of them ; and 
these translations and paraphrases serve to cor- 
rect errors that are unavoidable in the lapse of 
time, and to secure their integrity and purity. 
The hesitation and difficulty with which some 
few books of the New Testament were received 
into the canon, show the great care and con- 
cern of the primitive Christians about the 
canon, and the high importance of the books 
admitted into it ; and afford a s-trong evidence 
of their genuineness and truth. The same 
observation is in a degree applicable to the 
Jewish canon. Moreover, the religious hatred 
and animosity which subsisted between the 
Jews and Samaritans, and between several of 
the ancient sects among the Christians, con- 
vince us of what importance they all thought 
their sacred books, and disposed them to watch 
over one another with a jealous eye. Farther : 
the genuineness of the books of the Old and 
New Testaments may be evinced from the Ian- 
guage, style, and manner of writing used in 
them. The Hebrew language, in which the 
Old Testament was written, being the language 
of an ancient people, who had little intercourse 
with their neighbours, would not change so 
fast as modern languages have done, since dif. 
ferent liations have been variously blended with 
one another by the extension of trade, arts, and 
sciences ; and yet some changes must have oc- 
curred in the interval that elapsed between the 
time of Moses and that of Malachi. The bib- 
lical Hebrew corresponds so exactly to this cri- 
terion, as to afford a considerable argument in 
favour of the genuineness of the books of the 
Old Testament. Beside, these books have too 
great a diversity of style to be the work of 
either one Jew, or of any set of contemporary 
Jews. If they be forgeries, there must have 
been a succession of impostors in different ages, 
who concurred in the same iniquitous design. 
Again : the Hebrew language ceased to be 
spoken, as a living language, soon after the 
time of the Babylonish captivity ; and it wou.ld 
be difficult or impossible to forge any thing in 
it after it became a dead language. Hence it 
appears, that all the books of the Old Testa- 
ment must at least be nearly as ancient as the 
Babylonish captivity ; and as they could not 
all be written in tlie same age, some must be 
much more ancient, and this would reduce us 



to the necessity of supposing a succession of 
conspiring impostors. Moreover, there is, as 
we have already observed, a simplicity of style, 
and an unaffected manner of writing, in all the 
books of the Old Testament, which is a strong 
evidence of their genuineness. The style of 
the New Testament, in particular, is not only 
simple and unaffected, but is Greek influenced 
by the Hebrew idiom, and exactly answers to 
the circumstances of time, places, and persons. 
To which we may add, that the narrations and 
precepts of both the Old and New Testament 
are delivered without hesitation ; the writers 
teaching as having authority : and this circum- 
stance is peculiar to those who unite, with a 
clear knowledge of what they deliver, a perfect 
integrity of heart. But a farther argument for 
the genuineness and truth of the Scriptures is 
supplied by the very great number of particu- 
lar circumstances of time, place, persons, &c, 
mentioned in them. It is needless to recount 
these ; but they are incompatible with forged 
and false accounts, that do not abound in such 
particularities, and the want of which furnishes 
a suspicion to their discredit. Compare, in 
this respect, Manetho's account of the dynas- 
ties of Egypt, Ctesias's of the Assyrian kings, 
and those which the technical chronologers 
have given of the ancient kingdoms of Greece, 
which are defective in such particulars, with 
the history by Thucydides of the Peloponne- 
sian war, and with Caesar's of the war in Gaul, 
and the difference will be sufficiently apparent. 
Dr. Paley'^s admirable treatise, entitled, "-^ Hora 
PaulincB," affords very valuable illustrations of 
this argument as it respects the genuineness of 
the books of the New Testament. The agree- 
ment of the Scriptures with history, natural 
and civil, is a farther proof of their genuine- 
ness and truth. The history of the fail agrees 
in an eminent manner both with the obvious 
facts of labour, sorrow, pain, and death, with 
what we see and feel every day, and with all 
our philosophical inquiries into the frame of 
the human mind, the nature of social life, and 
the origin of evil. Natural history bears a 
strong testimony to Moses's account of the 
deluge. Civil history affords many evidences 
which corroborate the same account. (See 
Deluge.) The Mosaic account of the confiision 
of languages, of the dispersion of Noah's sons, 
and of the state of religion in the ancient post- 
diluvian world, is not only rendei-ed probable^ 
but is in a very high degree established, by 
many collateral arguments. See Confusion of 
Languages, and Division of the Earth. 

14. The agi-eement of the books of the Old 
and New Testaments with themselves and with 
each other, affords another argument both of 
their genuineness and truth. The laws of the 
Israelites are contained in the Pentateuch, and 
referred to, in a great variety of ways, direct 
and indirect, in the historical books, in the 
Psalms, and in the Prophecies. The histo- 
rical facts also in the preceding books are 
often referred to in those that succeed, and in 
the Psalms and Prophecies. In like manner, 
the Gospels have the greatest harmony with 
each other, and the Epistles of St. Paul with 



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the Acts of the Apostles ; and, indeed, there is 
scarcely any book of either the Old or New 
Testament, which may not be shown to refer 
to many of the rest, in one way or other. For 
the illustration of this argument, let us suppose 
that no more remained of the Roman writers 
than Livy, Tully, and Horace ; would they not, 
by their references to the same facts and cus- 
toms, by the sameness of style in the same 
writer, and difference in the different ones, and 
numberless other such like circumstances of cri- 
tical consideration, prove themselves, and one 
another to be genuine, and the principal facts 
related, or alluded to, to be true ? Whoever 
will apply this reasoning to the present case 
will perceive, that the numberless minute, di- 
rect, and indirect agreements arid coincidences, 
that present themselves to all diligent readers 
of the Scriptures, prove their truth and genu- 
ineness beyond all contradiotioUi 

The harmony and agreement of the several 
writers of the Old and New Testament appear 
the more remarkable, when it is considered that 
their various parts were penned by several 
hands in very different conditions of life, from 
the throne and sceptre down to the lowest de- 
gree, and in very distant ages, through a long 
interval of time ; which would naturally have 
led a spirit of imposture to have varied its 
schemes, and to have adapted them to different 
stations in the world, and to the different vicis- 
situdes of every age. David wrote about four 
hundred years after Moses, and Isaiah about 
two hundred and fifty after David, and Matthew 
more than seven hundred years afler Isaiah ; 
and yet these authors, with all the other Pro- 
phets and Apostles, write in perfect harmony, 
confirming the authority of their predecessors, 
labouring to reduce the people to the observ- 
ance of their instructions, and loudly exclaim, 
ing against the neglect and contempt of them, 
and denouncing the severest judgments against 
such as continued disobedient. Consequently, 
as the writers of the Holy Scriptures, though 
they all claim a divine authority, yet write in 
perfect connection and harmony, mutually con- 
firming the doctrine and testimony of each other, 
and concurring to establish the very same reli- 
gious truths and principles, it is a strong proof 
that they all derived their instructions from the 
same fountain, the wisdom of God, and were in- 
deed under the direction and illumination of 
the same Spirit. This leads us to add, that the 
unity of design, Avhich appears in the dispensa- 
tions recorded in the Scriptures, is an argument 
not only of their truth and genuineness, but also 
of their divine authority. In order to perceive 
the force of this argument, it is only necessary 
to inquire what this design is, and how it is 
pursued by the series of events and divine in- 
terpositions recorded in the Scriptures. (See 
Dispensation.) It should also be considered, 
that the historical evidences in favour of the 
genuineness, truth, and divine authority of the 
Scriptures, do not become less from age to age ; 
but, on the contrary, it may rather be presumed 
that they increase. Since the three great con- 
curring events of printing, the reformation of 
religion in these western parts, and the restora- 



tion of letters, so many more evidences and co- 
incidences have been discovered in favour of the 
Jewish and Christian histories, as may server 
in some measure, to supply the want of those 
that have been lost in the preceding times ; 
and as this accumulation of evidences is likely 
to continue, there is great reason to hope that 
it will at length become irresistible to all and 
silence even every gainsayer; 

15. The moral characters of the Prophets, 
and the Apostles, prove the truth and divine 
authority of the Scriptures. The characters of 
the persons who are said in the Scriptures to 
have had divine communications, and a divine 
mission, are so much superior to the charac- 
ters that occur in common life, that we can 
scarcely account for the more eminent indivi- 
duals, and much less so for so large a success 
sion of them, continued through so many ages^ 
without allowing the divine communications 
and assistance which they allege. Notwith- 
standing considerable imperfections that per- 
tained to many of these eminent persons, and 
the occasional offences chargeable upon one 
or two of them, yet the impartial reader should 
consider whether the Prophets, Apostles, ^c,' 
were not so much superior, not only to man- 
kind at an averagCj but even to the best men 
among the Greeks and Romans, as is not fair- 
ly to be accounted for by the mere powers of 
human nature. If this statement should not 
be conceded, their characters, however, are too 
good to allow the supposition of an impious fraud 
and imposture, which must have been the case 
if they had not divine authority,* Beside, it 
should be recollected, that the undisguised and 
impartial manner in which the imperfections 
and faults of the eminent persons mentioned in 
Scripture are related, furnishes a remarkable 
additional evidence for the truth of those parts 
of the Scripture history in which such rela- 
tions occur, beside such evidences as extend to 
the whole. 

16. The excellence of the doctrme contain, 
ed in the Scriptures is an additional evidence 
of their authority. This argument has great 
force independently of all other considerations. 
Suppose, for instance, that the author of the 
Gospel, which goes under the name of St. Mat- 
thcAv, was not known, and that it was unsup. 
ported by the writers of the primitive times ; 
yet such are the unaffected simplicity of the 
narrations, the purity of the doctrine, and the 
sincere piety and goodness of the sentiments, 
that it carries its own authority with it. The 
same observation is applicable in general to all 
the books of the Old and New Testaments ; so 
that if there was no other book in the world 
beside the Bible, a man could not reasonably 
doubt of the truth of revealed religion. If all 
other arguments were set aside, we may con- 
clude from this single consideration, that the 
authors of the books of the Old and New Tes- 
taments, whoever they were, cannot have made 
a false claim to divine authority. The Scrip- 
tures contam doctrines concernmg God, pro- 
vidence, a future state, the duty of man, &c, 
far more pure and sublime than can in any- 
way be accounted for from tha ni&ural powera 



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164 



BIR 



of men, so circumstanced as the sacred writers 
were. Let the reader consider whether it can 
be reasonably supposed, that Jewish shepherds, 
fishermen, &c, should, both before and after 
the rise of the Heathen philosophy, so far ex- 
ceed men of the greatest abilities and accom- 
plishments in other nations, by any other means 
than divine communications. Indeed, no writ- 
ers, from the invention of letters to the present 
times, are equal to the penmen of the books of 
the Old and New Testaments in true excel- 
lence, utility and dignity ; and this is surely 
such an internal criterion of their divine au- 
thority, as ought not to be resisted. 

17. The many and great advantages which 
have accrued to the world from the patriarchal, 
Judaical, and Christian revelations, confirm the 
whole. These advantages relate partly to the 
knowledge, and partly to the practice, of reli- 
gion. The internal worth and excellence of 
the Scriptures, as containing the best princi- 
ples of knowledge, holiness, consolation, and 
hope, and their consequent utility and import- 
ance in a moral and practical view, fiilly and 
directly demonstrate their divine original. For 
an enlarged view of this branch of evidence see 
Christianity. 

BIBLISTS, or BIBLICI, a term applied to 
certain doctors in the twelfth and thirteenth 
centuries, who expounded the sacred writings 
in their public schools, and endeavoured to es- 
tablish their doctrines by the authority of Scrip- 
ture, in opposition to uncertain traditions, or 
the speculations of the schools. Upon the same 
principle, the Pietists of the seventeenth cen- 
tury formed what they called Biblical colleges, 
for expounding the Scriptures. 

BIER. See Burial. 

BILDAD, the Shuhite, one of Job's friends, 
thought by some to have descended from Shuah, 
the son of Abraham, by Keturah, Job ii, 11 ; 
viii, xviii, xxv. 

BILHAH, Rachel's handmaid, given by her 
to Jacob her husband, as a concubinary wife, 
that, through her she might have a son, Gen. 
XXX, 3, 4, &c. See Barrenness. 

BIND. To bind and loose are taken for 
condemning and absolving: "And I will give 
unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven : 
and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall 
be bound in heaven : and whatsoever thou 
shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven," 
Matt, xvi, 19. By binding and loosing, in the 
language of the Jews, is understood, likewise, 
permitting and forbidding; or declaring any 
thing in a judicial manner to be permitted or 
forbidden ; and on the promotion of their doc- 
tors, they put the keys into their hands with 
these words, " Receive the power of binding 
and loosing." So our Lord says, " I am not 
come to destroy," to unloose or dissolve, "the 
law, but to fulfil," that is, to confirm and es- 
tablish it. Matt, v, 17. See Keys. 

BIRD, niDS, a common name for all birds, 
but is sometimes used for the sparrow in par- 
ticular. 

Birds are distinguished by the Jewish legis- 
later into clean and unclean. Such as fed 
npon grain and .jecdu were allowed for food, 



and such as devoured flesh "and carrion were 
prohibited. 

Moses, to inspire the Israelites with senti- 
ments of tenderness toward the brute creation, 
commands them, if they find a bird's nest, not 
to take the dam with the young, but to suffer 
the old one to fly away, and to take the young 
only, Deut. xxii, 6. This is one of those mer- 
ciful constitutions in the law of Moses w^hich 
respect the animal creation, and tended to hu- 
manize the heart of that people, to excite in 
them a sense of the divine providence extend- 
ing itself to all creatures, and to teach them to 
exercise their dominion over them with gentle- 
ness. Beside, the young never knew the sweets 
of liberty ; the dam did : they might be taken 
and used for any lawful purpose ; but the dam 
must not be brought into a state of captivity. 
The poet Phocylides has a maxim, in his ad- 
monitory poepi, very similar to that in the 
sacred texts : — 

'Mt]6i Tis Spvidas KaXiTJs ana rsavrai eXiaOu), 
M^ripa 6' eicnpo'MTrrii, IV' exjli ^«^t rtjadt veoTTovs. 
Nor from a nest take all the birds away, 
The mother spare, she'll breed a future day. 

It appears that the ancients hunted birds. 
Baruch, iii, 17, speaking of the kings of Baby- 
lon, says, " They had their pastime with the 
fowls of the air ;" and Daniel, iii, 38, tells 
Nebuchadnezzar that God had made the fowls 
of the air subject to him. 

Birds were offered in sacrifice on many oc- 
casions. In the sacrifices for sin, he who had 
not a lamb, or a kid, " might oflier two turtles, 
or two young pigeons ; one for a sin-offering, 
the other for a burnt-offering. These he pre- 
sented to the priest, who offered that first 
which was for the sin-offering, and wrung off 
the head from the neck, but did not divide it 
asunder : the other he was to offer for a burnt- 
offering," Lev. v, 7, 8. When a man who had 
been smitten with a leprosy was healed, he 
came to the entrance of the camp of Israel, and 
the priest went out to inspect hmi, whether he 
were entirely cured. Lev. xiv, 5, G. After this 
inspection, the leprous person came to the 
door of the tabernacle, and offered two living 
sparrows, or two birds ; (pure birds, those of 
which it was lawful to eat ;) he made a wisp 
wuth branches of cedar and hyssop, tied to- 
gether with a thread, or scarlet ribbon ; he 
filled an earthen pot with running water, that 
the blood of the bird m.ight be mingled with it ; 
then the priest, dipping the bunch of hyssop 
and cedar into the water, sprinkled with it the 
leper who was healed ; after which he let loose 
the living bird, to fly where it would. In Pales- 
tine dead bodies were sometimes left exposed 
to birds of prey, as appears from Scripture ; 
but, generally, they were buried in the even- 
ing : even criminals were taken down from the 
gallows. 

BIRTHRIGHT, or PRIMOGENITURE, 
the right of the first-born or eldest son. The 
birthright, or right of primogeniture, had many 
privileges annexed to it. The first-born was 
consecrated to the Lord, Exod. xxii, 29 ; had a 
double portion of tlic estate allotted him, Deut. 
xxi, 17; had a dignity and authority over his 



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165 



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brethren, Gen. xlix, 3 ; succeeded in the govern- 
ment of the family or kingdom, 2 Chron. xxi, 3 ; 
and, as some with good reason suppose, in ancient 
times to the priesthood or chief government in 
matters ecclesiastical. Jacob, having bought 
Esau's birthright, acquired a title to the par- 
ticular blessing of his dying father ; and, ac- 
cordingly, he had consigned to him the privi- 
lege of the covenant which God made with 
Abraham, that from his loins the Messiah 
should spring: a prerogative which descended 
to his posterity. Reuben forfeited the blessings 
of his birthright, as we see by the express 
declaration of his father Jacob, in his benedic- 
tion of his children, Gen. xlix, 1, &c, for the 
crime of incest with his father's concubine, on 
account of which his tribe continued all along 
in obscurity ; while the priesthood was confer- 
red on Levi, the government on Judah, and the 
double portion on Joseph, to descend to their 
respective tribes. And this preeminence of 
the first-born took place from the beginning, 
and as much belonged to Cain, before his for- 
feit'ure of it, as it did to Reuben before his. 
See Genesis iv, 7; xlix, 3. Thus the patri- 
archs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, offered 
sacrifices, and were priests as well as kings in 
their respective families, Gen. xii, 7, 8 ; xiii, 
18; xvii, 7; xxvi, 25; xxxi, 54; xxxv, 7. Job, 
in Arabia, acted in the same capacity. Job, i, 
5 ; and it is highly probable that, among the 
ancient Heathen nations in general, the first- 
born were entitled not only to the civil autho- 
rity, but also to the priesthood. This seems to 
have been the case in Egypt, in the time of 
Moses : and hence Jehovah's destroying their 
first-born, as it was the last miracle wrought in 
that country before the Exodus, so was it the 
most dreadfial, and most effectual in prevailing 
on Pharaoh and the Egyptians to dismiss the 
Israelites. 

BISHOP, T»p£), hiffKOTTos, signifies an overseer, 
or one w^lio has the inspection and direction of 
any thing. Nehemiah speaks of the overseer 
of the Levites at Jerusalem, Nell, xi, 22. The 
most common acceptation of the word bisJiop 
is that in Acts xx, 28, and in St. Paul's Epistles, 
Philip, i, 1, where it signifies the pastor of a 
church. St. Peter calls Jesus Christ " the Shep- 
herd and Bishop of our souls," 1 Peter ii, 25 ; 
and St. Paul describes the qualities requisite in 
a bishop, 1 Tim. iii, 2 ; Titus 1, 2, «&c. It is 
not improbable that the overseers of Christ's 
church are in the New Testament called {ttlcko- 
TToi, from the following passage in Isaiah : "I 
will also make thy officers peace, and thine 
overseers" {hiaKdnyi;,) "righteousness," Isa. Ix, 
17. The word, as used by the Apostolic writ- 
ers, when referring to the pastors of Christian 
churches, is evidently of the same import as 
presbyter or elder ; for the terms, as they occur 
in the New Testament, appear to be synony- 
mous, and are used indifferently. Thus the 
same persons that are called iniaKd-jroi, bishops 
are also called TzpecSvTepoi, elders. Hence, when 
St. Paul came to Miletus, he sent to Ephesus 
for the presbyters of the church, and thus ad- 
dressed them : " Take heed unto yourselves, 
and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost 



hath made you" (the presbyters) " hiaKdirys, 
bishops," or overseers. Acts xx, 17. "Here," 
says Dr. Campbell, "there can be no question 
that the same persons are denominated pres- 
byters and bishops." Nor is this the only pas. 
sage in which we find the terms used converti- 
bly. In Titus i, 5, it is said, " For this cause 
left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in 
order the things that are wanting, and ordain 
elders" (Greek, TzpecBvrfpys) "in every city;" 
and then it follows in verse 7, " For a bishop" 
{hlcKOTzov) " must be blameless." In like man- 
ner, the Apostle Peter, 1 Peter v, 1: "The 
elders" (ppeaBvTfpus) "which are among you I 
exhort ; feed the flock of God which is among 
you, taking the oversight thereof; imcrKoiTovvrcg, 
that is, discharging the office of bishops." See 
Episcopacy. 

BITHYNIA, a country of Asia Minor, 
stretching along the shore of the Pontus Euxi- 
nus, or Black Sea, from Mysia to Paphlagonia ; 
having Phrygia and Galatia on the south. In 
it are the two cities of Nicasa, or Nice, and 
Chalcedon : both celebrated in ecclesiastical 
history, on account of the general councils 
held in them, and called after their names. 
The former city is at present called Is-Nick, 
and the latter Kadi-Keni. Within this country, 
also, are the celebrated mountains of Olympus. 
St. Peter addressed his first Epistle to the He- 
brew Christians who were scattered through 
this and the neighbouring countries. 

BITTER HERBS. □>nnc. Exod. xii, 8, 
and Num. ix, 11. The Jews were commanded 
to eat their passover with a salad of bitter 
herbs; but whether one particular plant was 
intended, or any kind of bitter herbs, has been 
made a question. By the Septuagint it is ren- 
dered eni zsiKrtiSwv ; by Jerom, ^'- cum lactucis 
agrestibus;" and by the Gr. Venet., eirt rsiKpimv. 
Dr. Geddes remarks, that "it is highly proba- 
ble that the succory or wild lettuce is meant." 
The Mischna in Pesachim, cap. 2, reckons five 
species of these bitter herbs : 1. Chazareth, 
taken for lettuce : 2. Ulsin, supposed to be 
endive or succory: 3. Tamca, probably tansy: 
4. Charubbinim, which Bochart thought might 
be the nettle, but Scheuchzer shows to be the 
camomile : 5. Meror, the sow-thistle, or dent- 
de-lion, or wild lettuce. Mr. Forskal says, 
"the Jews in Sana and in Egypt eat the let- 
tuce with the paschal lamb," He also remarks, 
that moru is centaury, of which the young 
stems are eaten in February and March. 

BITTERN, -nop. Isa. xiv, 23 ; xxxiv, 11 ; 
and Zephaniah ii, 14. Interpreters have ren- 
dered this w^ord variously : an owl, an osprey, a 
tortoise, a poi'cupine, and even an otter. "How 
unhappy," says Mr. Harmer, ' ' that a word which 
occurs but three times in the Hebrew Bible 
should be translated by three different words, 
and that one of them should be otter .'" Isaiah, 
prophesying the destruction of Babylon, says 
that "the Lord will make it a possession for 
the bittern, and pools of water ;" and Zepha- 
niah, ii, 14, prophesying against Nineveh, says 
that "the cormorant and bittern shall lodge in 
the upper lintels of it : their voice shall sing in 
the windows." The Arabic version reads " al 



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JiouharaJ^ According to Dr. Shaw, the hou- 
bara is "of the bigness of a capon, but of a 
longer body. It feeds on little shrubs and 
insects, like the graab el Sahara; frequenting, 
in like manner, the confines of the desert." 
Golius interprets it the bustard ; and Dr. Russel 
says that the Arabic name of the bustard is 
■" houbry." 

BITTERNESS, waters of. See Adultery. 
JBLASPHEMY, (SXmcpriixla, properly denotes 
calumny, detraction, reproachful or abusive lan- 
guage, against whomsoever it be vented. That 
§\ac(pri^ia and its conjugates are very often ap- 
plied, says Dr. Campbell, to reproaches not 
aimed against (Jod, is evident from the follow- 
ing passages : Matt, xii, 31, 32 ; xxvii, 39 ; 
Mark XV, 29 ; Luke xxii, 65 ; xxiii, 39 ; Rom. 
iii, 8 ; xiv, 16 ; 1 Cor. iv, 13 ; x, 30 ; Eph, iv, 
31 ; 1 Tim. vi, 4; Titus iii, 2; 1 Pet. iv, 14; 
Jude 9, 10 ; Acts vi, 11, 13; 2 Pet. ii, 10, 11 ; 
in the much greater part of which the English 
translators, sensible that they could admit no 
such application, have not used the words hlas- 
pheme or blasphemy, but rail, revile, speak evil, 
^c. In one of the passages quoted, a reproach- 
ful charge brought even against the devil is 
called Kpiaig (iXaafrjuias, Jude 9 ; and rendered 
by them, "railing accusation." The import 
of the word (^Xaa^viJ-ia is maledicentia, in the 
largest acceptation ; comprehending all sorts 
of verbal abuse, imprecation, reviling, and ca- 
lumny. And let it be observed, that when 
such abuse is mentioned as uttered against 
<God, there is properly no change made in the 
signification of the word : the change is only 
in the application ; that is, in the reference to 
a different object. The idea conveyed in the 
explanation n.ow given is always included, 
S-gainst whomsoever the crime be committed. 
In this manner every term is understood that 
is applicable to both God and man. Thus the 
meaning of the word disobey is the same, 
whether we speak of disobeying God or of 
disobeying man. fhe same may be said of 
believe, honour, fear, ^c. As, therefore, the 
sense of the term is thq same, though differ- 
ently applied, what is essential to constitute 
the cri?pe of detraction in the one case, is es- 
sential also in the pthe^. But it is essential to 
this crime, as commonly understood, when 
committed by one ijian against another, that 
there be jn. the injurio^s person the will or 
disposition tp detract from the person abused. 
Mere mistake in regard to chq.racter, especially 
when the mistake is not cojiceived by him who 
entertains it to lessen the character, nay, is 
supposed, howevpr erroneously, to exalt it, is 
never construed by any intp the crime of de- 
famation. Now, as blasphemy is in its essence 
the sapie crime, but immensely aggravated by 
being committed against an object infinitely 
superior to man, what is fundamental to the 
very existerice of the crime will be found in 
this, as in every other species which comes 
under the general name. There can be no 
blasphemy, therefore, where there is not an 
impious purpose to derogate from the Divine 
Majesty, and to alienate the minds of others 
from the love and reverence of God. The 



blasphemer is no other than the calumniator 
of Almighty God. To constitute the crime, it 
is as necessary that this species of calumny be 
intentional. He must be one, therefore, who 
by his impious talk endeavours to inspire others 
with the same irreverence toward the Deity, 
or perhaps, abhorrence of him, which he in- 
dulges in himself. And though, for the honour 
of human nature, it is to be hoped that very 
few arrive at this enormous guilt, it ought not 
to be dissembled, that the habitual profanation 
of the name and attributes of God by common 
swearing, is but too manifest an approach to- 
ward it. There is not an entire coincidence : 
the latter of these vices may be considered as 
resulting solely from the defect of what is good 
in principle and disposition ; the former from 
the acquisition of what is evil in the extreme : 
but there is a close connection between them, 
and an insensible gradation from the one to 
the other. To accustom one's self to treat the 
Sovereign of the universe with irreverent fa- 
miliarit}^, is the first step ; malignly to arraign 
his attributes, and revile his providence, is the 
last. ■ The first divine law published against it, 
" He that blasphemeth the name of the Lord" 
(or Jehovah, as it is in the Hebrew) "shall be 
put to death," Lev. xxiv, 16, when considered 
along with the incident that occasioned it, 
suggests a very atrocious offence in words, no 
less than abuse or imprecations vented against 
the Deity. For, in what way soever the crime 
of the man there mentioned be interpreted, — 
whether as committed against the true God, the 
God of Israel, or against any of the false gods 
whom his Egyptian father worshipped, — the law 
in the words now quoted is sufficiently explicit ; 
and the circumstances of the story plainly show, 
that the words which he had used were deroga- 
tory from the Godhead, and shocking to the 
hearers. And if we add to this the only other 
memorable instance in sacred history, namely, 
that of Rabshakeh, it will lead us to conclude 
that it is solely a malignant attempt, in words, 
to lessen men's reverence of the true God, and, 
by vilifying his perfections, to prevent their 
placing confidence in him, which is called ia 
Scripture blasphemy, when the word is em- 
ployed to denote a sin committed directly 
against God. This was manifestly the attempt 
of Rabshakeh, when he said, "Neither let 
Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord," (the 
word is Jehovah,) "saying, Jehovah will 
surely deliver us. Hath any of the gods of the 
nations delivered his land out of the hand of 
the king of Assyria ? Where are the gods of 
Hamath and of Arpad ? Where are the gods 
of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Iva ? Have they 
delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who are 
they, among ail the gods of the countries, that 
have delivered their country out of mine hand, 
that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of 
mine hand ??' 2 Kings xviii, 30, 33-35. 

2. It will naturally occur to inquire, what 
that is, in particular, which our Lord denomi- 
nates "blasphemy against the Holy Spirit," 
Matt, xii, 31, 32; Mark iii, 28, 29; Luke 
xii, 10. But without entering minutely into 
the discussion of this question, it may suffice 



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here to observe, that this blasphemy is certainly 
not of the constructive kind, but direct, mani- 
fest, and malignant. First, it is mentioned as 
comprehended under the same genus with 
abuse against men, and contradistinguished 
only by the object. Secondly, it is farther ex- 
plained by being called speaking against in 
both cases : 8? tlv liirp \dyov Kara tov viov tov dv- 
©pciTTtf, — oj 6' uv iiTTr) Kara roii TZiv£V[xaTos tov ayia. 
" Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son 
of Man." — " Whosoever speaketh against the 
Holy Ghost." The expressions are the same, 
in effect, in all the Evangelists who mention 
it, and imply such an opposition as is both in- 
tentional and malevolent. This cannot have 
been the case of all who disbelieved the mis- 
sion of Jesus, and even decried his miracles ; 
many of whom, we have reason to think, were 
afterward converted by the Apostles. JBut it 
was the wretched case of some who, instigated 
by worldly ambition and avarice, slandered 
what they knew to be the cause of God ; and, 
against conviction, reviled his w^ork as the 
operation of evil spirits. This view of the sin 
against the Holy Ghost is confirmed by the 
circumstances under which our Lord spoke. 

If we consider the Scripture account of this 
sin, nothing can be plainer than that it is to 
be understood of the Pharisees' imputing the 
miracles wa-ought by the power of the Holy 
Ghost to the power of the devil ; for our Lord 
had just healed one possessed of a devil, and 
upon this the Pharisees gave this malicious 
turn to the miracle. This led our Saviour to 
discourse on the sin of blasphemy. The 
Pharisees were the persons charged with the 
crime : the sin itself manifestly consisted in 
ascribing what was done by the finger of God 
to the agency of the devil ; and the reason, 
therefore, why our Lord pronounced it unpar- 
donable, is plain ; because, by withstanding the 
evidence of miracles, they resisted the strong, 
est means of conviction, and that wilfully and 
malignantly ; and, giving way to their pas- 
sions, opprobriously treated that Holy Spirit 
whom they ought to have adored. From all 
which it will probably follow, that no person 
can now be guilty of the blasphemy against 
the Holy Ghost, in the sense in which our 
Saviour originally intended it ; but there may 
be sins which bear a very near resemblance to 
it. This appears from the case of the apos- 
tates mentioned in the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
to whom "no more sacrifice for sins" is said 
to remain ; whose defection, however, is not 
represented so much as a direct sin against 
the Holy Ghost as against Christ, whom the 
apostate Jews blasphemed in the synagogues. 
It implied, however, a high offence against the 
Holy Spirit also, with whose gifts they had, 
probably, been endowed, and their conduct 
must be considered, if not the same sin as that 
committed by the Pharisees, yet as a consent, 
ing with it, and thus as placing them in nearly, 
if not altogether, the same desperate condition. 
Even apostasy in the present day, although a 
most aggravated and perilous offence, cannot 
be committed with circumstances of equal 
aggravation to those which were found in the 



case of the persons mentioned by St. Paul ; 
and it may be laid down as certain, for the 
relief of those who may be tempted to think 
that they have committed the unpardonable 
sin, that their horror of it, and the trouble 
which the very apprehension causes them, are 
the sure proofs that they are mistaken. But 
although there may be now fearful approaches 
to the unpardonable offence, it is to be remem- 
bered that there may be many dangerous and 
fatal sins against the Holy Ghost, which are 
not the sin against him, which has no for- 
giveness. 

BLEMISH, whatever renders a person or 
thing imperfect or uncomely. The Jewish law 
required the priests to be free from blemishes 
of person. Lev. xxi, 17-23 ; xxii, 20-24. Scan- 
dalous professors are blemishes to the churcli 
of God, 2 Peter ii, 13; Jude 12, and therefore 
ought to be put away from it, in the exercise 
of a godly discipline. 

BLESS, BLESSING. There are three 
points of view in which the acts of blessing 
may be considered. The first is, when men 
are said to bless God, as in Psalm ciii, 1, 2. 
We are then not to suppose that the divine 
Being, who is over all, and, in himself, blessed 
for evermore, is capable of receiving any aug- 
mentation of his happiness, from all the crea- 
tures which he has made : such a supposition, 
as it would imply something of imperfection 
in the divine nature, must ever be rejected with 
abhorrence ; and, therefore, when the creatures 
bless the adorable Creator, they only ascribe to 
him that praise and dominion, and honour, and 
glory, and blessing, which it is equally the 
duty and joy of his creatxires to render. But 
when God is said to bless his people. Gen. i, 
22 ; Eph. i, 3 ; the meaning is, that he confers 
benefits upon them, either temporal or spiritual, 
and so communicates to them some portion of 
that blessedness which, in infinite fulness, 
dwells in himself, James i, 17; Psalm civ, 24, 
28; Luke xi, 9-13. In the third place men 
are said to bless their fellow creatures. From 
the time that God entered into covenant with 
Abraham, and promised extraordinary bless- 
ings to his posterity, it appears to have been 
customary for the father of each family, in the 
direct line, or line of promise, previous to his 
death, to call his children around him, and to 
inform them, according to the knowledge 
which it pleased God then to give him, how, 
and in what manner, the divine blessing con- 
ferred upon Abraham was to descend among 
them. Upon these occasions, the patriarchs 
enjoyed a divine illumination; and under its 
influence, their benediction was deemed a 
prophetic oracle, foretelling events with the 
utmost certainty, and extending to the remot- 
est period of time. Thus Jacob blessed his 
sons. Gen. xlix ; and Moses, the children of 
Israel, Deut. xxxiii. When Melchizedeck 
blessed Abraham, the act of benediction in- 
cluded in it not merely the pronouncing solemn 
good wishes, but also a petitionary address to 
God that he would be pleased to ratify the 
benediction by his concurrence with what was 
prayed for. Thus Moses instructed Aaron, 



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and his descendants, to bless the congregation, 
*' In this wise shall ye bless the children of 
Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee, 
and keep thee ; the Lord make his face to 
shine upon thee ; the Lord lift up his counte- 
nance upon thee, and give thee peace," Num. 
iv, 23. David says, " I will take the cup of 
salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord," 
?salm cxvi, 13. Tliis phrase appears to be 
taken from the practice of the Jews in their 
thank-offerings, in which a feast was made of 
the remainder of their sacrifices, and the offer- 
ers, together v.'ith the priests, did eat and drink 
before the Lord ; when, among other rites, the 
master of the feast took a cup of wine in his 
hand and solemnly blessed God for it, and for 
the mercies which were then acknowledged, 
and gave it to all the guests, every one of 
whom drank in his turn. To this custom it is 
supposed our blessed Lord alludes in the insti- 
tution of the cup, which also is called, 1 Cor. 
X, 16, "the cup of blessing." At the family 
feasts also, and especially that of the passover, 
both wine and bread were in this solemn and 
xeligious manner distributed, and God was 
blessed, and his mercies acknowledged. They 
blessed God for their present refreshment, for 
their deliverance out of Egypt, for the cove-. 
Slant of circumcision, and for the law given by 
Moses ; and prayed that God would be merci- 
ful to his people Israel, that he would send the 
Prophet Elijah, and that he would render them 
worthy of the kingdom of the Messiah. See 
also 1 Chron. xvi, 2, 3. In the Mosaic law, 
the manner of blessing is appointed by the 
lifting up of hands. Our Lord lifted up his 
hands, and blessed his disciples. It is probable 
that this action was constantly used on such 
occasions. The palm of the hand held up was 
precatory ; and the palm turned outward or 
downward was benedictory. See Benediction 
and Lord's Supper. 

BLINDFOLDING. This is the treatment 
which Christ received from his enemies. It 
refers to a sport which was common among 
children, called [jviv6a, in which it was the man- 
ner first to blindfold, then to strike, and to ask 
who gave the blow, and not to let the person 
go till he had named the right man who had 
struck hun. It was used in reproach of our 
blessed Lord as a Prophet, or divine instructer, 
and to expose him to ridicule, Luke xxii, 63, 64. 

BLINDNESS is often used in Scripture to 
express ignorance or Avant of discernment in 
divine things, as well as the being destitute of 
natural sight. See Isa. xlii, 18, 19 ; vi, 10 ; 
Matt. XV, 14. " Blindness of heart" is the want 
of understanding arising from the influence 
of vicious passions. "Hardness of heart" is 
stubbornness of will, and destitution of moral 
feeling. Moses says, "Thou shalt not put a 
stumbling block before the blind," Lev. xix, 14, 
which may be understood literally ; or figura- 
tively, as if Moses recommended that charity 
and instniction should be shown to them who 
want light and counsel, or to those who are 
in danger of going wrong through their igno- 
rance. Moses says also, "Cursed be he who 
maketh the blind to wander out of his way," 



Deut. xxvii, 18, which may also be taken m 
the same manner. An ignorant or erring 
teacher is compared by our Lord to a blind 
man leading a blind man ; — a strong repre- 
sentation of the presumption of him that pro- 
fesses to teach the way of salvation without due 
qualifications, and of the danger of that impli- 
cit faith which" is often placed by the people in 
the authority of man, to the neglect of the 
Holy Scriptures. 

BLOOD. Beside its proper sense, the fluid 
of the veins of men and animals, the term in 
Scripture is used, 1. For life. " God will re- 
quire the blood of a man," he will punish mur- 
der in what manner soever committed. " His 
blood be upon us," let the guilt of his death be 
imputed to us. "The voice of thy brother's 
blood crieth;" the murder committed on him 
crieth for vengeance. " The avenger of blood :" 
he who is to avenge the death of his relative, 
Num. XXXV, 24, 27. 2. Blood means relation- 
ship, or consanguinity. 3. Flesh and blood 
are placed in opposition to a superior nature : 
"Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto 
thee, but my Father who is in heaven," Matt. 
xvi, 17. 4. They are also opposed to the glo- 
rified body: "Flesh and blood cannot inherit 
the kingdom of God," 1 Cor. xv, ^0. 5. They 
are opposed also to evil spirits: "We wrestle 
not against flesh and blood," against visible 
enemies composed of flesh and blood, "but 
against principalities and powers," &c, Eph. 
vi, 12. 6. Wine is called the pure blood of the 
grape : " Judali shall wash his garments in the 
blood of the grape," Gen. xlix, 11 ; Deut. xxxii. 
14. 7. The priests were established by God to 
judge between blood and blood ; that is, in 
criminal matters, and where the life of man is 
at stake ; — to determine whether the murder 
be casual, or voluntary ; whether a crune de- 
serve death, or admit of remission, &c. 8. In 
its most eminent sense blood is used for the 
sacrificial death of Christ ; whose blood or 
death is the price of our salvation. His blood 
has "purchased the church," Acts xx, 28. " We 
are justified by his blood," Rom. v, 9. " We 
have redemption througli his blood," Eph. i, 7, 
&c. See Atonement. 

That singular and emphatic prohibition of 
blood for food from the earliest times, which 
we find in the Holy Scriptures, deserves par- 
ticular attention. God expressly forbade the 
eating of blood alone, or of blood mixed with 
the flesh of animals, as when any creature was 
suffocated, or strangled, or killed without draw- 
ing its blood from the carcass. For when the 
grant of animal food was made to Noah, in 
those comprehensive words, " Even as the 
green jierb have I given j'ou all things," it 
was added, " but flesh with the life thereof, 
namely, its blood, ye shall not eat," Gen. ix, 4. 
And when the law was given to the children 
of Israel, wc find the prohibition against the 
eating of blood still more explicitly enforced, 
both upon Jews and Gentiles, in the following 
words, " Whatsoever man there be of the house 
of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among 
you, that eateth any manner of blood ; I will 
even set my face against that soul that eateth 



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blood, and will cut him ofl' from among his 
people : for tlie life of the flesh is in the blood; 
and I have given it to you upon the altar to 
make atonement for your souls : for it is the 
blood that maketli an atonement for the soul," 
Lev. xvii, 10, 11. And to cut off all possibility 
of mistake upon this particular point, it is add- 
ed : " Therefore I said unto the children of 
Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither 
shall any stranger that sojourneth among you 
eat blood ,• and whatsoever man there be of the 
children of Israel, or of the strangers that so- 
journ among )''ou, which hunteth and catcheth 
any beast or fowl that may be eaten ; he shall 
even pour out the blood thereof and cover it 
with dust, for it is the life of all flesh ; the blood 
of it is for the life thereof; therefore I said unto 
the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of 
no manner of flesh : for the life of all flesh is 
the blood thereof; whosoever eateth it shall be 
cut oW" verses 12-34. This restraint, than 
which nothing can be more express, was also, 
under the new covenant, enjoined upon be- 
lieving Gentiles, as "a burden" which "it 
seemed nccessar)'^ to the Holy Spirit to impose 
upon them," Acts xv, 28, 29. For this pro- 
hibition no moral reason seems capable of be. 
ing oflered ; nor does it clearly appear that 
blood is an unwholesome aliment, which some 
think was the physical reason of its being in- 
hibited ; and if, in fact, blood is deleterious as 
food, there seems no greater reason why this 
should be pointed out by special revelation to 
man, to guard him against injury, than many 
other unwholesome aliments. There is little 
force in the remark, that the eating of blood 
produces a ferocious disposition ; for those na- 
tions that eat strangled things, or blood cooked 
with other aliments, do not exhibit more fero- 
city than others. The true reason was, no 
doubt, a sacrificial one. When animals were 
granted to Noah for food, the blood was re- 
served ; and when the same law was reenacted 
among the Israelites, the original prohibition 
is repeated with an explanation which at once 
shows the original ground upon which it rest- 
ed : "I have given it upon the altar to make 
an atonement for your souls." From this 
"additional reason," as it has been called, it 
has been argued, that the doctrine of the aton- 
ing power of blood was new, and was, then, for 
the iirst time, announced by Moses, or the same 
cause for the prohibition would have been as- 
signed to Noah. To this we may reply, 1. That 
unless the same reason be supposed as the 
ground of the prohibition of blood to Noah, as 
that given by Moses to the Jews, no reason at 
all can be conceived for this restraint being put 
upon the appetite of mankind from Noah to 
Moses ; and yet we have a prohibition of a most 
Bolemn kind, which in itself could have no 
reason, enjoined without any external reason 
being either given or conceivable. 2. That it 
is a mistake to suppose that the declaration of 
Moses to the Jews, that God had " given them 
the blood for an atonement," is an " additional 
reason" for the interdict, not to be found in the 
original prohibition to Noah. The whole pas- 
sage occurs in Lev. xvii ; and the great reason 



there given of the prohibition of blood is, that 
it is "the life;" and what follows respecting 
"atonement," is exegetical of this reason; — 
the life is in the blood, and the blood or life is 
given as an atonement. Now, by turning to 
the original prohibition in Genesis we find that 
precisely the same reason is given: "But the 
flesh with the blood, which is the life thereof, 
shall ye not eat." The reason, then, being the 
same, the question is, whether the exegesis 
added by Moses must not necessarily be under- 
stood in the general reason given for the re- 
straint to Noah. Blood is prohibited because 
it is the life; and Moses adds, that it is "the 
blood," or life, "which makes atonement." 
Let any one attempt to discover any reason for 
the prohibition of blood to Noah, in the mere 
circumstance that it is "the life," and he will 
find it impossible. It is no reason at all, moral 
or instituted, except that as it was life substi- 
tuted FOK LIFE, the life of the animal in sacri- 
fice for the life of man, and that, therefore, 
blood had a sacred appropriation. The man- 
ner, too, in which Moses introduces the sub- 
ject, is indicative that, though he was renew- 
ing a prohibition, he was not publishing a new 
doctrine ; he does not teach his people that 
God had then given, or appointed, blood to 
make atonement ; but he prohibits them from 
eating it, because he had already made this ap- 
pointment, without reference to time, and as a 
subject with which they were familiar. Be- 
cause the blood was the life, it was sprinkled 
upon, and poured out at, the altar: and we 
have in the sacrifice of the paschal lamb, and 
the sprinkling of its blood, a sufficient proof 
that, before the giving of the law, not only 
was blood not eaten, but was appropriated to 
a sacred sacrificial purpose. Nor was this con- 
fined to the Jews ; it was customary with the 
Romans and Greeks, who, in like manner, 
poured out and sprinkled the blood of victims 
at their altars ; a rite derived, probably, from 
the Egyptians, who deduced it, not from Moses, 
but from the sons of Noah. The notion, in-, 
deed, that the blood of the victims was pecu- 
liarly sacred to the gods, is impressed upon all 
ancient Pagan mythology. 

BOANERGES. This word is neither He- 
brew nor Syriac, and some have thought that 
the transcribers have not exactly copied it, and 
that the word was benereen, SevepEsv, which ex- 
presses the sound of the Hebrew of the phrase, 
" sons of thunder." Parkhurst judges the word 
to be the Galilean pronunciation of the He^ 
brew tyj?-) ii2 expressed in Greek letters. Now, 
iS'y-i properly signifies a violent trembling or 
commotion, and may therefore be well render, 
ed by Ppovrri, thunder, which is a violent com- 
motion in the air ; so, vice versa, any violent 
commotion is figuratively, and not unusually, 
in all languages, called thunder. When our 
Saviour named the sons of Zebedee, Boanerges, 
he perhaps had an eye to that prophecy of Hag- 
gai, "Yet once, and I will shake the heavens 
and the earth," ii, 6 ; which is by the Apostle 
to the Hebrews, xii, 26, applied to the great 
alteration made in the economy of the Jews 
by the publication of the Gospel The name 



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Boanerges, therefore, given to James and John, 
imports that they should be eminent instru- 
ments in accomplishing the wondrous change, 
and should, like an earthquake or thunder, 
mightily bear down all opposition, by their 
inspired preaching and miraculous powers. 
That it does not relate to their mode of preach- 
ing is certain ; for that clearly appears to have 
been calmly argumentative, and sweetly per- 
suasive — the very reverse of what is usually 
called a thundering ministry. 

BOAR, nvn. The wild boar is considered 
as the parent stock of our domestic hog. He 
is smaller, but at the same time stronger and 
more undaunted, than the hog. In his own 
defence, he will turn on men or dogs; and 
scarcely shuns any denizen of the forests, in 
the haunts where he ranges. His colour is 
always an iron grey, inclining to black. His 
snout is longer than that of the common breed, 
and his ears are comparatively short. His 
tusks are very formidable, and all his habits are 
fierce and savage. It should seem, from the 
accounts of ancient authors, that the ravages 
of the wild boar were considered as more formi- 
dable than those of other savage animals. The 
conquest of the Erymanthian boar was one of 
the fated labours of Hercules ; and the story of 
the Calydonian boar is one of the most beauti- 
ful in Ovid. The destructive ravages of these 
animals are mentioned in Psalm Ixxx, 14. Dr. 
Pococke observed very large herds of wild 
boars on the side of Jordan, where it flows out 
of the sea of Tiberias ; and saw several of them 
on the other side lying among the reeds by the 
sea. The wild boars of other countries delight 
in the like moist retreats. These shady marsh- 
es then, it should seem, are called in the Scrip- 
ture, " woods ;" for it calls these animals, " the 
wild boars of the woods." 

BOHEMIAN BRETHREN, a sect of he- 
retics, according to the church of Rome ; but, 
in truth, a race of early reformers, who preced- 
ed Luther. At first they were charged with 
so many heresies, that the great reformer was 
shy of them ; but, upon receiving from them- 
selves an account of their tenets, in 1522, he 
readily acknowledged them as brethren, and 
received them into communion. Some time 
after this, they were driven by persecution 
from their native country, and entered into 
communion with the Swiss church, as reformed 
by Zuinglius; and from thence sprang the 
church of the United Brethren. 

BONDS were of two kinds, public and pri- 
vate ; the former were employed to secure a 
prisoner in the public jail, after confession or 
conviction ; the latter when he was delivered 
to a magistrate, or even to private persons, to 
be kept at their houses till he should be tried. 
The Apostle Paul was subjected to private 
bonds by Felix, the Roman governor, who 
" commanded a centurion to keep him, and to 
let him have liberty, and that he should forbid 
Xione of his acquaintance to minister, or come 
unto him," Acts xxiv, 23, And after he was 
carried prisoner to Rome, he " dwelt two whole 
years in his own hired house, and received all 
"that came in unto him," xxviii, 30. 



BONNET was a covering for the head, worn 
by the Jewish priests. Josephus says, that the 
bonnet worn by the private priests was com- 
posed of several rounds of linen cloth, turned 
in and sewed together, so as to appear like a 
thick linen crown. The whole was entirely 
covered with another piece of linen, which 
came down as low as their forehead, and con- 
cealed the deformity of the seams. See Exo- 
dus xxviii, 40. The high priest's bonnet was 
not much different from that which has been 
described. 

BOOK, a writing composed on some point 
of knowledge by a person intelligent therein, 
for the instruction or amusement of the reader. 
The word, is formed from the Gothic hoha, or^ 
Saxon hoc, which comes from the Northern 
huech, of buechaus, a beech or service tree, on 
the bark of which our ancestors used to write. 
Book is distinguished from pamphlet, or single 
paper, by its greater length ; and from tome or 
volume, by its containing the whole writing 
on the subject. Isidore makes this distinction 
between liber and codex; that the former de- 
notes a single book, the latter a collection of 
several ; though, according to Scipio Maffei, 
codex signifies a book in the square form ; libei\ 
a book in the roll form. The pruuary distinc- 
tion between liber and codex seems to have 
been derived, as Dr. Heylin has observed, from 
the different materials used for writing, among 
the ancients : from the innerside of the bark 
of a tree, used for this purpose, and called in 
Latin liber, the name of liber applied to a book 
was deduced ; and from that tablet, formed 
from the main body of a tree, called caudex, 
was derived the appellation of codex. 

2. Several sorts of materials were formerly 
used in making books : stone and wood were 
the first materials employed to engrave such 
things upon as men were desirous of having 
transmitted to posterity. Porphyry makes men- 
tion of some pillars preserved in Crete, on 
which the ceremonies observed by the Cory- 
bantes in their sacrifices were recorded. The 
works of Hesiod were originally written on 
tables of lead, and deposited in the temple of 
the Muses in Bceotia. The laws of Jehovah 
were written on tables of stone, and those of 
Solon on wooden planks. Tables of wood and 
ivory were common among the ancients : those 
of wood, were very frequently covered with 
wax, that persons might write on them with 
more ease, or blot out what they had written. 
And the instrument used to write with was a 
piece of iron, called a style; and hence the 
word " style" came to be taken for the compo- 
sition of the writing. The leaves of the palm, 
tree were afterward used instead of wooden 
planks, and the finest and thinnest part of the 
bark of such trees as the lime, ash, maple, and 
elm ; and especially the tilio, or phillyrea, and 
Egyptian ^aj9?/rw5. Hence came the word hber, 
(a book,) which signifies the inner bark of the 
trees. And as these barks were rolled up in 
order to be removed with greater ease, each 
roll was called volumen, a volume ; a name 
afterward given to the like rolls of paper or 
parchment. From the Egyptian papyrus the 



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v/ord paper is derived. Afler this, leather was 
introduced, especiall}' the skins of goats and 
sheep. For the king of Pergamus, in collect, 
ing his library, was led to the invention of 
parchment made of those skins. The ancients 
likewise wrote upon linen. Pliny says, the 
Parthians, even in his time, wrote upon their 
clothes ; and Li\'7 speaks of certain books made 
of linen, lintei libri, upon which the names of 
magistrates, and the history of the Roman 
commonwealth, were written, and preserved in 
the temple of the goddess Moneta. 

3. The materials generally used by the 
ancients for their books, were liable to be 
easily destroyed by the damp, when hidden in 
tlie earth ; and in times of war, devastation, 
and rapacity, it was necessaryto bury in the 
earth whatever they wished to preserA^e from 
the attacks of fraud and violence. With this 
view, Jeremiah ordered the writings, which he 
delivered to Baruch, to be put in an earthen 
vessel, Jer. xxxii. In the same manner the 
ancient Egyptians made use of earthen urns, 
or pots of a proper shape, for containing what- 
ever they wanted to inter in the earth, and 
which, without such care, would have been 
soon destroyed. We need not wonder then, 
that the Prophet Jeremiah should think it 
necessary to inclose those writings in an earth- 
en pot, which were to be buried in Judea, in 
some place where they might be found without 
much difficulty on the return of the Jews from 
captivity. Accordingly two different writings, 
or small rolls of writing, called books in the 
original Hebrew, were designed to be inclosed 
in such an earthen vessel; but commentators 
have been much embarrassed in giving any 
probable account of the necessity of two writ- 
ings, one sealed, the other open; or, as the 
passage has been commonly understood, the 
one sealed up, the other left open for any one 
to read; more especially, as both were to be 
alike buried in the earth and concealed from 
every eye, and both were to be examined at the 
return from the captivit3^ But the word trans- 
lated open, in reference to the evidence, or 
book which was open, (1 Sam. iii, 7, 21 ; Dan. 
ii, 19, 30; x, 1,) signifies the revealing of future 
events to the minds of men by a divine agency ; 
and it is particularly used in the book of Esther, 
viii, 13, to express a book's making known the 
decree of an earthly king. Consequently the 
open book of .Jeremiah seems to signify, not 
its being then lying open or unrolled before 
them, while the other was sealed up ; but the 
book that had revealed the will of God, to 
bring back Israel into their own country, and 
to cause buying and selling of houses and lands 
again to take place among them. This was a 
hook of prophecy, opening and revealing the 
future return of Israel, and the other little 
book, which was ordered to be buried along 
with it, was the purchase deed. 

4. By adverting to the different modes of 
writing in eastern countries, we obtain a satis- 
factory interpretation of a passage in the book 
of Job, xix, 23, 24, and a distinct view of the 
beautiful gradation which is lost in our trans- 
l9,tion : " O that my words were now written I 



O that they were printed (written) in a book I 
that they were graven with an iron pen and 
lead in the rock for ever !" In the east there is 
a mode of writing, which is designed to fix 
words in the memory, but the writing is not 
intended for duration. Accordingly we are 
informed by Dr. Shaw, that children learn to 
write in Barbary by means of a smooth thin 
board, slightly covered with whiting, which 
may be wiped off or renewed at pleasure. Job 
expresses his wish not only that his words were 
written, but also written in a book, from which 
they should not be blotted out, nay, still farther, 
graven in a rock, the most permanent mode of 
recording them, and especiall}'^ if the engraved 
letters were filled with lead ; or the rock was 
made to receive leaden tablets, the use of 
which was known among the ancients. So 
Pliny, "At first men wrote on the leaves of 
palm, and the bark of certain trees, but after- 
ward public documents were preserved on lead- 
en plates, and those of a private nature on wax, 
or linen." 

5. The first books were in the form of blocks 
and tables, of which we find frequent mention 
in Scripture, under the appellation sepher, 
which the Septuagint render a^ives, that is, 
square tables : of which form the book of the 
covenant, book of the law, book, or bill of di- 
vorce, book of curses, &c, appear to have been. 
As flexible matters came to be written on, they 
found it more convenient to make their books 
in form of rolls, called by the Greeks KovrdKia, 
by the Latins volumina, which appear to have 
been in use among the ancient Jews as well as 
the Grecians, Romans, Persians, and even In- 
dians ; and of such did the libraries chiefly con- 
sist, till some centuries after Christ. The form 
which obtains among us is the square, compos- 
ed of separate leaves ; which was also known, 
though little used, among the ancients ; having 
been invented by Attains, king of Pergamus, 
the same who also invented parchment : but it 
has now been so long in possession, that the 
oldest manuscripts are found in it. Montfau- 
con assures us, that of all the ancient Greek 
manuscripts he has seen, there are but two in 
the roll form; the rest being made up much 
after the manner of the modern books. Tie 
rolls, or volumes, were composed of several 
sheets, fastened to each other, and rolled upon 
a stick, or umbilicus ; the whole making a kind 
of column, or cylinder, which was to be man- 
aged by the umbilicus, as a handle ; it being 
reputed a kind of crime to take hold of the roll 
itself. The outside of the volume was called 
frons; the ends of the umhilicus were called 
cornua, " horns ;" which were usually carved 
and adorned likewise with silver, ivory, or even 
gold and precious stones. Whilst the Egyp- 
tian papyrus was in common use, its brittle na- 
ture made it proper to roll up what they wrote ; 
and as this had been a customary practice, 
many continued it when they used other mate- 
rials, which might very safely have been treat- 
ed in a different manner. To the form of books 
belongs the economy of the inside, or the order 
and arrangement of points and letters into lines 
and pages, with margins and other appurte. 



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nances. This has undergone many varieties : 
at first, the letters were only divided into lines, 
then into separate words ; which, by degrees, 
w^ere noted with accents, and distributed by 
points and stops into periods, paragraphs, chap- 
ters, and other divisions. In some countries, as 
among the orientals, the lines began from the 
right, and ran to the left ; in others, as in north- 
ern and western nations, from the left to the 
right ; others, as the Grecians, followed both 
directions alternately, going in the one and re- 
turning in the other, called boustrophedon, be- 
cause it was after the manner of oxen turning 
when at plough. In the Chinese books, the 
lines ran from top to bottom. Again : the page 
in some is entire, and uniform ; in others, divid- 
ed into columns ; in others distinguished into 
texts and notes, either marginal, or at the bot- 
tom : usually it is furnished with signatures and 
catch words ; also with a register to discover 
whether the book be complete. To these are 
occasionally added the apparatus of summaries, 
or side notes; the embellishments of red, gold, 
or figured initial letters, head pieces, tail pieces, 
efligies, schemes, maps, and the like. The end 
of the book now denoted hy finis, was ancient- 
ly marked with a <J, called coronis, and the 
wliole frequently washed with an oil drawn 
from cedar, or citron chips, strewed between 
the leaves to preserve it from rotting. There 
also occur certain formula at the beginning and 
end of books ; as among the Jews, the word 
pjn, esto forfis, which we find at the end of 
the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Eze- 
kiel, &c, to exhort the reader to be courageous, 
and proceed on to the following book. The 
conclusions were also often guarded with im- 
precations against such as should falsify them ; 
of which we have an instance in the Apoca- 
lypse. The Mohammedans, for the like rea- 
son, place the name of God at the beginning 
of all their books, which cannot fail to procure 
them protection, on account of the infinite re- 
gard which they pay to that name, wherever 
found. For the like reason it is, that divers of 
the laws of the ancient emperors begin with 
the formula. In nomine Dei. [In the name of 
God.] At the end of each book the Jews also 
added the number of verses contained in it, and 
at the end of the Pentateuch the number of 
sections ; that it might be transmitted to poster- 
ity entire. The Masorites and Mohammedan 
doctors have gone farther ; so as to number 
the several words and letters in each book, chap- 
ter, verse, &c, of the Old Testament and the 
Alcoran. The scarcity and high price of books 
in former ages, ought to render us the more 
gratefiil for the discovery of the great art of 
printing, as especially by that means the Holy 
feible, "the word of truth and Gospel of our 
salvation," is made familiar to all classes. 

The universal ignorance that prevailed in 
Europe, from the seventh to the eleventh cen- 
tury, may be ascribed to the scarcity of books 
during that period, and the difficulty of render- 
ing them more common, concurring with other 
causes arising from the state of government 
and manners. The Romans wrote their books 
either on parchment, or on paper made of the 



Egyptian papyrus. The latter, being the cheap. 
est, was of course the most commonly used. 
But after the Saracens conquered Egypt, in 
the seventh century, the communication be- 
tween that country and the people settled in 
Italy, or in other parts of Europe, was almost 
entirely broken off", and the papyrus was no 
longer in use among them. They were oblig- 
ed on that account to write all their books upon 
parchment ; and as the price of that was high, 
books became extremely rare and of great 
value. We may judge of the scarcity of mate- 
rials for writing them from one circumstance. 
There still remain several manuscripts of the 
eighth, ninth, and following centuries, Avritten 
on parchment, from which some former writing 
had been erased, in order to substitute a new 
composition in its place. Thus, it is probable, 
several of the works of the ancients perished. 
A book of Livy or of Tacitus might be erased, 
to make room for the legendary tale of a saint, 
or the superstitious prayers of a missal. Nay, 
worse instances are recorded, of obliterating 
copies of the Holy Scriptures to make room for 
the lucubrations of some of the more modern 
fathers of the church. Manuscripts thus de- 
faced, the vellum or parchment of which is oc- 
cupied with some other writings, are called 
"palimpsests," codices rescripti or palimpsesti, 
from zsaXcixxpns'Oii "that which has been twice 
scraped." As this want of materials for writ- 
ing will sei-ve to account for the loss of many 
of the works of the ancients, and for the small 
number of MSS. previous to the eleventh 
century, many facts prove the scarcity of books 
at this period. Private persons seldom possess- 
ed any books wha-tever ; and even monasteries 
of note had only one missal. In 1299, John de 
Pontissara, bishop of Winchester, borrows of 
his cathedral convent of St. Swithin, at Win- 
Chester, " bibliam bene glossatam" that is, the 
Bible, with marginal annotations, in two folio 
volumes ; but gives a bond for the return of it, 
drawn up with great solemnity. For the be- 
quest of this Bible to the convent, and one hun- 
dred marks, the monks founded a daily mass 
for the soul of the donor. If any person gave 
a book to a religious house, he believed that so 
valuable a donation merited eternal salvation, 
and he offered it on the altar with great cere- 
mony. The prior and convent of Rochester 
declare, that they will every year pronounce 
the irrevocable sentence of damnation on him 
who shall purloin or conceal a Latin transla- 
tion of Aristotle's Poetics, or even obliterate 
the title. Sometimes a book was given to a 
monastery, on condition that the donor should 
have the use of it for his life; and sometimes 
to a private person, with the reservation that 
he who receives it should pray for the soul of his 
benefactor. In the year 1225, Roger de In- 
sula, dean of York, gave several Latin Bibles 
to the university of Oxford, on condition that 
the students who perused them should de- 
posit a cautionary pledge. The library of that 
university, before the year 1300, consisted only 
of a few tracts, chained or kept in chests, in 
the choir of St. Mary's church. The price of 
books became so high, that persons of a mode- 



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173 



BOO 



rate fortune could not afford to purchase them. 
In the year 1174, Walter, prior of St. Swithin's 
at Winchester, purchased oithe monks of Dor- 
chester, in Oxfordshire, Bede's homilies, and St. 
Austin's psalter fur twelve measures of barley 
and a paU, on which was embroidered in silver 
the history of St. Birinus converting a Saxon 
king. About the year 1400, a copy of John of 
Meun's " Roman de la Rose" was sold before the 
palace gate at Paris for forty crowns, or 33Z. 6s. 
6d. The countess of Anjou paid, for a copy of 
the homilies of Haimon, bishop of Halberstadt, 
two hundred sheep, five quarters of wheat, 
and the same quantity of rye and millet. Even 
so late as the year 1471, when Louis XI. of 
France borrowed the works of Rhasis, the Ara- 
bian physician, from the faculty of medicine at 
Paris, he not only deposited by way of pledge 
a considerable quantity of plate, but he was 
obliged to procure a nobleman to join with him 
as surety in a deed, binding himself under a 
great forfeiture to restore it. But when, in the 
eleventh century, the art of making paper 
was invented, and more especially after the 
manufacture became general, the number of 
MSS. increased, and the study of the sciences 
was wonderfully facilitated. Indeed, the inven- 
tion of the art of making paper, and the inven- 
tion of the art of printing, are two very memo- 
rable events in the history of literature and of 
human civilization. It is remarkable, that the 
former preceded the first dawning of letters and 
improvement in knowledge, toward the close 
of the eleventh century ; and the latter ushered 
in the light which spread over Europe at the 
sera of the reformation. 

G. If the ancient books were large, they were 
foymed of a immber of skins, of a number of 
pieces of linen and cotton cloth, or of papyrus, 
or parchment, connected together. The leaves 
were rarely written over on both sides, Ezek. 
ii, 9 ; Zech. v, 1. Books, when written upon 
very flexible materials, were, as stated above, 
rolled round a stick ; and, if they were very 
long, round two, from the two extremities. 
The reader unrolled the book to the place which 
he wanted, ava-n-Tv^as TO PijSXlov, and rolled it up 
again, when he had read it, irrv^as to ^iBMov, 
Luke iv, 17-20 ; whence the name n^JD, a 
volume, or thing rolled up. Psalm xl, 7 ; Isaiah 
xxxiv, 4; Ezek. ii, 9; 2 Kings xix, 14; Ezra 
vi, 2. The leaves thus rolled round the stick, 
which has been mentioned, and bound with a 
string, could he easily sealed, Isaiah xxix, 11 ; 
Dan. xii, 4 ; Rev. v, 1 ; vi, 7. Those books, 
which v/cre inscribed on tablets of wood, lead, 
brass, or ivory, w^cre connected together by 
rings at the back, through which a rod was 
passed to carry them by. The orientals ap- 
pear to have taken pleasure in giving tropical 
or enigmatical titles to their books. The titles, 
prefixed to the fifty-sixth, sixtieth, and eightieth 
psalms appear to be of this description. And 
there can be no doubt, that David's elegy upon 
Saul and .Jonathan, 2 Sam. i, 18, is called ruyp 
or the bow, in conformity with this peculiarity 
of taste. 

The book, or flying roll, spoken of in Zech. 
V, 1, 2, twenty cubits long and ten wide, was 



one of the ancient rolls, composed of many 
skins, or parchments, glued or sewed together 
at the end. Though some of these rolls or 
volumes were very long, -yet none, probably, 
was ever made of such a size as this. This 
contained the curses and calamities which 
should befal the Jews. The extreme length 
and breadth of it shows the excessive number 
and enormity of their sins, and the extent of 
their punishment. 

Isaiah, describing the effects of God's wrath, 
says, " The heavens shall be folded up like a 
book," (scroll,) Isaiah xxxiv, 4. He alludes to 
the way among the ancients, of rolling up 
books, when they purposed to close them. A 
volume of several feet in length was suddenly 
rolled up into a very small compass. Thus the 
heavens should shrink into themselves, and 
disappear, as it were, from the eyes of God, 
when his wrath should be kindled. These ways 
of speaking are figurative, and very energetic. 

7. Book is sometimes used for letters, me- 
moirs, an edict, or contract. In short, the 
w^ord book, in Hebrew, sepher, is much more 
extensive than the Latin liber. The letters 
v;hich Rabshakeh delivered from Sennacherib 
to Hezekiah are called a book. The English 
translation, indeed, reads letter; but the Septu- 
agint has piSXiov, and the Hebrew text, DnsDn. 
The contract, confirmed by Jeremiah for the 
purchase of a field, is called by the same name, 
Jer. xxxii, 10; and also the edict of Ahasuerus 
in favour of the Jews, Esther ix, 20, though 
our translators have called it letters. The 
writing which a man gave to his wife when he 
divorced her, was denominated, in Hebrew, 
" a book of divorce," Deut. xxiv. 

Books, Writers of. The ancients seldom 
wrote their treatises with their own hand, but 
dictated them to their freedmen and slaves. 
These were either Tuxvy^dipoi, amanuenses, no. 
tarii, " hasty writers," or KaWiypdfoi, lihrarii, 
" fair writers," or ^iGXioy^dcpoi, lihrarii, " copy- 
ists." The office of these last was to tran- 
scribe fairly that which the former had written 
hastily and from dictation ; they were those who 
were obliged to write books and other docu- 
ments which were intended to be durable. The 
correctness of the copies was under the care of 
the emend.ator, corrector, h fioKijxd^uiv tu. yeypanixeva, 
A great part of the books of the New Testa- 
ment was dictated after this custom. St. Paul 
noted it as a particular circumstance in the 
Epistle to the Galatians, that he had written it 
with his own hand, Gal. vi, 11. But he affixed 
the salutation with his own hand, 2 'Iliess. iii, 
17 ; 1 Cor. xvi, 21 ; Col. iv, 18. The amanu^ 
ensis who wrote the Epistle to the Romans, 
has mentioned himself near the conclusion^ 
Rom. xvi, 22. 

Books, modes of publication. Works couU 
only be multiplied by means of transcripts. 
Whenever in this way they passed over to 
others, they were beyond the control of the 
author, and published. The edition, or publica- 
tion, by means of the booksellers, was, only 
at a later period, advantageous to the Chris- 
tians. The rccitatio [reading aloud] preceded 
the publication, which took place often merely 



BOO 



174 



BOO 



among some few friends, and often with great 
preparations before many persons, who were 
invited for that purpose. From hence the 
author became known as the writer, and the 
world became previously informed of all which 
they might expect from the work. If the com- 
position pleased them, he was requested to per- 
mit its transcription ; and thus the work left 
the hands of the author, and belonged to the 
publicum: [public] Frequently an individual 
sent his literary labours to some illustrious man, 
as a present, strena, [a new-year's gift,] munus. 
culum; [a small present;] or he prefixed his 
name to it, for the sake of giving him a proof 
of friendship or regard, by means of this ex- 
press and particular direction of his work. 
When it was only thus presented or sent to 
him, and he accepted it, he was considered as 
the person bound to introduce it to the world, 
or as the patronus libri, [patron of the book,] 
who had pledged himself, as the patronus per- 
soncB [patron of the person] to this duty. It 
now became his office to provide for its pub- 
lication by means of transcripts, to facilitate its 
approach ad limina potentiorum to the gates of 
men of great influence, and to be its defensor. 
Thus the works of the first founders of the 
Christian church made their appearance before 
their community. Their Epistles were read in 
those congregations to which they were direct- 
ed ; and whoever wished to possess them either 
took a transcript of them, or caused one to be 
procured for him. The historical works were 
made known by the authors in the congrega- 
tions of the Christians, per recitationem : [by 
reading aloud :] the object and general interest 
in them procured for them readers and tran- 
scribers. St. Luke dedicated his writings to an 
illustrious man of the name of Theophilus. 

Book of Life, or Book of the Living, or 
Book of the Lord, Psalm Ixix, 28. Some have 
thought it very probable that these descriptive 
phrases, which are frequent in Scripture, are 
taken from the custom, observed generally in 
the courts of princes, of keeping a list of per- 
sons who are in their service, of the provinces 
which they govern, of the officers of their 
armies, of the number of their troops, and 
sometimes even of the names of their soldiers. 
Thus, when it is said that any one is written 
in the book of life, it means that he particu- 
larly belongs to God, and is enrolled among 
the number of his friends and servants : and 
to be "blotted out of the book of life," is to be 
erased from the list of God's friends and serv- 
ants, as those who are guilty of treachery 
are struck off the roll of officers belonging to a 
prince. The most satisfactory explanation of 
these phrases is, however, that whicli refers 
them to the genealogical lists of the JeM's, or to 
the registers kept of the living, from which the 
names of all the dead were blotted out. 

Book of Judgment. Daniel, speaking of 
God's judgment, says, " The judgment was set, 
and the books were opened," Dan. vii, 10. This 
is an allusion to what was practised when a 
prince called his servants to account. The 
accounts are produced and examined. It is 
possible he might allude, also, to a custom of 



the Persians, among whom it was a constant 
practice every day to write down the services 
rendered to the king, and the rewards given to 
those who had performed them. Of this we 
see an instance in the history of Ahasuerus and 
Mordecai, Esther iv, 12, 34. When, there- 
fore, the king sits in judgment, the books are 
opened: he obliges all his servants to reckon 
with him; he punishes those who have failed 
in their duty; he compels those to pay who 
are indebted to him ; and he rewards those who 
have done him services. A similar proceed- 
ing will take place at the day of God's final 
judgment. 

Sealed Book, mentioned Isa. xxix, 11, and 
the book sealed with seven seals, in the Reve- 
lation V, 1-3, are the prophecies of Isaiah and 
of John, which were written in a book, or roll, 
after the manner of the ancients, and were 
sealed, which figure truly signifies that they 
were mysterious: they had respect to times 
remote, and to future events ; so that a com- 
plete knowledge of their meaning could not be 
obtained till afler what was foretold should 
happen, and the seals, as it were taken off. 
In old times, letters, and other writings that 
wfere to be sealed, were first wrapped round 
with thread or flax, and then wax and the seal 
were applied to them. To read them, it was 
necessary to cut the thread or flax, and to break 
the seals. 

BOOTY, spoils taken in war. Num. xxxi, 
27-32. According to the law of Moses, the 
booty was to be divided equally between those 
who were in the battle and those who were in 
the camp, whatever disparity there might be 
in the number of each party. The law farther 
required that, out of that ^ art of the spoils 
which was assigned to the fighting men, the 
Lord's share should be separated ; and for every 
five hundred men, oxen, asses, shecu, &c, they 
were to take one for the high priest, as being 
the Lord's first fruits. And out of the other 
moiety, belonging to the children of Israel, 
they were to give for every fifty men, oxen, 
asses, sheep, &c, one to the Levites. 

BOOZ, or BOAZ, the son of Salmon and 
Rahab, Ruth iv, 21, &c; Matt, i, 5. Rahab, 
we know, was a Canaanite of Jericho, Joshua 
ii, 1. Salmon, who was of the tribe of Judah, 
married her, and she bore him Booz, one of 
our Saviour's ancestors according to the flesh. 
Some say there were three of this name, the 
son, the grandson, and the great grandson, of 
Salmon : the last Booz v^a.s Ruth's husband, 
and the father of Obed. 

2. Booz, or BoAZ, was the name of one of 
the two brazen pillars which Solomon erected 
in the porch of the temple, the other column 
being called Jachin. This last pillar was on 
the right hand of the entrance into the temple, 
and Booz on the lefl, 1 Kings vii, 21. The 
word signifies strength or Jirinness. Mr. Hutch- 
inson has an express treatise upon these two 
columns, attempting to show that they repre- 
sented the true system of the universe, which 
he insists was given by God to David, and by 
him to Solomon, and was wrought by Hiram 
upon these pillars 



BOT 



175 



BOU 



BOSOM. See Accusation. 

BOSSES, the thickest and strongest parts 
of a buckler, Job xv, 20. 

BOTTLE. The eastern bottle is made of a 
goat or kid skin, stripped off without opening 
the belly; the apertures made by cutting off 
the tail and legs are sewed up, and, when filled, 
it is tied about the neck. The Arabs and 
Persians never go a journey without a small 
leathern bottle of water hanging by their side 
like a scrip. These skin bottles preserve their 
water, milk, and other liquids, in a fresher 
state than any other vessels they can use. The 
people of the east, indeed, put into them every 
thing they mean to carry to a distance, whether 
dry or liquid, and very rarely make use of boxes 
and pots, unless to preserve such things as are 
liable to be broken. They enclose these leathern 
bottles in woollen sacks, because their beasts 
of carriage often fall down under their load, or 
cast it down on the sandy desert. These skin 
bottles were not confined to the countries x)f 
Asia ; the roving tribes, which passed the Hel- 
lespont soon after the deluge, and settled in 
Greece and Italy, probably introduced them 
into those countries. We learn from Homer, 
that they were in common use among the 
Greeks at the siege of Troy ; for, with a view 
to an accommodation between the hostile ar- 
mies, the heralds carried through the city the 
things which were necessary to ratify the com- 
pact, two lambs, and exhilarating wine, the 
fruit of the earth, in a bottle of goat skin : 

"Apve Svo), Kal oivov iUcppova, Kapirbv apo'upris, 
'A<r/c45 iv alyEiii). II. lib. iii, 1. 246. 

The bottle of wine which Samuel's mother 
brought to Eli, 1 Sam. i, 24, is called ^2i, and 
was an earthen jug. Another word is used to 
signify the vessel out of which Jael gave milk 
to Sisera: she opened a bottle of milk, and 
gave him drink. Judges iv, 19. This is called 
*]1NJ, which refers to something supple, moist, 
oozing, or, perhaps, imports moistened into 
pliancy, as that skin must be which is kept 
constantly filled with milk. This kind was 
usually made of goat skins. This word is also 
used to denote the bottle in which Jesse sent 
wine by David to Saul, 1 Sam. xvi, 20. It is 
likewise employed to express the bottle into 
which the Psalmist desires his tears may be 
collected. Psalm Ivi, 8 ; and that to which he 
resembles himself, and which he calls a bottle 
in the smoke, Psalm cxix, 83, that is, a skin 
bottle, blackened and shrivelled. Beside the 
words already considered, another nijx, in the 
plural, is used, Job xxxii, 19. This signifies, 
in general, to swell or distend. On receiving 
the liquor poured into it, a skin bottle must be 
greatly swelled and distended ; and it must be 
swelled still farther by the fermentation of the 
liquor within it, as that advances to ripeness. 
In this state, if no vent be given to the liquor, 
it may overpower the strength of the bottle, or 
it may penetrate by some secret crevice or 
weaker part. Hence arises the propriety of 
putting new wine into nev/ bottles, which, be- 
ing strong, may resist the expansion, the inter- 
nal pressure of their contents, and preserve the 



wine to due maturity ; while old bottles may, 
without danger, contain old wine, whose fer- 
mentation is already past. Matt, ix, 17 ; Luke 
V, 38. 

BOUDDHISTS,orBUDHISTS, one of the 
three great sects of India, distinct both from 
the Brahminical sect, and the Jainas. The 
Bouddhists do not believe in a First Cause : they 
consider matter as eternal ; that every portion 
of animated existence has in itself its own rise, 
tendency, and destiny; that the condition of 
creatures on earth is regulated by works of 
merit and demerit ; that works of merit not 
only raise individuals to happiness, but, as they 
prevail, exalt the world itself to prosperity ; 
while, on the other hand, when vice is predomi- 
nant, the world degenerates till the universe 
itself is dissolved. They suppose, however, 
that there is always some superior deity, who 
has attained to this elevation by religious merit ; 
but they do not regard him as the governor of 
the world. To the present grand period, com. 
prehending all the time included in a " kulpu," 
they assign live deities, four of whom have 
already appeared, including Goutumu, or Boudd- 
hu, whose exaltation continues five thousand 
years, two thousand three hundred and fifty-six 
of which had expired, A. D; 1814. After the 
expiration of the five thousand years, another 
saint will obtain the ascendancy, and be deified. 
Six hundred millions of saints are said to be 
canonized with each deity, though it is admit- 
ted that Bouddhu took only twenty-four thou- 
sand devotees to heaven with him. The low- 
est state of existence is in hell ; the next is that 
in the forms of brutes : both these are states of 
punishment. The next ascent is to that of 
man, which is probationary. The next in- 
cludes many degrees of honour and happiness 
up to demigods, &c, which are states of reward 
for works of merit. The ascent to superior 
deity is from the state of man. The Boudd- 
hists are taught that there are four superior 
heavens which are not destroyed at the end of 
" kulpu ;" that below these there are twelve 
other heavens, followed by six inferior hea- 
vens ; after which follows the earth ; then the 
world of snakes; and then thirty-two chief 
hells : to which are to be added, one hundred 
and twenty hells of milder torments. The 
highest state of glory is absorption. The per- 
son who is unchangeable in his resolution ; 
who has obtained the knowledge of things 
past, present, and to come, through one " kul- 
pu ;" who can make himself invisible ; go 
where he pleases ; and who has attained to 
complete abstraction ; will enjoy absorption. 
Those who perform works of merit are admit- 
ted to the heavens of the different gods, or are 
made kings or great men on earth ; and those 
who are wicked are born in the forms of dif- 
ferent animals, or consigned to different hells. 
The happiness of these heavens is described as 
entirely sensual. The Bouddhists believe that at 
the end of a " kulpu" the universe is destroyed. 
To convey some idea of tlie extent of this 
period, the illiterate Cingalese use this com- 
parison : " If a man were to ascend a mountain 
nine miles high, and to renew these journeys 



BOU 



176 



BRA 



once in every hundred years, till the mountain 
v/ere worn down by his feet to an atom, the 
time required to do this^ would be nothing to 
the fourth part of a ' kulpu.' " Bouddhu, be- 
fore his exaltation, taught his followers that, 
after his death, the remains of his body, his 
doctrine, or an assembly of his disciples, were to 
be held in equal reverence with himself. When 
a Cingalese, therefore, approaches an image of 
Bouddhu, he says, " I take refuge in Bouddhu ; 
I take refuge in his doctrine ; I take refuge in 
his followers." There are five commands given 
to the common Bouddhists ; the first forbids 
the destruction of animal life ; the second for- 
bids theft ; the third, adultery ; the fourth, 
fiilsehood ; the fifth, the use of spirituous li- 
quors. There are other commands for supe^ 
rior classes, or devotees, which forbid dancing, 
songs, music, festivals, perfumes, elegant dress- 
es, elevated seats, &.c. Among works of the 
highest merit, one is the feeding of a hungry 
infirm tiger with a person's own flesh. 

BOURIGNONISTS, the followers- of the 
celebrated Mad. Antoinette Bourignon de la 
Ponte, a native of Flanders, born at Lisle, in 
1616. She was so much deformed at her birth, 
that it was even debated whether she should 
not be stifled as a monster. As she grew up, 
however, this deformity greatly decreased, and 
she discovered a superior mind, a strong ima- 
gination, and very early indications of a devo- 
tional spirit, strongly tinctured with mysticism. 
She conceived herself to be divinely called, 
and set apart to revive the true spirit of Chris- 
tianity that had been extinguished by theolo- 
gical animosities and debates. In her confession 
of faith, she professes her belief in the Scrip- 
tures, and in the divinity and atonement of 
Christ. The leading principles which pervade 
her productions are these : that man is perfectly 
free to resist or receive divine grace ; that God 
is ever unchangeable in love toward all his 
creatures, and does not inflict any arbitrary 
punishment, but that the evils they suffer are 
the natural consequences of sin; that true 
religion consists not in any outward forms of 
worship, nor systems of faith, but in imme- 
diate communion with the Deity, by internal 
feelings and impulses, and by a perfect acqui- 
escence in his will. 

This lady was educated in the Roman Ca- 
tholic religion ; but she declaimed equally 
against the corruptions of the church of Rome 
and those of the Reformed churches : hence she 
was opposed and persecuted by botii Catholics 
and Protestants, and after being driven about 
from place to place, she died at Franeker, in 
1680. She maintained that there ought to be 
a general toleration of all religions. Her no- 
tion on God's foreknowledge was, that God 
was capable of foreknowing all events, but, his 
power being equal to his knowledge, he pur- 
posely withheld from himself that knowledge 
in certain cases, that he might not interfere 
with the free agency and responsibility of his 
creatures. Her works are very numerous, 
making eighteen volumes in octavo : of which 
the principal are', " The Light of the World ;" 
"The Testimony of Truth;" and "The Reno- 



vation of the Gospel Spirit ;" which are much 
in esteem among the admirers of mystical the- 
ology. 

BOW. The expression, " to break the bow," 
so frequent in Scripture, signifies to destroy the 
power of a people, because the principal offen- 
sive weapon of armies was anciently the bow. 
" A deceitful bow" is one that, from some 
defect, either in bending or the string, carries 
the arrow wide of the mark, however well 
aimed. See Arms. 

BOWELS. The bowels are the seat of 
mercy, tenderness, and compassion. Joseph's 
bowels were moved at the sight of his brother 
Benjamin ; that is, he felt himself softened and 
affected. The true mother of the child whom 
Solomon commanded to be divided, felt her 
bowels move, and consented that it should be 
given to the woman who was not its real mo- 
ther, 1 Kings, iii, 26. The Hebrews also some- 
times place wisdom and understanding in the 
bowels, " Who hath put wisdom in the inner 
parts ?" or bowels. Job xxxviii, 36. The 
Psalmist says, "Thy law is within ray heart," 
literally, in the midst of my bowels, — it is by 
me strongly and affectionately regarded, Psalm 
xl, 8. 

BOX TREE, niE'Nn, Isa. xli, 9; Ix, 13; 
Ezek. xxvii, 6 ; 2 Esdras xiv, 24, where the 
word appears to be used for tablets. Most ot 
the ancient, and several of the modern, trans- 
lators render this word the buxus, or "box 
tree ;" but from its being mentioned along with 
trees of the forest, some more stately tree must 
be intended, probably the cedar. 

BRACELET. A bracelet is commonly worn 
by the oriental princes, as a badge of power 
and authority. When the calif Cayem Bem- 
rillah granted the investiture of certain domi- 
nions to an eastern prince, he sent him letters 
patent, a crown, a chain, and bracelets. This 
was probably the reason that the Amalek- 
ite brought the bracelet which he found on 
Saul's arm, along with his crown, to David, 
2 Sam. i, 10. It was a royal ornament, and 
belonged to the regalia of the kingdom. The 
bracelet, it must be acknowledged, was worn 
both by men and women of different ranks ; but 
the original word, in the second book of Samuel, 
occurs only in two other places, and is quite 
different from the term which is employed to 
express the more common ornament known by 
that name. And beside, this ornament was 
worn by kings and princes in a different man- 
ner from their subjects. It was fastened above 
the elbow ; and was commonly of great value. 

BRAHMINS, or BRACHMINS, the high- 
est caste of Hindoos, to whom is confined the 
priesthood, and, in general, all their ancient 
learning, which is locked up in their sacred 
language, called the Sanscrit. The Brahmins 
derive that name from Brahma, the Creator; 
for they maintain the doctrine of three embo- 
died energies, the creative, the preserving, and 
the destroying ; personified under the names of 
Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, all sprung from 
Brimh ; and to each of them is assigned a kind 
of celestial consort, a female deity, which they 
describe as a passive energy. 



BRA 



17*7 



BRA 



Like th^ philosophers of Greece, they seem 
to have had an open and a secret doctrine : 
the latter, a species of Spinozism, considering 
the great Supreme as "the soul of the world;" 
endowed with no other quality than ubiquity ; 
requiring no worship, and exerting no power, 
but in the production of the three great ener- 
gies above mentioned. These are so inge- 
niously diversified as to produce three hundred 
and thirty millions of gods, or objects of idola- 
try; so various in character as to suit every 
man's taste or humour, and to furnish exam- 
ples of every vice and folly to which humanity 
is subject. 

As it respects a future state, two of the prin- 
cipal doctrines of Brachminism are transmi- 
gration and absorption. After death, the per- 
son is conveyed, by the messengers of Yumu, 
through the air to the place of judgment. After 
receiving his sentence, he wanders about the 
earth for twelve months, as an aerial being or 
ghost ; and then takes a body suited to his 
future condition, whether he ascend to the 
gods, or suffer in a new body, or be hurled into 
some hell. This is the doctrine of several 
" pooranus ;" others maintain, that immediately 
after death and judgment, the person suffers 
the pains of hell, and removes his sin by suffer- 
ing ; and then returns to the earth in some 
bodily form. The descriptions w^hich the 
"pooranus" give of the heavens of the gods 
are truly in the eastern style ; all things, even 
the beds of the gods, are made of gold and 
precious stones. All the pleasures of these 
heavens are exactly what we should expect in 
a system formed by uninspired and unrenewed 
men : like the paradise of Molmmmed, they are 
brothels, rather than places of rewards for 
" the pure in heart." Here all the vicious 
passions are personified, or rather, deified : the 
quarrels and licentious intrigues of the gods fill 
these places with perpetual uproar, while their 
impurities are described with the same literality 
and gross detail, as similar things are talked of 
among these idolaters on earth. 

But the highest degree of happiness is ab- 
sorption. God, as separated from matter, the 
Hindoos contemplate as a being reposing in 
his own happiness, destitute of ideas ; as infi- 
nite placidity ; as an unruffled sea of bliss ; as 
being perfectly abstracted, and void of con- 
sciousness. They therefore deem it the height 
of perfection to be like this being. Hence 
Krishnu, in his discourse to Urjoonu, praises the 
man " who forsaketh every desire that entereth 
into his heart ; who is happy of himself; who 
is without affection ; who rejoiceth not either 
in good or evil; who, like the tortoise, can 
restrain his members from their wonted pur- 
pose ; to whom pleasure and pain, gold, iron, 
and stones are the same." " The learned," 
adds Krushnu, "behold Brumhu alike in the 
reverend 'branhun,' perfected in knowledge; 
in the ox, and in the elephant ; in the dog, and 
in him who eateth of the flesh of dogs." The 
person whose very nature, say they, is absorbed 
in divine meditation ; whose life is like a sweet 
sleep, unconscious and undisturbed ; who does 
not even desire God, and who is thus changed 
13 



into the image of the ever blessed ; obtains 
absorption into Brumhu. The ceremonies 
leading to absorption are called by the name of 
"tupushya," and the persons performing them, 
a "tupushwee." Forsaking the world; retir- 
ing to a forest; fasting, living on roots, fruits, 
&c ; — remaining in certain postures ; exposure 
to all the inclemencies of the weather, &c ; 
these, and many other austere practices are 
prescribed, to subdue the passions, to fix the 
mind, habituate it to meditation, and fill it with 
that serenity and indifference to the world 
which is to prepare it for absorption, and place 
it beyond the reach of future birth. 

BRAMBLE, -it3X, a prickly shrub, Judges 
ix, 14, 15 ; Psalm Iviii, 9. In the latter place 
it is translated "thorn." Hiller supposes atad 
to be the cynohastus, or sweetbrier. The au- 
thor of "Scripture Illustrated" says, that the 
bramble seems to be well chosen as the repre- 
sentative of the original ; which should be a 
plant bearing fruit of some kind, being asso- 
ciated. Judges ix, 14, though by opposition, 
with the vine. The apologue or fable of Jo- 
tham has always been admired for its spirit and 
application. It has also been considered as the 
oldest fable extant. 

BRANCH, a title of Messiah: "And there 
shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse^ 
and a Branch shall grow out of his roots," 
Isaiah xi, 1. See also Zech. iii, 8; vi, 12; 
Jer. xxiii, 5 ; xxxiii, 15. When Christ is repre- 
sented as a slender twig, shooting out from 
the trunk of an old tree lopped to the very root 
and decayed, and becoming itself a mighty tree, 
reference is made, 1. To the kingly dignity of 
Christ, springing up from the decayed house of 
David ; 2. To the exaltation which was to sue- 
ceed his humbled condition on earth, and to the 
glory and vigour of his mediatorial reign. 

BRASS, ntt'nj. The word hiass occurs 
very often in our translation of the Bible ; but 
that is a mixed metal, for the making of which 
we are indebted to the German metallurgists 
of the thirteenth century. That the ancients 
knew not the art of making it, is almost cer- 
tain. None of their writings even hint at the 
process. There can be no doubt that copper 
is the original metal intended. This is spoken 
of as known prior to the flood ; and to have 
been discovered, or at least wrought, as was 
also iron, in the seventh generation from 
Adam, by Tubal-cain : whence the name VuU 
can. The knowledge of these two metals 
must have been carried over the world after- 
ward with the spreading colonies of the Noa- 
chidae. Agreeably to this, the ancient histories 
of the Greeks and Romans speak of Cadmus 
as the inventor of the metal which by the 
former is called ;!^aX*:of, and by the latter (Es; 
and from him had the denomination cadmea. 
According to others, Cadmus discovered a 
mine, of which he taught the use. The name 
of the person here spoken of was undoubtedly 
the same with Ham, or Cam, the son of NoaJi, 
who probably learned the art of assaying 
metals from the family of Tubal-cain, and 
communicated that knowledge to the people 
of the colony which he settled. 



BRE 



178 



BRE 



BRAS EN SERPENT, the, was an image 
of polished brass, in the form of one of those 
fiery serpents which were sent to chastise the 
murmuring Israelites in the wilderness, and 
whose bite caused violent heat, thirst, and in- 
flamraation. By divine command " Moses 
made a serpent of brass," or copper, and " put 
it upon a pole ; and it came to pass, that if a 
serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld 
the serpent of brass, he lived," Num. xxi, 6-9. 
This brasen serpent was preserved as a monu- 
ment of the divine mercy, but in process of 
time became an instrument of idolatry. When 
this superstition began, it is difHcult to deter- 
mine ; but the best account is given by the 
Jewish rabbi, David Kimchi, in the following 
manner: From the time that the kings of 
Israel did evil, and the children of Israel fol- 
lowed idolatry, till the reign of Hezekiah, they 
offered incense to it ; for it being written in 
the law of Moses, "Whoever looketh upon it 
shall live," they fancied they might obtain 
blessings by its mediation, and therefore 
thought it worthy to be worshipped. It had 
been kept from the days of Moses, in memory 
of a miracle, in the same manner as the pot of 
manna was : and Asa and Jehoshaphat did not 
extirpate it when they rooted out idolatry, be- 
cause in their reign they did not observe that 
the people worshipped this serpent, or burnt 
incense to it ; and therefore they left it as a 
memorial. But Hezekiah thought fit to take 
it quite away, when he abolished other idolatry, 
because in the time of his father they adored 
it as an idol ; and though pious people among 
them accounted it only as a memorial of a 
wonderfiil work, yet he judged it better to 
abolish it, though the memory of the miracle 
should happen to be lost, than sutfer it to re- 
main, and leave the Israelites in danger to 
commit idolatry hereafter with it^ On the sub- 
ject of the serpent-bitten Israelites being heal- 
ed by looking at the brasen sei-pent, there is a 
good comment in the book of Wisdom, chap, 
xvi, 4-12, in which are these remarkable 
words: — "They were admonished, having a 
sign of salvation," that is, the brasen serpent, 
" to put them in remembrance of the command- 
ments of thy law. For he that turned himself 
toward it, was not saved by the thing that he 
saw, but by thee, that art the Saviour of all," 
verses 6, 7. To the circumstance of looking 
at the brasen serpent in order to be healed, 
our Lord refers, John iii, 14, 15: "As Moses 
lifted up the (brasen) serpent in the wilderness, 
even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that 
whosoever believeth in him should not pei'ish, 
but have eternal life." 

BREAD, a term which in Scripture is used, 
as by us, frequently for food in general ; but is 
also often found in its proper sense. Sparing 
in the use of flesh, like all the nations of the 
east, the chosen people usually satisfied their 
hunger with bread, and quenched their thirst 
in the running stream. Their bread was gene- 
rally made of wheat or barley, or lentiles and 
beans. Bread of wheat flour, as being the 
most excellent, was preferred : barley bread 
was used only in times of scarcity and distress. 



So mean and contemptible, in the estimation 
of the numerous and well-appointed armies of 
Midian, was Gideon, with his handful of undis- 
ciplined militia, that he seems to have been 
compared to bread of this inferior quality, 
which may account for the ready interpreta- 
tion of the dream of the Midianite respecting 
bini : "And when Gideon was come, behold, 
there was a man that told a dream unto his 
fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, 
and lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the 
host of Midian, and came unto a tent and 
smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the 
tent lay along. And his fellow answered and 
said, This is nothing else save the sword of 
Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel ; for 
into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and 
all the host." In the cities and villages of 
Barbary, where public ovens are established, 
the bread is usually leavened; but among the 
Bedoweens and Kabyles, as soon as the dough 
is kneaded, it is made into thin cakes, either 
to be baked immediately upon the coals, or 
else in a shallow earthen vessel like a frying- 
pan, called Tajen. Such were the unleavened 
cakes which we so frequently read of in Scrip- 
ture ; and those also which Sarah made quick- 
ly upon the hearth. These last are about an 
inch thick ; and, being commonly prepared in 
woody countries, are used all along the shores 
of the Black Sea, from the Palus Mceotis to the 
Caspian, in Chaldea and Mesopotamia, except 
in towns. A fire is made in tl:ie middle of the 
room : and when the bread is ready for baking, 
a corner of the hearth is swept,, the bread is 
laid upon it, and covered with ashes and em- 
bers; in a quarter of an hour, they turn it. 
Somotimes they use small convex plates of 
iron, which are most common in Persia, and 
among the nomadic tribes, as being the easiest 
way of baking, and done with the least ex- 
pense ; for the bread is extremely thin, and 
soon prepared. The oven is also used in every 
part of Asia : it is made in the ground, four or 
five feet deep, and three in diameter, well 
plastered v/ith mortar. When it is hot, they 
place the bread (which is commonly long, and 
not thicker than a finger) against the sides : it 
is baked in a moment. Ovens, Chardin appre- 
hends, were not vised in Canaan in the patri- 
archal age: all the bread of that time was 
baked upon a plate, or under the ashes; and 
he supposes, what is nearly self-evident, that 
the cakes which Sarah baked on the hearth 
were of the last sort, and that the shew bread 
was of the same kind. The Arabs about 
Mount Carmel use a great strong pitcher, in 
which they kindle a fire ; and when it is heat- 
ed, they mix meal and water, which they ap- 
ply with the hollow of their hands to the out- 
side of the pitcher; and this extremely soil 
paste, spreading itself, is baked in an instant. 
The heat of the pitcher having dried up all the 
moisture, the bread comes off as tbin as our 
wafers; and the operation is so speedily per- 
formed, that in a very little time a sufiicient 
quantity is made. But their best sort of bread 
they bake, either by heating an oven, or a 
large pitcher full of little buiooth shining flints. 



BRE 



179 



BRE 



upon which they lay the dough, spread out in 
the form of a thin broad cake. Sometimes 
they use a shallow earthen vessel, resembling 
a frying pan, which seems to be the pan men- 
tioned by "Moses, in which the meat-offering 
was baked. Tliis vessel, Dr. Shaw informs 
us, serves both for baking and frying ; for the 
bagreah of the people of Barbary differs not 
much from our pancakes ; only, instead of rub- 
bing the pan in which ^hey fry them with but- 
ter, they rub it with soap, to make them like a 
honey-comb. If these accounts of the Arab 
stone pitcher, the pan, and the iron hearth or 
copper plate, be attended to, it will not be dif- 
ficult to understand the laws of Moses in the 
second chapter of Leviticus: they will be 
found to answer perfectly well to the descrip- 
tion which he gives us of the different ways of 
preparing the meat-offei'ings. As the Hebrews 
made their bread thin, in the form of little flat 
cakes, they did not cut it with a knife, but 
broke it ; which gave rise to the expression, 
breaking bread, so frequent in Scripture. 

The Arabians and other eastern people, 
among whom wood is scarce, often bake their 
bread between two fires made of cow dung, 
which burns slowly, and bakes the bread very 
leisurely. The crumb of it is very good, if it 
be eaten the same day ; but the crust is black 
and burnt, and retains a smell of the materials 
that were used in baking it. This may serve 
to explain a passage in Ezekiel, iv, 9-13. The 
straits of a siege and the scarcity of fuel were 
thus intimated to the Prophet. During the 
whole octave of the passover, the Hebrews use 
only unleavened bread, as a memorial that at 
the time of their departure out of Egypt they 
wanted leisure to bake leavened bread ; and, 
having left the country with precipitation, they 
were content to bake bread which was not 
leavened, Exod. xii, 8. The practice of the 
.Tews at this day, with relation to the use of 
unleavened bread, is as follows: They forbid 
to eat, or have in their houses, or in any place 
belonging to them, either leavened bread or 
any thing else that is leavened. That they 
may the better observe this rule, they search 
into all the corners of the house with scrupu- 
lous exactness for all bread or paste, or any 
thing that is leavened. After they have thus 
well cleansed their houses, they whiten them, 
and furnish them with kitchen and table uten- 
sils, all new, and with others v/hich are to be 
used only on that day. . If they are movables, 
which have served only for something else, 
and are made of metal, they have them polish- 
ed, and put into the fire, to take away all the 
impurity which they may have contracted by 
touching any thing leavened. All this is done 
on the thirteenth day of Nisan, or on the vigil 
of the feast of the passover, which begins with 
the fifleenth of the same month, or the four- 
teenth day in the evening; for the Hebrews 
reckon their days from one evening to another. 
On the fourteenth of Nisan, at eleven o'clock, 
they burn the common bread, to show that the 
prohibition of eating leavened bread is then 
commenced ; and this action is attended with 
words, whereby the master of the house de- 



clares that he has no longer any thing leaven^ 
ed in his keeping; that, at least, he believes 
so. In allusion to this practice, we are com- 
manded to " purge out the old leaven ;" by 
which "malice and wickedness" are intended; 
and to feed only on the " ualeavened b]fead of 
sincerity and truth." 

2. SuEw Bread, or, according to the He- 
brews, the bread of faces, was bread offered 
every Sabbath day upon the golden table in the 
holy place, Exod. xxv, 30. The Hebrews 
affirm that these loaves Were square, and had 
four sides, and were covered with leaves of 
gold. They were twelve in number, according 
to the number of the twelve tribes, in whose' 
names they were offered. Every loaf was com- 
posed of two assarons of flour, which make 
about five pints and one-tenth. These loaves 
were unleavened. They were presented hot 
every Sabbath day, the old ones being taken 
away and eaten by the priests only. This 
offering was accompanied with salt and frank- 
incense, and even with wine, according to- 
some commentators. The Scripture mentions" 
only salt and incense ; but it is presumed that 
wine was added, because it was not wanting in 
other sacrifices and offerings. It is believed 
that these loaves were placed one upon another, 
in two piles of six each ; and that between every 
loaf were two thin plates of gold, folded back 
in a semicircle the whole length of them, to 
admit air, and to prevent the loaves from grow- 
ing mouldy. These golden plates, thus turned 
in, were supported at their extremities by two 
golden forks, which rested on the ground. 
The twelve loaves, because they stood before 
the Lord, were called q^jcd anV, aproi mpodiasw^, 
or ivwnioi, the bread of faces, or of the presence'; 
and are therefore denominated in our Englieh 
translation the shew bread. 

Since part of the frankincense put upon the 
bread was to be burnt on the altar for a me- 
morial, even an offering made by fire unto the 
Lord ; and since Aaron and his sons were to 
eat it in the holy place, Lev. xxiv, 5-9, it is 
probable that this bread typified Christ, first 
presented as a sacrifice to Jehovah, and then 
becoming spiritual food to such as in and 
through him are spiritual priests to God, even 
his Father, Reiv. i, 6; v, 10; xx, G; 1 Peter 
ii, 5. It appears, from some places in Scripture, 
(see Exodus xxix, 32, and Numbers vi, 15,) tJiat 
there was always near the altar a basket full of 
bread, in order to bo offered together with the 
ordinary sacrifices. 

BREASTPLATE, or PECTORAL, one part 
of the priestly vestments, belonging to the Jew. 
ish high priests. It was about ten inches 
square, Exod. xxviii, 13-31 ; and consisted of 
a folded piece of the same rich embroidered stuff 
of which the epliod was made. It v»'as worn 
on the breast of the high priest, and was set 
with twelve precious stones, on each of which 
was engraven the name of one of the tribes;. 
They were set in four rows, three in each row, 
and were divided from each other by the little 
golden squares or partitions in which they were 
set. The names of these stones, and that of 
the tribe engraven on them, as also their dis- 



BRE 



180 



BRI 



position on the breastplate, are usually given 
as follows ; but what stones really answer to 
the Hebrew name, is for the most part very 
uncertain : — 

Sardine, Topaz, Carbuncle, . 

Reuben. Simeon. Levi. 

Emerald, Sapphire, Diamond, 

JuDAH. Dan. Naphtali. 



Ligure, 
Gad. 


Agate, 

AsHER. 


Amethyst, 

ISSACHAR. 


Beryl, 

Zebulun. 


Onyx, 
Joseph. 


Jasper, 
Benjamin. 



This breastplate was fastened at the four 
corners, those on the top to each shoulder, by a 
golden hook or ring, at the end of a wreathen 
chain ; and those below to the girdle of the 
ephod, by two strings or ribbons, which had 
likewise two rings or hooks. This ornament 
was never to be separated from the priestly gar- 
ment ; and it was called the memorial^ because 
it was a sign whereby the children of Israel 
might know that they were presented to God, 
and that they were had in remembrance by 
him. It was also called the breastplate of judg- 
ment, because it had the divine oracle of Urim 
and Thummim annexed to it. These words sig- 
nify lights and perfections, and are mentioned 
as in the high priest's breastplate; but what 
they were, we cannot determine. Some think 
they were two precious stones added to the 
other twelve,, by the extraordinary lustre of 
which, God marked his approbation of a design, 
and, by their becoming dim, his disallowance 
of it ; others, that these two words were writ- 
ten on a precious stone, or plate of gold, fixed 
in the breastplate; others, that the letters of 
the names of the tribes, were the Urim and 
Thummim ; and that the letters by standing 
out, or by an extraordinary illumination, 
marked such words as contained the answer 
of God to him who consulted this oracle^ 
Le Clerc will have them to be the names of 
two precious stones, set in a golden collar 
of the high priest, and coming down to his 
breast, as the magistrates of Egypt wore a 
golden chain, at the end of which hung the 
figure of truth, engraven on a precious stone. 
Prideaux thinks the words chiefly denote the 
clearness of the oracles dictated to the liigh 
priest, though perhaps the lustre of the stones 
in his breastplate might represent this clear- 
ness. Jahn says the most probable opinion is, 
that Urlw and Thuimmim (CDmN, Dn:ni; light 
and justice, Septuagint, 6ri\waig ml dM&eia) 
[manifestation and truth] was a sacred lot, 
1 Samuel xiv, 41, 42. There were employed, 
perhaps, in determining this lot, three precious 
stones, on one of which was engraven "jd, yes ; 
on the other, nV, no ; the third being destitute 
of any inscription. Tlie question proposed, 
therefore; was always to be put in such a way, 
that the answer might be direct, either yes or 
no, provided any answer was given at all. 
These st,ones were carried in the purse or bag, 
formed by the lining or interior of the pecto- 
ral; and when the question was proposed, if 
the high priest drew out the stone which ex- 
hibited yes, the answer was affirmative ; if the 



one on which 720 was written, the answer was 
negative ; if the third, no answer was to be 
given, Joshua vii, 13-21 ; 1 Sam. xiv, 40-43 ; 
xxviii, 6. In the midst of all this conjecture, 
only two things are certain: 1. That one of 
the appointed methods of consulting God, on 
extraordinary emergencies, was by Urim and 
Thummim : 2. That the oracles of God rejected 
all equivocal and enigmatical replies, which 
was the character of the Heathen pretended 
oracles. " The words of the Lord are pure 
words." His own oracle bears, therefore, an 
inscription which signifies lights and perfec- 
tions, or, the shining and the perfect ; or, accord- 
ing to the LXX, manifestation and truth. In 
this respect it might be a type of the Christian 
revelation made to the true Israel, the Christian 
church, by the Gospel. St. Paul seems espe- 
cially to allude to this translation of Urim and 
Thummim by the Septuagint, when he speaks 
of himself and his fellow labourers, "com- 
mending themselves to every man's conscience 
by mantfestation of the truth ;" in opposition to 
those who by their errors and compliances with 
the Jewish prejudices, or with the philosophi- 
cal taste of the Greeks, obscured the truth, and 
rendered ambiguous the guidance of Christian 
doctrine. His preaching is thus tacitly com- 
pared to the oracles of God ; theirs, to the mis- 
leading and nerplexed oracles of the Heathen. 
BRIDE and BRIDEGROOM. Under this 
head an account of the marriage customs of 
ancient times, the knowledge of which is so 
necessary to explain many allusions in the Holy 
Scriptures, may be properly introduced. Among 
the Jews, the state of marriage was, from the 
remotest periods of their history, reckoned so 
honourable, that the person who neglected or 
declined to enter into it without a good reason, 
was thought to be guilty of a great crime. 
Such a mode of thinking was not confined to 
them ; in several of the Grecian states, mar- 
riage was held in equal respect. The Jews did 
not allow marriageable persons to enter into 
that honourable state without restriction; the 
high priest was forbidden by law to marry a 
widow ; and the priests of every rank, to take 
a harlot to wife, a profane woman, or one put 
away from her husband. To prevent the alien- 
ation of inheritances, an heiress could not mar- 
ry but into her own tribe. The whole people 
of Israel, being a holy nation, separated from 
all the earth to the service of the true God, aiid^ 
to be the depositaries of his law, were forbid- 
den to contract matrimonial alliances with the 
idolatrous nations in their vicinity. The 
marriage engagement of a minor, without ilte 
knowledge and consent of the parents, M'as of 
no force ; so sacred was the parental authority 
held among that people. These customs ap. 
pear to have been derived from a very remote 
antiquity ; for when Eliezer of Damascus went 
to Mesopotamia to take a wife from thence 
unto his master's son, he disclosed the motives 
of his journey to the fiither and brother of Re- 
becca ; and Ham or applied to Jacob and his 
sons, for their consent to the union of Dinah 
with his son Shechem. Samson also consulted 
his parents about his marriage ; and entreated 



BRI 



181 



BRI 



them to get for him the object of his choice. 
Marriage contracts seem to have been made in 
the primitive ages with little ceremony. The 
suitor himself, or his father, sent a messenger 
to the father of the woman, to ask her in mar- 
riage. In the remote ages of antiquity, women 
were literally purchased by their husbands ; 
and the presents made to their parents or other 
relations were called their dowry. Thus, we 
find Shechem bargaining with Jacob and his 
sons for Dinah: "Let me find grace in your 
eyes, and what ye shall say unto me, I v/ill 
give : ask me never so much dowry and gift, 
and I will give according as ye shall say unto 
me ; but give me the damsel to wife," Gen. 
xxxiv, 2. The practice still continues in the 
country of Shechem ; for when a young Arab 
wishes to marry, he must purchase his wife ; 
and for this reason, fathers, among the Arabs, 
are never more happy than when they have 
many daughters. They are reckoned the prin- 
cipal riches of a house. An Arabian suitor will 
offer fifty sheep, six camels, or a dozen of cows : 
if he be not rich enough to make such offers, 
he proposes to give a mare or a colt, consider- 
ing in the offer the merit of the young woman, 
the rank of her family, and his own circum- 
stances. In the primitive times of Greece, a 
well-educated lady was valued at four oxen. 
When they are agreed on both sides, the con- 
tract is drawn up by him that acts as cadi or 
judge among these Arabs. In some parts of 
the east, a measure of corn is formally men- 
tioned in contracts for their concubines, or 
temporary wives, beside the sum of money 
which is stipulated by way of dowry. This cus- 
tom is probably as ancient as concubinage, with 
which it is connected ; dnd if so, it will perhaps 
account for the Prophet Hosea's purchasing a 
wife of this kind, for fifteen pieces of silver, and 
for a homer of barley, and a half homer of 
barley. When the intended husband was not 
able to give a dowry, he offered an equivalent. 
The patriarch Jacob, who came to Laban with 
only his staff, offered to serve him seven years 
for Rachel : a proposal which Laban accepted. 
This custom has descended to modern times; 
for in Cabul the young men who are unable to 
advance the required dowry " live with their fii- 
ture father-in-law, and earn their bride by their 
services, without ever seeing the object of their 
wishes." The contract of marriage was made in 
the house of the woman's father, before the el- 
ders and governors of the city or district. The 
espousals by money, or a written instrument, 
were performed by the man and woman under 
a tent or canopy erected for that purpose. Into 
this chamber the bridegroom was accustomed 
to go with his bride, that he might talk with 
her more familiarly ; which was considered as 
u ceremony of confirmation to the wedlock. 
While he was there, no person was allowed to 
enter: his friends and attendants waited for 
him at the door, with torches and lamps in 
their hands ; and when he came out, he was 
received by all that were present with great 
joy and acclamation. To this ancient custom, 
the Psalmist alludes in his magnificent descrip- 
tion of the heavens: "In them he set a taber- 



nacle for the sun; which, as a bridegroom 
coming out of his chamber, rejoices as a strong 
man to run a race," Psalm xix, 4. A Jewish 
virgin legally betrothed was considered as a 
lawful wife ; and, by consequence, could not be 
put away without a bill of divorce. And if she 
proved unfaithful to her betrothed husband, 
she was punished as an adulteress ; and her 
seducer incurred the same punishment as if he 
had polluted the wife of his neighbour. This 
is the reason that the angel addressed Joseph, 
the betrothed husband of Mary, in these terms : 
"Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take 
unto thee Mary thy wife ; for that which is 
conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost." The 
Evangelist Luke gives her the same title : "And 
Joseph also went up from Galilee unto Bethle- 
hem, to be taxed, with Mary his espoused wife," 
Luke ii, 4, 5. 

2. Ten or twelve months commonly inter- 
vened between the ceremony of espousals and 
the marriage : during this interval, the espoused 
wife continued with her parents, that she might 
provide herself with nuptial ornaments suitable 
to her station. This custom serves to explain 
a circumstance in Samson's marriage, which 
is involved in some obscurity. " He went 
down," says the historian, " and talked with 
the woman," (whom he had seen at Timnath,) 
" and she pleased him well," Judges xiv, 7, &c. 
These words seem to refer to the ceremony of 
espousals ; the following, to the subsequent 
marriage : " And after a time he returned to 
take her," Judges xiv, 8. Hence a consider- 
able time intervened between the espousals 
and their actual union. From the time of the 
espousals, the bridegroom was at liberty to 
visit his espoused wife in the house of her fa- 
ther ; yet neither of the parties left their own 
abode during eight days before the marriage ; 
but persons of the same age visited the bride- 
groom, and made merry with him. These cir- 
cumstances are distinctly marked in the account 
which the sacred historian has given us of Sam- 
son's marriage : " So his father went down unto 
the woman, and made there a feast ; for so used 
the young men to do. And it came to pass 
when they saw him, that they brought thirty 
companions to be with him," Judges xiv, 10. 
These companions were the children of the 
bride chamber, of whom our Lord speaks : 
" Can the children of the bride chamber mourn 
as long as the bridegroom is with them ?" 
Matt, xix, 15. The marriage ceremony was 
commonly performed in a garden, or in the 
open air ; the bride was placed under a canopy, 
supported by four youths, and adorned with 
jewels according to the rank of the married 
persons ; all the company crying out with joy- 
ful acclamations, " Blessed be he that cometh I" 
It was anciently the custom, at the conclusion 
of the ceremony, for the father and mother and 
kindred of the woman, to pray for a blessing 
upon the parties. Bethuel and Laban, and the 
other members of their family, pronounced a 
solemn benediction upon Rebecca before her 
departure: "And they blessed Rebecca, and 
said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the 
mother of thousands of millions ; and let thy 



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fseed possess the gate of those that hate them," I wise gives no light. The Roman ladies also 
Oen. xxiv, 60. And in times long posterior to were led home to their husbands in the even- 



the age of Isaac, when Ruth, the Moabitess, was 
espoused to Boaz, " all the people that were in 
the gate, and the elders, said. We are witnesses : 
the Lord make the woman that is come into 
thine house like Rachel, and like Leah, which 
two did build the house of Israel ; and do thou 
worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Beth. 
)ehem," Ruth iv, 11, 12. After the benedic- 
tions, the bride is conducted with great pomp 
to the house of her husband : this is usually 
done in the evening; and as the procession 
moved along, money, sweetmeats, flowers, and 
other articles, were tlij'own among the popu- 
jiace, which they caught in cloths made for such 
occasioiis, stretched in a particular manner 
,upon frames. The use of perfumes at eastern 
marriages is common ; and upon great occa- 
sions very profuse. 

3. It was the custom among the ancient 
Greeks, and the nations around them, to con- 
duct the new-married couple with torches and 
lamps to their .dwelling ; as appears from the 
messenger in Euripides, who says he called to 
mind the time when lue boye torches before 
JVIenelaus and Helena. These torches were 
usually carried by servants ; and the proces- 
sion was sometimes attended by singers and 
dancers. Thus Homer, in his description of 
the shield of Achilles :— 

— h Tjj fJLiv pa ydjioL r' eaav elXaTxivat ts, 
fivjKpai 6'' iK 9a\dix(jov, Sa'tStav vtto XainrojjieviMV, 
^Uy'i-veov ava S.ctv. k. r. A. II. lib. xviii, 1. 490. 

"In one of the sculptured cities, nuptials were 
celebrating, and solemn feasts ; through the 
city they conducted the new-married pair from 
their chambers, with flaming torches, while 
frequent jshputs of Hymen burst from the at- 
tending throng^ and young men danced in 
skilfiil measures to the sound pf the pipe and 
the harp." 

A similar ciistom is observed among the Hin- 
doos. The husband and wife, on the day of 
their marriage, being both in the same palan^ 
quin, go about seven and e^ght o'clock at night, 
accompanied with all their kindred and friends ; 
the trumpets and drums go before them ; and 
they are lighted by a number of flambeaux ; 
immediately before the palanquin walk many 
women, whose business it is to sing verses, in 
which they wish them all manner of prosperity. 
They rn.aj-ch in this equipage through the streets 
for the space of some hours, after which they 
return to their own house, where the domestics 
are in waiting. The whole kouse is illumined 
with small lamps ; and many of those flam- 
beaux ajready mentioned are kept ready for 
their arrival, beside those which accompany 
them, and are carried before the palanquin. 
These flambeaux are composed of many pieces 
of old linen, squeezed hard agajnst one ano- 
ther in a round figure, and thrust d.own into a 
mould of copper. Tlie persons that hold them 
in one hand have in the other a bottle of the 
same metal with the copper mould, which is 
full of oil, which the)'^ take care to pour out 
frpm time to time upon the linen, vyhich other- 



ing by the light of torches. A Jewish mar- 
riage seems to have been conducted in much 
the same way ; for in that beautiful psalm, 
where David describes the majesty of Christ's 
kingdom, we meet with this passage : " And 
the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift ; 
even the rich among the people shall entreat 
thy favour. The king's daughter is all-giori- 
ous within ; her clothing is of wrought gold. 
She shall be brought unto the king in raiment 
of needle work ; the virgins, her companions 
that follow her, shall be brought unto thee. 
With gladness and rejoicing shall they be 
brought: they shall enter into the king's pa- 
lace," Psalm xlv, 12, &e. In the parable of 
the ten virgins, the same circumstances are 
introduced : " They that M^ere foolish took 
their lamps, and took no oil with them : but 
the wise took oil in their vessels with their 
lamps. While the bridegroom tarried," lead- 
ing the procession through the streets of the 
city, the women and domestics that were ap^ 
pointed to wait his arrival at home, " all slum- 
bered and slept. And at midnight there was 
a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh ! 
Go ye out to meet him. Then all those vir- 
gins arose anxl trimmed their lamps. And the 
foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil ; 
for our lamps are gone out," P*Iatt. xxv, 6. 

The following extract from Ward's "View 
of the Hindoos'' very strikingly illustrates this 
parable : " At a marriage, the procession of 
which I saw some years ago, the bridegroom 
came from a distance, and the bride lived at 
Serampore, to which place the bridegroom was 
to come by water. After waiting two or three 
hours, at length, near midnight, it was an- 
nounced, as if in the very words of Scripture, 
' Behold, the bridegroom cometh ! Go ye out 
to meet him.' All the persons employed now 
lighted their lamps, and ran with them in their 
hands to nil up their stations in the procession ; 
some of them had lost their lights, and were 
unprepared; but it was then too late to seek 
them, and the cavalcade moved forward to the 
house of the bride, at which place the com- 
pany entered a large and splendidly illuminat- 
ed area, before the house covered with an awn- 
ing, where a great multitude of friends dressed 
in their best apparel were seated upon mats. 
The bridegroom Avas carried in the arms of a 
friend, and placed on a superb seat in the midst 
of the company, where he sat a short time, and 
then went into the house, the door of which 
v/as immediately shut, and guarded by Se- 
poys. I and others expostulated with the 
door keepers, but in vain." 

4. But among the Jews, the bridegroom was 
not always permitted to accompany his bride 
from her father's house ; an intimate friend 
was often {?ent to conduct her, while he 
remained at home to receive her in his apart- 
ment. Her female attendants had the honour 
to introduce her ; and whenever they changed 
the bride's dress, which is often done, they pre- 
sented her to the bridegroom. It is the custom, 
and belongs to their ideas of jnagnificence, 



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183 



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frequently to dress and undress the bride, and 
to cause her to wear on that same day all the 
clothes made up for her nuptials. These cir. 
cumstances discover the force of St. John's 
language, in his magnificent description of the 
Christian church in her millennial state : " And 
f, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, 
coming down from God out of heaven, pre- 
pared as a bride adorned for her husband," 
Rev. xxi, 2. 

5. Those that were invited to the marriage 
were expected to appear in their best and gay- 
est attire. If the bridegroom was in circum- 
stances to aiford it, wedding garments were 
prepared for all the guests, which were hung 
up in the antechamber for them to put on over 
the rest of their clothes, as they entered the 
apartments where the marriage feast was pre- 
pared. To refuse, or even to neglect, putting 
on the wedding garment, was reckoned an 
insult to the bridegroom ; aggravated by the 
circumstance that it was provided by himself 
for the very purpose of being worn on that 
occasion, and v»'as hung up in the way to the 
inner apartment, that the guests must have 
seen it, and recollected the design of its sus- 
pension. This accounts for the severity of the 
sentence pronounced by the king, who came 
in to see the guests, and found among them 
one who had neglected to put it on : "And he 
saith unto him. Friend, how camest thou in 
hither, not having a wedding garment ? And 
he was speechless," Matt, xxii, 11, because it 
was provided at the expense of the entertainer, 
and placed full in his view. " Then said the 
king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, 
and take him awaj^, and cast him into outer 
darkness : there shall be weeping and enashins" 
of teeth." r ^ s s 

The following extract will show the import- 
ance of having a suitable garment for a mar- 
riage feast, and the offence taken against those 
who refuse it when presented as a gift. " The 
next day, Dec. 3d, the king sent to invite the 
ambassadors to dine with him once more. The 
Mehemander told them, it was the custom that 
they should wear over their own clothes the best 
of those garments which the king had sent 
them. The ambassadors at first made some scru- 
ple of that compliance ; but when they were 
told that it was a custom observed by all am- 
bassadors, and that no doubt the king would 
take it very ill at their hands if they presented 
themselves before him without the marks of 
his liberality, they at last resolved to do it; 
and, after their example, all the rest of the 
retinue." 

BRIER. This word occurs several times in 
our translation of the Bible, but witli various 
authorities from the original. 1. a''jp-i3n. 
Judges viii, 7, 16, is a particular kind of thorn. 
2. pnn, Prov. xv, 19; Micah vii, 4. It seems 
hardly possible to determine what kind of plant 
this is. Some kind of tangling prickly shrub 
is undoubtedly meant. In the former passage 
there is a beautiful opposition, which ib lost in 
our rendering: "The narrow wcy of the sloth- 
ful is like a perplexed path among briers; 
whereas the broad road'' (elsewhere rendered 



causeway) "of the righteous is a high bank;" 
that is, free from obstructions, direct, con- 
spicuous, and open. The common course of 
life of these two characters answers to this 
comparison. Their manner of going about 
business, or of transacting it, answers to this. 
An idle man always takes the most intricate, 
the most oblique, and eventually the most 
thorny, measures to accomplish his purpose ; 
the honest and diligent man prefers the most 
open and direct. In Micah, the unjust judge, 
taking bribes, is a brier, holding every thing 
that comes within his reach, hooking all that 
he can catch. 3. 0''3nD, Ezek. ii, 6. This 
word is translated by the Septuagint, -rrapois-p^- 
o-ovatv, Stung by the oestruSy or gadfly ; and they 
use the like word in Hosea iv, 16, where, what 
in our version is "a backsliding heifer," they 
render " a heifer stung by the oestrus." These 
coincident renderings lead to the belief that 
both places may be understood of some venom- 
ous insect. The word "Tso may lead us to sar. 
ran, by which the Arabs thus describe " a great 
bluish fly, having greenish eyes, its tail armed 
with a piercer, by which it pesters almost all 
horned cattle, settling on their heads, &c. 
Often it creeps up the noses of asses. It is a 
species of gadfly ; but carrying its sting in its 
tail." 4. jiVd, Ezek. xxviii, 24, and a''Ji'?D, 
Ezek. ii, 6, must be classed among thorns. 
The second word Parkhurst supposes to be a 
kind of thorn, overspreading a large surface of 
ground, as the dewbrier. It is used in con- 
nection with Xip, which, in Gen. iii, 18, is 
rendered thorns. The author of "Scripture 
Illustrated " queries, however, whether, as it is 
associated with "scorpions" in Ezek. ii, 6,' 
both this word and serebim may not mean 
some species of venomous insects. 5. ncno, 
mentioned only in Isaiah Iv, 13, probably 
means a prickly plant ; but what particular 
kind it is impossible to determine, 6. -|>DJf. 
This word is used only by the Prophet Isaiah, 
and in the following places : Isa. v, 6 ; vii, 
23-25; ix, 17; x, 17; xxvii, 4; and xxxii, 13. 
It is probably a brier of a low kind; such as 
overruns uncultivated lands. 

BRIMSTONE, n^iDJ, Gen. xix, 24 ; Deut. 
xxix, 23; Job xviii, 15; Psalm xi, 6; Isaiah 
XXX, 33 ; xxxiv, 9 ; Ezek. xxxviii, 22. It is 
rendered &e7ov by the Septuagint, and is so 
called in Luke xvii, 29. Fire and brimstone 
are represented in many passages of Scripture 
as the elements by which God punishes the 
wicked ; both in this life^ and another. There 
is in this a manifest allusion to the overthrow 
of the cities of the plain of the Jordan, by 
showers of ignited sulphur, to which the phy- 
sical appearances of the country bear witness 
to this day. The soil is bitunfinous, and might 
be raised by eruptions into the air, and then 
infiamed and return in horrid showers of over- 
whelming fire. This awful catastrophe, there- 
fore, stands as a type of the final and eternal 
punishment of the wicked in another world. 
In Job. xviii, 15, Bildad, describing the ca- 
lamities which overtake the wicked person, 
says, "Brimstone shall be scattered upon his 
habitation." This maybe a general expression. 



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184 



BUL 



to designate any great destruction : a« that in 
Psalm xi, 6, "Upon the wicked he shall rain 
fire and brimstone." Moses, among other 
calamities which he sets forth in case of the 
people's disobedience, threatens them with 
the fall of brimstone, salt, and burning like 
the overthrow of Sodom, &c, Deut, xxix, 23. 
The Prophfet Isaiah, xxxiv, 9, writes that the 
anger of the Lord shall be shown by the streams 
of the land being turned into pitch, and the 
dust thereof into brimstone. See Dead Sea. 

BROOK is distinguished from a river by its 
flowing only at particidar times ; for example, 
after great rains, or the melting of the snow ; 
whereas a river flows constantly at all seasons. 
However, this distinction is not always observed 
in the Scripture ; and x)ne is not unfrequently 
taken for the other, — the great rivers, such as 
the Euphrates, the Nile, the Jordan, and others 
being called brooks, Tlius the Euphrates, 
Isaiah xv, 7, is called the brook of willows. 
It is observed that the Hebrew word, '?nj, which 
signifies a brook, is also the term for a valley, 
whence the one is often placed for the other, 
in different translations of the Scriptures. To 
deal deceitfully "as a brook," and to "pass 
away as the stream thereof," is to deceive our 
friend when he most needs and expects our help 
and comfort. Job vi, 15 ; because brooks, being 
temporary streams, are dried up in the heats of 
su:mmer, when the traveller most needs a sup- 
ply ,of water oh his journey. 

BROTHER. 1, A brother by the same 
mother, a uterine brother. Matt, iv, 21 ; 
XX, 20. 2. A brother, though not by the same 
mother. Matt, i, 2. 3. A near kinsman, a 
cousin. Matt, xiii, 55 ; Mark vi, 3. Observe, 
that in Matt, xiii, 55, James, and Joses, and 
Judas, are called the aSeXcpol, brethren, of Christ, 
but were most probably only his cousins by his 
mother's side; for James and Joses were the 
sons of Mary, Matt, xxvii, 56 ^ and James and 
Judas, the sons of Alpheus, Luke vi, 15, 16 ; 
which Alpheus is therefore probably the same 
with Cleopas, the husband of Mary, sister to 
our Lord's mother, John xix, 25. 

BUCKLER. See ArxMs. 

BUILD. Beside the proper and literal sig- 
nification of this word, it is used with reference 
to children and a numerous posterity. Sarah 
desires Abraham to take Hagar to wife, that 
by her she may be builded up, that is, have 
children to uphold her family, Gen, xvi, 2. 
The midwives who refused obedience to Pha- 
raoh's orders, when he commanded them to put 
to death all the male children of the Hebrews, 
were rewarded for it ; God built them houses, 
that is, he gave them a numerous posterity. 
The Prophet Nathan tells David that God 
would build his house ; that is, give him chil- 
dren and successors., 2 Sam. vii, 27. Moses, 
speaking of the formation of the first woman, 
says, God built her with the rib of Adam, Gen, 
ii, 22. 

BUL, the eighth month of the ecclesiastical 
year of the Jews, and the second month of the 
civil year. It answers to October, alid consists 
of twenty -nine days. On the sixth day of this 
month the Jews fasted, because on that day 



Nehmchadnezzar put to death the children of 
Zedekiah in the presence of their unhappy 
father, whose eyes, after they had been wit- 
nesses of this sad spectacle, he ordered to be put 
out, 2 Kings xxv, 7. We find the name of 
this month mentioned in Scripture but once, 
1 Kings vi, 38. 

BULL, the male of the beeve kind ; and it 
is to be recollected that the Hebrews never 
castrated animals. There are several words 
translated "bull" in Scripture, of which the 
following is a list, with the meaning of each : 
~iW, a bove, or cow, of any age. iNn, the wild 
bull, oryx, or buffalo, occurs only Deut. xiv, 5 ; 
and in Isaiah li, 20, Nin, with the interchange 
of the two last letters, niax, a word implying 
strength, translated "bulls," Psalm xxii, 12; 
1, 13 ; Ixviii, 30 ; Isaiah xxxiv, 7 ; Jer. xlvi, 15. 
ipa, herds, horned cattle of full age. "ifi, a fiill 
grown bull, or cow, fit for propagating. *?j;;, a 
full grown, plump young bull ; and in the femi- 
nine, a heifer, mn, Chaldee taur, and Latin 
taurus ; the ox accustomed to the yoke : oc- 
curs only in Ezra vi, 9, 17; vii, 17; Dan. iv, 
25, 32, 33 ; xxii, 29, 30. 

This animal was reputed by the Hebrews to 
be clean, and was generally made use of by 
them for sacrifices. The Egyptians had a 
particular veneration for it, and paid divine 
honours to it ; and the Jews imitated them in 
the worship of the golden calves or bulls, in the 
wilderness, and in the kingdom of Israel. The 
wild bull is found in the Syrian and Arabian 
deserts. It is frequently mentioned' by the 
Arabian poets, who are copious in their de- 
scriptions of hunting it, and borrow many 
images from its beauty, strength, swiftness, and 
the loftiness of its horns. They represent it 
as fierce and untamable ; as being white on the 
back, and having large shining eyes. Bulls, in 
a figurative and allegorical sense, are taken for 
powerful, fierce, and insolent enemies, Psalm 
xxii, 12; Ixviii, 30. 

BULRUSH, NDJ, Exodus ii, 3 ; Job viii, 11 ; 
Isaiah xviii, 2 ; xxxv, 7. A plant growing on 
the banks of the Nile, and in marshy grounds. 
The stalk rises to the height of six or seven 
cubits, beside two under water. This stalk 
is triangular, and terminates in a crown of 
small filaments resembling hair, which the 
ancients used to compare to a thyrsus. This 
reed, the Cyperus papyrus of Linnaeus, com- 
monly called "the Egyptian reed," was of the 
greatest use to the inhabitants of the country 
where it grew ; the pith contained in the stock 
served them for food, and the woody part for 
building vessels, figures of which are to be seen 
on the engraven stones and other monuments 
of Egyptian antiquity. For this purpose they 
made it up, like rushes, into bundles ; and, by 
tying these bundles together, gave their vessels 
the necessary shape and solidity. "The ves- 
sels of bulrushes," or papyrus, "that are men- 
tioned in sacred and profane history," says 
Dr. Shaw, "were no other than large fabrics 
of the same kind with that of Moses, Exodus 
ii, 3 ; which, from the late introduction of 
plank and stronger materials, are now laid 
aside," Thus Pliny takes notice of the " nttves 



BUR 



185 



BUR 



papyraceas armamentaque Nill" "ships made 
of papyrus, aiid the equipments of the Nile ;" 
and he observes, " ex ipsa quidem papyro navi- 
gia tezunt," " of the papyrus itself they con- 
struct sailing vessels." Herodotus and Diodo- 
rus have recorded the same fact ; and among 
the poets, Lucan, " Conseritur hihula Memphitis 
cymba papyro,'^ "the Memphiau" or Egyptian 
" boat is made of the thirsty papyrus ; where 
the epithet hihuUi, "drinking," "soaking," 
" thirsty," is particularly remarkable, as cor- 
responding with great exactness to the nature 
of the plant, and to its Hebrew name, which 
signilies to soak or drink up. These vegetables 
require much water for their growth ; when, 
therefore, the river on whose banks they grew 
was reduced, they perished sooner than other 
plants. This explains Job viii, 11, where the 
circumstance is referred to as an image of 
transient prosperity : '• Can the flag grow with- 
out water ? Whilst it is yet in its greenness, 
and not cut down, it witheretli before any other 
herb." 

BURIAL, the interment of a deceased per- 
son ; an office held so sacred, that they who 
neglected it have in all nations been held in 
abhorrence. As soon as the last breath had 
fled, the nearest relation, or the dearest friend, 
gave the lifeless body the parting kiss, the last 
farewell and sign of affection to the departed 
relative. This was a custom of immemorial 
antiquity ; for the patriarch Jacob had no sooner 
yielded up his .spirit, than his beloved Joseph, 
clauning for once the right of the first-born, 
"fell upon his face and kissed him." It is 
probable he first closed his eyes, as God had 
promised he should do : " Joseph shall put his 
hands upon thine eyes." The parting kiss 
being given, the company rent their clothes, 
which was a custom of great antiquity, and the 
highest expression of grief in the primitive 
ages. This ceremony was never omitted by 
the Hebrews when any mournful event hap- 
pened, and was performed in the following 
manner : they took a knife, and holding the 
blade downward, gave the upper garment a cut 
in the right side, and rent it a hand's breadth. 
For very near relations, all the garments are 
rent on the right side. After closing the eyes, 
the next care was to bind up the face, which 
it was no more lawful to behold. The next 
care of surviving friends was to wash the body, 
probably, that the ointments and perfumes with 
which it was to be wrapped up, might enter 
more easily into the pores, when opened by 
warm water. This ablution, which was always 
esteemed an act of great charity and devotion, 
was performed by women. Thus the body of 
Dorcas was washed, and laid in an upper room, 
till the arrival of the Apostle Peter, in the hope 
that his prayers might restore her to life. After 
the body was washed, it was shrouded, and 
swathed with a linen cloth, although in most 
places, they only put on a pair of drawers and 
a white tunic ; and the head was bound about 
with a napkin. Such were the napkin and 
grave clothes in which the Saviour was buried. 

2. The body was sometimes embalmed, which 
was performed by the Egyptians after the fol- 



lowing method : the brain was removed with 
a bent iron, and the vacuity filled up with me- 
dicaments; the bowels were also drawn out, 
and the trunk being stuffed with myrrh, cassia, 
and other spices, except frankincense, which 
were proper to exsiccate the humours, it was 
pickled in nitre, in which it lay for seventy 
days. After this period, it was wrapped in 
bandages of fine linen and gums, to make it 
adhere ; and was then delivered to the relations 
of the deceased entire ; all its features, and the 
very hairs of the eyelids, being preserved. In 
this manner were the kings of Judah embalmed 
for many ages. But when the funeral obse- 
quies were not long delayed, they used another 
kind of embalming. They wrapped up the body 
witli sweet spices and odours, without extract- 
ing the brain, or removing the bowels. This 
is tlie way in which it was proposed to embalm 
the lifeless body of our Saviour; v/liich was 
prevented by his resurrection. The meaner 
sort of people seem to have been interred in 
their grave clothes, without a coflin. In this 
manner was the sacred body of our Lord com- 
mitted to the tomb. The body was sometimes 
placed upon a bier, which bore some resemblance 
to a coffin or bed, in order to be carried out ta 
burial. Upon one of these was carried fortfi 
the widow's son of Nain, whom our compas- 
sionate Lord raised to life, and restored to his 
mother. We are informed in the history of 
the kings of Judah, that, Asa being dead, they 
laid him in the bed, or bier, which was filled 
with sweet odours. Josephus, the Jewish his- 
torian, describing the funeral of Herod the 
Great, says. His bed was adorned with precious 
stones ; his body rested under a purple cover- 
ing ; he had a diadem and a crown of gold 
upon his head, a sceptre in his hand ; and all 
his house followed the bed. The bier used by 
the Turks at Aleppo is a kind of coffin, much 
in the form of ours, only the lid rises with a 
ledge in the middle. 

3. The Israelites committed the dead to their 
native dust ; and from the Egyptians, probably, 
borrowed the practice of bm-ning many spices 
at their funerals. "They buried Asa in his 
own sepulchres, which he made for himself in 
the city of David, and laid him in the bed 
which was filled with sweet odours, and divers 
kinds of spices, prepared by the apothecaries' 
art ; and they made a very great burning for 
him," 2 Chron. xvi, 14. Thus the Old Testa- 
ment historian entirely justifies the account 
which the Evangelist gives, of the quantity of 
spices with wjiich the sacred body of Christ 
was swathed. The Jews object to the quantity 
used on that occasion, as unnecessarily pro- 
fuse, and even incredible ; but it appears from 
their own writings, that spices were used at 
such times in great abundance. In the Tal- 
mud it is said, that no less than eighty pounds 
of spices were consumed at the funeral of rabbi 
Gamaliel the elder. And at the funeral of 
Herod, if we may believe the account of their 
most celebrated historian, the procession was 
followed by five hundred of his domestics car- 
rying spices. Why then should it be reckoned 
incredible, that Nicodemus brought of myrrh 



BUR 



186 



BUT 



and aloes about a hundred pounds' weight, to 
embalm the body of Jesus ? 

4. The funeral procession was attended by 
professional mourners, eminently skilled in the 
art of lamentation, whom the friends and rela- 
tions of the deceased hired, to assist them in 
expressing their sorrow. They began the 
ceremony with the stridulous voices of old 
women, who strove, by their doleful modula- 
tions, to extort grief from those that were 
present. The children in the streets through 
which they passed, often suspended their sports, 
to imitate the sounds, and joined with equal 
sincerity in the lamentations. "But where- 
unto shall I liken this generation ? It is like 
unto children sitting in the markets, and call- 
ing unto their fellows, and saying, We have 
mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented," 
Matt, ix, 17. Music was afterward introduced 
to aid the voices of the mourners : the trumpet 
was used at the flmerals of the great, and the 
small pipe or flute for those of meaner condi- 
tion. Hired mourners were in use among the 
Greeks as early as the Trojan war, and proba- 
bly in ages long before ; for in Homer, a choir 
of mourners were planted around the couch on 
which the body of Hector was laid out, who 
sung his funeral dirge with many sighs and 
tears : — 

Ot J' fTTEt iiadyayov K\vTa SdjjiaTa, rbv fiiv eiTELra 
Tpt]To7s iv A£;^f£o-ffi ^icrav, zsapa 6^ elaav aoiSovs, 
Qpnvwv i^dp^i^s. K, T. A. II. lib. xxiv, 1. 720. 
" A melancholy choir attend around, 

With plaintive sighs and music's solemn sound ; 

Alternately they sing, alternate flow 

The obedient tears, melodious in their wo." PoPE. 
In Egypt, the lower class of people call in 
women who play on the tabor ; and whose 
business it is, like the hired mourners in other 
countries, to sing elegiac airs to the sound of 
that instrument, which they accompany with 
the most frightful distortions of their limbs. 
These women attend the corpse to the grave, 
intermixed with the female relations and friends 
of the deceased, who commonly have their hair 
in the utmost disoider; their heads covered 
with ditst ; their faces daubed with indigo, or 
at least rubbed with mud; and howling like 
maniacs. Such were the minstrels whom our 
Lord found in the house of Jairus, making so 
great a noise round the bed on which the dead 
body of his daughter lay. The noise and tu- 
mult of these retained mourners, and the other 
attendants, appear to have begun immediately 
after the person expired. It is evident that 
this sort of mourning and lamentation was a 
kind of art among the Jews: "Wailing shall 
be in the streets ; and they shall call such as 
are skilful of lamentation to wail," Amos v, 
16. Mourners a^e still hired at the obsequies 
of Hindoos and Mohammedans, as in former 
times. To the dreadful noise and tumult of 
the hired mourners, the following passage of 
Jeremiah indisputably refers; and shows the 
custom to be derived from a very remote anti- 
quity : " Call for the mourning women that 
they may come ; and send for cunning women, 
that they may come, and let them make haste, 
aiid take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may 



run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out 
with waters," Jer. ix, 17. The funeral pro- 
cessions of the Jews in Barbary are conducted 
nearly in the same manner as those in Syria. 
The corpse is borne by four to the place of 
burial : in the first rank march the priests, 
next to them the kindred of the deceased ; after 
whom come those that are invited to the fune- 
ral ; and all singing in a sort of plain song, the 
forty-ninth Psalm. Hence the Prophet, Amos 
viii, 3, warns his people that public calamities 
were approaching, so numerous and severe, as 
should make them forget the usual rites of 
burial, and even to sing one of the songs of 
Zion over the dust of a departed relative. 
This appears to be confirmed by a prediction 
in the eighth chapter : " And the songs of the 
temple shall be bowlings in that day, saith the 
Lord God ; there shall be many dead bodies in 
every place ; they shall cast them forth with 
silence;" they shall have none to lament and 
bewail ; none to blow the funeral trump or 
touch the pipe and tabor ; none to sing the 
plaintive dirge, or express their hope of a bless- 
ed resurrection, in the strains of inspiration. 
All shall be silent despair. See Sepulchres. 

BUSH. njD. This word occurs in Exod. 
iii, 2, 4, and Deut. xxxiii, 16, as the name of 
the bush in which God appeared to Moses. If 
it be the ;^;toj/os mentioned by Dioscorides, it is 
the white thorn, Celsius calls it the rubus 
fructicosus. The number of these bushes in 
this region seems to have given the name to 
the mountain Sinai. The word p'^^nj, found 
only in Isa. vii, 19, and there rendered "bush- 
es," means fruitful pastures. 

BUTTER is taken in Scripture, as it has 
been almost perpetually in the east, for cream 
or liquid butter, Prov. xxx, 33 ; 2 Sam. xvii, 29. 
The ancient way of making butter in Arabia 
and Palestine was probably nearly the same as 
is still practised by the Bedoween Arabs, and 
Moors in Barbary, and which is thus described 
by Dr. Shaw: "Their method of making but- 
ter is by putting the milk or cream into a goat's 
skin turned inside out, which they suspend 
from one side of the tent to the other ; and then 
pressing it to and fro in one uniform direction, 
they quickly separate the unctious and wheyey 
parts. In the Levant they tread upon the skin 
with their feet, which produces the same effect." 
The last method of separating the butter from 
the milk, perhaps may throw light upon a pas- 
sage in Job of some difficulty : " When I wash- 
ed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me 
out rivers of oil," Job xxxi, 6. The method of 
making butter in the east illustrates the con- 
duct of Jael, the wife of Heber, described in 
the book of Judges i " And Sisera said unto 
her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water to 
drink, for I am thirsty : and she opened a bot- 
tle of milk, and gave him drink and covered 
him." In the Song of Deborah, the statement 
is repeated : " He asked water, and she gave 
him milk ; she brought forth butter in a lordly 
dish," Judges iv, 19 ; v, 25. The word riNCn, 
which our translators rendered butter, properly 
signifies cream; which is undoubtedly the 
meaning of it in this passage : for Sisera com- 



CAB 



1S7 



CAB 



plained of thirst, and asked a little water to 
quench it; — a purpose to which hutter is but 
little adapted. Mr. Hariner, indeed, urges the 
same objection to cream, which, he contends, 
few people would think a very proper beverage 
for one that was extremely thirsty ; and con- 
-clades that it must have been butter-milk which 
Jael, who had just been churning, gavetoSisera. 
But the opinion of Dr. Russel is preferable, — 
that th-e heinah of the Scriptures is probably the 
same as the hatjmak of the Arabs, which is not, 
as Harmer supposed, simple cream, but cream 
produced by simmering fresh sheep's milk for 
some Jiours over a slow fire. It could not bo 
butter newly churned, which Jael presented to 
Sisera, because the Arab butter is apt to be foul, 
and is -commonly passed tlirougli a strainer be- 
fore it is used : and Russel declares, he never 
saw butter offered to a stranger, but always 
haymah; nor did he ever observe the orientals 
drink butter-milk, but always khan, which is 
coag-ulated sour milk, diluted with v,''ater. It 
\v3iS. leban, therefore, which Pococke mistook 
for butter-milk, with which the Arabs treated 
him in the Holy Land. A similar conclusion 
may be drawn concerning the butter and milk 
which the wife of Hebcr presented to Sisera : 
they were forced cream or haymak, and leban, 
or coagulated sour milk, diluted with water, 
which is a common and refreshing beverage 
in tliose sultry regions. In Isaiah vii, 15, but- 
ter and honey are mentioned as food which, in 
Egypt and other ydaccs in the east, is in use to 
this day. The butter and honey are mixed, 
and the bread is then dipped in it. 

BYSSUS. By this word we generally un- 
derstand that fine Egyptian linen of which the 
priests' tunics were made. But we must dis- 
tinguish three kinds of commodities, which are 
generally comprehended under the name of 
linen: 1. The Hebrew 12, which signifies linen: 
2. tt^iy, which signifies cotton : 3. yi3, which is 
commonly called bussus, and is the silk grow- 
ing from a certain shell fish, called pinna. We 
do not find the name butz in the text of Mo- 
ses, though the Greek and Latin use the word 
byssujs, to signify the fine linen of certain habits 
belonging to the priests. The word butz oc 
curs only in 1 Chron. xv, 27 ; Ezek. xxvii, 16 ; 
Esther i, 6. In the Chronicles we see David 
dressed in a mantle of butz, with the singers 
and Levites. Solomon used butz in the veils 
of the temple and sanctuary. Ahasuerus's tents 
were upheld by cords of butz ; and Mordecai 
was clothed with a mantle of purple and butz, 
when king Ahasuerus honoured liim with the 
first employment in his kingdom. Lastly, it is 
observed that there was a manufacture of buiz 
in the city of Beersheba, in Palestine. This butz 
must have been different from common linen, 
since in the same place where it is said, David 
wore a mantle of byssus, we read likewise that 
he l»ad on a linen ephod. 

CAB, or KAB, a Hebrew measure, contain- 
ing three pints one-third of our v/ine measure, 
or two pints five-sixths of our corn measure. 

CABBALA, a mysterious kind of science, 
delivered to the ancient Jews, as they pretend, 



by revelation, and transmitted by oral tradition 
to those of our times ; serving for the inter- 
pretation of the books botfi of nature and 
Scripture. The word is variously written, as 
Cabala, Cahalla, Kabbala, Kabala, Cabalistica, 
Ars Cabala, and Gaballa. It is originally He- 
brew, nb^p, and properly signifies reception ; 
formed from the verb '73p, to receive by tradition, 
OY from father to son; especially in the Chaldee 
and Rabbinical Hebrew. Cabbala, then, pri- 
marily denotes any sentiment, opinion, usage, 
or explication of Scripture, transmitted from 
father to son. In this sense the word cabbala 
is not only applied to the whole art, but also to 
each operation performed according to the 
rules of that art. Thus it is, rabbi Jacob Ben 
Ascher, surnamed Baal-Hatturim, is said to 
have compiled most of the cabbalas invented 
on the booKS of Moses before his time. As to 
the origin of the cabbala, the Jews relate many 
marvellous tales. They derive the mysteries 
contained in it from Adam; and assert, that 
whilst the first man was in paradise, the angel 
Raphael brought him a book from heaven, 
which contained the doctrines of heavenly wis- 
dom ; and that when Adam received this book, 
angels came down from heaven to learn its 
contents ; but that he refused to admit them to 
the knowledge of sacred things, intrusted to 
himself alone : that, after the fall, this book 
was taken back into heaven ; that, after many 
prayers and tears, God restored it to Adam ; 
and that it passed from Adam to Seth. The 
Jewish fables farther relate, that the book 
being lost, and the mysteries contained in it 
almost forgotten, in the degenerate age pre- 
ceding the flood, they were restored by special 
revelation to Abraham, Avho transmitted them 
to writing in the book " Jezirah ;" and that the 
revelation was renewed to Moses, who receiv- 
ed a traditionary and mystical, as well as a 
written and preceptive, law from God. Ac- 
cordingl}'', the Jews believe that God gave to 
Moses on Mount Sinai, not only the laM', but 
also the explication of that law ; and tliat 
Moses, after his coming down, retiring to his 
tent, rehearsed to Aaron both the one and 
the other. When he had done, the sons of 
Aaron, Eleazar and Ithamar, were intro- 
duced to a second rehearsal. This being 
over, the seventy ciders that composed the 
sanhedrim were admitted ; and, lastly, the 
people, as many as pleased ; to all of whom 
Moses again repeated both the law and expla- 
nation, as he received them from God : so that 
Aaron heard it four times, his sons thi-ice, the 
elders twice, and the people onee. Now, of 
the two things which Moses taught them, the 
laws and the explanation, only the first were 
committed to writing ; which is what we have 
in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. As to the 
second, or the explication of those laws, they 
were contented to impress it well in their me- 
mory, to teach it their children ; they to theirs, 
&c. Hence the first part they call simply the 
law, or the written law ; the second, the oral 
law, or cabbala. Such is the original notion 
of the cabbala. 
2. The cabbala being again lost amidst tho 



CAB 



188 



CAB 



calamities of the Babylonish captivity, was 
once more revealed to Esdras ; and it is said to 
have been preserved in Egypt, and transmitted 
to posterity through the hands of Simeon Ben 
Setach, Elkanah, Akibha, Simeon Ben Jochai, 
and others. The only warrantable inference 
from these accounts, which bear the obvious 
marks of fiction, is, that the cabbalistic doctrine 
obtained early credit among the Jews as a part 
of their sacred tradition, and was transtnitted, 
under this notion, by the Jews in Egypt to their 
brethren in Palestine. Under the sanction of 
ancient names, many fictitious writings were 
produced, v/hich greatly contributed to the 
spreading of this mystical system. Among 
these were " Sepher Happeliah," or the book of 
wonders ; " Sepher Hakkancli," or the book of 
the pen ; and " Sepher Habbahir," or the book 
of light. The first unfolds many doctrines said 
to have been delivered by Elias to the rabbi 
Elkanah ; the second contains luystical com- 
mentaries on the divine commands ; and tlie 
third illustrates the most sublime mysteries. 
Among the profound doctors who, beside the 
study of tradition, cultivated with great indus- 
try the cabbalistic philosophy, the most cele- 
brated persons are the rabbis Akibba, who lived 
soon after the destruction of Jerusalem, and 
Simeon Ben Jochai, who flourished in the 
second century. To the former is ascribed the 
book entitled " Jezirah," concerning the crea- 
tion; and to the latter, the book " Sohar," or 
brightness ; and these are tlie principal sources 
from which we derive our knowledge of the 
cabbala. 

3. That this system of the cabbalistic philo- 
sophy, which we may consider as the acroama- 
tic, esoretic, or concealed doctrine of the Jews, 
by way of contradistinction from the exoretic 
or popular doctrine, was not of Hebrew origin, 
we may conclude w^ith a very great degree of 
probability, from the total dissimilarity of its 
abstruse and mysterious doctrines to the simple 
principles of religion taught in the Mosaic law; 
and that it was borrowed from the Egyptian 
schools will sufficiently appear from a com- 
parison of its tenets with those of the oriental 
and Alexandrian philosophy. Many writers 
have, indeed, imagined that they have found in 
the cabbalistic dogmas a near resemblance of the 
doctrines of Christianity ; and they have thought 
that the fundamental principles of this mys- 
tical system were derived from divine revela- 
tion. This opinion, however, may be traced 
up to a prejudice which originated with the 
Jews, and passed from them to the Christian 
fathers, by which they were led to ascribe all 
Pagan wisdom to a Hebrew origin : a notion 
which very probably took its rise in Egypt, 
when Pagan tenets first crept in among the 
Jews. Philo, Josephus, and other learned Jews, 
in order to flatter their own vanity, and that of 
their countrymen, industriously propagated this 
opinion ; and the more learned fatliers of the 
Christian church, who entertained a high 
opinion of the Platonic philosophy, hastily 
adopted it, from an imagination that if they 
could trace back the most valuable doctrines 
of Paganism to a Hebrew origin, this could 



not fail to recommend the Jewish and Christian 
religions to the attention of the Gentile phi- 
losophers. Many learned moderns, relying 
implicitly upon these authorities, have main- 
tained the same opinion ; and have thence been 
inclined to credit the report of the divine ori- 
ginal of the Jewisli cabbala. But the opinion 
is unfounded ; and the cabbalistic system is 
essentially inconsistent with the pure doctrine 
of divine revelation. The true state of the case 
seems to be, that during the prophetic ages, the 
traditions of the Jews consisted in a simple ex- 
planation of those divine truths Avhich the pro- 
phets delivered, or their law exhibited, under 
the veil of emibleras. After this period, when 
the sects of the Essenes and Therapeutas were 
formed in Egypt, foreign tenets and institu- 
tions were borrowed from the Egyptians and 
Greeks ; and, in the form of allegorical inter- 
pretations of the law, were admitted into what 
might then be called the Jewish mysteries, or 
secret doctrines. These innovations chiefly 
consisted in certain dogmas concerning God 
and divine tilings, at this time received in the 
Egyptian schools ; particularly at Alexandria, 
where the Platonic and Pythagorean doctrines 
on these subjects had been blended with the 
oriental philosophy. The Jewish mysteries, 
thus enlarged by the accession of Pagan dog- 
mas, were conveyed from Egypt to Palestine, 
at tlie time when the Pharisees, who had been 
driven into Egypt under Hyrcanus, returned 
with many other Jews into their own country. 
From this time the cabbalistic mysteries con- 
tinued to be taught in the Jewish schools ; but 
at length they were adulterated by a mixture of 
Peripatetic doctrines, and other tenets. These 
mysteries were not, probably, reduced to any 
systematic forms in writing, till after the dis- 
persion of the Jews ; when in consequence of 
their national calamities, they became appre- 
hensive that those sacred treasures would be 
corrupted or lost. In preceding periods, the 
cabbalistic doctrines underwent various corrup- 
tions, particularly from the prevalence of the 
Aristotelian philosophy. The similarity, or 
rather the coincidence, of the cabbalistic, Alex- 
andrian, and oriental philosophy, will be suffi- 
ciently evinced by briefly stating the common 
tenets in which these different systems agreed. 
They are as follow: — "All things are derived 
by emanation from one principle ; and this prin- 
ciple is God. From him a substantial power 
immediately proceeds, which is the image of 
God, and the source of all subsequent emana- 
tions. This second principle sends forth, by 
the energy of emanation, other natures, which 
are more or less perfect, according to their 
different degrees of distance, in the scale of 
emanation, from the first source of existence, 
and which constitute different worlds or orders 
of being, all united to the eternal power from 
v;hich they proceed. Matter is nothing more 
than the most remote effect of the emanative 
energy of the Deity. The material world 
receives its form from the immediate agency 
of powers far beneath the first source of being 
Evil is the necessary effect of the imperfection 
of matter. Human souls are distant emana. 



CAB 



189 



C.ES 



tions from Deity ; and, after they are liberated 
from their material vehicles, will return, through 
various stages of purification, to the fountain 
whence they first proceeded." From this brief 
view it appears, that the cabbalistic system, 
which is the oifspring of the other two, is a 
fanatical kind of philosophy, originating in 
defect of judgment and eccentricity of imagi. 
nation, and tending t-o produce a wild and per- 
nicious enthusiasm. 

4. Among the explications of the law which 
are furnished by the cabbala, and which, in 
reality, are little else but the several interpre- 
tations and decisions of the rabbins on the 
laws of Moses, some are mystical ; consisting 
of odd abstruse significations given to a word, 
or even to the letters whereof i-t is composed : 
whence, by different combinations, they draw 
meanings from Scripture very different from 
those it seems naturally to import. The art of 
interpreting Scripture after this manner is call- 
ed more particularly cabbala; and it is in this 
last .sense the word is more ordinarily used 
among us. This cabbala, called also artificial 
cabbala, to distingiiish it from the first kind, 
or simple tradition, is divided into three sorts. 
The first, called gematria, consists in taking 
letters as figures, or arithmetical numbers, and 
explaining each word by the arithmetical value 
of the letters whereof it is composed; which is 
done various ways : the second is called nota- 
ricon, and consists either in taking each letter 
of a word for an entire diction, or in making 
one entire diction out of the initial letters of 
many : the third kind, called themurah, that is, 
changing, consists in changing and transposing 
the letters of a word ; which is done various 
ways. The generality of the Jews prefer the 
cabbala to the literal Scripture ; comparing the 
former to the sparkling lustre of a precious 
stone, and the latter to the fainter glimmering 
of a candle. The cabbala only differs from 
masorah, as the latter denotes the science of 
reading the Scripture ; the former, of interpret- 
ing it. Both are supposed to have been handed 
down from generation to generation by oral 
tradition only, till at length the readings were 
fixed by the vowels and accents, as the inter- 
pretations were by the gemara. 

5. Cabbala is also applied to the use, or 
rather abuse, which visionaries and enthusi- 
asts make of Scripture, for discovering futurit}-^ 
by the study and consideration of the combi- 
nation of certain words, letters, and numbers, 
in the sacred writings. All the words, terms, 
magic figures, numbers, letters, charms, &c, 
used in the Jewish magic, as also in the her- 
metical science, are comprised under this spe- 
cies of cabbala ; which professes to teach the 
art of curing diseases, and performing other 
wonders, by means of certain arrangements 
of sacred letters and words. But it is only 
the Cliristians that call it by this name, on 
account of the resemblance this art bears to 
the explications of the Jewish cabbala : for 
the Jews never used the word cabbala in any 
such sense ; but ever with the utmost respect 
and veneration. It is not, however, the 
magic of the Jews alone which we call. cab- 



bala ; but the word is also used for any kind 

of magic. 

CABUL, the name which Hiram, king of 
Tyre, gave to the twenty cities in the land of 
Galilee, of which Solomon made him a present, 
in acknowledgment for the great services in 
building the temple, 1 Kings ix, 31. These 
cities not being agreeable to Hiram, on view- 
ing them, he called them the land of Cabul, 
which in the Hebrew tongue denotes displeas- 
ing ; others take it to signify binding or adhe. 
sive, from the clayey nature of the soil. 

CiESAR, a title borne by all the Roman 
emperors till the destruction of the empire. It 
took its rise from the surname of the first em- 
peror, Caius Julius Caesar ; and this title, by a 
decree of the senate, all the succeeding empe- 
rors were to bear. In Scripture, the reigning 
emperor is generally mentioned by the name 
of Caesar, without expressing any other distinc- 
tion: soinMatt.xxii,21, " Render unto Csesar," 
&c, Tiberias is meant ; and in Acts xxv, 10, 
" I appeal unto Caesar," Nero is intended. 

CiESAREA, a city and port of Palestine, 
built by Herod the Great, and thus called in 
honour of Augustus Caesar. It was on the site 
of the tower of Strato. This city, which was 
six hundred furlongs from Jerusalem, is often 
mentioned in the New Testament. Here it 
was that Herod Agrippa v/as smitten of the 
Lord for not giving God the glory, when the 
people were so extravagant in his praise. Cor- 
nelius the centurion, who was baptized by St. 
Peter, resided here, Acts x, 1, &c ; and also 
Philip the deacon, with his four maiden daugh- 
ters. At Caesarea the Prophet Agabus foretold 
that Paul would be bound and persecuted at 
Jerusalem. Lastly, the Apostle himself con- 
tinued two years a prisoner at Caesarea, till he 
was conducted to Rome. AVhen Judea was 
reduced to the state of a Roman province, 
Caesarea became the stated residence of the 
proconsul, which accounts for the circumstance 
of Paul being carried thither from Jerusalem, 
to defend himself. 

Dr. E. D. Clarke's remarks upon this once 
celebrated city will be read with interest : " On 
the 15th of July, 1801, we embarked, after sun- 
set, for Acre, to avail ourselves of the land 
wind, which blows during the night, at this- 
season of the year. By day break, the next 
morning, we were o1^" the coast of Caesarea ; 
and so near with the land that we could very 
distinctly perceive the appearance of its numer- 
ous and extensive ruins. The remains of this 
city, although still considerable, have long 
been resorted to as a quarry, whenever build- 
ing materials are required at Acre. Djezzar 
Pacha brought from lience the columns of rare 
and beautiful marble, as well as tlie other orna- 
ments of his palace, bath, fountain, and mosque 
at Acre. The place at present is inhabited 
only by jackals and beasts of prey. As we 
were becalmed during the night, we heard the 
cries of these animals until day break. Po- 
cocke mentions the curious fact of the former 
existence of crocodiles in the river of Caesarea. 
Perhaps there has not been in the history of 
the world an example of any city, that in so 



CMS 



190 



CAl 



short a space of time rose to such an extraor- 
dinary height of splendour as did this of Caesa- 
rea ; or that exhibits a more awful contrast to 
its former magnificence, by the present deso- 
late appearance of its ruins. Not a single in. 
habitant remains. Its theatres, once resound- 
ing with the shouts of multitudes, echo no 
other sound than the nightly cries of animals 
roaming for their prey. Of its gorgeous 
palaces and temples, enriched with the choic- 
est works of art, and decorated with the most 
precious marbles, scarcely a trace can be dis- 
cerned. Within the space of ten years after 
laying the foundation, from an obscure fortress, 
it became the most celebrated and flourishing 
city of all Syria. It was named Ctesarea by 
Herod, in honour of Augustus, and dedicated 
by him to that emperor, in the twenty-eighth 
year of his reign. Upon this occasion, that 
the ceremony might be rendered illustrious, by 
a degree of profusion unknown in any former 
instance, Herod assembled the most skilful 
musicians, wrestlers, and gladiators from all 
parts of the world. This solemnity was to be 
renewed every fifth year. But, as we viewed 
the ruins of this memorable city, every other 
circumstance respecting its history was absorb. 
ed in the consideration that we were actually 
beholding the very spot where the scholar of 
Tarsus, after tv/o years' imprisonment, made 
that eloquent appeal, in the audience of the 
king of Judea, which must ever be remember- 
ed with piety and delight. In the liistory of 
the actions of the holy Apostles, v.'hether we 
regard the internal evidence of the narrative, 
or the interest excited by a story so wonder- 
fully appalling to our passions and affections, 
there is nothing that we call to mind with ful- 
ler emotions of sublimity and satisfaction, ' In 
the demonstration of the Spirit and of power,' 
the mighty advocate for the Christian faith had 
before ' reasoned of righteousness, temperance, 
and judgment to come,' till the Roman govern- 
or, Felix, trembled as he spoke. Not all the 
oratory of Tertullus ; not the clamour of his 
numerous adversaries ; not even the counte- 
nance of the most profligate of tyrants availed 
against the firmness and intrepidity of the 
oracle of God. The judge had trembled be- 
fore his prisoner ; a,nd now a second occasion 
offered, in which, for the admiration and the 
triumph of the Christian world, one of the 
bitterest persecutors of the name of Christ, and 
a Jew, appeals, in the public tribunal of a large 
and populous city, to all its chiefs and its 
rulers, its governor and its king, for the truth 
of his conversion founded on the highest evi- 

CiESAREA PHILIPPI was first called 
Laish or Leshem, Judg. xviii, 7. After it was 
subdued by the Danites, Judg. v, 29, it received 
the name of Dan ; and is by Heathen writers 
called Paneas. Philip, the youngest son of 
Herod the Great, made it the capital of his 
tetrarchy, enlarged and embellished it, and 
gave it the name of Caesarea Philippi. It was 
situated at the foot of Mount ilermon, near the 
head of the Jordan ; and was about fifty miles 
from Damascus, and tliirty from Tyre. Our 



Saviour visited and taught in this place, and 
healed one who was possessed of art evil spirit : 
here also he gave the memorable rebuke to 
Peter, Mark viii. 

CAIAPHAS, high priest of the Jews, suc- 
ceeded Simon, son of Camith ; and after pos- 
sessing this dignity nine years, from A. M. 
4029 to 4038, he was succeeded by Jonathan, 
son of Ananas, or Annas. Caiaphas was high 
priest, A. M. 4037, which was the year of Jesus 
Christ's death. He married a daughter of An- 
nas, who also is called high priest in the Gos- 
pel, because he had long enjoyed that dignity. 
When the priests deliberated on the seizure 
and death of Jesus Christ, Caiaphas declared, 
that there was no room for debate on that 
matter, " because it was expedient that one 
man should die for the people, that the whole 
nation should not perish," John xi, 49, .50. 
This sentiment was a prophecy, which God 
suffered to proceed from the mouth of the high 
priest on this occasion, importing, that the 
death of Jesus would be for the salvation of the 
world. When Judas had betrayed Jesus, he 
was first taken before Annas, who sent him to 
his son-in-law, Caiaphas, who possibly lived in 
the same house, John xviii, 24. The priests 
and doctors of the law there assembled to jvidge 
our Saviour, and to condemn him. The depo- 
sitions of certain false v/itnesses being insufl^i- 
cient to justify a sentence of death against him, 
and Jesus continuing silent, Caiaphas, as high 
priest, said to him, " I adjure thee by the living 
God, that thou tell us whether thou art the 
Chi-ist, the Son of God !" To this adjuration, 
so solemnly made by the superior judge, Jesus 
answered, " Thou hast said ; nevertheless I say 
unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man 
sitting on the right hand of power, and coming 
in the clouds of heaven." On hearing these 
words, Caiaphas rent his clothes, saying, 
" What farther need have wc of witnesses ? 
Behold, how you have heard his blasphemy. 
What tliink ye ?" They answered, " He is 
worthy of death." And as the power of life 
and death was not at this time in their hands, 
but was reserved by the Romans, tliey conducted 
him to Pilate, that he might confirm their sen- 
tence, and order his execution. 

Two years after this, Vitellus, governor of 
Syria, coming to Jerusalem at the passover, 
was received very magnificently by the people. 
As an acknowledgment for this honour, he 
restored the custody of the high priest's orna- 
ments to the priests, he remitted certain duties 
raised on the fruits of the earth, and deposed 
t|ie high priest Caiaphas. From this it appears 
that Caiaphas bad fallen under popular odium, 
for his deposition was to gratify the people. 

CAIN, the eldest son of Adam and Eve. He 
was the first man who had been a child, and 
the first man born of woman. For his history, 
as connected with that of Abel, see Abel. The 
curse pronounced upon Cain, on account of 
his fratricide, is thus expressed : " And the 
Lord said unto Cain, AVhere is thy brother 
Abel .' And he said, I know not ; am I my 
brotlier's keeper ? And God said, What hast 
thou done ? The voice of thy brother's blood 



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crieth unto me from the ground. And now 
art thou cursed from the earth, which hath 
opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood 
from thy hand. When thou tillest it, it shall 
not henceforth yield unto thee its strength ; a 
fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the 
earth. And Cain said unto the Lord, My 
punislunent is greater than I can bear. Be- 
hold, thou hast driven me out this day from 
the face of the earth, ''^ meaning, probably, from 
his own native district, and from the presence 
of his kindred, "and from thy face shall I be 
hid ;" by which he probably intended the divine 
glory, or Shekinah, whose appearance sancti- 
fied the place of primitive worship, and was 
the pledge of acceptance and protection. The 
mark set upon Cain "lest any o;ie finding him 
should kill him," has been variously interpreted. 
Some have supposed it a change in the colour 
of his skin, others a certain horror of counte- 
nance. The LXX. understood the passage to 
mean, that the Lord gave him a sign, to assure 
him that his life should be preserved. What- 
ever' it was, its object was not to aggravate, 
but to mitigate, his punishment, which may 
intimate that Cain had manifested repentance. 
Cain, being thus banished from the presence of 
the Lord, retired into the land of Nod, lying 
east from the province of Eden. While he 
dwelt in this country, which is generally under- 
stood to be Susiana, or Chusistan, he had a son, 
whom he named Enoch, in memory of whom 
he built a city of the same name. This is all 
we learn from Scripture concerning Cain. 

CAKE. See Bread. 

CALAH, a city of Assyria, built by Ashur, 
Gen. X, 12. From it the adjacent country, on 
the north-east of the Tigris, and south of the 
Gordian mountains of Armenia, was called 
Callachene, or Callacine. 

CALAMUS, nJp. Exod. xxx, 23; Cantic. 
IV, 14; Isa. xliii, 24; Jcr. vi, 20; Ezek, xxvii, 
19. An aromatic reed, growing in moist places 
in Egypt, in Judea near lake Genezareth, and 
in several parts of Syria. It grows to about 
two feet in height; bearing from the root a 
knotted stalk, quite round, containing in its 
cavity a soft white pith. The whole is of an 
agreeable aromatic smell ; and the plant is said 
to scent the air with a fragrance even while 
growing. W^hen cut down, dried, and pow- 
dered, it makes an ingredient in the richest 
perfmnes. It was used for this purpose by the 
Jews. 

Calamus Scriptorius, a reed answering the 
purpose of a pen to write with. The ancients 
used styles, to write on tablets covered with 
wax ; but reeds, to write on parchment or 
papyrus. The Psalmist says, " My tongue is 
the pen of a ready writer," xlv, 1. The He- 
brew signifies rather a style. The third book 
of Maccabees states, that the writers employed 
in making a list of the Jews in Egypt, produc- 
ed their reeds quite worn out. Baruch wrote 
his prophecies loith ink, Jer. xxxvi, 4; and, 
consequently, used reeds ; for it does not ap- 
pear that quills were then used to write with. 
In third John 13, the Apostle says, he did not 
design to write with pen (reed) and ink. The 



Arabians, Persians, Turks, Greeks, and Arme- 
nians, to this day, write with reeds or rushes. 

CALEB, the son of Jephunneh, of the tribe 
of Judah, v/as one of those who accompanied 
Joshua, when he was deputed by Moses to view 
the land of Canaan, which the Lord had pro- 
mised them for an inheritance. Num. xiii. The 
deputies sent on this occasion were twelve in 
number, selected one out of each of the tribes, 
and they performed their commission with 
great promptitude and skill ; they traversed the 
country in every direction, bringing with them, 
on their return, some of its finest fruits for the 
inspection of their brethren. Some of them, 
however, after making the report of the beauty 
and goodness of the country, which they de- 
scribed to be a land flowing with milk and 
honey, added, that the inhabitants of it were 
remarkable for their strength, while its cities 
were large and enclosed with walls. These 
later particulars having excited a spirit of mur- 
muring among the Israelites, Caleb endeavour- 
ed to animate their courage by dwelling upon 
the fertility of the country, and exhorting them 
to go boldly and take possession of it. Otliers, 
however, dissuaded the people from making 
the attempt, assuring them that they would 
never make themselves masters of it. We 
have seen giants there, said they, in comparison 
of whom we were as grasshoppers ; on which 
the people declared against the project, and 
intimated their wish to return again into Egypt. 
Moses and Aaron no sooner heard this than they 
fell upon their faces before the whole congrega- 
tion, and Joshua and Caleb rent their clothes, 
imploring them to take courage and march 
boldly on; since, if God were with them, they 
might easily make a conquest of the whole 
land. So exasperated, however, were the mul- 
titude, that they were proceeding to stone 
Caleb and Joshua, when the glory of the Lord 
appeared upon the tabernacle, and threatened 
their extermination. Moses, having fervently 
interceded for them, the Lord graciously heard 
his prayer; but though he was pleased not to 
destroy them immediately, he protested with an 
oath, that none of those who had murmured 
against him should see the land of Canaan, 
but that they should all die in the wilderness. 
" As for my servant Caleb," it was added, 
"who hath faithfully followed me, him will I 
bring into the land, and he shall possess it, he 
and his children after him," Num. xiv, 1-24, 
Joshua also obtained a similar exception, verses 
30, 38. When .Joshua had entered the pro- 
mised land, and conquered a considerable part 
of it, Caleb, with the people of his tribe, came 
to meet him at Gilgal, and finding that lie was 
about to divide the land among the twelve 
tribes, Caleb petitioned to have the country 
which was inhabited by the giants allotted to 
him, on which Joshua blessed him and granted 
his reqviest. Assisted by a portion of his tribe, 
he marched against Hebron, and slew the 
children of Anak : thence he proceeded to 
Debir, and finding the place almost impregna- 
ble, he ofiered his daughter Achsah in marriage 
to the hero that should take it. This was done 
by his nephew Otlniicl, wJio in consequence 



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obtained Achsah with a considerable portion 
also of territory. We are not infonned of the 
particular time or manner of the death of Ca- 
leb ; but by his three sons, Iru, Elah, and 
Naam, he had a numerous posterity, who main- 
tained an honourable rank among their bre- 
thren. See Num. xiii, xiv, Josh, xiv, 6-15 ; xv, 
13-19 ; Judges i, 9-15 ; 1 Chron. iv, 15-20. 

CALF, 'jj;?. The young of the ox kind. 
There is frequent mention in Scripture of 
calves, because they were made use of com- 
monly in sacrifices. The "fatted calf," men- 
tioned in several places, as in 1 Sam. xxviii, 
24, and Luke xv, 23, was stall fed, with special 
reference to a particular festival or extraordi- 
nary sacrifice. The "calves of the lips," 
mentioned by Hosea, xiv, 2, signify the sacri- 
fices of praise which the captives of Babylon 
addressed to God, being no longer in a condi- 
tion to offer sacrifices in his temple. The 
Septuagint render it the " fruit of the lips ;" 
and their reading is followed by the Syriac, 
and by the Apostle to the Hebrews, xiii, 15. 
The "golden calf" was an idol set up and 
worshipped by the Israelites at the foot of 
mount Sinai in their passage through the wil- 
derness to the land of Canaan. Having been 
conducted through the wilderness by a pillar 
of cloud and fire, which preceded them in their 
marches, while Moses was receiving the divine 
commands that cloud covered the mountain, 
and they probably imagined that it would no 
longer be their guide ; and, therefore, applied 
to Aaron to make for them a sacred sign or 
symbol, as other nations had, which might 
visibly represent God. With this request, 
preferred tumultuously, and in a menacing 
manner, Aaron in a moment of weakness com- 
plied. The image thus formed is supposed to 
have been like the Egyptian deity. Apis, which 
was an ox, an animal used in agriculture, and 
so a symbol of the god who presided over their 
fields, or of the productive power of the Deity. 
The means by which Moses reduced the golden 
calf to powder, so that when mixed with water 
he made the people drink it, in contempt, has 
puzzled commentators. Some understand that 
he did this by a chymical process, then well 
known, but now a secret ; others, that he beat 
it into gold leaf, and then separated this into 
parts so fine, as to be easily potable ; others, that 
he reduced it by filing. The account says, 
that he took the calf, burned it to powder, and 
mixed the powder with water; from which it 
is probable, as several Jewish writers have 
thought, that the calf was not wholly made of 
gold, but of wood, covered with a profusion of 
gold ornaments cast and fashioned for the 
occasion. For this reason it obtained the 
epithet golden, as afterward some ornaments 
of the temple were called, which we know 
were only overlaid with gold. It would in 
that case be enough to reduce the wood to 
powder in the fire, which would also blacken 
and deface the golden ornaments; but there is 
no need to suppose they were also reduced to 
powder. It is plain from Aaron's proclaiming 
a fast to Jehovah, Exod. xxxii, 4, and from the 
worship of Jeroboam's calves being so expressly 



distinguished from that of Baal, 2 Kings x, 
28-31, that both Aaron and Jeroboam meant 
the calves they formed and set up for worship 
to be emblems of Jehovah. Nevertheless, the 
inspired Psalmist speaks of Aaron's calf with 
the utmost abhorrence, and declares that, by 
worshipping it, they forgat God their Saviour, 
(see 1 Cor. x, 9,) who had wrought so many 
miracles for them, and that for this crime God 
threatened to destroy them. Psalm cvi, 19-24 ; 
Exod. xxxii, 10; and St. Stephen calls it- 
plainly eUwXov, an idol, Acts vii, 41. As for 
Jeroboam, afler he had, for political reasons, 
1 Kings xii, 27, &c, made a schism in the Jew- 
ish church, and set up two calves in Dan and 
Bethel, as objects of worship, he is scarcely 
ever mentioned in Scripture but with a particu- 
lar stigma set upon him : "Jeroboam, the son 
of Nebat, who made Israel to sin." 

CALL, to name a person or thing. Acts xi, 
26; Rom. vii, 3. 2. To cry to another for 
help ; and hence, to pray. The first passage 
in the Old Testament in which we meet with 
this phrase, is Gen. iv, 26, where we readj 
"Then began men to call on the name of the 
Lord," or Jehovah ; the meaning of which 
seems to be, that they then first began to wor 
ship him in public assemblies. In both the 
Old and New Testament, to call upon the 
name of the Lord, imports invoking the true 
God in prayer, with a confession that he is Je- 
hovah, that is, with an acknowledgment of his 
essential and incommunicable attributes. In 
this view the phrase is applied to the ■ worship 
of Christ. 

CALLING, a term in theology, which is 
taken in a different sense by the advocates and 
the impugners of the Calvinistic doctrine of 
grace. By the former it is thus stated : In the 
golden chain of spiritual blessings which the 
Apostle enumerates in Rom. viii, 30, originat- 
ing in the divine predestination, and teiininat- 
ing in the bestowment of eternal glory on the 
heirs of salvation, that of calling forms an im- 
portant link. " Moreover, whom he did pre- 
destinate, them he also called ; and whom he 
called, them he also glorified." Hence we read 
of " the called according to his purpose," Rom. 
viii, 28. There is indeed a universal call of 
the Gospel to all men ; for wherever it comes 
it is the voice of God to those who hear it, 
calling them to repent and believe the divine 
testimony unto the salvation of their souls ; 
and it leaves them inexcusable in rejecting it, 
John iii, 14-19 ; but this universal call is not 
inseparably connected with salvation ; for it is 
in reference to it that Christ says, " Many are 
called, but few are chosen," Matt, xxii, 14. But 
the Scripture also speaks of a calling which is 
effectual, and which consequently is more than 
the outward ministry of the word ; yea, more 
than some of its partial and temporary effects 
upon many who hear it, for it is always as- 
cribed to God's making his word effectual 
through the enlightening and sanctifying in- 
fluences of his Holy Spirit. Thus it is said, 
"Paul may plant, and Apollos water, but God 
giveth the increase," 1 Cor. iii, 6, 7. Again, 
he is said to have "opened the heart of Lydia, 



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that she attended to the doctrine of Paul," Acts 
xvi, 14. " No man can come imto Christ, ex- 
cept the Father draw him," John vi, 44. Hence 
faith is said to be the gift of God, Eph. ii, 8 ; 
Phil, i, 29. The Spirit takes of the things of 
Christ and shows them to men, John xvi, 14 ; 
and thus opens their eyes, turning them from 
darkness to light, and from the power of Satan 
unto God, Acts xxvi, 18. And so God saves 
his people, not by works of righteousness which 
they have done, but according to his mercy, 
by the washing of regeneration and renewing 
of the Holy Spirit, Titus iii, 5. Thus they are 
saved, and called with a holy calling, not ac- 
cording to their works, but according to the 
divine purpose and grace which v.'as given them 
in Christ Jesus before the world be,gan, 2 Tim.i,9. 
2. To this it is replied, that this whole state- 
ment respecting a believer's calling is v/ithout 
any support from the Scriptures, and is either 
a misunderstanding, or a misapplication of their 
sense. "To call" signifies to invite to the bless- 
ings of the Gospel, to offer salvation through 
Christ, either b}^ God himself, or, under his 
appointment, by his servants ; and in the pa- 
rable of the marriage of the king's son, Matt, 
xxii, 1-14, which appears to have given rise, 
in many instances, to the use of this term in 
the Epistles, we have three descriptions of 
"called" or invited persons. First, the dis- 
obedient, who would not come in at ^he call, 
but made light of it. Second, the class of per- 
sons represented by the man who, when the 
king came in to see his guests, had not on the 
wedding garment ; and with respect to whom 
our Lord makes the general remark, " For 
many are called, but few are chosen ;" so that 
the persons thus represented by this individual 
culprit were not only "called," but actually 
came into the company. Third, the approved 
guests; those who were both called and chosen. 
As far as the simple calling or invitation is 
concerned, all these three classes stood upon 
equal ground — all were invited ; and it depend- 
ed upon their choice and conduct whether they 
embraced the invitation, and v/ere admitted as 
guests. We have nothing here to countenance 
the notion of what is termed " effectual calling." 
This implies an irresistible influence exerted 
upon all the approved guests, but withheld 
from the disobedient, who could not, therefore, 
be otherwise than disobedient ; or at most could 
only come in without that wedding garment, 
which it was never put into their power to take 
out of the king's wardrobe ; and the want of 
which would necessarily exclude them, if not 
from the church on earth, yet from the church 
in heaven. The doctrine of Christ's parables 
is in entire contradiction to this notion of irre- 
sistible influence ; for they who refused, and 
they who complied but partially with the call- 
ing, are represented, not merely as being left 
without the benefit of the feast, but as incur- 
ring additional guilt and condemnation for 
refusing the invitation. It is to this offer of 
salvation by the Gospel, this invitation to spi- 
ritual and eternal benefits, that St. Peter ap- 
pears to refer, when he says, " For the promise 
is unto you and to your children, and to all that 
14 



are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God 
shall CALL," Acts ii, 39; a passage which de- 
clares "the promise" to be as extensive as the 
" calling ;" in other words, as the offer or invi- 
tation. To this also St. Paul refers, Rom. i, 
5, 6 : " By whom we have received grace and 
Apostleship, for obedience to the faith among 
all nations, for his name ;" that is, to publish 
his Gospel, in order to bring all nations to the 
obedience of faith ; " among whom are ye also 
the CALLED of Jesus Christ ;" you at Rome have 
heard the Gospel, and have been invited to sal- 
vation in consequence of this design. This 
promulgation of the Gospel, by the personal 
ministry of the Apostle, under the name of 
calling, is also referred to in Gal. i, 6 : "I mar- 
vel that ye are so soon removed from him that 
called you into the grace of Christ," obviously 
meaning, that it was he himself who had called 
them, by his preaching, to embrace the grace 
of Christ. So also in chap, v, 13 : " For, bre- 
thren, ye have been called unto liberty." 
Again : 1 Thess. ii, 12 : " That ye would walk 
worthy of God, who hath called you," invited 
you, "to his kingdom and glory." 

3. In our Lord's parable it will also be ob- 
served, that the persons called are not invited 
as separate individuals to partake of solitary 
blessings ; but they are called to " a feast," into 
a company or society, before whom the banquet 
is spread. The full revelation of the transfer 
of the visible church of Christ from Jews by 
birth, to believers of all nations, was not, how- 
ever, then made. When this branch of the 
evangelic system was fully revealed to the 
Apostles, and taught by them to others, that 
part of the meaning of our Lord's parable which 
was not at first developed was more particularly 
discovered to his inspired followers. The call, 
ing of guests to the evangelical feast, w^e then 
more fully learn, was not the mere calling of 
men to partake of spiritual benefits ; but call- 
ing them also to form a spiritual society com. 
posed of Jews and Gentiles, the believing men 
of all nations ; to have a common fellowship 
in these blessings, and to be formed into this 
fellowship for the purpose of increasing their 
number, and diffusing the benefits of salvation 
among the people or nation to which they re- 
spectively belonged. The invitation, " the 
calling," of the first preachers was to all who 
heard them in Rome, in Ephesus, in Corinth, 
and other places ; and those who embraced it, 
and joined themselves to the church by faith, 
baptism, and continued public profession, were 
named, especially and eminently, "the called," 
because of their obedience to the invitation. 
They not only put in their claim to the bless- 
ings of Christianity individually, but became 
members of the new church, that spiritual so- 
ciety of believers which God now visibly owned 
as his people. As they were thus called into 
a common fellowship by the Gospel, this is 
sometimes termed their "vocation;" as the 
object of this church state was to promote 
" holiness," it is termed a " holy vocation ;" as 
sanctity was required of the members, they are 
said to have been " called to be saints ;" as the 
final result was, through the mercy of God, to 



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be eternal life, we hear of " the hope of their 
calling," and of their being " called to his eter- 
nal glory by Christ Jesus." 

4. These views will abundantly explain the 
various passages in which the term calling oc- 
curs in the Epistles : " Even us whom he hath 
called, not of the Jews only, but also of the 
Gentiles," Rom. ix, 24 ; that is, whom he hath 
made members of his church through faith. 
*' But unto them which are called, both Jews 
and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the 
wisdom of God ;" the wisdom and efficacy of 
the Gospel being, of course, acknowledged in 
their very profession of Christ, in opposition to 
those to whom the preaching of " Christ cru- 
cified" was "a stumbling block," and "fool- 
ishness," 1 Cor. i, 24. " Is any man called,''^ 
(brought to acknowledge Christ, and to become 
a member of his church,) " being circumcised ? 
let him not become uncircumcised. Is any 
called in uncircumcision ? let him not be cir- 
cumcised," 1 Cor. vii, 18. "That ye walk 
worthy of the vocation, wherewith ye are called. 
There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye 
are calUd in one hope of your calling," Eph. 
iv, 1, 4. "That ye would walk worthy of 
God, who hath called you to his kingdom and 
glory," 1 Thess. ii, 12. "Through sanctifi- 
cation of the Spirit, and belief of the truth, 
whereunto he called you by our Gospel, to the 
obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ," 
2 Thess. ii, 13, 14. "Who hath saved us and 
called us with a holy calling ; not according to 
our works, but according to his own purpose 
and grace, which was given us in Christ Je- 
sus before the world began ; but is now made 
manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus 
Christ," 2 Tim, i, 9, 10. On this passage we may 
remark, that the "calling," and the "purpose" 
mentioned in it, must of necessity be inter- 
preted to refer to the establishment of the 
church on the principle of faith, so that it 
might include men of all nations ; and not, as 
formerly, be restricted to natural descent. For 
personal election, and a purpose of effectual per- 
sorial calling, could not have been hidden till 
manifested by the " appearing of Christ ;" since 
every instance of true conversion to God in 
any age prior to tlie appearing of Christ, would 
be as much a manifestation of eternal election, 
and an instance of personal effectual calling, 
according to the Calvinistic scheme, as it was 
after the appearance of Christ. The Apostle 
is speaking of a jmrpose of God, which was 
kept secret till revealed by the Christian sys- 
tem ; and, from various other parallel passages, 
we learn that this secret, this " mystery," as he 
often calls it, was the union of the Jews and 
Gentiles in " one body," or church, by faith. 

5. In none of these passages is the doctrine 
of the exclusive calling of a set number of 
men contained ; and the synod of Dort, as 
though they felt this, only attempt to infer the 
doctrine from a text already quoted ; but which 
we will now more fully notice : " Whom he 
did predestinate, them he also called; and 
whom he called, them ho also justified ; and 
whom he justified, them he also glorified," 
Rom. viii, 30. This is tlie text on which the 



Calvinists chiefly rest their doctrine of effGct- 
ual calling ; and tracing it, as they say, through 
its steps and links, they conclude, that a set 
and determinate number of persons having 
been predestinated unto isalvation, this set 
number only are called effectually, then justi- 
fied, and finally glorified. But this passage 
was evidently nothing to the purpose, unless 
it had spoken of a set and determinate number 
of men as predestinated and called, independ- 
ent of any consideration of their faith and 
obedience ; which number as being determi- 
nate, would, by consequence exclude the rest. 
The context declares that those who are fore- 
known, and predestinated to eternal glory, are 
true believers, those who " love God," as stated 
in a subsequent verse ; for of such only the 
Apostle speaks ; and when he adds, " More- 
over, whom he did predestinate, them he also 
called ; and whom he called, them he also 
justified ; and whom he justified, them he also 
glorified ;" he shows in particular how the 
divine purpose to glorify believers is carried 
into effect, through all its stages. The great 
instrument of bringing men to "love God" is 
the Gospel ; they are, therefore, called, invited 
by it, to this state and benefit ; the calling be- 
ing obeyed, they axe justified ; and being justi- 
fied, and continuing in that state of grace, they 
are glorified. Nothing, however, is here said 
to favour the conclusion, that many others who 
were called by the Gospel, but refused, might 
not have been justified and glorified as well as 
they ; nothing to distinguish this calling into 
common and effectual: and the very guilt 
which those are every where represented as 
contracting who despised the Gospel calling, 
shows that they reject a grace which is suffi- 
cient, and sincerely intended, to save them. 

CALNEH, a city in the land of Shinar, built 
by Nimrod, and one of the cities mentioned 
Genesis x, 10, as belonging to his kingdom. 
It is believed to be the same with Calno, men- 
tioned in Isa. X, 9. It is said by the Chaldee 
interpreters, as also by Eusebius and Jerom, to 
be the same with Ctesiphon, standing upon the 
Tigris, about three miles distant from Seleucia, 
and that for some time it was the capital city 
of the Parthians. Bochart, Wells, and Michae- 
lis, agree in this opinion. 

CALVARY, or, as it is called in Hebrew, 
Golgotha, "a skull," or "place of skulls," sup- 
posed to be thus denominated from the simili- 
tude it bore to the figure of a skull or man's 
head, or from its being a place of burial. It 
was a small eminence or hill to the north of 
Mount Sion, and to the west of old Jerusalem, 
upon which our Lord was crucified. The an- 
cient summit of Calvary has been much altered, 
by reducing its level in some parts, and raising 
it in others, in order to bring it within the area 
of a large and irregular building, called " The 
Church of the Holy Sepulchre," which now 
occupies its site. But in doing this, care has 
been taken that none of the parts connected 
with the crucifixion should suffer any altera- 
tion. The same building also encloses within 
its spacious walls several other places reputed 
sacred. The places which claim the chief at- 



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traction of the Christian visitant of this church, 
and those only perhaps which can be relied on, 
are, the spot on which the crucifixion took 
place, and the sepulchre in which our Lord 
was afterward laid. The first has been pre- 
served without mutilation : being a piece of 
ground about ten yards square, in its original 
position ; and so high above the common floor 
of the church, that there are, according to 
Chateaubriand, twenty-one steps to ascend up 
to it. Mr. Buckingham describes the present 
mount as a rock, the summit of which is as- 
cended by a steep flight of eighteen or twenty 
steps from the common level of the church, 
which is equal with that of the street without ; 
and beside this, there is a descent of thirty 
steps, from the level of the church, into the 
chapel of St. Helena, and by eleven more to 
the place where the cross was said to be found. 
On this little mount is shown the hole in which 
the cross was fixed ; and near it the position 
of the crosses of the two thieves : one, the 
penitent, on the north ; and the other on the 
south! Here, also, is shown a cleft in the rock, 
said to have been caused by the earthquake 
which happened at the crucifixion. The se- 
pulchre, distant, according to Mr. Jollifle, 
forty-three yards from the cross, presents 
rather a singular and unexpected appearance 
to a stranger; who, for such a place, would 
naturally expect to find an excavation in the 
ground, instead of which, he perceives it alto- 
gether raised, as if artificially, above its level. 
The truth is, that in the alterations which were 
made on Calvary, to bring all the principal 
places within the projected church, the earth 
around the sepulchre was dug away ; so that, 
what was originally a cave in the earth has 
now the appearance of a closet or grotto above 
ground. The sepulchre itself is about six feet 
square and eight high. There is a solid block 
of the stone left in excavating the rock, about 
two feet and a half from the floor, and running 
along the whole of the inner side ; on which 
the body of our Lord is said to have been laid. 
This, as well as the rest of the sepulchre, is 
now faced with marble : partly from the false 
taste which prevailed in the early ages of Chris- 
tianity, in disguising with profuse and ill-suited 
embellishjnents the spots rendered memorable 
in the history of its Founder ; and partly, per- 
haps, to preserve it from the depredations of 
the visitants. This description of the holy 
sepulchre will but ill accord with the notions 
entertained by some English readers of a grave ; 
but a cave or grotto, thus excavated in rocky 
ground, on the side of a hill, was the common 
receptacle for the dead among the eastern na- 
tions. Such was the tomb of Christ ; such that of 
Lazarus ; and such are the sepulchres still found 
in Judea and the east. It may be useful farther 
to observe, that it was customary with Jews of 
property to provide a sepulchre of this kind on 
their own ground, as the place of their inter- 
ment afl;er death ; and it appears that Calvary 
itself, or the ground immediately around it, 
was occupied with gardens; one of which be- 
longed to Joseph of Arimathea, who had then 
recently caused a new sepulchre to be made 



for himself. It was this sepulchre, so close at 
hand, and so appropriate, which he resigned 
for the use of our Lord ; little thinking perhaps, 
at the time, how soon it would again be lefl; 
vacant for its original purpose by his glorious 
resurrection. 

CALVINISM, that scheme of doctrine on 
predestination and grace, which was taught by 
Calvin, the celebrated reformer, in the early 
part of the sixteenth century. His opinions 
are largely opened in the third book of his 
"Institutes:" "Predestination we call the 
eternal decree of God ; by which he hath de- 
termined in himself what he would have to 
become of every individual of mankind. For 
they are not all created with similar destiny ; 
but eternal life is foreordained for some, and 
eternal damnation for others. Every man, 
therefore, being created for one or other of these 
ends, we say, he is predestinated, either to life, 
or to death." After having spoken of the elec- 
tion of the race of Abraham, and then of par- 
ticular branches of that race, he proceeds : 
"Though it is sufficiently clear, that God, in 
his secret counsel, freely chooses whom he 
will, and rejects others, his gratuitous election 
is but half displayed till we come to particular 
individuals, to whom God not only offers sal- 
vation, but assigns it in such a manner that 
the certainty of the effect is liable to no sus- 
pense or doubt." He sums up the chapter, in 
which he thus generally states the doctrine, in 
these words : " In conformity, therefore, to the 
clear doctrine of the Scripture, we assert, that, 
by an eternal and immutable counsel, God hath 
once for all determined both whom he would 
admit to salvation, and whom he would con- 
demn to destruction. We affirm that this coun- 
sel, as far as concerns the elect, is founded on 
his gratuitous mercy, totally irrespective of hu- 
man merit ; but that to those whom he devotes 
to condemnation, the gate of life is closed by 
a just and irreprehensiblc, but incomprehensihley 
judgment. In the elect, we consider calling 
as an evidence of election; and justification as 
another token of its manifestation, till they 
arrive in glory, which constitutes its comple- 
tion. As God seals his elect by vocation and 
justification, so by excluding the reprobate from 
the knowledge of his name, and sanctification 
of his Spirit, he affords another indication of the 
judgment that awaits them," chap. 21, book iii. 

2. In the commencement of the following 
chapter he thus rejects the notion that predes- 
tination is to be understood as resulting from 
God's foreknowledge of what would be the 
conduct of either the elect or the reprobate : 
"It is a notion commonly entertained, that 
God, foreseeing what would be the respective 
merits of every individual, makes a corres- 
pondent distinction between different persons ; 
that he adopts as his children such as he fore- 
knows will be deserving of his grace ; and de- 
votes to the damnation of death others, whose 
dispositions he sees will be inclined to wicked, 
ness and impiety. Thus they not only obscure 
election by covering it with the veil of fore, 
knowledge, but pretend that it originates in 
another cause," book iii, chap. 22. Consist. 



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ently with this, he a little farther on asserts, 
that election does not flow from holiness, but 
holiness from election: "For when it is said, 
that the faithful are elected that they should 
be holy, it is fully implied, that the holiness 
they were in future to possess had its origin 
in election." He proceeds to quote the ex- 
ample of Jacob and Esau, as loved and hated 
before they had done good or evil, to show that 
the only reason of election and reprobation is 
to be placed in God's "secret counsel." He 
will not allow the future wickedness of the 
reprobate to have been considered in the decree 
of their rejection, any more than the righteous- 
ness of the elect, as influencing their better 
fate : " ' God hath mercy on whom he will 
have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.' 
You see how he (the Apostle) attributes hoth 
to the viere will of God. If, therefore, we can 
assign no reason why he grants mercy to his 
people but because such is his pleasure, neither 
shall we find any other cause but his will for 
the reprobation of others. For when God is 
said to harden, or show mercy to whom he 
pleases, men are taught, by this declaration, to 
seek no cause beside his ivilL" (Ibid.) " Many, 
indeed, as if they wished to avert odium from 
God, admit election in such a way as to deny 
that any one is reprobated. But this is puerile 
and absurd ; because election itself could not 
exist, without being opposed to reprobation ; — 
whom God passes by he therefore reprobates; 
and from no other cause than his determina- 
tion to exclude them from the inheritance 
which he predestines for his children," book 
iii, chap, xxiii. 

3. This is the scheme of predestination as 
exhibited by Calvin ; and to the objection taken 
from justice, he replies, " They" (the objectors) 
" inquire by what right the Lord is angry with 
his creatures who had not provoked him by 
any previous offence ; for that to devote to de- 
struction whom he pleases, is more like the 
caprice of a tyrant, than the lawful sentence of 
a judge. If such thoughts ever enter into the 
minds of pious men, they will be sufficiently 
enabled to break their violence by this one con- 
sideration, how exceedingly presumptuous it 
is, only to inquire into the causes of the divine 
will; which is, in fact, and is justly entitled 
to be, the cause of every thing that exists. 
For if it has any cause, then there must be 
something antecedent on which it depends, 
which it is impious to suppose. For the Avill 
of God is the highest rule of justice ; so that 
what he wills must be considered just, for this 
very reason, because he wills it." Thus he 
assumes the very thing in dispute, that God 
has willed the destruction of any part of the 
human race, " for no other cause than because 
he wills it;" of which assumption there is not 
only not a word of proof in Scripture ; but, on 
the contrary, it ascribes the death of him that 
dieth to his own will, and not to the will of 
God. 2. He pretends that to assign any cause 
to the divine will is to suppose something ante- 
cedent to, something above God, and therefore 
" impious ;" as if we might not suppose some- 
thing IN God to be the rule of his will, not only 



without any impiety, but with truth and piety 
as, for instance, liis perfect wisdom, holiness, 
justice, and goodness ; or, in other words, to 
believe the exercise of his will to flow from the 
perfection of his whole nature ; a much more 
honourable and Scriptural view of the will of 
God than that which subjects it to no rule, even 
though it should arise from the nature of God 
himself. 3. When he calls the will of God, 
" the highest rule of justice," beyond which we 
cannot push our inquiries, he confounds the 
will of God, as a rule of justice to us, and as a 
rule to himself. This will is our rule ; yet even 
then, because we know that it is the will of a 
perfect being : but when Calvin represents mere 
will as constituting God's own rule of justice, 
he shuts out knowledge, discrimination of the 
nature of things, and holiness ; which is saying 
something very different from that great truth, 
that God cannot will any thing but what is per- 
fectly just. It is to say that blind wiD, will 
which has no respect to any thing but itself, is 
God's highest rule of justice ; a position which, if 
presented abstractedly, many Calvinists them. 
selves would spurn. 4. He determines the 
question by the authority of his own meta- 
physics, and totally forgets that one dictum of 
inspiration overturns his whole theory, — God 
'^willeth all men to be saved;" a declaration, 
which in no part of the sacred volume is op^ 
posed or limited by any contrary declaration, 

4. Calvin was not, however, content thus to 
leave the matter ; but resorts to an argument, 
in which he has been generally followed by 
those who have adopted his system with some 
mitigations : " As we are all corrupted by sin, 
we must necessarily be odious to God, and that 
not from tyrannical cruelty, but in the most 
equitable estimation of justice. If al] whom the 
Lord predestinates to death are, in their natural 
condition, liable to the sentence of death, what 
injustice do they complain of receiving from 
him ?" To this Calvin very fairly states the 
obvious rejoinder made in his day ; and which 
the common sense of mankind will always 
make, — " They object. Were they not by the 
decree of God antecedently predestinated to 
that corruption which is now stated as the 
catise of their condemnation ? When they 
perish in their corruption, therefore, they only 
suffer the punishment of that misery into 
which, in consequence of his predestination, 
Adam fell, and precipitated his posterity with 
him." The manner in which Calvin attempts 
to meet this objection, shows how truly un- 
answerable it is upon his system. " I confess," 
says he, " indeed, that all the descendants of 
Adam fell, by the Divine will, into that misera- 
ble condition in which they are now involved ; 
and this is what I asserted from the beginning, 
that we must always return at last to the sove- 
reign determination of God's tcill; the cause of 
which is hidden in himself. But it follows not, 
therefore, that God is liable to this reproach ; 
for we will answer them in the language of 
Paul, 'O man, who art thou that repliest 
against God ? Shall the thing formed say to 
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me 
thus ?' " That is, in order to escape the pinch 



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of the objection, lie assumes that St. Paul af. 
firms that God has "formed" a part of the 
human race for eternal misery ;~ and that, by 
imposing silence upon them, he intended to 
declare that this proceeding in God was just. 
Now the passage may be proved from its con- 
text to have no respect to the eternal state of 
men at all ; but, if that were less obvious, it 
gives no answer to the objection ; and we are 
brought round again, as indeed he confesses, to 
his former, and indeed only, argument, that the 
whole matter as he states it, is to be referred 
back to the divine will; which will, though 
perfectly arbitrary, is, as he contends, the high- 
est rule of justice: "I say, with Augustine, 
that the Lord created those whom he certainly 
foreknew would fall into destruction ; and that 
this was actually so, because he willed it ; but 
of his will, it belongs not to us to demand the 
reason, which we are incapable of compre- 
hending; nor is it reasonable, that the divine 
will should be made the subject of controversy 
ftvith us, which is only another name for the 
liighe'st rule of justice." Thus he shuts us out 
from pursuing the argument. But the evasion 
proves the objection unanswerable. For if all 
is to be resolved into the mere will of God as 
to the destruction of the reprobate ; if they 
were created for this purpose, as Calvin ex- 
pressly affirms ; if they fell into their corrup- 
tion in pursuance of God's determination ; if, 
as he had said before, "God passes them by, 
and reprobates them, from no other cause than 
his determination to exclude them from the in- 
heritance of his children," why refer to their 
natural corruption at all, and their being odi- 
ous to God ia that state, since the same reason 
is given for their corruption as for their repro- 
bation ? — not any fault of theirs ; but the mere 
will of God, " the reprobation hidden in his se- 
cret counsel," and that not grounded on the 
visible and tangible fact of their demerit. Thus 
the election taught by Calvin is not the choice 
of some persons to peculiar grace from the 
whole mass, equally deserving of punishment ; 
(though this is a sophism ;) since, in that case, 
the decree of reprobation would rest upon 
God's foreknowledge of those passed by as cor- 
rupt and guilty, which notion he rejects : " For 
since God foresees future events only in conse- 
quence of his decree that they shall happen, it 
is useless to contend about foreknowledge, 
while it is evident that all things come to pass 
rather by ordination and decree.^^ " It is a hor. 
RiBLE DECREE, I confess ; but no one can deny 
that God foreknew the future fate of man before 
he created him ; and that he did foreknow it, 
because it was appointed by his own decree." 
Agreeably to this, he repudiates the distinction 
between will and permission : " For what rea- 
son shall we assign for his permitting it, but 
because it is his will ? It is not probable, how- 
ever, that man procured his own destruction by 
the mere permission, and without any appoint- 
ment, of God." 

5. With this doctrine he again attempts to 
reconcile the demerit of men : " Their perdi- 
tion depends on the divine predestination in 
such a manner, that the cause and matter of it 



are found in themselves. For the first man fell 
because the Lord had determined it should so 
happen. The reason of this determination is 
unknown to us. — Man, therefore, falls accord, 
ing to the appointment of divine providence ; 
but he falls by his own fault. The Lord had a 
little before pronounced every thing that he 
had made to be 'very good.' Whence, then, 
comes the depravity of man to revolt from hia 
God ? Lest it should be thought to come from 
creation, God approved and commended what 
had proceeded from himself. By his own wick- 
edness, therefore, man corrupted the nature he 
had received pure from the Lord, and by his 
fall he drew all his posterity with him to de- 
struction," It is in this way that Calvin at- 
tempts to avoid the charge of making God the 
author of sin. But how God should not merely 
permit the defection of the first man, but appoint 
it, and uiill it, and that his will should be the 
" necessity of things," (all which he had before 
asserted,) and yet that Deity should not be the 
author of that which he appointed, willed, and 
imposed a necessity upon, would be rather a 
delicate inquiry. It is enough that Calvin re- 
jects the impious doctrine ; and even though 
his principles directly lead to it, since he has 
put in his disclaimer, he is entitled to be ex. 
erapted from the charge ; — but the logical con- 
elusion is inevitable. 

6. In much the same manner he contends 
that the necessity of sinning is laid upon the 
reprobate by the ordination of God, and yet 
denies God to be the author of their sinful acts, 
since the corruption of men was derived from 
Adam, by his own fault, and not from God. 
He exhorts us " rather to contemplate the evi- 
dent cause of condemnation, which is nearer 
to us, in the corrupt nature of mankind, than 
search after a hidden and altogether incompre- 
hensible one, in the predestination of God." 
" For though, by the eternal providence of 
God, man was created to that misery to which 
he is subject, yet the ground of it he has de- 
rived from himself, not God; since he is thus 
ruined, solely in consequence of his having 
degenerated from the pure creation of God to 
vicious and impure depravity." Thus, almost 
in the same breath, he affirms that men became 
reprobate from no other cause than "the will 
of God," and his "sovereign determination;" 
that men have no reason "to expostulate with 
God, if they are predestinated to eternal death, 
without any demerit of their own, merely by 
his sovereign will ;" — and then, that the cor- 
rupt nature of mankind is the evident and nearer 
cause of condemnation ; (which cause, how- 
ever, was still a matter of " appointment," and 
"ordination," not "permission ;") and that man 
is "ruined solely in consequence of his having 
degenerated from the pure state in which God 
created him." These propositions manifestly 
fight with each other ; for if the reason of 
reprobation be laH in man's corruption, it can- 
not be laid in the mere will and sovereign de- 
termination of God, unless we suppose him to 
be the author of sin. It is this offensive doc- 
trine only, which can reconcile them. For if 
God so wills, and appoints, and necessitates 



CAL 



m8 



CAL 



the depravity of man, as to be the author of it, 
then there is no inconsistency in saying that 
the ruin of the reprobate is both from the mere 
will of God, and from the corruption of their 
nature, which is but the result of that will. 
The one is then, as Calvin states, the " evident 
and nearer cause," the other the more remote 
and hidden one ; yet they have the same source, 
and are substantially acts of the same wail. 
But if it be denied that God is, in any sense, 
the author of evil, and if sin is from man alone, 
then is the " corruption of nature " the effect of 
an independent will ; and if this corruption be 
the "real source," as he says, of men's con- 
demnation, then the decree of reprobation rests 
not upon the sovereign will of God^ as its sole 
cause, which he affirms ; but upon a cause de- 
pendent on the will of the first man : but as 
this is denied, then the other must follow. Cal- 
vin himself, indeed, contends for the perfect 
concurrence of these proximate and remote 
causes, although in point of fact, to have been 
perfectly consistent with himself, he ought 
rather to have called the mei-e loill of God the 
CAUSE of the decree of reprobation, and the cor- 
paption of man the means by w^hicli it is carried 
into effect : — language which he sanctions, and 
which many of his followers have not scrupled 
to adopt. 

7. So certainly does this opinion involve in 
it the consequences, that in sin man is the in- 
strument, and God the actor, that it cannot be 
mainta-ined, as stated by Calvin, without this 
conclusion. For as two causes of reprobation 
are expressly laid down, they must be either 
opposed to each other, or be consenting. If 
they are opposed, the schem.e is given up ; if 
consenting, then are both reprobation and hu. 
man corruption the results of the same will, 
"he f;ame decree, and necessity. It would be 
^rifling to say that the decree does not influ- 
ence ; for if so, it is no decree in Calvin's 
sense, who understands the decree of God, as 
the foregoing extracts and the whole third 
book of his " Institutes" plainly show, as op. 
pointing whdit shall be, and by that appoint- 
ment making it necessary. Otherwise, he could 
not reject the distinction between will and 
permission, and avow the sentiment of St. 
Augustine, "that the will of God is the neces- 
sity of things ; and that what he has willed 
Avill necessarily come to pass," book iii, chap. 
23, sec. 8. So, in writing to Castellio, he 
makes the sin of Adam the result of an act of 
God : " You say Adam fell by his free will. I 
except against it. That he might not fall, he 
Ftood in need of that strength and constancy 
with w^hich God armeth all the elect, as long 
as he will keep them blameless. Whom God 
has elected, he props up with an invincible 
power unto perseverance. Why did he not 
afford tliis to Adam, if he Avould have had him 
stand in his integrity?" And with this view 
of necessity, as resulting from the decree of 
God, the immediate followers of Calvin coin- 
cided ; the end and the means, as to the elect, 
and as to the reprobate, are equally fixed by the 
decree, and are both to be traced to the appoint- 
ing and ordcdning will of God, On such a 



scheme it is therefore worse than trifling to 
attempt to make out a case of justice in favour 
of this assumed divine procedure, by alleging 
the corruption and guilt of man : a point which, 
indeed, Calvin himself, in fact, gives up when 
he says, "That the reprobate obey not the 
word of God, when made known to them, is 
justly imputed to the wickedness and depravity 
of their hearts, provided it be at the same time 
stated, that they are abandoned to this deprav- 
ity, because they have been raised up by a just 
but inscrutable judgment of God, to display his 
glory in their condemnation." 

8. It was by availing themselves of the inef- 
fectual struggles of Calvin to give some colour 
of justice to his reprobating decree by fixing 
upon the corruption of man as a cause of re- 
probation, that some of his followers endea- 
voured, in the very teeth of his owm express 
words, to reduce his system to sublapsarianism. 
This was attempted by Amyraldus ; who was 
answered by CurcellEBUs, in his tract ^^ De Jure 
Dei in Creaturas." This last writer, partly hyf 
several of the same passages we have given 
above from Calvin's Institutes, and by extracts 
from, his other writings, proves that Calvin did 
by no means consider man, as fallen, to be the 
object of reprobation ; but man not yet created ; 
man as to be created, and so reprobated, under 
no consideration in the divine mind of his fall 
or actual guilt, except as consequences of an 
eternal preterition of the persons of the repro- 
bate, resolvable only into the sovereign plea- 
sure of God. The references he makes to men 
as cormpt, and to their corrupt state as the 
proximate cause of their rejection, are all mani- 
festly used to parry off rather than to answer 
objections, and somewhat to moderate and 
soften, as Curcelleeus observes, the harsher 
parts of his system. And, indeed, for what 
reason are we so often brought back to that 
unfailing refuge of Calvin, "the presumption 
and wickedness of replying against God?" 
For if reprobation be a matter of human desert, 
it cannot be a mystery ; if it be adequate pun- 
ishment for an adequate fault, there is no need 
to urge it upon us to bow with submission to 
an unexplained sovereignty. We may add, 
there is no need to speak of a remote or first 
cause of reprobation, if the proximate cause 
will explain the whole case ; and that Calvin's 
continual reference to God's secret counsel, and 
will, and inscrutable judgment, could have no 
aptness to his argument. Among English 
divines, Dr. Twisse Ijas sufficiently defended 
Calvin from the charge, as he esteems it, of 
sublapsarianism ; and, whatever merit Twisse's 
own supralapsarian creed may have, his argu- 
ment on this point is unanswerable. 

9. As it is not intended here to enter into 
this controversy, on which multitudes of books 
have been written, and the leading authors are 
known almost to every one, the above may be 
sufficient to convey a just notion of Calvin's 
own opinions. After these subjects had long 
agitated the reformed churches, and given rise 
to several modifications of Calvin's original 
scheme, and to numerous writings in refiita- 
tion of it, the synod of Dort digested the whole 



CAL 



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into live articles from which arose the cele- 
brated controversy on the five points. These 
articles, as being the standard of what is gene- 
rally called strict Calvinism, are, in substance, 
as follows : — 

(1.) "0/ Predestination. As all men have 
sinned in Adam, and have become exposed to 
the curse and eternal death, God would have 
done no injustice to any one, if he had deter- 
mined to leave the whole human race under 
sin and the curse, and to condemn them on 
account of sin ; according to those words of 
the Apostle, 'All the world is become guilty 
before God,' Rom. iii, 19, 23; vi, 23. That 
some, in time, have faith given them by God, 
and others have it not given, proceeds from his 
eternal decree ; for ' known unto God are all 
his Vv'orks from the beginning,' &c. Acts xv, 
18; Eph. i, 11. According to which decree, 
he graciously softens the hearts of the elect, 
however hard, and he bends them to believe ; 
but the non-elect he leaves, in his judgment, to 
their own perversity and hardness. And here, 
especially, a deep discrimination, at the same 
time both merciful and just; a discrimination 
of men equally lost, opens itself to us ; or that 
decree of election and reprobation which is 
revealed in the word of God ; which, as per- 
verse, impure, and unstable persons do wrest 
to their own destruction, so it affords ineffable 
consolation to holy and pious souls. But elec- 
tion is the immutable purpose of God ; by 
which, before the foundations of the world 
were laid, he chose, out of the whole human 
race, fallen by their own fault from their pri- 
meval integrity into sin and destruction, ac- 
cording to the most free good pleasure of his 
own will, and o? mere grace, a certain number 
of men, neither better nor worthier than others, 
but lying in the same misery with the rest, to 
salvation in Christ ; whom he had, even from 
eternity, constituted Mediator and head of all 
the elect, and the foundation of salvation ; and 
therefore he decreed to give them unto him to 
be saved, and effectually to call and draw them 
into communion -with him, by his word and 
Spirit ; or he decreed himself to give unto them 
true faith, to justify, to sanctify, and at length 
powerfully to glorify them, &c, Eph. i, 4-6 ; 
Rom. viii, 30. This same election is not made 
from any foreseen faith, obedience of faith, 
holiness, or any other good quality and dis- 
position, as a pre-requisite cause or condition 
in the man who should be elected, &c. 'He 
hath chosen us,' not because we were, but ' that 
we might be, holy,' &c, Eph. i, 4 ; Rom. ix, 
11-13; Acts xiii, 48. Moreover, Holy Scrip- 
ture doth illustrate and commend to us this 
eternal and free grace of our election, in this 
more especially, that it doth testify all men not 
to be elected ; but that some are non-elect, or 
passed by, in the eternal election of God, whom 
truly God, from most free, just, irreprehensible, 
and immutable good pleasure, decreed to leave 
in the common misery into which they had, by 
their mvn fault, cast themselves ; and n ot to 
bestow on them living faith, and the grace of 
conversion ; but having been left in their own 
ways, and under just judgment, at length, not 



only on account of their unbelief, but also of 
all their other sins, to condemn and eternally 
punish them, to the manifestation of his own 
justice. And this is the decree of reprobation, 
which determines that God is, in no wise, the 
author of sin, (which, to be thought of, is 
blasphemy,) but a tremendous, incomprehensi- 
ble, just judge, and avenger." 

(2.) " Of the Death of Christ." Passing over, 
for brevity's sake, what is said of the necessity 
of atonement, in order to pardon, and of Christ 
having offered that atonement and satisfaction, 
it is added, " This death of the Son of God is 
a single and most perfect sacrifice and satis- 
faction for sins ; of infinite value and price, 
abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of the 
whole world ; but because many who are call- 
ed by the Gospel do not repent, nor believe in 
Christ, but perish in unbelief; this doth not 
arise from defect or insufficiency of the sacri- 
fice offered by Christ upon the cross, but from 
their own fault. God willed that Christ, through 
the blood of the cross, should, out of every 
people, tribe, nation, and language, efficaciously 
redeem all those, and those only, who were 
from eternity chosen to salvation, and given to 
him by the Father ; that he should confer on 
them the gift of faith," &:.c. 

(3.) " Of Man's Corruption, ^c. All men 
are conceived in sin, and born the children of 
wrath, indisposed (inepti) to all saving good, 
prepense to evil, dead in sin, and the slaves of 
sin ; and without the regenerating grace of the 
Holy Spirit, they neither are willing nor able 
to return to God, to correct their depraved 
nature, or to dispose themselves to the correc- 
tion of it." 

(4.) " Of Grace and Free will. But in like 
manner as, by the fall, man does not cease to 
be man, endowed with intellect and will ; nei- 
ther hath sin, which hath pervaded the whole 
human race, taken away the nature of the hu- 
man species, but it hath depraved and spirit- 
ually stained it ; so that even this divine grace 
of regeneration does not act upon men like 
stocks and trees, nor take away the properties 
of his will ; or violently compel it, while un- 
willing ; but it spiritually quickens, heals, cor- 
rects, and sweetly, and at the same time power- 
fully, inclines it ; so that whereas before it was 
wholly governed by the rebellion and resist, 
ance of the flesh, now prompt and sincere obe- 
dience of the Spirit may begin to reign ; in 
which the renewal of our spiritual will, and 
our liberty, truly consist ; in which manner, 
(or for which reason,) unless the admirable Au- 
thor of all good should work in us, there could 
be no hope to man of rising from the fall by 
that free will, by which, when standing, he fell 
into ruin." 

(5.) " On Perseverance. God, who is rich in 
mercy, from his immutable purpose of election, 
does not wholly take away his Holy Spirit from 
his own, even in lamentable falls ; nor does he 
so permit them to glide down, (prolabi,) that 
they should fall from the grace of adoption, 
and the state of justification ; or commit the 
' sin unto death,' or against the Holy Spirit ; 
that, being deserted by him, they should cast 



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themselves headlong into eternal destruction. 
So that not by their own merits or strength, 
but by the gratuitous mercy of God, they obtain 
it, that they neither totally fall from faith and 
grace, nor finally continue in their falls and 
perish." 

10. The controversy on these difficult sub- 
jects was not decided by the decrees of the 
synod of Dort, which, it will be seen under that 
article, were purposely drawn up in a politic 
and wary manner, so as to quadrate with the 
.opinions, and not to outrage the feelings, of 
any grade of Calvinists. Prior to the conven. 
tion of that celebrated assembly, the doctrines 
of Calvin had been refined upon and incau- 
tiously carried out to some of their legitimate 
consequences, in a manner almost without pre- 
cedent, except that of the Mohammedan doctors 
on the absolute fate which holds a distinguish. 
ed place in the Koran. Several of the brightest 
and most acute wits in Europe occupied them- 
selves in sublimating to the height of extra- 
vagance the two kindred branches of predes- 
tination, — the eternal and absolute election of 
^certain men to everlasting glory, and the repro- 
bation of the rest of mankind to endless punish- 
ment, without regard in the divine mind to the 
foreseen faith of one class or to the foreseen 
unbelief of the other. This course was com- 
menced by Beza, the contemporary and succes- 
sor of Calvin, who possessed neither his genius 
nor his caution ; and his writings contain seve- 
ral rash assertions on these points, which, it is 
probable, would never have obtained the appro- 
bation of his departed friend and instructer. Zan. 
chius, with time Italian astuteness, carried on 
this process of refinem.ent in high style ; and his 
predestinarian improvements -were only equalled 
by those of Piscator, Pareus, Keckerman, Hom- 
niius, Kimedontius, Polanus, Sturmius, Da- 
nseus, Thysius, Donteklock, Bogerman, Gomar, 
Smoutius, Triglajidius, down to the minor tribe 
of Contra.Remonstrants, Damman, Maccovius, 
and Sibrandus Lubbertus. Nor were the clever 
divines of our own country a whit behind the 
foreigners in accomplishing this grand object ; 
and the theological reader, on seeing the names 
of Perkins, Whitaker, Abbot, and Twisse, will 
instantly recognise men whose doctrinal vaga- 
ries were familiar to all the Calvinists in Eu- 
rope. No one can form an adequate concep- 
tion of the injury thus inflicted on the divine 
attributes of wisdom, goodness, and mercy, as 
they have been revealed in the Scriptures, un 
less he has read the immense mass of quota- 
tions from the writings of these and other di 
vines, which v/ere presented to the notice of 
the synod of Dort by the Remonstrants, esp 
cially in their Rejection of Errors xmder each 
of the five points in dispute ; the proofs of 
which were quoted from their respective au- 
thors, and the accurac}'^ and faithfulness of 
which were never called in question. Not only 
would the minds of all sober Christians in these 
days be shocked when perusing the monstrous 
sentiments propounded in those extracts, but 
even the tolerably stiff Calvinists of Oliver 
Cromwell's time felt themselves scandalized by 
any allusion to them, and would not admit that 



their opinions had the least affinity to such 
desecrating dogmas. Little more than twenty 
years after the synod of Dort, that distinguish- 
ed polemical divine and accurate scholar. Dr. 
Thomas Pierce, published his able and very in- 
teresting pamphlet, entitled, " A Correct Copy 
of Some Notes concerning God's Decrees ;" in 
which, without naming the authors, he gave ten 
extracts from celebrated Calvinistic treatises, 
to prove, that " there are men of no small 
name who have told the v/orld, that all the evil 
of sin which is in man proceedeth from God 
only as the author, and from man only as the 
instrument." Four of these extracts will fur- 
nish sufficient matter to every judicious mind 
for mournful reflections on the strange obliqui- 
ties to which the human understanding is lia- 
ble : — (1.) " A wicked man, by the just impulse 
of God, doeth that which is not lawful for him 
to do." (2.) "When God makes an angel or 
a man a transgressor, he himself doth not trans- 
gress, because he doth not break a law. The 
very same sin, namely, adultery or murder, in- 
asmuch as it is the work of God, the author, 
mover, and compeller, is not a crime ; but in- 
asmuch as it is of man, it is a wickedness." 
(3.) " God can will that man shall not fall, by 
his will which is called vohintas signi ; and in 
tlie mean while he can ordain that the same 
man shall infallibly and efficaciously fall, by 
his will which is called voluntas heneplaciti. 
The former will of God is improperly called his 
will, for it only signifieth what man ought to 
do by right ; but the latter will is properly call, 
ed a will, because, by that he decreed what 
should inevitably come to pass." (4.) " God's 
will doth pass, not only into the permission of 
the sin, but into the sin itself which is permit- 
ted. The Dominicans," the high predestina- 
rian order in the church of Rome, " do imper- 
fectly and obscurely relate the truth whilst, 
beside God's concurrence to the making way 
for sin, th^y require nothing but the negation 
of efficacious grace, when it is manifest that 
there is a farther prostitution of sin required." 
Of these four passages the first is from Calvin 
himself, the second from Zuinglius, and the 
third and fourth from Dr. Twisse. This pamph- 
let was the first in a smart controversy, in which 
Doctor (afterward Bishop) Reynolds, Baxter, 
Hickman, and Barlee, took part against Dr. 
Pierce, but in which those eminent men vir- 
tually disclaimed all community of sentiment 
between themselves and such high predestina- 
rians. In their warmth, however, they accus- 
ed the Doctor of having "rifled the well-fur- 
nished cabinet of the Batavian Remonstrant 
writings," and of not having hesitated "to be 
beholden to very thieves, namely, such roguish 
pamphlets as Fur Predestinatus and others are, 
rather than want materials for invectives against 
Calvin, Beza, Twisse," &c. In his reply, the 
Doctor says, "When I published my papers on 
God's decrees, I had never so much as seen that 
well-furnished cabinet, the 'Acta Synodalia 
Remonstrantimn ;' " and he proves that he has 
copied none of his extracts from Fur Predesti- 
natus. As his opponents were " so unthank- 
ful for the lenity" which he had displayed in 



CAIi 



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giving " so short a catalogue," be added other 
affirmations cf a still more revolting import, if 
that were possible. The four extracts which 
follow, will serve as a correct specimen of the 
gross and unguarded assertions of some of those 
good men who were thus exposed ; the first two 
are from Zanchius, the other two from Piscator, 
both of them men of renown in that age : — 
(1.) " Reprobates are compelled with a neces- 
sity of sinning, and so of perishing, by this or- 
dination of God ; and so compelled that they 
cannot choose but sin and perish." (2.) " God 
v\-orks all things in all men, not only in the 
godly, but also in the ungodly." (.3.) "Judas 
could not but betray Christ, seeing that God's 
decrees are immutable ; and whether a man 
bless or curse, he always doth it necessarily in 
respect of God's providence, and in so doing he 
doetli always according to the will of God." 
(4.) " It doth or at least may appear from the 
v7ord of God, that we neither can do more good 
than we do, nor omit more evil than we omit ; 
beco.use God from eternity hath precisely de- 
creed tliat both [the good and the evil] should 
so be done. It is fatally constituted when, and 
how, and how much, every one of us ought to 
study and love piety, or not to love it." In 
that newh^ emancipated age, the ample discus- 
sion of these topics could not fail to produce 
much good ; and the result in the course of a 
few years was, that a vast number of those who 
had implicitly follov/cd the guidance of Calvin, 
deserted his standard, and either went com- 
pletely over to the ranks of Arminius, or halt- 
ed midway uiider the command of Baxter. 
From that time to the middle of the eighteenth 
century, those dogmas which are usually desig- 
nated as ultra-Calvinian or Antinomian, re- 
ceived no support except from such shallow 
divines as Dr. Crisp and his immediate admirers. 
But when the Rev. John Wesley and his bro. 
ther, as Arminians, propounded the doctrines 
of the Gospel in as evange-lical a manner, and 
with as marked success, as any Calvinist, a 
number of those excellent men, both in the 
church and among the Dissenters, who had 
been early benefited by the ministry of the 
t\vo brothers, thought, as many now" do, that 
it was impossible for any thing to be evangeli- 
cal that was not Calvinistic ; and, apparently 
with the design of being at as great a remove 
as possible from a reputed heresy, they became 
in principle real Antinomians. In forming 
this conclusion, and in running to a supposed 
opposite extreme, such persons seem to have 
forgotten that those truly evangelical princi- 
ples, — which in Germany and the neighbour- 
ing states effected the reformation from Popery, 
which transformed sinners into Christians and 
martyrs, and Avhich, in the perverted state of 
society that then obtained, but too painfully 
reminded the sainted sufferers of the domestic, 
municipal, and national grievances and perse- 
cutions to which the earliest confessors of the 
name of Christ were subjected, — had been in 
beneficial operation long before Calvin's doc- 
trinal system w^as brought to maturity, and 
when he was known only as the humble and 
diligent pastor of the church of Geneva. And 



even after the publication of his " Institutes," 
which contained the peculiarities of his creed, 
he had to wait many years, to labour hard, not 
always in the most sanctified spirit, both from 
the pulpit and the press, and to endure many per. 
sonai mortifications, before he was able to ob- 
trude his novel dogmas on his own immediate 
connections, or to make any sensible impres- 
sion on the generally received theology of his 
learned contemporaries. Such persons ought 
also to recollect, that, as Dr. Watts justly ob- 
serves, "some of the most rigid and narrow 
limitations of grace to men are found chiefly 
in Calvin's Institutions, which were written in 
his youth. But his comments on Scripture 
were the labours of his riper years and maturer 
judgment." 

11. His first tract on predestination was 
published in 1552; and the first complete edi- 
tion of his "Institutes" did not see the light 
till the year 1558 ; but the change in Melanc- 
tlion's opinions, from the fatality of Stoicism, 
to the universality of the Gospel, occurred at 
least six years prior to 1535, when the second 
edition of his "Common Places" was published, 
that contained his amended creed, and strong 
cautions against the contrary doctrines. One 
of the most eloquent and best informed writers 
of the present age has, in reference to this sub- 
ject, justly observed : "Both Luther and Me- 
"lancthon, after their creed became permanently 
settled at the diet of Ausburg, (A. D. 1530,) 
kept one object constantly in view, — to incul- 
cate only what was plain and practical, and 
never to attempt philosophizing. They per- 
ceived, that before the reformation the doctrine 
of divine foreknowledge had been grossly mis- 
conceived and abused, although guarded by all 
the logic of the schools ; and they felt, that, 
after it, they had themselves at first contributed 
to increase the evil, by grounding upon thft 
same high argument, although for a very dif- 
ferent purpose, the position of an infallible 
necessity. Thenceforward, therefore, they only- 
taught a predestination which the Christian 
religion explains, and the Christian life exem- 
plifies. Thus, while their adversaries philoso- 
phized upon a predestination of individuals, 
preferred one before another by divine regard 
because worthy of such a preference, they 
taught only that which has been revealed with 
certainty, — the predestination of a peculiar de- 
scription of persons, of a people zealous of good 
works, of the Christian church contemplated, 
as an aggregate, not on account of its own 
dignity, but on account of Christ its supreme 
Head, and the author of eternal salvation to all 
who obey him. While restoring Scriptural sim- 
plicity to the doctrine of predestination, per, 
plexed and disfigured by the vanity of the 
schools, they studiously and anxiously pre- 
served every trace of that universal >enevo- 
lence by which Christianity is particularly 
distinguished. ' Let us,' they said, ' with both 
our hands, or rather with all our heart, hold 
fast the true and pious maxim, that God is not 
the author of sin, that he sits not in heaven 
writing Stoical laws in the volumes of fate ; 
but, endowed with a perfect freedom himself^ 



CAL 



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he communicates a liberty of action to his 
creatures ; firmly opposing the position of ne- 
cessity as false, and pernicious to morals and 
religion. God, we may be assured, is no cruel 
and merciless tyrant; he does not hate and 
reject men, but loves them as a parent loves his 
ciiildren.' Universal grace, indeed, vs^as at all 
times a favourite topic with the Lutherans ; nor 
would they admit of any predestination except 
that of a beneficent Deity, who was in Christ 
reconciling the world to himself; except a pre- 
destination conformable with that order of 
things which he has established, and with the 
use or abuse of the means which he has or- 
dained. 'The Almighty,' they said, 'has 
seriously willed and decreed, from eternity, all 
men to be saved and to enjoy everlasting fe- 
licity ; let us not therefore indulge in evil sug- 
gestions, and separate ourselves from his grace, 
which is as expanded as the space between 
heaven and earth ; let us not restrain the ge- 
neral promise, in which he offers his favour to 
all without discrimination, nor confine it to 
those who, affecting a peculiar garb, wish to be 
alone esteemed pious and sanctified. If many 
perish, the fault is not to be imputed to the 
divine will, but to human obstinacy, which 
despises that will, and disregards a salvation 
destined for all men.' ' And because many are 
called, but few are chosen, let us not,' they ad- 
ded, 'entertain an opinion highly impious, — 
that God tenders Ms grace to many, but com- 
municates it only to a few ; for should w^e not 
in the greatest degree detest a Deity by whose 
arbitrary will we believed ourselves to be ex- 
cluded from salvation ?' Upon the important 
point likewise of the conditional acceptance of 
the individual, their ideas were not more dis- 
tinct than their language was explicit. ' If 
God chose,' they argued, ' certain persons only 
in order to unite them to himself, and rejected 
the remainder in all respects alike, would not 
such AN ELECTION WITHOUT CAUSES sccm tyran- 
nical ? Let us therefore be persuaded, that 
some cause exists in us, as some difference is to 
be found between those who are, and those who 
are not, accepted. Thus they conceived that, 
predestinating his elect in Christ, or the Chris- 
tian tjhurch, to eternal salvation, he excludes 
none from that mmiber by a partial adoption 
of favourites, but calls all equally, and accepts 
of all who obey his calling, or, in other words, 
who become true Christians by possessing the 
qualifications which Christianity requires. — 
* He,' they stated, who ' falls from grace, can- 
not but perish, completely losing remission of 
sin, with the other benefits which Christ has 
purchased for him, and acquiring in their stead 
divine wrath and death eternal.' Melancthon, 
who in his private correspondence expressly 
termed Calvin the Zeno of his day, says, ' Let 
us execrate the Stoical disputations which 
some introduce, who imagine that the elect 
always retain the Holy Spirit, even when they 
commit atrocious crimes, — a manifest and 
highly reprehensible error ; and let us not con- 
firm in fools security and blindness.' " 

These quotations might be augmented by 
others from the earliest Lutheran authors, more 



Arminian in their import than any which Ar 
minius ever wrote : but the preceding are suffi 
cient to show, that, during upward of thirty 
years, the Protestant church in Germany was 
nourished by doctrines most manifestly at va- 
riance with the refinements afterward promul- 
gated by Calvin. Real conversions of sinners 
were never more abundant than in that golden 
age ; yet these were produced by the blessing 
of God upon an evangelical agency that had 
scarcely any thing in common with the Ge- 
nevan dogmas. With these and similar facts 
before him, therefore, no Calvinist can in com- 
mon honesty claim for the peculiarities of his 
creed, for those doctrines which distinguish it 
from the Melancthonism of the Protestant 
churches of England and Germany, the ex- 
clusive title of Evangelical. Equally falla- 
cious is the ground on which he can prefer any 
such claun on account of the alleged counsel 
and advice given by Calvin to our reformers 
while they were engaged in the formation of 
our Articles and Liturgy. On no fact in the 
ecclesiastical history of this country arc our 
annalists more completely at agreement than 
on this, — that Calvin's name and writings were 
scarcely known in England till the time when 
the persecution under Queen Mary forced 
many of our best divines into banishment ; and 
that, to the great fiiture disquietude of the 
churcl], several of these exiles on their return 
imported a personal bias either in favour of his 
discipline or of his dogmas. Anterior to that 
period he had received no such pressing invi- 
tations from our reformers, and from the king 
himself, as Melancthon had done, for his 
friendly theological aid in drawing up the doc- 
trinal and disciplinary formulae of our national 
church. The man who asserts the contrary to 
this, and who has the hardihood to deny the 
Melancthonian origin of the Articles and Lit- 
urgy, discovers at once his want of correct 
information on these subjects, and has never 
read the convincing documents appended to 
the Archbishop of Cashel's (Dr. Laurence's) 
" Eight Sermons," being the Bampton Lec- 
tures for 1804, and entitled, " J.n Attempt to 
Illustrate those Articles of the Church of Eng- 
land which the Calvinists improperly consider 
as Calvinistical ;" Todd's treatise " On Original 
Sin, Free Will, ^c, as maintained by certain 
Declarations of our Reformers ;" Plaifere's ^^Ap- 
pello Evangelium;" nor even the portable yet 
convincing pamphlets of Kipling and Winches- 
ter, the former entitled " The Articles not CaU 
vinistic;" the latter, "J. Dissertation on the 
Seventeenth Article of the Church." 

12. There is one fact connected with these 
assumed yet unfounded claims, which has never 
yet been placed in its proper light, but which 
it may be well bi-iefly to notice in this place. 
Calvin himself, in 1535, wrote the following 
truly Melancthonian paragraphs as part of his 
preface to the New Testament in Frenci: 
" This Mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ, was the 
only, true, and eternal Son of God, whom the 
Father was about to send into the world, that 
he might collect all men together from this 
horrid dispersion and devastation. When, at 



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length, that fulness of time arrived, that day 
pi-eordained by the Lord, he openly showed 
himself as that Messiah who had for so many 
ages been the desire of all nations, and hath 
most abundantly performed all those things 
which were necessary for the redemption of all 
men. But this great blessing was not confined 
solely within the boundaries of the land of 
Israel, since, on the contrary, it was intended 
[porrigendum] to be held out for the acceptance 
of the whole human race ; because through 
Christ alone the entire family of man was to 
be reconciled to Ood, as will be seen, and most 
amply demonstrated, in these pages of the New 
Testament." " To this inheritance of our hea- 
venly Father's kingdom we are all called with- 
out respect of persons, — whether we be men or 
women, high or low, masters or servants, teach- 
ers or disciples, [doctores] divines or laics, Jews 
or Greeks, Frenchmen or [Rojnani] Italians. 
From this inheritance no one is excluded, if 
he only so receive Christ as he is offered by 
the . Father for the salvation of all men, and 
embrace him when received." Great research 
has been displayed by the Calvinists at differ- 
ent periods, in endeavouring to discover, in 
the public formularies of the church, or in the 
private productions of our reformers, some 
trace of affinity between them and the writings 
of Calvin. Only two cases of such affinity 
have yet been found ; and, unfortunately for 
the validity of all pretensions of this kind, 
neither of them contains a single peculiarity 
of Calvinism, but, on the contrary, both are of 
the moderate and evangeliccd class of the Me- 
lancthonian school. One of the passages thus 
discovered is here subjoined from Cranmer's 
^^ Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine 
of the Sacra7nent" &c ; and bears all the marks 
of verisimilitude to the second of the preceding 
paragraphs from Calvin, though written fifteen 
years afler it : — " Almighty God, without re- 
spect of person, accepteth the oblation and 
sacrifice of priest and lay person, of king and 
subject, of master and servant, of man and wo- 
man, of young and old, yea, of English, French, 
Scot, Greek, Latin, Jew, and Gentile ; of every 
man according to his faithful and obedient 
heart unto him, and that through the sacrifice 
propitiatory of Jesus Christ." Had either this or 
the other passage contained the least tinge of 
v.'hat is now considered as belonging exclu- 
sively to the system of Calvin, the English ad- 
mirers of that great man would have had some 
grounds for the assertions which have been too 
confidently made, because so easily refuted. 

13. Having given this summary of the sen- 
timents of Calvin himself, and of the ancient 
or strict Calvinists, it is proper to observe, that 
there are, and always have been, many who 
generally embrace the Calvinistic system, but 
object to some particular parts, and to the 
strong language in which some of the proposi- 
tions are expressed. These are called moderate 
or modern Calvinists, who differ from Calvin, 
and the synod of Dort, chiefly on two points, — 
the doctrine of reprobation, and the extent of 
the death of Christ, The theory of Baxter has 
alreadv been noticed. This and all other miti- i 



gated schemes rest on two principles, the suf- 
ficiency of the atonement for all mankind, and 
the sufficiency of grace for those who do not 
believe. Still something more is held to be 
necessary than this sufficiency of grace in 
order to actual salvation ; namely, an accept- 
ance by man, which can only be made under 
that degree of effectual supernatural aid which 
is dispensed only to a certain number of per- 
sons, who are thus distinguished as the "elect 
of God." The main characteristic of all these 
theories, from the first to the last, from the 
highest to the lowest, is, that a part of man- 
kind are shut out from the mercies of God, on 
some ground irrespective of their refusal of a 
sincere offer to them of salvation through 
Christ, made with a communicated power of 
embracing it. Some power they allow to the 
reprobate, as natural power, and degrees of 
superadded moral power; but in no case the 
power to believe unto salvation ; and thus, as 
one well observes, "When they have cut some 
fair trenches, as if they would bring the water 
of life unto the dwellings of the reprobate, on 
a sudden they open a sluice which carries it 
off again." The whole labour of these theories 
is to find out some plausible reason for the 
infliction of punishment on them that perish, 
independent of the only cause assigned by the 
word of God — their rejection of a mercy free 
for all, and made attainable by all. See Bax- 

TERIANISM. 

14. After all, however, it is pleasant to find 
these indications of a growing consciousness, 
on the part of modern predestinarians, that the 
common notions and common language of 
mankind on these deep subjects are not far 
from the truth. And though some too fasti, 
dious Arminians may complain, that, in this 
desire to enlist the views and words of common 
sense on the side of Calvinism, many of those 
by whom they are employed attach to them 
a meaning very different from that which 
ordinary usage warrants ; yet even this ten- 
dency to approximate to right views should be 
regarded as favourable to the progress of truth, 
and the evidently improved feeling which has 
suggested such approximation ought to be met 
in a conciliating spirit. But this is a fault 
which must always be an appendage to such a 
system, however it may be modified ; and does 
not exclusively apply to its modern supporters. 
The following remarks by Archbishop Lau- 
rence on the ambiguity of language not unfre- 
quently discernible in the writings of Calvin 
himself, are worthy of consideration: — "lu 
whatsoever sense he wished these words to be 
understood, it must be admitted that he some- 
times adapted the style of others, who had a 
very different object in view, to his own pecu- 
liar opinions. And hence, from the want of a 
due discrimination, the sentiments of his con- 
temporaries, opposite in their natural tendency, 
are often improperly forced into the vortex of 
Calvinism. Systematizing was his darling pro- 
pensity, and the ambition of being distinguished 
as a leader in reform his predominant passion : 
in the arrangements of the former, he never 
felt a doubt, or found a difficulty; and in tho 



CAL 



2(H 



CAM 



'j)u.rsuits of the, latter he displayed an equal 
degree of perseverance and ardour. Thus, in 
the doctrine of the eucharist, it is well known 
that he laboured to acquire celebrity, and con- 
ciliate followers, by maintaining a kind of 
middle sacramental presence between the cor- 
poreal of the Lutherans, and the mere spiritual 
of the Zuinglians ; expressing himself in lan- 
guage which, partly derived from one, and 
partly from the other, verged toward neither 
extreme; but which, by his singular talent at 
perspicuous combination, he applied, and not 
without success, to his own particular purpose. 
Nor was he less solicitous to press into his 
service a foreign phraseology upon the subject 
more immediately before me ; a subject on his 
theory of which he not a little prided himself, 
and seemed contented to stake his reputation. 
He perceived that the Lutherans, strongly 
reprobating every discussion upon the decrees 
of a Deity unrevealed to us, founded predesti- 
nation solely on a Scriptural basis ; contending 
for a divine will which is seriously, not ficti- 
tiously, disposed to save all men, and predeter- 
mined to save all who become and continue sin- 
cere Christians. Zuingle, indeed, had reasoned 
from a different principle ; and, although per- 
suaded that God's mercies in Christ were libe- 
rally bestowed on all without distinction, on 
infants who commit not actual crime, and on 
the Heathen as well as the Christian world, he 
nevertheless was a necessitarian in the strict- 
est sense of the expression ; referring events of 
every kind to an uncontrollable and absolute 
predetermination. Zuingle, however, died in 
1531, before the youth of Calvin permitted him 
to assume the character of a reformer ; who 
found Bullinger then at the head of the Zuin- 
glian church, not only applauding, but adopt- 
ing, the moderation of the Lutherans; and, to 
use the phrase of Turretin, plainly Melancthon- 
izing. But the doctrine alluded to, it may be 
imagined, was of a species too limited and 
un philosophical for one of his enterprising turn 
of mind, who never met with an obstacle which 
he attempted not instantly to surmount. Dis- 
regarding, therefore, the sober restrictions of 
the times, he gave loose to the most unbounded 
speculation : yet, anxious by all means to win 
over all to his opinion, he studiously laboured 
to preserve, on some popular points, a verbal 
conformity with the Lutherans. With them, 
in words, he taught the universality of God's 
good will ; but it was a universality which he 
extended only to the offer of salvation ; con- 
ceiving the reprobate to be precluded from the 
reception of that offer by the secret decree of 
an immutable Deity. The striking feature of 
their system was an election in Christ, by 
which they meant an election as Christians. 
This also, in words, he inculcated : his idea, 
however, of an election in Christ was totally 
different from theirs ; for he held it to be the 
previous election of certain favourites by an 
irrespective will of God, whom, and whom 
alone, Christ was subsequently appointed to 
save. But his ingenuity was such, in adapting 
the terms borrowed from another source to his 
own theory, that some erroneously conceive 



them to have been thus originally used by the 
Lutherans themselves. Hence, therefore, much 
confusion has arisen in the attempt of properly 
discriminating between the various sentiments 
of Protestants upon this question, at the period 
under consideration : all have been regarded 
as formed upon the model which Calvin exhi- 
bited; at least by writers who have contem- 
plated him as the greatest reformer of his age, 
but who have forgotten that, although they 
chose to esteem him the greatest, they could 
not represent him as the first in point of time ; 
and that his title to preeminence, in the com- 
mon estimation of his contemporaries, was 
then far from being acknowledged." 

15. On one topic, however, Calvin and the 
older divines of that school were very explicit. 
They tell us plainly, that they found all the 
Christian fathers, both of the Greek and the 
Latin church down to the age of St. Augustine, 
quite unmanageable for their purpose ; and 
therefore occasionally bestow upon them and 
their productions epithets not the most courte- 
ous. Yet some modern writers, not possessing 
half the splendid qualifications of those veterans 
in learning, make a gorgeous display of the 
little that they know concerning antiquity ; 
and wish to lead their readers to suppose, that 
the whole stream of early Christianity has 
flowed down only in their channel. Every one 
must have remarked liow much like Calvin all 
those fathers speak whose works are quoted by 
Toplady in his "Historic Defence." Nor can 
the two Milners, in their "History of the 
Church," entirely escape censure on this ac- 
count, — though both were excellent men, and 
better scholars than Toplady, But from the 
manner in which they " show up" only those 
ancient Christian authors, some of whose sen- 
timents seem to be nearly in unison with their 
own, they induce the unlearned or half inform- 
ed to draw the erroneous conclusion, — that the 
peculiarities of Calvinism are not the inven- 
tions of a comparatively recent sera, and that 
they have always formed a prominent part of 
the profession of faith of every Christian com- 
munity since the days of the Apostles. 

All men must admire the candid and liberal 
spirit which breathes in the subjoined high but 
just eulogium on Calvin, from the pen of the 
same amiable Archbishop : " Calvin himself 
was both a wise and a good man ; inferior to 
none of his contemporaries in general ability, 
and superior to almost all in the art, as well as 
elegance, of composition, in the perspicuity 
and arrangement of his ideas, the structure of 
his periods, and the Latinity of his diction. 
Although attached to a theory, which he found 
it difficult in the extreme to free from the sus- 
picion of blasphemy against God, as the author 
of sin, he certainly was no blasphemer; but, 
on the contrary, adopted that very theory from 
an anxiety not to commit, but, as he conceived, 
to avoid blasphemy, — that of ascribing to hu- 
man, what he deemed alone imputable to divine, 
agency." 

CAMBYSES, the son of Cyrus, king of 
Persia. He succeeded his father, A. M. 3475, 
and is the Ahasuerus mentioned in Ezra iv, d 



CAM 



205 



CAM 



to whom, as soon as he came to the crown, 
the Samaritans applied by petition, desiring 
that the rebuilding of Jerusalem might be stop- 
ped. What the motives were which they made 
use of to prevail upon this prince, we are igno- 
rant : but it is certain, that though he was not 
persuaded to revoke his father's decree, yet he 
put a stop to the works, so that for the remain- 
ing seven years and five months which he 
reigned, the building of the city and temple 
was suspended. See Ahasuerus. 

CAMEL, ^m. This animal is called in 
ancient Arabic, gimel; and in modern, diam- 
mel; in Greek, Kdjiri^os. With very little varia- 
tion, the name is retained in modern languages. 
The camel is very common in Arabia, Judea, 
and the neighbouring countries; and is often 
mentioned in Scripture, and reckoned among 
the most valuable property, 1 Chron. v, 21 ; 
Job i, 3, &c. " No creature," says Volney, 
" seems so peculiarly fitted to the climate in 
which he exists as the camel. Designing this 
animal to dwell in a country where he can find 
little nourishment, nature has been sparing of 
her materials in the whole of his formation. 
She has not bestowed upon him the fleshiness 
of the ox, horse, or elephant; but limiting her- 
self to what is strictly necessary, has given 
him a long head, without ears, at the end of a 
long neck without flesh ; has taken from his 
legs and thighs every muscle not immediately 
requisite for motion ; and, in short, bestowed 
upon his withered body only the vessels and 
tendons necessary to connect its frame together. 
She has furnished him with a strong jaw, that 
he may grind the hardest aliments ; but, lest 
he should consume too much, has straitened 
his stomach, and obliged him to chew the cud ; 
has lined his foot with a lump of flesh, which 
sliding in the mud, and being no way adapted 
to climbing, fits him only for a dry, level, and 
sandy soil, like that of Arabia. So great, in 
short; is the importance of the camel to the 
desert, that, were it deprived of that useful 
animal, it must infallibly lose every inhabitant." 
The chief use of the camel has always been as 
a beast of burden, and for performing journeys 
across the deserts. They have sometimes been 
used in war, to carry the baggage of an orien- 
tal army, and mingle in the tumult of the 
battle. Many of the Amalekite warriors, who 
burnt Ziklag in the time of David, were mount- 
ed on camels ; for the sacred historian remarks, 
that of the whole army not a man escaped the 
furious onset of that heroic and exasperated 
leader, "save four hundred young men, which 
rode upon camels, and fled," 1 Sara, xxx, 17. 

The passage of Scripture in which our Lord 
says, "It is easier for a camel to go through 
the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to 
enter into the kingdom of heaven," Matt, xix, 
24, has been the occasion of much criticism. 
Some assert that near Jerusalem was a low 
gate called "the needle's eye," through which 
a camel could not pass unless his load was 
taken off". Others conjecture that KdjxiXos should 
be read kuSiXos, a cable. But there are no an- 
cient manuscripts to support the reading. In 
the Jewish Talmud, there is, however, a simi- 



lar proverb respecting an elephant : " Rabbi 
Shesheth answered Kabbi Amram, who had 
advanced an absurdity, ' Perhaps thou art one 
of the Pambidithians, who can make an ele- 
phant pass through the eye of a needle ;'" that 
is, says the Aruch, " who speak things impos- 
sible." There is also a saying of the same 
kind in the Koran : " The impious, who in his 
arrogancy shall accuse our doctrine of falsity, 
shall find the gates of heaven shut ; nor shall 
he enter there, till a camel shall pass through 
the eye of a needle. It is thus that we shall 
recompense the wicked," Surat. vii, 37. In- 
deed, Grotius, Lightfoot, Wetstein, and Mi- 
chaelis join in opinion, that the comparison is 
so much in the figurative style of the oriental 
nations and of the rabbins, that the text is suf- 
ficiently authentic. 

CAMEL'S HAIR, mentioned Matt, iii, 4; 
Mark i, 6. John the Baptist, we are told, was 
habited in a raiment of camel's hair ; dnd Char- 
din assures us, that the modern dervises wear 
sach garments ; as they do also great leathern 
girdles. Camel's hair is also made into those 
beautiful stufis, called shawls ; but certainly 
the coarser manufacture of this material was 
adopted by John, and we may receive a good 
idea of its texture, from what Braithwaite says 
of the Arabian tents: "They are made of 
camel's hair, somewhat like our coarse hair 
cloths to lay over goods." By this coarse ves- 
ture the Baptist was not merely distinguished, 
but contrasted with those in royal palaces, who 
wore " soft raiment," such as shawls or other 
superfine manufactures, whether of the same 
material or not. 

CAMERONIANS, a sect in Scotland, who 
separated from the Presbyterians in 1666, and 
continued to hold their religious assemblies in 
the fields. The Cameronians took their de- 
nomination from Richard Cameron, a famous 
field preacher, who, refusing to accept the in- 
dulgence to tender consciences granted by 
King Charles II, as such an acceptance seemed 
an acknowledgment of the king's supremacy, 
and that he had before a right to silence them,^ 
separated from his brethren, and even headed 
a rebellion in which he was killed. His fol- 
lowers were never entirely reduced till the 
Revolution, when they voluntarily submitted 
to King William. The Cameronians adhered 
rigidly to the form of government established 
in 1648. 

CAMERONISTS, or CAMERONITES, is 
the denomination of a party of Calvinists in 
France, Vv^ho asserted, that the cause of men's 
doing good or evil proceeds from the knowledge 
which God infuses into them ; and that God 
does not move the will physically, but only 
morally, in virtue of its dependence on the 
judgment of the mind. They had this name 
from John Cameron, one of the most famous 
divines among the Protestants of France, in 
the seventeenth century, who was born at Glas- 
gow, in Scotland, about the year 158U, and 
taught Greek there till he removed to Bour- 
deaux in 1600. Here he acquired such ce- 
lebrity by the fluency with which he spoke 
Greek, that he was appointed to teach the 



cAivr 



206 



CAM 



iearnod languages at Bergerac^ He afterward 
became professor of philosophy at Sedan ; but 
returning to Bourdeaux in 1604, he devoted 
himself to the study of divinity. Upon being 
appointed tutor to the sons of the chancellor of 
Navarre, he accompanied them to Paris, Ge- 
neva, and Heidelberg. After having discharged 
the office of a minister at Bourdeaux, which he 
assumed in 1608, for ten years, he accepted 
the professorship of divinity at Saumur. Upf^n 
the dispersion of that academy by the public 
commotions in 1621, he removed to England, 
and taught divinity at his own house in Lon- 
don. King James inclined to favour him on 
account of his supposed attachment to the 
hierarchy, made him master of the college, and 
professor of divinity, at Glasgow ; but after 
holding this office, which he found to be un- 
pleasant to him, for a year, he returned to 
Saumur, where he read private lectures. From 
thence he removed, in 1624, to Montauban ; 
where the disturbances excited by the emissa- 
ries of the duke de Rohan led him to remon- 
strate against the principles which produced 
them, with more zeal than prudence. This 
occasioned his being insulted by a piivate per- 
son in the streets, and severely beaten : and 
this treatment so much affected him, that he 
soon after died, in 1625, at the early age of 
forty-six years. Bayle represents him as "a 
man of great parts and judgment, of an excel- 
lent memory, very learned, a good philosopher, 
good humoured, liberal not only of his know- 
ledge but his purse, a great talker, a long- 
winded preacher, little versed in the fathers, 
inflexible in his opinions, and inclined to tur- 
bulence." He was one of those who attempted 
to reconcile the doctrine of predestination, as 
it had been taught at Geneva, and confirmed 
at Dort, with the sentiments of those who be- 
lieve that God offers salvation to all mankind. 
His opinion was maintained and propagated by 
Moses Amyraut, and several others of the most 
learned among the reformed ministers, who 
thought Calvin's doctrine too harsh. They 
were called Hypothetical Universalists. Came- 
ron likewise maintained the possibility of sal- 
vation in the church of Rome. See Amyraut 
and Baxterianism. 

CAMP, or ENCAMPMENT, of the Israel- 
ites. The whole body of the people, consist- 
ing of six hundred thousand fighting men, 
beside women and children, was disposed un- 
der four battalions, so placed as to enclose the 
tabernacle, in the form of a square, and each 
under one general standard. (See Armies.) 
There were forty-one encampments, from their 
first in the month of March, at Rameses, in the 
land of Goshen, in Egypt, and in the wilder- 
ness, until they reached the land of Canaan. 
They are thus enumerated in Numbers xxxiii : — 

1. Rameses 8. Wilderness of Sin 

2. Succoth 9. Dophkah 

3. Etham, on the edge 10. Alush 

of the wilderness 11. Rephidim 

4. Pihahiroth 12. Wilderness of Sinai 

5. Marah 13. Kibroth-hattaavah 

6. Elim 14. Hazeroth 

7. By the Red Sea 15. Rithmah 



16. Rimmon-parez 30. Jotbathah 

17. Libnah 31. Ebronah 

18. Rissah 32. Ebion-gaber 

19. Kehelatha 33. Kadesh 

20. Shapher 34. Mount Hor 

21. Haradah 35. Zalmonah 

22. Makhelotb 36. Punon 

23. Tahath 37. Oboth 

24. Tarah 38. Ije-abarim 

25. Mithcah 39. Dibon-gad 

26. Hashmonah 40. Almon-diblatha.im 

27. Moseroth 41. Mountains of Aba- 

28. Bene-jaakan rim 

29. Hor-hagidgad 

In the second year after their exodus from 
Egypt they were numbered ; and upon an exact 
poll, the number of their males amounted to 
six hundred and three thousand, five hundred 
and fifty, from twenty years old and upward, 
Num. i, ii. This vast mass of people, en- 
camped in beautiful order, must have presented 
a most impressive spectacle. That it failed 
not to produce effect upon the richly endowed 
and poetic mind of Balaam, appears from Num. 
xxiv, 2; "And Balaam lifted up his eyes and 
he saw Israel abiding in his tents according to 
their tribes ; and the Spirit of God came upon 
him, and he took up his parable and said, How 
goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy taber- 
nacles, O Israel ! As the valleys are they spread 
forth, as gardens by the river side, as the trees 
of lign aloes which the Lord hath planted, and 
as cedar trees beside waters." Grandeur, order, 
beauty, and freshness, were the ideas at once 
suggested to the mind of this unfaithful pro- 
phet, and called forth his unwilling admiration. 
Perhaps we may consider this spectacle as a 
type of the order, beauty, and glory of the true 
"church in the wilderness," in those happy 
days when God "shall not behold iniquity in 
Jacob, nor perverseness in Israel;" when it 
shall be said, " The Lord his God is with him, 
and the shout of a king is among them." 

CAMPHIRE. -iflD. Greek, K-67rpos. Latm 
Cyprus. Canticles i, 14 ; iv, 13. Sir T. Browne 
supposes that the plant mentioned in the Can- 
ticles, rendered Kvnpos in the Septuagint, and 
Cyprus in the Vulgate, is that described by 
Dioscorides and Pliny, which grows in Egypt, 
and near to Ascalon, producing an odorate 
bush of flowers, and yielding the celebrated 
oleum cyprinum. [A sweet oil made of the 
flowers of the privet tree.] This is one of the 
plants which is most grateful to the eye and 
the smell. The deep colour of its bark, the 
light green of its foliage, the softened mixture 
of white and yellow with which the flowers, 
collected into long clusters like the lilac, are 
coloured ; the red tint of the ramifications 
which support them, form an agreeable com- 
bination. The flowers, whose shades are so 
delicate, difflise around the sweetest odours, 
and embalm the gardens and apartments which 
they embellish. The women take pleasure in 
decking themselves with them. With the 
powder of the dried leaves they give an orang-e 
tincture to their nails, to the inside of their 
hands, and to the soles of their feet. The ex- 
pression, n'tJlDXTiN nntt'y, rendered "pare their 



CAN 



207 



CAN 



nails," Deut. xxi, 12, may perliaps rather mean, 
^^ adorn their nails ;" and imply the antiquity 
of this practice. This is a universal custom in 
Egypt, and not to conform to it would be con- 
sidered indecent. It seems to have been prac- 
tised by the ancient Egyptians, for the nails of 
the mummies are most commonly of a red- 
dish hue. 

In the Song of Solomon, the bride is de- 
scribed as saying, " My beloved is unto me as 
a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of En- 
gedi," chap, i, 24; and again, " Thy plants are 
an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant 
fruits, camphire with spikenard," chap, iv, 13. 
CANA, a town of Galilee, where Jesus per- 
formed his first miracle, John ii, 1, 2, &c. It 
lay in the tribe of Zebulun, not far from Naza- 
reth. Cana was visited by Dr.'E. D. Clarke, 
who says, "It is worthy of note, that, walk- 
ing among the ruins of a church, we saw large 
massy stone pots, answering the description 
given of the ancient vessels of the country; 
these were not preserved nor exhibited as re. 
iiqueB, but lying about, disregarded by the pre- 
sent inhabiteuits, as antiquities with whose ori- 
ginal use they were unacquainted. From their 
appearance, and the number of them, it was 
quite evident that a practice of keeping water 
in large stone pots, each holding from eighteen 
to twenty-seven gallons, was once common in 
the country." 

CANAAN, the son of Ham, The Hebrews 
believe that Canaan, having first discovered 
Noah's nakedness, told his father Ham ; and 
that Noah, when he awoke, having understood 
what had passed, cursed Canaan, the first au- 
thor of the offence. Others are of opinion that 
Ham was punished in his son Canaan, Gen. 
ix, 25. For though Canaan is mentioned. Ham 
is not exempted from the malediction ; on the 
contrary, he suffers more from it, since parents 
are more affected Vv^ith their children's misfor- 
tunes than with their own ; especially if the 
evils have been inflicted through some fault or 
folly of theirs. Some have thought that Ca- 
naan may be put elliptically for the father of 
Canaan, that is, Ham, as it is rendered in the 
Arabic and Septuagint translations. 

The posterity of Canaan was numerous. His 
eldest son, Sidon, founded the city of Sidon, 
and was father of the Sidonians and Pheni- 
cians. Canaan had ten other sons, who were 
fathers of as many tribes, dwelling in Palestine 
and Syria ; namely, the Hittites, the Jebusites, 
the Amorites, the Girgasites, the Hivites, the 
Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zema- 
rites, and the Hemathites. It is believed that 
Canaan lived and died in Palestine, which from 
him was called the land of Canaan. Notwith- 
standing the curse is directed againt Canaan 
the son, and not against Ham the father, it is 
often supposed that all the posterity of Ham 
were placed under the malediction, "Cursed 
be Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he be 
unto his brethren." But the true reason why 
Canaan only was mentioned probably is, that 
the curse was in fact restricted to the posteri- 
ty of Canaan. It is true that many Africans, 
descendants of other branches of Ham's fami- 



ly, have been largely and cruelly enslaved ; but 
so have other tribes in different parts of the 
world. There is certainly no proof that the 
negro race were ever placed under this male- 
diction. Had they been included in it, this 
would neither have justified their oppressors, 
nor proved that Christianity is not designed to 
remove the evil of slavery. But Canaan alone 
in his decendants, is cursed, and Ham only in 
that branch of his posterity. It follows that the 
subjugation of the Canaanitish races to Israel 
fulfils the prophecy. To them it was limited, 
and with them it expired. Part of the seven 
nations of the Canaanites were made slaves to 
the Israelites, when they took possession of 
their land ; and the remainder by Solomon. 

Canaan, Land of. In the map it presents 
the appearance of a narrow slip of country, ex- 
tending along the eastern coast of the Medi- 
terranean ; from which, to the river Jordan, the 
utmost width does not exceed fifty miles. This 
river was the eastern boundary of the land of 
Canaan, or Palestine, properly so called, which 
derived its name from the Philistines or Pales- 
tines originally inhabiting the coast. To three 
of the twelve tribes, however, Reuben, Gad, 
and Manasseh, portions of territory were as- 
signed on the eastern side of the river, which 
were afterward extended by the subjugation of 
the neighbouring nations. The territory of 
Tyre and Sidon was its ancient border on the 
north-west ; the range of the Libanus and Anti- 
libanus forms a natural boundary on the north 
and north-east ; while in the south it is press- 
ed upon by the Syrian and Arabian deserts. 
Within this circumscribed district, such were 
the physical advantages of the soil and climate, 
there existed, in the happiest periods of the 
Jewish nation, an immense population. The 
kingdom of David and Solomon, however, ex- 
tended far beyond these narrow limits. In a 
north-eastern direction, it was bounded only 
by the river Euphrates, and included a consi- 
derable part of Syria. It is stated that Solomon 
had dominion over all the region on the west, 
ern side of the Euphrates, from Thiphsah, or 
Thapsacus, on that river, in latitude 25° 20', to 
Azzah, or Gaza. " Tadmore in the wilderness," 
(Palmyra,) which the Jewish monarch is stated 
to have built, (that is, either founded or fortifi. 
ed,) is considerably to the north-east of Dam as- 
cus, being only a day's journey from the Eu- 
phrates ; and Hamath, the Epiphania of the 
Greeks, (still called Hamah,) in the territory 
belonging to which city Solomon had several 
" store cities," is seated on the Orontes, in lati- 
tude 34" 45' N. On the east and south-east, 
the kingdom of Solomon was extended by the 
conquest of the country of Moab, that of the 
Ammonites, and Edom ; and tracts which were 
either inhabited or pastured by the Israelites, 
lay still farther eastward. Maon, which be- 
longed to the tribe of Judah, and was situated 
in or near the desert of Paran, is described by 
Abulfeda as the farthest city of Syria toward 
Arabia, being two days' journey beyond Zoar. 
In the time of David, the people of Israel, wo. 
men and children included, amounted, on the 
lowest computation, to five millions ; beside 



CAN 



208 



CAN 



the tributary Canaanites, and other conquered 
nations. 

The vast resources of the country, and the 
power of the Jewish monarch, may be estimat- 
ed not only by the consideration in which he 
was held by the contemporary sovereigns of 
Egypt, Tyre, and Assyria, but by the strength 
of the several kingdoms, into which the domin- 
ions of David were subsequently divided. Da- 
mascus revolted during the reign of Solomon, 
and shook off the Jewish yoke. At his death, 
ten of the tribes revolted under Jeroboam, and 
the country became divided into the two rival 
kingdoms of Judah and Israel, having for their 
capitals Jerusalem and Samaria. The kingdom 
of Israel fell before the Assyrian conqueror, in 
the year B. C. 721, after it had subsisted about 
two hundred and fifty years. That of Judah 
survived about one hundred and thirty years, 
Judea being finally subdued and laid waste by 
Nebuchadnezzar, and the temple burned B. C. 
588. Idumea was conquered a few years after. 
From this period till the sera of Alexander the 
Great, Palestine remained subject to the Chal- 
dean, Median, and Persian dynasties. At his 
death, Judea fell under the dominion of the kings 
of Syria, and, with some short and troubled in- 
tervals, remained subject either to the kings of 
Syria or of Egypt, till John Hyrcanus shook off 
the Syrian yoke, and assumed the diadem, B. C. 
130. The Asmonean dynasty, which united, in 
the person of the monarch, the functions of king 
and pontiff, though tributary to Roman conquer- 
ors, lasted one hundred and twenty-six years, 
till the kingdom was given by Anthony to He- 
rod the Great, of an Idumean family, B. C. 39. 

2. At the time of the Christian sera, Pales- 
tine was divided into five provinces; Judea, 
Samaria, Galilee, Perea, and Idumea. On the 
death of Herod, Archelaus, his eldest son, suc- 
ceeded to the government of Judea, Samaria, 
and Idumea, with the title of tetrarch ; Galilee 
being assigned to Herod Autipas ; and Perea, 
or the country beyond .Jordan, to the third bro- 
ther, Philip. But in less than ten years the 
dominions of Archelaus became annexed, on 
his disgrace, to the Roman province of Syria ; 
and Judea was thenceforth governed by Roman 
procurators. Jerusalem, after its final destruc- 
tion by Titus, A. D. 71, remained desolate and 
almost uninhabited, till the emperor Hadrian 
colonized it, and erected temples to Jupiter and 
Venus on its site. The empress Helena, in the 
fourth century, set the example of repairing in 
pilgrimage to the Holy Land, to visit the scenes 
consecrated by the Gospel narrative ; and the 
country became enriched by the crowds of 
devotees who flocked there. In the beginning 
of the seventh century, it was overrun by the 
Saracens, who held it till Jerusalem was taken 
by the crusaders in the twelfth. The Latin 
kingdom of Jerusalem continued for about 
eighty years, during which the Holy Land 
streamed continually with Christian and Sara- 
cen blood. In 1187, Judea was conquered by 
the illustrious Saladin, on the decline of whose 
kingdom it passed through various revolutions, 
and at length, in 1317, was finally swallowed 
up in the Turkish empire. 



Palestine is now distributed into paslialics. 
That of Acre or Akka extends from Djebail 
nearly to Jaffa ; that of Gaza comprehends Jaffa 
and the adjacent plains ; and these two being 
now united, all the coast is under the jurisdic- 
tion of the pasha of Acre. Jerusalem, Hebron, 
Nablous, Tiberias, and in fact, the greater part 
of Palestine, are included in the pashalic of 
Damascus, now held in conjunction with that 
of Aleppo ; which renders the present pasha, 
in effect, the viceroy of Syria. Though both 
pashas continue to be dutiful subjects to the 
Grand Seignior in appearance, and annually 
transmit considerable sums to Constantinople 
to insure the yearly renewal of their office, they 
are to be considered as tributaries, rather than 
subjects of the Porte ; and it is supposed to be 
the religious suprem.acy of the Sultan, as caliph 
and vicar of Mohammed, more than any appre- 
hension of his power, which prevents them 
from declaring themselves independent. The 
reverence shown for the firmauns of the Porte 
throughout Syria attests the strong hold which 
the Sultan maintains, in this character, on the 
Turkish population. The pashas of Egypt and 
Bagdad are attached to the Turkish sovereign 
by the same ecclesiastical tie, which alone has 
kept the ill-compacted and feeble empire from 
crumbling to ruin. 

3. A few additional remarks upon the topo- 
graphy and climate will tend to elucidate the 
force of many of those parts of Scripture which 
contain allusions to these topics. Dr. E. D. 
Clarke, after stating his resolve to make the 
Scriptures his only guide throughout this inte- 
resting territory, says, " The delight afforded 
by the internal evidences of truth, in every in- 
stance where their fidelity of description was 
proved by a comparison of existing documents, 
surpassed even all we had anticipated. Such 
extraordinary instances of coincidence even 
with the customs of the country as they are now 
exhibited, and so many wonderful examples of 
illustration afforded by contrasting the simple 
narrative with the appearances presented, made 
us only regret the shortness of our time, and 
the limited sphere of our abilities for the com- 
parison." Judea is beautifully diversified with 
hills and plains — hills now barren and gloomy, 
but once cultivated to their summits, and smil- 
ing in the variety of their produce, chiefly the 
olive and the vine ; and plains, over which the 
Bedouin now roves to collect a scanty herbage 
for his cattle, but once yielding an abundance 
of which the inhabitants of a northern climate 
can form no idea. Rich in its soil ; glowing 
in the sunshine of an almost perpetual sum- 
mer ; and abounding in scenery of the grand- 
est, as well as of the most beautifial kind ; this 
happy country was indeed a land which the 
Lord had blessed : but Mohammedan sloth and 
despotism, as the instruments employed to exe- 
cute the curse of Heaven, have converted it into 
a waste of rock and desert, with the exception 
of some few spots, which remain to attest the 
veracity of the accounts formerly given of it. 
The hills of Judea frequently rise into mount- 
ains ; the most considerable of which are those 
of Lebanon and Hermon, on the north; those 



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which surround the sea of Galilee, and the 
Dead Sea, also attain a respectable elevation. 
The other mountains of note are, Carmel, Ta- 
bor, Ebal, and Gerizim, and the mountains of 
Gilboa, Gilead, and Abarim ; with the summits 
of the latter, Nebo and Pisgah : a description 
of which will be found under their respective 
heads. Many of the hills and rocks abound in 
caverns, the refuge of the distressed, or the re- 
sorts of robbers. 

4. From the paucity of rain which falls in 
Judea, and the heat and dryness of the atmos- 
phere for the greater part of the year, it pos- 
sesses but few rivers ; and as these, have all 
their rise within its boundaries, their course is 
short, and their size inconsiderable : the prin- 
cipal is the Jordan, which runs about a hundred 
miles. The other remarkable streams are, the 
Arnon, the Jabbok, the Kishon, the Kedron, 
the Besor, the Sorek, and the stream called 
the river of Egypt. These, also, will be found 
described under their respective heads. This 
country was once adorned with woods and 
forests : as we read of the forest of cedars in 
Lebanon, the forest of oaks in Bashan, the 
forest or wood of Ephraim, and the forest of 
Hareth in the tribe of Judah. Of these, the 
woods of Bashan alone remain ; the rest have 
been swept away by the ravages of time and of 
armies, and by the gradual consumption of the 
inhabitants, whose indolence and ignorance 
have prevented their planting others. 

5. There are no volcanoes now existing in 
Judea or its vicinity: nor is mention made of 
any in liistory, although volcanic traces are 
found in many parts on its eastern side, as 
they are also in the mountains of Edom on the 
south, the Djebel Shera and Hesma, as noticed 
by Burckhardt. There can be no doubt that 
many of the sacred writers were familiarly 
acquainted with the phenomena of volcanoes ; 
whence it may be inferred that they were pre- 
sented to their observation at no great distance, 
and from which they drew some of their sub- 
limest imagery. Mr. Home has adduced the 
following instances: "The mountains quake 
at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is 
burned at his presence. His fury is poured out 
like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by 
him," Nahum i, 5, 6. "Behold, the Lord 
Cometh forth out of his place, and will come 
down and tread upon the high places of the 
earth. And the mountains shall he molten, under 
him, and the valleys shall be cleft as wax before 
the fire, and as the waters that are poured 
down a steep place," Micah i, 3, 4. " O that 
thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou 
wouldest come down, that the mountains might 
flow down at thy presence. As when the melt- 
ing fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to 
boil, to make thy name known to thine adver- 
saries, that the nations may tremble at thy 
presence. When thou didst terrible things 
which we looked not for, thou camest down, 
the mountains flowed down at thy presence," 
Isa. Ixiv, 1-3. 

6. The climate of Judea, from the southern 
latitude of the country, is necessarily warm. 
The cold of winter is, indeed, sometimes greater 

15 



than in Em-opoan climates situated some de- 
grees farther to the north ; but it is of short 
duration, and the general character of the 
climate is that of heat. Both heat and cold 
are, however, tempered by the nature of the 
surface ; the winter being scarcely felt in the 
valleys, while in the summer the heat is almost 
insupportable ; and, on the contrary, in the 
more elevated parts, during the winter months, 
or rather weeks, frosts frequently occur, and 
snow sometimes falls, while the air in summer 
is comparatively cool and refreshing. Many 
winters pass without either snow or frost ; and 
in the coldest weather which ever occurs, the 
sun in the middle of the day is generally warm, 
and often hot ; so that the pain of cold is in 
reality but little felt, and the poor who cannot 
afford fires may enjoy, during several liours of 
the day, the more genial and invigorating in- 
fluence of the sun. This is the ordinary cha- 
racter of the winters ; though in some years, 
as will be seen presently, the cold is more 
severely felt during the short time that it pre. 
vails, which is never more than two months, 
and more frequently not so much as one. To- 
ward the end of November, or beginning of 
December, domestic fires become agreeable. 
It was at this time that Jehoiakim, king of 
Judah, is represented by Jeremiah as sitting in 
his winter house, with a fire burning on the 
hearth before him, Jer. xxxvi, 22. The same 
luxury, though frequently by no means neces- 
sary, is used by the wealthy till the end of 
March. 

7. Rain only falls during the autumn, winter, 
and spring, when it sometimes descends with 
great violence : the greatest quantity, and that 
which properly constitutes the rainy season, 
happening between the autumnal equinox, or 
somewhat later, and the beginning of December ; 
during which period, heavy clouds often ob- 
scure the sky, and several days of violent rain 
sometimes succeed each other with winds. 
This is what in Scripture is termed the early 
or the former rain. Showers continue to fall 
at uncertain intervals, with some cloudy but 
more fair weather, till toward the vernal equi- 
nox, when they become again more frequent 
and copious till the middle of April. These 
are the latter rains, Joel ii, 23. From this 
time to the end of May, showers come on at 
irregular intervals, gradually decreasing as the 
season advances ; the sky being for the most 
part serene, and the temperature of the air 
agreeable, though sometimes acquiring a high 
degree of heat. From the end of May, or 
beginning of June, to the end of September, or 
middle of October, scarce a drop of rain falls, 
the sky being constantly unclouded, and the 
heat generally oppressive. During this period, 
the inhabitants commonly sleep on the tops of 
their houses. The storms, especially in the 
autumn, are preceded by short but violent gusts 
of wind, which, from the surface of a parched 
soil, raise great clouds of dust; which explains 
what is meant by, " Ye shall not see wind," 
2 Kings iii, 7. The continuation of the same 
passage likewise implies, that such circum- 
scribed whirlwinds were generally considered 



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as the precursors of rain : a circumstance like- 
wise alluded to by Solomon, who says, " Whoso 
boasteth himself of a false gift, is like clouds 
and wind without rain," Prov. xxv, 14. An- 
other prognostic of an approaching storm is a 
small cloud rising in the west, and increasing 
until it overspreads the whole heavens. Such 
was the cloud, "like a man's hand," which 
appeared to Elijah, on mount Carmel ; which 
spread "till the heaven was black with clouds 
and wind, and there was a great rain," 1 Kings 
xviii, 44. To this phenomenon, and the cer- 
tainty of the prognostic, our Saviour alludes : 
" When ye see a cloud" (or the cloud, rnwcfeXriv) 
" rise out of the west, straightway ye say. 
There cometh a shower ; and so it is," Luke 
xii, 54. The same appearance is noticed by 
Homer : — 

'Sis ^' OT UTTO crKomrjs elSev vi(pog atito'Kos avrip 
^Ep^ojACVov Katu vsdvTOv vtb Zs^vpoio Iwrji, 
Tw 6i r\ avevOcv iovri, ixeXdvrepov, ijiiTi zs'taaa, 
^aivsT^ lov Kara zsdvrov, dyei 6i te \ai\aiTa ©oAX^jv. 
'Fiyrjarsv re iSuyv, k. t. \. II. lib. iv, 275. 
•'Slow from tlie main the heavy vapours rise, 
Spread in dim streams, and sail along the skies, 
Till black as night the swelling tempest shows, 
The cloud condensing as the West wind blows. 
He dreads the impending storm," &c. Pope. 
Hail frequently falls in the winter and spring 
in very heavy storms, and with hailstones of 
an enormous size. Dr. Russel says that he has 
seen some at Aleppo which measured two 
inches in diameter } but sometimes they are 
found to consist of irregularly shaped pieces, 
weighing near three ounces. The copious 
dew forms another peculiarity of this climate, 
frequently alluded to in Scripture : so copious, 
indeed, is it sometimes, as to resemble small 
rain, and to supply the wants of superficial 
vegetation. Mr. Maundrell, when travelling 
near mount Hermon, says^ " We were instruct- 
ed by experience what the Psalmist means by 
• the dew of Hermon,' Psalm cxxxiii, 3 ; our 
tents being as wet with it, as if it had rained 
all night." 

8. The seasons are often adverted to in 
Scripture, under the terms "seed time and 
harvest." The former, for wheat, is about the 
middle of October to the middle or end of No- 
vember : barley is put into the ground two and 
sometimes three months later. The wheat 
harvest commences about the twentieth of May, 
and early in June the whole is off the ground. 
The barley harvest, it is to be observed, is gene- 
rally a fortnight earlier. A survey of the as- 
tonishing produce of this country, and of the 
manner in which its most rocky and, to appear- 
ance, insuperably sterile parts, are made to 
yield to the wants of man, will be sufficient to 
refiite the objections raised by skeptical writers 
against the possibility of its furnishing subsist- 
ence to the multitude of its former inhabitants 
recorded in Scripture. Dr. Clarke, when tra- 
velling from Napolose to Jerusalem, relates, 
"The road was mountainous, rocky, and full 
of loose stones ; yet the cultivation was every 
where marvellous : it afforded one of the most 
striking pictures of human industry which it 
is possible to behold. The limestone rocks 



and stony valleys of Judea were entirely cover- 
ed with plantations of figs, vines, and olive 
trees : not a single spot seemed to be neglected. 
The hills, from their bases to their upmost 
summits, were entirely covered with gardens : 
all of these were free from weeds, and in the 
highest state of agricultural perfection. Even 
the sides of the most barren mountains had 
been rendered fertile, by being divided into 
terraces, like steps rising one above another, 
whereon soil had been accumulated with as- 
tonishing labour. Among the standing crops, 
we noticed millet, cotton, linseed, and tobacco ; 
and occasionally small fields of barley. A 
sight of this territory can alone convey any 
adequate idea of its surprising produce : it is 
truly the Eden of the east, rejoicing in the 
abundance of its wealth. Under a wise and 
a beneficent government, the produce of the 
Holy Land would exceed all calculation. Its 
perennial harvest ; the salubrity of its air ; its 
limpid springs ; its rivers, lakes, and matchlesy 
plains ; its hills and dales ; — all these, added to 
the serenity of its climate, prove this land to be 
indeed ' a field which the Lord hath blessed : 
God hath given it of the dew of heaven, and 
the fatness of the earth, and plent}'' of com and 
wine.' " An oriental's ideas of fertility differ, 
however, from ours ; for to him, plantations of 
figs, vines, and olives, with which the lime- 
stone rocks of Judea were once covered, would 
suggest the same associations of plenty and 
opulence that are called up in the mind of an 
Englishman by rich tracts of corn land. The 
land of Canaan is characterized as flowing 
with milk and honey ; and it still answers to 
this description ; for it contains extensive pas- 
ture lands of the richest quality, and the rocky 
country is covered with aromatic plants, yield- 
ing to the wild bees, who hive in the hollow of 
the rocks, such abundance of honey as to sup- 
ply the poorer classes with an article of food. 
Honey from the rocks is repeatedly referred to 
in the Scriptures, as a delicious food, and an 
emblem of plenty, 1 Sam. xiv, 25 ; Psa. Ixxxi, 
16. Dates are another important article of 
consumption ; and the neighbourhood of Judea 
was famous for its numerous palm trees, which 
are found springing up from chance-sown ker- 
nels in the midst of the most arid districts. 
When to these wild productions we add the oil 
extracted from the olive, so essential an article 
to an oriental, we shall be at no loss to account 
for the ancient fertility of the most barren dis- 
tricts of Judea, or for the adequacy of the soil 
to the support of so numerous a population, 
notwithstanding the comparatively small pro- 
portion of arable land. There is no reason to 
doubt, however, that corn and rice would be 
imported by the Tyrian merchants ; which the 
Israelites would have no difficulty in exchang- 
ing for the produce of the olive ground and 
the vineyard, or for their flocks and herds. 
Delicious wine is still produced in some dis- 
tricts, and the valleys bear plentiful crops of 
tobacco, wheat, barley, and millet. Tacitus 
compares both the climate and the soil, indeed, 
to those of Italy ; and he particularly specifies 
the palm tree and balsam tree as productions 



CAN 



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which gave the country an advantage over his 
own. Among other indigenous productions 
may be enumerated the cedar and other varie- 
ties of the pine, the cypress, the oak, the syca- 
more, the mulberry tree, the fig tree, the willow, 
the turpentine tree, the acacia, the aSpen, the 
arbutus, the myrtle, the almond tree, the tama- 
risk, the oleander, the peach tree, the chaste 
tree, the carob or locust tree, the oskar, the 
doom, the mustard plant, the aloe, the citron, 
the apple, the pomegranate, and many flower- 
ing shrubs. The country about Jericho was 
celebrated for its balsam, as well as for its palm 
trees ; and two plantations of it existed during 
the last war between the Jews and the Romans, 
for which both parties fought desperately. But 
Gilead appears to have been the country in 
which it chiefly abounded : hence the name, 
"balm of Gilead." Since tlie country has 
fallen under the Turkish dominion, it has 
ceased to be cultivated in Palestine, but is still 
found in Arabia. Other indigenous produc- 
tions have either disappeared or are now con- 
fined to circumscribed districts. Iron is found 
in the mountain range of Libanus, and silk is 
produced in abundance in the plains of Samaria. 

9. The grand distinction of Canaan, how- 
ever, is, that it was the only part of the earth 
made, by divine institution, a type of heaven. 
So it was exhibited to Abraham, and also to 
the Jews. ' It pointed to the eternal rest -which 
the spiritual seed of the father of the faithfiil 
were to enjoy after the pilgrimage of life ; its 
holy city was the figure of the " Jerusalem 
above ;" and Zion, with its solemn and joyful 
services represented that " hill of the Lord" to 
which the redeemed shall come with songs, and 
everlasting joy upon their heads ; where they 
shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and 
sighing shall fly away, 

CANAANITES, the posterity of Canaan 
by his eleven sons, who are supposed to have 
settled in the land of Canaan, soon after the 
dispersion of Babel. Five of these are known 
to have dwelt in the land of Canaan ; viz. Heth, 
Jebus, Hemor or Amoi, Girgashi, and Hevi or 
Hivi ; and these, together with their father 
Canaan, became the heads of so many nations. 
Sina or Sini was another son of Canaan, whose 
settlement is not so precisely ascertained; but 
some authors infer, from the affinity of the 
names, that the Desert of Sin, and Mount 
Sinai, were the places of his abode, and that 
they were so called from hun. The Hittites 
inhabited the country about Hebror, as far as 
Beersheba, and the brook Besor, reckoned by 
Moses the southern limits of Canaan. The 
Jebusites dwelt near them on the north, as far 
as the city of Jebus, since called Jerusalem. 
The Amorites possessed the country on the 
east side of Jordan, between the river Arnon 
on the south-east, and Mount Gilead on the 
north, afterward the lot of Reuben and Gad. 
The Girgashites lay next above the Amorites, 
on the east side of the Sea of Tiberias, and 
their land was afterward possessed by the half 
tribe of Manasseh. The Hivites dwelt north- 
ward, under Mount Libanus. The Perizzites, 
who make one of the seven nations of the Ca- 



naan ites, are supposed, by Heylin and others, 
to be the descendants of Sina or Sini ; and it is 
probable, since we do not read of their abode in 
cities, that they lived dispersed, and in tents, 
like the Scythians, roving on both sides of the 
Jordan, on the hills and plains ; and that they 
were called by that name from the Hebrew 
pharatz, which signifies " to disperse." The 
Canaailites dwelt in the midst of all, and were 
surrounded by the rest. This appears from the 
sacred writings to have been the respective 
situation of those seven nations, which are said 
to have been doomed to destruction for their 
idolatry and wickedness, when the Israelites 
first invaded their country. The learned have 
not absolutely determined whether the nations 
proceeding from Canaan's other six sons 
should be reckoned among the inhabitants of 
the land of Canaan. The prevalent opinion 
is, that they were not included. As to the 
customs, manners, arts, sciences, and Ian- 
guage of the seven nations that inhabited the 
land of Canaan, they must, from the situation 
they severally occupied, have been very differ- 
ent. Those who inhabited the sea coast were 
merchants, and by reason of their commerce 
am wealth scattered colonies over almost all 
the islands and maritime provinces of the Me- 
diterranean. (See Phenicia.) The colonies 
which Cadmus carried to Thebes in Baeotia, 
and his brother Cilix into Cilicia, are said to 
have proceeded from the stock of Canaan. 
Sicily, Sardinia, Malta, Cyprus, Corfu, Ma- 
jorca, Minorca, Gades, and Ebutris, are sup- 
posed to have been peopled by the Canaanites. 
The other Canaanites, whose situation was 
inland, were employed partly in pasturage, and 
partly in tillage, and they were also well skilled 
in the exercise of arms. Those who dwelt in 
the walled cities, and who had fixed abodes,- 
cultivated the land ; and those who wandered 
about, as the Perizzites seem to have done, 
grazed cattle : so that among the Canaanites, 
we discover the various classes of merchants, 
and, consequently, mariners ; of artificers, sol. 
diers, shepherds, and husbandmen. We learn, 
also, from their history, that they were all 
ready, however diversified by their occupations 
or local interests, to join in a common cause ; 
that they were well appointed for war, both 
offensive and defensive ; that their towns were 
well fortified ; that they were sufficiently fur- 
nished with military weapons and warlike cha- 
riots ; that they were daring, obstinate, and 
almost invincible ; and that they were not des. 
titute of craft and policy. Their language, we 
find, was well understood by Abraham, who 
was a Hebrew, for he conversed readily with 
them on all occasions ; but as to their mode of 
writing, whether it was originally their own or 
borrowed from the Israelites, it is not so easy 
to determine. Their religion, at least in part, 
seems to have been preserved pure till the days 
of Abraham, who acknowledged Melchisedek 
to be priest of the m6st high God ; and Mel- 
chisedek was, without doubt, a Canaanite, or, 
at least, dwelt at that time in Canaan in high 
esteem and veneration. 

2. But we learn from the Scripture history. 



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212 



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that the Hittites in particular were become de- 
generate in the time of Isaac and Rebekah ; 
for they could not endure the thoughts of Ja- 
cob's marrying one of the daughters of Heth, 
as Esau had done. From this time, then, we 
may date the prevalence of those abominations 
which subjected them to the divine displeasure, 
and made them unv/ortliy of the land which 
they possessed. In the days of Moses, they 
were become incorrigible idolaters ; for he com- 
mands his people to destroy their altars, and 
break down their images, (statues or pillars,) 
and cut down their groves, and burn their 
graven images with fire. And lest they should 
pervert the Israelites, the latter were strictly 
enjoined not to intermarry with them ; but " to 
smite them, and utterly destroy them, nor show 
mercy upon them," Deut. vii, 1-5. They are 
accused of the cruel custom of sacrificing 
men, and are said to have made their seed pass 
through the fire to Moloch, Lev. xviii, 21. 
Their morals were as corrupt as their doctrine : 
adultery, bestiality of all sorts, profanation, 
incest, and all manner of uncleanness, are the 
sins laid to their charge. " The Canaanites," 
says Mr. Bryant, " as they were a sister tribe 
of the Mizraim, resembled them in their rites 
and religion. They held a heifer, or cow, in 
high veneration, agreeably to the customs of 
Egypt. Their chief deity was the sun, whom 
they worshipped, together with the Baalim, un- 
der the titles of Ourchol, Adonis, or Thamuz." 
3. When the measure of the idolatries and 
abominations of the Canaanites was filled up, 
God delivered their country into the hands of 
the Israelites, who conquered it under Joshua. 
However, they resisted with obstinate valour, 
and kept Joshua employed six years from the 
time of his passing the river Jordan, and enter- 
ing Canaan, in the year B. C. 1451, to the year 
B. C. 1445, the sabbatical year beginning from 
the autumnal equinox ; when he made a division 
of the land among the tribes of Israel, and rested 
from his conquests. As God had commanded 
this people, long before, to be treated with 
rigour, see Deut. vii, 2, Joshua extirpated great 
numbers, and obliged the rest to fly, some of 
them into Africa, and others into Greece. 
Procopius says, they first retreated into Egypt, 
but advanced into Africa, where they built 
many cities, and spread themselves over those 
vast regions which reach to the straits, pre- 
serving their old language with little altera- 
tion. In the time of Athanasius, the Africans 
still said they were descended from the Ca- 
naanites; and when asked their origin, they 
answered, " Canani." It is agreed, that the 
Punic tongue was nearly the same as the Ca- 
naanitish or Hebrew. 

4. On the rigorous treatment of the nations 
of Canaan by the Israelites, to which infidels 
have taken so many exceptions, the following 
remarks of Paley are a sufficient reply : The 
first thing to be observed is, that the nations 
of Canaan were destroyed for their wickedness. 
This IS plain from Lev. xviii, 24, &c. Now 
the facts disclosed in this passage sufficiently 



among them, and even habitual ; that it was 
for these enormities the nations of Canaan 
were destroyed. It was not, as some have 
imagined, to make way for the Israelites ; nor 
was it simply to make away with their idola- 
try ; but it was because of the abominable 
crimes which usually accompanied the latter. 
And we may farther learn from the passage, 
that God's abhorrence of these crimes and his 
indignation against them are regulated by the 
rules of strict impartiality, since Moses solemnly 
warns the Israelites against falling into the like 
v/icked courses, "that the land," says he, " cast 
not you out also, when you defile it, as it cast 
out the nations that were before you ; for who- 
soever shall commit any of these abominations, 
even the souls that commit them shall be cut 
off from among their people," Lev. xviii, 28, 29. 
Now, when God, for the wickedness of a peo- 
pie, sends an earthquake, or a fire, or a plague 
among them, there is no complaint of injustice, 
especially when the calamity is known, or ex- 
pressly declared beforehand, to be inflicted for 
the wickedness of such people. It is rather 
regarded as an act of exemplary penal justice, 
and, as such, consistent with the character of 
the moral Governor of the universe. The ob- 
jection, therefore, is not to the Canaanitish na- 
tions being destroyed ; (for when their national 
wickedness is considered, and when that is ex- 
pressly stated as the cause of their destruction, 
the dispensation, however severe, will not be 
questioned ;) but the objection is solely to the 
manner of destroying them. I mean there is 
nothing but the manner left to be objected to : 
their Vv^ickedness accounts for the thing itself. 
To v/hich objection it may be replied, that if 
the thing itself be just, the manner is of little 
signification, of little signification even to the 
sufterers themselves. For where is the great 
difference, even to them, whether they were 
destroyed by an earthquake, a pestilence, a 
famine, ot by the hands of an enemy ? Where 
is the difference, even to our imperfect appre- 
hensions of divine justice, provided it be, and 
is known to be, for their wickedness that they 
are destroyed ? But this destruction, you say, 
confounded the innocent with the guilty. The 
sword of Joshua, and of the Jews spared nei- 
ther women nor children. Is it not the same 
with all other national visitations ? Would not 
an earthquake, or a fire, or a plague, or a 
famine among them have done the same ? 
Even in an ordinary and natural death the 
same thing happens ; God takes away the life 
he lends, without regard, that we can perceive, 
to age, or sex, or character. " But, after all, 
promiscuous massacres, the burning of cities, 
the laying waste of countries, are things dread- 
ful to reflect upon." Who doubts it ? so are 
all the judgments of Almighty God. The effect, 
in whatever way it shows itself, must necessa- 
rily be tremendous, when the Lord, as the 
Psalmist expresses it, "moveth out of his place 
to punish the wicked." But it ought to satisfy 
us ; at least this is the point vipon which we 
ought to rest and fix our attention ; that it was 



testify, that the Canaanites were a wicked peo- for excessive, wilful, and forewarned wick- 
plc ; that detestable practices were general \ edness, that all this befel them, and that it is 



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all along so declared in the history which 
recites it. 

But, farther, if punishing them by the hands 
of the Israelites rather than by a pestilence, an 
earthquake, a fire, or any such calamity, be 
still an objection, we may perceive, I think, 
some reasons for this method of punishment in 
preference to any other whatever ; always bear- 
ing in our mind, that the question is not con- 
cerning the justice of the punishment, but the 
mode of it. It is well known, that the people 
of those ages were affected by no proof of the 
power of the gods which they worshipped, so 
deeply as by their giving them victory in war. 
It was by this species of evidence that the su- 
periority of their own gods above the gods of 
the nations which they conquered, was, in their 
opinion, evinced. This being the actual per- 
suasion which then prevailed in the world, no 
matter whether well or ill founded, how were 
the neighbouring nations, for whose admoni- 
tion this dreadful example was intended, how 
were they to be convinced of the supreme 
power of the God of Israel above the pretended 
gods of other nations ; and of the righteous 
character of Jehovah, that is, of his abhorrence 
of the vices which prevailed in the land of Ca. 
naan ? How, I say, were they to be convinced 
so well, or at all indeed, as by enabling the 
Israelites, whose God he was known and ac- 
knowledged to be, to conquer under his banner, 
and drive out before them, those who resisted 
the execution of that commission with which 
the Israelites declared themselves to be invest- 
ed, namely, the expulsion and extermination 
of the Canaanitish nations ? This convinced 
surrounding countries, and all who were ob- 
servers or spectators of what passed, first, that 
the God of Israel was a real God ; secondly, 
that the gods which other nations worshipped, 
were either no gods, or had no power against 
the God of Israel ; and thirdly, that it was he, 
and he alone, who possessed both the power 
and the will, to punish, to destroy, and to ex- 
terminate from before his face, both nations 
and individuals, who gave themselves up to the 
crimes and wickedness for which the Canaan- 
ites were notorious. Nothing of this sort would 
have appeared, or with the same evidence, from 
an earthquake, or a plague, or any natural ca- 
lamity. These might not have been attributed 
to divine agency at all, or not to the interpo- 
sition of the God of Israel. 

Another reason which made this destruction 
both more necessary, and more general, than 
it would have otherwise been, was the con- 
sideration, that if any of the old inhabitants 
were left, they would prove a snare to those 
who succeeded them in the country ; would 
draw and seduce them by degrees into the vices 
and corruptions which prevailed among them- 
selves. Vices of all kinds, but vices most par- 
ticularly of the licentious kind, are astonish- 
ingly infectious. A little leaven leaveneth the 
whole lump. A small number of persons ad- 
dicted to them, and allowed to practise them 
with impunity or encouragement, will spread 
them through the whole mass. This reason is 
formally and expressly assigned, not simply for 



the punishment, but for the extent to which it 
was carried; namely, extermination: "Thou 
shalt utterly destroy them, that they teach you 
not to do after all their abominations, which 
they have done unto their gods." 

In reading the Old Testament account, 
therefore, of the Jewish wars and conquests in 
Canaan, and the terrible destruction brought 
upon the inhabitants thereof, we are always to 
remember that we are reading the execution of 
a dreadful but just sentence, pronounced by 
Jehovah against the intolerable a,nd incorrigi- 
ble crimes of these nations ; that they were 
intended to be made an example to the whole 
world of God's avenging wrath against sins, 
which, if they had been suffered to continue^ 
might have polluted the whole ancient world, 
and which could only be checked by the signal 
and public overthrow of nations notoriously 
addicted to them, and so addicted as even to 
have incorporated them into their religion and 
their public institutions ; and that the Israel- 
ites were mere instruments in the hands of a 
righteous Providence for effecting the extir- 
pation of a people, of whom it was necessary 
to make a public example to the rest of man- 
kind ; that this extermination, which might 
have been accomplished by a pestilence, by fire, 
by earthquakes, was appointed to be done by 
the hands of the Israelites, as being the clear- 
est and most intelligible method of displaying 
the power and the righteousness of the God of 
Israel ; his power over the pretended gods of 
other nations; and his righteous indignation 
against the crimes into which they were fallen. 

CANDACE, the name of an Ethiopian 
queen, whose eunuch coming to Jerusalem to 
worship the Lord, was baptized by Philip the 
deacon, near Bethsura, in the way to Gaza, as 
he was returning to his own country. Acts 
viii, 27. The Ethiopia here mentioned was 
the isle or peninsula of Meroe to the south of 
Egypt, which, as Mr. Bruce shows, is now- 
called Atbara, up the Nile. Candace was the 
common name of the queens of that country. 
Strabo and Pliny mention queens of that name 
as reigning in their times. That the queen 
mentioned in the Acts was converted by the 
instrumentality of her servant, and that the 
country thus received Christianity at that early 
period, are statements not supported by any 
good testimony. See Abyssinian Church. 

CANDLESTICK. The instrument so ren- 
dered by our translators was more properly a 
stand for lamps. One of beaten gold was made 
by Moses, Exod. xxv, 31, 32, and put into the 
tabernacle in the holy place, over against the 
table of shew bread. The basis of this candle- 
stick was also of pure gold; it had seven 
branches, three on each side, and one in the 
middle. When Solomon had built the temple, 
he was not satisfied with placing one golden 
candlestick there, but had ten put up, of the 
same form and metal with that described by 
Moses, five on the north, and five on the south 
side of the holy place, 1 Kings vii, 49. After 
the Jews returned from their captivity, the 
golden candlestick was again placed in the tem- 
ple, as it had been before in the tabernacle by 



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Moses. The lamps were kept burning per- 
petually ; and were supplied morning and even- 
ing with pure olive oil. Josephus says, that 
after the Romans had destroyed the temple, 
the several things which were found within it, 
were carried in triumph to Rome, namely, the 
golden table, and the golden candlestick with 
seven branches. These were lodged in the 
temple buiit by Vespasian, and consecrated to 
Peace ; and at the foot of Mouiit Palatine, there 
is a triumphal arch still visible, upon which 
Vespasian's triumph is r&presented, and the 
several monuments which were carried pub- 
licly in the procession are engraved, and among 
the rest the candlestick with the seven branch- 
es, which are still discernible upon it. In Rev. 
i, 12, -20, mention is made of seven golden can- 
dlesticks, which are said to be emblems of the 
seven Christian churches. 

CANKER-WORM, pS,, Psalm cv, 34 ; Jer. 
li, 27, where it is rendered caterpillar ; Joel i, 4 ; 
ii, 25 ; Nahum iij, 15, canker-worm. As it is 
frequently mentioned with the locust, it is 
thought by some to be a species of that insect. 
It certainly cannot be the canker-worm, as our 
yersion renders it ; for in Nahum, it is expressly 
said to have wings and fly, to camp in the 
liedges by day, and commit its depredations in 
the night. But it may be, as the Septuagint 
rende^-s it in five passages out of eight where 
it occurs, the bruchus, or "hedge-chaffer." 
Nevertheless, the passage, Jer. li, 27, where 
the ialek is described as " rough," that is, with 
hair standing an end on it, leads us very 
naturally to the rendering of our translators in 
that place, " the rough caterpillar," which, like 
othex caterpillars, at a proper time, casts its ex- 
terior covering and flies away in a winged 
state, Scheuchzer observes that we should not, 
perhaps, be far froin the trutli, if with the an- 
cient interpreters, we understood this ialek, 
after all, as a kind of locust ; as some species 
of them have hair principally on the head, and 
others have prickly points standing out. 

CANON, a word used to denote the author- 
ized catalogue of the sacred writings. The 
word is originally Greek, kovuv, and signifies a 
rule or standard, by which other things are to 
be examined and judged. Accordingly the 
same word has been applied to the tongue of 
a balance, or that small part which, by its per- 
pendicular position, determines the even poise 
or weight, or, by its inclination either way, 
the uneven poise of the things which are 
weighed. Hence it appears, that as the writ- 
ings of the Prophets, Apostles, and Evangel- 
ists contain an authentic account of the revealed 
will of God, they are the rule of the belief and 
practice of those who receive them. Canon is 
also equivalent to a list or catalogue, in which 
are inserted those books which contain the 
rule of faith. 

For an account of the settling of the canon 
of Scripture, see Bible. The following obser- 
vations of Dr. Alexander, in his work on the 
canon, proving that no canonical book of the 
Old or New Testament has been lost, may here 
be properly introduced. — No canonical book 
,cf t^e O^d Testament has been lost. On this 



subject, there has existed some diversity of 
opinion. Chrysostom is cited by Bellarmine 
as saying, " that many of the writings of the 
prophets had perished, which may readily be 
proved from the history in Chronicles. For 
the Jews were negligent, and not only negli- 
gent, but impious; so that some books were 
lost through carelessness, and others were 
burned, or otherwise destroyed." In confirm- 
ation of this opinion, an appeal is made to 

1 Kings iv, 32, 33, where it is said of Solomon, 
" that he spake three thousand proverbs, and 
his songs were a thousand and five. And he 
spake of trees, from the cedar in Lebanon even 
unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall : 
he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of 
creeping things, and of fishes." All these pro. 
ductions, it is acknowledged, have perished. 
Again it is said in 1 Chron. xxix, 29, 30: 
" Now, the acts of David the king, first and 
last, behold they are written in the book of 
Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan 
the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer ; 
with all his reign, and his might, and the times 
that went over him, and over Israel, and ovcf 
all the kingdoms of the countries." The book 
of Jasher, also, is twice mentioned in Scrip- 
ture. In Joshua x, 13 : " And the sun stood 
still, and the moon stayed, until the people had 
avenged themselves on their enemies. Is not 
this w^ritten in the book of Jasher ?" And in 

2 Sam. i, 18 : " And he bade them teach the 
children of Israel the use of the bow: behold, 
it is written in the book of Jasher." 

The book of the wars of the Lord is referred 
to in Numbers xxi, 14. But we have in the 
canon no books under the name of Nathan 
and Gad, nor any book of Ja,sher, nor of the 
wars of the Lord. Moreover, we frequently 
are referred, in the sacred history, to other 
chronicles or annals, for a fuller account of the 
matters spoken of, which chronicles are not 
now extant. And in 2 Chron. ix, 29, it is 
said, " Now, the rest of the acts of Solomon, 
first and last, are they not written in the book 
of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of 
Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of 
Iddo the seer, against Jeroboam, the son of 
Nebat ?" Now, it is well known that none of 
these writings of the prophets are in the 
canon ; at least, none of them under tlieir 
names. It is said, also, in 2 Chron. xii, 15, 
"Now, the acts of Rehoboam, first and last, 
are they not written in the book of Shemaiah 
the prophet, and of Iddo the seer, concerning 
genealogies ?" Of which works nothing re- 
mains under the names of these prophets. 

1. The first observation which may be made 
on this subject is, that every book referred to 
or quoted in the sacred writings is not neces- 
sarily an inspired or canonical book. Because 
St. Paul cites passages from the Greek poets, 
it does not follow that we must receive their 
poem^s as inspired. 

2. A book may be written by an inspired 
man, and yet be neither inspired nor canonical. 
Inspiration was not constantly afforded to the 
prophets ; but was occasional, and for particu- 
lar important purposes. In common matters, 



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and especially in things no way connected 
with religion, it is reasonable to suppose that 
the Prophets and Apostles were left to the 
same guidance of reason and common sense as 
other men. A man, therefore, inspired to de^ 
liver some prophecy, or even to write a canoni- 
cal book, might write other books with no 
greater assistance than other good men re- 
ceive. Because Solomon was inspired to 
write some canonical books, it does not fol- 
low that what he wrote on jiatural history was 
also inspired, any more than Solomon's private 
letters to his friends, if ever he wrote any. 
Let it be remembered that the Prophets and 
Apostles were only inspired on special occa- 
sions, and on particular subjects, and all diffi- 
culties respecting such works as these will 
vanish. How many of the books referred to 
in the Bible, and mentioned above, may have 
been of this description, it is now impossible 
to tell ; but probably several of them belong to 
this class. No doubt there were many books 
of annals much more minute and particular in 
the narration of facts than those which we 
have. It was often enough merely to refer to 
these state papers, or public documents, as 
being sufficiently correct, in regard to the facts 
on account of Vv'hich the reference was made. 
The book of the wars of the Lord might, for 
aught that appears, have been merely a muster 
roll of the army. The word translated hook 
has so extensive a meaning in Hebrew, that it 
is not even necessary to suppose that it was a 
writing at all. The book of Jasher (or of 
Rectitude, if we translate the word) might have 
been some useful compend taken from Scrip, 
ture, or composed by the wise, for the regula- 
tion of justice and equity between man and 
man. Augustine, in his " City of God," has 
distinguished accurately on this subject. "I 
think," says he, "that those books which 
should have authority in religion were reveal- 
ed by the Holy Spirit, and that men composed 
others by historical diligence, as the prophets 
did these by inspiration. And these two classes 
of books are so distinct, that it is only by those 
written b}'- inspiration that we are to suppose 
that God, through them, is speaking unto us. 
The one class is useful for fulness of know- 
ledge ; the other, for authority in religion ; in 
which authority the canon is preserved." 

3. But again : it m.ay be maintained, without 
any prejudice to the completeness of the canon, 
that there may have been inspired writings 
which were not intended for the instruction of 
the church in all ages, but composed by the 
prophets for some special occasion. These 
writings, though inspired, were not canonical. 
They were temporary in their design ; and 
when that was accomplished, they wei-e no 
longer needed. We know that the prophets 
delivered, by inspiration, many discourses to 
the people, of which we have not a trace on 
record. Many true prophets are mentioned, 
who wrote nothing that we know of; and 
several are mentioned, whose names are not 
even given. The same is true of the Apostles. 
Very few of them had any concern in writing 
the canonical Scriptures, and yet they all pos- i 



sessed plenary inspiration. And if they wrote 
letters on special occasions, to the churches 
planted by them ; yet these were not designed 
for the perpetual instruction of the universal 
church. Therefore, Shemaiah, and Iddo, and 
Nathan, and Gad, might have written some 
things by inspiration which were never intend, 
ed to form a part of the sacred volume. It is 
not asserted that there certainly existed such 
temporary inspired writings : all that is neces- 
sary to be maintained is, that, supposing such 
to have existed, which is not improbable, it 
does not follow that the canon is incomplete 
by reason of their loss. 

4, The last remark in relation to the books 
of the Old Testament supposed to be lost is, 
that it is highly probable that we have several 
of them now in the canon, under another name. 
The books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, 
were, probably, not written by one, but by a 
succession of prophets. There is reason to 
believe that, until the canon of sacred Scrip, 
ture was closed, the succession of prophets 
was never interrupted. Whatever was neces- 
sary to be added, by way of explanation, to 
any book already received into the canon, they 
were competent to annex ; or, whatever annals 
or histories it was the purpose of God to have 
transmitted to posterity, they would be direct, 
ed and inspired to prepare. Thus, different 
parts of these books might have been penned 
by Gad, Nathan, Iddo, Shemaiah, &c. That 
some parts of these histories were prepared by 
prophets, we have clear proof in one instance ; 
for Isaiah has inserted in his prophecy several 
chapters which are contained in 2 Kings, and 
which, I think, there can be no doubt were 
originally written by himself. The Jewish 
doctors are of opinion that the book of Jasher 
is one of the books of the Pentateuch, or the 
whole law. The book of the wars of the 
Lord has by many been supposed to be no 
other than the book of Numbers. 

Thus, it sufficiently appears from an exami- 
nation of particulars, that there exists no evi. 
dence that any canonical book of the Old 
Testament has been lost. To which we may 
add, that there are many general considerations 
of great weight which go to prove that no part 
of the Scriptures of the Old Testament has 
been lost. The translation of these books into 
Greek is sufficient to show that the same books 
existed nearly two hundred years before the 
advent of Christ. And, above all, the unquali- 
fied testimony to the Scriptures of the Old 
Testament, by Christ and his Apostles, ought 
to satisfy us that we have lost none of the in. 
spired books of the canon. The Scriptures are 
constantly referred to, and quoted as infallible 
authority by them, as we have before shown. 
These oracles were committed to the Jews as 
a sacred deposit, and they are never charged 
with unfaithfulness in this trust. The Scrip- 
tures are declared to have been written " ^or 
our learning f and no intimation is given that 
they had ever been mutilated, or in any degree 
corrupted. 

As to the New Testament, the same author 
proceeds : With respect to the New Testament, 



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i arn ready to concede, as was before done, 
that there may have been books written by in- 
spired men that have been lost ; for inspiration 
was occasional, not constant ; and confined to 
matters of faith, and not afforded on the affairs 
of this life, or in matters of mere science. 
And if such writings have been lost, the canon 
of Scripture has suffered no more by this 
means, than by the loss of any other uninspir- 
ed books. But again : I am willing to go far- 
ther, and say that it is possible (although I 
know no evidence of the fact) that some things, 
written under the influence of inspiration, for 
a particular occasion, and to rectify some dis. 
order in a particular church, may have been 
lost, without injury to the canon. For, since 
rcineh that the Apostles preached by inspiration 
is undoubtedly lost, so there is no reason why 
every word which they wrote must necessarily 
be preserved, and form a part of the canonical 
volume. For example : suppose that when St. 
Paul said, " I wrote to you in an epistle not to 
company with fornicators," 1 Cor. v, 9, he re- 
ferred to an epistle v/hich he had v/ritten to 
the Corinthians, before the one now called the 
First ; it might never have been intended that 
this letter should form a constituent part of the 
canon ; for although it treated of subjects con- 
nected with Christian faith or practice, yet, an 
occasion having arisen, in a short time, of 
treating these subjects more at large, every 
thing in that epistle (supposing it ever to have 
been written) may have been included in the 
two Epistles to the Corinthians which are now 
in the canon, 

1. Th^ first argument to prove that no ca- 
nonical book has been lost, is derived from the 
watchful care of providence over the sacred 
Scriptures. Now, to suppose that a book writ- 
ten by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and 
intended to form a part of the canon, which is 
the rule of faith to the church, should be ut- 
terly and irrecoverably lost, is surely not very 
honpurable to the wisdom of God, and in no 
way consonant with the ordinary method of 
his dispensations, in regard to his precious 
truth. There is good reason to think that, if 
God saw it needful, and for the edification of 
the church, that such books should be written 
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, by 
his providence he would have taken care to 
preserve them from destruction. We do know 
that this treasure of divine truth has been, in 
all ages, and in the worst times, the special 
care of God, or not one of the sacred books 
would now be in existence. And if one ca- 
nonical book might be lost through the negli- 
gence or unfaithfulness of men, why not all ? 
And thus the end of God, in making a revela- 
tion of his will, might have been defeated. 
But whatever other corruptions have crept into 
the Jewish or Christian churches, it does not 
appear that either of them, as a body, ever in- 
curred the censure of having been careless in 
preserving the oracles of God. Our Saviour 
never charges the .Tews, who perverted the 
sacred Scriptures to their own ruin, witli hav- 
ing lost any portion of the sacred deposit in- 
trusted to them. History informs us of the 



fierce and malignant design of Antiochus 
Epiphanes, to abolish every vestige of the sa- 
cred volume ; but the same history assures us 
that the Jewish people manifested a heroic 
fortitude and invincible patience in resisting 
and defeating his impious piirpose. They 
chose rather to sacrifice their lives, and suffer 
a cruel death, than to deliver up the copies of 
the sacred volume in their possession. And 
the same spirit was manifested, and with the 
same result, in the Dioclesian persecution of 
the Christians. Every effort was made to ob- 
literate the sacred writings of Christians ; and 
multitudes suffered death for refiising to deliver 
up the New Testament. Some, indeed, over- 
come by the terrors of a cruel persecution, did, 
in the hour of temptation, consent to surrender 
the holy book ; but they were ever afterward 
called traitors ; and it was with the utmost dif- 
ficulty that any of them could be received 
again into the communion of the church, after 
a long repentance, and the most humbling 
confessions of their fault. Now, if any canoni- 
cal book was ever lost, it must have been in 
these early times, when the word of God was 
valued far above life, and when every Christian 
stood ready to seal the truth with his blood. 

2. Another argument which appears to me 
to be convincing is, that in a little time, all the 
sacred books were dispersed over the whole 
world. If a book had, by some accident or 
violence, been destroyed in one region, the loss 
could soon have been repaired, by sending for 
copies to other countries. The considerations 
just mentioned would, I presmne, be satisfac- 
tory to all candid minds, were it not that it ivS 
supposed that there is evidence that somethings 
were written by the Apostles which are not 
now in ihe canon. We have already referred 
to an epistle to the Corinthians, which St. Paul 
is supposed to have written to them, previously 
to the writing of those which we now possess. 
But it is by no means certain, or even probable, 
that St. Paul ever did write such an epistle ; 
for not one ancient writer makes the least men- 
tion of any such letter, nor is there any where 
to be found any citation from it, or any refer- 
ence to it. It is a matter of testimony, in 
which all the fathers concur, as with one voice, 
that St. Paul wrote no more than fourteen epis- 
ties, all of which we now have. But still, St. 
Paul's own declaration stands in the way of 
our opinion: "I wrote to you in an epistle," 
1 Cor. V, 9, 11. The words in the original are, 
"Eypaipa vfilv fv rtj fffis'oX/? ; the literal version of 
which is, "I have written to you in the epis- 
tle," or "in this epistle ;" that is, in the former 
part of it ; where, in fact, we find the very thing 
which he says that he had written. See 1 Cor. 
V, 2, 5, 6. But it is thought by learned and 
judicious commentators, that the words follow 
ing, Nvvl 6e eypa^^a vixiv, " But now I have writ 
ten unto you," require that we should understand 
the former clause, as relating to some former 
time ; but a careful attention to the context 
will convince us that this reference is by no 
means necessary. The Apostle had told them 
in the beginning of the chapter, to avoid the 
company of fornicators, &c ; but it is manifest, 



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CAN 



from the tenth verse, that he apprehended that 
his meaning might be misunderstood, by ex- 
tending the prohibition too far, so as to decline 
all intercourse with the world ; therefore, he 
repeats wiiat he had said, and informs them 
that it had relation only to the professors of 
Christianity, who should be guilty of such vices. 
The whole may be thus paraphrased : " I wrote 
to you above in my letter, that you should se- 
parate from those who were fornicators, and 
that you should purge them out as old leaven ; 
but, fearing lest j'^ou should misapprehend my 
meaning, by inferring that I have directed you 
to avoid all intercourse with the Heathen around 
you, who are addicted to these shameful vices, 
which would make it necessary that you should 
go out of the world, I now inform you that my 
meaning is, that you do not associate familiar- 
ly with any who make a profession of Chris- 
tianity, and yet continue in these evil prac- 
tices." In confirmation of this interpretation, 
we can adduce the old Syriac version, which, 
having been made soon after the days of the 
Apostles, is good testimony in relation to this 
matter of fact. In this venerable version, the 
meaning of the eleventh verse is thus given : 
"This is what I have w^ritten unto you," or, 
"the meaning of what I have written unto 
you." 

The only other passage in the New Testa- 
ment which has been thought to refer to an 
epistle of St. Paul not now extant, is that in 
Colossians iv, 16: "And when this epistle is 
i-ead among you, cause also that it be read in 
the church of the Laodiceans, and that ye like- 
wise read the epistle from Laodicea." But 
what evidence is there that St. Paul ever w^rote 
an epistle- to the Laodiceans? The text on 
which this opinion has been founded, in an- 
cient and modern times, correctly interpreted, 
has no such import. The words in the original 
are, kuI t^v ck AaoSiKuag 'iva Kal vixels dvayvwre, " and 
that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea," 
Col. iv, 16. These words have been differently 
taken ; for, by them some understand that an 
epistle had been written by St. Paul to the 
Laodiceans, which he desired might be read in 
the church at Colosse. Chrysostom seems to 
have understood them thus ; and the Romish 
writers almost universally have adopted this 
opinion. "Therefore," says Bellarmine, "it 
is certain that St. Paul's epistle to the Laodi- 
ceans is now lost." And their opinion is fa- 
voured by the Latin Vulgate, where we read, 
eamque Laodicensium, "that which is of the 
Laodiceans ;" but even these words admit of 
another construction. Many learned Protest- 
ants, also, have embraced the same interpret- 
ation ; while others suppose that St. Paul here 
refers to the epistle to the Ephesians, which 
tliey think he sent to the Laodiceans, and that 
the present inscription is spurious. But that 
neither of these opuiions is correct, may be 
rendered very probable. That St. Paul could 
not intend, by the langviage used in the pas- 
sage vmder consideration, an epistle written by 
himself, will appear by the following argu- 
ments: (1.) St. Paul could not, with any proprie- 
ty of speech, have called an epistle written by 



himself, and sent to the Laodiceans, an epistle 
from Laodicea. He certainly would have said, 
wpos AaoStKEiav, [to Laodicea,] or some such thing. 
Who ever heard of an epistle addressed to any 
individual, or to any society, denominated an 
epistle from them ? (2.) If the epistle referred 
to in this passage had been one written by St. 
Paul, it would have been most natural for him 
to call it his epistle ; and this would have ren- 
dered his meaning incapable of misconstruc- 
tion. (3.) All those best qualified to judge of 
the fact, and who were well acquainted with St. 
Paul's history and writings, never mention any 
such epistle : neither Clement, Hermas, nor the 
Syriac interpreter, knew any thing of such an 
epistle of St. Paul. But it may be asked. To 
what epistle, then, does St. Paul refer? It 
seems safest in such a case, where testimony 
is deficient, to follow the literal sense of the 
words, and to believe that it was an epistle 
written by the Laodiceans, probably to him- 
self, which he had sent to the Colossians, to- 
gether with his own epistle, for their perusal." 

CANTICLES, the hook of, in Hebrew, 
a>-i"'tyn n^tt', the song of aongs. The church, 
as well as the synagogue, received this book 
generally as canonical. The royal author ap- 
pears, in the typical spirit of his times, to have 
designed to [render a ceremonial appointment 
descriptive of a spiritual relation ; and this song 
is accordingly considered, by judicious writers, 
to be a mystical allegory of that sort which in- 
duces a more sublime sense on historical truths, 
and which, by the description of human events, 
shadows out divine circmnstances. The sacred 
writers were, by God's condescension, author, 
ized to illustrate his strict and intimate rela- 
tion to the church by the figure of a marriage ; 
and the emblem must have been strikingly be- 
coming and expressive to the conceptions of 
the Jews, since they annexed ideas of peculiar 
mystery to this appointment, and imagined the 
marriage union to be a counterpart representa- 
tion of some original pattern in heaven. Hence 
it was performed among them with very pecu- 
liar ceremonies and solemnity, with every 
thing that could give dignity and importance 
to its rites. Solomon, therefore, in celebrat- 
ing the circumstances of his marriage, was 
naturally led, by a train of correspondent re- 
flections, to consider that spiritual connection 
which it was often employed to symbolize ; and 
the idea must have been the more forcibly sug. 
gested to him, as he was at this period prepar- 
ing to build a temple to God, and thereby to 
furnish a visible representation of the Hebrew 
church. The spiritual allegory thus worked 
up by Solomon to its highest perfection, was 
very consistent with the prophetic style, which 
was accustomed to predict evangelical blessings 
by such parabolical figures ; and Solomon was 
more immediately furnished with a pattern for 
this representation by the author of the forty- 
fifth Psalm, who describes, in a compendious 
allegory, the same future connection between 
Christ and his church. 

2. But though the work be certainly an alle- 
gorical representation, many learned men, ia 
an unrestrained eagerness to explain the song, 



CAP 



218 



CAf 



even in its minutest and most obscure particu- 
lars, have too far indulged their imaginations ; 
and, by endeavouring too nicely to reconcile 
the literal with the spiritual sense, have been 
led beyond the boundaries which a reverence 
for the sacred Scriptures should ever prescribe. 
The ideas which the sacred writers furnish con. 
cerning the mystical relation between Christ 
and his church, though Avell accommodated to 
our apprehensions by the allusion of a mar- 
riage union, are too general to illustrate every 
particular contained m this poem, which may 
be supposed to have been intentionally decorat- 
ed with some ornaments appropriate to the lite- 
ral construction. When the general analogy 
is obvious, we are not always to expect minute 
resemblance, and should not be too curious in 
seeking for obscure and recondite allusions. 
Solomon, in the glow of an inspired fancy, and 
unsuspicious of misconception or deliberate 
perversion, describes God and his church, with 
their respective attributes and graces, under 
colourings familiar and agreeable to mankind, 
and exhibits their ardent affection under the 
authorized figures of earthly love. No simili- 
tude, indeed, could be .chosen so elegant and 
apposite for the illustration of this intimate 
and spiritual alliance, as a marriage union, if 
considered in the chaste simplicity of its first 
institution, or under the interesting circum- 
stances with which it was established among 
the Jews. 

3. This poem may be considered, as to its 
form, as a dramatic poem of the pastoral kind. 
There is a succession of time, and a change of 
place, to different parts of the palace and royal 
gardens. The persons introduced as speakers, 
are the bridegroom and bride, and their respect- 
ive attendants. The interchange of dialogue 
is carried on in a wild and digressive manner ; 
but the speeches are adapted to the persons with 
appropriate elegance. The companions of the 
bride compose a kind of chorus, which seems 
to bear some resemblance to that afterward 
adopted in the Grecian tragedy. Solomon and 
his queen assume the pastoral simplicity of style, 
which is favourable to the communication of 
their sentiments. The poem abounds through- 
out with beauties, and presents every where a 
delightful and romantic display of nature, paint- 
ed at its most interesting season, and described 
with every ornament that an inventive fancy 
could furnish. It is justly entitled Song of 
Songs, or most excellent song, as being supe- 
rior to any that an uninspired writer could have 
produced, and tending, if properly understood, 
to purify the mind, and to elevate the affections 
from earthly to heavenly things. 

CAPERNAUM, a city celebrated in the 
Gospels, being the place where Jesus usually 
resided during the time of his ministry. It 
stood on the sea coast, that is, on the coast of 
the sea of Galilee, in the borders of Zebulun 
and Naphtalim, Matt, iv, 15, and consequently 
toward the upper part of it. As it was a con- 
venient port from Galilee to any place on the 
other side of the sea, this might be our Lord's 
inducement to make it the place of his most 
constant residence. Upon this account Ca- 



pemaum was highly honoured; and though 
" exalted unto heaven," as its inhabitants 
boasted, because it made no proper use of this 
signal favour it drew from him the severe de- 
nunciation, that it should "be brought down 
to hell," Matt, xi, 23. This sentence of de- 
struction has been fully realized ; the ancient 
city is reduced to a state of utter desolation. 
Burckhardt supposes the ruins called Tal 
Houm, near the rivulet called El Eshe, to be 
those of Capernaum. Mr. Buckingham, who 
gives this place the name of Talhhewn, de- 
scribes considerable and extensive ruins ; the 
only remains of those edifices which exalted 
Capernaum above its fellows. 

CAPPADOCIA, is called in Hebrew Caph^ 
tor. Cappadocia joined Galatia on the east, 
and is mentioned in Acts ii, 9, and by St. Peter, 
who addresses his First Epistle to the dispersed 
throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Bi- 
thynia, and Asia. The people of this country 
were formerly infamous for their vices ; but 
after the promulgation of Christianity, it pro- 
duced many great and worthy men : among 
these may be reckoned Gregory Nazianzen, 
Gregory Nyssen, and St. Basil, commonly 
styled the Great. 

CAPTIVES. The treatment of persons 
taken in war among ancient nations throws 
great light upon many passages of Scripture. 
The eastern conqueror often stripped his un- 
happy captives naked, shaved their heads, and 
made them travel in that condition, exposed to 
the burning heat of a vertical sun by day, and 
the chilling cold of the night. Such barbarous 
treatment was to modest women the height of 
cruelty and indignity ; especially to those who 
had been educated in softness and elegance, 
who had figured in all the superfluities of orna- 
mental dress, and whose faces had hardly ever 
been exposed to the sight of man. The Pro- 
phet Isaiah mentions this as the hardest part 
of the sufferings in which female captives are 
involved : " The Lord will expose their naked- 
ness." The daughter of Zion had indulged in 
all the softness of oriental luxury ; but the 
offended Jehovah should cause her unrelenting 
enemies to drag her forth from her secret cham- 
bers into the view of an insolent soldiery ; strip 
her of her ornaments, in which she so greatly 
delighted; take away her splendid and costly 
garments, discover her nakedness, and compel 
her to travel in that miserable plight to a far 
distant country, a helpless captive, the property 
of a cruel lord. Arrived in the land of their 
captivity, captives were often purchased at a 
very low price. The Prophet Joel complains 
of the contemptuous cheapness in which the 
people of Israel were held by those who made 
them captives : "And they have cast lots for 
my people ; and have given a boy for a harlot, 
and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink." 
The custom of casting lots for the captives 
taken in war appears to have prevailed both 
among the Jews and the Greeks. The same 
allusion occurs in the prophecy of Obadiah : 
" Strangers carried away captive his forces, 
and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast 
lots upon Jerusalem," Obadiah IL With re- 



CAP 



epect to the Greeks, we have an instance in 
Tryphiodorus : — 

" Shared ont by lot the female captives stand, 
Tlie spoils divided with an equal hand ; 
Each to his ship conveys his rightful share, 
Price of tlieir toil, and trophies of the war." 

2. By an inhuman custom which is still re- 
tained in the east, the eyes of captives taken 
in war were not seldom put out, sometimes 
literally scooped or dug out of their sockets. 
This dreadful calamity Samson had to endure 
from the unrelenting vengeance of his ene- 
mieg. In a posterior age, Zedekiah, the last 
king of Judah and Benjamin, after being com- 
pelled to behold the violent death of his eons 
and nobility, had his eyes put put, and was 
carried in chains to Babylon. The barbarous 
custom long survived the decline and fall of 
the Babylonian empire ; for by the testimony 
of Mr. Maurice, in liis history of Hindostan, 
the captive princes of that country were often 
treated in this manner by their m.ore fortunate 
rivals; a red hot iron was passed over their 
eyes, which effectually deprived them of sight, 
and at the same time of theix title and ability 
to reign. To the wretched state of such prison- 
ers, the Prophet Isaiah alludes in a noble pre- 
diction, where he describes in very glowing 
colours the character and work cf the promised 
Messiah : "He hath sent me to heal the bro- 
ken hearted, to preach deliverance to the cap- 
tives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to 
set at liberty them that are bruised," as cap- 
tives too frequently were by the weight of their 
fetters. 

3. It seems to have been the practice of east- 
ern kings, to command their captives taken in 
war, especially those that had, by the atrocious- 
ness of their crimes, or the stoutness of their 
resistance, greatly provoked their indignation, 
to lie down on the ground, and then put to 
death a certain part of them, which they mea- 
sured with a line, or determined by lot. This 
custom was not, perhaps, commonly practised 
by the people of God, in their wars with the 
nations around them ; but one instance is re- 
corded in the life of David, who inflicted this 
punishment on the Moabites : " And he smote 
Moab, and measured them with a line, casting 
them down to the ground ; even with two lines 
measured he to put to death, and with one full 
line to keep alive : and so the Moabites became 
David's servants, and brought gifts," 2 Sam. 
viii, 2. But the most shocking punishment 
which the ingenious cruelty of a haughty and 
unfeeling conqueror ever inflicted on the mise- 
rable captive, is described by Virgil in the 
eighth book of the ^Eneid ; and which even 
a Roman, inured to blood, could not mention 
without horror : — 

" Quid memorem infandas cades! quid facta tyran^ 
ni," &z. Line 483. 

" What words /lan paint those execrable times, 
The subjects' sufferings, and the tyrant's crimes ! 
That blood, those murders, O ye gods ! replace 
On his own head, and on his impious race : 
The living and the dead at his command 
Were coupled face to face, and hand to hand, 



219 CAP 

TiD, choked with stench, in loathed embraces tied, 
The lingering wretches pined away, and died." 

Dryden. 

It is to this deplorable condition of a captive 
that the Apostle refers, in that pathetic excla. 
mation, " O wretched man that I am ! who 
shall deliver me from the body of this death ?" 
Who shall rescue me, miserable captive as I 
am, from this continual burden of sin which I 
carry about with me ; and which is cumber, 
some and odious, as a dead carcass bound to a 
living body, to be dragged along with it where- 
ever it goes ? 

CAPTIVITY. God generally punished the 
sins and infidelities of the Jews by different 
captivities or servitudes. The first captivity 
is that of Egypt, from which they were de- 
livered by Moses, and which should be con- 
sidered rather as a permission of providence, 
than as a punishment for sin. Six captivities 
are reckoned during the government by judges : 
the first, under Chushanrishathaim, king of 
Mesopotamia, which continued about eight 
years ; the second, under Eglon, king of Moab, 
from which the Jews were delivered by Ehud ; 
the third, under the Philistines, from which 
they were rescued by Shamgar ; the fourth, 
under Jabin, king of Hazor, from which they 
were delivered by Deborah and Barak ; the 
fifth, under the Midianites, from which Gideon 
freed them ; and the sixth, under the Ammon- 
ites and Philistines, during the judicatures of 
Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, Eli, Samson, 
and Samuel. But the greatest and most re- 
markable captivities were those of Israel and 
Judah, under their regal government. 

Captivities of Israel. In the year of the 
world 3264, Tiglath-pileser took several cities, 
and carried away captives, principally from the 
tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of 
Manasseh, 2 Kings xv, 29. In the year of the 
world 3283, Shalmaneser took and destroyed 
Samaria, after a siege of three years, and trans- 
planted the tribes that had been spared by Tig- 
lath-pileser, to provinces beyond the Euphrates, 
2 Kings xviii, 10, 11. It is generally believed, 
there was no return of the ten tribes from this 
second captivity. But when we examine care- 
fully the writings of the Prophets, we find a 
return of at least a great part of Israel from 
the captivity clearly pointed out. Hosea says, 
" They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, 
and as a dove out of the land of Assyria; and 
I will place them in their houses, saith the 
Lord," Hosea xi, 11. Amos says, " And I will 
bring again my people Israel from their cap- 
tivity : they shall build their ruined cities and 
inhabit them," &c, Amos ix, 14. Obadiah 
observes, " The captivity of this host of the 
children of Israel shall possess that of the Ca- 
naanites," &c, Obadiah 18, 19. To the same 
purpose speak the other Prophets. " The Lord 
shall assemble the outcast of Israel, and gather 
together the dispersed of Judah," Isa. xi, 12, 13. 
Ezekiel received an order fi-om God to take two 
pieces of wood, and write on one, "For Judah 
and for the children of Israel;" and on the 
other, "For Joseph and for all the house of 
Israel ;" and to join these two pieces of wood, 



CAP 



220 



CAR 



that they might become one, and designate the 
reunion of Judah and Israel, Ezek. xxxvii, 16. 
Jeremiah is equally express : " The house of 
Judah shall walk with the house of Israel ; and 
they shall come together out of the north, to 
the land which I have given for an inheritance 
to their fathers," Jer. iii, 18. See also Jer. 
xxxi, 7-9, 16, 17, 20; xvi, 15; xlix, 2, «&c; 
Zech. ix, 13 ; x, 6, 10 ; Micah ii, 12. In the 
historical books of Scripture, we find that 
Israelites of the ten tribes, as well as of Judah 
and Benjamin, returned from the captivity. 
Among those that returned with Zerubbabel 
are reckoned some of Ephraim and Manasseh, 
who settled at Jerusalem with the tribe of Ju- 
dah. When Ezra numbered those who returned 
from the captivity, he only inquired whether 
they were of the race of Israel ; and at the first 
passover which was then celebrated in the tem- 
ple, was a sacrifice of twelve he-goats for the 
whole house of Israel, according to the num- 
ber of the tribes, Ezra vi, 16, 17 ; viii, 35. Un- 
der the Maccabees, and in our Saviour's time, 
we see Palestine peopled by Israelites of all the 
tribes indifferently. The Samaritan Chronicle 
asserts that in the thirty.fifth year of the pontifi- 
cate of Abdelus, three thousand Israelites,by per- 
mission of King Sauredius, returned fi:om cap- 
tivity, under the conduct of Adus, son of Simon. 
Captivities of Judah. The captivities of 
Judah are generally reckoned four : the first, 
in the year of the world 3398, under King Je- 
hoiakim, when Daniel and others were carried 
to Babylon; the second, in the year of the 
world 3401, and in the seventh year of the reign 
of Jehoiakim, when Nebuchadnezzar carried 
three thousand and twenty-three Jews to Ba- 
bylon ; the third, in the year of the world 3406, 
and in the fourth of Jehoiachin, when this 
prince, with part of his people, was sent to 
Babylon ; and the fourth in the year 3416, un- 
der Zedekiah, from which period begins the 
captivity of seventy years, foretold by the Pro- 
phet Jeremiah. Dr. Hales computes that the 
first of these captivities, which he thinks formed 
the conamencement of the Babylonish captivity, 
took place in the year before Christ 605. The 
Jews were removed to Babylon by Nebuchad. 
nezzar, who, designing to render that city the 
capital of the east, transplanted thither very 
great numbers of people, subdued by him in 
different countries. In Babylon the Jews had 
judges and eldiers, who governed them, and 
who decided matters in dispute juridically, ac- 
cording to their laws. Of this we see a proof 
in the story of Susanna, who was condemned 
by elders of her own nation. Cyrus, in the 
year of the world 3457, and in the first year of 
his reign at Babylon, permitted the Jews to 
return to their own country, Ezra i, 1 . How- 
aver, they did not obtain leave to rebuild the 
temple ; and the completion of those prophe- 
.cies which foretold the termination of their 
captivity after seventy years, was not till the 
year of the world 3486. In that year, Darius 
Hystaspes, by an edict, allowed them to rebuild 
the temple. In the year of the world 3537, 
Artaxerxes Longimanus sent Neherniah to Je- 
rusalem. The Jews assert that only the refiise 



of their nation returned from the captivity, and 
that the principal of them continued in and near 
Babylon, where they had been settled, and where 
they becam-e very numerous. It may, however, 
be doubted whether the refuse of Judah was 
really carried to Babylon. It appears from 
incidental observations in Scripture that some 
remained; and Major Rennell has offered se- 
veral reasons for believing that only certain 
classes of the Jews were deported to Babylon, 
as well as into Assyria. Nebuchadnezzar car- 
ried away only the principal inhabitants, the 
warriors, and artisans of every kind ; and he 
left the husbandmen, the labourers, and in 
general, the poorer classes, that constitute the 
great body of the people. 

CARAITES, or KARAITES, an ancient 
Jewish sect. The name signifies Textualists^ 
or Scripturists, and was originally given to the 
school of Shammai, (about thirty years or more 
before Christ,) because they rejected the tradi- 
tions of the elders, as embraced by the school 
of Hillel and the Pharisees, and all the fanci- 
ful interpretations of the Cabbala. They claim, 
however, a much higher antiquity, and produce 
a catalogue of doctors up to the time of Ezra. 
The rabbinists have been accustomed to call 
them Sadducees ; but they believed in the in- 
spiration of the Scriptures, the resurrection of 
the dead, and the final judgment. They be- 
lieve that Messiah is not yet come, and reject 
all calculations of the time of his appearance : 
yet they say, it is proper that even every day 
they should receive theiT salvation by Messiah, 
the Son of David. As to the practice of reli- 
gion, they differ from the rabbinists in the 
observance of the festivals, and keep the Sab- 
bath with more strictness. They extend their 
prohibition of marriage to more degrees of af- 
finity, and admit not of divorce on any slight 
or trivial grounds. The sect of Caraites still 
exists, but their number is inconsiderable. 
They are found chiefly in the Crimea, Lithu- 
ania, and Persia ; at Damascus, Constantinople, 
and Cairo. Their honesty in the Crimea is 
said to be proverbial. 

CARBUNCLE, np-i3, Exod. xxviii, 17; 
xxxix, 10 ; Ezek. xxviii, 13; and avdga^, Eccles. 
xxxii, 5 ; Tobit xiii, 17 ; a very elegant and 
rare gem, known to the ancients by the name 
avBpa^, or coal, because, when held up before 
the sun, it appears like a piece of bright burn- 
ing charcoal: the name carhvnculus has the 
same meaning. It was the third stone in the 
first row of the pectoral; and is mentioned 
among the glorious stones of which the new 
Jerusalem is figuratively said to be built. 
Bishop Lowth observes that the precious 
stones, mentioned Isa. liv, 11, 12, and Rev. 
xxi, 18, seem to be general images to express 
beauty, magnificence, purity, strength, and so- 
lidity, agreeably to the ideas of the eastern na- 
tions ; and to have never been intended to be 
strictly scrutinized, and minutely and partiini- 
larly explained, as if they had some precise 
moral or spiritual meaning. Tobit, in his pro- 
phecy of the final restoration of Israel, Tobit 
xii, 16, 17, describes the new Jerusalem in the 
same oriental manner. 



CAR 



221 



CAS 



CARMEL, in the southern part of Palestine, 
where Nabal the Carmelite, Abigail's husband, 
dwelt, Joshua xv, 55 ; 1 Sam. xxv. 

2. Carmel was also the name of a celebrated 
mountain in Palestine. Though spoken of in 
general as a single mountain, it ought rather 
to be considered as a mountainous region, the 
whole of which was known by the name of 
Carmel, while to one of the hills, more eleva- 
ted than the rest, that name was usually ap- 
plied by way of eminence. It had the plain 
of Sharon on the south ; overlooked the port 
of Ptolemais on the north ; and was bounded 
on the west by the Mediterranean sea ; form- 
ing one of the most remarkable promontories 
that present themselves on the shores of that 
great sea. According to Volney, it is about 
two thousand feet in height, and has the shape 
of a flattened cone. Its sides are steep and 
rugged; the soil neither deep nor rich; and 
among the naked rocks stinted with plants, 
and wild forests which it presents to the eye, 
there are at present but few traces of that fer- 
tility' which we are accustomed to associate 
.with the idea of Mount Carmel. Yet even 
Volney himself acknowledges that he found 
among the brambles, wild vines and olive trees, 
which proved that the hand of industry had 
once been employed on a not ungrateful soil. 
Of its ancient productiveness there can be no 
doubt ; the etymology and ordinary application 
of its name being sufficient evidence of the 
fact. Carmel is not only expressly mentioned 
ill Scripture as excelling other districts in that 
respect ; but, every place possessed of the same 
kind of excellence obtained from it the same 
appellation in the language both of the pro- 
phets and the people. Mount Carmel is cele- 
brated in the Old Testament, as the usual place 
of residence of the Prophets Elijah and Elisha. 
It was here that Elijah so successfully opposed 
the false prophets of Baal, 1 Kings xviii ; and 
there is a certain part of the mountain facing 
the w^est, and about eight miles from the point 
of the promontory, which the Arabs call Man- 
sur, and the Europeans the place of sacrifice, 
in commemoration of that miraculous event. 
Near the same place is also still shown a cave, 
in v/hich it is said the Prophet had his resi- 
dence. The brook Kishon, which issues from 
Mount Tabor, waters the bottom of Carmel, 
and falls into the sea toward the northern side 
of the mountain, and not the southern, as some 
writers have erroneously stated. Its greatest 
elevation is about one thousand five hundred 
feet ; hence, when the sea coast on one side, 
and the plain on the other, are oppressed with 
sultry heat, this hill is refreshed by cooling 
breezes, and enjoys a delightful temperature. 
The fastnesses of this rugged mountain are so 
difficult of access, that the Prophet Amos classes 
them with the deeps of hell, the height of hea- 
ven, and the bottom of the sea : " Though they 
dig into hell," (or the dark and silent chambers 
of the grave,) "thence shall mine hand take 
them ; though they climb up to heaven, thence 
will 1 bring them down ; and though they hide 
themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search 
and take them out thence ; and thovigh they be 



hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, 
thence will I command the serpent, and he 
shall bite them," Amos ix, 2, 3. Lebanon 
raises to heaven a summit of naked and barren 
rocks, covered for the greater part of the year 
with snow ; but the top of Carmel, how naked 
and sterile soever its present condition, was 
clothed with verdure which seldom was known 
to fade. Even the lofty genius of Isaiah, 
stimulated and guided by the Spirit of inspira- 
tion, could not find a more appropriate figure 
to express the flourishing state of the Redeem- 
er's kingdom, than "the excellency of Carmel 
and Sharon." 

CART, a machine used in Palestine to force 
the corn out of the ear, and bruise the straw, 
Isaiah xxviii, 27, 28. The wheels of these 
carts were low, broad, and shod with iron, and 
were drawn over the sheaves spread on the 
floor by means of oxen. 

CASTOR and POLLUX. It is said that 
the vessel which carried Paul to Rome had the 
sign of Castor and Pollux, Acts xxviii, 11. 
Castor and Pollux were sea-gods, and invoked 
by sailors ; and even the light balls or meteors 
which are sometimes seen on ships, were called 
Castor and Pollux. An inscription in Gruter 
proves that seamen implored Castor and Pol- 
lux in dangers at sea. It is to be observed, 
that St. Luke does not mention the name, but 
the sign, of the ship. By the word sign, the 
sacred writer meant a protecting image of the 
deity, to whom the vessel was in some sort 
consecrated; as at present in Catholic coun- 
tries, most of their vessels are named after 
some saint, St. Xavier, St. Andero, St. Domi- 
nique, &c. It appears to be certain, that the 
figure which gave name to the ship was at the 
head, and the tutelary deity was placed on the 
poop. 

CASUIST, one who studies and decides 
upon cases of conscience. Escobar has made 
a collection of the opinions of all the casuists 
before his time. M. Le Feore, preceptor to 
Louis XIII, said that the books of the casuists 
taught " the art of quibbling with God ;" which 
does not seem far from truth, by reason of the 
multitude of distinctions and subtleties with 
which they abound. Mayer has published a 
bibliotheca of casuists, containing an account 
of all the writers on cases of conscience, ranged 
under three heads ; the first comprehending the 
Lutheran ; the second, the Calvinistic ; and 
the third, the Roman casuists. 

CASUISTRY, the doctrine and science of 
conscience and its cases, with the rules and 
principles of resolving the same ; drawn partly 
from natural reason, or equity, and partly from 
the authority of Scripture, the canon laWy 
councils, fathers, &lc. To casuistry belongs 
the decision of all difficulties arising about 
what a man may lawfiilly do or not do ; what 
is sin or not sin ; what things a man is obliged 
to do in order to discharge his duty, and what 
he may let alone without breach of it. AL 
though the morality of the Gospel is distin- 
guished by its purity and_by its elevation, it is 
necessarily exhibited in a general form ; cer- 
tain leading principles are laid dovra ; but the 



CAS 



222 



GAS 



application of these to the innumerable cases 
which occur in the actual intercourse of life, 
is left to the understanding and the conscience 
of individuals. Had it been otherwise, the 
Christian code would have swelled to an ex. 
tent which would have rendered it in a great 
degree useless ; it would have been difficult or 
impossible to recollect all its provisions ; and, 
minute as these would have been, they would 
still have been defective, — new situatious or 
combinations of circumstances modifying duty 
continually arising, which it would have been 
impracticable or hurtful to anticipate. When 
the principles of duty are rightly unfolded, and 
when they are placed on a sound foundation, 
there is, to a fair mind, no difficulty in accom- 
modating them to its own particular exigen- 
cies. A few cases, it is true, may occur, where 
it is a matter of doubt in what way men should 
act; but these are exceedingly rare, and the 
lives of vast numbers may come to an end with- 
out any of them happening to occasion per- 
plexity. Every man may be, and perhaps is, 
sensible, that his errors are to be ascribed, not 
to his having been at a loss to know what he 
should have done, but to his deliberately or 
hastily violating what he saw to be right, or to 
his having allowed himself to confound, by vain 
and subtile distinctions, what, in the case of 
any one else, would have left in his mind no 
room for hesitation. The manner, however. 
In which the Gospel inculcates the law of God, 
combined with other causes in leading to a 
species of moral discussion, which, pretending 
to ascertain in every case what ought to be 
practised, and thus to affiard plain and safe di- 
rections to the conscience, terminated in what 
has been denominated casuistry. 

The schoolmen delighted in this species of 
intellectual labour. They transferred their 
zeal for the most fanciful and frivolous dis- 
tinctions in what respected the doctrines of 
religion to its precepts ; they anatomized the 
different virtues ; nicely examined all the cir- 
cumstances by which our estimate of them 
should be influenced ; and they thus rendered 
the study of morality inextricable, confounded 
the natural notions of right and wrong, and so 
accustomed themselves and others to weigh 
their actions, that they could easily find some 
excuse for what was most culpable, while they 
continued under the impression that they were 
not deviating from what, as moral beings, was 
incumbent upon them. The corruption of 
manners which was introduced into the church 
during the dark ages rendered casuistry very 
popular; and, accordingly, many who affected 
to be the most enlightened writers of their age, 
and perhaps really were so, tortured their un- 
derstanding or their fancy in solving cases of 
conscience, and often in polluting their own 
imaginations and those of others, by employ- 
ing them on possible crimes, upon whichj how- 
ever unlikely was their occurrence in life, they 
were eager to pronounce a decision. The 
happy change which the Reformation produced 
upon the views of men respecting the sacred 
Scriptures, tended to erect that pure standard 
of duty which for ages had been laid in the 



dust. Yet for a considerable time Protestant 
divines occupied themselves with the intrica- 
cies of casuistry, thus in some degree shutting 
out the light which they had fortunately poured 
upon the world. The Lutheran theologians 
walked very much in the tract which the 
schoolmen had opened, although their decisions 
were much more consonant with Christianity ; 
and it was not uncommon in some countries 
for ecclesiastical assemblies to devote part of 
their time to the resolution of questions which 
might have been safely left unnoticed, which 
now are almost universally regarded as frivo- 
lous, and about which almost the most ignorant 
would be ashamed to ask an opinion. Even 
after much of the sophistry, and much of the 
moral perversion connected with casuistry, 
were exploded, the form of that science was 
preserved, and many valuable moral principles 
in conformity to it delivered. The venerable 
Bishop Hall published a celebrated work, to 
which he gave the appellation of " Cases of 
Conscience Practically resolved ;" and he in- 
troduces it with the following observations 
addressed to the reader : " Of all divinity, that 
part is most usefiil which determines cases of 
conscience ; and of all cases of conscience, the 
practical are most necessary, as action is of 
more concernment than speculation ;. and of 
all practical cases, those which are of most 
common use are of so much greater necessity 
and benefit to be resolved, as the errors thereof 
are more universal, and therefore more prejudi- 
cial to the society of mankind. These I have 
selected out of many ; and having turned over 
divers casuists, have pitched upon those de. 
cisions which I hold most conformable to en- 
lightened reason and religion ; sometimes I 
follow them, and sometimes I leave them for a 
better guide." He divides his work into four 
parts, — Cases of profit and traffic. Cases of life 
and liberty. Cases of piety and religion, and 
Cases matrimonial ; under each of these solv- 
ing a number of questions, or rather giving a 
number of moral dissertations. 

Casuistry, as a systematic perversion of 
Christian morality, is now, in the Protestant 
world, very much unknown ; though there still 
is, and perhaps always will be, that softening 
down of the strict rules of duty, to which man- 
kind are led either by self-deceit, or by the 
natural desire of reconciling, with the hope of 
the divine favour, considerable obliquity from 
that path of rectitude and virtue which alone 
is acceptable to God. But the most striking 
specimen of the length to which casuistry was 
carried, and of the dangerous consequences 
which resulted from it, is furnished by the 
history of the maxims and sentiments of the 
Jesuits, that celebrated order, which combined 
with profound literature, and the most zealous 
support of Popery, an ambition that perverted 
their understandings, or rather induced them 
to employ their rational powers in the melan- 
choly work of poisoning the sources of morality, 
and of casting the name and the appearance 
of virtue over a dissoluteness of principle and 
a profligacy of licentiousness, which, had they 
not been checked by sounder vieAVs, and by 



CAV 



223 



CED 



feelings and habits favourable to morality, 
would have spread through the world the most 
degrading misery. See Jesuits. 

CATERPILLAR. V^on. I'he word occurs 
Deut. xxviii, 38; Psa. Ixviii, 46; Isa. xxxiii, 
4 ; 1 Kings viii, 37 ; 2 Chron. vi, 28 ; Joel i, 
4; ii, 25. In the four last cited texts, it is 
distinguished from the locust, properly so call- 
ed ; and in Joel i, 4, is mentioned as " eating 
up" what the other species had left, and there- 
fore might be called the consumer, by way of 
eminence. But the ancient interpreters are 
far from being agreed what particular species 
it signifies. The Septuagintin Chronicles, and 
Aquila in Psalms, render it /?poy;^of: so the 
Vulgate in Chronicles and Isaiah, and Jerom 
in Psalms, bruchus, the chafer, which is a great 
devourer of leaves. From the Syriac version, 
however, Michaelis is disposed to understand 
it the taupe grillon, "mole cricket," which, in 
its grub state, is very destructive to corn and 
other vegetables, by feeding on their roots. 
See Locust. 

CATHOLIC denotes what is general or 
universal. The rise of heresies induced the 
primitive Christian church to assume to itself 
the appellation of catholic, as being a charac- 
teristic to distinguish itself from them. The 
Romish church now proudly assumes the title 
catholic, in opposition to all who have separated 
from her communion, and whom she considers 
as heretics and schismatics, while she herself 
remains tlie only true and Christian church. 
The church of Christ is called catholic, because 
it extends throughout the world, and endures 
through all time. 

2. Catholic, general, Epistles. They are 
seven in number ; namely, one of James, two 
of Peter, three of John, and one of Jude, They 
are called catholic, because directed to Chris- 
tian converts generally, and not to any par- 
ticular church. Hug, in his "Introduction 
to the New Testament," takes another view 
of the import of this term, which was certainly 
used at an early period, as by Origen and 
others: — -"When the Gospels and Acts of the 
Apostles constituted one peculiar division, the 
works of Paul also another, there still remained 
writings of different authors, which might 
likewise form a collection of themselves, to 
which a name must be given. It might most 
aptly be called the common collection, KaBo'XiKov 
auvrayixa, of the Apostles, and the treatises con- 
tained in it, Koivai and KaQo\iKai, Avhich are com. 
monly used by the Greeks as synonyms. For 
this we find a proof even in the most ancient 
ecclesiastical language. Clemens Alexandri- 
nus calls the epistle which was despatched by 
the assembly of the Apostles, Acts xv, 23, the 
' catholic epistle,' as that in which all the 
Apostles had a share, rr}v liri^oXfiv KaBoKiKriv tZv 
'A7rof«^Xwj/ a-irnvToiv. Hence our seven epistles 
are catholic, or epistles of all the Apostles who 
are authors." 

CAVES, or CAVERNS. The country of 
Judea, being mountainous and rocky, is in 
many parts full of caverns, to which allusions 
frequently occur in the Old Testament. At 
Engedi, in particular, there was a cave so 



large, that David, with six hundred men, hid 
themselves in the sides of it, and Saul entered 
the mouth of the cave without perceiving 
that any one was there, 1 Sam. xxiv. Jose- 
phus tells us of a immerous gang of banditti, 
who, having infested the country, and being- 
pursued by Herod with his army, retired into 
certain caverns, almost inaccessible, near Ar- 
bela in Galilee, where they were with great 
difficulty subdued. " Beyond Damascus," says 
Strabo, " are two mountains, called Trachones, 
from which the country has the name of Tra- 
chonitis ; and from hence, toward Arabia and 
Iturea, are certain rugged mountains, in which 
there are deep caverns ; one of which will hold 
four thousand men." Tavernier, in his " Travels 
in Persia," speaks of a grotto between Aleppo 
and Bir, that would hold near three thousand 
horse. And Maundrel assures us, that "three 
hours distant from Sidon, about a mile from 
the sea, there runs along a high rocky mount- 
ain, in the sides of which are hewn a multitude 
of grottoes, all very little differing from each 
other. They have entrances about two foot 
square. There are of these subterraneous 
caverns two hundred in number. It may, with 
probability, at least, be concluded that these 
places were contrived for the use of the living, 
and not of the dead." These extracts may be 
useful in explaining such passages of Scripture 
as the following: " Becaase of the Midianites, 
the c^hildren of Israel made them dens which 
are in the mountains, and caves, and strong- 
holds," Judges vi, 2. To these they betook 
themselves for refuge in times of distress and 
hostile invasion: — "When the men of Israel 
saw that they were in a strait, for the people 
were distressed, then the people did hide them- 
selves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, 
and in high places, and in pits," 1 Sam. xiii, 6. 
See also Jer. xli, 9 : "To enter into the holes 
of the rocks and into the caves of the earth," 
became with the prophets a very proper and 
familiar image to express a state of terror and 
consternation- Thus Isa. ii, 19: "They shall 
go into the holes of the rocks, and into the 
caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and 
for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth 
to shake terribly the earth." 

CEDAR, T^iX. The cedar is a large and noble 
evergreen tree. Its lofty height, and its far 
extended branches, afford spacious shelter and 
shade, Ezek. xxxi, 3, 6, 8. The wood is very 
valuable ; is of a reddish colour, of an aromatic 
smell, and reputed incorruptible. This is owing 
to its bitter taste, which the worms cannot 
endure, and to its resin, which preserves it 
from the injuries of the weather. The ark of 
the covenant, and much of the temple of Solo- 
mon, and that of Diana at Ephesus, were built 
of cedar. The tree is much celebrated in 
Scripture. It is called, " the glory of Lebanon,'* 
Isa. Ix, 13. On that mountain it must in for- 
mer times have flourished in great abundance. 
There are some cedars still growing there 
which are prodigiously large. But the travel- 
lers who have visited the place within these 
two or three centuries, and who describe trees 
of vast size, inform us that their number is 



OER 



224 



CER 



diminished greatly ; so that, as Isaiah says, " a 
child may number them," Isa. x, 19. Maun- 
drell measured one of the largest size, and 
found it to be twelve yards and six inches in 
girt, and yet sound ; and thirty-seven yards in 
the spread of its boughs. Gabriel Sionita, a 
very learned Syrian Maronite, who assisted in 
editing the Paris Polyglott, a man worthy of 
all credit, thus describes the cedars of mount 
Lebanon, which he had examined on the spot : 
"The cedar grows on the most elevated part 
of the mountain, is taller than the pine, and so 
thick, that five men together could scarcely 
encompass one. It shoots out its branches at 
ten or twelve feet from the ground: they are 
large and distant from each other, and are 
perpetually green. The w^ood is of a brown 
colour, very solid and incorruptible, if pre- 
served from wet. The tree bears a small cone 
like that of the pine. 

CELSUS. A Pagan philosopher of the second 
century, who composed a work against Chris- 
tianity, in which he so expressly refers to the 
facts of the Gospels, and to the books of the 
New Testament, as to have flirnished import- 
ant undesigned testimony to their antiquity 
and truth. 

CEMETERY. See Sepulchre. 
CENSER, a sacred instrument made use of 
in the religious rites of the Hebrews, It was 
a vase which contained incense to be used in 
sacrifice. When Aaron made an atonement for 
himself and his house, he was to take a censer 
full of burning coals of fire from off the altar 
of the Lord, Lev. xvi, 12. And Solomon, when 
he provided furniture for the temple of the 
Lord, made, among other things, censers of 
pure gold, 1 Kings vii, 50. 

CENTURION, an officer in the Roman 
army, who, as the term indicates, had the com- 
mand of a hundred men, Matt, viii, 5, &c. 

CEPHAS, Kv^as, from ndo, a rock. The 
Greek Uhpog, and the Latin Petrus, have the 
same signification. See Peter. 

CEREMONY, an assemblage of several ac- 
tions, forms, and circumstances, serving to ren- 
der a thing magnificent and solemn. Applied 
to religious services, it signifies the external 
rites and manner in which the ministers of re- 
ligion perform their sacred functions, and di- 
rect or lead the worship of the people. In 1646, 
M. Ponce, published a history of ancient cere- 
monies, showing the rise, growth, and intro- 
duction of each rite into the church, and its 
gradual advancement to superstition. Many 
of them were borrowed from Judaism, but 
more from Paganism. In all religions adapted 
to the nature of man there must be some posi- 
tive institutions for fixing the mind upon spi- 
ritual objects, and counteracting that influence 
of material things upon habits and pursuits 
which is, and must be, constantly exerted. 
Without such institutions, religion might be 
preserved, indeed, by a few of superior under- 
standing and of strong powers of reflection ; 
but among mankind in general all trace of it 
would soon be lost. When the end for which 
they are appointed is kept in view, and the simple 
examples of the New Testament are observed, 



they are of vast importance to the production 
both of pious feelings and of virtuous conduct ■ 
but there has constantly been a propensity in 
the human race to mistake the means for the 
end, and to consider themselves as moral and 
religious, when they scrupulously observe what 
was intended to produce morality and religion. 
The reason is obvious : ceremonial observances 
can be performed without any great sacrifice 
of propensities and vices ; they are palpable ; 
when they are observed by men who, in the 
tenor of public life, do not act immorally, they 
are regarded by others as indicating high at 
tainments in virtue ; and through that self-de- 
ceit which so w^onderfully misleads the reason, 
and inclines it to minister to the passions which 
it should restrain, men have themselves become 
persuaded that their acknowledgment of divine 
authority, implied in their respect to the ritual 
which that authority is conceived to have sanc- 
tioned, may be taken as a proof that they have 
nothing to apprehend from the violation of the 
law under which they are placed. But, what- 
ever be the causes of this, the fact itself is 
established by the most extensive and the most 
incontrovertible evidence. We find it, indeed, 
wherever mankind have had notions of supe- 
rior power, and of their obligation to yield obe- 
dience to the will of the supreme Being. 

Under the system of polytheism which pre- 
vailed in the most enlightened nations previous 
to the publication of Christianity, this was car- 
ried so far, that the connection between religion 
and morality was in a great degree dissolved, 
rites and ceremonies, sacrifices and oblations, 
were all that it was thought requisite to observe ; 
when these were carefully performed, there 
was no hesitation in ascribing piety to the per- 
sons Vv^ho did perform them, however deficient 
they might be in virtuous and pious disposi- 
tions. Even under the Mosaical dispensation, 
proceeding as it did, immediately from heaven, 
and adapted, as in infinite v/isdom it was, to 
the situation of those to whom it was given, 
the same evil early began to be experienced ; 
and although it was lamented and exposed by 
the prophets, and the most enlightened men 
among the Jews, it was so far from being era- 
dicated, that it continued to acquire strength, 
till it was exhibited in all its magnitude in the 
character prevalent among the Pharisees at the 
period of Christ's manifestation. With this 
highly popular and revered class of men, reli= 
gion was either merely a matter of ceremony, 
or was employed, for base and interested pur- 
poses, to cast a veil of sanctity over their ac- 
tions. They said long prayers, but it was for 
a show ; they gave alms, but it was after they 
had sounded a trumpet, that the eye of man 
might be fixed upon their beneficence ; and, as 
to the point now under review, they were most 
strikingly described by our Saviour, when he 
said of them, " They pay tithe of mint, and 
anise, and cummin, but they neglect the 
weightier matters of the law, justice, and mer- 
cy, and truth." The Christian religion not only 
expressly guards against an evil which had be- 
come so prevalent, but its whole spirit is at va- 
riance with it, its own ceremonial observances 



CER 



225 



CER 



being few, and obviously emblematical of what- 
ever is excellent and holy. But still the Gos- 
pel finds human nature as other religions found 
it; and ecclesiastical history, even from the 
earliest periods, shows with what astonishing 
perverseness, and with what wonderful inge- 
nuity, men departed from the simplicity of 
Christianity, and substituted in its room the 
most childish, and often the most pernicious, 
practices and observances. The power of god- 
liness was lost in forms ; and the innovations 
of a profane will-worship became almost innu- 
merable. The effect v/as, that men regarded 
God as less concerned with the moral conduct 
of his creatures, than with the quantum of serv- 
ice they performed in his temples ; and religion 
and morals were so disjoined, that one became 
the substitute for the other, to the universal 
corruption of the Christian world. 

CERINTHIANS. OfCerinthus, the founder 
of this sect, Dr. Burton gives the following ac- 
count : Cerinthus is said to have been one of 
those Jews who, when St. Peter returned to 
Jerusalem, expostulated with him for having 
baptized Cornelius, Acts xi, 2. He is also stat- 
ed to have been one of those who went down 
from Judea to Antioch, and said, " Except ye 
be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye 
cannot be saved," Acts xv, 1. According to 
the same account, he was one of the false 
teachers who seduced the Galatians to Judaism ; 
and he is also charged with joining in the at- 
tack which was made upon St. Paul, for pollut- 
ing the temple by the introduction of Greeks, 
Acts xxi, 27, 28. I cannot find any older au- 
thority for these statements than that of Epi- 
phanius, who wrote late in the fourth century, 
and is by no means worthy of implicit credit. 
He asserts, also, that Cerinthus was one of the 
persons alluded to by St. Luke, as having already 
undertaken, to write the life of Jesus. But all 
these stories I take to be entirely inventions ; 
and there is no evidence that Cerinthus made 
himself conspicuous at so early a period. Ire- 
naeus speaks of the heresy of the Nicolaitans, 
as being considerably prior to that of the Ce- 
rinthians. According to the same writer, Car- 
pocrates also preceded Cerinthus ; and if it be 
true, as so many of the fathers assert, that St. 
John wrote his Gospel expressly to confiite this 
heresy, we can hardly come to any other con- 
clusion, than that it was late in the first cen- 
tury when Cerinthus rose into notice. He 
appears undoubtedly to have been a Jew ; and 
there is evidence that, after having studied phi- 
losophy in Egypt, he spread his doctrines in 
Asia Minor. This will account for his embrac- 
mg the Gnostic opinions, and for his exciting 
the notice of St. John, who resided at Ephesus. 
He was certainly a Gnostic in his notion of the 
creation of the world, which he conceived to 
have been formed by angels ; and his attach- 
ment to that philosophy may explain what 
otherwise seems inconsistent, that he retain- 
ed some of the Mosaic ceremonies, such as 
the observance of Sabbaths and circumcision ; 
though, like other Gnostics, he ascribed the law 
and the prophets to the angel who created the 
world. This adoption or rejection of different 
16 



parts of the same system was a peculiar feature 
of the Gnostic philosophy ; and the name of 
Cerinthus probably became eminent, because 
he introduced a fresh change in the notion con- 
cerning Christ. The Gnostics, like their leader, 
Simon Magus, had all of them been Docetce, 
and denied the real humanity ; but Cerinthus 
is said to have maintained that Jesus had a real 
body, and was the son of human parents, Jo^ 
seph and Mary. In the other points he agreed 
with the Gnostics, and believed that Christ was 
one of the seons who descended on Jesus at his 
baptism. It is difficult to ascertain who was 
the first Gnostic that introduced this opinion. 
Some writers give the merit of it to Ebion ; 
and yet it is generally said that Cerinthus and 
Ebion agreed in their opinions concerning 
Christ, and that Cerinthus preceded Ebion. 
Again Carpocrates is said to have held the 
same sentiments ; and he is placed by Irenajus 
before Cerinthus : so that it is difficult, if not 
impossible, to decide the chronological pre- 
cedence of these heretics. Perhaps the safest 
inference to draw from so many conflicting tes- 
timonies is this : that Carpocrates was the first 
Gnostic of eminence who was not a Docetist ; 
but that the notion of Jesus being born of hii- 
man parents was taught more explicitly and 
with more success by Cerinthus. Carpocrates 
is reported to have been distinguished by the 
gross immorality of his life ; and whatever we 
may think of the imputations cast upon the 
Gnostics in general, it seems impossible to deny 
that this person, at least, professed and practis- 
ed a perfect liberty of action. There is also 
strong evidence that in this instance Cerinthus 
followed his example. 

There is a peculiar doctrine ascribed to this 
heretic, which, if it originated with him, may 
well account for the celebrity of his name. 
Cerinthus has been handed down as the first 
person who held the notion of a millennium ; 
and though the fathers undoubtedly believed 
that, previous to the general resurrection, the 
earth would undergo a renovation, and the just 
would rise to enjoy a lon^ period of terrestrial 
happiness, yet there was a marked and palpa- 
ble difference between the millennium of the 
fathers and that of Cerinthus. The fathers 
conceived this terrestrial happiness to be per- 
fectly pure and freed from the imperfections of 
our nature ; but Cerinthus is said to have pro- 
mised his followers a millennium of the grossest 
pleasures and the most sensual gratifications. 
It is singular that all the three sources, to 
which we may trace the Gnostic doctrines, 
might furnish some foundation for this notion 
of a millennium. Thus Plato has left some 
speculations concerning the "great year," 
when, after the expiration of thirty-six thousand 
years, the world was to be renewed, and the 
golden age to return. It was the belief of the 
Persian magi, according to Plutarch, that 
the time would come, when Ahreman, or the 
evil principle, would be destroyed; when 
the earth would lose its impediments and 
inequalities, and all mankind would be of one 
language, and enjoy uninterrupted happiness. 
It was taught, in the Cabbala, that the world 



CHA 



226 



CHA 



was to last six thousand years, which would 
be followed by a period of rest for a thousand 
years more. There appears in this an evident 
allusion, though on a much grander scale, to 
the sabbatical years of rest. The institution 
of the jubilee, and the glowing descriptions 
given by the prophets of the restoration of the 
Jews, and the reign of the Messiah, may have 
led the later Jews to some of their mystical 
fancies; and when all these systems were 
blended together by the Gnostics, it is not 
strange, if a millennium formed part of their 
creed long before the time of Cerinthus. It 
seems probable, however, that he went mvich 
farther than his predecessors in teaching that 
the millennium would consist in a course of 
sensual indulgence ; and it may have been his 
notions upon this subject, added to those con- 
cerning the human nature of Christ, which led 
him to maintain, contrary to the generality of 
Gnostics, that Christ had not yet risen, but 
that he would rise hereafter. The Gnostics, 
as we have seen, denied the resurrection al- 
together. Believing Jesus to be a phantom, 
they did not believe that he was cnicified ; and 
they could not therefore believe that he had 
risen. But Cerinthus, who held that Jesus was 
born, like other human beings, found no dif- 
ficulty in believing literally that he v/as cru- 
cified ; and he is said also to have taught that 
he would rise from the dead at some future pe- 
riod. It is most probable that this period was 
that of the millennium ; and the words of St. 
John in the Revelation would easily be pervert- 
ed, where it is said of the souls of the martyrs, 
that " they lived and reigned with Christ a thou- 
sand years," Rev. XX, 4. 

CHALCEDONY, ;^a>;c^5c5v, Rev. xxi, 19 ; a 
precious stone. Arethas, who has written an 
account of Bithynia, says that it was so called 
from Chalcedon, a city of that country, oppo- 
site to Byzantium ; and it was in colour like a 
carbuncle. Some have supposed this also to 
be the stone called "jSJ, translated "emerald," 
Exodus xxviii, 18. 

CHALDEA, or Babylonia, the country lying 
on both sides of the Euphrates, of which ^^- 
bylon was the capital; and extending south- 
ward to the Persian Gulf, and northward into 
Mesopotamia, at least as far as Ur, which is 
called Ur of the Chaldees. This country had 
also the name of Shinar. See Babylon. 

CHALDEAN PHILOSOPHY claims atten- 
tion on account of its very high antiquity. 
The most ancient people, next to the Hebrews, 
among the eastern nations, who appear to have 
been acquainted with philosopliy, in its more 
general sense, were the Chaldeans ; for though 
the Egyptians have pretended that the Chal- 
deans were an Egyptian colony, and that they 
derived their learning from Egypt, there is 
reason to believe that the kingdom of Baby- 
lon, of which Chaldea was a part, flourished 
before the Egyptian monarchy ; and that the 
Egyptians were rather indebted to the Chal- 
deans, than the Chaldeans to the Egyptians. 
Nevertheless, the accounts that have been 
transmitted to us by tlie Chaldeans themselves, 
of the antiquily.^f their learning, are blended 



with fable, and involved in considerable uncer- 
tainty. There are other circumstances, inde- 
pendently of the antiquity of the Chaldean 
philosophy, which render our knowledge of it 
imperfect and uncertain. We derive our ac- 
quaintance with it from other nations, and 
principally from the Greeks, whose vanity led 
them to despise and misrepresent the pretended 
learning of barbarous nations. The Chaldeans 
also adopted a symbolical mode of instruction, 
and transmitted their doctrines to posterity 
under a veil of obscurity, which it is not easy 
to remove. To all which, we may add that, 
about the commencement of the Christian sera, 
a race of philosophers sprung up, who, with a 
view of gaining credit to their own wild and 
extravagant doctrines, passed them upon the 
world as the ancient wisdom of the Chaldeans 
and Persians, in spurious books, which they 
ascribed to Zoroaster, or some other eastern 
philosopher. Thus, the fictions of these im- 
postors were confounded with the genuine 
dogmas of the ancient eastern nations. Not- 
withstanding these causes of uncertainty, 
which perplex the researches of modem inquir- 
ers into the distinguishing doctrines and cha. 
racter of the Chaldean philosophy, it appears 
probable that the philosophers of Chaldea were 
the priests of the Babylonian nation, who in- 
structed the people in the principles of religion, 
interpreted its laws, and conducted its ceremo- 
nies. Their character was similar to that of 
the Persian magi, and they are often confound- 
ed with them by the Greek historians.' Like 
the priests in most other nations, th§y employed 
religion in subserviency to the ruling powers, 
and made use of imposture to serve the pur- 
poses of civil policy. Accordingly, Diodorus 
Siculus relates, that tliey pretended to predict 
future events by divination, to explain prodi-, 
gies, and interpret dreams, and to avert evils, 
or confer benefits, by means of augury and in- 
cantations. For many ages, they retained a 
principal place among diviners. In the reign 
of Marcus Antonius, when the emperor and 
his army, who were perishing with thirst, were 
suddenly relieved by a shower, the prodigy was 
ascribed to the power and skill of the Chaldean 
soothsayers. Thus accredited for their miracu- 
lous powers, they maintained their conse- 
quence in the courts of princes. The principal 
instrument which they employed in support of 
their superstition, was astrology. The Chal- 
deans were probably the first people who made 
regular observations upon the heavenly bodies, 
and hence the appellation of Chaldean became 
afterward synonymous with that of astrono- 
mer. Nevertheless all their observations were 
applied to the sole purpose of establishing the 
credit of judicial astrology; and they employed 
their pretended skill in this art, in calculating 
nativities, foretelling the weather, predicting 
good and bad fortune, and other practices 
usual with impostors of this class. "While they 
taught the vulgar that all human affairs are in- 
fluenced by the stars, and professed to be ac- 
quainted with the nature and laws of their 
influence, and consequently to possess a power 
of prying into futurity, they encouraged much 



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idle superstition, and many fraudulent prac- 
tices. Hence other professors of these mis- 
chievous arts were afterward called Chaldeans, 
and the arts themselves were called Babylonian 
arts. Among the Romans these impostors 
^vere so troublesome, that, during the time of 
the republic, it became necessary to issue an 
edict requiring the Chaldeans, or mathemati- 
cians, (by whicli latter appellation they were 
commonly known,) to depart from Rome and 
Italy within ten days ; and, afterward, under 
the emperors, these soothsayers were put under 
the most severe interdiction. 

The Chaldean philosophy, notwithstanding 
the obscurity that has rendered it difficult of 
research, has been highly extolled, not only by 
the orientals and Greeks, but by Jewish and 
Christian writers : but upon recurring to au- 
thorities that are unquestionable, there seems 
to be little or nothing in this branch of the bar- 
baric philosophy which deserves notice. The 
following brief detail will include the most in- 
teresting particulars. From the testimony of 
Diodorus, and also from other ancient authori- 
ties, collected by Eusebius, it appears, that the 
Chaldeans believed in God, the Lord and Pa- 
rent of all, by whose providence the world is 
governed. From this principle sprung their 
religious rites, the immediate object of which 
was a supposed race of spiritual beings or de- 
mons, whose existence could not have been 
imagined, without first conceiving the idea of 
a supreme Being, the source of all intelligehce. 
The belief of a supreme Deity, the fountain of 
all the divinities which were supposed to pre- 
side over the several parts of the material 
world, was the true origin of all religious wor- 
ship, however idolatrous, not excepting even 
that which consisted in paying divine honours 
to the memory of dead men. Beside the su- 
preme Being, the Chaldeans supposed spiritual 
beings to exist, of several orders ; gods, de- 
mons, heroes : these they probably distributed 
into subordinate classes, agreeably to their 
practice of theurgy or magic. The Chaldeans, 
in common with the eastern nations in gene- 
ral, admitted the existence of certain evil spi- 
rits, clothed in a vehicle of grosser matter ; and 
in subduing or counteracting these, they placed 
a great part of the efficacy of their religious 
incantations. These doctrines were the mys- 
teries of the Chaldean religion, imparted only 
to the initiated. Their popular religion con- 
sisted in the worship of the sun, moon, planets, 
and stars, as divinities, after the general prac- 
tice of the east, Job xxxi, 27. From the reli- 
gious system of the Chaldeans were derived 
two arts, for which they were long celebrated ; 
namely, magic and astrology. Their magic, 
which should not be confounded with witch- 
craft, or a supposed intercourse with evil spi- 
rits, consisted in the performance of certain 
religious ceremonies or incantations, which 
were supposed, by the interposition of good 
demons, to produce supernatural effects. Their 
astrology was founded upon the chimerical 
principle, that the stars have an influence, 
either beneficial or malignant, upon the affairs 
of men, which may be discovered, and made 



the certain ground of prediction, in particular 
cases ; and the whole art consisted in applying 
astronomical observations to this fanciful pur- 
pose, and thus imposing upon the credulity of 
the vulgar. 

CHAMBER. See Uppeh R6om. 

CHAPTERS . The New Testament was early 
portioned out into certain divisions, which ap- 
pear under various names. The custom of 
reading it publicly in the Christian assemblies 
after the law and the prophets, would soon 
cause such divisions to be applied to it. The 
law and the prophets were for this end already 
divided into parashim and haptarolh, and the 
New Testament could not long remain with- 
out being treated in the same way. The dis- 
tribution into church lessons v/as indeed the 
oldest that took place in it. The Christian 
teachers gave the name of pericop^s, to the 
sections read as lessons by the Jews. Justin 
Martyr avails himself of this expression, when 
he quotes prophetical passages. Such is tJie 
case also in Clemens of Alelandrra ; btxt this 
writer also gives the na.me of zstpiKdmii to larger 
sections of the Gospels and St. Paul's Epistles. 
Pericopes therefore were nothing else but 
uvayvuxrijara, church lessons, or sections of the 
New Testament, which were read in the as- 
semblies after Moses and the Prophets. In 
the third century another divisi'on also into 
Kt(paXaia occurs. Dionysius of Alexandria 
speaks of them in reference to the Apocalypse, 
and the controversies respecting it. Some, 
says he, went through the whole book, from 
chapter to chapter, to show that it bore no 
sense. In the fifth century EuthaHus produced 
again a division into chapters, which was ac- 
counted his invention. He himself however 
lays claim to nothing more than having com- 
posed TTiv Tcov KE(pa\aiMv iKdtaiv, the summaries of 
the contents of the chapters in the Acts of the 
Apostles and the Catholic Epistles. In the 
Epistles of St. Paul, not even these are his 
property ; but they are derived " from one of 
the wisest of the fathers, and worshippers of 
Christ," as he himself says, and he only incor- 
porated them into his stichometrical edition of 
the New Testament. The chapters must, 
therefore, have been in existence before Eu- 
thalius, if the father whom he rfiehtions com, 
posed notices of their contents. But how old 
they are cannot easily be known. The Eutha- 
I'lRn Ke([>a\aia are distinguished from the pericopes, 
or reading portions, by their extent. The 
Jews had divided the law into fifty -three para- 
shim, according to the number of the Sabbaths, 
taking into account the leap year. Nearly so 
distributed Were the Acts of the Apostles, St. 
Paul's and the Catholic Epistles, according to 
the Alexandrine ritual, which Euthalius fol- 
lows in his stichometrical edition, namely, into 
fifty.six pericopes; three more than the number 
of KVQidiKai hi^^pat, Sundays, probably for three 
festivals, which might be observed at Christ- 
mas, Easter, and Whitsuntide. The Gospels 
too had naturally in the same way many peri, 
copes. Such in older times was the practice 
in Asia also ; for Justin says, that the believers 
there assemble themselves for prayer and read- 



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ing on Sunday only, h rrj rov fjXtov t'lfxep^. Since 
then the whole New Testament was distribut- 
ed into so few sections, these must necessarily 
have been great, and a pericope in Euthalius 
sometimes includes in it four, five, and even 
six chapters. We have spoken hitherto only 
of the chapters of the Acts of the Apostles and 
the Epistles. In the Gospels there occur to us 
KEipakala of two sorts, the greater and the lesser. 
The lesser are the Ammonian which Eusebins 
rejected, after which he composed his ten ca- 
nons in order to point out in the Monotessaron 
of Ammonius the respective contents of every 
Evangelist. He has explained himself in the 
Epistle to Carpianus on their use, and on the 
formation of his ten canons, where he names 
his sections sometimes Kt<pakaia, sometimes 
zsE^iKoitai. Matthew has three hundred and 
fifty-five of these, Mark two hundred and 
thirty-six, Luke three hundred and forty-two, 
and John two hundred and thirty-two. The 
other chapters are independent of these, which 
from their extent are also named the greater. 
Of these, Matthew contains sixty-eight, Mark 
forty-nine, Luke eighty-three, and John only 
eighteen. There are but very few manuscripts 
which have not both of them together. As to 
the church lessons, to come back to them once 
more, various alterations took place in them. 
As the festival days multiplied, the old division 
could no longer subsist, and in many churches 
the pericopes were shortened. At last as the 
ritual of ceremonies was enlarged, only certain 
portions were extracted from the Gospels, the 
Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles, which 
sometimes were very short. A codex of this 
sort was termed iK\oyd6iov ; in reference to the 
Gospels alone, EvayyEh^dpiov ; and in respect to 
the other books, ix;pa^aTr6<^o\ag, This seems to 
have taken place among the Latins much ear- 
lier than among the Greeks. There are per- 
fectly credible testimonies, which establish 
such an arrangement among the former at the 
middle of the fifth century, at which date 
nothing of the kind is perceptible among the 
latter. The expression, rspa^ano^o'Xo?, appears 
indeed frequently in the Typicum of St. Sabas, 
who died in the beginning of the fifth century. 
But the Greeks do not disavow, that this Typi- 
cum or monastic ritual was not by himself, 
that it perished in the invasions of the bar- 
barians, and was composed anew by John of 
Damascus, with references viemoriter, [from 
memory,] to that of Sabas. He lived toward the 
middle of the eighth century, and with an ear- 
lier notice of lectionaries among the Greeks 
we are not acquainted. Finally, our present 
chapters come, as it is well known, from Car- 
dinal Hugo de St. Cher, who in the twelfth 
century composed a concordance, and to this 
end distributed the Bible according to his own 
discretion into smaller portions. They are now 
moreover generally admitted in the editions of 
the Hebrew and Greek texts. The versds, 
however, are from Robert Stephens, who first 
introduced them in his edition of the New Tes- 
tament, A. D. 1551. His son, Henry Stephens, 
was the first to record this for the information 
of posterity, in the preface to his Greek Con- 



cordance to the New Testament ; in which he 
says, that two facts connected with it equally 
demand our admiration : " The first is, that my 
father, while travelling from Paris to Lyons, 
finished this division of each chapter into 
verses, and indeed the greater part of it [inter 
equitandum] when riding on his horse. The 
second fact is, that, a short time prior to this 
journey, while he had the matter still in con- 
templation, almost all those to whom he men- 
tioned it told him plainly that he was an indis- 
creet man, as though he had a wish to spend 
his time and labour on an affair which would 
prove utterly useless, and which would not ob- 
tain for him any commendation, but, on the 
contrary, would expose him to much ridicule. 
But behold the result: in opposition to the 
opinion which condemned and discounte- 
nanced my father's undertaking, as soon as his 
invention was published, every edition of the 
New Testament, whether in the Greek, Latin, 
French, German, or in any other language, 
which did not adopt it, was immediately dis- 
carded." It perhaps will not be unedifying to 
add, that this passage has yielded mankind 
another proof that learning is not always sy- 
nonymous with WISDOM : for the phrase respect- 
ing riding, which occurs in it, has furnished 
matter of warm dispute to literary men ; some 
of them contending that inter equitandum 
means, that Robert Stephens performed the 
greater part of his task while actually on horse- 
back ; but others, giving a more extended con- 
struction to the expression, assert that he was 
engaged in this occupation only when stopping 
for refreshment at inns on the road. Though 
the first interpretation would probably obtain 
the greatest number of suffrages from really 
learned and impartial men ; yet it is quite suf- 
ficient for mankind to know, in either way, 
that this division into verses was completed in 
the course of that journey. 

CHARIOTS OF WAR. The Scripture 
speaks of two sorts of these chariots, one for 
princes and generals to ride in, the other used 
to break the enemies battalions, by letting them 
loose armed with iron, v/hich made dreadful 
havoc among the troops. The most ancient 
chariots of which we have any notice are Pha- 
raoh's, which were overwhelmed in the Red 
Sea, Exodus xiv, 7. The Canaanites, whom 
Joshua engaged at the waters of Merom, had 
cavalry and a multitude of chariots, Joshua 
xi, 4. Sisera, the general of Jabin, king of 
Hazor, had nine hundred chariots of iron in his 
army. Judges iv, 3. The tribe of Judah could 
not get possession of all the lands of their lot, 
because the ancient inhabitants of the country 
were strong in chariots of iron. The Philis- 
tines, in the war carried on by them against 
Saul, had thirty thousand chariots and six 
thousand horsemen, 1 Sam. xiii, 5. David, 
having taken one thousand cliariots of war 
from Hadadezer, king of Syria, hamstrung the 
horses, and burned nine hundred chariots, re- 
serving only one hundred to himself, 2 Sam. 
viii, 4. Solomon had a considerable number 
of chariots, but we know of no military expe- 
dition in which they were employed, 1 Kings 



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X, 26. As Judea was a very mountainous 
country, chariots could be of no great use there, 
except in the plains; and the Hebrews often 
evaded them by fighting on the mountains. 
The kings of the Hebrews, when they went to 
war, were themselves generally mounted in 
chariots from which they fought, and issued 
their orders ; and there was always a second 
chariot empty, whicli followed each of them, 
that if the first was broken he might ascend 
the other, 2 Chron. xxxv, 24. Chariots were 
sometimes consecrated to the sun ; and the 
Scripture observes, that Josiah burned those 
which had been dedicated to the sun by his 
predecessors, 2 Kings xxiii, 11. This super- 
stitious custom was borrowed from the Hea- 
thens, and principally from the- Persians. 

CHARITY, considered as a Christian grace, 
ought in our translation, in order to avoid mis- 
take, to have been translated love. It is the 
love of God, and the love of our neighbour 
flowing from the love of God ; and is described 
with wonderful copiousness, felicity, and even 
grandeur, by St. Paul, 1 Cor. xiii ; a portion of 
Scripture which, as it shows the habitual tem- 
per of a true Christian, cannot be too frequently 
referred to for self-examination, and ought to 
be constantly present to us as our rule. 2. In 
the popular sense, charity is almsgiving ; a 
duty of practical Christianity which is solemnly 
enjoined, and to which special promises are 
annexed. 

CHARM. See Divination. 

CHEBAR, a river of Chaldea, Ezek. i, 1. 
It is thought to have risen near the head of the 
Tigris, and to have run through Mesopotamia, 
to the south-west, and emptied itself into the 
Euphrates. 

CHEDORLAOMER, a king of the Elam- 
ites, who were either Persians, or people bor- 
dering upon the Persians. This was one of 
the four confederated kings, who made war 
upon the five kings of the pentapolis of Sodom ; 
and who, after having defeated them, and made 
themselves masters of a great booty, were pur- 
sued and dispersed by Abraham, Gen. xiv. 

CHEMARIM. This word occurs only once 
in our version of the Bible : "I will cut oflTthe 
remnant of Baal, and the name of the Chema- 
rims (Chemarim) with the priests," Zeph. i, 4 ; 
but it frequently occurs in the Hebrew, and is 
generally translated "priests of the idols," or 
" priests clothed in black," because chamar sig- 
nifies hlachness. By this word the best com- 
mentators understand the priests of false gods, 
and in particular the worshippers of fire, be- 
cause they were, it is said, dressed in black. 
Le Clerc, however, declares against this last 
opinion. Our translators of the Bible would 
seem sometimes to understand by this word the 
idols or objects of worship, rather than their 
priests. This is also the opinion of Le Clerc. 
Calmet observes that camar in Arabic signifies 
the moon, and that Isis is the same deity. 
"Among the priests of Isis," says Calmet, 
"were those called melanephori, that is, wear- 
ers of black ; but it is uncertain whether this 
name was given them by reason of their dress. 
ing wholly in black, or because they wore a 



black shining veil in the processions of this 
goddess." 

CHEMOSH, !:»ioD, an idol of the Moabites, 
Numbers xxi, 29. The name is derived from 
a root which in Arabic signifies to hasten. For 
I this reason, many believe Chemosh to be the 
I sun, whose precipitate course might well pro- 
cure it the name of swift. ^Some identify 
Chemosh with Ammon ; and Macrobius shows 
that Ammon was the sun, whose rays were de- 
noted by his horns. Calmet is of opinion that 
the god Hamanus and Apollo Chonieus, men- 
tioned by Strabo and Ammianus Marcellinus, 
was Chamos, or the sun. These deities were 
worshipped in many parts of the east. Some, 
from the resemblance of the Hebrew Chamos 
with the Greek Comos, have thought Chamos 
to signify Bacchus. Jerom and most interpre- 
ters consider Chamosh and Peor as the same 
deity; but some think that Baal-Peor was 
Tammuz, or Adonis. To Chemosh Solomon 
erected an altar upon the Mount of Olives, 
1 Kings xi, 7. As to the form of the idol Che- 
mosh, the Scripture is silent; but if, according 
to Jerom, it were like Baal-Peor, it must have 
been of the beeve kind; as were, probably, all 
the Baals, though accompanied with various 
insignia. There can be little doubt that part 
of the religious services performed to Chemosh, 
as to Baal-Peor, consisted in revelling and 
drunkenness, obscenities and impurities of the 
grossest kinds. From Chemosh the Greeks 
seem to have derived their Kw//of, called by the 
Romans Camus, the god of feasting and revel- 
ling. 

CHERETHIM. o^nns. Cherethim, or Che- 
rethites, are denominations for the Philistines : 
" I will stretch out mine hand upon the Philis- 
tines, and will cut off the Cherethim, and de- 
stroy the remnant of the sea coast," Ezek. 
XXV, 16. Zephaniah, exclaiming against the 
Philistines, says, "Wo unto the inhabitants 
of the sea coasts, the nation of the Chere- 
thites," Zeph. ii, 5. It is said, 1 Sam. xxx, 14, 
that the Amalekites invaded the south of the 
Cherethites; that is, of the Philistines. David, 
and some of the kings, his successors, had 
guards called Cherethites and Pelethites, 2 
Sam. XV, 18 ; xx, 7. Calmet thinks that they 
were of the country of the Philistines ; but 
several expositors of our own country are of a 
different opinion. "We can hardly suppose," 
say the latter, "that David would employ any 
of these uncircumcised people as his body- 
guard, or that the Israelitish soldiers would 
have patiently seen foreigners of that nation 
advanced to such places of honour and trust." 
It may, therefore, be inferred that guards were 
called Cherethites, because they went with 
David into Philistia, where they continued 
with him all the time he was under the protec- 
tion of Achish. These were the persons who 
accompanied David from the first, and who 
remained with him in his greatest distresses; 
and it is no wonder, if men of such approved 
fidelity should be chosen for his body-guard. 
Beside, it is not uncommon for soldiers to de- 
rive their names, not from the place of their 
nativity, but of their residence. 



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230 



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CHERUB. aiD, plural aon3. It appears, 
fi-ora Gen. iii, 29, that this is a name given to 
angels ; but whether it is the name of a dis- 
tinct class of celestials, or designates the same 
order as the seraphim, we have no means of 
jdetermining. But the term cherubim generally 
eignifies those figures which Moses was com- 
manded to make and place at each end of the 
mercy seat, or propitiatory, and which covered 
the ark with expanded wings in the most holy 
place of the Jewish tabernacle and temple. 
>5ee Exodus xxv, 18, 19. The original mean- 
ing of the term, and the shape or form of these, 
any farther than that they were alata animata, 
"winged creatures," is not certainly known. 
The word in Hebrew is sometimes taken for a 
calf or ox ; and Ezekiel, x, 14, sets down the 
face of a cherub as synonymous to the face of 
an ox. The word cherub, in Syriac and Chal- 
<dee, signifies to till or plough, which is the 
projer work of oxen. Cherub also signifies 
strong and powerful. Orotius says they were 
figures much like that of a calf; and Bochart, 
likewise, thinks that they were more like the 
figure of an ox than any thing beside ; and 
Spencer is of the same mind. But Josephus 
says they were extraordinary creatures of a 
figure unknown to mankind. The opinion of 
most critics, taken, it seems, from Ezek. i, 9, 
10, is, that they were figures composed of parts 
of various creatures; as a man, a lion, an ox, 
an eagle. But certainly we have no decided 
proof that the figures placed in the holy of 
holies, in the tabernacle, were of the same form 
with those described by Ezekiel. The contrary, 
indeed, seems rather indicated, beeause they 
looked down upon the mercy seat, which is an 
attribute not well adapted to a four-faced crea- 
ture, like tlie emblematical cherubim seen by 
Ezekiel. 

The cherubim of the sanctuary were two in 
number ; one at each end of the mercy seat ; 
which, with the ark, was placed exactly in the 
middle, between the north and south sides of 
the tabernacle. It was here that atonement 
was made, and that God was rendered propi- 
tious by the high priest sprinkling the blood 
upon and before the mercy seat, Lev. xvi, 14, 
15. Here the glory of God appeared, and here 
he met his high priest, and by him his people, 
and from hence he gave forth his oracles ; 
whence the whole holy place was called nOi, 
the oracle. These cherubim, it must be observ- 
ed, had feet whereon they stood, 2 Chron. iii, 
13; and their feet were joined, in one con- 
tinued beaten work, to the ends of the mercy 
seat which covered the ark : so that they were 
wholly over or above it. Those in the taber- 
nacle were of beaten gold, being but of small 
dimensions, Exod. xxv, 18 ; but those in the 
temple of Solomon were made of the wood of 
the olive tree overlaid with gold ; for they were 
very lajge, extending their wings to the whole 
breadth of the oracle, which was twenty cubits, 
1 Kings vi, 23-28 ; 2 Chron. iii, 10-13. They 
are called "cherubim of glory," not merely or 
chiefly on account of the matter or formation 
of them, but because they had the glory of 
God, <>r the glorious symbol of his presence, , 



"the Shekinah," resting between them. As 
this glory abode in the inward tabernacle, and 
as the figures of the cherubim represented the 
angels who surround the manifestation of the 
divine presence in the world above, that taber- 
nacle was rendered a fit image of the court of 
heaven, in which light it is considered every 
where in the Epistle to the Hebrews. See 
chapters iv, 14 ; viii, 1 ; ix, 8, 9, 23, 24 ; xii, 
22, 23. 

The cherubim, it is true, have been con- 
sidered by the disciples of Mr. Hutchinson 
as designed emblems of Jehovah himself, or 
rather of the Trinity of Persons in the God- 
head, with man taken into the divine essence. 
But that God, who is a pure Spirit, without parts 
or passions, perfectly separate and remote from 
all matter, should command Moses to make 
material and visible images or emblematical 
representations of himself, is utterly improba, 
ble : especially, considering that he had repeat, 
edly, expressly, and solemnly forbidden every 
thing of this kind in the second commandment 
of the moral law, delivered from Mount Sinai, 
amidst thunder and lightning, "blackness, 
darkness, and tempest," pronouncing with an 
audible and awfiil voice, while "the whole 
mount quaked greatly, and the sound of the 
tiTimpet waxed louder and louder, Thou shalt 
not make unto thee any graven jmage, nor the 
likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, 
or in the earth beneath, or in the water under 
the earth." Hence the solemn caution of 
Moses, Deut. iv, 15, &c : " Take ye good heed 
unto yourselves, (for ye saw no manner of 
similitude on the day the Lord spake unto you 
in Horeb out of the midst of the fire,) lest ye 
corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven 
image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness 
of male or female, of any beast that is on the 
earth, of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, 
of any thing that creepeth on the ground, of 
any fish that is in the waters." Hence God's 
demand by his prophet: "To what will ye 
liken me, or shall I be equal, saith the Holy 
One ?" And hence the censure of the inspired 
penman, Psalm cvi, 20 : " They changed their 
glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth 
grass." Add to this, that in most or all of the 
places where the cherubim are mentioned in 
the Scriptures, God is expressly distinguished 
from them. Thus, "He," the Lord, "placed 
at the east of the garden cherubim, and a flam- 
ing sword," Gen. iii, 24. "He rode on a 
cherub and did fly," Psalm xviii, 10. "He 
sitteth between the cherubim," Psalm xcix, 1. 
"He dwelleth between the cherubim," Psalm 
Ixxx, 1. We also read of " the glory of the God 
of Israel going up, from the cherub whereupon 
he was, to the threshold of the house," Ezek. 
ix, 3. And again, "The glory of the Lord 
went up from the cherub, and the court was 
full of the brightness of the Lord's glory," 
Ezek. X, 4. And again, "The glory of the 
Lord departed fi-om off the threshold, and 
stood over the cherubim," Ezek. x, 18. In all 
these passages the glory of the Lord, that is, 
the Shekinah, the glorious symbol of his pres. 
ence, is distinguished from the cherubim ; and 



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not the least intimation is given in these pas- 
sages, or any others, of the Scripture, that the 
cherubim were images or emblematical repre- 
sentations of him. Mr. Parkhurst's laborious 
elFort to establish Mr. Hutcliinson's opinion on 
the subject of the cherubim, in his Hebrew 
Lexicon, sub voce, is so obviously fanciful and 
contradictory, that few will be converted to 
this strange opinion. It seems much more 
probable that, as most eminent divines have 
supposed, the cherubim represented the angels 
who surround the divine presence in heaven. 
Accordingly, they had their faces turned to- 
ward the mercy seat, where God was supposed 
to dwell, whose glory the angels in heaven 
always behold, and upon which their eyes are 
continually fixed ; as they are also upon Christ, 
the true propitiatory, which mystery of re- 
demption they "desire," St. Peter tells us, "to 
look into," 1 Peter i, 12 : a circumstance evi- 
dently signified by the faces of the cherubim 
being turned inward, and their eyes fixed on 
the. mercy seat. We may here also observe 
that, allowing St. Peter in this passage to 
allude to the cherubic figures, which, from his 
mode of expression, can scarcely be doubted, 
this amounts to a strong presumption that the 
cherubim represented, not so much one order, 
as "the angels" in general, all of whom are 
said to "desire to look into" the subjects of 
human redemption, and to all whose orders, 
"the principalities and powers in heavenly 
places, the manifold wisdom of God is made 
known by the church." In Ezekiel, the che- 
rubic figures are evidently connected with the 
dispensations of providence ; and they have 
therefore appropriate forms, emblematical of 
the strength, wisdom, swiftness, and constancy, 
with which the holy angels minister in carry- 
ing on God's designs : but in the sanctuary 
they are connected with the administration of 
grace ; and they are rather adoring beholders, 
than actors, and probably appeared under forms 
more simple. As to the living creatures, im- 
properly rendered "beasts" in our translation. 
Rev. iv, 7, some think them a hieroglyphi- 
cal representation, not of the qualities of an- 
gels, but of those of real Christians; especially 
of those in the suffering and active periods of 
the church. The first a lion, signifying their 
undaunted courage, manifested in meeting with 
confidence the greatest sufferings; the second 
a calf or ox, emblematical of unwearied pa- 
tience ; the third with the face of a man repre- 
senting prudence and compassion; the fourth 
a flying eagle, signifying activity and vigour. 
The four qualities thus emblematically set 
forth in these four living creatures, namely, 
undaunted courage, unwearied patience under 
sufferings, prudence united with kindness, and 
vigorous activity, are found, more or less, in 
the true members of Christ's church in every 
age and nation. But others have imagined 
that this representation might be intended to 
intimate also that these qualities would espe- 
cially prevail in succeeding ages of the church, 
in the order in which they are here placed: 
that is, that in the first age true Christians 
would be eminent for the courage, fortitude, 



and success, wherewith they should spread the 
Gospel ; that in the next age they would mani- 
fest remarkable patience in bearing persecu- 
tion, when they should be " killed all the day," 
like calves or oxen appointed for the slaughter ; 
that in the subsequent age or ages, when the 
storms of persecution were blown over, and 
Christianity was generally spread through the 
whole Roman empire, knowledge and wisdom, 
piety and virtue, should increase, and the 
church should wear the face of a man, and 
excel in prudence, humanity, love, and good 
works ; and that in ages still later, being re- 
formed from various corruptions in doctrine 
and practice, and full of vigour and activity, it 
should carry the Gospel, as upon the wings of 
a flying eagle, to the remotest nations under 
heaven, "to every kindred, and tongue, and 
people." This is a thought which deserves 
some consideration. The four great monarchies 
of the earth had their prophetic emblems, taken 
both from metals and from beasts and birds ; 
and it is not unreasonable to look for prophetic 
emblems of the one kingdom of Christ, in its 
varied and successive states. Perhaps, how- 
ever, the most reasonable conclusion is, that, 
like the "living creatures" in the vision of 
Ezekiel, they are emblematical of the minis- 
trations of angels in what pertains to those 
providential events which more particularly 
concern the church. 

CHESNUT TREE, jinn;?. This tree, which 
is mentioned only in Gen. xxx, 37, and Ezek. 
xxxi, 8, is by the Septuagint and Jerom ren- 
dered plane tree; and Drusius, Hiller, and 
most of the modern interpreters render it the 
same. The name is derived from a root which 
signifies nakedness ; and it is often observed of 
the plane tree that the bark peels off from the 
trunk, leaving it naked, which peculiarity may 
have been the occasion of its Hebrew name. 
The son of Sirach says, " I grew up as a plane 
tree by the water," Ecclesiasticus xxiv, 14. 

CHILD. Mothers, in the earliest times, 
suckled their offspring themselves, and that 
from thirty to thirty-six months. The day 
when the child was weaned was made a festi- 
val. Gen. xxi, 8 ; Exod. ii, 7, 9 ; 1 Sam. i, 22- 
24; 2 Chron. xxxi, 16; 2 Mac. vii, 27, 28; 
Matt, xxi, 16. Nurses were employed, in 
case the mother died before the child was old 
enough to be weaned, and when from any 
circumstances she was unable to afford a suffi- 
cient supply of milk for its nourishment. In 
later ages, when matrons had become more 
delicate, and thought themselves too infirm to 
fulfil the duties which naturally devolved upon 
them, nurses were employed to take their 
place, and were reckoned among the principal 
members of the family. They are, accordingly, 
in consequence of the respectable station which 
they sustained, frequently mentioned in sacred 
history. Gen. xxxv, 8 ; 2 Kings xi, 2 ; 2 Chron. 
xxii, 11. The sons remained till the fifth year 
in the care of the women; they then came 
into the father's hands, and were taught not 
only the arts and duties of life, but were in- 
structed in the Mosaic law, and in all parts of 
their country's religion, Deut, vi, 20-25; vii. 



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19 ; xi, 19. Those who wished to have them 
farther instructed, proyided they did not deem 
it preferable to employ private teachers, sent 
them away to some priest or Levite, who some- 
times had a nuiriber of other children to instruct. 
It appears from 1 Sam. i, 24-28, that there 
was a school near the holy tabernacle, dedi- 
cated to the instruction of youth. There had 
been many other schools of this kind, which 
had fallen into decay, but were restored again 
by the Prophet Samuel ; after whose time, the 
members of the seminaries in question, who 
were denominated by way of distinction " the 
eons of the prophets," acquired no little noto- 
riety. Daughters rarely departed from the 
apartments appropriated to the females, except 
when they went out with an urn to draw water. 
They spent their time in learning those domes- 
tic and other arts, which are befitting a wo- 
man's situation and character, till they arrived 
at that period in life when they were to be 
sold, or, by a better fortune, given away in 
marriage, Prov. xxxi, 13 ; 2 Sam. xiii, 7. 

2. In Scripture, disciples are often called 
children or sons, Solomon, in his Proverbs, 
says to his disciple, "Hear, my son." The 
descendants of a man, how remote soever, are 
denominated his sons or children ; as " the chil- 
dren of Edom," "the children of Moab," "the 
children of Israel." Such expressions as " the 
children of light," "the children of darkness," 
"the children of the kingdom," signify those 
who follow truth, those who remain in error, 
and those who belong to the church. Persons 
arrived at almost the age of maturity are some- 
times called " children." Thus, Joseph is 
termed " the child," though he was at least six- 
teen years old, Gen. xxxvii, 30 ; and Benjamin, 
even when above thirty, was so denominated, 
xliv, 20. By the Jewish lav\', children were 
reckoned the property of their parents, who 
could sell them for seven years to pay their 
debts. Their creditors had also the power of 
compelling them to resort to this measure. 
The poor woman, whose oil Elisha increased 
so much as enabled her to pay her husband's 
debts, complained to the prophet, that, her 
husband being dead, the creditor was come 
to take away her two sons to be bondmen, 
2 Kings iv, 1. "Children, or sons of God, "is 
a name by which the angels are sometimes 
described: "There was a day when the sons 
of God came to present them*>elves before the 
Lord," Job i, 6; ii, 1. Good men, in opposi- 
tion to the wicked, are also thus denominated ; 
the children of Seth's family, in opposition to 
those of Cain: "The sons of God saw the 
daughters of men," Gen. vi, 2. Judges, ma- 
gistrates, priests, are also termed children of 
God: "I have said. Ye are gods, and ail of 
you are the children of the Most Highj" Psa. 
Ixxxii, 6. The Israelites are called "sons of 
God," in opposition to the Gentiles, Hosea i, 
10 ; John xi, 52. In the New Testament, be- 
lievers are commonly called " children of God" 
by virtue of their adoption. St. Paul, in several 
places, extols the advantages of being adopted 
sons of God, Rom. viii, 14 ; Gal. iii, 26. " Chil- 
dren, or soijs of men," js a name given to 



Cain's family before the deluge, and, m par 
ticular, to the giants who were violent naen, 
and had corrupted their ways. Afterward, the 
impious Israelites were thus called : " O ye 
sons of men, how long will ye love vanity ?" 
Psa, iv, 2. "The sons of men, whose teeth 
are spears and arrows," Ivii, 4. 

CHILD BIRTH, In oriental countries 
child birth is not an event of much difficulty ; 
and mothers at such a season "were originally 
the only assistants of their daughters, as any 
farther aid was deemed unnecessary, Exod. i, 
19. In cases of more than ordinary difficulty, 
those matrons who had acquired some celebrity 
for skill and expertness on occasions of this 
kind, were mvited in; and in this way there 
eventually rose into notice that class of women 
denominated midwives. The child was no 
sooner born, than it was washed in a bath, 
rubbed with salt, and wrapped in swaddling 
clothes, '?nnn, Ezek. xvi, 4. It was the custom 
at a very ancient period, for the father, while 
music in the mean while was heard to sound, 
to clasp the new born child to his bosom, and 
by tills ceremony was understood to declare it 
to be his own. Gen. 1, 23 ; Job iii, 12 ; Psa, 
xxii, 11. This practice was imitated by those 
wives who adopted the children of theu' maids, 
Gen. xvi, 2 ; xxx, 3-5. The birth day of a 
son, especially, was made a festival, and on 
each successive year was celebrated with 
renewed demonstrations of festivity and joy, 
Gen. xl, 20 ; Job i, 4 ; Matt, xiv, 6. The mes- 
senger, who brought the news of the birth of 
a son, was received with joy, and rewarded 
with presents, Job iii, 3 ; Jer. xx, 15. This is 
the case at the present day in Persia. 

CHISLEU, the third month of the Jewish 
civil year, and the ninth of their sacred, an- 
swering to our November and December, Ne- 
hem. i, 1. It contains thirty days. 

CHITTIM, the country, or countries, im- 
plied by this name in Scripture, are variously 
interpreted by historians and commentators. 
Chittim has been taken, by Hales and Lowth, 
for all the coasts and islands of the Mediterra- 
nean ; which appears most consonant with the 
general use of the word by the different inspired 
writers. 

CHRIST, an appellation synonjmious with 
Messiah. The word Xpic^j, signifies anointed, 
from ;\^p/w, / anoint. Sometimes the word 
Christ is used singly, by way of aiitonomasis, 
to denote a person sent from God, as an 
anointed prophet, king, or priest. "Christ," 
says Lactantius, "is no proper name, but one 
denoting power ; for the Jews used to give this 
appellation to their kings, calling them Christ, 
or anointed, by reason of their sacred unction," 
But he adds, " The Heathens, by mistake, call 
Jesus Christ, Chrestus." Accordingly, Sueto- 
nius, speaking of Claudius, and of his expelling 
tlie Jews from Rome, says that "he banished 
them because thej^ were continually promoting 
tmnults, under the influence of one Chrestus :" 
'■'■ Jud(Eos, impulsore Chresto, assidue tmnultu- 
antes, Roma expulit,''^ taking Christ to be a 
proper name. The names of Messiah and 
Christ were originally derived from the cere- 



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mony of anointing, by which the kings and the 
high priests of God's people, and sometimes 
the prophets, 1 Kings xix, 16, were consecrated 
and admitted to the exercise of their flinctions ; 
for all these functions were accounted holy 
among the Israelites. But the most eminent ap- 
plication of the word is to that illustrious person- 
age, typified and predicted from the beginning, 
who is described by the prophets, under the 
cliaracter of God's Anointed, the Messiali, or 
the Christ. As to the use of the term in the 
New Testament, were we to judge by the com- 
mon version, or even by most versions into 
modern tongues, we should receive it rather as 
a proper name, than an appellative, or name of 
office, and should think of it only as our Lord's 
surname. To this mistake our translators 
have contributed, by too seldom prefixing the 
article before Christ. The word Christ was at 
first as much an appellative as the word Bap- 
tist, and the one was as regularl}^ accompanied 
with the article as the other. Yet our trans- 
lators, who would always say "the Baptist," 
have, it should seem, studiously avoided say- 
ing " the Christ." The article, in such expres- 
sions as occur in Acts xvii, 3 ; xviii, 5, 28, 
adds considerable light to them, and yet no 
more than what the words of the historian 
manifestly convey to every reader who under, 
stands his language. It should therefore be, 
"Paul testified to the Jews that Jesus was the 
Clirist," or the Messiah, «S,:c. Many other 
similar instances occur. Should it be asked, 
Is the word Christ never to be understood in 
the New Testament as a proper name, but 
always as having a direct reference to the 
office or dignity? it may be replied, that this 
word came at length, from the frequency of 
application to one individual, and only to one, 
to supply the place of a proper name. It would 
also very much accelerate this effect, that the 
name Jesus Avas common among the Jews at 
that time, and this rendered an addition ne- 
cessary for distinguishing the person. To 
this purpose, Grotius remarks, that in process 
of time the name Jesus was very much drop- 
ped, and Christ, which had never been used 
before as the proper name of any person, and 
was, for that reason, a better distinction, was 
substituted for it; insomuch that, among the 
Heathens, our Lord came to be more known 
by the latter than by the former. This use 
seems to have begun soon after his ascension. 
During his life, it does not appear that the 
word was ever used in this manner ; nay, the 
contrary is evident from several passages of 
the Gospels. The evangelists wrote some 
years after the period above mentioned; and 
therefore they adopted the practice common 
among Christians at that time, which was to 
employ the word as a surname for the sake of 
distinction. See Matt, i, 1, 18; Mark i, 1. 

CHRISTIAN, a follower of the religion of 
Christ. It is probable that the name Christian, 
like that of Nazarenes and Galileans, was given 
to the disciples of our Lord in reproach or con- 
tempt. What confirms this opinion is, that 
the people of Antioch in Syria, Acts xi, 26, 
where they were first called Christians, are 



observed by Zosimus, Procopius, and Zonaras, 
to have been remarkable for their scurrilous _ 
jesting. Some have indeed thought that this 
name was given by the disciples to themselves ; 
others, that it was imposed on them by divine 
authority ; in either of which cases surely we 
should have met with it in the subsequent his- 
tory of the Acts, and in the Apostolic Epistles, 
all of which were written some years after ; 
whereas it is found but in two more places in 
tlie New Testament, Acts xxvi, 28, where a 
Jew is the speaker, and in 1 Pet. iv, 16, where 
reference appears to be made to the name as 
imposed upon them by their enemies. The 
word used, Acts xi, 26, signifies simply to be 
called or named, and when Doddridge and a 
few others take it to imply a divine appoint- 
nient, they disregard the %isus loquendi [esta- 
blished acceptation of the term] which gives 
no support to that opinion. The words of 
Tacitus, when speaking of the Christians per- 
secuted by Nero, are remarkable, " vulgus 
Christianos appellahat," " the vulgar called 
them Christians," Epiphanius says, that they 
were called Jesseans, either from Jesse, the 
father of David, or, which is much more pro- 
bable, from the name of Jesus, whose disciples 
they were. They were denominated Chris, 
tians, A. D. 42 or 43 ; and though the name 
was first given reproachfully, they gloried in it, 
as expressing their adherence to Christ, and 
they soon generally assumed it. 

CHRISTIANITY, the rehgion of Chris- 
tians. By Christianity is here meant, not that 
religious system as it may be understood and 
set fortli in any particular society calling itself 
Christian ; but as it is contained in the sacred 
books acknowledged by all these societies, or 
churches, and which contained the only au- 
thorized rule of faith and practice. 

2. The lofty profession whicli Christianity 
makes as a religion, and the promises it holds 
forth to mankind, entitle it to tJie most serious 
consideration of all. For it may in truth be 
said, that no other religion presents itself un- 
der aspects so sublime, or such as are calcu- 
lated to awaken desires and hopes so enlarged 
and magnificent. It not only professes to be 
from God, but to have been taught to men by 
the Son of God incarnate in our nature, the 
Second Person in the adorable trinity of divine 
Persons, " the same in substance, equal in 
power and glory." It declares that this divine 
personage is the appointed Redeemer of man- 
kind from sin, death, and misery ; that he v/as 
announced as such to our first parents upon 
their lapse from the innocence and blessedness 
of their primeval state ; that he was exhibited 
to the faith and hope of the patriarchs in ex- 
press promises ; and, by the institution of sacri- 
fices, as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of 
the whole world, so that man might be recon- 
ciled to God through Him, and restored to his 
forfeited inheritance of eternal life. It repre- 
sents all former dispensations of true religion, 
all revelations of God's will, and all promises 
of grace from God to man, as emanating from 
the anticipated sacrifice and sacerdotal inter- 
cession of its Author, and as all preparatory to 



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the introduction of his perfect religion ; and 
that as to the great political movements among 
the nations of antiquity, the rise and fall of 
empires Avere all either remotely or proximately 
connected with the designs of his advent among 
men. It professes to have completed the former 
revelations of God's will and purposes ; to have 
accomplished ancient prophecies ; ftilfilled an- 
cient types ; and taken up the glory of the 
Mosaic religion into its own " glory that ex- 
celleth ;" and to contain within itself a perfect 
system of faith, morals, and acceptable wor- 
ship. It not only exhibits so effectual a sacri- 
fice for sin, that remission of all offences against 
God flows from its merits to all who heartily 
confide in it ; but it proclaims itself to be a 
remedy for all the moral disorders of our fallen 
nature ; it casts out every vice, implants every 
virtue, and restores man to "the image of God 
an which he was created," even to " righteous- 
ness and true holiness." 

3. Its promises both to individuals and to so- 
ciety are of the largest kind. It represents its 
Founder as now exercising the office of the 
High Priest of the human race before God, 
and as having sat down at his right hand, a 
mediatorial and reconciling government being 
committed to him, until he shall come to judge 
all nations, and distribute the rewards of eter- 
nity to his followers, and inflict its never-ter- 
minating punishments upon those who reject 
him. By virtue of this constitution of things, 
it promises pardon to the guilty, of every age 
and country, ^ho seek it in penitence and 
prayer, comfort to the afflicted and troubled, 
victory over the fear of death, a happy inter- 
mediate state to the disembodied spirit, and 
finally the resurrection of the body from the 
dead, and honour and immortality to be con- 
ferred upon the whole man glorified in the 
immediate presence of God. It holds out the 
loftiest hopes also as to the world at large. It 
promises to introduce harmony among families 
and nations, to terminate all wars and all op- 
pressions, and ultimately to fill the world with 
truth, order, and purity. It represents the 
present and past state of society, as in contest 
with its own principles of justice, mercy, and 
truth ; but teaches the final triumph of the lat- 
ter over every thing contrary to itself. It 
exhibits the ambition, the policy, and the rest- 
lessness of statesmen and warriors, as but the 
overruled instruments by which it is working 
out its own purposes of wisdom and benevo- 
lence ; and it not only defies the proudest array 
of human power, but professes to subordinate 
it by a secret and irresistible working to its 
own designs. Finally, it exhibits itself as en- 
larging its plans, and completing its designs, 
by moral suasion, the evidence of its truth, and 
the secret divine influence which accompanies 
it. Such are the professions and promises of 
Christianity, a religion which enters into no 
compromise with other systems ; which repre- 
sents itself as the only religion now in the 
world having God for its author; and in his 
name ; and by the hope of his mercy, and the 
terrors of his frown, it commands the obedi- 
ence of faith to all people to \yhom it is pub- 



lished upon the solemn sanction, "He that 
believeth shall be saved, and he that believeth 
not shall be damned." 

4. Corresponding with these professions, 
which throw every other religion that pretends 
to offer hope to man into utter insignificance, 
it is allowed that the evidences of its truth 
ought to be adequate to sustain the weight of 
so vast a fabric, and that men have a right tc 
know that they are not deluded with a grand 
and impressive theory, but are receiving from 
this professed system of truth and salvation 
"the true sayings of God." Such evidence it 
has afforded in its splendid train of miracles ; 
in its numerous appeals to the fiilfilment of 
ancient prophecies ; in its own powerfiil in- 
ternal EVIDENCE ; in the influence which it 
has always exercised, and continues to exert, 
upon the happiness of mankind ; and in vari- 
ous collateral circumstances. Under the heads 
of Miracles and Prophecy, those important 
branches of evidence will be discussed, and to 
them the reader is referred. It is only neces- 
sary here to say, that the miracles to which 
Christianity appeals as proofs of its divine au- 
thority, are not only those which were wrought 
by Christ and his Apostles, but also those 
which took place among the patriarchs, under 
the law of Moses, and by the ministry of the 
Prophets ; for the religion of those ancient 
times was but Christianity in its antecedent 
revelations. All these miracles, therefore, 
must be taken collectively, and present attesta- 
tions of the loftiest kind, as being manifestly 
the work of the "finger of God," wrought un- 
der circumstances which precluded mistake, 
and exhibiting an immense variety, fi-om the 
staying of the very wheels of the planetary 
system, — as when the sun and moon paused in 
their course, and the shadow on the dial of 
Ahaz went backward, — to the supernatural 
changes wrought upon the elements of matter, 
the healing of incurable diseases, the expulsion 
of tormenting demons, and the raising of the 
dead. Magnificent as this array of miracles 
is, it is equalled by the prophetic evidence, 
founded upon the acknowledged principle, 
that future and distant contingencies can only 
be known to that Being, one of whose attributes 
is an absolute prescience. And here, too, the 
variety and the grandeur presented by the pro- 
phetic scheme exhibit attestations to the truth 
of Christianity suited to its great claims and 
its elevated character. Within the range of 
prophetic vision all time is included, to the 
final consummation of all things ; and the 
greatest as well as the smallest events are 
seen with equal distinctness, from the subver- 
sion of mighty empires and gigantic cities, to 
the parting of the raiment of our Lord, and the 
casting of the lot for his robe by the Roman 
guard stationed at his cross. 

5. These subjects are discussed under the 
articles assigned to them ; as also the internal 
evidence of the truth of Christianity, which 
arises from the excellence and beneficial ten- 
dency of its doctrines. Of its just and sublime 
conceptions and exhibitions of the divine cha- 
racter : of the truth of that view of the moral 



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Ktate of man upon which its disciplinary treat- 
ment is founded ; of the correspondence that 
there is between its views of man's mixed re- 
lation to God as a sinful creature, and yet 
pitied and cared for, and that actual mixture 
•of good and evil, penalty and forbearance, 
which the condition of the world presents ; of 
fhe connection of its doctrine of atonement 
with hope ; of the adaptation of its doctrine of 
divine influence to the moral condition of man- 
kind when rightly understood, and the affect- 
ing benevolence and condescension which it 
implies ; and of its noble and sanctifying reve- 
lations of the blessedness of a future life, much 
might be said : — they are subjects indeed on 
which volumes have been written, and they 
can never be exhausted. But r\^e confine our- 
selves to the MORAL TENDENCY, and the conse- 
quent BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE, of Christianity. 
No where except in the Scriptures have we a 
perfect system of morals ; and the deficiencies 
of Pagan morality only exalt the purity, the 
comprehensiveness, the practicability of ours. 
The character of tlie Being acknowledged as 
supreme must always impress itself upon moral 
feeling and practice ; the obligation of which 
rests upon his will. The God of the Bible is 
" holy," without spot ; "just," without partiali- 
ty ; " good," boundlessly benevolent and benefi- 
cent ; and his law is the image of himself, 
"holy, just, and good." These great moral 
qualities are not made known to us merely in 
the abstract, so as to be comparatively feeble 
in their influence : but in the person of Christ, 
our God, incarnate, they are seen exemplified 
in action, displaying themselves amidst human 
relations, and the actual circumstances of hu- 
man life. With Pagans the authority of moral 
rules was cither the opinion of the wise, or the 
tradition of the ancient, confirmed, it is true, 
in some degree, by observation and experience ; 
but to us, they are given as commands imme- 
diately issuing from the supreme Governor, 
and ratified as his by the most solemn and ex- 
plicit attestations. With them many great 
moral principles, being indistinctly apprehend, 
ed, were matters of doubt and debate ; to us, 
the explicit manner in which they are given 
excludes both : for it cannot be questioned, 
whether we are commanded to love our neigh- 
bour as ourselves ; to do to others as we would 
that they should do to us, a precept which 
comprehends almost all relative morality in 
one plain principle ; to forgive our enemies ; 
to love all mankind ; to live righteously and 
soberly, as well as godly ; that magistrates 
must be a terror only to evil doers, and a praise 
to them that do well ; that subjects are to ren- 
der honour to whom honour, and tribute to 
whom tribute, is dae ; that masters are to be 
just and merciful, and servants faithfiil and 
obedient. These, and many other familiar pre- 
cepts, are too explicit to be mistaken, and too 
authoritative to be disputed ; two of the most 
powerful means of rendering law effectual. 
Those who never enjoyed the benefit of reve- 
lation, never conceived justly and comprehen- 
sively of that moral state of the heart from 
which right and beneficent conduct alone can 



flow ; and therefore when they speak of the 
same virtues as those enjoined by Christianity, 
they are to be understood as attaching to them 
a lower idea. In this the infinite superiority 
of Christianity displays itself. The principle 
of obedience is not only a sense of duty to 
God, and the fear of his displeasure ; but a ten- 
der love, excited by his infinite compassions to 
us in the gift of his Son, which shrinks from 
offending. To this influential motive as a rea- 
son of obedience, is added another, drawn from 
its end : one not less influential, but which 
Heathen moralists never knew, — the testimony 
that we please God, manifested in the accept- 
ance of our prayers, and in spiritual and feli- 
citous communion with him. By Christianity, 
impurity of thought and desire is restrained 
in an equal degree as are their overt acts in 
the lips and conduct. Humanity, meekness, 
gentleness, placability, disinterestedness, and 
charity are all as clearly and solemnly enjoined 
as the grosser vices are prohibited ; and on the 
unruly tongue itself is impressed "the law of 
kindness," Nor are the injunctions feeble ; 
they are strictly law, and not mere advice and 
recommendations : " Without holiness no man 
shall see the Lord ;" and thus our entrance into 
heaven, and our escape from perdition, are 
made to depend, upon this preparation of mind. 
To all this is added possibility, nay certainty, 
of attainment, if we use the appointed means. 
A Pagan could draw, though not with lines so 
perfect, a heau ideal of virtue, which he never 
thought attainable; but the "full assurance of 
hope " is givers by the religion of Christ to all 
who arc seeking the moral renovation of their 
nature ; because "it is God that worketh in us 
to will and to do of his good pleasure." 

6. When such is the moral nature of Chris- 
tianity, how obvious is it that its tendency both 
as to individuals and to society must be in the 
highest sense beneficial ! From every passion 
which wastes, and burns, and frets, and en- 
feebles the spirit, the individual is set free, and 
his inward peace renders his obedience cheer- 
fiil and voluntary : and we might appeal to in- 
fidels themselves, v/hether, if the moral princi- 
ples of the Gospel were wrought into the hearts, 
and embodied in the conduct, of all men, the 
world would not be happy; whether if govern, 
ments ruled, and subjects obeyed, by the laws 
of Christ; whether if the rules of strict justice 
which are enjoined upon us regulated all the 
transactions of men, and all that mercy to the 
distressed which we are taught to feel and to 
practise came into operation ; and whether, if 
the precepts which delineate and enforce the 
duties of husbands, wives, masters, servants, 
parents, children, did, in fact, fully and gene- 
rally govern all these relations, — whether a bet- 
ter age than that called golden by the poets, 
would not then be realized, and Virgil's 

Ja?n redit et Virgo, redeuni Saturnia regna, 
[Now Astraea returns, and the Saturnian reign,] 

be far too weak to express the mighty change ? 
[It was in the reign of Saturn that the Heathen 
poets fixed the golden age. At that period, ac- 
cording to them, Astraea, (the goddess of jus- 



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tice,) and many other deities lived on earth; 
but being offended with the wickedness of men, 
they successively fled to heaven. Astraea staid 
longest, but at last retired to her native seat, 
and was translated into the sign Virgo, next 
to Libra, v/ho holds her balance,] Such is 
the tendency of Christianity. On immense 
numbers of individuals it has superinduced 
these moral changes ; all nations, where it has 
been fully and faithfully exhibited, bear, amidst 
their remaining vices, the impress of its hallow- 
ing and benevolent influence : it is now in ac- 
tive exertion in many of the darkest and worst 
parts of the earth, to convey the same bless- 
ings ; and he who would arrest its progress, 
were he able, would quench the only hope which 
remains to our world, and prove himself an 
enemy, not only to himself, but to all man- 
kind. What then, we ask, does all this prove, 
but that the Scriptures are worthy of God, and 
propose the very ends which rendered a revela- 
tion necessary? Of the whole system of prac- 
tical religion which it contains we may say, 
as of that which is embodied in our Lord's ser- 
mon on the mount, in the words of one, who, 
in a course of sermons on that divine compo- 
sition, has entered most deeply into its spirit, 
and presented a most instructive delineation 
of the character which it was intended to form : 
" Behold Christianity in its native form, as 
delivered by its great Author. See a picture 
of God, as far as he is imitable by man, drawn 
by God's own- hand. What beauty appears 
in the whole ! How just a symmetry ! What 
exact proportion in every part ! How desir- 
able is the happiness here described ! How 
venerable, how lovely is the holiness!" "If," 
says Bishop Taylor, "wisdom, and mercy, 
and justice, and simplicity, and holiness, and 
purity, and meekness, and contentedness, and 
charity, be images of God, and rays of divinity, 
then that doctrine, in which all these shine so 
gloriously, and in which nothing else is ingre- 
dient, must needs be from God. If the holy 
Jesus had come into the world with less splen- 
dour of power and mighty demonstrations, yet 
the excellency of what he taught makes him 
alone fit to be the Master of the world ;" and 
agreeable to all this, has been its actual influ- 
ence upon mankind. Although, says Bishop 
Porteus, Christianity has not always been so 
well understood, or so honestly practised, as it 
ought to have Ijeen ; although its spirit has 
been often mistaken, and its precepts misappli- 
ed, yet, under all these disadvantages, it has 
gradually produced a visible change in those 
points which most matei'ially concern the peace 
and quiet of the world. Its beneficent spirit 
has spread itself through all the different rela- 
tions and modifications of life, and communi- 
<;ated its kindly influence to almost every pub- 
lic and private concern of mankind. It has 
insensibly worked itself into the inmost frame 
and constitution of civil states. It has given a 
tinge to the complexion of their governments, 
to the temper and administration of their laws. 
It has restrained the spirit of the prince, and 
the madness of the people. It has softened the 
rigours of despotism, and tamed the insolence of 



conquest. It has, in some degree, taken away 
the edge of the sword, and thrown even over 
the horrors of war a veil of mercy. It has 
descended into families ; has diminished the 
pressure of private tyranny; improved every 
domestic endearment ; given tenderness to the 
parent, humanity to the master, respect to su- 
periors, to inferiors ease ; so that mankind are, 
upon the whole, even in a temporal view, under 
infinite obligations to the mild and pacific tem- 
per of the Gospel, and have reaped from it 
more substantial worldy benefits than from any 
other institution upon earth. As one proof of 
this, among many others, consider only the 
shocking carnage made in the human species 
by the exposure of infants, the gladiatorial 
shows, which sometimes cost Rome twenty or 
thirty lives in a month ; and the exceedingly 
cruel usage of slaves allowed and practised by 
the ancient Pagans. These were not the acci- 
dental and temporary excesses of a sudden fury, 
but were legal and established, and constant 
methods of murdering and tormenting man- 
kind. Had Christianity done nothing more 
than brought into disuse, as it confessedly has 
done, the two former of these inhuman cus- 
toms entirely, and the latter to a very great 
degree, it has justly merited the title of the be- 
nevolent religion. But this is far from being 
all. Throughout the more enlightened parts 
of Christendom there prevails a gentleness of 
manners widely different from the ferocity of 
the most civilized nations of antiquity ; and 
that liberality with which every species of dis- 
tress is relieved, is a virtue peculiar to the 
Christian name. But we may ask farther, 
What success has it had on the mind f man, 
as it respects his eternal welfare ? Hov; many 
thousands have felt its power, rejoiced ir its 
benign influence, and under its dictates been 
constrained to devote themselves to the glory 
and praise of God ! Burdened with guilt, inca- 
pable of finding relief from human resources, 
the mind has here found peace unspeakable in 
beholding that sacrifice which alone could atone 
for transgression. Here the hard and impeni- 
tent heart has been softened, the impetuous pas- 
sions restrained, the ferocious temper subdued, 
powerful prejudices conquered, ignorance dis- 
pelled, and the obstacles to real happiness remov- 
ed. Here the Christain, looking round on the 
glories and blandishments of this world, has been 
enabled, with a noble contempt, to despise all. 
Here death itself, the king of terrors, has lost 
his sting ; and the soul, with a holy magnani- 
mity, has borne up in the agonies of a dying 
hour, and sweetly sung itself away to everlast- 
ing bliss. In respect to its future spread, we 
have reason to believe that all nations shall 
feel its happy effects. The prophecies are 
pregnant with matter as to this belief. It seems 
that not only a nation, or a country, but the 
whole habitable globe, shall become the king, 
dom of our God, and of his Christ. And w ho 
is there that has ever known the excellency of 
this system ; who is there that has ever expe- 
rienced its happy efficacy ; who is there that 
has ever been convinced of its divine origin, its 
delightful nature and peaceful tendency, but 



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must join the benevolent and royal poet in say- 
ing, "Let the whole earth be filled with its 
glory ? Amen and amen !" 

7. Among the collateral proofs of the truth 
and divine origin of Christianity, its rapid and 
wonderful success justly holds an important 
place. Of its early triumphs, the history of 
the Acts of the Apostles is a splendid record ; 
and in process of time it made a wonderful pro- 
gress through Europe, Asia, and Africa. In 
the third century there were Christians in the 
camp, in the senate, and in the palace ; in 
short, every where, as we are informed, except 
in the temples and the tlieatres : they filled the 
towns, the country, and the islands. Men and 
women of all ages and ranks, and even those 
of the first dignity, embraced, the Christian 
faith ; insomuch that the Pagans complained 
that the revenues of their temples were ruin- 
ed. They were in such great numbers in the 
empire, that, as Tertullian expresses it, if they 
had retired into another country, they would 
have left the Romans only a frightful solitude. 
(See the next article.) For the illustration of 
this argument, we may observe, that the Chris- 
tian religion was introduced every where in 
opposition to the sword of the magistrate, the 
craft and interest of the priests, the pride of 
the philosophers, the passions and prejudices 
of the people, all closely combined in support 
of the national worship, and to crush the Chris- 
tian faith, which aimed at the subversion of 
Heathenism and idolatry. Moreover, this re- 
ligion was not propagated in the dark, by per- 
sons who tacitly endeavoured to deceive the 
credulous ; nor delivered out by little and little, 
so that one doctrine might prepare the way for 
the reception of another ; but it was fully and 
without disguise laid before men all at once, 
that they might judge of the whole under one 
view. Consequently mankind were not delud- 
ed into the belief of it, but received it upon 
proper examination and conviction. Beside, 
the Gospel was first preached and first believed 
by multitudes in Judea, where Jesus exercised 
his ministry, and where every individual had 
the means of knowing whether the things that 
were told him were matters of fact ; and in 
this country, the scene of the principal transac- 
tions on which its credibility depended, the 
history of Christ could never have been receiv- 
ed, unless it had been true, and known to all 
as ti^ith. Again : the doctrine and history of 
Josus were preached and believed in the most 
noted countries and cities of the world, in the 
very age when he is said to have lived. On 
the fiftieth day after our Lord's crucifixion, 
three thousand persons were converted in Je- 
rusalem by a single sermon of tlie Apostles ; 
and a few weeks after this, five thousand who 
believed were present at another sermon preach- 
ed also in Jerusalem, Acts ii, 41 ; iv, 4 ; vi, 7 ; 
viii, 1 ; ix, 1, 20. About eight or ten years 
after our Lord's death, the disciples were be- 
come so numerous at Jerusalem and in the 
adjacent country, that they were objects of jea- 
lousy and alarm to Herod himself, Acts xii, 1, 
In the twenty-second year after the crucifixion, 
the disciples in Judea are said to have been 



maiiy myriads. Acts xxi, 20. The age in which 
Christianity was introduced and received, was 
famous for men whose faculties were improved 
by the most perfect state of social life, but who 
were good judges of the evidence offered in 
support of the facts recorded in the Gospel his- 
tory. For it should be recollected, that the 
success of the Gospel was not restricted to Ju- 
dea ; but it was preached in all the different pro- 
vinces of the Roman empire. The first triumphs 
of Christianity were in the heart of Greece it- 
self, the nursery of learning and the polite arts ; 
for churches were planted at a very early pe- 
riod at Corinth, Ephesus, Berasa, Thessalonica, 
and Philippi. Even Rome herself, the seat of 
wealth and empire, was not able to resist the 
force of truth at a time when the facts related 
were recent, and when they might, if they had 
been false, have easily been disproved. From 
Greece and Rome, at a period of cultivation 
and refinement, of general peace, and exten- 
sive intercourse, when one great empire united 
different nations and distant people, the confu- 
tation of these facts would very soon have 
passed from one country to another, to the ut- 
ter confusion of the persons who endeavoured 
to propagate the belief of them. Nor ought it 
to be forgotten that the religion to which such 
numbers were proselyted, was an exclusive one. 
It denied, without reserve, the truth of every 
article of Heathen mythology, and the exist- 
ence of every object of their worship. It ac- 
cepted no compromise ; it admitted of no com- 
prehension. If it prevailed at all, it must pre- 
vail by the overthrow of every statue, altar, 
and temple in the world. It pronounced all 
other gods to be false, and all other worship 
vain. These are considerations which must 
have strengthened the opposition to it; aug- 
mented the hostility which it must encounter ; 
and enhanced the difficulty of gaining prose- 
lytes : and more especially when we recollect, 
that among the converts to Christianity in the 
earliest age, a number of persons remarkable 
for their station, office, genius, education, and 
fortune, and who were personally interested by 
their emoluments and honours in either Juda- 
ism or Heathenism, appeared among the Chris- 
tian proselytes. Its evidences approved them- 
selves, not only to the multitude, but to men 
of the most refined sense and most distinguish- 
ed abilities ; and it dissolved the attachments^ 
which all powerful interest and authority creat- 
ed and upheld. Among the proselytes to Chris- 
tianity we find Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arr 
mathea, members of the senate of Israel ; JaL 
ras, a ruler of the synagogue ; Zaccheus, the 
chief of the publicans at Jericho; Apollos, dis- 
tinguished for eloquence ; Paul, learned in the 
Jewish law ; Sergius Paulus, governor of the 
island of Cyprus ; Cornelius, a Roman captain ; 
Dionysius, a judge and senator of the Athenian 
areopagus ; Erastus, treasurer of Corinth ; Ty- 
rannus, a teacher of grammar and rhetoric at 
Corinth; Publius, governor of Malta; PhileraoUy 
a person of considerable rank atColosse ; Simon, 
a noted sophist in Samaria ; Zenas, a lawyer ; 
and even the domestics of the emperor himself. 
These are noticed in the sacred writings ; and 



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the Heathen historians also mention some per- 
sons of great note who were converted at an 
early period. To all the preceding circum- 
stances we may add a consideration of peculiar 
moment, which is, that the profession of Chris- 
tianity led all, without exception, to renounce 
the pleasures and honours of the world, and to 
expose themselves to the most ignominious suf- 
ferings. And now, without adding any more 
to this argument, we may ask. How could the 
Christian religion have thus prevailed had it not 
been introduced by the power of God and of 
truth ? And it has been supported in the world by 
the same power through a course of many ages, 
amidst the treachery of its friends, the opposition 
of its enemies, the dangers of prosperoiis periods, 
and the persecutions and violence of adverse cir- 
cumstances ; all which must have destroyed it, 
if it had not been founded in truth, and guarded 
by the protection of an almighty Providence. 

CHRISTIANITY: Sketch of its History. 
The Christian religion was published by its 
great Author in Judea, a short time before the 
death of Herod the Great, and toward the con- 
clusion of the long reign of Augustus. While 
other religions had been accommodated to the 
peculiar countries in which they had taken 
their origin, and had indeed generally grown 
out of incidents connected with the history of 
those to whom they were addressed, Chris- 
tianity was so framed as to be adapted to the 
whole human race ; and although, for the 
wisest reasons, it was first announced to the 
Jews, who had peculiar advantages for form- 
ing an accurate judgment with regard to it, it 
was early declared that, in conformity to pre- 
dictions which had long been known, and long 
interpreted, as referring to a new communica- 
tion of the divine will, it was to be a light to 
lighten the Gentiles, and was to carry salva- 
tion to the ends of the earth. Although Chris- 
t'lnity originated in Judea, it was not long 
confined within the narrow limits of the Holy 
Land. The open manner in which it was an- 
nounced, the length of time during which its 
Author publicly addressed his countrymen, the 
innumerable miracles which he performed, and, 
above all, the report of the resurrection under 
circumstances which must have been commu- 
nicated to the imperial government at Rome, 
excited the deep attention of the numerous 
Jews and proselytes who, from surrounding 
nations, regularly went up to Jerusalem, and 
of whom vast numbers were actually in that 
city when the resurrection must have been the 
subject of universal discussion. They very 
naturally carried to the different countries in 
which they usually resided, the astonishing 
intelligence with which they had been furnisli- 
ed ; and provision was soon made for fulfilling 
the prediction which Jesus had uttered, that 
his Gospel would, before the destruction of Je- 
rusalem, be circulated and embraced by many 
through the wide extent of the Roman empire. 
The Apostle Peter, in consequence of what he 
knew to be a solemn injunction from Heaven, 
communicated to a Gentile the truths of Chris- 
tianity. St. Paul, who had distinguished him- 
tjelf by his enmity to the Christians, and by the 



cruelty with which he had persecuted them, 
having been converted, devoted himself to lay 
the foundations of the Gospel through a large 
portion of the most enlightened part of the 
world ; and the miraculous gift of tongues, by 
which humble and illiterate men found them- 
selves at once able to speak the languages of 
different nations, left no doubt that they were 
bound to preach their faith as extensively as 
had been marked out to them by the last in- 
structions which they had received from their 
Master. They had to struggle with the most 
formidable difficulties in prosecuting this un- 
dertaking ; for which, had they trusted merely 
to their own strength, and their own natural 
endowments, they were wholly unqualified. 

2. The Roman empire at the period of their 
commencing the attempt, comprehended almost 
the whole of the civilized world, and thus in- 
cluded within it nations whose habits, customs, 
and sentiments essentially differed, and whom 
it required the most dexterous policy to unite 
in one community, or to subject to one govern- 
ment. The most effectual method by which, 
during the commonwealth, and at the rise of 
the empire, this had been accomplished, was a 
politic respect to the religious opinions which 
all these nations entertained. Not only were 
their modes of worship treated with scrupulous 
reverence, but their gods, in conformity with 
the genius of Paganism, were incorporated or 
associated with the deities of Rome, and they 
were thus joined to their conquerors by the 
strongest ties by which the affections can be 
secured. At all times religion had been an ob- 
ject of prominent interest with the Romans ; 
at the foundation of the city, Romulus had 
professed to be directed by Heaven : during the 
whole period of the republic, the most sacred 
attention had been paid to the rites and cere- 
monies sanctioned by the prevailing supersti- 
tion, the prosperity of the state was invariably 
ascribed to the protection of the gods, and the 
most impressive solemnities, combined with 
the richest splendour and magnificence, cast 
around polytheism a mysterious sanctity, which 
even the philosophers affected to revere. Pre- 
cautions accordingly had been early taken to 
prevent innovations upon the established ritual ; 
foreign rites were prohibited till they had ob- 
tained the sanction of the senate ; and when 
the solicitation of this sanction was neglected, 
the persons guilty of the neglect were fre- 
quently punished. From the nature of Pagan- 
ism, it was perfectly consistent with its spirit 
to conjoin, with any particular mode of it, the 
forms which elsewhere prevailed. These ad- 
ditions left all which had been previously ho- 
noured in unimpaired vigour and influence, 
and, in fact, only increased the appearance of 
profound regard for religion, which the Romans 
so long assumed. But this part of the political 
constitution, lightly as it affected other reli- 
gions, at once struck at the root of Christianity, 
which, unlike the prevailing modifications of 
idolatry, prohibited the worship of all the dei- 
ties before whose altars mankind had for ages 
bent, and required, as essential for obtaining 
the divine favour, that they who believed in it 



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should pay undivided homage to the one God, 
whose existence it revealed. The extension 
of the Gospel thus necessarily carried with it 
opposition to the most ancient and most revered 
law of the empire, and it was impossible for 
those who judged of it merely from this cir- 
cumstance, without investigating its nature 
and tendency, to hesitate in directing against 
it the statutes which the zeal of their fathers 
had provided, to prevent such a revolution as 
would be produced by so thorough and so 
alarming a change in their religious"principles. 
No sooner, however, had the message of sal- 
vation been addressed indiscriminately to all 
men, and, from the evidence by which it was 
accompanied, had brought numbers to acknow- 
ledge the heavenly source from which it is 
deri\^ed, than the detestation of it previously 
entertained burst forth in all its violence ; and 
it is apparent that this had been widely and 
openly expressed before any imperial edicts 
were directed against the Christians. Tacitus, 
in the celebrated passage in which he mentions 
the disciples of Jesus, and which refers to a 
period not more than thirty years distant from 
the ascension, represents it as notorious in 
Rome, that Christ, during the reign of Tibe- 
rius, had been put to death as a criminal ; he 
asserts that his adherents had long been odious 
on account of their enormities ; he laments 
that their destructive superstition had found its 
way to the capital of the empire ; and he attri- 
butes the melancholy fate to which they were 
condemned to the general persuasion, that they 
were actuated by hatred to the whole human 
race. It is necessary to keep this fact steadily 
in view, to form an accurate idea of that op. 
position which Christianity had to encounter. 
This opposition is not to be estimated merely 
by reference to particular statutes, or even to 
be considered as fully exhibited when we have 
gathered together the public proceedings which 
jiave been recorded in history, or deplored in 
the writings of those who sought to avert them. 
It is to be remembered that even when the laws 
which the frantic zeal of some of the emperors 
had enacted were repealed, the general law of 
the empire was still in force ; that it was com- 
petent for every one v/ho had the cruelty to do 
so, to turn it against the Christians ; and that 
the firm, though mistaken, conviction that the 
Christian profession involved in it the most 
revolting impiety, the most tremendous guilt, 
and the most dangerous hostility to the best 
interests of the state, would lead numbers to 
indulge their antipathy, when little notice was 
taken of the sufferers, and would keep the dis- 
ciples of the hated faith in a state of unceasing 
alarm. (See Persecution.) What was the effect 
of this depressing situation ? Did it check the 
dissemination of the Gospel, or confine it to 
the men by whom it was preached ? So far 
was this from being the case, that from the 
period of the death, and, as it must here be 
termed, the alleged resurrection of Jesus, it 
was embraced by immense numbers in all the 
countries to which it was conveyed ; and even 
while they were contemplating the sacrifices 
and the trials to which, by attaching them- 



selves to it, they would be exposed, they did 
not hesitate to relinquish the religion in which 
they had been educated, and to exchange for 
misery and death all the comforts which the 
strongest feelings and propensities of our na- 
ture lead men to value and to pursue. Finally, 
imperial Rome bowed to the religion it had 
persecuted, and the emperor Constantino be- 
came a Christian. 

3. The propagation of Christianity assumes a 
new aspect after it became the religion of the 
empire, and was guarded by the protection and 
surrounded by the munificence of imperial 
power. The causes which, in the first stage 
of its existence, had most powerfully acted 
against it, were now turned to its support ; and 
all the motives by which men are usually 
guided led them to enter with, at least, appa- 
rent conviction into its sanctuaries. Not only 
was persecution, after the reign of Constan- 
tino, at an end, but with the exception of the 
short reign of Julian, who, having apostatized 
from Christianity, and become intoxicated with 
the fascinating speculations of the Platonic 
philosophy, was eager to raise the temples 
which his predecessor had laid in ruins, pro- 
motion and wealth and honour could be most 
effectually secured by transferring to the Gos- 
pel the zeal which had been in vain exhausted 
to preserve the sinking fabric of Paganism and 
idolatry. The emperors, who had displayed 
their zeal and their attachment to the religion 
of Jesus, by forcing their own subjects to profess 
it, conceived it to be their duty to communicate 
so great a blessing to all the nations which they 
could influence ; and when they found it ne- 
cessary to declare war against the savage tribes 
which pressed upon the frontiers, or forced 
themselves within the precincts of the empire, 
they carried on hostilities with the view of 
rendering these instrumental no less to the 
difiusion of their religious tenets, than to the 
vindication of their authority, and the security 
of their dominions. The vanquished invaders 
felt little reluctance to purchase the forbearance 
or the clemency of their conquerors, by sub- 
mitting to receive their religion ; and this spe- 
cies of conversion, so little connected with the 
great objects which revelation was designed to 
accomplish, leaving, in fact, all the gross su- 
perstitious practices and all the immoral abo- 
minations which had previously existed, was 
boastfully held forth as a decisive proof of the 
triumph of the Gospel. 

4. The foundation of the empire, not long 
after the days of Constantino, began to be 
shaken : and it experienced numberless assaults 
and convulsions, till it was finally divided into 
the eastern and western empires. The luxury 
and wealth which had enervated their possess- 
ors, and destroyed the heroism and intrepidity 
by which their ancestors had been distinguished, 
presented the most powerful temptations to the 
lawless bands which, driven from the sterile 
regions of the north of Europe, had pressed 
forward to seek for new and more favoured 
habitations. The feeble attempts to turn aside, 
by bribery, these ferocious barbarians increased 
the danger which they were intended to re- 



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move ; and the history of Europe presents, for 
several ages, the disgusting spectacle of war, 
conducted with an atrocity eclipsing the stern 
virtues which sometimes were strikingly dis- 
played. But although the insubordination of 
this turbulent and sanguinary period was little 
favourable to the mild influence of genuine 
Christianity, it did not prove so fatal to it as 
might have been apprehended ; and it was even 
instrumental in extending its nominal domi- 
nion. Mankind, when scarcely emerged from 
barbarism, and attached to no particular coun- 
try, but seeking wherever it can be found the 
food necessary for themselves and the flocks 
upon w-hich they in a great measure depend, 
although they entertain those sentiments with 
regard to religion which seem almost interwo- 
ven with our nature, feel little attachment to 
any one system of superstition, and are open 
to the reception of new doctrines, which an 
association with what they value may have led 
them to venerate. When, accordingly, the 
tribes which finally overran the Roman empire 
had ceased from the destructive contests by 
which they got possession of the regions that 
had long been blessed with civilization and 
enlightened by science, they surveyed with 
amazement and with admiration the people 
whom they had conquered ; they were delight- 
ed with the luxuries which abounded among 
them ; they were charmed with their manners 
and customs; and they eagerlj'- conformed to 
institutions from which they hoped that they 
should reap what the original inhabitants of 
their settlement had enjoyed. The religion of 
the vanquished they contemplated with rever- 
ence ; they connected it with the wealth, the 
refinement, and the power which they saw 
spread around them ; and they easily exchanged 
the rude and careless worship of their native 
deities, for the polished and splendid devotional 
rites, which, with the most imposing solem- 
nity, were celebrated by the Christians. Hence, 
they soon embraced the religion by which it 
was believed that these rites were prescribed ; 
and they communicated it to the nations with 
whom they still maintained an alliance. There 
is no doubt that motives very little connected 
with the conviction of the understanding led 
to the progress of Christianity now described ; 
and, in fact, that progress was occasioned by 
causes so different from those which should 
have produced it, that, had circumstances been 
changed, and had the religion of Jesus been 
continued to be persecuted by the most power- 
ful states, multitudes who affected to revere it 
would, upon the same ground on which their 
veneration rested, have exerted themselves to 
deride its tenets, and to exterminate its pro- 
fessors. 

5. But it was not the secular arm alone that 
was stretched forth to lead men to the recep- 
tion of Christianity. The church, after it had 
been firmly estabhshed, and had, amidst the 
riches and honours with which it was endowed, 
forgotten that it should not have been of this 
world, conceived it incumbent, as an evidence 
of its zeal, or, as was too often the case, for 
extending its power and its influence, to make 



attempts to substitute the cross of Christ for 
the emblems of Paganism. In accomplishing 
this object, it employed different means. But 
although the conversions which took place, 
from the establishment of Christianity till the 
restoration of learning, or the reformation, 
which forms a new aera in the dissemination of 
the Gospel, were often unfortunately very far 
from planting the word of life in the hearts of 
those to whom it was conveyed, they were 
very extensive. They reached to almost every 
country in Europe ; to Arabia, China, Judea, 
and many other parts of Asia ; and the obscure 
tribes, to whom no missionaries were des. 
patched, gradually conformed to the religion 
of those more powerful states upon which they 
depended, or to which they looked with respect 
or veneration. 

6. Mohammedanism, however, arrested the 
progress of Christianity in some of these coun- 
tries, and humbled it and oppressed it in others ; 
but since the reformation, and especially within 
the last century, it has been extended, not so 
much by conqxiest, as by the legitimate means 
of colonization, and by missions and education, 
to the most distant and important parts of the 
world, to China, India, Africa, the American 
Islands, and those of the Pacific Ocean. The 
zeal, self-denial, and successes, of those mission- 
aries, who have been sent forth within a few 
years by various Protestant societies, and their 
great successes form, indeed, a splendid section 
in the modern history of the church. They 
have sown the seed in almost every land, and 
the fruit has spread itself throughout the world. 

CHRONICLES, Books of. This name is 
given to two historical books of Scripture, 
which the Hebrews call Dibri-Jamim, " Words 
of Days," that is, "Diaries," or "Journals." 
They are called in the LXX, Paralipomena, 
which signifies, "things omitted;" as if these 
books were a supplement of what had been 
omitted, or too much abridged, in the books of 
Kings, and other historical books of Scripture. 
And, indeed, we find in them many particulars 
which are not extant elsewhere : but it must 
not be thought that these are the records, or 
books of the acts, of the kings of Judah and 
Israel, so often referred to. Those ancient 
registers were much more extensive than these 
are ; and the books of Chronicles themselves 
refer to those original memoirs, and make long 
extracts from them. They were compiled, and 
probably by Ezra, from the ancient chronicles 
of the kings of Judah and Israel just now men. 
tioned, and they may be considered as a kind 
of supplement to the preceding books of Scrip- 
ture. The former part of the first book of 
Chronicles contains a great variety of genea- 
logical tables, beginning with Adam ; and in 
particular gives a circumstantial account of the 
twelve tribes, which must have been very valu- 
able to the Jews after their return from cap. 
tivity. The descendants of Abraham, Isaac, 
Jacob, and David, from all of whom it was 
predicted that the Saviour of the world should 
be born, are here marked with precision. These 
genealogies occupy the first nine chapters, and 
in the tenth is recorded the death of Saul. 



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From the eleventh chapter to the end of the 
book, we have a history of the reign of David, 
with a detailed statement of his preparation 
for the building of the temple, of his regula- 
tions respecting the priests and Levites, and 
his appointment of nuisicians for the public 
service of religion. The second book of Chro- 
nicles contains a brief sketch of the Jewish his- 
tory, from the accession of Solomon to the 
return from the Babylonian captivity, being a 
period of four hundred and eighty years ; and 
in both these books we find many particulars 
not noticed in the other historical books of 
Scripture. 

CHRYSOLITE, Rev. xxi, 20, a precious 
stone of a golden colour. Schroder says it is 
the gem now called the Indiari topaz, which 
is of a yellowish green colour, and very beau- 
tiful. 

CHRYSOPRASUS, Rev. xxi, 20, a pre- 
cious stone, which Pliny classes among the 
beryls ; the best of wliich, he says, are of a 
sea-green colour; after these he mentions the 
chrysoberyls, which are a little paler, inclining 
to golden colour; and next, a sort still paler, 
and by some reckoned a distinct species, and 
called chrysoprasus. 

CHURCH. The Greek word eKKXr/aia, so 
rendered, denotes an assembly met about busi- 
ness, whether spiritual or temporal. Acts xix, 
32, 39. It is understood also of the collective 
body of Christians, or all those over the face 
of the earth who profess to believe in Christ, 
and acknowledge liim to be the Saviour of 
mankind ; this is called the visible church. 
But by the word church, we are more strictly 
to understand the whole body of God's true 
people, in every period of time : this is the in- 
visible or spiritual church. The people of God 
on earth are called the church militant, and 
those in heaven the church triumphant. It 
has been remarked by Dr. John Owen, that 
sin having entered into the world, God was 
pleased to found his church (the catholic or uni- 
versal church) in the promise of the Messiah 
given to Adam ; that this promise contained in 
it something of the nature of a covenant, in- 
cluding the grace which God designed to show 
to sinners in the Messiah, and the obedience 
which he required from them ; and that conse- 
quently, from its first promulgation, that pro- 
mise became the sole foundation of the church 
and of the whole worship of God therein. 
Prior to the days of Abraham, this church, 
though scattered up and down the world, and 
subject to many changes in its worship through 
the addition of new revelations, was still but 
one and the same, because founded in the 
same covenant, and interested thereby in all 
the benefits or privileges that God had granted, 
or would at any time grant. In process of 
time, God was pleased to restrict his church, 
as far as visible acknowledgment went, in a 
great measure, to the seed of Abraham. With 
the latter he renewed his covenant, requiring 
that he should walk before him and be upright. 
He also constituted him the father of the faith- 
ful, or of all them that believe, and the " heir 
of the world." So that since the days of Abra- 
17 ^ 



ham, the church has, in every age, been found- 
ed upon the covenant made with that patriarch, 
and on the work of redemption which was to 
be peformed according to that covenant. Now 
wheresoever this covenant made with Abra- 
ham is, and with whomsoever it is established, 
with them is the church of God, and to them 
all the promises and privileges of the church 
really belong. Hence we may learn that at 
the coming of the Messiah, there was not one 
church taken away and another set up in its 
room ; but the church continued the same, in 
those that were the children of Abraham, ac* 
cording to the faith. It is common with 
divines to speak of the Jewish and the Chris- 
tian churches, as though they were two distinct 
and totally different things ; but that is not a 
correct view of the matter. The Christian 
church is not another church, but the very 
same that was before the coming of Christ, 
having the same faith with it, and interested 
in the same coveoiant. Great alterations in- 
deed were made in the outward state and con- 
dition of the church, by the coming of the 
Messiah. The carnal privilege of the Jews, in 
their separation from other nations to give 
birth to the Messiah, then failed, and with that 
also their claim on that account to be the 
children of Abraham. The ordinances of 
worship suited to that state of things then ex- 
pired, and came to an end. New ordinances 
of worship were appointed, suitable to the new 
light and grace which were then bestowed 
upon the church. The Gentiles came into the 
faith of Abraham along with the Jews, being 
made joint partakers with them in his blessing. 
But none of these things, nor the whole col- 
lectively, did make such an alteration in the 
church, but that it was still one and the same. 
The olive tree was still the same, only some 
branches were broken off, and others grafted 
into it. The Jews fell, and the Gentiles came 
in their room. And this may enable us to de- 
termine the difference between the Jews aad 
Christians relative to the Old Testament pro- 
mises. They are all made to the church. No 
individual has any interest in them except by 
virtue of his membership with the church. 
The church is, and always was, one and the 
same. The Jewish plea, is, that the church is 
with them, because they are the children of 
Abraham according to the flesh. Christians 
reply, that their privilege on that ground was 
of another nature, and ended with the coming 
of the Messiah : that the church of God, unto 
whom all the promises belong, are only those 
who are heirs of the faith of Abraham, believ- 
ing as he did, and are consequently interested 
in his covenant. These are Zion, Jerusalem, 
Israel, Jacob, the temple, or church cf God. 

2. By a particular church we understand an 
assembly of Christians united together, and 
meeting in one place, for the solemn worship 
of God. To this agrees the definition given 
by the compilers of the Thirty-nine Articles of 
the Church of England : " A congregation of 
faithfiil men, in which the true word of God is 
preached, and the sacraments duly administer, 
ed according to Christ's ordinances, in all 



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those things that of necessity are requisite to 
the same," Acts ix, 31 ; xx, 17; Gal. i, 2, 22; 
1 Cor. xiv, 34; Col. iv, 15. The word is now 
also used to denote any particular denomina- 
tion of Christians, distinguished by particu- 
lar doctrines, ceremonies, &.c, as the Rom- 
ish church, the Greek church, the English 
church, &c. 

3. On the subject of the church, opinions as 
opposite or varying as possible have been held, 
from that of the Papists, who contend for its 
visible unity throughout the world under a 
visible head, down to that of the Independents, 
who consider the universal church as compos- 
ed of congregational churches, each perfect in 
itself, and entirely independent of every other. 
The first opinion is manifestly contradicted by 
the language of the Apostles, who, while they 
teach that there is but one church, composed 
of believers throughout the world, think it not 
at all inconsistent with this to speak of "the 
churches of Judea," "of Achaia," "the seven 
churches of Asia," "the church at Ephesus," 
&c. Among themselves the Apostles had no 
common head ; but planted churches and gave 
directions for their government, in most cases 
without any apparent correspondence -with 
each other. The Popish doctrine is certainly 
not found in their writings; and so far were 
they from making provision for the govern- 
ment of this one supposed church, by the ap- 
pointment of one visible and exclusive head, 
that they provide for the future government of 
the respective churches raised up by them in a 
totally different manner, that is, by the ordina- 
tion of ministers for each church, who are in- 
differently called bishops, and presbyters, and 
pastors. The only unity of which they speak 
is the unity of the whole church in dhrist, the 
invisible head, by faith ; and the unity pro- 
duced by "fervent love toward each other." 
Nor has the Popish doctrine of the visible 
unity of the church any countenance from 
early antiquity. The best ecclesiastical histo- 
rians have showed, that, through the greater 
part of the second century, the Christian 
churches were independent of each other. 
" Each Christian assembly," says Mosheim, 
" was a little state governed by its own laws, 
which were either enacted, or at least approv- 
ed, by the society. But in process of time, all 
the churches of a province were formed into 
one large ecclesiastical body, which, like con- 
federate states, assembled at certain times in 
order to deliberate about the common interests 
of the whole." So far indeed this union of 
churches appears to have been a wise and use- 
ful arrangement, although afterward it was 
carried to an injurious extreme, until finally it 
gave birth to the assumptions of the bishop of 
Rome, as universal bishop ; a claim, however, 
which, when most successfial, was but partially 
submitted to, the eastern churches having, for 
the most part, always maintained their in- 
dependence. No very large association of 
churches of any kind existed till toward the 
close of the second century, v?hich sufficiently 
refutes the papal argument from antiquity. 
The independence of tlio early Christian 



churches does not, however, appear to have 
resembled that of the churches which, in 
modern times, are called Independent. Dur- 
ing the lives of the Apostles and Evangelists 
they were certainly subject to their counsel and 
control, which proves that the independency 
of separate societies was not the first form of 
the church. It may, indeed, be allowed, that 
some of the smaller and more insulated 
churches might, after the death of the Apos- 
ties and Evangelists, retain this form for some 
considerable time ; but the larger churches, in 
the chief cities, and those planted in populous 
neighbourhoods, had many presbyters, and, as 
the members multiplied, they had several sepa- 
rate assemblies or congregations, yet all under 
the same common government. And when 
churches were raised up in the neighbourhood 
of cities, the appointment of chorepiscopi, or 
country bishops, and of visiting presbyters, 
both acting under the presbytery of the city, 
with the bishop at its head, is sufficiently in 
proof, that the ancient churches, especially the 
larger and more prosperous of them, existed in 
that form which, in modern times, we should 
call a religious connection, subject to a common 
government. This appears to have arisen out 
of the very circumstance of the increase of the 
church, through the zeal of the first Christians; 
and it was doubtless much more in the spirit 
of the very first discipline exercised by the 
Apostles and Evangelists, (when none of the 
churches were independent, but remained un 
der the government of those who had been 
chiefly instrumental in raising them up,) to 
place themselves under a common inspection, 
and to unite the weak with the strong, and the 
newly converted with those who were "in 
Christ before them." There was also in this, 
greater security afforded both for the con- 
tinuance of wholesome doctrine, and of godly 
discipline. 

4. Church members are those who compose 
or belong to the visible church. As to the real 
church, the true members of it are such as come 
out from the world, 2 Cor. vi, 17 ; who are born 
again, 1 Peter i, 23 ; or made new creatures, 
2 Cor. V, 17 ; whose faith works by love to God 
and all mankind. Gal. v, 6 ; James ii, 14, 26 ; 
who walk in all the ordinances of the Lord 
blameless. None but such are members of the 
true church ; nor should any be admitted into 
any particular church v/ithout some evidence 
of their earnestly seeking this state of salvation. 

5. Church fellowship is the communion that 
the members enjoy one with another. The 
ends of church fellowship are, the maintenance 
and exhibition of a system of sound doctrine ; 
the support of the ordinances of evangelical 
worship in their purity and simplicity ; the im- 
partial exercise of church government and 
discipline ; the promotion of holiness in all 
manner of conversation. The more particular 
duties are, earnest study to keep peace and 
unity; bearing of one another's burdens, Gal. 
vi, 1, 2 ; earnest endeavours to prevent each 
other's stumbling, 1 Cor. x, 23-33 ; Heb. x, 
24-27 ; Rom. xiv, 13 ; steadfast continuance in 
the faith and worship of the Gospel, Acts ii, 42 ; 



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praying for and sympathizing with each other, 
1 Sam. xii, 23 ; Eph. vi, 18. The advantages 
are, peculiar incitement to holiness ; the right 
to some promises applicable to none but those 
who attend the ordinances of God, and hold 
communion with the saints. Psalm xcii, 13 ; 
cxxxii, 13, 16; xxXvi, 8; Jer. xxxi, 12; the 
being placed under the watchful eye of pastors, 
Heb. xiii, 7 ; that they may restore each other 
if they fall, Gal. vi, 1 ; and the more effectually 
promote the cause of true religion. 

6. As to church order and discipline, with- 
out entering into the discussion of the many 
questions which have been raised on this sub- 
ject, and argued in so many distinct treatises, 
it may be sufficient generally to observe, that 
the church of Christ being a visible and perma- 
nent society, bound to observe certain rites, 
and to obey certain rules, the existence of 
government in it is necessarily supposed. All 
religious rites suppose order, all order direction 
and control, and these a directive and control- 
ling power. Again : all laws are nugatory with- 
out enforcement, in the present mixed and im- 
perfect state of society ; and all enforcement 
supposes an executive. If baptism be the door 
of admission into the church, some must judge 
of the fitness of candidates, and administrators 
of the rite must be appointed ; if the Lord's Sup- 
per must be partaken of, the times and the mode 
are to be determined, the qualifications of com- 
municants judged of, and the administration 
placed in suitable hands ; if worship must be 
social and public, here again there must be an 
appointment of times, an order, and an admi- 
nistration ; if the word of God is to be read 
and preached, then readers and preachers are 
necessary ; if the continuance of any one in the 
fellowship of Christians be conditional upon 
good conduct, so that the purity and credit of 
the church may be guarded, then the power of 
enforcing discipline must be lodged some where. 
Thus government flows necessarily from the 
very nature of the institution of the Christian 
church ; and since this institution has the 
authority of Christ and his Apostles, it is not 
to be supposed, that its government was left 
unprovided for ; and if they have in fact made 
such a provision, it is no more a matter of mere 
option with Christians vi^hether they will be 
subject to government in the church, than it 
is optional with them to confess Christ by 
becoming its members. The nature of this 
government, and the persons to whom it is com- 
mitted, are both points which we must briefly 
examine by the light of the Holy Scriptures. 
As to the first, it is wholly spiritual : — " My 
kingdom," says our Lord, "is not of this 
world." The church is a society founded upon 
faith, and united by mutual love, for the per- 
sonal edification of its members in holiness, 
and for the religious benefit of the world. The 
nature of its government is thus determined ; 
it is concerned only with spiritual objects. It 
cannot employ force to compel men into its 
pale ; for the only door of the church is faith, 
to which there can be no compulsion ; — " he 
that believeth and is baptized" becomes a mem- 
ber. It cannot inflict pains and penalties upon 



the disobedient and refractory, like civil gcr 
vernments ; for the only punitive discipline 
authorized in the New Testament, is comprised 
in "admonition," "reproof," " sharp rebukes," 
and, finally, "excision from the society." The 
last will be better understood, if we consider 
the special relations in which true Christians 
stand to each other, and the duties resulting 
from them. They are members of one body, 
and are therefore bound to tenderness and sym- 
pathy ; they are the conjoint instructers of 
others, and are therefore to strive to be of " one 
judgment;" they are brethren, and they are 
to love one another as such, that is, with an 
affection more special than that general good 
will which they are commanded to bear to all 
mankind ; they are therefore to seek the inti^ 
macy of- friendly society among themselves, 
and, except in the ordinary and courteous 
intercourse of life, they are bound to keep 
themselves separate from the world ; they are 
enjoined to do good unto all men, but "es^ 
pecially to them that are of the household of 
faith;" and they are forbidden "to eat" at the 
Lord's table with immoral persons, that is, 
with those who, although they continue their 
Christian profession, dislaonour it by their prac- 
tice. With these relations of Christians to 
each other and to the world, and their corres- 
pondent duties, before our minds, we may easily 
interpret the nature of that extreme discipline 
which is vested in the church. "Persons who 
will not hear the church" are to be held "as 
Heathen men and publicans," as those who are 
not members of it ; that is, they are to be sepa- 
rated from it, and regarded as of "the world," 
quite out of the range of the above mentioned 
relations of Christians to each other, and their 
correspondent duties ; but still, like " Heathen 
men and publicans" they are to be the objects 
of pity, and general benevolence. Nor is this 
extreme discipline to be hastily inflicted before 
"a first and second admonition," nor before 
those who are "spiritual" have attempted "to 
restore a brother overtaken by a fault ;'* and 
when the " wicked person" is " put away," still 
the door is to be kept open for his reception 
again upon repentance. The true excommu- 
nication of the Christian church is therefore a 
merciful and considerate separation of an in- 
corrigible offender from the body of Christians, 
without any infliction of civil pains or penal- 
ties. " Now we command you, brethren, in 
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye 
withdraw yourselves from every brother that 
walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition 
which ye have received from us," 2 Thess. iii, 6. 
" Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye 
may be a new lump," 1 Cor. v, 7. " But now 
I have written to you not to keep company, if 
any man that is called a brother be a fornica. 
tor, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or 
a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such a one, 
no not to eat," 1 Cor. v, 11. This then is the 
moral discipline wliich is imperative upon the 
church of Christ, and its government is crimi- 
nally defective whenever it is not enforced. 
On the other hand, the disabilities and penal- 
ties which established churches in different 



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places have connected with these sentences of 
excommunication, have no countenance at all 
in Scripture, and are wholly inconsistent with 
the spiritual character and ends of the Chris- 
tian association. 

7. As to the persons to whom the govern- 
ment of the church is committed; it is necessary 
to consider the composition, so to speak, of the 
primitive church, as stated in the New Testa- 
ment. A full enunciation of these offices v/e 
find in Ephesians iv, 11 : " And he gave some, 
Apostles; and some, Prophets; and some, Evan- 
gelists ; and some, pastors and teachers ; for 
the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the 
ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." 
Of these, the office of Apostle is allowed by all 
to have been confined to those immediately 
commissioned by Christ to witness the fact of 
his miracles, and of his resurrection from the 
dead, and to reveal the complete system of 
Christian doctrine and duty ; confirming their 
extraordinary mission by miracles wrought by 
themselves. If by "prophets" we are to un- 
derstand persons who foretold future events, 
then the office was from its very nature extra- 
ordinary, and the gift of prophecy has passed 
away with the other miraculous endowments 
of the first age of Christianity. If, with others, 
we understand that these prophets were extra, 
ordinary teachers raised up until the churches 
were settled under permanent qualified in- 
structers ; still the office was temporary. The 
*' Evangelists" are generally understood to be 
assistants of the Apostles, who acted under their 
especial authority and direction. Of this num- 
ber were Timothy and Titus ; and as the Apos- 
tie Paul directed them to ordain bishops or 
presbyters in the several churches, but gave 
them no authority to ordain successors to them- 
selves in their particular office as Evangelists, 
it is clear that the Evangelists must also be 
reckoned among the number of extraordinary 
and temporary ministers suited to the first age 
of Christianity. Whether by "pastors and 
teachers" two offices be meant, or one, has 
been disputed. The change in the mode of 
expression seems to favour the latter view, and 
so the text is interpreted by St. Jerom, and St. 
Augustine ; but the point is of little conse- 
quence. A pastor was a teacher, although 
every teacher might not be a pastor ; but in 
many cases his office might be one of subor- 
dinate instruction, v/hether as an expounder of 
doctrine, a catechist, or even a more private 
instructor of those who as yet were unacquaint- 
ed with the first principles of the Gospel of 
Christ. The term pastor implies the duties 
both of instruction and of government, of 
feeding and of ruling the flock of Christ; and, 
as the presbyters or bishops were ordained in 
the several churches, both by the Apostles and 
Evangelists, and rules are left by St. Paul as to 
their appointment, there can be no doubt but 
that these are the "pastors" spoken of in the 
Epistle to the Ephesians, and that they were 
designed to be the permanent ministers of the 
church ; and tliat with them both the govern- 
ment of tJie church and the performance of its 
leading religious services were deposited. Dea- 



cons had the charge of the gifts and offerings 
for charitable purposes, although, it appears 
from Justin Martyr, not in every instance ; for 
he speaks of the weekly oblations as being de- 
posited with the chief minister, and distributed 
by him. These pastors appear to have been 
indifferently called Bishops and Presbyters, 
and with them the regulation of the churches 
was, doubtless, deposited ; not without checks 
and guards, the principal of which, however, 
was, in the primitive church, and continues 
to be in all modern churches which have no 
spuport from the magistracy, or are made 
independent of the people by endowments, the 
voluntariness of the association. A perfect 
religious liberty is always supposed by the 
Apostles to exist among Christians ; no com- 
pulsion of the civil power is any where assumed 
by them as the basis of their advices or direc- 
tions; no binding of the members to one 
church, without liberty to join another, by any 
ties but those involved in moral considerations, 
of sufficient weight, however, to prevent the 
evils of faction and schism. It was this which 
created a natural and competent check upon 
the ministers .of the church ; for being only 
sustained by the opinion of the churches, they 
could not but have respect to it ; and it was 
this which gave to the sound part of a fallen 
church the advantage of renouncing, upon suf- 
ficient and well-weighed grounds, their com- 
munion with it, and of kindling up the hght of 
a pure ministry and a holy discipline, by form- 
ing a separate association, bearing its testi- 
mony against errors in doctrine, and failures 
in practice. Nor is it to be conceived, that, 
had this simple principle of perfect religious 
liberty been left unviolated through subsequent 
ages, the church could ever have become so 
corrupt, or with such difficulty and slowness 
have been recovered from its fall. This an- 
cient Christian liberty has happily been re- 
stored in a few parts of Christendom. See 
Episcopacy and Presbyterianism. 

CHURCH OF ENGLAND and IRELAND 
is that established by law in England and Ire- 
land, where it forms a part of the common law 
of the land, or constitution of the country. 

1. When and by whom Christianity was first 
introduced into Britain, cannot at this distance 
of time be exactly ascertained. Eusebius, in- 
deed, positively declares that it was by the 
Apostles and their disciples ; Bishops Jewel and 
Stillingfleet, Dr. Cave, and others, insist that 
it was by St. Paul ; and Baronius affirms, on 
the authority of an ancient manuscript in the 
Vatican Library, that the Gospel was planted 
in Britain by Simon Zelotes, the Apostle, and 
Joseph of Arimathea ; and that the latter came 
over A. D. 35, or about the twenty-first year 
of Tiberius, and died in this country. Accord, 
ing to Archbishop Usher, the British churches 
had a school of learning in the year 182, to pro- 
vide them with proper teachers ; and it would 
appear that they flourished, without depend- 
ence on any foreign church, till the arrival of 
Austin the monk, in the latter part of the sixth 
century. 

2. Episcopacy was early established in this 



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coautry; and it ought to be remembered, to 
the honour of the British bishops and clergy, 
that during several centuries they withstood 
the encroachments of the see of Rome. Popery, 
however, was at length introduced into Eng- 
land, and, as some say, by Austin, the monk; 
and we find its errors every where prevalent 
during several ages preceding the reformation, 
till they were refuted by WicklifFe. The seed 
which Wickliffe had sown ripened after his 
death, and produced a glorious harvest. How- 
ever, it was not till the reign of Henry VIII, 
that the reformation in England in reality 
commenced. When Luther declared war 
against the pope, Henry wrote his treatise on 
the seven sacraments against Luther's book, 
" Of the Captivity of Babylon," and was repaid 
by the pontiff with the title of "Defender of 
the Faith." This title, in a sense diametrically 
opposite, and by a claim of higher desert, was 
transmitted by Henry with his crown, and 
now belongs to his successors. Henry's affec- 
tions being estranged from his queen Catha- 
rine,. and fixed on Anne Boleyn, he requested 
a divorce from his wife ; but the pope hesitat- 
ing, the archbishop of Canterbury annulled his 
former marriage. The sentence of the arch, 
bishop was condemned by the pope, whose au- 
thority Henry therefore shook off, and was de- 
clared by parliament "supreme head of the 
church." In the year 1800, when the king- 
doms of Britain and Ireland were united, the 
churches of England and Ireland, which had 
always been the same in government, faith, and 
worship, became one united church. 

3. The acknowledged standards of the faith 
and doctrines of the united church are, after the 
Scriptures, the Book of Homilies and the Thir- 
ty-nine Articles. Her liturgy is also doctrinal, 
as well as devotional. The homilies were com- 
posed by Ci-anmer, Latimer, and Ridley, men 
of unexceptionable learning and orthodoxy ; 
or, according to others, the first book was writ- 
ten principally b}'' Cranmer, and the second by 
Jewel. They were appointed to be read in 
churches at the beginning of the reformation, 
when, by reason of the scarcity of learned di- 
vines, few ministers were found who could 
safely be trusted to preach their own composi- 
tions. The first draught of the Articles was 
composed by Archbishop Cranmer, assisted by 
Bishop Ridley, in the year 1551 ; and after be- 
ing corrected by the other bishops, and approv- 
ed by the convocation, they were published in 
Latin and English in 1553, and amounted to 
forty-two in number. In 1562 they were re- 
vised and corrected. Being then reduced to 
thirty -nine, they were drawn up in Latin only; 
but in 1571 they were subscribed by the mem- 
bers of the two houses of convocation, both in 
Latin and English; and therefore the Latin 
and English copies are to be considered as 
equally authentic. The original manuscripts, 
subscribed by the houses of convocation, v/ere 
burned in the fire of London ; but Dr. Bennet 
has collated the oldest copies now extant, in 
which it appears that there are no variations of 
any importance. During the last century, dis- 
putes arose among the clergy respecting the 



propriety of subscribing to any human formu- 
lary of religious sentiments. Parliament, in 
1772, was applied to for the abolition of tho 
subscription, by certain clergymen and others, 
whose petition received the most ampie discus, 
sion, but was rejected by a large majority. It 
has been generally held by most, if not all, 
Calvinists, both in and out of the church, that 
the doctrinal parts of our Articles are Calvin- 
istic. This opinion, however, has been warm. 
ly controverted. It is no doubt nearer the 
truth to conclude that the Articles are framed 
with comprehensive latitude ; and that neither 
Calvinism nor Arminianism was intended to 
be exclusively established. In this view such 
liberal sentiments as the following, from the 
Apology of the Church of England, in 1732, are 
not of uncommon occurrence : *' This, I know, 
I am myself an Anti-Calvinian ; and yet, were 
I to compile articles for the church, I would 
abhor the thoughts of forming them so fully 
according to my own scheme of thinking, or of 
descending so minutely into all the particular 
branches of it, that none but Arminians should 
be able to subscribe, or that the church should 
lose the credit and service of such valuable 
men as the Abbots, Davenant, Usher, and 
other Calvinists undoubtedly were. And since 
our reformers were men of temper and mode- 
ration, it seems but justice, I am sure it is but 
reasonable, to think they intended such a lati- 
tude as I contend for, so that both parties, the 
followers of Arminius as well as of Calvin, 
might subscribe." In a subsequent page, how- 
ever, the same author says, " But what, if there 
was not so entire a harmony among the com- 
pilers or imposers, as was before supposed ? 
What if several of them were Anti-Calvinian ? 
This will incline the balance still more in our 
favour, and enlarge the probability of the arti- ^ 
cles being drawn up in a moderate, indefinite 
way. The divines who fled for refuge, in Queen 
Mary's reign, to Geneva, Zurich, and other 
places beyond sea, (where, by conceiving a 
great veneration for Calvin, they were mighti- 
ly changed in their sentiments and ways of 
thinking,) began to propagate his notions soon 
after their return in the next reign : and this 
seems to have been the prime occasion of Cal- 
vinism taking any considerable root in this 
kingdom. In King Edward's time it doth not 
appear to have prevailed, except among a few 
' gospelers,' and how they were reflected on by 
Bishop Latimer and Hooper has been already 
observed. When the articles v/ere formed in 
1552, I do not find that any deference was paid 
to Calvin's judgment or authority : instead of 
that, the assistance he offered was, to his no little 
grief and dissatisfaction, refused. Next to the 
Scriptures and the doctrine of the primitive 
church, the compilers had an eye to the Au- 
gustan Confession, as appears from the identi- 
ty of many of the articles ; to the writings of 
Melancthon, whose assistance they desired, 
and whom King Edward invited over hither ; 
the works of Erasmus; and the Necessary 
Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian Man. 
This last book was published by King Henry's 
authority in 1543 ; and because it then had the 



GIN 



246 



cm 



approbation of most of those who compiled the 
Articles nine years afterward, it will be of con- 
sequence to see how it stands affected toward 
Calvinism. It teaches the cardinal point of 
universal redemption in several places ; which 
strikes directly at the root of the Calvinian sys- 
tem, and, as Dr. Whitby expresses it, ' draws 
all the rest after it, on which side soever the 
truth lies.' " This judicious amplitude has re- 
ceived much elucidation in Dr. Puller's Mode- 
ration of the Church of England considered, 1679 ; 
and in other works of more recent date. 

4. In this church, divine service is conduct- 
ed by a liturgy, which was composed in 1547, 
and has undergone several alterations, the last 
of which took place in 1661, in the reign of 
.Charles II. Many applications have been since 
made for a review ; and particular alterations 
were proposed in 1689, by several learned and 
excellent divines, in the number of whom were 
Archbishops Tillotson andTenison, and Bishops 
Patrick, Burnet, Stillingfleet, Kidder, &c. This 
subject has been recently revived ; and it is be- 
lieved that some changes are under considera- 
tion. To this liturgy every clergyman pro- 
mises at his ordination to conform in his public 
jninistrations. 

5. Ever since the reign of Henry VIII, the 
sovereigns of England have been styled " su- 
preme heads of the church," as well as "defend- 
ers of the faith ;" but this title is said to convey 
no spiritual meaning ; or, in other words, it 
only substitutes the king in place of the pope, 
with respect to temporalities, and the external 
economy of tlie church. The church of Eng- 
land is governed by two archbishops and twen- 
ty-four bishops, beside the bishop of Sodor and 
Man. The benefices of the bishops w^ere con- 
verted by William the Conqueror into temporal 
baronies ; and, therefore, all of them, except 
the bishop of Man, are barons or lords of par- 
liament, and sit and vote in the house of lords, 
where they represent the clergy. The bishops' 
representatives and assistants are the archdea- 
cons, of whom there are sixty in England. The 
other dignitaries of the church are the deans, 
prebendaries, canons, &c ; and the inferior 
clergy are the rectors, vicars, and curates. The 
united church knows only three orders of minis- 
ters; bishops, priests, and deacons: but in 
these orders are comprehended archbishops, 
bishops, deans, archdeacons, rectors, vicars, 
and curates. The church of Ireland is govern- 
ed by four archbishops and eighteen bishops. 
Since the union of Britain and Ireland, one 
archbishop and three bishops sit alternately in 
the house of peers, by rotation of sessions. 

CILICIA, a country in the south-east of 
Asia Minor, and lying on the northern coast, 
at the east end of the Mediterranean Sea : the 
capital city thereof was Tarsus, the native city 
of St. Paul, Acts xxi, 39. 

CINNAMON, pDJr, an agreeable aromatic ; 
the inward bark of the canella, a small tree of 
the height of the willow. It is mentioned. 
Exodus XXX, 23, among the materials in the 
composition of the holy anointing oil; and in 
Proverbs vii, 17 ; Canticles iv, 14 ; Ecclesiasti- 
2US xjciv, 15; and Revelation xviii, 13, among 



the richest perfumes. This spice is now brought 
from the east Indies ; but as there was no traffic 
with India in the days of Moses, it was then 
brought, probably, from Arabia, or some neigh- 
bouring country. We learn, however, from 
Pliny, that a species of it grew in Syria. 

CINNEROTH, or CINNERETH, a city on 
the north-western side of the sea pf Galilee ; 
which, from it, is frequently called in the Old 
Testament the sea of Cinneroth : from which 
word, that of Genesaret, in the New Testa- 
ment, is conjectured by Dr. Wells to have been 
framed. 

CIRCUMCISION is from the Latin, circum- 
cidere, " to cut all round," because the Jews, 
in circumcising their children, cut off after this 
manner the skin which covers the prepuce, 
God enjoined Abraham to use circumcision, as 
a sign of his covenant. In obedience to this 
order, Abraham, at ninety-nine years of age, 
was circumcised : also his son Ishmael, and 
all the males of his property. Gen. xvii, 10. 
God repeated the precept of circumcision to 
Moses : he ordered that all who were to par- 
take of the paschal sacrifice should receive cir- 
cumcision ; and that this rite should be per- 
formed on children, on the eighth day after 
their birth. The Jews have always been very 
exact in observing this ceremony, and it ap- 
pears that they did not neglect it when in 
Egypt. But Moses, while in Midian with Je- 
thro his father-in-law, did not circumcise his 
two sons born in that country ; and during the 
journey of the Israelites in the wilderness, their 
children were not circumcised. Circumcision 
was practised among the Arabians, Saracens, 
and Ishmaelites. These people, as well as the 
Israelites, sprung from Abraham. Circumci- 
sion was introduced with the law of Moses 
among the Samaritans and Cutheans. The 
Idumeans, though descended from Abraham 
and Isaac, were not circumcised till subdued 
by John Hircanus. Those wh.o assert that the 
Phenicians were circumcised, mean, probably, 
the Samaritans ; for we know, from other au- 
thority, that the Phenicians did not observe 
this ceremony. As to the Egyptians, circum- 
cision never was of general and indispensable 
obligation on the whole nation ; certain priests 
only, and particular professions, were oblige^ 
to it. Circumcision is likewise the ceremony 
of initiation into the Mohammedan religion. 
There is, indeed, no law in the Koran which 
enjoins it, and they have the precept only in 
tradition. They say that Mohammed com- 
manded it out of respect to Abraham, the head 
of his race. They have no fixed day for the 
performance of this rite, and generally wait till 
the child is five or six years of age. 

Circumcision, Covenant of. That the cove,- 
nant with Abraham, of which circumcision was 
made the sign and seal, Genesis xvii, 7-14, was 
the general covenant of grace, and not wholly, 
or even chiefly, a political and national cove- 
nant, may be satisfactorily established. The 
first engagement in it was, that God would 
" greatly bless" Abraham; which promise, al- 
though it comprehended temporal blessings, 
referred, as we learn from St. Paul, more fully 



CIR 



247 



CIR 



to the blessing of his justification by the impu- 
tation of his faith for righteousness, with all 
the spiritual advantages consequent upon the 
relation which was thus established between 
him and God, in time and eternity. The second 
promise in the covenant was, that he should 
be " the father of many nations ;" which we 
are also taught by St. Paul to interpret more 
with reference to his spiritual seed, the follow- 
ers of that faith whereof cometh justification, 
than to his natural descendants. " That the 
promise might be sure to all the seed, not only 
to that which is by the law, but to that also 
which is by the faith of Abraham, who is the 
father of us all" — of all believing Gentiles as 
well as Jews. The third stipulation in God's 
covenant with the patriarch, was the gift to 
Abraham and to his seed of " the land of Ca- 
naan," in which the temporal promise was 
manifestly but the type of the higher promise of 
a heavenly inheritance. Hence St. Paul says, 
" By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, 
dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, 
the heirs with him of tlie same promise ;" but 
this "faith" did not respect the fulfilment of 
the temporal promise ; for St. Paul adds, " they 
looked for a city which had foundations, whose 
builder and maker is God," Heb. xi, 19. The 
next promise was, that God would always be 
" a God to Abraham and to his seed after him," 
a promise which is connected with the highest 
spiritual blessings, such as the remission of sins, 
and the sanctification of our nature, as well 
as with a visible church state. It is even used 
to express the felicitous state of the church in 
heaven, Rev. xxi, 3. The final engagement 
in the Abrahamic covenant was, that in Abra- 
ham's " seed, all nations of the earth should be 
blessed ;" and this blessing, we are expressly 
taught by St. Paul, was nothing less than the 
justification of all nations, that is, of all believ- 
ers in all nations, by faith in Christ : " And 
the Scripture, foreseeing that God would jus- 
tify the Heathen by faith, preached before the 
Gospel to Abraham, saying, In thee shall all 
nations be blessed. So then they who are of 
faith are blessed with believing Abraham ;" 
they receive the same blessing, justification, by 
the same means, faith. Gal. iii, 8, 9. This cove- 
nant with Abraham, therefore, although it re- 
spected a natural seed, Isaac, from whom a 
numerous progeny was to spring ; and an earth- 
ly inheritance provided for this issue, the land 
of Canaan ; and a special covenant relation 
with the descendants of Isaac, through the line 
of Jacob, to whom Jehovah was to be " a God," 
visibly and specially, and they a visible and 
" peculiar people ;" yet was, under all these 
temporal, earthly, and external advantages, but 
a higher and spiritual grace embodying itself 
under these circumstances, as types of a dis- 
pensation of salvation and eternal life, to all 
who should follow the faith of Abraham, whose 
justification before God was the pattern of the 
justification of every man, whether Jew or Gen. 
tile, in all ages. Now, of this covenant, in its 
spiritual as well as in its temporal provisions, 
circumcision was most certainly the sacrament, 
that is the " sign" and the " seal ;" for St. Paul 



thus explains the case : '* And he received the 
SIGN of circumcision, a seal of the righteous. 
ness of the faith which he had yet being un- 
circumcised." And as this rite was enjoined 
upon Abraham's posterity, so that every " un- 
circumcised man-child whose flesh of his fore- 
skin was not circumcised on the eighth day," 
was to be " cut off" from his people," by the 
special judgment of God, and that because " he 
had broken God's covenant," Gen. xvii, 14 ; it 
therefore follows that this rite was a constant 
publication of God's covenant of grace among 
the descendants of Abraham, and its repetition 
a continual confirmation of that covenant, on 
the part of God, to all practising it in that faith 
of which it was the ostensible expression. 

2. As the covenant of grace made with Abra. 
ham was bound up with temporal promises and 
privileges, so circumcision was a sign and seal 
of the covenant in both its parts, — its spiritual 
and its temporal, its superior and inferior pro- 
visions. The spiritual promises of the cove- 
nant continued unrestricted to all the descend- 
ants of Abraham, whether by Isaac or by Ish- 
mael ; and still lower down, to the descendants 
of Esau as well as to those of Jacob. Circum- 
cision was practised among them all by virtue 
of its divine institution at first ; and was ex- 
tended to their foreign servants, and to prose- 
lytes, as well as to their children ; and where- 
ever the sign of the covenant of grace was by 
divine appointment, there it was as a seal of 
that covenant, to all who believingly used it ; 
for we read of no restriction of its spiritual 
blessings, that is, its saving engagements, to 
one line of descent from Abraham only. But 
over the temporal branch of the covenant, and 
the external religious privileges arising out of 
it, God exercised a rightful sovereignty, and 
expressly restricted them first to the line of 
Isaac, and then to that of Jacob, with whose 
descendants he entered into special covenant 
by the ministry of Moses. The temporal bless- 
ings and external privileges comprised under 
general expressions in the covenant with Abra- 
ham, were explained and enlarged under that 
of Moses, while the spiritual blessings remain, 
ed unrestricted as before. This was probably 
the reason why circumcision was reenacted 
under the law of Moses. It was a confirmation 
of the temporal blessings of the Abrahamic cove- 
nant, now, by a covenant of peculiarity, made 
over to them, while it was still recognized as 
a consuetudinary rite which had descended to 
them from their fathers, and as the sign and 
seal of the covenant of grace, made with 
Abraham and with all his descendants without 
exception. This double reference of circumci- 
sion, both to the authority of Moses and to 
that of the patriarchs, is found in the words 
of our Lord, John vii, 22 : " Moses therefore 
gave unto you circumcision, not because it is 
of Moses, but of the fathers ;" or, as it is bet- 
ter translated by Campbell, " Moses institut- 
ed circumcision among you, (not that it is 
from Moses, but from the patriarchs,) and ye 
circumcise on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath 
a child receive circumcision, that the law of 
Moses may not be violated," &c. 



CIR 



248 



CIR 



3. From these observations, t/ie controversy 
in the Apostolic churches respecting circum- 
cision will derive much elucidation. The cove- 
nant with Abraham prescribed circumcision as 
an act of faith in its promises, and as a pledge 
to perform its conditions on the part of his de- 
scendants. But the object -on which this faith 
rested, was "the Seed of Abraham," in whom 
the nations of the earth were to be blessed : 
which Seed, says St. Paul, "is Christ," — Christ 
as promised, not yet come. When the Christ 
had come, so as fully to enter upon his redeem- 
ing offices, he could no linger be the object of 
faith, as still to come ; and this leading pro- 
mise of the covenant being accomplished, the 
sign and seal of it vanished away. Nor could 
circumcision be continued in this view by any, 
without an implied denial that Jesus was the 
Christ, the expected Seed of Abraham. Cir- 
cumcision also as an institution of Moses, who 
continued it as the sign and seal of the Abra- 
hamic covenant both in its spiritual and tem- 
poral provisions, but with respect to the latter 
made it also a sign and seal of the restriction 
of its temporal blessings and peculiar religious 
privileges to the descendants of Israel, was ter- 
minated by the entrance of our Lord upon his 
offiee of Mediator, in wliich office all nations 
were to be blessed in him. The Mosaic edi- 
tion of the covenant not only guaranteed the 
land of Canaan, but the peculiarity of the 
Israelites, as the people anjd visible church of 
God to the exclusion of others, except by pro- 
selylism. But when our Lord commanded the 
Gospel to be preached to " all nations," and 
opened the gates of the " common salvation" 
to all, whether Gentiles or Jews, circumci- 
sion, as the sign of a covenant of peculiarity 
and religious distinction, was also done away. 
It had not only no reason remaining, but 
the continuance of the rite involved the re- 
cognition of exclusive privileges which had 
been terminated by Christ. This vv^ill explain 
the views of the Apostle Paul on this great 
question. He declares that in Christ there is 
neither circumcision nor uncircumcision ; that 
neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor 
uncircumcision, but " faith that worketh by 
love ;" faith in the Seed of Abraham already 
come and already engaged in his mediatorial 
and redeeming work ; faith, by virtue of which 
the Gentiles came into the church of Christ on 
the same terms as the Jews themselves, and 
were justified and saved. The doctrine of the 
non-n€cessity of circumcision, he applies to the 
Jews as well as to the Gentiles, although he 
specially resists the attempts of the Judaizers 
to impose this rite upon the Gentile converts ; 
in which he was supported by the decision of 
the Holy Spirit when the appeal upon this 
question was made to "the Apostles and elders 
at Jerusalem," from the church at Antioch. 
At the same time it is clear that he takes two 
different views of the practice of circumcision, 
as it was continued among many of the first 
Christians. The first is that strong one which 
is expressed in Gal. v, 2-4, " Behold, I Paul 
say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ 
shall profit you nothing ; for I testify again to 



every man that is circumcised, that he is a 
debtor to do the whole law. Christ is made of 
no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justi- 
fied by the law, ye are fallen from grace." The 
second is that milder view which he himself 
must have had when he circumcised Timothy 
to render him more acceptable to the Jews ; 
and which also appears to have led him to ab- 
stain from all allusion to this practice when 
vv^riting his epistle to the believing Hebrews, 
although many, perhaps most of them, con- 
tinue to circumcise their children, as did the 
Jewish Christians for a long time afterward. 
These different views of circumcision, held by 
the same person, may be explained, by consider- 
ing the different principles en which circum- 
cision might be practised after it had become 
an obsolete ordinance. 

(1.) It might be taken in the simple view of 
its first institution, as the sign and seal of the 
Abrahamic covenant ; and then it was to be 
condemned as involving a denial that Abra- 
ham's Seed, the Christ, had already come, since, 
upon his coming, every old covenant gave place 
to the new covenant introduced by him. 

(2.) It might be practised and enjoined as 
the sign and seal of the Mosaic covenant, 
w^hich was still the Abrahamic covenant with 
its spiritual blessings, but with restriction of 
its temporal promises and special ecclesiastical 
privileges to the line of Jacob, with a law of 
observances which w^as obligatory upon all 
entering that covenant by circumcision. In 
that case it involved, in like manner, the no- 
tion of the continuance of an old covenant, 
after the establishment of the new ; for thus 
St. Paul states the case in Galatians iii, 19: 
" Wherefore then serveth the law ? It was 
added because of transgressions until the Seed 
should come." After that therefore it had no 
effect: — it had waxed old, and had vanished 
away. 

(3.) Again : circumcision might imply an 
obligation to observe all the cerem.onial usages 
and the moral precepts of the Mosaic law, 
along with a general belief in the mission of 
Christ, as necessary to justification before God. 
This appears to have been the view of those 
among the Galatian Christians who submitted 
to circumcision, and of the Jewish teachers 
who enjoined it upon them ; for St. Paul in 
that epistle constantly joins circmncision with 
legal observances, and as involving an obliga- 
tion to do "the whole law," in order to justifi- 
cation. — " I testify again to every man that is 
circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole 
law ; whosoever of you are justified by the law, 
ye are fallen from grace." "Knowing that a 
man is not justified by the works of the law, 
but by the faitli of our Lord Jesus Christ," Gal. 
ii, 16. To all persons therefore practising cir- 
cumcision in this view it was obvious, that 
"Christ was becom.e of none effect," the very 
principle of justification by faith alone in him 
was renounced even while his divine mission 
was still admitted. 

(4.) But there are two grounds on which cir- 
cumcision maybe conceived to have been inno- 
cently, though not wisely, practised, among 



cm 



249 



CIT 



the Christian Jews. The first was that of 
preserving an ancient national distinction on 
which they valued themselves ; and were a 
converted Jew in the present day disposed to 
perform that rite upon his children for this pur- 
pose only, renouncing in the act all considera- 
tion of it as a sign and seal of the old cove- 
nants, or as obliging to ceremonial acts in 
order to justification, no one would censure 
him with severity. It appears clear that it 
was under some such view that St. Paul cir- 
cumcised Timothy, whose mother was a Jewess ; 
he did it because of " the Jews which were in 
those quarters," that is, because of their na- 
tional prejudices, " for they knew that his 
father was a Greek." The second was a lin- 
gering notion, that, even in the Christian 
church, the Jews who believed 'would still re- 
tain some degree of eminence, some sviperior 
relation to God ; a notion which, however un- 
founded, was not one which demanded direct 
rebuke, when it did not proudly refuse spiritual 
communion with the converted Gentiles, but 
was held by men who " rejoiced that God had 
granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life." 
These considerations may account for the 
silence of St. Paul on the subject of circum- 
cision in his Epistle to the Hebrews. Some 
of them continued to practise that rite, but they 
were probably believers of the class just men- 
tioned ; for had he thought that the rite was 
continued among them on any principle which 
affected the fundamental doctrines of Chris- 
tianity, he would no doubt have been equally 
prompt and fearless in pointing out that apos- 
tasy from Christ which was implied in it, as 
when he wrote to the Galatians. 

Not only might circumcision be practised 
v/itli viev/s so opposite that one might be wholly 
innocent, although an infirmity of prejudice ; 
the other such as would involve a rejection of 
the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ ; 
but some other Jewish observances also stood 
in the same circumstances. St. Paul in his 
Epistle to the Galatians, a part of his writings 
from which we obtain the most information on 
these questions, grounds his "doubts" whether 
the members of that church were not seeking 
to be "justified by the law" upon their observ- 
ing "days, and months, and times, and years." 
Had he done more than " doubt," he would 
have expressed himself more positively. He 
saw their danger on this point; he saw that 
they were taking steps to this fatal result, by 
such an observance of these "days," &c, as 
had a strong leaning and dangerous approach 
to that dependence upon them for justification, 
which would destroy their faith in Christ's 
solely sufficient sacrifice ; but his very doubt- 
ing, not of the fact of their being addicted to 
these observances, but of the animus with which 
they regarded them, supposes it possible, how- 
ever dangerous this Jewish conformity might 
be, that they might be observed for reasons 
which would still consist with their entire 
reliance upon the merits of Christ for salva- 
tion. Even he himself, strongly as he resisted 
the imposition of this conformity to Jewish 
customs upon the converts to Christianity as a 



matter of necessity, yet in practice must have 
conformed to many of them, when no sacrifice 
of principle vv^as understood ; for, in order to 
gain the Jews, he became " as a Jew." See 
Abraham, and Battism. 

CISLEU, the ninth month of the ecclesias- 
tical, and the third of the civil, year among 
the Hebrews. It answers nearly to our No- 
vember. 

CISTERN, a reservoir chiefly for rainwa- 
ter. Numbers of these are still to be seen in 
Palestine, some of which are a hundred and 
fifly paces long, and sixty broad. The reason of 
their being so large was, that their cities were 
many of them built in elevated situations ; and 
the rain falling only twice in the year, namely, 
spring and autumn, it became necessary for 
them to collect a quantity of water, as well 
for the cattle as for the people. A broken cis- 
tern would of course be a great calamity to a 
family, or in some cases even to a town ; and 
with reference to this we may see the force of 
the reproof, Jer. ii, 13. 

CITIES. By referring to some peculiari- 
ties in the building, fortifying, &c, of eastern 
cities we shall the better understand several 
allusions and expressions of the Old Testament. 
It is evident that the walls of fortified cities 
were sometimes partly constructed of com- 
bustible materials ; for the Prophet, denouncing 
the judgments of God upon Syria and other 
countries, declares, " I will send a fire on the 
wall of Gaza, which shall devour the palaces 
thereof," Amos i, 7. The walls of Tyre and 
Rabbah seem to have been of the same perish- 
able materials; for the Prophet adds, "I will 
send a fire upon the wall of Tyrus, which shall 
devour the palaces thereof;" and again, "I 
will kindle a fire in the walls of Rabbah, and 
it shall devour the palaces thereof with shout- 
ing in the day of battle," verses 10, 14. One 
method of securing the gates of fortified places, 
among the ancients, was to cover them with 
thick plates of iron ; a custom which is still 
used in the east, and seems to be of great an- 
tiquity. We learn from Pitts, that Algiers has 
five gates, and some of these have two, some 
three, other gates within them ; and some of 
them are plated all over with thick iron. The 
place where the Apostle was imprisoned seems 
to have been secured in the same manner ; for, 
says the inspired historian, "When they were 
past the first and second ward, they came unto 
the iron gate that leadeth unto the city ; which 
opened to them of its own accord," Acts xii, 10. 
Pococke, speaking of a bridge not far from 
Antioch, called the iron bridge, says, there are 
two towers belonging to it, the gates of which 
are covered with iron plates; which he sup- 
poses is the reason of the name it bears. Some 
of their gates are plated over with brass ; such 
are the enormous gates of the principal mosque 
at Damascus, formerly the church of John the 
Baptist. To gates like these, the Psalmist 
probably refers in these words : " He hath 
broken' the gates of brass," Psalm cvii, 16; 
and the Prophet, in that remarkable passage, 
where God promises to go before Cyrus his 
anointed, and " break in pieces the gates of 



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brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron," Isa. 
xlv, 2. But, conscious that all these precau- 
tions were insufficient for their security, the 
orientals employed watchmen to patrol the city 
during the night, to suppress any disorders in 
the streets, or to guard the walls against the 
attempts of a foreign enemy. To this custom 
Solomon refers in these words: "The watch- 
men that went about the city found me, they 
smote me, they wounded me ; the keepers of 
the wall took away my veil from me," Song 
V, 7. This custom may be traced to a very 
remote antiquity ; so early as the departure of 
Israel from the land of Egypt, the morning 
watch is mentioned, certainly indicating the 
time when the watchmen were commonly re- 
lieved. In Persia, the watchmen were obliged 
to indemnify those who were robbed in the 
streets; which accounts for the vigilance and 
severity which they display in tlie discharge 
of their office, and illustrates the character of 
watchman given to Ezekiel, and the duties he 
was required to perform. If the wicked perished 
in his iniquities without warning, the Prophet 
was to be accountable for his blood ; but if he 
duly pointed out his danger, he delivered his 
own soul, Ezek. xxxiji, 2. They were also 
charged, as with us, to announce the progress 
of the night to the slumbering city : " The bur- 
den of Dumah ; he calls to me out of Seir, 
Watchman, what of the night ? watchman, 
what of the night ? The v/atchman said. The 
morning cometh, and also the night," Isa. xxi, 
11. This is confirmed by an observation of 
Chardin upon these words of Moses : " For a 
, thousand years in thy sight are but as yester- 
day when it is past, and as a watch in the 
night :" that as the people of the east have no 
clocks, the several parts of the day and of the 
night, which are eight in all, are announced. 
In the Indies, the parts of the night are made 
known, as well by instruments of music, in 
great cities, as by the rounds of the watchmen, 
who, with cries and small drums, give them 
notice that a fourth part of the night is past. 
Now, as these cries awaked those who had 
slept all that quarter part of the night, it ap- 
peared to them but as a moment." It is evi- 
dent the ancient Jews knew, by some public 
notice, how the night watches passed away ; 
but, whether they simply announced the ter- 
mination of the watch, or made use of trum- 
pets, or other sonorous instruments, in making 
the proclamation, it may not be easy to deter- 
mine ; and still less what kind of chronometers 
the watchmen used. The probability is, that 
the watches were announced with the sound 
of a trumpet ; for the Prophet Ezekiel makes 
it a part of the watchman's duty, at least in 
time of war, to blow the trumpet, and warn the 
people. The watchman, in a time of danger, 
seems to have taken his station in a tower, 
which was built over the gate of the city. 

The fortified cities in Canaan, as in some 
other countries, were commonly strengthened 
with a citadel, to which the inhabitants fled 
when they found it impossible to defend the 
place. The whole inhabitants of Thebez, un- 
able to resist the repeated and furious assaults 



of Abimelech, retired into one of these towers, 
and bid defiance to his rage: "But there was 
a strong tower within the city, and thither fled 
all the men and women, and all they of the 
city, and shut it to them, and gat them up to 
the top of the tower." The extraordinary 
strength of this tower, and the various means 
of defence which were accumulated within its 
narrow walls, may be inferred from the vio. 
lence of Abimelech's attack, and its fatal issue : 
" And Abimelech came unto the tower, and 
fought against it, and went hard unto the 
door of the tower, to burn it with fire. And a 
certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon 
Abimelech's head, and all to break his skull," 
Judges ix, 52. The city of Shechem had a 
tower of the same kind, into which the people 
retired, when the same usurper took it and 
sowed it with salt, Judges ix, 46. These strong 
towers which were built within a fortified city, 
were commonly placed on an eminence, to 
which they ascended by a flight of steps. Such 
was the situation of the city of David, a strong 
tower upon a high emisience at Jerusalem ; 
and the manner of entrance, as described by 
the sacred writer : " But the gate of the fount- 
ain repaired Shallum, unto the stairs that go 
down from the city of David," Nehemiah 
iii, 15. 

Cities op Refuge, See Refuge. 
CLAUDIUS, a Roman emperor; he suc- 
ceeded Caius Caligula, A. D. 41, and reigned 
thirteen years, eight months, and nineteen 
days, dying A. D. 54. King Agrippa was the 
principal means of persuading Claudius' to ac- 
cept the empire, which was tendered him by 
the soldiers. As an acknowledgment for this 
service, he gave Agrippa all Judea, and the 
kingdom of Chalcis to his brother Herod. He 
put an end to the dispute which had for some 
time existed between the Jews of Alexandria 
and the other freemen of that city, and con- 
firmed the Jews in the possession of their right 
of freedom, which they had enjoyed from the 
beginning, and every where maintained them 
in the free exercise of their religion. But he 
would not permit them to hold any assemblies 
at Rome. King Agrippa dying A. D. 44, the 
emperor again reduced Judea into a province, 
and sent Cuspius Fadus to be governor. About 
the same time the famine happened which is 
mentioned Acts xi, 28-30, and was foretold by 
the Prophet Agabus. Claudius, in the ninth 
year of his reign, published an edict for ex- 
pelling all Jews out of Rome, Acts xviii, 2. 
It is very probable that the Christians, who 
were at that time confounded with the Jews, 
were banished likewise. 

2. Claudius Felix, successor of Cumanus 
in the government of Judea. Felix found 
means to solicit and engage Drusilla, sister of 
Agrippa the Younger, to leave her husband 
Azizus, king of the Emessenians, and to marry 
him, A. D. 53. Felix sent to Rome Eleazar, 
son of Dinaeus, capta.in of a band of robbers, 
who had committed great ravages in Palestine ; 
he procured the death of Jonathan, the high 
priest, who sometimes freely represented to 
him his duty ; he defeated a body of three 



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thousand men, whom an Egyptian, a false 
prophet, had assembled upon the Mount of 
Olives. St. Paul being brought to Cesarea, 
where Felix usually resided, was well treated 
by this governor, who permitted his friends to 
see him, and render him services, hoping the 
Apostle would procure his redemption by a 
sum of money. He however neither con- 
demned Paul, nor set him at liberty, when the 
Jews accused him ; but adjourned the deter- 
mination of this affair till the arrival of Lysias, 
who commanded the troops at Jerusalem, 
where he had taken Paul into custody, and 
who was expected at Cesarea, Acts xxiii, 26, 
27, &c ; xxiv, 1-3, &c. 

While the Apostle was thus detained, Felix, 
with his wife Drusilla, who was a Jewess, sent 
for him, and desired him to expl'ain the religion 
of Jesus Christ. The Apostle spoke with his 
usual boldness, and discoursed to them on jus- 
tice, temperance, and the last judgment. Felix 
trembled before this powerful exhibition of 
truths so arousing to his conscience; but he 
remanded St. Paul to his confinement. He 
farther detained him two years at Cesarea, in 
compliance with the wishes of the Jews, and 
in order to do something to propitiate them, 
because they were extremely dissatisfied with 
his government. Being recalled to Rome, 
A. D. 60 ; and many Jews going thither to 
complain of the extortions and violence com- 
mitted by him in Judea, he would have been 
put to death, if his brother Pallas, who had 
been Claudius's slave, and was now his freed- 
man, had not preserved him. Felix was suc- 
ceeded in the government of Judea by Porcius 
Festus. 

CLAY, nDn, is often mentioned in Scripture, 
nor is it necessary to explain the various refer- 
ences to what is so well known. It may be 
remarked, however, that clay was used for 
sealing door^. Norden and Pococke observe, 
that the inspectors of the granaries in Egypt, 
after closing the door, put their seal upon a 
handful of clay, with which they cover the 
lock. This may help to explain Job xxxviii, 
14, in which the earth is represented as assum- 
ing form and imagery from the brightness of 
the rising sun, as rude clay receives a figure 
from the impression of a seal or signet. 

CLEOPAS, according to Eusebius and 
Epiphanius, was brother of Joseph, both being 
sons of Jacob. He was the father of Simeon, 
of James the Less, of Jude, and Joseph or 
Joses. Cleopas married Mary, sister to the 
blessed virgin. He was therefore uncle to 
Jesus Christ, and his sons were first cousins to 
him. Cleopas, his wife, and sons, were dis- 
ciples of Christ. Having beheld our Saviour 
expire upon the cross, he, like the other dis- 
ciples, appears to have lost all hopes of seeing 
the kingdom of God established by him on 
earth. The third day after our Saviour's 
death, on the day of his resurrection, Cleopas, 
with another disciple, departed from Jerusa- 
lem to Emmaus ; and in the way discoursed on 
what had lately happened. Our Saviour join- 
ed them, appearing as a traveller ; and, taking 
up their discourse, he reasoned with them, 



convincing them out of the Scriptures, that it 
was necessary the Messiah should suffer death, 
previously to his being glorified. At Emmaiis, 
Jesus seemed as if inclined to go farther ; but 
Cleopas and his companion detained him, and 
made him sup with them. While they were 
at table, Jesus took bread, blessed it, brake, 
and gave it to them, and by this action their 
eyes were opened, and they knew him. Upon 
his disappearing they instantly returned to 
Jerusalem, to announce the fact to the Apos- 
tles, who in their turn declared that " the Lord 
was risen indeed and had appeared to Peter." 
In our translation of Luke xxiv, 31, it is said 
that Jesus "vanished out of their sight;" but 
the original is more properly rendered, "He 
suddenly went away from them," the word 
being often applied by the Greek writers to 
those who in any way, but especially suddenly 
and abruptly, withdraw from any one's com- 
pany. No other actions of Cleopas are known. 
It is the opinion of Jerom, that his residence 
was at Emmaus, and that he invited our Sa- 
viour into his own house. Supposing Cleopas 
to have been the brother of Joseph, and father 
of James, &c, Calmet thinks it more probable 
that as he was a Galilean, he dwelt in some 
city of Galilee. 

CLOUD, a collection of vapours suspended 
in the atmosphere. When the Israelites had 
left Egypt, God gave them a pillar of cloud to 
direct their march, Exod. xiii, 21, 22. Accord- 
ing to Jerom, in his Epistle to Fabiola, this cloud 
attended them from Succoth ; or, according to 
others, from Rameses ; or, as the Hebrews say, 
only from Ethan, till the death of Aaron ; or, 
as the generality of commentators are of 
opinion, to the passage of Jordan. This pillar 
was commonly in front of the Israelites ; but 
at Pihahiroth, when the Egyptian army ap- 
proached behind them, it placed itself between 
Israel and the Egyptians, so that the Egyptians 
could not come near the Israelites all night, 
Exod. xiv, 19, 20. In the morning, the cloud 
moving on over the sea, and following the 
Israelites who had passed through it, the 
Egyptians pressing afler were drowned. From 
that time, this cloud attended the Israelites ; it 
was clear and bright during night, in order to 
afford them light ; but in the day it was thick 
and gloomy, to defend them from the exces- 
sive heats of the deserts. "The angel of God 
which went before the camp of Israel, remov- 
ed and went behind them; and the pillar of 
the cloud went from before their face, and 
stood behind them," Exod. xiv, 19. Here we 
may observe, that the angel and the cloud 
made the same motion, as it would seem, in 
company. The cloud by its motions gave the 
signal to tlie Israelites to encamp or to decamp. 
Where, therefore, it stayed, the people stayed 
till it rose again ; then they broke up their 
camp, and followed it till it stopped. It was 
called a pillar, by reason of its form, wliich 
was high and elevated. Some interpreters 
suppose that there were two clouds, one to 
enlighten, the other to shade, the camp. 

The Lord appeared at Sinai in the midst of 
a cloud, Exod. xix, 9 ; xxiv, 5 ; and after Mq? 



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sea had built and consecrated the tabernacle, 
the cloud filled the court around it, so that 
neither Moses nor the priests could enter, 
Exodus xl, 34, 35. The same happened at the 
dedication of the temple of Jerusalem by So. 
lomon, 2 Chronicles v, 13; 1 Kings viii, 10. 
When the cloud appeared upon the tent, in 
front of which were held the assemblies of the 
people in the desert, it was then indicated that 
God was present ; for the tent was a sign of 
God's presence. The angel descended in the 
cloud, and thence spoke to Moses, v/ithout be- 
ing seen by the people, Exod. xvi, 10 ; Num. 
xi, 25; xvi, 5. It is common ia Scripture, 
when mentioning God's appearing, to represent 
him as encompassed with clouds, which serve 
as a chariot, and contribute to veil his dread- 
ful majesty. Job xxii, 14 ; Isaiah xix, 1 ; Matt, 
xvii, 5; xxiv, 30, &c; Psalm xviii, 11, 12; 
xcvii, 2 ; civ, 3. Cloud is also used for morn- 
ing mists: "Your goodness is as a morning 
cloud ; and as the early dew it goeth away," 
Hosea vi, 4; xiii, 3. Job, speaking of the 
chaos, says, that God had confined the sea or 
the water, as it were with a cloud, and covered 
it with darkness, as a child is wrapped in its 
blankets. The author of Ecclesiasticus, xxiv, 6, 
used the same expression. The Son of God, 
at his second advent, is described as descend- 
ing upon clouds, Matt, xxiv, 30 ; Luke xi, 27 ; 
Rev. xiv, 14—16. 

COCCEIANS, the disciples of John Coc- 
ceius, a celebrated Dutch divine, born at Bre- 
men, in 1608, where he was appointed profes- 
sor of Hebrew, at the age of twenty-seven, and 
afterward filled the theological chair at Leyden, 
where he died in 1669. His works make ten 
volumes in folio. He was a man of good learn- 
ing, and a vivid imagination. He considered 
the Old Testament as a mirror, which held 
forth figuratively the transactions and events 
that were to happen in the church under the 
dispensation of the New Testament, and unto 
the end of the world. He maintained, that by 
far the greater part of the ancient prophecies 
related to Christ's ministry and mediation, and 
the rise, progress, and revolutions of the church; 
not only under the figure of typical persons 
and transactions, but in a more direct manner ; 
and that Christ was, indeed, as much the sub- 
stance of the Old Testament as of the New. 
Cocceius also taught, that the covenant made 
between God and the Jews was of the same 
nature as the new covenant by Jesus Christ ; 
that the law was promulgated by Moses, not 
merely as a rule of obedience, but also as a re- 
presentation of the covenant of grace ; that 
when the Jews had provoked the Deity by 
their various transgressions, particularly by the 
worship of the golden calf, the severe yoke of 
the ceremonial law was added as a punishment ; 
that this yoke, which was painful in itself, be- 
came doubly so on account of its typical sig- 
nification ; since it admonished the Israelites 
from day to day of the imperfection of their 
state, filled them with anxiety, and was a per- 
petual proof that they had merited the righteous 
judgment of God, and could not expect, before 
the coming of the Messiah, the entire remis- 



sion of their iniquities ; that indeed good men, 
under the Mosaic dispensation, were, after 
death, made partakers of glory ; but that, ne- 
vertheless, during the whole course of their 
lives they were far removed from that assur- 
ance of salvation, which rejoices the believer 
under the dispensation of the Gospel ; and that 
their anxiety flowed from this consideration, 
that their sins, though they remained unpun- 
ished, were not yet pardoned; because Christ 
had not as yet offered himself up to make an 
atonement for them. Cocceius was also a 
millennarian, and expected a personal reign of 
Christ on earth in the last days. Many of his 
opinions were afterward adopted by the Hutch- 
insonians. 

COCK, aXeKTwp, a well known domestic fowl. 
Some derive the Greek name from a, and ^ikt^ov, 
a bed, because the crowing of cocks rouses men 
froTn their beds ; but Mr. Parkhurst asks, " May 
not this name be as properly deduced from the 
Hebrew r\':hr\ iiN, the coming of the light, of 
which this ' bird of dawning,' as Shakspeare 
calls him, gives such remarkable notice, and 
for doing which he was, among the Heathen, 
sacred to the sun, who in Homer is hunself 
called oXiKTOig ?" In Matt, xxvi, 34, our Lord 
is represented as saying, that before cock-crow 
Peter should deny him thrice ; so Luke xxii, 34, 
and John xiii, 39. But according to Mark 
xiv, 30, he says, " Before the cock crow twice 
thou shalt deny me thrice." These texts may 
be very satisfactorily reconciled, by observing, 
that ancient authors, both Greek and Latin, 
mention two cock-crowings, the one of which 
was soon after midnight, the other about three 
o'clock in the morning; and this latter being 
most noticed by men as the signal of their ap- 
proaching labours, was called by way of emi- 
nence, the cock-crowing; and to this alone, 
Matthew, giving the general sense of our Sa- 
viour's warning to Peter, refers; but Mark, 
recording his very words, mentions the two 
cock-crowirigs. 

The rabbles tell us that cocks were not per- 
mitted to be kept in Jerusalem on account of 
the holiness of the place ; and that for this rea- 
son some modern Jews cavil against this de- 
claration of the Evangelists ; but the cock is 
not among the birds prohibited in the law of 
Moses. If there was any restraint in the use 
and domestication of the animal, it must have 
been an arbitrary practice of the Jews, and 
could not have been binding on foreigners, of 
whom many resided at Jerusalem as officers or 
traders. Strangers would not be willing to 
forego an innocent kind of food in compliance 
with a conquered people ; and the trafficking 
spirit of the Jews would induce thera to supply 
aliens, if it did not expressly contradict the 
letter of their law. This is sufficient to ac- 
count for fowl of this kind being there, even 
admitting a customary restraint. The cele- 
brated Reland admits that it was not allowed 
to breed cocks in the city, but that the Jews 
were not prohibited from buying them to eat, 
and that therefore the cock mentioned in the 
Gospel might be in the house of a Jew who 
designed to kill it for his own table ; or may 



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have been kept in the precincts of Pilate, or 
of a Roman officer or soldier. 

During the time of our Saviour, the night 
was divided into four watches, a fourth watch 
having been introduced among the Jews from 
the Romans, who derived it from the Greeks. 
The second and third watches are mentioned 
in Luke xii, 38 ; the fourth, in Matthew xiv, 25 ; 
and the four are all distinctly mentioned in 
Mark xiii, 35 : " Watch, therefore ; for ye know 
not when the master of the house cometh ; at 
even," dipi, or the late watch, " or at midnigkt," 
juaovvKTiov, " or at the cock-crowing,'''' oXckto^o- 
fojviai, "or in the morni?ig," Tzpm, the early 
watch. Here, the first watch was at even, and 
continued from six till nine ; the second com- 
menced at nine, and ended at twelve, or mid- 
night ; the third watch, called by the Romans 
gallicinimn, lasted from twelve to three ; and 
the morning watch closed at six. 

COCKATRICE, y^s-J, or >i'3i-, Proverbs 
xxiii, 32 ; Isaiah xi, 8 ; xiv, 29 ; lix, 5 ; Jer. 
viii, 17. A venomous serpent. The original 
Hebrew word has been variously rendered, the 
aspic, the regulus, the hydra, the hemorhoos, the 
viper, and the cerastes. In Isaiah xi, 8, this 
serpent is evidently intended for a proportion, 
ate advance in malignity beyond the peten 
which precedes it; and in xiv, 29, it must 
mean a worse kind of serpent than the nahash. 
In lix, 5, it is referred to as oviparous. In Jer. 
viii, 17, Dr. Blayney, after Aquila, retains the 
rendering of basilisk. Bochart, who thinks it 
to be the regulus or basilisk, says that it may 
be so denominated by an onomatopoBia from 
its hissing ; and accordingly it is hence called 
in Latin sihilus, " the hisser." So the Arabic 
sapkaa signifies "flatu adurere," [to scorch 
with a blast.] The Chaldee paraphrast, the 
Syriac, and the Arabic, render it the hurw.an 
or horman; which rabbi Selomo on Gen. xlix, 
17, declares to be the tziphoni of the Hebrews : 
'■'■ Hurman vocatur species, cujus morsus est in- 
sanabilis. Is est HebrcBis tziphoni, et Chaldaice 
dicitur hurman, quia omnia facit Qin vastati- 
onem; id est, quia omnia vastat, et ad inter- 
necionem destruitJ' [The species is called 
hurman, whose bite is incurable. It is the 
tziphoni of the Hebrews, and is called in 
Chaldee hurman, because it makes all things 
Din — a waste ; that is, because it lays waste 
and utterly destroys every thing.] 

COCKLE, ntyN3. This word occurs only in 
Job xxxi, 40. By the Chaldee it is rendered 
noxious herbs; by Symmachus, areXca^dpvTa, 
plants of imperfect fruit; by the Septuagint, 
Sdroi, the blackberry bush; by Castelio, ebulus, 
" dwarf elder ;" by Celsius, aconite; and by 
Bishop Stock and Dr. Good, the night-shade. 
M. Michaelis maintains, after Celsius, that 
both this word and D''E'*^3, Isaiah v, 2, 4, de. 
note the aconite, a poisonous plant, growing 
ppontaneously and luxuriantly on sunny hills, 
such as are used for vineyards. He says that 
this interpretation is certain, because, as Cel- 
sius had observed, a>o, in Arabic, denotes the 
aconite ; and he intimates that it best suits Job 
xxxi, 40, Avhere it is mentioned as growing 
instead of barley. The word appears to im- 



port a weed not only noxious, but of a fetid 
smell. 

CCELO-SYRIA, holloui or depressed Syria , 
Syria in the vale, 1 Mace, xiii, 10. This name 
imports the hollow land, or region, situated 
between two long ridges of mountains : and 
those mountains have been always understood 
to be Libanus and Anti-libanus. As these 
ridges run parallel for many leagues, they con- 
tain between them a long, extensive, and ex- 
tremely fruitfiil valley. 

COLOSSE, a city of Phrygia Minor, which 
stood on the river Lyceus, at an equal distance 
between Laodicea and Hierapolis. These three 
cities, says Eusebius, v/ere destroyed by an 
earthquake, in the tenth of Nero, or about two 
years after the date of St. Paul's Epistle to the 
Colossians. Laodicea, Hierapolis, and Colosse 
were at no great distance from each other; 
which accounts for the Apostle Paul, when 
writing to his Christian brethren in the latter 
of these places, mentioning them all in con- 
nection \vith each other. Col. iv, 13. Of these 
cities, however, Laodicea was the greatest, for 
it was the metropolis of Phrygia, though Co- 
losse is said to have been a great and wealthy 
place. The inhabitants of Phrygia, says Dr. 
Macknight, were famous for the worship of 
Bacchus, and of Cybele the mother of the gods ; 
whence the latter was called Phrygia mater, by 
way of eminence. In her worship, as well as 
in that of Bacchus, both sexes practised every 
species of debauchery in speech and action, 
with a frantic rage which they pretended was 
occasioned by the inspiration of the deities 
whom they worshipped. These were the or- 
gies, from dpyfi, rage, of Bacchus and Cybele, 
so famed in antiquity, the lascivious rites of 
which being perfectly adapted to the corrup- 
tions of the human heart, were performed by 
both sexes without shame or remorse. Hence 
as the Son of God came into the world to de- 
stroy the works of the devil, it appeared, in 
the eye of his Apostle, a matter of great im- 
portance to carry the light of the Gospel into 
countries where these abominable impurities 
were not only practised, but even dignified 
with the honourable appellation of religious 
worship ; especially as nothing but the heaven- 
descended light of the Gospel could dispel such 
a pernicious infatuation. That this salutary 
purpose might be effectually accomplished, 
Paul, accompanied by Silas and Timothy, went 
at different times into Phrygia, and preached 
the Gospel in many cities of that country with 
great success ; but it is thought by many per- 
sons, that the Epistle to the Colossians con>- 
tains internal marks of his never having beevji 
at Colosse when he wrote it. This opinion 
rests principally upon the following passage i 
"For I would that ye knew v/hat great con- 
flict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea » 
and for as many as have not seen my face in the' 
flesh," Col. ii, 1 : but these words, if they prove 
any thing upon this question, prove that St, 
Paul had never been either at Laodicea or Co- 
losse ; but surely it is very improbable that he 
should have travelled twice into Phrygia for 
the purpose of preaching the Gospel, and not 



COM 



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have gone either to Laodicea or Coldsse, Which 
were the two principal cities of that country ; 
especially as in the second journey into those 
parts it is said, that he "went over all the 
country of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening 
all the disciples ;" and moreover, we know that 
it was the Apostle's practice to preach at the 
most considerable places of every district into 
which he went. Dr. Lardner, after arguing 
this point, says, " From all these considera- 
tions, it appears to me very probable that the 
church at Colosse had been planted by the 
Apostle Paul, and that the Christians there 
were his friends, disciples, and converts." 

The Epistle greatly resembles that to the 
Ephesians, both in sentiment and expression. 
After saluting the Colossian Christians in his 
own name, and that of Timothy, St. Paul as. 
sures them, that since he had heard of their 
faith in Christ Jesus, and of their love to all 
Christians, he had not ceased to return thanks 
to God for them, and to pray that they might 
increase in spiritual knowledge, and abound in 
every good work ; he describes the dignity of 
Christ, and declares the universality of the 
Gospel dispensation, which was a mystery 
formerly hidden, but now made manifest ; and 
he mentions his own appointment, through the 
grace of God, to be the Apostle of the Gen- 
tiles; he expresses a tender concern for the 
Colossians and other Christians of Phrygia, 
and cautions them against being seduced from 
the simplicity of the Gospel, by the subtlety of 
Pagan philosophers, or the superstition of Ju- 
daizing Christians ; he directs them to set their 
affections on things above, and forbids every 
species of licentiousness ; he exhorts to a va- 
riety of Christian virtues, to meekness, veracity, 
humility, charity, and devotion ; he enforces 
the duties of wives, husbands, children, fathers, 
servants, and masters ; he inculcates the duty 
of prayer, and of prudent behaviour toward 
unbelievers ; and after adding the salutations 
of several persons then at Rome, and desiring 
that this epistle might be read in the church 
of Iheir neighbours the Laodiceans, he con- 
cludes with a salutation from himself, written, 
as usual, with his own hand. 

COMFORTER, one of the titles by which 
the Holy Spirit is designated in the New Tes- 
tament, John xiv, 16, 26; xv, 26. The name 
has no doubt a reference to his peculiar office 



in the economy c ' 



jiion ; namely, that of 



imparting consolation to the hearts of Christ' 
disciples, which he effects by " taking of the 
things that are Christ's," and explaining tliem ; 
or, in other words, by illuminating their minds 
as to the meaning of the Scriptures, assuring 
them of the Saviour's love, bringing to their 
recollection his consolatory sayings, and filling 
their souls with peace and joy in believing 
them. — The word has also been rendered Ad- 
vacate, Helper, Monitor, Teacher, &lc. The first 
does not apply to the office of the Spirit ; and 
the others are not so well supported by the 
connection of c-ur Lord's discourse, which fa- 
vours the translation. Comforter; because what- 
ever gracious offices the Holy Spirit was to 
perform for the disciples, the great end of all 



was to remove that sorrow which the approach 
of the departure of Christ had produced, and 
to render their joy full and complete. 

COMMERCE. Merchandise, in its various 
branches, was carried on in the east at the 
earliest period of which we have any account; 
and it was not long before the traffic between 
nations, both by sea and land, was very con- 
siderable. Accordingly, frequent mention is 
made of public roads, fords, bridges, and beasts 
of burden ; also of ships for the transportation 
of property, of weights, measures, and coin, 
both in the oldest books of the Bible, and in 
the most ancient profane histories. The Phe- 
nicians anciently held the first rank as a com- 
mercial nation. They were in the habit of 
purchasing goods of various kinds throughout 
all the east. They then carried them in ships 
down the Mediterranean, as far as the shores 
of Africa and Europe, brought back in return 
merchandise and silver, and disposed of these 
again in the more eastern countries. The first 
metropolis of the Phenicians was Sidon ; after- 
ward Tyre became the principal city. Tyre 
was built two hundred and forty years before 
the temple of Solomon, or tv/elve hundred and 
fifty-one before Christ. The Phenicia.ns had 
ports of their own in almost every country ; 
the most distinguished of which were Carthage 
and Tarshish, or Tartessus, in Spain. The 
ships from the latter place undertook very dis- 
tant voyages : hence, any vessels that per- 
formed distant voyages were called " ships of 
Tarshish," tyttt'in nu^. Something is said of 
the commerce of the Phenicians in the twenty, 
seventh and twenty-eighth chapters of Ezekiel, 
and the twenty-third chapter of Isaiah. The 
inhabitants of Arabia Felix carried on a com- 
merce with India. They carried some of the 
articles v/hich they brought from India through 
the straits of Babelmandel into Abyssinia and 
Egypt ; some they transported to Babylon 
through, the Persian Gulf and the Euphrates ; 
and some by the way of the Red Sea to the 
port of Eziongeber. They thus became rich; 
though it is possible their wealth may have 
been too much magnified by the ancients. The 
eminence of the Egyptians, as a commercial 
nation, commences with the reign of Necho. 
Their commerce, nevertheless, was not great, 
till Alexander had destroyed Tyre and built 
Alexandria. 

2. The Phenicians sometimes received the 
goods of India by way of the Persian Gulf, 
where they had colonies in the islands of De- 
dan, Arad, and Tyre. Sometimes they re- 
ceived them from the Arabians, who either 
brought them by land through Arabia, or up 
the Red Sea to Eziongeber. In the latter case, 
having landed them at the port mentioned, 
they transported them through the country by 
the way of Gaza to Phenicia. The Phenicians 
increased the amoimt of their foreign goods by 
the addition of those which they themselves 
fabricated ; and were thus enabled to supply all 
parts of the Mediterranean. The Egyptians 
at first received their goods from the Pheni- 
cians, Arabians, Africans, and Abyssinians ; 
in all of which countries there are still the re- 



COM 



255 



COM 



mains of large trading towns ; but in a subse- 
quent age, they imported goods from India in 
their own vessels ; and eventually carried on 
an export trade with various ports on the 
Mediterranean. Oriental commerce, however, 
was chiefly carried on by land : accordingly, 
vessels are hardly mentioned in the Bible, ex- 
cept in Psalm cvii, 23-30, and in passages 
where the discourse tarns upon the Pheni- 
cians, or upon the naval affairs of Solomon 
and Jehoshaphat. The two principal routes 
from Palestine into Egypt were, the one along 
the shores of the Mediterranean from Gaza to 
Felusium, and the other from Gaza by the way 
of Mount Sinai and the Elanitic branch of the 
Red Sea. 

3. The merchants transported their goods 
upon camels ; animals which are patient of 
thirst, and are easily supported in the deserts. 
For the common purpose of security against 
depredations, the oriental merchants travelled 
in company, as is common in the east at the 
present day. A large travelling company of 
this kind is called a caravan or carvan, a smaller 
one was called kafile or kafle, Job vi, 18-20 ; 
Gen. xxxvii, 25 ; Isa. xxi, 13 ; Jer. ix, 2 ; 
Judges V, 6 ; Luke ii, 44. The furniture car- 
ried by the individuals of a caravan consisted 
of a mattress, a coverlet, a carpet for sitting 
upon, a round piece of leather, which answered 
the purpose of a table, a few pots and kettles 
of copper covered with tin ; also a tin-plated 
cup, which was suspended before the breast 
under the outer garment, and was used for 
drinking, 1 Sara, xxvi, 11, 12, 16 : leathern 
bags for holding water, tents, lights, and pro- 
visions in quality and abundance as each one 
could afford. Every caravan had a leader to 
conduct it through the desert, who was ac- 
quainted with the direction of its route, and 
with the cisterns and fountains. These he 
was able to ascertain, sometimes from heaps 
of stones, sometimes by the character of the 
soil, and, when other helps failed him, by the 
stars, Num. x, 29-32 ; Jer. xxxi, 21 ; Isa. xxi, 
14. When all things are in readiness, the 
individuals who compose the caravan assemble 
at a distance from the city. The commander 
of the caravan, who is a different person from 
the conductor or leader, and is chosen from 
the wealthiest of its members, appoints the day 
of their departure. A similar arrangement was 
adopted among the Jews, whenever they tra- 
velled in large numbers to the city of Jerusa- 
lem. The caravans start very early, sometimes 
before day. They endeavour to find a stop- 
ping place or station to remain at during the 
night, which shall afford them a supply of wa- 
ter, Job vi, 15-20. They arrive at their stop- 
ping place before the close of the day ; and, 
while it is yet light, prepare every thing that 
is necessary for the recommencement of their 
journey. In order to prevent any one from 
wandering away from the caravan, and getting 
lost during the night, lamps or torches are 
elevatesd upon poles and carried before it. The 
pillar of fire answered this pjrpose for the 
Israelites, when wandering in the wilderness, 
{sometimes the caravans lodge in cities ; but 



when they do not, they pitch their tents so as 
to form an encampment ; and during the night 
keep watch alternately for the sake of security. 
In the cities there are public inns, called Chan 
and Carvanserai, in which the caravans are 
lodged without expense. They are large square 
buildings, in the centre of which is an area, or 
open court. Carvan serais are denominated in 
the Greek of the New Testament, z;;av6oxc'tov, 
KaToXvais, and KaTaKviia, Luke ii, 7 ; x, 34. The 
first mention of one in the Old Testament is 
in Jer. xli, 17, onDD nnJl. It was situated near 
the city of Bethlehem. 

4. Moses enacted no laws in favour of com- 
merce, although there is no question that he 
saw the situation of Palestine to be very favour- 
able for it. The reason of this was, that the 
Hebrews, who were designedly set apart to pre- 
serve the true religion, could not mingle with 
foreign idolatrous nations without injury. He 
therefore merely inculcated good faith and 
honesty in buying and selling. Lev. xix, 36, 37 ; 
Deut. XXV, 13-16 ; and left all the other interests 
of commerce to a future age. By the establish- 
ment, however, of the three great festivals, he 
gave occasion for some mercantile intercourse. 
At these festivals all the adult males of the 
nation were yearly assembled at one place. 
The consequence was, that those who had any 
thing to sell brought it ; while those who wished 
to buy articles came with the expectation of 
having an opportunity. As Moses, though he 
did not encourage, did not interdict foreign 
commerce, Solomon, at a later period, not only 
carried on a traffic in horses, as already stated, 
but sent ships from the port of Eziongeber 
through the Red Sea to Ophir, probably the 
coast of Africa, 1 Kings ix, 26 ; 2 Chron.ix, 21, 
This traffic, although a source of emolument, 
appears to have been neglected after the death 
of Solomon. The attempt made by Jehosha- 
phat to restore it was frustrated, by his ships 
being dashed upon the rocks and destroyed, 
1 Kings xxii, 48, 49 ; 2 Chron. xx, 36. Joppa, 
though not a very convenient one, was pro- 
perly the port of Jerusaiom ; and some of the 
large vessels which went to Spain sailed from 
it, Jonah i, 3. In the age of Ezekiel, the com. 
merce of Jerusalem was so great, that it gave 
an occasion of envy even to the Tyrians them- 
selves, Ezek. xxvi, 2. After the captivity, a 
great number of Jews became merchants, and 
travelled for the purpose of traffic into all coun- 
tries. About the year 150 B. C. prince Simon 
rendered the port at Joppa more convenient 
than it had hitherto been. In the time of 
Pompey the Great, there were so many Jews 
abroad on the ocean, even in the character of 
pirates, that King Antigonus was accused be- 
fore him of having sent them out on purpose. 
A new port was built by Herod at Cesarea. 

COMMUNION, in a religious sense, refers 
chiefly to the admission of persons to the Lord's 
Supper. This is said to be open, when all are 
admitted who apply, as in the Church of Eng- 
land ; to be strict, when confined to the mem- 
hers of a single society, or, at least, to mem- 
bers of the same denomination ; and it is mixed, 
when persons are admitted from societies of 



CON 



256 



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different denominations, on the profession of 
their faith, and evidence of their piety. The 
principal difficulty on this point arises between 
the strict Baptists and Psedo-Baptists. 

CONCUBINE, tt'j^iis. This term, in west- 
em authors, commonly signifies, a woman, 
who, without being married to a man, yet lives 
with him as his wife ; but, in the sacred writers, 
the word concubine is understood in another 
sense ; meaning a lawful wife, but one not 
wedded with all the ceremonies and solemnities 
of matrimony; a wife of the second rank, in- 
ferior to the first wife, or mistress of the house. 
Children of concubines did not inherit their 
father's fortune ; but he might provide for, and 
make presents to them. Thus Abraham, by 
Sarah his wife, had Isaac, his heir ; but, by his 
two concubines, Hagar and Keturah, he had 
other children, whom he did not make equal 
to Isaac. As polygamy was tolerated in the 
east, it was common to see in every family, be- 
side lawful v/ives, several concubines. Since 
the abrogation of polygamy by Jesus Christ, 
and the restoration of marriage to its primitive 
institution, concubinage is ranked with adultery 
or fornication. 

CONEY, jfltt^, Levit. xi, 5; Deut. xiv, 7; 
Psalm civ, 8 ; and Prov. xxx, 26. Bochart and 
others have supposed the shaphan of the Scrip- 
tures to be the jerboa ; but Mr. Bruce proves 
that the ashkoko is intended. This curious 
animal is found in Ethiopia, and in great num- 
bers on Mount Lebanon, &c. Instead of holes, 
they seem to delight in more airy places, in 
the mouths of caves, or clefts in the rock. 
They are gregarious, and frequently several 
dozens of them sit upon the great stones at the 
mouths of caves, and warm themselves in the 
sun, or come out and enjoy the freshness of 
the summer evening. They do not stand up- 
right upon their feet, but seem to steal along 
as in fear, their belly being nearly close to the 
ground ; advancing a few steps at a time, and 
then pausing. They have something very 
mild, feeble-like, and timid, in their deport- 
ment ; are gentle and easily tamed, though, 
when roughly handled at the first, they bite 
very severely. Many are the reasons to be- 
lieve this to be the animal called sapJian in 
Hebrew, and erroneously by our translators, 
" the coney," or rabbit. The latter are gre- 
garious indeed, and so far resemble the other, 
as also in size ; but they seek not the same 
place of retreat ; for the rabbit burrows most 
generally in the sand. Nor is there any thing 
in the character of rabbits that denotes excel- 
lent wisdom, or that they supply the want of 
strength by any remarkable sagacity. The 
saphan, then, is not the rabbit ; which last, un- 
less it was brought to him by his ships from 
Europe, Solomon never saw. 

Let us now apply the characters of the ash- 
koko to the saphan. " He is above all other 
animals so much attached to the rocks, that I 
never once," says Mr. Bruce, " saw him on the 
ground, or from among large stones in the 
mouth of caves, where is his constant resi- 
dence. He lives in families or flocks. He is 
in Judea, Palestine, and Arabia, and conse- 1 



quently must have been familiar to Solomon. 
David describes him very pertinently, and joins 
him to other animals perfectly known : ' The 
hills are a refuge for the wild goats, and the rocks 
for the saphan .•' and Solomon says that 'they 
are exceeding wise,' that they are ' but a feeble 
folk, yet make their houses in the rocks,' Now 
this, I think, very obviously fixes the ashkoko 
to be the saphan; for his weakness seems to 
allude to his feet, and how inadequate these are 
to dig holes in the rock, where yet, however, 
he lodges. From their tenderness these are 
very liable to be excoriated-or hurt ; notwith- 
standing which, they build houses in the rocks 
more inaccessible than those of the rabbit, and 
in which they abide in greater safety, not by 
exertion of strength, for they have it not, but 
are truly, as Solomon says, ' a feeble folk,' but 
by their own sagacity and judgment ; and are 
therefore justly described as wise. Lastly, what 
leaves the thing without doubt is, that some of 
the Arabs, particularly Damir, say that the 
saphan has no tail, that it is less than a cat, 
that it lives in houses or nests, which it builds 
of straw, in contradistinction to the rabbit and 
the rat, and those animals that burrow in the 
ground." 

CONFESSION signifies a public acknow- 
ledgment of any thing as our own : thus Christ 
will confess the faithful in the day of judgment, 
Luke xii, 8. 2. To own and profess the truths 
of Christ, and to obey his commandments, in 
spite of opposition and danger from enemies, 
Matt. X, 32. 3. To utter or speak the praises 
of God, or to give him thanks. 4. To ac- 
knowledge our sins and offences to God, either 
by private or public confession ; or to our 
neighbour whom we have wronged ; or to some 
pious persons from whom we expect to receive 
comfort and spiritual instruction ; or to the 
Vv^hole congregation when our fault is pub- 
lished, Psalm xxxii, 5 ; Matt, iii, 6 ; James v, 
16; 1 John i, 9. 5. To acknowledge a crime 
before a judge, Josh, vii, 19. 

2. In the Jewish ceremony of annual expia- 
tion, the high priest confessed in general his 
own sins, the sins of other ministers of the 
temple, and those of all the people. When an 
Israelite offered a sacrifice for sin, he put his 
hand on the head of the victim, and confessed 
his faults. Lev. iv. On the day of atonement, 
the Jews still make a private confession of their 
sins, which is called by them cippur, and which 
is said to be done in the following manner : 
Two Jews retire into a corner of the syna- 
gogue. One of them bows very low before the 
other, with his face turned toward the north. 
He who performs the office of confessor gives 
the penitent nine-and-thirty blows on the back 
with a leathern strap, repeating these words, 
" God, being full of compassion, forgave their 
iniquity, and destroyed them not ; yea, many 
a time turned he his anger away, and did not 
stir up all his wrath." As there are only 
thirteen words in this verse recited in the He- 
brew, he repeats it three times, and at every 
word strikes one blow ; which makes nine-and- 
thirty words, and as many lashes. In the mean- 
time, the penitent declares his sins, and at the 



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confession of every one beats himself on his 
breast. This being finished, he who has per- 
formed the office of confessor prostrates him- 
self on the ground, and receives in turn from 
his penitent nine-and-thirty lashes. 

3. The Romish church not only requires 
confession as a duty, but has advanced it to 
the dignity of a sacrament. These confessions 
are made in private to the priest, who is not to 
reveal them under pain of the highest punish. 
ment. The council of Trent requires "secret 
confession to the priest alone, of all and every 
mortal sin, which, upon the most diligent 
search and examination of our consciences, we 
can remember ourselves to be guilty of since 
our baptism ; together with all the circum- 
stances of those sins, which may change the 
nature of them ; because, without the perfect 
knowledge of these, the priest cannot make a 
judgment of the nature and quality of men's 
sins, nor impose fitting penance for them." 
This is the confession of sins which the same 
council confidently affirms " to have been insti- 
tuted by our Lord, and by the law of God, to 
be necessary to salvation, and to have been 
always practised in the catholic church." It 
is, however, evident, that such confession is 
unscriptural. St. James, indeed, says, " Con- 
fess your faults one to another," James v, 16 ; 
but priests are not here mentioned, and the 
word faults seems to confine the precept to a 
mutual confession among Christians, of those 
offences by which they may have injured each 
other. Certain it is, that from this passage the 
necessity of auricular confession, and the 
power of priestly absolution, cannot be infer- 
red. Though many of the early ecclesiastical 
writers earnestly recommend confession to the 
clergy, yet they never recommend it as essen- 
tial to the pardon of sin, or as having connec- 
tion with a sacrament. They only urge it as 
entitling a person to the prayers of the congre- 
gation; and as usefiil for supporting the au- 
thority of wholesome discipline, and for main- 
taining the purity of the Christian church. 
Chrysostom condemns all secret confession 
to men, as being obviously liable to great 
abuses ; and Basil, Hilary, and Augustine, all 
advise confession of sins to God only. It has 
been proved by M. Daille, that private, auri- 
cular, sacramental confession of sins was un- 
known in the primitive church. But, though 
private auricular confession is not of divine 
authority, yet, as Archbishop Tillotson pro- 
perly observes, there are many cases in which 
men, under the guilt and trouble of their sins, 
can neither appease their own minds, nor suf- 
ficiently direct themselves, without recourse to 
some pious and prudent guide. In these cases, 
men certainly do very well, and many times 
prevent a great deal of trouble and perplexity 
to themselves, by a timely discovery of their 
condition to some faithful minister, in order to 
their direction and satisfaction. To this pur- 
pose a general confession is for the most part 
sufficient ; and Vhere there is occasion for 
a more particular discovery, there is no need 
of raking into the minute and foul circum- 
stances of men's sins to give that advice which 
18 



is necessary for the cure and ease of the peni- 
tent. Auricular confession is unquestionably 
one of the greatest corruptions of the Romish 
church. It goes upon the ground that the 
priest has power to forgive sins ; it establishes 
the tyrannical influence of the priesthood ; it 
turns the penitent from God who only can for- 
give sins, to man who is himself a sinner ; and 
it tends to corrupt both the confessors and the 
confessed by a foul and particular disclosure of 
sinful thoughts and actions of every kind with- 
out exception. 

Confessions of Faith, simply considered, is 
the same with creed, and signifies a summary 
of the principal articles of belief adopted by 
any iridividual or society. In its more com- 
mon acceptation, it is restricted to the summa- 
ries of doctrine published by particular Chris- 
tian churches, with the view of preventing 
their religious sentiments from being misun- 
derstood or misrepresented, or, by requiring 
subscription to them, of securing uniformity 
of opinion among those who join their com- 
munion. Except a single sentence in one of 
the Ignatian Epistles, (A. D. 180,) which re- 
lates exclusively to the reality of Christ's per- 
sonality and suffi3rings in opposition to the 
Docetce., the earliest document of this kind is 
to be found in the writings of Irenoeus, who 
flourished toward the end of the second cen- 
tury of the Christian aera. In his treatise 
against heresies, this father affirms that "the 
faith of the church planted throughout the 
whole v/orld," consisted in the belief of " one 
God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven 
and earth and sea, and all that arc in them ; 
and one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who 
became incarnate for our salvation ; and one 
Holy Spirit, who foretold, through the Pro- 
phets, the dispensations and advents, and tlie 
generation by the virgin, and the passion, and 
the resurrection from the dead, and the ascen- 
sion in the flesh into heaven, of Jesus Christ 
our beloved Lord, and his appearing from hea- 
ven in the glory of the Father, to unite toge- 
ther all things under one head, and to raise 
every individual of the human race ; that unto 
Christ Jesus, our Lord and God, and Saviour 
and King, every knee may bow, and every 
tongue confess ; that he may pronounce just 
sentence upon all." In various parts of Ter- 
tullian's writings similar statements occur, 
(A. D. 200,) which it is urmecessary particu- 
larly to quote. We shall only remark, that in 
one of them, the miraculous conception of 
Christ by the power of the Holy Ghost is dis- 
tinctly mentioned ; that in another, he declares 
it to have been the uniform doctrine from the 
beginning of the Gospel, that Christ was born 
of the virgin, both man and God, ex eft nalum 
hominem et Deum; and that in each of these, 
faith in the Father, Son, and Spirit, is recog- 
nised as essential to Christianity. The follow- 
ing passage we cite, for the purpose of marking 
its coincidence with the Apostles' Creed, to 
which we shall have occasion soon to advert : 
" This," says he, " is the sole, immovable, irre- 
formable rule of faith ; namely, to believe i'l 
the only God Almighty, maker of the world ; 



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and his Son Jesus Christ, born of the virgin 
Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, the 
third day raised from the dead, received into 
heaven, now sitting at the right hand of the 
Father, about to come and judge the quick and 
the dead, by the resurrection also of the flesh." 
The summaries contained in the works of Ori. 
gen (A. D. 520) nearly resemble the preceding; 
any difference between them being easily ac- 
counted for, from the tenets of the particular 
heresies against which they were directed. In 
his " Commentary on St. John's Gospel," he 
thus writes: "We believe that there is one 
God, who created all things, and framed and 
made all things to exist out of nothing. We 
must also believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
in all the truth concerning his Deity and hu- 
manity; and we must likewise believe in the 
Holy Spirit ; and that, being free agents, we 
shall be punished for the things in which we 
sin, and rewarded for those in which we do 
well." According to Cyprian, the formula, to 
which assent was required from adults at their 
baptism, was in these terms: "Dost thou be- 
lieve in God the Father, Christ the Son, the 
Holy Spirit, the remission of sins, and eternal 
life, through the holy church?" This was 
called by him symholi lex, " the law of the 
creed ;" and by Novatian, regula mritatis, 
"the rule of truth." 

2. From these and similar sources, the dif- 
ferent clauses of what is commonly called the 
A-postles' Creed appear to have sprung. For, 
though it was long believed to be the compo- 
dtion of the Apostles, its claims to such an 
inspired origin are now universally rejected. 
3f its great antiquity, however, there can be 
ao doubt ; the whole of it, as it stands in the 
English liturgy, having been generally received 
is an authoritative confession in the fourth cen- 
;ury. Toward the end of that century, Rufinus 
vrote a commentary on it, which is still extant, 
n which he acknowledges that the clause re- 
ipecting Christ's descent into hell was not ad- 
nitted into the creeds either of the western or 
he eastern churches. We learn also that the 
spithet catholic was not at that time applied in 
t to the church. Its great simplicity and con- 
dseness, beside, prove it to have been con- 
iderably earlier than the council of Nice, 
vhen the heretical speculations of various sects 
ed the defenders of the orthodox faith to fence 
he interests of religion with more complicated 
,nd cumbrous barriers. 

This confession of faith was then preemi- 
lently named symholum; which might be un- 
lerstood in the general acceptation of sign, as 
he characteristic, representative sign of the 
christian faith ; or, in a more restricted sense, 
n reference to the aviJiSo\ov ^poTtojTiKov, or tes- 
era militaris, the watch word of the Christian 
oldier, communicated to each man at his first 
ntrance into the service of Christ. Perhaps 
his word, at first, only denoted the formula 
•f baptism, and was afterward transferred to 
he confession of faith. 

3. In the celebrated council of Nice, (A. D. 
125,) in which Arianism was not only con- 
[emned, but proscribed, the confession esta- 



blished as the universal standard of truth and 
orthodoxy runs thus : "I believe in one God, 
the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and 
earth, and of all things visible and invisible ; 
and in one Lord Jesus, the only begotten Son 
of God, begotten of the Father, before all 
worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God 
of very God, begotten not made, being of one 
substance with the Father ; by whom all things 
were made ; who for us men, and for our sal- 
vation, descended from heaven, and became 
incarnate by the Holy Gliost, of the virgin 
Mary ; and was made man, was crucified for 
us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was 
buried ; and the third day he rose again ac- 
cording to the Scriptures, and ascended into 
heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the 
Father ; and he shall come again with glory to 
judge both the quick and the dead, of whose 
kingdom there will be no end. And I believe 
in the Holy Ghost who spake by the Prophets; 
and one catholic, and Apostolical church. I 
acknowledge one baptism for the remission of 
sins, and I look for the resurrection of the 
dead, and the life of the world to come." 

It were endless to specify the particular 
shades of difference by which the Arian con- 
fessions (the number of which amounted nearly 
to twenty in the space of a very few years) 
were distinguished from each other : suffice it 
to say, that while they agreed generally in sub- 
stance, especially in rejecting the Nicene term, 
bjxoovcios, as applied to the Son, their variations 
of expression concerning the nature of his sub- 
ordination to the Father were so astonishingly 
minute, as almost to bid defiance to any at- 
tempt which might be made, at this distance 
of time, to determine in what their real and 
essential differences consisted. 

4. " The Book of Armagh," a very ancient 
collection of interesting national documents, 
which have recently been published by Sir 
William Betham in the second part of his cu- 
rious " Irish Antiquarian Researches," contains 
the Confession of St. Patrick ; who has been 
supposedjfrom several collateral circumstances, 
to have flourished some years prior to the time 
of St. Jerom, or about the commencement of 
the fourth century. The svibjoined are the first 
two paragraphs in it, and will be admired for the 
orthodoxy, artlessness, and Christian experi- 
ence which they exhibit : — " I, Patrick, a sin- 
ner, the rudest, the least, and the most insig- 
nificant of the faithful, had Calphurnius, a dea- 
con, for my father, who was the son of Potitus, 
heretofore a priest, the son of Odissus, who 
lived in the village of Banavem Taberniee. 
For he had a little farm adjacent, where I was 
captured. I was then almost sixteen years of 
age ; but I knew not God, and was led into 
captivity by the Irish, with many thousand 
men, as we deserved, because we estranged 
ourselves from God, and did not keep his laws, 
and were disobedient to our pastors, who ad- 
monished us with respect to our salvation : and 
the Lord brought down upon us the anger of 
his Spirit, and dispersed us among many na- 
tions, even to the extremity of the earth, where 
my meanness was conspicuous among fo. 



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reigners, and where the Lord discovered to me 
a sense of my unbelief ; that late I should re- 
member my transgressions, and that I should 
be converted with my whole heart to the Lord 
my God, who had respect to my humiliation, 
and pitied my youth and ignorance, even be- 
fore I knew him, and before I was wise, or 
could distinguish between right and wrong, 
and strengthened me, and cherished me, as a 
father would a son. From which time I could 
not remain silent ; nor, indeed, did he cease to 
bless me with many acts of kindness ; and so 
great was the favour of which he thought me 
worthy in the land of my captivity. For this 
is my retribution, that, after my rebuking, 
punishment, and acknowledgment of God, I 
should exalt him, and confess his wonderful 
acts before every nation which is under the 
whole heaven; because there is no other God, 
nor ever was before, nor will be after him, 
except God, the unbegotten Father, without be- 
ginning, possessing all things, as we have said, 
and his Son Jesus Christ, who, we bear wit- 
ness, was always with the Father, before the 
formation of the world, in spirit (or spiritually) 
with the Father, inexpressibly begotten before 
all beginning, through whom visible things 
were made : he became man, having overcome 
death, and was received into heaven. And 
God has given to him all power ' above every 
name, as well of the inhabitants of heaven as 
of the earth and of the powers below, that every 
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord 
and God ;' whom we believe, and whose coming 
we expect, as presently about to be Judge of 
the living and dead, who will render unto 
every man according to his actions, and has 
poured upon us abundantly the gift of his Holy 
Spirit, and the pledge of immortality; who 
makes us that believe and are obedient to be 
the sons of God and joint heirs of Christ ; 
whom we believe and adore, one God in the 
Trinity of the sacred name. For he spoke by 
the Prophet, ' Call upon me in the day of tribu- 
lation, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt 
glorify me.' And again he says, 'It is an ho- 
nourable thing to reveal and confess the works 
of God.' " 

5. Macedonius having denied not only the 
divinity but the personality of the Holy Spirit, 
maintaining that he is only a divine energy 
diffused throughout the universe, a general 
council was called at Constantinople, A. D. 381, 
in order to crush this rising heresy. The con- 
fession promulgated on this occasion, and which 
" gave the finishing touch to what the council 
of Nice had left imperfect, and fixed, in a full 
and determinate manner, the doctrine of the 
Trinity^ as it is still received among the gene- 
rality of Christians," exactly coincides with 
the Nicene confession, except in the article 
respecting the Spirit, which it thus extends: 
"And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, 
and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the 
Father and the Son, who, together with the 
Father and the Son, is worshipped and glo- 
rified." 

6. Subsequent to this, and probably tow^ard 
the middle of the fifth century, the creed which 



bears the name of Athanasius appears to Ixave 
been composed. That it was not the work of 
this distinguished opposer of Arianism is esta. 
blished by the most satisfactory evidence. No 
traces of it are to be found in any of his writ- 
ings, though they relate chiefly to the very 
subject of which it is an exposition ; and so far 
from its being ascribed to him, not the least 
notice is taken of it by any of his contempo- 
raries. Its language, beside, concerning the 
Spirit is so similar to that of the council of 
Constantinople, but still more precise and ex- 
plicit, that there can be no doubt of its having 
been written posterior to the time of that as- 
sembly. Yet Athanasius died in the year 373. 
Accordingly, it has been, with great proba- 
bility of truth, attributed, particularly by Dr. 
Waterland, to Hilary, bishop of Aries, who is 
said by one of his biographers to have com- 
posed an Exposition of the Creed : a title which 
certainly is more appropriate and character- 
istic of it than that of Creed simply, by which 
it is now so universally known. The damna- 
tory clauses in this creed have frequently 
been made subjects of reprehension ; and soma 
clergymen of the church of England have 
scrupled to read them as directed by the Ru- 
brie. The following is an apology for those 
clauses, by the late venerable Archdeacon 
Dodwell, who seems to have felt none of those 
misgivings which troubled his doubting bre- 
thren : — " The form, as well as the substance, of 
this creed, and the very introduction to the 
main article, has been objected to : ' Whoso- 
ever will be saved, before all things it is ne- 
cessary that he hold the catholic faith ;' to 
which is added, * Which faith, except every 
one do keep whole and undefiled, without 
doubt he shall perish everlastingly.' This, 
with a like condemnatory sentence in the con- 
clusion of the creed, wherein a possibility of 
salvation is denied to him who does not cor- 
dially embrace this doctrine, is pronounced 
unreasonable, uncharitable, unchristian, with 
every other aggravating appellation that can 
be used. But the ground of this charge, and 
the whole of the difficulty suggested in it, from 
the variety of the circumstances of different 
persons, depends upon the interpretation of the 
phrase of 'being saved.' The meaning of this 
term in its primary signification, and as it is 
applied to conunon subjects in common dis- 
course, means a preservation from threatening 
perils, or from threatened punishment. But, 
in an evangelical sense, and as it occurs in the 
Tew Testament, it includes much more : it 
means the whole Christian scheme of redemp- 
tion and justification by the Son of God, with 
all the glorious privileges and promises con- 
tained in that scheme. It means not merely a 
hope of deliverance from danger or from ven- 
geance, but a federal title to positive happi- 
ness, purchased by the merits, and declared to 
mankind by the Gospel of Christ Jesus our 
Lord. St. Paul calls it ' the obtaining the sal- 
vation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal 
glory,'' 2 Tim. ii, 10. ' Whosoever,' then, says 
the creed, 'will' thus 'be saved,' will be desir- 
ous to secure the glorious promises of the 



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Sospel, must pursue it upon the terms which 
that Gospel proposes, and particularly must 
embrace the doctrines which it reveals. The 
creed speaks of those only to whom the evi- 
ience of the Gospel has been fully set forth, 
md the importance of it fully explained. We 
ire to justify it only to professed believers, and 
of them only. The state and lot of the Hea- 
then world are quite out of the question. Nei- 
ther common sense nor Scripture will permit 
lis to interpret it of those who still ' sit in dark- 
ness and the shadow of death,^ and never had 
the means of grace and the hope of glory pro- 
posed to them. Even with respect to those to 
whom the Gospel is preached, there is no ne- 
cessity of interpreting the words here used in 
the harshest and strictest sense. There are 
many distinctions and limitations, which are 
always understood and supposed in such cases, 
though they are not expressly mentioned. 
General rules are laid down as such, are true 
as such ; while excepted cases are referred to 
the judgment of those v/ho are qualified to 
judge of them, and are not particularly pointed 
out ; as for other reasons, so lest they should 
be extended too far, and defeat the general 
rule. Sufficient capacity in the persons to 
whom it is applied, and sufficient means of in- 
formation and conviction, are always presup- 
posed, where faith is spoken of as necessary. 
Where either of these is wanting, the case is 
(where it should be) in the hands of God. The 
creed is laid down as a rule of judgment to 
men, not to their Maker. We may learn from 
thence on what terms alone we can claim a 
title to the promises of the Gospel ; but we do 
not learn from thence how far uncovenanted 
favour may be extended to particular persons. 
It is not intended to exclude the mercy of God 
to Heathens or heretics ; it being his preroga- 
tive, and his alone, to judge how far the error 
or ignorance of any one is his wilful fault, or 
his unavoidable infirmity. But it is intended 
to establish the terms on v>rhich we may now 
claim acceptance, and, in consequence of his 
gracious promise, may say, that ' God is faith- 
ful and just to forgive us our sinsJ* The creed 
relates only to the covenant of salvation ; and 
any expression w^hich, used separately without 
this view and connection, might be thought to 
bear a stronger and more absolute sense, yet is 
limited by this relative coherence, and is to be 
interpreted by it. ' Perishing everlastingly,' 
in other discourses, may sometimes be under- 
stood of everlasting damnation ; but here it 
means the being for ever excluded from the 
only stated claim of promised mercy. And 
* without doubt,' he who does not embrace the 
truths proposed by revelation, has no title to 
those hopes which that revelation, and that 
only, offers to mankind. And even when 
such expressions of terror are used in the 
strongest sense, and threatened to unbelief or 
disobedience, they universally imply such ex- 
ceptions as these, — 'Unless personal disabili- 
ties lessen the guilt, or repentance intervene to 
prevent the punishment.' In short, no objec- 
tion can be made against this assertion in the 
creed, but what would hold as strongly against 



that declaration of our blessed Lord, ' He that 
believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but 
he that believeth not shall be damned,' Mark 
xvi, 15. Indeed, this condemnatory sentence 
in this form by human authority is plainly 
founded on and borrowed from that divine au- 
thority in the Gospel ; and whatever distinc- 
tions and limitations are allowed in that case 
are equally applicable to this, and will fully 
justify both. The necessity of a true belief in 
all whom Providence has blessed with the 
means and opportunities of learning it, in order 
to entitle them federally to eternal salvation, 
being thus established upon Scripture proof, 
the creed goes on very regularly to declare 
what is that true belief so indispensably neces- 
sary." This is, perhaps, all that can be said 
in favour of these comminations ; but few will 
think it quite satisfactory. The effect of them 
has doubtless been, to induce many to fly to 
the opposite extreme of laxity on the subject 
of fundamental doctrines. 

Before leaving the ancient formulas of 
Christian doctrine, it may be stated, that both 
in the council of Ephesus against the Nesto- 
rians, held A. D. 431 ; and in that of Chalce- 
don, against the Eutychians, in 451 ; it was 
solemnly declared and decreed, that " Christ 
was one divine person, in whom two natures, 
the human and the divine, were most closely 
united, but without being mixed or confounded 
together." 

7. Amid the variance and opposition of coun- 
cil to council, and pope to pope, (A. D. 1553,) 
which prevailed for centuries in the Romish 
church, it would be no easy task to ascertain 
the real articles of its confession. The decrees 
of the council of Trent, however, together 
with the creed of Pope Pius IV, are now com- 
monly understood to be the authoritative stand- 
ards of its faith and worship. These, beside 
recognising the authority of the Apostles' and 
the Nicene Creeds, embrace a multitude of 
dogmas which it is unnecessary particularly to 
specify, relating to traditions, the sacraments 
of baptism, confirmation, eucharist, penance, 
extreme unction, order, and matrimony, tran- 
substantiation, the sacrifice of the mass, 
worshipping of images, purgatory, indul- 
gences, &c, &c. 

8. The Greek church has no public or esta- 
blished confession ; but its creed, so far as can 
be gathered from its authorized catechisms, 
admits the doctrines of the Nicene and Athan- 
asian Creeds, with the exception of the article 
in each concerning tiie ]n-ocession of the 
Holy Spirit, which it affirms to be "from the 
Father only, and not from the Fatlier and the 
Son." It disowns the supremacy and infalli- 
bility of the pope, purgatory by fire, graven 
images, and the restriction of the sacrament 
to one kind; but acknowledges the seven sa- 
craments of the catholics, the religious use of 
pictures, invocation of saints, transubstantia- 
tion, and masses and prayers for the dead. 

9. Though the Romish church early appro- 
priated to itself the exclusive title of catholic, 
or universal ; and though, for many centuries, 
its unscriptural tenets pervaded the far greater 



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part of Europe ; not only were ther^ always 
some individuals who adhered to the doctrines 
of genuine Christianity, but, long before the 
Protestant reformation, there appear to have 
been whole congregations who maintained, 
in considerable purity, the substance of the 
faith contained in Scripture. Such were the 
churches of the Waldonses in the valleys of 
Piedmont, whose confession, of so early a date 
as the beginning of the twelfth century, is still 
preserved. It consists of fourteen articles, of 
which the following is a copy, taken from the 
Cambridge MSS, and bearing date A. D. 
1120:— "(1.) We believe and firmly hold all 
that which is contained in the twelve articles 
of the symbol, which is called the Apostles' 
Creed, accounting for heresy whatsoever is 
disagreeing, and not consonant to the said 
twelve articles. (2.) We do believe that there 
is one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 
(3.) We acknowledge for the holy canonical 
Scriptures the books of the Holy Bible. [Here 
follows a list of the books of the Old and New 
Testament, exactly the same as those we have 
in our English authorized version. Then fol- 
lows a list of " the books apocryphal, which," 
vv'ith admirable simplicity they say, "are not 
received of the Hebrews. But we read them, 
as saith St. Jerom in his Prologue to the Pro- 
verbs, 'for the instruction of the people, not to 
confirm the authority of the doctrine of the 
church.'"] (4.) The books above-said teach 
this, that there is one God, almighty, all-wise, 
and all-good, who has made all things by his 
goodness ; for he formed Adam in his own 
image and likeness, but that by the envy of 
the devil, and the disobedience of the said 
Adarri, sin has entered into the world, and that 
we are sinners in Adarn and by Adam. (5.) 
That Christ was promised to our fathers who 
received the law, that so knowing by the law 
their sin, unrighteousness, and insufficiency, 
they might desire the coming of Christ, to 
satisfy for their sins, and accomplish the law 
by himself. (6.) That Christ was born in the 
time appointed by God the Father ; that is to 
say, in the time when all iniquity abounded, 
and not for the cause of good works, for all 
were sinners ; but that he might show us grace 
and mercy, as being faithful. (7.) That Christ 
is our life, truth, peace, and righteousness; 
also our pastor, advocate, sacrifice, and priest ; 
who died for the salvation of all those that 
believe, and is risen for our justification. (8.) In 
like manner, we firmly hold that there is no 
other Mediator and Advocate with God the 
Father, save only Jesus Christ. And as for 
the virgin Mary, that she was holy, humble, 
and full of grace. And in like manner do we 
believe concerning all the other saints ; namely, 
that, being in heaven, they wait for the resur- 
rection of their bodies at the day of judgment. 
(9.) Item, We believe that, afle/this life, there 
are only two places, the one for the saved, and 
the other for the damned ; the which two 
places we call paradise and hell, absolutely 
denying that purgatory invented by antichrist, 
^nd forged contrary to the truth. (10.) Item, 
We have always accounted as an unspeakable 



abomination before God all those inventions 
of men ; namely, the feasts and the vigils of 
saints, the water which they call holy : as like- 
wise to abstain from flesh upon certain days, 
and the like ; but especially their masses. 
(11.) We esteem for an abomination, and as 
antichristian, all those human inventions 
which are a trouble or prejudice to the liberty 
of the spirit. (12.) We do believe that the sa- 
craments are signs of the holy thing, or visible 
forms of the invisible grace ; accounting it 
good that the faithful sometimes use the said 
signs or visible forms, if it maybe done. How- 
ever, we believe and hold, that the above-said 
faithful may be saved without receiving the 
signs aforesaid, in case they have no place nor 
any means to use them. (13.) We acknow- 
ledge no other sacrament than baptism and 
the Lord's Supper. (14.) We ought to honour 
the secular powers by submission, ready obe- 
dience, and paying of tributes." These 
churches had, in modern times, another con- 
fession imposed upon them, after they began 
to receive pastors from Geneva, which is 
strongly tinged with Calvinism. It bears 
date A. D. 1655. 

10. The first Protestant confession was that 
presented in 1530, to the diet of Augsburg, by 
the suggestion and under the direction of John, 
elector of Saxony. This wise and prudent 
prince, with the view of having the principal 
grounds ©n which the Protestants had separat- 
ed from the Romish communion, distinctly 
submitted to that assembly, entrusted the duty 
of preparing a summary of them to the divines 
of V/ittemberg. Nor was that task a difficult 
one ; for the reformed doctrines had already 
been digested into seventeen articles, which 
had been proposed at the conferences both at 
Sultzbach and Smalcald, as the confession of 
faith to be adopted by the Protestant confede- 
rates. These, accordingly, were delivered to 
the elector by Luther, and served as the basis 
of the celebrated Augsburg confession, writ. 
ten "by the elegant and accurate pen of Me- 
lancthon :" a work which has been admired by 
many even of its enemies, for its perspicuity, 
piety, and erudition. It contains twenty -eight 
chapters, the leading topics of which are, the 
true and essential divinity of Christ ; his sub- 
stitution and vicarious sacrifice ; original sin ; 
human inability ; the necessity, freedom, and 
efficacy of divine grace ; consubstantiation ; 
and particularly justification by faith, to esta- 
blish the truth and importance of which was 
one of its chief objects. The last seven articles 
condemn and confute the Popish tenets of com- 
munion in one kind, clerical celibacy, private 
masses, auricular confession, legendary tradi- 
tions, monastic vows, and the exorbitant power 
of the church. This confession is silent on the 
doctrine of predestination. This is the univer- 
sal standard of orthodox doctrine among those 
who profess to be Lutherans, in which no au- 
thoritative alteration has ever been made. 

11. The confession of Basle, originally pre- 
sented, like the preceding, to the diet of Augs- 
burg, but not published till 1534, consists of 
only twelve articles, which, in every essential 



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joint, agree with those of the Augsburg con- 
ession, except that it rejects the doctrine of 
:onsubstantiation ; affirming that Christ is only 
piritually present in the Lord's Supper, sacra- 
nentaliter nimirum, et per memorationem fidei ; 
that is to say sacramentally, and by faith;] 
nd that it asserts the doctrine of predestina- 
ion and infant baptism. But the more detailed 
;reed of the whole Swiss Protestant churches 
3 contained in the former and latter Helvetic 
onfessions. The first was drawn up in 1536, 
•y Builinger, Myconius, and Grynseus, in be- 
lalf of the churches of Helvetia, and presented 

an assembly of divines at Wittemberg, by 
i^hom it was cordially approved. But being 
eemed too concise, a second was prepared in 
556, by the pastors of Zurich ; which was sub- 
cribed not Dnly by all the Swiss Protestants, 
utby the churches of Geneva and Savoy, and 
y many of those in Hungary and Poland. 
liey fully harmonize with each other, with 
nly this difference, that the doctrine of pre- 
estination, and an approbation of the observ- 
nce of such religious festivals, as the nativity, 
£c, are to be found in the latter confession only. 

12. The Bohemic confession was compiled 
rom various ancient confessions of the Wal- 
enses who had settled in Bohemia, and ap. 
roved of by Luther and Melancthon in 1532 ; 
ut it was not published till 1535 ; when it was 
resented by the barons and other nobles to 
[ing Ferdinand. It extends to twenty articles, 
imilar to those of the Waldensian confession, 
nth the addition of others on the divinity of 
'hrist, justification by faith in him, " without 
ny human help or merit," predestination, and 
be absolute necessity of sanctification and 
ood works, 

13. The confession of the Saxon churches 
/as composed in 1551 by Melancthon, at the 
esire of the pastors of Saxony and Misnia met 

1 assembly at Wittemberg, in order to be pre- 
ented to the council of Trent. K is contain- 
d in twenty-two articles ; and while, like that 
f Augsburg, it is silent on the subject of pre- 
estination, it lays equal stress on the doctrine 
f justification by faith ; and has a separate 
rticle entitled " Rewards," in which the doc- 
rine of human merit, particularly as connected 
7ith future blessedness, is condemned and 
efuted. 

14. Some account of the framing of the Eng- 
ish Confession of Faith has been already given 
mder the article Church of England and Ire- 
and. The " Articles of Religion" are there 
aid to have been amended and completed in 
he year 1571 ; and the Rev. Henry J. Todd, 
n his very able work on this subject, has shown 
heir Melancthonian origin and character by 
ixtracts from the '•'' Articles of Religion,'" "set 
)ut by the Convocation, and published by the 
ting's authority," in 1536; — from those of 
[540 ; — from Cranmer's *' Necessary Erudition 
>f any Christian Man,'" published in 1543 ; — 
Tom the Homilies on Salvation, Faith, and 
'jfood Works, in 1547, which three were, accord- 
ng to Bishop Woolton's unimpeached testi- 
nony (in 1576) composed by Archbishop Cran- 
■ner; — from the ''Reformatio Legum EccUsi- 



asticarum,^' " composed under the superintend- 
ence of the same watchful primate, in 1551 ;" 
— from the '^Articles of Religion," "formed 
in 1552, almost wholly by Cranmer ;"— from 
" Catechismus Brevis, Christiana Discipline 
Summam continens," in 1553, which was pub- 
lished in English, as well as Latin, and com- 
monly called " Edward the Sixth's Catechism ;" 
and from Bishop Jewel's celebrated " Apologia 
Ecclesioi Anglicance," "published in 1562 by 
the queen's authority, thus recognised as a na- 
tional Confession of Faith, and as such has 
been printed in the Corpus Confessionum Fidei.''* 
" Such," says Mr. Todd, " are the several pub- 
lie documents or declarations, produced or 
made before the establishment of the Thirty- 
nine Articles of Religion, from which I have 
given extracts, to which the framers of these 
Articles directed their attention? with the spirit 
of which they concur, and the words of which 
they almost literally adopt. There will also 
be found, as chronologically preceding these, 
considerable extracts from the Confession of 
Augsburg, the whole article from the Saxon 
Confession, De Remissione Peccatorum, et Jus- 
tificatione, [respecting the forgiveness of sins, 
and justification,] and such passages in our 
Liturgy as concern the points which the Arti- 
cles and Homilies exhibit." No one who has 
perused these documents will require any addi- 
tional argument to convince him, that, in its 
very foundations, the English Confession of 
Faith was most explicitly in favour of general 
redemption. We cannot therefore be surprised 
at all the old orthodox divines of the church of 
England, from 1610 to 1660, refusing to be 
called Arminians ; for they repeatedly declared 
that their own church openly professed similar 
doctrines to those promulgated by the Dutch 
professor, long before his name was known in 
the world. In this assertion they were perfectly 
correct ; and by every important fact in our 
ecclesiastical history, as connected with doc- 
trinal matters, their views are confirmed. If 
the Articles were actually of a Calvinistic com- 
plexion, as they are now often represented to 
be, what could have induced Whitaker and 
other learned Calvinists to waste so much valu- 
able time and labour in fabricating the Lambeth 
Articles in 1595 ? Those worthies avowed, that 
the original Thirty-nine Articles were not doc- 
trinal enough for their purpose.- — When four 
choice divines, two of them professors of di- 
vinity at Cambridge, were sent to the synod of 
Dort as deputies from the English church, and 
one from the church of Scotland, though their 
political instructions went the full length of 
assisting in the condemnation and oppression 
of the Arminians, personally considered as a 
troublesome party in the republic, yet they had 
different instructions respecting their doctrines. 
On the second article, discussed in that synod, 
" the extent of Christ's redemption," Balcan- 
qual, the deputy from the church of Scotland, 
informs the English ambassador at the Hague, 
that a difference had arisen among the British 
deputies : " The question among us is, whether 
the words of Scripture, which are likewise the 
words of our confession, be to be understood 



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of all particular men, or only of the elect who 
consist of all sorts of men ? Dr. Davenant and 
Dr. Ward are of Martinius of Breme his mind, 
that it is to be understood of all particular men : 
the other three [Bishop Carleton, Dr. Goad, 
and Dr. Balcanqual] take the other exposition, 
which is that of the writers of the reformed 
churches." The ambassador wrote home for 
instructions, and received orders for the British 
deputies "to have those conclusions concern- 
ing Christ's death, and the application of it to 
us, couched in manner and terms as near as 
possibly may be to those which were used in 
the primitive church, by the fathers of that 
time, against the Pelagians and Semi-Pela- 
gians, and not in any new phrase of the mo- 
dern age ; and that the same may be as agree- 
able to the confessions of the church of England 
and other reformed churches, and with as little 
distaste and umbrage to the Lutheran churches, 
as may be." Archbishop Abbott expressed his 
approbation of their "cautelous moderation" 
in. withholding their "hand from pressing in 
public any rigorous exclusive propositions in 
the doctrine of the extent of our Saviour Christ's 
oblation." The history of this affair, which 
cannot be here detailed, shows, that, however 
willing the three deputies were to condemn the 
remonstrants, the resistance of the two more 
rnoderate divines was approved by the authori- 
ties at home, and their opinions on this subject 
were recorded in such theses as no true Cal- 
vinist could consistently subscribe. During our 
civil troubles in 1643, the Assembly of Divines 
at Westminster revised the first fifteen of the 
Thirty-nine Articles " with a design," as Neal 
in his '"History of the Puritans" candidly de- 
clares, " to render their sense more express 
and determinate in favour of Calvinism." This 
they found to be a hopeless task, as the ancient 
creed was too incorrigible to be bent to their 
views ; and they found it much easier to frame 
one after their own hearts, some account of 
which the reader will find in a subsequent 
paragraph. — All these facts go to prove, that 
the best informed Calvinists have always view- 
ed the English articles as not sufficiently high 
in doctrine, unless, as in the case of the seven- 
teenth, they be allowed to interpret them by 
interpolations or qualifying epithets. 

15. The confession of the reformed Gallican 
churches was prepared by ord^r of a synod at 
Paris in 1559 ; and presented to Charles IX. in 
1561, by the celebrated Beza, in a conference 
with that monarch at Poissy. It was published 
for the first time in 1566, with a preface by the 
French clergy to the pastors of all Protestant 
churches; and afterward, in 1571, it was so- 
lemnly ratified and subscribed in the national 
synod of Rochelle. It is extended to forty ar- 
tides; but they are in general concise, and 
embrace the usual topics of the other Protestant 
confessions, including the doctrines of election, 
and justification by faith only. 

16. The Protestants in Scotland having pre- 
sented a petition to parliament in 1560, request- 
ing the public condemnation of Popery, and the 
legal acknowledgment of the reformed doctrine 
and worship, they were required to draw up a 



summary of the doctrines which they could 
prove to be consonant with Scripture, and 
which they were anxious to have established. 
The ministers on whom this duty was devolved, 
being well acquainted with the subject, pre- 
pared the required summary in the course of 
four days, and laid it before parliament, when, 
after having been read first before the Lords of 
the Articles, and afterward twice (the second 
time article by article) before the whole parlia- 
ment, it received their sanction as the establish, 
ed system of belief and worship. It consists of 
twenty-five articles, and coincides with all the 
other Protestant confessions which affirm the 
doctrine of election, and reject that of consub- 
stantiation ; for although it is not so explicit as 
some of them respecting the unconditional na- 
ture of election, yet a distinct recognition of 
this doctrine pervades the whole of it; and 
though it has no separate article on justifica- 
tion, it no less plainly recognises this funda- 
mental principle of the Protestant faith. 

17. The tenets of Arminius having obtained 
considerable prevalence in Holland toward the 
beginning of the seventeenth century, the Cal- 
vinists, or Gomarists, as they were then called, 
appealed to a national synod, which was con- 
vened at Dort in 1618, by order of the states- 
general ; and attended by ecclesiastical deputies 
from England, Switzerland, Bremen, Hesse, 
and the Palatinate, beside the clerical and lay 
representatives of the reformed churches in the 
United Provinces. The canons of this synod, 
contained in five chapters, relate to what arc 
commonly called the five points ; namely, par- 
ticular and unconditional election ; particular 
redemption, or the limitation of the saving 
effects of Christ's death to the elect only ; the 
total corruption of human nature, and the total 
moral inability of man in his fallen state ; the 
irresistibility of divine grace ; and the final 
perseverance of the saints ; all of which are 
declared to be the true and the only doctrines 
of Scripture. 

18. The Remonstrants, as the Dutch Armi- 
nians are generally called, did not present a 
confession of faith to the synod of Dort, but 
only their sentiments on the five points enume- 
rated in the preceding paragraph, with corres- 
ponding rejections of errors under each of those 
points. However, in the first year of their exile, 
they applied themselves diligently to this task, 
and soon produced an ample confession, prin- 
cipally composed by the celebrated Episcopius. 
In the preface they give copious reasons for 
such a record of their opinions ; which Cour- 
celles has thus expressed in a more summary 
manner: — "They did not publish it for the 
purpose of making it a standard of schism, by 
which they might separate themselves from 
men who held other opinions ; nor for the pur- 
pose of having it esteemed by those under their 
pastoral care as a secondary rule of faith ;— 
which is in these days with many persons a 
most pernicious abuse of this kind of confes- 
sions. But it was published solely with the 
intention to stop the mouths of those who 
calumniously assert, that the Remonstrants 
cherish within their bosoms portentous dogmas 



CON 



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CON 



vhich they dare not divulge. For there is no 
iause for doubting, whether under such circum- 
stances and for this purpose, it is not lawful 
hr men to publish a confession of their- faith, 
especially as St. Peter admonishes us ' always 
;o be ready to give an answer to every man 
hat asketh us a reason of the hope that is in 
IS with meekness and fear.' " This confession 
s of a more practical character than any of the 
^receding : it inculcates, at great length, all the 
nost important duties of Christianity, and, in 
-he words of the preface, "directs all things to 
:he practice of Christian piety. For we believe 
-hat true divinity is merely practical, and not 
nther simply or for its greatest or chief part 
3pe<5ulative ; and therefore whatever things are 
ielivered therein ought to be referred thither 
)nly, — that a man may be the more strongly 
md fitly inflamed and encouraged to a diligent 
performance of his duty, and keeping of the 
commandments of Jesus Christ." In the Eng- 
ish translator's address to the reader in 1676, 
t is said, "Touching the worth of this book, 
IS a summary of Christian religion, if Doctor 
Jeremy Taylor's judgment be of credit v^dth 
;hee, I am ci'edibly informed he should prefer 
t to be one of those two or three which, next 
he Holy Bible, he would have preserved from 
he supposed total destruction of books. A 
ligh encomium from the mouth of so learned 
md pious a divine !" But though its contents 
vere chiefly practical, one expression in it, 
•especting the propriety of tolerating in a Chris- 
ian community a man who denied the eternal 
veneration of Jesus Christ, produced a contro- 
versy in Holland, as well as in this country, 
n u^hich the famous Bishop Bull eminently 
listinguished himself. See Dort and Re- 

HONSTRANTS. 

19. The only other confession of which we 
shall take notice is that of the Westminster 
issembly, which met in 1643, and o± which five 
ninisters and three elders as commissioners 
Tom the general assembly of the church of 
Scotland attended, agreeably to engagements 
jetween the convention of estates tnere, and 
)oth houses of parliament in England. This 
confession is contained in thirty-three chapters, 
md in every point of doctrine, fiilly accords 
/vith the sentiments of the synod of JDort ; and 
an some points going rather beyond it, as with 
respect to a supposed election of angels. It was 
ipproved and adopted by the general assembly 
n 1647 ; and two years after, ratified by act of 
oarliament, as " the public and avowed confes- 
don of the church of Scotland." By act of 
parliament in 1690, it was again declared to be 
Lhe national standard of faith in Scotland ; and 
subscription to it as "the confession of his 
faith," specio-lly required of every person who 
shall be admitted " a minister or preacher with- 
in this church." Subscription to it was also 
Enjoined by the act of union in 1707, on all 
"professors, principals, regents, masters, and 
others bearing office," in any of the Scottish 
universities. 

CONFLAGRATION, a general burning of 
a city, or other considerable place. But the 
Vv'ord is more ordinarily restrained to that grand 



period, or catastrophe of our world, wherein 
the face of nature is expected to be changed by 
a deluge of fire, as it was anciently by that of 
water. The ancient Chaldeans, Pythagoreans, 
Platonists, Epicureans, Stoics, Celts, and Etru- 
rians, appear to have had a notion of the con- 
flagration ; though whence they should derive 
it, unless from the sacred books, it is difficult 
to conceive ; except, perhaps, from the Pheni- 
cians, who themselves had it from the Jews. 
The Celts, whose opinions resembled those of 
the eastern nations, held, that after the burning 
of the world, a new period of existence would 
commence. The ancient Etrurians, or Tus- 
cans, also concurred with other western and 
northern nations of Celtic origin, as well as 
with the Stoics, in asserting the entire renova- 
tion of nature after a long period, or great 
year, when a similar succession of events would 
again take place. The cosmogony of an an- 
cient Etrurian, preserved by Suidas, limits the 
duration of the universe to a period of twelve- 
thousand years; six thousand of which passed 
in the production of the visible world, before 
the formation of man. The Stoics also main- 
tained that the world is liable to destruction 
from the prevalence of moisture or of drought ; 
the former producing a universal inundation, 
and the latter, a universal conflagration. 
"These," they say, "succeed each other in 
nature, as regularly as winter and summer." 
The doctrine of conflagration is a natural con- 
sequence of the general system of Stoicism ; 
for, since, according to this system, the whole 
process of nature is carried on in a necessary 
series of causes and effects, when that opera- 
tive fire, which at first, bursting from chaos, 
gave form to all things, and which has since 
pervaded and animated all nature, shall have 
consumed its nutriment ; that is, when the va- 
pours, which are the food of the celestial fires, 
shall be exhausted, a deficiency of moisture 
must produce a universal conflagration. This 
grand revolution in nature is, after the doc- 
trine of the Stoics, thus elegantly described 
by Ovid : — 

" Esse quoque infatis reminiscitur, affore tempus 
Quo mare, quo fellus, correptaque regia cmli 
Ardeat ; et mundi moles operosa laboret." 

Metamor. lib. i, 266. 

or, as Dryden has translated the passage, — 

" Rememb'ring in the fates a time when fire 
Should to the battlements of heaven aspire ; 
When all his blazing worlds above should burn, 
And all the inferior globe to cinders turn." 

Seneca, speaking of the same event, says 
expressly, " Temptis advenerit quo aider a side' 
ribus incurrent, et omni flagrante materia vno 
igne, quicquid mmc ex deposito lucet, ardehit;^* 
that is, "the time will come when the world 
will be consumed, that it may be again renew- 
ed ; when the powers of nature will be turned 
against herself, when stars will rush upon stars, 
and the whole material world, which now ap- 
peal's resplendent with beauty and harmony, 
will be destroyed in one general conflagration." 
In this grand catastrophe of nature, all ani- 
mated beings, (excepting the Universal Intel. 



CON 



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ligence,) men, heroes, demons, and gods, shall 
perish together. Seneca, the tragedian, who 
was of the same school with the philosopher, 
writes to the same purpose : — 

" C(tli regia concidcjis 
Certos atque obitus trahei : 
Atque omnes par iter deos 
Perdet mors aliqua, el chaos." 
"The mighty palace of the sky 

In ruin fall'u is doomed to lie; 

And all the gods, its wreck beneath, 

Shall sink in chaos and in death." 

The Pythagoreans also maintained the dogma 
of conflagration. To this purpose Hippasus, 
of Metapontum, taught that tlie universe is 
finite, is always changing, and undergoes a 
periodical conflagration. Philolaus, who flou- 
rished in the time of Plato, maintained that 
the world is liable to destruction both by fire 
and water. Mention of the conflagration is 
also several times made in the books of the 
Sibyls, Sophocles, Lucan, &c. Dr. Burnet, 
after F. Tachard and others, relates that the 
Siamese believe that the earth will at last be 
parched up with heat, the mountains melted 
down, and the earth's whole surface reduced 
to a level, and then consumed with fire. And 
the Bramins of Siam do not only hold that the 
world shall be destroyed by fire, but also that 
a new earth shall be made out of the cinders 
of the old. The sacred Scriptures announce 
this general destniction of the world by fire in 
a variety of passages. 

2. Various are the sentiments of authors on 
the subject of the conflagration ; the cause 
whence it is to arise, and the effects it is to pro- 
duce. Divines ordinarily account for it meta- 
physically ; and will have it take its rise from 
a miracle, as a fire from heaven. Philosophers 
contend for its being produced from natural 
causes ; and will have it eifected according to 
the laws of mechanics : some think an erup- 
tion of a central fire sufiicient for the purpose ; 
and add, that this may be occasioned several 
ways ; namely, either by having its intensity 
increased, (which, again, maybe eifected either 
by being driven into less space by the encroach- 
ments of the superficial cold, or by an increase 
of the inflammability of the fuel whereon it is 
fed,) or by having the resistance of imprison- 
ing earth weakened ; which may happen either 
from the diminution of its matter, by the con- 
sumption of its central parts, or by weakening 
the cohesion of the constituent parts of the 
mass, by the excess or the defect of moisture. 
Others look for the cause of the conflagration in 
the atmosphere ; and suppose that some of the 
meteors there engendered in unusual quanti- 
ties, and exploded with unusual vehemence, 
from the concurrency of various circumstances, 
may be made to effect it, without seeking any 
farther. The astrologers account for it from a 
conjunction of all the planets in the sign Can- 
cer ; " as the deluge," say they, '* was occa- 
sioned by their conjunction in Capricorn." 
This was an opinion adopted by the ancient 
Chaldeans. Lastly : others have recourse to a 
still more effectual and flaming machine ; and 
conclude the world is to undergo its conflagra- 



tion from the near approach of a comet, in its 
return from the sun. It is most natural to con- 
clude, that, asthe Scriptures represent the catas- 
trophe as the work of a moment, no gradually 
operating natural cause will be employed to 
effect it, but that He v/ho spake and the world 
was created, will again destroy it by the same 
word of his power ; setting loose at once the 
all-devouring element of fire to absorb all 
others. Beyond this, all is conjecture. 

CONFUSION OF TONGUES is a memo- 
rable event, which happened in the one hun- 
dred and first year, according to the Hebrew 
chronology, after the flood, B. C. 2247, at the 
overthrow of Babel ; and which was providen- 
tially brought about, in order to facilitate the 
dispersion of mankind, and the population of 
the earth. Until this period, there had been 
one common language, which formed a bond 
of vmion, that prevented the separation of man- 
kind into distinct nations. 

2. There has been a considerable difference 
of opinion as to the nature of this confusion, 
and the manner in which it was effected. 
Some learned men, prepossessed with the no- 
tion that all the different idioms now in the 
world did at first arise from one original lan- 
guage, to which they may be reduced, and that 
the variety among them is no more than must 
naturally have happened in a long course of 
time by the mere separation of the builders of 
Babel, have maintained, that there were no 
new languages formed at the confusion ; but 
that this event was accomplished by creating 
a misunderstanding and variance among the 
builders, without any immediate influence on 
their language. But this opinion, advanced by 
Le Clerc, «Stc, seems to be directly contrary to 
the obvious meaning of the word nssy, lip, used 
by the sacred historian ; which, in other parts 
of Scripture signifies speech. Psalm Ixxxi, 5 ; 
Isaiah xxviii, 11 ; xxxiii, 19 ; Ezekiel iii, 5. It 
has been justly remarked, that unanimity of 
sentiment, and identity of language, are par- 
ticularly distinguished from each other, in the 
history : " The people is one, and they have 
all one language," Gen. xi, 6. It has been also 
suggested, that if disagreement in opinion and 
counsel were the whole that was intended, it 
would have had a contrary efl'ect; they would 
not have desisted from their project, but 
strenuously have maintained their respective 
opinions, till the greater number of them 
had compelled the minority either to fly or 
to submit. Others have imagined, that this 
was brought about by a temporary confusion 
of their speech, or rather of their apprehen- 
sions, causing them, while they continued to- 
gether and spoke the same language, to under- 
stand the words differently: Scaliger is of this 
opinion. Others again account for this event, 
by the privation of all language, and by sup- 
posing that mankind were under a necessity 
of associating together, and of imposing new 
names on tilings by common consent. An. 
other opinion ascribes the confusion to such 
an indistinct remembrance of the original lan- 
guage which they spoke before, as made them 
speak it very differently ; so that by the vari- 



CON 



266 



CON 



3U8 inflections, terminations, and pronuncia- 
ions of divers dialects, they could no more 
inderstand one another, than they who under- 
stand Latin can understand those who speak 
French, Italian, or Spanish, though all these 
anguages arise out of it. This opinion is 
idopted by Casaubon, and by Bishop Patrick in 
lis Commentary, and is certainly much more 
probable than either of the former : and Mr. 
Shuckford maintains, that the confusion arose 
Tom small beginnings, by the invention of new 
vords in either of the three families of Shem, 
3am, and Japhet, which might contribute to 
separate them from one another ; and that in 
;ach family new differences of speech might 
gradually arise, so that each of these families 
vent on to divide and subdivide among them- 
selves. Others, again, as Mr. Joseph Mede 
md Dr. Wotton, &c, not satisfied with either 
}f the foregoing methods of accounting for the 
iiversity of languages among mankind, have 
•ecourse to an extraordinary interposition of 
livine power, by which new languages were 
iramed and communicated to different families 
>y a supernatural infusion or inspiration ; which 
anguages have been the roots and originals 
Tom which the several dialects that are, or 
lave been, or will be, spoken, as long as this 
jarth shall last, have arisen, and to which they 
nay with ease be reduced. 

3. It is, however, unnecessary to suppose, 
;hat the primitive language was completely 
Dbliterated, and entire new modes of speech at 
)nce introduced. It was quite sufficient, if 
3uch changes only were effected, as to render 
;he speech of different companies or different 
:ribes unintelligible to one another, that their 
Mutual cooperation in the mad attempt in 
ivhich they had all engaged might be no longer 
practicable. The radical stem of the first lan- 
^age might therefore remain in all, though 
aew dialects were formed, bearing among 
themselves a similar relation with what we find 
in the languages of modern Europe, derived 
from the same parent stem, whether Gothic, 
Latin, or Sclavonian. In the midst of these 
changes, it is reasonable to suppose that the 
primitive language itself, unaltered, would still 
be preserved in some one at least of the tribes 
Dr families of the human race. Now in none 
of these was the transmission so likely to have 
taken place, as among that branch of the 
descendants of Shem, from which the patriarch 
A.braham proceeded. Upon these grounds, 
therefore, we may probably conclude, that the 
language spoken by Abraham, and by him 
transmitted to his posterity, was in fact the 
primitive language, modified indeed and ex- 
tended in the course of time, but still retaining 
its essential parts far more completely than 
any other of the languages of men. If these 
conclusions are well founded, they warrant the 
inference, that, in the ancient Hebrew, there 
are still to be found the traces of the original 
speech. Whether this ancient Hebrew more 
nearly resembled the Chaldean, the Syrian, or 
what is now termed the Hebrew, it is unne- 
cessary here to inquire; these languages, it 
has never been denied, were originally and 



radically the same, though, from subsequent 
modifications, they appear to have assumed 
somewhat different aspects. 

CONGREGATIONALISTS, a denomina. 
tion of Protestants who reject all church go- 
vernment, except that of a single congrega- 
tion under the direction of one pastor, with 
their elders, assistants, or managers. In one 
particular, the Congregationalists differ from 
the Independents : the former invite councils, 
which, however, only tender their advice ; but 
the latter are accustomed to decide all difficulties 
within themselves. See Independents. 

CONSCIENCE is that principle, power, or 
faculty within us, which decides on the merit 
or demerit of our own actions, feelings, or 
affections, with reference to the rule of God's 
law. It has been called the moral sense by 
Lord Shaftesbury and Dr. Hutcheson. This 
appellation has been objected to by some, but 
has been adopted and defended by Dr. Reid, 
who says, " The testimony of our moral faculty, 
like that of the external senses, is the testimony 
of nature, and we have the same reason to rely 
upon it." He therefore considers conscience 
as an original faculty of our nature, which 
decides clearly, authoritativel}'^, and instanta- 
neously, on every object that falls within its 
province. " As we rely," says he, " upon the 
clear and distinct testimony of our eyes, con- 
cerning the colours and figures of the bodies 
about us, we have the same reason to rely, 
with security, upon the clear and unbijassed 
testimony of our conscience, with regard to 
what we ought and ought not to do." But Dr. 
Reid is surely unfortunate in illustrating' the 
power of conscience by the analogy of the 
external senses. With regard to the intimations 
received through the organs of sense, there 
can be no difference of opinion, and there can 
be no room for argument. They give us at 
once correct information, which reasoning can 
neither invalidate nor confirm. But it is surely 
impossible to say as much for the power of 
conscience, which sometimes gives the most 
opposite intimations with regard to the simplest 
moral facts, and which requires to be corrected 
by an accurate attention to the established order 
of nature, or to the known will of God, before 
we can rely with confidence on its decisions. 
It does not appear, that conscience can with 
propriety be considered as a principle distinct 
from that which enables us to pronounce on 
the general merit or demerit of moral actions. 
This principle, or faculty, is attended with 
peculiar feelings, when we ourselves are the 
agents; we are then too deeply interested to 
view the matter as a mere subject of reasoning ; 
and pleasure or pain are excited, with a degree 
of intensity proportioned to the importance 
which we always assign to our own interests 
and feelings. In the case of others, our appro- 
bation or disapprobation is generally qualified, 
sometimes suspended, by our ignorance of *he 
motives by which they have been influenced; 
but, in our own case, the motives and the 
actions are both before us, and when they do 
not correspond, we feel the same disgust with 
ourselves that we should feel toward another, 



CON 



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CON 



whose motives we knew to bo vicious, while 
his actions are specious and plausible. But in 
our own case, the uneasy feeling is heightened 
in a tenfold degree, because self-contempt and 
disgust are brought into competition with the 
warmest self-love, and the strongest desire of 
self-approbation. We have then something of 
the feelings of a parent, who knows tho worth- 
lessness of the child he loves, and contemplates 
with horror the shame and infamy which might 
arise from exposure to the world. 

2. Conscience, then, cannot be considered 
as any thing else than the general principle of 
moral approbation or disapprobation applied to 
our own feelings or conduct, acting with in- 
creased energy from the knowledge which we 
have of our motives and actions, and from the 
deep interest which we take in whatever con- 
cerns ourselves ; nor can we think that they 
have deserved well of morals or philosophy, 
who liave attempted to deduce our notions of 
right and wrong from any one principle. Va- 
rious powers both of the understanding and of 
the will are concerned in every moral conclu- 
sion; and conscience derives its chief and 
most salutary influence from the consideration 
of our being continually in the presence of 
God, and accountable to him for all our 
thoughts, words, and actions. A conscience 
well informed, and possessed of sensibility, is 
the best security for virtue, and the most aw- 
ful avenger of wicked deeds ; an ill-informed 
conscience is the most powerful instrument of 
mischief; a squeamish and ticklish conscience 
generally renders those who are under its in- 
fluence ridiculous. 

Hie murus aheneus esto, 
Nil conscire sibi, nulla pallescere culpa. 

[Let a consciousness of innocence, and a fearlessness 
of any accusation, be thy brazen bulwark.] 

3. The rule of conscience is the will of God, 
so far as it is made known to us, either by the 
light of nature, or by that of revelation. With 
respect to the knowledge of this rule, con- 
science is said to be rightly informed, or mis- 
taken ; firm, or wavering, or scrupulous, &c. 
With respect to the conformity of our actions 
to this rule when known, conscience is said to 
be good or evil. In a moral view, it is of the 
greatest importance that the understanding be 
well informed, in order to render the judgment 
or verdict of conscience a safe directory of 
conduct, and a proper source of satisfaction. 
Otherwise, the judgment of conscience may 
be pleaded, and it has actually been pleaded, 
as an apology for very unwarrantable conduct. 
Many atrocious acts of persecution have been 
perpetrated, and afterward justified, under the 
sanction of an erroneous conscience. It is 
also of no small importance, that the sensi- 
bility of conscience be duly maintained and 
cherished ; for want of which men have oft^n 
been betrayed into criminal conduct without 
self-reproach, and have deluded themselves 
with false notions of their character and state. 
See Moral Obligation. 

CONSECRATION, a devoting or setting 
apart any thing to the worship or service of 



God. The Mosaical law ordained that all the 
first-born, both of man and beast, should be 
sanctified or consecrated to God. The whole 
race of Abraham was in a peculiar manner 
consecrated to his worship; and the tribe of 
Levi and family of Aaron were more imme- 
diately consecrated to the service of God, 
Exod. xiii, 2, 12, 15; Num. iii, 12; 1 Peter 
ii, 9. Beside the consecrations ordained by 
the sovereign authority of God, there were 
others which depended on the will of men, 
and were either to continue for ever or for a 
time only. David and Solomon devoted the 
Nethinims to the service of the temple for 
ever, Ezra viii, 20 ; ii, 58. Hannah, the 
mother of Samuel, offered her son to the 
Lord, to serve all his lifetime in the taber- 
nacle, 1 Sam. i, 11 ; Luke i, 15. The He- 
brews sometimes devoted their fields and cattle 
to the Lord, and the spoils taken in war, 
Leviticus xxvii, 28, 29 ; 1 Chron. xviii, 11» 
The New Testament fiimishes us with in- 
stances of consecration. Christians in general 
are consecrated to the Lord, and are a holy 
race, a chosen people, 1 Peter ii, 9. Ministers 
of the Gospel are in a peculiar manner set 
apart for his service ; and so are places of 
worship ; the forms of dedication varying ac- 
cording to the views of different bodies of 
Christians ; and by some a series of ceremo- 
nies has been introduced, savouring of super- 
stition, or at best of Judaism. 

CONSUBSTANTIALISTS. This term 
was applied to the orthodox, or Athanasians, 
who believed the Son to be of the same sub- 
stance with the Father; whereas the Arians 
would only admit the Son to be of like sub- 
stance with the Father. 

CONSUBSTANTIATION, a tenet of the 
Lutheran church respecting the presence of 
Christ in the Lord's Supper. Luther denied 
that the elements were changed after conse- 
cration, and therefore taught that the bread 
and wine indeed remain ; but that together 
with them, there is present the substance of 
the body of Christ, which is literally received 
by communicants. As in red-hot iron it may 
be said two distinct substances, iron and fire, 
are united, so is the body of Christ joined with 
the bread. Some of his followers, who ac- 
knowledged that similes prove nothing, con- 
tented themselves with saying that the body 
and blood of Christ are really present in the 
sacrament in an inexplicable manner. See 
Lord's Supper. 

CONVERSATIONS. These were held by 
the orientals in the gate of the city. Accord- 
ingly, there was an open space near the gate, 
which was fitted up with seats for the accom- 
modation of the people. Gen. xix, 1 ; Psalm 
Ixix, 12. Those who were at leisure occupied 
a position on these seats, and either amused 
themselves with witnessing those who came in 
and went out, and with any trifling occur- 
rences that might offer themselves to their 
notice, or attended to the judicial trials, which 
were commonly investigated at public places 
of this kind, namely, the gate of the city. Gen. 
xix, 1 ; xxxiv, 20 ; Psalm xxvi, 4, 5 ; Ixix, 12 ; 



COP 



268 



COP 



3xxvii, 5 ; Ruth iv, 11 ; Isaiah xiv, 31 ; or held 
intercourse by conversation. Promenading, 
30 fashionable and so agreeable in colder lati- 
tudes, was wearisome and unpleasant in the 
ivarm climates of the east, and this is probably 
one reason why the inhabitants of those 
climates preferred holding intercourse with 
one another, while sitting near the gate of the 
city, or beneath the shade of the fig tree and 
the vine, 1 Samuel xxij, 6 ; Micah iv, 4. The 
formula of assent in conversation was 2i) el-rras, 
fom^n. Thou hast said, or Thou hast rightly 
said. We are informed by the traveller Aryda, 
that this is the prevailing mode of a person's 
expressing his assent or affirmation to this day, 
in the vicinity of Mount Lebanon, especially 
where he does not wish to assert any thing in 
express terms. This explains the answer of 
the Saviour to the high priest Caiaphas in 
Matt, xxvi, 64, when he was asked whether 
he was the Christ, the Son of God, and replied, 
lib eltrag, Thou hast said. 

The English word conversation has now a 
more restricted sense than formerly ; and it is 
to be noted that in several passages of our 
translation of the Bible it is used to compre- 
hend our whole conduct. 

CONVERSION, a change from one state 
or character to another. Conversion, con- 
sidered theologically, consists in a renovation 
of the heart and life, or a being turned from 
sin and the power of Satan unto God, Acts 
xxvi, 18 ; and is produced by the influence of 
divine grace upon the soul. This is conver- 
sion considered as a state of mind ; and is op- 
posed both to a careless and unawakened state, 
and to that state of conscious guilt and slavish 
dread, accompanied with struggles after a 
moral deliverance not yet attained, which 
precedes our justification and regeneration ; 
both of which are usually understood to be 
comprised in conversion. But this is not the 
only Scriptural import of the term ; for the 
first turning of the whole heart to God in peni- 
tence and prayer is generally termed conver- 
sion. In its stricter sense, as given above, it 
is, however, now generally used by divines. 

CONVICTION, in general, is the assurance 
of the truth of any proposition. In a religious 
sense, it is the first degree of repentance, and 
implies an affecting sense of our guilt before 
God ; and that we deserve and are exposed to 
his wrath. 

COPPER. na>m. Anciently, copper was 
employed for all the purposes for which we 
now use iron. Arms, and tools for husbandry 
and the mechanic arts, were all of this metal 
for xnany ages. Job speaks of bows of copper. 
Job XX, 24; and when the Philistines had 
Samson in their power, tliey bound him with 
fetters of copper. Our translators indeed say 
"brass;" but under that article their mistake 
is pointed out. In Ezra viii, 27, are mentioned 
"two vessels of copper, precious as gold." 
The Septuagint renders it irKevT} xa^Kov s-/A6ovro5 ; 
the Vulgate and Castellio, following the Ara- 
bic, ^'■vasa cBris fulgentis;" and the Syriac, 
"vases of Corinthian brass." It is more pro- 
bable, however, tliat this brass was not from 



Corinth, but a metal from Persia or India, 
which Aristotle describes in these terms: "It 
is said that there is in India a brass so shining, 
so pure, so free from tarnish, that its colour 
differs nothing from that of gold. It is even 
said that among the vessels of Darius there 
were some respecting which the sense of 
smelling might determine whether they were 
gold or brass. Bochart is of opinion that this 
is the chasmal of Ezekiel i, 27, the xo-\Ko\i6avov 
of Rev. i, 15, and the electrum of the ancients. 

Mr. liarmer quotes from the manuscript 
notes of Sir John Chardin a reference to a 
mixed metal in the east, and highly esteemed 
there ; and suggests that this composition 
might have been as old as the time of Ezra, 
and be brought from those more remote coun- 
tries into Persia, where these two basins were 
given to be conveyed to Jerusalem. Ezekiel, 
xxvii, 13, speaks of the merchants of Javan, 
Jubal, and Meshech, as bringing vessels of 
nehesh (copper) to the markets of Tyre. Ac- 
cording to Bochart and Michaelis, these were 
people situated toward Mount Caucasus, where 
copper mines are worked at this day. See 
Brass. 

COPTS, a name given to the Christians of 
Egypt who do not belong to the Greek church, 
but are Monophysites, and in most respects 
Jacobites. Scaliger and Father Simon derive 
the name from Coptos, once a celebrated 
town of Egypt, and the metropolis of the 
Thebaid ; but Volney and others are of opinion, 
that the name Copts is only an abbreviation of 
the Greek word Aigouptios, "an Egyptian." 
The Copts have a patriarch, whose jurisdiction 
extends over both Egypts, Nubia, and Abyssi- 
nia ; who resides at Cairo, but %vho takes his 
title from Alexandria. He has under him 
eleven or twelve bishops, beside the abuna, or 
bishop of the Abyssinians, whom he appoints 
and consecrates. The rest of the clergy, 
whether secular or regular, are composed of 
the orders of St. Anthony, St. Paul, and St. 
Macarius, who have each their monasteries. 
Their arch-priests, who are next in degree to 
bishops, and their deacons, are said to be 
numerous ; and they often confer the order of 
deacon even on children. Next to the patri- 
arch is the bishop, or titular patriarch, of 
Jerusalem, who also resides at Cairo, because 
there are only few Copts at Jerusalem. He 
is, in reality, little more than bishop of 
Cairo ; except that he goes to Jerusalem every 
Easter, and visits some other places in Pales- 
tine, which own his jurisdiction. To him be- 
longs the government of the Coptic church, 
during the vacancy of the patriarchal see. 
The ecclesiastics are said to be, in general, of 
the lowest ranks of the people ; and hence 
that great degree of ignorance which prevails 
among them. They have seven sacraments ; 
baptism, the eucharist, confirmation, ordina- 
tion, faith, fasting, and prayer. They admit 
only three oecumenical councils ; those of 
Nice, Constantinople, and Ephesus. There 
are three Coptic liturgies ; one attributed to 
St. Basil, another to St. Gregory, and the 
third to St. Cyril. At present, however, little 



COR 



269 



COR 



more than the mere shadow of Christianity 
can be seen in Egypt ; and, in point of num- 
bers, not more than fifty thousand Christians 
in all can be found in this country. There are 
not more than three Christian churches at Cairo. 
C0Rx4lL, niDN-\, Job xxviii, 18 ; Ezek. xxvii, 
16 ; a hard, cretaceous, marine production, 
resembling in figure the stem of a plant, di- 
vided into branches. It is of different colours, 
— black, white, and red. The latter is the sort 
emphatically called coral, as being the most 
valuable, and usually made into ornaments. 
This, though no gem, is ranked by the author 
of the book of Job, xxviii, 18, with the onyx 
and sapphire. Dr. Good observes, " It is by 
no means certain what the words here ren- 
dered ' corals and pearls,' and those immedi- 
ately afterward rendered ' rubies and topaz,' 
really signified. Reiske lias given up the in. 
quiry as either hopeless or useless ; and Schul- 
tens has generally introduced the Hebrew 
words themselves, and left the reader of the 
translation to determine as he may. Our com- 
mon' version is, in the main, concurrent with 
most of the oriental renderings: and I see no 
reason to deviate from it." 

CORE AN, p-ip, Mark vii, 11 ; from the He- 
brew 2np, to offer, to present. It denotes a gift, 
a present made to God, or to his temple. The 
Jews sometimes swore by corban, or by gifts 
offered to God, Matt, xxiii, 18. Theophrastus 
says that the Tyrians forbad the use of such 
oaths as were peculiar to foreigners, and par- 
ticularly of corban, which, Josephus informs 
us, was used only by the Jews. Jesus Christ 
reproaches the Jews with cruelty toward their 
parents, in making a corban of what should 
have been appropriated to their use. For when 
a child was asked to relieve the wants of his 
father or mother, he v/ould often say, " It is a 
gift," corban, " by whatsoever thou mightest 
be profited by me :" that is, I have devoted 
that to God which you ask of me ; and it is no 
longer mine to give, Mark vii, 11. Thus they 
violated a precept of the moral law, through a 
superstitious devotion to Pharisaic observances, 
and the wretched casuistry by which they were 
made binding upon the conscience. 

CORIANDER, -iJ, Exod. xvi, 31 ; Num. 
xi, 7 ; a strongly aromatic plant. It bears a 
small round seed, of a very agreeable smell and 
taste. The manna might be compared to the 
coriander seed in respect to its form or shape, 
as it was to bdellium in its colour. See Manna. 
CORINTH, a celebrated city, the capital of 
Achaia, situated on the isthmus which sepa- 
rates the Peloponnesus from Attica. This city 
was one of the best peopled and most wealthy 
of Greece. Its situation between two seas 
drew thither the trade of both the east and 
west. Its riches produced pride, ostentation, 
effeminacy, and all vices, the consequences of 
abundance. For its insolence to the Roman 
legates, it was destroyed by L. Mummius. In 
the burning of it, so many statues of different 
metals were melted together, that they pro- 
duced the famous Corinthian brass. It was 
afterward restored to its former splendour by 
Julius Ceesar. 



Christianity was first planted at Corinth by 
St. Paul, who resided here eighteen months, 
betvv^een the years 51 and 53; during which 
time he enjoyed the friendship of Aquila and his 
wife Priscilla, two Jewish Christians, who had 
been expelled from Italy, with other Jews, by 
an edict of Claudius. The church consisted both 
of Jews and of Gentiks ; but St. Paul began, 
as usual, by preaching in the synagogue, until 
the Jews violently opposed him, and bias, 
phemedthe name of Christ; when the Apostle, 
shaking his garment, and declaring their blood 
to be upon their own heads, left them, and 
made use afterward of a house adjoining the 
synagogue, belonging to a man named Justus. 
The rage of the Jews, however, did not stop 
here ; but, raising a tumult, they arrested Paul, 
and hurrying him before the tribunal of the 
pro-consul Gallio, the brother of the famous 
Seneca, accused him of persuading men to 
worship God contrary to the law. But Gallio, 
who was equally indifferent both to Judaism 
and Christianity, and finding that Paul had 
committed no breach of morality, or of the 
public peace, refused to hear tlieir complaint, 
and drove them all from the judgment seat. 
The Jews being thus disappointed in their 
malicious designs, St. Paul was at liberty to 
remain some time longer at Corinth ; and after 
his departure, Apollos, a zealous and eloquent 
Jewish convert of Alexandria, was made a 
powerful instrument in confirming the church, 
and in silencing the opposition of the Jews, 
Acts xviii. How much it stood in need of such 
support, is evident from the Epistles of St. Paul ; 
who cautions the Corinthians against divisions 
and party spirit ; fornication, incest, partaking 
of meats offered to idols, thereby giving an 
occasion of scandal, and encouragement to 
idolatry ; abusing the gifts of the Spirit, litigi- 
ousncss, &c. The Corinthians, indeed, were 
in great danger : they lived at ease, free from 
every kind of persecution, and were exposed 
to much temptation. The manners of the 
citizens were particularly corrupt : they were, 
indeed, infamous to a proverb. In the centre 
of the city was a celebrated temple of Venus, 
a part of whose v/orship consisted in prostitu. 
tion ; for there a thousand priestesses of the 
goddess ministered to dissoluteness under the 
patronage of religion : an example which gave 
the Corinthians very lax ideas on the illicit 
intercourse of the sexes. Corinth also pos. 
sessed numerous schools of philosophy and 
rhetoric ; in which, as at Alexandria, the purity 
of the faith by an easy and natural process, 
became early corrupted. 

There occurs a chronological difliculty in the 
visits of St. Paul to Corinth. In 2 Cor. xii, 14, 
and xiii, 1, 2, the Apostle expresses his design 
of visiting that city a third time ; whereas only 
one visit before the date of the Second Epistle 
is noticed in the Acts, xviii, 1, about A. D. 51 ; 
and the next time that he visited Greece, Acts 
XX, 2, about A. D. 57, no mention is made of 
his going to Corinth. Mr. Home observes on 
this subject, " It has been conjectured by Gro- 
tius, and Drs. Hammond and Paley, that his 
First Epistle virtually supplied the place of his 



COR 



270 



COR 



presence ; aud that it is so represented by the 
Apostle in a corresponding passage, 1 Cor. v, 3. 
Admitting this solution to be probable, it is, 
however, far-fetched, and is not satisfactory as 
a matter of fact. Michaelis has produced an- 
other, more simple and natural; namely, that 
Paul, on his return from Crete, visited Corinth 
a second time before he went to winter at Nico- 
polis. This second visit is unnoticed in the 
Acts, because the voyage itself is unnoticed. 
The third visit, promised in 2 Cor. xii, 14, and 
xiii, 1, 2, was actually paid on the Apostle's 
second return to Rome, when he took Corinth 
in his way, 2 Tim. iv, 20. 'Thus critically,' 
Bays Dr. Hales, ' does the book of the Acts har- 
monize, even in its omissions, with the epistles ; 
and these with each other, in the minute inci- 
dental circumstances of the third visit.' " 

About A. D. 268, the Heruli burned Corinth 
to ashes. In 525, it was again almost ruined 
by an earthquake. About 1180, Roger, king 
of Sicily, took and plundered it. Since 1458, 
it was till lately under the power of the Turks ; 
and is so decayed, that its inhabitants amount 
to no more than about fifteen hundred, or two 
thousand ; half Mohammedans, and half Chris, 
tians. A late French writer, who visited this 
country, observes, "When the Cssars rebuilt 
the walls of Corinth, and the temples of the 
gods rose from their ruins more magnificent 
than ever, an obscure architect was rearing in 
silence an edifice which still remains standing 
amidst the ruins of Greece. This man, un- 
known to the great, despised by the multitude, 
rejected as the ofFscouring of the world, at first 
associated himself with only two companions, 
Crispus and Gains, and with the family of Ste- 
phanas. These were the humble architects of 
an indestructible temple, and the first believers 
at Corinth. The traveller surveys the site of 
this celebrated city ; he discovers not a vestige 
of the altars of Paganism, but perceives some 
Christian chapels rising from among the cot- 
tages of the Greeks. The Apostle might still, 
from his celestial abode, give the salutation of 
peace to his children, and address them in the 
words, ' Paul to the church of God, which is at 
Corinth.' " 

CORINTHIANS, Epistles to. St. Paul left 
Corinth A. D. 53 or 54, and went to Jerusalem. 
From Ephesus he wrote his First Epistle to the 
Corinthians, in the beginning of A. D. 56. In 
this epistle he reproves some who disturbed the 
peace of the church, complains of some dis- 
orders in their assemblies, of law suits among 
them, and of a Christian who had committed 
incest with his mother-in-law, the wife of his 
father, and had not been separated from the 
church. This letter produced in the Corinth, 
ians great grief, vigilance against the vices 
reproved, and a very beneficial dread of God's 
anger. They repaired the scandal, and ex- 
pressed abundant zeal against the crime com- 
mitted, 2 Cor. vii, 9-11. 

To form an idea of the condition of the Co- 
rinthian church, we must examine the epistles 
of the Apostle. The different factions into 
which they were divided, exalted above all 
others the chiefs, rov^ hnfp \iav diros-dXovs, [the 



very chiefest Apostles,] 2 Cor. xi, 5; xii, 11, 
whose notions they adopted, and whose doc- 
trines they professed to follow, and attempted 
to depreciate those of the opposite party. While, 
then, some called themselves disciples of Paul, 
Cephas, or ApoUos, others assumed the splendid 
appellation of Christ's party. Probably they 
affected to be the followers of James, the brother 
of our Lord, and thought thus to enter into a 
nearer discipleship with Jesus than the other 
parties. The controversy, as we shall see from 
the whole, related to the obligation of Judaism. 
The advocates of it had appealed, even in Ga- 
latia, to Cephas and James, for the sake of 
opposing to Paul, who had banished Jewish 
ceremonies from Christianity, authorities which 
were not less admitted than his own. The 
question itself divided all these various parties 
into two principal factions: the partisans of 
Cephas and James were for the law ; the friends 
of Paul adopted his opinion, as well as Apollos, 
who, with his adherents, was always in heart 
in favour of Paul, and never wished to take a 
part in a separation from him, 1 Cor. xvi, 12. 
The leaders of the party against Paul, these 
\pev5aTT6s-o\oL, [false apostles,] as Paul calls them, 
and ^zTaa')(ri^aTL^6yLEvoi els airos-b^ovg Xpis-ov, [trans- 
formers of themselves into the apostles of 
Christ,] who declared themselves the promul- 
gators and defenders of the doctrines of Cephas, 
and James, were, as may be easily conceived, 
converted Jews, 2 Cor. xi, 22, who had come 
from different places,— to all appearance ftom 
Palestine, fpx°l^^'^°h [the comers,] 2 Cor. ?:i, 4, 
— and could therefore boast of having had 
intercourse with the Apostles at Jerusalem, 
and of an acquaintance with their principles. 
They were not even of the orthodox Jews, but 
those who adhered to the doctrines of the 
Sadducees ; and though they were even now 
converted to Christianity, while they spoke 
zealously in favour of the law, they were un- 
dermining the hopes of the pious, and exciting 
doubts against the resurrection, 1 Cor. xv, 35 ; 
so that Paul, from regard to the teachers, whose 
disciples they professed to be, was obliged to 
refute them from the testimony of James and 
Cephas, 1 Cor. xv, 5, 7. These, proud of their 
own opinions, 1 Cor. i, 17, not without private 
views, depreciated Paul's authority, and extolled 
their own knowledge, 1 Cor. ii, 12 ; 2 Cor. xi, 

16, 17. Violently as the contest was carried 
on, they still did not withdraw from the same 
place of assembly for instruction and mutual 
edification ; this, however, was even the cause 
of too many scandalous scenes and disorders. 
At the aydirai, love f easts, love and benevolence 
were no where to be seen. Instead of eating 
together, and refreshing their poor brethren 
out of that which they had brought with them, 
each one, as he came, ate his own, without 
waiting for any one else, and feasted often to 
excess, while the needy was fasting, 1 Cor. xi, 

17. When also some were preparing for prayers 
or singing, others raised their voices to instruct, 
and commenced exercises in spiritual gifts, 
tongues, prophesyings, and interpretations, 
1 Cor. xii, xiii, xiv ; moreover, the women, to 
bring confusion to its highest pitch, took their 



COR 



271 



COU 



part in interlocutions and proposals of ques- 
tions, 1 Cor. xiv, 34. 

Such was the state of things as to the interior 
discipline of the assemblies and edification ; but 
the exterior deportment, which the members of 
this society had maintained in civil life, soon 
disappeared also. Formerly, when differences 
arose among the believers, they were adjusted 
by the intervention of arbitrators from their 
own communion, and terminated quietly. 
Now, as their mutual confidence in each other 
more and more decreased, they brought, to the 
disgrace of Christianity, their complaints be- 
fore the Pagan tribunals, 1 Cor. vi, 1. But as 
to what concerned the main object, namely, 
the obligation of Judaism, it was so little con- 
fined simply to words and reasons, that each 
party rather strove to display its opposite prin- 
ciples in its conduct. One party gave to the 
other, as much as possible, motives for ill will 
and reproach. The Jews required circumcision 
as an indispensable act of religion ; while Paul's 
disciples attempted to lay the foundation of a 
new doctrine respecting it, and to extinguish 
all traces of circumcision, 1 Cor. vii, 18. As 
the Jewish party observed and maintained a 
distinction of meats, that of Paul ate without 
distinction any thing sold in the markets, and 
even meats from the Heathen sacrifices, 1 Cor. 
X, 25, 28 ; viii, 1. Nor was this enough ; they 
often made no scruple to be present at the 
sacrificial feasts. Among other things, they 
also took part in many scandalous practices 
which were common there, and fell, by means 
of their imprudence, into still greater crimes, 
1 Cor. X, 20, 21 ; viii, 10. According to the 
Jewish custom, the women were obliged to 
appear veiled in the synagogues and public 
assemblies. The anti-judaists abolished this 
custom of the synagogue, 1 Cor. xi, 5, 6, 10 ; 
and herein imitated the Heathen practices. 
From despite to Judaism, which considered 
matrimonial offspring as a particular blessing 
of God, some embraced celibacy, which they 
justified by St. Paul's example, 1 Cor. vii, 7, 8 ; 
and this they also recommended to others, 
1 Cor. vii, 1-25. Some went even so far, that, 
although married, they resolved to practise a 
continual continency, 1 Corinthians, vii, 3-5. 
These were the evils, both in his own party 
and in that of his opponents, which St. Paul 
had to remedy. 

Paul, having understood the good effects of 
his first letter among the Corinthians, wrote a 
second to them, A. D. 57, from Macedonia, 
and probably from Philippi. He expresses his 
satisfaction at their conduct, justifies himself, 
and comforts them. He glories in his suffering, 
and exhorts them to liberality. Near the end 
of the year 57, he came again to Corinth, 
where he staid about three months, and whence 
he went to Jerusalem. Just before his second 
departure from Corinth, he wrote his Epistle 
to the Romans, probably in the beginning of 
A. U. 5o. 



CORMORANT, n^a^, Levit. xi, 17; Deut. 
XIV, 17 ; a large sea bird. It is about three feet 
four mches m length, and four feet two inches 
in breadth from the tips of the extended wings. 



The bill is about five inches long, and of a 
dusky colour ; the base of the lower mandible 
is covered with a naked yellowish skin, which 
extends under the throat and forms a kind of 
pouch. It has a most voracious appetite, and 
lives chiefly upon fish, which it devours with 
unceasing gluttony. It darts down very rapidly 
upon its prey ; and the Hebrew, and the Greek 
name, KaTapdKTrjg, [a cataract,] are expressive of 
its impetuosity. The word nxp, which in our 
version of Isaiah xxxiv, 11, is rendered cor. 
niorant, is the pelican. 

CORNER. Amos iii, 12. Sitting in the 
corner is a stately attitude. The place of 
honour is the corner of the room, and there 
the master of the house sits and receives his 
visitants. 

COUNCIL sometimes denotes any kind of 
assembly ; sometimes that of the sanhedrim ; 
and, at other times, a convention of pastors 
met to regulate ecclesiastical affairs. It may 
be reasonably supposed that as Christianity 
spreads, circumstances would arise which 
would make consultation necessary among 
those who had embraced the Gospel, or at least 
among those who were employed in its propa- 
gation. A memorable instance of this kind 
occurred not long after the ascension of our 
Saviour. In consequence of a dispute which 
had arisen at Antioch concerning the necessity 
of circumcising Gentile converts, it was deter- 
mined that "Paul and Barnabas, and certain 
others of them, should go up to Jerusalem 
unto the Apostles and elders about this ques- 
tion." — "And the Apostles and elders came 
together for to consider of this matter," Acts 
XV, 6. After a consultation, they decided the 
point in question ; and they sent their decree, 
which they declared to be made under the 
direction of the Holy Ghost, to all the churches, 
and commanded that it should be the rule of 
their conduct. This is generally considered 
as the iirst council ; but it differed from all 
others in this circumstance, that its members 
were under the especial guidance of the Spirit 
of God. The Gospel was soon after conveyed 
into many parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa ; 
but it does not appear that there was any public 
meeting of Christians for the purpose of dis- 
cussing any contested point, till the middle of 
the second century. From that time councils 
became frequent ; but as they consisted only of 
those who belonged to particular districts or 
countries, they were called provincial or 
national councils. The first general council 
was that of Nice, convened by the emperor 
Constantino, A. D. 325 ; the second general 
council was held at Constantinople, in the year 
381, by order of Theodosius the Great; the 
third, at Ephesus, by order of Theodosius, 
Junior, A. D. 431 ; and the fourth at Chal- 
cedon, by order of the emperor Marcian, A. D. 
451. These, as they were the first four general 
councils, so they were by far the most eminent.- 
They were caused respectively by the Arian, 
Apollinarian, Nestorian, and Eutychian con- 
troversies, and their decrees are in high esteem 
both among Papists and orthodox Protestants ; 
but the deliberations of most councils were 



cou 



2*72 



COU 



disgraced by violence, disorder, and intrigue, 
and their decisions were usually made under 
the influence of some ruling party. Authors 
are not agreed about the number of general 
councils ; Papists usually reckon eighteen, but 
Protestant writers will not allow that nearly so 
many had a right to that name. The last 
general council was that held at Trent, for the 
purpose of checking the progress of the refor- 
mation. It first met by the command of Pope 
Paul III, A. D. 1545 ; it was suspended during 
the latter part of the pontificate of his succes- 
sor, Julius III, and the whole of the pontificates 
of Marcellus II, and Paul IV, that is, from 
1552 to 1562, in which year it met again by 
the authority of Pope Pius IV, and it ended, 
while he was pope, in the year 1563. Provincial 
councils were very numerous : Baxter enume- 
rates four hundred and eighty-one, and Du- 
fresnoy many more. 

2. Of the eighteen councils denominated 
"general" by the Papists, four have already 
been enumerated ; and they with the next four 
constitute the eight eastern councils, which 
alone, according to the " Body of Civil Law," 
each of the popes of Rome, on his elevation to 
the pontificate, solemnly professes to maintain. 
The fifth was convened at Constantinople, 
A. D. 556, by the emperor Justinian ; the sixth, 
also at Constantinople, in 681, in which the 
emperor Constantino IV, himself presided : the 
seventh at Nice, in 787, by the empress Irene ; 
and the eighth, at Constantinople, in 870, by 
the emperor Basilius. It is matter of histori- 
cal record, and therefore cannot be denied, 
that the convening of all these councils apper- 
tained solely to the respective emperors ; that 
they alone exercised authority on such occa- 
sions; that the bishop of Rome was never 
thought to possess any, although his power 
may be said to have been set up between the 
fifth and sixth general councils ; nor did the 
bishop himself, pro tempore, think himself 
entitled to an authority of the kind. The 
other councils which the Romish church dig. 
nifies with the title of " general," are the ten 
western ones, which are here subjoined : — (9.) 
The first council of Lateran, held under Pope 
Calixtus, A. D. 1123 ; (10.) the second of La- 
teran, under Innocent II, in 1139; (11.) the 
third of Lateran, under Alexander III, in 1179, 
the decrees of which were intended to extirpate 
the Albigenses, as well as the Waldenses, who 
were variously called Leonists, or poor men of 
Lyons ; (12.) the fourth of Lateran, under 
Innocent III, in 1215, which incited Christian 
Europe to engage in a crusade for the recovery 
of the Holy I^and, and whose canons obtruded 
on the churcii the monstrous doctrines of tran- 
substantiation and auricular confession, the 
latter being ranked among the duties prescribed 
by the law of Christ ; (13.) the first of Lyons, 
under Innocent IV, in 1245 ; (14.) the second 
of Lyons, under Gregory X, in 1274 ; (15.) that 
of Vienne, under Clement V, in 1311 ; (16.) 
that of Florence, under Eugenius IV, in 1439 ; 
(17.) the fifth of Lateran, under the infamous 
Julius II ; and (18.) the council of Trent, of 
which an account is given in the preceding 



paragraph, and which grounds its fame on its 
opposition to the progress of the reformation 
under Luther. Though, according to Bellar- 
mine, these eighteen alone are recognised by 
the Romish church as (Ecumenical or universal 
councils, yet some of them did not deserve even 
the more restricted appellation of "general." 
For the council of Trent itself, in some of its 
sessions, could scarcely number more than 
forty or fifty ecclesiastics, and, of those, not 
one eminent for profound theological or clas- 
sical knowledge. The lawyers who attended, 
says Father Paul, "knew little of religion, 
while the few divines were of less than ordinary 
sufficiency." Some of the other councils which 
are not acknowledged by the Papists to be 
"general" with respect to all their sessions, 
(as those of Basle and Constance,) are in part 
received by them, and in part rejected. Bel- 
larmine and other celebrated writers of his 
church, are dubious about determining whether 
or not "the fifth of Lateran" was really a 
general council, and leave it as a thing dis- 
cretionary with the faithful either to retain or 
reject it ; if it be rejected, the only refuge which 
they have, is to receive in its place the council 
of Constance, held under John XXIII, in 1414, 
which is disclaimed by the Italian clergy but 
admitted by those of France, and which is 
rendered infamous in the annals of religion and 
humanity by its cruel and treacherous conduct 
toward those two early Protestant martyrs, John 
Huss and Jerome of Prague ; " who went to the 
stake," says, ^neas Sylvius, " as if it had been 
to a banquet, without uttering a complaint that 
could betray the least weakness of mind. When 
they began to burn, they sung a hymn, which 
even the crackling of the flames could not 
interrupt. Never did any philosopher suffer 
death with so much courage, as they endured 
the fire." But this acknowledgment of Con- 
stance as one of the eighteen is resisted vi et 
armis, by the crafty Cisalpine ecclesiastics, 
because one of the earliest acts of that council 
declared the representatives of the church in 
general council assembled to be superior to the 
sovereign pontiff", not only when schism pre- 
vailed, but at all other times whatsoever. 

3. A general council being composed of men 
every one of whom is fallible, they must also 
be liable to error when collected together ; and 
that they actually have erred is sufficiently 
evident from this fact, that different general 
councils have made decrees directly opposite 
to each other, particularly in the Arian and 
Eutychian controversies, which were upon 
subjects immediately "pertaining unto God." 
Indeed, neither the first general councils 
themselves, nor those who defended their 
decisions, ever pretended to infallibility ; this 
was a claim of a much more recent date, suited 
to the dark ages in which it was asserted and 
maintained, but now considered equally ground- 
less and absurd in the case of general councils 
as in that of popes. If God had been pleased 
to exempt tliem from a possibility of error, he 
would have announced that important privilege 
in his written word; but no such promise or 
assurance is mentioned in the New Testament, 



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If infallibility belonged to the whole church 
collectively, or to any individual part of it, it 
must be so prominent and conspicuous that no 
mistake or doubt could exist upon the subject; 
and above all, it must have prevented those 
dissensions, contests, heresies, and schisms, 
which have abounded among Ghristians from 
the days of the Apostles to the present time ; 
and of which that very church, which is the 
asserter and patron of this doctrine, has had its 
full share. 

The Scriptures being the only source from 
which we can learn the terms of salvation, it 
follows that things ordained by general councils 
as necessary to salvation, have neither strength 
nor authority, as the church of England has 
well said, unless it may be declared that they 
be taken out of Holy Scripture. It is upon 
this ground we receive the decisions of the first 
four general councils, in which we find the 
truths revealed in the Scriptures, and therefore 
we believe them. We reverence the councils 
for • the sake of the doctrines which they 
declared and maintained, but we do not 
believe the doctrines upon the authority of 
the councils. 

GOVENANT. The Greek word hiadf,Kr, 
occurs often in the Septuagint, as the trans- 
lation of a Hebrew word, which signifies 
covenant: it occurs also in the Gospels and 
the Epistles ; and it is rendered in our English 
Bibles sometimes covenant, sometimes testa, 
ment. The Greek word, according to its 
etymology, and according to classical use, may 
denote a testament, a disposition, as well as 
a covenant ; and the Gospel may be called a 
testament, because it is a signification of the 
will of our Saviour ratified by his death, and 
because it conveys blessings to be enjoyed after 
his death. These reasons for giving the dispen- 
sation of the Gospel the name of a testament 
appeared to our translators so striking, that 
they have rendered biadnKn more frequently by 
the word testament, than by the word covenant. 
Yet the train of argument, where 6iadrjKri occurs, 
generally appears to proceed upon its meaning 
a covenant ; and therefore, although, when we 
delineate the nature of the Gospel, the beautiful 
idea of its being a testament, is not to be lost 
sight of, yet we are to remember that the word 
testament, which we read in the Gospels and 
Epistles, is the translation of a word which 
the sense requires to be rendered covenant. 
A covenant implies two parties, and mutual 
stipulations. The new covenant must derive 
its name from something in the nature of the 
stipulations between the parties different from 
that which existed before ; so that we cannot 
understand the propriety of the name, new, 
without looking back to what is called the old, 
or first. On examining the passages in Gal. iii, 
in 2 Cor. iii, and in Heb. viii-x, where the old 
and the new covenant are contrasted, it will 
be found that the old covenant means the 
dispensation given by Moses to the children of 
Israel ; and the new covenant the dispensation 
of the Gospel published by Jesus Christ ; and 
that the object of the Apostle is to illustrate the 
superior excellence of the latter dispensation. 
19 



But, in order to preserve the consistency of the 
Apostle's writings, it is necessary to remember 
that there are two different lights in which the 
former dispensation may be viewed. Christians 
appear to draw the line between the old and 
the new covenant, according to the light in 
which they view that dispensation. It may be 
considered merely as a method of publishing 
the moral law to a particular nation ; and then 
with whatever solemnity it was delivered, and 
with whatever cordiality it was accepted, it is 
not a covenant that could give life. For, being 
nothing more than what divines call a covenant 
of works, a directory of conduct requiring by 
its nature entire personal obedience, promising 
life to those who yielded that obedience, but "^ 
making no provision for transgressors, it left 
under a curse "every one that continued not 
in all things that were written in the book of 
the law to do them." This is the essential 
imperfection of what is called the covenant of 
works, the name given in theology to that 
transaction, in which it is conceived that the 
supreme Lord of the universe promised to his 
creature, man, that he would reward that 
obedience to his law, which, without any such 
promise, was due to him as the Creator. 

No sooner had Adam broken the covenant 
of works, than a promise of a final deliverance 
from the evils incurred by the breach of it was 
given. This promise was the foundation of that 
transaction which Almighty God, in treating 
with Abraham, condescends to call " my 
covenant with thee," and which, upon this 
authority, has received in theology the name 
of the Abrahamic - covenant. Upon^the one 
part, Abraham, whose faith was counted to 
him for righteousness, received this charge 
from God, "Walk before me and be thou 
perfect ;" upon the other part, the God whom 
he believed, and whose voice he obeyed, beside 
promising other blessings to him and his seed, 
uttered these significant v/ords, "In thy seed 
shall all the families of the earth be blessed." 
In this transaction, then, there was the essence 
of a covenant ; for there were mutual stipula- 
tions between two parties ; and there was 
superadded, as a seal of the covenant, the rite 
of circumcision, which, being prescribed by 
God, was a confirmation of his promise to all 
who complied with it, and being submitted to 
by Abraham, was, on his part, an acceptance 
of the covenant. 

The Abrahamic covenant appears, from the 
nature of the stipulations, to be more than a 
covenant of works ; and, as it was not confined 
to Abraham, but extended to his seed, it could 
not be disannulled by any subsequent transac- 
tions, which fell short of a fulfilment of the 
blessing promised. The law of Moses, which 
was given to the seed of Abraham four hundred 
and thirty years after, did not come up to the 
terms of that covenant even with regard to 
them, for, in its form it was a covenant of 
works, and to other nations it did not directly 
convey any blessing. But although the Mosaic 
dispensation did not fulfil the Abrahamic cove- 
nant, it was so far from setting that covenant 
aside, thalt it cherished the expectation of its 



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CRA 



being fulfilled : for it continued the rite of cir- 
cumcision, which was the seal of the covenant ; 
and in those ceremonies which it enjoined, 
there was a shadow, a type, an obscure re- 
presentation, of the promised blessing, Luke i, 
72, 73. 

Here, then, is another view of tho Mosaic 
dispensation. "^It was added, because of trans- 
gressions, till the seed should come to whom the 
promise was made," Gal. iii, 19. By delivering 
a moral law, which men felt themselves unable 
to obey; by denouncing judgments which it 
did not of itself provide any effectual method 
of escaping; and by holding forth, in various 
oblations, the promised and expected Saviour ; 
•'it was a schoolmaster to bring men unto 
Christ." The covenant made with Abraham 
retained its force during the dispensation of 
the law, and was the end of that dispensation. 

The views which have been given furnish the 
ground upon which we defend that established 
language which is familiar to our ears, that 
there are only two covenants essentially dif- 
ferent, and opposite to one another, the cove- 
nant of works, made with the first man, inti- 
mated by the constitution of human nature to 
every one of his posterity, and having for its 
terms, " Do this and live ;" — and the covenant 
of grace, v/hich was the substance of tlie 
Abrahamic covenant, and which entered into 
the constitution of the Sinaitic covenant, but 
which is more clearly revealed, and more ex- 
tensively published in the Gospel. This last 
covenant, which the Scriptures call new in 
respect to the mode of its dispensation under 
the Gospel, although it is not new in respect 
of its essence, has received, in the language of 
theology, the name of the covenant of grace, 
for the two following obvious reasons : because, 
after man had broken the covenant of works, 
it was pure grace or favour in the Almighty 
to enter into a new covenant with him ; and, 
because by the covenant there is conveyed that 
grace which enables man to comply with the 
terms of it. It could not be a covenant unless 
there were terms,— something required, as well 
as something promised or given, — duties to be 
performed, as well as blessings to be received. 
Accordingly, the tenor of the new covenant, 
founded upon the promise originally made to 
Abraham, is expressed by Jeremiah in words 
which the Apostle to the Hebrews has quoted 
as a description of it : "I will be to them a 
~God, and they shall be to me a people," Heb. 
viii, 10 : — words which intimate on one part 
not only entire reconciliation with God, but 
the continued exercise of all the perfections of 
the Godhead in promoting the happiness of his 
people, and the full conununication of all the 
blessings which flow from his unchangeable 
love ; on the other part, the surrender of the 
heart and affections of his people, the dedica- 
tion of all the powers of their nature to his 
service, and the willing uniform obedience of 
their lives. But, although there are mutual 
stipulations, the covenant retains its character 
of a covenant of grace, and must be regarded 
as having its source purely in the grace of God. 
For the -very circumstances which rendered 



the new covenant necessary, take away the 
possibility of there being any merit upon our 
part: the faith by which the covenant is ac- 
cepted is the gift of God ; and all the good 
works by which Christians continue to keep 
the covenant, originate in that change of cha- 
racter which is the fruit of the operation of 
his Spirit. 

Covenants were anciently confirmed by 
eating and drinking together; and chiefly by 
feasting on a sacrifice. In this manner, Abi- 
melech, the Philistine, confu-med the covenant 
with Isaac, and Jacob with his father Laban, 
Gen. xxvi, 26-31 ; xxxi, 44-46, 54, Some- 
times they divided the parts of the victim, and 
passed between them, by which act the parties 
signified their resolution of fulfilling all the 
terms of the engagement, on pain of being 
divided or cut asunder as the sacrifice had been, 
if they should violate the covenant, Gen. xv, 9, 
10, 17, 18 ; Jer. xxxiv, 18. Hence the Hebrew 
word cJiarat, which properly signifies to divide, 
is applied allusively in Scripture to the making 
of a covenant. When the law of Moses was 
established, the people feasted in their peace- 
offerings on a part of the sacrifice, in token of 
their reconciliation with God, Deut. xii, 6, 7. 
See Circumcision. 

COURT, an entrance into a palace or house. 
(See House,) The great courts belonging to the 
temple of Jerusalem were three ; the first called 
the court of the Gentiles, because the Gentiles 
were allowed to enter so far, and no farther ; 
the second was the court of Israel, because all 
the Israelites, provided they were purified, had 
a right of admission into it ; the third was that 
of the priests, where the altar of burnt-offerr 
ings stood, where the priests and Levites exer- 
cised their ministry. Common Israelites, who 
were desirous of offering sacrifices, were at 
liberty to bring their victims as far as the 
inner part of the court ; but they could not 
pass a certain line of separation, which divided 
it into two ; and they withdrew as soon as they 
had delivered their sacrifices and offerings to 
the priests, or had made their confession with 
the ceremony of laying their hands upon the 
head of the victim, if it were a sin-offering. 
Before the temple was built, there was a court 
belonging to the tabernacle, but not near so 
large as that of the temple, and encompassed 
only with pillars, and veils hung with cords. 

CRANE. In Isaiah xxxviii, 14, and Jer. 
viii, 7, two birds are mentioned, the B'lB^ and 
the mjj'. The first in our version is translated 
crane ^ and the second swallow ; but Bochart 
exactly reverses them, and tlie reasons he ad- 
duces are incontrovertible. Aristophanes curi- 
ously observes, that "it is time to sow when 
the crane migi*ates clamouring into Africa ; 
she also bids the mariner suspend his rudder 
and take his rest, and the mountaineer to pro- 
vide himself with raiment ;" and Hesiod, 
"When thou hearest the voice of the crane, 
clamouring annually from the clouds on high, 
recollect that this is the signal for ploughing, 
and indicates the approach of showery winter." 

Wlicrc do the ciaiics or winding swallows go, 
Fearful ol^athciintr winds and falling snow? 



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Conscious of all the coming ills, they fly 

To milder regions and a southern sky. Peiob. 

The Prophet Jeremiah mentions this bird, 
thus intelligent of the seasons by an instinctive 
and invariable observation of their appointed 
times, as a circmnstance of reproach to the 
chosen people of God, who, although taught 
by reason and religion, " knew not the judg- 
ment of the Lord." 

CREATION, in its primary import, signifies 
the bringing into being something which did 
not exist before. The term is therefore most 
generally applied to the original production of 
the materials whereof the visible world is 
composed. It is also used in a secondary or 
subordinate sense, to denote those subsequent 
operations of the Deity upon 'the matter so 
produced, by which the whole system of nature, 
and all the primitive genera of things, received 
their forms, qualities, and laws. The accounts 
of the creation of the world which have existed 
among different nations, are called Cosmogonies. 
Moses's is unquestionably the most ancient ; 
and had it no other circumstance to recommend 
it, its superior antiquity alone would give it a 
just claim to our attention. It is evidently 
Moses's intention to give a history of man, and 
of religion, and an account of creation. In 
the way in which he has detailed it, it would 
have been foreign to his plan, had it not been 
necessary to obviate that most ancient and most 
natural species of idolatry, the worship of the 
heavenly bodies. His first care, therefore, is to 
affirm decidedly, that God created the heavens 
and the earth ; and then he proceeds to mention 
the order in which the various objects of creation 
were called into existence. First of all, the 
materials, of which the future universe was to 
be composed, were created. These were jumbled 
together in one indigested mass, which the 
ancients called chaos, and which they conceived 
to be eternal ; but which Moses affirms to have 
been created by the power of God. The mate- 
rials of the chaos were either held in solution 
by the waters, or floated in them, or were sunk 
under them ; and they were reduced into form 
by the Spirit of God moving upon the face of 
the waters. Light was the first distinct object 
of creation ; fishes were the first living things ; 
man was last in the order of creation. 

2. The account given by Moses is distin- 
guished by its simplicity. That it involves 
difficulties which our faculties cannot compre- 
hend, is only what might be expected from a 
detail of the operations of the omnipotent mind, 
■which can never be fully understood but by the 
Being who planned them. Most of the writers 
who come nearest to Moses in point of anti- 
quity have favoured the world with cosmogo- 
nies ; and there is a wonderful coincidence in 
some leading particulars between their accounts 
and his. They all have his chaos ; and they 
all state water to have been the prevailing 
principle before the arrangement of the uni- 
verse began. The systems became gradually 
more complicated, as the writers receded farther 
from the age of primitive tradition ; and they 
increased in absurdity in proportion to the 
degree of philosophy which was applied to the 



subject. The problem of creation has been said 
to be, " Matter and motion being given, to form 
a world ;" and the presumption of man has 
often led him to attempt the solution of this 
intricate question. But the true problem was, 
"Neither matter nor motion being given, to 
form a world." At first, the cosmogonists 
contented themselves v/ith reasoning on the 
traditional or historical accounts they had re- 
ceived ; but it is irksome to be shackled by au- 
thority ; and after they had acquired a smatter- 
ing of knowledge, they began to think that they 
could point out a much better way of forming 
the world than that which had been transmitted 
to them by the consenting voice of antiquity. 
Epicurus was most distinguished in this hopeful 
work of invention ; and produced a cosmogony 
on the principle of a fortuitous concourse of 
atoms, whose extravagant absurdity has hitherto 
preserved it from oblivion. From his day to 
ours, the world has been annoyed with sys- 
tems ; but these are now modified by the theories 
of chemists and geologists, whose speculations, 
in so far as they proceed on the principle of 
induction, have sometimes been attended with 
useful results ; but, when applied to solve the 
problem of creation, will serve, like the sys- 
tems of their forerunners, to demonstrate the 
ignorance and the presumption of man. 

3. The early cosmogonies are chiefly inter- 
esting from their resemblance to that of Moses ; 
which proves that they have either been de- 
rived from him, or from some ancient prevail- 
ing tradition respecting the true history of 
creation. The most ancient author next to 
Moses, of whose writings any fragments re- 
main, is Sanchoniatho, the Phenician. His 
writings were translated by Philo Byblius ; and 
portions of this version are preserved by Euse- 
bius. These writings come to us rather in an 
apocryphal form ; they contain, however, no 
internal evidence which can affect their au- 
thenticity ; they pretty nearly resemble the 
traditions of the Greeks, and are, perhaps, the 
parent stock from which these traditions are 
derived. The notions detailed by Sanchoniatho 
are almost translated by Hesiod, who mentions 
the primeval chaos, and states £pos, or love, to 
be its first offspring. Anaxagoras was the first 
among the Greeks who entertained tolerably 
accurate notions on the subject of creation : 
he assumed the agency of an intelligent mind 
in the arrangement of the chaotic materials. 
These sentiments gradually prevailed among 
the Greeks ; from whom they passed to the 
Romans, and were generally adopted, notwith- 
standing the efforts which were made to esta- 
blish the doctrines of Epicurus by the nervous 
poetry of Lucretius. Ovid has collected the 
orthodox doctrines which prevailed on the sub- 
ject, both among Greeks and Romans ; and 
has expressed them with uncommon elegance 
and perspicuity in the first chapter of his 
" Metamorphoses." There is so striking a 
coincidence between his account and that of 
Moses that one would almost think that he was 
translating from the first chapter of Genesis ; 
and there can be no doubt that the Mosaic 
writings were well known at that time, both 



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among the Greeks and Romans. Megasthenes, 
who lived in the time of Seleucus Nicanor, 
affirms, that all the doctrines of the Greeks 
respecting the creation, and the constitution 
of nature, were current among the Bramins in 
India, and the Jews in Syria. He must, of 
course, have been acquainted with the writings 
of the latter, before he could make the com- 
parison. Juvenal talks of the writings of Moses 
as well known : — 

Tradidit arcano quodcuvque volumine Moses. 
[Whatever Moses has transmitted in his mystic volume.] 

We are therefore inclined to think that Ovid 
actually copied from the Bible ; for he adopts 
the very order detailed by Moses. Moses men- 
tions the works of creation in the following 
order : the separation of the sea from the dry 
land ; the creation of the heavenly bodies ; of 
marine animals ; of fowls and land animals ; 
of man. Observe now the order of the Roman 
poet : — 

Ante mare et terras, et, quod tegit omnia, coilum, 
Unus erat iota jiaturcb vidtus in orbe, 
Quern dixere chaos, rudis, indigestaque moles. 
Hanc Deus, et melior litem natura diremil. 
Nam ccelo terras, et terras abscidit luidis ; 
Et liquidutn spisso secrevit ab aire ccelum. 
Neu regioforet ulla suis aniinalibus orba ; 
Astra tenent cceleste solum, formceque deoruni ; 
Cesserunt nitidis habitandae- piscibus undm : 
Terra /eras cepit, volucres agitabilis aer. 
Sanctius his animal^ meniisque capacius altce, 
Deer at adhuc, et quod do'rninari in cater a posset : 
Natus homo est. 

"Before the seas, and this terrestrial ball, 
And heav'n's high canopy, that covers all, 
One was the face of nature ; if a face : 
Rather, a rude and indigested mass : 
A lifeless lump, unfashion'd, and unframed, 
Of jarring seeds; and justly chaos named. 
But God, or nature, while they thus contend, 
To these intestine discords put an end ; 
Then earth from air, and seas from earth were driv'n, 
And grosser air sunk from ethereal heav'u. 
Thus when the God, whatever god was he, 
Had form'd the whole, and made the parts agree, 
That no unequal portions might be found, 
He moulded earth into a spacious round. 
Then, every void of nature to supply, 
With forms of gods he fills the vacant sky : 
New herds of beasts he sends, the plains to share : 1 
New colonies of birds, to people air ; > 

And to their oozy beds the finny fish repair. ) 

A creature of a more exalted kind 
Was wanting yet, and then was man design'd : 
Conscious of thought, of more capacious breast, 
For empire form'd, and fit to rule the rest : 
Whether with particles of heav'nly fire 
The God of nature did his soul inspire," &c. 

Dryden. 

Here we see all the principal objects of creation 
mentioned exactly in the same order which 
Moses had assigned to them in his writings ; 
and when we consider what follows ; — the war 
of the giants ; the general corruption of the 
world ; the universal deluge ; the preservation 
of Deucalion and Pyrrha ; their sacrifices to the 
gods on leaving the vessel in which they had 
been preserved ; — there can scarcely remain a 
doubt that Ovid borrowed, either directly or at 
second hand, from Moses. What he says, too, 
is perfectly consistent with the received notions 
on the subject, though it is probable that they 



had never before been so regularly methodised, 
This train of reasoning would lead us to con- 
elude that Ovid, and indeed the whole Heathen 
world, derived their notions respecting the 
creation, and the early history of mankind, 
from the sacred Scriptures : and it shows how 
deficient their own resources were, when the 
pride of philosophy was forced to borrow from 
those whom it affected to despise. With regard 
to the western mythologists, then, there can 
be little doubt that their cosmogonies, at least 
such of them as profess to be historical, and 
not theoretical, are derived from Moses ; and 
the same may be affirmed with regard to the 
traditions of the east : as they were the same 
with those of Greece in the time of Megas- 
thenes, whose testimony to this effect is 
quoted both by Clemens Alexandrinus and 
Strabo, we may naturally conclude that they 
had the same origin. 

4. The Hindoo mythology has grown, in the 
natural uninterrupted progress of corruption, to 
such monstrous and complicated absurdity, that 
in many cases it stands unique in extravagance. 
In the more ancient Hindoo writings, however, 
many sublime sentiments occur ; and in the 
" Institutes of Menu," many passages are found 
relating to the creation, v/hich bear a strong 
resemblance to the account given by Moses. 
They are thus given in an advertisement, 
prefixed to the fifth volume of the "Asiatic 
Researches," and are intended as a supplement 
to a former treatise on the Hindoo religion : — 

" This universe existed only in the first divine 
idea, yet unexpanded, as if involved in darkness, 
imperceptible, undefinable, undiscoverable by 
reason, and undiscovered by revelation, as if it 
were wholly immersed in sleep. When the 
sole self-existing Power, himself undiscerned, 
but making this world discernible, with five 
elements and oth^r principles of nature, ap- 
peared with undiminished glory, expanding his 
idea, or dispelling the gloom. He, whom the 
mind alone can perceive, whose essence eludes 
the external organs, who has no visible parts, 
who exists from eternity, even he, the soul of 
all beings, v/hom no being can comprehend, 
shone forth in person. He, having willed to 
produce various beings from his own divine 
substance, first v/ith a thought created the 
waters. The waters are called nara, because 
they are the production of Nara, or the Spirit 
of God ;^and since they were his first ay ana, or 
place of motion, he thence is called Narayana, 
or moving on the waters. From that which is, 
the first cause, not the object of sense, existing 
every where in substance, not existing to our 
perception, without beginning or end, was 
produced the divine male. He framed the 
heaven above, and the earth beneath; in the 
midst he placed the subtile ether, the eight 
regions, and the permanent receptacle of 
waters. He framed all creatures. He, too, 
first assigned to all creatures distinct names, 
distinct acts, and distinct occupations. He 
gave being to time, and the divisions of time ; 
to the stars also, and the planets ; to rivers, 
oceans, and mountains ; to level plains, and 
uneven valleys. For the sake of distinguishing 



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actions, he made a total difference between 
right and wrong. Having divided his own 
substance, the mighty Power became half male, 
half female. He whose powers are incompre- 
hensible, having created this universe, was 
again absorbed in the spirit, clianging the time 
of energy for the time of repose." 

In these passages we have evidently a philo- 
sophical comment on the account of creation 
given by Moses, or as transmitted from the 
same source - of primitive tradition. We also 
see in these passages the rudiments of the Pla- 
tonic philosophy, the eternal ideas in the divine 
mind, ifec ; and were any question to arise re- 
spe-cting the original author of these notions, 
we should have little hesitation in giving it 
against the Greeks. They were the greatest 
plagiaries both in literature and philosophy, 
and they have scarcely an article of literary 
property which they can call their own, except 
their poetry. Their sages penetrated into 
Egypt and India, and on their return stigma- 
tized the natives of these countries as barba- 
rians, lest they should be suspected of stealing 
their inventions. 

5. The Chaldean cosmogony, according to 
Berosus, when divested of allegory, seems to 
resolve itself into this, that darkness and water 
existed from eternity ; that Belus divided the 
liuraid mass, and gave birth to creation ; that 
the human mind is an emanation from the 
divine nature. The cosmogony of the ancient 
Persians is very clumsy. They introduce two 
eternal principles, the one good, called Oro- 
masdes, the other evil, called Anmanius; and 
tliey make these two principles contend with 
each other in the creation and government of 
the world. Each has his province, which he 
strives to enlarge ; and Mithras is the mediator 
to moderate their contentions. This is the most 
inartificial plan that lias been devised to ac- 
count for the existence of evil, and has the least 
pretensions to a philosophical basis. The 
Egyptian cosmogony, according to the account 
given of it by Plutarch, seems to bear a strong 
resemblance to the Phenician, as detailed by 
Sanchoniatho. According to the Egyptian 
account, there was an eternal chaos, and an 
eternal spirit united with it, whose agency at 
last arranged the discordant materials, and 
produced the visible system of the universe. 
The cosmogony of the nortliern nations, as 
may be collected from the Edda, supposes an 
eternal principle prior to the formation of the 
world. The Orphic Fragments state every 
thing to have existed in God, and to proceed 
from him. The notion implied in this maxim 
is suspected to be pantheistic, that is, to imply 
the universe to be God ; which, however, might 
be a more modern perversion. Plato supposed 
the world to be produced by the Deity, uniting 
eternal, imniutable ideas, or forms, to variable 
matter. Aristotle had no cosmogony, because 
he supposed the world to be without beginning 
and without end. According to the Stoical 
doctrine, the divine nature, acting on matter, 
first produced moisture, and then the other 
elements, which are reciprocally convertible. 

CRETE, an island in the Mediterranean, 



now called Candia, Titus i, 5. Nature had 
endowed this island with all that renders man 
happy ; the inhabitants, likewise, had formerly 
a constitution which was renowned and fre- 
quently compared with that of the Spartans ; 
but at this time, and even long before, all, even 
laws and morals, had sunk very low. The 
character of this nation was mutable, prone to 
quarrelling, to civil disturbances and frays, to 
robberies and violences. Avaricious and base 
to a degree of sordid greediness, they con- 
sidered nothing as ignoble which gratified this 
inclination. Thence arose their treachery, 
their false and deceitful disposition, which had 
passed into a common proverb. Even in the 
times of purer morals they were decidedly 
addicted to wine ; and their propensity to incon- 
tinence was frequently censured and noticed by 
the ancients. Religion itself was one cause af 
the many excesses of this nation. Many deities 
were born among them ; they also showed their 
tombs and catacombs, and celebrated the feasts 
and mysteries of all. They therefore had con- 
tinually holydays, diversions, and idle times, 
and one of their native poets (Diodorus calls 
him QeoXoyoi) gave them the testimony which 
Paul found to be so true, Titus i, 12. Jews 
also had established themselves among them, 
who according to all appearance could have 
improved here but very little in morality. The 
Apostle seems to have considered them a more 
dangerous people than the inhabitants them- 

gp [-ypo 

CRIMSON, '7>?2nD, 2 Chron. ii, 7, iii, 14, the 
name of a colour. Bochart supposes it to be 
the cochlea purpuraria, or purple from a kind 
of shell-fish taken near Mount Carmel. But 
as the name of the mount is said to mean a 
vineyard, one may rather suppose the colour to 
signify that of grapes ; like the redness of the 
vesture of him who trod the wine-press, Isa. 
Ixiii, 1, 2. What our version renders crimson^ 
Isa. i, 18 ; Jer. iv, 30, should be scarlet. 

CROSS, an ancient instrument of capital 
punishment. The cross was the punishment 
inflicted by the Romans, on servants who had 
perpetrated crimes, on robbers, assassins, and 
rebels ; among which last Jesus was reckoned, 
on the ground of his making himself King or 
Messiah, Luke xxiii, 1-5, 13-15. The words 
in which the sentence was given were, " Thou 
shalt go to the cross." The person who was 
subjected to this punishment was then deprived 
of all his clothes excepting something around 
the loins. In this state of nudity he was 
beaten, sometimes with rods, but more gene- 
rally with whips. Such was the severity of 
this flagellation, that numbers died under it. 
Jesus was crowned with thorns, and made the 
subject of mockery ; but insults of this kind 
were not among the ordinary attendants of 
crucifixion. They were owing, in this case, 
merely to the petulant spirit of the Roman 
soldiers, Matt, xxvii, 29; Mark xv, 17; John 
xix, 2, 5. The criminal, having been beaten, 
v/as subjected to the farther suffering of being 
obliged to carry the cross himself to the place 
of punishment, which was commonly a hill, 
near the public way, and out of the city. The 



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place of crucifixion at Jerusalem v/as a hill to 
the north-west of the city. The cross, •^avpbg, 
a post, otherwise called the unpropitious or 
infamous tree, consisted of a piece of wood 
erected perpendicularly, and intersected by 
another at right angles near the top, so as to 
resemble the letter T. The crime for which 
the person suffered was inscribed on the 
transverse piece near the top of the perpen- 
dicular one. 

There is no mention made in ancient writers 
of any thing on which the feet of the person 
crucified rested. Near the middle, however, of 
the perpendicular beam, ther-e projected a pi«ce 
of wood, on which he sat, and which answered 
as a support to the body, since the weight of 
the body might otherwise have torn away the 
hands from the nails driven through them. 
The cross, which was erected at the place of 
punishment, being there firmly fixed in the 
ground, rarely exceeded ten feet in height. 
The victim, perfectly naked, was elevated to 
the small projection in the middle : the hands 
were then bound by a rope round the trans- 
verse beam, and nailed through the palm. 

The assertion that the persons who suffered 
crucifixion were not in some instances fastened 
to the cross by nails through the hands and 
feet, but were merely bound to it by ropes, 
cannot be proved by the testimony of any 
ancient writer whatever. That the feet, as 
well as the hands, were fastened to the cross 
by means of nails, is expressly asserted in the 
play of Plautus, entitled " Mostellaria," com. 
pared with Tertullian against the Jews, and 
against Marcion. In regard to the nailing of 
the feet, it may be farthermore observed, that 
Gregory Nazianzen has asserted, that one nail 
only was driven through both of them ; but 
Cyprian, (de passione,) who had been a personal 
witness to crucifixions, and is, consequently, 
in this case, the better authority, states, on 
the contrary, that two nails or spikes were 
driven, one through each foot. The crucified 
person remained suspended in this way till he 
died, and the corpse had become putrid. While 
he exhibited any signs of life, he was watched 
by a guard ; but they left him when it appeared 
that he was dead. The corpse was not buried, 
except by express permission, which was some- 
times granted by the emperor on his birth day, 
but only to a very few. An exception, how- 
ever, to this general practice was m.ade by the 
Romans in favour of the Jews, on account of 
Deut. xxi, 22, 23 ; and in Judea, accordingly, 
crucified persons were buried on the same day. 
When, therefore, there was not a prospect that 
they would die on the day of the crucifixion, 
the executioners hastened the extinction of 
life, by kindling a fire under the cross, so as to 
suffocate them with the smoke, or by letting 
loose wild beasts upon them, or by breaking 
their bones upon the cross with a mallet, as 
upon an anvil. The Jews, in the times of 
which we are speaking, namely, while they 
were under the jurisdiction of the Romans, 
were in the habit of giving the criminal, before 
the commencement of his sufferings, a medicat- 
ed drink of wine and myrrh, Prov. xxxi, 6. 



The object of this was to produce intoxication, 
and thereby render the pains of the crucifixion 
less sensible to the sufferer. This beverage 
was refused by the Saviour for the obvious 
reason, that he chose to die with the faculties 
of his mind undisturbed and unclouded, Matt, 
xxvii, 34 ; Mark xv, 23. It should be remarked, 
that this sort of drink, which was probably 
offered out of kindness, was different from the 
vinegar which was subsequently offered to the 
Saviour by the Roman soldiers. The latter 
was a mixture of vinegar and water, denomi- 
nated posca, and was a common drink for the 
soldiers in the Roman army, Luke xxiii, 36; 
John xix, 29. 

2. Crucifixion was not only the most igno- 
minious, it was likewise the most cruel, mode 
of punishment : so very much so, that Cicero 
is justified in saying, in respect to crucifixion, 
" Ab oculis, auribusque et omni cogitatione 
liominum removendum esse." [That it ought 
neither to be seen, heard of, nor even thought of 
by men.] The sufferings endured by a person 
on whom this punishment is inflicted are nar- 
rated by George Gottlieb Richter, a German 
physician, in a " Dissertation on the Saviour's 
Crucifixion." The position of the body is 
unnatural, the arms being extended back, and 
almost immovable. In case of the least mo- 
tion, an extremely painful sensation is experi- 
enced in the hands and feet, which are pierced 
with nails, and in the back, which is lacerated 
with stripes. The nails, being driven through 
the parts of the hands and feet which abound 
in nerves and tendons, create the most exquisite 
anguish. The exposure of so many wounds to 
the open air brings on an inflammation, which 
every moment increases the piognancy of the 
suffering. In those parts of the body which 
are distended or pressed, more blood flows 
through the arteries than can be carried back 
in the veins. The consequence is, that a greater 
quantity of blood finds its way from the aorta 
into the head and stomach, than would be car- 
ried there by a natural and undisturbed circu- 
lation. The blood vessels of the head become 
pressed and swollen, which of course causes 
pain, and a redness of the face. The circum- 
stance of the blood being impelled in more than 
ordinary quantities into the stomach is an 
unfavourable one also, because it is that part 
of the system which not only admits of the 
blood being stationary, but is peculiarly expos- 
ed to mortification. The aorta, not being at 
liberty to empty, in the free and undisturbed 
way as formerly, the blood which it receives 
from the lefl ventricle of the heart, is unable 
to receive its usual quantity. The blood of the 
lungs, therefore, is unable to find a free circu- 
lation. This general obstruction extends its 
effects likewise to the right ventricle, and the 
consequence is, an internal excitement, and ex- 
ertion, and anxiety, which are more intolerable 
than the anguish of death itself. All the large 
vessels about the heart, and all the veins and 
arteries in that part of the system, on account 
of the accumulation and pressure of blood, are 
the source of inexpressible misery. The degree 
of anguish is gradual in its increase ; and the 



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person crucified is able to live under it com- 
monly till the third, and sometimes till the 
seventh, day, Pilate, therefore, being surpris- 
ed at the speedy termination of the Saviour's 
life, inquired in respect to the truth of it of the 
centurion himself, who commanded the soldiers, 
Mark xv, 44. In order to bring their life to a 
more speedy termination, so that they might 
be buried on the same day, the bones of the 
two thieves were broken with mallets, John 
xix, 31-37 ; and in order to ascertain this point 
in respect to Jesus, namely, whether he was 
really dead, or whether he had merely fallen 
into a swoon, a soldier thrust his lance into 
his side ; but no signs of life appeared, John 
xix, 31-37. 

3. Our Saviour says, that whosoever will be 
his disciple must take up his cross and follow 
him. Matt, xvi, 24: by which is meant, that 
his disciples must be willing to suffer for him, 
in any way in wliich God, in the course of his 
providence, may call them to suffer ; even to 
endure martyrdom, if called to it. The cross 
is also oflen put for the whole of Christ's suf- 
ferings, Eph. ii, 16 ; Heb. xii, 2 ; and the doc- 
trine of his perfect atonement, Gal. vi, 14. 

CROWN is a terra properly taken for a cap 
of state worn on the heads of sovereign princes, 
as a mark of regal dignity. In Scripture there 
is frequent mention made of crowns ; and the 
use of them seems to have been very common 
among the Hebrews. The high priest wore a 
crown, which was girt about his mitre, or the 
lower part of his bonnet, and was tied about 
his head. On the forepart was a plate of gold, 
with these words engraven on it : " Holiness 
to the Lord, "Exod. xxviii, 36 ; xxix, 6. New- 
married persons of both sexes wore crowns upon 
their wedding day, Cant, iii, 11 ; and, alluding 
to this custom, it is said that when God entered 
into covenant with the Jewish nation, he put 
a beautiful crown upon their head, Ezekiel 
xvi, 12. The first crowns were no more than 
a bandelet drawn round the head, and tied be- 
hind, as we see it still represented on medals, 
&c. Afterward, they consisted of tw^o bande- 
lets ; by degrees they took branches of trees of 
divers kinds, &c ; at length they added flowers ; 
and Claudius Saturninus says there was not any 
plant of w-hich crowns had not been made. 

There was always a difference, either in 
matter or form, between the crowns of kings 
and great men, and those of private persons. 
The crown of a king was generally a white 
fillet bound about his forehead, the extremities 
whereof being tied behind the head, fell back 
on the neck. Sometimes they were made of 
gold tissue, adorned with jewels. That of the 
Jewish high priest, which is the most ancient 
of which we have any description, was a fillet 
of gold placed upon his forehead, and tied with 
a ribbon of a hyacinth colour, or azure blue. 
The crown, mitre, and diadem, royal fillet and 
tiara, are frequently confounded. Crowns were 
bestowed on kings and princes, as the principal 
marks of their dignity. David took the crown 
of the king of the Ammonites from off his 
bead : the crown weighed a talent of gold, and 
was moreover enriched with jewels, 2 Sam. 



xii, 30 ; 1 Chron. xx, 2. The Amalekite who 
valued himself on killing Saul, brought this 
prince's ero^vn unto David, 2 Sam. i, 10. The 
crown was placed upon the head of young 
King Josiah, when he was presented to the 
people, in order to be acknowledged by them, 
2 Chron. xxiii, 11. Baruch says that the idols 
of the Babylonians wore golden crowns, Baruch 
vi, 9. Queens, too, wore diadems among the 
Persians. King Ahasuerus honoured Vashti 
with this mark of power ; and, afler her divorce, 
the same favour was granted to Esther, chap, 
ii, 17. The elders, in Rev. iv, 10, are said to 
" cast their crowns before the throne." The 
allusion is here to the tributary kings depend- 
ent upon the Roman emperors. Herod took 
off his diadem in the presence of Augustus, till 
ordered to replace it. Tiridates did homage to 
Nero by laying the ensigns of royalty at the 
foot of his statue. 

Pilate's guard platted a crown of thorns, and 
placed it on the head of Jesus Christ, Matt, xxvii, 
29, with an intention to insult him, under the 
character of the king of the Jews. See Thorn. 
In a figurative sense, a crown signifies honour, 
splendour, or dignity. Lam. v, 16; Phil, iv, 1 ; 
and is also used for reward, because conquerors, 
in the Grecian games, were crowned, 1 Corin. 
thians ix, 25. 

CRYSTAL, mp. This word is translated 
"crystal" in Ezek. i, 22; and "frost," Gen. 
xxxi, 40 ; Job xxxvii, 10 ; Jeremiah xxxvi, 30 ; 
and "ice," Job vi, 16; xxxviii, 29; Psalm 
cxlvii, 17 ; Kpv^aWos, Rev. iv, 6 ; xxii, 1. Crys- 
tal is supposed to have its name from its resem- 
blance to ice. The Greek word, Kpvs-aWos, is 
formed from Kpvog, ice, and s-aXdaaonai, to concrete. 
The word, noior, is translated crystal, in Job 
xxviii, 17. Dr. Good observes, " We are not 
certain of the exact signification, farther than 
that it denotes some perfectly transparent and 
hyaline gem." 

CUBIT, a measure used among the ancients. 
The Hebrews call it hdn, the mother of other 
measures : in Greek ro^;^?. A cubit originally 
was the distance from the elbow to the extre- 
mity of the middle finger : this is the fourth part 
of a well proportioned man's stature. The 
common cubit is eighteen inches. The He- 
brew cubit, according to Bishop Cumberland 
and M. Pelletier, is twenty-one inches ; but 
others fix it at eighteen inches. The Talmu- 
dists .observe, that the Hebrew cubit was larger 
by one quarter than the Roman. Lewis Ca- 
pellus and others have asserted that there were 
two sorts of cubits among the Hebrews ; one 
sacred, the other common ; the sacred contain- 
ing three feet, the common containing a foot 
and a half. Moses assigns to the Levites a 
thousand sacred cubits of land round about 
their cities. Num. xxxv, 4; and in the next 
verse he gives them two thousand common 
ones. The opinion, however, is very probable, 
that the cubit varied in different districts and 
cities, and at different times, &c. 

CUCUMBER, a>N2'p, oUvog, cucumis, Num. 
xi, 5, the fruit of a plant very common in our 
gardens. Tournefort mentions six kinds, of 
which the white and green are most esteemed. 



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They are very plentiful in the east, especially 
in Egypt, and much superior to ours. Maillet, 
in describing the vegetables which the modern 
Egyptians have for food, tells us, that melons, 
cucumbers, and onions are the most com- 
mon; and Celsius and Alpinus describe the 
Egyptian cucumbers as more agreeable to the 
taste and of more easy digestion than the 
European. 

CULDEES, a body of religious, who chiefly 
resided in Scotland, Ireland, and some of the 
adjacent isles. The name has been also writ- 
ten Keldees and Kyldees. Various etymons 
have been given of it. Two of these seem to 
have superior claims to attention. It may be 
deduced either from Irish ceile, or, gille, a serv- 
ant, and Be, Dm, God ; or from cuil, ceal, in 
Welsh eel, a sequestered corner, a retreat. The 
latter seems to derive support from the esta- 
blished sense of Tcil, retained in the names of 
60 many places, which, in an early age, have 
been consecrated to religion. It is more than 
probable that Christianity had found its way 
into Scotland before the close of the second 
century ; and that it continued to be professed 
by a few scattered individuals even before the 
arrival of Ninian, in the beginning of the fifth. 
But we have no proof of the existence of any 
religious societies observing a particular insti- 
tute, till the year 563, when Columba landed 
in Hii, or lona ; Avhich, in honour of him, was 
afterward called I-colmn-hill ; that is, the isle of 
Colum, or Columba, of the cells. He was born 
in Ireland, A. D. 521 ; and, after founding many 
seminaries of religion there, prompted by zeal 
for the propagation of Christianity, set sail for 
Scotland with twelve companions. According 
to Bede, having converted the northern Picts, 
he received from Erudi, their king, the island 
of Hii in possession, for the purpose of erect- 
ing a monastery. Here he almost constantly 
resided till the year 597, when he died, lie 
made occasional visits to the mainland, pro- 
ceeding even as far as to Inverness : also to 
Ireland, where he was held in high estimation. 
As he was himself much devoted to the study 
of the Holy Scriptures, he taught his disciples 
to confirm their doctrines by testimonies 
brought from this unpolluted fountain, and 
declared that only to be the divine counsel 
which he found there. His followers, faithful 
to his instructions, "would receive those things 
only which are contained in the writings of 
the Prophets, Evangelists, and Apostles, dili- 
gently observing the works of piety and puri- 
ty." They lived, indeed, according to a certain 
institute, which, it is said, was composed by 
their venerable instructer. But there Vv^as this 
remarkable distinction between them and those 
societies properly called monastic, that they 
were not associated expressly for the purpose 
of observ^ing this rule. While they seem to 
have reckoned something of this kind neces- 
sary for the preservation of order, and for the 
attainment of habits of diligence, their great 
design was, by the instruction of those com- 
mitted to their charge, to train them up for the 
work of the ministry. Hence it has been justly 
observed, that the Culdean fraternities may 



more properly be viewed as colleges than as 
monasteries ; as being in fact, the seminaries 
of the church both in North Britain and in 
Ireland. There were also Culdees in Wales ; 
and, for many ages, the Christians of that 
country held the same doctrines, and observed 
the same rites, with their Scottish and Irish 
brethren. The presbyters not only acted as 
the ministers of religion to those in their vici- 
nity, but were still instructing others, and send- 
ing forth missionaries whenever they had a 
call, or any prospect of success. 

2. In each regular establishment of the Cul- 
dees, it would appear that there were twelve 
brethren, with one wdao presided over them. 
Their ecclesiastical government has been view- 
ed as materially the same with the Presbyterian. 
Their president, or abbot, was not a bishop, 
but a presbyter ; to whose authority, as we learn 
from Bede, even the bishops of the district were 
subject. In their meetings, all matters were 
settled by plurality of voices. The members 
of this council had the general designation of 
seniores, or elders. To them, collectively, be- 
longed the trial of the gifts of those who had 
been educated in their seminaries, when they 
were to be employed in the public ministry; 
from them they received ordination and mis- 
sion, and to them they were amenable in the 
discharge of their office. Those whom they 
thus employed are, by ancient writers, often 
denominated bishops. But that they attached 
to this designation no dignity superior to that 
of presbyter, appears incontrovertible from 
their being afterward called to account, and 
sometimes censured by the fraternity. It has 
been asserted by the friends of diocesan episco 
pacy, that a bishop must always have resided 
at lona for the purpose of conferring ordination. 
But there is not the slightest evidence of this. 
The contrary appears from all the records of 
these early ages. We learn from the Saxon 
Chronicle, that "there was always an abbot at 
Hii, but no bishop." It is a singular fact, that 
those who were first acknowledged as bishops 
in the northern parts of England, and were 
indeed instrumental in the introduction of 
Christianity there, were not only trained up at 
lona, but received all their authority from the 
council of seniors in that island. This was the 
case with respect to Corman, the bishop of the 
Northumbrians, as well as Aidan, Finan, and 
Colman, who succeeded each other in this 
mission. From the testimony of Bede, it is 
evident that by means of Scottish missionaries, 
or of those w^hom they had instructed and 
ordained, not only the Northumbrians, but the 
Middle-Angles, the Mercians and East-Saxons, 
all the way to the river Thames, that is, the 
inhabitants of by far the greatest part of the 
country now called England, were converted to 
Christianity ; and for some time acknowledged 
subiection to the ecclesiastical government of 
the" Scots. The latter lost their influence 
merely because their missionaries chose rather 
to give up their charges than to submit to the 
prevailing influence of the church of Rome, to 
which the Saxons of the west and of Kent had 
subjected themselves. 



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3. Their doctrines were not less unpalatable 
than their mode of government to the friends 
of the church of Rome. In England, in a very 
early period, the adherents of the Popish mis- 
sionary Augustine were viewed by the delegates 
from lona in the light of heretics. They 
accordingly refused to hold communion with 
them. Matters were carried so high in sup- 
port of the Roman authority in the synod of 
Stroneschalch, nov/ Whitby, in England, A. 
D. 662, that Colman, the Scottish bishop of 
Luidisfarne, left his bishopric, and v/ith his 
adherents returned to Scotland. Thus, as Bede 
informs us, "the Catholic institution daily 
increasing, all the Scots who resided among 
the Angles, either conformed to them or re- 
turned to their own country." ' It was decreed 
in the council of Cealhythe, A. D. 816, that no 
Scottish priest should be allowed to perform 
any duty of his function in England. But in 
Scotland the Culdean doctrine had taken deeper 
root ; and, although equally offensive to the 
votaries of Rome, kept its ground for several 
centm-ies. The Popish writers themselves cele- 
brate the piety, the purity, the humility, and 
even the learning, of the Culdees ; but while 
they were displeased with the simplicity, or 
what they deemed the barbarism, of their wor- 
ship, they charged them with various deviations 
from the faith of the Catholic church. It was 
not the least of these, that they did not observe 
Easter at the proper time. They did not ac- 
knowledge auricular confession ; they rejected 
penance and authoritative absolution ; they 
made no use of chrism in baptism ; confirma- 
tion was unknown ; they opposed the doctrine 
of the real presence ; they withstood the idol- 
atrous worship of saints and angels, dedicating 
all their churches to the Holy Trinity; they 
denied the doctrine of works of supererogation ; 
they were enemies to the celibacy of the clergy, 
themselves living in the married state. One 
sweeping charge brought against them is, that 
they preferred their own opinions to " the sta- 
tutes of the holy fathers." 

4. The Scots, having received the Christian 
faith by the labours of the Culdees, long with- 
stood the errors and usurpations of Rome. 
It was not till the twelfth century that their 
influence began to decline. The difference 
between the lower classes of society in England 
and those of the same description in Scotland, 
both with respect to religious knowledge and 
moral conduct, is generally considered to be 
very striking. Some writers, whose attention 
has been arrested by this singular circumstance, 
and who could not be influenced by local at- 
tachments, have ascribed the disparity to the 
relative influence, however remote it may seem, 
of the doctrine and example of the Culdees. 
Notwithstanding their great disinterestedness 
and diligence in propagating the Gospel in 
England, these good men, it has been remark- 
ed, within thirty years after the commencement 
of their mission, were obliged to give way to 
the adherents of Rome ; whereas the Scots, it 
is certainly known, enjoyed the benefit of their 
labours for more than seven centuries, and 
seem to have still retained their predilection 



for the doctrines and modes which they so 

early received. 

CUMMIN, np3, Isaiah xxviii, 25, 27; 
KVfjiivov, Matt, xxiii, 23. This is an umbellifisr- 
ous plant, in appearance resembling fennel, but 
smaller. Its seeds have a bitterish warm taste, 
accompanied with an aromatic flavour, not of 
the most agreeable kind. An essential oil is 
obtained from them by distillation. The Jews 
sowed it in their fields, and when ripe threshed 
out the seeds Avith a rod, Isaiah xxviii, 25, 27. 
The Maltese sow it, and collect the seeds in 
the same manner. 

CUP. This word is taken in a twofold sense ; 
proper, and figurative. In a proper sense, it 
signifies a vessel, such as people drink out of 
at meals, Gen. xl, 13. It was anciently the cus- 
torn, at great entertainments, for the governor 
of the feast to appoint to each of his guests the 
kind and proportion of wine which they were 
to drink, and what he had thus appointed them 
it was deemed a breach of good manners either 
to refuse or not to drink up; hence a man's 
cup, both in sacred and profane authors, came 
to signify the portion, whether of good or evil, 
which happens to him in this world. Thus, to 
drink "the cup of trembling," or of " the fury 
of the Lord," is to be afflicted with sore and 
terrible judgments, Isaiah li, 17 ; Jeremiah xxv, 
15-29 ; Psalm Ixxv, 8. What Christ means 
by the expression, we cannot be at a loss to 
understand, since in two remarkable passages, 
Luke xxii, 42, and .John xviii, 11, he has been 
his own interpreter. Letliale poculum bibere., 
"to drink the deadly cup," or cup of death, 
was a common phrase among the Jews ; and 
from them, we have reason to believe, our 
Lord borrowed it. 

Cup of Blessing, 1 Corinth, x, 16, is that 
which was blessed in entertainments of ceremo- 
ny, or solemn services ; or, rather, a cup over 
which God was blessed for having furnishedrits 
contents ; that is, for giving to men the fruit of 
the vine. Our Saviour, in the Last Supper, 
blessed the cup, and gave it to each of his Apos- 
tles to drink, Luke xxii, 20. 

Cup of Salvation, Psalm cxvi, 13, a phrase 
of nearly the same import as the former, a cup 
of thanksgiving, of blessing the Lord for his 
saving mercies. We see, in 2 Mace, vi, 27, 
that the Jews of Egypt, in their festivals for 
deliverance, offered cups of salvation. The 
.Tews have at this day cups of thanksgiving, 
which are blessed, in their marriage ceremonies, 
and in entertainments made at the circumcision 
of their children. Some commentators think 
that "the cup of salvation" was a libation of 
wine poured on the victim sacrificed on thanks- 
giving occasions, according to the law of Mo- 
ses, Exod. xxix, 40. 

CURSE. To curse, signifies to imprecate, 
to call for mischief upon, or wish evil to, any 
one. Noah cursed his grandson Canaan, Gen. 
ix, 25 : Jacob cursed the fiiry of his two sons, 
Gen. xlix, 7 : Moses enjoins the people of Israel 
to denounce curses against the violaters of the 
law, Deut. xxvii, 15, 16, &c. Joshua pro- 
nounced a curse upon him who should under- 
take to rebuild Jericho. These curses were 



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Buch as were either ordained by God himself, 
and pronounced by men under the influence of 
his Spirit ; or they were predictions of certain 
evils which would happen to individuals, or to 
a people, uttered in the form of imprecations. 
Tlaey w^ere not the effects of passion, impa- 
tience, or revenge ; and, therefore, were not 
things condemned by God in his law, like the 
cursing mentioned, Exodus xxi, 17, xxii, 28, 
Leviticus xix, 14. 

GUSH, the eldest son of Ham, and father of 
Nimrod, Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and 
Sabtecha ; and the grandfather of Sheba and 
Dedan. The posterity of Gush, spread over 
great part of Asia and Africa, were called 
Gushira, or Gushites ; and by the Greeks and 
Romans, and in our Bible, Ethiopians. 

Gush, Gutha, Guthea, Gushan, Ethiopia, 
Land of Cush, the country or countries peopled 
by the descendants of Gush ; whose first plant- 
ations were on the gulf of Persia, in that part 
which still bears the name of Ghuzestan, 
and from whence they spread over India and 
great part of Arabia ; particularly its western 
part, on the coast of the Red Sea ; invaded 
Egypt, under the name of Hyc-Sos, or sliep- 
herd-kings ; and thence passed, as well proba- 
bly as by the straits of Babelmandel, into 
Gentral Africa, and first peopled the countries 
to the south of Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, and 
parts farther to the south and west. The 
indiscriminate use of the term Ethiopia in our 
Bible, for all the countries peopled by the pos- 
terity of Gash, and the almost exclusive appli- 
cation of the same term by the Greek and 
Roman writers to the before mentioned coun- 
tries of Africa, have involved some portions of 
both sacred and profane history in almost inex- 
tricable confusion. The first country which 
bore this name, and which was doubtless the 
original settlement, was that which is described 
by Moses as encompassed by the river Gihon, 
or Gyndes ; which encircles a great part of the 
province of Ghuzestan in Persia. In process 
of time, the increasing family spread over the 
vast territory of India and Arabia : the whole 
of which tract, from the Ganges to the borders 
of Egypt, then became the land of Gush, or 
Asiatic Ethiopia, the Cusha Dweepa within, of 
Hindoo geography. Until dispossessed of this 
country, or a great part of it, by the posterity 
of Abraham, the Ishmaelites and Midianites, 
they, by a farther dispersion, passed over into 
Africa; which, in its turn, became the land of 
Gush, or Ethiopia, the Cusha Dweepa without, 
of the Hindoos : the only country so understood 
after the commencement of the Ghristian sera. 
Even from this last refuge, they were compelled, 
by the influx of fresh settlers from Arabia, 
Egypt, and Ganaan, to extend their migra- 
tions still farther westward, into the heart of 
the African continent ; where only in the 
woolly-headed negro, the genuine Cushite is 
to be found. 

Herodotus relates that Xerxes had, in the 
army prepared for his Grecian expedition, both 
Oriental and African Ethiopians : and adds, 
that they resembled each other in every out. 
ward circumstance except their hair ; that of 



the Asiatic Ethiopians being long and straight, 
while the hair of those of Africa was curled. 
This is a very remarkable fact ; and leads to 
the question, How came this singular distinc 
tion between people of the same stock ? Did 
it arise from change of climate and of habits? 
or from some original difference in a particular 
branch of the great family of Gush ? The for- 
mer appears by far the more probable. It is 
not likely that a people descended from a com- 
mon parent should naturally be distinguished 
by such a peculiar difference ; but that it might 
be acquired by change of soil and condition^ 
we have every reason to believe. We have 
something exactly analogous to it, in the 
change which the hair of animals undergoes 
when removed from their native state. But 
a modern writer has furnished us with a fact 
which will go farther than either theory or 
analogy. Dr. Prichard, in his researches into 
the Physical History of Man, relates, on the au- 
thority of Dr. S. S. Smith, of the negroes settled 
in the southern districts of the United States 
of America, that the field-slaves, who live on 
the plantations, and retain pretty nearly the 
rude manners of their African progenitors, 
preserve in the third generation much of their 
original structure, though their features are 
not so strongly marked as those of imported 
slaves. But the domestic servants of the same 
race, who are treated with lenity, and whose 
condition is little different from that of the 
lower class of white people, in the third gene- 
ration have the nose raised, the mouth and lips 
of moderate size, the eyes lively and sparkling, 
and often the whole composition of the features 
extremely agreeable. " The hair grows sen- 
sibly longer in each succeeding race, and ex- 
tends to three, four, and sometimes to six or 
eight inches." 

About four hundred years before Ghrist, Hero- 
dotus, in his second book which treats of Egypt, 
makes frequent mention of Ethiopia ; mean- 
ing exclusively the Ethiopia above Egypt. In 
the time of our Saviour, (and indeed from that 
time forward,) by Ethiopia, was meant, in a 
general sense, the countries south of Egypt, 
then but imperfectly known : of one of which, 
that Gandace was queen whose eunuch was 
baptized by Philip. 

From a review of the history of this remark- 
able people, we may see that those writers must 
necessarily be wrong who would confine the 
Ethiopians to either Arabia or Africa. Many 
parts of Scripture history cannot possibly be 
understood, without supposing them to have 
settlements in both ; which Herodotus ex- 
pressly asserts was the case. In fine, we may 
conclude, that in the times of the prophets, 
and during the transactions recorded in the 
second books of Kings and Ghronicles, the 
Gushites, still retaining a part of their ancient 
territories in Arabia, had crossed the Red Sea 
in great numbers, and obtained extensive pos- 
sessions in Africa ; where, being, in a farther 
course of time, altogether expelled from the 
east by the Ishmaelites, &.c, their remains are 
now concentrated. It is to be observed, how. 
ever, that the Gushites probably at the time of 



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their expulsion from Egypt, migrated, or sent 
colonies into several other parts, particularly 
to Phenicia, Colchis, and Greece ; where, in 
process of time, they became blended with the 
other inhabitants of those countries, the fami- 
lies of Javan, Meshek, and Tubal, and their 
distinctive character totally lost. 

CYPRESS, n?nn, Isa. xliv, 14; and Kvndpia- 
aos, Ecclus. xxiv, 13 ; 1, 10 ; a large evergreen 
tree. The wood is fragrant, very compact, 
and heavy. It scarcely ever rots, decays, or 
is worm-eaten ; for which reason the ancients 
used to make the statues of their gods with it. 
The unperishable chests which contain the 
Egj'^ptian mummies were of cypress. The 
gates of St. Peter's church at Rome, which had 
lasted from the time of Constantino to that of 
Pope Eugene IV, that is to say eleven hundred 
years, were of cj^press, and had in that time 
suffered no deca3^ But Celsius thinks that 
Isaiah speaks of the ilex, a kind of oak ; and 
Bishop Lowth, that the pine is intended. The 
cypress, however, was more frequently used, 
and more fit for the purpose which the prophet 
mentions, than either of these trees. 

CYPRUS, a large island in the Mediterra. 
nean, situated between Ciiicia and Syria. Its 
inhabitants M^ere plunged in all manner of 
luxury and debauchery. Their principal deity 
was Venus. The Apostles Paul and Barnabas 
landed in the isle of Cyprus, A. D. 44, Acts 
xiii, 4. While they continued at Salamis, they 
preached Jesus Christ in the Jewish synagogues ; 
from thence they visited all the cities of the 
island, preaching the Gospel. At Paphos, they 
found Bar-Jesus, a false prophet, with Sergius 
Paulus, the governor: Paul struck Bar-Jesus 
with blindness ; and the proconsul embraced 
Christianity. Some time after, Barnabas went 
again into this island with John, surnamed 
Mark, Acts xv, 39. Barnabas is considered as 
the principal Apostle, and first bishop, of Cy- 
prus ; where it is said he was martyred, being 
stoned to death by the Jews of Salamis. 

CYRENE was a city of Lybia in Africa, 
which, as it was the principal city of that pro- 
vince, gave to it the name of Cyrenaica. This 
city was once so powerful as to contend with 
Carthage for preeminence. In profane writers, 
it is mentioned as the birthplace ot Eratosthe- 
nes the mathematician, and Callimachus the 
poet ; and in holy writ, of Simon, whom the 
Jews compelled to bear our Saviour's cross. 
Matt, xxvii, 32; Luke xxiii, 26. At Cyrene 
resided many Jews, a great part of whom 
embraced the Christian religion ; but others 
opposed it with much obstinacy. Among the 
most inveterate enemies of Christianity, Luke 
reckons those of this province, who had a syna- 
gogue at Jerusalem, and excited the people 
against St. Stephen, Acts xi, 20. 

CYRENIUS, governor of Syria, Luke ii, 
1, 2. Great difficulties have been raised on 
the history of the taxing under Cyrenius, for 
the different solutions of which we must refer 
to the commentators. 

It may be observed on the passage in Luke 
ii, 1, 2, That the word olKafiivrj, rendered all the 
poild, Bometimee eignifies the whole of a coun- 



try, region, or district, as perhaps Acts xi, 28, 
and certainly Luke xxi, 26. The expression, 
" all the country," is peculiarly proper in this 
place, because Galilee, as well as Judea, was 
included, and perhaps all other parts in which 
were Jews. The word drroypacpfi, which is ren- 
dered taxing, should have been translated en- 
rolment; as a taxation did not always really 
follow such enrolment, though such enrolment 
generally preceded a taxation. The difficulty 
of the passage is in the word wpwr;?, first, be- 
cause, ten or eleven years after, there was 
actually a taxation, which, as a decisive mark 
of subjection to the Roman power, was very 
mortifying to the Jewish nation. To this 
taxation Gamaliel alludes, " Judas of Galilee 
rose up in the days of the taxing," Acts v, 37, 
when mobs and riots were frequent, under pre- 
tence of liberty. 

The narrative of St. Luke may be combined 
in the following order, which is probably not 
far from its true import : " In those days Caesar 
Augustus," who was displeased with the con- 
duct of Herod, and wished him to feel his 
dependence on the Roman empire, "issued a 
decree that the v/hole land" of Judea "should 
be enrolled," as well persons as possessions, 
that the true state of the inhabitants, their 
families, and their property, might be known 
and recorded. Accordingly, " all were en- 
rolled," but the taxation did not immediately 
follow this enrolment, because Augustus was 
reconciled to Herod ; and this accounts for the 
silence of Josephus on an assessment not car- 
ried into effect. " And this was the first assess- 
ment (or enrolment) of Cyrenius, governor of 
Syria. And all went to be enrolled, each to 
his own city ;" and, as the emperor's order was 
urgent, and Cyrenius was known to be active 
in the despatch of business, even Mary, though 
far advanced "in her pregnancy, went with 
Joseph, and while they waited" for their turn 
to be enrolled, " Mary was delivered of Jesus." 
It is not, however, improbable, that Mary had 
som^e small landed estate, for which her ap- 
pearance was necessary. Jesus, therefore, was 
enrolled with Mary and Joseph, as Julian the 
Apostate expressly says. 

An officer being sent from Rome to enrol 
and assess the subjects of a king, implied that 
such king was dependent on the Roman em- 
peror, and demonstrates that the sceptre was 
departed from Judah. This occurrence, added 
to the alarm of Herod on the inquiry of the 
Magi respecting the birthplace of the Messiah, 
might sufficiently exasperate Herod, not merely 
to slay the infants of Bethlehem, but to every 
act of cruelty. Hence, after such an occur- 
rence, all Jerusalem might well be alarmed 
with Herod, Matt, ii, 3 ; and the priests, &c, 
study caution in their answers to him. This 
occurrence would quicken the attention of all 
who expected temporal redemption in Israel, 
as it would extremely mortify every Jewish 
national feeling. 

The overruling providence of God appoint- 
ed, that, at the time of Christ's birth, there 
should be a public, authentic, and general pro. 
duction of titles, pedigrees, &c, which should 



CYR 



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CYR 



prove that Jesus was descended from the house 
and direct family line of David ; and that this 
should be proved judicially on such a scruti- 
nizing occasion. This occurrence brought 
about the birth of the Messiah, at the very 
place appointed by prophecy long before, 
though the usual residence of Joseph and Mary 
was at Nazareth. 

CYRUS, son of Cambyses the Persian, and 
of Mandane, daughter of Astyages, king of 
the Medes. At the age of thirty, Cyrus was 
made general of the Persian troops, and sent, 
at the head of thirty thousand men, to assist 
his uncle, Cyaxares, whom the Babylonians 
were preparing to attack. Cyaxares and 
Cyrus gave them battle, and dispersed them. 
After this, Cyrus carried the war into the 
countries beyond the river Halys; subdued 
Cappadocia ; marched against Crssus, king 
of Lydia, defeated him, and took Sardis, his 
capital. Having reduced almost all Asia, Cy- 
rus repassed the Euphrates, and turned his 
arms against the Assyrians: having defeated 
them, he laid siege to Babylon, which he took 
on a festival day, after having diverted the 
course of the river which ran through it. On 
his return to Persia, he married his cousin, the 
daughter and heiress of Cyaxares ; after which 
he engaged in several wars, and subdued all 
the nations between Syria and the Red Sea. 
He died at the age of seventy, after a reign of 
thirty years. Authors differ much concerning 
the manner of his death. 

2. We learn few particulars respecting Cy. 
rus from Scripture ; but they are more certain 
than those derived from other sources. Daniel, 
in the remarkable vision in which God showed 
him the ruin of several great empires which 
preceded the birth of the Messiah, represents 
Cyrus as "a ram which had two horns, both 
high, but one rose higher than the other, and 
the higher came up last. This ram pushed 
westward, and northward, and southward, so 
that no beasts might stand before him, neither 
was there any that could deliver out of his 
hand; but he did according to his will, and 
became great," Daniel viii, 3, 4, 20. The two 
horns signify the two empires which Cyrus 
united in his person, that of the Medes and 
that of the Persians. In another place, Daniel 
compares Cyrus to a bear, with three ribs in 
its mouth, to which it was said, " Arise, de- 
vour much flesh." Cyrus succeeded Cambyses 
in the kingdom of Persia, and Darius the 
Mede (by Xenophon called Cyaxares, and 
Astyages in the Greek of Dan. xiii, 65,) also 
in the kingdom of the Medes, and the empire 
of Babylon. He was monarch, as he speaks 
"of all the earth," Ezra i, 1, 2; 2 Chron. 
xxxvi, 22, 23, when he permitted the Jews to 
return into their own country, A. M. 3466, 
B. C. 538. He had always a particular regard 
for Daniel, and continued him in his great 
employments. 

3. The prophets foretold the exploits of 
Cyrus. Isaiah, xliv, 28, particularly declares 
his name, above a century before he was born. 
Josephus says, that the Jews of Babylon show- 
ed this passage to Cyrus; and that, in the 



edict which he granted for their return, he 
acknowledged that he received the empire 
of the world from the God of Israel. The 
peculiar designation by name, which Cyrus 
received, must be regarded as one of the most 
remarkable circumstances in the prophetic 
writings. He was the heir of a monarch who 
ruled over one of the poorest and most incon- 
siderable kingdoms of Asia, but whose hardy 
inhabitants were at that time the bravest of 
the brave ; and the providential circumstances 
in which he was placed precluded him from all 
knov/ledge of this oracular declaration in his 
favour. He did not become acquainted with 
the sacred books in which it was contained, 
nor with the singular people in whose posses, 
sion it was found, till he had accomplished all 
the purposes for which he liad been raised up, 
except that of saying to Jerusalem, as the 
"anointed" vicegerent of Heaven, "Thou 
shalt be inhabited ;" and to the cities of Judah, 
"Ye shall be built, and I will raise up their 
ruins." The national pride of the Jews during 
the days of their unhallowed prosperity, would 
hinder them from divulging among other na- 
tions such prophecies as this, which contained 
the most severe yet deserved reflections upon 
their wicked practices and ungrateful conduct ; 
and it was only when they were captives in 
Babylon that they submitted to the humiliat- 
ing expedient of exhibiting, to the mighty 
monarch whose bondmen they had become, 
the prophetic record of their own apostasy and 
punishment, and of his still higher destiiiation, 
as the rebuilder of Jerusalem. No temptation 
therefore could be laid before the conqueror in 
early life to excite his latent ambition to ac- 
complish this very full and explicit prophecy ; 
and the facts of his life, as recorded by histo- 
rians of very opposite sentiments and feelings, 
all concur in developing a series of consecu- 
tive events, in which he acted no insignificant 
part; which, though astonishing in their 
results, differ greatly from those rapid strides 
perceptible in the hurried career of other 
mighty men of war in the east ; and which, 
from the unbroken connection in which they 
are presented to us, appear like the common 
occurrences of life naturally following each 
other, and mutually dependent. Yet this con- 
sideration does not preclude the presence of a 
mighty Spirit working within him ; which, 
according to Isaiah, said to him, "I will gird 
thee, though thou hast not known me." Con- 
cerning the genius, or guardian angel, oi 
Socrates many learned controversies have 
arisen; but, though a few of the disputants 
have endeavoured to explain it away, the 
majority of them have lefl the Greek philoso- 
pher in possession of a greater portion of in- 
spiration than, with marvellous inconsistency, 
some of them are willing to accord to the Jew- 
ish prophets. In this view it is highly inter- 
esting to recollect that the elegant historian 
who first informed his refined countrymen ot 
this moral prodigy, is he who subsequently 
introduced them to an acquaintance with 
the noble and heroic Cyrus. The didactic 
discourses and the comparatively elevated 



CYR 



285 



CYR 



morality which Xenophon embodied in his \ 
" Memoirs of Socrates," are generally admit- 
ted to have been purposely illustrated in his 
subsequent admirable production, the CyropcB- 
dia, or "Education of Cyrus;" the basis of 
which is true history adorned and refined by 
philosophy, and exhibiting for universal imita- 
tion the life and actions of a prince who was 
cradled in the ancient Persian school of the 
Pischdadians, the parent of the Socratic. 
Isaiah describes, in fine poetic imagery, the 
Almighty going before Cyrus to remove every 
obstruction out of his way : — 
" I will go before thee, and level mountains, 
I will burst asunder the folding-doors of brass, 
And split in twain the bars of iron. 
Even I will give thee the dark treasures, 
And the hidden wealth of secret places : 
That thou mayest know, that 1 the Lord, 
Who call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. 
According to Herodotus, Babylon was famous 
for its brazen gates and doors; a hundred 
were in the city walls, beside those which led 
to the river, and others which belonged to the 
temple of Belus. When Sardis and Babylon 
were taken by Cyrus, they were the wealthiest 
cities in the world. Croesus gave an exact 
inventory of his immense treasures to Cyrus, 
and they were removed from Sardis in wag- 
gons. Pliny gives the following account of 
the wealth which Cyrus obtained by his con- 
quests in Asia : " He found thirty-four thou- 
sand pounds' weight of gold, beside vessels of 
gold, and gold wrought into the leaves of a 
platanus and of a vine ; five hundred thousand 
talents of silver, and the cup of Semiramis, 
which weighed fifteen talents. The Egyptian 
talent, according to Varro, was equal to eighty 
pounds." Mr. Brerewood estimates the value 
of the gold and silver in this enumeration at 
126,224,000Z. sterling. Other particulars relat- 
ing to him, and the accomplishment of pro- 
phecy in his conquest of that large city, will 
be found under the article Babylon. It is the 
God of Israel who, in these sublime prophecies, 
confounds the omens and prognostics of the 
Babylonian soothsayers or diviners, after they 
had predicted the stability of that empire ; and 
who announces the restoration of Israel, and 
the rebuilding of the city and temple of Jerusa- 
lem, through Cyrus his " shepherd" and his 
" anointed" messenger. Chosen thus by God 
to execute his high behests, he subdued and 
reigned over many nations, — the Cilicians, 
Syrians, Paphlagonians, Cappadocians, Phry- 
gians, Lydians, Carians, Phenicians, Ara- 
bians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, 
Bactrians, &c. 
"I am He who frustrateth the tolcens of the impostors, 

And inaketb the diviners mad ; &c. 

Who saith to the abyss, [Babylon,] 

' Be desolate, and I will dry up thy rivers :' 

Who saith to Cyrus, ' He is my shepherd, 

And shall perform all my pleasure.' 

Thus saith the Lord to his anointed. 

To Cyrus whom 1 hold by the right hand, 

To subdue before him nations, 

And ungird the loins of kings, 

To open before him fpalacej folding-doors; 

Even [river] gates shall not be shut : 

For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel my chosen, 

I have surnaraed thee ;" &c. 



4. Herodotus has painted the portrait of Cy- 
rus in dark colours, and has been followed in 
many particulars by Ctcsias, Diodorus Siculus, 
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Plato, Strabo, 
Justin, and others; in opposition to the con- 
trary accounts of ^schylus, Xenophon, Jose- 
phus, the Persian historians, and, apparently, 
the Holy Scriptures. The inotive for this con- 
duct of Herodotus is probably to be found in 
his aversion to Cyrus, for having been the en- 
slaver of his country. The Greek historian 
was a man of free and independent spirit, and 
could never brook the mention of the surren- 
der of his native city, Halicarnassus, to the 
troops of Cyrus. But, allowing that heartless- 
ness and cruelty are too often the accompa. 
niments of mighty conquerors, and that very 
few escape their direful contagion ; yet, when 
the worst is told about Cyrus, abundance of 
authentic facts remain to attest his worth, and 
to elevate his character above the standard of 
ordinary mortals. Xenophon informs us, that 
the seven last years of his full sovereignty this 
prince spent in peace and tranquillity at home, 
revered and beloved by all classes of his sub- 
jects. In his dying moments he was surround- 
ed by his family, friends, and children ; and 
delivered to them the noblest exhortations to 
the practice of piety, virtue, and concord > 
This testimony is in substance confirmed by 
the Persian historians, who relate, that, after 
a long and bloody war, Khosru, or Cyrus, sub- 
dued the empire of Turan, and made the city 
of Balk, in Chorasan, a royal residence, to 
keep in order his new subjects ; that he repaid 
every family in Persia proper the amount of 
their war-taxes, out of the immense spoils 
which he had acquired by his conquests ; that 
he endeavoured to promote peace and harmony 
between the Turanians and Iranians ; that he 
regulated the pay of his soldiery, reformed 
civil and religious abuses throughout the pro- 
vinces, and, at length, after a long and glori- 
ous reign, resigned the crown to his son Lo- 
horasp, and retired to solitude, confessing that 
he had lived long enough for his own glory, 
and that it was then time for him to devote 
the remainder of his days to God. Saadi, in 
his Gulistan, copies the wise inscription which 
Cyrus ordered to be inscribed on his crown : 
" What avails a long life spent in the enjoy- 
ment of worldly grandeur, since others, mortal 
like ourselves, will one day trample under foot 
our pride! This crow^n, handed down to me 
from my predecessors, must soon pass in suc- 
cession upon the head of many others." In 
the last book of the " Cyropsedia" we find the 
following devout thanksgivings to the gods: 
"I am abundantly thankful for being truly 
sensible of your care, and for never being 
elated by prosperity above my condition. I 
beseech you to prosper my children, wife, 
friends, and country. And for myself, I ask, 
that such as is the life ye have vouchsafed to 
me, such may bo my end." The reflections of 
Dr. Hales on this passage are very judicious : 
"Hero, Xenophon, a polytheist himself, re- 
presents Cyrus praying to the gods in the plu- 
ral number; but that he really prayed to one 



CYR 



286 



DAM 



only, the patriarchal God, worshipped by his 
venerable ancestors, the Pischdadians, may ap- 
pear from the watchword, or signal, which he 
gave to his soldiers before the great battle, in 
which Evil Merodach was slain : 

ZEYS SflTHP KAI 'HFEMiZN. 
"JOVE, OUR SAVIOUR AND LEADER." 
Who this god was, we learn from the preamble 
of his famous proclamation, permitting the 
Jews to return from the Babylonian captivity : 
* The Lord, the God of heaven, hath given me 
all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath 
charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem,' 
&c, Ezra i, 1, 2. But where did the Lord, 
(lahoh, or Jove) so charge him ? — In that sig. 
nal prophecy of Isaiah, predicting his name and 
his actions, about B. C. 712, above a century 
before his birth; a prophecy which was un- 
doubtedly communicated to him by the vene 
rable Prophet Daniel, the Archimagus, who 
saw the beginning of the Babylonish captivity, 
and also its end, liere foretold to be effected by 
the instrumentality of Cp-us." 

5. Pliny notices the tomb of Cyrus at Pas. 
sagardas in Persia. Arrian and Strabo describe 
it; and they agree with Curtius, that Alex- 
ander the Great offered funeral honours to his 
shade there ; that he opened the tomb, and 
found, not the treasures he expected, but a 
rotten shield, two Scythian bows, and a Per- 
sian scymetar. And Plutarch records the 
following inscription upon it, in his life of 
Alexander : — " O man, whoever thou art, and 
whenever thou comest, (for come, I know, thou 
wilt,) I am Cyrus, the founder of the Persian 
empire. Envy me not the little earth that 
covers my body." Alexander was much af- 
fected at this inscription, which set before him, 
in so striking a light, the uncertainty and vi- 
cissitude of worldly things. And he placed the 
crown of gold which he wore, upon the tomb 
in which the body lay, wondering that a prince 
so renowned, and possessed of such immense 
treasures, had not been buried inore sump, 
tuously than if he had been a private person. 
Cyrus, indeed, in his last instructions to his 
children, desired that " his body, when he died, 
might not be deposited in gold or silver, nor in 
any other sumptuous monument, but commit- 
ted, as soon as possible, to the ground." 

The observation which Dr. Hales here makes, 
is worthy of record : — " This is a most signal 
and extraordinary epitaph. It seems to have 
been designed as a useful memento mori, [me- 
mento of death,] for Alexander the Great, in 
the full pride of conquest, "whose coming" it 
predicts with a prophetic spirit, " For come I 
know thou wilt." But how could Cyrus know 
of his coming ? — Very easily. Daniel the Ar- 
chimagus, his venerable friend, who warned 
the haughty Nebuchadnezzar, that "head of 
gold," or founder of the Babylonian empire, 
that it should be subverted by "the breast and 
arms of silver," Dan. ii, 37. 39, or "the Mede 
and the Persian," Darius and Cyrus, as he more 
plainly told the impious Belshazzar, Dan. v, 28, 
we may rest assured, communicated to Cyrus 
also, the founder of the Persian empire, the 
symbolical vision of the goat, with the notable 



horn in his forehead, Alexander of Macedon 
coming swiftly from the west, to overturn the 
Persian empire, Daniel viii, 5, 8, under the last 
king Codomannus, the fourth from Darius 
Nothus, as afterward more distinctly explained, 
Dan. xi, 1, 4. Cyrus, therefore, decidedly ad- 
dresses the short-lived conqueror, O man, who- 
ever thou art, ^'C. 

"Juvenal, in that noble satire, the tenth, 
verse 168, has a fine reflection on the vanity 
of Alexander's wild ambition to conquer worlds, 
soon destined himself to be confined in a nar- 
rovr coffin ; by a pointed allusion to the epitaph 
on the tomb of Cyrus : — 

U71US PellcBO Juveni non sufficit arbis ; 
JEstuat, tnfelix angusto Hmite mundi: 
Cum tamen a figulis muniiam intraverit urbem, 
Sarcophago contentus erit. — Mors sola fatetur 
Quantula sint hominum corpuscula .'" 
' A single globe suffices not the Pellsean youth ; 
Discontented, he scorns the scanty limits of the world ; 
As if within a prison's narrow bounds confined : 
Bat when he shall enter the brick-walled city, [Babylon,] 
A coffin will content him. — The epitaph alone otc7is, 
How small are the diminutive bodies of men ." 

" The emotion of Alexander, on visiting the 
tomb, and reading the inscription, is not less 
remarkable. He evidently applied to himself, 
as the destroyer, the awful rebuke of the foun- 
der of the Persian empire, for violating the 
sanctity of his tomb, from motives of profane 
curiosity, and perhaps of avarice. And we 
may justly consider the significant act of lay- 
ing down his golden croMui upon the tomb 
itself, as an amende honorable, a homage' due to 
the offended shade of the pious and lowly, 
minded Cyrus the Great." These reflections 
must close our account of one of the most re- 
markable characters that ever appeared among 
the eastern conquerors. 

DAGON, pjl, corn, from }r», or Ji, a fish, 
god of the Philistines. It is the opinion of 
some that Dagon was represented like a woman, 
with the lower parts of a fish, like a triton or 
syren. Scripture shows clearly that the statue 
of Dagon was human, at least, the upper part 
of it, 1 Sam. V, 4, 5. A temple of Dagon at 
Gaza was pulled down by Samson, Judges xvi, 
23, &c. In another, at Ashdod, the Pliilis- 
tines deposited the ark of God, 1 Sara, v, 1-3. 
A city in Judah was called Beth-Dagon ; that 
is, the house, or temple, of Dagon, Joshua 
XV, 41 ; and another on the frontiers of Asher, 
Joshua xix, 27. 

DALMANUTHA. St. Mark says that 
Jesus Christ embarked with his disciples on 
the lake of Tiberias, and came to Dalmanutha, 
Mark viii, 10, but St. Matthew calls it Mag- 
dala. Matt, xv, 39. It seems that Dalmanutha 
was near to Magdala, on the western side of 
the lake. 

DALMATIA, a part of old Illyria, lying 
along the gulf of Venice. Titus preached 
here, 2 Tun. iv, 10. 

DAMASCUS, a celebrated city of Asia, and 
anciently the capital of Syria, may be accounted 
one of the most venerable places in the world 
for its antiquity. It is supposed to have been 
founded by Ux, the son of Aram ; and is, at 



DAM 



287 



DAM 



least, known to have subsisted in the time of 
Abraham, Gen. xv, 2. It was the residence 
of the Syrian kings, during the space of three 
centuries ; and experienced a number of vicis- 
eitudes in every period of its liistory. Its 
sovereign, Hadad, whom Josephus calls the 
first of its kings, was conquered by David, king 
of Israel. In the reign of Ahaz, it was taken 
by Tiglath Pileser, who slew its last king, 
Rezin, and added its provinces to the Assyrian 
empire. It was taken and plundered, also, by 
Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, the generals of 
Alexander the Great, Judas Maccabeus, and at 
length by the Romans in the war conducted by 



ments in it are numerous and magnificent^ and 
the top is covered with a cupola ornamented 
with two minarets. 

Damascus is surrounded by a fruitful and 
delightful country, forming a plain nearly 
eighty miles in circumference ; and the lands, 
most adjacent to the city, are formed into gar- 
dens of great extent, which are stored with 
fruit trees of every description. "No place in 
the world," says Mr. Maundrell, " can promise 
to the beholder at a distance a greater volup- 
tuousness ;" and he mentions a tradition of the 
Turks, that their prophet, when approaching 
Damascus, took his station upon a certain 



Pompey against Tigranes, in the year before precipice, in order to view the city ; and, after 



Christ, 65. During the time of the emperors, 
it was one of their principal arsenals in Asia, 
and is celebrated by the emperor Julian as, 
even in his day, "the eye of the whole east." 
About the year 634, it was taken by the Sara- 
cen princes, who made it the place of their 
residence, till Bagdad was prepared for their 
reception; and, after suffering a variety of 
revolutions, it was taken and destroyed by 
Tamerlane, A. D. 1400. It was repaired by the 
Mamelukes, when they gained possession of 
Syria; but was wrested from them by the 
Turks, in 3506; and since that period has 
formed the capital of one of their pachalics. 
The modern city is delightfiilly situated about 
fifty miles from the sea, in a fertile and exten- 
sive plain, watered by the river which the 
Greeks called Chrysorrhoras, or "Golden 
River," but which is known by the name of 
Barrady, and of which the ancient Abana and 
Pharpar are supposed to have been branches. 
The city is nearly two miles in length from its 
north-east to its north-west extremity ; but of 
very inconsiderable breadth, especially near the 
middle of its extent, where its width is much 
contracted. It is surrounded by a circular 
wall, which is strong, though not lofty; but 
its suburbs are extensive and irregular. Its 
streets are narrow; and one of them, called 
Straight, mentioned in Acts ix, 11, still runs 
through the city about half a mile in length. 
The houses, and especially those which front 
the streets, are very indifferently built, chiefly 
of mud formed into the shape of bricks, and 
dried in the sun ; but those toward the gardens, 
and in the squares, present a more handsome 
appearance. In these mud walls, however, the 
gates and doors are often adorned with marble 
portals, carved and inlaid with great beauty and 
variety ; and the inside of the habitation, which 
is generally a large square court, is ornamented 
with fragrant trees and marble fountains, and 
surrounded with splendid apartments, furnished 
and painted in the highest style of luxury. The 
market places are well constructed, and adorned 
with a rich colonnade of variegated marble. 
The principal public buildings are, the castle, 
which is about three hundred and forty paces 
in length ; the hospital, a charitable establish- 
ment for the reception of strangers, composing 
a large quadrangle lined with a colonnade, and 
roofed in small domes covered with lead ; and 
the mosque, the entrance of which is supported 
by four large columns of red granite ; the apart- 



considering its ravishing beauty and delightful 
aspect, was unwilling to tempt his frailty by 
going farther ; but instantly took his departure 
with this remark, that there was but one para- 
dise designed for man, and that, for his part, 
he was resolved not to take his in this world. 
The air or water of Damascus, or both, are 
supposed ta have a powerful effect in curing 
the leprosy, or, at least, in arresting its pro- 
gress, while the patient remains in the place. 
The Rev. James Conner visited Damascus 
in 1820, as an agent of the Church Missionary 
Society. He had a letter from the archbishop 
of Cyprus to Seraphim, patriarch of Antioch, 
the head of the Christian church in the east, 
who resides at Damascus. This good man 
received Mr. Conner in the most friendly man- 
ner ; and expressed himself delighted with the 
system and operations of the Bible Society. 
He undertook to encourage and promote, to 
the utmost of his power, the sale and distribu- 
tion of the Scriptures throughout the patri- 
archate ; and, as a proof of his earnestness in 
the cause, he ordered, the next day, a number 
of letters to be prepared, and sent to his arch- 
bishops and bishops, urging them to promote 
the objects of the Bible Society in their re- 
spective stations. 

DAMN, and damnation, are words synony- 
mous with condemn and condemnation. Gene. 
rally speaking, the words are taken to denote 
the final and eternal punishment of the ungodly. 
These terms, however, sometimes occur in the 
New Testament in what may be termed a less 
strict, or secondary sense. Thus, when the 
Apostle says to the Romans, " He that doubt- 
eth," namely, the lawfulness of what he is doing, 
" is damned if he eat," Rom. xiv, 23 ; the mean- 
ing is, he stands condemned in his own mind. 
Again : when St. Paul tells the Corinthians, 
that "he that eateth and drinketh" of the 
Lord's Supper "unworthily, eateth and drink- 
eth damnation to himself," 1 Cor. xi, 29 ; the 
original word, /cp/^na, there is thought by many 
to import no more than temporal judgments, 
and that the Apostle explains himself in the 
same sense when he says, "For this cause 
many among you are weak and sickly, and 
many sleep," or die. This is at least one mode 
of interpreting the "damnation" of which 
St. Paul here speaks; but probably the true 
sense is the bringing g-uilt upon the conscience, 
and thereby a liability, without remission, to 
future judgment. 



DAN 



288 



DAN 



DAN, the fifth son of Jacob, Gen. xxx, 1-6. 1 
Dan had but one son, whose name was Hu- 
shun, Gen. xlvi, 23; yet he had a numerous 
posterity; for, on leaving Egypt, this tribe 
consisted of sixty -two thousand seven hundred 
men able to bear arms, Num. i, 38. Of Jacob's 
blessing Dan, see Gen. xlix, 16, 17. They 
took Laish, Judges xviii, 1 : Joshua xix, 47. 
They called the city Dan, after their progenitor. 
The city of Dan was situated at the northern 
extremity of the land of Israel : hence the 
phrase, " from Dan to Beersheba," denoting 
the whole length of the land of promise. Here 
Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, set up one of his 
golden calves, 1 Kings xii, 29 ; and the other at 
Bethel. 

DANCING. It is still the custom in the 
east to testify their respect for persons of dis- 
tinction by music and dancing. When Baron 
Du Tott, who was sent by the French govern- 
ment to inspect their factories in the Levant, 
approached an encampment of Turcomans, 
between Aleppo and Alexandretta, the musi- 
cians of the different hordes turned out, play- 
ing and dancing before him all the time he 
and his escort were passing by their camp. 
Thus, it will be recollected, "the women came 
out of all the cities of Israel, singing and danc- 
ing, to meet King Saul, with tabrets, with joy, 
and with instruments of music," when he re- 
turned in triumph from the slaughter of the 
Philistines. In the oriental dances, in which 
the women engage by themselves, the lady of 
highest rank in tlie company takes the lead, 
and is followed by her companions, who imi- 
tate her steps, and if she sings, make up the 
chorus. The tunes are extremely gay and 
lively, yet with something in them wonderfully 
soft. The steps are varied according to the 
pleasure of her who leads the dance, but al- 
ways in exact time. This statement may 
enable us to form a correct idea of the dance, 
which the women of Israel performed under 
the direction of Miriam, on the banks of the 
Red Sea. The prophetess, we are told, " took 
a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went 
out after her, with timbrels and dances." She 
led the dance, while they imitated her steps, 
which were not conducted according to a set, 
well-known form, as in this country, but ex. 
temporaneous. The conjecture of Mr. Har- 
mer is extremely probable, that David did not 
dance alone before the Lord, when he brought 
up the ark, but, as being the highest in rank, 
and more skilful than any of the people, he 
led the religious dance of the males. 

DANIEL was a descendant of the kings of 
Judah, and is said to have been born at Upper 
Bethoron, in the territory of Ephraim. He 
was carried away captive to Babylon when he 
was about eighteen or twenty j'^ears of age, in 
the year 606 before the Christian sera. He 
was placed in the court of Nebuchadnezzar, 
and was afterward raised to situations of great 
rank and power, both in the empire of Babylon 
and of Persia. He lived to the end of the 
captivity, but being then nearly ninety years 
old, it is most probable that he did not return 
to Judea. It is generally believed that he died 



at Susa, soon after his last vision, which is 
dated in the third year of the reign of Cyrus. 
Daniel seems to have been the only prophet 
who enjoyed a great share of worldly prosper- 
ity ; but amidst the corruptions of a licentious 
court he preserved his virtue and integrity 
inviolate, and no danger or temptation could 
divert him from the worship of the true God. 
The book of Daniel is a mixture of history and 
prophecy : in the first six chapters is recorded 
a variety of events which occurred in the reigns 
of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius ; 
and, in particular, the second chapter contains 
Nebuchadnezzar's prophetic dream concerning 
the four great successive monarchies, and the 
everlasting kingdom of the Messiah, which 
dream God enabled Daniel to interpret. In 
the last six chapters we have a series of pro- 
phecies, revealed at different times, extending 
from the days of Daniel to the general resur- 
rection. The Assyrian, the Persian, the Gre- 
cian, and the Roman empires, are all particu- 
larly described under appropriate characters; 
and it is expressly declared that the last of 
them was to be divided into ten lesser king, 
doms ; the time at which Christ was to appear 
is precisely fixed ; the rise and fall of antichrist, 
and the duration of his power, are exactly de- 
termined ; and the future restoration of the 
Jews, the victory of Christ over all his ene- 
mies, and the universal prevalence of true 
religion, are distinctly foretold, as being to 
precede the consummation of that stupendous 
plan of God, which "was laid before the foun- 
dation of the world," and reaches to its disso- 
lution. Part of this book is written in the 
Chaldaic language, namely, from the fourth 
verse of the second chapter to the end of the 
seventh chapter ; these chapters relate chiefly 
to the affairs of Babylon, and it is probable 
that some passages were taken from the public 
registers. This book abounds with the most 
exalted sentiments of piety and devout grati- 
tude; its style is clear, simple, and concise; 
and many of its prophecies are delivered in 
terms so plain and circumstantial, that some 
unbelievers have asserted, in opposition to the 
strongest evidence, that they were written 
after the events which they describe had taken 
place. With respect to the genuineness and 
authenticity of the book of Daniel, there is 
abundance both of external and internal evi- 
dence ; indeed all that can well be had or de- 
sired in a case of this nature : not only the 
testimony of the whole Jewish church and 
nation, who have constantly received this book 
as canonical, but of Josephus particularly, who 
recommends him as the greatest of the pro- 
phets ; of the Jewish Targums and Talmuds, 
which frequently cite and appeal to his autho- 
rity; of St. Paul and St. John, who have 
copied many of his prophecies; and of our 
Saviour himself, who cites his words, and 
styles him, "Daniel the prophet." Nor is the 
internal less powerful and convincing than the 
external evidence ; for the language, the style, 
the manner of writing, and all other internal 
marks and characters, are perfectly agreeable 
to that age ; and finally he appear|s plainly and 



DAR 



289 



DAR 



nndeniably to have been a prophet by the ex- 
act accomplishment of his prophecies. 

DARIUS was the name of several princes 
in history, some of whom are mentioned in 
Scripture. 

1. Darius the Mede, spoken of in Daniel v, 
31 ; ix, 1 ; xi, 1, &c, was the son of Astyages, 
king of the Medes, and brother to Mandane, 
the mother of Cyrus, and to Amyit, the mo. 
ther of Evil-merodach, and grandmother of 
Belshazzar. Darius the Mede, therefore, was 
uncle by the mother's side to Evil-merodach 
and Cyrus. The Septuagint, in Daniel vii, 
give him the name of Artaxerxes ; the thir- 
teenth, or apocryphal chapter of Daniel, calls 
him Astyages ; and Xenophon designates him 
by the name of Cyaxares. He succeeded Bel- 
shazzar, king of Babylon, his nephew's son, 
or his sister's grandson, in the year of the 
world, 3448, according to Calmet, or in 3468, 
according to Usher. Daniel does not inform 
us of any previous war between them ; but the 
prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah supply this defi- 
ciency. Isa. xiii, xiv, xlv, xlvi, xlvii ; Jer. 1, li. 

2. Darius, the son of Hystaspes, has been 
supposed by some, on the authority of Arch- 
bishop Usher and Calmet, to be the Ahasuerus 
of Scripture, and the husband of Esther. But 
Dr. Prideaux thinks, that Ahasuerus was Ar- 
taxerxes Longimanus. This prince recovered 
Babylon after a siege of twenty months. This 
city, which had been formerly the capital of 
the east, revolted from Persia, taking advan- 
tage of the revolutions that happened, first 
at the death of Cambyses, and afterward on 
the massacre of the Magi. The Babylonians 
employed four years in preparations, and when 
they thought that their city was fiirnished with 
provisions for a long time, they raised the 
standard of rebellion. Darius levied an army 
in great haste, and besieged Babylon. The 
Babylonians shut themselves up within their 
walls, whose height and thickness secured 
them from assault ; and as they had nothing to 
fear but famine, they assembled all their wo- 
men and children, and strangled them, each 
reserving only his most beloved wife, and one 
servant. Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of 
Isaiah, xlvii, 7-9. Some believe that the Jews 
were either expelled by the Babylonians, as 
being too much in the interest of Darius ; or 
that, in obedience to the frequent admonitions 
of the prophets, they quitted that city when 
they saw the people determined to rebel, Isa. 
xiviii, 20 ; Jer. 1, 8 ; li, 6-9 : Zech. xi, 8, 7. 
Darius lay twenty months before Babylon, 
without making any considerable progress; 
but, at length, Zopyrus, one of his generals, 
obtained possession of the city by stratagem. 
Darius ordered the hundred gates of brass to be 
taken away, according to the prediction of 
Jeremiah, li, 58, "Thus saith the Lord, The 
broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, 
and her high gates shall be burnt with fire, 
and the people shall labour in vain." This is 
related in Herodotus. 

3. Darius Codomanus was of the royal family 
of Persia, but very remote from the crown. 
He was in a low condition, when Bagoas, the 

20 



eunuch, who had procured the destruction of 
two kings, Ochus and Arses, placed him on 
the throne. His true name was Codoman, and 
he did not take that of Darius till he was king. 
He was descended from Darius Nothus, whose 
son, Ostanes, was father to Arsames, that begat 
Codomanus. He was at first only a courier 
to the emperor Ochus. But one day when he 
was at this prince's army, one of their enemies 
challenged the bravest of the Persians. Codo- 
manus offered himself for the combat, and 
overcame the challenger, and was made go- 
vernor of Armenia. From this situation, 
Bagoas placed him on the throne of Persia. 
Alexander the Great invaded the Persian em- 
pire, and defeated Darius in three successive 
battles. After the third battle, Darius fled 
toward" Media, in hopes of raising another 
army. At Ecbatana, the capital of Media, he 
gathered the remains of his forces, and some 
new levies. Alexander having wintered at 
Babylon and Persepolis, took the field in search 
of Darius, who quitted Ecbatana, with an in- 
tention of retreating into Bactria ; but, chang- 
ing his resolution, Darius stopped short, and 
determined to hazard a battle, though his army 
at this time consisted only of forty thousand 
men. While he was preparing for this con- 
flict, Bessus, governor of Bactria, and Narba- 
zanes, a grandee of Persia, seized him, loaded 
him with chains, forced him into a covered 
chariot, and fled, carrying him with them to- 
ward Bactria. If Alexander pursued them, 
they intended to purchase their peace by deli- 
vering Darius into his hands; but if not, to 
kill him, seize the crown, and renew the war. 
Eight days after their departure, Alexander 
arrived at Ecbatana, and set out in pursuit of 
them, which he continued for eleven days : at 
length he stopped at Rages, in Media, despair, 
ing to overtake Darius. Thence he went into 
Parthia, where he learned what had happened 
to that unfortunate prince. After a precipitate 
march of many days, he overtook the traitors, 
who, seeing themselves pressed, endeavoured 
to compel Darius to get upon horseback, and 
save himself v/ith them ; but he refusing, they 
stabbed him in several places, and left him 
expiring in his chariot. He was dead when 
Alexander arrived, who could not forbear 
weeping at so sad a spectacle. Alexander 
covered Darius with his own cloak, and sent 
him to Sisygambis his wife, that she might 
bury him in the tombs of the kings of Persia. 
Thus were verified the prophecies of Daniel, 
viii, who had foretold the destruction of the 
Persian monarchy, under the symbol of a ram, 
which butted with its horns westward, north- 
ward, and southward, and which nothing could 
resist ; but a goat which had a very large horn 
between his eyes, and which denoted Alexan- 
der the Great, came from the west, and overran 
the world without touching the earth ; spring, 
ing forward with impetuosity, the goat ran 
against the ram with all his force, attacked 
him with fury, struck him, broke his two horns, 
trampled him under foot, and no one could 
rescue the ram. Nothing can be clearer than 
these prophecies 



DAV 



290 



DAV 



DARKNESS, the absence of light. " Dark- 
ness was upon the face of the deep," Gen. i, 2 ; 
that is, the chaos was immersed in thick dark- 
ness, because light was withheld from it. The 
most terrible darkness was that brought on 
Egypt as a plague ; it was so thick as to be, 
as it were, palpable ; so horrible, that no one 
durst stir out of his place ; and so lasting, that 
it endured three days and three nights, Exod. 
X, 21, 22 ; Wisdom xvii, 2, 3. The darkness 
at our Saviour's death began at the sixth hour, 
or noon, and ended at the third hour, or three 
o'clock in the afternoon. Thus it lasted almost 
the whole time he was on the cross ; compare 
Matt, xxvii, 45, with John xix, 14, and Mark 
XV, 25. Origen, Maldonatus, Erasmus, Vatab- 
lus, and others, were of opinion that this dark- 
ness covered Judea only ; which is sometimes 
called tae whole earth; that is, the whole coun- 
try. Chrysostom, Euthymius, Theophylact, and 
others, thought it extended over a hemisphere. 
Origen says it was caused by a thick mist, 
which precluded the sight of the sun. That it 
was preternatural is certain, for, the moon be- 
ing at full, a natural eclipse of the sun was 
impossible. Darkness is sometimes used meta- 
phorically for death. " The land of darkness" 
is the grave. Job x, 22 ; Psalm cvii, 10. It is 
also used to denote misfortunes and calamities : 
••A day of darkness" is a day of affliction, 
Esther xi, 8. " Let that day be darkness ; let 
darkness stain it," — let it be reckoned among 
the unfortunate days. Job iii, 4, 5. The ex- 
pressions, " I will cover the heavens with dark. 
ness ;" " The sun shall be turned into darkness, 
and the moon into blood," &c, signify very 
great political calamities, involving the over- 
throw of kings, princes, and nobles, represent- 
ed by the luminaries of heaven. In a moral 
sense, darkness denotes ignorance and vice ; 
hence "the children of light," in opposition to 
" the children of darkness," are the righteous 
distinguished from the wicked. 

DAVID, the celebrated king of Israel, was 
the youngest son of Jesse, of the tribe of Judah, 
and was born 1085 years before Christ. The 
following is an abstract of his history : He was 
chosen of God to be king of Israel, and at his 
command was anointed to this dignity by the 
hands of Samuel, a venerable prophet, in the 
room of Saul ; who had been rejected for his 
disobedience to the divine orders, in feloniously 
seizing, to his own use the prey of an enemy, 
which God, the supreme King of Israel, had 
devoted to destruction. He was introduced to 
court as a man expert in music, a singularly 
valiant man, a man of war, prudent in matters, 
of a comely person, and one favoured of the 
Lord. By his skill in music, he relieved Saul 
under a melancholy indisposition that had seiz- 
ed him, was highly beloved by his royal mas- 
ter, and made one of his guards. In a war 
with the Philistines he accepted the challenge 
of a gigantic champion, who defied the armies 
of Israel, and being skilful at the sling, he slew 
him with a stone, returned safely with his head, 
and thus secured to his prince an easy victory 
over his country's enemies. The reputation 
he gained, by this glorious action, raised an 



incurable jealousy and resentment against him, 
in the mind of the king his master ; who made 
two unsuccessful attempts to murder him. In 
his exalted station, and amidst the dangers that 
encompassed him, he behaved with singular 
prudence, so that he was in high esteem both 
in the court and camp. The modesty and 
prudence of his behaviour, and his approved 
courage and resolution, gained him the confi- 
dence and friendship of Jonathan, the king's 
eldest son, " who loved him as his own soul," 
became his advocate with his father, and ob- 
tained from him a promise, confirmed by an 
oath, that he would no more attempt to destroy 
him. But Saul's jealousy returned by a fresh 
victory David gained over the Philistines ; 
who, finding the king was determined to 
seek his life, retired from court, and was dis- 
missed in peace by Jonathan, after a solemn 
renewal of their friendship, to provide for his 
own safety. In this state of banishment, there 
resorted to him companies of men, who were 
uneasy in their circumstances, oppressed by 
their creditors, or discontented with Saul's 
tyrannical government, to the number of six 
hundred men. These he kept in the most ex- 
cellent order, and by their valour he gained 
signal advantages for his country; but never 
employed them in rebellion against the king, 
or in a single instance to distress or subvert 
his government. On the contrary such was 
the veneration he paid him, and such the gene- 
rosity of his temper, that though it was thrice 
in his power to have him cut off, h6 spared 
him, and was determined never to destroy him, 
whom God had constituted the king of Israel. 
His friendship with Jonathan, the king's son, 
was a friendship of strict honour, for he never 
seduced him from his allegiance and filial duty. 
Being provoked by a churlish farmer, who evil 
treated and abused his messengers, he, in the 
warmth of his temper, sworB he would destroy 
him and his family ; but was immediately paci- 
fied by the address and prudence of a wife, 
of whom the wretch was unworthy : her he 
sent in peace and honour to her family, and 
blessed for her advice, and keeping him from 
avenging himself with his own hand. Be- 
ing forced to banish himself into an enemy's- 
country, he was faithful to the prince who pro- 
tected him : and, at the same time, mindful of 
the interest of his own nation, he cut off many 
of those who had harassed and plundered his 
fellow subjects. When pressed by the king, 
into whose dominions he retired, to join in a 
war against his own country and father-in-law, 
he prudently gave him such an.. answer as his 
situation required ; neither promising the aid 
demanded of him, nor tying up his hands from 
serving his own prince, and the army that 
fought under him ; only assuring him in gene- 
ral, that he had never done any thing that 
could give him just reason to think he would 
refuse to assist him against his enemies. Upon 
the death of Saul, he cut off the Amalekite 
who came to make a merit of having slain him ; 
and by the immediate direction of God, who 
had promised him the succession, went up to 
Hebron, where, on a free election, he was 



0AV 



291 



DAV 



anointed king over the house of Judah ; and 
after about a seven years' contest, he was unani- 
mously chosen king by all the tribes of Israel, 
" according to the word of the Lord by 
Samuel." As king of Israel, he administered 
justice and judgment to all his people, was a 
prince of courage, and great military prudence 
and conduct ; had frequent wars with the 
neighbouring nations, to which he was gene- 
rally forced by their invading his dominions, 
and plundering his subjects. Against them he 
never lost a battle ; he never besieged a city 
without taking it ; nor, as for any thing that 
can be proved, used any severities against those 
he conquered, beyond what the law of arms 
allowed, his own safety required, or the cruel- 
ties of his enemies rendered just, by way of 
retaliation ; enriching his people by the spoils 
he took, and providing large stores of every 
thing necessary for the magnificent temple he 
intended to erect, in honour of the God of Israel 
Having rescued Jerusalem out of the hands of 
the Jebusites, he made it the capital of his king- 
dom, and the place of his residence ; and being 
willing to honour it with the presence of the ark 
of God, he brought it to Jerusalem in triumph, 
and divesting himself of his royal robes, out of 
reverence to God, he clothed himself in the 
habit of his ministers, and with them express- 
ed his joy by dancing and music ; contemned 
only by one haughty woman ; whom, as a just 
punishment of her insolence, he seems ever 
after to have separated from his bed. Though 
his crimes w^ere henious, and highly aggravat- 
ed, in the affair of Uriah and Bathsheba, he 
patiently endured reproof, humbly submitted to 
the punishment appointed him, deeply repent- 
ed, and obtained mercy and forgiveness from 
God, though not without some severe marks of 
his displeasure, for the grievous offences of 
which he had been guilty. A rebellion was 
raised against him by his son Absalom. When 
forced by it to depart from Jerusalem, a cir- 
cumstance most pathetically described by the 
sacred historian, he prevented the just punish- 
ment of Shimei, a wretch who cursed and 
stoned him. When restored to his throne, he 
spared him upon his submission, and would 
not permit a single man to be put to death in 
Israel upon account of this treason. He, with 
a noble confidence, made the commander of 
the rebel forces general of his own army, in 
the room of Joab, whom he intended to call to 
an account for murder and other crimes. Af- 
ter this, when obliged, by the command of 
God, to give up some of Saul's family to justice, 
for the murder of the Gibeonites, he spared 
Mephibosheth, Micah, and his family, the male 
descendants of Saul and Jonathan, who alone 
could have any pretence to dispute the crown 
with him, and surrendered only Saul's bastard 
children, and those of his daughter by Adriel, 
who had no right or possible claim to the 
throne, and could never give him any uneasi- 
ness in the possession of it ; and thus showed 
his inviolable regard for his oaths, his tender- 
ness to Saul, and the warmth of his gratitude 
and friendship to Jonathan. In the close of 
his life, and in the near prospect of death, to 



demonstrate his love of justice, he charged 
Solomon to punish with death Joab, for the 
base murder of two great men, whom he as- 
sassinated under the pretence of peace and 
friendship. To this catalogue of his noble 
actions must be added, that he gave the most 
shining and indisputable proofs of an undis- 
sembled reverence for, and sincere piety to, 
God ; ever obeying the direction of his pro- 
phets, worshipping him alone, to the exclusion 
of all idols, throughout the whole of his life, 
and making the wisest settlement to perpetu- 
ate the worship of the same God, through all 
succeeding generations. 

To this abstract a few miscellaneous remarks 
may be added. 

1. When David is called "the man after 
God's own heart," a phrase which profane per- 
sons have often perverted, his general charac- 
ter, and not every particular of it, is to be 
understood as approved by God ; and especially 
his faithful and undeviating adherence to the 
true religion, from which he never deviated 
into any act of idolatry. 

2. He was chosen to accomplish to their full 
extent the promises made to Abraham to give 
to his seed, the whole country from the river 
of Egypt to the great river Euphrates. He had 
succeeded to a kingdom distracted with civil 
dissension, environed on every side by power- 
ful and victorious enemies, without a capital, 
almost without an army, without any bond of 
union between the tribes. He left a compact 
and united state, stretching from the frontier 
of Egypt to the foot of Lebanon, from the 
Euphrates to the sea. He had crushed the 
power of the Philistines, subdued or curbed all 
the adjacent kingdoms : he had formed a last, 
ing and important alliance with the great city 
of Tyre. He had organized an immense dis- 
posable force ; for every month 24,000 men, 
furnished in rotation by the tribes, appeared in 
arms, and were trained as the standing militia 
of the country. At the head of his army were 
officers of consummate experience, and, what 
was more highly esteemed in the warfare of 
the time, extraordinary personal activity, 
strength, and valour. The Hebrew nation 
owed the long peace of Solomon the son's 
reign to the bravery and wisdom of the father. 

3. As a conqueror he was a type of Christ, 
and the country " from the river to the ends of 
the earth," was also the prophetic type of 
Christ's dominion over the whole earth. 

4. His inspired psalms not only place him 
among the most eminent prophets ; but have 
rendered him the leader of the devotions of 
good men, in all ages. The hymns of David 
excel no less in sublimity and tenderness of 
expression than in loftiness and purity of re- 
ligious sentiment. In comparison with them 
the sacred poetry of all other nations sinks into 
mediocrity. They have embodied so exquisitely 
the universal language of religious emotion, • 
that they have entered with unquestioned pro. 
priety into the ritual of the higher and more 
perfect religion of Christ. The songs which 
cheered the solitude of the desert caves of En- 
ffedi, or resounded from the voice of the 



DAY 



292 



DEA 



Hebrew people as they wound along the glens 
or the hill sides of Judea, have been repeated 
for ages in almost every part of the habitable 
world, in the remotest islands of the ocean, 
among the forests of America or the sands of 
Africa. How many human hearts have these 
inspired songs softened, purified, exalted ! Of 
how many wretched beings have they been the 
secret consolation ! On how many communi- 
ties have they drawn down the blessings of 
Divine providence, by bringing the affections 
into unison with their deep devotional fervour, 
and leading to a constant and explicit recog- 
nition of the government, rights, and mercies 
of God! 

DAY. The Hebrews, in conformity with the 
Mosaic law, reckoned the day from evening 
to evening. The natural day, that is, the por- 
tion of time from sunrise to sunset, was divided 
by the Hebrews, as it is now by the Arabians, 
into six unequal parts. These divisions were 
as follows : — 1. The break of day. This por- 
tion of time was, at a recent period, divided 
into two parts, in imitation of the Persians ; 
the first of which began when the eastern, the 
second, when the western, division of the ho- 
rizon was illuminated. The authors of the 
Jerusalem Talmud divided it into four parts ; 
the first of which was called in Hebrew n^''>< 
nntj>n, which occurs in Psalm xxii, 1, and cor- 
responds to the phrase, \iav apm, in the New 
Testament, Mark xvi, 2; John xx, 1. 2. The 
morning or sunrise. 3. The heat of the day. 
This began about nine o'clock, Gen. xviii, 1 ; 
1 Sam. xi, 11. 4. Midday. 5. The cool of the 
day; literally, the wind of the day. This ex. 
pression is grounded on the fact, that a wind 
commences blowing regularly a few hours 
before sunset, and continues till evening, Gen. 
iii, 8. 6. The evening. This was divided into 
two parts, DOij; ; the first of which began, 
according to the Caraites and Samaritans, at 
sunset, the second, when it began to grow dark. 
But, according to the rabbins, the first com- 
menced just before sunset, the second, pre- 
cisely at sunset. The Arabians agree with the 
Caraites and Samaritans ; and in this way the 
Hebrews appear to have computed, previous to 
the captivity. 

The mention of nytf, hours, occurs first in 
Daniel iii, 6, 15; v, 5. They were first mea- 
sured by gnomons, which merely indicated the 
meridian ; afterward, by the hour-watch, cKia- 
dipiKov ; and subsequently still, by the clepsydra, 
or instrument for measuring time by means of 
water. The hour-watch or dial, otherwise 
called the sun-dial, is mentioned in tlie reign 
of King Hezekiah, 2 Kings xx, 9, 10 ; Isaiah 
xxxviii, 8. Its being called "the sundial of 
Ahaz" renders it probable that Aliaz first 
introduced it from Babylon ; whence, also, 
Anaximenes, the Milesian, brought the first 
skiathericon into Greece. This instrument was 
of no use during the night, nor indeed during 
a cloudy day. In consequence of this defect, 
the clepsydra was invented, which was used in 
Persia as late as the seventeenth century in its 
simplest form. The clepsydra was a small 
circular vessel, constructed of thinly-beaten 



copper or brass, and having a small perforation 
through the bottom. It was placed in another 
vessel, filled with water. The diameter of the 
hole in the bottom of the clepsydra was such, 
that it filled with water in three hours, and 
sunk. It was necessary that there should be 
a servant to tend it, who should take it up 
when it had sunk, pour out the water, and 
place it again empty on the surface of the 
water in the vase. 

The hours of principal note in the course of 
the day were the third, the sixth, and the ninth. 
These hours, it would seem, were consecrated 
by Daniel to prayer, Dan. vi, 10 ; Acts ii, 15 ; 
iii, 1 ; X, 9. The day was divided into twelve 
hours, which, of course, varied in length, be- 
ing shorter in the winter and longer in the 
summer, John xi, 9. In the winter, therefore, 
the clepsydras were so constructed that the 
water might sink them more rapidly. The 
hours were numbered from the rising of the 
sun, so that, at the season of the equinox, the 
third corresponded to the ninth of our reckon- 
ing ; the sixth, to our twelfth ; and the ninth, 
to three o'clock in the aflernoon. At other 
seasons of the year, it is necessary to observe 
the time when the sun rises, and reduce the 
hours to our time accordingly. We observe, 
therefore, that the sun in Palestine, at the 
summer solstice, rises at five of our time, and 
sets about seven. At the winter solstice, it 
rises about seven, and sets about five. 

Before the captivity, the night was divided 
into three watches. The first, which continued 
till midnight, was denominated the commenc- 
ing or first watch. Lam. ii, 19. The second 
was denominated the middle watch, and con- 
tinued from midnight till the crowing of the 
cock. The third, called the morning watch, 
extended from the second to the rising of the 
sun. These divisions and names appear to have 
owed their origin to the watches of the Levites 
in the tabernacle and temple, Exod. xiv, 24; 
1 Sam. xi, 11. In the time of Christ, however, 
the night, iu imitation of the Romans, was 
divided into four watches. According to the 
English mode of reckoning they were as fol- 
lows: 1. The evening, from twilight to nine 
o'clock. 2. The midnight, from nine to twelve. 

3. The cock crowing, from twelve to three. 

4. From three o'clock till daybreak. A day 
is used in the prophetic Scripture for a year : 
" I have appointed thee each day for a year," 
Ezek. iv, 6. See Cock- 

DEACON, from the Greek word Siukovos, in 
its proper and primitive sense, denotes a servant 
who attends his master, waits on him at table, 
and is always near his person to obey his orders, 
which was accounted a more creditable kind 
of service than that which is imported by the 
word SovXos a slave ; but this distinction is not 
usually observed in the New Testament. Our 
Lord makes use of both terms in Matt, xx, 26, 
27, though they are not distinctly marked in 
our translation: "Whosoever will be great 
among you, let him be your deacon ; and who- 
soever will be chief among you, let him be 
your servant" The appointment of deacons 
in the first Christian church is distinctly re- 



DEA 



293 



DEA 



corded, Acts vi, 1-16. The number of disciples 
having greatly increased in Jerusalem, the 
Greeks, or Hellenistic Jews, began to murmur 
against the Hebrews, complaining that their 
widows were neglected in the daily distribution 
of the church's bounty. The twelve Apostles, 
who hitherto had discharged the different offi- 
ces of Apostle, presbyter, and deacon, upon 
the principle that the greater office always 
includes the less, now convened the church, 
and said unto them, " It is not reasonable that 
we should leave the ministration of the word 
of God, and serve tables : look ye out, there- 
fore, among yourselves, seven men of good 
report, full of the Holy Ghost, and wisdom, 
whom we may appoint over this business ; but 
we will give ourselves continually to prayer, 
and to the ministry of the word." And the 
saying pleased the whole multitude ; and they 
(the multitude) chose Stephen, and six others, 
whom they set before the Apostles, Slc. 

The qualifications of deacons are stated by 
the Apostle Paul, 1 Tim. iii, 8-12. There were 
also, in the primitive churches females invested 
with this office, who were termed deaconesses. 
Of this number was Phoebe, a member of the 
church of Cenchrea, mentioned by St. Paul, 
Rom. xvi, 1. "They served the church," says 
Calmet, " in those offices which the deacons 
could not themselves exercise, visiting those of 
their own sex in sickness, or when imprisoned 
for the faith. They were persons of advanced 
age, w^hen chosen ; and appointed to the office 
by imposition of hands." It is probably of these 
deaconesses that the Apostle speaks, where 
he describes the ministering widows, 1 Tim. 
V, 5-10. 

DEAD. See Burial. 

Dead, Mournings for the. The ancient 
Israelites, in imitation of the Heathen, from 
whom they borrowed the practice, frequently 
cut themselves rnih knives and lancets, 
scratched their faces, or pricked certain parts 
of their bodies with needles. These supersti- 
tious practices w^ere expressly forbidden in 
their law: "Ye are the children of the Lord 
your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor 
make any baldness between your eyes for the 
dead." The bereaved Greeks tore, cut off, and 
sometimes shaved, their hair ; they reckoned 
it a duty which they owed to the dead, to 
deprive their heads of the greatest part of their 
honours, or, in the language of Scripture, made 
a baldness between their eyes. The same cus- 
tom prevailed among the ancient Persians, and 
the neighbouring states. When the patriarch 
Job was informed of the death of his children, 
and the destruction of his property, he arose 
and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and 
fell down upon the ground and worshipped ; 
and in the prophecies of Jeremiah, we read of 
eighty men who were going to lament the 
desolations of Jerusalem, having their beards 
shaven, and their clothes rent, and having cut 
themselves, in direct violation of the divine 
law, with offerings and incense in their hand, 
to bring them to the house of the Lord, Jer. 
xli, 5. Shaving, however, was, on some occa- 
Bions, a sign of joy ; and to let the hair grow 



long, the practice of mourners, or persons ia 
affliction. Joseph shaved himself before he 
went into the palace, Gen. xli, 14; and Me- 
phibosheth let his hair grow during the time 
David was banished from Jerusalem, but shaved 
himself on his return. In ordinary sorrows 
they only neglected their hair, or suffered it to 
hang down loose upon their shoulders ; in more 
poignant grief they cut it off; but in a sudden 
and violent paroxysm, they plucked it off with 
their hands. Such a violent expression of sor- 
row is exemplified in the conduct of Ezra, 
v/hich he thus describes: "And when I heard 
this thing I rent my garment and my mantle, 
and plucked off the hair of my head, and of 
my beard, and sat down astonied," Ezra ix, 3. 
The Greeks, and other nations around them, 
expressed the violence of their sorrow in the 
same way ; for in Homer, Ulysses and his com- 
panions, bewailing the death of Elpenor, 
howled and plucked off their hair. Mourners 
withdrew as much as possible from the world ; 
they abstained from banquets and entertain- 
ments; they banished from their houses as 
unsuitable to their circumstances, and even 
painful to their feelings, musical instruments 
of every kind, and whatever w^as calculated to 
excite pleasure, or that wore an air of mirth 
and gaiety. Thus did the king of Persia tes- 
tify his sorrow for the decree, into which his 
wily courtiers had betrayed him, and which, 
without the miraculous interposition of Heaven, 
had proved fatal to his favourite minister; 
" Then the king went to his palace, and spent 
the night fasting ; neither were instruments of 
music brought before him," Dan. vi, 18. 

2. Oriental mourners divested themselves of 
all ornaments, and laid aside their jewels, gold, 
and every thing rich and splendid in their 
dress. This proof of humiliation and submis- 
sion Jehovah required of his offending people 
in the wilderness: "Therefore, now put off 
thy ornaments from thee, that I may know 
what to do unto thee. And the children of 
Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments 
by the Mount Horeb," Exodus xxxiii, 5, 6. 
Long after the time of Moses, that rebellious 
nation again received a command of similar 
import : " Strip you, and make you bare, and 
gird sackcloth upon your loins," Isaiah xxxii, 
11. The garments of the mourner were always 
black. Progne, having notice of Philomela's 
death, lays aside her robes, beaming with a 
profusion of gold, and appears in sable vest- 
ments ; and Althsea, when her brethren were 
slain by Meleager, exchanged her glittering 
robes for black : — 

" Et auratas mutavit vcstibus atris." OviD. 
These sable vestments differed from their 
ordinary dress, not only in colour, but also in 
value, being made of cheap and coarse stuff, 
as appears from these lines of Terence : — 

" Texentem telam studiose ipsain offendimus 
Mediocriier vestitam veste lugubri 
Ejus anus causa, npinor, guce erai moTtua.'* 
"We found her busy at the loom, in a cheap 
mourning habit, which she wore I suppose for 
the old woman's death." In Judea, the mourner 
was clothed in sackcloth of hair, and by con- 



DEA 



294 



DEA 



sequence, in sable robes ; and penitents, by- 
assuming it, seemed to confess that their guilt 
exposed them to death. Some of the "eastern 
nations, in modern times, bury in linen ; but 
Chardin informs us, that others still retain the 
use of sackcloth for that purpose. To sit in 
eackcloth and ashes, was a frequent expression 
of mourning in the oriental regions ; and per- 
sons overwhelmed with grief, and unable to 
sustain the weight of their calamities, often 
threw themselves upon the earth, and rolled in 
the dust ; and the more dirty the ground was, 
the better it served to defile them, and to ex- 
press their sorrow and dejection. In this way 
Tamar signified her distress, after being dis- 
honoured by Aranon, "She put ashes on her 
head ;" and when Mordecai understood that 
the doom of his nation was sealed, he "rent 
his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes." 
Our Lord alludes to the same custom, in that 
denunciation : " Wo unto thee, Chorazin ! 
wo unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty 
works which were done in you, had been done 
in Ty^e and Sidon, they would have repented 
long ago, in sackcloth and ashes," Matt.xi, 21. 
Intimately connected with this, is the custom 
of putting dust upon the head. When the 
armies of Isiael were defeated before Ai, 
-" Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth 
upon his face, he and the elders of Israel, and 
put dust upon their heads." The mourner 
sometimes laid his hands upon his head; for 
the prophet, expostulating with his people, pre- 
dicts their humiliation in these words : " Yea, 
thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands 
upon thine head ; for the Lord hath rejected 
thy confidences, and thou, shalt not prosper in 
them," Jer. ii, 37. In both these cases, the 
head of the mourner was uncovered; but they 
sometimes adopted the opposite custom, and 
covered their heads in great distress, or when 
they were loaded with disgrace and infamy. 

3. To cover the lips was a very ancient sign 
of mourning ; and it continues to be practised 
among the Jews of Barbary to this day. When 
they return from the grave to the house of the 
deceased, the chief mourner receives them with 
his jaws tied up with a linen cloth, in imitation 
of the manner in which the face of the dead is 
covered ; and by this the mourner is said to 
testify that he was ready to die for his friend. 
Muffled in this way, the mourner goes for 
seven days, during which the rest of his friends 
come twice every twenty-four hours to pray 
with him. This allusion is perhaps involved 
in the charge which Ezekiel re<;eived when his 
wife died, to abstain from the customary forms 
of mourning : " Forbear to cry ; make nomourn- 
ing for the dead ; bind the tire of thy head upon 
thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and 
cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of 
men," Ezekiel xxiv, 17. 

4. Sitting on the ground was a posture which 
denoted severe distress. Thus the prophet re- 
presents the elders of Israel, after the destruction 
of Jerusalem, and the captivity of those whom 
the sword had spared: "The elders of the 
daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep 
silence ; ihoy have cast up dust upon their 



heads ; they have girded themselves with sack- 
cloth ; the virgins of Jerusalem hang down 
their heads to the ground," Lam. ii, 10. Judea 
is represented on several coins of Vespasian 
and Titus, as a solitary female in this very 
posture of sorrow and captivity sitting upon 
the ground. It is remarkable, that we find 
Judea represented as a sorrowful woman sitting 
on the ground, in a passage of the prophet, 
where the same calamity which was recorded 
on the medals of these Roman emperors is 
foretold : " And she being desolate shall sit 
upon the ground," Isaiah iii, 26. 

5. Chardin informs us that when the king 
of Persia dies, his physicians and astrologers 
lose their places, and are excluded from the 
court; the first, because they could not cure 
their sovereign, and the last, because they did 
not give previous notice of his death. This 
whimsical custom he supposes has descended 
to modern times from a very remote antiquity ; 
and to have been the true reason that Daniel 
was absent when Belshazzar saw the hand 
writing his doom on the wall. If the conjee- 
ture of that intelligent traveller be well found- 
ed, the venerable prophet had been forced by 
the established etiquette of the court to retire 
from the management of public affairs at the 
death of Nebuchadnezzar ; and had remained 
in a private station for twenty-three years, 
neglected or forgotten, till the awful occurrence 
of that memorable night rendered his assistance 
necessary, and brought him again into public 
notice. " This accounts in a very satisfactory 
manner, as well for Belshazzar's ignorance of 
Daniel, as for the recollection of Nitocris, the 
queen-mother, who had long known his charac- 
ter and abilities during the reign of her hus« 
band. This solution of the difficulty is at least 
ingenious. 

6. It was a custom among the Jews to visit 
the sepulchres of their deceased friends three 
days; for so long they supposed their spirits 
hovered about them; but when once they 
perceived their visage begin to change, as it 
would in that time in those warm countries, all 
hopes of a return to life were then at an end. 
But it appears from an incident in the narra- 
tive of the raising of Lazarus, that in Judea 
they were accustomed to visit the graves of 
their deceased relations after the third day, 
merely to lament their loss, and give vent to 
their grief. If this had not been a common 
practice, the people that came to comfort the 
sisters of Lazarus would not so readily have 
concluded, when Mary, on the fourth day, 
went hastily out to meet her Saviour, " She 
goeth to the grave to weep there." The Turk- 
ish women continue to follow this custom : 
they go before sunrising on Friday, the stated 
day of their worship, to the grave of the de- 
ceased, where, with many tears and lamenta- 
tions, they sprinkle their monuments with 
water ^nd flowers. 

DEAD SEA. This was anciently called 
the Sea of the Plain, Deut. iii, 17 ; iv, 49, from 
its situation in the great hollow or plain of the 
Jordan; the Salt Sea, Deut. iii, 17; Joshua 
XV, 5, from the extreme saltness of its waters ; 



DEA 



29^ 



DEA 



and the East Sea, Ezek. xlvii, 18 ; Joel ii, 20, 
from its situation relative to Judea, and in eon. 
tradistinction to the West Sea, or Mediter- 
ranean. It is likewise called by Josephus, and 
by the Greek and Latin writers generally, La- 
cus Asphaltites, from the bitumen found in it ; 
and the Dead Sea, its more frequent modern 
appellation, from a tradition, commonly though 
erroneously received, that no living creature 
could exist in its saline and sulpliureous waters. 
It is at present known in Syria by the names 
of Almotanak and Bahar Loth : and occupies 
what may be considered as the southern ex- 
tremity of the vale of Jordan ; forming, in that 
direction, the western" boundary to the Holy 
Land. The Dead Sea is about seventy miles 
in length, and twenty in breadth at its broadest 
part; having, like the Caspian, no visible 
communication with the ocean. Its depth 
seems to be altogether unknown ; nor does it 
appear that a boat has ever navigated its sur- 
face. Toward its southern extremity, however, 
in a contracted part of the lake, is a ford, about 
six miles over, made use of by the Arabs : in 
the middle of which they report the water to 
be warm ; indicating the presence of warm 
springs beneath. In general, toward the shore, 
it is shallow ; and rises and falls with the sea- 
sons, and the quantity of water carried into it 
by seven streams, which fall into this their 
common receptacle, the chief of which is the 
Jordan. 

The water now covering these ruins occu- 
pies what was formerly the vale of Siddim ; a 
rich and fruitful valley, in which stood the five 
cities, called the cities of the plain, namely, 
Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Beta 
or Zoar : the four first of which were destroy- 
ed, while the latter, being "a little city," was 
preserved at the intercession of Lot; to which 
he fled for refuge from the impending catas- 
trophe, and where he remained in safety dur- 
ing its accomplishment. 

The specific gravity of the waters of the 
Dead Sea is supposed to have been much ex- 
aggerated by the ancient writers, but their 
statements are now proved to be by no means 
very wide of the truth, Pliny says, that no 
living bodies would sink in it ; and Strabo, that 
persons who went into it were borne up to 
their middle. Van Egmont and Heyman state, 
that, on swimming to some distance from the 
shore, they found themselves, to their great 
surprise, lifted up by the water. " When I had 
swam to some distance," says the latter, " I 
endeavoured to sink to the bottom, but could 
not; for the water kept me continually up, 
and would certainly have thrown me upon my 
face, had I not put forth all the strength I was 
master of, to keep myself in a perpendicular 
posture ; so that I walked in the sea as if I had 
trod on firm ground, without having occasion 
to make any of the motions necessary in tread- 
ing fresh water ; and when I was swimming, 
I was obliged to keep my legs the greatest part 
of the time out of the water. My fellow travel- 
ler was agreeably surprised to find that he 
could swim here, having never learned. But 
this proceeded from the gravity of the water. 



as this certainly does from the extraordinary 
quantity of salt in it." Mr. Jolifte says, he 
found it very little more buoyant than other 
seas, but he did not go out of his depth. " The 
descent of the beach," he says, "is so gently 
gradual, that I must have waded above a hun- 
dred yards to get completely out of my depth, 
and the impatience of the Arabians would not 
allow of time sufficient for this." Captain 
Mangles says : " The water is as bitter and as 
buoyant as the people have reported. Those 
of our party who could not swim, floated on its 
surface like corks. On dipping the head in, 
the eyes smarted dreadfully." With regard to 
the agents employed in this catastrophe, there 
might seem reason to suppose that volcanic 
phenomena had some share in producing it ; 
but Chateaubriand's remark is deserving of 
attention. "I cannot," he says, "coincide in 
opinion with those who suppose the Dead Sea 
to be the crater of a volcano. I have seen 
Vesuvius, Solfatara, Monte Nuovo in the lake 
of Fusino, the peak of the Azores, the Mamalif 
opposite to Carthage, the extinguished volca- 
noes of Auvergne ; and remarked in all of 
them the same characters; that is to say, 
mountains excavated in the form of a tunnel, 
lava, and ashes, which exhibited incontestable 
proofs of the agency of fire." After noticing 
the very different shape and position of the 
Dead Sea, he adds: "Bitumen, warm springs, 
and phosphoric stones are found, it is true, in 
the mountains of Arabia ; but then, the presence 
of hot springs, sulphur, and asphaltos is not 
sufficient to attest the anterior existence of a 
volcano." The learned Frenchman inclines to 
adopt the idea of Professors Michaelis and Bus- 
ching, that Sodom and Gomorrah were built 
upon a mine of bitumen ; that lightning kin- 
died the combustible mass, and that the cities 
sunk in the subterraneous conflagration. M. 
Malte Brun ingeniously suggests, that the cities 
might themselves have been built of bitumi- 
nous stones, and thus have been set in flames 
by the fire of heaven. We learn from the Mo- 
sale account, that the Vale of Siddim, which is 
now occupied by the Dead Sea, was full of 
" slime pits," or pits of bitumen. Pococke says : 
" It is observed, that the bitumen floats on the 
water, and comes ashore after windy weather ; 
the Arabs gather it up, and it serves as pitch 
for all uses, goes into the composition of me- 
dicines, and is thought to have been a very 
great ingredient in the bitumen used in em- 
balming the bodies in Egypt : it has been much 
used for cerecloths, and has an ill smell when 
burnt. It is probable that there are subterra- 
neous fires, that throw up this bitumen at the 
bottom of the sea, where it may form itself into 
a mass, which may be broken by the motion 
of the water occasioned by high winds ; and it 
is very remarkable, that the stone called the " 
stone of Moses, found about two or three 
leagues from the sea, which burns like a coal, 
and turns only to a white stone, and not to 
ashes, has the same smell, when burnt, as this 
pitch ; so that it is probable, a stratum of the 
stone under the Dead Sea is one part of the 
matter that feeds the subterraneous fires, and 



DEB 



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PED 



that this bitumen boils up out of it." To give 
force to this last conjecture, however, it would 
be requisite to ascertain, whether bitumen is 
capable of being detached from this stone, in 
a liquid state, by the action of fire. The stone 
in question is the black feited limestone/ used 
at Jerusalem in the manufacture of rosaries 
and amulets, and worn as a charm against the 
plague. The efHuvia which it emits on friction, 
is owing to a strong impregnation of sulphur- 
etted hydrogen. If the buildings were con- 
structed of materials of this description, with 
quarries of which the neighbouring mountains 
abound, they would be easily susceptible of 
ignition by lightning. The Scriptural account, 
however, is explicit, that "the Lord rained 
upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire 
from heaven ;" which we may safely interpret 
as implying a shower of inflamed sulphur, or 
nitre. At the same time it is evident, that the 
whole plain underwent a simultaneous con- 
vulsion, which seems referable to the conse. 
quences of a bituminous explosion. In perfect 
accordance with this view of the catastrophe, we 
fmd the very materials, as it were, of this awfiil 
visitation still at hand in the neighbouring hills ; 
from which they might have been poured down 
by the agency of thunder storms, directed by 
the hand of offended Heaven. Captains Irby 
and Mangles collected, on the southern coast, 
lumps of nitre and fine sulphur, from the size 
of a nutmeg up to that of a small hen's egg, 
which, it was evident from their situation, had 
been brought down by the rain: "their great 
deposit must be sought for," they say, "in the 
cliff." These cliffs then were probably swept 
by the lightnings, and their flaming masses 
poured in a deluge of fire upon the plain. 

DEBORAH, a prophetess, wife of Lapidoth, 
judged the Israelites, and dwelt under a palm 
tree between Ramah and Bethel, Judges iv, 
4, 5. She sent for Barak, directed him to at- 
tack Sisera, and, in the name of God, promised 
him victory ; but Barak refusing to go, unless 
she went with him, she told liim, that the 
honour of this expedition would be given to a 
woman, and not to him. After the victory, 
Deborah and Barak sung a fine thanksgiving 
Bong, the composition probably of Deborah 
alone, which is preserved. Judges v. 

DEBTS. In nothing, perhaps, do the Israel, 
itish laws deviate so far from our own, as in 
regard to matters of debt. Imprisonment was 
unknown among the Hebrews, Vv'ho were 
equally free from those long and expensive 
modes of procedure with which we are ac- 
quainted, for the recovery of debts. Their 
laws in this respect were simple, but efiicient. 
Where pledges were lodged with a creditor for 
the payment of a debt, which was not discharg- 
ed, the creditor was allowed to appropriate the 
pledge to his own benefit, without any inter- 
position of a magistrate, and to keep it as right- 
fully as if it had been bought with the sum 
which had been lent for it. But, beside the 
pledge, every Israelite had various pieces of 
property, on which execution for debt might 
readily be made ; as (1.) His hereditary land, 
the produce of which might be attached till 



the year of jubilee : (2.) His houses, which, with 
the sole exception of those of the Levites, might 
be sold in perpetuity, Lev. xxv, 29, 30 : (3.) His 
cattle, household furniture, and ornaments, ap- 
pear also liable to be taken in execution. See 
Job xxiv, 3 ; Proverbs xxii, 27. From Deut, 
XV, 1-11, we see that no debt could be exacted 
from a poor man in the seventh year ; because 
the land lying fallow, he had no income whence 
to pay it : (4.) The person of the debtor, who 
might be sold, along with his wife and children, 
if he had any. See Lev. xxv, 39 ; Job xxiv, 9 ; 
2 Kings iv, 1 ; Isaiah 1, 1 ; Nehemiah v. We 
have no intimation, in the writings of Moses, 
that suretyship was practised among the He- 
brews in cases of debt. In the Proverbs of 
Solomon, however, there are many admoni- 
tions respecting it. Where this warranty was 
given, the surety was treated with the same 
severity as if he had been the actual debtor ; 
and if he could not pay, his very bed might be 
taken from under him. Pro v. xxii, 27. There 
is a reference to the custom observed in con- 
tracting this obligation in Prov. xvii, 18 ; "A 
man void of understanding striketh hands," 
&c ; and also in Prov. xxii, 26 : "Be not thou 
one of them that strike hands," &c. It is to 
be observed that the hand was given, not to 
the creditor, but to the debtor, in the creditor's 
presence. By this act the surety intimated that 
he became in a legal sense one with the debtor, 
and rendered himself liable to pay the debt. 

2. We have above noticed the practice of 
lending on pledge ; but as this was liable to 
considerable abuse, the following judicial regu- 
lations were adopted : (1.) The creditor was 
not allowed to enter the house of the debtor to 
fetch the pledge, but was obliged to stand with- 
out the door, and wait till it was brought to 
him. Dent, xxiv, 10, 11. This law was wisely 
designed to restrain avaricious and unprinci- 
pled persons from taking advantage of their 
poor brethren in choosing their own pledges, 
(2.) The upper garment, which served by night 
for a blanket, Exod. xxii, 25, 26 ; Deut. xxiv, 
12, 13, and mills and millstones, if taken in 
pledge, were to be restored to the owner be- 
fore sunset. The reason of this law was, that 
these articles were indispensable to the com- 
fortable subsistence of the poor; and for the 
same reason, it is likely that it extended to all 
necessary utensils. Such a restoration was no 
loss to the creditor ; for he had it in his power 
at last, by the aid of summary justice, to lay 
hold of the whole property of the debtor ; and 
if he had none, of his person : and, in the 
event of non-payment, as before stated, to take 
him for a bond slave. 

DECALOGUE, the ten principal command. 
ments, Exod. xx, 1, &c, from the Greek Seku 
ten, and 'Xdyoi words. The Jews call these pre- 
cepts, the ten words, 

DECAPOLIS, a country in Palestine, so 
called, because it contained ten principal -cities ; 
some situated on the west, and some on the 
east side of Jordan, Matt, iv, 25 ; Mark v, 20. 

DEDICATION, a religious ceremony, 
whereby any person or thing was set apart to 
the service of God, and the purposes of religion. 



X)EI 



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Dedications of persons, temples, and houses, 
were frequent among the Jews. See Conse- 

CRATION. 

DEFILEMENT. Under the law, many- 
were those blemishes of person and conduct, 
which were considered as defilements: some 
were voluntary, others involuntary ; some 
were inevitable, and the effect of nature itself, 
others arose from personal transgression. 
Under the Gospel, defilements are those of 
the heart, of the mind, the temper, and con- 
duct. The ceremonial uncleannesses of the 
law are superseded as religious rites ; though 
many of them claim attention as usages of 
health, decency, and civility. 

DEGREES. Psalms of Degrees is a name 
given to fifteen psalms, from the cxx, to the 
cxxxiv, inclusive. The Hebrew text calls 
them a song of ascents. Junius and Tremellius 
translate the Hebrew a song of excellences, or 
an excellent song, from the excellent matter 
they contain. Some call them psalms of ele. 
vation, because they were sung v/ith an exalt- 
ed voice, or because at every psalm the voice 
was raised ; but the translation of psahns of 
degrees has more generally obtained. Some 
think that they were called psalms of degrees, 
because they were sung upon the fifteen steps 
of the temple ; but they are not agreed where 
these steps were. Others are of opinion, that 
they were so denominated, because sung in a 
gallery, which was in the court of Israel, 
where the Levites sometimes read the law. 
Calmet thinks, that they were called songs of 
degrees, or of ascent, because they were com- 
posed on occasion of the deliverance of the 
Jews from the captivity of Babylon, either to 
implore this deliverance from God, or to return 
thanks for it after it had been obtained; and 
that the Hebrews used the term to go up, when 
they spoke of their journeying from Babylon 
to Jerusalem. Others are of opinion, that 
these psalms were sung during the time of 
service, while the flesh, &c, were consuming 
on the altar, and while the fume and smoke 
ascended toward heaven ; and that the title 
Psalms of Ascent seems to favour this suppo- 
sition. The point is involved in entire ob- 
scurity ; and, after all, the title of these Psalms 
may be only a musical direction to the temple 
choir. 

DEISTS. This term appears to have had 
an honourable origin, being of the same im- 
port as Theists, designating those who believe 
in the existence of a supreme intelligent cause, 
in opposition to the Epicureans, and other 
Atheistical philosophers. The name, in modern 
times, is said to have been first assumed about 
the middle of the sixteenth century, by some 
persons on the continent, in order to avoid the 
imputation of Atheism. Peter Viret, a divine 
of that century, mentions it as a new name 
assumed by those who rejected Christianity. 
Lord Edw. Herbert, baron of Cherbury, in the 
seventeenth century, has been regarded as the 
first Deistical writer in this country, or at least, 
the first who reduced Deism to a system ; 
affirming the sufficiency of reason and natural 
religion, and rejecting divine revelation as un- 



necessary and superfluous. His system, how- 
ever, embraced these five articles : — 1. The 
being of God. 2. That he is to be worshipped. 

3. That piety and moral virtue are the chief 
parts of worship. 4. That God will pardon 
our faults on repentance. And, 5. That there 
is a future state of rewards and punishment. 
Some have divided all Deists into two classes— 
those who admit a future state, and those who 
deny it. But Dr. S. Clarke, taking the term 
in the most extensive sense, arranges them 
under four classes: — 1. Those who admit a 
Supreme Being, but deny that he concerns 
himself with the conduct or affairs of men ; 
maintaining, with Lucretius, that God 

"Ne'er smiles at good, nor frowns at wicked, deeds." 
2. Those who admit not only the being but the 
providence of God, with respect to the natural 
world ; but who allow no difference between 
moral good and evil, nor that God takes any 
notice of our moral conduct. 3. Such as be- 
lieve in the natural attributes of God, and his 
all-governing providence; yet deny the im- 
mortality of the soul, or any future state. 

4. Such as admit the existence of God, his 
providence, and the obligations of natural re- 
ligion ; but so far only as these things are dis- 
coverable by the light of nature, without any 
divine revelation. Some of the Deists have 
attempted to overthrow the Christian dispen. 
sation, by opposing to it v/hat they call the 
absolute perfection of natural religion. Others, 
as Blount, Collins, and Morgan, have en- 
deavoured to gain the same purpose, by attack, 
ing particular parts of the Christian scheme, 
by explaining away the literal sense and mean- 
ing of certain passages, or by placing one por- 
tion of the sacred canon in opposition to the 
other. A third class, wherein we meet with 
the names of Shaftesbury and Bolingbroke, 
advancing farther in their progress, expunge 
from their creed the doctrine of future exist- 
ence, deny or controvert all the moral perfec- 
tions of the Deity, and wholly reject the 
Scriptures. 

The Deists of the present day are distinguish- 
ed by their zealous efforts to diffuse the prin- 
ciples of infidelity among the common people. 
Hume, Bolingbroke, and Gibbon, addressed 
themselves solely to the more polished classes 
of the community ; but of late the writings of 
Paine, Carlile, and others, have diffiised infi» 
delity among the lower orders of society, and 
clothed it in the dress of vulgar ridicule, the 
more effectually to destroy in the commor?. 
people all reverence for sacred things. Among 
the disciples of this school, Deism has led to 
the most disgusting Atheism, Thus "evil 
men and seducers wax worse and worse." 

DELUGE signifies, in general, any great 
inundation ; but more particularly that uni- 
versal flood by which the whole inhabitants of 
this globe were destroyed, except Noah and 
his family. According to the most approved 
systems of chronology, this remarkable event 
happened in the year 1656 after the creation, 
or about 2348 before the Christian aera. Of so 
general a calamity, from which only a single 
family of all who lived then on the face of the 



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earth was preserved, we might naturally ex- 
pect to find some memorials in the traditionary- 
records of Pagan history, as well as in the 
sacred volume, where its peculiar cause, and 
the circumstances which attended it, are so 
distinctly and so fully related. Its magnitude 
and singularity could scarcely fail to make an 
indelible impression on the minds of the sur- 
vivors, which would be communicated from 
them to their children, and would not be easily 
effaced from the traditions even of their latest 
posterity. A deficiency in such traces of this 
awful event, though perhaps it might not 
serve entirely to invalidate our belief of its 
reality, would certainly tend considerably to 
weaken its claim to credibility ; it being 
scarcely probable that the knowledge of it 
should be utterly lost to the rest of the world, 
and confined to the documents of the Jewish 
nation alone. What we might reasonably ex- 
pect has, accordingly, been actually and com- 
pletely realized. The evidence which has 
been brought from almost every quarter of the 
world to bear upon the reality of this event, is 
of the most conclusive and irresistible kind ; 
and every investigation, whether etymological 
or historical, which has been made concern- 
ing Heathen rites and traditions, has constantly 
added to its force, no less than to its extent. 

And here, it were injustice to the memory 
of ingenuity and erudition almost unexampled 
in modern times, were we not to mention the 
labours of Bryant, the learned analysist of 
ancient mythology, whose patience and pro- 
foundness of research have thrown such new 
and convincing light on this subject. Nor 
must we forget his ardent and successful dis- 
ciple, Mr. Faber, who, in his " Dissertation on 
the Mysteries of the Cabiri," has in travelling 
over similar ground with his illustrious master 
at once corrected some of his statements, and 
greatly strengthened his general conclusions. 
As the basis of their system, however, rests on 
a most extensive etymological examination of 
the names of the deities and other mytholo- 
gical personages worshipped and celebrated by 
the Heathen, compared with the varied tra- 
ditions respecting their histories, and the na- 
ture of the rites and names of the places that 
were sacred to them, we cannot do more, in 
the present article, than shortly state the result 
of their investigations, referring for the par- 
ticular details, to the highly original treatises 
already mentioned. According to them, the 
memory of the deluge was incorporated with 
almost every part of the Gentile mythology 
and worship ; Noah, under a vast multitude of 
characters, being one of their first deities, to 
whom all the nations of the Heathen Vi^orld 
looked up as their founder ; and to some cir- 
cumstance or other in whose history, and that 
of his sons and the first patriarchs, most, if 
not all, of their religious ceremonies may 
be considered as not indistinctly referring. 
Traces of these, neither vague nor obscure, 
they conceive to be found in the history and 
character, not only of Deucalion, but of Atlas, 
Cronus, or Saturn, Dionusos, Inachus, Janus, 
Minos, Zeus, and others among the Greeks ; 



of Isis, Osiris, Sesostris, Oannes, Typhon, &c, 
among the Egyptians ; of Dagon, Agruerus, 
Sydyk, &c, among the Phenicians ; of Astarte, 
Derceto, &c, among the Assyrians ; of Buddha, 
Menu, Vishnu, &c, among the Hindus; of 
Fohi, and a deity represented as sitting upon 
the lotos in the midst of waters, among the 
Chinese ; of Budo and lakusi among the Ja- 
panese, &c. They discover allusions to the 
ark, in many of the ancient mysteries, and 
traditions with respect to the dove and the 
rainbow, by which several of these allegorical 
personages were attended, which are not easily 
explicable, unless they be supposed to relate to 
the history of the deluge. By the celebrated 
Ogdoas of the Egyptians, consisting of eight 
persons sailing together in the sacred baris or 
ark, they imagine the family of Noah, which 
was precisely eight in number, to have been 
designated; and in the rites of Adonis or 
Thammuz, in particular, they point out many 
circumstances which seem to possess a dis- 
tinct reference to the events recorded in the 
sixth and seventh chapters of Genesis. With 
regard to this system, we shall only farther 
observe, that, after every reasonable deduction 
is made from it, which the exuberant indul- 
gence of fancy occasionally exhibited by its 
authors appears to render necessary, it con- 
tains so much that is relevant and conclusive, 
that it induces the conviction that it has a 
solid foundation in truth and fact; it being 
scarcely possible to conceive, that a mere 
hypothesis could be supported by evidence so 
varied, so extensive, and in many particulars 
so demonstrative, as that which its framers 
have produced. - 

Beside, however, the allusions to the deluge 
in the mythology and religious ceremonies of 
the Heathen, to which we have thus concisely 
adverted, there is a variety of traditions con- 
cerning it still more direct and circumstantial, 
the coincidence of which, with the narrative 
of Moses, it will require no common degree of 
skeptical hardihood to deny. We are informed 
by one of the circumnavigators of the world, 
who visited the remote island of Otaheite, that 
some of the inhabitants being asked concern- 
ing their origin, answered, that their supreme 
God having, a long time ago, been angry, 
dragged the earth through the sea, when their 
island v/as broken off and preserved. In the 
island of Cuba, the people are said to believe 
that the world was once destroyed by water 
by three persons, evidently alluding to the 
three sons of Noah. It is even related, that 
they have a tradition among them, that an old 
man, knowing that the deluge was approach- 
ing, built a large ship, and went into it with a 
great number of animals ; and that he sent out 
from the ship a crow, which did not imme- 
diately come back, staying to feed on the car- 
casses of dead animals, but afterward returned 
with a green branch in its mouth. The author 
who gives the above account likewise affirms 
that it was reported by the inhabitants of Cas- 
tella del Oro, in Terra Firma, that during a 
universal deluge, one man, and his children, 
were the only persons who escaped, by means 



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of a canoe, and that from them the world was 
afterward peopled. According to the Peru- 
vians, in consequence of a general inundation, 
occasioned by violent and continued rains, a 
universal destruction of the human species 
took place, a few persons only excepted, who 
escaped into caves on the tops of the mount- 
ains, into which they had previously conveyed 
a stock of provisions, and a number of live 
animals, lest when the waters abated, the whole 
race should have become extinct. Others of 
them affirm, that only six persons were saved, 
by means of a float or rafl, and that from them 
all the inhabitants of the country are descended. 
They farther believe, that this event took place 
before there were any incas or kings among 
them, and when the country was extremely 
populous. The Brazilians not only preserve 
the tradition of a deluge, but believe that the 
whole race of mankind perished in it, except 
one man and his sister ; or, according to others, 
two brothers with their wives, who were pre- 
served by climbing the highest trees on their 
loftiest mountains ; and who afterward became 
the heads of two different nations. The memo- 
ry of this event they are even said to celebrate 
in some of their religious anthems or songs. 
Acosta, in his history of the Indies, says, that 
the Mexicans speak of a deluge in their country, 
by which all men were drov/ned ; and that it 
was afterward peopled by viracocha, who came 
out of the lake Titicaca ; and, according to 
Herrera, the Machoachans, a people compara- 
tively in the neighbourhood of Mexico, had a 
tradition, that a single family was formerly 
preserved in an ark amid a deluge of waters ; 
and that along with them, a sufficient number 
of animals were saved to stock the new world. 
During the time that they were shut up in the 
ark, several ravens were sent out, one of which 
brought back the branch of a tree. Among 
the Iroquois it is reported that a certain spirit, 
called by them Otkon, was the creator of the 
world ; and that another being, called Messou, 
repaired it after a deluge, which happened in 
consequence of Otkon's dogs having one day 
while he was hunting with them lost them- 
selves in a great lake, which, in consequence 
of this, overflowed its banks, and in a short 
time covered the whole earth. 

Passing from the more remote western to the 
eastern continent, nearer to the region where 
Noah is generally supposed to have lived, we 
find the traditions respecting the deluge still 
more particular and minute. According to 
Josephus, there were a multitude of ancient 
authors who concurred in asserting that the 
world had once been destroyed by a flood : 
"This deluge," says he, " and the ark are men- 
tioned by all who have written barbaric histo- 
ries, one of whom is Berosus the Chaldean." 
Eusebias informs us, that Melo, a bitter enemy 
of the Jews, and whose testimony is on this 
account peculiarly valuable, takes notice of the 
person who was saved along with his sons from 
the flood, having been, after his preservation, 
driven away from Armenia, whence he retired 
to the mountainous parts of Syria. Abydenus, 
jafter giving an account of the deluge from 



which Xisuthrus, the Chaldean Noah, was 
saved, concludes with asserting, in exact con- 
currence with Berosus, that the ark first rested 
on the mountains of Armenia, and that its re- 
mains were used by the natives as a talisman ; 
and Plutarch mentions the Noachic dove being 
sent out of the ark, and returning to it again, 
as an intimation to Deucalion that the storm 
had not yet ceased. 

This, however, is by no means all : Sir W. 
Jones, speaking of one of the Chinese fables,says, 
" Although I cannot insist with confidence, that 
the rainbow mentioned in it alludes to the Mo- 
saic narrative of the flood, nor build any solid 
argument on the divine person Niuva, of whose 
character, and even of whose sex the historians of 
China speak very doubtfully ; I may nevertheless 
assure you, after full inquiry and consideration, 
that the Chinese believe the earth to have been 
wholly covered with water, which, in works of 
undisputed authenticity, they describe as flovv^ing 
abundantly, then subsiding, and separating the 
higher from the lower age of mankind." Still 
more coincident even than this with the Mosaic 
account, is the Grecian history of the deluge, 
as preserved by Lucian, a native of Samosata 
on the Euphrates ; and its authority is the more 
incontrovertible, on account of his being an 
avowed derider of all religions. The antedi- 
luvians, according to him, had gradually be- 
come so hardened and profligate, as to be guilty 
of every species of injustice. They paid no 
regard to the obligation of oaths ; were inso- 
lent, inhospitable, and unmerciful. For this 
reason they were visited with an awful ca- 
lamity. Suddenly the earth poured forth a vast 
quantity of water, the rain descended in tor- 
rents, the rivers overflowed their banks, and 
the sea rose to a prodigious height, so that 
"all things became water," and all men were 
destroyed except Deucalion. He alone, for the 
sake of his prudence and piety, was reserved 
to a second generation. In obedience to a 
divine nomination, he entered, with his sons 
and their wives, into a large ark, which they had 
built for their preservation ; and immediately 
swine, and horses, and lions, and serpents, and 
all other animals which live on earth, came to 
him by pairs, and were admitted by him into 
the ark. There they became perfectly mild 
and innoxious, their natures being changed by 
the gods, who created such a friendship be- 
tween them, that they all sailed peaceably 
together, so long as the waters prevailed over 
the surface of the globe. 

Scarcely less remarkable is the Hindoo tra- 
dition. It is contained in the ancient poem 
of the Bhavagat; and forms the subject of the 
first Purana, entitled Matsya, or " The Fish." 
The following is Sir William Jones's abridg- 
ment of it ; and the identity of the event which 
it describes, with that of the Hebrew historian, 
is too obvious to require any particular illus- 
tration : " The demon Hayagriva, having pur- 
loined the Vedas from the custody of Brahma, 
while he was reposing at the close of the sixth 
Manwantara, the whole race of men became 
corrupt, except the seven Rishis, and Satya- 
vrata, who then reigned in Dravira, a maritime 



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region to the south of Carnata. This prince 
was performing his ablutions in the river Criti- 
mala, when Vishnu appeared to him in the 
shape of a small fish, and after several aug- 
mentations of bulk in different waters, was 
placed by Satyavrata in the ocean, where he 
thus addressed his amazed votary : ' In seven 
days all creatures who have offended me shall 
be destroyed by a deluge, but thou shalt be 
secured in a capacious vessel miraculously 
formed ; take therefore all kinds of medicinal 
herbs, and esculent grain for food, and, toge- 
ther with the seven holy men, your respective 
wives, and pairs of all animals, enter the ark 
without fear : then shalt thou know God face 
to face, and all thy questions shall be answer- 
ed.' Saying this, he disappeared ; and after 
seven days the ocean began to overflow the 
coasts, and the earth to be flooded by constant 
showers, when Satyavrata, meditating on the 
deity, saw a large vessel moving on the waters. 
He entered it, having in all respects conformed 
to the instructions of Vishnu ; who in the form 
of a vast fish, suffered the vessel to be tied with 
a great sea serpent, as with a cable, to his mea- 
sureless horn. When the deluge had ceased, 
Vishnu slew the demon, and recovered the 
Vedas, instructed Satyavrata in divine know- 
ledge, and appointed him the seventh Menu, 
by the name of Vaivaswata." 

When we thus meet Vv^ith some traditions of 
a deluge in almost every country, though the 
persons saved from it are said, in those various 
accounts to have resided in different districts 
widely separated from each other, we are con- 
strained to allow that such a general concur- 
rence of belief could never have originated 
merely from accident. While the mind is in 
this situation, Scripture comes forward, and, 
presenting a narrative m.ore simple, better 
connected, and bearing an infinitely greater 
resemblance to authentic history, than any of 
those mythological accounts which occur in 
the traditions of Paganism, immediately flashes 
the conviction upon the understanding, that 
this must be the true history of those remark, 
able facts which other nations have handed 
down to us, only through the medium of alle- 
gory and fable. By the evidence adduced in 
this article, indeed, the moral certainty of the 
Mosaic history of the flood appears to be esta- 
blished on a basis sufficiently firm to bid de- 
fiance to the cavils of skepticism. " Let the 
Ingenuity of unbelief first account satisfactorily 
for this universal agreement of the Pagan world ; 
and she may then, with a greater degree of 
plausibility, impeach the truth of the Scrip- 
tural narrative of the deluge." The fact, how- 
ever, is not only preserved in the traditions of 
all nations, as we have already seen ; but after 
all the philosophical arguments which were 
formerly urged against it, philosophy has at 
length acknowledged that the present surface 
of the earth must have been submerged under 
water. "Not only," says Kirwan, "in every 
region of Europe, but also of both the old and 
new continents, immense quantities of marine 
shells, either dispersed or collected, have been 
discovered." This and several other facts seem 



to prove, that at least a great part of the pre- 
sent earth was, before the last general convul- 
sion to which it has been subjected, the bed of 
an ocean which, at that time, was withdrawn 
from it. Other facts seem also to prove with 
sufficient evidence, that this was not a gradual 
retirement of the waters which once covered 
the parts now inhabited by men ; but a violent 
one, such as may be supposed from the brief 
but emphatic relation of Moses. The violent 
action of water has left its traces in various 
undisputed phenomena. Stratified mountains 
of various heights exist in different parts of 
Europe, and of both continents ; in and be- 
tween whose strata, various substances of ma- 
rine, and some vegetables of terrestrial, origin, 
repose either in their natural state, or petrified. 
To overspread the plains of the arctic circle 
with the shells of Indian seas, and with the 
bodies of elephants and rhinoceri, surrounded 
by masses of submarine vegetation ; to accu- 
mulate on a single spot, as at La Bolca, in 
promiscuous confusion, the marine productions 
of the four quarters of the globe ; what con- 
ceivable instrument would be efficacious but 
the rush of mighty waters ? These facts, about 
which there is no dispute, and which are ac- 
knowledged by the advocates of each of the 
prevailing geological theories, give a sufficient 
attestation to the deluge of Noah, in which 
"the fountains of the great deep were broken 
up," and from which precisely such phenomena 
might be expected to follow. To this may be 
added, though less decisive in proof, yet cer- 
tainly strong as presumptive evidence, that the 
very aspect of the earth's surface exhibits inte- 
resting marks both of the violent action, and 
the rapid subsidence, of Vv^aters ; as well as 
aftbrds a most interesting instance of the divine 
goodness in converting what was ruin itself 
into utility and beauty. The great frame-work 
of the varied surface of the habitable earth was 
probably laid by a more powerful agency than 
that of water ; either when on the third day 
the waters under the heavens were gathered 
into one place, and the crust of the primitive 
earth was broken down to receive them, so that 
" the dry land might appear ;" or by those 
mighty convulsions which appear to have ac- 
companied the general deluge ; but the round- 
ing, so to speak, of what was rugged, where 
the substance was yielding, and the graceful 
undulations of hill and dale which so frequently 
present themselves, were probably effected by 
the retiring waters. The flood has passed 
away ; but the soils which it deposited remain ; 
and the valleys through which its last streams 
were drawn off to the ocean, with many an 
eddy and sinuous course, still exist, exhibiting 
visible proofs of its agency, and impressed with 
forms so adapted to the benefit of man, and 
often so gratifying to the finest taste, that, 
when the flood "turned," it may be said to 
have "left a blessing behind it." 

The objections once made to the fact of a 
general deluge have, indeed, been greatly 
weakened by the progress of philosophical 
knowledge ; and may be regarded as nearly 
given up, like the former notion of the high 



DEM 



301 



DEM 



antiquity of the race of men, founded on the 
Chinese and Egyptian chronologies and pre- 
tended histories. Philosophy has even at last 
found out that there is sufficient water in the 
ocean, if called forth, to overflow the highest 
mountains to the height given by Moses, — a 
conclusion which it once stoutly denied. Keill 
formerly computed that twenty-eight oceans 
would be necessary for that purpose ; but we 
are now informed "that a farther progress in 
mathematical and physical knowledge has 
shown the different seas and oceans to contain, 
at least, forty -eight times more water than they 
were then supposed to do ; and that the mere 
'raising of the temperature of the whole body 
of the ocean to a degree no greater than ma- 
rine animals live in, in the shallow seas between 
the tropics, would so expand it as more than to 
produce the height above the mountains stated 
in the Mosaic account." As to the deluge of 
Noah, therefore, infidelity has almost entirely 
lost the aid of philosophy in framing objections 
to the Scriptures. 

DEMONIAC, a human being possessed with 
and actuated by some spiritual malignant being 
of superior power. The word demon is used by 
Pagan writers often in a good sense, and i'- 
applied to their divinities; but the demons of 
holy writ are malignant spirits. We are not 
informed very particularly about their origin 
or destiny; but we find them represented as 
rsvfUfiara oKadapTa, and TZvzvjxara zsovvpu, unclean 
and evil spirits; and we must consider them as 
in league with the devil, as the subjects of his 
dominion, and the instruments of his will. They 
were the immediate agents in all possessions ; 
and to expel or restrain them, or to cure the 
diseases which they were supposed to occasion, 
was one of the miraculous gifts of the early 
times. 

2. On this subject an ardent controversy was 
agitated about the middle and toward the end 
of the last century, between Dr. Farmer and 
his opponents. In this controversy, of which 
we shall attempt to give a short view, it was 
contended, on the one hand, that the demo- 
niacal cases recorded in the books of the New 
Testament, were instances of real possession ; 
and, on the other, that they were merely dis- 
eases, set forth under the notion of possessions, 
in conformity with the belief which was pre- 
valent at the time. By the one party, the 
language of holy writ was interpreted literally ; 
and by the other it was considered as figurative, 
and used in the way of accommodation to the 
existing opinions. The leading asseveration 
of Dr. Farmer, upon the general question, is, 
that miracles, or works surpassing the power 
of men, are never performed without a divine 
interposition ; and by a divine interposition he 
means, either the immediate agency of the 
Deity himself, or of beings empowered and 
commissioned by him. And the proof of this 
asseveration, he tells us, may very easily be 
found, if we consider that, on any other sup- 
position, it is impossible to show that a religion 
supported by miracles is really from God. "For 
the miracles in question, or works surpassing 
the power of human beings, may have been 



performed by evil spirits, acting independently 
of the Divinity, thwarting his purposes, and 
marring the operation of his goodness. Should 
it be said that, from the tendency of the mira- 
cle itself, and a fortiori, from the tendency of 
the miracle and religion when taken together, 
we may easily infer the character of the being 
from whom the whole scheme proceeds, — to 
this also Dr. Farmer is ready with his answer. 
" With regard to doctrines," says he " of a 
moral or useful tendency, it is not, in all cases, 
easy for the bulk of mankind, or even for the 
wise and learned, to form a certain judgment 
concerning them. What to men appeared to 
have a tendency to promote virtue and hap- 
piness, superior beings, who discerned its 
remotest effects, might know to be a curse 
rather than a blessing, and give it countenance 
from a motive of malevolence. On the other 
hand, a doctrine really subservient to the cause 
of piety and virtue, men might judge to be pre- 
judicial to it. And were the sanctity of the 
doctrine ever so apparent, it would not (on the 
principles of those with whom we are here 
arguing) certainly follow from hence, that the 
miracles recommending it were wrought by 
God ; inasmuch as other beings, from motives 
unknown to us, might interest themselves in 
favour of such a doctrine." In one word, 
according to this author, we do not know 
whether the tendency of the miracle, or of the 
religion, be good or not ; and therefore we can 
form no accurate idea of the character really 
belonging to the being from whom the revela- 
tion proceeds. To our eyes the system may 
appear well calculated to promote our happiness, 
but it may have been the contrivance of wicked 
spirits. According to the sense and discern- 
ment of men, the miracle is useful in itself, but 
we cannot be sure whether it may not have 
been performed by one of the rebellious angels 
"who kept not their first estate." In con- 
formity with these opinions. Dr. Farmer main- 
tains that there is not an instance recorded in 
sacred Scripture, where a miracle has been 
wrought, and where there is not sufficient 
reason to believe that the effect was produced 
either by the Deity himself, or by agents com- 
missioned and empowered to act in his name. 
Hence he considers the Egyptian magicians as 
jugglers ; the witch of Endor, as a ventrilo- 
quist; and, completing the system^, he has 
written an elaborate dissertation to prove, that 
when Christ was " tempted of the devil," as 
the Evangelist Matthew expresses it, that 
apostate angel was not really present; and- 
that the whole transaction took place in a 
vision or a dream. 

With regard to the demoniacs of the New 
Testament, this writer and his followers con- 
tend that, among the Jews, certain diseases^ 
such as madness and epilepsy, were usually 
ascribed to the agency of evil spirits. This 
was the current notion and belief of the coun- 
try. Upon this notion the ordinary phraseology 
w^as built. Our Lord and his Apostles adapted 
their instructions to this prevailing notion, and 
used the language which had been formed 
upon it ; just as Moses, in his account of the 



DEM 



302 



DEM 



ereation, adapts himself to the popular astro, i 
nomy of his time, instead of laying before us 
the true system of the heavenly bodies. He 
ispeaks, not in relation to what is physically 
correct, but in relation to what was believed. 
He founds his instructions upon the ideas 
already entertained by the people to whom the 
revelation was first communicated : and Christ 
and his Apostles do the very same thing. 
They speak of the demoniacs, not according 
to the real state of the case, but according to 
the notions which the Jews entertained of it. 
Not a few of those demoniacs appear to have 
been persons of a disordered understanding, 
subject to attacks of mania ; some of them were 
afflicted with the epilepsy, or falling sickness, 
some were deaf, and others were dumb. When 
a demon is said to enter into a man, the mean- 
ing is, that his madness is about to show itself 
in a violent paroxysm ; when a demon is said 
to speak, it is only the unhappy victim of the 
disease himself that speaks ; and when a demon 
or devil is expelled, the exact truth of the case, 
as well as the whole of the miracle, is nothing 
more than that the disease is cured. Occa- 
sionally, too, say those who contend against 
the reality of demoniacal possessions, the Ian- 
guage of the sacred books confirms the expla- 
nation which has just been given. Thus, in 
the tenth chapter of St. John's Gospel, we find 
the Jews saying of Christ, " He hath a devil, 
and is mad," as if the expressions were per- 
fectly equivalent; and the person who is 
represented, in the seventeenth chapter of 
Matthew, as a lunatic, is spoken of by St. 
Mark as vexed with a dumb spirit. It is 
farther argued on this side of the question, 
that the instances of possession recorded in 
the books of the New Testament have all the 
features and appearance of ordinary diseases. 
The madness shows itself in these cases, just 
as it shows itself in the cases which occur 
among ourselves in the present day : it is now 
melancholy, and the patient is silent and sullen, 
and now it vents itself in bursts of anger and 
ferocious resentment. And the epilepsy of the 
sacred books is the epilepsy of all our systems 
of nosology : the phenomena of the diseases 
are precisely the same. Nor does this, say 
they, detract from the very high character 
which Christ undoubtedly sustains in the 
inspired writings, or diminish the value of his 
miracles as the evidences of our religion ; since 
it must be allowed, that to cure a disease with 
a word or a touch is an effort of power far 
beyond the reach of any human being. And 
let it be remembered, that those who deny the 
expulsion of demons are ready to admit that 
diseases were miraculously cured. There is a 
miracle in either case ; and, in either case, it 
is a suflScient proof of our Saviour's mission, 
and an adequate support of the Christian faith. 
3. To these statements and reasonings, the 
advocates of possessions have not been slow 
to reply. They call in question the truth of 
Dr. Farmer's leading asseveration; namely, 
"that extraordinary works have never been 
performed without a divine interposition ;" and 
contend, that as human beings have a certain 



sphere and agency allotted them, so it is rea* 
sonable to believe that malignant spirits have 
a wider sphere, and an agency less controlled ; 
and that within this sphere, and in the exercise 
of this agency, they perform actions, the ten- 
dency of which is to thwart the purposes of 
the divine beneficence, and to introduce con- 
fusion and misery into the world. They argue, 
too, that the devil himself, the chief of the 
apostc^e spirits, is often represented in holy 
writ as exerting his malignity in opposition to 
the designs of infinite goodness ; and in the 
case of our first parents, as a remarkable ex- 
ample, he tempted them to disobedience, and 
led them to their fall. It was in consequence 
of his machinations, that they brought down 
upon themselves the wrath of Heaven, and 
were driven from the garden in which "the 
Lord had placed them." The advocates of 
possessions contend still farther, that the reve- 
lation which is made to us in sacred Scripture 
is addressed to our understandings ; that it is 
not only in our power, but that it is our indis- 
pensable duty, to examine it, and to judge of 
it ; that the tendency of any miracle, or sys- 
tem of doctrine, is a sufficient evidence of the 
character belonging to him who performs the 
miracle, or publishes the doctrine ; that good 
actions are demonstrative of the quality of 
goodness ; and, in short, that a religion calcu- 
lated to make us happy must have proceeded 
from a Being who has consulted and provided 
for our happiness. Nor is this a matter so 
abstruse and remote from human apprehension, 
that we can form no opinion about it. " For," 
say they, "if any thing connected with Chris- 
tianity be plain, it seems to be that the ten- 
dency of the religion is beneficent; and that 
it is no less pure in its character than blessed 
in its effects. The very miracles recorded in 
Scripture are proofs of goodness. They must 
have been wrought by a good being. And," 
they continue, " we think ourselves entitled to 
hold our religion as true, and to regard it as in 
the highest degree beneficial, though we must 
allow, at the same time, that the magicians of 
Egypt performed many wonderful works by 
the agency of wicked spirits ; that the sorceress 
of Endor was in league with the powers of 
darkness, and that Christ was literally tempted 
' of the devil,' in the wilderness of Judea." 

4. With regard to the more specific question 
of demoniacal possessions, they answer, that 
though God has often been pleased to accom- 
modate himself to our apprehension by adopt- 
ing the current language of the countries, 
where the revelation v/as first published; yet 
the account of the creation given by Moses is 
not altogether an instance in point. For, say 
they, while it is granted that the true system 
of the universe is not laid before us in the 
first chapter of Genesis, it ought to be remem- 
bered that the statements in that chapter are 
exceedingly general ; and that, while the whole 
truth is not told, it being no part of the revela- 
tion to tell it, there is, at the same time, no error 
directly i^iculcated. In the demoniacal cases, 
however, the conduct of the inspired writers, 
and, indeed, of Christ himself, is widely differ. 



DEM 



303 



DES 



ent. They positively and directly inform us, 
that a demon " enters into" a man, and " comes 
out" of him; they represent the demons as 
speaking, and reasoning, and hoping, and fear- 
ing, as having inclinations and aversions pe- 
culiar to themselves, and distinct from those 
of the person who is the subject of the posses, 
sion ; they tell us of one unhappy sufferer who 
was vexed with many devils ; and, in the case of 
the demoniac of Gadara, they assure us that the 
devils were " cast out" of the man, and were 
permitted, at their own request, to "enter 
into" a herd of swine which were feeding in 
the neighbourhood, and that immediately the 
herd ran violently down a steep place, and 
were drowned in the sea. Who ever heard of 
swine afflicted with madness as a natural dis- 
ease? Or, when and where has the epilepsy, 
or falling sickness, been predicable of the sow ? 
For, it must be carefully observed that the 
disease of the man, the affection of the human 
sufferer, whatever that affection might have 
been, was clearly transferred from him to the 
animals in question. Beside, as various in- 
stances are recorded in Scripture, and as 
several cases are given at considerable length, 
might we not expect, if possessions were really 
nothing more than ordinary diseases, that the 
truth would be somewhere told or hinted at ? 
that, within the compass of the sacred canon, 
something would be said, or something insinu- 
ated, which would lead us to understand that 
the language, though inaccurate and improper, 
was used in accommodation to the popular 
belief? Might we not expect that Christ him- 
self would have declared, in one unequivocal 
affirmation, or in some intelligible way, the 
exact truth of the case ? Or, at all events, 
when the Holy Ghost had descended upon the 
Apostles on the day of pentecost, and when 
the full disclosure of the revelation appears to 
have been made, might it not reasonably have 
been looked for that the popular error would 
have been rectified, and the language reduced 
from its figurative character to a state of sim- 
ple correctness ? What conceivable motive 
could influence our Saviour, or his Apostles, to 
sanction the delusion of the multitude ? And 
does it not strike at the root of the Christian 
religion itself, to have it thought, for a single 
moment, that its "Author and Finisher," who 
came to enlighten and to reform the world, 
should have, on so many occasions, not only 
countenanced, but confirmed, an opinion which 
he must have known to be "the reverse of the 
truth ?" 

Let us then, say they, beware how we relin- 
quish the literal sense of holy writ, in search 
of allegorical or figurative interpretations. And 
if, upon any occasion, we think it proper to do 
so, let us consider well the grounds and reasons 
upon which our determination is built. It is 
evident that the devil and his angels, according 
to all that we can learn of them in the sacred 
books, are real beings; that the demons of the 
New Testament are malignant spirits ; and 
that they act upon the same principles, and 
even under the authority of Satan himself, who 
is otherwise called Beelzebub, and the prince 



of the devils. Nay, in these very cases of 
possession, the chief of the apostate angels is 
clearly set forth as acting either in his own 
person, or by means of his infernal agents. 
And it is on this supposition alone that we can 
explain the language of Christ in that remark- 
able declaration which he makes to the Phari- 
sees and rulers of the Jews, and which we find 
recorded in the twelfth chapter of the Gospel 
by St. Matthew. "The Pharisees heard it," 
observes the Evangelist, " and they said. This 
fellow doth not cast out devils but by Beelze- 
bub, the prince of the devils. And Jesus 
knew their thoughts, and said unto them, 
Every kingdom divided against itself is brought 
to desolation ; and every city or house divided 
against itself shall not stand ; and if Satan 
cast out Satan, he is divided against himself: 
how shall then his kingdom stand ?" 

5. On this subject of diseases it is also to be 
observed, that the inspired writers uniformly 
make a distinction betvv^een diseases occurring 
in the ordinary course of nature, and diseases 
occasioned by the agency of evil spirits. 
" There is every where," says Bishop Porteus, 
" a plain distinction made between common 
diseases and demoniacal possessions, which 
shows that they are totally different things. In 
the fourth chapter of the Gospel of St. Mat- 
thew, where the very first mention is made of 
these possessions, it is said that our Lord's 
fame went throughout all Syria, and that they 
brought unto him ' all sick people,' that were 
taken with divers diseases and torments,' and 
those ' which were possessed with devils,' and 
he healed them. Here those that were taken 
with divers diseases and torments, and those 
possessed with devils, are mentioned as distinct 
and separate persons : a plain proof that the 
demoniacal possessions were not natural dis- 
eases : and the very same distinction is made 
in several other passages of holy writ. There 
can be no doubt, therefore, that the demoniacs 
were persons really possessed with evil spirits ; 
and although it may appear strange to us, yet 
we find, from Josephus and other historians, 
that it was in those times no uncommon case." 

6. We may conclude, from the argument on 
both sides of the question, that the only reason 
which can be urged for departing from the 
obvious sense of Scripture is, that cases of 
possession involve a philosophical mystery. 
This, truly, is a very insufficient ground, and 
especially when we consider that if we better 
knew the nature of spirits, and of our own 
frame, the philosophy might appear all on the 
opposite side, and no doubt would do so. But 
no one who admits the Scriptures to decide 
this question, can consistently stand upon 
that objectionable ground of interpretation to 
which he is forced by denying the plain and 
consistent sense of innmiierable passages. If 
he admits this error, he must admit many 
others; for a Bible, so interpreted, may be 
made to mean any thing. 

DESTRUCTIONISTS, a denomination of 
Christians who believe that the final punish- 
ment threatened in the Gospel to the wicked 
and impenitent, consists not in eternal misery, 



J>EV "^ 



304 



DEV 



but in a total extinction of being ; and that the 
sentence of annihilation shall be executed with 
more or less previous torment, in proportion 
to the greater or less guilt of the criminal. 
This doctrine is largely maintained in the 
sermons of the late Dr. John Taylor, of Nor- 
wich; Mr. S. Bourn, of Birmingham; and 
many others. In defence of the system, Mr. 
Bourii argues, that there are many passages of 
Scripture, in which the ultimate punishment 
to which wicked men shall be adjudged is de- 
fined, in the most precise and intelligible terms, 
to be an everlasting destruction, proceeding 
■from Him who is equally able to destroy as to 
create ; and who, by our Lord himself, is said 
to be "able to destroy both soul and body in 
hell." By the " everlasting punishment of the 
wicked," therefore, Mr. B. understands " ever- 
lasting destruction," literally speaking, "from 
the presence of the Lord," which is " the se- 
cond death ;" from which there can be no 
resurrection, and which is set in opposition to 
"eternal life." In speaking of the images 
used to illustrate this subject, Mr. B. remarks, 
that the wicked are compared to combustible 
materials, as brands, tares, &c, which the fire 
utterly consumes : so Sodom and Gomorrah 
suffer "the vengeance of eternal fire," that is, 
they are destroyed for ever ; and the phrases, 
" the worm that dieth not, and the fire which 
is not quenched," are placed in opposition to 
entering into life, and denote the termination 
of existence, Mark ix, 43. 

To all this it may be answered : 1. That 
annihilation, as a punishment, admits of no 
degrees. 2. If we connect with this a previous 
state of torment, (as Mr. Winchester says, 
"for ages of ages,") annihilation must be 
rather a relief from punishment, than the pun- 
ishment itself. 3. That annihilation is rather 
a suspension than an exertion of divine power. 
4. That the punishment of impenitent men is 
described as the same with that of the fallen 
angels, who are not annihilated, Matt, xxv, 
41, but remain in expectation of future punish- 
ment, "Art thou come to torment us before 
the time ?" Matt, viii, 29. 5. In the state of 
future punishment, there is said to be " weep, 
ing and gnashing of teeth," Matt, xxiv, 5L 
6. As the happiness of saints in the future state 
consists not merely in being, but in well being, 
or happiness ; so the punishment of the wicked 
requires the idea of eternal suffering to support 
the contrast. It might be added, that annihi- 
lation, as far as we know, forms no part of the 
divine economy. One thing is also certain 
and indisputable : the strong language of Scrip- 
ture is intended to deter men from sin ; and 
whoever attempts to remove the barrier, offers 
insult to the divine wisdom, and trifles with 
his own destiny. But the capital argiunent 
is, that it is unscriptural : — " Where their 
worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched," 
is, like many others, a declaration, to which 
no dexterity of interpretation can give any 
other good sense, than the continuance of 
conscious punishment. 

DEVIL, Diaholus, an evil angel. The word 
is formed from the French diahle, of the Latin 



diaholus, which comes from the Greek SidSaXos, 
which, in its ordinary acceptation, signifies 
calumniator, traducer, or false accuser, from 
the verb iiaSdXXuv, to calumniate, &c ; or from 
the ancient British diafol. Dr. Campbell ob- 
serves, that, though the word is sometimes, 
both in the Old Testament and the New, ap. 
plied to men and women, as traducers, it is, 
by way of eminence, employed to denote that 
apostate angel, who is exhibited to us, parti- 
cularly in the New Testament^ as the great 
enemy of God and man. In the two first chap- 
ters of Job, it is the word in the Septuagint by 
which the Hebrew \ii'£>, Satan, or adversary, is 
translated. Indeed, the Hebrew word in this 
application, as well as the Greek, has been 
naturalized in most modern languages. Thus 
we say, indifferently, tJie devil, or Satan; only 
the latter has more the appearance of a proper 
name, as it is not attended with the Article. 
There is, however, this difference between the 
import of such terms, as occurring in their 
native tongues, and as modernized in transla- 
tions. In the former, they always retain some- 
what of their primitive meaning, and, beside 
indicating a particular being, or class of beings, 
they are of the nature of appellatives, and make 
a special character or note of distinction in such 
beings- Whereas, when thus Latinized or Eng- 
lished, they answer solely the first of these uses, 
as they come nearer the nature of proper names. 
AidBoXos is sometimes applied to human beings ; 
but nothing is more easy than to distinguish 
this application from the more frequent appli- 
cation to the arch-apostate. One mark of dis- 
tinction is, that, in this last use of the term, it 
is never found in the plural. When the plural 
is used, the context always shows that it refers 
to human beings, and not to fallen angels. It 
occurs in the plural only thrice, and that only 
in the epistles of St. Paul, 1 Tim. iii, 11 ; 2 Tim. 
iii, 3 ; Titus ii, 3. Another criterion whereby 
the application of this word to the prince of 
darkness may be discovered, is its being at- 
tended with the article. The term almost 
invariably is b SidSo'Xos. The excepted instances 
occur in the address of Paul to Elymas the 
sorcerer. Acts xiii, 10 ; and that of our Lord to 
the Pharisees, John viii, 44. The moce doubt- 
ful cases are those in 1 Peter v, 8, and Rev. 
XX, 2. These are all the examples in which 
the word, though used indefinitely or without 
the article, evidently denotes our spiritual and 
ancient enemy ; and the examples in which it 
occurs in this sense with the article, are too 
numerous to be recited. 

2. That there are angels and spirits, good 
and bad, says an eminent writer ; that at the 
head of these last, there is one more consider, 
able and malignant than the rest, who, in the 
form, or under the name, of a serpent, was 
deeply concerned in the fall of man, and whose 
head, in the language of prophecy, the Son of 
Man was one day to bi-uise ; that this evil spirit, 
though that prophecy be in part fulfilled, has 
not yet received his death's wound, but is still 
permitted, for ends to us unsearchable, and in 
ways which we cannot particularly explain, to 
have a certain degree of power in this world. 



DEV 



305 



DEV 



nostile to its virtue and happiness, — all this is. 
so clear from Scripture, that no believer, unless 
he be previously "spoiled by philosophy and 
vain deceit," can possibly entertain a doubt of 
it. Certainly, among the numerous refinements 
of modern times, there is scarcely any thing 
more extraordinary than the attempt that has 
been made, and is still making, to persuade us 
that there really exists no such being in the 
world as the devil ; and that when the inspired 
writers speak of such a being, all that they 
mean is, to personify the evil principle ! A bold 
effort unquestionably ; and could its advocates 
succeed in persuading men into the universal 
belief of it, they would do more to promote his 
cause and interest in the world than he himself 
has been able to effect since the seduction of 
our first parents. But to be armed against this 
subtle stratagem, let us attend to the plain doc- 
trine of divine revelation respecting this matter. 
In the Old Testament, particularly in the first 
two chapters of Job, this evil spirit is called 
Satan ; and in the New Testament, he is spoken 
of under various titles, which are also descrip- , 
tive of his power and malignity ; as for example, 
he is called, "the prince of this world," John 
xii, 31; "the prince of the power of the air," 
Eph. ii, 2 ; " the god of this world," 2 Cor. iv, 4 ; 
" the dragon, that old serpent, the devil," Rev. 
XX, 2; "the wicked one," 1 John v, 19. He 
is represented as exercising a sovereign sway 
over the human race in their natural state, or 
previous to their being enlightened, regenerat- 
ed, and sanctified by the Gospel, Eph. ii, 2, 3. 
His kingdom is described as a kingdom of dark- 
ness ; and the influence v/hich he exercises over 
the human mind is called "the power," or 
energy, " of darkness," Col. i, 13. Hence be- 
lievers are said to be "called out of darkness 
into marvellous light," 1 Peter ii, 9. Farther, 
he is said to go about " as a roaring lion, seek, 
ing its prey, that he may destroy men's souls," 
1 Peter v, 8. Christ says, "He was a mur- 
derer from the beginning, and abode not in the 
truth, because there is no truth in him ; when 
he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of that which is 
his own, for he is a liar, and the father of it," 
John viii, 44. Vie are also taught that this 
grand adversary of God and man has a numer- 
ous band of fallen spirits under his control ; 
and that both he and they are reserved under 
a sentence of condemnation unto the judgment 
of the great day, Jude G; and that "everlast- 
ing fire," or perpetual torment, "is prepared 
for the devil and his angels," Matt, xxv, 41. 
In these various passages of Scripture, and 
many others which might be added, the exist- 
ence of the devil is expressly stated ; but if, as 
our modern Sadducees affirm, nothing more is 
mtended in them than a personification of the 
abstract quality of evU, the Bible, and espe- 
cially the New Testament, must be eminently 
calculated to mislead us in matters which inti- 
mately concern our eternal interests. If, in 
inferring from them the existence of evil spirits 
m this world, we can be mistaken, it will not 
be an easy matter to show what inference de- 
duced from Scripture preiaises may safely be 
relied on. It ought not, however, to surprise 
21 



Christians tha^ attempts of tliis kind should be 
made. St. Paul tells us, that in his day there 
were "false apostles, deceitfiil workers, trans- 
forming themselves into the apostles of Christ ; 
and no wonder," says he, " for Satan himself 
is transformed into an angel of light," 2 Cor. 
xi, 13, 14. 

3. To the notion, that the Jews derived their 
opinions on this subject from the oriental phi- 
losophy, and that like the Persians they set up 
a rival god ; it may be replied, that the Jewish 
notion of the devil had no resemblance to what 
the Persians first, and the Manicheans after.^ 
ward, called the evil principle ; which they 
made in some sort coordinate with God, and 
the first source of all evil, as the other is of 
good. For the devil, in the Jewish system, is 
a creature as much as any other being in the 
universe, and is liable to be controlled by om- 
nipotence, — aji attribute which they ascribed 
to God alone. 

4. The arguments from philosophy against 
the existence of evil spirits are as frail as that 
which is pretended to be grounded upon criti- 
cism. For that there is nothing irrational in the 
notion of superior beings, is plain from this: 
that if there be other beings below us, there may 
be others above us. If we have demonstration 
of one Being at least who is invisible, there 
may be many other created invisible and spi- 
ritual beings. If we see men sometimes so bad 
as to delight in tempting others to sin and ruin, 
there may exist a whole order of fallen beings 
who may have the same business and the same 
malignant pleasure ; and if we see some men 
fiariously bent upon destroying truth and piety, 
this is precisely what is ascribed to these evil 
spirits. It is one of the serious circumstances 
of our probation on earth, that we should be 
exposed to this influence of Satan, and we are 
therefore called to " watch and pray that we 
enter not into temptation." 

5. The establishment of the worship of devils 
so general in some form throughout a great 
part of the Heathen world, is at once a painful 
and a curious subject, and deserves a more 
careful investigation than it has received. In 
modern times, devil-worship is seen systemat- 
ized in Ceylon, Burmah, and many parts of 
the East Indies ; and an order of devil-priests 
exists, though contrary to the Budhist religion, 
against the temples of which it sets up rival 
altars. 

Mr. Ives, in his Travels through Persia, gives 
the following curious account of devil-worship : 
" These people (the Sanj^cks, a nation inhabit- 
ing the country about Mosul, the ancient 
Nineveh) once professed Christianity, then 
Mohammedanism, and last of all devilism. 
They say it is true that the devil has at present 
a quarrel with God; but the time will come 
when, the pride of his heart being subdued, he 
will make his submission to the Almighty ; and, 
as the Deity cannot be implacable, the devil 
will receive a full pardon for all his transgres- 
sions, and both he, and all those who paid him 
attention during his disgrace, will be admitted 
into the blessed mansions. This is the founda- 
tion of their hope, and this chance for heaven 



DEU 



306 



DIA 



they esteem to be a better one than that of 
trusting to their own merits, or the merits of 
the leader of any other religion whatsoever. 
The person of the devil they look on as sacred ; 
and when they affirm any thing solemnly, they 
do it by his name. All disrespectful expres- 
sions of him they would punish with death, 
did not the Turkish power prevent them , When- 
ever they speak of him, it is with the utmost 
respect ; and they always put before his name 
a certain title corresponding to that of high- 
ness or lord." The worshippers of the devil 
mentioned by Ives were also found by Niebuhr 
in the same country, in a village between Bag- 
dad and Mosul, called Abd-el-asis, on the great 
Zab, a river which empties itself into the Ti- 
gris. This village, says he, is entirely inhabited 
by people who are called Isidians, and also 
Dauasin. As the Turks allow the free exercise 
of religion only to those who possess sacred 
books, that is, the Moliammedans, Christians, 
and Jews, the Isidians are obliged to keep the 
principles of their religion very secret. They 
therefore call themselves Mohammedans, Chris- 
tians, or Jews, according to the party of him 
who inquires what their religion is. Some 
accuse them of worshipping the devil under 
the name of Tschellebi ; that is. Lord. Others 
say that they show great reverence for the sun 
and fire, that they are unpolished Heathens, 
and have horrid customs. I have also been 
assured that the Dauasins do not worship the 
devil ; but adore God alone as the Creator and 
Benefactor of all mankind. They will not 
speak of Satan, nor even have his name men- 
tioned. They say that it is just as improper 
for men to take a part in the dispute between 
God and a fallen angel, as for a peasant to 
ridicule and curse a servant of the pacha who 
has fallen into disgrace ; that God did not re- 
quire our assistance to punish Satan for his 
disobedience ; it might happen that he might 
receive him into favour again ; and then we 
must be ashamed before the judgment seat of 
God, if we had, uncalled for, abused one of his 
angels : it was therefore the best not to trouble 
one's self about the devil ; but endeavour not 
to incur God's displeasure ourselves. When 
the Isidians go to Mosul, they are not detained 
by the magistrates, even if they are known. 
The vulgar, however, sometimes attempt to 
extort money from them. When they offer 
eggs or butter to them for sale, they endeavour 
first to get the articles into their hands, and 
then dispute about the price, or for this or otlier 
reasons to abuse Satan with all their might ; on 
which the Dauasin is often polite enough to 
leave every thing behind, rather than hear the 
devil abused. But in the countries where they 
have the upper hand, nobody is allowed to 
curse him, unless he chooses to be beaten, or 
perhaps even to lose his life. 

DEUTERONOMY, from Shrepos, second, 
and vo/iof , law ; the last book of the Pentateuch 
or five books of Moses. As its name imports, 
it contains a repetition of the civil and moral 
law, which was a second time delivered by 
Moses, with some additions and explanations, 
as well to impress it more forcibly upon the 



Israelites in general, as in particular for the 
benefit of those who, being born in the wilder- 
ness, were not present at the first promulga- 
tion of the law. It contains also a recapitula- 
tion of the several events which had befallen 
the Israelites since their departure from Egypt, 
with severe reproaches for their past miscon- 
duct, and earnest exhortations to future obe- 
dience. The Messiah is explicitly foretold in 
this book ; and there are many remarkable pre- 
dictions interspersed in it, particularly in the 
twenty-eighth, thirtieth, thirty-second, and 
thirty-third chapters, relative to the future con- 
dition of the Jews. The book of Deuterono- 
my finishes with an account of the death of 
Moses, which is supposed to have been added 
by his successor, Joshua. 

DEW. Dews in Palestine are very plentiful, 
like a small shower of rain every morning. 
Gideon filled a basin with the diQvr which fell 
on a fleece of wool. Judges vi, 38. Isaac, 
blessing Jacob, wished him the dew of heaven, 
which fattens the fields, Gen. xxvii, 28. In 
those warm countries where it seldom rains, 
the night dews supply the want of showers. 
Isaiah speaks of rain as if it were a dew, Isaiah 
xviii, 4. Some of the most beautiful and illus- 
trative of the images of the Hebrew poets are 
taken from the dews of their country. The 
reviving influence of the Gospel, the copious- 
ness of its blessings, and the multitude of its 
converts, are thus set forth. 

DIADEM. See Crown. 

DIAL is not mentioned in Scripture before 
the reign of Ahaz. Interpreters differ concern- 
ing the form of the dial of Ahaz, 2 Kings xx. 
The generality of expositors think that it was 
a staircase so disposed, that the sun showed the 
hours upon it by the shadow. Others suppose 
that it was a pillar erected in the middle of a 
very level and smooth pavement, on which the 
hours were engraven. According to these 
authors, the lines marked in this pavement are 
what the Scripture calls degrees. Grotius de- 
scribes it as follows : " It v/as a concave hemis- 
phere, and in the midst was a globe, the shadow 
of which fell on the different lines engraven 
in the concavity of the hemisphere ; these lines 
were twenty-eight in number." This descrip- 
tion answers pretty nearly to that kind of dial, 
which the Greeks called scapha, a boat or 
hemisphere, the invention (rather introduction) 
of which, Vitruvius ascribes to Berosus the 
Chaldean. It would seem, indeed, that the 
most ancient sun dial known is in the form of 
a half circle, hollowed into the stone, and the 
stone cut down to an angle. This kind of dial 
was invented in Babylon, and was very proba- 
bly the same as that of Ahaz. 

DIAMOND. D'7n>. Exod. xxviii, 18 ; xxix, 
11 ; Ezek. xxviii, 13. This has from remote 
antiquity been considered as the most valuable, 
or, more properly, the most costly substance 
in nature. The reason of the high estimation 
in which it was held by the ancients was its 
raritv and its extreme hardness and brilliancy. 
It filled the sixth place in the high priest's 
breastplate, and on it was engraven the name 
of Naphtali. 



DIS 



307 



DIS 



DIANA, a celebrated goddess of the Hea- 
thens, who was honoured principally at Ephe- 
sus, Acts xix. She was one of the number of 
the twelve superior deities, and was called by 
the several names of Hebe, Trivia, and Hecate. 
In the heavens she was the moon, upon earth 
she was called Diana, and in hell Hecate. She 
was worshipped in Palestine, Jeremiah vii, 18 ; 
xliv, 17, 18. 

DIONYSIUS, the Areopagite, a convert of 
St. Paul, Acts xvii, 34. Chrysostom declares 
Dionysius to have been a citizen of Athens ; 
which is credible, because the judges of the 
Areopagus generally were so. After his con- 
version, Dionysius was made the first bishop 
of Athens ; having laboured, and suffered much 
in the Gospel, he is said to have been burnt at 
Athens, A. D. 95. The works attributed to 
Dionysius are generally reputed spurious. 

DIRECTORY, an ecclesiastical instrument, 
containing directions for the conduct of reli- 
gious worship, drawn up by the assembly of 
divines, by order of parliament, in 1645. It 
was intended to supply the use of the Common 
Prayer Book, which had been abolished. It 
orders the reverent observation of public wor- 
ship, prayer, singing of psalms, the reading and 
exposition of the Scriptures, &c. It enjoins 
no forms, but recommends the Lord's prayer 
as a model of devotion ; directs that the Lord's 
Supper may be received sitting ; that the Sab- 
bath day be strictly observed; but puts down 
all saints' days, consecrations of churches, and 
private or lay baptisms. This Directory, which 
was formerly bound with the Westminster 
confession of faith, is still, in effect, the plan 
of worship among the Dissenters, and espe- 
cially the Presbyterians. 

DISCIPLE. The proper signification of 
this word is a learner ; but it signifies in the 
New Testament, a believer, a Christian, a fol- 
lower of Jesus Christ. Disciple is often used 
instead of Apostle in the Gospels ; but, subse- 
quently, Apostles were distinguished from dis- 
ciples. The seventy-two who followed our 
Saviour from the beginning, are called disci- 
ples ; as are others who were of the body of 
believers and bore no office. In subsequent 
times, the name disciple, in the sense of learner, 
was sometimes given to the Karri'^ov^tvoL, " au- 
ditores,^' persons who, in the primitive church, 
were receiving a preparatory instruction in 
Christianity. They were divided into two 
classes, those who received private instruction, 
and those who were admitted to the congrega- 
tions, and were under immediate preparation 
for baptism The church readers were, in 
some places, appointed to instruct the catechu- 
mens ; and at Alexandria, where often learned 
men presented themselves for instruction, the 
ofiice of catechist was filled by learned laymen, 
and these catechists laid the foundation of an 
important theological school. 

DISEASES. In the primitive ages of the 
world, diseases, in consequence of the great 
simplicity in the mode of living, were but few 
in number. At a subsequent period the num. 
her was increased by the accession of diseases 
that had been previously unknown. Epidemics 



also, diseases somewhat peculiar in their cha^ 
racter, and still more fearful in their conse- 
quencesj soon made their appearance, some 
infesting one period of life, and some another ; 
some limiting their ravages to one -country, 
and some to another. Prosper Alpinus men- 
tionsthe diseases which are prevalent in Egypt, 
and in other countries in the same climate : 
they are ophthalmies, leprosies, inflammations 
of the brain, pains in the joints, the hernia, 
the stone in the reins and bladder, the phthisic, 
hectic, pestilential and tertian fevers, weak- 
ness of the stomach, obstructions in the liver, 
and the spleen. Of these diseases, ophthal- 
mies, pestilential fevers, and inflammations of 
the brain, are epidemics ; the others are of a 
different character. The leprosy prevails in 
Egypt, in the southern part of Upper Asia, 
and in fact may be considered a disease ende- 
mic in warm climates generally. According- 
ly, it is not at all surprising, if many of the 
Hebrews, when they left Egypt, were infected 
with it ; but the assertion of Manetho, that 
they were all thus infected, and were in con- 
sequence of the infection, driven out by force^ 
in which he is precipitately and carelessly fol- 
lowed by Strabo, Tacitus, by Justin Trogus, 
and others more recent, is a mere dream with- 
out any foundation. The appearance of the 
disease externally is not always the same. The 
spot is commonly small, and resembling in its 
appearance the small red spot that would be 
the consequence of a puncture from a needle, 
or the pustules of a ringworm. The spots for 
the most part make their appearance very sud- 
denly, especially if the infected person, at the 
period when the disease shows itself external- 
ly, happens to be in great fear, or to be moved 
with anger, Num. xii, 10 ; 2 Chron. xxvi, 19. 
They commonly exhibit themselves in the first 
instance on the face, about the nose and eyes ; 
and gradually increase in size for a number of 
years, till they become, as respects the extent 
of surface which they embrace on the skin, as 
large as a pea or bean ; they are then called riXC. 
The white spot or pustule, mna, morphea alba, 
and also the dark spot, nnSD, morphea nigra, are 
indications of the existence of the real lepro- 
sy. Lev. xiii, 2, 39 ; xiv, 56. From these it is 
necessary to distinguish the spot, which, what- 
ever resemblance there may be in form, is so 
different in its effects, called pr\2, and also the 
harmless sort of scab, which occurs under the 
word, nniJDD, Lev* xiii, 6-8, 29. Moses, in the 
thirteenth chapter of Leviticus, lays down very 
explicit rules for the purpose of distinguishing 
between those spots which are proofs of the 
actual existence of the leprosy, and those spots 
which are harmless and result from some other 
cause. Those spots which are the genuine 
effects and marks of the leprosy gradually di- 
late themselves, till at length they cover the 
whole body. Not only the skin is subject to 
a total destruction, but the body is affected in 
every part. The pain, it is true, is not very 
great, but there is a great debility of the sys- 
tem, and great uneasiness and grief, so much 
so, as almost to drive the victim of the disease 
to self-destruction. 



DIS 



308 



DIS 



2. Moses acted the part of a wise legislator 
in making those laws which have come down- 
to us concerning the inspection and separation 
of leprous persons. The object of these laws 
will appear peculiarly worthy, when it is con. 
sidered, that they were designed, not wantonly 
to fix the charge of being a leper upon an in- 
nocent person, and thus to impose upon him 
those restraints and inconveniences which the 
truth of such a charge naturally implies, but to 
ascertain, in the fairest and most satisfactory 
manner, and to separate those, and those only, 
who were truly and really leprous. As this 
was the prominent object of his laws that have 
come down to us on this subject, namely, to 
secure a fair and impartial decision on a ques- 
tion of this kind, he has not mentioned those 
signs of leprosy which admitted of no doubt, 
but those only wliich might be the subject of 
contention ; and left it to the priests, who also 
fulfilled the office of physicians, to distinguish 
between the really leprous, and those who had 
only the appearance of being such. We find 
mention, in the rules laid down by Moses for 
the purpose of ascertaining the true tokens of 
leprosy, of a cutaneous disorder which is de- 
nominated by liim hohah. The words of Moses, 
which may be found in Lev. xiii, 38, 39, are as 
follows : " If a man or woman have white spots 
on the skin, and the priest see that the colour 
of these spots is faint and pale, it is, in this 
case, the hohah that has broken out on the skin, 
and they are clean." A person, accordingly, 
who was attacked with this disease, the bohak, 
was not declared unclean ; and the reason of 
it was, that it is not only harmless in itself, 
but is free from that infectious and hereditary 
character which belongs to the true leprosy. 
"The bohak" says Mr. Niebuhr, "is neither 
infectious nor dangerous. A black boy at 
Mocha, yvh-o was attacked with this sort of 
leprosy, had white spots here and there on his 
body. It was said that the use of sulphur had 
for some time been of service to this boy, but 
had not altogether removed the disease." He 
then adds the following extract from the papers 
of a Dr. Foster: "May 15th, 1763, I myself 
saw a case of the bohak in a Jew at Mocha. 
The spots in this disease are of unequal size. 
They have no shining appearance, nor are they 
perceptibly elevated above the skin ; and they 
do not change the colour of the hair. Their 
colour is an obscure white or somewhat red- 
dish. The rest of the skin of this patient was 
blacker than that of the people of the country 
was in general, but the spots were not so wliite 
as the skin of an European when not sunburnt. 
The spots, in this species of leprosy, do not 
appear on the hands, nor about the navel, but 
on the neck and face ; not, however, on that 
part of the head where the hair grows very 
thick. They gradually spread, and continue 
sometimes only about two months ; but in some 
cases, indeed, as long as two years, and then 
disappear, by degrees, of themselves. Tins 
disorder is neither infectious nor hereditary, 
nor does it occasion any inconvenience." 
"That all this," remarks Michaelis, "should 
still be found exactly to hold at the distance of 



three thousand five hundred years from the 
time of Moses, ought certainly to gain some 
credit to his laws, even with those who will 
not allow them to be of divine authority." The 
pestilence, in its effects, is equally terrible with 
the leprosy, and is much more rapid in its pro. 
gress ; for it terminates the existence of those 
who are infected with it almost immediately, 
and at the farthest within three or four days. 
The Gentiles Were in the habit of referring 
back the pestilence to the agency and inter- 
ference of that being, whatever it might be, 
whether idol or spirit, whom they regarded as 
the divinity. The Hebrews, also, every where 
attribute it to the agency either of God himself, 
or of that legate or angel, whom they denomi- 
nate -jnVd. 

3. The palsy of the New Testament is a 
disease of very wide import. Many infirmi- 
ties, as Richter has demonstrated, were com- 
prehended under the word which is rendered 
palsy in the New Testament. 1. The apoplexy, 
a paralytic shock, which affected the whole 
body. 2. The hemiplegy, which affects and 
paralyzes only one side of the body. 3. The 
paraplegy, which paralyzes all the parts of the 
system below the neck. 4. The catalepsy, 
which is caused by a contraction of the mus- 
cles in the whole or a part of the body, for 
example, in the hands, and is very dangerous. 
The effects upon the parts seized are very vio- 
lent and deadly. For instance : when a per- 
son is struck Vv'ith it, if his hand happens to 
be extended, he is unable to draw it back. If 
the hand is not extended Vv'hen he is struck 
with the disease, he is unable to extend it : it 
appears diminished in size, and dried up in ap- 
pearance. Hence the Hebrews were in the 
habit of calling it " a withered hand," 1 Kings 
xiii, 4-6 ; Zech. xi, 17 ; Matt, xii, 10-13 ; John 
V, 3. 5. The cramp, in oriental countries, is 
a fearful malady, and by no means unfrequent. 
It originates from the chills of the night. The 
limbs, when seized with it, remain immovable, 
sometimes turned in, and sometimes out, in the 
same position as when they were first seized. 
The person affiicted resembles those undergo- 
ing the torture ^aaavi^ojxivoi, and experiences 
nearly the same exquisite sufferings. Death 
follows the disease in a few days. Matt, viii, 6, 
8 ; Luke vii, 2 ; 1 Mace, ix, 55-58. 

DISPENSATIONS, DmNE. These are 
otherwise called "the ways of God," and de- 
note those schemes or methods which are 
devised and pursued by the wisdom and good- 
ness of God, in order to manifest his perfec- 
tions and will to mankind, for the purpose of 
their mstruction, discipline, reformation, and 
advancement in rectitude of temper and con- 
duct, in order to promote their happiness. 
These are the grand ends of the divine dis- 
pensations ; and in their aptitude to promote 
these ends consist their excellence and glory. 
The works or constitutions of nature are, in 
a general sense, divine dispensations, by which 
God condescends to display to us his being and 
attributes, and thus to lead us to the acknow- 
ledgment, adoration, and love, of our Creator, 
Father, and Benefactor. The sacred Scrip- 



DIV 



309 



DIV 



tures reveal and record other dispensations of 
divine providence, which have been directed 
to the promotion of the religious principles, 
moral conduct, and true happiness of mankind. 
These have varied in several ages of the world, 
and have been adapted by the wisdom and 
goodness of God to the circumstances of his 
intelligent and accountable creatures. In this 
sense the various revelations which God has 
communicated to mankind at different periods, 
and the means he has used, as occasion has 
required, for their discipline and improvement, 
^ have been justly denominated divine dispensa- 
tions. Accordingly, we read in the works of 
theological writers of the various dispensations 
of religion; that of the patriarchs, that of Mo- 
ses, and that of Christ, called the dispensation 
of grace, the perfection and ultimate object of 
every other. All these were adapted to the 
conditions of the human race at these several 
periods ; all, in regular succession, were mu- 
tually connected and rendered preparatory one 
to the other; and all were subservient to the 
design of saving the world, and promoting the 
perfection and happiness of its rational and 
moral inhabitants. See Covenant. 

DISPERSION OF MANKIND. See Di- 
vision OF THE Earth. 

DIVINATION, a conjecture or surmise, 
formed concerning future events, from things 
which are supposed to presage them. The 
eastern people were always fond of divination, 
magic, the curious arts of interpreting dreams, 
and of obtaining a knowledge of future events. 
When Moses published the law, this disposi- 
tion had long been common in Egypt and the 
neighbouring countries. To prevent the Is- 
raelites from consulting diviners, fortune tell- 
ers, interpreters of dreams, &c, he forbade 
them, under very severe penalties, to consult 
persons of this description, and promised to 
them the true spirit of prophecy as infinitely 
superior. He commanded those to be stoned 
who pretended to have a familiar spirit, or the 
spirit of divination, Deut. xviii, 9, 10, 15. 
The writings of the prophets are full of invec- 
tives against the Israelites who consulted di- 
viners, and against false prophets who by such 
means seduced the people. 

2. Different kinds of divination have passed 
for sciences, as 1. Aeromancy, divining by 
the air. 2. Astrology, by the heavens. 3. Au- 
gury, by the flight and singing of birds, &c. 
4. Cheiromancy, by inspecting the lines of the 
hand. 5. Geomancy, by observing cracks or 
clefts in the earth. 6. Haruspicy, by inspect- 
ing the bowels of animals. 7. Horoscopy, a 
branch of astrology, marking the position of 
the heavens when a person is born. 8. Hy. 
dromancy, by water. 9. Physiognomy, by the 
countenance. 10. Pyromancy, a divination 
made by fire. 

3. The kinds of divination, to which super, 
stition in modern times has given belief, are 
not less numerous, or less ridiculous, than 
those which were practised in the days of pro- 
found ignorance. The divining rod, which is 
mentioned in Scripture, is still in some repute 
in the north of England, though its application 



is now confined principally to the discovery of 
veins of lead ore, seams of coal, or springs. In 
order that it may possess the full virtue for this 
purpose, it should be made of hazel. Divina- 
tion by Virgilian, Horatian, or Bible lots, was 
formerly very common; and the last kind is 
still practised. The works are opened by 
chance, and the words noticed which are co- 
vered by the thumb : if they can be interpreted 
in any respect relating to the person, they are 
reckoned prophetic. Charles I. is said to have 
used this kind of divination to ascertain his 
fate. The ancient Christians were so much 
addicted to the sortes sanctorum, or divining by 
the Bible, that it was expressly forbidden by a 
council. Divination by the speal, or blade 
bone of a sheep, is used in Scotland. In the 
Highlands it is called sleina-reached, or reading 
the speal bone. It was very common in Eng- 
land in the time of Drayton, particularly among 
the colony of Flemings settled in Pembroke- 
shire. Camden relates of the Irish, that they 
looked through the bare blade bone of a sheep ; 
and if they saw any spot in it darker than or- 
dinary, they believed that somebody would be 
buried out of the house. The Persians used 
this mode of divination. 

4. Of all attempts to look into futurity by 
such means, as well as resorting to charms and 
other methods of curing diseases, and discover- 
ing secrets, we may say, that they are relics 
of Paganism, and argue an ignorance, folly, or 
superstition, dishonourable to the Christian 
name ; and are therefore to be reproved and 
discouraged. 

DIVISION OF THE EARTH. The pro- 
phecy of Noah, says Dr. Hales, was uttered 
long after the deluge. It evidently alludes to 
a divine decree for the orderly division of the 
earth among the three primitive families of his 
sons, because it notices the "tents of Shem" 
and the " enlargement of Japheth," Genesis ix, 
20-27. This decree was probably promulgated 
about the same time by the venerable patriarch. 
The prevailing tradition of such a decree for 
this threefold division of the earth, is intimated 
both in the Old and New Testament. Moses 
refers to it, as handed down to the Israelites, 
" from the days of old, and the years of many 
generations; as they might learn from their 
fatiiers and their elders," and farther, as con- 
veying a special grant of the land of Palestine, 
to be the lot of the twelve tribes of Israel : — 
" When the Most High divided to the nations their set- 
tlements, 
When he separated the sons of Adam, 
He assigned the boundaries of the peoples [of Israel] 
According to the number of the sons of Israel: 
For the portion of the Lord is his people, 
Jacob is the lot of his inheritance," Deut. xxxii, 7-9. 
And this furnishes an additional proof of the 
justice of the expulsion of the Canaanites, as 
usurpers, by the Israelites, the rightful pos- 
sessors of the land of Palestine, under Moses, 
Joshua, and their successors, when the original 
grant was renewed to Abraham, Gen. xv, 13-21. 
And the knowledge of this divine decree may 
satisfactorily account for the panic terror with 
which the devoted nations of Canaan were 
struck at the miraculous passage of the Red 



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Sea by the Israelites, and approach to their 
confines, so finely described by Moses : — - 
^'The nations shall hear [this] and tremble, 
Sorrow shall seize the inhabitants of Palestine. 
Then shall the dukes of Edom be amazed, 
Dismay shall possess the princes of Moab, 
The inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away : 
Fear and terror shall fall upon them, 
By the greatness of thine arm they shall be petrified. 
Till thy people pass over [Jordan] O Lord, 
Till the people pass over, whom thou hast redeemed." 

Exodus XV, 14-16. 
St. Paul, also, addressing the Athenians, re. 
fers to the same decree, as a well-known tradi- 
tion in the Heathen world : " God made of one 
blood every nation of men to dwell upon the 
whole face of the earth; having appointed the 
predetermined seasons and boundaries of their 
dwellings," Acts xvii, 26. Here he represents 
mankind as all of " one blood," race, or stock, 
"the sons of Adam" and of Noah in succes- 
sion ; and the seasons and the boundaries of 
their respective settlements, as previously regu- 
lated by the divine appointment. And this was 
conformable to their own geographical alle- 
gory ; that Chronus, the god of time, or Saturn, 
divided the universe among his three sons, 
allotting the heaven to Jupiter, the sea to Nep- 
tune, and hell to Pluto. But Chronus repre- 
sented Noah, who, divided the world among 
his three sons, allotting the upper regions of 
the north to Japheth, the maritime or middle 
regions to Shem, and the lower regions of the 
south to Ham. According to the Armenian 
tradition recorded by Abuliaragi, Noah distri- 
buted the habitable earth from north to south 
between his sons, and gave to Ham the region 
of the blacks, to Shem the region of the tawny, 
fuscorum, and to Japheth the region of the 
ruddy, rubrorum : and he dates the actual divi- 
sion of the earth in the hundred and fortieth 
year of Peleg, B. C. 2614, or five hundred and 
forty-one years after the deluge, and one hun- 
dred ^nd ninety-one years after the death of 
Noah, in the following order : — " To the sons 
of Shem was allotted the middle of the earth, 
namely, Palestine, Syria, Assyria, Samaria, 
Singar, [or Shinar,] Babel, [or Babylonia,] 
Persia, and Hegiaz ; [Arabia ;] to the sons of 
Ham, Teimen, [or Idumea, Jer. xlix, 7,] Africa, 
Nigritia, Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia, Scindia, and 
India ; [or India west and east of the river In- 
dus ;] to the sons of Japheth, also, Garbia, [the 
north,] Spain, France, the countries of the 
Greeks, Sclavonians, Bulgarians, Turks, and 
Armenians." In this curious and valuable 
geographical chart, Armenia, the cradle of the 
human race, was allotted to Japheth, by right 
of primogeniture ; and Samaria and Babel to 
the sons of Shem ; the usurpation of these 
regions, therefore, by Nimrod, and of Palestine 
by Canaan, was in violation of the divine de- 
cree. Though the migration of the primitive 
families began at this time, B. C. 2614, or 
about five hundred and forty-one years after 
the deluge, it was a length of time before they 
all reached their respective destinations. The 
" seasons," as well as the " boundaries" of their 
respective settlements were equally the appoint- 
ment of God; the nearer countries to the ori- 



ginal settlement being planted first, and the 
remoter in succession. These primitive settle- 
ments seem to have been scattered and de- 
tached from each other according to local 
convenience. Even so late as the tenth gene- 
ration after the flood in Abraham's days, there 
were considerable tracts of land in Palestine 
unappropriated, on which he and his nephew, 
Lot, freely pastured their cattle without hin- 
derance or molestation. That country was not 
fully peopled till the fourth generation after, 
at the exode of the Israelites from Egypt. And 
Herodotus represents Scythia as an uninhabit- 
ed desert, until Targitorus planted the first 
colony there, about a thousand years, at most, 
before Darius Hystaspes invaded Scythia, or 
about B. C. 1508. The orderly settlements of 
the three primitive families are recorded in 
that most venerable and valuable geographical 
chart, the tenth chapter of Genesis, in v/hich 
it is curious to observe how long the names of 
the first settlers have been preserved among 
their descendants, even down to the present 
day : — 

1. Japheth, the eldest son of Noah, Gen. x, 
21, and his family, are first noticed, Gen. x, 2-5. 
The name of the patriarch himself was pre- 
served among his Grecian descendants, in the 
proverb, rov 'Idirerov zspsafivTspos, older than Jape, 
tus, denoting the remotest antiquity. The 
radical part of the word ^IdncT, evidently ex- 
presses Japheth. (1.) Gomer, his eldest son, 
was the father of the Gomerians. These, 
spreading from the regions north of Armenia 
and Bactriana, Ezek. xxxviii, 6, extended them- 
selves westward over nearly the whole conti- 
nent of Europe ; still retaining their paternal 
denomination, with some slight variation, as 
Cimmerians, in Asia; Cimbri and Umbri, in 
Gaul and Italy ; and Cymri, Cambri, and Cum- 
bri, in Wales and Cumberland at the present 
day. They are also identified by ancient au- 
thors with the Galatffi of Asia Minor, the Gaels, 
Gauls, and Celtse, of Europe, who likewise 
spread from the Euxine Sea, to the Western 
Ocean ; and from the Baltic to Italy south- 
ward, and first planted the British Isles. Jo- 
sephus remarks, that the Galatae were called 
Toixaped, Gomariani, from their ancestor Gomar. 
See the numerous authorities adduced in sup- 
port of the identity of the Gomerians and Celts, 
by that learned and ingenious antiquarypFaber, 
in his " Origin of Pagan Idolatry." Of Gomer's 
sons, Ashkenaz appears to have settled on the 
coasts of the Euxine Sea, which from him 
seems to have received its primary denomina- 
tion of "Alcvof, Axenus, nearly resembling Ash- 
kenaz ; but forgetting its etymology in process 
of time, the Greeks considered it as a compound 
term in their own language, A-lfVoj, signifying 
inhospitable > and thence metamorphosed it into 
ES-lfvof, Eu.xenus, " very hospitable." His 
precise settlement is represented in Scripture 
as contiguous to Armenia, westward ; for the 
kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz, are 
noticed together, Jer. li, 27. Riphat, the second 
son of Gomer, seems to have given name to 
the Riphean mountains of the north of Asia ; 
and Togarmah, the third son, may be traced 



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in the Trocmi of Strabo, the Trogmi of Cicero, 
and Trogmades of the council of Chalcedon, 
inhabiting the confines of Pontus and Cappa- 
docia, (2.) Magog, Tubal, and Mesech, sons 
of Japhet, are noticed together by Ezekiel, as 
settled in the north, Ezek. xxxviii, 2, 14, 15. 
And as the ancestors of the numerous Scla- 
vonic and Tartar tribes, the first may be traced 
in the Mongogians, Monguls, and Moguls ; 
the second, in the Tobolski, of Siberia ; and 
the third, Mesech, or Mosoc, in the Moschici, 
Moscow, and Muscovites. (3.) Madai was the 
father of the Medes, who are repeatedly so 
denominated in Scripture, 2 Kings xvii, 6 ; Isa, 
xiii, 17 ; Jer. li, 11 ; Dan. v, 28, &c. (4.) From 
Javan was descended the Javanians, or 'Idoves 
of the Greeks, and the Yavanas of the Hindus. 
Greece itself is called Javan by Daniel, xi, 2 ; 
and the people 'Idovsg by Homer in his " Iliad." 
These aboriginal 'Idoves of Greece are not to be 
confounded, as is usually the case, with the 
later ''Iwves, who invaded and subdued the Ja- 
vanian territories, and were of a different stock. 
The accurate Pausanias states, that the name 
of "Iwvej, was comparatively modern, while that 
of 'Idoves is acknowledged to have been the 
primitive title of the barbarians who were sub- 
dued by the "Iwre?. Strabo remarks that Attica 
was formerly called both Ionia and las, or Ian ; 
while Herodotus asserts, that the Athenians 
were not willing to be called "Iwrej; and he 
derives the name from "iwv, the son of Zuth, 
descended from Deucalion or Noah. And this 
Ion is said by Eusebius to have been the ring- 
leader in the building of the tower of Babel, 
and the first introducer of idol worship, and 
Sabianism, or adoration of the sun, moon, and 
stars. This would identify Ion with Nimrod. 
And the lonians appear to have been composed 
of the later colonists, the Palli, Pelasgi, or rov- 
ing tribes from Asia, Phenicia, and Egypt, who, 
according to Herodotus, first corrupted the sim- 
plicity of the primitive religion of Greece, and 
who, by the Hindus, were called Yonigas, or 
worshippers of the yoni or dove. This critical 
distinction between the laones and the lones, 
the Yavanas, and the Yonigas, we owe to the 
sagacity of Faber. Of Javan's sons, Elishah 
and Dodon, may be recognized in Elis and 
Dodona, the oldest settlements of Greece ; 
Kittim, in the Citium of Macedonia, and Chit- 
tim, or maritime coasts of Greece and Italy, 
Num. xxiv, 24; and Tarshish, in the Tarsus 
of Cilicia, and Tartessus of Spain. 

2. Ham and his family are next noticed, 
Gen. x, 6-20. The name of the patriarch is 
recorded in the title frequently given to Egypt, 
" The land of Ham," Psalm cv, 23, &c. (1.) Of 
his sons, the first and most celebrated appears 
to have been Cush, who gave name to the land 
of Cush, both in Asia and Africa ; the former 
still called Chusistan by the Arabian geo- 
graphers, and Susiana by the Greeks, and 
Cusha Dwipa Within, by the Hindus ; the 
other, called Cusha Dwipa Without. And the 
enterprising Cushim or Cuthim, of Scripture, 
in Asia and Europe, assumed the title of Getse, 
Guiths, and Goths ; and of Souths, Scuits, and 
Scots ; and of Sacas, Sacasenas, and Saxons. 



The original family settlement of Abraham 
was " Ur of the Chasdim," or Chaldees, Gen. 
xi, 28, who are repeatedly mentioned in Scrip, 
ture, Isa. xiii, 9; Dan. ix, 1, &,c. According 
to Faber's ingenious remark, it may more pro- 
perly be pronounced Chus-dim, signifying God- 
like Cushites. It is highly improbable that 
they were so named from Chesed, Abraham's 
nephew, Gen. xxii, 22, who was a mere boy, 
if born at all, when Abraham left Ur, and was 
an obscure individual, never noticed afterward. 
Of Cush's sons, Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Sab- 
tacha, and Raamah ; and the sons of Raamah, 
Sheba, and Dedan, seem to have settled in 
Idumea and Arabia, from the similar names of 
places there ; and of his descendants, Nimrod, 
the mighty hunter, first founded the kingdom 
of Babylon, and afterward of Assyria, invading 
the settlements of the Shemites, contrary to 
the divine decree. His posterity were probably 
distinguished by the title of Chusdim, Isaiah 
xxiii, 13. (2.) The second son of Ham was 
Misr, or Mizraim. He settled in Egypt, whence 
the Egyptians were universally styled in Scrip, 
ture, Mizraim, or Mizraites, in the plural form. 
But the country is denominated in the east, to 
this day, " the land of Misr ;" which, therefore, 
seems to have been the name of the patriarch 
himself. The children of Misr, like their 
father, are denominated in Scripture by the 
plural number. Of these, the Ludim and Le- 
habim were probably the Copto-Libyans, Ezek. 
XXX, 5 ; the Naphtuhim occupied the sea coast, 
which by the Egyptians was called Nephthus ; 
whence, probably, originated the name of the 
maritime god Neptune. The Pathrusim occu. 
pied a part of Lower Egypt, called from them 
Pathros, Isa. xi, 11. The Caphtorim and the 
Casluhim, whose descendants were the Philis- 
tim of Palestine, occupied the district which 
lies between the delta of the Nile and the 
southern extremity of Palestine, Deut. ii, 23 ; 
Amos ix, 7. (3.) Phut is merely noticed, with- 
out any mention of his family. But the tribes 
of Phut and Lud are mentioned together, with 
Cush, or Ethiopia, Jer. xlvi, 9 ; Ezek. xxx, 5 ; 
and Jerom notices a district in Libya, called 
Regio Phutensis, or the land of Phut. (4.) Ca- 
naan has been noticed already ; and the origi- 
nal extent of the land of Canaan is carefully 
marked by Moses. Its western border, along 
the Mediterranean Sea, extended from Sidon, 
southward, to Gaza ; its southern border from 
thence, eastward, to Sodom and Gomorrah, 
Admah and Zeboim, the cities of the plain, 
afterward covered by the Dead Sea, orAsphal- 
tite Lake ; its eastern border extending from 
thence northward, to Laish, Dan, or the springs 
of the Jordan; and its northern border, from 
thence to Sidon, westward. Of Canaan's sons, 
Sidon, the eldest, occupied the north-west cor- 
ner, and built the town of that name, so early 
celebrated for her luxury and commerce in 
Scripture, Judges xviii, 7 ; 1 Kings v, 6 ; and 
by Homer, who calls the Sidonians, no\v- 
5cUSa'Xot, skilled in many arts. And Tyre, so 
flourishing afterward, though boasting of her 
own antiquity, Isa. xxiii, 7, is styled, " a 
daughter of Sidon," or a colony from thence, 



DIV 



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Isa. V, 12, Heth, his second son, and the 
Hittites, his descendants appear to have settled 
in the south, near Hebron, Gen. xxiii, 3-7 ; 
and next to them, at Jerusalem, the Jebusites, 
f)T descendants of Jebus, both remaining in 
their original settlements till David's days ; 
3 Sam. xi,-3; v, 6-9. Beyond the Jebusites, 
were settled the Emorites, or Amorites, Num. 
xiii, 29, who extended themselves beyond Jor- 
dan, and were the most powerful of the Ca- 
naanite tribes, Gen. xv, 16 ; Num. xxi, 21, 
until they were destroyed by Moses and Joshua, 
with the rest of the devoted nations of Canaan's 
family. 

3. Shem and his family are noticed last, 
Gen. X, 21-30. His posterity were confined to 
middle Asia. (1.) His son Elam appears to 
have been settled in Elymais, or southern Per- 
eia, contiguous to the maritime tract of Chusis- 
tan, Dan, viii, 2. (2.) His son Ashur planted 
the land thence called Assyria, which soon 
became a province of the Cushite, or Cuthic 
empire, founded by Nimrod. (3.) Arphaxad, 
through his grandson, Eber, branched out into 
the two houses of Peleg and Joktan. Peleg 
probably remained in Chaldea, or southern 
Babylonia, at the time of the dispersion ; for 
there we find his grandson, Terah, and his 
family, settled at " Ur of the Chaldees," Gen. 
xi, 31. Of the numerous children of Joktan, 
it is said by Moses, that "their dwelling was 
from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar, a 
mount of the east.*' Faber is inclined to be- 
lieve that they were the ancestors of the great 
body of the Hindus, who still retain a lively 
tradition of the patriarch Shem, Shama, or 
Sharma; and that the land of Ophir, abound- 
ing in gold, so called from one of the sons 
of Joktan, lay beyond the Indus, eastward. 
(4.) Lud was probably the father of the Ludim 
or Lydians, of Asia Minor ; for this people had 
a tradition that they were descended from Lud 
or Lydus, according to Josephus. (5.) The 
children of Aram planted the fertile country 
north of Babylonia, called Aram Naharaim, 
'* Aram between the two rivers," the Euphrates 
and the Tigris, thence called by the Greeks, 
Mesopotamis, Gen. xxiv, 10, and Padan Aram, 
the level country of Aram, Gen. xxv, 20. This 
country of Aram is frequently rendered Syria 
in Scripture, Judges x, 6 ; Hosea xii, 12, «fec ; 
which is not to be confounded v/ith Palestine 
Syria, into which they afterward spread them, 
selves, still retaining their original name of 
"ApipLoi, or Arameans, noticed by Homer in his 
"Iliad." 

4. Upon this distribution of Noah's posterity 
we shall only observe, that the Deity presided 
over all their counsels and deliberations, and that 
he guided and settled all mankind according to 
the dictates of his all-comprehending wisdom 
and benevolence. To this purpose, the ancients 
themselves, according to Pindar, retained some 
idea that the dispersion of men was not the ef- 
fect of chance, but that they had been settled in 
different countries by the appointment of Pro- 
vidence. Gen. xi, 8, 9 ; Deut. xxii, 8. This 
dispersion, and that confusion of languages 
with which it originated, was intended, by the 



counsel of an all-wise Providence, to counter- 
act and defeat the scheme which had been 
projected by the descendants of Noah, for 
maintaining their union, implied in their pro- 
posing to make themselves a name, oa', which 
Schultens, in Job i, 1, derives from the Arabic 
verb HDty, or Noa', to be high elevated, or emu 
nent. By this scheme, which seems to have 
been a project of state policy, for keeping all 
men together under the present chiefs and their 
successors, a great part of the earth must, for 
a long time, have been uninhabited, and over- 
run with wild beasts. The bad effects which 
this project would have had upon the minds, 
the morals, and religion of mankind, was, pro- 
bably, the chief reason why God interposed to 
frustrate it as soon as it was formed. It had 
manifestly a direct tendency to tyranny, op- 
pression, and slavery. Whereas in forming 
several independent governments by a small 
body of men, the ends of government, and the 
security of liberty and property, would be 
much better attended to, and more firmly es- 
tablished ; which, in fact, was really the case ; 
if we may judge of the rest by the constitution 
of one of the most eminent, the kingdom of 
Egypt, Gen. xlvii, 15-27. The Egyptians were 
masters of their persons and property, till they 
sold them to Pharaoh for bread ; and then their 
servitude amounted to no more than the fifth 
part of the produce of the country, as an 
annual tax payable to the king. By this event, 
considered as a wise dispensation of Provi- 
dence, bounds were set to the contagion of 
wickedness; evil example was confined, and 
could not extend its influence beyond the 
limits of one country ; nor could wicked pro- 
jects be carried on, with universal concurrence, 
by many small colonies, separated by the na- 
tural boundaries of mountains, rivers, barren 
deserts, and seas, and hindered from associating 
together by a variety of languages, unintel- 
ligible to each other. Moreover, in this dis- 
persed state, they could, whenever God pleased, 
be made reciprocal checks upon each other, by 
invasions and wars, which would weaken the 
power, and humble the pride, of corrupt and 
vicious communities. This dispensation was, 
therefore, properly calculated to prevent a 
second universal degeneracy; God dealing in 
it with me» as rational agents, and adapting 
his scheme to their state and circumstances. 

DIVORCE. As the ancient Hebrews paid 
a stipulated price for the privilege of marrying, 
they seemed to consider it the natural conse- 
quence of making a payment of that kind, that 
they should be at liberty to exercise a very 
arbitrary power over their wives, and to re- 
nounce or divorce them whenever they chose. 
This state of things, as Moses himself very 
clearly saw, was not equitable as respected the 
woman, and was very often injurious to both 
parties. Finding himself, however, unable to 
overrule feelings and practices of very ancient 
standing, he merely annexed to the original 
institution of marriage a very serious admoni- 
tion to this effect, viz. that it would be less 
criminal for a man to desert his father and 
mother, than without adequate cause to desert 



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his wife, Gen. ii, 14, compared with Malachi 
ii, 11-16. He also laid a restriction upon the 
power of the husband as far as this, that he 
would not permit him to repudiate the wife 
without giving her a bill of divorce. He 
farther enacted in reference to this subject 
that the husband might receive the repudiated 
wife back, in case she had not in the mean- 
while been married to another person ; but if 
she had been thus married, she could never 
afterward become the wife of her first husband ; 
a law, which the faith due to the second hus- 
band clearly required, Deut. xxiv, 1-4, compare 
Jer. iii, 1, and Matt, i, 19 ; xix, 8. The in- 
quiry, " What should be considered an adequate 
cause of divorce," was left by Moses to be de- 
termined by the husband himself. He had 
liberty to divorce her, if he saw in her any 
thing naked, any thing displeasing or improper, 
any thing so much at war with propriety, and 
a source of so much dissatisfaction as to be, in 
the estimation of the husband, sufficient ground 
for separation. These expressions, however, 
were sharply contested as to their meaning in 
the later times of the Jewish nation. The 
school of Hillel contended, that the husband 
might lawfully put aw^ay the vv^ife for any 
cause, even the smallest. The mistake com- 
mitted by the school of Hillel in taking this 
ground was, that they confounded moral and 
civil law. It is true, as far as the Mosaic 
statute or the civil law was concerned, the 
husband had a right thus to do; but it is 
equally clear, that the ground of just separation 
must have been, not a trivial, but a prominent 
and important one, when it is considered, that 
he was bound to consult the rights of the 
woman, and was amenable to his conscience 
and his God. The school of Shammai ex- 
plained the phrase, nakedness of a thing, to 
mean actual adultery. Our Lord agreed with 
the school of Shammai as far as this, that the 
ground of divorce should be one of a moral 
nature, and not less than adultery ; but he does 
not appear to have agreed with them in their 
opinion in respect to the Mosaic statute. On 
the contrary, he denied the equity of that sta- 
tute, and in justification of Moses maintained, 
that he permitted divorces for causes below 
adultery, only in consequence of the hardness 
of the people's hearts. Matt, v, 31, 32 ; xviii, 
1-9 ; Mark x, 2-12 ; Luke xvi, 18. Wives, 
who were considered the property of their hus. 
bands, did not enjoy by the Mosaic statutes a 
reciprocal right, and were not at liberty to dis- 
solve the matrimonial alliance by giving a bill 
of divorce to that effect. In the latter periods, 
however, of the Jewish state, the Jewish ma- 
trons, the more powerful of them at least, 
appear to have imbibed the spirit of the ladies 
of Rome, and to have exercised in their own 
behalf the same power that was granted by 
the Mosaic law only to their husbands, Mark 
vi, 17-29 ; X, 12. 

DOCET-iE, the advocates of an early heresy, 
which taught that Christ acted and suffered, 
not in reality, but in appearance. They were 
so denominated from SokcIv, to appear. See 
Gnostics, 



DOCTORS, or Teachers, of the law, a class 
of men in great repute among the Jews. They 
had studied the law of Moses in its various 
branches, and the numerous interpretations 
which had been grafted upon it in later times ; 
and, on various occasions, they gave their 
opinion on cases referred to them for advice. 
Nicodemus, himself a doctor {SiSdaKaXos, teach- 
er) of the law, comes to consult Jesus, whom 
he compliments in the same terms as he was 
accustomed to receive from his scholars : 
" Rabbi, we know that thou art 6i^daKa\os, a 
competent teacher from God." Doctors of 
the law were chiefly of the sect of the Phari- 
sees ; but they are sometimes distinguished 
from that sect, Luke v, 17. 

DOG, 2'7D, an animal well known. By the 
law of Moses, the dog was declared unclean, 
and was held in great contempt among the 
Jews, 1 Sam. xvii, 43 ; xxiv, 14 ; 2 Sam. ix, 8 ; 
2 Kings viii, 13. Yet they had them in con- 
siderable numbers in their cities. They were 
not, however, shut up in their houses or courts, 
but forced to seek their food where they could 
find it. The Psalmist compares violent men 
to dogs, who go about the city in the night, 
prowl about for their food, and growl, and be- 
come clamorous if they be not satisfied, Psalm 
lix, 6, 14, 15. Mr. Harmer has illustrated this 
by quotations from travellers into the east. 
The Turks also reckon the dog a filthy creature, 
and therefore drive him from their houses ; so 
that with them dogs guard rather the streets 
and districts, than particular houses, and live 
on the offals that are thrown abroad. In 
1 Sam. XXV, 3, Nabal is said to have been 
" churlish and evil in his manners ; and he was 
of the house of Caleb ;" but Caleb here is not a 
proper name. Literally, it is, "He was the 
son of a dog ;" and so the Septuagint, Syriac, 
and Arabic render it, — he was irritable, snap, 
pish, and snarling as a dog. The irritable dis- 
position of the dog is the foundation of that 
saying, "He that passeth by, and meddleth 
with strife belonging not to him, is like one 
that taketh a dog by the ears," Pro v. xxvi, 17 ; 
that is, he wantonly exposes himself to danger. 
In 1 Kings xxi, 23, it is said, "The dogs 
shall eat Jezebel." Mr. Bruce, when at Gon- 
dar, was witness to a scene in a great measure 
similar to the devouring of Jezebel by dogs. 
He says, " The bodies of those killed by the 
sword were hewn to pieces, and scattered 
about the streets, being denied burial. I was 
miserable, and almost driven to despair, at 
seeing my hunting dogs, twice let loose by the 
carelessness of my servants, bringing into the 
court yard the heads and arms of slaughtered 
men, and which I could no way prevent but 
by the destruction of the dogs themselves." 
He also adds, that upon being asked by the 
king the reason of his dejected and sickly ap- 
pearance, among other reasons, he informed 
him, "it was occasioned by an execution of 
three men, which he had lately seen ; because 
the hyaenas, allured into the streets by the 
quantity of carrion, would not let him pass 
by night in safety from the palace ; and be- 
cause the dogs fled into his house, to eat 



DOG 



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DOV 



pieces of human carcasses at their leisure." 
This account illustrates also the readiness of 
the dogs to lick the blood of Ahab, 1 Kings 
xxii, 38; in conformity to which is the expres- 
sion of the Prophet Jeremiah, xv, 3, " I will 
appoint over them the sword to slay, and the 
dogs to tear." 

2. The dog was held sacred by the Egyp- 
tians. This fact we learn from Juvenal, who 
complains, in his fifteenth satire, 

Oppida tola canem vencrantur, nemo Dianam. 

"Thousands i-egard the Jiound with holy fear, 
Not one, Diana." Gifford. 

The testimony of the Latin poet is confirmed 
by Diodorus, who, in his first book, assures us 
that the Egyptians highly venerate some ani- 
mals, botJi during their life and after their 
death ; and expressly mentions the dog as one 
object of this absurd adoration. To these 
witnesses may be added Herodotus, who says, 
that when a dog expires, all the members of 
the family to which he belonged worship the 
carcass ; and that, in every part of the king- 
dom, the carcasses of their dogs are embalmed, 
and deposited in consecrated ground. The 
idolatrous veneration of the dog by the Egyp- 
tians is shown in the worship of their dog-god 
Anubis, to whom temples and priests were 
consecrated, and whose image was borne in 
all religious ceremonies. Cynopolis, the pre- 
sent Minieh, situated in the lower Thebais, 
was built in honour of Anubis. The priests 
celebrated his festivals there with great pomp. 
" Anubis," says Strabo, " is the city of dogs, 
the capital of the Cynopolitan prefecture. 
These animals are fed there on sacred aliments, 
and religion has decreed them a worship." 
An event, however, related by Plutarch, 
brought them into considerable discredit with 
the people. Cambyses, having slain the god 
Apis, and thrown his body into the field, all 
animals respected it except the dogs, which 
alone ate of his flesh. This impiety diminish. 
ed the popular veneration. Cynopolis was not 
the only city where incense was burned on 
the altars of Anubis. He had chapels in 
almost all the temples. On solemnities, his 
image always accompanied those of Isis and 
Osiris. Rome, having adopted the ceremonies 
of Egypt, the emperor Commodus, to celebrate 
the Isiac feasts, shaved his head, and himself 
carried the dog Anubis. 

3. In Matt, vii, 6, we have this direction of 
our Saviour : " Give not that which is holy un- 
to the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before 
swine, lest they," the swine, "trample them 
under their feet, and," the dogs, "turn again 
and tear you." It was customary, not only 
with the writers of Greece and Rome, but also 
with the eastern sages, to denote certain classes 
of men by animals supposed to resemble them 
among the brutes. Our Saviour was naturally 
led to adopt the same concise and energetic 
method. By dogs, which were held in great 
detestation by the Jews, he intends men of 
odious character and violent temper ; by swine, 
the usual emblem of moral filth, he means the 
sensual and profligate ; and the purport of his 



admonition is, that as it is a maxim with the 
priests not to give any part of the sacrifices to 
dogs, so it should be a maxim with you not to 
impart the holy instruction with which you 
are favoured, to those who are likely to bias- 
pheme and to be only excited by it to rage and 
persecution. It is, however, a maxim of pru. 
dence not of cowardice; and is to be taken 
along with other precepts of our Lord, which 
enjoin the publication of truth, at the expense 
of ease and even life. 

DORT, Synod of. See Synods. 
DOVE, r\:v. This beautifiil genus of birds 
is very numerous in the east. In the wild state 
they generally build their nests in the holes or 
clefts of rocks, or in excavated trees ; but they 
are easily taught submission and familiarity 
with mankind ; and, when domesticated, build 
in structures erected for their accommodation, 
called "dove-cotes." They are classed by 
Moses among the clean birds; and it appears 
from the sacred as well as other writers, that 
doves were always held in the highest estima- 
tion among the eastern nations. Rosen muller, 
in a note upon Bochart, derives the name from 
the Arabic, where it signifies mildness, gentle- 
ness, &.C. The dove is mentioned in Scrip- 
ture as the symbol of simplicity, innocence, 
gentleness, and fidelity, Hosea vii, 11 ; Matt. 
X, 16. 

The following extract from Morier's Persian 
Travels illustrates a passage in Isaiah: "In 
the environs of the city, to the westward, near 
the Zainderood, are many pigeon ■ houses, 
erected at a distance from habitations, for the 
sole purpose of collecting pigeons' dung for 
manure. They are large round towers, rather 
broader at tlie bottom than the top, and crown, 
ed by conical spiracles, through which the 
pigeons descend. Their interior resembles a 
honey-comb, pierced with a thousand holes, 
each of which forms a snug retreat for a nest. 
More care appears to have been bestowed up- 
on their outside than upon that of the gene- 
rality of the dwelling houses; for they are 
painted and ornamented. The extraordinary 
flights of pigeons which I have seen alight 
upon one of these buildings afford, perhaps, a 
good illustration for the passage in Isaiah Ix, 
8 : ' Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as 
the doves to their windows ?' Their great 
numbers, and the compactness of their mass, 
literally look like a cloud at a distance, and 
obscure the sun in their passage." 

The first mention of the dove in the Scrip, 
ture is Genesis viii, 8, 10-12, where Noah sent 
one from the ark to ascertain if the waters of 
the deluge had assuaged. She was sent forth 
thrice. The first time she speedily returned; 
having, in all probability, gone but a little way 
from the ark, as she must naturally be terrified 
at the appearance of the waters. After seven 
days, being sent out a second time, she return, 
ed with an olive leaf plucked off", whereby it 
became evident that the flood was considerably 
abated, and had sunk below the tops of the 
trees ; and thus relieved the fears and cheered 
the heart of Noah and his family. And hence 
the olive branch has ever been among the fore. 



DRE 



315 



DUS 



Tunners of peace, and chief of those emblems 
-by which a happy state of renovation and 
"restoration to prosperity has been signified to 
mankind. At the end of other seven days, the 
dove, being sent out a third time, returned no 
more ; from which Noah conjectured that the 
earth was so far drained as to afford sustenance 
for the birds and fowls ; and he therefore re- 
moved the covering of the ark, which probably 
gave liberty to many of the fowls to fly off; 
and these circumstances afforded him the 
greater facility for making arrangements for 
disembarking the other animals. Doves might 
be offer^^d in sacrifice, when those who were 
poor could not bring a more costly offering. 

DOWRY. See Bride. 

DRACHMA. The value of a common 
drachma was sevenpence, English. A didrach- 
ma, or double drachma, made very near half a 
shekel ; and four drachmas made nearly a 
shekel. 

DRAGON. This word is frequently to be 
met with in our English translation of the 
Bible. It answers generally to the Hebrew 
}D, pjn, D^JD ; and these words are variously 
rendered dragons, serpents, sea-monsters, and 
whales. The Rev. James Hurdis, in a disser- 
tation relative to this subject, observes, that 
the word translated "whales," in Gen. i, 21, 
occurs twenty-seven times in Scripture ; and 
he attempts, with much ingenuity, to prove 
that it every where signifies the crocodile. 
That it sometimes has this meaning, he thinks 
is clear from Ezekiel xxix, 3: "Behold, I am 
against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great 
dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers." 
For, to what could a king of Egypt be more 
properly compared than the crocodile ? The 
same argument he draws from Isaiah li, 9 : 
" Art thou not he that hath cut Rahab, [Egypt,] 
and wounded the dragon ?" Among the an- 
cients the crocodile was the symbol of Egypt, 
and appears so on Roman coins. Some how- 
ever have thought the hippopotamus intended ; 
others, one of the larger species of serpents. 

DRAUGHTS, stupifying potions. At the 
time of execution, they gave the malefactor a 
grain of frankincense in a cup of wine, in or- 
der to stupify and render him less sensible of 
pain. This custom is traced to the charge of 
the wise man : " Give strong drink to him that 
is ready to perish, and wine to those that be 
of heavy hearts," Prov. xxxiv, 6. The pro- 
phet makes an allusion to the powerful effects 
of this stupifying draught, in that prediction 
which announces the judgments of God upon 
the empire of Babylon : " Take the wine cup 
of this fury at my hand, and cause all the na- 
tions to whom I send thee to drink it. And 
they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, 
because of the sword that I will send among 
them," Jer. xxv, 15, 16. The Jews, according 
to the custom of their country, gave our Lord 
wine mingled with myrrh at his crucifixion. 
See Cross. 

DREAMS. The easterns, in particular the 
Jews, greatly regarded dreams, and applied for 
their interpretation to those who undertook to 
explain them. The ancient Greeks and Ro- 



mans had the same opinion of them, as appears 
from their most eminent writers. We see the" 
antiquity of this attention to dreams in the 
history of Pharaoh's butler and baker, Gen. xl. 
Pharaoh himself, and Nebuchadnezzar, are in- 
stances. God expressly condemned to death 
all who pretended to have prophetic dreams, 
and to foretei futurities, even though what 
they foretold came to pass, if they had any 
tendency to promote idolatry, Deut. xiii, 1-3. 
But the people were not forbidden, when they 
thought they had a significative dream, to ad- 
dress the prophets of the Lord, or the high 
priest in his ephod, to have it explained. Saul, 
before the battle of Gilboa, consulted a woman 
who had a familiar spirit, "because the Lord 
would not answer him by dreams, nor by pro- 
phets," 1 Sam. xxviii, 6, 7. The Lord himself 
sometimes discovered his will in dreams, and 
enabled persons to explain them. He inform- 
ed Abimelech in a dream, that Sarah was the 
wife of Abraham, Gen. xx, 3, 6. He showed 
Jacob the mysterious ladder in a dream. Gen, 
xxviii, 12, 13 ; and in a dream an angel suggest. 
ed to him a means of multiplying his flocks. 
Genesis xxxi, 11, 12, &c. Joseph was favoured 
very early with prophetic dreams, whose sig- 
nification was easily discovered by Jacob, Gen- 
xxxvii, 5. God said, that he spake to other 
prophets in dreams, but to Moses face to face. 
The Midianites gave credit to dreams, as ap- 
pears from that which a Midianite related to 
his companion ; and from whose interpretation 
Gideon took a happy omen. Judges vii, 13, 15. 
The Prophet Jeremiah exclaims against im- 
postors who pretended to have had dreams, 
and abused the credulity of the people : " They 
prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have 
dreamed, I have dreamed. The prophet that 
hath a dream, let him tell a dream ; and he 
that hath my word, let him tell it faithfully, 
saith the Lord," Jer. xxiii, 25, 28, 29. The 
Prophet Joel promises from God, that in the 
reign of the Messiah, the effusion of the Holy 
Spirit should be so copious, that the old men 
should have prophetic dreams, and the young 
men should receive visions, Joel ii, 28. 

DRESS. See Habits. 

DROMEDARY. This name answers to 
two words in the original, "1D3, and feminine 
,-nD3, Isa. Ix, 6 ; Jer. ii, 24 ; and aijina'nN, 
Esther viii, 10, " young dromedaries ;" probably 
the name in Persian. The dromedary is a race 
of camels chiefly remarkable for its prodigious 
swiftness. The most observable difference be- 
tween it and the camel is, that it has but one 
protuberance on the back ; and instead of the 
slow solemn walk to which that animal is ac- 
customed, it will go as far in one day as the 
camel in three. For this reason it is used to 
carry messengers where haste is required. The 
animal is governed by a bridle, which, being 
usually fastened to a ring fixed in the nose, 
may very well illustrate the expression, 2 Kings 
xix, 28, of turning back Sennacherib by putting 
a hook into his nose ; and may farther indicate 
his swift retreat. 

DUST, or ashes, cast on the head was a 
sign of mourning, Josh, vii, 6 : sitting in the 



DUS 



316 



EAG 



dust, a sign of affliction, Lam. iii, 29 ; Isaiah 
xlvii, 1. The dust als© denotes the grave, Gen. 
iii, 19 ; Job vii, 21 ; Psalm xxii, 15. It is put 
for a great multitude, Gen. xiii, 16 ; Numbers 
xxiii, 10. It signifies a low or mean condition, 
1 Sam. ii, 8; Nahum iii, 18. To shake or 
wipe off" the dust of a place from one's feet, 
marks the renouncing of all intercourse with 
it in future. God threatens the Jews with rain 
of dust, &LC ; Deut. xxviii, 24. An extract from 
Sir T. Roe's embassy may cast light on this : 
" Sometimes, in India, the wind blows very 
high in hot and dry seasons, raising up into 
the air a very great height, thick clouds of 
dust and sand. These dry showers miost griev- 
ously annoy all those among whom they fall ; 
enough to smite them all with present blind- 
ness; filling their eyes, ears, nostrils, and 
mouths too, if not well guarded; searching 
every place, as well within as without, so that 
there is not a little key-hole of any trunk or 
cabinet, if it be not covered, but receives this 
dust; add to this, that the fields, brooks, and 
gardens, suffer extremely from these terrible 
showers." 

2. In almost every part of Asia, those who 
demand justice against a criminal throw dust 
upon him, signifying that he deserves to lose 
his life, and be cast into the grave ; and that 
this is the true interpretation of the action, is 
evident from an imprecation in common use 
among the Turks and Persians, " Be covered 
with earth!" "Earth be upon thy head." We 
have two remarkable instances of casting dust 
recorded in Scripture : the first is that of 
Shimei, who gave vent to his secret hostility 
to David, when he fled before his rebellious 
son, by throwing stones at him, and casting 
dust, 2 Sam. xvi, 13. It was an ancient cus- 
tom, in those warm and arid countries, to lay 
the dust before a person of distinction, and 
particularly before kings and princes, by 
sprinkling the ground with water. To throw 
dust into the air while a person was passing, 
was therefore an act of great disrespect ; to do 
so before a sovereign prince, an indecent out- 
rage. But it is clear that Shimei meant nrore 
than disrespect and outrage to an afflicted 
king, whose subject he was : he intended to 
signify by that action, that David was unfit 
to live, and that the time was at last arrived to 
offer him a sacrifice to the ambition and ven- 
geance of the house of Saul. This view of his 
conduct is confirmed by the behaviour of the 
Jews to the Apostle Paul, when they seized 
him in the temple, and had nearly succeeded 
in putting him to death : they cried out, " Away 
with such a fellow from the earth, for it is not 
fit that he should live ; and as they cried out 
and cast off" their clothes, and threw dust into 
the air, the chief captain commanded him to 
be brought into the castle," Acts xxii, 23. A 
great similarity appears between the conduct 
of the Jews on this occasion, and the behaviour 
of the peasants in Persia, when they go to 
court to complain of the governors, whose op- 
pressions they can no longer endure. They 
carry their complaints against their governors 
by companies, consisting of several hundreds, 



and sometimes of a thousand ; they repair to 
that gate of the palace nearest to which their 
prince is most likely to be, where they set 
themselves to make the most horrid cries, tear- 
ing their garments, and throwing dust into the 
air, and demanding justice. The king, upon 
hearing these cries, sends to know the occasion 
of them : the people deliver their complaints in 
writing, upon which he informs them that he 
will commit the cognizance of the affair to 
such a one as he names ; and in consequence 
of this, justice is usually obtained. 

EAGLE, •\^i, Exod. xix, 4; Lev. xi, 13. 
The name is derived from a verj) which signi- 
fies to lacerate, or tear in pieces. The eagle has 
always been considered as the king of birds, on 
account of its great strength, rapidity and ele- 
vation of flight, natural ferocity^ and the terror 
it inspires into its fellows of the air. Its vo- 
racity is so great that a large extent of territory 
is requisite for the supply of proper sustenance ; 
and providence has therefore constituted it a 
solitary animal : two pair of eagles are never 
found in the same neighbourhood, though the 
genus is dispersed through every quarter of the 
world. Its sight is quick, strong, and piercing, 
to a proverb. In Job xxxix, 27, the natural 
history of the eagle is finely drawn up : — 

Is it at thy vroice that the eagle soars'? 

And therefore maketh his nest on high? 

The rock is the place of his habitation. 

He abides on the crag, the place of strength. 

Thence he pounces upon his prey. 

His eyes discern afar off. 

Even his young ones drink down blood ; 

And wherever is slaughter, there is he. 
Alluding to the popular opinion that the 
eagle assists its feeble young in their flight, 
by bearing them up on its own pinions, Moses 
represents Jehovah as saying, "Ye have seen 
what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore 
you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto 
myself,'' Exod. xix, 4. Scheuchzer has quoted 
from an ancient poet, the following beautiful 
paraphrase on this passage : — 
Acvelui alituum princeps, fxdvusque tonantis 
Armiger, i-mplumes, et adliue sine robore natoe 
Sollicita refovet cura, pinguisque ferincB 
Indulget pastus : mox uL cum viribiis alee, 
Vesticipes crevere, vocat se blandior aura, 
Expansa invitat pluona, dorsoque morantes 
Excipit, attollitque humeris, plausuque secundo 
Fertur in arva, timens oneri, et tamen impete presso 
Remigium tentans alarum, incurvaque pinnis 
Vela legens, hum,iles tranat sub nubibus oras. 
Hinc scnsirro supra alta petit, jam jamque sub astra 
Erigitur, cursusque leves citus urget in auras, 
Omnia pervolitans late loca, et agmine fcE.tus 
Fertque refertque suos vario, more?7ique volandi 
Addocet: illi autem, longa assuetudine docti, 
Paulatim incipiunt pennis se credere ccbIo 
Impavidi : tantum a teneris valet addere curam. 

[And as the king of birds, and tawny armour- 
bearer of the Thunderer, cherishes with anxious 
care his unfledged, and as yet feeble young, 
and gratifies their appetite with rich prey : 
presently when their downy wings have in- 
creased in strength, a milder air calls them 
forth, with expanded plumage he invites them, 
and receives them hesitating on his back, and 
sustains them on his shoulders, and with easy 



EAG 



317 



EAG 



flight is borne over the fields, fearing for his 
burden, and yet with a moderated effort trying 
the rowing of their wings, and furling with 
his pinions his curved sails, he glides through 
the low regions beneath the clouds. Hence by 
degrees he soars aloft, and now he mounts to 
the starry heaven, and swiftly urges his rapid 
flight through the air, sweeping widely over 
space, and in his gyrations bearing his offspring 
to and fro, teaches them the art of flying : — but 
they, taught by long practice, gradually begin 
to trust themselves fearlessly on their wings : 
So much does it avail to train the young with 
care.] 

2. When Balaam delivered his predictions 
respecting the fate that awaited the nations 
which he then particularized, he said of the 
Kenites, " Strong is thy dwelling, and thou 
puttest thy nest in a rock," Num. xxiv, 21 ; 
alluding to that princely bird, the eagle, which 
not only delights in soaring to the loftiest 
heights, but chooses the highest rocks, and most 
elevated mountains, as desirable situations for 
erecting its nest, Hab. ii, 9 ; Obad. 4. What 
Job says concerning the eagle, which is to be 
understood in a literal sense, " Where the slain 
are, there is he," our Saviour turns into a fine 
parable: "Wheresoever the carcass is, there 
will the eagles be gathered together," Matt." 
xxiv, 28 ; that is. Wherever the Jews are, who 
have corruptly fallen from God, there will be 
the Romans, who bore the eagle as their stand- 
ard, to execute vengeance upon them, Luke 
xvii, 37. 

3. The swiftness of the flight of the eagle is 
alluded to in several passages of Scripture ; 
as, "The Lord shall bring a nation against 
thee from afar, from the end of the earth, as 
swift as the eagle flieth," Deut. xxviii, 49. In 
the affecting lamentation of David over Saul 
and Jonathan, their impetuous and rapid ca- 
reer is described in forcible terms: "They 
were swifter than eagles ; they were stronger 
than lions," 2 Sam. i, 23. Jeremiah when he 
beheld in vision the march of Nebuchadnez- 
zar, cried, " Behold, he shall come up as clouds, 
and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind. His 
horses are swifter than eagles. Wo unto us, 
for we are spoiled," Jer. iv, 13. To the wide- 
expanded wings of the eagle, and the rapidity 
of his flight, the same prophet beautifully al- 
ludes in a subsequent chapter, where he 
describes the subversion of Moab hy the same 
ruthless conqueror : " Behold, he shall fly as 
an eagle, and spread his wings over Moab," 
Jer. xlviii, 40. In the same manner he de- 
scribes the sudden desolations of Ammon in 
the next chapter; but, when he turns his eye 
to the ruins of his own country, he exclaims, 
in still more energetic language, " Our perse- 
cutors are swifter than the eagles of the 
heavens," Lament, iv, 19. Under the same 
comparison the patriarch Job describes the 
rapid flight of tune : " My days are passed 
away, as the eagle that hasteth to the prey," 
Job ix, 26. The surprising rapidity with which 
the blessings of common providence sometimes 
vanish from the grasp of the possessor is thus 
described by Solomon : " Riches certainly 



make themselves wings : they fly away as an 
eagle toward heaven," Prov. xxiii, 5. The 
flight of this bird is as sublime as it is rapid and 
impetuous. None of the feathered race soar 
so high. In his daring excursions he is said 
to leave the clouds of heaven, and regions of 
thunder, and lightning, and tempest, far be- 
neath him, and to approach the very limits of 
ether. There is an allusion to this lofty soar- 
ing in the prophecy of Obadiah, concerning 
the pride of Moab : " Though thou exalt thy- 
self as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest 
among the stars, thence will I bring thee 
down, saith the Lord," Obad. 4. The prophet 
Jeremiah pronounces the doom of Edom in 
similar terms: "O thou that dwellest in the 
clefts of the rock, that boldest the height of 
the hill ; though thou shouldest make thy nest 
high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from 
thence, saith the Lord," Jer. xlix, 16. The 
eagle lives and retains its vigour to a great age ; 
and, after moulting, renews its vigour so sur- 
prisingly, as to be said, hyperbolically, to be- 
come young again, Psalm ciii, 5, and Isaiah 
xl, 31. It is remarkable that Cyrus, compared, 
in Isaiah xlvi, 11, to an eagle, (so the word 
translated "ravenous bird" should be render- 
ed,) had an eagle for his ensign according to 
Xenophon, who uses, without knowing it, the 
identical word of the prophet, with only a 
Greek termination to it : so exact is the cor- 
respondence between the prophet and the his- 
torian, the prediction and the event. Xenophon 
and other ancient historians inform us that the 
golden eagle with extended wings was the en- 
sign of the Persian monarchs long before it 
was adopted by the Romans; and it is very 
probable that the Persians borrowed the sym- 
bol from the ancient Assyrians, in whose ban- 
ners it waved, till imperial Babylon bowed her 
head to the yoke of Cyrus. If this conjecture 
be well founded, it discovers the reason why 
the sacred writers, in describing the victorious 
march of the Assyrian armies, allude so fre- 
quently to the expanded eagle. Referring to 
the Babylonian monarch, the prophet Hosea 
proclaimed in the ears of all Israel, the mea- 
sure of whose iniquities was nearly full, "He 
shall come as an eagle against the house of the 
Lord," Hosea viii, 1. Jeremiah predicted a 
similar calamity: "Thus saith the Lord, Be-. 
hold, he shall fly as an eagle, and spread his 
wings over Moab," Jer. xlviii, 40 ; and the 
same figure was employed to denote the de- 
struction that overtook the house of Esau :: 
"Behold, he shall come up and fly as the 
eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah," 
xlix, 22. The words of these prophets received 
a full accomplishment in the irresistible im- 
petuosity and complete success with which the 
Babylonian monarchs, and particularly Nebu- 
chadnezzar, pursued their plans of conquest, 
Ezekiel denominates him, with great propriety, 
" a great eagle with great wings," because he 
was the most powerful monarch of his time, 
and led into the field more numerous and bet- 
ter appointed armies, (which the prophet calls, 
by a beautiful figure, "his wings," the wings 
of his army,) than perhaps the world had ever 



EAR 



. 318 



EAR 



seen. The Prophet Isaiah, referring to the 
same monarch, predicted the subjugation of 
Judea in these terms : " He shall pass through 
Judah. He shall overflow, and go over. He 
shall reach even to the neck ; and the stretch, 
ing out of his wings" (the array of his army) 
*' shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Imman- 
uel," Isaiah viii, 8. The king of Egypt is also 
styled by Ezekiel, "a great eagle, with great 
wings, and many feathers ;" but he manifestly 
gives the preference to the king of Babylon, 
by adding, that he had "long wings, full of 
feathers, which had divers colours ;" that is, 
greater wealth, and a more numerous army. 

EAR, the organ of hearing. The Scripture 
uses the term figuratively. TJncircumcised 
€ars are ears inattentive to the word of God. 
To signify God's regard to the prayers of his 
people, the Psalmist says, " His ears are open 
to their cry," Psalm xxxiv, 15. Among the 
Jews, the slave, who renounced the privilege 
of being made free from servitude in the sab- 
batical year, submitted to have his ear bored 
through with an awl ; which was done in the 
presence of some judge, or magistrate, that it 
might appear a voluntary act. The ceremony 
took place at his master's door, and was the 
mark of servitude and bondage. The Psalmist 
says, in the person of the Messiah, " Sacrifice 
and offering thou didst not desire ; mine ears 
hast thou opened." Heb. " Thou hast digged 
my ears." This either means. Thou hast 
opened them, removed impediments, and made 
them attentive ; or, thou hast pierced them, as 
those of such servants were pierced, who chose 
to remain with their masters ; and therefore 
imports the absolute and voluntary submission 
of Messiah to the will of the Father. " Make 
the ears of this people heavy," Isaiah vi, 10 ; 
that is, render their minds inattentive and dis- 
obedient; the prophets being said often to do 
that of which they were the innocent occasion. 

EAR-RINGS and nose-jewels were favour- 
ite ornaments among the eastern females. Both 
are frequently mentioned in Scripture. Thus 
the Prophet Ezekiel : " Arid I put a jewel on 
thy forehead," or, as it should have been ren- 
dered, on thy nose. This ornament was one 
of the presents which the servant of Abraham 
gave to Rebecca, in the name of his master : 
" I put," said he, "the ear-ring upon her face ;" 
more literally, I put the ring on her nose. 
They wore ear-rings beside; for the house- 
hold of Jacob, at his request, when they were 
preparing to go up to Bethel, gave him all the 
ear-rings which were in their ears, and he hid 
them under the oak which was by Shechem. 
Sir John Chardin says, "It is the custom in 
almost all the east for the women to wear rings 
in their noses, in the left nostril, which is 
bored low down in the middle. These rings 
are of gold, and have commonly two pearls and 
one ruby between them, placed in the ring ; I 
never saw a girl, or young woman in Arabia, 
or in all Persia, who did not wear a ring after 
this manner in her nostril." Some writers 
contend, that by the nose-jewel, we are to 
understand rings, which women attached to 
their forehead, and let them fall down upon 



their nose^; but Chardin, who certainly was a 
diligent observer of eastern customs, no where 
saw this frontal ring in the east, but every 
where the ring in the nose. His testimony is 
supported by Dr. Russel, who describes the 
women in some of the villages about Aleppo, 
and all the Arabs and Chinganas, (a sort of 
gipsies,) as wearing a large ring of silver or 
gold, through the external cartilage of their 
right nostril. It is worn, by the testimony of 
Egmont, in the same manner by the women of 
Egypt. Two words are used in the Scriptures 
to denote these ornamental rings, dtj and V^jp. 
Mr. Harmer seems to think they properly sig- 
nified ear-rings ; but this is a mistake ; the sacred 
writers use them promiscuously for the rings 
both of the nose and of the ears. That writer, 
however, is probably right in supposing that 
nezem is the name of a much smaller ring than 
agil. Chardin observed two sorts of rings in 
the east; one so small and close to the ear, 
that there is no vacuity between them ; the 
other so large, as to admit the fore finger be- 
tween it and the ear; these last are adorned 
with a ruby and a pearl on each side, strung 
on the ring. Some of these ear-rings had 
figures upon them, and strange characters, 
which he believed were talismans or charms ; 
but which were probably the names and sym- 
bols of their false gods. We know from the 
testimony of Pliny, that rings with the images 
of their gods were worn by the Romans. The 
Indians say, they are preservatives against 
enchantment; upon which Chardin hazards a 
very probable conjecture, that the ear-rings of 
Jacob's family were perhaps of this kind, which 
might be the reason of his demanding them, 
that he might bury them under the oak before 
they went up to Bethel. - 

EARTH is used for that gross element which 
sustains and nourishes us by producing plants 
and fruits; for the continent as distinguished 
from the sea, " God called the dry land earth," 
Gen. i, 10 ; for the terraqueous globe, and its 
contents, men, animals, plants, metals, waters, 
&c. " The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness 
thereof. Psalm xxiv, 1 ; for the inhabitants of 
the earth, or continent, "The whole earth was 
of one language," Genesis xi, 1 ; for Judea, or 
the whole empire of Chaldea and Assyria. 
Thus Cyrus says, Ezra i, 2, "The Lord God 
of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of 
the earth." The restriction of the term " earth" 
to Judea is more common in Scripture than is 
usually supposed ; and this acceptation of it 
has great effect on several passages, in which 
it ought to be so understood. . 

Earth in a moral sense is opposed to heaven, 
and to what is spiritual. " He that is of the 
earth is earthy, and speaketh of the earth ; he 
that Cometh from above is above all," John 
iii, 31. "If ye then be risen with Christ, set 
your affections on things above, not on things 
on the earth," Col. iii, 1, 2. 

EARTHQUAKE. The Scripture speaks of 
several earthquakes. One happened in the 
twenty-seventh year of Uzziah, king of Judah, 
in the year of the world 3221. This is men- 
tioned in Amos i, 1, and in Zechariah xiv, 5. 



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Josephus says that its violence divided a mount- 
ain, which lay west of Jerusalem, and drove one 
part of it four furlongs. A very memorable earth, 
quake is that which happened at our Saviour's 
death, Matt, xxvii, 51. Many have thought 
that this was perceived throughout the world. 
Others are of opinion that it was felt only in Ju- 
dea, or even in the temple at Jerusalem. St. Cyril 
of Jerusalem says, that the rocks upon mount 
Calvary were shown in his time, which had 
been rent asunder by this earthquake. Maun- 
drell and Sandys testify the same, and say that 
they examined the breaches in the rock, and 
were convinced that they were the effects of 
an earthquake. It must have been terrible, 
since the centurion and those with him were 
so affected by it, as to acknowledge the inno- 
cence of our Saviour, Luke xxiii, 47. Phle- 
gon, Adrian's freedman, relates that, together 
with the eclipse, which happened at noon day, 
in the fourth year of the two hundred and se- 
cond Olympiad, or A. D. 33, a very great earth- 
quake was also felt, principally in Bythynia. 
The effects of God's power, wrath, and venge- 
ance are compared to earthquakes. Psalm xviii, 
7 ; xlvi, 2 ; cxiv, 4. An earthquake signifies 
also, in prophetic language, the dissolution of 
governments and the overthrow of states. 

EAST, one of the four cardinal points of 
the world ; namely, that particular point of the 
horizon in which the sun is seen to rise. The 
Hebrews express the east, west, north, and 
south by words which signify before, behind, 
left, and right, according to the situation of a 
man who has his face turned toward the east. 
By the east, they frequently describe, not only 
Arabia Deserta, and the lands of Moab and 
Ammon, which lay to the east of Palestine, 
but also Assyria, Mesopotamia, Babylonia, and 
Chaldea, though they are situated rather to the 
north than to the east of Jndea. Balaam, Cy- 
rus, and the wise men who visited Bethlehem 
at the time Christ was born, are said to come 
from the east. Num. xxiii, 7 ; Isaiah xlvi, 11 ; 
Matt, ii, 1. 

EASTER, the day on which the Christian 
church commemorates our Saviour's resurrec- 
tion. Eaister is a word of Saxon origin, and 
imports a goddess of the east. This goddess 
was Astarte, in honour of whom sacrifices were 
annually offered about the passover time of the 
year, the spring; and hence the Saxon name 
" seaster" became attached by association of 
ideas to the Christian festival of the resur- 
rection. 

EATING. The ancient Hebrews did not 
eat indifferently with all persons : they would 
have esteemed themselves polluted and disho- 
noured by eating w^ith people of another reli- 
gion, or of an odious profession. In Joseph's 
day they neither ate with the Egyptians, nor 
the Egyptians with them, Gen. xliii, 32 ; nor, 
in our Saviour's time, with the Samaritans, 
John iv, 9. The Jews were scandalized at 
Christ's eating with publicans and sinners. Matt. 
ix, 11. As there were several sorts of meats, 
the use of which was prohibited, they could 
not conveniently eat with those who partook 
of them, fearing to receive pollution by touch- 



ing such food, or if by accident any particles 
of it should fall on them. The ancient He- 
brews, at their meals, had each his separate ta- 
ble. Joseph, entertaining his brethren in Egypt, 
seated them separately, each at his particular 
table ; and he himself sat down separately from 
the Egyptians, who ate with him ; but he sent 
to his brethren portions out of the provisions 
which were before him, Gen. xliii, 31, &c. 
Elkanah, Samuel's father, who had two wives, 
distributed their portions to them separately, 
1 Sam. i, 4, 5. In Homer, each guest has his 
little table apart ; and the master of the feast 
distributes meat to each. We are assured 
that this is still practised in China; and that 
many in India never eat out of the same dish, 
nor on the same table, with another person, 
believing that they cannot do so without sin ; 
and this, not only in their own country, but 
when travelling, and in foreign lands. 

The ancient manners which we see in Ho- 
mer we see likewise in Scripture, with regard 
to eating, drinking, and entertainments : we 
find great plenty, but little delicacy ; and great 
respect and honour paid to the guests by serv- 
ing them plentifully. Joseph sent his brother 
Benjamin a portion five times larger than those 
of his other brethren. Samuel set a whole 
quarter of a calf before Saul. The women did 
not appear at table in entertainments with the 
men : this would have been an indecency ; as it 
is at this day throughout the east. The pre- 
sent Jews, before they sit down to table, care- 
fiilly wash their hands : they speak of this cere- 
mony as essential and obligatory. After meals 
they wash them again. When they sit down 
to table, the master of the house, or the chief 
person in the company, taking bread, breaks 
it, but does not wholly separate it; then, put- 
ting his hand on it, he recites this blessing: 
" Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, the King of 
the world, who producest the bread of the 
earth." Those present answer, " Amen." 
Having distributed the bread among the guests, 
he takes the vessel of wine in his right hand, 
saying, "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, 
King of the world, who hast produced the fruit 
of the vine." They then repeat the twenty- 
third Psalm. Buxtorf, and Leo of Modena, 
who have given particular accounts of the Jew- 
ish ceremonies, differ in some circumstances : 
the reason is, Buxtorf wrote principally the 
ceremonies of the German Jews, and Leo, those 
of the Italian Jews. They take care that, after 
meals, there shall be a piece of bread remain- 
ing on the table ; the master of the house 
orders a glass to be washed, fills it with wine, 
and, elevating it, says, " Let us bless Him of 
whose benefits we have been partaking:" the 
rest answer, " Blessed be He who has heaped 
his favours on us, and by his goodness has now 
fed us." Then he recites a pretty long prayer, 
wherein he thanks God for his many benefits 
vouchsafed to Israel ; beseeches him to pity 
Jerusalem and his temple, to restore the throne 
of David, to send Elias and the Messiah, to 
deliver them out of their long captivity, &c. 
All present answer, " Amen ;" and then recite 
Psalm xxxiv, 9, 10. Then, giving the glass 



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with the little wine in it to be drunk round, he 
drinks what is left, and the table is cleared. 
See Banquets. 

Partaking of the benefits of Christ's passion 
by faith is also called eating, because this is 
the support of our spiritual life, John vi, 53, 56. 
Hosea reproaches the priests of his time with 
eating the sins of the people, Hosea iv, 8 ; that 
is, feasting on their sin offerings, rather than 
reforming their manners. John the Baptist is 
said to have come " neither eating nor drink- 
ing," Matt, xi, 18 ; that is, as other men did ; 
for he lived in the wilderness, on locusts, wild 
honey, and water. Matt, iii, 4 ; Luke i, 15. This 
is expressed, in Luke vii, 33, by his neither 
eating " bread," nor drinking " wine." On the 
other hand, the Son of Man is said, in Matt, xi, 
19, to have come " eating and drinking ;" that 
is, as others did ; and that too with all sorts of 
persons, Pharisees, publicans, and sinners. 

EBAL, a celebrated mountain in the tribe 
of Ephraim, near Shechem, over against Mount 
Gerizim. These two mountains are within 
two hundred paces of each other, and separat- 
ed by a deep valley, in which stood the town 
of Shechem. The two mountains are much 
alike in magnitude and form, being of a semi- 
circular figure, about half a league in length, 
and, on the sides nearest Shechem, nearly per- 
pendicular. One of them is barren ; the other, 
covered with a beautiful verdure. Moses com^ 
nianded the Israelites, as soon as they should 
have passed the river Jordan, to go directly to 
Shechem, and divide the whole multitude into 
two bodies, each composed of six tribes ; one 
company to be placed on Ebal, and the other 
on Gerizim. The six tribes that were on Ge- 
rizim were to pronounce blessings on those 
who should faithfiilly observe the law of the 
Lord, and the six others on Mount Ebal were 
to pronounce curses against those who should 
violate it, Deut. xi, 29, &c ; xxvii, and xxviii ; 
Joshua viii, 30, 31. 

This consecration of the Hebrew common- 
wealth is thought to have been performed in 
the following manner : The heads of the first 
six tribes went up to the top of Mount Gerizim, 
and the heads of the other six tribes to the top 
of Mount Ebal. The priests, with the ark, 
and Joshua at the head of the elders of Israel, 
took their station in the middle of the valley 
which lies between the two mountains. The 
Levites ranged themselves in a circle about the 
ark ; and the elders, with the people, placed 
themselves at the foot of the mountain, six 
tribes on a side. When they were thus dispos- 
ed in order, the priests turned toward Mount 
Gerizim, on the top of which were the six 
heads of the six tribes who were at the foot of 
the same mountain, and pronounced, for exam- 
ple, these words: — "Blessed be the man that 
maketh not any graven images." The six 
princes who were upon the top of the mount- 
ain, and the six tribes who were below at its 
foot, answered, " Amen." Afterward, the 
priests, turning toward Mount Ebal, upon 
which were the princes of the other six tribes, 
cried, with a loud voice, *' Cursed be the man 
that maketh any graven image;" and were 



answered by the princes opposite to them and 
their tribes, " Amen." The Scripture, at first 
view, seems to intimate that there were six 
tribes upon one mountain, and six on the other ; 
but beside that it is by no means probable that 
the tribes of the Israelites, who were so nume- 
rous, should be able to stand on the summits of 
these two mountains, it would not have been 
possible for them to have seen the ceremony, 
nor to have heard the blessings and curses in 
order to answer them. Moreover, the Hebrew 
particle, in the original, signifies, near, over 
against, as Vv^ell as at the top, Joshua viii, 33. 
Accordingly, we may say, that neither Joshua, 
nor the priests or tribes, went up to the top of 
the mountains, but the heads only, who in their 
persons might represent all the tribes. 

EBENEZER, the name of that field wherein 
the Israelites were defeated by the Philistinesj 
when the ark of the Lord was taken, 1 Sam. 
iv, 1 ; also a memorial stone set up by Samuel 
to commemorate a victory over the Philistines. 
The wot'd signifies the stone of help ; and it was 
erected by the prophet, saying, " Hitherto the 
Lord hath helped us." 

EBIONITES, a sect of the first two or three 
centuries; but it is not certain whether they 
received their name from a leader of the name 
of Ebion, (whom Dr. Lardner considers as a dis- 
ciple of Cerinthus,) or from the meaning of 
the Hebrew word ehion, which implies poverty ; 
and if the latter, whether they assumed the 
name, as affecting to be poor, like the Founder 
of Christianity ; or whether it was conferred 
on them by way of reproach, as being of the 
lower orders. The use of the term, also, ac- 
cording to Dr. Horsley, was various and inde- 
finite. Sometimes it was the peculiar name of 
those sects that denied both the divinity of 
our Lord, and his miraculous conception. 
Then its meaning was extended, to take in 
another party ; who admitted the miraculous 
conception of Jesus, but still denied his divini- 
ty, and questioned his previous existence. At 
last, it seems, the Nazarites, whose error was 
rather a superstitious severity in their practice, 
than any deficiency in their faith, were includ- 
ed by Origen in the infamy of the appellation. 
Dr. Priestley, claiming the Ebionites as Jewish 
Unitarians, considers the ancient Nazarenes, 
that is, the first Jewish converts, as the true 
Ebionites ; these, he thinks, were called Naza- 
renes, from their attachment to Jesus of Naza- 
reth ; and Ebionites, from their poor and 
mean condition, just as some of the reformers 
were called Beghards, or beggars. The Doc- 
tor cites the authorities of Origen and Epipha- 
nius, to prove that both these denominations 
related to the same people, differing only, 
like the Socinians, in receiving or rejecting 
the fact of the miraculous conception ; and 
neither, as he assures us, were reckoned here- 
tics by any writers of the two first centuries. 
To this Dr. Horsley replies, that both Jews and 
Heathens called the first Christians Nazarenes, 
in allusion to the mean and obscure birthplace 
of their Master, Jesus of Nazareth, Matthew 
ii, 23; Acts x, 38; but insists, and answers 
every pretended proof to the contrary, that the 



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term Nazarenea was never applied to any dis- 
tinct sect of Christians before the final destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem by Adrian. i)r. Semler, a 
German writer, gives the following opinion : 
"Those who more rigidly maintained the Mo- 
saic observances, and who were numerous in 
Palestine, ai-e usually called Ebionites and Na- 
saraeans. Some believe that they ought not to 
be reckoned heretics ; others think that they 
were united in doctrine, differing only in name ; 
others place them in the second century. It is 
of little consequence whether we distinguish or 
not the Nazarenes, or Nazarasans from the Ebi- 
onites. It is certain that both these classes 
were tenacious of the Mosaic ceremonies, and 
more inclined to the Jews than to the Gentiles, 
though they admitted the Messia'hship of Jesus 
in a very low and Judaizing manner. The Ebi- 
onites held in execration the doctrine of the 
Apostle Paul." Dr. J. Pye Smith, who quotes 
this passage from Dr. Semler, adds, " Such, it 
is apprehended, on grounds of reasonable pro- 
bability, was the origin of Unitarianism ; the 
child of Judaism misunderstood, and of Chris- 
tianity imperfectly received." 

2. On this controversy great light has, how- 
evei", been since thrown by Dr. Burton. It is 
well known to those who have studied the 
Unitarian controversy, that it has been often 
asserted that the Cerinthians and Ebionites 
were the teachers of genuine Christianity, and 
that the doctrine of Christ's divinity, and of 
universal redemption through his blood, were 
the inventions of those who corrupted the 
preaching of the Apostles. If this were so, 
we must convict all the fathers, not merely of 
ignorance and mistake, but of deliberate and 
wilful falsehood. To suppose that the fathers 
of the second century w^ere ignorant of what 
was genuine and what was false in Christiani- 
ty, would be a bold hypothesis ; but if Irenaeus, 
the disciple of Poly carp, asserted, as a matter 
of fact, that St. John wrote his Gospel to refute 
the errors of Cerinthus, it is idle, or something 
worse, to say that Irenaeus did not know for 
certain if the fact was really so. As far, then, 
as the testimony of the fathers is concerned, 
the Cerinthians and Ebionites were decidedly 
heretics. The Unitarians, on the other hand, 
maintain that the Ebionites were the true and 
genuine believers ; and it is easy to see that 
the preference was given to these teachers, be- 
cause they held that Jesus was born of human 
parents. Never, I conceive, Vv^as there a more 
unfortunate and fatal alliance formed than 
that between the Ebionites and modern Unita- 
rians. We find the Ebionites referred to, as 
if they agreed in every point with the Soci- 
nian or Unitarian creed ; and yet it may almost 
be asserted, that in not one single point do 
their sentiments exactly coincide. If a real 
Ebionite will declare himself, we are not afraid 
to meet him. Let him avow his faith ; let him 
believe of Christ as Ebion or Cerinthus taught ; 
let him adopt the ravings of the Gnostics ; we 
shall then know with whom we have to com- 
■bat; we may gird on the sword of Irenaeus, 
and meet him in the field. But let him not 
select a few ingredients only from the poison ; 
22 



let him not take a part only of their infatuated 
system. If he will lean on that broken reed, 
let him talk no more of Ebion or Cerinthus 
only ; but let him say boldly, either that the 
Gnostics agreed with the Apostles, or that the 
Gnostics preached the true Gospel, while the 
Apostles were in error. 

3. We can hardly suppose the Unitarians to 
be ignorant that the Ebionites and Cerinthians 
were a branch of the Gnostics. If the fact be 
denied, the whole of this discussion might as 
well at once be closed. We know nothing of 
Cerinthus and Ebion, but from the writings of 
the fathers. If it had not been for them, we 
should never have known that these persons 
believed Jesus to be born of human parents : 
the Same fathers unanimously add, that in this 
point they differed from the preceding Gnostics, 
though agreeing with them on other points. 
If we are to receive the testimony of the fathers 
in one particular, but to reject it in every other, 
I need not say that argument is useless. But 
the fact can never be denied nor evaded. The 
Cerinthians, to whom some Unitarians have 
appealed, did not ascribe the creation of the 
world to God, but to an inferior being. Like 
the rest of the Gnostics, who engrafted that 
philosophy on Judaism, the Cerinthians and 
Ebionites retained some of the Jewish cere- 
monies, though they rejected some of the Jew- 
ish Scriptures. Many of them taught that the 
restraints of morality were useless ; and the 
Cerinthians, it is v/ell known, promised to their 
followers a millennium of sensual indulgence. 
With respect to their notions concerning 
Christ, it is true that they believed Jesus to be 
born of human parents ; and this fact is re- 
ferred to, as if it proved the falsehood of what 
is called the miraculous conception of Jesus. 
But it is plain that this tenet is mentioned by 
the fathers, as being opposed to that of the 
other Gnostics, who held that the body of 
Jesus was an illusive phantom. Such had 
hitherto been the belief of all the Gnostics. 
But Cerinthus and Ebion, who were perhaps 
more rational in their speculations, and who 
lived after the publication of the three first 
Gospels, could not resist the evidence that 
Jesus was actually born, and that he had a 
real, substantial body. This is the meaning 
of the statement, that Cerinthus and Ebion 
believed Jesus to be born of human parents. 
It shows that they were not DocetcB. But be-, 
cause there were other Gnostics who were 
more irrational and visionary than themselves, 
we are not immediately to infer that their own 
notion concerning the birth of Christ was the 
true one. They believed, at least, many of 
them believed, that Jesus was born in the ordi- 
nary way ; that Joseph was his parent as well 
as Mary. But they could hardly help believing 
so ; for they agreed with all the Gnostics in 
thinking (though it might seem as if this point 
had been forgotten) that Jesus and Christ were 
separate persons : they believed, as I have al- 
ready stated, that Christ descended upon Jesus 
at his baptism, and quitted him before his cruci- 
fixion. They were therefore almost compelled 
to believe that Jesus, who was wholly distinct 



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from Christ, had nothing divine in his nature, 
and nothing miraculous in his birth ; in the 
same manner that they believed that the death 
of Jesus, from whom Christ had then departed, 
was like the death of any ordinary mortal, and 
that no atonement was made by it. But are 
we on these grounds to reject the miraculous 
conception and the atonement of Christ ? Or 
are the Unitarians to quote these Gnostics as 
holding the human nature of Jesus, and to for- 
get that by Jesus they meant a person wholly 
different from Christ ? 

4. We are told, indeed, that the first part of 
St. Matthew's Gospel is spurious, because the 
Ebionites rejected it. Undoubtedly they did. 
They read in it that Jesus Christ was born, not 
Jesus only ; and that he was born of a virgin. 
They therefore rejected this part of St. Mat- 
thew's Gospel; or rather, by mutilating and 
altering the whole of it, they composed a new 
gospel of their own to suit their purpose ; and 
yet this is the only authority which is quoted for 
rejecting the commencement of St. Matthew's 
Gospel. The fact, that some even of the 
Ebionites believed the miraculous conception, 
speaks infinitely more in favour of the genu- 
ineness of that part of the Gospel, and of the 
truth of the doctrine itself, than can be inferred 
on the contrary side from those who denied the 
doctrine, and mutilated the Gospel. Those 
other Ebionites appear in this respect to have 
agreed with the first Socinians, and to have 
held that Jesus was born of a virgin, though 
they did not believe in his preexistenee or 
divinity. But the miraculous conception was so 
entirely contrary to all preconceived opinions, 
and the more simple doctrine of the other Ebion- 
ites and Corinthians was so much more suited 
to the Gnostic system, which separated Jesus 
from Christ, that the evidence must have been 
almost irresistible, which led one part of the 
Ebionites to embrace a doctrine contrary to all 
experience, contrary to the sentiments of their 
brethren, and hardly reconcilable with other 
parts of their own creed. The testimony, there- 
fore, of these Ebionites, in favour of the mira- 
culous conception, is stronger, perhaps, than 
even that of persons who received the whole 
of the Gospel, and departed in no points from 
the doctrine of the Apostles. If the Apostles 
had preached, according to the statement of 
the Unitarians, that Jesus Christ was a mere 
human being, born in the ordinary way, what 
could possibly have led the Gnostics to rank 
him immediately with their ^ons, whom they 
believed to have been produced by God, and to 
have dwelt with him from endless ages in the 
pleroma? There literally was not one single 
heretic in the first century, who did not believe 
that Christ came down from heaven : they in- 
vented, it is true, various absurdities to account 
for his union with the man Jesus ; but the fair 
and legitimate inference from this fact would 
be, that the Apostles preached that in some 
way or other the human nature was united to 
the divine. So far from the Socinian or Uni- 
tarian doctrine being supported by that of the 
Cerinthians and Ebionites, I have no hesita- 
fion in saying, that not one single person is 



recorded in the whole of the first century who 
ever imagined that Christ was a mere man. 
It has been observed, that one branch of the 
Ebionites resembled the first Socinians, that is, 
they believed in the miraculous conception of 
Jesus, though they denied his preexistenee ; 
but this was because they held the common 
notion of the Gnostics, that Jesus and Christ 
were two separate persons ; and they believed 
in the preexistenee and divine nature of Christ, 
which Socinus and his followers uniformly 
denied. 

ECBATANA, a city of Media, which, ac 
cording to Herodotus, was built by Dejoces, 
king of the Modes. It was situated on a gentle 
declivity, distant twelve stadia from Mount 
Orontes, and was in compass one hundred and 
fifty stadia, and, next to Nineveh and Babylon, 
was one of the strongest and most beautiful 
cities of the east. After the union of Media 
with Persia, it was the summer residence of 
the Persian kings. Sir R. K. Porter, in his 
Travels, says, "Having for a few moments 
gazed at the venerable mountain, (Orontes, at 
the foot of which Ecbatana was built,) and at 
the sad vacuum at its base ; what had been 
Ecbatana, being now shrunk to comparative 
nothingness ; I turned my eye on the still busy 
scene of life which occupied the adjacent coun- 
try ; the extensive plain of Hamadan, and its 
widely extending hills. On our right, the re- 
ceding vale was varied, at short distances, with 
numberless castellated villages rising from 
amidst groves of the noblest trees ; while the 
great plain itself stretched northward and east- 
ward to such far remoteness, that its mountain 
boundaries appeared like clouds upon the hori- 
zon. This whole tract seemed one carpet of 
luxuriant verdure, studded with hamlets, and 
watered by beautiful rivulets. On the south- 
west, Orontes, or Elwund, (by whichever name 
we may designate this most towering division 
of the mountain,) presents itself, in ail the stu- 
pendous grandeur of its fame and form. Near 
to its base, appear the dark coloured dvv^ellings 
of Hamadan, crowded thickly on each other ; 
while the gardens of the inhabitants with their 
connecting orchards and woods, fringe the en- 
tire slope of that part of the mountain." " The 
site of the modern town, like that of the ancient, 
is on a gradual ascent, terminating near the 
foot of the eastern side of the mountain ; but 
there all trace of its past appearance would 
cease, were it not for two or three consider- 
able elevations, and overgrown irregularities 
on and near them, which may have been the 
walls of the royal fortress, with those of the 
palaces, temples, and theatres, seen no more. 
I passed one of these heights, standing to the 
south-west, as I entered the city, and observed 
that it bore many vestiges of having been 
strongly fortified. The sides and summit are 
covered with large remnants of ruined walls of 
a great thickness, and also of towers, the ma- 
terials of wliich were sun-dried bricks. It has 
the name of the Iimer Fortress, and certainly 
holds the most commanding station near the 
plain." Of the interior of the city, the same 
author sayp, "The mud alleys, which now oc- 



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cupy the site of the ancient streets or squares, 
are narrow, interrupted by large holes or hol- 
lows in the way, and heaps of the fallen crum- 
bled walls of deserted dwellings. A miserable 
bazaar or two are passed through in traversing 
the town ; and large lonely spots are met with, 
marked by broken low mounds over older ruins ; 
with here and there a few poplars, or willow 
trees, shadowing the border of a dirty stream, 
abandoned to the meanest uses ; which, proba- 
bly, flowed pellucid and admired, when these 
places were gardens, and the grass-grown heap 
some stately dwelling of Ecbatana. In one or 
two spots I observed square platforms, com- 
posed of large stones ; the faces of many of 
which were chiselled all over into the finest 
arabesque fretwork, while others had, in addi- 
tion, long inscriptions in the Arabic character. 
They had evidently been tomb-stones of the 
inhabitants, during the caliph rule in Persia. 
But when we compare relics of tlie seventh 
century, with the deep antiquity of the ruins 
on which they lie, these monumental remains 
seem but the register of yesterday." Here is 
shown the tomb of Mordecai and Esther ; as 
well as that of Avicenna, the celebrated Ara- 
bian physician. The sepulchre of the former 
stands near the centre of the city of Hamadan : 
the tombs are covered by a dome, on which is 
the following inscription in Hebrew : " This 
day, 15th of the month Adar, in the year 4474 
from the creation of the world, was finished 
the building of this temple over the graves of 
Mordecai and Esther, by the hands of the good- 
hearted brothers, Elias and Sanmel, the sons 
of the deceased Ismael of Kashan." This in- 
scription, the date of which proves the dome 
to have been built eleven hundred years, was 
sent by Sir Gore Ouseley to Sir John Malcolm, 
who has given it in his History of Persia ; who 
also sa3^s that the tombs, which are of a black 
coloured wood, are evidently of very great 
antiquity, but in good preservation, as the 
wood has not perished, and the inscriptions 
are still very legible. Sir R. K. Porter has 
given a more particular description of this 
tomb. He says, " I accompanied the priest 
through the town, over much ruin and rubbish, 
to an enclosed piece of ground, rather more 
elevated than any in its immediate vicinity. 
In the centre was the Jewish tomb ; a square 
building of brick, of a mosque-like form, with 
a rather elongated dome at the top. The whole 
seems in a very decaying state, falling fast to 
the mouldering condition of some wall frag- 
ments around, which, in former times, had 
been connected with, and extended tlie con- 
sequence of, the sacred enclosure. The door 
that admitted us into the tomb, is in the ancient 
sepulchral fashion of the country, very small ; 
consisting of a small stone of great thickness, 
and turning on its own pivots from one side. 
Its key is always in possession of the head of 
the Jews resident at Hamadan." " On passing 
through the little portal, which we did in an 
almost doubled position, we entered a small 
arched chamber, in which are seen the graves 
of several rabbles : probably, one may cover 
the remains of the pious Ismael ; and, not un- 



likely, the others may contain the bodies of the 
first rebuilders after the sacrilegious destruc. 
tion by Tim.our. Having ' trod lightly by their 
graves,' a second door of such very confined 
dimensions presented itself at the end of this 
vestibule, we were constrained to enter it on 
our hands and knees, and then standing up, we 
found ourselves in a larger chamber, to which 
appertained the dome. Immediately under its 
concave, stand two sarcophagi, made of a very 
dark wood, carved with great intricacy of pat- 
tern, and richness of twisted ornament, with a 
line of inscription in Hebrew running round 
the upper ledge of each. Many other inscrip- 
tions, in the same language, are cut on the 
walls ; while one of the oldest antiquity, en- 
graved on a slab of white marble, is let into 
the wall itself." This inscription is as follows : 
" Mordecai, beloved and honoured by a king, 
was great and good. His garments were as 
those of a sovereign. Ahasuerus covered him 
with this rich dress, and also placed a golden 
chain around his neck. The city of Susa 
rejoiced at his honours, and his high fortune 
became the glory of the Jews." The inscrip- 
tion which encompasses the sarcophagus of 
Mordecai, is to this effect: " It is said by Da- 
vid, Preserve me, O God ! I am now in thy 
presence. I have cried at the gate of heaven, 
that thou art my God; and what goodness I 
have received from thee, O Lord ! Those whose 
bodies are now beneath in this earth, when 
animated by thy mercy were great ; and what- 
ever happiness was bestowed upon them in this 
world, came from thee, O God! Their grief 
and sufferings were many, at the first ; but they 
became happy, because they always called upon 
thy holy name in their miseries. Thou liftedst 
me up, and I became powerful. Thine ene- 
mies sought to destroy me, in the early times 
of my life ; but the shadow of thy hand was 
upon me, and covered me, as a tent, from 
their wicked purposes ! — Mordecai." The fol- 
lowing is the corresponding inscription on the 
sarcophagus of Esther : " I praise thee, O God, 
that thou hast created me ! I know that my 
sins merit punishment, yet I hope for mercy at 
thy hands ; for whenever I call upon thee, thou 
art with me ; thy holy presence secures me 
from all evil. My heart is at ease, and my fear 
of thee increases. My life became, through 
thy goodness, at the last, full of peace. O God, 
do not shut my soul out from thy divine pre- 
sence ! Those whom thou lovest, never feel 
the torments of hell. Lead me, O merciful 
Father, to the life of life ; that I may be filled 
with the heavenly fruits of paradise I — Esther." 
The Jews at Hamadan have no tradition of the 
cause of Esther and Mordecai having been in- 
terred at ths.t place ; but however that might 
be, there are sufficient reasons for believing the 
validity of their interment in this spot. The 
strongest evidence we can have of the truth of 
any historical fact, is, its commemoration by 
an annual festival. It is well known, that seve- 
ral unportant events in Jewish history are thus 
celebrated ; and among the rest, the feast of 
Purim is kept on the 13th and 14th of the 
month Adar, to commemorate the deliverance 



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obtained by the Jews, at the intercession of 
Esther, from the general massacre ordered by 
Ahasuerus, and the slaughter they were per. 
mitted to make of their enemies. Now on this 
same festival, in the same day and month, 
Jewish pilgrims resort from all quarters to the 
sepulchre of Mordecai and Esther ; and have 
done so for centuries, — a strong presumptive 
proof that the tradition of their burial in this 
place rests on some authentic foundation. 

ECCLESIASTES, a canonical book of the 
Old Testament, of which Solomon was the 
author, as appears from the first sentence. 
The design of this book is to show the vanity 
of all sublunary things ; and from a review of 
the whole, the author draws this pertinent 
conclusion, *' Fear God, and keep his com- 
mandments, for this is the whole of man ;" — 
his whole wisdom, interest, and happiness, as 
well as his whole duty. Ecclesiastes, accord- 
ing to a modern author, is a dialogue, in which 
a man of piety disputes with a libertine who 
favoured the opinion of the Sadducees. His 
reason is, that there are passages in it which 
seem to contradict each other, and could not, 
he thinks, proceed from the same person. But 
this may be accounted for by supposing that it 
was Solomon's method to propose the objec- 
tions of infidels and sensualists, and then to 
reply to them. 

ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY, the rules 
by which churches are governed, as to their 
spiritual concerns. The reformers having 
renounced the pope as antichrist, and having 
laid it down as their fundamental principle, 
that Scripture is the only rule cf faith, and 
that it is the privilege of every man to inter- 
pret it according to his own judgment, had to 
consider in what manner the churches which 
they had formed were to be regulated ; and 
there soon arose among them upon this point 
diversity of sentiment. Melancthon and the 
earliest reformers viewed with veneration the 
hierarchy which had so long subsisted, as also 
many of the ceremonies which for ages had 
been observed ; and they expressed their readi- 
ness to continue that distinction of pastors 
which their researches into the history of the 
church had enabled them to trace back to the 
early ages of Christianity. But while they de- 
clared in favour of this form of ecclesiastical 
polity, they did so, not upon the ground that 
it was of divine institution, or positively re- 
quired by the author of Christianity as insepa- 
rable from a church ; but on the ground, that 
taking into estimation every thing connected 
with it, it appeared to them eminently adapted 
to carry into effect that renovation of piety, 
and that religious influence, whicli they were 
s6 eager to promote. They thus made eccle- 
siastical polity a matter of expediency, or of 
prudential regulation; the one thing in their 
view, binding upon all Christians, being to 
strengthen the practical power of religion. 
That this is a just representation of the state of 
opinion among the first Protestants, will be 
placed beyond a doubt by a few quotations fi-om 
the confession of Augsburg, and from the 
works of some of the m-Dst eminent divines 



who then flourished. Speaking of this sub- 
ject, the compilers of the confession declare, 
"that they were most desirous to preserve the 
ecclesiastical polity, and those degrees in the 
church which had been introduced by human 
authority, knowing that, for wise and good 
purposes, the discipline, as described in the 
canons, had been introduced by the fathers." 
"We wish," they add, "to testify that we 
would willingly preserve the ecclesiastical and 
canonical polity, if the bishops would cease to 
act with cruelty against our churches." And 
once again they remark, that they had often 
declared that they venerated not only the 
ecclesiastical power which was instituted in 
the Gospel, but that they approved of the 
ecclesiastical polity which had subsisted, and 
wished, as much as was in their power, to 
preserve it. It is quite plain from these pas- 
sages, that the framers of that confession, and 
those who adhered to it as the standard of their 
faith, viewed ecclesiastical polity as a matter 
of human appointment ; and that, although 
they venerated that form of it which had long 
existed, they looked upon themselves as at 
liberty, under peculiar circumstances, to de- 
part from it. The truth, accordingly, is, that 
a great part of the Lutheran churches, as v/e 
shall afterward find, did introduce many devia- 
tions from that model for which their founders 
had expressed respect and admiration ; although 
episcopacy was in several places continued, 

2. In consequence, however, of the exertions 
of Calvin, what were denominated the' reform- 
ed churches deemed it expedient wholly to 
change this form of polity, and to introduce 
again the equality among pastors which had 
existed in the primitive times. That celebrated 
theologian, resting upon the undisputed fact, 
tliat in the Apostolic age no distinction subsist- 
ed between bishops and presbyters, thought 
himself at liberty to frame a system of polity 
upon this principle, persuaded that, by doing 
so, he would most effectually guard against 
those abuses that had given rise to the Papal 
tyranny which Protestants had abjured. He 
accordingly introduced his scheme where he 
had influence to do so ; and he employed all 
the vigour of his talents in pressing upon dis- 
tant churclies the propriety of regulating, in 
conformity with his sentiments, their eccle- 
siastical go\'-ernment. But, while he was firmly 
persuaded that an equality among pastors was 
agreeable to the Apostolic practice, he has 
shown that he did not conceive this equality 
to be so absolutely required by Scripture, that 
there could in no case be a departure from it. 
He was, in fact, convinced that all the pur- 
poses of religion might be accomplished under 
a form of polity in which it was not recog- 
nised: "Wherever," he says, "the preaching 
of the Gospel is heard with reverence, and the 
sacraments are not neglected, there at that 
time there is a church." Speaking of faithful 
pastors, he describes them to be "those who 
by the doctrine of Christ lead men to true 
piety, who properly administer the sacred 
mysteries, and who preserve and exercise riglit 
discipline." In tracing the progress of the 



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liierarchy, he observes, that "those to whom 
the office of teaching was assigned were de- 
noininated presbyters; that to avoid the dis- 
sensions often arising among equals, they 
chose one of their number to preside, to whom 
the title of bishop was exclusively given ; and 
that the practice, as the ancients admitted, 
was introduced by human consent, from the 
necessity of the times." That this exaltation 
of the bishop, and, of course, this departui'e 
from parity, did not, in his estimation, render 
the church unchristian, is apparent from what 
he says of it after the change was introduced: 
" Such was the severity of these times, that all 
the ministers were led to discharge their duty 
as the Lord required of them." Even after 
archbishops and patriarchs had arisen, he 
merely says, in recording their introduction, 
"This arrangement was calculated to preserve 
discipline." 

3. What Calvin thus taught in his " Insti- 
tututes," he confirmed in many of the interest- 
ing letters which he wrote to various eminent 
pei'sons. In these letters he speaks with the 
highest respect of the church of England, 
where the distinction of clerical orders was 
preserved. He corresponds with the highest 
dignitaries of that church in a style which he 
assuredly would not have adopted, had he con- 
sidered them as upholding an antichristian 
polity ; and he repeatedly avows the principle, 
that, in regulating the government of the 
church, attention must be paid to the circum- 
stances in which its members were placed. 
Beza, who was wanmly attached to presbytery, 
and who upon every occasion strenuously de- 
fended it, still admits that the human order of 
episcopacy was useful, as long as the bishops 
were good; and he professes all reverence for 
those modern bishops who strive to imitate the 
primitive ones in the reformation of the church 
according to the word of God : adding that it 
was a calumny against him, and those who 
entertained his sentiments, to affirm, as some 
had done, that they w^ished to prescribe their 
form of government to all other churches. In 
the excellent letter which he addressed to 
Grindal, bishop of London, and in which he 
pleads the cause of those ministers who scru- 
pled to use the ceremonies which their brethren 
approved, he bears his testimony to the con- 
formity of the church of England in doctrine 
with his church, expresses himself with the 
highest respect of the prelate to whom he was 
writing, and concludes by asking his prayers 
in his own behalf, and in that of the church of 
Geneva ; all of which is quite inconsistent with 
the tenet, that presbytery is absolutely pre- 
scribed by divine authority. 

4. The same general principle was avowed 
by the most eminent English divines. Cran- 
mer explicitly declared, that bishops and priests 
were of the same order at the commencement 
of Christianity ; and this was the opinion of 
several of his distinguished contemporaries. 
Holding this maxim, theu* support of episco- 
pacy must have proceeded from views of ex- 
pediency, or, in some instances, from a con. 
viction which prevailed very generally at this 



early period, that it belonged to the supreme 
civil magistrate to regulate the spiritual no less 
than the political government ; an idea involv- 
ing in it that no one form of ecclesiastical 
polity is of divine institution. At a later period, 
during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, we find 
the same conviction, that it was no violation 
of Christianity to choose different modes of 
administering the church. Archbishop Whit- 
gifl, who distinguished himself by the zeal 
with which he supported the English hierarchy, 
frequently maintains, that the form of discipline 
is not particularly, and by name, set dowm in 
Scripture; and he also plainly asserts, "that 
no form of church government is, by the Scrip- 
tures, prescribed or commanded to the church 
of God." This principle is admirably illustrat- 
ed and confirmed by the venerable Hooker, in 
the third book of his work on ecclesiastical 
polity; and another divine of the English 
church, who lived about the same period, has 
laid down what he conceives to be an unques- 
tionable position, "that all churches have not 
the same form of discipline ; neither is it 
necessary that they should, because it cannot 
be proved that any particular form of church 
government is enjoined by the word of God." 
We have, indeed, a succession of testimonies 
from the introduction of the reformation down 
through the reign of Elizabeth, — testimonies 
given by the primates, and bishops, and theo- 
logians, who have been venerated as the lumi- 
naries of the church of England, that the divine 
right or institution of episcopacy constituted 
no part of their faith ; and this is confirmed by 
their correspondence with reformed divines, 
who did not live under the episcopal model, 
but who, notwithstanding, were often consulted 
as to the ecclesiastical arrangements which the 
convocation should adopt. The same general 
sentiment is to be traced in those churches 
which had reverted to the primitive equality 
among the ministers of Christ. In the second 
Helvetic confession, which was approved by 
many churches, it is taught, that bishops and 
presbyters in the beginning governed the church 
with equal power, none exalting himself above 
another ; the inequality which soon was intro- 
duced originating from the desire of preserving 
order. Various passages from Cyprian and 
Jerom are quoted in confirmation of this ; and 
the article thus concludes : " Wherefore no one 
can be lawfully hindered from returning to the 
ancient constitution of the church of God, and 
to adopt it in preference to what custom has 
introduced." Had the compilers believed that 
this ancient constitution was of divine obliga- 
tion, they would have expressed themselves 
much more strongly with respect to it ; and 
instead of representing the return to it as what 
ought not to be hindered, they would have en- 
jomed it, as what it was a violation of the law 
of God to neglect. 

5. The reformation in Scotland, conducted 
by Knox, who had spent a considerable part of 
his life at Geneva, and who had imbibed the 
opinions of Calvin, proceeded upon those 
views of polity which that reformer had adopt, 
ed. Still, however, he authorized a modifica- 



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tion of these opinions, accommodated to the 
state of his native country ; for although the 
4;itle of bishop was not used, superintendents, 
with powers little inferior to those committed 
to prelates in England, were sanctioned by the 
first Book of Discipline; and these superin- 
tendents were classed, in the acts of different 
general assemblies, among the necessary minis- 
ters of the church. The necessity must have 
arisen out of the circumstances of the period 
when the book was framed ; for the polity 
which it prescribed was said to be only for a 
time ; and the office of superintendent, as has 
been strenuously urged by some of the most 
zealous defenders of presbytery, was not in- 
tended to be permanent. The Lutheran church, 
with the exception of those branches of it 
established in Denmark and Sweden, has 
adopted" a kind of intermediate constitution 
between episcopacy and presbytery. While 
it holds that there is no divine law creating a 
distinction among ministers, it yet contends 
that such a distinction is on many accounts ex- 
pedient; and accordingly a diversity in point 
of rank and privileges has been universally 
introduced, approaching in different places, 
more or less, to the hierarchy which subsisted 
before the reformation. But, although it has 
thus regulated its own practice, it unambigu- 
ously admits, that as the Gospel is silent as to 
any particular form of polity, different forms 
may be chosen, without any breach of Chris- 
tian union. 

6. It appears from the statement which has 
now been given, that all Protestants imme- 
diately after the reformation, while they ab- 
jured the papal supremacy, were united in 
holding that the mode of administering the 
church might be varied, some of them being 
attached to episcopacy, others to presbytery ; 
but all founding this attachment upon the 
judgment which they ha.d formed as to the 
tendency or utility of either of these modes of 
government. An idea soon was avowed by 
some of the reformers, that the whole regu- 
lation of the church pertained to the magis- 
trate ; this branch of power being vested in 
him no less than that of administering the 
civil government ; and to this opinion the 
name of Erastianism, from Erastus, who first 
defended it, was given. Cranmer, in an offi- 
cial reply which he made to certain questions 
that had been submitted for his consideration, 
declared, "that the civil ministers under the 
king's majesty be those that shall please his 
highness for the time to put in authority iinder 
him ; as, for example, the lord chancellor, lord 
great master, &c ; the ministers of God's word 
under his majesty be the bishops, parsons, 
vicars, and such other priests as be appointed 
by his highness to that ministration ; as, for 
example, the bishop of Canterbury, &c. All 
the said officers and ministers, as well of the 
one sort as the other, be appointed, assigned, 
and elected in every place by the laws and 
orders of kings and princes." By the great 
majority of Protestants, however, the tenets of 
Erastus were condemned ; for they maintained 
that the Lord Jesus had conveyed to his church 



a spiritual power quite distinct from the tem- 
poral ; and that it belonged to the ministers of 
religion to exercise it, for promoting the spi- 
ritual welfare of the Christian community. But, 
while they disputed as to this point, they agreed 
in admitting there was no model prescribed in 
the New Testament for a Christian church, as 
there had been in the Mosaical economy for 
the Jewish church ; and that it was a branch 
of the liberty of the disciples of Christ, or one 
of their privileges, to choose the polity which 
seemed to them best adapted for extending the 
power and influence of religion. 

ECLECTICS, a sect of ancient philosophers, 
who professed to select whatever was good and 
true from all the other philosophical sects. 
The Eclectic philosophy was in a flourishing 
state at Alexandria when our Saviour was upon 
earth. Its founders formed the design of se. 
lecting from the doctrines of all former phi- 
losophers such opinions as seemed to approach 
nearest the truth, and of combining them into 
one system. They held Plato in the highest 
esteem ; but did not scruple to join with his 
doctrines whatever they thought conformable 
to reason in the tenets of otlier philosophers. 
Potamon, a Platonist, appears to have been the 
projector of this plan. The Eclectic system 
was brought to perfection by Ammonius Sac 
cas, who blended Christianity with his philoso- 
phy, and founded the sect of the Ammonians, 
or New Platonists, in the second century. The 
moral doctrine of the Alexandrian school was 
as follows : — The mind of man, originally a 
portion of the Divine Being, having fallen into 
a state of darkness and defilement, by its union 
with the body, is to be gradually emancipated 
from the chains of matter, and rise by con- 
templation to the knowledge and vision of 
God. The end of philosophy, therefore, is the 
liberation of the soul from its corporeal im- 
prisonment. For this purpose, the Eclectic 
philosophy recommends abstinence, with other 
voluntary mortifications, and religious exer- 
cises. In the infancy of the Alexandrian 
school, not a few of the professors of Chris- 
tianity were led, by the pretensions of the 
Eclectic sect, to imagine that a coalition might, 
with great advantage, be formed between its 
system and that of Christianity. This union 
appeared the more desirable, when several phi- 
losophers of this sect became convei-ts to the 
Christian faith. The consequence was, that 
Pagan ideas and opinions were by degrees 
mixed witli the pure and simple doctrines of 
the Gospel. See Platonism. 

ECLIPSE. The word eclipse, £K>,£i\pts, sig- 
nifies failure, namely, of light. An eclipse of 
tlie sun is caused by the intervention of the 
moon, at new, or in conjunction with the sun, 
intercepting his light from the earth, either to- 
tally or partially. An eclipse of the moon is 
caused by the intervention of the earth, inter- 
cepting the sun's light from the moon, when 
fiill, or in opposition to the sun, either totally 
or partially. The reason why the sun is not 
eclipsed every new moon, nor the moon at 
every full, is owing to the inclination of the 
moon's orbit to the plane of the ecliptic, or 



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earth's orbit, in an angle of about five degrees 
and a half; in consequence of which, the 
)noon is generally too much elevated above 
the plane of the ecliptic, or too much depressed 
below it, for her disk to touch the earth's 
shadow at full, or for lier shadow, or her pe- 
numbra, to touch the earth's disk at new. An 
eclipse, therefore, of either luminary can only 
take place when they are within their proper 
limits, or distances, from the nodes or inter- 
sections of both orbits. And because the limits 
of solar eclipses are wider than those of lunar, 
in general there will be more eclipses of the 
sun than of the moon. In any year, the num- 
ber of eclipses of both luminaries cannot be 
less than two, and these will both be of the 
sun, nor more than seven : the' usual number 
is four ; and it is very rare to have more than 
eix. But though solar eclipses happen oftener, 
*unar are moi-e frequently observed in any par- 
ticular place. For an eclipse of the moon is 
visible to the inhabitants of half the globe at 
the same instant; whereas, an eclipse of the 
sun is visible only within that part of the 
earth's surface, traversed by the moon's total 
shadow, and by her penumbra, or partial 
shadow. But her total shadow, when she is 
nearest to the earth, cannot cover a space of 
more than a hundred and fifty-eight geographi- 
cal miles in diameter, nor at her mean distance 
more than seventy-nine, and at her greatest 
distance may not touch the earth at all. In 
the two former cases, the sun will be eclipsed 
in the places covered by the shadow totally, or 
by the penumbra partially : in the last it may 
be annular, but not total. Without the reach 
of the shadow, and within the limits of the 
penumbra, which cannot cover more than four 
thousand five hundred and fifty-two miles of 
the earth's surface, there will be a partial 
eclipse of the sun, and without these limits no 
eclipse at all. Hence lunar eclipses are more 
frequently noticed by historians than solar; 
and Diogenes Laertius may be credited when 
he relates, that, during the period in v/hich 
the Egyptians had observed eight hundred and 
thirty-two eclipses of the moon, they had only 
observed three hundred and seventy-three of 
the sun. In the midst of a total lunar eclipse, 
the moon's disk is frequently visible, and of a 
deep red or copperish colour. This, in the poetic 
language of sacred prophecy, is expressed by 
"the moon's being turned into blood," Joel 
ii, .31. This remarkable phenomenon is caused 
by the sun's lateral rays in their passage 
through the dense atmosphere of the earth, 
being inflected into the shadow by refraction, 
and falling pretty copiously upon the moon's 
disk, are reflected from thence to the eye of 
the spectator. If the earth had no atmosphere, 
the moon's disk would then be as black as in a 
solar eclipse. A total eclipse of the moon may 
occasion a privation of her light for an hour 
and a half, during her total immersion in the 
shadow ; whereas, a total eclipse of the sun 
can never last in any particular place above 
four minutes, when the moon is nearest to the 
earth, and her shadow thickest. Hence it ap- 
pears, that the darkness which " overspread 



the whole land of Judea," at the time of our 
Lord's crucifixion, was preternatural, "from 
the sixth until the ninth hour," or from noon 
till three in the afternoon, in its duration, and 
also in its time, about full moon, when the 
moon could not possibly eclipse the sun. It 
was accompanied by an earthquake, which 
altogether struck the spectators, and among 
them the centurion and Roman guard, with 
great fear, and a conviction, that Jesus was 
the Son of God, Matt, xxvii, 51-54. 

Eclipses, says Dr. Hales, are justly reckoned 
among the surest and most unerring characters 
of chronology ; for they can be calculated with 
great exactness backward as well as forward ; 
and there is such a variety of distinct circum- 
stances of the time when, and the place where, 
they were seen ; of the duration, or beginning, 
middle, or end of every eclipse, and of the quan- 
tity, or number of digits eclipsed ; that there 
is no danger of confounding any two eclipses 
together, when the circumstances attending 
each are noticed with any tolerable degree of 
precision. Thus, to an eclipse of the moon 
incidentally noticed by the great Jewish chro- 
nologer, Josephus, shortly before the death of 
Herod the Great, we owe the determination of 
the true year of our Saviour's nativity. During 
Herod's last illness, and not many days before 
his death, there happened an eclipse of the moon 
on the very night that he burned alive Matthias, 
and the ringleaders of a sedition, in which the 
golden eagle, which he had consecrated and 
set up over the gate of the temple, was pulled 
down and broken to pieces by these zealots. 
This eclipse happened, by calculation, March 
13, U. C. 750, B. C. 4. But it is certain from 
Scripture, that Christ was born during Herod's 
reign ; and from the visit of the magi to Jeru- 
salem " from the east," arro avaro'kSjv, from the 
Parthian empire, to inquire for the true "born 
King of the Jews," whose star they had seen 
"at its rising," h tj] avaroXfi, and also from the 
age of the infants massacred at Bethlehem, 
" from two years old and under," Matt, ii, 1-16. 
It is no less certain, that Jesus could not have 
been born later than B. C. 5, which is the year 
assigned to the nativity by Chrysostom, Peta- 
vius and Prideaux. 

EDEN, Garden of, the residence of our first 
parents in their state of purity and blessedness. 
The word Eden in the Hebrew denotes "plea- 
sure" or " delight :" whence the name has been 
given to several places which, from their situa- 
tion, were pleasant or delightful. Thus the 
Prophet Amos, i, 5, speaks of an Eden in 
Syria, which is generally considered to have 
been in the valley of Damascus, where a town 
called Eden is mentioned by Pliny and Ptole- 
my, and where the tomb of Abel is pretended 
to be shown. This has in consequence been 
selected by some as the site of the garden of 
Eden. By others, the garden has been placed 
on the eastern side of mount Libanus ; and by 
others again, in Arabia Felix, where traces of 
the word Eden are found. But the opinion 
which has been most generally received on this 
subject is that which places the garden on the 
Lower Euphrates; between the junction of 



EDE 



EDO 



that river with the Tigris and the giolf of Per- 
sia. This is Dr. Well's opinion ; in which he 
is supported by Huetius, Grotius, Marinus, and 
Bochart. To this it is replied, that, according 
to this scheme, the garden was intersected by 
a great branch of the Euphrates, in the lower 
and broadest part of its course ; which will 
give it an extent absolutely irreconcilable with 
the idea of Adam's " dressing" it by his own 
manual labour, or even of overlooking it : be- 
side that all communication would be cut off 
between its different parts by a stream half a 
mile in width. Its local features, too, if in this 
situation, mxis^ have been of the most uninter- 
esting kind ; the whole of that region, as far 
as the sight can reach, being a dead, monoto- 
nous, sandy, or marshy flat, without a single 
xmdulation to relieve the eye, or give any of 
the beauties which the imagination involun- 
tarily paints to itself as attendant on a spot 
foished by the hand of God as the residence 
of his creatures in a state of inrLOcen,ce ; whose 
minds may be supposed to be tuned to the fiiil 
enjoyment of the grand and beautiful in nature. 
How different vv'ill be the aspect and arrange- 
ment of this favoured spot, if it be placed where 
only, according to the words of Moses, it can 
he placed ; namely, at the heads or fouritains 
of the rivers described, instead of their mouths. 
The country of Eden, therefore, according 
to others, was some where in Media, Armenia, 
or the north of Mesopotamia ; all mountainous 
tracts, and affording, instead of the sickening 
plains of Babylonia, some of the grandest, as 
well as the jichest scenery in jthe world. A 
river or stream rising in some part of this 
country, entered the garden ; where it was 
parted into four others, in all probability, by 
first falling into a basin or lake, from which 
the other streams issue^ at different points, 
taking different directiojis, and growing into 
mighty rivers; although at their sources in 
the garden, they would be like all other rivers, 
more brooks, and forming no barrier to a free 
communication between the parts of the garden. 
Dr. Wells, in order to support his hypotjiesis 
of the situation of Eden on the lower parts of 
the Euphrates and Tigris, atler giving these 
rivers a distribution which has now no exist- 
ence, makes the Pison and Gihon to he parts 
of the Tigris and Euphrates themselves : an 
arrangement at perfect disagreement with the 
particular description of Moses ; beside, that 
the Gihon thus called, instead of compassing 
the whole land of Cush, can only be said to 
skirt an extreme corner of it. It appears, in- 
deed, that in the time of Alexander, the Eu- 
phrates pui'sued a separate course to the sea; 
or, at least, that a navigable branch of it was 
carried in that direction : in the mouth of 
which, at Diridotis, Nearchus anchored with 
his fleet. But what reliance can be placed on 
the ever shifting channels of a river flowing 
through an alluvial soil, and over a perfect 
level divertible at the pleasure of the people 
mhabiting its banks ? Or, what theory can be 
founded on their distribution, which will not 
be as unstable as the streams themselves? 
Th;3 very channel, so essential to the hypothe- 



sis which places Eden in this situation, was 
annihilated by the Orcheni, a neighbouring 
people ; who directed the stream to water 
their own land, and thus gave it a shorter 
course into the Tigris, which it has ever since 
preserved. But it is only the lower parts of 
the Euphrates and Tigris, as they creep through 
the plains of Babylonia, which are thus incon- 
stant : higher up in their courses, they flow 
over more solid strata, and in deeper valleys, 
unchanged by time. It is here that their con- 
formity with the Mosaic account is to be 
sought ; and it is here that they may be found, 
in the exact condition in which they were left 
by the deluge, and, indeed, according to Mo- 
ses, in which they existed before that event. 
It is true, that tke heads of the four rivers, 
above described, cannot now be found suffi- 
ciently near, to recognise thence the exact 
situation of paradise ; but they all arise from 
the same mountainous region ; and the springs 
of the Euphrates and Tigris, as already men- 
tioned, are even now nearly interwoven. Mr. 
Faber supposes the lake Arsissato coyer the site 
of Eden ; and that the change which carried the 
heads of the rivers to a greater distance from 
it, was occasioned by the deluge. But it is far 
more probable that this change, if we may 
infer from the account given by Moses that 
the courses of all the streams remained unal- 
tered by the flood, may have taken place at 
man's expulsion from the garden : when God 
might choose to obliterate this fair portion of 
his works, unfitted for any thing but the resi- 
dence of innocence ; and to blot at once from 
the face of the earth, like the guilty cities of 
the plain, both the site and the memorial of 
raan's transgression, — an awful event, which 
would add tenfold horrors to the punishment. 

ED^M, a province of Arabia, which derives 
its name from Edom, or Esau, who there set- 
tied in the mountains ,of Seir, in the land of 
the Horites, south-east of the Dead Sea. His 
descendants afterward extended themselves 
throughout Arabia Petrea, and south of Pales- 
tine, between the Dead Sea arud the Mediter- 
ranean. Diiring the Babylonish captivity, and 
when Judea was almost deserted, they seized 
the south of Judah, and advanced to Hebron. 
Hence that tract of Judea, which they inhabit- 
ed, retained the name of Idumea in the time 
of our Saviour, Mark iii, 8. Under Moses and 
Joshuii, and even under the kings of Judah, 
the Idumeans were confined to the east and 
south of the Dead Sea, in the land of Seir; 
but afterward they extended their territories 
more to the south of Judah. The capital of 
east Edom was Bozrah ; and that of south 
Edom, Petra, or Jectael. The Edomites, or 
Idumeans, the posterity of Esau, had kings 
long before the Jews. They were first govern- 
ed by dukes or princes, and afterward by kings. 
Gen. xxxvi, 31. They contiaiued independent 
till the time of David, who subdued them, in 
completion of Isaac's prophecy, that Jacob 
should rule Esau, Gen. xxvii, 29, 30. The 
Idumeans bore this subjection with great im- 
patience ; and at the end of Solomon's reign, 
Hadad, the Edomite, who had been carried 



EDO 



EDO 



into Egypt during liis childhood, returned into 
his own country, where he procured himself 
to be acknov.'ledged king, 1 Kings xi, 22. It 
is probable, however, that he reigned only in 
east Edoin ; for Edom south of Judea continued 
subject to the kings of Judah, till the reign of 
Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, against whom 
it rebelled, 2 Chron. xxi, 8. Jeho.ram attacked 
Edom, but did not subdue it. Amaziah king 
of Judah, took Petra, killed a thousand men, 
and compelled ten thousand more to leap from 
the rock, upon which stood the city of Petra, 
2 Chron. xxv, 11, 12, But these conquests 
were not permanent. Uzziah took Eiath on 
the Red Sea, 2 Kings xiv, 22 ; but Rezin, king 
of Syria, retook it. Some think that Esar- 
haddon, king of Syria, ravaged this country, 
Isaiah xxi, 11-17; xxxiv, 6. Holofernes sub- 
dued it, as well as other nations around Judea, 
Judith iii, 14. When Nebuchadnezzar besieged 
Jerusalem, the Idumeans joined him, and en- 
couraged him to rase the very foundations of 
that city. This cruelty did not long continue 
unpunished. Five years after the taking of 
Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar humbled all the 
states around Judea, and in particular Idumea. 
John Hyrcanus entirely conquered the Idu- 
means, whom he obliged to receive circum- 
cision and the law. They continued subject 
to the later kings of .Tudea tili the destruction 
of Jerusalem by the Romans. They even came 
to assist that city when besieged, and entered 
it in order to defend it. However, they did 
not continue there till it was taken, but return- 
ed into Idumea loaded with booty. The pro. 
phecies respecting Edom are numerous and 
striking; and the present state of the country 
as described by modern travellers has given so 
remarkable an attestation to the accuracy of 
their fulfilment, that a few extracts from Mr. 
Keith's work, in wliich this is pointed out, 
may be fitly introduced : — 

2. There are numerous prophecies respect- 
ing Idumea, that bear a literal interpretation, 
however hyperbolical they may appear. " My 
sword shall come down upon Idumea, and upon 
the. people of my curse, to judgment. From 
generation to generation it shall lie waste, 
none shall pass through it for ever and ever. 
But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess 
it ; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it : 
and he shall stretch out upon it the line of con- 
fusion, and the stones of emptiness. They 
shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom ; 
but none shall be there, and all her princes 
shall be nothing. And thorns shall come up 
in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the 
fortresses thereof; and it shall be a habitation 
of dragons, and a court for owls. Seek ye out 
of the book of the Lord and read ; no one of 
these shall fail, none shall want her mate ; for 
my mouth it hath commanded, and his Spirit 
it hath gathered them. And he hath cast the 
lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto 
them by line ; they shall possess it for ever, 
from generation to generation shall they dwell 
therein," Isa. xxxiv, 5, 10-17. " I have sworn 
by myself, saith the Lord, that Bozrah" (the 
strong or fortified city) " ehall become a deso- 



lation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and 
all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes. 
Lo, I will make thee small among the Heathen, 
and despised among men. Thy terribleness 
hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, 
O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, 
that boldest the height of the hill : though 
thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the 
eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith 
the Lord. Also Edom shall be a desolation; 
every one that goeth by shall be astonished, 
and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof. As 
in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, and 
the neighbour cities thereof, saith the Lord, no 
man shall abide there, neither shall a son of 
man dwell in it," Jer. xlix, 13-18. " Thus saith 
the Lord God, I will stretch out mine hand 
upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast 
from it, and I will make it desolate from Te- 
man." *' I laid the mountains of Esau and his 
heritage waste for the dragons of the wilder- 
ness. Whereas Edom saith, W^e are impover- 
ished, but we will return and build the desolate 
places ; thus saith the Lord of hosts. They shall 
build, but I will throw down ; and they shall 
call them. The border of wickedness," Mala- 
chi i, 3, 4. 

Is there any country once inhabited and 
opulent, so utterly desolate ? There is, and 
that land is Idumea. The territory of the 
descendants of Esau affords as miraculous a 
demonstration of the inspiration of the Scrip- 
tures as the fate of the children of Israel. A 
single extract from the Travels of Volney will 
be found to be equally illustrative of the pro- 
phecy and of the fact: "This country has not 
been visited by any traveller, but it well merits 
such an attention ; for, from the report of the 
Arabs of Bakir, and the inhabitants of Gaza, 
who frequently go to Maan and Karak, on the 
road of the pilgrims, there are, to the south-east 
of the lake Asphaltites, (Dead Sea,) within 
three days' journey, upward of thirty ruined 
towns absolutely deserted. Several of them 
have large edifices, with columns that may 
have belonged to the ancient temples, or at 
least to Greek churches. The Arabs some- 
times make use of tliem to fold their cattle in ; 
but in general avoid them on account of the 
enormous scorpions with which they swarm. 
We cannot be surprised at these traces of an- 
cient population, when we recollect that this 
was the country of the Nabatheans, the most 
powerfiil of the Arabs, and of the Idumeans, 
Avho, at the time of the destruction of Jerusa. 
lem, were almost as numerous as the Jews, ag 
appears from Josephus, who informs us, that 
on the first rumour of the march of Titu^ 
against Jerusalem, thirty thousand Idumeans 
iuvstantly assembled, and threw themselves into 
that city for its defence. It appears that, be- 
side the advantages of being under a tolerably 
good government, these districts enjoyed a con- 
siderable share of the commerce of Arabia and 
India, which increased their industry and popu- 
lation. We know that as far back as the 
time of Solomon, the cities of Astioum Gaber 
(Ezion Geber) and Ailah (Eloth) were highly 
frequented marts. These towns were situated 



EDO 



330 



EDO 



on the adjacent gulf of the Red Sea, where we 
still find the latter yet retaining its name, and 
perhaps the former in that of El Akaba, or 
'the end of the sea.' These two places are in 
the hands of the Bedouins, v/ho, being desti- 
tute of a navy and commerce, do not inhabit 
them. But the pilgrims report that there is at 
El Akaba a wretched fort. The Idumeans, 
from whom the Jews only took their ports at 
intervals, must have found in them a great 
source of wealth and population. It even 
appears that the Idumeans rivalled the Tyrians, 
who also possessed a town, the name of which 
is unknown, on the coast of Hedjaz, in the 
desert of Tih, and the city of Faran, and, with- 
out doubt, El-Tor, which served it by way of 
port. From this place the caravans might 
reach Palestine and Judea, (through Idumea,) 
in eight or ten days. This route, which is 
longer than that from Suez to Cairo, is in- 
finitely shorter than that from Aleppo to Bas- 
sorah." Evidence, which must have been 
undesigned, which cannot be suspected of par- 
tiality , and which no illustration can strengthen, 
and no ingenuity pervert, is thus borne to the 
truth of the most wonderful prophecies. That 
the Idumeans were a populous and powerful 
nation long posterior to the delivery of the 
prophecies ; that they possessed a tolerably 
good government, even in the estimation of 
Volney ; that Idumea contained many cities ; 
that these cities are now absolutely deserted ; 
and that their ruins swarm with enormous 
scorpions ; that it was a commercial nation, 
and possessed highly frequented marts ; that it 
forms a shorter route than the ordinary one to 
India ; and yet that it had not been visited by 
any traveller ; are facts all recorded, and proved 
by this able but unconscious commentator. 

3. A greater contrast cannot be imagined 
than the ancient and present state of Idumea. 
It was a kingdom previous to Israel, having 
been governed first by dukes or princes, after- 
ward by eight successive kings, and again by 
dukes, before there reigned any king over the 
children of Israel, Gen. xxxvi, 31, &c. Its 
fertility and early cultivation are implied not 
only in the blessings of Esau, whose dwelling 
was to be the fatness of the earth, and of the 
dew of heaven from above ; but also in the 
condition proposed by Moses to the Edomites, 
when he solicited a passage for the Israelites 
through their borders, that " they would not 
pass through the fields nor through the vine- 
yards ;" and also in the great wealth, especially 
in the multitudes of flocks and herds, recorded 
as possessed by an individual inhabitant of that 
country, at a period, in all probability even 
more remote. Gen. xxvii, 39 ; Num. xx, 17 ; 
Job xlii, 12. The Idumeans were, without 
doubt, both an opulent and a powerful people. 
They often contended with the Israelites, and 
entered into a league with their other enemies 
against them. In the reign of David they were 
indeed subdued and greatly oppressed, and many 
of them even dispersed throughout the neigh- 
bouring countries, particularly Phenicia and 
J^gyP^- But during the decline of the king- 
dom of Judah, and for many years previous to 



its extinction, they e»croached upon the terri- 
tories of the Jews, and extended their dominion 
over the south-western part of Judea. 

4. There is a prediction which, being pecu- 
liarly remarkable as applicable to Idumea, and 
bearing reference to a circumstance explana- 
tory of the difficulty of access to any knowledge 
respecting it, is entitled, in the first instance, 
to notice : " None shall pass through it for ever 
and ever. I will cut off from Mount Seir him 
that passeth out, and him that returneth," Isa. 
xxxiv, 10 ; Ezek. xxxv, 7. The ancient great- 
ness of Idumea must, in no small degree, have 
resulted from its commerce. Bordering with 
Arabia on the east, and Egypt on the south- 
west, and forming from north to south the most 
direct and most commodious channel of com- 
munication between Jerusalem and her depend- 
encies on the Red Sea, as well as between Syria 
and India, through the continuous valleys of 
El Ghor, and El Araba, which terminated on 
the one extremity at the borders of Judea, and 
on the other at Elath and Ezion Geber on the 
Elanitic gulf of the Red Sea, Idumea may be 
said to have formed the emporium of the com- 
merce of the east. A Roman road passed 
directly through Idumea, from Jerusalem to 
Akaba, and another from Akaba to Moab ; and 
when these roads were made, at a time long 
posterior to the date of the predictions, the 
conception could not have been formed, or held 
credible by man, that the period would ever 
arrive when none would pass through it. Above 
seven hundred years after the date of the pro- 
phecy, Strabo relates that many Romans and 
other foreigners were found at Petra by his 
friend Athenodorus, the philosopher, who visit- 
ed it. The prediction is yet more surprising 
when viewed in conjunction with another, 
which implies that travellers would " pass by" 
Idumea : " Every one that goeth by shall be 
astonished." And the Hadj routes (routes of 
the pilgrims) from Damascus and from Cairo 
to Mecca, the one on the east and the other 
toward the south of Idumea, along the whole 
of its extent, go by it, or touch partially on its 
borders, without passing through it. The truth 
of the prophecy, though hemmed in thus by 
apparent impossibilities and contradictions, 
and with extreme probability of its fallacy in 
every view that could have been visible to man, 
may yet be tried. 

5. " Edom shall be a desolation. From ge- 
neration to generation it shall lie waste," &c. 
Judea, Ammon, and Moab, exhibit so abun- 
dantly the remains and the means of an exube- 
rant fertility, that the wonder arises in the 
reflecting mind, how the barbarity of man could 
have so effectually counteracted for so many 
generations the prodigality of nature. But 
such is Edom's desolation, that the first senti- 
ment of astonishment on the contemplation of 
it is, how a wide extended region, now diver- 
sified by the strongest features of desert wild- 
ness, could ever have been adorned with cities, 
or tenanted for ages by a powerful and opulent 
people. Its present aspect would belie its 
ancient history, were not that history corrobo- 
rated by "the many vestiges of former cultiva^ 



EDO 



331 



EGY 



iion," by the remains of walls and paved roads, 
and by the ruins of cities still existing in this 
ruined country. The total cessation of its 
commerce ; the artificial irrigation of its val- 
leys wholly neglected ; the destruction of all 
the cities, and the continued spoliation of the 
country by the Arabs, while aught remained 
that they could destroy; the permanent ex- 
posure, for ages, of the soil unsheltered by its 
ancient groves, and unprotected by any cover- 
ing from the scorching rays of the sun ; the 
unobstructed encroachments of the desert, and 
of the drifted sands from the borders of the 
Red Sea; the consequent absorption of the 
water of the springs and streamlets during 
jsummer, — are causes which have all combined 
their baneful operation in rendering Edom 
"most desolate, the desolation of desolations." 
Volney's account is sufficently descriptive of 
the desolation which now reigns over Idumea ; 
and the information which Seetzen derived at 
Jerusalem respecting it is of similar import. 
He <vas told, that at the distance of two days' 
journey and a half from Hebron, he ViTould find 
considerable ruins of the ancient city of Abde, 
and that for all the rest of the journey he would 
see no place of habitation ; he would meet only 
with a few tribes of wandering Arabs. From 
the borders of Edom, Captains Irby and Man- 
gles beheld a boundless extent of desert view, 
which they had hardly ever seen equalled for 
singularity and grandeur. And the following 
extract, descriptive of v/hat Burckhardt actu- 
ally witnessed in the different parts of Edom, 
cannot be more graphically abbreviated than 
in the words of the prophet. Of its eastern 
boundary, and of the adjoining part of Arabia 
Petrea, strictly so called, Burckhardt writes : 
"It might, with truth, be called Petrea, not 
only on account of its rocky mountains, but also 
of the elevated plain already described, which is 
so much covered with stones, especially flints, 
that it may with great propriety be called a 
stony desert, although susceptible of culture ; 
in many places it is overgrown with wild herbs, 
and must once have been thickly inhabited ; for 
the traces of many towns and villages are met 
with on both sides of the Hadj road between 
Maan and Akaba, as well as between Maan and 
the plains of the Hauran, in which direction 
are also many springs. At present all this 
country is a desert, and Maan (Teman) is the 
only inhabited place in it : ' I will stretch out 
my hand against thee, O Mount Seir, and will 
make thee most desolate. I will stretch out my 
hand upon Edom, and will make it desolate 
from Teman.'" In the interior of Idumea, 
where the ruins of some of its ancient cities 
are still visible, and in the extensive valley 
which reaches from the Red to the Dead Sea, 
the appearance of which must now be totally 
and sadly changed from what it was, "the 
whole plain presented to the view an expanse 
of shifting sands, whose surface was broken by 
innumerable undulations and low hills. The 
sand appears to have been brought from the 
shores of the Red Sea, by the southern v/inds ; 
and the Arabs told me that the valleys con- 
tinue to present the same appearance beyond 



the latitude of Wady Mousa. In some parts 
of the valley the sand is very deep, and there 
is not the slightest appearance of a road, 
or of any work of human art. A few trees 
grow among the sand hills, but the depth of 
sand precludes all vegetation of herbage." " If 
grape gatherers come to thee, would not they 
leave some gleaning grapes ? If thieves by 
night, they will destroy till they have enough ; 
but I have made Esau bare. Edom shall be a 
desolate wilderness." " On ascending the west- 
ern plain," continues Mr. Burckhardt, "on a 
higher level than that of Arabia, we had before 
us an immense expanse of dreary country, en- 
tirely covered with black flints, with here and 
there some hilly chain rising from the plain." 
"I will stretch out upon Idumea the line of 
confusion, and the stones of emptiness." Such 
is the present desolate aspect of one of the 
most fertile countries of ancient times ! So 
visibly even now does the withering curse of an 
offended God rest upon it ! 

EGG, aixij, Deut. xxii, 6 ; Job xxxix, 14 ; 
Isaiah x, 14 ; lix, 5 ; wdv, Luke xi, 12. Eggs 
are considered as a very great delicacy in the 
east, and are served up with fish and honey at 
their entertainments. As a desirable article of 
food, the egg is mentioned, Luke xi, 12 : " If 
a son ask for an egg, will his father offer him 
a scorpion ?" It has been remarked that the 
body of the scorpion is very like an egg, as its 
head can scarcely be distinguished, especially if 
it be of the white kind, which is the first species 
mentioned by ^lian, Avicenna, and others. 
Bochart has produced testimonies to prove that 
the scorpions in Judea were about the bigness 
of an egg. So the similitude is preserved be- 
tween the thing asked, and the thing given. 

EGLON, a king of Moab, who oppressed 
the Israelites, and was slain by Ehud, Judges 
iii, 14, 21. It is thought to have been a com- 
mon name of the kings of Moab, as Abimelech 
was of the Philistines. 

EGYPT, a country of Africa, called also in 
the Hebrew Scriptures the land of Mizraim, 
and the land of Ham ; by the Turks and Arabs, 
Masr and Misr ; and by the native Egyptians, 
Chemi, or the land of Ham. Mr. Faber derives 
the name from Ai-Capht, or the land of the 
Caphtorim; from which, also, the modern 
Egyptians derive their name of Cophts. Egypt 
was first peopled after the deluge by Mizraim, 
or Mizr, the son of Ham, who is supposed to 
be the same with Menes, recorded in Egyptian 
history as the first king. Every thing relating 
to the subsequent history and condition of this 
country, for many ages, is involved in fable. 
Nor have we any clear information from Hea- 
then writers, until the time of Cyrus, and his 
son Cambyses, when the line of Egyptian prin- 
ces ceased in agreement with prophecies to that 
effect. Manetho, the Egyptian historian, has 
given a list of thirty dynasties, which, if suc- 
cessive, make a period of five thousand three 
hundred years to the time of Alexander, or 
three thousand two hundred and eighty-two 
years more than the real time, according to the 
Mosaic chronology. But this is a manifest 
forgery, wliich has, nevertheless, been appeal 



EGY 



332 



EGY 



ed to by infidel writers, as authority against the 
veracity of the Mosaic history. The truth is, 
that this pretended succession of princes, if all 
of them can be supposed to have existed at all, 
constituted several distinct dynasties, iniling in 
different cities at the same time : thus these 
were the kingdoms of Thebes, Thin, Memphis, 
and Tanis. See Writing. 

2. In the time of Moses we find Egypt re- 
nowned for learning; for he was instructed 
"in all its wisdom;" and it is one of the com- 
mendations of Solomon, at a later period, that 
he excelled in knowledge "all the wisdom of 
the children of the east country, and all the 
wisdom of Egypt." Astronomy, which proba- 
bly, like that of the Chaldeans, comprehended 
also judicial astrology, physics, agriculture, 
jurisprudence, medicine, architecture, paint- 
ing, and sculpture, were the principal sciences 
and arts ; to which were added, and that by 
their v/isest men, the study of divination, 
magic, and enchantments. They had also 
their consulters with familiar spirits, and necro- 
mancers, those who had, or pretended to have, 
intercourse with the infernal deities, and the 
spirits of the dead, and delivered responses to 
inquirers. Of all this knowledge, good and 
evil, and of a monstrous system of idolatry, 
Egypt was the polluted fountain to the sur- 
rounding nations ; but in that country itself it 
appears to have degenerated into the most ab- 
surd and debased forms. Among nations who 
are not blessed by divine revelation, the lumi- 
naries of heaven are the first objects of wor- 
ship. Diodorus Siculus, mentioning the Egyp- 
tians, informs us, that "the first men, looking 
up to the world above them, and, struck with 
admiration at the nature of the universe, sup- 
posed the sun and moon to be the principal and 
eternal gods." This, which may be called the 
natural superstition of mankind, we can trace 
in the annals of the west, as well as of the east ; 
among the inhabitants of the new world, as 
well as of the old. The sun and moon, under the 
names of Isis and Osiris, were the chief ob- 
jects of adoration among the Egyptians. But 
the earliest times had a purer faith. The fol- 
lowing inscription, engraven in hieroglyphics 
in the temple of Neith, the Egyptian Minerva, 
conveys the most sublime idea of the Deity 
which unenlightened reason could form : "I 
am thai which is, was, and shall be : no mortal 
hath lifted up my veil : the offspring of my 
power is the sun." A similar inscription still 
remains at Capua, on the temple of Isis : " Thou 
art one, and from thee all things proceed." 
Plutarch also informs us, that the inhabitants 
of Thebais worshipped only the immortal and 
supreme God, whom they called Eneph. Ac- 
cording to the Egyptian cosmogony, all things 
sprung from athor, or night, by which they 
denoted the darkness of chaos before the crea- 
tion. Sanchoniathon relates, that, " from the 
breath of gods and the void were mortals creat- 
ed." This theology differs little from that of 
Moses, who says, "The earth was without 
form, and void ; darkness was upon the face of 
the deep ; and the Spirit of God moved upon 
the face of the waters." 



3. A superstitious reverence for certain ani- 
mals, as propitious or hurtful to the human 
race, was not peculiar to the Egyptians. The 
cow has been venerated in India from the most 
remote antiquity. The serpent has been the 
object of religious respect to one half of the 
nations of the known world. The Romans 
had sacred animals, which they kept in their 
temples, and distinguished with peculiar ho- 
nours. We need not therefore be surprised 
that a nation so superstitious as the Egyptians 
should honour, with peculiar marks of respect, 
the ichneumon, the ibis, the dog, the falcon, 
the wolf, and the crocodile. These they en- 
tertained at great expense, and with much 
magnificence. Lands were set apart for their 
maintenance ; persons of the highest rank were 
employed in feeding and attending them ; rich 
carpets were spread in their apartments ; and 
the pomp at their funerals corresponded to the 
profusion and luxury which attended them 
while alive. What chiefly tended to favour 
the progress of animal worship in Egypt, was 
the language of hieroglyphics. In the hiero- 
glyphic inscriptions on their temples, and pub- 
lic edifices, animals, and even vegetables, were 
the symbols of the gods whom they worship- 
ped. In the midst of inniunerable superstitions, 
the theology of Egypt contained the two great 
principles of religion, the existence of a su- 
preme Being, and the immortality of the soul. 
The first is proved by the inscription on the 
temple of Minerva; the second, by the care 
with which dead bodies were embalmed, and 
the prayer recited at the hour of death, by an 
Egyptian, expressing his desire to be received 
to the presence of the deities. 

4. The opulence of Egypt was for ages in- 
creased by the large share it had in the com- 
merce with the east ; by its own favourable 
position, making it the connecting link of in- 
tercourse between the eastern and western 
nations ; and especially by its own remarkable 
fertility, particularly in corn, so that it was, in 
times of scarcity, the granary of the world. 
Its extraordinary fertility was owing to the 
periodical inundation of the Nile ; and suffi- 
cient proofs of the ancient accounts which we 
have of its productiveness are afforded to this 
day. The Rev. Mr. Jowett has given a strik- 
ing example of the extraordinary fertility of 
the soil of Egypt, which is alluded to in Gene- 
sis xli, 47 : " The earth brought forth by hand- 
fuls." " I picked up at random," says Mr. 
Jowett, "a few stalks out of the thick corn 
fields. We counted the number of stalks 
which sprouted from single grains of seed ; 
carefully pulling to pieces each root, in order 
to see that it was but one plant. The first had 
seven stalks, the next three, the next nine, 
then eighteen, then fourteen. Each stalk 
would have been an ear." 

5. The architecture of the early Egyptians, 
at least that of their cities and dwellings, was 
rude and simple : they could indeed boast of 
little in either external elegance or internal 
comfort, since Herodotus informs us that men 
and beasts lived together. The materials of 
their structure were bricks of clay, bound to. 



EGY 



333 



EGY 



gether with chopped straw, and baked in the 
sun. Such were the bricks which the Israel- 
ites were employed in making, and of which 
the cities of Pithom and Raraeses were built. 
Their composition was necessarily perishable, 
and explains why it is that no remains of the 
ancient cities of Egypt are to be found. They 
would indeed last longer in the dry climate of 
this country than in any other ; but even here 
they must gradually decay and crumble to 
dust, and the cities so constructed become 
heaps. Of precisely the same materials are 
the villages of Egypt built at this day. "Vil- 
lage after village," says Mr. Jowett, speaking 
of Tentyra, "built of unburnt brick, crumbling 
into ruins, and giving place to new habitations, 
have raised the earth, in some parts, nearly to 
the level of the summit of the temple. In 
every part of Egypt, we find the towns built in 
this manner, upon the ruins, or rather the rub. 
bish, of the former habitations. The expres- 
sion in Jeremiah xxx, 18, literally applies to 
Egypt, in the meanest sense : ' The city shall 
be builded upon her own heap.' And the ex- 
pression in Job XV, 28, might be illustrated by 
many of these deserted hovels : ' He dwelleth 
in desolate cities, and in houses which no man 
inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps.' 
Still more touching is the allusion, in Job iv, 
19, where the perishing generations of men 
are fitly compared to habitations of the frailest 
materials, built upon the heap of similar dwell- 
ing-places, now reduced to rubbish: 'How 
much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, 
whose foundation is in the dust ." " 

6. The splendid temples of Egypt were not 
built, in all probability, till after the time of 
Solomon ; for the recent progress made in the 
decyphering of hieroglyphics has disappointed 
the antiquaries as to the antiquity of these 
stupendous fabrics. It is well observed by 
l>r. Shuckford, that temples made no great 
figure in Homer's time. If they had, he would 
not have lost such an opportunity of exerting 
his genius on so grand a subject, as Virgil has 
done in his description of the temple built by 
Dido at Carthage. The first Heathen temples 
were probably nothing more than mean build, 
ings, which served merely as a shelter from 
the weather: of which kind was, probably, the 
house of the Philistine god Dagon. But when 
the fame of Solomon's temple had reached 
other countries, it excited them to imitate its 
splendour ; and nation vied with nation in the 
structures erected to their several deities. All 
were, however, outdone, at least in massive- 
ness and durability, by the Egyptians ; the 
architectural design of whose temples, as well 
as that of the Grecian edifices, was borrowed 
from the stems and branches of the grove 
temples. 

7. It appears to be an unfounded notion, that 
the pyramids were built by the Israelites : they 
were, probably, Mr. Faber thinks, the work of 
the " Shepherds," or Cushite invaders, who, at 
an early period, held possession of Egypt for 
two hundred and sixty years, and reduced the 
Egyptians to bondage, so that "a shepherd 
was nr\ ahomination to the Egyptians" in 



Joseph's time. The Israelites laboured in mak. 
ing bricks, not in forming stones such as the 
pyramids are constructed with ; and a passage 
in Mr. Jowett's "Researches," before referred 
to, will throw light upon this part of their his- 
tory. Mr. Jowett saw at one place the people 
making bricks, with straw cut into small 
pieces, and mingled with the clay, to bind it. 
Hence it is, that when villages built of these 
bricks fall into rubbish, which is often the 
case, the roads are full of small particles of 
straws, extremely offensive to the eyes in a 
high wind. They were, in fact, engaged ex- 
actly as the Israelites used to be, making 
bricks with straw; and for a similar purpose, 
to build extensive granaries for the bashaw ; 
"treasure-cities for Pharaoh." The same in- 
telligent missionary also observes : "Themol- 
lems transact business between the bashaw 
and the peasants. He punishes them if the 
peasants prove that they oppress ; and yet he 
requires from them that the work of those who 
are under them shall be fulfilled. They strik- 
ingly illustrate the case of the officers placed 
by the Egytian task-masters over the children 
of Israel ; and, like theirs, the mollems often 
find their case is evil. Exodus v." 

8. It is not necessary to go over those parts 
of the Egyptian history which occur in the 
Old Testament. The prophecies respecting 
this haughty and idolatrous kingdom, uttered 
by Jeremiah and Ezekiel when it was in the 
height of its splendour and prosperity, were 
fulfilled in the terrible invasions of Nebuchad- 
nezzar, Cambyses, and the Persian monarchs. 
It comes, however, again into an interesting 
connection with the Jewish history under 
Alexander the Great, who invaded it as a 
Persian dependence. So great, indeed, was 
the hatred of the Egyptians toward their op. 
pressors, that they hailed the approach of the 
Macedonians, and threw open their cities to 
receive them. Alexander, merciless as he was 
to those who opposed his progress or authority, 
knew how to requite those who were devoted 
to his interests ; and the Egyptians, for many 
centuries afterward, had reason to recollect 
with gratitude his protection and foresight. It 
was he who discerned the local advantages of 
the spot on which the city bearing his name 
afterward stood, who projected the plan of the 
town, superintended its erection, endowed ic 
with many privileges, and peopled it with 
colonies drawn from other places for the pur-, 
pose, chiefly Greeks. But, together with these^ 
and the most favoured of all, w^ere the Jews^ 
who enjoyed the free exercise of their religion^ 
and the same civil rights and liberties as the- 
Macedonians themselves. Kindness shown to- 
the people of Israel has never, in the provi- 
dence of God, brought evil on any country;, 
and there can be no doubt but that the encou- 
ragement given to this enterprising and com- 
mercial people, assisted very much to promote 
the interests of the new city, which soon be- 
came the capital of the kingdom, the centre of 
commerce, of science, and the arts, and one of 
the most flourishing and considerable cities ir»- 
the world. Egypt, indeed, was about to see 



EGY 



334 



EGY 



better days; and, during the reigns of the 
Ptolemies, enjoyed again, for nearly three 
hundred years, something of its former renown 
for learning and power. It formed, during 
this period, and before the rapid extension of 
the Roman empire toward the termination of 
these years, one of the only two ancient king- 
doms which had survived the Assyrian, Baby. 
Ionian, Persian, and Macedonian empires : the 
other was the Syrian, where the Seleucidae, 
another family of one of the successors of 
Alexander, reigned ; who, having subdued 
Macedonia and Thrace, annexed them to the 
kingdom of Syria, and there remained out of 
the four kingdoms into which the empire of 
Alexander was divided these two only ; distin- 
guished, in the prophetic writings of Daniel, 
by the titles of the kings or kingdoms of the 
north and the south. , 

9. Under the reign of the three first Ptole. 
mies, the state of the Jews was exceedingly 
prosperous. They were in high favour, and 
continued to enjoy all the advantages confer- 
red upon them by Alexander. Judea was, in 
fact, at this time, a privileged province of 
^gypt ; the Jews being governed by their own 
high priest, on paying a tribute to the kings of 
Egypt. But in the reign of Ptolemy Epipha- 
nes, the fifth of the race, it was taken by An- 
tiochus, king of Syria ; which was the begin- 
ning of fresh sufferings and persecutions ; for 
although this Antiochus, who was the one 
surnamed the Great, was a mild and generous 
prince, and behaved favourably toward them, 
their troubles began at his death; his succes- 
sor, Seleucus, oppressing them with taxes; 
and the next was the monster, Antiochus 
Epiphanes, whose impieties and cruelties are 
recorded in the two books of Maccabees. But 
still, in Egypt, the Jews continued in the en- 
joyment of their privileges, so late as the reign 
of the sixth Ptolemy, called Philometor, who 
committed the charge of his affairs to two 
Jews, Onias and Dositheus ; the former of 
whom obtained permission to build a temple 
at Heliopolis. The introduction of Christianity 
into Egypt is mentioned under the article 
Alexandria. 

10. The prophecies respecting Egypt in the 
Old Testament have had a wonderful fulfil- 
ment. The knowledge of all its greatness and 
glory deterred not the Jewish prophets from 
declaring, that Egypt would become " a base 
kingdom, and never exalt itself any more 
among the nations." And the literal fulfil- 
ment of every prophecy affords as clear a de- 
monstration as can possibly be given, that 
each and all of them are the dictates of inspi- 
ration. Egypt was the theme of many pro- 
phecies, which were fulfilled in ancient times ; 
and it bears to the present day, as it has borne 
throughout many ages, every mark with which 
prophecy had stamped its destiny: "They 
shall be a base kingdom. It shall be the basest 
of kingdoms. Neither shall it exalt itself any 
more among the nations: for I will diminish 
them, that they shall no more rule over the 
nations. The pride of her power shall come 
down ; and they shal! be desolate in the midst 



of the countries that are desolate ; and her 
cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are 
wasted. I will make the land of Egypt deso- 
late, and the country shall be desolate of that 
whereof it was full. I will sell the land into 
the hand of the wicked. I will make the land 
waste and all that is therein, by the hand of 
strangers. I the Lord have spoken it. And 
there shall be no more a prince of the land of 
Egypt," Ezek. xxx, 5, 7, 12, 13. "The sceptre 
of Egypt shall depart away," Zech. x, 11. 

11. Egypt became entirely subject to the 
Persians about three hundred and fifty years 
previous to the Christian sera. It was after- 
ward subdued by the Macedonians, and was 
governed by the Ptolemies for the space of two 
hundred and ninety -four years ; until, about 
B. C. 30, it became a province of the Roman 
empire. It continued long in subjection to the 
Romans, — tributary first to Rome, and after- 
ward to Constantinople. It was transferred, 
A. D. 641, to the dominion of the Saracens. 
In 1250 the Mamelukes deposed their rulers, 
and usurped the command of Egypt. A mode 
of government, the most singular and surpris- 
ing that ever existed on earth, was established 
and maintained. Each successive ruler was 
raised to supreme authority, from being a 
stranger and a slave. No son of the former 
ruler, no native of Egypt, succeeded to the 
sovereignty ; but a chief was chosen from 
among a new race of imported slaves. When 
Egypt became tributary to the Turks in 1517, 
the Mamelukes retained much of their pow- 
er ; and every pasha was an oppressor and a 
stranger. During all these ages, every at- 
tempt to emancipate the country, or to create 
a prince of the land of Egypt, has proved 
abortive, and has often been fatal to the aspi- 
rant. Though the facts relative to Egypt form 
too prominent a feature in the history of the 
world to admit of contradiction or doubt, yet 
the description of the fate of that country, and 
of the form of its government, may be left, 
says Keith, to the testimony of those whose 
authority no infidel will question, and whom 
no man can accuse of adapting their descrip- 
tions to the predictions of the event. Volney 
and Gibbon are our witnesses of the facts : 
" Such is the state of Egypt. Deprived, twenty- 
three centuries ago, of her natural proprietors, 
she has seen her fertile fields successively a 
prey to the Persians, the Macedonians, the 
Romans, the Greeks, the Arabs, the Georgians, 
and, at length, the race of Tartars distinguished 
by the name of Ottoman Turks. The Mame- 
lukes, purchased as slaves, and introduced as 
soldiers, soon usurped the power and elected a 
leader. If their first establishment was a sin- 
gular event, their continuance is not less 
extraordinary. They are replaced by slaves 
brought from their original country. The sys- 
tem of oppression is methodical. Every thing 
the traveller sees or hears reminds him he is in 
the country of slavery and tyranny." "A 
more unjust and absurd constitution cannot be 
devised than that which condemns the natives 
of a country to perpetual servitude, under the 
arbitrary dominion of strangers and slaves. 



EGY 



335 



ELD 



Yet such has been the state of Egypt above 
five hundred years. The most illustrious sul- 
tans of the Baharite and Borgite dynasties 
were themselves promoted from the Tartar and 
Circassian bands; and the four-and-tvventy 
beys, or military chiefs, have ever been suc- 
ceeded, not by their sons, but by their servants." 
These are the words of Volney and of Gibbon ; 
and what did the ancient prophets foretel ? — " I 
will lay the land waste, and all that is therein, 
by the hands of strangers. I the Lord have 
spoken it. And there shall be no more a prince 
of the land of Egypt. The sceptre of Egypt 
shall depart away." The prophecy adds : 
" They shall be a base kingdom : it shall be 
the basest of kingdoms." After the lapse of 
two thousand and four hundred years from the 
date of this prophecy, a scoffer at religion, but 
an eye witness of the facts, thus describes the 
self-same spot : " In Egypt," says Volney, 
"there is no middle class, neither nobility, 
clergy, merchants, landholders. A universal 
air of misery, manifest in all the traveller 
meets, points out to him the rapacity of op- 
pression, and the distrust attendant upon 
slavery. The profound ignorance of the 
inhabitants equally prevents them from per- 
ceiving the causes of their evils, or applying 
the necessary remedies. Ignorance, diffiised 
through every class, extends its effects to every 
species of moral and physical knowledge. 
Nothing is talked of but intestine troubles, the 
public misery, pecuniary extortions, bastina- 
does, and murders. Justice herself puts to 
death without formality." Other travellers 
describe the most execrable vices as common, 
and represent the moral character of the peo- 
ple as corrupted to the core. As a token of 
the desolation of the country, mud-walled cot- 
tages are now the only habitations where the 
ruins of temples and palaces abound. Egypt 
is surrounded by the dominions of the Turks 
and of the Arabs ; and the prophecy is literally 
true which marked it in the midst of desola- 
tion: "They shall be desolate in the midst of 
the countries that are desolate, and her cities 
shall be in the midst of the cities that are 
wasted." The systematic oppression, extor- 
tion, and plunder, which have so long pre- 
vailed, and the price paid for his authority and 
power by every Turkish pasha, have rendered 
the country " desolate of that whereof it was 
full," and still show both how it has been 
"wasted by the hands of strangers," and how 
it has been " sold into the hand of the wicked." 
12. Egypt has, indeed, lately somewhat risen, 
under its present spirited but despotic pasha, to 
a degree of importance and commerce. But 
this pasha is still a stranger, and the dominion 
is foreign. Nor is there any thing like a 
general advancement of the people to order, 
intelligence and happiness. Yet this fact, 
instead of militating against the truth of pro- 
phecy, may, possibly at no distant period, serve 
to illustrate other predictions. "The Lord 
shall smite Egypt : he shall smite and heal it ; 
and they shall return to the Lord, and he shall 
be entreated of them, and shall heal them. In 
that day shall Israel bo the third with Egypt 



and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst 
of the land," &c, Isaiah xix, 22-25. 

ELAM, the eldest son of Shem, who settled 
in a country to which he gave his name. Gen. 
X, 22. It is frequently mentioned in Scripture, 
as lying to the south-cast of Shinar. Susiana, 
in later times, seems to have been a part of 
this country, Daniel viii, 2 ; and before the 
captivity the Jews seem always to have in- 
tended Persia by the name of Elam. Stepha. 
nus takes it to be a part of Assyria, but Pliny 
and Josephus, more properly, of Persia, whose 
inhabitants, this lattei' telk us, sprung from 
the Elamites. 

ELATH, or ELOTH, a part of Idumea, 
situate upon the Red Sea, the emporium of 
Syria in Asia. It was taken by David, 2 Sam. 
viii, 14, who there established an extensive 
trade. There Solomon built ships, 2 Chron. 
viii, 17, 18. The Israelites held possession of 
Elath one hundred and fifty years, when the 
Edomites, in the reign of Joram, recovered it, 
2 Kings viii, 20. It was again taken from 
them by Azariah, and by him left to his son, 
2 Kings xiv, 22. The king of Syria took it 
from his grandson, 2 Kings xvi, 6. In process 
of time it fell to the Ptolemies, and lastly to the 
Romans. The branch of the Red Sea on which 
this city stood, obtained among Heathen writers 
the name of Sinus Elaniticus or Elanitic Gulf, 
from a town built on its site called Elana, and 
subsequently Ala ; which, as we are informed 
by Eusebius and Jerom, was used as a port in 
their time. The modern Arabian town of 
Akaba stands upon or near the site either of 
Elath or Ezion-Geber ; which of the two it is 
impossible to determine, as both ports, stand- 
ing at the head of the gulf, were probably 
separated from each other by a creek or small 
bay only. 

ELD AD and Medad were appointed by 
Moses among the seventy elders of Israel who 
were to assist in the government. Though 
not present in the general assembly, they were, 
notwithstanding, filled with the Spirit of God, 
equally with those who were in that assembly, 
and they began to prophesy in the camp. 
Joshua would have had Moses forbid them, but 
Moses replied, " Enviest thou for my sake ? 
Would God that all the Lord's people were 
prophets, and that God would pour forth his 
Spirit upon them !" Numbers xi, 24-29. 

ELDERS, a name given to certain laynien 
in the Presbyterian discipline, who are ecclesi- 
astical officers, and in conjunction with the 
ministers and deacons compose the kirk ses- 
sions in Scotland. The number of ciders is 
proportioned to the extent and population of 
the parish, and is seldom less than two or 
three, but sometimes exceeds fifty. They are 
laymen in this respect, that they have no right 
to teach, or to dispense the sacraments ; and 
on this account they form an office in the 
Presbyterian church inferior in rank and power 
to tliat of pastors. They generally discharge 
the office which originally belonged to the dea. 
cons, of attending to the interests of the poor. 
But their peculiar business is expressed by the 
name ruling ciders ; for in every jurisdiction 



ELE 



33^ 



ELE 



within the parish they are the spiritual court, 
of which the minister is officially moderator ; 
and in the presbjrtery, of which the pastors of 
all the parishes within its bounds are officially 
members, lay elders sit as the representatives 
of the several sessions or consistories. 

Elders of Israel. By this name we under- 
stand the heads of tribes, or rather of the great 
families in Israel, who, before the settlement 
of the Hebrew commonwealth, had a govern- 
ment and authority over their own families, 
and the people. When Moses was sent into 
Egypt to deliver Israel, he assembled the elders 
of Israel, and told them that the God of Abra- 
ham, Isaac, and Jacob, had appeared to him, 
Exod. iii, 15 ; iv, 29, &c. Moses and Aaron 
treat the elders of Israel as the representatives 
of the nation. When God gave the law to 
Moses, he said, "Take Aaron, Nadab, and 
Abihu, his sons, and the seventy elders of 
Israel, and worship ye afar off," Exod. xxiv, 
1, 9, 10. They advanced only to the foot of 
the mountain. On all occasions afterward, we 
find this number of seventy elders. But it is 
credible, that as there were twelve tribes, there 
were seventy-two elders, six from each tribe, 
and that seventy is set down, instead of seventy- 
two ; or rather, that Moses and Aaron should 
be added to the number seventy, and that, ex- 
clusive of them, there were but four elders 
from the tribe of Levi. After Jethro's arrival 
in the camp of Israel, Moses made a consider, 
able change in the governors of the people. 
He established over Israel heads of thousands, 
hundreds, fifties, and tens, that justice might 
be readily administered to applicants; only 
difficult cases were referred to himself, Exod. 
xviii, 24, 25, &c. But this constitution did 
not continue long; for on the murmuring of 
the people at the encampment called the 
Graves of Lust, Num. xi, 24-35, Moses ap. 
pointed seventy elders of Israel, to whom God 
communicated part of that legislator's spirit ; 
they began to prophesy, and ceased not after- 
ward. This, according to the generality of 
interpreters, was the beginning of the san- 
hedrim ; but, to support this opinion, many 
things must be supposed, whereby to infer, that 
this court of justice was constantly in being 
during the Scripture history. It seems that 
the establishment of the seventy elders by Mo- 
ses continued, not only during his life, but 
under Joshua likewise, and under the judges. 
The elders of the people and Joshua swore to 
the treaty with the Gibeonites, Josh, ix, 15. 
A little before his death, Joshua renewed the 
covenant with the Lord, in company witli the 
Glders, the princes, the heads, and officers of 
Israel, Joshua xxiii; xxiv, 1, 28. After the 
death of Joshua, and the elders who survived 
him, the people were several times brought into 
bondage, and were delivered by their judges. 
We do not see distinctly what authority the 
elders had during this time, and still less under 
the kings who succeeded the judges. 

ELEAZAR, the third son of Aaron, and his 
successor in the dignity of high priest, Exod. 
vi, 23. He entered into the land of Canaan 
with Joshua, and is supposed to have lived 



there upward of twenty years. The high priest- 
hood continued in his family till the time of 
Eli, He was buried in a hill that belonged to 
the son of Phineas, Joshua xxiv. 

2. Eleazar, the son of Aminadab, to whose 
care the ark was committed when it was sent 
back by the Philistines^ 1 Samuel vii. He is 
thought to have been a priest, or at least a 
Levite, though he is not mentioned in the ca- 
talogue of the sons of Levi. 

ELECTION. Of a divine election, a choos- 
ing and separating from others, we have three 
kinds mentioned in the Scriptures. The first 
is the election of individuals to perform some 
particular and special service. Cyrus was 
" elected" to rebuild the temple ; the twelve 
Apostles were " chosen," elected, to their office 
by Christ; St. Paul was a " chosen," or elect- 
ed "vessel," to be the Apostle of the Gentiles. 
The second kind of election which we find in 
Scripture, is the election of nations, or bodies of 
people, to eminent religious privileges, and in 
order to accomplish, by their superior illumina- 
tion, the merciful purposes of God, in benefit- 
ing other nations or bodies of people. Thus 
the descendants of Abraham, the Jews, were 
chosen to receive special revelations of truth ; 
and to be "the people of God," that is, his 
visible church, publicly to observe and uphold 
his worship, " The Lord thy God hath chosen 
thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above 
all people that are upon the face of the earth." 
" The Lord had a delight in thy fathers to 
love them, and he chose their seed after them, 
even you, above all people." It was especially 
on account of the application of the terms 
elect, chosen, and peculiar, to the Jewish peo- 
ple, that they were so familiarly used by the 
Apostles in their epistles addressed to the be 
lieving Jews and Gentiles, then constituting 
the church of Christ in various places. For 
Christians were the subjects, also, of this 
second kind of election ; the election of bodies 
of men to be the visible people and church of 
God in the world, and to be endowed with pe- 
culiar privileges. Thus they became, though 
in a more special and exalted sense, the chosen 
people, the elect of God. We say "in a more 
special sense," because as the entrance into 
the Jewish church was by natural birth, and 
the entrance into tlie Christian church, pro- 
perly so called, is by faith and a spiritual birth, 
these terms, although many became Christians 
by mere profession, and enjoyed various privi- 
leges in consequence of their people or nation 
being chosen to receive the Gospel, have gene- 
rally respect, in the New Testament, to bodies 
of true believers, or to the whole body of true 
believers as such. They are not, therefore, to 
be interpreted according to the scheme of Dr. 
Taylor of Norwich, by the constitution of the 
Jewish, but by the constitution of the Chris- 
tian, church. 

2. To understand the nature of this " elec- 
tion," as applied sometimes to particular bodies 
of Christians, as when St. Peter says, " The 
church which is at Babylon, elected together 
with you," and sometimes to the whole body 
of believers every where ; and also the reason 



ELE 



33t 



ELE 



of the frequent use of the term election, and of 
the occurrence of allusions to the fact ; it is to 
be remembered, that a great religious revolu- 
tion, so to speak, had occurred in the age of 
the Apostles ; with the full import of which 
we cannot, without calling in the aid of a lit- 
tle reflection, be adequately impressed. This 
change was no other than the abrogation of 
the church state of the Jews, which had con- 
tinued for so many ages. They had been the 
only visibly acknowledged people of God in all 
the nations of the earth ; for whatever pious 
people might have existed in other nations, 
they were not, in the sight of men, and col. 
lectively, acknowledged as "the people of Je- 
hovah." They had no written revelations, no 
appointed ministry, no forms of authorized 
initiation into his church and covenant, no 
appointed holy days, or sanctioned ritual. All 
these were peculiar to the Jews, who were, 
therefore, an elected and peculiar people. 
This distinguished honour they were about to 
lose. . They might have retained it as Chris- 
tians, had they been willing to admit the be- 
lieving Gentiles of all nations to share it with 
them ; but the great reason of their peculiarity 
and election, as a nation, was terminated by 
the coming of the Messiah, who was to be " a 
light to lighten the Gentiles," as well as "the 
glory of his people Israel." Their pride and 
consequent unbelief resented this, which will 
explain their enmity to the believing part of 
the Gentiles, who, when that which St. Paul 
calls " the fellowship of the mystery" was fully 
explained, chiefly by the glorious ministry of 
that Apostle himself, were called into that 
church relation and visible acknowledgment 
as the people of God, which the Jews had for- 
merly enjoyed, and that with even a higher 
degree of glory, in proportion to the superior 
spirituality of the new dispensation. It was 
this doctrine which excited that strong irrita- 
tion in the minds of the unbelieving Jews, and 
in some partially Christianized ones, to which 
so many references are made in the New Tes- 
tament. They were " provoked," were made 
"jealous;" and were often roused to the mad- 
ness of persecuting opposition by it. There 
was then a neio election of a new people of 
God, to be composed of Jews, not by virtue of 
their natural descent, but through their faith 
in Christ, and of Gentiles of all nations, also 
believing, and put as believers, on an equal 
ground with the believing Jews : and there was 
also a rejection, a reprobation, but not an ab- 
solute one ; for the election was offered to the 
Jews first, in every place, by offering them the 
Gospel. Some embraced it, and submitted to 
be the elect people of God, on the new ground 
of faith, instead of the old one of natural de- 
scent; and therefore the Apostle, Rom. xi, 7, 
calls the believing part of the Jews, "the elec- 
tion," in opposition to those who opposed this 
"election of grace," and still clung to their 
former and now repealed election as .Tews and 
the descendants of Abraham : " But the elec- 
Hon hath obtained it, and the rest were blind- 
ed." The offer had been made to the whole 
nation : all might have joined the one body of 
23 



believing Jews and believing Gentiles ; but the 
major part of them refused : they would not 
"come into the supper;" they made "light of 
it ;" light of an election founded on faith, and 
which placed the relation of " the people of 
God" upon spiritual attainments, and offered 
to them only spiritual blessings. They were, 
therefore, deprived of election and church re- 
lationship of every kind : their temple was 
burned ; their political state abolished ; their 
genealogies confounded ; their worship annihi= 
lated ; and all visible ackowledgment of them 
by God as a church withdrawn, and transfer, 
red to a church henceforward to be composed 
chiefly of Gentiles: and thus, says St. Paul, 
"were fulfilled the words of Moses, I will pro- 
voke you to jealousy by them that are no peo- 
ple, and by a foolish," ignorant and idolatrous^ 
"people I will anger you." It is easy, there- 
fore, to see what is the import of the " calling" 
and " election" of the Christian church, as 
spoken of in the New Testament. It was not 
the calling and the electing of one nation in 
particular to succeed the Jews ; but it was the 
calling and the electing of believers in all na- 
tions, wherever the Gospel should be preached, 
to be in realitj'- what the Jews typically, and 
therefore in an inferior degree, had been, — the 
visible church of God, "his people," under 
Christ " the Head ;" with an auithenticated re* 
velation ; with an appointed ministry, never 
to be lost ; with authorized worship ; with holy 
days and festivals ; with instituted forms of ini- 
tiation ; and with special protection and favour. 
3. The third kind of election is personal 
election ; or the election of individuals to be the 
children of God, and the heirs of eternal life. 
This is not a choosing to particular offices and 
service, w^hich is the first kind of election we 
have mentioned ; nor is it that collective elec- 
tion to religious privileges and a visible church 
state, of which we have spoken. For although 
" the elect" have an individual interest in such 
an election as parts of th«i collective body, thus 
placed in possession of the ordinances of Chris- 
tianity ; yet many others have the same ad- 
vantages, who still remain under the guilt and 
condemnation of sin and practical unbelief. 
The individuals properly called "the elect," are 
they who have been made partakers of the grace 
and saving efficacy of the Gospel. " Many," 
says our Lord, "are called, but few chosen" 
What true personal election is, we shall find 
explained in two clear passages of Scripture. 
It is explained by our Lord, where he says to his 
disciples, " I have chosen you out of the world :" 
and by St. Peter, when he addresses his First 
Epistle to the " elect according to the foreknow- 
ledge of God the Father, through sanctification 
of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of 
the blood of Jesus." To be elected, therefore, 
is to be separated from "the world," and to be 
sanctified by the Spirit, and by the blood of 
Christ. It follows, then, not only that elec- 
tion is an act of God done in time, but also 
that it is subsequent to the administration of 
the means of salvation. The " calling" goes 
before the "election;" the publication of the 
doctrine of "the Spirit," and the atonementj 



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called by Peter " the sprinkling of the blood of 
Christ," before that " sanctification" through 
which they become " the elect" of God. In a 
word, " the elect" are the body of true believ- 
ers; and personal election into the family of 
God is through personal faith. All who truly 
believe are elected ; and all to whom the Gos- 
pel is sent have, through the grace that accom- 
panies it, the power to believe placed within 
their reach ; and all such might, therefore, at- 
tain to the grace of personal election. 

ELEMENTS, ^oix^a, the elements or first 
principles of any art, whence the subsequent 
parts proceed. The elements or first princi- 
pies of the Christian doctrine, Heb, v, 12. St. 
Paul calls the ceremonial ordinances of the 
Mosaic law, " worldly elements," Gal. iv, 3 ; 
Col. ii, 8, 20 ; "weak and beggarly elements," 
Gal. iv, 9. Elements, as containing the rudi- 
ments of the knowledge of Christ, to which 
knowledge the law, as a pedagogue, Gal. iii, 24, 
was intended, by means of those ordinances, 
to bring the Jews ; worldly, as consisting 
in outward wordly institutions, Heb. ix, 1 ; 
weak and beggarly, when considered in them- 
selves, and set up in opposition to the great 
realities to which they were designed to lead. 
But, in Col. ii, 8, the elements or rudiments of 
the world are so closely connected with philoso- 
phy and vain deceit, or an empty and deceitful 
philosophy, that they must be understood there 
to include the dogmas of Pagan philosophy ; to 
which, no doubt, many of the Colossians were 
in their unconverted state attached, and of 
which the Judaizing teachers, who also were 
probably themselves infected with them, took 
advantage to withdraw the Colossian converts 
from the purity of the Gospel, and from Christ 
their living head. And from the general tenor 
of this chapter, and particularly from verses 
18-23, it appears, that these philosophical dog. 
mas, against which the Apostle cautioned his 
converts, were partly Platonic, and partly Py- 
thagorean ; the former teaching the worship 
of angels, or demons, as mediators between 
God and man ; the latter enjoining such absti- 
nence from particular kinds of meats and 
drinks, and such severe mortifications of the 
body, as God had not commanded. 

ELI, a high priest of the Hebrews, of the 
race of Ithamar, who succeeded Abdon, and 
governed the Hebrews, both as priest and 
judge, during forty years. How Eli came to 
the high priesthood, and how this dignity was 
transferred from Eleazar's family to that of 
Ithamar, who was Aaron's youngest son, we 
know not. This much, however, is certain, 
that it was not done without an express decla- 
ration of God's will, 1 Sam. ii, 27, &c. In the 
reign of Solomon, the predictions in relation 
to Eli's family were fulfilled ; for the high 
priesthood was taken from Abiathar, a de- 
scendant of Eli, and given to Zadok, who was 
of the race of Eleazar, 1 Kings ii, 26. Eli ap- 
pears to have been a pious, but indolent man, 
blinded by paternal affection, who suffered his 
sons to gain the ascendancy over him ; and 
for want either of personal courage, or zeal for 
the glory of God sufficient to restrain their 



licentious conduct, he permitted them to go 
on to their own and his ruin. Thus he carried 
his indulgence to cruelty ; while a more digni- 
fied and austere conduct on his part might have 
rendered them wise and virtuous, and thereby 
have preserved himself and family. A striking 
lesson for parents ! God admonished him by 
Samuel, then a child ; and Eli received those 
awfiil admonitions with a mind fully resigned 
to the divine will. *' It is the Lord," said he, 
"let him do what seemeth him good." God 
deferred the execution of his vengeance many 
years. At length, however, Hophni and Phi- 
neas, the sons of Eli, were slain by the Philis- 
tines, the ark of the Lord was taken, and Eli 
himself, hearing this melancholy news, fell 
backward from his chair and broke his neck, 
in the ninety-eighth year of his age, 1 Sam. 
iv, 12, 18. 

ELIEZER^ a native of Damascus, and the 
steward of Abraham's house. It seems that 
Abraham, before the birth of Isaac, intended 
to make him his heir: — "One born in my 
house," a domestic slave, " is mine heir," Gen. 
XV, 1-3. He was afterward sent into Meso- 
potamia, to procure a wife for Isaac, Gen. xxiv, 
2, 3, &c ; which business he accomplished with 
fidelity and expedition. " It is still the custom 
in India," says Forbes, " especially among the 
Mohammedans, that in default of children, and 
sometuTties where there are lineal descendants, 
the master of a family adopts a slave, frequently 
a Haffshee Abyssinian, of the darkest hue, for 
his heir. He educates him agreeably to his 
wishes, and marries him to one of his daugh- 
ters. As the reward of superior merit, or to 
suit the caprice of an arbitrary despot, this 
honour is also conferred on a slave recently 
purchased, or already grown up in the family ; 
and to him he bequeaths his wealth, in prefer- 
ence to his nephews, or any collateral branches. 
This is a custom of great antiquity in the east, 
and prevalent among the most refined and 
civilized nations. In the earliest period of the 
patriarchal history, we find Abraham com- 
plaining for want of children ; and declaring 
that either Eliezer of Damascus, or probably 
one born from him in his house, was his heir, 
to the exclusion of Lot, his favourite nephew, 
and all the other collateral branches of his 
family." 

ELIHU, one of Job's friends, a descendant 
of Nahor, Job xxxii, 2. See Job. 

ELIJAH. Elijah or Elias, a prophet, was 
a native of Tishbe beyond Jordan in Gilead. 
Some think that he was a priest descended 
from Aaron, and say that one Sabaca was his 
father ; but this has no authority. He was 
raised up by God, to be set like a wall of brass, 
in opposition to idolatry, and particularly to 
the worship of Baal, which Jezebel and Ahab 
supported in Israel. The Scripture introduces 
Elijah saying to Ahab, 1 Kings xvii, 1,2, A. M. 
3092, " As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before 
whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain 
these years, but according to my word." It 
is remarkable, that the number of years is not 
here specified ; but in the New Testament we 
are informed that it was three years and six 



ELI 



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ELI 



months. By the prohibition of dew as well as 
rain, the whole vegetable kingdom was de- 
prived of that moisture, without which neither 
the more hardy, nor more delicate kinds of 
plants could shoot into herbage, or bring that 
herbage to maturity. The Lord commanded 
Elijah to conceal himself beyond Jordan, near 
the brook Cherith. He obeyed, and God sent 
ravens to him morning and evening, which 
brought him flesh and bread. Scheuzer ob- 
serves, that he cannot think that the orebim 
of the Hebrew, rendered " ravens," means, 
as some have thought, the inhabitants of a 
town called Oreb, nor a troop of Arabs called 
orbhim; and contends that the bird called the 
raven, or one of the same genus is intended. 
Suppose that Elijah was concealed from Ahab 
in some rocky or mountainous spot, where 
travellers never came ; and that here a num. 
ber of voracious birds had built their nests upon 
the trees which grew around it, or upon a pro- 
jecting rock, &,c. These flying every day to 
procure food for their young, the prophet 
availed himself of a part of what they brought ; 
and while they, obeying the dictates of nature, 
designed only to provide for their offspring. 
Divine providence directed them to provide at 
the same time for the wants of Elijah. What, 
therefore, he collected, whether from their 
nests, from what they dropped, or under a su- 
pernatural influence, brought to him, or occa- 
sionally from all these means, was enough for 
his daily support. "And the orebim furnished 
him bread or flesh in the morning, and bread 
or flesh in the evening." But as there were 
probably several of them, some might furnish 
bread and others flesh, as it happened ; so that 
a little from each formed his solitary but satis- 
factory meal. To such straits was the exiled 
prophet driven ! perhaps these orebim were not 
strictly ravens, but roolts. The word rendered 
raven, includes the whole genus, among which 
are some less impure than the raven, as the 
rook. Rooks living in numerous societies are 
supposed by some to be the kind of birds em- 
ployed on this occasion rather than ravens, 
which fly only in pairs. But upon all these 
explanations we may observe, that when an 
event is evidently miraculous, it is quite super- 
fluous, and often absurd, to invent hypotheses 
to make it appear more easy. After a time 
the brook dried up, and God sent Elijah to 
Zarephath, a city of the Sidonians. At the 
city gate he met with a widow woman gather- 
ing sticks, from whom he desired a little water, 
adding, " Bring me, I pray thee, also a morsel 
of bread." She answered, " As the Lord liveth, 
I have no bread, but only a handful of meal, 
and a little oil in a cruse ; and I am gathering 
some sticks, that I may dress it for me and my 
son, that we may eat it, and die." Elijah said, 
" Make first a little cake, and bring it me, and 
afterward make for thee and thy son : for thus 
saith the Lord, the barrel of meal shall not 
waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until 
the day the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth." 
His prediction was fully accomplished, and he 
dwelt at the house of this widow. Some time 
after, the son of this woman fell sick, and died. 



The mother, overwhelmed with grief, intreated 
the assistance and interposition of Elijah, who 
taking the child in his arms laid him on his 
own bed, and cried to the Lord for the restora- 
tion of the child's life. The Lord heard the 
prophet's petition, and restored the child. 

2. After three years of drought the Lord 
commanded Elijah to show himself to Ahab. 
The famine being great in Samaria, Ahab sent 
the people throughout the country, to inquire 
after places where they might find forage for 
the cattle. Obadiah, an officer of the king's 
household, being thus employed, Elijah pre- 
sented himself, and directed him to tell Ahab, 
" Behold, Elijah is here !" Ahab came to meet 
the prophet, and reproached him as the cause 
of the famine. Elijah retorted the charge upon 
the king, and his iniquities, and challenged 
Ahab to gather the people together, and the 
prophets of Baal, that it might be determined 
by a sign from heaven, the falling of fire upon 
the sacrifice, who was the true God. In this 
the prophet obeyed the impulse of the Spirit 
of God ; and Ahab, either under an influence 
of which he was not conscious, or blindly con- 
fident in the cause of idolatry, followed Elijah's 
direction, and convened the people of Israel, 
and four hundred prophets of Baal. The pro- 
phets of Baal prepared their altar, sacrificed 
their bullock, placed it on the altar, and called 
upon their gods. They leaped upon the altar, 
and cut themselves after their manner, crying 
with all their might. Elijah ridiculed them, 
and said, " Cry aloud, for he is god ; either he 
is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is on a jour- 
ney, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be 
awaked." When midday was past, Elijah re- 
paired the altar of the Lord ; and with twelve 
stones, in allusion to the twelve tribes of Israel, 
he built a new altar. He then laid his bullock 
upon the wood, poured a great quantity of wa- 
ter three times upon the sacrifice and the wood, 
so that the water filled the trench which was' 
dug round the altar. After this he prayed, and, 
in answer to his prayer, the Lord sent fire from 
heaven, and consumed the wood, the burnt 
sacrifice, the stones, and dust of the place, 
and even dried up the water in the trench. 
Upon this, all the people fell on their faces, 
and exclaimed, "The Lord, he is the God." 
Elijah then, having excited the people to slay 
the false prophets of Baal, said to Ahab, " Go 
home, eat and drink, for I hear the sound of 
abundance of rain ;" which long-expected bless- 
ing descended from heaven according to his 
prediction, and gave additional proof to the 
truth of his mission from the only living and 
true God. 

3. Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, threatened Eli- 
jah for having slain her prophets. He therefore 
fled to Beersheba, in the south of Judah, and 
thence into Arabia Petrea. In the evening, 
being exhausted with fatigue, he laid himself 
down under a juniper tree, and prayed God to 
take him out of the world. An angel touched 
him, and he arose, and saw a cake baked on 
the coals, and a cruse of water ; and he ate 
and drank, and slept again. The angel again 
awakened him, and said, " Rise and eat, for the 



ELI 



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ELI 



journey is too great for thee ;" and he ate and 
drank, and went in the strength of that meat 
forty days and forty nights, unto Horeb, the 
mount of God. Here he had visions of the 
glory and majesty of God, and conversed with 
him ; and was commanded to return to the 
wilderness of Damascus, to anoint Hazael king 
over Syria, and Jehu king over Israel, and to 
appoint Elisha his successor in the prophetic 
office. Some years after, Ahab having seized 
Naboth's vineyard, the Lord commanded Elijah 
to reprove Ahab for the crime he had commit. 
ted. Elijah met him going to Naboth's vine- 
yard to take possession of it, and said, " In the 
place where dogs licked the blood of Neuboth, 
shall they lick thy blood, even thine. And the 
dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel." 
Both of which predictions were fulfilled in the 
presence of the people. Ahaziah, king of Israel, 
being hurt by a fall from the platform of his 
house, sent to consult Baalzebub, the god of 
Ekron, whether he should recover, Elijah met 
the messengers, and said to them, " Is it be- 
cause there is no God in Israel that ye go to 
inquire of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron ? Now, 
therefore, saith the Lord, Thou shalt surely 
die." The messengers of Ahaziah returned, 
and informed the king, that a stranger had 
told them he should certainly die ; and Ahaziah 
knew that this was the Prophet Elijah. The 
king, therefore, sent a captain with his com- 
pany of fifty men, to apprehend him ; and when 
the officer was come to Elijah, who was sitting 
upon a hill, he said, "Thou man of God, the 
king commands thee to come down." Elijah 
answered, " If I be a man of God, let fire come 
down from heaven, and consume thee and thy 
fifty." The prophet's words were followed 
with the effect predicted. The king sent an- 
other captain, who was also consumed; but a 
third captain going to Elijah intreated him to 
save him and his people's lives, and Elijah ac- 
companied him to the king. By these fearful 
miracles he was accredited to this successor of 
Ahab as a prophet of the true God, and the 
destruction of these companies of armed men 
was a demonstration of God's anger against 
the people at large. Elijah could not in this 
case act from any other impulse than that of 
the Spirit of God. 

4. Elijah, understanding by revelation that 
God would soon translate him out of this 
world, was desirous of concealing this fact 
from Elisha, his inseparable companion. He 
therefore said to Elisha, "Tarry thou here, 
for the Lord hath sent me to Bethel." But 
Elisha answered, "I will not leave thee." At 
Bethel, Elijah said, "Tarry thou here, the 
Lord hath sent me to Jericho ;" but Elisha re- 
plied, he would not forsake him. At Jericho 
Elijah desired him to stay ; but Elisha M'ould 
not leave him. They went therefore together 
to Jordan, and fifty of the sons of the prophets 
followed them at a distance. When they were 
come to the Jordan, Elijah took his mantle, 
and with it struck the waters, which divided, 
and they went over on dry ground. Elijah 
then said to Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for 
thee before I be taken away from thee." " I 



pray thee," said Elisha, " let a double portion 
of thy spirit be upon me ;" that is, obtain the 
gift of prophecy from God for me, in the same 
measure that thou possessest it. Double may 
signify like ; or the gift of prophecy, and of 
miracles, in a degree double to what thou dost 
possess, or to what I now possess. Elijah an- 
swered, " Thou hast asked me a very liard 
thing ; yet, if thou see me when I am taken 
from thee, it shall be so unto thee ; but if not, 
it shall not be so." As they journeyed, a fiery 
chariot, with horses of fire, suddenly separated 
them, and Elijah was carried in a whirlwind 
to heaven; while Elisha exclaimed, "My 
father, my father, the chariots of Israel and 
the horsemen thereof!" 

5. Elijah was one of the most eminent of 
that illustrious and suigular race of men, the 
Jewish prophets. Every part of his character 
is marked by a moral grandeur, which is 
heightened by the obscurity thrown around his 
connections, and his private history. He often 
wears the air of a supernatural messenger sud- 
denly issuing from another world, to declare 
the commands of heaven, and to awe the 
proudest mortals by the menace of fearful 
judgments. His boldness in reproof; his lofty 
zeal for the honour of God ; his superiority to 
softness, ease, and suffering, are the characters 
of a man filled with the Holy Spirit ; and he 
was admitted to great intimacy with God, and 
enabled to work miracles of a very extraordi- 
nary and unequivocal character. Thpse were 
called for by the stupid idolatry of the age, 
and were in some instances equally calculated 
to demonstrate the being and power of Jeho- 
vah, and to punish those who had forsaken 
him for idols. The author of Ecclesiasticus 
has an encomium to his memory, and justly 
describes him as a prophet " who stood up as 
fire, and whose word burned as a lamp." In 
the sternness and power of his reproofs he was 
a striking type of John the Baptist, and the 
latter is therefore prophesied of, under his 
name. Malachi, iv, 5, 6, has this passage : 
" Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, 
before the coming of the great and dreadful 
day of the Lord." Our Saviour also declares 
that Elijah had already come in spirit, in the 
person of John the Baptist. At the transfigu- 
ration of our Saviour, Elijah and Moses both 
appeared and conversed with him respecting 
his future passion. Matt, xvii, 3, 4 ; Mark ix, 
4; Luke ix, 30. Many of the Jews in our 
Lord's time believed him to be Elijah, or that 
the soul of Elijah had passed into his body, 
Matt, xvi, 14; Mark vi, 15; Luke ix, 8. In 
conclusion, we may observe, that to assure the 
world of the future existence of good men in a 
state of glory and felicity, and that in bodies 
changed from mortality to immortality, each 
of the three grand dispensations of religion 
had its instance of translation into heaven; 
the patriarchal in the person of Enoch, the 
Jewish in the person of Elijah, and the 
Christian in the person of Christ. 

ELISHA, the son of Shaphat, Elijah's dis- 
ciple and successor in the prophetic office, 
was of the city of Abelmeholah, 1 Kings xix, 



ELI 



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ELI 



16, &c. Elijah having received God's com- 
mand to anoint Elisha as a prophet, came to 
Abelmeholah ; and finding him ploughing with 
oxen, he threw his mantle over the shoulders 
of Elisha, who left the oxen, and accompanied 
him. Under the article Elijah, it has been 
observed that Elisha was following his master, 
when he was taken up to heaven ; and that he 
inherited Elijah's mantle, with a double por- 
tion of his spirit. Elisha smote the waters of 
Jordan, and divided them ; and he rendered 
wholesome the waters of a rivulet near Jericho. 
The kings of Israel, Judah, and Edom, having 
taken the field against the king of Moab, who 
had revolted from Israel, were in danger of 
perishing for want of water. Elisha was at 
that time in the camp ; and seeing Jehoram, 
the king of Israel, he said, " What have I to 
do with thee ? get thee to the prophets of thy 
father, and to the prophets of thy mother. As 
the Lord liveth, were it not out of respect to 
Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, who is here 
present, I would not so much as look on thee. 
But now send for a minstrel ; and while this 
man played, the Spirit of the Lord fell upon 
Elisha, and he said, Thus saith the Lord, 
Make several ditches along this valley ; for ye 
shall see neither wind nor rain, yet this valley 
shall be filled with water, and you and your 
cattle shall drink of it." The widow of one 
of the prophets having told Elisha, that her 
husband's creditor was determined to take her 
two sons and sell them for slaves, Elisha mul- 
tiplied the oil in the widow's house, in such 
quantity that she was enabled to sell it and to 
discharge the debt. Elisha went frequently to 
Shunem, a city of Manasseh, on this side Jor- 
dan, and was entertained by a certain matron 
at her house. As she had no children, Elisha 
promised her a son ; and his prediction was 
accomplished. Some years after, the child 
died. Elisha, who was then at Mount Carmel, 
was solicited by the mother to come to her 
house. The prophet went, and restored the 
child. At Gilgal, during a great famine, one 
of the sons of the prophets gathered wild 
gourds, which he put into the pot, and they 
were served up to Elisha and the other pro- 
phets. It was soon found that they were mor- 
tal poison ; but Elisha ordering meal to be 
thrown into the pot, corrected the quality of 
the pottage. Naaman, general of the king of 
Syria's forces, having a leprosy, was advised 
to visit Elisha in order to be cured. Elisha 
appointed him to wash himself seven times in 
the Jordan ; and by this means Naaman was 
perfectly healed. He returned to Elisha, and 
offered him large presents, which the man of 
God resolutely refused. But Gehazi, Elisha's 
servant, did not imitate the disinterestedness of 
his master. He ran after Naaman, and in 
Elisha's name begged a talent of silver, and 
two changes of garments. Naaman gave him 
two talents. Elisha, to whom God had dis- 
covered Gehazi's action, reproached him with 
it, and declared, that the leprosy of Naaman 
should cleave to him and his family for ever. 
This is a striking instance of the disinterested, 
ness of the Jewish prophets. Elisha, like his 



master Elijah, had learned to contemn the 
world. The king of Syria being at war with 
the king of Israel, could not imagine how all 
his designs were discovered by the enemy. 
He was told, that Elisha revealed them to the 
king of Israel. He therefore sent troops to 
seize the prophet at Dothan ; but Elisha struck 
them with blindness, and led them in that con- 
dition into Samaria. When they were in the 
city, he prayed to God to open their eyes ; and 
after he had made them eat and drink, he sent 
them back unhurt to their master. Some time 
after, Benhadad, king of Syria, having besieged 
Samaria, the famine became so extreme, that 
a certain woman ate her own child. Jehoram, 
king of Israel, imputing to Elisha these ca- 
lamities, sent a messenger to cut off his head. 
Elisha, who was informed of this design 
against his life, ordered the door to be shut. 
The messenger was scarcely arrived, when the 
king himself- followed, and made great com. 
plaints of the condition to which the town was 
reduced. Elisha answered, " To-morrow about 
this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold 
for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a 
shekel, in the gate of Samaria." Upon this, 
one of the king's officers said, "Were the 
Lord to open windows in heaven, might this 
thing be." This unbelief was punished; for 
the prophet answered, " Thou shalt see it 
with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof," 
which happened according to Elisha's predic- 
tion, for he was trodden to death by the crowd 
in the gate. At the end of the seven years' 
famine, which the prophet had foretold, he 
went to Damascus, to execute the command 
which God had given to Elijah many years 
before, of declaring Hazael king of Syria. 
Benhadad being at that time indisposed, and 
hearing that Elisha was come into his territo- 
ries, sent Hazael, one of his principal officers, 
to the prophet to consult him, and inquire of 
him whether it were possible for him to recover. 
The prophet told Hazael, that he might re- 
cover, but that he was very well assured that 
he should not; and then looking steadfastly 
upon him, he broke out into tears upon the 
prospect, as he told him, of the many barba- 
rous calamities which he would bring upon 
Israel, when once he was advanced to power, 
as he would soon be, because he was assured 
by divine revelation that he was to be king of 
Syria. Hazael, though offended at the time at 
being thought capable of such atrocities, did 
but too clearly verify these predictions ; for at 
his return, having murdered Benhadad, and 
procured himself to be declared king, he in. 
fiicted the greatest miseries upon the Israelites. 
2. Elisha sent one of the sons of the pro- 
phets to anoint Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, 
and grandson of Nimshi, to be king, in pur- 
suance of an order given to Elijah some years 
before ; and Jehu having received the royal 
unction, executed every thing that had been 
foretold by Elijah against Ahab's family, and 
against Jezebel. Elisha falling sick, Joash, 
king of Israel, came to visit him, and said, 
" O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, 
and the horsemen thereof." Elisha desired the 



EME 



342 



END 



king to bring him a bow and arrows. Joash 
having brought them, Ehsha requested him to 
put his hands on the bow, and at the same time 
the prophet put his own hand upon the king's, 
and said, Open the window which looks east, 
and let fly an arrow. The king having done 
this, Elisha said. This is the arrow of the 
Lord's deliverance : thou shalt be successful 
against Syria at Aphek. Elisha desired him 
again to shoot, which he did three times, and 
then stopped. But Elisha with vehemence 
said, " If thou hadst smitten five or six times, 
then thou hadst smitten Syria until thou hadst 
consumed it ; whereas now thou shalt smite 
Syria only thrice." This is the last prediction 
of Elisha of which we read in Scripture, for 
soon after he died ; but it was not his last mira- 
cle : for, some time after his interment, a com- 
pany of Israelites, as they were going to bury 
a dead person, perceiving a band of Moabites 
making toward them, put the corpse for haste 
into Elisha's tomb, and, as soon as it had 
touched the prophet's body, it immediately 
revived ; so that the man stood upon his feet : 
a striking emblem of the life-giving effect of 
the labours of the servants of God, after they 
themselves are gathered to their fathers. 

ELUL, the sixth month of the Hebrew ec 
clesiastical year, and the twelfth of the civil 
year, answering to our August and part of Sep- 
tember, containing twenty-nine days. 

EMBALMING, the art of preserving dead 
bodies from putrefaction. It was much prac- 
tised by the Egyptians of ancient times, and 
from them seema to have been borrowed by 
the Hebrews. It consisted in opening the body, 
taking out the intestines, and filling the place 
with odoriferous drugs and spices of a desicca- 
tive quality. Joseph gave orders for the em- 
balming of the body of his father Jacob, Gen. 
1, 1, 2 ; and Moses informs us that the process 
took up forty days. Joseph himself also was em- 
balmed. Gen. 1, 26. Asa, king of Israel, seems 
to have been embalmed, 2 Chron. xvi, 13, 14. 
See Burial. 

EMERALD, •]Di, Exod. xxviii, 19 ; Ezek. 
xxvii, 16 ; xxviii, 13 ; crfxapaySos, Rev. xxi, 19 ; 
Eccles. xxxii, 6; Tobit xiii, 16; Judith x, 21. 
This is genei'ally supposed to be the same with 
the ancient smaragdus. It is one of the most 
beautiful of all the gems, and is of a bright green 
colour, without the admixture of any other. 
Pliny thus speaks of it: "The sight of no co- 
lour is more pleasant than green ; for we love 
to view green fields and green leaves ; and are 
still more fond of looking at the emerald, be- 
cause all other greens are dull in comparison 
with this. Beside, these stones seem larger at 
a distance, by tinging the circumambient air. 
Their lustre is n.ot changed by the sun, by the 
shade, nor by the light of lamps ; but they have 
always a sensible moderate brilliancy." From 
the passage in Ezekiel we iearn that the 
Tyrians traded in these jewels in the marts of 
Syria. They probably had them from India, or 
the south of Persia. The true oriental emerald 
is very scarce, and is only found at present in 
the kingdom of Cambay. 

EMERODS. The disease of the Philistines, 



which is mentioned in 1 Sam. v, 6, 12 ; vi, 17, 
is denominated, in the Hebrew, D^'JiJj;. This 
word occurs, likewise, in Deut. xxviii, 27 ; and 
it is worthy of remark, that it is every where 
explained in the A;en, or marginal readings, by 
the Aramsean word, Q>"in!3 ; an expression 
which, in the Syriac dialect, where it occurs 
under the forms, NintD and NnintD, means the 
fundament^ and likewise the effort which is 
made in an evacuation of the system. The 
authors, therefore, of the reading in the keri 
appear to have assented to the opinion of Jo- 
sephus, and to have understood by this word 
the dysentery. The corresponding Arabic 
words mean a swelling, answering somewhat 
in its nature to the hernia in men : a disease, 
consequently, very different from the hemor- 
rhoids, which some persons understand to be 
meant by the word a>'?ej>. Among other ob- 
jections, it may also be observed, that the mice, 
which are mentioned, not only in the Hebrew 
text, 1 Sam. vi, 5, 12 ; xvi, 18, but also in the 
Alexandrine and Vulgate versions, 1 Sam. v, 6 ; 
vi, 5, 11, 18, are an objection to understanding 
the hemorrhoids by the word under considera- 
tion, since if that were in fact the disease, we 
see no reason why mice should have been pre- 
sented as an offering to avert the anger of the 
God of Israel. Lichtenstein has given this 
solution : The word, i3nfl3y, which is rendered 
wzce, he supposes to mean venomous solpugas, 
which belong to the spider class, and yet are 
so large, and so similar in their forni to mice, 
as to admit of their being denominated by the 
same word. These venomous animals destroy 
and live upon scorpions. They also bite men, 
whenever they can have an opportunity, par- 
ticularly in the fundament and the verenda. 
Their bite causes swellings, which are fatal in 
their consequences, called, in Hebrew, DtVflj?. 
The probable supposition, then, is, that solpu- 
gas were at this time multiplied among the 
Philistines by the special providence of God ; 
and that, being very venomous, they were the 
means of destroying many individuals. 

EMIMS, ancient inhabitants of the land of 
Canaan, be3'-ond Jordan, who were defeated by 
Chedorlaomer and his allies. Gen. xiv, 5. Mo- 
ses tells us that they were beaten at Shaveh- 
Kirjathaim, which was in the country of Sihon, 
conquered from the Moabites, Josh, xiii, 19-21. 
The Emims were a warlike people, of a gigantic 
stature, great and numerous, tall as the Ana- 
kims, and were accounted giants as well as 
they, Deut. ii, 10, 11. 

EMMANUEL, or IMMANUEL, "God with 
us." It answers both in the LXX, and Matt, 
i, 23, to the Hebrew Snudj;, from Dy, with, «, 
us, and Vk, God, Isa. vii, 14; viii, 8. 

EMMAUS, a village about eight miles north- 
west of Jenisalem ; on the road to which, two 
of the disciples were travelling in sorrow and 
disappointment afler the resurrection, when 
our Lord appeared to them, and held that me- 
morable conversation with them which is re^ 
corded by St. Luke, xxiv. 

ENDOR, a city in the tribe of Manasseh, 
where the witch resided whom Saul consulted 
a little before the battle of Gilboa, Joshua xvii, 



ENG 



343 



ENO 



11; 1 Sam. xxviii, 13. Mr. Bryant derives 
Endor from En- Ador, signifying fans pythonis, 
"the fountain of light," or oracle of the god 
Ador: which oracle was probably founded by 
the Canaanites, and had never been totally 
suppressed. The ancient world had many 
such oracles : the most famous of which were 
that of Jupiter-Ammon in Lybia, and that of 
Delphi in Greece : and in all of them, the an. 
swers to those who consulted them were given 
from the mouth of a female ; who, from the 
priestess of Apollo at Delphi, has generally 
received the name of Pythia. That many such 
oracles existed in Canaan, is evident from the 
number which Saul himself is said to have sup- 
pressed ; and such a one, with its Pythia, was 
this at Endor. At these shrines, either as mock 
oracles, contrived by a crafty and avaricious 
priesthood, to impose on the credulity and 
superstition of its followers ; or, otherwise, as 
is more generally supposed, as the real instru- 
ments of infernal power, mankind, having 
altogether departed from the true God, were 
permitted to be deluded. That, in this case, 
the real Samuel appeared is plain both from 
the affright of the woman herself, and from 
the fulfilmeut of his prophecy. It was an 
instance of God's overruling the wickedness 
of men, to manifest his own supremacy and 
justice. 

ENGEDI. It is also called Hazazon-Tamar, 
or city of palm trees, 2 Chron. xx, 2, because 
there was a great quantity of palm trees in the 
territory belonging to it. It abounded with 
Cyprus vines, and trees that produced balm. 
Solomon speaks of the " vineyards of Engedi," 
Cant, i, 14. This city, according to Josephus, 
stood near the lake of Sodom, three hundred 
furlongs -from Jerusalem, not far from Jericho, 
and the mouth of the river Jordan, through 
which it discharged itself into the Dead Sea. 
There is frequent mention of Engedi in the 
Scriptures. It was in the cave of Engedi 
that David had it in his power to kill Saul, 
1 Sam. xxiv. The spot where this transaction 
took place, was a cavern in the rock, suffi- 
ciently large to contain in its recesses the 
whole of David's men, six hundred in number, 
unperceived by Saul when he entered. Many 
similar caves existed in the Holy Land. Such 
were those at Adullam and Makkedah, and that 
in which Lot and his daughters dwelt after the 
destruction of Sodom. Such also is that de- 
scribed by Mr. Maundrell, near Sidon, which 
contained two hundred smaller caverns. Many 
of these were natural cavities in the limestone 
rock, similar to those in Yorkshire and Derby- 
shire, and in the Mendip hills in Somersetshire ; 
and others, excavations made by the primeval 
inhabitants, for defence, or for shelter from the 
sun ; and which subsequently served as retreats 
for robbers, as they are at this day. Josephus 
has given an interesting account of these 
caves, and the manner in which the robbers 
were taken by Herod. And Dr. E. D. Clarke 
has described similar retreats in the rocks near 
Bethlehem ; others, between Jerusalem and 
Jericho, are mentioned by Mr. Wilson. Into 
such caves the Israelites frequently retired for 



shelter from their enemies, Judg. vi, 2 ; 1 Sam 
xiii, 6; xiv, 11; a circumstance which has 
afforded some striking and terrific images to 
the prophets, Isaiah ii, 19 ; Hosea x, 8 ; Rev. 
vi, 15, 16. 

ENOCH, the son of Cain, Gen. iv, 17, m 
honour of whom the first city noticed in Scrip- 
ture was called Enoch, by his father Cain, who 
was the builder. It was situated on the east 
of the province of Eden. 

2. Enoch, the son of Jared, and father of 
Methuselah. He was born A. M. 622, and 
being contemporary with Adam, he had every 
opportunity of learning from him the story of 
the creation, the circumstance of the fall, the 
terms of the promise, and other important truths. 
An ancient author affirms, that he was the fa- 
ther of astronomy ; and Eusebius hence infers, 
that he is the same with the Atlas of the Grecian 
mythology. Enoch's fame rests upon a better 
basis than his skill in science. The encomium 
of Enoch is, that he " walked with God." 
While mankind were living in open rebellion 
against Heaven, and provoking the divine ven- 
geance daily by their ungodly deeds, he ob- 
tained the exalted testimony, " that he pleased 
God." This he did, not only by the exemplary 
tenor of his life, and by the attention which 
he paid to the outward duties of religion, but 
by the soundness of his faith, and the purity 
of his heart and life : see Heb. xi, 5, 6. The 
intent of the Apostle, in the discourse con- 
taining this passage, is, to show that there has 
been but one way of obtaining the divine favour 
ever since the fall, and that is, by faith, or a 
firm persuasion and confidence in the atone- 
ment to be made for human transgressions by 
the obedience, sufferings, death, and resurrec- 
tion of the promised Messiah. The cloud of 
witnesses which the Apostle has produced of 
Old Testament worthies, all bore, in their 
respective generations, their testimony to this 
great doctrine, in opposition to the atheism 
or theism, and gross idolatry, which prevailed 
around them. All the patriarchs are celebrated 
for their faith in this great truth, and for pre- 
serving this principle of religion in the midst 
of a corrupt generation. Enoch, therefore, is 
said, by another evangelical writer, to have 
spoken of the coming of Christ to judgment 
unto the antediluvian sinners. See Jude 14, 
15. This prophecy is a clear, and it is also an 
awful, description of the day of judgment, 
when the Messiah shall sit upon his throne of 
justice, to determine the final condition of man- 
kind, according to their works; and it indicates 
that the different offices of Messiah both to 
save and to judge, or as Prophet, Priest, and 
King, were known to the holy patriarchs. On 
what the Apostle founded this prediction has 
been matter of much speculation and inquiry. 
Some, indeed, have produced a treatise, called 
" The Book of Enoch," which, as they pretend, 
contains the cited passage ; but its authority is 
not proved, and internal evidence sufficiently 
marks its spurious origin. It is, therefore, 
reasonable to suppose that the prophecy cited 
by St. Jude was either traditionally handed 
down, or had been specially communicated to 



EPH 



344 



Em 



that Apostle. In the departure of Eiijoch from 
this world of sin and sorrow, the Almighty 
altered the ordinary course of things, and gave 
him a dismissal as glorious to himself, as it 
was instructive to mankind. To convince them 
how acceptable holiness is to him, and to show 
that he had prepared for those that love him a 
heavenly inheritance, he caused Enoch to be 
taken from the eai'th without passing through 
death. Sec Elijah. 

ENOS, or ENOSH, the son of Seth, and 
father of Cainan. He was born A. M. 235. 
Moses tells us that then " men began to call 
upon the name of the Lord," Gen iv, 26 ; that 
is, such as abhorred the impiety and immorality 
which prevaileii among the progeny of Cain, 
began to worship God in public, and to assem- 
ble together at stated times for that purpose. 
Good men, to distinguish themselves from the 
wicked, began to take the name of. sons or serv- 
ants of God ; for which reason Moses, Gen. 
vi, 1, 2, says that "the sons of God," or the 
.descendants of Enos, " seeing the daughters 
of men," &c. The eastern people make the 
following additions to his history : — that Seth, 
his father, declared him sovereign prince and 
high priest of mankind, next after himself; 
that Enos was the first who ordained public 
alms for the poor, established public tribunals 
for the administration of justice, and planted, 
or rather cultivated, the palm tree, 

EPHAH, the eldest son of Midian, who 
gave his name to a city and small extent of 
land in the country of Midian, situated on the 
eastern shore of the Dead Sea, Genesis xxv, 4. 
This country abounded with camels and dro- 
medaries, Isaiah Ix, 6, &.G. 

2. Ephaji, a measure both for things dry and 
liquid, in use among the Hebrews. The ephah 
for the former contained three pecks and three 
pints. In liquid measure it was of the same 
capacity as the bath. 

EPHESUSj a much celebrated city of Ionia, 
in Asia Minor, situated upon the river Cayster, 
and on the side of a hill. It was the metropo- 
lis of the Proconsular Asia, and formerly in 
great renown among Heathen authors on ac- 
count of its famous temple of Diana. This 
temple was seven times set on fire : one of the 
principal conflagrations happened on the very 
day that Socrates was poisoned, four hundred 
years before Christ; the other, on the same 
night in which Alexander the Great was born, 
when a person of the name of Erostratus set it 
on fire, according to his own confession, to get 
himself a name ! It was, however, rebuilt and 
beautified by the Ephesians, toward which the 
female inhabitants of the city contributed lib- 
erally. In the times of the Apostles it retained 
much of its former grandeur ; but, so addicted 
were the inhabitants of the city to idolatry and 
the arts of magic, that the prince of darkness 
ViTould seem to have, at that time, fixed his 
throne in it. Ephesus is supposed to have first 
invented those obscure mystical spells and 
charms by means of which the people pretend- 
ed to heal diseases and drive away evil spirits ; 
whence originated the 'E^fVia ypdnnara, or Ephe- 
sian letters, so often mentioned by the ancients. 



2. The Apostle Paul first visited this city 
A. D. 54 ; but being then on his way to Jeixi 
salem, he abode there only a few weeks. Acts 
xviii, 19-21. During his short stay, he found 
a synagogue of the Jews, into which he went, 
and reasoned with them upon the interesting 
topics of his ministry, with which they were 
so pleased that they wished him to prolong his 
visit. He however declined that, for he had 
determined, God willing, to be at Jerusalem at 
an approaching festival ; but he promised to 
return, which he did a few months afterward, 
and continued there three years, Acts xix, 10 ; 
XX, 31. While the Apostle abode in Ephesus 
and its neighbourhood, he gathered a numerous 
Christian church, to which, at a subsequent 
period, he wrote that epistle, which forms so 
important a part of the Apostolic writings. 
He was then a prisoner at Rome, and the year 
in which he wrote it must have been 60 or 61 
of the Christian aera. It appears to have been 
transmitted to them by the hands of Tychicue, 
one of his companions in travel, Ephesians 
vi, 21. The critics have remarked that the 
style of tho Epistle to the Ephesians is exceed- 
ingly elevated; and that it corresponds to the 
state of the Apostle's mind at the time of writ- 
ing. Overjoyed with the account which their 
messenger brought him of the steadfastness of 
their faith, and the ardency of their love to all 
the saints, Eph. i, 15 ; and, transported with 
the consideration of the unsearchable wisdom 
of God displayed in the work of man's redemp- 
tion, and of his amazing love toward the Gen- 
tiles, in introducing them, as fellow-heirs with 
the Jews, into the kingdom of Christ, he soars 
into the most exalted contemplation of those 
sublime topics, and gives utterance to his 
thoughts in language at once rich and varied. 
The epistle, says Macknight, is written as it 
were in a rapture. Grotius remarks that it 
expresses the sublime matters contained in 
it in terms more sublime than are to be found 
in any human language ; to which Macknight 
subjoins this singular but striking observation, 
that no real Christian can read the doctrinal 
part of the Epistle to the Ephesians, without 
being impressed and roused by it, as by the 
sound of a trumpet. 

3. Ephesus was one of the seven churches 
to which special messages were addressed in 
the book of Revelation. After a commendation 
of their first works, to which they were com- 
manded to return, they were accused of having 
left their first love, and threatened with the 
removal of their candlestick out of its place, 
except they should repent, Rev. ii, 5. The 
contrast which its present state presents to its 
former glory, is a striking fulfilment of thjs 
prophecy. Ephesus was the metropolis of 
Lydia, a great and opulent city, and, according 
to Strabo, the greatest emporium of Asia Mi- 
nor. Its temple of Diana., " whom all Asia 
worshipped," was adorned with one hundred 
and twenty-seven columns of Parian marble, 
each of a single shaft, and sixty feet high, and 
which formed one of the seven wonders of the 
world. The remains of its magnificent theatre, 
in which it is said that twenty thousand people 



EPH 



345 



EPH 



could easily have been seated, are yet to be 
seen. But a few heaps of atones, and some 
miserable mud cottages, occasionally tenanted 
by Turks, without one Christian residing there, 
are all the remains of ancient Ephesus. It is, 
as described by different travellers, a solemn 
and most forlorn spot. The Epistle to the 
Epliesians is read throughout the world ; but 
there is none in Ephesus to read it now. They 
left their first love, they returned not to their 
first woriss. Their "candlestick has been 
removed out of its place ;" and the great city 
of Ephesus is no more. Dr. Chandler says, 
" The inhabitants are a few Greek peasants, 
living in extreme wretchedness, dependence, 
and insensibility; the representatives of an 
illustrious people, and inhabiting the wreck of 
their greatness ; some, in the substructions of 
the glorious edifices which tkey raised ; some, 
beneath the vaults of the stadium, once the 
crowded scene of their diversions ; and some, 
by the abrupt precipice, in the sepulchres 
which' received their ashes. Its streets are 
obscured and overgrown. A herd of goats 
was driven to it for shelter from the sun at 
noon ; and a noisy flight of crows from the 
quarries seemed to insult its silence. We heard 
the partridge call in the area of the theatre and 
the stadium. The glorious pomp of its Heathen 
worship is no longer remembered ; and Chris- 
tianity, which was here nursed by Apostles, 
and fostered by general councils, until it in- 
creased to fulness of stature, barely lingers on 
in an existence hardly visible." " I was at 
Ephesus," says Mr. Arundell, "in January, 
1824 ; the desolation was then complete : a 
Turk, whose shed we occupied, his Arab serv- 
ant, and a single Greek, composed the entire 
population ; some Turcomans excepted, whose 
black tents were pitched among the ruins. 
The Greek revolution, and the predatory ex- 
cursions of the Samiotes, in great measure 
accounted for this total desertion. There is 
still, however, a village near, probably the 
same which Chishull and Van Egmont men- 
tion, having four hundred Greek houses." 

St. John passed the latter part of his life in 
Asia Minor, and principally at Ephesus, where 
he died. 

EPHOD, -iisN. This article of dress was 
worn by laymen as well as by the high priest. 
The sacred ephod, the one made for the high 
priest, differed from the others, in being fabri- 
cated of cotton, which was coloured with crim- 
son, purple, and blue, and in being ornamented 
with gold. In the time of Josephus, it was a 
cubit of the larger size in length, and was 
furnished with sleeves. The high priest's 
ephod had a very rich button upon each shoul- 
der, made of a large onyx stone set in gold. 
This stone was so large, that the names of the 
twelve tribes of Israel were engraven, six on 
each stone, Exod. xxviii, 9-12. The word 
shoham, which we render onyx, is translated, 
by the Septuagint smaragdos, an emerald ; but 
as we have no certain knowledge either of this, 
or of any of the twelve stones of the breast- 
plate, we may as well be satisfied with our 
translation as with any other. To the ephod 



belonged a curious girdle, of the same rich 
fabric as the ephod itself. This girdle is said 
to be upon the ephod, Exod. xxviii, 8 ; that 
is, woven with the ephod, as Maimonides un- 
derstands ; and, coming out from the ephod on 
each side, it was brought under the arms like 
a sash, and tied upon the breast. Samuel, 
though a Levite only, and a child, wore a linen 
ephod, 1 Sam. ii, 18. And David, in the cere- 
mony of removing the ark from the house of 
Obed-edom to Jerusalem, v^as girt with a linen 
ephod, 2 Sam. vi, 14. The Levites were not 
generally allowed to wear the ephod; but in 
the time of Agrippa, as we are told by Jose- 
phus, a little before ilte taking of Jerusalem by 
the Romans, they obtained of that prince per- 
mission to wear the linen stole as well as the 
priests. Spencer and Cunaeus are of opinion, 
that the Jewish kings had a right to wear the 
ephod, because David, coming to Ziklag, and 
finding that the Amalekites had plundered the 
city, and carried away his and the people's 
wives, ordered Abiathar, the high priest, to 
bring him the ephod, which being done, David 
inquired of the Lord, saying, " Shall I pursue 
after this troop?" 1 Sam. xxx, 8. Whence 
they infer, that David consulted God by urim 
and thummim, and consequently put on the 
ephod. But it is probable the text only means 
that he ordered the priest to do what he is him- 
self said to have done. The ephod of Gideon 
is remarkable for having become the occasion 
of a new kind of idolatry to the Israelites, 
Judges viii, 27. What this consisted in, is 
matter of dispute among the learned. Some 
authors are of opinion that this ephod, as it is 
called, w^as an idol ; others, that it was only a 
trophy in memory of the signal victory ob- 
tained by Gideon, and that the Israelites paid 
a kind of divine worship to it ; so that Gideon 
was the innocent cause of their idolatry, in 
like manner as Moses had been in making the 
brazen serpent, which was afterward wor- 
shipped. 

EPHRAIM was the name of Joseph's second 
son, by Asenath, Potiphar's daughter. He was 
born in Egypt, A. M. 2294. Ephraim, with 
his brother Manasseh, was presented by his 
father Joseph to Jacob on his death bed. Gen. 
xlviii, 8, &c. Jacob laid his right hand on 
Ephraim the younger, and his left on Manas- 
seh the elder. Joseph was desirous to change 
his hands, but Jacob answered, "I know it, 
my son ; Manasseh shall be multiplied, but 
Ephraim shall be greater." The sons of 
Ephraim having made an inroad into Pales, 
tine, the inhabitants of Gath killed them, 
Ephraim their father mourned many days for 
them, and his brethren came to comfort him, 
1 Chron. vii, 20, 21. Afterward, he had a son 
named Beriah, and a daughter Sherah. He 
had also other sons, Rephah, Resheph, Tela, 
&c. His posterity multiplied in Egypt to the 
number of forty thousand five hundred men 
capable of bearing arms. In the land of pro- 
mise, Joshua, who was of this tribe, gave them 
their portion between the Mediterranean west, 
and the river Jordan east. The ark and taber- 
nacle remained long in this tribe at Shiloh; 



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and after the separation of the ten tribes, the 
seat of the kingdom was in Ephraim, and 
hence Ephraim is frequently used to denote 
the whole kingdom. The district belonging to 
this tribe is called Ephratah, Psalm cxxxii, 6. 
Ephraim was led captive beyond the Euphra- 
tes, with all Israel, by Salmaneser, king of 
Assyria, A. M. 3283. 

2. Ephraim was also the name of a city, into 
which Christ retired with his disciples a little 
before his passion, John xi, 54. It was situated 
in the tribe of Ephraim near the river Jordan. 
There was also the wood or forest of Ephraim, 
situated on the other side Jordan, in which 
Absalom's army was routed and himself killed, 
2 Sam. xviii, 6. 

EPHRATH, Caleb's second wife, who was 
the mother of Hur, 1 Chron. ii, 19. From her, 
it is believed that the city of Ephratah, other- 
wise called Bethlehem, where our Lord was 
born, had its name ; and this city is more than 
once known in Scripture by the name of 
Ephrath, Gen. xxxv, 16. 

EPICUREANS, a sect of philosophers in 
Greece and Rome. Epicurus was their foun- 
der, who lived about B. C. 300. The physical 
doctrine of Epicurus was as follows : Nothing 
can ever spring from nothing, nor can any 
thing ever return to nothing. The universe 
always existed, and will always remain; for 
there is nothing into which it can be changed. 
There is nothing in nature, nor can any thing 
be conceived, beside body and space. Body is 
that which possesses the properties of bulk, 
figure, resistance, and gravity ; it is this alone 
which can touch and be touched. Space, or 
vacuum, destitute of the properties of body, 
incapable of action or passion, is the region 
which is or may be occupied by body, and 
which affords it an opportunity of moving 
freely. The existence of bodies is attested by 
the senses. Space must also exist, in order to 
allow bodies place in which to move and exist ; 
and of their existence and motion we have the 
certain proof of perception. Beside body and 
space, no third nature can be conceived. But 
the existence of qualities is not precluded, 
because these have no subsistence except in 
the body to which they belong. The universe, 
consisting of body and space, is infinite. Bodies 
are infinite in multitude ; space is infinite in 
magnitude. The universe is immovable, be- 
cause there is no place beyond it into which it 
can move. It is also eternal and immutable, 
since it is liable to neither increase nor de- 
crease, to production nor decay. Nevertheless, 
the parts of the universe are in motion, and 
are subject to change. All bodies consist of 
parts which are either themselves simple prin- 
ciples, or may be resolved into such. These 
first principles, or simple atoms, are divisible 
by no force, and therefore must be immutable. 

2. The formation of the world he conceived 
to have happened in the following manner : 
A finite number of that infinite multitude of 
atoms, which, with infinite space, constitute 
the universe, falling fortuitously into the re- 
gion of the world, were, in consequence of 
their innate motion, collected into one rude 



and indigested mass. In this chaos, the hea- 
viest and largest atoms, or collections of atoms, 
first subsided, while the smaller, and those 
which from their form would move most freely, 
were driven upwards. These latter, after se- 
veral reverberations, rose into the outer region 
of the world, and formed the heavens. Those 
atoms which, by their size and figure, were 
suited to form fiery bodies, collected themselves 
into stars ; those which were not capable of 
rising so high in the sphere of the world, being 
disturbed by the fiery particles, formed them- 
selves into air. At length, from those which 
subsided, was produced the earth. By the 
action of air, agitated by heat from the hea- 
venly bodies, upon the mixed mass of the earth, 
its smoother and lighter particles were sepa- 
rated from the rest, and water was produced, 
which naturally flowed into the lowest places. 
In the first combination of atoms, which formed 
the chaos, various seeds arose, which, being 
preserved and nourished by moisture and heat, 
afterward sprung forth in organized bodies of 
different kinds. The soul is a subtle corporeal 
substance, composed of the finest atoms, which, 
by the extreme tenuity of its particles, is able 
to penetrate the whole body, and to adhere to 
all its parts. It is composed of four distinct 
parts : fire, which causes animal heat ; an 
ethereal principle which is moist vapour ; air ; 
and a fourth principle, which is the cause of 
sensation. These four parts are so perfectly 
combined as to form one subtle substance, 
which, while it remains in the body, is the 
cause of all its faculties, motions, and passions, 
and which cannot be separated from it, with 
out producing the entire dissolution of the 
animal systenr. 

3. In the universe there are, according to 
Epicurus, without contradiction, divine na- 
tures ; because nature itself has impressed the 
idea of divinity upon the minds of men. The 
notion is universal ; nor is it established by 
custom, law, or any human institution ; but it 
is the effect of an innate principle, producing 
universal consent, and therefore it must be 
true. This universal notion has probably arisen 
from images of the gods, which have casually 
made their way into the minds of men in sleep, 
and have afterward been recollected. But it 
is inconsistent with our natural notions of the 
gods, as happy and immortal beings, to sup- 
pose that they encumber themselves with the 
management of the world, or are subject to the 
cares and passions which must attend so great 
a charge. Hence it is inferred, that the gods 
have no intercourse with mankind, nor any 
concern with the affairs of the world. Never- 
theless, on account of their excellent nature, 
they are objects of reverence and worship. In 
their external shape the gods resemble men ; 
and though the place of their residence is un- 
known to mortals; it is without doubt the 
mansion of perfect purity, tranquillity, and 
happiness. Thus he attempted to account for 
all the appearances of nature, even those which 
respect animated and intelligent beings, upon 
i the simple principles of matter and motion, 
I without introducing the agency of a supreme 



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intelligence, or admitting any other idea of 
fate, than that of blind necessity inherent in 
every atom, by which it moves in a certain 
direction. 

4. The ethics of Epicurus are much less ex- 
ceptionable than his physics ; of which we may 
judge from the following summary : The end 
of living, or the ultimate good, which is to be 
sought for its own sake, according to the uni- 
versal opinion of mankind, is happiness ; which 
men generally fail of attaining, because they 
form wrong notions of the nature of happiness, 
or do not use proper means for attaining it. 
The happiness which belongs to man, is that 
state in which he enjoys as many of the good 
things, and suffers as few of the evils incident 
to human nature as possible, passing his days 
in a smooth course of permanent tranquillity. 
Perfect happiness cannot possibly be possessed 
without the pleasure that attends freedom from 
pain, and the enjoyment of the good things of 
life. Pleasure is in its nature good, and ought 
to be pursued ; and pain is in its nature evil, and 
should be avoided. Beside, pleasure or pain is 
the measure of what is good or evil in every 
object of desire or aversion. However, plea- 
sure ought not in every instance to be pursued, 
nor pain to be avoided ; but reason is to dis.. 
tinguish and compare the nature and degrees 
of each, that the result may be a wise choice 
of that which shall appear to be, upon the 
whole, good. That pleasure is the first good, 
appears from the inclination which every ani- 
mal, from its first birth, discovers to pursue 
pleasure and avoid pain ; and is confirmed by 
the universal experience of mankind, who are 
incited to action by no other principle, than 
the desire of avoiding pain, or obtaining plea- 
sure. Of pleasures there are two kinds ; one 
consisting in a state of rest, in which both body 
and mind are free from pain ; the other arising 
from an agreeable agitation of the senses, pro- 
ducing a correspondent emotion in the soul. 
Upon the former of these, the enjoyment of 
life chiefly depends. Happiness may, there- 
fore, be said to consist in bodily ease and men- 
tal tranquillity. It is the office of reason to 
confine the pursuit of pleasure within the limits 
of nature, so as to attain this happy state ; 
which neither resembles a rapid torrent, nor a 
standing pool, but is like a gentle stream, that 
glides smoothly and silently along. This happy 
state can only be attained by a prudent care of 
the body, and a steady government of the 
mind. The diseases of the body are to be pre- 
vented by temperance, or cured by medicine, 
or endured tolerably by patience. Against the 
diseases of the mind philosophy provides suffi- 
cient antidotes ; the virtues are its instruments 
for this purpose ; the radical spring of which is 
prudence, or wisdom, and this instructs men to 
free their understanding from the clouds of 
prejudice ; to exercise temperance and forti- 
tude in the government of themselves ; and to 
practise justice toward all others. In a happy 
life, pleasure can never be separated from vir- 
tue. The followers of Epicurus, however, de- 
generated into mere sensualists, — an effect 
which could only result from a system which 



denied a supreme God, and excluded from all 
concern with the affairs of men even those 
divine natures which it allowed to exist. This 
sect is mentioned Acts xvii, 18. 

EPISCOPACY, Diocesan. The number of 
Christians in most of the primitive churches 
was at first small : they could easily, when not 
prevented by persecution, assemble together ; 
and they thus formed one church or congrega- 
tion; for, in Scripture, the term church is 
never used in the more modern acceptation of 
the word, but is employed to denote either the 
whole church of Christ, or a number of dis- 
ciples meeting for the celebration of divine 
worship. The converts, however, rapidly in- 
creased; and when they could no longer meet 
in one place,^ other places would be prepared 
for them. But, connected as they still were 
with the parent church, they would choose 
from its presbyters their own pastors, and view 
themselves as under the inspection of the 
president and the presbytery, by whom the 
affairs of the church had been previously con- 
ducted. The pastors v/ould thus remain mem= 
bers of the presbytery, as they had formerly 
been, and would look up to that one of their 
number who had been accustomed to preside 
among them. They were, in fact, for a con- 
siderable time, considered as one with the 
original church : the bishop sent to them the 
elements of the Lord's Supper as the pledge of 
unity ; and we find it asserted by ancient writ- 
ers, that there was one altar and one bishop. 
There were in this way gradually established, 
first in the towns or cities in which the Apos- 
ties had called men to the truth, and then in 
the contiguous district of country, several 
congregations : in these pastors officiated, who 
were authorized by the bishop and presbytery, 
whose superintendence was extended, so that 
parochial episcopacy was insensibly but natu- 
rally changed into diocesan episcopacy ; many 
of the presbyters sent out by the bishop resid- 
ing at their churches, but nevertheless compos- 
ing part of his council, and being summoned 
to meet with him upon important occasions. 
This enlargement of the field of inspection 
rendered the particular superintendence of the 
bishop more requisite ; and was the means both 
of adding to his influence, and of his being 
regarded as permanen+lv raised above his 
brethren. 

2. The ministers who were sent to the re- 
cently erected churches had probably different 
powers, according to the numbers to whom 
they were to officiate, the situation of the 
churches in respect of the original church, 
and the tranquillity or persecution which was 
their lot. In the immediate neighbourhood of 
the bishop, and where one person was suffi- 
cient, he would merely perform the duties that 
had been assigned to him previous to his mis- 
sion ; but the same reasons that led the Apos- 
ties to plant several presbyters in the churches 
which they founded might render it expedient 
that more than one, sometimes that a con- 
siderable number, should be attached to the 
newly.formcd congregations ; more particular- 
ly when the number attending was large, and 



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when there was the prospect of their still far- 
ther increasing. In such cases, it appears that 
the bishop gave to one of the presbyters sent, 
and did so for the same reasons that had at 
first created inequality among the pastors, 
more extensive powers than were entrusted to 
the rest, and made him his representative au- 
thorizing him to preside over the others, and 
to discharge those parts of the ministerial 
office which, in his own church, he reserved 
for himself. When this happened, the person 
so distinguished was termed choro-episcopus : 
he was more than a presbyter, but he was in- 
ferior to the bishop, acted by his directions, 
and could be controlled by him in the exercise 
of the privileges which had been granted. 
Such subordinate bishops continued for a con- 
siderable time; but it might, from the begin- 
ning, have been foreseen that they would soon 
aspire to an equality with the original bishops ; 
and they were at length suppressed, under the 
pretence that, by multiplying the higher order 
in places of little consequence, the church 
would detract from the respectability of that 
order, and lessen the reverence with which it 
should be regarded. 

3. The different congregations or churches 
which were established in various cities and 
the adjoining districts were in so far independ- 
ent of each other, that the bishops and pros- 
byters of each had the rule of their particular 
church, and of the churches which had sprung 
from it, and were entitled, by their own au- 
thority, to make such regulations as appeared 
to them to be requisite ; and this species of in- 
dependence continued for a considerable time, 
every bishop presiding in his congregation, 
and afterward in his diocess. There was, 
however, always a common tie by which they 
were united. Neighbouring churches, actuat- 
ed by ardent zeal for the interests of divine 
truth, consulted together upon the best mode 
of promoting it. We know that the Apostolic 
churches were enjoined to communicate to 
other bodies the epistles which they had re- 
ceived; and while persecution continued, it 
was natural for all who were exposed to it to 
consider by what means its fury could be 
avoided. 

4. After the bishops were established as su- 
perior to presbyters, when any meeting was 
held respecting religion, or the administration 
of the church, it was chiefly composed of this 
higher order, and the president of the synod 
or council was elected from their number. 
These meetings were generally assembled in 
the metropolis, or principal city of the district ; 
and hence the bishop of this city, being fre- 
quently called to preside, came, at length, to 
be regarded as entitled to do so: thus acquir- 
ing a superiority over the other bishops, just 
as they had acquired superiority over the in- 
ferior clergy. He was, in consequence, dis- 
tinguished by a particular name, being denomi- 
nated, from the city in which he presided, a 
metropolitan. 

EPISCOPALIANS, those who maintain 
that bishops, presbyters, or priests, and dea- 
cons, are three distinct orders in the church ; 



and that the bishops have a superiority over 
both the others. The episcopal form of church 
government professes to find in the days of the 
Apostles the model upon which it is framed. 
While our Lord remained upon earth, he acted 
as the immediate governor of his church. Hav- 
ing himself called the Apostles, he kept them 
constantly about his person, except at one 
time, when he sent them forth upon a short 
progress through the cities of Judea, and gave 
them particular directions how they should 
conduct themselves. The seventy disciples, 
whom he sent forth at another time, are never 
mentioned again in the New Testament. But 
the Apostles received from him many intima- 
tions that their office was to continue after his 
departure ; and as one great object of his mi- 
nistry was to qualify them for the execution of 
this office, so, in the interval between his re- 
surrection and his ascension, he explained to 
them the duties of it, and he invested them 
with the authority which the discharge of 
those duties implied. "Go," said he, "make 
disciples of all nations, baptizing them, teach- 
ing them ; and lo, I am with you alway, even 
unto the end of the world. As my Father hath 
sent me, even so send I you. Receive ye the 
Holy Ghost," Matt, xxviii, 19, 20 ; John xx, 
21, 22. Soon after the ascension of Jesus, 
his Apostles received those extraordinary gifts 
of which his promise had given them assur- 
ance ; and immediately they began to execute 
their commission, not only as the witnesses of 
his resurrection, and the teachers of his re- 
ligion, but as the rulers of that society which 
was gathered by their preaching. In Acts vi, 
we find the Apostles ordering the Christians 
at Jerusalem to " look out seven men of honest 
report," who might take charge of the daily 
ministrations to the poor, and to bring the 
men so chosen to them, that "we," said the 
Apostles, "may appoint them over this busi- 
ness." The men accordingly were "set before 
the Apostles ; and when they had prayed, they 
laid their hands on them." Here are the Apos- 
tles ordaining deacons. Afterward, we find 
St. Paul, in his progress through Asia Minor, 
ordaining in every church elders, zspeaSvTipys ; 
the name properly expressive of age being 
transferred, after the practice of the Jews, as a 
mark of respect, to ecclesiastical rulers. Acts 
xiv, 23. The men thus ordained by St. Paul 
appear, from the book of Acts and the Epistles, 
to have been teachers, pastors, overseers, of 
the flock of Christ ; and to Timothy, who was 
a minister of the word, the Apostle speaks of 
" the gift which is in thee by the putting on of 
my hands," 2 Tim. i, 6. Over the persons to 
whom he thus conveyed the office of teaching, 
he exercised jurisdiction ; for he sent to Ephe- 
sus, to the elders of the church to meet him at 
Miletus ; and there, in a long discourse, gave 
them a solemn charge. Acts xx, 17-35; and 
to Timothy and Titus he writes epistles in the 
style of a superior. 

2. As St. Paul unquestionably conceived" 
that there belonged to him, as an Apostle, an 
authority over other office-bearers of the 
church, so his epistles contain two examples 



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of a delegation of that authority. He not only 
directs Timothy, whom he had besought to 
abide at Ephesus, how to behave himself in 
the house of God as a minister, but he sets 
him over other ministers. He empowers him 
to ordain men to the work of the ministry : 
" The things that thou hast heard of me among 
many witnesses, the same commit thou to 
faithful men, who shall be able to teach others 
also," 2 Tim. ii, 2. He gives him directions 
about the ordination of bishops and deacons ; 
he places both these kinds of office-bearers in 
Ephesus under his inspection, instructing him 
in what manner to receive an accusation 
against an elder who laboured in word and 
doctrine ; and he commands him to charge 
some that they teach no other doctrine but the 
form of sound words. In like manner he says 
to Titus, " For this cause left I thee in Crete, 
that thou shouldest set in order the things that 
are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, 
as I had appointed thee," Titus i, 5. He de- 
scribes to Titus the qualifications of a bishop 
or elder, making him the judge how far any 
person in Crete was possessed of these qualifi- 
cations ; he gives him authority over all orders 
of Christians there ; and he empowers him to 
reject heretics. Here, then, is that Apostle, 
with whose actions we are best acquainted, 
seemingly aware that there would be continual 
occasion in the Christian church for the exer- 
cise of that authority over pastors and teach- 
ers, which the Apostles had derived from the 
Lord Jesus ; and by these two examples of a 
delegation, given during his life time, prepar- 
ing the world for beholding that authority ex- 
ercised by the successors of the Apostles in 
all ages. Accordingly, the earliest Christian 
writers tell us that the Apostles, to prevent 
contention, appointed bishops and deacons : 
giving orders, too, that, upon their death, other 
approved men should succeed in their minis- 
try. We are told that the other Apostles con- 
stituted their first-fruits, that is, their first dis- 
ciples, after they had proved them by the 
Spirit, bishops and deacons of those who were 
to believe ; and that the Apostle John, who 
survived the rest, after returning from Patmos, 
the place of his banishment, went about the 
neighbouring nations, ordaining bishop.?, esta- 
blishing whole churches, and setting apart par- 
ticular persons for the ministry, as they were 
pointed out to him by the Spirit. 

3. As bishops are mentioned in the earliest 
times, so ecclesiastical history records the suc- 
cession of bishops through many ages ; and 
even during the first three centuries, before 
Christianity was incorporated with the state, 
every city, where the multitude of Christians 
required a number of pastors to perform the 
stated offices, presents to us, as far as we can 
gather from contemporary writers, an appear- 
ance very much the same with that of the church 
of Jerusalem in the days of the Apostles. The 
Apostle James seems to have resided in that city. 
But there is also mention of the elders of the 
church, who, according to the Scripture repre- 
sentation of elders, must have discharged the 
ministerial office, but over whom the Apostle 



James presided. So, in Carthage, where Cy- 
prian was bishop, and in every other Christian 
city of which we have particular accounts, 
there was a college of presbyters ; and there 
was one person who had not only presidency, 
but jurisdiction and authority, over the rest. 
They were his council in matters relating to 
the church, and they were qualified to preach, 
to baptize, and to administer the Lord's Supper ; 
but they could do nothing without his permis- 
sion and authority. It is a principle in Chris, 
tian antiquity, elg eniaKonos, jxia iKKXriaia, *' one 
bishop, and one church." The one bishop had 
the care of all the Christians, who, although 
they met in separate congregations, constitut- 
ed one church ; and he had the inspection of 
the pastors, who, having received ordination 
from the bishop, officiated in the separate con- 
gregations, performed the several parts of duty 
which he prescribed to them, and were ac- 
countable to him for their conduct. In con- 
tinuation of this primitive institution, we find 
episcopacy in all corners of the church of 
Christ. Until the time of the reformation, 
there were, in every Christian state, persons 
with the name, the rank, and the authority of 
bishops ; and the existence of such persons 
was not considered as an innovation, but as an 
establishment, which, by means of catalogues 
preserved in ecclesiastical writers, may be 
traced back to the days of the Apostles. 

4. Upon the principles which have now been 
stated, it is understood, according to the epis. 
copal form of government, that there is in the 
church a superior order of office-bearers, the 
successors of the Apostles, who possess in their 
own persons the right of ordination and juris- 
diction, and who are called t-niaKo-Koi, as being 
the overseers not only of the people, but also 
of the clergy ; and an inferior order of minis- 
ters, called presbyters, the literal translation of 
the word TzpscSvripoi, which is rendered in our 
English Bibles elders, persons who receive,' 
from the ordination of the bishop, power to 
preach and to administer the sacraments, who 
are set over the people, but are themselves un- 
der the government of the bishop, and have no 
right to convey to others the sacred office,^ 
which he gives them authority to exercise 
under him. According to a phrase used by 
Charles I, who was by no means an unlearned 
defender of that form of government to which 
he was a martyr, the presbyters are episcopi 
gregis; [bishops of the flock ;] but the bishops- 
are episcopi gregis et pastorum, [bishops of the 
flock and of the pastors.] 

5. The liberal writers on that side, however,, 
do not contend that this form of government 
is made so binding in the church as not to be 
departed from, and varied according to circum- 
stances. It cannot be proved, says Dr. Paley, 
that any form of church government was laid 
down in the Christian, as it had been in the 
Jewish, Scriptures, with a view of fixing a 
constitution for succeeding ages. The truth 
seems to have been, that such offices were at 
first erected in the Christian church as tlie good 
order, the instruction, and the exigencies of 
the society at that time required ; without any 



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intention, at least without any declared design, 
of regulating the appointment, authority, or 
the distinction, of Christian ministers under 
future circumstances. To the same effect, also, 
Bishop Tomline says, "It is not contended 
that the bishops, priests, and deacons of Eng- 
land are at present precisely the same that 
bishops, presbyters, and deacons were in Asia 
Minor, seventeen hundred years ago. We only 
maintain that^there have always been bishops, 
priests, and deacons, in the Christian church, 
since the days of the Apostles, with different 
powers and functions, it is allowed, in different 
countries and at different periods ; but the ge- 
neral principles and duties which have respect, 
ively characterized these clerical orders have 
been essentially the same at all times, and in all 
places ; and the variations which they have 
undergone have onl}'^ been such as have ever 
belonged to all persons in public situations, 
whether civil or ecclesiastical, and which are in- 
deed inseparable from every thing in which man- 
kind are concerned in this transitory and fluct- 
uating world. I have thought it right to take 
this general view of the ministerial office, and to 
make these observations upon the clerical or- 
ders subsisting in this kingdom, for the purpose 
of pointing out the foundation and principles 
of church authority, and of showing that our 
ecclesinstical establishment is as nearly con- 
formable, as change of circumstances will per- 
mit, to the practice of the primitive church. 
But, though I flatter myself that I have proved 
episcopacy to be an Apostolical institution, yet 
I readily acknowledge that there is no precept 
in the New Testament which commands that 
every church should be governed by bishops. 
No church can exist without some govern- 
ment ; but though there must be rules and or- 
ders for the proper discharge of the offices of 
public worship, though there must be fixed 
regulations concerning the appointment of 
ministers, and though a subordination among 
them is expedient in the highest degree, yet it 
does not follow that all these things must be 
precisely the same in every Christian country ; 
they may vary with the other varying circum- 
stances of human society, with the extent of 
a country, the manners of its inhabitants, 
the nature of its civil government, and many 
other peculiarities which might be specified. 
As it has not pleased our almighty Father to 
prescribe any particular form of civil govern- 
ment for the security of temporal comforts to 
his rational creatures, so neither has he pre- 
scribed any particular form of ecclesiastical 
polity as absolutely necessary to the attainment 
of eternal happiness. But he has, in the most 
explicit terms, enjoined obedience to all go- 
vernors, whether civil or ecclesiastical, and 
whatever may be their denomination, as essen- 
tial to the character of a true Christian. Thus 
the Gospel only lays down general principles, 
and leaves the application of them to men as 
free agents." Bishop Tomline, however, and 
the high Episcopalians of the church of Eng- 
land, contend for an original distinction in the 
office and order of bishops and presbyters; 
which notion is controverted by the Presbyte- 



rians, and is, indeed, contradicted by one who 
may be truly called the founder of the church 
of England, Archbishop Cranmer, who says, 
"The bishops and priests were at one time, 
and were not two things ; but both one office 
in the beginning of Christ's religion." The 
more rigid Episcopalians admit of no ordina- 
tion as valid in the church but by the hands of 
bishops, and those derived in a right line firom 
the Apostles. See Presbyterians. 

6. The churches of Rome and of England 
are the principal Episcopalian churches in the 
west of Europe ; and those of the Greeks and 
Arminians in the east ; but, beside these, there 
are Episcopalians in Scotland, and in other 
countries, where, Presbyterianism being the 
establishment, they are, of course, Dissenters. 
Thus a Presbyterian is a Dissenter in England, 
and an Episcopalian a Dissenter in Scotland. 
There is also an Episcopalian church in the 
United States of America ; but there being no 
established religion, there are, of course, no 
Dissenters. The Episcopal church in America 
is organized very differently from that in Eng- 
land. The following particulars are from the 
best authorities : — The general convention was 
formed in 1789, by a delegation from the dif- 
ferent states, and meets triennially. They have 
eleven diocesses, two of which are without 
bishops, and are at liberty to form more in 
other states. The above convention consists 
of an upper and lower house ; the former con- 
sisting of bishops, in which the senior bishop 
presides : they have no archbishop : and the 
lower, of the other clergy, and laymen mingled 
with them. There are also diocesan conventions 
annually, in which the bishop presides. The 
bishops have no salaries as such, but are allow- 
ed to hold parishes as other ministers ; but it 
has lately been found more convenient in many 
states to raise a fund for the support of the 
bishop, that his time may be more at liberty 
for visiting the clergy. They have neither 
patronage nor palaces, and some of their in- 
comes are extremely small. The English Com. 
mon Prayer Book is adopted, with the omission 
of the Athanasian Creed, and some other slight 
alterations. Subscription to the articles is not 
required by candidates for holy orders. The 
Methodists in America, also, form an episcopal 
church ; but founded upon the primitive prin- 
ciple that bishops and presbyters are of the 
same order, although the oversight of presby- 
ters may be committed to those who are, by 
virtue of their office, also called bishops. 

[The Methodist Episcopal Church was or- 
ganized in December, 1784. The fundamental 
principle on which the episcopacy of this church 
rests, is here correctly stated. It is proper to 
add to Mr. Watson's enumeration, that the Ro- 
man and Moravian churches in the United States 
are also episcopal ; and that the statement that 
the bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
receive no salaries as bishops, is not at present 
(1832) without exception. Their incomes, too, 
though doubtless extremely small compared 
with those of the bishops of the establishment 
in England, are not so, compared with those of 
other ministers generally in the United States.^ 



EPI 



351 



ESA 



EPISTLES, which occur under the same 
Hebrew word with books, namely, lao, are 
mentioned the more rarely, the farther we go 
back into antiquity. An epistle is first men- 
tioned, 2 Sam. xi, 14, &c. Afterward, there 
is more frequent mention of them ; and some- 
times an epistle is meant, when literally a mes- 
senger is spoken of, as in Ezra iv, 15-17. In 
the east, letters are commonly sent unsealed. 
In case, however, they are sent to persons of 
distinction, they are placed in a valuable purse, 
which is tied, closed over with wax or clay, 
and then stamped with a signet, Isaiah xxix, 
11 ; Job xxxviii, 14. The most ancient epis. 
ties begin and end without either salutation or 
farewell ; but under the Persian monarchy the 
salutation was very prolix. It is given in an 
abridged form in Ezra iv, 7-10 ; v, 7 The 
Apostles, in their epistles, used the salutation 
customary among the Greeks ; but they omit- 
ted the usual farewell at the close, namely, 
Xaipeiv, and adopted a benediction more con- 
formable to the spirit of the Christian religion. 
St. Paul, when he dictated his letters, wrote 
the benediction at the close with his own hand, 
2 Thess. iii, 17 He was more accustomed to 
dictate his letters than to write them himself. 

The name Epistles is given, by way of emi- 
nence, to the letters written by the Apostles, 
or first preachers of Christianity, to particular 
churches or persons, on particular occasions 
or subjects. Of these the Apostle Paul wrote 
fourteen. St. James wrote one general epis- 
tle ; St. Peter two ; St. John three ; and St. 
Jude one. 

An epistle has its Hebrew name from its be- 
ing rolled or folded together. The modern 
Arabs roll up their letters, and then flatten 
them to the breadth of an inch, and paste up 
the end of them, instead of sealing them. The 
Persians make up their letters in a roll about 
six inches long, and a bit of paper is fastened 
round it with gum, and sealed with an impres- 
sion of ink, which resembles our printers' ink, 
but is not so thick. Letters, as stated above, 
were generally sent to persons of distinction 
in a bag or purse ; but to inferiors, or those 
who were held in contempt, they were sent 
open, that is, unenclosed. Lady M. W. Mon- 
tagu says, the bassa of Belgrade's answer to 
the English ambassador going to Constantino- 
ple was brought to him in a purse of scarlet 
satin. But, in the case of Nehemiah, an insult 
was designed to be offered to him by Sanballat, 
in refusing him the mark of respect usually 
paid to persons of his station, and treating him 
contemptuously, by sending the letter open, 
that is, without the customary appendages 
when presented to persons of respectability. 
" Futty Sihng," says Mr. Forbes, " sent a chop- 
dar to me at Dhuboy, with a letter of invita- 
tion to the wedding, then celebrating at Bro- 
dera at a great expense, and of long continu- 
ance. The letter, as usual, from oriental 
princes, was written on silver paper, flowered 
with gold, with an additional sprinkling of 
saffron, enclosed under a cover of gold brocade. 
The letter was accompanied with a bag of 
crimson and gold keem-cauh^ filled with sweet- 



scented seeds, as a mark of favour an^ good 
omen." 

EPOCH, a term in chronology signifying a 
fixed point of time, from which the succeeding 
years are numbered. Scaliger says it means 
"a stop," because "in epochs stop and termi- 
nate the measures of times." It now usually 
denotes a remarkable date ; as, the epoch of 
the destruction of Troy, B. C. 1183, &c. The 
first epoch is the creation of the world, which, 
according to the Vulgate Bible, Archbishop 
Usher fixes in the year 710 of the Julian period, 
and 4004 years before Jesus Christ. The second 
is the deluge, which, according to the Hebrew 
text, happened in the year of the world 1656. 
Six other epochs are commonly reckoned in 
sacred history : the building of the tower of 
Babel, which was, according to Dr. Hales, 
B. C. 2554 ; the calling of Abraham, B. C. 
2153; the departure of the Israelites out of 
Egypt, B. C. 1648; the dedication of the tem- 
ple, B. C. 1027 ; the end of the Babylonish 
captivity, B. C. 536 ; and the birth of Jesus 
Christ, A. D. 1. In profane history are reckon- 
ed five epochs : the founding of the Assyrian 
empire, B. C. 1267 ; the era of Nabonassar, or 
death of Sardanapalus, B. C. 747 ; the reign of 
Cyrus at Babylon, B. C. 556; the reign of 
Alexander the Great over the Persians, B. C. 
330; and the beginning of the reign of Augus- 
tus, in which our Saviour was born, B. C. 44. 

ERA. The term era (not <Bra, as incorrectly 
written) is Spanish, signifying time, as in the 
phrase, de era en era, " from time to time." It 
was first used in the Era Hispanica, instituted 
B. C. 38, in honour of Augustus, when Spain 
was allotted to him in the distribution of the 
provinces among the second triumvirate, Au- 
gustus, Anthony, and Lepidus. It now usually 
denotes an indefinite series of years, begin- 
ning from some known epoch ; and so differs 
from a period which is a definite series : as the 
era of the foundation of Rome, the era of the 
Olympiads, the era of Nabonassar, &c. See 
Epoch. 

ES AR-HADDON, son of Sennacherib, and 
his successor in the kingdom of Assyria : called 
Sargon, or Saragon, Isa. xx, 1. He reigned 
twenty-nine years. He made war with the 
Philistines, and took Azoth, by Tartan, his 
general : he attacked Egypt, Cush, and Edom, 
Isa. XX, xxxiv ; designing, probably, to avenge 
the affront Sennacherib his father had received 
from Tirhakah, king of Cush, and the king of 
Egypt, who had been Hezekiah's confederates. 
He sent priests to the Cuthajans, whom Sal- 
maneser, king of Assyria, had planted in Sa- 
maria, instead of the Israelites: he took Jeru- 
salem, and carried King Manasseh to Babylon, 
of which he had become master, perhaps, BlF 
cause there was no heir to Belesis, king of 
Bayblon. He is said to have reigned twenty- 
nine or thirty years at Nineveh, and thirteen 
years at Babylon ; in all forty-two years. He 
died A. M. 3336. 

ESAU, son of Isaac and Rebekah, born 
A. M. 2168, B. C. 1836. When the time of 
Rebekah's delivery came, she had twins, Gen. 
XXV, 24-26 : the first-born was hairy, therefore 



ESA 



352 



ESH 



called Esaa ; that is, a man full grown or of 
perfect age ; but some derive Esau from the 
Arabic gescka or genckeva, which signifies a 
hair cloth. Esau delighted in hunting,- and 
his father Isaac had a particular affection for 
him. On one occasion, Esau, returning from 
the fields greatly fatigued, desired Jacob to give 
him some red pottage, which he was then pre- 
paring. Jacob consented, provided Esau would 
sell him his birthright. Esau complied, and 
by oath resigned it to him, Gen. xxv, 29-34. 
Esau, when aged forty, married two Canaan- 
itish women, Judith, daughter of Beeri, the 
Hittite ; and Bashemath, daughter of Elon, 
Gen. xxvi, 34. These marriages were very 
displeasing to Isaac and Rebekah, because they 
intermingled the blood of Abraham with that 
of Canaanite aliens. Isaac being old, and his 
sight decayed, directed Esau to procure him 
delicate venison by hunting, that he might 
give him his chief blessing. Gen. xxvii. The 
artifice of his mother, however, counteracted 
his purpose ; and she contrived to impose upon 
Isaac, and to obtain the father's principal bless- 
ing for her son Jacob. Esau was indignant on 
account of this treachery and determined to 
kill Jacob as soon as their father should die. 
Rebekah again interposed, and sent Jacob away 
to her brother Laban, with whom he might be 
secure. During the period of separation, which 
lasted several years, Esau married a wife of the 
family of Ishmael ; and, removing to Mount 
Seir, acquired great power and wealth. When 
Jacob returned, after long absence, to his fa- 
ther's country, with a numerous family, and 
large flocks and herds, he dreaded his brother's 
displeasure ; but they had an amicable and 
affectionate interview. After their father's 
death, they lived in peace and amity ; but, as 
their possessions enlarged, and there was not 
sufficient room for them in the land in which 
they were strangers, Esau returned to Mount 
Seir, where his posterity multiplied under the 
denomination of Edomites. (See Edom.) The 
time of his death is not mentioned ; but Bishop 
Cumberland thinks it probable that he died 
about the same time with his brother Jacob, at 
the age of about one hundred and forty-seven 
years. Gen. xxv-xxxvi. 

2. On the most important part of this history, 
the selling of the birthright, we may observe, 
(1.) That although it was always the design of 
God that the blessing connected with prime- 
geniture in the family of Abraham should be 
enjoyed by Jacob, and to exercise his sove- 
reignty in changing the succession in which 
the promises of the Abrahamic covenant might 
descend ; yet the conduct of Rebekah and Ja- 
cob was reprehensible in endeavouring to bring 
about the divine design by the unworthy means 
of contrivance and deceit ; and they were pun- 
nished for their presumption by their sufferings. 
(2.) That the conduct of Esau in selling his 
birthright was both wanton and profane. It 
was wanton, because he, though faint, could 
be in no danger of not obtaining a supply of 
food in his father's house ; and was therefore 
wholly influenced by his appetite, excited by 
the delicacy of Jacob's pottage. It was pro- 



fane, because the blessings of the birthright 
were spiritual as well as civil. The church of 
God was to be established in the line of the 
first-born ; and in that line the Messiah was to 
appear. These high privileges were despised 
by Esau, who is therefore made by St. Paul a 
type of all apostates from Christ, who, like him, 
profanely despise their birthright as the sons 
of God. See Birthright. 

ESDRAELON, Plain of, in the tribe of 
Issachar, extends east and west from Scytho- 
polis to Mount Carmel ; called, likewise, the 
Great Plain, the Valley of Jezreel, the Plain of 
Esdrela. Dr. E. D. Clarke observes, it is by 
far the largest plain in the Holy Land ; ex- 
tending quite across the country from Mount 
Carmel and the Mediterranean Sea to the 
southern extremity of the Sea of Galilee ; 
about thirty miles in length, and twenty in 
breadth. It is also a very fertile district, 
abounding in pasture ; on which account it 
has been selected for the purposes of encamp- 
ment by almost every army that has traversed 
the Holy Land. Here Barak, descending with 
his ten thousand men from Mount Tabor, 
which rises like a cone in the centre of the 
plain, defeated Sisera, with his " nine hundred 
chariots of iron, and all the people that were 
with him, gathered from Harosheth of the 
Gentiles unto the river of Kishon; and pur- 
sued after the chariots and after the host unto 
Harosheth of the Gentiles ; and all the host of 
Sisera fell upon the edge of the sword ; and 
there was not a man left," Judges iv. Here 
Josiah, king of Judah, fell, fighting against 
Necho, king of Egypt, 2 Kings xxiii, 29. 
And here the Midianites and the Amalekites, 
who were "like grasshoppers for multitude, 
and their camels without number as the sand 
of the sea," encamped, when they were de- 
feated by Gideon, Judges vi. This plain has 
likewise been used for the same purpose by 
the armies of every conqueror or invader, from 
Nabuchodonosor, king of Assyria, to his imi- 
tator, Napoleon Buonaparte, who, in the spring 
of 1799, with a small body of French, defeated 
ail army of several thousand Turks and Mame- 
lukes. Jews, Gentiles, Saracens, Christians, 
crusaders, and antichristian Frenchmen, Egyp- 
tians, Persians, Druses, Turks, and Arabs, 
warriors out of every nation which is under 
heaven, have pitched their tents in the Plain 
of Esdraelon ; and have beheld the various 
banners of their nations wet with the dews of 
Tabor and of Hermon. And it is to this day 
generally found to be the place of encampment 
of large parties of Arabs. 

ESDRAS, the name of two apocryphal 
books which were always excluded the Jew- 
ish canon, and are too absurd to be admitted 
as canonical by the Papists themselves. They 
are supposed to have been originally written 
in Greek by some Hellenistical Jews ; though 
some imagine that they were first written in 
Chaldee, and afterward translated into Greek. 
It is uncertain when they were composed, 
though it is generally agreed that the author 
wrote before Josephus. 

ESHBAAL, or ISHBOSHETH, the fourth 



ESS 



353 



ESS 



son of Saul The Hebrews, to avoid pro- 
nouncing the word baal, " lord," used bosheth, 
" confusion." Instead of Mephi-baal, they 
said Mephi-boslieth ; and, instead of Esh-baal, 
they said Ish-bosheth, 2 Sam. ii, 8. 

ESHCOL, one of Abraham's allies, who 
dwelt with him in the valley of Mamre, and 
accompanied him in the pursuit of Chedor 
laomer, and the other confederated kings, who 
pillaged Sodom and Gomorrah, and carried 
away Lot, Abraham's nephew. Gen. xiv, 24. 
Also the valley or brook of Eshcol was that in 
which the Hebrew messengers, who wer^t to 
spy the land of Canaan, cut a bunch of grapes 
so large that it was as much as two men could 
carry. It was situated in the south part of 
Judah, Num. xiii, 24 ; xxxii, 9. 

ESSENES, or ESSENIANS, one of the 
three ancient sects of the Jews. They appear 
to have been an enthusiastic sect, never nume- 
rous, and but little known; directly opposite 
to the Pharisees with respect to their reliance 
upon tradition, and their scrupulous regard to 
the ceremonial law, but pretending, like them, 
to superior sanctity of manners. They existed 
in the time of our Saviour ; and though they 
are not mentioned in the New Testament, they 
are supposed to be alluded to by St. Paul in his 
Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, and 
in his first Epistle to Timothy. From the ac- 
count given of the doctrines and institutions 
of this sect by Philo and Josephus, we learn 
that they believed in the immortality of the 
soul ; that they were absolute predestinarians ; 
that they observed the seventh day with peculiar 
strictness ; that they held the Scriptures in the 
highest reverence, but considered them as 
mystic writings, and expounded them allegori- 
caliy ; that they sent gifts to the temple, but 
offered no sacrifices ; that they admitted no 
. one into their society till after a probation of 
three years ; that they lived in a state of per- 
feet equality, except that they paid respect to 
the aged, and to their priests ; that they con- 
sidered all secular employment as unlawful, 
except that of agriculture ; that they had all 
things in common, and were industrious, quiet, 
and free from every species of vice ; that they 
held celibacy and solitude in high esteem ; that 
they allowed no change of raiment till neces- 
sity required it ; that they abstained from wine ; 
that they were not permitted to eat but with 
their own sect ; and that a certain portion of 
food was allotted to each person, of which 
they partook together, after solemn ablutions. 
The austere and retired life of the Essenes is 
supposed to have given rise to monkish super- 
stition. 

The Therapeutse were a distinct branch of 
the Essenes. Jahn has thus described the dif- 
ference between them : The principal ground 
of difference between the Essenes or Essaei, 
and Therapeutse consisted in this ; the former 
were Jews, who spoke the Aramean ; the latter 
were Greek Jews, as the names themselves in- 
timate, namely, n^dn and BcpaTrcvral. The Es- 
senes lived chiefly in Palestine ; the Therapeu- 
t8B, in Egypt. The Therapeutse were more 
rigid than the Essenes, since thclatter, although 
24 



they made it a practice to keep at a distance 
from large cities, lived, nevertheless, in towns 
and villages, and practised agriculture and the 
arts, with the exception of those arts which 
were made more directly subservient to the 
purposes of Avar. The Therapeutae, on the 
contrary, fled from all inhabited places, dwelt 
in fields and deserts and gardens, and gave 
themselves up to contemplation. Both the 
Essenes and the Therapeutee held their pro- 
perty in common, and those things which they 
stood in need of for the support and the com- 
forts of life, were distributed to them from the 
common stock. The candidates for admission 
among the Essenes gave their property to the 
society; but those who were destined for a 
membership with the Therapeutoa, left theirs to 
their friends ; and both, after a number of years 
of probation, made a profession which bound 
them to the exercise of the strictest upright- 
ness. The Romanists pretend, as Dr. Prideaux 
observes, without any foundation, that the Es- 
senes were Christian monks, formed into a 
society by St. Mark, who founded the first 
church at Alexandria. But it is evident, from 
the accounts of Josephus and Philo, that the 
Essenes were not Christians, but Jews. 

Dr. Neander's account of the Essenes is as 
follows : — A company of pious men, much ex- 
perienced in the trials of the outward and of 
the inward life, had withdrawn themselves out 
of the strife of theological and political parties, 
at first apparently (according to Pliny the 
elder) to the western side of the Dead Sea ; 
where they lived together in intimate connec- 
tion, partly in the same sort of society as the 
monks of later days, and partly as mystical 
orders in all periods have done. From this 
society, other smaller ones afterward proceed- 
ed, and spread themselves over all Palestine. 
They were called Essenes, 'Ecraijvoi or 'Ecaaioh 
They employed themselves in the arts of peace, 
agriculture, pasture, handicraft works, and es- 
pecially in the art of healing, while they took 
great delight in investigating the healing pow- 
ers of nature. It is probable, also, that they 
imagined themselves under the guidance of a 
supernatural illumination in their search into 
nature, and their use of her powers. Their natu- 
ral knowledge, and their art of healing, appear 
also to have had a religious, theosophic cha- 
racter, as they professed also to have peculiar 
prophetical gifts. The Essenes were, no dovibt, 
distinguished from the mass of ordinary Jews 
by this, that they knew and loved something 
higher than the outward ceremonial and a 
dead faith, that they did really strive after ho- 
liness of heart, and inward communion with 
God. Their quiet, pious habits also rendered 
them remarkable, and by means of tlicse they 
remained quiet amidst all the political changes, 
respected by all parties, even by the Heathens ; 
and by their laborious habits and kindness, 
their obedience toward the higher powers, as 
ordained of God, their fidelity and love of truth, 
they were enabled to extend themselves in all 
directions. In their society every yea and nay 
had the force of an oath ; for every oath, said 
they, pre-supposes a mutual distrust, which 



ESS 



354 



EST 



ought not to be the case among a society of 
honest men. Only ii? one case was an oath 
suffered among them, namely, as a pledge for 
those who after a three years' noviciate were 
to be received into the number of the initiated. 
According to the portraiture of them, given by 
Philo, the Alexandrian, in his separate treatise 
concerning the "True Freedom of the Virtu- 
ous," we should take the Essenes for men of 
an entirely practical religious turn, far removed 
from all theosophy and all idle speculation ; 
and we should ascribe to them an inward re- 
ligious habit of mind, free from all mixture of 
superstition and reliance on outward things. 
But the account of Philo does not at all accord 
with that of Josephus; and the more historical 
Josephus deserves in general more credit than 
Philo, who was too apt to indulge in philoso- 
phizing and idealism. Beside, Josephus had 
more opportunity of knowing this sect tho- 
roughly, than Philo ; for Philo lived in Egypt, 
and the Essenes did not extend beyond Pales- 
tine. Josephus had here passed the greater 
part of his life, and had certainly taken all 
necessary pains to inform himself accurately 
of the nature of the different sects, among 
which he was determined, as a youth of sixteen 
years of age, to make choice, although he can 
hardly have completely passed through a no- 
viciate in the sect of the Essenes, because he 
made the round of all the three Jewish sects, 
in a period of from three to four years. Jose- 
phus, also, shows himself completely unpreju- 
diced in this description ; while Philo, on the 
contrary, wished to represent the Essenes to 
the more cultivated Greeks as models of prac- 
tical wisdom, and, therefore, he allowed him- 
self to represent much, not as it really was, but 
as it suited his purpose. We must conclude 
that the Essenes did also busy themselves with 
theosophy, and pretended to impart to those of 
their order disclosures relating to the super- 
natural world of spirits, because those who 
were about to be initiated, were obliged to 
swear that they would never make known 
to any one the names of the angels then to be 
communicated to them. The manner in which 
they kept secret the ancient books of their sect 
is also a proof of this. And, indeed, Philo 
himself makes it probable, when he says, that 
they employed themselves with a <pi\oco(pia hid 
avii(3o\Cjv, a philosophy which was supported by 
an allegorical interpretation of Scripture, for 
this kind of allegorizing interpretation was 
usually the accompaniment of a certain specu- 
lative system. According to Philo, they rejected 
the sacrifice of victims, because they considered, 
that to consecrate and offer up themselves 
wholly to God, was the only true sacrifice, the 
only sacrifice worthy of God. But according 
to Josephus they certainly considered sacrifice 
as something peculiarly holy, but they thought 
that from its peculiar holiness it must have 
been desecrated by the profane Jews in the 
temple of Jerusalem, and that it could be 
worthily celebrated only in their holy com- 
munity, just as mystic sects of this nature are 
constantly accustomed to make the objective 
acts of religion dependent on the subjective 



condition of those who perform or take part in 
them. In the troublesome and superstitious ob- 
servance of the rest of the Sabbath, according 
to the letter, and not according to the spirit, 
they went even farther than the other Jews, 
only with this difierence, that they were in good 
earnest in the matter, while the Pharisees by 
their casuistry relaxed their rules, or drew them 
tighter, just as it suited their purpose. The 
Essenes, not only strenuously abhorred, like 
the other Jews, contact with the uncircum- 
cised, but, having divided themselves into four 
classes, the Essenes of a higher grade were 
averse from contact with those of a lower, as 
if they were rendered unclean by it, and when 
any thing of this kind did happen, they purified 
themselves afler it. Like many other Jews, 
they attributed great value, in general, to lus- 
tration by bathing in cold water. To their 
ascetic notions, the constant and healthy prac- 
tice in the east of anointing with oil seemed 
unholy, and if it befel any one of them, he was 
obliged to purify himself. It was also a great 
abomination to them to eat any food except 
such as had been prepared by persons of their 
own sect. They would die rather than eat of 
any other. This is a sufficient proof that 
although the Essenes might possess a certain 
inward religious life, and a certain practical 
piety, yet that these qualities with them, as 
well as with many other mystical sects, as for 
example, those of the middle ages, were con. 
nected with a theosophy, which desired to 
know things hidden from human reason, 
iH^uTEvtiv ds a Tis pi iijopaKtv, and therefore lost 
itself in idle imaginations and dreams, and were 
also mixed up with an outw^ard asceticism, a 
proud spirit of separation from the rest of raan^ 
kind, and superstitious observances and de- 
meanours totally at variance with the true 
spirit of inward religion. 

ESTHER. The book of Esther is so called, 
because it contains the history of Esther a 
Jewish captive, who by her remarkable accom- 
plishments gained the affection of King Ahas- 
uerus, and by marriage with him was raised to 
the throne of Persia ; and it relates the origin 
and ceremonies of the feast of Purim, institut- 
ed in commemoration of the great deliverance, 
which she, by her interest, procured for the 
Jews, whose general destruction had been con- 
certed by the offended pride of Haman. There 
is great diversity of opinion concerning the 
autlaor of this book ; it has been ascribed to 
Ezra, to Mordecai, to Joachim, and to the joint 
labours of the great synagogue ; and it is im- 
possible to decide which of these opinions is 
the most probable. We are told, that the facts 
here recorded happened in the reign of Ahas- 
ucrus king of Persia, " who reigned from In- 
dia even unto Ethiopia, over a hundred and 
twenty-seven provinces," Esther i, 1 ; and this 
extent of dominion plainly proves that he was 
one of the successors of Cyrus. That point is 
indeed allowed by all ; but learned men differ 
concerning the person meant by Ahasuerus, 
whose name does not occur in profane history ; 
and consequently they are not agreed concern- 
ing the precise period to which we are to assign 



ETE 



365 



ETE 



this history. Archbishop Usher supposed, that 
by Ahasuerus was meant Darius Hystaspes, and 
Joseph ScaUger contended that Xerxes was 
meant; but Dean Prideaux has very satisfac- 
torily shown, that by Ahasuerus we are to un. 
derstand Artaxerxes Longimanus. Josephus 
also considered Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes as 
the same person ; and we may observe, that 
Ahasuerus is always translated Artaxerxes in 
the Septuagint version ; and he is called by 
that name in the apocryphal part of the book 
of Esther. See Ecbatana, and Ahasuerus. 

ETERNITY is an attribute of God. (See 
God.) The self-existent being, says the learn- 
ed Dr. Clarke, must of necessity be eternal. 
The ideas of eternity and self-existence are so 
closely connected, that because something 
must of necessity be eternal, independently 
and without any outward cause of its being, 
therefore it must necessarily be self-existent ; 
and because it is impossible but something 
must be self-existent, therefore it is necessary 
that it must likewise be eternal. To be self- 
existent, is to exist by an absolute necessity 
in the nature of the thing itself. Now this 
necessity being absolute, and not depending 
upon any thing external, must be always unal- 
terably the same ; nothing being alterable but 
what is capable of being affected by somewhat 
without itself. That being therefore which has 
no other cause of its existence but the absolute 
necessity of its own nature, must of necessity 
have existed from everlasting, without begin- 
ning ; and must of necessity exist to everlast- 
ing, without end. 

On the eternal duration of the divine Being, 
many have held a metaphysical refinement. 
"The eternal existence of God," it is said, "is 
not to be considered as successive ; the ideas 
we gain from time are not to be allowed in our 
conceptions of his duration. As he fills all 
space with his immensity, he fills all duration 
with his eternity; and with him eternity is 
nunc starts, a permanent now, incapable of the 
relations of past, present, and fiiture." Such, 
certainly, is not the view given us of this mys. 
terious subject in the Scriptures ; and if it 
should be said that they speak popularly, and 
are accommodated to the infirmity of the rea- 
son of the body of mankind, we may reply, 
that philosophy has not, with all its boasting 
of superior light, carried our views on this at- 
tribute of the divine nature at all beyond reve- 
lation ; and, in attempting it, has only obscured 
the conceptions of its admirers. " Filling du- 
ration with his eternity," is a phrase without 
any meaning : for how can any man conceive 
a permanent instant, which coexists with a 
perpetually flowing duration ? One might as 
well apprehend a mathematical point coex- 
tended with a line, a surface, and all dimen- 
sions. As this notion has, however, been made 
the basis of some theological opinions, it may 
be proper to examine it. 

2. Whether we get our idea of time from 
the niotion of bodies without us, or from the 
consciousness of the succession of our own 
ideas, or both, is not important to this inquiry. 
Time, in our conceptions, is divisible. The 



artificial divisions are years, months, days, 
minutes, seconds, &c. We can conceive of yet 
smaller portions of duration ; and, whether we 
have given to them artificial names or not, we 
can conceive no otherwise of duration, than 
continuance of being, estimated as to degree, 
by this artificial admeasurement, and therefore 
as substantially answering to it. It is not 
denied but that duration is something distinct 
from these its artificial measures ; yet of this 
every man's consciousness will assure him, that 
we can form no idea of duration except in this 
successive manner. But we are told that the 
eternity of God is a fixed eternal now, from 
which all ideas of succession, of past and 
future, are to be excluded ; and we are called 
upon to conceive of eternal duration without 
reference to past or future, and to the exclusion 
of the idea of ihzX fioxo under which we con- 
ceive of time. The proper abstract idea of 
duration is, however, simple continuance of 
being, without any reference to the exact de- 
gree or extent of it, because in no other way 
can it be equally applicable to all the substances 
of which it is the attribute. It may be finite 
or infinite, momentary or eternal ; but that de- 
pends upon the substance of which it is the 
quality, and not upon its own nature. Our 
own observation and experience teach us how 
to apply it to ourselves. As to us, duration is 
dependent and finite ; as to God, it is infinite ; 
but in both cases the originality or dependence, 
the finiteness or infinity of it, arises, not out of 
the nature of duration itself, but out of other 
qualities of the subjects respectively. 

3. Duration, then, as applied to God, is no 
more than an extension of the idea as applied 
to ourselves ; and to exhort us to conceive of 
it as something essentially different, is to re- 
quire us to conceive what is inconceivable. It 
is to demand of us to think without ideas. 
Duration is continuance of existence ; continu- 
ance of existence is capable of being longer or 
shorter ; and hence necessarily arises the idea 
of the succession of the minutest points of du- 
ration into which we can conceive it divided. 
Beyond this the mind cannot go, it forms the 
idea of duration no other way : and if what we 
call duration be any thing different from this 
in God, it is not duration, properly so called, 
according to human ideas ; it is something else, 
for which there is no name among men, be- 
cause there is no idea, and therefore it is im- 
possible to reason about it. As long as meta- 
physicians use the term, they must take the 
idea : if they spurn the idea, they have no 
right to the term, and ought at once to con- 
fess that they can go no farther. Dr. Cud- 
worth defines infinity of duration to be no- 
thing else but perfection, as including in it 
necessary existence and immutability. This, 
it is true, is as much a definition of the moon, 
as of infinity of duration ; but it is valuable, as 
it shows that, in the view of this great man, 
though an advocate of the nunc stans, "the 
standing now," of eternity, we must abandon 
the term duration, if we give up the only idea 
under which it can be conceived. 

4. It follows from this, therefore, that either 



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356 



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we must apply the term duration to the divine 
Being in the same sense in which wc apply it 
to creatures, with the extension of the idea to 
a duration which has no bounds and limits ; 
or blot it out of our creeds, as a word to which 
our minds, with all the aid they may derive 
from the labours of metaphysicians, can attach 
no meaning. The only objection to successive 
duration as applied to God, which has any 
plausibility, is, that it seems to imply change ; 
but this wholly arises from confounding two 
very distinct things ; succession in the dura- 
tion, and change in the substance. Dr. Cud- 
worth appears to have fallen into this error. 
He speaks of the duration of an imperfect na- 
ture, as sliding from the present to the future, 
expecting something of itself Vv^hich is not yet 
in being; and of a perfect nature being essen- 
tially immutable, having a permanent and un- 
changing duration, never losing any thing of 
itself once present, nor yet running forward 
to meet something of itself which is not yet in 
being. Now, though this is a good description 
of a perfect and immutable nature, it is no de- 
scription at all of an eternally-enduring na- 
ture. Duration implies no loss in the substance 
of any being, nor addition to it. A perfect 
iiature never loses any thing of itself, nor ex- 
pects more of itself than is possessed ; but this 
does not arise from the attribute of its duration, 
however that attribute may be conceived of, 
but from its perfection and consequent immu- 
tability. These attributes do not flow from 
the duration, but the continuance of the dura- 
tion from them. The argument is clearly good 
for nothing, unless it could be proved that suc- 
cessive duration necessarily implies a change 
in the nature ; but that is contradicted by the 
experience of finite beings, — their natures are 
not at all determined by their duration, but 
their duration by their natures ; and they exist 
for a moment, or for ages, according to the 
nature which their Maker has impressed upon 
them. If it be said that, at least, successive 
duration imports that a being loses past dura- 
tion, and expects the arrival of future existence, 
we reply, that this is no imperfection at all. 
Even finite creatures do not feel it to be an 
imperfection to have existed, and to look for 
continued and interminable being. It is true, 
with the past we lose knowledge and pleasure ; 
and expecting in all future periods increase of 
knowledge and happiness, we are reminded by 
that of our present imperfection ; but this im- 
perfection does not arise from our successive 
and flowing duration, and we never refer it to 
that. It is not the past which takes away our 
knowledge and pleasure ; nor future duration, 
simply considered, which will confer the in- 
crease of both. Our imperfections arise out of 
the essential nature of our being, not out of 
the manner in which our being is continued. 
It is not the flow of our duration, but the flow 
of our nature, which produces these effects. 
On the contrary, we think that the idea of our 
successive duration, that is of continuance, is 
an advantage, and not a defect. Let all ideas 
of continuance be banished from the mind, let 
there be to us a nunc semper sians, during the 



whole of our being, and we appear to gain no- 
thing, — our pleasures surely are not diminish- 
ed by the idea of successive duration being 
added to present enjoyment: that they have 
been, and still remain, and will continue, on 
the contrary, greatly heightens them. With, 
out the idea of a flowing duration, we could 
have no such measure of the continuance of 
our pleasures ; and this v/e should consider an 
abatement of our happiness. What is so ob. 
vious an excellency in the spirit of man, and 
in angelic natures, can never be thought an 
imperfection in God, when joined with a nature 
essentially perfect and immutable. 

5. But it may be said, that " eternal duration, 
considered as successive, is only an artificial 
manner of measuring and conceiving of dura- 
tion ; and is no more eternal duration itself 
tlian minutes and moments, the artificial 
measures of time, are time itself." Were this 
granted, the question would still be, whether 
there is any thing in duration considered gene- 
rally, or in time considered specially, which 
corresponds to these artificial methods of 
measuring and conceiving of them. The ocean 
is measured by leagues ; and the extension of 
the ocean, and the measure of it, are distinct ; 
they, nevertheless, answer to each other. 
Leagues are the nominal divisions of an extend, 
ed surface ; but there is a real extension, which 
answers to the artifical conception and admea- 
surement of it. In like manner, days, and 
hours, and moments, are the measures «f time : 
but tiiere is either something in time which 
answers to these measures; or not only the 
measure, but the thing itself, is artificial — an 
imaginary creation. If any man will contend, 
that the period of duration which we call ti?ne 
is nothing, no farther dispute can be held with 
him ; and he may be left to deny also the ex. 
istence of matter, and to enjoy his philosophic 
revel in- an ideal world. We apply the same 
argument to duration generally, whether finite 
or infinite. Minutes and moments, or smaller 
portions, for which we have no name, may be 
artificial things, adopted to aid our concep. 
tions ; but conceptions of what ? Not of any 
thing standing still, but of something going on. 
Of duration we have no other conception ; and 
if there be nothing in nature which answers 
to this conception, then is duration itself ima- 
ginary, and we discourse about nothing. If 
the duration of the divine Being admits not of 
past, present, and fiature, one of these two 
consequences must follow, — that no such attri- 
bute as that of eternity belongs to him, — or 
that there is no poAver in the human mind to 
conceive of it. In either case, the Scriptures 
are greatly impugned; for "He who xoas, and 
is, and is to come" is a revelation of the eternity 
of God, which is then in no sense true. It is 
not true, if used literally : and it is as little so, if 
the language bo figurative ; for the figure rests 
on no basis, it illustrates nothing, it misleads. 
It is, however, to be remembered, that the 
eternal, supreme cause, must of necessity have 
such a perfect, independent, unchangeable 
comprehension of all things, that there can be 
no one point or instant of his eternal duration. 



EUN 



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wherein all things that are past, present, and 
to come, will not be as entirely known and 
repYesented to him in one single thought or 
view, and all things present and future be 
equally entirely in his power and direction ; as 
if there was really no succession at all, but all 
things were actually present at once. 

6. The Hebrew word for eternity is aVty. 
This is its proper sense ; but, as Gesenius ob- 
serves, as with us in common life, it is often 
used in an inaccurate or loose manner to ex- 
press a very long space of time. So it is ap- 
plied to the Jewish priesthood ; to the Mosaic 
ordinances ; to the possession of the land of 
Canaan ; to the hills and mountains ; to the 
earth, &c. These must, however, be con- 
sidered as exceptions to predominant and cer- 
tain usage. 

ETHAN, the Ezrahite, one of the wisest 
men of his time ; nevertheless, Solomon was 
wiser than he, 1 Kings iv, 31. The eighty- 
ninth psalm bears the name of Ethan the Ezra- 
hite. This Ethan, and Ethan son of Kishi, 
of the tribe of Levi, and of the family of Me- 
rari, are the same person, 1 Chron. vi, 44. He 
was called likewise Idithun, and appears under 
this name in the titles to several psalms. He 
was a principal master of the temple music, 
1 Chron. xv, 17, &c. 

ETHANIM, one of the Hebrew months, 
1 Kings viii, 2. In this month the temple of 
Solomon was dedicated. After the Jews re- 
turned from the captivity, the month Ethanim 
was called Tisri, which answers to our Sep- 
tember. 

ETHIOPIA. See Cush. 

EUCHARIST, the sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper. The word, in its original Greek, 
thX'^P^srtaj properly signifies giving thanks ; 
from the hymns and thanksgivings which ac- 
companied that holy service in the primitive 
church. See Lord's Supper. 

EUNICE, the mother of Timothy, who was 
a Jewess by birth, but married to a Greek, 
Timothy's father, 2 Tim. i, 5. Eunice had 
been converted to Christianity by some other 
preacher. Acts xvi, 1, 2, and not by St. Paul ; 
for when that Apostle came to Lystra, he found 
there Eunice and Timothy, already far ad- 
vanced in grace and virtue. 

EUNUCH. The word signifies, one who 
guards the bed. In the courts of eastern kings, 
the care of the beds and apartments belonging 
to princes and princesses, was generally com- 
mitted to eunuchs ; but they had the charge 
chiefly of the princesses, who lived secluded. 
The Hebrew saris signifies a real eunuch, 
whether naturally born such, or rendered such. 
But in Scripture this word often denotes an 
officer belonging to a prince, attending his 
court, and employed in the interior of his pa- 
lace, as a name of office and dignity. In the 
Persian and Turkish courts, the principal em. 
ployments are at this day possessed by real 
eunuchs. Our Saviour speaks of men who 
"made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom 
of heaven," Matt.xix, 12 ; that is, who, from a 
religious motive, renounced marriage or carnal 
pleasures. 



EUPHRATES, a river of Asiatic Turkey, 
which rises from the mountains of Armenia, 
as some have said, in two streams, a few miles 
to the north-east of Erzeron, the streams unit- 
ing to the south-west near that city ; and chiefly 
pursuing a south-west direction to Semisat, 
where it would fall into the Mediterranean, if 
not prevented by a high range of mountains. 
In this part of its course the Euphrates is 
joined by the Morad, a stream almost doubling 
in length that of the Euphrates, so that the 
latter river might more justly be said to spring 
from Mount Ararat, about one hundred and 
sixty British miles to the east of the imputed 
source. At Semisat, the ancient Samosata, 
this noble river assumes a southerly direction, 
then runs an extensive course to the south- 
east, and after receiving the Tigris, falls by 
two or three mouths into the gulf of Persia, 
about fifty miles south-east of Bassora ; north 
latitude 29° 50' ; east longitude 66° 55'. The 
comparative course of the Euphrates may be 
estunated at about one thousand four hundred 
British miles. This river is navigable for a 
considerable distance from the sea. In its 
course it separates Aladulia from Armenia, 
Syria from Diarbekir, and Diarbekir from 
Arabia, and passing through the Arabian Irak, 
joins the Tigris. The Euphrates and Tigris, 
the most considerable as well as the most re- 
nowned rivers of western Asia, are remarkable 
for their rising within a few miles of each 
other, running the same course, never being 
more than one hundred and fifty miles asunder, 
and sometimes, before their final junction, ap- 
proaching within fifteen miles of each other, 
as in the latitude of Bagdad. The space in- 
cluded between the two is the ancient country 
of Mesopotamia. But the Euphrates is by far 
the more noble river of the two. Sir R. K. 
Porter, describing this river in its course 
through the ruins of Babylon, observes, "The 
whole view was particularly solemn. The 
majestic stream of the Euphrates wandering in 
solitude, like a pilgrim monarch through the 
silent ruins of his devastated kingdom, still 
appeared a noble river, even under all the dis- 
advantages of its desert-tracked course. Its 
banks were hoary with reeds ; and the grey 
osier v/illows were yet there, on which the 
captives of Israel hung up their harps, and, 
while Jerusalem was not, refused to be com- 
forted." The Scripture calls it " the great 
river," and assigns it for the eastern boundary 
of that land which God promised to the Israel- 
ites, Deut. i, 7; Joshua i, 4. 

EUROCLYDON, the Greek name for the 
north-east wind, very dangerous at sea, of the 
nature of a whirlwind, which falls of a sudden 
upon ships, Acts xxvii, 14. The same wind is 
now called a Levanter. 

EUTYCHIANS, a denomination which 
arose in the fifth century, and were so called 
from Eutyches, abbot of a certain convent of 
monks at Constantinople. The Nestorians hav- 
ing explained the two natures in Christ in such 
a manner as, in the opinion of many, to make 
them equivalent to two persons, which was an 
evident absurdity, Eutyches, to avoid this error. 



EVI 



358 



EVI 



fell into the opposite extreme, and maintained 
that there was only one nature in Jesus Christ, 
the divine nature, which, according to him, 
had so entirely swallowed up the human, that 
the latter could not be distinguished. Hence 
it was inferred that according to this system 
our Lord had nothing of humanity but the ap- 
pearance. 

EVANGELISTS, the inspired authors of 
the Gospels. The word is derived from the 
Greek, evayreXiov, formed of £?, bene, "well," and 
ayTtXog, angel, messenger. The name of evan- 
gelists is said by some to have been given in the 
ancient church to such as preached the Gospel 
without being attached to any particular church, 
being either commissioned by the Apostles to 
instruct the nations, or, of their own accord, 
abandoning every worldly attachment, conse. 
crated themselves to the sacred office of preach- 
ing the Gospel. In which sense these inter- 
preters think it is that St. Philip, who was one 
of the seven deacons, is called "the evangelist" 
in Acts xxi, 8 ; and that St. Paul, writing to 
Timothy, bids hi'm do the work of an evange- 
list, 2 Tim. iv, 5. It is, however, to be remarked, 
that the office in which the evangelists chiefly 
present themselves to our notice in the New 
Testament, is that of assistants to the Apostles ; 
or, as they might be termed vice apostles, who 
acted under their authority and direction. As 
they were directed to ordain pastors or bishops 
in the churches, but had no authority given 
them to ordain successors to themselves in 
their particular office as evangelists, whatever 
it might be, they must be considered as but 
temporary officers in the church, like the 
Apostles and prophets. The term evangelist 
is, at present, confined to the writers of the four 
Gospels. 

EVE, the first woman. She was called nin, 
Gen. iii, 20, a word that signifies life, because 
she was to be the mother of all that live. Our 
translators, therefore, might have called her 
Life, as the Septuagint, who render the He- 
brew word by Zw/?. Soon after the expulsion 
of the first pair from paradise, Eve conceived 
and bare a son ; and imagining, as is probable, 
that she had given birth to the promised seed, 
she called his name Cain, which signifies pos- 
session, saying, " I have gotten a man from 
the Lord." She afterward had Abel, and some 
daughters, and then Seth. The Scriptures 
name only these three sons of Adam and Eve, 
but sufficiently inform us. Gen. v, 4, that they 
had many more, saying, that "Adam lived, 
after he had begotten Seth, eight hundred 
years, and begat sons and daughters." See 
Adam. 

EVIL is distinguished into natural and 
moral. Natural evil is whatever destroys or 
any way disturbs the per-fection of natural 
beings, such as blindness, diseases, death, &c. 
Moral evil is the disagreement between the 
actions of a moral agent, and the rule of those 
actions, whatever it be. Applied to choice, or 
acting contrary to the rr^oral or revealed laws 
of the Deity, it is termed wickedness, or sin. 
Applied to an act contrary to a mere rule of 
fitness, it is called fi fault. The question con- 



cerning the origin of evil has very much per- 
plexed philosophers and divines, both ancient 
and modern. Plato, for the solution of this 
question, maintained, that matter, from its 
nature, possesses a blind and refractory force, 
from which arises in it a propensity to disorder 
and deformity ; and that this is the cause of all 
the imperfection which appears, in the works 
of God, and the origin of evil. Matter, he con- 
ceives, resists the will of the supreme Artificer, 
so that he cannot possibly execute his designs ; 
and this is the cause of the mixture of good 
and evil, which is found in the material world. 
" It cannot be," says he, " that evil should be 
destroyed, for there must always be something 
contrary to good;" and again, " God wills, as 
far as it is possible, every thing good, and 
nothing evil." What that property of matter 
is which opposes the wise and benevolent in- 
tentions of the first Intelligence, Plato has not 
clearly explained ; but he speaks of it as ^v^Kpv- 
ros hiQvfiia, an innate propensity to disorder, 
and says, that before nature was adorned with 
its present beautiful forms, it was inclined to 
confusion and deformity, and that from this 
habitude arises all the evil which happens in 
the world. Plutarch supposes the Platonic 
notion to be, that there is in matter an uncon- 
scious, irrational soul ; and this supposition has 
been adopted by several modern writers. But 
the writings of Plato afford no evidence that 
he conceived the imperfection of matter to 
arise from any cause distinct from its nature. 
Such a notion is incongruous with Plato's ge- 
neral system, and is contrary to- the doctrine 
of the Pythagorean school, to which he was 
probably indebted for his notions on this sub- 
ject ; for the philosophers of that sect held that 
motion is the effect of a power essential to 
matter. Some of the Stoics adopted the notion 
of the Platonists concerning the origin of evil, 
and ascribed it to the defective nature of mat. 
ter, which it is not in the power of the great 
Artificer to change; asserting, that imperfec- 
tions appear in the world, not through any de- 
fect of skill in its author, but because matter 
will not admit of the accomplishment of his 
designs. But it was perceived by others, that 
this hypothesis was inconsistent with the fun- 
damental doctrine of the Stoics concerning 
nature. For since, according to their system, 
matter itself receives all its qualities from God, 
if its defects be the cause of evil, these defects 
must be ultimately ascribed to him. No other 
way of relieving this difficulty remained, than 
to have recourse to fate, and say, that evil was 
the necessary consequence of that eternal ne- 
cessity to which the great whole, comprehend- 
ing both God and matter, is subject. Thus, 
when Chrysippus was asked whether diseases 
were to be ascribed to Divine providence, he 
replied that it was not the intention of nature 
that these things should happen ; nor were they 
conformable to the will of the Author of nature 
and Parent of all good things ; but that, in 
framing tire world, some inconveniences had 
adhered by necessary consequence, to his wise 
a;nd useful plan. To others the question con- 
cerning the origin of evil appeared so intricate 



EVI 



359 



EXC 



and difficult, that, finding themselves unequal 
to the solution of it, they denied either that 
there is any God at all, or, at least, any author 
or governor of the world. The Epicureans 
belonged to this class ; nor does Lucretius 
allege any other reason for denying the system 
of the world to be the production of a Deity 
beside its being so very faulty. Others again 
judged it to be more rational to assign a double 
cause of visible effects, than to assign no cause 
at all ; as nothing, indeed, can be more absurd 
than to admit actions and effects without any 
agent and cause. These persons perceiving a 
mixture of good and evil, and being persuaded 
that so many inconsistencies and disorders 
could not proceed from a good being, supposed 
the existence of a malevolent principle, or god, 
directly contrary to the good one ; hence they 
derived corruption and death, diseases, griefs, 
mischiefs, frauds, and villanies, while from 
the good being they deduced nothing but 
good. This opinion was held by many of the 
ancients ; by the Persian magi, Manicheans, 
Paulicians, &c. 

2. Dr. Samuel Clarke, in his " Demonstra- 
tion of the Being and Attributes of God," de- 
duces from the possibility and real existence 
of human liberty an answer to the question. 
What is the cause and original of evil ? For 
liberty, he says, implying a natural power of 
doing evil, as well as good ; and the imperfect 
nature of finite beings making it possible for 
them to abuse this their liberty to an actual 
commission of evil ; and it being necessary to 
the order and beauty of the whole, and for dis- 
playing the infinite wisdom of the Creator, 
that there should be different and various de- 
grees of creatures, whereof, consequently, some 
must be less perfect than others ; hence there 
necessarily arises a possibility of evil, notwith- 
standing that the Creator is infinitely good. 
In short thus : all that we call evil is either an 
evil of imperfection, as the want of certain 
faculties and excellencies which other crea- 
tures have ; or natural evil, as pain, death, and 
the like ; or moral evil, as all kinds of vice. 
The first of these is not properly an evil : for 
every power, faculty, or perfection, which any 
creature enjoys, being the free gift of God, 
which he was no more obliged to bestow, than 
he was to confer being or existence itself, it is 
plain the want of any certain faculty or per- 
fection in any kind of creatures which never 
belonged to their nature, is no more an evil to 
them than their never having been created, or 
brought into being at all, could properly have 
been called an evil. The second kind of evil, 
which we call natural evil, is either a neces- 
sary consequence of the former ; as death, to 
a creature on whose nature immortality was 
never conferred ; and then it is no more pro- 
perly an evil than the former; or else it is 
counterpoised, in the whole, with as great or 
greater good, as the afflictions and sufferings 
of good men, and then also it is not properly 
an evil ; or else, lastly, it is a punishment ; and 
then it is a necessary consequent of the third 
and last sort of evil, namely, moral evil. And 
this arises wholly from the abuse of liberty, 



whicli God gave to his creatures for other pur- 
poses, and which it was reasonable and fit to 
give them for the perfection and order of the 
whole creation; only they, contrary to God's 
intention and command, have abused what 
was necessary for the perfection of the whole, 
to the corruption and depravation of them- 
selves. And thus all sorts of evils have enter- 
ed into the v/orld, without any diminution to 
the infinite goodness of its Creator and Go- 
vernor. 

3. This is obviously all the answer which 
the question respecting the origin of evil is 
capable of receiving. It brings us to the point 
to which the Scriptures themselves lead us. 
And though many questions may yet be asked, 
respecting a subject so mysterious as the per- 
mission of evil by the Supreme Being, this is 
a part of his counsels of which we can have no 
cognizance, unless he is pleased to reveal 
them; and as revelation is silent upon this 
subject, except generally, that all his acts, his 
permissive ones as well as others, are "wise, 
and just, and good," we may rest assured, that 
beyond what is revealed, human wisdom in the 
present state can never penetrate. 

EXCOMMUNICATION, is the judicial ex. 
elusion of offenders from the religious rites 
and other privileges of the particular commu- 
nity to which they belong. Founded in the 
natural right which every society possesses to 
guard its laws and privileges from violation 
and abuse by the infliction of salutary disci- 
pline, proportioned to the nature of the offences 
committed against them, it has found a place, 
in one form or another, under every system of 
religion, whether human or divine. That it 
has been made an engine for the gratification 
of private malice and revenge, and been per- 
verted to purposes the most unjustifiable and 
even diabolical, the history of the world but 
too lamentably proves ; yet this, though un- 
questionably a consideration which ought to 
inculcate the necessity of prudence, as well as 
impartiality and temperance in the use of it, 
aflfords no valid argument against its legitimate 
exercise. From St. Paul's writings we learn 
that the early excommunication was efiected 
by the offender not being allowed to "eat" 
with the church, that is, to partake of the 
Lord's Supper, the sign of communion. In 
the early ages of the primitive church also, 
this branch of discipline was exercised with 
moderation, which, however, gradually gave 
place to an undue severity. From Tertullian's 
" Apology" we learn, that the crimes which in 
his time subjected to exclusion from Christian 
privileges, were murder, idolatry, thefl, fraud, 
lying, blasphemy, adultery, fornication, and 
the like : and in Origen's treatise against Cel- 
sus, we are informed that such persons were 
expelled from the conununion of the church, 
and lamented as lost and dead unto God ; [ut 
perditos Deoque mortuos;] but that on making 
confession and giving evidence of penitence, 
they were received back as restored to life. It 
was at the same time specially ordained, that 
no such delinquent, however suitably qualified 
in other respects, could be afterward admitted 



EXC 



360 



EXP 



to any ecclesiastical office. But it does not 
appear that the infliction of this discipline was 
accompanied with any of those forms of ex- 
communication, of delivering over to Satan, or 
of solemn execration, which were usual among 
the Jews, and subsequently introduced into 
them by the Romish chui'ch. The authors and 
followers of heretical opinions which had been 
condemned, were also subject to this penalty ; 
and it was sometimes inflicted on v/hole con- 
gregations when they were judged to have de- 
parted from the faith. In this latter case, 
however, the sentence seldom went farther 
than the interdiction of correspondence with 
these churches, or of spiritual communication 
between their respective pastors. To the same 
exclusion from religious privileges, those un- 
happy persons were doomed, who, whether 
from choice or from compulsion, had polluted 
themselves, after their baptism, by any act of 
idolatrous worship ; and the penance enjoined 
on such persons, before they could be restored 
to communion, was often peculiarly severe. 
The consequences of excommunication, even 
then, were of a temporal as well as a spiritual 
nature. The person against whom it was 
pronounced, was denied all share in the obla. 
tions of his brethren ; the ties both of religious 
and of private friendship were dissolved ; he 
found himself an object of abhorrence to those 
whom he most esteemed, and by whom he had 
been most tenderly beloved ; and, as far as ex- 
pulsion from a society held in universal vene- 
ration could imprint on his character a mark 
of disgrace, he was shunned or suspected by 
the generality of mankind. 

2. It was not, however, till churchmen be- 
gan to unite temporal with spiritual power, 
that any penal effects of a civil kind became 
consequent on their sentences of excommuni- 
cation ; and that this ghostly artillery was not 
less frequently employed for the purposes of 
lawless ambition and ecclesiastical domina- 
tion, than for the just punishment of impeni- 
tent delinquents, and the general edification 
of the faithful. But as soon as this union 
took place, and in exact proportion to the de- 
gree in which the papal system rose to its pre- 
dominance over the civil rights as well as the 
consciences of men, the list of oflences which 
subjected their perpetrators to exconimunica- 
tion, was multiplied ; and the severity of its 
inflictions, with their penal effects, increased 
in the same ratio. The slightest injury, or even 
insult, sustained by an ecclesiastic, was deem- 
ed a sufficient cause for the promulgation of 
an anathema. Whole families, and even pro- 
vinces, were prohibited from engaging in any 
religious exercise, and cursed with the most 
tremendous denunciations of divine vengeance. 
Nor were kings and emperors secure against 
these thunders of the church ; their subjects 
were, on many occasions, declared, by a papal 
bull, to be absolved from allegiance to them ; 
and all who should dare to support them, 
menaced with a similar judgment. These 
terrors have passed away ; the true Scriptural 
excommunication ought to be maintained in 
every church ; which is the prohibition of Im- 



moral and apostate persons from the use of 
those religious rites which indicate " the com- 
munion of saints," but without any temporal 
penalty. 

EXODUS, from f|, out, and bSbg, a way, the 
name of the second book of Moses, and is so 
called in the Greek version because it relates 
to the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt. 
It comprehends the history of about a hundred 
and forty -five years ; and the principal events 
contained in it are, the bondage of the Israel- 
ites in Egypt, and their miraculous deliverance 
by the hand of Moses ; their entrance into the 
wilderness of Sinai ; the promulgation of the 
law, and the building of the tabernacle. See 
Pentateuch. 

EXPIATION, a religious act, by which 
satisfaction or atonement is made for the com- 
mission of some crime, the guilt done away, 
and the obligation to punishment cancelled. 
The chief methods of expiation among the 
Jews were by sacrifices ; and it is important 
always to recollect that the Levitical sacrifices 
were of an expiatory character ; because as 
among the Jews sacrifices were unquestionably 
of divine original, and as the terms taken from 
them are found applied so frequently to Christ 
and to his sufferings in the New Testament, 
they serve to explain that peculiarity under 
which the Apostles regarded the death of 
Christ, and afford additional proof that it was 
considered by them as a sacrifice of expiation, 
as the grand universal sin-offering for the 
whole world. For our Lord is announced by 
John as "the Lamb ofGod;" and that not 
with reference to meekness or any other moral 
virtue ; but with an accompanying phrase, 
which would communicate to a Jew the full 
sacrificial sense of the term employed, "the 
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of 
the world." He is called " our Passover, sac- 
rificed for us." He is said to have given 
" himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to 
God, for a sweet-smelling savour." As a priest, 
it was necessary " he should have somewhat to 
offer;" and he"^ offered "himself," "his own 
blood," to which is ascribed the washing away 
of sin, and our eternal redemption. He is de. 
clared to have " put away sin by the sacrifice 
of himself," to have "by himself purged our 
sins," to have "sanctified the people by his 
own blood," to have " offered to God one sac- 
rifice for sins." Add to these, and to innu- 
merable other similar expressions and allusions, 
the argimient of the Apostle in the Epistle to 
the Hebrews, in which, by proving at length, 
that the sacrifice of Christ was superior in effi- 
cacy to the sacrifices of the law, he most un- 
equivocally assumes, that the death of Christ 
was a sacrifice and sin-offering; for without 
that it would no more have been capable of 
comparison with the sacrifices of the law, than 
the death of John the Baptist, St. Stephen, or 
St. James, all martyrs and sufferers for the 
truth, who had recently sealed their testimony 
with their blood. This very comparison, we 
may affirm, is utterly unaccountable and absurd 
on any hypothesis which denies the sacrifice 
of Christ ; for what relation could his death 



:exp 



361 



EXP 



have to the Levitical immolations and offer- 
ings, if it had no sacrificial character ? Nothing 
could, in fact, be more misleading, and even 
absurd, than to apply those terms which, both 
among Jews and Gentiles, were in use to ex- 
press the various processes and means of atone- 
ment and piacular propitiation, if the Apostles 
and Christ himself did not intend to represent 
liis death strictly as an expiation for sin: — 
misleading, because such would be the natural 
and necessary inference from the terms them- 
selves, which had acquired this as their esta- 
blished meaning : — and absurd, because if, as 
Socinians say, they used them metaphorically, 
there was not even an ideal resemblance be- 
tween the figure and that which it was intend- 
ed to illustrate. So totally irrelevant, indeed, 
will those terms appear to any notion enter- 
tained of the death of Christ which excludes 
its expiatory character, that to assume that our 
Lord and his Apostles used them as metaphors, 
is profanely to assume them to be such writers 
as would not in any other case be tolerated ; 
writers wholly unacquainted with the com- 
monest rules of language, and therefore wholly 
unfit to be teachers of others, and that not only 
in religion but in things of inferior importance. 
2. The use of such terms, we have said, 
would not only be wholly absurd, but crimi- 
nally misleading to the Gentiles, as well as to 
the Jews, who were first converted to Chris- 
tianity. To them the notion of propitiatory 
offerings, offerings to avert the displeasure of 
the gods, and which expiated the crimes of 
offenders, was most familiar, and terms corre 
rsponding to it were in constant use. The bold 
denial of this by Dr. Priestley might well bring 
upon him the reproof of Archbishop Magee, 
who, after establishing this point from the 
Greek and Latin writers, observes, " So clearly 
does their language announce the notion of a 
propitiatory atonement, that if we would avoid 
an imputation on Dr. Priestley's fairness, we 
are driven, of necessity, to question the extent 
of his acquaintance with those writers." The 
reader may consult the instances given by this 
writer, in No. 5 of his "Illustrations," ap- 
pended to his " Discourses on the Atonem.ent ;" 
and also the tenth chapter of Grotius "Z)e 
Satisfactione," whose learning has most amply 
illustrated and firmly settled this view of the 
Heathen sacrifices. The use to be made of 
this in the argument is, that as the Apostles 
found the very terms they used with, reference 
to the nature and efficacy of the death of Christ, 
fixed in an expiatory signification among the 
Greeks, they could not, in honesty, use them 
in a distant figurative sense, much less in a 
contrary one, without giving their readers due 
notice of their having invested them with a 
,ne\v import. From ayog, a pollution, an impu- 
rity, which was to be expiated by sacrifice, are 
derived ayvi^to and ayta^w, which denote the act 
of expiation ; Kadaipo), too, to purify, cleanse, is 
applied to the effect of expiation ; and WdaKonai 
denotes the method of propitiating the gods by 
sacrifice. These, and other words of similar 
import, are used by the authors of the Sep- 
tuagint, and by the Evangelists and Apostles; 



but they give no premonition of using them in 
any strange and altered sense ; and when they 
apply them to the death of Christ, they must, 
therefore, be understood to use them in their 
received meaning. In like manner the Jews 
had their expiatory sacrifices, and the terms 
and phrases used in them are, in like manner, 
employed by the Apostles to characterize the 
death of their Lord ; and they would have been 
as guilty of misleading their Jewish as their 
Gentile readers, had they employed them in a 
new sense, and without warning, which, un- 
questionably, tliey never gave. 

3. As to the expiatory nature of the sacri- 
fices of the law, it is not required by the 
argument to show that all the Levitical offer- 
ings were of this character. There were also 
offerings for persons and for things prescribed 
for purification, which were incidental; but 
even they grew out of the leading notion of 
expiatory sacrifice, and that legal purification 
which resulted from the forgiveness of sins. It 
is enough to prove, that the grand and emi- 
nent sacrifices of the Jews were strictly expi- 
atory, and that by them the offerers were 
released from punishment and death, for which 
ends they were appointed by the Lawgiver. 
Wlien we speak, too, of vicarious sacrifice, we 
do not mean either, on the one hand, such a 
substitution as that the victim should bear the 
same quantum of pain and suffering as the 
offender himself ; or, on the other, that it was 
put in the place of the offender as a mere sym- 
bolical act, by which he confessed his desert of 
punishment; but a substitution made by divine 
appointment, by which the victim was exposed 
to sufferings and death instead of the offender, 
in virtue of which the offender himself was 
released. With this view, one can scarcely 
conceive why so able a writer as Archbishop 
Magee should prefer to use the term, "vica- 
rious import,''^ rather than the simple and esta- 
blished term, "vicarious;" since the Antino- 
mian notion of substitution may be otherwise 
sufficiently guarded against, and the phrase 
"vicarious import" is certainly capable of 
being resolved into that figurative notion of 
mere symbolical action, which, however plau- 
sible, does in fact deprive the ancient sacrifices 
of their typical, and the oblation of Christ of 
its real, efficacy. Vicarious acting, is acting 
for another ; vicarious suffering, is suffering for 
another ; but the nature and circumstances pf 
that suffering in the case of Clirist are to be 
determined by the doctrine of Scripture at 
large, and not wholly by the term itself, which 
is, however, useful for this purpose, (and there- 
fore to be preserved,) that it indicates the 
sense in which those who use it understand 
the declaration of Scripture, " Christ died for 
us," so as that he died not merely for our 
benefit, but in our stead ; in other words, that, 
but for his having died, those who believe in 
him would personally have suffered that death 
which is the penalty of every violation of the 
law of God. 

4. That sacrifices under the law were expi- 
atory and vicarious, admits of abundant proof. 

The chief objections made to this doctrine 



EXP 



362 



EXP 



are, (1.) That under the law in all capital cases, 
the offender, upon legal proof or conviction, 
was doomed to die, and that no sacrifice could 
exempt him from the penalty. (2.) That in all 
lower cases to which the law had not attached 
capital punishment, but pecuniary mulcts, or 
personal labour or servitude upon their non- 
payment, this penalty was to be strictly exe- 
cuted, and none could plead any privilege or 
exemption on account of sacrifice ; and that 
when sacrifices were ordained with a pecuniary 
mulct, they are to be regarded in the light of 
fine, one part of which was paid to the state, 
the other to the church. This was the mode 
of argument adopted by the author of "the 
Moral Philosopher;" and nothing of weight 
has been added to these objections since his 
day. Now, much of this may be granted, 
without any prejudice to the argument ; and, 
indeed, is no more than the most orthodox 
writers on this subject have often remarked. 
The law, under which the Jews were placed, 
was at once, as to them, both a moral and a 
political law ; and the Lawgiver excepted 
certain offences from the benefit of pardon, 
because that would have been exemption from 
temporal death, which was the state penalty. 
He therefore would accept no atonement for 
such transgressions. Blasphemy, idolatry, 
murder, and adultery, were the " presumptuous 
sins" which were thus exempted ; and the rea- 
son will be seen in the political relation of the 
people to God ; for in refusing to exempt them 
from punishment in this world, respect was 
had to the order and benefit of society. Run- 
ning parallel, however, with this political ap- 
plication of the law to the Jews as subjects of 
the theocracy, we see the authority of the 
moral law kept over them as men and crea- 
tures ; and if these " presumptuous sins," of 
blasphemy and idolatry, of murder and adul- 
tery, and a few others, were the only capital 
crimes considered politically, they were not 
the only capital crimes considered morally; 
that is, there were other crimes which would 
have subjected the offender to death, but for 
this provision of expiatory oblations. The 
true question then is, whether such sacrifices 
were appointed by God, and accepted instead 
of the personal punishment or life of the of- 
fender, which otherwise would have been for- 
feited, as in the other cases ; and if so, if the 
life of animal sacrifices was accepted instead 
of the life of man, then the notion that "they 
were mere mulcts and pecuniary penalties" 
falls to the ground, and the vicarious nature of 
most of the Levitical oblations is established. 
That other offences, beside those above men- 
tioned, were capital, that is, exposed the of- 
fender to death, is clear from this, that all 
offences against the law had this capital 
character. As death was the sanction of the 
commandment given to Adam, so every one 
who transgressed any part of the law of Mo- 
ses became guilty of death ; every man was 
" accursed," that is, devoted to die, who " con- 
tinued not in all things written in the book of 
the law." "The man only that doeth these 
things shall live by them," was the rule ; and 



it was, therefore, to redeem the offenders from 
this penalty that sacrifices were appointed. So 
with reference to the great day of expiation, 
we read, " For on that day shall the priest 
make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, 
that 3'^ou may be clean from all your sins ; and 
this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, 
to make an atonement for the children of 
Israel, for all their sins, once a year," Lev. 
xvi, 30-34. 

5. To prove that this was the intentipn and 
effect of the annual sacrifices of the Jews, we 
need do little more than refer to Lev. xvii, 10, 
11 : " I will set my face against that soul that 
eateth blood, and will cut him off from among 
his people. For the life of the flesh is in the 
blood ; and I have given it to you upon the 
altar to make an atonement for your souls : 
for it is the blood that maketh an atonement 
for the soul." Here the blood which is said to 
make an atonement for the soul, is the blood 
of the victims ; and to make an atonement for 
the soul is tlie same as to be a ransom for the 
soul, as will appear by referring to Exodus xxx, 
12-16 ; and to be a ransom for the soul is to 
avert death. "They shall give every man a 
ransom for his soul unto the Lord, that there 
be no plague among them," by which their 
lives might be suddenly taken away. The 
"soul" is also here used obviously for the life; 
the blood, or the life of the victims in all sacri- 
fices, was substituted for the life of man, to 
preserve him from death, and the victims were 
therefore vicarious. 

6. The Hebrew word no::, rendered atone- 
ment, signifying primarily to cover, to over- 
spread, has been the subject of some evasive 
criticisms. It comes, however, in the second- 
ary sense to signify atonement or propitiation, 
because the effect of that is to cover, or, in 
Scripture meaning, to remit offences. The 
Septuagint also renders it by k^iXdcKOfiai, to ap- 
pease, to make propitious. It is used, indeed, 
where the means of atonement are not of the 
sacrificial kind, but these instances equally 
serve to evince the Scripture sense of the term, 
in cases of transgression, to be that of recon- 
ciling the offended Deity, by averting his dis- 
pleasure ; so that when the atonement for sin 
is said to be made by sacrifice, no doubt can 
remain that the sacrifice was strictly a sacrifice 
of propitiation. Agreeably to this conclusion 
we find it expressly declared, in the several 
cases of piacular oblations for transgression of 
the divine commands, that the sin for which 
atonement was made by those oblations should 
be forgiven. 

7. As the notion that the sacrifices of the 
law were not vicarious, but mere mulcts and 
fines, is overturned by the general appoint- 
ment of the blood to be an atonement for the 
souls, the forfeited lives, of men, so also is it 
contradicted by particular instances. Let us 
refer to Leviticus v, 15, 16 : " If a soul commit 
a trespass, and sin through ignorance in the 
holy things of the Lord, he shall make amends 
for the harm that he hath done in the holy 
thing, and shall add a fifth part thereto, and 
shall give it to the priest." Here, indeed, is 



EXP 



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EXP 



the proper fine for the trespass ; biit it is added, 
^' He shall bring for his trespass unto the Lord 
a ram without blemish, and the priest shall 
make atonement for him with the ram of the 
trespass offering, and it shall be forgiven him." 
Thus, then, so far from the sacrifice being the 
fine, the fine is distinguished from it, and with 
the ram only was the atonement made to the 
Lord for his trespass. Nor can the ceremonies 
with which the trespass and sin offerings were 
accompanied agree with any notion but that 
of their vicarious character. The worshipper, 
conscious of his trespass, brought an animal, 
his own property, to the door of the tabernacle. 
This was not a eucharistical act ; not a me- 
morial of mercies received, but of sins com- 
mitted. He laid his hands upon the head of 
tlie animal, the symbolical act of transferring 
punishment ; then slew it with his own hand, 
and delivered it to the priest, who burned the 
fat and part of the animal upon the altar ; and, 
having sprinkled part of the blood upon the 
altar,, and, in some cases, upon the offerer him- 
self, poured the rest at the bottom of the altar. 
And thus, we are told, "The priest shall make 
an atonement for him, as concerning his sin, 
and it shall be forgiven him." So clearly is it 
made manifest by these actions, and by the 
description of their nature and end, that the 
animal bore the punishment of the offender, 
and that by this appointment he was recon- 
ciled to God, and obtained the forgiveness of 
his offences. 

8. An equally strong proof that the life of 
the animal sacrifice was accepted in place of 
the life of man, is afforded by the fact, that 
atonement was required by the law to be made, 
by sin offerings and burnt offerings, for even 
bodily distempers and disorders. It is not neces- 
sary to the argument to explain the distinctions 
between these various oblations ; nor yet to 
inquire into the reason for requiring propitia- 
tion to be made for corporal infirmities which, 
in many cases, could not be avoided. They 
were, however, thus connected with sin as the 
cause of all these disorders ; and God, who had 
placed his residence among the Israelites, in- 
sisted upon a perfect ceremonial purity, to im- 
press upon them a sense of his moral purity, 
and the necessity of purification of mind. 
Whether these were the reasons, or some 
others not at all discoverable by us, all such 
unclean persons were liable to death, and were 
exempted from it only by animal sacrifices. 
This appears from the conclusion to all the 
Leviticai directions concerning the ceremonial 
to be observed in all such cases : " Thus shall 
ye separate the children of Israel from their 
uncleanness; that they die not in," or by, "their 
uncleanness, when they defile my tabernacle 
which is among them," Lev. xv, 31. So that, 
by virtue of the sin offerings, the children of 
Israel were saved from a death which other- 
wise they would have suffered from their un- 
cleanness, and that by substituting the life of 
the animal for the life of the offerer. Nor can 
it be urged that death is, in these instances, 
threatened only as the punishment of not 
observing these laws of purification ; for the 



reason given in the passage just quoted shows 
that the threatening of death was not hypo- 
thetical upon their not bringing the prescribed 
purification, but is grounded upon the fact of 
"defiling the tabernacle of the Lord which 
was among them," which is supposed to be 
done by all uncleanness, as such, in the first 
instance. 

9. As a farther proof of the vicarious cha- 
racter of the principal sacrifices of the Mosaic 
economy, we may instance those statedly offer- 
ed for the whole congregation. Every day were 
offered two lambs, one in the morning, and the 
other in the evening, " for a continual burnt 
offering." To these daily victims were to be 
added, weekly, two other lambs for the burnt 
offering of every Sabbath. None of these could 
be considered in the light of fines for offences, 
since they were offered for no particular per- 
sons, and must be considered, therefore, unless 
resolved into an unmeaning ceremony, piacular 
and vicarious. To pass over, however, the 
monthly sacrifices, and those offered at the 
great feasts, it is sufficient to fix upon those, 
so often alluded to in the Epistle to the He- 
brews, offered on the solemn anniversary of 
expiation. On that day, to other prescribed 
sacrifices were to be added another ram for a - 
burnt offering, and another goat, the most emi- 
nent of the sacrifices for a sin offering, whose 
blood was to be carried by the high priest into 
the inner sanctuary, which was not done by the 
blood of any other victim, except the bullock, 
v/hich was offered the same day as a sin offer- 
ing for the family of Aaron. The circum- 
stances of this ceremony, whereby atonement 
was to be made " for all the sins" of the whole 
Jewish people, are so strikingly significant, 
that they deserve a particular detail. On the 
day appointed for this general expiation, the 
priest is commanded to offer a bullock and a 
goat, as sin offerings, the one for himself, and 
the other for the people ; and, having sprinkled 
the blood of these in due form before the 
mercy seat, to lead forth a second goat, deno- 
minated "the scape-goat;" and, after laying 
both his hands upon the head of the scape- 
goat, and confessing over him all the iniqui- 
ties of the people, to put them upon the head 
of the goat, and to send the a,nimal, thus bear- 
ing the sins of the people, away into the wil- 
derness ; in this manner expressing, by an 
action which cannot be misunderstood, that 
the atonement, which, it is affirmed, was to 
be effected by the sacrifice of the sin offering, 
consisted in removing from the people their 
iniquities by this translation of them to the 
animal. For it is to be remarked, that the 
ceremony of the scape-goat is not a distinct 
one : it is a continuation of the process, and 
is evidently the concluding part and symbolical 
consummation of the sin offering : so that the 
transfer of the iniquities of the people upon the 
head of the scape-goat, and the bearing them 
away into the wilderness, manifestly imply, 
that the atonement effected by the sacrifice of 
the sin offering consisted in the transfer and 
consequent removal of those iniquities. 

10. How, then, isthjs impressive and singular 



EXP 



364 



EXP 



ceremonial to be explained ? Shall we resort to 
the notion of mulcts and fines? If so, then this 
and other stated sacrifices must be considered in 
the light of penal enactments. But this cannot 
agree with the appointment of such sacrifices 
annually in succeeding generations : ' ' This shall 
be a statute for ever unto you." The law ap- 
points a certain day in the year for expiating 
the sins both of the high priest himself and of 
the whole congregation, and that for all high 
priests and all generations of the congregation. 
Now, could a law be enacted, inflicting a cer- 
tain penalty, at a certain time, upon a whole 
people, as well as upon their high priest, thus 
presuming upon their actual transgression of 
it ? The sacrifice v/as also for sins in general ; 
and yet the penalty, if it were one, is not 
greater than individual persons were often 
obliged to undergo for single trespasses. No- 
thing, certainly, can be more absurd than this 
hypothesis. Shall we account for it by saying 
that sacrifices were offered for the benefit of 
the worshipper, but exclude the notion of ex- 
piation ? But here we are obliged to confine 
the benefit to reconciliation and the taking 
away of sins, and that by the appointed means 
of the shedding of blood, and the presentation 
of blood in the holy place, accompanied by the 
expressive ceremony of imposition of hands 
upon the head of the victim ; the import of 
w^hich act is fixed, beyond all controversy, by 
the priest's confessing over that victim the sins 
of all the people, and at the same time impre- 
cating upon its head the vengeance due to them, 
Lev. xvi, 21. Shall we content ourselves w-ith 
merely saying that this was a s3nnbol ? But the 
question remains, Of what was it the symbol? 
To determine this, let the several parts of the 
symbolic action be enumerated. Here is con- 
fession of sin ; confession before God at the 
door of the tabernacle ; the substitution of a 
victim ; the figurative transfer of sins to that 
victim ; the shedding of blood, which God ap- 
pointed to make atonement for the soul ; the 
carrying the blood into the holiest place, the 
very permission of which clearly marked the 
divine acceptance; the bearing away of ini- 
quity ; and the actual reconciliation of the 
people to God. If, then, this is symbolical, it 
has nothing correspondent with it, it never had 
or can have any thing correspondent to it but 
the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, and the 
communication of the benefits of his passion 
jn the forgiveness of sins to those that believe 
In him, and in their reconciliation with God. 
Shall we, finally, say that those sacrifices had 
jespect, not to God to obtain pardon by expia- 
tion, but to the offerer, teaching him moral 
lessons, and calling forth moral dispositions ? 
We answer, that this hypothesis leaves many 
of the essential circumstances of the ceremonial 
wholly unaccounted for. The tabernacle and 
.temple were erected for the residence of God, 
by his own command. There it was his will 
to be approached, and to these sacred places 
the victims were required to be brought. Any 
where else they might as well have been offer- 
ed, if they had had respect only to the offerer; 
but they were required to be brought to God, 



to be offered according to a prescribed ritual, 
and by an order of men appointed for that pur- 
pose. Now truly there is no reason why they 
should be offered in the sanctuary rather than 
in any other place, except that they were offered 
to the Inhabitant of the sanctuary ; nor could 
they be offered in his presence without having 
respect to him. There were some victims 
whose blood, on the day of atonement, was to 
be carried into the inner sanctuary; but for 
what purpose can we suppose the blood to have 
been carried into the most secret place of the 
divine residence, except to obtain the favour 
of Him in whose presence it was sprinkled ? 
To this we may add, that the reason given for 
these sacred services is not in any case a mere 
moral effect to be produced upon the minds of 
the worshippers : they were "to make atone- 
ment," that is, to avert God's displeasure, that 
the people might not " die." 

11. We may find, also, another more expli- 
cit illustration in the sacrifice of the passover. 
The sacrificial character of this offering is 
strongly marked ; for it was an offering brought 
to the tabernacle ; it was slain in the sanctua- 
ry ; and the blood was sprinkled upon the al- 
tar by the priests. It derives its name from 
the passing over and sparing of the houses of 
the Israelites, on the door posts of which the 
blood of the immolated lamb was sprinkled, 
when the first-born in the houses of the Egyp- 
tians were slain; and thus we have another 
instance of life being spared by the instituted 
means of animal sacrifice. Nor need we con- 
fine ourselves to particular instances. " Al- 
most all things," says an Apostle, who surely 
knew his subject, " are by the law purged with 
blood ; and without shedding of blood there is 
no remission." Thus, by their very law, and 
by constant usage, were the Jews familiarized 
to the notion of expiatory sacrifice, as Avell as 
by the history contained in their sacred books, 
especially in Genesis, which speaks of the vi- 
carious sacrifices offered by the patriarchs ; and 
in the book of Job, in which that patriarch is 
said to have offered sacrifices for the supposed 
sins of his sons ; and where Eliphaz is com- 
manded, by a divine oracle, to offer a burnt 
offering for himself and his friends, "lest God 
should deal with them after their folly." 

12. On the sentiments c f the uninspired 
Jewish writers on this point, the substitution 
of the life of the animal for that of the offerer, 
and, consequently, the expiatory nature of their 
sacrifices, Outram has given many quotations 
from their writings, which the reader may con- 
sult in his work on Sacrifices. Two or three 
only may bo adduced by way of specimen. 
R. Levi Ben Gerson says, " The imposition of 
the hands of the offerers was designed to indi- 
cate that their sins were removed from them- 
selves, and transferred to the animal." Isaac 
Ben Arama : " He transfers his sins from him- 
self, and lays them upon the head of the vic- 
tim." R. Moses Ben Nachman says, with re- 
spect to a sinner offering a victim, " It Was just 
that his blood should be shed, and that his body 
should be burned; but the Creator, of his mer- 
cy, accepted the victim from him, as liis substi- 



EXP 



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EXP 



tute and ransom ; that the blood of the animal 
might be shed instead of his blood ; that is, that 
the blood of the animal might be given for his 
life." 

13. Full of these ideas of vicarious expiation, 
then, the Apostles wrote and spoke, and the 
Jews of their time heard and read, the books 
of the New Testament. The Socinian pre- 
tence is, that the inspired penmen used the 
sacrificial terms which occur in their writings 
figuratively ; but we not only reply, as before, 
that they could not do this honestly, unless 
they had given notice of this nevt;^ application 
of the established terms of the Jewish theology ; 
but, if this be assumed, it leaves us wholly at 
a loss to discover what that really was which 
they intended to teach by these sacrificial terms 
and allusions. They are themselves utterly 
silent as to this point ; and the varying theo- 
ries of those who reject the doctrine of atone- 
ment, in fact, confess that their writings afford 
no solution of the difiiculty. If, therefore, it 
is blasphemous to suppose, on the one hand, 
that inspired men should write on purpose to 
mislead ; so, on the other, it is utterly incon- 
ceivable that, had they only been ordinary 
writers, they should construct a figurative lan- 
guage out of terms which had a definite and 
established sense, without giving any intimation 
at all that they employed them otherwise than 
in their received meaning, or telling us why 
they adopted them at all, and more especially 
when they knew that they must be interpret- 
ed, both by Jews and Greeks, in a sense which, 
if the Socinians are right, was in direct oppo- 
sition to that which they intended to convey. 
See Type, Sacrifice, Propitiation. 

Expiation, or Atonement, Great Day of, was 
the tenth of Tizri, which nearly answers to 
our September, O. S. The Hebrews call it 
kippur, or chippur, "pardon," or "expiation," 
because the faults of the year'were then expiat- 
ed. The principal ceremonies of this day have 
been noticed in the preceding article ; but a 
more particular detail may be useful. The 
high priest, after he had washed, not only his 
hands and his feet, as usual at common sacri- 
fices, but his whole body, dressed himself in 
plain linen, like the other priests, wearing 
neither his purple robe, nor the ephod, nor the 
pectoral, because he was to expiate his own 
sins, together with those of the people. He 
first offered a bullock and a ram for his own 
sins, and those of the priests : putting his hands 
on the heads of these victims, he confessed his 
own sins and the sins of his house. Afterward, 
he received from the princes of the people two 
goats for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt 
offering, to be offered in the name of the whole 
nation. The lot determined which of the two 
goats should be sacrificed, and which set at 
liberty. After this, the high priest put some of 
the sacred fire of the altar of burnt offerings 
into a censer, threw incense upon it, and en- 
tered with it, thus smoking, into the sanctuary. 
After he had perfumed the sanctuary with this 
incense, he came out, took some of the blood 
of the young bullock lie had sacrificed, carried 
that also into the sanctuary, and, dipping his 



fingers in it, sprinkled it seven times between 
the ark and the vail, which separated the holy 
from the sanctuary, or most holy. Then he 
came out a second time, and, beside the altar 
of burnt offerings, killed the goat which the lot 
had determined to be the sacrifice. The blood 
of this goat he carried into the most holy sane- 
tuary, and sprinkled it seven times between 
the ark and the vail, which separated the holy 
from the sanctuary : from thence he returned 
into the court of the tabernacle, and sprinkled 
both sides of it with the blood of the goat. 
During all this, none of the priests or people 
were admitted into the tabernacle, or into the 
court. After this, the high priest came to the 
altar of burnt offerings, wetted the four horns 
of it with the blood of the goat and young 
bullock, and sprinkled it seven times with the 
same blood. The sanctuary, the court, and the 
altar, being thus purified, the high priest di- 
rected the goat which was set at liberty by the 
lot to be brought to him. He put his hand on 
the goat's head, confessed his own sins and 
the sins of the people, and then delivered the 
goat to a person appointed, who was to carry 
it to some desert place, and let it loose, or, as 
others say, throw it down some precipice. 
This being done, the high priest washed him- 
self all over in the tabernacle ; and, putting on 
other clothes, his pontifical dress, that is, his 
robe of purple, the ephod, and the pectoral, he 
sacrificed two rams for burnt offering, one for 
himself, the other for the people. The great 
day of expiation was a principal solemnity of 
the Hebrews, a day of rest and strict fasting. 

2. There have been various disputes among 
the learned respecting the meaning of the 
word azazel, the name of the scape-goat on 
which the lot fell ; but the most prevailing 
opinion is, that it is derived from gnez, " a 
goat," tand azel, "to go away." So Buxtorf 
and many others explain it ; and so it was un- 
derstood by our translators, who have there- 
fore rendered it " a scape-goat." Both goats 
were typical of Christ : that which was sacri- 
ficed is understood to have denoted his death, 
by means of which sin was expiated ; the other, 
which was to have the sins of the people con- 
fessed over him, and, as it were, put upon him, 
and then to be sent alive into some desert 
place, where they could see him no more, was 
intended to signify the effect of the expiation, 
namely, the removing of guilt, indicating that 
it should never more be charged on the par- 
doned sinner. 

3. The rites attending the public service of 
the day of expiation were chiefly performed by 
the high priest, whose duties were on this day 
more arduous than on any other day in the 
year, or perhaps on all the rest united. He 
was to kill and offer the sacrifices, and sprinkle 
their blood with his own hands. Lev. xvi, 11- 
15 ; and he was to enter with it into the holy 
of holies, which he was not permitted to do at 
any other time, Lev. xvi, 2, &c ; Heb. ix, 7. It 
was thus his peculiar privilege to draw nearer 
to God, or to the tokens of his special pre. 
sence, to the ark of the covenant, to the mercy 
seat, and to the Shckinah, than was allowed to 



EYE 



366 



EYE 



any other mortal. The services which he per- 
formed in the inmost sanctuary were, the burn- 
ing of incense, and sprinkling the blood of the 
sacrifices before the mercy seat, which he was 
to do with his finger seven times, Lev. xvi, 14. 

4. The spiritual meaning of all these rites 
has been particularly explained by the Apostle 
Paul in Hebrews ix. As the high priest was 
a type of Christ, his laying aside those vest- 
ments which were made " for glory and beau- 
ty," Exodus xxviii, 2, and appearing in his 
common garments, which he did on that day, 
probably signified our Lord's humiliation, when 
he emptied himself of the glory which he had 
with the Father before the world was, and 
" was made in fashion as a man," Phil, ii, 6, 7. 
The expiatory sacrifices, offered by the high 
priest, were typical of the true expiation which 
Christ made for the sins of his people, when 
he gave himself for them, that he might re- 
deem them from all iniquity, Titus ii, 14 ; Heb. 
i, 3 ; and the priest's confessing the sins of the 
people over them, and putting them upon the 
head of the scape-goat, Lev. xvi, 21, was a 
lively emblem of the imputation of sin to Christ, 
who " was made sin for us," 2 Cor. v, 21 ; for 
" the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us 
all," Isaiah liii, 6. Farther, the goat's " bear- 
ing upon him all the iniquities of the Jews into 
a land not inhabited," Lev. xvi, 22, represents 
the effect of Christ's sacrifice in delivering his 
people from guilt and punishment ; and the 
priest's entering into the holy of holies with 
the blood of the sacrifice is explained by the 
Apostle to be typical of Christ's ascension into 
heaven itself, and his making intercession for 
his people in virtue of the sacrifice of his death. 

EYE, the organ of sight. The Hebrews 
by a curious and bold metaphor call fountains 
eyes ; and they also give the same name to 
colours: "And the eye," or colour, "of the 
manna was as the eye," or colour, " of bdel- 
lium," Num. xi, 7. By an " evil eye" is meant, 
envy, jealousy, grudging, ill-judged parsimony ; 
to turn the eyes on any one, is to regard him 
and his interests; to find grace in any one's 
eyes, Ruth ii, 10, is to win his friendship and 
good will. "The eyes of servants look unto, 
the hands of their masters," Psalm cxxiii, 2, to 
observe the least motion, and obey the least sig- 
nal. "Their eyes were opened," Gen. iii, 7, 
they began to comprehend in a new manner. 
" The wise man's eyes are in his head," Eccles. 
ii, 14, he does not act by chance. The eye of 
the soul, in a moral sense, is the intention, the 
desire. God threatens to set his eyes on the 
Israelites for evil, and not for good, Amos ix, 4. 
Nebuchadnezzar recommends to Nebuzaradan 
that he would " set his eyes" on Jeremiah, and 
yermit him to go where he pleased, Jer. xxxix, 
12; xl, 4. Sometimes expressions of this kind 
are taken in a quite opposite sense: "Behold, 
the eyes of the Lord are on the sinful king- 
dom ; and I will destroy it," Amos ix, 8. To 
be eyes to the blind, or to serve them instead 
of eyes, is sufficiently intelligible. Job xxix, 15. 
The Persians called those officers of the crown 
who had the care of the king's interests and 
the management of his finances, the king's 



Eye service is peculiar to slaves, who 
are governed by fear only ; and is to be care- 
fully guarded against by Christians, who ought 
to serve from a principle of duty and affection, 
Eph. vi, 6 ; Col. iii, 22. The lust of the eyes, 
or the desire of the eyes, comprehends every 
thing that curiosity, vanity, &c, seek after; 
every thing that the eyes can present to men 
given up to their passions, 1 John ii, 16. 
"Cast ye away every man the abomination of 
his eyes," Ezek. xx, 7, 8 ; let not the idols of 
the Egyptians seduce you. The height or ele- 
vation of the eyes is taken for pride, Eccles. 
xxiii, 5. St. Paul says that the Galatians would 
willingly have "plucked out their eyes" for him, 
Gal. iv, 15 ; expressing the intensity of their 
zeal, affection, and devotion to him. The He- 
brews call the apple of the eye the black daugh- 
ter of the eye. To keep any thing as the apple 
of the eye, is to preserve it with particular 
care, Deut. xxxii, 10 : " He that toucheth you, 
toucheth the apple of mine eye," Zech. ii, 8 ; 
attempts to injure me in the tenderest part, 
which men instinctively defend. The eye and 
its actions are occasionally transferred to God : 
" The eyes of the Lord run to and fro through 
the whole earth," Zech. iv, 10 ; 2 Chron. xvi, 
9; Psalm xi, 4. "The eyes of the Lord are 
in every place, beholding the evil and the good," 
Proverbs xv, 3. "The Lord looked down from 
heaven," &c. We read, Matthew vi, 22, " The 
light," or lamp, " of the body is the eye ; if 
therefore thine eye be single," simple, clear, 
air^ovs, " thy whole body shall be full of light ; 
but if thine eye be evil," distempered, diseased, 
" thy whole body shall be darkened." The 
direct allusion may hold to a lantern, or lamp, 
Xvxvog; if the glass of it be clear, the light will 
shine through it strongly ; but if the glass be 
soiled, dirty, foul, but little light will pass 
through it : for if they had not glass lanterns, 
such as we use, they had others in the east 
made of thin linen, &c : these were very liable 
to receive spots, stains, and foulnesses, which 
impeded the passage of the rays of light from 
the luminary within. So, in the natural eye, 
if the cornea be single, and the humours clear,, 
the light will act correctly ; but if there be a 
film over the cornea, or a cataract, or a skin 
between any of the humours, the rays of light 
will never make any impression on the inter- 
nal seat of sight, the retina. By analogy, 
therefore, if the mental eye, the judgment, be 
honest, virtuous, sincere, well-meaning, pious, 
it may be considered as enlightening and di- 
recting the whole of a person's actions ; but if 
it be perverse, malign, biassed by undue pre- 
judices, or drawn aside by improper views, it 
darkens the understanding, perverts the con- 
duct, and suffers a man to be misled by his 
unwise and unruly passions. 

2. The orientals, in some cases, deprive the 
criminal of the light of day, by sealing up his 
eyes. A son of the great Mogul was actually 
suffering this punishment when Sir Thomas 
Roe visited the court of Delhi. The hapless 
youth was cast into prison, and deprived of the 
light by some adhesive plaster put upon his 
eyes, for the space of three years ; after which 



EYE 



367 



EZE 



the seal was taken away, that he might with 
freedom enjoy the light ; but he was still de- 
tained in prison. Other princes have been 
treated in a different manner, to prevent them 
from conspiring against the reigning monarch, 
or meddling with affairs of state : they have 
been compelled to swallow opium and other 
stupifying drugs, to weaken or benumb their 
faculties, and render them unfit for business. 
Influenced by such absurd and cruel policy, 
Shah Abbas, the celebrated Persian monarch, 
who died in 1629, ordered a certain quantity 
of opium to be given every day to his grand. 
son, who was to be his successor, to stupify 
him, and prevent him from disturbing his 
government. Such are probably the circum- 
stances alluded to by the prophet : ." They have 
not known nor understood ; for he hath shut 
their eyes that they cannot see ; and their 
hearts that they cannot understand," Isaiah 
xliv, 18. The verb mo, rendered in our ver- 
sion, to shut, signifies-^' to overlay," "to cover 
over the surface ;" thus, the king of Israel pre- 
pared three thousand talents of gold, and seven 
thousand talents of refined silver, to overlay 
the walls of the temple, 1 Chron. xxix, 4. But 
it generally signifies to overspread, or daub 
over, as with mortar or plaster, of which Park- 
hurst quotes a number of examples ; a sense 
which entirely corresponds with the manner in 
which the eyes of a criminal are sealed up in 
some parts of the east. The practice of sealing 
up the eyes, and stupifying a criminal with 
drugs, seems to have been contemplated by the 
same prophet in another passage of his book : 
" Make the heart of this people fat, and make 
their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they 
see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, 
and understand with their heart, and convert 
and be healed." 

3. Deprivation of sight was a very common 
punishment in the east. It was at first the 
practice to sear the eyes with a hot iron ; but 
a discovery that this was not effectual, led to 
the cruel method of taking them out altogether 
with a sharp-pointed instrument. The objects 
of this barbarity were usually persons who 
aspired to the tlu'one, or who were considered 
likely to make such an attempt. It was also 
inflicted on chieftains, whom it was desirable 
to deprive of power without putting them to 
death. For this reason the hapless Zedekiah 
was punished with the loss of sight, because he 
had rebelled against the king of Babylon, and 
endeavoured to recover the independence of 
his throne : " Then he put out the eyes of 
Zedekiah ; and the king of Babylon bound him 
in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put 
him in prison till the day of his death," Jer. 
lii, 11. 

4. Females used to paint their eyes. The 
substance used for this purpose is called in 
Chaldee "^no, cohol; by the LXX, ^I^l. Thus 
we read of Jezebel, 2 Kings ix, 30, that, un- 
derstanding that Jehu was to enter Samaria, 
she decked herself for his reception, and (as in 
the original Hebrew) "put her eyes in paint." 
This was in conformity to a custom which 
prevailed in the earliest ages. As large black 



eyes were thought the finest, the women, to 
increase their lustre, and to make them appear 
larger, tinged the corner of their eyelids with 
the impalpable powder of antimony or of black 
lead. This was supposed also to give the eyes 
a brilliancy and humidity, which rendered them 
either sparkling or languishing, as suited the 
various passions. The method of performing 
this among the women in the eastern countries 
at the present day, as described by Russel, is 
by a cylindrical piece of silver or ivory, about 
two inches long, made very smooth, and about 
the size of a common probe ; this is wet with 
water, and then dipped into a powder finely 
levigated, made from what appears to be a rich 
lead ore, and applied to the eye ; the lids are 
closed upon it while it is drawn through be- 
tween them. This blacks the inside, and leaves 
a narrow black rim all round the edge. That 
this was the method practised by the Hebrew 
women, we infer from Isaiah iii, 22, where the 
prophet, in his enumeration of the articles 
which composed the toilets of the delicate and 
luxurious daughters of Zion, mentions " the 
wimples and the crisping pins," or bodkins for 
painting the eyes. The satirist Juvenal de- 
scribes the same practice : — 

Ille snpercilium madida fuligine tluctum 
Obliqua producit acu, pingiique trementes 
Attollens oculos. Sat. ii. 

" These with a tiring pin their eyebrows dye 
Till the full arch give lustre to the eye." 

GiFFOBD. 

This custom is referred to by Jeremiah, 
iv, 30 :— 

"Though thouclothest thyself iu scarlet, 
Though thou adoniest thyself with ornaments of gold, 
Though thou distendest thine eyes with paint, 
In vain slmlt thou set forth thy beauty ; 
Thy paramours have rejected thee." 

And Ezekiel, describing the irregularities of the 
Jewish nation, under the idea of a debauched 
woman, says, "j^j^y rbuD, "Thou didst dress- 
thine eyes with cohol ;" which the Septuagint 
render, 'Es-t6/^s roiis iipQaKfiovg cov, "Thou didst 
dress thine eyes with stibium," Ezek. xxiii, 40. 

5. The passage. Psalm cxxiii, 2, derives a 
striking illustration from the customs of the 
east. The servants or slaves in eastern coun- 
tries attend their masters or mistresses with 
the profoundest respect. Maundrell observes, 
that the servants in Turkey stand round their 
master and his guests in deep silence and per- 
fect order, watching every motion. Pococke 
says, that at a visit in Egypt every thing is 
done with the greatest decency and the most 
profound silence, the slaves or servants stand- 
ing at the bottom of the room, with their 
hands joined before them, watching with the 
utmost attention every motion of their master, 
who commands them by signs. De la Motraye 
says, that the eastern ladies are waited on even 
at the least wank of the eye, or motion of the 
fingers, and that in a manner not perceptible 
to strangers. 

EZEKIEL, like his contemporary Jeremiah, 
^As of the sacerdotal race. He was carried 
away captive to Babylon witii. Jehoiachim, 
king of Judah, B. O. 598, and was placed with 



EZE 



368 



EZR 



many others of his countrymen upon the river 
Chebar, in Mesopotamia, where he was favour, 
ed with the divine revelations contained in his 
book. He began to prophesy in the fifth year 
of his captivity, and is supposed to have pro- 
phesied about twenty-one years. The boldness 
with which he censured the idolatry and wick- 
edness of his countrymen is said to have cost 
him his life ; but his memory was greatly re- 
vered, not only by the Jews, but also by the 
Medes and Persians. The book which bears 
his name may be considered under the five 
following divisions : the first three chapters 
contain the glorious appearance of God to the 
prophet, and his solemn appointment to his 
office, with instructions and encouragements 
for the discharge of it. From the fourth to the 
twenty-fourth chapter inclusive, he describes, 
under a variety of visions and similitudes, the 
calamities impending over Judea, and the total 
destruction of the temple and city of Jerusalem, 
by Nebuchadnezzar, occasionally predicting 
another period of yet greater desolation, and 
more general dispersion. From the beginning 
of the twenty-fifth to the end of the thirty- 
second chapter, the prophet foretels the con- 
quest and ruin of many nations and cities, 
which had insulted the Jews in their affliction ; 
of the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Edomites, 
and Philistines ; of Tyre, of Sidon, and Egypt ; 
all of which were to be punished by the same 
mighty instrument of God's wrath against the 
wickedness of man ; and in these prophecies 
he not only predicts events which were soon 
to take place, but he also describes the con- 
dition of these several countries in the remote 
periods of the world. From the thirty-second 
to the fortieth chapter, he inveighs against the 
accumulated sins of the Jews collectively, and 
the murmuring spirit of his captive brethren ; 
exhorts them earnestly to repent of their 
hypocrisy and wickedness, upon the assurance 
that God will accept sincere repentance ; and 
comforts them with promises of approaching 
deliverance under Cyrus; subjoining intima- 
tions of some far more glorious, but distant, 
redemption under the Messiah, though the 
nmnner in which it is to be effected is deeply 
involved in mystery. The last nine chapters 
contain a remarkable vision of the structure of 
a new temple and a new polity, applicable in 
the first instance to the return from- the Baby- 
Ionian captivity, but in its ultimate sense re- 
ferring to the glory and prosperity of the 
universal church of Christ. Jerom observes 
that the visions of Ezekiel are among the 
things in Scripture hard to be understood. 
This obscurity arises, in part at least, from the 
nature and design of the prophecies themselves ; 
they were delivered amidst the gloom of cap- 
tivity ; and though calculated to cheer the 
drooping spirits of the Jews, and to keep alive 
a watchful and submissive confidence in the 
mercy of God, yet they were intended to com- 
municate only such a degree of encouragement 
as was consistent with a state of punishment, 
and to excite an indistinct expectation of future 
blessings, upon condition of repentance and 
amendment. It ought alao to be observed, that 



the last twelve chapters of this book bear a very 
strong resemblance to the concluding chapters 
of the Revelation. The style of this prophet 
is characterized by Bishop Lowth as bold, ve- 
hement, and tragical ; as often worked up to a 
kind of tremendous dignity. He is highly 
parabolical, and abounds in figures and meta- 
phorical expressions. He may be compared to 
the Grecian ^schylus ; he displays a rough 
but majestic dignity; an unpolished though 
noble simplicity ; inferior perhaps in originality 
and elegance to others of the prophets, but un- 
equalled in that force and grandeur for which 
he is particularly celebrated. He sometimes 
emphatically and indignantly repeats his senti. 
ments, fully dilates his pictures, and describes 
the idolatrous manners of his countrymen under 
the strongest and most exaggerated represent, 
ations that the license of eastern style would 
admit. The middle part of the book is in some 
measure poetical, and contains even some per- 
feet elegies, though his thoughts are in general 
too irregular and uncontrolled to be chained 
down to rule, or fettered by language. 
EZION-GEBER. See Elath. 
EZRA, the author of the book which bears 
his name, was of the sacerdotal family, being 
a direct descendant from Aaron, and succeed- 
ed Zerubbabel in the government of Judea ^ 
This book begins with the repetition of the 
last two verses of the second book of Chroni- 
cles, and carries the Jewish history through a 
period of seventy-nine years, commencing from 
the edict of Cyrus. The first six chapters con- 
tain an account of the return of the Jciws under 
Zerubbabel, after the captivity of seventy 
years; of their reestablishment in Judea; and 
of the building and dedication of the temple at 
Jerusalem. In the last four chapters, Ezra 
relates his own appointment to the govern^ 
ment of Judea by Artaxerxes Longimanus, his 
journey thither from Babylon, the disobedience 
of the Jews, and the reform which he imme- 
diately effected among them. It is to be ob- 
served, that between the dedication of the 
temple and the departure of Ezra, that is, be- 
tween the sixth and seventh chapters of this 
book, there was an interval of about fifty-eight 
years, during which nothing is bere related 
concerning the Jews, except thaf, contrary to 
God's command, they intermarried with Gen- 
tiles. This book is written in Chaldee from 
the eighth verse of the fourth chapter to the 
twenty-seventh verse of the seventh chapter. 
It is probable that the sacred historian used 
the Chaldean language in this part of his work, 
because it contains chiefly letters and decrees 
written in that language, the original words 
of which he might think it right to record ; 
and indeed the people, who were recently re- 
turned from the Babylonian captivity, were at 
least as familiar with the Chaldee as they were 
with the Hebrew tongue. 

Till the arrival of Nehemiah, Ezra had the 
principal authority in Jerusalem. In the 
second year of Nehemiah's government, the 
people being assembled in the temple, at the 
feast of tabernacles, Ezra was desired to read 
the law. He read it from morning till noon, 



FAC 



369 



FAl 



and was accompanied by Levites who stood 
beside him, and kept silence. The next day 
they desired to know of Ezra how they were 
to celebrate the feast of tabernacles. This he 
explained, and continued eight days reading 
the law in the temple. All this was followed 
by a solemn renewal of the covenant with the 
Lord. Josephus says that Ezra was buried at 
Jerusalem; but the Jews believe that he died 
in Persia, in a second journey to Artaxerxes. 
His tomb is shown there in the city of Zamuza. 
He is said to have lived nearly one hundred 
and twenty years. 

Ezra was tlie restorer and publisher of the 
Holy Scriptures, after the return of the Jews 
from the Babylonian captivity. 1. He cor- 
rected the errors which had crept into the ex- 
isting copies of the sacred Avritings by the ne- 
gligence or mistake of transcribers. 2, He col- 
lected all the books of which the Holy Scrip- 
tures tlien consisted, disposed them in their 
proper order, and settled the canon of Scrip- 
ture for his time. 3. He added throughout the 
books of his edition what appeared necessary 
for illustrating, connecting, or completing 
them; and of this we have an instance in the 
account of the death and burial of Moses, in 
the last chapter of Deuteronomy. In this work 
he was assisted by the same Spirit by which 
they were at first written. 4. He changed the 
ancient names of several places become obso- 
lete, and substituted for them new names, by 
which they were at that time called. 5. He wrote 
out the whole in the Chaldee character; that 
language having grown into use after the 
Babylonish captivity. The Jews have an ex- 
traordinary esteem for Ezra, and say that if 
the law had not been given by Moses, Ezra 
deserved to have been the legislator of the 
Hebrews. 

FABLE, a fiction destitute of truth. St. 
Paul exhorts Timothy and Titus to shun pro- 
fane and Jewish fables, 1 Tim. iv, 7 ; Titus i, 
14 ; as having a tendency to seduce men from 
the truth. By these fables some understand 
the reveries of the Gnostics ; but the fathers 
generally, and after them most of the modern 
commentators, interpret them of the vain tra- 
ditions of the Jews ; especially concerning 
meats, and other things, to be abstained from 
as unclean, which our Lord also styles "the 
doctrines of men," Matt, xv, 9. This sense of 
the passages is confirmed by their contexts. 
In another sense, the word is taken to signify 
an apologue, or instructive tale, intended to 
convey truth under the concealment of fiction ; 
as Jotharn's fable of the trees, Judges ix, 7-15, 
no doubt by far the oldest fable extant. 

FACE. Moses begs of God to show him 
his face, or to manifest his glory ; he replies, 
"I wull make all my goodness pass before 
thee," and I- will proclaim my name ; " but my 
face thou canst not see ; for there shall no man 
see it and live!" The persuasion was very 
prevalent in the world, that no man could sup. 
port the sight of Deity, Genesis xvi, 13; xxxii, 
30; Exod. xx, 19; xxiv, 11 ; Judges vi, 22, 23. 
We read that God spake mouth to mouth with 
25 



Moses, even apparently, and not in dark 
speeches, Nmubers xii, 8 ; " The Canaanites 
have heard that thou art among thy people, 
and seen face to face," Numbers xiv, 14. God 
talked with the Hebrews "face to face out of 
the midst of the fire," Deut. v, 4. All these 
places are to be understood simply, that God 
so manifested himself to the Israelites, that he 
made them hear his voice as distinctly as if he 
had appeared to them face to face; but not 
that they actually saw more than the cloud of 
glory which marked his presence. The face 
of God denotes sometimes his anger: "The 
face of the Lord is against them that do evil." 
" As w^ax melteth before the fire, so let the 
wicked perish before the face of God," Psalm 
Ixviii, 2. To turn the face upon any one, es- 
pecially when connected with the light or 
sliining of the countenance, are beautiful re- 
presentations of the divine kindness and con. 
descension. To regard the face of any one, is 
to have respect of persons. Proverbs xxviii, 21. 
The Apostle, speaking of the difference be- 
tween our knowledge of God here and in 
heaven, says, "Now we see through a glass 
darkly ; but then face to face," 1 Cor. xiii, 12 ; 
by which he shows the vast difiBrence between 
our seeing or knowing God and divine things 
by an imperfect revelation to faith, and by 
direct vision. This observation of the Apostle 
is rendered the more striking, when it is recol- 
lected that the Roman glass w^as not fially 
transparent as ours, but dull and clouded. Of 
tliis, specimens may be seen in the glass vessels 
taken out of Pompeii. 

FAITH, in Scripture, is presented to us 
under two leading views : the first is that of 
assent or persuasion; the second, that o? con- 
fidence or reliance. The former may be sepa- 
rate from the latter, but the latter cannot exist 
without the former. Faith, in the sense of an 
intellectual assent to truth, is, by St. James, 
allowed to devils. A dead, inoperative faith is 
also supposed, or declared, to be possessed by 
wicked men, professing Christianity; for our 
Lord represents persons coming to him at the 
last day, saying, " Lord, have we not prophe- 
sied in thy name ?" &c, to whom he will say, 
" Depart from me, I never knew you." And 
yet the charge in this place does not lie against 
the sincerity of their belief, but against their 
conduct as "workers of iniquity." As this 
distinction is taught in Scripture, so it is also 
observed in experience : assent to the truths of 
revealed religion may result from examination 
and conviction, while yet the spirit and con- 
duct may remain unrenewed and sinful. 

2. The faith which is required of us as a con- 
dition of salvation always includes confidence 
or reliance, as well as assent or persuasion. 
That faith by which "the elders obtained a 
good report," was of this character ; it united 
assent to the truth of God's revelations with a 
noble confidence in his promise. " Our fathers 
trusted in thee, and were not confounded." 
We have a farther illustration in our Lord's 
address to his disciples upon the withering 
away of the fig tree : " Have faith in God." 
He did not question whether they believed the 



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existence of God, but exhorted them to confi- 
dence in his promises, when called by him to 
contend with mountainous difficulties: "Have 
faith in God ; for verily I say unto you, that 
whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be 
thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, 
and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall be- 
lieve (trust) that these things which he saith 
shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever 
he saith." It was in reference to his simple 
confidence in Christ's power that our Lord so 
highly commended the centurion, and said, 
** I have not found so great faith, no, not in 
Israel," Matt, viii, 10. And all the instances 
of faith in the persons miraculously healed by 
Christ, were also of this kind : their faith was 
belief in his claims, and also confidence in his 
goodness and power. 

3. That faith in Christ which in the New 
Testament is connected with salvation, is 
clearly of this nature; that is, it combines 
assent with reliance, belief with trust. " What- 
soever ye ask the Father in my name," that is, 
in dependence upon my interest and merits, 
"he shall give it you." Christ was preached 
both to Jews and Gentiles as the object of their 
trust, because he was preached as the only 
true sacrifice for sin; and they were required 
to renounce their dependence upon their own 
accustomed sacrifices, and to transfer that de- 
pendence to his death and mediation, — and 
"in his name shall the Gentiles trust." He is 
said to be set forth as a propitiation, " through 
faith in his blood;" which faith can neither 
merely mean assent to the historical fact that 
his blood was shed by a violent death; nor 
mere assent to the general doctrine that his 
blood had an atoning quality ; but as all ex- 
piatory offerings were trusted in as the means 
of propitiation both among Jews and Gentiles, 
faith or trust was now to be exclusively ren- 
dered to the blood of Christ, as the divinely 
appointed sacrifice for sin, and the only refiige 
of the true penitent. 

■ 4. To the most unlettered Christian this then 
will be very obvious, that true and saving faith 
in Christ consists both of assent and triist ; but 
this is not a blind and superstitious trust in the 
sacrifice of Christ, like that of the Heathens in 
their sacrifices ; nor the presumptuous trust of 
wicked and impenitent men, who depend on 
Christ to save them in their sins; but such a 
trust as is exercised according to the authority 
and direction of the word of God ; so that to know 
the Gospel in its leading principles, and to have 
a cordial belief in it, is necessary to that more 
specific act of faith which is called reliance, or 
in systematic language, fiducial assent. The 
Gospel, as the scheme of man's salvation, de- 
clares that he is under the law ; that this law 
of God has been violated by all ; and that every 
man is under sentence of death. Serious con- 
sideration of our ways, confession of the fact, 
and sorrowful conviction of the evil and danger 
of sin, will, under the influence of divine grace, 
follow the cordial belief of the testimony of 
God; and we shall then turn to God with 
contrite hearts, and earnest prayers, and sup- 
plications for his mercy. This is called "re- 



pentance toward God ;" and repentance being 
the first subject of evangelical preaching, and 
then the injunction to believe the Gospel, it is 
plain, that Christ is only immediately held out, 
in this divine plan of our redemption, as the 
object of trust in order to forgiveness to per- 
sons in this state of penitence and under this 
sense of danger. The degree of sorrow for 
sin, and alarm upon this discovery of our dan- 
ger as sinners, is no where fixed to a precise 
standard in Scripture ; only it is supposed every 
where, that it is such as to lead men to inquire 
earnestly, "What shall I do to be saved?" 
and with earnest seriousness to use all the 
appointed means of grace, as those who feel 
that their salvation is at issue, that they are 
in a lost condition, and must be pardoned 
or perish. To all such persons, Christ, as the 
only atonement for sin, is exhibited as the object 
of their trust, with the promise of God, "that 
whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, 
but have everlasting life." Nothing is required 
of such but this actual trust in, and personal 
apprehension or taking hold of, the merits of 
Christ's death as a sacrifice for sin ; and upon 
their thus believing they are justified, their 
"faith is counted for righteousness," or, in 
other words, they are forgiven. 

5. This appears to be the plain Scriptural 
representation of this doctrine ; and we may 
infer from it, (1.) That the faith by which we 
are justified is not a mere assent to the doc- 
trines of the Gospel, which leaves the heart 
unmoved and unaffected by a sense .of the evil 
and danger of sin and the desire of salvation, 
although it supposes this assent; nor, (2.) Is 
it that more lively and cordial assent to, and 
belief in, the doctrine of the Gospel, touching 
our sinful and lost condition, which is v/rought 
in the heart by the Spirit of God, and from 
which springeth repentance, although this 
must precede it ; nor, (3.) Is it only the assent 
of the mind to the method by which God jus- 
tifies the ungodly by faith in the sacrifice of 
his Son, although this is an element of it; but 
it is a hearty concurrence of the will and af- 
fections with this plan of salvation, which 
implies a renunciation of every other refuge, 
and an actual trust in the Saviour, and personal 
apprehension of his merits : such a belief of the 
Gospel by the power of the Spirit of God as leads 
us to come to Christ, to receive Christ, to trust 
in Christ, and to commit the keeping of our 
souls into his hands, in humble confidence of 
his ability and his willingness to save us. 

6. This is that qualifying condition to which 
the promise of God annexes justification ; that 
without which justification would not take 
place ; and in this sense it is that we are jus- 
tified by faith; not by the merit of faith, but 
by faith instrumentally as this condition : for 
its connection with the benefit arises from the 
merits of Christ and the promise of God. If 
Christ had not merited, God had not promised ; 
if God had not promised, justification had never 
followed upon this faith ; so that the indissolu- 
ble connection of faith and justification is fi-om 
God's institution, whereby he hath bound him 
self to give the benefit upon performance of 



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the condition. Yet there is an aptitude in this 
faith to be made a condition ; for no other act 
can receive Christ as a Priest propitiating and 
pleading the propitiation and the promise of 
God for his sake to give the benefit. As re- 
ceiving Christ and the gracious promise in this 
manner, it acknowledgeth man's guilt, and so 
man renounceth all righteousness in himself, 
and honoureth God the Father, and Christ the 
Son, the only Redeemer. It glorifies God's 
mercy and free grace in the highest degree. It 
acknowledges on earth, as it will be perpetually 
acknowledged in heaven, that the whole sal- 
vation of sinfiil man, from the beginning to the 
last degree thereof, whereof there shall be no 
end, is from God's freest love, Christ's merit 
and intercession, his own gracious promise, 
and the power of his own Holy Spirit. 

7. Faith, in Scripture, sometimes is taken 
for the truth and faithfulness of God, Rom. 
Hi, 3 ; and it is also taken for the persuasion of 
the mind as to the lawfulness of things indif- 
ferent, Rom. xiv, 22, 23 ; and it is likewise put 
for the doctrine of the Gospel, which is the 
object of faith. Acts xxiv, 24 ; Phil, i, 27 ; Jude 
3 ; for the belief and profession of the Gospel, 
Rom. i, 8; and for fidelity in the performance 
of promises. 

FALL OF MAN. In addition to what is 
stated on this subject under the article Ada?}!., 
it may be necessary to establish the literal 
sense of the account given of man's fall in the 
book of Genesis. This account is, that a gar- 
den having been planted by the Creator, for 
the use of man, he was placed in it, •' to dress it, 
and to keep it ;" — that in this garden two trees 
were specially distinguished, one as " the tree 
of life," the other as "the tree of the know, 
ledge of good and evil ;" — that from eating of 
the latter Adam was restrained by positive 
interdict, and by the penalty, " In the day thou 
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die ;" — that the 
Herpont, who was more subtle than any beast 
of the field, tempted the woman to eat, by de- 
nying that death would be the consequence, 
and by assuring her, that her eyes and her 
husband's eyes "would be opened," and that 
tjiey would "be as gods, knowing good and 
evil ;" — that the woman took of the fruit, gave 
of it to her husband, who also ate ; — that for 
this act of disobedience they were expelled 
from the garden, made subject to dsath, and 
laid under other maledictions. 

2. That this history should be the subject of 
much criticism, not only by infidels, but by 
those who hold false and pei'verted views of 
the Christian system, was to be expected. 
Taken in its natural and obvious sense, along 
with the comments of the subsequent Scrip- 
tures, it teaches the doctrines of the existence 
of an evil, tempting, invisible spirit, going about 
seeking whom he may deceive and devour; of 
the introduction of moral corruptness into hu- 
man nature, which has been transmitted to all 
men ; and is connected also with the doctrine 
of a vicarious atonement for sin ; and wherever 
the fundamental truths of the Christian system 
are denied, attempts will be made so to inter- 
pret this part of the Mosaic history as to ob- 



scure the testimony which it gives to them'j 
either explicitly, or by just induction. Inter- 
preters have adopted various and often' strange 
theories ; but those whose opinions it seems 
necessary to notice may be divided into such 
as deny the literal sense of the relation en- 
tirely ; such as take the account to be in part 
literal and in part allegorical ; and those who, 
while they contend earnestly for tlie literal 
interpretation of every part of the history, con- 
sider some of the terms used, and some of the 
persons introduced, as conveying a meaning 
more extensive than the letter, and as consti- 
tuting several symbols of spiritual things and 
of spiritual beings. 

3, Those who have denied the literal sense 
entirely, and regarded the whole relation as an 
instructive ?nythos, or fable, have, as might be 
expected, when all restraint of authority was 
thus thrown off from the imagination, them- 
selves adopted very difi^rent theories. Thus 
we have been taught, that this account was 
intended to teach the evil of yielding to the 
violence of appetite and to its control over rea- 
son; or the introduction of vice in conjunction 
with knowledge and the artificial refinements 
of society; or the necessity of keeping the 
great mass of mankind from acquiring too 
great a degree of knowledge, as being hurtful 
to society; or to consider it as another version 
of the story of the golden age, and its being 
succeeded by times more vicious and miserable ; 
or as designed, enigmatically, to account for 
the origin of evil, or of mankind. This cata- 
logue of opinions might be much enlarged : 
some of them have been held by mere vision- 
aries ; others by men of learning, especially by 
several of the semi-infidel theologians and Bib- 
lical critics of Germany ; nor has our own 
country been exempt from this class of bold 
expositors. How to fix upon the moral of " the 
fable" is, however, the difficulty ; and the great 
variety of opinion is a suflicient refutation of 
the general notion assumed by the whole class, 
since scarcely can two of them be found who 
adopt the same views, after they have discarded 
the literal acceptation. 

4. But that the account of Moses is to be 
taken as a matter of real history, and according 
to its literal import, is established by two con- 
siderations, against which, as being facts, no- 
thing can successfully be urged. The first is, 
that the account of the fall of the first pair is a 
part of a continuous history. The creation of 
the world, of man, of woman ; the planting of 
the garden of Eden, and the placing of man 
there; the duties and prohibitions laid upon 
him ; his disobedience ; his expulsion from the 
garden ; the subsequent birth of his children, 
their lives, and actions, and those of their pos- 
terity, down to the flood ; and, from that event, 
to the life of Abraham, are given in the same 
plain and unadorned narrative ; brief, but yet 
simple ; and with no intimation at all, either 
from the elevation of the style or otherwise, 
that a fable or allegory is in any part introduced. 
As this, then, is tlie case, and the evidence of 
it lies upon the very face of the history, it is 
clear, that if the account of the fall be excerpt- 



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ed from the whole narrative as allegorical, any 
subsequent part, from Abel to Noah, from Noah 
to Abraham, from Abraham to Moses, may be 
excerpted for the same reason, which reason 
is merely this, that it does not agree with the 
theological opinions of the interpreter ; and 
thus the whole of the Pentateuch may be 
rejected history, and converted into fable. 
Either then the account of the fall must be 
taken as history, or the historical character of 
the whole five books of Moses must be unset- 
tied; and if none but infidels will go to the 
latter consequence, then no one who admits 
the Pentateuch to be a true history generally, 
can consistenly refuse to admit the story of the 
fall of the first pair to be a narrative of real 
events, because it is written in the same style, 
and presents the same character of a continu- 
ous record of events. So conclusive has this 
argument been felt, that the anti-literal inter- 
preters have endeavoured to evade it, by assert- 
ing that the part of the history of Moses in 
question bears marks of being a separate frag- 
ment, more ancient than the Pentateuch itself, 
and transcribed into it by Moses, the author 
and compiler of the whole. This point is ex- 
amined and satisfactorily refuted in Holden's 
learned and excellent work, entitled, "Disser- 
tation on the Fall of Man ;" but it is easy to 
show, that it would amount to nothing, if 
granted, in the mind of any who is satisfied on 
the previous question of the inspiration of the 
Holy Scriptures. For let it be admitted that 
Moses, in writing the pentateuchal history, 
availed himself of the traditions of the patri- 
archal ages, a supposition not in the least in- 
consistent with his inspiration or with the 
absolute truth of his history, since the tradi- 
tions so introduced have been authenticated by 
the Holy Spirit; or let it be supposed, which 
is wholly gratuitous, that he made use of pre- 
viously existing documents ; and that some 
differences of style in his books may be traced 
which serve to point out his quotations, which 
is a position that some of the best Hebraists 
have denied ; yet two things are to be noted : 
first, that the inspired character of the books 
of Moses is authenticated by our Lord and his 
Apostles, so that they must necessarily be 
wholly true, and free from real contradictions ; 
and, secondly, that to make it any thing to 
their purpose who contend that the account of 
the fall is an older document, introduced by 
Moses, it ought to be shown that it is not 
written as truly in the narrative style, even if 
it could be proved to be, in some respects, a 
different style, as that which precedes and fol- 
lows it. Now the very literal character of our 
translation will enable even the unlearned 
reader to discover this. Whether it be an em- 
bodied tradition, or the insertion of a more 
ancient document, (though there is no founda- 
tion at all for the latter supposition,) it is ob- 
viously a narrative, and a narrative as simple 
as any which precedes or follows it. 

5. The other indisputable fact to which I 
just now adverted, as establishing the literal 
sense of the history, is that, as such, it is refer- 
red to and reasoned upon in various parts of 



Scripture : " Knowest thou not this of old, since 
man (Adam) was placed upon earth, that the 
triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy 
of the hypocrite but for a moment ?" Job xx, 
4, 5. There is no reason to doubt but that this 
passage refers to the fall and the first sin of 
man. The date agrees; for the knowledge 
here taught is said to arise from facts as old 
as the first placing of man upon earth, and 
the sudden punishment of the iniquity corre- 
sponds to the Mosaic account : " The triumph- 
ing of the wicked is short, his joy but for a 
moment." " If I covered my transgressions as 
Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom," 
Job xxxi, 33. Magee renders the verse, 

" Did I cover, like Adam, my transgression, 
By hiding in a lurking place mine iniquity V' 
and adds, " I agree with Peters, that this con- 
tains a reference to the history of the first man, 
and his endeavours to hide himself after his 
transgression." Our margin reads, " after the 
manner of men ;" and also the old versions ; 
but the Chaldee paraphrase agrees with our 
translation, which is also satisfactorily defend- 
ed by numerous critics. "What is man, that 
he should be clean ? and he which is born of a 
woman, that he should be righteous ?" Job 
XV, 14. Why not clean? Did God make woman 
or man unclean at the beginning ? If he did, 
the expostulation would have been more appo- 
site, and nmch stronger, had the true cause 
been assigned, and Job had said, "How canst 
thou expect cleanness in man, whom thou cre- 
atedst unclean ?" But, as the case now stands,- 
the expostulation has a plain reference to the 
introduction of vanity and corruption by the 
sin of the woman, and is an evidence that this 
ancient writer was sensible of the evil conse- 
quences of the fall upon the whole race of man. 
"Eden" and "the garden of the Lord" are 
also frequently referred to in the prophets. 
We have the " tree of life" mentioned several 
times in the Proverbs and in the Revelation. 
"God," says Solomon, "made man upright." 
The enemies of Christ and his church are 
spoken of, both in the Old and New Testa- 
irients, under the names of " the serpent," and 
"the dragon;" and the habit of the serpent to 
lick the dust is also referred to by Isaiah. 

6. If the history of tlie fall, as recorded by 
Moses, were an allegory, or any thing but a 
literal history, several of the above allusions 
would have no meaning; but the matter is 
put beyond all possible doubt in the New Tes- 
tament, unless the same culpable liberties be 
taken with the interpretation of the words of 
our Lord and of St. Paul as with those of the 
Jewish lawgiver. Our Lord says, " Have ye 
not read, that he which made them at the 
beginning, made them male and female ; and 
said. For this cause shall a man leave father 
and mother, and shall cleave to his wife ; and 
they twain shall be one flesh ?" Matt, xix, 4, 5. 
This is an argument on the subject of divorces, 
and its foundation rests upon two of the facts 
recorded by Moses : (1.) That God made at first 
but two human beings, from whom all the rest 
have sprung. (2.) That the intimacy and indis- 
solubility of the marriage relation rests upon 



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373 



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the formation of the woman from the man ; 
for our Lord quotes tlie words in Genesis, 
where the obligation of man to cleave to his 
wife is immediately connected with that cir- 
cumstance : "And Adam said, This is now 
bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh : she 
shall be called woman, because she was taken 
out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his 
father and his mother, and shall cleave unto 
his wife ; and they shall be one flesh." This 
is sufficiently in proof that both our Lord and 
the Pharisees considered this early part of the 
history of Moses as a narrative ; for, otherwise, 
it would neither have been a reason, on his part, 
for the doctrine which he was inculcating, nor 
have had any force of conviction as to them. "In 
Adam," says the Apostle Paul, " all die ;" " by 
one man sin entered into the world." '* But I 
fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled 
Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should 
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in 
Christ." In the last passage, the instrument 
of the temptation is said to be a serpent, oi/nj, 
which is a sufficient answer to those who 
would make it any other animal ; and Eve is 
represented as being first seduced, according to 
the account in Genesis. This St. Paul repeats 
in 1 Tim. ii, 13, 14 : " Adam was first formed, 
then Eve. And Adam was not deceived," first 
or immediately, "but the woman being deceiv- 
ed was in the transgression." And he offers 
this as the reason of an injunction, "Let the 
woman learn in silence with all subjection." 
When, therefore, it is considered, that these 
passages are introduced, not for rhetorical 
illustration, or in the way of classical quota- 
tion, but are made the basis of grave and im- 
portant reasonings, which embody some of the 
most important doctrines of the Christian reve- 
lation, and of important social duties and points 
of Christian order and decorum ; it would be to 
charge the writers of the New Testament with 
the grossest absurdity, nay, with even culpable 
and unworthy trifling, to suppose them to 
argue from the history of the fall as a narra- 
tive, when they knew it to be an allegory. And 
if we are, therefore, compelled to allow that it 
was understood as a real history by our Lord 
and his inspired Apostles, those speculations 
of modern critics, which convert it into a para- 
ble, stand branded with their true character of 
infidel and semi-infidel temerity. 

7. The eflTect of the sin or lapse of Adam 
was to bring him under the wrath of God ; to 
render him liable to pain, disease, and death ; 
to deprive him of primeval holiness ; to sepa- 
rate him from communion with God and that 
spiritual life which was before imparted by 
God, and on which his holiness alene depended, 
from the loss of which a total moral disorder 
and depravation of his soul resulted ; and finally 
to render liim liable to everlasting misery. See 
Original Sin. For the effect of the fall of 
Adam upon his posterity, see Justification. 

FASTING has been practised in all ages, 
and among all nations, in times of mourning, 
sorrow, and affliction. We see no example of 
fasting, properly so called, before Moses. Since 
the time of Moses, examples of fasting have 



been very common among the Jews. Joshua 
and the elders of Israel remained prostrate be- 
fore the ark from morning till evening, with- 
out eating, after Israel was defeated at Ai, 
Joshua vii, 6. The eleven tribes which fought 
against that of Benjamin, fell down on their 
faces before the ark, and so continued till 
evening without eating. Judges xx, 26. David 
fasted while the first child he had by Bathshe- 
ba was sick, 2 Sam. xii, 16. The Heathens 
sometimes fasted : the king of Nineveh, terri- 
fied by Jonah's preaching, ordered that not 
only men, but also beasts, should continue 
without eating or drinking ; should be covered 
with sackcloth, and each after their manner 
should cry to the Lord, Jonah iii, 5, 6. The 
Jews, in times of public calamity, appointed 
extraordinary fasts, and made even the children 
at the breast fast, Joel ii, 16. Moses fasted 
forty days upon Mount Horeb, Exod. xxiv, 18. 
Elijah passed as many days without eating, 
1 Kings xix, 8. Our Saviour fasted forty days 
and forty nights in the wilderness, Matt, iv, 2. 
These fasts were miraculous, and out of the 
common rules of nature. 

2. Beside the solemn fast of expiation insti- 
tuted by divine authority, the Jews appointed 
certain days of humiliation, called the fasts of 
the congregation. The calamities for which 
these were enjoined, were a siege, pestilence, 
diseases, famine, &c. They were observed on 
the second and fifth days of the week : they 
began at sunset, and continued till midnight 
of the following day. On these days they 
wore sackcloth next the skin, and rent their 
clothes ; they sprinkled ashes on their heads, 
and neither washed their hands, nor anointed 
their heads with oil. The synagogues were 
filled with suppliants, whose prayers were long 
and mournful, and their countenances dejected 
with all the marks of sorrow and repentance. 

3. As to the fasts observed by Christians, it 
does not appear by his own practice, or by his 
commands to his disciples, that our Lord in- 
stituted any particular fast. But when the 
Pharisees reproached him, that his disciples 
did not fast so often as theirs, or as John the 
Baptist's, he replied, "Can ye make the chil- 
dren of the bride-chamber fast while the bride, 
groom is with them ? But the days will come 
when the bride-groom shall be taken away from 
them, and then shall they fast in those days," 
Luke V, 34, 35. Fasting is also recommended 
by our Saviour in his sermon on the mount; 
not as a stated, but as an occasional, duty of 
Christians, for the purpose of humbling their 
minds under the afflicting hand of God ; and 
he requires that this duty be performed in sin- 
cerity, and not for the sake of ostentation, 
Matt, vi, 16. 

4. Although Christians, says Dr. Neander, 
did not by any means retire from the business 
of life, yet they were accustomed to devote 
many separate days entirely to examining their 
own hearts, and pouring them out before God, 
while they dedicated their life anew to him 
with uninterrupted prayers, in order that they 
might again return to their ordinary occupa- 
tions with a renovated spirit of zeal and serious- 



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ness, and with renewed powers of sanctifica- 
tion. These days of holy devotion, days of 
prayer and penitence, which individual Chris- 
tians appointed for themselves, according to 
their individual necessities, were often a kind 
of fast-days. In order that their sensual feel- 
ings might less distract and impede the occu- 
pation of their heart with its holy contempla- 
tions, they were accustomed on these days to 
limit their corporeal wants more than usual, 
or to fast entii-ely. In the consideration of 
this, we must not overlook the peculiar nature 
of that hot climate in which Christianity was 
first promulgated. That which was spared by 
their abstinence on these da3'^s was applied to 
the support of the poorer brethren. 

FAT. God forbade the Hebrews to eat the 
fat of beasts: "All the fat is the Lord's. It 
shall be a perpetual statute for your genera- 
tions, throughout all your dwellings, that ye 
eat neither fat nor blood," Lev. iii, 17. Some 
interpreters understand these words literally, 
and suppose fat as well as blood to be forbid, 
den. Josephus says Moses forbids only the fat 
of oxen, goats, sheep, and their species. This 
agrees with Lev. xui, 23: "Ye shall eat no 
manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat." 
This is observed by the modern Jews, who 
think that the fat of other sorts of clean crea- 
tures is allowed them, even that of beasts 
which have died of themselves, conformably 
to Lev. vii, 24 : " And the fat of the beast that 
dieth of itself, and the fat of that which is torn 
with beasts, may be used in any other use ; but 
ye shall in nowise eat of it." Others maintain 
that the law which forbids the use of fat, should 
be restrained to fat separated from the flesh, 
such as that which covers the kidneys and the 
intestines ; and this only in the case of its 
being offered in sacrifice. This is confirmed 
by Lev. vii, 25 : "Whosoever eateth of the fat 
of the beast of which men offer an offering 
made by fire unto the Lord, even the soul that 
eateth it shall be cut off from his people." In 
the HebreAV style, fat signifies not only that of 
beasts, but also the richer or prime part of 
other things: "He should have fed them with 
the finest" (in Hebrew the fat) " of the wheat." 
Fat denotes abundance of good things : " I will 
satiate the souls of the priests with fatness," 
Jer. xxxi, 14. " My soul shall be satisfied with 
marrow and fatness," Psalm Ixiii, 5. The fat 
of the earth implies its fruitfulness : " God give 
thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of 
the earth, and plenty of corn and wine," Gen. 
xxvii, 28. 

FATHER, This word, beside its common 
acceptation, is taken in Scripture for grand- 
father, great-grandfather, or the founder of a 
family, how remote soever. So the Jews in 
our Saviour's time called Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, their fathers, Jesus Christ is called the 
Son of David, though David was many gene- 
rations distant from him. By father is like- 
wise understood the institutor of a certain 
profession. Jabal "was father of such as 
dwell in tents, and such as have cattle." Jubal 
"was father of all such as handle the harp and 
organ," or flute, &c, Gen. iv, 20, 21. Haram 



is called father of the king of Tyre, 2 Chron, 
ii, 13; and, 2 Chron. iv, 16, even of Solomon, 
because he was the principal workman, and 
chief director of their undertakings. The prin- 
cipal prophets were considered as fathers of 
the younger, who were their disciples, and are 
called sons of the prophets, 2 Kings ii, 12. 
Father is a term of respect given by inferiors 
to superiors. " My father," said Naaman's 
attendants to him, " if the prophet had bid 
thee do some great thing," 2 Kings v, 13 ; and 
so the king of Israel addresses the prophet 
Elisha, 2 Kings vi, 21. Rechab, the founder 
of the Rechabites, is called their father, Jer. 
XXXV, 6. A man is said to be a father to the 
poor and orphans, when he supplies their ne- 
cessities, and sympathizes with their miseries, 
as a father would do toward them : " I was a 
father to the poor," says Job, xxix, 16. God 
declares himself to be the " Father of the 
fatherless, and Judge of the widow," Psalm 
Ixviii, 5. God is frequently called our heavenly 
Father, and simply our Father; eminently 
the Father, Preserver, and Protector of all, 
especially of those who invoke him, and 
serve him : " Is he not thy Father that bought 
thee ?" says Moses, Deut. xxxii, 6, Since 
the coming of Jesus Christ, we have a new 
right to call God our Father, by reason of 
the adoption which our Saviour has merited 
for us, by clothing himself in our humanity, 
and purchasing us by his death: "Ye have 
received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we 
cry, Abba, Father, The Spirit itself beareth 
witness with our spirit, that we are the chil- 
dren of God," Romans viii, 15, Job entitles 
God "the Father of rain," Job xxxviii, 28; he 
produces it, and causes it to fall. The devil is 
called the father of the wicked and the father 
of lies, John viii, 44, He deceived Eve and 
Adam ; he introduced sin and falsehood ; he 
inspires his followers with his spirit and senti- 
ments. The father of Sichem, the father of 
Tekoah, the father of Bethlehem, &c, signify 
the chief persons who inhabited these cities ; 
he who built or rebuilt them, Adam is the 
first father, the father of the living ; Abraham 
is the father of the faithful, the father of the 
circumcision; called also the " father of many 
nations," because many people sprung from 
him; as the Jews, Ishmaelites, Arabs, &c. 
God is called "the Father of spirits," Heb. 
xii, 9, He not only creates them, but he jus- 
tifies, sanctifies, and glorifies them, and thus 
confers upon them eternal happiness. 

FATHERS, a term of honour applied to 
the first and most eminent writers of the Chris- 
tian church. Those of the first century are 
called Apostolical fathers; those of the first 
three centuries, and till the council of Nice, 
Ante-Nicene ; and those later than that coun- 
cil, Post-Nicene, Learned men are not unani- 
mous concerning the degree of esteem which 
is due to these ancient fathers. Some repre- 
sent them as the most excellent guides, while 
others place them in the very lowest rank of 
moral writers, and treat their precepts and 
decisions as perfectly insipid, and, in many 
respects, pernicious^ It appears, however. 



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incontestable, that, in the writings of the 
primitive fathers are many sublime sentiments, 
judicious thoughts, and several things well 
adapted to form a religious temper, and to 
excite pious and virtuous affections. At the 
same time, it must be confessed, that, after 
the earliest age, they abound still more with 
precepts of an excessive and unreasonable 
austerity, with stoical and academical dictates, 
with vague and indeterminate notions, and, 
what is still worse, with decisions absolutely 
false, and in evident opposition to the com- 
mands of Christ. Though the judgment of 
antiquity in some disputable points may cer- 
tainly be useful, yet we ought never to consider 
the writings of the fathers as of equal authority 
with the Scriptures. In many cases they may 
be deemed competent witnesses, but we must 
not confide in their verdict as judges. As Bib- 
lical critics they are often fanciful and inju- 
dicious, and their principal value consists in 
this, that the succession of their writings ena- 
bles us to prove the existence and authenticity 
of the sacred books, up to the age of the 
Apostles. 

The following is a list of the entire fathers : 
Contemporaries of the Apostles, Barnabas, 
Clement of Rome, Hermas, Ignatius, and Po- 
lycarp. Papias, A. D. 116; Justin Martyr, 
140; Dionysius of Corinth, 170; Tatian, 172; 
Hegesippus, 173; Melito, 177; Irenseus, 178; 
Athenagoras, 178; Miltiades, 180; Theophi- 
lus, 181; Clement of Alexandria, 194; Ter- 
tuUian, 200 ; Minutius Felix, 210 ; Ammonius, 
220; Origen, 230; Firmilian, 233; Dionysius 
of Alexandria, 247 ; Cyprian, 248 ; Novatus, 
or Novatian, 251 ; Arnobius, 306 ; Lactantius, 
306; Alexander of Alexandria, 313; Eusebius, 
315 ; Athanasius, 326 ; Cyril of Jerusalem, 
348; Hilary, 354; Epiphanius, 368; Basil, 
370 ; Gregory of Nazianzum, 370 ; Gregory of 
Nyssa, 370; Optatus, 370; Ambrose, 374; 
Philaster, 380; Jerome, 392; Theodore of 
Mopsuestia, 394; RufEn, 397; Augustine, 398; 
Chrysostom, 398 ; Sulpitius Severus, 401 ; 
Cyril of Alexandria, 412; Theodoret, 423; 
and Gennadius, 494. 

Archbishop Wake, in his Exposition of the 
Doctrine of the Church of England has very 
satisfactorily shown, that the deference paid 
by Protestants to the Christian fathers of the 
first three ages, is neither of such an idolatrous 
description as is generally represented, nor is 
their authority ever extolled to an equality with 
that of the Holy Scriptures. "Though we 
have appealed," he says, "to the churches of 
the first ages for new proofs of the truth of our 
doctrine, it is not that we think that the doc- 
tors of those times had more right to judge of 
our faith than those had that followed them ; 
but it is because after a serious examination 
we have found, that, as for what concerns the 
common belief that is among us, they have be- 
lieved and practised the same things without 
adding other opinions or superstitions that de- 
stroy them, — wherein they have acted con- 
formably to their and our rule, the Word of 
God: notwithstanding, it cannot be denied, 
but that they effectually fell into some wrong 



opinions, as that of the Millenaries and infant 
communion," &c. The usefulness and neces- 
sity of studying the ancient fathers have been 
defended by many persons eminent for their 
learning and piety. Archbishop Usher was 
one who beyond all men then living knew the 
vast importance of these studies, and had 
derived the greatest benefits from them. The 
following brief advice, in the language of Dr. 
Parr, his erudite biographer, will convey his 
sentiments on this very interesting subject : 
" Indeed he had so great an esteem of the 
ANCIENT AUTHORS, for the acquiring any solid 
learning, whether sacred or profane, that his 
advice to young students, either in divinity or 
antiquity, was, not to spend too much time in 
epitomes, but to set themselves to read the 
ancient authors themselves ; as, to begin with 
the FATHERS, and to read them according to 
the ages in which they lived, (which was the 
method he had taken himself,) and, together 
with them, carefully to peruse the church 
HISTORIANS that treated of that age in which 
those fathers lived : by which means the stu. 
dent would be better able to perceive the reason 
and meaning of divers passages in their writ- 
ings, (which otherwise would be obscure,) 
when he knew the original and growth of 
those heresies and heterodox opinions against 
which they wrote, and may also better judge 
what doctrines, ceremonies, and opinions pre- 
vailed in the church in every age, and by what 
means introduced." 

FEAR, a painful apprehension of danger. 
It is sometimes used for the object of fear ; as, 
" the fear of Isaac," that is, the God whom 
Isaac feared. Gen. xxxi, 42. God says that he 
will send his fear before his people, to terrify 
and destroy the inhabitants of Canaan. Job 
speaks of the terrors of God, as set in array 
against him, Job vi, 4 ; the Psalmist, that he had 
suffered the terrors of the Lord with a troubled 
mind. Psalm Ixxxviii, 15. Fear is used, also, 
for reverence : " God is greatly to be feared^^ 
in the assembly of his saints. This kind of 
fear, being compatible with confidence and 
love, is sometimes called filial fear ; while 
"the fear which hath torment," being the 
result of conscious guilt, and the anticipation 
of punishment, is removed by that "love" to 
God which results from a consciousness of our 
reconciliation to him. 

The filial fear of God is a holy affection, or 
gracious habit, wrought in the soul by God, 
Jer. xxxii, 40, whereby it is inclined and ena- 
bled to obey all God's commandments, even 
the most difficult, Gen. xxii, 12 ; Eccl. xii, 13 ; 
and to hate and avoid evil, Nehemiah v, 15 ; 
Prov. viii, 13 ; xv, 6. Slavish fear is the con- 
sequence of guilt ; it is a judicial impression 
from the sad thoughts of the provoked majesty 
of the heaven ; it is an alarm within that dis- 
turbs the rest of a sinner. Fear is put for the 
whole worship of God : " I will teach you the 
fear of the Lord," Psalm xxxiv, 11 ; I will teach 
you the true way of worshipping and serving 
God. It is likewise put for the law and word 
of God: "The fear of the Lord is clean, en- 
during for ever," Psalm xix, 9. The law is so 



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called, because it is the object, the cause, and 
the rule of the grace of holy fear. 

FEASTS. God appointed several festivals 
among the Jews. 1. To perpetuate the memory 
of great events; so, the Sabbath commemorated 
the creation of the world ; the passover, the 
departure out of Egypt ; the pentecost, the law 
given at Sinai, &c. 2. To keep them under 
the influence of religion, and by the majesty 
of that service which he instituted among 
them, and which abounded in mystical sym- 
bols or types of evangelical things, to convey 
spiritual instruction, iind to keep alive the ex- 
pectation of the Messiah, and his more perfect 
dispensation. 3. To secure to them certain 
times of rest and rejoicings. 4. To render 
them familiar with the law ; for, in their reli- 
gious assemblies, the law of God was read and 
explained. 5. To renew the acquaintance, 
.correspondeace, and friendship of their tribes 
and families, coming from the several towns 
in the country, aad meeting three times a year 
in the holy city. 

The first and most ancient festival, the Sab- 
bath, or seventh day, commemorated the crea- 
Hon. " The Lord blessed the seventh day, and 
sanctified it," says Moses, " because that in it 
he had rested from all his work," Gen. ii, 3. 
See Sabbath. 

The passover was instituted in memory of 
the Israelites' departure out of Egypt, and of 
the favour v/hich God showed his people in 
sparing their first-born, when he destroyed the 
iirst-born of the Egyptians, Exod. xii, 14, &c. 
See Passover. 

The feast of pentecost was celebrated on the 
fiftieth day after the passover, in memory of 
the law being given to Moses on Mount Sinai, 
fifty days after the departure out of Egypt. 
They reckoned seven weeks from the passover 
to pentecost, beginning at the day after the pass- 
over. The Hebrews call it the feast of weeks, 
and the Christians, pentecost, which signifies 
the fiftieth day. 

The feast of trumpets was celebrated on the 
first day of the civil year ; on which the trump, 
ets sounded, proclaiming the beginning of the 
year, which was in the month Tisri, answering 
to our September, O. S, We know no reli- 
gious cause of its establishment. Moses com- 
mands it to be observed as a day of rest, and 
that particular sacrifices should be offered at 
that time. 

The new moons, or first days of every month, 
were, in some sort, a consequence of the feasts 
of trumpets. The law did not oblige people to 
rest upon this day, but ordained only some par- 
ticular sacrifices. It appears that, on these days, 
also, the trumpet was sounded, and entertain- 
ments were made, 1 Sam. xx, 5-18. 

The feast of expiation or atonement was 
celebrated on the tenth day of Tisri, which was 
the first day of the civil year. It was instituted 
for a general expiation of sins, irreverences, 
and pollutions of all the Israelites, from the 
high priest to the lowest of the people, com. 
mitted by them throughout the yeai*, Lev. xxiii, 
27, 28 ; Num. xxix, 7. See Expiation, Day of. 

The feast of tents, or tabernacles, on which 



all Israel were obliged to attend the temple, 
and to dwell eight days under tents of branches, 
in memory of their fathers dwelling forty years 
in tents, as travellers in the wilderness. It 
was kept on the fifteenth of the month Tisri, 
the first of the civil year. The first and 
seventh day of this feast were very solemn. 
But during the other days of the octave they 
might work, Lev. xxiii, 34, 35 ; Num. xxix, 
12, 13. At the beginning of the feast, two 
vessels of silver were carried in a ceremonious 
manner to the temple, one fiall of water, the 
other of wine, which were poured at the foot 
of the altar of burnt offerings, always on the 
seventh day of this festival. 

Of the three great feasts of the year, the 
passover, pentecost, and that of the tabernacles, 
the octave, or seventh day after these feasts, 
was a day of rest as much as the festival itself; 
and all the males of the nation were obliged 
to visit the temple at these three feasts. But 
the law did not require them to continue there 
during the whole octave, except in the feast of 
tabernacles, when they seem obliged to be pre- 
sent for the whole seven days. 

Beside these feasts, we find the feast of lots, 
or purim, instituted on occasion of the deliver- 
ance of the Jews from Haman's plot, in the 
reign of Ahasuerus. See Purim. 

The feast of the dedication of the temple, or 
rather of the restoration of the temple, which 
had been profaned by Antiochus Epiphanes, 
1 Mac. iv, 52, &c, was celebrated in winter, 
and is supposed to be the feast of dedication 
mentioned in John x, 22. Josephus says, that 
it v/as called the feast of lights, probably be- 
cause this happiness befel them when least ex- 
pected, and they considered it as a new light 
risen on them. 

In the Christian church, no festival appears 
to have been expressly instituted by Jesus 
Christ, or his Apostles. Yet, as we com- 
memorate the passion of Christ as often as we 
celebrate his Supper, he seems by this to have 
instituted a perpetual feast. Christians have 
always celebrated the memory of his resurrec- 
tion, and observe this feast on every Sunday, 
which was commonly called the Lord's day, 
Rev. i, 10. By inference we may conclude 
this festival to have been instituted by Apostolic 
authority. 

The birth-day of Christ, commonly called 
Christmas-day, has been generally observed 
by his disciples with gratitude and joy. His 
birth was the greatest blessing ever bestowed 
on mankind. The angels from heaven cele- 
brated it with a joyful hymn ; and every man, 
who has any feeling of his own lost state with- 
out a Redeemer, must rejoice and be glad in it. 
"Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is 
given ; and his name shall be called Wonder- 
ful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlast- 
ing Father, the Prince of Peace," Isaiah ix, 6. 
For this festival, however, there is no authority 
in Scripture, nor do we know that it was ob- 
served in the age of the Apostles. 

On Easter Sunday we celebrate our Saviour's 
victory over death and hell, when, having on 
the cross made an atonement for the sin of the 



FES 



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FIG 



world, he rose again from the grave, brought 
life and immortality to light, arS opened to all 
his faithful servants the way to heaven. On 
this gi-eat event rest all our hopes. " If Christ be 
not risen," says St. Paul, "then is our preaching 
vain, and your faith is also vain. But now is 
Christ risen from the dead, and become the first- 
fruits of them that slept," 1 Cor. xv, 14, 20. 

Forty days after his resurrection, our Lord 
ascended into heaven, in the sight of his disci- 
ples. This is celebrated on what is called 
Ascension-day, or Holy Thursday. Ten days 
after his ascension, our Lord sent the Holy- 
Spirit to be the comforter and guide of his disci- 
ples. This blessing is commemorated on Whit- 
Sunday, which is a very great festival, and may 
be profitably observed ; for the assistance of the 
Holy Spirit can alone support us through all 
temptations, and guide us into all truth. 

The pretended success of some in discover- 
ing the remains of certain holy men, called 
" relics," multiplied in the fourth century of 
the Christian church the festivals and com- 
memorations of the martyrs in a most extrava- 
gant manner. These days, instead of being 
set apart for pious exercises, were spent in 
indolence, voluptuousness, and criminal pur- 
suits ; and were less consecrated to the service 
of God, than employed in the indulgence of 
sinful passions. Many of these festivals were 
instituted on a Pagan model, and perverted to 
similar purposes. 

FELIX, CLAUDIUS. See Claudius. 

FERRET, npjN, from pjN, or cry out. Lev. 
xi, 30, The ferret is a species of the weasel ; 
but Boehart will have the anakah to be the 
spotted lizard, called by Pliny stellio. Dr. 
James takes it for the frog, in allusion to the 
name, which literally signifies the crier, be- 
fitting the croaking of that animal ; but we 
shall find the frog mentioned under another 
name. Dr. Geddes renders it the newt, or ra- 
ther the lizard of the Nile ; and it evidently 
must be of the lizard species. Pliny mentions 
"the galleotes, covered with red spots, whose 
cries are sharp," which may be the ge'kko, 
which is probably the animal here intended. 
As its name, in the Indies tockai, and in Egypt 
gekko, is formed from its voice, so the Hebrew 
name anakah, or perhaps anakkah, seems to be 
formed in like manner ; the double k being 
equally observable in all these appellations. If 
these remarks are admissible, this lizard is suffi- 
ciently identified. 

FESTUS. Fortius Festus succeeded Felix 
an the government of Judea, A. D. 60. Felix 
his predecessor, to oblige the Jews, when he 
resigned his government, left St. Paul in bonds 
at Csesarea, in Palestine, Acts xxiv, 27. Festus, 
at his first coming to Jerusalem, was entreated 
by the principal Jews to condemn St. Paul, or 
to order him up to Jerusalem, they having con- 
spired to assassinate him in the way. Festus 
answered, that it was not customary with the 
Romans to condemn any man without hearing 
him ; but said that he would hear their accu- 
sations against St. Paul at Caesarea. From 
these accusations St. Paul appealed to Caesar, 
and by thie means secured himself from the 



prosecution of the Jews, and the wicked inten- 

tions of Festus, whom they had corrupted. 

FIG TREE, nJNn, Gen. iii, 7 ; Num. xiii, 
23; o-uK>7, Matthew vii, 16; xxi, 19; xxiv, 32; 
Mark xi, 13, 20, 21 ; xiii, 28; Luke vi, 44; 
xiii, 6, 7 ; xxi, 29 ; John i, 48 ; James iii, 12 ; 
Rev. vi, 13. This tree was very common in 
Palestine. It becomes large, dividing into 
many branches, which are furnished with 
leaves shaped like those of the mulberry, and 
affords a friendly shade. Accordingly, we read, 
in the Old Testament, of Juda and Israel dwell- 
ing, or sitting securely, every man under his 
fig tree, 1 Kings iv, 25 ; Micah iv, 4 ; Zech. 
iii, 10 ; 1 Mac. xiv, 12. And, in the New Tes- 
tament, we find Nathanael under a fig tree, 
probably for the purposes of devotional retire- 
ment, John i, 49-51. Hasselquist, in his jour- 
ney from Nazareth to Tiberias, says, "We 
refreshed ourselves under the shade of a fig 
tree, where a shepherd and his herd had their 
rendezvous ; but without either house or hut." 
The fruit which it bears is produced from the 
trunk and large branches, and not from the 
smaller shoots, as in most other trees. It is 
soft, sweet, and very nourishing. Milton is 
of opinion that the banian tree was that with 
the leaves of which our first parents made 
themselves aprons. But his account, as to the 
matter of fact, wants even probability to coun- 
tenance it ; for the leaves of this are so far 
from being, as he has described them, of the 
bigness of an Amazonian target, that they sel- 
dom or never exceed five inches in length, and 
three in breadth. Therefore, we must look 
for another of the fig kind, that better answers 
the purpose referred to by Moses, Gen. iii, 7 ; 
and as the fruit of the banana tree, is often, by 
the most ancient authors, called a fig, may we 
not suppose this to have been the fig tree of 
paradise ? Pliny, describing this tree, says that 
its leaves were the greatest and most shady of all 
others ; and as the leaves of these are often six 
feet long, and about two broad, are thin, smooth, 
and very flexible, they may be deemed more 
proper than any other for the covering spoken 
of, especially since they may be easily joined 
together with the numerous threadlike fila- 
ments, which may, without labour, be peeled 
from the body of the tree. The first ripe fig 
is still called hoccore in the Levant, which is 
nearly its Hebrew name, mioa, Jer. xxiv, 2. 
Thus Dr. Shaw, in giving an account of the 
fruits in Barbary, mentions "the black and 
white hoccore, or ' early fig,' which is produced 
in June, though the kermes, or kermouse, the 
'fig,' probably so called, which they preserve 
and make up into cakes, is rarely ripe before 
August." And on Nahum iii, 12, he observes, 
that "the boccores drop as soon as they are 
ripe, and, according to the beautiful allusion 
of the prophet, fall into the mouth of the eater 
upon being shaken." Farther, " It frequently 
falls out in Barbary," says he ; " and we need 
not doubt of the like in this hotter climate of 
Judea, that, according to the quality of the 
preceding season, some of the more forward 
and vigorous trees will now and then yield a 
few ripe figs six weeks or more before the fuU 



FIG 



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FIR 



season. Something like this may be alluded 
to by the Prophet Hosea, when he says, ' I saw 
your fathers as miD3, the first ripe, in the fig 
tree, at her first time,' Hosea ix, 10. Such figs 
were reckoned a great dainty." See Isaiah 
xxviii, 4. The Prophet Isaiah gave orders to 
apply a lump of figs to Hezekiah's boil ; and 
immediately after it was cured. God, in effect, 
ing this miraculous cure, was pleased to order 
the use of m.eans not improper for that end. 

2. The account of our Saviour's denuncia- 
tion against the barren fig tree. Matt, xxi, 19 ; 
Mark xi, 13, has occasioned some of the boldest 
cavils of infidelity ; and the vindication of it 
has exercised the ingenuity of several of the 
most learned critics and commentators. The 
whole difficulty arises from the circumstance 
of his disappointment in not finding fruit on 
the tree, when it is expressly said, that "the 
time of figs was not yet." While it was sup- 
posed that this expression signified, that the 
time for such trees to bring forth fruit was not 
yet come, it looked very unaccountable that 
Christ should reckon a tree barren, though it 
had leaves, and curse it as such, when he knew 
that the time of bearing figs was not come ; 
and that he should come to seek figs on this 
tree, when he knew that figs were not used to 
be ripe so soon in the year. But the expres- 
sion does not signify the time of the coming 
forth of figs, but the time of the gathering in 
of ripe figs, as is plain from the parallel expres- 
sions. Thus, "the time of the fruit," Matt, 
xxi, 34, most plainly signifies the time of 
gathering in ripe fruits, since the servants were 
sent to receive those fruits for their master's 
use. St. Mark and St. Luke express the same 
by the word time, or season : "At the season 
he sent a servant," &c ; that is, at the season 
or time of gathering in ripe fruit, Mark xii, 2 ; 
Luke XX, 10. In like manner, if any one 
should «ay in our language, the season of fruit, 
the season of apples, the season of figs, every 
one would understand him to speak of the 
season or time of gathering in these fruits. 
When, therefore, St. Mark says, that " the 
time or season of figs was not yet," he evident- 
ly means that the time of gathering ripe figs 
was not yet past; and, if so, it was natural to 
expect figs upon all those trees that were not 
barren ; whereas, after the time of gathering 
figs, no one would expect to find them on a fig 
tree, and its having none then would be no 
sign of barrenness. St. Mark, by saying, " For 
the time of figs was not yet," does not design 
to give a reason for " his finding nothing but 
leaves ;" but he gives a reason for what he said 
in the clause before : " He came, if haply he 
might find any thereon ;" and it was a good 
reason for our Saviour's coming and seeking figs 
on the tree, because the time for their being 
gathered was not come. We have other like 
instances in the Gospels, and, indeed, in the 
writings of all mankind, of another clause 
coming in between the assertion and the proof. 
Thus, in this very evangelist: "They said 
among themselves. Who shall roll away the 
stone from the door of the sepulchre ? and 
V'hen they looked, they saw the stone was roll- 



ed away; for it was very great," Mark xvi, 
3, 4 ; where its being very great is not assign- 
ed as a reason of its being rolled away, but of 
the women's wishing for some one to roll it 
away for them. St. Matthew informs us that 
the tree was "in the way," that is, in the com- 
mon road, and therefore, probably, no particu- 
lar person's property ; but if it was, being bar- 
ren, the timber might be as serviceable to the 
owner as before. So that here was no real 
injury ; but Jesus was pleased to make use of 
this innocent miracle to prefigure the speedy 
ruin of the Jewish nation on account of its 
unfruitfiilness under greater advantages than 
any other people enjoyed at that day ; and, like 
all the rest of his miracles, it was done with a 
gracious intention, namely, to alarm his coun. 
trynien, and induce them to repent. In the 
blasting of this barren fig tree, the distant ap- 
pearance of which was so fair and promising, 
he delivered one more awful lesson to a dege- 
nerate nation, of whose hypocritical exterior 
and flattering but delusive pretensions it was a 
just and striking emblem. 

FINGES. The finger of God signifies his 
power, his operation. Pharaoh's magicians dis- 
covered the finger of God in the miracle which 
Moses wrought, Exodus viii, 19. This legis- 
lator gave the law written by the finger of God 
to the Hebrews, Exodus xxxi, 18. Our Saviour 
says he cast out devils by the finger and Spirit 
of God, which he intimates was a sign that 
the kingdom of God was come ; that God's 
spiritual government of his church was begun 
to be exercised among the Jews, by the Mes- 
siah, Luke xi, 20. To put forth one's finger, 
is a bantering, insulting gesture, " If thou take 
away from the midst of thee the yoke, and the 
putting out of the finger," Isaiah Iviii, 9 ; if 
thou take away from the midst of thee the 
chain, or yoke, wherewith thou loadest thy 
debtors ; and forbear pointing at them, and 
using jeering or menacing gestures. 

FIRE. God hath often appeared in fire, 
and encompassed with fire, as when he show- 
ed himself in the burning bush ; and descended 
on Mount Sinai, in the midst of flames, thun- 
derings, and lightning. Exodus iii, 2 ; xix, 18. 
Hence fire is a symbol of the Deity: "The 
Lord thy God is a consuming fire," Deut. iv, 
24. The Holy Ghost is compared to fire : " He 
shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with 
fire," Matt, iii, 11. To verify this prediction, 
he sent the Holy Ghost, which descended upon 
his disciples, in the form of tongues, or like 
flames of fire. Acts ii, 3. It is the work of 
the Holy Spirit to enlighten, purify, and sane- 
tify the soul ; and to inflame it with love to 
God, and zeal for his glory. Fire from heaven 
fell frequently on the victims sacrificed to the 
Lord, as a mark of his presence and approba- 
tion. It is thought, that God in this manner 
expressed his acceptance of Abel's sacrifices, 
Gen. iv, 4. When the Lord made a covenant 
with Abraham, a fire like that of a furnace 
passed through the divided pieces of the sacri- 
fices, and consumed them. Gen. xv, 17. Fire 
fell upon the sacrifices which Moses offered at 
the dedication of the tabernacle, Lev. ix, 24 ; 



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379 



FIR 



and upon those of Manoah, Samson's father, 
Judges xiii, 19, 20; upon Solomon's, at the 
dedication of the temple, 2 Chron. vii, 1 ; and 
on Elijah's, at Mount Carmel, 1 Kings xviii, 
38. The fire which came down from heaven, 
first upon the altar in the tabernacle, and after- 
ward descended anew upon the altar in the 
temple of Solomon, at its consecration, was 
there constantly fed and maintained by the 
priests, day and night, in the same manner as 
it had been in the tabernacle. The Jews have 
a tradition, that Jeremiah, foreseeing the de- 
struction of the temple, took this fire and hid 
it in a pit ; but that at the rebuilding of the 
temple, being brought again from thence, it 
revived upon the altar. But this is a fiction : 
and the generality of them allow^ that, at the 
destruction of the temple, it was extinguished : 
and in the time of the second temple, nothing 
was made use of for all their burnt offerings but 
common fire only. The ancient Chaldeans 
adored the fire, as well as the old Persians, and 
some other people of the east. The torments 
of hell are described by fire, both in the Old 
and New Testament. Our Saviour makes use 
of this similitude, to represent the punishment 
of the damned, Mark ix, 44. He likewise 
speaks frequently of the eternal fire prepared 
for the devil, his angels, and reprobates, Matt. 
XXV, 41. The sting and remorse of conscience 
is the worm that will never die ; and the wrath 
of God upon their souls and bodies, the fire 
that shall never go out. There are writers 
who maintain, that by the worm is to be un- 
derstood a living and sensible, not an allego- 
rical and figurative, worm ; and by fire, a real 
elementary and material fire. Among the 
abettors of this opinion are Austin, Cyprian, 
Chrysostom, Jerom, &c. The word of God is 
compared to fire: "Is not my word like a 
fire ?" Jer. xxiii, 20. It is full of life and effi- 
cacy ; like a fire it warms, melts, and heats ; 
and is powerful to consume the dross, and burn 
up the chaff and stubble. Fire is likewise taken 
for persecution, dissension, and division: "I 
am come to send fire on earth," Luke xii, 49 ; 
as if it was said, upon my coming and publish- 
ing the Gospel, there will follow, through the 
devil's malice and corruption of men, much 
persecution to the professors thereof, and 
manifold divisions in the world, whereby men 
will be tried, whether they will be faithfiil or 
not. 

FIRMAMENT. It is said, Gen. i, 7, that 
God made the firmament in the midst of the 
waters, to separate the inferior from the supe- 
rior. The word used on this occasion properly 
signifies expansion, or something expanded. 
This expansion is properly the atmosphere, 
which encompasses the globe on all sides, and 
separates the water in the clouds from that on 
the earth. 

FIRST-BORN. The first-born, who was 
the object of special affection to his parents, 
was denominated by way of eminence, Qm 
ntoc, the opening of the womh. In case a man 
married with a widow, who by a previous mar- 
riage had become the mother of children, the 
fir^t-born as respected the second husband was 



the eldest child by the second marriage. Be- 
fore the time of Moses, the father might, if he 
chose, transfer the right of primogeniture to a 
younger child, but the practice occasioned 
much contention, Gen. xxv, 31, 32; and a law 
was enacted, overruling it, Deut. xxi, 15-17. 
The first-born inherited peculiar rights and 
privileges. (1.) He received a double portion 
of the estate. Jacob, in the case of Reuben, 
his first-born, bestowed his additional portion 
upon Joseph, by adopting his two sons. Gen. 
xlviii, 5-8; Deut. xxi, 17. This was done as 
a reprimand, and a punishment of his inces- 
tuous conduct, Genesis xxxv, 22 ; but Reuben, 
notwithstanding, was enrolled as the fn-st-born 
in the genealogical registers, 1 Chron. v, 1. 
(2.) The first-born was the priest of the whole 
family. The honour of exercising the priest- 
hood was transferred, by the command of God 
communicated through Moses, from the tribe 
of Reuben, to whom it belonged by right of 
primogeniture, to that of Levi, Num. iii, 12-18 ; 
viii, 18. In consequence of God having taken 
the Levites from among the children of Israel 
instead of all the first-born to serve him as 
priests, the first-born of the other tribes were 
to be redeemed, at a valuation made by the 
priest not exceeding five shekels, from serving 
God in that capacity. Numbers xviii, 15, 16; 
Luke ii, 22, &c. (3.) The first-born enjoyed 
an authority over those who were younger, 
similar to that possessed by a father, Gen. 
xxv, 23, &c ; 2 Chron. xxi, 3 ; Gen. xxvii, 29 ; 
Exod. xii, 29 : which was transferred in the 
case of Reuben by Jacob their father to Judah, 
Gen, xlix, 8-10. The tribe of Judah, accord- 
ingly, even before it gave kings to the He- 
brews, was every where distinguished from the 
other tribes. In consequence of the authority 
which was thus attached to the first-born, he 
was also made the successor in the kingdom. 
There was an exception to this rule in the case _ 
of Solomon, who, though a younger brother, 
was made his successor by David at the special 
appointment of God. It is very easy to see in 
view of these facts, how the word "first-born" 
came to express sometimes a great, and some- 
times the highest, dignity. 

2. First-born is not always to be understood 
literally ; it is sometimes taken for the prime, 
most excellent, most distinguished of any thing. 
" The first-born of the poor," Isaiah xiv, 30, 
signifies the most miserable of the poor ; and 
"the first-born of death," Job xviii, 13, the 
most terrible of deaths. 

3. God ordained that all the Jewish first- 
born, both of men and beasts, for service, should 
be consecrated to him. The male children only 
were subject to this law. If a woman's first 
child were a girl, the father was not obliged to 
offer any thing for her, or for the children after 
her, though they were males. If a man had 
many wives, he was obliged to offer the first- 
born of each of them to the Lord. The first- 
born were offered in the temple, and were 
redeemed for the sum of five shekels. The 
firstling of a clean beast was offered at the tem- 
ple, not to be redeemed, but to be killed. An 
unclean beast, a horse, an ass, or a camel, was 



FIR 



380 



FIS 



either redeemed or exchanged. An ass was 
redeemed by a lamb, or five shekels ; if not re- 
deemed, it was killed. 

FIRST-FRUlTS, among the Hebrews, were 
presents made to God of part of the fruits of 
the harvest, to express the submission, depend- 
ence, and thankfulness of the offerers. They 
were offered at the temple, before the crop was 
touched ; and when the harvest was over, be- 
fore any private persons used their corn. The 
first of these first-fruits, offered in the name of 
the nation, was a sheaf of barley, gathered on 
the fifteenth of Nisan in the evening, and 
threshed in a court of the temple. After it 
was well cleaned, about three pints of it were 
roasted and pounded in ai mortar. Over this 
was thrown a portion of oil, and a handful of 
incense. Then the priest took this offering, 
waved it before the Lord toward the four parts 
of the world, threw a handful of it into the 
fire upon the altar, and kept the rest. After 
this, every one was at liberty to get in his har- 
vest. Beside these first-fruits, every private 
person was obliged to bring his first-fruits to 
the temple. The Scripture prescribes neither 
the time nor the quantity. The rabbins say, 
that they were obliged to bring at least the 
sixtieth part of their fruits and harvest. These 
first-fruits consisted of wheat, barley, grapes, 
figs, apricots, olives, and dates. They met in 
companies of four-and-twenty persons to carry 
their first-fruits in a ceremonious manner. The 
company was preceded by an ox appointed for 
the sacrifice, with a crown of olives on his 
head, and his horns gilded. There was also 
another sort of first-fruits paid to God, Num. 
XV, 19, 20, when the bread in every family was 
kneaded, a portion of it was set apart, and 
given to the priest or Levite of the place. If 
there was no priest or Levite, it was cast into 
the oven, and consumed by the fire. This is 
one of the three precepts peculiar to the 
women; because they generally made the 
bread. The first-fruits and tenths were the 
most substantial revenue of the priests and 
Levites. St. Paul says, Christians have the 
first-fruits of the Spirit, Rom. viii, 23, that is, 
a greater abundance of God's Spirit, more per- 
feet and more excellent gifts than the Jews. 
Christ is called the first-fruits of them that 
slept .; for as the first-fruits were earnests to the 
Jews of the succeeding harvest, so Christ is 
the first-fruits or the earnest of the general 
resurrection. 

FIR TREE, iyn3, occurs 2 Sam. vi, 5; 
1 Kings V, 8, 10; vi, 15, 34; ix, 11; 2 Kings 
xix, 23; 2 Chron. ii, 8; iii, 5; Psalm civ, 17; 
Isaiah xiv, 8; xxxvii, 24; xli, 19; Iv, 13; 
Ix, 13 ; Ezek. xxvii, 5 ; xxxi, 8 ; Hosea xiv, 8 ; 
Nahum ii, 3 ; Zech. xi, 2. The LXX render 
it so variously as to show that they knew not 
what particular tree is meant; the Vulgate, 
generally by abietes, the "fir tree." Celsius 
asserts that it is the cedar ; but Millar main- 
tains that it is the fir. The fir tree is an ever- 
green, of beautiful appearance, whose lofty 
height, and dense foliage, afford a spacious 
shelter and shade. The trunk of the tree is 
very straight. The wood was anciently used 



for spears, musical instruments, furniture for 
houses, rafters in building, and for ships. In 
2 Sam. vi, 5, it is mentioned that David played 
on instruments of fir wood ; and Dr. Burney, 
in his "History of Music," observes, "This 
species of wood, so soft in its nature, and 
sonorous in its effects, seems to have been pre- 
ferred by the ancients, as well as moderns, to 
every other kind for the construction of mu- 
sical instruments, particularly the bellies of 
them, on which the tone of them chiefly de- 
pends. Those of the harp, lute, guitar, harp- 
sichord, and violin, in present use, are always 
made of this wood." 

FISH, jin, IxOis, Matt, vii, 10; xvii, 27; 
Luke V, 6; John xxi, 6, 8, 11, occurs very 
frequently. This appears to be the general 
name in Scripture of aquatic animals. Booth- 
royd, in the note upon Num. xi, 4, says, " I 
am inclined to think that the word itt':i, here 
rendered Jlesh, denotes only the flesh of fish, 
as it certainly does in Lev. xi, 11 ; and indeed 
the next verse seems to support this explica- 
tion : ' We remember how freely we ate fish.' 
It was then, particularly, the flesh of fish, for 
wliich they longed, which was more relishing 
than either the beef or mutton of those regions, 
which, unless when young, is dry and unpala- 
table. Of the great abundance and delicious- 
ness of the fish of Egypt, all authors, ancient 
and modern, are agreed." We have few He- 
brew names, if any, for particular fishes. Moses 
says in general, Lev. xi, 9-12, that all sorts of 
river, lake, and sea fish, might he eaten, if they 
had scales and fins ; others were unclean. St. 
Barnabas, in his epistle, cites, as from ancient 
authority, "You shall not eat of the lamprey, 
the many-feet, [polypes,] nor the cuttle fish." 
Though fish was the common food of the 
Egyptians, yet we learn from Herodotus and 
Chaeremon, as quoted by Porphyry, that their 
priests abstained from fish of all sorts. Hence 
we may .see how distressing to the Egyptians 
was the infliction which turned the waters of 
the river into blood, and occasioned the death 
of the fish, Exod. vii, 18-21. Their sacred 
stream became so polluted as to be unfit for 
drink, for bathing, and for other uses of water 
to which they were superstitiously devoted, 
and themselves obliged to nauseate what was 
the usual food of the common people, and held 
sacred by the priests, Exod. ii, 5; vii, 15; 
viii, 20. 

In Ezekiel xxix, 4, the king of Egypt is 
compared to the crocodile: "I am against 
thee, the great dragon that lieth in the midst 
of his rivers in Egypt. I will put hooks in thy 
jaws, and I will cause the fish in thy rivers to 
stick to thy scales, and I will bring thee out of 
the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy 
rivers shall stick to thy scales." If the remora 
is as troublesome to the crocodile as it is to 
some other tenants of the water, it may here 
be referred to. Forskal mentions the echeneis 
neucrates [remora] at Gidda, there called kaml 
el kersh, "the louse of the shark," because it 
often adheres very strongly to this fish ; and 
Hasselquist says that it is found at Alexandria. 

The term, Ix^vg, a Jish, was, at an early 



FIT 



381 



FLA 



period of the Christian era, adopted as a sym- 
bolical word. It was formed from the initial 
letters of the Greek words, ^Incovs Xptr^j, Qeov 
'rids, ScoT^p, " Jesus Christ, the Son of God, 
our Saviour." From the use of symbolical 
terms, the transition was easy to the adoption 
of symbolical representations, and it therefore 
soon became common for the Christians to 
have the letters of the word ix^vs, or the figures 
of fishes, sculptured on their monuments for 
the dead, struck on their medals, engraved on 
th^ir rings and seals, and even formed on the 
articles of domestic use. 

FITCHES, or VETCHES, a kind of tare. 
There are two words in Hebrew which our 
translators have rendered fitches, mp and nDD3 : 
the first occurs only in Isaiah xxviii, 25, 27, 
and must be the name of some kind of seed ; 
but the interpreters differ much in explaining 
it. Jerom, Maimonides, R. David Kimchi, and 
the rabbins understand it of the gith ; and rabbi 
Obdias de Bartenora expressly says that its bar- 
barous or vulgar name is 'hi'^i. The gith was 
called by the Greeks ixeXdvOiov, and by tlie Latins 
nlgella; and is thus described by Ballester : 
" It is a plant commonly met with in gardens, 
and gi'ows to a cubit in height, and sometimes 
more, according to the richness of the soil. 
The leaves are small like those of fennel, the 
flower blue, which disappearing, the ovary 
shows itself on the top, like that of a poppy, 
furnished with little horns, oblong, divided by 
membranes into several partitions, or cells, in 
which are enclosed seeds of a very black colour, 
not unlike those of the leek, but of a very fra- 
grant smell." And Ausonius observes, that its 
pungency is equal to that of pepper : — 

Est inter fiuges morsu piper CBquiparens git. 

Pliny says it is of use in bakehouses, pistri- 
nis, and that it affbrds a gratefiil seasoning to 
the bread. The Jewish rabbins also mention 
the seeds among condiments, and mixed with 
bread. For this purpose it was probably used 
in the time of Isaiah ; since the inhabitants of 
those countries, to this day, have a variety of 
rusks and biscuits, most of which are strewed 
on the top with the seeds of sesamum, corian- 
der, and wild garden saffron. 

The other word rendered fitches in our trans- 
lation of Ezek. iv, 9, is noD3 ; but in Exod. ix, 
32, and Isaiah xxviii, 25, " rye." In the latter 
place the Septuagint has ^ia, and in the tv/o 
former oXvpa ; and the Vulgate in Exodus, far, 
and in Isaiah and Ezekiel, vicia. Saadias, like- 
wise, took it to be something of the leguminous 
kind, jNj'^j, cicircula, (misprinted circula in the 
Polyglott version,) or, "a chickling." Aquila 
has ^ia, and Theodotion, 6\ipa. Onkelos and 
Targum have NinJiJ and Syriac, nhjid, which 
are supposed to be the millet, or a species of it 
called panicum; Persian, tDnnnn, the spelt; 
and this seems to be the most probable mean- 
ing of the Hebrew word; at least it has the 
greatest number of interpretei-^i from Jerom to 
Celsius. There are not, he *ver, wanting, 
who think it was rye ; among whom R. D. 
Kimchi, followed by Luther, and our English 
translators : Dr. Geddes, too, has retained it, 



though he says that he is inclined to think 
that the spelt is preferable. 

Dr. Shaw thinks that this word may signify 
rice. Hasselquist, on the contrary, affirms that 
rice was brought into cultivation in Egypt 
under the Caliphs. This, however, may be 
doubted. One would think from the inter- 
course of ancient Egypt with Babylon and 
with India, that this country could not be 
ignorant of a grain so well suited to its climate. 

FLAG, inN, occurs Gen. xli, 2, 18 ; Job viii, 
11 ; and f])D, weeds, Exod. ii, 3, 5 ; Isa. xix, 6 ; 
John ii, 5. Tlie word achu in the first two 
instances is translated "meadows," and in the 
latter, "flag." It probably denotes the sedge, 
or long grass, which grows in the meadows of 
the Nile, very grateful to the cattle. It is 
retained in the Septuagint in Genesis, iv n} axei \ 
and is used by the son of Sirach, Ecclesiasti- 
cus xl, 16, axt and a^u ; for the copies vary. 

" We have no radix," says the learned Cha- 
pelow, " for inN, unless we derive it, as Schul- 
tens does, from the Arabic achi, 'to bind or 
join together.'" Thus, Parkhurst defines it 
" a species of plant, sedge, or reed, so called 
from its fitness for making ropes, or the like, 
to connect or join things together ; as the 
Latin juncus, a 'bulrush,' a jungendo, from 
'joining,' for the same reason;" and he suppo- 
ses that it is the plant, or reed, growing near 
the Nile, V7hich Hasselquist describes as hav- 
ing numerous narrow leaves, and growing 
about eleven feet high, of the leaves of which 
the Egyptians make ropes. 

The word J]iD is called by Eben Ezra, " a 
reed growing on the borders of the river." 
Bochart, Fuller, Rivetus, Ludolphus, and Ju- 
nius and Tremelljus, render it by juncus, carex, 
or alga; and Celsius thinks it the fucus or 
alga, " sea weed." Dr. Geddes says there is 
little doubt of its being the sedge called sari, 
which, as we learn from Theophrastus and 
Pliny, grows on the marshy banks of the Nile, 
and rises to the height of almost two cubits. 
This, indeed, agrees very well with Exod. ii, 
3, 5, and the thickets of arundinaceous plants, 
at some small distances from the Red Sea, 
observed by Dr. Shaw ; but the place in Jonah 
seems to require some submarine plant. 

FLAX, r\TWQ, Exod. ix, 31 ; Lev. xiii, 47, 
48, 52, 59 ; Deut. xxii, 11 ; Joshua ii, 6 ; Judg, 
XV, 14; Prov. xxxi, 13; Isaiah xix, 9; xlii, 
3 ; xliii, 17 ; Jer. xiii, 1 ; Ezek. xl, 3 ; xliv^ 
17, 18 ; Hosea ii, 5, 9 ; Xlvov Matt, xii, 20 ; Rev, 
XV, 6 ; a plant very common, and too well 
known to need a description. It is a vegetable 
upon which the industry of mankind has beers 
exercised with the greatest success and utility. 
On passing a field of it, one is struck with as- 
tonishment when he considers that this appa- 
rently insignificant plant may, by the labour 
and ingenuity of man, be made to assume ar? 
entirely new form and appearance, and to con- 
tribute to pleasure and health, by furnishing us 
with agreeable and ornamental apparel. This 
word Mr. Parkhurst thinks is derived from the 
verb toiyc, to strip, because the substance which 
we term fiax is properly the bark or fibrous 
part of the vegetable, pilled or stripped off the 



FLI 



382 



FLI 



stalks. From time immemorial Egypt was 
celebrated for the production or manufacture 
of flax. Wrought into garments, it constituted 
the principal dress of the inhabitants, and the 
priests never put on any other kind of clothing. 
The fine linen of Egypt is celebrated in all 
ancient authors, and its superior excellence 
mentioned in the sacred Scriptures. The 
manufacture of flax is still carried on in that 
country, and many writers take notice of it. 
Rabbi Benjamin Tudela mentions the manu- 
factory at Damiata; and Egmont and Hey- 
man describe the article as being of a beautiful 
colour, and so finely spun that the threads are 
hardly discernible. 

FLEA, cy-ii3, 1 Sam. xxiv, 14; xxvi, 20. 
The LXX, and another Greek version in the 
Hexapla, render it ^vXXov, and the Vulgate pu. 
lex. It seems, says Mr. Parkhurst, an evident 
derivative from y^ofree, and tyjjn to leap, hound, 
or skip, on account of its agility in leaping or 
skipping. The flea is a little wingless insect, 
equally contemptible and troublesome. It is 
thus described by an Arabian author: "A 
black, nimble, extenuated, hunch-backed ani- 
mal, which being sensible when any one looks 
on it, jumps incessantly, now on one side, now 
on the other, till it gets out of sight." David 
likens himself to this insect ; importing that 
while it would cost Saul much pains to catch 
him, he would obtain but very little advantage 
from it. 

FLESH, a term of very ambiguous import in 
the Scriptures. An eminent critic has enume- 
rated no less than six different meanings which 
it bears in the sacred writings, and for which, 
he affirms, there will not be found a single au- 
thority in any profane writer : 1. It sometimes 
denotes the whole body considered as animated, 
as in Matt, xxvi, 41, "The spirit is willing, 
but the flesh is weak." 2. It sometimes means 
a human being, as in Luke iii, 6, " All flesh 
shall see the salvation of God." 3. Sometimes 
a person's kindred collectively considered, as 
in Rom. xi, 14, " If by any means I may pro- 
voke them which are my flesh." 4. Sometimes 
any thing of an external or ceremonial nature, 
as opposed to that which is internal and moral, 
as in Gal. iii, 3, "Having begun in the Spirit, 
are ye now made perfect in the flesh ?" 5. The 
sensitive part of our nature, or that which is 
the seat of appetite, as in 2 Cor. vii, 1, "Let 
us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the 
flesh and spirit ;" where there can be no doubt 
that the pollutions of the flesh must be those 
of the appetites, being opposed to the pollutions 
of the spirit, or those of the passions. 6. It is 
employed to denote any principle of vice and 
moral pravity of whatever kind. Thus among 
the works of the flesh, Gal. v, 19-21, are num- 
bered not only adultery, fornication, unclean- 
ness, lasciviousness, drunkenness, and revel- 
lings, which all relate to criminal indulgence 
of appetite, but idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, va- 
riance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, here- 
sies, envyings, and murders, which are mani- 
festly vices of a different kind, and partake more 
of the diabolical nature than of the beastly. 
FLIES. The kinds of flies are exceedingly 



numerous ; some with two, and some with four, 
wings. They abound in warm and moist re- 
gions, as in Egypt, Chaldea, Palestine, and in 
the middle regions of Africa ; and during the 
rainy seasons are very troublesome. In the 
Hebrew Scriptures, or in the ancient versions, 
are seven kinds of insects, which Bochart class- 
es among musccB, or flies. These are, 1. 2*ip,- 
Exod. viii, 20 ; ^'sa. Ixxviii, 45 ; cv, 31, which 
those interpret jrs who, by residing on the spot, 
have had the best means of identifying, have 
rendered the dog-jiy, Kwbixvia, and it is sup- 
posed to be the same which in Abyssinia is 
called the zimh. 2. 2131, 2 Kings i, 2, 3, 6, 
16 ; Eccles. x, 1 ; Isa. vii, 18. Whether this 
denotes absolutely a distinct species of fly, or 
swarms of all sorts, may be difficult to deter- 
mine. 3, mm"" Judges xiv, 18 ; Psa. cxviii, 12, 
rendered bee. 4. riyyn, rrcpri^, Exodus xxiii, 28 ; 
Joshua xxiv, 12 ; Deut. vii, 20, hornet. 5. D^ano, 
oTs-poj, Ezek. ii, 6; Hosea iv, 16. 6. p3, kwvux^, 
Matt, xxiii, 24, the gnat. 7. C^s, cKvlcpc^, Exod. 
viii, 16; Psa. cv, 31, lice, 

2. M. Sonnini, speaking of Egypt, says, "Of 
insects there the most troublesome are the flies. 
Both man and beast are cruelly tormented with 
them. No idea can be formed of their obsti- 
nate rapacity when they wish to fix upon some 
part of the body. It is in vain to drive them 
away ; they return again in the self-same mo- 
ment ; and their perseverance wearies out the 
most patient spirit. They like to fasten them- 
selves in preference on the corners of the eye, 
and on the edge of the eyelid ; tender parts, 
toward which a gentle moisture attracts them," 
The Egyptians paid a superstitious worship to 
several sorts of flies and insects. If, then, such 
was she superstitious homage of this people, 
nothing could be more determinate than the 
judgment brought upon them by Moses. They 
were punished by the very things they revered ; 
and though they boasted of spells and charms, 
yet they could not ward off" the evil. 

3. " The word zimh," says Bruce, " is Arabic, 
and signifies the fly in general. The Chaldee 
paraphrase is content with calling it simply 
zehuh, which has the same general significa- 
tion. The Ethiopic version calls it tsaltsalya, 
which is the true name of this particular fly in 
Geez. It is in size very little larger than a 
bee, of a thicker proportion ; and its wings, 
which are broader, are placed separate like 
those of a fly. Its head is large ; the upper jaw 
or lip is sharp, and has at the end of it a strong 
pointed hair, of about a quarter of an inch in 
length ; the lower jaw has two of these hairs : 
and this pencil of hairs, joined together, makes 
a resistance to the finger, nearly equal to a 
strong bristle of a hog. Its legs are serrated 
on the inside, and the whole covered with 
brown hair, or down. It has no sting, though 
it appears to be of the bee kind. As soon as 
this winged assassin appears, and its buzzing 
is heard, the cattle forsake their food, and run 
wildly about the plain till they die, worn out 
with affright, fatigue, and pain. The inhabit- 
ants of Melinda down to Cape Gardefan, to 
Saba, and the south coast of the Red Sea, are 
obliged to put themselves in motion, and re= 



FLl 



383 



FLO 



move to the next sand in the beginning of the 
rainy season. This is not a partial emigration ; 
the inhabitants of all the countries, from the 
mountains of Abyssinia northward, to the con- 
fluence of the Nile and Astaboras, are, once in 
a year, obliged to change their abode, and seek 
protection in the sands of Beja, till the danger 
of the insect is over. The elephant and the 
rhinoceros, which by reason of their enormous 
bulk, and the vast quantity of food and water 
they daily need, cannot shift to desert and dry 
places, are obliged, in order to resist the zimb, 
to roll themselves in mud and mire, which, 
when dry, coats them over like armour. It 
was no trifling judgment, then, with which 
the prophet threatened the refractory Israelites : 
"The Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the 
uttermost parts of the rivers of Egypt, and for 
the bee that is in the land of Assyria," Isaiah 
vii, 18. If the prediction be understood in the 
literal sense, it represents the oestra or cincin- 
ellcB, as the armies of Jehovah, summoned by 
him to battle against his offending people ; or, 
if it be taken metaphorically, which is perhaps 
the proper way of expounding it, the prophet 
compares the numerous and destructive armies 
of Babylon to the countless swarms of these 
flies, whose distant hum is said to strike the 
quadrupeds with consternation, and whose bite 
inflicts, on man and beast, a torment almost 
insupportable. How intolerable a plague of 
flies can prove, is evident from the fact, that 
whole districts have been laid waste by them. 
Such was the fate of Myuns in Ionia, and of 
AlarnsB. The inhabitants were forced to quit 
these cities, not being able to stand against the 
flies and gnats with which they were pestered. 
Trajan w^as obliged to raise the siege of a city 
in Arabia, before which he had sat down, be- 
ing driven away by the swarms of these insects. 
Hence different people had deities whose office 
it was to defend them against flies. Among 
these may be reckoned Baalzebub, the fly-god 
of Ekron: Hercules muscarwn abactor, "Her- 
cules, the expeller of flies ;" and hence Jupiter 
had the titles of anSjxvioc, fiviaypoi, [jLv'i(i)(^opog, be- 
cause he was supposed to expel flies, and espe- 
cially to clear his temples of these insects. 

4. Solomon observes, " Dead flies cause the 
apothecary's ointment to stink," Eccles. x, 1. 
" A fact well known," says Scheuchzer ; 
"wherefore apothecaries take care to prevent 
flies from coming to their syrups and other 
fermentable preparations. For in all insects 
there is an acrid volatile salt, which, mixed 
with sweet or even alkaline substances, excites 
them to a brisk intestine motion, disposes them 
to fermentation, and to putrescence itself; by 
which the more volatile principles fly off*, leav- 
ing the grosser behind: at the same time, the 
taste and odour are changed, the agreeable to 
fetid, the sweet to insipid." This verse is an 
illustration, by a very appropriate similitude, 
of the concluding assertion in the preceding 
chapter, that " one sinner destroyeth much 
good," as one dead fly spoils a whole vessel of 
precious ointment, which, in eastern countries, 
was considered as very valuable, 2 Kings xx, 
13. The application of this proverbial ex- 



pression to a person's good name, which is 
elsewhere compared to sweet ointment, Eccles. 
vii, 1 ; Cant, i, 3, is remarkably significant. 
As a fly, though a diniinutive creature, can 
taint and corrupt much precious perfume ; so 
a small mixture of folly and indiscretion will 
tarnish the reputation of one who, in other 
respects, is very wise and honourable ; and so 
much the more, because of the malignity and 
ingratitude of mankind, who are disposed ra- 
ther to censure one error, than to commend 
many excellencies, and from whose minds one 
small miscarriage is sufficient to blot out the 
memory of all other deserts. It concerns us, 
therefore, to conduct ourselves unblamably, 
that we may not by the least oversight or folly 
blemish our profession, or cause it to be offen- 
sive to others. 

FLOCK. See Shepherd. 

FLOOR, for threshing corn, or threshing 
floor, is frequently mentioned in Scripture. 
This was a place in the open air, in which 
corn was threshed, by means of a cart or sledge, 
or some other instrument drawn by oxen. 
The threshing floors among the Jews were 
only, as they are to this day in the east, round 
level plats of ground in the open air, where 
the corn was trodden out by oxen. Thus 
Gideon's floor appears to have been in the open 
air. Judges vi, 37 ; and also that of Araunah 
the Jebusite, 2 Sam. xxiv, otherwise it would 
not have been a proper place for erecting an 
altar, and offering sacrifices. In Hosea xiii, 3, 
we read of the chaff" which is driven by the 
whirlwind from the floor. This circumstance 
of the threshing floor's being exposed to the 
agitation of the wind seems to be the principal 
reason of its Hebrew name. It appears, there- 
fore, that a threshing floor, which is rendered 
in our textual translation, " a void place," 
might well be near the entrance of the gate of 
Samaria, and a proper situation in which the 
kings of Israel and Judah might hear the pro- 
phets, 1 Kings xxii, 10 ; 2 Chron. xviii, 9. An 
instrument sometimes used in Palestine and 
the east, to force the corn out of the ear, and 
bruise the straw, was a heavy kind of sledge 
made of thick boards, and furnished beneath 
with teeth of stone or iron, Isa. xli, 15. The 
sheaves being laid in order, the sledge was 
drawn over the straw by oxen, and at the same 
time threshed out the corn, and cut or broke 
the straw into a kind of chaff". An instrument 
in the east is still used for the same purpose. 
This sledge is alluded to in 2 Sam. xii, 31 ; 
Isa. xxviii, 27 ; xli, 15 ; Amos i, 3. Dr. Lowth, 
in his notes on Isaiah xxviii, 27, 28, observes, 
that four methods of threshing are mentioned 
in this passage, by diff"erent instruments, the 
flail, the drag, the wain, and the treading of 
the cattle. The staff", or flail, was used for the 
wfirmiora semina, the grain that was too tender 
to be treated in the other methods. The drag 
consisted of a sort of frame of strong planks, 
made rough at the bottom with hard stones or 
iron ; it was drawn by horses or oxen over the 
corn sheaves on the floor, the driver sitting 
upon it. The wain was nearly dmilar to thia 
instrument, but had wheels with iron teeth, or 



FO 



384 



FOO 



edges like a saw. The last method is well 
known from the law of Moses, which forbids 
the ox to be muzzled when he treadeth out the 
corn. Niebuhr, in his Travels, gives the fol- 
lowing description of a machine which tlie 
people of Egypt use at this day for threshing 
out their corn: " This machine," says he, "is 
called nauridsj. It has three rollers v/hich 
turn on their axles ; and each of them is fur- 
nished with some irons round and flat. At the 
beginning of June, Mr. Forskall and I several 
times saw, in the environs of Dsjise, how corn 
was threshed in Egypt. Every peasant chose 
for himself, in the open field, a smooth plat of 
ground from eighty to a hundred paces in cir- 
cumference. Hither was brought on camels or 
asses the corn in sheaves, of which was formed 
a ring of six or eight feet wide, and two high. 
Two oxen were made to draw over it again and 
again the sledge, traineau, above mentioned ; 
and this was done with the greatest convenience 
to the driver ; for he was seated in a chair fixed 
on the sledge. Two such parcels or layers of 
corn are threshed out in a day, and they move 
each of them as many as eight times, with a 
wooden fork of five prongs, which they call 
meddre. Afterward they throw the straw into 
the middle of the ring, where it forms a heap, 
which grows bigger and bigger. When the first 
layer is threshed they replace the straw in the 
ring, and thresh it as before. Thus the straw 
becomes every time smaller, till at last it re- 
sembles chopped straw. After this, with the 
fork just described, they cast the whole some 
yards from thence, and against the wind ; 
which driving back the straw, the corn and 
the ears not threshed out fall apart from it, 
and make another heap. A man collects the 
clods of dirt, and other impurities to which any 
corn adheres, and throws them into a sieve. 
They afterward place in a ring the heaps, in 
which a good many entire ears are still found, 
and drive over them for four or five hours to- 
gether ten couple of oxen joined two and two, 
till by absolute trampling they have separated 
the grains, which they throw into the air with 
a shovel to cleanse them." 

FO, or FUH, as the Chinese now call him, 
was an Indian prince, who was made a god at 
thirty years of age, and died at seventy-five. 
His worshippers form one of the three*^ great 
sects of China, and it is said to be far the most 
numerous. The worship of this idol, they pre- 
tend, was observed a thousand years before the 
Christian era, and was introduced from India 
into China within the first century after. Many 
temples are reared to this deity, some of which 
are magnificent ; and a number of bonzes, or 
priests, are consecrated to his sei-vice. He is 
represented shining in light, with his hands 
hid under his robes, to show that he does all 
things invisibly. The doctors of this sect, like 
those of Egypt, Greece, and India, teach a 
double doctrine ; the one public, the other pri- 
vate. According to the former, they say, all 
the good are recompensed, and the wicked 
punished, in places destined for each. They 
enjoin all works of charity ; and forbid cheat- 
ing, impurity, murder, and even the taking of 



life from any creature whatever. For tliey 
believe that the souls of their ancestors trans- 
migrate into irrational creatures ; either into 
such as they liked best, or resembled most in 
their behaviour ; for which reason they never 
kill any such animals; but, while they live, 
feed them well, and when they die bury them 
with respect. As they build temples for Fuh, 
which are filled with images, so also monaste- 
ries for his priests, providing for their main- 
tenance, as the most effectual means to partake 
of their prayers. These priests pretend to 
know into what bodies the dead are transmi- 
grated ; and seldom fail of representing their 
case to the surviving friends as miserable, or 
uncomfortable ; that they may extort money 
from them to procure for the deceased a pas- 
sage into a better state, or pray them out ot 
purgatory, which forms a part of their system.. 

The interior doctrine of this sect, which is 
kept secret from the common people, teaches 
a philosophical atheism, which admits neither 
rewards nor punishments after death ; and be- 
lieves not in a providence, or the immortality 
of the soul ; acknowledges no other God than 
the void, or nothing; and which makes the 
supreme happiness of mankind to consist in a 
total inaction, an entire insensibility, and a 
perfect quietude. Fuh, though the idol of the 
common people, is considered as a foreign deity 
in China, imported by the Boudhists from India : 
great effects are, however, attached to the per- 
petual reiteration of his name, and even to 
meditation upon it. It is supposed to render 
fate favourable, and life secure ; to prevent 
migration into the bodies of inferior animals ; 
and, in fine, to secure a place in the paradise 
of Fuh, whose land is yellow gold, whose 
towers are composed of gems, the bridges of 
pearls, &c. 

FOOL, FOLLY, or FOOLISHNESS. The 
term fool is to be understood sometimes ac- 
cording to its plain, literal meaning, as denot- 
ing a person void of understanding ; but it is 
often used figuratively. Psalm xxxviii, 5 ; Ixix, 
5. "The fool," that is, the impious sinner, 
"hath said in his heart. There is no God," 
Psalm xiv, 1. "I have sinned : do away the 
iniquity of thy servant ; for I have done very 
foolishly," 1 Chron. xxi, 8. "Fools make a 
mock at sin," Prov. xiv, 9. See also the lan- 
guage of Tamar to her brother Amnon : " Do 
not this folly ; for whither shall I cause my 
shame to go ? And as for thee, thou shalt be 
as one of the fools in Israel," 2 Sam. xiii, J3; 
that is, Thou wilt be accounted a very wicked 
person. Our Lord seems to have used the 
term in a sense somewhat peculiar in Mat- 
thew v, 22: "Whosoever shall say to his 
brother. Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell 
fire." But the whole verse shows the mean- 
ing to be, that when any one of his professed 
disciples indulges a temper and disposition 
of mind contrary to charity, or that peculiar 
love which the brethren of Christ are bound 
by his law to have toward each other, John 
xiii, 34, not only showing anger against an- 
other without a cause, but also treating him 
with contemptuous language, and that with 



FOO 



385 



FOU 



malicious intent, he shall be in danger of 
eternal destruction. 

FOOT. Anciently it was customary to wash 
the feet of strangers coming off a journey, 
because generally they travelled barefoot, or 
wore sandals only, which did not secure them 
from dust or dirt. Jesus Christ washed the 
feet of his Apostles, and thereby taught them to 
perforin the humblest services for one another. 
Feet, in the sacred writers, often mean incli- 
nations, affections, propensities, actions, mo- 
tions : " Guide my feet in thy paths." " Keep 
thy feet at a distance from evil." " The feet 
of the debauched woman go down to death." 
" Let not the foot of pride come against me." 
To be at any one's feet, signifies obeying him, 
listening to his instructions and commands. 
Moses says that "the Lord loved his people; 
all his saints are in thy hand : and they sat 
down at his feet," Deut. xxxiii, 3. St. Paul 
was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel. Mary 
sat at our Saviour's feet, and heard his word, 
Luke X, 39. 

It is said that the land of Canaan is not like 
Egypt, " where thou sowedst thy seed, and 
wateredst it witli thy foot," Deut. xi, 10, Pales- 
tine is a country whicli has rains, plentiful 
dews, springs, rivulets, brooks, &c, that supply 
the earth with the moisture necessary to its 
fruitfulness. On the contrary, Egypt has no 
river except the Nile : there it seldom rains, 
and the lands which are not within reach of 
the inundation continue parched and barren. 
To supply this want, ditches are dug from the 
river, and water is distributed throughout the 
several villages and cantons: there are great 
struggles who shall first obtain it; and, in this 
dispute, they frequently come to blows. Not- 
withstanding these precautions, many places 
have no water; and, in the course of the year, 
those places which are nearest the Nile require 
to be watered again by means of art and labour. 
This was formerly done by the help of ma- 
chines, one of which is thus described by Philo : 
It is a wheel which a man turns by the motion 
of his feet, by ascending successively the seve- 
ral steps that are within it. This is what 
Moses means in this place by saying, that, in 
Egypt, they water the earth with their feet. 
The water is thus conveyed to cisterns ; and 
when the gardens want refreshment, water is 
conducted by trenches to the beds in little rills, 
which are stopped by the foot, and turned at 
pleasure into different directions. 

2. To be under any one's feet, to be a foot- 
stool to him, signifies the subjection of a sub- 
ject to his sovereign, of a slave to his master. 
To lick the dust of one's feet, is an abject 
manner of doing homage. In Mr. Hugh Boyd's 
account of his embassy to the king of Candy, 
in Ceylon, there is a paragraph which singu- 
larly illustrates this, and shows the adulation 
and obsequious reverence with which an east- 
ern monarch is approached. Describing his 
introduction to the king, he says, "The removal 
of the curtain was the signal of our obeisances. 
Mine, by stipulation, was to be only kneeling. 
My companions immediately began the per- 
formance of theirs, which were in the most 
26 



perfect degree of eastern humiliation. They 
almost literally licked the dust ; prostrating 
themselves with their faces almost close to the 
stone floor, and throwing out their arms and 
legs ; then, rising on their knees, they repeat- 
ed, in a very loud voice, a certain form of 
words of the most extravagant meaning that 
can be conceived, that the head of the king of 
kings might reach beyond the sun ; that he 
might live a thousand years," &c. Nakedness 
of feet was a sign of mourning. God says to 
Ezekiel, " Make no mourning for the dead, 
and put on thy shoes upon thy feet," &c. It 
was also a mark of respect : " Put off thy shoes 
from off thy feet; for the place whereon thou 
standest is holy ground," Exodus iii, 5. The 
rabbins say that the priests went barefoot in the 
temple. " If thou turn away thy foot from the 
Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy 
day," Isaiah Iviii, 13 ; if thou forbear walking 
and travelling on the Sabbath day, and do not 
then thine own will. We know that journeys 
were forbidden on the Sabbath day. Matt, 
xxiv, 20 ; Acts i, 12. Kissing the feet was 
often practised as a mark of affection and re^ 
verence. 

FORNICATION, whoredom, or the act of 
incontineney between single persons ; for if 
either of the parties be married, the sin is 
adultery. 

FOREHEAD, Mark on the, Ezekiel ix, 4. 
Mr. Maurice, speaking of the religious rites of 
the Hindoos, says. Before they can enter the 
great pagoda, an indispensable ceremony takes 
place, which can only be performed by the hand 
of a brahmin ; and that is, the impression of 
their foreheads with the tiluk, or mark of dif- 
ferent colours, as they may belong either to 
the sect of Veeshnu, or Seeva. If the temple 
be that of Veeshnu, their foreheads are mark- 
ed with a longitudinal line, and the colour 
used is vermilion. If it be the temple of 
Seeva, they are marked with a parallel line, 
and the colour used is turmeric, or saffron. 
But these two grand sects being again subdi- 
vided into numerous classes, botli the size and 
the shape of the tiluk are varied, in proportion 
to their superior or inferior rank. In regard to 
the tiluk, I must observe, that it was a custom 
of very ancient date in Asia to mark their 
servants in the forehead. It is alluded to in 
these words of Ezekiel, where the Almighty 
commands his angels to " go through the midst 
of the city, and set a mark on the foreheads of 
the men who sigh for the abominations com- 
mitted in the midst thereof." The same idea 
occurs also in Rev. vii, 3. The divers sects of 
the Hindoos have a distinguishing mark of the 
sect, by which they are known, on the fore- 
head, of powdered sandal wood, or of the slime 
of the Ganges. The mark of the Wischnites 
consists of two nearly oval lines down the 
nose, which runs from two straight lines on 
the forehead. The mark of the Schivites con- 
sists of two curved lines, like a half moon with 
a point on the nose. It is made either with 
the slime of the Ganges, with sandal wood, or 
the ashes of cow dung. 

FOUNTAIN is properly the source or spring. 



FOX 



386 



FOX 



head of waters. There were several celebrated 
fountains in Judea, such as that of Rogel, 
of Gihon, of Siloam, of Nazareth, &c ; and 
allusions to them are often to be met with in 
both the Old and New Testament. Dr. Chan- 
dler, in his travels in Asia Minor, says, " The 
reader, as we proceed, will find frequent men- 
tion of fountains. Their number is owing to 
the nature of the country and the climate. The 
soil, parched and thirsty, demands moisture to 
aid vegetation; and a cloudless sun, which 
inflames the air, requires for the people the ver- 
dure, with shade and air, its agreeable attend- 
ants. Hence fountains are met with, not only 
in the towns and villages, but in the fields and 
gardens, and by the sides of the roads, and of 
the beaten tracks on the mountains. Many of 
them are the useful donations of humane per- 
sons while living, or have been bequeathed as 
legacies on their decease." As fountains of 
water were so extremely valuable to the inha- 
bitants of the eastern countries, it is easy to 
understand why the inspired writers so fre- 
quently allude to them, and thence deduce some 
of their most beautiful and striking similitudes, 
when they would set forth the choicest spirit- 
aal blessings. Thus Jeremiah calls the blessed 
God, " the fountain of living waters," Jer. ii, 13. 
As those springs or fountains of water are the 
most valuable and highly prized which never 
intermit or cease to flow, but are always send- 
ing forth their streams ; such is Jehovah to 
his people : he is a perennial source of felicity. 
Zechariah, pointing in his days to the atone- 
ment which was to be made in the fulness of 
time, by the shedding of the blood of Christ, 
describes it as a fountain that was to be open- 
ed in which the inhabitants of Jerusalem might 
wash away all their impurities: "In that day 
there shall be a fountain opened to the house 
of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 
for sin and for uncleanness," Zech. xiii, 1. Joel 
predicted the salvation which was to come out 
of Zion, under the beautiful figure of *' a fount- 
ain which should come forth out of the house 
of the Lord, and water the plain of Shittim," 
Joel iii, 18. The Psalmist, expatiating on the 
excellency of the loving-kindness of God, not 
only as affording a ground of hope to the chil- 
dren of men, but also as the source of consola- 
tion and happiness, adds, "Thou shalt make 
them drink of the river of thy pleasures ; for 
with thee is the fountain of life," Psalm xxxvi, 
7-9. In short, the blessedness of the heavenly 
state is shadowed forth under this beautiful 
figure ; for as "in the divine presence there is 
fulness of joy, and at God's right hand, plea- 
sures for evermore," Psalm xvi, 11 ; so it is 
said of those who came out of great tribulation, 
that "the Lamb that was in the midst of the 
throne shall lead them unto living fountains of 
water, and God shall wipe away all tears from 
their eyes," Rev. vii, 17. 

FOX, '7DW, Judges XV, 4 ; Nehemiah iv, 3 ; 
xi, 27; Psalm Ixiii, 10; Cant, ii, 15; Lam. v, 
11 ; Ezek. xiii, 4; Matt, viii, 20 ; Luke ix, 58 ; 
xiiii 32. Parkhurst observes that this is the 
name of an animal, probably so called from its 
burrowing, or making holes in the earth to 



hide himself or dwell in. The LXX render it 
by aXwTTj?!, the Vulgate, vulpes, and our English 
version, fox. It is recorded, in Judges xv, 4, 
5, that " Samson went and caught three hun- 
dred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail 
to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst be- 
tween two tails ; and when he had set the 
brands on fire, he let them go into the stand- 
ing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both 
the shocks, and also the standing corn, with 
the vineyards and olives." Dr. Shaw thinks 
jackals to be the animals here intended ; observ- 
ing, that " as these are creatures by far the 
most common and familiar, as well as the most 
numerous of any in the eastern countries, we 
may well perceive the great possibility there 
was for Samson to take, or cause to be taken, 
three hundred of them. The fox, properly so 
called," he adds, " is rarely to be met with, 
neither is it gregarious." So Hasselquist re- 
marks: "Jackals are found in great numbers 
about Gaza ; and, from their gregarious nature, 
it is much more probable that Samson should 
have caught three hundred of them, than of 
the solitary quadruped, the fox." 

2. At the feast of Ceres, the goddess of corn, 
celebrated annually at Rome about the middle 
of April, there was the observance of this cus- 
tom, to fix burning torches to the tails of a 
number of foxes, and to let them run through 
the circus till they were burnt to death. Thia 
was done in revenge upon that species of ani 
male, for having once burnt up the fields of 
corn. The reason, indeed, assigned by Ovid, 
is too frivolous an origin for so solemn a rite ; 
and the time of its celebration, the seventeenth 
of April, it seems, was not harvest time, when 
the fields were covered v/ith corn, vestitos mes- 
sibus agros ; for the middle of April was seed 
time in Italy, as appears from Virgil's Geor- 
gics. Hence we must infer that this rite must 
have taken its rise from some other event than 
that by which Ovid accounted for it ; and Sam- 
son's foxes are a probable origin of it. The 
time agrees exactly, as may be collected from 
several passages of Scripture. For instance : 
from the book of Exodus we learn, that before 
the passover, that is, before the fourteenth day 
of the month Abib, or March, barley in Egypt 
was in the ear, Exod. xii, 18 ; xiii, 4. And in 
chapter ix, 31, 32, it is said, that the wheat 
at that time was not grown up. Barley 
harvest, then, in Egypt, and so in the coun- 
try of the Philistines, which bordered upon it, 
must have fallen about the middle of March. 
Wheat harvest, according to Pliny, was a 
month later: "/« Egypto hordeuin sexto a 
satu mense, frumenta septimo meiuntur.''^ [In 
Egypt barley is reaped in the sixth month from 
the time of its being sown, wheat in the 
seventh.] Therefore wheat harvest happened 
about the middle of April ; the very time in 
which the burning of foxes was observed at 
Rome. It is certain that the Romans borrow- 
ed many of their rites and ceremonies, both 
serious and ludicrous, from foreign nations ; 
and Egypt and Phenicia furnished them with 
more perhaps than any other country. From 
one of these the Romans might either receive 



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this rite immediately, or through the hands of 
their neighbours, the Carthaginians, who were 
a colony of Phenicians ; and so its true origin 
may be refen-ed back to the story which we 
have been considering. 

Bochart has made it probable that the CD"i>J< 
spoken of in Isaiah xiii, 22 ; xxxiv, 14 ; and 
Jer. 1, 39, rendered by our translators " the 
beasts of the islands," an appellation very 
vague and indeterminate, slvg jackals; and that 
the So)£i of the Greeks, and the beni ani of the 
Arabians are the same animal ; and though he 
takes that to have been their specific name, 
yet he thinks, that, from their great resem- 
blance to a fox, they might be comprehended 
under the Hebrew name of a fox, shnal; which 
is indeed almost the same with sciagal sciugal, 
the Persian names of the jackal. Scaliger and 
Olearius, quoted by Bochart, expressly call the 
jackal a fox ; and Mr. Sandys speaks of it in 
the same manner: "The jackals, in my opin- 
ion, are no other than foxes, whereof an infi- 
nite number," &c. Hasselquist calls it the little 
eastern fox ; and Keempfer says that it might 
not be improperly called the wolf-fox. It is 
therefore very conceivable that the ancients 
might comprehend this animal under the gene- 
ral name of fox. 

3. To give an idea of his own extreme 
poverty, the Lord Jesus says, Luke ix, 58, 
" Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have 
nests ; but the Son of man hath not where to 
lay his head." And he calls Herod, the te- 
trarch of Galilee, a fox, Luke xiii, 32 ; thereby 
signifying his craft, and the refinements of his 
policy. In illustration of the pertinency of 
this allusion, we may quote a remark of Bus- 
bequius: "I heard a mighty noise, as if it had 
been of men who jeered and mocked us. I 
asked what was the matter ; and was answer- 
ed, ' Only the howlings of certain beasts which 
the Turks call, ciagals, or jackals.^ They are 
a sort of wolves, somewhat bigger than foxes, 
but less than common wolves, yet as greedy 
and devouring. They go in flocks, and seldom 
hurt man or beast ; but get their food more by 
craft and stealth than by open force. Thence 
it is that the Turks call subtle and crafty per- 
sons by the metaphorical name of ciagals." 

FRANKINCENSE, nji2^, Exod. xxx, 34, 
&c. \l6avoi, Matt, ii, 11 ; Rev. xviii, 13, a dry, 
resinous substance, of a yellowish white colour, 
a strong fragrant smell, and bitter, acrid taste. 
The tree which produces it is not known. 
Dioscorides mentions it as procured from India. 
What is here called the pure frankincense is, 
no doubt, the same with the mascula thura of 
Virgil, and signifies what is first obtained fi-om 
the tree. 

FRIEND is taken for one whom we love 
and esteem above others, to whom we impart 
our minds more familiarly than to others, and 
that from a confidence of his integrity and 
good will toward us : thus Jonathan and David 
were mutually friends. Solomon, in his book 
of Proverbs, gives the qualities of a true friend. 
•'A friend loveth at all times:" not only in 
prosperity, but also in adversity; and, "there 
is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." 



He is more hearty in the performance of all 
friendly offices ; he reproves and rebukes when 
he sees any thing amiss. " Faithful are the 
wounds of a friend." His sharpest reproofs 
proceed from an upright, and truly loving and 
faithful soul. He is known by his good and 
faithful counsel, as well as by his seasonable 
rebukes. "Ointment and perfume rejoice the 
heart, so does the sweetness of a man's friend 
by hearty counsel :" by such counsel as comes 
from his very heart and soul, and is the lan- 
guage of his inward and most serious thoughts. 
The company and conversation of a friend is 
refreshing and reviving to a person, who, 
when alone, is sad, dull, and inactive. "Iron 
sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the 
countenance of his friend." The title, " the 
friend of God," is principally given to Abra- 
ham : "Art not thou our God, who gavest this 
land to the seed of Abraham, thy friend, for 
ever ?" And in Isaiah xli, 8, " But thou Israel 
art the seed of Abraham, my friend." "And 
the Scripture was fulfilled, which saith, Abra- 
ham believed God, and it was imputed to him 
for righteousness ; and he was called the friend 
of God," James ii, 23. This title was given 
him, not only because God frequently appear- 
ed to him, conversed familiarly with him, and 
revealed his seci-ets to him, " Shall I hide from 
Abraham that thing which I do?" Gen. xviii, 
17 ; but also because he entered into a cove, 
nant of perpetual friendship both with him and 
his seed. Our Saviour calls his Apostles 
"friends:" "But I have called you friends;" 
and he adds the reason of it, " for all things 
that I have heard of my Father, I have made 
known unto you," John xv, 15. As men use 
to communicate their counsels and their whole 
mind to their friends, especially in things which 
are of any concern, or may be of any advan- 
tage for them to know and understand, so I 
have revealed to you whatever is necessary for 
your instruction, office, comfort, and salvation. 
And this title is not peculiar to the Apostles 
only, but is common with them to all true be- 
lievers. The friend of the bridegroom is the 
brideman ; he who does the honours of the 
wedding, and leads his friend's spouse to the 
nuptial chamber. John the Baptist, with re- 
spect to Christ and his church, was the friend 
of the bridegroom ; by his preaching he pre- 
pared the people of the Jews for Christ, John 
iii, 29. Friend is a word of ordinary saluta- 
tion, whether to a friend or foe : he is called 
friend who had not on a wedding garment, 
Matt, xxii, 12. And our Saviour calls Judas 
the traitor friend. Some are of opinion that 
this title is given to the guest by an irony, or 
antiphrasis ; meaning the contrary to what the 
word importeth ; or that he is called so, be- 
cause he appeared to others to be Christ's 
friend ; or was so in his own esteem and ac- 
count, though falsely, being a hypocrite. 
However, this being spoken in the person of 
him who made the feast, it is generally taken 
for a usual compellation, and that Christ, fol- 
lowing the like courteous custom of appella- 
tion and friendly greeting, did so salute Judas, 
which yet left a sting behind it in his con- 



FRI 



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FRO 



science, who knew himself to be the reverse of 
what he was called. The name of friend is 
likewise given to a neighbour. "Which of 
you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at 
midnight, and say, Friend, lend me three 
loaves ?" Luke xi, 3. 

FRIENDS, or QUAKERS, a religious so- 
ciety which began to be distinguished about 
the middle of the seventeenth century. Their 
doctrines were first promulgated in England, 
by George Fox, about the year 1647 ; for 
which he was imprisoned at Nottingham, in 
the year 1649, and the year following at Der- 
by. Fox evidently considered himself as act- 
ing under a divine commission, and went, not 
only to fairs and markets, but into courts of 
justice and "steeple houses," as he called the 
churches, warning all to obey the Holy Spirit, 
speaking by him. It is said, that the appella- 
tion of Quakers was given them in reproach 
by one of the magistrates, who, in 1650, commit- 
ted Fox to prison, on account of his bidding 
him, and those about him, to quake at the 
word of the Lord. But they adopted among 
themselves, and still retain, the kind appella- 
tion of Friends. 

From their first appearance, they suffered 
much persecution. In New- England tliey 
were treated with peculiar severity, imprison- 
ed, scourged, (women as well as men,) and at 
Boston four of them were even hanged, among 
whom was one woman ; and this was the more 
extraordinary and inexcusable, as the settlers 
themselves had but lately fled from persecution 
in the parent country ! During these suffer- 
ings, they applied to King Charles II, for re- 
lief; who, in 1661, granted a mandamus, to 
put a stop to them. Neither were the good 
offices of this prince in their favour confined 
to the colonies; for in 1672, he released, un- 
der the great seal, four hundred of these suffer- 
ing people who were imprisoned in Great 
Britain. To what has been alleged against 
them, on account of James Naylor and his 
associates, they answer, that their extravagan- 
cies and blasphemies were disapproved at the 
time, and the parties disowned ; nor was Nay- 
lor restored till he had given signs of a sincere 
repentance, and publicly condemned his errors. 

In 1681, Charles II, granted to W. Penn the 
province of Pennsylvania. Penn's treaty with 
the Indians, and the liberty of conscience 
which he granted to all denominations, even 
those which had persecuted his own, do hon- 
our to his memory. In the reign of James II, 
the Friends, in common with other English 
Dissenters, were relieved by the suspension of 
the penal laws. But it was not till the reign 
of William and Mary that they obtained any 
thing like a proper legal protection. An act 
was passed in the year 1696, which, with a 
few exceptions, allowed to their affirmation 
the legal force of an oath, and provided a less 
oppressive mode for recovering tithes under a 
certain amount; which provisions, under the 
reign of George I, were made perpetual. For re- 
fusing to pay tithes, &c, however, they are still 
liable to suffer in the exchequer and ecclesias- 
tical court, both in Great Britain and Ireland. 



The true Friends are orthodox, as to the 
leading doctrines of Christianity, but express 
themselves in peculiar phrases. They hold 
special revelations of the Holy Spirit, yet not 
to the disparagement of the written word, 
which they regard as the infallible rule of faith 
and practice. They reject a salaried ministry, 
and interpret the sacraments mystically. They 
are advocates of the interior spiritual life of 
religion, to which, indeed, they have borne 
constant testimony ; and they are distinguished 
by probity, philanthropy, and a public spirit. 
[In the United States, the Friends are divided 
into the Orthodox, (so called,) and Hicksites, 
or followers of the late Elias Hicks. The lat- 
ter are considered as having departed from the 
original doctrines of the Friends, and very far 
from the leading doctrines of Christianity, as 
held by Protestant Christians in general.] 

FROG, j;Tii5s; Arabic, akurraJc; Greek, 
(idrpaxos ', Exod. viii, 2-14 ; Psalm Ixxviii, 45 ; 
cv, 30; Rev. xvi, 13. When God plagued 
Pharaoh and his people, the river Nile, which 
was the object of great admiration to the 
Egyptians, was made to contribute to their 
punishment. " The river brought forth frogs 
abundantly;" but the circumstance of their 
coming up into the bed chambers, and into the 
ovens and kneading troughs, needs explanation 
to us, whose domestic apartments and economy 
are so difierent from those of the ancient na- 
tions. Their lodgings were not in upper sto- 
ries, but in recesses on the ground floor ; and 
their ovens were not like ours, built on .the side 
of a chimney, and adjacent to a fireplace, where 
the glowing heat would frighten away the 
frogs, but they dug a hole in the ground, in 
which they placed an earthen pot, which having 
sufficiently heated, they stuck their cakes to 
the inside to be baked. To find such places full 
of frogs when they came to heat them in order 
to bake their bread, and to see frogs in the beds 
where they sought repose, must have been both 
disgusting and distressing in the extreme. 
Frogs were reckoned unclean by the Hebrews. 

FRONTLETS. Leo of Modena thus de. 
scribes them : The Jews take four pieces of 
parchment, and write, with an ink made on 
purpose, and in square letters, these four pas- 
sages, one on each piece: 1. "Sanctify unto 
me all the first-born," &c, Exodus xiii, 1-10. 

2. "And when the Lord shall bring thee into 
the land of the Canaanites," &c, verses 11-16. 

3. " Hear, O Israel : the Lord our God is one 
Lord," &c, Deut. vi, 4-9. 4. "If you shall 
hearken diligently unto my commandments," 
&c, Deut. xi, 13-21. This they do in obe- 
dience to these words of Moses : " These com- 
mandments shall be for a sign unto thee upon 
thine hand, and for a memorial between thine 
eyes." These four little pieces of parchment 
are fastened together, and a square formed of 
them, on which the letter c is written ; then a 
little square of hard calf s skin is put upon the 
top, out of which come two leathern strings an 
inch wide, and a cubit and a half, or there- 
abouts, in length. This square is put on the 
middle of the forehead, and the strings being 
girl about the head, make a knot in the form 



FRU 



389 



FUE 



of the letter t : they then are brought before, 
and fall on the breast. It is called teffila-schel- 
rosch, or the tephila of the head. The most 
devout Jews put it on both at morning and 
noon-day prayer; but the generality of the 
Jews wear it only at morning prayer. Only 
the chanter of the synagogue is obliged to put 
it on at noon as well as morning. 

It is a question, whether the use of frontlets, 
and other phylacteries, was literally ordained 
by Moses. They who believe their use to be 
binding, observe, that the text of Moses speaks 
as positively of this as of other precepts ; he 
requires the commandments of God to be writ- 
ten on the doors of houses, as a sign on their 
hands, and as an ornament on their foreheads, 
Exod. xiii, 16. If there be any obligation to 
write these commandments on their doors, as 
the text intimates, there is the same for writing 
them on their hands and foreheads. On the 
contrary, others maintain that these precepts 
should be taken figuratively and allegorically, 
as denoting that the Jews should very carefully 
preserve the remembrance of God's law, and 
observe his commands ; that they should always 
have them before them, and never forget them. 
Prior to the Babylonish captivity, no traces of 
them appear in the history of the Jews. The 
prophets never inveigh against the omission or 
neglect of them, nor was there any question 
concerning them in the reformation of man- 
ners at any time among the Hebrews. The 
almost general custom in the east of wearing 
phylacteries and frontlets, determines nothing 
for the antiquity or usefulness of this practice. 
The Caraite Jews, who adhere to the letter of 
the law, and despise traditions, call the rab- 
binical Jews bridled asses, because they wear 
these tephilim and frontlets. See Phylactery. 

FRUIT, the product of the earth, as trees, 
plants, &c. " Blessed shall be the fruit of thy 
ground and cattle." The fruit of the body sig- 
nifies children : " Blessed shall be the fruit of 
thy body." By fruit is sometimes meant re- 
ward : " They shall eat of the fruit of their 
own ways," Prov. i, 31 ; they shall receive the 
reward of their bad conduct, and punishment 
answerable to their sins. The fruit of the lips 
is the sacrifice of praise or thanksgiving, Heb. 
xiii, 15. The fruit of the righteous, that is, 
the counsel, example, instruction, and reproof 
of the righteous, is a tree of life, is a means of 
much good, both temporal and eternal ; and 
that not only to himself, but to others also, 
Prov. xi, 30. Solomon says, in Prov. xii, 14, 
"A man shall be satisfied with good by the 
fruit of his mouth ;" that is, he shall receive 
abundant blessings from God as the reward of 
that good he has done, by his pious and profit- 
able discourses. " Fruits meet for repentance," 
Matt, iii, 8, is such a conduct as befits the pro- 
fession of penitence. 

2. The fruits of the Spirit are those gracious 
habits which the Holy Spirit of God produces 
in those in whom he dwelleth and worketh, 
with those acts which flow from them, as na- 
turally as the tree produces its fruit. The 
Apostle enumerates these fruits in Galatians 
v, 22, 23. The same Apostle, in Eph. v, 9, 



comprehends the fruits of the sanctifying 
Spirit in these three things ; namely, goodness, 
righteousness, and truth. The fruits of right- 
eousness are such good works and holy actions 
as spring from a gracious frame of heart.; 
" Being filled with the fruits of righteousness," 
Phil, i, 11. Fruit is taken for a charitable 
contribution, which, is the fruit or effect of 
faith and love: "When I have sealed unto 
them this fruit," Rom. xv, 28; when I have 
safely delivered this contribution. When fruit 
is spoken of good men, then it is to be under- 
stood of the fruits or works of holiness and 
righteousness ; but when of evil men, then are 
meant the fruits of sin, immorality, and wick- 
edness. This is our Saviour's doctrine, Matt. 
vii, 16-18. 

3. Uncircumcised fruit, or impure, of which 
there is mention in Lev. xix, 23, is the fruit for 
the first three years of a tree newly planted ; it 
was reputed unclean, and no one was permitted 
to eat of it in all that time. In the fourth year 
it was offered to the Lord ; after which it was 
common, and generally eaten. Various reasons 
are assigned for this precept. As (1.) Because 
the first-fruits were to be offered to God, who 
required the best : but in this time the fruit was 
not come to perfection. (2.) It was serviceable 
to the trees themselves, which grew the better 
and faster; being early stripped of those fruits 
which otherwise would have derived to them- 
selves, and drawn away, much of the strength 
from the root and tree. (3.) It tended to the 
advantage of men, both because the fruit was 
then waterish, undigestible, and unwholesome ; 
and because hereby men were taught to bridle 
their appetites, a lesson of great use and abso- 
lute necessity in a godly life. 

FUEL. In preparing their victuals, the 
orientals are, from the extreme scarcity of 
wood in many countries, reduced to use cow 
dung for fuel. At Aleppo, the inhabitants use 
wood and charcoal in their rooms, but heat 
their baths with cow dung, the parings of fruit, 
and other things of a similar kind, which they 
employ people to gather for that purpose. In 
Egypt, according to Pitts, the scarcity of wood 
is so great, that at Cairo they commonly heat 
their ovens with horse or cow dung, w dirt 
of the streets ; what wood they have, being 
brought from the shores of the Black Sea, and 
sold by weight. Chardin attests the same 
fact: "The eastern people always used cow 
dung for baking, boiling a pot, and dressing all 
kinds of victuals that are easily cooked, espe- 
cially in countries that have but little wood ;" 
and Dr. Russel remarks, in a note^ that "the 
Arabs carefully collect the dung of the sheep 
and camel, as well as that of the cow ; and that 
the dung, offals, and other matters, used in the 
bagnios, after having been new gathered in the 
streets, arc carried out of the city, and laid in 
great heaps to dry, where they become very 
offensive. They are intolerably disagreeable, 
while drying, in the town, adjoining to the 
bagnios ; and are so at all times when it rains, 
though they be stacked, pressed hard together, 
and thatched at top." These statements ex- 
hibit, in a very strong light, the extreme misery 



FUE 



390 



FUL 



of the Jews, who escaped from the devouring I 
Bword of Nebuchadnezzar: "They that did 
feed delicately are desolate in the streets ; they 
that were brought up in scarlet embrace dung- 
hills," Lam. iv, 5. To embrace dunghills, is a 
species of wretchedness, perhaps unknown to 
us in the history of modern warfare ; but it 
presents a dreadful and ap^.alling image, when 
the circumstances to which it alludes are re- 
collected. What can be imagined more dis- 
tressing to those who lived delicately, than to 
wander without food in the streets? What 
more disgusting and terrible to those who had 
been clothed in rich and splendid garments, 
than to be forced, by the destruction of their 
palaces, to seek shelter among stacks of dung, 
the filth and stench of which it is almost im- 
possible to endure ? The dunghill, it appears 
from Holy Writ, is one of the common retreats 
of the mendicant. This imparts great force 
and beauty to a passage in the song of Han- 
nah : " He raise th up the poor out of the dust, 
and lifteth the beggar from th€ dunghill, to set 
them among princes, and to make them inherit 
the throne of glory," 1 Sam. ii, 8. The change 
in the circumstances of tliat excellent v*'ornan, 
she reckoned as great, (and it was to her as 
unexpected,) as the elevation of a poor despised 
beggar from a nauseous and polluting dunghill, 
rendered tenfold more fetid by the intense heat 
of an oriental sun, to one of the highest and 
most splendid stations on earth. 

2. Dung is used as fiiel in the east only 
when wood cannot be had ; for the latter, and 
even any other combustible substance, is pre- 
ferred when it can be obtained. The inhabit- 
ants of Aleppo, according to Russel, use thorns 
and fiiel of a similar kind for those culinary 
purposes which require haste, particularly for 
boiling, which seems to be the reason that 
Solomon mentions the "crackling of thorns 
under a pot," rather than in any other way. 
The same allusion to the use of thorns for 
boiling- occurs in other parts of the sawed 
volume : thus, the Psalmist speaks of the wicked, 
" Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall 
take them away as with a whirlwind, both liv- 
ing, and in his wrath." The Jews are some- 
times compared in tlae prophets to " a brand 
plucked out of the burning," Amos iv, 11 ; 
Zech. iii, 2 ; a figure which Chardin considers 
as referring to vine twigs, and other brushwood 
which the orientals frequently use for fiiel, and 
which, in a few minutes, must be consumed if 
they are not snatched out of the fire ; and not 
to those battens, or large branches, which will 
lie a long time in the fire before they are re- 
duced to ashes. If this idea be correct, it dis- 
plays in «, stronger and more lively manner the 
seasonable interposition of God's mercy, than 
is furnished by any other view of the phrase. 
The same remark applies to the figure by which 
the Prophet Isaiah describes the sudden and 
complete destruction of Rezin, and the son of 
Remaliah ; only in this passage, the firebrands 
are supposed to be smoking; that is, in the 
opinion of Harmer, having the steam issuing 
with force from one end, in consequence of the 
fire burning violently at the otlier. The words 



of the prophet are : " Take heed and be quiet ; 
fear not, neither be faint-hearted, for the 
two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the 
fierce anger of Rezin with Sjrria, and of the 
son of Remaliah," Isaiah vii, 4. It is not easy 
to conceive an image more striking than this ; ^ 
the remains of two small twigs burning with 
violence at one end, as appears by the steam. 
ing of the other, are soon reduced to ashes ; so 
shall the kingdoms of Syria and Israel sink 
into ruin and disappear. 

3. The scarcity of fuel in the east obliges 
the inhabitants to use, by turns, every kind of 
combustible matter. The withered stalks of 
herbs and flowers, the tendrils of the vine, the 
small branches of myrtle, rosemary, and other 
plants, are all used in heating their ovens and 
bagnios. We can easily recognise this prac- 
tice in these words of our Lord: "Consider 
the lilies of the field, how they grow ; they 
toil not, neither do they spin : and yet I say 
unto you, that Solomon, in all his glory, was 
not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if 
God so clothe the grass of the field, which to- 
day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, 
shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of 
little faith ?" Matt, vi, 28-30. The grass of the 
field, in this passage, evidently includes the 
lilies of which our Lord had just been speak- 
ing, and, by consequence, herbs in general ; 
and in this extensive sense the word x°'P''°5 ^^ 
not unfrequently taken. These beautifiil pro- 
ductions of nature, so richly arrayed, and so 
exquisitely perfumed, that the splendour even 
of Solomon is not to be compared with theirs, 
shall soon wither and decay, and be used as fiiel 
to heat the oven and the bagnio. Has God so 
adorned these flowers and plants of the field, 
which retain their beauty and vigour but for a 
few days, and are then applied to some of the 
meanest purposes of life ; and will he not much 
more clothe you who are the disciples of his 
own Son, who are capable of immortality, and 
destined to the enjoyment of eternal happiness ? 

FULNESS. "The fulness of time" is the 
time when the Messiah appeared, which was 
appointed by God, promised to the fathers, 
foretold by the prophets, expected by the Jews 
themselves, and earnestly longed for by all the 
faithfiil: "Wlien the fulness of the time was 
come, God sent his Son," Gal. iv, 4. The ful- 
ness of Christ is the superabundance of grace 
with which he was filled : " Of his fiilness have 
all we received," John i, 16. And whereas 
men are said to be filled with the Holy Ghost, 
as John the Baptist, Luke i, 15 ; and Stephen, 
Acts vi, 5 ; this diflers from the fulness of 
Christ in these three respects: (1.) Grace in 
others is by participation, as the moon hath 
her light from the sun, rivers their waters from 
the fountain : but in Christ all that perfection 
and influence which we include in that term is 
originally, naturally, and of himself. (2.) The 
Spirit is in Christ infinitely and above measure, 
John iii, 34 ; but in the saints by measure ac- 
cording to the gift of God, Eph. iv, 16. The 
saints cannot communicate their graces to 
others, whereas the gifts of the Spirit are in 
Christ as a head and fountain, to impart them 



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to his members. " We have received of his 
fulness," John i, 16. It is said, that "the ful- 
ness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily," 
Col. ii, 2 ; that is, the whole nature and attri- 
butes of God are in Christ, and that really, 
essentially, or substantially ; and also person- 
ally, by nearest union ; as the soul dwells in 
the body, so that the same person who is man 
is God also. The church is called the fulness 
of Christ, Eph. i, 23. It is the church which 
makes him a complete and perfect head ; for 
though he has a natural and personal fulness 
as God, yet, as Mediator, he is not full and 
complete, without his mystical body, (as a 
king is not complete without his subjects,) but 
receives an outward, relative, and mystical 
fulness from his members. 

FUNERAL RITES. See Burial. 

FURNACE, a fireplace for melting gold and 
other metals. "The fining pot is for silver, 
the furnace for gold," Prov. xvii, 3. It signi- 
fies also a place of cruel bondage and oppres- 
sion, such as Egypt was to the Israelites, who 
there met with much hardship, rigour, and 
severity, to try and purge them, Deut. iv, 20; 
Jer. xi, 4 ; the sharp and grievous afflictions 
and judgments, wherewith God tries his people, 
Ezek. xxii, 18 ; xx, 22 ; also a place of torment, 
as Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace, Dan. iii, 6, 
11. On the last we may remark, that this mode 
of putting to death is not unusual in the cast 
in modern times. After speaking of the com- 
mon modes of punishing with death in Persia, 
Chardin says, " But there is still a particular 
way of putting to death such as have trans- 
gressed in civil affairs, either by causing a 
dearth, or by selling above the tax by a false 
weight, or who have committed themselves in 
any other manner: they are put upon a spit 
and roasted over a slow fire, Jer. xxix, 22. 
Bakers, when they offend, are thrown into a 
hot oven. During the dearth in 1668, I saw 
such ovens heated in the royal square in Ispa- 
han, to terrify the bakers, and deter them from 
deriving advantage from the general distress." 

GABBATHA, a place in Pilate's palace, 
from whence he pronounced sentence of death 
upon Jesus Christ, John xix, 13. This was 
probably an eminence, or terrace, paved with 
marble, for the Hebrew means elevated. 

GABRIEL, one of the principal angels of 
heaven. He was sent to the Prophet Daniel, 
to explain to him the visions of the ram and 
goat, and the mystery of the seventy weeks, 
which had been revealed to him, Dan. viii, 15 ; 
ix, 21 ; xi, 1, &c. The same angel was sent 
to Zechariah, to declare to him the future 
birth of John the Baptist, Luke i, 11, &c. Six 
months afler this he appeared to a virgin, 
whose name was Mary, of the city of Naza- 
reth, as related Luke i, 26, &c. 

GAD was the name of the son of Jacob and 
Zilpah, Leah's servant. Gen. xxx, 9-11. Leah, 
Jacob's wife, gave him also Zilpah, that by her 
she might have children. Zilpah brought a 
son, whom Leah called Gad, saying, " A troop 
Cometh." Gad had seven sons, Ziphion, Haggi, 
Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli, Genesis 



xlvi, 16. Jacob, blessing Gad, said, "A troop 
shall overcome him, but he shall overcome at 
the last," Gen. xlix, 19 ; and Moses, in his last 
song, mentions Gad as "a lion which teareth 
the arm with the crown of the head," «fec, 
Deut. xxxiii, 20, 21. The tribe of Gad came 
out of Egypt in number forty-five thousand 
six hundred and fifty. After the defeat of the 
kings Og and Sihon, Gad and Reuben desired 
to have their lot in the conquered country, and 
alleged their great number of cattle. Moses 
granted their request, on condition that they 
would accompany their brethren, and assist in 
the conquest of the land beyond Jordan. Gad 
had his inheritance between Reuben south, and 
Manasseh north, with the mountains of Gilead 
east, and Jordan west. 

2. Gad, a prophet, David's friend, who fol- 
lowed him when persecuted by Saul. The 
Scripture calls him a prophet and David's seer, 
2 Sam. xxiv, 11. The first time we find him 
with this prince is when he fled into the land 
of Moab, 1 Sam. xxii, 5, to secure his father 
and mother in the first year of Saul's persecu- 
tion. The Prophet Gad warned him to return 
into the land of Judah. After David had de- 
termined to number his people, the Lord sent 
to him the Prophet Gad, to offer him his choice 
of three scourges : seven years' famine, or three 
months' flight before his enemies, or three days' 
pestilence. Gad also directed David to erect 
an altar to the Lord, in the threshing floor of 
Oman or Araunah, the Jebusite, 2 Sam. xxiv, 
13-19 ; and he wrote a history of David's life, 
cited in 1 Chron. xxix, 29. 

GADARA, a city which gave name to the 
country of the Gadarenes ; situated on a steep 
rocky hill on the river Hieromax, or Yermuck, 
about five miles from its junction with the Jor- 
dan. It was a place of considerable note in 
the time of Josephus, and the metropolis of 
Persea, or the country beyond Jordan. It was 
also celebrated for its hot baths. The vicinity 
was likewise called the country of the Gerge- 
senes, from Gerasa, or Gergesa, another con- 
siderable city in the same neighbourhood. 
Thus the miracle of our Lord performed here 
is represented by St. Mark to have been done 
in the country of the Gadarenes, Mark v, 1 ; 
and by St. Matthew, in that of the Gergesenes, 
Matt, viii, 28. 

GALATIA, a province of the Lesser Asia, 
bounded on the west by Phrygia, on the east 
by the river Haylys, on the north by Paphla- 
gonia, and on the south by Lycaonia. The 
Galatians are said to have been descended from 
those Gauls, who, finding their own country 
too strait for them, left it, after the death of 
Alexander the Great, in quest of new settle- 
ments. Quitting their own country, they 
migrated eastward along the Danube till they 
came where the Saave joins that river; then 
dividing themselves into three bodies, under 
the conduct of different leaders, one of these 
bodies entered Pannonia ; another marched 
into Thrace ; a third into Illyricum and Mace- 
donia. The party which proceeded into Thrace, 
crossed the Bosphorus into the Lesser Asia, 
and hiring themselves to Nicomedes, king of 



GAL 



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Bithynia, assisted him to subdue his brother 
Zipetes, with whom he was then at war; and 
as a reward of tlieir services they received from 
him a country in the middle of Asia Minor, 
which from them was afterward called Gallo- 
GrcBcia, and, by contraction, Galatia. As 
their inland situation in a great measure cut 
them off from all intercourse with more civil- 
ized nations, the Galatians long remained a 
rude and illiterate people. And as a proof of 
this, it is mentioned by Jerom, that when the 
Apostle Paul preached the Gospel among them, 
and for many ages afterward, they continued 
to speak the language of the country from 
whence they came out. 

2. Paul and Barnabas carried the light of the 
Gospel into the regions of Galatia at a wery 
early period ; and it appears from the epistle 
which the former subsequently wrote to the 
churches in that country, that they had at first 
received^ it with great joy. Gal. iv, 15. But 
aome Judaizing teachers getting access among 
them soon after the Apostle's departure, their 
minds became corrupted from the simplicity 
that was in Christ Jesus ; and, though mostly 
Gentiles, they were beginning to mingle cir- 
cumcision, and otlier Jewish observances, with 
their faith in Christ, in order to render it more 
available to their salvation. This occasioned 
Paul's writing his epistle to those churches ; 
and his object throughout nearly the whole of 
it is to counteract the pernicious influence of 
the doctrine of those false teachers particur 
larly as it respected the article of justification, 
or a sinner's acceptance with God. And in 
no part of the Apostle's writings is that im- 
portant doctrine handled in a more full and 
explicit manner ; nor d^Des ho any where dis- 
play, such a firm, determined, and inflexible 
opposition to all who would corrupt the truth 
from its simplicity. He begins by expressing 
his astonishment that th«y v/ere so soon turned 
aside "unto another gospel," but instantly 
checking himself, he recals the word and de- 
clares, " it is not another gospel," but a per- 
version of the Gospel of Christ. "And though 
we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other 
gospel unto you than that which we have 
preached unto you, let him be accursed." 
There are in his epistle several other things 
equally pointed and severe, particularly his 
expostulation on the folly and absurdity of 
their conduct in subjecting themselves to the 
Jewish yoke of bondage, Gal. iii, 1. "The 
erroneous doctrines of the Judaizing teachers," 
says Dr. Macknight, "and the calumnies they 
spread for the purpose of discrediting St. Paul's 
. apostleship, no doubt occasioned great uneasi- 
ness of mind to him and to the faithful in that 
age, and did much hurt, at least for a while, 
among the Galatians. But in the issue these 
evils have proved of no small service to the 
church in general ; for by obliging the Apostle 
to produce the evidences of his apostleship, 
and to relate the history of his life, especially 
after his conversion, we have obtained the 
fullest assurance of his being a real Apostle, 
called to the office by Jesus Christ himself; 
consequently we are ^^ssured that ouj faitli in 



the doctrines of the Gospel, as taught by him 
(and it is he who hath taught the peculiar doc- 
trines of the Gospel most fully,) is not built on 
the credit of a man, but on the authority of the 
Spirit of God, by whom St. Paul was inspired 
in the whole of the doctrine which he has de. 
livered to the world." 

GALBANUM, nj:3'?n, Exod. xxx, 34. Mi. 
chaelis makes the word a compound of ^^n, 
milk or gum, (for the Syriaxj uses the noun in 
both senses,) and p*?, white, as being the white 
milk or gum of a plant. It is the thickened 
sap of an umbelliferous plant, called metopion, 
which grows on Mount Amanus, in Syria, and 
is frequently found in Persia, and in some parts 
of Africa. It was an ingredient in the holy 
incense of the Jews. 

GALILEANS. In the twelfth year of Christ, 
about the time that Archelaus was sent away 
from his government, a secession was- made 
from the sect of the Pharisees, and a new sect 
arose, called the Galileans. Not long after 
this time, Judea, which was a Roman province, 
was added, for civil purposes, to Syria, over 
which Quirinus was governor. It happened, 
when the tax was levied by Quirinus, that one 
Judas, of Galilee, otherwise called Gaulonites, 
in company with Zaduk, a Sadducee, publicly 
taught, that such taxation was repugnant to 
the law of Moses, according to which the Jews, 
they maintained, had no king but God. The 
tumults which this man excited were suppress- 
ed, Acts v, ^7 ; but his disciples, who were 
called Galileans, continued to propagate this 
doctrine, and, farthermore, required of all 
proselytes that they should be circumcised. It 
was in reference to this sect that the captious 
question was proposed in Matt, xxii, 17, &c ; 
namely, whether it was lawful to give tribute 
to Cfesar. The Galileans, whom Pilate slew in 
the temple, Luke xiii, 1, 2, appear to have 
been of this sect. By degrees, the Galileans 
swallowed up almost all the other sects; and 
it is highly probable that the zealots, particu- 
larly mentioned at the siege of Jerusalem, were 
of this faction. 

GALILEE was one of the most extensiye 
provinces into which the Holy Land was di- 
vided. It exceeded Judea in extent, but proba- 
bly varied in its limits at difierent times. This 
province is divided by the rabbins into, 1. The 
Upper ; 2. The Nether ; and, 3. The Valley. 
Josephus divides it into only Upper and Lower ; 
and he says that the limits of Galilee were, on 
the south, Samaria and Scythopolis, unto the 
flood of Jordan. Galilee contained four tribes, 
Issachar, Zebulun, Naphtali, and Asher ; a 
part, also, of Dan, and part of Pereea, that is, 
beyond the river. Upper Galilee abounded in 
mountains. Lower Galilee, which contained 
the tribes of Zebulun and Asher, was sometimes 
called the Great Field, " the champaign," Deut. 
xi, 30. The Valley was adjacent to the sea of 
Tiberias. Josephus describes Galilee as very 
populous, and containing two hundred and four 
cities and towns. It was also very rich, and 
paid two hundred talents in tribute. The na- 
tives were brave and good soldiers ; but they 
were seditious, and prone to insolence and 



GAL 



393 



GAL 



rebellion, Li the books of Ezra and Nehe- 
miah, the inhabitants of Galilee and Peraea are 
scarcely mentioned, whether they were Jews 
returned from Babylon, or a mixture of differ- 
ent nations. The language of these regions 
differed considerably from that of Judea ; as 
did various customs, in which each followed 
its own mode. Our Lord so frequently visited 
Galilee, that he was called a Galilean, Matt. 
xxvi, 69. The population of Galilee being 
very great, he had many opportunities of doing 
good in this country ; and, being there out of 
the power of the priests at Jerusalem, he seems 
to have preferred it as his abode. Nazareth 
and Capernaum were in this division. From 
such a mixture of people, many provincialisms 
might be expected. Hence, we find Peter de- 
tected by his language, probably by his phrase- 
ology, as well as his pronunciation, Mark xiv, 
70. Upper Galilee had Mount Lebanon and 
the countries of Tyre and Sidon on the north ; 
the Mediterranean Sea on the west; Abilene, 
Ituraea, and the country of the Decapolis, on 
the east ; and Lower Galilee on the south. Its 
principal city was Caesarea Philippi. This part 
of Galilee, being less inhabited by Jews, was 
thence called Galilee of the Nations, or of the 
Gentiles. Lower Galilee had the upper divi- 
sion of the same country to the north ; the 
Mediterranean on the west ; the sea of Gali- 
lee, or lake of Gennesareth, on the east ; and 
Samaria on the south. Its principal cities 
were Tiberias, Chorazin, Bethsaida, Nazareth, 
Cana, Capernaum, Nain, Cassarea of Palestine, 
and Ptolemais. This district was of all others 
most honoured with the presence of our Sa- 
viour. Here he was conceived; here he was 
brought back by his mother and reputed father, 
after their return from Egypt ; here he lived 
with them till he was thirty years of age ; and, 
although after his entrance on his public minis, 
try he frequently visited the other provinces, 
it was here that he chiefly resided. Here, 
also, he made his first appearance after his 
resurrection to his Apostles, who were them- 
selves natives of the same country, and were 
thence called men of Galilee. 

Galilee, Sea of. This inland sea, or more 
properly lake, which derives its several names, 
the lake of Tiberias, the sea of Galilee, and the 
lake of Gennesareth, from the territory which 
forms its western and south-western border, is 
computed to be between seventeen and eighteen 
miles in length, and from five to six in breadth. 
The mountains on the east come close to its 
shore, and the country on that side has not a 
very agreeable aspect : on the west, it has the 
plain of Tiberias, the high ground of the plain 
of Hutin, or Hottein, the plain of Gennesareth, 
and the foot of those hills by which you as- 
cend to the high mountain of Saphet. To the 
north and south it has a plain country, or val- 
ley. There is a current throughout the whole 
breadth of the lake, even to the shore ; and the 
passage of the Jordan through it is discernible 
by the smoothness of the surface in that part. 
Various travellers have given different accounts 
of its general aspect. According to Captain 
Mangles, the land about it has no striking fea- 



tures, and the scenery is altogether devoid of 
character. "It appeared," he says, "to par- 
ticular disadvantage to us, after those beautiful 
lakes we had seen in Switzerland ; but it be- 
comes a very interesting object when you con- 
sider the frequent allusions to it in the Gospel 
narrative." Dr. Clarke, on the contrary, speaks 
of the uncommon grandeur of this memorable 
scenery. " The lake of Gennesareth," he 
says, " is surrounded by objects well calculated 
to heighten the solemn impressions made by 
such recollections, and affords one of the most 
striking prospects in the Holy Land. Speak- 
ing of it comparatively, it may be described as 
longer and finer than any of our Cumberland 
and Westmoreland lates, although perhaps 
inferior to Loch Lomond. It does not possess 
the vastness of the lake of Geneva, although 
it much resembles it in certain points of view. 
In picturesque beauty, it comes nearest to the 
lake of Locarno, in Italy, although it is desti- 
tute of any thing similar to the islands by 
which that majestic piece of water is adorned. 
It is inferior in magnitude, and in the height 
of its surrounding mountains, to the Lake As- 
phaltites." Mr. Buckingham may perhaps be 
considered as having given the most accurate 
account, and one which reconciles, in some 
degree, the differing statements above cited, 
when, speaking of the lake as seen from Tel 
Hoom, he says, that its appearance is grand, 
but that the barren aspect of the mountains on 
each side, and the total absence of wood, give 
a cast of dulness to the picture : this is in- 
creased to melancholy by the dead calm of its 
waters, and the silence wliich reigns throughout 
its wliole extent, where not a boat or vessel of 
any kind is to be found. The situation of the 
lake, lying, as it were, in a deep basin between 
the hills which enclose it on all sides, excepting 
only the narrow entrance and outlets of the 
Jordan at either end, protects its waters from 
long-continued tempests : its surface is in gene- 
ral as smooth as that of the Dead Sea. But 
the same local features render it occasionally 
subject to whirlwinds, squalls, and sudden gusts 
from the mountains, of short duration ; espe- 
cially when the strong current formed by the 
Jordan is opposed by a wind of this description 
from the south-east, sweeping from the mount- 
ains with the force of a hurricane, it may 
easily be conceived that a boisterous sea must 
be instantly raised, which the small vessels of 
the country would be unable to resist. A storm 
of this description is plainly denoted by the 
language of the evangelist, in recounting one 
of our Lord's miracles: "There came down a 
storm of wind on the lake, and they were filled 
with water, and were in jeopardy. Then he 
arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of 
the water ; and they ceased, and there was a 
calm," Luke viii, 23, 24. There were fleets of 
some force on this lake during the wars of the 
Jews with the Romans, and very bloody bat. 
ties were fought between them. Josephus 
gives a particular account of a naval engage- 
ment between the Romans under Vespasian, 
and the Jews who had revolted during the 
administration of Agrippa, Titus and Trajan 



GAL 



394 



GAM 



were both present, and Vespasian himself was 
on board the Roman fleet. The rebel force 
consisted of an immense multitude, who, as 
fugitives after the capture of Tarichaea by Ti- 
tus, had sought refuge on the water. The 
vessels in which the Romans defeated them 
were built for the occasion, and yet were larger 
than the Jewish ships. The victory was fol- 
lowed by so terrible a slaughter of the Jews, 
that nothing was to be seen, either on the lake 
or its shores, but the blood and mangled corses 
of the slain ; and the air was infected by the 
number of dead bodies. Six thousand five 
hundred persons are stated to have perished in 
this naval engagement, and in the battle of 
Tarichsea, beside twelve hundred who were 
afterward massacred in cold blood, by order of 
Vespasian, in the ampitheatre at Tiberias, and 
a vast number who were given to Agrippa as 
slaves. 

GALL, tJ'Nn, something excessively bitter, 
and supposed to be poisonous, Deut. xxix, 18 ; 
xxxii, 32 ; Psalm Ixix, 21 ; Jer. viii, 14 ; ix, 
15; xxiii, 15; Lara, iii, 19; Hosea x, 4; Amos 
vi, 12. It is evident, from the first-mentioned 
place, that some herb or plant is meant of a 
malignant or nauseous kind. It is joined with 
wormwood, and, in the margin of our Bibles, 
explained to be "a very poisonful herb." In 
Psalm Ixix, 21, which is justly considered as a 
prophecy of our Saviour's sufferings, it is said, 
" They gave me trNi to eat ; which the LXX 
have rendered ;\;oX^i/, gall. And, accordingly, 
it is recorded in the history, " They gave him 
vinegar to drink, mingled with gall," b^oi futra 
Xokrii, Matt, xxvii, 34. But, in the parallel 
passage, it is said to be, hnvpiajxivov olvov, " wine 
mingled with myrrh," Mark xv, 23, a very 
bitter ingredient. From whence it is probable 
that x°^^^ ^^d perhaps B'Ni, may be used as a 
general name for whatever is exceedingly bit- 
ter ; and, consequently, where the sense re- 
quires it, may be put specially for any bitter 
herb or plant, the infusion of which may be 
called tyNv>D. 

GALLIC was the name of the brother of 
Seneca, the philosopher. He was at first named 
Marcus Annaeus Novatus ; but, being adopted 
by Lucius Junius Gallio, he took the name of 
his adoptive father. The Emperor Claudius 
made him proconsul of Achaia. He was of a 
mild and agreeable temper. To him his brother 
Seneca dedicated his books, " Cf Anger." He 
shared in the fortunes of his brothers, as well 
when out of favour as in their prosperity at 
court. At length, Nero put him, as well as 
them, to death. The .Jews were enraged at 
St. Paul for converting many Gentiles, and 
dragged him to the tribunal of Gallio, who, as 
proconsul, generally resided at Corinth, Acts 
xviii, 12, 13. They accused him of teaching 
"men to worship God contrary to the law." 
St. Paul being about to speak, Gallio told the 
Jews, that if the matter in question were a 
breach of justice, or an action of a criminal 
nature, he should think himself obliged to hear 
them ; but, as the dispute was only concerning 
their law, he would not determine such differ- 
ences, nor judge them. Sosthenes, the chief 



ruler of the synagogue, was beaten by the 
Greeks before Gallio's seat of justice ; but this 
governor did not concern himself about it. 
His abstaining from interfering in a religious 
controversy did credit to his prudence ; never- 
theless, his name has oddly passed into a re- 
proachfiil proverb ;. and a man regai-dless of all 
piety is called "a Gallio," and is said " Gallio- 
like to care for none of these things." Little 
did this Roman anticipate that his name would 
be so immortalized. 

GAMALIEL, a celebrated rabbi, and doctor 
of the Jewish law, under whose tuition the 
great Apostle of the Gentiles was brought up, 
Acts xxii, 3. Barnabas and Stephen are also 
supposed to have been among the number of 
his pupils. Soon after the day of pentecost, 
when the Jewish sanhedrim began to be alarmed 
at the progress the Gospel was making in Je- 
rusalem, and consequently wished to put to 
death the Apostles, in the hope of checking its 
farther progress, they were apprehended and 
brought before the national council, of which 
Gamaliel seems to have been a leading mem- 
her. It is very probable that many zealots 
among them would have despatched the affair 
in a very summary manner, but their impetu- 
osity was checked by the cool and prudent 
advice of Gamaliel ; for, having requested the 
Apostles to withdraw for a while, he represented 
to the sanhedrim that, if the Apostles were no 
better than impostors, their fallacy would 
quickly be discovered ; but on the other hand, 
if what they were engaged in was from God, it 
was vain for them to attempt to frustrate it, 
since it was the height of folly to contend with 
the Almighty. The assembly saw the wisdom 
of his counsel, and very prudently changed the 
sentence, upon which they were originally bent 
against the Apostles' lives, into that of corporal 
punishment. 

2. It may here also be remarked, that the 
sanhedrim could not themselves believe that 
tale which they had diligently circulated among 
the people, that the disciples had stolen away 
the body of Jesus, and then pretended that he 
had arisen from the dead. If the Jewish coun- 
cil had thought this, it would have been very 
absurd in Gamaliel to exhort them to wait to 
see whether "the counsel and work" was of 
God, that is, whether the Apostles related a 
fact when they preached the resurrection, and 
grounded the divine authority of their religion 
upon that fact. Gamaliel's advice was wholly 
based upon the admission, that an extraordi- 
nary, and to them an inexplicable, event had 
happened. 

GAMES. Games and combats were insti- 
tuted by the ancients in honour of their gods ; 
and were celebrated with that view by the most 
polished and enlightened nations of antiquity. 
The most renowned heroes, legislators, and 
statesmen, did not think it unbecoming their 
character and dignity, to mingle with the com. 
batants, or contend in the race ; they even 
reckoned it glorious to share in the exercises, 
and meritorious to carry away the prize. The 
victors were crowned with a wreath of laurel 
in presence of their country ; they were cele- 



GAM 



395 



GAM 



brated in the rapturous effusions of their poets ; ] they proposed to contend in the Olympian 
they were admired, and almost adored, by the games, they were obliged to repair to the pub- 



innumerable multitudes which flocked to the 
games, from every part of Greece, and many 
of the adjacent countries. They returned to 
their own homes in a triumphal chariot, and 
made their entrance into their native city, not 
tiirough the gates which admitted the vulgar 
throng, but through a breach in the walls, 
which were broken down to give them admis- 
sion ; and at the same time to express the per- 
suasion of their fellow citizens, that walls are 
of small use to a city defended by men of such 
tried courage and ability. Hence the surpris- 
ing ardour which animated all the states of 
Greece to imitate the ancient heroes, and en- 
circle their brows with wreaths, .which ren- 
dered them still more the objects of admiration 
or envy to succeeding times, than the vic- 
tories they had gained, or the laws they had 
enacted. 

2. But the institutors of those games and 
combats had higher and nobler objects in view 
than veneration for the mighty dead, or the 
gratification of ambition or vanity ; it was their 
design to prepare the youth for the profession 
oftirms; to confirm their health; to improve 
their strength, their vigour, and activity ; to 
inure them to fatigue ; and to render them 



intrepid in close fight, where, in the infancy 
of the art of war, muscular force commonly 
decided the victory. This statement accounts 
for the striking allusions which the Apostle 
Paul makes in his epistles to these celebrated 
exercises. Such references were calculated to 
touch the heart of a Greek, and of every one 
familiarly acquainted with them, in the live- 
liest manner, as well as to place before the 
eye of his mind the most glowing and correct 
images of spiritual and divine things. No 
passages in the nervous and eloquent epistles 
from the pen of St. Paul, have been more ad- 
mired by the critics and expositors of all times, 
than those into which some allusion to these 
agonistic exercises is introduced ; and, perhaps, 
none are calculated to leave a deeper impres- 
sion on the Christian's mind, or excite a stronger 
and more salutary influence on his actions. 
Certain persons were appointed to take care 
that all things were done according to custom, 
to decide controversies that happened among 
the antagonists, and to adjudge the prize to the 
victor. Some eminent writers are of opinion 
that Christ is called the " Author and Finisher 
of faith," in allusion to these judges. Those 
who were designed for the profession ofathletce, 
or combatants, frequented from their earliest 
years the academies maintained for that pur- 
pose at the public expense. In these places 
they were exercised under the direction of dif- 
ferent masters, who employed the most effectual 
methods to inure their bodies for the fatigues 
of the public games, and to form them for the 
combats. The regimen to which they submit- 
ted was very hard and severe. At first, they 
had no other nourishment than dried figs, nuts, 
soft cheese, and a gross heavy sort of bread 
called nd^a ; they were absolutely forbidden the 



lie gymnasium at Elis, ten months before the 
solemnity, where they prepared themselves by 
continual exercises. No man that had omitted 
to present himself at the appointed time, was 
allowed to be a candidate for the prizes; nor 
were the accustomed rewards of victory given 
to such persons, if by any means they insinu- 
ated themselves, and overcame their antago- 
nists ; nor would any apology, though seern- 
ingly ever so reasonable, serve to excuse their 
absence. No person that was himself a note, 
rious criminal, or nearly related to one, was 
permitted to contend. Farther, to prevent 
underhand dealings, if any person was con- 
victed of bribing his adversary, a severe fine 
was laid upon him ; nor was this alone thought 
a sufficient guard against unfair contracts, and 
unjust practices, but the contenders were 
obliged to swear they had spent ten whole 
months in preparatory exercises ; and, beside 
all this, they, their fathers, and their brethren, 
took a solemn oath, that they would not, by 
any sinister or unlawful means, endeavour to 
stop the fair and just proceedings of the games. 
3. The spiritual contest, in which all true 
Christians aim at obtaining a heavenly crown, 
has its rules also, devised and enacted by in. 
finite wisdom and goodness, which require 
implicit and exact submission, which yield 
neither to times nor circumstances, but main- 
tain their supreme authority, from age to age, 
uninterrupted and unimpaired. The combat- 
ant who violates these rules forfeits the prize, 
and is driven from the field with indelible 
disgrace, and consigned to everlasting wo. 
Hence the great Apostle of the Gentiles ex- 
horts his son Timothy strictly to observe the 
precepts of the Gospel, without which, he can 
no more hope to obtain the approbation of God, 
and the possession of the heavenly crown, than 
a combatant in the public games of Greece, 
who disregarded the established rules, could 
hope to receive from the hands of his judge 
the promised reward: "And if a man also 
strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned 
except he strive lawfiilly," 2 Tim. ii, 5, or 
according to the established laws of the games. 
Like the Grecian combatants, the Christian 
must "abstain from fleshly lusts," and "walk 
in all the statutes and commandments of the 
Lord, blameless." Such was St. Paul ; and in 
this manner he endeavoured to act : " But I 
keep under my body, and bring it into subjec- 
tion: lest that by any means, when I have 
preached to others, I myself should be a cast- 
away," 1 Cor. ix, 27. The latter part of this 
verse Doddridge renders, "lest after having 
served as a herald I should be disapproved ;" 
and says in a note, " I thought it of import- 
ance to retain the primitive sense of these 
gymnastic expressions." It is well known to 
those who are at all acquainted with the 
original, that the word used means to discharge 
the office of a herald, whose business it was to 
proclaim the conditions of the games, and dis- 
play the prizes, to awaken the emulation and 



use of wine, and enjoined continence. When | resolution of those who were to contend in 



GAM 



39& 



GAM 



tnem. But the Apostle intimates, that there 
was this peculiar circumstance attending the 
Christian contest, that the person who pro- 
claimed its laws and rewards to others, was 
also to engage in it himself; and that there 
would be a peculiar infamy and misery in his 
miscarrying. 'ASdKiixog, which we render cast, 
away, signifies one who is disapproved by the 
judge of the games, as not having fairly de- 
served the prize : he therefore loses it ; even 
the prizre of eternal life. The rule which the 
Apostle applies to himself he extends in another 
passage to all the members of the Christian 
church: "Those who strive for the mastery 
are temperate in all things ; now they do it to 
ebtain a corruptible crown, but we an incor- 
ruptible." Tertullian uses the same thought 
to encourage the martyrs. He urges constancy 
upon them, from what the hopes of victory 
made the athletes endure ; and repeats the se- 
vere and painful exercises they were obliged 
to undergo, the continual anguish and con- 
straint in which they passed the best years of 
their lives, and the voluntary privation wIiIcIl 
they imposed on themselves, of all that was 
most grateful to their appetites and passions. 

4. The atldetcB took care to disencumber their 
bodies of every article of clothing which could 
in any manner hinder or incommode them. In 
the race, they were anxious to carry as little 
weight as possible, and uniformly stripped them- 
selves of all such clothes as, by their weight, 
length, or otherwise, might entangle or retard 
them in the course. The Christian also must 
"lay aside every weight, and the sin which 
doth so easily beset" him, Heb. xii, 1. In the 
exercise of faith and self-denial, he must " cast 
off the works of darkness," lay aside all malice 
and guile, hypocrisies, and envyings, and evil 
speakings, inordinate affections, and worldly 
cares, and whatever else might obstruct his 
holy profession, damp his spirits, and hinder 
his progress in the paths of righteousness. 

5. The foot race seems to have been placed 
in the first rank of public games, and culti- 
vated with a care and industry proportioned 
to the estimation in which it was held. The 
Olympic games generally opened with races, 
and were celebrated at first with no other ex- 
ercise. The lists or course Avhere the athletes 
exercised themselves in running, was at first 
but one stadium in length, or about six hun- 
dred feet; and from this measure it took its 
iiame, and v/as called the stadium, whatever 
might be its extent. This, in the language of 
St. Paul, speaking of the Christian's course, 
was " the race which was set before them," 
determined by public authority, and carefully 
measured. On each side of the stadium and 
its extremity, ran an ascent or kind of terrace, 
covered with seats and benches, upon which 
the spectators were seated, an innumerable 
multitude collected from all parts of Greece, 
to which the Apostle thus alludes in his figura- 
tive description of the Christian life : " Seeing 
we are compassed about with so great a cloud 
of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight," 
Heb. xii, 1. 

The most remarkable parts of the stadium 



were its entrance, middle, and extremity. The 
entrance was marked at first only by a line 
drawn on the sand, from side to side of the 
stadium. To prevent any unfair advantage 
being taken by the more vigilant or alert can- 
didates, a cord was at length stretched in front 
of the horses or men that were to run ; and 
sometimes the space was railed in with wood. 
The opening of this barrier, was the signal 
for the racers to start. The middle of the 
stadium was remarkable, only by the circum- 
stance of having the prizes allotted to the vic- 
tors set up there. From this custom, Crysos- 
torn draws a fine comparison : " As the judges 
in the races and other games, expose in the 
midst of the stadimn, to the view of the cham. 
pions, the crowns which they were to receive ; 
in like manner, the Lord, by the mouth of his 
prophets, has placed the prizes in the midst of 
the course, which he designs for those who 
have the courage to contend for them." At 
the extremity of the stadium was a goal, where 
the foot races ended ; but in those of chariots 
and horses, they were to run several times 
round it without stopping, and afterward con- 
clude the race by regaining the other extre- 
mity of the lists from whence they started. It 
is therefore to the foot race the Apostle alludes, 
when he speaks of the race set before the Chris- 
tian, which was a straight course, to be run 
only once, and not, as in the other, several 
times without stopping. 

6. According to some writers, it was at the 
goal, and not in the middle of the course, that 
the prizes were exhibited ; and they were placed 
in a very conspicuous situation, that the com- 
petitors might be animated by having them 
always in their sight. This accords with the 
view which the Apostle gives of the Christian 
life: "Brethren, I count not myself to have 
apprehended; but this one thing I do, forget- 
ting those things which are behind, and reach- 
ing forth unto those things which are before, 
I press toward the mark for the prize of the 
high calling of God in Christ Jesus," Phil, iii, 
13, 14. L'Enfant thinks, the Apostle here 
alludes to those who stood at the elevated place 
at the end of the course, calling the racers by 
their names, and encouraging them by holding 
out the crown, to exert themselves with vigour. 
Within the measured and determinate limits of 
the stadium, the athleta were bound to contend 
for the prize, which they forfeited without hope 
of recovery, if they deviated ever so little from 
the appointed course. 

7. The honours and rewards granted to the 
victors were of several kinds. They were ani- 
mated in their course by the rapturous applauses 
of the countless multitudes that lined the sta- 
dium, and waited the issue of the contest with 
eager anxiety ; and their success was instantly 
followed by reiterated and long continued 
plaudits ; but these were only a prelude to the 
appointed rewards, which, though of little 
value in themselves, were accounted the high- 
est honour to which a mortal could aspire. 
These consisted of different wreaths of wild 
olive, pine, parsley, or laurel, according to the 
different places where the games were cele- 



GAM 



397 



GAR 



Drated. After the judges had passed sentence, 
a public herald proclaimed the name of the vic- 
tor ; one of the judges put the crown upon his 
head, and a branch of palm into his right hand, 
which he carried as a token of victorious cou- 
rage and perseverance. As he might be victor 
more than once in the same games, and some- 
times on the same day, he might also receive 
several crowns and palms. When the victor 
had received his reward, a herald, preceded 
by a trumpet, conducted him through the 
stadium, and proclaimed aloud his name and 
country; while the delighted multitudes, at 
the sight of him, redoubled their acclamations 
and applauses. 

8. The crown in the Olympic games was 
of wild olive; in the Pythian, of laurel; in the 
Isthmian or Corinthian, of pine tree ; and in the 
Nemajan, of smallage or parsley. Now, most of 
these were evergreens; yet they would soon 
grow dry, and crumble into dust. Eisner pro- 
duces many passages in which the contenders in 
these exercises are rallied by the Grecian wits, 
on account of the extraordinary pains they 
took for such trifling rewards ; and Plato has 
a celebrated passage, which greatly resembles 
that of the Apostle, but by no means equals it 
in force and beauty : " Now they do it to obtain 
a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible." 
The Christian is thus called to fight the good 
fight of faith, and to lay hold of eternal life ; 
and to this he is more powerfully stimulated 
by considering that the ancient athletoi took 
all their care and pains only for the sake of 
obtaining a garland of flowers, or a wreath of 
laurel, which quickly fades and perishes, pos- 
sessed little intrinsic value, and only served to 
nourish their pride and vanity, without impart- 
ing any solid advantage to themselves or others ; 
but that which is placed in the view of the spi- 
ritual combatants, to animate their exertions, 
and reward their labours, is no less than a 
crown of glory which never decays; "an in- 
heritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that 
fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for them," 
1 Pet. i, 4 ; V, 4. But the victory sometimes 
remained doubtful, in consequence of which a 
number of competitors appeared before the 
judges, and claimed the prize. The candidates 
who were rejected on such occasions by the 
judge of the games, as not having fairly merit- 
ed the prize, were called by the Greeks aSoKtuoi, 
or disapproved, which we render cast mvay, in 
a passage already quoted from St. Paul's First 
Epistle to the Corinthians : " But I keep under 
my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that 
by any means, when I have preached to others, 
I myself should be, a^dKifiog, cast away," reject. 
ed by the Judge of all the earth, and disappoint, 
ed of my expected crown. What has been 
observed concerning the spirit and ardour with 
which the competitors engaged in the race, 
and concerning the prize they had in view to 
reward their arduous contention, will illustrate 
the following sublime passage of the same 
sacred writer in his Epistle to the Philippians : 
"Not as though I had already attained, either 
were already perfect ; but I follow after, if that 
I may apprehend that for which also I am ap- 



prehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count 
not myself to have apprehended: but this one 
thing I do, forgetting those things which are 
behind, and reaching forth unto those things 
which are before, I press toward the mark, for 
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus," Phil, iii, 12-14. The affecting passage, 
also, of the same Apostle, in the Second Epis- 
tle of Timothy, written a little before his mar- 
tyrdom, is beautifully allusive to the above- 
mentioned race, to the crown that awaited the 
victory, and to the Hellanodics or judges who 
bestowed it: "I have fought a good fight, I 
have finished my course, I have kept the faith. 
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of 
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous 
Judge, shall give me at that day : and not to me 
only, but to all them also that love his appear- 
ing," 2 Tim. iv, 8. 

GARDENS. In the language of the He- 
brews, every place where plants and trees were 
cultivated with greater care than in the open 
field, was called a garden. The idea of such 
an enclosure was certainly borrowed from the 
garden of Eden, which the bountiful Creator 
planted for the reception of our first parents. 
Beside, the gardens of primitive nations were 
commonly, if not in every instance, devoted to 
religious purposes. In these shady retreats were 
celebrated, for a long succession of ages, the 
rites of Pagan superstition. Thus Jehovah calls 
the apostate Jews, " a people that provoketh 
me continually to anger to my face, that sacri- 
ficeth in gardens," Isa. Ixv, 3. And in a preced- 
ing chapter, the prophet threatens them in the 
name of the Lord : " They shall be ashamed of 
the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall 
be confounded for the gardens which ye have 
chosen." The oriental gardens were either 
open plantations, or enclosures defended by 
walls or hedges. Some fences in the Holy 
Land, in later times, are not less beautiful 
than our living fences of white thorn ; and 
perfectly answer the description of ancient 
Jewish prophets, who inform us that the hedges 
in their times consisted of thorns, and that 
the spikes of these thorny plants were exceed- 
ingly sharp. Doubdan found a very fruitful 
vineyard, full of olives, fig trees, and vines, 
about eight miles south-west from Bethlehem,, 
enclosed with a hedge ; and that part of it 
adjoining to the road, strongly formed of thorns 
and rose bushes, intermingled with pomegra- 
nate trees of surpassing beauty and fragrance, 
A hedge composed of rose bushes and wild 
pomegranate shrubs, then in full flower^ 
mingled with other thorny plants, adorned ixt 
the varied livery of spring, must have made 
at once a strong and beautiful fence. The wiU 
pomegranate tree, the species probably used in 
fencing, is much more prickly than the other 
variety ; and when mingled with other thorny 
bushes, of which they have several kinds in? 
Palestine, some of whose prickles are very long 
and sharp, must form a hedge very difficult to 
penetrate. These facts ilhjstrate the beauty 
and force of several passages in the sacred 
volume : thus, in the Proverba of Solomon, 
" The way of the slothful man is as a hedge of 



GAR 



398 



GAR 



thorns," Prov. xv, 19; it is obstructed with diffi- 
culties, which the sloth and indolence of his 
temper represent as galling or insuperable ; but 
which a moderate share of resolution and per- 
severance would easily remove or surmount. 
In the prophecies of Hosea, God threatens his 
treacherous and idolatrous people with many 
painful embarrassments and perplexities, which 
would as effectually retard or obstruct their 
progress in the paths of wickedness, as a hedge 
of thorny plants stretching across the travel- 
ler's way, the prosecution of his "journey : 
♦' Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way 
with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall 
not find her paths," Hosea ii.j 6. In the days 
of Micah, the magistrates of Judah had be- 
come exceedingly corrupt : "The best of them 
is a brier; the most upright is sharper than 
a thorn hedge ;" to appear before their tribunal, 
or to have any dealings with them, was to in- 
volve one's self in endless perplexities, and to 
be exposed to galling disappointments, if not 
to certain destruction. They resembled those 
thorny plants which are twisted together, whose 
spines point in every direction, and arc so 
sharp and strong that they cannot be touched 
without danger, and so entangling that when 
the traveller has with much pain and exertion 
freed himself from one, he is instantly seized 
by another. •' But the sons of Belial," said the 
king of Israel, "shall be all of them as thorns 
thrust away, because they cannot be taken with 
hands : but the man that shall touch them must 
be fenced with iron, and the staff of a spear ; 
and they shall be utterly burned with fire in the 
same place," 2 Sam. xxiii, 6, 7. Other enclo- 
sures had fences of loose stones, or mud walls, 
some of them very low, which often furnished 
a retreat to venomous reptiles. To this cir- 
cumstance the royal preacher alludes, in his 
observations of wisdom and folly : " He that 
diggeth a pit, shall fall into it : and whoso 
breaketh a hedge, a serpent shall bite him," 
Eccles. X, 8. The term which our translators 
render hedge in this passage, they might with 
more propriety have rendered wall, as they had 
done in another part of the writings of Solo- 
mon : " I went by the field of the slothful, and 
by the vineyard of the man void of understand- 
ing ; and lo, it was all grown over with thorns, 
and nettles had covered the face thereof, and 
the stone wall thereof was broken down," 
Proverbs xxiv, 30. 

2. The land of promise has been, from the 
earliest ages, an unenclosed country, with a 
few spots defended by a hedge of thorny plants, 
or a stone wall built without any cement. At 
Aleppo, most of the vineyards are fenced with 
stone walls ; for in many parts of Syria a hedge 
would not grow for want of moisture. But, 
as their various esculent vegetables are now 
not unfrequently planted in the open fields, 
both in Syria and Palestine, so Chardin 
seems to suppose they were often unfenced in 
ancient times ; and, on this account, those 
lodges and booths, to which Isaiah refers, in 
the first chapter of his prophecy, were built. 
In Ilindostan they follow the same custom. 
At the commencement of the rainy season, the 



peasants plant abundance of melons, cucum- 
bers, and gourds, which are then the principal 
food of the inhabitants. They are planted in 
the open fields and extensive plains, and are 
therefore liable to the depredations of men and 
beasts. In the centre of the field is an arti- 
ficial mount, with a hut on the top, suflaciently 
large to shelter a single person from the in- 
clemency of the weather. There, amid heavy 
rains and tempestuous winds, a poor solitary 
being is stationed day and night to protect the 
crop. From thence he gives an alarm to the 
nearest village. Few situations can be more 
unpleasant than a hovel of this kind, exposed 
for three or four months to wind, lightning, 
and rain. To such a cheerless station the pro- 
phet no doubt alludes, in that passage where 
he declares the desolations of Judah : "The 
daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vine- 
yard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers," 
Isa. i, 8. If such watch houses were necessary 
in those gardens which were defended by walls 
or hedges, some of which, indeed, it was not 
difficult to get over, they must have been still 
more necessary in those which were perfectly 
open. 

3. The oriental garden displays little method, 
or design ; the whole being commonly no more 
than a confused medley of fruit trees, with beds 
of esculent plants, and even plots of wheat and 
barley sometimes interspersed. The garden 
belonging to the governor of Eleus, a Turkish 
town on the western border of the Hellespont, 
which Dr. Chandler visited, consisted only of 
a very small spot of ground, walled in, and 
containing only two vines, a fig and a pome- 
granate tree, and a well of excellent water. 
And, it would seem, the garden of an ancient 
Israelite could not boast of greater variety ; 
for the grape, the fig, and the pomegranate, 
are almost the only fruits which it produced. 
This fact may perhaps give us some insight 
into the, reason of the sudden and irresistible 
conviction which flashed on the mind of Na- 
thanael, when our Saviour said to him, "When 
thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee." The 
good man seems to have been engaged in de- 
votional exercises in a small retired garden, 
walled in, and concealed from the scrutinizing 
eyes of men. The place was so small, that he 
was perfectly certain no man but himself was 
there ; and so completely defended, that none 
could break through, or look over, the fence ; 
and, by consequence, that no eye was upon 
him, but the all-seeing eye of God ; and, there- 
fore, since Christ saw him there, Nathanael 
knew he could be no other than the Son of God, 
and the promised Messiah. 

GARLICK, D1B'. As this word occurs only 
in Numbers xi, 5, some doubts have arisen re- 
specting the plant intended. From its being 
coupled with leeks and onions, there can be 
but little doubt that the garlick is meant. 
The Talmudists frequently mention the use 
of this plant among the Jews, and their fond- 
ness for it. That garlicks grew plenteously in 
Egypt, is asserted by Dioscorides : there they 
were much esteemed, and were both eaten and 
worshipped ; — 



GAT 



399 



GAZ 



" Then gods were recommended by their taste. 
Such savouiy deities must needs be good, 
Which served at once for worship and for food." 

GARMENT. See Habits. 

GATE is often used in Scripture to denote 
a place of public assembly, where justice was 
administered, Deut. xvii, 5, 8 ; xxi, 19 ; xxii, 
15; XXV, 6, 7, &c. One instance of these 
judgments appears in that given at the gate of 
Bethlehem, between Boaz and a relation of 
Naomi, on the subject of Ruth, chap, iv, 2; 
another in Abraham's purchase of a field to 
bury Sarah, Gen. xxiii, 10, 18. The gate of 
judgment is a term still common to the Ara- 
bians to express a court of justice, and even 
introduced by the Saracens into Spain. " I 
had several times," says Jacob,, " visited the 
Alhambra, the ancient palace and fortress of 
the Moorish kings : it is situated on the top of 
a hill, overlooking the city, and is surrounded 
by a wall of great height and thickness. The 
entrance is through an archway, over which 
is carved a key, the symbol of the Mohamme- 
dan monarchs. This gate, called the gate of 
judgment, according to eastern forms, was the 
place where the kings administered justice." 
In Morocco, the gate is still the place where 
judgment is held. " All complaints," says 
Host, "are brought, in the first instance, to 
the cadi, or governor, who, for that purpose, 
passes certain hours of the day in the gate of 
the city, partly for the sake of the fresh air, 
and partly to see all those who go out ; and, 
lastly, to observe a custom which has long pre- 
vailed, of holding judgment there. The gate 
is contrived accordingly, being built like a 
square chamber, with two doors, which are 
not directly opposite to each other, but on two 
adjoining sides, with seats on the other sides. 
In this manner David sat between two gates," 
2 Sam. xviii, 24. Gate sometimes signifies 
power, dominion, almost in the same sense as 
the Turkish emperor's palace is called the 
Porte. God promises Abraham that his pos- 
terity shall possess the gates of their enemies, 
their towns, their fortresses, Genesis xxii, 17. 
Jesus Christ says to Peter, " Thou art Peter ; 
and on this rock will I build my church, and 
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it," 
Matt, xvi, 18. This may mean either the 
powers of hell, or invisible spirits ; or simply 
death, — the church shall be replenished by 
living members from generation to generation, 
so that death shall never annihilate it. 

Solomon says, "He that exalteth his gate 
seeketh destruction." The Arabs are accus- 
tomed to ride into the houses of those they 
design to harass. To prevent this, Thevenot 
tells us that the door of the house in which the 
French merchants live at Rama was not three 
feet high, and that all the doors of that town 
are equally low. Agreeably to this account, 
the Abbe Mariti, speaking of his admission 
into a monastery near Jerusalem, says, "The 
passage is so low, that it will scarcely admit a 
horse ; and it is shut by a gate of iron, strongly 
secured in the inside. As soon as we entered, 
It was again made fast with various bolts and 
bars of iron : a precaution extremely necessary 



in a desert place, exposed to the incursions, 
-and insolent attacks of the Arabs." Mr. Drum- 
mond says, that in the country about Roudge, 
in Syria, "the poor miserable Arabs are under 
the necessity of hewing their houses out of the 
rock, and cutting very small doors or openings 
to them, that they may not be made stables for 
the Turkish horse, as they pass and repass." 
And thus, long before him, Sandys, at Gaza, 
in Palestine : "We lodged under an arch in a 
little court, together with our asses ; the door 
exceeding low, as are all that belong unto 
Christians, to withstand the sudden entrance 
of the insolent Turks." "To exalt the gate," 
would consequently be to court destruction. 
Morier says, " A poor man's door is scarcely 
three feet in height ; and this is a precautionary 
measure to hinder the servants of the great 
from entering it on horseback ; which, when 
any act of oppression is intended, they would 
make no scruple to do. But the habitation of 
a man in power is known by his gate, which 
is generally elevated in proportion to the vanity 
of its owner. A lofty gate is one of the insignia 
of royalty: such is the Allan Capi, at Ispahan, 
and Bob Homoyan, or the Sublime Porte, at 
Constantinople. It must have been the same 
in ancient days ; the gates of Jerusalem, Zion, 
&c, are often mentioned in the Scripture, with 
the same notion of grandeur annexed to them." 

GATH, the fifth of the Philistine cities. It 
was a place of strength in the tune of the pro. 
phets Amos and Micah, and is placed by Jerom 
on the road between Eleutheropolis and Gaza. 
It appears to have been the extreme boundary 
of the Philistine territory in one direction, as 
Ekron was on the other. Hence the expres- 
sion, " from Ekron even unto Gath," 1 Sam, 
vii, 14. 

GAULAN, or GbLAN, a city beyond Jor. 
dan, from which the small province called 
Gaulonitis took its name. It was given to the 
half tribe of Manasseh, on the other side Jor- 
dan, Deut. iv, 43 ; and became a city of refiige, 
Joshua xxi, 27. 

GAZA, a city of the Philistines, made by 
Joshua part of the tribe of Judah. It was one 
of the five principalities of the Philistines, 
situated toward the southern extremity of the 
promised land, 1 Sam. vi, 17, between Raphia 
and Askelon. The advantageous situation of 
Gaza was the cause of the numerous revolu- 
tions which it underwent. It first of all be- 
longed to the Philistines, and then to the 
Hebrews. It recovered its liberty in the reigns 
of Jotham and Ahaz, and was reconquered by 
Hezekiah, 2 Kings xviii, 8. It was subject to 
the Chaldeans, who conquered Syria and Phe- 
nicia. Afterward, it fell into the hands of the 
Persians. It must have been a place of con- 
siderable strength. For two months it baffled 
all the efforts of Alexander the Great, who was 
repeatedly repulsed, and wounded in the siege ; 
which he afterward revenged in a most infa- 
mous manner on the person of the gallant 
defender Betis, whom, while yet alive, having 
ordered his ankles to be bored, he dragged 
round the walls, tied to his chariot wheels, in 
the barbarous parade of imitating the less 



GEM 



400 



GEN 



savage treatment of the corpse of Hecfor by 
Achilles. 

Dr. Wittman gives the following description 
of his visit to Gaza: "In pursuing our route 
toward this place, the view became still more 
interesting and agreeable: the groves of olive 
trees extending from the place where we had 
halted to the town, in front of which a fine 
avenue of these trees was planted. Gaza is 
situated on an eminence, and is rendered 
picturesque by the number of fine minarets 
which rise majestically above the buildings, 
and by the beautiful date trees which are inter- 
spersed. The suburbs of Gaza are composed 
of wretched mud Imts ; but within side the 
town the buildings make a much better appear- 
ance than those we had generally met with in 
Syria. The streets are of a moderate breadth. 
Many fragments of statues, columns, &c, of 
marble were seen in the walls and buildings 
in different parts of the town. The suburbs 
and environs of Gaza are rendered infinitely 
agreeable by a number of large gardens, cul- 
tivated with the nicest care, which lie in a 
direction north and south of the town ; while 
others of the same description run to a con- 
siderable distance westward. These gardens 
are filled with a great variety of choice fruit 
trees, such as the fig, the mulberry, the pome- 
granate, the apricot, the peach, and the 
almond ; together with a few lemon and orange 
trees. The numerous plantations of olive and 
date trees which are interspersed contribute 
greatly to the picturesque effect of the scene 
exhibited by the surrounding plains. These, 
on our arrival, were overspread with flowers, 
the variegated colours of which displayed every 
tint and every hue. Among these were the 
chrysanthemum, scarlet ranunculus, lupin, 
pheasant-eye, tulip, china-aster, dwarf-iris, 
lintel, daisy, &c, all of them growing wild and 
abundantly, with the exception of the lupin, 
which was cultivated in patches, regularly 
ploughed and sowed, with a view to collect 
the seeds, which the inhabitants employ at 
their meals, more especially to thicken their 
ragouts. The few corn fields, which lay at a 
distance, displayed the promise of a rich gold- 
en harvest ; and the view of the sea, distant 
about a league, tended to diversify still more 
the animated features of this luxuriant scene." 
This and similar descriptions of modern travel, 
lers, which are occasionally introduced into 
this work, are given both as interesting in 
themselves, and to show that relics of the an- 
cient beauty and fertility of the Holy Land are 
still to be found in many parts of it. 

GEMARA. This word signifies comple- 
ment, perfection. The rabbins call the Penta- 
teuch the law, without any addition. Next to 
this they have the Talmud, which is divided 
into two parts : the first is only an application 
of the law to particular cases, with the decision 
of the ancient rabbijis, and is called mishnah, 
or "second law:" the other part, which is a 
more extensive application of the same law, is 
a collection of determinations by rabbins, later 
than the mishnah. This last is termed gcmara, 
"perfection," "finishing," because they con- 



sider it as a conclusive explanation of the law, 
to which no farther additions can be made. 
There are two gemaras, or two Talmuds, that 
of Jerusalem, and that of Babylon. Tlie 
former was compiled, according to the Jews, 
about the end of the second or third century, 
by a celebrated rabbin, called Jochanan ; but 
father Morinus maintains that the getnara was 
not finished till about the seventh century. 
Dr. Prideaux says that it was completed about 
A. D. 300. The Jews have little value for 
this Jerusalem Talmud, on account of its ob- 
scurity. The Babylonish gemara is, as the 
rabbins say, more modern. It was begun by a 
Jewish doctor, named Asa, and continued by 
Marmar and Mar, his sons or disciples. The 
Jews believe that the gemara contains nothing 
but the word of God, preserved in the tradition 
of the elders, and transmitted, without altera, 
tion, from Moses to rabbi Judah, the holy, 
and the other compilers of the Talmud ; who 
did not reduce it to writing till- they were 
afraid it would be corrupted by the several 
transmigrations and persecutions to which 
their nation was subjected. 

GENEALOGY, ycveaXoyla, signifies a list 
of a person's ancestors. The common He- 
brew expression for it is Sepher^Toledoth, " the 
Book of Generations." No nation was ever 
more carefiil to preserve their genealogies than 
the Jews. The sacred writings contain gene- 
alogies extended three thousand five hundred 
years backward. The genealogy of our Sa- 
viour is deduced by the evangelists from Adam 
to Joseph and Mary, through a space of four 
thousand years and upward. The Jewish 
priests were obliged to produce an exact 
genealogy of their families, before they were 
admitted to exercise their function. Wherever 
placed, the Jews were particularly careful not 
to marry below themselves; and to prevent 
this, they kept tables of genealogy in their 
several families, the originals of which were 
lodged at Jerusalem, to be occasionally con- 
suited. These authentic monuments, during all 
their wars and persecutions, were taken great 
care of, and from time to time renewed. But, 
since the last destruction of their city, and the 
dispersion of the people, their ancient gene- 
alogies-are lost. But to this the Jews reply, 
that either Elias, or some other inspired priest 
or prophet, shall come, and restore their gene- 
alogical tables before the Messiah's appear- 
ance; a tradition, which they ground on a 
passage in Nehemiah vii, 64, 65, to this effect : 
the genealogical register of the families of 
certain priests being lost, they were not able 
to make out their lineal descent from Aaron ; 
and therefore, "as polluted, were put from the 
priesthood;" the "Tirshatha said unto them, 
that they should not eat of the most holy 
tilings, till there stood up a priest with Urim 
and Thuramim." From hence the Jews con- 
clude, that such a priest will stand up, and 
restore and complete the genealogies of their 
families : though others suppose these words 
to import, that they should never exercise 
their priesthood any more; and that, "till 
there shall stand up a priest with Uriin and 



GEN 



401 



GER 



Thummini," amounts to the same as the Ro- 
man proverb, ad GrcBcas calendas, [never,] 
since the Urim and Thummim were now abso- 
lutely and for ever lost. 

GENERATION. Beside the coumion ac 
ceptation of this word, as signifying descent, 
it is used for the history and genealogy of any 
individual, as "The book of the generations of 
Adam," Genesis v, 1, the history of Adam's 
creation, and of his posterity. "The genera- 
tions of the heavens and of the earth," Gene, 
sis ii, 4, is a recital of the creation of heaven 
and earth. " The book of the generation of 
Jesus Christ, the Son of David," Matthew i, 1, 
is the genealogy of Jesus Christ, and the his- 
tory of his life. The ancients sometimes 
computed by generations : "In the fourth 
generation thy descendants shall come hither 
again," Genesis xv, 16. " Joseph saw-Ephraim's 
children of the third generation," Genesis 1, 23, 
"A bastard shall not be admitted into the con- 
gregation, till the tenth generation," Deut. 
xxiii, 2. Among the ancients, when the dura- 
tion of generations was not exactly described 
by the age of four men succeeding one another 
from father to son, it was fixed by some at a 
hundred years, by others at a hundred and ten, 
by others at thirty-three, thirty, twenty-five, 
and even at twenty years ; being neither uni- 
form nor settled : only, it is remarked, that a 
generation is longer as it is more ancient. 

GENESIS, a canonical book of the Old 
Testament, so called from the Greek yevects, 
genesis, or generation, because it contains an 
account of the origin of all visible things, and 
of the genealogy of the first patriarchs. In the 
Hebrew it is called n"'a'Ni3, which signifies, in 
the beginning, because it begins with that 
word. See Pentateuch. 

GENNESARETH, Land ov, or GENNE- 
SAR, a small district of Galilee, supposed to 
have been so called from its pleasantness, and 
extending about four miles along the north, 
western shore of the sea of Galilee, or Genne- 
sareth, so called from this same region. It is 
more probable, however, that Gennesareth is 
nothing more than a word moulded from Cin- 
nereth, the ancient name of a city and adjoin, 
ing tract in this very situation, as well as of 
the lake itself. This part of Galilee is de- 
scribed by Josephus as possessing a singular 
fertility, with a delightful temperature of the 
air, and abounding in the fruits of different 
climates. 

GENTILE. The Hebrews called the Gen- 
tiles 0^>"|j), edvTj, the nations, that is, those who 
have not received the faith or law of God. 
All who are not Jews, and circumcised, are 
goiim. Those who were converted, and em- 
braced Judaism, they called proselytes. Since 
the Gospel, the true religion is not confined to 
any one nation or country, as heretofore, God, 
who had promised by his prophets to call the 
Gentiles to the faith, with a superabundance 
of grace, has fulfilled his promise ; so that the 
Christian church is now composed principally 
of Gentile converts; and the Jews, too proud 
of their particular privileges, and abandoned to 
their reprobate sense of things, have disowned 
27 



Jesus Christ, their Messiah and Redeemer, for 
whom, during so many ages, they had looked 
so impatiently. In the writings of St. Paul, 
the Gentiles are generally denoted as Greeks, 
Rom. i, 14, 16; ii, 9, 10; iii ; x, 12 ; 1 Cor. i, 
22-24 ; Gal. iii, 28. St. Luke, in the Acts,- 
expresses himself in the same manner. Acts vi, 
1 ; xi, 20 ; xviii, &c. 

2. St. Paul is commonly called the Apostle 
of the Gentiles, 1 Tim. ii, 7, or Greeks; be- 
cause he, principally, preaclied.Jesus Christ to 
them ; whereas Peter, and the other Apostles, 
preached generally to the Jews, and are called 
Apostles of the circumcision. Gal. ii, 8. Tire 
prophets declared very particularly the calling 
of the Gentiles. Jacob foretold that the Mes. 
siah, he who was to be sent, the Shiloh, should 
gather the Gentiles to himself. Solomon, at 
the dedication of his temple, prays for "the 
stranger" who should there entreat God. The 
Psalmist says, that the Lord would give the 
Gentiles to the Messiah for his inheritance ; 
that Egypt and Babylon shall know him ; that 
Ethiopia shall hasten to bring him presents ; 
that the kings of Tarshish, and of the isles, the 
kings of Arabia and Sheba, shall be tributary 
to him. Psalm ii, 8; Ixvii, 4; Ixxii, 9, 10. 
Isaiah abounds with prophecies of the like 
nature, on which account he has justly been 
distinguished by the name of "the prophet of 
the Gentiles." 

Gentiles, Court of the. Josephus says 
there was, in the court of the temple, a wall, 
or balustrade, breast-high, with pillars at pai-- 
ticular distances, and inscriptions on them in 
Greek and Latin, importing that strangers 
were forbidden from entering farther ; here 
their offerings were received, and sacrifices 
were offered for them, they standing at the 
barrier ; but they were not allov/ed to approach 
to the altar. Pompey, nevertheless, went 
even into the sanctuary, but behaved with 
strict decorum ; and the next day he command- 
ed the temple to be purified, and the customary 
sacrifices to be offered. A little before the last 
rebellion of the Jews, some mutineers would 
have persuaded the priests to accept no victim 
not presented by a Jew ; and obliged them to 
reject those which were offered by command 
of the emperor, for the Roman people. The 
v/isest in vain remonstrated with them on the 
danger this would bring on their country; 
urged that their ancestors had never rejected 
the presents of Gentiles ; and that the temple 
was mostly adorned with the offerings of such 
people ; at the same time, the most learned 
priests, who had spent their whole lives in the 
study of the law, testified that their forefathers 
had always received the sacrifices of strangers. 

From the above particulars, we learn the 
meaning of what the Apostle Paul calls " the 
middle wall of partition," between Jews and 
Gentiles broken down by the Gospel. 

GERAR, a royal city of the Philistines, 
situate not far from the angle where the south 
and west sides of Palestine meet. 

GERIZIM, a mount near Shechem, in 
Ephraim, a province of Samaria. vShechem 
lay at the foot of two mountains, Ebal and 



GIA 



402 



GIA 



Gerizim. Gerizira was fruitful, Ebal was 
barren. God commanded that the Hebrews, 
after passing the Jordan, should be so divided, 
that six tribes might be stationed on Mount 
Gerizim, and six on Mount Ebal. The former 
was to pronounce blessings on tliose who ob- 
served the law of the Lord ; the others, curses 
against those who should violate it, Deut. 
xi, 29 ; xxvii, 12. As to the original of the 
temple upon Gerizim, we must take Josephus's 
relation of it. Manasseh, the grandson of 
Eliashib, the high priest, and brother to 
Jaddus, high priest of the Jews, having been 
driven from Jerusalem in the year of tlae world 
3671, and not enduring patiently to see him- 
self deprived of the honour and advantages of 
the priesthood, Sanballat, his father-in-law, 
addressed himself to Alexander the Great, who 
was then carrying on the siege of Tyre ; and 
having paid him homage for the province of 
Samaria, whereof he was governor, he farther 
offered him eight thousand of his best troops, 
which disposed Alexander to grant what he 
desired for his son-in-law, and for many other 
priests, who being married, as well as he, con- 
trary to the law, chose rather to forsake their 
country than their wives, and had joined Ma- 
nasseh in Samaria. When Antiochus Epi- 
phanes began to persecute the Jews, A. M. 
3836 ; B. C. 186, the Samaritans entreated him 
that their temple upon Gerizim, which hitherto 
had been dedicated to an unknown and name- 
less god, might be consecrated to Jupiter the 
Grecian, which was easily consented to by 
Antiochus. The temple of Gerizim subsisted 
some time after the worship of Jupiter was in- 
troduced into it ; but it was destroyed by John 
Hircanus Maccabseus, and was not rebuilt till 
Gabinius was governor of Syria ; who repaired 
Samaria, and called it by his own name. It is 
certain, that, in our Saviour's time, this temple 
\vsL& in being ; and that the true God was wor- 
shipped there, since the woman of 'Samaria, 
pointing to Gerizim, said to him, " Our fathers 
worshipped in this mountain, and ye say, that 
in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to 
worship," John iv, 20, We are assured, that 
Herod the Great, having rebuilt Samaria, and 
called it Sebaste, ill honour of Augustus, would 
have obliged the Samaritans to worship in the 
temple which he had erect>ed there, but they 
constantly refused. 

GETHSEMANE. See Olives, Mount of. 

GIANT, Vdj, Greek, ytyai, a monster, a ter- 
rible man, a chief who beats and bears down 
other men. Scripture speaks of giants before 
the flood: "Nephilim, mighty men who were 
of old, men of renown," Gen. vi, 4. Aquila 
translates nephilim, eirininrovTes, men who attack, 
who fall with impetuosity on their enemies, 
which renders very well the force of the term. 
Symmachus translates it ^mloi, violent men, 
cruel, whose only rule of action is violence. 
Scripture sometimes calls giants Rephaim : 
Chedorlaomer beat the Rephaim at Ashteroth- 
Karnaim. The Emim, ancient inhabitants of 
Moab, were of a gigantic stature, that is, Re- 
phaim. The Rephaim and the Perizzites are 
connected as old inhabitants of Canaan. The 



Rephaim in some parts of Scripture signify 
spirits in the invisible world, in a state of 
misery. Job says that the ancient Rephaim 
groan under the waters ; and Solomon, that 
the ways of a loose woman lead to the Re- 
phaim ; that he v/ho deviates from the ways 
of wisdom, shall dwell in the assembly of 
Rephaim, that is, in hell, Prov. ii, 18; iv, 18; 
xxi, 16, &c ; Gen. xiv, 5; Deut. ii, 11, 20; 
iii, 11, 13 ; Joshua xii, 4 ; xiii, 12 ; Job xxvi, 5. 
The Anakim, or the sons of Anak, were the 
most famous giants of Palestme. They dwelt 
at Hebron and thereabouts. The Israelites 
sent to view the promised land reported, that, 
in comparison, they themselves were but grass- 
hoppers. Num. xiii, 33. 

2. As to the existence of giants, several 
writers, both ancient and modern, have thought 
that the giants of Scripture were men famous 
for violence and crime, rather than for strength 
or stature. But it cannot be denied, that there 
have been races of men of a stature much above 
that common at present ; although their size 
has often been absurdly magnified. The an- 
cients considered persons whose stature ex- 
ceeded seven feet as gigantic. Living giants 
have certainly been seen who were somewhat 
taller ; but the existence of those who greatly 
surpassed it, or were double the height, has 
been inferred only from remains discovered in 
the earth, but not from the ocular testimony 
of credible witnesses. Were we to admit what 
has been reported on the subject, there would 
be no bounds to the dimensions of giants ; the 
earth would seem unsuitable for them to tread 
upon. History, however, acquaints us that, in 
the reign of Claudius, a giant named Galbara, 
ten feet high was brought to Rome from the 
coast of Africa. An instance is cited by Go- 
ropius, an author with whom we are otherwise 
unacquainted, of a female of equal stature. A 
certain Greek sophist, Proaeresius, is said to 
have been nine feet in height. Julius Capito- 
linus affirms that Maximinian, the Roman 
emperor was eight feet and a half; there was 
a Swede, one of the life guards of Frederick 
the Great, of that size. M. Le Cat speaks of 
a giant exhibited at Rouen, measuring eight 
feet and some inches; and we believe some 
have been seen in this country, within the last 
thirty years, whose stature was not inferior. 
In Plott's " History of Staffordshire," there is 
an instance of a man of seven feet and a half 
high, and another, in Thoresby's account of 
Leeds, of seven feet five inches high. Ex- 
amples may be found elsewhere of several 
individuals seven feet in height, below which, 
after the opinion of the ancients, we may cease 
to consider men gigantic. Entire families 
sometimes, though rarely, occur of six feet 
four, or six feet six inches high. From ail this 
we may conclude, that there may have possibly 
been seen some solitary instances of men who 
were ten feet in height ; that those of eight 
feet are extremely uncommon, and that even 
six feet and a half far exceeds the height of 
men in Europe. We may reasonably under- 
stand that the gigantic nations of Canaan were 
above the average size of other people, with 



GIB 



403 



GdE 



instances among them of several families of 
gigantic stature. This is all that is necessary 
to suppose, in order to explain the account of 
Moses ; but the notion that men have gradu- 
ally degenerated in size has no foundation. 
There is no evidence whatever, that the mo- 
dern tribes of mankind have thus degenerated. 
The catacombs of ancient Egypt and Pales- 
tine ; the cenotaph, if it be truly such, in the 
great pyramid ; the tomb of Alexander the 
Great, are all calculated for bodies of ordinary 
dimensions. The truth is still more satisfac- 
torily established from the mummies which are 
yet withdrawn from their receptacles in Egypt, 
and the caverns of the Canary Islands. In 
the most ancient sepulchres of Britain, those 
apparently anterior to the introduction of 
Christianity, no remains are discovered which 
indicate the larger stature of the inhabitants 
than our own. In every part of the world 
domestic implements and personal ornaments, 
many centuries old, are obtained from tombs, 
from bogs and mosses, or those cities over- 
whelmed by volcanic eruptions, which would 
be ill adapted to a gigantic race of ancestors. 
GIBEON, the capital city of the Gibeonites, 
who took advantage of the oaths of Joshua, 
and of the elders of Israel, procured by an 
artful representation of their belonging to a 
very remote country, Joshua ix. Joshua and 
the elders had not the precaution to consult 
God on this aifair, but inconsiderately made a 
league with these people. They soon dis- 
covered their mistake, and, without revoking 
their promise of saving their lives, they con- 
demned them to labour in carrying wood and 
water for the tabernacle ; and to other works, 
as slaves and captives ; in which state of servi- 
tude they remained, till the entire dispersion 
of the Jewish nation, A. M. 2553 ; B. C. 1451. 
Three days after the Gibeonites had surren- 
dered to the Hebrews, the kings of Canaan 
being informed of it, five of them came and 
besieged the city of Gibeon. The Gibeonites 
sent to Joshua, and desired speedy help. 
Joshua attacked the five kings early in the 
morning, put them to flight, and pursued them 
to Bethoron, Josh, x, 3, &c. The Gibeonites 
were descended from the Hivites, the old in- 
habitants of the country, and possessed four 
cities : Cephirah, Beerotli, Kirjath-jearim, and 
Gibeon, their capital ; all afterward given to 
Benjamin, except Kirjath-jearim, which fell to 
Judah. The Gibeonites continued subject 
to those burdens which Joshua imposed on 
them, and were very faithfiil to the Israelites. 
Nevertheless, Saul destroyed a great number 
of them, 2 Sam. xxi, 1 ; but God, in the reign 
of David, sent a great famine, which lasted 
three years, A. M. 2983 ; B. C. 1021 ; and the 
prophets told David that this calamity would 
continue while Saul's cruelty remained un- 
avenged. David asked the Gibeonites what 
satisfaction they desired. They answered, 
" Seven of Saul's sons we will put to death, to 
avenge the blood of our brethren." The Gibeon. 
ites crucified them. From this time there is no 
mention of the Gibeonites as a distinct people. 
But they were probably included among the 



Nethinim, appointed for the service of the tem- 
ple, 1 Chron. ix, 2. Afterward, those of the 
Canaanites who were subdued, and had their 
lives spared, were added to the Gibeonites, 
We see in Ezra viii, 20 ; ii, 58; 1 Kings ix, 
20, 21, that David, Solomon, and the princes 
of Judah, gave many such to the Lord ; these 
Nethinim being caiTied into captivity with Ju- 
dah and the Levites, many of them returned 
with Ezra, Zerubbabel, and Nehemiah, and 
continued, as before, in the service of the tem- 
ple, under the priests and Levites. We neither 
know when, nor by whom, nor on what occa. 
sion, the tabernacle and altar of burnt sacri- 
fices, made by Moses in the wilderness, were 
removed to Gibeon j but this we certainly 
know, that, toward the end of David's reign, 
and in the beginning of Solomon's, they were 
there, 1 Chron. xxi, 29, 30. David, seeing an 
angel of the Lord at Araunah's threshing floor, 
was so terrified, that he had not time or 
strength to go so far as Gibeon to offer sacri- 
fice ; but Solomon, being seated on the throne, 
went to sacrifice at Gibeon, 1 Kings iii, 4. 

GIDEON, the son of Joash, of the tribe of 
Manasseh; the same with Jerubbaal, the 
seventh judge of Israel. He dwelt in the city 
of Ophra, and was chosen by God in a very 
extraordinary manner to deliver the Israelites 
from the oppression of the Midianites, under 
which they had laboured for the space of seven 
years. See Judges vi, 14-27 ; viii, 1-24, &c. 
GIER EAGLE, onl, Lev. xi, 18; Deut. 
xiv, 17. As the root of this word signifies 
tenderness and affection, it is supposed to refer 
to some bird remarkable for its attachment to 
its young ; hence some have thought that the 
pelican is to be understood ; and Bochart en- 
deavours to prove that the golden vulture is 
meant ; but there can be no doubt that it is 
the percnopterus of the ancients, the ach-hohha 
of the Arabians, particularly described by 
Bruce under the name of rachamah. He says, 
"We know from Horus Apollo, that the 
rachma, or she vulture, was sacred to Isis, and 
adorned the statue of the goddess ; that it was 
the emblem of parental affection ; and that 
it was the hieroglyphic for an affectionate 
mother." He farther says, that " this female 
vulture, having hatched her young ones, con- 
tinues with tliem one hundred and twenty 
days, providing them with all necessaries ; and, 
when the stock of food fails them, she tears off 
the fleshy part of her thigh, and feeds them with 
that and the blood which flows from the wound." 
Hasselquist thus describes the Egyptian 
vulture : " The appearance of the bird is as 
horrid as can well be imagined. The face is 
naked and wrinkled, the eyes are large and 
black, the beak black and crooked, the talons 
large, and extended ready for prey, and the 
whole body polluted with filth. These are 
qualities enough to make the beholder shudder 
with horror. Notwithstanding this, the inha- 
bitants of Egypt cannot be enough thankful to 
Providence for this bird. All the places round 
Cairo are filled with the dead bodies of asse« 
and camels ; and thousands of these birds fly 
about and devour the carcasses, before they 



GIF 



404 



GIL 



putrify and fill the air with noxious exhala- 
tions." No wonder that such an animal should 
be deemed unclean. 

GIFT OF TONGUES, an ability given to 
the Apostles and others of readily and intelli- 
gibly speaking a variety of languages which 
they had never learned. This was a glorious 
and decisive attestation to the Gospel, as well 
as a suitable, and, indeed, in their circum- 
stances, a necessary qualification for the mis- 
sion for which the Apostles and their coadju- 
tors were designed. Nor is there any reason, 
with Dr. Middleton, to understand it as merely 
an occasional gift, so that a person might speak 
a language most fluently one hour, and be en- 
tirely ignorant of it the next ; which neither 
agrees with what is said of the abuse of it, nor 
would it have been sufficient to answer the end 
proposed. Acts ii. Some appear to have been 
gifted with one tongue, others with more. To 
St. Paul this endowment was vouchsafed in a 
more liberal degree, than to many others : for, 
as to the Corinthians, who had received tlie 
gift of tongues, he says, " that he spake with 
tongues more than they all." 

GIFTS. The practice of making presents 
is very common in oriental countries. The 
custom probably had its origin among those 
men who first sustained the office of kings or 
rulers, and who, from the novelty and perhaps 
the weakness attached to their situation, chose, 
rather than make the hazardous attempt of 
exacting taxes, to content themselves with 
receiving those presents which might be freely 
offered, 1 Sam. x, 27. Hence it passed into a 
custom, that whoever approached the king 
should come with a gift. This was the prac- 
tice and the expectation. The custom of pre- 
senting gifts was subsequently extended to other 
great men ; to men who were inferior to the 
king, but who were, nevertheless, men of 
influence and rank ; it was also extended to 
those who were equals, when they were visited. 
Proverbs xviii, 16. Kings themselves were 
in the habit of making presents, probably in 
reference to the custom in question and the 
feelings connected with it, to those individuals, 
their inferiors in point of rank, whom they 
wished to honour, and also to those who, like 
themselves, were clothed with the royal autho- 
rity. These presents, namely, such as were 
presented by the king as a token of the royal 
esteem and honour, are almost invariably 
denominated in the Hebrew, nna^ and nDn^, 
1 Kings XV, 19 ; 2 Kings xvi, 8 ; xviii, 14 ; 
Isaiah xxxvi, 16. The more ancient prophets 
did not deem it discreditable to them to receive 
presents, nor unbecoming their sacred calling, 
except when, as was sometimes the case, they 
refused by way of expressing their dissatisfac- 
tion or indignation, 2 Kings v, 15 ; viii, 9. 
In later times, when false prophets, in order 
to obtain money, prophesied without truth and 
without authority, the true prophets, for the 
purpose of keeping the line of distinction as 
broad as possible, rejected every thing that 
looked like reward. Gifts of this kind, that 
have now been described, are not to be con- 
founded with thoge wliich arc called nnti', and 



which were presented to judges, not as a mark 
of esteem and honour, but for purposes of 
bribery and corruption. The former was con- 
sidered an honour to the giver, but a gift of the 
latter kind has been justly reprobated in every 
age, Exod. xxii, 8 ; Deut. x, 17 ; xvi, 19 ; xxvii, 
25 ; Psalm xv, 5 ; xxvi, 10 ;_ Isaiah i, 23 ; v, 23 ; 
xxxiii, 15. The giver was not restricted as to 
the kind of present which he should make. He 
might present not only silver and gold, but 
clothes and arms, also different kinds of food, 
in a word any thing which could be of benefit 
to the recipient. Gen. xliii, 11 ; 1 Sam. ix, 7 ; 
xvi, 20 ; Job xlii, 11. It was the custom an- 
ciently, as it is at the present time in the east, 
for an individual when visiting a person of 
high rank, to make some presents of small 
value to the servants or domestics of the per- 
son visited, 1 Sam. xxv, 27. It was the usual 
practice among kings and princes to present 
to their favourite officers in the government, to 
ambassadors from foreign courts, to foreigners 
of distinction, and to men eminent for their 
learning, garments of greater or less value. 
Genesis xlv, 22, 23; Esther viii, 15. The 
ro3'^al wardrobe, in which a large number of 
such garments was kept, is denominated in^ 
Hebrew CDnja, 2 Chronicles xxxiv, 22. It was 
considered an honour of the highest kind, if a 
king or any person in high authority thought 
it proper, as a manifestation of his favour, to 
give away to another the garment which he 
had previously worn himself, 1 Sam. xviii, 4. 
In the east, at the present day, it is expected, 
that every one who has received a garment 
from the king will immediately clothe hunself 
in it, and promptly present himself and render 
his homage to the giver ; otherwise he runs the 
hazard of exciting the king's displeasure. Matt, 
xxii, 11, 12. It was sometimes the case, that 
the king, when he made a feast, presented vest- 
ments to all the guests who were invited, with 
which they clothed themselves before they sat 
down to it, 2 Kings x, 22 ; Gen. xlv, 22 ; Rev. 
iii, 5. In oriental countries, the presents which 
are made to kings and princes are to this day 
carried on beasts of burden, are attended with 
a body of men, and are escorted with much 
pomp.. It matters not how light or how small 
the present may be, it must either be carried 
on the back of a beast of burden, or by a man, 
who must support it with both his hands, Judges 
iii, 18 ; 2 Kings viii, 9. 

GIHON, the name of one of the four rivers 
the source of which was in paradise. Genesis 
ii, 13. (See Eden.) Roland, Calmet, &c, think 
that Gihon is the Araxes, which has its source, 
as well as the Tigris and Euphrates, in the 
mountains of Armenia, and, running with 
almost incredible rapidity, falls into the Caspian 
Sea. Gihon was also the name of a fountain 
to the west of Jerusalem, at which Solomon 
was anointed king by the high priest Zadok, 
and the Prophet Nathan, 1 Kings i, 33. 

GILBOA, Mount, a ridge of mountains on 
the north of Bothshan, or Scythopolis, form- 
ing in that part the boundary of the plain of 
Jordan to the west. It is memorable from the 
defeat of Saul bv the Philistines ; when his 



GIL 



405 



GITi 



tliree sons were slain, and he himself died by 
his own hand, his armourbearer refusing to 
kill him, 1 Sam. xxxij 

GILEAD, the name given to the monument 
erected by Laban and Jacob, in testimony of a 
mutual covenant and agreement, Gen. xxxi, 
47, 48. Hence the hill upon which it was 
erected, was called Mount Gilead, Cant, iv, 1 ; 
vi, 5 ; Jer. 1, 19. The mountains of Gilead 
were part of that ridge of mountains which ex- 
tend from Mount Lebanon southward, on the 
east of the Holy land ; they gave their name to 
the whole country whicli lies on the east of 
the sea of Galilee, and included the mountain- 
ous region called in the New Testament Tra- 
chonitis. The Scripture speaks of the balm 
of Gilead, Jer. viii, 22; xlvi, 11,: H, 8. The 
merchants who bought Joseph came from 
Gilead, and were carrying balm into Egypt, 
Gen. xxxvii, 25. See Balm. 

GILGAL, a celebrated place situated on the 
west of Jordan, where the Israelites encamped 
some time after their passage over that river, 
and where Joshua pitched twelve stones taken 
out of Jordan as a memorial. A considerable 
city was afterward built there, which became 
renowned for many events recorded in the his- 
tory of the Jews. Gilgal was about a league 
from Jordan, and at an equal distance from 
Jericho. It received its name from tlie cir- 
cumstance of the Hebrews being there circum- 
cised ; for when by divine command that rite 
had been performed upon them, the Lord said, 
"This day have I rolled away from off you 
the reproach of Egypt," Joshua v, 2-4, &c. — 
The word Gilgal signifies rolling. Here the 
ark was long stationed, and consequently the 
place was much resorted to by the Israelites. 
It seems to have been the place in which Jero- 
boam or some of the kings of Israel instituted 
idolatrous worship ; and hence the allusions to 
it by the prophets, Hosea iv, 15 ; Amos iv, 4. 
It is probable that there were idols at Gilgal as 
early as the days of Ehud, who was one of 
the judges ; for it is said that, having delivered 
his presents to the king, "Ehud went away, 
but returned again from the quarries that were 
by Gilgal," Judges iii, 19. The margin of our 
Bibles reads, " the graven images," or idols set 
up by the Moabites, the viewing of which, it is 
thought, stirred up Ehud to revenge the affront 
thereby offered to the God of Israel. At this 
same place, the people met to confirm the king- 
dom to Saul, 1 Sam. xi, 14, 15. It was at Gil- 
gal, too, that Saul incurred the divine displea- 
sure, in offering sacrifice before Samuel arrived, 
1 Sam. xiii; and there also it was that he re- 
ceived the sentence of his rejection for disobey- 
ing the divine command, and sparing the king 
of Amalek with the spoils which he had re- 
served, 1 Sam. xv. 

It has been supposed that the setting up of 
stones, as at Gilgal and other places, gave rise 
to the rude stone circular temples of the Druids, 
and other Heathens. The idea, however, ap- 
pears fancifiil, and there is an essential differ- 
ence between stones erected for memorials, and 
those used to mark sacred, or supposed sacred, 
places for worship. 



GIRDLE, The girdle is an indispensable 
article in the drees of an oriental : it has various 
uses ; but the principal one is to tuck up their 
long flowing vestments, that they may not in- 
commode them in their work, or on a journey. 
The Jews, according to some writers, wore a 
double girdle, one of greater breadth, with 
which they girded their tunic when they pre- 
pared for active exertions : the other they 
wore under their shirt, around their loins. 
This under girdle they reckon necessary to 
distinguish between the heart and the less 
honourable parts of the human frame. The 
upper girdle was sometimes made of leather, 
the material of which the girdle of John the 
Baptist was made ; but it was more commonly 
fabricated of worsted, often very artfully woven 
into a variety of figures, and made to fold seve- 
ral times about the body ; one end of which 
being doubled back, and sewn along the edges, 
serves them for a purse, agreeably to the ac- 
ceptation of ^uyvr], in the Scriptures, which is 
translated purse, in several places of the New 
Testament, Matt, x, 9 ; Mark vi, 8. The an- 
cient Romans, in this, as in many other things, 
imitated the orientals ; for their soldiers, and 
probably all classes of the citizens, used to 
carry their money in their girdles. Whence, 
in Horace, qui zonam perdidit, means one who 
had lost his purse ; and Aulus Gellius, C. Grac- 
chus is introduced, saying, " Those girdles 
which I carried out full of money when I went 
from Rome, I have, at my return from the 
province, brought again empty." The Turks 
make a farther use of these girdles, by fixing 
their knives and poinards in them ; while the 
writers and secretaries suspend in them their 
ink-horns ; a custom as old as the Prophet 
Ezekiel, who mentions " a person clothed in 
white linen, with an ink-horn upon his loins," 
Ezek. ix, 2. That part of the ink-holder which 
passes between the girdle and the tunic, and 
receives their pens, is long and flat ; but the 
vessel for the ink, which rests upon the girdle, 
is square, with a lid to clasp over it. 

2. To loose the girdle and give it to another 
was, among the orientals, a token of great 
confidence and affection. Thus, to ratify the 
covenant which Jonathan made with David, 
and to express his cordial regard for his friend, 
among other things, he gave him his girdle. 
A girdle curiously and richly wrought was 
among the ancient Hebrews a mark of honour, 
and sometimes bestowed as a reward of merit ; 
for this was the recompense which Joab de- 
clared he meant to bestow on the man who 
put Absalom to death: "Why didst thou not 
smite him there to the ground ? and I would 
have given thee ten shekels of silver, and a 
girdle," 2 Samuel xviii, 11. The reward was 
certainly meant to correspond with the im- 
portanee of the service which he expected him 
to perform, and the dignity of his own station 
as commander in chief: we may, therefore, 
suppose that the girdle promised was not a 
common on« of leather, or plain worsted, but 
of costly materials and richly adorned ; for 
people of rank and fashion in the east wear 
very broad girdles, all of silk, and superbly 



GLO 



406 



GNA 



ornamented witli gold and silver, and precious 
Btones, of which they are extrennely proud, 
regarding them as the tokens of their superior 
station and the proof of their riches. " To gird 
up the loins" is to bring the flowing robe 
within the girdle, and so to prepare for a jour- 
ney, or for some vigorous exercise. 

GLASS, {jaXog. This word occurs Rev. xxi, 
18, 21; and the adjective vdXivos, Rev. iv, 6; 
XV, 2. Parkhurst says that in the later Greek 
writers, and in the New Testament, vaXos de. 
notes the artificial substance, glass; and that 
we may either with Mintert derive it from eX^, 
splendour, or immediately from the Hebrew Vn, 
to shine. There seems to be no reference to 
glass in the Old Testament. The art of mak- 
ing it was not known. Our translators have 
rendered the Hebrew word nN'iD, in Exodus 
xxxviii, 8, and Job xxxvii, 18, "looking-glass." 
But the making mirrors of glass coated with 
quicksilver, is an invention quite modern. 
The word looking-glass occurs in our version 
of Ecclesiasticus xii, llj "Never trust thine 
enemy ; for like as iron rusteth, so is his wick- 
edness. Though he humble himself, and go 
crouching, yet take good heed and bcAvare of 
him, and thou shalt be unto him as if thou 
hadst washed a looking-^glass, and thou shalt 
know that his rust hath not been altogether 
wiped away." This passage proves, by its 
mention of rust, that mirrors were then made 
of polished metal. The word saonrpov, or mir- 
ror, occurs in 1 Cor. xiii, 12, and James i, 23. 
Dr. Pearce thinks that in the former place it 
signifies any of those transparent substances 
which the ancients used in their windows, and 
through which they saw external objects ob- 
scurely. But others are of opinion that the 
word denotes a mirror of polished metal ; as 
this, however, was liable to many imperfec- 
tions, so that the object before it was not seen 
clearly or fully, the meaning of the Apostle is, 
that we see things as it were by images reflect, 
ed from a mirror, which shows them very ob- 
scurely and indistinctly. In the latter place, a 
mirror undoubtedly is meant ; " For if any be 
a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like 
unto a man beholding his natural face in a 
glass : for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his 
v/ay, and straightway he forgetteth what man- 
ner of man he was :" but in the former, 1 Cor. 
xiii, 12, semi-transparent glass such as that 
which we see in the ancient glass vases of the 
Romans is obviously intended. Specimens of 
Roman glass may be seen in collections of 
antiquities, and some have been dug up at 
Pompeii ; but in all it is cloudy and dull, and 
objects can only be seen through it with indis- 
tinctness. From this we may fiilly perceive 
the force of the Apostle's words, " now we see 
through a glass darkly." 

GLEAN. To glean is properly to gather 
ears of corn, or grapes, left by the reapers, 
&c. The Jews were not allowed to glean 
their fields, but were to leave this to the 
poor. Lev, xix, 10 ; xxiii, 22 ; Deut. xxiv, 21 ; 
Ruth ii, 3. 

GLORIFY, to make glorious or honourable, 
or to cause to appear so, John xii, 28 ; xiii. 



31, 32; XV, 8; xvii, 4, 5; xxi, 19; Acts iii, 
13. In this view it particularly refers to the 
resurrection of Christ, and his ascension to 
the right hand of God, John vii, 39 ; xii, 16, 
It also expresses that change which shall pass 
upon believers at the general resurrection, and 
their admission into heaven. 

GLORY, splendour, magnificence. The 
glory of God in the writings of Moses, denotes, 
generally, the divine presence ; as when he 
appeared on Mount Sinai ; or, the bright cloud 
which declared his presence, and descended on 
the tabernacle of the congregation, Exod. xxiv, 
9, 10, 16, 17. Moses, with Aaron, Nadab, 
Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel, went up 
to Mount Sinai, and " saw the glory of the 
Lord." Now " the glory of the Lord was, as 
it were, a burning fire on the mountain ; and 
under his feet was, as it were, the brightness 
of the sappliire stone, resembling heaven itself 
in clearness." The glory of the Lord appeared 
to Israel in the cloud also, when he gave them 
manna and quails, Exod, xvi, 7, 10. Moses 
having earnestly begged of God to show his 
glory to him, God said, " Thou canst not see 
my face, for there shall no man see me and 
live. And the Lord said. There is a place by 
me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock : and it 
shall come to pass, v/hile my glory passeth by, 
that I will put thee in the cleft of the rock, 
and will cover thee with my hand while I 
pass by : and I will take away my hand, and 
thou shalt see my back parts :" (the train, 
the fainter rays of the glory:) "but, my face 
shall not be seen," Exod. xxxiii, 18. The 
ark of God is called the glory of Israel ; and 
the glory of God, 1 Samuel iv, 21, 22; Psalm 
xxvi, 8. The priestly ornaments are called 
"garments of glory," Exod. xxviii, 2, 40; and 
the sacred vessels, "vessels of glory^," 1 Mace. 
ii, 9, 12. Solomon " in all his glory," in all 
his lustre, in his richest ornaments, was not 
so beautifully arrayed as a lily. Matt, vi, 29 ; 
Luke xii, 27. When the prophets describe the 
conversion of the Gentiles, they speak of the 
"glory of the Lord" as filling the earth ; that 
is, his knowledge shall universally prevail, and 
he shall be every where worshipped and glori- 
fied. .The term " glory" is used also of the 
Gospel dispensation by St. Paul ; and to ex- 
press the future felicity of the saints in heaven. 
When the Hebrews required an oath of any 
man, they said, " Give glory to God :" confess 
the truth, give him glory, confess that God 
knows the most secret thoughts, the very 
bottom of your hearts, Joshua vii, 19 ; John 
ix, 24. 

GNAT, k6v(o^P, Matt. xxiii, 24, a small-winged 
insect, comprehending a genus of the order of 
diptera. In those hot countries, as Servius 
remarks, speaking of the east, gnats and flies 
are very apt to fall into wine, if it be not care- 
fully covered ; and passing the liquor through 
a strainer, that no gnat or part of one might 
remain, became a proverb for exactness about 
little matters. This may help us to under- 
stand that passage, Matt, xxiii, 24, where the 
proverbial expression of carefully straining 
out a little fly from the liquor to be drunk, 



GNO 



407 



GNO 



and yet swallowing a camel, intimates, that 
the scribes and Pharisees affected to scruple 
little things, and yet disregarded those of the 
greatest moment. 

GNOSTICS, from yvdais, "knowledge," 
men of science and wisdom, illiwiinati ; uicii 
who, from blending the philosophy of the east, 
or of Greece, with the doctrines of the Gospel, 
boasted of deeper knowledge in the Scriptures 
and theology than others. It was, therefore, 
not so properly a distinct sect as a generic 
term, comprehending all who, forsaking the 
simplicity of the Gospel, pretended to be 
"wise above what is written," to explain the 
New Testament by the dogmas of the philo- 
sophers, and to derive from the sacred Avritings 
mysteries which never were contained in them. 
The origin of the Gnostic heresy, as it is called, 
has been variously stated. The principles of 
this heresy were, however, much older than 
Christianity ; and many of the errors alluded 
to in the apostolic epistles are doubtless of a 
character very similar to some branches of the 
Gnostic system. (See Cabbala-.) Cerinthus, 
against whom St. John wrote his Gospel ; the 
Nicolaitans, mentioned in the Revelation, and 
the Ebionites, (described under that article,) 
were all early Gnostics, although the system 
was not then so completely formed as after- 
ward. Dr. Burton, in his Bampton Lectures, 
has thus sketched the Gnostic system : — In 
attempting to give an account of these doc- 
trines, I must begin with observing what we 
shall see more plainly when we trace the causes 
of Gnosticism, that it was not by any means 
a new and distinct philosophy, but made up of 
selections from almost every system. Thus 
we find in it the Platonic doctrine of ideas, 
and the notion that every thing in this lower 
world has a celestial and immaterial archet37^pe. 
We find in it evident traces of that mystical 
and cabalistic jargon which, after their return 
from captivity, deformed the religion of the 
Jews ; and many Gnostics adopted the oriental 
notion of two independent coeternal principles, 
the one the author of good, the other of evil. 
Lastly, , we find the Gnostic theology full of 
ideas and terms which must have been taken 
from the Gospel ; and Jesus Christ, under some 
form or other, of (Son, emanation, or incor- 
poreal phantom, enters into all their systems, 
and is the means of communicating to them 
that knowledge which raised them above all 
other mortals, and entitled them to their pe- 
culiar name. The genius and very soul of 
Gnosticism was mystery : its end and object 
was to purify its followers from the corrup- 
tions of matter, and to raise them to a higher 
scale of being, suited only to those who were 
become perfect by knowledge. 

2. We have a key to many parts of their 
system, when we know that they held matter 
to be intrinsically evil, of which, consequently, 
God could not be the author. Hence arose 
their fundamental tenet, that the creator of the 
world, or Demiurgus, was not the same with 
the supreme God, the Author of good, and the 
Father of Christ. Their system allowed some 
of them to call the t;reator God ; but the title 



most usually given to him was Demiurgus. 
Those who embraced the doctrine of two prin- 
ciples supposed the world to have been produced 
by the evil principle ; and, in most systems, 
the creator, though not the father of Christ, 
was looked upon as the God of the Jews, and 
the author of the Mosaic law. Some, again, 
believed that angels were employed in creating 
the world ; but all were agreed in maintaining 
that matter itself was not created, that it was 
eternal, and remained inactive, till 

Dispositam, quisquis fuit iUe Deoriim, 
Covgen'cm secidt, sectamque hi viembia redegit. 

Ovid. 

[Some God, whoever he was, separated and 
arranged the mass, and reduced it, when se- 
parated, into elements.] 

The supreme God had dwelt from all eternity 
in a pleroma of inaccessible light ; and beside 
the name of first Father, or first Principle, they 
called him also Bythus, as if to denote the un- 
fathomable nature of his perfections. This 
being, by an operation purely mental, or by 
acting upon himself, produced two other beings 
of different sexes, from whom, by a series of 
descents, more or less numerous according to 
different schemes, several pairs of beings were 
formed, who were called cBons, from the periods 
of their existence before time was, or emana- 
tions, from the mode of their production. 
These successive cBons or emanations appear 
to have been inferior each to the preceding ; 
and their existence was indispensable to the 
Gnostic scheme, that they might account for 
the creation of the world without making God 
the author of evil. These (Bons lived through 
countless ages with their first father ; but the 
system of emanations seems to have resembled 
that of concentric circles ; and they gradually 
deteriorated, as they approached nearer and 
nearer to the extremity of the pleroma. Be- 
yond this pleroma was matter, inert and power- 
less, though coeternal with the supreme God, 
and like him without beginning. At length, 
one of the (Bons passed the limits of the ple- 
roma, and, meeting with matter, created the 
world, after the form and model of an ideal 
world which existed in the pleroma or in the 
mind of the supreme God. Here it is that 
inconsistency is added to absurdity in the 
Gnostic scheme. For, let the intermediate 
<2ons be as many as the wildest imagination 
could devise, still God was the remote, if not 
the proximate, cause of creation. Added to 
which, we are to suppose that the Demiurgus 
formed the world without the knowledge of 
God ; and that, having formed it, he rebelled 
against him. Here, again, we find a strong 
resemblance to the oriental doctrine of two 
principles, good and evil, or light and dark- 
ness. The two principles were always at 
enmity with each other. God must have been 
conceived to be more powerful than matter, or 
an emanation from God could not have shaped 
and moulded it into form : yet God was not 
able to reduce matter into its primeval chaos, 
nor to destroy the evil which the Demiurgus 
had produced. What God could not prevent, 
he was always endeavouring to cure : and here 



GNO 



408 



GOA 



it is that the Gnostics borrowed so largely 
from the Christian scheme. The names, in- 
deed, of several of their (Bons were evidently 
taken from terms which they found in the 
Gospel, Thus we meet with Logos, Monogenes, 
Zoe, Ecclesia, all of them successive emana- 
tions from the supreme God, and all dwelling 
in the pleroma. At length, we meet with 
Christ and the Holy Ghost, as two of the last 
tpons which were put forth. Christ was sent 
into the world to remedy the evil which the 
creative ceon or Demiurgus had caused. He 
was to emancipate men from the tyranny of 
pnatter, or of the evil principle ; and, by re- 
veaimg to them the true God, who was hitherto 
unknown, to fit them, by a perfection and sub- 
limity of knowledge, to enter the divine ple- 
roma. To give this knowledge, was the end 
and object of Christ's coming upon earth ; and 
hence the inventors and believers of the doc- 
trine assumed to themselves the name of 
Gnostics. In all their notions concerning 
.Christ, we still find them struggling with the 
same difliculty of reconciling the author of 
good with the existence of evil. Christ, as 
being as emanation from God, could have no 
real connection with matter: yet, the Christ 
of the Gnostics was held out to be the same 
v.'ith him who was revealed in the Gospel ; 
and it was notorious that he was revealed as 
the Son of Mary, who appeared in a human 
form.. The methods which they took to ex- 
tricate themselves from the difficulty, were 
principally two : they either denied that Christ 
had a real body at alj, and held that he was 
an unsubstantial phantom ; or, granting that 
there was a man called Jesus, the son of 
human parents, they believed that one of the 
aions, called Christ, quitted the pleroma, and 
descended upon Jesus at his baptism. 

3. We have seen that the God who was the 
father or progenitor of Christ, was not con- 
eidered to be the creator of the world. Neither 
was he the God of the Old Testament, and the 
giver of the Mosaic iaw. This notion was 
supported by the same argument which infidels 
have often urged, that the God of the Jews is 
represented as a God of vengeance and of cru- 
elty ; but it was also a natural consequence of 
their fundamental principle, that the author 
of good cannot in any manner be the author 
of evil. In accordance with this notion, we 
find all the Gnostics agreed in rejecting the 
Jewish Scriptures, or, at least, in treating 
them with contempt. Since they held that 
the supreme God was revealed for the first 
time to mankind by Christ, he could not have 
been the God who inspired the prophets ; and 
yet, with that strange inconsistency which we 
have already observed in them, they appealed 
to these very Scriptures in support of their 
own doctrines. They believed the prophets to 
have been inspired by the same creative cBon, 
or the same principle of evil, which acted 
originally upon matter ; and if their writings 
had come down to us, we should perhaps find 
them arguing, that, though the prophets wore 
not inspired by the supreme God, they still 
could not lielp giving utterance to truth'. 



4. Their same abhorrence of matter, and 
their same notion concerning that purity of 
knowledge which Christ came upon earth to 
impart, led them to reject the Christian doc- 
trines of a future resurrection and a general 
judgment. They seem to have understood the 
Apostles as preaching literally a resurrection 
of the body ; and it is certain that the fathers 
insisted upon this very strongly as an article 
of belief. But to imagine that the body, a 
mass of created and corruptible matter, could 
ever enter into heaven, into that pleroma 
which was the dwelling of the supreme God, 
was a notion which violated the fundamental 
principle of the Gnostics. According to their 
scheme, no resurrection was necessary, much 
less a final judgment. The Gnostic, the man 
who had attained to perfect knowledge, was 
gradually emancipated from the grossness of 
matter; and, by an imperceptible transition, 
which none but a Gnostic could comprehend, 
he was raised to be an inhabitant of the divine 
pileroma. If we would know the effect which 
the doctrines of the Gnostics had upon their 
moral conduct, we shall find that the same 
principle led to two very opposite results. 
Though the fathers may have exaggerated the 
errors of their opponents, it seems undeniable, 
that many Gnostics led profligate lives, and 
maintained upon principle that such conduct 
was not unlawful. Others, again, are repre- 
sented as practising great austerities, and 
endeavouring, by every means, to mortify the 
body and its sensual appetites. Both parties 
were actuated by the same common notion, 
that matter is inherently evil. The one thought 
that the body, which is compounded of matter, 
ought to be kept in subjection ; and hence they 
inculcated self-denial, and the practice of 
moral virtue : while others, who had persuaded 
themselves that knowledge was every thing, 
despised the distinctions of the moral law, 
which was given, as they said, not by the su- 
preme God, but by an inferior (B&n, or a prin- 
ciple of evil, who had allied himself with 
matter. 

5. With respect to the origin of this system 
the same author observes : There is no system 
of philosophy which has been traced to a 
greater number of sources than that which we 
are now discussing ; and the variety of opin- 
ions seems to have arisen from persons- either 
not observing the very different aspects which 
Gnosticism assumed, or from wishing to derive 
it from one exclusive quarter. Thus, some 
have deduced it from the eastern notion of a 
good and evil principle, some from the Jewish 
Cabbala, and others from the doctrines of the 
later Platonists. Each of these systems is able 
to support itself by alleging very strong resem. 
blances ; and those persons have taken the 
most natural and probably the truest course, 
who have concluded that all these opinions 
contributed to build up the monstrous system, 
which was known by the name of Gnosticism. 

GOAT, Tj?. There are other names or 
appellations given to the goat, as, 1. Ditfn, 
1 Kings XX, 27, which means the ram-goat, or 
leader of the flock, 2. onm;?, a word which 



GOA 



409 



GOD 



never occurs but in the plural, and means, the 
best p-epared, or choicest of the flock ; and 
itifetaphorically j^mzces, as, Zech. x, 3, "I will 
visit the goats, saith the Lord," tliat is, I will 
begin my vengeance with the princes of the 
people. " Hell from beneath is moved for 
thee, to meet thee at thy coming ; it stirreth 
up the dead for thee, even all the great goats 
of the earth," Isaiah xiv, 9 ; all the kings, all 
the great men. And Jeremiah, speaking of the 
princes of the Jews, says, " Remove out of 
the midst of Babylon, and be as the he-goats 
before the flocks," Jer. 1, 8. 3. tax, a name 
for the goat, of Clialdee origin, and found only 
in Ezra vi, 17; viii, 35; Daniel viii, 5, 21. 

4. Vrxi^, from ;y, a goat, and Vtn, to wander 
about, Leviticus xvi, 8, "the scape-goat." 

5. "yyiy, hairy, or shaggy, whence an'iyty, *' the 
shaggy onesJ" In Lev. xvii, 7, it is said, " And 
they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto 
devils," {seirim, " hairy ones,") " after whom 
they haA^e gone a whoring." The word here 
means idolatrous iimages of goats, worshipped 
by the 'E'gyptians. It is the same word that is 
translated satyrs, in Isaiah xiii, 21 ; where the 
LXX render it Saindvm, demons. But here they 
have fiaraioti, to vain things or idols, which 
comes to the same sense. What gives light to 
so obscure a passage is what we read in Mai- 
monides, that the Zabian idolaters worshipped 
demons under the figure of goats, hnagining 
them to appear in that form, whence they 
called them by the names of seirim ; and that 
this custom, being spread among other nations, 
gave occasion to this precept. In like man. 
ner we learn from Herodotus, that the Egyp. 
tians of Mendes held goats to be sacred ani. 
mals, and represented the god Pan with the 
legs and head of that animal. From those 
ancient idolaters the same notion seems to 
have been derived by the Greeks and Romans, 
who represented their Pan, their fauns, satyrs, 
and other idols, in the form of goats : from all 
which it is highly probable, that the Israelites 
had learned in Egypt to worship certain de- 
mons, or sylvan deities, under the symbolical 
figure of goats. Though the phrase, " after 
whom they have gone a whoring," is equiva- 
lent in Scripture to that of committing idolatry, 
yet we are not to suppose that it is not to be 
taken in a literal sense in many places, even 
where it is used in connection with idolatrous 
acts of worship. It is well known that Baal- 
peor and Ashtaroth were worshipped with 
unclean rites, and that public prostitution 
formed a grand part of the w^orship of many 
deities among the Egyptians, Moabites, Ca- 
naanites, &c. 

The goat was one of the clean beasts which 
the Israelites might both eat and offer in sa. 
crifice. The kid, nji is oflen mentioned as a 
food, in a way that implies that it was con- 
sidered as a delicacy. The ipx, or wild goat, 
mentioned Deut. xiv, 5, and no where else in 
the Hebrew Bible, is supposed to be the tra. 
gefaphus, or ^'goat-deer." Schultens conjec- 
tures that this animal might have its name, 
ob fugncitatem, from its shyness, or running 
away. The word Sy>, occurs 1 Sam. xxiv, 3 ; 



Job xxxix, 1 ; Psalm civ, 18 ; Prov. v, 19 : 
and various have been the sentiments of inter- 
preters on the animal intended by it. Bochart 
insists that it is the ibex, or "rock-goat." 
The root whence the name is derived, signi- 
fies to ascend, to mount ; and the ibex is famous 
for clambering, climbing, and leaping, on the 
most craggy precipices. The Arab writers 
attribute to i\\G jaal very long horns, bending 
backward; consequently it cannot be the 
chamois. The horns of thej/aaZ are reckoned 
among the valuable articles of traffic, Ezek. 
xxvii, 15. The ibex is finely shaped, graceful 
in its motions, and gentle in its manners. 
The female is particularly celebrated by natu- 
ral historians for tender affection to her young, 
and the incessant vigilance with which she 
watches over their safety ; and also for ardent 
attachment and fidelity to her mate. 

GOD, an immaterial, intelligent, and free 
Being ; of perfect goodness, wisdom, and pow- 
er ; who made the universe, and continues to 
support it, as well as to govern and direct it, 
by his providence. Philologists have hitherto 
considered the word God as being of the same 
signification with good ; and this is not denied 
by M. Hallenberg. But he thinks that both 
words originally denoted unity; and that the 
root is inN, unus; whence the Syriac Chad 
and Gada; the Arabic Ahd and Gahd; the 
Persic Choda and Chuda; the Greek ayaQb? 
and yuQoq ; the Teutonic Gud ; the German 
Gott; and our Sa-xon God. The other names 
of God, this author thinks, are referable to a 
similar origin. 

2. By his immateriality, intelligence, and 
freedom, God is distinguished from Fate, Na- 
ture, Destiny, Necessity, Chance, Anima Mun- 
di, and from all the other fictitious beings 
acknowledged by the Stoics, Pantheists, Spi- 
nosists, and other sorts of Atheists. The 
knowledge of God, his nature, attributes, word, 
and works, with the relations between him 
and his creatures, makes the subject of the 
extensive science called theology. In Scrip- 
ture God is defined by, "I am that I am; 
Alpha and Omega ; the Beginning and End of 
all things." Among philosophers, he is de- 
fined a Being of infinite perfection ; or in 
whom there is no defect of any thing which 
we conceive may raise, improve, or exalt his 
nature. He is the First Cause, the First 
Being, who has existed fi-om the beginning, 
has created the world, or who subsists neces- 
sarily, or of himself. 

3. The plain argument, says Maclaurin, in 
his "Account of Sir t. Newton's Philosophi- 
cal Discoveries," for the existence of the 
Deity, obvious to all, and carrying irresistible 
conviction with it, is from the evident con- 
trivance and fitness of things for one another, 
which we meet with throughout all parts of 
the universe. There is no need of nice or 
subtle reasonings in this matter ; a manifest 
contrivance immediately suggests a contriver. 
It strikes us like a sensation ; and artful rea- 
sonings against it may puzzle us, but it is 
without shaking our belief. No person, for 
example, that knows the principles of optics, 



GOD 



410 



GOD 



^nd the structure of the eye, can believe that 
it was formed without skill in that science ; or 
that the ear was formed without the know- 
ledge of sounds ; or that the male and female 
in animals were not formed for each other, 
and for continuing the species. All our ac 
counts of nature are full of instances of this 
kind. The admirable and beautiful structure 
of things for final causes, exalts our idea of the 
Contriver ; the unity of design shows him to 
be one. The great motions in the system per- 
formed with the same facility as the least, 
suggest his almighty power, wiiich gave mo- 
tion to the earth and the celestial bodies with 
equal ease as to the minutest particles. The 
subtilty of the motions and actions in the 
internal parts of bodies, shows that his influ- 
ence penetrates the inmost recesses of things, 
and that he is equally active and present every 
where. The simplicity of the laws that pre- 
vail in the world, the excellent disposition of 
things, in order to obtain the best ends, and 
the beauty which adorns the works of nature, 
far superior to any thing in art, suggest his 
consumm.ate wisdom. The usefulness of the 
whole scheme, so well contrived for the intel- 
ligent beings that enjoy it, with the internal 
disposition and moral structure of these beings 
themselves, shows liis unbounded goodness. 
These are arguments which are sufficiently 
open to the views and capacities of the un- 
learned, while at the same time they acquire 
new strength and lustre from the discoveries 
of the learned. The Deity's acting and inter- 
posing in the universe, show that he governs 
as well as formed it ; and the depth of his 
counsels, even in conducting the material uni- 
verse, of which a great part surpasses our 
knowledge, keeps up an inward veneration 
and awe of this great Being, and disposes us 
to receive v/hat may be otherwise revealed to 
us concerning him. It has been justly ob. 
served, that some of the laws of nature now 
known to us must have escaped us if we had 
wanted the sense of seeing. It may be in his 
power to bestow upon us other senses, of 
-which we have at present no idea; without 
which it may be impossible for us to know all 
his works, or to have more adequate ideas of 
himself. In our present state, we know 
enough to be satisfied of our dependency upon 
him, and of the duty we owe to him, the Lord 
and Disposer of all things. He is not the 
object of sense ; his essence, and, indeed, that 
of all other substances, are beyond the reach 
of all our discoveries ; but his attributes clearly 
appear in his admirable works. We know 
that the highest conceptions we are able to 
form of them, are still beneath his real per- 
fections ; but his power and dominion over us, 
and our duty toward him, are manifest. 

4. Though God has given us no innate 
ideas of himself, says Mr. Locke, yet, having 
furnished us with those faculties our minds 
are endowed with, he hath not left himself 
without a witness ; since we have sense, per- 
ception, and reason, and cannot want a clear 
proof of him as long as we carry ourselves 
about us. To show, therefore, that we are 



capable of knowing, that is, of being certain 
that there is a God, and how we may come by 
this certainty, I think we need go no farther 
than ourselves, and that undoubted knowledge 
we have of our own existence. 1 think it is 
beyond question, that man has a clear percep. 
tion of his own being; he knows certainly 
that he exists, and that he is something. In 
the next place, man knows, by an intuitive 
certainty, that bare nothing can no more pro- 
duce any real being, than it can be equal to 
two right angles. If, therefore, we know there 
is some real Being, it is an evident demonstra- 
tion, that from eternity there has been some- 
thing ; since what was not from eternity had 
a beginning ; and what had a beginning must 
be produced by something else. Next it is 
evident, that what has its being from another 
must also have all that which is in, and be- 
longs to, its being from another too ; all the 
powers it has must be owing to, and derived 
from, the same source. This eternal source, 
then, of all being must be also the source and 
original of all power ; and so tliis eternal 
Being must be also the most powerful. Again : 
man finds in himself perception and know- 
ledge : we are certain, then, that there is not 
only some Being, but some knowing, intelli- 
gent Being, in the world. There was a time, 
then, when there was no knowing Being, or 
else there has been a knowing Being from 
eternity. If it be said there was a time when 
that eternal Being had no knowledge, I reply, 
that then it is unpossible there should have 
ever been any knowledge ; it being as impos- 
sible that things wholly void of knowledge, 
and operating blindly, and without any per- 
ception, should produce a knowing Being, as 
it is unpossible that a triangle should make 
itself three angles bigger than two right ones. 
Thus from the consideration of ourselves, and 
what we infallibly find in our own constitu- 
tions, our reason leads us to the knowledge of 
this certain and evident truth, that there is an 
eternal, most powerful, and knowing Being, 
which, whether any one will call God, it mat- 
ters not. The thing is evident ; and from this 
idea, duly considered, will easily be deduced 
all those other attributes we ought to ascribe 
to this eternal Being. From what has been 
said, it is plain to me, that we have a more 
certain knowledge of the existence of a God, 
than of any thing our senses have not immedi- 
ately discovered to us. Nay, I presmne I may 
say that we more certainly know that there is 
a God, than that there is any thing else with- 
out us. When I say we hnoio, I mean, there 
is such a knowledge within our reach, which 
we cannot miss, if we will but apply our 
minds to that as we do to several other in- 
quiries. It being then unavoidable for all 
rational creatures to conclude that something 
has existed from eternity, let us next see what 
kind of thing that must be. There are but 
two sorts of beings in the world that man 
knows or conceives ; such as are purely ma- 
terial without sense or perception, and sensi- 
ble, perceiving beings, such as we find ourselves 
to be. These two sorts we shall call cogita- 



GOD 



411 



GOD 



live and incogitative beings \ whicli to our 
present purpose are better than material and 
immaterial. If, then, there must be something 
eternal, it is very obvious to reason that it 
must be a cogitative being; because it is as 
impossible to conceive that bare incogitative 
matter should ever produce a thinking, intelli- 
gent being, as that nothing should of itself 
produce matter. Let us suppose any parcel 
of matter eternal, we shall find it in itself un- 
able to produce any thing. Let us suppose its 
parts firmly at rest together, if there were no 
other being in the world, must it not eternally 
remain so, a dead inactive lump ? Is it pos- 
sible to conceive that it can add motion to 
itself, or produce any thing? Matter, then, 
by its own strength cannot produce in itself 
so much as motion. The motion it has must 
also be from eternity, or else added to matter 
by some other being, more powerfiil than mat- 
ter. But let us suppose motion eternal too, 
yet matter, incogitative matter, and motion 
could never produce thought : knowledge will 
still be as far beyond the pow-er of nothing to 
produce. Divide matter into as minute parts 
as you will, vary its figure and motion as 
much as you please, it will operate no other- 
wise upon other bodies of proportionable bulk, 
than it did before this division. The minutest 
particles of matter knock, impel, and resist 
one another, just as the greater do ; so that if 
we suppose nothing eternal, matter can never 
begin to be ; if we suppose bare matter with- 
out motion eternal, motion can never begin to 
be ; if we suppose only matter and motion to 
be eternal, thought can never begin to be ; for 
it is impossible to conceive that matter, either 
with or without motion, could have originally 
in and from itself, sense, perception, and 
knowledge, as is evident from hence, that then 
sense, perception, and knowledge must be a 
property eternally inseparable from matter, 
aiid every particle of it. Since, therefore, 
whatsoever is the first eternal Being must 
necessarily be cogitative ; and whatsoever is 
first of all things must necessarily contain in 
it, and actually have, at least all the perfec- 
tions that can ever after exist, it necessarily 
follows, that the first eternal Being cannot be 
matter. If, therefore, it be evident that some- 
thing must necessarily exist from eternity, it 
is also evident that that something must ne- 
cessarily be a cogitative Being. For it is as 
impossible that incogitative matter should 
produce a cogitative Being, as that nothing, 
or the negation of all being,,should produce a 
positive Being or matter. 

This discovery of the necessary existence 
of an eternal mind sufi^iciently leads us to the 
knowledge of God. For it will hence follow, 
that all other knowing beings that have a begin- 
ning must depend upon him, and have no other 
ways of knowledge or extent of power than 
what he gives them ; and therefore if he made 
those, he made also the less excellent pieces of 
this universe, all inanimate bodies, whereby 
his omniscience, power, and providence will 
be established, and from thence all his other 
attributes necessarilj'^ follow. 



5. In the Scriptures no attempt is made to 
prove the existence of a God ; such an attempt 
would have been entirely useless, because the 
fact was universally admitted. The error of 
men consisted, not in denying a God, but in 
admitting too many ; and one great object of 
the Bible is to demonstrate that there is but 
one. No metaphysical arguments, however, 
are employed in it for this purpose. The proof 
rests on facts recorded in the history of the 
Jews, from which it appears that they were 
always victorious and prosperous so long as 
they served the only living and true God, Je- 
hovah, the name by which the Almighty made 
himself known to them, and uniformly unsuc- 
cessful when they revolted from him to serve 
other gods. What argument could be so effect- 
ual to convince them that there was no god in 
all the earth but the God of Israel ? The sove- 
reignty and universal providence of the Lord 
Jehovah are proved by predictions delivered by 
the Jewish prophets, pointing out the fate of 
nations and of empires, specifying distinctly 
their rise, the duration of their power, and the 
causes of their decline ; thus demonstrating 
that one God ruled among the nations, and 
made them the unconscious instruments of 
promoting the purposes of his will. In the 
same manner, none of the attributes of God 
are demonstrated in Scripture by reasoning; 
they are simply affirmed and illustrated by 
facts; and instead of a regular deduction of 
doctrines and conclusions from a few admitted 
principles, we are left to gather them from the 
recorded feelings and devotional expressions of 
persons whose hearts were influenced by the 
fear of God. These circumstances point out 
a marked singularity in the Scriptures, con- 
sidered as a repository of religious doctrines. 
The writers, generally speaking, do not reason, 
but exhort and remonstrate ; they do not at- 
tempt to fetter the judgment by the subtleties 
of argument, but to rouse the feelings by an 
appeal to palpable facts. This is exactly what 
might have been expected from teachers acting 
under a divine commission, and armed with 
undeniable facts to enforce their admonitions. 

6. In three distinct ways do the sacred writ- 
ers furnish us with information on this great 
and essential subject, the existence and the 
character of God ; from the names by which 
he is designated ; from the actions ascribed to 
him ; and from the attributes with which he is 
invested in their invocations and praises ; and 
in those lofty descriptions of his nature which, 
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they 
have recorded for the instruction of the world. 
These attributes will be considered under their 
respective heads ; but the impression of the 
general view of the divine character, es thus 
revealed, is too important to be omitted. 

7. The names of God as recorded in Scripture 
convey at once ideas of overwhelming greatness 
and glory, mingled with that awful mysteri- 
ousness with which, to all finite minds, and 
especially to the minds of mortals, the divine 
essence and mode of existence must ever be 
invested. Though One he is o^nVN, Elohim, 
Gods, persons adorable. He is mn\ Jehovah, 



GOD 



41^ 



GOD 



fiel£-existing ; ba^ El, strong, powerful ; n^nN, 
Ehieh, I am, I will he, self-existence, inde- 
pendency, alLsufficiency, immutability, eternity ; 
>"\a', Shaddai, almighty, all-svfficient; pN, 
Adon, Supporter, Lord, Judge. These are 
among the adorable appellatives of God which 
are scattered throughout the revelation that he 
has been pleased to make of himself: but on 
one occasion he was pleased more particularly 
to declare his name, that is, such of the quali- 
ties and attributes of the divine nature as mor- 
tals are the most interested in knowing ; and 
to unfold, not only his natural, but also those 
of his moral attributes by which his conduct 
toward his creatures is regulated, "And the 
Lord passed by and proclaimed. The Lord, the 
Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffer- 
ing, and abundant in goodness and truth, 
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving ini- 
quity, transgression, and sin, and tliat will by 
no means clear the guilty ; visiting the iniquity 
of the fathers upon the children, and upon the 
children's children, unto the third and fourth 
generation," Exodus xxxiv. This is the most 
ample and particular description of the cha- 
racter of God, as given by himself in the sa. 
cred records; and the import of the several 
titles by which he has thus in his infinite con- 
descension manifested himself, has been thus 
exhibited. He is not only Jehovah, self-exist- 
ent, and El, the strong or mighty God; but he 
is, says Dr. A. Clarke, "aim, Rochum, the 
merciful Being, who is fuH of tenderness and 
compassion ; pjn, Chanun, the gracious One, he 
whose nature is goodness itself, the loving 
God. CD "i^vS, Erec Apayim, long-suffering, 
the Being Avho, because of his tenderness, is 
not easily irritated, but suffers long and is 
kind ; 3"!, Rab, the great or mighty One : nnn, 
Chesed, the bountiful Being, he who is exube- 
rant in his beneficence ; niDN, Emeth, the Truth, 
or True One, he alone who can neither deceive 
nor be deceived ; non -»sj, Notser Chesed, the 
Preserver of bountifulness, he whose benefi- 
cence never ends, keeping mercy for thousands 
of generations, showing compassion and mercy 
while the world endures ; nN^ni ywQ^ fiy nb^j. 
Nose avon vapesha vechataah, he toho bears 
away iniquity, transgression, and sin ; properly 
the Redeemer, the Pardoner, the Forgiver, the 
Being whose prerogative it is to forgive sin, 
and save the soul; npji N*? npj, Nakeh lo 
yinnakeh, the righteous Judge, who distributes 
justice with an impartial hand ; and pj? npjD, 
Pared avon, &c, he xjolio visits iniquity, he who 
punishes transgressors, and from whose jus- 
tice no sinner can escape ; the God of retribu- 
tive and vindictive justice." 

8. The second means by which the Scrip- 
tures convey to us the knowledge of God,' is 
by the actions which they ascribe to him. They 
<iontain, indeed, the important record of his 
dealings with men in every age which is com- 
prehended within the limit of the sacred history ; 
and, by prophetic declaration, they also exhi- 
bit the principles on which he will govern the 
world to the end of time : so that the whole 
course of the divine administration may be 
considered as exhibiting a singularly illustra- 



tive comment upon those attributes of his 
nature which, in their abstract form, are con- 
tained in such declarations as those which 
have been just quoted. The first act ascribed 
to God is that of creating the heavens and the 
earth out of nothing; and by his fiat alone 
arranging their parts, and peopling them with 
living creatures. By this were manifested — 
his eternity and self-existence, as he who cre- 
ates must be before all creatures, and he who 
gives being to others can himself derive it from 
none : — his almighty power, shown both in the 
act of creation and in the number and vastness 
of the objects so produced : — his wisdom, in their 
arrangement, and in their fitness to their re- 
spective ends : — and his goodness, as the whole 
tended to the happiness of sentient beings. 
The foundations of his natural and moral 
government are also made manifest by his 
creative acts. In what he made out of nothing 
he had an absolute right and prerogative : it 
awaited his ordering, and was completely at 
his disposal ; so that to alter or destroy his 
own work, and to prescribe the laws by which 
the intelligent and rational part of his creatures 
should be governed, are rights which none can 
question. Thus on the one hand his charac- 
ter of Lord or Governor is established, and on 
the other our duty of lowly homage and abso- 
lute obedience. 

9. Agreeably to this, as soon as man was 
created, he was placed under a rule of conduct. 
Obedience was to be followed with the con- 
tinuance of the divine favour ; transgression, 
with death. The event called forth new 
manifestations of the character of God. His 
tender mercy, in the compassion showed to the 
fallen pair ; his justice, in forgiving them only 
in the view of a satisfaction to be hereafter 
offered to his justice by an innocent representa- 
tive of the sinning race ; his love to that race, 
in giving his own Son to become this Redeemer, 
and in the fulness of time to die for the sins 
of the whole world ; and his holiness, in con- 
necting with this provision for the pardon of 
man the means of restoring him to a sinless 
state, and to the obliterated image of God in 
which he had been created. Exemplifications 
of the- divine mercy are traced from age to age, 
in his establishing his own worship among 
men, and remitting the punishment of indivi- 
dual and national offences in answer to prayer 
offered from penitent hearts, and in depend- 
ence upon the typified or actually offered 
universal sacrifice : — of his condescension, in 
stooping to the cases of individuals ; in his 
dispensations both of providence and grace, 
by showing respect to the poor and humble; 
and, principally, by the incarnation of God in 
the form of a servant, admitting men into fa- 
miliar and friendly intercourse with himself, 
and then entering into heaven to be their 
patron and advocate, until they should be re- 
ceived unto the same glory, "and so be for 
ever with the Lord :" — of his strictly righteous 
government, in the destruction of the old world, 
the cities of the plain, the nations of Canaan, 
and all ancient states, upon their " filling up 
the measure of their iniquities ;" and, to show 



GOD 



413 



GOD 



that "he will by no means clear the guilty;" 
m the numerous and severe punishments in- 
flicted even upon the chosen seed of Abraham, 
because of their transgressions : — of his long- 
svffering, in frequent warnings, delays, and 
corrective judgments inflicted upon individuals 
and nations, before sentence of utter excision 
and destruction : — of faithfulness and truth, in 
the fulfilment of promises, often many ages 
after they were given, as in the promises to 
Abraham respecting the possession of the land 
of Canaan by his seed, and in all the "pro- 
mises made to the fathers" respecting the ad- 
vent, vicarious death, and illustrious offices of 
the " Christ," the Saviour of the world : — of 
his immutahility, in the constant and unchang- 
ing laws and principles of his government, 
which remain to this day precisely the same, 
in every thing universal, as when first promul- 
gated, and have been the rule of his conduct in all 
places as well as through all time : — of his pre- 
science of future events, manifested by the pre- 
dictions of Scripture : — and of the depth and 
stability of his counsel, as illustrated in that 
plan and purpose of bringing back a revolted 
world to obedience and felicity, which we find 
steadily kept in view in the Scriptural history 
of the acts of God in former ages ; which is 
still the end toward which all his dispensations 
bend, however wide and mysterious their 
sweep ; and which they will finally accomplish, 
as WG learn from the prophetic history of the 
future, contained in the Old and New Testa- 
ments. 

Thus the course of divine operation in the 
world has from age to age been a manifesta- 
tion of the divine character, continually receiv- 
ing new and stronger illustrations until the 
completion of the Christian revelation by the 
ministry of Christ and his inspired followers, 
and still placing itself in brighter light and 
more impressive aspects as the scheme of hu- 
man redemption runs on to its consummation. 
From all the acts of God as recorded in the 
Scriptures, we are taught that he alone is God ; 
that he is present every where to sustain and 
govern all things ; that his wisdom is infinite, 
his counsel settled, and his power irresistible ; 
that he is holy, just, and good ; the Lord and the 
Judge, but the Father and the Friend, of man. 

10. More at large do we learn what God is, 
from the declarations of the inspired writings. 
As to his substance, that " God is a Spirit." 
As to his duration, that "from everlasting to 
everlasting he is God ;" " the King, eternal, 
immortal, invisible." That, after all the mani- 
festations he has made of himself, he is, from 
the infinite perfection and glory of his nature, 
incomprehensible : " Lo, these are but parts of 
his ways, and how little a portion is heard of 
him 1" " Touching the Almighty, we cannot 
find him out." That he is unchangeable: 
"The Father of Lights, with whom there is 
no variableness, neither shadow of turning." 
That " he is the fountain of life," and the only 
independent Being in the universe: "Who 
only hath humortality." That every other 
being, liowcver exalted, has its existence from 
him: "For by liitn wore all things created, 



which are in heaven and in earth, whether 
they are visible or invisible." That the exist- 
ence of every thing is upheld by him, no crea. 
ture being for a moment independent of his 
support: "By him all things consist;" "up- 
holding all things by the word of his power." 
That he is omnipresent : " Do not I fill heaven 
and earth with my presence, saith the Lord ?" 
That he is omniscient: "All things are naked 
and open before the eyes of him with whom 
we have to do." That he is the absolute Lord 
and Owner of all things : " The heavens, even 
the heaven of heavens, are thine, and all the 
parts of them :" " The earth is thine, and the 
fulness thereof, the world and them that dwell 
therein:" "He doeth according to his will in 
the armies of heaven, and among the inhabit- 
ants of the earth." That his providence ex- 
tends to the minutest objects : "The hairs of 
your head are all numbered:" "Are not two 
sparrows sold for a farthing ? and one of them 
shall not fall on the ground without your Fa- 
ther." That he is a Being of unspotted purity 
and perfect rectitude : "Holy, holy, holy, Lort' 
God of hosts !" " A God of truth, and in whom 
is no iniquity :" " Of purer eyes than to behold 
iniquity." That he is just in the administra- 
tion of his government : " Shall not the Judge 
of the whole earth do right ?" " Clouds and 
darkness are round about him ; judgment and 
justice are the habitation of his tiirone." That 
his wisdom is unsearchable : " O the depth of 
the wisdom and knowledge of God I How un- 
searchable are his judgments, and his ways 
past finding out !" And, finally, that he is good 
and merciful : " Thou art good, and thy mercy 
endureth for ever :" " His tender mercy is over 
all his works :" " God, who is rich in mercy, 
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even 
when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us 
together with Christ :" " God was in Christ, 
reconciling the world unto himself, not im- 
puting their trespasses unto them :" " God 
hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in 
his Son." 

11. Under these deeply awful but consolatory 
views, do the Scriptures present to us the su- 
preme object of our worship and trust ; and 
they dwell upon each of the above particulars 
with inimitable sublimity and beauty of lan- 
guage, and with an inexhaustible variety of 
illustration. Nor can we compare these views 
of the divine nature with the conceptions of 
the most enlightened of Pagans, without feel- 
ing how much reason we have for everlasting 
gratitude, that a revelation so explicit, and so 
comprehensive, should have been made to us 
on a subject which only a revelation from God 
himself could have made known. It is thus 
that Christian philosophers, even when they 
do not use the language of the Scriptures, are 
able to speak on this great and mysterious doc^ 
trine, in language so clear, and with concep- 
tions so noble ; in a manner too so equable, 
so diiferent from the sages of antiquity, who, 
if at any time they approach the truth when 
speaking of the divine nature, never fail to 
mingle with it some essentially erroneous or 
grovelling conception. " By the Word of God," 



GOD 



414 



GOD 



says Dr. Barrow, " we mean a Being of infi- 
nite wisdom, goodness, and power, the Creator 
and the Governor of all tilings, to whom the 
great attributes of eternity and independency, 
omniscience and immensity, perfect holiness 
and purity, perfect justice and veracity, com- 
plete happiness, glorious majesty, and supreme 
right of dominion belong ; and to whom the 
highest veneration, and most profound sub- 
mission and obedience are due." " Our notion 
of Deity," says Bishop Pearson, " doth ex. 
pressly signify a Being or Nature of infinite 
perfection ; and the infinite perfection of a 
being or nature consists in this, that it be ab- 
solutely and essentially necessary ; an actual 
Being of itself; and potential, or causative of 
all beings beside itself, independent from any 
other, upon which all things else depend, and 
by which all things else are governed." " God 
is a Being," says Lawson, " and not any kind 
of being ; but a substance, which is the founda- 
tion of other beings. And not only a substance, 
but perfect. Yet many beings are perfect in 
their kind, yet limited and finite. But God is 
absolutely, fully, and every way infinitely per- 
fect ; and therefore above spirits, above angels, 
who are perfect comparatively. God's infinite 
perfection includes all the attributes, even the 
most excellent. It excludes all dependency, 
borrowed existence, composition, corruption, 
mortality, contingency, ignorance, unright- 
eousness, weakness, misery, and all imperfec- 
tions whatever. It includes necessity of being, 
independency, perfect unity, simplicity, im- 
mensity, eternity, immortality ; the most per- 
fect life, knowledge, wisdom, integrity, power, 
glory, bliss, and all these in the highest degree. 
We cannot pierce into the secrets of this eternal 
Being. Our reason comprehends but little of 
him, and when it can proceed no farther, faith 
comes in, and we believe far more than we can 
understand ; and this our belief is not contrary 
to reason ; but reason itself dictates unto us, 
that we must believe far more of God than it 
can inform as of." To these we may add an 
admirable passage from Sir Isaac Newton : 
" The word God frequently signifies Lord; but 
every lord is not God ; it is the dominion of a 
spiritual Being or Lord that constitutes God ; 
true dominion, true God ; supreme, the Su- 
preme ; feigned, the false god. From such 
true dominion it follows, that the true God is 
living, intelligent, and powerful ; and from his 
other perfections, that he is supreme, or su- 
premely perfect ; he is eternal and infinite ; 
omnipotent and omniscient ; that is, he en- 
dures from eternity to eternity ; and is pre- 
sent from infinity to infinity. He governs all 
things that exist, and knows all things 
that are to be known ; he is not eternity or 
infinity, but eternal and infinite ; he is not 
duration or space, but he endures and is pre- 
sent ; he endures always, and is present every 
where ; he is omnipresent, not only virtually, 
but also substantially ; for power without sub- 
stance cannot subsist. All things are con- 
tained and move in him, but without any 
mutual passion ; he suffers nothing from the 
motions of bodies ; nor do they undergo any 



resistance from his omnipresence. It is con- 
fessed, that God exists necessarily, and by the 
same necessity he exists always and every where. 
Hence also he must be perfectly similar, all 
eye, all ear, all arm, all the power of perceiving, 
understanding, and acting ; but after a manner 
not at all corporeal,, after a manner not like 
that of men, after a manner wholly to us un- 
known. He is destitute of all body, and all 
bodily shape ; and therefore cannot be seen, 
heard, or touched ; nor ought he to be wor- 
shipped under the representation of any thing 
corporeal. We have ideas of the attributes of 
God, but do not know the substance of even 
any thing ; we see only the figures and colours 
of bodies, hear only sounds, touch only the 
outward surfaces, smell only odours, and taste 
tastes ; and do not, cannot, by any sense, or 
reflex act, know their inward substances ; and 
much less can we have any notion of the sub- 
stance of God. We know him by his proper- 
ties and attributes." 

12. Many able works in proof of the exist- 
ence of God have been written, the arguments 
of which are too copious for us even to analyze. 
It must be sufficient to say that they all pro- 
ceed, as it is logically termed, either « priori, 
from cause to effect, or, which is the safest 
and most satisfactory mode, a posteriori, from 
the effect to the cause. The irresistible argu- 
ment from the marks of design with which all 
nature abounds, to one great intelligent, de- 
signing Cause, is by no writers brought out in 
so clear and masterly a manner as by Howe, 
in his "Living temple," and Pale5^, in his 
" Natural Theology." 

GODS, in the plural, is used of the false 
deities of the Heathens, m^any of which were 
only creatures to whom di^ane honours and 
worship were superstitiously paid. The Greeks 
and Latins, it is observable, did not mean, by 
the name God, an all-perfect being, whereof 
eternity, infinity, omnipresence, &c, were 
essential attributes : with them the word only 
implied an excellent and superior nature ; and, 
accordingly, they give the appellation gods to 
all beings of a rank or class higher or more 
perfect than that of men, and especially to 
those who were inferior agents in the divine 
administration, all subject to the one Supreme. 
Thus men themselves, according to their sys- 
tem, might become gods after death, inasmuch 
as their souls might attain to a degree of ex- 
cellence superior to what they were capable 
of in life. The first idols, or false gods, that 
are said to have been adored were the stars, 
sun, moon, &c, on account of the light, heat, 
and other benefits which we derive from them. 
(See Idolatry.) Afterward the earth came to 
be deified, for furnishing fruits necessary for 
the subsistence of men and animals : then fire 
and water became objects of divine worship, 
for their usefiilness to human life. In process 
of time, and by degrees, gods became multi- 
plied to infinity ; and there was scarce any 
thing but the weakness or caprice of some 
devotee or other, elevated into the rank of 
deity : things useless or even destructive not 
excepted. The principal of the ancient gods. 



GOD 



415 



GOD 



whom the Romans called dii majorum gentium, 
and Cicero celestial gods,Varro select gods,Ovid 
nohiles deos, others consentes deos, were Jupiter, 
Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, 
Mars, Mercury, Neptune, Vulcan, and Apollo. 
Jupiter is considered as the godi of heaven ; 
Neptune, as god of the sea ; Mars, as the god 
of war ; Apollo, of eloquence, poetry, and 
physic ; Mercury, of thieves ; Bacchus, of 
wine ; Cupid, of love, &c. A second sort of 
gods, called demi-gods, semi-dii, dii minorum 
gentium, indigetes, or gods adopted, were men 
canonized and deified. As the greater gods 
had possession of heaven by their own right, 
these secondary deities had it by merit and 
donation, being translated into heaven because 
they had lived as gods upon earth. 

2. The Heathen gods may be all reduced to the 
following classes : (1.) Created spirits, angels, 
or demons, whence good and evil gods ; Genii, 
Lares, Lemures, Typhones, guardian gods, 
infernal gods, &c. (2.) Heavenly bodies ; as, 
the sun, moon, and other planets ; also, the fixed 
stars, constellations, &c. (3.) Elements ; as air, 
earth, ocean. Ops, Vesta ; the rivers, fountains, 
&c. (4.) Meteors. Thus the Persians adored 
the wind : thunder and lightning were honour- 
ed under the name of Geryon ; and several 
nations of India and America have made them- 
selves gods of the same. Castor, Pollux, He- 
lena, and Iris, have also been preferred from 
meteors to be gods ; and the like has been prac- 
tised in regard to comets : witness that which 
appeared at the murder of Ceesar. (5.) They 
erected minerals or fossils into deities. Such 
was the Bsetylus. The Finlanders adored 
stones ; the Scythians, iron ; and many nations, 
silver and gold. (6.) Plants have been made 
gods. Thus leeks and onions were deities in 
Egypt ; the Sclavi, Lithuanians, Celtae, Van- 
dals, and Peruvians, adored trees and forests ; 
the ancient Gauls, Britons, and Druids, paid a 
particular devotion to the oak ; and it was no 
other than wheat, corn, seed, &.c, that the an- 
cients adored under the names of Ceres and 
Proserpina. (7.) They took themselves gods 
from among the waters. The Syrians and 
Egyptians adored fishes ; and what were the 
Tritons, the Nereids, Syrens, &c, but fishes ? 
Several nations have adored serpents ; particu- 
larly the Egyptians, Prussians, Lithunians, 
Samogitians, &.c. (8.) Insects, as flies and 
ants, had their priests and votaries. (9.) Among 
birds, the stork, raven, sparrowhawk, ibis, eagle, 
grisson, and lapwing have had divine honours ; 
the last in Mexico, the rest in Egypt and at 
Thebes. (10.) Four-footed beasts have had 
their altars ; as the bull, dog, cat, wolf, baboon, 
lion, and crocodile, in Egypt and elsewhere ; 
the hog in the island of Crete ; rats and mice in 
the Troas, and at Tenedos ; weasels at Thebes ; 
and the porcupine throughout all Zoroaster's 
school. (11.) Nothing was more common than 
to place men among the number of deities ; 
and from Belus or Beial, to the Roman empe- 
rors before Constantino, the instances of this 
kind are innumerable : frequently they did not 
wait so long as tlieir deaths for the apotheosis. 
Nebuchadnezzar procured his statue to be wor- 



shipped while living; and Virgil shows that 
Augustus had altars and sacrifices oftered to 
him ; as we learn from other hands that he had 
priests called Augustales, and temples at Lyons, 
Narbona, and several other places, and lie must 
be allowed the first of the Romans in whose 
behalf idolatry was carried to such a pitch. 
The Ethiopians deemed all their kings gods : 
the Velleda of the Germans, the Janus of the 
Hungarians, and the Thaut, Woden, and Assa 
of the northern nations, were indisputably men. 
(12.) Not men only, but every thing that re- 
lates to man, has also been deified ; as labour, 
rest, sleep, youth, age, death, virtues, vices, 
occasion, time, place, numbers, among the 
Pythagoreans ; the generative power, under 
the name of Priapus. Infancy alone had a 
cloud of deities ; as, Vagetanus, Levana, Ru- 
mina, Edufa, Potina, Cuba, Cumina, Carna, 
Ossilago, Statulinus, Fabulinus, &c. They 
also adored the gods Health, Fever, Fear, 
Love, Pain, Indignation, Shame, Impudence, 
Opinion, Renown, Prudence, Science, Art, 
Fidelity, Felicity, Calumny, Liberty, Money, 
War, Peace, Victory, Triumph, &c. Lastly, 
Nature, the universe, or rb zsuv, was reputed a 
great god. 

3. Hesiod has a poem under the title of 
Qeoyavia, that is, " The Generation of the Gods," 
in which he explains their genealogy and 
descent, sets forth who was the first and prin- 
cipal, who next descended from him, and what 
issue each had : the whole making a sort of 
system of Heathen theology. Beside this popu- 
lar theology, each philosopher had his system, 
as may be seen from the " Timseus" of Plato, 
and Cicero " De Natura Deorumy Justin 
Martyr, Tertullian, Arnobius, Minutius Felix, 
Lactantius, Eusebius, St. Augustine, andTheo- 
doret, show the vanity of the Heathen gods. 
It is very difficult to discover the real senti- 
ments of the Heathens with respect to their 
gods : they are exceedingly intricate and con- 
fused, and even frequently contradictory. They 
admitted so many superior and inferior gods, 
who shared the empire, that every place was 
full of gods. Varro reckons up no less than 
thirty thousand adored within a small extent 
of ground, and yet their number was every 
day increasing. In modern oriental Paganism 
they amount to many millions, md are, in fact, 
innumerable. 

4. The name of God, in Hebrew, Elohim, is 
very ambiguous in Scripture. The true God is 
often called so, as are sometimes angels, judges, 
and princes, and sometimes idols and false gods ; 
for example : " God created the heaven and 
the earth," Gen. i, 1. The Hebrew Elohim 
denotes, in this place, the true God. " He who 
sacrificeth unto any god, (Elohim,) shall be 
put to death," Exodus xxii, 20. And again : 
" Among the gods there is none like unto thee," 
Psalm Ixxxvi, 8. Princes, magistrates, and 
great men are called gods in the following pas- 
sages : " If a slave is desirous to continue with 
his master, he shall be brought to the judges," 
Exod. xxi, 6, in the original, to the gods. 
Again: "If the thief be not found, then the 
master of the house shall be brought unto the 



GOE 



416 



GOE 



judges," Exod. xxii, 8, in the original, to the 
gods ; and in the twenty-eighth verse of the 
same chapter, " Thou shalt not speeik evil of 
-the gods ;" that is; of the judges or great men. 
The Psalmist says that the Lord "judgeth 
among the gods," Psalm Ixxxii, 1. And again, 
God says to Moses, "I have made thee a god 
to Pharaoh," Exod. vii, 1. The pious Israel- 
ites had so great an aversion and such an 
extreme contempt for strange gods, that they 
ycorned even to mention them ; they disguised 
and disfigured their names by substituting in 
the room of them some term of contempt ; for 
example, instead oi Elohim, they called them 
Elilim, "nothmgs, gods of no value;" instead 
of Mephibaal, Meribaal, and Jerubaal, they said 
" Mephibosheth, Meribosheth, and Jeribo- 
sheth." Baal signifies master, husband ; and 
hosheth, something to be ashamed of, some- 
thing apt to put one in confusian. God for- 
bade the Israelites to swear by strange gods, 
and to pronounce the names of them in their 
oaths, Exod. xxiii, 13. 

GODLINESS, strictly taken, signifies right 
worship, or devotion ; but, in general, it im- 
ports the v/hole of practical religion, 1 Tim. 
iv, 8 ; 2 Peter i, 6. 

GOEL, '?NJ, the avenger of blood. The 
inhabitants of the east, it is well known, are 
now, what they anciently were, exceedingly 
revengeful. If, therefore, an individual should 
unfortunately happen to lay violent hands upon 
another person and kill him, the next of kin is 
bound to avenge the death of the latter, and 
to pursue the murderer with unceasing vigi- 
lance until he have caught and killed him, 
either by force or by fraud. The same custom 
exists in Arabia, and it appears to have been 
alluded to by Rebecca : when she learned that 
Esau was threatening to kill his bother Jacob, 
she endeavoured to send the latter out of the 
country, saying, "Why should I be bereft of 
you both in one day?" Gen. xxvii, 15. She 
could not be afraid of the magistrate for punish- 
ing the murderer, for the patriarchs were sub- 
ject to no superior in Palestine ; and Isaac 
was much too partial to Esau for her to enter- 
tain any expectation that he would condemn 
him to death for it. It would therefore appear 
that she dreaded lest he should fall by the 
hand of the blood avenger, perhaps of some 
Ishmaelite. The office, therefore, of the goel 
was in use before the time of Moses ; and it 
was probably filled by the nearest of blood to 
the party killed, as the right of redeeming a 
mortgage field is given to him. To prevent 
the unnecessary loss of life through a sangui- 
nary spirit of revenge, the Hebrew legislator 
made various enactments concerning the blood 
avenger. In most ages and countries, certain 
reputed sacred places enjoyed the privileges of 
being asylums ; Moses, therefore, taking it for 
granted that the murderer would flee to the 
altar, commanded that when the crime was de- 
liberate and intentional, he should be torn even 
from the altar, and put to death, Exod. xxi, 14. 
But in the case of unintentional murder, the 
man-slayer was enjoined to flee to one of the 
six cities of refuge, which were appropriated 



for his residence. The roads to these cities, 
it was enactett°, should be kept in such a slate 
that the unfortunate individual might meet 
with no impediment whatever in his way, Deut. 
xix, 3. If the goel overtook the fugitive be- 
fore he readhed an asylum, and put him to 
death, he was not considered as guilty of 
blood; but if the man-slayer had reached a 
place of refuge, he was immediately protected, 
and an inquiry was instituted whether he bad 
a right to such protection and asylum, that is, 
whether he had caused his neighbour's death 
undesignedly, or was a deliberate murderer. 
In the latter case he was judicially delivered 
to the goel, who might put him to death in 
whatever way he chose ; but in the former 
case the homicide continued in the place of 
refuge until the high priest's death, when he 
might return home in perfect security. If, 
however, the god found him without the city, or 
beyond its suburbs, he might slay him without 
being guilty of blood. Numbers xxxv, 26, 27. 
Farther, to guard the life of man, and prevent 
the perpetration of murder, Moses positively 
prohibited the receiving of a sum of money 
from a murderer in tlie way of compensation, 
Numbers xxxv, 31. It would seem that if no 
avenger of blood appeared, or if he were diia- 
tory in the pursuit of the murderer, it became 
the duty of the magistrate himself to inflict 
the sentence of the law ; and thus we find that 
David deemed this to be his duty in the case 
of Joab, and that Solomon, in obedience to his 
father's dying entreaty, actually discharged it 
by putting that murderer to death; 1 Kings 
ii, 5 ; vi, 28-34. There is a beautiful allusion 
to the blood avenger in Heb. vi, 17, 18 

The following extracts will prove how 
tenaciously the eastern people adhere to the 
principle of revenging the death of their re- 
lations and friends: — "Among the Circas- 
sians," says Pallas, " all the relatives of the 
murderers are considered as guilty. This cus- 
tomary infatuation to revenge the blood of 
relations generates most of the feuds, and 
occasions great bloodshed among all the tribes 
of Caucasus ; for unless pardon be purchased, 
or obtained by intermarriage between the two 
families, the principle of revenge is propagated 
to all succeeding generations. If the thirst of 
vengeance is quenched by a price paid to the 
family of the deceased, this tribute is called 
thlil-uasa, or, ' the price of blood ;' but neither 
princes nor visdens accept such compensation, 
as it is an established law among them to 
demand blood for blood." "The Nubians," 
observes Light, "possess few traces among 
them of government, or law, or religion. 
They know no master, although the cashief 
claims a nominal command of the country. 
They look for redress of injuries to their own 
means of revenge, which, in cases of blood, 
extends from one generation to another, till 
blood is repaid by blood. On this account they 
are obliged to be ever on the watch, and 
armed : and in this manner even their daily 
labours are carried o]i ; the very boys are 
armed." " If one Nubian," remarks Burck- 
hardt, "happen to kill another, he is obliged 



GOL 



417 



GOS 



to pay the debt of blood to the family of the 
deceased, and a fine to the governors of six 
camels, a cow, and seven sheep, or they are 
taken from his relations. Every wound in- 
flicted has its stated fine, consisting of sheep 
and dhourra, but varying in quantity, accord- 
ing to the parts of the body wounded." " When 
a man or woman is murdered," says Malcolm, 
" the moment the person by whom the act was 
perpetrated is discovered, the heir-at-law to the 
deceased demands vengeance for the blood. 
Witnesses are examined, and if the guilt be 
established, the criminal is delivered into his 
hands, to deal with as he chooses. It is alike 
legal for him to forgive him, to accept a sum 
of money as the price of blood, or to put him 
to death. It is only a few years ago that the 
English resident at Abusheher saw three per- 
sons delivered into the hands of the relations 
of those whom they had murdered. They led 
their victims bound to the burial ground, where 
they put them to death ; but the part of the 
execution that appeared of the most import- 
ance, was to make the infant children of the 
deceased stab the murderers with knives, and 
imbrue their little hands in the blood of those 
who had slain their father. The youngest 
princes of the blood that could hold a dagger 
were made to stab the assassins of Aga Ma- 
homed Khan. When they were executed, the 
successor of Nadir Shah sent one of the mur- 
derers of that monarch to the femalesof his 
harem, who, we are told, were delighted to 
become his executioners." 

GOG AND MAGOG. Moses speaks of 
Magog, son of Japheth, but says nothing of 
Gog, Gen. x, 2. According to Ezekiel, Gog 
was prince of Magog, Ezek. xxxviii, 2, 3, &c ; 
xxxix, 1, 2, &c. Magog signifies the country 
or people, and Gog the king of that country ; 
the general name of the northern nations of 
Europe and Asia, or the districts north of the 
Caucasus, or Mount Taurus. The prophecy 
of Ezekiel, xxxix, 1-22, seems to be revived in 
the Apocalypse, where the hosts of Gog and 
Magog are represented as coming to invade 
"the beloved city," and perishing with im- 
mense slaughter likewise in Armageddon, 
" the mount of Mageddo," or Megiddo, Rev. 
xvi, 14-16; XX, 7-10. 

GOLD, 3nr, Gen. xxiv, 22, and very fre. 
quently in all other parts of the Old Testa- 
ment ; X9^'^°^^ Matt, xxiii, 16, 17, &c ; the most 
perfect and valuable of the metals. In Job 
xxviii, 15-18, 19, gold is mentioned five times, 
and four of the words are different in the 
original: 1. nUD, which may mean "gold in 
the mine," or "shut up," as the root signifies, 
"in the ore." 2. ono, keihem, from opd, 
catham, "to sign," "seal," or "stamp;" gold 
made current by being coined ; standard gold, 
exhibiting the stamp expressive of its value. 
3, 3n?, wrought gold, pure, highly polished 
gold. 4. TO, denoting solidity, compactness, 
and strength ; probably gold formed into dif- 
ferent kinds of plate, or vessels. Jerom, in 
his comment on Jer. x, 9, writes " Septem 
dominibus apud Hehr<BOs appellatur aurum" 
The seven names, which he does not mention, 
28 



are as follows, and thus distinguished by the 
Hebrews: 1. Zahab, gold in genersil. 2. Za- 
hah tob, good gold, of a more valuable kind. 
Gen. ii, 12. 3. Zahab Ophir, gold of Ophir, 
1 Kings ix, 28, such as was brought by the 
navy of Solomon. 4. Zahab ?nuphaz, solid 
gold, pure, wrought gold, translated, 1 Kings 
X, 18, "the best gold." 5. Zahab shachut, 
beaten gold, 2 Chron. ix, 15. 6. Zahab segor, 
shut up gold ; either as mentioned above, gold 
in the ore, or as the rabbins explain it, " gold 
shut up in the treasuries," gold in bullion. 
7. Zahab parvaim, 2 Chron. iii, 6. To these 
Buxtorf adds three others: 1. ono, pure gold 
of the circulating medium. 2. i:{3, gold in the 
treasury. 3. ?X"in, choice, fine gold. Arabia 
had formerly its golden mines. " The gold of 
Sheba," Psalm Ixxii, 15, is, in the Septuagint 
and Arabic versions, "the gold of Arabia." 
Sheba was the ancient name of Arabia Felix. 
Mr. Bruce, however, places it in Africa, at 
Azab. The gold of Ophir, so often mentioned, 
must be that which was procured in Arabia, on 
the coast of the Red Sea. We are assured by 
Sanchoniathon, as quoted by Eusebius, and by 
Herodotus, that the Phenicians carried on a 
considerable traffic with this gold even before 
the days of Job, who speaks of it, xxii, 24. 

GOLIATH, a famous giant of the city of 
Gath, who was slain by David, 1 Sam. xvii, 
4, 5, &c. See Giants. 

GOMER, the eldest son of Japheth, by 
whom a great part of Asia Minor was first 
peopled, and particularly that extensive tract 
which was called Phrygia, including the sub. 
divisions of Mysia, Galatia, Bithynia, Lyca- 
onia, &c. The colonies of Gomer extended 
into Germany, Gaul, (in both of which traces 
of the name are preserved,) and Britain, which 
was undoubtedly peopled from Gaul. Among 
the descendants of the ancient inhabitants of 
this island, namely, the Welsh, the words 
Kumero and Kvmeraeg^ the names of the peo- 
ple and the language, sufficiently point out 
their origin. In fact, under the names of 
Cimmerii, Cimbri, Cymrig, Cumbri, Umbri, 
and Cambri, the tribes of Gomerians extended 
themselves from the Euxine to the Atlantic, 
and from Italy to the Baltic ; having added to 
their original names those of Celts, Gauls, 
Galatae, and Gaels, superadded. 

GOMORRAH, one of the five cities of the 
Pentapolis, consumed by fire. Genesis xix, 24, 
&c. See Dead Sea. 

GOSHEN. This was the most fertile pas- 
ture ground in the whole of Lower Egypt; 
thence called Goshen, from gush, in Arabic, 
signifying " a heart," or whatsoever is choice 
or precious. There was also a Goshen in the 
territory of the tribe of Judah, so called for the 
same reason, Joshua x, 41. Hence Joseph 
recommended it to his family as " the best of 
the land," Gen. xlvii, 11, and "the fat of the 
land," Gen. xlv, 18. The land of Goshen lay 
along the most easterly branch of the Nile, 
and on the east side of it ; for it is evident that, 
at the time of the exode, the Israelites did not 
cross the Nile. In ancient times, the fertile 
land was considerably more extensive, both in 



GOS 



418 



GOS 



length and breadth, than at present, in conse- 
quence of the general failure of the eastern 
branches of the Nile ; the main body of the 
river verging more and more to the west con- 
tinually, and deepening the channels on that 
side. 

GOSPEL, a history of the life, actions, 
death, resurrection, ascension, and doctrine 
of Jesus Christ. The word is Saxon, and of 
the same import with the Latin term evangeli. 
urn., or the Greek tvayyfkiov, which signifies 
" glad tidings," or " good news ;" the history 
of our Saviour being the best history ever 
published to mankind. This history is con- 
tained in the writings of St. Matthew, St. 
Mark, St. Luke, and St. John, who from 
thence are called evangelists. The Christian 
church never acknowledged any more than 
these four Gospels as canonical : notwithstand- 
ing which, several apocryphal gospels are 
handed down to us, and others are entirely 
lost. The four Gospels contain each of them 
the history of our Saviour's life and ministry ; 
but we must remember, that no one of the 
evangelists undertook to give an account of 
all the miracles which Christ performed, or of 
all the instructions which he delivered. They 
are written with different degrees of concise- 
ness ; but every one of them is sufficiently full 
to prove that Jesus was the promised Messiah, 
the Saviour of the world, who had been pre- 
dicted by a long succession of prophets, and 
whose advent was expected at the time of his 
appearance, both by Jews and Gentiles. 

2. That all the books which convey to us 
the history of events under the New Testa- 
ment were written and immediately published 
by persons contemporary with the events, is 
most fully proved by the testimony of an un- 
broken series of authors, reaching from the 
days of the evangelists to the present times ; 
by the concurrent belief of Christians of all 
denominations ; and by the unreserved con- 
fession of avowed enemies to the Gospel. In 
this point of view the writings of the ancient 
fathers of the Christian church are invaluable. 
They contain not only frequent references and 
allusions to the books of the New Testament, 
but also such numerous professed quotations 
from them, that it is demonstratively certain 
that these books existed in their present state 
a few years after the conclusion of Christ's 
ministry upon earth. No unbeliever in the 
apostolic age, in the age immediately subse- 
quent to it, or, indeed, in any age whatever, 
was ever able to disprove the facts recorded in 
these books ; and it does not appear that in the 
early times any such attempt was made. The 
facts, therefore, related in the New Testament 
must be admitted to have really happened. But 
if all the circumstances of the history of Jesus, 
that is, his miraculous conception in the womb 
of the virgin, the time at which he was born, 
the place where he was born, the family from 
which he was descended, the nature of the 
doctrines which lie preaclied, the meanness of 
his condition, his rejection, death, burial, re- 
surrection, and ascension, with many other 
minute particulara ; if all these various circum- 



stances in the history of Jesus exactly accord 
with the predictions of the Old Testament 
relative to the promised Messiah, in whom all 
the nations of the earth were to be blessed, 
it follows that Jesus was that Messiah. And 
again : if Jesus really performed the miracles 
as related in the Gospels, and was perfectly 
acquainted with the thoughts and designs of 
men, his divine mission cannot be doubted. 
Lastly : if he really foretold his own death and 
resurrection, the descent of the Holy Ghost, 
its miraculous effects, the tufferings of the 
Apostles, the call of the Gentiles, and the de- 
struction of Jerusalem, it necessarily follows 
that he spake by the authority of God himself. 
These, and many other arguments, founded in 
the more than human character of Jesus, in 
the rapid propagation of the Gospel, in the ex- 
cellence of its precepts and doctrines, and in 
the constancy, intrepidity, and fortitude of its 
early professors, incontrovertibly establish the 
truth and divine origin of the Christian reli- 
gion, and afford to us, who live in these latter 
times, the most positive confirmation of the 
promise of our Lord, that "the gates of hell 
shall not prevail against it." 

3. The Gospels recount those wonderful and 
important events with which the Christian 
religion and its divine Author were introduced 
into the world, and which have produced so 
great a change in the principles, the manners, 
the morals, and the temporal as well as spirit- 
ual condition of mankind- They relate the 
first appearance of Christ upon earth, his ex- 
traordinary and miraculous birth, the testimony 
borne to him by his forerunner, John the Bap- 
tist, the temptation in the vialderness, the 
opening of his divine commission, the pure, 
the perfect, and sublime morality which he 
taught, especially in his inimitable sermon on 
the mount, the infinite superiority which he 
showed to every other moral teacher, both in 
the matter and manner of his discourses, more 
particularly by crushing vice in its very cradle, 
in the first risings of wicked desires and pro- 
pensities in the heart, by giving a decided 
preference to the mild, gentle, passive, con-^ 
ciliating virtues, before that violent, vindictive, 
high-spirited, unforgiving temper, which has 
been ahvays too much the favourite character 
of the world ; by requiring us to forgive our 
very enemies, and to do good to them that 
hate us ; by excluding from our devotions, our 
alms, and all our virtues, all regard to fame, 
reputation, and applause ; by laying down two 
great general principles of morality, love to 
God, and love to mankind, and deducing from 
thence every other human duty ; by conveying 
his instructions under the easy, familiar, and 
impressive form of parables ; by expressing 
himself in a tone of dignity and authority un- 
known before; by exemplifying every virtue 
that he taught in his own unblemished and 
perfect life and conversation ; and, above all, 
by adding those awful sanctions, which he 
alone, of all moral instructers, had the power 
to hold out, eternal rewards to the virtuous, 
and eternal punishments to the wicked. The 
sacred narratives then represent to us the high 



GOS 



419 



GOV 



character that he assumed ; the claim he made 
to a divine original ; the wonderful miracles 
he wrought in proof of his divinity ; the vari- 
ous prophecies which plainly marked him out 
as the Messiah, the great Deliverer of the 
Jews ; the declarations he made that he came 
to offer himself a sacrifice for the sins of all 
mankind ; the cruel indignities, sufferings, and 
persecutions to which, in consequence of this 
great design, he was exposed ; the accomplish- 
ment of it, by the painful and ignominious 
death to which he submitted, by his resurrec 
tion afler three days from the grave, by his 
ascension into heaven, by his sitting there at 
the right hand of God, and performing the 
office of a Mediator and Intercessor for the 
sinful sons of men, till he shall come a second 
time in his glory to sit in judgment on all man. 
kind, and decide their final doom of happiness 
or misery for ever. These are the momentous, 
the interesting, truths on which the Gospels 
principally dwell. 

4. We find in the ancient records a twofold 
order,' in which the evangelists are arranged. 
They stand either thus, Matthew, John, Luke, 
Mark ; or thus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. 
The first is made with reference to the cha- 
racter and the rank of the persons, according 
to which the Apostles precede their assistants 
and attendants {aKoXovdon, comitibus.) It is 
observed in the oldest Latin translations and 
in the Gothic ; sometimes also in the words of 
Lctin teachers ; but among all the Greek MSS. 
only in that at Cambridge. But the other, 
namely, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, is, 
in all the old translations of Asia and Africa, 
in all catalogues of the canonical books, and 
in Greek MSS. in general, the customary and 
established one as it regarded not personal cir- 
cumstances, but as it had respect to chronolo- 
gical ; which is to us a plain indication what 
accounts concerning the succession of the 
evangelists, the Asiatic, and Greek churches, 
and also those of Africa, had before them, 
when the Christian books were arranged in 
collections. It is a considerable advantage, 
says Michaelis, that a history of such import- 
ance as that of Jesus Christ has been recorded 
by the pens of separate and independent writ- 
ers, who, from the variations which are visible 
in these accounts, have incontestably proved 
that they did not unite with a view of imposing 
a fabulous narrative on mankind. That St. 
Matthew had never seen the Gospel of St. Luke, 
nor St. Luke the Gospel of St. Matthew, is 
evident from a comparison of their writings. 
The Gospel of St. Mark, which was written 
later, must likewise have been unknown to 
St. Luke ; and that St. Mark had ever read 
the Gospel of St. Luke, is at least improbable, 
because their Gospels so frequently differ. It 
is a generally received opinion, that St. Mark 
made use of St. Matthew's Gospel in the com- 
position of his own ; but this is an unfounded 
hypothesis. The Gospel of St. John, being 
written afler the other three, supplies what 
they had omitted. Thus have we four distinct 
and independent writers of one and the same 
history; and, though trifling variations may 



seem to exist in their narratives, yet these ad- 
mit of easy solutions ; and in all matters of 
consequence, whether doctrinal or historical, 
there is such a manifest agreement between 
them as is to be found in no other writings 
whatever. Though we have only four original 
writers of the li^ of Jesus, the evidence of 
the history does not rest on the testimony of 
four men. Christianity had been propagated 
in a great part of the world before any of them 
had written, on the testimony of thousands and 
tens of thousands, who had been witnesses of 
the great facts which they have recorded ; so 
that the writing of these particular books is 
not to be considered as the cause, but rather 
the effect, of the belief of Christianity ; nor 
could those books have been written and re- 
ceived as they were, namely, as authentic his. 
tories, of the subject of which all persons of 
that age were judges, if the facts they have 
recorded had not been well known to be true. 

5. The term Gospel is oflen used in Scrip- 
ture to signify the whole Christian doctrine : 
hence, " preaching the Gospel" is declaring all 
the truths, precepts, promises, and threatening s 
of Christianity. This is termed, "the Gospel 
of the grace of God," because it flows fron\ 
Gods free love and goodness. Acts xx, 24 j 
and when truly and faithfully preached, is 
accompanied with the influences of the divine 
Spirit. It is called, "the Gospel of the king- 
dom," because it treats of the kingdom of 
grace, and shows the way to the kingdom of 
glory. It is styled, "the Gospel of Christ," 
because he is the Author and great subject of 
it, Romans i, 16; and "the Gospel of peace 
and salvation," because it publishes peace with 
God to the penitent and believing, gives, to 
such, peace of conscience and tranquillity of 
mind, and is the means of their salvation, 
present and eternal. As it displays the glory 
of God and of Christ, and ensures to his true 
followers eternal glory, it is entitled, "the 
glorious Gospel," and, "the everlasting Gos- 
pel," because it commenced from the fall of 
man, is permanent throughout all time, and 
produces effects which are everlasting. 

GOVERNMENT OF THE HEBREWS. 
The posterity of Jacob, while remaining in 
Egypt, maintained, notwithstanding the aug- 
mentation of their numbers, that patriarchal 
form of government which is so prevalent 
among the nomades. Every father of a family 
exercised a father's authority over those of his 
own household. Every tribe obeyed its own 
prince, Niti'j, who was originally the first-born 
of the founder of the tribe, but who, in process 
of time, appears to have been elected. As tbe 
people increased in numbers, various heads of 
families united together, and selected some 
individual from their own body, who was 
somewhat distinguished, for their leader. Per- 
haps the choice was made merely by tacit 
consent ; and, without giving him the title of 
ruler in form, they were willing, while con. 
vinced of his virtues, to render submission to 
his will. Such a union of families was de. 
nominated "the house of the father;" and 
"the house of the father of the families," 



GOV 



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GOV 



Num. iii, 24, 30, 35. In other instances, 
although tlie number varied, being sometimes 
more and sometimes less than a thousand, it 
was denominated, ceVx r]VN, a thousand. 
*' Now therefore present yourselves "before the 
Lord by your tribes, and by your thousands ;" 
'* the thousands of Judah '" " the thousands 
of Israel," &c, 1 Sam. x, 19 ; xxiii, 23 ; Judges 
vi, 15 ; Num. xxvi, 5-50. The heads of these 
united families were designated "heads of 
thousands," Num. i, 16 ; x, 4. They held 
themselves in subjection to the " princes of 
the tribes." Both the princes and heads of 
families are mentioned under the common 
names of O'Jpr, seniors or senators, and a^lJlJtl' 
"'tfN*^ heads of tribes. Following the law of 
reason, and the rules established by custom, 
they governed with a paternal authority the 
tribes and united families ; and, while they left 
the minor concerns to the heads of individual 
families, aimed to superintend and promote the 
best interests of the community generally. 
Originally, it fell to the princes of the tribes 
themselves to keep genealogical tables : sub- 
sequently, they employed scribes especially for 
this purpose, who, in the progress of time, 
acquired so great authority, that under the 
name of on^Oity, translated, in the English 
version, officers, they were permitted to exer- 
cise a share in the government of the nation. 
It was by magistrates of this description that 
the Hebrews were governed while they re- 
mained in Egypt ; and the Egyptian kings 
made no objection to it, Exod. iii, 16 ; v, 1, 
14, 15, 19. 

2. The posterity of Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob were set apart and destined to the great 
object of preserving and transmitting the true 
religion, Gen. xviii, 16-20 ; xvii, 9-14; xii, 3 ; 
xxii, 18; xxviii, 14. Having increased in 
numbers, it appeared very evident that they 
could not live among nations given to idolatry 
without running the hazard of becoming in- 
fected with the same evil. They were, there- 
fore, in the providence of God, assigned to a 
particular country, the extent of which was 
so small, that they were obliged, if they would 
live independently of other nations, to give up 
in a great measure the life of shepherds, and 
devote themselves to agriculture. Farther : 
very many of the Hebrews during their resi- 
dence in Egypt had fallen into idolatrous 
habits. These wxre to be brought back again 
to the knowledge of the true God, and all were 
to be excited to engage in those undertakings 
which should be found necessary for the sup- 
port of the true religion. All the Mosaic 
institutions aim at the accomplishment of 
these objects. The fundamental principle, 
therefore, of those institutions was this, — that 
the true God, the Creator and Governor of the 
universe, and none other, ought to be wor- 
shipped. To secure this end the more cer- 
tainly, God became king to the Hebrews. 
Accordingly, the land of Canaan, which was 
destined to be occupied by them, was declared 
to be the land of Jehovah, of which he was to 
be the king, and the Hebrews merely the here- 
ditary occupants. God promulgated, from the 



clouds of Mount Sinai, the prominent laws 
for the government of his people, considere<i 
as a religious community, Exod. xx. These 
laws were afterward more fully developed and 
illustrated by Moses. The rewa,rds which 
should accompany the obedient, and the pu- 
nishments which should be the lot of the 
transgressor, were at the same time announced, 
and the Hebrews promised by a solemn oath to 
obey, Exodus xxi-xxiv; Deut. xxvii-xxx. 

3. In order to keep the true nature of the 
community fully and constantly in view, all 
the ceremonial institutions had reference to 
God, not only as the Sovereign of the universe, 
but as the King of the people. The people 
were taught to feel that the tabernacle was 
not only the temple of Jehovah, but the palace 
of their King ; that the priests were the royal 
servants, and were bound to attend not only to 
sacred but to secular affairs, and were to receive, 
as their salary, the first tithes, which the peo- 
ple, as subjects, were led to consider a part of 
that revenue which was due to God, their im- 
mediate Sovereign. Other things of a less 
prominent and important nature had reference 
to the same great end. Since, therefore, God 
was the Sovereign, in a civil point of view as 
well as others, of Palestine and its inhabitants, 
the commission of idolatry by any inhabitant 
of that country, even a foreigner, was a de- 
fection from the true King. It was, in fact, 
treason ; was considered a crime equal in 
aggravation to that of murder ; and was, conse- 
quently, attended with the severest punishment. 
Whoever invited or exhorted to idolatry was 
considered seditious, and was obnoxious to the 
same punishment. Incantations also, necro- 
mancy, and other practices of this nature, 
were looked upon as arts of a kindred aspect 
with idolatry itself; and the same punishment 
v/as to be inflicted upon the perpetrators of 
them as upon idolaters. The same rigour of 
inquiry after the perpetrators of idolatry was 
enforced, that was exhibited in respect to other 
crimes of the deepest aggravation ; and the per- 
son who knew of the commission of idolatry 
in another was bound by the law to complain 
of. the person thus guilty before the judge, 
though the criminal siistained the near relation, 
ship of a wife or a brother, a daughter or a son. 
4. Many things in the administration of the 
government remained the same under the Mo- 
saic economy, as it had been before. The 
authority which they had previously possessed, 
was continued in the time of Moses and after 
his time, to the princes of the tribes, to the 
heads of families and combinations of families, 
and to the genealogists, Num. xi, 16 ; Deut. 
xvi, 18 ; XX, 5 ; xxxi, 28. Yet Moses, by the 
advice of Jethro, his father-in-law, increased 
the number of rulers by the appointment of an 
additional number of judges ; some to judge 
over ten, some over fifly, some over a hundred, 
and some over a thousand, men. Exodus xviii, 
13-26. These judges were elected by the suf- 
frages of the people from those who, by their 
authority and rank, might be reckoned among 
the rulers or princes of the people. The infe. 
rior judges, that is, those who superintended 



GOV 



42.1 



GOV 



the judicial concerns of the smaller numbers, 
were subordinate to the superior judges, or 
those who judged a larger number ; and cases, 
accordingly, of a difficult nature went up from 
the inferior to the superior judges. Those of 
a very difficult character, so much so as to be 
perplexing to the superior judges, were appeal- 
ed to Moses himself, and in some cases from 
Moses to the high priest. The judges, of 
whom we have now spoken, sustained a civil 
as well as a judicial authority, and were in- 
cluded in the list of those who are denominated 
the elders and princes of Israel : that is to say, 
supposing tliey were chosen from the elders 
and princes, they did not forfeit their seat 
among them by accepting a judicial office ; and, 
on the contrary, the respectability attached to 
their office, supposing they were not chosen 
from them, entitled them to be reckoned in 
their number, Deut. xxxi, 28 ; Joshua viii, 33 ; 
xxiii, 2; xxiv, 1. The various civil officers 
that have been mentioned, namely, judges, 
heads of families, genealogists, elders, princes 
of the tribes, &c, were dispersed, as a matter 
of course, in different parts of the country. 
Those of them, accordingly, who dwelt in the 
same city, or the same neighbourhood, formed 
the comitia, senate or legislative assembly of 
their immediate vicinity, Deut. xix, 12 ; xxv, 
8, 9 ; Judges viii, 14 ; ix, 3—46 ; xi, 5 ; 1 Sam. 
viii, 4 ; xvi, 4. When all that dwelt in any 
particular tribe were convened, they formed 
the legislative assembly of the tribe ; and when 
they were convened in one body from all the 
tribes, they formed in like manner the legisla- 
tive assembly of the nation, and were the re- 
presentatives of all the people, Joshua xxiii, 
i, 2 ; xxiv, 1. The priests, who were the 
learned class of the community, and beside 
were hereditary officers in the state, being set 
apart for civil as well as religious purposes, 
had, by the divine command, a right to a sit- 
ting in this assembly, Exod. xxxii, 29 ; Num. 
xxxvij 15 ; viii, 5-26. Being thus called upon 
to sustain very different and yet very import- 
ant offices, they became the subjects of that 
envy which would naturally be excited by the 
honour and the advantages attached to their 
situation. In order to confirm them in the 
duties which devolved upon them, and to throw 
at the greatest distance the mean and lurking 
principle just mentioned, God, after the sedi- 
tion of Korah, Dathau, and Abiram, sanction- 
ed the separation of the whole tribe, which had 
been previously made to the service of religion 
and the state, by a most evident and striking 
miracle. Num. xvi, 1-7. 

5. Each tribe was governed by its own rulers, 
and consequently to a certain extent consti- 
tuted a civil community, independent of the 
other tribes, Judges xx, 11-46 ; 2 Sam. ii, 4 ; 
Judges i, 21. If any affair concerned the 
whole or many of the tribes, it was determined 
by them in conjunction in the legislative assem- 
bly of the nation, Judges xi, 1-11; 1 Chron. 
v, 10, 18, 19 ; 2 Sam. iii, 17 ; 1 Kings xii, 1-24. 
If one tribe found itself unequal to the execu- 
tion of any proposed plan, it might connect 
itself with another, or even a number of the 



other tribes, Judges i, 1-3, 22 ; iv, 10 ; vii, 231, 
24 ; viii, 1-3. But, although in many things 
each tribe existed by itself, and acted sepa. 
rately, yet in others they were united, and 
formed but one community : for all the tribes 
were bound together, so as to form one church 
and one civil community, not only by their 
common ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; 
not only by the common promises Avhich they 
had received from those ancestors ; not only 
by the need in which they stood of mutual 
counsel and assistance ; but also by the cir- 
cumstance that God was their conunon King, 
and that they had a common tabernacle for 
his palace, and a common sacerdotal and Le- 
vitical order for his ministers. Accordingly, 
every tribe exerted a sort of inspection over 
the others, as respected their observance of the 
law. If any thing had been neglected, or any 
wrong had been done, the particular tribe con- 
cerned was amenable to the others ; and, in 
case justice could not be secured in any other 
way, might be punished with war, Joshua xxii, 
9-34 ; Judges xx, 1, &c. 

6. When we remember that God was ex- 
pressly chosen the King of the people, and that 
he enacted laws and decided litigated points of 
importance, Numbers xvii, 1-11 ; xxvii, 1-11 ; 
xxxvi, 1-10 ; when we remember also that he 
answered and solved questions proposed. Num. 
XV, 32-41 ; Joshua vii, 16-22; .Judges i, 1, 2 ; 
XX, 18, 27, 28 ; 1 Sam. xiv, 37 ; xxiii, 9-12 ; 
XXX, 8 ; 2 Sam. ii, 1 ; that he threatened pun- 
islunent, and that, in some instances, he actu- 
ally inflicted it upon the hardened and impeni- 
tent, Num. xi, 33-35; xii, 1-15; xvi, 1-50; 
Lev. xxvi, 3-46 ; Deut. xxvi-xxx ; when, finally, 
we take into account, that he promised pro. 
phets, who were to be, as it were, his ambas- 
sadors, Deut. xviii, and afterward sent them 
according to his promise, and that, in order to 
preserve the true religion, he governed the 
whole people by a striking and peculiar provi- 
dence, we are at liberty to say, that God was, 
in fact, the Monarch of the people, and that 
the government was a theocracy. But, although 
the government of the Jews was a theocracy, 
it was not destitute of the usual forms which 
exist in civil governments among men. God, 
it is true, was the King, and the high priest, if 
we may be allowed so to speak, was his minis- 
ter of state ; but still the political affairs were 
in a great measure under the disposal of the 
elders, princes, &c. It was to them that Moses 
gave the divine commands, determined express- 
ly their powers ; and submitted their requests 
to the decision of God, Num. xiv, 5 ; xvi, 4, 
&c ; xxvii, 5 ; xxxvi, 5, 6. It was in reference 
to the great power possessed by these men, 
who formed the legislative assembly of the 
nation, that Josephus pronounced the govern, 
ment to be aristocratical. But from the cir- 
cumstance that the people possessed so much 
influence, as to render it necessary to submit 
laws to them for their ratification, and that 
they even took upon themselves sometimes to 
propose laws or to resist those which were 
enacted ; from the circumstance also that the 
legislature of the nation had not the power of 



GOV 



422 



GOV 



laying taxes, and tliat the civil code was regu- 
lated and enforced by God himself, independ- 
ently of the legislature, Lowman and Michaelis 
are in favour of considering the Hebrew govern- 
ment a democracy. In support of their opinion 
such passages are exhibited as the following, 
Exodus xix, 7, 8 ; xxiv, 3-8 ; Deut. xxix, 9-14 ; 
Joshua ix, 18, 19 ; xxiii, 1, &c ; xxiv, 2, &c ; 
1 Samuel x, 24; xi, 14, 15; Num. xxvii, 1-8; 
xxxvi, 1-9. The truth seems to lie between 
these two opinions. The Hebrew government, 
putting out of view its theocratical feature, was 
of a mixed form, in some respects approach- 
ing to a democracy, in others assuming more 
of an aristocratical character. 

7. From what has been said, it is clear, that 
the Ruler and su-preme Head of the political 
community in question was God, who, with 
the design of promoting the good of his sub. 
jects, condescended to exhibit his visible pre- 
sence in the tabernacle, wherever it travelled 
and wherever it dwelt. If, in reference to the 
assertion, that God was the Ruler of the Jew- 
ish state, it should be inquired what part was 
sustained by Moses, the answer is, that God 
was the Ruler, the people were his subjects, 
and Moses was the mediator or internuncio 
between them. But the title most appropriate 
to Moses, and most descriptive of the part he 
sustained, is that of legislator of the Israelites 
and their deliverer from the Egyptians. If 
the same question should be put in respect to 
Joshua, the answer would be, that he was not 
properly the successor of Moses, and that, so 
far from being the ruler of the state, he was 
designated by the ruler to sustain the subordi- 
nate office of military leader of the Israelites in 
their conquest of the land of Canaan. 

8. But, although the Hebrew state was so 
constituted, that beside God, the invisible King, 
and his visible servant, the high priest, there 
was no other general ruler of the common- 
wealth, yet it is well known that there were 
rulers of a high rank, appointed at various 
times, called '^dv\ a word which not only sig. 
nifies a judge in the usual sense of the term, 
but any governor, or administrator of public 
affairs, 1 Sam. viii, 20 ; Isaiah xi, 4 ; 1 Kings 
iii, 9. The power lodged in these rulers, who 
are called judges in the Scriptures, seems to 
have been in some respects paramount to that 
of the general comitia of the nation, and Vv^e 
find that they declared war, led armies, con- 
cluded peace ; and that this was not the whole, 
if indeed it was the most important part, of 
their duties. For many of the judges, for 
instance, Jair, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, Eli, and 
Samuel, ruled the nation in peace. They might 
appropriately enough be called the supreme 
executive, exercising all the rights of sove- 
reignty, with the exception of enacting laws, 
and imposing taxes. They were honoured, 
but they bore no external badges of distinction ; 
they were distinguished, but they enjoyed no 
special privileges themselves, and communicat- 
ed none to their posterity. They subserved the 
public good without emolument, that the state 
might be prosperous, that religion might be 
preserved, and that God alone might be King 



in Israel, it ought to be observed, however, 
that not all the judges ruled the whole nation : 
some of them presided over only a few sepa. 
rate tribes. 

9. God, in the character of King, had go- 
verned the Israelites for sixteen ages. He 
ruled them, on the terms which he himself, 
through the agency of Moses, had proposed to 
them, namely, that if they observed their alle- 
giance to him, they should be prosperous; if 
not, adversity and misery would be the conse- 
quence, Exod. xix, 4, 5 ; xxiii., 20-33 ; Lev. 
xxvi, 3-46 ; Deut. xxviii-xxx. "We may learn 
from the whole book of Judges, and from the 
first eight chapters of Samuel, how exactly 
the result, from the days of Joshua down to 
the time of Samuel, agreed v/ith these con- 
ditions. But in the time of Samuel, the go- 
vernment, in point of form, was changed into 
a monarchy. The election of king, however, 
was committed to God, who chose one by lot : 
so that God was still the Ruler, and the king 
the vicegerent. The terms of the government, 
as respected God, were the same as before, 
and the same duties and principles were incul- 
cated on the Israelites as had been originally, 
1 Sam. viii, 7 ; x, 17-23 ; xii, 14, 15, 20-22, 
24, 25. In consequence of the fact, that Saul 
did not choose at all times to obey the com- 
mands of God, the kingdom was taken from 
him and given to another, 1 Sam. xiii, 5-14; 
XV, 1-31. David, through the agency of 
Samuel, was selected by Jehovah for king, 
who thus gave a proof that he still retained, 
and was disposed to exercise, the right of ap= 
pointing the ruler under him, 1 Samuel xvi, 
1-3. David was first made king over Judah ; 
but as he received his appointment from God, 
and acted under his authority, the other eleven 
tribes submitted to him, 2 Sam. v, 1-3; 
1 Chron. xxviii, 4-6. David expressly ac- 
knowledged God as the Sovereign, and as 
having a right to appoint the immediate ruler 
of the people, 1 Chron. xxviii, 7-10 ; he re- 
ligiously obeyed his statutes, the people 
adhered firmly to God, and his reign was 
prosperous. The paramount authority of God, 
as the King of the nation, and his right to 
appoint one who should act in the capacity of 
his vicegerent, are expressly recognized in the 
books of Kings and Chronicles. 

10. On the subversion of the Babylonian 
empire by Cyrus, the founder of the Persian 
monarchy, (B. C. 543,) he authorized the 
Jews, by an edict, to return into their own 
country, with fiiil permission to enjoy their 
laws and religion, and caused the city and 
temple of Jerusalem to be rebuilt. In the fol- 
lowing year, part of the Jews returned under 
Zerubbabel, and renewed their sacrifices : but 
the reerection of the city and temple being 
interrupted for several years by the treachery 
and hostility of the Samaritans or Cutheans, 
the avowed enemies of the Jews, the comple- 
tion and dedication of the temple did not take 
place until the year B. C. 511, six years after 
the accession of Cyrus. The rebuilding of 
Jerusalem was accomplished, and the reforma 
tion of their ecclesiastical and civil polity was 



GOV 



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GOU 



effected, by the two divinely inspired and 
pious governors, Ezra and Nehemiah ; but the 
theocratic government does not appear to have 
been restored. The new temple was not, as 
formerly, God's palace ; and the cloud of his 
presence did not take possession of it. After 
their death the Jews were governed by their 
high priests, in subjection however to the 
Persian kings, to whom they paid tribute, 
Ezra iv, 13 ; vii, 24, but with the full enjoy- 
ment of their other magistrates, as well as 
their liberties, civil and religious. Nearly 
three centuries of uninterrupted prosperity 
ensued, until the reign of Antiochus Epipha. 
nes, king of Syria, when they were most 
cruelly oppressed, and compelled to take up 
arms in their own defence. Under the able 
conduct of Judas, surnamed Maccabeus, and 
his valiant brothers, the Jews maintained a 
religious war for twenty-six years with five 
successive kings of Syria ; and after destroy- 
ing upward of two hundred thousand of their 
best troops, the Maccabees finally established 
the independence of their own country and 
the aggrandizement of their family. This 
illustrious house, whose princes united the 
regal and pontifical dignity in their own per- 
sons, administered the affairs of the Jews 
during a period of one hundred and twenty- 
six years ; until, disputes arising between 
Hyrcanus II, and his brother Aristobulus, the 
latter was defeated by the Romans under 
Pompey, who captured Jerusalem, and reduced 
Judea to dependence, B. C. 59. 

GOVERNOR. Judea having been reduced 
into a province by the Romans, they sent go- 
vernors thither, who were subject not only to 
the emperors, but also to the governors of 
Syria, whereof Judea made a part. 

GOURD, ^vp^p, Jonah iv, 6, 7, 9, 10. Mi- 
chaelis, in his remarks on this subject, says, 
'* Celsius appears to me to have proved that it 
is the kiki of the Egyptians." He refers it to 
the class of the ricinus, the great catapucus. 
According to Dioscorides, it is of rapid growth, 
and bears a berry from which an oil is express. 
ed. In the Arabic version of this passage, 
which is to be found in Avicenna, it is ren- 
dered, " from thence is pressed the oil which 
they call oil of kiki, which is the oil of Alke- 
roa." So Herodotus says : " The inhabitants 
of the marshy grounds in Egypt make use of 
an oil, which they term the kiki, expressed 
from the Sillicyprian plant. In Greece this 
plant springs spontaneously, without any cul- 
tivation ; but the Egyptians sow it on the 
banks of the river and of the canals ; it there 
produces fruit in great abundance, but of a 
very strong odour. When gathered, they ob- 
tain from it, either by friction or pressure, an 
unctuous liquid, which diffuses an offensive 
smell, but for burning it is equal in quality to 
the oil of olives." This plant rises with a 
strong herbaceous stalk to the height of ten 
or twelve feet; and is furnished with very 
large leaves, not unlike those of the plane 
tree. Rabbi Kimchi says that the people of 
the east plant them before their shops for the 
Bake of the shade, and to refresh themselves 



under them. Niebuhr says, •' I saw, for the 
first time at Basra, the plant ei-keroa, men- 
tioned in Michaelis's ' QuestioHS.' It has the 
form of a tree. The trunk appeared to me 
rather to resemble leaves than wood ; never- 
theless, it is harder than that which bears the 
Adam's fig. Each branch of the keroa has 
but one large leaf, with six or seven foldings 
in it. This plant was near to a rivulet, which 
watered it amply. At the end of October, 
17G5, it had risen in five months' time about 
eight feet, and bore at once flowers and fruit, 
ripe and unripe. Another tree of this species, 
which had not had so much water, had not 
grown more in a whole year. The flowers 
and leaves of it which I gathered withered in 
a few minutes ; as do all plants of a rapid 
growth. This tree is called at Aleppo, palma 
Christi. An oil is made from it called oleum 
de keroa ; oleum cicinum ; oleum ficus inf emails. 
The Christians and Jews of Mosul (Nineveh) 
say, it was not the keroa whose shadow re- 
freshed Jonah, but a sort of gourd, el-kera, 
which has very large leaves, very large fruit, 
and lasts but about four months." The epi- 
thet which the prophet uses in speaking of the 
plant, " son of the night it was, and, as a 
son of the night it died," does not compel us 
to believe that it grew in a single night, but, 
either by a strong oriental figure that it was 
of rapid growth, or akin to night in the shade 
it spread for his repose. The figure is not 
uncommon in the east, and one of our own 
poets has called the rose " child of the sura- 
mer." Nor are we bound to take the expres- 
sion " on the morrow," as strictly importing 
the very next day, since the word has refer- 
ence to much more distant time, Exod. xiii, 
14 ; Deut. vi, 20 ; Joshua iv, 6. It might be 
simply taken as afterward. But the author of 
"Scripture Illustrated" justly remarks, "As 
the history in Jonah expressly says, the Lord 
prepared this plant, no doubt we may conceive 
of it as an extraordinary one of its kind, re. 
markably rapid in its growth, remarkably hard 
in its stem, remarkably vigorous in its branch- 
es, and remarkable for the extensive spread of 
its leaves and the deep gloom of their shadow ; 
and, after a certain duration, remarkable for a 
sudden withering, and a total uselessness to 
the impatient prophet." 

2. We read of the wild gourd in 2 Kings iv, 
39 ; that Elisha, being at Gilgal during a 
great famine, bade one of his servants prepare 
something for the entertainment of the pro- 
phets who were in that place. The servant, 
going into the field, found, as our transla. 
tors render it, some wild gourds, gathered a 
lapful of them, and, having brought them with 
him, cut them in pieces and put them into a 
pot, not knowing what they were. When 
they were brought to table, the prophets, hav- 
ing tasted them, thought they were mortal 
poison. Immediately, the man of God called 
for flour, threw it into the pot, and desired 
them to eat without any apprehensions. They 
did so, and perceived nothing of the bitter, 
ness whereof they were before sensible. This 
plant or fruit is called in Hebrew niypD and 



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Q>j'pB. There have been various opinions 
about it. Celsius supposes it the colocynth. 
The leaves of the plant are large, placed alter- 
nate ; the flowers white, and the fruit of the 
gourd kind, of the size of a large apple, which, 
when ripe, is yellow, and of a pleasant and in- 
viting appearance, but, to the taste intolerably- 
bitter, and proves a drastic purgative. It 
seems tliat the fruit, whatever it might have 
been, was early thought proper for an orna- 
ment in architecture. It furnished a model 
for some of the carved work of cedar in Solo- 
mon's temple, 1 Kings vi, 18 ; vii, 24. 

GRACE. This word is understood in se- 
veral senses : for beauty, graceful form, and 
agreeableness of person, Prov. i, 9 ; iii, 22. 
For favour, friendship, kindness. Gen. vi, 8 ; 
xviii, 3 ; Rom. xi, 6 ; 2 Tim. i, 9. For par- 
don, mercy, undeserved remission of offences, 
Eph. ii, 5; Col. i, 6. For certain gifts of 
God, which he bestows freely, when, Avhere, 
and on whom, he pleases ; such are the gifts 
of miracles, prophecy, languages, &c, Rom. 
XV, 15 ; 1 Cor. xv, 10 ; Eph. iii, 8, &c. For 
the Gospel dispensation, in contradistinction 
to that of the law, Rom. vi, 14; 1 Peter v, 12. 
For a liberal and charitable disposition, 2 Cor. 
viii, 7. For eternal life, or final salvation, 1 
Peter i, 13. In theological language grace 
also signifies divine influence upon the soul ; 
and it derives the name from this being the 
effect of the great grace or favour of God to 
mankind. Austin defines inward actual grace 
to be the inspiration of love, which prompts 
us to practise according to what we know, 
out of a religious affection and compliance. 
He says, likewise, that the grace of God is 
the blessing of God's sweet influence, whereby 
we are induced to take pleasure in that which 
he commands, to desire and to love it ; and 
that if God does not prevent us with this bless, 
ing, what he commands, not only is not per- 
fected, but is not so much as begun in us. 
Without the inward grace of Jesus Christ, 
man is not able to do the least thing that is 
good. He stands in need of this grace to be- 
gin, continue, and finish all the good he does, 
or rather, which God does in him and with 
him, by his grace. This grace is free ; it is 
not due to us : if it were due to us, it would 
be no more grace ; it would be a debt, Rom. 
xi, 6 ; it is in its nature an assistance so power- 
ful and efficacious, that it surmounts the obsti- 
nacy of the most rebellious human heart, with- 
out destroying human liberty. There is no 
subject on which Christian doctors have writ- 
ten so largely, as on the several particulars 
relating to the grace of God, The difificulty 
consists in reconciling human liberty with the 
operation of divine grace ; the concurrence of 
man with the influence and assistance of the 
Almighty. And who is able to set up an ac- 
curate boundary between these two things ? 
Who can pretend to know how far the privi- 
leges of grace extend over the heart of man, 
and what that man's liberty exactly is, who is 
prevented, enlightened, moved, and attracted 
by grace ? 

GRAPE, 3jy, the fruit of the vine. There 



were fine vineyards and excellent grapes in 
the promised land. The bvinch of grapes 
which was cut in the valley of Eshcol, and 
was brought upon a staff between two men to 
the camp of Israel at Kadeshbarnea, Num. xiii, 
23, may give us some idea, of the largeness oi 
the fruit in that country. It would be easy to 
produce a great number of witnesses to prove 
that the grapes in those regions grow to a pro- 
digious size. By Calmet, Scheuchzer, and 
Harmer, this subject has been exhausted. 
Doubdan assures us, that in the valley of Esh- 
col were clusters of grapes to be found often or 
twelve pounds. Moses, in the law, commanded 
that when the Israelites gathered their grapes, 
they should not be careful to pick up those 
that fell, nor be so exact as to leave none upon 
the vines : what fell, and what were left be- 
hind, the poor had liberty to glean. Lev. xix, 
10 ; Deut. xxiv, 21, 22. For the same bene- 
ficent purpose the second vintage was re- 
served : this, in those warm countries, was 
considerable, though never so good nor so 
plentiful as the former. The wise son of 
Sirach says, " I waked up last of all, as one 
that gleaneth after grape gatherers. By the 
blessing of the Lord, I profited, and filled my 
wine-press like a gatherer of grapes," Ecclus, 
xxxiii, 16. It is frequent in Scripture to de- 
scribe a total destruction by the similitude of 
a vine, stripped in such a manner, that there 
was not a bunch of grapes left of those who 
came to glean. The prophecy, "He shall 
wash his clothes in wine, and his garments in 
the blood of the grape," Gen. xlix, 11, means 
that he shall reside in a country where grapes 
were in abundance. The vineyards of Engedi 
and of Sorek, so famous in Scripture, were in 
the tribe of Judah ; and so was the valley of 
Eshcol, whence the spies brought those extra- 
ordinary clusters. " It appears," says Manti, 
"that the cultivation of the vine was never 
abandoned in this country. The grapes, which 
are white, and pretty large, are, however, not 
much superior in size to those of Europe, 
This peculiarity seems to be confined to those in 
this neighbourhood ; for at the distance of only 
six miles to the south, is the rivulet and valley 
ctilled Escohol, celebrated in Scripture for its 
fertility, and for producing very large grapes. 
In other parts of Syria, also, I have seen grapes 
of such an extraordinary size, that a bunch of 
them would be a sufficient burden for one man. 
It is not at all surprising, therefore, that when 
the spies, sent by Moses to reconnoitre the pro- 
mised land, returned to give him an account 
of its fertility, it required two of them to carry 
a bunch of grapes, which they brought with 
them suspended from a pole placed upon their 
shoulders." Many eye witnesses assure us, 
that in Palestine the vines, and bunches of 
grapes, are almost of an incredible size, "At 
Beidtdjin," says Schultz, a "village near Pto- 
lemais, we took our supper under a large vine, 
the stem of which was nearly a foot and a half 
in diameter, the height about thirty feet, and 
covered with its branches and shoots (for the 
shoots must be supported) a hut of more than 
fifty feet long and broad. The bunches of 



GRA 



425 



GRA 



these gTapea are so large that tliey weigh from 
ten to twelve pounds, and the grapes may be 
compared to our plumbs. Such a bunch is 
cut off and laid on a board, round which they 
seat themselves, and each helps himself to as 
many as he pleases." Forster, in his Hebrew 
Dictionary, (under the word Eshcol,) says, that 
he knew at Nurnburg, a monk of the name of 
Acacius, who had resided eight years in Pales- 
tine, and had also preached at Hebron, where 
he had seen bunches of grapes which were as 
much as two men could conveniently carry. 

The wild grapes, oiii'Xa, are the fruit of the 
wild or bastard vine ; sour and unpalatable, 
and good for nothing but to make verjuice. In 
Isaiah v, 2-4, the Lord complains that he had 
planted his people as a choice vine, excellent 
as that of Sorek ; but that its degeneracy had 
defeated his purpose, and disappointed his 
hopes : when he expected that It should bring 
forth choice fruit, it 5'^ielded only such as was 
bad ; not merely useless and unprofitable grapes, 
but clusters offensive and noxious. By the 
force and intent of the allegory, says Bishop 
Lowth, " good grapes" ought to be opposed 
" to fruit of a dangerous and pernicious quali- 
ty," as, in the application of it, to judgment is 
opposed tyranny, and to righteousness oppres- 
sion. Hasselquist is inclined to believe that 
the prophet here means the solanum incanum, 
'Mioary nightshade," because it is common in 
Egypt and Palestine, and the Arabian name 
agrees well with it. The Arabs call it aneh el 
dib, " wolf's gTapes." The prophet could not 
have found a plant more opposite to the vine 
than this ; for it grows much in the vineyards, 
and is very pernicious to them. It is likewise 
a vine. Jeremiah uses the same image, and 
applies it to the same purpose, in an elegant 
paraphrase of this part of Isaiah's parable, in 
his flowing and plaintive manner : "I planted 
thee a Sorek, a scion perfectly genuine. How 
then art thou changed, and become to me the 
degenerate shoot of a strange vine !" Jer. ii, 21. 
From some sort of poisonous fruits of the 
grape kind, Moses, Deut. xxxii, 32, 33, has 
taken those strong and highly poetical images 
with which he has set forth the future corrup- 
tion and extreme degeneracy of the Israelites, 
in an allegory which has a near relation, both 
in its subject and imagery, to this of Isaiah : — 

" Their vine is from the vine of Sodom, 
And from the fields of Gomorrah. 
Their grapes are grapes of gall ; 
And their clusters are bitter. 
Their wine is the poison of dragons, 
And the deadly venom of aspics." 

GRASS, Niy-,, Gen. i, 11, the well known 
vegetable upon which flocks and herds feed, 
and which decks our fields, and refreshes our 
sight with its grateful verdure. Its feeble frame 
and transitory duration are mentioned in Scrip- 
ture as emblematic of the frail condition and 
fleeting existence of man. The inspired poets 
draw this picture with such inimitable beauty 
as the laboured elegies on mortality of ancient 
and modern times have never surpassed. See 
Psalm xc, 6, and particularly Isaiah xl, 6-8 : 
'•The voice said, Cry! And he said. What 



shall I cry ? All flesh is grass, and all the 
goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. 
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, be- 
cause the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. 
Verily this people is grass. The grass wither- 
eth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our 
God shall stand for ever." As, in their decay, 
the herbs of the fields strikingly illustrate the 
shortness of human life, so, in the order of 
their growth, from seeds dead and buried, 
they give a natural testimony to the doctrine 
of a resurrection. The Prophet Isaiah, and 
the Apostle Peter, both speak of bodies rising 
from the dead, as of so many seeds springing 
from the ground to renovated existence and 
beauty, although they do not, as some have 
absurdly supposed, consider the resurrection 
as in any sense analogous to the process of 
vegetation, Isaiah xxvi, 19 ; 1 Peter i, 24, 25. 

It is a just remark of Grotius, that the He- 
brews ranked the whole vegetable system un- 
der two classes, y^, and oa?;?. The first is 
rendered ^vXov, or SivSpoi', tree: to express the 
second, the LXX have adopted x6pT0i, as their 
common way to translate one Hebrew word 
by one Greek word, though not quite proper, 
rather than by a circumlocution. It is accord- 
ingly used in their version of Genesis i, 11, 
where the distinction first occurs, and in most 
other places. Nor is it with greater propriety 
rendered grass in English than xop'""? i^ Greek. 
The same division occurs in Matt, vi, 30, and 
Rev. viii, 7, where our translators have in like 
manner had recourse to the term grass. Dr. 
Campbell prefers and uses the word herbage, 
as coming nearer the meaning of the sacred 
writer. Under the name herb is comprehend- 
ed every sort of plaat which has not, like 
trees and shrubs, a perennial stalk. That 
many, if not all, sorts of shrubs were included 
by the Hebrews under the denomination, tree, 
is evident from Jotham's apologue of the trees 
choosing a king. Judges ix, 7, where the 
bramble is mentioned as one. See Hay. 

GRASSHOPPER, 3jn, Lev. xi, 22 ; Num. 
xiii, 33 ) 2 Chron. vii, 13 ; Eccles. xii, 5 ; Isaiah 
xl, 22 ; 2 Esdras iv, 24 ; Wisdom xvi, 9 ; Eccles. 
xliii, 17. Bochart supposes that this species 
of the locust has its name from the Arabic verb 
hajaba, " to veil," because, when they fly, as 
they often do, in great swarms, they eclipse 
even the light of the sun. " But I presume," 
says Parkhurst, " this circumstance is not pecu- 
liar to any particular kind of locust : I should 
rather, therefore, think it denotes the cucul- 
lated species, so denominated by naturalists 
from the cucullus, ' cowl' or ' hood,' with which 
they are furnished, and which distinguishes 
them from the other kinds. In Scheuchzer 
may be seen several of this sort ; and it will 
appear that this species nearly resemble our 
grasshopper." Our translators render the He- 
brew word locust in the prayer of Solomon at 
the dedication of the temple, 2 Chron. vii, 13, 
and with propriety. But it is rendered grass- 
hopper, in Eccles, xii, 5, where Solomon,''-de- 
scribing the infelicities of old age, says, " The 
grasshopper shall be a burden." " To this in- 
sect," says Dr. Smith, " the preacher compares 



GRE 



426 



GRE 



a dry, shrunk, shrivelled, crumpling, craggy- 
old man ; his backbone sticking out, his knees 
projecting forward, his arms backward, his 
head downward, and the apophyses or bunch- 
ing parts of the bones in general enlarged. 
And from this exact likeness, without all doubt, 
arose the fable of Tithonus, who, living to 
extreme old age, was at last turned into a 
grasshopper." Dr. Hodgson, referring it to 
the custom of eating locusts, supposes it to 
imply that luxurious gratification will become 
insipid ; and Bishop Reynolds, that the lightest 
pressure of so small a creature shall be uncom- 
fortable to the aged, as not being able to bear 
any weight. Other commentators suppose the 
reference to the chirping noise of the grasshop- 
per. Which must be disagreeable to the aged 
and infirm, who naturally love quiet, and are 
commonly unable to bear much noise. It is 
probable that here, also, a kind of locust is 
meant ; and these creatures are proverbially 
loquacious. They make a loud, screaking, 
and disagreeable noise with their wings. If 
one begins, others join, and the hateful con- 
cert becomes universal. A pause then ensues, 
and, as it were, on a signal given, it again 
commences ; and in this manner they continue 
squalling for two or three hours without inter- 
mission. The Prophet Isaiah contrasts the 
grandeur and power of God, and every thing 
reputed great in this world, by a very express- 
ive reference to this insect : Jehovah sitteth 
on the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants 
are to him as grasshoppers, Isaiah xl, 22. What 
atoms and inanities are they all before him, 
who sitteth on the circle of the immense 
heavens, and views the potentates of the earth 
in the light of grasshoppers, those poor insects 
that wander over the barren heath for suste- 
nance, spend the day in insignificant chirp- 
ings, and take up their contemptible lodging 
at night on a blade of grass ! See Locust. 

GRECIA, or GREECE, both names occur- 
ring in the English Scriptures. The bounda- 
ries of the country which received this name 
differed under the different governments which 
ruled over it. Thus the Greece of the Old 
Testament is not exactly the same as that of 
the New : the former including Macedonia, 
Thessaly, .Epirus, Hellas or Greece Proper, 
and the Peloponnesus or Morea; while the 
latter excludes Macedonia, Thessaly, and Epi- 
rus. But the Romans, in the time of the 
Apostles, had, in fact, made two divisions of 
these countries. The first, which was that of 
Macedonia, included also Thessaly and Epi- 
rus ; and the other, that of Achaia, all the 
rest of Greece, which is, properly speaking, 
the Greece of the New Testament. But the 
term Greek admits of a larger interpretation, 
and applies not only to the inhabitants of 
Greece Proper, but to those of Asia Minor, 
Syria, and Egypt, over nearly the whole of 
the former of which countries, and great part 
of the two latter, Grecian colonies and the 
Grecian language had extended themselves. 
In fact, in the two books of the Maccabees, 
and in those of the New Testament, the word 
Cheek commonly implies a Gentile. 



2. The Scripture has but little reference to 
Greece till the time of Alexander, whose con- 
quests extended into Asia, where Greece had 
hitherto been of no importance. Yet that 
some intercourse was maintained with these 
countries from Jerusalem, may be inferred 
from the desire of Baasha to shut up all pas- 
sage between Jerusalem and Joppa, which 
was its port, by the building of Ramah ; and 
the anxiety of Asa to counteract his scheme, 
1 Kings XV, 2, 17. Greece was certainly in- 
tended by the Prophet Daniel under the sym- 
bol of the single-horned goat ; and it is proba- 
ble that when he calls Greece Chittim, he 
spoke the language of the Hebrew nation, 
rather than that of the Persian court. After 
the establishment of the Grecian dynasties in 
Asia, Judea could not but be considerably af- 
fected by them ; and the books of the Macca- 
bees afford proofs of this. The Roman power, 
superseding the Grecian establishments, yet 
left traces of Greek language, customs, &c, to 
the days of the Herods, when the Gospel his- 
tory commences. By the activity of the 
Apostles, and especially by that of St. Paul, 
the Gospel was propagated in those countries 
which used the Grecian dialects : hence, we 
are interested in the study of this language. 
Moreover as Greece, like all other countries, 
had its peculiar manners, we are not able to 
estimate properly an epistle written to those 
who dwell where they prevailed, without a 
competent acquaintance with the manners 
themselves, with the sentiments and reason, 
ings of those who practised them, and with 
the arguments employed in their defence by 
those who adhered to them. 

GREEK LANGUAGE. It was because of 
the wide diffusion of this language that the 
New Testament was written in Greek. Its 
diction is not, however, that of the classical 
Greek, but it was chosen, no doubt, with a 
view to greater usefulness. In the age which 
succeeded Alexander the Great, the Greek 
language underwent an internal change of a 
double nature. In part, a prosaic language of 
books was formed, ^ kolvii SiuXcktos, which was 
built on the Attic dialect, but was intermixed 
with not a few provincialisms ; but a language 
of popular intercourse was also formed, in 
which the various dialects of the different 
Grecian tribes, heretofore separate, were more 
or less mingled together, while the Macedonian 
dialect was peculiarly prominent. The latter 
language constitutes the basis of the diction 
employed by the LXX, the writers of the 
Apocrypha, and of the New Testament. The 
style of the New Testament has a considera- 
ble affinity with that of the Septuagint version 
which was executed at Alexandria, although 
it approaches somewhat nearer to the idiom of 
the Greek language ; but the peculiarities oi 
the Hebrew phraseology are discernible 
throughout : the langaage of the New Testa- 
ment being formed by a mixture of oriental 
idioms and expressions with those which are 
properly Greek. Hence it has, by some phi- 
lologers, been termed Hebraic Greek, and 
(from the Jews having acquired the Greek 



GRE 



427 



GRE 



language, rather by practice than by grammar, 
among the Greeks, in whose countries they 
resided in large communities) Hellenistic 
Greek. The propriety of this appellation was 
severely contested toward the close of the 
seventeenth, and in the early part of the 
eighteenth, century ; and numerous publica- 
tions were written on both sides of the ques- 
tion, with considerable asperity, which, to- 
gether with the controversy, are now almost 
forgotten. The dispute, however interesting 
to the philological antiquarian, is after all a 
mere " strife of words ;" and as the appellation 
of Hellenistic or Hebraic Greek is sufficiently 
correct for the purpose of characterizing the 
language of the New Testament, it is now 
generally adopted. A large proportion, how- 
ever, of the phrases and constructions of the 
New Testament is pure Greek ; that is to say, 
of the same degree of purity as the Greek 
which was spoken in Macedonia, and that in 
which Polybius wrote his Roman history. It 
should farther be noticed, that there occur in 
the New Testament, words that express both 
doctrines and practices which were utterly 
unknown to the Greeks ; and also words bear- 
ing widely different interpretations from those 
which are ordinarily found in Greek writers. 
It contains examples of all the dialects occur- 
ring in the Greek language, as the ^olic, 
Boeotic, Doric, Ionic, and especially of the 
Attic ; wiiich, being most generally in use on 
account of its elegance, pervades every book 
of the New Testament. 

2. A variety of solutions has been given to 
the question, why the New Testament was 
written in Greek. The true reason is, that it 
was the language most generally understood 
both by writers and readers ; being spoken and 
written, read and understood, throughout the 
Roman empire, and particularly in the eastern 
provinces. To the universality of the Greek 
language, Cicero, Seneca, and Juvenal bear 
ample testimony : and the circumstances of 
the Jews having long had political, civil, and 
commercial relations with the Greeks, and 
being dispersed through various parts of the 
Roman empire, as well as their having culti- 
vated the philosophy of the Greeks, of which 
we have evidence in the New Testament, all 
sufficiently account for their being acquainted 
with the Greek language. And if the eminent 
Jewish writers, Philo and Josephus, had mo- 
tives for preferring to write in Greek, there is 
no reason, at least there is no general pre- 
sumption, why the first publishers of the 
Gospel might not use the Greek language. It 
is indeed probable, that many of the common 
people were acquainted with it ; though it is 
also certain the Christian churches being in 
many countries composed chiefly of that class 
of persons, some did not understand Greek. 
But in every church, says Macknight, there 
were persons endowed with the gift of tongues, 
and of the interpretation of tongues, who 
could readily turn the Apostles' Greek epistles 
mto the language of the church to which they 
were sent. In particular, the president or the 
epiritual man, who read the Apostle's Greek 



letter to the Hebrews in their public assem- 
blies, could without any hesitation render it 
into the Hebrew language, for the edification 
of those who did not understand Greek. And 
with respect to the Jews in the provinces, 
Greek being the native language of most of 
them, this epistle was much better calculated 
for their use, written in the Greek language, 
than if it had been written in the Hebrew, 
which few of them understood. Farther, it 
was proper that all the apostolical epistles 
should be written in the Greek language, be- 
cause the different doctrines of the Gospel 
being delivered and explained in them, the 
explanation of these doctrines could with more 
advantage be compared so as to be better un- 
derstood, being expressed in one language, 
than if, in the different epistles, they had been 
expressed in the language of the churches and 
persons to whom they were sent. Now what 
should that one language be, in which it was 
proper to write the Christian revelation, but 
the Greek, which was then generally under- 
stood, and in which there were many books 
extant ; that treated of all kinds of literature, 
and on that account were likely to be pre- 
served, and by the reading of which Christians, 
in after ages, would be enabled to understand 
the Greek of the New Testament? This 
advantage none of the provincial dialects used 
in the Apostles' days could pretend to. Being 
limited to particular countries, they were soon 
to be disused ; and few (if any) books being 
written in them which merited to be preserved, 
the meaning of such of the Apostles' letters as 
were composed in the provincial languages 
could not easily have been ascertained. 

GREEK CHURCH. As the Gospel spread 
in the first ages both east and west, the first 
Christian churches were so denominated. 
From the languages respectively used in their 
devotions, they were also called the Greek'' 
and Latin or Roman churches. For the first 
seven centuries these churches preserved a 
friendly communion with each other, notwith- 
standing they disagreed as to the time of keep, 
ing Easter, and some other points. But 
about the middle of the eighth century, dis- 
putes arose, which terminated in a schism, 
that continues to this day. It arose out of a 
controversy respecting the use of images in 
the churches. It happened that at this time 
both churches were under prelates equally 
dogmatical and ambitious. The patriarch of 
Constantinople insisted on putting down the 
use of all images and pictures, not only in his 
own church, but at Rome also, which the pope 
resented with equal violence and asperity. 
They mutually excommunicated each other; 
and the pope of Rome excommunicated not 
only the patriarch of Constantinople, but the 
emperor also. The controversy respecting 
images engendered another, no less bitter, 
respecting the procession of the Holy Ghost 
both from the Father and the Son, which the 
Greeks flatly denied, and charged the Romans 
with interpolating the word filioque into the an- 
cient creeds. These controversies occupied 
the eighth and ninth centuries, after which 



GRE 



428 



GRO 



some intervals of partial peace occurred ; but 
in the eleventh century, the flame broke out 
afresh, and a total separation took place. At 
that time, the Patriarch Michael Cerularius, 
who was desirous to free himself from the 
papal authority, published an invective against 
the Latin church, and accused its members of 
maintaining various errors. Pope Leo retorted 
the charge, and sent legates from Rome to 
Constantinople. The Greek patriarch refused 
to see them ; upon which they excommuni- 
cated him and his adherents, publicly, in the 
church of St. Sophia, A. D. 1054. The Greek 
patriarch excommunicated those legates, with 
all their adherents and followers, in a public 
council ; and procured an order of the emperor 
for burning the act of excommunication which 
they had pronounced against the Greeks. Thus 
the separation was completed, and at this day 
a very considerable part of the world profess 
the religion of the Greek ox eastern church. 
The Nicene and Athanasian creeds, with the 
exception of the words above-mentioned, are 
the symbols of their faith. 

2. The principal points which distinguish 
the Greek church from the Latin, are as fol- 
lows : they maintain that the Holy Ghost 
proceeds from the Father only, and not from 
the Father and Son. They disown the au- 
thority of the pope, and deny that the church 
of Rome is the only true catholic church. 
They do not affect the character of infallibility, 
and utterly disallow works of supererogation, 
and indulgences. They admit of prayers and 
services for the dead, as an ancient and pious 
custom ; but they will not admit the doctrine 
of purgatory, nor determine any thing dog- 
matically concerning the state of departed 
souls. In baptism they practise triune im- 
mersion, or dip three times ; but some, as the 
Georgians, defer the baptism of their children 
till they are three, four, or more years of age. 
The chrism, or baptismal unction, immediately 
follows baptism. This chrism, solemnly con- 
secrated on Maunday Thursday, is called the 
unction with ointment, and is a mystery pe- 
culiar to the Greek communion, holding the 
place of confirmation in that of the Roman : 
it is styled, " the seal of the gifl of the Holy 
Ghost." They administer the Lord's Supper 
in both kinds, dipping the bread in the cup of 
wine, in which a small portion of warm water 
is also inserted. They give it both to the 
clergy and laity, and to children after baptism. 
They exclude confirmation and extreme unc- 
tion out of the number of sacraments ; but 
they use the holy oil, which is not confined to 
persons in the close of life, like extreme unc- 
tion, but is administered, if required, to all 
sick persons. Three priests, at least, are 
required to administer this sacrament, each 
priest, in his turn, anointing the sick person, 
and praying for his recovery. They deny 
auricular confession to be a divine command ; 
but practise confession attended with abso- 
lution, and sometimes penance. Though they 
believe in transubstantiation, or rather con- 
substantiation, they do not worship the ele- 
ments. They pay a secondary kind of adoration 



to the virgin and other saints. They do not 
admit of images or figures in bas-relief, or em- 
bossed work ; but use paintings and silver 
shrines. They admit matrimony to be a sa- 
crament, and celebrate it with great formality. 
Their secular clergy, under the rank of bishops, 
are allowed to marry once, and laymen twice ; 
but fourth marriages they hold in abomination. 
They observe a great number of holy days, and 
keep four fasts in the year more solemn than 
the rest, of which Good Friday is the chief. 

3. The service of the Greek church is too 
long and complicated to be particularly de- 
scribed in this work ; the greater part consists 
in psalms and hymns. Five orders of priest, 
hood belong to the Greek church ; namely, 
bishops, priests, deacons, sub-deacons, and 
readers ; which last includes singers, Sic. The 
episcopal order is distinguished by the titles 
of metropolitan, archbishops, and bishops. 
The head of the Greek church, the patriarch 
of Constantinople, is elected by twelve bishops, 
who reside nearest that famous capital. This 
prelate calls councils by his own authority to 
govern the church. The other patriarchs are 
those of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria, 
all nominated by the patriarch of Constanti- 
nople, who enjoys a most extensive jurisdic- 
tion. For the administration of ecclesiastical 
affairs, a synod, convened monthly, is com- 
posed of the heads of the church resident in 
Constantinople. In this assembly, the patri- 
arch of Constantinople presides, with those 
of Antioch and Jerusalem, and twelve arch- 
bishops. In regard to discipline and worship, 
the Greek church has the same division of the 
clergy into regular and secular, the same spi- 
ritual jurisdiction of bishops and their officials, 
the same distinction of ranks and offices, with 
the church of Rome. 

4. The Greek church comprehends a con- 
siderable part of Greece, the Grecian isles, 
Wallachia, Moldavia, Egypt, Abyssinia, Nu- 
bia, Lybia, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Syria,' Ci- 
licia, and Palestine ; Alexandria, Antioch, and 
Jerusalem ; the whole of the Russian empire 
in Europe ; great part of Siberia in Asia, As- 
trachan, Casan, and Georgia. 
GRIND. See Mill. 

GROVE. It is proper to observe, that in 
order the more effectually to guard the Israel- 
ites from idolatry, the blessed God, in institut- 
ing the rites of his own worship, went directly 
counter to the practice of the idolatrous na- 
tions. Thus, because they worshipped in 
groves, he expressly forbade "the planting a 
grove of trees near his altar," Deut. xvi, 21. 
Nor would he suffer his people to ofier their 
sacrifices on the tops of hills and mountains, 
as the Heathens did, but ordered that they 
should be brought to one altar in the place 
which he appointed, Deut. xii, 13, 14. And 
as for the groves, which the Canaanites had 
planted, and the idols and altars which they 
had erected on the tops of high mountains 
and hills for the worship of their gods, the 
Israelites are commanded utterly to destroy 
them, Deut. xii, 2, 3. The groves and high 
places do not seem to have been different, but 



HAB 



429 



HAB 



the 8?-me places, or groves planted on the tops 
of hills, probably round an open area, in 
which the idolatrous worship was performed, 
as may be inferred from the following words 
of the Prophet Hosea : " They sacrifice upon 
the tops of mountains, and burn incense upon 
the hills, under oaks, and poplars, and elms," 
Hosea iv, 1 3. The use of groves for religious 
worship is generally supposed to have been as 
ancient as the patriarchal ages ; for we are 
informed, that " Abraham planted a grove in 
Beersheba, and called there on the name of 
the Lord," Gen. xxi, 33. However, it is not 
expressly said, nor can it by this passage be 
proved, that he planted the grove for any 
religious purpose ; it might only be designed 
to shade his tent. And this circumstance 
perhaps is recorded to intimate his rural way 
of living, as well as his religious character ; 
that he dwelt in a tent, under the shade of a 
grove, or tree, as the word Vsyx, eshel, may 
more properly be translated ; and in this hum- 
ble habitation led a very pious and devout life. 
The ' reason and origin of planting sacred 
groves is variously conjectured ; some imagin- 
ing it was only hereby intended to render the 
service more agreeable to the worshippers, by 
the pleasantness of the shade ; whereas others 
suppose it was to invite the presence of the 
gods. The one or the other of these reasons 
seems to be intimated in the fore-cited passage 
of Hosea : '• They burn incense under oaks, 
and poplars, and elms, because the shade 
thereof is good," Hosea iv, 13. Others con- 
ceive their worship was performed in the midst 
of groves, because the gloom of such a place 
is apt to strike a religious awe upon the mind ; 
or else, because such dark concealments suited 
the lewd mysteries of their idolatrous worship. 
Another conjecture, which seems as probable 
as any, is, that this practice began \w\i\\ the 
worship of demons, or departed souls. It was 
an ancient custom to bury the dead under 
trees, or in woods. "Deborah was buried 
under an oak, near Bethel," Genesis xxxv, 8 ; 
and the bones of Saul and Jonathan under a 
tree at Jabesh, 1 Samuel xxxi, 13, Now an 
imagination prevailing among the Heathen, 
that the souls of the deceased hover about their 
graves, or at least delight to visit their dead 
bodies, the idolaters, who paid divine honours 
to the souls of their departed heroes, erected 
images and altars for their worship in the 
same groves where they were buried ; and from 
thence it grew into a custom afterward to 
plant groves, and build temples, near the tombs 
of departed heroes, 2 Kings xxiii, 15, 16, and to 
surround their temples and altars with groves 
and trees ; and these sacred groves being con- 
stantly furnished with the images of the heroes 
or gods that were worshipped in them, a grove 
and an idol came to be used as convertible 
terms, 2 Kings xxiii, 6. 

HABAKKUK, the author of the prophecy 
bearing his name, Habakkuk i, 1, &c. Nothing 
is certainly known concerning the tribe or 
birth place of Habakkuk.- He is said to have 
prophesierl about B. C. 60.5, and to have been 



alive at the time of the destruction of Jerusa- 
lem by Nebuchadnezzar. It is generally be- 
lieved that he remained and died in Judea. 
The principal predictions contained in this 
book are, the destruction of Jerusalem, and 
the captivity of the Jews by the Chaldeans or 
Babylonians ; their deliverance from the op. 
pressor " at the appointed time ;" and the total 
ruin of the Babylonian empire. The promise 
of the Messiah is confirmed ; the overruling 
providence of God is asserted ; and the con^ 
eluding prayer, or rather hymn, recounts the 
wonders which God had Avrought for his 
people, when he led them from Egypt into 
Canaan, and expresses the most perfect con- 
fidence in the fulfilment of his promises. The 
style of Habakkuk is highly poetical, and the 
hymn in the third chapter is perhaps unrivalled 
for sublimity, simplicity, and power. 

HABITS. The dress of oriental nations, 
to which the inspired writers often allude, has 
undergone almost no change from the earliest 
times. Their stufFs were fabricated of various 
materials ; but wool was generally used in tlieir 
finer fabrics ; and the hair of goats, camels, 
and even of horses, was manufactured for 
coarser purposes, especially for sackcloth, 
which they wore in time of mourning and dis- 
tress. Sackcloth of black goat's hair was 
manufactured for mournings ; the colour and 
the coarseness of which being reckoned more 
suitable to the circumstances of the wearer, 
than the finer and more valuable texture which 
the hair of white goats supplied. This is the 
reason why a clouded sky is represented, in 
the bold figurative language of Scripture, 
as covered with sackcloth and blackness, 
the colour and dress of persons in afflic 
tion. In Egypt and Syria, they v/ore also 
fine linen, cotton, and byssus, probably fine 
muslin from India, in Hebrew V"i3, the finest 
cloth known to the ancients. In Canaan, per- 
sons of distinction were dressed in fine linen 
of Egypt ; and according to some authors, in 
silk, and rich cloth, shaded with the choicest 
colours, or, as the Vulgate calls it, with fea- 
thered work, embroidered with gold. The 
beauty of their clothes consisted in the fine- 
ness and colour of the stuffs ; and it seems, the 
colour most in use among the Israelites, as 
well as among the Greeks and Romans, was 
white, not imparted and improved by the 
dyer's art, but the native colour of the wooL 
The general use of this colovir seems to be 
recognized by Solomon in his direction : " Let 
thy garments be always white," Eccles. ix, 8, 
But garments in the native colour of the wool 
were not confined to the lower orders ; they 
were also in great esteem among persons of 
superior station, and are particularly valued 
in Scripture, as the emblem of knowledge and 
purity, gladness and victory, grace and glory. 
The priests of Baal were habited in black ; a 
colour which appears to have been peculiar to 
themselves, and which few others in those 
countries, except mourners, would choose to 
wear. Blue was a colour in great esteem 
among the Jews, and other oriental nations- 
The robe of the ephod, in the gorgeous dress 



HAB 



430 



HAB 



of the high priest, was made all of blue ; it 
was a prominent colour in the sumptuous 
hangings of the tabernacle ; and the whole 
people of Israel were required to put a fringe 
of blue upon the border of their garments, and 
on the fringe a riband of the same colour. 
The palace of Ahasuerus, the king of Persia, 
was furnished w^ith curtains of this colour, on 
a pavement of red, and blue, and white mar- 
ble ; a proof that it was not less esteemed in 
Persia than on the Jordan. And from Ezekiel 
we learn, that the Assyrian nobles were habit- 
ed in robes of this colour : " She doated on the 
Assyrians, her neighbours, which were clothed 
with blue, captains and rulers, all of them 
desirable young men." 

2. The Jewish nobles and courtiers, upon 
great and solemn occasions, appeared in scar- 
let robes, dyed, not as at present with madder, 
with cochineal, or with any modern tincture, 
but with a shrub, whose red berries give an 
orient tinge to the cloth. Crimson or vermi- 
lion, a colour, as the name imports, from the 
blood of the worm, was used in the temple of 
Solomon, and by many persons of the first 
quality ; sometimes they wore purple, the most 
sublime of all earthly colours, says Mr. Har- 
mer, having the gaudiness of red, of which it 
retains a shade, softened with the gravity of 
blue. This was chiefly dyed at Tyre, and was 
supposed to take the tincture from the liquor 
of a shell fish, anciently found in the adjacent 
sea ; though Mr. Bruce, in his Travels, inclines 
to the opinion, that the murex, or purple fish 
at Tyre, was only a concealment of their 
knowledge of cochineal, as, if the whole city 
of Tyre had applied to nothing else but fish- 
ing, they would not have coloured twenty 
yards of cloth in a year. The children of 
wealthy and noble families were dressed in 
vestments of different colours. This mark of 
distinction may be traced to the patriarchal 
age ; for Joseph was arrayed, by his indulgent 
and imprudent father, in a coat of many 
colours. A robe of divers colours was an- 
ciently reserved for the kings' daughters who 
were virgins ; and in one of these was Tamar, 
the virgin daughter of David, arrayed, when 
she was met by her brother. 

3. In these parts of the world, the fashion 
is in a state of almost daily fluctuation, and 
different fashions are not unfrequently seen 
contending for the superiority ; but in the east, 
where the people are by no means given to 
change, the form of their garments continues 
nearly the same from one age to another. The 
greater part of their clothes are long and 
flowing, loosely cast about the body, consist, 
ing only of a large piece of cloth, in the cut- 
ting and sewing of which very little art or 
industry is employed. They have more dig- 
nity and gracefulness than ours, and are better 
adapted to the burning climates of Asia. From 
the simplicity of their form, and their loose 
adaptation to the body, the same clothes might 
be worn, with equal ease and convenience, by 
many different persons. The clothes of those 
Philistines whom Samson slew at Askelon 
required no altering to fit his companions; 



nor the robe of Jonathan, to answer his friend. 
The arts of weaving and fulling seem to have 
been distinct occupations in Israel, from a very 
remote period, in consequence of the various 
and skilful operations which were necessary to 
bring their stuffs to a suitable degree of per- 
fection ; but when the weaver and the fuller 
had finished their part, the labour was nearly 
at an end ; no distinct artizan was necessary 
to make them into clothes ; every family seems 
to have made their own. Sometimes, however, 
this part of the work was performed in the 
loom ; for they had the art of weaving robes 
with sleeves all of one piece : of this kind was 
the coat which our Saviour wore during his 
abode with men. The loose dresses of these 
countries, when the arm is lifted up, expose its 
whole length : to this circumstance the Prophet 
Isaiah refers : " To whom is the arm of the Lord 
revealed ?" that is, uncovered : who observes 
that he is about to exert the arm of his power ? 
4. The chosen people were not allowed to 
wear clothes of any materials or form they 
chose ; they were forbidden by their law to 
wear a garment of woollen and linen. This 
law did not prevent them from wearing many 
different substances together, but only these 
two ; nor did the prohibition extend to the 
wool of camels and goats, (for the hair oi' 
these animals they called by the same name,) 
but only to that of sheep. It was lawful for 
any man who saw an Israelite dressed in such 
a garment to fall upon him and put him to 
death. In the opinion of Maimonides, this 
was principally intended as a preservative from 
idolatry; for the Heathen priests of those 
times wore such mixed garments of woollen 
and linen, in the superstitious hope, it was 
imagined, of having the beneficial influence of 
some lucky conjunction of the planets or stars, 
to bring down a blessing upon their sheep and 
their flax. The second restraint referred to 
the sexes, of which one was not to wear the 
dress appropriated to the other. This practice 
is said to be an abomination to the Lord; 
which plainly intimates that the law refers to 
some idolatrous custom, of which Moses and 
the prophets always spoke in terms of the 
utmost abhorrence. Nothing, indeed, was 
more common among the Heathen, in the 
worship of some of their false deities, than for 
the males to assist in women's clothes, and the 
females in the dress appropriated to men; in 
the worship of Venus, in particular, the women 
appeared before her in armour, and the men in 
women's apparel ; and thus the words literally 
run in the original Scriptures, " Women shall 
not put on the armour of a man, nor a man 
the stole of a woman." Maimonides says he 
found this precept in an old magical book, 
"That men ought to stand before the star of 
Venus in the flowered garments of women, and 
women to put on the armour of men before 
the star of Mars." But whatever there may 
be in these observations, it is certain that, if 
there were no distinction of sexes made by 
their habits, there would be danger of involv- 
ing mankind in all manner of licentiousness 
and impurity. 



HAG 



431 



HAG 



5. The ancient Jews very seldom wore any 
covering upon the head, except when they 
were in mourning, or worshipping in the tern- 
pie, or in the synagogue. To pray with the 
head covered, was, in their estimation, a higher 
mark of respect for the majesty of heaven, as 
it indicated the conscious unworthiness of 
the suppliant to lift up his eyes in the divine 
presence. To guard themselves from the 
wind or the storm, or from the still more fatal 
stroke of the sun-beam, to which the general 
custom of walking bare headed particularly ex- 
posed them, they wrapped their heads in their 
mantles, or upper garments. But during their 
long captivity in Babylon, the Jews began to 
wear turbans, in compliance with the customs 
of their conquerors ; for Daniel informs us, 
that his three friends were cast into the fiery 
furnace with their hats, or, as the terra should 
be rendered, their turbans. It is not, how- 
ever, improbable, that the bulk of the nation 
continued to follow their ancient custom ; and 
that the compliance ^prevailed only among 
those Jews who were connected with the 
Babylonish court ; for many ages after that, 
we find Antiochus Epiphanes introducing the 
habits and fashions of the Grecians among the 
Jews ; and as the history of the Maccabees 
relates, he brought the chief young men under 
his subjection, and made them wear a hat, or 
turban. Their legs were generally bare ; and 
they never wore any thing upon the feet, but 
soles fastened in different ways, according to 
the taste or fancy of the wearer. 

HADAD, son to the king of East Edom, 
was carried into Egypt by his father's serv- 
ants, when Joab, general of David's troops, 
extirpated the males of Edom. Hadad was 
then a child. The king of Egypt gave him a 
house, lands, and every necessary subsistence, 
and married him to the sister of Tahpenes, his 
queen. By her he had a son, named Genu, 
bath, whom Queen Tahpenes educated in Pha- 
raoh's house with the king's children. Hadad 
being informed that David was dead, and that 
Joab was killed, desired leave to return into 
his own country. Pharaoh wished to detain 
him, but at last permitted his return to Edom. 
Here he began to raise disturbances against 
Solomon ; but the Scripture does not mention 
particulars. Josephus says, that Hadad did 
not return to Edom till long after the death 
of David, when Solomon's affairs began to 
decline, by reason of his impieties. He also 
observes, that, not being able to engage the 
Edomites to revolt, because of the strong gar- 
risons which Solomon had placed there, Hadad 
got together such people as were willing, and 
carried them to Razon, then in rebellion against 
Hadadezer, king of Syria. Razon received 
Hadad with joy, and assisted him in conquer- 
ing part of Syria, where he reigned, and from 
whence he insulted Solomon's territories. 

HAGAR. After ten years' residence in the 
land of Canaan, Abram, by the persuasion of 
his wife, who had been barren heretofore, and 
now despaired of bearing children herself 
when she was seventy-five years old, took, as 
a second wife, or concubine, her handmaid. 



Hagar, an Egyptian. When Hagar conceived, 
she despised her mistress, who dealt hardly 
with her, Abram giving her up to his wife's 
discretion ; so that she fled toward Egypt 
from the face of her mistress, but was stopped 
in her flight by the angel of the Lord, who 
foretold that she should bear a son called Ish- 
mael, because the Lord heard her affiiction, 
and that his race should be numerous, warlike, 
and unconquered ; a prediction, as seen under 
the article Arabia, remarkably fulfilled to the 
present day. Abram was eighty-six years old 
when Hagar bare Ishmael. When Isaac was 
weaned, Ishmael, the son of Hagar, who was 
now about fifteen years of age, offended Sarah 
by some mockery or ill treatment of Isaac ; 
the original word signifies elsewhere, " to 
skirmish," or "fight," 2 Samuel ii, 14; and 
St. Paul represents Ishmael as "persecuting" 
him. Gal. iv, 29. Sarah therefore complained 
to Abraham, and said, " Cast out this bond- 
woman and her son, for the son of this bond, 
woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. 
And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's 
sight, because of his son Ishmael ;" but God 
approved of Sarah's advice, and again excluded 
Ishmael from the special covenant of grace : 
" For in Isaac shall thy seed be called : never- 
theless, the son of the bond-woman will I 
make a nation also, because he is thy seed." 
God renewed this promise also to Hagar, 
during her wanderings in the wilderness of 
Beersheba, when she despaired of support : 
" Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine 
hands, for I will make him a great nation. 
And God was with the lad, and he grew, and 
dwelt in the wilderness of Paran, and became 
an archer. And his mother took him a wife 
out of the land of Egypt." See Abraham and 
Ishmael. 

We do not know when Hagar died. The 
rabbins say she was Pharaoh's daughter ; 
but Chrysostom asserts that she was one of 
those slaves which Pharaoh gave to Abraham, 
Gen. xii, 16. The Chaldee paraphrasts, and 
many of the Jews, believe Hagar and Keturah 
to be the same person ; but this is not credi- 
ble. Philo thinks that Hagar embraced Abra- 
ham's religion, which is very probable. The 
Mussulmans and Arabians, who are descended 
from Ishmael, the son of Hagar, speak mightily 
in her commendation. They call her in emi- 
nency, Mother Hagar, and maintain that she 
was Abraham's lawful wife ; the mother of 
Ishmael, his eldest son ; who, as such, possess, 
ed Arabia, which very much exceeds, say they, 
both in extent and riches, the land of Canaan, 
which was given to his younger son Isaac. ^ 

HAGARENES, the descendants of Ish- 
mael : called also Ishmaelites and Saracens, or 
Arabians, from their country. Their name, 
Saracens, is not derived, as some have thought, 
from Sarah, Abraham's wife, but from the He- 
brew saraJc, which signifies " to rob" or "to 
steal ;" because they mostly carry on the trade 
of thieving : or from Sahara, the desert ; Sara, 
cens, inhabitants of the desert. But some 
writers think Hagarene imports south, con- 
formably to the Arabic ; hence Hagar, that is, 



HAI 



432 



HAM 



the southern woman ; and Mount Sinai is 
called Hagar, that is, the southern mountain, 
Gal. iv, 25. But there seems also to have been 
a particular tribe who bore this name more 
exclusively, as the Hagarenes are sometimes 
mentioned in Scripture distinct from the Ish- 
raaelites. Psalm Ixxxiii, 6; 1 Chron. v, 19. 

HAGGAI was one of the Jews who return, 
ed with Zerubbabel to Jerusalem in conse- 
quence of the edict of Cyrus ; and it is believed 
that he was born during the captivity, and 
that he was of the sacerdotal race. His pro- 
phecy consists of four distinct revelations, all 
which took place in the second year of Darius, 
king of Persia, B. C. 520. The prophet re- 
proves the people for their delay in building 
the temple of God, and represents the unfruit- 
ful seasons which they had experienced as a 
divine punishment for this neglect. He ex- 
horts them to proceed in the important work ; 
and by way of encouragement predicts, that 
the glory of the second temple, liowever infe- 
rior in external magnificence, shall exceed that 
of the first ; which was accomplished by its 
being honoured with the presence of the Sa- 
viour of mankind. He farther urges the com- 
pletion of the temple by promises of divine 
favour, and under the type of Zerubbabel he is 
supposed by some to foretel the great revolu. 
tions which shall precede the second advent of 
Christ. The style of Haggai is in general 
plain and simple ; but in some passages it rises 
to a considerable degree of sublimity. 

HAIR. The eastern females wear their hair, 
which the prophet emphatically calls the " in- 
strument of their pride," very long, and divided 
into a great number of tresses. In Barbary, 
the ladies all affect to have their hair hang 
down to the ground, which, after they have 
collected into one lock, they bind and plait 
with ribands. Where nature has been less 
liberal in its ornaments, the defect is supplied 
by art, and foreign is procured to be inter- 
woven with the natural hair. The Apostle's 
remark on this subject corresponds entirely 
with the custom of the east, as well as with 
the original design of the Creator : "Does not 
even nature itself teach you, that, if a man 
have long hair, it is a shame unto him ? But 
if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to 
her ; for her hair is given her for a covering," 
1 Cor. xi, 14. The men in the east, Chardin 
observes, are shaved ; the women nourish their 
hair with great fondness, which tliey lengthen 
by tresses, and tufts of silk down to the heels. 
But among the Hebrews the men did not shave 
their heads; they wore their natural hair, 
though not long ; and it is certain that they 
W6re, at a very remote period, initiated in the 
art of cherishing and beautifying the hair with 
fragrant ointments. The head of Aaron was 
anointed with a precious oil, compounded after 
the art of the apothecary ; and in proof that 
they had already adopted the practice, the con- 
gregation were prohibited, under pain of being 
cut off, to make any other like it, after the 
composition of it, Exod. xxx, 32, 33. The 
royal Psalmist alludes to the same custom in 
the twcnty.third Psalm : " Thou anointest my 



head with oil." We may infer from the direc- 
tion of Solomon, that the custom had at leaet 
become general in his time : '• Let thy garments 
be always white, and let thy head lack no oint- 
ment," Eccles. ix, 8. After the hair is plaited 
and perfumed, the eastern ladies proceed to 
dress their heads, by tying above the lock into 
which they collect it, a triangular piece of 
linen, adorned with various figures in needle, 
work. This, among persons of better fashion, 
is covered with a sarmah, as they call it, which 
is made in the same triangular shape, of thin 
flexible plates of gold or silver, carefully cut 
through, and engraven in imitation of lace, 
and might therefore answer to 0>j"inB'n, the 
moonlike ornament mentioned by the prophet 
in his description of the toilette of a Jewish 
lady, Isaiah iii, 18. Cutting off the hair was 
a sign of mourning, Jer. vii, 29 ; but sometimes 
in mourning they suffered it to grow long. In 
ordinary sorrows they neglected their hair ; 
and in violent paroxysms they plucked it off 
with their hands. 

John Baptist was clothed in a garment made 
of camel's hair, not with a camel's skin, as 
painters and sculptors represent him, but with 
coarse camlet made of camel's hair. The coat 
of the camel in some places yields very fine 
silk, of which are made stuffs of very great 
price ; but in general this animal's hair is hard, 
and scarcely fit for any but coarse habits, and 
a kind of hair cloth. Some are of opinion 
that camlet derives its name from the camel, 
being originally composed of the wool and hair 
of camels ; but at present there is no camel's 
hair in the composition of it, as it is commonly 
woven and sold among us. 

HAM, or CHAM, an, son of Noah, and 
brother to Shem and Japheth, is believed to 
have been Noah's youngest son. Ham, says 
Dr. Hales, signifies burnt or black, and this 
name was peculiarly significant of the regions 
allotted to his family. To the Cushites, or 
children of his eldest son, Cush, were allotted 
the hot southern regions of Asia, along the 
coasts of the Persian Gulf, Susiana or Chusis- 
tan, Arabia, &c ; to the sons of Canaan, Pa- 
lestine and Syria ; to the sons of Misraim, 
Egypt and Libya, in Africa. The Hamites, in 
general, like the Canaanites of old, were a 
sea-faring race, and sooner arrived at civiliza- 
tion and the luxuries of life than their simpler 
pastoral and agricultural brethren of the other 
two families. The first great empires of As- 
syria and Egypt were founded by them ; and 
the republics of Tyre, Sidon, and Carthage, 
were early distinguished for their commerce : 
but they sooner also fell to decay ; and Egypt, 
which was one of the first, became the last and 
"basest of the kingdoms," Ezek. xxix, 15 ; and 
has been successively in subjection to the 
Shemites, and Japhethites ; as have also the 
settlements of the other branches of the Ham- 
ites. See Canaan. 

HAMAN, son of Hammedatha, the Ama- 
lekite, of the race of Agag ; or, according to 
other copies, son of Hamadath the Bugean or 
Gogean, that is, of the race of Gog ; or it may 
be read, Haman the son of Hamadath, which 



HAN 



433 



HAN 



Haman was Bagua or Bagoas, eunuch, that, 
is, officer to the king of Persia. We have no 
proof of Haman's being an Amalekite ; but 
Esther iii, 1 ; reads of the race of Agag. In 
the apocryphal Greek, Esther ix, 24, and the 
Latin, Esther xvi, 10, lie is called a Macedo- 
nian, ani7no et gente Macedo. King Ahasue- 
rus, having taken him into favour, promoted 
him above all the princes of Ids court, who 
bent the knee to him (probably prostrated 
themselves wholly before him, as to a deity) 
when he entered the palace : this Mordecai 
the Jew declined, for which slight, Haman 
plotted the extirpation of the whole Jewish 
nation ; which was providentially prevented. 
He was hanged on a gibbet fifty cubits high, 
which he had prepared for Mordecai ; his house 
was given to Queen Esther ; and his employ- 
ments to Mordecai. His ten sons were like- 
wise executed. See Esther. 

HAMATH, a city of Syria, capital of a 
province of the same name, lying upon the 
Orontes, Joshua xiii, 5 ; Judges iii, 3 ; 2 Kings 
xiv, 25 ; 2 Chron, vii, 8. The king of Hamath 
cultivated a good understanding with David, 
2 Sam. viii, 9. This city was taken by the 
kings of Judah, and afterward retaken by the 
Syrians, and recovered from them by Jeroboam 
the Second, 2 Kings xiv, 28. 

HAND sometimes denotes the vengeance 
of God : " The hand of the Lord was heavy 
upon them of Ashdod," after they had taken 
the ark, 1 Samuel v, 6, 7. To pour water on 
any one's hands, signifies to serve him, 2 Kings 
iii, 11. To wash one's hands, denotes inno- 
cence : Pilate washed his hands to denote his 
being innocent of the blood of Jesus, Matthew 
xxvii, 24. To kiss one's hand, is an act of 
adoration, 1 Kings xix, 18. " If I beheld the 
sun when it shined, and my mouth hath kissed 
my hand," Job xxxi, 27. To fill one's hands, 
is to take possession of the priesthood, to per- 
form the functions of that ofiice ; because in 
this ceremony, those parts of the victim which 
were to be offered, were put into the hand of 
the newly created priest. Judges xvii, 5, 12 ; 

1 Kings xiii, 33. To lean upon any one's 
hand, is a mark of familiarity and superiority. 
The king of Israel had a confident on whom 
he thus leaned, 2 Kings vii, 17. The king of 
Syria leaned on the hand or arm of Naaman 
when he went up to the temple of Rimmon, 

2 Kings V, 18. To lift up one's hand, is a way 
of taking an oath which has been in use among 
all nations. To give one's hand, signifies to 
grant peace, to swear friendship, to promise 
entire security, to make alliance, 2 Kings x, 15. 
The Jews say, they were obliged to give the 
hand to the Egyptians and Assyrians, that they 
might procure bread, 2 Mace, xiii, 22 ; that is, 
to surrender to them, to submit. To stretch 
out one's hand, signifies to chastise, to exer- 
cise severity or justice, Ezek. xxv, 7. God 
delivered his people with a high hand, and arm 
stretched out ; by performing many wonders, 
and inflicting many chastisements, on the 
Egyptians. To stretch out one's hand, some- 
times denotes mercy : " I have spread out my 
hands," entreated, "all the day unto a rebel- 

29 



liou^ people," Isaiah Ixv, 2. Hand is also fre- 
quently taken for the power and impression of 
the Holy Spirit felt by a prophet : " The hand 
of the Lord was on Elijah," 1 Kings xviii, 46. 
It is said that God gave his law by the hand 
of Moses, that he spoke by the hand of pro- 
phets, &c ; that is, by their means, by them, &c. 
The right hand denotes power, strength. The 
Scripture generally imputes to God's right 
hand all the effects of his omnipotence ; " Thy 
right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the 
enemy," Exodus xv, 6. The Son of God is 
often represented as sitting at the right hand 
of his heavenly Father : "The Lord said to my 
Lord, Sit thou at my right hand," Psalm ex, 1 ; 
thou hast done thy work upon earth, now take 
possession of that sovereign kingdom and glory 
which by right belongeth unto thee ; do thou 
rule with authority and honour, as thou art 
Mediator. The right hand commonly denotes 
the south, as the left does the north ; for the 
Hebrews speak of the quarters of the worlds 
in respect of themselves, having their faces 
turned to the cast, their backs to the west, 
their right hands to the south, and their left 
to the north. For example : " Doth not David 
hide himself with us in strong holds, in the 
woods, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on 



the south of Jeshim( 



in Hebrew, " on the 



right hand of Jeshimon." The accuser was 
commonly at the right hand of the accused : 
" Let Satan stand at his right hand," Psalm 
cix, 6. And in Zech. iii, 1, Satan was at the 
right hand of the high priest Joshua, to accuse 
him. Often, in a contrary sense, to be at 
one's right hand signifies to defend, to protect, 
to support him : "I have set the Lord always 
before me ; because he is at my right hand, I 
shall not be moved," Psalm xvi, 8. To turn 
from the law of God, neither to the right hand 
nor to the left, is a frequent Scripture expres- 
sion, tlie meaning of which is, that we must 
not depart from it at all. Our Saviour, in 
Matt, vi, 3, to show with what privacy we 
should do good works, says that our left hand 
should not know what our right hand does. 
Above all things, we should avoid vanity and 
ostentation in all the good we undertake to do, 
and should not think that thereby we merit 
any thing. Laying on hands, or imposition 
of hands, is understood in different ways both 
in the Old and New Testament. It is often 
taken for ordination and consecration of priests 
and ministers, as well among the Jews as 
Christians, Num. viii, 10 ; Acts vi, 6 ; xiii, 3 ; 
1 Tim, iv, 14. It is sometimes also made use 
of to signify the establishment of judges and 
magistrates, on whom it was usual to lay 
hands when they were entrusted with these 
employments. Thus, when Moses constituted 
Joshua his successor, God appointed him to 
lay his hands upon him, Numbers xxvii, 18. 
Jacob laid his hands on Ephraim and Manas- 
seh, when he gave them his last blessing, Gen. 
xlviii, 14. The high priest stretched out his 
hands to the people, as often as he recited the 
solemn form of blessing, Lev. ix, 22. The 
Israelites, who presented sin offerings at the 
tabernacle, confessed their sins while they laid 



HAR 



434 



HAR 



their hands upon them, Lev. i, 4. This testi- 
fied that the person acknowledged himself 
worthy of death, that he laid his sins upon 
the sacrifice, that he trusted in Christ for the 
expiation of his sins, and that he devoted him- 
self to God. AVitnesses laid their hands upon 
the head of the accused person, as it w^ere to 
signify that they charged upon him the guilt 
of his blood, and freed themselves from it, Deut. 
xiii, 9 ; xvii, 7. Our Saviour laid his hands 
upon the children that were presented to him, 
and blessed them, Mark x, 16. And the Holy 
Ghost was conferred on those who were bap- 
tized by the laying on of the hands of the 
Apostles, Acts viii, 17 ; xix, 6. 

HANNAH. See Samuel. 

HARAN, the eldest son of Terah, and bro- 
ther to Abraham and Nahor. He was the 
father of Lot, Milcah, and Iscah, Gen. xi, 26, 
&c. Haran died before his father Terah. 

2. Haran, otherwise called Charran, in 
Mesopotamia, a city celebrated for having 
been the place to which Abraham removed 
first, after he left Ur, Gen. xi, 31, 32, and 
where Terah was buried. Thither it was like- 
wise that Jacob repaired to Laban, when he 
fled from Esau, Gen. xxvii, 43 ; xxviii, 10, 
&c. Haran was situated in the north-western 
part of Mesopotamia on a river of the same 
name running into the Euphrates. Mr. Kin- 
neir says, that Haran, which is still so called, 
or rather Harran, is now peopled by a few fa- 
milies of wandering Arabs, who have been led 
thither by a plentiful supply of good water from 
several small streams. It is situated in 36'^ 52' 
north latitude, and 39° 5' east longitude ; in a 
flat and sandy plain. Some think that it was 
built by Terah, or by Haran, his eldest son. 

HARE, pJJnN, Arabic arneh, Lev. xi, 6 ; 
Deut. xiv, 7. This name is derived, as Bo- 
chart and others suppose, from nix, to crop., 
and J3^J, the produce of the ground; these ani- 
mals being remarkable for devouring young 
plants and herbage. This animal resembles 
the rabbit, but is larger, and somewhat longer 
in proportion to its thickness. The hare in 
Syria, says Dr. Russel, is distinguished into 
two species, differing considerably in point of 
size. The largest is the Turkman hare, and 
chiefly haunts the plains ; the other is the 
common hare of the desert : both are abundant. 
The difficulty as to this animal is, that Moses 
says the arnaheth chews the cud, which our 
hares do not : but Aristotle takes notice of the 
same circumstance, and affirms that the struc- 
ture of its stomach is similar to that of rumi- 
nating animals. The animal here mentioned 
may then be a variety of the species. 

HAROSHETH OF THE GENTILES, a 
city supposed to be situated near Hazor, in 
the northern parts of Canaan, called afterward 
Upper Galilee, or Galilee of the Gentiles, for 
the same reason that this place probably ob- 
tained that title, namely, from being less 
inhabited by Jews, and being near the great 
resorts of the Gentiles, Tyre and Sidon. This 
is said to have been the residence of Sisera, 
the general of the armies of Jabin, king of 
Canaan, who reigned at Hazor. 



HARP, a stringed musical instrument. The 
Hebrew word kinaor, which is translated 
" harp" in our English version, very probably 
denoted all stringed instruments. By the 
Hebrews, the harp was called the pleasant 
harp ; and it was employed by them, not only 
in their devotions, but also at their entertain- 
ments and pleasures. It is probable, that the 
harp was nearly the earliest, if not the earliest, 
instrument of music. David danced when he 
played on the harp : the Levites did the same. 
Hence it appears, that it was light and porta- 
ble, and that its size was restricted within 
limits which admitted of that service, and of 
that manner of using it. 

HART, "y^a, Deut. xii, 15; xiv, 5; Psalm 
xlii, 1 ; Isaiah xxxv, 6, the stag, or male deer. 
Dr. Shaw considers its name in Hebrew as a 
generic word including all the species of the 
deer kind ; whether they are distinguished by 
round horns, as the stag ; or by flat ones, as 
the fallow deer ; or by the smallness of the 
branches, as the roe. Mr. Good observes that 
the hind and roe, the hart and the antelope, 
were held, and still continue to be, in the 
highest estimation in all the ea.stern countries, 
for the voluptuous beauty of their eyes, the 
delicate elegance of their form, or their grace- 
ful agility of action. The names of these 
animals were perpetually applied, therefore, to 
persons, whether male or female, who were 
supposed to be possessed of any of their re- 
spective qualities. In 2 Sam. i, 19, Saul is 
denominated *' the roe of Israel ;" and in the 
eighteenth verse of the ensuing chapter, we 
are told that " Asahel was as light of foot as a 
wild roe :" a phraseology perfectly synonymous 
with the epithet sivift-footed, which Homer 
has so frequently bestowed upon his hero 
Achilles. Thus again : " Her princes are like 
harts which find no pasture ; they are fled 
without strength before their pursuers," Lam. 
i, 6. "The Lord Jehovah is my strength ; he 
will make my feet like hinds' feet; he will 
cause me to tread again on my own hills," 
Hab. iii, 19. See Hind. 

HARVEST. Three months intervened be- 
tween the seed time and the first reaping, and 
a month between this and the full harvest. 
Barley is in full ear all over the Holy Land, 
in the beginning of April ; and about the mid- 
dle of the same month, it begins to turn 
yellow, particularly in the southern districts ; 
being as forward near Jericho in the latter 
end of March, as it is in the plains of Acre a 
fortnight afterward. The reaping continues 
till the middle of Sivan, or till about the end 
of May or beginning of June, which, as the 
time of wheat harvest, finislies this part of 
the husbandman's labours. 

2. The reapers in Palestine and Syria make 
use of the sickle in cutting down their crops, 
and, according to the present custom in this 
country, "fill their hand" with the corn, and 
those who bind up the sheaves, their " bosom," 
Psalm cxxix, 7 ; Ruth ii, 5. When the crop 
is thin and short, which is generally the case 
in light soils, and with their imperfect culti- 
vation, it is not reaped with tlie sickle, but 



HAR 



435 



HAt) 



plucked up by the root with the hand. By 
this mode of reaping, they leave the most 
fruitful fields as naked as if nothing had ever 
grown on them ; and as no hay is made in 
the east, this is done, that they may not lose 
any of the straw, which is necessary for the 
sustenance of their cattle. The practice of 
plucking up with the hand is perhaps referred 
to in these words of the Psalmist, to which 
reference has already been made : '' Let them 
be as the grass upon the house tops, which 
withereth afore it groweth up ; wherewith the 
mower filleth not his hand, nor he that bind- 
eth sheaves his bosom." The tops of the 
houses in Judea are flat, and, being covered 
with plaster of terrace, are frequently grown 
over with grass. As it is but small and weak, 
and from its elevation exposed to the scorch- 
ing sun, it is soon withered. A more beauti- 
ful and striking figure, to display the weak and 
evanescent condition of wicked men, cannot 
easily be conceived. 

3. The reapers go to the field very early in 
the morning, and return home betimes in the 
afternoon. They carry provisions along with 
them, and leathern bottles, or dried bottle 
gourds, filled with water. They are followed 
by their own children, or by others, who glean 
with much success, for a great quantity of 
corn is scattered in the reaping, and in their 
manner of carrying it. The greater part of 
these circumstances are discernible in the 
manners of the ancient Israelites. Ruth had 
not proposed to ]S[aomi, her mother-in-law, to 
go to the field, and glean after the reapers ; 
nor had the servant of Boaz, to whom she ap- 
plied for leave, so readily granted her request, 
if gleaning had not been a common practice 
in that country. When Boaz inquired who 
she was, his overseer, after informing him, 
observes, that she came out to the field in the 
morning ; and that the reapers left the field 
early in the afternoon, us Dr. Russel states, is 
evident from this circumstance, that Ruth had 
time to beat out her gleanings before evening. 
They carried water and provisions with them ; 
for Boaz invited her to come and drink of the 
water which the young men had drawn ; and 
at meal-time, to eat of the bread, and dip her 
morsel in the vinegar. And so great was the 
simplicity of manners in that part of the world, 
and in those times, that Boaz himself, although 
a prince of high rank in Judah, sat down to 
dinner in the field with his reapers, and helped 
Ruth with his own hand. Nor ought we to 
pass over in silence the mutual salutation of 
Boaz and his reapers, when he came to the 
field, as it strongly marks the state of religious 
feeling in Israel at the time, and furnislies 
another proof of the artless, the happy, and 
unsuspecting simplicity, which characterized 
the manners of that highly favoured people. 
" And, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, 
and said unto the reapers. The Lord be with 
you. And they answered him, The Lord 
bless thee," Ruth ii, 4. 

4. It appears from the beautiful history of 
Ruth, that, in Palestine, the women lent their 
assistance in cutting down and gathering in 



the harvest ; for Boaz commands her to keep 
fast by his maidens. The women in Syria 
shared also in the labours of the harvest ; for 
Dr. Russel informs us, they sang the ziraleet, 
or song of thanks, when the passing stranger 
accepted their present of a handful of corn, 
and made a suitable return. It was another 
custom among the Jews to set a confidential 
servant over the reapers, to see that they exe- 
cuted their work properly, that they had 
suitable provisions, and to pay them their 
wages : the Chaldees call him rab, the master, 
ruler, or governor of the reapers. Such was 
the person who directed the labours of the 
reapers in the field of Boaz. The right of the 
poor in Israel to glean after the reapers was 
secured by a positive law, couched in these 
words : " And when ye reap the harvest of 
your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the 
corners of thy land ; neither shalt thou gather 
the gleanings of thy harvest. And thou shalt 
not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou 
gather every grape of thy vineyard : thou 
shalt leave them to the poor and the stranger : 
I am the Lord your God," Lev. xix, 9. It is 
the opinion of some writers, that, although 
the poor were allowed the liberty of gleaning, 
the Israelitish proprietors were not obliged to 
admit them immediately into the field, as soon 
as the reapers had cut down the corn, and 
bound it up in sheaves, but when it was car- 
ried off: they might choose, also, among the 
poor, whom they thought most deserving, or 
most necessitous. These opinions receive 
some countenance from the request which 
Ruth presented to the servant of Boaz, to per- 
mit her to glean *' among the sheaves ;" and 
from the charge of Boaz to his young men, 
" Let her glean even among the sheaves ;" a 
mode of speaking which seems to insinuate 
that though they could not legally hinder 
Ruth from gleaning in the field, they had a 
right, if they chose to exercise it, to prohibit 
her from gleaning among the sheaves, or im- 
mediately after the reapers. 

HATE. To hate is not always to be under- 
stood rigorously, but frequently signifies merely 
a less degree of love. " If a man have two 
wives, one beloved and another hated," Deut. 
xxi, 15 ; that is, less beloved. Our Saviour 
says that he who would follow him must hate 
father and mother ; that is, he must love them 
less than Christ, less than his own salvation, 
and not prefer them to God. "Jacob have I 
loved, and Esau have I hated;" that is, have 
deprived of the privileges of his primogeniture, 
through his own profanity ; and visited him 
with severe judgment on account of his sins. 

HAURAN. The tract of country of this 
name is mentioned only twice in Scripture, 
Ezek. xlvii, 16, 18. It was probably of small 
extent in the time of the Jews ; but was en- 
larged under the Romans, by whom it was 
called Auranitis. At present it extends from 
about twenty miles south of Damascus to a 
little below Bozra, including the rocky district 
of El Ledja, the ancient Trachonitis, and the 
mountainous one of the Djebel Haouran. With- 
in its limits are alsa included, beside Tracho- 



HAY 



436 



HAZ 



nitis, Itursea or Ittur, now called Djedour, and 
part of Batanaea or Bashan. It is represented 
by Burckhardt as a volcanic region, consist- 
ing of a porous tufa, pumice, and basalt, with 
the remains of a crater on the Tel Shoba, on 
its eastern side. It produces, however, crops 
of corn, and has many patches of luxuriant 
herbage, which are frequented in the summer 
by the Arab tribes for pasturage. It abounds, 
also, with many interesting remains of cities, 
scattered over its surface, with Grecian inscrip- 
tions. The chief of these are Bozra, Ezra, 
Medjel, Shoba, Shakka, Souerda, Kanouat, 
Hebran, Zarle, German, and Aatyl ; with 
Messema, Berak, and Om Ezzeitoun, in the 
Ledja. 

HAVILAHj the son of Cush, Genesis x, 7. 
There must have been other, and perhaps 
many, Havilahs beside the original one, a part 
of the numerous and wide-spread posterity of 
Cush. By one and the first of these, it is pro- 
bable that the western shores of the Persian 
Gulf were peopled ; by another, the country 
of Colchis ; and by another, the parts about 
the southern border of the Dead Sea and the 
confines of Judea, the country afterward inha- 
bited by the Amalckites. 

HAWK, y2, from the root nxj, to fly, be- 
cause of the rapidity and length of flight for 
which this bird is remarkable. Lev. xi, 16 ; 
Deut. xiv, 15 ; Job xxxix, 26. Naz is used 
generically by the Arabian writers to signify 
both falcon and hawk ; and the term is given 
in both these senses by Meninski. There can 
be little doubt that such is the real meaning of 
the Hebrew word, and that it imports various 
species of the falcon family, as jer-falcon, gos- 
hawk, and sparrow-hawk. As this is a bird 
of prey, cruel in its temper, and gross in its 
manners, it was forbidden as food, and all 
others of its kind, in the Mosaic ritual. The 
Greeks consecrated the hawk to Apollo ; and 
among the Egyptians no animal was held in 
so high veneration as the ibis and the hawk. 
Most of the species of hawk, we are told, 
are birds of passage. The hawk, therefore, is 
produced, in Job xxxix, 26, as a specimen of 
that astonishing instinct which teaches birds 
of passage to know their times and seasons, 
when to migrate out of one country into 
another for the benefit of food, or a warmer 
climate, or both. The common translation 
does not give the full force of the passage : 
" Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom ?" The 
real meaning is, " Doth she know, through 
thy skill or wisdom, the precise period for 
taking flight, or migrating and stretching her 
wings toward a southern or warmer climate ?" 
The passage is well rendered by Sandys : — 
"Doth the wild haggard tower into the sky, 
And to the south by thy direction fly 1" 
Her migration is not conducted by the wisdom 
and prudence of man, but by the superintend- 
ing and upholding providence of the only 
wise God. 

HAY, i^iH. In the two places where this 
word occurs, Prov. xxvii, 25, and Isaiah xv, 
16, our translators have very improperly rcn- 
dered it •' hay." But in those countries they 



made no hay ; and, if they did, it appears from 



inspection that hay could hardly be the mean- 
ing of the word in either of those texts. The 
author of " Fragments," in continuation of 
Calmet, has the following remarks : " There 
is a gross impropriety in our version of Prov 
xxvii, 25 : ' The hay appeareth, and the tender 
grass showeth itself, and the herbs of the 
mountains are gathered.' Now, certainly, if the 
tender grass is but just beginning to show itself, 
the hay, Avhich is grass cut and dried after it 
has arrived at maturity, ought by no means to 
be associated with it, still less ought it to be 
placed before it. And this leads me to observe, 
that none of the dictionaries which I have 
seen seem to me to give the accurate import 
of the word, which, I apprehend, means the 
first shoots, the rising, budding, spires of grass. 
So, in the present passage, ni^n n'7J, 'the tender 
shoots of the grass rise up ; and the buddings 
of grass,' grass in its early state, as is the pecu- 
liar import of Ntt'i, ' appear ; and the tufts of 
grass,' proceeding from the same root, ' collect 
themselves together, and, by tlieir union, begin 
to clothe the mountain tops with a pleasing 
verdure.' " Surely, the beautiful progress of 
vegetation, as described in this passage, must 
appear too poetical to be lost ; but what must 
it be to an eastern beholder I to one who had 
lately witnessed all surrounding sterility, a 
grassless waste ! 

HAZAEL. Elisha coming to Damascus, 
the capital of Syria, Benhadad, the reigning 
monarch, being then indisposed, sent Hazael, 
who was one of his principal officefs, to wait 
upon the prophet, and consult him as to the 
issue of his disorder, 2 Kings viii, 7-13. The 
prophet told Hazael that certainly his master 
might recover, because his complaint was not 
mortal ; yet he was very well assured that he 
would not recover ; and, looking him stead- 
fastly in the face, Elisha burst into tears. Sur- 
prised at this conduct, Hazael inquired the cause. 
"Because I know," said the prophet, "the 
evil that thou wilt do to the children of Israel : 
their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and 
their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, 
and wilt dash their infants against the stones, 
and rip up their women with child," Hazael 
indignantly exclaimed, " Is thy servant a dog, 
that he should do this great thing?" Elisha 
merely answered, " The Lord hath showed me 
that- thou shalt be king over Syria," 2 Kings 
viii, 7-13. On his return home, Hazael con- 
cealed from his master Benhadad the prophet's 
answer, and inspired him with hopes of re- 
covery ; but on the following day, he took 
effectual means to prevent it, by stifling the 
king with a thick cloth dipped with water ; 
and, as Benhadad had no son, and Hazael was 
a man much esteemed in the army, he was, 
without difficulty declared his successor, A. M. 
3120. Hazael soon inflicted upon Israel all the 
cruelties which Elish.i had foretold. For when 
Jehu broke up the siege of Ramoth-Gilead, 
and came with his army to Samaria, Hazael 
took advantage of his absence to fall upon 
his territories beyond Jordan, destroying all 
the laud of Gilead, Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh, 



HEA 



437 



HEA 



from Aroer to Bashan, 2 Kings x, 32. Some 
years passed after this before Hazael under- 
took any thing against the kingdom of Judah, 
it being remote from Damascus ; but in the 
reign of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, A. M. 
3165, he besieged the city of Gath, and, having 
taken it, marched against Jerusalem, 2 Kings 
xii, 17, 18. But Joash, conscious of his infe- 
riority, bribed him at the price of all the money 
he could raise, to evacuate Judea, with which 
lie for the moment complied ; yet, in the fol- 
lowing year, the army of Hazael returned, 
entered the territories of Judah, and the city 
of Jerusalem, slew all the princes of the peo- 
ple, and sent a valuable booty to their royal 
master, 2 Kings xiii, 22 ; 2 Chron. xxiv, 23. 

HEAD. This word has several significa- 
tions, beside its natural one, which denotes 
the head of a man. It is sometimes used in 
Scripture for the whole man : " Blessings are 
upon the head of the just," Prov. x, 6 ; that is, 
upon their persons. God says of the wicked, " I 
will recompense their way upon their head." 
Ezek. ix, 10. It signifies a chief or capital 
city : " The head of Syria is Damascus," Isaiah 
vii, 8. It denotes a chief or principal mem- 
bers in society : " The Lord will cut off from 
Israel head and tail. The ancient and honour- 
able he is the head," Isaiah ix, 14, 15. '- The 
seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the 
serpent," Gen. iii, 15 ; that is, Christ Jesus, 
the blessed seed of the woman, shall overthrow 
the power, policy, and works of tlie devil. The 
river in paradise was divided into four heads 
or branches. In times of grief, the mourners 
covered their heads : they cut and plucked off 
their hair. Amos, speaking of unhappy times, 
says, " I will bring baldness upon every head," 
Amos viii, 10. In prosperity, they anointed 
th»?ir heads with sweet oils : " Let thy head 
lack no" perfumed "ointment," Eccles. ix, 8. 
To shake the head at any one, expresses con- 
tempt : " The virgin, the daughter of Zion, 
hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn ; 
the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her 
head at thee," Isaiah xxxvii, 22. 

Head is taken for one that hath rule and 
preeminence over others. Thus God is the 
head of Christ ; as Mediator, from him he de- 
rives all his dignity and authority. Christ is 
the only spiritual head of the church, both in 
respect of eminence and influence ; he com- 
municates life, motion, and strength to every 
believer. Also the husband is the head of his 
wife, because by God's ordinance he is to rule 
over her, Gen. iii, 16 ; also in regard to pre- 
eminence of sex, 1 Peter iii, 7, and excellency 
of knowledge, 1 Cor. xiv, 35. The Apostle 
mentions this subordination of persons in 
1 Cor. xi, 3 : " But I would have you know, 
that the head of every man is Christ, and the 
head of the woman is the man, and the head 
of Christ is God." "The stone which the 
builders rejected was made the head of the 
corner," Psalm cxviii, 22. It was the first in 
the angle, whether it were disposed at the top 
of that angle to adorn and crown it, or at the 
bottom to support it. This, in the New Testa- 
ment, is applied to Christ, who is the strength 



and beauty of the church, to unite the several 
parts of it, namely both Jews and Gentiles 
together. 

HEAR, HEARING. This word is used in 
several senses in Scripture. In its obvious and 
literal acceptation, it denotes the exercise of 
that bodily sense of which the ear is the organ ; 
and as hearing is a sense by which instruction 
is conveyed to the mind, and the mind is ex- 
cited to attention and to obedience, so the 
ideas of attention and obedience are also 
grafted on the expression or sense of hearing. 
God is said, speaking after the manner of 
men, to hear prayer, that is, to attend to it, 
and comply with the requests it contains : 
"I love the Lord, because he hath heard," 
hath attended to, hath complied with, "the 
voice of my supplication," Psalm cxvi, 1. 
On the contrary, God is said not to hear, that 
is, not to comply with, the requests of sinners, 
John ix, 31. Men are said to hear, when they 
attend to, or comply with, the request of each 
other, or when they obey the commands of 
God : " He who is of God heareth," obeyeth, 
practiseth, "God's words," John viii, 47. 
" My sheep hear my voice," and show their 
attention to it, by following me, John x, 27. 
" This is my beloved Son : hear ye him," 
Matt, xvii, 5. This seems to be an allusion 
to Deut. xviii, 15, 18, 19: "The Lord shall 
raise up unto you a prophet; him shall ye 
hear;" which is also expressly applied in 
Acts iii, 22. The other senses which may 
be attached to the word " hear," seem to rise 
from the preceding, and may be referred to 
the same ideas. 

HEART. The Hebrews regarded the heart 
as the source of wit, understanding, love, 
courage, grief, and pleasure. Hence are de- 
rived many modes of expression. " An honest 
and good heart," Luke viii, 15, is a heart 
studious of holiness, being prepared by the 
Spirit of God to receive the word with due 
affections, dispositions, and resolutions. We 
read of a broken heart, a clean heart, an evil 
heart, a liberal heart. To " turn the heart of 
the fathers to the children, and the heart of 
the children to their fathers," Mai. iv, 6, sig. 
nifies to cause them to be perfectly reconciled, 
and thai they should be of the same mind. 
To want heart, sometimes denotes to want 
understanding and prudence : " Ephraim is 
like a silly dove, without heart," Hosea vii, 11. 
" O fools, and slow of heart," Luke xxiv, 25 ; 
that is, ignorant, and without understanding. 
"This people's heart is waxed gross, lest they 
should understand with their heart," Matt, 
xiii, 15; their heart is become incapable of 
understanding spiritual things ; they resist the 
light, and are proof against all impressions of 
truth. "The prophets prophesy out of their 
own heart," Ezekiel xiii, 2 ; that is, according 
to their own imagination, without any warrant 
from God. 

The heart is said to be dilated by joy, con- 
tracted by sadness, broken by sorrow, to grow 
fat, and be hardened by prosperity. The heart 
melts under discouragement, forsakes one un. 
der terror, is desolate in affliction, and fluctu- 



HEA 



438 



HEA 



ating in doubt. To speak to any one's heart 
is to comfort him, to say pleasing and affect- 
ing things to him. The heart expresses also 
the middle part of any thing: "Tyre is in the 
heart of the seas," Ezekiel xxvii, 4 ; in the 
midst of the seas. "We will not fear though 
the mountains be carried into the heart (middle) 
of the sea," Psalm xlvi, 2. 

The heart of man is naturally depraved and 
inclined to evil, Jer. xvii, 9. A divine power 
is requisite for its renovation, John iii, 1-11. 
When thus renewed, the effects will be seen 
in the temper, conversation, and conduct at 
large. Hardness of heart is that state in which 
a sinner is inclined to, and actually goes on 
in, rebellion against God. 

HEATH, •)y^y, Jer. xvii, 6 ; xlviii, 6. "He 
shall be like the heath in the desert. He shall 
not see when good eometh ; but shall inhabit 
the parched places in the wilderness, a salt 
land." The LXX and Vulgate render oror, 
"the tamarisk;" and this is strengthened by 
the affinity of the Hebrew name of this tree 
with the Turkish oeroer. Taylor and Park- 
hurst render it, "a blasted tree stripped of its 
foliage." If it be a particular tree, the tama- 
risk is as likely as any. Celsius thinks it to 
be the juniper ; but from the mention of it as 
growing in a salt land, in parched places, the 
author of "Scripture Illustrated" is disposed 
to seek it among the lichens, a species of plants 
which are the last production of vegetation 
under the frozen zone, and under the glowing 
heat of equatorial deserts ; so that it seems 
best qualified to endure parched places, and a 
salt land. Hasselquist mentions several kinds 
seen by him in Egypt, Arabia, and Syria. In 
Jer. xlviii, 6, the original word is ipnjj, which 
the Septuagint translators have read in>', for 
they render it ovo; aypiog^ wild ass ; and, as 
this seems best to agree with the flight re- 
commended in the passage, it is to be preferred. 
See Wild Ass. 

HEAVEN, the place of the more immediate 
residence of the Most High, Gen. xiv, 19. The 
Jews enumerated three heavens : the first was 
the region of the air, where the birds fly, and 
which are therefore called "the fowls of hea- 
ven," Job XXXV, 11. It is in this sense also 
that we read of the dew of heaven, the clouds 
of heaven, and the wind of heaven. The 
second is that part of space in which are fixed 
the heavenly luminaries, the sun, moon, and 
stars, and which Moses was instructed to call 
"the firmament or expanse of heaven," Gen. 
i, 8. The third heaven is the seat of God and 
of the holy angels ; the place into which 
Christ ascended after his resurrection, and 
into which St. Paul was caught up, though it 
is not like the other heavens perceptible to 
mortal view. 

2. It is an opinion not destitute of proba- 
bility, that the construction of the tabernacle, 
in which Jehovah dwelt by a visible symbol, 
termed "the cloud of glory," was intended to 
be a type of heaven. In the holiest place of 
the tabernacle, " the glory of the Lord," or 
visible emblem of his presence, rested between 
the cherubims; by the figures of which, the 



angelic host surrounding the throne of God in 
heaven was typified ; and as that holiest part 
of the tabernacle was, by a thick vail, con- 
cealed from the sight of those who frequented 
it for the purposes of worship, so heaven, the 
habitation of God, is, by the vail of flesh, hid- 
den from mortal eyes. Admitting the whole 
tabernacle, therefore, in which the worship 
of God was performed according to a ritual 
of divine appointment, to be a representation 
of the universe, we are taught by it this beau- 
tiful lesson, that the whole universe is the 
temple of God ; but that in this vast temple 
there is " a most holy place," where the Deity 
resides and manifests his presence to the an- 
gelic hosts and redeemed company who sur-^ 
round him. This view appears to be borne 
out by the clear and unifonn testimony of 
Scripture ; and it is an interesting circum- 
stance, that heaven, as represented by "the 
holiest of all," is heaven as it is presented to 
the eye of Christian faith, the place where our 
Lord ministers as priest, to which believers 
now come in spirit, and where they are ga- 
thered together in the disembodied state. 
Thus, for instance, St. Paul tells the believing 
Hebrews, "Ye are come unto Mount Zion, 
and unto the city of the living God, the hea- 
venly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable com- 
pany of angels, to the general assembly and 
church of the-first born, which are written," 
or are enrolled, "in heaven, and to God the 
Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men 
made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the 
new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, 
that speaketh better things than the blood of 
Abel," Heb. xii, 22-24. Here we are presented 
with the antitype of almost every leading cir- 
cumstance of the Mosaic dispensation. In- 
stead of the land of Canaan, we have heaven ; 
for the earthly Jerusalem, we have the hea^ 
venl}^ the city of the living God ; in place of 
the congregation of Israel after the flesh, we 
have the general assembly and church of the 
first-born, that is, all true believers "made 
perfect ;" for just men in the imperfect state 
of the old dispensation, we have just men 
made perfect in evangelical knowledge and 
holiness ; instead of Moses, the mediator of 
the old covenant, we have Jesus the Mediator 
of the new and everlasting covenant ; and in- 
stead of the blood of slaughtered animals, 
which was sprinkled upon the Israelites, the 
tabernacle, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, 
to make a tpyical atonement, we have the 
blood of the Son of God, which was shed for 
the remission of the sins of the whole world ; 
that blood which doth not, like the blood of 
Abel, call for vengeance but for mercy, which 
hath made peace between heaven and earth, 
effected the true and complete atonement for 
sin, and Avhich therefore communicates peace 
to the conscience of every sinner that believes 
the Gospel. 

3. Among the numerous refinements of 
modern times that is one of the most remark- 
able which goes to deny the locality of heaven. 
" It is a state," say many, " not a place." But 
if that be the case, the very language of the 



HEA 



439 



HEB 



Scriptures, in regard to tliis point, is calculated 
to mislead us. For that God resides in a par- 
ticular part of the universe, where he makes 
his presence known to his intelligent creatures 
by some transcendent, visible glory, is an 
opinion that has prevailed among Jews and 
Christians, Greeks and Romans, yea, in every 
nation, civilized or savage, and in every age ; 
and, since it is confirmed by revelation, why 
should it be doubted ? Into this most holy 
place, the habitation of the Deity, Jesus, after 
his resurrection, ascended ; and there, present- 
ing his crucified body before the manifestation 
of the divine presence, which is called "the 
throne of the Majesty in the heavens," he 
offered unto God the sacrifice of himself, and 
made atonement for the sins of his people. 
There he is sat down upon his throne, crowned 
with glory and honour, as king upon his holy 
liill of Zion, and continually officiates as our 
great High Priest, Advocate, and Intercessor, 
witliin the vail. There is his Father's house, 
into which he is gone before, to prepare man- 
sions of bliss for his disciples ; it is the king- 
dom conferred upon him as the reward of his 
righteousness, and of which he has taken 
possession as their forerunner, Acts i, 11 ; 
Heb. vi, 19, 20. 

4. Some of the ancients imagined that the 
habitation of good men, after the resurrection, 
would be the sun ; grounding this fancifiil 
opinion on a mistaken interpretation of Psalm 
xix, 4, which they rendered, with the LXX and 
Vulgate, " He has set his tabernacle in the sun." 
Others, again, have thought it to lie beyond 
the starry firmament, a notion less improbable 
than the former. Mr. Whiston supposes the 
air to be the mansion of the blessed, at least 
for the present ; and he imagines that Christ 
is at the top of the atmosphere, and other 
spirits nearer to or more remote from him 
according to the degree of their moral purity, 
to which he conceives the specific gravity of 
their inseparable vehicles to be proportionable. 
Mr. Hallet has endeavoured to prove that they 
will dwell upon earth, when it shall be restored 
to its paradisaical state. The passages of 
Scripture, however, on which he grounds his 
hypothesis, are capable of another and very 
different interpretation. After all, we may 
observe, that the place of the blessed is a ques- 
tion of comparatively little importance ; and 
we may cheerfiilly expect and pursue it, though 
we cannot answer a multitude of curious ques- 
tions, relating to various circumstances that 
pertain to it. We have reason to believe that 
heaven will be a social state, and that its hap- 
piness will, in some measure, arise from mutual 
communion and converse, and the expressions 
and exercises of mutual benevolence. All the 
views presented to us of this eternal residence 
of good men are pure and noble ; and form a 
striking contrast to the low hopes, and the 
gross and sensual conceptions of a future sta,te, 
which distinguish the Pagan and Mohamme- 
dan systems. The Christian heaven may be 
described to be a state of eternal communion 
with God, and consecration to hallowed de- 
votional and active services ; from which will 



result an uninterrupted increase of knowledge, 
holiness, and joy, to the glorified and immor- 
talized assembly of the redeemed. 

HEBER, or EBER, the father of Feleg, and 
the son of Salah, who was the grandson of 
Shem, one of Noah's sons, was born A. M. 
1723 ; B. C. 2281. From him some have sup- 
posed that Abraham and his descendants de- 
rived the appellation of Hebrews. But others 
have suggested, with greater probability, that 
Abraham and his family were thus called, 
because they came from the other side of the 
Euphrates into Canaan ; Heber signifying in 
the Hebrew language one that passes, or, a pas. 
sage, that is, of the river Euphrates. Accord- 
ing to this opinion, Hebrew signifies much the 
same as foreigner among us, or one that comes 
from beyond sea. Such were Abraham and 
his family among the Canaanites ; and his 
posterity, learning and using the language of 
the country, still retained the appellation 
originally given them, even when they be- 
came possessors and settled inhabitants. 

2. Heber the Kenite, of Jethro's family, 
husband to Jael, who killed Sisera, Judges iv, 
17, &c. 

HEBREW OF THE HEBREWS, an ap. 
pellation which the Apostle Paul applies to 
himself, Phil, iii, 5, concerning the meaning 
of which there has been some difference of 
opinion. Godwin, in his " Moses and Aaron," 
understands by this expression, a Hebrew 
both by father's and mother's side. But if it 
meant no more than this, there was little 
occasion for the Apostle's using it immediately 
after having declared that he was " of the 
stock of Israel, and the tribe of Benjamin," 
which, on Godwin's supposition, is the same 
as a Hebrew of the Hebrews ; for the Jews 
were not allowed to marry out of their own 
nation. Beside, it is not likely that St. Paul 
would have mentioned it as a distinguishing 
privilege and honour, that his parents were 
not proselytes. It is more probable that a 
Hebrew of the Hebrews signifies a Hebrew 
both by nation and language, which many of 
Abraham's posterity, in those days, were not; 
or one of the Hebrew Jews who performed 
their public worship in the Hebrew tongue ; 
for such were reckoned more honourable than 
the Jews born out of Judea, and who spoke 
the Greek tongue. See Hellenists. 

HEBREW LANGUAGE, called also abso- 
lutely Hebrew, is the language spoken by the 
Hebrews, and in which all the books of the 
Old Testament are written ; whence it is also 
called the holy or sacred language. It is said 
to have been preserved in the midst of the 
confiision at Babel, in the family of Heber, or 
Eber, who, as it is alleged, was not concerned 
in the building of Babel, and, consequently, 
did not share in the punishment inflicted on 
the actual transgressors. The Jews, in gene- 
ral, have been of opinion, that the Hebrew 
was the language of Heber's family, from whom 
Abraham sprung. On the other hand, it has 
been maintained that Heber's family, in the 
fourth generation after the dispersion, lived in 
Chaldea, where Abraham was born, Gen. xi, 



HEB 



440 



HEB 



27, 28, and that there is no reason to think 
they used a different language from their 
neighbours around them. It appears, more- 
over, that the Chaldee, and not the Hebrew, 
was the language of Abraham's country, and 
of his kindred. Gen. xxiv, 4 ; xxxi, 4G, 47 ; and 
it is probable that Abraham's native language 
was Chaldee, and that the Hebrew was the 
language of the Canaanites, which Abraham 
and his posterity learned by travelling among 
them. It is surprising that this adoption of 
the Phenician language by the patriarchs 
should have escaped the notice of several in- 
telligent readers of the Bible. Jacob and La- 
ban, it is clear, by the names they gave to the 
cairn, or memorial of stones, spoke two differ- 
ent dialects ; and it is nearly equally evident, 
that the language of Laban was the dialect of 
Ur of the Chaldees, the original speech of the 
Hebrew race. As the patriarchs disused the 
true Hebrew dialect, it is manifest that they 
had conformed to the speech of Canaan ; and 
that this conformity was complete, is proved 
by the identity between all the remains of 
Canaanitish names. At the same time, it 
must be remarked, that the Phenician and the 
Chaidean were merely different dialects of the 
same primitive language which had been 
spoken by the first ancestors of mankind. 

2. There is no work in all antiquity written 
in pure Hebrew, beside the books of the Old 
Testament ; and even some parts of those are 
in Chaldee. The Hebrew appears to be the 
most ancient of all the languages in the world ; 
at least it is so with regard to us, wlio know 
of no older. Dr. Sharpe adopts the opinion, 
that the Hebrew was the original language ; 
not indeed that the Hebrew is the unvaried 
language of our first parents, but that it was 
the general language of men at the dispersion ; 
and, however it might have been improved and 
altered from the first speech of our first parents, 
it was the original of all the languages, or 
almost all the languages, rather dialects, that 
have since arisen in the world. Arguments 
have also been deduced from the nature and 
genius of the Hebrew language, in order to 
prove that it was the original language, 
neither improved nor debased by foreign 
idioms. The words of which it is composed 
are short, and admit of very little flexion. 
The names of places are descriptive of their 
nature, situation, accidental circumstances, 
&c. The compounds are few, and inartificially 
conjoined ; and it is less burdened witli those 
artificial affixes which distinguish other cog- 
nate dialects, such as the Chaldean, Syrian, 
Arabian, Phenician, &c. 

The period, from the age of Moses to that 
of David, has been considered the golden age 
of the Hebrew language, which declined in 
purity from that time to the reign of Hezekiah 
or Manasseh, having received several foreign 
words, particularly Aramean, from the com- 
mercial and political intercourse of the Jews 
and Israelites with the Assyrians and Babylon- 
ians. This period has been termed the silver 
age of the Hebrew language. In the interval 
between the reign of Hezekiah and the Baby- 



lonisli captivity, the purity of the language 
was neglected, and so many foreign words 
were introduced into it, that this period has 
not inaptly been designated its iron age. Dur- 
ing the seventy years' captivity-, though it 
does not appear that the Hebrews entirely lost 
their native tongue, yet it underwent so con- 
siderable a change from their adoption of the 
vernacular languages of the countries where 
they had resided, that afterward, on their re- 
turn from exile, they spoke a dialect of Chal- 
dee mixed with Hebrew words. On this 
account it was, that, when the Scriptures 
were read, it was found necessary to interpret 
them to the people in the Chaldean language 5 
as, when Ezra the scribe brought the book of 
the law of Moses before the congregation, the 
Levites are said to have caused the people to 
understand the law, because "they read in the 
book, in the law of God, distinctly, and gave 
the sense, and caused them to understand the 
reading," Nehem. viii, 8. Some time after 
the return from the great captivity, Hebrew 
ceased to be spoken altogether ; though it 
continued to be cultivated and studied by the 
priests and Levites, as a learned language, 
that tliey might be enabled to expound the 
law and the prophets to the people, who, it 
appears from the New Testament, were well 
acquainted with their general contents and 
tenor : this last mentioned period has been 
called the Iqaden age of the language. 

The present Hebrew characters, or letters, 
are twenty-two in number, and of a square 
form ; but the antiquity of these letters is a 
point that has been most severely contested 
by many learned men. From a passage in 
Eusebius's Chronicle, and another in St. 
Jerom, it was inferred by Joseph Scaliger, that 
Ezra, vv^hen he reformed the Jewish church, 
transcribed the ancient characters of the He- 
brews into the square letters of the Chaldeans ; 
and that this was done for the use of those 
Jews who, being born during the captivity, 
knew no other alphabet than that of the peo- 
ple among whom they had been educated. 
Consequently, the old character, which we 
call the Samaritan, fell into total disuse. This 
opinion Scaliger supported by passages from 
both the Talmuds, as well as from rabbinical 
writers, in which it is expressly affirmed that 
sueh characters were adopted by Ezra. But 
the most decisive confirmation of this point is 
to be found in the ancient Hebrew coins, 
which Avere struck before the captivity, and 
even previously to the revolt of the ten tribes. 
The characters engraven on all of them are 
manifestly the same with the modern Sama- 
ritan, though with some trifling variations in 
their forms, occasioned by the depredations of 
time. 

HEBREWS, sometimes called Israelites, 
from their progenitor, Jacob, surnamed Israel, 
and in modern times Jews, as the descendants 
of Judah, the name of this leading tribe being 
given to all. See Jews. 

Hebrews, Epistle to the. Though the 
genuineness of this epistle has been disputed 
both in ancient and modern times, its antiquity 



HEB 



441 



HEB 



has never been questioned. It is generally 
allowed that there are references to it, although 
the author is not mentioned, in the remaining 
works of Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Polycarp, 
and Justin Martyr ; and that it contains, as 
was first noticed by Chrysostom and Theodo- 
ret, internal evidence of having been written 
before the destruction of Jerusalem, Heb. viii, 
4; ix, 25; x, 11, 37; xiii, 10. The earliest 
writer now extant who quotes this epistle as 
the work of St. Paul is Clement of Alexandria, 
toward the end of the second century ; but, as 
he ascribes it to St. Paul repeatedly and with- 
out hesitation, we may conclude that in his 
time no doubt had been entertained upon the 
subject, or, at least, that the common tradition 
of the church attributed it to St. Paul. Cle- 
ment is followed by Origen, by Dionysius and 
Alexander, both bishops of Alexandria, by 
Ambrose, Athanasius, Hilary of Poitiers, 
Jerom, Chrysostom, and Cyril, all of whom 
consider this epistle as written by St. Paul ; and 
it is also ascribed to him in the ancient Syriac 
version, supposed to have been made at the 
end of the first century. Eusebius says, "Of 
St. Paul there are fourteen epistles manifest 
and well known ; but yet there are some who 
reject that to the Hebrews, urging for their 
opinion that it is contradicted by the church 
of the Romans, as not being St. Paul's." In 
Dr. Lardner we find the following remark : 
" It is evident that this epistle was generally 
received in ancient times by those Christians 
who used the Greek language, and lived in 
the eastern parts of the Roman empire." And 
in another place he says, " It was received as 
an epistle of St. Paul by many Latin writers 
in the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries." The 
earlier Latin writers take no notice of this 
epistle, except Tertullian, who ascribes it to 
Barnabas. It appears, indeed, from the fol- 
lowing expression of Jerom, that this emstle 
was not generally received as canonical Scrip- 
ture by the Latin church in his time : " Licet 
earn Latina consuetudo inter canonicas Scriptu- 
ras non recipiat." [Although the usage of the 
Latin church does not receive it among the 
canonical Scriptures.] The same thing is 
mentioned in other parts of his works. But 
many individuals of the Latin church acknow- 
ledged it to be Avritten by St. Paul, as Jerom 
himself, Ambrose, Hilary, and Philaster ; and 
the persons who doubted its genuineness were 
those the least likely to have been acquainted 
with the epistle at an early period, from the 
nature of its contents not being so interesting 
to the Latin churches, which consisted almost 
entirely of Gentile Christians, ignorant, proba- 
bly, of the Mosaic law, and holding but little 
intercourse with Jews. 

2. The moderns, who, upon grounds of in- 
ternal evidence, contend against the genuine- 
ness of this epistle, rest principally upon the 
two following arguments, the omission of the 
writer's name, and the superior elegance of the 
style in which it is written. It is indeed cer- 
tain that all the acknowledged epistles of St. 
Paul begin with a salutation in his own name, 
and that, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, there is 



nothing of that kind ; but this omission can 
scarcely be considered as conclusive against 
positive testimony. St. Paul might have rea- 
sons for departing, upon this occasion, from 
his usual mode of salutation, which we at this 
distant period cannot discover. Some have 
imagined that he omitted his name, because he 
knew that it would not have much weight with 
the Hebrew Christians, to whom he was in 
general obnoxious, on account of his zeal in 
converting the Gentiles, and in maintaining 
that the observance of the Mosaic law was not 
essential to salvation : it is, however, cleai% 
that the persons to v/hom this epistle was ad- 
dressed knew from whom it came, as the writer 
refers to some acts of kindness which he had 
received from them, and also expresses a hope 
of seeing them soon, Hebrews x, 34 ; xiii, 18, 
19, 23. As to the other argument, it must be 
owned that there does not appear to be such 
superiority in the style of this epistle, as should 
lead to the conclusion that it was not written 
by St. Paul. Those who have thought differ- 
ently have mentioned Barnabas, St. Luke, and 
Clement, as authors or translators of this epis- 
tle. The opinion of Jerom was, that the sen- 
timents arc the Apostle's, but the language and 
composition that of some one else, who com- 
mitted to writing the Apostle's sense, and, as 
it were, reduced into commentaries the things 
spoken by his master. Dr. Lardner says, " My 
conjecture is, that St. Paul dictated the epistle 
in Hebrew, and another, who was a great 
master of the Greek language, immediately 
wrote down the Apostle's sentiments in his 
own elegant Greek ; but who this assistant of 
the Apostle was, is altogether unknown." But 
surely the writings of St. Paul, like those of 
other authors, may not all have the same pre- 
cise degree of merit ; and if, upon a careful 
perusal and comparison, it should be thought 
that the Epistle to the Hebrews is written with 
greater elegance than the acknowledged com- 
positions of this Apostle, it should also be 
remembered that the apparent design and con- 
tents of this epistle suggest the idea of more 
studied composition, and yet, that there is 
nothing in it which amounts to a marked differ- 
ence of style : on the other hand, there is the 
same concise, abrupt, and elliptical mode of 
expression, and it contains many plirases and 
sentiments which are found in no part of Scrip- 
ture, except in, St. Paul's Epistles. We may 
farther observe, that the manner in which 
Timothy is mentioned in this epistle makes it 
probable that it was written by St. Paul. Com- 
pare Heb. xiii, 23, with 2 Cor. i, 1, and Col. i, 1. 
It was certainly written by a person who had 
suffered imprisonment in the cause of Chris- 
tianity ; and this is known to have been the case 
of St. Paul, but of no other person to whom this 
epistle has been attributed. Upon the whole, 
both the external and internal evidence appear 
to preponderate so greatly in favour of St. 
Paul's being the author of this epistle, that it 
cannot but be considered as written by that 
Apostle. 

3. " They of Italy salute you," is the only 
expression in the epistle which can assist us 



HEB 



442 



HEB 



in determining from whence it was written. 
The Greek words are, ol dnd rns 'IraXiaq which 
should have been translated, " Those from Italy 
salute you ;" and the only inference to be drawn 
from them seems to be, that St. Pa.ul, when he 
wrote this epistle, was at a place where some 
Italian converts were. This inference is not 
incompatible Vv^ith the common opinion, that 
this epistle was written from Rome, and there- 
fore we consider it as written from that city. 
It is supposed to have been written toward the 
end of St. Paul's first imprisonment at Rome, 
or immediately after it, because the Apostle 
expresses an intention of visiting the Hebrews 
shortly : we therefore place the date of this 
epistle in the year G3. 

4. Clement, of Alexandria, Eusebius, and 
Jerom, thought that this epistle was originally 
written in the Hebrew language ; but all the 
other ancient fathers who have mentioned this 
subject speak of the Greek as the original 
work ; and as no one pretends to have seen 
this epistle in Hebrew, as there are no internal 
marks of the Greek being a translation, and as 
we know that the Greek language was at this 
time very generally understood at Jerusalem, 
we may accede to the more common opinion, 
both among the ancients and moderns, and 
consider the present Greek as the original text. 
It is no small satisfaction to reflect, that those 
who have denied either the genuineness or the 
originality of this epistle have always supposed 
it to have been written or translated by some 
fellow labourer or assistant of St. Paul, and 
that almost every one admits that it carries 
with it the sanction and authority of the in- 
spired Apostle. 

5. There has been some little doubt concern- 
ing the persons to w^hom this epistle was ad- 
dressed ; but by far the most general and most 
probable opinion is, that it was written to those 
Christians of Judea who had been converted 
to the Gospel from Judaism. That it was 
written, notwithstanding its general title, to 
the Christians of one certain place or country, 
is evident from the following passages : " I 
beseech you the rather to do this, that I may 
be restored to you the sooner," Heb. xiii, 19. 
" Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at 
liberty, with whom, if he come shortly, I will 
see you," Heb. xiii, 23. And it appears from 
the following passage in the Acts, " When the 
number of the disciples was multiplied, there 
arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the 
Hebrews," Acts vi, 1, that certain persons 
were at this time known at Jei-usalem by the 
name of Hebrews. They seem to have been 
native Jews, inhabitants of Judea, the language 
of which country was Hebrew, and therefore 
they were called Hebrews, in contradistinction 
to those Jews who, residing commonly in other 
countries, although they occasion^ly came to 
Jerusalem, used the Greek lang-uage, and were 
therefore called Grecians. 

G. The general design of this epistle was to 
confirm the Jewish Christians in the faith and 
practice of the Gospel, which they might be 
in danger of deserting, either through the per- 
suasion or persecution of the unbelieving Jews, 



who were very numerous and powerful in 
Judea. We may naturally suppose, that the 
zealous adherents to the law would insist upon 
the majesty and glory which attended its first 
promulgation, upon the distinguished charac- 
ter of their legislator, Moses, and upon the 
divine authority of the ancient Scriptures ; 
and they might likewise urge the humiliation" 
and death of Christ as an argument against the 
truth of his religion. To obviate the impres- 
sion which any reasoning of this sort might 
make upon the converts to Christianity, the 
writer of this epistle begins with declaring to 
the Hebrews, that the same God who had for- 
merly, upon a variety of occasions, spoken to 
their fathers by means of his prophets, had 
now sent his only Son for the purpose of re- 
vealing his will ; he then describes, in most 
sublime language, the dignity of the person of 
Christ, Heb. i ; and thence infers the duty of 
obeying his commands, the divine authority of 
which was established by the performance of 
miracles, and by the gifts of the Holy Chost ; 
he points out the necessity of Christ's incarna- 
tion and passion, Heb. ii ; he shows the supe- 
riority of Christ to Moses, and warns the 
Hebrews against the sin of unbelief, Heb. iii ; 
he exhorts to steadfastness in the profession 
of the Gospel, and gives an animated descrip- 
tion of Christ as our high priest, Heb. iv-vii ; 
he shows that the Levitical priesthood and the 
old covenant were abolished by the priesthood 
of Christ, and by the new covenant, Heb. viii ; 
he points out the efficacy of the ceremonies and 
sacrifices of the law, and the sufficiency of the 
atonement made by the sacrifice of Christ, Heb. 
ix, x; he fully explains the nature, merit, and 
effects of faith, Heb. xi ; and in the last two 
chapters he gives a variety of exhortations and 
admonitions, all calculated to encourage the 
Hebrews to bear with patience and constancy 
any trials to which they might be exposed. 
He includes with the valedictory benediction 
usual in St. Paul's Epistles : " Grace be with 
you all. Amen." The most important articles 
of our faith are explained, and the most mate- 
rial objections to the Gospel are answered with 
great force, in this celebrated epistle. The 
arguments used in it, as being addressed to 
persons who had been educated in the Jewish 
religion, are principally taken from the ancient 
Scriptures ; and the connection between former 
revelations and the Gospel of Christ, is pointed 
out in the most perspicuous and satisfactory 
manner. 

7. In addition, it may be observed, that Mr. 
Stuart, an American critic, has published an 
ample investigation of several of the points 
referred to in the above remarks, and the fol- 
lowing are the results : — 

(1.) As to the place in which the persons 
lived to whom the epistle is addressed, I have 
now examined all the objections against the 
opinion, that the Epistle to the Hebrews was 
directed to Palestine, which I have met with, 
and which seem to be of suflSicient magnitude 
to deserve attention. I am unable to perceive 
that they are very weighty ; and surely they 
come quite short of being conclusive. On the 



HEB 



443 



HEB 



otli&r liand, the positive proof, I acknowledge, 
is only of a circumstantial nature, and falls 
short of the weight which direct and unequivo- 
cal testimony in the epistle itself would pos- 
sess. But uniting the whole of it together ; 
considering the intimate knowledge of Jewish 
rites, the strong attachment to their ritual, and 
the special danger of defection from Chris. 
tianity in consequence of it, which the whole 
texture of the epistle necessarily supposes, and 
combining these things with tjie other circum- 
stances above discussed, I cannot resist the 
impression, that the universal opinion of the 
ancient church respecting the persons to whom 
this epistle was addressed, was well founded, 
being built upon early tradition and the con- 
tents of the epistle ; and that the doubts and 
difficulties thrown in the way by modern and 
recent critics, are not of sufficient importance 
to justify us in relinquishing the belief that 
Palestine Christians were addressed by the 
epistle to the Hebrews. Thousands of facts, 
pertaining to criticism and to history, are be- 
lieved' and treated as realities, which have less 
support than the opinion that has now been 
examined. 

(2.) As to tlie author, we now come to the 
result of this investigation. In the Egyptian 
and eastern churches, there were, it is proba- 
ble, at a pretty early period, some Avho had 
doubts whether St. Paul wrote the Epistle to 
the Hebrews ; but no considerable person or 
party is definitely known to us, who enter- 
tained these doubts ; and it is manifest, from 
Origen and Eusebius, that there was not, in 
that quarter, any important opposition to the 
general and constant tradition of the church, 
that Paul did write it. Not a single witness 
of any considerable respectability is named, 
who has given his voice, in this part of the 
church, for the negative of the question which 
we are considering. What Jerom avers, ap- 
pears to be strictly true, namely, Ab eccle'siis 
orientis et ab omnibus retro ecclesiasticis GrcBci 
sermonis script oribus, quasi Apostoli Pauli 
suscipi. In the western churches a diversity 
of opinion prevailed ; although the actual quan- 
tity of negative testimony, that can be adduced, 
is not great. Yet the concessions of Jerom 
and Augustine leave no room to doubt the fact, 
that the predominant opinion of the western 
churches, in their times, was in the negative. 
In early times, w^e have seen that the case was 
different, when Clement of Rome wrote his 
epistle, and when the old Latin version was 
brought into circulation. What produced a 
change of opinion in the west, we are left to 
conjecture. The scanty critical and literary 
records of those times affiDrd us no means for 
tracing the history of it. But this is far from 
being a singular case. Many other changes 
in the opinions of the churches have taken 
place, which we are, for a similar reason, as 
little able to trace with any certainty or satis- 
faction. Storr has endeavoured to show, that 
Marcion occasioned this revolution, when he 
came from the east to Rome, and brought with 
him a collection of the sacred books, in which 
the Epistle to the Hebrews was omitted. But 



it is very improbable, that an extravagant man, 
excommunicated by the Roman church itself, 
should have produced such a revolution there 
in sentiment. Others have w^th more proba- 
bility, attributed it to the zealous disputes at 
Rome against the Montanist party, whom the 
Epistle to the Hebrews was supposed particu- 
larly to favour. The Montanists strenuously 
opposed the reception again into the bosom of 
the church of those persons who had so lapsed 
as to make defection from the Christian faith. 
The passages in Heb. vi, 4-8, and x, 26-31, at 
least seem strongly to favour the views which 
they maintained. The church at Rome car- 
ried the dispute against the Montanists very 
high ; and Ernesti and many other critics have 
been led to believe, that the Epistle to the He- 
brews was ultimately rejected by them, because 
the Montanists relied on it as their main sup- 
port. As a matter of fact, this cannot be 
established by direct historical evidence. But, 
in the absence of all testimony in respect to 
this subject, it must be allowed as not improba- 
ble, that the Epistle to the Hebrews may have, 
in this way, become obnoxious to the Roman 
church. Many such instances might be pro- 
duced from the history of the church. The 
Ebionites, the Manicheans, the Alogi, and 
many ancient and modern sects, have rejected 
some part of the canon of Scripture, because 
it stood opposed to their party views. The 
Apocalypse was rejected by many of the ori- 
ental churches, on account of their opposition 
to the Chiliasts, who made so much use of it. 
And who does not know, that Luther himsell 
rejected the Epistle of James, because he 
viewed it as thwarting his favourite notions 
of justification ; yea, that he went so far as to 
give it the appellation of epistola strayninea 7 
[an epistle of straw.] It cannot be at all strange, 
then, that the Romish church, exceedingly im- 
bittered by the dispute with the Montanists, 
should have gradually come to call in question 
the apostolic origin of the epistle ; because it 
was to their adversaries a favourite source of 
appeal, and because, unlike St. Paul's other 
epistles, it was anonymous. That all, even of 
the Montanists, however, admitted the apos- 
tolic origifi of our epistle, does not seem to be 
true. Tertullian, who took a very active part 
in favour of this sect, had, as we have already 
seen, doubts of such an origin, or rather, he 
ascribed it to Barnabas. But whatever might 
liave been the cause that the epistle in question 
was pretty generally rejected by the churches 
of the west, the fact that it was so cannot be 
reasonably disputed, A majority of these 
churches, from the latter half of the second 
century to the latter half of the fourth, seem 
to have been generally opposed to receiving 
this epistle as St. Paul's ; although there were 
some among them who did receive it. It re- 
mains, then, to balance the testimony thus 
collected together and compared. The early 
testimony is, of course, immeasurably the most 
important. And there seems to me sufficient 
evidence, that this was as general and as uni- 
form for the first century after the apostolic 
age as in respect to many other books of the 



HEB 



" 444 



HEB 



New Testament ; and more so, than m respect 
to several. I cannot liesitate to believe, that 
the weight of evidence froni tradition is alto- 
gether preponderant in favour of the opinion, 
that St. Paul was the author of our epistle. 

(3.) As to the language in which the epistle 
was originally written, there has been a dif- 
ference of opinion among critics, both in an- 
cient and modern times. Clement of Alexan- 
dria says that St. Paul wrote to the Hebrews 
in the Hebrew language, and that St. Luke 
carefolly translated it into Greek. Eusebius 
in the same manner says, that Paul wrote 
to the Hebrews in his vernacular language, 
and that, according to report, either Luke or 
Clement translated it. So Jerom, also, scrip- 
serat ut Hehrceus Hehrcsis Hebraict ; [as a 
Hebrew he had written to the Hebrews in He- 
brew ;] and then he adds that this epistle v/as 
translated into Greek, so that the colouring 
of the style was made diverse, in this way, 
from that of St. Paul's. Of the same opinion, 
in respect to this, was Clement, of Alexandria ; 
and Origen, as we have seen above, supposes 
that the thoughts contained in the epistle were 
St. Paul's, while the diction or costume of it 
must be attributed to the person who wrote 
down the sentiments of the Apostle. By the 
Hebrew language, no one can reasonably doubt, 
that these fathers meant the Jerusalem dialect, 
which was spoken in the days of the Apostles, 
and not the ancient Hebrew, which had long 
ceased to be a vernacular language. It is 
quite plain also, that these fathers were led to 
the conclusion, that the Epistle to the Hebrev.'^s 
was originally written in the dialect of Pales- 
tine, from their belief, so universal in ancient 
times, of its having been addressed to some 
church, or to the churches, in that country. 
It was very natural to draw such a conclusion ; 
for would not an epistle addressed to Hebrews 
in all probabilit}'- be more acceptable, if written 
in their own vernacular language ? Moreover, 
St. Paul was well acquainted with that lan- 
guage, for he was brought up at Jerusalem, 
and "at the feet of Gamaliel;" and when he 
had visited that city, he had addressed the 
Jewish multitude, Avho were excited against 
him, in their native tongue. Acts xxii, 1, 2. 
Why should it not be supposed, that if, as is 
probable, this epistle was originally directed to 
Palestine, it was written in the dialect of that 
country ? So the fathers above quoted evidently 
thought and reasoned ; although other fathers 
liave said nothing on this point, and do not 
appear to have coincided in opinion with those 
to whom I have just referred. Among the 
moderns, also, several critics have undertaken 
to defend the same opinion ; and particularly 
Michaelis, who has discussed the subject quite 
at length, in his introduction to this epistle. 
I do not think it necessary minutely to examine 
his arguments. To my own mind they appear 
altogether unsatisfactory. Some of them are 
built on an exegesis most palpably erroneous, 
and which, if admitted, would deduce a very 
strange meaning from the words of the epistle. 
Yet, assuming such a meaning, he thence con- 
eludes, that the original writer must have 



expressed u different idea, and that the trans- 
later mistook his meaning. He then undef- 
takes to conjecture what the original Hebrew 
must have been. In other cases, he deduces 
his arguments from considerations wholly a 
priori ; as if these were admissible in a question 
of mere fact. He has not adduced a single 
instance of w^hat he calls icrong translation, 
which wears the appearance of any considera- 
ble probability. On the other hand, Bolton, a 
sharp-sighted critic, and well acquainted with 
the Aramean langiiage, who has gone through 
with the New Testament, and found almost 
every where marks, as he thinks, of translation 
from Aramean documents, confesses, that, in 
respect to this epistle, he finds not a single 
vestige of incorrect translation from an Ara- 
mean original, and no marks that there ever 
was such an original. This testimony is of 
considerable importance in respect to the ques- 
tion before us, as it comes from a critic who 
spent many years on the study of that which 
is most intimately connected with the very 
subject under consideration, namely, the detec- 
tion of the Aramean originals of the various 
parts of the New Testament. 

(4.) The principal arguments in favour of a 
Hebrew original are deduced from two sources : 
That Hebrews are addressed in our epistle, to 
whom the Hebrew language would have been 
more acceptable and intelligible, and many of 
whom, indeed, could not understand Greek, cer- 
tainly could not read it : That the diversity of 
style in the Epistle to the Hebrews is so great, 
when compared with that of St. Paul's epistles, 
that, unless Vv^e suppose the Greek costume did 
in fact come from another hand, we must be led 
to the conclusion that St. Paul did not write it. 
Both of these topics have been already discussed. 
I merely add here, therefore, that in case the 
writer of the epistle designed it should have a 
wide circulation among the Jews, to write in 
Greek was altogether the most feasible method 
of accomplishing this. Beside, if St. Paul did 
address it to the church at Csesarea, it is alto- 
gether probable that he wrote in Greek, as Greek 
was the principal language of that city. Even if 
he did not, it was not necessary that he should 
write in Hebrew ; for in every considerable 
place in Palestine, there were more or less who 
understood the Greek language. Whoever 
wishes to see tliis last position established be- 
yond any reasonable doubt, may read Hug's 
" Introduction to the New Testament," vol. ii, 
pp. 32-50. When St. Paul wrote to the Rol 
mans, he did not write in Latin ; yet there was 
no difficulty in making his epistle understood, 
for the knowledge of Greek was very common 
iai Rome. If St. Paul understood the Latin 
language, which is no where affirmed, and he 
had not resided when he wrote this epistle, in 
any of the countries where it was commonly 
used, still he understood Greek so much better 
that he would of course prefer writing in it. 
For a similar reason, if no other could be given, 
one may regard it as more probable, that he 
would write the Epistle to the Hebrews in the 
Greek language. At the time of writing it, he 
had been abroad twenty-five years at least, in 



HEB 



446 



HEX. 



Greek countries, and had been in Palestine, 
during all that period, only a few days. The 
Jews abroad, whom he every where saw, spoke 
Greek, not Hebrew. In Greek he preached 
and conversed. Is it any wonder, then, that, 
after twenty-five years' incessant labour or 
preaching, conversing, and writing, in this Ian- 
guage, he should have prefei-red writing in it ? 
Indeed, can it be probable, that, under circum. 
stances like these, he still possessed an equal 
facility of writing in his native dialect of Pa- 
lestine ? I cannot think it strange, therefore, 
that althougli the Epistle to the Hebrews was 
in all probability directed to some part of 
Palestine, yet it was written by St. Paul in 
Greek, and not in Hebrew. But, whatever 
may be the estimation put upon arguments of 
this nature, there are internal - marks of its 
having been originally composed in Greek, 
which cannot well be overlooked. 

HEBRON, one of the most ancient cities in 
the world ; for it was built seven years before 
Zoan, the capital of Lower Egypt, Numbers 
xiii, ^2. Now, as the Egyptians gloried much 
in the antiquity of their cities, and their coun- 
try was indeed one of the first that was peo- 
pled after the dispersion of Babel, it may be 
from hence concluded that it was one of the 
most ancient. Some think it was founded by 
Arba, one of the oldest giants in Palestine ; for 
which reason it was called Kirjath-arba, or 
Arba's city, Joshua xiv, 15 ; which name v/as 
afterward changed to that of Hebron, Joshua 
XV, 13. Arba was the father of Anak ; and 
from Anak the giants, called Anakim, took 
their name, who were still dwelling at Hebron 
when Joshua conquered the land of Canaan. 
When it was first called Hebron, is uncertain ; 
some think, not till it was conquered by Caleb, 
and that he called it so from his son of that 
name. But Calraet is of opinion that the name 
of Hebron is more ancient ; and that Caleb, to 
do honour to his son, named him after this 
ancient ana celebrated place. Hebron was 
situated upon an eminence, twenty miles south- 
ward from Jerusalem, and twenty miles north 
from Beersheba. Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac 
were buried near Hebron, in the cave of 
Machpelah, or the double cave, which Abra- 
ham bought of Ephron, Genesis xxiii, 7-9. 
Hebron was the allotment of Judah. The 
Lord assigned it for the inheritance of Caleb, 
Joshua xiv, 13 ; x, 3, 23, 37. Joshua first took 
Hebron, and killed the king, whose name was 
Hoham. But afterward Caleb again made a 
conquest of it, assisted by the troops of his 
tribe, and the valour of Otlmiel, Judges i, 12, 13. 
It was appointed to be a dwelling for priests, 
and declared to be a city of refuge, Joshua 
xxi, 13. David, after the death of Saul, fixed 
the seat of his government there, 2 Sam. ii, 2-5. 
At Hebron, Absalom began his rebellion, 
2 Sam. XV, 7, 8, &c. During the captivity of 
Ba.bylon, the Edomites having invaded the 
southern parts of Judea, made themselves 
masters of Hebron ; hence Josephus sometimes 
makes it a part of Edom. Here Zacharias and 
Elizabeth are believed to have dwelt ; and it is 
supposed to have been the birth place of John 



the Baptist. Hebron is now called El Hhalil ; 
though not a town of large dimensions, it has 
a considerable population. According to Ali 
Bey, it contains about four hundred families 
of Arabs ; but he does not notice either the 
Jews, who are numerous, or the Turks. He 
describes it as situated on the slope of a . 
mountain, and having a strong castle. Provi- 
sions, he says, are abundant, and there is a 
considerable number of shops. The streets 
are winding, and the houses unusually high. 
The country is well cultivated, to a consider- 
able extent. Hebron is computed to be twenty- 
seven miles south-west of Jerusalem. 

HEIFER, a young cow, used in sacrifice at 
the temple. Num. xix, 1-10. Moses and Aaron 
were instructed to deliver the divine commanci 
to the children of Israel that they should pro- 
cure *' a red heifer, without spot," that is, one 
that was entirely red, without one spot of any 
other colour ; " free from blemish, and on 
which the yoke had never yet come," that is, 
which had never yet been employed in plough, 
ing the ground or in any other work ; for ac- 
cording to the common sense of all mankind, 
those animals which had been made to serve 
other uses, became unfit to be ofiered to God, — 
a sentiment which we find in Homer and other 
Heathen writers. The animal was to be de- 
livered to the priest, who was to lead her forth 
out of the camp, and there to slay her : the 
priest was then to take of the blood with his 
finger, and sprinkle it seven times before the 
tabernacle, and afterward to burn the carcass : 
then to take cedar wood and hyssop, and scarlet 
wood, and cast them into the flames. The 
ashes were to be gathered up, and preserved 
in a secure and clean place, for the use of the 
congregation, by the sprinkling of which ashes 
in water, it became a water of separation, by 
means of which a typical or ceremonial purifi- 
cation for sin was effected, Heb. ix, 13. 
HELIOPOLIS. See On. 
HELL. This is a Saxon word, which is 
derived from a verb which signifies to hide or 
conceal. A late eminent Biblical critic, Dr. 
Campbell, has investigated this subject with 
his usual accuracy ; and the following is the 
substance of his remarks. In the Hebrew 
Scriptures the word sheol frequently occurs,, 
and uniformly, he thinks, denotes the state of 
the dead in general, without regard to the 
virtuous or vicious characters of the persons,, 
their happiness or misery. In translating that 
word, the LXX have almost invariably used the 
Greek term liiSijg, hades, which meana the re- 
ceptacle of the dead, and ought rarely to have 
been translated hell, in the sense in which we 
now use it, namely, as the place of torment. 
To denote this latter object, the New Testa- 
ment writers always make use of tlie Greek 
word yiEvva, whic]'. is compounded of two He- 
brew words, Ge Hinnom, that is, " The Valley 
of Hinnom," a place near Jerusalem, in which 
children were cruelly sacrificed by fire to Mo- 
loch, the idol of the Ammonites, 2 Chron. 
xxxiii, 6. This place was also called Tophet, 
2 Kings xxiii, 10, alluding, as is supposed, to 
the noise of drums, (toph signifying a drum,) 



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there raised to drown the cries of helpless in- 
fants. As in process of time this place came 
to be considered an emblem of hell, or the 
place of torment reserved for the punishment 
of the wicked in a future state, the name 
To'phet came gradually to be used in this sense, 
and at length to be confined -to it. In this 
sense, also, the word gehenna, a synonymous 
term, is always to be understood in the New 
Testament, where it occurs about a dozen 
times. The confusion that has arisen on this 
subject has been occasioned not only by our 
English translators having rendered the He- 
brew word sheol and the Greek word gehenna 
frequently by the term hell; but the Greek 
word hades, which occurs eleven times in the 
New Testament, is, in every instance, except 
one, translated by the same EngUsh word, 
which it ought never to have been. In the 
following passages of the Old Testament it 
seems, however, that a future world of wo 
is expressed by sheol : " They," the wicked, 
'^' spend their days in wealth, and in a moment 
go down to s^eoZ," Job xxi, 13. " The wicked 
shall be turned into sheol, and all the nations 
that forget God," Psalm ix, 17, 18. "Her 
feet go down to death, her steps take hold on 
sheol," Prov, v, 5. " But he knoweth not that 
the ghosts are there, and that her guests are 
in the depths of sheol," Prov. ix, 18. " Thou 
shalt beat him with a rod, and shalt deliver his 
soul from sheol," Prov. xxiii, 14. Thus, as 
Stuart observes, in his " Essay on Future 
Punishment," while the Old Testament em- 
ploys sheol, in most cases to designate the 
grave, the region of the dead, the place of de- 
parted spirits, it employs it also, in some cases, 
to designate along with this idea the adjunct 
one of the place of misery, place of punish- 
ment, region of wo. In this respect it accords 
fully with the New Testament use of hades. 
For though hades signifies the grave, and often 
the invisible region of separate spirits, without 
reference to their condition, yet, in Luke xvi, 
23, " In hades iv r^ a"Sji, he lifted up his eyes, 
being in torments," it is clearly used for a 
place and condition of misery. The word hell 
is also used by our translators for gehenna, 
which means the world of future punishment, 
"How shall ye escape the damnation of hell, 
Koffftcdj Trjs ysivvrji ?" 

Hell, Gates of. See Gates. 
HELLENISTS. On this appellation, Dr. 
Jennings observes, There is a very remarkable 
appellation which the Apostle Paul, after glo- 
rying in his being " of the stock of Israel, and 
of the tribe of Benjamin," applies to himself, 
namely, that he was " a Hebrew of the He- 
brews," Phil, iii, 5. By this expression Godwin 
understands a Hebrew both by father's and 
mother's side. But if this be all that the phrase 
imports, there seems to be very little occasion for 
the Apostle's using it immediately after having 
declared, that he was " of the stock of Israel, 
and the tribe of Benjamin ;" which, on God- 
win's supposition, is the same as a Hebrew of 
the Hebrews ; for the Jews were not allowed 
to marry out of their own nation ; or if they 
sometimes married proselytes, yet their number 



was comparatively so small among them, espe- 
cially while they were under oppression, as 
they were at that time by the Romans, that 
methinks Paul would hardly have mentioned 
it as a distinguishing privilege and honour, 
that neither of his parents were proselytes. It 
is therefore a much more probable sense, that 
a Hebrew of the Hebrews signifies a Hebrew 
both by nation and language, which multitudes 
of Abraham's posterity, in those days, were 
not ; or one of the Hebrew Jews, who perform- 
ed their public worship in the Hebrew tongue ; 
for such were reckoned more honourable than 
the Hellenistic Jews, who in their dispersion 
having, in a manner, lost the Hebrew, used 
the Greek language in sacris, and read the 
Scripture out of the Septuagint version. We 
meet with this distinction among the con- 
verted Jews, in the Acts of the Apostles : "In 
those days, when the number of the disciples 
was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the 
Grecians or Hellenists against the Hebrev/s," 
Acts vi, 1. This is what St. Paul probably 
meant by his being a Hebrew, as distinguish- 
ed from an Israelite : " Are they Hebrews ? 
So am I. Are they Israelites ? So am I," 
2 Corinthians xi, 22. In one sense, these were 
convertible terms, both signifying Jews by 
nation and religion ; but in the sense just 
mentioned, there were many, in those days, 
who were Israelites, but not Hebrews. St. 
Paul was both, not only an Israelite by birth," 
but a Hebrew, and not a Hellenistic Jew. 
Godwin expresses himself inaccurately, when 
he says that those who lived in Palestine, and 
who, as using the Hebrew text in their public 
worship, were opposed to the 'E\\r)vis-ai, are 
called Hebrews, or Jews. For, though He- 
brew and Jew are convertible terms, when 
opposed to Gentiles, as denoting the seed of 
Abraham, and professors of the Mosaic reli- 
gion, see Jer. xxxiv, 9 ; yet, as opposed to the 
'EWrivis-a}, they are not convertible terms, there 
being Hebrew Jews and Hellenistic Jews ; for 
it is said, that when "they, who were scattered 
by the persecution that arose about Stephen, 
travelled into several countries, preaching the 
word to none but Jews only," yet they spoke, 
zspoi T0V5 'EWrjvis-ug, to the Hellenists or Gre- 
cians, Acts xi, 19, 20. In order to confirm 
the sense which is here given of the w^ord 
'EWrji'i^m, in opposition to the appellation He- 
brews, it is proper we should take notice of the 
distinction between the "EWriveg and 'EXXiji'cs-at. 
The former were Greeks by nation, and as such 
distinguished from Jews, Acts xvi, 1 ; xix, 10; 
and the Greek empire having been rendered by 
Alexander in a manner universal, and their 
language being then the most common and 
general, the appellation Greeks is sometimes 
given to the whole Heathen world, or to all 
who were not Jews, Rom. i, 16 ; ii, 9. These 
Greeks, called 'EWriviKoi by Josephus, are 
always styled "EAA^ies in the New Testament. 
On which account Grotius, understanding by 
the 'EXX)7vt5-«<5 or "Grecians, to whom some of 
those who were dispersed on the persecution 
which arose about Stephen, preached the Lord 
Jesus," Acts xi, 19, 20, Greeks by nation, 



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concludes there is a mistake in the text, and 
alters it according to the Syriac and Vulgate 
versions : " Certe legendum," [it ought cer- 
tainly to be read,] saith he, " zspos rovs "EAXijvaj ." 
So indeed the Alexandrian manuscript reads, 
but it is supported by no other copy. And this 
is decisive against it — that from the words 
immediately preceding, it is evident that these 
Grecians were by nation Jews, and not Greeks ; 
it being expressly said, that those who were 
scattered on the persecution " preached the 
Gospel to the Jews only." As for the "EWrjvEs, 
or Greeks mentioned in St. John's Gospel, as 
being come to Jerusalem at the passover to 
worship in the temple, John xii, 20, and like- 
wise those mentioned in the Acts, as worship- 
ping along with the Jews in the synagogues. 
Acts xiv, 1 ; xviii, 4 ; they were doubtless 
Greeks by birth and nation, yet proselytes to 
the Jewish religion. There is a distinction 
made between Jews and proselytes. Acts ii, 
10 ; but none between Hebrews and proselytes, 
because a proselyte might be either a Hebrew 
or a Hellenist, according to the language in 
which he performed public worship. That the 
Hellenists or Grecians, were Jews, is farther 
argued from the account we have, that when 
at Jerusalem St. Paul " disputed against the 
Grecians, they went about to slay him," Acts 
ix, 29, as the Jews at Damascus had done be- 
fore. Acts ix, 23. Now had these Grecians 
been strangers of a different nation, it cannot 
be imagined they durst have attempted to kill 
a Jew, among his own countrymen, in the 
capital, and without a formal accusation of 
him before any of their tribunals. Upon the 
whole, the 'EWrivi^ai, or Grecians being Jews 
who used the Greek tongue in their sacred ex- 
ercises, the Hebrew Jews and Grecian Jews 
were distinguished in those days, in like man- 
ner as the Portuguese and Dutch Jews are 
among us, not so much by the place of their 
birth, (many being born in England, others 
abroad,) as by the language they use in their 
public prayers and sermons. 

Among the wonderful dealings of God, says 
Dr. Neander, by which the coming of Chris- 
tianity was prepared, must be placed the spread- 
ing of the Jews among the Greeks and Romans. 
Those among them who belonged to the Phari- 
sees gave themselves much trouble to obtain 
proselytes ; and the loss of respect for the old 
popular religion, and the unsatisfied religious 
wants of multitudes, farthered their views. 
Reverence for the national God of the Jews, 
as a mighty Being, and reverence for the secret 
sanctuary of the splendid temple of Jerusalem, 
had long gained admittance among the Hea- 
then. Jewish goetas (enchanters, jugglers, &c) 
permitted themselves to make use of a thou- 
sand acts of delusion, in which they were very 
skilful, to make an impression of astonishment 
on the minds of those around them. Confi- 
dence in Judaism had in consequence made 
such wide progress, especially in large capital 
towns, that the Roman writers in the time of 
the first emperors openly complain of it ; and 
Seneca, in his book upon superstition, said of 
the Jews, " The conquered have given laws to 



the conquerors." The Jewish proselyte-ma- 
kers, "blind leaders of the blind," who had 
themselves no conception of the real nature 
of religion, could give to others no insight into 
it. They often allowed their converts to take 
up a kind of dead monotheism, and merely ex- 
change one kind of superstition for another ; 
they taught them, that, by the mere outward 
worship of one God, and outward ceremonials, 
they were sure of the grace of God, without 
requiring any change of life ; and they gave to 
them only new means of silencing their con- 
science, and new support in the sins which 
they were unwilling to renounce : and hence 
our Saviour reproached these proselyte-makers, 
that they made their converts ten times more 
the children of hell, than they themselves were. 
But we must here accurately distinguish be- 
tween the two classes of proselytes. The 
proselytes in the strict sense of the word, the 
proselytes of righteousness, who underwent 
circumcision and took upon themselves the 
whole of the ceremonial law, were very dif- 
ferent from the proselytes of the gate, who 
only bound themselves to renounce idolatry, to 
the worship of the one God, and to abstinence 
from all Heathenish excess, as well as from 
every thing which appeared to have any con- 
nection with idolatry. The former often em- 
braced all the fanaticism and superstition of 
the Jews, and allowed themselves to be blindly 
led by their Jewish teachers. The more diffi- 
cult it had been to them to subject themselves 
to the observance of the Jewish ceremonial 
law, necessarily so irksome to a Greek or a 
Roman, the less could they find it in their 
hearts to believe, that all this had been in vain, 
that they had obtained no advantage by it, and 
that they must renounce their presumed holi- 
ness. What Justin Martyr says to the Jews, 
holds good of these proselytes : " The prose- 
lytes not only do not believe, but they calum- 
niate the name of Christ twice as much as you, 
and they wish to murder and torture us who 
believe on him, because they are desirous to 
resemble you in every thing," The proselytes 
of the gate, on the contrary, had taken many 
of the most admirable truths out of Judaism, 
Without becoming entirely Jews, they had 
become acquainted with the Holy Scriptures 
of the Jews, they had heard of the promised 
messenger from God, of the King armed with 
power from God, of whom a report had been 
spread, as Suetonius says in the life of Vespa- 
sian, over the whole of the east. Much of 
that which they had heard from their Jewish 
teachers, whose writings they had read, had 
remained dark to them, and they were still to 
seek in them. By the notions which they had 
received from the Jews, of one God, of the 
divine government of the world, of God's judg- 
ment, and of the Messiah, they were more 
prepared for the Gospel than other Heathens ; 
and because they still thought that they had 
too little, because they had no determined 
religious system, and were curious aflcr more 
instruction in divine things, and because they 
had not received many of the prejudices which 
swayed the Jews, they were more fitted to 



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448 



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receive the Gospel than many of the Jews. 
From the very beghming they must have been 
attentive to the preaching of the Gospel, which 
secured to them, without making them Jews, 
a full share in the fulfilment of those promises 
of which the Jews had spoken to them. To 
these proselytes of the gate, (the (po^ov^itvoi tov 
Qsov, the £U(T£/?£tf of the New Testament,) passed, 
therefore, according to the Acts, the preach- 
ing of the Gospel, when it had been rejected 
by the blinded Jews ; and here the seed of the 
divine word found a fitting soil in hearts desir- 
ous of holiness. There were, however, doubt- 
less, among the proselytes of the gate, some 
who, wanting in proper earnestness in their 
search after religious truth, only desired, in 
every case, an easy road to heaven, which did 
not require any self-denial ; and who, in order 
to be sure of being on the safe side, whether 
power and truth lay with the Jews or the Hea- 
thens, sometimes worshipped in the synagogue 
of Jehovah, sometimes in the temples of the 
gods, and who, therefore, fluttered in suspense 
between Judaism and Heathenism. 

HEMLOCK, C'n and ii'Xi, Deut. xxix, 18 ; 
xxxii, 32 ; Psalm Ixix, 21 ; Jer. viii, 14 ; ix, 1.5 ; 
xxiii, 15; Lam. iii, 5, 19 ; Hosea x, 4; Amos 
vi, 12. In the two latter places our translators 
have rendered the word hemlock in the others, 
'gall, Hiller supposes it the centaureum, de- 
scribed by Pliny ; but Celsius shows it to be 
the hemlock. It is evident, from Deut. xxix, 
18, that some herb or plant is meant of a ma- 
lignant or nauseous kind, being there joined 
with wormwood, and in the margin of our Bibles 
explained to be " a poisonful herb." In like 
manner see Jer. viii, 14 ; ix, 15 ; and xxiii, 15. 
In Hosea x, 4, the comparison is to a bitter hei-b, 
which, growing among grain, overpowers the 
useful vegetable, and substitutes a pernicious 
weed. " If," says the author of "Scripture Illus- 
trated," " the comparison be to a plant growing 
in the furrows of the field, strictly speaking, 
then we are much restricted in our plants likely 
to answer this character ; but if we may ta,ke the 
ditches around, or the moist or sunken places 
within the field also, vv^hich I partly suspect, 
then we may include other plants ; and I do 
not see why hemlock may not be intended. 
Scheuchzer inclines to this rather than loorm- 
wood or agrostes, as the LXX have rendered it. 
The prophet appears to mean a vegetable which 
should appear wholesome, and resemble those 
known to be salutary, as judgment, when just, 
properly is ; but experience would demonstrate 
its malignity, as unjust judgment is when en- 
forced. Hemlock is poisonous, and water- 
hemlock especially ; yet either of these may be 
mistaken, and some of their parts, the root 
particularly, may deceive hut too fatally." 

HEN, d^vis, 2 Esdras i, 30 ; Matt, xxiii, 37 ; 
Luke xiii, 34. In these last two passages our 
Saviour exclaims, " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 
how often would I have gathered thy children 
together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens 
under her wings, and ye would not !" The 
metaphor here used is a very beautiful one. 
When the hen sees a bird of prey coming, she 
makes a noise to asaemble her chickens, that 



she may cover them with her wings from the 
danger. The Roman eagle was about to fall 
upon the Jewish state ; our Lord invited them 
to himself in order to guard them from threat- 
ened calamities : they disregarded his invita- 
tions and warnings, and fell a prey to their 
adversaries. The affection of the hen to her 
brood is so strong as to have become prover- 
bial. There is a beautiful Greek epigram in 
the Anthologia, which affords a very fine illus- 
tration of the affection of this bird in another 
view. It has been thus translated : — 

" Beneath lier fostering wing the )ien defends 
Her dading offspring, while the snow descends ; 
And through the winter's day unmoved defies 
The chilling fleeces and inclement skies ; 
Till vanquish'd by the cold and piercing blast, 
True to her charge she perishes at last." 

Plutarch, in his book De Pkilosforgia, repre- 
sents this parental attachment and care in a 
very pleasing manner : " Do we not daily ob- 
serve with what care the hen protects her 
chickens ; giving some shelter under her wings, 
supporting others upon her back, calling them 
around her, and picking out their food; and if 
any animal approaches that terrifies them, 
driving it away with a courage and strength 
truly wonderful ?" 

HENOTICON, a decree or edict of the Em- 
peror Zeno, Avhich was dated at Constantino- 
ple in the year 482, and by which he intended 
to unite all the parties in religion under one 
faith. For this reason the decree was called 
henoticon, which signifies "union" or "unit- 
ing." It is generally agreed that it was pub- 
lished by the advice of Acacius, bishop of 
Constantinople, who wished to reconcile the 
contending parties. This decree repeated and 
confirmed all that had been enacted in the 
councils of Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus, 
and Chalcedon, against the Arians, Nestorians, 
and Eutychians, without particularly mention, 
ing the council of Chalcedon. The henoticon 
was approved by all those of the two contend- 
ing parties who were remarkable for their 
candour and moderation ; but it was opposed 
by the violent and obstinate, who complained 
that it was injurious to the honour and au- 
thority of the most holy council of Chalcedon. 
Hence arose new contests and new divisions 
not less deplorable than those which this de- 
cree v/as intended to suppress. The Catholics 
opposed it with all their strength ; and it was 
condemned in form by Pope Felix II. 

HERESY, hcBresis, a'ipeas, from o'lpiu), I 
choose, signifies an error in some eseential 
point of Christian faith, publicly avowed, and 
obstinately maintained ; or, according to the 
legal definition, " Sententia rerum divhtarvm 
humano sensu cxcogitata, palam docia, et per- 
tinaciter defensa.'''' [An opinion of divine 
things invented by human reason, openly 
taught, and obstinately defended.] Among 
the ancients, the word heresy appears toTiave 
had nothing of that odious signification which 
lias been attached to it by ecclesiastical writers 
in later times. It only signified a peculiar 
opinion, dogma, or sect, without conveying 
any reproach ; being indifferently used, either 



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449 



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of a party approved, or of one disapproved, by 
the writer. In this sense they spoke of the 
heresy of the Stoics, of the Peripatetics, Epi- 
cureans, &c, meaning the sect or peculiar 
system of these philosophers. In the histori- 
cal part of the New Testament, the word 
seems to bear very nearly the same significa- 
tion, being employed indiscriminately to denote 
a sect or party, whether good or bad. Thus 
we read of the sect or heresy of the Sadducees, 
of the Pharisees, of the Nazarenes, &c. See 
Acts V, 17; XV, 5; xxiv, 5; xxvi, 5; xxviii, 
22. In the two former of these passages, the 
terra heresy seems to be adopted by the sacred 
historian merely for the sake of distinction, 
without the least appearance of any intention 
to convey either praise or blame. In Acts 
xxvi, 4, 5, St. Paul, in defending himself be- 
fore King Agrippa, uses the same term, when 
it was manifestly his design to exalt the party 
to which he had belonged, and to give their 
system the preference over every other sys- 
tem of Judaism, both with regard to sound- 
ness of doctrine and purity of morals. 

2. It has been suggested that the accepta. 
tion of the word a'i^tcLg in the epistles is dif- 
ferent from what it has been observed to be in 
the historical books of the New Testament. 
In order to account for this difference, it may 
be observed that the word sect has always 
something relative in it; and therefore, al- 
though the general import of the term be the 
same, it will convey a favourable or an unfa- 
vourable idea, according to the particular 
relation which it bears in the application. 
When it is used along with the proper name, 
by way of distinguishing one party from 
another, it conveys neither praise nor re- 
proach. If any thing reprehensible or com- 
mendable be meant, it is suggested, not by the 
word aiptais itself, but by the words with which 
it stands connected in construction. Thus we 
may speak of a strict sect, or a lax sect ; or of 
a good sect, or a bad sect. Again : the term 
may be applied to a party formed in a commu- 
nity, when considered in reference to the 
whole. If the community be of such a nature 
as not to admit of such a subdivision, without 
impairing or corrupting its constitution, a 
charge of splitting into sects, or forming par- 
ties, is equivalent to a charge of corruption in 
that which is most essential to the existence 
and welfare of the society. Hence arises the 
whole difference in the word, as it is used in 
the historical part of the New Testament, and 
in the epistles of St. Peter and St. Paul ; for 
these are the only Apostles who employ it. In 
the history, the reference is always of the first 
kind ; ia the epistles, it is always of the second. 
In these last, the Apostles address themselves 
only to Christians, and either reprehend them 
for, or warn them against, forming sects 
among themselves, to the prejudice of charity, 
to the production of much mischief within 
their community, and of great scandal to the 
unconverted world without. In both applica- 
tions, however, the radical imi>ort of the word 
is the same ; and even in the latter it has no 
necessary reference to doctrine, true or false. 
30 



During the early ages of Christianity, the 
term heresy gradually lost the innocence of its 
original meaning, and came to be applied, in 
a reproachful sense, to any corruption of what 
was considered as the orthodox creed, or even 
to any departure from the established rites and 
ceremonies of the church. 

3. The heresies chiefly alluded to in the 
apostolical epistles are, first, those of the Ju- 
daizers, or rigid adherents to the Mosaic rites, 
especially that of circumcision ; second, those 
of converted Hellenists, or Grecian Jews, who 
held the Greek eloquence and philosophy in 
too high an estimation, and corrupted, by the 
speculations of the latter, the simplicity of the 
Gospel; and third, those who endeavoured to 
blend Christianity with a mixed philosophy of 
magic, demonology, and Platonism, which 
was then highly popular in the world. With 
respect to the latter, the remarks of Hug will 
tend to illustrate some passages in the writings 
of St. Paul : — Without being acquainted with 
the notions of those teachers who caused the 
Apostle so much anxiety and so much vexa- 
tion, a considerable part of these treatises 
must necessarily remain dark and unintelligi- 
ble. From the criteria by v/hich the Apostle 
points them out, at one time some deemed 
that they recognised the Gnostics ; others per- 
ceived none but the Essenes ; and every one 
found arguments for his assertions from the 
similarity of the doctrines, opinions, and mo- 
rals. It would, however, be as difficult to 
prove that the Gnostic school had at that time 
indeed perfectly developed itself, as it is unjust 
to charge the Essenes with that extreme of 
immorality of which St. Paul accused these 
seducers, since the contemporaries and ac- 
quaintances of this Jewish sect mention them 
with honour and respect, and extol its mem- 
bers as the most virtuous men of their age. 
The similarity of the principles and opinions, 
which will have been observed in both parties 
compared with St. Paul's declarations, flows 
from a common source, from the philosophy 
of that age, whence both the one and the other 
have derived their share. We shall therefore 
go less astray, if we recede a step, and con- 
sider the philosophy itself, as the general 
modeller of these derivative theories. It 
found its followers among Judaism as well as 
among the Heathens ; it both introduced its 
speculative preparations into Christianity, and 
endeavoured to unite them or to adjust them 
to it, as well as they were able, by which 
means Christianity would have become de- 
formed and unlike to itself, and would have 
been merged in the ocean of philosophical 
reveries, unless the Apostles had on this oc- 
casion defended it against the follies of men. 
An oriental, or, as it is commonly called, a 
Babylonian or Chaldean, doctrinal system had 
already long become known to the Greeks, 
and even to the Romans, before Augustus, 
and still more so in the Augustan age, and 
was in the full progress of its extension over 
Asia and Europe. It set up different deities 
and intermediate spirits in explanation of cer- 
tain phenomena of nature, for the office of 



HER 



450 



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governing the world, and for the solution of 
other metaphysical questions, which from time 
immemorial were reckoned among the difficult 
propositions of pliilosophy. The practical 
part of this system was occupied with the pre- 
cepts by means of which a person might enter 
into communication with these spirits or 
demons. But the result which they promised 
to themselves from this union v;ith the divine 
natures, was that of acquiring, by their as- 
sistance, superhuman knowledge, that of pre- 
dicting future events, and of performing 
supernatural works. These philosophers were 
celebrated under the name of magi and Chal- 
deans ; who, for the sake of better acconmio- 
dating themselves to the western nations, 
modified their system after the Greek forms, 
and then, as it appears, knew how to unite it 
with the doctrine of Plato, from whence after- 
ward arose the Neo-Platonic and in Christen- 
dom the Gnostical school. These men forced 
their way even to the throne. Tiberius had 
received instruction in their philosophy, and 
was very confident that by means of an intel- 
ligence with the demons, it was possible to 
learn and perform extraordinary things. Nero 
caused a great number of them to be brought 
over from Asia, not unfrequently at the ex- 
pense of the provinces. The supernatural 
spirits would not always appear, yet he did 
not discard his belief of them. The magi and 
Chaldeans were the persons who were con- 
sulted on great undertakings, who, when 
conspiracies arose, predicted the issue ; who 
invoked spirits, prepared offerings, and in love 
affairs were obliged to afford aid from their 
art. Even the force of the laws, to which 
recourse was frequently necessary to be had 
at Rome, tended to nothing but the augment- 
ation of their authority. As they found ac- 
cess and favour with people of all classes in 
the" capital, so did they also in the provinces. 
Paul found a magus at the court of the pro- 
cpnsul at Paphos, Acts xiii, 6. Such was that 
Simon in Samaria, Acts viii, 10, who was 
there considered as a higher being of the 
spiritual class. The expression is remarkable, 
as it is a part of the technical language of the 
Theurgists ; they called him Avvaing rod Oeov 
neydXtj, " The great power of God." So also 
Pliny calls some of the demons and interme- 
diate spirits, by whose cooperation particular 
results were jcffected, potestates. [Powers.] 
Justin Martyr, the fellow countryman of Si- 
mon, has preserved to us some technical 
expressions of his followers. He says that 
they ascribed to him the high title vnepdvu) 
TZdcrji ap;^^f, Koi t^ovmag, km Svvdjjiews, [Far above 
all principality, and power, and might.] Of 
these classes of spirits, which appear under 
such different appellations, the superior were 
those who ruled ; but the inferior, who had 
more of a material substance, and who, on 
that account, were able to connect themselves 
immediately with matter, were those who 
executed the commands of the superior. By 
an intelligence with the superior spirits a per- 
son might have the subaltern at his service 
and assistance ; for the more powerful demons 



thus commanded the inferior to execute cer- 
tain commissions in the material world : 'Sv 
Tw ap'xpvTL Twv 6at[jiovio}v, "By the prirtce of the 
devils," Matt, xii, 24. 

4. The Syrian philosopher, Jamblichus, of 
Chalcis, has furnished us with a circumstantial 
representation of this system and its several 
varieties, in his book on the mysteries of the 
Chaldeans and Egyptians: — The nature of 
the gods is a pure, spiritual, and perfect unity. 
With this highest and perfect immateriality 
no influence on matter is conceivable, conse- 
quently, no creation and dominion of the 
world. Certain subordinate deities must there- 
fore be admitted, which are more compounded 
in their nature, and can act upon gross mat- 
ter. These are the " creators of the world," 
SnixLovpyoi, and the "rulers of the world," 
KoajxoKpdTopes- The superior deities are, how- 
ever, the real cause of all that exists ; and 
from their fulness, from their zo\^po>[ia, it de- 
rives its existence* The succession from the 
highest deities down to the lowest is not by a 
sudden descent, but by a continually graduat- 
ing decrease from the highest, pure, and 
spiritual natures, down to those which are 
more substantial and material, which are the 
nearest related to the gross matter of the 
creation, and which consequently possess the 
property of acting upon it. In proportion to 
their purer quality, or coarser composition, 
they occupy different places as their residence, 
either in a denser atmosphere, or in higher 
regions. The highest among these classes of 
spirits are called apxah or> apxiKov airiov. Others 
among the "divine natures," ^dai ohaiai, are 
" intermediate beings," niaai. Those which 
occupy themselves with the laws of the world 
are also called ap^pyrzi, and " the ministering 
spirits" are 6vvafitig and ayytXoi. The arch- 
angels are not generally recognised in this 
theory ; this class is said to have been of a 
later origin, and to have been first introduced 
by Porphyry. (See Archangel.) If we take 
here also into consideration the i^ovaiai, of 
which Justin has before spoken, we shall have 
enumerated the greater part of the technical 
appellations of this demonology. But to 
arrive at a union with the higher orders of 
the spiritual world, in which alone the higliest 
bliss of man consists, it is necessary, before 
all things, to become disengaged from the 
servitude of the body, which detains the soul 
from soaring up to the purely spiritual. Matri- 
mony, therefore, and every inclination to 
sexual concupiscence, must be renounced be- 
fore the attainment of this perfection. Hence, 
the offerings and initiations of the magi can- 
not, without great injury, be even communi- 
cated to those who have not as yet emanci- 
pated themselves from the libido proa-eandi, 
and the propensities to corporeal attachments. 
To eat meat, or to partake in general of any 
slain animal, nay, to even touch it, contami- 
nates. Bodily exercises anli purifications, 
though not productive ofthegifls of prophecy, 
are nevertheless conducive to them. Though 
the gods only attend to the pure, they never- 
theless sometimes mislead men to impure. 



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actions. This may perhaps proceed from the 
totally ♦diflfe rent ideas of that which is good 
and righteous, which subsist between them 
and mankind. 

5. This philosophy of which the elements 
had already existed a long time in the east, 
formed itself, in its progress to the west, into 
a doctrinal system, which found there far more 
approbation and celebrity than it ever had de- 
served. It was principally welcome in those 
coimtries, to which tlie epistles of the Apostle 
are directed. When St. Paul had preached at 
Ephesus, a quantity of magical and theurgical 
books were brought forward by their possess- 
ors and burned before his eyes, Acts xix, 19. 
This city had long since been celebrated for 
them, and the 'Kcpiaia aXc^ifdpixaKa, and 'Ecpiaia 
YpdfiijaTa, were spells highly extolled by the 
ancients for the purpose of procuring an au- 
thority over the demons. As late even as the 
fourth century, the synod at Laodicea was 
obliged to institute severe laws against the 
worship of angels, against magic, and against 
incantations. These opinions had taken such 
a deep root in the mind, that some centuries 
did not suffice for the extinction of the recol- 
lection of them. Now, there are passages in 
the Apostle which strikingly characterize this 
theory. He calls the doctrinal system of his 
opponents (piXoaocpla ov Kara XoK^bv, " a philoso- 
phy incompatible with Christianity," Col. ii, 8 ; 
&pr](jKeid T&v ayyi\wv, " a worship of angels," 
Col. ii, 18 ; Si6a(7Ka\iai Saifxoviujv, " ademonology," 

1 Tim. iv, 1. He calls it still farther yo^rda, 

2 Tim. iii, 13. This is the peculiar expression 
by which the ancients denoted magical arts 
and necromantic experiments ; y6ris is, accord- 
ing to Hesychius, iidyog, K6\a^, zseplepyog, and 
yor}TE.VEi, aTTara nayevei, (papjiaKevei, i^diSti. X. St. 
Paul compares these teachers to Jannes and 
Jambres, 2 Timothy iii, 8. These two person? 
are, according to the ancient tradition, the ma- 
gicians who withstood Moses by their arts. 
They were from time immemorial names so no- 
torious in the magical science, that they did not 
remain unknown even to the Neo-Platonics. 
When the Apostle enjoins the Ephesians to 
array themselves in the arms of faith, and 
courageously to endure the combat, Ephes. 
vi, 12, he says that it is the more necessary, 
because their combat is not against human 
force, ov apos [not against] a'lua koi adpKa, " flesh 
and blood," but against superhuman natures. 
Where he mentions these, he enumerates in 
order the names of this magico-spiritual world, 

apxdi, i^ovaiai, particularly the KoanoKparopa^, 

"principalities," "powers," "rulers;" and 
likewise fixes their abode in the upper aerial 
regions, eh t6v dtpa ev Tolg enovpavioti. In like 
manner, in the Epistle to the Colossians, for 
the sake of representing to them Christianity 
in an exalted and important light, and of prais- 
ing the divine nature of Jesus, he says, that all 
that exists is his creation, and is subjected to 
him, not even the spiritual world excepted. He 
then selects the philosophic appellations to 
demonstrate that this supposititious demon- 
ocracy is wholly subservient to hun ; whe. 
ther they be ^p6voi, or KvpidTijTCi, dpxal i^ovaiai, 



[thrones, dominions, principalities, powers,] 
Col. i, 16. Finally, to destroy completely and 
decisively the whole doctrinal system, he 
demonstrates, that Christ, through the work 
of redemption, has obtained the victory over 
the entire spiritual creation, that he drags in 
triumph the dpx»i [principalities] and e^ov(rias 
[powers] as vanquished, and that henceforth 
their dominion and exercise of power have 
ceased, Col. ii, 15. But what he says respect- 
ing the seared consciences of these heretics, 
respecting their deceptions, their avarice, &c, 
is certainly more applicable to this class of 
men, than to any other. None throughout all 
antiquity are more accused of these immorali- 
ties, than those pretended confidents of the 
occult powers. If he speaks warmly against 
any distinction of meats, against abstinence 
from matrimony, this also applies to them ; 
and if he rejects bodily exercises, it was be- 
cause they recommended them, because they 
imposed baths, lustrations, continence, and 
long preparations, as the conditions by which 
alone the connection with the spirits became 
possible. These, then, are the persons who 
passed before the Apostle's mind, and who, 
when they adopted Christianity, established 
that sect among the professors of Jesus, which 
gave to it the name of Gnostics, and which, 
together with the diiferent varieties of this 
system, is accused by history of magical arts. 
Other adherents of this system among the 
Heathens, to which the Syrian philosophers, 
as well as some Egyptian, such as Plotinus 
and his scholars, belonged, formed the sect of 
Neo-Platonism. 

6. But in the above remarks of this learned 
German, some considerations are wanting, 
necessary to the right understanding of several 
of the above passages quoted from St. Paul. 
The philosophic system above mentioned was 
built on the Scripture doctrine of good and 
e\'il angels, and so had a basis of truth, although 
abused to a gross superstition, and even idola- 
try. It Vv'as grounded, too, upon the notiou 
of different orders among both good and evil 
spirits, with subordination and government ; 
which also is a truth of which some intimation 
is given in Scripture. The Apostle then could 
use all these terms without giving any sanction 
to the errors of the day. He knew that the 
spiritual powers they had converted into sub- 
ordinate deities, were either good or evil angels 
in their various ranks, and he uproots the whole 
superstition, by showing that the "thrones 
and dominions " of heaven are submissive cre- 
ated servants of Christ ; and that the evil spi- 
rits, the rulers of " the darkness of this world," 
are put under his feet. 

HERMON, a celebrated mountain in the 
Holy Land, often spoken of in Scripture. It 
was in the northern boundary of the country, 
beyond Jordan, and in the territories which 
originally belonged to Og, king of Bashan, 
Joshua xii, 5 ; xiii, 5. The Psalmist connects 
Tabor and Hermon together, upon more than 
one occasion, Psalm Ixxxix, 12; cxxxiii, 3; 
from which it may be inferred that they lay 
contiguous to each other. This is agreeable 



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to the account that is given us by travellers. 
Mr. Maundrell, in his journey from Aleppo, 
says that in three hours and a half from the 
river Kishon, he came to a small brook near 
which was an old village and a good kane, 
called Legune ; not far from wluch his com- 
pany took up their quarters for the night, and 
from whence they had an extensive prospect 
of the plain of Esdraelon. At about six or 
seven hours' distance eastward, stood, within 
view, Nazareth, and the two mountains Tabor 
and Hermon. He adds that they were suffi- 
ciently instructed by experience what the holy 
Psalmist means by the dew of Hermon ; their 
tents being as wet with it as if it had rained 
all night, Psalm cxxxiii, 3. 

HEROD, surnamed the Great, king of the 
Jews, second son of Antipater the Idumean, 
born B. C. 71. At the age of twenty-five he 
was made by his father governor of Galilee, 
and distinguished himself by the suppression 
of a band of robbers, with the execution of 
their leader, Hezekiah, and several of his com- 
rades. As he had performed this act of hero- 
ism by his own authority, and had executed 
the culprits without the form of trial, he was 
sunnnoned before the sanhedrim, but, through 
the strength of his party and zeal of his 
friends, he escaped any censure. In the civil 
war between the republican and CaBsarian 
parties, Herod joined Cassius, and was made 
governor of Ccelo-Syria ; and when Mark An- 
tony arrived victorious in Syria, Herod and his 
brother found means to ingratiate themselves 
with him, and were appointed as tetrarchs in 
Judea ; but in a short time an invasion of An- 
tigonus, who was aided by the Jews, obliged 
Herod to make his escape from Jerusalem, and 
retire first to Idumea, and then to Egypt. He 
at length arrived at Rome, and obtained the 
crown of Judea upon occasion of a difference 
between the two branches of the Asmodean 
family. Hyrcanus had been for a considerable 
time prince and high priest of the Jewish na- 
tion ; but while the Roman empire was in an 
unsettled state, after the death of Julius Cassar, 
Antigonus, son of Aristobulus, brother of 
Hyrcanus, made himself master of the city 
and all Judea. In this state Herod found 
things when he came to Rome, and the most 
that he then aimed at was to obtain the king- 
dom for Aristobulus, his wife's brother; but 
the senate of Rome, moved by the recommend- 
ations of Mark Antony, conferred the king- 
dom of Judea upon Herod himself. Having 
met with this unexpected success at Rome, he 
returned without delay to Judea, and in about 
three years got possession of the whole coun- 
try. He had, however, to fight his way to the 
throne, which, as we have seen, was in the 
possession of Antigonus. Though aided by 
the Roman army, he was obliged to lay siege 
to Jerusalem, which held out for six months, 
when it was carried by assault, and a vast 
slaughter was made of the inhabitants, till the 
intercession and bribes of Herod put an end to 
it. Antigonus was taken prisoner and put to 
death, which opened the way to Herod's quiet 
possession of the kingdom. His first cares 



were to replenish his coffers, and to repress the 
faction still attached to the Asmodean race, 
and which regarded him as a usurper. Ho 
was guilty of many extortions and cruelties in 
the pursuit of these objects. Shortly after this, 
an accusation was lodged against Herod before 
Mark Antony by Cleopatra, who had been 
influenced to the deed by his mother-in-law, 
Alexandra. He was summoned to answer to 
the charges exhibited against him before the 
triumvir ; and on this occasion he gave a most 
remarkable display of the conflict of opposite 
passions in a ferocious heart. Doatingly fond 
of his wife, Mariamne, and not being able tu 
bear the thought of her falling into the hands 
of another, he exacted a solemn promise from 
Joseph, whom he appointed to govern in his 
absence, that should the accusation prove fatal 
to him he would put the queen to death. Jo- 
seph disclosed the secret to Mariamne, who, 
abhorring such a savage proof of his love, 
from that moment conceived the deepest and 
most settled aversion to her husband. Herod, 
by great pecuniary sacrifices, made his peace 
with Antony, and returned in high credit. 
Some hints were thrown out respecting Jo- 
seph's familiarity with Mariamne during his ab- 
sence ; he communicated his suspicions to his 
wife, who, recriminating, upbraided liim witli 
his cruel order concerning her His rage was un- 
bounded ; he put Joseph to death for communi • 
eating the secret entrusted to him alone, and he 
threw his mother-in-law, Alexandra,into prison. 
2. In the war between Antony andOctavius, 
Herod raised an army for the purpose of join 
ing the former ; but he was obliged first to 
engage Malchus, king of Arabia, whom he 
defeated and obliged to sue for peace. After 
the battle of Actium, his great object was to 
make terms with the conqueror ; and, as a pre- 
liminary step, he put to death Hyrcanus, the 
only suviving male of the Asmodeans ; and, 
having secured his family, he embarked for 
Rhodes, where Augustus at that time was. He 
appeared before the master of the Roman world 
in all the regal ornaments excepting his dia. 
dem, and with a noble confidence related the 
faithfiil services he had performed for his bene- 
factor, Antony, concluding that he was ready 
to transfer the same gratitude to a new patron, 
from whom he should hold his crown and 
kingdom. Augustus was struck with the mag. 
nanimity of the defence, and replaced tlie dia- 
dem on the head of Herod, who remained the 
most favoured of the tributary sovereigns. 
When the emperor afterward travelled through 
Syria, in his way to and from Egypt, he was 
entertained with the utmost magnificence by 
Herod ; in recompense for which he restored 
to him all liis revenues and dominions, and 
even considerably augmented them. His good 
fortune as a prince, was poisoned by domestic 
broils, and especially by the insuperable aver- 
sion of Mariamne, whom at length he brought 
to trial, convicted, and executed. She sub. 
mitted to her fate with all the intrepidity of 
innocence, and was sufliciently avenged by the 
remorse of her husband, Avho seems never after 
to have enjoyed a tranquil hour. 



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3. His rage being quenched, Herod endea- 
voured to banisli the memory of his evil acts 
from his mind by scenes of dissipation ; but 
the charms of his once loved Mariamne haunt- 
ed him Avherever he went : he would frequently 
call aloud upon her name, and insist upon his 
attendants bringing her into his presence, as 
if willing to forget that she was no longer 
among the living. At times he would fly from 
the sight of men, and on his return from soli- 
tude, which was ill suited to a mind conscious 
of the most ferocious deeds, he became more 
brutal than ever, and in fits of fury spared 
neither foes nor friends. Alexandra, whose ma- 
lignity toward her daughter has been noticed, 
was an unpitied victim to his rage. At length 
he recovered some portion of self-possession, 
and employed himself in projects of regal 
magnificence. He built at Jerusalem a stately 
theatre and amphitheatre, in which he cele- 
brated games in honour of Augustus, to the 
great displeasure of the zealous Jews, who dis- 
covered an idolatrous profanation in the thea- 
trical ornaments and spectacles. Nothing, it 
is said, gave them so much offence as some 
trophies which he had set round his theatre in 
honour of Augustus, and in commemoration of 
his victories, but which the Jews regarded as 
images devoted to the purposes of idol worship. 
For this and other acts of the king a most 
serious conspiracy was formed against him, 
which he, fortunately for himself, discovered ; 
and he exercised the most brutal revenge on 
all the parties concerned in it. He next built 
Samaria, which he named Sebaste, and adorn- 
ed it with the most smnptuous edifices ; and for 
his security he built several fortresses through- 
out the whole of Judea, of which the principal 
was called Csesarea, in honour of the emperor. 
In his own palace, near the temple of Jerusa- 
lem, he lavished the most costly materials and 
curious workmanship ; and his palace Hero- 
dion, at some miles' distance from the capital, 
by the beauty of its situation, and other appro- 
priate advantages, drew round it the popula- 
tion of a considerable city. 

4. To supply the place of his lost Mariamne, 
he married a new wife of the same name, the 
beautiful daughter of a priest, whom he raised 
to the high rank of the supreme pontificate. 
He sent his two sons, by the first Mariamne, 
to be educated at Rome, and so ingratiated 
himself with Augustus and his ministers, that 
he was appointed imperial procurator for Syria. 
To acquire popularity among the Jews, and 
to exhibit an attachment to their religion, he 
undertook the vast enterprise of rebuilding the 
temple of Jerusalem, which he finished in a 
noble style of magnificence in about a year and 
a half. During the progress of this work he 
visited Rome, and brought back his sons, who 
had attained to man's estate. These at length 
conspired against their father's person and 
government, and were tried, convicted, and 
executed. Another act deserving of notice, 
performed by Herod, was the dedication of his 
new city of Ceesarea, at which time he dis- 
played such profiise magnificence, that Augus- 
tus said his eoul was too great for his king- 



dom. Notwithstanding the execution of his 
sons, he was still a slave to conspiracies from 
his other near relations. In the thirty-third 
year of his reign, our Saviour was born. This 
event was followed, according to the Gospel 
of St. Matthew, by the massacre of the chil- 
dren of Bethlehem. About this time. Anti- 
pater, returning from Rome, was arrested by 
his father's orders, charged with treasonable 
practices, and was found guilty of conspiring 
against the life of the king. This and other 
calamities, joined to a guilty conscience, prey, 
ing upon a broken constitution, threw the 
wretched monarch into a mortal disease, which 
was doubtless a just judgment of Heaven on 
the many foul enormities and impieties of 
which he had been guilty. His disorder was 
attended with the most loathsome circum- 
stances that can be imagined. A premature 
report of his death caused a tumult in Jerusa. 
lem, excited by the zealots, who were impatient 
to demolish a golden eagle which he had placed 
over the gate of the temple. The perpetrators 
of this rash act were seized, and by order of 
the dying king, put to death. He also caused 
his son Antipater to be slain in prison, and 
his remains to be treated with every species of 
ignominy. He bequeathed his kingdom to his 
son Archelaus, with tetrarchies to his two other 
sons. Herod, on his dying bed, had planned 
a scheme of horrible cruelty which was to take 
place at the instant of his own deatJi. He had 
summoned fhe chief persons among the Jews 
to Jericho, and caused them to be shut up in the 
hippodrome, or circus, and gave strict orders to 
his sister Salome to have them all massacred as 
soon as he should have drawn his last breath : 
" for this," said he, " will provide mourners for 
my ftmeral all over the land, and make the 
Jews and every family lament my death, who 
would otherwise exhibit no signs of concern.'* 
Salome and her husband, Alexas, chose rather 
to break their oath extorted by the tyrant, than 
be implicated in so cruel a deed ; and accord- 
ingly, as soon as Herod was dead, they opened 
the doors of the circus, and permitted every 
one to return to his own home. Herod died 
in the sixty-eighth year of his age. His 
memory has been consigned to merited detest, 
ation, while his great talents, and the active 
enterprise of his reign, have placed him high 
in the rank of sovereigns. 

Herod Antipas. See Antipas. 

HERODIANS, a sect among the Jews at 
the time of Jesus Christ, mentioned Matt, xxii, 
16 ; Mark iii, 6 ; viii, 15 ; xii, 13 ; but passed 
over in silence both by Josephus and Philo. 
The critics and commentators on the New 
Testament are very much divided with regard 
to the Herodians ; some making them to be a 
political party, and others a religious sect. The 
former opinion is favoured by the author of the 
Syriac version, who calls them the domestics of 
Herod ; and also by Josephus's having passed 
them over in silence, though he professes to 
give an account of the several religious sects 
of the Jews. The latter opinion is counte- 
nanced by our Lord's caution against *'the 
leaven of Herod," which implies that the He- 



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rodians were distinguished from the other 
Jews by some doctrinal tenets. M. Basnage 
supposes, that one thing meant by the leaven 
of the Herodians might be a conformity to 
Roman customs in some points which were 
forbidden the Jews : if this was the case, it is 
not strange that they are not mentioned by 
Josephus among the Jewish sects. St. Jerom, 
in his Dialogue against the Luciferians, takes 
the name to have been given to such as owned 
Herod for the Messiah ; and Tertullian, Epi- 
"phanius, Chrysostom, and Theophylact, among 
the ancients ; and Grotius, and other moderns, 
are of the same sentiment. But the same St. 
Jerom, in his Comment on St. Matthew, treats 
this opinion as ridiculous ; and indeed it must 
be highly improbable. He maintains that the 
Pharisees gave this appellation, by way of de- 
rision, to Herod's soldiers, who paid tribute to 
the Romans ; agreeably to which the Syriac 
interpreters render the word by the domestics 
of Herod, that is, his courtiers. M. Simon, in 
his notes on the twenty-second chapter of St. 
Matthew, advances a more probable opinion. 
The name Herodian, he imagines to have been 
given to such as adhered to Herod's party and 
interest, and were for preserving the govern- 
ment in his family, about which there were, 
at that time, great divisions among the Jews. 
F. Hardouin will have the Herodians and 
Sadducees to have been the same ; nor is it at 
all improbable that the Herodians were chiefly 
of the sect of the Sadducees ; since that which 
is called by St. Mark "the leaven of Herod," 
is by St. Matthew styled "the leaven of the 
Sadducees." 

2. Dr. Prideaux is of opinion that they de- 
rived their name from Herod the Great, and 
that they were distinguished from the other 
Jews by their concurrence with Herod's 
scheme of subjecting himself and his domi- 
nions to the Romans, and likewise by comply", 
ing with many of their Heathen usages and 
customs. In their zeal for the Roman autho- 
rity they were diametrically opposite to the 
Pharisees, who esteemed it unlawful to submit 
or pay taxes to the Roman emperor ; an opinion 
which they grounded on their being forbidden 
by the law to set a stranger over them, who 
was not one of their own nation, as their king. 
The conjunction of the Herodians, therefore, 
with the Pharisees, against Christ, is a memo- 
rable proof of the keenness of their resentment 
and malice against him; especially when we 
consider that they united together in propos- 
ing to him an ensnaring question, on a subject 
which was the ground of their mutual dissen- 
sion ; namely, whether it was lawful to pay 
tribute to Coesar. And provided he answered 
in the negative, the Herodians would accuse 
him of treason against the state ; and should 
he reply in the affirmative, the Pharisees were 
as ready to excite the people against him, as 
an enemy of their civil liberties and privileges. 
Herod had introduced several Heathen idola- 
trous usages ; for, as Josephus says, ho built a 
temple to Csesar, near the head of the river 
Jordan ; he erected a magnificent theatre at 
Jerusalem, instituted Pagan games, and placed 



a golden eagle over the gate of the temple of 
Jehovah ; and he furnished the temples, which 
he reared in several places out of Judea, with 
images for idolatrous worship, in order to in- 
gratiate himself with the emperor and the peo- 
pie of Rome ; though to the Jews he pretended 
that he did it against his will, and in obedience 
to the imperial command. The Herodians 
probably complied with, acquiesced in, or ap- 
proved these idolatrous usages. This symbo- 
lizing with idolatry upon views of interest and 
worldly policy, was probably that leaven of 
Herod, against which our Saviour cautioned 
his disciples. 

HERON, nojN, Lev. xi, 19 ; Deut. xiv, 18. 
This word has been variously understood. 
Some have rendered it the kite, others the 
woodcock, others the curlieu, some the pea- 
cock, others the parrot, and others the crane. 
The root, ejN, signifies to breathe short through 
the nostrils, to snuff, as in anger ; hence to be 
angry ; and it is supposed that the word is suf- 
ficiently descriptive of the heron, from its very 
irritable disposition. Bochart, however, thinlis 
it the mountain falcon ; the same that the 
Greeks call avdzaia, mentioned by Homer; and 
this bears a strong resemblance to the Hebrew 
name. 

HESHBON, a celebrated city beyond Jor- 
dan, twenty miles eastward of that river, ac- 
cording to Eusebius. It was given to the tribe 
of Reuben, Josh, xiii, 17. It was probably 
made over to Gad, since we meet with it among 
the cities which were given to the Levites, 
Joshua xxi, 39. 

HETERODOX, formed of the Greek 
irepdSo^os, a compound of erepog, alter, and 
Sd^a, opinion, something that is contrary to 
the faith or doctrine established in the true 
church. Thus, we say, a heterodox opinion, 
a heterodox divine, &c. The word stands in 
opposition to orthodox. 

HETEROUSH, HETEROUSIANS, com- 
posed of erepoi, and ovaia, substance, a sect or 
branch of Arians, the followers of Aetius, and 
from him denominated Aetians. They were 
called Heterousii, because they held, not that 
the Son of God was of a substance like, or 
similar to, that of the Father, which was the 
doctrine of another branch of Arians, thence 
called Homoousians, Homoousii ; but that he 
was of another substance different from that 
of the Father. 

HETH, the father of the Hittites, was the 
eldest son of Canaan, Gen. x, 15, and dwelt 
southward of the promised land, probably 
about Hebron. Ephron, who was an inhabit- 
ant of that city, was of the race of Heth ; and 
in the time of Abraham the whole city were 
of the family of Heth. 

HEXAPLA, formed of e^, six, and an-X^w, 
I open, or unfold, a Bible disposed in six 
columns, containing the text, and divers 
versions of it, compiled and published by 
Origen, with a view of securing the sacred 
text from future corruptions, and to correct 
those that had been already introduced. Eu- 
sebius relates that Origen after his return from 
Rome under Caracalla, applied himself to learn 



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HEX 



Hebrew, and began to collect the several ver- 
sions that had been made of the sacred writ- 
ings, and of these to compose his Teirapla, 
and Hexapla : others, however, will not allow 
him to have begun till the time of Alexander, 
after he had retired into Palestine, about the 
year 231. To conceive what this Hexapla 
was, it must be observed that, beside the trans- 
lation of the sacred writings called the Septu- 
agint, made under Ptolemy Philadelphus, above 
280 years B. C, the Scripture had been since 
translated into Greek by other interpreters. 
The first of those versions, or, reckoning the 
Septuagint, the second, was that of Aquila, a 
proselyte Jew, the first edition of which he 
published in the twelfth year of the Emperor 
Adrian, or about A. D. 128 ; the third was 
that of Symmachus, published aS is commonly 
supposed, under Marcus Aurelius, but, as some 
say, under Septimius Severus, about the year 
200 ; the fourth was that of Theodotion, prior 
to that of Symmachus, under Commodus, or 
about the year 175 : these Greek versions, says 
Dr. Kennicott, were made by the Jews from 
their corrupted copies of the Hebrew, and 
were designed to stand in the place of the' 
LXX, against which they were prejudiced, 
because it seemed to favour the Christians. 
The fifth was found at Jericho, in the reign 
of Caracalla, about the year 217 ; and the sixth 
was discovered at Nicopolis, in the reign of 
Alexander Severus, about the year 228 : lastly, 
Origen himself recovered part of a seventh, 
containing only the Psalms. Now, Origen, 
who had held frequent disputations with the 
Jews in Egypt and Palestine, observing that 
they always objected against those passages 
of Scripture quoted against them, and appealed 
to the Hebrew text, the better to vindicate 
those passages and confound the Jews, by 
showing that the LXX had given the sense of 
the Hebrew, or rather, to show, by a number 
of different versions, what the real sense of 
the Hebrew was, undertook to reduce all these 
several versions into a body, along with the 
Hebrew text, so as they miglit be easily con. 
fronted, and affbrd a mutual light to each other. 
He made the Hebrew text his standard ; and, 
allowing that corruptions might have happened, 
and that the old Hebrew copies might and did 
read differently, he contented himself with 
marking such words or sentences as were not 
in his Hebrew text, nor the later Greek ver- 
sions, and to add such words or sentences as 
were omitted in the LXX, prefixing an asterisk 
to the additions, and an obelisk to the others. 
In order to this he made, choice of eight 
columns : in the first he gave the Hebrew text 
in Hebrew characters ; in the second, the same 
text in Greek characters : the rest were filled 
with the several versions above mentioned ; all 
the columns answering verse for verse, and 
phrase for phrase ; and in the Psalms there 
was a ninth column for the seventh version. 
This work Origen called E^a-rXa, Hexapla, that 
is, sextuple, or a work of six columns, as only 
regarding the first six Greek versions. Indeed, 
St. Epiphanius, taking in likewise the two 
columns of the text, calls the work Octapla, 



as consisting of eight columns. This cele- 
brated work, which Montfaucon iraagines con- 
sisted of fifty large volumes, perished long ago, 
probably v/ith the library at Caesarea, where it 
was preserved, in the year 653 ; though seve- 
ral of^the ancient writers have preserved us 
portions of it, particularly St. Chrysostom on 
the Psalms, Philoponus in his Hexameron, &c. 
Some modern writers have eapnestly endea- 
voured to collect fragments of the Hexapla, 
Flaminius Nobilius, Drusius, and especially 
Montfaucon, in two folio volumes, printed at 
Paris in 1713. In his edition, Montfaucon has 
prefixed prolegomena, explaining the form and 
detailing the history of the Hexapla. 

The object of Origen being to correct the 
differences found in the then existing copies 
of the Old Testament, ho carefully noted all 
the alterations which he discovered ; and for 
the information of those who might consult 
his work, he made use of the following marks : 
1. Where any passages appeared in the Septu- 
agint, that were not found in the Hebrew, he 
designated them by an ohelus — with two bold 
points % annexed. This mark was also used 
to denote words not extant in the Hebrew, but 
added by the Septuagint translators, either for 
the sake of elegance, or for the purpose of 
illustrating the sense. 2. ITo passages wanting 
in the copies of the Septuagint, and supplied 
by himself from the other GreOk versions, he 
prefixed an asterisk vjC with two bold points J 
also annexed, in order that his additions might 
be immediately perceived. These supplement- 
ary passages, we are informed by Jerom, were 
for the most part taken from Theodotion's 
translation ; not unfrequently from that of 
Aquila ; sometimes, though rarely, from the 
version of Symmachus ; and sometimes from 
two or three together. But, in every case, the 
initial letter of each translator's name was 
placed immediately afler the asterisk, to indi. 
cate the source whence such supplementary 
passage was taken. And in lieu of the very 
erroneous Septuagint version of Daniel, Theo- 
dotion's translation of that book was inserted 
entire. 3. Farther : not only the passages want- 
ing in the Septuagint were supplied by Origen 
with the asterisks, as above noticed, but also 
where that version does not appear accurately 
to express the Hebrew original, having noted 
the former reading with an obelus -f-, he added 
the correct rendering from one of the other 
translators, with an asterisk subjoined. Con- 
corning the shape and uses of the lemniscus and 
hypolemniscus, two other marks used by Origen, 
there is so great a difference of opinion among 
learned men, that it is difficult to determine 
what they were. Dr. Owen, after Montfaucon, 
supposes them to have been marks of better 
and more accurate renderings. These several 
marks of distinction have been carefully ob- 
served, so far as they have been recovered 
from various quarters, in the very accurate 
edition of the Septuagint commenced by our 
learned countryman, Dr. Holmes, and con- 
tinued by his able successor, the Rev. J. Par- 
sons, B. D. 

For nearly fifly years was Origen's stupend- 



HEZ 



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^us work buried in a corner of the city of 
Tyre, probably on account of the very great 
expense of transcribing forty or fifty volumes, 
which far exceeded the means of private indi- 
viduals ; and here, perhaps, it might have 
perished in oblivion, if Eusebius and Pamphi- 
lus had not discovered it, and deposited it in 
the library of Pamphiius the martyr at Csesa- 
rea, where Jerome saw it about the middle of 
the fourth century. As we have no account 
whatever of Origen's autograph after this time, 
it is most probable that it perished in the year 
653, on the capture of that city by the Arabs ; 
and a few imperfect fragments, collected from 
manuscripts of the Septuagint and the catenae 
of the Greek fathers, are all that nov/ remain 
of a work, which, in the present improved state 
x)f sacred literature, would most eminently 
have assisted in the interpretation and criticism 
of the Old Testament. The Syro-Estrangelo 
translation of Origen's edition of the Greek 
Septuagint was executed in the former part of 
the seventh century ; the author of it is not 
known. This version exactly corresponds 
with the text of the Septuagint, especially in 
those passages in which the latter differs from 
the Hebrew. A manuscript of this translation 
is in the Ambrosian library at Milan ; it con- 
lains the obelus and other marks of Origen's 
Hexapla ; and a subscription at the end states 
it to have been literally translated from the 
Greek copy, corrected by Eusebius himself, 
with the assistance of Pamphiius, from the 
books of Origen, which were deposited in the 
library at Ceesarea^ From this version Nor- 
berg edited the prophecies of Jeremiah and 
Ezekiel in 1787 ; and Bugati, the hook of 
Daniel, 1788. 

HEZEKIAH, king- of judah, was the son 
of Ahaz, and born in the year of the world 
3251. At the age of five-and-twenty he suc- 
ceeded his father in the government of the 
kingdom of Judah, and reigned twenty-nine 
years in Jerusalem, namely, from the year of 
the world 3277 to 3306, 2 Kings xviii, 1, 2 ; 
2 Chron. xxix, 1. The reign of his father 
Ahaz had been most unpropitious for his sub- 
jects. A war had raged between the king- 
doms of Israel and Judah, in which Pekah, 
king of Israel, overthrew the army of Ahaz, 
destroying a hundred and twenty thousand of 
his men ; after which he carried away two 
hundred thousand women and children as cap- 
tives into his own country : they were, kow- 
ever, released and sent home again, at the re- 
monstrance of the Prophet Oded. As idolatry 
had been established in Jerusalem and through- 
out Judea, by the command of Ahaz, and the 
Bervice of the temple either intermitted, or 
converted into an idolatrous worship, the first 
object of his son Hezekiah, on his accession 
to the throne, was to restore the legal worship 
of God, both in Jerusalem and throughout Ju- 
dea. He cleansed and repaired the temple, 
and held a solemn passover. He improved the 
city, repaired the fortifications, erected maga- 
zines of all sorts, and built a new aqueduct. 
In the foiirth year of his reign, Salmanezer, 
king of Assyria, invaded the kingdom of Israel, 



took Samaria, and carried away the ten tribes 
into captivity, replacing them by different peo- 
ple sent from his own country. But Hezekiah 
was not deterred by this alarming example 
from refusing to pay that tribute to the Assy. 
rians which had been imposed on Ahaz : this 
brought on the invasion of Sennacherib, in 
the fourteenth year of the reign of Hezekiah, 
of which we have a very particular account in 
the writings of the Prophet Isaiah, who was 
then living, Isaiah xxxvi. 

Immediately after the termination of this 
war, Hezekiah "was sick unto death," owing, 
as the sacred historian strongly intimates, to 
his heart being improperly elevated on occa- 
sion of this miraculous deliverance, and not 
sufficiently acknowledging the hand of God in 
it, 2 Kings xx ; Isaiah xxxviii. Isaiah was 
sent to bid him set his house in order, for he 
should die and not live. Hezekiah had instant 
recourse to God by prayer and supplications for 
his recovery ; and the prophet had scarcely 
proceeded out of the threshold, Avhen the Lord 
commanded him to return to Hezekiah, and to 
say to him, " Thus saith the Lord, I have heard 
thy prayer, and I have seen thy tears : I will 
heal thee : on the third day thou shalt go up 
to the house of the Lord, and I will add unto 
thy days fifteen years." And to confirm to 
him the certainty of all these tokens of the 
divine regard, the shadow of the sun on the 
dial of Ahaz, at his request, went backward 
ten degrees. After his recovery, he composed 
an ode of thanksgiving to the God of all his 
mercies, v/hichthe Prophet Isaiah has recorded 
in his writings, Isaiah xxxviii, 10,11. Yet, 
as an instance of human fickleness "and frailt3% 
we find Hezekiah, with all his excellencies, 
again forgetting himself, and incurring the 
divine displeasure. The king of Babylon hav- 
ing been informed of his sickness and recovery, 
sent ambassadors to congratulate him on his 
restoration : an honour with which the heart 
of Hezekiah was greatly elated ; and, to testify 
his gratitude, he made a pompous display to 
them of all his treasures, his spices, and his 
rich vessels ; and concealed from them nothing 
that was in his palace. In all this the pride 
of Hezekiah was gratified ; and to humble him, 
Isaiah was sent to declare to him that his con. 
duct was displeasing to God, and that a time 
should come when all the treasures of which he 
had made so vain a display should be removed 
to Babylon, and even his sons be made eunuchs 
to serve in the palace of the king of Babylon. 
Hezekiah bowed submissively to the will of 
God, and acknowledged the divine goodness 
toward him, in ordaining peace and truth to 
continue during the remainder of his reign. He 
accordingly passed the latter years of his life in 
tranquillity, and contributed greatl}'^ to the pros- 
perity of his people and kingdom. He died in 
the year of the world 3306, leaving behind him 
a son, Manasseh, who succeeded him in the 
throne : a son every way unworthy of such a 
father. 

HIDDEKEL. See Eden. 

HIGH PLACES. The prophets reproach the 
Israelites for nothing with more zeal than for 



HIN 



457 



HIR 



worshipping upon the high places. The de- 
stroying of these high places is a commenda- 
tion given only to few princes in Scripture ; and 
many, though zealous for the observance of 
the law, had not courage to prevent the people 
from sacrificing upon these eminences. Before 
the temple was built, the high places were not 
absolutely contrary to the law, provided God 
only w^as there adored, and not idols. Tliey 
seem to have been tolerated under the judges ; 
and Samuel oiFered sacrifices in several places 
where the ark was not present. Even in Da- 
vid's time they sacrificed to the Lord at Shiloh, 
Jerusalem, and Gibeon. But after the temple 
was built at Jerusalem, and the ark had a fixed 
settlement, it was no longer allowed to sacri- 
fice out of Jerusalem. The high places were 
much frequented in the kingdom of Israel. 
The people sometimes went upon those mount- 
ains which had been sanctified by the presence 
of patriarchs and prophets, and by appearances 
of God, to worship the true God there. This 
worship was lawfiil, except as to its being ex- 
ercised where the Lord had not chosen. But 
they frequently adored idols upon these hills, 
and committed a thousand abominations in 
groves, and caves, and tents ; and hence arose 
the zeal of pious kings and prophets to sup- 
press the high plaees. Dr. Prideaux thinks it 
probable that the proseuckcs, open courts, built 
like those in which the people prayed at the 
tabernacle and the temple, were the same as 
those called high places in the Old Testament. 
His reason is, that iho- proscuchcB had groves 
in or near them, in the same manner as the 
high places. 

HIN, pn, a liquid measure, as of oil, or of 
wine. Exodus xxix, 40 ; xxx, 24 ; Lev. xxiii. 
According to Josephus, it contained two Attic 
congii, and was therefore the sixth part of an 
ephah. He says that they offered with an ox 
half a hin of oil ; in English measure, six pints, 
twenty-five thousand five hundred and ninety- 
eight solid inches. With a ram they offered 
the third part of a hin, or three pints, ten 
thousand four hundred and sixty-nine solid 
inches : with a lamb, the fourth part of a hin, 
or two pints, fifteen thousand and seventy-one 
solid inches. 

HIND, n'7nN, Gen. xlix, 21 ; 2 Sam. xxii, 34 ; 
Job xxxix, 1 ; Psalm xviii, 33 ; xxix, 9 ; Prov. 
v, 19 ; Cant, ii, 7 ; iii, 5 ; Jer. xiv, 5 ; Hab. 
iii, 19 ; the mate or female of the stag. It is 
a lovely creature, and of an elegant shape. It 
is noted for its swiftness and the sureness of 
its step as it jumps among the rocks. David 
and Habakkuk both allude to this character 
of the hind. " The Lord maketh mjrfeet like 
hinds' feet, and causeth me to stand on the 
high places," Psalm xviii, 33 ; Hab. iii, 19. 
The circumstance of their standing on the 
high places or mountains is applied to these 
animals by Xenophon. Our translators make 
Jacob, prophesying of the tribe of Naphtali, 
say, " Naphtali is a hind let loose : he giveth 
goodly words," Gen. xlix, 21. There is a difii- 
culty and incoherence here which the learned 
Bochart removes by altering a little the punc- 
tuation of the original ; and it then reads, 



" Naphtali is a spreading tree, shooting forth 
beautiful branches." This, indeed, renders 
the simile uniform ; but another critic has re. 
marked that "the allusion to a tree seems to 
be purposely reserved by the venerable patri- 
arch for his son Joseph, who is compared to 
the boughs of a tree ; and the repetition of the 
idea in reference to Naphtali is every way un- 
likely. Beside," he adds, " the word rendered 
' let loose,' imports an active motion, not like 
that of the branches of a tree, which, however 
freely they wave, are yet attached to the parent 
stock ; but an emission, a dismission, or send- 
ing forth to a distance : in the present case, a 
roaming, roaming at liberty. The verb ' he 
giveth' may denote shooting forth. It is used 
of production, as of the earth, which shoots 
forth, yields, its increase. Lev. xxvi, 4. The 
word rendered * goodly' signifies noble, grand, 
majestic; and the noun translated 'words' 
radically signifies divergences, what is spread 
forth." For these reasons he proposes to read 
the passage, " Naphtali is a deer roaming at 
liberty ; he shooteth forth spreading branches," 
or " majestic antlers." Here the distinction of 
imagery is preserved, and the fecundity of the 
tribe and the fertility of their lot intimated. 
In our version of Psalm xxix, 9, we read, *' The 
voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve, 
and discovereth the forests." Mr. Merrick, in 
an ingenious note on the place, attempts to 
justify the rendering ; but Bishop Lowth, in 
his "Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the 
Hebrews," observes that this agrees very little 
with the rest of the imagery, either in nature 
or dignity ; and that he does not feel hunself 
persuaded, even by the i-easonings of the learn- 
ed Bochart on this subject : whereas the oak, 
struck with lightning, admirably agrees with 
the context. The Syriac seems, for m'^iN, hinds, 
to have read ni'7N, oaks, or rather, perhaps, tere- 
binths. The passage may be thus versified : — 
" Hark ! his voice in thunder breaks, 
And the lofty mountain qimkes ; 
Mighty trees the tempests tear, 
And lay the spreading forests bare !" 
HINNOM, Valley of, called also Tophet, 
and by the Greeks Gehenna, a small valley on 
the south-east of Jerusalem, at the foot of 
Mount Zion, where the Canaanites, and after- 
ward the Israelites, sacrificed their children to 
the idol Moloch, by making them "pass 
through the fire," or burning them. To drown 
the shrieks of the victims thus inhumanly sa- 
crificed, musical instruments, called in the 
Hebrew tuph, tympana or timbrels, were play- 
ed ; whence tlae spot derived the name of 
Tophet. Ge Hinnom, or " The Valley of Hin- 
nom," from which the Greeks framed their 
Gehenna, is sometimes used in Scripture to 
denote hell or hell fire. See Hell. 

HIRAM, king of Tyre, and son of Abibal, 
is mentioned by profane authors as distinguish- 
ed for his magnificence, and for adorning the 
city of Tyre. When David was acknowledged 
king by all Israel, Hiram sent ambassadors with 
artificers, and cedar, to huild his palace. Hi- 
ram also sent ambassadors to Solomon, to con- 
gratulate him on his accession to the crown 



HOL 



458 



HOL 



Solomon desired of him timber and stones for 
building the temple, with labourers. These 
Hiram promised, provided Solomon would 
furnish him with corn and oil. The two princes 
lived on the best terms with each other. 

HIRELING. Moses requires that the hire- 
ling should be paid as soon as his work is 
over : " The wages of him tliat is hired shall 
not abide with thee all night unto the morn- 
ing," Lev. xix, 19. A hireling's days or year 
is a kind of proverb, signifying a full year, 
without abating any thing of it : " His days 
are like the days of a hireling," Job vii, 1 ; the 
days of man are like those of a hireling; as 
nothing is deducted from them, so nothing, 
likewise is added to them. And again : "Till 
he shall accomplish as a hireling his day," Job 
xiv, 6 ; to the time of death, which he waits 
for as the hireling for the end of the day. The 
following passage from Morier's Travels in 
Persia, illustrates one of our Lord's parables : 
" The most conspicuous building in Hama- 
dan is the Mesjid Jumah, a large mosque now 
falling into decay, and before it a maidan or 
square, which serves as a market place. Here 
we observed, every morning before the sun 
rose, that a numerous band of peasants were 
collected with spades in their hands, waiting, 
as they informed us, to be hired for the day to 
work in the surrounding fields. This custom, 
which I have never seen in any other part of 
Asia, forcibly struck me as a most happy illus- 
tration of our Saviour's parable of the labour- 
ers in the vineyard in Matt, xx ; particularly 
when, passing by the same place late in the 
day, we still found others standing idle, and 
remembered his words, 'Why stand ye here 
all the day idle ?' as most applicable to their 
situation ; for in putting the very same ques- 
tion to them, they answered us, ' Because no 
man hath hired us.' " 

HITTITES, the descendants of Heth, Gen. 
XV, 20. 

HIVITES, a people descended from Ca- 
naan. Gen. x, 17. They are also mentioned, 
Deut. ii, 23. The inhabitants of Shechem, 
and the Gibeonites, were Hivites, Joshua xi, 
19 ; Gen. xxxiv, 2. Mr. Bryant supposes the 
Hivites to be the same as the Ophites, or an- 
cient worshippers of the sun under the figure 
of a serpent ; which was, in all probability, 
the deity worshipped at Baal-Hermon. 

HOLY GHOST, the third person in the 
Trinity. The orthodox doctrine is, that as 
Christ is God by an eternal filiation, so the 
Spirit is God by procession from the Father 
and the Son. "And I believe in the Holy 
Ghost," says the Nicene Creed, " the Lord 
and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the 
Fatiier and the Son, who, with the Father and 
the Son together, is worshipped and glorified." 
And with this agrees the Athanasian Creed, 
"The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of tlie 
Son, neither made, nor created, nor begotten, 
but proceeding" In the Articles of the Eng- 
lish church it is thus expressed : " The Holy 
Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, 
is of one substance, majesty, and glory with 
the Father and the Son, very and eternal God." 



The Latin church introduced the term spira^ 
Hon, from spiro, "to breathe," to denote the 
manner of this procession : on which Dr. 
Owen remarks, " As the vital breath of a man 
has a continual emanation from him, and yet 
is never separated utterly from his person, or 
forsaketh him, so doth the Spirit of the Father 
and the Son proceed from them by a continual 
divine emanation, still abiding one with them." 
On this refined view little can be said which 
has clear Scriptural authority; and yet the 
very term by which the Third Person in the 
Trinity is designated, Wind or Breath, msij, 
as to the Third Person, be designed, like the 
term ^Soyi applieil to the Second, to convey, 
though imperfectly, some intimation of that 
manner of being by which both are distin- 
guished from each other, and from the Father ; 
and it was a remarkable action of our Lord, 
and one certainly which does not discounte- 
nance this idea, that when he imparted the 
Holy Ghost to his disciples, " He breathed on 
them, and saith unto them. Receive ye the 
Holy Ghost," John xx, 22. 

2. But, whatever we may think as to the 
doctrine of spiration, the procession of the 
Holy Ghost rests on more direct Scriptural au- 
thority, and is thus stated by Bishop Pearson : 
" Now this procession of the Spirit, in refer- 
ence to the Father, is delivered expressly in 
relation to the Son, and is contained virtually 
in the Scriptures. 1. It is expressly said, that 
the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father, 
as our Saviour testifieth, ' When the Comfort, 
er is come, whom I will send unto you from 
the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which 
proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of 
me,' John xv, 26. And this is also evident 
from what hath been already asserted ; for 
being the Father and the Spirit are the same 
God, and, being so the same in the unity of 
the nature of God, are yet distinct in the per- 
sonality, one of them must have the same 
nature from the other ; and because the Fa- 
ther hath been already shown to have it from 
none, it followeth that the Spirit hath it from 
him. 2. Though it be not expressly spoken 
in the Scripture, that the Holy Ghost proceed- 
eth from the Father and Son, yet the substance 
of the same truth is virtually contained there ; 
because those very expressions which are 
spoken of the Holy Spirit in relation to the 
Father, for that reason, because he proceedeth 
from the Father, are also spoken of the same 
Spirit in relation to the Son ; and therefore 
there must be the same reason presupposed in 
reference to the Son, which is expressed in 
reference to the Father. Because the Spirit 
proceedeth from the Father, therefore it is 
called ' the Spirit of God,' and ' the Spirit of 
the Father.' ' It is not ye that speak, but the 
Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you,' 
Matt. X, 20. For by the language of the 
Apostle, ' the Spirit of God' is the Spirit which 
is of God, saying, ' The things of God know- 
eth no man, but the Spirit of God. And we 
have received not the spirit of tlie world, but 
the Spirit which is of God,' 1 Cor. ii, 11, 12. 
Now the same Spirit is also called ' the Spirit 



HOL 



459 



HOI, 



of the Son :' for • because we are sons, God 
hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our 
hearts,' Gal. iv, 6. 'The Spirit of Christ:' 
• Now if any man have not the Spirit of 
Christ, he is none of his,' Romans viii, 9 ; 
"* Even t]ie Spirit of Christ which was in the 
prophets,' 1 Peter i, 11. 'The Spirit of Jesus 
Christ,' as the Apostle speaks : ' I know that 
this shall turn to my salvation through your 
prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus 
Christ,' Phil, i, 19. If then the Holy Ghost 
be called ' the Spirit of the Father,' because 
he proceedeth from the Father, it followeth 
that, being called also 'the Spirit of the Son,' 
he proceedeth also from the Son. Again : 
because the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the 
Father, he is therefore sent by the Father, as 
from him who hath, by the original communi- 
cation, a right of mission ; as, 'the Comforter, 
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father 
will send,' John xiv, 26. But the same Spirit 
which is sent by the Father, is also sent by 
the Son, as he saith, ' When the Comforter is 
come; whom I will send unto you.' Therefore 
the Son hath the same right of mission with 
the Father, and consequently must be acknow- 
ledged to have communicated the same essence. 
The Father is never sent by the Son, because 
he received not -the Godhead from him ; but 
the Father sendetJi the Son, because he com- 
municated the Godhead to him : in the same 
manner, neither the Father nor the Son is 
ever sent by the Holy Spirit ; because neither 
of them received the divine nature from the 
Spirit : but both the Father and the Son send- 
eth the Holy Ghost, because the divine nature, 
common to the Father and the Son, was com- 
raunicated by them both to the Holy Ghost. 
As therefore the Scriptures declare expressly, 
that the Spirit proceedeth from the Father ; 
so do they also virtually teach, that he pro- 
ceedeth from the Son." 

3. Arius regarded the Spirit not only as a 
creature, but as created by Christ, Krlajxa Krig- 
f/aros, the creature of a creature. Some time 
afterward, his personality was wholly denied 
by the Arians, and he was considered as the 
exerted energy of God. This appears to have 
been the notion of Socinus, and, with occa- 
sional modifications, has been adopted by his 
followers. They sometimes regard him as an 
attribute ; and at others, resolve the passages 
in which he is spoken of into a periphrasis, or 
circumlocution, for God himself; or, to ex- 
press both in one, into a figure of speech. 

4. In establishing the proper personality and 
deity of the Holy Ghost, the first argument 
may be draAvn from the frequent association, 
in Scripture, of a Person under that appella- 
tion with two other Persons, one of whom, 
the Father, is by all acknowledged to be 
divine; and the ascription to each of them, or 
to the three in union, of the same acts, titles, 
and authority, with worship, of the same kind, 
and, for any distinction that is made, of an 
equal degree. The manifestation of the ex- 
istence and divinity of the Holy Spirit maybe 
expected in the law and the prophets, and is, 
in fact, to be traced there with certainty. The 



Spu-it is represented as an agent in creation, 
"moving upon the face of the waters ;" and it 
forms no objection to the argument, that crea- 
tion is ascribed to the Father, and also to the 
Son, but is a great confirmation of it. That 
creation should be effected by all the three 
Persons of the Godhead, though acting in dif- 
ferent respects, yet so that each should be a 
Creator, and, therefore, both a Person and a 
divine Person, can be explained only by their 
unity in one essence. On every other hypo- 
thesis this Scriptural fact is disallowed, and 
therefore no other hypothesis can be true. If 
the Spirit of God be a mere influence, then he 
is not a Creator, distinct from the Father and 
the Son, because he is not a Person ; but this 
is refuted both by the passage just quoted, and 
by Psalm xxxiii, 6: "By the Word of the 
Lord were the heavens made ; and all the host 
of them by the breath (Heb. Spirit) of his 
mouth." This is farther confirmed by Job 
xxxiii, 4: "The Spirit of God hath made me, 
and the breath of the Almighty hath given 
me life ;" where the second clause is obviously 
exegetic of the former : and the whole text 
proves that, in the patriarchal age, the follow- 
ers of the true religion ascribed creation to 
the Spirit, as well as to the Father ; and that 
one of his appellations was, "the Breath of 
the Almighty." Did such passages stand 
alone, there might, indeed, be some plausibility 
in the criticism which resolves them into a 
personification"; but, connected as they are 
with the whole body of evidence, as to the 
concurring doctrine of both Testaments, they 
are inexpugnable. Again : If the personality 
of the Son and the Spirit be allowed, and yet 
it is contended that they were but instruments 
in creation, through whom the creative power 
of another operated, but which creative power 
was not possessed by them ; on this hypothe- 
sis, too, neither the Spirit nor the Son can be 
said to create, any more than Moses created 
the serpent into which his rod was turned, 
and the Scriptures are again contradicted. 
To this association of the three Persons in 
creative acts, may be added a like association 
in acts of preservation, which has been well 
called a continued creation, and by that term 
is expressed in the following passage : " These 
wait all upon thee, that thou mayest give them 
their meat in due season. Thou hidest thy 
face, they are troubled ; thou takest away their 
breath, they die, and return to dust : thou 
sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created ; and 
thou renewest the face of the earth," Psalm 
civ, 27-30. It is not surely here meant, that 
the Spirit by which the generations of animals 
are perpetuated, is wind; and if he be called 
an attribute, wisdom, power, or both united, 
where do we read of such attributes being 
" sent," " sent forth from God ?" The person- 
ality of the Spirit is here as clearly marked as 
when St. Paul speaks of God "sending forth 
the Spirit of his Son," and when our Lord 
promises to " send" the Comforter ; and as the 
upholding and preserving of created things 
is ascribed to the Father and the Son, so 
here they are ascribed, also, to the Spirit, 



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"eent forth from" God to "create and renew 
the face of the earth." 

5. Tlie next association of the three Persons 
we find in the inspiration of the prophets : " God 
spake unto our fathers by the prophets," says 
St. Paul, Heb. i, 1. St. Peter declares that 
these "hoi}'- men of God spake as they were 
moved by the Holy Ghost," 2 Peter i, 21 ; and 
also that it was " the Spirit of Christ which was 
in them," 1 Peter i, 11. We may defy any 
Socinian to interpret these three passages by 
making the Spirit ah influence or attribute, 
and thereby reducing the term Holy Ghost 
into a figure of speech. "God," in the first 
passage, is, unquestionably, God the Father ; 
and the " holy men of God," the prophets, 
would then, according to this view, be moved 
by the influence of the Father ; but the influence, 
according to the third passage, which was the 
source of their inspiration, was the Spirit, or the 
influence of " Christ." Thus the passages con. 
tradict each other. Allow the trinity in unity, 
and you have no difficulty in calling the Spirit, 
the Spirit of the Father, and the Spirit of the 
Son, or the Spirit of either ; but if the Spirit be 
an influence, that influence cannot be the influ- 
ence of two persons, — one of them God, and the 
other a creature. Even if they allowed thepre- 
existence of Christ, with Arians, these passages 
are inexplicable by the Socinians ; but, denying 
his preexistence, they have no subterfuge but 
to interpret, "the Spirit of Christ," the spirit 
which prophesied of Christ, which is a purely 
gratuitous paraphrase; or "the spirit of an 
anointed one, or prophet ;" that is, the pro- 
phet's own spirit, which is just as gratuitous 
and as unsupported by any parallel as the 
former. If, however, the Holy Ghost be the 
Spirit of the Father and of the Son, united in 
one essence, the passages are easily harmonized. 
In conjunction with the Father and the Son, 
he is the source of that prophetic inspiration 
under which the prophets spoke and acted. 
So the same Spirit which raised Christ from 
the dead, is said by St. Peter to have preached 
by Noah while the ark was preparing ; — in al- 
lusion to the passage, " My Spirit shall not 
always strive (contend, debate) with man." 
This, we may observe, affords an eminent 
proof, that the writers of the New Testament 
understood the phrase, "the Spirit of God," as 
it occurs in the Old Testament, personally. 
For, whatever may be the full meaning of that 
difficult passage in St. Peter, Christ is clearly 
declared to have preached by the Spirit in the 
days of Noah ; that is, he, by the Spirit, in- 
sph-ed Noah to preach. If, then, the Apostles 
understood that the Holy Ghost v»ras a Person, 
a point which will presently be established, we 
have, in the text just quoted from the book of 
Genesis, a key to the meaning of those texts 
in the Old Testament where the phrases, " My 
Spirit," "the Spirit of God," and "the Spirit 
of the Lord," occur ; and inspired authority is 
thus afforded us to interpret tliem as of a Per- 
son ; and if of a Person, the very effort made 
by Socinians to deny his personality, itself, 
indicates that that Person must, from the lofty 
titles and works ascribed to him, be inevitably 



divine. Such phrases occur in many passages 
of the Hebrew Scriptures ; but, in the follow- 
ing, the Spirit is also eminently distinguished 
from two other Persons : "And now the Lord 
God, and his Spirit, hath sent me," Isaiah 
xlviii, 16; or, rendered better, "hath sent me 
and his Spirit," both terms being in the accu- 
sative case. " Seek ye out of the book of the 
Lord, and read : for my mouth it hath com- 
manded, and his Spirit it hath gathered them," 
Isaiah xxxiv, 16. " I am with you, saith the 
Lord of Hosts, according to the word that I 
covenanted with you when ye came out of 
Egypt, so my Spirit remaineth among you : 
fear ye not. For thus saith the Lord of Hosts, 
I will shake all nations, and the Desire of ail 
nations shall come," Hag. ii, 4-7. Here, also, 
the Spirit of the Lord is seen collocated with 
the Lord of Hosts and the Desire of all nations, 
who is the Messiah. 

6, Three Persons, and three only, are asso- 
ciated also, both in the Old and New Testa- 
ment, as objects of supreme worship ; and form 
the one " name" in which the religious act of 
solemn benediction is performed, and to which 
men are bound by solemn baptismal covenant. 
In the plural form of the name of God, each 
received equal adoration. This threefold per- 
sonality seems to have given rise to the stand 
ing form of triple benediction used by the 
Jewish high priest. The very important fact, 
that, in the vision of Isaiah, the Lord of hosts, 
who spake unto the prophet, is, in Acts xxviii, 
25, said to be the Holy Ghost, while St. John 
declares that the glory which Isaiah saw was 
the glory of Christ, proves, indisputably, that 
each of the three Persons bears this august 
appellation ; it gives also the reason for the 
threefold repetition, "Holy, holy, holy!" and 
it exhibits the prophet and the very seraphs 
in deep and awful adoration before the Triune 
Lord of hosts. Beth the prophet and the 
seraphim were, therefore, worshippers of the 
Holy Ghost and of the Son, at the very time 
and by the very acts in which they worshipped 
the Father ; which proves that, as the three 
Persons received equal homage in a case which 
does not admit of the evasion of pretended su- 
perior and inferior worship, they are equal in 
majesty, glory, and essence. 

7. As in the tabernacle form of benediction, 
the Triune Jehovah is recognised as the source 
of all grace and peace to his creatures ; so also 
we have the apostolic formula : " The grace of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, 
and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with 
you all. Amen." Here the personality of the 
three is kept distinct ; and the prayer is, that 
Christians may have a common participation 
of the Holy Spirit, that is, doubtless, as he was 
promised by our Lord to his disciples, as a 
Comforter, as the Source of light and spiritual 
life, as the Author of regeneration. Thus the 
Spirit is acknowledged, equally with the Father 
and the Son, to be the Source and the Giver 
of the highest spiritual blessings ; while this 
solemn ministerial benediction is, from its 
specific character, to be regarded as an act of 
prayer to each of the three Persons, and there- 



HOL 



461 



HOL 



fore is at once, sm acknowledgment of the divi- 
nity and personality of each. The same remark 
applies to Revelation i, 4, 5 : " Grace be unto 
you, and peace, from Him which was, and 
which is, and which is to come ; and from the 
seven spirits which are before his throne," (an 
emblematical reference, probably to the golden 
branch with its seven lamps,) "and from Jesus 
Christ." The style of this book sufficiently 
accounts for the Holy Spirit being called "the 
seven spirits ;" but no created spirit or company 
of created spirits is ever spoken of under that 
appellation : and the place assigned to the seven 
spirits, between the mention of the Father and 
the Son, indicates, with certainty, that one 
of the sacred Three, so eminent, and so ex- 
clusively eminent in both dispensations, is 
intended. 

8. The form of baptism next presents itself 
with demonstrative evidence on the two points 
before us, the personality and divinity of the 
Holy Spirit. It is the form of covenant by 
which the sacred Three become our one or 
only God, and we become his people: "Go 
ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing 
them in the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost." In what man- 
ner is this text to be disposed of, if the person- 
ality of the Holy Ghost is denied ? Is the form 
of baptism to be so understood as to imply that 
baptism is in the name of one God, one crea- 
ture, and one attribute 7 The grossness of this 
absurdity refutes it, and proves that here, at 
least, there can be no personification. If all 
the Three, therefore, are persons, are we to 
have baptism in the name of one God and two 
creatures ? This would be too near an approach 
to idolatry, or, rather, it would be idolatry 
itself; for, considering baptism as an act of 
dedication to God, the acceptance of God as 
our God, on our part, and the renunciation of 
all other deities and all other religions, what 
could a Heathen convert conceive of the two 
creatures so distinguished from all other crea- 
tures in heaven and in earth, and so associated 
Avith God himself as to form together the one 
name, to which, by that act, he was devoted, 
and wliich he was henceforward to profess and 
honour, but that they were equally divine, 
unless special care were taken to instruct him 
that but one of the Three was God, and the 
two others but creatures ? But of this care, of 
this cautionary instruction, though so obviously 
necessary upon this theory, no single instance 
can be given in all the writings of the Apostles. 

9. But other arguments are not wanting to 
prove both the personality and the divinity of 
the Holy Spirit. With respect to the former, 
(1.) The mode of his subsistence in the sacred 
Trinity proves his personality. He proceeds 
from the Father and the Son, and cannot, 
therefore, be either. To say that an attribute 
proceeds and comes forth, would be a gross 
absurdity. (2.) Many passages of Scripture 
are wholly unintelligible and even absurd, un- 
less the Holy Ghost is allowed to be a person. 
For as those who take the phrase as ascribing 
no more than a figurative personality to an at- 
tribute, make that attribute to be the ener'gy or 



power of God, they reduce such passages as 
the following to utter unmeaningness : "God 
anointed Jesus with the Holy Ghost and with 
power ;" that is, with the power of God and 
with power. " That ye may abound in hope 
through the power of the Holy Ghost ;" that 
is, through the power of power. " In demon- 
sferation of the Spirit and of power ;" that is, 
in demonstration of power and of power. 
(3.) Personification of any kind is, in some 
passages in which the Holy Ghost is spoken 
of, impossible. The reality which this figure 
of speech is said to present to us, is either some 
of the attributes of God, or else the doctrine 
of the Gospel. Let this theory, then, be tried 
upon the following passages: "He shall not 
speak of himself ; but whatsoever he shall hear, 
that shall he speak." What attribute of God 
can here be personified ? And if the doctrine 
of the Gospel be arrayed with personal attri- 
butes, where is there an instance of so mon- 
strous a prosopopoeia as this passage would 
exhibit ? — the doctrine of the Gospel not speak- 
ing "of himself," but speaking "whatsoever 
he shall hear !" — " The Spirit maketh interces- 
sion for us." What attribute is capable of in- 
terceding, or how can the doctrine of the 
Gospel intercede ? Personification, too, ij5 the 
language of poetry, and takes place naturally 
only in excited and elevated discourse ; but if 
the Holy Spirit be a personification, we find it 
in the ordinary and cool strain of mere narra- 
tion and argumentative discourse in the New 
Testament, and in the most incidental conver- 
sations. " Have ye received the Holy Ghost 
since ye believed ? We have not so much as 
heard whether there beany Holy Ghost." How 
impossible is it here to extort, by any process 
whatever, even the shadow of a personification 
of either any attribute of God, or of the doc- 
trine of the Gospel ! So again : " The Spirit 
said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to 
this chariot." Could it be any attribute of God 
which said this, or could it be the doctrine of 
the Gospel ? Finally, that the Holy Ghost is 
a person, and not an attribute, is proved by 
the use of masculine pronouns and relatives in 
the Greek of the New Testament, in connec- 
tion with the neuter noun Uvevfjia, Spirit, and 
also by many distinct personal acts being as- 
cribed to him, as, "to come," "to go," "to be 
sent," "to teach," "to guide," "to comfort,'* 
"to make intercession," "to bear witness,'* 
" to give gifts," " dividing them to every man 
as he will," "to be vexed," "grieved," anc? 
" quenched." These cannot be applied to the 
mere fiction cf a person, and they therefore 
establish the Spirit's true personality. 

10. Some additional arguments to those 
before given to establish the divinity of the 
Holy Ghost may also be adduced. The first ia 
taken from his being the subject of blasphemy t 
" The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall 
not be forgiven unto men," Matt, xii, 31. This 
blasphemy consisted in ascribing his miracu- 
lous works to Satan ; and that he is capable of 
being blasphemed proves him to be as much a 
person as the Son ; and it proves him to be 
divine, because it shows that he may be sinned 



HQL 



462 



HOL 



against, and so sinned against that the blas- 
phemer shall not be forgiven. A person he 
must be, or he could not be blasphemed: a 
divine person he must be, to constitute this 
blasphemy a sin against him in the proper 
sense, and of so malignant a kind as to place 
it beyond the reach of mercy. He is called 
God : " Why hath Satan filled thine heart to 
lie unto the Holy Ghost ? Why hast thou con- 
ceived this in thine heart ? Thou hast not lied 
unto men, but unto God," Acts v, 3, 4. Ana- 
nias is said to have lied particularly "unto the 
Holy Ghost," because the Apostles were under 
his special direction in establishing the tempo- 
rary regulation among Christians that they 
should have all things in common : the detec- 
tion of the crime itself was a demonstration 
of the divinity of the Spirit, because it showed 
his omniscience, his knowledge of the most 
secret acts. In addition to the proof of his 
divinity thus afforded by this history, he is 
also called God: "Thou hast not lied unto 
men, but unto God." He is also called the 
Lord : " Now the Lord is that Spirit," 2 Cor. 
iii, 17. He is eternal: "The eternal Spirit," 
Heb. ix, 14. Omnipresence is ascribed to him : 
" Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost," 
1 Cor. vi, 19. " As many as are led by the 
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God," Rom. 
viii, 14. For, as all true Christians are his 
temples, and are led by him, he must be pre- 
sent to them at all times and in all places. 
He is omniscient: "The Spirit searcheth all 
things, yea, the deep things of God," 1 Cor. 
ii, 10. Here the Spirit is said to search or 
know "all things" absolutely; and then, to 
make this more emphatic, that he knows even 
" the deep things of God," things hidden from 
every creature, the depths of his essence, and 
the secrets of his counsels ; for, that this is 
intended, appears from the next verse, where 
he is said to know " the things of God," as the 
spirit of a man knows the things of a man. 
Supreme majesty is also attributed to him, so 
that to "lie" to him, to "blaspheme" him, to 
" vex" him, to do him "despite," are sins, and 
as such render the offender liable to divine 
punishment. How impracticable then is it to 
interpret the phrase, " the Holy Ghost," as a 
periphrasis for God himself! A Spirit, which 
is the Spirit of God, which is so often distin- 
guished from the Father, which " sees" and 
" hears" the Father, which searches " the deep 
things" of God, which is " sent" by the Father, 
which " proceedeth" from him, and who has 
special prayer addressed to him at the same 
time as the Father, cannot, though " one with 
him," be the Father ; and that he is not the 
Son is acknowledged on both sides. As a di- 
vine person, our regards are therefore justly 
due to him as the object of worship and trust, 
of prayer and blessing. 

11. Various are the gracious offices of the 
Holy Spirit in the work of our redemption. 
He it is that first quickens the soul, dead in 
trespasses and sins, to spiritual life ; it is by 
him we are " born again," and made new crea- 
turea ; he is the living root of all the Christian 
graces, which are therefore called "the fruits" 



of the Spirit ; and by him all true Christians 
are aided in the " infirmities" and afflictions of 
this present life. Eminently, he is promised 
to the disciples as " the Comforter," which is 
inore fully explained by St. Paul by the phrase 
" the Spirit of adoption ;" so that it is through 
him that we receive a direct inward testimony 
to our personal forgiveness and acceptance 
through Christ, and are filled with peace and 
consolation. This doctrine, so essential to the 
solid and habitual happiness of those who be- 
lieve in Christ, is thus clearly explained in 
a sermon on that subject by the Rev. John 
Wesley : — 

" (1.) But what is the witness of the Spirit ? 
The original word, {iaprvpia, may be rendered 
either, as it is in several places, the witness, or, 
less ambiguously, the testimony, or, the record : 
so it is rendered in our translation : ' This is 
the record,' the testimony, the sum of what 
God testifies in all the inspired writings, ' that 
God hath given unto us eternal life, and this 
life is in his Son,' 1 John v, 11. The testi- 
mony now under consideration is given by the 
Spirit of God to and with our spirit. He is 
the person testifying. What he testifies to us 
is, ' that we are the children of God.' The 
immediate result of this testimony is, 'the 
fruit of the Spirit;' namely, 'love, joy, peace, 
long suffering, gentleness, goodness.' And 
without these, the testimony itself cannot con- 
tinue. For it is inevitably destroyed, not only 
by the commission of any outward sin, or the 
omission of known duty, but by giving way to 
any inward sin : in a word, by whatever grieves 
the Holy Spirit of God. (2.) I observed many 
years ago. It is hard to find words in the lan- 
guage of men to explain the deep things of 
God. Indeed, there are none that will ade- 
quately express what the Spirit of God works 
in his children. But, perhaps, one might say, 
(desiring any who are taught of God to cor- 
rect, soften, or strengthen the expression,) By 
the ' testimony of the Spirit,' I mean, an in- 
ward impression on the soul, whereby the 
Spirit of God immediately and directly wit- 
nesses with my spirit, that I am a child of 
God ; that ' Jesus Christ hath loved me, and 
given himself for me ;' that all my sins are 
blotted out, and I, even I, am reconciled to 
God. (3.) After twenty years' farther con- 
sideration, I see no cause to retract any part 
of this. Neither do I conceive how any of 
these expressions may be altered, so as to make 
them more intelligible. I can only add, that 
if any of the children of God will point out any 
other expressions which are more clear, or 
more agreeable to the word of God, I will 
readily lay these aside. (4.) Meantime, let it 
be observed, I do not mean hereby, that the 
Spirit of God testifies this by any outward 
voice ; no, nor always by an inward voice, 
although he may do this sometimes. Neither 
do I suppose, that he always applies to the 
heart, though he often may, one or more texts 
of Scripture. But he so works upon the soul 
by his immediate influence, and by a strong, 
though inexplicable, operation, that the stormy 
wind and troubled waves subside, and there is 



HOL 



463 



HOL 



a sweet calm : the heart resting as in the arms 
of Jesus, and the sinner being clearly satisfied 
that all his 'iniquities are forgiven, and his sins 
covered.' (5.) Now what is the matter of dis- 
pute concerning this ? Not, whether there be 
a witness or testimony of the Spirit. Not, 
whether the Spirit does testify with our spirit, 
that we are the children of God. None can 
deny this, without flatly contradicting the 
Scriptures, and charging a lie upon the God 
of truth. Therefore, that there is a testimony 
of the Spirit, is acknowledged by all parties. 
(6.) Neither is it questioned, whether there is 
an indirect witness or testimony, that we are 
the children of God. This is nearly, if not 
exactly, the same with ' the testimony of a 
good conscience toward God ;' and is the result 
of reason or reflection on what we feel in our 
own souls. Strictly speaking, it is a conclu- 
sion drawn partly from the word of God, and 
partly from our own experience. The word 
of God says. Every one who has the fruit of 
the Spirit is a child of God. Experience or 
inward consciousness tells me, that I have the 
fruit of the Spirit ; and hence I rationally con- 
clude. Therefore I am a child of God. This 
is likewise allowed on all hands, and so is no 
matter of controversy. (7.) Nor do we assert, 
that there can be any real testimony of the 
Spirit, without the fruit of the Spirit. We as- 
sert, on the contrary, that the fruit of the 
Spirit immediately springs from this testi- 
mony ; not always indeed in the same degree 
even when the testimony is first given ; and 
much less afterward : neither joy nor peace is 
always at one stay. No, nor love : as neither 
is the testimony itself always equally strong 
and clear. (8.) But the point in question is, 
whether there be any direct testimony of the 
Spirit at all ; whether there be any other tes- 
timony of the Spirit, than that which arises 
from a consciousness of the fruit. I believe 
there is, because that is the plain, natural 
meaning of the text, ' The Spirit itself beareth 
witness with our spirit, that we are the chil- 
dren of God.' It is manifest here are two wit- 
nesses mentioned, who together testify the 
same thing, the Spirit of God, and our own 
spirit. The late bishop of London, in his ser- 
mon on this text, seems astonished that any 
one can doubt of this, which appears upon the 
very face of the words. Now, 'the testimony 
of our own spirit,' says the bishop, ' is one 
which is the consciousness of our own sinceri- 
ty ;' or, to express the same thing a little more 
clearly, the conscioiisness of the fruit of the 
Spirit. When our spirit is conscious of this, 
of love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, 
goodness, it easily infers from these premises, 
that we are the children of God. It is true, 
that great man supposes the other witness to 
be ' the consciousness of our own good works.' 
This, he afiirms, is 'the testimony of God's 
Spirit.' But this is included in the testimony 
of our own spirit : yea, and in sincerity, even 
according to the common sense of the word. 
So the Apostle: 'Our rejoicing is this, the 
testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity 
and godly sincerity wo have our conversation 



in the world ;' where it is plain, sincerity refers 
to our words and actions, at least, as much as 
to our inward dispositions. So that this is not 
another witness, but the very same tliat he 
mentioned before : the consciousness of our 
good works being only one branch of the con- 
sciousness of our sincerity. Consequently, 
here is only one witness still. If therefore, 
the text speaks of two witnesses, one of these 
is not the consciousness of our good works, 
neither of our sincerity ; all this being mani-. 
festly contained in ' the testimony of our spirit.' 
What, then, is the other witness ? This might 
easily be learned, if the text itself were not 
sufficiently clear, from the verse immediately 
preceding: 'Ye have received, not the spirit 
of bondage, but the Spirit of adoption, where- 
by we cry, Abba, Father.' It follows, ' The 
Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, 
that we are the children of God.' This is far- 
ther explained by the parallel text. Gal. iv, 6 : 
' Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the 
Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, 
Abba, Father.' Is not this something imme- 
diate and direct, not the result of reflection or 
argumentation ? Does not this Spirit cry", 
' Abba, Father,' in our hearts, the moment it is 
given ? antecedently to any reflection upon 
our sincerity, yea, to any reasoning what- 
soever? And is not this the plain, natural 
sense of the words, which strikes any one as 
soon as he hears them? All these texts, then, 
in their most obvious meaning, describe a di- 
rect testimony of the Spirit. That the testi- 
mony of the Spirit of God, must, in the very 
nature of things, be antecedent to the testi- 
mony of our own spirit, may appear from this 
single consideration : We must be holy in 
heart and life, before we can he conscious that 
w* are so. But we must love God before we 
can be holy at all, this being the root of all 
holiness. Now, we cannot love God, till we 
know he loves us : ' We love him, because he 
first loved us.' And we cannot know his love 
to us, till his Spirit witnesses it to our spirit. 
Since, therefore, the testimony of his Spirit 
must precede the love of God and all holiness, 
of consequence it must precede our conscious- 
ness thereof." 

12. The precedence of the direct witness of 
the Spirit of God to the indirect witness of our 
own, and the dependence of the latter upon 
the former, are also clearly stated by other 
divines of great authority. Calvin, on Romans 
viii, 16, says, " St. Paul means that the Spirit 
of God gives such a testimony to us, that he 
being our guide and teacher, our spirit con. 
eludes our adoption of God to be certain. For 
our own mind, of itself, independent of the 
preceding testimony of the Spirit, [nisi prcnunte 
Spiritfis testimonio,] could not produce this 
persuasion in us. For while the Spirit wit- 
nesses that we are the sons of God, he at the 
same time inspires this confidence into our 
minds, that we are bold to call God our Fa- 
ther." On the same passage Dr. John Owen 
says, " The Spirit itself beareth witness with 
our spirits that we are the sons of God ; the 
witness which our own spirits do give unto 



HON 



464 



HOP 



our adoption is the work and effect of the Holy 
Spirit in us ; if it were not, it would be false, 
and not confirmed by the testimony of the Spi- 
rit himself, who is the Spirit of truth. ' And 
none knoweth the things of God but the Spirit 
of God,' 1 Cor. ii, 11. If he declare not our 
sonship in us and to us, we cannot know it. 
How doth he then bear witness to our spirits ? 
What is the distinct testimony? It must be 
some such act of his as evidenceth itself to be 
from him immediately, unto them that are 
concerned in it, that is, those iinto whom it 
is given." Poole on the same passage remarks, 
" The Spirit of adoption doth not only excite 
us to call upon God as our Father, but it doth 
ascertain and assure us, as before, that we are 
his children. And this it doth not by an outward 
voice, as God the Father to Jesus Christ, nor 
by an angel, as to Daniel and the Virgin Mary, 
but by an inward and secret suggestion, where- 
by he raiseth our hearts to this persuasion, 
that God is our Father, and we are his children. 
This is not the testimony 6f the graces and 
operations of the Spirit, but of the Spirit 
itself." Bishop Pearson, in his elaborate work 
on the Creed, and Dr. Barrow, in his Ser- 
mons, are equally explicit in stating this Scrip- 
tural doctrine. 

HOMOIOUSIANS, a branch of the high 
Arians, who maintained that the nature of the 
Son, though not the same, was similar to that 
of the Father. 

HOMOOUSIANS, or HOMOUSIASTS, 
was, on the other hand, a name applied to the 
Athanasians, who held the Son to be homou- 
sios, or consubstantial with the Father, that 
is, of the same nature and substance. 

HONEY, iyji. It is probable, that it was 
in order to keep the Jews at a distance from 
the customs of the Heathen, who were used 
to offer honey in their sacrifices, that God 
forbade it to be offered to him, that is to say, 
burnt upon the altar, Lev. ii, 11 ; but at the 
same time he commanded that the first-fruits 
of it should be presented. These first-fruits 
and offerings were designed for the support 
and sustenance of the priests, and were not 
consumed upon the altar. In hot weather, 
the honey burst the comb, and ran down the 
hollow trees or rocks, where, in the land of 
Judea, the bees deposited great store of it. 
This, flowing spontaneously, was the best and 
most delicious, as it was quite pure, and clear 
from all dregs and wax. The Israelites called 
it nny>, wood honey. It is therefore improperly 
rendered "honeycomb," 1 Sam. xiv, 27; Cant. 
V, 1 ; in both which places it means the honey 
that has distilled from the trees, as distinguish, 
ed from the domestic, which was eaten with 
the comb. Hasselquist says, that between 
Acra and Nazareth, great numbers of wild 
bees breed, to the advantage of the inhabitants ; 
and Maundrell observes of the great plain near 
Jericho, that he perceived in it, in many 
places, a smell of honey and wax as strong as 
if he had been in an apiary. Milk and honey 
were the chief dainties of the earlier ages, and 
continue to be so of the Bedoween Arabs now. 
So butter and honey are several times men- 



tioned in Scripture as among the most delicious 
refreshments, 2 Sam. xvii, 29 ; Job xx, 17 ; 
Cant, iv, 11 ; Isaiah vii, 15. Thus Irby and 
Mangles, in their Travels, relate, " They gave 
us some honey and butter together, with bread 
to dip in it, Narsah desiring one of his men to 
mix the two ingredients for us, as we were 
awkward at it. The Arab, having stirred the 
mixture up well with his fingers, showed his 
dexterity at consuming, as well as mixing, 
and recompensed himself for his trouble by 
eating half of it." The wild honey, //lAi aypiov, 
mentioned to have been a part of the food of 
John the Baptist, Matt, iii, 4, was probably 
such as he got in the rocks and hollows of 
trees. Thus, "honey out of the stony rock," 
Psalm Ixxxi, 16 ; Deut. xxxii, 13. 

HOPHNI. See Eli. 

HOPKINSIANS, or HOPKINSONIANS, 
so called from the Rev. Samuel Hopkins, D.D., 
pastor of the first Congregational church at 
Newport, Rhode Island, North America, about 
A. D. 1770. Dr. Hopkins, in his sermons and 
tracts, made several additions to the senti- 
ments previously advanced by the celebrated 
President Edwards, of New- Jersey College. 
The following is a summary of their distin- 
guishing tenets : — 

1. That all true virtue or real holiness con- 
sists in disinterested benevolence. The object 
of benevolence is universal being, including: 
God, and all intelligent creatures. It wishes 
and seeks the good of every individual, so far 
as is consistent with the greatest good of the 
whole, which is comprised in the glory of 
God, and the perfection and happiness of his 
kingdom. The lav/ of God is the standard of 
all moral rectitude or holiness. This is re- 
duced into love to God and to our neighbour ; 
and universal good will comprehends all the 
love to God, our neighbour, and ourselves, re- 
quired in the divine law, and therefore must 
be the whole of holy obedience. Let any per- 
son reflect on what are the particular branches 
of true piety, and he wull find that disinterest, 
ed affection is the distinguishing characteristic 
of each. For instance, all which distinguishes 
pious fear from the fear of the wicked consists 
in love. Holy gratitude is nothing but good 
will to God and man, ourselves included, ex- 
cited by a view of the good will and kindness 
of God. Justice, truth, and faithfiilness, are 
comprised in universal benevolence. So are 
temperance and chastity ; for an undue indul- 
gence of our appetites and passions is contrary 
to benevolence, as tending to hurt ourselves or 
others, and so opposite to the general good, 
and the divine command. In short, all virtue 
is nothing but love to God and our neighbour, 
made perfect in all its genuine exercises and 



expressions. 

2. That all sin consists in selfishness. 



By 



this is meant an interested affection, by which 
a person sets himself up as the supreme or 
only object of regard ; and nothing is lovely 
in his view, unless suited to promote his pri- 
vate interest. This self-love is, in its wliol? 
nature, and every degree of it, enmity against 
God : it is not subject to the law of God, and 



HOP 



465 



HOP 



it is the only aifection that can oppose it. It 
is the foundation of all spiritual blindness, and 
the source of all idolatry and false religion. 
It is the foundation of all covetousuess and 
sensuality ; of all falsehood, injustice, and 
oppression ; as it excites mankind, by undue 
methods, to invade the property of others. 
Self-love produces all the violent passions, 
envy, wrath, clamour, and evil speaking ; and 
every thing contrary to the divine law is briefly 
comprehended in this fruitful source of iniqui 
ty, self-love. 

3. That there are no promises of regene- 
rating grace made to the actions of the unre. 
generate. For as far as men act from self- 
love, they act from a bad end ; for those who 
have no true love to God really fulfil no duty 
when they attend on the externals of religion. 
Also, that inability, which consists in disincli- 
nation, never renders any thing improper to 
be the subject of a command. 

4. That the impotency of sinners, with re- 
spect to believing in Christ, is not natural, but 
moral •; for it is a plain dictate of common 
sense, that natural impossibility excludes all 
blame. But an unwilling mind is universally 
considered as a crime, and not as an excuse ; 
and is the very thing wherein our wickedness 
consists. — Also, 

5. That in order to faith in Christ, a sinner 
must approve in his heart of the divine con- 
duct, even though God should cast him off for 
ever ; which, however, neither implies love to 
misery, nor hatred of happiness. But as a 
particle of water is small, in comparison of a 
generous stream, so the man of humility feels 
small before the great family of his fellow 
creatures. He values his soul ; but, when he 
compares it to the great soul of mankind, he 
almost forgets and loses sight of it : for the 
governing principle of his heart is, to estimate 
things according to their worth. When, there- 
fore, he indulges an humble comparison with 
his Maker, he feels lost in the infinite fulness 
and brightness of divine love, as a ray of light 
IS lost in the sun, and a particle of water in 
the ocean. It inspires him with the most 
grateful feelings of heart, that he has opportu- 
nity to be in the hand of God, as clay in the 
hand of the potter; and as he considers him- 
self in this humble light, he submits the nature 
and size of his fiiture vessel entirely to God. 
As his pride is lost in the dust, he looks up 
with pleasure toward the throne of God, and 
rejoices, with all his heart, in the rectitude of 
the divine administration. He also considers 
tliat, if the law be good, death is due to those 
who have broken it; and "the Judge of all 
the earth cannot but do right," Gen. xviii, 25. 
It would bring everlasting reproach upon his 
government to spare us, considered merely as 
in ourselves. When this is felt in our hearts, 
and not till then, we shall be prepared to look 
to the free grace of God, through Christ's 
redemption . 

6. That the infinitely wise and holy God has 
exerted his omnipotent power, in such a man- 
ner as he purposed should be followed with the 
existence and entrance of moral evil in the 

31 



system : for it must be admitted, on all hands, 
that God has a perfect knowledge, foresight, 
and view of all possible existences and events. 
If that system and scene of operation, in which 
moral evil should never have existence, was 
actually preferred in the divine mind, certainly 
the Deity is infinitely disappointed in the 
issue of his own operations. Dr. Hopkins 
maintains, therefore, that " God was the au- 
thor, origin, and positive cause of Adam's sin :" 
yea, " that he is the origin and cause of moral 
evil, as really as he is of the existence of any 
thing that he wills." 

7. That the introduction of sin is, upon the 
whole, for the general good. For the wisdona 
and power of the Deity are displayed in car^ 
rying on designs of the greatest good : and 
the existence of moral evil has, undoubtedly, 
occasioned a more full, perfect, and glorious 
discovery of the infinite perfections of the di- 
vine nature, than could otherwise have been 
made to the view of creatures. 

8. That repentance is before faith in Christ. 
By this, is not intended, that repentance is 
before a speculative conviction of the being 
and perfections of God, and of the person and 
character of Christ ; but only, that true re- 
pentance is previous to a saving faith in Christ, 
by which the believer is united to Christ, and 
entitled to the benefits of his mediation and 
atonement. So Christ commanded, "Repent 
ye, and believe the Gospel ;" and Paul preach- 
ed "repentance toward God, and faith in our 
Lord Jesus Christ." 

9. That though men became sinners by 
Adam, according to a divine constitution, yet 
they were and are accountable for no sins but 
personal : for, (1.) Adam's act, in eating the 
forbidden fruit, was not the act of his posteri- 
ty; therefore they did not sin at the same 
time that he did. (2.) The sinfulness of that 
act could not be transferred to them after- 
ward ; because the sinfulness of an act can 
no more be transferred from one person to 
another, than an act itself. (3.) Therefore 
Adam's act, in eating the forbidden fruit, was 
not the cause, but only the occasions of his 
posterity being sinners. Adam sinned, and 
now God brings his posterity into the world 
sinners. 

10. That though believers are justified 
through Christ's righteousness, yet his right- 
eousness is not transferred to them. For 
personal righteousness cannot be transferred 
from one person to another, nor personal sin ; 
otherwise the sinner would become innocent, 
and Christ the sinner. The Scripture, there- 
fore, represents believers as receiving only the 
benefits of Christ's righteousness in justifica- 
tion, or their being pardoned and accepted for 
Christ's righteousness' sake ; and this is the 
proper Scripture notion of imputation. Jona- 
than's righteousness was imputed to Mephi- 
bosheth, when David showed kindness to him 
for his father Jonathan's sake, 2 Samuel ix, 7. 

11. The Hopkinsians warmly advocate the 
doctrine of the divine decrees, not only par- 
ticular election, but also reprobation ; they 
hold also the total depravation of human na- 



HOR 



466 



HOR 



ture, the special influences of the Spirit of 
God in regeneration, justification by faith 
alone, the iinal perseverance of the saints, and 
the consistency between entire freedom and 
absolute dependence ; and therefore claim it 
as their just due, since the world will make 
distinctions, to be called Hopkinsian Calvin- 
ists. Calvinists, however, have demurred 
against several of these propositions, and a 
long and warm controversy was occasioned 
by them in the United States ; to a few points 
of which we shall advert. — (1.) Selfishness, as 
confining our affections and exertions to our- 
selves, is confessedly a vice ; but that self is 
not to be excluded from our affections, is evi- 
dent even from the terms of the divine law, — 
*' Thou slialt love thy neighbour as thyself." 
And the Scriptures teach us, that " no man 
hateth his own flesh." Such a " disinterested 
benevolence," therefore, as implies no peculiar 
anxiety for our personal salvation and happi- 
ness, can never be required of us. A good 
man may and must be convinced, that God 
would be just in his final condemnation, con- 
sidered out of Christ ; but it is impossible to 
acquiesce in such a prospect ; it is making 
holiness to consist in being satisfied with re- 
maining for ever unholy, which is as impious 
as it is contradictory ; and the strong and 
strange things which some Hopkinsonians 
have said on this subject, can only be account- 
ed for from the love of paradox. (2.) The 
other principal point on which Calvinists dis- 
sent, is the making God "the author and 
efficient cause of sin." It is true that the 
Doctor says elsewhere, that " in causing or 
originating sin, there is no sin ;" this, how- 
ever, is a position so dangerous, so unsup- 
ported, and so contrary to the common sense 
of mankind, that we may well shrink from it ; 
and should risk no speculation that can impli- 
cate the divine character, or furnish an excuse 
for sin. " Is God unrighteous who taketh 
vengeance?" saith the Apostle. "God for- 
bid ! for how then shall God judge the world ?" 
Rom. iii, 5, 6. Those who feel interested in 
the controversy, may be fully gratified in the 
"Contrast between Calvinism and Hopkin- 
sianism," by Ezra Styles Ely, A. M., (New- 
York, 1811,) and other American publications. 
In this country the controversy is but little 
known; but we may remark that the theory 
of Hopkins appears to be an attempt to unite 
some points of mystic theology with the Cal- 
vinism commonly received, and that where it 
differs from the latter system, it relieves no 
difficulty. 

HOR. This mountain, in its general ac- 
ceptation, is probably the same with Mount 
Seir, Hor being the name by which that 
mountainous tract was denominated before it 
was exchanged for Seir. But one particular 
mountain of this region retained the name of 
Hor long after ; as it was a mountain of this 
name, " by the coast of the land of Edom," 
that Aaron was commanded to ascend, in 
order to die there, Num. xx, 23. This mount- 
ain, or at least the one to which tradition 
assigns the tomb of Aaron, was visited by 



Burckhardt; from whose account it appears 
to form a conspicuous object in the chain of 
the Djebel Shera, or Mount Seir, rising ab- 
ruptly from the valley of El Araba, or desert 
of Zin, about fifty miles north of Akaba, or 
Ezion-Geber. ■ 

HOREB, a mountain in Arabia Petraea, a 
part of which, or near to which, was Sinai. 
At Horeb God appeared to Moses in the burn- 
ing bush, Exod. iii, 1, &c. Hither Elijah 
retired to avoid the persecution of Jezebel, 
1 Kings xix, 8. Sinai and Horeb seem to be 
two parts of the same mountain ; hence the 
law is sometimes said to be given there. 

HORN. By horns the Hebrews sometimes 
understood an eminence, or angle, a corner, 
or a rising. By horns of the altar of burnt 
offerings, many understand the angles of that 
altar ; but there were also horns, or eminences, 
at the corners of that altar, Exod. xxvii, 2 ; 
XXX, 2. Horn also signifies glory, brightness, 
rays. God's " brightness was as the light, he 
had horns coming out of his hand," Hab. iii, 
4 ; that is, refulgent beams issuing from the 
hollow of it. xA.s the ancients frequently used 
horns to hold liquors, vessels containing oil 
and perfumes are often called horns, whether 
made of horn or not. " Fill thine horn with 
oil," says the Lord to Samuel, "and anoint 
David," 1 Sam. xvi, 1. Zadok took a horn 
of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solo- 
mon, 1 Kings i, 39. Job called one of his 
daughters Kerenhappuch, horn of antimony, 
or horn to put antimony (stibium) in, which 
the women of the east still use at this day, 
Job xliii, 14. The principal defence and 
strength of horned beasts consist in their 
horns ; and hence the Scripture mentions the 
horn as a symbol of strength. The Lord 
exalted the horn of David, the horn of his 
people ; he breaketh the horn of the ungodly ; 
he cutteth off the horn of Moab ; he cutteth 
off the horn of Israel ; he promiseth to make 
the horn of Israel to bud forth ; to reestablish 
the honour of it, and restore its former vigour. 
Moses compares Joseph to a young bull, and 
says that he has horns like those of a unicorn. 
Kingdoms and great powers are often in 
Scripture described by the symbol of horns. 
In Daniel vii, viii, horns represent the power 
of the Persians, of the Greeks, of Syria, of 
Egypt* or of Pagan and Papal Rome. The 
prophet represents three animals as having 
many horns, one of which grew from the 
other. This emblem is a natural one, since 
in the east are rams which have many horns, 

HORNET, r\]j^:ir\, Exod. xxiii, 28; Deut. 
vii, 20 ; Joshua xxiv, 12. The hornet, in na- 
tural history, belongs to the species crabo, of 
the genus vespa or wasp. It is a most vora- 
cious insect, and is exceedingly strong for its 
size, whicli is generally an inch in length, and 
sometimes more. In each of the instances 
where this creature is mentioned in Scripture, 
it is as sent among the enemies of the Israel- 
ites, to drive them out of the land. Some ex- 
plain the word metaphorically, as "I will send 
my terror as the hornet," &c. But Bochart 
contends that it is to be taken in its proper 



HOR 



467 



HOR 



literal meaning, and has accumulated exam- 
ples of several other people having been chased 
from their habitations by insects of differ- 
ent kinds. iElian records that the Phaselites, 
who dwelt about the mountains of Solyma, 
were driven out of their country by wasps. 
As these people were Phenicians or Canaan- 
ites, it is probable that the event to which he 
refers is the same as took place in the days of 
Joshua. How distressing and destructive a 
multitude of these fierce and severely stinging 
insects might be, any person may conjecture. 
No armour, no weapons could avail against 
them. A few thousands of them would be 
sufficient to overthrow the best disciplined 
army and put it into confusion and rout. 
From Joshua xxiv, 12, we find that two kings 
of the Amorites were actually driven out of 
the land by these hornets, so that the Israel- 
ites were not obliged to use either sword or 
bow in the conquest. One of these, accord- 
ing to the Jewish commentaries of R. Nach- 
man, was the nation of the Girgashites, who 
retired into Africa, fearing the power of God. 
And Procopius, in his history of the Vandals, 
mentions an ancient inscription in Mauritania 
Tingitana, stating, that the inhabitants had 
fled thither from the face of Joshua, the son 
of Nun. This account accords with Scrip- 
ture, in which, though the Girgashites are 
included in the general list of the seven de- 
voted nations either to be driven out or de- 
stroyed by the Israelites, Gen. xv, 20, 21 ; 
Deut. vii, 1 ; Josh, iii, 10 ; xxiv, 11 ; yet they 
are omitted in the list of those to be utterly 
destroyed, Deut. xx, 17 ; and among whom, 
in neglect of the divine decree, the Israelites 
lived and intermarried, Judges iii, 1-6. That 
the name of the Girgashites, however, was 
not extirpated, we may collect from the Ger- 
gesenes, in our Saviour's time, inhabiting the 
same country. Matt, viii, 28. Other tribes of 
the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites, were 
also expelled by the hornet gradually ; not in 
one year, lest the land should become deso- 
late, and the wild beasts multiply to the pre- 
judice of the Israelites, Exod. xxiii, 28-30. 

The "arms of Jove," to which Virgil refers, 
{Mneid viii, 355-358,) in describing the flight 
of Saturn from the east, were the hornets 
sent by the God of Israel, Iahoh, or by con- 
traction lo, to which also his description of 
the Asiius exactly corresponds : — 

Plurimus — volitans, {cui riomen Asilo 
Rojnanum est ; oiarpov, Graii vertere vocantes,) 
Asper, acerba sonans, quo iota exterrita sylvis 
Diffugiunt armenta. Georg. iii, 14S. 

" About the Alburnian groves, with holly green, 
Of winged insects mighty swarms are seen; 
This flying plague, to mark its quality, 
CEsTROS the Grecians call ; asylus, we: 
A fierce loud buzzing breeze ; their stings draw blood, 
Arid drive the cattle gadding through the wood. 
, Seized with unusual pains, tlrey loudly cry." 

Dbyden. 

Dr. Hales is of opinion, that the Latin 

asiius and Greek oiorpov, were probably only 

different pronunciations of the same oriental 

term, n;>-is;% hatsiraah, as this fly is called by 



Moses and Joshua. The vindictive power 
that presided over this dreadful scourge was 
worshipped at Ekron, in Palestine, through 
fear, the reigning motive of Pagan superstition, 
under the title of Baal-zebub, "master or lord 
of the hornet," whence Beelzebub, in the New 
Testament, "the prince of demons," Matt, 
xii, 24. Isaiah, denouncing a wo against 
Abyssinia, describes it as " the land of the 
winged cymbal," (tsaltsal canaphim,) Isaiah 
xviii, 1 ; by the same analogy that tsaltsal 
signifies " a locust," Deut. xxviii, 42 ; a stre- 
pera voce sic dictam. [So called from its strep- 
erous sound.] Bruce, in his Travels in Abys. 
sinia, has given an accurate description of 
this tremendous fly, which in Arabic is called 
zimb, and by the Abyssinians tsaltsal-ya, " the 
cymbal of the Lord," from its sonorous buz- 
zing. And in his Appendix he has given a 
drawing of it, magnified, for distinctness' 
sake, something above twice the natural size : 
after which he observes, "He has no sting, 
though he seems to me to be rather of the bee 
kind ; but his motion is more rapid and sudden 
than that of the bee, (volitans,) and resembles 
that of the gad-fly in England. There is some- 
thing particular in the sound or buzzing of 
this insect ; it is a jarring noise, together with 
a humming, (acerba sonans,) which induces 
me to believe it proceeds, in part at least, from 
a vibration made with the three hairs at his 
snout." Bruce does not cite or refer to Vir- 
gil's description, though his account furnishes 
the most critical and exact explanation of it. 
Such undesigned coincidences are most satis- 
factory and convincing ; they show that the 
poet and the naturalist both copied from 
nature. And the terror impressed by this in- 
sect on all the cattle, quo iota exterrita sylvis 
diffugiunt, [affrighted at which the entire 
herds flee to the thickets,] according to Virgil, 
is thus illustrated by Bruce: "As soon as 
this plague appears, and their buzzing is heard, 
all the cattle forsake their food, and run wildly 
about the plain till they die, worn out with 
fatigue, fright, and hunger. No remedy re- 
mains but to leave the black earth, where they 
breed, and hasten down to the sands of Atba- 
ra ; and there they remain while the periodical 
rains last, this cruel enemy (asper) never dar- 
ing to pursue them farther. The camel, 
emphatically called by the Arabs the ship of 
the desert, though his size is immense as is 
his strength, and his body covered with a 
thick skin, defended with strong hair, still is 
not able to sustain the violent punctures the 
fly makes with his pointed proboscis. He 
must lose no time in removing to the sands of 
Atbara ; for when once attacked by this fly, 
his body, head, and legs, break out into large 
bosses, which swell, break, and putrefy, to the 
certain destruction of the creature. I have 
found some of these tubercles upon almost 
every elephant and rhinoceros that I have 
seen, and attribute them to this cause. All 
the inhabitants of the sea coast are obliged to 
put themselves in motion, and remove to the 
next sand, in the beginning of the rainy sea- 
son, to prevent all their stock of cattle from 



HOR 



468 



HOS 



being destroyed. Nor is there any alternative, 
or means of avoiding this, though a hostile 
band was in the way, capable of spoiling them 
of half their substance, as was actually the 
case when we were at Sennaar. Of such con- 
sequence is the weakest instrument in the 
hand of Providence." See Flies and Beel- 
zebub. 

HORSE, DID. Horses were very rare among 
the Hebrews in the early ages. The patriarchs 
had none ; and after the departure of the Israel. 
ites from Egypt, God expressly forbade their 
ruler to procure them : "He shall not multiply 
horses to himself, nor cause the people to 
return to Egypt, to the end that he should 
multiply horses : forasmuch as the Lord hath 
said. Ye shall henceforth return no more that 
way," Deut. xvii, 16. As horses appear to 
have been generally furnished by Egypt, God 
prohibits these, 1. Lest there should be such 
commerce with Egypt as might lead to idola- 
try. 2. Lest the people might depend on a 
well appointed cavalry, as a means of security, 
and so cease from trusting in the promised aid 
and protection of Jehovah. 3. That they might 
not be tempted to extend their dominion by 
means of cavalry, and so get scattered among 
the surrounding idolatrous nations, and thus 
cease in process of time, to be that distinct 
and separate people which God intended they 
should be, and without which the prophecies 
relative to the Messiah could not be known to 
have their due and full accomplishment. In 
the time of the Judges we find horses and war 
chariots among the Canaanites, but still the 
Israelites had none ; and hence they were 
generally too timid to venture down into the 
plains, confining their conquests to the mount- 
ainous parts of the country. In the reign of 
Saul, it would appear, that horse breeding had 
not yet been introduced into Arabia ; for, in 
a war with some of the Arabian nations, the- 
Israelites got plunder in camels, sheep, and 
asses, but no horses. David's enemies brought 
against him a strong force of cavalry into the 
field ; and in the book of Psalms the horse 
commonly appears only on the side of the 
enemies of the people of God ; and so entirely 
unaccustomed to the management of this ani- 
mal had the Israelites still continued, that, 
after a battle, in which they took a consider- 
able body of cavalry prisoners, 2 Sam. viii, 4, 
David caused most of the horses to be cut 
down, because he did not know what use to 
make of them. Solomon was the first who 
established a cavalry force. Under these cir- 
cumstances, it is not wonderful that the Mo- 
saic law should take no notice of an animal 
which we hold in such high estimation. To 
Moses, educated as he was in Egypt, and, with 
his people, at last chased out by Pharaoh's 
cavalry, the use of the horse for war and for 
travelling was well known ; but as it was his 
object to establish a nation of husbandmen, 
and not of soldiers for the conquest of foreign 
lands, and as Palestine, from its situation, re- 
quired not the defence of cavalry, he might 
very well decline introducing among his peo- 
pie the yet unusual art of horse breeding. 



Solomon, having married a daughter of Pha- 
raoh, procured a breed of horses from Egypt ; 
and so greatly did he multiply them, that he 
had four hundred stables, forty thousand stalls, 
and twelve thousand horsemen, 1 Kings iv, 26 ; 
2 Chron. ix, 25. It seems that the Egyptian 
horses were in high repute, and were much 
used in war. When the Israelites were dis- 
posed to place too implicit confidence in the 
assistance of cavalry, the prophet remonstrated 
in these terms : " The Egyptians are men, and 
not God ; and their horses are flesh, not 
spirit," Isaiah xxxi, 3, 

HORSE-LEECH, np^y, from a root which 
signifies to adhere, stick close, or hang fast, 
Prov. XXX, 15. A sort of worm that lives in 
water, of a black or brown colour, which fat- 
tens upon the flesh, and does not quit it till it is 
entirely full of blood. Solomon says, " The 
horse-leech hath two daughters. Give, give." 
This is so apt an emblem of an insatiable ra 
pacity and avarice, that it has been generally 
used by difl^erent writers to express it. Thus 
Plautus makes one say, speaking of the deter- 
mination to get money, " I will turn myself 
into a horse-leech, and suck out their blood ;" 
and Cicero, in one of his letters to Atticus, 
calls the common people of Rome horse- 
leeches of the treasury. Solomon, having 
mentioned those that devoured the property 
of the poor as the v/orst of all the generations 
which he had specified, proceeds to state the 
insatiable cupidity with which they prosecuted 
their schemes of rapine and plunder. As the 
horse-leech had two daughters, cruelty and 
thirst of blood, which cannot be satisfied, so 
the oppressor of the poor has two dispositions, 
rapacity and avarice, which never say they 
have enough, but continually demand addi- 
tional gratifications. 

HOSANNA, "Save, I beseech thee," or, 
" Give salvation," a well known form of bless- 
ing, Matthew xxi, 9, 15; Mark xi, 9, 10; 
John xii, 13. 

HOSEA, son of Beeri, the first of the minor 
prophets. He is generally considered as a 
native and inhabitant of the kingdom of Israel, 
and is supposed to have begun to prophesy 
about B. C. 800. He exercised his office sixty 
years ; but it is not known at what periods 
his different prophecies now remaining were 
delivered. Most of them are directed against 
the people of Israel, whom he reproves and 
threatens for their idolatry and wickedness, 
and exhorts to repentance, with the greatest 
earnestness, as the only means of averting the 
evils impending over their country. The 
principal predictions contained in this book, 
are the captivity and dispersion of the kingdom 
of Israel; the deliverance of Judah from Sen- 
nacherib ; the present state of the Jews ; their 
future restoration, and union with the Gen- 
tiles in the kingdom of the Messiah ; the call 
of our Saviour out of Egypt, and his resur- 
rection on the third day. The style of Hosea 
is peculiarly obscure ; it is sententious, con- 
cise, and abrupt ; the transitions of persons 
are sudden ; and the connexive and adversa- 
tive particles are frequently omitted. The 



HOS 



469 



HOU 



prophecies are in one continued series, with- 
out any distinction as to the times when they 
were delivered, or the different subjects to 
"which they relate. They are not so clear and 
detailed, as the predictions of those prophets 
who lived in succeeding ages. When, how- 
ever, we have surmounted these difficulties, 
we shall see abundant reason to admire the 
force and energy with which this prophet 
writes, and the boldness of the figures and 
similitudes which he uses. 

2. HosEA, or HosHEA, son of Elah, was the 
last king of Israel. Having conspired against 
Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Israel, he 
killed him, A. M. 3265 ; B. C. 739. However, 
the elders of the land seem to have taken the 
government into their hands ; for Hoshea was 
not in possession of the kingdom till nine 
years after, 2 Kings xv, 30; xvii, 1. Hoshea 
did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not equal 
to the kings of Israel who preceded him ; that 
is, say the Jewish doctors, he did not restrain 
his- subjects from going to Jerusalem to wor- 
ship, if they would; whereas the kings of 
Israel, his predecessors, had forbidden it, and 
had placed guards on the road to prevent it. 
Salmaneser, king of Assyria, being informed 
that Hoshea meditated a revolt, and had con- 
certed measures with So, king of Egypt, to 
shake off the Assyrian yoke, marched against 
him, and besieged Samaria. After a siege of 
three years, in the ninth year of Hoshea's 
reign, the city was taken, and was reduced to 
a heap of ruins, A. M. 3282. The king of 
Assyria removed the Israelites of the ten tribes 
to countries beyond the Euphrates, and thus 
terminated the kingdom of the ten tribes. 

HOSPITALITY. Instances of ancient 
hospitality occur frequently in the Old Testa- 
ment. So in the case of Abraham, Gen. xviii, 
where he invites the angels who appeared in 
the form of men to rest and refreshment, 
'* And he stood by them under the tree, and 
they did eat." "Nothing is more common in 
India," says Mr. Ward, "than to see travel- 
lers and guests eating under the shade of 
trees. Even feasts are never held in houses. 
The house of a Hindoo serves for the purposes 
of sleeping and cooking, and of shutting up 
the women ; but is never considered as a sit- 
ting or a dining room." " On my return to 
the boat," says Belzony, " I found the aga and 
all his retinue seated on a mat, under a clus- 
ter of palm trees, close to the water. The 
sun was then setting, and the shades of the 
western mountains had reached across the 
Nile, and covered the town. It is at this 
time the people recreate themselves in various 
scattered groups, drinking coffee, smoking 
their pipes, and talking of camels, horses, 
asses, dhourra, caravans, or boats." " The 
aga having prepared a dinner for me," says 
Mr. Light, " invited several of the natives to 
sit down. Water was brought in a skin by an 
attendant, to wash our hands. Two fowls 
roasted were served up on wheaten cakes, in 
a wooden bowl, covered with a small mat, and 
a number of the same cakes in another : in 
the centre of these were liquid butter, and pre- 



served dates. These were divided, broken up, 
and mixed together by some of the party, 
while others pulled the fowls to pieces : which 
done, the party began to eat as fast as they 
could : getting up, one after the other, as soon 
as their hunger was satisfied." "Hospitality 
to travellers," says Mr. Forbes, " prevails 
throughout Guzerat : a person of any consider- 
ation passing through the province is pre- 
sented, at the entrance of a village, with fruit, 
milk, butter, fire wood, and earthen pots for 
cookery ; the women and children offer him 
wreaths of flowers. Small bowers are con- 
structed on convenient spots, at a distance 
from a well or lake, where a person is main- 
tained by the nearest villages, to take care of 
the water jars, and supply all travellers gratis. 
There are particular villages, where the inha- 
bitants compel all travellers to accept of one 
day's provisions : whether they be many or 
few, rich or poor, European or native, they 
must not refuse the offered bounty." 

" So when angelic forms to Syria sent 
Sat in the eedar shade, by Abraham's tent, 
A spacious bowl the' admiring patriarch fills 
With dulcet water from the scanty rills ; 
Sweet fruits and kernels gathers from his hoard, 
Witli milk and butter piles the plenteous board ; 
While on the heated hearth his consort bakes 
Fine flour well kneaded in unleavened cakes, 
The guests ethereal quaff the lucid flood, 
Smile on their hosts, and taste terrestrial food ; 
And while from seraph lips sweet converse springs, 
They lave their feet, and close their silver wings." 

Darwin. 
HOURS. See Day. 

HOUSES. The following description of 
oriental houses will serve to illustrate several 
passages of Scripture. From the gate of the 
porch, one is conducted into a quadrangular 
court, which, being exposed to the weather, 
is paved with stone, in order to carry off the 
water in the rainy season. The principal 
design of this quadrangle, is to give light to 
the house, and admit the fresh air into the 
apartments; it is also the place where the 
master of the house entertains his company, 
who are seldom or never honoured with admis- 
sion into the inner apartments. This open 
space bears a striking resemblance to the im. 
pluvium, or cava cediuni, of the Romans, which 
was also an uncovered area, from whence the 
chambers were lighted. For the accommoda- 
tion of the guests, the pavement is covered 
with mats or carpets; and as it is secured 
against all interruption from the street, is well 
adapted to public entertainments. It is called, 
says Dr. Shaw, the middle of the house, and 
literally answers to rb fiiaov of the evangelist, 
into which the man afflicted with the palsy 
was let down through the ceiling, with his 
couch, before Jesus, Luke v, 19. Hence, he 
conjectures that our Lord was at this time in- 
structing the people in the court of one of 
these houses ; and it is by no means improba- 
ble, that the quadrangle was to him and his 
Apostles a favourite situation, while they were 
engaged in disclosing the mysteries of redemp- 
tion. To defend the company from the scorch, 
ing sun-beams, or " windy storm and tempest," 



HOU 



470 



HOL 



a veil was expanded upon ropes from one side 
of the parapet wall to the other, wliich might 
be unfolded or folded at pleasure. The court 
is for the most part surrounded with a cloister, 
over which, when the house has a, number of 
stories, a gallery is erected of the same dimen- 
sions with the cloister, having a balustrade, or 
else a piece of carved or latticed work, going 
round about, to prevent people from falling 
from it into the court. The doors of the en- 
closure round the house are made very small ; 
but the doors of the houses very large, for the 
purpose of admitting a copious stream of fresh 
air into their apartments. The windows which 
look into the street are very high and narrow, 
and defended by lattice work ; as they are only 
intended to allow the cloistered inmate a peep 
of what is passing without, while he remains 
concealed behind the casement. This kind of 
window the ancient Hebrews called aruhah, 
which is the same term that they used to ex- 
press those small openings through which 
pigeons passed into the cavities of the rocks, 
or into those buildings which were raised for 
their reception. Thus the prophet asks: 
*' Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the 
doves, CDn'»n3nN~'7N, to their small or narrow 
windows." The word is derived from a root 
which signifies to lie in wait for the prey ; and 
is very expressive of the concealed manner in 
which a person examines through that kind 
of window an external object, Irwin describes 
the windows in Upper Egypt as having the 
same form and dimensions ; and says expressly, 
that one of the windows of the house in which 
they lodged, and through which they looked 
into the street, more resembled a pigeon hole 
than any thing else. But the sacred writers 
mention another kind of window, which was 
large and airy; it was called pVn, and was 
large enough to admit a person of mature age 
being cast out of it ; a punishment which that 
profligate woman Jezebel suffered by the com- 
mand of Jehu, the authorized extirminator of 
her family. These large windows admit the 
light and the breeze into spacious apartments 
of the same length with the court, but which 
seldom or never communicate with one an- 
other. In the houses of the fashionable and 
the gay, the lower part of the walls is adorned 
with rich hangings of velvet or damask, tinged 
with the liveliest colours, suspended on hooks, 
or taken down at pleasure. A correct idea of 
their richness and splendour may be formed 
from the description which the inspired writer 
has given of the hangings in the royal garden 
at Shushan, the ancient capital of Persia : 
" Where were white, green, and blue hangings, 
fastened with cords of fine linen and purple, to 
silver rings and pillars of marble," Esther i, 6. 
The upper part of the walls is adorned with 
the most ingenious wreathings and devices, in 
stucco and fret-work. The ceiling is generally 
of wainscot, painted with great art, or else 
thrown into a variety of pannels with gilded 
mouldings. In the days of Jeremiah the pro- 
phet, when the profusion and luxury of all 
ranks in Judea were at their height, their 
.chambers were ceiled with fragrant and costly 



wood, and painted with the richest colours. 
Of this extravagance the indignant seer loudly 
complains: "Wo unto him that saith, I will 
build me a wide house and large chambers, and 
cutteth him out windows : and it is ceiled 
with cedar^ and painted with vermilion," Jer , 
xxii, 14. The floors of these splendid apart- 
ments were laid with painted tiles, or slabs of 
the most beautiful marble. A pavement of 
this kind is mentioned in the book of Esther ; 
at the sumptuous entertainment which Ahasu- - 
erus made for the princes and nobles of his 
vast empire, "the beds," or couches, upon 
which they reclined, " were of gold and silver, 
upon a pavement of red and blue, and white 
and black marble." Plaster of terrace is often 
used for the same purpose ; and the floor is 
always covered with carpets, which are for the 
most part of the richest materials. Upon these 
carpets, a range of narrow beds, or mattresses, 
is often placed along the sides of the wall, with 
velvet or damask bolsters, for the greater ease 
and convenience of the company. To these 
luxurious indulgences the prophets occasion, 
ally seem to allude : Ezekiel was coinmanded 
to pronounce a "wo to the women that sew 
pillows to all armholes," Ezek. xiii, 18 ; and 
Amos denounces the judgments of his God 
against them " that lie upon beds of ivory, and 
stretch themselves upon their couches, and 
eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves 
out of the midst of the stall," Amos vi, 4. At 
one end of each chamber is a little gallery, 
raised three or four feet above the floor, with 
a balustrade in front, to which they go up by 
a few steps. Here they place their beds ; a 
situation frequently alluded to in the Holy 
Scriptures. Thus Jacob addressed liis undu- 
tiful son, in his last benediction : " Thou went- 
est up to thy father's bed, — he went up to my 
couch," Gen. xlix, 4. The allusion is again 
involved in the declaration of Elijah to the 
king of Samaria : " Now, therefore, thus saith 
the Lord, Thou shalt not come down from 
that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt 
surely die," 2 Kings i, 4, 16. And the Psalm- 
ist sware unto the Lord, and vowed unto the 
mighty God of Jacob, " Surely I will not come 
into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up 
into my bed, until I find out a place for the 
Lord," Psalm cxxxii, 3. This arrangement 
may likewise illustrate the circumstance of 
Hezekiah's " turning his face to the wall, when 
he prayed," that the greatness of his sorrow, 
and the fervour of his devotion, might, as 
much as possible, be concealed from his at- 
tendants^ 2 Kings XX. 

The roof is always flat, and often composed 
of branches of wood laid across rude beams ; 
and, to defend it from the injuries of the wea- 
ther, to which it is peculiarly exposed in the 
rainy season, it is covered with a strong plas- 
ter of terrace. It is surrounded by a wall 
breast-high, which forms the partition with 
the contiguous houses, and prevents one from 
falling into the street on the one side, or into 
the court on the other. This answers to the 
battlements which Moses commanded the peo- 
ple of Israel to make for the roof of their 



HOU 



471 



HUS 



liouses, for llie same reason. "When ihon 
buildest a new house, tlien tliou shalt make a 
battlement, np;?D, for thy roof, that thou bring 
not blood upon thine house, if any man fall 
from thence," Deut. xxii, 8. Instead of the 
parapet wall, some terraces arc guarded, like 
the galleries, with balustrades only, or latticed 
work. Of the same kind, probably, was the 
lattice or net, as the term r\D2V seems to im- 
port, through which Ahaziah, the king of Sa- 
maria, fell down into the court, 2 Kings i, 2. 
This incident proves tlic necessity of the law 
which was graciously dictated from Sinai, and 
furnishes a beautiful example of God's pater- 
nal care and goodness ; for the terrace was a 
place where many offices of tlie family were 
performed, and business of no little import- 
ance was occasionally transacted. Rahab con- 
cealed the spies on the roof, with the stalks of 
flax which she had laid in order to dry, Joshua 
ii, 6 ; the king of Israel, according to the cus. 
tom of his country, rose from his bed, and 
walked upon the roof of his house, to enjoy 
the refreshing breezes of the evening, 2 Sam. 
xi, 2 ; upon the top of the house the prophet 
conversed with Saul, about the gracious designs 
of God, respecting him and his family, 1 Sam. 
ix, 25 ; to the same place Peter retired to offer 
up his devotions. Acts x, 9 ; and in the feast 
of tabernacles, under the government of Ne- 
homiah, booths were erected, as well upon the 
terraces of their houses, as in their courts, and 
in the streets of the city, Neh. viii, 16. In 
Judea, the inhabitants sleep upon the tops of 
their houses during the heats of summer, in 
arbours made of tho branches of trees, or in 
tents of rushes. When Dr. Pococke was at 
Tiberias, in Galilee, he was entertained by the 
sheik's steward, and with his company sup- 
ped upon the top of the house for coolness, 
according to their custom, and lodged there 
likewise, in a sort of closet of about eight feet 
square, formed of wicker-work, plastered 
round toward the bottom, but without any 
door, each person having his cell. In like 
manner., the Persians take refuge during the 
day in subterraneous chambers, and pass the 
night on the flat roofs of their houses. 

The expression, " to dig through houses," 
occurs, Job xxiv, 16. " Thieves," says Mr. 
Ward, " in Bengal very frequently dig through 
the mud walls, and under the clay floors of 
houses, and, entering unperceived, plunder 
them wliile the inhabitants are asleep." Our 
Lord's parable of the foolish man who built 
his house on the sand derives illustration from 
the following passages in Ward's *' View," and 
Belzoni's " Travels :" " The fishermen in Ben- 
gal build their huts in the dry season on the 
beds of sand, from which the river has retired. 
When the rains set in, which they often do 
very suddenly, accompanied by violent north- 
west winds, the water pours do'.m in torrents 
from the mountains. In one night multitudes 
of these huts are frequently swept away, and 
the place where they stood is the next morn- 
mg undiscoverable." " It so happened, that 
vye were to witness one of the greatest calami, 
lies that have occurred in Egypt in the recol- 



lection of any one living. The Nile rose this 
season three feet and a half above the liighest 
mark left by the former inundation, witli un- 
common rapidity, and carried off several vil- 
lages, and some hundreds of their inhabitants. 
I never saw any picture that could give a more 
correct idea of a deluge than the valley of the 
Nile in this season. The Arabs had expected 
an extraordinary inundation this year, in con- 
sequence of the scarcity of water the preced- 
ing season ; but they did not apprehend it 
would rise to such a height. They generally 
erect fences of earth and reeds around their 
villages, to keep the water from their houses ; 
but the force of this inundation baflled all their 
eftorts. Their cottages, being built of earth, 
could not stand one instant against the cur- 
rent ; and no sooner did the water reach them, 
than it levelled them with the ground. The 
rapid stream carried off" all that was before it ; 
men, women, children, cattle, corn, every 
thing was washed away in an instant, and left 
the place w^here the village stood without any 
thing to indicate that there had ever been a 
house on the spot." 

House is taken for family: "The Lord 
plagued Pharaoh and his house," Gen.xii, 17, 
" What is my house, that thou hast brought 
mo hitherto ?" 2 Sam. vii, 18. So Joseph was 
of the house of David, Luke i, 27 ; ii, 4 ; but 
more especially he was of his royal lineage, or 
family ; and, as we conceive, in the direct line 
or eldest branch of the family ; so that he was 
next of kin to the throne, if the government 
had still continued in possession of the de- 
scendants of David. House is taken for kin. 
dred : it is a Christian's duty to provide first 
for those of his own house, 1 Tim. v, 8, his 
family, his relatives. 

HUSBANDRY. In the primitive ages of 
the world, agriculture, as well as the keeping 
of flocks, was a principal employment among 
men Gen. ii, 15 ; iii, 17-19 ; iv, 2. It is an art 
which has ever been a prominent source, both 
of the necessaries and the conveniences of life. 
Those states and nations, especially Babylon 
and Egypt, which made the cultivation of the 
soil their chief business, arose in a short period 
to wealth and power. To these communities 
just mentioned, which excelled in this parti- 
cular all the others of antiquity, maybe added 
that of tlie Hebrews, who learned the value of 
the art while remaining in Egypt, and ever 
after that time were famous for their industry 
in the cultivation of the earth. Moses, fol- 
lowing the example of the Egyptians, made 
agriculture the basis of the state. He accord, 
ingly apportioned to every citizen a certain 
quantity of land, and gave him the right of 
tilling it himself, and of transmitting it to his 
heirs. The person who had thus come into 
possession could not alienate the property for 
any longer period than the year of the coming 
jubilee : a regulation which prevented the rich 
from coming into possession of large tracts of 
land, and then leasing them out in small par. 
eels to the poor : a practice which anciently 
prevailed, and does to this day, in the east. 
It was another law of Moses, that the vender 



HUS 



472 



HUT 



of a piece of land, or his nearest relative, had 
a right to redeem the land sold, whenever they 
chose, by paying the amount of profits up to 
the year of jubilee,^ Ruth iv, 4 ; Jer. xxxii, 7. 
Another law enacted by Moses on this subject 
was, that the Hebrews, as was the case among 
the Egyptians after the time of Joseph, should 
pay a tax of two-tenths of their income unto 
God, whose servants they were to consider 
themselves to be, and whom they were to obey 
as their King and Lord, Lev. xxvii, 30 ; Deut. 
xii, 17-19 ; xiv, 22-29 ; Gen. xxviii, 22. The 
custom of marking the boundaries of lands by 
stones, although it prevailed a long time be- 
fore, Job xxiv, 2, was confirmed and perpetu- 
ated in the time of Moses by an express law ; 
and a curse was pronounced against him who 
without authority removed them. These regu- 
lations having been made in respect to the 
tenure, incumbrances, &c, of landed property, 
Joshua divided the whole country which he 
had occupied, first among the respective tribes, 
and then among individual Hebrews, running 
it out with the aid of a measuring line, Joshua 
xvii, 5, 14; Amos vii, 17 ; Micah ii, 5 ; Psalm 
Ixxviii, 55 ; Ezek. xl, 3. The word ^:3n, a line, 
is accordingly used by a figure of speech, for 
the heritage itself. Psalm xvi, 6: "The lines 
have fallen to me in pleasant places, yea I have 
a goodly heritage^" Though Moses was the 
friend of the agriculturist, he by no means dis- 
couraged the keeper of the flock. 

The occupation of the husbandman was held 
in honour, not only for the profits which it 
brought, but from the circumstance that it was 
supported and protected by the fundamental 
laws of the state. All who were not set apart 
for religious duties, such as the priests and the 
Levites, whether inhabitants of the country, 
or of towns and cities, were considered by the 
laws, and were, in fact, agriculturists. The 
rich and the noble, it is true, in the cultivation 
of the soil, did not always put themselves on 
a level with their servants ; but none were so 
rich or so noble as to disdain to put their hand 
to the plough, 1 Sam. xi, 7 ; 1 Kings xix, 
19 ; 2 Chron. xxvi, 10. The priests and Le- 
vites were indeed engaged in other employ- 
ments, yet they could not withhold their honour 
from an occupation which supplied them with 
their income. The esteem in which agricul- 
ture was held diminished as luxury increased ; 
but it never wholly came to an end. Even 
after the captivity, when many of the Jews had 
become merchants and mechanics, the esteem 
and honour attached to this occupation still 
continued, especially under the dynasty of the 
Persians, who were agriculturists from motives 
of religion. 

The soil of Palestine is very fruitful, if the 
dews and vernal and autumnal rains are not 
withheld. The country, in opposition to Egypt, 
is eulogized for its rains in Deut. xi, 10. The 
Hebrews, notwithstanding the richness of the 
soil, endeavoured to increase its fertility in 
various ways. They not only divested it of 
Btones, but watered it by means of canals, 
communicating with the rivers or brooks ; and 
thereby imparted to their fields the richness of 



gardens, Psalm i, 3 ; Ixv, 10 ; Prov. xxi, 1 ; 
Isa. XXX, 25 ; xxxii, 2, 20. Springs, therefore, 
fountains, and rivulets, were held in as much 
honour and worth by husbandmen as by shep- - 
herds, Joshua xv, 9 ; Judges i, 15"; and we 
accordingly find that the land of Canaan was 
extolled for those fountains of water of which 
Egypt was destitute. The soil was enriched, 
also, in addition to the method just mentioned, 
by means of ashes ; to which the straw, the 
stubble, the husks, the brambles, and grass, 
that overspread the tand during the sabbatical 
year, were reduced by fire. The burning over 
the surface of the land had also another good 
effect, namely, that of destroying the seeds of 
the noxious herbs, Isa. vii, 23 ; xxxii, 13 ; Prov. 
xxiv, 31. Finally, the soil was manured with 
dung. 

The Hebrew word, pi, wnich is translated 
variously by the English words, grain, corn, 
&c, is of general signification, and compre- 
hends in itself different kinds of grain and 
pulse, such as wheat, millet, spelt, wall-barley, 
barley, beans, lentils, meadow-cumin, pepper- 
wort, flax, cotton ; to these may be added 
various species of the cucumber, and perhaps 
rice. Rye and oats do not grow in the warmer 
climates ; but their place is, in a manner, sup- 
plied by barley. Barley, mixed with broken 
straw, affords the fodder for beasts of burden, 
which is called 'pi^D. Wheat, n:on, which, by 
way of eminence, is called pi, grew in Egypt 
in the time of Joseph, as it now does in Africa, 
on several branches from one stalk, each one 
of which produced an eav. Gen. xli, 47. This 
sort of wheat does not flourish in Palestine : 
the wheat of Palestine is of a much better kind. 

HUSKS, Kt^aTiov, Luke xv, 16; the husks 
of leguminous plants, so named from their re- 
semblance to Kipag, a horn; but Bochart thinks 
that the Keparia were the ceretonia, the husks 
or fruit of the carob tree, a tree very common 
in the Levant. We learn from Columella, that 
these pods afforded food for swine ; and they 
are mentioned as what the prodigal desired to 
eat, when reduced to extreme hunger. 

HUTCHINSONIANS, the followers of 
John Hutchinson, Esq., a learned and respect, 
able layman, who was born at Spennythorn, 
in Yorkshire, in 1674. In 1724, he published 
the first part of that curious work, " Moses's 
Principia" in which he ridiculed Dr. Wood- 
ward's " Natural History of the Earth," and 
exploded the doctrine of gravitation established 
in Sir Isaac Newton's ^^ Principia.'" In the 
second part of this work, published in 1727, 
he maintained, in opposition to the Newtonian 
system, that a plenum is the principle of the 
Scriptiire philosophy. In this work he also 
intimated that the idea of a Trinity is to be 
taken from the grand agents in the natural 
system, fire, light, and spirit. From this time 
he continued to publish a volume every year 
or two till his death ; and a correct and elegant 
edition of his works, including the MSS. which 
he left was published in 1748, in 12 vols. 8vo. 
Mr. Hutchinson thought that the Hebrew 
Scriptures comprise a perfect system of natu. 
ral philosophy, theology, and religion. He 



HUT 



473 



HYM 



entertained so high an opinion of the Hebrew 
language, that lie thought the Almighty must 
have employed it to communicate every spe- 
cies of knowledge, human and divine ; and 
that, accordingly, every species of knowledge 
is to be found in the Old Testament. Both he 
and his followers laid a great stress on the evi- 
dence of Hebrew etymology. After Origen, 
and other eminent commentators^ he asserted 
that the Scriptures are not to be understood 
and interpreted in a literal but in a typical 
sense, aiid according to the radical import of 
the Hebrew expressions ; that even the his- 
torical parts, and particularly those relating to 
the Jewish ceremonies and Levitical law, are 
to be considered in this light ; and he also as- 
serted that, agreeably to this mode of inter- 
pretation, the Hebrew Scriptures would be 
found amply to testify concerning the nature 
and offices of Jesus Christ. His plan was to 
find natural philosophy in the Bible, where 
hitherto it had been thought no such thing 
was to be met with, or ever intended. His 
editors tell us, he found, upon examination, 
that the Hebrew Scriptures nowhere ascribe 
motion to the body of the sun, nor fixedness 
to the earth ; that they describe the created 
system to be a plenuvi without any vacuum at 
all, and reject the assistance of gravitation, 
attraction, or any such occult qualities, for 
performing the Stated operations of nature, 
which are carried on by the mechanism of the 
heavens, in their threefold condition of fire, 
light, and spirit, or air, the material agents set 
to work at the beginning ; that the heavens, 
thus framed by almighty Wisdom, are an insti- 
tuted emblem and visible substitute o^ Jehovah 
Aleim, the eternal Three, the coequal and co- 
adorable Trinity in Unity ; that the unity of 
substance in the heavens points out the unity 
of essence and the distinction of conditions, 
the personality in Deity, without confounding 
the persons or dividing the substance ; and 
that, from their being made emblems, they are 
called in Hebrew shemim, the names, repre- 
Bentatives, or substitutes, expressing by their 
names that they are emblems, and, by their 
conditions or offices, what it is they are em. 
blems of. He also found that the Hebrew 
Scriptures have some capital words, which he 
has proved, or endeavoured to prove, contain, 
in their radical meaning, the greatest and most 
comfortable truths. Thus, the word Elohim, 
which we call God, or, as he reads it, Aleim, 
he refers to the oath or conditional execration, 
by which the eternal covenant of grace among 
the persons in Jehovah was and is confirmed. 
The word berith, which our translation renders 
" covenant," signifies, " he or that which puri- 
fies," and so the Purifier or purification for, 
not icith, man. The cherubim, which have 
been thought " angels placed as a guard to 
deter Adam from breaking into Eden again," 
he explains to have been a hieroglyphic of 
divine construction, or a sacred image, to de- 
scribe, as far as figures could go, the Aleim and 
man taken in, or humanity united to deity. 
In like manner, he treats several other words 
of similar, though not quite so solemn, import. 



Hence he drew this conclusion, "that all the 
rites and ceremonies of the Jewish dispensa- 
tion were so many delineations of Christ, in 
what he was to be, to do, and to suffer ; and 
that the early Jews knew them to be types of 
his actions and sufferings, and, by performing 
them as such,- were in so far Christians, both 
in faith and practice." His followers main- 
tain, that the cherubim, and the glory around 
them, with the divine presence in them, were 
not only emblematical figures, representing the 
persons of the ever blessed Trinity, as engaged 
in covenant for the redemption of man, but 
also that they were intended "to keep or pre, 
serve the way of the tree of life, to show man 
the way to life eternal, and keep him from 
losing or departing from it." That Melchize. 
dec was an eminent type of Christ, there can 
be little doubt : but that he was actually the 
second person of the Trinity, in a human form, 
is a tenet of the Hutchinsonians, though not 
entirely peculiar to them. Mr. Hutchinson 
supposes that "the air exists in three condi- 
tions, fire, light, and spirit ; the two latter are 
the finer and grosser parts of the air in motion : 
from the earth to the sun, the air is finer and 
finer till it becomes pure light near the con- 
fines of the sun, and fire in the orb of the sun, 
or solar focus." From the earth toward the 
circumference of tliis system, in which he 
includes the fixed stars, the air becomes grosser 
and grosser till it becomes stagnant, in which 
condition it is at the utmost verge of this sys- 
tem ; from whence, in his opinion, the ex- 
pression of " outer darkness," and "blackness 
of darkness," used in the New Testament, 
seems to be taken. These are some of the 
principal outlines of this author's doctrines, 
which have been patronized by several eminent 
divines, both of the church and among the 
Dissenters. 

2. The followers of Mr. Hutchinson have 
not erected themselves into a sect or separate 
community. Among them may be reckoned 
some eminent and respectable divines, both in 
England and Scotland ; but their numbers 
seem at present to be rather on the decrease. 
Of those who, in their day, were ranked in the 
list of Hutchinsonians, perhaps the most emi- 
nent were the following : Mr. Julius Bate, and 
Mr. Parkhurst, the lexicographers ; Mr. Hol- 
loway, author of "Originals," and "Letter 
and Spirit ;" Dr. Hodges, provost of Oriel 
College, Oxford ; Mr, Henry Lee, author of 
"Sophron, or Nature's Characteristics of the 
Truth ;" Dr. Wetherell, late master of Uni- 
versity College, Oxford ; Mr. Romaine ; Bishop 
Home ; and Mr. William Jones, the bishop's 
learned friend and biographer. 

HYMN, a song, or ode, composed in honour 
of God. The Jewish hymns were accompanied 
with trumpets, drums, and cymbals, to assist 
the voices of the Levites and people. The 
word is used as synonymous with canticle, 
song, or psalm, which the Hebrews scarcely 
distinguish, having no particular term for a 
hymn, as distinct from a psalm or canticle. 
St. Paul requires Christians to edify one an- 
other with "psalms, and hymns, and spiritual 



HYP 



474 



HYP 



songs." St. Matthew says, that Christ, hav- 
ing supped, sung a hymn, and went out. He 
recited the liymns or psahns which the Jews 
were used to sing after the passover ; wliich they 
called the Halal; that is, the Hallelujah Psalms. 

HYPERBOLE. This figure, in its repre- 
sentation of things or objects, either magnifies 
or duninishes them beyond or below their pro- 
per limits : it is coinmon in all languages, a,nd 
is of frequent occurrence in the Scriptures. 
Thus, things which are lofty are said to reach 
up to heaven, Deut. i, 28 ; ix, 1 ; Psalm cvii, 26. 
So things which are beyond the reach or 
capacity of man are said to be in " heaven," 
in the " deep," or "beyond the sea," Deut. xxx, 
12; Rom. x, 6, 7. So a great quantity or 
number is commonly expressed by the " sand 
of the sea," the " dust of the earth," and the 
"stars of heaven," Genesis xiii, 16; xli, 49 ; 
Judges vii, 12 ; 1 Sam. xiii, 5 ; 1 Kings iv, 29 ; 
2 Chron. i, 9 ; Jer. xv, 8 ; Heb. xi, 12. In 
like manner we meet with " smaller than grass- 
hoppers," Num. xiii, 33, to denote extreme 
diminutiveness ; " swifter than eagles," 2 Sam. 
i, 23, to intimate extreme celerity ; the " earth 
trembled," the "mountains melted," Judges 
v, 4, 5 ; the "earth rent," 1 Kings i, 40. "I 
make my bed to swim ;" "rivers of tears run 
down mine eyes." So we read of " angels' 
food," Psalm vi, 6 ; cxix, 136 ; Ixxviii, 25 ; 
the "face of an angel," Acts vi, 15; and the 
" tongue of an angel," 1 Cor. xiii, 1. See also 
Gal. i, 8 ; iv, 14. We read " sigh with the 
breaking of thy loins," Ezek. xxi, 6, that is, 
most deeply. So we read that "the stones 
would cry out," and " they shall not leave in 
thee one stone upon another," Luke xix, 40, 
44 ; that is, there shall be a total desolation. 

HYPOCRITE, a word from the Greek, 
which signifies one who feigns to be what he is 
not ; who puts on a masque or character, like 
actors in tragedies and comedies. It is gene- 
rally applied to those who assume appearances 
of a virtue, without possessing it in reality. 
Our Saviour accused the Pharisees of hypo- 
crisy. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew 
word caneph, which is rendered "hypocrite," 
" counterfeit," signifes also a profane wicked 
man, a man polluted, corrupted, a man of im- 
piety, a deceiver. It was ingeniously said by 
Basil, that the hypocrite did not put oif the 
old man, but put tire new man upon it. 

HYPOSTATICAL UNION ; the union of 
the divine and human natures of Christ in one 
person. Tliis is the doctrine generally received 
in the church of Christ ; but there have been 
some who have denied this, who yet acknow- 
ledge our Lord's divinity. Nestorius, who had 
been taught to distinguish accurately between 
the divine and human nature of Christ, was 
offended with some expressions commonly 
used by Christians in the beginning of the fifth 
century, which seemed to destroy that distinc- 
tion, and particularly with their calling the 
. Virgin Mary ^£6tckos, as if it were possible for 
the Godhead to be born. His zeal provoked 
opposition ; in the eagerness of controversy 
he was led to use unguarded expressions ; and 
he was condemned by the third of the general 



councils, the council of Ephesus, in the year 
431. It is a matter of doubt whether the opin- 
ions of Nestorius, if he had been allowed by his 
adversaries fairly to explain them, would have 
appeared inconsistent with the doctrine esta- 
blished by the council of Ephesus, that Christ 
is one person, in whom two natures were 
most closely united. But whatever was the 
extent of the error of Nestorius, from him is 
derived that system concerning the incarna- 
tion of Christ, which is held by a large body 
of Christians in Chaldea, Assyria, and other 
regions of the east, and which is known in the 
ecclesiastical history of the west by the name 
of the Nestorian heresy. The object of the 
Nestorians is to avoid every appearance of as- 
cribing to the divinity of Christ the weakness 
of humanity ; and therefore they distinguish 
between Christ, and God who dwelt in Christ 
as in a temple. They say, that from the mo ■ 
ment of the virgin's conception, there com- 
menced an intimate and indissoluble union 
between Christ and God, that these two per- 
sons presented in Jesus Christ one zspdaiorrov, or 
aspect, but that the union between them is 
merely a union of will and aifection, such in 
kind as that which subsists between two 
friends, although much closer in degi-ee. Op- 
posite to the Nestorian opinion is the Euty- 
chian, which derives its name from Eutyches, 
an abbot of Constantinople, who, about the 
middle of the fifth century, in his zeal to avoid 
the errors of Nestorius, was carried to the 
other extreme. Those who did not hold the 
Nestorian opinions had been accustomed to 
speak of the "one incarnate nature" of Christ. 
But Eutyches used this phrase in such a man- 
ner as to appear to teach that the human 
nature of Christ was absorbed in the divine, 
and that his body had no real existence. This 
opinion was condemned in the year 451, by the 
council of Chalcedon, the fourth general coun- 
cil, which declared, as the faith of the catholic 
church, that Christ is one person ; that in this 
unity of person there are two natures, the 
divine and the human ; and that there is no 
change, or mixture, or confusion of these two 
natures, but that each retains its distinguish, 
ing properties. The decree of Chalcedon was 
not universally submitted to. But many of 
the successors of Eutyches, wishing to avoid 
the palpable absurdity which was ascribed to 
him, of supposing that one nature was absorb, 
ed by another, and anxious at the same time 
to preserve that unity which the Nestorians 
divided, declared their faith to be, that in 
Christ there is one nature, but that this nature 
is twofold or compounded. From this tenet 
the successors of Eutyches derive the name of 
Monophysites ; and from Jacob Baradseus, 
who in the following century was a zealous 
and successfiil preacher of the system of the 
Monophysites, they are more commonly known 
by the name ojf Jacobites. The Monophysites, 
or JacobiteSi are found chiefly near the Eu- 
phrates and Tigris ; they are much less nume- 
rous than the Nestorians ; and, although they 
profess to have corrected the errors which 
were supposed to adhere to the Eutychian 



ICO 



475 



IDD 



heresy, they may be considered as having 
formed their peculiar opinions upon the gene- 
ral principles of that system. The Monothe- 
lites, an ancient sect, of whom a remnant is 
found in the neighbourhood of Mount Libanus, 
disclaim any connection with Eutyches, and 
agree with the Catholics in ascribing two na- 
tures to Christ ; but they have received their 
name from their conceiving that Christ, being 
one person, can only have one will : whereas 
the Catholics, considering both natures as com- 
plete, think it essential to each to have a will, 
and say that every inconvenience which can 
be supposed to arise from two wills in one per- 
son, is removed by the perfect harmony be- 
tween that will which belongs to the divine, 
and that which belongs to the human nature 
ofChi-ist, 

HYSSOP, 31IX, Exod. xii, 22 ; Lev. xiv, 4, 
6, 49, 51, 52; Num. xix, 6, 18; 1 Kings iv, 
33; Psalm li, 7; Matt, xxvii, 48; Mark xv, 
36 ; iKTo-wTTo?, John xix, 29 ; Heb. ix, 19. It 
grows plentifully on' the mountains near Jeru- 
salem. It is of a bitter taste ; and, from being 
considered as possessing detersive and cleans- 
ing qualities, dei-ived probably its Hebrew 
name. The original word has been variously 
translated ; and Celsius has devoted forty-two 
pages to remove difficulties, occasioned by the 
discordant opinions of the Talmudical writers, 
and to ascertain the plant intended. That it 
is the hyssop seems most probable : the pas- 
sage in Heb. ix, 19, sufficiently identifies it. 
Under the Itxw, it was commonly used in puri- 
fications as a sprinkler. When the cliildren 
of Israel came out of Egypt, they were com. 
manded to take a bunch of hyssop, to dip it in 
the blood of the paschal lamb, and sprinkle it 
on the lintel and the two side-posts of the 
door. It was also used in sprinkling the leper. 
The hyssop is extremely well adapted to such 
purposes, as it grows in bunches, and puts out 
many suckers from a single root. 

ICONIUM, the chief city of Lycaonia, in 
Asia, Minor. An assault being meditated at 
the place by the unbelieving Jews and Gen- 
tiles upon the Apostles Paul and Barnabas, 
who, by preaching in the synagogue, had con- 
verted many Jews and Greeks, they fled to 
Lystra ; where the designs of their enemies 
were put in execution, and St. Paul miracu- 
lously escaped with his life, Acts xiv. The 
church planted at this place by St. Paul con- 
tinued to flourish, until, by the persecutions of 
the Saracens, and afterward of the Seljukian 
Turks, who made it the capital of one of their 
fiultanies, it was nearly extinguished. But 
some Christians of the Greek and Armenian 
churches, with a Greek archbishop, are yet 
found in the suburbs of this city, who are not 
permitted to reside within the walls. Iconium 
is now called Cogni, and is still a considerable 
city; being the capital of the extensive pro- 
vince of Caramania, as it was formerly of Ly- 
caonia, and the seat of a Turkish beglerberg, 
or viceroy. It is the place of chief strength 
and importance in the central parts of Asiatic 
Turkey, being surrounded by a strong wall of 



four miles in circumference ; but, as is the 
case with most eastern cities, much of the 
enclosed space is waste. It is situated about 
a hundred and twenty miles inland from the 
Mediterranean, on the lake Trogilis. Mr. 
Kinneir says, Iconium, the capital of Lyca- 
onia, is mentioned by Xenophon, and after- - 
ward by Cicero and Strabo ; but does not 
appear to have been a place of any considera- 
tion until after the taking of Nice by the cru- 
saders in 1099, when the Seljukian sultans of 
Roum chose it as their residence. These sul- 
tans rebuilt the walls, and embellished the 
city : they were, however, expelled in 1189 by 
Frederic Barbarossa, who took it by assault ; 
but after his death they reentered their capital, 
where they reigned in splendour till the irrup- 
tion 'of Tchengis Khan, and his grandson, 
Holukow, who broke the power of the Selju- 
kians. Iconium, under the name of Cogni, 
or Konia, has been included in the dominions 
of the grand seignior ever since the time of 
Bajazet, who finally extirpated the Ameers of 
Caramania. The modern city has an impos- 
ing appearance from the number and size of 
its mosques, colleges, and other public build- 
ings ; but these stately edifices are crumbling 
into ruins, while the houses of the inhabitants 
consist of a mixture of small huts built of sun- 
dried bricks, and wretched hovels thatched 
with reeds. The city, according to the same 
authority, contains about eighty thousand in- 
habitants, principally Turks, with only a small 
proportion of Christians. It is represented as 
enjoying a fine climate, and pleasantly situated 
among gardens and meadows ; while it is 
nearly surrounded, at some distance, with 
mountains which rise to the regions of per- 
petual snow. It was formerly the capital of 
an extensive government, and the seat of a 
powerful pasha, who maintained a military 
force competent to the preservation of peace 
and order, and the defence of his territories. 
But it has now dwindled into insignificance, 
and exhibits upon the whole a mournful scene 
of desolation and decay. 

ICONOCLASTES, image breakers; or 
IcoNOMACHi, image opposers, were names 
given to those who rejected the use of images 
in churches, and, on certain occasions, vented 
their zeal in destroying them. The great op- 
position to images began under Bardanes, a 
Greek emperor, in the beginning of the eighth 
century ; and was revived again, a few years 
after, under Leo, the Isaurian, who issued an 
edict against image worship, which occasioned 
a civil war in the islands of the Archipelago, 
and afterward in Italy ; the Roman pontiffs 
and Greek councils alternately supporting it. 
At length images were rejected by the Greek 
church, which however retains pictures in 
churches, though her members do not worship 
them ; but the Latin church, more corrupt, 
not only retained images, but made them the 
medium, if not the object, of their worship, 
and are therefore Iconoduli, or Iconolatrte, 
image worshippers. 

IDDO, a prophet of the kingdom of Judah, 
who wrote the actions of Rehoboam's and 



IDO 



476 



IDO 



Abijah's reigns, 2 Chron. xii, 15, It seems by 
2 Chron. xiii, 22, that he had entitled his 
work, Midrasch, or, "Inquiries." We know 
nothing particularly concerning the life of 
this prophet. It is probable that he likewise 
wrote some prophecies against Jeroboam, the 
son of Nebat, 2 Chron. ix, 29, wherein part of 
Solomon's life was included. Josephus, and 
many others after him, are of opinion that it 
was Iddo who was sent to Jeroboam, while he 
was at Betliel, and was there dedicating an 
altar to the golden calves ; and that it was he 
who was killed by a lion, 1 Kings xiii. 

IDOLATRY, from cJ^coXoXarpeja, composed 
of dSos, image, and Xarpeveiv, to serve, the wor- 
ship and adoration of false gods ; or the giving 
those honours to creatures, or the works of 
man's hands, M'hich are only due to ' God. 
Several have written of the origin and causes 
of idolatry : among the rest, Vossius, Selden, 
Godwyn, Tenison, and Faber ; but it is still a 
doubt who was the first author of it. It is 
generally allowed, however, that it had not its 
beginning till after the deluge ; and many are 
of opinion, that Belus, who is supposed to be 
the same with Nimrod, was the first man that 
was deified. But whether they had not paid 
divine honours to the heavenly bodies before 
that time, cannot be determined ; our acquaint, 
ance with those remote times being extremely 
slender. The first mention we find made of 
idolatry is where Rachel is said to have taken 
the idols of her father ; for though the mean- 
ing of the Hebrew word QiiJ-in, be disputed, 
yet it is pretty evident they were idols. Laban 
calls them his gods, and Jacob calls them 
strange gods, and looks on them as abomina- 
tions. The original idolatry by image wor- 
ship is by many attributed to the age of Eber, 
B. C. 2247, about a hundred and one years 
after the deluge, according to the Hebrew 
chronology ; four hundred and one years 
according to the Samaritan ; and five hundred 
and thirty-one years according to the Septua- 
gint ; though most of the fathers place it no 
higher than that of Serug ; which seems to be 
the more probable opinion, considering that 
for the first hundred and thirty-four years of 
Eber's life all mankind dwelt in a body toge- 
ther ; during which time it is not reasonable 
to suppose that idolatry broke in upon them ; 
then some time must be allowed after the dis- 
persion of the several nations, which were but 
small at the beginning, to increase and settle 
themselves ; so that if idolatry was introduced 
in Eber's time, it must have been toward the 
end of his life, and could not well have pre- 
vailed so universally, and with that obstinacy 
which some authors have imagined. Terah, 
the father of Abraham, who lived at Ur, in 
Chaldea, about B. C. 2000, was unquestionably 
an idolater ; for he is expressly said in Scrip- 
ture to have served other gods. The authors 
of the Universal History think, that the origin 
and progress of idolatry are plainly pointed 
out to us in the account which Moses gives of 
Laban's and Jacob's parting. Gen. xxxi, 44, 
&.C. From the custom once introduced of 
erecting monuments in memory of any solemn 



covenants, the transition was easy into the 
notion, that some deity took its residence in 
them, in order to punish the first aggressors ; 
and this might be soon improved by an igno- 
rant and degenerate world, till not only birds, 
beasts, stocks, and stones, but sun, moon, and 
stars, were called into the same office ; though 
used, perhaps, at first, by the designing part 
of mankind, as scare-crows, to overawe the 
ignorant. 

Sanchoniathon, who wrote his " Phenician 
Antiquities," apparently with a view to apo- 
logize for idolatry, traces its origin to the 
descendants of Cain, the elder branch, who 
began with the worship of the sun, and after- 
ward added a variety of other methods of 
idolatrous worship : proceeding to deify the 
several parts of nature, and men after their 
death ; and even to consecrate the plants 
shooting out of the earth, which the first men 
judged to be gods, and worshipped as those 
that sustained the lives of themselves and of 
their posterity. The Chaldean priests, in pro- 
cess of time, being by their situation early 
addicted to celestial observations, instead of 
conceiving as they ought to have done con- 
cerning the omnipotence of the Creator and 
Mover of the heavenly bodies, fell into the 
impious error of esteeming them as gods, and 
the immediate governors of the world, in sub- 
ordination, however, to the Deity, who was 
invisible except by his works, and the effects 
of his power. Concluding that God created 
the stars and great luminaries for the govern- 
ment of the world, partakers with' himself 
and as his ministers, they thought it but just 
and natural that they should be honoured and 
extolled, and that it was the will of God they 
should be magnified and worshipped. Accord- 
ingly, they erected temples, or sacella, to the 
stars, in which they sacrificed and bowed 
down before them, esteeming them as a kind 
of mediators between God and man. Impos- 
tors afterward arose, who gave out, that they 
had received express orders from God himself 
concerning the manner in which particular 
heavenly bodies should be repiesented, and 
the nature and ceremonies of the worship 
which was to be paid them. When they pro- 
ceeded to worship wood, stone, or metal, 
formed and fashioned by their own hands, they 
were led to apprehend, that these images had 
been, in some way or other, animated or in- 
formed with a supernatural power by super- 
natural means ; though Dr. Prideaux imagines, 
that, being at a loss to know how to address 
themselves to the planets when they were 
below the horizon, and invisible, they re- 
curred to the use of images. But it will 
be sufficient to suppose, that they were per- 
si>aded that each star or planet was actuated 
by an intelligence ; and that the virtues of 
the heavenly body were infused into the 
image that represented it. It is certain, 
that the sentient nature and divinity of the 
sun, moon, and stars, was strenuously assert- 
ed by the philosophers, particularly by Pytha- 
goras and his followers, and by the Stoics, as 
well as believed by the common people, and 



IDO 



477 



IDO 



was, indeed, the very foundation of the Pagan 
idolatry. The heavenly bodies were the first 
deities of all the idolatrous nations, were 
esteemed eternal, sovereign, and supreme ; 
and distinguished by the title of the natural 
gods. Thus we find that the primary gods of 
the Heathens in general were Saturn, Jupiter, 
Mars, Apollo, Mercury, Venus, and Diana ; 
by which we can understand no other than 
the sun and moon, and the five greatest lumi- 
naries next to these. Plutarch expressly cen- 
sures the Epicureans for asserting that the 
sun and moon, whom all men worshipped, 
are void of intelligence. 

Sanchoniathon represents the most ancient 
nations, particularly the Phenicians and Egyp- 
tians, as acknowledging only the natural 
gods, the sun, moon, planets, and elements ; 
and Plato declares it as his opinion, that 
the first Grecians likewise held these only to 
be gods, as many of the barbarians did in his 
time. Beside these natural gods, the Hea- 
thens believed that there were certain spirits 
who held a middle rank between the gods and 
men on earth, and carried on all intercourse 
between them ; conveying the addresses of 
men to the gods, and the divine benefits to 
men. These spirits were called demons. 
From the imaginary office ascribed to them, 
they became the grand objects of the religious 
hopes and fears of the Pagans, of immediate 
dependence and divine worship. In the most 
learned nations, they did not so properly share, 
as engross, the public devotion. To these 
alone sacrifices were offered, while the celes- 
tial gods were worshipped only with a pure 
mind, or with hjonns and praises. As to the 
nature of these demons, it has been generally 
believed, that they were spirits of a higher 
origin than the human race ; and, in support 
of this opinion, it has been alleged, that the 
supreme deity of the Pagans is called the great- 
est demon ; that demons are described as be- 
ings placed between the gods and men ; and 
that demons are expressly distinguished from 
heroes, who were the departed souls of men. 
Some, however, have combatted tliis opinion, 
and maintained, on the contrary, that by de- 
mons, such as were the more immediate ob- 
jects of the established worship among the 
ancient nations, particularly the Egyptians, 
Greeks, and Romans, we are to understand be- 
ings of an earthly origin, or such departed hu- 
man souls as were believed to become demons. 

Although the Hindoo inhabitants of the 
East Indies deny the charge of idolatry, using 
the same description of arguments as are so 
inconclusively urged by superstitious Europe- 
ans in defence of image worship, it is still evi- 
dent that the mass of the Hindoos are addicted 
to gross idolatry. The gods of Rome were 
even less numerous, certainly less whimsical 
and monstrous, than those at Benares. In 
Moore's Hindoo Pantheon are given exact por- 
traits of many scores of deities worshipped, 
with appropriate ceremonies, and under vari- 
ous forms and names, by different sects of that 
grossly superstitious race. Some of these por- 
traits are of images colossal to a degree perhaps 



unequalled by any existing statues ; others are 
exceedingly diminutive. Some are metallic 
casts, and some apparently extremely ancient, 
which exhibit every gradation of art from the 
rudest imaginable specimen, up to a very 
respectable portion of skill, so as to approach 
to elegance of form, and to ease and expres- 
sion of attitude. 

The principal causes which have been as- 
signed for idolatry are, the indelible idea which 
every man has of God, and the evidence which 
he gives of it to himself; an inviolable attach- 
ment to the senses, and a habit of judging and 
deciding by them, and them only ; the pride 
and vanity of the human mind, which is not 
satisfied with simple truth, but mmgles and 
adulterates it with fables ; men's ignorance of 
antiquity, or of the first times, and the first 
men, of whom they had but very dark and 
confhsed knowledge by tradition, they having 
left no written monuments, or books ; the 
ignorance and change of languages ; the style 
of the oriental writings, which is figurative 
and poetical, and personifies every thing ; the 
scruples and fears inspired by superstition ; 
the flattery and fictions of poets ; the false 
relations of travellers ; the imaginations of 
painters and sculptors ; a smattering of phy- 
sics, that is, a slight acquaintance with natural 
bodies and appearances, and their causes ; the 
establishment of colonies, and the invention 
of arts, mistaken by barbarous people ; the 
artifices of priests; the pride of certain men, 
who affected to pass for gods ; the love and 
gratitude borne by the people to certain of 
their great men and beiiefactors ; and, finally,, 
the historical events of the Scriptures ill un- 
derstood. " One great spring and fountain 
of all idolatry," says Sir William Jones, " was 
the veneration paid by men to the sun, or vast 
body of fire, which ' looks from his sole do- 
minion like the god of this world ;' and an- 
other, the immoderate respect shown to the 
memory of powerful or virtuous ancestors and 
warriors, of whom the sun and the moon were 
wildly supposed to be the parents." But the 
Scriptural account of the matter refers the 
whole to wilful ignorance and a corrupt heart : 
" They did not like to retain God in their 
knowledge." To this may be added, what 
indeed proceeds from the same sources, the 
disposition to convert religion into outward 
forms ; the endeavour to render it more im- 
pressive upon the imagination through the 
senses.; the substitution of sentiment for real 
reUgious principle ; and the license which thitj. 
gave to inventions of men, which in process 
of time became complicated and monstrous. 
That debasement of mind, and that alienatiou 
of the heart tiom God, and the gross immo- 
ralities and licentious practices which have ever 
accompanied idolatry, will sufficiently account 
for the severity with which it is denounced, 
both in the Old and New Testaments. 

The veneration which the Papists pay to 
the Virgin Mary, and. other saints and angels, 
and to the bread in the sacrament, the cross, 
relics, and images, affords ground for the Pro- 
testants to charge them with being idolaters. 



ILL 



478 



IMM 



though they deny that they are so. It is evi- 
dent that they worship these persons and 
things, and that they justify the worship, but 
deny the idolatry of it, by distinguishing 
subordinate from supreme worship. This dis- 
tinction is justly thought by Protestants to be 
futile and nugatory, and certainly has no sup- 
port from Holy Writ. 

Under the government of Samuel, Saul, and 
David, there was little or no idolatry in Israel. 
Solomon was the first Hebrew king, who, in 
complaisance to his foreign wives, built temples 
and oflfered incense to strange gods. Jeroboam, 
the son of Nebat, who succeeded him in the 
greater part of liis dominions, set up golden 
calves at Dan and Bethel. Under the reign 
of Ahab, this disorder was at its height, occa- 
sioned by Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, who did 
all she could to destroy the worship of the true 
God, by driving away and persecuting his 
prophets. God, therefore, incensed at the sins 
and idoHtry of the ten tribes, abandoned those 
tribes to the kings of Assyria and Chaldea, 
who transplanted them beyond the Euphrates, 
from whence they never returned. The peo- 
ple of Judah were no less corrupted. The 
prophets give an awful description of their 
idolatrous practices. They were punished 
after the same manner, though not so severely, 
as the ten tribes ; being led into captivity 
several times, from which at last they returned, 
and were settled in the land of Judea, after 
which we hear no more of their idolatry. They 
have been, indeed, ever since that period, distin- 
guished for their zeal against it. See Iaiage. 

IDUMJ3A is properly the Greek name for 
the land of Edom, which lay to the south of 
Judea, and extended from the Dead Sea to the 
Elanitic Gulf of the Red Sea, where were the 
ports of Elath and Ezion-Gaber. But the Idu- 
msBa of the New Testament applies only to a 
small part adjoining Judea on the south, and 
including even a portion of that country ; 
which was taken possession of by the Edom- 
ites, or Idumseans, while the land lay unoc- 
cupied during the Babylonish captivity. The 
capital of this country was Hebron, which had 
formerly been the metropolis of the tribe of 
Judah. These Idumeeans were so reduced by 
the Maccabees, that, in order to retain their 
possessions, they consented to embrace Juda- 
ism ; and their territory became incorporated 
with Judea ; although, in the time of our Sa- 
viour, it still retained its former name of 
Idumsea, Mark iii, 8. The proper Idumseans, 
or those who remained in the ancient land of 
Edom, became in process of time mingled with 
the Ishmaelites ; the two people thus blended, 
being, from Nabaioth, or Nabath, the son of 
Ishmael, termed Nabathasans ; under which 
names they are frequently mentioned in his- 
tory. See Edom. 

ILLYRICUM, a province lying to the north 
and north-west of Macedonia, along the east- 
ern coast of the Adriatic Gulf, or Gulf of Ve- 
nice. It was disLiuguished into two parts : 
Liburnia to the north, where is now Croatia, 
and Dalmatia to the south, which still retains 
the same name, and to which, as St. Paul in- 



forms Timothy, Titus went, 2 Tim. iv, 10. 
St. Paul says, that he preached the Gospel 
from Jerusalem round about, to Illyricum, 
Rom. XV, 19. 

IMAGE, in a religious sense, is an artificial 
representation of some person or thing used as 
an object of adoration, and is synonymous 
with idol. Nothing can be more clear, full, 
and distinct, than thq expressions of Scripture 
prohibiting the making and worship of images, 
Exod. XX, 4, 5 ; Deut. xvi, 22. No sin is so 
strongly and repeatedly condemned in the Old 
Testament as that of idolatry, to which the 
Jews, in the early part of their history, were 
much addicted, and for which they were con- 
stantly punished. St. Paul was greatly af- 
fected, when he saw that the city of Athens 
was " wholly given to idolatry," Acts xvii, 16 ; 
and declared to the Athenians, that they 
ought not " to think that the Godhead is like 
unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art 
and man's device," Acts xvii, 29. He con- 
demjis those who " changed the glory of the 
incorruptible God into an image made like 
unto corruptible man, and to birds, and four- 
footed beasts, and creeping things," Romans 
i, 23. 

That the first Christians had no images, is 
evident from this circumstance, — ^that they 
were reproached by the Heathens, because 
they did not use them ; and we find almost 
every ecclesiastical writer of the first four cen- 
turies arguing against the Gentile practice of 
image worship, from the plain declarations of 
Scripture, and from the pure and spiritual na- 
ture of God. The introduction of images into 
places of Christian worship, dates its origin 
soon after the times of Constantino the Great ; 
but the earlier Christians reprobated every 
species of image worship in the strongest lan- 
guage. It is sometimes pretended by the Pa- 
pists, that they do not worship the images, 
but God through the medium of images ; or, 
that the worship which they pay to images is 
inferior to that which they pay to the Deity 
himself. These distinctions would be scarcely 
understood by the common people; and for- 
merly an enlightened Heathen or Jew would 
probably have urged the same thing. The 
practice is in direct opposition to the second 
commandment, and notwithstanding every 
sophistical palliation, it has always led to a 
transfer of human trust from God to some, 
thing else. Hence idolatry, in general, is con- 
demned in Scripture ; and all use of images in 
the worship of God, making or bowing to any 
likeness, is absolutely forbidden. See Icono- 
CLASTES and Idolatry. 

IMMATERIALITY, abstraction from mat- 
ter ; or what we understand by pure spirit. 

IMMORTAL. That which will endure to 
all eternity, as having in itself no principle of 
alteration or corruption. God is absolutely 
immortal, — he cannot die. Angels are im- 
mortal ; but God, who made them, can termi- 
nate their being. Man is immortal in part, 
that is, in his spirit ; but his body dies. In- 
ferior creatures are not immortal ; they die 
wholly. Thus the principle of immortality is 



INC 



479 



INC 



differently communicated according to the will 
of him who can render any creature immortal, 
by prolonging its life ; who can confer immor- 
tality on the body of man, together with his 
soul ; and will do so at the resurrection. God 
only is absolutely perfect, and, therefore, ab- 
solutely immortal. See Soul. 

IMPOSITION OF HANDS. An eccle- 
siastical action, by which, among Episcopa- 
lians, a bishop lays his hands on the head of a 
person, in ordination, confirmation, or in utter- 
ing a blessing. In Presbyterian churches, the 
imposition is by the hands of the presbytery. 
This practice is also frequently observed by 
the Independents and others at their ordina- 
tions, when all the ministers present place 
their hands on the head of him whom they 
are ordaining, while one of them prays for a 
blessing on him and his future labours. This 
they retain as an ancient practice, justified by 
the example of the Apostles, when no extraor- 
dinary gifts were conveyed. However, Chris- 
tians are not agreed as to the propriety of this 
ceremony ; nor do they all consider it as an 
essential part of ordination. 

Imposition of hands was a Jewish ceremony, 
introduced, not by any divine authority, but 
by custom ; it being the practice among that 
people, whenever they prayed to God for any 
person, to lay their hands on his head. Our 
Saviour observed the same custom, both when 
he conferred his blessing on children, and when 
he cured the sick. The Apostles likewise laid 
hands on those upon whom they bestowed the 
Holy Ghost, but it was a form accompanied by 
prayer, through which only the blessing was 
obtained. And the Apostles themselves some- 
times underwent the imposition of hands 
afresh, when they entered upon any new de- 
sign. In the ancient church, imposition of 
hands was practised on persons when they 
married ; which custom the Abyssinians still 
observe. But this ceremony of laying on of 
hands is now restrained, by custom, chiefly to 
that imposition which is practised at the ordi- 
nation of ministers. 

[In the Methodist Episcopal Church, a 
bishop is constituted by the election of the 
general conference, and the laying on of the 
hands of three bishops, or at least of one bishop 
and two elders ; unless it happen that, by death 
or otherwise, there be no bishop remaining in 
the church : in this case, the general confer- 
ence is empowered to elect a bishop, and the 
elders, or any tliree of them appointed by the 
general conference for that purpose, to ordain 
him. An elder is constituted by the election 
of an annual conference, and the laying on of 
the hands of a bishop and of two or more ciders. 
A deacon, by the election of an annual con- 
ference, and the laying on of the hands of a 
bishop.] 

IMPUTED PJGHTEOUSNESS. See Jus- 
tification. 

INCENSE. Thus ; so called by the dealers 
of drugs in Egypt from thur, or thor, the name 
of a harbour in the north bay of the Red Sea, 
near Mount Sinai; thereby distinguishing it 
from the gum arable, which is brought from 



Suez, another port in the Red Sea, not far 
from Cairo. It differs also in being more pel- 
lucid and white. It burns with a bright and 
strong flame, not easily extinguished. It was 
used in the temple service as an emblem of 
prayer, Psalm cxli, 2 ; Rev. viii, 3, 4. Authors 
give it, or the best sort of it, the epithets white, 
pure, pellucid ; and so it may have some con- 
nection with a word, derived from the same 
root, signifying unstained, clear, and so ap- 
plied to moral whiteness and purity. Psalm 
li, 7 ; Dan. xii, 10. This gum is said to distil 
from incisions made in the tree during the heat 
of summer. What the form of the tree is 
which yields it, we do not certainly know. 
Pliny one while says, it is like a pear tree ; 
another, that it is like a mastic tree ; then, 
that it is like the laurel ; and, in fine, that it 
is a kind of turpentine tree. It has been said 
to grow only in the country of the Sabeans, a 
people in Arabia Felix ; and Theophrastus and 
Pliny affirm that it is found in Arabia. Dios- 
corides, however, mentions an Indian as well 
as an Arabian frankincense. At the present 
day it is brought from the East Indies, but not 
of so good a quality as that from Arabia. The 
" sweet incense," mentioned Exodus xxx, 7, 
and elsewhere, was a compound of several 
drugs, agreeably to the direction in the thirty, 
fourth verse. To offer incense was an office 
peculiar to the priests. They went twice a 
day into the holy place ; namely, morning and 
evening, to burn incense there. Upon the 
great day of expiation, the high priest took 
incense, or perfume, pounded and ready for 
being put into the censer, and threw it upon 
the fire, the moment he went into the sanctu- 
ary. One reason of this was, that so the smoke 
which rose from the censer might prevent his 
looking with too much curiosity on the ark 
and mercy-seat. God threatened him with 
death upon failing to perform this ceremony, 
Lev. xvi, 13. Generally incense is to be con- 
sidered as an emblem of the " prayers of the 
saints," and is so used by the sacred writers. 

INCEST, an unlawful conjunction of per- 
sons related within the degrees of kindred pro- 
hibited by God. In the beginning of the world, 
and again, long after the deluge, marriages 
between near relations were allowed. In the 
time of Abraham and Isaac, these marriages 
were permitted, and among the Persians much 
later : it is even said to be esteemed neither 
criminal nor ignominious among the remains 
of the old Persians at this day. Some authors 
believe that marriages between near relations 
were permitted, or, at least, tolerated, till the 
time of Moses, who first prohibited them among 
the Hebrews ; and that among other people 
they were allowed even after him. Others 
hold the contrary ; but it is hard to establish 
either of these opinions, for want of historical 
documents. The degrees of consanguinity 
within which marriage was prohibited are 
stated in Lev. xviii, 6-18. Most civilized people 
have looked on incests as abominable crimes. 
St. Paul, speaking of the incestuous man of 
Corinth, says, " It is reported commonly, that 
there is fornication among you, and such for - 



INC 



480 



IND 



nication as is not so much as named among 
the Grentiles, that one should have his father's 
wife," 1 Cor. v, 1. In order to preserve 
chastity in families, and between persons of 
different sexes, brought up and living together 
in a state of unreserved intimacy, it is neces- 
sary, by every method possible, to inculcate 
an abhorrence of incestuous conjunctions ; 
which abhorrence can only be upholden by 
the absolute reprobation of all commerce of 
the sexes between near relations. Upon this 
principle, the marriage, as well as other co- 
habitations, of brothers and sisters, of lineal 
kindred, and of all who usually live in the 
same family, may be said to be forbidden by 
the law of nature. Restrictions which extend 
to remoter degrees of kindred than what this 
reason makes it necessary to prohibit from 
intermarriage, are founded in the authority of 
the positive law which ordains them, and can 
only be justified by their tendency to diffuse 
wealth, to connect families, or to promote 
some political advantage. The Levitical law, 
which is received in this country, and from 
which the rule of the Roman law differs very 
little, prohibits marriages between relations 
within three degrees of kindred ; computing 
the generations, not from, but through, the 
common ancestor, and accounting affinity the 
same as consanguinity. The issue, however, 
of such marriages are not bastardized, unless 
the parents be divorced during their life time. 
INCHANTMENTS. The law of God con- 
demns inchantments and inchanters. Several 
terms are used in Scripture to denote inchant- 
ments : 1. vv!"?, which signifies to mutter,, to 
speak with a low voice, like magicians in their 
evocations and magical operations. Psalm Iviii, 
6. 2. Dita'?, secrets, whence Moses speaks of 
the inchantments wrought 'by Pharaoh's ma- 
gicians. 3. t\\i;2, meaning those who practise 
juggling, legerdemain, tricks, and witchery,, 
deluding people's eyes and senses, 2 Chron. 
xxxiii, 6. 4. -\'2r\, which signifies, properly, 
to hind, assemble, associate, reunite : this occurs 
principally among those who charm serpents, 
who tame them, and make them gentle and 
sociable, which before were fierce, dangerous, 
and untractable, Deut. xviii, 11. We have 
examples of each of these ways of inchanting. 
It was common for magicians, sorcerers, and 
inchanters, to speak in a low voice, to whisper : 
they are called ventriloqui, because they spake, 
as one would suppose, from the bottom of their 
stomachs. They affected secrecy and myste- 
rious ways, to conceal the vanity, folly, or 
infamy of their pernicious art. Their pre- 
tended magic often consisted in cunning tricks 
only, in sleight of hand, or some natural secrets, 
unknown to the ignorant. They affected ob- 
scurity and night, or would show their skill 
only before the uninformed or mean persons, 
and feared nothing so much as serious ex- 
aminations, broad day-light, and the inspection 
of the intelligent. Respecting the inchant- 
ments practised by Pharaoh's magicians, (see 
Exod. viii, 18, 19,) in order to imitate the 
miracles which were wrought by Moses, it 
must be said either that they were mere illu- 



sions, whereby they imposed on the specta. 
tors ; or that, if they performed such miracles, 
and produced real changes of their rods, and 
the other things said to be performed by them, 
it must have been by a supernatural power 
which God had permitted Satan to give them, 
but the farther operation of which he after- 
ward thought proper to prevent. 

INDEPENDENTS, a denomination of 
Protestants in England and Holland, originally 
called Brownists. They derive their name 
from their maintaining that every particular 
congregation of Christians has, according to the 
New Testament, a full power of ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction over its members, independent of 
the authority of bishops, synods, presbyteries, 
or any other ecclesiastical assemblies. This de- 
nomination appeared in England in the year 
1616. John Robinson, a Norfolk divine, who, 
being banished from his native country for non- 
conformity, afterward settled at Leyden, was 
considered as their founder and father. He 
possessed sincere piety, and no inconsiderable 
share of learning. Perceiving defects in the 
denomination of the Brownists, to which he 
belonged, he employed his zeal and diligence 
in correcting them and in new modelling the 
society. Though the Independents considered 
their own form of ecclesiastical government as 
of divine institution, and as originally intro- 
duced by the authority of the Apostles, nay, 
by the Apostles themselves ; yet they did not 
always think it necessary to condemn other 
denominations, but often acknowledged that 
true religion might flourish in those communi- 
ties which were under the jurisdiction of 
bishops, or the government of presbyteries. 
They approved, also, of a regular and educated 
ministry ; nor is any person among them now 
permitted to speak in public before he has sub- 
mitted to a proper examination of his capacity 
and talents, and has been approved of by the 
church to which he belonged. Their grounds 
of separation from the established church are 
different from those of other puritans. Many 
of the latter objected chiefly to certain rites, 
ceremonies, vestments, or forms, or to the 
government of the church ; while yet they 
were disposed to arm the magistrate in sup- 
port of the truth, and regretted and complained 
that they could not on these accounts conform 
to it. But Robinson and his companions not 
only rejected the appointments of the church 
on these heads, but denied its authority to 
enact them ; contending, that every single 
congregation of Christians was a church, and 
independent of all legislation, save that of 
Christ ; standing in need of no such provision 
or establishment as the state can bestow, and 
incapable of soliciting or receiving it. Hence 
they sought not to reform the church, but 
chose to dissent from it. They admitted there 
were many godly men in its communion, and 
that it was reformed from the grossest errors 
of the man of sin ; but thought it still wanted 
some things essential to a true church of 
Christ ; in particular, a power of choosing its 
own ministers, and a stricter discipline among 
its members. The creed of the Independents 



IND 



481 



ink: 



is uniformly Calvinistic, though with con- 
siderable shades of difference ; and many in 
Scotland and Ireland have symbolized with 
the Sandemanians, or the Scottish Baptist 
denominations. The Congregationalist and 
Independent have been generally considered 
as convertible and synonymous : many, how- 
ever, in the present day, prefer the former 
appellation, considering it desirable, in many 
cases, to unite, for mutual advice and support, 
more closely than the term independent seems 
to warrant. 

INDULGENCES. In the primitive church 
very severe penalties were inflicted on those 
who had been guilty of any sins, whether pub- 
lic or private ; and, in particular, they were for- 
bidden to partake, for a certain time, of the 
sacrament of the Lord's Supper, or to hold 
any communion with the church. General 
rules were formed upon tliese subjects ; but as 
it was often found expedient to make a dis- 
crimination in the degrees of punishment, ac- 
cording to the different circumstances of the 
offenders, and especially when they showed 
marks of contrition and repentance, power 
was given to bishops, by the council of Nice, 
to relax or remit those punishments as they 
should see reason. Every favour of this kind 
was called an indulgence or pardon. After 
the bishops had enjoyed this privilege for some 
centuries, and had begun to abuse it, the popes 
discovered that in their own hands it might be 
rendered a powerful instrument to promote 
both their ambition and their avarice. They 
could not but perceive that if they could per- 
suade men they had the power of granting par- 
don for sin, it would give them a complete 
influence over their consciences ; and if they 
could at the same time prevail upon them to 
purchase these pardons for money, it must add 
greatly to the wealth of the Roman see. In 
the eleventh century, therefore, when the do- 
minion of the popes was rising to its zenith, 
and their power was almost irresistible, they 
took to themselves the exclusive prerogative 
of dispensing indulgences, which they carried 
to a most unwarrantable length. Instead of 
confining them, according to their originial 
institution, to the ordinary purposes of eccle- 
siastical discipline, they extended them to the 
punishment of the wicked in the world to 
come ; instead of shortening the duration of 
earthly penance, they pretended that they 
could deliver men from the pains of purgatory ; 
instead of allowing them gratuitously, and 
upon just grounds, to the penitent offender, 
they sold them in the m.ost open and corrupt 
manner to the profligate and abandoned, who 
still continued in their vices. They did not 
scruple to call these indulgences a plenary 
remission of all sins, past, present, and fiiture, 
and to offer them as a certain and immediate 
passport from the troubles of this world to the 
eternal joys of heaven. To give some sort of 
colour and support to this infamous traffic, 
they confidently asserted that the superabund- 
ant merits of Christ, and of his faithful serv- 
ants, formed a fund of which the pope was 
the sole manager ; and that he could, at his 
32 



own discretion, dispense those merits, as the 
sure means of procuring pardon from God, in 
any proportions, for any species of wicked- 
ness, and to any person he pleased. The bare 
statement of this doctrine is a suflicient refu- 
tation of it ; and it is scarcely necessary to 
add, that it has no foundation whatever in 
Scripture. It is an arrogant and impious 
usurpation of a power which belongs to God 
alone ; and it has an obvious tendency to pro- 
mote licentiousness and sin of every descrip- 
tion, by holding out an easy and certain method 
of absolution. The popes derived very large 
sums from the sale of these indulgences ; and 
it is well known that the gross abuses practised 
in granthig them were among the immediate 
and principal causes of bringing about the re- 
formation. They continue still to be sold at 
Rome, and are to be purchased by any who 
are weak enough to buy them. The sums 
required for indulgences were first published 
by Anthony Egane, a Franciscan friar, in 
1673 ; and the original pamphlet was republish, 
ed by Baron Maseres, in 1809, in his last 
volume of " Occasional Essays." 

INK. The ink of the ancients was not so 
fluid as ours. Demosthenes reproaches Ma- 
chines with labouring in the grinding of ink, 
as painters do in the grinding of their colours. 
The substance also found in an inkstand at 
Herculaneum, looks like a thick oil or paint, 
with which the manuscripts there have been 
written in a relievo visible in the letters, when 
you hold a leaf to the light in a horizontal 
direction. Such vitriolic ink as has been used 
on the old parchment manuscripts would have 
corroded the delicate leaves of the papyrus, as 
it has done the skins of the most ancient 
manuscripts of Virgil and Terence, in the Va- 
tican library ; the letters are sunk into the 
parchment, and some have eaten quite through 
it, in consequence of the corrosive acid of the 
vitriolic ink, with which they were w^ritten. 
The inkhom is also mentioned in Scripture : 
" And one man among them was clothed with 
linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side," 
Ezek. ix, 2. The eastern mode and apparatus 
for writing differs so materially from those 
with which we are conversant, that it is ne- 
cessary particularly to describe them. D'Ar- 
vieux informs us that "the Arabs of the de. 
sert, when they want a favour of their emir, 
get his secretary to write an order agreeable 
to their desire, as if the favour were granted , 
this they carry to the prince, who, after having 
read it, sets his seal to it with ink, if he grants 
it ; if not, he returns the petitioner his paper 
torn, and dismisses him. These papers are 
without date, and have only the emir's flourish 
or cypher at the bottom, signifying the poor, 
the abject Mohammed, son of Turabeye." 
Pococke says, that " they make the impression 
of their name with their seal, generally of cor- 
nelian, which they wear on their finger, and 
which is blacked when they have occasion to 
seal with it." The custom of placing the ink- 
horn by the side, Olearius says, continues in 
the east to this day. Dr. Shaw informs us, 
that, among the Moors in Barbary, •* the hojast 



INN 



482 



INS 



that is, the writers or secretaries, suspend their 
inkhorns in their girdles ; a custom as old as 
the Prophet Ezekiel, ix, 2." And in a note he 
adds, *' that part of these inkhorns (if an in- 
strument of brass may be so called) which 
passes between the girdle and the tunic, and 
holds their pens, is long and flat ; but the ves- 
sel for the ink which rests upon the girdle is 
square, with a lid to clasp over it." So Mr. 
Han way : " Their writers carry their ink and 
pens about them in a case, which they put 
under their sash." 

INN. The inns or caravanserais of the 
east, in which travellers are accommodated, 
are not all alike, some being simply places of 
rest, by the side of a fountain, if possible, and 
at a proper distance on the road. Many of 
these places are nothing more than naked 
walls ; others have an attendant, who subsists 
either by some charitable donation, or the be- 
nevolence of passengers ; others are more con- 
siderable establishments, where families reside, 
and take care of them, and furnish the neces- 
sary provisions. " Caravanserais," says Camp- 
bell, " were originally intended for, and are now 
pretty generally applied to, the accommodation 
of strangers and travellers, though, like every 
other good institution, sometimes perverted to 
the purposes of private emolument, or public 
job. They are built at proper distances through 
the roads of the Turkish dominions, and afford 
to the indigent or weary traveller an asylum 
from the inclemency of the weather, are in 
general built of the most solid and durable 
materials, have commonly one story above the 
ground floor, the lower of which is -arched, 
and serves for warehouses to store goods, for 
lodgings, and for stables, while the upper is 
used merely for lodgings ; beside which they 
are always accommodated with a fountain, 
and have cooks' shops and other conveniences 
to supply the wants of lodgers. In Aleppo, 
the caravanserais are almost exclusively occu- 
pied by merchants, to whom they are, like 
other houses, rented." " In all other Turkish 
provinces," observes Antes, "particularly those 
in Asia, which are often thinly inhabited, 
travelling is subject to numberless inconve- 
niences, since it is necessary not only to carry 
all sorts of provisions along with one, but even 
the very utensils to dress them in, beside a tent 
for shelter at night and in bad weather, as there 
are no inns, except here and there a caravan- 
serai, where nothing but bare rooms, and those 
ofl;en very bad, and infested with all sorts of 
vermin, can be procured." " There arc no 
inns any where," says Volney, "but the cities, 
and commonly the villages, have a large build- 
ing, called a kan or kervanserai, which serves 
as an asylum for all travellers. These houses 
of reception are always built without the pre- 
cincts of towns, and consist of four wings round 
a square court, which serves by way of enclosure 
forthe beasts of burden. The lodgings are cells, 
where you find nothing but bare walls, dust, 
and sometimes scorpions. The keeper of this 
kan gives the traveller the key and a mat, and 
he provides himself the rest ; he must there- 
fore carry with him his bed, his kitchen uten- 



sils, and even his provisions, for frequently not 
even bread is to be found in the villages. On 
this account the orientals contrive their equip- 
age in the most simple and portable form. The 
baggage of a man who wishes to be completely 
provided, consists in a carpet, a mattress, a 
blanket, two sauce pans with lids contained 
within each other, two dishes, two plates, and 
a coffee pot, all of copper, well tinned, a small 
wooden box for salt and pepper, a round 
leathern table, which he suspends from the 
saddle of his horse, small leathern bottles or 
bags for oil, melted butter, water, and brandy, 
if the traveller be a Christian, a tinder box, a 
cup of cocoa nut, some rice, dried raisins, 
dates, Cyprus cheese, and, above all, coffee 
berries, with a roaster and wooden mortar to 
pound them." The Scriptures use two words 
to express a caravanserai, in both instances 
translated inn : " There was no room for them 
in the inn," Kara'kviiaTi, Luke ii, 7; the place 
of untying, that is, of beasts for rest. " And 
brought him to the inn," uSav6ox£iovy Luke x, 
34, whose keeper is called in the next verse 
zzavSox^evs. This word properly signifies " a 
receptacle open to all comers." " The serai 
or principal caravansary at Surat," observes 
Forbes, " was much neglected. Most of the 
eastern cities contain one, at least, for the re- 
ception of strangers; smaller places, called 
choultries, are erected by charitable persons, 
or munificent princes, in forests, plains, and 
deserts, for the accommodation of travellers. 
Near them is generally a well, and a cistern 
for the cattle ; a brahmin, or fakeer, often re- 
sides there to furnish the pilgrim with food, 
and the few necessaries he may stand in need 
of. In the deserts of Persia and Arabia, these 
buildings are invaluable ; in those pathless 
plains, for many miles together, not a tree, a 
bush, nor even a blade of grass, is to be seen ; 
all is one undulating mass of sand, like waves 
on the trackless ocean. In these ruthless 
wastes, where no rural village or cheerful ham- 
let, no inn or house of refreshment, is to be 
found, how noble is the charity that rears the 
hospitable roof, that plants the shady grove, 
and conducts the refreshing moisture into re- 
servoirs !" 

INSPIRATION, the conveying of certain 
extraordinary and supernatural notices or 
thoughts into the soul ; or it denotes any su- 
pernatural influence of God upon the mind of 
a rational creature, whereby he is formed to a 
degree of intellectual improvement, to which 
he could not have attained in his present cir- 
cumstances in a natural way. In the first 
and highest sense, the prophets, evangelists, 
and Apostles are said to have spoken and 
written by divine inspiration. This inspira- 
tion of the Old Testament Scriptures is so 
expressly attested by our Lord and his Apos- 
tles, that among those who receive them as a 
divine revelation the only question relates to 
the inspiration of the New Testament. On 
this subject it has been well observed : — 

1. That the inspiration of the Apostles ap- 
pears to liave been necessary for the purposes 
of their mission ; and, therefore, if we admit 



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that Jesus came from God, and that he sent 
them forth to make disciples, we shall acknow- 
ledge that some degree of inspiration is highly 
probable. The first light in which the books 
of the New Testament lead us to consider the 
Apostles, is, as the historians of Jesus. After 
having been his companions during his minis- 
try, they came forth to bear witness of him ; 
and as the benefit of his religion was not to 
be confined to the age in which he or they 
lived, they left in the four Gospels a record of 
what he did and taught. Two of the four 
were written by the Apostles Matthew and 
John. St. Mark and St, Luke, whose names 
are prefixed to the other two, were probably 
of the seventy whom our Lord sent out in his 
life time ; and we learn from the most ancient 
Christian historians, that the 'Gospel of St. 
Mark wa& revised by St. Peter, and the Gos- 
pel of St. Luke by St. Paul, and that both 
were afterward approved by St. John ; so that 
all the four may be considered as transmitted 
to the church with the sanction of apostolical 
authority. Now, if we recollect the condi- 
tion or the Apostles, and the nature of their 
history, we shall perceive that, even as his- 
torians, they stood in need of some measure 
of inspiration. Plato might feel himself at 
liberty to feign many things of his master 
Socrates, because it mattered little to the 
world whether the instruction that was con- 
veyed to them proceeded from the one phi- 
losopher or from the other. But the servants 
of a divine teacher, who appeared as his 
witnesses, and professed to be the historians 
of his life, were bound by their office to give 
a true record. And their history was an im- 
position upon the world, if they did not de- 
clare exactly and literally what they had seen 
and heard. This was an office which required 
not only a love of the truth, but a memory 
more retentive and more accurate than it was 
possible for the Apostles to possess. To relate, 
at the distance of twenty years, long moral 
discourses, which were not originally written, 
and which were not attended with any strik- 
ing circumstances that might imprint them 
upon the mind ; to preserve a variety of para- 
bles, the beauty and significancy of which 
depended upon particular expressions ; to re- 
cord long and minute prophecies, where the 
alteration of a single phrase might have pro- 
duced an inconsistency between the event and 
the prediction ; and to give a particular detail 
of the intercourse which Jesus had with his 
friends and with his enemies ; — all this is a 
work so very much above the capacity of un- 
learned men, that, had they attempted to exe- 
cute it by their own natural powers, they must 
have fallen into such absurdities and contra- 
dictions as would have betrayed them to every 
discerning eye. It was therefore highly ex- 
pedient, and even necessary, for the faith of 
future ages, that, beside those opportunities 
of information which the Apostles enjoyed, 
and that tried integrity which they possessed, 
their understanding and their memory should 
be assisted by a supernatural influence, which 
might prevent them from mistaking the mean- 



ing of what they had heard, which might 
restrain them from putting into the mouth of 
Jesus any words which he did not utter, or 
omitting what was important, and which 
might thus give us perfect security, that the 
Gospels are as faithful a copy as if Jesus him- 
self had left in writing those sayings and those 
actions which he wished posterity to remem- 
ber. 

But we consider the Apostles in the lowest 
view, when we speak of them as barely the 
historians of their Master. In their epistles 
they assume a higher character, which renders 
inspiration still more necessary. All the 
benefit which they derived from the public 
and the private instructions of Jesus before 
his death had not so far opened their minds 
as to qualify them for receiving the whole 
counsel of God. And he who knows what is 
in man declares to them, the night on which 
he was betrayed, " I have yet many things ta 
say unto you, but you cannot bear them now," 
John XV, 12. The purpose of many of his 
parables, the full meaning even of some of 
his plain discourses, had not been attained by 
them. They had marvelled when he spake to 
them of earthly things. But many heavenly 
things of his kingdom had not been told them ; 
and they who were destined to carry his re- 
ligion to the ends of the earth themselves 
needed, at the times of their receiving this 
commission, that some one should instruct 
them in the doctrine of Christ. It is true that, 
after his resurrection, Jesus opened their un- 
derstandings, and explained to them the Scrip- 
tures ; and he continued upon earth forty days, 
speaking to them of the things pertaining to 
the kingdom of God. It appears, however, 
from the history which they have recorded in 
the book of Acts, that some farther teaching 
was necessary for them, Acts i. Immediately 
before our Lord ascended, their minds being 
still fiiM of the expectation of a temporal 
kingdom, they say unto him, " Lord, wilt thou 
at this time restore the kingdom to Israel ?" 
It was not till some time after they received 
the gift of the Holy Ghost, that they under- 
stood that the Gospel had taken away the 
obligation to observe the ceremonies of the 
Mosaic law ; and the action of St. Peter in 
baptizing Cornelius, a devout Heathen, gave 
offence to some of the Apostles and brethren 
in Judea when they first heard it. Acts xi. 
Yet, in their epistles, we find just notions of 
the spiritual nature of the religion of Jesus as 
a kingdom of righteousness, the subjects of 
which are to receive remission of sins, and 
sanctification through his blood, and just no- 
tions also of the extent of this religion as a 
dispensation the spiritual blessings of which 
are to be communicated to all, in every land, 
who receive it in faith and love. These no- 
tions appear to us to be the explication both 
of the ancient predictions, and of many parti- 
cular expressions that occur in the discourses 
of our Lord. But it is manifest that they had 
not been acquired by the Apostles during the 
teaching of Jesus. They are so adverse to 
every thing which men educated in Jewish 



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prejudices had learned and had hoped, that 
they could not be the fruit of their own reflec- 
tions; and therefore they imply the teaching 
of that Spirit who gradually impressed them 
upon the mind, guiding the Apostles gently, 
as they were able to follow him, into all the 
truth connected with the salvation of man- 
kind. As inspiration was necessary to give 
the minds of the Apostles possession of the 
system that is unfolded in their epistles, so 
many parts of that system are removed to such 
a. distance from human discoveries, and are 
liable to such misapprehension, that unless we 
suppose a continued superintendence of the 
Spirit by whom it was taught, succeeding 
ages would not have a sufficient security that 
those who were employed to deliver it had 
not been guilty of gross mistakes in some 
most important doctrines. 

Inspiration will appear still farther neces- 
sary, when we recollect that the writings of 
the Apostles contain several predictions of 
things to come. St. Paul foretels, in his 
epistles, the corruptions of the church of 
Rome, and many other circumstances which 
have taken place in the history of the Chris- 
tian church ; and the Revelation is a book of 
prophecy, of which part has been already ful- 
filled, while the rest will no doubt be explain- 
ed by the events which are to arise in the 
course of Providence. But prophecy is a kind 
of writing which implies the highest degree of 
inspiration. When predictions, like those in 
Scripture, are particular and complicated, and 
the events are so remote and so contingent as 
to be out of the reach of human sagacity, it 
is plain that the writers of the predictions do 
not speak according to the measure of infor- 
mation which they had acquired by natural 
means, but are'merely the instruments through 
which the Almighty communicates, in such 
measure and such language as he thinks fit,- 
that knowledge of futurity which is denied to 
man. And although the full meaning of their 
own predictions was not understood by them- 
selves, they will be acknowledged to be true 
prophets when the fulfilment comes to reflect 
light upon that language, which, for wise 
purposes, was made dark at the time of its 
being put into their mouth. 

Thus the nature of the writings of the 
Apostles suggests the necessity of their hav- 
ing been inspired. They could not be accu- 
rate historians of the life of Jesus without 
divine inspiration, nor safe expounders of his 
doctrine, nor prophets of distant events. 

2. Inspiration was promised by our Lord to 
his Apostles. It is not unfair reasoning to 
adduce promises contained in the Scriptures 
themselves, as proofs of their divine inspira- 
tion. It were, indeed, reasoning in a circle, 
to bring the testimony of the Scriptures in 
proof of the divine mission of Jesus. But that 
being established by sufficient evidence, and 
the books of the New Testament having been 
proved to be the authentic genuine records of 
the persons whose names they bear, we are 
warranted to argue, from the declarations con- 
tained in them, what is the measure of inspi- 



ration which Jesus was pleased to bestow 
upon his servants. He might have been a 
divine teacher, and they might have been his 
Apostles, although he had bestowed none at 
all. But his character gives us security that 
they possessed all that he promised. We read 
in the Gospels that Jesus ordained twelve that 
they should be with him, and that he might 
send them forth to preach, Mark iii, 14. And " 
as this was the purpose for which they were 
first called, so it was the charge left them at 
his departure. " Go," said he, "j)reacli the 
Gospel to every creature : make disciples of 
all nations," Mark xvi, 16 ; Matt, xxviii, 19. 
His constant familiar intercourse with them 
was intended to qualify tliem for the execution 
of this charge ; and the promises made to them 
have a special reference to the office in which 
they were to bo employed. When he sent 
them, during his life, to preach in the cities 
of Israel, he said, " But when they deliver 
you up, take no thought how or what ye shall 
speak ; for it shall be given you in that same 
hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye 
that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which 
speaketh in you," Matt, x, 19, 20. And when 
he spake to them in his prophecy of the de- 
struction of Jerusalem, of the persecution 
which they were to endure after his death, he 
repeats the same promise : •' For I will give 
you a mouth and wisdom, which all your ad- 
versaries shall not be able to gainsay nor 
resist," Luke xxi, 15. It is admitted that the 
words in both these passages refer properly to 
that assistance which the inexperience of the 
Apostles was to derive from the suggestions 
of the Spirit, when they should be called to 
defend their conduct and their cause before 
the tribunals of the magistrates. But the ful. 
filment of this promise was a pledge, both to 
the Apostles and to the world, that the mea- 
sure of inspiration necessary for the more im- 
portant purpose implied in their commission 
would not be withheld; and, accordingly, 
when that purpose came to be unfolded to the 
Apostles, the promise of the assistance of the 
Spirit was expressed in a manner which ap- 
plies it to the extent of their commission. In 
the long affectionate discourse recorded by 
St. John, when our Lord took a solemn fare- 
well of the disciples, after eating the last pass- ' 
over with them, he said, "And I will pray 
the Father, and he shall give you another 
Comforter, that he may abide with you for 
ever ; even the Spirit of truth, whom the world 
cannot receive, because it seeth him not, 
neither knoweth him. But ye know him ; for 
he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 
The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, 
whom the Father will send in my name, he 
shall teach you all things, and bring all things 
to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said 
unto you. I have yet many things to say 
unto you, but you cannot bear them now. 
Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, 
he will guide you into all truth ; for he shall 
not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall 
hear that shall he speak ; and he will show 
you things to come," John xiv, 16, 17, 26; 



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xvi, 12, 13. Here are all the degrees of inspi- 
ration whicli we have seen to be necessary 
for the Apostles : the Spirit was to bring to 
their remembrance what they had heard ; to 
guide them into the truth, which they were 
not then able to bear ; and to show them 
things to come ; and all this they were to de- 
rive, not from occasional illapses, but from 
the perpetual inhabitation of the Spirit. That 
this inspiration was vouchsafed to them, not 
for their own sakes, but in order to qualify 
them for the successful discharge of their 
office as the messengers of Christ, and the in- 
structers of mankind, appears from several 
expressions of that prayer which immediately 
follows the discourse containing the promise 
of inspiration ; particularly from these words : 
" Neither pray I for these alone, but for them 
also which shall believe on me through their 
word ; that they all may be one, as thou, 
Father, art in me, and I in thee ; that they 
may be one in us ; that the world may believe 
that thou hast sent me," John xvii, 29, 21. In 
conformity to this prayer, so becoming him 
who was not merely the friend of the Apostles, 
but the light of the world, is that charge 
which he gives them immediately before his 
ascension : " Go ye, therefore, and teach all 
nations, baptizing them in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost; teaching them to observe all things 
whatsoever I have commanded you : and, lo, 
I am with you alway, even unto the end of 
the world," Matt, xxviii, 19, 20 ; I am with 
you alway, not by my bodily presence ; for 
immediately after he was taken out of their 
sight ; but I am with you by the Holy Ghost, 
whom I am to send upon you not many days 
hence, and who is to abide with you for ever. 

The promise of Jesus, then, implies, accord- 
ing to the plain construction of the words, 
that the Apostles, in executing their commis- 
sion, were not to be left wholly to their natural 
powers, but were to be assisted by that illu- 
mination and direction of the Spirit which the 
nature of the commission required ; and we 
may learn the sense which our Lord had of 
the importance and effect of this promise from 
one circumstance, that he never makes any 
distinction between his own words and those 
of his Apostles, but places the doctrines and 
commandments which they were to deliver 
upon a footing with those which he had 
spolten : " He that heareth you, heareth me ; 
and he that despiseth you, despiseth me ; and 
he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent 
me," Luke x, 1 6. These words plainly imply 
that Christians have no warrant to pay less 
regard to any thing contained in the epistles 
than to that which is contained in the Gos- 
pels; and teach us that every doctrine and 
precept clearly delivered by the Apostles 
comes to the Christian world with the same 
stamp of the divine authority as the words 
of Jesus, who spake in the name of him that 
sent him. 

The Author of our religion having thus 
made the faith of the Christian world to hang 
upon the teaching of the Apostles, gave the 



most signal manifestation of the fulfilment of 
that promise which was to qualify them for 
their office, by the miraculous gifts with which 
they were endowed on the day of pentecost, 
and by the abundance of those gifts which 
the imposition of their hands was to diffiise 
through the church. One of the twelve, in- 
deed, whose labours in preaching the Gospel 
were the most abundant and the most exten. 
sive, was not present at this manifestation ; 
for St. Paul was not called to be an Apostle 
till after the day of pentecost. But it is very 
remarkable that the manner of his being called 
was expressly calculated to supply this defi- 
ciency. As he journeyed to Damascus, about 
noon, to bring the Christians who were there 
bound to Jerusalem, there shone from heaven 
a great light round about him. And he heard 
a voice, saying, " I am Jesus whom thou per- 
secutest. And I have appeared unto thee for 
this purpose, to make thee a minister and a 
witness both of these things which thou hast 
seen, and of those things in the which I will 
appear unto thee ; and now I send thee to the 
Gentiles to open their eyes," Acts xxvi, 12-18. 
In reference to this manner of his being called, 
St. Paul generally inscribes his epistles with 
these words : " Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, 
by the will" or "by the commandment of 
God;" and he explains very fully what he 
meant by the use of this expression, in the be- 
ginning of his Epistle to the Galatians, where 
he gives an account of his conversion : *' Paul, 
an Apostle, not of men, neither by man, but 
by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who 
raised him from the dead. I neither received 
the Gospel of man, neither was I taught it, 
but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. When 
it pleased God, who separated me from my 
mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to 
reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him 
among the Heathen : immediately I conferred 
not with flesh and blood, neither went I up to 
Jerusalem to them which were Apostles before 
me ; but I went into Arabia," Gal. i, 1, 12, 15-17. 
All that we said of the necessity of inspiration, 
and of the import of the promise which Jesus 
made to the other Apostles, receives very 
great confirmation from this history of St. 
Paul, who, being called to be an Apostle after 
the ascension of Jesus, received the Gospel by 
immediate revelation from heaven, and was 
thus put upon a footing with the rest, both as 
to his designation, which did not proceed from 
the choice of man, and as to his qualifications, 
which were imparted, not by human instruc- 
tion, but by the teaching of the Author of 
Christianity. The Lord Jesus who appeared 
to him might furnish St. Paul with the same 
advantages which the other Apostles had de- 
rived from his presence on earth, and might 
give him the same assurance of the inhabita- 
tion of the Spirit that the promises, which we 
have been considering, had imparted to those. 
3. Inspiration was claimed by the Apostles ; 
and their claim may be considered as the in- 
terpretation of the promise of their Master. 
We shall not find the claim to inspiration for- 
mally advanced in the Gospels. This omission 



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has sometimes been stated by those superficial 
critics, whose prejudices serve to account for 
their haste, as an objection against the exist- 
ence of inspiration. But if you attend to the 
reason of the omission, you will perceive that 
it is only an instance of that delicate propriety 
which pervades all the New Testament, The 
Gospels are the record of the great facts which 
vouch the truth of Christianity. These facts 
are to be received upon the testimony of men 
who had been eye-witnesses of them. The 
foundation of Christian faith being laid in an 
assent to these facts, it would have been pre- 
posterous to have introduced in support of 
them that influence of the Spirit which pre- 
served the minds of the Apostles from error. 
For there can be no proof of the inspiration 
of the Apostles, unless the truth of the facts 
be previously admitted. The Apostles, there- 
fore, bring forward the evidence of Christi- 
anity in its natural order, when they speak in 
the Gospels as the companions and eye-wit- 
nesses of Jesus, claiming that credit which is 
due to honest men who had the best opportu- 
nities of knowing what they declared. This 
is the language of St. John : " Many other 
signs did Jesus in the presence of his disci- 
ples. But these are v/ritten that ye may be- 
lieve ; and this is the disciple which testifieth 
these things," John xx, 30, 31 ; xxi, 24. The 
Evangelist Luke appears to speak differently 
in the introduction to his Gospel, Luke i, 1-4 ; 
and opposite opinions have been entertained 
respecting the information conveyed by that 
introduction. 

There is a difference of opinion, first, with 
regard to the time when St. Luke wrote his 
Gospel. It appears to some to be expressly 
intimated that he wrote after St. Matthew and 
St. Mark, because he speaks of other Gospels 
then in circulation ; and it is generally under- 
stood that St. John wrote his after the other 
three. But the manner in which St. Luke 
speaks of these other Gospels does not seem to 
apply to those pf St. Matthew and St. Mark. 
He calls thein many, which implies that they 
were more than two, and which would con- 
found these two canonical Gospels with im- 
perfect accounts of our Lord's life, which we 
know from ancient writers were early circu- 
lated, but were rejected after the four Gospels 
were published. It is hardly conceivable that 
St. Luke would have alhided to the tv/o Gos- 
pels of St. Matthew and St. Mark without 
distinguishing them from other very inferior 
productions ; and therefore it is probable that 
when he used this mode of expression, no ac- 
counts of our Lord's life were then in exist- 
ence but those inferior productions. There 
appears, also, to very sound critics, to be in- 
ternal evidence that St. Luke wrote first. He 
is much more particular than the other evan- 
gelists in his report of our Lord's birth, and 
of the meetings with his Apostles after his 
resurrection. They might think it unne- 
cessary to introduce the same particulars 
into their Gospels afler St. Luke. But if 
they wrote before him, the want of these 
particulars gives to their Gospels an appear- 



ance of imperfection which we cannot easily 
explain. 

The other point suggested by this introduc- 
tion, upon which there has been a difference 
of opinion, is, whether St. Luke, who was not 
an Apostle, wrote his Gospel from personal 
knowledge, attained by his being a companion 
of Jesus, or from the information of others. 
Our translation certainly favours the last opin- 
ion ; and it is the more general opinion, de- 
fended by very able critics. Dr. Randolph, in 
the first volume of his works, which contains 
a history of our Saviour's life, supports the first 
opinion, and suggests a punctuation of the 
verses, and an interpretation of one word, ac- 
cording to which that opinion may be defended. 
Read the second and third verses in connec- 
tion : Kadojs TZapiSocav rifxiv ol arr' u^'xri^ avTOTTTai Kol 
vrTr]p£TaL ytvbjiEvoL rou \oyov "ESo^e /cdtjuot, TZapaKO- 
XovdrjKOTL avwQev waaiv aKpiSios Kade^rii uoi ypcixbai, 
KpdTis-£ 6e6^i'X£, "Even as they who were eye- 
witnesses and ministers of the word from the 
beginning delivered them to us, it seemed good 
to me also, having accurately traced," &c. 
By {]i^7v is understood the Christian world, who 
had received information, both oral and writ- 
ten, from those that had been avroTtrai kui lirripi- 
rai, "eye-witnesses and ministers." Kat/uoi 
means St. Luke, who proposed to follow the 
example of those avTSTzrai in writing what he 
knew ; and he describes his own knowledge 
by the word rzapaKoUvdrjKdn, which is more pre- 
cise than the circumlocution, by which it is 
translated, " having had understanding of all 
things." Perfect understanding may be derived 
from various sources ; but TZapaKoAovOia) properly 
means, "I go along with as a companion, and 
derive knowledge from my own observation." 
And it is remarkable that the word is used in 
this very sense by the Jewish historian, Jose- 
phus, who published his history not many years 
after St. Luke wrote, and who, in his intro- 
duction, represents himself as worthy of credit, 
because he had not merely inquired of those 
who knew, but zsaprjKoXovOriiidTa Tois yeydvoariVf 
which he explains by this expression : rioXXwv 
jAiv avTovpybs Tzpu^em', and to state in the third 

verse that he, TZ\ti<^(iiv ^' airdiVTrjg yEv6[X£vos, an 

actor in many things, and an eye-witness of 
most. If this interpretation is not approved 
of, then, according to the sense of those verses 
which is most commonly adopted, St. Luke 
will be understood to give in the second verse 
an account of that ground upon which the 
knowledge of the Christian world with regard 
to these things rested, the reports of the "eye- 
witnesses and ministers," having collected and 
collated these reports, and employed the most 
careful and minute investigation, he had re- 
solved to write an account of the life of Jesus. 
Here he does not claim inspiration : he does 
not even say that he was aji eye-witness. But 
he says that, having, like others, heard the 
report of eye-witnesses, he had accurately 
examined the truth of what they said, and pre- 
sented to the Christian world the fruit of his 
researches. 

The foundation is still the same as in St. 
John's Gospel, the report of those in whose 



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presence Jesus did and said what is recorded. 
To this report is added, (1.) The investigation 
of St. Luke, a contemporary of the Apostles, 
the companion of St. Paul in a great part of 
his journeyings, and honoured by him with 
this title, "Luke, the beloved physician," Col. 
iv, 14. (2.) The approbation of St. Paul, who 
is said, by tho earliest Christian writers, to 
have revised this Gospel written by his com- 
panion, so that it came abroad with apostoli- 
cal authority. (3.) The universal consent of 
the Christian church, which, although jealous 
of the books that were then published, and re- 
jecting many that claimed the sanction of the 
Apostles, has uniformly, from the earliest times, 
put the Gospel of St. Luke upon a footing with 
those of St. Matthew and St. Mark : a clear 
demonstration that they who had access to the 
best information knew that it had been revised 
by an Apostle. 

As, then, the authors of the Gospels appear 
under the character of eye-witnesses, attesting 
what they had seen, there would have been an 
impropriety in their resting the evidence of the 
essential facts of Christianity upon inspiration. 
But after the respect which their character 
and their conduct procured to their testimony, 
and the visible confirmation which it received 
from heaven, had established the faith of a 
part of the world, a belief of their inspiration 
became necessary. They might have been 
credible w itnesses of facts, although they had 
not been distinguished from other men. But 
they were not qualified to execute the ofiice of 
Apostles without being inspired. And there- 
fore, as soon as the circumstances of the 
church required the execution of that office, 
the claim which had been conveyed to them by 
the promise of their Master, and which is im- 
plied in the apostolical character, appears in 
their writings. They instantly exercised the 
authority derived to them from Jesus, by plant- 
ing ministers in the cities where they had 
preached the Gospel, by setting every thing 
pertaining to these Christian societies in order, 
by controlling the exercise of those miraculous 
gifts which they had imparted, and by cor- 
recting the abuses which happened even in 
their time. But they demanded from all who 
had received the faith of Christ submission to 
the doctrines and commandments of his Apos- 
tles, as the inspired messengers of Heaven. 
" But God hath revealed it," not them, as our 
translators have supplied the accusative, " re- 
vealed the wisdom of God, the dispensation of 
the Gospel unto us by his Spirit ; for the Spi- 
rit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things 
of God. Now we have received not the spirit 
of the world, but the Spirit which is of God ; 
that we might know the things which are freely 
given us of God ; which things, also, we speak, 
not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, 
but which the Holy Ghost teacheth," 1 Cor. ii, 
10, 12, 13. " If any man think himself to be 
a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge 
that the things that I write unto you are the 
commandments of the Lord," 1 Cor. xiv, 37 ; 
that is, Let no eminence of spiritual gifts be 
set up in opposition to the authority of the 



Apostles, or as implying any dispensation from 
submitting to it. " For this cause, also, thank 
we God without ceasing, because when ye re- 
ceived the word of God which ye heard of us, 
ye received it not as the word of men, but, as 
it is in truth, the word of God," 1 Thess. ii, 13. 
St. Peter, speaking of the epistles of St. Paul, 
says, " Even as our beloved brother Paul, also, 
according to the wisdom given unto him, hath 
written unto you," 2 Peter iii, 15. And St. 
John makes the same claim of inspiration for 
the other Apostles, as well as for himself: " We 
are of God : he that knoweth God, heareth us : 
he that is not of God, heareth not us," 
1 John iv, 6. 

The claim to inspiration is clearly made by 
the Apostles in those passages where they place 
their own writings upon the same footing with 
the books of the Old Testament ; for St. Paul, 
speaking of the U^u, ypdixixara, ^^Holy Scriptures" 
a common expression among the Jews, in 
which Timothy had been instructed from his 
childhood, says, '* All Scripture is given by 
inspiration of God," 2 Tim. iii, 16. St. Peter, 
speaking of the ancient prophets, says, " The 
Spirit of Christ was in them," 1 Peter i, 11; 
and, " The prophecy came not in old time by 
the will of man ; but holy men of God spake as 
they were moved by the Holy Gliost," 2 Peter 
i, 21. And the quotations of our Lord and 
his Apostles from the books of the Old Testa- 
ment are often introduced with an expression 
in which their inspiration is directly asserted : 
" Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias ;" " By 
the mouth of thy servant David thou hast said," 
&c, Acts i, 16; iv, 25; xxviii, 25. But with 
this uniform testimony to that inspiration of 
the Jewish Scriptures, which was universally 
believed among that people, we are to conjoin 
this circumstance, that St. Paul and St. Peter 
in different places rank their own writings with 
the books of the Old Testament. St. Paul 
commands that his epistles should be read in 
the churches, where none but those books 
which the Jews believed to be inspired were 
ever read. Col. iv, 16. He says that Christians 
" are built upon the foundatian of the Apostles 
and prophets," inl tZ ^£fiz\iw roiv UTto^dXoiv Kai apo- 
(priru>v., Eph. ii, 20 : a conjunction which would 
have been highly improper, if the former had 
not been inspired as well as the latter ; and St. 
Peter charges the Christians to "be mindful 
of the words which were spoken before by the 
holy prophets, and of the commandment of us 
the Apostles," 2 Peter iii, 2. The nature of 
the book of Revelation led the Apostle John to 
assert most directly his personal inspiration ; 
for he says that "Jesus sent and signified by 
his angel to his servant John the things that 
were to come to pass;" and that the divine 
Person, like the Son of man, who appeared to 
him when he was in the Spirit, commanded 
him to write in a book what he saw. And in 
one of the visions there recorded, when the 
dispensation of the Gospel was presented to 
St. John under the figure of a great city, the. 
New Jerusalem, descending out of heaven, 
there is one part of the image which is a beau- 
tiful expression of that authority in settling tho 



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form of the Christian church, and teaching ar- 
ticles of faith, which the Apostjes derived from 
their inspiration : " The wall of the city had 
twelve foundations, and in them the names of 
the twelve Apostles of the Lamb," Rev. i, 1, 
10-19 ; xxi, 14. 

These are only a few of the many passages 
to the same purpose which occur in reading 
the New Testament. But it is manifest, even 
from them, that the manner in which the 
Apostles speak of their own writings is calcu- 
lated to mislead every candid reader, unless 
they really wrote under the direction of the 
Spirit of God. So gross and daring an impos- 
ture is absolutely inconsistent not only with 
their whole character, but also with those gifts 
of the Holy Ghost of v/hich there is unques- 
tionable evidence that they were possessed ; 
and which, being the natural vouchers of the 
assertion made by them concerning their own 
..writings, cannot be supposed, upon the princi- 
ples of sound theism, to have been imparted for 
a long course of years to persons who con- 
tinued during all that time asserting such a 
falsehood, and appealing to those gifts for the 
truth of what they said. 

4. The claim of the Apostles derives much 
confirmation from the reception which it met 
with among the Christians of their days. It 
appears from an expression of St. Peter, that 
at the time when he wrote his second epistle, 
the epistles .of St. Paul were classed with " the 
other Scriptures," the books of the Old Testa. 
ment ; that is, were accounted inspired writ- 
ings, 2 Peter iii, 16. It is well known to those 
who are versed in the early history of the 
church, with what care the first Christians dis- 
criminated between the apostolical writings 
and the compositions of other authors however 
much distinguished by their piety, and with 
what reverence they received those books 
which were known by their inscription, by the* 
place from which they proceeded, or the man- 
ner in which they were circulated, to be the 
work of an Apostle. In Lardner's "Credibility 
of the Gospel History," will be found the most 
particular information upon this subject ; and 
it will be perceived that the whole history of 
the supposititious writings which appeared in 
early times, conspires in attesting the venera- 
tion in which the authority of the Apostles was 
held by the Christian church. We learn from 
Justin Martyr, that, before the middle of the 
second century, "the memoirs of the Apostles, 
and the compositions of the prophets," were 
read together in the Christian assemblies. We 
know, that from the earliest times, the church 
has submitted to the writings of the Apostles 
as the infallible standard of faith and practice ; 
and we find the ground of this peculiar respect 
expressed by the first Christian writers a-s well 
as by their successors, who speak of the writ- 
ings of the Apostles as "divine writings from 
the inspiration of tlie Holy Ghost." 

To this general argument we may add that 
right views on the subject of the inspiration of 
the sacred writers are also necessary, because 
even some Christian writers have spoken ob- 
scurely and unsatisfactorily on the subject, 



dividing inspiration into different kinds, and 
assigning each to different portions of the holy 
volume. By inspiration we are to understand, 
that the sacred writers composed their works 
under so plenary and immediate an influence of 
the Holy Spirit, that God may be said to speak 
by those writers to man, and not merely that 
they spoke to men in the name of God, and by 
his authority ; and there is a considerable differ, 
ence between the two propositions. Each sup- 
poses an authentic revelation from God ; but 
the former view secures the Scriptures from all 
error both as to the subjects spoken, and the 
manner of expressing them. This, too, is the 
doctrine taught in the Scriptures themselves, 
which declare not only that the prophets and 
Apostles spake in the name of God, but that 
God spake by them as his instruments. "The 
Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake." 
"Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the 
prophet." " The prophecy came not of old 
time, by the will of man ; but holy men of 
God spake as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost," For this reason, not only that the 
matter contained in the book of "the Law, 
the Prophets, and the Psalms," (the usual 
phrase by which the Jews designated the whole 
Old Testament,) was true ; but that the books 
were written under divine inspiration, they are 
called collectively by our Lord and by his 
Apostles, " The iicriptvres," in contradistinc- 
tion to all other writings ; — a term which the 
Apostle Peter, as stated above, applies also 
to the writings of St. Paul, and which therefore 
verifies them as standing on tlie same level with 
the books of the Old Testament as to their in- 
spiration : " Even as our beloved brother Paul 
also, according to the wisdom given unto him, 
hath written unto you : as also in all his epis- 
tles, speaking of these things, in which are 
some things hard to be understood, which they 
that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they 
do also the other Scriptures, unto their own 
destruction." The Apostles also, as we have 
seen, expressly claim an inspiration, not only 
as to the subjects on which they wrote, but as 
to the words in which they expressed them- 
selves. Farther, our Lord promised to them 
the Holy Spirit "to guide them into all truth ;" 
and that he was not to fulfil his office by sug- 
gesting thoughts only, but words, is clear from 
Christ's discourse with them on the subject of 
the persecutions they were to endure for " his 
name's sake :" " And when they bring you into 
the synagogues, and unto magistrates and 
powers, take ye no thought how or what thing 
ye shall answer, or what ye shall say ; for the 
Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour 
w^hat ye ought to say ; for it is not ye that 
speak; but the Spirit of your Father which 
speaketh in you." This inspiration of words 
is also asserted by St. Paul as to himself and 
his brethren, when he says to the Corinthians, 
" Which things also we speak, not in the words 
which man's wisdom teacheth ; but which the 
Holy Ghost teacheth." Thus we find that the 
claim which the sacred writers make on this 
subject is, that they were in truth what they 
have beeei aptly called, "the penmen of the 



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Holy Ghost;" and tljat tJie words in wliich 
they clothed "the wisdom given unto them" 
were words " taught" by the Holy Spirit. 

But it may be asked, How are we to account 
for that difference of style which is observable 
in each ? that manner, too, so natural to each, 
and so distinct in all ? with those reasonings, 
recollections of memory, and other indications 
of the working of the mind of each writer in 
its own character and temperament ? Some 
persons, indeed, observing this, have concluded 
their style and manner to be entirely human, 
while their thoughts were either wholly di- 
vine, or so superintended by the Holy Ghost 
as to have been adopted by him, and therefore, 
although sometimes natural, to be of equal 
authority as if they had been exclusively of 
divine suggestion. This, indeed, would be 
sufficient to oblige our implicit credence to 
their writings, as being from God ; but it falls 
below the force of the passages above cited, 
and which attribute to a divine agency their 
words also. The matter may be rightly con- 
ceived by considering, that an inspiration of 
words took place either by suggesting those 
most fit to express the thoughts, or by over- 
ruling the selection of such words from the 
common as if they had been exclusively of 
divine suggestion. This, indeed, would be 
sufficient to oblige our implicit credence to 
their writings, as being from God ; but it falls 
below the force of the passages above cited, 
and which attribute to a divine agency the 
store acquired by, and laid up in, the mind of 
each writer, which is quite compatible with 
the fact, that a peculiarity and appropriateness 
of manner might still be left to them sepa- 
rately. To suppose that an inspiration of 
terms, as well as thoughts, could not take 
place without producing one uniform style and 
manner, is to suppose that the minds of the 
writers would thus become entirely passive 
under the influence of the Holy Spirit ; whereas 
it is easily conceivable that the verbiage, style, 
andmanner of each, was not so much displaced, 
as elevated, enriched, and controlled by the 
Holy Spirit ; and that there was a previous 
fitness, in all these respects, in all the sacred 
penmen, for which they were chosen to be 
the instruments under the aid and direction of 
the Holy Ghost, of writing such portions of 
the general revelation as the wisdom of God 
assigned to each of them. On the other 
hand, while it is so conceivable that the 
words and manner of each might be appro- 
priated to his own design by the inspiration 
of the Holy Ghost, it by no means follows 
that both were not greatly altered, as well as 
controlled, although they still retained a gene- 
ral similarity to the uninfluenced style and 
manner of each, and still presented a charac- 
teristic variety. As none of their writings on 
ordinary occasions, and when uninspired, have 
come down to us, we cannot judge of the de- 
gree of this difference ; and therefore no one 
can with any just reason affirm that their writ- 
ings are "the word of God as to the doctrine, 
but the word of man as to the channel of con- 
veyance." Certain it is, that a vast difference 



may be remarked between the writings of the 
Apostles, and those of the most eminent fa- 
thers of the times nearest to Ihem ; and that 
not only as to precision and strength of 
thought, but also as to language. This cir- 
cumstance is at least strongly presumptive, 
that although the style of inspired men was 
not stripped of the- characteristic peculiarity 
of the writers, it was greatly exalted and 
influenced. 

But the same force of inspiration, so to 
speak, was not probably exerted upon each of 
the sacred writers, or upon the same writer 
throughout his writings, whatever might be 
its subject. There is no necessity that we 
should so state the case, in order to maintain 
what is essential to our faith, — the plenary 
inspiration of each of the sacred writers. In 
miracles there was no needless application of 
divine power. Traditional history and written 
chronicles, facts of known occurrence, and 
opinions which Avere received by all, are often 
inserted or referred to by the sacred writers. 
There needed no miraculous operation upon the 
memory to recall what the memory was fur= 
nished with, or to reveal a fact which the 
writers previously and perfectly knew : but 
their plenary inspiration cojisisted in this, that 
they were kept from all lapses of memory, or 
inadequate conceptions, even on these sub- 
jects ; and on all others the degree of commu- 
nication and influence, both as to doctrine, 
facts, and the terms in which they were to be 
recorded for the edification of the church, was 
proportioned to the necessity of the case, but 
so that the whole was authenticated or dictated 
by the Holy Spirit with so full an influence, 
that it became truth without mixture of error, 
expressed in such terms as he himself ruled or 
suggested. This, then, seems the true notion 
of plenary inspiration, that for the revelation, 
insertion, and adequate enunciation of truth, 
it was full and complete. 

The principal objections to this view of the 
inspiration of word's are well answered by Dr. 
Woods, an American divine, in a recent pub. 
lication, from which, as the subject has been 
lately debated in this country, the following 
extracts will be acceptable, although there is 
in them a repetition of some of the preceding 
observations : — 

" One argument which has been urged 
against the supposition that divine inspiration 
had a respect to language, is, that the language 
employed by the inspired writers exhibits no 
marks of a divine interference, but is perfectly 
conformed to the genius and taste of the 
writers. The fact here alleged is admitted. 
But how does it support the opinion of those 
who allege it ? Is it not evident, that God 
may exercise a perfect superintendency over 
inspired writers as to the language they shall 
use, and yet that each o'ne of them shall 
write in his own style, and in all respects ac- 
cording to his own taste ? May not God give 
such aid to his servants, that, while using 
their own style, they will certainly be secured 
against all mistakes, and exhibit the truth with 
perfect propriety ? It is unquestionable, that 



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Isaiah, and St, Paul, and St. John might be 
under the entire direction of the Holy Spirit, 
even as to language, and, at the same time, 
that each one of them might write in his own 
manner ; and that the peculiar manner of each 
might be adopted to answer an important end ; 
and that the variety of style, thus introduced 
into the sacred volume, might be suited to ex- 
cite a livelier interest in the minds of men, 
and to secure to them a far greater amount of 
good, than could ever have been derived from 
any one mode of writing. The great variety 
existing among men as to their natural talents, 
and their peculiar nianner of thinking and writ- 
ing may, in this way, be turned to account in 
the work of revelation, as well as in the con- 
cerns of common life. Now, is it not clearly 
a matter of fact, that God has made use of this 
variety, and given the Holy Spirit to men, dif- 
fering widely from each other in regard to 
natural endowments, and knowledge, and 
style, and employed them, with all their various 
gifts, as agents in writing the Holy Scriptures ? 
And what colour of reason can we have to 
suppose, that the language which they used 
was less under the divine direction on account 
of this variety, than if it had been perfectly 
uniform throughout ? 

"To prove that divine inspiration had no 
respect to the language of the sacred writers, 
it is farther alleged, that even the same doc- 
trine is taught and the same event described 
in a different manner by different writers. This 
fact I also admit. But how does it prove that 
inspiration' Tiad no respect to language? Is 
not the variety alleged a manifest advantage, 
as to the impression which is likely to be made 
upon the minds of men ? Is not testimony, 
which is substantially the same, always con- 
sidered as entitled to higher credit, when it is 
given by different witnesses in different lan- 
guage, and in a different order ? And is it not 
perfectly reasonable to su^ppose, that, in mak- 
ing a revelation, God would have respect to 
the common principles of human nature and 
human society, and would exert his influence 
and control over inspired men in such a man- 
ner, that, by exhibiting the same doctrines and 
facts in different ways, they should make a 
more salutary impression, and should more 
effectually compass the great ends of a revela- 
tion ? All I have to advance on this part of 
the subject may be summed up in these two 
positions : 1. The variety of manner apparent 
among different inspired writers, even when 
treating of the same subjects, is far better suit- 
ed to promote the object of divine revelation, 
than a perfect uniformity. 2. It is agreeable 
to our worthiest conceptions of God and his 
administration, that he should make use of the 
best means for the accomplishment of his de- 
signs ; and, of course, that he should impart 
the gift of inspiration to men of different tastes 
and habits as to language, and should lead 
them, while writing the Scriptures, to exhibit 
all the variety of manner naturally arising from 
the diversified character of their minds. 

" But there is another argument, perhaps 
the most plausible of all, against supposing that 



inspiration had any respect to language ; which 
is, that the supposition of a divine influence in 
this respect is wholly unnecessary; that the 
sacred writers, having the requisite informa- 
tion in regard to the subjects on which they 
were to write, might, so far as language is 
concerned, be left entirely to their own judg- 
ment and fidelity. But this view of the sub- 
ject is not satisfactory. For whatever may be 
said as to the judgment and fidelity of those 
who wrote the Scriptures, there is one import- 
ant circumstance which cannot be accounted 
for, without supposing them to have enjoyed 
a guidance above that of their own minds ; 
namely, that they were infallibly preserved 
from every mistake or impropriety in the man- 
ner of writing. If we should admit that the 
divine superintendence and guidance afforded 
to the inspired writers had no relation at all to 
the manner in which they exhibited either 
doctrines or facts ; how easily might we be 
disturbed with doubts, in regard to the pro- 
priety of some of their representations ? We 
should most certainly consider them as liable 
to all the inadvertencies and mistakes, to 
which uninspired men are commonly liable ; 
and we should think ourselves perfectly justi- 
fied in undertaking to charge them with real 
errors and faults as to style, and to show how 
their language might have been improved ; and, 
in short, to treat their writings just as we treat 
the writings of Shakspeare and Addison. 
' Here,' we might say, ' Paul was unfortunate 
in the choice of words ; and here his language 
does not express the ideas which he must have 
intended to convey.' ' Here the style of St. 
John was inadvertent ; and here it was faulty : 
and here it would have been more agreeable to 
the nature of the subject, und would have more 
accurately expressed the truth, had it been 
altered thus,' If the language of the sacred 
writers did not in any way come under the 
inspection of the Holy Spirit, and if they were 
left, just as other writers are, to their own 
unaided faculties in regard to every thing 
which pertained -to the manner of writing ; 
then, evidently, we might use the same free- 
dom in animadverting upon their style, as 
upon the style of other writers. But who 
could treat the volume of inspiration in this 
manner, without impiety and profaneness? 
And rather than make any approach to this, 
who would not choose to go to an excess, if 
there could be an excess, in reverence for the 
word of God ? 

"On this subject, far be it from m.e to in- 
dulge a curiosity which would pry into things 
not intended for human intelligence. And far 
be it from me to expend zeal in supporting 
opinions not warranted by the word of God. 
But this one point I think it specially import- 
ant to maintain ; namely, that the sacred writ- 
ers had such direction of the Holy Spirit, that 
they were secured against all liability to error, 
and enabled to write just what God pleased ; 
so that what they wrote is, in truth, the word 
of God, and can never be subject to any charge 
of mistake either as to matter or form. Whe- 
ther this perfect correctness and propriety as to 



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language resulted from the divine guidance 
directly or indirectly, is a question bf no par- 
ticular consequence. If the Spirit of God 
directs the minds of inspired men, and gives 
them just conceptions relative to the subjects 
on which they are to write ; and if he consti- 
tutes and maintains a connection, true and 
invariable, between tlieir conceptions and the 
language they employ to express them, the lan- 
guage must, in this way, be as infallible, and 
as worthy of God, as though it were dictated 
directly by the Holy Spirit. But to assert that 
the sacred writers used such language as they 
chose, or such as was natural to them, without 
any special divine superintendence, and that, 
in respect to style, they are to be regarded in 
the same light, and equally liable to mistakes, 
as other Avriters, is plainly contrary to the 
representations which they themselves make, 
and is suited to diminish our confidence in 
the word of God. For how could we have 
entire confidence in the representations of 
Scripture, if, after God had instructed the 
minds' of the sacred writers in the truth to be 
communicated, he gave them up to all the in- 
advertencies and errors toT\^hich human nature 
in general is exposed, and took no effectual 
care tliat their manner of writing should be 
according to his will ? 

"Let us then briefly examine the subject, 
as it is presented in the Holy Scriptures, and 
see whether we find sufficient reason to affirm 
that inspiration had no relation whatever to 
language. 1. The Apostles were the subjects 
of such a divine inspiration as enabled them 
to speak ' with other tongues :' here inspira- 
tion related directly to language. 2. It is the 
opinion of most writers, that, in some instan- 
ces, inspired men had not in their own minds 
a clear understanding of the things which 
they spake or wrote. One instance of this, 
commonly referred to, is the case of Daniel, 
who heard and repeated what the angel said, 
though he did not understand it, Dan. xii, 7-9. 
This has also been thought to be in some 
measure the case wdth the prophets referred to, 
I Peter i, 10-12. And is there not reason to 
think this may have been the case with many of 
the prophetic representations contained in the 
Psalms, and many of the symbolical rites of 
the Mosaic institute ? Various matters are 
found in the Old Testament, which were not 
intended so much for the benefit of the writ- 
ers, or their contemporaries, as for the benefit 
of future ages. And this might have been a 
sufficient reason why they should be left with- 
out a clear understanding of the things which 
they wrote. In such cases, if the opinion 
above stated is correct, inspired men were led 
to make use of expressions, the meaning of 
which they did not fully understand. And, 
according to this view, it would seem that the 
teaching of the Spirit which they enjoyed, 
must have related rather to the words than to 
the sense. 3. Those who deny that the divine 
influence afforded to the sacred writers had 
any respect to language, can find no support 
in the texts which most directly relate to the 
subject of inspiration. And it is surely in 



such texts, if any where, that we should sup- 
pose they would find support. The passage, 
2 Peter i, 21, is a remarkable one. It asserts 
that ' holy men of God spake as they were 
moved by the Holy Ghost.' There is surely 
nothing here which limits the divine influence 
to the conceptions of their minds. They were 
moved by the Holy Ghost to speak or write. 
'All Scripture is divinely inspired,' 2 Tim. 
iii, 16. Does this text afford any proof that 
the divine influence granted to the inspired 
penmen was confined to their inward concep- 
tions, and had no respect whatever to the 
manner in which they expressed their concep- 
tions ? What is Scripture 7 Is it divine truth 
conceived in the mind,' or divine truth written ? 
In Heb. i, 1, it is said that ' God spake to the 
fathers by the prophets.' Does this afford any 
proof that the divine guidance which the pro- 
phets enjoyed related exclusively to the con- 
ceptions of their own minds, and had no 
respect to the manner in which they commu- 
ni<:ated those conceptions ? Must we not 
rather think the ixieaning to be, that God 
influenced the prophets to utter or make 
known important truths ? And how could 
they do this, except by the use of proper 
words ? 

" I have argued in favour of the inspiration 
of the Apostles, from their comniission. They 
were sent by Christ to teach the truths of 
religion in his stead. It was an arduous work ; 
and in the execution of it they needed and 
enjoyed much divine assistance. But forming 
right conceptions of Christianity in their own 
minds, was not the great work assigned to the 
Apostles. If the divine assista,nce reached 
only to this, it reached only to that which 
concerned them as private men, and which 
they might have possessed though they had 
never been commissioned to teach others. As 
Apostles, they were to preach the Gospel to 
all who could be brought to hear it, and to 
make a record of divine truth for the benefit 
of future ages. Now is it at all reasonable to 
suppose, that the divine assistance afforded 
them had no respect to their main business, 
and that, in the momentous and difficult work 
of communicating the truths of religion, either 
orally or by writing, they were left to them- 
selves, and so exposed to all the errors and 
inadvertencies of uninspired men ? But our 
reasoning does not stop here. For that divine 
assistance which we might reasonably suppose 
would have been granted to the Apostles in 
the work of teaching divine truth, is the very 
thing which Christ promised them in the texts 
before cited. I shall refer only to Matt. 
X, 19, 20, 'When they shall deliver you up, 
take no thought how or what ye shall speak ; 
for it shall be given you in the same hour what 
ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, 
but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in 
you.' This promise, as Knapp understands 
it, implies, that divine assistance should extend 
not only to what they should say, but to the 
manner in which they should say it. It is 
not, however, to be understood as implying, 
that the Apostles were not rational and volun. 



INT 



492 



ISA 



tary agents in the discharge of their office. 
But it implies that, in consequence of the in- 
fluence of the Spirit to be exercised over them, 
they should say what God would have them to 
say, without any liability to mistake, either as 
to matter or manner. From the above-cited 
promise, taken in connection with the instan- 
ces of its accomplishment which are recorded 
in the Acts of the Apostles, it becomes evident 
that God may exert his highest influence upon 
his servants, so as completely to guide them 
in thought and in utterance, in regard to sub- 
jects which lie chiefly within the province of 
their natural faculties. For in those speeches 
of the Apostles v/hich are left on record, we 
find that most of the things which tliey de- 
clared, were things which, for aught that 
appears, they might have known, and might 
have expressed to others, in the natural exer- 
cise of their own faculties. This principle 
being admitted, and kept steadily in view, will 
relieve us of many difiiculties in regard to the 
doctrine of inspiration. The passage, 1 Cor. 
ii, 12, 13, already cited as proof of the inspi- 
ration of the Apostles, is very far from favour- 
ing the opinion that inspiration had no respect 
whatever to their language, or that it related 
exclusively to their thoughts. ' Which things 
we speak, not in the words which man's wis- 
dom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost 
teacheth.' The Apostle avoided the style 
and the manner of teaching which prevailed 
among the wise men of Greece, and made 
use of a style which corresponded with the 
nature of his subject, and the end he had in 
view. And this, he tells us, he did, under 
the guidance of the Holy Spirit. His lan- 
guage, or manner of teaching, was the thing 
to which the divine influence imparted to 
him particularly referred. Storr and Flatt 
give the following interpretation of this text : 
Paul, they say, asserts that the doctrines of 
Christianity were revealed to him by the 
almighty agency of God himself; and, finally, 
that the inspiration of the divine Spirit ex- 
tended even to his words, and to all his exhibi- 
tions of revealed truths. They add, that St. 
Paul clearly distinguishes between the doctrine 
itself, and the manner in which it is commu- 
nicated." 

INTERMEDIATE STATE. Beside ques- 
tions concerning the nature of the happiness 
of heaven, there have also arisen questions 
concerning the state of the soul in the interval 
between death and the general resurrection. 
If we believe, with Dr. Priestley, that the soul 
is not a substance distinct from the body, we 
must believe with him that the whole of the 
human machine is at rest after death, till it be 
restored to its functions at the last day ; but if 
we are convinced of the immateriality of the 
soul, we shall not think it so entirely dependent 
in all its operations upon its present com- 
panion, but that it may exist and act in an 
unembodied state. And if once we are satis- 
fied that a state of separate existence is pos- 
sible, we shall easily attach credit to the 
interpretation commonly given of the various 
expressions in Scripture, which intimate that 



the souls of good men are admitted to the 
presence of God immediately after death, 
although we soon find that a bound is set to 
our speculations concerning the nature of this 
intermediate state. But when we leave phi- 
losophical probability, and come to the doctrine 
of Scripture, the only ground of certainty on 
all such subjects, a great number of passages 
are so expUcit, that no ingenuity of interpre- 
tation has been suflicient to weaken their 
evidence on this point. One branch of the 
opinions that have been held concerning an 
intermediate state is the Popish doctrine of 
purgatory ; a doctrine which appears upon the 
slightest inspection of the texts that have been 
adduced in support of it to derive no evidence 
from Scripture ; which originated in the error 
of the church of Rome in assigning to personal 
suffering a place in the justification of a sin- 
ner ; and which is completely overturned by 
the doctrine of justification by faith, and by 
the general strain of Scripture, which repre- 
sents this life as a state of probation, upon our 
conduct during which our everlasting condi- 
tion depends. The holy Lazarus is carried by 
angels into Abraham's bosom ; and the rich 
and careless sinner lifts up his eyes in hell, 
and is separated from the place of bliss by an 
impassable gulf. This at once disproves the 
doctrine of purgatory, and demonstrates an 
intermediate conscious state of happiness and 
misery. 

IRON, ^m ; occurs first in Gen. iv, 22, and 
afterward frequently ; and the Chaldee '^no, 
in Dan. ii, 33, 41, and elsewhere often in that 
book ; aiSrjpos, Rev. xviii, 12, and the adjectives, 
Acts xii, 10 ; Rev. ii, 27 ; ix, 9 ; xii, 5 ; xix, 
15 ; a well known and very serviceable metal. 
The knowledge of working it was very ancient, 
as appears from Genesis iv, 22. We do not, 
however, find that Moses made use of iron in 
the fabric of the tabernacle in the wilderness, 
or Solomon in any part of the temple at Jeru- 
salem. Yet, from the manner in which the 
Jewish legislator speaks of iron, the metal, it 
appears, must have been in use in Egypt before 
his time. He celebrates the great hardness of 
it. Lev. xxvi, 19 ; Deut. xxviii, 23, 48 ; takes 
notice that the bedstead of Og, king of Bashan, 
was of iron, Deut. iii, 11 ; he speaks of mines 
of iron, Deut. viii, 9 ; and he compares the 
severity of the servitude of the Israelites in 
Egypt to the heat of a fiirnace for melting 
iron, Deut. iv, 20. We find, also, that swords, 
Num. XXXV, 16, axes, Deut. xix, 5, and tools 
for cutting stones, Deut. xxvii, 5, were made 
of iron. By the " northern iron," Jer. xv, 12, 
we may probably understand the hardened 
iron, called in Greek x^^H'^ from the Chalybes, 
a people bordering on the Euxine sea, and 
consequently lying on the north of Judea, by 
whom the art of tempering steel is said to 
have been discovered. Strabo speaks of this 
people by the name of Chalybes, but after- 
ward Chaldaei ; and mentions their iron mines. 
These, however, were a different people from 
the Chaldeans, who were united with the 
Babylonians. 

ISAAC, the son of Abraham and Sarah, 



ISA 



493 



ISA 



was born in the year of the world 2108. His 
name, which signifies laughter, was given him 
by his mother, because when it was told her 
by an angel that she should have a son, and 
that at a time of life when, according to the 
course of nature, she was past child-bearing, 
she privately laughed, Gen. xviii, 10-12. And 
when the child was born she said, " God hath 
made me to laugh, so that all that hear will 
laugh with me," Gen. xxi, 6. The life of 
Isaac, for the first seventy-five years of it, is 
so blended with that of his illustrious father, 
that the principal incidents of it have been 
already noticed under the article Abraham. 
His birth was attended with some extraordi- 
nary circumstances : it was the subject of 
various promises and prophecies ; an event 
most ardently desired by his pare^its, and yet 
purposely delayed by Divine Providence till 
they were both advanced in years, no doubt 
for the trial of their faith, and that Isaac might 
more evidently appear to be the gift of God, 
and " the child of promise." At an early 
period of life he was the object of the profane 
contempt of Ishmael, the son of the bond 
woman, by whom he was persecuted ; and as 
in. the circumstances attending his birth there 
was something typical of the birth of Abra- 
ham's greater Son, the Messiah, the promised 
Seed ; so, in the latter instance, we contem- 
plate in him a resemblance of real Christians, 
who, as Isaac was, are "the children of pro- 
mise," invested in all the immunities and 
blessings of the new covenant ; but, as then, 
'! he that was born after the flesh persecuted 
him that was born after the Spirit, even so it 
is now," Gal. iv, 29. 

When Isaac had arrived at a state of man- 
hood, he was required to give a signal proof of 
his entire devotedness to God. Abraham was 
commanded to offer up his beloved son in 
sacrifice, Genesis xxii, 1. This remarkable 
transaction, so far as Abraham was con- 
cerned in it, has already been considered un- 
der the article Abraham. But, if from this trial 
of the faith of the parent we turn our atten- 
tion to the conduct of Isaac, the victim des- 
tined for the slaughter, we behold an example 
of faith and of dutiful obedience equally con- 
spicuous with that of his honoured parent. 
Isaac submitted, as it should seem, without 
resistance, to be bound and laid on the altar, 
exposing his body to the knife that was lifted 
up to destroy him. How strikingly calculated 
is this remarkable history to direct our thoughts 
to a more exalted personage, whbm Isaac pre- 
figured ; and to a more astonishing transaction 
represented by that on Mount Moriah ! Be- 
hold Jesus Christ, that Seed of Abraham, in 
whom all the families of the earth were to be 
blessed, voluntarily going forth, in obedience 
to the command of his heavenly Father, and 
laying down his life, as a sacrifice for the sins 
of the world. 

In the progress of Isaac's history, we find 
him, in the time of his greatest activity and 
vigour, a man of retired habits and of remark- 
able calmness of mind. He appears to have 
been affectionately attached to his mother 



Sarah, and, even at the age of forty, was not 
insusceptible of great' sorrow on occasion of 
her death. But he allows his father to choose 
for him a suitable partner in life ; and Rebekali 
was selected from among his own kindred, in 
preference to the daughters of Canaan, in the 
midst of whom he dwelt. In a few years after- 
ward, he who had mourned for his mother, 
was called to weep over his father's grave ; 
and in that last act of filial duty, it is pleasing 
to find the two rival brothers, Isaac and Ish- 
mael, meeting together for the interment of 
Abraham. The occasion, indeed, was well 
calculated to allay all existing jealousies and 
contentions, and cause every family broil to 
cease. Gen. xxv, 9. After the death of Abra- 
ham, " God blessed his son Isaac ;" but, though 
the latter had now been married twenty years, 
Rebekah was childless. " Isaac entreated the 
Lord for his wife, because she was barren ; and 
the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah 
his wife conceived," Gen. xxv, 21. God also 
promised to multiply Isaac's seed, and his 
promise was fulfilled. Two children were 
born to him at one time, concerning whom 
the divine purpose was declared to the mother, 
and no doubt to the father also, that " the 
elder should serve the younger." A famine 
which came upon the country in the days of 
Isaac, obliged him to remove his family and 
flocks and retire to Gerar, in the country of 
the Philistines, of which Abimelech was at that 
time king. The possessions of Isaac multiplied 
so prodigiously, that the inhabitants of the 
country became envious of him, and even 
Abimelech, to preserve peace among them, 
was under the necessity of requesting him to 
retire, because he was become too powerful. 
He accordingly withdrew, and pitched his 
tent in the valley of Gerar, where he digged 
new wells, and, after a time, returned to 
Beersheba, where h« fixed his habitation. 
Genesis xxvi, 1-23. Here the Lord appeared 
to him, and renewed to him the covenant 
which he had made with Abraham, promising 
to be his God, and to make him a blessing to 
others. Abimelech now sought his friend- 
ship, and, to form an alliance with him, paid 
him a visit ; on which occasion Isaac displayed 
his magnificence by a sumptuous entertain- 
ment, A. M. 2240. 

When he was a hundred and thirty.seven 
years of age, and his sight had so failed him 
that he could not distinguish one of his sons 
from the other, Jacob craftily obtained from 
him the blessing of primogeniture. Yet Isaac 
survived many years after this, to him, dis- 
tressing occurrence. He sent Jacob into 
Mesopotamia, there to take a wife of his own 
family, Genesis xxviii, 1, 2, and to prevent his 
marrying among the Canaanites as his brother 
Esau had done. And when Jacob returned, 
after a lapse of twenty years, Isaac was still 
living, and continued to live twenty-three years 
longer. He then died at the age of a hundred 
and eighty years, and was buried with Abra- 
ham by bis sons Esau and Jacob, Gen. xxxv, 
See Esau and Jacob. 

ISAIAH. Though fifth in the order of time, 



ISA 



494 



ISA 



the writings of the Prophet Isaiah are placed 
first in order of the prophetical books, princi- 
pally on account of the sublimity and import- 
ance of his predictions, and partly also because 
the book which bears his name is larger than 
all the twelve minor prophets put together. 
Concerning his family and descent, nothing 
certain has been recorded, except what he him- 
self tells us, Isaiah, i, 1, namely, that he was 
the son of Amos, and discharged the prophetic 
office " in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, 
and Hezekiah, kings of Judah," who success- 
ively flourished between A. M. 3194 and 3305. 
There is a current tradition that he was of 
the blood royal ; and some writers have af- 
firmed that his father Amoz or Amos was the 
son of Joash, and consequently brother of 
Uzziah, king of Judah. Jerom, on the au. 
thority of some rabbinical writers, says, that 
the prophet gave his daughter in marriage to 
Manasseh, king of Judah ; but this opinion is 
scarcely credible, because Manasseh did not 
commence his reign until about sixty years 
after Isaiah had begun to discharge his pro- 
phetic functions. He must, indeed, have ex- 
ercised the office of a prophet during a long- 
period of time, if he lived to the reign of 
Manasseh ; for the lowest computation, begin- 
ning from the year in which Uzziah died, when 
he is by some supposed to have received his 
first appointment to that office, brings it to 
sixty-one years. But the tradition of the Jews, 
which has been adopted by most Christian 
commentators, that he was put to deatli by 
Manasseh, is very uncertain ; and Aben Ezra, 
one of the most celebrated Jewish writers, is 
rather of opinion that he died before Heze- 
kiah ; which Bishop Lowth thinks most pro- 
bable. It is, however, certain, that he lived 
at least to the fifteenth or sixteenth year of 
Hezekiah ; which makes the least possible 
term of the duration of his prophetic office to 
be about forty-eight years. The name of 
Isaiah, as Vitringa has remarked after several 
preceding commentators, is in some measure 
descriptive of his high character, since it sig- 
nifies the salvation of Jehovah; and was given 
with singular propriety to him, who foretold 
the advent of the Messiah, through whom 
"all flesh shall see the salvation of God," Isa. 
xl, 5 ; Luke iii, 6 ; Acts iv, 12. Isaiah was 
contemporary with the Prophets Amos, Hosea, 
Joel, and Micah. 

Isaiah is uniformly spoken of in the Scrip- 
tures as a prophet of the highest dignity : 
Bishop Lowth calls him the prince of all the 
prophets, and pronounces the whole of his 
book to be poetical, with the exception of a 
few detached passages. It is remarkable, that 
his wife is styled a prophetess in Isaiah viii, 3 ; 
whence the rabbinical writers have concluded 
that she possessed the spirit of prophecy : but 
it is very probable that the prophets' wives 
were called prophetesses, as the priests' wives 
were termed priestesses, only from the quality 
of their husbands. Although nothing farther 
is recorded in the Scriptures concerning the 
wife of Isaiah, we find two of his sons men- 
tioned in his prophecy, who were types or 



figurative pledges ; and their names and ac- 
tions were intended to awaken a religious 
attention in the persons whom they were com- 
missioned to address and to instruct. Thus, 
Shear-jashub signifies, " a remnant shall re- 
turn," and showed that the captives who should 
be carried to Babylon should return thence 
after a certain time, Isaiah vii, 3 ; and Maher- 
shalal-hash-baz, which denotes, " make speed 
(or run swiftly) to the spoil," implied that the 
kingdoms of Israel and Syria would in a short 
time be ravaged, Isaiah viii, 1, 3. Beside the 
volume of prophecies, which we are now to 
consider, it appears from 2 Chron. xxvi, 22, 
that Isaiah wrote an account of " the acts or 
Uzziah," king of Judah : this has perished 
with some other writings of the prophets, 
which, as probably not written by inspiration, 
were never admitted into the canon of Scrip- 
ture. There are also two apocryphal books 
ascribed to him, namely, The Ascension ot 
Isaiah, and The Apocalypse of Isaiah ; but 
these are evidently forgeries of a later date, 
and the Apocalypse has long since perished. 

The scope of Isaiah's predictions is three- 
fold, namely, 1. To detect, reprove, aggravate, 
and condemn, the sins of the Jewish people 
especially, and also the iniquities of the ten 
tribes of Israel, and the abominations of many 
Gentile nations and countries ; denouncing 
the severest judgments against all sorts and 
degrees of persons, whether Jews or Gentiles. 
2. To invite persons of every rank and con- 
dition, both Jews and Gentiles, to repentance 
and reformation, by numerous prorhises ot 
pardon and mercy. It is worthy of remark, 
that no such promises are intermingled with 
the denunciations of divine vengeance against 
Babylon, although they occur in the threaten- 
ings against every other people. 3. To com. 
fort all the truly pious, in tho midst of all the 
calamities and judgments denounced against 
the wicked, with prophetic promises of the 
true Messiah, which seem almost to anticipate 
the Gospel history, so clearly do they foreshow 
the divine character of Christ. 

Isaiah has, with singular propriety, been 
denominated the evangelical prophet, on ac 
count of the number and variety of his pro- 
phecies concerning the advent and character, 
the ministry and preaching, the sufferings and 
death, and the extensive permanent kingdom, 
of the Messiah. So explicit and determinate 
are his predictions, as well as so numerous, 
that he seems to speak rather of things past 
than of events yet future ; and he maj^ rather 
be called an evangelist than a prophet. No 
one, indeed, can be at a loss in applying them 
to the mission and character of Jesus Christ, 
and to the events which are cited in his his- 
tory by the writers of the New Testament. 
This prophet, says Bishop Lowtli, abounds in 
such transcendent excellencies, that he may 
be properly said to afford the most perfect 
model of prophetic poetry. He is at once ele. 
gant and sublime, forcible and ornamented ; 
he unites energy with copiousness, and dignity 
with variety. In his sentiments there is un- 
connnon elevation and majesty ; in his imagery. 



ISA 



496 



ISC 



the utmost propriety, elegance, dignity, and 
diversity ; in his language, uncommon beauty 
and energy ; and, notwithstanding the obscu- 
rity of his subjects, a surprising degree of 
clearness and simplicity. To these we may 
add, that there is such sweetness in the poet- 
ical composition of his sentences, whether it 
proceed from art or genius, that, if the Hebrew 
poetry at present is possessed of any remains 
of its native grace and harmony, we shall 
chiefly find them in the writings of Isaiah : so 
that the saying of Ezekiel may most justly be 
applied to this prophet : — 

"Thou art the confirmed exemplar of measures, 
Full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty." 

Ezekiel xxviii, 12. 

Isaiah also greatly excels in all- the graces of 
method, order, connection, and arrangement : 
though in asserting this we must not forget 
the nature of the prophetic impulse, which 
bears away the mind with irresistible violence, 
and frequently in rapid transitions from near 
to remote objects, from human to divine. We 
must likewise be careful in remarking the 
limits of particular predictions, since, as they 
are now extant, they are often improperly 
connected, without any marks of discrimina- 
tion ; which injudicious arrangement, on some 
occasions, creates almost insuperable diffi- 
culties. 

Bishop Lowth has selected the thirty-fourth 
and thirty.fifth chapters of this prophet, as a 
specimen of the poetic style in which Isaiah 
delivers his predictions, and has illustrated at 
some length the various beauties which erai- 
nently distinguish the simple, regular, and 
perfect poem contained in those chapters. 
But the grandest specimen of his poetry is 
presented in the fourteenth chapter, which is 
one of the most sublime odes occurring in the 
Bible, and contains the noblest personifica- 
tions to be found in the records of poetry. 
The prophet, after predicting the liberation of 
the Jews from their severe captivity in Baby. 
Ion, and their restoration to their own country, 
verses 1-3, introduces a chorus of them, ex- 
pressing their surprise and astonishment at 
the sudden downfall of Babylon, and the 
great reverse of fortune that had befallen the 
tyrant, who, like his predecessors, had op- 
pressed his own, and harassed the neighbour, 
ing kingdoms. These oppressed kingdoms, 
or their rulers, are represented under the im- 
age of the fir trees and the cedars of Libanus, 
which is frequently used to express any thing 
in the political or religious world that is su- 
pereminently great and majestic : the whole 
earth shouts for joy ; the cedars of Libanus 
utter a severe taunt over the fallen tyrant, 
and boast their security now he is no more, 
verses 4-8. This is followed, verse 9, by one 
of the boldest and most animated personifica- 
tions of hades, or the regions of the dead, that 
was fver executed in poetry. Hades excites 
his inhabitants, the shades of princes, and the 
departed spirits of monarchs. These illustri- 
ous shades rise at once from their couches as 
from their thrones ; and, advancing to the 



entrance of the cavern to meet the king of 
Babylon, they insult and deride him on being 
reduced to the same low state of impotence 
and dissolution with themselves, verses 10, 11. 
The Jews now resume the speech, verse 12 ; 
they address the king of Babylon as the morn- 
ing star fallen from heaven, as the first in 
splendour and dignity, in the political world 
fallen from his high state : they introduce him 
as uttering the most extravagant vaunts of 
his power and ambitious designs in his former 
glory ; these are strongly contrasted, in the 
close, with his present low and abject condi- 
tion, verses 13-15. Immediately follows a 
different scene, and a most happy image, to 
diversify the same subject, and give it a new 
turn and additional force. Certain persons 
are introduced, who light upon the corpse of 
the king of Babylon, cast out and lying naked 
upon the bare ground, among the common 
slain, just after the taking of the city, covered 
with wounds, and so disfigured, that it is 
some time before they know him. They 
accost him with the severest taunts, and bit. 
terly reproach him with his destructive ambi- 
tion, and his cruel usage of the conquered ; 
which have deservedly brought upon him this 
ignominious treatment, so different from what 
those of his high rank usually meet with, and 
which shall cover his posterity with disgrace, 
verses 16-20. To complete the whole, God 
is introduced, declaring the fate of Babylon ; 
the utter extirpation of the royal family, and 
the total desolation of the city ; the deliver- 
ance of his people, and the destruction of their 
enemies ; confirming the irreversible decree 
by the awfiil sanction of his oath, verses 21- 
27. How forcible, sayff Bishop Louth, is this 
imager}^ how diversified, how sublime ! How 
elevated the diction, the figures, the senti- 
ments ! The Jewish nation, the cedars of 
Lebanon, the ghosts of departed kings, the 
Babylonish monarch, the travellers who find 
his corpse, and last of all Jehovah himself, 
are the characters which support this beauti- 
ful lyric drama. One continued action is 
kept up, or rather, a series of interesting ac- 
tions are connected together in an incompara- 
ble whole : this, indeed, is the principal and dis- 
tinguished excellence of the sublimer ode, and 
is displayed in its utmost perfection in this 
poem of Isaiah, which may be considered as 
one of the most ancient, and certainly one of 
the most finished, specimens of that species 
of composition which has been transmitted to 
us. The personifications here are frequent, 
yet not confused; bold, yet not improbable; 
a free, elevated, and truly divine spirit per- 
vades the. whole ; nor is there any thing want- 
ing in this ode to defeat its claim to the 
character of perfect pathos and sublimity. 
There is not a single instance in the whole 
compass of Greek and Roman poetry which, 
in every excellence of composition, can be 
said to equal or even to approach it. 

ISCARIOT, the name of that disciple who 
betrayed our Saviour. He was so called, 
probably, as belonging to Karioth, or Cerioth ; 
that is, a man of Kerioth, Matt, x, 4. 



ISH 



496 



IVO 



ISHBOSHETH, a son of King Saul, and 
his- successor in the throne. He was acknow- 
ledged king by a part of the tribes of Israel, 
- A. M, 2949, while David reigned at Hebron, 
over the tribe of Judah, 2 Sam. ii, 8, 9, &c ; 
iii. He reigned two years in peace, but the 
remaining eight years were spent in perpetual 
wars between his troops and those of David, 
till in the end he perished, and with him ended 
the royal dignity of the house of Saul. 

ISHMAELITES, the descendants of Ish- 
mael, the son of Abraham by Hagar, his 
Egyptian bond-maid. Ishmael was born B. C 
1910, and his name, founded on a circumstance 
which afforded relief to his mother, when she 
was wandering from her master's house toward 
Egypt, her native country, is derived from the 
Hebrew '7Xj?D:ys formed of j?Dit', to hear, and '^N, 
God, and denoting, "the Lord hath hearkened." 
The heavenly messenger who appeared to Ha. 
gar in the wilderness, and instructed her by 
what name to call her future son, predicted 
also that he and his posterity would prove 
fierce and v/arlike, engaged in repeated hos. 
tilities, and yet able to maintain their inde- 
pendence. Hagar, deriving encouragement 
from this circumstance, returned to the house 
of Abraham, and was soon delivered of her 
promised son. The father regarded Ishmael 
as the heir of his wealth, till Sarah had the 
promise of her son Isaac. After the birth of 
Isaac, Abraham was persuaded by his wife to 
dismiss Hagar and her son ; and the patriarch 
probably provided for their subsistence in some 
distant situation, where they could not en- 
croach on the patrimony of Isaac. Having 
wandered for some time in the wilderness of 
Beersheba, they proceeded farther to the wil. 
derness of Paran, which bordered on Arabia ; 
and here Ishmael arrived at maturity, and 
became an expert archer, or a hunter and war- 
rior. In process of time hi^ mother procured 
for him a wife out of Egypt, by whom he had 
twelve sons, who eventually established them- 
selves as the heads of so many distinct Ara- 
bian tribes. Accordingly, the descendants of 
Ishmael are mentioned in history under the 
general name of Arabians and Ishmaelites. 
Of Ishmael's personal history, \Ye merely learn 
from the sacred writings, that he joined with 
his brother Isaac in paying the last tribute of 
respect to the remains of their father ; and 
that he died at the age of a hundred and thirty- 
seven years, B. C. 1773, Gen. xxv, 9, 18. His 
descendants, according to the Scripture ac- 
count, spread themselves " from Havilah to 
Shur, that is, before Egypt, as thou goest to- 
ward Assyria." From this brief statement, 
we may conjecture how far their territory 
extended ; for Havilah, according to the ge- 
nerality of writers, was situated near the con- 
fluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, and Shur, 
on the isthmus which separates Arabia from 
Egypt, now called the Isthmus of Suez. From 
thence we may well imagine, that they spread 
themselves on both sides so far as to have 
taken possession of the greatest part of Ara- 
bia ; and, indeed, Josephus does not scruple to 



style their progenitor the founder of the Ara- 
bian nation. See Arabia. 

ISHTOB, a country situated at the northern 
extremity of the mountains of Gilead, toward 
Mount Libanus, 2 Sam. x, 6. See Tob. 

ISRAEL, a prince' of God, or prevailing, 
or wrestling with God. This is the name 
which the angel gave Jacob, after having 
wrestled with him all night at Mahanaim, or 
Peniel, Genesis xxxii, 1, 2, 28, 29, 30; Hosea 
xii, 4. By the name of Israel is sometimes 
understood the person of Jacob, sometimes the 
whole people of Israel, the whole race of Ja- 
cob ; sometimes the kingdom of Israel, or ten 
tribes, distinct from the kingdom of Judah ; 
and finally, the spiritual Israel, the true church 
of God. 

ISRAELITES, the descendants of Israel, 
who were first called Hebrews by reason of 
Abraham, who came from the other side of 
the Euphrates ; and afterward Israelites, from 
Israel, the father of the twelve tribes ; and, 
lastly, Jews, particularly after their return 
from the captivity of Babylon ; because the 
tribe of Judah was then much stronger and 
more numerous than the other tribes, and 
foreigners had scarcely any knowledge but of 
this tribe. See Jews. 

ISSACHAR, the fifth son of Jacob and 
Leah, Gen. xxx, 14-18. He had four sons, 
Tola, Phovah, Job, and Shimron. We know 
nothing particular of his life. The tribe of 
Issachar had its portion in one of the best 
parts of the land of Canaan, along the great 
plain or valley of Jezreel, with the half tribe 
of Manasseh to the south, that of Zebulun to 
the north, the Mediterranean to the west, and 
Jordan, with the extremity of the sea of Tibe- 
rias, to the east. 

ITHAMAR, Aaron's fourth son, Exod. 
vi, 23. There is no probability that he ever 
exercised the high priesthood. He and his 
sons continued in the rank of simple priests, 
till this dignity came into his family in the 
person of Eli. 

ITUR^A, so called from Itur, oy Jetur, 
one of the sons of Ishmael, who settled in it, 
but whose posterity were either driven out or 
subdued by the Amorites ; when it is supposed 
to have formed a part of the kingdom of Ba- 
shan, and subsequently of the half tribe of 
Manasseh east of Jordan ; but as it was situ- 
ated beyond the southern spur of Mount Her- 
mon, called the Djebel Heish, this is doubtfiil. 
It lay on the north-eastern side of the land of 
Israel, between it and the territory of Damas. 
cus, or Syria ; and is supposed to have been the 
same country at present known by the name 
of Djedour, on the east of the Djebel Heish, 
between Damascus and the lake of Tiberias. 
The Ituraeans being subdued by Aristobulus, 
the high priest and governor of the Jews, 
B. C. 106, were forced by him to embrace the 
Jewish religion ; and were at the same time 
incorporated into the state. Philip, one of the 
sons of Herod the Great, was tetrarch, or 
governor, of this country when John the 
Baptist commenced his ministry. 



IVO 



497 



JAC 



zVORY. DOnJiy ; from }tf , a tooth, and 
D^an, elephants; i\e<pdvTivos, Rev. xviii, 12. 
The first time that ivory is mentioned in 
Scripture is in the reign of Solomon. If the 
forty.fifth Psalm was written before the Can- 
ticles, and before Solomon had constructed his 
royal and magnificent throne, then that con- 
tains the first mention of this commodity. It 
is spoken of as used in decorating those boxes 
of perfiime, whose odours were employed to 
exhilarate the king's spirits. It is probable 
that Solomon, who traded to India, first 
brought thence elephants and ivory to Judea. 
" For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish, 
with the navy of Hiram : once in three years 
came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold 
and silver, and ivory," 1 Kings x, 22 ; 2 Chron. 
ix, 21. It seems that Solomon -had a throne 
decorated with ivory, and inlaid with gold; 
the beauty of these materials relieving the 
splendour, and heightening the lustre of each 
other, 1 Kings x, 18. Cabinets and wardrobes 
were ornamented with ivory, by what is called 
marqu.etry, Psalm xlv, 8. 

Quale per artem 
Inclusum buxo aut Oricia tercbintho 

Lucet ebur. Virgil. 

" So shines a gem, illustrious to behold, 
On some fair virgin's neck, enchased in gold: 
So the surrounding ebon's darker hue 
Improves the polish'd ivory to the view." 

Pitt. 
These were named "houses of ivory," pro- 
bably because made in the form of a house, or 
palace ; as the silver vaol of Diana, mentioned 
Acts xix, 24, were in the form of her temple 
at Ephesus ; and as we have now ivory models 
of the Chinese pagodas, or temples. In this 
sense we may understand what is said of the 
ivory house which Ahab made, 1 Kings 
xxii, 39 ; for the Hebrew word translated 
*♦ house is used," as Dr. Taylor well observes, 
fpr *' a place, or case, wherein any thing lieth, 
IS Contained, or laid up." Ezekiel gives the 
name of house to chests of rich apparel, 
Ezek. xxvii, 24. Dr. Durell, in his note on 
Psalm xlv, 8, quotes places from Homer and 
Euripides, where the same appropriation is 
made. Hesiod makes the same. As to dwell- 
ing houses, the most, I think, we can suppose 
in regard to them is, that they might have or- 
naments of ivory, as they sometimes have of 
gold, silver, or other precious materials, in 
such abundance as to derive an appellation 
from the article of their decoration; as the 
Emperor Nero's palace, mentioned by Sueto- 
nius, was named aurea, or "golden," because 
lita auro, " overlaid with gold." This method 
of ornamental buildings, or apartments, was 
very ancient among the Greeks. Homer men. 
tions ivory as employed in the palace of Me- 
nelaus at Lacedsemon : — 

XaXKOv re j-cpoTr;))', KaSSiijiara ?;;)^;^£VTa 
Xpvcov t\ rjXiKTps T£, Kai apyvpy, rj 6' eXicpavTOi. 
Odyss. iv, 72. 
" Above, beneath, around tlie palace, shines 
The suraless treasure of exhausted mines; 
The spoils of elephants the i oof inlay, 
And studded amber darts a golden ray." 
Bacchylides, cited hy AthensBus, says, that, 
33 



in the island of Ceos, one of the Cyclades, the 
houses of the great men " glister with gold 
and ivory." 

JABBOK, a small river which falls into the 
Jordan below the sea of Tiberias, Near this 
brook the angel wrestled with Jacob, Gen. 
xxxii, 22. Mr. Buckingham thus describes it : 
"The banks of this stream are so thickly 
wooded with oleander and plane trees, wild 
olives, and wild almonds in blossom, with 
many flowers, the names of which were un- 
known to us ; with tall and wavii\g reeds, at 
least fifteen feet in height ; that we could not 
perceive the water through them from above, 
though the presence of these luxuriant borders 
marked the winding of its course, and the 
murmur of its flow, echoing through its long 
deep channel, was to be heard distinctly from 
afar. On this side of the stream, at the spot 
where we forded it, was a piece of wall, solidly 
built upon the inclined slope, constructed in a 
uniform manner, though of small stones, and 
apparently finished at the end toward the 
river, so that it never could have been carried 
across, as we at first supposed, either for a 
bridge, or to close the pass. This was called 
by the Arabs ' Shugl beni Israel,' or the work 
of the sons of Israel ; but they knew of no 
other traditions regarding it. The river, where 
we crossed it at this point, was not more than 
ten yards wide, but it was deeper than the Jor- 
dan, and nearly as rapid ; so that we had some 
difiiculty in fording it. As it ran in a rocky 
bed, its waters were clear, and we found their 
taste agreeable." 

JABESH, or JABESH-GILEAD,the name 
of a city in the half tribe of Manasseh, east of 
Jordan. Naash, king of the Ammonites, be- 
sieged it, 1 Sam. xi, 1, &c. The inhabitants 
were friendly to Saul and his family, 1 Sam. 
xxxi, 11, 12. 

JACHIN, the name of a pillar in Solomon's 
temple, 1 Kings vii, 21. See Boaz. 

JACOB, the son of Isaac and Rebekah. He 
was the younger brother of Esau, and a twin. 
It was observed, that at his birth he held his 
brother Esau's heel, and for this reason was 
called Jacob, Gen. xxv, 26, which signifies 
"he supplanted." Jacob was of a meek and 
peaceable temper, and loved a quiet pas- 
toral life ; whereas Esau was of a fierce and 
turbulent nature, and was fond of hunting. 
Isaac had a particular fondness for Esau ; but 
Rebekah was more attached to Jacob. The 
manner in which Jacob purchased his brother's 
birthright for a mess of pottage, and supplanted 
him by obtaining Isaac's blessing, is already 
referred to in the article Esau. 

The events of the interesting and chequered 
life of Jacob are so plainly and consecutively 
narrated by Moses, that they are familiar to 
all ; but upon some of them a few remarks 
may be usefiil. As to the purchase of the 
birthright, Jacob appears to have been inno- 
cent so far as any guile on his part or real 
necessity from hunger on the part of Esau is 
involved in the question ; but his obtaining the 
ratification of this by the blessing of Isaac, 



JAC 



498 



JAC 



though agreeable, indeed, to the purpose of 
God, that the elder should serve the younger, 
was blamable as to the means employed. 
The remarks of Dr. Hales on this transaction 
implicate Isaac also : — Thirty-seven years after, 
when Jacob was seventy-seven years old, ac- 
cording to Abulfaragi, and Isaac a hundred 
and thirty-seven, when he was old, and his 
sight had failed, and he expected soon to die, 
his partiality for Esau led him to attempt to 
set aside the oracle, and the cession of Esau's 
birthright to Jacob, by conferring on him the 
blessing of Abraham, in reward for bringing 
him savoury venison to eat, before his death. 
In this design, however, he was disappointed 
by the artifice of Rebekah, who dressed her 
favourite Jacob in his brother's clothes, and 
made him personate Esau, and thereby surrep- 
titiously obtained for him the blessing : " Let 
people serve thee, and nations bow down to 
thee : be lord over thy brethren, and let thy 
mother's sons bov/ down to thee : cursed be 
every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he 
that blesseth thee," Gen. xxvii, 1-29. It is 
remarkable that, notwithstanding the agitation 
of Isaac, when " he trembled very exceeding- 
ly," at the detection of the fraud, he did not 
attempt to rescind the blessing, nor transfer it 
to Esau ; but, on the contrary, confirmed it on 
Jacob: "Yea, and he shall be blessed." His 
wishes were overruled and controlled by that 
higher power which he vainly endeavoured to 
counteract; and that he spoke as the Spirit 
gave him utterance, appears from his predic- 
tion respecting Esau's family : " And it shall 
come to pass, when thou shalt have the do- 
minion, that thou shalt break thy brother's 
yoke from ofi^ thy neck," Gen. xxvii, 40 ; 
which was fulfilled in the days of Jehoram, 
king of Judah, when the Edomites revolted 
from under the dominion of Judah, and made 
themselves a king unto this day," 2 Chron. 
xxi, 8-10. 

According to this view, all the parties v/ere 
more or less culpable ; Isaac, for endeavouring 
to set aside the oracle which had been pro- 
nounced in favour of his younger son ; but of 
which he might have an obscure conception ; 
Esau, for wisliing to deprive his brother of the 
blessing which he had himself relinquished ; 
and Rebekah and Jacob, for securing it by 
fraudulent means, not trusting wholly in the 
Lord. That their principal object, however, 
was the spiritual part of the blessing, and not 
the temporal, was shown by the event. For 
Jacob afterward reverenced Esau as his elder 
brother, and insisted on Esau's accepting a 
present from his hand in token of submission, 
Gen. xxxiii, 3-15. Esau also appears to have 
possessed himself of his father's property dur- 
ing Jacob's long exile. But though the inten- 
tion of Rebekah and Jacob might have been 
free from worldly or mercenary motives, they 
ought not to have done evil that good might 
come. And they were both severely punished 
in this life for their fraud, which destroyed the 
peace of the family, and planted a mortal en- 
mity in the breast of Esau against his brother : 
"Is he not rightly named Jacob ?" a sup. 



planter; "for he hath supplanted me these 
two times : he took away my birthright, ani 
lo, now he hath taken away my blessing. The 
days of mourning for my father are at liand ; 
then will I slay my brother Jacob," Gen. xxvii, 
36-41. And there can be little doubt of his 
intention of executing his threat, when he 
came to meet him on his return, with such an 
armed force as strongly alarmed Jacob's fears, 
had not God changed the spirit of Esau into 
mildness, so that "he ran to meet Jacob, and 
fell on his neck, and they wept," Gen. xxxiii, 4. 
Rebekah, also, was deprived of the society of 
her darling son, whom " she sent away for one 
year," as she fondly imagined, "until his bro- 
ther's fury should turn away," Genesis xxvii, 
42-44 ; but whom she saw no more ; for she 
died during his long exile of twenty years, 
though Isaac survived. Gen. xxxv, 27. Thus 
was " she pierced through with many sorrows." 
Jacob, also, had abundant reason to say, " Few 
and evil have been the days of the years of 
my pilgrimage," Gen. xlvii, 9. Though he had 
the consolation of having the blessing of Abra- 
ham voluntarily renewed to him by his father, 
before he was forced to fly from his brother's 
fury. Gen. xxviii, 1-4, and had the satisfaction 
of obeying his parents in going to Padan-aram, 
or Charran, in quest of a wife of his own kin. 
dred, Gen. xxviii, 7 ; yet he set out on a long 
and perilous journey of six hundred miles and 
upward, through barren and inhospitable re- 
gions, unattended and unprovided, like a pil- 
grim, indeed, with only his staff in his hand, 
Gen. xxxii, 10. And though he was supported 
with the assurance of the divine protection, 
and the renewal of the blessing of Abraham 
by God himself, in his remarkable vision at 
Bethel, and solemnly devoted himself to his 
service, wishing only for food and raiment, 
and vowing to profess the worship of God, and 
pay tithe unto him should he return batfk in 
peace. Gen. xxviii, 10-22 ; yet he was forced 
to engage in a tedious and thankless servitude 
of seven years, at first for Rachel, with liaban, 
who retaliated upon him the imposition he had 
practised on his own father ; and substituted 
Leah, whom he hated, for Rachel, whom he 
loved ; and thereby compelled him to serve 
seven years more ; and changed his wages 
several times during the remainder of his 
whole servitude of twenty years ; in the course 
of which, as he pathetically complained, "the 
drought consumed him by day, and the frost 
by night, and the sleep departed from his 
eyes," in watching Laban's flocks. Gen. xxxi, 
40 ; and at last he was forced to steal away, 
and was only protected from Laban's ven. 
geance, as afterward from Esau's, by divine 
interposition. Add to these his domestic 
troubles and misfortunes ; the impatience of 
his favourite wife, " Give me children, or I 
die ;" her death in bearing her second son, 
Benjamin ; the rape of his daughter Dinah ; 
the perfidy and cruelty of her brothers, Simeon 
and Levi, to the Shechemites ; the misbe- 
haviour of Reuben ; the supposed death of 
Joseph, his favourite and most deserving 
son : — these were, all together, sufficient to 



JAC 



490 



JAC 



have brought down his gray hai?s with sor- 
row to the grave, had he not been divinely 
supported and encouraged throughout the 
whole of his pilgrimage. For the circumstan- 
ces which led Jacob into Egypt, see Joseph. 

When Jacob, at the invitation" of Joseph, 
went down to Egypt, Joseph introduced his 
father to his royal master ; and the patriarch, 
in his priestly character, blessed Pharaoh, and 
supplicated the divine favour for the king. 
The venerable appearance and the pious de- 
meaiaour of Jacob led the monarch to inquire 
his years ; to which he replied, " The days of 
the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and 
thirty years : few and evil have the days of 
the years of my life been ; and I have not 
attained unto the days of the years of the life 
of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage." 
This answer of the patriarch was not the lan- 
guage of discontent, but the solemn reflection 
of a man who had experienced a large share 
of trouble, and who knew that the whole of 
human life is indeed but "a vain show," 
Genesis xlvii, 1-10. Jacob spent the remain- 
der of his days in tranquillity and prosperity, 
enjoying the society of his beloved child 
seventeen years. The close of his life was a 
happy calm, after a stormy voyage. The 
patriarch, perceiving that his dissolution was 
near, sent for Joseph, and bound him by a 
solemn promise to bury him with his fathers 
in Canaan. Shortly after this, Jacob was taken 
ill, and it being reported to Joseph, he hastened 
to the bedside of his father, taking with him 
his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. On 
hearing that his son was come, Jacob exerted 
all his strength, and sat up in his bed to re- 
ceive him, and to impart that blessing which, 
in the spirit of prophecy, he was commissioned 
to bequeath. He next blessed the infant chil- 
dren of Joseph ; but, as he placed his hands 
upon their heads, he crossed them, putting his 
right upon Ephraim the younger, and his left 
upon Manasseh the elder. Joseph wished to 
correct the mistake of his father, but Jacob 
persisted, being guided hy a divine impulse ; 
and he gave to each of the lads a portion in 
Israel, at the same time declaring that the 
younger should be greater than the elder, Gen. 
xlviii, 22. When this interview was ended, 
Jacob caused all his sons to assemble round his 
dying bed, that he might inform them what 
would befall them in the last days, Gen. xlix, 1, 
2. Of all the predictions which he pronounced 
with his expiring breath, the most remarkable 
and the most interesting is that relating to 
Judah : " The sceptre shall not depart from 
Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, 
an til Shiloh come ; and unto him shall the 
gathering of the people be," Gen. xlix, 10. 
One grand personage was in the mind of the 
patriarch, as it had been in the contemplation 
of his predecessors, even the illustrious De- 
liverer who should arise in after ages to redeem 
his people, and bring salvation to the human 
race. The promised Seed was the constant 
object of faithful expectation ; and all the 
patriarchal ordinances, institutions, and pre- 
dictions, had an allusion, positive or incidental, 



to the Messiah. Hitherto the promise was 
confined generally to Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, that from them the glorious blessing 
should arise ; but now, under the divine direc- 
tion, the dying patriarch foretels in what tribe, 
and at what period, the great Restorer shall 
come. The sovereign authority was to con- 
tinue in the possession of Judah, till from that 
tribe Shiloh should appear, and then the royalty 
must cease. This was fulfilled ; for the tribe 
of Judah possessed legislative power till the 
time of Christ, and from that period the Jewish 
people have neither had dominion nor priest- 
hood. Jesus Christ, therefore, must either be 
the true Shiloh, or the prophecy has failed ; 
for the Jews cannot prove that they have had 
any thing like temporal power since his cruci- 
fixion. When they were so clamorous for the 
execution of Jesus, and Pilate told them to 
take the law into their own hands, they shrunk 
fearfiilly from the proposal, and acknowledged 
their slavish state by saying, " It is not lawful 
for us to put any man to death," John xviii, 
31. Here, then, we have a glorious proof of 
the veracity of Scripture, and an incontestible 
evidence of the truth of our religion. 

When Jacob had finished blessing his sons, 
he charged them to bury him in the cave of 
Machpelah, with Abraham and Isaac, and, 
" gathering his feet into the bed, he yielded 
up the ghost, and was gathered unto his peo- 
ple," Gen. xlix, 33. Joseph, having closed the 
eyes of his father, and wept over him, com. 
manded the physicians to embalm the body. 
After a general mourning of seventy days, he 
solicited the king's permission to go with the 
remains of Jacob into Canaan, to which Pha- 
raoh consented ; and with Joseph went up all 
the state officers and principal nobility of 
Egypt, so that when they came to the place 
of interment, the Canaanites were astonished, 
and said, " This is a grievous mourning to the 
Egyptians," Gen. 1, 1-11. 

JACOBITES, a denomination of eastern 
Christians, who first made their appearance in 
the fifth century, and were called Monophy- 
sites. Jacob Albardai, or Baradaeus, who 
flourished about A. D. 530, restored the sect, 
then almost expiring, to its former vigour, 
and modelled it anew; and hence from him 
they obtained the name of Jacobites, See 
Hypostatical Union. 

JACOB'S WELL, or fountain, a well near. 
Shechem, at which our Saviour conversed 
with the woman of Samaria, John iv, 12. 
Jacob dwelt near this place, before his sons 
slew the inhabitants of Shechem. If any 
thing, says Dr. E. D. Clarke, connected with 
the remembrance of past ages be calculated to 
awaken local enthusiasm, the land around this 
city is preeminently entitled to consideration. 
The sacred story of events transacted in the 
fields of Sichem, Gen.xxxvii, from our earliest 
years, is remembered with delight ; but with 
the territory before our eyes, where those 
events took place, and in the view of objects 
existing as they were described above three 
thousand years ago, the grateful impression 
kindles into ecstacy. Along the valley may 



JAC 



500 



JAM 



still be seen, as in the days of Reuben and 
Judah, " a company of Ishmaelites coming 
from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery, 
and balm, and myrrh," who would gladly pur- 
chase another Joseph of his brethren, and con- 
vey him as a slave to some Potiphar in Egypt. 
Upon the hills around, flocks and herds are 
seen feeding as of old ; nor in the simple garb 
of the shepherds of Samaria, at this day, is 
there any thing repugnant to the notions we 
may entertain of the appearance formerly pre- 
sented by the sons of Jacob. In the time of 
Alexander the Great, Sichem, or Napolose, as 
it is now called, was considered as the capital 
of Samaria. Its inhabitants were called Sa- 
maritans, not merely as people of Samaria, 
but as a sect at variance with the Jews ; and 
they have continued to maintain their peculiar 
tenets to this day. The inhabitants, accord- 
ing to Procopius, were much favoured by the 
Emperor Justinian, who restored their sanctu- 
aries, and added largely to the edifices of the 
city. The principal object of veneration among 
them is Jacob's well, over which a church was 
formerly erected. This is situated at a small 
distance from the town in the road to Jerusa- 
lem, and has been visited by pilgrims of all 
ages, but particularly since the Christian era, 
as the place where Christ revealed himself to 
the woman of Samaria. The spot is so dis- 
tinctly marked by the evangelist, John iv, and 
so little liable to uncertainty from the circum- 
stance of the well itself, and the features of the 
country, that, if no tradition existed to identify 
it, the site of it could scarcely be mistaken. 
Perhaps no Christian scholar ever read the 
fourth chapter of St. John's Gospel attentively, 
without being struck with the numerous inter- 
nal evidences of truth which crowd upon the 
mind in its perusal. Within so small a com- 
pass, it is impossible to find in other writings 
so many sources of reflection and of interest. 
Independently of its importance as a theo- 
logical document, it concentrates so much 
information, that a volume might be filled 
with the illustration it reflects upon the his- 
tory of the Jews, and upon the geography of 
their country. All that can be gathered from 
Josephus on these subjects seems to be as a 
comment to illustrate this chapter. The jour- 
ney of our Lord from Judea into Galilee ; the 
cause of it ; his passage through the territory 
of Samaria ; his approach to the metropolis of 
that country ; its name ; his arrival at the 
Amorite field, which terminates the narrow 
valley of Sichem ; the ancient custom of halt- 
ing at a well ; the female employment of draw- 
ing water ; the disciples sent into the city for 
food, by which its situation out of the town is 
so obviously implied ; the question of the wo- 
man referring to existing prejudices which 
separated the Jews from the Samaritans ; the 
depth of the well ; the oriental allusion con- 
tained in the expression, "living water;" the 
history of the well, and the customs illustrated 
by it ; the worship upon Mount Gerizim : — 
all these occur within the space of twenty 
verses; and if to these be added that remark- 
able circumstance mentioned in the fifty-first 



verse of the chapter, where it is stated tVvat 
"as he was now going down, his servants met 
him," his whole route from Cana being a con- 
tinual descent toward Capernaum, we may 
consider it as a record, signally confirmed in 
its veracity by circumstances which remain in 
indelible character, to give them evidence, to 
this day. 

JAH, one of the names of God, which we 
meet with in the composition of many Hebrew 
words; as, Adonijah, Allelvjah, Malachiah; 
that is, " My Lord," " Praise the Lord," "The 
Lord is my King." 

JAIR, of the family of Manasseh. He pos- 
sessed a large canton beyond Jordan ; the 
whole country of Argob, as far as the borders 
of Geshur and Maachathi, Judges x, 3. He 
succeeded Tola in the judicature or government 
of the Israelites, and was himself succeeded by 
Jephthah. His government continued twenty, 
two years ; from A. M. 2795 to 2817. Jair 
had thirty sons, who rode on asses, and were 
lords or governors of thirty towns, called 
Havoth-jair. He was buried at Camon beyond 
Jordan. 

JAMES, 'l«/cw/3of, of the same import as 
Jacob. James, surnamed the greater or, the 
elder, to distinguish him from James the 
younger, was brother to John the evangelist, 
and son to Zebedee and Salome, Matt, iv, 21, 
He was of Bethsaida, in Galilee, and left all 
to follow Christ. Salome requested our Sa- 
viour, that her two sons, James and John, 
might sit at his right hand, when he should 
be in possession of his kingdom. Our Saviour 
answered, that it belonged to his heavenly Fa- 
ther alone to dispose of these places of honour, 
Matt. XX, 21. Before their vocation, James 
and John followed the trade of fishermen with 
their father Zebedee ; and they did not quit 
their profession till our Saviour called them, 
Mark i, 18, 19. They were witnesses of our 
Lord's transfigaration. Matt, xvii, 2. When 
certain -Samaritans refused to admit Jesus 
Christ, James and John wished for fire from 
heaven to consume them, Luke ix, 54 ; and 
for this reason, it is thought, the namfr of 
Boanerges, or sons of thunder, was given them. 
Some days after the resurrection of our Sa- 
viour, James and John went to fish in the sea 
of Tiberias, where they saw Jesus. They were 
present at the ascension of our Lord. St. James 
is said to have preached to all the dispersed 
tribes of Israel ; but for this there is only 
report. His martyrdom is related, Acts xii, 
1, 2, about A. D. 42, or 44, for the date is not 
well ascertained. Herod Agrippa, king of the 
Jews, and grandson of Herod the Great, caused 
him to be seized and executed at Jerusalem, 
Clemens Alexandrinus informs us, that he 
who brought St. James before the judges was 
so much affected with his constancy in con- 
fessing Jesus Christ, that he also declared him- 
self a Christian, and was condemned, as well 
as the Apostle, to be beheaded. 

James tiik less, surnamed the brother of 
our Lord, Gal. i, 19, was the son of Cleophas, 
otherwise called Alpheus, and Mary, sister to 
the blessed virgin ; consequently, he was 



JAM 



501 



JAM 



cousm-german to Jesus Christ. He was sur- 
named the Just, on. account of the admirable 
holiness and purity of his life. He is said to 
have been a priest, and to have observed the 
laws of the Nazarites from his birth. Qur 
Saviour appeared to James the less, eight 
daj's after his resurrection, 1 Cor. xv, 7. He 
was at Jerusalem, and was considered as a 
pillar of the church, when St. Paul first came 
thither after his conversion, Gal. i, 19, A. D. 
37. In the council of Jerusalem, held in the 
year 51, St. James gave his vote last ; and the 
result of tlie council was principally formed 
from what St. James said, who, though he 
observed the ceremonies of the law, and was 
careflil that others should observe them, was 
of opinion, that such a yoke was not to be 
imposed on the faithful converted from among 
the Heathens, Acts xv, 13, &c. 

James the less was a person of great pru- 
dence and discretion, and was highly esteemed 
by the Apostles and other Christians. Such, 
indeed, was his general reputation for piety 
and. virtue, that, as we learn from Origen, 
Eusebius, and Jerom, Josephus thought, and 
declared it to be the common opinion, that the 
sufferings of the Jews, and the destruction of 
their city and temple, were owing to the anger 
of God, excited by the murder of James. This 
must be considered as a strong and remarkable 
testiiriony to the character of this Apostle, as 
it is given by a person who did not believe 
that Jesus was the Christ. The passages of 
Josephus, referred to by those fathers upon 
this subject, are not found in his works now 
extant. 

James, General Epistle of. Clement of 
Rome and Hermas allude to this epistle ; and 
it is quoted by Origen, Eusebius, Athanasius, 
Jerom, Chrysostom, Augustine, and many 
other fathers. But though the antiquity of this 
epistle had been always undisputed, some few 
formerly doubted its right to be admitted into the 
canon. Eusebius says, that in his time it was 
generally, though not universally, received as. 
canonical ; and publicly read in most, but not 
in all, churches ; and Estius affirms, that after 
the fourth century, no church or ecclesiastical 
writer is found who ever doubted its authen- 
ticity ; but that, on the contrary, it is included 
in all subsequent catalogues of canonical Scrip- 
ture, whether published by councils, churches, 
or individuals. It has, indeed, been the uni- 
form tradition of the church, that this epistle 
was written by James the Just ; but it was 
not universally admitted till after the fourth, 
century, that James the Just was the same 
person as James the less, one of the twelve 
Apostles ; that point being ascertained, the 
canonical authority of this epistle was no 
longer doubted. It is evident that this epistle 
could not have been written by James the 
elder, for he was beheaded by Herod Agrippa 
in the year 44, and the errors and vices re- 
proved in this epistle show it to be of a much 
later date ; and the destruction of Jerusalem is 
also here spoken of as being very near at hand, 
James v, 8, 9. It has always been considered 
as a circumstance verv much in favour of this 



epistle, that it is found in the Syriac version, 
which was made as early as the end of the 
first century, and for the particular use of 
converted Jews, — the very description of per- 
sons to whom it was originally addressed. 
Hence we infer, that it was from the first ac- 
knowledged by those for whose instruction it 
was intended; and "I think," says Dr. Dod- 
dridge, " it can hardly be doubted but they 
were better judges of the question of its au- 
thenticity than the Gentiles, to whom it was not 
written ; among whom, therefore, it was not 
likely to be propagated so early ; and who at 
first might be prejudiced against it, because it 
was inscribed to the Jews." 

The immediate design of this epistle was to 
animate the Jewish Christians to support with 
fortitude and patience any sufferings to which 
they might be exposed, and to enforce the 
genuine doctrine and practice of the Gospel, 
in opposition to the errors and vices which 
then prevailed among them. St. James begins 
by showing the benefits of trials and afflic- 
tions, and by assuring the Jewish Christians 
that God would listen to their sincere prayers 
for assistance and support ; he reminds them 
of their being the distinguished objects of 
divine favour, and exhorts them to practical 
religion ; to a just and impartial regard for 
the poor, and to a uniform obedience to all the 
commands of God, without any distinction or 
exception ; he shows the inefficacy of faith 
without works, that is, unless followed by 
moral duties ; he inculcates the necessity of a 
strict government of the tongue, and cautions 
them against censoriousness, strife, malevo- 
lence, pride, indulgence of their sensual pas- 
sions, and rash judgment ; he denounces 
threats against those who make an improper 
use of riches ; he intimates the approach, 
ing destruction of Jerusalem ; and concludes 
with exhortations to patience, devotion, and a 
solicitous concern for the salvation of others. 
This epistle is written with great perspicuity 
and energy, and it contains an excellent sum- 
mary of those practical duties and moral virtues 
which are required of Christians. Although 
the author wrote to the Jews dispersed through- 
out the world, yet the state of his native land 
passed more immediately before his eyes. Its 
final overthrow was approaching ; and oppres- 
sions, factions, and violent scenes troubled all 
ranks, and involved some professing Chris- 
tians in suffering, others in guilt. 

JANNES and JAMBRES, or, as Pliny calls 
them, Jamne and Jotape, two magicians, who 
resisted Moses in Egypt, 2 Tim. iii, 8. He 
speaks, likewise, of the faction or sect of ma- 
gicians, of which, he says, Moses, Jannes, and 
Jocabel, or Jopata, were heads. By this last 
word he meant probably the patriarch Joseph, 
whom the Egyptians considered as one of 
their most celebrated sages. The Mussulmans 
have several particulars to the same purpose. 
The paraphrast Jonathan says they were the 
sons of Balaam, who accompanied him to 
Balak, king of Moab. They are called by 
several names in several translations ; by the 
Septuagint, ^apuaKoi, poisoners, and inaoiioi, en- 



JAN 



502 



JAP 



chanters; by Sulpitius Sevems, Chald(Bans, 
that is, astrologers ; by others, sapientes and 
malefici, wise men, that is, so esteemed among 
the Egyptians, philosophers, and witches. 
Artapanus tells us, that Pharaoh sent for 
magicians from Upper Egypt to oppose Moses. 
Ambrosiaster, or Hilary, the deacon, says 
they were brothers. He cites a book entitled 
*'Jannes and Mambres," which is likewise 
quoted by Origen, and ranked as apocryphal 
by Pope Gelasius. Some of the Hebrews call 
them Janes and Jambres ; others, Jochana and 
Mamre, or Jonas and Jombros. Jerom trans- 
lates their names Johannes and Mambres ; and 
there is a tradition, they say, in the Talmud, 
that Juhanni and Mamre, chief of Pharaoh's 
physicians, said to Moses, " Thou bringest 
straw into Egypt where abundance of corn 
grew ;" that is, to bring your magical arts 
hither is to as much purpose as to bring water 
to the Nile. Some say their names are the 
same as John and Ambrose. Some will have 
it that they fled away with their father ; others, 
that they were drowned in the Red Sea with 
the Egyptians ; others, that they were killed 
by Phinehas in the war against the Midianites. 
Numenius, cited by Aristobulus, says that 
Jannes and Jambres were sacred scribes of 
the Egyptians, who excelled in magic at the 
time when the Jews were driven out of Egypt. 
See Plagues of Egypt. 

JANSENISTS, a denomination of Roman 
Catholics in France, which was formed in the 
year 1640. They follow the opinions of Jan- 
senius, bishop of Ypres, from whose writings 
the following propositions are said to have 
been extracted : — 1. That there are divine pre- 
cepts which good men, notwithstanding their 
desire to observe them, are, nevertheless, ab. 
solutely unable to obey ; nor has God given 
them that measure of grace which is essentially 
necessary to render them capable of such obe-' 
dience. 2. That no person, in this corrupt 
state of nature, can resist the influence of 
divine grace, when it operates upon the mind. 
3. That, in order to render human actions 
meritorious, it is not requisite that they be ex- 
empt from necessity ; but that they be free from 
constraint. 4, That the Semi-Pelagians err 
greatly, in maintaining that the human will is 
endowed with the power of either receiving or 
resisting the aids and influences of preventing 
grace. 5. That whoever affirms that Jesus 
Christ made expiation, by his sufferings and 
death, for the sins of all mankind, is a Semi- 
Pelagian. Of the^e propositions, Pope Inno- 
cent X. condemned the first four as heretical, 
and the last as rash and impious. But he did 
this without asserting that these were the doc- 
trines of Jansenius, or even naming him ; 
which did not satisfy his adversaries, nor 
silence him. The next pope, however, Alex- 
ander VII. was more particular, and determined , 
the said propositions to be the doctrines of 
Jansenius ; which excited no small trouble in 
the Gallican church. 

This denomination was also distinguished 
from many of the Roman Catholics, by their 
maintaining that the Holy Scriptures and pub- 



lic liturgies should be given to the people in 
their mother tongue ; and they consider it as 
a matter of importance to inculcate upon all 
Christians, that true piety does not consist in 
the performance of external devotions, but in 
inward holiness and divine love. 

As to Jansenius, it must be confessed that 
he was more diligent in the search of truth, 
than courageous in its defence. It is said that 
he read through the whole of St. Augustine's 
works ten, and some parts thirty, times. From 
these he made a number of excerpta, [extracts,] 
which he collected in his book called " Augus^ 
tinus.''^ This he had not the courage to pub- 
lish ; but it was printed after his death, and 
from it his enemies, the Jesuits, extracted the 
propositions above named ; but the correctness 
and fidelity of their extracts may be justly 
questioned. Jansenius himself, undoubtedly, 
held the opinions of Calvin on unconditional 
election, though he seems to have been reserved 
in avowing them. 

The Jansenists of Port Royal may be de- 
nominated the evangelical party of the Catholic 
church : among their number were the famous 
Father Quesnel, Pierre Nicole, Pascal, De 
Sacy, Duguet, and Arnauld ; the last of whom 
is styled by Boileau, "the most learned mor- 
tal that ever lived." They consecrated all 
their great powers to the service of the cross ; 
and for their attachment to the grand article 
of the Protestant reformation, — justification 
by faith, with other capital doctrines, they suf- 
fered the loss of all things. The Jesuits, their 
implacable enemies, never ceased until they 
prevailed upon their sovereign, Louis XIV. to 
destroy the abbey of Port Royal, and banish 
its inhabitants. It must be confessed, how- 
ever, that all the Jansenists were not like the 
eminent men whom we have just mentioned ; 
and even these were tinged with enthusiasm 
and superstition. Some of them even pre- 
tended to.work miracles, by which their cause 
was greatly injured. 

JAPHETH, the son of Noah, who is com. 
monly named the third in order of Noah's 
sons, was born in the five hundredth year of 
that patriarch. Genesis v, 32 ; but Moses, 
Genesis x, 21, says expressly he was the oldest 
of Noah's sons, according to our translation, 
and those of the Septuagint and Symmachus, 
Abraham was named the first of Terah's sons, 
"not from primogeniture, but from preemi- 
nence," as the father of the faithful, and the 
illustrious ancestor of the Israelites, and of 
the Jews, whose " seed was Christ," according 
to the flesh ; with whose history the Old Tes- 
tament properly commences : " Now these areT 
the generations of Terah," &c. Gen. xi, 27 ; 
all the preceding parts of Genesis being only 
introductory to this. By the same analogy, 
Shem, the second son of Noah, is placed first 
of his three sons, Gen. v, 32, and Japheth, 
"the eldest," last. Compare Gen. x, 21; 
xi, 20. Thus Isaac is put before Ishmael, 
though fourteen years younger, 1 Chron. i, 28. 
And Solomon, the eldest, is reckoned the last 
of Bathsheba's children, 1 Chron. iii, 5. 

Japheth signifies enlargement; and how 



JAP 



503 



JED 



wonderfully did Providence enlarge the bound- 
aries of Japheth ! His posterity diverged east- 
ward and westward ; from the original set- 
tlement in Armenia, through the wliole extent 
of Asia, north of the great range of Taurus, 
distinguished by the general names of Tartary 
and Siberia, as far as the Eastern Ocean : and 
in process of time, by an easy passage across 
Behring's straits, the entire continent of 
America ; and they spread in the opposite di- 
rection, throughout the whole of Europe, to 
the Atlantic Ocean ; thus literally encom- 
passing the earth, within the precincts of the 
northern temperate zone. While the enter- 
prising and warlike genius of this hardy hunter 
race frequently led them to encroach on the 
settlements, and to dwell in " the tents of 
Shem," whose pastoral occupations rendered 
them more inactive, peaceable, and unwarlike ; 
as when the Scythians invaded Media, and 
overran western Asia southwards, as far as 
Egypt, in the days of Cyaxares ; and when the 
Greeks, and afterward the Romans, subdued 
the Assyrians, Medes, and Persians, in the 
east, and the Scythians and Jews in the south, 
as foretold by the Assyrian, Prophet Balaam : 

"And ships sliall come from the coastof Chittim, 

Au'l shall afflict the Assyrians, and afflict the Hebrews ; 

But he [tlie invader] shall perish himselfat last." 
Numb, xxiv, 24. 
And by Moses : "And the Lord shall bring 
thee [the Jews] into Egypt [or bondage] again 
with ships," &c, Deut. xxviii, 28. And by 
Daniel : " For the ships of Chittim shall come 
against him" [Antiochus, king of Syria,] Dan. 
xi, 30. 

In these passages Chittim denotes the 
southern coasts of Europe, bordering on the 
Mediterranean Sea, called tlie " isles of the 
Gentiles," Gen. x, 5. And, in later times, 
the Tartars in the east have repeatedly invaded 
and subdued the Hindoos and Chinese ; while 
the warlike and enterpi-ising genius of the 
British isles has spread their colonies, their 
arms, their arts, and their language, and, in 
some measure, their religion, frona the rising 
to the setting sun. 

The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, 
Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. 
The Scripture says, that they peopled the isles 
of the Gentiles, and settled in different coun- 
tries, each according to his language, family, 
and people. Genesis x, 5. It is supposed that 
Gomer peopled Galatia, and that from him the 
Cimmerians, or Cimbrians, and also the Phry- 
gians, derived their origin ; that Magog was 
the father of the Scjlhians, and Tartars, or 
Tatars; that Madai was the progenitor of the 
Medes, though some make him the founder 
of a people in Macedonia, called Macdi ; that 
from Javan sprung the lonians and Greeks ; 
that Tubal was the father of the Iberians, and 
that at least a part of Spain was peopled by 
him and his descendants ; that Meshech was 
the founder of the Cappadocians, from whom 
proceeded the Muscovites, or Russians ; and 
that from Tiras the Thracians derived their 
origin. Japheth was known, by profane au- 
thors, under the name of Japetus. The poets 



make him father of heaven and earth. The 
Greeks believed that Japheth was the father 
of their race, and acknowledged nothing more 
ancient than him. 

JAR, the Hebrew month which answers to 
our April. It consisted but of twenty-nine 
days. 

JASPER, n£)tt'>, Exod. xxviii, 20 ; xxxix, 13 ; 
and Ezek. xxviii, 13 ; 'iacins, Rev. iv, 3, and 
xxi, 11, 18, 19. The Greek and Latin name, 
jaspis, as well as the English jasper, is 
plainly derived from the Hebrew, and leaves 
little room to doubt what species of gem is 
meant by the original word. The jasper is 
usually defined, a hard stone, of a bright, 
beautiful, green colour ; sometimes clouded 
with white, and spotted with red or yellow. 

JAVAN, or ION, (for the Hebrew word, 
differently pointed, forms both names,) was 
the fourth son of Japheth, and the father of 
all those nations which were included under 
the name of Grecians, or lonians, as they were 
invariably called in the east. Javan had four 
sons, by whom the different portions of Greece 
Proper were peopled : Elisha, Tharsis, Chit, 
tim, and Dodanim. Elisha, Eliza, or Ellas, 
as it is written in the Chaldee, and from whom 
the Greeks took the name of "EAXr/ve?, settled 
in the Peloponnesus ; where, in the Elysian 
fields and the river Ilissus, his name is still 
preserved. Tharsis settled in Achaia ; Chit- 
tim, in Macedonia; and Dodanim, in Thes- 
saly and Epirus ; where the city of Dodona 
gives ample proof of the origin of its name. 
But the Greeks did not remain pure Javanim. 
It appears from history that, at a very early 
age, they were invaded and subjugated by the 
Pelasgi, a Cuthite race from the east, and by 
colonies of Phenicians and Egyptians from 
the south : so that the Greeks, so famous in 
history, were a compound of all these people. 
The aboriginal Greeks were called Jaones, or 
Jonim ; from which similarity of sound, the 
Jonim and the Javanim, although belonging 
to two essentially different families, have been 
confounded together. Javan is the name 
used in the Old Testament for Greece and the 
Greeks. See Division of the Earth. 

JEALOUSY, Waters of. See Adultery. 
JEBUS, the son of Canaan, Gen. x, 16, and 
father of the people of Palestine called Jebu- 
sites. Their dwelling was in Jerusalem and 
round about, in the mountains. This people 
were very warlike, and held Jerusalem till 
David's time, Josh, xv, 65 ; 2 Sam. v, 6, &c. 
JEDUTHUN, a Levite of Merari's family, 
and one of the four great masters of music 
belonging to the temple, 1 Chron. xvi, 38, 41, 
42 ; XV, 17 ; Psalm Ixxxix, title. He is the 
same as Ethan. Some of the Psalms are said 
to have been composed by him ; such as the 
eighty-ninth, thirty-ninth, sixty-second, seven- 
ty-seventh ; all of which go under his name. 
Some believe, that David, having composed 
these Psalms, gave them to Jeduthun and his 
company to sing ; and that this is the reason 
of their going by this name. But there are 
some Psalms which have the name of Jedu- 
thun, that seem to have been composed either 



JEH 



504 



JEH 



daring the captivity, or after it ; and conse- 
quently the name of Jeduthun prefixed to 
them, can signify nothing else, but that some 
of his descendants, and of Jeduthun's class, 
composed them long after the death of the 
famous Jeduthun, one of their ancestors. 

JEHOAHAZ, otherwise SHALLUM, the 
son of Josiah, king of Judah, Jer. xxii, 11. 
Josiah having been wounded mortally by 
Necho, king of Egypt, and dying of his 
wounds at Megiddo, Jehoahaz was made king 
in his room, though he v/as not Josiah's eldest 
son, 2 Kings xxiii, 30, 31, 32. He was in all 
probability thought fitter than any of his 
brethren to make head against the king of 
Egypt. He was twenty-three years old v/hen 
he began to reign, and he reigned about three 
months only in Jerusalem, in the year of the 
world 3395. King Necho, at his return from 
the expedition against Carchemish, provoked 
at the people of Judah for having placed this 
prince upon the throne without his consent, 
sent for him to Riblah, in Syria, divested him 
of the kingdom, loaded him with chains, and 
sent him into Egypt, where he died, Jer. xxii, 
11, 12. Jehoiakim, or Eliakim his brother, 
was made king in his room. 

JEHOIACHIN, otherwise called Coniah, 
Jer. xxii, 24, and Jeconiah, 1 Chron. iii, 17, 
the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and 
grandson of Josiah. He ascended the throne, 
and reigned only three months. It seems he 
was born about the time of the first Babylonish 
captivity, A. M. 3398, when Jehoiakim, or 
Eliakim, his father, was carried to Babylon. 
Jehoiakim returned from Babylon, and reigned 
till A. M. 3405, when he was killed by the 
Chaldeans, in the eleventh year of his reign ; 
and was succeeded by this Jehoiachin, who 
reigned alone three months and ten days ; 
but he reigned about ten years in conjunction 
with his father. Thus 2 Kings xxiv, 8, is re- 
conciled with 2 Chron. xxxvi, 9. In the 
former of these passages, he is said to have 
been eighteen when he began to reign, and in 
Chronicles only eight ; that is, he was only 
eight when he began to reign with his father, 
and eighteen when he began to reign alone. 
He was a bad man, and did evil in the sight 
of the Lord, Jer. xxii, 24. The time of his 
death is uncertain ; and the words of the Pro- 
phet Jeremiah, xxii, 30, are not to be taken 
in the strictest sense ; since he was the father 
of Salathiel and others, 1 Chron. iii, 17, 18 ; 
Matt, i, 12. 

JEHOIAKIM, or ELIAKIM, the brother 
and successor of Jehoahaz, king of Judah, 
was advanced to the throne by Pharaoh-Necho, 
king of Egypt, A. M. 3395, 2 Kings xxiii, 34. 
He reigned eleven years in Jerusalem, and 
did evil in the sight of the Lord. When Jeru- 
salem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar, this 
prince was also taken and put to death, and 
his body thrown into the common sewer, ac- 
cording to the prediction of Jeremiah, xxii, 
18, 19. 

JEHOSHAPHAT, king of Judah, son of 
Asa, king of Judah, and Azabah, daughter of 
Shilhi, ascended the throne at the age of 



thirty-five, and reigned twenty-five years. He 
had the advantage over Baasha, king of Israel ; 
and he placed good garrisons in the cities of 
Judah and of Ephraim, which had been con- 
quered by his father. God was with him, be- 
cause he was faithful. He demolished the 
high places and groves. In the third year of 
his reign he sent some of his officers, with 
priests and Levites, through all the parts of 
Judah, with the book of the law, to instruct 
the people. God blessed the zeal of this prince, 
who was feared by all his neighbours. The 
Philistines and Arabians were tributaries to 
him. He built several houses in Judah in the 
form of towers, and fortified several cities. 
He generally kept an army of eleven hundred 
thousand men, without reckoning the troops 
in his strong holds. This number seems pro- 
digious for so small a state as that of Judah ; 
but, probably, these troops were only an en- 
rolled militia. 

The Scripture reproaches Jehoshaphat for 
his alliance with Ahab, king of Israel, 1 Kings 
XX ; 2 Chronicles xviii. Some time after, he 
went to visit Ahab in Samaria ; and Ahab 
invited him to march with him against Ra- 
moth-Gilead. Jehoshaphat consented, but first 
asked for an opinion from a prophet of the 
Lord. Afterward, he went into the battle in 
his robe, and the enemy supposed him to be 
Ahab ; but he crying out, they discovered their 
mistake, and Jehoshaphat returned in peace 
to Jerusalem. The Prophet Jehu reproved 
him for assisting Ahab, 2 Chron. xix^ 1, 2, 3, 
&c. Jehoshaphat repaired this fault by the 
good regulations, and the good order, which 
he established in his dominions, both as to 
civil and religious affairs, by appointing ho- 
nest and able judges, by regulating the disci- 
pline of the priests and Levites, and by en- 
joining them to perform their duty with punc- 
tuality. After this, in the year 3108, the 
Moabites, Ammonites, and other nations of 
Arabia Petrisa, declared war against Jeho- 
shaphat, 2 Chron. xx, 1, 2, 3, &c. They 
advanced to Hazaron-Tamar, otherwise En- 
gedi. Jehoshaphat went with his people to 
the temple, and put up prayers to God. Jaha- 
ziel, the son of Zechariah, by the Spirit of 
the Lord, encouraged the king, and promised 
that the next day he should obtain a victory 
without fighting. Accordingly, these people 
being assembled the next day against Judah, 
quarrelled, and killed one another ; and Jeho- 
shaphat and his army had only to gather their 
spoils. This prince continued to walk in the 
ways of the Lord ; yet he did not destroy the 
high places, and the hearts of the people 
were not entirely directed to the God of their 
fathers. Jehoshaphat died after a reign of 
twenty -five years, and was buried in the royal 
sepulchre ; and his son, Jehoram reigned in 
his stead. 

2. Jehoshaphat, Valley of. This valley is 
a deep and narrow glen, which runs from 
north to south, between the Mount of Olives 
and Mount Moriah ; the brook Cedron flow- 
ing through the middle of it, which is dry the 
greatest part of the year, but has a current of 



JEH 



505 



JEH 



a red colour, after storms, or in rainy seasons. 
The Prophet Joel, iii, 2, 12, says, " The Lord 
will gather all nations in the valley of Jeho- 
shaphat, and will plead with them there." 
Abenezra is of opinion, that this valley is the 
place where King Jehoshaphat obtained a sig- 
nal victory over the Moabites, Ammonites, 
and Meonians of Arabia Petraea, 2 Chron. xx, 
1, &LC, toward the Dead Sea, beyond the 
wilderness of Tekoah, which after that event 
was called the valley of blessing, verse 26. 
Others think it lies between the walls of Jeru- 
salem and the Mount of Olives. Cyril, of 
Alexandria, on Joel iii, says that this valley is 
but a few furlongs distant from Jerusalem, 
Lastly, some maintain that the ancient He- 
brews had named no particular place the valley 
of Jehoshaphat ; but that Joel intended gene- 
rally the place where God would judge the 
nations, and will appear at the last judgment 
in the brightness of his majesty. Jehoshaphat, 
in Hebrew, signifies "the judgment of God." 
It is very probable that the valley of Jehosha- 
phat, that is, of God's judgment, is symbolical, 
as well as the valley of slaughter, in the same 
chapter. From this passage, however, the 
Jews and many Christians have been of opin- 
ion, that the last judgment will be solemnized 
in the valley of Jehoshaphat. 

JEHOVAH, nin% the proper and incommu- 
nicable name of the Divine Essence. That 
this divine name, .Tehovah, was well known 
to the Heathens, there can be no doubt. 
Sanchoniathon writes Jebo; Diodorus, the 
Sicilian, Macrobius, St. Clemens Alexandri- 
nus, St. Jerom, and Origen, pronounce Jao ; 
Epiphanius, Theodoret, and the Samaritans, 
Jabe, Jave. We likewise find in the ancients, 
Jahoh, Java, Jaw, Jaod. The Moors call 
their god Ja6a, whom some believe to be the 
same as Jehovah. The Latins, in all proba- 
bility, took their Javis, or Jovis Paler, from 
Jehovah. 

The Jews, after their captivity in Babylon, 
out of an excessive and superstitious respect 
for this name, left off to pronounce it, and 
thus lost the true pronunciation. The Sep- 
tuagint generally renders it Kvpios, "the Lord." 
Origen, St. Jerom, and Eusebius, testify that 
in their time the Jews left the name of Jeho- 
vah written in their copies in Samaritan cha- 
racters, instead of writing it in the common 
Chaldee or Hebrew characters ; which shows 
their veneration for this holy name : and the 
fear they were under, lest strangers, who 
were not unacquainted with the Chaldee let- 
ters and language, should discover and misap- 
ply it. The Jews call this name of God the 
Tetragrammaton, or the name with four let- 
ters. It would be waste of time and patience 
to repeat all that has been said on this incom- 
municable name : it may not be amiss, how- 
ever, to remind the reader, 1. That although 
it signifies the state of being, yet it forms no 
verb. 2. It never assumes a plural form. 
3. It does not admit an article, or take an 
affix. 4. Neither is it placed in a state of 
construction with other words ; though other 
words may be in construction with it. It 



seems to be a compound of n\ the essence, 
and mn, existing; that is, always existing; 
whence the word eternal appears to express 
its import; or, as it is well rendered, "He 
who is, and who was, and who is to come," 
Rev. i, 4 ; xi, 17 ; that is, eternal, as the 
schoolmen speak, both a parte ante, and a 
parte post. Compare John viii, 58. It is 
usually marked by an abbreviation, i, in Jew- 
ish books, where it must be alluded to. It is 
also abbreviated in the term ni, Jah, which, 
the reader will observe, enters into the forma- 
tion of many Hebrew appellations. See Jah. 
JEHU, the son of Jehoshaphat, and grandson 
of Nimshi, captain of the troops of Joram the 
king of Israel, was appointed by God to reign 
over Israel, and to avenge the sins committed 
by the house of Ahab, 1 Kings xix, 16. The 
Prophet Elisha received a commission to 
anoint him ; but the order does not appear to 
have been executed until more than twenty 
years afterward, and then it was done by one 
of the sons of the prophets, 2 Kings ix, 1-3. 
Jehu was then at the siege of Ramoth-Gilead, 
commanding the army of Joram, the king of 
Israel, when a young prophet appeared, who 
took him aside from the officers of the army, 
in the midst of whom he was sitting, and, when 
alone in a chamber, poured oil on his head, 
and said to him, " Thus saith the Lord, I have 
anointed thee king over Israel ; thou shalt smite 
the house of Ahab, and avenge the blood of 
the prophets which hath been shed by Jezebel. 
For the whole house of Ahab shall perish, and 
I will make it as that of Jeroboam, the son of 
Nebat, and that of Baasha, the son of Ahijah. 
Jezebel shall be eaten by the dogs in the fields 
of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury 
her," 2 Kings ix, 1-10. No sooner had the 
prophet delivered his message, than, to avoid 
being known, he instantly withdrew ; and 
Jehu, returning to the company of his brother 
officers, was by then) interrogated respecting 
what had taken place. He informed them that 
a prophet had been sent from God to anoint 
him to the kingly office ; on which they all 
rose up, and each taking his cloak, they made 
a kind of throne for Jehu, and then sounding 
the trumpets, cried out, "Jehu is king." Jo- 
ram, who at that time reigned over the king- 
dom of Israel, was then at Jezreel in a state 
of indisposition, having been wounded at the 
siege of Ramoth-Gilead. Jehu, intending to 
surprise him, immediately gave orders that no 
one should be permitted to depart out of the 
city of Ramoth, and himself set off" for Jezreel. 
As he approached that city, a centinel gave 
notice that he saw a troop coming in great 
haste ; on which Joram despatched an officer 
to discover who it was ; but Jehu, without 
giving the latter any answer, ordered him to 
follow in his rear. Joram sent a second, and 
Jehu laid upon him the same command. Find- 
ing that neither of them returned, Joram him- 
self, accompanied by Ahaziah, king of Judah, 
proceeded in his chariot toward Jehu, whom 
they met in the field of Naboth the Jezreelite. 
Joram inquired, " Is it peace, Jehu ?" To 
which the latter replied, " How can there be 



JEH 



506 



JEP 



peace so long as the whoredoms of thy mother 
Jezebel, and her witchcrafts, are so many ?" 
Joram instantly took the alarm, and, turning 
to Ahaziah, said, " We are betrayed." At the 
same time Jehu drew liis bow, and smote Jo- 
ram between his shoulders, so that the arrow 
pierced his heart, and he died in his chariot. 
Jehu then gave orders that his body should be 
cast out into the field of Naboth the Jezreelite, 
thus fulfilling the prediction of the Prophet 
Elijah, 2 Kings ix, 11-26. ' 

Jehu next proceeded to Jezreel, where Jeze- 
bel herself at that time resided. As he rode 
through the streets of the city, Jezebel, who 
was standing at her window and looking at him, 
exclaimed, " Can he who has killed his master 
hope for peace ?" Jehu, lifting up his head 
and seeing her, commanded her servants in- 
stantly to throw her out at the window ; which 
they did, and she was immediately trampled to 
death under the horses' feet as they traversed 
the city. To complete her destiny, and fulfil 
the threatenings of Elijah, the dogs came and 
devoured her corpse ; so that when Jehu sent 
to have her buried, her bones only were found, 
2 Kings ix, 27-37. After this, Jehu sent to 
inform the inhabitants of Samaria, who had 
the bringing up of Ahab's seventy children, 
that they might select which of them they 
thought proper to place upon the throne of 
Israel. But overwhelmed with fear, they re- 
plied that they were Jehu's servants, and 
would in all things obey him. He then com- 
manded them to put to death all the king's 
children, and send their heads to him ; which 
was accordingly done on the following day. 
Jehu also caused to be put to death all Ahab's 
relatives and friends, the officers of his court, 
and the priests whom he had entertained at 
Jezreel, 2 Kings x, 1-11. After this, Jehu pro- 
ceeded to Samaria, and on his way thither met 
the friends of Ahaziah, king of Judah, who were 
going to Jezreel to salute the children of Ahab's 
family, with the death of whom they were as 
yet unacquainted. They were forty-two in 
number ; but Jehu gave orders to have them 
apprehended and put to death. Soon after 
this, he met with Jonathan, the son of Rechab; 
and taking him up into his chariot, "Come with 
me," said he, " and see my zeal for the Lord." 
"And when he was come to Samaria he extir- 
pated every remaining branch of Ahab's family, 
without sparing an individual. Then conven- 
ing the people of Samaria, he said, " Ahab paid 
some honours to Baal, but I will pay him 
greater. Send now and gather together all 
the ministers, priests, and prophets of Baal." 
When they were all assembled in Baal's tem- 
ple, Jehu commanded to give each of them a 
particular habit, to distinguish them ; at the 
same time directing that no stranger should 
mingle with them ; and then ordered his peo- 
ple to put them all to the sword, not sparing 
one of them; the image of Baal was also pulled 
down, broken to pieces, and burned, the temple 
itself destroyed, and the place where it stood 
reduced to a dunghill, 2 Kings x, 12-28. 

Such were the sanguinary exploits of Jehu 
toward the idolatrous house of Ahab ; but he 



acted agreeably to divine direction, and the 
Lord in these instances so far approved his 
conduct, as to promise him that his children 
should sit upon the throne of Israel to the 
fourth generation. Yet, though Jehu had 
been the instrument in the hand of God for 
taking vengeance on the profane house of 
Ahab, we find him accused in Scripture of not 
entirely forsaking the sins of Jeroboam, the 
son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin in wor- 
shipping the golden calves, 2 Kings x, 29, 31. 
It appears also that, in executing the divine 
indignation on the wicked house of Ahab, he 
was actuated more by the spirit of ambition 
and animosity than the fear of God, or a regard 
to the purity of his worship. And thus it is 
that God, in the course of his providence, 
makes use of tyrants and wicked men, as his 
instruments to execute his righteous judgments 
in the earth. After a reign of eight-and-twent}^ 
years over Israel, Jehu died, and was succeed- 
ed by his son, Jehoahaz ; but his reign was 
embittered by the war which Hazael, king of 
Syria, long waged against him, 2 Kings x, 
32-36. His four descendants, who succeeded 
him in the throne, were Jehoahaz, Joash, Jero- 
boam II. and Zechariah. 

JEPHTHAH, one of the judges of Israel, 
was the son of Gilead by a concubine, Judges 
xi, 1, 2. His father having several other chil- 
dren by his lawful wife, they conspired to expel 
Jephthah from among them, insisting that he 
who was the son of a strange woman should 
have no part of the inheritance with ,them. 
Like Ishmael, therefore, he withdrew, and 
took up his residence beyond Jordan, in the 
land of Tob, v/here he appears to have become 
the chief of a banditti, or marauding party^ 
who probably lived by plunder. Judges xi, 3. 
In process of time, a war broke out between 
the Ammonites and the children of Israel who 
inhabited the country beyond Jordan ; and the 
latter, finding their want of an intrepid and 
skilful leader, applied to Jephthah to take the 
command of them. He at first reproached them 
with the injustice they had done him, in ban- 
ishing him from his father's house ; but he at 
length yielded to their importunity, on an 
agreement that, should he be successful in 
the war against the Ammonites, the Israelites 
should acknowledge him for their chief, Judges 
xi, 4-11. . 

As soon as Jephthah was invested with the 
command of the Israelites he sent a deputation 
to the Ammonites, demanding to know on 
what principle the latter had taken up arms 
against them. They answered that it was to 
recover the territory which the former had 
taken from them on their first coming out of 
Egypt. Jephthah replied that they had made 
no conquests in that quarter but from the 
Amorites ; adding, " If you think you have 
a right to all that Chemosh, your god, hath 
given you, why should not we possess all that 
the Lord our God hath confei'red on us by 
right of conquest ?" Jephthah's reasoning 
availed nothing with the Ammonites ; and as 
the latter persisted in waging war, the former 
collected his troops together and put himself 



JEP 



507 



JEP 



at their head. The Spirit of the Lord is said 
to have now come upon Jeplithah ; by which 
we are here to understand, that the Lord en- 
dowed him with a spirit of valour and forti- 
tude, adequate to the exigence of the sitivation 
in which he was placed, animating him with 
courage for the battle, and especially inspired 
him with unshaken confidence in the God of 
the armies of Israel, Judges xi, 17 ; Heb. xi, 
32 ; 1 Sam. xi, 6 ; Num. xxiv, 2. Jephthah at 
this time made a vow to the Lord that if he 
delivered the Ammonites into his hand, what- 
ever came forth out of the doors of his house 
to meet hinr when he returned should be the 
Lord's ; it is also added in our English ver- 
sion, " and I will offer it up for a burnt-offer- 
ing," Judges ^xi, 3] . The battle terminated 
auspiciously for Jephthah ; the Ammonites 
were defeated, and the Israelites ravaged their 
country. But on returning toward his own 
house, his daughter, an only child, came out 
to meet her father with timbrels and dances, 
accompanied by a chorus of virgins, to cele- 
brate his victory. On seeing her, Jephthah 
rent his clothes, and said, "Alas, my daughter ! 
thou hast brought me very low; for I have 
opened my mouth to the Lord, and cannot go 
back." His daughter intimated her readiness 
to accede to any vow he might have made in 
which she was personally interested ; only 
claiming a respite of two months, during which 
she might go up to the mountains and bewail 
her virginity with her companions. Jephthah 
yielded to this request, and at the end of two 
months, according to the opinion of many, her 
father offered her up in sacrifice, as a burnt- 
offering to the Lord, Judges xi, 34-39. It is, 
however, scarcely necessary to mention, that 
almost from the days of Jephthah to the pre- 
sent time, it has been a subject of warm contest 
among the critics and commentators, whether 
the judge of Israel really sacrificed his daughter, 
or only devoted her to a state of celibacy. 
Among those who contend for the former 
opinion, may be particularly mentioned the 
very learned Professor Michaelis, v/ho insists 
most peremptorily that the words, " did with 
her as he had vowed," cannot mean any tiling 
else but that her father put her to death, and 
burned her body as a burnt-offering. On this 
point, however, the remarks of Dr. Hales are 
of great weight : — When Jephthah went forth 
to battle against the Ammonites "he vowed a 
vow unto the Lord, and said. If thou wilt 
surely give the children of Ammon into my 
hand, then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh 
out of the doors of my house to meet me, when 
I return in peace from the children of Ammon, 
shall either be the Lord's, or I will offer it up 
[for] a burnt-offering," Judges xi, 30, 3L Ac- 
cording to this rendering of the two conjunc- 
tions, ^, in the last clause, either, or, which is 
justified by the Hebrew idiom, the paucity of 
connecting particles in that language making 
it necessary that this conjunction should often 
be understood disjunctively, the vow consisted 
of two parts, 1. That what person soever met 
him should be the Lord's, or be dedicated to 
his service. 2, That what beast soever met 



him, if clean, should be offered up for a burnt- 
offering unto the Lord, This rendering, and 
this interpretation, is warranted by the Leviti- 
cal law about vows. The mj, or vow in gene- 
ral, included either persons, beasts, or things, 
dedicated to the Lord for pious uses ; which, 
if it was a simple vow, was redeemable at cer 
tain prices, if the person repented of his vow, 
and wished to commute it for money, accord- 
ing to the age and sex of the person. Lev. 
xxvii, 1-8. This was a wise regulation to 
remedy rash vows. But if the vow was accom- 
panied with CD"\n, devotement, it was irredeem- 
able, as in the following cases : " Notwith- 
standing, no devotement which a man shall 
devote unto the Lord, [either] of man, or of 
beast, or of land of his own property, shall be 
sold or redeemed. Every thing devoted is 
most holy unto the Lord," Lev. xxvii, 28. 
Here the three vans in the original should ne- 
cessarily be rendered disjunctively, or, as the 
last actually is in our public translation, be- 
cause there are three distinct subjects of de- 
votement, to be applied to distinct uses ; the 
man, to be dedicated to the service of the Lord, 
as Samuel by his mother, Hannah, 1 Sam. i, 
11; the caiile, if clean, such as oxen, sheep, 
goats, turtle doves, or pigeons, to be sacrificed ; 
and if unclean, as camels, horses, asses, to be 
emplo3^ed for carrying bui'dens in the service of 
the tabernacle or temple ; and the lands, to be 
sacred property. This law, therefore, expressly- 
applied, in its first branch, to Jephthah's case, 
who had devoted his daughter to the Lord, or 
opened his mouth unto the Lord, and there- 
fore could not go back ; as he declared in his 
grief at seeing his daughter, and his only child, 
coming to meet him with timbrels and dances. 
She was, therefore, necessarily devoted, but 
with her own consent, to perpetual virginity, 
in the service of the tabernacle. Judges xi, 
36, 37. And such service was customary ; for 
in the division of the spoils taken in the first 
Midianite war, of the whole number of cap. 
tive virgins, " the Lord's tribute was thirty- 
two persons," Num. xxxi, 35-40. This in- 
stance appears to be decisive of the nature of 
her devotement. Her father's extreme grief 
on this occasion, and her requisition of a re- 
spite of two months to bewail her virginity, 
are both perfectly natural : having no other 
issue, he could only look forward to the ex- 
tinction of his name or family ; and a state of 
celibacy, which is reproachful among women 
every where, was peculiarly so among the 
Israelites ; and was therefore no ordinary 
sacrifice on her part, who, though she gene- 
rously gave up, could not but regret the loss 
of becoming " a mother in Israel." " And he 
did with her according to his vow which he had 
vowed, and she knew no man," or remained a 
virgin all her life. Judges xi, 34-49. There 
was also another case of devotement which 
was irredeemable, and follows the former : 
" No one devoted, who shall be devoted of 
man, shall be redeemed, but shall surely be 
put to death," Levit. xxvii, 29. This case 
differs materially from the former: 1. It is 
confined to persons devoted, omitting beasts 



JEP 



508 



JER 



and lands. 2. It does not relate to private 
property, as in the foregoing. 3. The subject 
of it was to be utterly destroyed, instead of 
being "most holy unto the Lord." This law, 
therefore, related to aliens or public enemies 
devoted to destruction, either by God, by the 
people, or by the magistrate. Of ail these we 
have instances in the Scriptures : 1. The 
Amalekites and Canaanites were devoted by 
God himself. Saul, therefore, was guilty of a 
breach of this law for sparing Agag, the king 
of the Amalekites, as Samuel reproached him, 
1 Sam. XV, 23 : and " Samuel hewed Agag in 
pieces before the Lord," not as a sacrifice, ac- 
cording to Voltaire, but as a criminal, " whose 
sword had made many women childless." By 
this law the Midianite women, who had been 
spared in battle, were slain, Num. xxxi, 14-17. 

2. In Mount Hor, when the Israelites were 
attacked by Arad, king of the southern Ca- 
naanites, who took some of them prisoners, 
they vowed a vow unto the Lord, that they 
would utterly destroy these Canaanites, and 
their cities, if the Lord should deliver them 
into their hand ; which the Lord ratified. 
Whence the place was called Hhormah, be- 
cause the vow was accompanied by cherem, 
or devotement to destruction, Num. xxi, 1-3. 
And the vow was accomplished. Judges i, 17. 

3. In the Philistine war, Saul adjured the peo- 
ple, and cursed any one that should taste food 
until the evening. His own son, Jonathan, 
inadvertently ate a honey comb, not knowing 
of his father's oath, for which Saul sentenced 
him to die. But the people interposed, and 
rescued him, for his public services ; thus as- 
suming the power of dispensing, in their col- 
lective capacity, with an unreasonable oath, 
1 Sam. xiv, 24-45. This latter case, therefore, 
is utterly irrelative to Jephthah's vow, which 
did not regard a foreign enemy, or a domestic 
transgressor, devoted to destruction, but, on 
the contrary, was a vow of thanksgiving, and 
therefore properly came under the former case. 
And that Jephthah could not possibly have 
sacrificed his daughter, according to the vul- 
gar opinion, founded on incorrect translation, 
may appear from the following considerations : 

1. The sacrifice of children to Moloch was an 
abomination to the Lord, of which in number- 
less passages, he expresses his detestation ; 
and it was prohibited by an express law, un- 
der pain of death, as "a defilement of God's 
sanctuary, and a profanation of his holy name," 
Levit. XX, 2, 3. Such a sacrifice, therefore, 
unto the Lord himself, must be a still higher 
abomination. And there is no precedent of 
any such under the law, in the Old Testament. 

2. The case of Isaac before the law, is irrele- 
vant ; for Isaac was not sacrificed ; and it 
was only proposed for a trial of Abraham's 
faith. 3. No father, merely by his own au- 
thority, could put an offending, much less an 
innocent, child to death, upon any account, 
without the sentence of the magistrates, Deut. 
xxi, 18-21, and the consent of the people, as 
in Jonathan's case. 4. The Mischna, or tra- 
ditional law of the Jews, is pointedly against 
it ; •' If a Jew should devote his son or daugh- 



ter, his man or maid servant, who are Hebrews, 
the devotement would be void ; because no 
man can devote what is not his own, or of 
whose life he has not the absolute disposal." 

These arguments appear to be decisive 
against the sacrifice ; and that Jephthah could 
not even have devoted his daughter to celibacy 
against her will, is evident from the history, 
and from the high estimation in which she 
was always held by the daughters of Israel, 
for her filial duty, and her hapless fate, which 
they celebrated by a regular anniversary com- 
memoration four days in the year. Judges 
xi, 40. We may, however, remark, that, if it 
could be more clearly established that Jeph- 
thah actually immolated his daughter, there is 
not the least evidence that his conduct was 
sanctioned by God. Jephthah was manifestly 
a superstitious and ill-instructed man, and, 
like Samson, an instrument of God's power, 
rather than an example of his grace. 

JEREMIAH. The Prophet Jeremiah was 
of the sacerdotal race, being, as he records 
himself, one of the priests that dwelt at Ana- 
thoth, in the land of Benjamin, a city appro- 
priated out of that tribe to the use of the 
priests, the sons of Aaron, Joshua xxi, 18, and 
situate, as we learn from St. Jerom, about 
three miles north of Jerusalem. Some have 
supposed his father to have been that Hilkah, 
the high priest, by whom the book of the law 
was found in the temple in the reign of Josiah : 
but for this there is no better ground than his 
having borne the same name, which v/as no 
uncommon one among the Jews ; whereas, 
had he been in reality the high priest, he 
would doubtless have been mentioned by that 
distinguishing title, and not put upon a level 
with priests of an ordinary and inferior class. 
Jeremiah appears to have been very young 
when he was called to the exercise of the pro- 
phetical office, from which he modestly en- 
deavoured to excuse himself by pleading his 
youth and incapacity ; but being overruled by 
the divine authority, he set himself to discharge 
the duties of his fiinction with unremitted dili- 
gence and fidelity during a period of at least 
forty-two years, reckoned from the thirteenth 
year of Josiah's reign. In the course of his 
ministry he met with great difliculties and 
opposition from his countrymen of all degrees, 
whose persecution and ill usage sometimes 
wrought so far upon his mind, as to draw from 
him expressions, in the bitterness of his soul, 
which many have thought hard to reconcile 
with his religious principles ; but which, when 
duly considered, may be found to demand our 
pity for his unremitted sufferings, rather than 
our censure for any want of piety and reve- 
rence toward God. He was, in truth, a man 
of unblemished piety and conscientious in- 
tegrity ; a warm lover of his country, whose 
misery he pathetically deplores ; and so af- 
fectionately attached to his countrymen, not- 
withstanding their injurious treatment of him, 
that he chose rather to abide with them, and 
undergo all hardships in their company, than 
separately to enjoy a state of ease and plenty, 
which the favour of the king of Babylon 



JER 



509 



JER 



would have secured to him. At length, after 
the destruction of Jerusalem, being carried 
with the remnant of the Jews into Egypt, 
whither they had resolved to retire, though 
contrary to his advice, upon the murder of 
Gedaliah, whom the Chaldeans had left gover- 
nor in Judea, he there continued warmly to 
remonstrate against their idolatrous practices, 
foretelling the consequences that would inevi- 
tably follow. But his freedom and zeal are said 
to have cost liJni his life ; for the Jews at Tah- 
panhes, according to .tradition, took such of- 
fence at him that they stoned him to death. 
This account of the manner of his end, though 
not absolutely certain, is at least very probable, 
considering the temper and disposition of the 
parties concerned. Their wickedness, how- 
ever, did not long pass without its reward ; 
for, in a few years after, they were miserably 
destroyed by the Babylonian armies which 
invaded Egypt according to the prophet's pre- 
diction, Jer. xliv, 27, 28. 

The idolatrous apostasy, and other criminal 
enormities of the people of Judah, and the 
severe judgments which God was prepared to 
inflict upon them, but not without a distant 
prospect of future restoration and deliverance, 
are the principal subject matters of the prophe- 
cies of Jeremiah; excepting only the forty-fifth 
chapter, which relates personally to Baruch, 
and the six succeeding chapters, which respect 
the fortunes of some particular Heathen na- 
tions. It is observable, however, that though 
many of these prophecies have their particular 
dates annexed to them, and other dates may 
be tolerably well conjectured from certain 
internal marks and circumstances, there ap- 
pears much disorder in the arrangement, not 
easy to be accounted for on any principle of 
regular design, but probably the result of some 
accident or other, which has disturbed the 
original order. The best arrangement of the 
chapters appears to be according to the list 
which will be subjoined ; the diflerent reigns 
in which the prophecies were delivered were 
most probably as follows : The first twelve 
chapters seem to contain all the prophecies 
delivered in the reign of the good King Josiah. 
During the short reign of Shallum, or Jelioa- 
haz, his second son, who succeeded him, 
Jeremiah does not appear to have had any 
revelation. Jehoiakim, the eldest son of Josiah, 
succeeded. The prophecies of this reign are 
continued on from the thirteenth to the twen- 
tieth chapter inclusively ; to which we must add 
the twenty-second, twenty-third, twenty-fifth, 
twenty-sixth, thirty. fifth, and thirty-sixth chap. 
ters, together with the forty-fifth, forty-sixth, 
forty- seventh, and most probably the forty- 
eighth, and as far as the thirty-fourth verse of 
the forty-ninth chapter. Jeconiah, the son of 
Jehoiakim, succeeded. We read of no prophecy 
that Jeremiah actually delivered in this king's 
reign ; but the fate of Jeconiah, his being car- 
ried into captivity, and continuing an exile 
till the time of his death, were foretold early 
in his father's reign, as may be particularly 
seen in the twenty-second chapter. The last 
king of Judah was Zedekiah, the youngest son 



of Josiah. The prophecies delivered in his 
reign are contained in the twenty-first and 
twenty-fourth chapters, the twenty-seventh 
to the thirty-fourth, and the thirty-seventh to 
the thirty-ninth inclusively, together with tlie 
last six verses of the forty-ninth chapter, and 
the fiftieth and fifty-first chapters concerning 
the fall of Babylon. The siege of Jerusalem, 
in the reign of Zedekiah, and the capture of 
the city, are circumstantially related in the 
fifty-second chapter ; and a particular account 
of the subsequent transactions is given in the 
fortieth to the forty-fourth inclusively. The 
arrangement of the chapters, alluded to above, 
is liere subjoined : i-xx, xxii, xxiii, xxv, xxvi, 
XXXV, xxxvi, xlv, xxiv, xxix-xxxi, xxvii, 
xxviii, xxi, xxxiv, xxxvii, xxxii, xxxiii, xxxviii, 
xxxix, from the fifteenth to the eighteenth 
verse, xxxix, from the first to the fourteenth 
verse, xl-xliv, xlvi, and so on. 

The prophecies of Jeremiah, of which the 
circumstantial accomplishment is often speci- 
fied in the Old and New Testament, are of a 
very distinguished and illustrious character- 
He foretold the fate of Zedekiah, Jer. xxxiv, 
2-5 ; 2 Chron. xxxvi, 11-21 ; 2 Kings xxv, 5 ; 
Jer. lii, 11 ; the Babylonish captivity, the 
precise time of its duration, and the return of 
the Jews. He describes the destruction of 
Babylon, and the downfall of many nations, 
Jer. xxv, 12 ; ix, 26 ; xxv, 19-25 ; xlii, 10-18 ; 
xlvi, and the following chapters, in predictions, 
of which the gradual and successive comple- 
tion kept up the confidence of the Jews for the 
accomplishment of those prophecies, which he 
delivered relative to the Messiah and his period, 
Jer. xxiii, 5, 6 ; xxx, 9 ; xxxi, 15 ; xxxii, 14-18 ; 
xxxiii, 9-26. He foreshowed the miraculous 
conception of Christ, Jer. xxxi, 22, the virtue 
of his atonement, the spiritual character of 
his covenant, and the inward efficacy of his 
laws, Jer. xxxi, 31-36 ; xxxiii, 8. Jeremiah, 
contemplating those calamities which im. 
pended over his country, represented, in the 
most descriptive terms, and under the most 
impressive images, the destruction that the 
invading enemy should produce. He bewailed, 
in pathetic expostulation, the shameless adul- 
teries which had provoked the Almighty, after 
long forbearance, to threaten Judah with in- 
evitable punishment, at the time that false 
prophets deluded the nation with the promises 
of " assured peace," and when the people, iia 
impious contempt of " the Lord's word," defied 
its accomplishment. Jeremiah intermingles 
with his prophecies some historical relations- 
relative to his own conduct, and to the com- 
pletion of those predictions which he had 
delivered. The reputation of Jeremiah had; 
spread among foreign nations, and his pro- 
phecies were deservedly celebrated in other- 
countries. Many Heathen writers also have 
undesignedly borne testimony to the truth and 
accuracy of his prophetic and historical de- 
scriptions. 

As to the style of Jeremiah, says Bishop 
Lowth, this prophet is by no means wanting 
either in elegance or sublimity, although, 
generally speaking, inferior to Isaiah in both. 



JER 



610 



JER 



His thoughts, indeed, are somewhat less ele- 
v^ated, and he is commonly more large and 
diffuse in his sentences ; but the reason of this 
may be, that he is mostly taken up with the 
gentler passions of grief and pity, for the 
expression of which he has a peculiar talent. 
This is most evident in the Lamentations, 
where those passions altogether predominate ; 
but it is often visible also in his prophecies, in 
the former part of the book more especially, 
which is principally poetical ; the middle parts 
are chiefly historical ; but the last part, con- 
sisting of six chapters, is entirely poetical, and 
contains several oracles distinctly marked, in 
which this prophet falls very little short of the 
lofty style of Isaiah. But of the whole book 
of Jeremiah it is hardly the one half which I 
look upon as poetical. 

Jeremiah survived to behold the sad ac- 
complishment of all his darkest predictions. 
He witnessed all the horrors of the famine, 
and, when that had done its work, the triumph 
of the enemy. He saw the strong holds of 
the city cast down, the palace of Solomon, 
the temple of God, with all its courts, its roofs 
of cedar and of gold, levelled to the earth, or 
committed to the flames ; the sacred vessels, 
the ark of the covenant itself, with the cheru- 
bim, pillaged by profane hands. What were 
the feelings of a patriotic and religious Jew at 
this trem.endous crisis, he has left on record in 
his unrivalled elegies. Never did city suffer 
a more miserable fate, never was ruined city 
lamented in language so exquisitely pathetic. 
Jerusalem is, as it were, personified, and be. 
wailed with the passionate sorrow of private 
and domestic attachment ; while the more 
general pictures of the famine, the common 
misery of every rank, and age, and sex, all the 
desolation, the carnage, the violation, the 
dragging away into captivity, the remembrance 
of former glories, of the gorgeous ceremonies 
and the glad festivals, the awful sense of the 
divine wrath heightening the present calami- 
ties, are successively drawn with all the life 
and reality of an eye-witness. They combine 
the truth of history with the deepest pathos 
of poetry. 

JERICHO Wets a city of Benjamin, about 
seven leagues from Jerusalem, and two from 
the Jordan, Joshua xviii, 21. Moses calls it 
the city of palm trees, Deut. xxxiv, 3, because 
of palm trees growing in the plain of Jericho. 
Josephus says, that in the territory of this city 
were not only many palm trees, but also the 
balsam tree. The valley of Jericho was wa- 
tered by a rivulet which had been formerly 
salt and bitter, but was sweetened by the Pro- 
phet Elisha, 2 Kings ii, 19. Jericho was the 
first city in Canaan taken by Joshua, ii, 1, 2, 
&c. He sent thither spies, who were received 
by Rahab, lodged in her house, and preserved 
from the king of Jericho. Joshua received 
orders to besiege Jericho, soon after his pas- 
sage over Jordan, Joshua vi, 1-3, &:c. God 
commanded the Hebrews to march round the 
city once a day for seven days together. The 
soldiers marched first, probably oat of the 
]»each of the enemies' arrows, and after them 



the priests, the ark, &c. On the seventh day, 
they marched seven times' round the city ; and 
at the seventh, while the trumpets were sound- 
ing, and all the people shouting, the walls fell 
down. The rabbins say, that the first day was 
our Sunday, and the seventh the Sabbath day. 
During the first six days, the people continued 
in profound silence ; but on the seventh Joshua 
commanded them to shout. Accordingly they 
all exerted their voices, and the walls being 
overthrown, they entered the city, every man 
in the place opposite to him. Jericho being 
devoted by God, they set fire to the city, and 
consecrated all the gold, silver, and brass. 
Then Joshua said, " Cursed be the man before 
the Lord who shall rebuild Jericho." About 
five hundred and thirty years after this, Hiel, 
of Bethel, undertook to rebuild it ; but he lost 
his eldest son, Abiram, at laying the founda- 
tions, and his youngest son, Segub, when he 
hung up the gates. However, we are not to 
imagine that there was no city of Jericho till 
the time of Hiel. There was a city of palm 
trees, probably the same as Jericho, under the 
Judges, Judges iii, 13. David's ambassadors, 
who had been insulted by the Ammonites, 
resided at Jericho till their beards were grown, 
2 Sam. X, 4. There was, therefore, a city of 
Jericho which stood in the neighbourhood of 
the original Jericho, These two places are 
distinguished by Josephus. After Hiel of Be- 
thel had rebuilt old Jericho, no one scrupled 
to dwell there. Our Saviour wrought miracles 
at Jericho, 

According to Pococke, the mountains to 
which the absurd name of Quarantania has 
been arbitrarily given, are the highest in all 
Judea ; and he is probably correct ; they form 
part of a chain extending from Scythopolis 
into Idumea. The fountain of Elisha he states 
to be a soft water, rather warm ; he found in 
it some small shell fish of the turbinated kind. 
Close by the ruined aqueduct are the remains 
of a fine paved way, with a fallen column, 
supposed to be a Roman milestone. The hills 
nearest to Jerusalem consist, according to 
Hasselquist, of a very hard limestone ; and 
different sorts of plants are found on them, in 
particular the myrtle, the carob tree, and the 
turpentine tree ; but farther toward Jericho 
they are bare and barren, the hard limestone 
giving way to a looser kind, sometimes white 
and sometimes grajash, with interjacent layers 
of a reddish micaceous stone, saxum purura 
micaceum. The vales, though now bare and un- 
cultivated, and full of pebbles, contain good 
red mould, which would amply reward the hus- 
bandman's toil. Nothing can be more savage 
than the present aspect of these wild and 
gloomy solitudes, through which runs the very 
road where is laid the scene of that exquisite 
parable, the good Samaritan, and from that 
time to the present, it has been the haunt of 
the most desperate bandits, bemg one of the 
most dangerous in Palestine. Sometimes the 
track leads along the edges of cliffs and preci- 
pices, which threaten destruction on the 
slightest false step ; at other times it winds 
through craggy passes, overshadowed by pro- 



JER 



511 



JER 



jecting or perpendicular rocks. At one place 
the road has been cut through the very apex 
of a hill, the rocks overhanging it on either 
side. Here, in 1820, an English traveller, Sir 
Frederick Henniker, was attacked by the 
Arabs with fire-arms, who stripped him naked, 
and left him severely wounded : "It was past 
mid-day, and burning hot," says Sir Frederick ; 
"I bled profiisely ; and two vultures, whose 
business it is to consume corpses, were hover- 
ing over me. 1 should scarcely have had 
strength to resist, ha'd they chosen to attack 
me." 

The modern village of Jericho is described 
by Mr. Buckingham as a settlement of about 
fifty dwellings, all very mean in their appear- 
ance, and fenced in front with thorny bushes, 
while a barrier of the same kind, the most 
effectual that could be raised against mounted 
Arabs, encircles the town. A fine brook flows 
by it, which empties itself into the Jordan ; the 
nearest point of that river is about three miles 
distant. The grounds in the immediate vicinity 
of the village, being fertilized by this stream, 
bear crops of dourra, Indian corn, rice, and 
onions. The population is entirely Moham- 
medan, and is governed by a sheikh : their 
habits are those of Bedouins, and robbery and 
plunder form their chief and most gainful oc- 
cupation. The whole of the road from Jeru- 
salem to the Jordan, is held to be the most 
dangerous in Palestine ; and indeed, in this 
portion of it, the very aspect of the scenery is 
sufficient, on the one hand, to tempt to robbery 
and murder, and, on the other, to occasion a 
dread of it in those who pass that way. One 
must be amid these wild and gloomy solitudes, 
surrounded by an armed band, and feel the 
impatience of the traveller who rushes on to 
catch a new view at every pass and turn ; one 
must be alarmed at the very tramp of the horses' 
hoofs rebounding through the caverned rocks, 
and at the savage shouts of the footmen, 
scarcely less loud than the echoing thunder 
produced by the discharge of their pieces in the 
valleys ; one must witness all this upon the 
spot, before the full force and beauty of the 
admirable story of the good Samaritan can be 
perceived. Here, pillage, wounds, and death 
would be accompanied with double terror, from 
the frightful aspect of every thing around. 
Here, the unfeeling act of passing by a fellow 
creature in distress, as the priest and Levite 
are said to have done, strikes one with horror, 
as an act almost more than inhuman. And 
here, too, the compassion of the good Samari- 
tan is doubly virtuous, from the purity of the 
motive which must have led to it, in a spot 
where no eyes were fixed on him to draw forth 
the performance of any duty, and from the 
bravery which was necessary to admit of a 
man's exposing himself, by such delay, to the 
risk of a sunilar fate to that from which he was 
endeavouring to rescue his fellow creature. 

JEROBOAM, the son of Nebat and Zeruah, 
was born at Zereda, in the tribe of Ephraim, 
1 Kings xi, 26. He is the subject of frequent 
mention in Scripture, as having been the cause 
of the ten tribes revolting from the dominion 



of Rehoboam, and also of his having "made 
Israel to sin," by instituting the idolatrous wor- 
ship of the golden calves at Dan and Bethel, 
1 Kings xii, 26-33. He seems to have been a 
bold, unprincipled, and enterprising man, with 
much of the address of a deep politician about 
him ; qualities which probably pointed him oxit 
to King Solomon as a proper person to be en- 
trusted with the obnoxious commission of 
levying certain taxes throughout the tribes of 
Ephraim and Manasseh. On a certain day, 
as Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem into 
the country, having a new cloak wrapped about 
his shoulders, the Prophet Ahijah met him 
in a field where they were alone, and seizing 
the cloak of Jeroboam, he cut it into twelve 
pieces, and then addressing him, said, " Take 
ten of them to thyself; for thus saith the Lord, 
I will divide and rend the kingdom of Solomon, 
and will give ten tribes to thee. If, therefore, 
thou obeyest my word and walkest in my ways 
as David my servant has done, I will be with 
thee, and will establish thy house for ever, and 
put thee in possession of the kingdom of Is 
rael," 1 Kings xi, 14-39. Whether it were that 
the promises thus made by Ahijah prompted 
Jeroboam to aim at taking their accomplish- 
ment into his own hands, and, with a view to 
that, began to solicit the subjects of Solomon 
to revolt ; or whether the bare information of 
what had passed between the prophet and 
Jeroboam, excited his fear and jealousy, it 
appears evident that the aged monarch took 
the alarm, and attempted to apprehend Jero- 
boam, who, getting notice of what was in- 
tended him, made a precipitate retreat into 
Egypt' where he remained till the death of 
Solomon. He then returned, and found that 
Rehoboam, who had succeeded his father 
Solomon in the throne of David, had already 
excited the disgust of ten of the tribes by some 
arbitrary proceedings, in consequence of which 
they had withdrawn their allegiance from the 
new monarch. These tribes no sooner heard 
of his return than they invited him to appear 
among them in a general assembly, in which 
they elected him to be king over Israel. Jero- 
boam fixed his residence at Shechem, and there 
fortified himself; he also rebuilt Penuel, a city 
beyond Jordan, putting it into a state of de- 
fence, in order to keep the tribes quiet which 
were on that side Jordan, 1 Kings xii, 1-25. 

But Jeroboam soon forgot the duty which 
he owed to God, who had given him the king-, 
dom ; and thought of nothing but how to main- 
tain himself in the possession of it, though he 
discarded the worship of the true God. The 
first suggestion of his unbelieving heart was, 
that if the tribes over whom he reigned were 
to go up to Jerusalem to sacrifice and keep the 
annual festivals, they would be under continual 
temptations to return to the house of David. 
To counteract this, he caused two golden 
calves to be made as objects of religious wor- 
ship, one of which he placed at Do.n, and the 
other at Bethel, the two extremities of his 
dominions ; and caused a proclamation to be 
made throughout all his territories, that in 
future none of his subjects should go up to 



JER 



612 



JER 



Jerusalem to worship ; and, directing them to 
the two calves which had been recently erect, 
ed, he cried out, " Behold thy gods, O Israel, 
which brought thee up out of Egypt !" He 
also caused idolatrous temples to be built, and 
priests to be ordained of the lowest of the peo- 
ple, who were neither of the family of Aaron 
nor of the tribe of Levi, 1 Kings xii, 26-33. 
Having appointed a solemn public festival to 
be observed on the fifteenth day of the eighth 
month, in order to dedicate his new altar and 
consecrate his golden calves, he assembled the 
people at Bethel, and himself went up to the 
altar for the purpose of offering incense and 
sacrifices. At that instant a prophet, who had 
come, divinely directed, from Judah to Bethel, 
accosted Jeroboam, and said, " O altar, altar, 
thus saith the Lord, A child shall be born to 
the house of David, Josiah by name ; and upon 
thee shall he sacrifice the priests of the high 
places who now burn incense upon thee : he 
shall burn men's bones upon thee." To con- 
firm the truth of this threatening, the prophet 
also added a sign, namely, that the altar should 
immediately be rent asunder, and the ashes and 
every thing upon it poured upon the earth. 
Jeroboam, incensed at this interference of the 
prophet, stretched out his hand and com- 
manded him to be seized ; but the hand which 
he had stretched out was instantly paralyzed, 
and he was unable to draw it back again. The 
altar, too, was broken, and the ashes upon it 
fell to the ground according to the prediction 
of the prophet. Jeroboam now solicited his 
prayers that his hand might be restored to him. 
The man of God interposed his supplication to 
Heaven, and the king's hand was restored to 
him sound as before. Jeroboam then entreated 
him that he would accompany him to his own 
house, and accept a reward ; but he answered, 
"Though thou shouldst give me the half of 
thine house, I would not go with thee, nor 
will I taste any thing in this place, for the 
Lord hath expressly forbidden me to do so," 
1 Kings xiii, 1-10. But notwithstanding this 
manifest indication of the displeasure of Hea- 
ven, it failed of recovering Jeroboam from his 
impious procedure. He continued to encou- 
rage his subjects in idolatry, by appointing 
priests of the high places, and engaging them 
in such worship as was contrary to the divine 
law. This was the sin of Jeroboam's family, 
and it was the cause of its utter extirpation. 
Some time after his accession to the throne of 
Israel, his favourite son Abijah fell sick, and, 
to relieve his parental solicitude, Jeroboam 
instructed his wife to disguise herself, and in 
that state to go and consult the Prophet Ahijali 
concerning his recovery. This was the same 
prophet who had foretold to Jeroboam that he 
should be king of Israel. He was now blind 
through old age ; but the prophet was warned 
of her approach, and, before she entered his 
threshold, he called her by name, told her that 
her son should die, and then, in appalling 
terms, denounced the impending ruin of Jero- 
beam's whole family, wliich shortly after came 
to pass. Aflcr a reigu of two-and-twenty 
years, Jeroboam died» and Nadab, his son, 



succeeded to the crown, 1 Kings xiii, 33, 34 
xiv, 1-20. 

2. Jeroboam, the second of that name, v/as 
the son of Jehoash, king of Israel. He sue. 
ceeded to his father's royal dignity, A. M. 3179, 
and reigned forty-one years. Though much 
addicted to the idolatrous practices of the son 
of Nebat, yet the Lord was pleased so far to 
prosper his reign, that by his means, accord- 
ing to the predictions of the Prophet Jonah, 
the kingdom of the ten tribes was restored 
from a state of great decay, into which it had 
fallen, and was even raised to a pitch of ex- 
traordinary splendour. The Prophets Amos 
and Hosea, as well as Jonah, lived during this 
reign. 

JERUSALEM, formerly called Jebus, or 
Salem, Joshua xviii, 28 ; Heb. vii, 2, the capi- 
tal of Judea, situated partly in the tribe of 
Benjamin, and partly in that of Judah. It was 
not completely reduced by the Israelites till 
the reign of David, 2 Sam. v, 6-9. As Jeru- 
salem was the centre of the true worship, 
Psalm cxxii, 4, and the place where God did 
in a peculiar manner dwell, first in the taber- 
nacle, 2 Sam. yi, 7, 12 ; 1 Chron. xv, 1 ; xvi, 1 ; 
Psalm cxxxii, 13 ; cxxxv, 2, and afterward in 
the temple, 1 Kings vi, 13 ; so it is used figu- 
ratively to denote the church, or the celestial 
society, to which all that believe, both Jews 
and Gentiles, are come, and in wliich they are 
initiated, Gal. iv, 26 ; Heb. xii, 22 ; Rev. iii, 
12 ; xxi, 2, 10. Jerusalem was situated in a 
stony and barren soil, and was about sixty 
furlongs in length, according to Strabo.' The 
territory and places adjacent were well watered, 
having the fountains of Gihon and Siloam, and 
the brook Kidron, at the foot of its walls ; and, 
beside these, there were the waters of Ethan, 
which Pilate had conveyed through aqueducts 
into the city. The ancient city of Jerusalem, 
.or Jebus, which David took from the Jebu- 
sites, was not very large. It was seated upon 
a mountain southward of the temple. The 
opposite mountain, situated to the north, is 
Sion, where David built a new city, which he 
called the city of David, wherein was the 
royal palace, and the temple of the Lord. 
The temple was built upon Mount Moriah, 
which was one of the little hills belonging to 
Mount Sion. 

Through the reigns of David and Solomon, 
Jerusalem was the metropolis of the whole 
Jewish kingdom, and continued to increase in 
wealth and splendour. It was resorted to at 
the festivals by the whole population of the 
country ; and the power and commercial spirit 
of Solomon, improving the advantages acquired 
by his father David, centred in it most of the 
eastern trade, both by sea, through the ports 
of Elath and Ezion-Geber, and over land, by 
the way of Tadmor or Palmyra. Or, at least, 
though Jerusalem might not have been made 
a depot of merchandise, the quantity of pre- 
cious metals flowing into it by direct importa- 
tion, and by duties imposed on goods passing 
to the ports of the Mediterranean, and in other 
directions, was unbounded. Some idea of the 
prodigious wealth of Jerusalem at this time 



JER 



513 



3m 



hiay be formed by statins:, that the quantity of 
gold left by David for the use of the temple 
amounted to ;C21, 600,000 sterling, beside 
-£3,150,000 in silver ; and Solomon obtained 
£3,240,000 in gold by one voyage to Ophir, 
w^hile silver was so abundant, " that it vi^as not 
any thing accounted of." These were the days 
of Jerusalem's glory. Universal peace, un- 
measured wealth, the wisdom and clemency 
of the prince, and the worship of the true God, 
marked Jerusalem, above every city, as enjoy- 
ing the presence and the especial favour of the 
Almighty. But these days were not to last 
long : intestine divisions and foreign wars, 
wicked and tyrannical princes, and, last of all, 
the crime most oftensive to Heaven, and the 
one least to be expected among so favoured a 
people, led to a series of calamities, through 
the long period of nine hundred years, with 
which no other city or nation can furnish a 
parallel. After the death of Solomon, ten of 
the twelve tribes revolted from his successor 
Rehoboam, and, under Jeroboam, the son of 
Nebat, established a separate kingdom : so that 
Jerusalem, no longer the capital of the whole 
empire, and its temple frequented only by the 
tribes of Judah and Benjamin, must have ex- 
perienced a mournful declension. Four years 
after this, the city and temple were taken and 
plundered by Shishak, king of Egypt, 1 Kings 
xiv, 26, 27 ; 2 Chron. xii, 2-9. One hundred 
and forty-five years after, under Amaziah, they 
sustained the same fate from Joash, king of 
Israel, 2 Kings xiv ; 2 Chron. xxv. One hun- 
dred and sixty years from this period, the city 
was again taken, by Esarhaddon, king of 
Assyria ; and Manasseh, the king, carried a 
prisoner to Babylon, 2 Chron. xxxiii. Within 
the space of sixty-six years more it was taken 
by Pharaoh-Necho, king of Egypt, whom Jo- 
siah, king of Judah, had opposed in his expedi- 
tion to Carchemish ; and who, in consequence, 
was killed at the battle of Megiddo, and his son 
Eliakim placed on the throne in his stead by 
Necho, who changed his name to Jehoiakim, 
and imposed a heavy tribute upon him, having 
sent his elder brother, Jehoahaz, who had been 
proclaimed king at Jerusalem, a prisoner to 
Egypt, where he died, 2 Kings xxiii ; 2 Chron. 
XXXV. Jerusalem was three times besieged 
and taken by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Baby- 
lon, within a very few years. The first, in 
the reign of the last mentioned king, Jehoia- 
kim, who was sent a prisoner to Babylon, and 
the vessels of the temple transported to the 
same city, 2 Chron. xxxvi. The second, in 
that of his son Jehoiachin ; when all the trea- 
sures of the palace and the temple, and the 
remainder of the vessels of the latter which 
had been hidden or spared in the first capture, 
were carried away or destroyed, and the best 
of the inhabitants, with the king, led into 
captivity, 2 Kings xxiv ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. And 
the third, in the reign of Zedekiah, the suc- 
cessor of Jehoiachin ; in whose ninth year the 
most formidable siege which this ill fated city 
ever sustained, except that of Titus, was com- 
menced. It continued two years ; during a 
great part of which the inhabitants suffered 
34 



all the horrors of famine : when^ on the nirittif 
day of the fourth month, in the eleventh year 
of Zedekiah, which answers to July in the yea? 
B. C. 588, the garrison, with the king, endea- 
voured to make their escape from the city, but 
were pursued and defeated by the Chaldeans 
in the plains of Jericho ; Zedekiah taken 
prisoner ; his sons killed before his face at 
Riblah, whither he was taken to the king 6^ 
Babylon ; and he himself, after his eyes were 
put out, was bound with fetters of brass, and 
carried prisoner to Babylon, where he died J 
thus fulfilling the prophecy of Ezekiel, which 
declared that he should be carried to Babylon, 
but should not see the place, though he should 
die there, Ezekiel xii, 13. In the following 
month, the Chaldean army, under their gene- 
ral, Nebuzaradan, entered the city, took away 
every thing that was valuable, and then burned 
and utterly destroyed it, with its temple and 
walls, and lefl the whole razed to the ground. 
The entire population of the city and countryj 
with the exception of a few husbandmen, weM 
then carried captive to Babylon. 

During seventy years, the city and temple 
lay in ruins : when those Jews who chose to 
take immediate advantage of the proclamation 
of Cyrus, under the conduct of Zerubbabel, re- 
turned to Jerusalem, and began to build the 
temple ; all the vessels of gold and silver be- 
longing to which, that had been taken away 
by Nebuchadnezzar, being restored by Cyrus. 
Their work, however, did not proceed far 
without opposition ; for in the reign of Cam- 
byses, the son of Cyrus, who in Scripture is 
called Ahasuerus, the Samaritans presented a 
petition to that monarch to put a stop to thei 
building, Ezra iv, 6. Cambyses appears to 
have been too busily engaged in his Egyptian 
expedition to pay any attention to this malicious 
request. His successor, Smerdis, the Magian, 
however, who in Scripture is called Artaxerxes, 
to whom a similar petition was sent, repre^ 
senting the Jews as a factious and dangerous 
people, listened to it, and, in the true spirit of 
a usurper, issued a decree putting a stop to 
the farther building of the temple, Ezra iv, 7, 
&c ; which, in consequence, remained in an 
unfinished state till the second year, accordiftg 
to the Jewish, and thirds according to the 
Babylonian and Persian account, of Darius 
Hystaspes, who is called simply Darius in 
Scripture. To him also a representation 
hostile to the Jews was made by their invete- 
rate enemies, the Samaritans ; but this noble 
prince refused to listen to it, and having 
searched the rolls of the kingdom, and found 
in the palace at Acmetha the decfee of Cyrus, 
issued a similar one, which reached Jerusalem 
in the subsequent year, and even ordered these 
very Samaritans to assist the Jews in their 
work ; so that it was completed in the sixth 
year of the same reign, Ezra iv, 24 ; v ; vi, 
1-15. But the city and walls remained in a 
ruinous condition until the twentieth year of 
Artaxerxes, the Artaxerxes Longimanus of 
profane history ; by Avhom Nehemiah was sent 
to Jerusalem, with a power granted to him to 
rebuild them. Accordingly, under the direc- 



JER 



514 



JER 



tion of this zealous servant of God, the walls 
were speedily raised, but not without the ac- 
customed opposition on the part of the Sama- 
ritans ; who, despairing of the success of an 
application to the court of Persia, openly at- 
tacked the Jews with arms. But the building, 
notwithstanding, went steadily on ; the men 
working with an implement of work in one 
hand, and a weapon of war in the other ; and 
the wall, with incredible labour, was finished 
in fifty-two days, in the year B. C. 445 ; after 
which, the city itself was gradually rebuilt, 
Neh. ii, iv, vi. From this time Jerusalem re- 
mained attached to the Persian empire, but 
under the local jurisdiction of the high priests, 
until the subversion of that empire by Alexan- 
der, fourteen years after. See Alexander. 

At the death of Alexander, and the parti- 
tion of his empire by his generals, Jerusalem, 
with Judea, fell to the kings of Syria. But in 
the frequent wars which followed between the 
kings of Syria and those of Egypt, called by 
Daniel, the kings of the north and south, it 
belonged sometimes to one and sometimes to 
the other, — an unsettled and unhappy state, 
highly favourable to disorder and corruption, — 
the high priesthood was openly sold to the 
highest bidder ; and numbers of the Jews de- 
serted their religion for the idolatries of the 
Greeks. At length, in the year B. C. 170, 
Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, enraged 
at hearing that the Jews had rejoiced at a false 
report of his death, plundered Jerusalem, and 
killed eighty thousand men. Not more than 
two years afterward, this cruel tyrant, who 
had seized every opportunity to exercise his 
barbarity on the Jews, sent Apollonius with 
an army to Jerusalem ; who pulled down the 
walls, grievously oppressed the people, and 
built a citadel on a rock adjoining the temple, 
which commanded that building, and had the 
effect of completely overawing the seditious. 
Having thus reduced this unfortunate city 
into entire submission, and rendered resist- 
ance useless, the next step of Antiochus was 
to abolish the Jewish religion altogether, by 
publishing an edict which commanded all the 
people of his dominions to conform to the re- 
ligion of the Greeks : in consequence of which, 
the service of the temple ceased, and a statue 
of Jupiter Olympus was set up on the altar. 
But this extremity of ignominy and oppression 
led, as might have been expected, to rebellion ; 
and those Jews who still held their insulted 
religion in reverence, fled to the mountains, 
with Mattathias and Judas Maccabeus ; the lat- 
ter of whom, after the death of Mattathias, who 
with his followers and successors, are known 
by the name of Maccabees, waged successful 
war with the Syrians ; defeated Apollonius, 
Nicanor, and Lysias, generals of Antiochus ; 
obtained possession of Jerusalem, purified the 
temple, and restored the service, after three 
years' defilement by the Gentile idolatries. 

From this time, during several succeeding 
Maccabean rulers, who were at once high 
priests and sovereigns of the Jews, but with- 
out the title of king, Jerusalem was able to 
preserve itself from Syrian violence. It was, 



however, twice besieged, first by Antiochus 
Eupator, in the year 163, and afterward by 
Antiochus Sidetes, in the year B. C. 134. But 
the Jews had caused themselves to be sufii- 
ciently respected to obtain conditions of peace 
on both occasions, and to save their city ; till, 
at length, Hyrcanus, in the year 130 B. C, 
shook off the Syrian yoke, and reigned, after 
this event, twenty-one years in independence 
and prosperity. His successor, Judas, made 
an important change in the Jewish govern, 
ment, by taking the title of king, which dig. 
nity was enjoyed by his successors forty-seven 
years, when a dispute having arisen between 
Hyrcanus II. and his brother Aristobulus, and 
the latter having overcome the former, and 
made himself king, was, in his turn, conquer- 
ed by the Romans under Pompey, by whom 
the city and temple were taken, Aristobulus 
made prisoner, and Hyrcanus created high 
priest and prince of the Jews, but without the 
title of king. By this event Judea was re- 
duced to the condition of a Roman province, 
in the year 63 B. C. Nor did Jerusalem long 
after enjoy the dignity of a metropolis, that 
honour being transferred to Caesarea. Julius 
Caesar, having defeated Pompey, continued 
Hyrcanus in the high priesthood, but bestow- 
ed the government of Judea upon Antipater, 
an Idumaean by birth, but a Jewish proselyte, 
and father of Herod the Great. For the siege 
and destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, 
see Jews. 

Jerusalem lay in ruins about forty-seven 
years, when the Emperor ^lius Adrian began 
to build it anew, and erected a Heathen tem- 
ple, which he dedicated to Jupiter Capitolinus. 
The city was finished in the twentieth year of 
his reign, and called, after its founder, jElia, 
or ^lia Capitolina, from the Heathen deity 
who presided over it. In this state Jerusalem 
continued, under the name of ^lia, and in- 
habited more by Christians and Pagans than 
by Jews, till the time of the Emperor Constan- 
tine, styled the Great ; who, about the year 
323, having made Christianity the religion of 
the empire, began to improve it, adorned it 
with many new edifices and churches, and re- 
stored its ancient name. About thirty-five 
years afterward, Julian, named the Apostate, 
not from any love he bore the Jews, but out 
of hatred to the Christians, whose faith he 
had abjured, and with the avowed design of 
defeating the prophecies, which had declared 
that the temple should not be rebuilt, wrote to 
the Jews, inviting them to their city, and pro- 
mising to restore their temple and nation. 
He accordingly employed great numbers of 
workmen to clear the foundations; but balls 
of fire bursting from the earth, soon put a stop 
to their proceeding. This miraculous inter- 
position of Providence is attested by many 
credible witnesses and historians ; and, in 
particular, by Ammianus Marcellinus, a Hea- 
then, and friend of Julian ; Zemuch David, a 
Jew ; Nazianzen, Chrysostom, Ambrose Ruf- 
finus, Theodoret, Sozomen, and Socrates, 
who wrote his account within fifty years after 
the transaction, and while many eye- witnesses 



JER 



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JER 



of it were still living. So stubborn, indeed, 
is the proof of this miracle, that even Gib- 
bon, who strives to invalidate it, is obliged to 
acknowledge the general fact. 

Jerusalem continued in nearly the same 
condition till the beginning of the seventh 
century, when it was taken and plundered by 
the celebrated Chosroes, king of Persia, by 
whom many thousands of the Christian inha- 
bitants were killed, or sold for slaves. The 
Persians, however, did not hold it long, as 
they were soon after entirely defeated by the 
Emperor Heraclius, who rescued Jerusalem, 
and restored it, not to the unhappy Jews, who 
were forbidden to come within three miles of 
it. but to the Christians. A worse calamity 
was, however, speedily to befall this ill fated 
city. The Mohammedan imposture arose 
about this tune ; and the fanatics who had 
adopted its creed carried their arms and their 
religion with unprecedented rapidity over the 
greater part of the east. The Caliph Omar, the 
third from Mohammed, invested the city, 
which, after once more suffering the horrors of 
a protracted siege, surrendered on terms of ca- 
pitulation in the year 637 ; and has ever since, 
with the exception of the short period that it 
was occupied by the crusaders, been trodden 
under foot by the followers of the false pro- 
phet. 

2. The accounts of modern Jerusalem by 
travellers are very numerous. Mr. Conder, 
in his " Palestine," has abridged them with 
judgment ; and we give the following extract : 
The approach to Jerusalem from Jaffa is not 
the direction in which to see the city to the 
best effect. Dr. E. D. Clarke entered it by 
the Damascus gate : and he describes the view 
of Jerusalem, when first descried from the 
summit of a hill, at about an hour's distance, 
as most impressive. He confesses, at the 
same time, that there is no other point of view 
in which it is seen to so much advantage. In 
the celebrated prospect from the Mount of 
Olives, the city lies too low, is too near the 
eye, and has too much the character of a bird's 
eye view, with the formality of a topographi- 
cal plan. " We had not been prepared," says 
this lively traveller, "for the grandeur of the 
spectacle Avhich the city alone exhibited. In- 
stead of a wretched and ruined town, by some 
described as the desolated remnant of Jerusa- 
lem, we beheld, as it were, a flourishing and 
statel}'- metropolis, presenting a magnificent as- 
semblage of domes, towers, palaces, churches, 
and monasteries ; all of which, glittering 
in the sun's rays, shone with inconceivable 
splendour. As we drew nearer, our whole 
attention was engrossed by its noble and 
interesting appearance. The lofty hills sur- 
rounding it give the city itself an appearance 
of elevation less than it really has." Dr. 
Clarke was fortunate in catching this first 
view of Jerusalem under the illusion of a bril- 
liant evening sunshine ; but his description is 
decidedly overcharged. M. Chateaubriand, 
Mr. Buckingham, Mr. Brown, Mr. Jolliffe, Sir 
F. Henniker, and almost every other modern 
traveller, confirm the representation of Dr. 



Richardson. Mr. Buckingham says, " Tli6 
appearance of this celebrated city, independent 
of the feelings and recollections which the 
approach to it cannot fail to awaken, was 
greatly inferior to my expectations, and had 
certainly nothing of grandeur or beauty, of 
stateliness or magnificence, about it. It ap- 
peared like a walled town of the third or 
fourth class, having neither towers, nor domes, 
nor minarets within it, in sufficient numbers 
to give even a character to its impressions on 
the beholder; but showing chiefly large flat- 
roofed buildings of the most unornamented 
kind, seated amid rugged hills, on a stony and 
forbidding soil, with scarcely a picturesque 
object in the whole compass of the surround- 
ing view." Chateaubriand's description, is 
very striking and graphical. After citing the 
language of the Prophet Jeremiah, in his la- 
mentations on tlie desolatio'n of the ancient 
city, as accurately portraying its present state. 
Lam. i, 1-6 ; ii, 1-9, 15, he thus proceeds : 
" When seen from the Mount of Olives, on 
the other side of the Valley of Jehoshaphat, 
Jerusalem presents an inclined plane, descend- 
ing from west to east. An embattled wall^ 
fortified with towers, and a Gothic castle, en- 
compasses the city all round ; excluding, how- 
ever, part of Mount Zion, which it formerly 
enclosed. In the western quarter, and in the 
centre of the city, the houses stand very close ; 
but, in the eastern part, along the brook 
Kedron, you perceive vacant spaces ; among 
the rest, that which surrounds the mosque 
erected on the ruins of the temple, and the 
nearly deserted spot where once stood the cas- 
tle of Antonia and the second palace of Herod. 
The houses of Jerusalem are heavy square 
masses, very low, without chimneys or win- 
dows : they have fiat terraces or domes on the 
top, and look like prisons or sepulchres. The 
whole would appear to the eye one uninter- 
rupted level, did not the steeples of the church- 
es, the minarets of the mosques, the summits 
of a few cypresses, and the clumps of nopals, 
break the uniformity of the plan. On behold- 
ing these stone buildings, encompassed by a 
stony country, you are ready to inquire if they 
are not the confused monuments of a cemetry 
in the midst of a desert. Enter the city, but 
nothing will you there find to make amends 
for the dulness of its exterior. You lose your- 
self among narrow, unpaved streets, here going 
up hill, there down, from the inequality of the 
ground ; and you walk among clouds of dust 
or loose stones. Canvas stretched from house 
to house increases the gloom of this labyrinth. 
Bazaars, roofed over, and fraught with infec- 
tion, completely exclude the light from the 
desolate city. A few paltry shops expose 
nothing but wretchedness to view ; and even 
these are frequently shut, from apprehension 
of the passage of a cadi. Not a creature is to 
be seen in the streets, not a creature at the 
gates, except now and then a peasant gliding 
through the gloom, concealing under his gar- 
ments the fruits of his labour, lest he should 
be robbed of his hard earnings by the rapacious 
soldier. Aside, in a corner, the Arab butcher 



JER 



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JER 



18 slaughtering some animal, suspended by the 
legs from a wall in ruins : from his haggard 
and ferocious look, and his bloody hands, you 
would suppose that he had been cutting the 
throat of a fellow creature, rather than killing 
a lamb. The only noise heard from time to 
time in the city is the galloping of the steed 
of the desert : it is the janissary who brings 
the head of the Bedouin, or who returns from 
plundering the unhappy Fellah. Amid this 
extraordinary desolation, you must pause a 
moment to contemplate two circumstances 
still more extraordinary. Among the ruins of 
Jerusalem, two classes of independent people 
find in their religion sufficient fortitude to 
enable them to surmount such complicated 
horrors and wretchedness. Here reside com- 
munities of Christian monks, whom nothing 
can compel to forsake the tomb of Christ ; 
neither plunder, nor personal ill treatment, nor 
menaces of death itself. Night and day they 
chant their hymns around the holy sepulchre. 
Driven by the cudgel and the sabre, women, 
children, flocks, and herds, seek refuge in the 
cloisters of these recluses. What prevents 
the armed oppressor from pursuing his prey, 
and overthrowing such feeble ramparts ? The 
charity of the monks : they deprive themselves 
of the last resources of life to ransom their 
suppliants. Cast your eyes between the tem- 
ple and Mount Zion ; behold another petty 
tribe cut off from the rest of the inhabitants of 
this city. The particular objects of every 
species of degradation, these people bow their 
heads without murmuring ; they endure every 
kind of insult without demanding justice ; 
they sink beneath repeated blows without sigh- 
ing ; if their head be required, they present it 
to the scimitar. On the death of any member 
of this proscribed community, his companion 
goes at night, and inters him by stealth in the 
Valley of Jehoshaphat, in the shadow of Solo- 
mon's temple. Enter the abodes of these peo- 
ple, you will find them, amid the most abject 
wretchedness, instructing their children to read 
a mysterious book, which they in their turn 
will teach their offspring to read. What they 
did five thousand years ago, these people still 
continue to do. Seventeen times have they 
witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem, yet 
nothing can discourage them, nothing can 
prevent them from turning their faces toward 
Sion. To see the Jews scattered over the 
whole world, according to the word of God, 
must doubtless excite surprise. But to be 
struck with supernatural astonishment, you 
must view them at Jerusalem ; you must be- 
hold these rightful masters of Judea living as 
slaves and strangers in their own country ; 
you must behold them expecting, under all op- 
pressions, a king who is to deliver them. 
Crushed by the cross that condemns them, 
skulking near the temple, of which not one 
stone is left upan another, they continue in 
their deplorable infatuation. The Persians, 
the Greeks, the Romans, are swept from the 
earth ; and a petty tribe, whose origin pre- 
ceded that of those great nations, still exists 
unmixed among the ruins of its native land." 



To the same effect are the remarks of Dr. 
Richardson : " In passing up to the synagogue, 
I was particularly struck with the mean and 
wretched appearance of the houses on both 
sides of the streets, as well as with the poverty 
of their inhabitants. The sight of a poor Jew 
in Jerusalem has in it something peculiarly 
affecting. The heart of this wonderful people, 
in whatever clime they, roam, still turns to it 
as the city of their promised rest. They take 
pleasure in her ruins, and would kiss the very 
dust for her sake. Jerusalem is the centre 
around which the exiled sons of Judah build, 
in imagination, the mansions of their future 
greatness. In whatever part of the world he 
may live, the heart's desire of a Jew is to be 
buried in Jerusalem. Thither they return from 
Spain and Portugal, from Egypt and Barbary, 
and other countries among which they have 
been scattered : and when, after all their long. 
ings, and all their struggles up the steeps of 
life, we see them poor, and blind, and naked, 
in the streets of their once happy Zion, he 
must have a cold heart that can remain un- 
touched by their sufferings, without uttering a 
prayer that God would have mercy on the 
darkness of Judah ; and that the Day Star of 
Bethlehem might arise in their hearts." 

"Jerusalem," remarks Sir Frederick Hen- 
niker, " is called, even by Mohammedans, the 
Blessed City {El Gootz, El Koudes.) The 
streets of it are narrow and deserted, the houses 
dirty and ragged, the shops few and forsaken ; 
and throughout the whole there is not one 
symptom of either commerce, comfort, or hap- 
piness. The best view of it is from the Mount 
of Olives : it commands the exact shape and 
nearly every particular ; namely, the church 
of the holy sepulchre, the Armenian convent, 
the mosque of Omar, St. Stephen's gate, the 
round-topped houses, and the barren vacancies 
of the city. Without the walls are a Turkish 
burial ground, the tomb of David, a small grove 
near the tombs of the kings, and all the rest is 
a surface of rock, on which are a few numbered 
trees. The mosque of Omar is the St. Peter's 
of Turkey, and the respective saints are held 
respectively by their own faithful in equal 
veneration. The building itself has a light 
pagoda appearance ; the garden in which it 
stands occupies a considerable part of the city, 
and, contrasted with the surrounding desert, 
is beautiful. The burial place of the Jews is 
over the valley of Kedron, and the fees for 
breaking the soil afford a considerable revenue 
to the governor. Tlie burial place of the Turks 
is under the walls, near St. Stephen's gate. 
From the opposite side of the valley, I was 
witness to the ceremony of parading a corpse 
round the mosque of Omar, and then bringing 
it forth for burial, I hastened to the grave,^ 
but was soon driven away : as far as my on dif 
tells me, it would have been worth seeing. 
The grave is strown with red earth, supposed 
to be of the Ager Damascenus of which Adam 
was made ; by the side of the corpse is placed 
a stick, and the priest tells him that the devil 
will tempt him to become a Christian, but 
tliat he must make good use of his stick r that 



JER 



517 



JER 



his trial will last three days, and that he will 
then find himself in a mansion of glory," &c. 
The Jerusalem of sacred history is, in fact, 
no more. Not a vestige remains of the capital 
of David and Solomon ; not a monument of 
Jewish times is standing. The very course 
of the walls is changed, and the boundaries of 
the ancient city are become doubtful. The 
monks pretend to show the sites of the sacred 
places ; but neither Calvary, nor the holy se- 
pulchre, much less the Dolorous Way, the house 
of Caiaphas, &c, have the slightest pretensions 
to even a probable identity with the real places 
to which the tradition refers. Dr. E. D. Clarke 
has the merit of being the first modern travel- 
ler who ventured to speak of the preposterous 
legends and clumsy forgeries of the priests with 
the contempt which they merit. " To men 
interested in tracing, within its walls, antiqui- 
ties referred to by the documents of sacred his- 
tory, no spectacle," remarks the learned tra- 
veller, " can be more mortifying than the city 
in its present state. The mistaken piety of 
the early Christians, in attempting to preserve, 
has either confused or annihilated the memo- 
rials it was anxious to render conspicuous. 
Viewing the havoc thus made, it may now be 
regretted that the Holy Land was ever rescued 
from the dominion of Saracens, who were far 
less barbarous than their conquerors. The 
absurdity, for example, of hewing the rocks of 
Judea into shrines and chapels, and of disguis- 
ing the face of nature with painted domes and 
guilded marble coverings, by way of com. 
memorating the scenes of our Saviour's life 
and death, is so evident and so lamentable, 
that even Sandys, with all his credulity, could 
not avoid a happy application of the reproof 
conveyed by the Roman satirist against a simi- 
lar violation of the Egerian fountain." Dr. 
Richardson remarks, "It is a tantalizing cir- 
cumstance for the traveller who wishes to re- 
cognise in his walks the site of particular 
buildings, or the scenes of memorable events, 
that the greater part of the objects mentioned 
in the description both of the inspired and the 
Jewish historian, are entirely removed, and 
razed from their foundation, without leaving 
a single trace or name behind to point out 
where they stood. Not an ancient tower, or 
gate, or wall, or hardly even a stone, remains. 
The foundations are not only broken up, but 
every fragment of which they were composed 
is swept away, and the spectator looks upon 
the bare rock with hardly a sprinkling of 
earth to point out her gardens of pleasure, or 
groves of idolatrous devotion. And when we 
consider the palaces, and towers, and walls 
about Jerusalem, and that the stones of which 
some of them were constructed were thirty 
feet long, fifteen feet broad, and seven and a 
half feet thick, we are not more astonished at 
the strength, and skill, and perseverance, by 
which they were constructed, than shocked by 
the relentless and brutal hostility by which 
they were shattered and overthrown, and 
utterly removed from our sight. A few gar- 
dens still remain on the sloping base of Mount 
Zion, watered from the poolof Siloam; the 



gardens of Gethsemane are still in a sort of 
ruined cultivation ; the fences are broken down, 
and the olive trees decaying, as if the hand 
that dressed and fed them were withdrawn ; 
the Mount of Olives still retains a languishing 
verdure, and nourishes a few of those trees 
from which it derives its name ; but all round 
about Jerusalem the general aspect is blighted 
and barren ; the grass is withered ; the bare 
rock looks through the scanty sward ; and the 
grain itself, like the staring progeny of famine, 
seems in doubt whether to come to maturity, 
or die in the ear. The vine that was brought 
from Egypt is cut off from the midst of the 
land ; the vineyards are wasted ; the hedges 
are taken away ; and the graves of the ancient 
dead are open and tenantless." 

3. On the accomplishment of prophecy in 
the condition in which this celebrated city has 
lain for ages, Keith well remarks : — It formed 
the theme of prophecy from the death bed of 
Jacob ; and, as the seat of the government of 
the children of Judah, the sceptre departed not 
from it till the Messiah appeared, on the expi- 
ration of seventeen hundred years after the 
death of the patriarch, and till the period of 
its desolation, prophesied of by Daniel, had 
arrived. It was to be trodden down of the 
Gentiles, till the time of the Gentiles should 
be fulfilled. The time of the Gentiles is not 
yet fulfilled, and Jerusalem is still trodden 
down of the Gentiles. The Jews have often 
attempted to recover it : no distance of space 
or of time can separate it from their affections : 
they perform their devotions with their faces 
toward it, as if it were the object of their wor- 
ship as well as of their love ; and, although 
their desire to return be so strong, indelible, 
and innate, that every Jew, in every genera- 
tion, counts himself an exile, yet they have 
never been able to rebuild their temple, nor to 
recover Jerusalem from the hands of the Gen. 
tiles. But greater power than that of a pro, 
scribed and exiled race has been added to their 
own, in attempting to frustrate the counsel 
that professed to be of God. Julian, the em- 
peror of the Romans, not only permitted but 
invited the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem and their 
temple ; and promised to reestablish them in 
their paternal city. By that single act, more 
than by all his writings, he might have destroy- 
ed the credibility of the Gospel, and restored 
his beloved but deserted Paganism. The zeal 
of the Jews was equal to his own ; and the 
work was begun by laying again the founda- 
tions of the temple. It was never accomplished, 
and the prophecy stands fulfilled. But even 
if the attempt of Julian had never been made, 
the truth of the prophecy itself is unassailable. 
The Jews have never been reinstated in Judea. 
Jerusalem has ever been trodden down of the 
Gentiles. The edict of Adrian was renewed 
by the successors of Julian ; and no Jews could 
approach unto Jerusalem but by bribery or by 
stealth. It was a spot unlawful for them to 
touch. In the crusades, all the power of 
Europe was employed to rescue Jerusalem 
from the Heathens, but equally in vain. It 
has been trodden down for nearly eighteen 



JES 



618 



JES 



centuries by its successive masters ; by Romans, 
Grecians, Persians, Saracens, Mamelukes, 
Turks, Christians, and again by the worst of 
rulers, the Arabs and the Turks. And could 
any thing be more improbable to have happen- 
ed, or more impossible to have been foreseen 
by man, than that any people should be banish- 
ed from their own capital and country, and 
remain expelled and expatriated for nearly 
eighteen hundred years? Did the same fate 
ever befall any nation, though no prophecy ex- 
isted respecting it ? Is there any doctrine in 
Scripture so hard to be believed as was this 
single fact at the period of its prediction ? And 
even with the example of the Jews before us, 
is it likely, or is it credible, or who can foretel, 
that the present inhabitants of any country 
upon earth shall be banished into all nations, 
retain their distinctive character, meet with an 
unparalleled fate, continue a people, without a 
government and Without a country, and remain 
for an indefinite period, exceeding seventeen 
hundred years, till the fulfilment of a pre- 
Ecribed event which has yet to be accomplished ? 
Must not the knowledge of such truths be de- 
rived from that prescience alone which scans 
alike the will and the ways of mortals, the ac- 
tions of future nations, and the history of the 
latest generations ? 

JESHURUN, a name given to the collective 
political body of Israelites. Some derive the 
word from ib'"*, just or righteous, and so make 
it to signify a righteous people. Montanus 
renders it rectiiudo, and so does the Sama- 
ritan version. But it seems a considerable 
objection against this sense, that Israel is call- 
ed Jeshurun at the very time that they are up- 
braided with their sins and their rebellion : 
"Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked," &c, Deut. 
xxxii, 15. It is replied, Jeshurun is the dimi- 
nutive of la'^, (for nomen auctum in fine est 
nomen diininutivum,) and so imports, that 
though, in general and on the whole, they 
were a righteous people, yet they were not 
without great faults. Perhaps Cocceius has 
given as probable an interpretation as any. 
He derives the word from nity, which signifies 
to see, behold, or discover ; from whence, in the 
future tense, plural, comes yvi;\ which, with 
the addition of nun paragogicum, makes Jeshu- 
run ; that is, " the people who had the vision 
of God." This makes the name of Jeshurun 
to be properly applied to Israel, not only when 
Moses is called their king, but when they are 
upbraided with their rebellion against God ; 
since the peculiar manifestation which God 
had made of himself to them was a great 
aggravation of their ingratitude and rebellion. 

JESSE. See David and Ruth. 

JESUITS, or the society of Jesus, one of 
the most celebrated monastic orders of the 
Romish church, was founded in the year 1540, 
by Ignatius Loyola. Forsaking the military 
for the ecclesiastical profession, he engaged 
himself in the wildest and most extravagant 
adventures, as the knight of the blessed virgin. 
After performing a pilgrimage to the Holy 
Land, and pursuing a multitude of visionary 
iBchemes, he returned to prosecute his theolo- 



gical studies in the universities of Spain, when 
he was about thirty-three years of age. He 
next went to Paris, where he collected a small 
number of associates ; and, prompted by his 
fanatical spirit, or the love of distinction, be- 
gan to conceive the establishment of a new 
religious order. He produced a plan of its 
constitution and laws, which he affirmed to 
have been suggested by the immediate rnspira- 
tion of Heaven, and applied to the Roman pon- 
tiff, Paul III. for the sanction of his authority 
to confirm the institution. At a time when 
the papal authority had received so severe a 
shock from the progress of the Reformation, 
and was still exposed to the most powerful 
attacks in every quarter, this was an offer too 
tempting to be resisted. The reigning pontiff, 
though naturally cautious, and though scarcely 
capable, without the spirit of prophecy, of fore- 
seeing all the advantages to be derived from 
the services of this nascent order, yet clearly 
perceiving the benefit of multiplying the num- 
ber of his devoted servants, instantly confirm- 
ed by his bull the institution of the Jesuits, 
granted the most ample privileges to the mem- 
bers of the society, and appointed Loyola to 
be the first general of the order. 

2. The simple and primary object of the 
society, says a writer in the Edinburgh En- 
cyclopaedia, was to establish a spiritual domi- 
nion over the minds of men, of which the pope 
should appear as the ostensible head, while the 
real power should reside with themselves. To 
accomplish this object, the whole constitution 
and policy of the order were singularly adapt- 
ed, and exhibited various peculiarities which 
distinguished it from all other monastic orders. 
The immediate design of every other religious 
society was to separate its members from the 
world ; that of the Jesuits, to render them 
masters of the world. The inmate of the con- 
vent devoted himself to work out his own sal- 
vation by extraordinary acts of devotion and 
self-denial ; the follower of Loyola considered 
himself as plunging into all the bustle of secu- 
lar affairs, to maintain tlie interests of the 
Romish church. The monk was a retired 
devotee of heaven ; the Jesuit a chosen soldier 
of the pope. That the members of the new 
order might have full leisure for this active 
service, they were exempted from the usual 
functions of other monks. They were not 
required to spend their time in the long cere- 
monial offices and numberless mummeries of 
the Romish worship. They attended no pro- 
cessions, and practised no austerities. They 
neither chanted nor prayed. "They cannot 
sing," said their enemies ; "for birds of prey 
never do." They were sent forth to watch 
every transaction of the world which might 
appear to affect the interests of religion, and 
were especially enjoined to study the disposi- 
tions and cultivate the friendship of persons in 
the higher ranks. Nothing could be imagined 
more open and liberal than the external aspect 
of the institution, yet nothing could be more 
strict and secret than its internal organization. 
Loyola, influenced, perhaps, by the notions of 
implicit obedience which he had derived from 



JES 



519 



JES 



his military profession, resolved that the go- 
vernment of the Jesuits should be absolutely 
monarchical. A general, chosen for life by 
deputies from the several provinces, possessed 
supreme and independent power, extending to 
every person, and applying to every case. 
Every member of the order, the instant that 
he entered its pale, surrendered all freedom of 
thought and action ; and every personal feel- 
ing was superseded by the interests of that 
body to which he had attached himself. He 
went wherever he was ordered ; he performed 
whatever he was commanded ; he suffered 
whatever he was enjoined ; he became a mere 
passive instrument incapable of resistance. 
The gradation of ranks was only a gradation 
in slavery ; and so perfect a despotism over a 
large body of men, dispersed over the face of 
the earth, was never before realized. 

The maxims of policy adopted by this cele- 
brated society were, like its constitution, re- 
markable for their union of laxity and rigour. 
Nothing could divert them from their original 
object; and no means w^ere ever scrupled 
which promised to aid its accomplishment. 
They were in no degree shackled by prejudice, 
superstition, or real religion. Expediency, in 
its most simple and licentious form, was the 
basis of their morals, and their principles and 
practices were uniformly accommodated to the 
circumstances in which they were placed ; and 
even their bigotry, obdurate as it was, never 
appears to have interfered with their interests. 
The paramount and characteristic principle of 
the order, from which none of its members 
ever swerved, was simply this, that its interests 
were to be promoted by all possible means, at 
all possible expense. In order to acquire more 
easily an ascendancy over persons of rank and 
power, they propagated a system of the most 
relaxed morality, which accommodated itself 
to the passions of men, justified their vices, 
tolerated their imperfections, and authorized 
almost every action which the most audacious 
or crafty politician would wish to perpetrate. 
To persons of stricter principles they studied 
to recommend themselves by the purity of their 
lives, and sometimes by the austerity of their 
doctrines. While sufficiently compliant in 
the treatment of immoral practices, they were 
generally rigidly severe in exacting a strict 
orthodoxy in opinions. " They are a sort of 
people," said the Abbe Boileau, "who lengthen 
the creed and shorten the decalogue." They 
adopted the same spirit of accommodation in 
their missionary undertakings ; and their 
Christianity, chamelionlike, readily assumed 
the colour of every religion where it happened 
to be introduced. They freely permitted their 
converts to retain a full proportion of the old 
superstitions, and suppressed, without hesita- 
tion, any point in the new faith which was 
likely to bear hard on their prejudices or pro- 
pensities. They proceeded to still greater 
lengths ; and, beside suppressing the truths of 
revelation, devised the most absurd falsehoods, 
to be used for attracting disciples, or even to 
be taught as parts of Christianity. One of 
them in India produced a pedigree to prove 



his o\yn descent from Brama ; and another in 

America assured a native chief that Christ had 
been a valiant and victorious warrior, who, in 
the space of three years, had scalped an in- 
credible number of men, women, and children. 
It was, in fact, their own authority, not the 
authority of true religion, which they wished 
to establish ; and Christianity was generally as 
little known, when they quitted the foreign 
scenes of their labours as when they entered 
them. 

These detestable objects and principles, 
however, were long an impenetrable secret : 
and the professed intention of the new order 
was to promote, with unequalled and unfettered 
zeal, the salvation of mankind. Its progress, 
nevertheless, was at first remarkably slow. 
Charles V., who is supposed, with his usual 
sagacity, to have discerned its dangerous ten- 
dency, rather checked than encouraged its 
advancement ; and the universities of France 
resisted its introduction into that kingdom. 
Thus, roused by obstacles, and obliged to 
find resources within themselves, the Jesuits 
brought all their talents and devices into ac- 
tion. They applied themselves to every useful 
function and curious art ; and neither neglect- 
ed nor despised any mode, however humble, 
of gaining employment or reputation. The 
satirist's description of the Greeks in Rome 
has been aptly chosen to describe their inde- 
fatigable and universal industry : — 
Grammaticus, rhetor, geomelres, pictor, aliptes, 
Augur, schosnobates, medicus, magus ; omnia novit 
Grcbculus. Juvenal, lib. iii, 76. 

" A Protean tribe, one knows not what to call, 
Which shifts to every form, and shines in all : 
Grammarian, painter, augur, rhetorician, 
Rope-dancer, conjuror, fiddler, and physician, — 
All trades his own, your hungry Greekling counts." 

GlFFORD, 

They laboured with the greatest assiduity to 
qualify themselves as the instructors of youth ; 
and succeeded, at length, in supplanting their 
opponents in every Catholic kingdom. They 
aimed, in the next place, to become the spirit, 
ual directors of the higher ranks ; and soon 
established themselves in most of the courts 
which were attached to the papal faith, not 
only as the confessors, but frequently also as 
the guides and ministers, of superstitious 
princes. The governors of the society pur- 
suing one uniform system with unwearied 
perseverance, became entirely successful ; and, 
in the space of half a century, had in a won- 
derful degree extended the reputation, the 
number, and influence of the order. When 
Loyola, in 1540, petitioned the pope to author- 
ize the institution of the Jesuits, he had only 
ten disciples ; but in 1608 the number amount, 
ed to 10,581. Before the expiration of the 
sixteenth century they had obtained the chief 
direction of the education of youth in every 
Catholic country in Europe, and had become 
the confessors of almost all its noblest mon- 
archs. In spite of their vow of poverty, their 
wealth increased with their power ; and they 
soon rivalled, in the extent and value of their 
possessions, the most opulent monastic fra- 
ternities. About the beginning of the seven- 



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,p,«enth century, they obtained fVom the court 
.of Madrid the grant of the large and fertile 
province of Paraguay, which stretches across 
the southern continent of America, from the 
mountains of Potosi to the banks of the river 
La Plata ; and, after every deduction which 
pan reasonably be made from their own ac- 
counts of their establishment, enough will 
iTcmain to excite the astonishment and ap. 
plause of mankind. They found the inhabits 
ants in the first stage of society, ignorant of 
the arts of life, and unacquainted with the 
first principles of subordination. They applied 
themselves to instruct and civilize these savage 
tribes. They commenced their labours by col- 
lecting about fifty families of wandering In- 
dians, whom they converted and settled in a 
small township. They taught them to build 
houses, to cultivate the ground, and to rear 
tame animals ; trained them to arts and manu- 
factures, and brought them to relish the bless- 
ings of security and order. By a wise and 
humane policy, they gradually attracted new 
subjects and converts ; till at last they formed 
a powerfiil and well organized state of three 
hundred thousand families. 

Xhough the power of the Jesuits had become 
so extensive, and though their interests gene- 
rally prospered during a period of more than 
two centuries, their progress was by no means 
.uninterrupted ; and, by their own misconduct, 
they soon excited the most formidable coun- 
teractions. Scarcely had they eifected their 
establishment in France, in defiance of the 
parliaments and universities, when their ex- 
istence was endangered by the fanaticism of 
their own members. John Chastel, one of 
their pupils, made an attempt upon the life of 
Henry IV. ; and Father Guiscard, another of 
the order, was convicted of composing writ- 
ings favourable to regicide. The parliaments 
seized the moment of their disgrace, and pro- 
cured their banishment from every part of the 
kingdom, except the provinces of Bourdeaux 
and Toulouse. From these rallying points, 
they speedily extended their intrigues in every 
quarter, and in a few years obtained their re- 
jBstablishment. Even Henry, either dreading 
their power, or pleased with the exculpation 
of his licentious habits, which he found in their 
flexible system of morality, became their pa- 
tron, and selected one of their number as his 
confessor. They were favoured by Louis XIII. 
and his minister Richelieu, on account of their 
literary exertions ; but it was in the succeeding 
reign of Louis XIV. that they reached the 
summit of their prosperity. The Fathers La 
Chaise and JjC Teltier were successively con- 
fessors to the king ; and did not fail to employ 
their influence for the interest of their order : 
but the latter carried on his projects with so 
blind and fiery a zeal, that one of the Jesuits 
is reported to have said of him, " He drives at 
such a rate, that he will overturn us all." The 
Jansenists were peculiarly the objects of his 
machinations, and he rested not till he had 
accomplished the destruction of their cele- 
brated college and convent at Port Royal. 
]^efore the fall, however, of this honoured 



seminary, a shaft from its bow had reached 
the heart of its proud oppressor. The " Pro- 
vincial Letters of Pascal" had been published, 
in which the quibbling morality and unin- 
telligible metaphysics of the Jesuits were ex- 
posed in a strain of inimitable humour, and a 
style of unrivalled elegance. The impression 
which they produced was wide and deep, and 
gradually sapped the foundation of public 
opinion, on which the power of the order had 
hitherto rested. Under the regency of the 
duke of Orleans, the Jesuits, and all theological 
personages and principles were disregarded 
with atheistical superciliousness ; but under 
Louis XV. they partly recovered their influ- 
ence at court, which, even under Cardinal 
Fleury, they retained in a considerable degree. 
But they soon revived the odium of the public 
by their intolerant treatment of the- Jansenists, 
and probably accelerated their ruin by refiising, 
from political rather than religious scruples, to 
undertake the spiritual guidance of Madame 
de la Pampadour, as well as by imprudently 
attacking the authors of the " Encyclopedie." 
Voltaire directed against them all the powers 
of his ridicule, and finished the piece which 
Pascal had sketched, Their power was brought 
to a very low ebb, when the war of 1756 broke 
out, which occasioned the famous law-suit that 
led to their final overthrow. 

In the mean time the king of Portugal was 
assassinated ; and Carvalho, the minister, who 
detested the Jesuits, found means to load 
them with the odium of the crime. Malagrida, 
and a few more of these fathers, were charged 
with advising and absolving the assassins ; 
and, having been found guilty, were con- 
demned to the stake. The rest were banished 
with every brand of infamy, and were treated 
with the most iniquitous cruelty. They were 
persecuted without discrimination, robbed of 
their property without pity, and embarked for 
Italy without previous preparation ; so that, 
no provision having been made for their re- 
ception, they were literally left to perish with 
hunger in their vessels. These incidents pre- 
pared the way for a similar catastrophe in 
France. In March, 1762, the French court 
received intelligence of the capture of Mar- 
tinico by the British ; and, dreading a storm 
of public indignation, resolved to divert the 
exasperated feelings of the nation, by yielding 
the Jesuits to their impending fate. On the 
sixth of August, 1762, their institute was con- 
demned by the parliament, as contrary to the 
laws of the state, to the obedience due to the 
sovereign, and to the welfare of the kingdom. 
The order was dissolved, and their effects 
alienated. But in certain quarters, where the 
provincial parliaments had not decided against 
them, Jesuits still subsisted ; and a royal edict 
was afterward promulgated, which formally 
abolished the society in France, but permitted 
its members to reside within the kingdom un- 
der certain restrictions. 

In Spain, where they conceived their esta- 
blishment to be perfectly secure, they expe- 
rienced an overthrow equally complete, and 
muph more ufiexpecte^. The necessary mea- 



JES 



521 



JES 



isures were concerted under the direction of 
De Choiseul, by the Marquis D'Ossun, the 
French ambassador at Madrid, with Charles 
III., king of Spain, and his prime minister, 
the Count D'Aranda. The execution of their 
purposes was as sudden as their plans had 
been secret. At midnight, March 31st, 1767, 
large bodies of military surrounded the six 
colleges of the Jesuits in Madrid, forced the 
gates, secured the bells, collected the fathers 
in the refectory, and read to them the king's 
order for their instant transportation. They 
were immediately put into carriages previously 
placed at proper stations ; and were on their 
way to Carthagena before the inhabitants of 
the city had any intelligence of the transac- 
tion. Three days afterward, the same mea- 
sures were adopted with regard to every other 
college of the order in the kingdom ; and, ships 
having been provided at the different sea ports, 
they were all embarked for the ecclesiastical 
states in Italy. All their property was con- 
fiscated, and a small pension assigned to each 
individual as long as he should reside in a 
place appointed, and satisfy the Spanish court 
as to his peaceable demeanour. All corres- 
pondence with the Jesuits was prohibited, 
and the strictest silence on the subject of their 
expulsion was enjoined under penalties of high 
treason. A similar seizure and deportation 
took place in the Indies, and an immense pro- 
perty was acquired by the government. Many 
crimes and plots were laid to the charge of 
the order ; but whatever may have been their 
demerit, the punishment was too summary to 
admit of justification ; and many innocent in- 
dividuals were subjected to sufferings beyond 
the deserts even of the guilty. Pope Clement 
III. prohibited their landing in his dominions ; 
and, after enduring extreme miseries in crowd- 
ed transports, the survivors, to the number of 
two thousand three hundred, were put ashore 
on Corsica. The example of the king of Spain 
was immediately followed by Ferdinand VI. 
of Naples, and soon after by the prince of 
Parma. They had been expelled from Eng- 
land in 1604; from Venice in 1606; and from 
Portugal in 1759, upon the charge of having 
instigated the families of Tavora and D'Aveiro 
to assassinate King Joseph I. Frederick the 
Great, of Prussia, was the only monarch who 
showed a disposition to afford them protection ; 
but in 1773 the order was entirely suppressed 
by Pope Clement XIV., who is supposed to 
have fallen a victim to their vengeance. In 
1801 the society was restored in Russia by the 
Emperor Paul ; and in 1804, by King Ferdi- 
nand, in Sardinia. In August, 1814, a bull 
was issued by Pope Pius VII., restoring the 
order to all their former privileges, and calling 
upon all Catholic princes to afford them pro- 
tection and encouragement. This act of their 
revival is expressed in all the solemnity of 
papal authority ; and even affirmed to be 
above the recall or revision of any judge, with 
whatever power he may be clothed; but to 
every enlightened mind it cannot fail to appear 
as a measure altogether incapable of justifica- 
.tion, from any thing either in the history of 



Jesuitism, or in the character of the present 
times. 

3. It would be in vain to deny that many 
considerable advantages were derived by man- 
kind from the labours of the Jesuits. Their 
ardour in the study of ancient literature, and 
their labours in the instruction of youth, 
greatly contributed to the progress of polite 
learning. They have produced a greater 
number of ingenious authors than all the 
other religious fraternities taken together ; 
and though there never was known among 
their order one person who could be said to 
possess an enlarged philosophical mind, they 
can boast of many eminent masters in the 
separate branches of science, many distinguish- 
ed mathematicians, antiquarians, critics, and 
even some orators of high reputation. They 
were in general, also, as individuals, superior 
in decency, and even purity of manners, to 
any other class of regular clergy in the church 
of Rome. But all these benefits by no means 
counterbalanced the pernicious effects of their 
influence and intrigues on the best interests 
of society. 

The essential principles of the institution, 
namely, that their order is to be maintained at 
the expense of the society at large, and that 
the end sanctifies the means, are utterly in- 
compatible with the welfare of any community 
of men. Their system of lax and pliant mo- 
rality, justifying every vice, and authorizing 
every atrocity, has left deep and lasting ra- 
vages on the face of the moral world. Their 
zeal to extend the jurisdiction of the court of 
Rome over every civil government, gave cur- 
rency to tenets respecting the duty of oppos- 
ing princes who were hostile to the Catholic 
faith, which shook the basis of all political 
allegiance, and loosened the obligations of 
every human law. Their indefatigable indus- 
try, and countless artifices in resisting the 
progress of reformed religion, perpetuated the 
most perniciovis errors of Popery, and post- 
poned the triumph of tolerant and Christian 
principles. Whence, then, it may well be 
asked, whence the recent restoration ? What 
long latent proof has been discovered of the 
excellence, or even the expedience, of such an 
institution ? The sentence of their abolition 
was passed by the senates, and monarchs, and 
statesmen, and divines, of all religions, and of 
almost every civilized country in the world, 
Almost every land has been .stained and torn 
by their crimes; and almost every land bears 
on its public records the most solemn protests 
against their existence. 

JESUS CHRIST, the Son of God, the 
Messiah, and Saviour of the world, the first 
and principal object of the prophecies, pre- 
figured and promised in the Old Testament, 
expected and desired by the patriarchs ; the 
hope of the Gentiles; the glory, salvation, 
and consolation of Christians, The name 
Jesus, or, as the Hebrews pronounce it, ymin', 
Jehoshua, or Joshua, 'irjaoOs, signifies, he who 
shall save. No one ever bore this name with 
so much justice, nor so perfectly fulfilled the 
gignific'ation of it, as Jesus Christ, who saves 



JES 



522 



JES 



even from sin and hell, and hath merited hea- 
ven for us by the price of his blood. It is not 
necessary here to narrate the history of our 
Saviour's life, which can no where be read 
with advantage except in the writings of the 
four evangelists ; but there are several gene- 
ral views which require to be noticed under 
this article. 

1. Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ or 
Messiah promised under the Old Testament. 
That he professed himself to be that Messiah 
to whom all the prophets gave witness, and 
who was, in fact, at the time of his appearing, 
expected by the Jews ; and that he was re- 
ceived under that character by his disciples, 
and by all Christians ever since, is certain. 
And if the Old Testament Scriptures afford 
sufficiently definite marks by which the long 
announced Christ should be infallibly known 
at his advent, and these presignations are 
found realized in our Lord, then is the truth 
of his pretensions established. From the 
books of the Old Testament we learn that the 
Messiah was to authenticate his claim by 
miracles; and in those predictions respecting 
him, so many circumstances are recorded, that 
they could meet only in one person ; and so, 
if they are accomplished in him, they leave no 
room for doubt, as far as the evidence of pro- 
phecy is deemed conclusive. As to miracles, 
we refer to that article ; here only observing, 
that if the miraculous works wrought by 
Christ were really done, they prove his mis- 
sion, because, from their nature, and having 
been wrought to confirm his claim to be the 
Messiah, they necessarily imply a divine attes- 
tation. With respect to prophecy, the princi- 
ples under which its evidence must be regarded 
as conclusive will be given under that head ; 
and here therefore it will only be necessary to 
show the completion of the prophecies of the 
sacred books of the Jews relative to the Mes- 
siah in one person, and that person the founder 
of the Christian religion. 

The time of the Messiah's appearance in 
the world, as predicted in the Old Testament, 
is defined, says Keith, by a number of concur- 
ring circumstances, which fix it to the very 
date of the advent of Christ. The last bless- 
ing of Jacob to his sons, when he commanded 
them to gather themselves together that he 
might tell them what should befall them in the 
last days, contains this prediction concerning 
Judah : " The sceptre shall not depart from 
Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, 
until Shiloh come ; and unto him shall the 
gathering of the people be," Gen. xlix, 10. 
The date fixed by this prophecy for the com- 
ing of Shiloh, or the Saviour, w^as not to ex- 
ceed the time during which the descendants 
of Judah were to continue a united people, 
while a king should reign among them, while 
they should be governed by their own laws, 
and while their judges should be from among 
their brethren. The prophecy of Malachi 
adds another standard for measuring the 
time: "Behold, I send my messenger, and he 
shall prepare the way before me ; and the 
Lord, whom ye seek, shall come suddenly to 



his temple, even the messenger of the cove- 
nant, whom ye delight in : behold, he shall 
come, saith the Lord of Hosts," Mai. iii, 1. 
No words can be more expressive of the com- 
ing of the promised Messiah ; and they as 
clearly imply his appearance in the second 
temple before it should be destroyed. In re- 
gard to the advent of the Messiah before the 
destruction of the second temple, the words of 
Haggai are remarkably explicit : " The desire 
of all nations shall come, and I will fill this 
house with glory, saith the Lord of Hosts. 
The glory of this latter house shall be greater 
than of the former, and in this place will I 
give peace," Hag. ii, 7. The Saviour was thus 
to appear, according to the prophecies of the 
Old Testament, during the time of the con- 
tinuance of the kingdom of Judah, previous to 
the demolition of the temple, and immediately 
subsequent to the next prophet. But the time 
is rendered yet more definite. In the prophe- 
cies of Daniel, the kingdom of the Messiah is 
not only foretold as commencing in the time 
of the fourth monarchy, or Roman empire, 
but the express number of years that were to 
precede his coming are plainly intimated: 
" Seventy weeks are determined upon thy 
people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the 
transgression, and to make an end of sin, and 
to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to 
bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal 
up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the 
Most Holy. Know, therefore, and under- 
stand, that from the going forth of the com- 
mandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, 
unto Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks 
and threescore and two weeks," Dan. ix, 24, 
25. Computation by weeks of years was com- 
mon among the Jews, and every seventh was 
the sabbatical year ; seventy weeks, thus 
amounted to four hundred and ninety years. 
In these words the prophet marks the very 
time, and uses the very name of Messiah, the 
Prince ; so entirely is all ambiguity done away. 
The plainest inference may be drawn from 
these prophecies. All of them, while, in 
every respect, they presuppose the most per- 
fect knowledge of futurity ; while they were 
unquestionably delivered and publicly known 
for ages previous to the time to which they 
referred ; and while they refer to different 
contingent and unconnected events, utterly 
undeterminable and inconceivable by all hu- 
man sagacity ; accord in perfect unison to a 
single precise period whece all their different 
lines terminate at once, — the very fulness of 
time when Jesus appeared. A king then 
reigned over the Jews in their own land ; they 
were governed by their own laws ; and the 
council of their nation exercised its authority 
and power. Before that period, the other 
tribes were extinct or dispersed among the 
nations. Judah alone remained, and the last 
sceptre in Israel had not then departed from 
it. Every stone of the temple was then un- 
moved ; it was the admiration of the Romans, 
and might have stood for ages. But in a short 
space, all these concurring testimonies to the 
time of the advent of the Messiah passed 



JES 



523 



JES 



away. During the very year, the twelfth of 
his age, in which Christ first publicly appear- 
ed in the temple, Archelaus the king was de- 
throned and banished ; Coponius was appointed 
procurator ; and the kingdom of Judea, the 
last remnant of the greatness of Israel, was 
debased into a part of the province of Syria. 
The sceptre was smitten from the tribe of 
Judah ; the crown fell from their heads ; their 
glory departed ; and, soon after the death of 
Christ, of their temple one stone was not left 
upon another ; their commonwealth itself be- 
came as complete a ruin, and was broken in 
pieces ; and they have ever since been scatter- 
ed throughout the world, a name but not a 
nation. After the lapse of nearly four hun- 
dred years posterior to the time of Malachi, 
another prophet appeared who was the herald 
of the Messiah. And the testimony of Jose- 
phus confirms the account given in Scripture 
of John the Baptist. Every mark that denoted 
the time of the coming of the Messiah was 
erased soon after the crucifixion of Christ, 
and could never afterward be renewed. And 
with respect to the prophecies of Daniel, it is 
remarkable, at this remote period, how little 
discrepancy of opinion has existed among the 
most learned men, as to the space from the 
time of the passing out of the edict to rebuild 
Jerusalem, after the Babylonish captivity, to 
the commencement of the Christian era, and 
the subsequent events foretold in the prophecy. 
The predictions contained in the Old Tes- 
tament respecting both the family out of which 
the Messiah was to arise, and the place of his 
birth, are almost as circumstantial, and are 
equally applicable to Christ, as those which 
refer to the time of his appearance. He was 
to be an Israelite, of the tribe of Judah, of the 
family of David, and of the town of Bethle- 
hem. That all these predictions were fulfilled 
in Jesus Christ ; that he was of that country, 
tribe, and family, of the house and lineage of 
David, and born in Bethlehem, we have the 
fullest evidence in the testimony of all the 
evangelists ; in two distinct accounts of the 
genealogies, by natural and legal succession, 
which, according to the custom of the Jews, 
were carefully preserved ; in the acquiescence 
of the enemies of Christ in the truth of the 
fact, against which there is not a single sur- 
mise in history ; and in the appeal made by 
some of the earliest Christian writers to the 
unquestionable testimony of the records of the 
census, taken at the very time of our Saviour's 
birth by order of Caesar. Here, indeed, it is 
impossible not to be struck with the exact ful- 
filment of prophecies which are apparently 
•contradictory and irreconcilable, and with the 
manner in which they were providentially ac- 
complished. The spot of Christ's nativity was 
distant from the place of the abode of his pa- 
rents, and the region in which he began his 
ministry was remote from the place of his 
birth ; and another prophecy respecting him 
was in this manner^ verified : " In the land of 
Zebulun and Naphtali, by the way of the sea 
beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations, the 
people that walked in darkness have seen a 



great light ; they that dwell in the land of the 
shadow of death, upon them hath the light 
shined," Isaiah ix, 1, 2 ; Matt, iv, 16. Thus, 
the time at which the predicted Messiah was 
to appear ; the nation, the tribe, and the family 
from which he was to be descended ; and the 
place of his birth, — no populous city, but of 
itself an inconsiderable place, — were all clear- 
ly foretold ; and as clearly refer to Jesus Christ ; 
and all meet their completion in him. 

But the facts of his life, and the features of 
his character, are also drawn with a precision 
that cannot be misunderstood. The obscurity, 
the meanness, and the poverty of his external 
condition are thus represented : " He shall 
grow up before the Lord like a tender plant, 
and as a root out of a dry ground : he hath no 
form or comeliness ; and when we shall see 
him, there is no beauty that we should desire 
him. Thus saith the Lord to him whom man 
despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, 
to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and 
arise, princes also shall worship," Isaiah liii, 
2 ; xlix, 7. That such was the condition in 
which Christ appeared, the whole history of 
his life abundantly testifies. And the Jews, 
looking in the pride of their hearts for an 
earthly king, disregarded these prophecies 
concerning him, were deceived by their tradi- 
tions, and found only a stone of stumbling, 
where, if they had searched their Scriptures 
aright, they would have discovered an evidence 
of the Messiah. " Is not this the carpenter's 
son ? Is not this the son of Mary ? said they 
and they were offended at him." His riding 
in humble triumph into Jerusalem ; his being 
betrayed for thirty pieces of silver, and 
scourged, and buffeted, and spit upon ; the 
piercing of his hands and of his feet ; the last 
offered draught of vinegar and gall ; the part- 
ing of his raiment, and casting lots upon his 
vesture ; the manner of his death and of his 
burial, and his rising again without seeing cor- 
ruption, were all expressly predicted, and all 
these predictions were literally fulfilled, Zech. 
ix, 9 ; xi, 12 ; Isaiah 1, 6 ; Psalm xxii, 16 ; 
Ixix, 21 ; xxii, 18 ; Isaiah liii, 9 ; Psalm xvi, 10. 
If all these prophecies admit of any applica- 
tion to the events of the life of any individual, 
it can only be to that of the Author of Chris- 
tianity. And what other religion can produce 
a single fact which was actually foretold of its 
founder ? 

The death of Christ was as unparalleled as his 
life ; and the prophecies are as minutely descrip- 
tive of his sufferings as of his virtues. Not only 
did the paschal lamb, which was to be killed 
every year in all the families of Israel, which 
was to be taken out of the flock, to be without 
blemish, to be eaten with bitter herbs, to have 
its blood sprinkled, and to be kept whole that 
not a bone of it should be broken ; not only 
did the offering up of Isaac, and the lifting up 
of the brazen serpent in the wilderness, by 
looking upon which the people were healed, 
and many ritual observances of the Jews, pre- 
figure the manner of Christ's death, and the 
sacrifice which was to be made for sin ; but 
many express declarations abound in the pro- 



JES 



524 



JES 



phecies, that Christ was indeed to suffer. But 
Isaiah, who desoribes, with eloquence worthy 
of a prophet, the glories of the kingdom that 
was to come, characterizes, with the accuracy 
of a historian, the humiliation, the trials, and 
the agonies which were to precede the triumphs 
of the Redeemer of a world ; and the history of 
Christ forms, to the very letter, the commen- 
tary and the completion of his every predic- 
tion. In a single passage, Isaiah lii, 13, &c ; 
liii, the connection of which is uninterrupted, 
its antiquity indisputable, and its application 
obvious, the sufferings of the servant of God 
(who under that same denomination, is pre- 
viously described as he who was to be the light 
of the Gentiles, the salvation of God to the 
ends of the earth, and the elect of God in 
whom his soul delighted, Isa. xlii, 10 ; xlix, 6) 
are so minutely foretold, that no illustration 
is requisite to show that they testify of Jesus. 
The whole of this prophecy thus refers to the 
Messiah. It describes both his debasement 
and his dignity ; his rejection by the Jews ; his 
humility, his affliction, and his agony ; his 
magnanimity and his charity ; how his words 
were disbelieved ; how his state was lowly ; 
how his sorrow was severe ; how he opened 
not his mouth but to make intercession for the 
transgressors. In diametrical opposition to 
every dispensation of Providence which is regis- 
tered in the records of the Jews, it represents 
spotless innocence suffering by the appoint- 
ment of Heaven ; death as the issue of perfect 
obedience ; God's righteous servant as forsaken 
of him ; and one who was perfectly immaculate 
bearing the chastisement of many guilty ; 
sprinkling many nations from their iniquity, 
by virtue of his sacrifice ; justifying many by 
his knowledge ; and dividing a portion with 
the great and the spoil with the strong, be- 
cause he hath poured out his soul in death. 
This prophecy, therefore, simply as a pedic- 
tion prior to the event, renders the very unbe- 
lief of the Jews an evidence against them, 
converts the scandal of the cross into an argu- 
ment in favour of Christianity, and presents 
us with an epitome of the truth, a miniature 
of the Gospel in some of its most striking fea- 
tures. The simple exposition of it sufficed at 
once for the conversion of the eunuch of 
fithiopia. To these prophecies may, in fact, 
sbe added all those which relate to his spiritual 
kingdom, or the circumstances of the promul- 
.^ation, the opposition, and the triumphs of his 
religion ; the accomplishment of which equally 
proves the divine mission of its Au^^hor, and 
points him out as that great personage with 
whom they stand inseparably connected. 

2. But if Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, 
in that character his Deity also is necessarily 
involved, because the Messiah is surrounded 
with attributes of divinity in the Old Testa- 
ment ; and our Lord himself as certainly lays 
claim to those attributes as to the office of 
"the Christ." Without referring here to the 
Scriptural doctrine of a Trinity of divine Per- 
sons in the unity of the Godhead, (see Trinity,) 
it is sufficient now to show that both in the 



siah is contemplated as a divine Person. In 
the very first promise of redemption, his su- 
periority to that great and malignant spirit who . 
destroyed the innocence o^ man, and blighted 
the fair creation of God, is unquestionably 
implied ; while the Angel of the Divine Pre- 
sence, the Angel of the Covenant, who appears 
so prominent in the patriarchal times, and the 
early periods of Jewish history, and was un- 
derstood by the early Jews as the future Mes- 
siah, is seen at once as a being distinct from 
Jehovah and yet Jehovah huuself ; bearing 
that incommunicable name ; and performing 
acts, and possessing qualities of unquestionable 
divinity. As the "Redeemer" of Job, he is 
the object of his trust and hope, and is said 
to be then a " living Redeemer ;" to see whom 
at the last was to " see God." As " Shiloh," 
in the prophecy of Jacob, he is represented as 
having an indefinitely extensive reign over 
"the people" gathered to him; and in all 
subsequent predictions respecting this reign 
of Christ, it is represented so vast, so perfect, 
so influential upon the very thoughts, pur- 
poses, and affections of men, that no mere 
creature can be reasonably supposed capable 
of exercising it. Of the second Psalm, so 
manifestly appropriated to the Messiah, it 
has been justly said, that the high titles and 
honours ascribed in this Psalm to the extra- 
ordinary person who is the chief subject of it, 
far transcend any thing that is ascribed in 
Scripture to any mere creature. But if the 
Psalm be inquired into more narrowly, and 
compared with parallel prophecies ; if it be 
duly considered, that not only is the extraor- 
dinary person here spoken of called, " the Son 
of God," but that title is so ascribed to him as 
to imply, that it belongs to him in a manner 
that is absolutely singular, and peculiar to 
himself, seeing he is said to be begotten of 
God, verse 7, and is called, by way of emi- 
nence, " the Son," verse 12 ; that the danger 
of provoking him to anger is spoken of in so 
very different a manner from what the Scrip- 
ture uses in speaking of the anger of any mere 
creature, " Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and 
ye perish from the way when his wrath is kin- 
dled but a little ;" that when the kings and 
judges of the earth are commanded to serve 
God with fear, they are at the same time com- 
manded to kiss the Son, which in those times 
and places was frequently an expression of 
adoration ; and, particularly, that, whereas 
other Scriptures contain awful and just threat, 
enings against those who trust in any mere 
man, the Psalmist nevertheless expressly calls 
them blessed who trust in the Son here spoken 
of; — all these things taken together make up 
a character of unequivocal divinity : and, on 
the other hand, when it is said, that God would 
set this his Son as his King on his holy hill of 
Zion, verse 6, this, and various other expres- 
sions in this Psalm, contain characters of that 
subordination which is appropriate to that 
divine Person who was to be incarnate, and 
engage in a work assigned to him by the 
Father. The former part of the forty-fifth 



Old and New Testament Scriptures, the Mes- 1 Psalm is by the inspired authority of St. Paul 



JES 



525 



JES 



applied to the Christ, who is addressed in these 
lofty words, '♦ Thy throne, O God, is for ever 
and ever ; a sceptre of righteousness is the 
sceptre of thy kingdom." In the same manner 
Psalm cii, 25-29, is applied to Christ by the 
same authority, and there he is represented as 
the Creator of all things, changing his crea- 
tions as a vesture, and yet himself continuing 
the same unchanged being amidst all the mu- 
tations of the universe. In Psalm ex, David 
says, "Jehovah said unto my Lord, (Adonai,) 
Sit thou upon my right hand until I make 
thine enemies thy footstool." And in Isaiah 
vi, the same Adonai is seen by the prophet 
"seated upon a throne, high and lifted up," 
receiving the adoration of seraphs, and bear- 
ing the title, "Jehovah, Lord of Hosts," of 
which passage St. John makes a direct appli- 
cation to Christ. Isaiah predicts his birth of 
a virgin, under the title of " Immanuel, God 
with us." The same prophet gives to this 
wonderful child the style of " the Mighty 
God," "the Everlasting Father," and the 
" Prince of Peace ;" so that, as Dr. Pye Smith 
justlj observes, "if there be any dependence 
on words, the Messiah is here drawn in the 
opposite characters of humanity and Deity, — 
the nativity and frailty of a mortal child, and 
the incommunicable attributes of the omni- 
present and eternal God." Twice is he called 
by Jeremiah, "Jehovah our righteousness." 
Daniel terms him the " Ancient of Days," or 
" The Immortal ;" and Micah declares, in a 
passage which the council of the Jews, as- 
sembled by Herod, applied to the Messiah, 
that he who was to be born in Bethlehem was 
" even he whose comings forth are from eter- 
nity, from the days of the everlasting period." 
Thus the prophetic testimony describes him, 
as entitled to the appellation of " Wonderful," 
since he should be, in a sense peculiar to him- 
self, the Son of God, Psalm ii, 7; Isaiah ix, 6 ; 
as existing and acting during the patriarchal 
and the Jewish ages, and even from eternity. 
Psalm xl, 7-9 ; Micah v, 2 ; as the guardian 
and protector of his people, Isaiah xl, 9-11 ; 
as the proper object of the various affections 
of piety, of devotional confidence for obtaining 
the most important blessings, and of religious 
homage from angels and men. Psalm ii, 12; 
xcvii, 7 ; and, finally, declares him to be the 
eternal and immutable Being, the Creator, God, 
the Mighty God, Adonai, Elohim, Jehovah. 

In perfect accordance with these views, 
does our Saviour speak of himself. He asserts 
his preexistence, as having " come down from 
heaven;" and as existing "before Abraham;" 
and as being " in heaven" while yet before the 
eyes of his disciples on earth. In the same 
peculiar manner does he apply the term " Son 
of God " to himself, and that with so manifest 
an intention to assume it in the sense of di- 
vinity, that the Jews attempted on that account 
to stone him as a blasphemer. The whole 
force of the argument by which he silenced 
the Pharisees when he asked how the Messiah, 
who was to be the Son of David, could be 
David's Lord, in reference to the passage in 
the Psalms before quoted, arose out of the 



doctrine of the Messiah's divinity ; and when 
he claims that all men should honour him as 
they honour the Father, and asserts that as 
the Father hath life in himself, so he has given 
to the Son to have life in himself, that he 
" quickeneth whom he will," that " where two 
or three meet in his name he is in the midst 
of them," and would be with his disciples "to 
the end of the world ;" who does not see that 
the Jews concluded right, when they said that 
he made himself " equal with God," — an im- 
pression which he took no pains to remove, 
although his own moral character bound him 
to do so, had he not intended to confirm that 
conclusion. So numerous are the passages in 
which divine titles, acts, and qualities, are as- 
cribed to Christ, in the apostolical epistles, 
and so unbroken is the stream of testimony 
from the apostolic age, that the Deity of their 
Saviour was the undoubted and universal faith 
of his inspired followers, and of those who 
immediately succeeded them, that it is not 
necessary to quote proofs. The whole argu- 
ment is this : If the Old Testament Scriptures 
represent the Messiah as a divine Person ; the 
proofs which demonstrate Jesus to be the 
Messiah, demonstrate him also by farther and 
necessary consequence to be divine. Yet, 
though there is a union of natures in Christ, 
there is no mixture or confusion of their pro- 
perties : his humanity is not changed into his 
Deity, nor his Deity absorbed by hib humanity ; 
but the two natures are distinct in one Person. 
How this union exists, is above our compre- 
hension ; and, indeed, if we cannot explain 
how our bodies and souls are united, it is not 
to be supposed that we can comprehend the 
mystery of " God manifest in the flesh." So- 
truly does Christ bear the name given to him. 
in prophecy, — " Wonderful." 

3. The doctrine of the Deity of Christ de, 
rives farther confirmation from the consider- 
ation, that in no sound sense can the Scrip- 
tures of the Old and New Testaments be' 
interpreted so as to make their very different 
and often apparently contradictory statements 
respecting him harmonize. How, for instance, 
is it that he is arrayed in the attributes of di- 
vinity, and yet is capable of being raised to a 
kingdom and glory ? — that he is addressed^ 
" Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever," 
and yet that it should follow " God, everi thy 
God, hath anointed thee with the oil of glad- 
ness above thy fellows ?" — that he should be 
God, and yet, by a human birth, " God with 
us ?" — that he should, say, " I and my Father 
are one," and, " My Father is greater thare 
I ?" — that he is supreme, and yet a servant ? — 
that he is equal and yet subordinate ? — that he^ 
a man, should require and receive worship and 
trust ? — that he should be greater than angels, 
and yet " made lower than the angels ?" — that 
he should be "made flesh," and yet be the 
Creator of all things ? — that he should raise 
himself from the dead, and yet be raised liy 
the power of the Father ? These and many 
other declarations respecting him, all accord 
with the orthodox view of his person ; and are 
intelligible so far as thev state the facts re- 



JES 



526 



JES 



specting him ; but are wholly beyond the power 
of interpretation into any rational meaning on 
any theory which denies to him a real hu- 
manity on the one hand, or a real and personal 
divinity on the other. So powerfully, in fact, 
has tliis been felt, that, in order to evade the 
force of the testimony of Scripture, the most 
licentious criticisms have been resorted to by 
the deniers of his divinity ; such as would 
not certainly have been tolerated by scholars 
in the case of an attempt to interpret any other 
ancient writing. 

4. Being, therefore, not only " a teacher 
sent from God," but the divine Son of God 
himself, it might be truly said by his wonder- 
ing hearers, " Never man spake like this man." 
On our Lord's character as a teacher, there- 
fore, many striking and just remarks have 
been made by different writers, not excepting 
some infidels themselves, w^ho, in this respect, 
have been carried into admiration by the over- 
whelming force of evidence. This article, 
however, shall not be indebted to a desecrated 
source for an estimate of the character of his 
teaching, and shall rather be concluded with 
the following admirable remarks of a Christian 
prelate : — 

" When our Lord is considered as a teacher, 
we find him delivering the justest and most 
sublime truths with respect to the divine na- 
ture, the duties of mankind, and a future state 
of existence ; agreeable in every particular to 
reason, and to the wisest maxims of the wisest 
philosophers ; without any mixture of that 
alloy which so often debased their most per- 
fect production ; and excellently adapted to 
mankind in general, by suggesting circum- 
stances a,nd particular images on the most 
awful and interesting subjects. We find him 
filling, and, as it were, overpowering our 
minds with the grandest ideas of his own na- 
ture ; representing himself as appointed by 
his Father to be our Instructer, our Redeemer, 
our Judge, and our King ; and showing that 
he lived and died for the most benevolent and 
important purposes conceivable. He does not 
labour to support the greatest and most mag- 
nificent of all characters ; but it is perfectly 
easy and natural to him. He makes no dis- 
Tplay of the high and heavenly truths which he 
utters ; but speaks of them with a graceful 
and wonderful simplicity and majesty. Super- 
natural truths are as familiar to his mind, is 
the common affairs of life are to other men. 
He revives the moral law, carries it to perfec- 
tion, and enforces it by peculiar and animating 
motives : but he enjoins nothing new beside 
praying in his name, mutual love among his 
disciples, as such, and the observance of two 
simple and significant positive laws which 
serve to promote the practice of the moral 
law. All his precepts, when rightly explained, 
are reasonable in themselves and useful in 
their tendency : and their compass is very 
great, considering that he was an occasional 
teacher, and not a systematical one. If from 
the matter of his instructions we pass on to 
the manner in which they were delivered, we 
find our Lord usually speaking as an authori- 



tative teacher; though occasionally limiting 
his precepts, and sometimes assigning the 
reasons of them. He presupposes the original 
law of God, and addresses men as rational 
creatures. From the grandeur of his mind, ' 
and the magnitude of his subjects, he is often 
sublime ; and the beauties interspersed through- 
out his discourses are equally natural and 
striking. He is remarkable for an easy and 
graceful manner of introducing the best les- 
sons from incidental objects and occasions. 
The human heart is naked and open to him; 
and he addresses the thoughts of men, as 
others do the emotions of their countenance 
or their bodily actions. Difficult situations, 
and sudden questions of the most artful and 
ensnaring kind, serve only to display his su- 
perior wisdom, and to confound and astonish 
all his adversaries. Instead of showing his 
boundless knowledge on every occasion, he 
checks and restrains it, and prefers utility to 
the glare of ostentation. He teaches directly 
and obliquely, plainly and covertl}'-, as wisdom 
points out occasions. He knows the inmost 
character, every prejudice and every feeling of 
his hearers ; and, accordingly, uses parables to 
conceal or to enforce his lessons : and he 
powerfully impresses them by the significant 
language of actions. He gives proofs of his 
mission from above, by his knowledge of the 
heart, by a chain of prophecies, and by a 
variety of mighty works, 

" He sets an example of the most perfect 
piety to God, and of the most extensive be- 
nevolence and the most tender compassion to 
men. He- does not merely exhibit a life of 
strict justice, but of overflowing benignity. 
His temperance has not the dark shades of 
austerity ; his meekness does not degenerate 
into apathy. His humility is signal, amidst a 
splendour of qualities more than human. His 
fortitude is eminent and exemplary, in endur- 
ing the most formidable external evils and the 
sharpest actual sufferings : his patience is in- 
vincible ; his resignation entire and absolute. 
Truth and sincerity shine throughout his 
whole conduct. Though of heavenly descent, 
he shows obedience and affection to his earthly 
parents. He approves, loves, and attaches 
himself to amiable qualities in the human race. 
He respects authority, religious and civil; and 
he evidences his regard for his country by 
promoting its most essential good in a painful 
ministry dedicated to its service, by deploring 
its calamities, and by laying down his life for 
its benefit. Every one of his eminent virtues 
is regulated by consummate prudence ; and he 
both wins the love of his friends, and extorts 
the approbation and wonder of his enemies. 
Never was a character at the same time so 
commanding and natural, so resplendent and 
pleasing, so amiable and venerable. There is 
a peculiar contrast in it between an awful 
greatness, dignity, and majesty, and the most 
conciliating loveliness, tenderness, and soft- 
ness. He now converses with prophets, law- 
givers, and angels ; and the next instant he 
meekly endures the dulness of his disciples, 
and the blasphemies and rage of the multitude. 



JES 



527 



JEW 



He now calls himself greater than Solomon, 
one who can command legions of angels, the 
Giver of life to whomsoever he pleaseth, the 
Son of God who shall sit on his glorious 
throne to judge the world. At other times we 
find him embracing young children, not lifting 
up his voice in the streets, not breaking the 
bruised reed, nor quenching the smoking flax ; 
calling his disciples, not servants, but friends 
and brethren, and comforting them with an 
exuberant and parental affection. Let us pause 
an instant, and fill our minds with the idea of 
one who knew all things heavenly and earthly, 
searched and laid open the inmost recesses of 
the heart, rectified every prejudice, and remov- 
ed every mistake, of a moral and religious 
kind, by a word exercised a sovereignty over 
all nature, penetrated the hidden events of 
futurity, gave promises of admission into a 
happy immortality, had the keys of life and 
death, claimed a union with the Father ; and 
yet was pious, mild, gentle, humble, affable, 
social, benevolent, friendly, affectionate. Such 
a character is fairer than the morning star. 
Each separate virtue is made stronger by 
opposition and contrast ; and the union of so 
many virtues forms a brightness which fitly 
represents the glory of that God ' who inhabit- 
eth light inaccessible.' Such a character must 
have been a real one. There is something so 
extraordinary, so perfect, and so godlike in it, 
that it could not have been thus supported 
throughout by the utmost stretch of human 
art, much less by men confessedly unlearned 
and obscure." We may add, that such a 
character must also have been divine. His 
virtues are human in their class and kind, so 
that he was our " example ;" but they were 
sustained and heightened by that divinity 
which was impersonated in him, and from 
which they derived their intense and full per- 
fection. 

5. A great deal has been written concerning 
the form, beauty, and stature of Jesus Christ. 
Some have asserted, that he was in person the 
noblest of all the sons of men. Others have 
maintained, that there was no beauty nor any 
graces in his outward appearance. The fathers 
have not expressed themselves on this matter 
in a uniform manner. St. Jerom believes that 
the lustre and majesty which shone about our 
Saviour's face were capable of winning all 
hearts : it was this that drew the generality of 
his Apostles with so much ease to him ; it 
was this majesty which struck those down 
who came to seize him in the olive garden. 
St. Bernard and St. Chrysostom contend in 
like manner for the beauty of Jesus Christ's 
person ; but the most ancient fathers have 
acknowledged, that he was not at all hand- 
some. Homo indecorus et passibilis, says Ire- 
naeus. Celsus objected to the Christians, that 
Jesus Christ, as a man, was little, and ill 
made, which Origen acknowledged in his 
answer to have been written of him. Clemens 
Alexandrinus owns, in several places, that the 
person of Jesus Christ was not beautiful, as 
does also Cyril of Alexandria. Tertullian 
says plainly, vultu ct aspectu inglorius ; that 



his outward form had nothing that could 
attract consideration and respect. St. Austin 
confesses, that Jesus Christ, as a man, was 
without beauty and the advantage of person ; 
and the generality of the ancients, as Euse- 
bius, Basil, Theodoret, Ambrose, Isidore, &c, 
explain the passage in the Psalms, " Thou art 
fairer than the children of men," as relating 
to the beauty of Jesus Christ according to his 
divinity. This difference in opinion shows 
that no certain tradition was handed down on 
this subject. The truth probably is, that all 
which was majestic and attractive in the per- 
son of our Lord, was in the expression of the 
countenance, the fiill influence of which was 
displayed chiefly in his confidential intercourse 
with his disciples; while his general appear, 
ance presented no striking peculiarity to the 
common observer. 

JEWS, the appropriate denomination of the 
descendants of Judah, which soon included 
under it' the Benjamites, who joined them- 
selves to the tribe of Judah, on the revolt of 
the other ten tribes from the house of David. 
After the Babylonish captivity, when many 
individuals of these ten tribes returned with 
the men of Judah and Benjamin to rebuild 
Jerusalem, the term Jews included them also, 
or rather was then extended to all the descend- 
ants of Israel who retained the Jewish reli- 
gion, whether they belonged to the two or to 
the ten tribes, whether they returned into 
Judea or not. Hence, not only all the Israel- 
ites of future times have been called Jews, 
but all the descendants of Jacob, from the 
earliest times, are frequently so called by us 
at present, and we speak even of their original 
dispensation as the Jewish dispensation. The 
history of this singular people is recorded in 
the sacred books of the Old Testament ; and 
in place of epitomizing the accounts of the 
sacred writers, it will be more useful to fill up 
the chasm between the close of the historical 
books there contained, and the coming of our 
Lord. 

When the kingdom of Judah had been 
seventy years in captivity, and the period of 
their affliction was completed, Cyrus, (B. C. 
536,) under whom were united the kingdoms 
of Persia, Media, and Babylon, issued a de- 
cree, permitting all the Jews to return to their 
own land, and to rebuild their temple at Jeru- 
salem. This decree had been expressly fore- 
told by the Prophet Isaiah, who spoke of 
Cyrus by name, above a hundred years before 
his birth, as the deliverer of God's chosen 
people from their predicted captivity. Though 
the decree issued by Cyrus was general, a 
part only of the nation took advantage of it. 
The number of persons who returned at this 
time was forty-two thousand three hundred 
and sixty, and seven thousand ihree hundred 
and thirty-seven servants. They were con- 
ducted by Zerubbabel and Joshua. Zerubba- 
bel, frequently called in Scripture Shashbaz- 
zar, was the grandson of Jeconias, and conse- 
quently descended from David. He was called 
"the prince of Judah," and was appointed 
their governor by Cyrus, and with his per- 



JEW 



528 



JEW 



mission carried back a part of the gold and 
silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had taken 
out the temple of Jerusalem. The rest of the 
treasures of the temple were carried thither 
afterward by Ezra. Joshua was the son of 
Josedec, the high priest, and grandson of 
Seraiah, who was high priest when the temple 
was destroyed. Darius, the successor of 
Cyrus, confirmed this decree, and favoured 
the reestablishment of the people. But it was 
in the reign of Artaxerxes Longiraanus, called 
in Scripture Ahasuerus, that Ezra obtained 
his commission, and was made governor of 
the Jews in their own land, which govern- 
ment he held thirteen years : then Nehemiah 
was appointed with fresh powers, probably 
through the interest of Queen Esther ; and 
Ezra applied himself solely to correcting the 
canon of the Scriptures, and restoring and 
providing for the continuance of the worship 
of God in its original purity. The first care 
of the Jews, after their arrival in Judea, was 
to build an altar for burnt-offerings to God : 
they then collected materials for rebuilding 
the temple ; and all necessary preparations 
being made, in the beginning of the second 
year after their return under Zerubbabel, they 
began to build it upon the old foundations. 
The Samaritans, affirming that they worship- 
ped the God of Israel, offered to assist the 
Jews ; but their assistance being refused, they 
did all in their power to impede the work ; 
and hence originated that enmity which ever 
after subsisted between the Jews and Sama- 
ritans. The temple, after a variety of obstruc- 
tions and delays, was finished and dedicated, 
in the seventh year of King Darius, B. C. 515, 
and twenty years after it was begun. Though 
this second temple, or, as it is sometimes called, 
the temple of Zerubbabel, who was at that 
time governor of the Jews, was of the same 
size and dimensions as the first, or Solomon's 
temple, yet it was very inferior to it in splen- 
dour and magnificence ; and the ark of the 
covenant, the Shechinah, the holy fire upon 
the altar, the Urim and Thummim, and the 
spirit of prophecy, were all wanting to this 
temple of the remnant of the people. At the 
feast of the dedication, offerings were made 
for the twelve tribes of Israel, which seems 
to indicate that some of all the tribes returned 
from captivity ; but by far the greater number 
were of the tribe of Judah, and therefore from 
this period the Israelites were generally called 
Judoii or Jews, and their country Judea. 
Many, at their own desire, remained in those 
provinces where they Had been placed by the 
kings of Assyria and Babylon. The settle- 
ment of the people, *' after their old estate," 
according to the word of the Lord, together 
with the arrangement of all civil and ecclesi- 
astical matters, and the building of the walls 
of Jerusalem, were completed by Ezra and 
Nehemiah. But we soon after find Malachi, 
the last of the prophets under the Old Testa- 
ment, reproving both priests and people very 
severely, not for idolatry, but for their scan- 
dalous lives and gross corruptions. 

The Scriptural history ends at this period, 



B. C. 430 ; and we must have recourse to un- 
inspired writings, principally to the books of 
the Maccabees, and to Josephus, for the re- 
maining particulars of the Jewish history, to 
the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, 
Judea continued subject to the kings of Persia 
about two hundred years ; but it does not ap- 
pear that it had a separate governor aff;er Ne- 
hemiah. From his time it was included in the 
jurisdiction of the governor of Syria, and under 
him the high priest had the chief authority. 
When Alexander the Great was preparing to 
besiege Tyre, he sent to Jaddua, the high 
priest at Jerusalem, to supply him with that 
quantity of provisions which he was accus- 
tomed to send to Persia. Jaddua refused, upon 
the ground of his oath of fidelity to the king 
of Persia. This refusal irritated Alexander ; 
and when he had taken Tyre, he marched 
toward Jerusalem to revenge himself upon t)ie 
Jews. Jaddua had notice of his approach, and, 
by the direction of God, went out of the city 
to meet him, dressed in his pontifical robes, 
and attended by the Levites in white garments. 
Alexander, visibly struck with this solemn 
appearance, immediately laid aside his hostile 
intentions, advanced toward the high priest, 
embraced him, and paid adoration to the name 
of God, which was inscribed upon the frontlet 
of his mitre : he afterward went into the city 
with the high priest, and offered sacrifices in 
the temple to the God of the Jews. This sud- 
den change in the disposition of Alexander 
excited no small astonishment among his fol- 
lowers ; and when his favourite P^rmenio in- 
quired of him the cause, he answered, that it 
was occasioned by the recollection of a re- 
markable dream he had in Macedonia, in 
which a person, dressed precisely like the 
Jewish high priest, had encouraged him to 
undertake the conquest of Persia, and had 
promised him success : he therefore adored 
the name of that God by whose direction he 
believed he acted, and showed kindness to his 
people. It is also said, that while he was at 
Jerusalem the prophecies of Daniel were point- 
ed out to him, which foretold that " the king 
of Grecia" should conquer Persia, Dan. viii, 
21. Before he left Jerusalem he granted the 
Jews the same free enjoyment of their laws 
and their religion, and exemption from tribute 
every sabbatical year, which they had been 
allowed by the kings of Persia ; and when he 
built Alexandria, he placed a great number of 
Jews there, and granted them many favours 
and iinmunities. Whetiier any Jews settled 
in Europe so early as while the nation was 
subject to the Macedonian empire, is not 
known ; but it is believed that they began to 
Hellenize about this time. The Greek tongue 
became more common among them, and Gre- 
cian manners and opinions were soon intro- 
duced. See Alexander. 

At the death of Alexander, (B. C. 323,) in 
the division of his empire among his generals, 
Judea fell to the share of Laomedon. But 
Ptolemy Soter, son of Lagus, king of Egypt, 
soon after made himself master of it by a 
stratagem : he entered Jerusalem on a Sabbath 



JEW 



529 



JEW 



day, under pretence of offering sacrifice, and 
took possession of the city without resistance 
from the Jews, who did not on this occasion 
dare to transgress their law by fighting on a 
Sabbath day. Pl^olemy carried many thou- 
sands captive into Egypt, both Jews and Sa- 
maritans, and settled them there : hei afterward 
treated them with kindness, on account of their 
acknowledged fidelity to their engagements, 
particularly in their conduct toward Darius, 
king of Persia ; and he granted them equal 
privileges with the Macedonians themselves 
at Alexandria. Ptolemy Philadelphus is said 
to have given the Jews who were captives in 
Egypt their liberty, to the number of a hundred 
and twenty thousand. He commanded the 
Jewish Scriptures to be translated into the 
Greek language, which translation is called 
the Septuagint. (See Alexandria.) After the 
Jewish nation had been tributary to the kings 
of Egypt for about a hundred years, it became 
subject to the kings of Syria. They divided 
the land, which now began to be called Pales- 
tine, into five provinces, three of which were 
on the west side of the Jordan, namely, Gali- 
lee, Samaria, and Judea, and two on the east 
side, namely, Trachonitis and Persea ; but they 
suffered them to be governed by their own 
laws, under the high priest and council of the 
nation. Seleucus Nicanor gave them the right 
of citizens in the cities which he built in Asia 
Minor and Ccelo-Syria, and even in Antioch, 
his capital, with privileges, which they con- 
tinued to enjoy under the Romans. Antiochus 
the Great granted considerable favours and 
immunities to the city of Jerusalem ; and, to 
secure Lydia and Phrygia, he established colo- 
nies of Jews in those provinces. In the series 
of wars which took place between the kings of 
Syria and Egjrpt, Judea, being situated between 
those two countries, was, in a greater or less 
degree, affected by all the revolutions which 
they experienced, and was frequently the scene 
of bloody and destructive battles. The evils 
to which the Jews were exposed from these 
foreign powers were considerably aggravated 
by the corruption and misconduct of their own 
high priests, and other persons of distinction 
among them. To this corruption and miscon- 
duct, and to the increasing wickedness of the 
people, their sufferings ought indeed to be 
attributed, according to the express declara- 
tions of God by the mouth of his prophets. It 
is certain that about this time a considerable 
part of the nation was become much attached 
to Grecian manners and customs, though they 
continued perfectly free from the sin of idola- 
try. Near Jerusalem places were appropriated 
to gymnastic exercises ; and the people were 
led by Jason, who had obtained the high priest, 
hood from Antiochus Epiphanes by the most 
dishonourable means, to neglect the temple 
worship, and the observance of the law, in a far 
greater degree than at any period since their 
return from the captivity. It pleased God to 
punish them for this defection, by the hand of the 
v^ery person whom they particularly sought to 
please. Antiochus Epiphanes, irritated at hav- 
ing been prevented by the Jews from entering 
35 



the holy place when he visited the temple', 
soon after made a popular commotion the pre- 
tence for the exercise of tyranny : he took the 
city, (B. C. 170,) plundered the temple, and 
slew or enslaved great numbers of the inhabit- 
ants, with every circumstance of profanation 
and of cruelty which can be conceived. For 
three years and a half, the time predicted by 
Daniel, the daily sacrifice was taken away,- the 
temple defiled and partly destroyed, the ob- 
servance of the law prohibited under the most 
severe penalties, every copy burned which the 
agents of the tyrant could procure, and the 
people required to sacrifice to idols, under pain 
of the most agonizing death. Numerous as 
were the apostates, (for the previous corruption 
of manners had but ill prepared the nation for 
such a trial,) a remnant continued faithful ; 
and the complicated miseries which the people 
endured under this cruel yoke excited a general 
impatience. At length the moment of deliver- 
ance arrived. Mattathias,. a priest, (B. C. 167,) 
eminent for his piety and resolution, and the 
father of five sons, equally zealous for their 
religion, encouraged the people by his example 
and exhortations, "to stand up for the law," 
and having soon collected an army of six thou- 
sand men, he eagerly undertook to free Judea 
from the oppression and persecution of the 
Syrians, and to restore the worship of the God 
of Israel ; but being very old when he engaged 
in this important and arduous work, he did not 
live to see its completion. At his death, his 
son, Judas Maccabseus, succeeded to the com- 
mand of the army ; and having defeated the 
Syrians in several engagements, he drove them 
out of Judea, and established his own authority 
in the country. His first care was to repair and 
purify the temple for the restoration of divine 
worship ; and, to preserve the memory of this 
event, the Jews ordained a feast of eight days, 
called the feast of the dedication, to be yearly 
observed. Judas Maccabseus was slain in battle, 
and his brother Jonathan succeeded him in the 
government. He was also made high priest, 
and from that time the Maccabsean princes 
continued to be high priests. Judas Macca- 
bseus and his brothers were so successfiil, by 
their valour and conduct, in asserting the 
liberty of their country, that in a few years 
they not only recovered its independence, but 
regained almost all the possessions of the 
twelve tribes, destroying at the same time the 
temple on Mount Gerizim, in Samaria. But 
they and their successors were almost always 
engaged in wars, in which, though generally 
victorious, they were sometimes defeated, and 
their country for a short time oppressed. Aris> 
tobulus was the first of the Maccabees who 
assumed the name of king. A^out forty-two 
years after, a contest arising ('between the two 
brothers, Hyrcanus and Aj'-^stobulus, the sons 
of Alexander Jaddseus, r'^lative to the succes- 
sion of the crown, botA parties applied to the 
Romans for their support and assistance. 
Scaurus, the Ropian general, suffered himself 
to be bribed by Aristobulus, and placed him 
on the throne. Not long after, Pompey re- 
turned from the east into Syria, and both the 



JEW 



530 



JEW 



brothers applied to him for his protection, and 
pleaded their cause before hinx, (B. C. 63.) 
Pompey considered this as a favourable oppor- 
tunity for reducing Palestine under the power 
of the Romans, to which the neighbouring 
nations had already submitted ; and therefore, 
without deciding the points in dispute between 
the two brothers, he marched his army into 
Judea, and, after some pretended negociation 
with Aristobulus and his party, besieged and 
^ook possession of Jerusalem. He appointed 
Hyrcanus high priest, but would not allow 
him to take the title of king : he gave him, 
however, the specious name of prinfce, with 
very limited authority. Pompey did not take 
away the holy utensils or treasures of the 
temple, but he made Judea subject and tribu- 
tary to the Romans ; and Crassus, about nine 
years after, plundered the temple of every thing 
valuable belonging to it. Julius Caesar con- 
firmed Hyrcanus in the pontificate, and grant- 
ed fresh privileges to the Jews ; but about four 
years after the death of Julius Caesar, Antigo- 
nus, the son of Aristobulus, with the assistance 
of the Parthians, while the empire of Rome 
was in an unsettled state, deposed his uncle 
Hyrcanus, (B. C. 41,) seized the government, 
and assumed the title of king. 

Herod, by birth an Idumean, but of the 
Jewish religion, whose father, Antipater, as 
we'll as himself, had enjoyed considerable posts 
of honour and trust under Hyrcanus, immedi- 
ately set out for Rome, and prevailed upon 
the senate, through the interest of Antony 
and Augustus, to appoint him king of Judea. 
Armed with this authority, he returned, and 
began hostilities against Antigonus. About 
three years after, he took Jerusalem, and put an 
end to the government of the Maccabees or As- 
monaeans, after it had lasted nearly a hundred 
and tliirty years. Antigonus was sent prisoner 
to Rome, and was there put to death by Anto- 
ny. Herod married Mariamne, who lived to 
be the only representative of the Asmonsean 
family? and afterward caused her to be publicly 
executed from motives of unfounded jealousy. 
Herod considerably enlarged the kingdom of 
Judea, but it continued tributary to the Ro- 
mans ; he greatly depressed the civil power of 
the high priesthood, and changed it from be- 
ing hereditary and for life to an office granted 
and held at the pleasure of the monarch ; and 
this sacred office was now often given to those 
who paid the highest price for it, without any 
regard to merit : he was an inexorable, cruel 
tyrant to his people, and even to his children, 
three of whom he put to death ; a slave to his 
passions, and indiffierent by what means he 
gratified his ambition ; but to preserve the Jews 
in subjectioii, and to erect a lasting monument 
to his own naice, he repaired the temple of 
Jerusalem at a va4 expense, and added greatly 
to its magnificence. 

At this time there vras a confident expecta- 
tion of the Messiah aiuong the Jews; and 
indeed, a general idea prevailed among the 
Heathen, also, that some exi^aordinary con- 
queror or deliverer would soon ixppear in Ju- 
dea. In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of 



Herod, while Augustus was emperor of Rome, 
the Saviour of mankind was born of the virgin 
Mary, of the lineage of David, in the city of 
Bethlehem of Judea, according to the word 
of prophecy. Herod, misled by the opinion, 
which was then common among the Jews, 
that the Messiah was to appear as the tempo- 
ral prince, and judging from the inquiries of 
the wise men of the east, that the child wag 
actually born, sent to Bethlehem, and ordered 
that all the children of two years old and un- 
der should be put to death, with the hope of 
destroying one whom he considered as the rival 
of himself, or at least of his family. He was 
soon after smitten with a most loathsome and 
tormenting disease, and died, a signal example 
of divine justice, about a year and a quarter 
after the birth of our Saviour, and in the thirty- 
seventh year of his reign, computing from the 
time he was declared king by the Romans. 
See Herod. 

Herod made his will not long before his 
death, but left the final disposal of his domi- 
nions to Augustus. ' The emperor ratified this 
will in all its material points, and suffered the 
countries over which Herod had reigned to be 
divided among his three sons. Archelaus suc- 
ceeded to the largest share, namely, to Judea 
Propria, Samaria, and Idumea. Herod Anti- 
pas, called Herod the Tetrarch, who afterward 
beheaded John the Baptist, succeeded to Gali- 
lee and Peraea ; and Philip, to Trachonitis, 
and to the neighbouring region of Iturea. The 
sons of Herod the Great were not suffered to 
take the title of king : they were' only called 
ethnarchs or tetrarchs. Beside the countries 
already mentioned, Abilene, which had belong- 
ed to Herod during the latter part of his life, 
and of which Lysanias is mentioned in Lmce 
iii, 1, as tetrarch, and some cities were given 
to Salome, the sister of Herod the Great, 
(A. D. 7.) Archelaus acted with great cruelty 
and injustice ; and in the tenth year of his 
government, upon a regular complaint being 
made against him by the Jews, Augustus ba- 
nished him to Vienne, in Gaul, where he died. 

After the banishment of Archelaus, Augus- 
tus sent Publius Sulpitius Quirinus, who, ac- 
cording to the Greek way of writing that 
name, is by St. Luke called Cyrenius, presi- 
dent of Syria, to reduce the countries over 
which Archelaus had reigned, to the form of 
a Roman province ; and appointed Coponius, a 
Roman of the equestrian order, to be governor, 
under the title of procurator of Judea, but sub- 
ordinate to the president of Syria. The power 
of life and death was now taken out of the hands 
of the Jews, and taxes were from this time 
paid immediately to the Roman emperor. Jus- 
tice was administered in the name and by the 
laws of Rome ; though in what concerned their 
religion, their own laws, and the power of the 
high priest, and sanhedrim, or great council, 
were continued to them ; and they were allow- 
ed to examine witnesses, and exercise an infe- 
rior jurisdiction in other causes, subject to the 
control of the Romans, to whom their tetrarchs 
or kings were also subject ; and it may be re- 
marked that, at this very period of time, our 



JE^^ 



631 



JEW. 



Saviour, who was now in the twelfth year of 
his age, being at Jerusalem with Joseph and 
Mary upon occasion of the passover, appeared 
first in the temple in his prophetic office, and 
in the business of his Father, on which he was 
sent, sitting among the doctors of tlxe temple, 
and declaring the truth of God to them. After 
Coponius, Ambivius, Annius Rufus, Valerius 
Gratus, and Pontius Pilate, were successively 
procurators ; and this was the species of go- 
vernment to which Judea and Samaria were 
subject during the ministry of our Saviour. 
Herod Antipas was still tetrarch of Galilee, 
and it was he to whom our Saviour v/as sent 
by Pontius Pilate. Lardner is of opinion that 
there was no procurator in Judea after Pontius 
Pilate, who was removed A. D. 36, but that 
.it was governed for a few years b'y the pre- 
sidents of Syria, who occasionly sent officers 
into Judea. Philip continued tetrarch of Tra- 
chonitis thirty-seven years, and died in the 
twentieth year of the reign of Tiberius. Cali- 
gula gave his tetrarchy to Agrippa, the grand- 
son of Herod the Great, with the title of king ; 
and afterward he added the tetrarchy of He- 
rod Antipas, whom he deposed and banished 
after he had been tetrarch forty-three years. 
The Emperor Claudius gave him Judea, Sa- 
maria, the southern parts of Idumea, and 
Abilene ; and thus at last the dominions of 
Herod Agrippa became nearly the same as 
those of his grandfather, Herod the Great. It 
was this Agrippa, called also Herod Agrippa, 
and by St. Luke Herod only, who put to death 
James, the brother of John, and imprisoned 
Peter. He died in the seventh year of his 
reign, and left a son called also Agrippa, then 
seventeen years old ; and Claudius, thinking 
him too young to govern liis father's extensive 
dominions, made Cuspus Fadus governor of 
Judea. Fadus was soon succeeded by Tibe- 
rius, and he was followed by Alexander Cuma- 
nus, Felix, and Festus ; but Claudius after- 
ward gave Trachonitis and Abilene to Agrippa, 
and Nero added a part of Galilee and some 
other cities. It was this younger Agrippa, 
who was also called king, before whom Paul 
pleaded at Caesarea, which was at that time 
'the place of residence of the governor of Ju- 
dea. Several of the Roman governors severely 
oppressed and persecuted the Jews ; and at 
length, in the reign of Nero, and in the go. 
vernment of Florus, who had treated them with 
greater cruelty than any of his predecessors, 
they openly revolted from the Romans. Then 
began the Jewish war, which was terminated, 
after an obstinate defence and unparalleled 
sufferings on the part of the Jev/s, by the total 
destruction of the city and temple of Jerusa- 
lem, by the overthrow of their civil and reli- 
gious polity, and the reduction of the people to 
a state of the most abject slavery; for though, 
in the reign of Adrian, numbers of them col- 
lected together, in different parts of Judea, it is 
to be observed, they were then considered and 
treated as rebellious slaves ; and these com- 
motions were made a pretence for the general 
fclaughter of those who were taken, and tended 
to complete the work of their dispersion into 



all countries under heaven. Since that time 
the Jews have no where subsisted as a nation. 

2. Jews, Modern. The Jews divide the 
books of the Old Testament into three classes : 
the law, the prophets, and the hagiographa, 
or holy writings. They have counted not only 
the large and small sections, the verses and 
the words, but even the letters in some of the 
books ; and they have likewise reckoned which 
is the middle letter of the Pentateuch, which 
is the middle clause of each book, and how often 
each letter of the alphabet occurs in the Hebrew 
Scriptures. Beside the Scriptures, the Jews 
pay great attention to the Targums, or Chaldee 
paraphrases of them. It seems probable that 
these were written either during the Babylonish 
captivity, or immediately afterward, when the 
Jews had forgotten their own language, and 
acquired the Chaldee of the Targums, at pre- 
sent received by the Jews. The most ancient 
are that of Onkelos on the law, and that of 
Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the prophets : the 
former is supposed to be^of greater antiquity 
than the latter, and it approaches, in simplicity 
and purity of style, to the Chaldee of Daniel 
and Ezra. The Targum on the prophets is 
believed to have been written before the birth 
of Christ ; and, though inferior in respect of 
style to the Targum of Onkelos, is much supe- 
rior to any other Targum. 

The Jews also regard with great veneration, 
what is called the Talmud. This work eon- 
sists of two parts : the Mishna, which signi- 
fies a second law ; and the Gemara, which 
means either a supplement or a commentary. 
The Jews suppose that God first dictated the 
text of the law to Moses, which he commanded 
to be put in writing, and Avhich exists in the 
Pentateuch, and then gave him an explication 
of every thing comprehended in it, which he 
ordered to be committed to memory. Hence 
the former is called the written, and the latter 
the oral, law. These two laws were recited by 
Moses to Aaron four times, to his sons three 
times, to the seventy elders twice, and to the 
rest of the people once : after this, the repeti- 
tion was renewed by Aaron, his two sons, and 
the seventy elders. The last month of Mo- 
ses's life "v^as spent, according to the Jews, in 
repeating and explaining the law to the people, 
and especially to Joshua, his ^accessor. A 
prophet might suspend any law, or authorize 
the violation of any precept, except those 
against idolatry. If theiO was any difference 
of opinion respecting i^he meaning of any law 
or precept, it was dste-Tiined by the majority. 
When Joshua died, au tne interpretations he 
had received from Moses, as well as those made 
in his time, were transmitted to the elders : 
they conveyed them to the prophets, and by 
one prophet they were delivered to another. 
This law was only oral till the days of Rabbi 
Jehuda, who, perceiving that the students of 
the law were gradually decreasing, and that the 
Jews were dispersed over the face of the earth, 
collected all the traditions, arranged them 
under distinct heads, and formed them into 
a methodical code of traditional law ; thus the 
Mishna was formed. It is written in a concise 



JEW 



532 



^EW 



style, chiefly in the form of aphorisms, which 
admit of a variety of interpretations. On this 
account, a Gemara or commentary was writ- 
ten by a president of a school in Palestine, 
which, together with the Mishna, forms the 
Jerusalem Talmud. The Jews in Chaldea, 
however, not being satisfied with this Gemara, 
one of their rabbles compiled another ; which, 
together with the Mishna, forms the .Babylo- 
nian Talmud. 

One of the principal branches of modern 
Judaism is the cabala, the study of which is 
regarded as the sublimest of all sciences. By 
the cabala, the Jews mean those mystical inter- 
pretations of the Scripture, and metaphysical 
speculations concerning the Deity, angels, &c, 
which they regard as having been handed down 
by a secret tradition from the earliest ages. In 
the eleventh century, the famous Rabbi Mai- 
monides drew up a summary of the doctrines 
of Judaism, which every Jew is required to 
believe, on pain of excommunication in this 
world, and condemnation in the next. This 
summary consists of thirteen articles, which he 
calls foundations or roots of the faith. The 
articles are as follows: 1. That God is the 
Creator and active Supporter of all things. 
2. That God is one, and eternally unchange- 
able. 3. That God is incorporeal, and can- 
nOL have any material properties. 4. That 
God must eternally exist» 5. That God 
alone is to be worshipped.- 6. That whatever 
is taught by the prophets is true. 7. That 
Moses is the head and father of all contempo- 
rary doctors, and of all those who lived before 
or shall live after him. 8. That the law was 
given by Moses. 9. That the law shall always 
exist, and never be altered. 10. That God 
knows all the thoughts and actions of men. 
11. That God will reward the observance, and 
punish the breach, of the laws. 12. That the 
Messiah is to come, though he tarry a long 
time. 13. That there shall be a resurrection 
of the dead, when God shall think fit. 

The Jewish religion is, perhaps, more a reli- 
gion of minute and trifling rites and ceremonies 
than even the Catholic religion. The minutest 
circumstances in dressing and undressing, 
washing and wiping the face and hands, and 
other neceE,sary actions of common and daily 
life, are enjoined by the rabbles to be performed 
exactly according to the prescribed regulations. 
Their prayers also are numerous, and some of 
them relate to the most trifling circumstances. 
Those esteemed the most solemn and import- 
ant are called Shemoneh B»reh, or the eighteen 
prayers, though they actually consist of nine- 
teen, the last having been added against here- 
tics and apostates. They are enjoined, to be 
said by all Jews above the age of thirteen, 
wherever they may be, three times a day. 
The members of the synagogue are required 
to repeat ?! least a hundred benedictions every 
day. A son who survives his father is enjoined 
to attend the nocturnal service in the syna- 
gogue every evening for a year, and to repeat 
the Kodcsh, in order that his father may be 
delivered from hell. This service may be sus- 
pended by any person going Up to the desk and 



closing the book. This is not unfrequently 
done in case of quarrels ; and the prayers can- 
not be renewed till a reconciliation takes place. 
Nothing is to be undertaken on Friday which 
cannot be finished before the evening. In the 
afternoon they wash and clean themselves, 
trim their hair, and pare their nails. Every 
Jew, of whatever rank, must assist in the pre- 
paration for the Sabbath. Two loaves, baked 
on the Friday, are set on a table. This is 
done in memory of the manna, of which a 
double portion fell on the sixth day of the 
week. The table remains spread all the Sab- 
bath. Before the sun is set the candles aTe to 
be lighted ; one, at least, with seven wicks, in 
allusion to the number of days in a week, is to 
be lighted in each house. The Talmudical 
directions respecting the wicks and oil form 
part of the Sabbath evening service ; they are 
most ridiculously and childishly minute. The 
lesson appointed for the Sabbath is divided into 
seven parts, and read to seven persons at the 
altar. The first called up to hear it is a de- 
scendant of Aaron, the second of Levi, the 
third an Israelite of any tribe ; the same order 
is then repeated : the seventh may be of any 
tribe. The portion read from the law is fol- 
lowed by a portion from the prophets. There 
are three services; morning, afternoon, and 
evening. 

Of the festivals of the Jews we can mention 
only a few, and those merely in a cursory man- 
ner. The principal are those of the new moon, 
of the passover, of pentecost, of the new year, 
the fast of atonement, and the feast of taber- 
nacles. That the festival of the new mooh 
might be celebrated as nearly as possible on 
the day of the moon's conjunction with the 
sun, most of the months contain alternately 
twenty-nine and thirty days ; and the feast of 
the new moon is held on the first, or on the first 
and second days of the month. The women 
are not allowed to work : the men may. Good 
eating and drinking particularly distinguish 
this festival. The feast of the passover com- 
mences on the fifteenth day of the month 
Nisan, and continues among Jews who live in 
or near Jerusalem seven days, and elsewhere 
eight days. The Sabbath preceding is called 
the great Sabbath, and is kept with most scru- 
pulous strictness. The mode^, and materials 
for making the unleavened cakes for the pass- 
over are most minutely described by the rab- 
bies, as well as all the ceremonies of this feast. 
It is customary for every Jew to honour it by 
an exhibition of the most sumptuous furniture 
he can aff'ord. The table for the feast is covered 
with a clean linen cloth, on which are placed 
several dishes : on one is the shank bone of a 
shoulder of lamb or kid, and an egg ; on an- 
other, three cakes, wrapped in two napkins ; on 
a third, some lettuce, parsley, celery, or other 
herbs : these are their bitter herbs. Near the 
salad is a cruet of vinegar, and some salt and 
water. There is also a dish representing the 
bricks which their forefathers were required to 
make in Egypt : this is composed of apples, 
almonds, nuts, and figs, formed into a paste, 
dressed in wine and cinnamon. The first two 



JEW 



633 



JEW 



days, and the last two, are kept with particu- 
lai- solemnity and strictness. Contracts of 
marriage may be made, but no marriage is to 
be solemnized during this festival. The feast 
of pentecost, on the sixth day of the month 
Sivan, continues two days, and is kept with 
the same strictness as the first two days of the 
passover. It is a received opinion of the Jews, 
that the world was created on the day of their 
new year ; and they therefore celebrate the 
festival of the new year by a discontinuance 
of all labour, and by repeated services in the 
synagogue. The fast of atonement is on the 
tenth day of Tisri : the first ten days of the 
month are called days of penitence during 
which the Jews believe that God examines the 
actions of mankind ; but he defers passing 
sentence till the tenth. On the eve of the fast, 
a ceremony, evidently designed as a substitute 
for their ancient sacrifices, is performed. This 
consists in killing a cock with great formality. 
The cocks must on no account be red : white 
is the preferable colour. Before the fast be- 
gins, they endeavour to settle all their disputes. 
In the afternoon they make a hearty meal, to 
prepare for the fast, which is of the most rigid 
kind. The feast of tabernacles commences on 
the fifteenth of Tisri, and is kept nine days. 
Every Jew who has a court or garden is re- 
quired to erect a tabernacle on this occasion ; 
respecting the materials and erection of v/hich 
the rabbles have given special directions. The 
eighth and ninth are high days, particularly 
the last, which is called the day of the rejoic- 
ing of the land. 

Such are the opinions, traditions, rites, and 
ceremonies of the great majority of the modern 
Jews ; but, beside these, there is a small sect 
denominated Caraites, that is, textualists, — 
persons attached to the text of the Scriptures. 
They reside chiefly in the Crimea, Lithuania, 
and Persia ; and at Damascus, Constantinople, 
and Cairo : their whole number is very incon- 
siderable. They agree with other Jews in 
denying the advent of the Messiah, The 
principal difference between them consists in 
their adherence to the letter of the Scripture, 
and in the rejection of all paraphrases and 
interpretations of the rabbles. They also 
differ from the rabbles in various particulars 
respecting the feasts of the passover, pente- 
cost, and tabernacles. They observe the Sab- 
bath with far greater strictness. They extend 
the degrees of affinity within which marriage 
is prohibited ; but they are more strict in mat- 
ters of divorce. 

3. Jews, Calamities of the. All history 
cannot furnish us with a parallel to the ca- 
lamities and miseries of the Jews : rapine and 
murder, famine and pestilence within, fire and 
sword, and all the terrors of war without. 
Our Saviour wept at the foresight of these 
calamities ; and it is almost impossible for 
persons of any humanity to read the account 
without being affected. The predictions 
concerning them were remarkable, and the 
calamities that came upon them were the 
greatest the world ever saw. See Deut. xxviii, 
xxix ; Matt. xxiy. Now, what heinous sin 



was it that could be the cause of such heavy 
judgments ? Can any other be assigned than 
that which the Scripture assigns ? " They 
both killed the Lord Jesus and their own pro- 
phets, and persecuted the Apostles," 1 Thess. 
ii, 15 ; and so filled up their sins, and wrath 
came upon them to the utmost. It is hardly 
possible to consider the nature and extent of 
their sufferings, and not conclude their own 
imprecation to be singularly fulfilled upon 
them : " His blood be on us, and on our chil- 
dren," Matt, xxvii, 25. At Csesarea twenty 
thousand of the Jews were killed by the Syrians 
in their mutual broils. At Damascus, ten thou- 
sand unarmed Jews were killed ; and at Beth- 
shan, the Heathen inhabitants caused their 
Jewish neighbours to assist them against their 
brethren, and then murdered thirteen thousand 
of these inhabitants. At Alexandria, the Jews 
murdered multitudes of the Heathens, and 
were murdered, in their turn, to about sixty 
thousand. The Romans, under Vespasian, 
invaded the country, and took the cities of 
Galilee, Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum, &6, 
where Christ had been especially rejected, and 
murdered numbers of the inhabitants. At 
Jerusalem the scene was most wretched of all. 
At the passover, when there might have been 
two or three millions of people in the city, the 
Romans surrounded it with troops, trenches, 
and walls, that none might escape. The 
three different factions within murdered one 
another. Titus did all in his power to per- 
suade them to an advantageous surrender, but 
they scorned every proposal. The multitudes 
of unburied carcasses corrupted the air, and 
produced a pestilence. The people fed on 
one another ; and even ladies, it is said, boiled 
their suckling infants, and ate them. After a 
siege of six months, the city was taken. They 
murdered almost every Jew they met with. 
Titus was bent to save the temple, but could 
not : six thousand Jews who had taken shelter 
in it were all burned or murdered. The out- 
cries of the Jews, when they saw it, were most 
dreadful : the whole city, except three towers, 
and a small part of the wall, was razed to the 
ground, and the foundations of the temple and 
other places were ploughed up. Soon after 
the forts of Herodian and Machaeron were 
taken, the garrison of Maspada murdered 
themselves rather than surrender. At Jeru- 
salem alone, it is said, one million one hun- 
dred thousand perished by sword, famine, and 
pestilence. In other places, we hear of two 
hundred and fifty thousand that were cut off, 
beside vast numbers sent into Egypt, to labour 
as slaves. About fifty years after, the Jews 
murdered about five hundred thousand of the 
Roman subjects, for wliich they were severely 
punished by Trajan. About A. D. 130, one 
Barcocaba pretended that he was the Messiah, 
and raised a Jewish army of two hundred thou- 
sand, who murdered all the Heathens and 
Christians that came in their way ; but he was 
defeated by Adrian's forces. In this war, it is 
said, about six hundred thousand Jews were 
slain, or perished by famine and pestilence. 
Adrian built a city on Mount Calvary, and 



JEW 



534 



JEW 



erected a marble statue of a swine over the 
gate that led to Bethlehem. No Jew was 
allowed to enter the city, or to look to it at a 
distance, under pain of death. In A. D. 360, 
the Jews, encouraged by Julian, Constantine's 
nephew, and now emperor, wishing to give 
Jesus the lie, began to rebuild their city and 
temple ; but a terrible earthquake, and flames 
of fire issuing from the earth, killed the work- 
men, and scattered their materials. And after 
the death of Julian, the edict of Adrian being 
revived against them, and Roman guards pro- 
hibiting their approach, till the seventh cen- 
tury they durst not so much as creep over the 
rubbish to bewail the destruction of the city, 
without bribing the guards. In the third, fourth, 
and fifth centuries they were many of them 
furiously harassed and murdered. In the sixth 
century, twenty thousand of them were slain, 
and as many taken and sold for slaves. They 
were severely punished, A. D. 602, for their 
horrible massacre of the Christians at Antioch. 
In Spain, A. D. 700, they were ordered to be 
enslaved. In the eighth and ninth centuries 
they were greatly derided and abused ; in some 
places they were made to wear leathern girdles, 
and ride without stirrups upon asses and mules. 
In France and Spain they were much insulted. 
In the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, 
their miseries rather increased ; and they were 
greatly persecuted in Egypt. Beside what 
they suffered in the east by the Turkish and 
sacred war, it is shocking to think what m-ul- 
titudes of them the eight crusades murdered 
in Germany, Hungary, Lesser Asia, and else- 
where. In France multitudes were burned. 
In England, A. D. 1020, they were banished ; 
and at the coronation of Richard I. tne mob 
fell upon them, and murdered a great many of 
them. About one thousand five hundred of 
them were burned in the palace in the city of 
York, which they themselves set fire to, after 
killing their wives and children. In the thir- 
teenth and fourteenth centuries, their condi- 
tion was no better. In Egypt, Canaan, and 
Syria, the crusaders still harassed them. Pro- 
voked with their mad running after pretended 
JVTessiahs, Califf" Nasser scarce left any of them 
alive in his dominions of Mesopotamia. In 
Persia, the Tartars murdered them in multi- 
tudes. In Spain, Ferdinand persecuted them 
furiously. About 1349, the terrible massacre 
of them at Toledo forced many of them to 
murder themselves, or change their religion. 
About 1253, many were murdered in, and 
others banished from, France, but in 1275, 
recalled. The crusades of the fanatic shep- 
herds, A. D. 1320 and 1330, who wasted the 
south of France, massacred them ; beside fif- 
teen thousand of them that were murdered on 
another occasion. They were finally banished 
from France, A. D. 1358 ; since which, few 
of them have entered that country. King 
Edward expelled them from England, A. D. 
1291, to the number of a hundred and sixty 
thousand. In the fifteenth, sixteenth, and 
eeventeenth centuries, their misery continued. 
In Persia they have been terribly used ; from 
1663 to 1666, the murder of them was so uni- 



versal, that but a few escaped to Turkey, In 
Portugal and Spain they have been miserably 
treated. About 1492, six or eight hundred 
thousand of them were banished from Spain. 
Some were drowned in their passage to Africa; 
some perished by hard usage ; and many of 
their carcasses lay in the fields till wild beasts 
devoured them. In Germany, they have en- 
dured many hardships. They have been 
banished from Bohemia, Bavaria, Cologne, 
Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Vienna ; they have 
been terribly massacred in Moravia, and plun- 
dered in Bonn and Bamberg. Except in Por- 
tugal and Spain, their present condition is 
generally tolerable. 

4. Jews, Preservation of the. The pre- 
servation of the Jews, says Basnage, in the 
midst of the miseries which they have under- 
gone during one thousand eight hundred years, 
is the greatest prodigy that can be imagined. 
As most religions depend on temporal pros- 
perity, they triumph under the protection of 
a conqueror ; they languish and sink with 
sinking monarchies. Paganism, which once 
covered the earth, is, in the civilized world, 
extinct. The Christian church was consi- 
derably diminished by the persecutions to 
which it was exposed ; nor was it easy to 
repair the wastes made in it by those acts of 
violence. But here we behold a people hated 
and persecuted for one thousand eight hundred 
years, and yet sustaining itself, and widely 
extended. Kings have often employed the 
severity of edicts and the har^d of executioners 
to ruin it. The seditious multitudes, by mur- 
dei's and massacres, have committed outrages 
against it still more violent and tragical. 
Princes and people. Pagans, Mohammedans, 
Christians, disagreeing in so many things, 
have united in the design of exterminating it, 
and have not been able to succeed. The bush 
of Moses, surrounded with flames, ever burns, 
and is not consumed. The Jews have been 
expelled, in different times, from every part of 
the world, which hath only served to spread 
them in all regions. From age to age they have 
been exposed to misery and persecution ; yet 
still they subsist, in spite of the ignoirdny and 
the hatred which hath pursued them in all 
places, while the greatest monarchies are fallen, 
and nothing remains of them beside the name. 
The judgments which God hath exercised 
upon this people are terrible, extending to the 
men, the religion, and the very land in which 
they dwelt. The ceremonies essential to their 
religion can no more be observed : the ritual 
law, which cast a splendour on the national 
worship, and struck the Pagans so much that 
they sent their presents and their victims to 
Jerusalem, is absolutely fallen ; for they have 
no temple, no altar, no sacrifices. Their land 
itself seems to lie under a never-ceasing curse. 
Pagans, Christians, Mohammedans, in a word, 
almost all nations have, by turns, seized and 
held Jerusalem. To the Jews only hath God 
refused the possession of this small tract of 
ground, so supremely necessary for them, 
since, as Jews, they ought to worship on 
Mount Zion, In all this there is no exaggerj^ 



JEZ 



635 



JOA 



tion : we are only pointing out known facts ; 
and far from having the least design to raise 
an odium against the nation from its miseries, 
we conclude that it ought to be looked upon 
as one of those prodigies which we admire 
without comprehending ; since, in spite of 
evils so durable, and a patience so long exer. 
cised, it is preserved by a particular providence. 
The Jew ought to be weary of expecting a 
Messiah, who so unkindly disappoints his vain 
hopes ; and the Christian ought to have his 
attention and his regard excited toward men 
whom God preserves, for so great a length of 
time under calamities which would have been 
the total ruin of any other people. The whole 
is a standing proof of the truth of the word of 
God ; as it so signally, and beyond all contra- 
diction, fulfils, even to particulars wonderfully 
minute, its ancient and numerous predictions. 

The long protracted existence of the Jews 
as a separate people, is not only a standing 
evidence of the truth of the Bible, but is of 
that kind which defies hesitation, imitation, 
or parallel. Were this people totally extinct, 
some might afiect to say, that they never had 
existed ; or, that if they had existed, they never 
practised such rites as were imputed to them ; 
or, that they were not a numerous people, but 
merely a small tribe of ignorant and unsettled 
Arabs. The care with which the Jews pre- 
serve their sacred books, and the conformity 
of those preserved in the east with those of 
the west, as lately attested, is a satisfactory 
argument in favour of the genuineness of 
both ; and farther, the dispersion of the nation 
has proved the security of these documents ; 
as it has not been in the power of any one 
enemy, however potent, to destroy the entire 
series, or to consign the whole to oblivion. 

JEZEBEL, daughter of Ethbaal, king of 
the Zidonians, and wife of Ahab, king of 
Israel, 1 Kings xvi, 31. This princess intro- 
duced into the kingdom of Samaria the public 
worship of Baal, Astarte, and other Phenician 
deities, which the Lord had expressly forbid, 
den ; and with this impious worship, a general 
prevalence of those abominations which had 
formerly incensed God against the Canaanites, 
to their utter extirpation. Jezebel was so 
zealous, that she fed at her own table four 
hundred prophets belonging to the goddess 
Astarte ; and her husband Ahab, in like man- 
ner, kept four hundred of Baal's prophets, as 
ministers of his false gods. The name of 
Jezebel is used proverbially. Rev. ii, 20. See 
Jehu. 

JEZREEL, a royal city of the kings of 
Israel, who sometimes resided here as well as 
at Samaria. Ahab, in particular, is known to 
have made this his residence ; near to whose 
palace was the vineyard of the unfortunate 
Naboth. The name of Jezreel was by the 
Greeks moulded into that of Esdraela ; which 
IS described by Eusebius and Jerom, in the 
fourth century, as a considerable town. In 
like manner, the valley of Jezreel obtained the 
name of the valley or plain of Esdraelon ; 
which is still described as very fertile, and 
much frequented by the Arabs for its fine 



pasturage. This is tlie largest, and at the same 
time the most fertile, plain in the land of 
Canaan ; and is called, by way of eminence, 
the Great Plain. It may be estimated at thirty 
miles in length, and twenty in breadth. The 
river Kishon flows through it. See Esdra- 
elon. 

JOAB was the son of Zeruiah, David's sis- 
ter, and brother to Abishai and Asahel. He 
was one of the most valiant soldiers and great- 
est generals in David's time ; but he was also 
cruel, revengeful, and imperious. He per- 
formed great services for David, to whose 
interests he was always firm, and was com- 
mander.in-c*hief of his troops, when David 
was king of Judah only. His history is re- 
lated in the second book of Samuel and the 
first book of Kings. See David, Abner, and 
Amasa. 

JOANNA, the wife of Chuza, Herod's 
steward, was one of those women who, having 
been cured by our Saviour, followed him as 
disciples, and ministered to his necessities, 
Luke viii, 3. 

JOASH, son of Ahaziah, king of Judah. 
When the impious Athaliah undertook to 
extinguish the race of the kings of Judah, that 
she might seize the crown herself, she ordered 
all the princes, her grandchildren, to be mur- 
dered. But Jehosheba, the sister of Ahaziah, 
and wife to the High Priest Jehoiada, rescued 
young Joash, then a child, from the cruelty 
of Athaliah, and lodged hun in the temple 
with his nurse. Here he abode six years. In 
the seventh year Jehoiada procured him to be 
acknowledged king, and so well concerted his 
plan, that young Joash was placed on the 
throne, and saluted king in the temple, before 
the queen was informed of it. She was killed 
without the temple, 2 Kings xi, 1, &c. Joash 
received the diadem, together with the book 
of the law, from the hands of Jehoiada, the 
high priest, who, in the young king's name, 
made a covenant between the Lord, the king, 
and the pepple, for their future fidelity to God. 
He also obliged the people to take an oath 
of fidelity to the king. Joash was only seven 
years old when he began to reign, and h» 
reigned forty years at Jerusalem. His mother's 
name was Zibiah of Beersheba. He governed 
with justice and piety, so long as he was 
guided by the High Priest Jehoiada. Yet he 
did not abolish the high places. 

Jehoiada, during the king's minority, had 
issued orders for collecting voluntary offerings 
to the holy place, with the design of repairing 
the temple ; but his orders were ill executed till 
the twentieth year of Joash. Then this prince 
directed chests to be placed at the entrance of 
the temple, and an account to be given him 
of what money was received from them, that 
it might be faithfully employed in repairing 
the house of God. Jehoiada dying at the age 
of a hundred and thirty years, Joash was mis- 
led by the evil counsel of his courtiers, who 
had before been restrained by the high priest's 
authority. They began to forsake the temple 
of the Lord, and to worship idols, and groves 
consecrated to idols. Then the Spirit of the 



JOB 



536 



JOB 



Lord coming upon the High Priest Zechariah, 
ison of Jehoiada, he reproved the people ; but 
they who heard him stoned him, according to 
orders from their king. It was not long be- 
fore God inflicted on Joash the just punish- 
ment of his ingratitude to Jehoiada, whose 
son he had so lately murdered. Hazael, king 
of Syria, besieged Gath, which belonged to 
Judah ; and having taken it he marched against 
Jerusalem. Joash, to redeem himself from the 
difficulties of a siege, and from the danger of 
being plundered, took what money he could 
find in the temple, which had been consecrated 
by Ahaziah his father, Jehoram his grand, 
father, and himself, and gave thfe wlu)le to 
Hazael. It is believed by some, that the next 
year the Syrian army marched again into 
Judah ; but Hazael was not there in person. 
The Syrians made great havoc, defeated the 
troops of Joash, entered Jerusalem, slew the 
princes of Judah, and sent a great booty to 
the king of Syria at Damascus. They treated 
Joash himself with great ignominy, and left 
liim extremely ill. His servants then revolted 
against him, and killed him in his bed, by 
which the blood of Zechariah tlie high priest 
was avenged. He was buried in Jerusalem, 
but not in the royal sepulchre. Amaziah his 
eon succeeded him. 

JOB, a patriarch celebrated for his patience, 
and the constancy of his piety and virtue. 
That Job was a real, and not a fictitious, 
character, may be inferred from the manner 
jn which he is mentioned in the Scriptures. 
Thus, the Prophet Ezekiel speaks of him: 
" Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and 
Job, were in it, they should deliver but their 
own souls by their righteousness, saith the 
Lord God," Ezek. xiv, 14. Now since Noah 
;and Daniel were unquestionably real charac- 
ters, v/e must conclude the same of Job. 
"' Behold," says the Apostle James, "we count 
them happy which endure : ye have heard of 
the patience of Job, and have seen the end of 
the Lord, that the Lord is very pitifal, and 
of tender mercy," James v, 11. It is scarcely 
to be believed that a divinely inspired Apostle 
would refer to an imaginary character as an 
example of patience, or in proof of the mercy 
of God. But, beside the authority of the 
inspired writers, we have the strongest inter- 
nal evidence, from the book itself, that Job 
was a real person ; for it expressly specifies 
the names of persons, places, facts, and other 
circumstances usually related in true histoa-ies. 
Thug, we have the name, country, piety, 
wealth, &c, of Job described, Job i; the 
names, number, and acts of his children are 
mentioned; the conduct of his wife is re- 
.corded as a fact, ii ; his friends, their names, 
countries, and discourses with him in his af- 
flictions are minutely delineated. Job ii, 11, &c. 
f'arther : no reasonable doubt can be enter- 
tained respecting the real existence of Job, 
when we consider that it is proved by the 
concurrent testimony of all eastern tradition : 
he is mentioned by the author of the book of 



writers as a real character. The whole of his 
history, with many fabulous additions, was 
known among the Syrians and Chaldeans; 
and many of the noblest families among the 
Arabs are distinguished by his name, and boast 
of being descended from him. 

Since, then, says Home, the book of Job 
contains the history of a real character, the 
next point is the age in which he lived, a 
question concerning which there is as great 
a diversity of opinion, as upon any other sub- 
ject connected with this venerable monument 
of sacred antiquity. One thing, however, is 
generally admitted with respect to the age of 
the book of Job, namely, its remote antiquity. 
Even those who contend for the later produc- 
tion of the book of Job are compelled to ac- 
quiesce in this particular. Grotius thinks the 
events of the history are such as cannot be 
placed later than the sojourning of the Israel- 
ites in the wilderness. Bishop Warburton, in 
like manner, admits them to bear the marks 
of high antiquity ; and Michaelis confesses 
the manners to be perfectly Abrahamic, that 
is, such as were common to all the- seed of 
Abraham, Israelites, Ishmaelites, and Idume. 
ans. The following are the principal circum- 
stances from which the age of Job may be 
collected and ascertained : — 1. The Usserian 
or Bible chronology dates the trial of Job 
about the year 1520 before the Christian era, 
twenty-nine years before the departure of the 
Israelites from Egypt ; and that the book was 
composed before that event, is evident from 
its total silence respecting the miracles which 
accompanied the exode ; such as the passage 
of the Red Sea, the destruction of the Egyp- 
tians, the manna in the degert, &c ; all of which 
happened in the vicinity of Job's country, and 
were so apposite in the debate concerning the 
ways of Providence that some notice could 
not but have been taken of them, if they had 
been coeval with the poem of Job. 2. That it 
was composed before Abraham's migration to 
Canaan, may also be inferred from its silence 
respecting the destruction of Sodom and Go- 
morrah, and the other cities of the plain, which 
were still nearer to Idumea, where the scene 
is laid. 3. The length of Job's life places him 
in the patriarchal times. He survived his trial 
one hundred and forty years. Job xlii, 16, and 
was probably not younger at that time ; for 
we read that his seven sons were all grown up, 
and had been settled in their own houses for 
a considerable time, Job i, 4, 5. He speaks of 
the sins of his youth. Job xiii, 26, and of the 
prosperity of his youth ; and yet Eliphaz ad- 
dresses him as a novice : " With us are both 
the gray-headed and very aged men, much elder 
than thy father," Job xv, 10. 4. That he did 
not live at an earlier period, may be collected 
from an incidental observation of Bildad, who 
refers Job to their forefathers for instruction 
in wisdom : — 
" Inquire, I pray thee, of the former age, 
And prepare ihyself to the search of their fathers:" 
assigning as a reason the comparative short- 



Tobit, who lived during the Assyrian captivity ; ness of hvmaan life, and consequent ignorance 
J^e is also repeatedly mentioned by ArEibian i of the present generatjipn : — 



JOB 



537 



JOB 



" For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing ; 
Because our days upon earth are a shadow." 

Job viii, 8, 9. 

But the fathers of the former age, or grand- 
fathers of the present, were the contempora- 
ries of Peleg and Joktan, hi the fifth genera- 
tion after the dehige ; and they might easily 
have learned wisdom from the fountain head 
by conversing with Shem, or perhaps with 
Noah liimself ; whereas, in the seventh gene- 
ration, the standard of human life was reduced 
to about two hundred years, Avhich was a 
shadow compared with the longevity of Noah 
and his sons. 5. The general air of antiquity 
which pervades the manners recorded in the 
poem, is a farther evidence of its remote date. 
The manners and customs, indeed, critically 
correspond with that early period. Thus, Job 
speaks of the most ancient kind of writing, by 
sculpture, Job xix, 24 ; his riches also are 
reckoned by his cattle. Job xlii, 12. Farther : 
Job acted as high priest in his family, accord- 
ing to the patriarchal usage. Gen. viii, 20 ; for 
the institution of an established priesthood 
does not appear to have taken place any where 
until the time of Abraham. Melchizedec, king 
of Salem, was a priest of the primitive order. 
Gen. xiv, 18 ; such also was Jethro, the father- 
in-law of Moses, in the vicinity of Idumea, 
Exod. xviii, 12. The first regular priesthood 
was probably instituted in Egypt, where Joseph 
was married to the daughter of the priest of 
On, Gen. xli, 45. 6. The slavish homage of 
prostration to princes and great men, which 
prevailed in Egypt, Persia, and the east in 
general, and which still subsists there, was 
unknown in Arabia at that time. Though 
Job was one of tlie greatest men of all the east, 
we do not find any such adoration paid to him 
by his contemporaries, in the zenith of his 
prosperity, among the marks of respect so 
minutely described in the twenty-ninth chap- 
ter : " When the young men saw him, they hid 
themselves," (rather, shrunk back, through 
respect or rustic bashfulness,) " the aged arose 
and stood up" in his presence, (more correctly, 
ranged themselves about him,) " the princes re- 
frained from talking, and laid their hand upon 
their mouth ; the nobles held their peace," 
and were all attention while he spoke. All 
this was highly respectful, indeed, hut still it 
was manly, and showed no cringing or servile 
adulation. With this description correspond 
the manners and conduct of the genuine Arabs 
of the present day, a majostic race, who were 
never conquered, and who have retained their 
primitive customs, features, and character, 
with scarcely any alteration. 7. The allusion 
made by Job to that species of idolatry alone, 
which by general consent is admitted to have 
heen the most ancient, namely, Zabianism, or 
the worship of the sun and moon, and also to 
the exertion of the judicial authority against 
it. Job xxxi, 26-28, is an additional and most 
complete proof of the high antiquity of the 
poem, as well as a decisive mark of the patri- 
archal age. 8. A farther evidence of the re- 
mote antiquity of this book is the language of 
Job and his friends ; who, being all Idumeans, 



or at least Arabians of the adjacent country, 
yet conversed in Hebrew. This carries us up 
to an age so early as that in which all the pos- 
terity of Abraham, Israelites, Idumeans, and 
Arabians, yet continued to speak one common 
language, and had not branched into different 
dialects. 

The country in which the scene of this poem 
is laid, is stated, Job i, 1, to be the land of 
Uz, which by some geographers has been 
placed in Sandy, and by others in Stony, 
Arabia. Bochart strenuously advocated the 
former opinion, in which he has been power- 
fully supported by Spanheim, Calmet, Carpzov, 
Heidegger, and some later writers ; Michaelis 
and Ilgen place the scene in the valley of Da- 
mascvis ; but Bishops Lowth and Magee, Dr. 
Hales, Dr. Good, and some later critics and 
philologers, have shown that the scene is laid 
in Idumea. In effect, nothing is clearer than 
that the history of an inhabitant of Idumea i^ 
the subject of the poem which bears the name 
of Job, and that all the persons introduced 
into it were Idumeans, dwelling in Idumea, in 
other words, Edomite Arabs.' These charac- 
ters are. Job himself, of the land of Uz ; Eli- 
phaz, of Teman, a district of as much repute 
as Uz, and which, it appears from the joint 
testimony of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, and 
Obadiah, Jer. xlix, 7, 20; Ezek. xxv, 13; 
Amos i, 11, 12 ; Obadiah 8, 9, formed a prin- 
cipal part of Idumea ; Bildad, of Shuah, who 
is always mentioned in conjunction Avith Sheba 
and Dedan, the first of whom was probably 
named after one of the brothers of Joktan or 
Kahtan, and the two last from two of his sons, 
all of them being uniformly placed in the vi- 
cinity of Idumea, Gen. xxv, 2, 3 ; Jer. xlix, 8 ; 
Zophar of Naama, a city importing pleasant- 
ness, which is also stated by Joshua, xv, 21, 
41, to have been situate in Idumea, and to 
have lain in a southern direction toward its 
coast, on the shores of the Red Sea ; and 
Elihu, of Buz, which, as the name of a place, 
occurs only once in Sacred Writ, Jer. xxv, 23, 
but is there mentioned in conjunction with 
Teman and Dedan ; and hence necessarily, 
like them, a border city upon Uz or Idumea. 
Allowing this chorograpliy to be correct, (and 
such, upon a fair review of facts, we may con- 
clude it to be,) there is no difficulty in conceiv- 
ing that hordes of nomadic Chaldeans as well 
as Sabeans, a people addicted to rapine, and 
roving about at immense distances for the sake 
of plunder, should have occasionally infested 
the defenceless country of Idumea, and roved 
from the Euphrates even to Egypt. 

The different parts of the book of Job are 
so closely connected together, that they can- 
not be detached from each other. The exor- 
dium prepares the reader for what follows, 
supplies us with the necessary notices con- 
corning Job and his friends, unfolds the scope, 
and places the calamities full in our view as 
an object of attention. The epilogue, or con- 
clusion, again, has reference to the exordium, 
and relates the happy termination of Job's 
trials ; the dialogues which intervene flow in 
regular order. Now, if any of these parts were 



JOB 



638 



JOH 



to be taken away, the poem would be ex- 
tremely defective. Without the prologue the 
reader wotild be utterly ignorant who Job was, 
who were his friends, and the cause of his 
being so grievously afflicted. Without the 
discourse of Elihu, Job xxxii-xxxvii, there 
would be a sudden and abrupt transition from 
the last words of Job to the address of God, 
for which Elihu's discourse prepares the reader. 
And without the epilogue, or conclusion, we 
should remain in ignorance of the subsequent 
condition of Job. Hence it is evident, that 
the poem is the composition of a single author ; 
but who that was, is a question concerning 
which the learned are very much divided in 
their sentiments. Elihu, Job, Moses, Solo- 
mon, Isaiah, an anonymous writer in the reign 
of Manasseh, Ezekiel, and Ezra, have all been 
contended for. The arguments already ad- 
duced respecting the age of Job, prove that it 
could not be either of the latter persons. Dr. 
Lightfoot, from an erroneous version of Job 
xxxii, 16, 17, has conjectured that it is the 
production of Elihu ; but the correct render- 
ing of that passage refutes this notion. Ilgen 
ascribes it probably to a descendant of Elihu. 
Another and more generally received opinion 
attributes this book to Moses ; this conjecture 
is founded on some apparent striking coinci- 
dences of sentiment, as well as from some 
marks of later date which are supposed to be 
discoverable in it. But, independently of the 
characters of antiquity already referred to, and 
which place the book of Job very many cen- 
turies before the time of Moses, the total ab- 
sence of every the slightest allusion to the 
manners, customs, ceremonies, or history of 
the Israelites, is a direct evidence that the great 
legislator of the Hebrews was not, and could 
not hav? been, the author. To which may be 
added, that the style of Job, as Bishop Lowth 
has remarked, is materially different from the 
poetical style of Moses ; for it is much more 
compact, concise, or condensed, more accurate 
in the poetical conformation of the sentences ; 
as may be observed also in the prophecies of 
Balaam the Mesopotamian, a foreigner, in- 
deed, with respect to the Israelites, but not 
unacquainted either with their language, or 
with the Avorship of the true God. Upon the 
whole, then, vv^e have sufficient ground to con- 
clude that this book was not the production 
of Moses, but of some earlier age. Bishop 
Lowth favours the opinion of Schultens, 
Peters, and others, which is adopted by Bishop 
Tomline and Dr. Hales, who suppose Job him- 
self, or some contemporary, to have been the 
author of this poem ; and there seems to be 
no good reason for supposing that it was not 
written by Job himself. It appears, indeed, 
highly probable that Job was the writer of his 
own story, of whose inspiration we have the 
clearest evidence in the forty-second chapter 
of this book, in which he thus addresses the 
Almighty : " I have heard of thee by the hear- 
ing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee." 
It is plain that in this passage some privilege 
is intended which he never had enjoyed before, 
and which he calls the sight of God. 



The book of Job contains the history of Job, 
a man equally distinguished for purity and up 
Tightness of character, and for honours, wealth, 
and domestic felicity, whom God permitted, 
for the trial of his faith, to be suddenly de- 
prived of all his numerous blessings, and to be 
at once plunged into the deepest affliction, and 
most accumulated distress. It gives an ac- 
count of his eminent piety, patience, and re- 
signation under the pressure of these severe 
calamities, and of his subsequent elevation to 
a degree of prosperity and happiness, still 
greater than that which he had before enjoyed. 
How long the sufferings of Job continued, we 
are not informed ; but it is said, that afler God 
turned his captivity, and blessed liim a second 
time, he lived one hundred and forty years, 
Job xlii, 16. Its style is in many parts pecu- 
liarly sublime ; and it is not only adorned with 
poetical embellishments, but most learned men 
consider it as written in metre. Through the 
whole work we discover religious instruction 
shining forth amidst the venerable simplicity 
of ancient manners. It every where abounds 
with the noblest sentiments of piety, uttered 
with the spirit of inspired conviction. It is a 
work unrivalled for the magnificence of its 
language, and for the beautiful and sublime 
images which it presents. In the wonderful 
speech of the Deity, Job xxxviii, xxxix, every 
line delineates his attributes, every sentence 
opens a picture of some grand object in crea- 
tion, characterized by its most striking fea- 
tures. Add to this, that its prophetic parts 
reflect much light on the economy of God's 
moral government; and every admirer of 
sacred antiquity, every inquirer after religious 
instruction, will seriously rejoice that the 
enraptured sentence of Job, xix, 23, is realized 
to a more effectual and unforeseen accomplish- 
ment ; that while the memorable records of 
antiquity have mouldered from the rock, the 
prophetic assurance and sentiments of Job are 
graven in Scriptures that no time shall alter, 
no changes shall efface. 

JOEL, the second of the twelve lesser pro- 
phets. It is impossible to ascertain the age in 
which he lived, but it seems most probable 
that he was contemporary with Hosea. No 
particulars' of his life or death are certainly 
known. Plis prophecies are confined to the 
kingdom of Judah. He inveighs against the 
sins and impieties of the people, and threatens 
them with divine vengeance ; he exhorts to 
repeiitance, fasting, and prayer ; and promises 
the favour of God to those who should be 
obedient. The principal predictions contained 
in this book are the Chaldean invasion, under 
the figurative representation of locusts ; the 
destruction of Jerusalem by Titus; the bless- 
ings of the Gospel dispensation ; the conver- 
sion and restoration of the Jews to their own 
land ; the overthrow of the enemies of God ; 
and the glorious state of the Christian church 
in the end of the world. The style of Joel is 
perspicuous and elegant, and his descriptions 
are remarkably animated and poetical. 

JOHN THE BAPTIST, the forerunner of 
the Messiah, was the son of Zechariah and 



JOH 



539 



JOH 



Elizabeth, and was born about six months 
before our Saviour. His birth was foretold by 
an angel, sent purposely to deliver this joyful 
message, when his mother Elizabeth was bar- 
ren, and both his parents far advanced in 
years. The same divine messenger foretold 
that he should be great in the sight of the 
Lord ; that he should be filled with the Holy 
Spirit from his mother's womb ; that he should 
prepare the way of the Lord by turning many 
of the Jews to the knowledge of God ; and 
that he should be the greatest of all the pro- 
phets, Luke i, 5-15. Of the early part of the 
Baptist's life we have but little information. 
It is only observed that " he grew and waxed 
strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the 
day of his showing unto Israel," Luke i, 80. 
Though consecrated from the womb to the 
ministerial office, John did not enter upon it 
in the heat of youth, but after several years 
spent in solitude and a course of self-denial. 

The prophetical descriptions of the Baptist 
in the Old Testament are various and striking. 
That by Isaiah is : " The voice of him that 
crieth in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way 
of the Lord, make straight in the dfesert a high 
way for our God," Isaiah xl, 3. Malachi has 
the following prediction : " Behold, I will send 
you Elijah the prophet before the coming of 
the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And 
he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the 
children, and the hearts of the children to the 
fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a 
curse," Mai. iv, 5. Tliat this was meant of 
the Baptist, we have the testimony of our Lord 
himself, who declared, " For all the prophets 
and the law prophesied until John. And if 
ye will receive it, this is Elias who was to 
come," Matt, xi, 14. The appearance and 
manners of the Baptist, when he first came out 
into the world, excited general attention. His 
clothing was of camel's hair, bound round him 
with a leathern girdle, and his food consisted 
of locusts and wild honey, Matt, iii, 4. The 
"message which he declared was authoritative : 
'* Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at 
hand ;" and the impression produced by his 
faithful reproofs and admonitions was power- 
ful and extensive, and in a great number of 
instances lasting. Most of the first followers 
of our Lord appear to have been awakened to 
seriousness and religious inquiry by John's 
ministry. His character was so eminent, 
that many of the Jews thought him to be the 
Messiah ; but he plainly declared that he was 
not that honoured person. Nevertheless, he 
was at first unacquainted with the person of 
Jesus Christ; only the Holy Ghost had told 
him that he on whom he should see the Holy 
Spirit descend and rest was the Messiah. 
When Jesus Christ presented himself to receive 
baptism from him, this sign was vouchsafed; 
and from that time he bore his testimony to 
Jesus, as the Christ. 

Herod Antipas, having married his brother 
Phihp's wife while Philip was still living, occa- 
sioned great scandal. John the Baptist, with 
his usual liberty and vigour, reproved Herod 
jto his fac« ; and told him that it was not law- 



ful for him to have his brother's wife, while 
his brother was yet alive. Herod, incensed at 
this freedom, ordered him into custody, in the 
castle of MachcErus ; and he was ultimately 
put to death, (See Antipas.) Thus fell this 
honoured prophet, a martyr to ministerial faith- 
fulness. Other prophets testified of Christ ; he 
pointed to him as already come. Others saw 
him afar off"; he beheld the advancing glories 
of his ministry eclipsing his own, and rejoiced 
to "decrease" while his Master "increased." 
His ministry stands as a type of the true cha- 
racter of evangelical repentance : it goes before 
Christ and prepares his way ; it is humbling, 
but not despairing ; for it points to " the Lamb 
of God which taketh away the sins of the 
world." 

The Jews had such an opinion of this pro- 
phet's sanctity, that they ascribed the over- 
throw of Herod's army, which he had sent 
against his father-in-law, Aretas, to the just 
judgment of God for putting John the Baptist 
to death. The death of John the Baptist hap- 
pened, as is believed, about the end of the 
thirty-first year of the vulgar era, or in the 
beginning of the thirty-second. 

The baptism of John was much more perfect 
than that of the Jews, but less perfect than 
that of Jesus Christ. " It was," says St. Chry- 
sostom, "as it were, a bridge, which, from the 
baptism of the Jews, made a way to that^ of 
our Saviour, and was more exalted than the 
first, but inferior to the second. That of St. 
John promised what that of Jesus Christ exe- 
cuted. Notwithstanding St. John did not 
enjoin his disciples to continue the baptism of 
repentance, which was of his institution, after 
his death, because, after the manifestation of 
the Messiah, and the establishment of the Holy 
Ghost, it became of no use ; yet there were 
many of his followers who still administered 
it, and several years after the death and resur- 
rection of Jesus Christ, did not so much as 
know that there was any other baptism than 
that of John. Of this number was Apollos, a 
learned and zealous man, who was of Alexan- 
dria, and came to Ephesus twenty years after 
the resurrection of our Saviour, Acts xviii, 25. 
And when St. Paul came after Apollos to the 
same city, there were still many Ephesians 
who had received no other baptism, and were 
not yet informed that the Holy Ghost was re- 
ceived by baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, 
Acts xix, 1, The Jews are said by the Apos- 
tle Paul to have been "baptized unto Moses," 
at the time when they followed him through 
the Red Sea, as the servant of God sent to be 
their leader. Those who went out to John 
"were baptized unto John's baptism ;" that is, 
into the expectation of the person whom John 
announced, and into repentance of those sins 
which John condemned. Christians are "bap- 
tized into the name of the Father, the Son, and 
the Holy Ghost," because in this expression is 
implied that whole system of truth which the 
disciples of Christ believe ; into the name of 
the Father, the one true and living God whom 
Christians profess to serve ; of the Son, that 
divine person revealed in the New Testament 



JOH 



540 



JOH 



whom the Father sent to be the Saviour of the 
world ; of the Holy Ghost, the divine person 
also revealed there as the Comforter, the Sanc- 
tifier, and the Guide of Christians. 

John the Evangelist was a native of Beth- 
saida, in Galilee, son of Zebedee and Salome, 
by profession a fisherman. Some have thought 
that he was a disciple of John the Baptist be- 
fore he attended Jesus Christ. He was brother 
to James the greater. It is believed that St. 
John was the youngest of the Apostles. Til- 
lemont is of opinion that he was twenty-five 
or twenty-six years of age when he began to 
follow Jesus. Our Saviour had a particular 
friendship for him ; and he describes himself 
by the name of "that disciple whom Jesus 
loved." St. John was one of the four Apos- 
tles to whom our Lord delivered his predictions 
relative to the destruction of Jerusalem, and 
the approaching calamities of the Jewish na- 
tion, Mark xiii, 3. St. Peter, St. James, and St. 
John were chosen to accompany our Saviour 
on several occasions, when the other Apostles 
were not permitted to be present. When 
Christ restored the daughter of Jairus to life, 
Mark v, 37 ; Luke viii, 51 ; when he was trans- 
figured on the mount, Matt, xvii, 1, 2 ; Mark 
ix, 2 ; Luke ix, 28 ; and when he endured his 
agony in the garden, Matt, xxvi, 36, 37 ; Mark 
xiv, 32, 33 ; St. Peter, St. James, and St. Jolm 
were his only attendants. That St. John was 
treated by Christ with greater familiarity than 
the other Apostles, is evident from St. Peter 
desiring him to ask Christ who should betray 
him, when he himself did not dare to propose 
the question, John xiii, 2^. He seems to have 
been the only Apostle present at the cruci- 
fixion, and to him Jesus, just as he was expir- 
ing upon the cross, gave the strongest proof 
of his confidence and regard, by consigning to 
him the care of his mother, John xix, 26, 27. 
As St. John had been witness to the death of 
our Saviour, by seeing the blood and water 
issue from his side, which a soldier had pierced, 
John xix, 34, 35, so he was one of the first 
made acquainted with his resurrection. With- 
out any hesitation, he believed this great event, 
though " as yet he knew not the Scripture, that 
Christ was to rise from the dead," John xx, 9. 
He was also one of those to whom our Saviour 
appeared at the sea of Galilee ; and he was after- 
ward, with the other ten Apostles, a witness of 
his ascension into heaven, Mark xvi, 19 ; Luke 
xxiv, 51. St. John continued to preach the 
Gospel for some time at Jerusalem : he was 
imprisoned by the sanhedrim, first with Peter 
only. Acts iv, 1, &c, and afterward with the 
other Apostles, Acts v, 17, 18. Some time 
after this second release, he and St. Peter were 
sent by the other Apostles to the Samaritans, 
whom Philip the deacon had converted to the 
Gospel, that through them they might receive 
the Holy Ghost, Acts viii, 14, 15. St. John 
informs us, in his Revelations, that he was 
banished to Patmos, an island in the ^Egean 
Sea, Rev. i, 9. 

This banishment of the Apostle to the isle 
of Patmos is mentioned by many of the early 
ecclesiastical writers ; all of whom, except 



Epiphanius in the fourth century, agree in at. 
tributing it to Domitian. Epiphanius says that 
Jolin was banished by command of Claudius ; 
but this deserves the less credit, because there 
was no persecution of the Christians in the 
time of that emperor, and his edicts against 
the Jews did not extend to the provinces. Sir 
Isaac Newton was of opinion that John was 
banished to Patmos in the time of Nero ; but 
even the authority of this great man is not of 
sufficient weight against the unanimous voice 
of antiquity. Dr. Lardner has examined and 
answered his arguments with equal candour 
and learning. It is not known at what time 
John went into Asia Minor. Lardner thought 
that it was about the year 66. It is certain 
that he lived in Asia Minor the latter part of 
his life, and principally at Ephesus. He plant- 
ed churches at Smyrna, Pergamos, and many 
other places ; and by his activity and success 
in propagating the Gospel, he is supposed to 
have incurred the displeasure of Domitian, 
who banished him to Patmos at the end of his 
reign. He himself tells us that he " was in the 
isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, 
and for the testimony of Jesus Christ ;" and 
Irenaeus, speaking of the vision which he had 
there, says, "It is not very long ago that it 
was seen, being but a little before our time, at 
the latter end of Domitian's reign." On the 
succession of Nerva to the empire in the year 
96, John returned to Ephesus, where he died 
at an advanced age, in the third year of Tra. 
jan's reign, A. D. 100. An opinion has pre- 
vailed, that he was, by order of Domitian, 
thrown into a caldron of boiling oil at Rome, 
and came out unhurt ; but this account rests 
almost entirely on the authority of Tertuilian, 
and seems to deserve little credit. 

2. The genuineness of St. John's Gospel has 
always been unanimously admitted by the 
Christian church. It is universally agreed 
that St. John published his Gospel in Asia; 
and that, when he wrote it, he had seen the 
other three Gospels. It is, therefore, not only 
valuable in itself, but also a tacit confirmation 
of the other three ; with none of which it dis- 
agrees in any material point. The time of its 
publication is placed by some rather before, 
and by others considerably after, the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem. If we accede to the opinion 
of those who contend for the year 97, this 
late date, exclusive of the authorities which 
support it, seems favoured by the contents and 
design of the Gospel itself The immediate 
design of St. John in writing his Gospel, as we 
are assured by Irenaeus, Jerom, and others, was 
to reflate the Cerinthians, Ebionites, and other 
heretics, whose tenets, though they branched 
out into a variety of subjects, all originated 
from erroneous opinions concerning the person 
of Christ, and the creation oftiie world. These 
points had been scarcely touched upon by the 
other evangelists ; though they had faithfiilly 
recorded all the leading facts of our Saviour's 
life, and his admirable precepts for the regula- 
tion of our conduct. St. John, therefore, un- 
dertook, perhaps at the request of the true 
believers in Asia, to write what Clement of 



JOH 



541 



JOH 



Alexandria called a spiritual Gospel ; and, ac 
Gordingly, we find in it more of doctrine, and 
less of historical narrative, tiian in any of the 
others. It is also to be remembered, that this 
book, which contains so much additional infor- 
mation relative to the doctrines of Christianity, 
and which may be considered as a standard of 
faith for all ages, was written by that Apostle 
who is known to have enjoyed, in a greater 
degree than the rest, the affection and confi- 
dence of the divine Author of our religion ; 
and to whom was given a special revelation 
concerning the state of the Christian church 
in all succeeding generations. 

We have three epistles by this Apostle. 
Some critics have thought that all these epis- 
tles were written during St. John's exile in 
Patmos ; the first, to the Eph'esian church ; 
the others. to individuals; and that tj^ey were 
sent along with the Gospel, which the Apostle 
is supposed also to have written in Patmos. 
Thus Hug observes, in his "Introduction:" 
If St. John sent his Gospel to the continent, 
an epistle to the community was requisite, 
commending and dedicating it to them. Other 
evangelists, who deposited their works in the 
place of their residence, personally superin- 
tended them, and delivered them personally ; 
consequently they did not require a written 
document to accompany them. An epistle 
was therefore requisite, and, as we have abund- 
antly proved the first of John's epistles to be 
inseparable from the Gospel, its contents de- 
monstrate it to be an accompanying writing, 
and a dedication of the Gospel. It went con- 
sequently to Ephesus. We can particularly 
corroborate this by the following observation : 
John, in the Apocalypse, has individually dis- 
tinguished each of the Christian communities, 
which lay the nearest within his circle and his 
superintendence, by criteria, taken from their 
faults or their virtues. The church at Ephe- 
sus he there describes by the following traits : 
It was thronged with men who arrogated to 
themselves the ministry and apostolical autho- 
rity, and were impostors, xpevSeig. But in par- 
ticular he feelingly reproaches it because its 
"first love was cooled," rfiv aydnriv <jov rrjv rspuh- 
ri]v a<prjKas. The circumstance of impostors 
and false teachers happens in more churches. 
But decreasing love is an exclusive criterion 
and failing, which the Apostle repritnands in 
no other community. According to his judg- 
ment, want of love was the characteristic fault 
of the Ephesians : but this epistle is from be- 
ginning to the end occupied with admonitions 
to love, with recommendations of its value, 
with corrections of those who are guilty of this 
fault, 1 John ii, 5, 9-11, 15 ; iii, 1, 11, 12, 
14-18, 23 ; iv, 7-10, 12, 16-21 ; v, 1-3. Must 
not we therefore declare, if we compare the 
opinion of the Apostle respecting the Ephe- 
sians with this epistle, that, from its peculiar 
tenor, it is not so strikingly adapted to any 
community in the first instance as to this ? 

The second epistle is directed to a female, 
who is not named, but only designated by the 
honourable mention, iKXcKrh Kvpia, "the elect 
lady." The two chief positions, which are 



discmssed in the first epistle, constitute the 
contents of this brief address. He again 
alludes to the words of our Saviour, " A new 
commandment," &c, as in I John ii, 7, and 
recommends love, which is manifested by 
observance of the commandments. After this 
he warns her against false teachers, who deny 
that Jesus entered into the world as the Christ, 
or Messiah, and forbids an intercourse with 
them. At the end, he hopes soon to see her 
himself, and complains of the want of writing 
materials. The whole is a short syllabus of 
the first epistle, or it is the first in a renewed 
form. The words also are the same. It is 
still full of the former epistle : nor are they 
separated from each other as to time. The 
female appears before his mind in the circum- 
stances and dangers of the society, in instruct- 
ing and admonishing which he had just been 
employed. If we may judge from local cir- 
cumstances, she also lived at Ephesus. But 
as for the author, his residence was in none of 
the Ionian or Asiatic cities, where the want 
of writing materials is not conceivable : he 
was still therefore in the place of his exile. 
The other circumstances noticed in it, are 
probably the following: The sons of the iKleKrn 
Kvpia had visited John, 2 John 4. The sister 
of this matron wishing to show to him an 
equal respect and sympathy in his fate, sent 
her sons likewise to visit the Apostle. While 
the latter were with the Apostle, there was 
an opportunity of sending to the continent, 

2 John 13, namely, of despatching the two 
epistles and the Gospel. 

The third epistle is written to Caius. The 
author consoles himself with the hope, as in 
the former epistle, of soon coming himself, 

3 John 14. He still experiences the same 
want of writing materials, 3 John 13. Con- 
sequently, he was still living in the same 
miserable place : also, if we may judg'e fronj 
his hopes, the time was not very cifFerent. 
The residence of Caius is determined by the 
following criteria: The most generd of them 
is the danger of being misled by falsi teachers, 
3 John 3, 4. That which leads us nearer to 
the point, is the circumstance of John some, 
times sending messages thither, and receiving 
accounts from thence, 3 John 5-8, that he 
supposes his opinions to be so well known and 
acknowledged in this society, -hat he could 
appeal to them, as judges respecting them, 
3 John 12, and that, finaPy, he had many 
particular friends among them, 3 John 15. 
The whole of this is applicable to a consider- 
able place, where the Apostle had resided for 
a long time ; and in the second epoch of his 
life, it is particularly applicable to Ephesus. 
He had lately written to the community, of 
which Caius was a member, eypa\pa ttj iKK^ijaia, 
" I wrote to the church," 3 John 9. If this is 
to be referred to the first epistle, (for we are 
not aware of any other to a community,) then 
certainly Ephesus is the place to which the 
third epistle was also directed, and was the 
place where Caius resided. From hence, the 
rest contains its own explanation. John had 
sent his first epistle thither ; it was the accom- 



JOP 



542 



JOR 



panying writing to the Gospel, and with it he 
also sent the Gospel. Who was better qualified 
to promulgate the Gospel among the believers 
than Caius, especially if it was to be published 
at Ephesus ? 

The above view is ingenious, and in its 
leading parts satisfactory ; but the argument 
from the Apostle's supposed want of "writing 
materials" is founded upon a very forced con- 
struction of the texts. There seems, however, 
no reason to doubt of the close connection, 
in point of time, between the epistles and the 
Gospel ; and, that being remembered, the train 
of thought in the mind of the Apostle suffi. 
ciently explains the peculiar character of the 
latter. 

JONAH, son of Amittai, the fifth of the 
minor prophets, was born at Gath-hepher, in 
Galilee. He is generally considered as the 
most ancient of the prophets, and is supposed 
to have lived B. C. 840. The book of Jonah 
is chiefly narrative. He relates that he was 
commanded by God to go to Nineveh, and 
preach against the inhabitants of that capital 
of the Assyrian empire ; that, through fear of 
executing this commission, he set sail for 
Tarshish ; and that, in his voyage thither, a 
tempest arising, he was cast by the mariners 
into the sea, and swallowed by a large fish ; that, 
while he was in the belly of this fish, he prayed 
to God, and was, after three days and three 
nights, delivered out of it alive ; that he then 
received a second command to go and preach 
against Nineveh, which he obeyed ; that, upon 
his threatening the destruction of the city 
within forty days, the king and people pro- 
claimed a fast, and repented of their sins; 
and that, upon this repentance, God suspended 
the sentence which he had ordered to be pro- 
nounced in his name. Upon their repentance, 
God dsferred the execution of his judgment 
till the increase of their iniquities made them 
ripe for destruction, about a hundred and fifty 
years afterward. The last chapter gives an 
account of the murmuring of Jonah at this 
instance of divine mercy, and of the gentle 
and condescending manner in which it pleased 
God to reprove the prophet for his unjust 
complaint. The style of Jonah is simple and 
perspicuous ; and his prayer, in the second 
chapter, is strongly descriptive of the feelings 
of a pious mvcxd under a severe trial of faith. 
Our Saviour Uientions Jonah in the Gospel, 
Matt, xii, 41 ; LiJie xi, 32. See Nineveh and 
Gourd. 

JONATHAN, the son of Saul, a prince of 
an excellent disposition, and in all varieties of 
fortune a sincere and steady friend to David. 
Jonathan gave signal proofs of courage and 
conduct upon all occasions Ihat offered, during 
the wars between his father aad the Philistines. 
The death of Jonathan was lamented by 
David, in one of the noblest and most pathetic 
odes ever uttered by genius consecrated by 
pious friendship. See 1 Sam. xiii, 16, &c; 
xiv, 1, 2, &c. 

JOPPA, called also Japho in the Old Tes- 
tament, which is still preserved in its modern 
name of Jaffa or Yafah, a sea port of Pales- 



tine, situated on an eminence in a sandy soil', 
about seventy miles north-west of Jerusalem, 
Joppa was anciently the port to Jerusalem. 
Here all the materials sent from Tyre for the 
building of Solomon's temple were brought 
and landed : it was, indeed, the only port in 
Judea, though rocky and dangerous. It pos- 
sesses still, in times of peace, a considerable 
commerce with the places in its vicinity ; and 
is well inhabited, chiefly by Arabs. This was 
the place of landing of the western pilgrims ; 
and here the promised pardons commenced* 
Here St. Peter raised Dorcas from the dead, 
and resided many days in the house of one 
Simon, a tanner. Acts ix, 36-43 ; and it was 
from this place that the Prophet Jonah em- 
barked for Tarshish. 

JORAM, the son and successor of Ahab, 
king of Israel. See Jehu. 

JORDAN, the largest and most celebrated 
stream in Palestine. It is much larger, accord- 
ing to Dr. Shaw, than all the brooks and 
streams of the Holy Land united together; 
and, excepting the Nile, is by far the most 
considerable river either of the coast of Syria 
or of Barbary. He computed it to be about 
thirty yards broad, and found it nine feet deep 
at the brink. This river, which divides the 
country into two unequal parts, has been 
commonly said to issue from two fountains, 
or to be formed by the junction of two rivulets, 
the Jor and the Dan ; but the assertion seems 
to be totally destitute of any solid foundation. 
The Jewish historian, Josephus, on the con- 
trary, places its source at Phiala, a' fountain 
which rises about fifteen miles from Caesarea 
Philippi, a little on the right hand, and not 
much out of the way to Trachonitis. It is 
called Phiala, or the Vial, from its round 
figure ; its water is always of the same depth, 
the bason being brimful, without either shrink- 
ing or overflowing. From Phiala to Panion, 
which was long considered as the real source 
of the Jordan, the river flows under ground. 
The secret of its subterraneous course was 
first discovered by Philip, the tetrarch of Tra- 
chonitis, who cast straws into the fountain of 
Phiala, which came out again at Panion. 
Leaving the cave of Panion, it crosses the 
bogs and fens of the lake Semichonitis ; and 
after a course of fifteen miles, passes under 
the city of Julias, the ancient Bethsaida ; 
then expands into a beautiful sheet of water» 
named the lake of Gennesareth ; and, after 
flowing a long way through the desert, empties 
itself into the lake Asphaltites, or the Dead 
Sea. As the cave Panion lies at the foot of 
Mount Lebanon, in the northern extremity of 
Canaan, and the lake Asphaltites extends to 
the southern extremity, the river Jordan pur- 
sues its course through the whole extent of 
the country from north to south. It is evi- 
dent, also, from the history of Josephus, that 
a wilderness or desert of considerable extent 
stretched along the river Jordan in the times 
of the New Testament ; which was undoubt- 
edly the wilderness mentioned by the evan- 
gelists, where John the Baptist came preaching 
and baptizing. The Jordan has a considerable 



JOR 



543 



JOR 



depth of water. Chateaubriand makes it six 
or seven feet deep close at the shore, and 
about fifty paces in breadth a considerable dis- 
tance from its entrance into the Dead Sea. 
According to the computation of Volney, it is 
hardly sixty paces wide at the mouth ; but the 
author of " Letters from Palestine" states, that 
the stream when it enters the lake Asphaltites, 
is deep and rapid, rolling a considerable 
volume of waters ; the width appears from two 
to three hundred feet, and the current is so 
violent, that a Greek servant belonging to the 
author, who attempted to cross it, though 
strong, active, and an excellent swimmer, 
found the undertaking impracticable. It may 
be said to have two banks, of which the 
inner marks the ordinary height of the 
stream ; and the outer, its ancient elevation 
during the rainy season, or the melting of 
the snows on the summits of Lebanon. In 
the days of Joshua, and, it is probable, for 
many ages after his time, the harvest was 
one of the seasons when the Jordan over- 
flowed his banks. This fact is distinctly 
recorded by the sacred historian: "And as- 
they that bare the ark were come unto Jor- 
dan, and the feet of the priests that bare the 
ark were dipped in the brim of the water ; for 
Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time 
of harvest," Joshua iii, 15. This happens in 
the first month of the Jewish year, which cor- 
responds with March, 1 Chronicles xii, 15. 
But in modern times, whether the rapidity of 
the current has worn the channel deeper than 
formerly, or whether its waters have taken 
some other direction, the river seems to have 
forgotten his ancient greatness. When Maun- 
drell visited Jordan on the thirtieth of March, 
the proper time for these inundations, he could 
discern no sign or probability of such over- 
flowing ; nay, so far was it from overflowing, 
that it ran, says our author, at least two yards 
below the brink of its channel. After having 
descended the outer bank, he went about a 
fiirlong upon the level strand, before he came 
to the immediate bank of the river. This inner 
bank was so thickly covered with bushes and 
trees, among which he observed the tamarisk, 
the willow, and the oleander, that he could 
see no water till he had made his way through 
them. In this entangled thicket, so conve- 
niently planted near the cooling stream, and 
remote from the habitations of men, several 
kjids of wild beasts were accustomed to repose, 
tili the swelling of the river drove them from 
ther retreats. This circumstance gave occa- 
sion to that beautifiil allusion of the prophet : 
" Ht shall come up like a lion, from the swell- 
ing tf Jordan, against the habitation of the 
stronj," Jer. xlix, 19. The figure is highly 
poeticil and striking. It is not easy to present 
a more terrible image to the mind, than a lion 
roused from his den by the roar of the swell- 
ing river', and chafed and irritated by its rapid 
and successive encroachments on his chosen 
haunts, till, forced to quit his last retreat, he 
ascends to the higher grounds and the open 
country, and turns the fierceness of his rage 
against the helpless sheep cots, or the unsus-, 



pecting villages. A destroyer equally fierce, 
and cruel, and irresistible, the devoted Edom- 
ites were to find in Nebuchadnezzar and his 
armies. 

The water of the river at the time of Maun- 
drell's visit was very turbid, and too rapid to 
allow a swimmer to stem its course. Its breadth 
might be about twenty yards ; and in depth, it 
far exceeded his height. The rapidity and 
depth of the river, which are admitted by every 
traveller,#althougli the volume of water seems 
now to be much diminished, illustrate those 
parts of Scripture which mention the fords 
and passages of Jordan. It no longer, indeed, 
rolls down into the Salt Sea so majestic astream 
as in the days of Joshua ; yet its ordinary depth 
is still about ten or twelve feet, so that it can- 
not even at present be passed but at certain 
places. Of this well known circumstance, 
the men of Gilead took advantage in the civil 
war, which they were compelled to wage with 
their brethren : " The Gileadites took the pas- 
sages of Jordan before the Ephraimites : — then 
they took him, and slew him at the passages 
of Jordan," Judg. xii, 6. The people of Israel, 
under the command of Ehud availed them- 
selves of the same advantage in the war with 
Moab : " And they went down after him, and 
took the fords of Jordan toward Moab, and 
suffered not a man to pass over," Judg. iii, 28. 
But although the state of this river in modern 
times completely justifies the incidental re- 
marks of the sacred writers, it is evident that 
Maundrell was disconcerted by the shallow- 
ness of the stream, at the time of the year 
when he expected to see it overflowing all its 
banks ; and his embarrassment seems to have 
increased when he contemplated the double 
margin within which it flowed. This diffi- 
culty, which has perhaps occurred to some 
others, may be explained by a remark which 
Dr. Pococke has made on the river Euphrates : 
The bed of the Euphrates, says that writer, 
was measured by some English gentlemen at 
Beer, and found to be six hundred and thirty 
yards broad ; but the river only two hundred 
and fourteen yards over ; then they thought it 
to be nine or ten feet deep in the middle ; and 
were informed that it sometimes rises twelve 
feet perpendicularly. He observed that it had 
an inner and outer bank ; but says, it rarely 
overflows the inner bank ; that when it does, 
they sow water mellons and other fruits of 
that kind, as soon as the water retires, and 
have a great produce. From this passage, 
Mr. Harmer argues : " Might not the over- 
flowings of the Jordan be like those of tire 
Euphrates, not annual, but much more rare ?" 
The difficulty, therefore, will be completely 
removed, by supposing, that it does not, like 
the Nile, overflow every year, as some authors, 
by mistake, had supposed, but, like the Eu- 
phrates, only in some particular years ; but 
when it does it is in the time of harvest. If 
it did not in ancient times annually overflow 
its banks, the majesty of God in dividing its 
waters to make way for Joshua and the armies 
of Israel, was certainly the more striking to 
the Canaanites ; who, when they looked upon 



JOS 



644 



JOS 



themselves as defended in an extraordinary 
manner by the casual swelling of the river, its 
breadth and rapidity being both so extremely 
increased, yet, found it in these circumstances 
part asunder, and leave a way on dry land for 
the people of Jehovah. The common recep. 
tacle into which the Jordan empties his waters, 
is the lake Asphaltites, from whence they are 
continually drained off by evaporation. Some 
writers, unable to find a discharge for the large 
body of water which is continually rushing 
into the lake, have been inclined to suspect 
it had some communication with the Mediter- 
ranean ; but, beside that we know of no such 
gulf, it has been demonstrated by accurate cal- 
culations, that evaporation is more than suffi. 
cient to carry off the waters of the river. It is, 
in fact, very considerable, and frequently be- 
comes sensible to the eye, by the fogs with 
which the lake is covered at the rising of the 
sun, and which are afterward dispersed by the 
heat. 

JOSEPH, son of Jacob and Rachel, and 
brother to Benjamin, Gen. xxx, 22, 24. The 
history of Joseph is so fully and consecutively 
given by Moses, that it is not necessary to 
abridge so familiar an account. In place of 
this, the following beautiful argument by Mr. 
Blunt for the veracity of the account drawn 
from the identity of Joseph's character, will be 
read with pleasure : — I have already found an 
argument for the veracity of Moses in the 
identity of Jacob's character, I now find an- 
other in the identity of that of Joseph. There 
is one quality, as it has been often observed, 
though with a different view from mine, which 
runs like a thread through his whole history, 
his affection for his father. Israel loved him, 
we read, more than all his children ; he was 
the child of his age ; his mother died while he 
was yet young, and a double care of him con- 
sequently devolved upon his surviving parent. 
He made him a coat of many colours ; he kept 
him at home when his other sons were sent 
to feed the flocks. When the bloody garment 
was brought in, Jacob in his affection for him, 
— that same affection which, on a subsequent 
occasion, when it was told him that after all 
Joseph was alive, made him as slow to believe 
the good tidings as he was now quick to ap- 
prehend the sad ; in this his affection for him, 
I say, Jacob at once concluded the worst, and 
" he rent his clothes and put sackcloth upon 
his loins, and mourned for his son many days, 
and all his daughters rose up to comfort him ; 
but he refused to be comforted, and he said. 
For I will go down into the grave unto my 
son mourning." 

Now, what were the feelings in Joseph which 
responded to these ? When the sons of Jacob 
went down to Egypt, and Joseph knew them, 
though they knew not him ; for they, it may 
be remarked, were of an age not to be greatly 
changed by the lapse of years, and were still 
sustaining the character in which Joseph had 
always seen them ; while he himself had mean- 
while grown out of the stripling into the man, 
and from a shepherd boy was become the ruler 
of a kingdom ; when his brethren thus came 



before him, his question was, *' Is your fathe? 
yet alive ?" Gen. xliii, 7. They went down a 
second time, and again the question was, " Is 
your father well, the old man of whom ye 
spake, is he yet alive ?" More he could not 
venture to ask, while he was yet in his dis- 
guise. By a stratagem he now detains Ben- 
jamin, leaving the others, if they would, to go 
their way. But Judah came near unto him, 
and entreated him for his brother, telling him 
how that he had been surety to his fatlier to 
bring him back ; how that his father was an 
old man, and that this was the child of his old 
age, and that he loved him ; how it would 
come to pass that if he shoiild not see the lad 
with him he would die, and his gray hairs bo 
brought with sorrow to the grave ; for "how 
shall I go to my fath%r, and the lad be not with 
me, lest, peradventure, I see the evil that shall 
come on my father ?" Here, without knowing 
it, he had struck the string that was the ten- 
derest of all. Joseph's firmness forsook him 
at this repeated mention of his father, and in 
terms so touching : he could not refrain him- 
self any longer ; and, causing every man to go 
out, he made himself known to his brethren. 
Then, even in the paroxysm which came on 
him, (for he wept aloud, so that the Egyp. 
tians heard,) still his first words uttered from 
the fulness of his heart were, " Doth my father 
yet live ?" He now bids them hasten and bring 
the old man down, bearing to him tokens of 
his love and tidings of his glory. He goes to 
meet him ; he presents himself unto him, and 
falls on his neck, and weeps on his neck a 
good while ; he provides for him and his house- 
hold out of the fat of the land ; he sets him 
before Pharaoh. By and by he hears that he 
is sick, and hastens to visit him ; he receives 
his blessing ; watches his death bed ; embalms 
his body ; mourns for him threescore and ten 
days ; and then carries him, as he had desired, 
into Canaan to bury him, taking with him, as 
an escort to do him honour, " all the elders of 
Israel, and all the servants of Pharaoh, and 
all his house, and the house of his brethren, 
chariots, and horsemen, a very great com- 
pany." How natural was it now for his bre- 
thren to think that the tie by which alone they 
could imagine Joseph to be held to them was 
dissolved, that any respect he might have felt 
or feigned for them must have been buried in 
the cave of Machpelah, and that he would now 
requite to them the evil they had done ! " Aid 
they sent a messenger unto Joseph, sayiig, 
Thy father did command before he died, fay- 
ing. So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgi-ve, I 
pray thee now, the trespass of thy bretlren, 
and their sin; for they did unto thee 3vil." 
And then they add of themselves, as if well 
aware of the surest road to their brother's 
heart, " Forgive, we pray thee, the trespass 
of the servants of the God of thy father^" In 
every thing the father's name is still put fore- 
most : it is his memory which they count upon 
as their shield and buckler. 

It is not the singular beauty of these scenes, 
or the moral lesson they teach, excellent as it 
is, with which I am now concerned, but simply 



JOS 



645 



JOS 



the perfect artless consistency which prevails 
through them all. It is not the constancy with 
which the son's strong affection for his father 
had lived through an interval of twenty years' 
absence, and, what is more, through the tempta- 
tion of sudden promotion to the highest estate ; 
— it is not the noble-minded frankness with 
which he still acknowledges his kindred, and 
makes a way for them, "shepherds" as they 
were, to the throne of Pharaoh himself; — it 
is not the simplicity and singleness of heart 
which allow him to give all the first-born of 
Egypt, men over whom he bore absolute rule, 
an opportunity of observing his own compa- 
ratively humble origin, by leading them in 
attendance upon his father's corpse to the 
valleys of Canaan and the modest cradle of 
his race ; — it is not, in a word, the grace, but 
the identity, of Joseph's character, the light in 
which it is exhibited by himself, and the light 
in which it is regarded by his .brethren, to 
which I now point as stamping it with marks 
of reality not to be gainsayed. 

Some writers have considered Joseph as a 
type of Christ ; and it requires not much inge- 
nuity to find out some resemblances, as his 
being hated by his brethren, sold for money, 
plunged into deep aflfliction, and then raised 
to power and honour, &c ; but as we have no 
intimation in any part of Scripture that Joseph 
was constituted a figure of our Lord, and that 
this was one design of recording his history at 
length, all such applications Avant authority, 
and cannot safely be indulged. The account 
seems rather to have been left for its moral 
uses, and that it should aflford, by its inimita- 
ble simplicity and truth to nature, a point of 
irresistible internal evidence of the truth of the 
Mosaic narrative. 

2. Joseph, the husband of Mary, and reputed 
father of Jesus, was the son of Jacob, and grand- 
son of Matthan, Matt, i, 15, 16. The place of 
his stated residence was Nazareth, particularly 
after the time of his marriage. We learn from 
the evangelists that he followed the occupa- 
tion of a carpenter. Matt, xiii, 55 ; and that he 
was a just man, or one of those pious Israel- 
ites who looked for the coming of the Messiah, 
Matt, i, 19. It is probable that Joseph died 
before Christ entered upon his public ministry ; 
for upon any other supposition we are at a loss 
to account for the reason why Mary, the mo- 
ther of Jesus, is frequently mentioned in the 
evangelic narrative, while no allusion is made 
to Joseph ; and, above all, why the dying Sa- 
viour should recommend his mother to the 
care of the beloved disciple John, if her hus- 
band had been then living, John xix, 25-27. 

3. Joseph of Arimathea, a Jewish senator, 
and a believer in the divine mission of Jesus 
Christ, John xix, 38. St. Luke calls him a 
counsellor, and also informs us that he was a 
good and just man, who did not give his con- 
sent to the crucifixion of Christ, Luke xxiii, 
50, 51 . And though he was unable to restrain 
the sanhedrim from their wicked purposes, he 
went to Pilate by night, and solicited from him 
the body of Jesus. Having caused it to be 
taken down from the cross, he wrapped it in 

3G 



linen, and laid it in his own sepulchre, whichj- 
being a rich man, he appears to have recently 
purchased, and then closed the entrance with 
a stone cut purposely to fit it, Matt, xxvii,- 
57-60 ; John xix, 38-42. 

JOSHUA, the son of Nun. He was of the 
tribe of Ephraim, and born A. M. 2460. He 
devoted himself to the service of Moses, and 
in Scripture he is commonly called the serv- 
ant of Moses, Exodus xxiv, 13 ; xxxiii, 11 ; 
Deuteronomy i, 38, &c. His first name was 
Hosea, or Oshea; Hoseah signifying saviour f 
Jehoshua, the salvation of God, or he will 
save. The first opportunity which Joshua 
had to signalize his valour was in the war 
made by the divine command against the 
Amalekites, Exodus xvii, 9, 10. He defeated 
and routed their whole army. When Moses 
ascended Mount Sinai to receive the law of 
the Lord, and remained there forty days and 
forty nights without eating or drinking, Joshua 
remained with him, though, in all probability, 
not in the same place, nor with the same ab- 
stinence, Exod. xxiv, 13 ; xxxii, 17. Joshua 
was " filled with the spirit of vHsdom," quali- 
fying him for the arduous and important sta- 
tion of governing Israel, to which he was call- 
ed by the special command of God, Num. xxvii, 
18-20 ; Deut. xxxi, 7, 14 ; xxxiv, 9 ; Joshua 
i, 5. His piety, courage, and disinterested in- 
tegrity are conspicuous throughout his whole 
history ; and, exclusive of the inspiration which 
enlightened his mind and writings, he derived 
divine information, sometime^ by immediate 
revelation from God, Joshua iii, 7 ; v, 13-]»5 ;- 
at others from the sanctuary, through the me- 
dium of Eleazar, the high priest, the son of 
Aaron, who, having on the breast plate, pre^ 
sented himself before the mercy seat on which 
the Shechinah, or visible symbol of the divine 
presence, rested, and there consulted Jehovah 
by the Urim and Thummim, to which an an- 
swer was returned by an audible voice. 

Joshua succeeded Moses in the government 
of Israel about the year of the world 2553, and 
died at Timnath-serah in the hundred and tenth 
year of his age, A. M. 2578. He was about 
the age of eighty-four when he received the 
divine command to pass over Jordan, and take 
possession of the promised land, Joshua i, 1, 2. 
Having accomplished that arduous enterprise, 
and settled the chosen tribes in the peaceable 
possession of their inheritance, hei retired to 
Shechem, or, according to some Greek copies, 
to Shiloh ; where he assembled the elders of 
Israel, the heads of families, the judges and 
other ofiicers ; and, presenting themselves 
before God, he recapitulated the conduct of 
Divine Providence toward them, from the days 
of Abraham to that moment ; recounted the 
miraculous and gracious dispensations of God 
toward their fathers and themselves ; reminded 
them of their present enviable lot, and con- 
cluded his solemn address with an exhortation 
in these emphatic words: "Now, therefore, 
fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and 
truth ; and put away the gods which your 
fathers served on the other side of the flood, and 
in Egypt ; and serve ye the Lord," Joshua xxiv. 



JOS 



546 



JUB 



The book of Joshua continues the sacred 
history from the period of the death of Moses 
to that of the death of Joshua and of Eleazar ; 
a space of about thirty years. It contains an 
account of the conquest and division of the 
land of Canaan, the renewal of the covenant 
with the Israelites, and the death of Joshua. 
There are two passages in this book> which 
show that it was written by a person contem- 
porary with the events it records. In the first 
verse of the fifth chapter, the author speaks of 
himself as being one of those who had passed 
into Canaan : "And it came to pass when all 
the kings of the Amorites, which were on the 
side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the 
Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that 
the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan 
from before the children of Israel, until we 
were passed over, that their heart melted." 
And from the twenty-fifth verse of the follow- 
ing chapter, it appears that the book was writ- 
ten before the death of Rahab: "And Joshua 
saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father's 
household, and all that she had ; and she dwell, 
eth in Israel even unto this day ; because she 
hid the messengers which Joshua sent to spy 
out Jericho." Though there is not a perfect 
agreement among the learned concerning the 
author of this book, yet by far the most gene- 
ral opinion is, that it was written by Joshua 
himself ; and, indeed, in the last chapter it is 
said that "Joshua wrote these words in the book 
of the law of God ;" which expression seems 
to imply that he subjoined this history to that 
written by Moses. The last five verses, giving 
an account of the death of Joshua, were added 
by one of his successors ; probably by Eleazar, 
Phinehas, or Samuel. 

JOSIAH, king of Judah, deserves particular 
mention on account of his wisdom and piety, 
and some memorable events that occurred in 
the course of his reign. He succeeded to the 
throne, upon the assassination of his father 
Amon, at the age of eight years, B. C. 640 ; 
and al a period when idolatry and wickedness, 
encouraged by his father's profligate example, 
very generally prevailed. Josiah, who mani- 
fested the influence of pious and virtuous prin. 
ciples at a very early age, began, in his six- 
teenth year, to project the reformation of the 
kingdom, and to adopt means for restoring the 
worship of the true God. At the age of twenty 
years he vigorously pursued the execution of 
the plans which he had meditated. He began 
with abolishing idolatry, first at Jerusalem, 
and then through different parts of the king- 
dom ; destroying the altars which had been 
erected, and the idols which had been the ob- 
jects of veneration and worship. He then pro- 
ceeded, in his twenty-sixth year, to a complete 
restoration of the worship of God, and the 
regular service of the temple. While he was 
prosecuting this pious work, and repairing the 
temple, which had been long neglected, and 
which had sunk into a state of dilapidation, the 
book of the law, which had been concealed in 
the temple, was happily discovered. This was," 
probably, a ccrpy of the tho Pentateuch, wliich 
had been lodged there for security by some 



pious priest in the reign of Ahaz or Manasseh. 
Josiah, desirous of averting from himself and 
the kingdom threatened judgments, determin- 
ed to adhere to the directions of the law, in 
the business of reformation which he had un- 
dertaken ; and to observe the festivals enjoin- 
ed by Moses, which had been shamefully 
neglected. With this view he assembled all the 
elders of the people in the temple at .Jerusalem ; 
and, having ascended the throne, read the 
book of the Mosaic law, and then entered into 
a solemn covenant to observe the statutes and 
ordinances which it enjoined. To this cove- 
nant the whole assembly testified their consent. 
The ark was restored to its proper place ; the 
temple was purified ; idolatrous utensils were 
removed, and those appropriate to the worship 
of God substituted in their room. After these 
preparations, the passover was observed with 
singular zeal and magnificence. This took 
place in the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign : 
but, in pursuing his laudable plans of reforma- 
tion, he was resisted by the inveterate habits 
of the Israelites ; so that his zealous and per- 
severing efforts were ineffectual. Their dege- 
neracy was so iiivincible, that the almighty 
Sovereign was provoked to inflict upon them 
those calamities which were denounced by the 
Prophet Zephaniah. In the thirty-second year of 
Josiah's reign, Pharabh-Necho, king of Egypt, 
advanced with his army against Carchemish, 
a city situated on the river Euphrates. He was 
opposed by the king of Judah ; so that a bloody 
battle ensued at Megiddo, in which Josiah 
received a mortal wound, which terminated in 
his death, after he had been conveyed to Jeru- 
salem, in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, 
B. C. 609. His death was greatly lamented by 
all his subjects ; and an elegy was written on 
the occasion by the Prophet Jeremiah, which 
is not now extant, 2 Kings xxii, xxiii ; 2 Chro- 
nicles xxxiv, XXXV. 

JUBAL, a son of Lamech, the inventor of 
musical instruments. Gen. iv, 21. 

JUBILEE, among the Jews, denotes every 
fiftieth year ; being that following the revolu- 
tion of seven weeks of years ; at which time 
all the slaves were made free, and all lands 
reverted to their ancient owners. The jubilees 
were not regarded after the Babylonish capti- 
vity. The political design of the law of the 
jubilee was to prevent the too great oppression 
of the poor, as well as their being liable to per- 
petual slavery. By this means the rich were 
prevented from accumulating lands for perpe- 
tuity, and a kind of equality was preserved 
through all the families of Israel. The dis- 
tinction of tribes was also preserved, in i-espect 
both to their families and possessions; that 
they might be able, when there was occasion, 
on the jubilee year, to prove their right to the 
inheritance of tkeir ancestors. Thus, also, it 
would be known with certainty of what tribe 
or family the Messiah sprung. It served, also, 
like the Olympiads of the Greeks, and the 
Lustra of the Romans, for the readier com- 
putation of time. The jubilee has also been 
supposed to be typical of the Gospel state and 
dispensation, described by Isaiah Ixi, 1, 2, hi 



JUD 



547 



JUD 



reference to this period, as "the acceptable 
year of the Lord." 

The word jubilee, in a more modern sense, 
denotes a grand church solemnity or ceremony 
celebrated at Rome, in which the pope grants 
a plenary indulgence to all sinners ; at least, to 
as many as visit the churches of St. Peter and 
St. Paul at Rome. The jubilee was first es- 
tablished by Boniface VII., in 1300, which was 
only to return every hundred years ; but the 
first celebration brought in such store of 
wealth, that Clement VI., in 1343, reduced it 
to the period of fifty years. Urban VI., in 
1389, appointed it to be held every thirty-five 
years, that being the age of our Saviour ; and 
"Paul II. and Sixtus IV., in 1475, brought it 
down to every twenty-five, that every person 
might haA'^e the benefit of it onpe in liis life. 
Boniface IX. granted the privilege of holding 
jubilees to several princes and monasteries ; 
for instance, to the monks of Canterbury, who 
had a jubilee every fifty years ; when people 
flocked from all parts to visit the tomb of 
Thomas-a Becket. Afterward, jubilees became 
more frequent : there is generally one at the 
inauguration of a new pope ; and he grants 
them as often as the church or himself have 
occasion for them. To be entitled to the 
privileges of the jubilee, the bull enjoins fast- 
ing, alms, and prayers. It gives the priests a 
full power to absolve in all cases even those 
otherwise reserved to the pope ; to make com- 
mutations of vows, &c ; in which it differs 
from a plenary indulgence. During the time 
of jubilee, all other indulgences are suspended. 

JUD AH, the son of Jacob and Leah, who 
was born in Mesopotamia, Genesis xxix, 35. 
It was he who advised his brethren to sell 
Joseph to the Ishmaelite merchants, rather 
than stain their hands with his blood, Gen. 
xxxvii, 26. There is little said of his life, and 
the little that is recorded does not raise him 
high in our estimation. In the last prophetic 
blessing pronounced on him by his father Ja- 
cob, Gen. xlix, 8, 9, there is a promise of the 
regal power; and that it should not depart 
from his family before the coming of the Mes- 
siah. The whole southern part of Palestine 
fell to Judah's lot ; but the tribes of Simeon 
and Dan possessed many cities which at first 
were given to Judah. This tribe was so nu- 
merous, that at the departure out of Egypt it 
contained seventy-four thousand six hundred 
men capable of bearing arms, Num. i, 26, 27. 
The crown passed from the tribe of Benjamin, 
of which Saul and his sons were, to that of 
Judah, which was David's tribe, and the tribe 
of the kings, his successors, until the Baby- 
lonish captivity. 

JUDAISM, the religious doctrines and rites 
of the Jews, the descendants of Abraham. 
With Abraham Judaism may be said, in some 
sense, to have begun ; but it was not till the 
promulgation of the law upon Mount Sinai, 
that the Jewish economy was established, and 
that to his posterity was committed a dispen- 
sation which was to distinguish them ever 
after from every other people on earth. The 
Mosaic dispensation consisted of three parts ; | 



the religious faith and worship of the Jews* 
their civil polity, and precepts for the regula- 
tion of their moral conduct. Their civil 
government, as well as their sacred polity, was 
of divine institution ; and, on all important 
occasions, their public affairs were conducted 
by the Deity himself, or by persons bearing 
his commission. The laws of the Jews, reli- 
gious and moral, civil, political, and ritual, 
that is, a complete system of pure Judaism, 
are contained in the books of the Old Testa- 
ment, and chiefly in the five books of Moses. 
See Government of the Hebrews. 

The religion of the ancestors of the Jews, 
before the time of Moses, consisted in the 
worship of the one living and true God, under 
whose immediate direction they were ; in the 
hope of a Redeemer ; in a firm reliance on his 
promises under all difficulties and dangers ; 
and in a thankful acknowledgment for all his 
blessings and deliverances. In that early age, 
we read of altars, pillars, and monuments 
raised, and sacrifices offered to God. They 
used circumcision as a seal of the covenant 
which God had made with Abraham. As to 
the mode and circumstances of divine worship, 
they were much at liberty till the time of Mo- 
ses ; but that legislator, by the direction and 
appointment of God himself, prescribed an 
instituted form of religion, and regulated cere- 
monies, feasts, days, priests, and sacrifices, 
with the utmost exactness. The rites and ob- 
servances of their religion under the law were 
numerous, and its sanctions severe. Notwith- 
standing God's prophets, and oracles, and ordi- 
nances, and the symbol of his presence, were 
among them, the Jews were ever very prone 
to idolatry, till the Babylonish filrnace served 
to purify them from that corruption. After 
their seventy years' captivity, many among 
them gave too much place to the Greek idola. 
tries, but as a nation they were never again 
guilty of the crime. Their religious worship 
and character in our Saviour's time had be- 
come formal and superstitious ; and such it 
still continues to be, in a greater or less degree, 
at the present day. Ancient Judaism, compared 
with all religions except the Christian, was dis- 
tinguished for its superior purity and spiritu- 
ality ; and the whole Mosaic ritual was of a 
typical nature. See Jews. 

JUDAIZING CHRISTIANS. Concerning 
the divine origin of the religion of Moses, there 
was among the Jews no diversity of sentiment, 
and they not unnaturally drew the conclusion, 
that, as it had proceeded from God, it must be 
of perpetual obligation. Tlaey were indeed fully 
aware, that another communication from hea- 
ven was to be made to mankind, and that this 
was to be announced by a messenger more dis- 
tinguished than even the lawgiver whom they 
revered ; but they had satisfied themselves, that 
the great design of the Messiah's mission would 
be to rescue them from the oppression of a 
foreign yoke, and to lay in Jerusalem the 
foundation of universal empire. For accom- 
plishing these purposes, it was requisite that 
their Messiah should be invested with temporal 
power ; and in this idea, which so many oil- 



JUD 



548 



JUD 



cum.stances in their history tended to endear 
to them, they were confirmed by those pas- 
sages in the books of their prophets which 
described him as destined to sit on the throne 
of David, to sway a righteous sceptre, and to 
establish an everlasting kingdom. When, 
accordingly, Christ appeared in the humblest 
condition of life, and when, after the com- 
mencement of his ministry, he declared, that 
the hopes of empire which his countrymen had 
long cherished were fallacious, the predictions 
on which they had been rested suggesting, 
when combined with other predictions, a very 
different view of the designs of the Almighty, 
they were filled with indignation, and the 
greater part of them, although they saw the 
miracles which Jesus wrought, and heard those 
appeals to their own Scriptures which, how- 
ever eager to do so, they found themselves 
unable to confute, rejected his pretensions on 
account of the meanness of his situation, and 
reprobated him as a deceiver of the people. 

There was, however, a considerable number 
who could not adopt this conclusion, and who, 
satisfied that the mighty works which he per- 
formed fully established the reality of the divine 
commission to which he laid claim, relin- 
quished their prejudices respecting a temporal 
sovereignty, and embraced his doctrine as the 
revealed will of God. But, notwithstanding 
this, they do not seem to have formed the most 
distant conception that there was any thing in 
that doctrine to set aside the system which 
had been transmitted to them by their fathers. 
They regarded the two dispensations as form- 
ing one whole ; and believed that the rites 
which had distinguished from the rest of man- 
kind those wife belonged to the commonwealth 
of Israel, would in the same manner mark the 
disciples of the Messiah's kingdom. Agreeably 
to this, as they conceived, they saw that Jesus, 
conformed to their ceremonial institutions, he 
frequented the temple, he purified it from 
abuses by which it had been profaned, and 
they interpreted, in the sense most in harmony 
with their favourite notions, the declaration 
which he had publicly made, that he came not 
to destroy the law but to fulfil it. Even the 
apostles who had constantly attended him, 
who had listened not merely to his public dis- 
courses, but to the interpretation of them, 
which, in tender condescension to their weak- 
ness, he often in private gave, were so tho- 
roughly established in this opinion that it 
required a peculiar revelation to be made to 
him before Peter would open the kingdom of 
God to a Gentile. It cannot, therefore, be 
matter of surprise that the sentiment prevailed 
among the whole of the Jews who had been 
converted to Christianity ; or that even after 
it was opposed by the declaration of the Apos- 
tles as individuals, and by their solemn deter- 
mination, when assembled to decide with 
respect to it, that the law was not binding 
upon Gentile converts, they should still have 
adhered to it, Avhen from not having a written 
record of faith they might have imagined, 
either that the representation of the apostolic 
decision was erroneous, or that the sanction 



which it gave to their own adherence to their 
ceremonies virtually confirmed the doctrine 
which they felt such aversion to relinquish. 
They accordingly displayed much zeal in sup- 
port of the Mosaical economy, represented the 
strict observance of what it required as essen- 
tial for justification, and looked with a kind of 
abhorrence upon that large proportion of be. 
lievers who paid to this no respect, and who 
even did not hesitate to condemn it as sub- 
versive of the fijndamental principle of the 
Gospel dispensation. A great part of the epis- 
tles of St. Paul is directed against the Judaizing 
teachers who inculcated the original tenet of 
their brethren. The Apostle earnestly presses 
upon the churches, that by the works of the 
law we cannot be justified, that circumcision 
is of no avail, that by grace we are saved, and 
that Christ hath redeemed us by his blood. 
He, indeed, uniformly represents the idea 
which he opposed as inconsistent with Chris- 
tianity, as an idea which could not be held 
without detracting from what our Saviour has 
done to accomplish our redemption. What 
eifect his writings produced upon the Jewish 
believers, cannot be accurately ascertained ; 
but it is quite certain that a very large propor- 
tion of them adhered to their ritual observances 
either as national, or as instrumental in ob- 
taining the divine favour ; and this survived 
the destruction of the temple and of Jerusa. 
lem, — events which might have been expected 
to convince every one of the temporary nature 
of the Mosaical economy. 

But after Adrian, by again directing the 
Roman arms against the Jews, blasted the 
hopes which had been fondly cherished, that 
their city would be rebuilt, and their temple 
opened with greater splendour than before, a 
vast number of them, either from being con- 
vinced by what they had seen, or from their 
eagerness to gain admission into the city which 
the emperor had erected, but from which he 
had ordered that all who persisted in Judaism 
should be excluded, for the first time embraced 
the religion of Christ ; and many, who had 
previously done so, abandoning the Jewish 
ritual, acquiesced fully in the representation 
of the faith given by St. Paul, choosing as 
their bishop a Gentile convert. There were, 
however, not a few who remained steadfast 
in their principles, who were now consequently 
separated from the great body of their believ- 
ing countrymen, and who retained the appel- 
lation of Nazarenes, which had probably been 
given to the whole of the Jewish Christians. 
This remnant soon split into two parties. 
The one party, although they held that the 
law of Moses was obligatory upon the de- 
scendants of the house of Israel, did not extend 
it to those who had never been of the family 
of Abraham ; they revered Jesus as being more 
than man, and in fact approached so near to 
the prevailing sentiments of the church, thatj. 
notwithstanding their peculiar sentiments in 
relation to the Mosaical law, they were not 
ranked by the earliest writers among heretics. 
The other party, who were called Ebionites, 
either from Ebion, the name, it is alleged, of 



JUD 



549 



JUD 



their leader, from their poverty, or from the 
low notions which they entertained of Christ, 
for all these reasons have been specified, show- 
ing sufficiently that the matter is really uncer- 
tain, — maintained the original tenet that their 
law was binding upon all men, and that with- 
out observing what it required it was impossi- 
ble to b# justified. As this was in direct 
opposition to the declarations of St. Paul, 
instead of submitting to apostolic authority 
they set it at defiance, rejecting his epistles, 
and branding him as an enemy to the truth. 
They disregarded even the Gospels which 
were received by the generality of Christians, 
and used a gospel of their own which they had 
so modelled as to support the tenets to which 
they were attached. One of these tenets, one 
which, indeed, 'naturally followed from their 
conceptions of the Gospel dispensation, was, 
that its author was merely a man raised solely 
by the commission with which he had been 
honoured above the rest of his fellow creatures. 
JUDAS ISCARIOT, or, as he is usually 
called, the traitor, and betrayer of our Lord. 
"The treachery of Judges Iscariot," says Dr. 
Hales, " his remorse, and suicide, are occur- 
rences altogether so strange and extraordi- 
nary, that the motives by which he was actu- 
ated require to be developed, as far as may be 
done, where the evangelists are, in a great 
measure, silent concerning them, from the 
circumstances of the history itself, and from 
the feelings of human nature. Judas, the 
leading trait in whose character was covet- 
ousness, was probably induced to follow Jesus 
at first with a view to the riches, honours, and 
other temporal advantages, which he, in com- 
mon with the rest, expected the Messiah's 
friends would enjoy. The astonishing mira- 
cles he saw him perform left no room to doubt 
of the reality of his Master's pretensions, who 
had, indeed, himself in private actually ac- 
cepted the title from his Apostles ; and Judas 
must have been much disappointed when Jesus 
repeatedly refused the proJfFered royalty from 
the people in Galilee, after the miracle of 
feeding the five thousand, and again after his 
public procession to Jerusalem. He might 
naturally have grown impatient under the de- 
lay, and dissatisfied also with Jesus for openly 
discouraging all ambitious views among his 
disciples ; and, therefore, he might have de- 
vised the scheme of delivering him up to the 
sanhedrim, or great council of the nation, 
(composed of the chief priests, scribes, and 
elders,) in order to compel him to avow him- 
self openly as the Messiah before them ; and 
to work such miracles, or to give them the 
sign which they so often required, as would 
convince and induce them to elect him in due 
form, and by that means enable him to reward 
his followers. Even the rebukes of Jesus for his 
covetousness, and the detection of his treach- 
erous scheme, although they unquestionably 
offended Judas, might only serve to stimulate 
him to the speedier execution of his plot, 
during the feast of the passover, while the 
great concourse of the Jews, from all parts 
assembled, might powerfully support the san- 



hedrim and their Messiah against the Romans. 
The success of this measure, though against 
his Master's will, would be likely to procure 
him pardon, and even to recommend him to 
favour afterward. Such might have been the 
plausible suggestions by which Satan tempted 
him to the commission of this crime. But 
when Judas, who attended the whole trial, saw 
that it turned out quite contrary to his expec- 
tations, that Jesus was capitally convicted by 
the council, as a false Christ and false prophet, 
notwithstanding he had openly avowed him- 
self; and that he wrought no miracle, either 
for their conviction or for his oAvn deliverance, 
as Judas well knew he could, even from the 
circumstance of healing Malchus, after he was 
apprehended ; when he farther reflected, like 
Peter, on his Master's mercifiil forewarnings 
of his treachery, and mild and gentle rebuke 
at the commission of it ; he was seized with 
remorse, and offered to return the paltry bribe 
of thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests 
and elders instantly on the spot, saying, ' I 
sinned in delivering up innocent blood ;' and 
expected that on this they would have desisted 
from the prosecution. But they were obsti- 
nate, and not only would not relent, but threw 
the \wh.o\e load of guilt upon him, refusing to 
take their own share ; for they said, ' What is 
that to us ? see thou to that ;' thus, according 
to the aphorism, loving the treason, but hating 
the traitor, after he had served their wicked 
turn. Stung to the quick at their refusal to 
take back the money, while they condemned 
himself, he went to the temple, cast down the 
whole sum in the treasury, or place for receiv- 
ing the offerings of the people ; and, after he 
had thus returned the wages of iniquity, he 
retired to some lonely place, not far, perhaps, 
from the scene of Peter's repentance ; and, in 
the frenzy of despair, and at the instigation of 
the devil, hanged himself; crowning with 
suicide the murder of his Master and his 
friend ; rejecting his compassionate Saviour, 
and plunging his own soul into perdition I 
In another place it is said that, ' falling head- 
long, he burst asunder, and all his bowels gushed 
out,' Acts i, 18. Both these accounts might 
be true : he might first have hanged himself 
from some tree on the edge of a precipice ; 
and, the rope or branch breaking, he might be 
dashed to pieces by the fall." 

The above view of tlie case of Judas endea- 
vours ingeniously to account for his corwiuct 
by supposing him influenced by the motive of 
compelling our Lord to declare himself, and 
assume the Messiahship in its earthly glory. 
It will, however, be recollected, that the only 
key which the evangelic narrative affords, is, 
Judas's covetousness ; which passion was, in 
him, a growing one. It was this which de- 
stroyed whatever of honest intention he might 
at first have in following Jesus ; and when 
fillly under its influence he would be blinded 
by it to all but the glittering object of the re- 
ward of iniquity. In such a mind there could 
be no true faith, and no love ; what wonder, 
then, when avarice was in him a ruling and 
unrestrained passion, that he should betray 



JUD 



560 



JUD 



Ijis Lord ? Still it may be admitted that the 
knowledge which Judas had of our Lord's 
miraculous power, might lead him the more 
readily to put hun into the hands of the chief 
priests. He might suppose that he would 
deliver himself out of their hands ; and thus 
Judas attempted to play a double villany, 
against Christ and against his employers. 

JUDE, Epistle of, a canonical book of the 
New Testament, written against the heretics, 
who, by their impious doctrines and disorderly 
lives, corrupted the faith and good morals of 
Christians. The author of this epistle, called 
Judas, and also Thaddeus and Lebbeus, was 
one of the twelve Apostles ; he was the son 
of Alpheus, brother of James the less, and one 
of those who were called our Lord's brethren. 
We are not informed when, or how, he was 
called to be an Apostle ; but it has been con- 
jectured, that, before his vocation to the 
Apostleship, he was a husbandman, that he 
was married, and that he had children. The 
only account we have of him in particular, is 
that which occurs in John xiv, 21-23. It is 
not unreasonable to suppose that, after having 
received, in common with other Apostles, ex- 
traordinary gifts at the pentecost, he preached 
the Gospel for some time in several parts of 
the land of Israel, and wrought miracles in 
the name of Christ. And, as his life seems to 
have been prolonged, it is probable that he 
afterward left Judea, and went abroad preach- 
ing the Gospel to Jews and Gentiles in other 
countries. Some have said that he preached 
in Arabia, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Persia ; 
and that he suffered martyrdom in the last 
mentioned country. But we have no account 
of his travels upon which we can rely ; and it 
may be questioned whether he was a martyr. 

In the early ages of Christianity, several 
rejected the Epistle of St. Jude, because the 
apocryphal books of Enoch, and the ascension 
of Moses, are quoted in it. Nevertheless, it is 
to be fouijd in all the ancient catalogues of 
the sacred writings ; and Clement, of Alexan- 
dria, Tertullian, and Orjgen quote it as written 
by Jude, and reckon it among the books of 
sacred Scripture. In the time of Eusebius it 
was generally received. As to the objections 
that have been urged against its authority, 
Dr. Lardner suggests, that there is no neces- 
sity for supposing that St. Jude quoted a book 
called Enoch, or Enoch's prophecies ; and even 
allowing that he did quote it, he gives it no 
authority ; it "ivas no canonical book of the 
Jews ; and if such a book existed among the 
Jews, it was apocryphal, and yet there might 
be in it some right things. Instead of refer- 
ring to a book called the " Assumption or 
Ascension of Christ," which probaWy was a 
forgery much later than his time, it is much 
more credible that St. Jude refers to the vision 
in Ze.ch. iii, 1-3. It has been the opinion of 
several writers, and, among others, of Ham- 
mond and Benson, that St. Jude addressed his 
epistle to the Jewish Christians ; but Dr. Lard- 
ner infers, from the words of the inscription 
of the epistle, verses 1, 3, that it was designed 
for the use of all in general who had embraced 



the Christian religion. The last mentioned 
author supposes that this epistle was written 
A. D. 64, 65, or 66. 

JUDEA, a district of Asia Minor, wliich is 
described both by ancient and modern geo- 
graphers under a great variety of names, and 
with great diversity of extent. In the most 
extensive application of the name, j^ compre- 
hends the whole country possessed by the Jew^s, 
or people of Israel ; and included, therefore, 
very different portions of territory at different 
periods of their history. Upon the conquest 
of the country by Joshua, it was divided into 
twelve portions, according to the number of 
the tribes of Israel ; and a general view of their 
respective allotments (though the intermediate 
boundaries cannot be very precisely ascer- 
tained) may convey some idea of its extent at 
that period. The portion of the tribe of Judah 
comprised all the country between Edom, or 
Idumea, on the south, the Mediterranean on 
the west, the Salt Sea on the east, and an 
imaginary line on the north, from the northern 
extremity of the Salt Sea to the Mediterra- 
nean. The portion of Simeon was included 
within that of Judah, and formed the south- 
west corner of the country ; comprehending 
the towns of Bersaba, Gerar, Rapha, Gaza, 
Ascalon, and Azotus. The portion of Benja- 
min was situated to the north of Judah, near 
the centre of the kingdom, bounded on the 
east by the river Jordan, and containing part 
of Jerusalem, Jericho, Bethel, Rama, &c. The 
portion of Dan lay to the north-west of Judah, 
between that of Benjamin and the Mediterra. 
nean, reaching as far north as the latter, and 
containing Accaron and Jamnia. The portion 
of Ephraim stretched along the northern limits 
of Dan and Benjamin, between the river Jor 
dan on the east, and the Mediterranean sea on 
the west ; containing Sichem, Joppa, Lydda, 
Gazara, &c. The portion of the half tribe of 
Manasseh was situated north of Ephraim, be- 
tween the river Jordan and the Mediterranean, 
reaching as far north as Dora, at the foot of 
Mount Carniel. The portion of Issachar 
stretched northward from Manasseh, and west- 
ward from Jordan, as far as Mount Tabor. 
The portion of Asher comprehended the mari- 
time tract between Mount Carmel, as far as 
Sidon. The portion of Zebulon, bounded by 
Asher on the west, and Mount Tabor on the 
south, joined on the east the portion of Naph- 
tali, which occupied the borders of the lake 
Gennesareth, or sea of Tiberias, The portion 
of Reuben lay to the eastward of the river Jor- 
dan, bounded on the south by the torrent of 
Arnon, and on the north bj^ the river Jabok, 
The portion of Gad, also on the east of the 
Jordan, stretclied from the Jabok toward the 
north, wliere it was bounded by the other half 
tribe of Manasseh, w^hich occupied the country 
east of the lake Gennesareth, to the northern 
limits of the country. The whole of this 
extent between Coelo-Syria on the north, and 
Arabia Petrsea on the south, the Mediterra- 
nean on the west, and Arabia Deserta on the 
east, may be considered as situated between 
31° 10' and 33^ 15' of north latitude, about * 



JUD 



651 



JUD 



hundred and forty miles in length, and nearly 
a hundred in breadth. Reckoning from Dan 
to Beersheba, which are often mentioned in 
sacred Scripture as including the more settled 
and permanent possessions of the Israelites, 
its length would not exceed a hundred and 
twenty miles. But, if estimated from its 
boundaries in the reigns of David and So- 
lomon, and several succeeding princes, its 
extent must be enlarged more than three- 
fold ; including both the land of Palestine, 
or of the Philistines, on the south, and the 
country of Phenice on the north, with part of 
Syria to the north-east. All this extent was 
originally comprehended in the land of pro- 
mise. Genesis xv, 18 ; Dent, xi, 24 ; and was 
actually possessed by David and Solomon, 

1 Kings ix, 20 ; 2 Chron. viii,- 7. It is de- 
scribed in numerous passages of the sacred 
writings, as all comprised in the Holy Land, 
from Hamath on the north, to the river of 
Egypt on the south ; and from the Great or 
Mediterranean Sea on the west, to the deserts 
of Arabia on the east ; a tract of country at 
least four hundred and sixty miles in length, 
and more than a hundred in breadth, Joshua 
XV, 2, iSz.c ; xix, 24, &c ; 1 Chron. xiii, 5 ; 

2 Chron. vii, 8 ; Ezekiel xlvii, 16, 20 : Amos 
vi, 14. 

After tlie death of Solomon, when the king- 
dom of the Hebrews had attained its greatest 
extent, it was divided, in consequence of a 
revolt of ten tribes, into two distinct sove- 
i>eignties, named Israel and Judah ; the former 
of which had its seat of government in Sama- 
ria, and the latter in Jerusalem. The terri- 
tories of both were gradually curtailed and 
laid waste by the revolt of tributary princes, 
and the incursions of powerful neighbours ; 
and both were at length completely over- 
thrown; that of Israel, by the king of Assyria, 
about B. C. 720; and that of Judah, by Nebu- 
chadnezzar, about a hundred and fourteen 
years later. 

After a captivity of seventy years, the Jews, 
who had been the subjects of Judah, having 
received permission from Cyrus to return to 
their native country, not only occupied the 
former territories of that kingdom, but extend- 
ed themselves over great part of what had 
belonged to the ten tribes of the kingdom of 
Israel ; and then, for the first time, gave the 
name of Judea to the whole country over 
which they had again established their domi- 
nion. The same name was given to that king- 
dom as possessed by Herod the Great under 
the Romans ; but, in the enumeration of the 
provinces of the empire, it was recognised 
only by the name of Palestine. All traces of 
its ancient division among the twelve tribes 
were now abolished, and it was distributed 
into four provinces ; namely, Judea Proper in 
the south, Galilee in the north, Samaria in 
the centre, and Peraea on the east of the river 
Jordan. Judea Proper, situated in 31*^ 40' 
north latitude, was bounded on the north by 
Samaria, on the west by the Mediterranean, 
on the east by the river Jordan, on the south 
by Arabia Petraea ; and comprised the ancient 



settlements of Judah, Benjamin, Dan, and 
Simeon, with Philistia and Idumea. It is 
divided by Josephus into eleven toparchies, 
and by Pliny into ten ; but these subdivisions 
are litt'le noticed by ancient writers, and their 
boundaries are very imperfectly ascertained. 
The principal places in the north-east quarter 
of the province were Jerusalem, the capital, 
which was entirely destroyed in the reign of 
Hadrian, and replaced by a new city named 
JElia, a little farther north, which is now the 
site of the modern Jerusalem ; Jericho, the 
city of palm trees, about nineteen miles east- 
ward of Jerusalem, and eight from the river 
Jordan ; Phaselis, built by Herod in memory 
of Ms brother, fifteen miles north-west of 
Jericho ; Archelais, built by Archelaus, ten 
miles north of Jericho ; Gophna, fifteen miles 
north of Jerusalem, in the road to Sichem ; 
Bethel, twelve miles north of Jerusalem, 
originally called Luz ; Gilgal, about one mile 
and a half from Jericho; Engeddi, a hundred 
flirlongs south south-east of Jericho, near the 
northern extremity of the Dead Sea ; Masada, 
a strong fortress built by Judas Maccabeus, 
the last refuge of the Jews after the fall of 
Jerusalem ; Ephraim, a small town westward 
of Jericho ; Anathoth, a Levitical town, nearly 
four miles north of Jerusalem. In the south- 
east quarter of the province were situated 
Betlilehem, or Ephrath, about six miles south 
from the capital ; Bethzur, now St. Philip, a 
strong place on the road to Hebron, ten miles 
south of Jerusalem ; Ziph, a small tovv'n be- 
tween Hebron and the Dead Sea ; Zoar, at 
the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, near 
the situation of Sodom ; Hebron, formerly 
Kirjath-arba, a very ancient town in a hilly 
country, twenty-five miles south of the capital ; 
Arad, about twenty-four miles southward from 
Hebron, and near the Ascensus Avrabim, or 
Scorpion Mountains, on the border of Arabia 
Petrsea ; and Thamar, on the southern limit of 
the province, near the south extremity of the 
Dead Sea. In the north-west quarter were 
Bethshemesh, or Heliopolis, a Levitical city, 
about ten miles west of the capital ; Rama, six 
miles north from Jerusalem ; Emmaus, a village 
eight miles north north-west from Jerusalem, 
afterward called Nicopolis, in consequence of 
a victory gained by Vespasian over the revolt- 
ed Jews ; Bethoron, a populous Levitical city 
on the road to Lydda, a few miles north-west 
of Emmaus ; Kirjath-jearim, on the road to 
Joppa, nine miles westward from the capital ; 
Lydda, now Lod, and called by the Greeks 
Diospolis, about twelve miles east of Joppa.; 
Raniia, supposed to be the same as Arimathea, 
about five miles south-west of Lydda ; Joppa, 
a maritime town, now JaSa, about twelve 
leagues north-west of Jerusalem ; Jabne, a 
walled sea-port town between Joppa and 
Azotus ; and Ekron, a town on the north 
boundary of the Philistines. In the south- 
west quarter of Judea were Gath, about twenty- 
miles west from Jerusalem, near to which 
were the city of Eleutheropolis, a flourishing 
place in the second century ; Makkedah, a 
strong place, eight miles north-east from 



JUD 



b52 



JUD 



^leutheropolis ; Bersabe, or Beersheba, about 
twenty-six miles south from Eleutheropolis ; 
/5;erar, between Beersheba and the sea coast ; 
Azotu5, or Ashdod, to the west of Eleuthero- 
polis, within a few miles of the sea, and the 
seat of a bishop in the first ages of the Chris- 
tian church ; Ascalon, a considerable maritime 
tpjA^n, above forty-three miles south-west of 
Jerusalem ; Gaza, fifteen miles southward from 
Ascalon ; and Raphia, between Gaza and 
Rhinocurura, remarkable for a great battle 
in its neighbourhood, in which Philopater, 
king of Egypt, defeated Antiochus, king of 
Syria. 

Samaria, lying between Judea and Galilee, 
jn 3^° 15' north latitude, extended along the 
sea coast from Joppa to Dora, and along the 
river Jordan from the rivulet of Alexandrium 
,to the southern extremity of the sea of Tibe- 
rias ; comprehending the territory of the tribe 
of Ephraim, of the half tribe of Manasseh, 
and part of Issachar. Its principal cities were 
Samaria, the capital of the kingdom of Israel, 
north of Sichem, and equally distant from 
Jordan and the sea coast, afterward named 
Sebaste by Herod, in honour of Augustus ; 
J^ezrael, or Esdraelon, about four leagues north 
frflrn Samaria; Sichem, or Sychar, called by 
the Romans Neapolis, eight miles south of 
Samaria, in a valley between the mountains 
Gerizim and Ebalj Bethsan, called by the 
Greek writers Scythopolis, about twenty miles 
north-east of Sichem ; Caesarea of Palestine, 
anciently called Turris Stratonis, greatly en- 
larged by Herod, and long the principal city 
pf the province, about nineteen leagues north 
north-west from Jerusalem ; Dora, now Tar- 
tura, nine miles north from Csesarea, on the 
roa(^ to Tyre ; Apollonia, now Arzuf, on the 
m^ epast, twenty.t wo miles south of Caesarea ; 
and Hadad^rjmmon, afterward called Maxi- 
mianopolig, jabout seventeen miles eastward of 
Jp?Bsarea. 

iGralilaea, in 33° north latitude, bounded on 
the south by Samaria, on the west by the Me- 
diterranean, on the north by Syria, on the 
jeast by the river Jordan and the lake Gennesa- 
reth, comprehended the possessions of Asher, 
Naphtali, and Zabulon, with part of the allot- 
ment of Issachar. The northern division of 
the province was thinly inhabited by Jews, 
and was sometimes called Galilee of the Gen- 
tiles ; but the southern portion was very 
populous. Its principal towns were Caper- 
j^aum, at the northern extremity of the lake 
pf Gennesareth ; Betijsaida, a considerable 
yiUage a few leagues south of Capernaum ; 
iCinnereth, south of Bethsaida, rebuilt by 
Herod Antipas, and named Tiberias ; Tari- 
phsea, a cojisiderable tov^rn at the efflux of the 
rive? Jordan from the sea of Tiberias, thirty 
^t9.dia south from the town of Tiberias ; 
Nazareth, two leagues north-west of Mount 
Tabor, and equally .distant from the lake of 
Gennesareth and the sea coast; Arbela, six 
miles west of Nazareth ; Sepphoris, or Dio- 
Ceesarea, now Sefouri, a large and well forti- 
fied town, about five leagues north north-west 
of IN^punt Tabor; Zabulon^ a strpng and 



populous place, sixty stadia south-east of 
Ptolemais ; Acre, or Accon, seven miles north 
from the promontory of Carmel, afterward 
enlarged and called Ptolemais by Ptolemy I., 
of Egypt, and in the time of the crusades dis- 
tinguished by the name of Acre, the last city 
possessed by the Christians in Syria, and was 
taken and destroyed by the Sultan Serapha, oi 
Egypt, in 1291 ; Kedes, or Cydissus, a Leviti 
cal city at the foot of Mount Panium, twenty 
miles south-east of Tyre ; Dan, originally 
Laish, on the north boundary of the Holy 
Land, about thirty miles south-east of Sidon ; 
Paneas, near to Dan, or, according to some, 
only a different name for the same place, was 
repaired by Philip, son of Herod the Great, 
and by him named Caesarea, in honour of 
Augustus, with the addition of Philippi, to 
distinguish it from the other town of the same 
name in Samaria ; Jotapata, the strongest 
town in Galilee, about four leagues north 
north-east of Dio-Csesarea ; and Japha and 
Gischala, two other fortified places in the 
same district. 

Perasa, though the name would denote any 
extent of country beyond Jordan, is more 
particularly applied to that district in 32° 
north latitude, which formerly composed the 
territories of Sihon, the Amorite, and Og, 
king of Bashan ; extending from the river 
Arnon (which flows through an extensive 
plain into the Dead Sea) to the mount of 
Gilead, where the Jordan issues from the sea 
of Tiberias ; and which fell to the lot of the 
tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe 
of Manasseh. This province was about sixty 
miles from north to south, and forty from east 
to west. The principal places were Penuel, 
on the left of the Jabbok, which forms the 
northern border of the country ; Succoth, on 
the banks pf the Jordan, a little farther south ; 
Bethabara, a little below Succoth, where was 
a place of passage over the river ; Amathus, 
afterward named Assalt, a strong town below 
the influx of the torrent Jazer ; Livias, between 
Mount Nebo and the northern extremity of 
the Dead Sea, a town which was so named by 
Herod, in honour of Livia, the wife of Augus- 
tus ; Machasrus, a citadel on a steep rock, south 
of Livias, near the upper end of the Dead Sea; 
Lasa, or Calle-rhoe, celebrated for its hot 
springs, between Machaerus and the river 
Arnon ; Herodium, a fort built by Herod a few 
miles farther inland, as a protection against 
the Moabites ; Aroer, a town of Moab, seven 
leagues east of the Dead Sea ; Castra Amo- 
nensia, a Roman station, supposed to be tho 
ancient Mephoath, seven leagues north-east 
of Aroer ; Hesbon, pr Esbus, the capital of 
Sihon, anciently famed for its fish pools, seven 
leagues east from the Jordan, three from Mount 
Nebo, and nearly in the centre of the province ; 
Madaba, now El-Belkaa, three leagues south- 
east of Hesbon ; Jazer, or Tira, a Levitical 
city on a small lake, five leagues north-east 
of Hesbon. To the south of Peraea lies a tei 
ritory called Moabites, the capital of which 
was Rabbath-Moab, afterward named Areopo- 
lis ; and to the south-west of which was Cha- 



JUD 



653 



JUD 



rac-Moab, or Karak, a fortress on the summit 
of a hill, at the entrance of a deep valley. 

To the north of Pereea were situated several 
districts, which, as forming part of the king- 
jdom of Judea under Herod the Great, require 
to be briefly noticed in this account ; and 
which do properly come under the general 
name of Pereea, as being situated on the east- 
ward of the river Jordan. These were Ga- 
laadites, or Gileadites, in 32° 20' north latitude, 
now Zarca, east from Jordan, and north from 
the Jabbok ; containing the cities of Ramoth- 
Gilead, Mahanaim, Jabesh-Gilead, at the foot 
of Mount Gilead. Batanaea, anciently Basan, 
now^itinia, in 32° 25' north latitude, formerly 
celebrated for its oaks and pastures, was situ- 
ated to the north of Galaadites, and contained 
the cities of Adrea, or Edrei, Astaroth, and 
Bathyra. Gaulonitis, a narrow strip of land 
between Batanasa and the shore of the sea of 
Tiberias, stretching northward to Mount Her- 
mon, and containing Gamala, a strong town 
near the southeru extremity of the sea of 
Tiberias ; Argob, between this sea and Mount 
Hippos; Julias, supposed to be the same as 
Chorazin, and by others to be Bethsaida ; and 
Seleuca, a fortified place on the east border of 
Lacus Samochonitis. Auranitis, or Ituraja, a 
mountainous and barren tract north of Ba- 
tansea, and bounded on the west by a branch 
of Mount Hermon, contained Bostra, or Bozra, 
about fifty miles east from the sea of Tiberias, 
bordering on Arabia Petrsea, afterward en- 
larged by Trajan, and named Trajana Bostra; 
and Trachonitis, in 33° 15' north latitude, be. 
tween Hermon and Antilibanus, eastward from 
the sources of Jordan, and containing Baal- 
gad, Mispah, Paneas, or Caesarea Philippi, 
and ^nos, nearly twenty.five miles east of 
Panseas, and as far south south-west of Da- 
mascus, There remains to be noticed the 
Decapolis, or confederation of ten cities in 
the last mentioned districts, which having 
been occupied during the Babylonish captivity 
by Heathen inhabitants, refused to adopt the 
Mosaic ritual after the restoration of the Jews, 
and found it necessary to unite their strength 
against the enterprises of the Asmonean 
princes. One of them, namely, Scythopolis, al- 
ready described in the account of Samaria, was 
situated to the west of Jordan ; but the other 
nine were all to the east of that river, namely, 
Gadara, or Kedar, a strong place on a hill, the 
capital of Peraea in the time of Josephus, about 
sixty stadia east from the sea of Tiberias,, and 
much frequented for its hot baths : Hippos, 
sometimes called Susitha, thirty stadia north- 
west of Gadara ; Dium, or Dion, of which the 
situation is unknown, but conjectured by D'An- 
ville to have been about seven leagues east, 
ward from Pella, a considerable town supplied 
with copious fountains, on the river Jabbok, 
fourteen miles south-east of Gadara, and cele- 
brated as the place to which the Christians 
retired, by divine admonition, before the de- 
stniction of Jerusalem ; Canatha, south-east 
of Caesarea, and between the Jordan and 
Mount Hermon ; Garasa, afterward Jaras, 
-three leagues north-east from the upper ex. 



tremity of the sea of Tiberias, and much noted 
during the crusades ; Rabbath-Ammon, the 
capital of the Ammonites, south-east of Ra- 
moth, and near the source of the Jabbok, on 
the confines of Arabia, afterward called Phila- 
delphia by Ptolemy Philadelphus, from whom 
it had received considerable improvements, of 
which the ruins are still visible ; Abila, four 
leagues east from Gadara, in a fertile tract be- 
tween the river Hieromax and Mount Gilead ; 
and Capitolais, a town in Batanaea, five or six 
leagues east north-east of Gadara. 

Judea, Wilderness of, a wild and desert 
country along the southern course of the river 
Jordan, east of Jerusalem ; that which by St. 
Matthew is called the wilderness of Judea, 
being described by St. Luke as " all the coun- 
try about Jordan ;" from whence this wilder- 
ness extended southward along the western 
side of the Dead Sea. This is a stony and 
desolate region, of hopeless sterility, and most 
savage aspect ; consisting almost entirely of 
disordered piles of rocks, and rocky mount- 
ains. This was the wilderness in which 
John first, preached and baptized, and into 
which our Lord, after his own baptism, was 
led by the Spirit to be tempted, Matthew iv ; 
Luke iv. Here, also, the mountain was situ- 
ated which formed the scene of one of the 
most striking parts of this temptation. Maun- 
drell describes this region as a most miserable, 
dry, and barren place ; consisting of high rocky 
mountains, so torn and disordered, as if the 
earth had here suffered some great convulsion. 
Mr. Buckingham, who visited the same part 
in 1816, says, "As we proceeded to the north- 
ward, we had on our left a lofty peak of the 
range of hills which border the plain of the 
Jordan on the west, and ended in this direc- 
tion the mountains of Judea. This peak is 
considered to be that to which Jesus was . 
transported by the devil during his fast of 
forty days in the wilderness ; ' after which he 
Was an hungered.' Nothing can be more for- 
bidding than the aspect of these hills ; not a 
blade of verdure is to be seen over all their 
surface, and not the sound of any living being 
is to be heard throughout all their extent. 
They form, indeed, a most appropriate scene 
for that wilderness in which the Son of God 
is said to have dwelt with the wild beasts, 
' while the angels ministered unto him.' " 

JUDGES is applied to certain eminent per- 
sona chosen by God himself to govern the 
Jews from the time of Joshua till the esta- 
blishment of the kings. For the nature and 
duration of their oflUce, and the powers with 
which they were invested, see Jeivs. The 
judges were not ordinary magistrates, but 
were appointed by God on extraordinary occa- 
sions ; as to head the armies, to deliver the 
people from their enemies, &c. Salian has 
observed, that they not only presided in courts 
of justice, but were also at the head of the 
councils, the armies, and of every thing that 
concerned the government of the state ; though 
they never assumed the title either of princes, 
governors, or the like. 

Salian remarks seven points wherein they 



JUD 



554 



JUD 



diiFered from kings : 1. They were not heredi- 
tary. 2. They had no absolute power of life 
and death, but only according to the laws, and 
dependently upon them. 3. They never un- 
dertook war at their own pleasure, but only 
when they were commanded by God, or called 
to it by the people. 4. They exacted no tribute. 
5. They did not succeed each other iimnedi- 
ately, but after the death of one there was 
frequently an interval of several years before 
a successor was appointed. 6. They did not 
use the ensigns of sovereignty, the sceptre or 
diadem. 7. They had no authority to make 
any laws, but were only to take care of the 
observance of those of Moses. Godwin, in 
his "Moses and Aaron," compares them to 
the Roman dictators, who were appointed only 
on extraordinary emergencies, as in case of 
war abroad, or conspiracies at home, and 
whose power, while they continued in office, 
was great, and even absolute. Thus the He- 
brew judges seem to have been appointed only 
in cases of national trouble and danger. Tliis 
was the case particularly with respect to 0th- 
niel, Ehud, and Gideon. The powder of the 
judges, while in office, was very great ; nor 
does it seem to have been limited to a certain 
time, like that of the Roman dictators, which 
continued for half a year ; nevertheless, it is 
reasonable to suppose, that, when they had 
performed the business for which they were 
appointed, they retired to a private life. This 
Godwin infers from Gideon's refusing to take 
upon him the perpetual government of Israel, 
as being inconsistent with the theocracy. 

Beside these superior judges, every city in 
the commonwealth liad its elders, who formed 
a court of judicature, with a power of de- 
termining lesser matters in their respective 
districts. The rabbles say, there were three 
such elders or judges in each lesser city, and 
twenty-three in the greater. But Josephus, 
whose authority has greater weight, speaks of 
seven judges in each, without any such dis. 
tinction of greater and less. Sigonius sup- 
poses that these elders and judges of cities 
were the original constitution settled in the 
wilderness by Moses, upon the advice given 
him by Jethro, Exod. xviii, 21, 22, and con- 
tinued by divine appointment after the settle- 
ment in the land of Canaan ; whereas others 
imagine that the Jethronian prefectures were 
a peculiar constitution, suited to their condi- 
tion while encamped in the wilderness, but 
laid aside after they came into Canaan. It is 
certain, however, that there was a court of 
judges and officers, appointed in every city, by 
the law of Moses, Deut. xvi, 18. How far, 
and in what respects, these judges differed 
from the elders of the city, it is not easy to 
ascertain ; and whether they were the same 
or different persons. Perhaps the title elders 
may denote their seniority and dignity ; and 
that of judges, the office they sustained. The 
lower courts of justice, in their several cities, 
were held in their gates, Deut. xvi, 15. Each 
tribe had its respective prince, whose office 
related chiefly, if not altogether, to military 
affairs. We read also of the princes of the 



congregation, who presided in judiciary mat- 
ters. These are called elders, and were seventy 
in nimiber, Num. xi, 16, 17, 24, 25. But it 
does not appear whether or not this consistory 
of seventy elders was a perpetual, or only a 
temporary, institution. Some have supposed 
that it was the same that afterward became 
famous under the appellation of sanhedrim; 
but others conceive the institution of the 
seventy elders to have been only temporary, 
for the assistance of Moses in the govermnent, 
before the settlement in the land of Canaan ; 
and that the sanhedrim was first set up in the 
time of the Maccabees. See Sanhedrim. 

Judges, Book of, a canonical book of the 
Old Testament, containing the history of the 
Israelitish judges, of whom we have been 
speaking in the preceding article. The author 
is not known. It is probable the work did 
not come from any single hand, being rather 
a collection of several little histories, which at 
first were separate, but were afterward collect, 
ed by Ezra or Samuel into a single volume ; 
and, in all likelihood, were taken from the 
ancient journals, annals, or memoirs, com- 
posed by the several judges. The antiquity of 
this book is unquestionable, as it must have 
been written before the time of David, since 
the description. Judges i, 21, was no longer 
true of Jerusalem after he had taken posses- 
sion of it, and had introduced a third class of 
inhabitants of the tribe of Judah. Eichorn ac- 
knowledges that it does not bear the marks of 
subsequent interpolation. Dr. Patrick is of 
opinion that the five last chapters' are a dis- 
tinct history, in which the author gives an 
account of several memorable transactions, 
which occurred in or about the time of the 
judges ; whose history he would not interrupt 
by intermixing these matters with it, and 
therefore reserved them to be related by them- 
selves in the second part, or appendix. 

JUDGMENT, Day of, is that important 
period whicli shall terminate the present dis- 
pensation of grace toward the fallen race of 
Adam, put an end to time, and introduce the 
eternal destinies of men and angels, Acts xvi, 
31 ; 1 Cor. xv, 24-26 ; 1 Thess. iv, 14-17 ; 
Matt. XXV, 31-46. It is in reference to this 
solemn period that the Apostle Peter says, 
"The heavens and the earth which now exist 
are by the word of God reserved in store unto 
fire, against the day of judgment, and perdi- 
tion of ungodly men," 2 Peter iii, 7. Several 
eminent commentators understand this pro- 
phecy as a prediction of the destruction of 
Jerusalem. In support of their interpretation, 
tliey appeal to the ancient Jewish prophecies, 
where, as they contend, the revolutions in the 
political state of empires and nations are fore- 
told in the same forms of expression with 
those introduced in Peter's prediction. The 
following are the prophecies to which they 
appeal : — Isaiah xxxiv, 4, where the destruc- 
tion of Idumea is foretold under the figures of 
dissolving the host of heaven, and of rolling 
the heaven together as a scroll, and of the 
faUing down of all their host as the leaf falleth 
off from the vine. Ezekiel xxxii, 7, where the 



JUD 



555 



JUD 



destruction of Egypt is described by the figures 
of covering the heaven, and making the stars 
thereof dark ; and of covering the sun with a 
cloud, and of hindering the moon from giving 
her light. In Joel ii, 10, the invasion of Ju- 
dea by foreign arrnies is thus foretold : " The 
earth shall quake before them ; the heavens 
shall tremble ; the sun and the moon shall be 
dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shin, 
ing." And in verses 30, 31, the destruction 
of Jerusalem by the Romans is thus pvedicted : 
" I will show wonders in the heavens and in 
the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. 
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the 
moon into blood, before the great and terrible 
day of the Lord come." God, threatening the 
Jews, is introduced saying, " In that day I will 
cause the sun to go down at no'on, and I will 
darken the earth in the clear day," Amos 
viii, 9. The overthrow of Judaism and Hea- 
thenism is thus foretold : " Yet once and I 
will shake the heavens and the earth, and the 
sea and the dry land," Haggai ii, 6. Lastly : 
our Lord, in his prophecy of the destruction 
of Jerusalem, has the following expressions : 
" After the tribulation of those days shall the 
sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give 
her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, 
and the powers of heaven shall be shaken," 
Matt, xxiv, 29. 

Now it is remarkable that, in these prophe- 
cies, none of the prophets have spoken, as 
Peter has done, of the entire destruction of 
this mundane system, nor of the destruction 
of any part thereof. They mention only the 
rolling of the heavens together as a scroll, the 
obscuring of the light of the sun and of the 
moon, the shaking of the heavens and the 
earth, and the falling down of the stars: 
whereas Peter speaks of the utter destruction 
of all the parts of this mundane system by fire. 
This difference affords room for believing that 
the events foretold by the prophets are differ- 
ent in their nature from those foretold by 
the Apostle ; and that they are to be figura- 
tively understood, while those predicted by tlie 
Apostle are to be understood literally. To this 
conclusion, likewise, the phraseology of the 
prophets, compared with that of the Apostle, 
evidently leads : for the prophetic phraseology, 
literally interpreted, exhibits impossibilities ; 
such as the rolling of the heavens together as 
a scroll ; the turning of the moon into blood, 
and the falling down of the stars from heaven 
as the leaf of a tree. Not so the apostolic 
phraseology : for the burning of the heavens, 
or atmosphere, and its passing away with a 
great noise ; and the burning of the earth and 
the works thereon, together with the burning 
and melting of the elements, that is, the con- 
stituent parts of which this terraqueous globe 
is composed ; are all things possible, and there- 
fore may be literally understood ; while the 
things mentioned by the prophets can only be 
fcaken figiaratively. This, however, is not all. 
There are things in the Apostle's prophecy 
which show that he intended it to be taken 
literally. As, 1. He begins with an account 
of the perishing of the old world, to demon- 



strate against the scoffers the possibility of the 
perishing of the present heavens and earth. 
But that example would not have suited his 
purpose ; unless, by the burning of the present 
heavens and earth, he had meant the destruc- 
tion of the material fabric. Wherefore, , the 
opposition stated in this prophecy between the 
perishing of the old world by water, and the 
perishing of the present world by fire, shows 
that the latter is to be as real a destruction of 
the material fabric as the former was. 2; The 
circumstance of the present heavens and earth 
being treasured up and kept, ever since the 
first deluge, from all after deluges, in order to 
their being destroyed by fire at the day of 
judgment, shows, we think, that the Apostle 
is speaking of a real, and not of a metaphorical, 
destruction of the heavens and earth. 3. This 
appears, likewise, from the Apostle's foretell- 
ing that, after the present heavens and earth 
are burned, new heavens and a new earth are 
to appear, in which the righteous are for ever 
to dwell. 4. The time fixed by the Apostle for 
the burning of the heavens and the earth, 
namely, the day of judgment and punishment 
of ungodly men, shows that the Apostle is 
speaking, not of the destruction of a single 
city or nation during the subsistence of the 
world, but of the earth itself, with all the wick- 
ed who have dwelt thereon. These circum- 
stances persuade us that this prophecy, as 
well as the one recorded, 2 Thess. i, 9, is not 
to be interpreted metaphorically of the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem ; but should be understood 
literally of the general judgment, and of the 
destruction of our mundane system. 

But "it is appointed unto men once to die, 
and after death the judgment." These two 
events are inseparably linked together in the 
divine decree, and they reciprocally reflect im- 
portance on each other. Death is, indeed, the 
terror of our nature. Men may contrive to 
keep it from their thoughts, but they cannot 
think of it without fearful apprehensions of its 
consequences. It was justly to be dreaded by 
man in his state of innocence ; and to the 
unrenewed man it ever was, and ever will be, 
a just object of abhorrence. The Gospel of 
Jesus Christ, which has brouglit life and im- 
mortality to light, is the only sovereign anti- 
dote against this universal evil. To the be- 
liever in Christ, its rough aspect is smoothed, 
and its terrors cease to be alarming. To him 
it is the messenger of peace ; its sting is pluck- 
ed out ; its dark valley is the road to perfect 
bliss and life immortal. To him, " to live is 
Christ, and to die is gain," Phil, i, 21. To die ! 
speaking properly, he cannot die. He has 
already died in Christ, and with him : his " life 
is hid with Christ in God," Romans A'-i, 8; 
Col. iii, 3. 

With this conquest of the fear of death is 
nearly allied another glorious privilege result- 
ing from union with the Redeemer ; that, when 
he shall appear, we may have confidence, and 
"not be ashamed before him at his corning," 
1 John ii, 28. Were death all that we have to 
dread, death might be braved. But after death 
there is a judgment ; a judgment attended with 



JUS 



556 



JUS 



circumstances so tremendous as to shake the 
hearts of the boldest of the sons of nature. 
Then "men shall seek death, and shall not 
find it ; and shall des-h-e to die, and death shall 
flee from them," Rev, ix, 6. Then shall come 
indeed an awful day ; a day to which all that 
have preceded it are intended to be subser- 
vient ; when the Lord shall appear in the 
united splendour of creating, of governing, 
and of judicial majesty, to finish his purposes 
respecting man and earth, and to pronounce 
the final, irreversible sentence, " It is done !" 
Rev. xxi, 6. Nothing of terror or magnifi- 
cence hitherto beheld, — no glory of the rising 
sun after a night of darkness and of storm, — 
no convulsions of the earth, — no wide irrup- 
tion of waters, — no flaming comet dragging its 
burning train over half the heaven, can convey 
to us an adequate conception of that day of 
terrible brightness and irresistible devastation. 
Creation then shall be uncreated. " The 
heavens shall pass away with a great noise, 
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat ; 
the earth also, and the works that are therein, 
shall be burned up," 2 Peter iii, 10. The Lord 
shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, 
2 Thess, i, 7, 8, arrayed in all the glory of his 
Godhead, and attended by his mighty angels. 
Matt, xvi, 27; xxv, 31. All that are in the 
grave shall hear his voice, and shall come 
forth, John v, 28, 29. Earth and sea shall 
give up the dead which are in them. All that 
ever lived shall appear before him, Rev. xx, 
12, 13. The judgment shall sit ; and the books 
shall be opened, Dan. vii, 10. The eye of 
Omniscience detects every concealment by 
which they would screen from observation 
themselves, or their iniquity. The last reluct- 
ant sinner is finally separated from the con- 
gregation of the righteous. Psalm i, 5 ; and 
inflexible justice, so often disregarded, derided, 
and defied, gives forth their eternal doom ! But 
to the saints this shall be a day of glory and 
honour. They shall be publicly acknowledged 
by God as his people ; publicly justified from 
the slanders of the world ; invested with im. 
mortal bodies ; presented by Christ to the 
Father ; and admitted into the highest felicity 
in the immediate presence of God for ever. 
These are the elevating, the transporting views, 
which made the Apostle Paul speak with so 
much desire and earnest expectation of the 
" day of Christ." 

JUSTICE is in Scripture taken for that 
essential perfection in God, whereby he is 
infinitely righteous and just, both in himself 
and in all his proceedings with his creatures. 
Psalm Ixxxix, 14. 2. That political virtue 
which renders to every man his due ; and is 
first, distributive, which concerns princes, 
magistrates, &c, Job xxix, 14 ; secondly, com- 
municative, which concerns all persons in 
their dealings one with another. Gen. xviii, 19. 

Justice, Administration of. According to 
the Mosaic law, there were to be judges in all 
the cities, whose duty it was likewise to exer- 
cise judicial authority in the neighbouring 
villages ; but weighty causes and appeals went 
up to the supreme judge or ruler of the com- 



monwealth, and, in case of a failure here, to 
the high priest, Deut. xvii, 8, 9. In the time 
of the monarchy, weighty causes and appeals 
went up, of course, to the king, who, in very 
difficult cases, seems to have consulted the 
high priest, as is customary at the present day 
among the Persians and Ottomans. The 
judicial establishment was reorganized after 
the captivity, and two classes of judges, the 
inferior and superior, were appointed, Ezra 
vii, 25. The more difficult cases, nevertheless, 
and appeals, were either brought before the 
ruler of the state, called nne, or before the 
high priest ; until, in the age of the Macca- 
bees, a supreme, judicial tribunal was instituted, 
which is first mentioned under Hyrcanus II. 
This tribunal is not to be confounded with the 
seventy-two counsellors, who were appointed 
to assist Moses in the civil administration of 
the government, but who never filled the office 
of judges. See Sanhedrim. 

Josephus states, that in every city there 
was a tribunal of seven judges, with two La 
vites as apparitors, and that it was a Mosaifl 
institution. That there existed such an insti- 
tution in his time, there is no reason to doubt 
but he probably erred in referring its origin to 
so early a period as the days of Moses. (See 
Judges.) This tribunal, which decided causes 
of less moment, is denominated in the New 
Testament k^'kjis, or the judgment, Matt, v, 22. 
The Talmudists mention a tribunal of twenty- 
three judges, and another of three judges ; 
but Josephus is silent in respect to them. 
The courts of twenty-three judges were the 
same with the synagogue tribunals, mentioned 
in John xvi, 2 ; which merely tried questions 
of a religious nature, and sentenced to no 
other punishment than "forty stripes save 
one," 2 Cor. xi, 24. The court of three judges 
was merely a session of referees, which was 
allowed to the Jews by the Roman laws ; for 
the Talmudists themselves, in describing this 
court, go on to observe, that one judge was 
chosen by the accuser, another by the accused, 
and a third by the two parties conjunctly ; 
which shows at once the nature of the tri- 
bunal. 

The time at which courts were held, and 
causes were brought before them for trial, was 
in the morning, Jer. xxi, 12 ; Psalm ci, 8. 
According to the Talmudists, it was not law- 
fiil to try causes of a capital nature in the 
night ; and it was equally unlawful to examine 
a cause, pass sentence, and put it in execution 
on the same day. The last particular was 
very strenuously insisted on. It is worthy of 
remark, that all of these practices, which were 
observed in other trials, were neglected in the 
tumultuous trial of Jesus, Matt, xxvi, 57 ; 
John xviii, 13-18. The places for judicial 
trials were in very ancient times the gates of 
cities, which were well adapted to this pur- 
pose. (See Gates.) Originally, trials were 
every where very summary, excepting in 
Egypt; where the accuser committed the 
charge to writing, the accused replied in 
writing, the accuser repeated the charge, and 
the accused answered again, &c, Job xiv, 17 



JUS 



657 



JUS 



It was customarjr in Egypt for the judge to 
have the code of laws placed before him, a 
practice which still prevails in the east. 
Moses interdicted, in the most express and 
decided manner, gifts or bribes, which were 
intended to corrupt the judges, Exod. xxii, 
20, 21; xxiii, 1-9; Lev. xix, 15 ; Deut. xxiv, 
14, 15. Moses also, by legal precautions, 
prevented capital punishments, and corporal 
punishments which were not capital, from 
being extended, as was done in other nations, 
both to parents and their children, and thus 
involving the innocent and the guilty in that 
misery which was justly due only lo the latter, 
Exod. xxiii, 7 ; Deut. xxiv, 16; Dan. vi, 24. 

The ceremonies which were observed in 
conducting a judicial trial, were as follows : 
1. The accuser and the accused both made 
their appearance before the judge or judges, 
Deut. XXV, 1, who sat with legs crossed upon 
the floor, which was furnished for their ac- 
commodation with carpet and cushions. A 
secretary was present, at least in more modern 
times, who wrote down the sentence, and, 
indeed, every thing in relation to the trial ; 
for instance, the articles of agreement that 
might be entered into previous to the com. 
mencement of the judicial proceedings, Isaiah 
X, 1, 2 ; Jer. xxxii, 1-14. The Jews assert 
that there were two secretaries, the one being 
seated to the right of the judge, who wrote 
the sentence of not guilty, the other to the 
left, who wrote the sentence of condemna- 
tion. Matt. XXV, 33-46. That an apparitor or 
beadle was present, is apparent from other 
sources. 2. The accuser was denominated in 
Hebrew jioti', or the adversary, Zech. iii, 1-3 ; 
Psalm cix, 6. The judge or judges were 
seated, but both of the parties implicated stood 
up, the accuser standing to the right hand of 
the accused : the latter, at least after the 
captivity, when the cause was one of great 
consequence, appeared with hair dishevelled, 
and in a garment of mourning. 3, The wit- 
nesses were sworn, and, in capital cases, the 
parties concerned, 1 Sam. xiv, 37-40 ; Matt. 
xxvi, 63. In order to establish the charges 
alleged, two witnesses were necessary, and, 
including the accuser, three. The witnesses 
were examined separately, but the person 
accused had the liberty to be present when 
their testimony was given in. Num. xxxv, 30 ; 
Deut. xvii, 1-15 ; Matt, xxvi, 59. Proofs might 
be brought from other sources ; for instance, 
from written contracts, or from papers in 
evidence of any thing purchased or sold, of 
which there were commonly taken two copies, 
the one to be sealed, the other to be left open, 
as was customary in the time of Jerom, Jer. 
xxxii, 10-13. 4. The parties sometimes, as 
may be inferred from Prov. xviii, 18, made 
use of the lot in determining the points of 
difficulty between them, but not without a 
mutual agreement. The sacred lot of Urim 
and Thummim was anciently resorted to, in 
order to detect the guilty, Joshua vii, 14-24 ; 
1 Sam. xiv ; but the determination of a case 
of right or wrong in this way was not com- 
manded by Moses. 5. The sentence, very 



soon after the completion of the examination, 
was pronounced; and the criminal, without 
any delay, even if the offence were a capital 
one, was hastened away to the place of pun- 
ishment, Joshua vii, 22, &c ; 1 Sam. xxii, 
18 ; 1 Kings ii, 23. 

A few additional remarks will cast some 
light upon some passages of Scripture : the 
station of the accused was in an eminent 
place in the court, that the people might see 
them, and hear what was alleged against 
them, and the proofs of it, together with the 
defence made by the criminals. This explains 
the reason of the remark by the Evangelist 
Matthev/, concerning the posture of our Lord 
at his trial : " Jesus stood before the go- 
vernor ;" and that, in a mock trial, many ages 
before the birth of Christ, in which some 
attention was also paid to public forms, Naboth 
was set on high among the people, 1 Kings 
xxi, 9. The accusers and the witnesses also 
stood, unless they were allowed to sit by the 
indulgence of the judges, when they stated the 
accusation, or gave their testimony. To this 
custom of the accusers rising from their seats, 
when called by the court to read the indict- 
ment, our Lord alludes in his answer to the 
scribes and Pharisees, who expressed a wish 
to see him perform some miracle : " The queen 
of the south shall rise up in the judgment with 
this generation, and shall condemn it," Matt, 
xii, 42. According to this rule, which seems 
to have been invariably observed, the Jews 
who accused the Apostle Paul at the bar of 
Festus the Roman governor, " stood round 
about," while they stated the crimes which 
they had to lay to his charge, Acts xxv, 7. 
They were compelled to stand as well as the 
prisoner, by the established usage of the courts 
of justice in the east. The Romans often put 
criminals to the question, or endeavoured to 
extort a confession from them by torture. 
Agreeably to this cruel and unjust custom, 
"the chief captain commanded Paul to be 
brought into the castle, and bade that he 
should be examined by scourging," Acts xxii, 
24. It was usual, especially among the Ro- 
mans, when a man was charged with a capital' 
crime, and during his arraignment, to let 
down his hair, suffer his beard to grow long, 
to wear filthy, ragged garments, and appear 
in a very dirty and sordid habit ; on account 
of which they were called sordidati. When 
the person accused was brought into court to 
be tried, even his near relations, friends, antJ 
acquaintances, before the court voted, appeared 
with dishevelled hair, and clothed with gar- 
ments foul and out of fashion, weeping, crying, 
and deprecating punishment. The accused 
sometimes appeared before the judges clothed 
in black, and his head covered with dust. In- 
allusion to this ancient custom, the Prophet 
Zecbariah represents Joshua, the high priest, 
when he appeared before the Lord, and Satan 
stood at his right hand to accuse him, as 
clothed with filthy garments, Zech. iii, 3. 
After the cause was carefully examined, and 
all parties impartially heard, the public crier, 
by command of the presiding magistrate. 



3 us 



558 



JUS 



ordered the judges to bring in their verdict. 
The most ancient way of giving sentence, 
was by white and black sea shells, or pebbles. 
This custom has been mentioned by Ovid in 
these lines : — 

Mas erat antiquis, niveis atrisque lapillis, 
II/s damnare reos, illis absolvere culpa. 
■" It was a custom among the ancients, to give 
their votes by white or black stones ; with 
these they condemned the guilty, with those 
acquitted the innocent." In allusion to this 
ancient custom, our Lord promises to give the 
spiritual conqueror "a white stone," Rev. ii, 
17; the white stone of absolution or approba- 
tion. When sentence of condemnation was 
pronounced, if the case was capital, the wit. 
nesses put their hands on the head of the 
criminal, and said, " Thy blood be upon thine 
own head." To this custom the Jews alluded, 
when they cried out at the trial of Christ, 
"His blood be on us and on our children." 
Then was the malefactor led to execution, 
and none were allowed openly to lament his 
misfortune. His hands were secured with 
cords, and his feet with fetters ; a custom 
which furnished David with an affecting allu- 
sion, in his lamentation over the dust of 
Abner : " Thy hands were not bound, nor thy 
feet put in fetters," 2 Sam. iii, 34 ; that is, he 
was put treacherously to death, without form 
of justice. 

2. Executions in the east are often very 
prompt and arbitrary, when resulting from 
royal authority. In many cases the suspicion 
is no sooner entertained, or the cause of 
offence given, than the fatal order is issued ; 
the messenger of death hurries to the unsus- 
pecting victim, shows his warrant, and exe- 
cutes his orders that instant in silence and 
solitude. Instances of this kind are continually 
occurring in the Turkish and Persian histories. 
When the enemies of a great man among the 
Turks have gained influence enough over the 
prince to procure a warrant for his death, a 
capidgi, the name of the officer who executes 
these orders, is sent to him, who shows him 
the order he has received to carry back his 
head ; the other takes the warrant of the grand 
signior, kisses it, puts it on his head in token 
of respect, and then, having peTformed his 
ablutions and said his prayers, freely resigns 
his life. The capidgi, having strangled him, 
cuts off his head, and brings it to Constan- 
tinople. The grand signior's order is implicitly 
obeyed ; the servants of the victim never 
attempt to hinder the executioner, although 
these capidgis come very often with few or no 
attendants. It appears from the writings of 
Chardin, that the nobility and grandees of 
Persia are put to death in a manner equally 
silent, hasty, and unobstructed. Such execu- 
tions were not uncommon among the Jews 
under the government of their kings. Solo- 
mon sent Benaiah as his capidgi, or execu- 
tioner, to put Adonijah, a prince of his own 
family, to death ; and Joab, the commander- 
in-chief of the forces in the reign of his father. 
A capidgi likewise beheaded John the Baptist 
in prison, and carried his head to the court of 



Herod. To such silent and hasty executioners 
the royal preacher seems to refer in that pro- 
verb, " The wrath of a king is as messengers of 
death ; but a wise man will pacify it," Prov, 
xvi, 14 : his displeasure exposes the unhappy 
offender to immediate death, and may fill the 
unsuspecting bosom with terror and dismay, 
like the appearance of a capidgi ; but by wise 
and prudent conduct a man may sometimes 
escape the danger. From the dreadful prompti- 
tude with which Benaiah executed the com- 
mands of Solomon on Adonijah and Joab, it 
may be concluded that the executioner of the 
court was as little ceremonious, and the ancient 
Jews, under their kings, nearly as passive, as 
the Turks or Persians. The Prophet Elisha 
is the only person on the inspired record who 
ventured to resist the bloody mandate of the 
sovereign ; the incident is recorded in these 
terms : " But Elisha sat in his house, and the 
elders sat with him ; and the king sent a man 
from before him ; but ere the messenger came 
to him, he said to the elders, See how this son 
of a murderer hath sent to take away mine 
head ? Look ye, when the messenger cometh, 
shut the door and hold him fast at the door ; 
is not the sound of his master's feet behind 
him ?" 2 Kings vi, 32. But if such mandates 
had not been too common among the Jews, 
and in general submitted to without resistance, 
Jehoram had scarcely ventured to despatch a 
single messenger to take away the life of so 
eminent a person as Elisha, 

Criminals wexe at other times executed in pub- 
lie ; and then commonly without the. city. To 
such executions without the gate, the Psalm- 
ist undoubtedly refers in this complaint : " The 
dead bodies of thy saints have they given to be 
meat unto the fowjs of the heaven ; the flesh 
of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth ; their 
blood have they shed like water round about 
Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them," 
Psalm Ixxix, 2, 3. The last clause admits of 
two senses i 1. There v/as no friend or rela- 
tion left to bury them. 2. None were allowed 
to perform this last office. The despotism of 
eastern princes often proceeds to a degree of 
extravagance which is apt to fill the mind with 
astonishment and horror. It has been thought, 
from time immemorial, highly criminal to bury 
those who had lost their lives by the hand of 
an executioner, without permission. In Mo. 
rocco, no person dares to bury the body of a 
malefactor without an order from the emperor ; 
and Windus, who visited that country, speak- 
ing of a man who was sawn in two, informs 
us, that his body must have remained to be 
eaten by the dogs if the emperor had not par- 
doned him ; an extravagant custom to pardon 
a man after he is dead ; but unless he does so, 
no person dares bury the body. To such a 
degree of savage barbarity it is probable the 
encAiies of God's people carried their opposi- 
tion, that no person dared to bury the dead 
bodies of their innocent victims. 

In ancient times, persons of the highest 
rank and station were employed to execute 
the sentence of the law. They had not then, 
as we have at present, public executioners; 



JUS 



559 



JUS 



but the prince laid his commands on any of 
his courtiers whom he chose, and probably- 
selected the person for whom he had the great- 
est favour. Gideon commanded Jether, his 
eldest son, to execute his sentence on the kings 
of Midian ; the king of Israel ordered the foot- 
men who stood around him, and who were 
probably a chosen body of soldiers for the de- 
fence of his person, to put to death the priests 
of the Lord ; and when they refused, Doeg, 
an Edomite, one of his principal officers. 
Long after the days of Saul, the reigning 
monarch commanded Benaiah, the chief cap- 
tain of his armies, to perform that duty. 
Sometimes the chief magistrate executed the 
sentence of the law with his own hands ; for 
when Jether shrunk from the duty which his 
father required, Gideon, at that time the su- 
preme magistrate in Israel, did not hesitate to 
do it himself. In these times such a command 
would be reckoned equally barbarous and un- 
becoming; but the ideas which were enter- 
tained in those primitive ages of honour and 
propriety, wex-e in many respects extremely 
different from ours. In Homer, the exasperated 
Ulysses commanded his son Telemachusto put 
to death the suitors of Penelope, which was 
immediately done. The custom of employing 
persons of high rank to execute the sentence 
of the law, is still retained in the principality 
of Senaar, where the public executioner is one 
of the principal nobility; and, by virtue of his 
office, resides in the royal palace. 

JUSTIFICATION, in common language, 
signifies a vindication from any charge which 
affects the moral character; but in theology it 
is used for the acceptance of one, by God, who 
is, and confesses himself to be, guilty. To 
justify a sinner, says Mr. Bunting, in an able 
sermon on this important subject, is to account 
and consider him relatively righteous ; and to 
deal with him as such, notwithstanding his 
past actual unrighteousness, by clearing, ab- 
solving, discharging, and releasing him from 
various penal evils, and especially from the 
wrath of God, and the liability to eternal death, 
which, by that past unrighteousness, he had 
deserved ; and by accepting him as if just, and 
admitting him to the state, the privileges, and 
the rewards of righteousness. Hence it ap- 
pears that justification, and the remission or 
forgiveness of sin, are substantially the same 
thing. These expressions relate to one and 
the same act of God, to one and the same 
privilege of his believing people. Accordingly, 
St. Paul clearly uses justification and forgive- 
ness as synonymous terms, when he says, 
"Be it known unto you, therefore, men and 
brethren, that through this man is preached 
unto you the forgiveness of sins : and by him 
all that believe are justified from all things, 
from which ye could not be justified by the 
law of Moses," Acts xiii, 38, 39. Also in the 
following passage : " To him that worketh 
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the 
ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. 
Even as David also describeth the blessedness 
of the man, unto whom God imputeth right- 
eousness without works, saying. Blessed are 



they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose 
sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom 
the Lord will not impute sin," Rom. iv, 5-8. 
Here, the justification of the ungodly, the 
counting or imputation of righteousness, the 
forgiveness of iniquity, and the covering and 
non-imputation of sin, are phrases which have 
all, perhaps, their various shades of meanmg, 
but which express the very same blessing 
under different views. But (1.) the justifica- 
tion of a sinner does not in the least degree 
alter or diminish the evil nature and desert of 
sin. For we know " it is God," the holy God, 
"that justifieth." And he can never regard 
sin, on any consideration, or under any cir- 
cumstances, with less than perfect and infinite 
hatred. Sin, therefore, is not changed in its 
nature, so as to be made less " exceedingly 
sinful," or less worthy of wrath, by the pardon 
of the sinner. The penalty is remitted, and 
the obligation to suffer that penalty is dissolved ; 
but it is still naturally due, though graciously 
remitted. Hence appear the propriety and 
duty of continuing to confess and lament even 
pardoned sin with a lowly and contrite heart. 
Though released from its penal consequences 
by an act of divine clemency, we should still 
remember that the dust of self-abasement is 
our proper place before God, and should tem- 
per our exultation in his mercy by an humbling 
recollection of our natural liability to his wrath. 
" I will establish my covenant with thee, and 
thou shalt know that I am the Lord : that thou 
mayest remember, and be confounded, and 
never open thy mouth any more because of 
thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee 
for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord 
God," Ezek. xvi, 62, 63. (2.) The account 
which has been given of justification, if cor- 
rect, sufficiently points out the error of many 
of the Roman Catholic divines, and of some 
mystic theologians, who seem to suppose that 
to be justified is to be, not reckoned righteous, 
but actually made righteous, by the infusion 
of a sanctifying influence, producing a positive 
and inherent conformity to the moral image 
of God. This notion confounds the two dis- 
tinct though kindred blessings of justification 
and regeneration. The former, in its Scrip- 
tural sense, is an act of God, not in or upon 
man, but for him, and in his favour ; an act 
which, abstractedly considered, to use the 
words of Dr. Barrow, " respects man only as 
its object, and translates him into another rela- 
tive state. The inherent principle of righteous- 
ness is a consequent of this act of God ; con- 
nected with it, but not formally of it." (3.) The 
justification extends to all past sins ; that is, 
to all guilt contracted previously to that time 
at which the act of justification takes place. 
In respect of this, it is, while it remains in 
force, a most full, perfect, and entire absolution 
from wrath. " All manner of sin" is then for- 
given. The pardon which is granted is a "jus- 
tification," not merely from Fr^'-ne things, from 
many things, from most thin^j, but "from all 
things," Acts xiii, 39. God does not justify 
us, or pardon our innumerable offences, by 
degrees, but at once. As by the law of works 



JUS 



560 



JUS 



he is cursed, who " continue th not in all things" 
which that law enjoined, so he who is truly 
absolved by the Gospel is cleared from all and 
every thing which before stood against him ; 
and " there is no condemnation to them that 
are in Christ Jesus." Weil may that Gospel 
which reveals and offers^ such a benefit be 
termed a " great salvatiiDn !" (4.) Another 
remark, which it may not be unnecessary to 
make, is, that justification, however effectual 
to our release from past guilt, does not termi- 
nate our state of probation. It is not irre- 
versible, any more than eternal. As he who 
is now justified was once condemned, so he 
may in future come again into condemnation, 
by relapsing into sin and unbelief, although at 
present " accepted in the Beloved." Thus 
Adam, before transgression, wsls in a state of 
favour ; but as he had not then fiilfiUed, to the 
end of his probation, the righteousness of that 
law under which he was placed, his ultimate 
and final acceptance was not absolutely cer- 
tain. His privilege, as one accepted of God, 
might be forfeited, and was actually forfeited, 
by his subsequent sin. Now our own justifi- 
cation or pardon only places us, as to this 
point, in similar circumstances. Though ever 
so clearly and fully forgiven, we are yet on 
our trial for eternity, and should "look to 
ourselves, that we lose not the things which 
We have gained." That justification may for 
our sin be reversed, appears from our Lord's 
parable of the two debtors, in which one who 
had obtained the blessing of forgiveness is 
represented as incurring the forfeiture of it by 
the indulgence of an unforgiving spirit toward 
his fellow servant. Matt, xviii, 23-35. Let us 
therefore "watch and pray, that we enter not 
into temptation." 

2. The immediate results of justification are 
(1.) The restoration of amity and intercourse 
between the pardoned sinner and the pardon, 
ing God. For, "being justified by faith, we 
have peace with God," and, consequently, 
unforbidden access to him. The matter and 
ground of God's controversy with us being 
then removed by his act of gracious absolu- 
tion, we become the objects of his friendship. 
" Abraham believed God, and it was imputed 
to him for righteousness ; and he was " imme- 
diately " called the friend of God," Jas. ii, 23 ; 
and so are all those who are similarly justified. 
This reconciliation, however, does not extend 
to their instant and absolute deliverance from 
all those evils which transgression has entailed 
on man. They are still liable, for a season, 
to affliction and pain, to temporal suffering 
and mortality. These are portions of the 
original curse from which their justification 
does not as yet release them. But it entitles 
them to such supports under all remaining 
trouble, and to such promises of a sanctifying 
influence with it, as will, if embraced, "turn 
the curse into a blessing." Whom the Lord 
loveth, he may still chasten, and in very faith- 
fulness afilict them. But these are acts of 
salutary discipline, rather than of vindictive 
displeasure. His friendship, not his right- 
ecus hostility, is the principle from which 



they all proceed ; and the solvation, not the' 
destruction, of the sufferer is the end to which 
they are all directed. (2.) Another immediate 
result of justification is the adoption of the 
persons justified into the family of God, and 
their consequent right to eternal life of body 
and soul. God condescends to become not 
only their Friend, but their Father ; they are 
the objects not merely of his amicable regard,- 
but of his paternal tenderness. And, admitted 
to the relation of children, they become entitled 
to the children's inheritance ; for, "if children, 
then heirs ; heirs of God, and joint heirs with 
Christ ; if so be that we suffer with him, that 
we may be also glorified together," Rom. viii, 
17. (3.) With these results of justification is 
inseparably connected another, of the utmost 
value and importance ; namely, the habitual 
indwelling of the Holy Spirit. " Christ hath 
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being 
made a curse for us ; that the blessing of Abra- 
ham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus 
Christ ; that we might receive the promise of ' 
the Spirit through faith,'* Gal. iii, 13, 14. 
" Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth 
the Spirit of his Son into your hearts," Gal. 
iv, 6. With the remission of sins, St. Peter 
also connects, as an immediate result, as a 
distinct but yet a simultaneous blessing, "the 
gift of the Holy Ghost," Acts ii, 38. -And iii 
the fifth verse of this chapter, the Holy Ghost 
is said to be given to those who are justified 
by faith. Of this indwelling the immediate 
effects are, (i.) Tranquillity of conscience. For 
he testifies and manifests to those in whom he 
dwells their free justification and gracious 
adoption. The spirit which such persons 
have received is "not the spirit of bondage to 
fear, but the Spirit of adoption, whereby we 
cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth 
witness with our spirit that we are the chil- 
dren of God," Rom. viii, 15, 16. (ii.) Power 
over sin; a prevailing desire and ability to walk 
before God in holy obedience. No sooner is 
the Holy Spirit enthroned in the heart, than 
he begins to make all things new. In his 
genuine work, purity is always connected with 
consolation. Those to whom he witnesses 
their freedom from condemnation he also 
enables to " walk, not after the flesh, but 
after the Spirit," Rom. viii, 1. (iii.) A joyous 
hope of heaven. Their title results from the 
fact of their adoption ; their power to rejoice 
in hope, from the Spirit's testimony of that 
fact. " We, through the Spirit, wait for ther 
hope of righteousness by faith," and "abound 
in hope, through the power of the Holy 
Ghost," Gal. V, 5 ; Rom. xv, 13. 

3. To have a complete view of the method 
by which justification and all its consequent 
blessings are attained, we must consider the 
originating, the meritorious, and the instru- 
mental cause of justification. (1.) The origin- 
ating cause is the grace, the free, undeserved, 
and spontaneous love of God toward fallen 
man. He remembered and pitied us in our 
low estate ; for his mercy endureth for ever. 
" After that the kindness and love of God our 
Saviour toward man appeared, not by works 



im 



661 



JtJS 



of righteousness which we have done, but 
according to his mercy he saved us. The 
grace of God bringeth salvation," Titus ii, 11 ; 
iii, 4, 5. We are " justified freely by his grace," 
Rom. iii, 24. But Gcd is wise, and holy, and 
just, as well as merciful and gracious. And 
his wisdom determined, that, in order to recon- 
cile the designs of his mercy toward sinners 
with the claims of his purity and justice, those 
designs should be accomplished only through 
the intervention of a divine Redeemer. We 
are justified " through our Lord Jesus Christ," 
Rom. i, 5. (2.) Our Lord Jesus Christ is the 
sole meritorious cause of our justification. 
All he did and all he suffered in his mediatorial 
character may be said to have contributed to 
this great purpose. For what he did, in obe- 
dience to the precepts of the law, and what he 
suffered, in satisfaction of its penalty, taken 
together, constitute that mediatorial righteous- 
ness, for the sake of which the Father is ever 
well pleased in him. Now, in this mediatorial 
righteousness all who are justified have a 
saving interest. It is not meant that it is 
personally imputed to them in its formal na- 
ture or distinct acts ; for against any such 
imputation there lie insuperable objections 
both from reason and from Scripture. But 
the collective merit and moral effects of all 
which the Mediator did and suffered are so 
reckoned to our account when we are justified, 
that, for the sake of Christ and in considera- 
tion of his obedience unto death, we are re- 
leased from guilt, and accepted of God. From 
this statement of the meritorious cause of jus- 
tification, it appears that while our pardon is, 
in its origin, an act of the highest grace, it is 
also, in its mode, an act most perfectly con- 
sistent with God's essential righteousness, and 
demonstrative of his inviolable justice. It 
proceeds not on the principle of abolishing the 
law or its penalty ; for that would have implied 
that the law was unduly rigorous, either in its 
precepts or in its sanctions. But it rests on 
the ground that the law has been magnified 
and vindicated, and that its penalty, or suffer- 
ings, which were fully equivalent to that 
penalty in a moral view, when the dignity of 
the sufferer is considered, have been sustained 
by our voluntary Substitute. Thus "grace 
reigns through righteousness," not at the 
expense of righteousness. " Now, the right- 
eousness of God without the law is manifested, 
being witnessed by the law and the prophets ; 
even the righteousness of God which is by 
faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all 
them that believe : being justified freely by his 
grace, through the redemption that is in Christ 
Jesus ; whom God hath set forth to be a pro- 
pitiation through faith in his blood, to declare 
his righteousness for the remission of sins that 
are past, through the forbearance of God ; to 
declare, I say, at this time his righteousness ; 
that he might be just, and the justifier of him 
which believeth in Jesus," Romans iii, 21-26. 
(3.) As to the instrumental cause of justifica- 
tion, the merit of the blood of Jesus does not 
operate necessarily so as to produce our pardon 
as an immediate and unavoidable effect, but 
37 



through the instrumentality of faith. The 
faith by which we are justified is present faith, 
faith actually existing and exercised. We are 
not justified by to-morrow's faith foreseen ; for 
that would lead to the Antinomian notion of 
justification from eternity, a notion wiiich to 
mention is to confute. We are not justified 
by yesterday's faith recorded or remembered ; 
for that Avould imply the opinion that justifica- 
tion is irreversible. The justification offered 
in the Scriptures is a justification upon be- 
lieving, in v/hich we are never savingly inte- 
rested until we believe, and which continues 
in force only so long as we continue to believCo 
On all unbelievers the wrath of God abides. 
The atonement of Jesus was indeed accepted, 
as from him, at the time when it was offered ; 
but it is not accepted, as for us, to our indi- 
vidual justification, until we individually be- 
lieve, nor after we cease to believe. The 
OBJECT of justifying faith may be inferred from 
what has been before said, as to the originating 
and meritorious causes of justification. It has 
respect, in general, to all that Christ is set 
forth in the Gospel as doing or suffering, by 
the gracious appointment of the Father, in 
order to our redemption and pardon. But it 
has respect, in particular, to the atoning sacri- 
fice of Christ, as exhibited by divine authority 
in the Scriptures, and as attested to be accept- 
able and sufficient by his resurrection from 
the dead, and by his mediatorial exaltation at 
the right hand of God. The acts or exercises 
of this faith seem to be three ; or rather, that 
faith which is required in order to our justifi- 
cation is a complex act of the mind, which 
includes three distinct but concurrent exertions 
of its powers. It includes, (1.) The assent of 
the understanding to the truth of the testimony 
of God in the Gospel ; and especially to that 
part of it which concerns the design and effi- 
cacy of the death of Jesus as a sacrifice for 
sin. (2.) The consent of the will and affections 
to this plan of salvation ; such an approbation 
and choice of it as imply a renunciation of 
every other refuge, and a steady and decided 
preference of this. Unbelief is called a dis- 
allowing of the foundation laid in Zion ; where- 
as faith includes a hearty allowance of it, and 
a thankful acquiescence in God's revealed 
method of forgiveness. (3.) From this assent 
of the enlightened understanding, and consent 
of the rectified will, to the evangelical testi- 
mony concerning Christ crucified, results the 
third thing, which is supposed to be implied 
in justifying faith ; namely, actual trust in the 
Saviour, and personal apprehension of his 
merits. When, under the promised leading 
and influence of the Holy Ghost, the penitent 
sinner thus confidently relies and individually 
lays hold on Christ, then the work of justify, 
ing faith is complete ; then, and not till then, 
he is immediately justified. On the whole, it 
may be said that the faith to which the privi- 
lege of justification is annexed, is such a belief 
of the Gospel, by the power of the Spirit of 
God, as leads us to come to Christ, to receive 
Christ, to trust in Christ, and to commit the 
keeping of our souls into his hands, in humble 



JUS 



562 



KED 



confidence of his ability and his willingness to 
save us. 

The grand doctrine of the Reformation was 
that of justification by faith, and was therefore 
held by all the Lutheran and Reformed churches. 
The Papists assert that man's inherent right, 
eousness is the meritorious cause of his justifi- 
cation ; many Protestant divines have endea- 
voured to unite the two, and have held that 
men are justified by faith and good works ; 
and others have equally departed from the 
opinions of the earliest reformers on the sub- 
ject of justification, in representing it as result- 
ing from the imputation of Christ's active and 
passive righteousness to those that believe, 
instead of confining the imputation to the 
moral consequence and effect of both. In 
other words, that which is reckoned to us in 
our justification for righteousness is our faith 
in Christ's merits, and that not because of any 
intrinsic value in faith ; but only for the sake 
of those merits. In a mere moral sense man's 
sin or righteousness is imputed to him, when 
he is considered as actually the doer of sinful 
or of righteous acts. A man's sin or righteous, 
ness is imputed to him in its legal consequence, 
under a government of rewards and punish- 
ments ; and then to impute sin or righteous- 
ness signifies, in a legal sense, to reckon and 
to account it, to acquit or condemn, and forth- 
with to punish, or to exempt from punishment. 
Thus Shimei entreats David, that he would 
** not impute folly to him," that is, that he 
would not punish his folly. In this sense, too, 
David speaks of the blessedness of the man 
whose " transgression is forgiven," and to 
whom the Lord ♦' imputeth not sin," that is, 
whom he forgives, so that the legal conse- 
quence of his sin shall not fall upon him. This 
non-imputation of sin, to a sinner, is expressly 
called the "imputation of righteousness, with- 
outworks ;" the imputation of righteousness is, 
then, the non-punishment, or the pardon of sin ; 
and if this passage be read in its connection, 
it will also be seen, that by " imputing" faith 
for- righteousness, the Apostle means precisely 
the same thing : " But to him that worketh not, 
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, 
his faith is counted for righteousness ; even as 
David also describeth the man to whom God 
imputeth righteousness without works, saying, 
Blessed is the man Avhose iniquities are for- 
given, and whose sins are covered. Blessed 
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not 
sin." This quotation from David would have 
been nothing to the Apostle's purpose, unless 
he had understood the forgiveness of sins, and 
the imputation of righteousness, and the non- 
imputation of sin, to signify the same thing as 
" counting faith for righteousness," with only 
this difference, that the introduction of the 
term "faith" marks the manner in which the 
forgiveness of sin is obtained. To have faith 
imputed for righteousness, is nothing more 
than to be justified by faith, which is also 
called by St. Paul, "being made righteous," 
that is, being placed by an act of free forgive- 
ness, through faith in Christ, in the condition 
of righteous men, in this respect, that the 



penalty of the law does not lie against them, 
and that they are the acknowledged objects of 
the divine favour. See Faith. 

KADESH-BARNEA, a station of the Is- 
raelites, to which they returned again after 
thirty-eight years, is said to be in the wilder- 
ness of Zin, Num. xiii, 21 ; xx, 1 ; Deut. 
xxxii, 51 ; but in the wilderness of Paran, 
Num. xii, 16. In the Itinerary it is simply 
called Rithmah, " the wilderness." Dr. Hales 
observes, that Wells, Shaw, the authors of the 
" Universal History," &c, have greatly per= 
plexed and obscured the geography of this 
Itinerary, by supposing that there were two 
places of this name distinct from each other. 
They consider the latter of them as situated 
on the western side of Mount Hor, toward the 
land of Canaan, and thus confound it with 
that Kadesh in the land of the Philistines, 
where Abraham sojourned. Gen. xvi, 13 ; xx, 1, 
But that it lay on the east side of Mount Hor^ 
is evident ; for why should Moses send mes- 
sengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom^ 
requesting permission to pass through his ter- 
ritories in the way to Canaan, if they were 
already at the verge of Palestine, Num. xx, 14 ? 
This application, however, was necessary if 
his territories were situated between Canaan 
and the Israelites. The true situation of Ka- 
desh is ascertained beyond a doubt, from its 
lying between Mount Hor and Ezion-Geber, 
on the Elanitic Gulf, Num. xxxiii, 35-37. 

KADMONITES, ancient inhabitants of the 
land of Canaan, whose habitation was beyond 
Jordan, to the east of Phenicia, Gen. xv, 19, 
The Kadmonites were descended from Canaan, 
the son of Ham. It has been conjectured that 
the celebrated Cadmus, the founder of Thebes 
in Boeotia, was originally a Kadmonite ; and 
that his wife, Hermione, was so named from 
Mount Hermon. 

KEDAR. This name signifies black in the 
original ; and hence Bochart concludes that it 
refers to a people or tribe of Arabs who v.-ere 
more than others burned by the sun ; but none 
of the Arabs are black. The name is also sup-' 
posed to refer to the black tents made of felt, 
which are still in use ; and Cant, i, 5, is quoted 
in support of this usage of the word : " I am 
black, but comely as the tents of Kedar." But 
the Arabic root is by some said to signify 
power and dignity. Kedar was the second son 
of Ishmael, whose family probably became 
more numerous, or more warlike, than those 
of his brethren, and so took precedence of 
name. This latter supposition appears proba- 
ble from the manner in which they are men- 
tioned by Isaiah, xxi, 16, 17, who speaks of 
"the glory of Kedar," and "the archers and 
mighty men of Kedar." Their flocks are also 
spoken of by the same Prophet, Isaiah Ix, 7, 
together with those of Nebaioth, whose tribe 
or family both shared and outlived the glory 
of Kedar. 

KEDRON, a small brook which, rising near 
Jerusalem, runs through the valley on the east 
of the city, between it and the Mount of Olives. 
Descending into the valley from St. Stephen's 



KET 



563 



KID 



gate, the traveller comes to the bed of the 
brook Kedron, which is but a few paces over. 
This brook is stated by Pococke to have its 
rise a little way farther to the north, but its 
source does not appear to have been ascer- 
tained. Like the Ilissus, it is dry at least nine 
months in the year; its bed is narrow and 
deep, which indicates that it must formerly 
have been the channel for waters that have 
found some other and probably subterranean 
course. There is now no water in it, except 
after heavy rains. A bridge is thrown over it a 
little below the gate of St. Stephen ; and they 
say, that when there is water, unless the torrent 
swells much, which very rarely occurs, it all 
runs under ground to the north of this bridge. 
The course of the brook is along the valley of 
Jehoshaphat, to the south-west corner of the 
city, and then turning to the south, it runs to 
the Dead Sea. 

KENITES, people who dwelt westward of 
the Dead Sea, and extended themselves pretty 
far into Arabia Petraea ; for Jethro, the priest 
of Midian, and father-in-law to Moses, was a 
Kenite, Judges i, 16 ; 1 Chron. ii, 55 ; 1 Sam. 
XV, 6. When Saul was sent to destroy the 
Amalekites, the Kenites, who had joined them, 
perhaps by compulsion, were ordered to depart 
from them, that they might not share in their 
fate ; and the reason assigned was, that they 
♦'showed kindness to the children of Israel 
when they came up out of Egypt," 1 Sam. xv, 6. 
Which, according to the margin of our Bible, 
is to be understood of the father-in-law of 
Moses and his family. From the story of 
Jethro, who is expressly said to be a Midianite, 
they appear to have retained the worship of the 
true God among them ; for which, and their 
kindness to the Israelites when passing their 
country, they were spared in the general de- 
straction of the nations bordering on Canaan. 
Of these Kenites were the Rechabites, the 
Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and the Sucha- 
thites, mentioned in 1 Chron. ii, 55, whose 
chief office was that of scribes. (See Recha- 
bites.) Balaam, when invited by Balak, king 
of Moab, to curse Israel, stood upon a mount- 
ain, whence he addressed the Kenites, and 
said, " Strong is thy dwelling place, and thou 
puttest thy nest in a rock ; nevertheless, the 
Kenite shall be wasted until Ashur shall carry 
thee away captive," Num. xxiv, 21, 22. The 
Kenites dvelt in mountains and rocks almost 
inaccessible. They were conquered and car- 
ried into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar. After 
Saul the Kenites are not mentioned ; but they 
subsisted, being mingled among the Edomites 
and other nations of Arabia Petrsea. 

KENIZZITES, an ancient people of Ca- 
naan, whose land God promised to the de- 
scendants of Abraham, Gen. xv, 19. It is 
thought that this people dwelt in the mount- 
ains south of Judea, 

KETURAH, the name of Abraham's second 
wife. Abraham raanied Keturah, when he 
was one hundred and forty years of age, and 
by her he had six sons, Zimram, Jokshan, 
Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. Some 
chronologers, as Bishop Clayton, Hallet, &c, 



thinking it improbable that Abraham should 
marry again at such an advanced age, have 
dislocated the chronology of this period, by 
supposing that Abraham took Keturah as a 
concubine, in consequence of his wife Sarah's 
barrenness, even before he left Charran ; and 
that Keturah's children were among the souls 
born to him and Lot during their residence in 
that country. But it seems evident from the 
whole tenor of the history, that Abraham Was 
childless until the birth of Ishmael, Gen. 
XV, 2, 3 ; that he had no other son than Ish- 
mael when he received the promise of Isaac, 
Gen. xvii, 18 ; and that Isaac and Ishmael 
jointly, as his eldest sons, celebrated his fune- 
ral. Gen. XXV, 9. His second marriage, at tho 
age of one hundred and forty years, shows his 
faith in the divine promise, that he should bo 
" a father of many nations ;" for which purpose 
his constitution might be miraculously re- 
newed, as Sarah's avlis. Beside, Abraham him- 
self was born when his father Terah was one 
hundred and thirty years of age. Abraham 
settled the sons of Keturah in the east country 
of Arabia, near the residence of Ishmael. 

KEY is frequently mentioned in Scripture, 
as well in a natural as in a figurative sense. 
The keys of the ancients were very different 
from ours ; because their doors and trunks 
were closed generally with bands, and the key 
served only to loosen or fasten these bands in 
a certain manner. In a moral sense key has 
many significations: "And the key of the 
house of David will I lay upon his shoulder : 
so he shall open, and none shall shut ; and 
he shall shut, and none shall open," Isaiah 
xxii, 22, — he shall be grand master and prin- 
cipal officer of his prince's house. Christ 
promises to St. Peter, that he should first open 
the gate of his kingdom, both to Jew and 
Gentile, in making the first converts among 
them. Matte xvi, 19, It is observable that no 
supremacy is here given to St. Peter ; as the 
power of binding and loosing belonged equally 
to all the Apostles, Matt, xviii, 18. The term 
binding and loosing was customarily applied 
by the Jews to a decision respecting doctrines 
or rites, establishing which were lawfiil and 
which unlawful. (See Bind.) And it may 
also denote, to bind with sickness, and to 
loose by restoring to health. Jesus Christ 
says that he has the key of death and hell, 
Rev. i, 18 ; that is, it is in his power to bring 
to the grave, or to deliver from it; to appoint 
to life or to death. 

KIBROTH HATAAVAH, one of the en. 
campments of the Israelites in the wilderness, 
Numbers xi, 34, 35. 

KID, iM, the young of the goat. Among 
the Hebrews the kid was reckoned a great 
delicacy ; and appears to have been served for 
food in preference to the lamb. (See Goat.) 
It continues to be a choice dish in the neigh- 
bouring countries. " After drinking," says 
Salt, " ca/e a la Sultane, as it is termed hy 
French Avriters, hookahs were oflfered to us ; 
and soon afterward, to my great surprise, din- 
ner was announced. We accordingly retired 
with the dola of Aden to another apartment. 



Km 



664 



KIN 



where a kid, broiled and cut into small pieces, 
with a quantity of pillaued rice, was served up 
to us, agreeably to the fashion of the country. 
No people in the world is more straitened than 
the Abyssinians with respect to the necessaries 
of life : a little juwarry bread, a small quantity 
of fish, aji adequate supply of goat's and 
camel's milk, and a kid on very particular oc- 
casions, constitute the whole of their subsist- 
ence. As soon as we arrived at the village 
of Howakil, a very neat hut was prepared for 
me ; ajid as the evening was far advanced, I 
consented to stay for the night. Nothing 
could exceed the kindness of these good peo- 
ple ; a kid was killed, and a quantity of fresh 
milk was brought and presented in straw 
baskets made of the leaves of the doom tree, 
seared over with wax, a manufacture in which 
the natives of these islands particularly excel." 
The village of Engedi, situate in the neigh- 
bourhood of Jericho, derives its name from the 
Hebrew word )ij?, a fountain, and nj, a kid. It 
is suggested by the situation among lofty rocks, 
which, overhanging the valleys, are very pre- 
cipitous. A fountain of pure water rises near 
the summit, which the inhabitants called En- 
gedi, "the fountain of the goat," because it is 
hardly accessible to any other creature. 

KINGDOM, in Scripture, is a term of fre- 
quent occurrence, and variously applied. Thus 
we read of the kingdom of God, Psalm ciii, 19 ; 
Dan.iv, 3 ; or his universal empire and dominion 
over all creatures; in reference to which it is 
said, "Jehovah is a great God, and a great King 
above all gods," Psalm xcv, 3. " His throne 
is established in the heavens, and his kingdom 
ruleth over all." Again: we frequently read 
in the evangelists of the kingdom of heaven ; 
a phrase, says Dr. Campbell, in which there is 
a manifest allusion to the predictions in which 
the dispensation of the Messiah was revealed 
by the prophets in the Old Testament, par- 
ticularly by Daniel, who mentions it as "a 
kingdom which the God of heaven would set 
up, and which should never be destroyed," 
Dan. ii, 44. The same prophet also speaks of 
it as a kingdom to be given, with glory and 
dominion over all people, nations, and lan- 
guages, to one like unto the Son of man, Dan. 
vii, 13, 14. And the Prophet Micah, speaking 
of the same era, represents it as a time when 
Jehovah, having removed all the afflictions of 
his people, would reign over them in Mount 
Zion thenceforth even for ever, Micah iv, 6, 7. 
According to the prophecy of Daniel, this 
kingdom was to take place during the existence 
of the Roman empire, the last of the four great 
monarchies that had succeeded each other, 
Dan. ii, 44. And as it was set up by the God 
of heaven, it is, in the New Testament, termed 
"the kingdom of God," or "the kingdom of 
heaven." It was typified by the Jewish theo- 
cracy, and declared to be at hand by John the 
Baptist, and by Christ and his Apostles also 
in the days of his flesh ; but it did not come 
with power till Jesus rose from the dead an4 
sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on 
high, Acts ii, 32-37. Then was he most 
solemnly inaugurated, and proclaimed King of 



the New Testament church, amidst adoring 
myriads of attendant angels, and "the spirits 
of just men made perfect." Then were fulfil- 
led the words of Jehovah by the Psalmist Da- 
vid, " I have set my King upon my holy hill 
of Zion," Psalm ii, 6. This is that spiritual 
empire to which he himself referred when in- 
terrogated before Pontius Pilate, and in refer- 
ence to which he said, " My kingdom is not 
of this world," John xviii, 36, 37. His empire, 
indeed, extends to every creature ; for " all 
authority is committed into his hands, both in 
heaven and on earth," and he is " head over 
all things to the church ;" but his kingdom 
primarily imports the Gospel church, which is 
the subject of his laws, the seat of his govern- 
ment, and the object of his care ; and, being 
surrounded with powerful opposers, he is repre- 
sented as ruling in the midst of his enemies. 
This kingdom is not of a worldly origin, or 
nature, nor has it this world for its end or ob- 
ject. It can neither be promoted nor defended 
by worldly power, influence, or carnal weapons, 
but by bearing witness unto the truth, or by the 
preaching of the Gospel with the Holy Ghost 
sent down from heaven. Its real subjects are 
only those who are of the truth, and hear 
Christ's voice ; for none can enter it but such 
as are born from above, John iii, 3-5 ; nor can 
any be visible subjects of it, but such as appear to 
be regenerated, by a credible profession of faith 
and obedience. Its privileges and immunities 
are not of this world, but such as are spiritual 
and heavenly ; they are all spiritual blessings in 
heavenly things in Christ Jesus, Ephesians i, 3. 
KINGS. This word does not always imply 
the same degree of power, nor the same degree 
of importance ; nor does it imply the magni- 
tude of the dominion or territory of these offi. 
cers. In Scripture many persons are called 
kings, whom we should rather denominate 
chiefs or leaders ; and many single towns, or, 
at most, together with their adjacent villages, 
are said to have had kings. Not aware of this 
lower sense of the word king, or unwilling to 
adopt it, many persons have been embarrassed 
by the following passage : " Moses commanded 
us a law, — he was king in Jeshurun," Deut. 
xxxiii, 4, 5, or king among the Israelites ; that 
is, he was the principal among the assembly 
of the superiors of the Israelites. Some refer 
this to Jehovah. Moses was the chief, the 
leader, the guide of his people, fijMlling the 
duties of a king ; but he was not king in the 
same sense as David or Solomon was after- 
ward. This remark reconciles the following 
observation : " These kings reigned in Edom, 
before there reigned any king orer the children 
of Israel," Gen. xxxvi, 31 ; for Moses, though 
he was king in an inferior sense, did not reign, 
in the stronger sense, over the children of Is- 
rael, their constitution not being monarchical 
under him. Beside, we find in Joshua, that 
almost every town in Canaan had its king; 
and we know that the territories of these towns 
must have been very inconsiderable, Joshua 
xii, 9-24. Adonizedek, himself no very power- 
ful king, mentions seventy kings whom he had 
subdued and mutilated. 



BKOR 



;3sculine plural, o^^N, m 
, 14; and Jer. 1, 39, Bo- 
Is are intended ; but, by 
particularly the last, it 
1 of unclean bird, and so 
, mentioned above, 
jcond son of Levi, and 
lar, Hebron, and Uzziel, 
vi, 18. Kohath's family 
rry the ark and sacred 
icle, while the Israelites 
wilderness. Num. iv, &.c. 
son of Izhar, of the race 
of Asher, Elkanah, and 
■ the Korites, a celebrated 
vites. Korah, being dis- 
Ic he held among the sons 
I the authority of Moses 
a party against them, in 
•athan, Abiram, and On, 
I Ind fifty of the principal 
1 1-3, &c. Korah, at the 
[&nt to Moses and Aaron, 
Ij they alone arrogated to 
iuthority over the people 
falling with his face on 
^^ ,^^^ them as follows : " To- 
il^^jr^l^ng, the Lord will discover 
^y0^^U '^^^ ^^ y°^ take, there- 
'^ S to-morrow he shall put 
'^ ^ ^"^ offer it before the Lord ; 
^ ^ ^ ° >wledged priest whom the 
^"^r c -fnd approve." The next 
?s 5~ ~ ? hundred and fifty of his 
"^ oC\ I" lemselves with their cen- 
(•. "5°!, the glory of the Lord 
S 1 r ^ T the tabernacle, and a 
^ ay, " Separate yourselves 
i~^ ~:. Tregation, that I may con- 
■ I IWient." Upon this, Moses 
I <;* with their faces to the 
l^^^^esod, the God of the spirits 
"^f^MtaJ^ man sin, and wilt thou 
^^£-. congregation ?" And the 
^^"^, " Command all the peo- 
I ibout the tents of Korah, 
." When, therefore, the 
"^ - Moses said, "If these men 

s-x,^^^ith of all men, then the 
^^ :ne ; but if the earth open 
"ap quick, ye shall know 
lemed the Lord." As soon 
e earth opened from under 
^owed them up with what 
"c'here was one thing which 
jising wonder, and which 
ah was thus swallowed up 
s were preserved from his 
now not the exact year 
I of Korah and his com- 
The sons of Korah con- 
serve in the tabernacle of 
Dpointed them their office 
fird the doors, and sing the 
them are ascribed several 
Jesignated by the name of 
;y-second, forty-fourth to 
jhty.fourth to the eighty. 
ren psalms. 



KIT 



665 



KOR 



Kings, Books of. The first book of Kings 
commences with an account of the death of 
David, and contains a period of a hundred and 
twenty-six years, to the death of Jehoshaphat ; 
and the second book of Kings continues the 
history of the kings of Israel and Judah 
through a period of three hundred years, to the 
destruction of the city and temple of Jerusa- 
lem by Nebuchadnezzar. These two books 
formed only one in the Hebrew canon, and 
they were probably compiled by Ezra from the 
records which were regularly kept, both in 
Jerusalem and Samaria, of all public transac- 
tions. These records appear to have been 
made by the contemporary prophets, and fre- 
quently derived their names from the kings 
whose history they contained. They are men- 
tioned in many parts of Scripture > thus 1 Kings 
xi, 41, we read of the book of the Acts of Solo- 
mon, which is supposed to have been written 
by Nathan, Ahijah, and Iddo, 2 Chron. ix, 29. 
We elsewhere read that Shemaiah the pro- 
phet, and Iddo the seer, wrote the Acts of Re- 
hobo^m, 2 Chron. xii, 15 ; that Jehu wrote the 
Acts of Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. xx, 34 ; and Isaiah 
those of Uzziah and Hezekiah, 2 Chron. xxvi, 
22 ; xxxii, 32. We may therefore conclude, 
that from these public records, and other au- 
thentic documents, were composed the two 
books of Kings ; and the uniformity of their 
style favours the opinion of their being put 
into their present shape by the same person. 

KISHON. " That ancient river, the river 
Kishon," falls into the bay of Acre, and has 
its source in the hills to the east of the plain 
of Esdraelon, which it intersects. Being 
enlarged by several small streams, it passes 
between Mount Carmel and the hills to the 
north, and then falls into the sea at this point. 
In the condition w^e saw it, says Maundrell, 
its waters were low and inconsiderable ; but in 
passing along the side of the plain, we discern- 
ed the tracts of many lesser torrents, falling 
down into it from the mountains, which must 
needs make it swell exceedingly upon sudden 
rains, as doubtless it actually did at the destruc- 
tion of Sisera's host. 

KISS, a mode of salutation, and token of 
respect, which has been practised in all nations. 
It was also in ordinary use among the Jews ; 
hence Judas in this way saluted his Master. 
But there was also the kiss of homage, as one 
of the ceremonies performed at the inaugura- 
tion of the kings of Israel. The Jews called 
it the kiss of majesty. Psalm ii, 12, seems to 
be an allusion to this. St. Paul speaks fre- 
quently of the kiss of peace, which was in use 
among believers, and was given by them to 
one another as a token of charity and union, 
publicly in their religious assemblies, Heb. xiii, 
24. Kissing the feet is in eastern countries 
expressive of exuberant gratitude or reverence. 

KITE, mN, Lev. xi, 14; Deut. xiv 13; Job 
xxviii, 7. Bochart supposes this to be the bird 
which the Arabians call the ja.jao, from its 
note ; and which the ancients named cesalon, 
" the merli?n," a bird celebrated for its sharp- 
sightedness. This faculty is referred to in Job 
xxviii, 7, where the word is rendered "vul- 



ture." As a noun masculine plural, Q^ny, in 
Isaiah xiii, 22 ; xxxiv, 14 ; and Jer. 1, 39, Bo- 
chart says that jackals are intended ; but, by 
the several contexts, particularly the last, it 
may well mean a kind of unclean bird, and so 
be the same with that mentioned above. 

KOHATH, the second son of Levi, and 
father of Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, 
Gen. xlvi, 11 ; Exod. vi, 18. Kohath's family 
was appointed to carry the ark and sacred 
vessels of the tabernacle, while the Israelites 
marched through the wilderness, Num. iv, &c. 

KORAH was the son of Izhar, of the race 
of Levi, and father of Asher, Elkanah, and 
Aliasaph, and head of the Korites, a celebrated 
family among the Levites. Korah, being dis- 
satisfied with the rank he held among the sons 
of Levi, and envying the authority of Moses 
and Aaron, formed a party against them, in 
which he engaged Dathan, Abiram, and On, 
with two hundred and fifty of the principal 
Levites, Num. xvi, 1-3, &c. Korah, at the 
head of the rebels, went to Moses and Aaron, 
and complained that they alone arrogated to 
themselves all the authority over the people 
of the Lord. Moses falling with his face on 
the earth, answered them as follows : " To- 
morrow, in the morning, the Lord will discover 
who are his. Let every one of you take, there- 
fore, his censer, and to-morrow he shall put 
incense into it, and offer it before the Lord ; 
and he shall be acknowledged priest whom the 
Lord shall choose and approve." The next 
day, Korah, with two hundred and fifty of his 
faction, presenting themselves with their cen- 
sers before the Lord, the glory of the Lord 
appeared visibly over the tabernacle, and a 
voice was heard to say, " Separate yourselves 
from among this congregation, that I may con- 
sume them in a moment." Upon this, Moses 
and Aaron, falling with their faces to the 
ground, said, ",0 God, the God of the spirits 
of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou 
be wroth Avith all the congregation ?" And the 
Lord said unto Moses, " Command all the peo- 
ple to depart from about the tents of Korah, 
Dathan, and Abiram." When, therefore, the 
people were retired, Moses said, •' If these men 
die the common death of all men, then the 
Lord hath not sent me ; but if the earth open 
and swallow them up quick, ye shall know 
that they have blasphemed the Lord." As soon 
as he had spoken, the earth opened from under 
their feet, and swallowed them up with what 
belonged to them. There was one thing which 
added to this surprising wonder, and which 
was, that when Korah was thus swallowed up 
in the earth, his sons were preserved from his 
misfortunes. We know not the exact year 
in which the death of Korah and his com- 
panions happened. The sons of Korah con- 
tinued as before to serve in the tabernacle of 
the Lord. David appointed them their office 
in the temple, to guard the doors, and sing the 
praises of God. To them are ascribed several 
psalms, which are designated by the name of 
Korah; as the forty-second, forty-fourth to 
the forty-ninth, eighty-fourth to the eighty, 
seventh ; in all, eleven psalms. 




lIlSS^^Sgi'niiiliSLEiiiii'i'^ 



LAM 



666 



LAM 



LABAN, the son of Bethuel, grandson of 
Nahor, brother to Rebekah, and father of 
Rachel and Leah, Gen. xxviii, 2, &c. Of this 
man, the first thing we hear is his entertain- 
ment of x^braham's servant when he came on 
his errand to Rebekah. Hospitality was the 
virtue of his age and country. In his case, 
however, it seems to have bepn no little sti- 
mulated by the sight of " the ear ring and 
the bracelets on his sister's hands," which the 
servant had already given her. Gen. xxiv, 30 ; 
so he speedily made room for the camels. He 
next is presented to us as beguiling that sis- 
ter's son, who had sought a shelter in his 
house, and whose circumstances placed him at 
his mercy, of fourteen years' service, when he 
had covenanted with him for seven only; en. 
deavouring to retain his labour when he would 
not pay him his labour's w^orth, himself devour- 
ing the portion which he should have given to 
his daughters, counting them but as strangers, 
Gen. xxxi, 15. Compelled, at length, to pay 
Jacob wages, he changes them ten times, 
and, in the spirit of a crafty, griping world- 
ling, makes him account for whatever of the 
flock was torn of beasts or stolen, whether by 
day or night. When Jacob flies from this 
iniquitous service with his family and cattle, 
Laban still pursues and persecutes him, intend- 
ing, if his intentions had not been overruled 
by a mightier hand, to send him away empty, 
even after he had been making, for so long a 
period, so usurious a profit of him. 

LACHISH, a city of Palestine, Joshua x, 
23 ; XV, 39. Sennacherib besieged Lachish, 
but did not make himsejf master of it From 
thence it was that he sent Rabshakeh against 
Jerusalem, 2 Kings xviii, 17 ; xix, 8 ; 2 Chron. 
xxxii, 9. 

LAMAISM, the religion of the people of 
Thibet. The Delai Lama, " Grand Lama," 
is at once the high priest, and the visible ob- 
ject of adoration, to this nation, to the hordes 
of wandering Tartars, and to the prodigious 
population of China, He resides at Patoli, a 
vast palace on a mountain near the banks of 
the Burampooter, about seven miles from La- 
hasse. The foot of the mountain is surrounded 
by twenty thousand lamas, or priests, in at- 
tendance on their sovereign pontiff, who is 
considered as the viceregent of the Deity on 
earth; and the remote Tartars are said to 
regard him absolutely as the Deity himself, 
and call him God, the everlasting Father of 
heaven. They believe him to be immortal, 
and endowed with all knowledge and virtue. 
Every year they come up from different parts 
to worship, and make rich offerings at his 
shrine. Even the emperor of China, who is a 
Mantchou Tartar, does not fail in acknow- 
ledgments to him in his rehgious capacity; 
and entertains in the palace of Pekin an infe- 
rior lama, deputed as his nuncio from Thibet. 
The grand lama is only to be seen in a secret 
place of his palace, amidst a great number of 
lamps, sitting cross-legged on a cushion, and 
decked all over with gold and precious stones ; 
while, at a distance, the people prostrate them- 
selves before him, it being not lawful for any 



so much as to kiss his feet. He returns not 
the least sign of respect, nor ever speaks, even 
to the greatest princes ; but only lays his hand 
upon their heads, and they are fully persuaded 
that they thereby receive a full forgiveness of 
their sins. The Sunniasses, or Indian pil. 
grims, often visit Thibet as a holy place ; and 
the lama entertains a body of two or three 
hundred in his pay. Beside his religious 
influence and authority, he is possessed of un- 
limited power throughout his dominions, which 
are very extensive. The inferior lamas, who 
form the most numerous as well as the most 
powerful body in the state, have the priesthood 
entirely in their hands, and, beside, fill up 
many monastic orders, which are held in great 
veneration among them. The whole country, 
like Italy, abounds with priests ; and they 
entirely subsist on the rich presents sent them 
from the utmost extent of Tartary, from the 
empire of the great mogul, and from almost 
all parts of the Indies. The opinion of the 
orthodox among the Thibetians is, that when 
the grand lama seems to die, either of old age 
or infirmities, his soul, in fact, only quits a 
crazy habitation to enter another, younger and 
better ; and is discovered again in the body of 
some child, by certain tokens, known only to 
the lamas, or priests, in which order he always 
appears. Almost all the nations of the east, 
except the Mohammedans, believe the metemp. 
sychosis, or transmigration of the soul, as the 
most important article of their faith ; espe- 
cially the inhabitants of Thibet and Ava, the 
Peguans, the Siamese, the greater part of the 
Chinese and Japanese, and the Monguls and 
Kalmucks. According to their doctrine, the soul 
no sooner leaves her old habitation than she 
enters a new one. The delai lama, therefore, 
or rather the god Foe or Fuh, residing in the 
delai lama, passes to his successor ; and he 
being a god, to whom all things are known, 
the grand lama is therefore acquainted with 
every thing which happened during his resi- 
dence in his former bodies. This religion, which 
was early adopted in a large part of the globe, 
is said to have been of three thousand years' 
standing ; and neither time, nor the influence 
of men, has had the power of shaking the 
authority of the grand lama. This theocracy, 
which extends as fully to temporal as to spi- 
ritual concerns, is professed all over Thibet 
and Mongalia ; is almost universal in Greater 
and Less Bucharia, and several provinces of 
Tartary; has some followers in the kingdom 
of Cashmere, in India ; and is the predominant 
religion of China. 

It has been observed that the religion of 
Thibet is the counterpart of the Roman Ca- 
tholic, since the inhabitants of that country 
use holy water, and a singing service. They 
also offer alms, prayers, and sacrifices for the 
dead. They have a vast number of convents 
filled with monks and friars, amounting to 
thirty thousand, and confessors chosen by their 
superiors. They use beads, wear the mitre, like 
the bishops ; and their delai lama is nearly the 
same among them as the sovereign pontiff was 
formerly, in the zenith of his power, among 



LAM 



667 



LAM 



the Roman Catholics. So complete is the 
tesemblance, that, when one of the first Romish 
missionaries penetrated Thibet, he came to the 
conclusion that the devil had set up there an 
imitation of the rites of the Catholic church, 
in order the more effectually to destroy the 
souls of men. Captain Turner, speaking of 
the religion of Thibet, says, " It seems to be 
the schismatical offspring of the religion of the 
Hindoos, deriving its origin from one of the 
followers of that faith, a disciple of Bouddhu, 
who first broached the doctrine which now 
prevails over the wide extent of Tartary. It 
is reported to have received its earliest admis- 
sion in that part of Tibet, or Thibet, border- 
ing upon India, which from hence became the 
seat of the sovereign lamas, to have traversed 
over Mantchieux Tartary, and to have been 
ultimately disseminated over China and Japan. 
Though it differs from the Hindoo in many of 
its outward forms, yet it still bears a very close 
affinity with the religion of Brumha in many 
important particulars. The principal idol in 
the tei:nples of Tibet, or Thibet, is Muha-Moo- 
nee, the Booddhu of Bengal, who is worship- 
ped under these and various other epithets, 
throughout the great extent of Tartary, and 
among all nations to the eastward of the 
Brumhapootru. In the wide-extended space 
over which tliis faith prevails, the same object 
of veneration is acknowledged under numerous 
titles : among others, he is styled Godumu, or 
Gotumu, in Assam and Ava, Shumunu in Siam, 
Amida Buth in Japan, Fohi in China," &c. 

LAMBETH ARTICLES. See Predesti- 
nation. 

LAMECH, a descendant of Cain, the son 
of Mathusael, and father of Jabal, Jubal, Tu- 
bal-Cain, and Naamah, Gen. iv, 18-20, &o. 
He stands branded as the fxther of polygamy, 
the first who dared to violate the sacred com- 
mand. Gen. ii, 24 ; giving way to his unbridled 
passion, and thus overleaping the divine mound 
raised by the wisdom of our great Creator ; 
which restraint is enforced by the laws of 
nature herself, who peoples the earth with an 
equal number of males and females, and thereby 
teaches foolish man that polygamy is incom- 
patible with her wise regulations. He married 
Adah and Zillah : the former was the mother 
of Jabal and Jubal, and the latter of Tubal. 
Cain and Naamah, his sister. 

2. Lamech, the son of Methuselah, and 
father of Noah. He lived a hundred fourscore 
and two years before the birth of Noah, Gen. 
V, 25, 31 ; afler which he lived five hundred 
and ninety-five years longer : thus the whole 
term of his life was seven hundred and seventy- 
seven years. 

LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH. 
This book was formerly annexed to his pro- 
phecies, though it now forms a separate book. 
Josephus, and several other learned men, have 
referred them to the death of Josiah ; but the 
more common opinion is, that they were appli- 
cable only to some period subsequent to the 
destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. 
But though it be allowed that the Lamenta- 
tions were primarily intended as a pathetic 



description of present calamities, yet while 
Jeremiah mourns the desolation of Judah and 
Jerusalem during the Babylonian captivity, ho 
may be considered as prophetically painting 
the still greater miseries they were to suffer at 
some future time : this seems plainly indicated 
by his referring to the time when the puuish. 
ment of their iniquity shall be accomplished, 
and they shall no more be carried into cap- 
tivity, Lam. iv, 22. The Lamentations are 
written in metre, and consist of a number of 
plaintive effusions, composed after the manner 
of funeral dirges. They seem to have been 
originally written by their author as they 
arose in his mind, and to have been aflerward 
joined together as one poem. There is no 
regular arrangement of the subject, or dispo- 
sition of the parts : the same thought is fre- 
quently repeated with different imagery, or 
expressed in different words. There is, hoWr 
ever, no wild incoherency, or abrupt transition ; 
the whole appears to have been dictated by the 
feelings of real grief. Tenderness and sorrow 
form the general character of these elegies ; 
and an attentive reader will find great beauty 
in many of the images, and great energy in 
some of the expressions. This book of La- 
mentations is divided into five chapters; in 
the first, second, and fourth, the prophet speaks 
in his own person, or by an elegant and inte- 
resting personification introduces the city of 
Jerusalem as lamenting her calamities, and 
confessing her sins ; in the third chapter a 
single Jew, speaking in the name of a chorus 
of his countrymen, like the Coryphaeus of the 
Greeks, describes the punishment inflicted 
upon him by God, but still acknowledges his 
mercy, and expresses some hope of deliver- 
ance ; and in the fifth chapter, the whole 
nation of the Jews pour forth their united 
complaints and supplications to almighty God. 

Every chapter, with the exception of the 
third, contains twenty-two verses, correspond- 
ing in number with the letters of the Hebrew 
alphabet ; and each verse commences with a 
different letter, the first with aleph, the second 
with beth, the third with gimel, &c. The 
third chapter, consisting of sixty-six verses, 
has three verses together beginning with the 
same letter, the following three with the next 
letter, &c. This peculiarity may be seen in 
Psalm cxix ; the first eight verses in which 
commence witli aleph, the next eight with 
beth, &c, till the whole alphabet has been 
consecutively taken. This mode of versifica- 
tion, which has some distant resemblance to 
the modern acrostic style, seems to have been 
employed by the Hebrews in some of their 
elegiac poetry, perhaps to assist the memory. 

LAMP, Xajxiras. There is frequent mention 
of lamps in Scripture, and the word is often 
used figuratively. The houses in the east 
were, from the remotest antiquity, lighted with 
lamps ; and hence it is so common in Scrip- 
ture to call every thing which enlightens the 
body or mind, which guides or refreshes, by 
the name of a lamp. These lamps were sus- 
tained by a large candlestick set upon the 
ground. The houses of Egypt, in modern 



LAN 



668 



LAN 



times, are never without lights : they bum 
lamps all the night long, and in every occu- 
pied apartment. So requisite to the comfort 
of a family is this custom reckoned, or so 
imperious is the power which it exercises, that 
the poorest people would rather retrench part 
of their food than neglect it. As this custom 
no doubt prevailed in Egypt and the adjacent 
regions of Arabia and Palestine in former 
times, it imparts a beauty and force to some 
passages of Scripture which have been little 
observed. Thus, in the language of Jeremiah, 
to extinguish the light in an apartment is a 
convertible phrase for total destruction ; and 
nothing can more properly and emphatically 
represent the total destruction of a city than 
the extinction of the lights : " I will take from 
them the light of a candle, and this whole 
Jand shall be a desolation and an astonish- 
ment." Job describes the destruction of a 
family among the Arabs, and the desolation of 
their dwellings, in the very language of the 
prophet : " How oft is the candle of the wicked 
put out, and how oft cometh their destruction 
upon them !" Job xxi, 17. Bildad expresses 
the same idea in the following beautiful pas. 
sage: "Yea, the light of the wicked shall be 
put out, and the spark of his fire shall not 
shine. The light shall be dark in his taber- 
nacle, and his candle shall be put out with 
him," Job xviii, 5, 6. A burning lamp is, on 
the other hand, the chosen symbol of pros- 
perity, a beautiful instance of which occurs in 
the complaint of Job: "O that I were as in 
months past, as in the days when God pre- 
served me ; when his candle shined upon my 
head, and when by his light I walked through 
.darkness," Job xxix, 2, 3. When the ten 
tribes were taken from Rehoboam, and given 
to his rival, Jehovah promised to reserve one 
tribe, and assigns this reason : " That David 
my servant may have a light always before me 
in Jerusalem," 1 Kings xi, 36. In many parts 
of the east, and in particular in the Indies, 
instead of torches and flambeaux, they carry 
a pot of oil iu one hand, and a lamp full of 
oily rags in the other. 

LANGUAGE, the faculty of human speech, 
concerning the origin of which there have 
been entertained different opinions among 
philosophers and learned men. The Mosaic 
history, which gives us an account of the for- 
jnation and first occupations of man, represents 
him as being immediately capable of convers- 
ing with his Maker ; of giving names to the 
various tribes and classes of animals ; and of 
^reasoning consecutively, and in perfectly 
appropriate terms, concerning his own situa- 
tion, and the relation he stood in to the other 
creatures. As in man's first attempt at speech, 
according to this account, there appear no 
crudeness of conception, no barrenness of 
ideas, and no inexpressive or unappropriate 
terms, we must certainly infer, that God who 
made and endued him with corporeal and 
mental powers perfectly suited to his state 
and condition in life, endued him, also, not 
only with the faculty of speech, but with 
speech or language itself; which latter was 



as necessary to his comfort, and to the per- 
fection and end of his being, as any other 
power or faculty which his Creator thought 
proper to bestow upon him. 

Among the antediluvians there was but one 
language ; and even now the indications that 
the various languages of the earth have had 
one common source are very convincing. 
Whether this primitive language was the same 
with any of the languages of which we have 
still any remains, has been a subject of much 
dispute. That the primitive language con- 
tinued at least till the dispersion of mankind, 
consequent upon the building of Babel, there 
seems little reason to doubt. When, by an 
immediate interposition of divine power, the 
language of men was confounded, we are not 
informed to what extent this confusion of 
tongues prevailed. Under the article Confu. 
sion of Tongues some reasons are given to 
show that the primitive language was not lost 
at that event, but continued in the form of 
the Hebrew. 

There are, however, other opinions on the 
oft disputed subject as to the primitive lan- 
guage. The Armenians allege, that as the 
ark rested in their country, Noah and his 
children must have remained there a consider- 
able time, before the lower and marshy country 
of Chaldea could be fit to receive them ; and 
it is therefore reasonable to suppose they left 
their language there, which was probably the 
very same that Adam spoke. Some have 
fancied the Greek the most ancient tongue, 
because of its extent and copiousness. The 
Teutonic, or that dialect of it which is spoken 
in the Lower Germany and Brabant, has 
found a strenuous patron in Geropius Becanus, 
who endeavours to derive even the Hebrew 
itself from that tongue. The pretensions of 
the Chinese to this honour have been allowed 
by several Europeans. The patrons of this 
opinion endeavour to support it, partly, by the 
great antiquity of the Chinese, and their hav- 
ing preserved themselves so many ages from 
any considerable mixture or intercourse with 
other nations. It is a notion advanced by 
Dr. Allix, and maintained by Mr. Whiston, 
with his usual tenacity and fervour, that the 
Chinese are the posterity of Noah, by his 
children born after the flood ; and that Fohi, 
the first king of China, was Noah. As for 
those which are called the oriental languages, 
they have each their partisans. The gene- 
rality of eastern writers allow the preference 
to the Syriac, except the Jews, who assert the 
antiquity of the Hebrew with the greatest 
warmth; and with them several Christian 
writers agree, particularly Chrysostom, Austin, 
Origen, and Jerome, among the ancients ; and 
among the moderns, Bochart, Heidegger, Sel- 
den, and Buxtorf. The Sanscrit has also put 
in its claims ; and some have thought that the 
Pali bears the character of the highest an- 
tiquity. All these are however useless specu- 
lations. The only point worth contending 
for is, that language was conveyed at once to 
the first pair in sufficient degree for intellect- 
ual intercourse with each other, and deyo- 



LAN 



669 



LAO 



tional intercourse with God; and that man 
was not left, as infidel writers have been 
pleased to say, to form it for himself out of 
rude and instinctive sounds. On this subject 
the remarks of Delaney are conclusive : " That 
God made man a sociable creature, does not 
need to be proved ; and that when he made him 
such, he withheld nothing from him that was 
in any wise necessary for his well being in 
society, is a clear consequence from the wis- 
dom and goodness of God ; and if he withheld 
nothing any way necessary to his well being, 
much less would he withhold from him that 
which is the instrument of the greatest happi- 
ness a reasonable creature is capable of in this 
world. If the Lord God made ' Adam a help 
meet for him,' because ' it was not good for 
man to be alone,' can we imagine he would 
leave him unfurnished with the means to make 
that help useful and delightful to him ? If it 
was not good for him to be alone, certainly 
neither was it good for him to have a com. 
panion to whom he could not readily commu- 
nicate his thoughts, with whom he could 
neither ease his anxieties, nor divide or double 
his joys, by a kind, a friendly, a reasonable, a 
religious conversation; and how he could do 
this in any degree of perfection, or to any 
height of rational happiness, is utterly incon- 
ceivable without the use of speech. 

" If it be said, that the human organs being 
admirably fitted for the formation of articulate 
sounds, these, with the help of reason, might 
m time lead men to the use of language. I 
own it imaginable that they might : but still, 
till that end were attained in perfection, 
which possibly might not be in a series of 
many generations, it must be owned that 
brutes were better dealt by, and could better 
attain all the ends of their creation. And if 
that be absurd to be supposed, certainly the 
other is not less absurd to be believed. Nay, 
I think it justly doubtful, whether, without 
inspiration from God in this point, man could 
ever attain the true ends of his being; at 
least, if we may judge in this case, by the 
example of those nations who, being destitute 
of the advantages of a perfect language, are, 
in all probability, from the misfortune of that 
sole defect, sunk into the lowest condition of 
barbarism and brutality. And as to the per- 
fection in which the human organs are framed 
and fitted for the formation of articulate 
sounds, this is clearly an argument for believ- 
ing that God immediately blessed man with 
the use of speech, and gave him wherewithal 
to exert those organs to their proper ends ; 
for this is surely as credible, as that when he 
gave him an appetite for food, and proper 
organs to eat and to digest it, he did not leave 
him to seek painfully for a necessary supply, 
(till his offence had made such a search his 
curse and punishment,) but placed him at once 
in the midst of abundant plenty. The conse- 
quence from all which is, that the perfection 
and felicity of man, and the wisdom and good- 
ness of God, necessarily required that Adam 
fihould be supernaturally endowed with the 
knowledge and use of language. And there- 



fore, as certain as it can be, that man was 
made perfect and happy, and that God is wise 
and good; so certain is it, that, when Adam 
and Eve were formed, they were immediately 
enabled by God to converse and communicate 
their thoughts, in all the perfection of lan- 
guage necessary to all the ends of their crea- 
tion. And as this was the conduct most 
becoming the goodness of God, so we are 
assured from Moses, that it was that to which 
his infinite wisdom determined him; for we 
find that Adam gave names to all the crea- 
tures before Eve was formed ; and, conse- 
quently, before necessity taught him the use 
of speech." 

It is true that many languages bear marks 
of being raised to their improved state from 
rude and imperfect elements, and that all are 
capable of being enriched and rendered more 
exact; and it is this which has given some 
colour to those theories which trace all lan- 
guage itself up from elemental sounds, as the 
necessities of men, their increasing knowledge, 
and their imagination led to the invention of 
new words and combinations. All this is, 
however, consistent with the Scripture fact, 
that language was taught at first by God to 
our first parents. The dispersion of mankind 
carried many tribes to great distances, and 
wars still farther scattered them, and often 
into wide regions where they were farther dis- 
persed to live chiefly by the chase, by fishing, 
or at best but an imperfect agriculture. In 
various degrees we know they lost useful arts ; 
and for the same reasons they would lose much 
of their original language; those terms being 
chiefly retained which their immediate neces. 
sities, and the common affairs of a gross life, 
kept in use. But when civilization again 
overtook these portions of mankind, and king- 
doms and empires were founded among them, 
or they became integral parts of the old em- 
pires, then their intercourse with each other 
becoming more rapid, and artificial, and intel- 
lectual, their language was put into a new 
process of improvement, and to the eye of the 
critic would exhibit the various stages of ad- 
vancement ; and in many it would be pushed 
beyond that perfection which it had when it 
first began to deteriorate. See Letters. 

LANTERN. The word occurs, John 
xviii, 3 : /ifr« ^avSv Koi 'Xaii-nrddwv : " with torches 
and lanterns :" but both terms appear to signify 
torches; the former of a ruder kind than the 
latter, being formed of split laths bound into 
bundles, throwing around a strong glare of 
light. They came tlms furnished to appre- 
hend our Lord, lest he should escape through 
the darkness of the night. 

LAODICEA. There were several cities 
of this name, but the Scripture speaks only of 
that in Phrygia, upon the river Lycus, near 
Colosse. Its ancient name was Diospolis : it 
was aflerward called Rhoas. Lastly, Anti- 
ochus, the son of Stratonice, rebuilt it, and 
called it Laodicea, from the name of his wife 
Laodice. It became the mother church of 
sixteen bishoprics. Its three theatres, and the 
immense circus, which was capable of contain- 



LAT 



670 



LAW 



ing upward of thirty thousand spectators, the 
spacious remains of which (with other ruins 
buried under ruins) are yet to be seen, give proof 
of the greatness of its ancient wealth and popu- 
lation ; and indicate too strongly that in that 
city where Christians were rebuked, without 
exception, for their lukewarraness, there were 
multitudes who were lovers of pleasure more 
than lovers of God. The amphitheatre was built 
after the Apocalypse was written, and the warn- 
ing of the Spirit had been given to the church of 
the Laodiceans to be zealous and repent. There 
are no sights of grandeur, nor scenes of tempt- 
ation around it now. Its own tragedy may 
be briefly told. It was lukewarm, and neither 
cold nor hot ; and therefore it was loathsome 
in the sight of God. And it has been blotted 
from the world. It is now as desolate as its 
inhabitants were destitute of the fear and love 
of God. It is, as described in his Travels by 
Dr. Smith, " utterly desolated, and without 
any inhabitant except wolves, and jackals, and 
foxes." It can boast of no human inhabitants, 
except occasionally when wandering Turco- 
mans pitch their tents in its spacious araphi- 
theatre. The finest sculptured fragments are 
to be seen at a considerable depth, in exca- 
vations v/hicli have been made among the 
ruins. And Colonel Lake observes, " There 
are few ancient cities more likely than Lao- 
dicea to preserve many curious remains of 
antiquity beneath the surface of the soil. Its 
opulence, and the earthquakes to which it was 
subject, render it probable that valuable works 
of art were often there buried beneath the 
ruins of the public and private edifices." 

LAPWING, neon, Levit. xi, 19; Deut. 
xiv, 18. The bird intended by the Hebrew 
name in these places is undoubtedly the hoopoe ; 
a very beautifiil, but most unclean and filthy, 
species of birds. The Septuagint renders it 
tzoira ; and the Vulgate, upiipa ; which is the 
same with the Arabian interpreters. The 
Egyptian name of the bird is kukuphah; and 
the Syrian, kikuphah; which approach the 
Hebrew dukiphath. It may have its name 
from the noise or cry it makes, which is very 
remarkable, and may be heard a great way. 

LATITUDINARIANS, a term applied to 
those divines who, in the seventeenth century, 
attempted to bring Episcopalians, Presby- 
terians, and Independents, into one commu- 
nion, by compromising the differences between 
them. The chief leaders of this party were 
»the great Chillingworth and John Hales ; to 
whom may be added More, Cudworth, Gale, 
Tillotson, and Whitchcot. They were zeal- 
ously attached to the church of England, but 
did not look upon episcopacy as indispensable 
to the constitution of the Christian church. 
Hence they maintained that those who adopted 
other forms of government and worship, were 
not on that account to be excluded from the 
communion, or to forfeit the title of brethren. 
They reduced the fundamental doctrines of 
Christianity to a few points. By this way of 
proceeding, they endeavoured to show that 
neither the Episcopalians, who, generally 
speaking, were then Arrainians, nor the Pres- 



byterians and Independents, who as generally 
adopted the doctrines of Calvin, had any rea- 
son to oppose each other v/ith such animosity 
and bitterness ; since the subjects of their 
debates were matters non-essential to salva. 
tion, and might be variously explained and 
understood without prejudice to their eternal 
interests. This plan failing, through the 
violence of the bishops on one hand, (though 
sanctioned by the Lord Chancellor Clarendon,) 
and by the jealousy of the more rigid on the 
other, the name Latitudinarian became a term 
of reproach, as implying an indifferency to all 
religions, and has been generally so used ever 
since. 

LAYER. Between the altar and the taber- 
nacle, a little to the south, stood a circular 
laver, which, together with its base, was made 
of the brazen ornaments which the women had 
presented for the use of the tabernacle, and 
was thence called nc'nj "iio. Exodus xxx, 18 ; 
xl, 7. The priests, when about to perform their 
duties, washed their hands in this laver. 

LAW, a rule of action ; a precept or com. 
mand, coming from a superior authority, which 
an inferior is bound to obey. The manner in 
which God governs rational creatures is by a 
law, as the rule of their obedience to him, and 
this is what we call God's moral government 
of the world. The term, however, is used in 
Scripture with considerable latitude of mean. 
ing ; and to ascertain its precise import in any 
particular place, it is necessary to regard the 
scope and connection of the passage in which 
it occurs. Thus, for instance, sOrrietimes it 
denotes the whole revealed will of God as 
communicated to us in his word. In this 
sense it is generally used in the book of 
Psalms, i, 2 ; xix, 7 ; cxix ; Isaiah viii, 20 ; 
xlii, 21. Sometimes it is taken for the Mo- 
saicar institution distinguished from the Gos- 
pel, John i, 17 ; Matt, xi, 13 ; xii, 5 ; Acts 
XXV, 8. Hence we frequently read of the law 
of Moses as expressive of the whole religion 
of the Jews, Heb. ix, 19 ; x, 28. Sometunes, 
in a more restricted sense, for the ritual or 
ceremonial observances of the Jewish religion. 
In this sense the Apostle speaks of "the law 
of commandments contained in ordinances," 
Eph. ii, 15 ; Heb. x, 1 ; and which, being 
only "a shadow of good things to come," 
Christ Jesus abolished by his death, and so in 
effect destroyed the ancient distinction between 
Jew and Gentile, Gal. iii, 17. Very frequently 
it is used to signify the decalogue, or ten pre- 
cepts which were delivered to the Israelites 
from Mount Sinai. It is in this acceptation 
of the term that the Lord Jesus declares he 
" came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it," 
Matt. V, 17 ; and he explains its import as 
requiring perfect love to God and man, Luke 
X, 27. It is in reference to this view that St. 
Paul affirms, " By the deeds of the law shall 
no flesh living be justified ; for by the law is 
the knowledge of sin," Rom. iii, 20. The Ian. 
guage of this law is, "The soul that sinneth 
it shall die," and "Cursed is every one that 
continueth not in all things that are written," 
or required, "in the book of the law, to do 



LAW 



671 



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them," Gal. iii, 10. To deliver man from this 
penalty, " Christ hath redeemed us from the 
curse of the law, being himself made a curse 
for us," Gal. iii, 13. The law, in this sense, 
was not given that men should obtain right- 
eousness or justification by it, but to convince 
them of sin, to show them their need of a 
Saviour, to shut them up, as it were, from all 
hopes of salvation from that source, and to 
recommend the Gospel of divine grace to their 
acceptance, Gal. iii, 19-25. Again, the law 
often denotes the rule of good and evil, or of" 
right and wrong, revealed by the Creator and 
inscribed on man's conscience, even at his 
creation, and consequently binding upon him 
by divine authority ; and in this respect it is in 
substance the same with the decalogue. That 
8uch a law was connate with, and, as it were, 
implanted in, man, appears from its traces, 
which, like the ruins of some noble building, 
are still extant in every man. It is from those 
common notions, handed down by tradition, 
though often imperfect and perverted, that the 
Heathens themselves distinguished right from 
wrong, by which " they were a law unto them- 
selves, showing the work of the law written 
in their hearts, their conscience bearing wit- 
ness," Rom. ii, 12-15, although they had no 
express revelation. 

The term law, is, however, eminently given 
to the Mosaic law ; on the principles and spirit 
of which, a few general remarks may be offered. 
The right consideration of this divine institute, 
says Dr. Graves, will surround it with a glory 
of truth and holiness, not only worthy of its 
claims, but which has continued to be the light 
of the world on theological and moral subjects, 
and often on great political principles, to this 
day. If we examine the Jewish law, to discover 
the principle on which the whole system de- 
pends, the primary truth, to inculcate and 
illustrate which is its leading object, we find 
it to be that great basis of all religion, both 
natural and revealed, the self-existence, essen- 
tial unity, perfections, and providence of the 
supreme Jehovah, the Creator of heaven and 
earth. The first line of the Mosaic writings 
inculcates this great truth : " In the beginning 
God created the heaven and the earth." When 
the lawgiver begins to recapitulate the statutes 
and judgments he had enjoined to his nation, 
it is with this declaration : " Hear, O Israel, the 
Lord our God is one Lord," Deut. vi, 4 ; or, 
as it might be more closely expressed, Jehovah 
our Elohim, or God, is one Jehovah. And at 
the commencement of that sublime hymn, de- 
livered by Moses immediately before his death, 
in which this illustrious prophet sums up the 
doctrines he had taught, the wonders by which 
they had been confirmed, and the denuncia. 
tions by which they were enforced, he declares 
this great tenet with the sublimity of eastern 
poetry, but at the same time with the precision 
of philosophic truth : " Give ear," says he, 
"O ye heavens, and I will speak: and hear, 
O earth, the words of my mouth. My doc- 
trine shall drop rain : my speech shall distil as 
the dew, as the small rain upon the tender 
]ierb, and as the showers upon the grass," 



Deut. xxxii, 1, &c. What, is that doctrine «o 
awful, that the whole universe is thus invoked 
to attend to it ? so salutary as to be compared 
with the principle whose operation diffuses 
beauty and fertility over the vegetable world ? 
Hear the answer : " Because I will publish the 
name of Jehovah ; ascribe ye greatness unto 
our God. He is the rock, his work is perfect : 
a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and 
right is he." 

This, then, is one great leading doctrine of 
the Jewish code. But the manner in which 
this doctrine is taught displays such wise 
accommodation to the capacity and character 
of the nation to whom it is addressed, as de- 
serves to be carefully remarked. That charac- 
ter by which the supreme Being is most clearly 
distinguished from every other, however ex- 
alted ; that character from which the acutest 
reasoners have endeavoured demonstratively 
to deduce, as from their source, all the divine 
attributes, is self-existence. Is it not then 
highly remarkable, that it is under this charac- 
ter the Divinity is described on his first mani- 
festation to the Jewish lawgiver ? The Deity 
at first reveals himself unto him as the God of 
Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob ; and there, 
fore the peculiar national and guardian God of 
the Jewish race. Moses, conscious of the 
degeneracy of the Israelites, their ignorance 
of, or their inattention to, the true God, and 
the difficulty and danger of any attempt to 
recall them to his exclusive worship, and to 
withdraw them from Egypt, seems to decline 
the task ; but when absolutely commanded to 
undertake it, he said unto God, " Behold, when 
I come unto the children of Israel, and shall 
say unto them, The God of your fathers hath 
sent me unto you ; and they shall say to me, 
What is his name ? what shall I say unto 
them ? And God said unto Moses, / am that 
I am : and he said. Thus shalt thou say unto 
the children of Israel, / Am hath sent me unto 
you," Exod. iii, 13, 14. Here we observe, ac- 
cording to the constant method of the divin© 
wisdom, when it condescends to the prejudices 
of men, how in the very instance of indul- 
gence it corrects their superstition. The reli- 
gion of names arose from an idolatrous poly- 
theism ; and the name given here directly 
opposes this error, and in the ignorance of 
that dark and corrupted period establishes that 
great truth, to which the most enlightened 
philosophy can add no new lustre, and on which 
all the most refined speculations on the divine 
nature ultimately rest, the self-existence, and, 
by consequence, the eternity and immutability, 
of the one great Jehovah. 

But though the self-existence of the Deity 
was a fact too abstract to require its being 
frequently inculcated, his essential unity was 
a practical principle, the sure foundation on 
which to erect the structure of true religion, 
and form a barrier against the encroachments 
of idolatry : for this commenced not so fre. 
quently in denying the existence, or even the 
supremacy, of the one true God, as in associat- 
ing with him for objects of adoration inferior 
intermediate beings, who were supposed to bo 



LAW 



672 



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more directly employed in the administration 
of human aiFairs. To confute and resist this 
false principle was, therefore, one great object 
of the Jewish scheme. Hence the unity of 
God is inculcated with perpetual solicitude ; 
it stands at the head of the system of moral 
law promulgated to the Jews from Sinai by 
the divine voice, heard by the assembled na- 
tion, and issuing from the divine glory, with 
every circumstance which could impress the 
d-eepest awe upon even the dullest minds : "I 
am the Lord thy God, which have brought 
thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house 
of bondage ; thou shalt have no other gods 
beside me," Exod. xx, 2, 3. And in the reca- 
pitulation of the divine laws in Deuteronomy, 
it is repeatedly enforced with the most solemn 
earnestness : " Hear, O Israel, The Lord our 
God is one Lord," Deut. vi, 4. And again : 
" Unto thee it was showed, that thou mightest 
know that the Lord he is God ; there is none 
else beside him. Know, therefore, this day, 
and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord 
he is God in heaven above, and in the earth 
beneath: there is none else," Deut. iv, 35, 39. 

This self-existent, supreme and only God is 
moreover described as possessed of every per- 
fection which can be ascribed to the Divinity : 
*' Ye shall be holy," says the Lord to the peo- 
ple of the Jews ; "for I the Lord your God 
am holy," Lev. xix, 2. "Ascribe ye," says 
the legislator, "greatness unto our God; he 
is the rock ; his work is perfect ; a God of 
truth, and without iniquity, just and right is 
he," Deut. xxxii, 4. And in the hymn of 
thanksgiving on the miraculous escape of the 
Israelites at the Red Sea, this is its burden : 
" Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the 
gods ? who is like unto thee, glorious in holi- 
ness, fearful in praises, doing wonders ?" Exod. 
XV, 11. And when the Lord delivered to 
Moses the two tables of the moral law, he is 
described as descending in the cloud, and pro- 
claiming the name of the Lord : " And the 
Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, 
The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gra- 
cious, long-suffering, and abundant in good- 
ness, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving 
iniquity, transgression, and sin, and that will by 
no means clear the guilty," Exod. xxxiv, 6, 7. 

But to teach the self-existence, the unity, 
the wisdom, and the power of the Deity, nay, 
even his moral perfections of mercy, justice, 
and truth, would have been insufficient to arrest 
the attention, and command the obedience of 
a nation, the majority of which looked no 
farther than mere present objects, and at that 
early period cherished scarcely any hopes higher 
than those of a temporal kind, — if, in addition 
to all this, care had not been taken to repre- 
sent the providence of God as not only direct- 
ing the government of the universe by general 
laws, but also perpetually superintending the 
conduct and determining the fortune of every 
nation, of every family, nay, of every indi- 
vidual. It was the disbelief or the neglect of 
this great truth which gave spirit and energy, 
plausibility and attraction, to the whole sys- 
tem of idolatry. While men believed that the 



supreme God and Lord of all was too exalted 
in his dignity, too remote from this sublunary 
scene, to regard its vicissitudes with an atten- 
tive eye, and too constantly engaged in the 
contemplation of his own perfections, and the 
enjoyment of his own independent and all-per- 
fect happiness, to interfere in the regulation 
of human affairs, they regarded with indiffer- 
ence that supreme Divinity who seemed to take 
no concern in their conduct, and not to inter- 
fere as to their happiness. However exalted 
•and perfect such a Being might appear to ab- 
stract speculation, he was to the generality of 
mankind as if he did not exist ; as their hap- 
piness or misery were not supposed to be in- 
fluenced by his power, they referred not their 
conduct to his direction. If he delegated to 
inferior beings the regulation of this inferior 
world ; if all its concerns were conducted by 
their immediate agency, and all its blessings 
or calamities distributed by their immediate 
determination ; it seemed rational, and even 
necessary, to supplicate their favour and submit 
to their authority; and neither unwise nor 
unsafe to neglect that Being, who, though 
all-perfect and supreme, would, on this suppo- 
sition appear, with respect to mankind, alto- 
gether inoperative. In truth, this fact of the 
perpetual providence of God extending even 
to the minutest events, is inseparably connect- 
ed with every motive which is offered to sway 
the conduct of the Jews, and forcibly incul- 
cated by every event of their history. This 
had been manifested in the appointment of the 
land of Canaan for the future settlement of 
the chosen people on the first covenant which 
God entered into with the Patriarch Abraham ; 
in the prophecy, that for four hundred years 
they should be afflicted in Egypt, and after- 
ward be thence delivered ; in the increase of 
their nation, under circumstances of extreme 
oppression, and their supernatural deliverance 
from that oppression. The same providence 
was displayed in the destruction of the Egyp- 
tians in the Red Sea; the travels of the thou- 
sands of Israel through the wilderness, sus- 
tained by food from heaven ; and in their 
subsequent settlement in the promised land 
by means entirely distinct from their own 
strength. Reliance on the same providence 
was the foundation of their civil government, 
the spirit and the principle of their constitu- 
tion. On this only could they be commanded 
to keep the sabbatic year without tilling their 
land, or even gathering its spontaneous pro- 
duce ; confiding in the promise, that God 
would send his blessing on the sixth year, so 
that it shou'id bring forth fruit for three years, 
Lev. XXV, 21. The same faith in Divine Pro- 
vidence alone could prevail on them to leave 
their properties and families exposed to the 
attack of their surrounding enemies ; while all 
the males of the nation assembled at Jerusa- 
lem to celebrate the three great festivals, en- 
joined by divine command, with the assurance 
that no man should desire their land when they 
went up to appear before the Lord their God 
thrice in the year, Exodus xxxiv, 24. And, 
finally, it is most evident, that, contrary to all 



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573 



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other law^vers, the Jewish legislator renders 
his civil institutions entirely subordinate to his 
religious ; and announces to his nation that 
their temporal adversity or prosperity would 
entirely depend, not on their observance of 
their political regulations ; not on their pre- 
serving a military spirit, or acquiring commer- 
cial wealth, or strengthening themselves by 
powerful alliances ; but on their continuing to 
worship the one true God according to the re- 
ligious rites and ceremonies by him prescribed, 
and preserving their piety and morals untaint- 
ed by the corruptions and vices which idolatry 
tended to introduce. 

Such was the theology of the Jewish reli- 
gion, at a period when the whole world was 
deeply infected with idolatry ; when all know- 
ledge of the one true God, all reverence for his 
sacred name, all reliance on his providence, 
all obedience to his laws, were nearly banished 
from the earth ; when the severest chastise- 
ments had been tried in vain ; when no hope 
of reformation appeared from the refinements 
of civilization or the researches of philosophy ; 
for the most civilized and enlightened nations 
adopted with the greatest eagerness, and dis- 
seminated with the greatest activity, the ab- 
surdities, impieties, and pollutions of idolatry- 
Then was the Jewish law promulgated to a 
nation, who, to mere human judgment, might 
have appeared incapable of inventing or receiv- 
ing such a high degree of intellectual and 
moral improvement; for they had been long 
enslaved to the Egyptians, the authors and 
supporters of the grossest idolatry ; they had 
been weighed down by the severest bondage, 
perpetually harassed by the most incessant 
manual labours; for the Egyptians "made 
their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, 
and in brick, and in all manner of service in 
the field," Exod. i, 14. At this time, and in 
this nation, was the Mosaic law promulgated, 
teaching the great principles of true religion, 
the self-existence, the unity, the perfections, 
and the providence of the one great Jehovah ; 
reprobating all false gods, all image worship, 
all the absurdities and profanations of idolatry. 
At this time, and in this nation, was a system 
of government framed, which had for its basis 
the reception of, and steady adherence to, this 
system of true religion ; and establishing many 
regulations, which would be in the highest 
degree irrational, and could never hope to be 
received, except from a general and thorough 
reliance on the superintendence of Divine Pro- 
vidence, controlling the course of nature, and 
directmg every event, so as to proportion the 
prosperity of the Hebrew people, according to 
their obedience to that law which they had 
received as divine. 

It is an obvious, but it is not therefore a less 
important remark, that to the Jewish religion 
we owe that admirable summary of moral duty, 
contained in the ten commandments. All fair 
reasoners will admit that each of these must 
be understood to condemn, not merely the ex- 
treme crime which it expressly prohibits, but 
ever}^ inferior offence of the same kind, and 
every mode of conduct leading to such trans- 



greesion ; and, on the contrary, to enjom op- 
posite conduct, and the cultivation of opposite 
dispositions. Thus, the command, " Thou 
shalt not kill," condemns not merely the single 
crime of deliberate murder, but every kind of 
violence, and every indulgence of passion and 
resentment, which tends cither to excite such 
violence, or to produce that malignant dispo- 
sition of mind, in which the guilt of murder 
principally consists : and similarly of the rest. 
In this extensive interpretation of the com- 
mandments, we are warranted, not merely by 
the deductions of reason, but by the letter of 
the law itself. For the addition of the last, 
" Thou shalt not covet," proves clearly that in 
all, the dispositions of the heart, as much as 
the immediate outward act, is the object of the 
divine Legislator ; and thus it forms a comment 
on the meaning, as well as a guard for the 
observance, of all the preceding commands. 
Interpreted in this natural and rational lati- 
tude, how comprehensive and important is this 
summary of moral duty ! It inculcates the ado- 
ration of the one true God, who "made heaven 
and earth, the sea, and all that in them is ;" 
who must, therefore, be infinite in power, and 
wisdom, and goodness ; the object of exclusive 
adoration ; of gratitude for every blessing we 
enjoy; of fear, for he is a jealous God; of 
hope, for he is merciful. It prohibits every 
species of idolatry ; whether by associating 
false gods with the true, or worshipping the 
ti'ue by symbols and images. Commanding 
not to take the name of God in vain, it en- 
joins the observance of all outward respect for 
the divine authority, as well as the cultivation 
of inward sentiments and feelings suited to 
this outward reverence ; and it establishes the 
obligation of oaths, and, by consequence, of 
all compacts and deliberate promises ; a prin- 
ciple, without which the administration of laws 
would be impracticable, and the bonds of so- 
ciety must be dissolved. By commanding to 
keep holy the Sabbath, as the memorial of the 
creation, it establishes the necessity of public 
worship, a>nd of a stated and outward profes. 
sion of the truths of religion, as well as of the 
cultivation of suitable feelmgs ; and it enforces 
this by a motive which is equally applicable to 
all mankind, and which should have taught 
the Jew that he ought to consider all nations 
as equally creatures of that Jehovah whom he 
himself adored ; equally subject to his govern- 
ment, and, if sincerely obedient, entitled to all 
the privileges his favour could bestow. It is 
also remarkable, that this commandment, re- 
quiring that the rest of the Sabbath should 
include the man-servant, and the maid-servant, 
and the stranger that was within their gates, 
nay, even their cattle, proved that the Creator 
of the universe extended his attention to' all 
his creatures ; that the humblest of mankind 
were the objects of his paternal love ; that no 
accidental differences, which so often create 
alienation among different nations, would 
alienate any from the divine regard ; and that 
even the brute creation shared the benevolence 
of their Creator, and ought to be treated by 
men with gentleness and humanity. 



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674 



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When we proceed to the second table, com- 
prehending more expressly our social duties, 
we find all the most important principles on 
which they depend clearly enforced. The 
commandment which enjoins, " Honour thy 
father and mother," sanctions the principles, 
not merely of filial obedience, but of all those 
duties which arise from our domestic relations ; 
and, while it requires not so much any one 
specific act, as the general disposition which 
should regulate our whole course of conduct 
in this instance, it impresses the important 
conviction, that the entire law proceeds from 
a Legislator able to search and judge the heart 
of man. The subsequent commands coincide 
with the clear dictates of reason, and prohibit 
crimes which human laws in general have pro. 
hibited as plainly destructive of social happi- 
ness. But it was of infinite importance to rest 
the prohibitions, " Thou shalt not kill," " Thou 
shaft not commit adultery," " Thou shalt not 
steal," " Thou shalt not bear false witness," 
not merely on the deductions of reason, but 
also on the weight of a divine authority. How 
often have false ideas of public good in some 
places, depraved passions in others, and the 
delusions of idolatry in still more, established 
a law of reputation contrary to the dictates of 
reason, and the real interests of society. In 
one country we see theft allowed, if perpe- 
trated with address ; in others, piracy and 
rapine honoured, if conducted with intrepidity. 
Sometimes we perceive adultery permitted, the 
most unnatural crimes committed without re- 
morse or shame ; nay, every species of impurity 
enjoined and consecrated as a part of divine 
worship. In others, we find revenge honoured 
as spirit, and death inflicted at its impulse with 
ferocious triumph. Again, we see every feel- 
ing of nature outraged, and parents exposing 
their helpless children to perish for deformity 
of body or weakness of mind ; or, what is still 
more dreadful, from mercenary or political 
views ; and this inhuman practice familiarized 
by custom, and authorized by law. And, to 
close the horrid catalogue, we see. false reli- 
gions leading their deluded votaries to heap 
the altars of their idols with human victims ; 
the master butchers his slave, the conqueror 
his captive ; nay, dreadful to relate, the parent 
sacrifices his children, and, while they shriek 
amidst the tortures of the flames, or in the 
agonies of death, he drowns their cries by the 
clangour of cymbals and the yells of fanati- 
cism. Yet these abominations, separate or 
combined, have disgraced ages and nations 
which we are accustomed to admire and cele- 
brate as civilized and enlightened, — Babylon 
and Egypt, Phenicia and Carthage, Greece 
and Rome. Many of these crimes legislators 
have enjoined, or philosophers defended. What, 
mdeed, could be hoped from legislators and 
philosophers, when we recollect the institu- 
tions of Lycurgus, especially as to purity of 
manners, and the regulations of Plato on the 
same subject, in his model of a perfect repub- 
lic ; when we consider the sensuality of the 
Epicureans, and immodesty of the Cynics ; 
when we find suicide applauded by the Stoics, 



and the murderous combats of gladiators de- 
fended by Cicero, and exhibited by Trajan? 
Such variation and inconstancy in the rule 
and practice of moral duty, as established by 
the feeble or fluctuating authority of human 
opinion, demonstrates the utility of a clear 
divine interposition, to impress these import, 
ant prohibitions; and it is difiicult for any 
sagacity to calculate how far such an interpo- 
sition was necessary, and what effect it may 
have produced by influencing human opinions 
and regulating human conduct, when we 
recollect that the Mosaic code was probably 
the first written law ever delivered to any na. 
tion; and that it must have been generally 
known in those eastern countries, from which 
the most ancient and celebrated legislators and 
sages derived the models of their laws and the 
principles of their philosophy. 

But the Jewish religion promoted the inte. 
rests of moral virtue, not merely by the positive 
injunctions of the decalogue ; it also incul- 
cated clearly and authoritatively the two great 
principles on which all piety and virtue de- 
pend, and which our blessed Lord recognised 
as the commandments on which hang the law 
and the prophets, — the principles of love to 
God and love to our neighbour. The love of 
God is every where enjoined m the Mosaic 
law, as the ruling disposition of the heart, from 
which all obedience should spring, and in 
which it ought to terminate. With what 
solemnity does the Jewish lawgiver impress it 
at the commencement of his recapitulation of 
the divine law : " Hear, O Israel : the Lord 
our God is one Lord : And thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with 
all thy soul, and with all thy might," Deut. vi, 
4, 5. And again : " And now, Israel, what 
doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to 
fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, 
and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy 
God with all thy heart and with all thy soui ?'* 
Deut. X, 12. Nor is the love of our neighbour 
less explicitly enforced: "Thou shalt not," 
says the law, "avenge, nor bear any grudge 
against the children of thy people, but thou 
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the 
Lord," Lev. xix, 18. The operation of this be- 
nevolence, thus solemnly required, was not to 
be confined to their own countrymen ; it was to 
extend to the stranger, who, having renounced 
idolatry, was permitted to live among them, 
worshipping the true God, though without 
submitting to circumcision or the other cere- 
raonial parts of the Mosaic law : " If a 
stranger," says the law, " sojourn with thee 
in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the 
stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto 
you as one born among you, and thou shalt 
love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in 
the land of Egypt : I am the Lord thy God," 
Lev. xix, 33, 34. 

Thus, on a review of the topics we have 
discussed, it appears that the Jewish law pro- 
mulgated the great principles of moral duty in 
the decalogue, with a solemnity suited to their 
high preeminence ; that it enjoined love to God 
with the most unceasing solicitude, and love 



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to our neighbour, as extensively and forcibly, 
as the peculiar design of the Jewish economy, 
and the peculiar character of the Jewish peo- 
ple, would permit ; that it impressed the deep- 
est conviction of God's requiring, not mere 
external observances, but heart.felt piety, well 
regulated desires, and active benevolence ; 
that it taught sacrifice could not obtain par- 
don without repentance, or repentance without 
reformation and restitution ; that it described 
circumcision itself, and, by consequence, every 
other legal rite, as designed to typify and in. 
culcate internal holiness, which alone could 
render men acceptable to God ; that it repre- 
sented the love of God as designed to act as a 
practical principle, stimulating to the constant 
and sincere cultivation of purity, mercy, and 
truth ; and that it enforced all these principles 
and precepts by sanctions the most likely to 
operate powerfully on minds unaccustomed to 
abstract speculations and remote views, even 
by temporal rewards and punishments ; the 
assurance of which was confirmed from the 
immediate experience of similar rewards and 
punishments, dispensed to their enemies and 
to themselves by that supernatural Power 
which had delivered the Hebrew nation out 
of Egypt, conducted them through the wilder- 
ness, planted them in the land of Canaan, 
regulated their government, distributed their 
possessions, and to which alone they could 
look to obtain new blessings, or secure those 
already enjoyed. From all this we derive an- 
other presumptive argument for the divine 
authority of the Mosaic code ; and it may be 
contended, that a moral system thus perfect, 
promulgated at so early a period, to such a 
people, and enforced by such sanctions as no 
human power could undertake to execute, 
strongly bespeaks a divine original. 

2. The moral law is sometimes called the 
Mosaic law, because it was one great branch 
of those injunctions which, under divine 
authority, Moses enjoined upon the Israelites 
when they were gathered into a political com- 
munity under the theocracy. But it existed 
previously as the law of all mankind ; and it 
has been taken up into the Christian system, 
and there more fully illustrated. As the obli. 
gation of the moral law upon Christians has, 
however, been disputed by some perverters of 
the Christian faith, or held by others on loose 
and fallacious grounds, this subject ought to 
be clearly understood. It is, nevertheless, to 
be noticed, that the morals of the New Testa- 
ment are not proposed to us in the form of a 
regular code. Even in the books of Moses, 
which have the legislative form to a great 
extent, not all the principles and duties which 
constituted the full character of " godliness," 
under that dispensation, are made the subjects 
of formal injunction by particular precepts. 
They are partly infolded in general principles, 
or often take the form of injunction in an 
apparently incidental manner, or are matters 
of obvious inference. A preceding code of 
traditionary moral law is all along supposed 
in the writings of Moses and the prophets, as 
well as a consuetudinary ritual and a doctrinal 



theology, both transmitted from the patriarchs. 
This, too, is eminently the case with Chris- 
tianity. It supposes that all who believed in 
Christ admitted the divine authority of the 
Old Testament ; and it assumes the perpetual 
authority of its morals, as well as the truth of 
its fundamental theology. The constant allu- 
sions in the New Testament to the moral 
rules of the Jews and patriarchs, either ex- 
pressly as precepts, or as the data of argument, 
suflaciently guard us against the notion, that 
what has not in so many words been re- 
enacted by Christ and his Apostles is of no 
authority among Christians. In a great num. 
ber of instances, however, the form of injunc- 
tion is directly preceptive, so as to have all 
the explicitness and force of a regular code of 
law, and is, as much as a regular code could 
be, a declaration of the sovereign will of 
Christ, enforced by the sanctions of eternal 
life and death. This, however, is a point on 
which a few confirmatory observations may 
be usefully adduced. No part of the preced- 
ing dispensation, designated generally by the 
appellation of "the law," is repealed in the 
New Testament, but what is obviously cere- 
monial, typical, and incapable of coexisting 
with Christianity. Our Lord, in his discourse *v 
with the Samaritan woman, declares, that the 
hour of the abolition of the temple worship 
was come ; the Apostle Paul, in the Epistle to 
the Hebrews, teaches us that the Levitical 
services were but shadows, the substance and 
end of which is Christ ; and the ancient visi- 
ble church, as constituted upon the ground of 
natural descent from Abraham, was abolished 
by the establishment of a spiritual body of 
believers to take its place. No precepts of a 
purely political nature, that is, which respect 
the civil subjection of the Jews to their theo- 
cracy, are, therefore, of any force to us as 
laws, although they nnlay have, in many cases, 
the greatest authority as principles. No cere, 
monial precepts can be binding, since they 
were restrained to a period terminating with 
the death and resurrection of Christ ; nor are 
even the patriarchal rites of circumcision and 
the passover obligatory upon Christians, since 
we have sufficient evidence that they were of 
an adumbrative character, and were laid aside 
by the first inspired teachers of Christianity. 

With the moral precepts which abound in 
the Old Testament the case is very different, 
as sufficiently appears from the different, and 
even contrary, manner in which they are 
always spoken of by Christ and his Apostles, 
When our Lord, in his sermon on the mount, 
says, " Think not that I am come to destroy 
the law or the prophets; I am not come to 
destroy the law, but to fulfil ;" that is, to con- 
firm or establish it ; the entire scope of his 
discourse shows that he is speaking exclusively 
of the moral precepts of " the law," eminently 
so called, and of the moral injunctions of the 
prophets founded upon them, and to which he 
thus gives an equal authority. And in so 
solemn a manner does he enforce this, that ho 
adds, doubtless as foreseeing that attempts 
would be made by deceiving or deceived men. 



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professing his religion, to lessen the authority 
of the moral law, "Whosoever, therefore, 
shall break one of these least commandments, 
and shall teach men ^o, he shall be called the 
least in the kingdom of heaven ;" that is, as 
St. Chrysostom interprets, "He shall be the 
farthest from attaining heaven and happiness, 
which imports that he shall not attain it at 
all." In like manner St. Paul, after having 
strenuously maintained the doctrine of justifi- 
cation by faith alone, anticipates an objection 
by asking, " Do we then make void the law 
through faith?" and subjoins, "God forbid: 
yea, we establish the law ;" meaning by " the 
law," as the context and his argument clearly 
show, the moral and not the ceremonial law. 
After such declarations, it is worse than 
trifling for any to contend that, in order to 
establish the authority of the moral law of the 
Jews over Christians, it ought to have been 
formally reenacted. To this we may, how- 
ever, farther reply, not only that many im- 
portant moral principles and rules found in 
the Old Testament were never formally en- 
acted among the Jews ; were traditional from 
an earlier age ; and received at different times 
the more indirect authority of inspired recog- 
nition ; but, to put the matter in a stronger 
light, that all the leading moral precepts of 
the Jewish Scriptures are, in point of fact, 
proposed in the New Testament in a manner 
which has the full force of formal reenactment, 
as the laws of the Christian church. This 
argument, from the want of formal reenact- 
ment, will therefore have no weight. The 
summary of the law and the prophets, which 
is to love God with all our heart, and to serve 
him with all our strength, and to love our 
neighbour as ourselves, is unquestionably en- 
joined, and even reenacted by the Christian 
lawgiver. W^hen our Lord is explicitly asked 
by " one who came unto him and said. Good 
Master, what good thing shall I do, that I 
may have eternal life ?" the answer given 
shows that the moral law contained in the 
decalogue is so in force under the Christian 
dispensation, that obedience to it is necessary 
to final salvation: — "If thou wilt enter into 
life, keep the commandments." And that 
nothing ceremonial is intended by this term, 
is manifest from what follows : " He saith 
unto him, Which ? Jesus said, Thou shalt do 
no murder. Thou shalt not comjnit adultery. 
Thou shalt not steal," &c. Matt, xix, 17-19. 
Here, also, we have all the force of a formal 
reenactment of the decalogue, a part of it 
being evidently put for the whole. Nor were 
it difficult to produce passages from the dis- 
courses of Christ and the writings of the 
Apostles, which enjoin all the precepts of this 
law taken separately, by their authority, as 
indispensable parts of Christian duty, and 
that, too, under their original sanctions of 
life and death ; so that the two circumstances 
which form the true character of a law in its 
highest sense, divine authority and penal 
sanctions, are found as truly in the New 
Testament as in the Old. It will not, for 
instance, be contended, that the New Testa- 



ment does not enjoin the acknowiedgment 
and worship of one God alone ; nor that it 
does not prohibit idolatry ; nor that it does 
not level its maledictions against false and pro- 
fane swearing ; nor that the Apostle Paul 
does not use the very words of the fifth com- 
mandment preceptively, when he says, "Ho- 
nour thy father and mother, which is the first 
commandment with promise," Eph. vi, 2; 
nor that murder, adr.ltery, theft, false witness, 
and covetousness are not all prohibited under 
pain of exclusion from the kingdom of God. 
Thus, then, we have the whole decalogue 
brought into the Christian code of morals, by 
a distinct injunction of its separate precepts, 
and by their recognition as of permanent and 
unchangeable obligation ; the fourth com- 
mandment, respecting the Sabbath only, being 
so far excepted, that its injunction is not so 
expressly marked. This, however, is no ex- 
ception in fact; for beside that its original 
place in the two tables sufficiently distinguishes 
it from all positive, ceremonial, and typical 
precepts, and gives it a moral character, in 
respect to its ends, which are, first, rnercy to 
servants and cattle, and, second, the v/orship 
of almighty God, undisturbed by worldly 
interruptions and cares, it is necessarily in- 
eluded in that " law" which our Lord declares 
he came not to destroy, or abrogate ; in that 
"law" which St. Paul declares to be "esta- 
blished by faith," and among those "com- 
mandments" which our Lord declares must be 
" kept," if any one would " enter into life." 
To this, also, the practice of the Apostles is 
to be added, who did not cease themselves 
from keeping one day in seven holy, nor teach 
others so to do ; but gave to " the Lord's day" 
that eminence and sanctity in the Christian 
church which the seventh day had in the 
Jewish, by consecrating it to holy uses ; an 
alteration not affecting the precept at all, 
except in an unessential circumstance, (if in- 
deed in that,) and in which we may suppose 
them to have acted under divine suggestion. 

Thus, then, we have the obligation of the 
whole decalogue as fully established in the 
New Testament as in the Old, as if it had 
been formally reenacted; and that no formal 
reenactment of it took place, is itself a pre- 
sumptive proof that it was never regarded by 
the lawgiver as temporary, which the for- 
mality of republication might have supposed. 
It is important to remark, however, that, 
although the moral laws of the Mosaic dis- 
pensation pass into the Christian code, they 
stand there in other and higher circumstances ; 
so that the New Testament is a more perfect 
dispensation of the knowledge of the moral 
will of God than the Old. In particular, (1.) 
They ajre more expressly extended to the 
heart, as by our Lord, in his sermon on the 
mount ; who teaches us that the thought and 
inward purpose of any offence is a violation of 
the law prohibiting its external and visible 
commission. (2.) The principles on which 
they are founded are carried out in the New 
Testament into a greater variety of duties, 
which, by embracing more perfectly the social 



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677 



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and civil relations of life, are of a more uni- | 
versal character. (3.) There is a much more 
enlarged injunction of positive and particular 
virtues, especially those which constitute the 
Christian temper. (4.) By all overt acts being 
inseparably connected with corresponding 
principles in the heart, in order to constitute 
acceptable obedience, which principles sup- 
pose the regeneration of the soul by the Holy 
Ghost. This moral renovation is, therefore, 
held out as necessary to our salvation, and 
promised as a part of the grace of our redemp- 
tion by Christ. (5.) By being connected with 
promises of divine assistance, which is pecu- 
liar to a law connected with evangelical pro- 
visions. (6.) By their having a living illus- 
tration in the perfect and practical example of 
Christ. (7.) By the higher sanctions derived 
from the clearer revelation of a' future state, 
and the more explicit promises of eternal life, 
and threatenings of eternal punishment. It 
follows from this, that we have in the Gospel 
the most complete and perfect revelation of 
moral law ever given to men ; and a more 
e'xact' manifestation of the brightness, perfec- 
tion, and glory of that law, under which 
angels and our progenitors in paradise were 
placed, and which it is at once the delight and 
the interest of the most perfect and happy 
beings to obey. 

LAZARUS, brother to Martha and Mary. 
He dwelt at Bethany with his sisters, near 
Jerusalem; and the Lord Jesus did him the 
honour sometimes of lodging at his house 
when he visited the city. See the account 
of his resurrection related at large in John 
xi, 5, &c. 

LEAD, mi3i», Exod. xv, 10 ; Num. xxxi, 22 ; 
Job xix, 24 ; Jer. vi, 29 ; Ezek. xxii, 18 ; xxvii, 
12 ; Zech. v, 7, 8 ; a mineral of a bluish white 
colour. It is the softest next to gold, but has 
no great tenacity, and is not in the least sono- 
rous. It is mentioned with five other species 
of metal. Num. xxxi, 22 ; and there is no doubt 
but that this is the meaning of the word ; so 
the Septuagint render it throughout, [iSXiBSos 
or noXiSoi, 

LEAVEN. The Hebrews were forbidden 
by the law to eat leavened bread, or a food 
with leaven in it, during the seven days of the 
passover, Exod. xii, 15-19; Lev. ii, 11. They 
were very careful in purifying their houses 
from all leaven before this feast began. God 
forbad either leaven or honey to be offered to 
him in his temple ; that is, in cakes or in any 
baked meats. But on other occasions they 
might offer leavened bread or honey. St. Paul, 
I Cor. v, 7, 8, expresses his desire that the 
faithful should celebrate the Christian passover 
with imleavened bread ; which, figuratively, 
signifies sincerity and truth. In this he teaches 
us two things ; first, that the law which obliged 
the Jews to a literal observance of the passover 
is no longer in force ; and, secondly, that by 
unleavened bread, truth and purity of heart 
were denoted. The same Apostle alludes to 
the ceremony used at the passover, when he 
says, " A little leaven leaveneth the whole 
lump ;" that is, a small portion of leaven, in a 
38 



quantity of bread or paste, corrupts the whole, 
and renders it unclean. Our Saviour, in the 
Gospel, Matthew xvi, 11, warns his Apostles 
to beware of the leaven of the Herodians and 
Pharisees ; meaning their doctrines. 

LEBANON, or LIBANUS, signifying white, 
from its snows, — the most elevated mountain 
or mountain chain in Syria, celebrated in all 
ages for its cedars : which, as is well known, 
furnished the wood for Solomon's temple. 
This mountain is the centre, or nucleus, of all 
the mountain ridges which, from the north, 
the south, and the east, converge toward this 
point; but it overtops them all. This confi. 
guration of the mountains, and the superiority 
of Lebanon, are particularly striking to the 
traveller approaching both from the Mediter- 
ranean on the west, and the desert on the east. 
On either side, he first discovers, at a great 
distance, a clouded ridge, stretching from 
north to south, as far as tlie eye can see ; the 
central summits of which are capped with 
clouds, or tipped with snow. This is Lebanon, 
which is often referred to in Holy Writ for its 
streams, its timber, and its wines ; and at the 
present day the seat of the only portion of 
freedom of which Syria can boast. 

The altitude of Lebanon is so considerable, 
that it appears from the reports of travellers to 
have snow on its highest eminences all the 
year round. Volney says, that it thus remains 
toward the north-east, where it is slieltered 
from the sea winds and the rays of the sun. 
Maundrell found that part of the mountain 
which he crossed, and which in all probability 
was by no means the highest, covered with 
deep snow in the month of May. Dr. E. D. 
Clarke, in the month of July, saw some of the 
eastern summits of Lebanon, or Anti-Libanus, 
near Damascus, covered with snow, not lying 
in patches, as is common in the summer season 
with mountains which border on the line of 
perpetual congelation, but do not quite reach 
it, but with that perfect white, smooth, and 
velvetlike appearance, which snow only exhi- 
bits when it is very deep, — a striking spectacle 
in such a climate, where the beholder, seeking 
protection from a burning sun, almost considers 
the firmament to be on fire. At the time this 
observation was made, the thermometer, in an 
elevated situation p^ar the sea of Tiberias, 
stood at 102i° jii the shade. Sir Frederic 
Henniker passM over snow in July ; and All 
Bey describes the same eastern ridge as covered 
with snow i^^ September. Of the noble cedars 
which ouce adorned the upper parts of this 
mountam but few now remain, and those much 
decayed. BurcLhardt, who crossed Mount 
Libanus in 1810, counted about thirty-six large 
ones, fifty of middle size, and about three hun- 
dred smaller and young ones : but more might 
exist in other parts of the mountain. The 
wine, especially that made about the convent 
of Canobin, still preserves its ancient celebrity ; 
and is reported by travellers, more particularly 
by RauwolfT, Le Bruyn, and De la Roque, to 
be of the most exquisite kind for flavour and 
fragrance. The rains which fall in the lower 
regions of Lebanon, and the melting of the 



LEB 



578 



LEG 



snow in the upper ones, furnish an abundance 
of perennial streams, which are alluded to by 
Solomon, Cant, iv, 15. On the declivities of 
the mountain grew the vines which furnished 
the rich and fragrant wine which Hosea cele- 
brated, xiv, 7, and which may still be obtained 
by proper culture. 

The cedar of Lebanon has, in all ages, been 
reckoned as an object of unrivalled grandeur 
and beauty in the vegetable kingdom. It is, 
accordingly, one of the natural images which 
frequently occur in the poetical style of the 
Hebrew prophets ; and is appropriated to 
denote kings, princes, and potentates of the 
highest rank. Thus, the Prophet Isaiah, 
whose writings abound with metaphors and 
allegories of this kind, in denouncing the 
judgments of God upon the proud and arro- 
gant, declares that "the day of the Lord of 
Hosts shall be upon all the cedars of Lebanon 
that are high and lifted up, and upon all the 
oaks of Bashan," Isaiah ii, 13. The king of 
Israel used the same figure in his reply to the 
challenge of the king of Judah: "The thistle 
that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was 
in Lebanon, saying. Give thy daughter to my 
son to wife : and there passed by a wild beast 
that was in Lebanon, and trod down the 
thistle," 2 Kings xiv, 9. The spiritual pros- 
perity of the righteous man is compared by 
the Psalmist to the same noble plant : " The 
righteous shall flourish as the palm tree ; he 
shall grow as the cedar in Lebanon." To 
break the cedars, and shake the enormous mass 
on which they grow, are the figures that David 
selects to express the awfial majesty and power 
of Jehovah : " The voice of the Lord is pow- 
erful ; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. 
The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars : 
yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. 
He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Leba- 
non and Sirion like a young unicorn," Psalm 
xxix, 4-6. This description of the divine 
majesty and power possesses a character of 
awful sublimity. 

The stupendous size, the extensive range, 
and great elevation of Libanus ; its towering 
summits capped with perpetual snow, or 
crowned with fragrant cedars ; its olive plant- 
ations ; its vineyards, producing the most 
delicious wines ; its clear fountains, and cold- 
flowing brooks ; its fertile vales, and odorife- 
rous shrubberies, — combine toforra in Scripture 
language, "the glory of Lebanon." But that 
glory, liable to change, has, by tht unanimous 
consent of modern travellers, suffeip.d a sen- 
sible decline. The extensive forests of cedar, 
which adorned and perfumed the summits and 
declivities of those mountains, have almost 
disappeared. Only a small number of these 
" trees of God, planted by his almighty hand," 
which, according to the usual import of the 
phrase, signally displayed the divine power, 
wisdom, and goodness, now remain. Their 
countless number in the days of Solomon, and 
their prodigious bulk, must be recollected, in 
order to feel the force of that sublime declara- 
tion of the prophet : " Lebanon is not sufli- 
cient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient 



for a burnt-offering," Isaiah xl, 16. Though 
the trembling sinner were to make choice of 
Lebanon for the altar ; were to cut down ail 
its forests to form the pile ; though the fra- 
grance of this fuel, with all its odoriferous 
gums, were the incense ; the wine of Lebanon 
pressed from all its vineyards, the libation ; 
and all its beasts, the propitiatory sacrifice ; 
all would prove insufiicient to make atone- 
ment for the sins of men ; would be regarded 
as nothing in the eyes of the supreme Judge 
for the expiation of even one transgression. 
The just and holy law of God requires a 
nobler altar, a costlier sacrifice, and a sweeter 
perfume,— the obedience and death of a divine 
Person to atone for our sins, and the incense 
of his continual intercession to secure our 
acceptance with the Father of mercies, and 
admission into the mansions of eternal rest. 
The conversion of the Gentile nations from 
the worship of idols and the bondage of cor- 
ruption, to the service and enjoyment of the 
true God, is foretold in these beautifiil and 
striking terms : " The wilderness and the soli- 
tary place shall be glad for them : and the 
desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. 
It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even 
with joy and singing ; the glory of Lebanon 
shall be given unto it, the excellency of Car- 
mel and Sharon : they shall see the glory of 
the Lord, and the excellency of our God," 
Isaiah xxxv, 4. 

LEEK, n^sn, in Numbers xi, 5, translated 
" leek ;" in 1 Kings xviii, 5 ; 2 Kings xix, 26 j 
Job xl, 15 ; Psalm xxxvii, 2 ; xc, 5 ; ciii, 15 ; 
civ, 14 ; cxxix, 6 ; cxlvii, 8 ; Isaiah xxxv, 7 ; 
xxxvii, 27; xl, 6, it is rendered "grass;" in 
Job viii, 12, " herb ;" in Prov. xxvii, 25 ; Isaiah 
XV, 6, "hay;" and in Isaiah xxxiv, 13, "a 
court." It is much of the same nature with 
the onion. The kind called karrat by the 
Arabians, the allium porrum of Linnseus, Has. 
selquist says, must certainly have been one of 
those, desired by the children of Israel, as it 
has been cultivated and esteemed from the 
earliest times to the present in Egypt. The 
inhabitants are very fond of eating it raw, as 
sauce for their roasted meat; and the poor 
people eat it raw with their bread, especially 
for breakfast. There is reason, however, to 
doubt whether this plant is intended in Num. 
xi, 5, and so differently rendered every where 
else : it should rather intend such vegetables 
as grow promiscuously with grass. Ludolphus 
supposes that it may mean lettuce and sallads 
in general ; and Maillet observes, that the 
succory and endive are eaten with great relish 
by the people in Egypt : some or all of these 
may be meant. 

LEGION. The Roman legions were com- 
posed each of ten cohorts ; a cohort, of fifty 
maniples ; a maniple, of fifteen men ; conse- 
quently, a full legion contained six thousand 
soldiers. Jesus cured one who called himself 
" legion," as if possessed by a legion of devils, 
Mark v, 9. He also said to Peter, who drew 
his sword to defend him in the olive garden : 
" Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray 
to my Father, who shall presently give me 



LET 



579 



LET 



more than twelve legions of angels ?" Matt, 
xxvi, 53. 

LEMUEL. See Aqur. 

LENTIL, O^iyij?, Gen. xxv, 34; 2 Sam. 
xvii, 28 ; xxiii, 11 ; Ezek. iv, 9, a sort of pulse ; 
in the Septuagint (paKos, and Vulgate lens. The 
lentils of Egypt were very much esteemed 
among the ancients. St. Austin says, they 
grow abundantly in Egypt, are much used as 
a food there, and those of Alexandria are con- 
sidered particularly valuable. Dr. Shaw says, 
beans, lent'ls, kidney beans, and garvancos 
are the chief of their pulse kind. Beans, when 
boiled and stewed with oil and garlic, are the 
principal food of persons of all distinctions. 
Lentils are dressed in the same manner as 
beans, dissolving easily into a mass, and 
making- a pottage of a chocolate colour. This, 
we find, was the "red pottage" which Esau, 
from thence called Edom, exchanged for his 
birthright. , 

LEOPARD, -iDJ, Cant, iv, 8; Isaiah xi, 6; 
Jer. V, 6 ; xiii, 23 ; Hosea xiii, 7 ; Hab. i, 8 ; 
Pan. yii, 6 ; zodp6a\is, Rev. xiii, 2 ; Ecclus. 
xxviii, 23. There can be no doubt that the 
pard or leopard is the animal mentioned. 
Bochart shows that the name is similar in the 
Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic. The 
LXX uniformly render it by adp6a\is ; and 
Jerom, pardus. Probably, these animals were 
numerous in Palestine ; as we find places with 
a name intimating their having been the haunts 
of leopards : Nimrah, Num. xxxii, 3 ; Beth- 
Nimrah, Num. xxxii, 3G ; Joshua xiii, 27 ; and 
" waters of Nimrim" Isa. xv, 6 ; Jer. xlviii, 34 ; 
and "mountains of leopards," Cant, iv, 8. 
Nimrod might have his name from this animal : 
" He was a mighty hunter before the Lord ; 
wherefore it is said. Even as Nimrod the mighty 
hunter before the Lord," Gen. x, 9. It is 
supposed, however, that his predations were 
not confined to the brute creation. Dr. Geddes 
remarks, that the word " hunter" expresses too 
little. He was a freebooter, in the worst sense 
of the word ; a lawless despot : 

Proud Nimrod first the bloody chase began, 
A mighty hunter, and his prey was man. 
Isaiah, describing the happy state of the reign 
of Messiah, says, " The leopard shall lie down 
with the kid," Isaiah xi, 6. Even animals 
shall lose their fierceness and cruelty, and be. 
come gentle and tame. Jeremiah, v, 6, men- 
tions the artful ambuscades of this animal ; 
and in xiii, 23, alludes to his spots : " Can a 
Cushite change his skin ; or a leopard his 
spots ? Then may ye prevail with them to 
do good who are habituated to do evil ;" and 
Habakkuk, i, 8, refers to its alertness. 

LEPROSY. See Diseases. 

LETTERS, marks for the purpose of ex- 
pressing sounds, used in writing. Few sub. 
jects have given rise to more discussion than 
the origin of alphabetic characters. If they 
are of human invention, they must be con- 
sidered as one of the most admirable efforts of 
the ingenuity of man. So wonderful is the 
facility which they afford for recording human 
thought ; so ingenious, and at the same time 
60 simple, is the analysis which they furnish 



for the sounds of articulate speech, and for all 
the possible variety of words ; that we might 
expect the author of this happy invention to 
have been immortalized by the grateful homage 
of succeeding ages, and his name delivered 
down to posterity with the ample honours it 
so justly merited. But the author and the 
era of this discovery, if such it be, are both 
lost in the darkness of remote antiquity. Even 
the nation to which the invention is due can- 
not now be ascertained. The Egyptians, the 
Assyrians, the Phenicians, the Persians, the 
Indians, have all laid claim to the honour of 
it ; and each has named its inventor among 
the remote, and probably fabulous, personages 
that figure in the earlier ages of their history. 
In consequence of this uncertainty respecting 
the author of alphabetic writing, and the high 
value and extreme difficulty of the invention 
itself, many have been inclined to attribute 
this art to an immediate revelation from the 
Deity ; contending that it was communicated 
with other invaluable gifts from above, in 
remote ages, to the descendants of Abraham, 
and probably to the Patriarch Moses, who was 
the author of the most ancient compositions in 
alphabetical writing that we at present possess. 
The arguments which are brought in support 
of the divine revelation of the alphabet, are 
chiefly these : 1. The high antiquity of the use 
of letters ; the Hebrew characters having ex- 
isted in a perfect state when Moses composed 
the Pentateuch, the most ancient writing now 
known to be extant. 2. The similarity between 
the various alphabets of different nations, 
which, for the most part, are the same, in the 
order, power, and even form, of their letters 
with the Hebrew. 3. The complete want of 
alphabetic characters among those nations, 
which have been cut off from all communi- 
cation with the ancient civilized world, as the 
aboriginal Americans ; or that part of the 
human race which had no opportunity of bor- 
rowing the system of written characters re- 
vealed to the Hebrews, as China. 

Had man been left to himself, the first and 
most natural way of making his thoughts 
visible to the eye would be by pictorial repre. 
sentations. The second step would, for con- 
venience' sake, be to invent an abbreviated 
form'^ of these pictures, sufficiently legible 
to call to mind the original picture in full, and 
yet so reduced and intermixed with a few easily 
remembered arbitrary characters, or symbols, 
as to be more extensively useful. Thfe next 
and most difficult step would be the alphabet 
so formed as to express all the sounds of the 
language, by convenient combination. The 
Egyptian monuments show specimens of each ; 
the hieroglyph, the mixed and abbreviated, and 
the alphabetical. The magnificent ruins of 
Persepolis, the capital of ancient Persia, ex- 
hibit also the pure pictorial style, and tablets 
of abbreviated emblems. The characters on 
the bricks dug up from the ruins of ancient 
Babylon have characters, which are supposed 
to be, not alphabetic, but abbreviated symbols, 
and therefore suppose the existence of the 
larger picture writing, whether the people 



LET 



580 



LET 



possessed a proper alphabet or not. All the 
savage tribes of America had their picture 
writings, and this style was carried to great 
perfection by the Mexicans. The latter had, 
likewise, abbreviated marks, which were used 
as symbols ; and thus made an approach to 
letters, although they never reached this dis. 
covery. It is a curious fact, that in our day a 
Cherokee chief has actually invented an al- 
phabet, and that in the process he commenced 
with a pictorial representation of animals which 
uttered sounds somewhat like those of his 
own tongue ; which thought seems not to have 
entered into the picture writing of the an- 
cients, whose delineations spoke wholly to the 
eye, and not at all to the ear. Finding this 
method imperfect and cumbersome, he at last 
hit upon the expedient of arbitrary characters, 
which he gradually reduced in number, and so 
perfected, that, with a few European improve- 
ments, books are now printed in them for the 
use of his nation. In China the language is 
a complete system of abbreviated pictures, 
emblems, or symbols ; and there is no proper 
alphabet to this day. 

These facts are urged as direct proofs 
or strong presumptions that all alphabetical 
characters have been preceded by picture or 
imitative characters ; and that as the whole is 
within the compass of human ingenuity, the 
notion of a divine suggestion of letters, or o^ 
the important art of alphabetical writing, is 
bringing in the divine agency without neces- 
sity. But the assumption that alphabets have 
in all cases been formed through this process, 
is wholly hypothetic. Certain it is that we 
can prove from the Scriptures that literal writ- 
ing was in use at an earlier period than can be 
assigned to any picture writing whatever. 
Writing and reading were familiar to Moses 
and the Israelites when the law was given, 
and must have long previously existed among 
them, and, probably, among the Egyptians of 
the same age too ; which is much earlier than 
any of those monuments bearing hieroglyphical 
characters reach. We have given sufficient 
reason to conclude that Job lived at an earlier 
period still, and as he expresses a wish that 
his words should be written in a book, and 
engraven on the rock, the knowledge of read- 
ing as well as writing must have been pretty 
general in his country, or the book and the 
inscription could not have been a testimony of 
his faith and hope to his countrymen, as he 
passionately desired it to be. Here, too, it is 
to be observed, that in the early Mosaic history 
we have not the least intimation of writing by 
pictures or symbols, nor any that the art of 
writing had been revealed from heaven in the 
days of Moses, preparatory to the giving of a 
written law and the introduction of inspired 
books for the religious instruction of the peo- 
pie. We must trace it up higher ; though 
whether of divine revelation, or human inven- 
tion, cannot certainly be determined. Its im- 
portance was assuredly worthy of the former ; 
and if this was not done by particular revela- 
tion, doubtless we may reasonably and piously 
ascribe it to a divine suggestion. 



It may, indeed, be asked, How then is it that 
in other nations we can so accurately trace the 
progress from the picture to the symbol, and 
thence on to the alphabet ; as for instance in 
Egypt ? We answer, that if this were allowed, 
still it might be, and probably was, a part of 
the divine procedure with reference to the pre- 
servation of the true religion, that the know- 
ledge of letters should be early given to the 
Abraham] c family, or, at least, preserved 
among them, while many others of the more 
dispersed branches of the human race becom- 
ing barbarous, as stated under the article Lan- 
guage, might lose it ; because picture writing 
was easily convertible to idolatrous purposes, 
and in reality was greatly encouraged from 
that source. The same care would be exerted 
to prevent pictorial representations of spiritual 
beings and things as the forming of images ; and 
the race of true worshippers of God was never 
therefore placed under the necessity of thus 
expressing their thoughts by such delineations. 
But it is, in fact, far from being proved, that the 
hieroglyph, or picture writing, of Egypt for 
example, was more ancient among that people 
than alphabetic writing. One of the most re- 
cent writers on this side is the Marquis Spineto, 
in his " Lectures on Egyptian Hieroglyphics." 
His theory is, in fact, that of Warburton ; and 
he thinks that the recent discoveries as to the 
hieroglyphics of Egypt fully establish it. The 
opinion of this learned prelate was, that the 
primitive mode of writing among the Egyp- 
tians was by figurative delineations or hiero- 
glyphics ; that this becoming too tedious and 
voluminous, by degrees they perfected another 
character, which he calls the running-hand of 
hieroglyphics, resembling the Chinese charac- 
ters ; which being at first formed only by the 
outlines of figures, became at length a kind of 
marks ; and at last led to the compendious use 
of letters by an alphabet. His argument against 
the knowledge of letters by the immediate 
descendants of Noah is as follows : " For, if 
the invention of the alphabet had preceded the 
dispersion, we should have found the use of it 
generally established among mankind, and 
hieroglyphics and picture writing entirely lain 
aside. But this is not the case. The Mexi- 
cans and the Peruvians, up to the fifteenth 
century, and, to this day, the Chinese, have 
no knowledge of the alphabet. They all, like 
the Egyptians, made use of . hieroglyphics, 
more or less abridged, more or less symbolical, 
or, if you please, more or less arbitrary ; but 
they had no knowledge of the alphabet. The 
invention of letters, therefore, must have hap- 
pened after the dispersion, at a time when 
picture or hieroglyphical writing was generally 
used ; it was thus imported into the respective 
countries, by the primitive inhabitants, as they 
separated themselves from the common society, 
carrying in their migrations those partly true 
and partly false notions of the Deity, and of 
the great event which had submerged the 
world ; notions which, in fact, are to be found 
in the theology and ritual of all the nations in 
the universe, although more or less disfigured 
and altered." 



LET 



581 



LET 



But as the running-hand hieroglyphics, 
spoken of by Warburton, were no more alpha- 
betical than the hieroglyphics themselves, still 
we are left to make the inquiry, Who was the 
inventor of the Egyptian alphabet? This is 
supposed by the IMarquis on the authority of 
a passage in Plato, to be a secretary of one of 
the kings of Egypt. Tliis king is called 
Thamus ; who forbade his ingenius secretary, 
Thouth, or Theuth, to make the invention 
public ; lest the people should no longer pay 
attention to the hieroglyphics, which would 
then be soon forgotten. The secret, however, 
soon escaped ; and as it diminished to a pro- 
digious degree the difficulty of writing, it was 
generally adopted by the Egyptians, and from 
them passed into other nations. " The first," 
says the Marquis, "who seem to have got a 
knowledge of this system, were the Phenicians ; 
they imparted it to the Arabians, to the Jews, 
and carried it over to Greece. From that 
country it was exported to the several islands, 
carried to the continent, and reached the 
northeTn nations. The Chinese alone refused 
to adopt the valuable discovery ; proud of the 
antiquity of their social establishment, believ- 
ing themselves superior to the rest of mankind, 
they still adhered to their ancient mode of 
writing. This, as I have already observed, 
though originally the same with that used by 
the Egyptians, became, in process of time, 
materially different, being made up of arbitrary 
marks, which are for the most part ideo- 
graphical. With the discovery of the alphabet, 
however, a very material change took place 
in regard to hieroglyphics. Originally, as we 
have seen, they had been the common, nay, 
the sole mode of writing, employed by the 
nation at large, in all the transactions of life, 
and through the policy of King Thamus, the 
alphabetical letters were kept secret : but, as 
soon as this discovery became known, the 
contrary happened ; alphabetical writing be- 
came common, and hieroglyphics mysterious, 
not because they were purposely hidden in 
mystery, but simply because they required 
greater application and greater trouble. They 
indeed still continued to be used in matters of 
religion, funerals, public monuments, and the 
like ; but in all business, and common trans- 
actions, the alphabetical writing was employed. 
This was a necessary consequence of the 
general use of hieroglyphics in their primitive 
state ; for although the Egyptians might, and, 
in fact, did, give the preference to the alpha- 
bet, yet they did not think it necessary to 
erase the old hieroglyphical characters from 
their temples, from their obelisks, from tkeir 
tombs, and religious vases. The priests, there- 
fore, still continued to study and preserve the 
knowledge of hieroglyphics ; and these, partly 
by their showy nature, partly by the continu. 
ation of the old custom, continued still to be 
used in public monuments of a votive and 
funeral nature. To distinguish them, there- 
fore, from the alphabetical letters newly 
invented, they obtained the name of sacred, 
on the score of their being employed only in 



who had already invented a new set of arbi- 
trary marks, as a shorter way of hieroglyphical 
writing, which they employed exclusively in 
transactions which concerned their body and 
their pursuits, after the invention of the alpha- 
bet turned these marks into letters, and thus 
they formed another set of characters, or mode 
of writing, to which they gave the appellation 
of hieratic, as belonging exclusively to their 
order. In these characters they wrote all 
historical, political, and religious transactions. 
And as the common, or demotic letters were 
employed in all the common business of life, 
and hieroglyphics confined to public monu- 
ments, and fimereal and votive ceremonies, the 
Egyptians became possessed of at least three 
different modes of writing, or sets of charac- 
ters, which were hieroglyphic, demotic, and 
hieratic. Whether the priests had invented 
another set of characters, unknown to the 
people, and in which they concealed their 
doctrine and their knowledge, is a question 
which cannot te solved at present. The want 
of monuments disables us from saying any 
thing of a'decisive nature on this subject. One 
thing alone we can suppose with certainty, 
that if such a mode of writing did ever exist, 
and for the purpose for which it is supposed 
to have existed, the knowledge of it must have 
been confined to the priests only, and the 
records so written concealed with the greatest 
care from the eye of the nation. If, therefore, 
such records exist, they must be sought for in 
the dwelling of the hierophant, in the most 
recondite places of the temples ; perhaps in 
those subterraneous passages which now lie 
hidden under mountains of sand, and in which 
no one but the priests were ever permitted to 
enter." 

The whole of this account, we may how- 
ever observe, is far from being satisfactory. 
Whether the early Egyptians wrote hiero- 
glyphics at all, no monuments yet discovered 
are so ancient as to prove ; since all such 
characters now known must have been writ- 
ten subsequently to the advancement of the 
kingdom into great power, and after consider- 
able progress had been made in architecture 
and other arts. The passage, too, in Plato, 
on which the argument is made to depend, 
may just as well refer to the running-hand or 
abridged hieroglyphical signs, as to alpha- 
betical writing ; and the supposition, that the 
priests gave an alphabetical character to this 
kind of abridged pictorial writing after the dis- 
covery of the real alphabet, (and alphabetical 
Ackerblad and Dr. Young have proved it to 
be,) is quite hypothetic. We think it more 
probable that alphabetical writing is much 
older than the hieroglyphics ; that the pho- 
netic hieroglyphics were fanciful representa- 
tions of the alphabetic characters, intermingled 
with those symbols which idolatry and the 
natural peculiarities of Egypt would suggest ; 
that the whole was originally easy to be de- 
ciphered by those who knew letters at all ; and 
that the leading motive of fixing them on pub- 
lie monuments in preference to literal inscrip- 



matters of religion. The priests, however, | tions, was the ta^te of the day, which custom, 



LEV 



582 



LEV 



and antiquity, and superstition at length con. 
secrated. We have thus an easy way of ac- 
counting for the alphabetical, though obscure, 
character of the hieroglyphic running-hand, 
or hieratic writing, so much used in manu- 
scripts. As an abridged form of the hiero- 
glyphical outline, it would at least be phonetic 
wherever the hieroglyphic was so ; and where 
that was symbolical, it would naturally present 
greater difficulty in deciphering, which, in fact, 
has been proved to be the case, by modern stu- 
dents in the art. It is, indeed, acknowledged 
by those who advocate the priority of the 
hieroglyphic to the alphabetic signs, that the 
number of ideas which could thus be expressed 
is few ; and this the Marquis Spineto considers 
as a presumptive proof of his theory. In these 
early ages, " the position of mankind after the 
flood," he observes, " was such as to preclude 
the possibility of supposing that they had many 
ideas and many wants ; therefore we may 
reasonably conclude, that their language con- 
sisted of words only which were intended to 
express the things most necessary to life, and 
consequently contained a small number of 
words," We know, indeed, that it is the notion 
of many infidel writers, that the original race 
or races of mankind were a sort of savages ; 
and that a state of society gradually increased 
the ideas, and enriched the language of those 
who at first were capable of uttering but a few 
simple articulate sounds ; but that any person 
should talk in a similar strain, who professes 
to receive the Mosaic history, is absurd. The 
antediluvians had surely much knowledge. 
Many arts were invented before the flood ; and 
the ark itself is a vast monument of mechanical 
skill. Arts, science, morals, legislation, the- 
ology, were all known before the flood; and 
were all transmitted from the old world to the 
new, by Noah and his sons. These were not 
men " of few ideas," nor was the pastoral mode 
of life incompatible with great moral know- 
ledge, eloquence, and the highest and richest 
poetry, as we see in the book of Job. Men 
were not then, as many moderns have sup- 
posed, a race of babies, able only to ask for 
what they needed to eat and drink, or child- 
ishly to play with ;• and we may therefore rest 
assured that they had a language so copious, 
and enunciations of ideas so various in their 
respective tongues, that picture writing neither 
was nor could be adequate to their full ex- 
pression. The true origin of hieroglyphic 
writing is still unexplained ; and will, after all, 
probably, remain inexplicable : but it has little 
claim to be considered as the first mode of ex- 
pressing the sounds of language. As for the 
Chinese language, it is evident that it cannot 
be urged in proof of alphabetical writing hav- 
ing in all cases passed through the process 
above mentioned ; for to this day the Chinese 
have no alphabet. As a language it is indeed 
peculiar, as being wholly monosyllabic ; and 
we must be better acquainted with the early 
circumstances of that people before we can 
account for either. See Writing. 

LEVIATHAN, jn>i^. Job iii, 8 ; xli, 1 ; 
Psalm Ixxiv, 14; civ, 26; Isa. xxvii, 1. The 



old commentators concurred in regarding the 
whale as the animal here intended. Beza and 
Diodati were among the first to interpret it the 
crocodile : and Bochart has since supported 
this last rendering with a train of argument 
which has nearly overwhelmed all opposition, 
and brought almost every commentator over 
to his opinion. It is very certain that it could 
not be the whale, which does not inhabit the 
Mediterranean, much less the rivers that empty 
themselves into it ; nor will the characteristics 
at all apply to the whale. The crocodile, on 
the contrary, rs a natural inhabitant of the 
Nile, and other Asiatic and African rivers ; 
of enormous voracity and strength, as well as 
fleetness in swimming ; attacks mankind and 
the largest animals with most daring impetu- 
osity -J when taken by means of a powerful net, 
will often overturn the boats that surround it ; 
has, proportionally, the largest mouth of all 
monsters whatever ; moves both its jaws 
equally, the upper of which has not less than 
forty, and the lower than thirty-eight sharp, 
but strong and massy, teeth ; and is furnished 
with a coat of mail, so scaly and callous as to 
resist the force of a musket ball in every part,- 
except under the belly. Indeed, to this ani- 
mal the general character of the leviathan 
seems so well to apply, that it is unnecessary 
to seek farther. 

LEVITES. Under this name maybe com» 
prised all the descendants of Levi ; but it prin- 
cipally denotes those who were employed in 
the lowest ministries of the temple, by which 
they were distinguished from the priests, who, 
being descended from Aaron, were likewise of 
the race of Levi by Kohath, but were employed 
in higher offices. The Levites were descend- 
ants of Levi, by Gershom, Kohath, and Merari, 
excepting the family of Aaron ; for the children 
of Moses had no part in the priesthood, and 
were only common Levites. God chose the 
Levites instead of the first-born of all Israel, 
for the service of his tabernacle and temple, 
Num. iii, 6, &c. They obeyed the priests in 
the ministrations of the temple, and brought 
to them- wood, water, and other things neces, 
sary for- the sacrifices. They sung and played 
on instruments, in the temple, &c ; they studied 
the lav/, and were the ordinary judges of the 
country, but subordinate to the priests. God 
provided for the subsistence of the Levites, by 
giving them the tithe of corn, fruit, and cattle ; 
but they paid to the priests the tenth of their 
tithes ; and as the Levites possessed no estates 
in the land, the tithes which the priests received 
from them were looked on as the first-fruits 
whu;h they were to offer to the Lord, Num. 
xvm, 21-24, God assigned them for their 
habitations forty-eight cities, with fields, pas- 
tures, and gardens. Num. xxxv. Of these thir- 
teen were given to the priests, six of which 
were cities of refuge, Joshua xx, 7 ; xxi, 19, 
20, &c. While the Levites were actually em. 
ployed in the temple, they were subsisted out 
of the provisions in store there, and out of 
the daily offerings there made ; and if any Le. 
vite quitted the place of his abode, to serve the 
temple, even out of the time of his half-yearly 



LEV 



583 



LIB 



or weekly waiting, he was received there, 
kept and provided for, in like manner as his 
other brethren, who were regularly in waiting, 
Deut. xviii, 6-8. The consecration of Levites 
was without much ceremony. They wore no 
particular habit to distinguish them from the 
other Israelites, and God ordained nothing par- 
ticularly for their mourning, 2 Chron. xxix, 34. 
The manner of their consecration may be seen 
in Num. viii, 5-7, &c. 

Josephus says, that in the reign of Agrippa, 
king of the Jews, about A. D. 62, six years 
before the destruction of the temple by the 
Romans, the Levites desired permission from 
that prince to wear the linen tunic like the 
priests ; and this was granted. This innova- 
tion was displeasing to the priests ; and the 
Jewish historian remarks, that -the ancient 
customs of the country were never forsaken 
with impunity. He adds, that Agrippa per- 
mitted likewise the families of the Levites, 
whose duty it was to guard the doors, and per- 
form other troublesome offices, to learn to sing 
and play on instruments, that they might be 
qualified for the temple service as musicians. 
The Levites were divided into different classes : 
Gershonites, Kohathites, Merarites, and Aaron- 
ites or priests, Num. iii, &.c. The Gershon- 
ites, whose number was seven thousand five 
hundred, w^ere employed in the marches 
through the wilderness in carrying the veils 
and curtains of the tabernacle ; the Kohathites, 
whose number was eight thousand six hundred, 
in carrying the ark and sacred vessels of the 
tabernacle ; the Merarites, whose number was 
six thousand two hundred, in carrying the 
several pieces of the tabernacle which could 
not be placed upon the chariots ; and the 
Aaronites were the priests who served the 
sanctuary. When the Hebrews encamped in 
the wilderness, the Levites were placed around 
the tabernacle ; Moses and Aaron at the east, 
Gershon at the west, Kohath at the south, and 
Merari at the north. Moses ordained that the 
Levites sliould not begin in the service of the 
tabernacle till they were five-and-twenty years 
of age, Num. viii, 24-26 ; or, as he says else, 
where, from thirty to fifty years old. Num. 
iv, 3. But David, finding that they were no 
longer employed in these grosser offices of 
transporting the vessels of the tabernacle, ap- 
pointed them to enter on service at the temple 
at twenty years of age. The priests and Le- 
vites waited by turns, weekly, in the temple. 
They began their weeks on one Sabbath day, 
and on the Sabbath day in the following week 
went out of waiting, 1 Chronicles xxiii, 24 ; 
2 Chron. xxi, 17 ; Ezra iii, 8. When an Israelite 
made a religious entertainment in the temple, 
God required that the Levites should be invited 
to it, Deut. xii, 18, 19. 

LEVITICUS, a canonical book of Scrip- 
ture, being the third book of the Pentateuch 
of Moses ; thus called because it contains prin- 
cipally the laws and regulations relating to 
the Levites, priests, and sacrifices; for which 
reason the Hebrews call it the law of the 
priests, because it includes many ordinances 
concerning their services. See Pentateuch. 



LIBATION. This word is used in sacrifi- 
cial language, to express an affiision of liquors, 
poured upon victims to be sacrificed to the 
Lord. The quantity of wine for a libation was 
the fourth part of a hin, rather more than two 
pints. Libations among the Hebrews were 
poured on the victim after it was killed, and 
the several pieces of it were laid on the altar, 
ready to be consumed by the flames. Lev. vi, 
20; viii, 25, 26; ix, 4; xvi, 12, 20. These 
libations consisted in offerings of bread, wine, 
and salt. The Greeks and Latins offered liba- 
tions with the sacrifices, but they were poured 
on the victim's head while it was living. So 
Sinon, relating the manner in which he was 
to be sacrificed, says lie was in the priest's 
hands ready to be slain, was loaded with bands 
and ' garlands ; that they were preparing to 
pour upon him the libations of grain and salted 
meal :— 

Jamque dies infanda aderat, mihi sacra parari, 
Et salsdb fruges, et circum tempora viitcB. 

Mneid ii, 130, 131. 
[And now the horrible day being come, they 
began to prepare for me the sacred rites.] 
" The salted barley on my fiont was spread, 
The sacred fillets bound my destined head." 

Pitt. 
And Dido, beginning to sacrifice, pours wine 
between the horns of the victim : — 

Ipsa tenens dextra pateram pulcherrima Dido, 
Candentsi vaccc& media inter cornua fudit. 

iEneid, iv. 
" The queen before the snowy heifer stands, 
Amid the shrines, a goblet in her hands ; 
Between the horns she sheds the sacred wine, 
And pays due honours to the powers divine." 

Pitt. 
St. Paul describes himself, as it were, a victim 
about to be sacrificed, and that the accustomed 
libations of meal and wine were already, in a 
manner, poured upon him : " For I am ready 
to be offered, and the time of my departure is 
at hand," 2 Tim. iv, 6. The same expressive 
sacrificial term occurs in Phil, ii, 17, where 
the Apostle represents the faith of the Philip. 
plans as a sacrifice, and his own blood as a 
libation poured forth to hallow and consecrate 
it : " Yea, and if I be offered, cwivSonai, upon the 
sacrifice and service of your faith, hi rrj Svai(f. 
Koi ^uTovpyiq, I joy and rejoice with you all." 

LIBERTINES. Mention is made of the 
synagogue of the Libertines, Acts vi, 9 ; con. 
cernlng whom there are different opinions, two 
of which bid fairest for the truth. The first is 
that of Grotlus and Vitringa,. that they were 
Italian Jews or proselytes. The ancient Ro. 
mans distinguished between libertus and liher- 
tinus. Libertus was one who had been a slave, 
and obtained his freedom ; libertinus was the 
son of a libertus. But this distinction in after 
ages was not strictly observed ; and libertinus 
also came to be used for one not born, but 
made free, in opposition to ingenuus, or one 
born free. Whether the libertini mentioned in 
this passage of the Acts were GentUes, who 
had become proselytes to Judaism, or native 
Jews, who having been made slaves to the 
Romans were afterward set at liberty, and in 
remembrance of their captivity called them. 



LIB 



684 



Lie 



selves libertini, and formed a synagogue by 
themselves, is differently conjectured by the 
learned. It is probable the Jews of Cyrenia, 
Alexandria, &c, built synagogues at Jerusalem 
9,t their own charge, for the use of their bre- 
thren who came from those countries ; as the 
Danes, Swedes, &c, build churches for the use 
of their own countrymen in London ; and that 
the Italian Jews did the same ; and because 
the greatest number of them were libertini, 
their synagogue was therefore called the syna- 
gogue of the Libertines. The other opinion, 
which is hinted by (Ecumenius on the Acts, 
and mentioned by Dr. Lardner, as more lately 
advanced by Mr. Daniel Gerdes, professor of 
divinity in the university of Groningen, is this, 
that the Libertines are so called from a city or 
country called Libertus, or Libertina, in Africa, 
about Carthage. Suidas, in his Lexicon, on 
the word Xt/Jeprtvos, says it was ovofia eOvovg, 
nomen gentis. [The name of a nation.] And 
the glossa interlinearis, of which Nicolas de 
Xjyra made great use in his notes, h»tli over 
the word libertini, e regione, denoting that they 
were so styled from a country. In the acts 
of the famous conference with the Donatists 
at Carthage, A. D. 411, there is mentioned one 
Victor, bishop of the church of Libertina : and 
in the acts of the Lateran council, which was 
held in 649, there is mention of Januarius 
gratia Dei episcopus sanctce. ecclesia Liberti- 
nensis ; [Januarius by the grace of God bishop 
of the holy church of Libertina ;] and there- 
fore Fabricius, in his " Geographical Index of 
Christian Bishoprics," has placed Libertina in 
what was calkd Africa Propria, or the procon- 
sular province of Africa. Now, as all the 
other people of the several synagogues, men- 
tioned in this passage of the Acts, are deno- 
minated from the places from whence they 
came, it is probable that the Libertines were 
so too ; and as the Cyrenians and Alexan- 
drians, who came from Africa, are placed next 
to the Libertines in that catalogue, it is proba- 
ble they also belonged to the same country. 
So that, upon the whole, there is little reason 
to doubt of the Libertines being so called from 
the place from whence they came ; and the 
order of the names in the catalogue might lead 
us to think, that they were farther off from 
Jerusalem than Alexandria and Cyrenia, which 
will carry us to the proconsular province in 
Africa about Carthage. 

LIBNAH, a city in the southern part of the 
tribe of Judah, Joshua xv, 42, of which a ces- 
sion was made to the priests for their habita- 
tion, and which was declared a city of refuge, 
1 Chron. vi, 57. 

LIBYA. The name, in its largest sense, 
was used by the Greeks to denote the whole 
of Africa. But Libya Proper, or the Libya of 
the New Testament, the country of the Lubims 
of the Old, was a large country lying along 
the Mediterranean, on the west of Egypt. It 
was called Pentapolitana Regio by Phny, from 
its five chief cities, Berenice, Arsinoe, Ptole- 
mais, Apollonia, and Cyrene ;" and. Libya Cy- 
j-enaica by Ptolemy, from Cyrene its capital. 
Libya is supposed to have been first peopled 



by, and to have derived its name from, the 
Lehabim, or Lubim. These, its earlier inha- 
bitants, appear in the times of the Old Testa- 
ment, to have consisted of wanderingtribes, who 
were sometimes in alliance with Egypt, and at 
others with the Ethiopians of Arabia ; as they 
are said to have assisted both Shishak and Ze- 
rah in their expeditions into Judea, 2 Chron. 
xii, xiv, xvi. They v/ere for a time sufficiently 
powerful to maintain a war v/ith the Cartha- 
ginians, by whom they were in the end en- 
tirely overcome. Since that period, Libya, in 
common with the rest of the east, has succes- 
sively passed into the hands of the Greeks, 
Romans, Saracens, and Turks. The city Cy- 
rene, built by a Grecian colony, was the capital 
of this country, in which, and other parts, 
dwelt many Jews, who came up to Jerusalem 
at the feast of pentecpst, together with those 
dispersed among other nations, and are called 
by St. Luke "dwellers in the parts of Libya 
about Cyrene," Acts ii, 10. 

LICE. Swarms of lice was the third plague 
with which God punished the Egyptians, 
Exod. viii, 16. The Hebrew word a^JD, 
which the LXX render cKvicpss, some translate 
"flies," and think them the same as gnats, 
Origen says that the sciniphe is so small a fly, 
that it is scarcely perceptible to the eye, but 
that it occasions a sharp stinging pain. How% 
ever, the original, according to the Syriac. 
and several good interpreters, signifies "lice." 

But Josephus, the Jewish rabbins, and most 
of the modern translators render the Hebrew 
word at large lice; and Bochart and Bryant 
support this interpretation. The former argues 
that gnats could not be meant. 1. Because 
the creatures here mentioned sprang from the 
dust of the earth, and not from the waters. 
2. Because they were both on men and cattle^ 
which cannot be spoken of gnats. 3. Because 
their name comes from the radix ]?iD, which 
signifies to make firm, fix, establish, which can 
never agree to gnats, flies, &c, which are ever 
changing their place, and are almost con- 
stantly on the v/ing. 4. Because nj3 is the 
term by which the .talmudists express the 
term louse, OLC. To v^^hich may be added, 
that if they v»^ere winged and stinging insects, 
as Jerom, Origen, and others have supposed, 
the plague of flies is unduly anticipated ; and 
the next miracle will be only a repetition of 
the former. Mr. Bryant, in illustrating the 
aptness of this miracle, has the following 
remarks : " The Egyptians affected great ex- 
ternal purity, and were very nice both in their 
persons and clothing ; bathing and making 
ablutions continually. Uncommon care was 
taken not to harbour any vermin. They were 
particularly solicitous on this head ; thinking 
it would be a great profanation of the temple 
which they entered, if an}'' animalcule of this 
sort were concealed in their garments. The 
priests, says Herodotus, are shaved, both as 
to their heads and bodies, every third day, to 
prevent any louse, or any other detestable 
creature, being found upon them when they 
are performing their duty to the gods. The 
same is mentioned by another author, who 



LIG 



685 



LIL 



adds, that all woollen was considered as foul, 
as from a perishable animal; but flax is the 
product of the immortal earth, affords a deli- 
cate and pure covering, and is not liable to 
harbour lice. We may hence see what an 
abhorrence the Egyptians showed toward this 
sort of vermin, and what care was taken by 
the priests to guard against them. The judg- 
ments, therefore, inflicted by the hands of 
Moses, were adapted to their prejudices. It 
was, consequently, not only most noisome to 
the people in general, but was no small odium 
to the most sacred order in Egypt, that they 
were overrun with these filthy and detestable 
vermin. 

LIGHT, (pm, is used in a physical sense. 
Matt, xvii, 2 ; Acts ix, 3 ; xii, 7 ; 2 Cor. iv, 6; 
for a fire giving light, Mark xiv, 54 ; Luke 
xxii, 56 ; for a torch, candle, or lamp. Acts 
xvi, 29 ; and for the material light of heaven, 
as the sun, moon, or stars. Psalm cxxxvi, 7; 
James i, 17. Figuratively taken, it signifies 
a manifest or open state of things, Matt, x, 27 ; 
Luke xii, 3 ; also prosperity, truth, and joy. 

God is .said to dwell in light inaccessible, 
1 Tim. vi, 16. This seems to contain a refer- 
ence to the giory and splendour which shone 
in the holy of holies, where Jehovah appeared 
in the luminous cloud above the mercy seat, 
and which none but the high priest, and he 
only once a year, was permitted to approach 
unto. Lev. xvi, 2 ; Ezek. i, 22, 26, 28 ; but 
this was typical of the glory of the celestial 
world. It signifies, also, instruction, both by 
doctrine and example. Matt, v, 16 ; John v, 
35 ; or persons considered as giving such light, 
Matt. V, 14 ; Rom. ii, 19. It is applied figura- 
tively to Christ, the true Light, the Sun of 
Righteousness, who is that in the spiritual, 
which the material light is in the natural, 
world ; who is the great Author, not only of 
illumination and knowledge, but of spiritual 
life, health, and joy to the souls of men. 

The images of light and darkness, says 
Bishop Lowth, are commonly made use of in 
all languages to imply or denote prosperity 
and adversity, agreeably to the common sense 
and perception which all rnen have of the 
objects themselves. But the Hebrews employ 
those metaphors more frequently and with less 
variation than other people : indeed, they sel- 
dom refrain from them whenever the subject 
requires or will even admit of their introduc- 
tion. These expressions, therefore, may be 
accounted among those forms of speech, which 
in the parabolic style are established and de- 
fined ; since they exhibit the most noted and 
familiar images, and the application of them 
on this occasion is justified by an acknow- 
ledged analogy, and approved by constant and 
unvarying custom. In the use of images, so 
conspicuous and so familiar among the He- 
brews, a degree of boldness is excusable. The 
Latins introduce them more sparingly, and 
therefore are more cautious in the application 
of them. But the Hebrews, upon a subject 
more sublime indeed, in itself, and illustrating 
it by an idea which was more habitual to 
them., more daringly exalt their strains, and 



give a loose rein to the spirit of poetry. 
They display, for instance, not the image of 
the spring, of Aurora, of the dreary night, 
but the sun and stars as rising with increased 
splendour in a new creation, or again involved 
in chaos and primeval darkness. Does the 
sacred bard promise to his people a renewal of 
the divine favour, and a recommencement of 
universal prosperity? In v/hat magnificent 
colours does he depict it ! Such, indeed, as no 
translation can illustrate, but such as none 
can obscure: — 

" The light of the moon shall be as the hght of the sun, 
And the light of the sun shall be sevenfold." 

Isaiah xxx, 26. 
But even this is not sufllcient : — 

" No longer shalt thou have the sun for thy light by day ; 
Nor by night shall the brightness of the moon enlighten 

thee: 
For Jehovah shall be to thee an everlasting light, 
And thy God shall be thy glory. 
Thy sun shall no more decline ; 
Neither shall thy moon wane ; 
For Jehovah shall be thine everlasting Hght j 
And the davs of thy mourning shall cease." 

Isaiah Ix, 19, 20. 

In another place he ha^ admirably diversified 
the same sentiment : — 

" And the moon shall be confounded, and the sun shall 
be ashamed ; 
For Jehovah, God of Hosts, shall reign 
On Mount Sion, and in Jerusalem : 
And before his ancients shall he be glorified." 

Isaiah xxiv, 25. 

On the other hand, denouncing ruin against 
the proud king of Egypt : — ■ 

" And whoi I shall put thee out, I will cover the heavens, 
And the stars thereof will I make dark : 
I will involve the sun in a cloud. 
Nor shall the moon give out her light. 
All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over 

thee, 
And I will set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord 

Jehovah." Ezekiel xxvii, 7, 8. 

These expressions are bold and daring; but 
the imagery is well known, the use of it is 
common, the signification definite : they are 
therefore perspicuous, clear, and truly mag- 
nificent. 

LIGN-ALOES. See Aloe. 

LIGURE, Qty'?, Exod. xxviii, 19 ; xxxix, 
12, a precious stone of a deep red colour, 
with a considerable tinge of yellow. Theo- 
phrastus and Pliny describe it as resembling 
the carbuncle, of a brightness sparkling like 
fire, 

LILY, |tyw, 1 Kings vii, 19, 22, 26; 2 
Chron. iv, 5 ; Cant, ii, 2, 16 ; iv, 5 ; v, 13 ; vi, 
2, 3 ; vii, 2 ; Hosea xiv, 5 ; k^Ivov, Matt, vi, 
28 ; Luke xii, 27 ; a well known sweet and 
beautiful flower, which furnished Solomon 
with a variety of charming images in his 
Song, and with graceful ornaments in the 
fabric and furniture of the temple. The title 
of some of the Psalms "upon Shushan," or 
" Shoshanim," Psalms xiv ; Ix ; Ixix ; Ixxx, 
probably means no more than that the music 
of these sacred compositions was to be regu- 
lated by that of some odes, which were known 
by those names or appellations. By "the lily 



LIL 



686 



LIO 



©f the valley," Cant, ii, 2, we are not to under- 
stand the humble flower, generally so called 
with us, the lilium convallium, but the noble 
flower which ornaments our gardens, and 
which in Palestine grows wild in the fields, 
and especially in the valleys. Pliny reckons 
the lily the next plant in excellency to the 
rose ; and the gay Anacreon compares Venus 
to this flower. In the east, as with us, it is 
the emblem of purity and moral excellence. 
So the Persian poet,, Sadi, compares an amia. 
ble youth to "the white lily in a bed of nar- 
cissuses," because, he surpassed all the young 
shepherds in goodness. As, in Cant, v, 13, 
the lips are compared to the lily, Bishop Pat- 
rick supposes the lily here instanced to be the 
same which, on account of its deep red colour, 
is particularly called by Pliny rubens lilium, 
and which, he tells us, w^as much esteemed in 
Syria. Such may have been the lily mentioned 
in Matt, vi, 28-30; for the royal robes were 
purple : "Consider the lilies of the field, how 
^^^y grow ; they toil not, neither do they spin : 
and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all 
his glory was not arrayed like one- of these :" 
so in Luke xii, 27. The scarcity of fuel in 
the east obliges the • inhabitants to use, by 
turns, every kind of combustible matter. The 
withered stalks of herbs and flowers, the ten- 
drils of the vine, the small branches of rose- 
mary, and other plants, are all used in heating 
their ovens and bagnios. We can easily re- 
cognize this practice in that remark of our 
Lord, "If God so clothe the grass of the field, 
which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into 
the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, 
O ye of little faith ?" Matt, vi, 30. The grass 
of the field, in this passage, evidently includes 
the lilies of which he had just been speaking, 
and, by consequence, herbs in general; and in 
this extensive sense the word x^P'^o^ is not un- 
frequently taken. Those beautiful productions 
of nature, so richly arrayed, and so exquisitely 
perfumed, that the splendour even of Solomon 
is not to be compared to theirs, shall soon 
v/ither and decay, and be used as fuel. God 
has so adorned these flowers and plants of the 
field, which retain their beauty and vigour but 
for a few days, and are then applied to some 
of the meanest purposes of life : will he not 
much more take care of his servants who are 
so precious in his sight, and designed for such 
important services in the world ? This passage 
is one of those of v/hich Sir Thomas Browne 
says, "The variously interspersed expressions 
from plants and flowers elegantly advantage 
the significancy of the text." 

Mr. Salt, in his "Voyage to Abyssinia," 
says, " At a few miles from Adowa, we dis- 
covered a new and beautiful species of ama- 
ryllis, which bore from ten to twelve spikes of 
bloom on each stem, as large as those of the 
belladonna, spl'inging from one common re- 
ceptacle. The general colour of the corolla 
was white, and every petal was marked with 
a single streak of bright purple down the mid- 
dle. The flower was sweet scented, and its 
smell, though much more powerfiil, resembled 
that of the lily of the valley. This superb 



plant excited the admiration of the whole 
party; and it brought immediately to my 
recollection the beautiful comparison used on 
a particular occasion by our Saviour : ' I say 
unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was 
not arrayed like one of these.'" And Sir 
James E. Smith observes, "It is natural to 
presume the divine Teacher, according to his 
usual custom, called the attention of his 
hearers to some object at hand ; and as the 
fields of the Levant are overrun with the ama-' 
ryllis lutea, whose golden lilaceous flowers in 
autumn afford one of the most brilliant and 
gorgeous objects in nature, the expression of 
' Solomon in all. his glory not being arrayed 
like one of these,' is peculiarly appropriate. I 
consider the feeling with which this was ex- 
pressed as the highest honour ever done to 
the study of plants ; and if my botanical con- 
jecture be right, we learn a chronological fact 
respecting the season of the year when the 
sermon on the mount was delivered." 

LIME, Tity, Deut. xxvii, 2, 4 ; Isaiah xxxiii, 
12; Amos ii, 1; a soft friable substance, ob- 
tained by calcining or burning stones, shells, 
or the like. From Isa. xxxiii, 12, it appears 
that it was made in a kiln lighted with thorn 
bushes ; and from Amos ii, 1, that bones wei*e 
sometimes calcined for lime. The use of it 
was for plaster or cement, the first mention 
of which is in Deut. xxvii, where Moses 
directed the elders of the people, sa5dng, 
" Keep all the commandments which I com- 
mand you this day. And it shall be on the 
day when you shall pass over Jordan unto the 
land which the Lord your God giveth you, 
that you shall set up great stones, and plaster 
them with plaster, and shall write upon them 
all the words of this law," &c. The book of 
the law, in order to render it the more sacred, 
was deposited beside the ark of the covenant. 
The guardians of the law, to whom was en- 
trusted the duty of making faithful transcripts 
of it, were the priests. But Moses did not 
account even this precaution sufiicient for the 
due preservation of his law in its original 
purity ; for he commanded that it should be- 
side be engraven on stones, and these stones 
kept on a mountain near Sichem, in order that 
a genuine exemplar of it might be transmitted 
even to the latest generations. 

LION, inN, or niN, Genesis xlix, 9 ; Deut. 
xxxiii, 22 ; JPsalra vii, 2 ; xxii, 13 ; Hosea 
xiii, 8 ; Micah v, 8 ; a large beast of prey, for 
his courage and strength called the king of 
beasts. This animal is produced in Africa, 
and the hottest parts of Asia. It is found in 
the greatest numbers in the scorched and 
desolate regions of the torrid zone, in the 
deserts of Zaara and Bllldulgerid, and in all 
the interior parts of the vast continent of 
Africa. In these desert regions, from whence 
mankind are driven by the rigorous heat of 
the climate, this animal reigns sole master. 
His disposition seems to partake of the ardour 
of his native soil. Inflamed by the influence 
of a burning sun, his rage is tremendous, and 
his courage undaunted. Happily, indeed, the 
species is not numerous, and is said to be 



LIO 



587 



LIO 



greatly diminislied ; for, if we may credit the 
testimony of those who have traversed those 
vast deserts, the number of lions is not nearly 
eo great as formerly. Mr. Shaw observes' that 
the Romans carried more lions from Libya in 
one year for their public spectacles, than could 
be found in all that country at this time. The 
lion was also found in Palestine, and the neigh- 
bouring countries. The length of the largest 
lion is between eight and nine feet, the tail 
about four, and its height about four feet and 
a half. The female is about one-fourth part 
less, and without a mane. As the lion ad- 
vances in years, his mane grows longer and 
thicker. The hair on the rest of the body is 
short and smooth, of a tawny colour, but 
whitish on the belly. Its roaring is loud and 
dreadful. When heard in the night it re- 
sembles distant thunder. Its cry of anger is 
much louder and shorter. The attachment of 
a lioness to her young is remarkably strong. 
For their support she is more ferocious than 
the lion himself; makes her incursions with 
greater boldness; destroys, without distinction, 
every animal that falls in her way, and carries 
it reeking to her cubs. She usually brings 
forth in the most retired and inaccessible 
places ; and when afraid that her retreat 
should be discovered, endeavours to hide her 
track by brushing the ground with her tail. 
When much disturbed or alarmed, she will 
sometimes transport her young, which are 
usually three or four in number, from one 
place to another in her mouth ; and, if ob- 
structed in her course, will defend them to the 
last extremity. The habits of the lion and the 
lioness afford many spirited, and often sublime, 
metaphors to the sacred writers. 

The lion has several names in Scripture, 
according to his different ages or character : 

1. nij, a little lion, a lion's whelp, Deut. xxxiii. 
22 ; Jer. li, 38 ; Ezek. xix, 2 ; Nahum ii, 13^ 

2. iiDD, a young lion that has done sucking 
the lioness, and, leaving the covert, begins to 
seek prey for himself. So Ezekiel xix, 2, 3: 
" The lioness hath brought up one of her 
whelps ; it became a chephir ; it learned to 
catch the prey ; it devoured men." See Psalm 
xci, 13 ; Prov. xix, 12. 3. ns', a grown and 
vigorous lion, having whelps, eager in pursuit 
of prey for them, Nahum ii, 12 ; valiant, 2 Sam. 
xvii, 10 ; arrogantly opposing himself. Num. 
xxiii, 24. This is. indeed, the general name, 
and occurs frequently. 4. ^n-i?, one in the full 
strength of his age ; a black lion, Job iv, 10 ; 
x, 16 ; Psalm xci, 13 ; Prov. xxvi, 13 ; Hosea 
V, 14 ; xiii, 7. 5. tt'i'?, a fierce or enraged lion. 
Job iv, 11 ; Prov. xxx, 30 ; Isaiah xxv, 6. A 
regard to these characteristics and distinctions 
is very important for illustrating the passages 
of Scripture where the animal is spoken of, 
and discovering the propriet}'^ of the allusions 
and metaphors which he so often furnishes to 
the Hebrew poets. The lion of the tribe of 
Judah, mentioned Rev. v, 5, is Jesus Christ, 
who sprung from the tribe of Judah, and over- 
came death, the world, and the devil. The 
lion from the swelling of Jordan, Jer. 1, 44, is 
Nebuchadnezzar marching against Judea, with 



the strength and fierceness of a lion. Isaiah, 
describing the happy time of the Messiah, says, 
that then the calf, and the young lion, and the 
fatling should lie down together ; and that a 
little child should lead them ; and that the lion 
should eat straw like the ox, Isaiah xi, 6, 7, 
which is hyperbolical, and signifies the peace 
and happiness which the church of Christ 
should enjoy. "The lion hath roared, and 
who shall not fear ?" Amos iii, 8. " The 
king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion. Who 
provoketh him to anger sinneth against his 
own soul," Prov. xix, 12 ; xx, 2; that is, he 
seeketh his own death. Solomon says, "A 
living dog is better than a dead lion," Eccles. 
X, 4 ; showing that death renders those con- 
temptible who otherwise are the greatest, most 
powerful, and most terrible. 

" Then went Samson down and, behold, a 
young lion roared against him, and the Spirit 
of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he 
rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he 
had nothing in his hand," Judges xiv, 5, 6, 
An instance in quite modern times of an un- 
armed man attempting to combat a lion is 
related by Poiret : " In a douar, or a camp of 
Bedouin Arabs, near La Calle, a French fac- 
tory, a young lion had seized a cow. A young 
Moor threw himself upon the savage beast, to 
tear his booty from him, and as it were to. 
stifle him in his arms, but he would not let go 
his prey. The father of the young man 
hastened to him, armed with a kind of hoe ; 
and aiming at the lion, struck his son's hand, 
and cut off three of his fingers. It cost a great 
deal of trouble to rescue the prey from the 
lion. I saw this young man, who was attended 
by Mr. Gay, at that time surgeon to the hos- 
pital of La Calle." David, according to 1 Sam. 
xvii, 34, had. When a shepherd, once fought 
with a lion, and another tifne with a bear, and 
rescued their prey from them. Tellez relates, 
that an Abyssinian shepherd had once killed 
a lion of extraordinary size with only two poles. 
" Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the 
swelling of Jordan against the habitation of the 
strong," Jer. xlix, 19. The comparison used 
by the prophet in these words will be perfectly 
understood by the account which Mr. Maun. 
drell gives of the river Jordan : " After having 
descended," says he, " the outermost bank of 
Jordan, you go about a fiirlong upon a level 
strand, before you come to the immediate bank 
of the river. This second bank is so beset 
with bushes and trees, such as tamarisks, wil- 
lows, oleanders, &c, that you can see no water 
till you have made your way through them. 
In this thicket anciently, and the same is re- 
ported of it at this day, several sorts of v/ild 
beasts were wont to harbour themselves, whose 
being washed out of the covert by the over- 
flowings of the river gave occasion to that 
allusion : ' He shall come up like a lion from 
the swelling of Jordan.'" 

" He shall be cast into the den of lions," 
Dan. vi, 7. "In Morocco," says Host, "the 
king has a lions' den, into which men, par- 
ticularly Jews, are sometimes thrown ; but the 
latter generally come off unhurt, because the 



LIT 



588 



LIT 



keepers of these animals are Jews, who may 
safely be with them, with a rod in the hand, 
if they only take care to go out backward, as 
the lion does not suffer any one tolurn his 
back upon him. The other Jews do not let 
their brethren remain longer than a night 
among the lions, as they might otherwise be- 
come too hungry ; but ransom them with 
money, which is, in fact, the king's object." 
In another place in the same work we find the 
following description of the construction of 
this lions' den : "At one end of the royal 
palace there is a place for ostriches and their 
young ; and beyond the other end, toward the 
mountains, there is a large lions' den, which 
consists of a large square hole in the ground, 
with a partition, in the middle of which there 
is a door, which the Jews, who are obliged to 
maintain and keep them for nothing, are able 
to open and shut from above, and can thus 
entice the lions, by means of the food, from 
one division to the other, to clean the other 
in the mean time. It is all in the open air, and 
a person may look down over a wall, which is 
a yard and a quarter high." 

LITANY, a solemn form of supplication to 
God. The word is derived from Xiraveia, sup- 
plication. At first the use of litanies was not 
fixed to any stated time ; but they were em. 
ployed only as exigencies required. They 
were observed in imitation of the Ninevites 
with ardent supplications and fastings, to avert 
the threatened judgments of fire, earthquake, 
inundations, or hostile invasions. The days 
on which they were used were called rogation 
days. SeveraL of these days were appointed 
by the canons of diiferent councils, till the 
seventeenth council of Toledo decreed that 
litanies should be used in every month. Thus, 
by degrees, these solemn supplications came 
to be used weekly, on Wednesdays and Fridays, 
the ancient stationary days in all churches. As 
to the form in which litanies are made, namely, 
in short petitions by the priest with responses 
by the people, St. Chrysostom derives the cus. 
torn from the primitive ages, when the priest 
began and uttered by the Spirit some things 
fit to be prayed for, and the people joined the 
intercessions, saying, " We beseech thee to 
hear us, good Lord." When the miraculous 
gift of the Spirit began to cease, they wrote 
down several of these forms, which were the 
original of our present litanies. St. Ambrose 
has left us one, which agrees in many particu- 
lars with that of our own church. About the 
year 400, litanies began to be used in proces- 
sions, the people walking barefoot, and repeat- 
ing them witli great devotion. It is pretended 
that several countries were delivered from great 
calamities by this means. About the year 600, 
Gregory the Great, from all the litanies ex- 
tant, composed the famous sevenfold litany, 
by which Rome, it is said, was delivered from 
a grievous mortality. This has served as a 
pattern to all the western churches since ; and 
to it ours of the church of England comes 
nearer than that of the Romish missal, in 
which later popes have ii^serted the invocation 
of saints, which our Reformers properly ex- 



punged. These processional litanies havmg 
occasioned much scandal, it was decreed that 
in fiiture the litanies should be used only within 
the walls of the church. Before the last review 
of the Common Prayer, the litany was a dis- 
tinct service by itself, and used some time after 
the morning prayer was ended. At present it 
forms one ofiice with the morning service, 
being ordered to be read after the third collect 
for grace, instead of the intercessional prayers 
in the daily service. 

LITURGY denotes all the ceremonies in 
general belonging to divine service. The word 
comes from the Greek, 'keirapyia, public service, 
or public ministry ; formed of \tlTos, public, and 
f'pyov, work. In a more restrained signification^ 
liturgy is used among the Romanists to signify 
the mass ; and among us, the common prayer. 
All who have written on liturgies agree that, 
in primitive days, divine service was exceed- 
ingly simple, clogged with very few ceremo- 
nies, and consisted of but a very small number 
of prayers ; but, by degrees, they increased the 
number of ceremonies, and added new prayers, 
to render the office more awful and venerable 
to the people. At length, things were carried 
to such a pitch that a regulation became ne. 
cessary ; and it was found needfiil to put the 
service, and the manner of performing it, into 
writing; and this was what they called a 
liturgy. Liturgies have been diflferent at dif- 
ferent times and in different countries. We 
have the liturgy of St. Chrysostom, of St. 
Peter, the Armenian liturgy, Galilean liturgy, 
&c. "The properties required in' a public 
liturgy," says Paley, " are these : it must be 
compendious ; express just conceptions of the 
divine attributes ; recite such wants as a con- 
gregation are likely to feel, and no other ; and 
contain as few controverted propositions as 
possible." The liturgy of the church of Eng- 
land was composed A. D. 1547, and established 
in the second year of King Edward VI. In 
the fifth year of this prince, it was reviewed, 
because some things were contained in that 
liturgy which showed a compliance with the 
superstitions of those times ; and exceptions 
were taken against it by learned men at home, 
and by Calvin abroad. Some alterations were 
made in it, which consisted in adding the 
general confession and absolution, and the 
communion service, to begin with the com- 
mandments. The use of oil in confirmation 
and extreme unction, was left out, and also 
prayers for souls departed, and what related to 
a belief of the real presence of Christ in the 
eucharist. The liturgy, so reformed, was es- 
tablished by the acts of 5th and 6th of Edward 
VI., chap. 1. However, it was abolished by 
Queen Mary, who enacted that the service 
should stand as it was commonly used in the 
last year of King Henry VIII. That of Ed- 
ward VI. was reestablished, with some few 
alterations, by Elizabeth. Some farther altera- 
tions were introduced, in consequence of the 
review of the Common Prayer Book, by order 
of King James, in the first year of his reign ; 
particularly in the office of private baptism, in 
several rubrics, and other passages, with the 



LOG 



589 



LOL 



addition of five or six new prayers and thanks, 
givings, and all that part of the catechism 
which contains the doctrines of the sacraments. 
This Book of Common Prayer, so altered, 
remained in force from the first year of King 
James to the fourteenth of Charles II. The 
last review of the liturgy was in the year 1661. 
It is an invidious cavil, says Dr. Nichols, that 
our liturgy was compiled out of popish books. 
Our reformers took nothing from them, but 
what was taken before from the oldest writers. 
We have many things out of the Greek litur- 
gies of Basil and Chrysostom ; more out of 
the litanies of Ambrose and Gregory ; very 
much out of the ancient forms of the church 
dispersed in the works of the fathers, Avho 
wrote long before the Roman Breviary, and 
Canon of the Mass. Our Reformers added 
many prayers, and thanksgivings, and exhor- 
tations, to supply the defect. 

LIZARD, TMi-^i, Levit. xi, 30. All inter- 
preters agree that the original word here 
signifies a sort of lizard. Bochart takes it 
for that kind which is of a reddish colour, 
lies close to the earth, and is of a venomous 
nature. 

LOCUST, nanx. The word is probably de- 
rived from n^n, which signifies to multiply, to 
become numerous, &c ; because of the immense 
swarms of these animals by which different 
countries, especially in the east, are infested. 
See this circumstance referred to. Judges vi, 5 ; 
vii, 12 ; Psalm cv, 34 ; Jer. xlvi, 23 ; li, 14 ; 
Joel i, 4; Nahum iii, 15; Judith ii, 19, 20; 
where the most numerous armies are compared 
to the arbeh, or locust. 

The locust, in entomology, belongs to a 
genus of insects known among naturalists by 
the name o? grylli. The common great brown 
locust is about three inches in length, has two 
antennse about an inch long, and two pairs of 
wings. The head and horns are brown ; the 
mouth, and insides of the larger legs, bluish ; 
the upper side of the body, and upper wings, 
brown ; the former spotted with black, and the 
latter with dusky, spots. The back is defended 
by a shield of a greenish hue ; the under wings 
are of a light brown hue, tinctured with green, 
and nearly transparent. The general form and 
appearance of the insect is that .of the grass. 
hopper so well known in this country. These 
creatures are frequently mentioned in the Old 
Testament. They were employed as one of 
the plagues for the punishment of the Egyp- 
tians ; and their visitation was threatened to 
the Israelites as a mark of the divine displea- 
sure. Their numbers and destructive powers 
very aptly fit them for this purpose. " When 
they take the field, they always follow a leader, 
whose motions they invariably observe. They 
often migrate from their native country, proba. 
bly in quest of a greater supply of food. On 
these occasions they appear in such large flocks 
as to darken the air; forming many compact 
bodies or swarms, of several hundred yards 
square. These flights are very frequent in 
Barbary, and generally happen at the latter 
end of March or beginning of April, after the 
wind has blown from the south for some days. 



The month following, the young brood also 
make their appearance, generally following 
the track of the old ones. In v/hatever coun- 
try they settle, they devour all the vegetables, 
grain, and, in fine, all the produce of the earth ; 
eating the very bark off" the trees ; thus de- 
stroying at once the hopes of the husbandman, 
and all the labours of agriculture : for though 
their voracity is great, yet they contaminate a 
much greater quantity than they devour ; as 
their bite is poisonous to vegetables, and the 
marks of devastation may be traced for several 
succeeding seasons. There are various species 
of them, which consequently have different 
names ; and some are more voracious and de- 
structive than others, though all are most 
destructive and insatiable spoilers. Bochart 
enumerates ten different kinds which he thinks 
are mentioned in the Scripture. 

Writers in natural history bear abundant 
testimony to the Scriptural account of these 
creatures. Dr. Shaw describes at large the 
numerous swarms and prodigious broods of 
those locusts which he saw in Barbary. Dr. 
Russel says, " Of the noxious kinds of insects 
may well be reckoned the locusts, which some- 
times arrive in such incredible multitudes, that 
it would appear fabulous to give a relation of 
them ; destroying the whole of the verdure 
wherever they pass." Captain Woodroffe, who 
was for some time at Astrachan, a city near 
the Volga, sixty miles to the north-west of the 
Caspian Sea, in latitude 47°, assures us, that, 
from the latter end of July to the beginning of 
O&tober, the country about that city is fre- 
quently infested with locusts, vv^hich fly in such 
prodigious numbers as to darken the air, and 
•appear at a distance as a heavy cloud. As for 
the Mosaic permission to the Jews of eating 
the locusts. Lev. xi, 22, however strange it 
may appear to the mere English reader, yet 
nothing is more certain than that several na- 
tions, both of Asia and Africa, anciently used 
these insects for food ; and that they are still 
eaten in the east to this day. Niebhur gives 
some account of the several species of locusts 
eaten by the Arabs, and of their different ways 
of dressing them for food. " The Europeans," 
he adds, "do not comprehend how the Arabs 
can eat locusts with pleasure ; and those Arabs 
who have had no intercourse with the Chris- 
tians will not believe, in their turn, that these 
latter reckon oj^^sters, crabs, shrimps, cray-fish, 
&c, for dainties. These two facts, however, 
are equally certain." Locusts are often used 
figuratively by the prophets, for invading 
armies ; and their swarms aptly represented 
the numbers, the desolating march of the vast 
military hordes and their predatory followers, 
which the ancient conquerors of the east 
poured down upon every country they attacked, 

LOG, Lev. xiv, 12, a Hebrew measure for 
things liquid, containing five-sixths of a pint. 

LOLLARDS, the supposed followers of 
Walter Lollard, or rather of Walter the Lol- 
lard, who, according to Dr. Mosheim, was a 
Dutchman of remarkable eloquence and piety, 
though tinctured with mysticism, and who, for 
teaching sentiments contrary to the church of 



LOR 



590 



LOR 



Rome, and nearly corresponding with those of 
WicklifFe, was burned alive at Cologne in 
1322. But before this there existed, in dif- 
ferent parts of Germany and Flanders, various 
societies of Cellites, to whom the term Lollards 
was applied, and who were protected by the 
magistrates and inhabitants, on account of 
their usefulness to the sick, and in burying the 
dead. They received the name Lollards, from 
the old German or Belgic word lullen, (Latin, 
lallo,) " to sing with a low voice," to lull to 
sleep," (whence lullaby,) because w^hen they 
carried to the grave, the bed of death, such as 
died of the plague, which at that period ravaged 
all Europe, they sung a dirge or hymn, proba- 
bly, in a soft and mournful tone. These Lollards 
obtained many papal grants, by which their 
institution was confirmed, their persons ex- 
empted from the cognizance of the inquisitors, 
and subjected entirely to the jurisdiction of the 
bishops ; and, at last, for their farther security, 
Charles, duke of Burgundy, in 1472, obtained 
a bull from Pope Sixtus IV., by which they 
were ranked among the religious orders, and 
delivered from the jurisdiction of their bishops ; 
which privileges were yet more extended by 
Pope Julius 11. in 1506. 

In England the followers of WicklifFe were 
called Lollards by way of reproach, either on 
account of the humble offices of the origirjal 
Lollards, (the Cellites,) or from the attachment 
of the Wickliffites to singing hymns. Their 
enemies probably meant to describe them as 
poor melancholy creatures, only fit to sing 
psalms at a funeral. . 

LOOKING GLASS. Moses states that 
the women who waited all night at the door 
of the tabernacle, cheerfully offered their look- 
ing glasses, to be employed in making a brazen 
laver for the purification of the priests, Exod. 
xxxviii, 8. These looking glasses were doubt- 
less of brass, since the basin here mentioned, 
and the basis thereof, were made from them. 
The ancient looking glasses were mirrors, not 
made of glass as ours ; but of brass, tin, silver, 
and a mixture of brass and silver, which last 
were the best and most valuable. 

LORD'S DAY. See Sabbath. 

LORD'S SUPPER, an ordinance instituted 
by our Saviour in commemoration of his death 
and sufferings. The institution of this sacra- 
ment is recorded by the first three evangelists, 
and by the Apostle Paul, whose words differ 
very little from those of his companion St. 
Luke ; and the only difference between St. 
Matthew and St. Mark is, that the latter omits 
the words, " for the remission of sins." There 
is so general an agreement among them all, 
that it will only be necessary to recite the 
words of one of them : " Now, when the even 
was come, he sat down with the twelve," to 
eat the passover w^hich had been prepared by 
his direction ; " and as they were eating, Jesus 
took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and 
gave it to the disciples, and said. Take, eat : 
this is my body. And he took the cup, and 
gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, 
Drink ye all of it ; for this is my blood of the 
New Testament, which is shed for many for 



the remission of sins," Matt, xxvi, 20, 26-28. 
The sacrament of the Lord's Supper being thus 
instituted, was adopted by all the early Chris- 
tians, with very few exceptions; and no mo- 
dern sect rejects it, except the Quakers and 
some mystics, who make the whole of religion 
to consist of contemplative love. 

In the early times of the Gospel the celebra- 
tion of the Lord's Supper was both frequent 
and numerously attended. Voluntary absence 
was considered as a culpable neglect; and 
exclusion from it, by the sentence of the church, 
as a severe punishment. Every one brought 
an offering proportioned to his ability ; these 
offerings were chiefly of bread and wine ; and 
the priests appropriated as much as was neces- 
sary for the administration of the eucharist. 
The clergy had a part of what was left for 
their maintenance ; and the rest furnished the 
jepast called dydirr], or love-feast, which imme- 
diately followed the celebration of the Lord's 
Supper, and of which 'all the communicants, 
both rich and poor, partook. The sacrament 
of the Lord's Supper greatly resembled the 
religious feasts to which the Jews were accus- 
tomed. At those feasts they partook of bread 
and wine in a serious and devout manner, 
after a solemn blessing or thanksgiving to God 
for his manifold mercies. This was particu- 
larly the case at the feast of the passover^ 
which our Saviour w^as celebrating with his 
Apostles when he instituted this holy sacra- 
ment. At that feast, they commemorated the 
deliverance of their own peculiar nation from 
the bondage of Egypt ; and there could not be 
a more suitable opportunity for establishing an 
ordinance which was to commemorate the 
infinitely more important deliverance of all 
mankind from the bondage of sin. The former 
deliverance was typical of the latter ; and 
instead of keeping the Jewish passover, which 
was now to be abrogated, they were to com- 
memorate Christ, their passover, who was 
sacrificed for them; the bread broken was to 
represent his body offered upon the cross ; and 
the wine poured out was to represent his blood, 
which w^as shed for the salvation of men. The 
nourishment which these elements afford to 
our bodies is figurative of the salutary effects • 
which the thing signified has upon our souls. 
And as the celebration of the passover was 
not only a constant memorial of the deliver- 
ance of the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, 
but also a symbolical action, by which they 
had a title to the blessings of the old covenant ; 
so the celebration- of the Lord's Supper is not 
only a constant memorial of the death of 
Christ, but also a pledge or earnest to the 
communicant of the benefits promised by the 
new covenant. As the passover was instituted 
the night before the actual deliverance of the 
Israelites, so the Lord's Supper was instituted 
the night before the redemption of man was 
accomplished by the crucifixion of the blessed 
Jesus. It is to be partaken of by all who look 
for remission of sins by the death of Christ ; 
we are not only to cherish that trust in our 
minds, and express it in our devotions, but we 
are to give an outward proof of our reliance 



LOT 



691 



LOV 



vipfen the merits of his passion as the means of 
our salvation, by eating that bread, and drink- 
mg that wine, which are typical representations 
of the body and blood of Christ, "who by his 
one oblation of himself once offered, made a 
full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, 
and satisfaction for the sins of the whole 
world." See Sacraments. 

LOT, the son of Haran, and nephew to 
Abraham. He accompanied his uncle from 
Ur to Haran, and from thence to Canaan ; a 
proof of their mutual attachment, and simi- 
iarity of principles respecting the true religion. 
With Abraham he descended into Egypt, and 
afterward returned with him into Canaan : 
but the multiplicity of their flocks, and still 
more the quarrels of their servants, rendered a 
friendly separation necessary. When God 
destroyed the cities of the plain with fire and 
brimstone, he delivered "just Lot" from the 
conflagration, according to the account of the 
divine historian. The whole time that Lot 
resided there was twenty-three years. During 
all this period he had been a preacher of right- 
eousness among this degenerate people. In 
him they had before their eyes an illustrious 
example of the exercise of genuine piety, sup- 
ported by unsullied justice and benevolent 
actions. And doubtless it was for these pur- 
poses that Divine Providence placed him for a 
time in that city. The losses which Lot sus- 
tained on this melancholy occasion were very 
great ; his wife, property, and all the pros- 
pects of the future settlement of his family 
blasted. Pity must therefore draw a friendly 
veil over the closing scene of this man of 
affliction ; and let him that thinketh he stand- 
eth, take heed lest he fall into deeds more 
reprehensible than those of Lot, without hav- 
ing equal trials and sufferings to plead in his 
favour. Respecting his wife, whether grieving 
for tlie loss of her property, or inwardly cen- 
suring the severity of the divine dispensation, 
or whether moved by unbelief or curiosity, 
cannot now be known ; but, looking back, she 
became a pillar of salt, Gen. xix, 26. It would 
be endless to present the reader with all the 
opinions on this subject. Some contend that 
nothing more is meant than that she was suffb. 
cated : others, that a column or monument of 
metallic salt was erected upon her grave : 
others affirm that she became encrusted with 
the sulphur, insomuch that she appeared like an 
Egyptian mummy, which is embalmed with 
salt. Our Lord warns his disciples to remem- 
ber Lot's wife in their flight from Jerusalem, 
and not to imitate her tardiness, Luke xvii, 32. 
2. Lot, anything cast or drawn in order to 
determine any matter in question, Proverbs 
xviii, 18. We see the use of lots among the 
Hebrews in many places of Scripture : God 
commands, for example, that lots should be 
cast upon the two goats which were offered 
for the sins of the people, upon the solemn 
day of expiation, to know which of the two 
should be sacrificed, and which liberated, Lev. 
xvi, 8-10. He required also that the land of 
promise should be divided by lot as soon as it 
was conquered ; which command Joshua ac- 



cordingly executed, Num. xxvi, 55, 56 ; xxxiii, 
54 ; xxxiv, 13, &c ; Joshua xiv-xvi ; hence 
the term " lot" is used for an inheritance, 
" Thou maintainest my lot ;" and figuratively 
for a happy state or condition. The priests 
and Levites had their cities appointed by lot. 
Lastly, in the time of David, the four and 
tv/enty classes of the priests and Levites were 
distributed by lot, to determine in what order 
they should wait in the temple, 1 Chron. vi, 
54, 61 ; xxiv, 5 ; xxv, 8. In the division of 
the spoil, after victory, lots were likewise cast, 
to give every man his portion, Obadiah 11.; 
Nahum iii, 10, &c. In the New Testament, 
after the death of Judas, lots were cast to 
decide who should occupy the place of the 
traitor. Acts i, 26. From the above instances, 
it is clear that when men have recourse to this 
method, the matter ought to be of the greatest 
importance, and no other apparent way left to 
determine it ; and the manner of making the 
appeal . should be solemn and grave, if we 
would escape tlie guilt of taking the name of 
God in vain. It unquestionably implies a 
solemn appeal to the Most High to interpose 
by his decision ; and so every thinking man 
will be very careful that he has a true and 
religious ground for so serious a proceeding ; 
and few if any cases can now occur in which 
it can have any justification. The ancient 
manner of casting lots, was either in some 
person's " lap," or fold of the robe ; into a hel- 
met, or urn, or other vessel, in which they 
might be shaken before they were drawn 
or cast. 

LOVE-FEASTS. It is Godwin's opinion, 
that the agapce, or love-feasts, of the primitive 
Christians, were derived from the □ijn or 
feasts upon the sacrifices, at which the Jews 
entertained their friends, and fed the poor ; 
Deut. xii, 18 ; xxvi, 12. There were also 
feasts of much the same kind in use among 
the Greeks and Romans. The former were 
wont to offer certain sacrifices to their gods, 
which were afterward given to the poor. They 
had likewise public feasts for certain districts, 
suppose for a town or a city, toward which all 
who could afiibrd it, contributed, in proportion 
to their different abilities, and all partook of it 
in common. Of this sort were the avauiria of 
the Cretans ; and the (piStria of the Lacedaemo- 
nians, instituted by Lycurgus, and so called 
aapa -tjs (pi^iac, (the A being changed into 6 ac- 
cording to their usual orthography,) as denoting 
that love and friendship which they were intend- 
ed to promote among neighbours and fellow 
citizens. The Romans likewise had a feast of 
the same kind, called charistia; which was a 
meeting only of those who were akin to each 
other ; and the design of it was, that if any 
quarrel or misunderstanding had happened 
among any of them, they might there be recon- 
ciled. To this Ovid alludes in the second book 
of his Fasti : — 

Proxima cognati dixcrc charistia cari, 

Et venit ad socios turba propinqua deos. v. 617. 

[The feasts next in order beloved relatives 

called charistia, at which the kindred throng 

assembled under their family household gods.] 



LOV 



592 



LOV 



In imitation either of these Jewish or Gentile 
love-feasts, or probably of both, the primitive 
Christians, in each particular church, had 
likewise their love-feasts, which were supplied 
by the contribution of the members, according 
to their several abilities, and partaken of by 
all in common. And whether they were con- 
verts from among the Jews or Gentiles, they 
retained their old custom with very little 
alteration, and as their dydnai had been com- 
monly annexed to their sacrifices, so they were 
now annexed to the commemoration of the 
sacrifice of Christ at the Lord's Supper ; and 
were therefore held on the Lord's day before 
or after the celebration of that ordinance. It 
would seem at Corinth, in the Apostles' days, 
they.were ordinarily held before ; for when the 
Corinthians are blamed for unworthily receiv- 
ing the Lord's Supper, it is partly charged upon 
this, that some of them came drunk to that 
ordinance, having indulged to excess at the 
preceding love-feast : " Every one taketh be- 
fore, zspo'XaiiBavei, his own supper, and one is 
hungry, and another is drunken," 1 Cor. xi, 21. 
This shows, says Dr. Whitby, that this banquet, 
namely, the love-feast, was celebrated before 
the Lord's Supper. But Chrysostom gives an 
account of it, as being in his time kept after it. 
It is commonly supposed, that when St. Jude 
mentions certain persons, who were spots in 
the feasts of charity, iv rals aydTrais, verse 12, 
he means in the Christian love-feasts ; though 
Dr. Lightfoot and Dr. Whitby apprehend the 
reference in this passage is rather a custom of 
the Jews, who, on the evening of their Sab- 
bath, had their Koivoivia, or communion, when 
the inhabitants of the same city met in a com- 
raon place to eat together. However that be, 
all antiquity bears testimony to the reality of 
the Christian dyd-Kai, or love-feasts. 

The most circumstantial account, says Dr. 
Townley, of the manner in which the ancient 
agapcB were celebrated, is given by Tertullian, 
in his "Apology," written in the second cen- 
tury: "Our supper," says he, "which you 
accuse of luxury, shows its reason in its very 
name, for it is called dydizri, that is, love. 
Whatever charge we are at, it is gain to be at 
expense upon the account of piety. For we 
therewith relieve and refresh the poor. There 
is nothing vile or immodest committed in it. 
For we do not sit down before we have first 
offered up prayer to God. We eat only to 
satisfy hunger, and drink only so much as be- 
comes modest persons. We fill ourselves in 
such a manner, as that we remember still that 
we are to worship God by night. We discourse 
as in the presence of God, knowing that he 
hears us. Tnen, after water to wash our 
hands, and lights brought in, every one is moved 
to sing some hymn to God, either out of Scrip- 
ture, or, as he is able, of his own composing, 
and by this we judge whether he has observed 
the rules of temperance in drinking. Prayer 
again concludes our feast ; and thence we de- 
part, not to fight and quarrel ; not to run about 
and abuse all we meet ; not to give up our- 
selves to lascivious pastime ; but to pursue the 
same care of modesty and chastity, as men 



that have fed at a supper of philosophy and 
discipline, rather than a corporeal feast." Ig. 
natius, in his epistle to the church of Smyrna, 
in the first century, affords us the additional 
information, "that it was not lawful to bap- 
tize, or celebrate the love-feasts, without the 
bishop, or minister." Lucian, the epicurean, 
has also a passage which seems to refer to the 
agapa. He tells us that when Peregrinus, a 
Christian, was in prison, "you might have 
seen, early in the morning, old women, some 
widows, and orphans, waiting at the prison. 
Their presidents bribed the guards, and lodged 
in the prison with him. Afterward (that is, 
in the evening) various suppers (that is, sup- 
pers consisting of various dishes, and various 
kinds of meat, brought thither by various per- 
sons of the company) were brought in, and 
they held their sacred conversations, hpoi Xoyot, 
or their sacred discourses were delivered.'* 
Pliny, in his celebrated epistle to Trajan, men- 
tions the '■'• cibus j)ramiscuus ' et innoxius,^''— 
"common and harmless meal" of the Chris- 
tians, which they ate together after the cele- 
bration of the eucharist. This primitive prac- 
tice, though under a simpler form, and more 
expressly religious, is retained in modern times, 
only by the Moravians, and by the Wesleyan 
Methodists. 

LOVE TO GOD. To serve and obey God 
on the conviction that it is right to serve and 
obey him, is in Christianity joined with that 
love to God which gives life and animation to 
service, and renders it the means of exalting 
our pleasures, at the same time that it accords 
with our convictions. The supreme love of 
God is the chief, therefore, of what have some- 
times been called our theopathetic affections. 
It is the sum and the end of the law; and 
though it has been lost by us in Adam, it is 
restored to us by Christ. When it regards God 
absolutely, and in himself, as a Being of infi- 
nite and harmonious perfections and moral 
beauties, it is that movement of the soul to- 
ward him which is produced by admiration, 
approval, and delight. When it regards him 
relatively, it fixes upon the ceaseless eraana- 
tions of his goodness to us all in the continu- 
ance of the existence which he at first bestow- 
ed; the circumstances which render that 
existence felicitous ; and, above all, upon that 
" great love wherewith he loved us," manifested 
in the gift of his Son for our redemption, and 
in saving us by his grace ; or, in the forcible 
language of St. Paul, upon " the exceeding 
riches of his grace in his kindness to us through 
Christ Jesus." Under all these views an un- 
bounded gratitude overflows the heart which 
is influenced by this spiritual affection. But 
the love of God is more than a sentiment of 
gratitude : it rejoices in his perfections and 
o-lories, and devoutly contemplates them as 
the highest and most interesting subjects of 
thought ; it keeps the idea of this supremely 
beloved object constantly present to the mind ; 
it turns to it with adoring ardour from the 
business and distractions of life ; it connects it 
with every scene of majesty and beauty in 
nature, and with every event of general and 



LOV 



693 



LUC 



particular providence ; it brings the soul into 
fellowship with God, real and sensible, because 
vital ; it moulds the other affections into con. 
formity with what God himself wills or pro- 
hibits, loves or hates ; it produces an unbound- 
ed desire to please him, and to be accepted of 
him in all things ; it is jealous of his honour, 
unwearied in his service, quick to prompt to 
every sacrijfice in the cause of his truth and his 
church ; and it renders all such sacrifices, even 
when carried to the extent of suffering and 
death, unreluctant and cheerful. It chooses 
God as the chief good of the soul, the enjoy- 
ment of which assures its perfect and eternal 
interest and happiness : "Whom have I in 
heaven but thee ? and there is none upon earth 
that I desire beside thee," is the language of 
every heart, when its love of God is true in 
principle and supreme in degree. 

If, then, the will of God is the perfect rule 
of morals ; and if supreme and perfect love to 
God must produce a prompt and unwearied, a 
delightful subjection to his will, or rather an 
entire and most free choice of it as the rule of 
all our principles, affections, and actions ; the 
importance of this affection in securing that 
obedience to the law of God in which true mo- 
rality consists, is manifest ; and we clearly 
perceive the reason why an inspired writer has 
affirmed, that "love is the fulfilling of the 
law." The necessity of keeping this subject 
before us under those views in which it is 
placed in the Christian system, and of not sur- 
rendering it to mere philosophy, is, however, 
an important consideration. With the philo- 
sopher the love of God may be the mere ap- 
proval of the intellect ; or a sentiment which 
results from the contemplation of infinite per- 
fection, manifesting itself in acts of power and 
goodness. In the Scriptures it is much more 
than either, and is produced and maintained 
by a different process. We are there taught 
that " the carnal mind is enmity to God," and 
is not, of course, capable of loving God. Yet 
this carnal mind may consist with deep attain- 
ments in philosophy, and with strongly ira'pas- 
sioned poetic sentiment. The mere approval 
of the understanding, and the susceptibility 
of being impressed with feelings of admiration, 
awe, and even pleasure, when the character of 
God is manifested in his works, as both may 
be found in the carnal mind which is enmity 
to God, are not therefore the love of God. 
They are principles which enter into that love, 
since it cannot exist without them ; but they 
may exist without this affection itself, and be 
found in a vicious and unchanged nature. The 
love of God is a fruit of the Holy Spirit ; that 
is, it is implanted by him only in the souls which 
he has regenerated ; and as that which excites 
its exercise is chiefly, and in the first place, a 
sense of the benefits bestowed by the grace of 
God in our redemption, and a well grounded 
persuasion of our personal interest in those be- 
nefits, it necessarily presupposes our recon- 
ciliation to God through faith in the atonement 
of Christ, and that attestation of it to the heart 
by the Spirit of adoption. We here see, then, 
another proof of the necessary connection of 
39 



Christian morals with Christian doctrine, and 
how imperfect and deceptive every system must 
be which separates them. Love is essential to 
true obedience ; for when the Apostle declares 
love to be "the fulfilling of the law," he de- 
clares, in effect, that the law cannot be fulfil- 
led without love ; and that every action which 
has not this for its principle, however virtuous 
in its show, fails of accomplishing the precepts 
which are obligatory upon us. But this love 
to God cannot be felt so long as we are sensi- 
ble of his wrath, and are in dread of his judg- 
ments. These feelings are incompatible with 
each other, and we must be assured of his re- 
conciliation to us, before we are capable of 
loving him. Thus the very existence of love 
to God implies the doctrines of atonement, 
repentance, faith, and the gift of the Spirit of 
adoption to believers ; and unless it be taught 
in this connection, and through this process 
of experience, it will be exhibited only as a 
bright and beauteous object to which man has 
no access ; or a fictitious and imitative senti- 
mentalism will be substituted for it, to the 
delusion of the souls of men. 

LUCIAN, a philosoper and wit, who appear, 
ed as one of the early opposers of the Chris- 
tian religion and its followers. The hostile 
sentiments of the Heathens toward Christiani- 
ty, says Dr. Neander, were different according 
to the difference of their philosophical and re- 
ligious views. There entered then upon the 
contest two classes of men, who have never 
since ceased to persecute Christianity. These 
were the superstitious, to whom the honouring 
God in spirit and in truth was a stumbling 
stone, and the careless unbeliever, who, unac- 
quainted with all feelings of religious wants, 
was accustomed to laugh and to mock at every 
thing which proceeded from them, whether he 
understood it or not, and at all which supposed 
such feelings, and proposed to satisfy them. 
Such was Lucian. To him Christianity, like 
every other remarkable religious phenomenon, 
appeared only as a fit object for his sarcastic 
wit. Without giving himself the trouble to 
examine and to discriminate, he threw Chris- 
tianity, superstition, and fanaticism, into the 
same class. It is easy enough, in any system 
which lays deep hold on man's nature, to find 
out some side open to ridicule, if a man brings 
forward only that which is external in the 
system, abstracted from all its inward power 
and meaning, and without either understand- 
ing, or attempting to understand, this power. 
He, therefore, who looked on Christianity with 
cold indifference, and the profane every-day 
feelings of worldly prudence, might easily here 
and there find objects for his satire. The 
Christian might indeed have profited by that 
ridicule, and have learned from the children 
of darkness to join the wisdom of the serpent 
with the meekness of the dove. In the end 
the scoffer brings himself to derision, because 
he ventures to pass sentence on the phenomena 
of a world of which he has not the slightest 
conception, and which to his eyes, buried as 
they are in the films of the earth, is entirely 
closed. Such was Lucian. He sought to bring 



LUD 



694 



LUK 



lorward all that is striking and remarkable in 
the external conduct and circumstances of 
Christians, which might serve for the object 
of his sarcastic raillery, without any deeper 
inquiry as to what the religion of the Chris- 
tians really was. And yet even in that at 
which he scoffed, there was much which might 
have taught him to remark in Christianity 
no common power over the hearts of men, 
had he been capable of such serious impres- 
sions. The firm hope of eternal life which 
taught them to meet death with tranquillity, 
their brotherly love one toward another, might 
have indicated to him some higher spirit which 
animated these men ; but instead of this he 
treats it all as delusion, because many gave 
themselves up to death with something like 
fanatical enthusiasm. He scoffs at the notion 
of a crucified man having taught them to re- 
gard all mankind as their brethren, the moment 
they should have abjured the gods of Greece ; 
as if it were not just the most remarkable part 
of all this, that an obscure person in Jerusa- 
lem, who was deserted by every one, and exe- 
cuted as a criminal, should be able, a good 
century afler his death, to cause such effects 
as Lucian, in his own time, saw extending in 
all directions, and in spite of every kind of per- 
secution. How blinded must he have been to 
pass thus lightly over such a phenomenon ! 
But men of his ready wit are apt to exert it 
with too great readiness on all subjects. They 
are able to illustrate everything out of nothing ; 
with their miserable " nil admirari," they can 
close their hearts against all lofty impressions. 
With all his wit and keenness, with all his 
undeniably fine powers of observation in all 
that has no concern with the deeper impulses 
of man's spirit, he was a man of very little 
mind. But hear his own language: "The 
wretched people have persuaded themselves 
that they are altogether immortal, and will live 
for ever; therefore they despise death, and 
many of them meet it of their own accord. 
Their first lawgiver has persuaded them also 
to regard all mankind as their brethren, as 
soon as they have abjured the Grecian gods, 
and, honouring their crucified Master, have 
begun to live according to his laws. They de- 
spise every thing Heathen equally, and regard 
all but their own notions as profaneness, while 
they have yet embraced those notions without 
sufficient examination." He has no farther 
accusation to make against them here, except 
the ease with which they allowed their bene- 
volence toward their fellow Christians to be 
abused by impostors, in which there may be 
much truth, but there is, nevertheless, some 
exaggeration. 

LUDIM. There were two Luds ; the one 
the son of Shem, from whom the Lydians of 
Asia Minor are supposed to have sprung, and 
the other the son of Mizraim, whose residence 
was in Africa. The descendants of the latter 
only are mentioned in Scripture : they are 
toined by Issiah, Ixvi, 19, with Pul, whose 
settlement is supposed to have been about the 
island Philoe, near the first cataract of the 
Nile ; by Jeremiali, xlvi, 9, with the Ethiopians 



and Libyans ; by Ezekiel, xxvii, 10, witH Phuf, 
as the mercenary soldiers of Tyre, and xxx, 5, 
with the Ethiopians and Libyans ; all plainly 
denoting their African position ; but in what 
particular part of that continent this position 
was, is not known. 

LUKE. The New Testament informs us 
of very few particulars concerning St. Luke. 
He is not named in any of the Gospels. In 
the Acts of the Apostles, which were, as will 
hereafler be shown, written by him, he uses 
the first person plural, when he is relating 
some of the travels of St. Paul ; and thence it 
is inferred, that at those times he was himself 
with that Apostle. The first instance of this 
kind is in the eleventh verse of the sixteenth 
chapter ; he there says, " Loosing from Troas, 
we came up with a straight course to Samo- 
thracia." Thus, we learn that St. Luke ac- 
companied St. Paul in this his first voyage to 
Macedonia. From Samothracia they went to 
Neapolis, and thence to Philippi. At this last 
place we conclude that St. Paul and St. Luke 
separated, because in continuing the history 
of St. Paul, after he lefl Philippi, St. Luke 
uses the third person, saying, "Now when 
they had passed through Amphipolis," &c, 
Acts xvii, 1 ; and he does not resume the first 
person till St. Paul was in Greece the second 
time. We have no account of St. Luke during 
this interval ; it only appears that he was not 
with St. Paul. When St. Paul was about to 
go to Jerusalem from Greece, after his second 
visit into that country, St. Luke, mentioning 
certain persons, says, " These going before 
tarried for us at Troas ; and we sailed away 
from Philippi," Acts xx, 5, 6. Thus again we 
learn that St. Luke accompanied St. Paul out 
of Greece, through Macedonia to Troas ; and 
the sequel of St. Paul's history in the Acts, 
and some passages in his epistles, 2 Tim. iv, 
11 ; Col. iv, 14, Philemon 24, written while he 
was a prisoner at Rome, informs us that St. 
Luke continued from that time with Paul, till 
he was released from his confinement at Rome ; 
whidh was a space of about five years, and 
included a very interesting part of St. Paul's 
life, Acts xx-xxviii. 

Here ends the certain account of St. Luke. 
It seems probable, however, that he went from 
Rome into Achaia; and some authors have 
asserted that he afterward preached the Gos- 
pel in Africa. None of the most ancient 
fathers having mentioned that St. Luke suf- 
fered martyrdom, we may suppose that he died 
a natural death ; but at what time, or in what 
place, is not known. We are told by some 
that St. Luke was a painter, and Grotius and 
Wetstein thought that he was in the earlier 
part of his life a slave ; but I find, says Bishop 
Tomline, no foundation for either opinion in 
any ancient writer. It is probable that he 
was by birth a Jew, and a native of Antioch 
in Syria ; and I see no reason to doubt that 
"Luke, the beloved physician," mentioned in 
the Epistle to the Colossians, iv, 14, was Luke 
tlie evangelist. 

Lardner thinks that there are a few allusions 
to this Gospel in some of the apostolical 



LUK 



595 



LUN 



fathers, especially in Hermas and Poly carp; and 
in Justin Martyr there are passages evidently 
taken from it ; but the earliest author, who 
actually mentions St. Luke's Gospel, is Ire- 
naeus ; and he cites so many peculiarities in it, 
all agreeing with the Gospel which we now 
have, that he alone is sufficient to prove its 
genuineness. We may however observe, that 
his testimony is supported by Clement of Alex- 
andria, Tertullian, Origen, Eusebius, Jerom, 
Chrysostom, and many others. Dr. Owen and 
Dr. Townson have compared many parallel 
passages of St. Mark's and St. Luke's Gospels ; 
and Dr. Townson has concluded that St. Luke 
had seen St. Mark's Gospel, and Dr. Owen, 
that St. Mark had seen St. Luke's ; but there 
does not appear to be a sufficient similarity of 
expression to justify either of these conclu- 
sions. There was among the ancients a differ- 
ence of opinion concerning the priority of 
these two Gospels ; and it must be acknow- 
ledged to be a very doubtful point. 

There is also great doubt about the place 
where this Gospel was published. It seems 
most probable that it was published in Greece, 
and for the use of Gentile converts. Dr. 
Townson observes, that the evangelist has 
inserted many explanations, particularly con. 
cerning the scribes and Pharisees, which he 
would have omitted if he had been writing for 
those who were acquainted with the customs 
and sects of the Jews. We must conclude 
that the histories of our Saviour, referred to 
in the preface to this Gospel, were inaccurate 
and defective, or St. Luke would not have 
undertaken this work. It does not, however, 
appear that they were written with any bad 
design ; but being merely human compositions, 
and perhaps put together in great haste, they 
were full of errors. They are now entirely 
lost, and the names of their authors are not 
known. When the four authentic Gospels 
were published, and came into general use, all 
others were quickly disregarded and forgotten. 

St. Luke's Gospel is addressed to Theophi- 
lus ; but there was a doubt, even in the time 
of Epiphanius, whether a particular person, 
or any good Christian in general, be intended 
by that name. Theophilus was probably a real 
person, that opinion being more agreeable to 
the simplicity of the sacred writing^. We have 
seen that St. Luke was for several years the 
companion of St. Paul ; and many ancient 
writers consider this Gospel as having the 
sanction of St. Paul, in the same manner as 
St. Mark's had that of St. Peter. Whoever 
will examine the evangelist's and the Apostle's 
account of the eucharist in their respective 
original works, will observe a great coinci- 
dence of expression, Luke xxii ; 1 Cor. xi. 
St. Luke seems to have had more learning 
than any other of the evangelists, and his lan- 
guage is more varied, copious, and pure. This 
superiority in style may perhaps be owing to 
his longer residence in Greece, and greater 
acquaintance with Gentiles of good education, 
than fell to the lot of the writers of the other 
three Gospels. This Gospel contains many 
things which are not found in the other 



Gospels ; among which are the following : 
the birth of John the Baptist ; the Roman 
census in Judea ; the circumstances attend, 
ing Christ's birth at Bethlehem ; the vision 
granted to the shepherds ; the early testi- 
mony of Simeon and Anna ; Christ's conver- 
sation with the doctors in the temple when 
he was twelve years old ; the parables of the 
good Samaritan, of the prodigal son, of Dives 
and Lazarus, of the wicked judge, and of the 
publican and Pharisee ; the miraculous cure 
of the woman who had been bowed down by 
illness eighteen years ; the cleansing of the 
ten lepers ; and the restoring to life the son 
of a widow at Nain ; the account of Zaccheus, 
and of the penitent thief; and the particulars 
of the journey to Emmaus. It is very satis- 
factory that so early a writer as Irenaeus has 
noticed most of these peculiarities ; which 
proves not only that St. Luke's Gospel, but 
that the other Gospels also, are the same now 
that they were in the second century. 

LUNATICS, aeXrjvLaC^onivovi, lunatici, Matt, 
iv, 24. Thus those sick persons were called, 
who were thought to suffer most severely at 
the changes of the moon ; for example, epilep- 
tical persons, or those who have the falling 
sickness, insane persons, or those tormented 
with fits of morbid melancholy. Mad people 
are still called lunatics, from an ancient, but 
now almost exploded, opinion, that they are 
much influenced by that planet. A sounder 
philosophy has taught us, that, if there be any 
thing in it, it must be accounted for, not in 
the manner the ancients imagined, nor other- 
wise than by what the moon has in common 
with other heavenly bodies, occasioning vari- 
ous alterations in tlie gravity of our atmos- 
phere, and thereby affecting human bodies. 
However, there is considerable reason to doubt 
the fact ; and it is certain that the moon has 
no perceivable influence on our most accurate 
barometers. It has been the fashion to decry 
and ridicule the doctrine of demoniacal pos- 
sessions, and to represent the patients merely 
as lunatics or madmen. And some think that 
this is countenanced by the calumny of the 
unbelieving Jews concerning Christ, " He 
hath a demon, and is mad," John x, 20 ; both 
possession and madness often producing the 
same symptoms of convulsions, paralysis, &c, 
Matt, xvii, 15-18. But that they were distinct 
diseases, may be collected from the following 
considerations : 1. The evangelists, enumerat- 
ing the various descriptions of patients, distin- 
guish 6aijjiOvi^dii£voi, demoniacs, atXrivia^OjUvoi, 
lunatics, and zsapaXvriKoi, paralytics, from per- 
sons afflicted with other kinds of diseases, 
Matt, iv, 24; Mark i, 34; Luke vi, 17, 18. 
2. That a real dispossession took place, seems 
to follow from the number of these impure 
inmates. Mary of Magdala, or the Magda- 
lene, was afflicted with seven demons, Mark 
xvi, 9. "A legion" besought Christ's per- 
mission to enter into a numerous herd of two 
thousand swine ; which they did, and drove 
the whole herd down a precipice into the sea, 
where they were all drowned. This remark- 
able case is noticed by the three evangelists 



LUT 



696 



LUT 



most circumstantially, Matt, viii, 28 ; Mark 
V, 1 ; Luke viii, 26. 3, The testimony of the 
demoniacs to Christ was not that of madmen 
or idiots. It evinced an intimate knowledge both 
of his person and character, which was hidden 
from the "wise and prudent" of the nation, 
the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees. Their 
language was, "What hast thou to do with 
us, Jesus of Nazareth ? Art thou come to tor- 
ment us before the time ?" " I know thee who 
thou art, the Holy One of God :" " thou art 
the Christ, the Son of God, the Son of the 
most high God," Matt, viii, 29 ; Mark i, 24 ; 
iii, 11 ; Luke iv, 34-41. And they repeatedly 
besought him not to torment them, not to order 
them to depart into the abyss, Luke viii, 28-31. 
See Demoniacs. 

LUTHERANS, or the LUTHERAN 
CHURCH, the disciples and followers of 
Martin Luther, an Augustine friar, who was 
born at Isleben, in Upper Saxony, in the year 
1483. He possessed an invincible magnani- 
mity, and uncommon vigour and acuteness of 
genius. He first took offence at the indulgen- 
ces which were granted in 1517, by Pope Leo 
X., to those who contributed toward finishing 
St. Peter's church at Rome, Luther being then 
professor of divinity at Wittemberg. Those 
indulgences promised remission of all sins, 
past, present, and to come, however enormous 
their nature, to all who were rich enough to 
purchase them. At this Luther raised his 
warning voice ; and in ninety-five propositions, 
which he maintained publicly at Wittemberg, 
September 30, 1517, exposed the doctrine of 
indulgences, which led him to attack also the 
authority of the pope. This was the com- 
mencement of that memorable revolution in 
the church which is styled the Reformation ; 
though Mosheim fixes the era of the Reform- 
ation from 1520, when Luther was excom- 
municated by the pope. 

In 1523 Luther drew up a liturgy, that, in 
many things, differed but little from the Mass 
Book ; but he left his followers to make farther 
reforms, as they saw them necessary ; and, in 
consequence, the forms of worship in the Lu- 
theran churches vary in points of minor im- 
portance : but they agree in reading the Scrip- 
tures publicly, in offering prayers and praises 
to God through the Mediator in their own 
language, in popular addresses to the congre- 
gation, and the reverend administration of the 
sacraments. 

The Augsburgh Confession (see Confessions) 
forms the established creed of the Lutheran 
church. The following are a few of the prin- 
cipal points of doctrine maintained by this 
great reformer, and a few of the Scriptures by 
which he supported them. 

1. That the Holy Scriptures are the only 
source whence we are to draw our religious 
sentiments, whether they relate to faith or 
practice, John v, 39 ; 1 Cor. iv, 16 ; 2 Tim. 
iii, 15-17. Reason also confirms the sufficiency 
of the Scriptures ; for, if the written word be 
allowed to be a rule in one case, how can it 
be denied to be a rule in another ? 

2. That justification is the effect of faith 



exclusive of good works ; and that faith ought 
to produce good works purely in obedience to 
God, and not in order to our justification ; for 
St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Galatians, stren- 
uously opposed those who ascribed our justi- 
fication, though but in part, to works : "If 
righteousness come by the law, then Christ is 
dead in vain," Gal. ii, 21. Therefore it is 
evident we are not justified by the law, or by 
our works ; but to him that believeth, sin is 
pardoned, and Christ's righteousness imputed. 
This article of justification by faith alone, 
Luther used frequently to call " ariiculus stan- 
tis vel cadentis ecclesicB;" that by which the 
church must stand or fall. 

3. That no man is able to make satisfaction 
for his sins ; for our Lord teaches us to say, 
when we have done all things that are com- 
manded us, " We are unprofitable servants," 
Luke xvii, 10. Christ's sacrifice is alone suf- 
ficient to satisfy for sin, and nothing need be 
added to the infinite value of his atonement. 

Luther also rejected tradition, purgatory, 
penance, auricular confession, masses, invo- 
cation of saints, monastic vows, and other 
doctrines of the church of Rome. Luther dif- 
fered widely from Calvin on matters of church 
discipline ; and on the presence of Christy's 
body in the sacrament. His followers also 
deviated from him in some things ; but the 
following may be considered as a fair state- 
ment of their principles, and the difference 
between them and the Calvinists: 1. The Lu- 
therans in Germany reject both Episcopacy and 
Presbyterianism, but appoint superintendents 
for the government of the church, who preside 
in their consistories, when that office is not 
supplied by a delegate from the civil govern- 
ment ; and they hold meetings in the diSerent 
towns and villages, to inquire into the state 
of the congregations and the schools. The 
appointment of superintendents, and the pre- 
sentation to livings, is generally in the prince, 
or ecclesiastical courts. The Swedes and 
Danes have an ecclesiastical hierarchy, similar 
to that of England. 2. They differ in their 
views of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 
All the Lutherans reject irans-substantiation, 
but affirm that the body and blood of Christ 
are materially present in the sacrament, though 
in an incomprehensible manner: this they 
called cow-substantiation. The Calvinists hold, 
on the contrary, that Jesus Christ is only 
spiritually present in the ordinance, by the 
external signs of bread and wine. 3, They 
differ as to the doctrine of the eternal decrees 
of God respecting man's salvation. The 
modern Lutherans maintain that the divine 
decrees, respecting the salvation and misery of 
men, are founded upon the divine prescien^ce. 
The Calvinists, on the contrary, consider these 
decrees as absolute and unconditional. 

The Lutherans are generally divided into 
the moderate and the rigid. The moderate 
Lutherans are those who submitted to the 
Interim published by the Emperor Charles V, 
Melancthon was the head of this party, and 
they were called Adiaphorists. The rigid 
Lutherans are those who would not endure 



LUT 



597 



LUT 



any change in their master's sentiments, of 
whom M. Flaccius was the head. The Lu- 
therans are partial to the use of instrumental 
music in their churches, and admit statues and 
paintings, as the church of England does, 
without allowing them any religious venera- 
tion ; but the rigid Calvinists reject these, and 
allow only the simplest forms of psalmody. 
The modern Lutherans, about the close of the 
seventeenth century, enlarged their liberality 
toward other sects, and gave up the supposed 
right of persecution ; confessing that Chris- 
tians are accountable to God only for their 
religious faith. They admit, also, into their 
sacred canon the Epistle of St. James, which 
Luther rashly rejected, because he could not 
reconcile it with St. Paul's doctrine of justifi- 
cation ; and the Revelation of St. John, which 
Luther also rejected, because he could not 
explain it. 

On some of the doctrines of the early Ger- 
man reformers the following remarks by Arch- 
bishop Laurence are entitled to high consider- 
ation :-r-Against the church of Rome, which 
always, when attacked, fled for protection to 
the shield of scholastical sophistry, Luther had 
waged a dauntless, unwearied, and effBctual 
warfare. He entered the field of contest without 
distrust or apprehension, under a rooted per- 
suasion that the victory over superstition would 
prove easy at an era when learning had already 
begun to extend itself in every direction, and. 
was become closely allied to theological attain- 
ments. When the light of day appeared, the 
genuine doctrines of Scripture and the primi- 
tive opinions of antiquity began to be more 
distinctly perceived, and more accurately 
investigated. With an attachment to classical 
pursuits arose a zeal for Biblical inquiries. 
Taste and truth went hand in hand. Luther, 
than whom no one was more capable of 
infusing energy into the cause in which he 
had embarked, was of all men the worst 
adapted to conduct it with moderation : he 
was calculated to commence, but not to 
complete, reformation. Prompt, resolute, and 
impetuous, he laboured with distinguished 
success in the demolition of long established 
error; he also hastily threw together the 
rough and cumbrous materials of a better sys- 
tem. But the office of selecting, modelling, 
and arranging them was consigned to a cor- 
recter hand. Melancthon was of a character 
directly opposite to that of Luther, possessing 
every requisite to render truth alluring and 
reformation respectable ; and hence upon him, 
in preference, the princes of Germany conferred 
the honour of compiling the public profession 
of their faith. But it ought not to be concealed, 
that, previously to the time when Lutheranism 
first became settled upon a permanent basis, 
and added public esteem to public notice, tenets 
were advanced, which retarded the progress of 
truth more than all the subtleties of scholastic 
argument, or the terrors of papal anathema. 
At the beginning of the Reformation, as Me- 
lancthon frankly observed to Cranmer, there 
existed among its advocates stoical disputa- 
tions respecting fate, offensive in their nature, 



and noxious in their tendency. The duration, 
however, of these stoical disputations was but 
short ; and the substitution of a more rational 
as well as practical system, for the space of 
more than twenty years before the appearance 
of our Articles, prevented the founders of our 
church from mistaking, for the doctrines of the 
Lutherans, those which they themselves wished 
to forget, and were anxious to obliterate. As 
we descend to particulars, it will be necessary 
to keep our eye upon one prominent doctrine, 
which was eminently conspicuous in all the 
controversies of the Lutherans, — the doctrine 

of COMPLETE REDEMPTION BY ChRIST, which in 

their idea their adversaries (the Papists) dis- 
regarded, who denied in effect the depravity 
of our nature, believed the favour of Heaven 
in this life recoverable by what was denom- 
inated merit of congruity, and, in the life to 
come, b}"^ that which was termed merit of con- 
dignity, and founded predestination upon 
merits of such a description ; thus in every 
instance, while retaining the name of Chris- 
tians, rendering Christianity itself superfluous. 
In opposition to opinions so repugnant in 
many respects to reason, and in almost all so 
subversive of Scripture, the Lutherans con 
stantly pressed the unsophisticated tenet of 
the atonement, not contractedly in a Calvin, 
istical, but comprehensively in a Christian, 
point of view, — in one in which both Calvin- 
ists and Arminians alike embrace it. 

Upon original sin the doctrine of the 
schoolmen was no less fanciful and remote 
from every Scriptural idea, than flattering to 
human pride. They contended that the in- 
fection of our nature is not a mental but a 
mere corporeal taint ; that the body alone 
receives and transmits the contagion, while 
the soul in all instances proceeds immaculate 
from the hands of her Creator. This dispo- 
sition to disease, such as they allowed it to 
be, was considered by some of them as the 
effect of a peculiar quality in the forbidden 
fruit ; by others, as having been contracted 
from the poisonous breath of the infernal spirit 
which inhabited the serpent's body. On one 
point they were all united ; by preserving to 
the soul the bright traces of her divine origin 
unimpaired, they founded on a deceitful basis 
an arrogant creed, which, in declaring peace 
and pardon to the sinner, rested more upon 
personal merit than the satisfaction of a Sa. 
viour. In commenting upon the celebrated 
Book of Sentences, a work once not much less 
revered than the Scriptures themselves, the 
disciples of Lombard never failed to improve 
every hint which tended to degrade the grace 
of God and exalt the pride of man. Original 
sin the Romish schoolmen directly opposed to 
original righteousness ; and this they con- 
sidered not as something connatural with man, 
but as a superinduced habit or adventitious 
ornament, the removal of which could not 
prove detrimental to the native powers of his 
mind. When, therefore, they contemplated 
the effects of the fall, by confining the evil to 
a corporeal taint, and not extending it to the 
nobler faculties of the soul, they regarded man 



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as an object of divine displeasure, not because 
he possessed that which was offensive, but 
because he was defective in that which was 
pleasing to the Almighty. Adam, they said, 
received for himself and his posterity the gift 
of righteousness, which he subsequently for- 
feited ; in his loins we were included, and by 
him were virtually represented : his will was 
ours, and hence the consequence of his lapse 
is justly imputable to us his descendants. By 
our natural birth, therefore, under this idea, 
we are alienated from God, innocent in our 
individual persons, but guilty in that of him 
from whom we derived our existence ; a guilt 
which, although contracted through the fault 
of another, yet so closely adheres to us that it 
effectually precludes our entrance at the gate 
of everlasting life, until the reception of a new 
birth in baptism. Thus they contended, that 
the sin of Adam conveys to us solely imputed 
guilt ; the corporeal infection which they 
^.dmitted not being sin itself, but only the 
subject matter of it, — not peccatum, but, ac- 
cording to their phraseology, fomes peccati, a 
kind of fuel which the human will kindles or 
not at pleasure. Such was the outline of the 
doctrine maintained in the church of Rome. 
The tenfit of the Lutherans, on the other hand, 
is remarkable for its simplicity and perspicuity. 
Avoiding all intricate questions upon the sub- 
ject, they taught that original sin is a corrup- 
tion of our nature in a general sense, a depra- 
vation of the mental faculties and the corporeal 
appetites ; that the resplendent image of the 
Deity, which man received at the creation of 
the world, although not annihilated, is never- 
theless greatly impaired ; and that, in conse- 
quence, the bright characters of unspotted 
sanctity, once deeply engraven on his mind 
by the hand of the living God, are become 
obliterated, the injury extending to his intel- 
lect, and affecting as well his reason and his 
will as his affections and passions. To con- 
ceive that inclination to evil incurs not in 
itself the disapprobation of Heaven, appeared 
to them little better than an apology for crime, 
or at least a dangerous palliation of that which 
the Christian's duty compels him not only to 
repress but abhor. 

The case of Cornelius, whose prayers and 
alms are said to have ascended up for a me- 
morial before God, was often quoted, by the 
advocates of the church of Rome, to prove the 
merit of works before the reception of grace ; 
to prove the human will capable, by its own 
inherent rectitude, of deserving the favour 
and approbation of Heaven. The Lutherans, 
on the other hand, contended, that the argu- 
ment supported not the conclusion drawn 
from it, and was therefore irrelevant ; that the 
works of Cornelius were not the causes but 
the effects of grace ; and that this is suffi- 
ciently apparent from the context, in which 
he is described as " a devout man, who feared 
God and pra»yed continually." The disciples 
of Lombard, in whatever mode disposed to 
pervert reason and annihilate Scripture, uni- 
versally held, that neither before nor after the 
fall was man in himself capable of meriting 



heaven ; that by the gratuitous endowments 
of his creation, even in paradise, he was only 
enabled to preserve his innocence, and not to 
sin ; and that he was utterly incompetent to 
proceed one step farther, efficaciously to will 
a remunerable good, and by his natural exer- 
tions to obtain a reward above his nature ; 
original righteousness being reputed not a 
connate quality, but a supernatural habit. 
Thus, he could resist evil, but not advance 
good to perfection ; could in some sense live 
well, by living free from sin, but could not 
without divine aid so live as to deserve ever- 
lasting life. For such a purpose they asserted 
that grace was necessary, to operate upon his 
will in its primary determinations, and to co- 
operate with it in its ultimate acts. It was, 
therefore, in the loss of this celestial aid, this 
superadded gift, and not in any depravity of 
his mind, that they supposed the principal evil 
derivable from his lapse to consist ; a loss, 
however, which, by a due exertion of his 
innate abilities, they deemed to be retriev- 
able ; and hence sprung that offensive doc- 
trine of human sufficiency which, in the Lu- 
theran's eye, completely obscured the glory of 
the Gospel, and which, when applied to the 
sinner's conscience, taught the haughty to 
presume, and the humble to despair. Accord- 
ing, then, to the system under consideration, 
the favour of God in this life, and his beatific 
vision in the life to come, are both attainable 
by personal merit ; the former by congruous^ 
as it was termed, the latter by condign; the 
one v/ithout, the other with, the assistance of 
grace. By our natural strength, it was said, 
we can fulfil the commands of God as far as 
their obligation extends ; yet was it added, 
that we cannot fulfil them according to the 
intention of the divine Legislator ; an inten- 
tion of rewarding only those who obey them 
in virtue formed by charity, under the influ- 
ence of a quality i-ather regulating the ten- 
dency, than augmenting the purity, of the 
action. They stated, that we may so prepare 
ourselves for grace as to become entitled to it 
congruously, not as to a debt which in strict 
justice God is bound to pay, but as to a grant 
which it js congruous in him to give, and 
which it would be inconsistent with his attri- 
butes to withhold. This favourite doctrine 
was supported by every denomination of 
scholastics, and by every individual of the 
church of Rome. Congruous merit was uni- 
versally esteemed a pearl above all price, the 
intrinsic value of which attracted the re- 
gard, and conciliated the benevolence, of the 
Almighty. According to their conception, 
we are endowed with an innate propensity to 
good, which vice itself can never obliterate, 
and are able not only to reverence and adore 
the supreme Being, but to love him above 
other objects. They supposed man competent 
no less to the efficient practice, than to the 
barren admiration, of holiness ; enabled as 
well to obey the laws, as to love the goodness, 
of the Almighty ; and, if not to deserve the 
rewards, at least to discharge the obligations, 
of religion. Impressed, therefore, with such 



LUT 



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exalted notions of human ability, and forget- 
ful of the Christian propitiation for sin, the 
sophists of the schools maintained, that the 
soul of man possesses in the freedom, or 
rather in the capacity, of her will a faculty 
almost divine. Stimulated by the most upright 
propensities, and undepraved in her noblest 
powers, she directs her progress in the path of 
truth and the road to bliss, by the pure and 
inextinguishable light of an unperverted rea- 
son. Although mutable in her decisions, 
nevertheless complete controller of her con- 
duct, she becomes at pleasure either the servant 
of righteousness or the slave of sin ; and, dis- 
daining to be anticipated by God himself, 
prevents him in his supernatural gifts by a 
previous display of her own meritorious deeds, 
challenging, as a congruous right,'that which 
only coidd have been otherwise conferred as 
a favour undeserved. " By the bare observance 
of my holy order," exclaimed the secluded 
devotee, " I am able not solely to obtain grace 
for myself, but, by the works which I then 
may do, can accumulate merit sufficient both 
to supply my own wants and those of others ; 
so that I may sell the superabundance of my 
acquired treasure." Can we be surprised that 
a reformer of Luther's manly disposition, who 
wrote without reserve and reasoned without 
control, when adverting to opinions of so 
noxious a tendency, should sometimes, from 
excess of zeal, lose sight of moderation in his 
censures ? The Lutherans commenced the 
attack upon these unscriptural dogmas, under 
a persuasion that the position of their oppo- 
nents militated against the leading principles 
of Christianity. " If man," they said, "be 
capable of pleasing God by his own works 
abstractedly considered, without divine assist- 
ance, where is the necessity, and what is the 
utility, of that assistance ?" They argued, 
that, were it possible for the moral virtues of 
the mind by their own efficiency to render our 
persons acceptable to God and obtain his lost 
favour, no need would exist of any other satis- 
faction for sin, and thus the whole scheme of 
Gospel redemption would have been fruitless, 
and Christ have died in vain. While, there- 
fore, the doctrine of the atonement presented 
nothing but a cloud and darkness to their 
adversaries, it gave light by night to these ; on 
them it shone, amidst surrounding gloom, with 
lustre unobscured. Luther advanced a propo- 
sition which proved highly offensive to the 
Papists, and which they never ceased to con- 
demn and calumniate. His assertion was, 
that he who exerts himself to the utmost of 
his ability still continues to sin. On the other 
side, unassisted man was thought incapable of 
performing an action remunerably good, or, 
as it was usually termed, condignly meritori- 
ous, even before his lapse; and that conse- 
quently, in his fallen state, all to which he 
was conceived competent by his innate strength 
was Twt to sin. When Luther therefore drew 
up his thesis for public disputation against the 
tenet of congruous works, if little delicacy, 
yet some caution, and much discrimination, 
appeared requisite. Had he stated them to be 



thus good in a scholastic sense, he would have 
completely lost sight of his object, and allowed 
more than even 'his opponents themselves. 
Had he described them as not demeritorious, 
or, in other words, not sinful, he would have 
precisely maintained the adverse position, and 
might consequently have spared his labour, at 
the same time that he would have tacitly 
acknowledged them to possess, what he could 
not consistently with truth attribute to them, 
every natural perfection of virtue and holiness. 
Under what denomination, then, could he 
cla>ss them, except under that of sinful 7 a 
denomination which he the more readily 
adopted because, even among his adversaries 
themselves, the words sin and grace, as he 
remarked, were in general immediately op- 
posed to each other. Anxious to rescue 
Christian theology from the grasp of those 
who embraced only to betray, the Lutherans 
laboured to restore that importance to the 
doctrine of redemption with which the Scrip- 
tures invest it, but of which, by a subtle per- 
versity, it had been deprived. The principal 
object, therefore, in their view evidently was, 
to Christianize the speculations of the schools ; 
and the principal drift of their argument is to 
prove, that human virtue, how extravagantly 
soever extolled by a vain philosophy, is wholly 
insufficient (because imperfect) to merit the 
favour of Heaven. Allowing no medium be- 
tween righteousness and unrighteousness, 
the approbation and disapprobation of the 
Almighty, characterizing that as sinful which 
is confessedly not holy, and thus annihilating 
every ground of self-presumption, they incul 
cated the necessity of contemplating with 
the eye of faith those means of reconciliation 
which Christianity alone affords. But it has 
been insinuated, that the Lutheran doctrine 
went to prove man's total inability to extri- 
cate himself from crime, until the arrival of 
some uncertain moment, which brings with 
it a regeneration from on high, the sudden 
transfusion of a new light and new virtues. 
But those who thus conceive of it are not 
probably aware, that Melancthon, the vene- 
rable author of the Augsburgh Confession, 
warmly reprobates this precise idea, which he 
denominates a Manichean conceit and a hor- 
rible falsehood. Upon the abstract question of 
free will it is indeed true, that Melancthon, 
no less than Luther, at first held opinions 
which he was happy to retract. But when 
this is acknowledged it should be added, that 
he made ample amends for his indiscretion by 
not only expunging the offensive passages 
from the single work which contained them, 
but by introducing others of a nature diamet- 
rically opposite. And although the more in- 
flexible coadjutor of Melancthon was too lofty 
to correct what he had once made public, and 
too magnanimous to regard the charge of 
inconsistency which his adversaries urged 
against him ; yet what his better judgment 
approved clearly appears from a preface writ- 
ten not long before his death ; in which, while 
he expressed an anxiety to have his own 
chaotic labours, as he styled them, buried ia 



LUT 



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LUT 



eternal oblivion, he recommended in strong 
terms, as a work admirably adapted to form 
the Christian divine, that very performance of 
his friend which was remarkable for something 
more than a mere recantation of the opinions 
alluded to. It was not against any conceived 
deficiency in the quality of our virtue that 
they argued, but against its supposed com- 
petency, whether wrought in or out of grace, 
with greater or less degrees of purity, to effect 
thaj; wlaich the oblation of Christ alone accom- 
plishes. Upon both points Luther treated the 
doctrine of his adversaries as altogether frivo- 
lous, and incapable of corroboration by a single 
fact. Futile, however, as the scholastical tenet 
appeared to be, although deficient in proof 
and unsupported by example, upon this, he 
remarked with indignation and grief, was 
founded the whole system of papal delusion. 

Justification was on both sides supposed to 
consist entirely in the remission of sins. The 
popish scholastics, on this head, were remark- 
ably distinct in their ideas, and express in their 
language. They represented it as an effect 
produced by the infusion of divine grace into 
the mind ; not as a consequent to a well spent 
life, but as preceding all remunerable obedience, 
as the intervening point between night and 
day, the gloom of a guilty and the light of a 
iSelf-approving conscience ; or, in other words, 
and to adopt their own phraseology, as the 
exact boundary where merit of congruity ends 
and where merit of condignity begins, the 
infallible result of a previous disposition on 
our part, which never fails of alluring from 
on high that supernatural quality which, being 
itself love, renders the soul beloved. While 
the Lutherans, however, adhered to the gene- 
ral import of the term as understood in the 
schools, they waged an incessant warfare upon 
another point ; while they allowed that justifi- 
cation consists in the remission of sin, they 
denied that this remission is to be acquired by 
the merit of the individual. Their scholastic 
opponents maintained that man is justified in 
the sight of God in consequence of his own 
preparation, and on account of his personal 
qualities. They, on the other hand, argued 
with an inflexibility which admitted of no 
compromise, that, possessing not merits of his 
own to plead, man freely received forgiveness 
through the mercy of God solely on account 
of the merits of Christ. The effective prin- 
ciple, therefore, or meritorious cause of justifi- 
cation, was the great point contested. The 
doctrine of the popish divines, explained more 
at large, was this : When the sinner, conscious 
of his' past transgressions, inquired where he 
was to seek the expiation of his crime, and 
deliverance from the dreadful consef[uences of 
it, the general answer was, In the merit of 
penitence ; a merit capable of annihilating 
guilt, and appeasing the anger of incensed Om- 
nipotence, He, they argued, who, having dis- 
obeyed the laws of Heaven, is desirous of 
returning into that state of acceptance from 
which he has fallen, must not expect free for- 
giveness ; but previously by unfeigned sorrow 
of heart deserve the restoration of grace, and, 



witli it, the obliteration of his offences. To 
effect this desirable purpose he is bound strictly 
to survey and detest his former conduct, ac- 
curately to enumerate his transgressions and 
deeply feel them ; and, impressed with a due 
sense of their magnitude, impurity, and con- 
sequences, to condemn his folly and deplore 
his fault, which have made him an outcast of 
Heaven, and exposed him to eternal misery. 
So far he can proceed by that operation of the 
mind which they denominated attrition, and 
which, being within the sphere of his natural 
powers, they regarded as congruous piety 
meritorious of justification, as a preparation of 
the soul more or less necessary to receive and 
merit justifying grace. When, therefore, he 
is arrived at this point, attrition ceases and 
CONTRITION commences ; the habit of sin is ex- 
pelled, while that of holiness is superinduced 
in its stead, and with the infusion of charity, 
the plastic principle of a new obedience, justi- 
fication becomes complete. But even here it 
was not conceived that a total deliverance 
takes place ; a liberation from guilt and eternal 
punishment is effected, but not from temporal, 
which is never remitted unless either by the 
infliction of some personal suffering or satis- 
factory compensation required of him who is 
already justified and approved by Heaven. 
However, to accomplish this remaining object, 
nothing more is wanting than a continuation, 
to a sufficient intensity, of that compunction 
of heart which is novt^ denominated contrition, 
grace supplying the defects of nature, and 
enabling penitential merit not only to justify, 
but to obtain exemption from punishment of 
every species. But so great appeared to the 
popish scholastics the frailty of man and the 
severity of God,, that no inconsiderable diffi- 
culty occurred in the due application of this 
favourite doctrine to individuals ; for the means 
of expiation, they imagined, ought always to 
be proportionate to the magnitude of the 
offences. " How," they reasoned, " are we 
to be assured, that our contrition has been 
either sufficient or sincere, and whether it has 
been so in the obliteration not only of one 
crime, but of all ; whether it has atoned for past 
transgressions of every kind, the number of 
which may perplex, as well as their guilt con- 
found, us ?" Instead, therefore, of penitence 
in its strictest acceptation as a perfect virtue, 
God, they said, in condescension to human 
infirmity, has substituted for general practice 
the sacrament of penitence, which, for the 
attainment of full remission, requires only a 
moderate compunction of soul, v/ith confession 
to the priest, and the discharge of such satis- 
faction as he may enjoin. And, still lower to 
reduce the terms of acceptance, they even 
argued that it is not absolutely necessary for 
the penitent to experience an entire conver- 
sion of heart, but only not to oppose the 
impediment of mortal crime, to feel some dis- 
pleasure at his past conduct, and to express a 
resolution of amending it in future. But, after 
all, and in spite of the boasted authority of the 
keys, complete confidence in divine forgiveness 
was never inculcated ; for it was neither th© 



LUT 



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interest nor the inclination of the church of 
Rome to teach the simple doctrine of Christian 
faith, but rather to involve it in metaphysical 
obscurity. Under the pretext, therefore, of 
relieving the throbbing breast from its appre- 
hensions, they had recourse to numerous 
inventions for propping the insecure fabric of 
penitential hope ; asserting, among other ex- 
travagancieg, that the sacraments are in them- 
selves efficacious by virtue of their own opera- 
tion, exclusively of all merit in the recipient ; 
and that the sacrament of the altar, in par- 
ticular, acts so powerful in this respect as to 
communicate grace not only to those who 
partake of it, but to others from whom it is 
received by substitution, provided its operation 
be not hindered by confessedly flagrant immo- 
rality. So deeply rooted in the minds of the 
papists had become the persuasion of its thus 
effecting the best of purposes, and that even 
without the necessity of an actual participa- 
tion of it by him upon whom the benefit is 
conferred, that the celebration of the mass 
was universally regarded as the means of 
appeasing the anger of Heaven, and obtaining 
pardon and peace, of procuring divine assist- 
ance for the living, and, for the dead, deliver- 
. ance from the bitter pains of purgatory. Nor 
by the sacraments alone, but by every good 
external work, as well as internal disposition, 
was justifying grace supposed to be merited 
congruously, and satisfaction for sin to be made 
condignly. In monastical institutions, like- 
wise, were found no mean materials for simi- 
lar purposes ; " for in those feigned religions," 
as the homily On Good Works describes them, 
*' the devotees boasted of having lamps which 
ran always over, able to satisfy not only for 
their own sins, but also for all other their 
benefactors, brothers and sisters of religion, 
as most ungodly and craftily they had persuaded 
the multitude of ignorant people ; keeping in 
divers places marts or markets of merits, beino- 
full of their holy relics, images, shrines, and 
works of overflowing abundance, ready to be 
sold." Yet, whether the dubious penitent was 
instructed to derive consolation from the effi. 
cacy of the sacraments, from his own personal 
qualities, or from any of what Cranmer aptly 
termed " the fantastical works of man's in- 
vention," it should be observed that he was 
not directly taught to consider these as wholly 
superseding the virtue of repentance, but as 
supplying his deficiencies in the performance 
of it ; an incongruous system of atonement, 
fabricated by the avarice of Rome, and the ob- 
sequiousness of scholastical philosophy, to 
augment the treasures and extend the influ- 
ence of the church, to extinguish the light of 
Gospel truth, and, while keeping the world at 
large in ignorance, to hold the conscience of 
the individual in slavery. Upon the whole, 
then, the scholastics maintained that justifica- 
tion is unattainable without repentance, at 
least, without some degree of attrition on our 
part; but in the common apprehension of the 
doctrine even this seems to have been forgot- 
ten, and merit of congruity considered in a 
general point of view as alone efficacious. 



Thus good works of every species preceding 
grace were said to deserve it, and, by deserving 
grace, to deserve the justifying principle. And 
always were they careful to impute the cause 
of forgiveness, not to the mercy of God in 
' Christ, but to the sole change in the indi- 
vidual, to his transmutation from a state of 
unrighteousness to one of righteousness, to 
his possession of a quality which renders him 
a worthy object of divine approbation. For 
in every instance personal merit was conceived 
to be the solid basis upon which rests the com- 
plete remission of sin. Upon no one point, 
perhaps, has the opinion of Luther been more 
misrepresented than upon this. Some have 
ascribed to it a solifidian tendency, if not of 
the most enthusiastical, at least, of the most 
unqualified, description. But it seems indeed 
impossible accurately to comprehend the posi- 
tion which he maintained, if we examine it in 
an insulated point of view, unless we connect 
it with that of which in the church of Rome it 
properly formed a part, and from which he 
never intended to separate it, — the doctrine 
of penitence. In opposing the absurdity of 
papal indulgences, (the first impiety against 
which his manly mmd revolted,) a ray of light, 
before unnoticed, darted upon him, and opened 
a completely new scene, which, while it stimu- 
lated his efforts as a reformer, animated his 
hopes as a Christian. Hence, averting with 
disdain from the speculations of sophists, and 
turning to the sacred page of revelation, he 
tliere beheld an affiance very different from 
what the schools inculcated ; and thus, while 
their vain language was, " Repent, and trust 
to the efficacy of your contrition, either with 
or without extraneous works, according to the 
degree of its intensity, for the expiation of your 
offences ;" his, more Scriptural and more con- 
soling, became simply this : "Repent, and trust 
not for expiation to your own merits of any 
kind, but solely to those of your Redeemer." 
Rejecting the dreams of their adversaries with 
respect to the nature and effects of this im- 
portant duty, they represented it as consisting 
of two essential parts, contrition and faith, 
the latter as always associated with the former. 
Hence, in the Apology of their Confession, 
they repeatedly declared a disavowal of all 
faith, except such as exists in the contrite 
heart. Far was it from their intention to 
encourage the presumptuous or fanatical sin- 
ner in a false security ; their object was very 
different and laudable, — they laboured to fix the 
eye of him who both laments and detests his 
offences, upon the only deserving object of 
human confidence and divine complacency. 
Properly, then, as they frequently remarked, 
their doctrine of justification was appropriated 
to troubled consciences, at every period of true 
repentance, and ^. -ticularly at the awful hour 
of death, when the time for habitual proofs of 
amendment has elapsed, and when the past 
appears replete with guilt and the future with 
terror. At such moments, they taught not, 
with the schools, an affiance in human merit, 
but in the gratuitous mercy of God through 
Christ : to contrition, as a preparatory qualifi- 



LUT 



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cation or previous requisite, they added faith ; 
and from faith they deemed every principle of 
real piety and virtue inseparable. Good w^orks, 
or the outward fruits of an inward renovation 
of mind, were said to follow remission of sins ; 
internal necessarily preceding external reform- 
ation. For the individual, they argued, must 
himself be good before the action can be so 
denominated, be justified before it can be 
deemed just, and accepted before it can prove 
acceptable, — distinguishing between the pri- 
mary admission into God's favour, and the 
subsequent preservation of that favour. 

The unfathomable depths of divine predes- 
tination and predetermination human reason 
in vain attempts to sound, finite faculties to 
scan infinite, or the limited intellect of man to 
comprehend the immensity of the Godhead. 
Erasmus, a peculiar favourite with the reform- 
ers of our own country, when contemplating 
this inexplicable subject, observed, that " in 
the Holy Scriptures there are certain secret 
recesses, which God is unwilling for us too 
minutely to explore ; and which, if we endea- 
vour to explore, in proportion as we penetrate 
farther, our minds become more and more 
oppressed with darkness and stupefaction ; that 
thus we might acknowledge the inscrutable 
majesty of the divine wisdom, and the imbe- 
cility of the human mind." Congenial, also, 
with the feelings and sentiments of Erasmus 
upon this point were those of Luther. "To 
acquire any knowledge," he remarked, "of a 
deity not revealed in Scripture, to know what 
his existence is, his actions and dispositions, 
belongs not to me. My duty is only this ; to 
know what are his precepts, his promises, and 
his threatenings. Pernicious and pestilent is 
the thought of investigating causes, and brings 
with it inevitable ruin, especially when we 
ascend too high, and wish to philosophize 
upon predestination." How differently Calvin 
felt upon the same subject, and with what little 
reserve, or rather with what bold temerity, he 
laboured to scrutinize the unrevealed Divinity, 
is too well known to require any thing beyond 
a bare allusion to the circumstance. His sen- 
timents, however, were much less regarded 
than some are disposed to allow ; and upon this 
particular question, so far were they from hav- 
ing attained their full celebrity at the period 
when the articles of the church of England 
were framed, that they were not taught with- 
out opposition even in his own unimportant 
territory of Geneva. For at that precise era 
he was publicly accused (by Sebastian Castel- 
lio) of making God the author of sin ; and 
although, not contented with silencing, he first 
imprisoned and afterward banished his accuser, 
yet he could not expel the opinions of his ad- 
versary. While the church of Rome main- 
tained a predestination to life of one man in 
preference to another individually on account 
of personal merit, the Lutherans taught a 
gratuitous predestination of Christians collect, 
ively, of those whom God has chosen in Christ 
out of mankind ; and by this single point of 
difference were the contending opinions prin- 
cipally contradistinguished. With us the sys- 



tem of Calvin still retains so many zealous 
advocates, that to a modern ear the very term 
PREDESTINATION secms to couvcy a meaning 
only conformable with his particular system. 
It should, however, be observed that this word 
was in familiar use for centuries before the Re- 
formation, in a sense, very different from what 
Calvin imputed to it, not as preceding the 
divine prescience, but as resultijag froni it, 
much in the same sense as that in which it has 
since been supported by the Arminians. Yet, 
obvious as this appears, writers of respecta- 
bility strangely persuade themselves, that, im- 
mediately prior to the Reformation, the doc- 
trines of the church of Rome were completely 
Calvinistical ; a conclusion to which, certainly, 
none can subscribe who are sufficiently conver- 
sant with the favourite productions of that 
time. So far, indeed, was this from being the 
fact, that Calvin peculiarly prided himself on 
departing from the common definition of the 
term, which had long been adopted by the 
adherents of the schools, and retained with a 
scrupulous precision. For while they held that 
the expression ^redestinati is exclusively ap- 
plicable to the elect, whom God, foreknowing as 
meritorious objects of his mercy, predestinates 
to life ; and while they appropriated that of 
prcBsciti to the non-elect, whose perseverance 
in transgression is simply foreknown ; Calvin, 
on the other side, treating the distinction as a 
frivolous subterfuge, contended that God, de- 
creeing the final doom of the elect and non- 
elect irrespectively, predestinates both, not 
subsequently but previously to all foreknow- 
ledge of their individual dispositions, especially 
devotes the latter to destruction through the 
medium of crime, and creates them by a fatal 
destiny to perish. Whatever, therefore, modern 
conjecture may have attributed to the popish 
scholastics, it is certain that, abhorring every 
speculation which tends in the remotest degree 
to make God the author of sin, they believed 
that only salutary good is predestinated ; grace 
to those who deserve it congruously, and glory 
to those who deserve it condignly. They main- 
tained that almighty God, before the foundations 
of the world were laid, surveying in his com- 
prehensive idea, or, as they phrased it, in his 
prescience of simple intelligence, the possibili- 
ties of all things before he determined their 
actual existence, foresaw that, if mankind were 
created, (although he willed the salvation of 
all, and was inclined to assist all indifferently, 
yet) some would deserve eternal happiness, and 
others eternal misery ; and that therefore he ap- 
proved and elected the former, but disapproved 
or reprobated the latter. Thus, grounding elec- 
tion upon foreknowledge, they contemplated 
it, not as an arbitrary principle, separating one 
individual from another under the influence of 
a blind chance or an irrational caprice ; but, 
on the contrary, as a wise and just principle, 
which presupposes a diversity between those 
who are accepted and those who are reject- 
ed. Hence it was, that in order to systems, 
tize upon this principle of election, and to 
show how consistent it is as well with the 
justice as the benevolence of the Deity, the 



LUT 



603 



LUT 



will of God was considered in a double point 
of view, as absolute and conditional, or, in 
tthe technical language of the schools, as ante- 
cedent and consequent. In the first instance, 
by his absolute or antecedent will, he was said 
to desire the salvation of every man ; in the 
latter, by his conditional or consequent will, 
that only of those whom he foresaw abstain- 
ing from sin and obeying his commandments : 
tfie one expressed his general inclination, the 
other his particular resolution upon the view 
of individual circumstances and conditions. 
To the inquiry, why some are unendowed with 
grace, their answer was, " Because some are 
not willing to receive it, and not because God 
is unwilling to give it." " He," they said, 
" offers his light to all. He is absent from 
none ; but man absents himself from the pre- 
sent Deity, like one who shuts his eyes against 
the noon-day blaze." To the foregoing state- 
ment it should be added, that they held an 
election, or rather an ordination, to grace 
(which they expressly asserted to be defectible) 
distinct from an election to glory ; that accord- 
ing to them, a name may be written in the 
book of life at one period, which at another 
many be erased from it ; and that predestina- 
tion to eternal happiness solely depends upon 
final perseverance in well doing. On the whole 
it is evident, that they considered the dignity 
or worthiness of the individual as the merito- 
rious basis of predestination; merit of con- 
gruity as the basis of a preordination to grace, 
and merit of condignity as that of a preordina- 
tion to glory. Thus, not more fastidious in the 
choice of their terms than accurate in the use 
of them, while they denied that the prescience 
of human virtue, correctly spearking, could be 
the primary cause of the divine will, because 
nothing in time can properly give birth to that 
which has existed from eternity, they strenu- 
ously maintained it to be a secondary cause, 
the ratio or rule in the mind of the Deity which 
regulated his will in the formation of its ulti- 
mate decisions. Although in the established 
confession of their faith the Lutherans avoided 
all allusion to the subject of predestination, it 
was nevertheless introduced into another work 
of importance, and of considerable public au- 
thority, the Loci Theologici of Melancthon, a 
production which was every where received as 
the standard of Lutheran divinity. Both Luther 
and Melancthon, after the Diet of Augsburgh, 
kept one object constantly in view, — to incul- 
cate only what was plain and practical, and 
never to attempt philosophizing. But to what, 
it may be asked, did the Lutherans object in 
the theory of their opponents when they them- 
selves abandoned the tenet of necessity ? Cer- 
tainly, not to the sobriety and moderation of 
that part of it which vindicated the justice, and 
displayed the benevolence, of the Almighty ; 
but, generally, to the principles upon which it 
proceeded ; to the presumption, in overleaping 
the boundary which Heaven has prescribed to 
our limited faculties, and which we cannot 
pass without plunging into darkness and error ; 
and to its impiety in disregarding, if not despis- 
ing, the most important truths of Christianity. 



A system of such a nature they hesitated not 
to reject, anxious to conduct themselves by the 
light of Scripture alone, nor presuming to be 
wise above what God has been pleased to dis- 
cover. Maintaining not a particular election 
of personal favourites, either by an absolute 
will, or even a conditional one, dependent 
upon the ratio of merit, but a general election 
of all who, by baptism in their infancy, or by 
faith and obedience in mature years, become 
the adopted heirs of Heaven ; they conceived 
this to be the only election to which the Gos- 
pel alludes, and, consequently, the only one 
upon which we can speak with confidence, or 
reason without presumption. If it be observed, 
that the selection of an integral body necessarily 
infers that of its component parts, the answer 
is obvious : The latter, although indeed it be 
necessarily inferred by the former, is neverthe- 
less not a prior requisite, but a posterior result 
of the divine ordination. What they deemed 
absolute on the part of God was his everlast- 
ing purpose to save his elect in Christ, or real 
Christians considered as a whole, and con- 
trasted with the remainder of the human race ; 
the completion of this purpose being regulated 
by peculiar circumstances, operating as infe- 
rior causes of a particular segregation. For, 
persuaded of his good will toward all men 
without distinction, of his being indiscrimi- 
nately disposed to promote the salvation of all, 
and of his seriously (not fictitiously, as Calvin 
taught) including all in the universal promise 
of Christianity, they imputed to him nothing 
like a partial choice, no limitation of favours, 
no irrespective exclusion of persons ; but as- 
suming the Christian character as the sole 
ground of individual preference, they believed 
that every baptized infant, by being made a 
member of Christ, not by being comprised in a 
previous arbitrary decree, is truly the elect of 
God, and, dying in infancy, certain of eter- 
nal happiness ; that he who, in maturer years, 
becomes polluted by wilful crime, loses that 
state of salvation which before he possessed ; 
that nevertheless by true repentance, and con- 
version to the Father of mercy and God of all 
consolation, he is again reinstated in it ; and 
that, by finally persevering in it, he at length 
receives the kingdom prepared for every sin-. 
cere Christian before the foundation of the 
world. Can any man, whom prejudice has 
not blinded, rank these sentiments with those 
of Calvin ? It may seem almost unnecessary 
to subjoin, that the Lutherans held the defecti- 
bility of grace ; its indefectibility being a posi- 
tion supported but by those who think that 
the Redeemer died for a selected few alone. 
Upon the whole then it appears, that the Lu- 
therans, affecting not in any way to philoso- 
phize, but committing themselves solely to the 
guidance of Scripture, differed from the church 
of Rome in several important particulars. For, 
although on some points they coincided with 
her, although they inculcated, with equal zeal 
and upon a better principle, both the univer- 
sality and the defectibOity of grace, as well as 
a conditional admission into the number of the 
elect, they nevertheless were entirely at vari- 



LUT 



604 



LUT 



ance with her upon the very foundation of the 
system. Thus while their opponents taught, 
that predestination consists in the prospective 
discrimination of individuals by divine favour, 
according to the foreseen ratio of every man's 
own merit, — works of congruity deserving 
grace herfe, and works of condignity eternal life 
hereafter, and that in this way it principally 
rests upon human worth ; the Lutherans, dis- 
claiming every idea of such a discrimination, 
placed it upon the same basis as they assumed 
in the case of justification, — that of an effectual 
redemption by Christ. Instead, therefore, of 
holding the election of individuals as men on 
account of personal dignity or ivorthiness, they 
maintained the election of a general mass as 
Christians on account of Christ alone; adding 
that we are admitted into that number, or dis- 
carded from it, in the eye of Heaven, propor- 
tionably as we embrace or reject the salvation 
offered to all, embracing it with a faith insepa- 
rable from genuine virtue, or rejecting it by 
incredulity and crime. For neither in this, 
nor in the instance of justification, did they 
exclude repentance and a true conversion of 
the heart and life, as necessary requisites, but 
only as meritorious causes, from the contem- 
plation of God's omniscient intellect. " Let 
those," said Luther, "who wish to be elected 
avoid an evil conscience, and not transgress the 
divine commandments." Instructed then by 
the unerring page of truth, they asserted no 
other predestination than what is there ex- 
pressly revealed ; that of the good and gracious 
Father of mankind, who from eternity has been 
disposed to promote the happiness and welfare 
of all men, has destined Christ to be the Sa- 
viour of the whole world, and withholden from 
none the exalted hope of the Christian calling. 
Convinced that this is the 6nly predestination 
which Christianity discloses, and consequently 
the only one which we can either with safety 
or certainty embrace, they discouraged every 
attempt at investigating the will, out of the 
word, of God ; every attempt at effecting im- 
possibilities, at unveiling the secret counsels of 
Him who shrouds his divine perfections in 
darkness impervious to mortal eyes. With such 
investigations, indeed, the world had already 
been sufficiently bewildered by the scholastics, 
who, endowed with a ready talent at perplex- 
ing what before was plain, and at rendering 
abstruseness still more abstruse, had made the 
subject totally inexplicable, vainly labouring to 
develope with precision that mysterious will 
upon which the wise must ever think it folly, 
and the good impiety, to speculate. Disqui- 
sitions of this presumptuous nature, from a 
personal experience of their mischievous tend- 
ency, Luther abjured himself, and deprecated 
in others. " Are we, miserable men," he ex- 
claimed, "who as yet are inCapable of compre- 
hending the rays of God's promises, the glim- 
merings of his precepts and his works, although 
confirmed by words and miracles, are we, infirm 
and impure, eager to comprehend all that is 
great and glorious in the solar light itself, in 
the incomprehensible light of a miraculous 
Godhead ? Do we not know, that God dwells 



in splendour inaccessible ? And yet do we ap- 
proach, or rather do we presume to approach 
it ? Are we not aware, that his judgments are 
inscrutable ? And yet do we endeavour to 
scrutinize them ? And these things we do, 
before we are habituated even to the faint lus- 
tre of his promises and precepts, with a vision 
still imperfect, blindly rushing into the majesty 
of that light which, secret and unseen, has 
never been by words or miracles exhibited. 
What wonder, then, if, while we explore its 
majesty, we are overwhelmed with its glory ?" 
For a farther account of the Lutheran views 
on predestination, see the last pages of the 
article Calvinism. 

After this very ample exposition of the 
sentiments of the German reformers on the 
chief points of Christian doctrine, it is only 
necessary to give a few additional particulars 
in corroboration of some portions of the pre- 
ceding statement. The high estimation in 
which Luther held the productions of the 
judicious Melancthon is apparent from a pas- 
sage in the preface to the first volume of 
Luther's works, dated 1545. In that year 
also appeared the last amended edition of 
Melancthon's '• Common Places," to which he 
alludes. " Long and earnestly," he says, 
"have I resisted the importunity of those, 
who have wished me to publish my works, or, 
to speak more correctly, my confused and 
disorderly lucubrations ; not only because I 
was unwilling that the labours of the ancients 
should be turned aside by my novelties, and 
that the reader should be hindered from pe- 
rusing them, but likewise because now, by the 
grace of God, a great number of methodical 
books are extant; among which the Common 
Places of our Philip claim the preference, for 
by them a divine and a bishop may be abun- 
dantly and satisfactorily confirmed, so as to 
become powerful in the word of the doctrine 
of piety, especially when the Holy Bible itself 
can now be procured in almost every language. 
But the want of order in the matters to be dis- 
cussed in my books induced, nay compelled, 
me to render them a sort of rude and indigested 
chaos, which it would now require even on my 
part no small exertion to digest into a method- 
ical form. Under the influence of such mo- 
tives as these, I was desirous that all my 
productions should be buried in perpetual 
oblivion, that they might give place to others 
of a better description." In this preface Lu- 
ther also gives the following testimony to the 
general usefulness of Melancthon's labours: 
" In the same year Philip Melancthon had 
been called to this university by Prince 
Frederick to fill the chair of Greek professor, 
but no doubt with the intention that I should 
have him as my colleague in the labours of the 
divinity professorship. For his works are 
sufficiently in proof of what the Lord hath 
effected by this his choice instrument, not only 
in polite literature, but in theology, although 
Satan be enraged and all his party." Though 
the early opinions of Luther upon the doc- 
trine of a philosophical necessity appear to 
have been occasionally expressed in a harsh 



LUT 



605 



LUT 



and repulsive manner, yet his followers perti- 
naciously contend that even the harshest of 
them cannot, with propriety, be construed into 
a sense favourable to the Calvinistical system. 
Those of Melancthon in the first edition of 
his Loci Tkeologici, although occurring but in 
one or two instances, were nevertheless still 
more ofiensive, and less capable of a mitigated 
interpretation. So far indeed did he carry the 
doctrine of divine predetermination as to 
degrade man to a level with the brutes, as will 
be obvious from the following passage in the 
edition of 1525. "Lastly, divine predesti- 
nation takes away human liberty. For all 
things come to pass according to divine pre- 
destination, not only external works, but also 
internal thoughts in all creatures." After the 
Diet of Augsburgh in 1530, we hear no more 
of this obnoxious tenet. Indeed so early as 
1527 these reformers seem to have abandoned 
it. At least, when in that year a form of doc- 
trine was drawn up for the churches of Saxony, 
free will in acts of morality was thus incul- 
cated:. "The human will is so far free as to 
be able in some sort to perform the righteous- 
ness of the flesh, or civil justice, when it is 
obliged by the law and by force not to steal, 
not to kill, not to commit adultery, &c. There- 
fore let ministers teach, that it is in a measure 
in our own hands to restrain carnal affections, 
and to perform civil justice ; and let them dili- 
gently exhort men to a strict and proper course 
of life, because God also requires this kind of 
righteousness, and will grievously punish those 
men who live so negligent of their duty. For 
as we are bound to make a good use of the 
other gifts of God, so is it likewise our duty to 
employ to good purpose those powers which 
God has bestowed on nature." " For God 
takes no delight in that ferocious mode of life 
which is adopted by some men, who, after 
having heard that we are not justified by our 
own powers and works, foolishly dream that 
they will wait until they be drawn by God, and 
in the mean time their course of life is most 
impure. Such persons God will most severely 
punish ; and they must therefore be earnestly 
reprehended and admonished by those whose 
province it is to teach in the churches." This 
work, which is generally termed, Libellus 
Visitationis Saxonic, was first composed in 
German by Melancthon in 1527, and afterward 
republished by Luther with a preface, in which 
he thus expresses himself: " We do not publish 
these as rigorous precepts, nor do we again 
employ ourselves in drawing up pontifical 
decrees, but we relate matters of history and 
public deeds, and present the confession and 
symbol of our belief." The previous contro- 
versy between Luther and Erasmus, on the 
topic of free will, had probably tended to pro- 
duce an amelioration of the doctrinal system 
of the Lutheran church. In this view it was 
not without reason that Erasmus made the 
following reflections in a letter dated 1528, 
soon after he had seen this production : " The 
Lutheran fever, every succeeding day, assumes 
a milder form ; so that Luther himself now 
writes recantations on almost every thing, and 



on this account he is considered by the rest as 
a heretic and a madman." Similar caustic 
remarks occur in other letters of Erasmus ; 
and as, in those days of high religious excite- 
ment, taunts of this kind were considered too 
good to be confined as secrets within the breast 
of the correspondents to whom they were ad- 
dressed, it is not improbable that Luther might 
be prevented through them, among other rea- 
sons, from making farther doctrinal conces- 
sions ; it being no uncommon circumstance in 
the history of the human mind for persons of 
otherwise strong understandings to be under 
the influence of this pitiable weakness. That 
Melancthon not only abandoned but repre- 
hended the doctrine in 1529, we cannot doubt, 
because his own express testimony in proof of 
it remains on record. In a letter to Chris- 
topher Stathmio, dated March 20th, 1559, 
which was not long before his death, he 
notices the subject in these words : " Thirty 
years ago, not through the desire of conten- 
tion, but on account of the glory of God, and 
for the sake of discipline, I sharply reprehended 
the Stoical paradoxes concerning necessity, 
because they are reproachfiil toward God and 
injurious to morals. At this time the legions 
of the Stoics are waging war against me ; but 
in the answer which I have written in opposi- 
tion to the Bavarian inquisition, I have once 
more pointed out in a modest manner that 
opinion (on fate or predestination) in which 
anxious minds may acquiesce and be at rest." 
On consulting the tract to which his letter 
alludes, we find him employing this strong and 
unequivocal language : "I also openly reject 
and abhor those Stoical and Manichean furies 
who affirm that all things necessarily happen, 
evil as well as good actions. But concerning 
these I refrain at present from any lengthened 
discussion ; only I entreat young people to avoid 
these monstrous opinions, which are contume- 
lious against God, and pernicious to morals." 
From the Loci Tkeologici, in which Melanc- 
thon had first introduced this obnoxious tenet, 
he expunged necessity in the edition of 1533, 
and inserted in its place the opposite one of 
contingency. The following are extracts from 
this amended work: "The discussion on the 
cause of sin and that on contingency have some- 
times greatly agitated the church, and excited 
mighty tragedies. Men of acute minds collect 
multitudes of inextricable and absurd things 
about both these subjects. Because there is 
some danger in them, young people must be 
warned to abstain from these interminable 
disputes, and in preference to search out a 
simple and pious opinion, beneficial to religion 
and morak, in which they may abide, nor 
suffer themselves to be withdrawn from it by 
those fallacious tricks of disputations. But 
this is a pious and true sentiment to be em- 
braced with both hands, and to be retained 
rather by the whole heart, — that God is not 
the cause of sin, and that he does not will sin. 
But the causes of sin are the will of the devil, 
and the will of man." " But this sentiment 
being once laid down, that God is not the 
cause of sin, it evidently follows that contin- 



LUT 



606 



LYD 



gency must be granted. The freedom of the 
will is the cause of the contingency of our 
actions." " Neither must the delirious doat- 
ings about Stoical fate, or about necessity, be 
conveyed into the church, because they are 
inextricable and sometimes injurious to piety 
and morals." " From these opinions it becomes 
the pious to be abhorrent in their ears and in 
their hearts." These extracts serve to prove, 
that Melancthon reprobated the idea of intro- 
ducing into the church the doctrine of Stoical 
fate, before Calvin had distinguished himself 
either as an author or a reformer. Into his 
subsequent productions of almost every descrip- 
tion Melancthon introduced the doctrine of 
contingency, and strenuously defended it, par- 
ticularly in the amended edition of his Loci 
Theologici in 1545. Luther never formally 
revoked any of his own writings ; but on this 
last corrected production of his friend, as we 
have shown, he bestowed the highest com- 
mendations. Yet he did not scruple publicly 
to assert, that at the beginning of the Reform- 
ation he had not completely settled his creed. 
In the seventh volume of his works this' sen- 
tence is found : " I have also published the 
confession of my faith ; in which I have openly 
testified what and how I believe, and in what 
articles I think myself at length to be at rest." 
He seems, indeed, to have generally avoided 
the subject, from the period of his controversy 
with Erasmus, to the publication of his Com- 
mentary on Genesis, — his last work of any 
importance. But in this, after a long argu- 
ment to prove that, as we have no knowledge 
of the unrevealed Deity, we have nothing to 
do with those things which are above our com. 
prehension ; and that we are not to reason 
upon predestination out of Christianity; he 
thus apologizes for his former opinions: "It 
has been my wish diligently and accurately to 
deliver these charges and admonitions ; be- 
cause, after my death, many persons will pub- 
lish my books to the world, and by that course 
will confirm errors of every kind and their own 
delirious ravings. But among other matters I 
have written, that all things are absolute and 
necessary ; but at the same time I added, that 
we must behold God as he is revealed to us, as 
we sing in the Psalm, 'Jesus Christ is the 
Lord of sabaoth, nor is there any other God.' 
In several other passages I have used similar 
expressions. But these people will pass by all 
such passages, and will only seize upon those 
concerning a hidden Deity. You, therefore, 
who now hear me, recollect that I have taught 
this, — We must not inquire concerning the 
predestination of a hidden God, but we must 
abide and acquiesce in those things which are 
revealed by calling and by the ministry of the 
word." " But in other passages of my difierent 
works I have inculcated the same sentiments, 
and I now deliver them again with an audible 
voice ; therefore I am excused." For the more 
modern state of the Lutheran church see Ne- 

OLOGY. 

The following account of the union between 
the Lutheran and Calvinistic churches, as given 
in the advertisement to Baron Von Wessen- 



berg's " Correspondence with the Court of 
Rome," may not be uninteresting to the reader : 
" The Germans have just set the noble example 
of forming a union between these two branches 
of the Protestant faith. This union, which 
originated, we believe, in the grand duchy of 
Nassau, has taken place almost universally 
throughout Germany ; and the separate appel- 
lations of Lutheran and Calvinistic churches 
have merged in the common appellation of the 
Evangelical church. The Lutheran and Re- 
formed churches of Prussia met in synod 
together, on the invitation of their monarch, 
the first of October, 1817, and soon came to 
an agreement ; and the union was celebrated 
on the day of the tri-centenary festival of the 
Reformation. A similar synod of the Lu- 
therans and Calvinists in Hesse-Cassel was 
held at Hanau in May and June, 1818, and 
attended with the same result. The royal con- 
firmation was given to the Bavarian union on 
the first of October following. Saxe-Weimar, 
and most of the other small states have fol- 
lowed this example. The Protestant Germans 
have now, therefore, only one Gospel, one 
temple, one divine Instructor, and one mode 
of communion ; and, what is singular, and 
highly honourable to their liberality, this 
union was every where accomplished with 
the greatest ease, and without a dissentient 
voice having been raised against it." How 
difierent was this result from that of the synods 
and councils of other times ; and what a change 
in the state of public opinion does it indicate ! 
And yet it is to be feared' that the liberality 
from which this union has resulted, is rather 
indifference to the grand peculiarities of the 
Christian faith than mutual charity. 

LYCAONIA, a province of Asia Minor, 
accounted a part of Cappadocia, having Pisidia 
on the west, and Cilicia on the south. In it 
were the cities of Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, 
mentioned in the travels of St. Paul. The 
former was the capital, and the country itself 
at that time a Roman province. The " speech 
of Lycaonia," mentioned Acts xiv, 11, is sup- 
posed to have been a corrupt Greek, inter- 
mingled with many oriental words. 

LYCIA, a country of Asia Minor, having 
Phrygia on the north, Pamphylia on the east, 
the Mediterranean on the south, and Caria on 
the west. The greatest part of the country, 
however, is a peninsula projecting into the 
Mediterranean. Lycia derived its name from 
Lycus, the son of Pandion, who settled here. 
It was conquered by CrcEsus, king of Lydia, 
and passed with his kingdom into the hands 
of the Persians. It afterward, in common 
with the neighbouring countries of Asia Minor, 
formed part of the Macedonian empire, under 
Alexander ; then of that of the Seleucidae, his 
successors in those countries ; and, at the time 
of the Apostles, was reduced to the state of a 
Roman province. 

LYDDA, by the Greeks called Diospolis. 
It lay in the way from Jerusalem to Csesarea, 
four or five leagues to the east of Joppa. 
Lydda belonged to the tribe of Ephraim. It 
seems to have been inhabited by the Benja- 



MAC 



607 



MAC 



toites, at the return of the Jews from the 
Babylonish captivity, Neh- xi, 35. St. Peter 
coming to Lydda, cured a sick man of the palsy 
named Eneas, Acts ix, 33, 34. 

LYDIA, a woman of Thyatira, a seller of 
purple, who dwelt in the city of Philippi, in 
Macedonia. She was converted to the faith 
by St. Paul, and both she and her family were 
baptized. She offered her house to the Apostle, 
and pressed him to abide there so earnestly, 
that he yielded to her entreaties. She was 
not a Jewess by birth, but a proselyte, Acts 
xvi, 14, 15, 40. 

2. I^DiA, an ancient celebrated kingdom of 
Asia Minor, which, in the time of the Apostles, 
was reduced to a Roman province. Sardis was 
the capital. 

LYSTRA, a city of Lycaonia,- the native 
place of Timothy. The Apostle Paul and 
Barnabas having preached here, and healed a 
cripple, were taken for gods. But so fickle are 
human praise and popular encomiums, that, in 
the space of a few hours, those who had been 
deemed gods were regarded as less than mor- 
tals, and were stoned by the very persons who 
so lately deified them. See Acts xiv. 

MA AC AH, or BETH-MAACHA, a little 
province of Syria to the east and the north of 
the sources of the river Jordan, upon the road 
to Damascus. Abel or Abela was in this coun- 
try, whence it was called Abelbeth-Maachah. 
We learn from Joshua xiii, 13, that the Israel- 
ites did not destroy the Maachathites, but per- 
raitted them to dwell in the land among them. 
The distribution of the half tribe of Manasseh, 
beyond Jordan, extended as far as this country, 
Deut. iii, 14 ; Joshua xii, 5. 

MACCABEES, two apocryphal books of 
Scripture, containing the history of Judas and 
his brothers, and their wars against the Syrian 
kings in defence of their religion and liberties, 
BO called from Judas, the son of Mattathias, 
surnamed Maccabaeus, as some authors say, 
from the word ODD, formed of the initials of 
mn^ C3^'7N3 noDO-iD, " Who is like unto thee, 
O Lord, among the gods?" Exod. xv, 11, 
which was the motto of his standard ; whence 
those who fought under his standard w^ere 
called Maccabees, and the name was generally 
applied to all who suffered in the cause of true 
religion, under the Egyptian or Syrian kings. 
This name, formed by abbreviation according 
to the common practice of the Jews, dis- 
tingiaished Judas MaccabaBUs by way of emi- 
nence, as he succeeded his father, B. C. 166, 
in the command of those forces which he had 
with him at his death ; and, being joined by 
his brothers, and all others that were zealous 
for the law, he erected his standard, on which 
he inscribed the above mentioned motto. 
Those, also, who sujffered under Ptolemy Phi- 
lopater of Alexandria, fifty years before this 
period, were afterward called Maccabees ; and 
so were Eleazar, and the mother and her 
seven sons, though they suffered before Judas 
erected his standard with the motto from 
which the appellation originated. And there- 
fore, as these books which contain the history 



of Judas and his brothers, and their wars 
against the Syrian kings, in defence of their 
religion and liberties, are called the first and 
second books of the Maccabees; so that book 
which gives us the history of those who, in 
the like cause, under Ptolemy Philopater, were 
exposed to his elephants at Alexandria, is 
called the third book of the Maccabees ; and 
that which is written by Josephus, of the mar- 
tyrdom of Eleazar, and the seven brothers and 
their mother, is called the fourth book of the 
Maccabees. 

The first book of the Maccabees is an ex- 
cellent history, and comes nearest to the style 
and manner of the sacred historians of any 
extant. It w^as written originally in the 
Chaldee language, of the Jerusalem dialect, 
and was extant in this language in the time of 
Jerom, who had seen it. From the Chaldee 
it was translated into Greek, from the Greek 
into Latin. Theodotion is conjectured to 
have translated it into Greek ; but this version 
was probably more ancient, as we may infer 
from its use by ancient authors, as Tertullian, 
Origen, and others. It is supposed to have 
been written by John Hyrcanus, the son of 
Simon, who was prince and high priest of the 
Jews near thirty years, and began his govern- 
ment at the time where this history ends. It 
contains the history of forty years, from the 
reign of Antiochus Epiphanes to the death of 
Simon, the high priest ; that is, from the year 
of the world 3829 to the year 3869, B. C. 131. 
The second book of the Maccabees begins 
with two epistles sent from the Jews of Jeru- 
salem to the Jews of Egypt and Alexandria, 
to exhort them to observe the feast of the 
dedication of the new altar erected by Judas, 
on his purifying the temple. The first was 
written in the 169th year of the era of the 
Seleucidee, that is, B. C. 144 ; and the second, 
in the 188th year of the same era, or B. C. 
125 ; and both appear to be spurious. After 
these epistles follows the preface of the author 
to his history, which is an abridgment of a 
larger work, composed by one Jason, a Jew of 
Cyrene, who wrote in Greek the history of 
Judas Maccabaeus, and his brethren, and the 
wars against Antiochus Epiphanes, and Eupa- 
tor his son. The two last chapters contain 
events under the reign of Demetrius Soter, 
the successor of Antiochus Eupator, and con- 
tain such varieties in their style, as render it 
doubtful whether they had the same author as 
the rest of the work. This second book does 
not by any means equal the accuracy and ex. 
cellency of the first. It contains a history of 
about fifteen years, from the execution of 
Heliodorus's cominission, who was sent by 
Seleucus to fetch away the treasures of the 
temple, to the victory obtained by Judas Mac- 
cabseus over Nicanor; that is, from the year 
of the world 3828 to the year 3843, B. C. 157. 
There are in the Polyglott Bibles, both of 
Paris and London, Syriac versions of both 
these books ; but they, as well as the English 
versions which we have among the apocryphal 
writers in our Bibles, are derived from the 
Greek. For a farther account of Judas Mac- 



MAG 



608 



MAG 



cabseus, and of his brothers, whose history is 
recorded in the first and second books of the 
Maccabees, and also by Josephus, we refer to 
the article Jews. The third book of the Mac- 
cabees contains the history of the persecution 
of Ptolemy Philopater against the Jews in 
Egypt, and their sufferings under it ; and 
seems to have been written by some Alexan- 
drian Jew in the Greek language, not long 
after the time of Siracides. This book, with 
regard to its subject, ought to be called the 
first, as the things which are related in it 
occurred before the Maccabees, whose history 
is recorded in the first and second books ; but 
as it is of less authority and repute than the 
other two, it is reckoned after them. It is 
extant in Syriac, though the translator did not 
seem to have well understood the Greek Ian- 
guage. It is in most of the ancient manu- 
script copies of the Greek Septuagint, par- 
ticularly in the Alexandrian and Vatican, but 
was never inserted into the vulgar Latin ver- 
sion of the Bible, nor, consequently, into any 
of our English copies. The first authentic 
mention we have of this book is in Eusebius's 
*' Chronicon." It is also named with two other 
books of the Maccabees in the eighty-fifth of 
the apostolic canons. But it is uncertain 
when that canon was added. Grotius thinks 
that this book was written after the two first 
books, and shortly after the book of Ecclesi- 
asticus, from which circumstance it was called 
the third book of Maccabees. Moreover, 
Josephus's history of the martyrs that suffered 
under Antiochus Epiphanes, is found in some 
rhanuscript Greek Bibles, under the name of 
the fourth book of the Maccabees. This book, 
ascribed to Josephus, occurs under the title, 
" Concerning the Empire or Government of 
Reason ;" but learned men have expressed a 
doubt whether this was the book known to 
the ancients as the fourth book of the Mac- 
cabees. 

MACEDONIA, a kingdom of Greece, hav- 
ing Thrace to the north, Thessaly south, 
Epirus west, and the JEgean Sea east. Alex- 
ander the Great, son of Philip, king of Mace, 
donia, having conquered Asia, and subverted 
the Persian empire, the name of the Macedo- 
nians became very famous throughout the 
east ; and it is often given to the Greeks, the 
successors of Alexander in the monarchy. In 
like manner, the name of Greeks is often put 
for Macedonians, 2 Maccabees iv, 36. When 
the Roman empire was divided, Macedonia 
fell to the share of the emperor of the east. 
After it had long continued subject to the 
Romans, it fell under the power of the Otto- 
man Turks, v/ho are the present masters of it. 

St. Paul was invited by an angel of the 
Lord, who appeared to him at Troas, to come 
and preach the Gospel in Macedonia, Acts 
xvi, 9. After this vision, the Apostle no 
longer doubted his divine call to preach the 
Gospel in Macedonia ; and the success that 
attended his ministry confirmed him in his 
persuasion. Here he laid the foundation of 
the churches of Thessalonica and Philippi. 

M AGDALA, a city on the west side of the 



sea of Galilee, near Dalmanutha; Jesus, after 
the miracle of the seven loaves, being said by 
St. Matthew to have gone by ship to the 
coasts of Magdala, Matt, xv, 39 ; and by St. 
Mark, to " the parts of Dalmanutha," Mark 
viii, 10. Mr. Buckingham came to a small 
village in this situation called Migdal, close to 
the edge of the lake, beneath a range of high 
cliffs, in which small grottoes are seen, with 
the remains of an old square tower, and some 
larger buildings, of rude construction, appa- 
rently of great antiquity. Migdol implies a 
tower, or fortress ; and this place, from having 
this name particularly applied to it, was doubt- 
less, like the Egyptian Migdol, one of con- 
siderable importance ; and may be considered 
as the site of the Migdal of the Naphtalites, 
as well as the Magdala of the New Testa- 
ment. 

MAGI, or MAGIANS, a title which the 
ancient Persians gave to their wise men, or 
philosophers. Magi, among the Persians,, 
answers to c6(poi, or (piXdaofoi, among the 
Greeks ; sapientes, among the Latins ; druids, 
among the Gauls ; gymnosophists, among the 
Indians ; and priests, among the Egyptians. 

The ancient magi, according to Aristotle 
and Laertius, were the sole authors and con- 
servators of the Persian philosophy ; and the 
philosophy principally cultivated among them 
was theology and politics ; they being always 
esteemed as the interpreters of all law, both 
divine and human ; on which account they 
were wonderfully revered by the people. 
Hence Cicero observes that none were ad- 
mitted to the crown of Persia, but such as 
were well instructed in the discipline of the 
magi ; who taught rd ^aaihKd, and showed 
princes how to govern. Plato, Apuleius, 
Laertius, and others, agree that the philosophy 
of the magi related principally to the worship 
of the gods : they were the persons who were 
to offer prayers, supplications, and sacrifices, 
as if the gods would be heard by them alone. 
But, according to Lucian, Suidas, &c, this 
theology, or worship of the gods, as it is call- 
ed, about which the magi were employed, was 
little more than the diabolical art of divina- 
tion ; so that ^layda, strictly taken, was the 
art of divination. These people were held in 
such veneration among the Persians, that 
Darius, the son of Hystaspes, among other 
things, had it engraven on his monument, 
that he was the master of the magi. Philo 
JudaBUS describes the magi to be dihgent in- 
quirers into nature, out of the love they bear 
to truth ; and who, setting themselves apart 
from other things, contemplate the divine 
virtues the more clearly, and initiate others in 
the same mysteries. The magi, or magians, 
formed one of the two grand sects into which 
the idolatry of the world was divided between 
500 and 600 years before Christ. These 
abominated all those images which were wor- 
shipped by the other sect, denominated Sabians, 
and paid their worship to the Deity under the 
emblem of fire. Their chief doctrine was, 
that there were two principles, one of which 
was the cause of all good, and the other the 



MAG 



60d 



MAG 



cause of all evil. The former was represented 
by light, and the latter by darkness, as their 
truest symbols ; and of the composition of 
these two they supposed that all things in the 
world were made. The sect of the magians 
was revived and reformed by Zoroaster. This 
celebrated philosopher, called by the Persians 
Zerdusht, or Zaratush, began about the thirty- 
sixth year of the reign of Darius to restore 
and reform, the magian system of religion. 
He was not only excellently skilled in all the 
learning of the east that prevailed in his time, 
but likewise thoroughly versed in the Jewish 
religion, and in all the sacred writings of the 
Old Testament that were then extant : whence 
some have inferred that he was a native Jew 
both by birth and profession ; and that he had 
been servant to one of the prophets, probably 
Ezekiel or Daniel. He made his first appear- 
ance in Media, in the city of Xix, now called 
Aderbijan, as some say ; or, according to 
others in Ecbatana, now called Tauris. In- 
stead of admitting the existence of two first 
causes, with the magians, he asserted the ex- 
istence of one supreme God, who created both 
these, and out of these two produced, accord- 
ing to his sovereign pleasure, everything else. 
According to his doctrine, there was one 
supreme Being independently and self-existing 
from all eternity. Under him there are two 
angels : one the angel of light, the author and 
director of all good ; and the other the angel 
of darkness, who is the author and director of 
all evil. These two, probably speaking figura- 
tively, out of the mixture of light and dark- 
ness, made all things that are ; and they are 
in a state of perpetual conflict ; so that where 
the angel of light prevails, there the most is 
good ; and where the angel of darkness pre- 
vails, there the most is evil. This struggle 
shall continue to the end of the world ; and 
then there shall be a general resurrection, and 
a day of judgment : after which, the angel of 
darkness and his disciples shall go into a world 
of their own, where they shall suffer in ever- 
lasting darkness the punishment of their evil 
deeds ; and the angel of light and his disciples 
shall go into a world of their own, where they 
shall receive in everlasting light the reward 
due unto their good deeds : and henceforward 
they shall for ever remain separate. 

Of the controversy as to Zoroaster, Zera- 
tusht, or Zertusbta, and the sacred books said 
to have been written by him, called Zend or 
Zendavesta, which has divided the most emi- 
nent critics, it would answer no important end 
to give an abstract. Those who wish for in. 
formation on the subject are referred to Hyde's 
" Religio Veterum Persarum ;" Prideaux's 
" Connection ;" Warburton's " Divine Lega- 
tion ;" Bryant's "Mythology;" "The Uni- 
versal History ;" Sir W. Jones's Works, vol. 
iii, p. 115; M. Du Perron, and Richardson's 
"Dissertation," prefixed to his Persian and 
Arabic Dictionary. But whatever may become 
of the authority of the whole or .part of the 
Zendavesta, and with whatever' fables the 
history of the reformer of the magian religion 
may be mixed, the learned are generally agreed 
40 



that such A reformation took place by his" 
instrumentality. " Zeratusht," says Sir W. 
Jones, " reformed the old religion by the addi- 
tion of genii or angels, of new ceremonies in 
the veneration shown to fire, of a new work 
which he pretended to have received from 
heaven, and, above all, by establishing the actual 
adoration of the supreme Being i''' and he farther 
adds, " The reformed religion of Persia con- 
tinued in force till that country was conquered 
by the Musselmans ; and, without studying the 
Zend, we have ample information concerning it 
in the modern Persian writings of several who 
profess it. Bahman always named Zeratusht 
with reverence ; he was, in truth, a pure Theist, 
and strongly disclaimed any adoration of the 
fire or other elements ; and he denied that the 
doctrine of two coeval principles, supremely 
good and supremely bad, formed any part of 
his faith." " The Zeratusht of Persia, or the 
Zoroaster of the Greeks," says Richardson, 
" was highly celebrated by the most discerning 
people of ancient times; and his tenets, we 
are told, were most eagerly and rapidly em- 
braced by the highest in rank, and the wisest 
men in the Persian empire." He distinguished 
himself by denying that good and evil, repre- 
sented by light and daj'kness, were coeval, 
independent principles ; and asserted the supre- 
macy of the true God, in exact conformity 
with the doctrine contained in a part of that 
celebrated prophecy of Isaiah in which Cyrus 
is mentioned by name : " I am the Lord, and 
there is none else, there is no God beside me,'* 
no coeval pow^er. " I form the light, and 
create darkness, I make peace," or good, " and 
create evil, I the Lord do all these things." 
Fire, by Zerdushta, appears to have been used 
emblematically only ; and the ceremonies for 
preserving and transmitting it, introduced by 
hijn, were manifestly taken from the Jews, and 
the sacred fire of their tabernacle and temple. 
The old religion of the Persians was cor- 
rupted by Sabianism, or the worship of the 
host of heaven, with its accompanying super- 
stition. The magian doctrine, whatever it 
might be at first, had degenerated ; and two 
eternal principles, good and evil, had been 
introduced. It was therefore necessarily idola- 
trous also, and, like all other false systems, 
flattering to the vicious habits of the people. 
So great an improvement in the moral charac- 
ter and influence of the religion of a whole 
nation as was effected by Zoroaster, a change 
which is not certainly paralleled in the ancient 
history of the religion of mankind, can scarcely, 
therefore, be thought possible, except we sup- 
pose a divine interposition, either directly, or 
by the occurrence of some very impressive 
events. Now as there are so many authorities 
for fixing the time of Zoroaster or Zeratusht 
not many years subsequent to the death of the 
great Cyrus, the events connected with the 
conquest of Babylon may account for his suc- 
cess in that reformation of religion of which 
he was the author. For, had not the minds of 
men been prepared forthis change by something 
extraordinary, it is not supposable that they 
would have adopted a purer faith from him. 



MAG 



610 



MAG 



That he gave them a better doctrine, is clear 
from the admission of even Dean Prideaux, 
who has very unjustly branded him as an 
impostor. Let it then be remembered, that as 
"the Most High ruleth in the kingdoms of 
men," he often overrules great political events 
for moral purposes. The Jews were sent into 
captivity to Babylon to be reformed from their 
idolatrous propensities, and their reformation 
commenced with their calamity. A miracle 
was there wrought in favour of three Hebrew 
confessors of the existence of one only God, 
and that under circumstances to put shame 
upon a popular idol in the presence of the 
king and "all the rulers of the provinces," that 
the issue of this controversy between Jehovah 
and idolatry might be made known throughout 
that vast empire. — Worship was refused to the 
idol by a few Hebrew captives, and the idol 
had no power to punish the public affront : — 
the servants of Jehovah were cast into a fur- 
nace, and he delivered them unhurt ; and a 
royal decree declared "that there was no god 
who could deliver after this sort." The proud 
monarch himself also is smitten with a singu- 
lar disease ; — he remains subject to it until he 
acknowledges the true God; and, upon his 
recovery, he publicly ascribes to him both the 
justice and the mercy of the punishment. This 
event takes place, also, in the accomplishment 
of a dream which none of the wise men of 
Babylon could interpret. It was interpreted 
by Daniel, who made the fulfilment to redound 
to the honour of the true God, by ascribing to 
him the perfection of knowing the future, 
which none of the false gods, appealed to by 
the Chaldean sages, possessed ; as the inability 
of their servants to interpret the dream suffi- 
ciently proved. After these singular events, 
Cyrus takes Babylon, and he finds there the 
sage and the statesman, Daniel, the worship- 
per of the true God, " who creates both good 
and evil," "who makes the light,- and forms 
the darkness." There is little doubt but that 
he and the principal Persians throughout the 
empire would have the prophecy of Isaiah 
respecting Cyrus, delivered more than a hun- 
dred years before he was born, and in which 
his name stood recorded, along with the pre- 
dieted circumstances of the capture of Babylon, 
pointed out to them. Every reason, religious 
and political, urged the Jews to make the pre- 
diction a matter of notoriety ; and from Cyrus's 
decree in Ezra it is certain that he was ac- 
quainted with it ; because there is in the decree 
an obvious reference to the prophecy. This 
prophecy, so strangely fulfilled, would give 
mighty force to the doctrine connected with 
it, and which it proclaims with so much j 
majesty : — 

" I am Jehovah, and none else, 

Forming light, and creating darkness, 

Making peace, and creating evil ; 

I Jehovah am the author of all these things." 

Here the great principle of corrupted magi- 
anism was directly attacked; and, in propor- 
tion as the fulfilment of the prophecy was felt 
to be singular and striking, the doctrine blended 
with it would attract notice. Its force was 



both felt and acknowledged, as we have seen, 
in the decree of Cyrus for the rebuilding of 
the temple. In that Cyrus acknowledged the 
true God to be supreme, and thus renounced 
his former faith ; and the example, the public 
example, of a prince so beloved, and whose 
reign was so extended, could not fail to influ- 
ence the religious opinions of his people. That 
the effect did not terminate in Cyrus, wo 
know ; for, from the book of Ezra, it appears 
that both Darius and Artaxerxes made decrees 
in favour of the Jews, in which Jehovah has 
the emphatic appellation repeatedly given to 
him, " the God of heaven," the very terms 
used by Cyrus himself. Nor are we to sup- 
pose the impression confined to the court ; for 
the history of the three Hebrew youths, of 
Nebuchadnezzar's dream, sickness, and re- 
formation from idolatry, of the interpretation 
of the hand writing on the wall by Daniel the 
servant of the living God, of his deliverance 
from the lions, and the publicity of the pro- 
phecy of Isaiah respecting Cyrus, were too 
recent, too public, and too striking in their 
nature, not to be oflen and largely talked of 
Beside, in the prophecy respecting Cyrus, tlie 
intention of almighty God in recording the 
name of that monarch in an inspired book, 
and showing beforehand that he had chosen 
him to overturn the Babylonian empire, is 
expressly mentioned as having respect to two 
great objects, first, the deliverance of Israel, 
and, second, the making known his supreme 
divinity among the nations of the earth. We 
again quote Lowth's translation : — 
" For the sake of my servant Jacob^ 

And of Israel my chosen, 

I have even called thee by thy name, 

I have surnamed thee, though thou knewest me not 

I am Jehovah, and none else, 

Beside me there is no God ; 

I will gird thee, though thou hast not known me. 

That they viay knotc, from the rising of the sun, 

And from the west, that there is none beside me." 
It was therefore intended by this proceeding 
on the part of Providence to teach, not only 
Cyrus, but the people of his vast empire, and 
surrounding nations, 1. That the God of the 
Jews was Jehovah, the self-subsistent, the 
eternal God ; 2. That he was God alone, there 
being no deity beside himself; and, 3. That 
good and evil, represented by light and dark- 
ness, were neither independent nor eternal 
subsistences, but his great instruments, and 
under his control. 

The Persians, who had so vastly extended 
their empire by the conquest of the countries 
formerly held by the monarchs of Babylon, 
were thus prepared for such a reformation of 
their religion as Zoroaster effected. The prin- 
ciples he advocated had been previously adopted 
by Cyrus and other Persian monarchs, and pro- 
bably by many of the principal persons of that 
nation. Zoroaster himself thus became ac- 
quainted with the great truths contained in 
this famous prophecy, which attacked the very 
foundations of every idolatrous and Manichean 
system. From the other sacred books of the 
Jews, who mixed with the Persians in every 
part of the empire, he evidently learned more. 



MAG 



611 



MAH 



This is sufficiently proved from the many 
points of similarity between his religion and 
Judaism, though he should not be allowed to 
, speak so much in the style of the Holy Scrip- 
tures as some passages in the Zendavesta would 
indicate. He found the people, however, " pre- 
pared of the Lord" to admit his reformations, 
and he carried them. This cannot but be looked 
upon as one instance of several merciful dis- 
pensations of God to the Gentile world, through 
his own peculiar people, the Jews, by which 
the idolatries of the Heathen were often check, 
ed, and the light of truth rekindled among 
them. In this view the ancient Jews evidently 
considered the Jewish church as appointed not 
to preserve only but to extend true religion. 
" God be merciful to us and bless us ; that thy 
way may be known upon earth,- thy saving 
health unto all nations." This renders Pagan 
nations more evidently " without excuse." 
That this dispensation of mercy was afterward 
neglected amon g the Persians, is certain . How 
long the effect continued we know not, nor 
how widely it spread ; perhaps longer and wider 
than may now distinctly appear. If the magi, 
who came from the east to seek Christ, were 
Persians, some true worshippers of God would 
appear to have remained in Persia to that day ; 
and if, as is probable, the prophecies of Isaiah 
and Daniel were retained among them, they 
might be among those who " waited for redemp- 
tion," not at Jerusalem, but in a distant part 
of the world. The Parsees, who were nearly 
extirpated by Mohammedan 'fanaticism, were 
charged by their oppressors with the idolatry 
of fire, and this was probably true of the mul- 
titude. Some of their writers, however, warmly 
defended themselves against the charge. A 
considerable number of them remain in India 
to this day, and profess to have the books of 
Zoroaster. 

2. The term magi was also anciently used 
generally throughout the east, to distinguish 
philosophers, and especially astronomers. Pliny 
and Ptolemy mention Arabi as synonymous 
with magi ; and it was the opinion of many 
learned men in the first ages of Christianity, 
that the magi who presented offerings to the 
infant Saviour, Matt, ii, 1, came from southern 
Arabia ; for it is certain that " gold, frankin- 
cense, and myrrh," were productions of that 
country. They were philosophers among 
whom the best parts of the reformed magian 
system, which was extensively diffused, were 
probably preserved. They were pious men, 
also, who had some acquaintance, it may be, 
with the Hebrew prophecies, and were favoured 
themselves with divine revelations. They are 
to be regarded as members of the old patri- 
archal chm'ch, never quite extinguished among 
the Heathen ; and they had the special honour 
to present the homage of the Gentile world to 
the infant Saviour. 

MAGICIAN not unfrequently occurs in 
Scripture. Generally it signifies a diviner, a 
fortune teller, &c. Moses forbids recourse to 
such on pain of death : " The soul that turn- 
eth after such as have familiar spirits, and 
after wizards, tp go a whoring after them, 1 1 



will even set my face against that soul, and 
even cut him off from among his people," 
Leviticus xix, 31 ; xx, 6. The Hebrew is 
C3>J;;i"in-'7Ni naNn-Vx, which signify literally, — 
the first, those possessed with a spirit of Python, 
or a demon that fortels future events ; — the 
second, knowers, they who boast of the 
knowledge of secret things. It was such 
sort of people that Saul extirpated out of the 
land of Israel, 1 Sam. xxviii, 3. Daniel also 
speaks of magicians and diviners in Chaldea, 
under Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel i, 20, &c ; 
Dns'D'?! DifitJOD'?] D"'DC'{>«'?1 D"'DtonnV. He names 
four sorts : Chartumim, Asaphim, Mecasphim, 
and Casdim, Daniel ii, 2. The first, Chartu- 
mim, according to Theodotion, signifies " en- 
chanters ;" according to the LXX, "sophists;" 
according to Jerom, hariolas, " diviners, for- 
tune tellers, casters of nativities." The second 
word, Asaphim, has a great resemblance to the 
Greek w^ord aocpoi, "wise man;" whether the 
Greeks took this word from the Babylonians, 
or vice versa. Theodotion and Jerom have 
rendered it "magicians;" the LXX, "philoso- 
phers." The third word, Mecasphim, by Jerom 
and the Greeks, is translated malefici, " en- 
chanters ;" such as used noxious herbs and 
drugs, the blood of victims, and the bones of the 
dead,- for their superstitious operations. The 
fourth word, Casdim, or Chaldeans, has two 
significations : first, the Chaldean people, over 
whom Nebuchadnezzar was monarch ; the 
second, a sort of philosophers, who dwelt in a 
separate part of the city, who were exempt 
from all public offices and employments. Their 
studies were physic, astrology, divination, 
foretelling of future events by the stars, inter- 
pretation of dreams, augury, worship of the 
gods, &c. All these inquisitive and supersti- 
tious arts were prohibited among the Israelites, 
as founded on imposture or devilism, and as 
inconsistent with faith in God's providence, 
and trust in his supremacy. 

MAGOG. See Gog. 

MAH AN AIM, a city of the Levites, of the 
family of Merari, in the tribe of Gad, upon the 
brook Jabbok, Joshua xxi, 38 ; xiii, 26. The 
name Mahanaim signifies " two hosts," or 
"two fields." The patriarch gave it this 
name because in this place he had a vision of 
angels coming to meet him. Genesis xxxii, 2. 
Mahanaim was the seat of the kingdom of 
Ishbosheth, after the death of Saul, 2 Sam. ii, 
9, 12. It was also to this place that David 
retired during the usurpation of Absalom, 
2 Sam. xvii, 24; and this rebellious son was 
subdued, and suffered death, not far from this 
city. 

MAHOMETANISM. Mohammed, its dis- 
tinguished founder, was born in Arabia, toward 
the conclusion of the sixth century. Although 
he had been reduced to poverty, he was de- 
scended from ancestors who had long been 
conspicuous by rank and by influence ; but 
having been shut out from the advantages of 
education, which in his peculiar case might 
have rather cramped than invigorated the 
astonishing powers of his mind, he had been 
compelled to seek his subsistence by devoting 



MAH 



612 



MAH 



himself to a menial occupation. Yet although 
thus unfavourably situated, he was led, in con. 
ducting the commercial transactions which, 
in the service of Cadijah, a woman of great 
wealth, he was employed to arrange, to survey 
the state of several of the neighbouring na- 
tions ; became acquainted with the most 
striking features in the characters of those by 
whom he was surrounded ; and he was enabled 
to profit by the information which he thus pro- 
cured, from his adding to the graces of personal 
elegance and beauty, the most captivating 
manners, and the most winning address. Ex- 
alted by the partiality of Cadijah, who con- 
ferred on him her hand and her extensive 
possessions, he seems early to have formed the 
scheme of announcing himself as the author 
of a new religion, and, in virtue of this sacred 
office, of ascending to that supremacy of po- 
litical influence which it was his singular for- 
tune, soon after he unfolded his pretensions, 
to attain. Taking advantage of that insensi- 
bility into which, by the attacks of epHepsy, 
he was occasionally thrown, he pretended that 
he was wrapped in divine contemplation, or 
was actually holding communication with 
higher orders of beings, who were committing 
to him the divine instructions which he was 
to disseminate through the world. 

When the time which he conceived to be 
favourable for the grand object of his ambition 
had arrived, he openly declared that he was the 
prophet of the most high God ; but the magis- 
trates of Mecca, despising his pretensions, or 
dreading the evils which might result from 
religious innovation, vigorously opposed him, 
and he found himself compelled, in order to 
avoid the punishment which they were pre- 
paring to inflict on him, to have recourse to 
flight. He did not, however, relinquish the 
scheme upon which he had so long meditated, 
and which he was convinced that he was 
qualified to carry into execution. After his 
departure from Mecca, from which event the 
Mohammedan era of the hegira takes its com- 
mencement, he was joined by a few followers 
determined to share his fate ; and having 
solemnly consecrated the banner under which 
he was to extend his power and propagate his 
tenets, he commenced hostilities against those 
by whom he had been opposed. His first efforts, 
however, were not crowned with success, but 
he had infused into his attendants a spirit 
which misfortune could not subdue : they re- 
newed their enterprise, and Mecca at length 
submitted to his arms. From this period his 
exaltation was very rapid ; he was venerated 
as the favoured messenger of Heaven, and his 
countrymen bowed down before a sovereign 
protected, as they believed, by the Omnipotent, 
and commissioned to reveal his will. There 
were many causes which satisfactorily account 
for his success. The Christian religion, in 
the corrupted form in which it existed in the 
regions contiguous to the country of the pro- 
phet, was not interwoven with the affections 
of its professors ; they were split into factions, 
contending about the most frivolous distinc- 
tions and the most ridiculous tenets ; and the 



sword of persecution was mutually wielded by 
them all, to spread misery where there should 
have been the ties of charity and love. Thus 
divided, they presented no steady resistance to 
the attempt made to wrest from them their 
religion ; and, indeed, as many of them had 
adopted that religion, not from conviction, but 
from dread of the tyranny by which it had 
been imposed on them, they only did what 
they had previously done, when, shrinking 
from the ferocious zeal of the emissaries of the 
prophet, they submitted to his doctrine. With 
admirable address, too, he had framed his reli- 
gious system, so as to gratify those to whom 
it WELS announced. Laying down the sublime 
and unquestionable doctrine of the unity of 
God, he professed to revere the patriarchs, 
whose memory the Arabs held in veneration ; 
he admitted that Moses was a messenger from 
God ; he acknowledged Jesus as an exalted 
prophet ; and he founded his own pretensions 
upon the intimation which our Saviour had 
given that the Paraclete, or Comforter, was 
to be sent to lead the world into all truth. 
Thus each party found in the Koran much of 
what it had been accustomed to believe ; and 
the transition was in this way rendered more 
easy to the admission that a new revelation 
had been vouchsafed. 

This effect was facilitated by the ignorance 
which prevailed in Arabia. Accustomed to a 
wandering life, the Arabs had devoted no time 
to the acquisition of knowledge ; most of them 
were even unable to read the Koran, the 
sublimity and beauty of which were, held forth 
to them as incontestable proofs of tlie inspira, 
tion of its author. Had Mohammed, indeed- 
rested his doctrine upon miracles, it might 
have happened that the imposture by some 
would have been detected ; but, with his usual 
policy, he avoided what he knew was so 
hazardous ; and, with the exception of his 
reference to the Koran, as surpassing the ca- 
pacity of man, he explicitly disclaimed having 
been authorized to do such mighty works as 
had been wrought to establish the previous 
dispensations of the Almighty. The fascinat- 
ing representation that he gave of the joys of 
paradise, which he accommodated to the con- 
ceptions and wishes of the eastern nations, 
also made a deep and favourable impression ; 
the wantonness of imagination was gratified 
with the anticipation of a state abounding 
with sensual gratification raised to the highest 
degree of exquisiteness ; while the dismal fate 
allotted through eternity to all who rejected 
the message which he brought, alarmed the 
fears of the credulous and superstitious multi- 
tude whom he was eager to allure. When 
with these causes are combined the vigour of 
his administration, and the certainty of suffer- 
ing or of death in the event of withstanding 
his doctrine, there is sufficient to account for 
the success of his religion ; and there is in that 
success nothing which can, with the shadow 
of reason, be employed, as, with strange per- 
version of argument, it has sometimes been, 
to invalidate the proof for the truth of Chris- 
tianity deduced from its rapid diffusion. That 



MAH 



613 



MAH 



proof does not rest upon the mere circum- 
stance that the religion of Jesus was widely 
and speedily propagated ; there might, under 
particular circumstances, have been in this 
nothing wonderful ; but on the facts that it 
was so propagated, when all the human means 
to which they who preached it could have 
recourse, would have retarded rather than 
promoted what actually took place ; that it 
employed no force ; that it held out no earthly 
advantages ; that it accommodated itself to no 
previous religious prejudices ; and that it op- 
posed and reproved all, and did not gratify 
any, of the corruptions and lusts of human 
nature. 

But Mohammed did not limit his views to 
the sovereignty of Arabia : he was elevated by 
the hope of universal empire ; and he moulded 
his system so as to promote what he was eager 
to attain. For this purpose he promised to all 
who enrolled themselves Under his banner full 
license to plunder the nations against which 
they were led ; and he made it a fundamental 
tenet of his faith that they who fell in the war- 
like enterprises destined to enlarge the number 
of believers were at once delivered from the 
guilt and misery of their sins, and were admit- 
ted to the happy scenes prepared for the faith- 
ful. He thus collected around him an army 
thoroughly devoted, prepared for meeting every 
danger, stimulated to the most laborious exer- 
tions by the hope of plunder, and steeled 
against all which can weaken courage or ex- 
haust resolution, by the enthusiasm of hope ; 
whatever was their fate, they had nothing to 
dread ; if they escaped the weapons of their 
enemies, they were loaded with spoil, and in- 
vited to indulgence ; and if they fell, they were 
canonized by those who survived, and ex- 
changed the vicissitudes and troubles of this 
world for the delights of a sensual paradise. An 
army thus constituted and thus impelled must, 
under any circumstances, have been formidable ; 
against them the usual methods to defeat inva- 
sion and to prevent conquest would have failed ; 
they could have been successfully encountered 
only by men who had imbibed a similar spirit, 
and who identified patience and courage in the 
field with the most sacred duty required by re- 
ligion. Of the advantages which, after Arabia 
had acknowledged his sway, and hailed him as 
the prophet of the Lord, he might confidently 
anticipate, Mohammed was abundantly sensi- 
ble ; but while he was preparing to bring into 
action the mighty machine which he had 
erected, his earthly career was terminated, and 
he lefl to others to execute the schemes which 
he had fondly devised. 

The energy of the system remained afler 
the author of it was removed from the world ; 
and his successors lost no time in extending 
their dominions far beyond the bounds of Ara- 
bia. The obstacles opposed to them instantly 
yielded ; a feeble and degenerate empire sink- 
ing under its own weight, and unable to resist 
any power acting against it, at once submitted 
to the host of fanatical plunderers, who spread 
desolation as they advanced ; the richest pro- 
vinces soon were wrested from it ; and the 



most fertile regions of Asia fell under the con- 
quering fury of the caliphs. Persia, which 
had long persecuted Christianity, was added 
to their increasing territories ; Syria submit- 
ted to their yoke ; and, what filled with horror 
and with anguish the believers in the Gospel, 
Palestine, that holy land from which the light 
of divine truth had beamed upon the nations, 
which had been the scene of those awful or 
interesting events recorded in the inspired 
Scriptures, which had witnessed the life, the 
ministry, the death, the resurrection, and as- 
cension of the Redeemer of mankind, bent 
under the iron sceptre of an infidel sovereign, 
nominally, indeed, revering the Founder of 
its religion, but filled with bigoted and im- 
placable hatred against the most attached 
and conscientious of his disciples. But the 
caliphs did not accomplish their principal ob- 
ject when they reduced to subjection the coun- 
tries which they ravaged : to them it was of 
infinitely more moment to propagate the Mus- 
selman faith ; and, accordingly, although in the 
commencement of that faith some indulgence 
was, from political considerations, granted to 
the Christians, there was soon no alternative 
lefl to the trembling captives but to embrace the 
doctrine of the prophet, or to submit to slavery 
or death. We cannot wonder that tenets thus 
enforced rapidly spread ; they supplanted, in 
many extensive regions, the religion of Jesus ; 
and, incorporating themselves with civil go- 
vernments, or rather founding all governments 
upon the Koran, they continue, at the distance 
of eleven hundred years, to be believed through 
a large proportion of the world. 

The effect of this signal revolution was first 
experienced by those Christians who inhabit- 
ed the eastern parts of the empire ; but the 
account of it must have been speedily convey- 
ed throughout Christendom, and the gigantic 
enterprises of the Saracens soon threatened all 
nations with slavery and superstition. The 
successors of the prophet, in the eighth centu- 
ry, directed their steps toward Europe ; and 
having at length crossed the narrow sea which 
separates Africa from Spain, they dispersed 
the troops of Roderick, king of the Goths, took 
possession of the greater part of his dominions, 
subverted the empire of the Visigoths, which 
had be^n established in Spain for upward of 
three centuries, and planted themselves along 
the coast of Gaul, from the Pyrenean mount- 
ains to the Rhine. Charlemagne, alarmed at 
their progress, made a great effort to crush 
them ; but he failed in accomplishing his ob- 
ject, and they committed, in various parts of 
Europe which they visited, the most shocking 
devastations. 

When a great part of the life of Mohammed 
had been spent in preparatory meditation on 
the system he was about to establish, the chap- 
ters of the Alcoran or Koran, which was to 
contain the rule of the faith and practice of 
his followers, were dealt out slowly and sepa- 
rately during the long period of three-and- 
twenty years. He entrusted his beloved wife, 
Raphsa, the daughter of Omar, with the keep, 
ing of the chest of his apostleship, in which 



MAH 



614 



MAH 



were laid up all the originals of the revelations 
lie pretended to have received by the ministra- 
tion of the Angel Gabriel, and out of which 
the Koran, consisting of one hundred and four- 
teen swats, or chapters, of very unequal length, 
was composed after his death. Yet, defective 
in its structure, and not less exceptionable in 
its doctrines and precepts, was the work which 
he thus delivered to his followers as the oracles 
of God. We will not detract from the real 
merit of the Koran ; we allow it to be gene- 
rally elegant and often sublime ; but at the same 
time w^e reject with disdain its arrogant pre- 
tensions to any thing supernatural. Nay, if, 
descending to a minute investigation of it, we 
consider its perpetual inconsistency and ab- 
surdity, we shall indeed have cause for asto- 
nishment at that weakness of humanity which 
could ever have received such compositions as 
the work of the Deity, and which could still 
hold it in such high admiration as it is held by 
the followers of Mohammed to the present day. 
Far from supporting its arrogant claim to a 
supernatural work, it sinks below the level of 
many compositions confessedly of human ori- 
ginal ; and still lower does it fall when com- 
pared with that pure and perfect pattern which 
we justly admire in the Scriptures of truth. 
The first praise of all the productions of genius 
is invention; but the Koran bears little im- 
pression of this transcendent character. It 
does not contain one single doctrine which 
may not fairly be derived either from the Jew- 
ish and Christian Scriptures, from the spurious 
and apocryphal Gospels, then current in the 
east, from the Talmudical legends, or from the 
traditions, customs, and opinions of the Ara- 
bians. And the materials collected from these 
several sources are here heaped together with 
perpetual and needless repetitions, without any 
settled principle, or visible connection. The 
most prominent feature of the Koran, that 
point of excellence in which the partiality of 
its admirers has ever .delighted to view it, is 
the subluTie notion it generally impresses of 
the nature and attributes of God. But if its 
author had really derived these just concep- 
tions from the inspiration of that Being whom 
they attempt to describe, they wouW not have 
been surrounded, as they now are, on every 
side with error and absurdity. By attempt- 
ing to explain what is inconceivable, to de- 
scribe what is ineffable, and to materialize 
what in itself is spiritual, he absurdly and im- 
piously aimed to sensualize the purity of the 
divine essence. But it might easily be proved, 
that whatever the Koran justly defines of the 
divine attributes, was borrowed from our Holy 
Scriptures ; which, even from their first pro- 
fiiulgation, but especially from the completion 
pf the New Testament, have extended the 
views, and enlightened the understandings, of 
mankind. 

The Koran, indeed, every where inculcates 
that grand and fundamental doctrine of the 
unity of the supreme Being, the establishment 
of which was constantly alleged by the im- 
postor as the primary object of his pretended 
jm>"6JQn ; but on the subject of the Christian 



trinity, its author seems to have entertained 
very gross and mistaken ideas, and to have 
been totally ignorant of the perfect consistency 
of that opinion with the unity of the Deity. 
With respect to the great doctrine of a future 
life, and the condition of the soul after its de- 
parture from the body, it must indeed be ac- 
knowledged that the prophet of Arabia has 
presented us with a nearer prospect of the 
invisible world, and disclosed to us a thousand 
particulars concerning it, which the Holy Scrip- 
tures had wrapped in the most profound and 
mysterious silence. But in his various repre- 
sentations of another life, he generally de- 
scends to an unnecessary minuteness and 
particularity, which excite disgust and ridi- 
cule, instead of reverence. He constantly 
pretended to have received these stupendous 
secrets by the ministry of the Angel Gabriel, 
from that eternal book in which the divine 
decrees have been written by the finger of the 
Almighty from the foundation of the world ; 
but the learned inquirer will discover a more 
accessible, and a far more probable, source 
whence they might be derived, partly in the 
wild and fancifiil opinions of the ancient 
Arabs, and chiefly in those exhaustless stores 
of marvellous and improbable fiction, the works 
of the rabbins. Hence, that romantic fable of 
the angel of death, whose peculiar oflice it is, 
at the destined hour, to dissolve the union be- 
tween soul and body, and to free the departing 
spirit from its prison of flesh. Hence, too, the 
various descriptions of the general resurrec- 
tion and final judgment with which the Koran 
every where abounds ; and hence the vast but 
ideal balance in which the actions of all man- 
kind shall then be impartially weighed, and 
their eternal doom bo assigned them, either in 
the regions of bliss or misery, according as 
their good or evil deeds shall preponderate. 
Here, too, may be traced the grand and original 
outlines of that sensual paradise, and those 
luxurious enjoyments, which were so success- 
fully employed in the Koran, to gratify the 
ardent genius of the Arabs, and allure them to 
the standard of the prophet. 

The same observation which has been ap- 
plied with respect to the sources whence the 
doctrines were drawn, may, with some few 
limitations, be likewise extended to the precepts 
which the Arabian legislator has enjoined. 
That the Koran, amidst a various and confused 
heap. of ridiculous and even immoral precepts, 
contains many interesting and instructive les- 
sons of morality, cannot with truth be denied. 
Of these, however, the merit is to be ascribed, 
not to the feeble imitation, but to the great and 
perfect oi-iginal from which they were mani- 
festly drawn. Instead of improving on the 
Christian precepts by a superior degree of 
refinement ; instead of exhibiting a purer and 
more perfect system of morals than that of the 
Gospel ; the prophet of Arabia has miserably 
debased and weakened even what he has bor- 
rowed from that system. We are told by our 
Saviour, that a man is to be the husband of 
onf* wife, and that there is to be an inseparable 
union between them. By Mohammed's con- 



MAH 



615 



MAH 



fession, Jesus Christ was a prophet of the true 
God, and tlie Holy Spirit was with him. Yet in 
the Koran we find permission for any person to 
have four wives^ and as many concubines as he 
can maintain. Again : our Saviour expressly 
tells us, that, at the resurrection, " they will nei- 
ther marry nor be given in marriage ; but be like 
the angels of God in heaven." We are informed 
also by St. Paul, that we shall be changed, and 
have a spiritual and glorifiedbody; "for flesh and 
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven ; 
neither can corruption inherit incorruption." 
But Mohammed gives a very different account : 
it is clear, from his own confession, that the 
happiness promised in the Koran consists in 
base and corporeal enjoyments. According to 
its author, there will not only be marriage, but 
also servitude in the next world. The very 
meanest in paradise will have eighty thousand 
servants, and seventy-two wives of the girls 
of paradise, beside the wives he had in this 
world ; he will also have a tent erected for 
him of pearls, hyacinths, and emeralds. And 
as majTriage will take place, so a new race will 
be introduced in heaven ; for, says the Koran, 
" If any of the faithful in paradise be desirous 
of issue, it shall be conceived, born, and grown 
up in the space of an hour." But on the con- 
tradictions in point of doctrine, though suffi- 
cient of themselves to confute the pretensions 
of Mohammed, we forbear to insist. 

The impure designs which gave birth to the 
whole system may be traced in almost every 
subordinate part ; even its sublimest descrip- 
tions of the Deity, even its most exalted moral 
precepts, not unfrequently either terminate in, 
or are interwoven with, some provision to 
gratify the inordinate cravings of ambition, or 
some license for the indulgence of the corrupt 
passions of the human heart. It has allowed 
private revenge, in the case of murder; it has 
given a sanction to fornication ; and, if any 
weight be due to .the example of its author, it 
has justified adultery. It has made war, and 
rapine, and bloodshed, provided they be exer- 
cised against unbelievers, not only meritorious 
acts, but even essential duties to the good 
Musselman ; duties by the performance of 
which he may secure the constant favour and 
protection of God and his prophet in this life, 
and in the next entitle himself to the boundless 
joys of paradise. In the Koran are advanced 
the following assertions, among others already 
noticed : That both Jews and Christians are 
idolaters ; that the patriarchs and Apostles 
were Mohammedans ; that the angels wor- 
shipped Adam, and that the fallen angels were 
driven from heaven for not doing so ; that our 
blessed Saviour was neither God, nor the Son 
of Ggd ; and that he assured Mohammed of 
this in a conference with the Almighty and 
him ; yet that he was both the word and Spirit 
of God : not to mention numberless absurdities 
concerning the creation, the deluge, the end 
of the world, the resurrection, the day of judg- 
ment, too gross to be received by any except 
the most debased understandings. 

It was frequently the triumphant boast of 
St. Paul, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ had 



for ever freed mankind from the intolerable 
burden of ceremonial observances. But the 
Koran renews and perpetuates the slavery, by 
prescribing to its votaries a ritual still more 
oppressive, and entangling them again in a 
yoke of bondage yet more severe than that of 
the law. Of this kind, amidst a variety of 
instances, is that great and meritorious act of 
Mohammedan devotion, the pilgrimage to the 
holy city of Mecca ; an act which the Koran 
has enjoined, and the pious Musselman im- 
plicitly performs, as necessary to the obtaining 
pardon of his sins, and qualifying him to be a 
partaker of the alluring pleasures and exquisite 
enjoyments of paradise. To the several arti- 
cles of faith to which all his followers were to 
adhere, Mohammed added four fundamental 
points of religious practice ; namely, prayer 
five times a day, fasting, alms-giving, and the 
pilgrimage to Mecca. Under the first of these 
are comprehended those frequent washings or 
purifications which he prescribed as necessary 
preparations for the duty of prayer. So ne- 
cessary did he think them, that he is said to 
have declared, that the practice of religion is 
founded upon cleanliness, which is one half 
of faith, and the key of prayer. The second 
of these he conceived to be a duty of so great 
moment, that he used to say it v/as the gate 
of religion, and that the odour of the mouth 
of him who fasteth is more grateful to God 
than that of musk. The third is looked upon 
as so pleasing in the sight of God, that the 
Caliph Omar Ebn Abdalaziz used to say, 
"Prayer carries us half way to God; fasting 
brings us to the door of his palace ; and alms 
procure us admission." The last of these prac- 
tical religious duties is deemed so necessary, 
that, according to a tradition of Mohammed, 
he who dies without performing it, " may as 
well die a Jew or a Christian." As to the 
negative precepts and institutions of this reli- 
gion, the Mohammedans are forbidden the use 
of wine, and are prohibited from gaming, 
usury, and the eating of blood and swine's 
flesh, and whatever dies of itself, or is strangled, 
or killed by a blow, or by another beast. 
They are said, however, to comply with the 
prohibition of gaming, (from which chess 
seems to be excepted,) much better than they 
do with that of wine, under which all strong 
and inebriating liquors are included ; for both 
the Persians and Turks are in the habit of 
drinking freely. 

However successful and triumphant from 
without, the progress of the followers of Mo- 
hammed received a considerable check by the 
civil dissensions which arose among them- 
selves soon after his death. Abubeker and 
Ali, the former the father-in-law, the latter 
the son-in-law, of this pretended prophet, 
aspired both to succeed him in the empire 
which he had erected. Upon this arose a 
cruel and tedious contest, whose flames pro- 
duced that schism which divided the Moham- 
medans into two great factions ; and this 
separation not only gave rise to a variety of 
opinions and rites, but also excited the most 
implacable hatred, and the most deadly ani- 



MAL 



616 



MAN 



mosities, whidi have been continued to the 
present day. With such furious zeal is this 
contention still carried on between these 
two factions, who are distinguished by the 
name of Sonnites and Schiites, that each party 
detest and anathematize the other as abomi- 
nable heretics, and farther from the truth than 
either the Christians or the Jews. The chief 
points in which they differ are : 1. The Schi- 
jtes reject Abubeker, Omar, and Othman, the 
first three caliphs, as usurpers and intruders ; 
but the Sonnites acknowledge and respect 
them as rightful caliphs or imgims. 2. The 
Schiites prefer Ali to Mohammed, or, at least, 
esteem them both equal ; but the Sonnites 
admit neither Ali, nor any of the prophets, to 
be equal to Mohammed. 3. The Sonnites 
charge the Schiites with corrupting the Koran, 
and neglecting its precepts ; and, the Schiites 
retort the same charge on the Sonnites. 
4. The Sonnites receive the Sonna, or book 
of traditions of their prophet, as of canonical 
authority ; but the Schiites reject it as apocry- 
phal, and unworthy of credit. The Sonnites 
are subdivided into four chief sects, of which 
the first is that of the Hanefites, who generally 
prevail among the Turks and Tartars; the 
second, that of the Malecites, whose doctrine is 
chiefly followed in Barbary, and other parts of 
Africa ; the third, that of the Shafeites,- who are 
chiefly confined to Arabia and Persia ; and the 
fourth orthodox sect is that of the jHanbalites, 
who are not very numerous, and seldom to be 
met with out of the limits of Arabia. The 
heretical ^ects among the Mohammedans are 
those which are counted to hold heterodox 
opinions jn fundamentals, or matters of faith ; 
and they are variously compounded and de- 
compounded of the opinions of four chief 
gects ; the Mota^;alites, the Safatians, the 
Kharejites, and the Schiites. 

Ever since the valour of John Sobieski rolled 
Jjack the hosts of Islamism from eastern and 
central Europe, the civil dominion of the false 
prophet has been rather retrograde than ad- 
vancing. A free philosophy in many places 
js destroying the ini^uence of the system 
among the better informed ; and the barbarism 
and misery lyhich a bad government inflicts 
upon the people, weakens its power, and is 
preparing the way for great changes. The 
throwing off the Turkish yoke by the Greeks, 
and the rising greatness of Russia, are symp. 
toms of the approaching subversion of Mo- 
hammedanism as a power ; and thus the fall 
of this eastern 9,Htichrist cannot long be 
delayed. It is, indeed, even now supported 
only by the rival interests of Christian powers ; 
and a new combing-tion among them would 
suddenly withdrasv its only support. 

IVJALACHI, the last of the"^ twelve minor 
prophets, Malachi prophesied about B. C. 400 ; 
and some traditjonary accounts state that he 
was a pative of Sapha, and of the tribe of 
5Jebulun, He reproves the people for their 
wickedness, and the priests for their negligence 
in the discharge of their office ; he threatens 
the disobedient with the judgments of God, 
md prongiises great rewards to the penitent and 



pious ; he predicts the coming of Christ, and 
the preaching of John the Baptist ; and with a 
solemnity becoming the last of the prophets, 
he closes the sacred canon with enjoining the 
strict observance of the Mosaic law, till the 
forerunner, already promised, should appear 
in the spirit of Elias, to introduce the Mes- 
siah, who was- to establish a new and everlast- 
ing covenant. 

MAMMON, a Syriac word which signifies 
riches, Matt, vi, 24. 

MAMRE, an Amorite, brother of Aner and 
Eshcol, and friend of Abraham, Gen. xiv, 13. 
It was with these three persons, together with 
his own and their domestics, that Abraham 
pursued and overcame the kings after their 
conquest of Sodom and Gomorrah. 

2. Mamre, the same as Hebron. In Gen. 
xxiii, 1&, it is said, that " Abraham buried 
Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah, 
before Mamre : the same is Hebron in the 
land of Canaan." And in Gen. xxxv, 27, it is 
said, that "Jacob came unto Isaac his father, 
unto Mamre, unto the city of Arba, which is 
Hebron." The city probably derived its name 
from that Mamre who joined Abraham in the 
pursuit of Chedorlaomer, and the rescue of 
Lot, Gen. xiv. 

Mamre, Plain of, a plain near Mamre, or 
Hebron, said to be about two miles to the south 
of the town. Here Abraham dwelt after his 
separation from Lot ; here he received from 
God himself a promise of the land, in which he 
was then a stranger, for his posterity ; here he 
entertained the angels under an ' oak, and 
received a second promise of a son ; and here 
he purchased a burying place for Sarah ; which 
served also as a sepulchre for himself and the 
rest of his family, 

MANAHEM was the sixteenth king of 
Israel, and son of Gadi. He revenged the 
death of his master Zachariah, by killing Shal- 
lum, son of Jabesh, who had usurped the crown 
of Israel, A- M. 3232, 2 Kings xv, 13, &c, 
Manahem reigned in his stead. 

MANASSEH, the eldest son of Joseph, and 
grandson of the patriarch Jacob, Gen. xli, 50, 
was born, A. M. 2290, B. C. 1714. The name 
Manasseh signifies forgetfulness, because Jo- 
seph said, " God hath made me forget all my 
toil, and all my father's house." When Jacob 
was going to die, Joseph brought his two sons 
to him» that his father might give them his 
last blessing. Gen. xlviii. Jacob, having seen 
them, adopted them. The tribe of Manasseh 
came out of Egypt in number thirty-two thou- 
sand two hundred men, upward of twenty 
years old, under the conduct of Gamaliel, 
son of Pedahzur, Num. ii, 20, 21. This tribe 
was divided in the land of promise. One half 
tribe of Manasseh settled beyond the river Jor- 
dan, and possessed the country of Bashan, 
from the river Jabbok, to Mount Libanus; 
and the other half tribe of Manasseh settled 
on this side Jordan, and possessed the country 
between the tribe of Ephraim south, and the 
tribe of Issachar north, having the river Jor- 
dan east, and the Mediterranean Sea west, 
Joshua xvi ; xvii. 



MAN 



617 



MAN 



2. Manasseh, the fifteentli king of Judah, 
and son and successor of Hezekiah, was twelve 
years old when he began to reign, and reigned 
tifty-fiA'-e years, 2 Kings xx, 21 ; xxi, 1, 2 ; 
2 Chron. xxxiii, 1, 2, &c. His mother's name 
was Hephzibah. He did evil in the sight of the 
Lord ; worshipped the idols of the land of Ca- 
naan ; rebuilt the high places that his father 
Hezekiah had destroyed ; set up altars to Baal ; 
and planted groves to false gods. He raised 
altars to the whole host of heaven, in the 
courts of God's house ; made his son pass 
through the fire in honour of Moloch; was 
addicted to magic, divinations, auguries, and 
other superstitions ; set up the idol Astarte in 
the house of God; finally, he involved his 
people in all the abomination of the idolatrous 
nations to that degree, that Isrq.el committed 
more wickedness than the Canaanites, whom 
the Lord had driven out before them. To all 
these cruTies Manasseh added cruelty ; and he 
shed rivers of innocent blood in Jerusalem. 
The Lord being provoked by so many crimes, 
threatened him by his prophets, "I will blot 
out Jerusalem as a writing is blotted out of a 
writing tablet." The calamities which God 
had threatened began toward the twenty-second 
year of this impious prince. The king of As- 
syria sent his army against him, who, seizing 
him among the briers and brambles where he 
was hid, fettered his hands and feet, and carried 
him to Babylon, 2 Chron. xxxiii, 11, 12, &c. It 
was probably Sargon or Esar-haddon, king of 
Assyria, who sent Tartan into Palestine, and 
who taking Azoth, attacked Manasseh, put him 
in irons, and led him away, not to Nineveh, 
but to Babylon, of which Esar-haddon had 
become master, and had reunited the empires 
of the Assyrians and the Chaldeans. Manasseh, 
in bonds at Babylon, humbled himself before 
God, who heard his prayers, and brought him 
back to Jerusalem ; and Manasseh acknow- 
ledged the hand of the Lord. Manasseh was 
probably delivered out of prison by Saosduchin, 
the successor of Esar-haddon, 2 Chron. xxxiii, 
13, 14, &c. Being returned to Jerusalem, he 
restored the worship of the Lord ; broke down 
the altars of the false gods ; abolished all traces 
of their idolatrous worship ; but he did not de- 
stroy the high places : which is the only thing 
Scripture reproaches hun with, after his return 
from Babylon. He caused Jerusalem to be 
fortified ; and he inclosed with a wall another 
city, which in his time was erected west of 
Jerusalem, and which went by the name of the 
second city, 2 Chron. xxxiii, 14. He put gar- 
risons into all the strong places of Judah. 
Manasseh died at Jerusalem, and was buried 
in the garden of his house, in the garden of 
Uzza, 2 Kings xxi, 18. He was succeeded by 
his son Amon. 

MANDRAKE, CJ^Nnn, Gen. xxx, 14-16; 
Cant, vii, 13. Interpreters have wasted much 
time and pains in endeavouring to ascertain 
what is intended by the Hebrew°word dudaim. 
Some translate it by "violet," others, "lilies," 
"jasmines," "trufile or mushroom," and some 
think that the word means " flowers," or " fine 
flowers," in genera}. Bochart, Calmet, and 



Sir Thomas Browne, suppose the citron in- 
tended ; Celsius is persuaded that it is the 
fruit of the lote tree ; Hiller, that cherries are 
spoken of; and Ludolf maintains that it is the 
fruit which the Syrians call mauz, resembling 
in figure and taste the Indian fig; but the 
generality of interpreters and commentators 
understand by dudaim, mandrakes, a species 
of melon ; and it is so rendered in the Septua- 
gint, and in both the Targums, on Gen. x^x, 14. 
It appears from Scripture, that they were in 
perfection about the time of wheat harvest, 
have an agreeable odour, may be preserved, 
and are placed with pomegranates. Hassel- 
quist, the pupil and intimate friend of Linnaeus, 
who travelled into the Holy Land to make dis- 
coveries in natural history, imagines that the 
plant commonly called mandrake, is intended. 
Speaking of Nazareth, in Galilee, he says, 
" What I found most remarkable at this village 
was the great number of mandrakes which 
grew in a vale below it. I had not the plea- 
sure to see this plant in blossom, the fruit now 
(May 5th, O. S.) hanging ripe on the stem, 
which lay withered on the ground. From the 
season in which this mandrake blossoms and 
ripens fruit, one may form a conjecture that it 
was Rachel's dudaim. These were brought 
her in the wheat harvest, which in Galilee is 
in the month of May, about this time, and the 
mandrake was now in fruit." 

MANICH^ANS, or MANICHEES, a de- 
nomination founded in the latter part of the 
third century, by Mani, Manes, or Manichasus. 
Being a Persian or Chaldean by birth, and edu- 
cated among the magi, he attempted a coalition 
of their doctrine with the Christian system, or 
rather, the explication of the one by the other. 
Dr. Lardner, so far from taking Mani and his 
followers for enthusiasts, as some have done, 
thinks they erred on the other side, and were 
rather a sect of reasoners and philosophers, 
than visionaries and enthusiasts. So Faustus, 
one of their leaders, says, the doctrine of Mani 
taught him not to receive every thing recom- 
mended as said by our Saviour, but first to 
examine and consider whether it be true, sound, 
right, genuine ; while the Catholics, he says, 
swallowed every thing, and acted as if they 
despised the benefit of human reason, and were 
afraid to examine and distinguish between 
truth and falsehood. St. Augustine, it is well 
known, was for some time among this sect ; 
but they were not pretensions to inspiration, 
but specious and alluring promises of rational 
discoveries, by which Augustine was deluded, 
as he particularly states in his letter to his 
friend Honoratus. So Beausobre remarks : 
" These heretics were philosophers, who, 
having formed certain systems, accommodated 
revelation to them, which was the servant of 
their reason, not the mistress." 

Mani, according to Dr. Lardner, believed in 
an eternal self-existent Being, completely happy 
and perfect in goodness, whom alone he called 
God, in a strict and proper sense ; but he be- 
lieved, also, in an evil principle or being, 
which he called hyle, or the devil, whom he 
considered as the god of this world, blinding 



MAN 



618 



MAN 



the eyes of them that believe not, 2 Cor. iv, 4. 
God, the supreme and good, they considered 
as the Author of the universe ; and, according 
to St. Augustine, they believed, also, in a 
consubstantial trinity, though they strangely 
supposed the Father to dwell in light inac- 
cessible, the Son to have his residence in the 
solar orb, and the Holy Spirit to be diffused 
throughout the atmosphere ; on which account 
they paid a superstitious, and perhaps an idol- 
atrous, reverence to the sun and moon. Their 
belief in the evil principle was, no doubt, 
adopted to solve the mysterious question of 
the origin of evil, which, says Dr. Lardner, 
was the ruin of these men,'and of many others. 
As to the hyle, or the devil, though they dared 
not to consider him as the creature of God, 
neither did they believe in his eternity ; for 
they contended, from the Greek text of John 
viii, 44, that he had a father. But they admit- 
ted the eternity of matter, which they called 
darkness ; and supposed hyle to be the result of 
some wonderful and unaccountable commotion 
in the kingdom of darkness, which idea seems 
to be borrowed from the Mosaic chaos. In 
this commotion darkness became mingled with 
light, and thus they account for good and evil 
being so mixed together in the world. Having 
thus brought hyle, or Satan, into being, they 
next found an empire and employment for him. 
Every thing, therefore, which they conceived 
unworthy of the fountain of goodness, they attri- 
buted to the evil being ; particularly the mate- 
rial world, the Mosaic dispensation, and the 
Scriptures on 'which it was founded. This 
accounts for their rejecting the Old Testament. 
Dr. Lardner contends, however, that they 
received generally the books of the New Tes- 
tament, though they objected to particular 
passages as corrupted, which they could not 
reconcile to their system. On Rom. vii, Mani 
founded the doctrine of two souls in man, two 
active principles ; one, the source and cause 
of vicious passions, deriving its origin from 
matter ; the other, the cause of the ideas of 
just and right, and of inclinations to follow 
those ideas, deriving its origin from God. 
Considering all sensual enjoyments to be in 
some degree criminal, they were enemies to 
marriage ; though, at the same time, knowing 
that all men cannot receive this saying, they 
allowed it to the second class of their disci- 
ples, called auditors ; but by no means to the 
perfect or confirmed believers. Another absurd 
consequence of believing the moral evil of 
matter was, that they denied the real existence 
of Christ's human nature, and supposed him to 
suffer and die in appearance only. According 
to them, he took the form only of man ; a 
notion that was afterward adopted by Moham- 
med, and which necessarily excludes all faith in 
the atonement. Construing too literally the 
assertion that flesh and blood could not inherit 
the kingdom of God, they denied the doctrine 
of the resurrection. Christ came, they said, to 
save the souls of men, and not the bodies. No 
part of matter, according to them, could be 
worthy of salvation. In many leading prin- 
ciples they thus evidently agreed with the 



Gnostics, of whom, indeed, they may be con- 
sidered a branch. 

MANNA, p, Exod. xvi, 15, 33, 35 ; Num. 
xi, 6, 7, 9 ; Josh, v, 12 ; Neh. ix, 20 ; Psa. Ixxviii, 
24 ; iidvva, John vi, 31, 49, 58 ; Heb. ix, 4 ; Rev. 
ii, 17 ; the food which God gave the children 
of Israel during their continuance in the deserts 
of Arabia, from the eighth encampment in the 
wilderness of Sin. Moses describes it as white 
like hoar frost, round, and of the bigness of 
coriander seed. It fell every morning upon 
the dew; and when the dew was exhaled by 
the heat of the sun, the manna appeared alone, 
lying upon the rocks or the sand. It fell every 
day except on the Sabbath, and this only around 
the camp of the Israelites. Every sixth day 
there fell a double quantity ; and though it pu- 
trefied and bred maggots when it was kept any 
other day, yet on the Sabbath there was no 
such alteration. The same substance which 
was melted by the heat of the sun when it was 
left abroad, was of so hard a consistence when 
brought into the tent, that it was beaten in 
mortars, and would even endure the fire, being 
made into cakes and baked in pans. It fell in 
so gre-at quantities during the whole forty 
years of their journey, that it was sufficient to 
feed the whole multitude of above a million of 
souls. Every man, that is, every male or 
head of a family, was to gather each day the 
quantity of an omer, about three quarts Eng- 
lish measure; and it is observed that "he 
that gathered much had nothing over, and he 
that gathered little had no lack," because his 
gathering was in proportion to the number of 
persons for whom he had to provide. Or every 
man gathered as much as he could ; and then, 
when brought home and measured by an omer, 
if he had a surplus, it went to supply the wants 
of some other family that had not been able to 
collect a sufficiency, the family being large, 
and the time in which the manna might be 
gathered, before the heat of the day, not being 
sufficient to collect enough for so numerous a 
household, several of whom might be so con. 
fined as not to be able to collect for themselves. 
Thus there was an equality; and in this light 
the words of St. Paul lead us to view the pas- 
sage, 2 Cor. viii, 15. To commemorate their 
living upon manna, the Israelites were directed 
to put one omer of it into a golden vase ; and 
it was preserved for many generations by the 
side of the ark. 

Our translators and others make a plain 
contradiction in the relation of this account 
of the manna, by rendering it thus: "And 
when the children of Israel saw it, they said 
one to another. It is manna ; for they knew 
not what it was ;" whereas the Septuagint, 
and several authors, both ancient and mo- 
dern, have translated the text according to 
the original : " The Israelites seeing this, 
said one to another. What is it ? Nin p ; for 
they knew not what it was," and therefore 
they could not give it a name. Moses im- 
mediately answers the question, and says, 
" This is the bread which the Lord hath given 
you to eat." From Exod. xvi, 31, we learn 
that this substance was afterward called p, 



MAR 



619 



MAR 



probably in commemoration of the question 
they had asked on its first appearance. What 
this substance was, we know Mot. It was 
nothing that was common in the wilderness. 
It is evident that the Israelites n-ever saw it 
before ; for Moses says, " He fed thee witli 
manna which thou knewest not, neither did 
thy fathers know," Deut. viii, 3, 16; and it is 
very likely that nothing of the kind had 
ever been seen before ; and by a pot of it 
being laid up in the ark, it is as likely that 
nothing of the kind ever appeared after the 
miraculous supply in the wilderness had 
ceased. The author of the book of Wisdom, 
xvi, '20, 21, says, that the manna so accommo- 
dated itself to every one's taste that it proved 
palatable and pleasing to all. It has been 
remarked that at this day, what is called 
manna is found in several places ; in Arabia, 
on Mount Libanus, Calabria, and elsewhere. 
The most famous is that of Arabia, which is 
a kind of condensed honey, which exudes from 
the leaves of trees, from whence it is collected 
when it has become concreted. Salmasius 
thinks this of the same kind which fed the 
children of Israel ; and that the miracle lay, 
not in creating any new substance, but in 
making it fall duly at a set time ^every day 
throughout the whole year, and that in such 
plenty as to suffice so great a multitude. But 
in order for this, the Israelites must be sup- 
posed every day to have been in the neigh- 
bourhood of the trees on which this substance 
is formed ; which was not the case, neither do 
these trees grow in those deserts. Beside, 
this kind of manna is purgative, and the 
stomach could not endure it in such quantity 
as is implied by its being eaten for food. The 
whole history of the giving the manna is evi- 
dently miraculous ; and the manna was truly 
" bread from heaven," as sent by special inter- 
position of God. 

MANOAH, the father of Samson, was of 
the tribe of Dan, and a native of the city of 
Zorah, Judges xiii, 6-23. See Samson. 

MARAH, or MARA, a word which signi- 
fies bitterness. When the Israelites came out 
of Egypt, and had arrived at the desert of 
Etham, they found the water so bitter that 
neither themselves nor their cattle could drink 
of it, Exod. XV, 23. On this account they 
gave the name of Marah to that encampment. 
And here their murmurings began against 
Moses ; for they asked, " What shall we 
drink?" Moses prayed to the Lord, who 
instructed him to take a particular kind of 
wood, and cast it into the water, which he 
did ; and immediately the water became palat- 
able. According to the orientals, this wood 
was called Alnah. 

MARANATHA. See Anathema. 

MARBLE, ly^tf, 1 Chron. xxix, 2; Estlieri, 
ft; Canticles v, 1.5; a valuable kind of stone, 
of a texture so hard and compact, and of a 
grain so fine, as readily to take a beautiful 
polish. It is dug out of quarries in large 
masses, and is much used in buildings, orna- 
mental pillars, &c. Marble is of different 
colours, black, white, &.c; and is sometimes 



elegantly clouded and variegated. The stone 
mentioned in the places cited above is called 
the stone of sis or sish : the LXX and Vulgate 
render it " Parian stone," which was remark- 
able for its bright white colour. Probably the 
cliff Ziz, 2 Chron. xx, 16, was so called from 
being a marble crag : the place was afterward 
called Petra. The variety of stones, ton3, tyitr, 
m, mnD, mentioned in the pavement of 
Ahasuerus, might be marble of different 
colours. The ancients sometimes made pave- 
ments wherein were set very valuable stones. 

MARK was the nephew of Barnabas, being 
his sister's son ; and he is supposed to have 
been converted to the Gospel by St. Peter, 
who calls him his son, 1 Peter v, 13 ; but no 
circumstances of his conversion arc recorded. 
The first historical fact mentioned of him in 
the New Testament is, that he went, in the 
year 44, from Jerusalem to Antioch, with 
Paul and Barnabas. Not long after, he set 
out from Antioch with those Apostles upon a 
journey, which they undertook by the direc- 
tion of the Holy Spirit, for the purpose of 
preaching the Gospel in different countries : 
but he soon left them, probably without suffi. 
cient reason, at Pergain Pamphylia, and went 
to Jerusalem, Acts xiii. Afterward, when 
Paul and Barnabas had determined to visit the 
several churches which they had established, 
Barnabas proposed that they should take 
Mark with them; to which Paul objected, 
because Mark had left them in their former 
journey. This produced a sharp contention 
between Paul and Barnabas, which ended in 
their separation. Mark accompanied his uncle 
Barnabas to Cyprus, but it is not mentioned 
whither they went when they left that island. 
We may conclude that St. Paul was afterward 
reconciled to St. Mark, from the manner in 
which he mentions him in his epistles written 
subsequently to this dispute ; and particularly 
from the direction which he gives to Timothy : 
" Take Mark, and bring him with thee ; for 
he is profitable to me for the ministry," 2 
Tim. iv, 11. No farther circumstances are 
recorded of St. Mark in the New Testament ; 
but it is believed, upon the authority of an- 
cient writers, that soon after his journey with 
Barnabas he met Peter in Asia, and that he 
continued with him for some time ; perhaps 
till Peter suffered martyrdom at Rome. 
Epiphanius, Eusebius, and Jerom, all assert 
that Mark preached the Gospel in Egypt ; 
and the two latter call him bishop of Alex- 
andria. 

Dr. Lardner thinks that St. Mark's Gospel 
is alluded to by Clement of Rome ; but the 
earliest ecclesiastical writer upon record who 
expressly mentions it is Papias. It is men- 
tioned, also, by Irena^us, Clement of Alexan- 
dria, Tertullian, Origen, Eusebius, Epiphanius, 
Jerom, Augustine, Chrysostom, and many 
others. The works of these fathers contain 
numerous quotations from this Gospel ; and, 
as their testimony is not contradicted by any 
ancient writer, we may safely conclude that 
the Gospel of St, Mark is genuine. The au- 
thority of this Gospel is not affected by the 



MAR 



620 



MaR 



question concerning the identity of Mark the 
evangelist, and Mark the nephew of Barnabas ; 
since all agree that the writer of this Gospel 
was the familiar companion of St. Peter, and 
that he was qualified for the work which he 
undertook, by having heard, for many years, 
the public discourses and private conversation 
of that Apostle. 

Some writers have asserted that St. Peter 
revised and approved this Gospel, and others 
have not scrupled to call it the Gospel accord- 
ing to St. Peter ; by which title they did not 
mean to question St. Mark's right to be con- 
sidered as the author of this Gospel, but merely 
to give it the sanction of St. Peter's name. 
The following passage in Eusebius appears to 
contain so probable an account of the occa- 
sion of writing this Gospel, and comes sup- 
ported by such high authority, that we think 
it right to transcribe it: "The lustre of piety 
so enlightened the minds of Peter's hearers at 
Rome, that they were not contented with the 
bare hearing and unwritten instruction of his 
divine preaching, but they earnestly requested 
St. Mark, whose Gospel we have, being an 
attendant upon St. Peter, to leave with them 
a written account of the instructions which 
had been delivered to them byword of mouth ; 
nor did they desist till they had prevailed upon 
him ; and thus they were the cause of the 
writing of that Gospel, which is called accord- 
ing to St. Mark ; and they say, that the Apos- 
tle being informed of what was done, by the 
revelation of the Holy Ghost, was pleased 
with the zeal of the men, and authorized the 
writing to be introduced into the churches. 
Clement gives this account in the sixth book 
of his Institutions ; and Papias, bishop of 
Hierapolis, bears testimony to it." Jerom also 
says, that St. Mark wrote a short Gospel from 
what he had heard from St. Peter, at the re- 
quest of the brethren at Rome, which, when 
»St. Peter knew, he approved, and published it 
in the church, commanding the reading of it 
by his own authority. 

Different persons have assigned different 
dates to this Gospel ; but there being almost 
a unanimous concurrence of opinion, that it 
was written while St. Mark was with St. 
Peter at Rome, and not finding any ancient 
authority for supposing that St. Peter was in 
that city till A. D. 64, we are inclined to place 
the publication of this Gospel about A. D. 65. 
St. Mark having written this Gospel for the 
use of the Christians at Rome, which was at 
that time the great metropolis and common 
centre of all civilized nations, we accordingly 
find it free from all peculiariiies, and equally 
accommodated to every description of persons. 
Quotations from the ancient prophets, and 
allusions to Jewish customs, are, as much as 
possible, avoided; and such explanations are 
added as might be necessary for Gentile read- 
ers at Rome ; thus, when Jordan is first men- 
tioned in this Gospel, the word river is pre- 
fixed, Mark i, 5 ; the oriental word corban is 
said to mean a gift, Mark vii, 11 ; the prepara- 
tion is said to be the day before the Sabbath, 
Mark xv, 42; and defiled hands are said to 



mean unwashed hands, Mark vii, 2 ; and the 
superstition of the Jews upon that subject is 
stated more at large than it would have been 
by a person writing at Jerusalem. 

Some learned men, from a collation of St. 
Matthew's and St. Mark's Gospels have pointed 
out the use of the same words and expressions 
in so many instances that it has been supposed 
St. Mark wrote with St. Matthew's Gospel 
before him ; but the similarity is not strong 
enough to warrant such a conclusion ; and 
seems no greater than might have arisen from 
other causes. St. Peter would naturally recite 
in his preaching the same events and dis- 
courses which St. Matthew recorded in his 
Gospel ; and the same circtunstances might be 
mentioned in the same manner by men who 
sought not after " excellency of speech," but 
whose minds retained the remembrance of facts 
or conversations which strongly impressed 
them, even without taking into consideration 
the idea of supernatural guidance. We may 
farther observe that the idea of St. Mark's 
writing from St. Matthew's Gospel does not 
correspond with the account given by Eusebius 
and Jerom as stated above. 

MARK ON THE FOREHEAD. See 
Forehead. 

MARO*NITES, a sect of eastern Christians 
who follow the Syrian rite, and are subject to 
the pope ; their principal habitation being on 
Mount Libanus, or between the Ansarians to 
the north and the Druses to the south. Mo- 
sheim informs us, that the Monothelites, 
condemned and exploded by the council of 
Constantinople, found a place of refiige among 
the Mardaites, signifying in Syriac rebels, a 
people who took possession of Lebanon, 
A. D. 676, which became the asylum of vaga- 
bonds, slaves, and all sorts of rabble ; and 
about the conclusion of the seventh century 
they were called Maronites, after Maro, their 
first bishop ; a name which they still retain. 
None, he says, of the ancient writers, give 
any certain account of the first person who 
instructed these mountaineers in the doctrine 
of the Monothelites ; it is probable, however, 
from several circumstances, that it was John 
Maro, whose name they have adopted ; and 
that this ecclesiastic received the name of Maro 
from his having lived in the character of a 
monk, in the famous convent of St. Maro, 
upon the borders of the Orontes, before his 
settlement among the Mardaites of Mount 
Libanus. One thing is certain, from the testi- 
mony of Tyrius, and other unexceptionable 
witnesses, as also from the most authentic 
records, namely, that the Maronites retained 
the opinions of the Monothelites until the 
twelfth century, when, abandoning and re- 
nouncing the doctrine of ©ne will in Christ, 
they were readmitted into the communion of 
the Roman church. The most learned of the 
modern Maronites have left no method unem- 
ployed to defend their church against this 
accusation ; they have laboured to prove, by 
a variety of testimonies, that their ancestors 
always persevered in the Catholic faith, and 
in their attachment to the Roman pontiff, 



MAR 



621 



MAR 



without ever adopting the doctrine of the 
Monophysites or Monothelites. But all their 
efforts are insufficient to prove the truth of 
these assertions, and the testimonies they 
allege will appear absolutely fictitious and 
destitute of authority. 

The nation may be considered as divided 
into two classes, the common people and the 
shaiks, by whom must be understood the most 
eminent of the inhabitants, who, from the 
antiquity of their families, and the opulence 
of their fortunes are superior to the ordinary 
class. They all live dispersed in the mount- 
ains, in villages, hamlets, and even detached 
houses ; which is never the case in the plains. 
The whole nation consists of cultivators. 
Every man improves the little domain he pos- 
sesses, or farms, with his own hands. Even 
the shaiks live in the same manner, and are 
only distinguished from the rest by a bad pe- 
liss, a horse, and a few slight advantages in 
food and lodging ; they all live frugally, with- 
out many enjoyments, but also with few wants, 
as they are little acquainted with the inven- 
tions of luxury. In general, the nation is 
poor, but no one wants necessaries ; and if 
beggars are sometimes seen, they come rather 
from the sea coast than the country itself. 
Property is as sacred among them as in Eu- 
rope ; nor do we see there those robberies and 
extortions so frequent with the Turks. Travel- 
lers may journey there, either by night or by 
day, with a security unknown in any other 
part of the empire, and the stranger is received 
with hospitality, as among the Arabs : it must 
be owned, however, that the Maronites are 
less generous, and rather inclined to the vice 
of parsimony. Conformably to the doctrines 
of Christianity, they have only one wife, whom 
they frequently espouse without having seen, 
and always without having been much in her 
company. Contrary to the precepts of that 
same religion, however, they have admitted, 
or retained, the Arab custom of retaliation, 
and the nearest relation of a murdered person 
is bound to avenge him. From a habit founded 
on distrust, and the political state of the coun- 
try, every one, whether shaik or peasant, walks 
continually armed with a musket and poinards. 
This is, perhaps, an inconvenience ; but this 
advantage results from it, that they have no 
novices in the use of arms among them, when 
it is necessary to employ them against the 
Turks. As the country maintains no regular 
troops, every man is obliged to join the army 
in time of war ; and if this militia were well 
conducted, it would be superior to many Eu- 
ropean armies. From accounts taken in late 
years, the number of men fit to bear arms, 
amounts to thirty-five thousand. 

In religious matters the Maronites are d6. 
pendent on Rome. Though they acknowledge 
the supremacy of the pope, their clergy con- 
tinue, as heretofore, to elect a head, with the 
title of hatrak, or patriarch of Antioch. Their 
priests marry, as in the first ages of the church ; 
but their wives must be maidens, and not 
widows ; nor can they marry a second time. 
They celebrate mass in Syriac, f which the 



greatest part of them comprehend not a word. 
The Gospel, alone, is read aloud in Arabic, 
that it may be understood by the people. The 
communion is administered in both kinds. In 
the small country of the Maronites there are 
reckoned upward of two hundred convents for 
men and women. These religious are of the 
order of St. Anthony, whose rules they ob- 
serve with an exactness which reminds us of 
earlier times. The court of Rome, in affiliat- 
ing the Maronites, has granted them a hospi- 
tium at Rome, to which they may send several 
of their youth to receive a gratuitous educa- 
tion. It should seem that this institution 
might introduce among them the ideas and 
arts of Europe ; but the pupils of this school, 
limited to an education purely monastic, bring 
home nothing but the Italian language, which 
is of no use, and a stock of theological learn- 
ing, from which as little advantage can be 
derived ; they accordingly soon assimilate 
with the rest. Nor has a greater change 
been operated by the three or four missiona- 
ries maintained by the French capuchins at 
Gazir, Tripoli, and Bairout. Their labours 
consist in preaching in their church, in in- 
structing children in the catechism, Thomas 
a Kempis, and the Psalms, and in teaching 
them to read and write. Formerly, the Jesuits 
had two missionaries at their house at Antoura, 
and the Lazarites have now succeeded them 
in their mission. The most valuable advantage 
that has resulted from these labours is, that 
the art of writing has become more common 
among the Maronites, and rendered them, in 
this country, what the Copts are in Egypt, that 
is, they are in possession of all the posts of 
writers, intendants, and kaiyas among the 
Turks, and especially of those among their 
allies and neighbours, the Druses. 

Mosheim observes, that the subjection of 
the Maronites to the spiritual jurisdiction of 
the Roman pontiff w^as agreed to with this 
express condition, that neither the popes nor 
their emissaries should pretend to change or 
abolish any thing that related to the ancient 
rites, moral precepts, or religious opinions of 
this people ; so that, in reality, there is nothing 
to be found among the Maronites that savours 
of popery, if we except their attachment to the 
Roman pontiff. It is also certain that there are 
Maronites in Syria, who still behold the church 
of Rome with the greatest aversion and abhor- 
rence ; nay, what is still more remarkable, 
great numbers of that nation residing in Italy, 
even under the eye of the pontiff, opposed his 
authority during the seventeenth century, and 
threw the court of Rome into great perplexity. 
One body of these non-conforming Maronites 
retired into the valleys of Piedmont, where 
they joined the Waldenses ; another, above 
six hundred in number, with a bishop, and 
several ecclesiastics at their head, flew inta 
Corsica, and implored the protection of the 
republic of Genoa, against the violence of the 
inquisitors. 

MARRIAGE, a civil and religious contract, 
by which a man is joined and united to a wo- 
man, for the ends of procreation. The essence 



MAR 



622 



MAR 



of marriage consists in the mutual consent of 
the parties. Marriage is a part of the law of 
nations, and is in use among all people. The 
public use of marriage institutions consists, 
according to Archdeacon Paley, in their pro- 
moting the following beneficial effects : 1. The 
private comfort of individuals. 2. The pro- 
duction of the greatest number of healthy chil- 
dren, their better education, and the making 
of due provision for their settlement in life. 
3. The peace of human society, in cutting off 
a principal source of contention, by assigning 
one or more women to one man, and protect- 
ing his exclusive right by sanctions of morality 
and law. 4. The better government of society, 
by distributing the community into separate 
families, and appointing over each the au- 
thority of a master of a family, which has more 
actual influence than all civil authority put 
together. 5. The additional security which 
the state receives for the good behaviour of its 
citizens, from the solicitude they feel for the 
welfare of their children, and from their being 
confined to permanent habitations. 6. The 
encouragement of industry. 

Whether marriage be a civil or a religious 
contract, has been a subject of dispute. The 
truth seems to be that it is both. It has its 
engagements to men, and its vows to God. A 
Christian -state recognizes marriage as a branch 
of public morality, and a source of civil peace 
and strength. It is connected with the peace 
of society by assigning one woman to one 
man, and the state protects him, therefore, in 
her exclusive possession. Christianity, by 
allowing divorce in the event of adultery, sup- 
poses, also, that the crime must be proved by 
proper evidence before the civil magistrate ; 
and lest divorce should be the result of un- 
founded suspicion, or be made a cover for 
license, the decision of the case could safely 
be lodged no where else. Marriage, too, as 
placing one human being more completely 
under the power of another than any other 
relation, requires laws for the protection of 
those who are thus so exposed to injury. The 
distribution of society into families, also, can 
only be an instrument for promoting the order 
of the community, by the cognizance which 
the law takes of the head of a family, and by 
making him responsible, to a certain extent, 
for the conduct of those under his influence. 
Questions of property are also involved in 
marriage and its issue. The law must, there- 
fore, for these and many other weighty rea- 
sons, be cognizant of marriage ; must prescribe 
various regulations respecting it ; require pub- 
licity of the contract ; and guard some of the 
great injunctions of religion in the matter by 
penalties. In every well ordered society mar- 
riage must be placed under the cognizance and 
control of the state. But then those who 
would have the whole matter to lie between 
the parties themselves, and the civil magis- 
trate, appear wholly to forget that marriage is 
also a solemn religious act, in which vows are 
made to God by both persons, who, when the 
rite is properly understood, engage to abide by 
all those laws with which he has guarded the 



institution ; to love and cherish each other y 
and to remain faithful to each other until death. 
For if, at least, they profess belief in Chris- 
tianity, whatever duties are laid upon husbands 
and wives in Holy Scripture, they engage to 
obey, by the very act of their contracting mar- 
riage. The question, then, is whether such 
vows to God as are necessarily involved in 
marriage, are to be left between the parties 
and God privately, or whether they ought to 
be publicly made before his ministers and the 
church. On this the Scriptures are silent; 
but though Michaelis has shown that the 
priests under the law were not appointed to 
celebrate marriage ; yet in the practice of the 
modern Jews it is a religious ceremony, the 
chief rabbi of the synagogue being present, 
and prayers being appointed for the occasion. 
This renders it probable that the character of 
the ceremony under the law, from the most 
ancient times, was a religious one. The more 
direct connection of marriage with religion in 
Christian states, by assigning its celebration 
to the ministers of religion, appears to be a 
very beneficial custom, and one which the 
state has a right to enjoin. For since the 
welfare and morals of society are so much 
interested in the performance of the mutual 
duties of the married state ; and since those 
duties have a religious as well as a civil cha- 
racter, it is most proper that some provision 
should be made for explaining those duties ; 
and for this a standing form of marriage is 
best adapted. By acts of religion, also, they 
are more solemnly impressed upon the parties. 
When this is prescribed in any state, it becomes 
a Christian cheerfully, and even thankfiiUy, to 
comply with a custom of so important a tend- 
ency, as matter of conscientious subjection to 
lawful authority, although no Scriptural pre- 
cept can be pleaded for it. That the ceremony 
should be confined to the clergy of an esta. 
Wished church, is a different consideration. 
We think that the religious effect would be 
greater, were the ministers of each religious 
body to be authorized by the state to celebrate 
marriages among their own people, due pro- 
vision being previously made by the civil 
magistrate for the regular and secure registry 
of them, and to prevent the laws respecting 
marriage from being evaded ; which is indeed 
his business. The oflaces of religion would 
then come in by way of sanction and moral 
enforcement. 

When this important contract is once made, 
then certain rights are acquired by the parties 
mutually, who are also bound by reciprocal 
duties, in the fulfilment of which the practical 
virtue of each consists. And here the superior 
character of the morals of the New Testament, 
as well as their higher authority, is illustrated. 
It may, indeed, be within the scope of mere 
moralists to sh o w that fidelity, and affe ction , and 
all the courtesies necessary to maintain affec- 
tion, are rationally obligatory upon those who 
are connected by the nuptial bond ; but in Chris- 
tianity nuptial fidelity is guarded by the express 
law, " Thou shalt not commit adultery ;" and 
by our Lord's exposition of the spirit of that 



MAR 



623 



MAR 



law which forbids the indulgence of loose 
thoughts and desires, and places the purity of 
the heart under the guardianship of that hal- 
lowed fear which his authority tends to inspire. 
Affection, too, is made a matter of diligent cul- 
tivation upon considerations, and by a stand, 
ard, peculiar to our religion. Husbands are 
placed in a relation to their wives, similar to 
that which Christ bears to his church, and his 
example is thus made their rule. As Christ 
loved the church, so husbands are to love their 
wives ; as Christ " gave himself," his life, " for 
the church," Eph. v, 25, so are they to hazard 
life for their wives ; as Christ saves his church, 
80 is it the bounden duty of husbands to en- 
deavour, by every possible means, to promote 
the religious edification and salvation of their 
wives. The connection is thus exalted into a 
religious one ; and when love which knows no 
abatement, protection at the hazard of life, 
and a tender and constant solicitude for the 
salvation of a wife, are thus enjoined, the 
greatest possible security is established for 
the e:xercise of kindness and fidelity. The 
oneness of this union is also more forcibly 
stated in Scripture than any where beside. 
" They twain shall be one flesh." " So ought 
men to love their wives as their own bodies ; 
he that loveth his wife loveth himself. For 
no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nour- 
isheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the 
church." Precept and illustration can go no 
higher than this ; and nothing evidently is 
wanting either of direction or authority to 
raise the state of marriage into the highest, 
most endearing, and sanctified relation in 
which two human beings can stand to each 
other. 

2. We find but few laws in the books of 
Moses concerning the institution of marriage. 
Though the Mosaic law no where obliges men 
to marry, the Jews have always looked upon 
it as an indispensable duty implied in the words, 
'"Increase and multiply," Gen. i, 28 ; so that a 
man who did not marry his daughter before 
she was twenty years of age, was looked upon 
as accessary to any irregularities the young 
woman might be guilty of for want of being 
timely married. Moses restrained the Israel- 
ites from^ marrying within certain degrees of 
consanguinity ; which had till then been per- 
mitted, to prevent their taking wives from 
among the idolatrous nations among whom 
they lived, Abraham gave this as a reason 
for choosing a wife for Isaac from among his 
own kindred, Gen. xxxiv, 3, &c. But when 
his descendants became so exceedingly multi- 
plied, this reason ceased ; and the great law- 
giver prohibited, under pa(in of death, certain 
degrees of kindred as incestuous. Polygamy, 
though not expressly allowed, is however 
tacitly implied in the laws of Moses, Gen. xxxi ; 
Exod. xxi, 10. This practice likewise was au- 
thorized by the example of the patriarchs. Thus 
Jacob married both the daughters of Laban. 
In respect to which custom, Moses enjoins that, 
upon the marriage of a second wife, a man 
shall be bound to continue to the first her 
food, raiment, and the duty of marriage. The 



Jews did not always content themselves with 
the allowance of two wives, as may be seen in 
the examples of David, Solomon, and many 
others. However, they made a distinction 
between the wives of the first rank, and those 
of the second. The first they called nashim, 
and the other pilgashim ; which last, though 
most versions render it by the words " concu- 
bines," " harlots," and " prostitutes," yet it has 
no where in Scripture any such bad sense. 
There is a particular law called the Levirate, 
which obliged a man, whose brother died with- 
out issue, to marry his widow, and raise up 
seed to his brother, Deut. xxv, 5, &c. But 
Moses in some measure left it to a man's 
choice, whether he would comply with this 
law or not ; for in case of a refusal, the widow 
could only summon him before the judges of 
the place, when, if he persisted, she untied his 
shoe, and spit in his face, and said, " Thus 
shall it be done unto the man who refuses to 
build up his brotlier's house." A man was at 
liberty to marry not only in the twelve tribes, 
but even oat of them, provided it vi^as among 
such nations as used circumcision ; such were 
tlie Midiaiiitcs, Ishmaelitcs, Edomites, Moab- 
ites, and Egyptians. Accordingly, we find 
Moses himself married to a Midianite, and 
Boaz to a Moabite. Amasa was the son of 
Jether, an Ishmaelite, by Abigail, David's 
sister ; and Solomon, in the beginning of his 
reign, married Pharaoh's daughter. When- 
ever wo find him and other kings blamed for 
marrying strange women, we must understand 
it of those nations which were idolatrous and 
uncircumcised. 

It appears almost impossible to Europeans, 
says Mr. Hartley, that a deception like that of 
Laban's could be practised. But the following 
extract, from a journal which I kept at Smyrna, 
presents a parallel case : "The Armenian brides 
are veiled daring the marriage ceremony ; and 
hence deceptions have occurred, in regard to 
the person chosen for wife. I am informed 
that, on one occasion, a young Armenian at 
Smyrna solicited in marriage a younger daugh- 
ter, whom he admired. The parents of the 
girl consented to the request, and every pre- 
vious arrangement was made. When the time 
for solemnizing the marriage arrived, the elder 
daughter, who was not so beautiful, was con- 
ducted by the parents to the altar, and the 
young man was unconsciously married to her. 
And ' it came to pass, that in the morning, 
behold, it was the elder daughter.' The deceit 
was not discovered, till it could not be recti- 
fied; and the manner in which the parents 
justified themselves was precisely that of La- 
ban : ' It must not be so done in our country, 
to give the younger before the first-born.' It is 
really the rule among the Armenians, that 
neither a younger son nor daughter be mar- 
ried, till their elder brother or sister have 
preceded them." I was once present at the 
solemnization of matrimony among the Ar- 
menians ; and some recollections of it may 
tend to throw light on this and other passages 
of Scripture. The various festivities attend- 
ant on these occasions continue for three days ; 



MAR 



624 



MAR 



and during the last night the marriage is cele- 
brated. I was conducted to the house of the 
bride, where I found a very large assemblage 
of persons. The company was dispersed 
through various rooms ; reminding me of the 
directions of our Saviour, in regard to the 
choice of the lowermost rooms at feasts. On 
the ground floor I actually observed that the 
persons convened were of an inferior order of 
the community, while in the upper rooms were 
assembled those of higher rank. The large 
number of young females who were present, 
naturally reminded me of the wise and foolish 
virgins in our Saviour's parable. These being 
friends of the bride, the virgins, her compa- 
nions, had come to meet the bridegroom. 
Psalm xlv, 14. It is usual for the bridegroom 
to come at midnight ; so that, literally, at mid- 
night the cry is made, " Behold, the bride- 
groom Cometh ! go ye out to meet him," Matt. 
XXV, 6. But, on this occasion the bridegroom 
tarried : it was two o'clock before he arrived. 
The whole party then proceeded to the Arme- 
nian church, where the bishop was waiting to 
receive them ; and there the ceremony was 
completed. See Divorce and Bride. 

MARTHA was sister of Lazarus and Mary, 
and mistress of the house where our Saviour 
was entertained, in the village of Bethany. 
Martha is always named before Mary, probably 
because she was the elder sister. 

MARY, the mother of Jesus, and wife of 
Joseph. She is called by the Jews the daugh- 
ter of Eli ; and by the early Christian writers, 
the daughter of Joakim and Anna : but Joakim 
and Eliakim are sometimes interchanged, 
2 Chron. xxxvi, 4 ; and Eli, or Heli, is there- 
fore the abridgment of Eliakim, Luke iii, 23. 
She was of the royal race of David, as was 
also Joseph her husband ; and she was also 
cousin to Elizabeth, the wife of Zacharias the 
priest, Luke i, 5, 36. Mary being espoused to 
Joseph, the Angel Gabriel appeared to her, to 
announce to her that she should be the mother 
of the Messiah, Luke i, 26, 27, &c. To con- 
firm his message, and to show that nothing is 
impossible to God, he added that her cousin 
Elizabeth, who was old, and had been hitherto 
barren, was then in the sixth month of her 
pregnancy. Mary answered, " Behold the 
handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according 
to thy word ;" and presently she conceived. 
She set out for Hebron, a city in the mount- 
ains of Judah, to visit her cousin Elizabeth. 
As soon as Elizabeth heard the voice of Mary, 
her child, John the Baptist, leaped in her 
womb ; and she was filled with the Holy 
Ghost, and spake with a loud voice, saying, 
" Blessed art thou among women," &c. Then 
Mary praised God, saying, *' My soul doth 
magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced 
in God my Saviour," &c. Mary continued 
with Elizabeth about three months, and then 
returned to her own house. An edict of Cae- 
sar Augustus having decreed, that all subjects 
of the empire should go to their own cities, to 
register their names according to their fami- 
lies, Joseph and Mary, who were both of the 
lineage of Pavid, went to Bethlehem, from 



whence sprung their family. But while they 
were here, the time being fulfilled in which 
Mary was to be delivered, she brought forth 
her first-born son. She wrapped him in swad- 
dling clothes, and laid him in the manger of 
the stable or cavern whither they had retired, 
because there was no room in the inn. Angels 
made this event known to shepherds, who 
were in the fields near Bethlehem, and these 
came in the night to Joseph and Mary, and 
saw the child lying in the manger, and paid 
him their adoration. The presentation of 
Christ in the temple, the flight into Egypt, the 
slaughter of the innocents, and other events 
connected with the birth and infancy of our 
Lord, are plainly related in the Gospels. 

Mary and Joseph went every year to Jeru- 
salem to the passover ; and when Jesus was 
twelve years of age, they took him with them. 
When they were returning", the youth con- 
tinued at Jerusalem, without their perceiving 
it. Three days after, they found him in the 
temple, sitting among the doctors, hearing 
them and asking them questions. Afterward, 
he returned with them to Nazareth, and lived 
in filial submission to them. But his mother 
laid up all these things in her heart, Luke ii, 
51, &c. The Gospel speaks nothing more ot 
the Virgin Mary till the marriage at Cana of 
Galilee, at which she was present with her 
son Jesus. She was at Jerusalem at the last 
passover our Saviour celebrated there. There 
she saw all that was transacted ; followed him 
to Calvary ; and stood at the foot of his cross 
with an admirable constancy and courage. 
Jesus seeing his mother, and his beloved dis- 
ciple near, he said to his mother, " Woman, 
behold thy son ; and to the disciple. Behold 
thy mother. And from that hour the disciple 
took her home to his own house." No farther 
particulars of this favoured woman are men- 
tioned, except that she was a witness of 
Christ's resurrection. A veil is drawn over 
her character and history ; as though with the 
design to reprove that wretched idolatry of 
which she was made the subject when Chris- 
tianity became corrupt and paganized. 

2. Mary, the mother of John Mark, a dis- 
ciple of the Apostles. She had a house in 
Jerusalem, whither, it is thought, the Apostles 
retired after the ascension of our Lord, and 
where they received the Holy Ghost. After 
the imprisonment of St. Peter, the faithful 
assembled in this house, and were praying 
there when Peter, delivered by the ministry 
of an angel, knocked at the door of the house. 
Acts xii, 12. 

3. Mary, of Cieophas. St. Jerom says, she 
bore the name of Cieophas, either because of 
her father, or for some other reason which 
cannot now be known. Others believe, with 
greater probability, that she was wife of Cieo- 
phas, as our version of the New Testament 
makes her, by supplying the word wife, John 
xix, 25, and mother of James the less, and of 
Simon, brethren of our Lord. These last 
mentioned authors take Mary mother of James, 
and Mary wife of Cieophas, to be the same 
person, Matthew xxvii, 56 ; Mark xv, 40, 41 ; 



MAR 



625 



MAS 



Luke xxiv, 10 ; John xix, 25. St. John gives 
lier the name of Mary of Cleophas ; and the 
other evangelists, the name of Mary, mother 
of James. Cleophas and Alpheus are the same 
person ; as James, son of Mary, wife of Cleo- 
phas, is the same as James, son of Alpheus. 
It is thought she was the sister of the Virgin 
Mary, and that she was the mother of James 
the less, of Joses, of Simon, and of Judas, 
who in the Gospel are named the brethren of 
Jesus Christ, Matt, xiii, 55 ; xxvii, 56 ; Mark 
vi, 3 ; that is, his cousin-germans. She was 
an early believer in Jesus Christ, and attended 
him on his journeys, to minister to him. She 
was present at the last passover, and at the 
death of our Saviour she followed him to Cal- 
vary ; and during his passion she was with the 
mother of Jesus at the foot of the. cross. She 
was also present at his burial ; and on the 
Friday before had, in union with others, pre- 
pared the perfumes to embalm him, Luke 
xxiii, 56. But going to his tomb very early 
on the Sunday morning, with other women, 
they there learned from the mouth of an angel, 
that he was risen ; of which they carried the 
news to the Apostles, Luke xxiv, 1-5 ; Matt, 
xxviii, 9. 'By the way, Jesus appeared to them ; 
and they embraced his feet, worshipping him. 
This is all we know with certainty concerning 
Mary, the wife of Cleophas. 

4. Mary, sister of Lazarus, who has been 
preposterously confounded with that female 
sinner spoken of, Luke vii, 37-39. She lived 
with her brother and her sister Martina at 
Bethany; and Jesus Christ, having a particular 
affection for this family, often retired to their 
house with his disciples. Six days before the 
passover, after having raised Lazarus from the 
dead, he came to Bethany with his disciples, 
and was invited to sup with Simon the leper, 
John xii, 1, &c ; Matthew xxvi, 6, &c ; Mark 
xiv, 3, &c. Martha attended at the table, and 
Lazarus was one of the guests. Upon this 
occasion, Mary, taking a pound of spikenard, 
which is the most precious perfume of its kind, 
poured it upon the head and feet of Jesus. She 
wiped his feet vvith her hair, and the whole 
house was filled with the odour of the perfume. 
Judas Iscariot murmured at tJais ; but Jesus 
justified Mary in what she had done, saying, 
that by this action she had prevented his em- 
balmment, and in a manner had declared his 
death and burial, which were at hand. From 
this period the Scriptures make no mention 
of either Mary or Martha. 

5. Mary Magdalene, so called, it is proba- 
ble, from Magdala, a town of Galilee, of which 
she was a native, or where she had resided 
during the early part of her life. Out of her, 
St. Luke tells us, Jesus had east seven devils, 



Luk 



He informs us, also, in the same 



place, that Jesus, in company v»rith his Apostles, 
preached the Gospel from city to city ; and 
that tliere were several women with them, 
whom he had delivered from evil spirits, and 
healed of their infirmities ; among whom was 
this Mary, whom some, without a shadow of 
proof, have supposed to be the sinful woman 
spoken of, Luke vii, 37-39 ; as others have as 
41 



erroneously imagined her to be Mary, the sister 
of Lazarus. Mary Magdalene is mentioned 
by the evangelists as being one of those women 
that followed our Saviour, to minister to him, 
according to the custom of the Jews. She 
attended him in the last journey he made from 
Galilee to Jerusalem, and was at the foot of 
the cross with the holy virgin, John xix, 25 ; 
Mark xv, 47 ; after which she returned to 
Jerusalem, to buy and prepare with others 
certain perfumes, that she might embalm him 
after the Sabbath was over, which was then 
about to begin. All the Sabbath day she re- 
mained in the city ; and the next day, early in 
the morning, went to the sepulchre along with 
Mary, the mother of James, and Salome, Mark 
xvi, 1, 2 ; Luke xxiv, 1, 2. For other par- 
ticulars respecting her, see also Matt, xxviii, 
1-5; John XX, 11-17. In Dr. Townley's 
Essays, there is one of considerable research 
on Mary Magdalene ; and his conclusion is, 
that it is probable that the woman mentioned 
by St. Luke, and called in the English trans- 
lation " a sinner," had formerly been a Hea- 
then ; but whether subsequently a proselyte to 
Judaism or not, is uncertain ; and that, having 
been brought td the knowledge of Christian 
truth, and having found mercy from the Re- 
deemer, she pressed into Simon's house, and 
gave the strongest proofs of her gratitude and 
veneration by anointing the Saviour's feet, 
bedewing them with her tears, and wiping 
them with the hairs of her head -.—that by a 
wilfiil and malicious misrepresentation, the 
Jews confounded Mary Magdalene with Mary 
the mother of Jesus, and represented her as 
an infamous character : — and that, from the 
blasphemous calumny of the Jews, a stigma 
of infamy has been affixed to the name of 
Mary Magdalene, and caused her to be re- 
garded in the false light of a penitent prosti- 
tute. There is no doubt but that Mary Mag- 
dalene, both in character and circumstances, 
was a woman of good reputation. 

MASCHIL, a title, or inscription, at the 
head of several psalms of David and others, 
in the book of Psalms. Thus Psalm xxxii is 
inscribed, "A Psalm of David, Maschil;" and 
Psalm xlii, "To the chief musician, Maschil, 
for the sons of Koran." The word Maschil, 
in the Hebrew, signifies, " he that instructs ;" 
though some interpreters take it for the name 
of a musical instrument. Some of the rabbins 
believe that, in repeating the psalms which 
have this inscription, it was usual to add an 
interpretation or explication to them. Others, 
on the contrary, think it shows the clearness 
and perspicuity of such psalms, and that they 
needed no particular explication. The most 
probable opinion is, that Maschil means an 
instructive song. 

MASS, MISSA, in the church of Rome, 
the office of prayers used at the celebration of 
the eucharist ; or, in other words, the conse- 
crating the bread and wine so that it is tran- 
substantiated into the body and blood of Christ, 
and offer them as an expiatory sacrifice for the 
quick and the dead. Nicod, after Baronius, 
observes that the word comes from the Hebrew 



MAT 



626 



MAT 



mtssach, (ohlatum,) or from the Latin missa 
missorum; because in former times the cate- 
chumens and excommunicated were sent out 
of the church, when the deacons said, " Ite, 
missa est," after sermon and reading of the 
epistle and Gospel ; they not being allowed to 
assist at the consecration. Menage derives 
the word from missio, " dismissing ;" others, 
from missa, " sending ;" because in the mass 
the prayers of men on earth are sent up to 
heaven. 

As the mass is in general believed to be a 
representation of the passion of qur blessed 
Saviour, so every action of the priest, and 
every particular part of the service, are sup. 
posed to allude to the particular circumstances 
©f his passion and death. The general division 
of masses is into high and low mass. The 
first is that sung by the choristers, and cele- 
brated with the assistance of a deacon and sub- 
deacon : low masses are those in which the 
prayers are barely rehearsed without singing. 
There are a great number of different or occa- 
sional masses in the Romish church, many of 
which have nothing peculiar but the name. 
Such are the masses of the saints : that of St. 
Mary of the Snow, celebrated on the fifth of 
August ; that of St. Margaret, patroness of 
lying-in women ; that at the feast of St. John 
the Baptist, at which are said three masses ; 
that of the Innocents, at which the Gloria in 
excelsis and Hallelujcih are omitted ; and, it 
being a day of mourning, the altar is of a 
violet colour. As to ordinary masses, some 
are said for the dead, and, as is supposed, con- 
tribute to extricate the soul out of purgatory. 
At these masses the altar is put in mourning, 
and the anly decorations are a cross in the 
middle of six yellow wax lights ; the dress of 
the celebrant, and the very mass book, are 
black ; many parts of the office are omitted, 
and the people are dismissed without the bene- 
diction. If the mass be said for a person dis- 
tinguished by his rank or virtues, it is followed 
with a funeral oration ; they erect a chapelle 
ardente, that is, a representation of the de- 
ceased, with branches and tapers of yellow 
wax, either in the middle of the church, or 
near the deceased's tomb, wher^ the priest 
pronounces a solemn absolution of the de- 
ceased. There are likewise private masses 
said for stolen or strayed goods or cattle, for 
health, for travellers, «&,c, which go under the 
name of votive masses. There is still a farther 
distinction of masses, denominated from the 
countries in which they were used : thus the 
Gothic mass, or missa mosarabum, is that used 
among the Goths when they were masters of 
Spain, and which is still observed at Toledo 
and Salamanca ; the Ambrosian mass is that 
composed by St. Ambrose, and used only at 
Milan, of which city he was bishop ; the Gallic 
mass, used by the ancient Gauls ; and the Ro- 
man mass, used by almost all the churches in 
the Roman communion. 

MATERIALISM, the doctrine which re. 
solves the thinking principle in man, or the 
immaterial and immortal soul with which God 
was pleased to endue Adam, at his creation, 



into mere matter, or into a faculty resulting 
from its organization. Much has been written 
of late years against this doctrine, and the dif- 
ferent modifications which it has assumed ; 
but in substance nothing new has been said on 
either side ; and the able and condensed argu- 
ment of Wollaston in his "Religion of Nature 
Delineated," if well considered, will furnish 
every one with a most clear and satisfactory 
refutation of this antiscriptural and irrational 
error : — The soul cannot be mere matter : for 
if it is, then either all matter must think ; or 
the difference must arise from the different 
modification, magnitude, figure, or motion of 
some parcels of matter in respect of others ; 
or a faculty of thinking must be superadded to 
some systems of it, which is not superadded 
to others. But in the first place, that position, 
which makes all matter to be cogitative, is 
contrary to all the apprehensions and know- 
ledge we have of the nature of it ; nor can it 
be true, unless our senses and faculties be con- 
trived only to deceive us. We perceive not 
the least symptom of cogitation or sense in our 
tables, chairs, &lc. Why doth the scene of 
thinking lie in our heads, and all the ministers 
of sensation make their reports to something 
there, if all matter be apprehensive and cogi- 
tative ? For in that case there would be as 
much thought and understanding in our heels, 
and every where else, as in our heads. If all 
matter be cogitative, then it must be so qua- 
tenus [so far forth as] matter, and thinking must 
be of the essence and definition of it \ whereas 
by matter no more is meant than a, substance 
extended and impenetrable to other matter. 
And since, for this reason, it cannot be neces- 
sary for matter to think, (because it may be 
matter without this property,) it cannot think 
as matter only ; if it did, we should not only 
continue to think always, till the matter of 
which we consist is annihilated, and so the 
asserter of this doctrine would stumble upon 
immortality unawares ; but we must also have 
thought always in time past, ever since that 
matter was in being ; nor could there be any 
the least intermission of actual thinking; which 
does not appear to be our case. If thinking, 
self-consciousness, &c, were essential to mat- 
ter, every part of it must have them ; and then 
no system could have them. For a system of 
material parts would be a system of things 
conscious, every one by itself of its own ex- 
istence and individuality, and, consequently, 
thinking by itself; but there could be no one 
act of self-consciousness or thought common 
to the whole. Juxtaposition, in this case, 
could signify nothing ; the distinction and in- 
dividuation of the several particles would be 
as much retained in their vicinity, as if they 
were separated by miles. 

In the next place, the faculties of thinking, 
&c, cannot arise from the size, figure, texture, 
or motion of it ; because bodies by the altera, 
tion of these only become greater or less, round 
or square, &c, rare or dense, translated from 
one place to another with this or that new 
direction or velocity, or the like ; all which 
ideas are quite different from that of thinking. ; 



MAT 



627 



MAT 



there can be no relation between them. These 
hiodifications and affections of matter are so 
far from being principles or causes of thinking 
and acting, that they are themselves but effects, 
proceeding from the action of some other mat. 
ter or thing upon it, and are proofs of its pas- 
sivity, deadness and utter incapacity of becom- 
ing cogitative : this is evident to sense. They 
who place the essence of the soul in a certain 
motion given to some matter, (if any such men 
there really be,) should consider, among many 
other things, that to move the body spontane- 
ously, is one of the faculties of the soul ; and 
that this, which is the same with the power 
of beginning "motion, cannot come from motion 
already begun, and impressed ah extra. Let 
the materialist examine well, whether he does 
not feel something within himsjslf that acts 
from an internal principle ; whether he does 
not experience some liberty, some power of 
governing himself, and choosing ; whether he 
does not enjoy a kind of invisible empire in 
which he commands his own thoughts, sends 
them to this or that place, employs them about 
this or that business, forms such and such de- 
signs and schemes ; and whether there is any 
thing like this in bare matter, however fashion- 
ed or proportioned ; which, if nothing should 
protrude or communicate motion to it, would 
for ever remain fixed to the place where it 
happens to be, aii eternal monument of its 
own being dead. Can such an active being as 
the soul is, the subject of so many powers, be 
itself nothing but an accident ? When I begin 
to move myself, I do it for some reason, and 
with respect to some end, the means to effect 
which I have, if there be occasion ibr it, con- 
certed within myself; and this does not at all 
look like motion merely material, or in which 
matter is only concerned, which is all mecha- 
nical. Who can imagine matter to be moved 
by arguments, or ever placed syllogisms and 
demonstrations among levers and pullies ? We 
not only m.ove ourselves upon reasons which 
we find in ourselves, but upon reasons impart- 
ed by words or writings from others, or per- 
haps merely at their desire or bare sugges- 
tion : in which case, again,. nobody surely can 
imagine that the words spoken or written, the 
sound in the air, or the strokes on the paper, 
can, by any natural or mechanical efficience, 
cause the reader or hearer to move in any de- 
terminate manner, or at all. The reason, re- 
quest, or friendly admonition, which is the 
true motive, can make no impression upon mat- 
ter. It must be some other kind ofbeing that 
apprehends the force and sense of them. Do 
not we see in conversation, how a pleasant 
thing said makes people break out into laugh- 
ter, a rude thing into passion, and so on ? 
These affections cannot be the physical effects 
of the Words spoken ; because then they would 
have the same effect, whether they were un- 
derstood or not. And this is farther demon- 
strable from hence, that though the words do 
really contain nothing which is either pleasant 
or rude, or perhaps words are thought to be 
spoken which are not spoken ; yet if^'they are 
apprehended to do that, or the sound to be 



otherwise than it was, the effect will be the 
same. It is therefore the sense of the words, 
which is an immaterial thing, that by passing 
through the understanding, and causing that 
which is the subject of the intellectual facul- 
ties to influence the body, produces these mo- 
tions in the spirits, blood, and muscles. 

They who can fancy that matter may come 
to live, think, and act spontaneously, by being 
reduced to a certain magnitude, or having its 
parts placed after a certain manner, or being 
invested with such a figure, or excited by such 
a particular motion ; they, I say, would do 
well to discover to us that degree of fineness, 
that alteration in the situation of its parts, &c, 
at which matter may begin to find itself alive 
and cogitative ; and which is the critical 
minute, that introduces these important pro- 
perties. If they cannot do this, nor have their 
eye upon any particular crisis, it is a sign that 
they have no good reason for what they say. 
For if they have no reason to charge this 
change upon any particular degree or differ, 
ence, one more than another, they have no 
reason to charge it upon any degree or differ- 
ence at all ; and then they have no reason by 
which they can prove that such a change is 
made at all. Beside all which, since magni- 
tude, figure, and motion are but accidents of 
matter, not matter, and only the substance 
is truly matter ; and since the substance of any 
one part of matter does not differ from that of 
another, if any matter can be by nature cogi- 
tative, all must be so : but this we have seen, 
cannot be. So then, in conclusion, if there is 
any such thing as matter that thinks, &L,c, this 
must be a particular privilege granted to it ; 
that is, a faculty of thinking must be super- 
added to certain parts or parcels of it ; which, 
by the way, must infer the existence of some 
being able to confer this faculty ; who, when 
the ineptness of matter has been well consider- 
ed, cannot appear to be less than omnipotent, 
or God. But the truth is, matter seems not to 
be capable of such improvement, ofbeing made 
to think. For since it is not the essence of 
matter, it cannot be made to be so without 
making matter another kind of substance from 
what it is. Nor can it be made to arise from 
any of the modifications or accidents of mat- 
ter ; and in respect of what else can any mat- 
ter be made to differ from other matter. 

The accidents of matter are so far from be- 
in^ made by any power to produce cogitation, 
that some even of them show it incapable 
of having a faculty of thinking superadded. 
The very divisibility of it does this. For that 
which is made to think must either be one 
part, or more parts joined together. But we 
know no such thing as a part of matter purely 
one, or indivisible. It may, indeed, have 
pleased the Author of nature, that there should 
be atoms, whose parts are actually indiscerpti- 
ble, and which may be the principles of other 
bodies; but still they consist of parts, though 
firmly adhering together. And if the seat of 
cogitation be m more parts than one, whether 
they lie close together, or are loose, or in a 
slate of fluidity, it is the same thing, how can 



MAT 



628 



MAT 



it be avoided, but that either there must be so 
many several minds, or thinking substances, 
as there are parts, and then the consequence 
which has been mentioned would return upon 
us again ; or else that there must be something 
else superadded for them to centre in, to unite 
their acts, and make their thoughts to be one ? 
And then what can this be but some other 
substance, whicli is purely one ? 

Matter by itself can never entertain abstract- 
ed and general ideas, such as many in our 
minds are. For could it reflect upon what 
passes within itself, it could possibly find there 
nothing but material and particular impres- 
sions ; abstractions and metaphysical ideas 
could not be printed upon it. How could one 
abstract from m.atter who is himself nothing 
but matter ? 

If the soul were mere matter, external visi- 
ble objects could only be perceived within us 
according to the impressions they make upon 
matter, and not otherwise. For instance : the 
image of a cube in my mind, or my idea of a 
cube, must be always under some particular 
prospect, and conform to the rules of perspec- 
tive ; nor could I otherwise represent it to 
myself; whereas now I can form an idea of it 
as it is in itself, and almost view all its hedrce. 
at once, as it were encompassing it with my 
mind. I can within myself correct the exter- 
nal appearances and impressions of objects, 
and advance, upon the reports and hints re- 
ceived by my senses, to form ideas of things 
that are not extant in matter. By seeing a 
material circle I may learn to form the idea 
of a circle, or figure generated by the revolu- 
tion of a ray about its centre ; but then, recol- 
lecting what I know of matter upon other 
occasions, I can conclude there is no exact 
material circle. So that I have an idea, which 
perhaps was raised from the hints I received 
from without, but is not truly to be found 
there. If I see a tower at a great distance, 
which, according to the impressions made 
upon my material organs, seems little and 
round, I do not therefore conclude it to be 
either ; there is something within that reasons 
upon the circumstances of the appearance, 
and as it were commands my sense, and cor- 
rects the impression ; and this must be some- 
thing superior to matter, since a material soul 
is no otherwise impressible itself but as ma- 
terial organs are : instances of this kind are 
endless. If we know any thing of matter, v/e 
know that by itself it is a lifeless thing, inert 
and passive only ; and acts necessarily, or 
rather is acted, according to the laws of mo- 
tion and gravitation. This passiveness seems 
to be essential to it. And if we know any 
thing of ourselves, we knov; that vv^e are con- 
scious of our own existence and acts, that is, 
that we live ; that we have a degree of free- 
dom ; that we can move ourselves spontane- 
ously ; and, in short, that we can, in many 
instances, take off the effect of gravitaLion, 
and impress new motions upon our spirits, or 
give them new directions, only by a thought. 
Therefore, to make mere matter do all this is 
to change the nature of it ; to change death 



into life, incapacity of thinking into cogita- 
tivity, necessity into liberty. And to say that 
God may superadd a faculty of thinking, mov- 
ing itself, &.C, to matter, if by this be meant, 
that he may make matter to be the suppositum 
of these faculties, that substance in which 
they inhere, is the same in effect as to say, 
that God may superadd a faculty of thinking " 
to incogitativity, of acting freely to necessity, 
and so on. What sense is there in this ? And 
yet so it must be, while matter continues to be 
matter. 

That faculty of thinking, so much talked of 
by some as superadded to certain systems of 
matter, fitly disposed, by virtue of God's om- 
nipotence, though it be so called, must in 
reality amount to the same thing as another 
substance with the faculty of thinking. For 
a faculty of thinking alone will not make up 
the idea of a human soul, which is endued 
with many faculties ; apprehending, reflect- 
ing, comparing, judging, making deductions 
and reasoning, willing, putting the body in 
motion, continuing the animal functions by 
its presence, and giving life ; and therefore, 
whatever it is that is superadded, it must be 
something which is endued with all those 
other faculties. And v/hether that can be a 
faculty of thinking, and so these other facul- 
ties be only faculties of a faculty, or whether 
they must not all be rather the faculties of 
some substance, which, being by their own 
concession, superadded to matter, must be dif- 
ferent from it, we leave the unprejudiced to 
determine. If men would but seriously look 
into themselves, the soul would not appear to 
them as a faculty of the body, or a kind of 
appurtenance to it, but rather as some sub- 
stance, properly placed in it, not only to use 
it as an instrument, and act by it, but also to 
govern it, or the parts of it, as the tongue, 
hands, feet, &c, according to its own reason. 
For I think it is plain enough, that the mind, 
though it acts under great limitations, doth, 
however, in many instances govern the body 
arbitrarily; and it is monstrous to suppose 
this governor to be nothing but some fit dis- 
position or accident, superadded, of that mat- 
ter which is governed. A ship, it is true, 
would not be fit for navigation, if it v/as not 
built and provided in a pi-'oper manner; but 
then, when it has its proper form, and is be- 
come a system of materials fitly disposed, it is 
not this disposition that governs it : it is the 
man, that other substance, who sits at the 
helm, and they who manage the sails and 
tackle, that do this. So our vessels without 
a proper organization and confonnity of parts 
would not be capable of being acted as they 
are; but still it is not the shape, or modifica- 
tion, or any other accident, that can govern 
them. The capacity of being governed or 
used can never be the governor, applying and 
using that capacity. No, there must be at the 
helm something distinct, that commands the 
body, and without which the vessel would run 
adrift or rather sink. 

For the foregoing reasons it is plain, that 
matter cann-ot think, cannot be made to think. 



MAT 



629 



MAT 



But if a faculty of thinking can be superadded 
to a system of matter, without uniting an im. 
material substance to it ; yet a human body is 
not such a system, being plainly void of 
thought, and organized in such a manner as 
to transmit the impressions of sensible objects 
up to the brain, where the percipient, and that 
which reflects upon them, certainly resides ; 
and therefore that which tliere apprehends, 
thinks, and wills, must be that system of mat- 
ter to which a faculty of thinking is superad- 
ded. All the premises then well considered, 
judge whether, instead of saying that this in- 
habitant of our heads (the soul) is a system of 
matter to which a faculty of thinking is super- 
added, it might not be more reasonable to say, 
it is a thinking substance intimately united to 
some tine material vehicle, which- has its resi- 
dence in the brain. Though I understand 
not perfectly the manner how a cogitative 
and spiritual substance can be thus closely 
united to such a material vehicle, yet I can 
understand this union as well as how it can 
be united to the body in general, perhaps as 
how the particles of the body itself cohere 
together, and much better than how a think- 
ing faculty can be superadded to matter ; and 
beside, several phenomena may more easily be 
solved by this hypothesis ; which, in short, is 
this, that the human soul is a cogitative sub- 
stance united to a material vehicle ; that these 
act in conjunction, that which affects the one 
affecting the other ; that the soul is detained 
in the body till the habitation is spoiled, and 
their mutual tendency interrupted, by some 
hurt or disease, or by the decays and ruins of 
old age, or the like. 

But many a man, says Mr. Rennell, has 
maintained, that the brain has the power of 
thought, from the conclusions which his 
own experience, and, perhaps, his extended 
knowledge of the human frame, have enabled 
him to draw. He has observed the action of 
the brain, has watched the progress of its 
diseases, and has seen the close connection 
which exists between many of its afflictions, 
and the power of thought. But in this, as in 
most other cases, partial knowledge leads him 
to a more mistaken view of the matter than 
total ignorance. Satisfied with the correct- 
ness of his observations, he hastily proceeds 
to form his opinion, forgetting that it is not 
on the truth only, but on the whole truth, 
that he should rest his decision. By an acci- 
dental blow, the scull is beaten in, the brain is 
pressed upon, and the patient lies without 
sense or feeling. No sooner is the pressure 
removed tlian the power of thought immedi- 
ately returns. It is known, again, that the 
phenomena of fainting arise from a temporary 
deficiency of blood in the brain ; the vessels 
collapse, and tlie loss of sense immediately 
ensues. Restore the circulation, and the sense 
is as instantly recovered. On the contrary, 
when the circulation in the brain is too rapid, 
and inflammation of the organ succeeds, we 
find that delirium, frenzy, and other disorders 
of the mind arise in proportion to the inflam- 
matory action, by which they are apparently 



produced. It is observed, also, that when the 
stomach is disordered by an excess of wine, 
or of ardent spirits, the brain is also affected 
through the strong sy.pipathies of the nervous 
system, the intellect is disordered, and the 
man has no longer a rational command over 
himself or his actions. From these, ana 
other circumstances of a similar nature, it is 
concluded, that thought is a quality or function 
of the brain, that it is inseparable from the 
organ in which it resides, and as Mr. Law- 
rence, after the French physiologists, repre- 
sents it, that " medullary matter thinks." 

Now it must certainly be inferred from all 
these circumstances, that there is a close con- 
nection between the power of thinking and 
the brain ; but it by no means follows, that 
they are, therefore, one and the same. Allow- 
ing, however, for a moment, the justice of the 
inference, from the premises which have been 
stated, we must remember, that we have not 
as yet taken in all the circumstances of the 
case. We have watched the body rather than 
the mind, and that only in a diseased state ; 
and from this partial and imperfect view of 
the subject, our conclusions have been deduced. 
Let us take a healthy man in a sound sleep. 
He lies without sense or feeling, yet no part 
of his frame is diseased, nor is a single power 
of his life of vegetation suspended. All within 
his body is as active as ever. The blood cir- 
culates as regularly, and almost as rapidly, in 
the sleeping as in the waking subject. Di- 
gestion, secretion, nutrition, and all the func- 
tions of the life of vegetation proceed, and yet 
the understanding is absent. Sleep, therefore, 
is an affection of the mind, rather than of the 
body ; and the refreshment which the latter 
receives from it, is from the suspension of its 
active and agitating principle. Now if thought 
was identified with the brain, when the former 
was suspended, the latter would undergo a 
proportionate change. Memory, imagination, 
perception, and all the stupendous powers of 
the human intellect are absent ; and yet the 
brain is precisely the same, the same in every 
particle of matter, tlie same in every animal 
function. Of not a single organ is the action 
suspended. When, again, the man awakens, 
and his senses return, no change is produced 
by the recovery ; the brain, the organs of 
sense, and all the material parts of his frame 
remain precisely in the same condition. 
Dreaming may perhaps be adduced as an ex- 
ception to this statement. But it is first to 
be remarked, that this affection is by no means 
general. There are thousands who never 
dream at all, and thousands who dream only 
occasionally. Dreaming therefore, even though 
it w^ere to be allowed as an exception, could 
not be admitted to invalidate the rule. And 
if there be a circumstance, which to any phi- 
losophic mind will clearly intimate the inde- 
pendency of thought upon matter, it is the 
phenomenon of dreaming. Perception, that 
faculty of the soul which unites it with the 
external world, is then suspended, and the 
avenues of sense are closed. All communica- 
tion with outward objects being thus removed, 



MAT 



630 



MAT 



the soul is transported, as it were, into a world 
of its own creation. There appears to he an 
activity in the motions, and a perfection in 
the faculties, of the mind, when disengaged 
from the body, and disencumbered of its ma- 
terial organs. The slumber of its external 
perception seems to be but the awakening of 
every other power. The memory is far more 
keen, the fancy far more vived, in the dream- 
ing than in the waking man. Ideas rise in 
rapid succession, and are varied in endless 
combination ; so that the judgment, which, 
next to the perception, depends most upon 
external objects, is unable to follow the ima- 
gination in all its wild and unwearied flights. 
A better notion of the separate and independ- 
ent existence of the soul cannot be formed, 
than that which we derive from our observa- 
tions on the phenomena of dreaming. Again : 
when the mind is anxiously engaged in any 
train of thought, whether in company or alone, 
it frequently neglects the impressions made 
upon the external organs. When a man is 
deeply immersed in meditation, or eagerly en- 
gaged in a discussion, he often neither hears 
a third person when he speaks, nor observes 
what he does, nor even when gently touched 
does he feel the pressure. Yet there is no 
defect either in the ear, the eye, or the nerv- 
ous system ; the brain is not disordered, for if 
his mind were not so fully occupied, he would 
perceive every one of those impressions which 
he now neglects. In this case, therefore, as 
in sleep, the independence ©f mind upon the 
external organ is clearly shown. 

But let us take the matter in another point 
of view. We have observed the action of the 
brain upon thought, and have seen that when 
the former is unnaturally compressed, the 
latter is immediately disordered or lost. Let 
us now turn our attention to the action of 
thought upon the brain. A letter is brought 
to a man containing some afflicting intelli- 
gence. He casts his eye upon its contents, 
and drops down without sense or motion. 
What is the cause of this sudden affection ? 
It may be said that the vessels have collapsed, 
that the brain is consequently disordered, and 
that loss of sense is the natural consequence. 
But let us take one step backward, and inquire 
what is the cause of the disorder itself, the 
effects of which are thus visible. It is pro- 
duced by a sheet of white paper distinguished 
by a few black marks. But no one would be 
absurd enough to suppose, that it was the effect 
of the paper alone, or of the characters in- 
scribed upon it, unless those characters con. 
veyed some meaning to the understanding. It 
is thought then which so suddenly agitates and 
disturbs the brain, and makes its vessels to 
collapse. From this circumstance alone we 
discover the amazing influence of thought 
upon the external organ ; of that thought 
which we can neither hear, nor see, nor touch, 
which yet produces an affection of the brain 
fully equal to a blow, a pressure, or any other 
sensible injury. Now this very action of 
thought upon the brain clearly shows that the 
brain does not produce it, while the mutual 



influence which they possess over each other, 
as clearly shows that there is a strong con- 
nection between them. But it is carefully to 
be remembered, that connection is not identity. 
While we acknowledge then, on the one side, 
the mutual connection of the understanding 
and the brain, we must acknowledge, on the 
other, their mutual independence. The phe- 
nomena which we dailj observe lead us of 
necessity to the recognition of these two im^. 
portant principles. If then from the obser- 
vations which we are enabled to make on the 
phenomena of the understanding and af the 
brain, we are led to infer mutual independence, 
we shall find our conclusions still farther 
strengthened by a consideration of the sub- 
stance and composition of the latter. Not 
only is the brain a material substance, endowed 
with all those properties of matter which we 
have before shown to be inconsistent with 
thought, but it is a substance, which, in com- 
mon with the rest of our body, is undergoing 
a perpetual change. Indeed experiments and 
observations give us abundant reason for con- 
eluding that the brain undergoes within itself 
precisely the same change with the remainder 
of the body. A man will fall down in a fit of 
apoplexy, and be recovered ; in a few years he 
will be attacked by another, which will prove 
fatal. Upon dissection it will be found that 
there is a cavity formed by the blood effused 
from the ruptured vessel, and that a certain 
action had been going on, which gradually 
absorbed the coagulated blood. If then an 
absorbent system exists in the brain, and the 
organ thereby undergoes, in the course of a 
certain time, a total change, it is impossible 
that this flux and variable substance can be 
endowed with consciousness or thought. If 
the particles of the brain, either separately or 
in a mass, were capable of consciousness, then 
after their removal the consciousness which 
they produced must for ever cease. The con- 
sequence of which would be, that personal 
identity must be destroyed, and that no man 
could be the same individual being that he was 
ten years ago. But our common sense informs 
us, that as far as our imderstandmg and our 
moral responsibility are involved, we are the 
same individual beings that we ever were. If 
the body alone, or any substance subject to 
the laws of body, were concerned, personal 
identity might reasonably be doubted : but it 
is something beyond the brain that makes the 
man at every period of his life the same : it 
is consciousness, that, amidst the perpetual 
change of our material particles, unites every 
link of successive being in one indissoluble 
chain. The body may be gradually changed, 
and yet by the deposition of new particles, 
similar to those which absorption has removed, 
it may preserve the appearance of identity. 
But in ' consciousness there is real, not an 
apparent, individuality, admitting of no change 
or substitution. 

So inconsistent with reason is every attempt 
which has been made to reduce our thoughts 
to a material origin, and to identify our under- 
etanding with any part of our corporeal frame ! 



MAT 



631 



MAT 



The more carefully we observe the operation, 
both of the mind and of the brain, the more 
clearly we shall distinguish, and the more 
forcibly shall we feel, the independence of the 
one upon the other. We know that the brain 
is the organ or instrument by which the mind 
operates on matter, and we know that the brain 
again is the chain of communication between 
the mind and the material Avorld. That cer- 
tain disorders therefore in the chain should 
either prevent or disturb this communication 
is reasonably to be expected ; but nothing more 
is proved from thence than we knew before, 
namely, that the link is imperfect. And when 
that link is again restored, the mind declares 
its identity, by its memory of things which 
preceded the injury or the disease ; and where 
the recovery is rapid, the patient awakes as it 
were from a disturbed dream. Hov/ indeed 
the brain and the thinking principle are con- 
nected, and in what manner they mutually 
affect each other, is beyond the reach of our 
faculties to discover. We must, for the pre- 
sent, be contented with our ignorance of the 
cause, while from the effects we are persuaded 
both of their connection on the one hand, and 
of their independence on the other. 

MATTHEW, called also Levi, was the son 
of Alpheus, but probably not of that Alpheus 
who was the father of the Apostle James the 
less. He was a native of Galilee ; but it is 
not known in what city of that country he 
was born, or to what tribe of the people of 
Israel he belonged. Though a Jew, he was a 
publican or tax-gatherer under the Romans ; 
and his office seems to have consisted in col- 
lecting the customs due upon commodities 
which were carried, and from persons who 
passed, over the lake of Gennesareth. Our 
Saviour commanded him, as he v/as sitting at 
the place where he received these customs, to 
follow him. He immediately obeyed ; and 
from that time he became a constant attendant 
upon our Saviour, and was appointed one of 
the twelve Apostles. St. Matthew, soon after 
his call, made an entertainment at his house, 
at which were present Christ and some of his 
disciples, and also several publicans. After 
the ascension of our Saviour, he continued, 
with the other Apostles, to preach the Gospel 
for some time in Judea ; but as there is no 
farther account of him in any writer of the 
first four centuries, we must consider it as 
uncertain into what country he afterward 
went, and likewise in what manner and at 
what time he died. 

In the few writings which remain of the 
apostolical fathers, Barnabas, Clement of 
Rome, Hermas, Ignatius, and Polycarp, there 
are m.anifest allusions to several passages in 
St. Matthew's Gospel ; but the Gospel itself is 
not mentioned in any one of them. Papias, 
the companion of Polycarp, is the earliest 
author on record who has expressly named 
St. Matthew as the writer of a Gospel ; and 
we are indebted to Eusebius for transmitting 
to us this valuable testimony. The work itself 
of Papias is lost ; but the quotation in Euse- 
bius is such as to convince us that in the time of 



Papias no doubt was entertained of the genu- 
ineness of St. Matthew's Gospel. This Gos- 
pel is repeatedly quoted by Justin Martyr, but 
without mentioning the name of St. Matthew. 
It is both frequently quoted, and St. Matthew 
mentioned as its author, by Irenseus, Origen, 
Athanasius, Cyril, Epiphanius, Jerom, Chry. 
sostom, and a long train of subsequent writers. 
It was, indeed, universally received by the 
Christian church ; and we do not find that its 
genuineness was controverted by any early 
profane w]:iter. We may therefore conclude, 
upon the concurrent testimony of antiquity, 
that this Gospel is rightly ascribed to St. Mat. 
thew. It is generally agreed, upon the most 
satisfactory evidence, that St. Matthew's Gos- 
pel was the first which was written; but 
though this is asserted by many ancient au- 
thors, none of them, except Irenaeus and Eu- 
sebius, have said any thing concerning the 
exact time at which it was written. The only 
passage in which the former of these fathers 
mentions this subject, is so obscure, that no 
positive conclusion can be drawn from it ; Dr. 
Lardner, and Dr. Townson, understand it in 
very different senses ; and Eusebius, who lived 
a hundred and fifty years after Irenaeus, barely 
says, that Matthew wrote his Gospel just be- 
fore he left Judea to preach the religion of 
Christ in other countries ; but when that was, 
neither he nor any other ancient author in. 
forms us with certainty. The impossibility 
of settling this point upon ancient authority 
has given rise to a variety of opinions among 
moderns. Of the several dates assigned to this 
Gospel, which deserve any attention, the ear. 
liest is A. D. 38, and the latest, A. D. 64. 

It appears very improbable that the Chris, 
tians should be left any considerable number 
of years without a written history of our Sa. 
viour's ministry. It is certain that the Apos- 
ties, immediately after the descent of the Holy 
Ghost, which took place only ten days after 
the ascension of our Saviour into heaven, 
preached the Gospel to the Jews with great 
success ; and surely it is reasonable to suppose, 
that an authentic account of our Saviour's doc 
trines and miracles would very soon be com. 
mitted to writing, for the confirmation of those 
who believed in his divine mission, and for the 
conversion of others ; and, more particularly, 
to enable the Jews to compare the circum, 
stances of the birth, death, and resurrection 
of Jesus with their ancient prophecies relative 
to the Messiah ; and we may conceive that the 
Apostles would be desirous of losing no time 
in writing an account of the miracles which 
Jesus performed, and of the discourses which 
he delivered, because the sooner such an ac. 
count was published, the easier it would be to 
inquire into its truth and accuracy ; and, con- 
sequently, when these points were satisfactorily 
ascertained, the greater would be its weight and 
authority. We must own that these arguments 
are so strong in favour of an early publication 
of some history of our Saviour's ministry, that 
we cannot but accede to the opinion of Jones, 
Wetstein, and Dr. Owen, that St. Matthew')* 
Gospel was written A. D. 38 



MAT 



632 



MEA 



There has also of late been great difference 
of Opinion concerning the language in which 
this Gospel was originally written. Among 
the ancient fathers, Papias, as quoted by Eu- 
sebius, Irenseus, Origen, Cyril, Epiphanius, 
Chrysostom, and Jerom, positively assert that 
it was written by St. Matthew in Hebrew, that 
is, in the language then spoken in Pal^festine ; 
and indeed Dr. Campbell says, that this point 
was not controverted by any author for four- 
teen hundred years. Erasmus was one of the 
first who contended that the present Greek is 
the original ; and he has been followed by Le 
Clerc, Wetstein, Basnage, Whitby, Jortin, Hug, 
and many other learned men. On the other 
hand, Grotius, Du Pin, Simon, Walton, Cave, 
Hammond, Mill, Michaelis, Owen, and Camp, 
bell have supported the opinion of the ancients. 
In a question of this sort, which is a question 
of fact, the concurrent voice of antiquity is 
decisive. Though the fathers are unanimous 
in declaring that St. Matthew wrote his Gos- 
pel in Hebrew, yet they have not informed us 
by whom it was translated into Greek. No 
writer of the first three centuries makes any 
mention whatever of the translator ; nor does 
Eusebius : and Jerom tells us, that in his time 
it was not known who was the translator. It 
is, however, universally allowed, that the 
Greek translation was made very early, and 
that it was more used than the original. This 
last circumstance is easily accounted for. 
After the destruction of Jerusalem, the lan- 
guage of the Jews, and every thing which 
belonged to them, fell into great contempt ; 
and the early fathers, writing in Greek, would 
naturally quote and refer to the Greek copy 
of St. Matthew's Gospel, in the same manner 
as they constantly used the Septuagint version 
of the Old Testament. There being no longer 
any country in which the language of St. 
Matthew's original Gospel was commonly 
spoken, that original would soon be forgotten ; 
and the translation into Greek, the language 
then generally understood, would be substi- 
tuted in its room. This early and exclusive 
use of the Greek translation is a strong proof 
of its correctness, and leaves us but little rea- 
son toJament the loss of the original. 

" As the sacred writers," says Dr. Campbell, 
" especially the evangelists, have many quali- 
ties in common, so there is something in every 
one of them, which, if attended to, will be 
found to distinguish him from the rest. That 
which principally distinguishes St. Matthew, 
is the distinctness and particularity with which 
he has related many of our Lord's discourses 
and moral instructions. Of these, his sermon 
On the mount, his charge to the Apostles, his 
illustrations of the nature of his kingdom, and 
his prophecy on Mount Olivet, are examples. 
He has also wonderfully united simplicity and 
energy in relating the replies of his Master 
to the cavils of his adversaries. Being early 
called to the apostleship, he was an eye-wit- 
ness and ear-witness of most of the things 
which he relates ; and though I do not think 
it was the scope of any of these historians to 
adjust thejr narratives to the precise order of 



time wherein the events happened, there are 
some circumstances which incline me to think, 
that St. Matthew has approached at least as 
near that order as any of them." And this, 
we may observe, would naturally be the distin- 
guishing characteristic of a narrative, written 
very soon after the events had taken place. 
The most remarkable things recorded in St. 
Matthew's Gospel, and not found in any other, 
are the follov/ing : the visit of the eastern magi; 
our Saviour's flight into Egypt ; the slaughter 
of the infants at Bethlehem ; the parable of 
the ten virgins ; the dream of Pilate's wife ; 
the resurrection of many saints at our Saviour's 
crucifixion ; and the bribing of the Roman 
guard appointed to watch at the holy sepulchre 
by the chief priests and elders. 

MATTHIAS the Apostle was first in the 
rank of our Saviour's disciples, and one of 
those who continued with him from his bap. 
tism to his ascension. Acts i, 21, 22. It is very 
probable he was of the number of the seventy, 
as Clemens Alexandrinus and other ancients 
inform us. We have no particulars of his 
youth or education, for we ma,y reckon as 
nothing what is read in Abdias, or Obadiah, 
concerning this matter. After the ascension 
of our Lord, the Apostles retiring to Jerusalem 
in expectation of the effusion of the Holy 
Ghost, as had been promised, Peter proposed 
to fill up the place of Judas : to this the dis- 
ciples agreed. They then presented two per- 
sons, Joseph Barsabas, surn-imed Justus, and 
Matthias. The lot falling on Matthias, lie was 
from that time associated with the. eleven 
Apostles. The Greeks believe tliat Matthias 
preached and died at Colchis. 

MEASURE, that by which any thing is 
measured, or adjusted, or proportioned, Prov. 
XX, 10 ; Micah vi, 10. Tables of Scripture 
measures of length and capacity are found at 
the end of this volume. 

MEATS. The Hebrews had several kinds 
of animals which they refused to eat. Among 
domestic animals they only ate the cow, the 
sheep, and the goat ; the hen a^nd pigeon, 
among domestic birds ; beside several kinds of 
wild animals. To eat the flesh with the blood 
was forbidden them, much more to eat the 
blood without the flesh. We may form a 
judgment of their taste by what the Scripture 
mentions of Solomon's table, 1 Kings iv, 22, 
23. Thirty measures of the finest wheat flour 
were provided for it every day, and twice as 
much of the ordinary sort ; twenty stall-fed 
oxen, twenty pasture oxen, a hundred sheep, 
beside the venison of deer and roebucks, and 
wild fowls. It does not appear that the an. 
cient Hebrews were very nice about the sea- 
soning and dressing of their food. We find 
among them roast meat, boiled meat, and 
ragouts. They roasted the paschal lamb. 

At the first settling of the Christian church, 
very great disputes arose concerning the use 
of meats offered to idols. Some newly con- 
verted Christians, convinced that an idol was 
nothing, and that the distinction of clean and 
unclean creatures was abolished by our Saviour, 
ate indifferently of whatever was served up to 



MED 



633 



MED 



them, even among Pagans, without inquiring 
whether these meats had been first offered to 
idols. They took the same hberty in buying 
meat sold in the markets, not regarding whe- 
ther it was pure or impure according to the 
Jews, or whether it was that which had been 
offered to idols. But other Christians, weaker 
or less instructed, were offended at this 
liberty ; and thought to eat of nieat that had 
been once offered to" idols, was a kind of 
partaking of that wicked and sacrilegious 
offering. This diversity in opinion produced 
some scandal, to which St. Paul thought it 
behoved him to provide a suitable remedy, 
Rom. xiv, 20 ; Titus i, 15. He determined, 
therefore,- that all things were clean to such 
as were clean, and that an idol was nothing 
at all; that a man might safely-eat of what- 
ever was sold in the shambles, and though it 
might be a part of what had been previously 
offered in the temple, and there exposed to 
sale, he need not scrupulously inquire whence 
it came ; that if an unbeliever should invite a 
believer to eat with him, the believer might 
eat of whatever was set before him, &c, 1 Cor. 
X, 25-27. But at the same time he enjoins, 
that the law of charity and prudence should 
be observed ; that men should be cautious of 
scandalizing or offending weak minds ; that 
though all things may be lawful, yet all things 
are not always expedient ; that no one ought 
to seek his own accommodation or satisfac- 
tion, but that of his neighbour ; that if any 
one should say to us, " This has been offered 
to idols," we may not then eat of it, for the 
sake of him who gives the information ; not 
so much for fear of wounding our own con- 
science, but his ; in a word, that he who is 
weak, and thinks he may not indifferently use 
all sorts of food, should forbear, and eat herbs, 
rather than offend a brother. Rom. xiv, 1, 2. 
Yet it is certain, that generally Christians ab- 
stained from eating meat that had been offered 
to idols. 

MEDIA. It has been commonly thought 
that Media was peopled by the descendants of 
Madai, son of Japheth, Gen. x, 2. The Greeks 
maintain that this country took its name from 
Medus, the son of Medea. If, however, Madai 
and his immediate descendants did' not people 
this country, some of his posterity might have 
carried his name thither, since we find it so 
often given to Media, from the times of the 
Prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, and from the 
transportation of the ten tribes, and the de- 
struction of Samaria under Salmaneser, A. M. 
3283. Media Proper was bounded by Armenia 
and Assyria Proper on the west, by Persia on 
the east, by the Caspian provinces on the north, 
and by Susiana on the south. It was an ele- 
vated and mountainous country, and formed a 
kind of pass between the cultivated parts of 
eastern and western Asia. Hence, from its 
geographical position, and from the tempera- 
ture, verdure, and fertility of its climate. Media 
was one of the most important and interesting 
regions of Asia. Into this country the ten 
tribes who composed the kingdom of Israel 
were transplanted, in the Assyrian captivity, 



by Tiglatli-pileser and Salmaneser. The for- 
mer prince carried av/ay the tribes of Reuben, 
Gad, and half Manasseh, on the east side of 
Jordan, to Halah, and Habor, ' and Hara, and 
to the river of Gozan. His successor carried 
away the remaining seven tribes and a half, 
to the same places, which are said to be " cities . 
of the Medes, by the river of Gozan," 1 Chron. 
V, 2G ; 2 Kings xvii, 6. The geographical 
•position of Media was wisely cliosen for the 
distribution of the great body of the captives ; 
for, it was so remote, and so impeded and inter- 
sected with great mountains and numerous 
and deep rivers, that it would be extremely 
difficult for them to escape from this natural 
prison, and return to their own country. They 
would also be opposed in their passage through 
Kir, or Assyria Proper, not only by the native 
Assyrians, but also by their enemies, the Sy- 
rians, transplanted thither before them. The 
superior civilization of the Israelites, and their 
skill in agriculture and in the arts, would tend 
to civilize and improve those wild and barba- 
rous regions. 

MEDIATOR, one who stands in a middle 
office or capacity between two differing parties, 
and has a power of transacting every thing 
between them, and of reconciling them to each 
other. Hence a mediator between God and 
man is one whose office properly is to mediate 
and transact affairs between them relating to 
the favour of almighty God, and the duty and 
happiness of man. No sooner had Adam 
transgressed the law of God in paradise, and 
become a sinful creature, than the Almighty 
was pleased in mercy to appoint a Mediator 
or Redeemer, who, in due time should be born 
into the world, to make an atonement both for 
his transgression, and for all the sins of men. 
This is what is justly thought to be implied 
in the promise, that "the seed of the woman 
should bruise the serpent's head ;" that is, that 
there should some time or other be born, of 
the posterity of Eve, a Redeemer, who, by 
making satisfaction for the sins of men, and 
reconciling them to the mercy of almighty 
God, should by that means bruise the head of 
that old serpent, the devil, who had beguiled 
our first parents into sin, and destroy his em- 
pire and dominion among men. Thus it be- 
came a necessary part of Adam's religion after 
the fall, as well as that of his posterity after 
him, to worship God through hope in this 
Mediator. To keep up the remembrance of it 
God was pleased, at this time, to appoint sacri- 
fices of expiation or atonement for sin, to be 
observed through all succeeding generations, 
till the Redeemer himself should come, who 
was to make the true and only proper satisfac- 
tion and atonement. 

The particular manner in which Christ inter- 
posed in the redemption of the world, or his 
office as Mediator between God and man, is 
thus represented to us in the Scripture. He 
is the light of the world, John i ; viii, 12 ; the 
revealer of the will of God in the most eminent 
sense. He is a propitiatory sacrifice, Rom. 
iii, 25; V, 11 ; 1 Cor. v, 7; Eph. v, 2 ; 1 John 
ii, 2 ; Matt, xxvi, 28 ; John i, 29, 36 ; and, as 



MED 



634 



MED 



because of his peculiar offering, of a merit 
transcending' all others, he is styled our High 
Priest. He was also described beforehand in the 
Old Testament, under the same character of a 
priest, and an expiatory victim, Isa. liii ; Dan. 
ix, 24 ; Psa. ex, 4. And whereas it is objected, 
that all this is merely by way of allusion to the 
sacrifices of the Mosaic law, the Apostle on 
the contrary affirms, that " the law was a 
shadow of good things to come, and not the . 
very image of the things," Heb. x, 1 ; and that 
the "priests that offer gifts according to the 
law, serve unto the example and shadow of 
heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of 
God, when he was about to make the taber- 
nacle : for see, saith he, that thou make all 
things according to the pattern showed to 
thee in the mount," Heb. viii, 4, 5 ; that is, 
the Levitical priesthood was a shadow of the 
priesthood of Christ ; in like manner as the 
tabernacle made by Moses was according to 
that showed him in the mount. The priest- 
hood of Christ, and the tabernacle in the 
mount, were the originals ; of the former of 
which, the Levitical priesthood was a type ; 
and of the latter, the tabernacle made by Moses 
v\'as a copy. The doctrine of this epistle, then, 
plainly is, that the legal sacrifices were allu- 
sions to the great atonement to be made by 
the blood of Christ ; and not that it was an 
allusion to those. Nor can any thing be more 
express or determinate than the following 
passage : " It is not possible that the blood of 
bulls and of goats should take away sin. Where- 
fore when he [Christ] cometh into the world, 
he saith. Sacrifice and offering," that is, of 
bulls and of goats, "thou wouldest not, but a 
body hast thou prepared me. Lo, I come to 
do thy v/ill, O God ! By which will we are 
sanctified, through the offering of the body ef 
Jesus Christ once for all," Heb. x, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10. 
And to add one passage more of the like kind : 
"Christ was once offered to bear the sins of 
many ; and unto them that look for him shall 
he appear the second time, without sin ;" that 
is, without bearing sin, as he did at his first 
coming, by being an offering for it ; without 
having our iniquities again laid upon him ; 
without being any more a sin-offering : — " And 
unto them that look for him shall he appear 
the second time without sin unto salvation," 
Heb. ix, 28. Nor do the inspired writers at 
all confine themselves to this manner of speak- 
ing concerning the satisfaction of Christ; but 
declare that there was an efficacy in what he 
did and suffered for us, additional to and beyond 
mere instruction and example. This they de- 
clare with great variety of expression : that 
" he suffered for sins, the just for the unjust," 
1 Peter iii, 18 ; that " he gave his life a 
ransom," Matt, xx, 28 ; Mark x, 45 ; 1 Tim. 
ii, 6 ; that " we are bought with a price," 2 Pet. 
ji, 1 ; Rev. xiv, 4 ; 1 Cor. vi, 20 ; that " he 
redeemed us with his blood," "redeemed us 
from the curse of the law, being made a curse 
for us," 1 Peter i, 19 ; Rev. v, 9 ; Gal. iii, 13 ; 
that "he is our advocate, intercessor, and pro- 
pitiation," Heb. vii, 25 ; 1 John ii, 1, 2 ; that 



being thus made perfect, he became the author 
of salvation," Heb. ii, 10 ; v, 9 ; that " God was 
in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not 
imputing their trespasses unto them," 2 Cor. 
V, 19; Rom. v, 10; Eph. ii, 16; and that 
"through death he destroyed him that had 
the power of death," Heb. ii, 14. Christ, then, 
having thus "humbled himself, and become 
obedient to death, even the death of the cross ; 
God, also, hath highly exalted him, and given 
him a name which is above every name ;" hath 
commanded us to pray in his name ; consti- 
tuted him man's advocate and intercessor ; 
distributes his grace only through him, and in 
honour of his death ; hath given all things 
into his hands ; and hath committed all judg- 
ment unto him; "that at the name of Jesus 
every knee should bow," and "that all men 
should honour the Son even as they honour 
the Father," Phil, ii, 8-10 ; John iii, 35 ; v, 
22, 23. 

All the offices of Christ, therefore, arise out 
of his gracious appointment, and voluntary 
undertaking, to be " the Mediator between 
God and man;" between God offended, and 
man oftending ; and therefore under the penalty 
of God's violated la.w, which denounces death 
against every transgressor. He is the Prophet 
who came to teach us the extent and danger of 
our offences, and the means which God had ap- 
pointed for their remission. He is " the great 
High Priest of our profession," who, having 
" offered himself without spot to God," has 
entered the holiest to make intercession for 
us, and to present our prayers and services to 
God, securing to them acceptance by virtue of 
his own merits. He is King, ruling over the 
whole earth, for the maintenance and establish- 
ment and enlargement of his church, and for 
the punishment of those who reject his autho- 
rity ; and he is the final Judge of the quick and 
the dead, to whoni is given the power of dis- 
tributing the rewards and penalties of eter- 
nity. See Atonement and Jesus Christ. 

There is an essential connection between 
the mediation of our Lord and the covenant of 
grace. (See Covenant.) He is therefoi-e called 
the Mediator of " a better covenant," and of a 
"new covenant." The word usai-nii literally 
means " a person in the middle," between two 
parties ; and the fitness of there being a Me- 
diator of the covenant of grace arises from 
this, that the nature of the covenant implies that 
the two parties were at variance. Those who 
hold the Socinian principles understand a me- 
diator to mean nothing more than a messenger 
sent from God to give assurance of forgiveness 
to his offending creatures. Those who hold 
the doctrine of the atonement understand, that 
Jesus is called the Mediator of the new cove- 
nant, because he reconciles the two parties, by 
having appeased the wrath of God which man 
had deserved, and by subduing that enmity to 
God by which their hearts were alienated from 
him. It is plain that this is being a mediator 
in the strict and proper sense of the word ; 
and there seems to be no reason for resting in 
a meaning less proper and emphatical. This 



' he was made perfect, through sufferings ; and | sense of the term mediator coincides with the 



MED 



635 



MEL 



meaning of another phrase applied to him, 
Heb. vii, 22, where he is called KpelrTovos SiaBijKtjs 
eyyvog. If he is a Mediator in the last sense, 
then he is also 'iyyvo;, the sponsor, the surety, 
of the covenant. He undertook, on the part of 
the supreme Lawgiver, that the sins of those 
who repent shall be forgiven ; and he fulfilled 
this undertaking by offering, in their stead, a 
satisfaction to divine justice. He undertook, 
on their part, that they should keep the terms 
of the covenant ; and he fulfils this under- 
taking by the influence of his Spirit upon 
their hearts. 

If a mediator be essential to the covenant 
of grace, and if all who have been saved from 
the time of the first transgression were saved 
by that covenant, it follows that the Mediator 
of the new covenant acted in'that character 
before he was manifested in the flesh. Hence 
the importance of that doctrine respecting the 
person of Christ ; that all the communications 
which the Almighty condescended to hold with 
the human race were carried on from the be- 
ginning by this person ; that it is he who spake 
to the patriarclis, who gave the law by Moses, 
and who is called in the Old Testament, " the 
angel of the covenant." These views open to 
us the full importance of a doctrine which 
manifestly unites in one faith all who obtain 
deliverance from that condition ; for, accord- 
ing to this doctrine, not @nly did the virtue of 
the blood which he shed as a priest extend to 
the ages past before his manifestation, but all 
the intimations of the new covenant established 
in his blood were given by him as the great 
Prophet, and the blessings of the covenant 
were applied in every age by the Spirit, which 
he, as the King of his people, sends forth. The 
Socinians, who consider Jesus as a mere man, 
having no existence till he was born of Mary, 
necessarily reject the doctrine now stated : 
and the church of Rome, although they admit 
the divinity of our Saviour, yet, by the system 
which they hold with regard to the mediation 
of Christ, agree with the Socinians in throw- 
ing out of the dispensations of the grace of 
God that beautiful and complete unity which 
arises from their having been conducted by 
one person. The church of Rome considers 
Christ as Mediator only in respect of his human 
nature. As that nature did not exist till he was 
born of Mary, they do not think it possible 
that he could exercise the office of Mediator 
under the Old Testament ; and as they admit 
that a mediator is essential to the covenant of 
grace, they believe that those who lived under 
the Old Testament, not enjoying the benefit of 
his mediation, did not obtain complete remis- 
sion of sins. They suppose, therefore, that 
persons in former times who believed in a 
Saviour that was to come, and who obtained 
justification with God by this faith, were 
detained after death in a place of the infernal 
regions, which received the name of Ihnhus 
patrum; a kind of prison where they did not 
endure punishment, but remained without 
partaking of the joys of heaven, in earnest 
expectation of the coming of Christ, who, 
after suftering on the cross, descended to hell 



that he might set them free. This fanciful 
system has no other foundation than the slen- 
der support which it appears to receive from 
some obscure passages of Scripture that admit 
of another interpretation. Bat if Christ acted 
as the Mediator of the covenant of grace from 
the time of the first transgression, this system 
becomes wholly unnecessary; and we may 
believe, according to the general strain of 
Scripture, and what we account the analogy 
of faith, that all who " died in faith," since the 
world began, entered immediately after death 
into that "heavenly country which they de- 
sired." 

Although the members of the church of 
Rome adopt the language of Scripture, in which 
Jesus is styled the Mediator of the new cove, 
nant, they differ from all Protestants in acknow- 
ledging other mediators; and the use which 
they make of the doctrine that Christ is Media, 
tor only in his human nature is to justify their 
admitting those who had no other nature to 
share that oflnice with him. Saints, martyrs, 
and especially the Virgin Mary, are called me- 
diatores seen ndarii, because it is conceived that 
they hold this character under Christ, and that, 
by virtue of his mediation, the superfluity of 
their merits may be applied to procure accept, 
ance with God for our imperfect services. 
Under this character, supplications and solemn 
addresses are presented to them ; and the we. 
diatores secvndarii receive in the church of 
Rome, not only the honour due to eminent 
virtue, but a worship and homage which that 
church wishes to vindicate from the charge of 
idolatry, by calling it the same kind of inferior 
and secondary worship which is offered to the 
man Christ Jesus, who in his human nature 
acted as Mediator. In opposition to all this, 
we hold that Jesus Christ was qualified to act 
as Mediator by the union between his divine 
and his human nature ; that his divine nature 
gave an infinite value to all that he did, ren. 
dering it effectual for the purpose of reconcil- 
ing us to God, while the condescension by 
which he approached to man, in taking part 
of flesh and blood, fulfilled the gracious inten- 
tion for which a Mediator was appointed ; that 
the introducing any other mediator is unneces- 
sary, derives no warrant from Scripture, and 
is derogatory to the honour of him who is 
there called the " one Mediator between God 
and men ;" and that as the union of the divine 
to the human nature is the foundation of that 
worship which in Scripture is often paid to the 
Mediator of the new covenant, this worship 
does not afford the smallest countenance to 
the idolatry and will worship of those who 
ascribe divine honours to any mortal. 

MEGIDDO, a city of the tribe of Manas- 
seh, famous for the battle fought there be- 
tween Pharaoh-Necho and King Josiah, in 
which the latter was defeated and mortally 
wounded. Josh, xvii, 11 ; Judges i, 27 ; 2 Kings 
xxiii, 29. 

MELCHIZEDEK. When Abram returned 
from the slaughter of the Assyrians, in his 
way to Hebron, he was met at Shaveh, or 
King's Dale, afterward the valley of Jehosha- 



MEL 



636 



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pliat, between Jerusalem and Mount Olivet, 
by Melcliizedek, king of Salem, the most an- 
cient quarter of Jerusalem, a priest of the most 
high God, who gave him bread and wine, and 
blessed him in the name of the " most high 
God, Creator of heaven and earth ;" to whom 
Abram in return piously gave tithes, or the 
tenth part of all the spoils as an offering to 
God, lieb. vii, 2. This Canaanitish prince 
was early considered as a type of Christ in the 
Jewish church : " Thou art a priest for ever, 
after the order of Melchizedek," Psalm ex, 4. 
He resembled Christ in the following par- 
ticulars : 1. In his name, Melchizedek, "King 
of Righteousness ;" 2. In his city, Salem, 
"Peace ;" 3. In his offices of king and priest 
of the most high God ; and 4. In the omission 
of the names of his parents and genealogy, 
the time of his birth and length of his life, ex- 
hibiting an indefinite reign and priesthood, ac- 
cording to the Apostle's exposition, Heb. vii, 5. 
The import of this is, that he came not to his 
office by right of primogeniture, (which im- 
plies a genealogy,) or by the way of succession, 
but was raised up and immediately called of 
Gbd to it. In that respect Christ is said to be 
a priest after his " order." Then, again, that 
he had no successor, nor could have ; for there 
was no law to constitute an order of succes- 
sion, so that he was a priest only upon an ex- 
traordinary call. In this respect our Lord's 
priesthood answers to his, because it is wholly 
in himself, who has no successor. An infi- 
nite number of absurd opinions have been at 
different times held respecting this mystic 
personage, as that he was Shem, or Ham ; or, 
among those who think he was more than 
human, that he was the Holy Ghost, or the 
Son of God himself; absurdities which are too 
obsolete to need refutation. 

MELITA, now called Malta, an island in 
the African or Mediterranean Sea, between 
Africa and Sicily, twenty miles in length and 
twelve in breadth, formerly reckoned a part 
of Africa, but now belonging to Europe. St. 
Paul suffered shipwreck upon the coast of 
Malta, Acts xviii, 1-3. In the opinion of Dr. 
Hales, the island where this happened was not 
Malta, but Meleda. His words are: "That 
this island was Meleda, near the Iliyrian coast, 
not Malta, on the southern coast of Sicily, 
may appear from the following considerations : 
1. It lies confessedly in the Adriatic Sea, but 
Malta a considerable distance from it. 2. It 
lies nearer the mouth of the Adriatic than any 
other island of that sea ; and would of course, 
be more likely to receive the wreck of any 
vessel driven by tempests toward that quarter. 
And it lies north-west by north of the south- 
west promontory of Crete ; and came nearly 
in the direction of a storm from the south-east 
quarter. 3. An obscure island called Melite, 
whose inhabitants were ' barbarous,' was not 
applicable to the celebrity of Malta at that 
time, which Cicero represents as abounding 
in curiosities and riches, and possessing a re- 
markable manufacture of the finest linen ; and 
Diodorus Siculus more fully : ' Malta is fur- 
nished with many and very good harbours, 



and the inhabitants are very rich ; for it is full 
of all sorts of artificers, among whom there 
are excellent weavers of fine linen. Their 
houses are very stately and beautiful, adorned 
with graceful eaves, and pargetted with white 
plaster. The inhabitants are a colony of Phe- 
nicians, who, trading as merchants, as far as 
the western ocean, resorted to this place on 
account of its commodious ports and con- 
venient situation for maritime commerce ; and 
by the advantage of this place, the inhabitants 
frequently became famous both for their wealth 
and their merchandise.' 4. The circumstance 
of the viper, or venomous snake, which fas- 
tened on St. Paul's hand, agrees with the damp 
and woody island of Meleda, affording shelter 
and proper nourishment for such, but not with 
the dry androcky island of Malta, in which there 
are no serpents now, and none in the time of 
Pliny. 5. The disease with which the father 
of Publius was affected, dysentery combined 
with fever, probably intermittent, might well 
suit a country woody and damp, and probably, 
for want of draining, exposed to the putrid 
effluvia of confined moisture ; but was not 
likely to affect a dry, rocky, and remarkably 
healthy island like Malta." 

MELON, ainiO^N, Numbers xi, 5, a luscious 
fruit so well known that a description of it 
would be superfluous. It grows to great per- 
fection, and is highly esteemed in Egypt, es- 
pecially by the lower class of people, during 
the hot months. The juice is peculiarly cool- 
ing and agreeable in that sultry climate, where 
it is justly pronounced one of the most deli- 
cious refreshments that nature, amidst her 
constant attention to the wants of man, affords 
in the season of violent heat. There are va- 
rieties of this fruit; but that more particularly 
referred to in the text must be the water melon. 
It is cultivated, says Hasselquist, on the banks 
of the Nile, in the rich clayey earth, which 
subsides during the inundation. This serves 
the Egyptians for meat, drink, and physic. It 
is eaten in abundapce during the season, even 
by the richer sort of people ; but the common 
people, on whom Providence has bestowed 
nothing • but poverty and patience, scarcely 
eat any thing but these, and account this the 
best time of the year, as they are obliged to 
put up with worse fare at other seasons. This 
fruit sometimes serves them for drink, the 
juice refreshing these poor creatures, and they 
have less occasion for v/ater than if they v/ere 
to live on more substantial food in this burn- 
ing climate. This well explains the regret 
expressed by the Israelites for the loss of this 
fruit, whose pleasant liquor had so often 
quenched their thirst, and relieved their weari- 
ness in their servitude, and which would have 
been exceedingly grateful in a dry scorching 

MEMPHIS. See Noph. 

MENNONITES, a society of Baptists in 
Holland, so called from Menno Simon of 
Friesland, who lived in the sixteenth century. 
He was originally a Romish priest, but joined 
a party of tlie Anabaptists, and, becoming their 
leader, cured Ihem of many extravagancies, 



MEN 



637 



MES 



and reduced the system to consistency and 
moderation. The Mennonites maintain that 
practical piety is tlie essence of religion, and 
that the surest mark of the true church is the 
sanctity of its members. They plead for uni- 
versal toleration in religion, and debar none 
from their societies who lead pious lives, and 
own the Scriptures for the word of God. They 
teach that infants are not the proper subjects 
of baptism ; that ministers of the Gospel ought 
to receive no salary. They also object to the 
terms person and trinity, as not consistent 
with the simplicity of the Scriptures. They 
are, like the Society of Friends, uttely averse 
to oaths and war, and to capital punishments, 
as contrary to the spirit of the Christian dis- 
pensation. In their private meetings every 
one has the liberty to speak, to expound the 
Scriptures, and to pray. They assemble, or 
used to do so, twice every year from all parts 
of Holland, at Rynsbourg, a village two leagues 
from Leyden, at which time they receive the 
communion, sitting at a table in the manner 
of the Independents ; but in their form of dis- 
cipline they are said more to resemble the 
Presbyterians. The ancient Mennonites pro- 
fessed a contempt of erudition and science, 
and excluded all from their communion who 
deviated in the least from the most rigorous 
rules of simplicity and gravity : but this primi- 
tive austerity is greatly diminished in their 
most considerable societies. Those who ad- 
here to their ancient discipline are called 
Flemings or Flandriaus. The whole sect were 
formerly called Water! andians, from the dis. 
trict in which they lived. The Mennonites in 
Pennsylvania do not baptize by immersion, 
though they administer the ordinance to none 
but adult persons. Their common method is 
this : The person to be baptized kneels, the 
minister holds his hands over him, into which 
the deacon pours water, so that it runs on the 
head of the baptized ; after which follow impo- 
sition of hands and prayer. 

Divine worship is conducted among the 
Mennonites much as among the churches of 
the reformed, or among the Dissenters in Eng- 
land, only with this peculiarity, that collec- 
tions are made every Sabbath day, sometimes 
in the middle of the sermon, in two bags, one 
for the poor, and the other for the expenses of 
public worship. They have a Mennonite col- 
lege at Amsterdam, and the "ministers are 
chosen in some places by the congregation, 
and in others by the elders only. As they re- 
ject infant baptism, they refuse to commune 
at the Lord's table with any who administer 
the ordinance to children, unless resprinkled. 
They train up catechumens under their minis- 
ters, and, about the age of sixteen, baptize 
them, taking from the candidate, before the 
minister and elders, an account of his repent- 
ance and faith. In some parts of North Hol- 
land, young people are baptized on the day of 
their marriage. They baptize by pouring or 
sprinkling thrice. 

With respect to their confession of faith, as 
it is stated by one of their ministers, Mr. Gan, 
of liyswick, they believe that in the fall man 



lost his innocence, and that all his posterity 
are born with a natural propensity to evil, and 
with fleshly inclinations, and are exposed to 
sickness and death. The posterity of Adam 
derive no moral guilt from his fall : sin is per- 
sonal, and the desert of punishment cannot be 
inherited. The incarnate Son of God is set 
forth to us as inferior to the Father, not only 
in his state of humiliation, but in that of his 
exaltation, and as subject to the Father : he is 
nevertheless an object of religious trust and 
confidence in like manner as the Father, 
With respect to the number of Mennonites in 
Holland, they are calculated at only thirty 
thousand, including children, and form about 
a hundred and thirty churches. In the United 
States of America, it appears, there are more 
than two hundred Mennonite churches, some 
of which contain as many as three hundred 
members in each. They are mostly the de- 
scendants of the Mennonites who emigrated 
in great numbers from Paltz. 

MERCY SEAT, IXa^/jpiov, propitiatory. This 
word is properly an adjective, agreeing with 
iiTiBeiia, a lid, understood, which is expressed 
by the LXX, Exod. xxv, 17. In that version, 
iXas'Tipiov generally answers to the Hebrew 
miDD, from the verb -|3D, to co,ver, expiate, and 
was the lid or covering of the ark of the cove- 
nant, made of pure gold, on and before which 
the high priest was to sprinkle the blood of 
the expiatory sacrifices on the great day of 
atonement, and where God promised to meet 
his people, Exod. xxv, 17, 22 ; xxix, 42 ; xxx, 
36 ; Lev. xvi, 2, 14. St. Paul, by applying 
this name to Christ, Rom. iii, 25, assures us 
that he is the true mercy seat, the reality of 
what the mD3 represented to the ancient be- 
lievers ; by him our sins are covered or expi- 
ated, and through him God communes with 
us in mercy. The mercy seat also represents 
our approach to God through Christ ; we come 
to the "throne of grace ;" which is only a 
variation of the term "mercy seat." 

MEROM, Waters of, or lacvs Samecho- 
nitis : the most northern and the smallest of 
the three lakes which are supplied by the 
waters of the Jordan. Indeed the numerous 
branches of this river, descending from the 
mountains, unite in this small piece of water; 
out of which issues the single stream which 
may be considered as the Jordan Proper. It 
is at present called the lake of Houle ; and is 
situated in a hollow or valley, about twelve 
miles wide, called the Ard Houle, formed by 
the Djebel Heish on the west, a.nd Djebel Safat 
on the east, the two branches into which the 
mountains of Hasbeya, or Djebel Esheikh, the 
ancient Herrnon, divides itself about fifteen 
miles to the north. 

MEROZ, a place in the neighbourhood of 
the brook Kishon, whose inhabitants, refusing 
to come to the assistance of their brethren, 
v/hen they fought with Sisera, were put under 
an anathema. Judges v, 23. 

MESHECH, Country of. Meshcch was 
the sixth son of Japhcth, and is generally 
Tnentioned in conjunction with his brother 
Tubal ; and both were first ycated in the north- 



MES 



638 



MES 



eastern angle of Asia Minor, from the shores 
of the Euxine, along to the south of Caucasus ; 
where were the Montes Moschisi, and where, 
in after times, were the Iberi, Tibareni, and 
Moschi ; near to whom also, or mingled with 
them, were the Chalybes, who, it is probable, 
derived their Grecian appellation from the 
general occupation of the families of Tubal 
and Meshech, as workers in brass and iron, 
as the inhabitants of the same countries have 
been in all ages, for the supply of Tyre, Persia, 
Greece, and Armenia. There appears aJso to 
have been in the same neighbourhood, namely, 
in Armenia, a river and country termed Rosh : 
for so, Bochart says, the river Araxes is called 
by the Arabs ; and that there was a people in 
the adjoining country called Rhossi. That 
passage in Ezekiel, xxxviii, also, which in our 
Bibles is rendered "the chief prince of Me- 
shech and Tubal," is, in the Septuagint, " the 
prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal." These 
Rossi and Moschi, who were neighbours in 
Asia, dispersed their colonies jointly over the 
vast empire of Russia ; and preserve their 
names still in those of Russians and Musco- 
vites. 

MESOPOTAMIA, an extensive province 
of Asia, the Greek name of which denotes 
" between the rivers," and on this account 
Strabo says, Srt KslraL fiera^v tov Eu0pars kuI tov 
Tlypog, that " it was situated between the Eu- 
phrates and the Tigris." In Scripture this 
country is called Aram, and Aramea. But as 
Aram also signifies Syria, it is denominated 
Aram Naharaim, or the Syria of the rivers. 
This province, which inclines from the south- 
east to the north-west, commenced at 33° 20' 
N. lat., and terminated near 37° 30' N. lat. 
Toward the south it extended as far as the 
bend formed by the Jordan at Cunaxa, and to 
the wall of Semiramis which separated it from 
Messene. Toward the north, it comprehended 
part of Taurus and the Mesius, which lay be- 
tween the Euphrates and the Tigris. The 
modern name, given by the Arabs to this part, 
is of the same import with the ancient appel- 
lation ; they call it "isle," or, in their language, 
Al-Dgezera. In this northern part is found 
Osrhoene, which seems to have been the same 
place with Anthemusir. The northern part of 
Mesopotamia is occupied by chains of mount- 
ains passing from north-west to south-east, in 
the situation of the rivers. The central parts 
of these mountains were called Singarae Mon- 
ies. The principal rivers were Chaboras, (Al 
Kabour,) which commenced at Charrae, (Har- 
ran,) east of the mountains, and discharged 
itself into the Euphrates at Circesium (Kirki- 
sieh ;) the Mygdonius, (Hanali,) the source of 
which was near Nisibis, and its termination in 
the Chaboras. The principal towns in the 
eastern part along the Tigris and near it, are 
Nisibis, (Nisibin,) Bezabde, (Zabda,) Singora, 
(Sindja,) Labbana on the Tigris, (Mosul,) 
Hatru, (Harder,) and Apamea-Mescnes. At 
some distance to the south, upon the Tigris 
and on the borders of Mesopotamia, was the 
town of Antiochia, near which commenced 
the wall that passed from the Tigris to the 



Euphrates, under the name of Murus Media^ 
or Semiramidis. In the western part were 
Edessa, called also Callin-Rhae, (Orfa,) Charrae, 
(Harran,) Nicephorium, (Racca,) Circesium 
at the mouth of the Chaboras, Anatho, (Anah,) 
Neharda, (Hadith Unnour,) upon the right of 
the Euphrates. There are several other towns 
of less importance. According to Strabo, this 
country was fertile in vines, and afforded 
abundance of good wine. According to 
Ptolemy, Mesopotamia had on the north a 
part of Armenia, on the west the Euphrates 
on the side of Syria, on the east the Tigris 
on the borders of Assyria, and on the south 
the Euphrates which joined the Tigris. Me- 
sopotamia was a satrapy under the kings of 
Syria. 

In the earliest accounts we have of this 
country, subsequent to the time of Abraham, 
it was subject to a king, called Cushan-Risha- 
thaim, then perhaps the most powerful poten- 
tate of the east, and the first by whom the 
Israelites were made captive, which happened 
soon after the death of Joshua, and about 
B. C. 1400, Judges iii, 8. The name of this 
king bespeaks him a descendant of Nimrod ; 
and it was probably of the Lower Mesopota- 
mia only, or Babylonia, of which he was 
sovereign ; the northern parts being in the 
possession of the Arameans. Tliis is implied 
in the history of Abraham ; who, when ordered 
to depart from his country, namely, Chaldea, 
in the southern part of Mesopotamia, removed 
to Charran, still in Mesopotamia, but beyond 
the boundary of the Chaldees, and in the ter- 
ritory of Aram. About four hundred years 
after Cushan-Rishathaim, we find the northern 
parts of Mesopotamia in the hands of the 
Syrians of Zobah ; as we are told, in 2 Sam. x, 
that Hadarezer, king of Zobah, after his de- 
feat by Joab, " sent and brought out the 
Syrians that were beyond the river" Euphra- 
tes. The whole country was afterward seized 
by the Assyrians ; to whom it pertained till 
the dissolution of their empire, when it was 
divided between the Medes and the Baby- 
lonians. It subsequently formed a part of the 
Medo-Persian, second Syrian or Macedonian, 
and Parthian empires, as it does at the present 
day of the modern Persian. The southern 
part of Mesopotamia answers nearly to the 
country anciently called the land of Shinar; 
to which the Prophet Daniel, i, 2, refers, and 
Zechariah v, 11. 

" On the fifth or sixth day after leaving 
Aleppo," says Campbell in his Overland Jour- 
ney to India, "we arrived at the city of Diar- 
beker, the capital of the province of that 
name ; having passed over an extent of country 
of between three and four hundred miles, most 
of it blessed with the greatest fertility, and 
abounding with as rich pastures as I ever be- 
held, covered with numerous herds and flocks. 
The air was charmingly temperate in the day 
time, but, to my feeling, extremely cold at 
night. Yet notwithstanding the extreme fer 
tility of this country, the bad administration 
of government, conspiring with the indolence 
of the inhabitants, leaves it unpeopled and ur.- 



MES 



639 



MES 



cultivated. Diaibeker Proper, called also 
Mesopotamia from its lying between two 
famous rivers, and by Moses called Padana- 
RAM, that is, ' the fruitful Syria,'' abounds with 
corn, wine, oil, fruits, and all the necessaries 
of life. It is supposed to have been the seat 
of the earthly paradise ; and all geographers 
agree that here the descendants of Noah set- 
tled immediately after the flood. To be tread- 
ing that ground which Abraham trod, where 
Nahor the father of Rebecca lived, where holy 
Job breathed the pure air of piety and sim- 
plicity, and where Laban the father-in-law of 
Jacob resided, was to me a circumstance pro- 
ductive of delightful sensations. As I rode 
along, I have often mused upon the contempt- 
ible stratagems to which I was reduced, in 
order to get through this country, for no other 
reason than because I was a Christian ; and I 
could not avoid reflecting with sorrow on the 
melancholy effects of superstition, and regret, 
ting that this fine tract of country, which 
ought to be considered above all others as the 
universal inheritance of mankind, should now 
be cut off" from all except a horde of sense- 
less bigots, barbarous fanatics, and inflexible 
tyrants." 

MESSIAH. The Greek word Xpi^bi, from 
whence comes Christ and Christian, exactly 
answers to the Hebrew Messiah, which signi- 
fies him that hath received unction, a prophet, 
a king, or a priest. See Jesus Christ. 

Our Lord warned his disciples that false 
messiahs should arise. Matt, xxiv, 24 ; and the 
event has verified the prediction. No less 
than twenty-four false Christs have arisen in 
different places and at different times : Caziba 
was the first of any note who made a noise in 
the world. Being dissatisfied with the state 
of things under Adrian, he set himself up as 
the head of the Jewish nation, and proclaimed 
himself their long expected messiah. He was 
one of those banditti that infested Judea, and 
committed all kinds of violence against the 
Romans ; and had become so powerful that he 
was chosen king of the Jews, and by them 
acknowledged their messiah. However, to 
facilitate the success of this bold enterprise, 
he changed his name from Caziba, which it 
was at first, to that of Barchocheba, alluding 
to the star foretold by Balaam ; for he pre- 
tended to be the star sent from heaven to 
restore his nation to its ancient liberty and 
glory. He chose a forerunner, raised an 
army, was anointed king, coined money in. 
scribed with his own name, and proclaimed 
himself messiah and prince .'of the Jewish 
nation. Adrian raised an army, and sent it 
against him; he retired into a town called 
Bither, where he was besieged. Barchocheba 
was killed in the siege, the city was taken, 
and a dreadful havoc succeeded. The Jews 
themselves allow, that, during this short war 
against the Romans in defence of this false 
messiuh, they lost five or six hundred thousand 
souls. This was in the former part of the 
second century. In the reign of Theodosius 
the younger, A. D. 434, another impostor 
arose, called Moses Cretensis. He pretended 



to be a second Moses, sent to deliver the Jews 
who dwelt in Crete, and promised to divide 
the sea, and give them a safe passage through 
it. Their delusion proved so strong and uni- 
versal, that they neglected their lands, houses, 
and other concerns, and took only so much 
with them as they could conveniently carry. 
And on the day appointed, this false Moses, 
having led them to the top of a rock, men, 
women, and children threw themselves head- 
long down into the sea, without the least 
hesitation or reluctance, till so great a number 
of them were drowned as opened the eyes of 
the rest, and made them sensible of the cheat. 
They then began to look for their pretended 
leader ; but he had disappeared, and escaped 
out of their hands. In the reign of Justin, 
about A. D. 520, another impostor appeared, 
who called himself the son of Moses. His 
name was Dunaan. He entered into a city of 
Arabia Felix, and there he greatly oppressed 
the Christians ; but he was taken prisoner, 
and put to death by Elesban, an Ethiopian 
general. The Jews and Samaritans rebelled 
against the Emperor Justinian, A. D. 529, 
and set up one Julian for their king, and 
account^ him the messiah. The emperor- 
sent an army against them, killed great num- 
bers of them, took their pretended messiah 
prisoner, and immediately put him to death. 
In the time of Leo Isaurus, about A. D. 721, 
arose another false messiah in Spain ; his 
name was Serenus. He drew great numbers 
after him, to their no small loss and disap- 
pointment ; but all his pretensions came to 
nothing. The twelfth century was fruitful in 
messiahs. About A. D. 1137, there appeared one 
in France, who was put to death, and numbers 
of those who followed him. In A. D. 1138, 
the Persians were disturbed with a Jew, wha 
called himself the messiah. He collected a 
vast army ; but he too was put to death, and 
his followers treated with great inhumanity. A 
false messiah stirred up the Jews at Corduba 
in Spain, A. D. 1157. The wiser and better 
sort looked upon him as a madman, but the 
great body of the Jew^s in tiie nation believed 
in him. On this occasion nearly all the Jews 
in Spain were destroyed. Another false mes- 
siah arose in the kingdom of Fez, A. D. 1167, 
which brought great troubles and persecutions 
upon the Jews that were scattered throughout 
that country. In the same year, an Arabian 
professed to be the messiah, and pretended to 
work miracles. When search was made for 
him, his followers fled, and he was brought 
before the Arabian king. Being questioned 
by him, he replied, that he was a prophet sent 
from God. The king then asked him what 
sign he could show to confirm his mission. 
" Cut off" my head," said he, " and I will return 
to life again." The king took him at his 
word, promising to believe him if his predic- 
tion was accomplished. The poor wretch, 
however, never came to life again, and the 
cheat was sufficiently discovered. Those who 
had been deluded by him were grievously pun. 
ished, and the nation condemned to a very 
heavy fine. Not long afler this, a Jew who dwelt 



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beyond the Euphrates, called himself the mes- 
siah, and drew vast multitudes of people after 
him. He gave this for a sign of it, that he 
had been leprous, and had been cured in the 
course of one night. He, like the rest, 
perished, and brought great persecution on 
his countrymen. A magician and false christ 
arose in Persia, A. D. 1174, who seduced 
many of the common people, and brought the 
Jews into great tribulation. Another of these 
impostors arose, A. D. 1176, in Moravia, who 
was called David Almusser. He pretended he 
could make himself invisible ; but he was soon 
taken and put to death, and a heavy fine laid 
upon the jews. A famous cheat and rebel 
exerted himself in Persia, A. D. 1199, called 
David el David. He was a man of learning, 
a great magician, and pretended to be the 
messiah. He raised an army against the king, 
but was taken and imprisoned; and, having 
made his escape, was afterward retaken and 
beheaded. Vast numbers of the Jews were 
butchered for taking part with this impostor. 
Rabbi Lemlem, a German Jew of Austria, 
declared himself a forerunner of the messiah, 
A. D. 1500, and pulled down his own oven, 
promising his brethren that they should bake 
their bread in the holy land next year. A false 
Christ arose in the East Indies, A. D. 1615, 
and was greatly followed by the Portuguese 
Jews who are scattered over that country. 
Another in the Low Countries declared him. 
self to be the messiah of the family of David, 
and of the line of Nathan, A. D. 1624. He 
promised to destroy Rome, and to overthrov/ 
the kingdom of antichrist, and the Turkish 
empire. In A. D. 1666, appeared the false 
messiah Sabatai Tzevi, who made a great 
noise, and gained a great number of proselytes. 
He was born at Aleppo, and imposed on the 
Jews for a considerable time ; but afterward, 
with a view of saving his life, he turned Mo- 
hammedan, and was at last beheaded. The last 
false christ that made any considerable num- 
ber of converts was one rabbi Mordecai, a 
Jew of Germany : he appeared, A. D. 1682. 
It was not long before he was found out to be 
an impostor, and was obliged to flee from Italy 
to Poland to save his life :'what became of him 
afterward does not seem to be recorded. 

METEMPSYCHOSIS, the doctrine of the 
transmigration of souls into other bodies. 
This tenet has been attributed to the sect 
of the Pharisees. Josephus, who was himself 
a Pharisee, gives this account of their doctrine 
in these points : "Every soul is immortal ; those 
of tlie good only enter into another body, but 
those of the bad are tormented with everlasting 
punishment." From whence it has been pretty 
generally concluded, that the resurrection they 
held was only a Pythagorean one, namely, the 
transmigration of the soul into another body ; 
from which they excluded all that were no- 
toriously wicked, who were doomed at once to 
eternal punishment; but their opinion was, 
that those who were guilty only of lesser 
crimes were punished for them in the bodies 
into which their souls were next sent. It is 
also supposed, that it was upon tliis nation the 



disciples asked our Lord, "Did this man sm, 
or his parents, that he was born blind ?" John 
ix, 2 ; and that some said, Christ was " John 
the Baptist, some Elias, others Jeremias, or 
one of the prophets," Matt, xvi, 14. The 
transmigration of souls into other bodies was 
undoubtedly the opinion of the Pythagoreans 
and Platonists, and was embraced by some 
among the Jews ; as by the author of the Book 
of Wisdom, who says, that "being good, he 
came into a body undefiled," viii, 20. Never- 
theless, it is questioned by some persons, 
whether the words of Josephus, before quoted, 
are a sufficient evidence of this doctrine of the 
metempsychosis being received by the whole 
sect of the Pharisees ; for "passing into another 
or different body," may only denote its receiv- 
ing a body at the resurrection ; which will be 
anoijier, not in substance, but in quality ; as 
it is said of Christ at his transfiguration, to 

eiSos Tov apoauiirov ahrov ETcpov, "the fashion of 

his countenance was" another, or,, as we ren- 
der it, was " altered," Luke ix, 29. As to the 
opinion which some entertained concerning 
our Saviour, that he was either John the Bap- 
tist, or Elias, or Jeremias, or one of the pro- 
phetSj Matt, xvi, 14, it is not ascribed to the 
Pharisees in particular, and if it were, one 
cannot see how it could be founded on the doc- 
trine of the metempsychosis ; since the soul 
of Elias, now inhabiting the body of Jesus, 
would no more make him to be Elias, than 
several others had been, in whose bodies the 
soul of Elias, according to this doctrine, is 
supposed to have dwelt since the death of that 
ancient prophet, near a thousand years before. 
Beside, how was it possible any person that 
saw Christ, who did not appear to be less than 
thirty years old, should, according to the notion 
of the metempsychosis, conceive him to be 
John the Baptist, who had been so lately be- 
headed ? Surely this apprehension must be 
grounded on the supposition of a proper 
resurrection. It was probably, therefore, up- 
on the same account, that others took him to 
be Elias, and others Jeremias. Accordingly, 
St. Luke expresses it thus : " Others say, that 
one of the old prophets is risen from the dead," 
Luke ix, 19. It may farther be observed, that 
the doctrine of the resurrection, which St. 
Paul preached, was not a present metempsy- 
chosis, but a real future resurrection, which 
he calls "the hope and resurrection of the 
dead," Acts xxiii, 6. This he professed_ as a 
Pharisee, and for this profession the partisans 
of that sect vindicated him against the Saddu- 
cees. Acts xxiii, 7-9. Upon the whole, there- 
fore, it appears most reasonable to adopt the 
opinion of Reland, though in opposition to the 
sentiments of many other learned men, that 
the Pharisees held the doctrine of the resurrec- 
tion in a proper sense. 

METHODISTS, a name given in derision 
at different times to religious persons and par- 
ties which have appeared in this country ; but 
which now principally designates the follow- 
ers of the Rev. .lohn Wesley. The socie- 
ties raised up by the instrumentality of tlie 
Rev. George Whiteiield were also called Mc 



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thodists, and in Wales especially are still 
known by that appellation. For distinction's 
sake, therefore, and also because a number of 
smaller sects have broken off from the Method- 
ist societies since Mr. Wesley's death, the 
religious body which he raised up and left or- 
ganized under his rules, have of late been 
generally denominated the Wesleyan Method- 
ists, In the year 1729, Mr. John Wesley, 
being then fellow of Lincoln College, began to 
spend some evenings in reading the Greek 
Testament with Charles Wesley, student, and 
Mr. Morgan, commoner of Christ Church, and 
Mr. Kirkham, of Merton College. Not long 
after, two or three of the pupils of Mr. John 
Wesley, and one pupil of Mr. Charles Wesley, 
obtained leave to attend these meetings. They 
then began to visit the sick in different parts 
of the town, and the prisoners also, who were 
confined in the castle. Two years after, they 
were joined by Mr. Ingham, of Queen's Col- 
lege, Mr. Broughton, and Mr. Hervey ; and in 
1735, by the celebrated Mr. George Whitefield, 
then in his eighteenth year. At this time their 
number in Oxford amounted to about fourteen. 
They obtained the name of Methodists, from 
the exact regularity of their lives, and the 
manner of spending their time. In October, 
1735, John and Charles Wesley, Mr. Ingham, 
and Mr. Delamotte, son of a merchant in Lon- 
don, embarked for Georgia, having been en- 
gaged by the trustees of that colony as chap, 
lains ; but their ultimate design was to preach 
the Gospel to the Indians. No favourable oppor- 
tunity offering itself for this pious work, and 
the strict and faithful preaching of the Wes- 
leys having involved them in much persecution, 
and many disputes with the colonists, they re- 
turned to England, Mr. Charles Wesley in 
1737, Mr. John Wesley in 1738. On the 
passage to America, and while in Georgia, 
Mr. John had met with several pious Moravi- 
ans ; whose doctrines of justification by faith 
alone, conscious pardon of sin, and peace with 
God, confirmed by their own calmness in dan- 
ger and freedom from the fear of death, greatly 
impressed him. On his return to England, he 
was more fully instructed in these views by 
Bohler, a Moravian minister ; and having 
proved their truth in his own experience, he 
began to preach in th6 churches of the me- 
tropolis, and other places, and then in rooms, 
fields, and streets, the doctrine of salvation by 
faith. In this his brother Charles was his 
zealous coadjutor ; and the effect was the 
awakening of great multitudes to a religious 
concern, and the commencement of a great 
revival of religion throughout the land, which 
has in its effects extended itself to the most 
distant parts of the world. At the time of 
Mr. Wesley's death, the societies in connection 
with him in Europe, America, and the West 
Indies, amounted to eighty thousand members ; 
they are now [1831] upward of three hundred 
thousand, beside about half a million in the 
United States of America, who since the 
acquisition of independence by that country 
have formed a separate church. The nales 
of this religious society were drawn up by 
42 



Messrs. John and Charles Wesley in 1743, and 
continue to be in force. They state the na- 
ture and design of a Methodist society in the 
following words : " Such a society is no other 
than a company of men, having the form and 
seeking the power of godliness : united, in 
order to pray together, to receive the word of 
exhortation, and to watch over one another in 
love, that they may help each other to work 
out their own salvation. That it may the 
more easily be discerned whether they are 
indeed working out their own salvation, each 
society is divided into smaller companies, called 
classes, according to their respective places of 
abode. There are about twelve persons, some- 
times fifteen, twenty, or even more, in each 
class ; on& of whom is styled the leader. It is 
his business, 1. To see each person in his class 
once a week, at least, in order to inquire how 
their souls prosper ; to advise, reprove, com 
fort, or exhort, as occasion may require ; to 
receive what they are willing to give to the 
poor, or toward the support of the Gospel. 
2. To meet the minister and the stewards of 
the society once a week, to inform the minister 
of any that are sick, or of any that walk dis- 
orderly and will not be reproved ; to pay to the 
stewards what they have received of their 
several classes in the week preceding ; and to 
show their account of what each person has 
contributed. There is only one condition pre- 
viously required of those who desire admission 
into these societies, namely, a desire to flee 
from the wrath to come ; to be saved from their 
sins : but wherever this is really fixed in the 
soul, it will be shown by its fruits. It is there- 
fore expected of all who continue therein, that 
they should continue to evidence their desire 
of salvation, 1. By doing no harm ; by avoid- 
ing evil in every kind, especially that which is 
most generally practised, such as taking the 
name of God in vain ; profaning the day of the 
Lord, either by doing ordinary work thereon, 
or by buying or selling ; drunkenness ; buying 
and selling spirituous liquors, or drinking them, 
unless in cases of extreme necessity ; fighting, 
quarrelling, brawling; brother going to law 
with brother ; returning evil for evil, or railing 
for railing ; the using many words in buying 
or selling ; the buying or selling uncustomed 
goods ; the giving or taking things on usury, 
that is, unlawful interest ; uncharitable or un- 
profitable conversation, particularly speaking 
evil of magistrates or of ministers ; doing to 
others as we would not they should do unto 
us ; doing what we know is not for the glory 
of God, as the putting on of gold or costly ap- 
parel ; the taking such diversions as cannot be 
used in the name of the Lord Jesus ; singing 
those songs, or reading those books, which do 
not tend to the knowledge or love of God ; 
softness, or needless self-indulgence ; laying 
up treasure upon earth ; borrowing without a 
probability of paying ; or taking up goods, 
without a probabilit}' of paying for them. It is 
expected of all who continue in these societies, 
that they should continue to evidence their 
desire of salvation, 2. By doing good ; by 
being m eyexj kind merciful after their power. 



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as they have opportunity ; doing good of every 
possible sort, and, as far as possible, to all 
men ; to their bodies, of the ability which God 
giveth, by giving food to the hungry, by cloth- 
ing the naked, by visiting Or helping them that 
are sick or in prison ; to their souls, by instruct- 
ing, reproving, or exhorting all we have any 
intercourse with; trampling under foot that 
enthusiastic doctrine of devils, — that we are 
not to do good unless our hearts be free to it : 
by doing good, especially to them that are of 
the household of faith, or groaning so to be ; 
employing them preferably to others ; buying 
one of another ; helping each other in busi- 
ness, and so much the more as the world will 
love its own, and them only ; by all possible 
diligence and frugality, that the Gospel be not 
blamed ; by running with patience the race set 
before them, denying themselves, and taking 
up their cross daily ; submitting to bear the 
reproach of Christ; to be as the-filth and off- 
scouring of the world, and looking that men 
should say all manner of evil of them falsely 
for the Lord's sake. It is expected of all who 
continue in these societies, that they should 
continue to evidence their desire of salvation, 
3. By attending on all the ordinances of God : 
such are, the public worship of God ; the minis- 
try of the word either read or expounded ; the 
supper of the^Lord ; family and private prayer ; 
searching the Scriptures, and fasting and ab- 
stinence. These are the general rules of our 
societies, all which we are taught of God to ob- 
serve, even in his written word, the only rule, 
and the sufficient rule, both of our faith and 
practice ; and all these we know his Spirit writes 
on every truly av/akened heart. If there be 
any among us who observe them not, who 
habitually breaks any of them, let it be made 
known to them who watch over that soul, as 
they that must give an account. We will ad- 
monish him of the error of his ways ; we will 
bear with him for a season ; but then, if he 
repent not, he hath no more place among us : 
we have delivered our own souls." 

The effect produced by the preaching of the 
two brothers in various parts of the kingdom, 
and those frequently the most populous and 
rude, rendered it necessary to call out preachers 
to their assistance, and especially since the 
clergy generally remained negligent, and rather 
opposed and persecuted, than encouraged, the 
Wesleys in their endeavours to effect a na- 
tional reformation. The association of preach- 
ers with themselves in the work led to an 
annual meeting of the ministers, then and 
since called the conference. The first confer- 
ence was held in June 1744, at which Mr. 
Wesley met his brother, two or three other 
clergymen, and a few of the preachers, whom 
he had appointed to come from various parts, 
to confer with them on the affairs of the socie- 
ties. " Monday, June 25," observes Mr. Wes- 
ley, " and the five following days, we spent in 
conference with cur preachers, seriously con- 
sidering by what means we might the most 
effectually save our own souls, and them that 
heard us; and the result of our consultatious 
we set down to be the rule of our future prac- 



tice." Since that time a conference has beigji 
annually held ; Mr. Wesley himself having 
presided at forty-seven. The subjects of their 
deliberations were proposed in the form of 
questions, which were amply discussed ; and 
the questions, with the answers agreed upon, 
were afterward printed under the title of 
" Minutes of several Conversations between 
the Rev. Mr. Wesley and others," commonly 
called Minutes of Conference. 

As the kingdom had been divided into cir- 
cuits, to each of which several preachers were 
appointed for one or two years, a part of the 
work of every conference was to arrange these 
appointments and changes. In the early con- 
ferences various points of doctrine were dis- 
cussed with reference to the agreement of all 
in a common standard ; and when this was 
settled, and the doctrinal discussions discon- 
tinued, new regulations continued to be 
adopted, as the state of the societies, and the 
enlarging opportunities of doing good, re- 
quired. The character of all those who were 
engaged in the ministry was also annually 
examined ; and those who had passed the ap- 
pointed term of probation, were solemnly 
received into the ministry. All the preachers 
were itinerants^ and, animated by the example 
of Mr. Wesley, went through great labours, 
and endured many privations and persecutions, 
but with such success that societies and congre- 
gations were in a few years raised up in almost 
every part of England, and in a very consider- 
able number of places in Ireland, Wales, and 
Scotland. The doctrines held by the Method- 
ists, Mr. Wesley declared repeatedly in his 
writings to be those contained in the Articles 
of the church of England ; for he understood 
the article on predestination, as many others 
have done, in a sense not contrary to the doc- 
trine of the redemption and the possible salva- 
tion of the whole human race. It will, there- 
fore, be merely necessary to state those views 
of certain doctrines which it has been thought 
the Wesleyan Methodists hold in a somewhat 
peculiar way, or on which they have been most 
liable to misrepresentation. 

They maintain the total fall of man in Adam, 
and his utter inability to recover himself, or 
take one step toward his recovery, " without 
the grace of God preventing him, that he may 
have a good will, and working with him when 
he has that good will." They assert that 
" Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for 
every man." This grace they call free, as 
extending itself freely to all. They say that 
" Christ is the Saviour of all men, especially 
of them that believe ;" and that, consequently, 
they are authorized to offer salvation to all, 
and to "preach the Gospel to every creature." 
They hold justification by faith. "Justifica- 
tion," says Mr. Wesley, "sometimes means 
our acquittal at the last day. Matt, xii, 37 : but 
this is altogether out of the present question ; 
for that justification whereof our Articles and 
Homilies speak, signifies present forgiveness, 
pardon of sins, and consequently acceptance 
with God, who therein declares his righteous- 
ness, or justice, and xncrcy, by ur for the re- 



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mission of sins that are past, Romans iii, 25, 
saying, ' I will be merciful to thy unrighteous- 
ness, and thine iniquities I will remember no 
more.' I believe the condition of this is faith, 
Rom. iv, 5, &:.c ; I mean, not only that with- 
out faith we cannot be justified, but also that 
as soon as any one has true faith, in that mo- 
ment he is justified. Faith, in general, is a 
divine supernatural evidence, or conviction, 
of things not seen, not discoverable by our 
bodily senses, as being either past, future, or 
spiritual. Justifying faith implies, not only a 
divine evidence, or conviction, that ' God was 
in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,' 
but a full reliance on the merits of his death, 
a sure confidence that Christ died for my sins ; 
that he loved me, and gave himself for me : 
and the moment a penitent sinner believes 
this, God pardons and absolves him." This 
faith, Mr. Wesley afiirms, "is the gift of God. 
No man is able to work it in himself. It is a 
w^ork of Omnipotence. It requires no less 
power thus to quicken a dead soul, than to 
raise a body that lies in the grave. It is a 
new creation ; and none can create a soul 
anew but He who at first created the heavens 
and the earth. It is the free gift of God, 
which he bestows not on those who are woi-thy 
of his favour, not on such as are previously 
holy, and so fit to be crowned with all the 
blessings of his goodness ; but on the ungodly 
and unholy, on those who till that hour were 
fit only for everlasting destruction ; those in 
whom is no good thing, and whose only plea 
was, ' God be merciful to me, a sinner 1' No 
merit, no goodness, in man, precedes the for- 
giving love of God. His pardoning mercy 
supposes nothing in us but a sense of mere 
sin and misery; and to all who see and feel 
and own their wants, and their utter inability 
to remove them, God freely gives faith, for the 
sake of Him in whom he is always well pleased. 
Good works follow this faith, Luke vi, 43, but 
cannot go before it ; much less can sanctifica- 
tion, which implies a continued course of good 
works springing from holiness of heart." As 
to repentance he insisted that it is conviction 
of sin,- and that repentance, and works meet 
for repentance, go before justifying faith; but 
he held, wath the church of England, that all 
works, before justification, had "the nature of 
sin ;" and that, as they had no root in the love 
of God, which can only arise from a persua- 
sion of his being reconciled to us, they could 
not constitute a moral worthiness preparatory 
to pardon. That true repentance springs from 
the grace of God, is most certain ; but, what- 
ever fruits it may bring forth, it changes not 
man's relation to God. He is a sinner, and is 
justified as such; " for it is not a saint, but a 
sinner, that is forgiven, and under the notion 
of a simier." God justifieth the ungodly, not 
the godly. Repentance, according to his state- 
ment, is necessaiy to true faith; but faith 
alone is the direct and immediate instrument 
of pardon. They hold also the direct internal 
testimony of the Holy Spirit to the believer's 
adoption ; for an exposition of which see 
Holy Si-iiux. 



They maintain also that, by virtue of the 
blood of Jesus Christ, and the operations of 
the Holy Spirit, it is their privilege to arrive 
at that maturity in grace, and participation of 
the divine nature, which excludes sin from 
the heart, and fills it with perfect love to God 
and man. This they denominate Christian 
perfection. On this doctrine Mr. Wesley ob- 
serves, " Christian perfection does not imply 
an exemption from ignorance or mistake, 
infirmities or temptations ; but it implies the 
being so crucified with Christ, as to be able to 
testify, ' I live not, but Christ liveth in me,' 
Gal. ii, 23, and ' hath purified their hearts by 
faith,' Acts XV, 9." Again: " To explain my- 
self a little farther on this head : 1. Not only 
sin, properly so called, that is, a voluntary- 
transgression of a known lav/ ; but sin^ impro- 
perly so called, that is, an involuntary trans- 
gression of a divine law known or unknown, 
needs the atoning blood. 2. I believe there is 
no such perfection in this life as excludes these 
involuntary transgressions, which I apprehend 
to be naturally consequent on the ignorance and 
mistakes inseparable from mortality. 3. There- 
fore, sinless perfection is a phrase I never use, lest 
I should seem to contradict myself. 4. I believe 
a person filled with the love of God is still liable 
to these involuntary transgressionsv 5. Such 
transgressions you may call sins, if you please ; 
I do not, for the reasons above mentioned." 

The rules of the Methodist societies have 
been already given ; but, in order to have a 
general view of th«ir ecclesiastical economy, 
it must be remarked, that a number of these 
societies united together form what is called a 
circuit. A circuit generally includes a large 
market town, and the circumjacent villages to 
the extent often or fifteen miles. To one circuit 
two or three, and sometimes four, preachers 
are appointed, one of whom is styled the super- 
intendent ; and this is the sphere of their 
labour for at least one year, or not more than 
three years. Once a quarter the preachers 
meet all the classes, and speak personally to 
each member. Those who have walked orderly 
the preceding quarter then receive a ticket. 
These tickets are in some respects analogous 
to the tcssercB of the ancients, and answer all 
the purposes of the commendatory letters 
spoken of by the Apostle. Their chief use is 
to prevent imposture. After the visitation of 
the classes a meeting is held, consisting of 
all the preachers, leaders, and stewards in 
the circuit. At this meeting the stewards de- 
liver their collections to a circuit steward, 
and every thing relating to temporal matters 
is publicly settled. At this meeting the candi- 
dates for the ministry are proposed, and the 
stewards, after officiating a definite period, are 
changed. A number of circuits, from five to 
ten, more or fewer, according to their extent, 
form a district, the preachers af which meet 
annually. Every district has a chairman, who 
fixes the time of meeting. These assemblies 
have authority, 1. To examine candidates for 
the ministry, and probationers, and to try and 
suspend preachers who are found immoral, 
erroneous in doctrine, or deficient in abilities. 



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2. To decide concerning the building of cha- 
pels. 3. To examine the demands from the 
poorer circuits respecting the support of the 
preachers and of their families, from the pub- 
lic funds. 4. To elect a representative to at. 
tend and form a committee to sit previously to 
the meeting of the conference, in order to pre- 
pare a draught of the stations of all the preach- 
ers for the ensuing year. The judgment of 
this meeting is conclusive until conference, to 
which an appeal is allowed in all cases. 

The conference, strictly speaking, consists 
only of a hundred of the senior preachers, ac- 
cording to the arrangements prescribed in a 
deed of declaration, executed by Mr. Wesley, 
and enrolled in chancery. But the preachers 
elected at the preceding district meetings as 
representatives, the superintendents of the cir- 
cuits, and such preachers as the districts allow 
to* attend, sit and vote usually as one body. 
At the conference, every preacher's character 
undergoes the strictest scrutiny ; and if any 
charge be proved against him, he is dealt with 
accordingly. The preachers are also station- 
ed, the proceedings of the subordinate meet- 
ings reviewed, and the state of the connection 
at large is considered. The conference is 
commonly held in London, Leeds, Bristol, 
Manchester, Liverpool, and Sheffield, in rota- 
tion, at the latter end of July. 

By the minutes of the last conference, 1831, 
it appears that this religious body had three 
hundred and sixty-three circuits in England, 
Wales, and Scotland; forty-five in Ireland; 
and a hundred and fifty-six mission stations, 
most of them being also circuits, in Sweden, 
France, the Mediterranean, Continental India, 
Ceylon, the South Seas, Africa, the West In- 
dies, and British America. The number of 
members in the societies were, in Great Britain, 
two hundred and forty-nine thousand one 
hundred and nineteen ; in Ireland, twenty-two 
thousand four hundred and seventy ; in the 
foreign stations, forty-two thousand seven 
hundred and forty-three. Their regular preach- 
ers were eight hundred and forty-six in Great 
Britain ; in Ireland, a hundred and forty-six ; 
in foreign stations, exclusive of catechists, a 
hundred and eighty-seven. 

[The preceding account, so far as it respects 
the original history, the doctrines, and the 
moral discipline of Wesleyan Methodists, is 
equally applicable to those in America and in 
Europe. The Methodist Episcopal Church in 
the United States, however, which became a 
distinct and independent church in the year 
1784, diifers considerably in its organization, 
and in the details of its ecclesiastical economy, 
from the British Wesleyan connection. The 
circuits, into v;hich the whole field of labour 
occupied by the itinerant ministry is divided, 
are in general much larger, nor is any preacher 
allowed to remain on them more than two 
years successively. Of these circuits, from five 
or six to fifteen or more, according to circum- 
stances, constitute a district. Of the districts, 
from four or five to six or eight, usually, com- 
prise the tract of country embraced within the 
boundaries of an annual conference ; and of 



annual conferences, the whole of the United 
States and Territories, agreeably to the minutes 
of the last year, (1831,) were divided into nine- 
teen. From all these annual conferences, de- 
legates, in a certain prescribed ratio, are sent 
once in four years to constitute a general con- 
ference, the highest ecclesiastical assemblage 
among American Wesleyan Methodists. The 
minister or preacher first named of those ap- 
pointed to each circuit or station, is thereby 
invested with the pastoral charge thereof, and 
is usually denominated the preacher in charge. 
Each district is committed to the care of an 
elder, denominated the presiding elder, who is 
appointed annually, and may remain four years 
successively on a district, but not longer ; and 
all the districts comprising the whole extent 
of the church, are under the general superin. 
tendence of the bishops. These at present, 
(April, 1832,) are four in number, and like all 
others of our stated ministry, are required to 
be itinerant. If they cease to travel at large, 
without the consent of the general conference, 
they forfeit the exercise of their episcopal 
fianctions. Their visitations are annual and 
alternate, on a preconcerted plan, through the 
bounds of the entire work. They preside in 
the annual and general conferences, station 
the preachers, with (by established usage) the 
counsel of the presiding elders, and are jointly 
and severally responsible to the general con- 
ference for their administration and conduct, 
(See also the articles " Episcopalians," and 
i' Imposition of Hands.") 

For a more minute detail of the ecclesiasti- 
cal economy, spiritual and temporal, of Ame- 
rican Wesleyan Methodists, (which would lead 
us too far for a work of this sort,) reference 
may be had to the small volume published at the 
Conference Office, entitled ' The Doctrines and 
Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church." 

By the minutes of the annual conferences 
for the last year, (1831,) there were in the 
communion of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
in the United States, five hundred and thirteen 
thousand one hundred and twenty-four mem- 
bers ; of whom four hundred and thirty-seven 
thousand and twenty-four were whites, seven- 
ty-one thousand five hundred and eighty-nine 
coloured, and four thousand five hundred and 
one Indians. The number of itinerant minis- 
ters was two thousand and ten, of whom one 
hundred and thirty four were superannuated, 
or worn out. In addition to these, there are 
also several thousand local ministers and 
preachers, many of whom were once itinerant ; 
and who, though not statedly devoted to the 
work of the ministerial office, as the itinerant 
ministers are, yet, by their valuable services on 
the Sabbath, or at other times occasionally in 
their respective vicinities, constitute an import- 
ant auxiliary branch of the system, and con- 
tribute much to its compactness and efficiency. 

Beside the above, there are in the United 
States several smaller associations of persons 
bearing the name of Methodists, who hold and 
teach, in general, the doctrines of Wesleyan 
Methodists, but are not in connection with the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, and differ from 



MIC 



645 



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it in various points of ecclesiastical economy 
and discipline. 

Tlie Wesleyan Methodists in Upper Canada, 
who were formerly in connection with the 
church in the United States, have recently, 
with the consent of the general conference of 
the latter body, been constituted a distinct 
church, under an episcopal form. Its organi- 
zation, however, has not yet been completed 
by the consecration of a bishop, though we 
understand that a reverend individual has been 
selected, who will probably shortly be set apart 
for that holy office. This branch af the Ame- 
rican Wesleyan Methodists, agreeably tt) their 
minutes for the year 1831, consisted of sixty- 
five itinerant ministers, and twelve thousand 
five hundred and sixty -three members ; of 
whom one thousand two hundred and thirty- 
three were Indians.] 

METHUSELAH, the son of Enoch, and 
father of Lamech, Gen. v, 21. He was born 
A. M. 687, and died A. M. 1656, being the very 
year of the deluge, at the age of nine hundred 
and §ixty-nine, the greatest age to which any 
mortal man ever attained. 

MIC AH, the seventh in order of the twelve 
lesser prophets, is supposed to have prophe- 
sied about B. C. 750. He was commissioned 
to denounce the judgments of God against both 
the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, for their 
idolatry and wickedness. The principal pre- 
dictions contained in this book are, the inva- 
sions of Shalmanezer and Sennecharib ; the 
destruction of Samaria and of Jerusalem, mixed 
with consolatory promises of the deliverance 
of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, 
and of the downfall of the power of their As- 
Syrian and Babylonian oppressors ; the cessa- 
tion of prophecy in consequence of their con- 
tinued deceitfulness and hypocrisy ; and a 
desolation in a then distant period, still greater 
than that which was declared to be impending. 
The birth of the Messiah at Bethlehem is also 
expressly foretold ; and the Jews are directed 
to look to the establishment and extent of his 
kingdom, as an unfailing source of comfort 
amidst general distress. The style of Micah is 
nervous, concise, and elegant, often elevated, 
and poetical, but sometimes obscure from sud- 
den transitions of subject ; and the contrast 
of the neglected duties of justice, mercy, hu- 
mility, and piety, with the punctilious observ- 
ance of the ceremonial sacrifices, affords a 
beautiful example of the harmony which sub- 
sists between the Mosaic and Christian dispen- 
sations, and shows that the law partook of that 
spiritual nature which more immediately cha- 
racterizes the religion of Jesus. 

The prophecy of Micah, contained in the fifth 
chapter, is, perhaps the most important single 
prophecy in aU the Old Testament, and the most 
comprehensive respecting the personal charac- 
ter of the Messiah, and his successive manifest- 
ations to the world. It crowns the whole chain 
of predictions respecting the several limitations 
of the promised seed : to the line of Shem ; to 
the family of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob ; 
to the tribe of Judah ; and to the royal house 
of David, terminating in his birth at Bclhle- 



hem, ^'the city of David." It carefully dis- 
tinguishes his human nativity from his divine 
nature and eternal existence ; foretels tlie 
casting off of the Israelites and Jews for a sea- 
son ; their ultimate restoration ; and the uni- 
versal peace which should prevail in the king- 
dom and under the government of the Messiah. 
This prophecy, therefore, forms the basis of 
the New Testament revelation which com- 
mences with the birth of the Messiah at Beth- 
lehem, the miraculous circumstances of which 
are recorded by St. Matthew and St. Luke in 
the introduction to their respective histories ; 
the eternal subsistence of Christ as " the 
Word," in the sublime introduction to St. John's 
Gospel ; his prophetic character and second 
coming, illustrated in the four Gospels and in 
the apostolic epistles. 

MICHAEL. See Archangel. 

MIDIAN, Land of, a country of the Midi- 
anites, derived its name and its inhabitants 
from Midian, the son of Abraham by Keturah. 
This country extended from the east of the 
land of Moab, on the east of the Dead Sea, 
southward, along the Elanitic gulf of the Red 
Sea, stretching some way into Arabia. It 
farther passed to the south of the land of 
Edom, into the peninsula of Mount Sinai, 
where Moses met with the daughter of Jethro, 
the priest of Midian, whom he married. The 
Midianites, together with their neighbours, the 
Ishmaelites, were early engaged in the trade 
between the east and the west, as we find the 
party to whom Joseph was sold, carrying 
spices, the produce of the east, into Egypt ; 
and, taking Gilead in their way, to add the 
celebrated and highly prized balm of that 
country to their merchandise. It appears that, 
at the time of the passage of the Israelites 
through the country of the Amorites, the Mi- 
dianites had been subdued by that people, as 
the chiefs or kings of their five principal tribes 
are called dukes of Sihon, and dwelt in his 
country, Joshua xiii, 21. It was at this time 
that the Midianites, alarmed at the numbers 
and the progress of the Israelites, united with 
the Moabites in sending into Syria for Balaam, 
the soothsayer ; thinking to do that by incan- 
tation, which they despaired of effecting by 
force. The result of this measure, the con- 
straint imposed on Balaam to bless instead of to 
curse, and the subsequent defeat and slaughter 
of the Midianites, forms one of the most inte- 
resting narratives in the early history of the 
Jews, Num. xxii-xxv, xxxi. About two hun- 
dred years after this, the Midianites, having 
recovered their numbers and their strength, 
were permitted by God to distress the Israel, 
ites for the space of seven years, as a punish- 
ment for their relapse into idolatry. But at 
length their armies, "like grasshoppers for 
multitude, with camels out of number as sand 
by the sea side for multitude," which had en- 
camped in the valley of Jezreel, were miracu- 
lously defeated by Gideon, Judges vi-viii. The 
Midianites appear not to have survived this 
second discomfiture as a nation ; but their re- 
mains became gradually incorporated with the 
Moabites and Arabians. 



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MIGDOL. Moses writes, that when the 
Israelites came out of Egypt, the Lord com. 
manded them to encamp over against Pihahi- 
roth, between Migdol and the sea, over against 
Baal-Zephon, Exod. xiv, 2. It is not known 
whether this Migdol was a city, or only a for- 
tress : probably the latter, in which a garrison 
was stationed. 

MILE, a measure of length, containing a 
thousand paces. Eight stadia or furlongs make 
a mile. The Romans commonly measured by 
miles, and the Greeks by furlongs. The fur- 
long was a hundred and twenty-five paces ; 
the pace was five feet. The ancient Hebrews 
had neither miles, furlongs, nor feet, but only 
the cubit, the reed, and the line. The rabbins 
make a mile to consist of two thousand cubits, 
and four miles make a parasang. 

MILETUS, a city on the continent of Asia 
Minor, and in the province of Caria, memora- 
ble for being the birthplace of Thales, one of 
the seven wise men of Greece, of Anaximander 
and Anaximines, the philosophers, and of Ti- 
motheus, the musician. It was about thirty- 
six miles south of Ephesus, and the capital of 
both Caria and Ionia. The Milesians were 
subdued by the Persians, and the country 
passed successively into the power of the 
Greeks and Romans. At present the Turks 
call it Molas, and it is not far distant from the 
true Meander, which encircles all the plain 
with many mazes, and innumerable windings. 
It was to this place that St. Paul called the 
elders of the church of Ephesus, to deliver his 
last charge to them, Acts xx, 15, &Lc. There 
was another Miletus in Crete, mentioned 
2 Tim. iv, 20. 

MILL. In the first ages they parched or 
roasted their grain ; a practice which the peo- 
ple of Israel, as we learn from the Scriptures, 
long continued : afterward they pounded it 
in a mortar, to which Solomon thus alludes : 
" Though thou shouldest hray a fool in a 
mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will 
not his foolishness depart from him," Prov. 
xxvii, 22. This was succeeded by mills, simi- 
lar to the hand mills formerly used in this 
country, of which there were two sorts : the 
first were large, and turned by the strength 
of horses or asses ; the second were smaller, 
and wrought by men, commonly by slaves 
condemned to this hard labour, as a punish- 
ment for their crimes. Chardin remarks, in 
his manuscript, that the persons employed are 
generally female slaves, who are least regarded, 
or are least fitted for any thing else ; for the 
work is extremely laborious, and esteemed the 
lowest employment about the house. Most 
of their corn is ground by these little mills, 
although they sometimes make use of large 
mills, wrought by oxen or camels. Near Is- 
pahan, and some of the other great cities of 
Persia, he saw water mills ; but he did not 
meet with a single wind mill in the east. Al- 
most every family grind their wheat and barley 
at home, having two portable mill stones for 
that purpose ; of which the uppermost is turned 
round by a small handle of wood or iron that 
is placed in the rim. When this stone is large. 



or expedition is required, a second person is 
called in to assist ; and as it is usual for the 
women only to be con.cernod in this employ- 
ment, who seat themselves over against each 
other, with the mill stone between them, we 
may see the propriety of the expression in the 
declaration of Moses : " And all the first-born 
in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first- 
barn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne 
even unto the first-born of the maid-servant 
that is behind the mill," Exod. xi, 5. The 
manner in which the hand mills are Vv'^orked 
is well described by Dr. E. D. Clarke, in his 
Travels : " Scarcely had we reached the apart- 
ment prepared for our reception, when, look- 
ing from the window into the court yard 
belonging to the house, we beheld two women 
grinding at the mill, in a manner most fovcibly 
illustrating the saying of our Saviour : ' Two 
women shall be grinding at the mill, the ono 
shall be taken and the other left.' They wero 
preparing flour to make, our bread, as it is 
always customary in the country when stran- 
gers arrive. The two women, seated upon the 
ground opposite to each other, held between 
them two round flat stones, such as are seen 
in Lapland, and such as in Scotland are called 
querns. In the centre of the upper stone was 
a cavity for pouring in the corn, and by the 
side of this an upright wooden handle for 
moving the stone. As this operation began, 
one of the women opposite received it from 
her companion, who pushed it toward her, 
who again sent it to her companion ; thus 
communicating a rotatory motion to the upper 
stone, their left hands being all the while 
employed in supplying fresh corn, as fast as 
the bran and flour escaped from the sides of 
the machine." When they are not impelled, 
as in this instance, to premature exertions by 
the arrival of strangers, they grind their corn 
in the morning at break of day : the noise of 
the mill is then to be heard every where, and 
is ofteii so great as to rouse the inhabitants of 
the cities from their slumbers ; for it is well 
Icnown they bake their bread every day, and 
commonly grind their corn as it is wanted. 
The noise of the mill stone is therefore, with 
great propriety, selected by the prophet as one 
of the tokens of a populous and thriving coun. 
try : " Moreover, I will take from them the 
voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the 
voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the 
bride, the sound of mill stones and the light of 
a candle, and their whole land shall be a deso- 
lation," Jer. xxv, 10. The morning shall no 
more be cheered with the joyful sound of the 
mill, nor the shadovv^s of evening by the light 
of a candle ; the morning shall be silent, and 
the evening dark and melancholy, where deso- 
lation reigns. " At the earhest dawn of the 
morning," says Mr. Forbes, " in all the Hin- 
doo towns and villages, the hand mills are at 
work, when the menials and widows grind 
meal for the daily consumption of the family : 
this work is always performed by women, v/ho 
resume their task every morning, especially 
the forlorn Hindoo widows, divested of every 
ornament, and with their heads shaved, de. 



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graded to almost a state of servitude." How 
affecting, then, is the call to the daughter of 
Babylon I — "Come down, and sit in the dust, 
O daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground : 
there is no throne, O daughter of the Chal- 
deans ; for thou shalt no more be called tender 
and delicate. Take the mill stones, and grind 
meal ; uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, 
uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers," Isaiah 
xlvii, 1, 2. 

The custom of daily grinding their corn for 
the family, shows the propriety of the law : 
" No man shall take the nether or the upper 
mill stone to pledge, for he taketh a man's life 
to pledge ;" because if he take either the upper 
or the nether mill stone, he deprives him of 
his daily provision, which cannot be prepared 
without them. That complete -and perpetual 
desolation which, by the just allotment of Hea- 
ven, is ere long to overtake the mystical Baby- 
ion, is clearly signified by the same precept : 
" The sound of the mill stone shall be heard no 
more at all in thee," Rev. xviii, 22. The means 
of subsistence being entirely destroyed, no hu- 
man creature shall e^ver occupy the ruined 
habitations more. In the book of Judges, the 
sacred historian alludes, with characteristic 
accuracy, to several circumstances implied in 
that custom, where he describes the fall of 
Abimelech. A woman of Thebez, driven to 
desperation by his furious attack on the tower, 
started up from the mill at which she was 
grinding, seized the upper mill stone, 3Dn n^c, 
and, rushing to the top of the gate, cast it on 
his head, and fractured his skull. This was 
the feat of a woman, for the mill is worked 
only by females ; it was not a piece of a mill 
stone, but the rider, the distinguishing name of 
the upper mill stone, which literally rides upon 
the other, and is a piece or division of the mill : 
it was a stone of two feet broad, and therefore 
fully sufficient, when throvv^n from such a 
height, to produce the effect mentioned in the 
narrative. It displays, also, the vindictive 
contempt which suggested the punishment of 
Samson, the captive ruler of Israel, that the 
Philistines, with barbarous contumely, com- 
pelled him to perform the meanest service of a 
female slave ; they sent liim to grind in the 
prison. Judges xvi, 21, but not for himself 
alone ; this, although extremely mortifying to 
the hero, had been more tolerable ; they made 
him grinder for the prison, perhaps while the 
vilest malefactor was permitted to look on, 
and join in the mockery. Samson, the ruler 
and avenger of Israel, labours, as Isaiali fore- 
told the virgin daughter of Babylon should 
labour : " Come down, and sit in the dust, 
O virgin daughter of Babylon : there is no 
throne," no seat for thee, " O daughter of the 
Chaldeans. Take the mill stones and grind 
meal." but not with the wonted song; "Sit 
thou silent, and get thee into darkness," there 
to conceal thy vexation and disgrace, Isaiah 
xlvii, 1, 2, 5. The females engaged in this 
operation, endeavoured to beguile the lingering 
hours of toilsome exertion with a song. We 
learn from an expression of Aristophanes, pre- 
served by Athena)us, that the Grecian maidens 



accompanied the sound of the mill stones wi{ti 
their voices. This circumstance imparts force 
to the description of the prophet, the light of 
a candle was no more to be seen in the eve- 
ning ; the sound of the mill stones, the indi- 
cation of plenty, and the song of the grinders, 
the natural expression of joy and happiness, 
were no more to be heard at the dawn. The 
grinding of corn at so early an hour throws 
light on a passage of considerable obscurity : 
" And the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, 
Rechab and Baanah, went, and came about 
the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth, 
who lay on a bed at noon ; and they came 
thither into the midst of the house, as though 
they would have fetched wheat, and they smote 
him under the fifth rib; and Rechab and 
Baanah his brother escaped," 2 Sam. iv, 5-7. 
It is still a custom in the east, according to 
Dr. Perry, to allow their soldiers a certain 
quantity of corn, with other articles of pro- 
visions, together with some pay; and as it 
was tlie custom, also, to carry their corn to 
the mill at break of day, these two captains 
very naturally went to the palace the day be- 
fore to fetch wheat, in order to distribute it to 
the soldiers, that it might bo sent to the mill 
at the accustomed hour in the morning. The 
princes of the east in those days, as the history 
of David shows, lounged in their divan, or re- 
posed on their couch, till the cool of the eve- 
ning began to advance. Rechab and Baanah, 
therefore, came in the heat of the day, when 
they knew that Ishbosheth, their master, would 
be resting on his bed; and as it was neces- 
sary, for the reason just given, to have the 
corn the day before it was needed, their com- 
ing at that time, though it might be a little 
earlier than usual, created no suspicion, and 
attracted no notice. 

MILLENARIANS are those who believe, 
according to an ancient tradition in the church, 
grounded on some doubtful texts in the book 
of Revelation and other scriptures, that our 
Saviour shall reign a thousand years with the 
faithful upon earth after the first resurrec- 
tion, before the full completion of final happi- 
ness ; and their name, taken from the Latin 
word mille, " a thousand," has a direct allu- 
sion to the duration of this spiritual empire, 
which is styled the millennium. A millennium, 
or a future paradisaical state of the earth, is 
viewed by some as a doctrine not of Christian, 
but of Jewish, origin. The tradition which 
fixes the duration of the world, in its present 
imperfect state, to six thousand years, and 
announces the approach of a Sabbath of one 
thousand years of universal peace and plenty, 
to be ushered in by the glorious advent of the 
Messiah, has been traced up to Elias, a rab- 
binical writer, who flourished about two cen- 
turies before the birth of Christ. It certainly 
obtained among the Chaldeans from the earliest 
times ; and it is countenanced by Barnabas, 
Irenaeus, and other primitive writers, and also 
bv the Jews at the present day. But though 
the theory may not be very improbable, yet, as 
it has not the sanction of Scripture to support 
it, we are not bound to respect it any farther 



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than as a doubtful' tradition. The Jews un- 
derstood several passages of the prophets, as 
Zechariah xiv, 16, &g, of the millennium; in 
which, according to their carnal apprehen- 
sions, the Messiah is to reign on earth, and 
to bring all nations within the pale, and under 
subjection to the ordinances, of the Jewish 
church. 

Justin Martyr, the most ancient of the fa- 
thers, was a great supporter of the doctrine of 
the millennium, or that our Saviour shall reign 
with the faithful upon earth, after the resur- 
rection, for a thousand years ; which he de- 
clares was the belief of all orthodox Christians. 
But this opinion is not generally followed ; 
for, though there has been, perhaps, no age 
of the church in which this doctrine was not 
admitted by one or more divines of the first 
eminence, it yet appears, from the writings of 
Eusebius, Irenseus, and others among the 
ancients, as well as from the histories of Du- 
pin, Mosheim, and other moderns, that it was 
never adopted by the whole church, nor formed 
an article of the established creed in any nation. 
Origen, the most learned of the fathers, and 
Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, usually, for his 
immense erudition, surnamed the Great, both 
opposed the doctrine that prevailed on the 
subject in their day ; and Dr. Whitby, in his 
learned treatise on the subject, proves, first, 
that the millennium was never generally re- 
ceived in the church of Christ ; and, secondly, 
that there is no just ground to think it was 
derived from the Apostles. 

On the other hand, Dr. T. Burnet and others 
maintain that it was very generally admitted 
till the Nicene council, in 325, or till the fourth 
century. The doctor supposes Dionysius of 
Alexandria, who wrote against Nepos, an 
Egyptian bishop, before the middle of the 
third century, to have been the first that 
attacked this doctrine ; but Origen had pre- 
viously assailed it in many of his fictitious 
additions. The truth seems to be, as one well 
remarks, "that a spiritual reign of Christ was 
believed by all who carefully examined the 
Scriptures, though the popular notions of the 
millennium were often rejected ; and ancient 
as well as modern writers assailed the extrava- 
gant superstructure, not the Scriptural founda- 
tion of the doctrine." During the interregnum 
in England, in the time of Cromwell, there 
arose a set of enthusiasts sometimes called 
Millenarians, but more frequently Fifth Mo- 
narchy Men, who expected the sudden ap- 
pearance of Christ, to establish on earth a 
new monarchy or kingdom. In consequence 
of this, some of them aimed at the subversion 
of all human government. In ancient history 
we read of four great monarchies ; the Assy- 
rian, Persian, Grecian, and the Roman ; and 
these men, believing that this new spiritual 
kingdom of Christ was to be the fifth, obtained 
the name by which they v/ere called. They 
claimed to be the saints of God, and to have 
the dominion of saints, Dan. vii, 27 ; expecting 
that, when Christ was come into this kingdom, 
to begin his reign on earth, they, as his depu- 
ties, were to govern all things under him. 



They 'went so far as to give up their own 
Christian names, and assume others from 
Scripture, like the Manicheans of old. 

The opinions of the moderns on this subject 
may be reduced to two : 1. Some believe that 
Christ will reign personally on the earth, and 
that the prophecies of the millennium point to 
a resurrection of martyrs and other just men, 
to reign with him a thousand years in a visible 
kingdom. 2. Others are inclined to believe 
that, by the reign of Christ and the saints for 
a thousand years on earth, " nothing more is 
meant than that, before the general judgment, 
the Jews shall be converted, genuine Christi- 
anity be diffused through all nations, and man- 
kind enjoy that peace and happiness which the 
faith and precepts of the Gospel are calculated 
to confer on all by whom they are sincerely 
embraced." The state of the Christian church, 
say they, will be, for a thousand years before 
the general judgment, so pure and so widely 
extended, that, when compared with the state 
of the world in the ages preceding, it may, in 
the language of Scripture, be called a resur- 
rection from the dead. In support of this inter- 
pretation, they quote two passages from St. 
Paul, in which a conversion from Paganism to 
Christianity, and a reformation of life is called 
a "resurrection from the dead," Rom. vi, 13 ; 
Ephesians v, 14. There is, indeed, an order 
in the resurrection, 1 Cor. xv, 24 ; but we no 
where observe mention made of a first and 
second resurrection at the distance of a thou- 
sand years from each other : yet, were the 
millenarian hypothesis well founded, the words 
should rather have run thus : " Christ, the first- 
fruits, then the martyrs at his coming, and a 
thousand years aflerward the residue of man- 
kind, — then Cometh the end," &c. 

Mr. Joseph Mode, Dr. Gill, Bishop Newton, 
Mr. Winchester, Mr. Eyre, Mr. Kett, and a 
host of writers recently, are advocates for the 
first of these opinions, and contend for the 
personal' reign of Christ on earth. "When 
these great events shall rouie to pass," says 
Bishop Newton, " of which we collect from 
the prophecies this to be the proper order, — 
the Protestant witnesses shall be greatly ex- 
alted, and the twelve hundred and sixty years 
of their prophesying in sackcloth, and of the 
tyranny of the beast, shall end together ; the 
conversion and restoration of the Jews suc- 
ceed ; then follows the ruin of the Ottoman 
empire ; and then the total destruction of 
Rome and of antichrist. When these great 
events, I say, shall come to pass, then shall 
the kingdom of Christ commence, or the reign 
of saints upon earth. So Daniel expressly 
informs us that the kingdom of Christ and the 
saints will be raised upon the ruins of the 
kingdom of antichrist, Daniel vii, 26, 27. So 
likewise St. John saith, that, upon the final 
destruction of the beast and of the false pro- 
phet, ' Satan is bound,' &c, Rev. xx, 2-6. It 
is, I conceive, to these great events, the fall 
of antichrist, the reestablishment of the Jews, 
and the beginning of the glorious millennium, 
that the three different dates in Daniel, of 
twelve hundi'ed and sixty years, twelve hun- 



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dred and ninety years, and thirteen hundred 
and thirty-five years, are to be referred. And, 
as Daniel saith, ' Blessed is he that waiteth, 
and Cometh to the thirteen hundred and thirty, 
five years,' Daniel xii, 12 : so St. John saith, 
' Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the 
first resurrection,' Rev. xx, 6. Blessed and 
happy, indeed, will be this period ; and it is 
very observable, that the martyrs and confess. 
ors of Jesus, in papist as well as Pagan times, 
will be raised to partake of this felicity. Then 
shall all those gracious promises in the Old 
Testament be fiilfilled, of the amplitude and 
extent of the peace and prosperity, of the 
glory and happiness, of the church in the 
latter days. Then, in the full sense of the 
words, ' shall the kingdoms of this world be- 
came the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his 
Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever,' 
Rev. xi, 15. According to tradition, these 
thousand years of the reign of Christ and the 
saints will be the seventh millenary of the 
world ; for, as God created the world in six 
days,, and rested on the seventh, so the world, 
it is argued, will continue six thousand years, 
and the seventh thousand will be the great 
sabbatism, or holy rest of the people of God ; 
'one day being with the Lord as a thousand 
years, and a thousand years as one day,' 2 Pet. 
iii, 8. According to tradition, too, these thou- 
sand years of the reign of Christ and the saints 
are the great day of judgment, in the morning 
or beginning whereof shall be the coming of 
Christ in flaming fire, and the particular judg- 
ment of antichrist, and the first resurrection ; 
and in the evening or conclusion whereof shall 
be the general resurrection of the dead, small 
and great ; ' and they shall be judged every 
man according to his works.' " 

Such is the representation of the millennium, 
as given by those who embrace the opinion of 
Christ's reigning personally on earth during 
the period of one thousand years. But Dr. 
Whitby, Mr. Lowm^n, &,c, contend against 
the literal interpretation of the millennium, 
both as to its nature and duration. Mr. Faber 
observes that, " respecting the yet fiature and 
mysterious millennium, the less that is said 
upon the subject the better. Unable myself to 
form the slightest conception of its specific 
nature, I shall weary neither my own nor my 
reader's patience with premature remarks upon 
it. That it will be a season of great blessed- 
ness, is certain ; farther than this we know 
nothing definitely." The millenarians do not 
form a sect distinct from others ; but their 
distinguishing tenet, in one view or other, 
prevails, in a greater or less degree, among 
most denominations into which the Christian 
world is divided. 

The following observations from Jones's 
Biblical Cyclopaedia are worthy great attention 
for their sobriety : — Some have supposed that 
the passage. Rev. xx, 4, is to be taken Hterally, 
as importing that at that time Jesus Christ will 
come, in his human nature, from heaven to 
earth, and set his kingdom up here, reigning 
visibly and personally, with distinguished glory 
on earth ; that the bodies of the martyrs, and 



of other eminent Christians will then be raised 
from the dead, in which they shall live and 
reign with Christ here on earth a thousand 
years. And some suppose, that all the saints, 
the true friends to God and Christ, who have 
lived before that time, will then be raised from 
the dead, and live on earth perfectly holy, 
during this thousand years. And this they 
suppose is meant by the first resurrection. 
Those who agree in general in this notion of 
the millennium differ with respect to many 
circumstances, which it is needless to mention 
here. Others have understood this paragraph 
of Scripture in a figurative sense : that by this 
reign of Christ on earth, is not meant his 
coming from heaven to earth in his human 
visible nature ; but his taking to himself his 
power, and utterly overthrowing the kingdom 
of Satan, and setting up his own kingdom 
throughout the world which, before this, had 
been confined to very narrow bounds ; subdu^ 
ing all hearts to a willing subjection, and thus 
reigning generally over the men who shall 
then be in the world, and live in that thousand 
years. And by " the souls of them which were 
beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the 
v/ord of God, and which had not worshipped 
the beast, neither his image, neither had re- 
ceived his mark upon their foreheads, or in 
their hands," living again and reigning with 
Christ a thousand years ; they suppose, is not 
meant a literal resurrection, or the resurrection 
of their bodies, which is not asserted here, as 
there is nothing said of their bodies, or of their 
being raised to life ; but that they shall live 
again, and reign with Christ, in the revival, 
prosperity, reign, and triumph of that cause 
and interest in which they lived, and for the 
promotion of which they died ; and in whose 
death the cause seemed to languish and be- 
come extinct. Thus they shall live again in 
their successors, who shall arise and stand up 
with the same spirit, and in the same cause, 
in which they lived and died, agreeable to an- 
cient prophecies. " The meek shall inherit 
the earth." " And the kingdom and dominion, 
and the greatness of the kingdom under the 
whole heaven, shall be given to the people of 
the saints of the Most High ; whose kingdom 
is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions 
shall serve him." And they suppose that this 
revival of the cause of Christ, by the numerous 
inhabitants of the earth rising up to a new and 
holy life, is that which is here called the first 
resurrection, in distinction from the second, 
which will consist in the resurrection of the 
body ; whereas this is a spiritual resurrection ; 
a resurrection of the cause of Christ, which 
had been, in a great degree, dead and lost ; a 
resurrection of the souls of men, by the reno- 
vation of the Holy Spirit. That this important 
passage of Scripture is to be understood in the 
figurative sense, last mentioned, is probable, 
and the following considerations are thought 
sufficient to support it : — 

1. Most if not all the prophecies in this 
book are delivered in figurative language, refer- 
ring to types and events recorded in the Old 
Testament ; and in imitation of the language 



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of the ancient prophets. And this was proper, 
and even necessary, in the best manner to 
answer the ends of prophecy, as might easily 
be shown were it necessary. The first part of 
this passage, all must allow, is figurative. Satan 
cannot be bound with a literal, material chain. 
The key, the great chain, and the seal, cannot 
be understood literally* The whole is a figure, 
and can mean no more than, that, when the 
time of the millennium arrives, or rather pre- 
vious to it, Jesus Christ will lay eff'ectual 
restraints on Satan, so that his powerful and 
prevailing influence, by v/hich he had before 
deceived and destroyed a great part of man- 
kind, shall be wholly taken from him for a 
thousand years. And it is most natural to 
understand the other part of the description 
of this remarkable event to be represented in 
the same figurative language, as the whole is 
a representation of one scene ; especially, since 
no reason can be given why it should not be 
so understood. 

2. To suppose that Christ shall come in his 
human nature to this earth, and live here in 
his whole person visible a thousand years 
before the day of judgment, appears to be con- 
trary to several passages of Scripture. The 
coming of Christ, and his appearing at the 
day of judgment in his human nature, is said 
to be his second appearance, answering to his 
first appearance, in his human nature on earth, 
from his birth to his ascension into heaven, 
which was past. " And as it is appointed 
unto men once to die, but after this the judg- 
ment : so Christ was once offered to bear the 
sins of many ; and unto them who look for 
him shall he appear the second time, without 
sin, unto salvation," Heb. ix, 27, 28. The 
appearance here spoken of is the appearance 
of Christ at the day of judgment, to complete 
the salvation of his church. This 'could not 
be his appearing the'scQond time, were he thus 
to appear, and to be bodily present in his 
human nature on earth, in the time of the 
millennium, which is to take place before the 
day of judgment. The coming of Christ does 
not always intend his coming visibly in his 
human nature ; but he is said to come, when 
he destroyed the temple and nation of the 
Jews, and appeared in favour of his church. 
So his destruction of Heathen Rome, and 
delivering his church from that persecuting 
power, was an instance of his coming. And 
he will, in the same way, come to destroy 
antichrist, and the kingdom of Satan in the 
world, and introduce the millennium ; and in 
these instances, and others, he may be said to 
appear. But his coming to judgment, and 
appearing to complete the final destruction of 
all his enemies, and to perfect the salvation 
of his church, is his last coming and appear- 
ance. But if he were here on earth, visible in 
his human nature, and reigning in his glorified 
body, during the millennium, he would be 
already here to attend the last judgment, and 
he could not be properly said to come from 
heaven, and to be revealed from heaven, be- 
cause this was done a thousand years before. 
Beside, that Christ should come from heaven, 



and appear and reign in his human nature 
and presence before the day of judgment, seems 
to be contrary to the following scriptures : 
" For the Lord himself shall descend from 
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the 
archangel, and with the trump of God: and 
the dead in Christ shall rise first." "When 
the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, 
with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking 
vengeance on them that know not God," &c. 
"When he shall come to be glorified in his- 
saints," 1 Thess. iv, 16; 2 Thess. i, 7, 8, 10. 
This is evidently his appearing the second 
time, for the salvation of all them that look 
for him ; but were he on earth before this, in 
the human nature, during the time of the mil- 
lennium, how could he be said to be revealed, 
to descend and come from heaven to judge 
the world ? 

3. There is nothing expressly said of the 
resurrection of the body in this passage. The 
Apostle John saw the souls of them which 
were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, &c, 
and they lived and reigned with Christ. The 
resurrection of the body is no where expressed 
in Scripture by the soul's living. And as 
there is nothing said of the body, and he only 
saw their souls to live : this does not appear 
to be a proper expression to denote the resur- 
rection of the body, and their living in that. 
As this, therefore, does not seem to be the 
natural meaning of the words, and certainly 
is not the necessary meaning, we are war- 
ranted to look for another meaning, and to 
acquiesce in it, if one can be found' which is 
more easy and natural, and more agreeable to 
the whole passage and to the Scripture in 
general. Therefore, 

4. The most easy and probable meaning is, 
that the souls of the martyrs, and all the faith- 
fill followers of Christ, who have lived in the 
world, and have died before the millennium 
shall commence, shall revive and live again in 
their successors, who shall rise up in the same 
spirit, and in the same character, in which 
they lived and died ; and in the revival and 
flourishing of that cause which they espoused, 
and spent their lives in promoting. This is 
therefore a spiritual resurrection, denoting that 
all Christ's people shall appear in the spirit 
and power of those martyrs and holy men, 
who had before lived in the world, and who 
shall live again in these their successors, and 
in the revival of their cause, or in the resur- 
rection of the church, from the very low state 
in which it had been before the millennium, 
to a state of great prosperity and glory. This 
is agreeable to the way of representing things 
in Scripture in other instances. John the 
Baptist was Elijah, because he rose in the 
spirit of Elijah, and promoted the same cause 
in which Elijah lived and died ; and Elijah 
revived and lived in John the Baptist, because 
he went before Christ, in the spirit and power 
of Elijah, Luke i, 17. Therefore Christ says 
of John, " This is Elijah who was to come," 
Matt, xi, 14. 

With regard to the nature of the millennial 
state, or the blessings w^iich shall be more 



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particularly enjoyed during that period, the 
following things seem to be marked out in 
prophecy : — 

1. It is expressly said of those who shall 
partake of this first resurrection, that they 
shall be "blessed and holy;" by which the 
inspired writer seems to denote that it will be 
a time of eminent holiness. This will consti- 
tute the peculiar glory and the source of the 
happiness of the millennium state, Zech. xiv, 
20, 21. And that such will be the case, we 
may infer, also, from the consideration, that, 

2. There is reason to expect a remarkable 
effusion of the Spirit, about the commence- 
ment of this happy period, even as there was 
at the first setting up of Christ's kingdom in 
the world. Beside the promises of the Spirit 
which were accomplished in ther apostolic age, 
there are others which from the connection 
appear to refer to the time we are now speak- 
ing of. Thus Isaiah, after having described 
Christ's kingdom wliich was set up at his first 
coming, and then the succeeding desolate state 
of the Jews, represents this as contimiing 
"until the Spirit be poured upon us from on 
high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and 
the fruitfiil field be counted for a forest," Isa. 
xxxii, 15-19. The Apostle Paul, speaking of 
the conversion of the Jews at this period, 
refers to a passage in Isaiah where a pro- 
mise of the Spirit is made to them: "As for 
me, this is my covenant with them, saith the 
Lord : My Spirit which is upon thee, and my 
words which I have put in thy mouth, shall 
not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the 
mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of 
thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from hence- 
forth and for ever,"' Isa. lix, 20, 21 ; Rom. xi, 
26, 27. The Lord having mentioned the for- 
lorn dispersed state of Israel throughout the 
nations, among whom they had profaned his 
name, promises to gather them., cleanse them, 
and give them a new heart and spirit, and 
adds, "And I will put my Spirit within you, 
and cause you to walk in my statutes ; and ye 
shall keep my judgments and do them," Ezek. 
xxxvi, 27 ; xxxix, 28, 29. The promise of 
pouring upon them the spirit of grace and 
supplication has also a view to this period, 
Zech. xii, 10. Though we are not to expect 
the miraculous gifts of the apostolic age, yet 
the work of the Spirit will abundantly appear 
in qualifying men for propagating the Gospel 
throughout the world, filling them with light, 
zeal, courage, and activity, in that work ; in 
giving success and effect to the Gospel by 
converting multitudes to the faith, quickening 
the dead in trespasses and sins, and translating 
them into the kingdom of Christ ; and in 
enlightening, quickening, purifying, and com- 
forting the children of God, stirring them up 
to greater liveliness, love, zeal, activity, and 
fruitfulness in his service. 

3. A universal spread of the Gospel, diffus- 
ing the knowledge of the Lord throughout 
the world in a more extensive and effectual 
manner than ever it was before. This is re- 
peatedly promised : " The earth shall be full 
of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters 



cover the sea ;" and this shall take place in 
that day when the Gentiles shall seek to the 
branch of the root of Jesse, whose rest shall 
be glorious, and when "the Lord shall set his 
hand again the second time to recover the 
remnant of his people, and shall set up an 
ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the 
outcasts of Israel, and gather together the 
dispersed of Judah, from the four corners of 
the earth," Isaiah xi, 9-12. The same promise 
of the universal knowledge of the glory of tlie 
Lord is repeated in the prophecy of Habak- 
kuk, ii, 14. This will be attended with cor- 
responding effects : " All the ends of the world 
shall remember and turn unto the Lord ; and 
all the kindreds of the nations shall worship 
before him," Psalm xxii, 27 ; yea, all kings 
shall fall down before him, " all nations shall 
serve him," Psalm Ixxii, 11. And though we 
may not imagine that all the inhabitants of 
the globe will have the true and saving know- 
ledge of the Lord ; yet we may expect such 
a universal spread of light and religious 
knowledge as shall root up Pagan, Mohamme 
dan, and antichristian delusions, and produce 
many good effects upon those who are not 
really regenerated, by awing their minds, 
taming their ferocity, improving their morals, 
and making them peaceable and humane. 

4. The Jews will then be converted to the 
faith of the Messiah, and partake with the 
Gentiles of the blessings of his kingdom. 
The Apostle Paul, in the eleventh chapter of 
his Epistle to the Romans, treats of this at 
large, and confirms it from the prophecies of 
the Old Testament. He is speaking of Israel 
in a literal sense, the natural posterity of 
Abraham ; for he distinguishes them both from 
the believing Gentiles and the Jewish converts 
of his time, and describes them as the rest who 
were blinded, had stumbled and fallen, and so 
had not obtained, but were broken off and 
cast away, Rom. xi, 7, 11, 12, 15, 17. Yet he 
denies that they have stumbled that they 
should fall, that is, irrecoverably, so as in no 
future period to be restored ; but shows that 
God's design in permitting this was, that 
through their fall salvation might come unto 
the Gentiles, and that this again might provoke 
them to jealousy or emulation, verse 11. He 
argues that if their fall and diminishing was 
the riches of the Gentiles, and the casting 
away of them was the reconciling of the world, 
their fulness will be much more so. and the 
receiving of them be life from the dead, verses 
12, 15. He farther argues, that if the Gentiles 
" were grafted contrary to nature into a good 
olive tree, how much more shall these which 
be the natural branches be grafted into their 
own olive tree ?" verse 24. Nor did he con- 
sider this event as merely probable, but as 
absolutely certain ; for he shows that the pre- 
sent blindness and future conversion of that ; 
people is the mystery or hidden sense of pro- 
phecies concerning them.; and he cites two of 
these prophecies where the context foretels 
both their rejection and recovery, Isaiah lix, 
20, 21 ; xxvii, 9. 

5. The purity of visible church communion, 



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worship, and discipline, will then be restored 
according" to the primitive apostolic pattern. 
During the reign of antichrist a corrupted 
form of Christianity v/as drawn over the na- 
tions, and established in the political constitu- 
tions of the kingdoms which were subject to 
that monstrous power. By this means the 
children of God were either mixed in visible 
religious communion with the profane world, 
in direct opposition to the word of God, or 
persecuted for their nonconformity. In refer- 
ence to this state of things, the angel com- 
mands St. John to leave out the court which 
is without the temple, and not to measure it, 
for this reason, because "it is given to the 
Gentiles ; and the holy city shall they tread 
under foot forty and two months," Rev. xi, 2 ; 
that is, they shall pollute and profane the 
worship and communion of the church during 
the one thousand two hundred and sixty years 
of antichrist's reign, so that it cannot be mea- 
sured by the rule of God's word. But when 
the period we are speaking of shall arrive, the 
sanctuary shall be cleansed, Dan. viii, 14; 
the visible communion, worship, order, and 
discipline of the house of God will then be re- 
stored to their primitive purity, and accord with 
the rule of the New Testament. So it is pro- 
raised to Zion, " Henceforth there shall no 
more come into thee the uncircumcised and 
the unclean," Isaiah lii, 1. "Thy people shall 
be all righteous ; they shall inherit the land 
for ever, the branch of my planting, the work 
of my hands, that I may be glorified," Isaiah 
Ix, 21. " And in that day there shall be no 
more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord 
of Hosts," Zech. xiv, 21. 

6. The Lord's special presence and residence 
will then be in the midst of his people. Christ 
hath promised to be with his peop'le in every 
period of the church, even unto the end of the 
world, Matt, xxviii, 20, and that he will be in 
the midst even of two or three of them when 
gathered together in his name. Matt, xviii, 20. 
He also calls them to purity of communion 
and personal holiness, and promiseth to dwell 
in them and walk in them, 2 Cor. vi, 16, 17 ; 
but this will be fulfilled in an eminent and 
remarkable manner during the millennial 
period. The Lord, having promised to raise 
Israel out of their graves, to gather them from 
among the Heathen, and bring them into the 
church and kingdom of Christ, as one fold 
having one shepherd, adds, "And I will set 
my sanctuary in the midst of them for ever- 
more ; my tabernacle also shall be with them ; 
yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my 
people," Ezek. xxxvii, 11-27. This alludes to 
his dwelling among Israel in the tabernacle 
and sanctuary of old. Lev. xxvi, 11, 12; and 
imports his manifesting himself unto them, 
admitting them into the most intimate corres- 
pondence and communion with himself in his 
ordinances, communicating light, life, and 
consolation to them by his Spirit ; and also his 
protection and care of them as his peculiar 
people. It is intimated that there will be such 
visible tokens of the divine presence and resi- 
dence among them as will fall under the notice 



of the world, and produce conviction and awe, 
as was in some measure the case in the first 
churches. Acts ii, 47; v, 11, 13; 1 Cor. xiv, 
24, 25 ; for it is added, " And the Heathen 
shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, 
when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of 
them for evermore," Ezek. xxxvii, 28. Indeed, 
this is that very promise which is represented 
to St. John as accomplished : " And I heard a 
great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the 
tabernacle of God is with men, and he will 
dwell with them, and they shall be his people, 
and God himself shall be with them, and be 
their God,»' Rev. xxi, 3. 

7. This will be a time of universal peace, 
tranquillity and safety. Persons naturally of 
the most savage, ferocious, and cruel disposi- 
tion, will then be tame and harmless ; so it is 
promised, Isaiah xi, 6-10. Whether we con- 
sider the persons represented by these hurtful 
animals to be converted or not, it is certain 
they will then be effectually restrained from 
doing harm, or persecuting the saints. There 
shall be no war nor bloodshed among the na- 
tions during this happy period ; for we are 
told, that, in the last days, when the mountain 
of the Lord's house shall be established in the 
top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above 
the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it ; 
the Lord " shall judge among the nations, and 
shall rebuke many people ; and they shall beat 
their swords into ploughshares, and their 
spears into pruning hooks ; nation shall not 
lift up sword against nation, neither shall they 
learn war any more," Isaiah ii, 4. The same 
promise is repeated word for word in the pro- 
phecies of Micah, iv, 3. Much to the same 
purpose is that promise in Hosea ii, 18. 
Though war has hitherto deluged the world 
with human blood, and been a source of com- 
plicated calamities to mankind, yet, when 
Satan is bound, his influence upon wicked 
men restrained, and the saints bear rule, it 
must necessarily cease. 

8. The civil rulers and judges shall then be 
all maintainors of peace and righteousness. 
Though Christ will put down all that rule, 
power, and authority which opposeth the 
peace and prosperity of his kingdom ; yet as 
rulers are the ordinance of God, and his mi- 
nisters for good ; as some form of government 
seems absolutely necessary to the order and 
happiness of society in this world ; it is thought 
that when the kingdoms of this world are be- 
come our Lord's and his Christ's, the promise 
will be accomplished, " I will also make thy 
officers peace, and thine exactors righteous- 
ness ;" and in consequence of this, "violence 
shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting 
nor destruction within thy borders ; but thou 
shalt call thy walls salvation, and thy gates 
praise," Isaiah Ix, 17, 18. Peace and righteous- 
ness are the two great ends of government : 
Christ himself is king of righteousness, and 
king of peace, and the civil rulers during that 
happy period will resemble him in their cha- 
racter and administration ; for then shall that 
promise be fulfilled: "In righteousness shalt 
thou be established: thou shalt be far from 



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oppression, for thou shalt not fear ; and from 
terror, for it shall not come near thee," Isaiah 
liv, 14. 

9. The saints shall then have the dominion, 
and the wicked shall be in subjection. This 
is clear from the united voice of prophecy : 
" The kingdom and dominion, and the great- 
ness of the kingdom under the wh lie heaven, 
shall be given to the people of the saints of 
the Most High," Dan. vii, 27. "The saints 
of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and 
possess the kingdom for ever," Dan. vii, 18. 
*'The meek shall inherit the earth," Matt, v, 
5 ; " shall reign on the earth," Rev. v, 10 ; 
shall reign " with Christ a thousand years," 
Rev. XX, 4 ; " they shall be priests of God, and 
of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand 
years," Rev. xx, 6. The saints -are at present 
made kings and priests unto God, a kingly 
priesthood, 1 Peter ii, 9 ; but then they shall 
be more eminently so, when, by the holiness 
of their lives, the purity of their faith and 
worship, and their diligence in promoting pure 
and undefiled religion, the earth shall be filled 
with the knowledge of the Lord. Then shall 
that promise be fully accomplished, "Ye shall 
be named the priests of the Lord ; men shall 
call you the ministers of our God," Isaiah 
Ixi, 6. "With regard to the nature of their 
reign, it will undoubtedly correspond in all 
respects with the spiritual and heavenly na- 
ture of Christ's kingdom, to the promotion of 
which all their power will be subservient. 
Those who cannot conceive of any reign upon 
eartli, but such as consists in lordly and op- 
pressive dominion, maintained by policy and 
force, and made subservient to the purposes of 
pride, ambition, avarice, and other worldly 
lusts, can have no idea at all of this reign of 
the saints with Christ, which is a reign of 
peace on earth and good will to men ; a reign 
of truth and righteousness, of true godliness 
and universal humanity. In short, it is the 
prevalence and triumph of the cause of Christ 
in this world over that of Satan and all his 
instruments. How delightful then the pros- 
pects which open upon the eye of faith in the 
prophetic vision ! Christianity prevails univer- 
sally, and the consequences are most blissful. 
Our race assumes the appearance of one vast 
virtuous and peaceful family. Our world be- 
comes the seat of one grand triumphant ador- 
ing assembly. At length the scene mingles 
with the heavens, and, rising in brightness, is 
blended with the glories on high. The mys- 
teries of God on earth are finished, the times 
of the regeneration are fulfilled. The Son of 
God descends. The scene closes with divine 
grandeur: "And I heard as it were the voice 
of a great multitude, and as the voice of many 
v/aters, and as the voice of many thunderings, 
saying, Alleluia ; for the Lord God omnipotent 
reigneth. The kingdoms of this world are 
become the kingdoms of our Lord and his 
Christ. And I saw a new heaven and a new 
eartli ; for the first heaven and the first earth 
v/ere passed away ; and there was no more 
sea. And I saw the koly city, New Jerusa- 
lem, coming down from God out of heaven. 



And I heard a great voice out of heaven, say- 
ing, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with 
men, and he will dwell with them, and they 
shall be his people, and God himself shall be 
with them, and be their God." 

MILLET, im, Ezek. iv, 9, a kind of plant 
so called from its thrusting forth such a 
quantity of grains. Thus in Latin it is called 
millium, as if one stalk bore a thousand seeds. 
It has been supposed that the dochan means 
what is now called in the east durra ; which, 
according to Niebuhr, is a sort of millet, and 
when made into bad bread with camel's milk, 
oil, butter, or grease, is almost the only food 
which is eaten by the common people in 
Arabia Felix. " I found it so disagreeable," 
says he, " that I should willingly have pre- 
ferred plain barley bread to it." This illus- 
trates the appointment of it to the Prophet 
Ezekiel as a part of his hard fare. Durra is 
also used in Palestine and Syria, and it is 
generally agreed that it yields much more than 
any other kind of grain. Hiller and Celsius 
insist that the dochan is the panic ; but For- 
skal has expressly mentioned the dokn^ holcus 
dochna, as a kind of maize, of considerable use 
in food ; and Brown, in his Travels, describes 
the mode of cultivating it. 

MILLO, a part or suburb of Jerusalem. 
" David built round about from Millo and 
inward," 2 vSam. v, 9 ; that is, he built round 
about from the place where Millo was after- 
ward erected by Solomon, or where more 
probably the senate house, or Millo of the 
Jebusites, had stood, which was pulled down 
to make room for the more sumptuous edifice 
of Solomon, to his own house ; so that David 
built from Mount Zion, quite round to the 
opposite point. Hence, the residence of 
David, even in the reign of that renowned 
monarch, began to assume the size and splen- 
dour of a city. 

MINISTER, one who attends or waits on 
another ; so we find Elisha was the minister 
of Elijah, and did him services of various kinds, ' 
2 Kings iii, 11, So Joshua was the servant 
of Moses, Exod. xxiv, 13; xxxiii, 11. And 
these persons did not by any means feel them- 
selves degraded by their stations, but in due 
time they succeeded to the oflfices of their mas- 
ters. In like manner John Mark was minister 
to Paul and Barnabas, Acts xiii, 5. Christ is 
called a minister of the true, that is, the hea- 
venly, sanctuary. The minister of the syna- 
gogue was appointed to keep the book of the 
law, to observe that those who read it, read it 
correctly, &c, Luke iv, 20. The rabbins say 
he was the same as the angel of the church, 
or overseer. Lightfoot says, Baal Aruch ex.. 
pounds the chazan, or minister of the congre- 
gation, by sheliach hat.zibbor, or angel of the 
congregation ; and from this common platform 
and constitution of the synagogue, we may 
observe the Apostle's expression of some elders 
ruling and labouring in word and doctrine, 
others in the general affairs of the synagogue- 
Ministers were servants, yet servants not 
menial, but honourable ; those who explain 
the word, and conduct the service of God ; 



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those who dispense the laws and promote the 
welfare of the community ; the holy angels 
who in obedience to the divine commands pro- 
tect, preserve, succour, and benefit the godly, 
are all ministers, beneficial ministers, to those 
who are under their charge, Heb. viii, 2 ; Exod. 
XXX, 10 ; Lev. xvi, 15 ; 1 Cor. iv, 1 ; Romans 
xiii, 6 ; Psalm civ, 4. 

MINT, Matt, xxiii, 23 ; Luke xi, 42; a gar- 
den herb well known. The law did not oblige 
the Jews to give the tithe of this sort of herbs ; 
it only required it of those things which could 
be comprehended under the name of income 
or revenue. But the Pharisees, desirous of 
distinguishing themselves by a more scrupu- 
lous and literal observance of the law than 
others, gave the tithes " of mint, anise, and 
cummin," Matt, xxiii, 23. Christ reproved 
them because that, while they were so precise 
in these lesser matters, they neglected the 
more essential commandments of the law, 
and substituted observances, frivolous and 
insignificant, in the place of justice, mercy, 
and truth. 

MIRACLES. A miracle, in the popular 
sense, is a prodigy, or an extraordinary event, 
which surprises us by its novelty. In a more 
accurate and philosophic sense, a miracle is 
an effect which does not follow from any of 
the regular laws of nature, or v/hich is incon. 
sistent with some known law of it, or contrary 
to the settled constitution and course of things. 
Accordingly, all miracles presuppose an esta- 
Wished system of nature, within the limits of 
which they operate, and with the order of 
which they disagree. Of a miracle in the 
theological sense many definitions have been 
given. That of Dr. Samuel Clarke is : "A 
miracle is a work effected in a manner unusual, 
or different from the common and regular 
method of providence, by the interposition of 
God himself, or of some intelligent agent 
superior to man, for the proof or evidence of 
some particular doctrine, or in attestation of 
the authority of some particular person." Mr. 
Hume has insidiously or erroneously main- 
tained that a miracle is contrary to experi- 
ence ; but in reality it is only different from 
experience. Experience informs us that one 
event has happened often ; testimony informs 
us that another event has happened once or 
more. That diseases should be generally 
cured by the application of external causes, 
and sometimes at the mere word of a prophet, 
and without the visible application of causes, 
are facts not inconsistent with each other in 
the nature of things themselves, nor irrecon- 
cilable according to our ideas. Each fact may 
arise from its own proper cause ; each may 
exist independently of the other ; and each is 
known by its own proper proof, whether of 
sense or testimony. As secret causes often 
produce events contrary to those we do expect 
from experience, it is equally conceivable that 
events should sometimes be produced which 
we do not expect. To pronounce, therefore, 
a miracle to be false, because it is different 
from experience is only to conclude against 
its general existence from the very circum- 



staiice which constitutes its particular naiture ; 
for if it were not different from experience, 
where would be its singularity ? or what 
particular proof could be drawn from it, 
if it happened according to the ordinary 
train of human events, or was included in the 
operation of the general laws of nature ? We 
grant that it does differ from experience ; but 
we do not presume to make our experience 
the standard of the divine conduct. He that 
acknowledges a God must, at least, admit the 
possibility of a miracle. The atheist, that 
makes him inseparable from what is called 
nature, and binds him to its law^s by an insur- 
mountable necessity ; that deprives him of will, 
and wisdom, and power, as a distinct and inde- 
pendent Being ; may deny even the very pos- 
sibility of a miraculous interposition, which 
can in any instance suspend or counteract 
those general laws by v/hich the world is 
governed. But he who allows of a First 
Cause in itself perfect and intelligent, ab- 
stractedly from those effects which his wis- 
dom and power have produced, must at the 
same time allow that this cause can be under 
no such restraints as to be debarred the liberty 
of controlling its laws as often as it sees fit. 
Surely, the Being that made the world can 
govern it, or any part of it, in such a manner 
as he pleases ; and he that constituted the very 
laws by which it is in general conducted, may 
suspend the operation of those laws in any 
given instance, or impress new powers on 
matter, in order to produce new and extra- 
ordinary effects. 

In judging of miracles there are certain 
criteria, peculiar to the subject, sufficient to 
conduct our inquiries, and warrant our deter- 
mination. Assuredly they do not appeal to 
our ignorance, for they presuppose not only 
the existence of a general order of things, but 
our actual knowledge of the appearance which 
that order exhibits, and of the secondary ma- 
terial causes from which it, in most cases, pro- 
ceeds. If a miraculous event were effected by 
the immediate hand of God, and yet bore no 
mark of distinction from the ordinary effects 
of his agency, it would impress no conviction, 
and probably awaken no attention. Our know- 
ledge of the ordinary course of things, though 
limited, is real ; and therefore it is essential to 
a miracle, both that it differ from that course, 
and be accompanied with peculiar and une- 
quivocal signs of such difference. We have 
been told that the course of nature is fixed 
and unalterable, and therefore it is not con- 
sistent with the immutability of God to per- 
form miracles. But, surely, they who reason 
in this manner beg tlie point in question. We 
have no right to assume that the Deity has 
ordained such general laws as will exclude his 
interposition ; and we cannot suppose that he 
would forbear to interfere where any important 
end could be answered. This interposition, 
though it controls, in particular cases, the 
energy, does not dilninish the utility, of those 
laws. It leaves them to fulfil their own pro- 
per purposes, and effects only a distinct pur- 
pose, for which they were not calculated. If 



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the course of nature implies the general laws 
of matter and motion, into which the most 
opposite phenomena may be resolved, it is 
certain that we do not yet know them in their 
full extent ; and, therefore, that events, which 
are related by judicious and disinterested per. 
sons, and at the same time imply no gross 
contradiction,, are possible in themselves, and 
capable of a certain degree of proof. If the 
course of nature implies the whole order of 
events which God has ordained for the govern- 
ment of the world, it includes both his ordinary 
and extraordinary dispensations, and among 
them miracles may have their place, as a part 
of the universal plan. It is, indeed, consistent 
with sound philosophy, and not inconsistent 
with pure religion, to acknowledge that they 
might be disposed- by the suprejne Being at 
the same time with the more ordinary effects 
of his power ; that their causes and occasions 
might be arranged with the same regularity ; 
and that, in reference chiefly to their concomi- 
tant circumstances of persons and times, to 
the specific ends for which they were em- 
ployed, and to our idea of the immediate ne- 
cessity there is for a divine agent, miracles 
would differ from common events, in which 
the hand of God acts as efficaciously, though 
less visibly. On this consideration of the sub- 
ject, miracles, instead of contradicting nature, 
might form a part of it. But what our limited 
reason and scanty experience may comprehend 
should never be represented as a full and exact 
view of the possible or actual varieties which 
exist in the works of God. 

2. If we be asked whether miracles are 
credible, we reply, that, abstractedly consi- 
dered, they are not incredible ; that they are 
capable of indirect proof from analogy, and 
of direct, from testimony ; that in the common 
and daily course of worldly affairs, events, the 
improbability of which, antecedently to all 
testimony, was very great, are proved to have 
happened, by the authority of competent and 
honest witnesses ; that the Christian miracles 
were objects of real and proper experience to 
those who saw them ; and that whatsoever the 
senses of mankind can perceive, their report 
may substantiate. Should it bo asked whether 
miracles were necessary, and whether the end 
proposed to be effected by them could warrant 
so immediate and extraordinary an interference 
of the Almighty, as such extraordinary opera- 
tions suppose ; to this we might answer, that, 
if the fact be established, all reasonings a priori 
concerning their necessity must be frivolous, 
and may be false. We are not capable of 
deciding on a question which, however simple 
in appearance, is yet too complex in its parts, 
and too extensive in its object, to be fully com- 
prehended by the human understanding. Whe- 
ther God could or could not have effected all 
the ends designed to be promoted by the Gos- 
pel, without deviating from the common course 
of his providence, and interfering with its gene- 
ral laws, is a speculation that a modest inquirer 
would carefully avoid ; for it carries on the 
very face of it a degree of presumption totally 
unbecoming the stale of a mortal being. In- 



finitely safer is it for us to acquiesce in what 
the Almighty has done, than to embarrass our 
minds with speculations about what he might 
have done. Inquiries of this kind are generally 
inconclusive, and always useless. They rest 
on no solid principles, are conducted by no 
fixed rules, and lead to no clear conviction. 
They begin from curiosity or vanity, they are 
prosecuted amidst ignorance and error, and 
they frequently terminate in impious presump- 
tion or universal skepticism. God is the best 
and indeed the only judge how far miracles 
are proper to promote any particular design of 
his providence, and how far that design would 
have been left unaccomplished, if common and 
ordinary methods only had been pursued. So, 
from the absence of miracles, we may conclude, 
in any supposed case, that they were not ne- 
cessary ; from their existence, supported by 
fair testimony, in any given case, we may infer 
with confidence that they are proper. A view 
of the state of the world in general, and of the 
Jewish nation in particular, and an examina- 
tion of the nature and tendency of the Chris- 
tian religion, will point out very clearly the 
great expediency of a miraculous interposition ; 
and when we reflect on the gracious and im- 
portant ends that were to be effected by it, we 
shall be convinced that it was not an idle and 
useless display of divine power ; but that while 
the means effected and confirmed the end, the 
end fully justified and illustrated the means. 
If we reflect on the almost irresistible force of 
prejudice, and the strong opposition it uni- 
versally made to the establishment of a new 
religion on the demolition of rites and cere- 
monies, which authority had made sacred,, and 
custom had familiarized ; if we reflect on the 
extent and importance^ as well as the singu- 
larity, of the Christian plan ; what was its 
avowed purpose to effect, and what difficulties 
it was necessarily called to struggle with be- 
fore that purpose could be effected ; how much 
it was opposed by the opinions and the prac- 
tice of the generality of mankind, by philoso- 
phy, by superstition, by corrupt passions and 
inveterate habits, by pride and sensuality, in 
short, by every engine of human influence, 
v/hether formed by craft, or aided by power ; — 
if we seriously reflect on these things, and give 
them their due force, (and experience shows 
us that we can scarcely give them too much,) 
we shall be induced to admit even the necessity 
of a miraculous interposition, at a time when 
common means must inevitably, in our appre- 
hensions, have failed of success. 

The revelation of the divine will by inspired 
persons is, as such, miraculous ; and therefore, 
before the adversaries of the Gospel can employ 
with propriety their objections to the particu- 
lar miracles on which its credibility is based, 
they should show the impossibility of any reve- 
lation. In whatever age the revelation is 
given, succeeding ages can know it only from 
testimony ; and, if they admit, on the report 
of their fellow creatures, that God had inspired 
any being with the preternatural knowledge 
of his will, why sliould they deny that he had 
enabled the same being to heal the sick, or t« 



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cleanse the leprous ? How, may it be asked, 
should the divine Teacher give a more direct 
and consistent proof of his preternatural com- 
mission, than by displaying those signs and 
vi^onders which mark the finger of God ? That 
the Apostles could not be deceived, and that 
they had no temptation to deceive, has been 
repeatedly demonstrated. So powerful, indeed, 
is the proof adduced in support of their testi- 
mony, that the infidels of these later days 
have been obliged to abandon the ground on 
which their predecessors stood ; to disclaim all 
moral evidences arising from the character 
and relation of eye-witnesses ; and to maintain, 
upon metaphysical, rather than historical, 
principles, that miracles are utterly incapable, 
in their own nature, of existing in any circum- 
stances, or of being supported by any evidence. 

Miracles may be classed under two heads : 
those which consist in a train or combination 
of events, which distinguish themselves from 
the ordinary arrangements of Providence ; and 
those particular operations which are perform- 
ed by instruments and agents incompetent to 
effect them without a preternatural power. In 
the conduct of Providence respecting the Jew- 
ish people, from the earliest periods of their 
existence, as a distinct class of society, to the 
present time, we behold a singularity of cir- 
cumstance and procedure which we cannot 
account for on common principles. Compar- 
ing their condition and situation with that of 
other nations, we can meet with nothing simi- 
lar to it in the history of mankind. So re- 
markable a difference, conspicuous in every 
revolution of their liistory, could not have sub- 
sisted through mere accident. There must 
have been a cause adequate to so extraordinary 
an effect. Now, what should this cause be, 
but an interposition of Providence in a man- 
ner different from the course of its general 
government ? For the phenomenon cannot be 
explained by an application of those general 
causes and effects that operate in other cases. 
The original propagation of Christianity was 
likewise an event which clearly discovered a 
miraculous interposition. The circumstances 
which attended it were such as cannot ration- 
ally be accounted for on any other postula- 
tum. (See the article Christianity.) It may 
now be observed, that the institutions of the 
law and the Gospel may not only appeal for 
their confirmation to a train of events which, 
taken in a general and combined view, point 
out an extraordinary designation, and vindi- 
cate their claim to a divine authority ; but also 
to a number of particular operations which, 
considered distinctly, or in a separate and de- 
tached light, evidently display a supernatural 
power, immediately exerted on the occasion. 

Since Christ himself constantly appealed to 
these works as the evidences of his divine mis- 
sion and character, , we may briefly examine 
how far they justified and confirmed his preten- 
sions. That our Lord laid the greatest stress on 
the evidence they afforded ; nay, that he con- 
sidered that evidence as sufficient to authenti- 
cate his claims to the office of the Messiah 
with all reasonable and well disposed inquirers, 



is manifest not only from his own words, John 
X, 25, but also from a great variety of other 
passages in the evangelists. Thus, when the 
disciples of John were sent to Christ, to re- 
ceive from his own lips the most satisfactory 
proofs of his divine mission, he referred them 
to his miracles. " Go," said he, " and show 
to John again those things which ye hear and 
see : the blind receive their sight, the lame 
walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, 
and the dead are raised up," Matt, xi, 4, 5. 
Again : "If I do not the works of my Father, 
believe me not : but if I do, though ye believe 
not me, believe the works," John x, 37. This 
appeal to miracles was founded on the follow- 
ing just and obvious grounds : — 

First : That they are visible proofs of divine 
approbation, as well as of divine power : for it 
would have been quite inconclusive to rest an 
appeal on the testimony of the latter, if it had 
not at the same time included an evidence of 
the former ; and it was, indeed a natural in- 
ference, that working of miracles, in defence 
of a particular cause, was the seal of Heaven 
to the truth of that cause. To suppose the 
contrary, would be to suppose that God not 
only permitted^ his creatures to be deceived, 
but that he deviated from the ordinary course 
of his providence, purposely with a view to 
deceive them. The conclusion which the man 
whom our Saviour restored to sight drew from 
this miracle was exceedingly just, and founded 
on the common sentiments and impressions of 
the human heart. " We know," says he, *' that 
God heareth not sinners : but if any man be a 
worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he 
heareth. Since the world began was it not 
heard that any man opened the eyes of one that 
was born blind. If this man were not of God, 
he could do nothing," John ix, 31-33. If the 
cause which our Saviour was engaged in had 
not been approved of by God, it would not 
have been honoured with the seal of miracles : 
for the divine power can never be supposed to 
counteract the divine will. This would be to 
set his nature at variance with itself; and, by 
destroying his simplicity, would destroy his 
happiness, and terminate in confiision and 
misery. Hence we may justly reject, as incre- 
dible, those miracles which have been ascribed 
to the interposition of wicked spirits. The 
possibility of their interference is a mere hypo- 
thesis, depending upon gratuitous assumption, 
and leading to very dangerous consequences; 
and the particular instances in which credulous 
superstition, or perverted philosophy, has sup- 
posed them to interfere, are, as facts, destitute 
of any clear and solid evidence; or, as effects, 
often resolvable into natural causes. 

Secondly : When our Lord appealed to his 
miracles, as proofs of his divine mission, it 
presupposed that those miracles were of such 
a nature as would bear the strictest examina- 
tion; that they had all those criteria which 
could possibly distinguish them from the delu- 
sions of enthusiasm, and the artifices of im- 
posture ; else the appeal would have been fal- 
lacious and equivocal. He appealed to them 
with ail the confidence of an upright mind, 



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totally possessed with a consciousness of their 
truth and reality. This appeal was not drawn 
out into any laboured argument, nor adorned 
by any of the embellishments of language. It 
was short, simple, and decisive. lie neither 
reasoned nor declaimed on their nature or their 
design : he barely pointed to them as plain and 
indubitable facts, such as spoke their own 
meaning, and carried with them their own 
authority. The miracles which our Lord per- 
formed were too public to be suspected of im. 
posture ; and, being objects of sense, they were 
secured against the charge of enthusiasm. An 
impostor would not have acted so absurdly as 
to have risked his credit on the performance 
of what, he must have known, it was not in 
his power to effect ; and though an enthusi- 
ast, from the warmth of imagination, might 
have flattered himself with a full persuasion 
of his being able to perform some miraculous 
work ; yet, when the trial was referred to an 
object of sense, the event must soon have ex- 
posed the delusion. The impostor would not 
have dared to say to the blind. Receive thy 
sight ;■ to the deaf, Hear ; to the dumb. Speak ; 
to the dead. Arise ; to the raging of the sea. 
Be still ; lest he should injure the credit of his 
cause, by undertaking more than he could per- 
form ; and though the enthusiast, under the 
delusion of his passions, might have confident- 
ly commanded disease to fly, and the powers 
of nature to be subject to his control ; yet 
their obedience Avould not have followed his 
command. 

The miracles of Christ then were such as an 
impostor would not have attempted, and such 
as an enthusiast could not have effected. They 
had no disguise ; and were in a variety of 
instances of such a nature as to preclude the 
very possibility of collusion. They were per- 
formed in the midst of his bitterest enemies ; 
and were so palpable and certain, as to extort 
the following acknowledgment even from 
persons who were most eager to oppose his 
doctrines, and to discredit his pretensions : 
" This man doeth many miracles. If we let 
him thus alone, all men will believe on him," 
John xi, 47, 48. The miracles Christ per- 
formed were indeed sufficient to alarm the 
fears of those whose downfall was involved in 
his success. And it was impossible for them 
to deny the facts, which so many thousands 
were ready to attest on evidence too certain to 
admit even the possibility of mistake, delusion, 
or imposture. But his enemies, who admitted 
their reality and yet resisted their design, by 
not acknowledging the person who wrought 
them to be the Messiah, had recourse to the 
most impious and most absurd suppositions, 
in order to evade their evidence. The Hea. 
then imputed them to some occult power of 
magic : and thus applied what has no exist- 
ence in nature, in order to account for a phe- 
nomenon that existed out of its common 
course. The stories of the Jews, who con- 
fessed the miracles, but denied what they 
were intended to establish, are too ridiculous 
to be mentioned. We must not, however, 
omit to take notice of the wicked and bias- 
43 



phemous cavil of the Pharisees, and the noble 
reply which our Lord made to it. They could 
not deny the fact, but they imputed it to the 
agency of an infernal spirit : " This fellow," 
said they, " doth not cast out devils, but by 
Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. And 
Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto 
them. Every kingdom divided against itself is 
brought to desolation ; and every city or house 
divided against itself shall not stand : and if 
Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against 
himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?" 
Matt, xii, 24-26. The purity of the doctrine 
which was taught by our blessed Lord was 
totally adverse to the kingdom of darkness. 
It tended to overthrow it, by the introduction 
of principles far different from those which 
Satan would inspire, and by prosecuting objects 
totally opposite to those which that wicked 
and malignant spirit would tempt us to pursue : 
so that in proportion to the prevalence of the 
kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of Satan 
would of course be diminished. Now, sup- 
posing miracles to be in the power of an 
infernal spirit, can it be imagined that he would 
communicate an ability of performing them 
to persons who were counteracting his designs ? 
Would he by them give credit to a cause that 
tended to bring his own into disgrace ? Thus, 
as our Saviour appealed to miracles as proofs 
of his power ; so he appealed to the inherent 
worth and purity of the doctrines they were 
intended to bear witness to, as a proof that the 
power was of God. In this manner do the 
external and internal evidences give and 
receive mutual confirmation and mutual lustre. 
The truth of the Christian religion does 
not, however, wholly depend on tlae miracles 
wrought by its divine Founder, though suf- 
ficient in themselves to establish his claims : 
but, in order to give the evidence of miracles 
the strongest force they could possibly acquire, 
that evidence was extended still farther; and 
the same power that our Lord possessed was 
communicated to his disciples, and their more 
immediate successors. While yet on earth he 
imparted to them this extraordinary gift, as 
the seal of their commission, when he sent 
them to preach the Gospel : and afler his 
glorious resurrection and ascension into hea- 
ven, they were endowed with powers yet more 
stupendous. Sensible of the validity of this 
kind of evidence, the Apostles of our Lord, 
with the saine artless simplicity, and the same 
boldness of conscious integrity, which distin- 
guished their great Master, constantly insisted 
upon the miracles they wrought, as strong and 
undeniable proofs of the truth of their doctrines. 
Thus the miracles of our blessed Lord may be 
justly considered as the evidence of his divine 
mission and character. If we consider their 
nature, their greatness, and their number ; and 
if to this consideration we add that which 
respects their end and design, we must acknow- 
ledge that no one could have performed them, 
unless God was wnth him. They were too public 
to be the artifices of imposture ; too substantial 
and too numerous to afford the slightest sus. 
picion of undesigned and fortuitous coinci» 



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dence. In a word, supposing that the Most 
High should in any instance so far counteract 
the common laws of nature, as to produce a 
miracle ; and should design that miracle as a 
monument to future times of the truth of any 
peculiar doctrine, we cannot conceive any 
mode of communicating it more effectual than 
that which he has chosen. Stronger proofs 
could not be afforded, consistently with the 
design of the Gospel, which is not to over- 
power our understandings by an irresistible 
and compulsory light, but to afford us such 
rational evidence as is sufficient to satisfy 
moral inquirers, who are endowed with facul- 
ties to perceive the truth ; but at the same 
time who also have power totally to resist it, 
and finally to forfeit all its blessings. These 
miracles were of a nature too palpable to be 
mistaken. They were the objects of sense, 
and not the precarious speculations of reason 
concerning what God might do ; or the chi- 
merical suggestions of fancy concerning what 
he did. The facts were recorded by those who 
must have known whether they were true or 
false. The persons who recorded them were 
under no possible temptations to deceive the 
world. We can only account for their conduct 
on the supposition of their most perfect con- 
viction and disinterested zeal. That they 
should assert what they knew to be false; 
that they should publish it with so much 
ardour ; that they should risk every thing dear 
to humanity, in order to maintain it; and at 
last submit to death, in order to attest their 
persuasion of its truth in those moments when 
imposture usually drops its mask, and enthu- 
siasm loses its confidence ; that they should 
act thus in opposition to every dictate of com- 
mon sense, and every principle of common 
honesty, every restraint of shame, and every 
impulse of selfishness, is a phenomenon not 
less irreconcilable to the moral state of things 
than miracles are to the natural constitution 
of the world. Falsehood naturally entangles 
men in contradiction, and confounds them 
with dismay : but the love of truth invigorates 
the mind ; the consciousness of integrity anti- 
cipates the approbation of God; and conscience 
creates a fortitude, to which mere unsupported 
nature is often a stranger. 

3. How long miracles were continued in 
the church, has been a matter of keen dispute, 
and has been investigated with as much anxiety 
as. if the truth of the Gospel depended upon the 
manner in which it was decided. Assuming, 
as we are here warranted to do, that real 
miraculous power was conveyed in the way 
detailed by the inspired writers, it is plain, 
that it may have been exercised in different 
countries, and may have remained, without any 
new communication of it, throughout the first, 
and a considerable part of the second century. 
The Apostles, wherever they went to execute 
their commission, would avail themselves of 
the stupendous gift which had been imparted 
to them; and it is clear, not only that they 
were permitted and enabled to convey it to 
others, but tliat spiritual gifts, including the 
power of working miracles, wert^ actually con- 



ferred on many of the primitive disciples 
Allusions to this we find in the- epistles of St. 
Paul ; such allusions, too, as it is utterly incon- 
ceivable that any man of a sound judgment 
could have made, had he not known that he 
was referring to an obvious fact, about which 
there could be no hesitation. Of the time at 
which several of the Apostles died, we have 
no certain knowledge. St. Peter and St. Paul 
suffered at Rome about A. D. 66, or 67 ; and 
it is fully established, that the life of John was 
much longer protracted, he having died a 
natural death, A. D. 100, or 101. Supposing 
that the two former of these Apostles imparted 
spiritual gifts till the time of their suffering 
martyrdom, the persons to whom they were 
imparted might, in the course of nature, have 
lived through the earlier part of the second 
century ; and if John did the same till the end 
of his life, such gifts as were derived from him 
might have remained till more than the half 
of that century had elapsed. That such was 
the fact, is asserted by ancient ecclesiastical 
writers. Whether, after the generation imme- 
diately succeeding the Apostles had passed 
away, the power of working miracles was 
anew communicated, is a question, the solu. 
tion of which cannot be nearly so satisfactory. 
The probability is, that there was no such 
renewal ; and this opinion rests upon the 
ground that natural causes were now sufficient 
to accomplish the end for which miracles were 
originally designed ; and it does not appear to 
have been any part of the scheme of the blessed 
Author of our religion, that, solely for the 
purpose of hastening that conversion of the 
nations which might gradually be accom- 
plished, miracles should be wrought, when 
these could be of no use in establishing after 
ages in the faith. 

MIRACULOUS CONCEPTION. By this 
is meant, that the human nature of Jesus 
Christ was formed, not in the ordinary method 
of generation, but out of the substance of the 
Virgin Mary, by the immediate operation of 
the Holy Ghost. The evidence upon which 
this article of the Christian faith rests is found 
in Matt, i, 18-23, and in the more particular 
narration which St. Luke has given in the 
first chapter of his Gospel. If we admit this 
evidence of the fact, we can discern the em- 
phatical meaning of the appellation given to 
our Saviour when he is called " the seed of 
the woman," Gen. iii, 15 ; we can perceive 
the meaning of a phrase which St. Luke has 
introduced into the genealogy of Jesus, Luke 
iii, 23, and of which, otherwise, it is not pos- 
sible to give a good account, wv, wj ivojii^eTo, 
vidi 'lwff^0 ; [being, as was supposed, the son 
of Joseph ;] and we can discover a peculiar 
significancy in an expression of the Apostle 
Paul, Gal. iv, 4, " God sent forth his Son, 
made of a woman." The conception of Jesus 
is the point from which we date the union 
between his divine and human nature ; and, 
tliis conception being miraculous, the exist- 
ence of the person in whom they are united, 
was not physically derived from Adam. But, 
as Dr. Horsley speaks in his sermon on the 



MIR 



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MIS 



incarnation, the union with the uncreated 
Word is the very principle of personality and 
individual existence in the son of Mary. 
According to this view of the matter, the 
miraculous conception gives a completeness 
and consistency to the revelation concerning 
Jesus Christ. Not only is he the Son of God, 
but, as the Son of man, he is exalted above 
liis brethren, while he is made like them. He 
is preserved from the contamination adhering 
to the race whose nature he assumed ; and 
when the only begotten Son, who is in the 
bosom of the Father, was made flesh, the 
ifitercourse w^hich, as man, he had w^th God, 
is distinguished, not in degree only, but in 
kind, from that which any prophet ever en- 
joyed, and it is infinitely more intimate, because 
it did not consist in communications occasion- 
ally made to him, but arose from the manner 
in which his human nature had its existence. 

MIRIAM, sister of Moses and Aaron, and 
daughter of Amram and Jochebed, was born 
about A. M. 2424. She might be ten or twelve 
years old when her brother Moses was exposed 
on the banks of the Nile, since Miriam was 
watching there, and offered herself to Pha. 
raoh's daughter to fetch her a nurse. The 
princess accepting the offer, Miriam fetched 
her own mother, to whom the young Moses 
was given to nurse, Exod. ii, 4, 5, &c. It is 
thought that Miriam married Hur, of the tribe 
of Judah ; but it does not appear that she had 
any children by him, Exod. xvii, 10, 11, Mi- 
riam had the gift of prophecy, as she intimates. 
Num. xii, 2 : " Hath the Lord indeed spoken 
only by Moses ? hath he not spoken also by 
us ?" After the passage of the Red Sea, 
Miriam led the choirs and dances of the wo- 
men, and sung with them the canticle, " Sing 
ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed glori- 
ously ; the horse and his rider hath he thrown 
into the sea :" while Moses led the choir of 
men, Exod. xv, 21. When Zipporah, the 
wife of Moses, arrived in the camp of Israel, 
Miriam and Aaron disputed with her, speaking 
against Moses on her account, Num. xii. This 
conduct the Lord punished by visiting Miriam 
with a leprosy. Aaron interceded with Moses 
for her recovery, and besought the Lord, who 
ordered her to be shut out of the camp seven 
days. We are acquainted with no subsequent 
particulars of the life of Miriam. Her death 
happened in the first month of the fortieth 
year after the exodus, at the encampment of 
Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, Num. xx, 1. 
The people mourned for her, and she was there 
buried. 

MIRRORS, usually, but improperly, ren- 
dered looking glasses. The eastern mirrors 
were made of polished metal, and for the most 
part convex. So Callimachus describes Venus 
as " taking the shining brass," that is, to adjust 
her hair. If they were thus made in the coun- 
try of Elihu, the image made use of by him 
will appear very lively : " Hast thou with him 
spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a 
molten looking glass ?" Job xxxvii, 18. Shaw 
informs us that " in the Levant, looking glasses 
are a part of female dress. The Moorish 



women in Barbary are so fond of their orna- 
ments, and particularly of their looking glasses, 
which they hang upon their breasts, that they 
will not lay them aside, even when, after the 
drudgery of the day, they are obliged to go 
two or three miles with a pitcher or a goat's 
skin, to fetch water." The Israelitish women 
used to carry their mirrors with them, even to 
their most solemn place of worship. The 
word mirror should be used in the passages 
here referred to. To speak of "looking 
glasses made of steel," and " glasses molten," 
is palpably absurd ; whereas the term mirror 
obviates every difficulty, and expresses the true 
meaning of the original. 

MISHNA, or MISNA, njti'D, signifies repe- 
tition, and is properly the code of the Jewish 
civil law. The IVIishna contains the text ; and 
the Gemara, which is the second part of the 
Talmud, contains the commentaries : so that 
the Gemara is, as it were, a glossary on the 
Mishna. The Mishna consists of various tra- 
ditions of the Jews, and of explanations of 
several passages of Scripture. These tradi- 
tions, serving as an explication of the written 
law, and supplementary to it, are said to have 
been delivered to Moses during the time of his 
abode upon the mount ; which he afterward 
communicated to Aaron, Eleazar, and his serv- 
ant Joshua. By these they were transmitted 
to the seventy elders ; by them to the prophets, 
who communicated them to the men of the 
great sanhedrim, from whom the wise men 
of Jerusalem and Babylon received them. 
According to Dr. Prideaux, they passed from 
Jeremiah to Baruch, from him to Ezra, and 
from Ezra to the men of the great synagogue, 
the last of whom was Simon the Just, who' 
delivered them to Antigonus of Socho. From- 
him they came down in regular succession to 
Simeon, who took our Saviour in his arms ; 
to Gamaliel, at whose feet St. Paul was brought 
up ; and last of all to rabbi Judah the holy, 
who committed them to writing in the Mishna. 
Dr. Prideaux, rejecting this Jewish fiction, 
observes, that after the death of Simon the 
Just, about B. C. 299, arose the Tannaun or 
Mishnical doctors, who by their connnents and 
conclusions, added to the number of those 
traditions which had been received and allowed 
by Ezra and the men of the great synagogue. 
Hence toward the middle of the second cen- 
tury after Christ, under the reign of the Roman 
Emperor Antoninus Pius, it was found neces. 
sary to commit these traditions to writing. This 
was requisite, because the traditions had been 
so much increased that they could no longer 
be preserved by the memory of man ; and also 
because their country had suffered considerably 
in the reign of the Emperor Adrian, and many 
of their schools being dissolved, and their 
learned men cut off, the usual method of 
preserving their traditions had failed. Lest, 
therefore, the traditions should be forgotten 
and lost, it was resolved that they should be 
collected and committed to writing. Rabbi 
Judah, who was at that time rector of the 
school at Tiberias in Galilee, and president of 
the sanhedrim at that place, undertook the^ 



MIZ 



660 



MIZ 



work. He compiled it in six books, each con- 
sisting of several tracts, which altogether form 
the number of sixty-three. Dr. Prideaux com- 
V putes, that the Mishna was composed about 
A. D. 150. Dr. Lightfoot, however, says, that 
rabbi Judah compiled the Mishna about A. D. 
190, in the latter end of the reign of Commo. 
dus ; or, as some compute, A. D. 220. Dr. 
Lardner is of opinion, that this work could not 
have been finished before A. D. 190, or later. 
Thus the book called the Mishna was formed ; 
a book which was received by the Jews with 
great veneration, and which has been always 
held in high esteem among them. Their opi- 
nion of it is, that all the particulars which it 
contains were dictated by God himself to Mo- 
ses upon Mount Sinai, as well as the written 
word itself; and, consequently, that it must 
be of the same divine authority, and ought to 
be as religiously observed. See Cabbala, Ge- 
MARA, Jews, 

MITE. See Money. 

MITYLENE, the capital of the island of 
Lesbos, through which St. Paul passed as he 
went from Corinth to Jerusalem, Acts xx, 14. 
MIZPAH, or MIZPEH, a city of the tribe 
of Benjamin, situated in a plain, about eigh- 
teen miles west of Jerusalem. Here Samuel 
dwelt ; and here he called Israel together, to 
observe a solemn fast for their sins, and to 
supplicate God for his assistance against the 
Philistines; after which they sallied out on 
their enemies, already discomfited by the thun- 
ders of heaven, and gave them a total defeat, 
1 Sam. vii. Here, also, Saul was anointed 
king, 1 Sam. x, 17-25. It appears that be- 
tween this and the time of Asa, king of Judah, 
Mizpah had suffered probably in some of the 
intervening wars, as we are told that Asa built 
it with the stones and timber of Ramah, 
1 Kings XV, 22. There was another Mizpeh 
in Gilead ; on the spot where Jacob set up the 
pillar or heap of stones, to commemorate the 
covenant there made between him and Laban, 
Gen.xxxi, 49. {See Gilead.) There was also 
a third Mizpeh, in the land of Moab, where 
David placed his father and mother, while he 
remained in his retreat at Adullam, 1 Sam. 
xxii, 3. It is to be observed, that Mizpeh 
implies a beacon or watch tower, a pillar or 
heap of commemoration ; and at all the places 
bearing this name, it is probable that a single 
pillar, or a rude pile, was erected as the witness 
and the record of some particular event. 
These, subsequently, became altars and places 
of convocation on public occasions, religious 
and civil. 

MIZRAIM, or MESRAIM, son of Ham, 
and father of Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, 
Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, and Casluhim, Gen. 
X, 6. Meser or Misor was father of the 
Mizraim, tlie Egyptians ; and he himself is 
commonly called Mizraim, although there is 
very strong probability that Mizraim, being of 
the plural rmmber, signifies rather tlie Egyp- 
tians themselves, than the father of that people. 
Mizraim is also put for the country of Egypt : 
thus it has three significations, which are per- 
petually confounded and used promiscuously, 



sometimes denoting the land of Egypt, some- 
times him who first peopled Egypt, and some- 
times the inhabitants themselves. Cairo, the 
capital of Egypt, and even Egypt itself, are to 
this day called Mezer by the Arabians. But 
the natives call Egypt Chemi, that is, the land 
of Cham, or Ham, as it is also sometimes called 
in Scripture, Psalm Ixxviii, 12 ; cv, 23 ; cvi, 22. 
The Prophet Micah, vii, 15, gives to Egypt 
the name of Mezor, or Matzor ; and rabbi 
Kimchi, followed in this by several learned 
commentators, explains by Egypt what is said 
of the rivers of Mezor, 2 Kings xix, 24 ; Isaiah 
xix, 6; xxxvii, 25. 

Moab was the son of Lot, and of his eldest 
daughter. Gen. xix, 31, &c. He was born 
about the same time as Isaac, A. M. 2108, and 
was father of the Moabites, whose habitation 
lay beyond Jordan and the Dead Sea, on both 
sides of the river Arnon. Their capital city 
was situated on that river, and was called Ar 
or Areopolis, or Ariel of Moab, or Kabbah 
Moab, that is, the capital of Moab, or Kir- 
haresh, that is, a city with brick walls. This 
country was originally possessed by a race of 
giants called Emim, Deut. ii, 11, 12. The 
Moabites conquered them, and afterward the 
Amorites took a part from the Moabites, Judges 
xi, 13. Moses conquered that part which 
belonged to the Amorites, and gave it to the 
tribe of Reuben. The Moabites were spared 
by Moses, for God had restricted him, Deut. 
ii, 9. But there always was a great antipa- 
thy between the Moabites and the Israel- 
ites, which occasioned many wars between 
them. Balaam seduced the Hebrews to idola- 
try and un cleanness, by means of the daughters 
of Moab, Num. xxv, 1, 2 ; and Balak, king of 
this people, endeavoured to prevail on Balaam 
to curse Israel. God ordained that the Moabites 
should not enter into the congregation of his 
people, because they had the inhumanity to 
refuse the Israelites a passage through their 
country, nor would they supply them with 
bread and water in their necessity. Eglon, 
king of the Moabites, was one of the first that 
oppressed Israel after the death of Joshua. 
Ehud killed Eglon, and Israel expelled the 
Moabites, Judges iii, 12, &c. Hanun kmg of 
the Ammonites having insulted David's am- 
bassadors, David made war against him, and 
subdued Moab and Ammon ; under which sub- 
jection they continued till the separation of 
the ten tribes. The Ammonites and the 
Moabites continued in subjection to the kings 
of Israel to the death of Ahab. Presently 
after the death of Ahab the Moabites began to 
revolt, 2 Kings iii, 4, 5. Mesha, king of Moab, 
refused the tribute of a hundred thousand 
lambs, and as many rams, which till then had 
been customarily paid, either yearly, or at the 
beginning of every reign ; which of these two 
is not clearly expressed in Scripture. The 
reign of Ahaziah was too short to make war 
with them ; but Jehoram, son of Ahab, and 
brother to Aliaziah, having ascended the 
throne, thought of reducing them to obedience. 
He invited Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, who, 
with the king of Edom, then his vassal, en- 



MOA 



661 



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tered Moab, where they were near perishing 
with thirst, but were miraculously relieved, 
2 Kings iii, 16, &c. 

It is not easy to ascertain what were the 
circumstances of the Moabites from this time ; 
but Isaiah, at the beginning of the reign of 
King Hezekiah, threatens them with a calami- 
ty, Avhich was to happen three years after his 
prediction, and which probably referred to the 
war that Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, made 
with the ten tribes and the other people be- 
yond Jordan. Amos, i, 13, ,&,c, also foretold 
great miseries to them, which, probably, they 
suffered under Uzziah and Jothan, kings of Ju- 
dah, or under Shalmaneser, 2 Chron. xxvi, 7, 8 ; 
xxvii, 5 ; or, lastly, in the war of Nebuchad- 
nezzar, five years after the destruction of Je- 
rusalem. This prince carried them captive 
beyond the Euphrates, as the prophets had 
threatened, Jer. ix, 26; xii, 14, 15; xxv, 11, 
12 ; xlviii, 47, &c ; xlix, 3, 6, 39 ; 1, 16 ; and 
Cyrus sent them home again, as he did the rest 
of the captives. After their return from cap- 
tivity they multiplied, and fortified themselves, 
as the Jews did, and other neighbouring peo- 
ple, still in subjection to the kings of Persia. 
They were afterward conquered by Alexander 
the Great, and were in obedience to the kings 
of Syria and Egypt successively, and finally to 
the Romans. There is a probability, also, that 
in the later times of the Jewish republic they 
obeyed the Asmonean kings, and afterward 
Herod the Great. The principal deities of the 
Moabites were Chemosh and Baal.peor. 

The prophecies concerning Moab are nu- 
merous and remarkable. There are, says Keith, 
abundant predictions which refer so clearly to 
its modern state, that there is scarcely a single 
feature peculiar to the land of Moab, as it now 
exists, which was not marked by the prophets 
in their delineation of the low condition to 
which, from the height of its wickedness and 
haughtiness, it was finally to be brought down. 
The land of Moab lay to the east and south- 
east of Judea, and bordered on the east, north- 
east, and partly on the south of the Dead Sea. 
Its early history is nearly analogous to that 
of Amraon ; and the soil, though perhaps more 
diversified, is, in many places where the desert 
and plains of salt have not encroached on its 
borders, of equal fertility. There are manifest 
and abundant vestiges of its ancient greatness : 
the whole of the plains are covered with the 
sites of towns, on every eminence or spot con- 
venient for the construction of one ; and as the 
land is capable of rich cultivation, there can 
be no doubt that the country now so deserted 
once presented a continued picture of plenty 
and fertility. The form of fields is still visible ; 
and there are the remains of Roman highways, 
which in some places are completely paved, 
and on which there are mile stones of the times 
of Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, and Severus, with 
the number of the miles legible upon them. 
Wherever any spot is cultivated the corn is 
luxuriant ; and the riches of the soil cannot 
perhaps be more clearly illustrated than by the 
fact, that one grain of Heshbon wheat exceeds 
in dimensions two of the ordinary sort, and 



more than double tlie number of grains grow 
on the stalk. The frequency, and almost, in 
many instances, the close vicinity of the sites 
of the ancient towns, prove that the popula- 
tion of the country w^as formerly proportioned 
to its natural fertility. Such evidence may 
surely sufiice to prove that the country was 
well cultivated and peopled at a period so long 
posterior to the date of the predictions, that no 
cause less than supernatural could have exist- 
ed at the time when they were delivered, which 
could have authorized the assertion with the 
least probability or apparent possibility of its 
truth, that Moab would ever have been reduced 
to that state of great and permanent desolation 
in which it has continued for so many ages, 
and which vindicates and ratifies to this hour 
the truth of the Scriptural prophecies. The 
cities of Moab were to be " desolate without 
any to dwell therein ;" no city was to escape : 
Moab was to " flee away." And the cities of 
Moab have all disappeared. Their place, to- 
gether with the adjoining part of Idumea, is 
characterized, in the map of Volney's Travels, 
by the ruins of towns. His information re. 
specting these ruins was derived from some of 
the wandering Arabs ; and its accuracy has 
been fially corroborated by the testimony of 
difierent European travellers of highrespecta. 
bility and undoubted veracity, who have since 
visited this devastated region. The whole 
country abounds with ruins ; and Burckhardt, 
who encountered many difiiculties in so deso- 
late and dangerous a land, thus records the 
brief history of a few of them : " The ruins of 
Eleale, Heshbon, Meon, Medaba, Dibon, Aroer, 
still subsist to illustrate the history of the Beni 
Israel." And it might with equal truth have 
been added, that they still subsist to confirm 
the inspiration of the Jewish Scriptures, or to 
prove that the seers of Israel were the prophets 
of God ; for the desolation of each of these 
very cities was a theme of a prediction. Every 
thing worthy of observation respecting them 
has been detailed, not only in Burckhardt's 
" Travels in Syria," but also by Seetzen, and, 
more recently, by Captains Irby and Mangles, 
who, along with Mr. Bankes and Mr. Leigh, 
visited this deserted district. The predicted 
judgment has fallen with such truth upon these 
cities, and upon all the cities of the land of 
Moab far and near, and they are so utterly 
"broken down," that even the prying curiosi- 
ty of such indefatigable travellers could dis- 
cover among a multiplicity of ruins only a few 
remains so entire as to be worthy of particular 
notice. The subjoined description is drawn 
from their united testimony : Among the ruins 
of El Aal (Eleale) are a number of large cis- 
terns, fragments of buildings, and foundations 
of houses. At Heshban, (Heshbon,) are the 
ruins of a large ancient town, together with 
the remains of a temple, and some edifices. 
A few broken shafts of columns are still stand- 
ing ; and there are a number of deep wells cut 
in the rock. The ruins of Medeba are about 
two miles in circumference. There are many 
remains of the walls of private houses con- 
structed with blocks of silex, but not a single 



MOA 



662 



MOA 



edifice is stai\ding. The chief object of inte- 
rest is an immense tank or cistern of hewn 
stones, "vv^hich, as there is no stream at Me- 
deba," Burckhardt remarks, "might still be 
of use to the Bedouins, were the surrounding 
ground cleared of the rubbish to allow the wa- 
ter to flow into it ; but such an undertaking is 
far beyond the views of the wandering Arabs." 
There is also the foundation of a temple built 
with large stones, and apparently of great an- 
tiquity, with two columns near it. The ruins 
of Diban, (Dibon,) situated in the midst of a 
fine plain, are of considerable extent, but pre- 
sent nothing of interest. The neighbouring 
hot wells, and the similarity of the name, 
identify the ruins of Myoun with Meon, or 
Beth Meon of Scripture. Of this ancient city, 
as well as of Araayr, (Areor,) nothing is now 
remarkable but what is common to them with 
all the cities of Moab, their entire desolation. 
The extent of the ruins of Rabba, (Rabbath 
Moab,) formerly the residence of the kings of 
Moab, sufficiently proves its ancient import- 
ance ; though no other object can be particular- 
ized among the ruins, than the remains of a 
palace or temple, some of the w^alls of which 
are still standing, a gate belonging to another 
building, and an insulated altar. There are 
many remains of private buildings, but none 
of them is entire. There being no springs on 
the spot, the town had two birkets, the largest 
of which is cut entirely out of the rocky 
ground, together with many cisterns. Mount 
^ebo was completely barren when Burckhardt 
passed over it, and the site of the ancient city 
had not been ascertained. " Nebo is spoiled." 
While the ruins of all these cities still retain 
their ancient names, and are the most conspi- 
cuous amidst the wide scene of general desola- 
tion, and while each of them was in like man- 
ner particularized in the visions of the prophet, 
they yet formed but a small number of the 
cities of Moab ; and the rest are also, in simi- 
lar verification of the prophecies, " desolate, 
without any to dwell therein." None of the 
ancient cities of Moab now remain as tenanted 
by men. Kerek, which neither bears any re- 
semblance in name to any of the cities of Moab 
which are mentioned as existing in the time 
of the Israelites, nor possesses any monuments 
which denote a very remote antiquity, is the 
only nominal town in the whole country, and, 
in the words of Seetzen, who visited it, " in 
its present ruined state it can only be called a 
hamlet ; and the houses have only one floor." 
But the most populous and fertile province in 
Europe, especially any situated in the interior 
of a country like Moab, is not covered so 
thickly with towns as Moab is plentiful in 
ruins, deserted and desolate though now it be. 
Burckhardt enumerates about fifty ruined sites 
within its boundaries, many of them extensive. 
In general they are a broken down and undis- 
tinguishable mass of ruins ; and many of them 
have not been closely inspected. But, in some 
instances, there are the vemains of temples, 
sepulchral monuments ; the ruins of edifices 
constructed of very large stones, in one of 
which buildings some of the stones are twenty 



feet in length, and so broad that one consti- 
tutes the thickness of the wall ; traces of hang, 
ing gardens ; entire columns lying on the 
groun-d, three feet in diameter, and fragments 
of smaller columns ; and many cisterns out of 
the rock. When the towns of Moab existed in 
their prime, and were at ease ; when arro- 
gance, and haughtiness, and pride prevailed 
among them ; the desolation, and total deser- 
tion and abandonment of them all, must have 
utterly surpassed all human conception. And 
that such numerous cities which subsisted for 
many ages, some of them being built on emi- 
nences, and naturally strong ; others on plains, 
and surrounded by tire richest soil ; some situ- 
ated in valleys by the side of a plentiful 
stream ; and others v/here art supplied the de- 
ficiencies of nature, and where immense cis. 
terns were excavated out of the rock, and 
which exhibit in their ruins many monuments 
of ancient prosperity, and many remains easily 
convertible into present utility ; should have 
all fled away, all met the same indiscriminate 
fate, and be all " desolate, without any to dwell 
therein," notwithstanding all these ancient in- 
dications of permanent durability, and their 
existing facilities and inducements for becom. 
ing the habitations of men, is a matter of just 
wonder in the present day. " They shall cry 
of Moab, How is it broken down !" 

The strong contrast between the ancient 
and the actual state of Moab is exemplified in 
the condition of the inhabitants as well as of 
the land ; and the coincidence between the 
prediction and the fact is as striking in the one 
case as in the other. " The days come, saith 
the Lord, that I will send unto him (Moab) 
wanderers that shall cause him to wander, and 
shall empty his vessels." The Bedouin (wan- 
dering) Arabs are now the chief and almost 
the only inhabitants of a country once studded 
with cities. Traversing the country, and fix- 
ing tlieir tents for a short time in one place, 
and then decamping to another, depasturing 
every part successively, and despoiling the 
whole land of its natural produce, they are 
wanderers who have come up against it, and 
who keep it in a state of perpetual desolation. 
They lead a wandering life ; and the only re- 
gularity they know or practise, is to act upon 
a systematic scheme of spoliation. • They pre- 
vent any from forming a fixed settlement who 
are inclined to attempt it ; for although the 
fruitfiilness of the soil would abundantly repay 
the labour of settlers, and render migration 
wholly unnecessary, even if the population 
were increased more than tenfold ; yet the Be- 
douins forcibly deprive them of the means of 
subsistence, compel them to search for it else- 
where, and, in the words of the prediction, 
literally " cause them to wander." " It may 
be remarked generally of the Bedouins," says 
Burckhardt, in describing their extortions in 
this very country, " that wherever they are 
the masters of the cultivators, the latter are 
soon reduced to beggary by their unceasing 
demands." "O ye that dwell in Moab, leave 
the cities and dwell in the rock, and be like 
the dove that maketh her nest in the sides of 



MOL 



663 



MON 



the hole's mouth." In a general description 
of the condition of the inhabitants of that ex- 
tensive desert which now occupies the place of 
these ancient flourishing states, Volney in 
plain but unmeant illustration of this predic- 
tion, remarks, that the " wretched peasants 
live in perpetual dread of losmg the fruit of 
their labours ; and no sooner have they gather- 
ed in their harvest, than they hasten to secrete 
it in private places, and retire among the rocks 
which border on the Dead Sea." Toward the 
opposite extremity of the land of Moab, and at 
a little distance from its borders, Seetzen re- 
lates, that " there are many families living in 
caverns ;" and he actually designates them " the 
inhabitants of the rocks." And at the distance 
of a few miles from the ruined site of Hesli- 
bon, according to Captains Irby and Mangles, 
"there are many artificial caves in a large 
range of perpendicular cliffs, in some of which 
are chambers and small sleeping apartments." 
While the cities are desolate, without any to 
dwell therein, the rocks are tenanted. But 
whether flocks lie down in the city without 
any to make them afraid, or whether men are 
to be found dwelling in the rocks, and are 
" like the dove that maketh her nest in the 
sides of the hole's mouth," the wonderful tran- 
sition, in either case, and the close accordance, 
jn both, of the fact to the prediction, assuredly 
mark it in characters that may be visible to the 
purblind mind, as the word of that God before 
whom the darkness of futurity is as light, and 
without whom a sparrow cannot fall unto the 
ground. 

MOLE. This word, in our version of Lev. 
xi, 30, answers to the word noiyjn, which 
Bochart has shown to be the cameleon ; but 
he conjectures, with great propriety, that 
ihri, translated "weasel," in the preceding 
verse, is the true word for the mole. The 
present name of the mole in the east is khuld, 
which is undeniably the same word as the 
Hebrew ckoled. The import of the Hebrew 
v/ord is, "to creep into," and the same Syriac 
word implies, " to creep underneath," to creep 
into by burrowing; which are well known 
characteristics of the mole. 

MOLOCH, i^D, signifies king. Moloch, 
Molech, Milcom, or Melchom, was a god of 
the Ammonites. The word Moloch signifies 
"king," and MelcJwm signifies "their king." 
Moses in several places forbids the Israelites, 
under the penalty of death, to dedicate their 
children to Moloch, by making them pass 
through the fire in honour of that god. Lev. 
xviii, 21 ; xx, 2-5. God himself threatens to 
pour out his wrath against such offenders. 
There is great probability that the Hebrews 
were addicted to the worship of this deity, 
even before their coming out of Egypt ; since 
the Prophet Amos, v, 26, and after him St. 
Stephen, reproach them with having carried 
in the wilderness the tabernacle of their god 
Moloch, Acts vii, 43. Solomon built a temple 
to Moloch upon the Mount of Olives, 1 Kings 
xi, 7 ; and Manasseh a long time after imitated 
his impiety, making his son pass through the 
fire in honour of Moloch, 2 Kings xxi, 3-6. 



It was chiefly in the valley of Tophet and 
Hinnom, east of Jerusalem, that this idolatrous 
worship was paid, Jer. xix, 5, 6, &c. Some 
are of opinion that they contented themselves 
with making their children leap over a fire 
sacred to Moloch, by which they consecrated 
them to some false deity : and by this lustra- 
tion purified them ; this being a usual cere, 
mony among the Heathens on other occasions. 
Some believe that they made them pass 
through two fires opposite to each other, for 
the same purpose. But the word n^jTi, " to 
cause to pass through," and the phrase "to 
cause to pass through the fire," are used in 
respect to human sacrifices in Deut. xii, 31 ; 
xviii, 10; 2 Kings xvi, 3; xxi, 6; 2 Chron. 
xxviii, 3 ; xxxiii, 6. These words are not to 
be considered as meaning in these instances 
literally to pass through, and that alone. 
They are rather synonymous with f|-\iy, to 
burn, and nDj, to immolate, with which they 
are interchanged, as may be seen by an exami- 
nation of Jer. vii, 31 ; xix, 5 ; Ezek. xvi, 20, 
21 ; Psalm cvi, 38. In the later periods of 
the Jewish kingdom, this idol was erected in 
the valley south of Jerusalem, namely, in the 
valley of Hinnom, and in the part of that 
valley called Tophet, nsn, so named from the 
drums, tp EZ)^Dn, which were beaten to prevent 
the groans and cries of children sacrificed from 
being heard, Jer. vii, 31, 32 ; xix, 6-14 ; Isaiah 
XXX, 33 ; 2 Kings xxiii, 10. The place was so 
abhorrent to the minds of the more recent 
Jews, that they applied the name ge hinnom 
or gehenna to the place of torments in a future 
life. The word gehenna is used in this way, 
namely, for the place of punishment beyond 
the grave, very frequently in oriental writers, 
as far as India. There are various sentiments 
about the relation that Moloch had to the 
other Pagan divinities. Some believe that 
Moloch was the same as Saturn, to whom 
it is well known that human sacrifices were 
offered ; others think it was the same with 
Mercury ; others, Venus ; others. Mars, or 
Mithra. Calmet has endeavoured to prove 
that Moloch signified the sun, or the king of 
heaven. 

MONEY. Scripture often speaks of gold, 
silver, brass, of certain sums of money, of 
purchases made with money, of current money, 
of money of a certain weight ; but we do not 
observe coined or stamped money till a late 
period ; which makes it probable that the an- 
cient Hebrews took gold and silver only by 
weight ; that they only considered the purity 
of the metal, and not the stamp. The most 
ancient commerce was conducted by barter, 
or exchanging one sort of merchandise for 
another. One man gave what he could spare 
to another, who gave him in return part of 
his superabundance. Afterward, the more 
precious metals were used in traffic, as a value 
more generally known and fixed. Lastly, they 
gave this metal, by public authority, a certain 
mark, a certain weight, and a certain degree 
of alloy, to fix its value, and to save buyers 
and sellers the trouble of weighing and exam, 
ining the coins. At the siege of Troy in Hq, 



MON 



664 



MON 



mer, no reference is made to gold or silver 
coined; but the value of things is estimated 
by the number of oxen they were worth. For 
instance : they bought wine, by exchanging 
oxen, slaves, skins, iron, &c, for it. When 
the Greeks first used money, it was only little 
pieces of iron or copper, called ololi or spits, 
of which a handful was a drachma, says Plu. 
tarch. Herodotus thinks that the Lydians 
were the first that stamped money of gold or 
silver, and introduced it into commerce. 
Others say it was Ishon, king of Thessaly, a 
son of Deucalion, Others ascribe this honour 
to Erichthonius, who had been educated by 
the daughters of Cecrops, king of Athens : 
others, again, to Phidon, king of Argos. 
x\mong the Persians it is said Darius, son of 
Hystaspes, first coined golden money. Lycur- 
gus banished gold and silver from his common- 
wealth of Lacedcemon, and only allowed a 
rude sort of money, made of iron. Janus, or 
rather the kings of Rome, made a kind of 
gross money of copper, having on one side 
the double face of Janus, on the other the 
prow of a ship. We find nothing concerning 
the money of the Egyptians, Phenicians, Ara- 
bians, or Syrians, before Alexander the Great. 
In China, to this day, they stamp no money 
of gold or silver, but only of copper. Gold 
and silver pass as merchandise. If gold or 
silver be offered, they take it and pay it by 
weight, as other goods : so that they are 
obliged to cut it into pieces with shears for 
that purpose, and they carry a steel yard at 
their girdles to weigh it. 

But to return to the Hebrews. Abraham 
weighed out four hundred shekels of silver, to 
purchase Sarah's tomb. Genesis xxiii, 15, 16; 
and Scripture observes that he paid this in 
" current money with the merchant." Joseph 
was sold by his brethren to the Midianites for' 
twenty pieces (in Hebrew twenty shekels) of 
silver. Gen. xxxvii, 28. The brethren of Jo- 
seph bring back with them into Egypt the 
money they found in their sacks, in the same 
v/eight as before. Gen. xliii, 21 The brace- 
lets that Eliezer gave Rebekah weighed ten 
shekels, and the ear rings two shekels. Gen. 
xxiv, 22. Moses ordered that the weight of 
five hundred shekels of myrrh, and two hun- 
dred and fifty shekels of cinnamon, of the 
weight of the sanctuary, sliould be taken, to 
make the perfume which was to be burnt to 
the Lord on the golden altar, Exod. xxx, 24. 
He acquaints us that the Israelites offered for 
the works of the tabernacle seventy-two thou- 
sand talents of brass, Exod. xxxviii, 29. We 
read, in the books of Samuel, that the weight 
of Absalom's hair was two hundred shekels of 
the ordinary weight, or of the king's weight, 
2 Sam. xiv, 26. Isaiah, xlvi, 6, describes the 
wicked as weighing silver in a balance, to 
make an idol of it ; and Jeremiah, xxxii, 10, 
weighs seventeen pieces of silver in a pair of 
scales, to pay for a field he had bought. Isaiah 
says, " Come, buy wine and milk without 
money and without price. Wherefore do ye 
weigh money for that which is not bread?' 
Amos, viii, 6, represents the merchants as en- I 



couraging one another to make the ephah 
small, wherewith to sell, and the shekel great, 
wherewith to buy, and to falsify the balances 
by deceit. 

In all these passages three things only are 
mentioned: 1. The metal, that is, gold or 
silver, and never copper, that not being used 
in traffic as money. 2. The weight, a talent, 
a shekel, a gerah or oholus, the weight of the 
sanctuary, and the king's weight. 3. The 
alloy (standard) of pure or fine gold and silver, 
and of good quality, as received by the mer- 
chant. The impression of the coinage is not 
referred to ; but it is said they weighed the 
silver,' or other commodities, by the shekel 
and by the talent. This shekel, therefore, and 
this talent, were not fixed and detei'mined 
pieces of money, but weights applied to things 
used in commerce. Hence those deceitfol 
balances of the merchants, who would increase 
the shekel, that is, would augment the weight 
by which they weighed the gold and silver 
they were to receive, that they might have a 
greater quantity than was their due ; hence 
the -weight of the sanctuary, the standard of 
which was preserved in the temple to prevent 
fraud; hence those prohibitions in the law, 
"Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers 
weights," in Hebrew, stones, " a great and a 
small," Deut. xxv, 13 ; hence those scales that 
the Hebrews wore at their girdles, Hosea xii, 
7, and the Canaanites carried in their hands, 
to weigh the gold and silver which they re- 
ceived in payment. It is true that, in the 
Hebrew we find Jacob bought a field for a 
hundred kesitahs, Gen. xxxiii, 19 ; and that 
the friends of Job, after his recovery, gave to 
that model of patience each a kesitah, and a 
golden pendant for the ears, Job xlii, 11. We 
also find there darics, (in Hebrew, darcmonhn 
or adarcmonim,) and mincB, stater (B, oholi; but 
this last kind of money was foreign, and is put 
for othet terms, which in the Hebrew only 
signifies the weight of the metal. The kesitah 
is not well known to us : some take it for a 
sheep or a lamb; others, for a kind of money, 
having the impression of a lamb or a sheep : 
but it was more probably a purse of money. 
The darcmonim or darics are money of the 
kings of Persia ; and it is agreed that Darius, 
son of Hj^staspes, first coined golden money. 
Ezekiel, xlv, 12, tells us that the inina makes 
fifty shekels : he r-educes this foreign money 
to the weight of the Hebrews The mina 
might probably be a Persian money originally, 
and adopted by the Greeks and by the Hebrews. 
But under the dominion of the Persians, the 
Hebrews were hardly at liberty to coin money 
of their own, being in subjection to those 
princes, and very low in their own country. 
They were still less able under the Chaldeans, 
during the Babylonish captivity ; or afterward 
under the Grecians, to whom they were sub- 
ject till the time of Simon Maccabseus, to 
whom Antiochus Sidetes, king of Syria, grant- 
ed the privilege of coining money in Judea, 
1 Mac. XV, 6. And this is the first Hebrew 
mone}^, properly so called, that we know of 
Therie were shekels and demi-shekels, also the 



MON 



665 



MON 



third part of a shekel, and a quarter of a 
shekel, of silver. 

The shekel of silver, or the silverling, Isa. 
vii, 23, originally weighed three hundred and 
twenty barleycorns ; but it was afterward in- 
creased to three hundred and eighty-four bar- 
leycorns, its value, being considered equal to 
four Roman denarii, was two shillings and 
seven pence, or, according to Bishop Cumber- 
land, two shillings and four pence farthing. 
It is said to have had Aaron's rod on the one 
side, and the pot of manna on the other. The 
bekah was equal to half a shekel, Exod. xxxviii, 
26. The denarius was one-fourth of a shekel, 
seven pence three farthings of our money. 
The gerah, or meah, Exod. xxx, 13, was the 
sixth part of the denarius, or diner, and the 
twenty-fourth part of the shekel. The assar, 
or assarion, Matt, x, 29, was the ninety-sixth 
part of a shekel : its value was rather more 
than a farthing. The farthing, Matt, v, 26, 
was in value the thirteenth part of a penny 
sterling. The mite was the half of a farthing, 
or the twenty-sixth part of a penny sterling. 
The mina, or maneh, Ezek. xlv, 12, was equal 
to sixty shekels, which, taken at two shillings 
and seven pence, was seven pounds fifteen 
shillings. The talent was fifty minas ; and 
its value, therefore, three hundred and eighty. 
seven pounds ten shillings. The gold coins 
were as follows : a shekel of gold was about 
fourteen and a half times the value of silver, 
that is, one pound seventeen shillings and five 
pence halfpenny. A talent of gold consisted 
of three thousand shekels. The drachma was 
equal to a Roman denarius, or seven pence 
three farthings of our money. The didrachma, 
or tribute money, Matt, xvii, 24, was equal to 
fifteen pence halfpenny. It is said to have 
been stamped with a harp on one side, and a 
vine on the other. The stater, or piece of 
money which Peter found in the fish's mouth. 
Matt, xvii, 27, was two half shekels. A daric, 
dram, 1 Chroft. xxix, 7 ; Ezra viii, 27, was a 
gold coin struck by Darius the Mede. Ac- 
cording to Parkhurst its value was one pound 
five shillings. A gold penny is stated by 
Lightfoot to have been equal to twenty-five 
silver pence. 

Hug derives a satisfactory argument for the 
veracity of the Gospels from the different kinds 
of money mentioned in them : — The admixture 
of foreign manners and constitutions proceeded 
through numberless circumstances of life. 
Take, for example, the circulation of coin ; 
at one time it is Greek coin ; at another, 
Roman ; at another time ancient Jewish. 
But how accurately is even this stated ac- 
cording to history, and the arrangement of 
things ! The ancient imposts which were 
introduced before the Roman dominion were 
valued according to the Greek coinage ; for 
example, the taxes of the temple, the 6i6paxiJiov, 
Matt, xvii, 24. The offerings were paid in 
these, Mark xii, 42 ; Luke xxi, 2. A payment 
which proceeded from the temple treasury was 
made according to the ancient national pay- 
ment by weight, Matt, xxvi, 15 ; but in com- 
mon business, trade, wages, sale, &c, the assis 



and denarius and Roman coin were usual. Matt. 
X, 29 ; XX, 3 ; Luke xii, 6 ; Mark xiv, 5 ; John 
xii, 5 ; vi, 7. The more modern state taxes 
are likewise paid in the coin of the nation 
which exercises at the time tlie greatest au- 
thority, Matthew xxii, 19 ; Mark xii, 15 ; Luke 
XX, 24. Writers, who, in each little circum- 
stance, which otherwise would pass by un- 
noticed, so accurately describe the period of 
time, must certainly have had a personal 
knowledge of it. 

MONEY-CHANGERS, in the Gospels, 
were persons who exchanged native for 
foreign coin, to enable those who came to 
Jerusalem from distant countries to purchase 
the necessary sacrifices. In our Lord's time 
they had established themselves in the court 
of the temple ; a profanation which had pro- 
bably grown up with the influence of Roman 
manners, which allowed the argentarii [money- 
dealers] to establish their, usurious mensas, 
tables, by the statues of the gods, even at the 
feet of Janus, in the most holy places, in por- 
ticihus Basilicarum, or in the temples, pone 
(Bclem Castoris. The follov/ing extract from 
Buckingham's Travels among the Arabs, is 
illustrative : — " The mosque at the time of 
our passing through it was full of people, 
though these were not worshippers, nor was 
it at either of the usual hours of public prayers. 
Some of the parties were assembled to smoke, 
others to play at chess, and some apparently 
to drive bargains of trade, but certainly none 
to pray. It was, indeed, a living picture of 
what we might believe the temple at Jerusa- 
lem to have been, when those who sold oxen, 
and sheep, and doves, and the changers of 
money sitting there, were driven out by Jesus, 
with a scourge of cords, and their tables over- 
turned. It was, in short, a place of public 
resort and thoroughfare, a house of merchan- 
dise, as the temple of the Jews had become in, 
the days of the Messiah." 

MONK anciently denoted a person who 
retired from the world to give himself up 
wholly to God, and to live in solitude and 
abstinence. The word is derived from the 
Latin monachus, and that from the Greek 
novaxoi, solitary. The original of monks seems 
to have been this : The persecutions which 
attended the first ages of the Gospel forced 
some Christians to retire from the world, and 
live in deserts and places more private and 
unfrequented, in hopes of finding that peace 
and comfort among beasts which were denied 
them among men ; and this being the case of 
some very extraordinary persons, their example 
gave such reputation to retirement, that the 
practice was continued when the reason of its 
commencement ceased. After the empire be- 
came Christian, instances of this kind were 
numerous ; and those whose security had 
obliged them to live separately and apart be- 
came afterward united into societies. We may 
also add, that the mystic theology, which 
gained ground toward the close of the third 
century, contributed to produce the same 
effect, and to drive men into solitude, for the 
purposes of devotion. The monks, at least 



MON 



666 



MON 



the ancient ones, were distinguished into 
solitaries, coenobites, and sarabaiies. The first 
were those who lived in places remote from 
all towns and habitations of men, as do still 
some of the hermits. The coenobites were 
those who lived in community with several 
others in the same house, and under the same 
superiors. The sarabaites were strolling monks, 
having no fixed rule of residence. Those who 
are now called monks are coenobites, who live 
together in a convent or monastery, who make 
vows of living according to a certain rule 
established by the founder, and wear a habit 
which distinguishes their order. Those that 
are endowed, or have a fixed revenue, are 
most properly called monks, monachi; as the 
Chartereux, Benedictines, Bernardines, &c. 
The Mendicants, or those that beg, as the 
Capuchins and Franciscans, are more properly 
called religious, and friars, though the names 
are frequently confounded. 

The first monks were those of St. Anthony, 
who, toward the close of the fourth century, 
formed them into a regular body, engaged 
them to live in society with each other, and 
prescribed to them fixed rules for the direction 
of their conduct. These regulations, which 
Anthony had made in Egypt, were soon intro- 
duced into Palestine and Syria by his disciple 
Hilarion. Almost about the same time, Aones, 
or Eugenius, with their companions, Gaddanus 
and Azyzas, instituted the monastic order in 
Mesopotomia, and the adjacent countries ; and 
their example was followed with such rapid 
success, that in a short time the whole east 
was filled with a lazy set of mortals, who, 
abandoning all human connections, advan- 
tages, pleasures, and concerns, wore out a 
languishing and miserable existence amidst 
hardships of want, and various kinds of suffer, 
ing, in order to arrive at a more close and 
rapturous communication with God and angels. 
From the east this gloomy institution passed 
into the west, and first int-o Italy and its neigh- 
bouring islands, though it is iincertain who 
transplanted it thither. St. Martin, the cele- 
brated bishop of Tours, erected the first monas- 
teries in Gaul, and recommended this religious 
solitude with such power and efficacy, both by 
his instruction and example, that his funeral 
is said to have been attended by no less than 
two thousand monks. From hence the mo- 
nastic discipline extended its progress gradu- 
ally through the other provinces and countries 
of Europe. There were beside, the monks of 
St. Basil, called in the east calogeri, from Ka\6s 
yipwv, a good old man, and those of St. Jerom, 
the hermits of St. Augustine, and afterward 
those of St. Benedict and St. Bernard : at 
length came those of St. Francis and St. Do- 
minic, with a legion of others. 

Toward the close of the fifth century, the 
monks who had formerly lived only for them- 
selves in solitary retreats, and had never 
thought of assuming any rank among the 
sacerdotal order, were gradually distinguished 
from the populace, and endowed with such 
opulence and honourable privileges that they 
found themselves in a condition to claim an 



eminent station among the pillars and sup- 
porters of the Christian community. The 
fame of their piety and sanctity was so great, 
that bishops and presbyters were often chosen 
out of their order ; and the passion of erecting 
edifices and convents, in which the monks and 
holy virgins might serve God in the most com- 
modious manner, was at this time carried be- 
yond all bounds. However, their licentiousness, 
even in this century, was become a proverb ; 
and they are said to have excited the most 
dreadful tumults and seditions in various 
places. The monastic orders were at first un- 
der the immediate jurisdiction of the bishops, 
from which they were exempted by the Roman 
pontiff" about the end of the seventh century ; 
and the monks in return devoted themselves 
wholly to advance the interest and to main- 
tain the dignity of the bishop of Rome. This 
immunity which they obtained was a fruitfiil 
source of licentiousness and disorder, and oc- 
casioned the greatest part of the vices with 
which they were afterward so justly charged. 
In the eighth century the monastic discipline 
was extremely relaxed, both in the eastern and 
western provinces, and all efforts to restore it 
were ineffectual. Nevertheless, this kind of 
institution was in the highest esteem; and 
nothing could equal the veneration that was 
paid about the close of the ninth century to 
such as devoted themselves to the sacred gloom 
and indolence of a convent. This veneration 
caused several kings and emperors to call them 
to their courts, and to employ them. in civil 
affairs of the greatest moment. Their reform- 
ation was attempted by Louis the meek, but 
the effect was of short duration. In the 
eleventh century, they were exempted by the 
popes from the authority of their sovereigns, 
and new orders of monks were continually 
established, insomuch that in the council of 
Lateran, that was held A. D. 1215, a decree 
was passed, by the advice of Innocent III., to 
prevent any new monastic institutions ; and 
several were entirely suppressed. In the fif- 
teenth and sixteenth centuries, it appears, from 
the testimony of the best writers, that the 
monks were generally lazy, illiterate, profligate, 
and licentious epicures, whose views in life 
were confined to opulence, idleness, and plea- 
sure. However, the reformation had a mani- 
fest influence in restraining their excesses, and 
rendering them more circumspect and cautious 
in their external conduct. 

Monks are distinguished by the colour of 
their habits, into black, white, gray, &c. 
Among the monks, some are called monks of 
the choir, others, professed monks, and others, 
lay monks ; which last are destined for the ser- 
vice of the convent, and have neither clericate 
nor literature. Cloistered monks are those 
who actually reside in the house, in opposition 
to extra monks, wlio have benefices depend, 
ing on the monastery. Monks are also dis- 
tinguished into reformed, whom the civil and 
ecclesiastical authority have made masters of 
ancient convents, and empowered to retrieve 
the ancient discipline, which had been relaxed ; 
and ancient, who remain in the convept, tQ 



MOR 



667 



MOR 



live in it aceording to its establishment at the 
time when they made their vows, without 
obliging themselves to any new reform. An- 
ciently the monks were all laymen, and Avere 
only distinguished from the rest of the people 
by a peculiar habit and an extraordinary piety 
or devotion. Not only the monks were pro- 
hibited the priesthood, but even priests were 
expressly prohibited from becoming monks, 
as appears from the letters of St. Gregory. 
Pope Syricius was the first who called them to 
the clericate, on account of some great scarcity 
of priests that the church was supposed to la- 
bour under ; and since that time the priesthood 
has been usually united to the monastical pro- 
fession. 

1. }0^J, Nisan, from the new moon 

2. V], Zif or Ziv, also called Tns', 

3. ]VQ, Sivan, 

4. ncn, Tammuz, 

5. UN, Ab, 

6. Vi^N, Elul, 

7. nKTi, Tishri, also 0>jn>Nn nT, 

8. Vu, Bui, also ptrniD, 

9. "i^DD, Kislev, 

10. nJta, Teheth, 

11. taaty, Shehat, 



12. TIN, Adar, 

The first month here mentioned, Nisan, was originally called Abib 
month is denominated in Hebrew tin. 



MONOPHYSITES. See Hypostatic 
Union. 

MONOTHELITES, a denomination in 
the seventh century. See Hypostatic 

Union. 

MONTHS, cnni, sometimes also called 
Q^iJ'in, new moons, from the circumstance of 
their commencing with the new moon, an- 
ciently had no separate names, with the excep- 
tion of the first, which was called Abib, that 
is, "the month of the young ears of corn," 
Exod.xiii, 4 ; xxiii, 15 ; xxxiv, 18; Deut. xvi, 1. 
During the captivity, the Hebrews adopted the 
Babylonian names for their months ; which 
were as follows, and they were reckoned 
thus : — 

of April, Nell, ii, 1. 
of May, 1 Kings vi, 1. 
of June, Esther viii, 9. 
of July, 
of August. 

of September, Neh. vi, 15. 
of October, 1 Kings viii, 2. 
of November, 1 Kings vi, 38. 
of December, Neh. i, 1. 
of January, Esther ii, 16. 
of February, Zech. i, 7. 
of March, Esther iii, 7. 



The intercalary 



MOON. Particular sacrifices were enjoined 
by Moses at every new moon, which day was 
also celebrated as a feast. It is promised in 
Psalm cxxi, 6, "The sun shall not smite thee 
by day, nor the moon by night." The effect 
of a coup de soleil, or stroke of the sun, is well 
known ; and in some climates the beams of the 
moon are reputed hurtfiil. Anderson, in his 
"Description of the East," says, "One must 
here (in Batavia) take great care not to sleep 
in the beams of the moon uncovered. I have 
seen many people whose neck has become 
crooked, so that they look more to the side 
than forward. I will not decide whether it is 
to be ascribed to the moon, as people imagine 
here." In some of the southern parts of Eu- 
rope the same opinions are entertained of the 
pernicious influence of the moon beams. An 
English gentleman walking in the evening in 
the garden of a Portuguese nobleman at Lis- 
bon, was most seriously admonished by the 
owner to put on his hat, to protect him from 
the moon beams. The fishermen in Sicily are 
said to cover, during the night, the fish which 
they expose to dry on the sea shore, alleging 
that the beams of the moon cause them to 
putrefy. 

MORAL OBLIGATION. Different opi- 
nions have been held as to the ground of moral 
obhgation. Grotius, Balguy, and Dr. Samuel 
Clarke, place it in the eternal and necessary 
fitness of things. To this there are two ob- 
jections. The first is, that it leaves the dis- 
tinction between virtue and vice, in a great 
measure, arbitrary and indefinite, dependent 
upon our perception of fitness and unfitness, 
which, in different individuals will greatly 



differ. The second is, that when a fitness or 
unfitness is proved, it is no more than the 
discovery of a natural essential difference or 
congruity, which alone cannot constitute a 
moral obligation to choose what is fit, and to 
reject what is unfit. When we have proved a 
fitness in a certain course of action, we have 
not proved that it is obligatory. A second 
step is necessary before we can reach this con- 
clusion. Cudworth, Butler, Price, and others, 
maintain, that virtue carries its own obligation 
in itself; that the understanding at once per- 
ceives a certain action to be right, and there- 
fore it ought to be performed. Several ob- 
jections lie to this notion : 1. It supposes the 
understandings of men to determine precisely 
in the same manner concerning all virtuous 
and vicious actions ; which is contrary to fact. 
2. It supposes a previous rule, by which the 
action is determined to be right ; but if the re. 
vealed will of God is not to be taken into con- 
sideration, what common rule exists among 
men ? There is evidently no such rule, and 
therefore no means of certainly determining 
what is right. 3. If a common standard were 
known among men, and if the understandings 
of men determined in the same manner as to 
the conformity, or otherwise, of an action to 
that standard ; what renders it a matter of 
obligation that any one should perform it? 
The rule must be proved to be binding, or no 
ground of obligation is established. 

An action is obligatory, say others, because 
it is agreeable to the moral sense. This is the 
theory of Lord Shaftesbury and Dr. Hutch- 
eson. By moral sense appears to be meant an 
instinctive approbation of right, and abhor- 



MOR 



668 



MOR 



rence of wrong, prior to all reflection on their 
nature, or their consequences. If any thing- 
else were understood by it, then the moral 
sense must be the same with conscience, which 
we know to vary with the judgment, and can- 
not therefore be the basis of moral obligation. 
If conscience be not meant, then the moral 
sense must be considered as instinctive : a 
notion, certainly, which is disproved by the 
whole moral history of man. It may, indeed, 
be conceded, that such is the constitution of 
the human soul, that when those distinctions 
between actions, which have been taught by 
religious tradition or direct revelation, are 
known in their nature, relations, and conse- 
quences, the calm and sober judgments of men 
will approve of them ; and that especially when 
they are considered abstractedly, that is, as 
not affecting and controlling their own inte- 
rests and passions immediately, virtue may 
command complacency, and vice provoke 
abhorrence : but that, independent of reflection 
on their nature or their consequences, there is 
an instinctive principle in man which abhors 
evil, and loves good, is contradicted by that 
variety of opinion and feeling on the vices and 
virtues, which obtains among all uninstructed 
nations. We applaud the forgiveness of an 
injury as magnanimous ; a savage despises it 
as mean. We think it a duty to support and 
cherish aged parents ; many nations, on the 
contrary, abandon them as useless, and -throw 
them to the beasts of the field. Innumerable 
instances of this contrariety might be adduced, 
which are all contrary to the notion of in- 
stinctive sentiment. Instincts operate uni- 
formly, but this assumed moral sense does not. 
Beside, if it be mere matter of feeling, inde- 
pendent of judgment, to love virtue, and abhor 
vice, the morality of the exercise of this prin- 
ciple is questionable ; for it would be difficult 
to show, that there is any more morality, pro- 
perly speaking, in the affections and disgusts 
of instinct than in those of the palate. If 
judgment, the knowledge and comparison of 
things, be included, then this principle sup- 
poses a uniform and universal individual re- 
velation as to the nature of things to every 
man, or an intuitive faculty of determining 
their moral quality ; both of which are too 
absurd to be maintained. 

The only satisfactory conclusion on this 
subject, is that which refers moral obligation 
to the will of God. " Obligation," says War- 
burton, " necessarily implies an obligor, and 
the obliger must be different from, and not one 
and the same with, the obliged. Moral obli- 
gation, that is, the obligation of a free agent, 
farther implies a law, which enjoins and for- 
bids ; but a law is the imposition of an intelli- 
gent superior, who hath power to exact con- 
formity thereto." This lawgiver is God ; and 
whatever may be the reasons which have led 
him to enjoin this, and to prohibit that, it is 
plain that the obligation to obey lies not merely 
in the fitness and propriety of a creature obey- 
ing an infinitely wise and good Creator, 
(though such a fitness exists,) but in that 
obedience being enjoined. For, since the 



question respects the duty of a created being 
with reference to his Creator, nothing can be 
more conclusive than tliat the Creator has an 
absolute right to the obedience of his crea- 
tures ; and that the creature is in duty obliged 
to obey him from whom it not only has received 
being, but by whom that being is constantly 
sustained. It has, indeed, been said, that even 
if it be admitted, that I am obliged to obey the 
will of God, the question is still open-, " Why 
am I obliged to obey his will ?" and that this 
brings us round to the former answer ^ because 
he can only will what is upon the whole best 
for his creatures. But this is confounding that 
which may be, and doubtless is, a rule to God 
in the commands which he- issues, with that 
which "really obliges the creature. Nov/, that 
which in truth obliges the creature is not the 
nature of the commands issued by God ; but 
the- relation in which the creature itself stands 
to God. If a creature can have no existence, 
nor any power or faculty independently of 
God, it can have no right to employ its facul- 
ties independently of him ; and if it have no 
right to employ its faculties in an independent 
manner, the right to rule its conduct must rest 
with the Greater alone ; and from this results 
the obligation of absolute and universal obe- 
dience. 

MORAVIANS, or UNITED BRETHREN. 
The name of Moravians, or Moravian Brethren, 
was in England given to the members of a 
foreign Protestant church, calling itself the 
Unitas Fratrum, or United Brethren, This 
church formerly consisted of three branches, 
the Bohemian, Moravian, and Polish. After 
its renovation in the year 1722, some of its 
members came to England in 1728, who being 
of the Moravian branch, became known by 
that appellation ; and all those who joined 
them, and adopted their doctrines and disci- 
pline, have ever since been called Moravians. 
Strictly speaking, however, that name is not 
applicable to them, nor generally admitted, 
either by themselves, or in any public docu- 
ments, in which they are called by their proper 
names, the Unitas Fratrum, or United Brethren. 
The few remaining members of the ancient 
church of the United Brethren in Bohemia, 
Moravia, and Poland, being much persecuted 
by the popish clergy, many of them left all 
their possessions, and fled with their families 
into Silesia and Saxony. In Saxony they 
found protection from a Saxon nobleman, 
Nicholas Lewis, count of ZinzendorfF, who 
gave them some waste land on one of his 
estates, on which, in 1722, they built a village 
at the foot of a hill, called the Hut-3erg, or 
Watch-Hill. This occasioned them to call 
their settlement Herrnhut, "the watch of the 
Lord." Hence their enemies designated them 
in derision by the name of Herrnhuters, which 
is altogether improper, but by it they are 
known in some countries abroad. By their 
own account, the community derive their origin 
from the ancient Bohemian and Moravian 
Brethren, who existed as a distinct people 
ever since the year 1457, when, separating 
from those who took up arms in defence of 



MOR 



669 



MOR 



their protestations against popish errors, they 
formed a plan for church fellowship and dis- 
cipline, agreeable to their insight into the 
Scriptures, and called themselves at first, 
Fratres Legis Christi, or Brethren after the 
Law of Christ; and afterward, on being joined 
by others of the same persuasion in other 
places, Unitas Fratrum, or Fratres Unitatis. 
By degrees, they established congregations 
in various places, and spread themselves into 
Moravia and other neighbouring states. Being 
anxious to preserve among themselves regular 
episcopal ordination, and, at a synod held at 
Lhota in 1467, taking into consideration the 
scarcity of ministers regularly ordained among 
them, they chose three of their priests ordained 
by Calixtine bishops, and sent them to Stephen, 
bishop of the Waldenses, then residing in 
Austria, by whom they were consecrated 
bishops ; co-bishops and conseniores being 
appointed from the rest of their presbyters. 
In 1468 a great persecution arose against 
them, and many were put to death. In 1481 
they were banished from Moravia, when many 
of them fled as far as Mount Caucasus, and 
established themselves there, till driven away 
by subsequent troubles. 

In the mean time, disputes respecting points 
of doctrine, ,the enmity of the papists, and 
other causes, raised continual disturbances 
and great persecutions at various periods, till 
the Reformation by Luther, when they opened 
a correspondence with that eminent reformer 
and his associates, and entered into several 
negotiations, both with him and Calvin, con. 
cerning the extension of the Protestant cause. 
But their strict adherence to the discipline of 
their own church, founded, in their view, on 
that of the primitive churches, and the acknow- 
ledged impossibility of its application among 
the mixed multitude, of which the Lutheran 
and Calvinist churches consisted, occasioned 
a cessation of cooperation, and, in the sequel, 
the Brethren were again left to the mercy of 
their persecutors, by whom their churches 
were destroyed, and their ministers banished, 
till the year 1575, when they obtained an edict 
from the emperor of Germany, for the public 
exercise of their religion. This toleration was 
renewed in 1609, and liberty granted them to 
erect new churches. But a civil war, which 
broke out in Bohemia in 1612, and a violent 
persecution which followed it in 1621, again 
occasioned the dispersion of their ministers, 
and brought great distress upon the Brethren 
in general. Some fled into England, others 
to Saxony and Brandenburg ; while many, 
overcome by the severity of the persecution, 
conformed to the rites of the church of Rome. 

About the year 1640, by incessant persecu- 
tion, and the most oppressive measures, this 
ancient church was brought to so low an ebb, 
that it appeared nearly extinct. The persecu- 
tions which took place at the beginning of the 
eighteenth century, were the occasion that 
many of the scattered descendants of the Bohe- 
mian and Moravian Brethren at length resolved 
to quit their native land, and seek liberty of 
conscience in foreign countries. Some emi- 



grated into Silesia, and others into Upper 
Lusatia, a' province of Saxony, adjoining to 
Bohemia. The latter, as before observed, 
found a protector in Nicholas Count Zinzen- 
dorff*, a pious, zealous man, and a Lutheran 
by education. He hoped that the religious 
state of the Lutherans in his neighbourhood 
would be greatly improved by the conversation 
and example of these devout emigrants ; and 
he therefore sought to prevail upon the latter 
to join the Lutheran church altogether. To 
this the Brethren objected, being unwilling to 
give up their ancient discipline, and would 
rather proceed to seek an asylum in another 
place ; when the count, struck with their 
steadfast a.dherence to the tenets of their fore- 
fathers, began more maturely to examine their 
pretensions ; and being convinced of the just- 
ness of tnem, he procured for the Brethren the 
renovation of their ancient constitution, and 
ever after proved a most zealous promoter of 
their cause. He is, therefore, very justly 
esteemed by them as the chief instrument, in 
the hand of God, in restoring the sinking 
church, and, in general, gratefully remembered 
for his disinterested and indefatigable labours 
in promoting the interests of religion, both at 
home and abroad. In 1735, having been 
examined and received into the clerical order, 
by the theological faculty at Tuebingen, in 
the duchy of Wurtemburg, he was consecrated 
a bishop of the Brethren's church. 

After the establishment of a regular con- 
gregation of the United Brethren at Herrnhut, 
multitudes of pious persons from various parts 
flocked to it, many of whom had private 
opinions in religious matters, to which they 
were strongly attached. This occasioned great 
disputes, which even threatened the destruc- 
tion of the society ; but, by the indefatigable 
exertions of Count Zinzendorff*, these disputes 
were allayed, and the statutes being drawn 
lip, and agreed to in 1727, for better regula- 
tion, brotherly love and union were reesta- 
blished, and no schism whatever, in point of 
doctrine, has since that period disturbed the 
peace of the church. 

Though the Brethren acknowledge no other 
standard of truth than the sacred Scriptures^ 
they in general profess to adhere to the Augs- 
burg Confession of Faith. Their church is 
episcopal ; but though they consider episcopal 
ordination as necessary to qualify the servants 
of the church for their respective functions, 
they allow to their bishops no elevation of 
rank or preeminent authority. The Moranan 
church, from its first establishment, has been 
governed by synods, consisting of deputies 
from all the congregations, and by other subor- - 
dinate bodies, which they call conferences. 
According to their regulations, episcopal ordi- 
nation, of itself, does not confer an/ power to 
preside over one or more congregations ,' and 
a bishop can discharge no office except by the 
appointment of a synod, or of its delegate, the 
elders' conference of the unity. Presbyters 
among them can perform every function of 
the bishop, except ordination. Deacons are 
assistants to presbyters, much in the same 



MOR 



670 



MOS 



way as in the church of England. Deacon. 
esses are retained for the purpose of privately- 
admonishing their own sex, and visiting them 
in their sickness ; but they are not permitted 
to teach in public, and, far less, to administer 
the sacraments. They have also seniores civiles, 
or lay elders, in contradistinction to spiritual 
elders or bishops, who are appointed to watch 
over the constitution and discipline of the 
unity of the Brethren, &c. The synods are 
generally held once in seven years ; and beside 
all the bishops, and the deputies sent by each 
congregation, those women who have appoint- 
ments as above described, if on the spot, are 
also admitted as hearers, and naay be called 
upon to give their advice in what relates to 
the ministerial labour among their own sex; 
but they have no decisive vote in the synod. 
The votes of all the other members Ae equal. 
In questions of importance, or of which the 
consequence cannot be foreseen, neither the 
majority of votes, nor the unanimous consent 
of all present, can decide : but recourse is had 
to the lot, which, however, is never made use 
of except after mature deliberation and prayer ; 
nor is any thing submitted to its decision which 
does not, after being thoroughly weighed, appear 
to the assembly eligible in itself. 

M0RDECx4lI was the son of Jair, of the 
race of Saul, and a chief of the tribe of Ben- 
jamin. He was carried captive to Babylon by 
Nebuchadnezzar, with Jehoiachin, or Jeco- 
niah, king of Judah, A. M. 3405, Esther ii, 5, 6. 
He settled at Shushan, and there lived to the 
first year of Cyrus, when it is thought he 
returned to Jerusalem, with several other 
captives ; but he afterward returned to Shu- 
shan. There is great probability that Mordecai 
was very young when taken into captivity. 
The book of Esther gives the whole history of 
Mordecai's elevation, the punishment of Ha- 
man, and the wonderful deliverance of the 
Jews, in clear and regular narrative. But it 
rnay be asked. For what reason did Mordecai 
refase to pay that respect to Haman, the 
neglect of which incensed him against the 
Jews ? Esther iii, 1-6. Some think the reason 
was, because Haman was an Amalekite ; a 
people whom the Israelites had been commis- 
sioned from God to destroy, because of the 
injuries they had formerly done them, Deut. 
XXV, 17-19. But this scarcely seems to 'be 
a sufficient account of Mordecai's refusing 
civil respect to Haman, who was first minister 
o? state ; especially when by so doing he ex- 
po-^ed his whole nation to imminent danger. 
Beside, if nothing but civil respect had been 
intei.ded to Haman, the king need not have 
enjoiried it on his servants after he had made 
him Ills first minister and chief favourite, 
Esther iii, 1, 2 ; they would have been ready 
enough to show it on all occasions. Probably, 
therefore, the reverence ordered to be done to 
this great man was a kind of divine honour, 
such as was sometimes addressed to the Per- 
sian monarchs themselves ; which, being a 
species of idolatry, Mordecai refused for the 
sake of a good conscience. And perhaps it 
was because Haman knew that his refusal was 



the result of his Jewish principles, that h& 
determined to attempt the destruction of the 
Jews in general, knowing they were all of the 
same mind. As to another question, why 
Haman cast lots, in order to fix the day for 
the massacre of the Jews, Esther iii, 7 ; from 
whence the feast of purim, which is a Persic 
word, and signifies lots, took its name, Esther 
ix, 26 ; it was no doubt owing to the supersti- 
tious conceit which anciently prevailed, of 
some days being more fortunate than others 
for any undertaking ; in short, he endeavoured 
to find out, by this way of divining, what 
month, and what day of the month, was most 
unfortunate to the Jews, and most fortunate 
for the success of his bloody design against 
them. It is very remarkable, that while Ha- 
man sought for direction in this affair from 
the Persian idols, the God of Israel so over- 
ruled the lot as to fix the intended massacre to 
almost a year's distance, from Nisan the first 
month to Adar the last of the year, in order to 
give time and opportunity to Mordecai and 
Esther to defeat the conspiracy. 

MORIAH, Mount. A hill on the north- 
east side of Jerusalem, once separated from 
that of Acra by a broad valley, which, accord- 
ing to Josephus, was filled up by the Asmo- 
neans, and the two hills converted into one. 
In the time of David it stood apart from the 
city, and was under cultivation ; for here was 
the threshing floor of Araunah, the Jebusite, 
which David bought, on which to erect an 
altar to God, 2 Sam. xxiv, 15-25. On the 
same spot Solomon afterward built the temple, 
2 Chron. iii, 1 ; when it was included within 
the walls of the city. Here, also, Abraham is 
supposed to have been directed to offer his son 
Isaac, Gen. xxii, 1, 2. Moriah implies " vi- 
sion ;" and the "land of Moriah," mentioned 
in the above passage in the history of Abra- 
ham, was probably so called from being seen 
"afar off." It included the whole group of 
hills on .which Jerusalem was afterward built. 
MOSES. This illustrious legislator of the 
Israelites was of the tribe of Levi, in the line 
of Koath and of Amram, whose son he was, 
and therefore in the fourth generation after 
the settlement of the Israelites in Egypt. The 
time of his birth is ascertained by the exode 
of the Israelites, when Moses was eighty years 
old, Exod. vii, 7. By a singular providence, 
the infant Moses, when exposed on the river 
Nile, through fear of the royal decree, after 
his mother had hid him three months, because 
he was a goodly child, was taken up and 
adopted by Pharaoh's daughter, and nursed by 
his own mother, whom she hired at the sug- 
gestion of his sister Miriam. Thus did he 
find an asylum in the very palace of his in- 
tended destroyer ; while his intercourse with 
his own family and nation was still most 
naturally, though unexpectedly, maintained : 
so mysterious are the ways of Heaven. And 
while he was instructed " in all the wisdom of 
the Egyptians," and bred up in the midst of a 
luxurious court, he acquired at home the know- 
ledge of the promised redemption of Israel ; 



by faith" in the .Redeemer Christ, "re- 



MOS 



671 



MOS 



fused to be called the son of Pharaoh's I 
daughter; choosing rather to suiFer affliction 
with the people of God, than to enjoy the 
pleasures of sin for a season ; esteeming the 
reproach of Christ," or persecution for Christ's 
sake, " greater riches than the treasures of 
Egypt : for he had respect to the recompense 
of reward," Exodus ii, 1-10 ; Acts vii, 20-22 ; 
Heb. xi, 23-26 ; or looked forward to a future 
state. 

When Moses was grown to manhood, and 
was full forty years old, he was moved by a 
divine intimation, as it seems, to undertake 
the deliverance of his countrymen ; "for he 
supposed that his brethren w^ould have under- 
stood how that God, by his hand, would give 
them deliverance ; but they understood not." 
For when, in the excess of his zeal to redress 
their grievances, he had slain an Egyptian, 
who injured one of them, in which he proba- 
bly went beyond his commission, and after- 
ward endeavoured to reconcile two of them 
that were at variance, they rejected his media- 
tion ; and " the man who had done wrong 
said, Who made thee a judge and a ruler over 
us ? Intendest thou to kill me, as thou kill- 
edst the Egyptian yesterday ?" So Moses, 
finding it was known, and that Pharaoh 
sought to slay him, fled for his life to the land 
of Midian, in Arabia Petrsea, where he married 
Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, or Reuel, 
prince and priest of Midian ; and, as a shep- 
herd, kept his flocks in the vicinity of Mount 
Horeb, or Sinai, for forty years, Exodus ii, 
11-21 ; iii, 1 ; xviii, 5 ; Num. x, 29 : Acts vii, 
23-30. During this long exile Moses was 
trained in the school of humble circumstances 
for that arduous mission which he had prema- 
turely anticipated ; and, instead of the unthink- 
ing zeal which at first actuated him, learned 
to distrust himself. His backwardness, after- 
ward, to undertake that mission for which he 
was destined from the womb, was no less re- 
markable than his forwardness before, Exod. 
iv, 10-13. 

At length, when the oppression of the 
Israelites was come to the full, and they cried 
to God for succour, and the king was dead, 
and all the men in Egypt that sought his life, 
" the God of glory" appeared to Moses in a 
flame of fire, from the midst of a bush, and 
announced himself as "the God of Abraham, 
of Isaac, and of Jacob," under the titles of 
Jahoh and jEhjeh, expressive of his unity and 
sameness ; and commissioned him first to make 
known to the Israelites the divine will for 
their deliverance ; and next to go with the 
elders of Israel to Pharaoh, requiring him, in 
the name of "the Lord, the God of the He- 
brews, to suffer the people to go three days' 
journey into the wilderness, to sacrifice unto 
the Lord their God," after such sacrifices had 
been long intermitted during their bondage ; 
for the Egyptians had sunk into bestial poly- 
theism, and would have stoned them, had they 
attempted to sacrifice to their principal divini- 
ties, the apis, or bull, &c, in the land itself: 
foretelling, also, the opposition they would 
meet with from the king, the mighty signs and 



wonders that would finally compel his assent, 
and their spoiling of the Egyptians, by asking 
or demanding of them (not borrowing) jewels 
of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, (by 
way of wages or compensation for their ser- 
vices,) as originally declared to Abraham, that 
"they should go out from thence with great 
substance," Gen. xv, 14 ; Exod. ii, 23-25 ; iii, 
2-22 ; viii, 25, 26. 

To vouch his divine commission to the 
Israelites, God enabled Moses to work three 
signal miracles: 1. Turning his rod into a 
serpent, and restoring it again : 2. Making 
his hand leprous as snow, when he first drew 
it out of his bosom, and restoring it sound as 
before when he next drew it out : and, 3. 
Turning the water of the river into blood. 
And the people believed the signs, and the 
promised deliverance, and worshipped. To 
assist him, also, in his arduous mission, when 
Moses had represented that he was "not 
eloquent, but slow of speech," and of a slow 
or stammering tongue, God inspired Aaron, 
his elder brother, to go and meet Moses in the 
wilderness, to be his spokesman to the people, 
Exod. iv, 1-31, and his prophet to Pharaoh ; 
while Moses was to be a god to both, as speak- 
ing to them in the name, or by the authority, 
of God himself, Exod. vii, 1, 2. At their first 
interview with Pharaoh, they declared, " Thus 
saith the Lord, the God of Israel, Let my peo- 
pie go, that they may hold a feast unto me in 
the wilderness. And Pharaoh said. Who is 
the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let 
Israel go ? I know not," or regard not, " the 
Lord, neither will I let Israel go." In answer 
to this haughty tyrant, they styled the Lord 
by a more ancient title, which the Egyptians 
ought to have known and respected, from 
Abraham's days, when he plagued them in the 
matter of Sarah: "The God of the Hebrews 
hath met with us : Let us go, we pray thee, 
three days' journey into the desert, and sacri- 
fice unto the Lord our God, lest he fall upon 
us with pestilence or with the sword :" plainly 
intimating to Pharaoh, also, not to incur his - 
indignation, by refiising to comply with his 
desire. But the king not only refused, but in- 
creased the burdens of the people, Exod. v, 
1-19 ; and the people murmured, and heark- 
ened not unto Moses, when he repeated from 
the Lord his assurances of deliverance and 
protection, for anguish of spirit, and for cruel 
bondage, Exod. v, 20-23 ; vi, 1-9. 

At their second interview with Pharaoh, in 
obedience to the divine command, again re- 
quiring him to let the children of Israel go 
out of his land ; Pharaoh, as foretold, demand, 
ed of them to show a miracle for themselves, 
in proof of their commission, when Aaron 
cast down his rod, and it became a serpent 
before Pharaoh and before his servants, or 
officers of his court. The king then called 
upon his wise men and magicians, to know if 
they could do as much by the power of their 
gods, " and they did so with their enchant- 
ments ; for they cast down every man his rod, 
and they became serpents ; but Aaron's rod 
swallowed up their serpents." Here the origin 



MOS 



672 



MOS 



nal phrase, p ityyii, " and they did so," or " in 
like manner," may only indicate the attempt, 
and not the deed ; as afterward, in the plague 
of lice, " when they did so with their enchant- 
ments, but could not," Exod. viii, 18. And, 
indeed, the original term, an"'£3n'7, rendered 
"their enchantments," as derived from the 
root dn'?, or toi*?, to hide or cover, fitly expresses 
the secret deceptions of legerdemain, or sleight- 
of-hand, to impose on spectators : and the re- 
mark of the magicians, when unable to imitate 
the production of lice, which was beyond their 
skill and dexterity, on account of their minute- 
ness, — "This is the finger of a God!" — seems 
to strengthen the supposition ; especially as 
the Egyptians were famous for legerdemain 
and for charming serpents : and the magicians, 
having had notice of the miracle they were 
expected to imitate, might make provision 
accordingly, and bring live serpents, which 
they might have substituted for their rods. 
And though Aaron's serpent swallowed up their 
serpents, showing the superiority of the true 
miracle over the false, 2 Thess. ii, 9, it might 
only lead the king to conclude, that Moses 
and Aaron were more expert jugglers than 
Jannes and Jambres, who opposed them, 
2 Timothy iii, 8. And the heart of Pharaoh 
was hardened, so that he " hearkned not unto 
them, as the Lord had said," or foretold, 
Exod. vi, 10, 11 ; vii, 8-13. For the conduct 
of Moses as the deliverer and lawgiver of the 
Israelites, see Plagues of Egypt, Red Sea, 
and Law. 

At Mount Sinai the Lord was pleased to 
make Moses, the redeemer of Israel, an emi- 
nent type of the Redeemer of the world. "I 
will raise them up a prophet from among their 
brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words 
in his mouth ; and he shall speak unto them 
all that I shall command him : and it shall 
come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken 
unto my words, which he shall speak in my 
name, I will require it of him :" which Moses 
communicated to the people. " The Lord 
thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet, from 
the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto 
me : unto him shall ye hearken," Deut, xviii, 
15-19. This prophet like unto Moses was 
our Lord Jesus Christ, who was by birth a 
Jew, of the middle class of the people, and re- 
sembled his predecessor, in personal inter- 
course with God, miracles, and legislation, 
which no other prophet did, Deut. xxxiv, 
10-12 ; and to whom God, at his transfigura- 
tion, required the world to hearken. Matt, 
xvii, 5. Whence our Lord's frequent admoni- 
tion to the Jewish church, " He that hath 
ears to hear, let him hear," Matthew xiii, 9, 
&c ; which is addressed, also, by the Spirit to 
the Christian churches of Asia Minor, Rev. 
iii, 22. 

In the affair of the Golden Calf, ( see Calf,) 
the conduct of Moses showed the greatest zeal 
for God's honour, and a holy indignation 
against the sin of Aaron and the people. And 
when Moses drew nigh, and saw their proceed- 
ings, his anger waxed hot, and he cast away 
the tables of the covenant, or stone tablets on j 



which were engraven the ten commandments 
by the finger of God himself, and brake them 
beneath the mount, in the presence of the peo- 
ple ; in token that the covenant between God 
and them was now rescinded on his part, in 
consequence of their transgression. He then 
took the golden calf, and burned it in the fire, 
and ground it to powder, and mixed it with 
water, and made the children of Israel drink 
of it. After thus destroying their idol, he in- 
flicted punishment on the idolaters themselves ; 
for he summoned all that were on the Lord's 
side to attend him ; and all the Levites having 
obeyed the call, he sent them, in the name of 
the Lord, to slay all the idolaters, from one 
end of the camp to the other, without favour 
or affection either to their neighbour or to their 
brother ; and they slew about three thousand 
men. The Lord also sent a grievous plague 
among them for their idolatry. Exodus xxxii, 
2-35, on which occasion Moses gave a signal 
proof of his love for his people, by interceding 
for them with the Lord ; and of his own dis- 
interestedness, in refusing the offer of the 
Almighty to adopt his family in their room, 
and make of them "a great nation." He 
prayed that God would blot him out of his 
book, that is, take away his life, if he would 
not forgive "the great sin of his people ;" and 
prevailed with God to alter his determination 
of withdrawing his presence from them, and 
sending an inferior angel to conduct them to 
the land of promise. So wonderful was the 
condescension of God to the voice of a man, 
and so mighty the power of prayer. 

When the Lord had pardoned the people, 
and taken them again into favour, he com- 
manded Moses to hew two tablets of stone, 
like the former which were broken, and to pre- 
sent them to him on the top of the mount ; 
and on these the Lord wrote again the ten 
commandments, for a renewal of the covenant 
between him and his people. To reward and 
strengthen the faith of Moses, God was pleased, 
at his request, to grant him a fuller view of 
the divine glory, or presence, than he had 
hitherto done. And, to confirm his authority 
with the people on his return, after the second 
conference of forty days, he imparted to him 
a portion of that glory or light by which his 
immediate presence was manifested : for the 
face of Moses shone so that Aaron and all the 
people were afraid to come nigh him, until he 
had put a veil on his face, to hide its bright- 
ness. This was an honour never vouchsafed to 
mortal before nor afterward till Christ, the 
Prophet like Moses, in his transfiguration also, 
appeared arrayed in a larger measure of the 
same lustre. Then Moses again beheld the 
glory of the Word made flesh, and ministered 
thereto in a glorified form himself, Exod. 
xxxiv, 1-35 ; Matt, xvii, 1-8. 

At Kibroth Hataavah, when the people 
loathed the manna, and longed for flesh, 
Moses betrayed great impatience, and wished 
for death. He was also reproved for unbelief. 
At Kadesh-barnea, Moses having encouraged 
the people to proceed, saying, "Behold, the 
Lord thy God hath set the land before thee . 



MOS 



673 



MOS 



go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy 
fathers hath said unto you : fear not," Deut. 
i, 19-21 ; they betrayed great diffidence, and 
proposed to Moses to send spies to search out 
the laud, and point out to them the way they 
should enter, and the course they should take. 
And the proposal "pleased him well," and 
with the consent of the Lord he sent twelve 
men, one out of each tribe, to spy out the land, 
Deut. i, 22, 23 ; Num. xiii, 1-20. All these, 
except Caleb and Joshua, having brought " an 
evil report," so discouraged the people, that 
they murmured against Moses and against 
Aaron, and said unto them, " Would God that 
we had died in the land of Egypt ; or would 
God that we had died in the wilderness ! And 
wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this 
land to fall by the sword, that our wives and 
our children shall be a prey ? Were it not 
better for us to return into Egypt ? And they 
said one to another, Let us make a captain, 
and return into Egypt." They even went so 
far as to propose to stone Joshua and Caleb, 
because they exhorted the people not to rebel 
against the Lord, nor to fear the people of the 
land, Num. xiv, 1-10; Deut. i, 26-28. Here 
again the noble patriotism of Moses was sig- 
nally displayed. He again refused the divine 
offer to disinherit the Israelites, and make of 
him and his family a "greater and mightier 
nation than they." He urged the most persua- 
sive motives with their offended God, not to 
destroy them with the threatened pestilence, 
lest the Heathen might say, *' that the Lord 
was not able to bring them into the land which 
he sware unto them." He powerfully appealed 
to the long-tried mercies and forgivenesses 
they had experienced ever since their depart- 
ure from Egypt; and his energetic supplica- 
tion prevailed ; for the Lord graciously said, 
" I have pardoned, according to thy word : but 
verily, as I live, all the earth shall be filled 
with the glory of the Lord ;" or shall adore him 
for his righteous judgments; "for all these 
men which have seen my glory and my mira- 
cles which I did in Egypt, and in the wilder- 
ness, and have tempted me these ten times, and 
have not hearkened to my voice, surely shall 
not see the land which I sware unto their 
fathers : neither shall any of them that pro- 
voked me see it. As ye have spoken in my 
ears, so will I do tmto you," by a righteous 
retaliation : " your carcasses shall fall in this 
wilderness. But your little ones, which ye 
said should be a prey, them will I bring in ; 
and they shall wander in the wilderness forty 
years, and bear your whoredoms, after the 
number of the days in which ye searched the 
land, each day for a year, until your carcasses 
be wasted in the wilderness." And imme- 
diately after this sentence, as the earnest of its 
full accomplishment, all the spies, except Ca- 
leb and Joshua, were cut off, and died by the 
plague before the Lord, Num. xiv, 11-37 ; 
Deut. i, 34-39. 

The people now, to repair their fault, con- 
trary to the advice of Moses, presumptuously 
went to invade the Amalekites and Canaanites 
of Mount Seir, or Hor ; who defeated them, 
44 



and chased them as bees to Hormah, Num. 
xiv, 39-45 ; Deut. i, 41-44. On the morrow 
they were ordered to turn away from the pro- 
mised land, and to take their journey south- 
westward, toward the way of the Red Sea : 
and they abode in the wilderness of Kadesh 
many days, or years, Num. xiv, 25; Deut. 
i, 40-46. The ill success of the expedition 
against the Amalekites, according to Josephus, 
occasioned the rebellion of Korah, which broke 
out shortly after, against Moses and Aaron, 
with greater violence than any of the fore- 
going, under Korah, the ringleader, who drew 
into it Dathan and Abiram, the heads of the 
senior tribe of Reuben, and two hundred and 
fifty princes of the assembly, among whom 
were even several of the Levites. (See Korah.) 
But although " all Israel round about had fled 
at the cry of the devoted families of Dathan 
and Abiram, for fear that the earth should 
swallow them up also ;" yet, on the morrow, 
they returned to their rebellious spirit, and 
murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, 
" Ye have killed the people of the Lord." On 
this occasion also, the Lord threatened to con- 
sume them as in a moment ; but, on the inter- 
cession of Moses, only smote them with a 
plague, which was stayed by an atonement 
made by Aaron, after the destruction of four- 
teen thousand seven hundred souls, Num. 
xvi, 41-50. 

On the return of the Israelites, after many 
years' wandering, to the same disastrous sta- 
tion of Kadesh-barnea, even Moses himself 
was guilty of an offence, in v/hich his brother 
Aaron was involved, and for which both were 
excluded, as a punishment, from entering the 
promised land. At Meribah Kadesh the con- 
gregation murmured against Moses, for bring- 
ing them into a barren wilderness without 
Water ; when the Lord commanded Moses to 
take his rod, which had been laid up before the 
Lord, and with Aaron to assemble the congre- 
gation together, and to speak to the rock before 
their eyes ; which should supply water for the 
congregation and their cattle. " But Moses 
said unto the congregation, when they were 
assembled. Hear now, ye rebels, must we fetch 
you water out of this rock ? And he smote 
the rock twice with his rod, and the water 
came out abundantly ; and the congregation 
drank, and their cattle also. And the Lord 
spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye 
believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of 
the children of Israel ; therefore ye shall not 
bring this congregation into the land which I 
have given them," Num. xx, 1-13 ; and after- 
ward in stronger terms : "Because ye rebelled 
against my commandment," &c. Numbers 
xxvii, 14. 

The offence of Moses, as far as may be col- 
lected from so concise an account, seems to 
have been, 1. He distrusted or disbelieved that 
water could be produced from the rock only by 
speaking to it ; which was a higher miracle 
than he had performed before at Rephidim, 
Exod. xvii, 6. 2. He unnecessarily smote the 
rock twice ; thereby betraying an unwarrant- 
able impatience, 3. He did not, at least in the 



MOS 



674 



MOS 



phrase he used, ascribe the glory of the mira- 
cle wholly to God, but rather to himself and 
his brother : " Must we fetch you water out 
of this rock ?" And he denominated them 
"rebels" against his and his brother's autho- 
rity, which, although an implied act of rebellion 
against God, ought to have been stated, as on 
a former occasion, "Ye have been rebels 
against the Lord, from the day that I knew 
you," Deut. ix, 24, which he spake without 
blame. For want of more caution on this 
occasion, " he spake unadvisedly with his lips, 
because they provoked his spirit," Psalm cvi, 33. 
Thus "was God sanctified at the waters of 
Meribah," by his impartial justice, in punishing 
his greatest favourites when they did amiss, 
Num. XX, 13. How severely Moses felt his 
deprivation, appears from his humble, and it 
should seem repeated, supplications to the 
Lord to reverse the sentence: "O Lord of 
gods, thou hast begun to show thy servant thy 
greatness, and thy mighty hand ; for what god 
is there in heaven or in earth that can do ac- 
cording to thy works, and according to tliy 
might ? I pray thee let me go over and see the 
good land beyond Jordan, even that goodly 
mountain Lebanon," or the whole breadth of 
tlie land. " But the Lord was wroth with me 
for your sakes, and would not hear me : and he 
said unto me, Let it suffice thee ; speak no more 
unto me of this matter. Get thee up unto the 
top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, 
and northward, and southward, and eastward, 
and behold it with thine eyes : for thou shalt 
not go over this Jordan," Deut. iii, 23-27. 

The faculties of this illustrious legislator, 
both of mind and body, were not impaired at 
the age of a hundred and twenty years, when 
he died. " His eye was not dim, nor his na- 
tural strength abated," Deut. xxxiv, 7 : and 
the noblest of all his compositions was his 
Song, or the Divine Ode, which Bishop Lowth 
elegantly styles, Cycnea Oratio, "the Dying 
Swan's Oration." His death took place after 
the Lord had shown him, from the top of 
Pisgah, a distant view of the promised land, 
throughout its whole extent. " He then buried 
his body in a valley opposite Beth-peor, in the 
land of Moab ; but no man knoweth his sepuL 
chre unto this day," observes the- sacred his- 
torian, w^ho annexed the circumstances of his 
death to the book of Deuteronomy, xxxiv, 6. 
From an obscure passage in the New Testa- 
ment, in which Michael the archangel is said 
to have contended with the devil about the 
body of Moses, Jude 9, some have thought 
that he was buried by the ministry of angels, 
near the scene of the idolatry of the Israelites ; 
but that tlie spot was purposely concealed, lest 
his tomb might also be converted into an object 
of idolatrous worship among the Israelites, 
like the brazen serpent. Beth-peor lay in the 
lot of the lleubenites, Joshua xiii, 20. But on 
so obscure a passage nothing can be built. 
The " body of Moses," may figuratively mean 
the Jewish church ; or the whole may be an 
allusion to a received tradition which, without 
affirming or denying its truth, might be jnadc 
the basis of a moral lesson. 



Josephus, who frequently attempts to em- 
bellish the simple narrative of Holy Writ, repre- 
sents Moses as attended to the top of Pisgah by 
Joshua, bis successor, Eleazar, the high priest, 
and the whole senate ; and that, after he had 
dismissed the senate, while he was conversing 
with Joshua and Eleazar, and embracing them, 
a cloud suddenly came over and enveloped 
him ; and he vanished from their sight, and he 
was taken away to a certain valley. " In the 
sacred books," says he, "it is written, that he 
died ; fearing to say that on account of his 
transcendent virtue, he had departed to the 
Deity." The Jewish historian has here, per- 
haps, imitated the account of our Lord's as- 
cension, furnished by the evangelist, Luke 
xxiv, 50 ; Acts i, 9 ; wishing to raise Moses 
to a level with Christ. The preeminence of 
Moses's character is briefly described by the 
sacred historian, Samuel or Ezra : " And there 
arose not a prophet since, in Israel, like unto 
Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face ; in 
all the signs and the wonders which the Lord 
sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pha- 
raoh, and all his servants, and all his land ; 
and in all that mighty hand, and in all the 
great terror which Moses showed in the sight 
of all Israel," Deut, xxxiv, 10-12. 

So marked and hallowed is the character of 
this, the most eminent of mere men, that it 
has often been successfully made the basis of 
an irresistible argument for the truth of his 
divine mission. Thus Cellerier observes, Every 
imposture has an object in view, and an aim 
more or less selfish. Men practise -deceit for 
money, for pleasure, or for glory. If, by a 
strange combination, the love of mankind 
ever entered into the mind of an impostor, 
doubtless, even then, he has contrived to 
reconcile, at least, his own selfish interests 
with those of the human race. If men de- 
ceive others, for the sake of causing their own 
opinions or their own party to triumph, they 
may -sometimes, perhaps, forget their own 
interests during the struggle, but they again 
remember them v/hen the victory is achieved. 
It is a general rule, that no impostor forgets 
himseif'iong. But Moses forgot himself, and 
forgot himself to the last. Yet there is no 
middle supposition. If Moses was not a 
divinely inspired messenger, he was an im- 
postor in the strongest sense of the term. It 
is not, as in the case of Numa, a slight and 
single fraud, designed to secure some good 
end, that we have to charge him with, but a 
series of deceits, many of which were gross ; 
a profound, dishonest, perfidious, sanguinary 
dissimuhxtion, continued for the space of forty 
years. If Moses was not a divinely commis- 
sioned prophet, he was not the saviour of the 
people, but their tyrant and their murderer. 
Still, we repeat, this barbarous impostor always 
forgot hhnself ; and his disinterestedness, as 
regarded himself personally, his family, and 
his tribe, is one of the most extraordinary 
features in his administration. As to himself 
])orsonany : He is destined to die in the wil- 
derness ; he is never to taste the tranquillity, 
the plenty, and the dcliglit, tlio possession o/ 



MOS 



675 



MOS 



which he promises to his countrymen ; he 
shares with them only tlieir fatigues and pri- 
vations ; he has more anxieties than they, on 
their account, in their acts of disobedience, 
and in their perpetual murmurings. As to his 
family : He does not nominate his sons as his 
successors ; he places them, without any privi- 
leges or distinctions, among the obscure sons 
of Levi ; they are not even admitted into the 
sacerdotal authority. Unlike all other fathers, 
Moses withdraws them from public view, and 
deprives them of the means of obtaining glory 
and favour. Samuel and Eli assign a part of 
their paternal authority to their sons, and per- 
mit them even to abuse it ; but the sons of 
Moses, in the wilderness, are only the simple 
servants of the tabernacle ; like all the other 
sons of Kohath, if they even da-re to raise the 
veil which covers the sacred furniture, the 
burden of which they carry, death is denounced 
against them. Where can we find more com- 
plete disinterestedness than in Moses ? Is not 
his the character of an upright man, who has 
the general good, not his own interests, at 
heart ; of a man who submissively acquiesces 
in the commands of God, without resistance 
and without demur ? When we consider these 
several things ; when we reflect on all the 
ministry of Moses, on his life, on his death, 
on his character, on his abilities, and his suc- 
cess ; we are powerfully convinced that he 
w^as the messenger of God. If we consider 
him only as an able legislator, as a Lycurgus, 
as a Numa, his actions are inexplicable : we 
find not in him the aifections, the interests, 
the views which usually belong to the human 
heart. The simplicity, the harmony, the 
verity of his natural character are gone ; they 
give place to an incoherent union of ardour 
and imposture ; of daring and of timidity, of 
incapacity and genius, of cruelty and sensi- 
bility. No ! Moses was inspired by God : he 
received from God the law which he left his 
countrymen. 

To Moses we OAve that important portion of 
Holy Scripture, the Pentateuch, which brings 
us acquainted with the creation of the world, 
the entrance of sin and death, the first promises 
of redemption, the flood, the peopling of the 
postdiluvian earth, and the origin of nations, 
the call of Abraham, and the giving of the law. 
We liave, indeed, in it the early history of 
religion, and a key to all the subsequent dis- 
pensations of God to man. The genuineness 
and authenticity of these most venerable and 
important books have been established by 
various writers ; but the following remarks 
upon the veracity of the writings of Moses 
have the merit of compressing much argu- 
ment into few words : — 1. There is a minute, 
riess in the details of the Mosaic writings^ 
which bespeaks their truth ; for it often be- 
sjieaks the eye-witness, as in the adventures 
of the wilderness ; and often seems intended to 
supply directions to the artificer, as in the 
construction of the tabernacle. 2. There are 
touches of nature in the narrative which be- 
fjpeak its truth, fur it is not easy to regard 
them otherwise than aa strokes from the life ; 



as where " the mixed multitude," whether half- 
castes or Egyptians, are the first to sigh for 
the cucumbers and melons of Egypt, and to 
spread discontent through the camp. Num. 
xi, 4 ; as the miserable exculpation of himself, 
which Aaron attempts, with all the cowardice 
of conscious guilt, " I cast into the fire, and 
there came out this calf:" the fire, to be sure, 
being in the fault, Exod. xxxii, 24. 3. There 
are certain little inconveniences represented as 
turning up unexpectedly, that bespeak truth 
in the story ; for they are just such accidents 
as are characteristic of the working of a new 
system and untried machinery. What is to 
be done with the man who is found gathering 
sticks on the Sabbath day ? Num. xv, 32. 
(Could an impostor have devised such a trifle ?) 
How is the inheritance of the daughters of 
Zelophehad to be disposed of, there being no 
heir male ? Num. xxxvi, 2. Either of them 
inconsiderable matters in themselves, but both 
giving occasion to very important laws ; the 
one touching life, and the other property. 
4. There is a simplicity in the manner of 
Moses, when telling his tale, which bespeaks 
its truth : no parade of language, no pomp of 
circumstance even in his miracles, a modesty 
and dignity throughout all. Let us but com- 
pare him in any trying ecenfi with Josephus ; 
his description, for instance, of the passage 
through the Red Sea, Exod. xiv, of tlie mur. 
muring of the Israelites and the supply of 
quails and m.anna, with the same as given by 
the Jewish historian, or rhetorician we might 
rather say, and the force of the observation 
will be felt. 5. There is a candour in the 
treatment of his subject by Moses, which be- 
speaks his truth ; as when he tells of his own 
want of eloquence, which unfitted him for a 
leader, Exod. iv, 10 ; his own want of faith, 
which prevented him from entering the pro- 
mised land, Num. xx, 12 ; the idolatry of 
Aaron his brother, Exod. xxxii, 21 ; the pro- 
faneness of Nadab and Abihu, his nephews, 
Lev. X ; the disaflection and punishment of 
Miriam, his sister. Num. xii, 1. 6. There is a 
disinterestedness in his conduct, which be- 
speaks him to be a m.an of truth ; for though 
he had sons, he apparently takes no measures 
during his life to give them offices of trust or 
profit ; and at his death he appoints as his suc- 
cessor one who had no claims upon him, either 
of alliance, of clanship, or of blood. 7. There 
are certain prophetical passages in the writings 
of Moses, which bespeak their truth ; as, seve- 
ral respecting the future Messiah, and the 
very sublime and literal one respecting the 
final fall of Jerusalem, Deut. xxviii. 8. There 
is a siviple key supplied by these writings, to 
the meaning of many ancient traditions cur- 
rent among the Heathens, though greatly dis- 
guised, which is another circumstance that 
bespeaks their truth : as, the golden age ; the 
garden of the Hesperides ; the fruit tree in the 
midst of the garden which the dragon guarded ; 
the destruction of mankind by a flood, all ex- 
cept two persons, and those righteous persons, 

Innocuos umbos, cultures iLuminis umbos ; 

I Both iiiiiocciit, boUi worshippers of Duity ,j 



MOS 



676 



iVrOS 



the rainbow, '* which Jupiter set in the cloud, 
a sign to men ;" the seventh day a sacred day ; 
with many others, all conspiring to establish 
the reality of the facts which Moses relates, 
because tending to show that vestiges of the 
like present themselves in the traditional his- 
tory of the world at large. 9. The concurrence 
which is found between the writings of Moses 
and those of the New Testament bespeaks 
their truth : the latter constantly appealing to 
them, being indeed but the completion of the 
system which the others are the first to put 
forth. Nor is this an illogical argument ; for, 
though the credibility of the New Testament 
itself may certainly be reasoned out from the 
truth of the Pentateuch once established, it is 
still very far from depending on that circum- 
stance exclusively, or even principally. The 
New Testament demands acceptance on its own 
merits, on merits distinct from those on which 
the books of Moses rest, therefore (so far as it 
does so) it may fairly give its suffrage for their 
veracity, valeat quantum valet : [it may avail as 
far as it goes ;] and surely it is a very impro- 
bable thing, that two dispensations, separated 
by an interval of some fifteen hundred years, 
each exhibiting prophecies of its own, since ful- 
filled; each asserting miracles of its own, on 
strong evidence of its own ; that two dispensa- 
tions, with such individual claims to be believed, 
should also be found to stand in the closest rela- 
tion to one another, and yet both turn out im- 
postures after all. 10. Above all, there is a com- 
parative purity in the theology and morality of 
the Pentateuch, which argues not only its truth, 
but its high original ; for how else are we to 
account for a system like that of Moses, in 
such an age and among such a people ; that 
the doctrine of the unity, the self-existence, 
the providence, the perfections of the great 
God of heaven and earth, should thus have 
blazed forth (how far more brightly than even 
in the vaunted schools of Athens at its most 
refined era !) from the midst of a nation, of 
themselves ever plunging into gross and 
grovelling idolatry ; and that principles of 
social duty, of benevolence, and of self-restraint, 
extending even to the thoughts of the heart, 
should have been the produce of an age which 
the very provisions of the Levitical law itself 
show to have been full of savage and licen- 
tious abominations ? Exod. iii, 14 ; xx, 3-17 ; 
Lev. xix, 2, 18 ; Deut. vi, 4 ; xxx, 6. Such 
are some of the internal evidences for the 
veracity of the books of Moses. 11. Then 
the situation in which the Jews actually found 
themselves placed, as a matter of fact, is no 
slight argument for the truth of the Mosaic 
accounts ; reminded, as they were, by certain 
memorials observed from year to year, of the 
great events of their early history, just as they 
are recorded in the writings of Moses, memo- 
rials universally recognised both in their object 
and in their authority. The passovcr, for 
instance, celebrated by all, no man doubting 
its meaning, no man in all Israel assigning to 
it any other origin than one, viz. that of being 
a contemporary monument of a miracle dis- 
played in favour of the people of Israel ; by 



right of which credentials, and no other, it 
summoned from all quarters of the world, at 
great cost, and inconvenience, and danger, 
the dispersed Jews, none disputing the obliga- 
tion to obey the summons. 12. Then the 
heroic devotion with which the Israelites con- 
tinued to regard the law, even long after they 
had ceased to cultivate the better part of it, 
even when that very law only served to con- 
demn its worshippers, so that they would offer 
themselves up by thousands, with their chil- 
dren and wives, as martyrs to the honour of 
their temple, in which no image, even of an 
emperor, who could scourge them with scor- 
pions for their disobedience, should be suffered 
to stand, and they live : so that rather than 
violate the sanctity of the Sabbath day, the 
bravest men in arms would lay down their 
lives as tamely as sheep, and allow themselves 
to be burned in the holes where they had taken 
refuge from their cruel and cowardly pursuers. 
All this points to their law, as having been at 
first promulgated under circumstances too 
awful to be forgotten even after the lapse of 
ages. 13. Then again, the extraordinary de- 
gree of national pride with which the Jews 
boasted themselves to be God's peculiar people, 
as if no nation ever was or ever could be so 
nigh to him ; a feeling which the early teach, 
ers of Christianity found an insuperable ob- 
stacle to the progress of the Gospel among 
them, and which actually did effect its ultimate 
rejection, this may well seem to be founded 
upon a strong traditional sense of uncommon 
tokens of the Almighty's regard for them 
above all other nations of the earth, which 
they had heard with their ears, or their fathers 
had declared unto them, even the noble works 
that he had done in the old time before them. 
14. Then again, the constant craving after 
" a sign," which beset them in the latter days 
of their history, as a lively certificate of the 
prophet ; and not after a sign only, but after 
such a one as they would themselves prescribe : 
" What sign showest thou, that we may see, 
and believe ? Our fathers did eat manna in the 
desert," John vi, 31. This desire, so frequently 
expressed, and with which they are so frequently 
reproached, looks like the relic of an appetite 
engendered in other times, when they had en- 
joyed the privilege of more intimate com- 
munion with God ; it seems the wake, as it 
were, of miracles departed. 15. Lastly, the 
very onerous nature of the law ; so studiously 
meddling with all the occupations of life, great 
and small ; — this yoke would scarcely have 
been endured, without the strongest assurance, 
on the part of those who were galled by it, of 
the authority by which it was imposed. For 
it met them with some restraint or other at 
every turn. Would they plough ? then it must 
not be with an ox and an ass. Would they 
sow ? then must not the seed be mixed. Would 
they reap ? then must they not reap clean. 
Would they make bread ? then must they set 
apart dough enoiigli for the consecrated loaf. 
Did they find a l)ird's nest ? then must they 
let the old bird fly away. Did they hunt ? then 
they must shed the blood of their game, and 



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cover it with dust. Did they plant a fruit 
tree ? for three years was the fruit to be un- 
circumcised. Did they shave their beards ? 
they were not to cut the corners. Did they 
weave a garment ? then must it be only with 
threads prescribed. Did they build a house ? 
they must put rails and battlements on the 
roof. Did they buy an estate ? at the year of 
jubilee, back it must go to its owner. All 
these (and how many more of the same kind 
might be named !) are enactments which it 
must have required extraordinary influence in 
the lawgiver to enjoin, and extraordinary reve- 
rence for his powers to perpetuate. 

Still, after all, says Mr. Blunt, unbelievers 
may start difficulties, — this I dispute not ; dif- 
ficulties, too, which we may not always be able 
to answer, though I think we may be always 
able to neutralize them. It may be a part of 
our trial, that such difficulties should exist and 
be encountered ; for there can be no reason 
why temptations should not be provided for 
the natural pride of our understanding, as well 
as for the natural lusts of our flesh. To many, 
indeed, they would be the more formidable of 
the two, perhaps to the angels who kept not 
their first estate they proved so. With such 
facts, however, before me, as these which I 
have submitted to my readers, I can come to 
no conclusion but one, — that when we read 
the writings of Moses, we read no cunningly 
devised fables, but solemn and safe records of 
great and marvellous events, which court ex- 
amination, and sustain it ; records of such 
apparent veracity and faithfulness, that I can 
understand our Lord to have spoken almost 
without a figure, when he said, that he who 
believed not Moses, neither would he be per- 
suaded though one rose from the dead. 

MOTH, v^. Job iv, 19 ; and lya'j;. Job xiii, 
28 ; xxvii, 18 ; Psalm vi, 7 ; xxxi, 9, 10 ; xxxix, 
11; Isaiah 1, 9; Hosea v, 12. The clothes 
moth is the tinea argentca ; of a white, shining 
silver, or pearl colour. It is clothed with shells, 
fourteen in number, and these are scaly. Albin 
asserts this to be the insect that eats woollen 
stuffs ; and says that it is produced from a 
gray speckled moth, that flies by night, creeps 
among woollens, and there lays her eggs, 
which, after a little time, are hatched as 
worms, and in this state they feed on their 
habitation, till they change into a chrysalis, 
and thence emerge into moths. " The young 
moth, or moth worm," says the Abbe Pluche, 
" upon leaving the egg which a papilio had 
lodged upon a piece of stuff" commodious for 
her purpose, finds a proper place of residence, 
grows and feeds upon the nap, and likewise 
builds with it an apartment, which is fixed to 
the groundwork of the stuff" with several cords 
and a little glue. From an aperture in this 
habitation, the moth worm devours and de- 
molishes all about him; and, when he has 
cleared the place, he draws out all the fasten- 
ings of his tent ; after which he carries it to 
some little distance, and then fixes it with the 
slender cords in a new situation. In this man- 
ner he continues to live at our expense, till he 
is satisfied with his food, at which period he 



is first transformed into the nyinpha, and then 
changed into the papilio." 

The allusions to this insect in the sacred 
writings are very striking: " Fear ye not the 
reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their 
revilings. For the moth shall eat them up like 
a garment, and the worm shall eat them like 
wool." They shall perish with as little noise 
as a garment under the tooth of a moth, Isaiah 
li, 7, 8. In the prophecies of Hosea, God him. 
self says, " I will be as a moth unto Ephraim, 
and as a lion ;" that is, I will send silent and 
secret judgments upon him, which shall imper- 
ceptibly waste his beauty, corrode his power, 
and diminish his strength, and will finish his 
destruction with open and irresistible calami, 
ties. Or the meaning may be. As the moth 
crumbles into dust under the slightest pressure, 
or the gentlest touch, so man dissolves with 
equal ease, and vanishes into darkness, under 
the finger of the Almighty. Deeply sensible 
of this affecting truth, the royal Psalmist earn- 
estly deprecates the judgments of God, humbly 
confessing his own weakness, and the inability 
of every man to endure his frown : " Remove 
thy stroke away from me : I am consumed by 
the blow of thy hand. When thou with re. 
bukes doth correct man for iniquity, thou 
makest his beauty to consume away like a 
moth : surely every man is vanity. Selah," 
Psalm xxxix, 10, 11. Such, in the estimation 
of Job, is the fading prosperity of a wicked 
man : " He buildeth his house as a moth, and 
as a booth that the keeper maketh," Job 
xxvii, 18. His unrighteous acquisitions shall 
be of short continuance ; they shall moulder 
insensibly away, returning to the lawful owner, 
or pass into the possession of others. It is in 
this sense that the Lord threatens : " I will be 
unto Ephraim as a moth," Hosea v, 12. By 
the secret curse of God he shall fade away, 
and whatever is most precious in his estima- 
tion shall be gradually dissolved and consumed, 
as a garment eaten by the moth. The same allu. 
sion is involved in the direction of our Lord 
to his disciples : " Lay not up for yourselves 
treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust 
doth corrupt, and where thieves break through 
and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures 
in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth 
corrupt, and where thieves do not break 
through nor steal," Matthew vi, 19, 20. The 
word treasure commonly suggests to our minds 
the idea of some durable substance, as precious 
stones, gold, and silver, upon which the per- 
severing industry of a moth can make no 
impression ; but, in the language of inspi- 
ration, it denotes every thing collected to- 
gether which men reckon valuable. The Jews 
had treasures of raiment as well as of corn, 
of wine, of oil, of honey, Jer. xli, 8 ; and of 
gold, silver, and brass, Ezek. xxxiii, 4 ; Dan. 
xi, 43. The robes of princes were a part of 
their treasure, upon which they often set a 
particular value. Rich vestments made a con- 
spicuous figure in the treasury of Ulysses. 
These were, from their nature, exposed to the 
depredations of the moth ; fabricated of perish, 
ing materials, they were liable to be prema- 



MUL 



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•turely consumed, or taken away by fraud or 
violence ; but the favour of God, and the graces 
of his Spirit, and the enjoyment of eternal 
happiness, are neither liable to internal decay 
nor external violence, and by consequence, 
are the proper objects of our highest regard, 
chief solicitude, and constant pursuit. It is 
also likefy, that by " moth" our Lord meant all 
the kinds of small insects which devour or 
spoil the different kinds of property, such as 
corn, honey, fruits, &c, which were treasured 
up for the future. These, in warm countries, 
are very numerous and destructive. 

MOURNING. See Burial and Dead. 

MOUSE, -injp, in Chaldee acalbar, proba- 
bly the same with the aliarhui of the Arabians 
or the jerboa, Leviticus xi, 29 ; 1 Samuel vi, 4, 
5, 11, 18; Isaiah xlvi, 17. All interpreters 
acknowledge that the Hebrew word achbar 
signifies a "mouse," and more especially a 
"field mouse." Moses declares it to be un- 
clean, whicli insinuates that it was sometimes 
eaten ; and, indeed, it is affirmed that the 
Jews were so oppressed with famine during the 
siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, that, not- 
witlistanding this prohibition, they were com- 
pelled to eat dogs, mice, and rats. Isaiah, 
Ixvi, 17, justly reproaches the Jews with eat- 
ing the flesh of mice and other things that 
were impure and abominable. It is known 
what spoil was made by mice m the fields of 
the Philistines, 1 Sam. vi, 5, 6, &c, after this 
people had brought into the country the ark 
of the Lord ; so that they were obliged to take 
the resolution to send it back, accompanied 
with mice and emerods of gold, as an atone- 
ment for the irreverence they had committed, 
and to avert from their land the vengeance 
that pursued them. Judea has suffered by these 
animals in other times. William, archbishop 
of Tyre, records, that in the beginning of the 
twelfth century a penitential council was held 
at Naplouse, where five and twenty canons 
were framed for the correction of the manners 
of the inhabitants of the Christian kingdom of 
Jerusalem, who, they apprehended, had pro- 
voked God to bring upon them the calamities 
of earthquakes, war, and famine. This last the 
archbishop ascribes to locusts and devouring 
mice, whicli had for four years together so de- 
stroyed the fruits of the earth, as seemed to 
cause almost a total failure in their crops. 
Bochart has collected many curious accounts 
relative to the terrible devastation made by 
these animals. 

MULBERRY TREE, xdd, 2 Sam. v, 23, 
24 ; 1 Chronicles xiv, 14, 15 ; Psalm Ixxxiv, 7. 
The LXX, in Chronicles, render the word by 
dniuv, "pear trees ;" so Aquila and tlie Vulgate, 
both in Samuel and Chronicles, ^'' pyro7-um." 
Others translate it the " mulberry tree." More 
probably it is the large shrub which the Arabs 
still call "baca;" and which gave name to the 
valley where it abounded. Of this valley Cel- 
sius remarks, that it was "rugged and embar- 
rassed with bushes and stones, which could not 
be passed through without labour and tears ;" 
referring to Psalm Ixxxiv, 7; and the "rough 
valley," Deut. xxi, 4 ; and he quotes from a 



manuscript of Abu'l Fideli a description of the 
tree which grev»' there, and mentions it as bear- 
ing a fruit of an acrid taste. 

MULE, T1D, 2 Sam. xiii, 29 ; 1 Kings i, 33 ; 
X, 25, &c. A mongrel kind of quadruped, be- 
tween the horse and the ass. Its form bears 
a considerable resemblance to the last mention- 
ed animal ; but in its disposition it is rather 
vicious and intractable ; so that its obstinacy 
has become a proverb. With this creature the 
early ages were probably unacquainted. It is 
very certain the Jews did not breed mules, be- 
cause it was forbidden them to couple together 
two creatures of different species. Lev. xix, 19. 
But they were not prohibited the making use 
of them : thus we find in David's time that 
they had become very common, and made up 
a considerable part of the equipage of princes, 
2 Sam. xiii, 29; xviii, 9; 1 Kings i, 33, 38, 
44 ; X, 25 ; 2 Chron. ix, 24. 

MURDER. Among the Hebrews murder 
was always punished with death ; but inv9lun- 
tary homicide, only- by banishment. Cities of 
refuge vv^ere appointed for involuntary man- 
slaughter, whither the slayer might retire and 
continue in safety till the death of the high, 
priest, Num. xxxv, 28. Then the offender was 
at liberty to return to his own house, if he 
pleased, A murderer was put to death with- 
out remission, and the kinsman of the mur- 
dered person might kill him with impunity. 
Money could not redeem his life : he was drag- 
ged away from the altar, if he had the;re taken 
refuge. When a dead body was found in the 
fields of a person slain by a murderer unknown, 
Moses commanded that the elders and judges 
of the neighbouring places should resort to the 
spot, Deut. xxi, 1-8. The elders of the city 
nearest to it were to take a heifer which had 
never yet borne the yoke, and were to lead it 
into some rude and uncultivated place, which 
had not been ploughed or sowed, where they 
were to cut its throat. The priests of the 
Lord, with the elders and magistrates of the 
city, were to come near the dead body, and, 
washing their hands over the heifer that had 
been slain, were to say, " Our hands have not 
shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it shed. 
Lord, be favourable to thy people Israel, and 
impute not to us this blood, which has been 
shed in the midst of our country." This ce. 
remony may inform us how much horror they 
conceived at the crime of murder ; and it 
shows their fear that God might avenge it on 
the whole country; which was supposed to 
contract pollution by the blood spilt in it, un- 
less it were expiated, and avenged on him wlio 
had occasioned it, if he could be discovered. 

MUSIC is probably nearly coeval with our 
race, or, at least, with the first attempts to 
preserve the memory of transactions. Before 
the invention of writing, the history of remark- 
able events was committed to memory, and 
handed down by oral tradition. The know- 
ledge of laws and of useful arts was preserved 
in the same way. Rhythm and song were 
probably soon found important helps to the 
memory ; and thus the muses became the early 
instructers of mankind. Nor was it long, wc 



MUS 



679 



MUS 



may conjecture, before dancing and song 
united contributed to festivity, or to tbe so- 
lemnities of religion. Tbe first instruments 
of nmsic were probably of the pulsatile kind ; 
and i-iiythni, it is likely, preceded the observa- 
tion of those intervals' of sound which are so 
pleasing to the ear. The first mention of 
stringed instruments, however, precedes the 
deluge. Tubal, the sixth descendant from 
Cain, was " the father of all such as handle 
the harp and the organ." About five hundred 
and fifly years after the deluge, or B. C. 1800, 
according to the common chronology, both 
vocal and instrmnental music are spoken of 
as things in general use : " And Laban said. 
What hast thou done, that thou hast stolen 
away unawares to me, and carried away my 
daughters, as captives taken with the sword ? 
Wherefore didst thou flee av/ay secretly, and 
steal away from me ; and didst not tell me, 
that I might have sent thee away with mirth 
and with songs, with tabret and with harp ?" 
Gen. xxxi, 26, 27. 

Egypt has been called the cradle of the arts 
and sciences, and there can be no doubt of the 
very early civilization of that country. To 
the Egyptian Mercury, or Thoih, who is call- 
ed Trismegistos, or " thrice illustrious," is 
ascribed the invention of the lyre, which had 
at first only three strings. It would be idle to 
mention the various conjectures how these 
strings were tuned, or to try to settle the 
chronology of this invention. The single flute, 
wliich they called pkotinx, is also ascribed to 
the Egyptians. Its shape was that of a horn, 
of which, no doubt, it was originally made. 
Before the invention of these instruments, as 
Dr. Burney justly observes, " music could have 
been little more than metrical, as no other in- 
struments except those of percussion were 
known. When the art was first discovered 
of refining and sustaining tones, the power of 
inusic over mankind was probably irresistible, 
f'-om the agreeable surprise which soft and 
lengthened sounds must have occasioned." 
Tiie same learned writer has given a drawing, 
made under his own eye, of an Egyptian 
musical instrument, represented on a very an- 
cient obelisk at Rome, brought from Egypt by 
Augustus. This obelisk is supposed to have 
been erected at lieliopolis, by Sesostris, near 
four hundred years before the Trojan war. 
The most remarkable thing in this instrument 
is, that it is supplied with a neck, so that its 
two strings were capable of furnishing a great 
number of sounds. This is a contrivance 
which the Greeks, with all their ingenuity, 
never hit upon. " I have never been able," 
says the doctor, " to discover in any remains of 
Greek sculpture, an instrument fiirnished with 
a neck ; and Father Montfaucon says that in 
examining the representations of near five 
hundred ancient lyres, harps, and citharas, he 
never met with one in which there was any con- 
trivance for shortening the strings during the 
time of performance, as by a neck and finger 
board." From the long residence of the He- 
brews in Egypt, it is no improbable conjecture 
that their musjc was derived from that source. 



However that may be, music, vocal and instru- 
mental, made one important part of their reli- 
gious sei'vice. If the excellence of the music 
was conformable to tlie sublimity of tlie poetry 
which it accompanied, there would be no in- 
justice in supposing it unspeakably superior 
to that of every other people ; and the pains 
that were taken to render the tabernacle and 
temple music worthy of the subjects of their 
lofty odes, leaves little doubt that it was so. 
That the instruments were loud and sonorous, 
will appear from what follows; but as the 
public singing was performed in alternate 
responses, or the chorus of all succeeded to 
those parts of the psalm which vv^ere sung only 
by the appointed leaders, instruments of this 
kind were necessary to command and control 
the voices of so great a nuniber as was usually 
assembled on high occasions. 

The Plebrews insisted on having music at 
marriages, on anniversary birth days, on the 
days which reminded them of victories over 
their enemies, at the inauguration of their 
kings, in their public worship, and when they 
were coming from afar to attend the great 
festivals of their nation, Isaiah xxx, 29. In 
the tabernacle and the temple, the Levites were 
the lawful musicians ; but on other occasions 
any one might use musical instruments who 
chose. There was this exception, however : 
the holy silver trumpets were to be blown only 
by the priests, who, by the sounding of them, 
proclaimed the festival days, assembled tlio 
leaders of the people, and gave the signal for 
the battle and for the retreat. Num. x, 1-10. 
David, in order to give the best effect to tlie 
music of the tabernacle, divided the four thou- 
sand Levites into twenty-four classes, who 
sung psalms, and accompanied them v/ith mu- 
sic. Each of these classes was supermtended 
by a leader, placed over it ; and tliey perform- 
ed the duties which devolved upon them, each 
class a week at a time in succession, 1 Chron. 
xvi, 5 ; xxiii, 4, 5 ; xxv, 1-31 ; 2 Chron. v, 
12, 13. The classes collectively, as a united 
body, were superintended by three directors. 
This arrangement was subsequently continued 
by Solomon after the erection of the temple, 
and was transmitted till the time of the over- 
throw of Jerusalem. It was indeed sometimes 
interrupted, during the reign of the idolatrous 
kings, but was restored by their successors, 
2 Chron. v, 12-14; xxix, 27; xxxv, 15. It 
was even continued after the captivity, Ezra 
iii, 10; Neh.xii, 45-47 ; 1 Mac. iv, 54 ; xiii, 51. 
It should be remarked, however, that neither 
music nor poetry attained to the same excel- 
lence after the captivity as before that period. 
There were women singers as well as men 
in the temple choir; for in the book of Ezra, 
among those who returned from the Baby- 
lonish captivity, there are said to have been 
two hundred, Ezra ii, G5 ; and in Nehemiah 
vii, 67, we read of two hundred and forty-five, 
singing men and women. The Jewish doctors 
will, indeed, by no means admit there were 
any female voices in the temple choir ; and as 
for those nmtf a, meshoreroth, as they are calL 
ed in the Hebrew, they suppose them to be t))B 



MUS 



680 



MUS 



wives of those who sung. Nevertheless, the 
following passage makes it evident that wo- 
men, likewise, were thus employed : " God 
gave to Heman fourteen sons and three 
daughters ; and all these were under the hands 
of their father for song in the house of the 
Lord, with cymbals, psalteries, and harps, for 
the service of the house of God," 1 Chron. 
XXV, 5, 6. Instrumental music was first intro- 
duced into the Jewish service by Moses ; and 
afterward, by the express command of God, 
was very much improved with the addition of 
several instruments in the reign of David. 
When Hezekiah restored the temple service, 
which had been neglected in his predecessor's 
reign, "he set the Levites in the house of the 
Lord, with cymbals, with psalteries, and with 
harps, according to the commandment of 
David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan 
the prophet ; for so was the commandment of 
the Lord, by his prophets," 2 Chron. xxix, 25, 
The harp, mJD, Mnnor, was the most ancient 
of the class of stringed instruments, Gen. iv, 
2L It was sometimes called n>J">Dty, or " eight 
stringed," 1 Chron. xv, 21 ; Psalm vi, 1 ; xii, 
1 ; although, as we may gather from the coins 
or medals of the Maccabean age, there were 
some harps which were furnished with only 
three strings. The nahlum ov psaltery, vaSXlov, 
vavha, "73 J, is first mentioned in the Psalms of 
David. In Psalms xxxiii, 2, and cxliv, 9, it is 
called niB'y, "a ten-stringed instrument;" but 
in Psalm xcii, 3, it is distinguished from it. 
Josephus assigns to it twelve strings, which, 
taken in connection with the fact above stated, 
leaves us to conclude that it sometimes had 
ten and sometimes twelve strings. It was not 
played with a bow or fret, but with the fingers : 
the act of playing it is expressed in Hebrew 
by the word np- It resembled in form a right- 
angled triangle, or the Greek delta, Vj inverted. 
The body of it was of wood and hollow, and 
was enclosed with a piece of leather tensely 
drawn. The chords were extended on the out- 
side of the leather, and were fixed at one end 
into the transverse part of the triangular body 
of the instrument. Such is its form at the 
present day in the east ; but it has only five 
strings in its modern shape, 2 Sam. vi, 5 ; 
1 Kings X, 12. There was another instru- 
ment of this kind used in Babylonia : it was 
triangular in form. In Greek it is called 
canSvKri ; in Hebrew, NDao and N33ty. It had 
originally only four, but subsequently twenty, 
strings, Dan. iii, 5, 7, 10, 15. Among their 
wind instruments was the organ, so called in 
the English version, in Hebrew, :iji;?, Gen. 
iv, 21. It may be styled the ancient shep- 
herd's pipe, corresponding most nearly to 
the evpiy^, or the pipe of Pan among the 
Greeks. It consisted at first of only one or 
two, but afterward of about seven, pipes made 
of reeds, and differing from each other in 
length, The instrument called Nn^'iTiiJ'D, used 
in Babylon, Dan. iii, 5, was of a similar con- 
struction. '?i^n, mV^nj, and ::pi, chalil, necki- 
loth, and nekeb, are wind instruments made of 
various materials, such as wood, reeds, horns, 
and bones. As far as we may be permitted to 



judge from the three kinds of pipes now used 
in the east, the Hebrew instrument called 
nechiloth is the one that is double in its struc- 
ture ; chain is perhaps the one of simpler form, 
having a single stem with an orifice through 
it ; while neJceb answers to the one without an 
orifice, Isaiah v, 12 ; xxx, 29 ; Jer. xlviii, 36 ; 
Psalm V, 1 ; Ezek. xxviii, 13. n^j^DDiD, or, 
according to the marginal reading, nijjj^d, Dan. 
iii, 5, 10, was a wind instrument made of 
reeds, by the Syrians, called sanibonja, by the 
Greeks samponja, and by the' Italians zam- 
pogna. According to Servius, it was of a 
crooked shape, pp, the horn or crooked trumpet, 
was a very ancient instrument It was made 
of the horns of oxen, which were cut off at 
the smaller extremity, and thus presentecL an 
orifice which extended through. In progress 
of time, rams' horns were hollowed and em- 
ployed for the same purpose. It is probable 
that in some instances it was made of brass, 
fashioned so as to resemble a horn. It was 
greatly used in war, and its sound resembled 
thunder, mxisn, chaisoteroth, the silver trumpet, 
was straight, a cubit in length, hollow through- 
out, and at the larger extremity shaped so as 
to resemble the mouth of a small bell. In 
times of peace, when the people or the rulers 
were to be assembled together, this trumpet 
was blown softly. When the camps were to 
move forward, or the people to march to war, 
it was sounded with a deeper note. 

There were several sorts of drums. The 
rin o^on, toph, rendered in the English version 
tahret and timbrel. Gen. xxxi, 27, consisted of 
a circular hoop, either of wood or brass, three 
inches and six-tenths wide, was covered with 
a skin tensely drawn, and hung round with 
small bells. It was held in the left hand, and 
beaten to notes of music with the right. The 
ladies through all the east, even to this day, 
dance to the sound of this instrument, Exod. 
XV, 20 ; Job xvii, 6 ; xxi, 12 ; 2 Sam. vi, 5. 
The cymbals, D^'jsVx, tseltselim, nv'?SD, were 
of two kinds formerly, as there are to this day, 
in the east. The first consisted of two flat 
pieces of metal or plates : the musician held 
one of them in his right hand, the other in his 
left, and smote them together, as an accom- 
paniment to other instruments. This cymbal 
and the mode of using it may be often seen in 
modern armies. The second kind of cymbals, 
consisted of four small plates attached, two to 
each hand, which the ladies, as they danced, 
smote together. But ni'^XD. Zech. xiv, 20, 
rendered in the English version bells, are not 
musical instruments, as some suppose, nor in- 
deed bells, but coiicave pieces or plates of 
brass, which were * sometimes attached to 
horses for the sake of ornament. 

MUSTARD, aivam, Matt, xiii, 32 ; xvii, 20 ; 
Mark iv, 31 ; Luke xiii, 19 ; xvii, 6 ; a well 
known garden herb. Christ compares the 
kingdom of heaven to "a grain of mustard 
seed, which a man took and sowed in the 
earth, which indeed," said he, " is the least of 
all seeds ; but when it is grown is the greatest 
among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the 
birds of the air come and lodge in tlie branches 



MYR 



681 



MYS 



thereof," Matt, xiii, 31, 32. " This expression 
will not appear strange," says Sir Thomas 
Browne, " if we recollect that the mustard 
seed, though it be not simply and in itself the 
smallest of seeds, yet may be very well believ- 
ed to be the smallest of such as are apt to 
grow unto a ligneous substance, and become 
a kind of tree." The expression, also, that it 
might grow into such dimensions that birds 
might lodge on its branches, may be literally 
conceived, if we allow the luxuriancy of plants 
in India above our northern regions. And he 
quotes upon this occasion what is recorded in 
the Jewish story, of a mustard tree that was 
to be climbed like a fig tree. The Talmud also 
mentions one whose branches were so exten- 
sive as to cover a tent. Without insisting on 
the accuracy of this, we may gather from it 
that we should not judge of eastern vegeta- 
bles by those which are familiar to ourselves. 
Scheuehzer describes a species of mustard 
which grows several feet high, with a taper- 
ing stalk, and spreads into many branches. 
Of this arborescent or treelike vegetable, he 
gives a print ; and Linnseus mentions a spe. 
cies whose branches were real wood, which he 
names sinapi erucoides. But whatever kind of 
tree our Lord meant, it is clear, from the fact 
that he never takes his illustrations from any 
objects but such as were familiar, and often 
present in the scene around him, that he spoke 
of one which the Jews well knew to have 
minute seeds, and yet to be of so large growth 
as to afford shelter for the birds of the air. 

MYRRH, 11D, Exod. xxx, 23; Esther ii, 
12 ; Psalm xlv, 8 ; Prov. vii, 17 ; Cant, i, 13 ; 
iii, 6 ; iv, 6, 14 ; v, 1, 5, 13 ; cfivpva, Ecclus. 
xxiv, 15 ; Matt, ii, 11 ; Mark xv, 23 ; John 
xix, 39 ; a precious kind of gum issuing by in. 
cision, and sometimes spontaneously, from the 
trunk and larger branches of a tree growing 
in, Egypt, Arabia, and Abyssinia. Its taste is 
extremely bitter, but its smell, though strong, 
is not disagreeable ; and among the ancients 
it entered into the composition of the most 
costly ointments. As a perfume, it appears to 
have been used to give a pleasant fragrance to 
vestments, and to be carried by females in 
little caskets in the bosoms. The magi, who 
came from the east to worship our Saviour at 
Bethlehem, made him a present of myrrh 
among other things. Matt, ii, 11. 

MYRTLE, mn, Neh. viii, 15; Isaiah xli, 
19 ; Iv, 13 ; Zech. i, 8-10 ; a shrub, sometimes 
growing to a small tree, very common in Ju. 
dea. It has a hard woody root that sends forth 
a great number of small flexible branches, 
furnished with leaves like those of box, but 
much less, and more pointed : they are soft to 
the touch, shining, smooth, of a beautiful 
green, and have a sweet smell. The flowers 
grow among the leaves, and consist of five 
white petals disposed in the form of a rose : 
they have an agreeable perfume, and orna- 
mental appearance. Savary, describing a 
scene at the end of the forest of Platanea, 
says, " Myrtles, intermixed with laurel roses, 
grow in the valleys to the height of ten feel. 
Their snow-white flowers, bordered with a 



purple edging, appear to peculiar advantage 
under the verdant foliage. Each myrtle is 
loaded with them, and they emit perfumes 
more exquisite than those of the rose itself. 
They enchant every one, and the soul is filled 
with the softest sensations." The myrtle is 
mentioned in Scripture among lofty trees, not 
as comparing with them in size, but as contri- 
buting with them to the beauty and richness 
of the scenery. Thus Isaiah, xli, 19, intend- 
ing to describe a scene of varied excellence : 
" I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, and 
the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil 
tree ;" that is, I will adorn the dreary and bar- 
ren waste with trees famed for their stature 
and the grandeur of their appearance, the 
beauty of their form, and also the fragrance 
of their odour. The apocryphal Baruch, v, 8, 
speaking of the return from Babylon, expresses 
the protection afforded by God to the people 
by the same image: "Even the woods and 
every sweet-smelling tree shall overshadow 
Israel by the commandment of God." 

MYSIA, a country of Asia Minor, having 
the Propontis on the north, Bithynia on the 
north-east and east, Phrygia on the south-east, 
Lydia (from which it was separated by the 
river Hermus) on the south, the iEgean Sea 
on the west, and the narrow strait, called the 
Hellespont, on the north-west. Mysia was 
visited by St. Paul in his circuit through Asia 
Minor ; but he was not suffered by the Spirit 
to remain there, being directed to pass over 
into Macedonia, Acts xvi, 7-10. In this 
country stood the ancient city Troy ; as 
also that of Pergamus, one of the seven 
churches of Asia. Under the Romans it was 
made a province of the empire, and called 
Hellespontus ; and its inhabitants are repre- 
sented by Cicero as base and contemptible to 
a proverb. 

MYSTERY. The Greek word ixv^npiov de- 
notes, 1. Something hidden, or not fully rnani- 
fest. Thus, 2 Thess. ii, 7, we read of the 
" mystery of iniquity," which began to work 
in secret, but was not then completely dis- 
closed or manifested. 2. Some sacred thing 
hidden or secret, which is naturally unknown 
to human reason, and is only known by the 
revelation of God. Thus, " Great is the mys- 
tery of godliness ; God was manifest in the 
flesh, justified by the Spirit," &c, 1 Tim. iii, 
16. The mystery of godliness, or of true re- 
ligion, consister*. in the several particulars 
here mentioned by the Apostle ; particulars, 
indeed, which it would never have " entered 
into the heart of man to conceive," 1 Cor. ii, 9, 
had not God accomplished them in fact, and 
published them by the preaching of his Gos- 
pel ; but which, being thus manifested, are 
intelligible, as facts, to the meanest under- 
standing. In like manner, the term mystery, 
Rom. xi, 25 ; 1 Cor. xv, 51, denotes what was 
hidden or unknown, till revealed ; and thus 
the Apostle speaks of a man's " understanding 
all mysteries," 1 Cor. xiii, 2 ; that is, all the 
revealed truths of the Christian religion, 
which is elsewhere called the " mystery of 
faith," 1 Tim. iii, 9. And when he who 



MYS 



682 



MYS 



spake in an unknown tongue is said to " speak 
mjrsteries," 1 Cor, xiv, 2, it is plain, that these 
mysteries, however unintelhgible to others on 
account of the language in which they were 
spoken, were yet understood by the person 
himself, because he hereby " edified himself," 
1 Cor. xiv, 4 ; Acts ii, 11 ; x, 46. And though 
in 1 Cor. ii, 7, 8, we read of the " wisdom of 
God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, 
whicli none of the princes of this world knew ;" 
yet, says the Apostle, we speak or declare this 
wisdom ; and he observes, verse 10, that God 
had revealed the particulars of which it con- 
sisted to them by his Spirit. So when the 
Apostles are called " stewards of the mysteries 
of God," 1 Cor. iv, 1, these mysteries could 
not mean what were, as facts, unknown to 
them ; (because to them it was " given to 
know the mysteries of the kingdom of God," 
Matt, xiii, 11 ;) yea, the character here ascribed 
to them implies not only that tliey knew these 
mysteries themselves, but that as faithful stew- 
ards they were to dispense or make them known 
to others, Luke xii, 42 ; 1 Pet. iv, 10. In Col. 
ii, 2, St. Paul mentions his praying for his 
converts, that their hearts might be comforted 
" to the knowledge of the mystery of God, 
even of the Father, and of Christ ;" for thus 
the passage should be translated. But if, with 
our translators, we render htyvwcrLv, acknow- 
ledgment, still the word fjiv^npiov can by no 
means exclude knowledge ; " for this is life 
eternal," saith our Lord, John xvii, 3, "that 
they may know thee, the only true God, and 
Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." And, 
lastly, whatever be the particular meaning of 
the " mystery of God," mentioned Rev. x, 7, 
yet it was something he had declared "to (or 
rather by) his servants the prophets." 3. The 
word mystery is sometimes in the writings of 
St. Paul applied in a peculiar sense to the call- 
ing of the Gentiles, which he styles "the 
mystery," Eph. iii, 3-6; and "the mystery of 
Christ, which in other generations was not 
made known to the sons of men, as it is now 
revealed to his holy Apostles and prophets by 
the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow 
heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of 
Christ by the Gospel," Rom. xvi, 25 ; Eph. 
i, 9 ; iii, 9 ; vi, 19 ; Col. i, 26, 27 ; iv, 3. 4. It 
denotes a spiritual truth couched under an 
external representation or similitude, and con- 
cealed or hidden thereby, unless some expla- 
nation of it be otherwise given. Thus, Rev. 
i, 20, " The mystery," that is, the spiritual 
meaning, " of the seven stars : The seven 
stars are the angels of the seven churches," 
So Rev. xvii, 5, " And upon her forehead a 
name written. Mystery, Babylon the Great," 
that is, Babylon in a spiritual sense, "the 
mother of idolatry and abominations ;" and, 
verse 7, "I will tell thee the mystery" or 
spiritual signification "of the woman," Com- 
pare Matt, xiii, 11 ; Mark iv, 11 ; Luke viii, 
10 ; p]ph, V, 32 ; and their respective contexts. 
MYSTICS, who have also been sometimes 
called Quietists, are those who profess a pure 
and sublime devotion, accompanied witk a 
jdisintorested love of God, free from all selfish 



considerations ; and who believe that the Scrip- 
tures have a mystic and hidden sens*, wliicli 
must be sought after, in order to understand 
their true import. Under this name some com- 
prehend all those who profess to know that 
they are inwardly taught of God. The sys- 
tem of the Mystics proceeded upon the known 
doctrine of the Platonic school, which was 
also adopted by Origen and his disciples, that 
the divine nature was diffused through all 
human souls ; or that the faculty of reason, 
from which proceed the health and vigour of 
the mind, was an emanation from God into 
the human soul, and comprehended in it the 
principles and elements of all trutli, human 
and divine. They denied that men could, by 
labour or study, excite this celestial flame in. 
their breasts ; and, therefore, they disapproved 
highly of the attempts of those who, by defi- 
nitions, abstract theorems, and profound specu- 
lations, endeavoured to form distinct notions of 
truth, and discover its hidden nature. On the 
contrary, they maintained that silence, tran- 
quillity, repose, and solitude, accompanied with 
such acts as might tend to attenuate and ex- 
haust the body, were the means by which the 
hidden and internal word was excited to pro- 
duce its latent virtues, and to instruct men in 
the knowledge of divine things. They rea- 
soned as follows : " Those who behold, with 
a noble contempt, all human affairs, who turn 
away their eyes from terrestrial vanities, and 
shut all the avenues of the outward senses 
against the contagious influence of a material 
world, must necessarily return to Gbd, when 
the spirit is thus disengaged from the impedi- 
ments which prevented that happy union. 
And, in this blessed frame, they not only 
enjoy inexpressible raptures from that com- 
munion with the supreme Being, but also are 
invested with the inestimable privilege of con- 
templating truth undisguised and uncorrupted 
in its native purity, while others behold it in 
a vitiated and delusive form." The number 
of the Mystics increased in the fourth century, 
under the influence of the Grecian fanatic, who 
gave himself out for Dionysius the Areopagite, 
a disciple of St. Paul, and who probably lived 
about this period ; and, by pretending to higher 
degrees of perfection than other Christians, 
and practising great austerities, their cause 
gained ground, especially in the eastern pro- 
vinces, in the fifth century. A copy of the 
pretended works of Dionysius was sent by 
Balbus to Lewis the meek, A. D. 824, which 
kindled the holy flame of Mysticism in the 
western provinces, and filled the Latins with 
the most enthusiastic admiration of this new 
system. In the twelfth century, these Mys- 
tics took the lead in their method of expound- 
ing the Scriptures, In the thirteenth, they 
were the most formidable antagonists of the 
schoolmen ; and, toward the close of the four- 
teenth, many of them resided and propagated 
their tenets in almost every part of Europe. 
They had, in the fifteenth century, many per- 
sons of distinguished merit in their number. 
In the sixteenth, previously to the reforma- 
tion, if any sparks of real piety subsisted under 



MYS 



683 



NAA 



the despotic empire of superstition, tliey were 
chiefly to be found among the Mystics ; and in 
the seventeenth, the radical principle of Mys- 
ticism was adopted by the Behmists, Bourig- 
nonists, and Quietists. 

The Mystics propose a disinterestedness of 
love, without other motives, and profess to 
feel, in the enjoyment of the temper itself, an 
abundant reward ; and passive contemplation 
in the state of perfection to which they aspire. 
They lay little or no stress upon the outward 
ceremonies and ordinances of religion, but 
dwell chiefly upon the inward operations of 
the mind. It is not uncommon for them to 
allegorize certain passages of Scripture ; at the 
same time they do not deny the literal sense, 
as having an allusion to the inward experience 
of believers. Thus, according to tlicm, the 
word Jerusalem, which is the name of the 
capital of Judea, signifies, allegorically, the 
church militant ; morally, a believer ; and mys- 
teriously, heaven. That sublime passage also 
in Genesis, " Let there be light, and there 
was light," which is, according to the letter, 
corporeal light, 'signifies, allegorically, the 
Messiah ; morally, grace ; and mysteriously, 
beatitude, or the light of glory. All this ap- 
pears to be harmless ; yet we must be careful 
not to give way to the sallies of a lively imagi- 
nation in interpreting Scripture. Woolston 
is said to have been led to reject the Old 
Testament by spiritualizing and allegorizing 
the New. 

The Mystics are not confined to any par- 
ticular denomination of Christians, but may be 
found in most countries, and among many 
descriptions of religionists. Among the num. 
ber of Mystics may be reckoned many singular 
characters, especially Behmen, a shoemaker 
at Gorlitz, in Germany ; Molinos, a Spanish 
priest, in the seventeenth century; Madam 
Guion, a French lady who made a great noise 
in the religious world ; and the celebrated 
Madame Bourignon, who wrote a work en- 
titled, " The Light of the World," which is 
full of Mystic extravagancies. Fenelon, also, 
the learned and amiable archbishop of Cam- 
bray, favoured the same sentiments, for which 
he was reprimanded by the pope. His work, 
entitled, " An Explication of the Maxims of 
the Saints," which abounds with Mystical 
sentiments was condemned ; and to the pope's 
sentence against him, the good archbishop 
quietly submitted, and even read it publicly 
himself in the cathedral of Cambray. In this 
whole affair, his chief opponent is said to have 
been the famous Bossuet, bishop of Meaux. 
Mr. William Law, author of the " Serious 
Call," &c, degenerated in the latter part of 
his life, into all the singularities of Mysticism. 
In the best sense. Mysticism is to be regai-ded 
a& an error arising out of partial views of the 
truth, or truth made erroneous, as being put 
out of its proper relation to, and connection 
with, other truths. As it respects the inward 
life of religion, its tendency is to a species of 
fanaticism, and to induce a contempt for 
divinely appointed ordinances. In many, 
however, it has been happily tempered by 



good principles ; and too frequently has all 
Scriptural Christianity, in its inward influence, 
been branded with the name of Mysticism. 

NAAMAN, general of the army of Bcnlia- 
dad, king of Syria, mentioned 2 Kings v. He 
appears to have been a Gentile idolater ; but 
being miraculously cured of his leprosy by the 
power of the God of Israel, and the direction 
of his Prophet Elisha, he renounced his idola- 
try, and acknowledged this God to be the only 
true God: "Behold, now I know that there is 
no God in all the earth, but in Israel," 2 Kings 
V, 15, and promised, for the time to come, that 
he would worship none otlier but Jehovalx, 
verse 17. He also requested the prophet, that 
he might have two mules' load of earth to 
carry liome with him from the land of Israel, 
most probably intending to build an altar with 
it in his own country ; which seems, indeed, 
to be implied in the reason with which he en- 
forces his request : " Shall there not, I pray 
thee, be given to thy servant tv/o mules' bur- 
den of earth ; for thy servant will henceforth 
offer neither burnt-offering nor sacrifice to 
other gods hnt unto Jehovah." He farther 
says, " In this the Lord pardon thy servant, 
that when my master goes into the house of 
Rimmon, to worship there, and he leaneth 
upon my hand, and I bow myself in the house 
of Rimmon ; Vi^hen I bow down in the liousje 
of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in 
this thing," verse 18 ; which some understand 
to be a reserve, denoting that he would re- 
nounce idolatry no farther than was consist- 
ent with his worldly interest, with his prince's 
favour, and his place at court. But, if so, the 
prophet would hardly have dismissed him with 
a blessing, saying, " Go in peace," verse 19. 
Others, therefore, suppose, that in these words 
he begs pardon for what he had done in times 
past, not for what he should continue to do. 
They observe, that >nMnnt:'n, though rendered 
in the future tense by the Tar gum, and by all the 
ancient versions, is really the preterperfect ; and 
they, therefore, understand it, — "when I have 
bowed myself," or, " because I have bowed 
myself" in the house of Rimmon, the Lord 
pardon thy servant. With this sense Dr. 
Lightfoot agrees, and it is defended by the 
learned Bochart in a large dissertation on the 
case of Naaman. Yet it does not seem very 
probable, that, if he meant this for a peniten- 
tial acknowledgment of liis former idolatry, he 
should only mention what he had done as the 
king's servant, and omit his own voluntary 
worship of the idol. The more probable 
opinion, therefore, is, that he consulted the 
prophet, whether it was lawful for him, having 
renounced idolatry, and publicly professed the 
worship of the true God, still, in virtue of his 
office, to attend his master in the temple of 
Rimmon, in order that he might lean upon 
him, either out of state, or perhaps out of 
bodily weakness ; because, if he attended him, 
as he had formerly done, ho could not avoid 
bowing down when he did. To this the pro- 
phet returns no direct answer ; making no 
other reply than, "Go in peace;" patting it, 



NAH 



684 



NAl 



probably, upon his conscience to act as that 
should dictate, and not being willing to relieve 
him from this trial of his recent faith. 

After this we have no farther mention of 
Naaman. But in the following account of the 
wars between Syria and Israel, Benhadad seems 
to have commanded his army in person ; from 
whence Mr. Bedford infers, that Naaman was 
dismissed from the command for refusing to 
worship Rimmon. But the premises are not 
sufficient to support the conclusion ; for it 
appears that Benhadad had commanded his 
army in person twice before ; once in the 
siege of Samaria, 1 Kings xx, 1, and once at 
Aphek, verse 26. Yet, from the total silence 
concerning Naaman, it is probably enough 
conjectured, that he either died, or resigned, 
or was dismissed, soon after his return. 

NABOTH, an Israelite of the city of Jez- 
reel, who lived under Ahab, king of the ten 
tribes, and had a fine vineyard near the king's 
palace. Ahab coveted his property ; but Na- 
both, according to the law. Lev. xxv, 23, 24, 
refused to sell it : and beside, it was a disgrace 
for a Hebrew to alienate the inheritance of his 
ancestors. Ahab, returning into his house, 
threw himself on his bed, and refused to eat, 
when Jezebel, his wife, took upon herself to 
procure the vineyard. She wrote letters in 
Ahab's name, and sealed them with the king's 
seal, and sent them to the elders of Jezreel, 
directing them to publish a fast, to place 
Naboth among the chief of the people, suborn 
against him two sons of Belial, or two false 
witnesses, who might depose, that Naboth had 
blasphemed God and the king. Accordingly, 
Naboth v/as condemned and stoned for the 
supposed^ crime, which brought upon Ahab 
and Jezebel the severest maledictions, 1 Kings 
xxi. See Ahab. 

NADAB, son of Aaron, and brother to 
Abihu. He offered incense to the Lord with 
strange fire, that is, with common fire, and 
not with that which had been miraculously 
lighted upon the altar of burnt-offerings. 
Therefore, he was slain by the Lord, together 
with his brother Abihu, Lev. x, 1, &c. 

NAHOR, son of Terah, and brother of 
Abraham, Gen. xi, 26. Neither the year of 
his birth nor of his death is exactly known. 
Nahor married Milcah, the daughter of Haran, 
by whom he had several sons, namely, Huz, 
Buz, Kemuel, Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, 
and Bethuel. Nahor fixed his habitation at 
Haran, which is therefore called the city of 
Nahor, Gen. xi, 29 ; xxii, 20-22 ; xxiv, 10. 

NAHUM is supposed to have been a native 
of Elcosh or Elcosha, a village in Galilee, and 
to have been of the tribe of Simeon. There is 
great uncertainty about the exact period in 
which he lived ; but it is generally allowed 
that he delivered his predictions between the 
Assyrian and Babylonian captivities, and proba- 
bly about B. C. 715. They relate solely to the 
destruction of Nineveh by the Babylonians and 
Medes, and are introduced by an animated 
display of the attributes of God. Of all the 
minor prophets, says Bishop Lowth, none 
seems to equal Nahuni in sublimity, ardour. 



and boldness. - His prophecy forms an entire 
and regular poem. The exordium is magnifi. 
cent and truly august. The preparation for 
the destruction of Nineveh, and the description 
of that destruction, are expressed in the most 
glowing colours ; and at the same time the 
prophet writes with a perspicuity and ele- 
gance which have a just claim to our highest 
admiration. 

NAIL. The nail of Jael's tent with which 
she killed Sisera, is called niT' ; it was formed 
for penetrating earth, or other hard substances, 
when driven by sufficient force, as with a 
hammer, &c ; it includes the idea of strength. 
The orientals, in fitting up their houses, were 
by no means inattentive to the comfort and 
satisfaction arising from order and method. 
Their furniture was scanty and plain ; but 
they were careful to arrange the few house- 
hold utensils they needed, so as not to encum- 
ber the apartments to which they belonged. 
Their devices for this purpose, which, like 
every part of the structure, bore the charac- 
ter of remarkable simplicty, may not corres- 
pond with our ideas of neatness and propriety ; 
but they accorded with their taste, and suffi- 
ciently answered their design. One of these 
consisted in a set of spikes, nails, or large 
pegs fixed in the walls of the house, upon 
which they hung up the movables and utensils 
in common use that belonged to the room. 
These nails they do not drive into the walls 
with a hammer or mallet, but fix th^n there 
when the house is building ; for if the walls 
are of brick, they are too hard, or if they 
consist of clay, too sofl and mouldering, to 
admit the action of the hammer. The spikes, 
which are so contrived as to strengthen the 
walls, by binding the parts together, as well 
as to serve for convenience, are large, with 
square heads like dice, and bent at the ends so 
as to make them cramp irons. They com- 
monly place them at the windows and doors, 
in order to hang upon them, when they choose, 
veils and curtains, although they place them 
in other parts of the room, to hang up other 
things of various kinds. The care with which 
they fixed these nails, may be inferred, as well 
from the important purposes they were meant 
to serve, as from the promise of the Lord to 
Eliakim : "And I will fasten him as a nail in 
a sure place," Isa. xxii, 23. It is evident from 
the words of the prophet, that it was common 
in his time to suspend upon them the utensils 
belonging to the apartment : "Will men take 
a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon ?" Ezek. 
XV, 3. The word used in Isaiah for a nail of 
this sort, is the same which denotes the stake, 
or large pin of iron, which fastened down to 
the ground the cords of their tents. These 
nails, therefore, were of necessary and com- 
mon use, and of no small importance in all 
their apartments ; and if they seem to us mean 
and insignificant, it is because they are un. 
known to us, and inconsistent with our notions 
of propriety, and because we have no name for 
them but what conveys to our ear a low and 
contemptible idea. It is evident from the 
frequent allusions in Scripture to these instru. 



NAM 



685 



NAM 



merits, that they were not regarded with con- 
tempt or indifference by the natives of Palestine. 
"Grace has been shown from the Lord our God," 
said Ezra, "to leave us a remnant to escape, 
and to give us a nail in his holy place," Ezra 
ix, 8; or, as explained in the margin, a con- 
stant and sure abode. The dignity and pro- 
priety of the metaphor appear from the use 
which the Prophet Zechariah makes of it : 
" Out of him cometh forth the corner, out of 
him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out 
of him every oppressor together," Zech. x, 4. 
The whole frame of government, both in 
church and state, which the chosen people of 
God enjoyed, was the contrivance of his wis- 
dom and the gift of his bounty ; the founda- 
tions upon which it rested, the bonds which 
kept the several parts together, -its means of 
defence, its officers and executors, were all the 
fruits of distinguishing goodness : even the 
oppressors of his people were a rod of cor- 
rection in the hand of Jehovah, to convince 
them of sin, and restore them to his service. 

NAIN, a city of Palestine, in which Jesus 
Christ restored the widow's son to life, as they 
were carrying him out to be buried. Eusebius 
says, tliat this was in the neighbourhood of 
Endor, and Scythopolis, two miles from Tabor, 
toward the south. 

NAKEDNESS, NUDITY. These terms, 
beside their ordinary and literal meaning, 
sometimes signify void of succour, disarmed. 
So, after worshipping the golden calf, the 
Israelites found themselves naked in the midst 
of their enemies. "Nakedness of the feet" 
was a token of respect. Moses put off his 
shoes to approach the burning bush. Most 
commentators are of opinion, that the priests 
served in the tabernacle with their feet naked ; 
and afterward in the temple. In the enumera- 
tion that Moses makes of the habit and orna- 
ments of the priests, he no where mentions 
any dress for the feet. Also the frequent 
ablutions appointed them in the temple seem 
to imply that their feet were naked. To un- 
cover the nakedness of any one, is commonly 
put for a shameful and unlawful conjunction, 
or an incestuous marriage, Lev. xx, 19 ; Ezek. 
xvi, 37. Nakedness is sometimes put for being 
partly undressed; en deshabille. Saul con- 
tinued naked among the prophets ; that is, 
having only his under garments on. Isaiah 
received orders from the Lord to go naked ; 
that is, clothed as a slave, half clad. Thus it 
is recommended to clothe the naked ; that is, 
such as are ill clothed. St. Paul says, that he 
was in cold, in nakedness ; that is, in poverty 
and want of raiment. Naked is put for dis- 
covered, knowm, manifest. So Job xxvi, 6: 
" Hell is naked before hun." The sepulchre-, 
the unseen state, is open to the eyes of God. 
St. Paul says, in the same sense, " Neither is 
there any creature that is not manifest in his 
sight ; but all things are naked and open unto 
the eyes of him with whom we have to do," 
Heb. iv, 13. 

NAME. A name was given to the male 
child at the time of its circumcision, but it is 
probable, previous to tlie introduction of that 



rite, that the name was given immediately after 
its birth. Among the orientals the appellations 
given as names are always significant. In the 
Old Testament, we find that the child was 
named in many instances from the circum- 
stances of its birth, or from some peculiarities in 
the history of the family to which it belonged, 
Gen. xvi, 11 ; xix, 37 ; xxv, 25, 26 ; Exod. ii, 10 ; 
xviii, 3, 4. Frequently the name was a com- 
pound one, one part being the name of the 
Deity, and among idolatrous nations the name 
of an idol. The following instances may be 
mentioned among others, and may stand as spe- 
cimens of the whole, namely, Vj<iD!i'» Samuel, 
"hear God;" r]'>m<, Adonijah, "God is lord;" 
pisins Josedech, " God is just ;" Sy^nN, Ethbaal, 
a Canaanitish name, the latter part of the com- 
pound being the name of the idol deity, Baal ; 
"iSN-j'^j, Belshazzar, " Bel," a Babylonish deity, 
"is ruler and king." Sometimes the name 
had a prophetic meaning. Gen. xvii, 15 ; Isa. 
vii, 14 ; viii, 3 : Hos. i, 4, 6, 9 ; Matt, i, 21 ; 
Luke i, 13, 60, 63. In the later times names 
were selected from those of the progenitors of 
a family; hence in the New Testament hardly 
any other than ancient names occur. Matt, i, 
12 ; Luke i, 61 ; iii, 23, &c. The inhabitants 
of the east very frequently change their names, 
and sometimes do it for very slight reasons. 
This accounts for the fact of so many persons 
having two names in Scripture, Ruth i, 20, 21 ; 
1 Sam. xiv, 49 ; xxxi, 2 ; 1 Chron. x, 2 ; Judges 
vi, 32 ; vii, 1 ; 2 Sam. xxiii, 8. Kings and 
princes very often changed the names of those 
who held offices under them, particularly when 
they first attracted their notice, and were taken 
into their employ, and when subsequently they 
were elevated to some new station, and crowned 
with additional honours, Gen. xli, 45 ; xvii, 5 ; 
xxxii, 28 ; xxxv, 10 ; 2 Kings xxiii, 34, 35 ; 
xxiv, 17 ; Dan. i, 6 ; John i, 42 ; Mark iii, 17. 
Hence a name, a new name, occurs tropically, 
as a token or proof of distinction and honour 
in tho following among other passages, Phil, 
ii, 9; Heb. i, 4; Rev. ii, 17. Sometimes the 
names of the dead were changed ; for instance 
that of Abel, inn, a word which signifies 
breath, or something transitory as a breath, 
given to him after his death, in allusion to the 
shortness of his life, Gen. ii, 8. Sometimes 
proper names are translated into other Ian. 
guages, losing their original form, while they 
preserve their signification. This appears to 
have been the case with the proper names, 
which occur in the first eleven chapters of 
Genesis, and which were translated into the 
Hebrew from a language still more ancient. 
The orientals in some instances, in order to 
distinguish themselves from others of the same 
name, added to their own name the name of 
their father, grandfather, and even great grand- 
father. The name of God often signifies God 
himself; sometimes his attributes collectively ; 
sometimes his power and authority. Of the 
Messiah it is said, " And he hath on his vesture 
and on his thigh a name written. King of 
kings, and Lord of lords," Rev. xix, 16. In 
illustration of this it may be remarked, that it 
appears to have been an ancient custom among 



NAM 



686 



NAT 



several nations, to adorn the images of their 
deities, princes, victors at their public games, 
and other eminent persons, with inscriptions 
expressive of their names, character, titles, or 
some circumstance which miglit contribute to 
their honour. There are several such images 
yet extant, with an inscription written either 
on the garment, or one of the thighs. He- 
rodotus mentions two figures of Sesostris, 
king of Egypt, cut upon rocks in Ionia, after 
liis conquest of that country, with the follow, 
ing inscription across the breast, extending 
from one shoulder to the other : "I conquered 
this country by the force of my arms." Gruter 
has published a naked statue made of marble, 
and supposed to represent the genius either of 
some Roman emperor, or of Antinous, who 
was deified by Hadrian, vi^ith an inscription on 
the inside of the right thigh, written perpendi- 
cularly in Roman letters, and containing the 
names of three persons. Near the statue, on 
the same side of it, stands an oval shield with 
the names of two other persons written round 
the rim in letters of the same form. In the 
appendix to Dempster's " Jiltruria Regalis.''^ is 
a female image of brass, clothed in a loose 
tunic down to the feet, with a shorter garment 
over it. on the right side of which is a perpen- 
dicular inscription in Etrurian characters, ex- 
tending partly on the lower garment. This 
figure, from the diadem on the head, and other 
circumstances which accompany it, Philip 
Bonarota, the editor of that work, supposes to 
have been designed for some Etrurian deity. 
Montfaucon has given us a male image of the 
same metal, dressed in a tunic, and over that 
another vestment something like a Roman 
toga, reaching to the middle of the legs, on 
the bottom of which is an Etrurian inscription 
written horizontally. There are likewise in 
both those writers two male figures crowned 
with laurel, which Montfaucon calls combat- 
ants, as the laurel was an emblem of victory. 
But Bonarota takes one of them for an image 
of Apollo, which has a chain round the neck, 
a garment wrapped over the right arm, and a 
bracelet on the left, with half boots on the 
legs ; the rest of the body being naked has 
an Etrurian inscription written downward in 
two lines on the inside of the left thigh., The 
other figure has the lower part^-of the body 
clothed in a loose vestment, with an inscrip- 
tion upon it over the right thigh, perpendicu- 
larly written in Roman letters, which Bonarota 
has thus expressed in a more distinct manner 
tlian tliey appear in Montfaucon : POMPONIO 
VIRIO I. To these may be added from Mont- 
faucon, a marble statue of a naked combatant, 
witli a fillet about his head in token of victory. 
It is drawn in tv/o views, one exhibiting tlie 
hack and the other the fore part of the body, 
the latter of which has in Greek letters, KA- 
<l>ISOAOPOS for KA*I20Ai2POS, perpendicu- 
larly inscribed on the outside of the left thigh ; 
aad the former the name AIZXAAMIOY in tlie 
like cliaracters and situation on the right 
tliigh ; tlicsc together make one inscription 
>^igniiyiiig (htphisi)doi'as Jlliits yll^scJilamli. [Ca- 
paisodoriis Ihe son uf iEtichlauuuri.J 



NAOMI. See Ruth. 

NAPHTALI, the sixth son of Jacob by Bil- 
hah, Rachel's handmaid. The word Naphtali 
signifies wrestling, or struggling. When Ra- 
chel gave him this name, she said, " With 
great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sis- 
ter, and I have prevailed," Gen. xxx, 8. Naph- 
tali had but four sons, and yet at the coming 
out of Egypt his tribe made up fifty-three 
thousand four hundred men, able to bear arms. 
Moses, in the blessing he gave to the same 
tribe, says, " O Naphtali, satisfied with favour, 
and full with the blessing of the Lord, possess 
thou the west and the south," Deut.xxxih, 23. 
The Vulgate reads it, " the sea and the south," 
and the Hebrew will admit of either interpret- 
ation, that is, the sea of Gennesareth, which 
was to the south by the inheritance of this 
tribe. His soil was very fruitful in corn and 
oil. His limits were extended into upper and 
lower Galilee, having Jordan to the east, the 
tribes of Asher and Zebulun to the west, Li- 
banus to the north, and the tribe of Issachar 
to the south. Under Barak, their general, they 
and the Zebulunites fought with distinguished 
bravery against the army of Jabin the younger ; 
and at the desire of Gideon they pursued the 
Midianites, Judges iv, 10 ; v, 18 ; vii, 23. A 
thousand of their captains, with thirty-seven 
thousand of their troops, assisted at David's 
coronation, and brought great quantities of 
provision with them, 1 Chron.xii, 34, 40. We 
find no person of distingaished note among 
them, save Barak, and Hiram the artificer. 
Instigated by Asa, Benhadad the elder, king 
of Syria, terribly ravaged the land of Naph- 
tali ; and What it suffered in after invasions by 
the Syrians we are partly told, 1 Kings xv, 20. 
The Naphtalites were, many, if not most of 
them, carried captive by Tigiath-pileser, king 
of Assyria, 2 Kings xv, 29. Josiah purged 
their country from idols. Our Saviour and 
his disciples, during his public ministry, re- 
sided much and preached frequently in the 
land of Naphtali, Isaiah ix, 1 ; Matt, iv, 13, 15. 
NAPHTUHIM, a son, or rather the de- 
scendants of a son, of Mizraim, whose proper 
name is Naphtuch. Naphtuch is supposed to 
have given his name to Naph, Noph, or Mem- 
phis, and to have ]>een the first king of that 
division of Egypt. He is, however, placed by 
Bochart in Libya; and is conjectured to be 
the Aphtuchus, or Autuchus, who had a tem- 
ple somewhere here. He is farther conjectured, 
and not without reason, to be the original of 
the Heathen god Neptune ; who is represented 
to have been a Libyan, and whose tejnples 
were generally built near the sea coast. By 
others, he is supposed to have peopled that 
part of Ethiopia between Sycne and Meroe, 
the capital of which was called Napata. 

NATHAN, a prophet of the Lord, who 
appeared in Israel in the time of King David, 
and had a great share in the confidence of tliis 
prince. His country is unknov/n, as also the 
time in which lie began to prophesy. Tiie first 
iiuje Ave find him aiontionetl, is wlicn David 
ar:Jig)icd to biiild the ttMupl(^ 2 ^-^am. vii, 3, 
&.C. We 'liii'l bini iucuUoacd again in Ihc 



NAT 



687 



NAZ 



affair of David and Bathsheba, when he faith- 
fully reproved the king for his wicked conduct, 
2 Sam. xii, 1-14. And when Adonijah began 
to take upon him the state, and to assume the 
dignity, of a sovereign, and to form a party in 
opposition to his brother Solomon, Nathan 
repaired to Bathsheba, and sent her imme- 
diately to the king with instructions what to 
say ; and while she was yet discoursing with 
the king, Nathan came in, reminded David of 
his promise, that Solomon should be his suc- 
cessor, and procured Solomon to be imme- 
diately anointed king of Israel. 

NATHANAEL, a disciple of our Lord. He 
appears to have been a pious Jew who waited 
for the Messiah : and upon Jesus saying to 
him, " Before Philip called thee, I saw thee 
under the fig tree," Nathanael, convinced, by 
some circumstance not explained, of his om- 
niscience, exclaimed, " Master, thou art the 
Son of God, and the King of Israel." Many 
have thought that Nathanael was the same as 
Bartholomew. The evangelists, who mention 
Bartholomew, say nothing of Nathanael ; and 
St. John, who mentions Nathanael, takes no 
notice of Bartholomev/. We read at the end 
of St. John's Gospel, that our Saviour, after 
his resurrection, manifested himself to Peter, 
Thomas, Nathanael, and the sons of Zebedee, 
as they were fishing in the lake of Gennesareth. 
We know no other circumstances of the life of 
this holy man. 

NATURAL, ^pv^ixb?, is a term that frequently 
occurs in the apostolic writings : " The natural 
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of 
God, neither can he know them, because they 
are spiritually discerned," 1 Cor. ii, 14. Here 
it is plain that by " the natural man," is not 
meant a person devoid of natural judgment, 
reason, or conscience, in which sense the 
expression is often used among men. Nor 
does it signify one who is entirely governed by 
his fleshly appetites, or what the world calls a 
voluptuary, or sensualist. Neither does it sig- 
nify merely a man in the rude state of nature, 
whotie faculties have not been cultivated by 
learning and study, and polished by an inter- 
course with society. The Apostle manifestly 
takes his "natural man" from among such as 
the world hold in the highest repute for their 
natural parts, their learning, and their religion. 
He selects him from among the philosophers 
of Greece, who sought after wisdom, and from 
among the Jewish scribes, who were instructed 
in the revealed law of God, 1 Cor. i, 22, 23. 
These are the persons whom he terms the 
wise, the scribes, the disputers of this world — 
men to whom the Gospel was a stumbling 
block and foolishness, 1 Cor. i, 20, 23. The 
natural man is here evidently opposed to, h 
■^TveviiaTiKog, " him that is spiritual," 1 Cor. ii, 15, 
even as the natural body which we derive from 
Adam is opposed to the spiritual body which 
believers will receive from Christ at the resur- 
rection, according to 1 Cor. xv, 44, 45. Now 
tbe spn-itual man is one who has the Spirit of 
Christ dwelling in Jiim, Rom. viii, 9, not merely 
in the way of miraculous gifts, as some have 
imagined, (for these were peculiar to the first 



age of the Christian church, and even then not 
common to all the saints, nor inseparably con- 
nected with salvation, 1 Cor. xiii, 1-4 ; Heb. 
vi, 4-7,) but in his saving influences of light, 
holiness, and consolation, whereby the subject 
is made to discern the truth and excellency of 
spiritual things, and so to believe, love, and 
delight in them as his true happiness. If there- 
fore a man is called " spiritual" because the 
Spirit of Christ dwells in him, giving him new 
views, dispositions, and enjoyments, then the 
" natural man," being opposed to such, must 
be one who is destitute of the Spirit, and of all 
his saving and supernatural effects, whatever 
maybe his attainments in human learning and 
science. It is obviously upon this principle 
that our Lord insists upon the necessity of the 
new birth in order to our entering into the 
kingdom of heaven, John iii, 3, 5. 

NATURE. In Scripture the word nature 
expresses the orderly and usual course of 
things established in the world. St. Paul says, 
to ingraft a good olive tree into a wild olive is 
contrary to nature, Rom. xi, 24 ; the customary 
order of nature is thereby in some measure in- 
verted. Nature is also put for natural descent : 
" We who are Jev/s by nature," by birth, " and 
not Gentiles," Gal. ii, 15. "We were by na- 
ture the children of wrath," Eph. ii, 3. Nature 
also denotes common sense, natural instinct : 
" Doth not even nature itself teach you, that 
if a man have long hair, it is a shame to him ?" 
1 Cor. xi, 14. 

NAZARENES, or NAZAR J3 ANS, a name 
originally given to Christians in general, on 
account of Jesus Christ's being of the city of 
Nazareth ; but was, in the second century, 
restrained to certain judaizing Christians, who 
blended Christianity and Judaism together. 
They held that Christ was born of a virgin, 
and was also in a certain manner united to the 
divine nature. They refused to abandon the 
ceremonies prescribed by the law of Moses ; 
but were far from attempting to impose the 
observance of these ceremonies upon Gentile 
Christians. They rejected those additions that 
were made to the Mosaic institutions by the 
Pharisees and doctors of the law, and adujitted 
the Scriptures both of the Old and New Tes- 
tament. The fathers frequently mention the 
Gospel of the Nazarenes, which differs nothing 
from that of St. Matthew, but was afterward 
corrupted by the Ebionites. These Nazarenes 
preserved this first Gospel in its primitive 
purity. Some of them were still in being in 
the time of St. Jerome, who does not reproach 
them with any errors. 

NAZARETH, a little city in the tribe of 
Zebulun, in Lower Galilee, to the west of 
Tabor, and to the east of Ptolemais. T])is 
city is nmch celebrated in .the Scriptures for 
having been the usual place of the residence 
of Jesus Christ, during the first thirty years of 
his life, Luke ii, 51. It was here he lived in 
obedience to Joseph and Mary, and hence he 
took the name of Nazarene. After he had be- 
gun to execute his nnssion he preached here 
sometimes in tbe synagogue, Luke iv, IG. But 
because his countrymen had no faith in hini. 



NAZ 



688 



NAZ 



and were offended at the meanness of his 
original, he did not many miracles here, Matt, 
xiii, 54, 58, nor would he dwell in the city. 
So he fixed his habitation at Capernaum for 
the latter part of his life. Matt, iv, 13. The 
city of Nazareth was situated upon an emi- 
nence, and on one side was a precipice, from 
whence the Nazarenes designed, at one time, 
to cast Christ down headlong, because he up- 
braided them for their incredulity, Luke iv, 29. 
The present state of this celebrated place is 
thus described by modern travellers : — Nas- 
sara, or Naszera, is one of the principal towns 
in the pashalic of Acre. Its inhabitants are 
industrious, because they are treated with less 
severity than those of the country towns in 
general. The population is estimated at three 
thousand, of whom five hundred are Turks ; 
the remainder are Christians. There are about 
ninety Latin families, according to Burckhardt; 
but Mr. Connor reports the Greeks to be the 
most numerous : there is, beside, a congre- 
gation of Greek Catholics, and another of 
Maronites. The Latin convent is a very spa- 
cious and commodious building, which was 
thoroughly repaired and considerably enlarged 
in 1730. The remains of the more ancient 
edifice, ascribed to the mother of Constantine, 
may be observed in the form of subverted 
columns, with fragments of capitals and bases 
of pillars, lying near the modern building. 
Pococke noticed, over a door, an old alto-relief 
of Judith cutting off the head of Holofernes. 
Within the convent is the church of the an- 
nunciation, containing the house of Joseph 
and Mary, the length of which is not quite the 
breadth of the church ; but it forms the prin- 
cipal part of it. The columns and all the inte- 
rior of the church are hung round with damask 
silk, which gives it a warm and rich appearance. 
Behind the great altar is a subterranean cavern, 
divided into small grottoes, where the virgin 
is said to have lived. Her kitchen, parlour, 
and bed room, are shown, and also a narrow 
hole in the rock, in which the child Jesus once 
hid himself from his persecutors. The pilgrims 
who visit these holy spots are in the habit of 
knocking off small pieces of stone from the 
walls, which are thus considerably enlarging. 
In the church a miracle is still exhibited to the 
faithful. In front of the altar are two granite 
columns, each two feet one inch in diameter, 
and about three feet apart. They are supposed 
to occupy the very places where the angel and 
the virgin stood at the precise moment of the 
annunciation. The innermost of these, that 
of the virgin, has been broken away, some say 
by the Turks, in expectation of finding treasure 
under it; "so that," as Maundrell states, 
" eighteen inches' length of it is clean gone 
between the pillar and the pedestal." Never- 
theless, it remains erect, suspended from the 
roof, as if attracted by a loadstone. It has 
evidentlj'^ no support below ; and, though it 
touches the roof, the hierophant protests that 
it has none above. " All the Christians of 
Nazareth," says Burckhardt, "with the friars, 
of course, at their head, affect to believe in this 
miracle ; though it is perfectly evident that 



the upper part of the column is connected with 
the roof." " The fact is," says Dr. E. D. 
Clarke, "that the capital and a piece of the 
shafl of a pillar of gray granite have been 
fastened on to the roof of the cave ; and so 
clumsily is the rest of the hocus pocus con- 
trived, that what is shown for the lower frag- 
ment of the same pillar resting upon the earth, 
is not of the same substance, but of Cipolino 
marble. About this pillar, a different story 
has been related by almost every traveller since 
the trick was devised. Maundrell, and Eg- 
mont and Heyman, were told that it was 
broken, in search of hidden treasure, by a 
pasha, who was struck with blindness for his 
impiety. We were assured that it was sepa- 
rated in this manner when the angel announced 
to the virgin the tidings of her conception. 
The monks had placed a rail, to prevent per- 
sons infected with the plague from coming to 
rub against these pillars : this had been, for 
many years, their constant practice, whenever 
afllicted with any sickness. The reputation 
of the broken pillar, for healing every kind of 
disease, prevails all over Galilee." 

Burckhardt says that this church, next to 
that of the holy sepulchre, is the finest in 
Syria, and contains two tolerably good organs. 
Within the walls of the convent are two gar- 
dens, and a small burying ground: the walls 
are very thick, and serve occasionally as a 
fortress to all the Christians in the town. 
There are, at present, eleven friars in the con- 
vent : they are chiefly Spaniards. The yearly 
expenses of the establishment are - stated to 
amount to upward of nine hundred pounds ; 
a small part of which is defrayed by the rent 
of a few houses in the town, and by the pro- 
duce of some acres of corn land : the rest is 
remitted from Jerusalem. The whole annual 
expenses of the Terra Santa convents are 
about fifteen thousand pounds ; of which the 
pasha of Damascus receives about twelve 
thousand pounds. The Greek convent of Je- 
rusalem, according to Burckhardt's authority, 
pays much more, as well to maintain its own 
privileges, as with a view to encroach upon 
those of the Latins. To the north-west of the 
convent is a small church, built over Joseph's 
work shop. Both Maundrell and Pococke 
describe it as in ruins ; but Dr. E. D. Clarke 
says, " This is now a small chapel, perfectly 
modern, and neatly whitewashed." To the 
west of this is a small arched building, which, 
they say, is the synagogue where Christ exas- 
perated the Jews, by applying the language of 
Isaiah to lihnself. It once belonged to the 
Greeks ; but, Hasselquist says, was taken from 
them by the Arabs, who intended to convert it 
into a mosque, but afterward sold it to the 
Latins. This was then so late a transaction 
that they had not had time to embellish it. 
The " Mountain of the Precipitation" is at 
least two miles off; so that, according to this 
authentic tradition, the Jews must have led 
our Lord a marvellous way. But the said 
precipice is sliown as that which the Messiah 
leaped down to escape from the Jews ; and as 
the riionks could not pitch upon any other 



NAZ 



689 



NEB 



place frightful enough for the miracle, they I 
contend that Nazareth formerly stood eastward 
of its present situation, upon a more elevated 
spot. Dr. E. D. Clarke, however, remarks 
that the situation of the modern town answers 
exactly to the description of St. Luke. " In- 
duced, by the words of the Gospel, to examine 
the place more attentively than we should 
otherwise have done, we went, as it is written, 
out of the city, ' to the brow of the hill whereon 
the city is built,' and came to a precipice cor- 
responding to the words of the evangelist. 
It is above the Maronite church, and, probably, 
the precise spot alluded to by the text." 

NAZARITES, those under the ancient law 
who engaged by a vow to abstain from wine 
and all intoxicating liquors, to let their hair 
grow, not to enter any house ' polluted by 
having a dead corpse in it, nor to be present at 
any funeral. If, by accident, any one should 
have died in their presence, they recommenced 
the whole of their consecration and Nazarite- 
ship. This vow generally lasted eight days, 
sometimes a month, and sometimes their whole 
lives. When the time of their Nazariteship 
was expired, the priest brought the person to 
the door of the temple, who there offered to 
the Lord a he-lamb for a burnt-offering, a she- 
lamb for an expiatory sacrifice, and a ram for 
a peace-offering. They offered, likewise, loaves 
and cakes, with wine, for libations. After all 
was sacrificed and offered, the priest, or some 
other, shaved the head of the Nazarite at the 
door of the tabernacle, and burned his hair on 
the fire of the altar. Then the priest put into 
the hands of the Nazarite the shoulder of the 
ram roasted, with a loaf and a cake, which 
the Nazarite returning into the hands of the 
priest, he offered them to the Lord, lifting 
them up in the presence of the Nazarite. And 
from this time he might again drink wine, his 
Nazariteship being accomplished. 

Perpetual Nazarites, as Samson and John 
the Baptist, were consecrated to their Naza- 
riteship by their parents, and continued all 
their lives in this state, without drinking wine 
or cutting their hair. Those who made a vow 
of Nazariteship out of Palestine, and could not 
come to the temple when their vow was ex- 
pired, contented themselves with observing 
the abstinence required by the law, and cutting 
oft' their hair in the place where they were : 
the offerings and sacrifices prescribed by Moses, 
to be offered at the temple, by themselves or 
by others for them, they deferred till a con- 
venient opportunity. Hence it was that St. 
Paul, being at Corinth, and having made the 
vow of a Nazarite, had his hair cut off at 
Cenchrea, a port of Corinth, and deferred the 
rest of his vow till he came to Jerusalem, 
Acts xviii, 18. When a person found he was 
not in a condition to make avow of Nazarite- 
ship, or had not leisure fully to perform it, he 
contented himself by contributing to the ex- 
pense of sacrifices and offerings of those 
who had made and were fulfilling this vow ; 
and by this means he became a partaker 
in sucli Nazariteship. When St. Paul came 
to Jerusalem, A. D. 58, St. James, with other 
45 



brethren, said to him, that to quiet the minds 
of the converted Jews he should join himself 
to four persons who had a vow of Nazarite- 
ship, and contribute to their charges and cere- 
monies ; by which the new converts would 
perceive that he did not totally disregard the 
law, as they had been led to suppose, Acts 
xxi, 23, 24. The institution of Nazaritism is 
involved in much mystery ; and no satisfactory 
reason has ever been given of it. This is cer- 
tain, that it had the approbation of God, and 
may be considered as affording a good example 
of self-denial in order to be given up to the 
study of the law, and the practice of exact 
righteousness. 

NEBO, the name of an idol of the Baby- 
lonians : "Belboweth down, Nebo stoopeth," 
Isaiah xlvi, 1. The word Nebo comes from a 
root that signifies "to prophesy," and there- 
fore may stand for an oracle. There is some 
probability in the opinion of Calmet, that Bel 
and Nebo are but one and the same deity, and 
that Isaiah made use of these names as sy- 
nonymous. The god Bel was the oracle of 
the Babylonians. The name Nebo, or Nabo, 
is found in the composition of the names of 
several princes of Babylon ; as Nabonassar, 
Nabopolassar, Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzar-adan, 
Nebushasban, &c. 

NEBUCHADNEZZAR THE GREAT, 
son and successor of Nabopolassar, succeeded 
to the kingdom of Chaldea, A. M. 3399. Some 
time previously to this, Nabopolassar had as- 
sociated him in the kingdom, and sent him to 
recover Carchemish, which had been con- 
quered from him four years before by Necho, 
king of Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar, having been 
successful, marched against the governor of 
Phenicia, and Jehoiakim, king of Judah, who 
was tributary to Necho, king of Egypt. He 
took Jehoiakim, and put him in chains in order 
to carry him captive to Babylon ; but after- 
ward left him in Judea, on condition of pay- 
ing a large tribute. He took away several 
persons from Jerusalem ; among others Daniel, 
Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, all of the 
royal family, whom the king of Babylon 
caused to be carefully instructed in the lan- 
guage and in the learning of the Chaldeans, 
that they might be employed at court, Dan. i. 
Nabopolassar dying about the end of A. M. 
3399, Nebuchadnezzar, who was then either 
in Egypt or in Judea, hastened to Babylon, 
leaving to his generals the care of bringing to 
Chaldea the captives whom he had taken in 
Syria, Judea, Phenicia, and Egypt ; for, ac- 
cording to Berosus, he had subdued all those 
countries. He distributed these captives into 
several colonics ; and deposited the sacred 
vessels of the temple of Jerusalem, and other 
rich spoils in the temple of Belus. Jehoiakim, 
king of Judah, continued three years in fealty 
to King Nebuchadnezzar ; but being then 
weary of paying tribute, he threw off the yoke. 
The king of Chaldea sent troops of Chaldeans, 
Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites, who ha- 
rassed Judea during three or four years, and 
at last Jehoiakim was besieged and taken in 
Jerusalem, put to death, and his body thrown 



NEB 



690 



NEB 



to the birds of the air, according to the pre- 
dictions of Jeremiah. See Jehoiakim. 

In the mean time, Nebuchadnezzar being at 
Babylon in the second year of his reign, had 
a mysterious dream, in which he saw a statue 
composed of several metals, a head of gold, a 
breast of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs 
of iron, and feet half of iron and half clay ; 
and a little stone rolling by its own impulse 
from the mountain struck the statue and broke 
it. This dream gave him great uneasiness, 
yet it faded away from his memory, and he 
could not recover more than the general im- 
pression of it. He ordered all his diviners and 
interpreters of dreams to be sent for ; but none 
could tell him the dream or the interpretation : 
and, in wrath, he sentenced them all to death, 
which was about to be put in execution, when 
Daniel was informed of it. He went imme- 
diately to the king, and desired him to respite 
the sentence a little, and he would endeavour 
to satisfy his desire. God in the night re- 
vealed to him the king's dream, and also the 
interpretation : " Thou," said Daniel, *' art 
represented by the golden head of the statue. 
After thee will arise a kingdpm inferior to 
thine, represented by the breast of silver ; and 
after this, another, still inferior, denoted by 
the belly and thighs of brass. After these 
three empires," which are the Chaldeans, Per- 
sians, and Greeks, " will arise a fourth, de- 
noted by the legs of iron," the Romans. 
" Under this last empire God will raise a new 
one, of greater strength, power, and extent, 
than all the others. This last is that of the 
Messiah, represented by the little stone com- 
ing out from the mountain and overthrowing 
the statue." Then the king raised Daniel to 
great honour, set him over all the wise men 
of Babylon, and give him the government of 
that province. At his request he granted to 
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the over- 
sight of the works of the same province of 
Babylon. 

In the same year, as Dr. Hales thinks, in 
which he had this dream, he erected a golden 
statue, whose height was sixty cubits, and 
breadth six cubits, in the plains of Dura, in 
the province of Babylon. Having appointed 
a day for the dedication of this statue, he as- 
sembled the principal officers of his kingdom, 
and published by a herald, that all should 
adore this image, at the sound of music, on 
penalty of being cast into a burning fiery 
furnace. The result, as to the three Jews, 
companions of Daniel, who would not bend 
the knee to the image, is stated in Dan. iii. 
Daniel probably was absent. The effect of 
the miracle was so great that Nebuchadnezzar 
gave glory to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, 
and Abednego ; and he exalted the three He- 
brews to great dignity in the province of 
Babylon, Dan. iv. 

Jehoiachin, king of Judah, having revolted 
against Nebuchadnezzar, this prince besieged 
him in Jerusalem, and forced him to surren- 
der. Nebuchadnezzar took him, with his 
chief officers, captive to Babylon, with his 
mother, his wives, and the best workmen of 



Jerusalem, to the number of ten thousand 
men. Among the captives were Mordecai, 
the uncle of Esther, and Ezekiel the prophet. 
He took, also, all the vessels of gold which 
Solomon made for the temple, and the king's 
treasury, and he setup Mattaniah, Jehoiachin's 
uncle by his father's side, whom he named 
Zedekiah. This prince continued faithful to 
Nebuchadnezzar nine years : being then weary 
of subjection, he revolted, and confederated 
with the neighbouring princes. The king of 
Babylon came into Judea, reduced the chief 
places of the country, and besieged Jerusalem : 
but Pharaoh-Hophra coming out of Egypt to 
assist Zedekiah, Nebuchadnezzar overcame 
him in battle, and forced him to- retire into hiis 
own country. After this he returned to the 
siege of Jerusalem, and was three hundred and 
ninety days before the place before he could 
take it. But in the eleventh year of Zede-- 
kiah, A. M. 3416, the city was taken. Zede- 
kiah attempted to escape, but was taken and 
brought to Nebuchadnezzar, who was then at 
Riblah in Syria. The king of Babylon con- 
demned him to die, caused his children to be 
put to death in his presence, and then bored 
out his eyes, loaded him with chains, and sent 
him to Babylon. 

Three years after the Jewish war Nebuchad- 
nezzar besieged the city of Tyre, which siege 
held thirteen years. But during this interval, 
he made war, also, on the Sidonians, Moabites, 
Ammonites, and Idumeans ; and the-se he 
treated in nearly the same manner as the Jews. 
Josephus says these wars happened -five years 
after the destruction of Jerusalem, conse- 
quently in A. M. 3421. The city of Tyre was 
taken in A. M. 3432. Ithobaal, who was then 
king, was put to death, and Baal succeeded him. 
The Lord, as a reward to the army of Nebu- 
chadnezzar, which had lain so long before Tyre, 
gave up to them Egypt and its spoils. Nebu- 
chadnezzar made an easy conquest of it, be- 
cause the Egyptians were divided by civil 
wars among themselves : he enriched himself 
with booty, and returned in triumph to Baby- 
lon, with a great number of captives. Being 
now at peace, he applied himself to the adorn- 
ing, aggrandizing, and enriching of Babylorr 
with magnificent buildings. To him some 
ascribe those famous gardens, supported by 
arches, reckoned among the wonders of the 
world ; and also the walls of Babylon, though 
many give the honour of this work to Semi- 
ramis. 

About this time Nebuchadnezzar had a 
dream of a great tree, loaded with fruit. Sud- 
denly, an angel descending from heaven, com- 
manded that the tree should be cut down, but 
that the root should be preserved in the earth, 
Dan. iv. The king sent for all the diviners 
in the country, but none could explain his 
dream, till Daniel, by divine revelation, 
showed that it represented his present great- 
ness, his signal approaching humiliation, and 
his restoration to reason and dignity. A year 
after, as Nebuchadnezzar was walking on his 
palace at Babylon, he began to say, " Is not 
this great Babylon, which I have built for tlier 



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house of the kingdom, by the might of my 
power, and for the honour of my majesty?" 
and scarcely had he pronounced these words, 
when he fell into a distemper or distraction, 
which so altered his imagination that he fled 
into the fields and assumed the manners of 
an ox. After having been seven years in this 
state, God opened his eyes, his understanding 
was restored to him, and he recovered his 
royal dignity, 

Nebuchadnezzar died, A. M. 3442, after 
having reigned forty-three years. Megasthe- 
nes, quoted by Eusebius, says, that this prince 
having ascended to the top of his palace, was 
there seized with a fit of divine enthusiasm, 
and cried out, " O Babylonians, I declare to 
you a misfortune, that neither our father Belus, 
nor Queen Baltis has been able 'to prevent. 
A Persian mule shall one day come into this 
country. Who, supported by the power of your 
gods, shall bring you into slavery. He shall 
be assisted by the Mede, the glory of the As- 
syrians." This Persian mule is Cyrus, whose 
mother was a Mede, and whose father was a 
Persian. The Mede who assisted Cyrus was 
Cyaxares, or Darius the Mede. This story at 
least shows that the Heathens had traditions 
of an extraordinary kind respecting this mo- 
narch, and that the fate of Babylon had been 
the subject of prophecy. 

NEBUZAR-ADAN, a general of Nebu- 
chadnezzar's army, and the chief officer of his 
household. He managed the siege of Jerusa- 
lem, and made himself master of the city, 
while his sovereign was at Riblah in Syria, 
2 Kings XXV ; Jer. xxxix ; xl ; Hi. 

NECESSITARIANS. The doctrine of 
necessity regards the origin of human actions, 
and the specific mode of the divine government; 
and it seems to be the immediate result of the 
materiality of man ; for mechanism is the un- 
doubted consequence of materialism. Hence all 
materialists are of course necessitarians ; but 
it does not follow that all necessitarians are or 
must be materialists. Whatever is done by a 
cause or power that is irresistible, is by neces- 
sity ; in which sense this term is opposed to 
freedom. Man is, therefore, a necessary agent, 
if all his actions be so determined by the causes 
preceding each action, that not one past action 
could possibly not have come to pass, or have 
been otherwise than it hath been ; and not one 
future action can possibly not come to pass, 
or be otherwise than it shall be. But man is 
a free agent, if he be able at any time, in the 
circumstances in which he is placed, to do 
difl^erent things ; or, in other v/ords, if he be 
not unavoidably determined in every point of 
tune by the circumstances he is in, and the 
causes he is under, to do that one thing he 
does, and not possibly to do any other thing. 
This abstruse subject has occasioned much 
controversy, and has been debated by writers 
of the first eminence, from Hobbes and Clarke, 
to Priestley and Gregory. The anti-necessita- 
rians allege, that the doctrine of necessity 
charges God as the author of sin ; that it takes 
away the freedom of the will ; renders man 
unaccountable to his Maker ; makes sin to be 



no evil, and morality or virtue to be no good ; 
and that it precludes the use of means, and is 
of the most gloomy tendeacy. The liecessita- 
rians, on the other hand, deny these to be legiti- 
mate consequences of their doctrine, which 
they declare to be the most consistent mode of 
explaining the divine government ; and they 
observe, that the Deity acts no more immorally 
in decreeing vicious actions, than in permitting 
all those irregularities which he could so easily 
have prevented. All necessity, say they, doth 
not take away freedom. The actions of a 
man may be at one and the same time both 
free and necessary. Thus, it was infalliby 
certain that Judas would betray Christ, yet he 
did it voluntarily ; Jesus Christ necessarily be- 
came man, and died, yet he acted freely. A 
good man doth naturally and necessarily love 
his children, yet voluntarily. They insist that 
necessity doth not render actions less morally 
good ; for, if necessary virtue be neither moral 
nor praiseworthy, it will follow that God him- 
self is not a moral being, because he is a ne* 
cessary ofte ; and the obedience of Christ can- 
not be good, because it was necessary. Farther, 
say they, necessity does not preclude the use 
of means ; for means are no less appointed than 
the end. It was ordained that Christ should 
be delivered up to death ; but he could not 
have been betrayed without a betrayer, nor 
crucified without crucifiers. That it is not a 
gloomy doctrine they allege, because nothing 
can be more consolatory than to believe, that 
all things are under the direction of an all- 
wise Being, that his kingdom ruleth over all, 
and that he doeth all things v^'ell. They also 
urge, that to deny necessity, is to deny the 
foreknowledge of God, and to wrest the scep- 
tre from the hand of the Creator, and to place 
that capricious and undefinable principle, the 
self-determining power of man, upon the throne 
of the universe. In these statements there is 
obviously a confused use of terms in different 
meanings, so as to mislead the unwary. For 
instance : necessity is confounded with cer- 
tainty ; but an action may be certain, though 
free ; that is to say, certain to an omniscient 
Being, who knows how a free agent will finally 
resolve ; but this certainty is, in fact, a quality 
of the prescient Being, not that of the action, 
to which, however, men delusively transfer it. 
Again: God is called a necessary Being, which, 
if it mean any thing, signifies, as to his moral 
acts, that he can only act right. But then 
this is a wrong application of the term neces. 
sity, which properly implies such a constraint 
upon actions, exercised ah extra, as renders 
choice or will impossible. But such necessity 
cannot exist as to the supreme Being. Again : 
the obedience of Christ unto death was neces- 
sary, that is to say, unless he had died guilty 
man could not have been forgiven ; but this 
could not make the act of the Jews who put 
him to death a necessary act, that is to say, a 
forced and constrained one ; nor did this ne- 
cessity affect the act of Christ himself, who 
acted voluntarily, and might have left man 
without salvation. That the Jews acted freely, 
is evident from their being held liable to punisk-- 



NEC 



692 



NEH 



ment, although unconsciously they acccom- 
plished the great designs of Heaven, which, 
however, was no excuse for their crime. 
Finally : as to the allegation, that the doctrine 
of free agency puts man's self-determining 
power upon the throne of the universe, that 
view proceeds upon notions unworthy of God, 
as though he could not accomplish his plans 
without compelling and controlling all things 
by a fixed fate ; whereas it is both more glo- 
rious to him, and certainly more in accordance 
with the Scriptures, to say that he has a per- 
feet foresight of the manner in which all crea. 
tures will act, and that he, by a profound and 
infinite wisdom, subordinates every thing with- 
out violence to the evolution and accomplish- 
ment of his own glorious purposes. 

The doctrine of necessity is nearly connect- 
ed with that of predestination, which, of late 
years, has assumed a form very different from 
that which it formerly possessed ; for, instead 
of being considered as a point to be determin- 
ed almost entirely by the sacred writings, it 
has, in the hands of a number of able writers, 
in a great measure resolved itself into a ques- 
tion of natural religion, under the head of the 
philosophical liberty or necessity of the will ; 
or, whether all human actions are, or are not, 
necessarily determined by motives arising from 
the character which God has impressed on our 
minds, and the train of circumstances amidst 
which his providence has placed us? The 
Calvinistic doctrine of predestination is, that 
"God for his own glory, hath foreordained 
whatsoever comes to pass." The scheme of 
philosophical necessity, as stated by the most 
celebrated necessitarian of the age, is, "that 
every thing is predetermined by the divine 
Being; that whatever has been, must have 
been ; and that whatever will be, must be ; 
that all events are preordained by infinite wis- 
dom and unlimited goodness ; that the will, in 
all its determinations, is governed by the state 
of mind ; that the state of mind is, in every 
instance, determined by the Deity ; and that 
there is a continued chain of causes and effects, 
of motives and actions, inseparably connected, 
and originating from the condition in which 
we are brought into existence by the Author 
of our being." On the other hand, it is justly 
remarked, that " those who believe the being 
and perfections of God, and a state of retribu- 
tion, in which he will reward and punish, man- 
kind according to the diversity of their actions, 
will find it difficult to reconcile the justice of 
punishment with the necessity of crimes punish- 
ed. And they that believe all that the Scrip- 
ture says on the one hand, of the eternity of 
future puniihments, and on the other, of God's 
compassion to sinners, and his solemn assur- 
ance that he desires not their death, will find 
the difficulty greatly increased." It is doubt- 
less an article of the Christian faith, that God 
will reward or punish every man hereafter ac- 
cording to his actions in this life. But we 
cannot maintain his justice in this particular, if 
men's actions be necessary either in their own 
nature, or by the divine decrees. Activity and 
self-determining powers are the foundation of 



all morality ; and to prove that such powers 
belong to man, it is urged that we ourselves 
are conscious of possessing them. We blame 
and condemn ourselves when we do amiss ; but 
guilt, and inward sense of shame, and remorse 
of conscience, are feelings which are incon- 
sistent with the scheme of necessity. It is 
also agreed that some actions deserve praise, 
and afford an inward satisfaction ; but for 
this, there would be no foundation, if we were 
invincibly determined in every volition : so 
that approbation and blame are consequent on 
free actions only. Nor is the matter at all 
relieved by bringing in a chain of circum- 
stances as motives necessarily to determine 
the will. This comes to the same result in 
sound argument, as though there was an im- 
mediate coilction of omnipotent power compel- 
ling one kind of volitions only ; which is 
utterly irreconcilable to all just notions of the 
nature and operations of will, and to all ac- 
countability. Necessity, in the sense of irre- 
sistible control, and the doctrine of Scripture, 
cannot coexist. 

NECROMANCY, vtKgoixavrda, is the art of 
raising up the ghosts of deceased persons, to 
get information from them concerning future 
events. This practice, no doubt, the Israelites 
brought with them from Egypt, which affect- 
ed to be the mother of such occult sciences ; 
and from thence it spread into the neighbour- 
ing countries, and soon infected all the east. 
The injunction of the lawis very express against 
this vice ; and the punishment to be inflicted 
on the practisers of it was stoning to death, 
Lev. XX, 27. What forms of enchantment were 
used in the practice of necromancy we are at 
a loss to know, because we read of none that 
the pythoness of Endor employed ; however, 
that there were several rites, spells, and invoca- 
tions used upon these occasions, we may learn 
from almost every ancient author, but from 
none more particularly than from Lucan in 
his Pharsalia. Whether the art of conversing 
with the dead waa mere imposture, or ground- 
ed upon diabolical agency, is a question which 
has been disputed in all ages. 

NEHEMIAH professes himself the author 
of the book which bears his name, in the very 
beginning of it, and he uniformly writes in the 
first person. He was of the tribe of Judah, 
and was probably born at Babylon during the 
captivity. He was so distinguished for his 
family and attainments, as to be selected for 
the office of cup bearer to the king of Persia, 
a situation of great honour and emolument. 
He was made governor of Judea, upon his own 
application, by Artaxerxes Longimanus ; and 
his book, which in the Hebrew canon was 
joined to that of Ezra, gives an account of his 
appointment and administration through a 
space of about thirty-six years to A. M, 3595, 
at which time the Scripture history closes ; and, 
consequently, the historical books, from Joshua 
to Nehemiah inclusive, contain the history of 
the Jewish people from the death of Moses, 
A. M. 2553, to the reformation established by 
Nehemiah, after the return from captivity , being 
a period of one thousand and forty-two years. 



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693 



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NEOLOGY. This terriH, which signifies 
new doctrine, has been u£.ed to designate a spe- 
cies of theology and Biblical criticism which 
has of late years much prevailed among the 
Protestant divines of Germany, and the pro- 
fessors of their universities. It is now, how- 
ever, more frequently termed rationalism, and 
is supposed to occupy a sort of middle place 
between the orthodox system and pure deism. 
The German divines themselves speak of na- 
turalism, rationalism, and supernaturalism. 
Tlie term naturalism arose first in the six- 
teenth century, and was spread in the seven- 
teenth. It was understood to be the system of 
those who allowed no other knowledge of re- 
ligion than the natural, which man could shape 
out by liis own strength, and, consequently, 
excluded all supernatural revelation. As to 
the diflferent forms of naturalism, theologians 
say there are three : the first, which they call 
Pelagianism, and which considers human dis- 
positions and notions as perfectly pure, and the 
religious knowledge derived from them as suf- 
ficiently explicit. A grosser kind denies all 
particular revelation ; and the grossest of all 
considers the world as God. Rationalism has 
been thus explained: "Those who are gene- 
rally termed rationalists," says Dr. Bretsch- 
neider, " admit universally in Christianity, a 
divine, benevolent, and positive appointment 
for the good of mankind, and Jesus as a mes- 
senger of Divine Providence, believing that the 
true and everlasting word of God is contained 
in the Holy Scripture, and that by the same 
the welfare of mankind will be obtained and 
extended. But they deny therein a superna- 
tural and miraculous working of God, and 
consider the object of Christianity to be that 
of introducing into the world such a religion 
as reason can comprehend ; and they distin. 
guish the essential from the unessential, and 
what is local and temporary from that which 
is universal and permanent in Christianity." 
There is, however, a third class of divines 
who in fact dilFer very little from this, though 
very widely in profession. They affect to allow 
a revealing operation of God, but establish on 
internal proofs rather than on miracles the 
divine nature of Christianity. They allow 
that revelation may contain much out of the 
power of reason to explain, but say that it 
should assert nothing contrary to reason, but 
rather what may be proved by it. Supernatural- 
ism consists in general in the conviction that 
God hcis revealed him.self supernaturally and 
immediately. The notion of a miracle cannot 
well be separated from such a revelation, 
whether it happens out of, on, or in men. 
What is revealed may belong to the order of 
nature, but an order higher and unknown to 
us, which we could never have known without 
miracles, and cannot bring under the laws of 
nature. 

The difference between the naturalists and 
the rationalists, as Mr. Rose justly remarks, is 
not quite so wide either as it would appear to 
be at first sight, or as one of them assuredly 
wishes it to appear. For if I receive a system, 
be it of religion, of morals, or of politics, only 



so far as it approves itself to my reason, what- 
ever be the authority that presents it to me, 
it is idle to say that I receive the system out 
of any respect to that authority. I receive it 
only because my reason approves it ; and I 
should, of course, do so if an authority of far 
inferior value were to present the system to 
me. This is what that division of rationalists, 
which professes to receive Christianity, and at 
the same time to make reason the supren^e 
arbiter in matters of faith, has done. Their 
system, in a word, is this : They assume cer- 
tain general principles, which they maintain 
to be the necessary deductions of reason from 
an extended and unprejudiced contemplation 
of the natural and moral order of things, and 
to be in themselves immutable and universal. 
Consequently, any thing which, on however 
good authority, may be advanced in apparent 
opposition to them must either be rejected as 
unworthy of rational belief, or, at least, ex- 
plained away till it is made to accord with the 
assumed principles ; and the truth or falsehood 
of all doctrines proposed is to be decided ac- 
cording to their agreement or disagreement 
with those principles. 

It is easy, then, to anticipate how, with 
such principles, the Biblical critics of Ger- 
many, distinguished as many of them have 
been for learning, would proceed to interpret 
the Scriptures. Many of the sacred books 
and parts of others have, of course, been re- 
jected by them as spurious, the strongest 
external evidence being thought by them in. 
sufficient to prove the truth of what was de- 
termined to be contradictory to their reason ; 
and the inspiration of the rest was understood 
in no higher a sense, to use the language of 
one of their professors, than the expressions of 
Cicero as to the inspiration of the poets, or 
those of Quintilian respecting Plato. It would 
be disgusting, says Rose, to go through all 
the strange fancies which were set afloat, and 
which tended only to set Scripture on the 
same footing as an ingenious but improbable 
romance. They all proceeded from the deter, 
mination that whatever was not intelligible 
was incredible, that only what was of familiar 
and easy explanation deserved belief, and that 
all which was miraculous and mysterious in 
Scripture must be rejected; and they rested 
perpetually on notions and reasonings which 
were in themselves miracles of incredibility. 
But there were many of the German divines 
of this rationalist period who went much far- 
ther, and who imputed a deception to our 
Lord and his disciples, not for evil but for 
good purposes. In reading or in hearing of 
these wretched productions, the mind is divided 
between disgust at folly, and indignation at 
wickedness. What can be said for the heart 
which could suppose that the founders of 
Christianity could have taught the sublime 
and holy doctrines of the Gospel with a lie in 
their hearts and on their lips ? or for the intel- 
lect which could believe that ambitious and 
designing men would encounter years of 
poverty, and shame, and danger, with no pros, 
pect but that of an ignominious death ? But 



NEO 



694 



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where the supernatural and miraculous ac- 
counts were not rejected, they were, by many 
of the most eminent of these writers, explain, 
ed away by a monstrous ingenuity, which, on 
any other subject, and applied to any ancient 
classic or other writer, would provoke the 
most contemptuous ridicule. When Korah, 
Dathan, and Abiram were swallowed up, 
Moses had previously " secretly undermined 
the earthy Jacob wrestled with the angel " in 
a dream f^ and a rheumatic pain in his thigh 
during sleep suggested the incident in his 
dream of the angel touching the sinew of his 
thigh. Professor Paulus gravely explains the 
miracle of the tribute money thus : That Christ 
only meant to give a moral lesson, that is, that 
we are not, if we can avoid it by trifling sacri- 
fices, to give offence to our brethren ; that 
he probably reasoned thus with St. Peter : 
" Though there is no real occasion for us to 
pay the tribute, yet, as we may be reckoned 
as enemies of the temple, and not attended to 
when we wish to teach what is good, why 
should not you who are a fisherman," a remark 
which might very properly be made at a place 
where St. Peter had been engaged in a fishery 
for two years, " and can easily do it, go and 
get enough to pay the demand ? Go, then, to 
the sea, cast your hook, and take up zx^Ztov 
'iX^vv, the first and best fish." St. Peter was 
not to stay longer at his work this time than 
to gain the required money : -a^wrog often refers 
not to number but to time ; and 'i'xBiiv may un- 
doubtedly be taken as a collective. St. Peter 
must either have caught so many fish as v/ould 
be reckoned worth a stater at Capernaum, (so 
near to a sea rich in fish,) or one so large and 
fine as would have been valued at that sum. 
As it was uncertain whether one or more 
would be necessary, the expression is indefi- 
nite, Tov avaBuvra z^poirov i)(^dvv ', [the fish first 
coming up ;] but it would not be ambiguous to 
St. Peter, as the necessity and the event would 
give it a fixed meaning. 'Avol^ag ro <^6fia. 
[Opening the mouth.] This opening of the 
mouth might have different objects, which 
must be fixed by the context. If the fisher- 
man opens the mouth of a fish caught with a 
hook, he does it first to release him from the 
hook ; for if he hangs long he is less saleable : 
he soon decays. The circumstantiality in the 
account is picturesque. "Take the hook out 
his mouth !" 'Eup/jo-si? ivplaKciv is used in Greek 
in a more extended sense than the German 
finden, as in Xenophon, where it is "to get by 
selling." When such a word is used of sale- 
able articles, like fish, and in a connection 
which requires the getting a piece of money, 
it is clear that getting by sale and not by find- 
ing is referred to. ^' And this from a profess- 
or's chair '." In like manner the miracle of 
feeding the five thousand in the desert is re- 
solved into the opportune passing by of a cara- 
van with provisions, of which the hungry 
multitude were allowed to partake, according 
to eastern hospitality ; and the Apostles were 
merely employed in conveying it out in has- 
kets. Christ's walking upon the sea is explain- 
ed by his walking upon the sea shore, and St. 



Peter's walking on the sea is resolved into 
swimming. The miracles of healing were the 
eflJect of fancy operating favourably upon the 
disorders; and Ananias and Sapphira died of 
a fright ; with many other absurdities, half 
dreams and half blasphemies ; and of which 
the above are given but as a specimen. 

The first step in this sorrowful gradation 
down to a depth of falsehood and blasphemy, 
into which certainly no body of Christian 
ministers, so large, so learned, and influential, 
in any age or period of the church ever before 
fell, was, contempt for the authority of the 
divines of the Reformation, and of the subse- 
quent age. They were about to set out on a 
voyage of discovery ; and it was necessary to 
assume that truth still inhabited some terra 
incognita, [unknown region,] to which neithe. 
Luther, Melancthon, nor their early disciples, 
had ever found access. One of this school is 
pleased, indeed, to denominate the whole even 
of the seventeenth and the first half of the 
eighteenth century, the age of theological 
barbarism ; an age, notwithstanding, which 
produced in the Lutheran church alone Calo. 
vius, Schmidt, Hackspan, Walther, Glass, and 
the Carpzoffs, and others, as many and as 
great writers as any church can boast in an 
equal space of time ; writers whose works are, 
or ought to be, in the hands of the theological 
student. The general statements of the inno- 
vators amount to this, that the divines of the 
age of which we speak had neither the inclina- 
tion nor the power to do any thing but fortify 
their own systems, which were dogmatical, 
and not to search out truth for themselves 
from Scripture ; that theology, as a science, 
was left from the epoch of the Reformation as 
it had been received from the schoolmen ; that 
the interpretation of the Bible was made the 
slave, not the mistress, of dogmatical theology, 
as it ought to be. 

The vain conceit that the doctrines of re- 
ligion were capable of philosophic demonstra- 
tion, which obtained among the followers of 
Wolf, is considered by Mr. Rose as having 
hastened onward the progress of error. We 
find some of them not content with applying 
demonstration to the truth of the system, but 
endeavouring to establish each separate dog. 
ma, the Trinity, the nature of the Redeemer, 
the incarnation, the eternity of punishment, 
on philosophical and, strange as it may appear, 
some of these truths on mathematical, grounds. 
We have had instances of this in our own 
country ; and the reason why they have done 
little injury is, that none of those who thus 
presumed, whether learned or half learned, 
had success enough to form a school. So far 
as such a theory does obtain influence, it must 
necessarily be mischievous. The first authors 
may hold the mysteries of Christianity sacred ; 
they may fancy that they can render faith in 
them more easy by affecting demonstrative 
evidence, which, indeed, were the subjects 
capable of it, would render faith unnecessary ; 
but they are equally guilty of a vain presump- 
tion in their own powers, and of a want of 
real reverence to God, and to his revelation. 



NEO 



695 



NEO 



With them, this boast of demonstration gene- 
rally ends in the rejection of some truth, or 
the adoption of some positive error ; while 
their followers fail not to bound over the limits 
at which they have stopped. The fallacy of 
the whole lies in assuming that divine things 
arc on the same level with those which the 
hulnan mind can grasp, and may therefore be 
compared with them. One of these conse- 
quences must therefore follow : either that the 
mind is exalted above its own sphere, or that 
divine things are brought down below theirs. 
In the former case, a dogmatical pride is the 
result ; in the latter, the scheme of revelation 
is stripped of its divinity, and sinks gradually 
into a system of human philosophy, with the 
empty name of a revelation still appended to 
it to save appearances. What can bear the 
test of the philosophical standard is retained, 
and what cannot be thus proved is, by degrees, 
rejected ; so that the Scripture is no longer 
the ground of religious truth ; but a sort of 
v/itness to be compelled to assent to any con- 
clusions at which this philosophy may arrive. 
The effect in Germany was speedily de. 
veloped, though Wolf, the founder of this 
school, and most of his followers, were pious 
and faithful -Christians. By carrying demon- 
Btrative evidence beyond its own province, 
they had nurtured in their followers a vain 
confidence in human reason; and the next 
and still more fatal step was, that it was the 
province of human reason in an enlightened 
and intellectual age to perfect Christianity, 
which, it was contended, had hitherto existed 
in a low and degraded state, and to perfect 
that system of which the elements only were 
contained in the Scripture. All restraint was 
broken by this principle. Philosophy, good 
and bad, was left to build up these " elements" 
according to its own views ; and as, after all, 
many of these elements were found to be too 
untractable and too rudely shaped to accord 
with the plans of these manifold constructions, 
formed according to every " pattern," except 
that "in the mount;" when the stone could 
not be squared and framed by any art which 
these builders possessed, it was " rejected," 
even to " the head stone of the corner." Sem. 
ler appears to have been the author of that 
famous theory of accommodation, which, in 
the hands of his followers, says Mr. Rose, 
became "the most formidable weapon ever 
devised for the destruction of Christianity." 
As far as Germany is concerned, this language 
is not too strong ; and we may add, that it was 
the most impudent theory ever advocated by 
men professing still to be Christians, and one, 
the avowal of which can scarcely be accounted 
for, except on the ground, that as, because of 
their interests, it was not convenient for these 
teachers of theology and ministers of the 
German churches to disavow Christianity alto- 
gether ; it was devised and maintained, in order 
to connect the profits of the Christian profes- 
sion with substantial and almost undisguised 
deism. This theory was, that we are not to 
take all the declarations of Scripture as ad- 
dressed to us ; but to consider them as, in 



many points, purposely adapted to the feelings 
and dispositions of the age when they origin- 
ated ; but by no means to be received by 
another and more enlightened period ; that, in 
fact, Jesus himself and his Apostles had accom- 
modated themselves in their doctrines to the 
barbarism, ignorance, and prejudices of the 
Jews; and that it was therefore our duty to 
reject the whole of this temporary part of 
Christianity, and retain only what is substan- 
tial and eternal. In plain words they assumed, 
as the very basis of their Scriptural interpreta- 
tions, the blasphemous principle, that our Lord 
and his Apostles taught, or, at least, connived 
at doctrines absolutely false, rather than they 
would consent to shock the prejudices of their 
hearers ! This principle is shown at length by 
Mr. Rose, to run through the v/hole maze of 
error into which this body of Protestant divines 
themselves wandered, and led their flocks. 
Thus the chairs of theology and the very 
pulpits were turned into "the seats of the 
scornful ;" and where doctrines were at all 
preached, they were too frequently of this 
daring and infidel character. It became even, 
at least, a negative good, that the sermons de- 
livered were often discourses on the best modes 
of cultivating corn and wine, and the preachers 
employed the Sabbath and the church in in- 
structing their flocks how to choose the best 
kinds of potatoes, or to enforce upon them the 
benefits of vaccination. Undisguised infidelity 
has in no country treated the grand evidences 
of the truth of Christianity with greater con- 
tumely, or been m ore offensive in its attacks upon 
the prophets, or more ridiculous in its attempts 
to account, on natural principles, for the mira- 
cles. Extremes of every kind were produced, 
philosophic mysticism, pantheism, and atheism. 
We have hitherto referred chiefly to Mr. 
Rose's work on this awful declension in the 
Lutheran and other continental churches. In 
a work on the same subject by Mr. Pusey, 
the stages of the apostasy are more carefully 
marked, and more copiously and deeply inves- 
tigated. Our limits will, however, but allow 
us to advert to two or three points. In Mr. 
Pusey's account of the state of German theo- 
logy in the seventeenth century, he opens to 
us the sources of the evil. Francke, he ob- 
serves, assigns as a reason for attaching the 
more value to the opportunities provided at 
Halle for the study of Scripture, that " in 
former times, and in those which are scarcely 
past, one generally found at universities op., 
portunities for every thing rather than a solid 
study of God's word." "In all my university 
years," says Knapp, " I was not happy enough 
to hear a lecture upon the whole of Scripture ; 
we should have regarded it as a great blessing 
which came down from heaven." It is said to 
be one only of many instances, that at Leipzig, 
Carpzoflf, having in his lectures for one half 
year completed the first chapter of Isaiah, did 
not again lecture on the Bible for twenty 
years, while Olearius suspended his for ten. 
Yet Olearius, as well as Alberti, Spener says, 
"were diligent theologians, but that most 
pains were employed on doctrinal theology 



NEO 



696 



NEO 



and controversy." It is, moreover, a painful 
speaking fact, which is mentioned by Francke, 
(1709,) that in Leipzig, the great mart of 
literature as well as of trade, "twenty years 
ago, in no bookseller's shop was either Bible 
or Testament to be found." Of the passages 
in Francke, which prove the same state of 
things, I will select one or two only : "Youth 
are sent to the universities with a moderate 
knowledge of Latin ; but of Greek, and es- 
pecially of Hebrew next to none. And it 
would even then have been well, if what had 
been neglected before had been made up in 
the universities. There, however, most are 
borne, as by a torrent, with the multitude; 
they flock to logical, metaphysical, ethical, 
polemical, physical, pneumatical lectures, and 
what not ; treating least of all those things 
whose benefit is most permanent in their future 
office, especially deferring, and at last neglect- 
ing, the study of the sacred languages." " To 
this is added, that, they comfort themselves, 
that in examinations for orders these things 
are not generally much attended to. Hence 
most who are anxious about a maintenance, 
hurry to those things which may hasten their 
promotion, attend above all things a lecture 
on the art of preaching, and if they can remain 
so long at the university, one on doctrinal 
theology, (would that all were anxious about 
a salutary knowledge of the sacred doctrines,) 
and having committed these things to paper 
and memory, return home, as if excellently 
armed against Satan, are examined, preach, are 
promoted, provide for their families." And 
having spoken farther on the superficial know- 
ledge, pedantry, and other faults of those few 
who acquired knowledge of these subjects, he 
sums up: "As the vernacular Scriptures are 
ordinarily neglected or ill employed by the 
illiterate, so are the original by the lettered : 
whence there cannot but arise either ignorance 
in matters of faith, or an unfruitful and vain 
knowledge ; a pleasurable fancy is substituted 
for the substance of the faith ; impiety daily 
increases. In a word, from the neglect of 
Scripture all impiety is derived ; and so again 
from the impiety or unbelief of men, there is 
derived a contempt of Scripture, or at all 
events an abase, and an absurd and perverted 
employment of it : and hence follows either a 
neglect of the original languages, or a sense- 
less method, or an unfitting employment of 
them ; which evils, since they are continued 
from the teachers to the disciples, the corrupted 
state of the schools and universities continually 
increases : and these we cannot remedy, unless 
we can prevail upon ourselves to make the 
word of God our first object, to look for Christ 
in it, and to embrace him, when found, with 
genuine faith, and perseveringly to follow 
him." Pfaff" thus describes the previous state 
of doctrinal theology : " All the compendia of 
holy doctrines, which have hitherto appeared, 
are of such a character, that, though their ex- 
cellence has been hitherto extolled by the com- 
mon praise of our countrymen, and they still 
enjoy considerable reputation, {sua utique luce 
niteat,) they can even on this ground not be 



satisfactory to our age, — that since one system 
was extracted and worked out of the other, with 
a very few variations, they dwell uniformly 
on the same string ; and that metaphysical 
clang of causes, which sounds somewhat 
harshly and unpleasantly to well cultivated 
ears, constantly reverberates in them, the 
same terms uniformly recurring in all. To 
this is added, that a certain coldness appears 
to prevail in the common mode of treating 
these subjects, especially in the practical topics 
of theology ; these being set forth as theoreti- 
cal propositions, so that scarcely any life or 
any religious influence finds its way into the 
minds of readers ; and the edification of mind, 
(though it should be the principal object in 
sacred theology,) derived from them is very 
slight. Nor does it appear less a subject of 
blame, that various theological tottoi, and those 
the very chief, are here altogether omitted ; 
that every thing is choked with the thorns of 
scholasticism ; and that divine truths are often 
made secondary to the zeal for authority : nor 
is there sufficient reference to the language of 
the symbolical books, to the promotion of the 
peace of the church, to the exhibition of what 
is of real importance in controverted points, 
and of the unreality of the mere logomachies, 
with which all theology abounds ; nor again, 
to destroy theological pedantry and a sectarian 
spirit, or to treat the subjects themselves in a 
style becoming to them : but most of all, sufii. 
cieint pains are not bestowed upon that which 
is of chief importance, the building up the 
kingdom of God in the hearts of men-, and the 
influencing their hearts more thoroughly with 
vivid conceptions of true Christianity." 

Yet these were but effects of a still higher 
cause, — the rapid decay of piety in this cen- 
tury, of which the statements of Mr. Pusey, 
and the authorities he quotes, present a me- 
lancholy picture. Speaking of J. V. Andrea, 
he says, the want of practical religious instruc- 
tion in the early schools, the perverted state of 
all education, the extravagance and dissolute- 
ness of the universities, the total unfitness of 
the teachers whom they sent forth and au- 
thorized, the degraded state of general as well 
as of theological science, the interested mo- 
tives for entering into holy orders, the can- 
vassing for benefices, the simony in obtaining 
them, the especial neglect of the poorer, the 
bad lives, the carelessness and bitter contro- 
versies of the preachers, and the general cor- 
ruption jof manners in all ranks, are again and 
again the subjects of his deep regrets or of his 
censure. "After the evangelic church," he 
says, in an energetic comparison of the evils 
which reigned in the beginning of this period 
with those which had occasioned the yoke of 
Rome to be broken, "afi;er the evangelic church 
had thrown off" the yoke of human inventions, 
they should have bowed their neck under the 
easy yoke of the Lord. But now one set 
of human inventions are but exchanged for 
another, equally, or indeed very little, human ; 
and these are called the word of God, though 
in reality things are nothing milder than be- 
fore. Idols were cast out, but the idols of sins 



NEO 



697 



NEO 



are worshipped. The primacy of the pope is 
denied, but we constitute lesser popes. The 
bishops are abrogated, but ministers are still 
introduced or cast out at will ; simony came 
into ill repute, but who now rejects a hand 
laden with gold ? the monks were reproached 
for indolence, — as if there were too much 
study at our universities ; the monasteries 
were dissolved, — to stand empty, or to be stalls 
for cattle ; the regularly recurring prayers are 
abolished, yet so that now most pray not at all ; 
the public fasts were laid aside, now the com- 
mand of Christ is held to be but useless words ; 
not to say any thing of blasphemers, adulter, 
ers, extortioners," &c. After many testimo. 
nice of a similar and even stronger kind from 
other pious divines, who lifted up their voice 
strongly but almost ineffectually against the 
growing corruption of the universities, the 
clergy, and the people, Mr. Pusey adds the 
following passages from Francke : " The works 
of the flesh are done openly and unrestrainedly, 
with so little shame, that one who does not 
approve of many things not consistent with 
the truth which is in Jesus, would almost be en. 
rolled among heretics. Ambition, pride, love of 
pleasure, luxury, impurity, wantonness, and all 
the crop of foulest wickednesses which spring 
from these ; injustice also, avarice, and a spe. 
cies of rivalry among all vices every where 
sensibly increases, atheism joining itself with 
epicurism and libertinism. Thus while Christ 
is held to, while orthodoxy is presented as a 
shield, all imitation of Christ, all anxiety for 
true and spiritual holiness, ' without which no 
one shall see the Lord,' nay, all the decorum 
befitting a Christian, is banished, is extermi- 
nated, that it may not disturb the societies of 
perverse men." Into the state of the clergy 
he enters more fully in another work. <' I 
remember," he says, "that a theologian of no 
common learning, piety, and practical know, 
ledge, vvv h ayioLs, told me, that a certain 
monarch, at his suggestion, applied to a uni- 
versity, where there was a large concourse of 
students of theology, for two candidates for 
holy orders, who, by the excellence and purity 
of their doctrine, and by holiness of life, might 
serve as an example to the congregation com- 
mitted to their charge ; the professors candidly 
answered that there was no such student of 
theology among them. Nor is this surprising. 
I remember that Kortholt used to say with 
pain, that in the disgraceful strifes, disturb- 
ances, and tumults in the universities, which 
were, alas, but too frequent, it scarcely ever 
happened that theological students were not 
found to be accomplices, nay, the chiefs. I 
remember that another theologian often la- 
mented, that there was such a dearth in the 
church of such persons as the Apostle would 
alone think worthy of the ministerial func 
tions, that it was to be regarded as a happiness 
if, of many applicants, some one of outwardly 
decent life could at length be found." 

With several happy exceptions, and the 
raising up of a few pious people in some 
places, and a partial revival of evangelical doc 
trmes, which, however, often ran at length into 



mysticism and antinomianism, the evil, botli 
doctrinally and morally, continued to increase 
to our own day ; for if any ask what has been 
the moral effect of the appalling apostasy of 
the teachers of religion, above described, upon 
the people of Germany, the answer may be 
given from one of these rationalizing divines 
themselves, whose statement is not therefore 
likely to be too highly coloured. It is from a 
pamphlet of Bretschneider, published in 1822, 
and the substance is, " Indifference to religion 
among all classes ; that formerly the Bible 
used to be in every house, but now the people 
either do not possess it, or, as formerly, read 
it; that few attend the churches, which are 
now too large, though fifty years ago they 
were too small ; that fev/ honour the Sabbath ; 
that there are now few students of theology, 
compared with those in law and medicine ; 
that if things go on so, there will shortly not 
be persons to supply the various ecclesiastical 
offices ; that preaching had fallen into con. 
tempt ; and that distrust and suspicion of the 
doctrines of Christianity prevailed among all 
classes." Melancholy as this picture is, nothing 
in it can surprise any one, except that the very 
persons who have created the evil should them- 
selves be astonished at its existence, or even 
affect to be so. But the mercy of God has be- 
gun to answer the prayers of the few faithful 
who are left as the gleanings of grapes after 
the vintage ; and to revive, in some active, 
learned, and influential men, the spirit of pri. 
mitive faith and zeal. The effect of the exer. 
tions of these excellent men, both from the 
professor's chair, the pulpit, and the press, has 
been considerable ; and it is remarked by Mr. 
Rose, that no small degree of disgust at the 
past follies of the rationalists prevails ; that the 
cold and comfortless nature of their system 
has been perceived ; that a party of truly Chris- 
tian views has arisen ; and that there is a dij- 
position alike in the people, the better part of 
the divines, and the philosophers, to return to 
that revealed religion which alone can grve 
them comfort and peace. It is equally clear 
that some at least of the governments perceive 
the dangerous tendency of the rationalist 
opinions, and that they are sincerely desirous 
of promoting a better state of religious feeling. 
We close this article with the excellent re- 
marks of Dr. Tittman of Dresden, on the neo. 
logical interpreters: "What is the interpreta- 
tion of the Scriptures, if it relies not on words, 
but things, not on the assistance of languages, 
but on the decrees of reason that is, of modern 
philosophy ? What is all religion, what the 
knowledge of divine things, what are faith and 
hope placed in Christ, what is all Christianity, if 
human reason and philosophy is the only fount- 
ain of divine wisdom, and the supreme judge in 
the matter of religion ? What is the doctrine of 
Christ and the Apostles more than some philo- 
sophical system ? But what, then, I pray you, 
is, to deny, to blaspheme Jesus the Lord, to 
render his divine mission doubtful, nay vain 
and useless, to impugn his doctine, to disfigure 
it shamefully, to attack it, to expose it to ridi. 
cule, and, if possible, to suppress it, to remove 



NEO 



698 



NEO 



all Christianity out of religion, and to bound re- 
ligion within the narrow limits of reason alone, 
to deride miracles, and hold them up to deri- 
sion, to accuse them as vain, to bring them 
into disrepute, to torture sacred Scripture into 
seeming agreement with the fancies of human 
wisdom, to alloy it with human conjectures, 
to bring it into contempt, and to break down 
its divine authority, to undermine, to shake, to 
overthrow utterly the foundations of Christian 
faith ? What else can be the event than this, 
as all history, a most weighty witness in this 
matter, informs us, namely, that vv^hen sacred 
Scripture, its grammatical interpretation and a 
sound knowledge of languages are, as it were, 
despised and banished, all religion should be 
contemned, shaken, corrupted, troubled, under- 
mined, utterly overturned, and should be en- 
tirely removed and reduced to natural religion ; 
or that it should end in a mystical theology, 
than which nothing was ever more pernicious 
to the Christian doctrine, and be converted 
into an empty nvQoXoyia, or even into a poetical 
system, hiding every thing in figures and fic- 
tions, to which latter system not a few of the 
sacred orators and theologians of our time 
seem chiefly inclined." 

NEOMENIA, vEonwia, new moon. Col. ii, 16, 
a Greek word, signifying the first day of the 
moon or month. The Hebrews had a particu- 
lar veneration for the first day of every month ; 
and Moses appointed peculiar sacrifices for the 
day. Num. xxviii, 11, 12 ; but he gave no or- 
ders that it should be kept as a holy day, nor 
can it be proved that the ancients observed it 
so : it was a festival of merely voluntary devo- 
tion. It appears that even from the time of 
Saul they made, on this day, a sort of family 
3ntertainment, since David ought then to 
aave been at the king's table ; and Saul took 
lis absence amiss, 1 Sam. xx, 5, 18. Moses 
iisinuates that, beside the national sacri- 
fices then regularly offered, every private per- 
son had his particular sacrifices of devotion, 
Ni-m. X, 10. The beginning of the month was 
proclaimed by sound of trumpet, at the offering 
of the solemn sacrifices. But the most cele- 
brated neomenia was that at the beginning of 
the civil year, or first day of the month Tizri, 
Lev. xxiii, 24. This was a sacred day, on 
which no servile labour was performed ; on this 
they offered public or national burnt-sacrifices, 
and sounded the trumpets in the temple. In 
the kingdom of the ten tribes, the serious 
among the people used to assemble at the 
houses of the prophets, to hear their instruc- 
tions. The Shunamite, who entertained Eli- 
sha, proposing to visit that prophet, her hus- 
band said to her, "Why do you go to-day, 
since it is neither Sabbath nor new moon ?" 
2 Kings iv, 23. Isaiah declares that the Lord 
abhors the new moons, the Sabbaths, and other 
days of festival and assembly of those Jews 
who in other things neglected his laws, Isaiah 
i, 13, 14. Ezekiel says that the burnt-offer- 
ings offered on the day of the new moon were 
provided at the king's expense, and that on this 
day was to be opened the eastern gate of the 
.Murt of the priests, Ezek. xlv, 17; xlvi, 1, 2; 



1 Chron. xxiii, 31 ; 2 Chron. vili, 13. Judith 
kept no fast on festival days, or on the new 
moon, Judith viii, 6. The modern Jews keep 
the neomenia only as a feast of devotion, to be 
observed or not at pleasure. They think it 
rather belongs to the women than to the men. 
The women forbear work, and indulge a little 
more on this day than on others. In the prayers 
of the synagogue, they read from Psalm cxiii, 
to cxviii. They bring forth the roll of the law, 
and read therein to four persons. They call 
to remembrance the sacrifice that on this day 
used to be offered in the temple. On the eve- 
ning of the Sabbath w^hich follows the new 
moon, or some other evening following, when 
the new moon first appears, they assemble and 
pray to God, as the Creator of the planets, 
and the restorer of the new moon ; raising 
themselves tow^ard heaven, they entreat of God 
to be preserved from misfortune ; then, after 
mentioning David, they salute each other, and 
separate. See Moon. 

NEONOMIANISM, so called from the 
Greek r/o?, new, and vd/zoj, laio. This is not 
the appellation of a separate sect, but of those 
both among Arminians and Calvinists who 
regard Christianity as a new law, mitigated in 
its requisitions for the sake of Christ. This 
opinion has many modifications, and has been 
held by persons very greatly differing from 
each other in the consequences to lyhich they 
carry it, and in the principles from which they 
deduce it. One opinion is, that the new cove- 
nant of grace which, through the medium of 
Christ's death, the Father made with men, 
consists, according to this system, not in our 
being justified by faith, as it apprehends the 
righteousness of Christ ; but in this, that God, 
abrogating the exaction of perfect legal obe- 
dience, reputes or accepts of faith itself, and 
the imperfect obedience of faith, instead of the 
perfect obedience of the law, and graciously 
accounts them worthy of the reward of eternal 
life. Toward the close of the seventeenth 
century, a controversy was agitated among 
the English Dissenters, in which the one side, 
who were partial to the writings of Dr. Crisp, 
were charged with antinomianism, and the 
other, who favoured those of Mr. Baxter, were 
accused of neonomianism. Dr. Daniel Wil- 
liams was a principal writer on what was called 
the neonomian side. 

The following objection, among others, was 
made by several ministers in 1692, against Dr. 
Wilhams's " Gospel Truth Stated," &c : " To 
supply the room of the moral law, vacated by 
him, he turns the Gospel into a new law, in 
keeping of which we shall be justified for the 
sake of Christ's righteousness, making qualifi- 
cations and acts of ours a disposing subordi- 
nate righteousness, whereby we become capable 
of being justified by Christ's righteousness." 
To this, among other things, he answers : 
" The difference is not, 1. Whether the Gospel 
be a new law in the Socinian, popish, or Ar- 
minian sense. This I deny. Nor, 2. Is faith, 
or any other grace or acts of oars, any atone- 
ment for sin, satisfaction to justice, meriting 
qualification, or any part of that righteousness 



NEO 



699 



NES 



for which we are justified at God our Creator's 
bar. This I deny in places innumerable. Nor, 
3. Whether the Gospel be a law more new than 
is implied in the first promise to fiillen Adam, 
proposed to Cain, and obeyed by Abel, to the 
differen.cing him from his unbelieving brother. 
This I deny. 4. Nor whether the Gospel be a 
law that allows sin, when it accepts such 
graces as true, though short of perfection, to 
be the conditions of our personal interest in 
the benefits purchased by Christ. This I deny. 
5. Nor whether the Gospel be a law, the pro. 
mises whereof entitle the performers of its 
conditions to the benefits as of debt. This I 
deny. The difference is, 1, Is the Gospel a law 
in this sense ; namely, God in Christ thereby 
commandeth sinners to repent of sin, and re. 
ceive Christ by a true operative faith, promising 
that thereupon they shall be united to him, 
justified by his righteousness, pardoned, and 
adopted ; and that, persevering in faith and 
true holiness, they shall be finally saved ; also 
threatening that if any shall die impenitent, 
unbelieving, ungodly, rejecters of his grace, 
they shall perish without relief, and endure 
sorer punishments than if these offers had not 
been made to them? 2. Hath the Gospel a 
sanction, that is, doth Christ therein enforce 
his commands of faith, repentance, and perse- 
verance, by the foresaid promises and threat, 
enings, as motives to our obedience? Both 
these I affirm, and they deny ; saying, the 
Gospel in the largest sense is an absolute pro. 
mise without precepts and conditions, and a 
Gospel threat is a bull. 3. Do the Gospel pro- 
mises of benefits to certain graces, and its 
threats that those benefits shall be withheld, 
and the contrary evils inflicted for the neglect 
of such graces, render these graces the condi- 
tion of our personal title to those benefits ? 
This they deny, and I affirm," &c. 

It does not appear to have been a question 
in this controversy, whether God in his word 
commands sinners to repent, and believe in 
Christ, nor whether he promises life to be. 
lievers, and threatens death to unbelievers; 
but whether it be the Gospel under the form of 
a new law that thus commands or threatens, 
or the moral law on its behalf, and whether its 
promises to believing render such believing a 
condition of the things promised. In another 
controversy, however, which arose about forty 
years afterward among the same people, it 
became a question whether God did by his word, 
call it law or Gospel, command unregenerate 
sinners to repent and believe in Christ, or do 
any thing also, which is spiritually good. Of 
those who took the affirmative side of this 
question, one party maintained it on the ground 
of the Gospel being a new law, consisting of 
commands, promises, and threatenings, the 
terras or conditions of which were repentance, 
faith, and sincere obedience. But those who 
first engaged in the controversy, though they 
allowed the encouragement to repent and be- 
lieve to arise merely from the grace of the 
Gospel, yet considered the formal obligation to 
do so as arising merely from the moral law, 
which, requiring supreme love to God, requires 



acquiescence in any revelation which he shall 
at any time make known. 

NERO, The Emperor Nero is not named 
in Scripture ; but he is indicated by his title 
of emperor, and by his surname Caesar. To 
him St. Paul appealed after his imprisonment 
by Felix, and his examination by Festus, who 
was swayed by the Jews. St. Paul was there- 
fore carried to Rome, where he arrived A. D. 
61. Here he continued two years, preaching 
the Gospel with freedom, till he became famous 
even in the emperor's court, in which were 
many Christians ; for he salutes the Philippians 
in the name of the brethren who were of the 
household of Ccesar, that is, of Nero's court, 
Phil, i, 12, 13 ; iv, 22. We have no particular 
information how he cleared himself from the 
accusations of the Jews, whether by answering 
before Nero, or whether his enemies dropped 
their prosecutions, which seems probable, Acts 
xxviii, 21. However, it appears that he was 
liberated in the year 63. Nero is reckoned the 
first persecutor of the Christian church: his 
persecution was A. D. 64. Nero, the most 
cruel and savage of all men, and also the most 
wicked and depraved, began his persecution 
against the Christian church, A. D. 64, on 
pretence of the burning of Rome, of which 
some have thought himself to be the author. 
He endeavoured to throw all the odium on the 
Christians : those were seized first that were 
known publicly as such, and by their means 
many others were discovered. They were 
condemned to death, and were even insulted 
in their sufferings. Some were sewed up in 
skins of beasts, and then exposed to dogs 
to be torn in pieces ; some v/ere nailed to 
crosses ; others perished by fire. The latter 
were sewed up in pitched coverings, vt'hich, 
being set on fire, served as torches to the 
people, and were lighted up in the night. Nero 
gave leave to use his own gardens, as the 
scene of all these cruelties. From this time 
edicts were published against the Christians, 
and many martyrs suffered, especially in Italy. 
St. Peter and St. Paul are thought to have 
suffered martyrdom, consequent on this perse- 
cution, A. D. 65. The revolt of the Jews from 
the Romans happened about A. D. 65 and 66, 
in the twelfth and thirteenth of Nero. The 
city of Jerusalem making an insurrection, A. D. 
66, Florus there slew three thousand six hun- 
dred persons, and thus began the war. A little 
while afterward, those of Jerusalem killed the 
Roman garrison. Cestius on this came to Je- 
rusalem to suppress the sedition ; but he was 
forced to retire, after having besieged it about 
six weeks, and was routed in his retreat, A. D. 
66. About the end of the same year, Nero gave 
Vespasian the command of his troops against 
the Jews. This general carried on the war in 
Galilee and Judea during A. D. 67 and 68, the 
thirteenth and fourteenth of Nero. But Nero 
killing himself in the fourteenth year of his 
reign, Jerusalem was not besieged till after 
his death, A. D. 70, the first and second of 
Vespasian. 

NESTORIANS, a denomination which arose 
in the fifth century, from Nestorius, bishop of 



NES 



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NET 



Constantinople ; a man of considerable learn, 
ing and eloquence, and of an independent spirit. 
The Catholic clergy were fond of calling the 
Virgin Mary " Mother of God," to which Nes- 
torius objected, as implying that she was mother 
of the divine nature, which he very properly 
denied ; and this raised against him, from Cyril 
and others, the cry of heresy, and perhaps led 
him into some improper forms of expression 
and explication. It is generally agreed, how- 
ever, by the moderns, that Nestorius showed 
a much better spirit in controversy than his 
antagonist, St. Cyril. As to the doctrine of 
the trinity, it does not appear that Nestorius 
differed from his antagonists, admitting the 
coequality of the divine Persons ; but he was 
charged with maintaining two distinct persons, 
as well as natures, in the mysterious character 
of Christ. This, however, he solemnly and 
constantly denied ; and from this, as a foul 
reproach, he has been cleared by the moderns, 
and particularly by Martin Luther, who lays 
the whole blame of this controversy on the 
turbulent and angry Cyril. (See Hypostatical 
Union.) The discordancy not only between the 
Nestorians and other Christians, but also among 
themselves, arose, no doubt, in a great measure, 
from the ambiguity of the Greek terms hypos- 
tasis and prosopon. The councils assembled at 
Seleucia on this occasion decreed that in Christ 
there were two hypostases. But this word, un- 
happily, was used both for person and subsist- 
ence, or existence ; hence the difficulty and 
ambiguity : and of these hypostases it is said 
the one was divine, and the other human; — 
the divine Word, and the man Jesus. Now of 
these two hypostases it is added, they had only 
one barsopa, the original term used by Nesto- 
rius, and usually translated by the Greeks, 
"person;" but to avoid the appearance of an 
express contradiction, Dr. Mosheim translates 
this barbarous word " aspect," as meaning a 
union of will and affection, rather than of na- 
ture or of person. And thus the Nestorians 
are charged with rejecting the union of two 
natures in one person, from their peculiar 
manner of expressing themselves, though they 
absolutely denied the charge. 

In the earliest ages of Nestorianism, the 
various branches of that numerous and power- 
ful sect were under the spiritual jurisdiction 
of the Catholic patriarch of Babylon, — a vague 
appellation which has been successively applied 
to the sees of Seleucia, Ctesiphon, and Bag- 
dad, — but who now resides at Mousul. In the 
sixteenth century the Nestorians were divided 
into two sects ; for in 1551 a warm dispute 
arose among them about the creation of a new 
patriarch, Simeon Barmamas, or Barmana, 
being proposed by one party, and Sulaka, 
otherwise named Siud, earnestly desired by 
the other ; when the latter, to support his pre. 
tensions the more effectually, repaired to Rome, 
and was consecrated patriarch in 1553, by Pope 
Julius III., whose jurisdiction he had acknow- 
ledged, and to whose commands he had pro- 
mised unlimited submission and obedience. 
Upon this new Chaldean patriarch's return to 
his own country, Julius sent with him several 



persons skilled in the Syriac language^ to assist 
him in establishing and extending the papal 
empire among the Nestorians ; and from that 
time, that unhappy people have been divided 
into two factions, and have often been involved 
in the greatest dangers and difficulties, by the 
jarring sentiments and perpetual quarrels of 
their patriarchs. In 1555, Simeon Denha, 
archbishop of Gelu, adopted the party of the 
fugitive patriarch, who had embraced the com. 
munion of the Latin church ; and, being after- 
ward chosen patriarch himself, he fixed his 
residence in the city of Van, or Ormia, in the 
mountainous parts of Persia, where his suc- 
cessors still continue, and are all distinguished 
by the name of Simeon ; but they seem of late 
to have withdrawn themselves from their com- 
munion with the church of Rome. The great 
Nestorian pontiffs who form the opposite party, 
and who have, since 1559, been distinguished 
by the general denomination of Elias, and 
reside constantly at Mousul, look with a hostile 
eye on this little patriarch; but since 1617 the 
bishops of Ormus have been in so low and 
declining a state, both in opulence and credit, 
that they are no longer in a condition to excite 
the envy of their brethren at Mousul, whose 
spiritual dominion is very extensive, taking in 
great part of Asia, and comprehending within 
its circuit the Arabian Nestorians, as also the 
Christians of St. Thomas, who dwell along the 
coast of Malabar. 

NETHINIMS. The Nethinims were ser- 
vants who had been given up to the service 
of the tabernacle and temple, to perform the 
meanest and most laborious services therein, 
in supplying wood and water. At first the 
Gibeonites were appointed to this service, 
Joshua ix, 27. Afterward the Canaanites 
who surrendered themselves, and whose lives 
were spared, were consigned to the perform- 
ance of the same duties. We read, Ezra viii, 
20, that the Nethinims were slaves devoted by 
David and the other princes to the ministry 
of the temple ; and elsewhere, that they were 
slaves given by Solomon ; the children of 
Solomon's servants, Ezra ii, 58 ; and we see, 
in 1 Kings ix, 20, 21, that this prince had sub- 
dued the remains of the Canaanites, and had 
constrained them to several servitudes ; and, 
it is very probable, he gave a good number of 
them to the priests and Levites for the service 
of the temple. The Nethinims were carried 
into captivity with the tribe of Judah, and 
there were great numbers of them near the 
coast of the Caspian Sea, from whence Ezra 
brought some of them back, Ezra viii, 17. 
After the return from the captivity, they dwelt 
in the cities appointed them, Ezra ii, 17. 
There were some of them also at Jerusalem, 
who inhabited that part of the city called 
Ophel, Neh. iii, 26. Those who returned with 
Ezra were to the number of two hundred and 
twenty, Ezra viii, 20 ; and those who followed 
Zerubbabel made up three hundred and ninety- 
two, Ezra ii, 58. This number was but small 
in regard to the offices that were imposed on 
them; so that we find them afterward insti- 
tuting a solemnity called Xylophoria, in which 



NIC 



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the people carried wood to the temple with 
great ceremony, to keep up the fire on the 
altar of burnt sacrifices. 

NETTLES. We find this name given to 
two diflferent words in the original. The first 
is Vnn, Job xxx, 7 ; Proverbs xxiv, 31 ; Zeph. 
ii, 9, It is not easy to determine what species 
of plant is here meant. From the passage in 
Job, the nettle could not be intended; for a 
plant is referred to large enough for people to 
take shelter under. The following extract 
from Denon's Travels may help to illustrate 
the text, and show to what an uncomfortable 
retreat those vagabonds must have resorted. 
"One of the inconveniences of the vegetable 
thickets of Egypt is, that it is difficult to re- 
main in them ; as nine- tenths of the trees and 
the plants are armed with inexorable thorns, 
which suffer only an unquiet enjoyment of the 
shadow which is so constantly desirable, from 
the precaution necessary to guard against 
them." The triD'p, Prov. xxiv, 31 ; Isaiah 
xxxiv, 13 ; Hosea ix, 6 ; is by the Vulgate 
rendered ^^urtica" which is well defended by 
Celsius, and very probably means " the nettle." 

NICE or NICENE CREED is so denomi- 
nated, because the greater part of it, namely, 
as far as the words, " Holy Ghost," was 
drawn up and agreed to at the council of Nice, 
or Nicoea, in Bithynia, A. D. 325. This coun- 
cil was assembled against Arius, who, though 
he brought down the Son to the condition of 
a creature, inferior, for that reason, in nature 
to the Father, yet acknowledged his personal 
subsistence before the world, and his superiority 
in nature to all the things that were created 
by him. So that there was need of some 
higher expression in this case than the other, 
to import his equal dignity of nature with the 
Father and Creator of all ; and nothing was 
found to answer the purpose so well as the 
term 6/xoo»Jo-tos. The rest of this creed was 
added at the council of Constantinople, A. D. 
581, except the words, "and the Son," which 
follow the words, "who proceedeth from the 
Father," and they were inserted A. D, 447. 
The addition made at Constantinople was 
caused by the denial of the divinity of the 
Holy Ghost by Macedonius and his followers ; 
and the creed, thus enlarged, was immediately 
received by all orthodox Christians. The in- 
sertion of the words, " and the Son," was 
made by the Spanish bishops ; and they were 
soon after adopted by the Christians in France. 
The bishops of Rome for some time refused to 
admit these words into the creed ; but at last, 
A. D. 883, when Nicholas the First was pope, 
they were allowed, and from that time they 
have stood in the Nicene creed, in all the 
western churches ; but the Greek church has 
never received them. See Arius. 

NICODEMUS, a disciple of Jesus Christ, 
a Jew by nation, and a Pharisee, John iii, 1, 
&c. At the time when the priests and Pha- 
risees had sent officers to seize Jesus, Nicode- 
mus declared himself openly in his favour, 
John vii, 45, &c ; and still more so when he 
went with Joseph of Arimathea to pay the 
last duties to his body, which they took down 



from the cross, embalmed, and laid in a sepul- 
chre. 

NICOLAITANS. St. John says in his 
Revelation, to the angel of the church of 
Ephesus, " But this thou hast, that thou hatest 
the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also 
hate," Rev. ii, 6 ; and again, to the angel of the 
church of Pergamos : " So hast thou also them 
that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which 
thing I hate," Rev. ii, 15. These are the only 
two places where the Nicolaitans are mention- 
ed in the New Testament : and it might appear 
at first, that little could be inferred from these 
concerning either their doctrine or their prac- 
tice. It is asserted, however, by all the fa- 
thers, that the Nicolaitans were a branch of 
the Gnostics : and the epistles, which were 
addressed by St. John to the seven Asiatic 
churches, may perhaps lead us to the same 
conclusion. Thus to the church at Ephesus 
he writes : " Thou hast tried them which say 
they are Apostles and are not, and hast found 
them liars," Rev. ii, 2. This may be under- 
stood of the Gnostic teachers, who falsely 
called themselves Christians, and who would 
be not unlikely to assume also the title of 
Apostles. It appears from this and other pas- 
sages, that they had distinguished themselves 
at Ephesus ; and it is when writing to that 
church, that St. John mentions the Nicolai- 
tans. Again, when writing to the church at 
Smyrna, he says : " I know the blasphemy of 
them which say they are Jews, and are not, 
but are the synagogue of Satan," Rev. ii, 9. 
The Gnostics borrowed many doctrines from 
the Jews, and thought by this means to attract 
both the Jews and Christians. We might 
therefore infer, even without the testimony of 
the fathers, that the Gnostic doctrines were 
prevalent in these churches, where St. John 
speaks of the Nicolaitans : and if so, we have 
a still more specific indication of their doctrine 
and practice, when we find St. John saying to 
the church in Pergamos, " I have a few things 
against thee, because thou hast there them that 
hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Ba- 
lak to cast a stumbling block before the child- 
ren of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, 
and to commit fornication," Rev. ii, 14. Then 
follow the words already quoted, " So hast 
thou also them that hold the doctrine of the 
Nicolaitans, which thing I hate." There 
seems here to be some comparison between 
the doctrine of Balaam and that of the Nico- 
laitans : and I would also point out, that to 
the church in Thyatira the Apostle writes, 
" I have a few things against thee, because 
thou sufFerest that woman Jezebel, which call- 
eth herself a prophetess, to teach and to se- 
duce my servants to commit fornication, and 
to eat things sacrificed unto idols," Rev. ii, 20. 
The two passages are very similar, and may 
enable us to throw some light upon the history 
of the Nicolaitans. Tertullian has preserved 
a tradition, that the person here spoken of as 
Jezebel was a female heretic, who taught what 
she had learned from the Nicolaitans : and 
whether the tradition be true or not, it seems 
certain, that to eat things sacrificed unto 



NIC 



702 



NIG 



idols, and to commit fornication, was part of 
the practice of the Nicolaitans. 

These two sins are compared to the doctrine 
of Balaam : and though the Bible tells us little 
of Balaam's history, beyond his prophecies and 
his death, yet we can collect enough to enable 
us to explain this allusion of St. John. We 
read, that " when Israel abode in Shittim, the 
people began to commit whoredom with the 
daughters of Moab : and they," that is, the 
women, " called the people unto the sacrifices 
of their gods : and the people did eat, and bow- 
ed down to their gods," Num. xxv, 1, 2. But 
we read farther, that when the Midianites 
were spoile.d and Balaam slain, Moses said of 
the women who were taken, " Behold, these 
caused the children of Israel, through the 
counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against 
the Lord in the matter of Peor," Num. xxxi, 
16. This, then, was the insidious policy and 
advice of Balaam. When he found that he 
was prohibited by God from cursing Israel, he 
advised Balak to seduce the Israelites by the 
women of Moab, and thus to entice them to 
the sacrifices of their gods. This is what St. 
John calls "the doctrine of Balaam," or the 
wicked artifice which he taught the king of 
Moab : and so he says, that in the church of 
Pergamos there were some who held the doc- 
trine of the Nicolaitans. We have therefore 
the testimony of St. John, as well as of the 
fathers, that the lives of the Nicolaitans were 
profligate and vicious ; to which we may add, 
that they ate things sacrificed to idols. This 
is expressly said of Basilides and Valentinus, 
two celebrated leaders of Gnostic sects : and 
we perhaps are not going too far, if we infer 
from St. John, that the Nicolaitans were the 
first who enticed the Christians to this impious 
practice, and obtained from thence the distinc 
tion of their peculiar celebrity. Their motive 
for such conduct is very evident. They wished 
to gain proselytes to their doctrines ; and they 
therefore taught that it was lawful to indulge 
the passions, and that there was no harm in 
partaking of an idol sacrifice. This had now 
become the test to which Christians must sub- 
mit, if they wished to escape persecution : and 
the Nicolaitans sought to gain converts by 
telling them that they might still believe in 
Jesus though " they ate of things sacrificed 
unto idols." The fear of death would shake 
the faith of some ; others would be gained over 
by sensual arguments : and thus many un- 
happy Christians of the Asiatic chur'^hes were 
found by St. John in the ranks of the Nico- 
laitans. 

We might wish perhaps to know at what 
time the sect of the Nicolaitans began ; but 
we cannot define it accurately. If Irenseus is 
correct in saying that it preceded by a con- 
siderable time the heresy of Cerinthus, and 
that the Cerinthian heresy was a principal 
cause of St. John writing his Gospel, it fol- 
lows, that the Nicolaitans were in existence 
at least some years before the time of their 
being mentioned in the Revelation ; and the 
persecution under Domitian, which was the 
cause of St. John being sent to Patmos, may 



have been the time which enabled the Nico- 
laitans to exhibit their principles. Irenasus 
indeed adds, that St. John directed his Gospel 
against the Nicolaitans as well as against 
Cerinthus : and the comparison which is made 
between their doctrine and that of Balaam, 
may perhaps authorize us to refer to this sect 
what is said in the second Epistle of St. Peter. 
The whole passage contains marked allusions 
to Gnostic teachers. There is another question 
concerning the Nicolaitans, which has excited 
much discussion. It is a question entirely of 
evidence and detail ; and the two points to be 
considered are, 1. Whether the Nicolaitans 
derived their name from Nicolas of Antioch, 
who was one of the seven deacons : 2. Sup- 
posing this to be the fact, whether Nicolas 
had disgraced himself by sensual indulgence. 
Those writers w^ho have endeavoured to clear 
the character of Nicolas have generally tried 
also to prove that he was not the man whom 
the Nicolaitans claimed as their head. But 
the one point may be true without the other : 
and the evidence is so overwhelming, which 
states that Nicolas the deacon was at least the 
person intended by the Nicolaitans, that it is 
difficult to come to any other conclusion upon 
the subject. We must not deny that some of 
the fathers have also charged him with falling 
into vicious habits, and thus affording too true 
a support to the heretics who claimed him as 
their leader. These writers, however, are of 
a late date ; and some, who are much more 
ancient, have entirely acquitted him, and fur- 
nished an explanation of the calumnies which 
attach to his name. We know that the Gnos- 
tics were not ashamed to claim as their found, 
ers the Apostles, or friends of the Apostles. 
The same may have been the case with Nico- 
las the deacon ; and though we allow, that if 
the Nicolaitans were distinguished as a sect 
some time before the end of the century, the 
probability is lessened that his name was thus 
abused ; yet if his career was a short one, his 
history, like that of the other deacons, would 
soon be forgotten : and the same fertile in- 
vention, which gave rise in the two first cen- 
turies to so many apocryphal Gospels, inay 
also have led the Nicolaitans to give a false 
character to him whose name they had as- 
sumed. 

NICOPOLIS, a city of Epirus, on the gulf 
of Ambracia, whither, as some think, St. Paul 
wrote to Titus, then in Crete, to come to him, 
Titus iii, 12 ; but others, with greater proba- 
bility, are of opinion, that the city of Nicopo- 
lis, where St. Paul was, was not tliat of Epirus, 
but that of Thrace, on the borders of Mace- 
donia, near the river Nessus. Emmaus in 
Palestine was also called Nicopolis by the Ro- 
mans. 

NIGHT. The ancient Hebrews began their 
artificial day in the evening, and ended it the 
next evening ; so that the night preceded the 
day, whence it is said, " evening and morning 
one day," Gen. i, 5. They allowed twelve 
hours to the night, and twelve to the day. 
Night is put for a time of affliction and adver- 
sity : " Thou hast proved mine heart, thou 



NIL 



703 



NIM 



hast visited me in the night, thou hast tried 
me," Psalm xvii, 3 ; that is, by adversity and 
tribulation. And "the morning Cometh, and 
ako the night," Isaiah xxi, 12. Night is also 
put for the time of death : " The night cometh, 
wherein no man can work," John ix, 4. Chil- 
dren of the day, and children of the night, in 
a moral and figurative sense, denote good men 
and wicked men, Christians and Gentiles. 
The disciples of the Son of God are children 
of light : they belong to the light, they walk 
in the light of truth ; while the children of the 
night walk in the darkness of ignorance and 
infidelity, and perform only works of darkness. 
" Ye are all the children of the light, and the 
children of the day ; we are not of the night, 
nor of darkness," 1 Thess. v, 5. 

NIGHT-HAWK, oDnn, Lev. xi, 16; Deut. 
xiv, 15. That this is a voracious bird seems 
clear from the import of its name ; and inter- 
preters are generally agreed to describe it as 
flying by night. On the whole, it should seem 
to be the strix orientalis, which Hasselquist 
thus describes : It is of the size of the common 
owl, and lodges in the large buildings or ruins 
of Egypt and Syria, and sometimes even in 
the dwelling houses. The Arabs settled in 
Egypt call it "massasa," and the Syrians 
" banu." It is extremely voracious in Syria ; 
to such a degree, that if care is not taken to 
shut the windows at the coming on of night, 
he enters the houses and kills the children : 
the women, therefore, are very much afraid of 
him. 

NILE, the river of Egypt, whose fountain 
is in the Upper Ethiopia. After having wa. 
tered several kingdoms, the Nile continues its 
course far into the kingdom of Goiam. Then 
it winds about again, from the east to the 
north. Having crossed several kingdoms and 
provinces, it falls into Egypt at the cataracts, 
which are waterfalls over steep rocks of the 
length of two hundred feet. At the bottom of 
these rocks the Nile returns to its usual pace, 
and thus flows through the valley of Egypt. 
Its channel, according to Villamont, is about 
a league broad. At eight miles below Grand 
Cairo, it is divided into two arms, which make 
a triangle, whose base is at the Mediterranean 
Sea, and which the Greeks call the Delta, be- 
cause of its figure A. These two arms are 
divided into others, which discharge themselves 
into the Mediterranean, the distance of which 
from the top of the Delta is about twenty 
leagues. These branches of the Nile the 
ancients commonly reckoned to be seven. 
Ptolemy makes them nine, some only four, 
some eleven, some fourteen. Homer, Xeno- 
phon, and Diodorus Siculus testify, that the 
ancient name of this river was Egyptus ; and 
the latter of these writers says, that it took the 
name Nilus only since the time of a king of 
Egypt called by that name. The Greeks gave 
it the name of Melas ; and Diodorus Siculus 
observes, that the most ancient name by which 
the Grecians have known the Nile was Oceanus. 
The Egyptians paid divine honours to this 
river, and called it Jupiter Nilus. 

Very little rain over falls in Egypt, never 



sufficient to fertilize the land ; and but for the 
provision of this bountiful river, the country 
would be condemned to perpetual sterility. As 
it is, from the joint operation of the regularity 
of the flood, the deposit of mud from the water 
of the river and the warmth of the climate, it 
is the most fertile country in the world ; the 
produce exceeding all calculation. It has in 
consequence been, in all ages, the granary of 
the east ; and has on more than one occasion, 
an instance of which is recorded in the history 
of Joseph, saved the neighbouring countries 
from starvation. It is probable, that, while in 
these countries, on the occasion referred to, 
the seven years' famine was the result of the 
absence of rain, in Egypt it was brought about 
by the inundation being withheld : and the 
consternation of the Egyptians, at witnessing 
this phenomenon for seven successive years, 
may easily be conceived. The origin and 
course of the Nile being unknown to the 
ancients, its stream was held, and is still held 
by the natives, in the greatest veneration ; and 
its periodical overflow was viewed with mys- 
terious wonder. But both of these are now, 
from the discoveries of the moderns, better un- 
derstood. It is now known, that the sources, 
or permanent springs, of the Nile are situated 
in the mountains of Abyssinia, and the unex- 
plored regions to the west and south-west of 
that country ; and that the occasional supplies, 
or causes of the inundation, are the periodical 
rains which fall in those districts. For a cor- 
rect knowledge of these facts, and of the true 
position of the source of that branch of the 
river, which has generally been considered to 
be the continuation of the true Nile, we are 
indebted to our countryman, the intrepid and 
indefatigable Bruce. Although the Nile, by 
way of eminence, has been called " the river 
of Egypt," it must not be confounded with 
another stream so denominated in Scripture, 
an insignificant rivulet in comparison, which 
falls into the Mediterranean below Gaza. 

NIMROD. He is generally supposed to 
have been the immediate son of Cush, and the 
youngest, or sixth, from the Scriptural phrase, 
"Cush begat Nirnrod," after the mention of 
bis five sons. Gen. x, 8. But the phrase is 
used with considerable latitude, like " father" 
and " son," in Scripture. " And the beginning 
of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and 
Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar : 
out of that land he went forth to invade 
Assyria ; and built Nineveh, and the city 
Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resin, between 
Nineveh and Calah : the same is a great city," 
Gen. X, 8-12. Though the main body of the 
Cushites was miraculously dispersed, and sent 
by Providence to their destinations along the 
sea coasts of Asia and Africa, yet Nimrod 
remained behind, and founded an empire in 
Babylonia, according to Berosus, by usurping 
the property of the Arphaxadites in the land 
of Sliinar ; where " the beginning of his king- 
dom was Babel," or Babylon, and other towns : 
and, not satisfied with this, he next invaded 
Assur, or Assyria, east of the Tigris, where 
he built Nineveh, and several other towns. 



NIM 



704 



NIN 



The marginal reading of our English Bible, 
"He went out into Assyria," or to invade 
Assyria, is here adopted in preference to that 
in the text : " And out of that land went forth 
Ashur, and builded Nineveh," &c. The mean- 
ing of the word Nineveh may lead us to his 
original name, Nin, signifying "a son," the 
most celebrated of the sons of Cush. That of 
Nimrod, or "Rebel," was probably a parody, 
or nickname, given him by the oppressed 
Shemites, of which we have several instances 
in Scripture. Thus nahash, the brazen " ser- 
pent" in the wilderness, was called by Heze- 
kiah, in contempt, nehushtan, " a piece of 
brass," when he broke it in pieces, because it 
was perverted into an object of idolatrous wor- 
ship by the Jews, 2 Kings xviii, 4. Nimrod, 
that arch rebel, who first subverted the patri- 
archal government, introduced also the Zabian 
idolatry, or worship of the heavenly host ; and, 
after his death, was deified by his subjects, and 
supposed to be translated into the constella- 
tions of Orion, attended by his hounds, Sirius 
and Canicula, and still pursuing his favourite 
game, the great bear ; supposed also to be 
translated into ursa major, near the north pole ; 
as admirably described by Homer, — 

"ApKTov •&', Tjv Kal ajjia^av iniKXricnv KoXiovaiv^ 
"H T avTov <^pi<ptTai, Kai t ^Q^piuva SoKevei. 
Iliad xviii, 485. 
" And the bear, surnamed also the wain, by 
the Egyptians, who is turning herself about 
there, and watching Orion." Homer also 
introduces the shade of Orion, as hunting in 
the Elysian fields, — 

ToV St juer', Slpiwva neXwpiov eiaev6rj(ra 
Qrjpas bjjiov elXevvra, kut a(T<poSe\dv \eiixSva' 
Touj avrSs Kariirecpvev Iv olond^oiacv opsaai 
Xspciv 'i^^v 'pdnoKov i:ay')(a\K£ov, allv iayis. 
Odi/ss.xi, 571. 
' " Next, I observed the mighty Orion 

Chasing wild beasts through an asphodel mead, 
Which himself had slain on the solitary mountains ; 
Holding in his hands a solid brazen mace, ever un- 
broken." 
The Grecian name of this " mighty hunter" 
may furnish a satisfactory clue to the name 
given him by the impious adulation of the 
Babylonians and Assyrians. 'Slpicov nearly 
resembles ^Ovpiav, the oblique case of 'Ovp/aj, 
which is the Septuagint rendering of Uriah, a 
proper name in Scripture, 2 Sam. xi, 6-21. 
But Uriah, signifying " the light of the Lord," 
was an appropriate appellation of that most 
brilliant constellation. He was also called 
Baal, Beel, Bel, or Belus, signifying "lord," 
or "master," by the Phenicians, Assyrians, 
and Greeks ; and Bala Rama, by the Hindus. 
At a village called Bala-deva, or Baldeo in the 
vulgar dialect, thirteen miles east by south 
from Muttra, in Hindustan, there is a very 
ancient statue of Bala Rama, in which he is 
represented with a ploughshare in his left 
hand, and a thick cudgel in his right, and his 
shoulders covered with the skin of a tiger. 
Captain Wilford supposes that the ploughshare 
was designed to hook his enemies ; but may it 
not more naturally denote the constellation of 
the great bear, which strikingly represents the 



figure of a plough in its seven bright stars ; 
and was probably so denominated by the ear- 
liest astronomers, before the introduction of 
the Zabian idolatry, as a celestial symbol of 
agriculture ? The thick cudgel corresponds 
to the brazen mace of Homer. And it is highly 
probable that the Assyrian Nimrod, or Hindu 
Bala, was also the prototype of the Grecian 
Hercules, with his club and lion's skin. 

Nimrod is said to have been " a mighty 
hunter before the Lord ;" which the Jerusa- 
lem paraphrast interprets of a sinful hunting, 
after the sons of men to turn them off from 
the true religion. But it may as well be taken 
in a more literal sense, for hunting of wild 
beasts ; inasmuch as the circumstance of his 
being a mighty hunter is mentioned with great 
propriety to introduce the account of his set- 
ting up his kingdom ; the exercise of hunting 
being looked upon in ancient times as a means 
of acquiring the rudiments of war ; for which 
reason the principal heroes of Heathen anti- 
quity, as Theseus, Nestor, &c, were, as Xeno- 
phon tells us, bred up to hunting. Beside, it 
may be supposed, that by this practice Nimrod 
drew together a great company of robust young 
men to attend him in his sport, and by that 
means increased his power. And by destroy- 
ing the wild beasts, which, in the compara- 
tively defenceless state of society in those 
early ages, were no doubt very dangerous ene- 
mies, he might, perhaps, render himself farther 
popular ; thereby engaging' numbers to join 
with him, and to promote his chief design of 
subduing men, and making himself .master of 
many nations. 

NINEVEH. This capital of the Assyrian 
empire could boast of the remotest antiquity. 
Tacitus styles it, " Vetustissima sedes Assy- 
ricB ;" [the most ancient seat of Assyria ;] and 
Scripture informs us that Nimrod, after he 
had built Babel, in the land of Shinar, invaded 
Assyria, where he built Nineveh, and several 
other cities. Genesis x, 11. Its name denotes 
"the habitation of Nin," which seems to have 
been the proper name of " that rebel," as Nim- 
rod signifies. And it is uniformly styled by 
Herodotus, Xenophon, Diodorus, Lucian, &c, 
'H NtVoj, "the city of Ninus." And the village 
of Nunia, opposite Mosul, in its name, and the 
tradition of the natives, ascertains the site of 
the ancient city, which was near the castle of 
Arbela, according to Tacitus, so celebrated for 
the decisive victory of Alexander the Great 
over the Persians there ; the site of which is 
ascertained by the village of Arbil, about ten 
German miles to the east of Nunia, according 
to Niebuhr's map. Nineveh at first seems 
only to have been a small city, and less than 
Resen, in its neighbourhood; which is con- 
jectured by Bochart, and not without reason, 
to have been the same as Larissa, which Xeno- 
phon describes as "the ruins of a great city, 
formerly inhabited by the Medes," and which 
the natives might have described as belonging 
la Resen, " to Resen." Nineveh did not rise 
to greatness for many ages after, until its 
second founder, Ninus II., about B. C. 123a, 
enlarged and made it the greatest city in the 



NIN 



705 



NIN 



world. According to Diodorus, it was of an 
oblong form, a hundred and fifty stadia long, 
and ninety broad, and, consequently, four 
hundred and eighty in circuit, or forty-eight 
miles, reckoning ten stadia to an English mile, 
with Major Rennel. And its walls were a 
hundred feet high, and so broad that three 
chariots could drive on them abreast ; and on 
the walls were fifteen hundred towers, each 
two hundred feet high. We are not, how- 
ever, to imagine that all this vast enclosure 
was built upon : it contained great parks and 
extensive fields, and detached houses and build- 
ings, like Babylon, and other great cities of 
the east even at the present day, as Bussorah, 
&c. And this entirely corresponds with the 
representations of Scripture. In the days of 
the Prophet Jonah, about B. C. §00, it seems 
to have been a " great city, an exceeding great 
city, of three days' journey," Jonah i, 2 ; iii, 3 ; 
perhaps in circuit. The population of Nine- 
veh, also, at that time was very great. It con- 
tained " more than sixscore thousand persons 
that could not discern between their right hand 
and their left, beside much cattle," Jonah iv, 11. 
Reckoning the persons to have been infants of 
two years old and under, and that these were 
a fifth part of the whole, according to Bochart, 
the whole population would amount to six 
hundred thousand souls. The same number 
Pliny assigns for the population of Seleucia, 
on the decline of Babylon. This population 
shows that a great part of the city must have 
been left open and unbuilt. 

The threatened overthrow of Nineveh within 
three days, was, by the general repentance and 
humiliation of the inhabitants, from the highest 
to the lowest, suspended for near two hundred 
years, until "their. iniquity came to the full;" 
and then the prophecy Avas literally accom- 
plished, in the third year of the siege of the 
city, by the combined Medes and Babylonians; 
the. king, Sardanapalus, being encouraged to 
hold out in consequence of an ancient pro- 
phecy, that Nineveh should never be taken by 
assault, till the river became its eneniy ; when 
a mighty inundation of the river, swollen by 
continual rains, came up against a part of the 
city, and threw down twenty stadia of the wall 
in length ; upon which, the king, conceiving 
that the oracle was accomplished, burned him- 
self, his concubines, eunuchs, and treasures ; 
and the enemy, entering by the breach, sacked 
and rased the city, about B. C. 606. Diodo- 
rus, also, relates that Belesis, the governor of 
Babylon, obtained from Arbaces, the king of 
Media, the ashes of the palace, to erect a 
mount with them near the temple of Belus at 
Babylon ; and that he forthwith prepared ship, 
ping, and, together with the ashes, carried 
away most of the gold and silver, of which he 
had private information given him by one of 
the eunuchs who escaped the fire. Dr. Gil- 
lies thinks it incredible that these could be 
transpprted from Nineveh to Babylon, three 
hundred miles distant ; but likely enough, if 
Nineveh was only fifty miles from Babylon, 
with a large canal of communication between 
them, the Nahar Malka, or Royal River. But 
46 



we learn from Niebuhr, that the conveyance 
of goods from Nosul to Bagdat by the Tigris 
is very commodious, in the very large boats 
called helleks; in which, in spring, when the 
river is rapid, the voyage may be made in three 
or four days, which would take fifteen by land. 
The complete demolition of such immense piles 
as the v\^alls and towers of Nineveh may seem 
matter of surprise to those v/ho do not con- 
sider the nature of the materials of which they 
were constructed, that is, of bricks, dried or 
baked in the sun, and cemented with bitumen, 
which were apt to be " dissolved " by water, 
or to moulder away by the injuries of the 
weather. Beside, in the east, the materials 
of ancient cities have been often employed in 
the building of new ones in the neighbour- 
hood. Thus Mosul was built with the spoils 
of Nineveh. Tank Kesra, or the Palace of 
Chosroes, appears to have been built of bricks 
brought from tlie ruins of Babylon ; and so 
was Hellah, as the dimensions are nearly the 
same, and the proportions so singular. And 
when such materials could conveniently be 
transported by inland navigations, they are to 
be found at very great distances from their 
ancient place, much farther, indeed, than 
are Bagdat and Seleucia, or Ctesiphon, from 
Babylon. 

The book of Nahum was avowedly prophetic 
of the destruction of Nineveh ; and it is there 
foretold that " the gates of the river shall be 
opened, and the palace shall be dissolved. 
Nineveh of old, like a pool of water, with an 
overflowing flood he will make an utter end 
of the place thereof," Nahum ii, 6; i,-8, 9. 
The historian describes the facts by which the 
other predictions of the prophet were as lite- 
rally fulfilled. He relates that the king of 
Assyria, elated with his former victories, and 
ignorant of the revolt of the Bactrians, had 
abandoned himself to scandalous inaction ; 
had appointed a time of festivity, and supplied 
his soldiers with abundance of wine ; and that 
the general of the enemy, apprised by desert- 
ers, of their negligence and drunkenness, 
attacked the Assyrian army while the whole 
of them were fearlessly giving way to indul- 
gence, destroyed great part of them, and drove 
the rest into the city. The words of the pro- 
phet were hereby verified: "While they be 
folden together as thorns, and while they are 
drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured 
as stubble fully dry," Nahum i, 10. The pro- 
phet promised much spoil to the enemy : "Take 
the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold ; for 
there is no end of the store and glory out of 
all the pleasant furniture," Nahum ii, 9. And 
the historian afiirms that many talents of gold 
and silver, preserved from the fire, were car- 
ried to Ecbatana, According to Nahum, iii, 
15, the city was not only to be destroyed by 
an overflowing flood, but the fire, also, was to 
devour it ; and, as Diodorus relates, partly by 
water, partly by fire, it was destroyed. 

The utter and perpetual destruction and 
desolation of Nineveh were foretold : " The 
Lord will make an utter end of the place thereof. 
Affliction shall not rise up the second time. 



NIN 



706 



NOA 



She is empty, void, and waste," Nahum i, 8, 9 ; 
ii, 10 ; iii, 17-19. " The Lord will stretch out 
his hand against the north, and destroy Assy. 
ria, and will make Nineveh a desolation, and 
dry like a wilderness. How is she become a 
desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in," 
Zeph. ii, 13-15. In the second century, Lu- 
cian, a native of a city on the banks of the 
Euphrates, testified that Nineveh was utterly 
perished, that there was no vestige of it re- 
maining, and that none could tell where once 
it was situated. This testimony of Lucian, and 
the lapse of many ages during which the place 
was not known where it stood, render it at 
least somewhat doubtful whether the remains 
of an ancient city, opposite to Mosul, which 
have been described as such by travellers, be 
indeed those of ancient Nineveh. It is, per- 
haps, probable that they are the remains of the 
city which succeeded Nineveh, or of a Persian 
city of the same name, which was built on the 
banks of the Tigris by the Persians subse- 
quently to A. D. 230, and demolished by the 
Saracens, A. D. 632. In contrasting the then 
existing great and increasing population, and 
the accumulating wealth of the proud inhabit- 
ants of the mighty Nineveh, with the utter 
ruin that awaited it, the word of God by the 
Prophet Nahum, was, " Make thyself many as 
the canker worm, make thyself many as the 
locusts. Thou hast multiplied thy merchants 
above the stars of heaven : the canker worm 
spoileth and flieth away. Thy crowned are 
as the locusts, and thy captains as the great 
grasshoppers which camp in the hedges in the 
cold day : but when the sun riseth, they flee 
away ; and their place is not known where they 
are," or were. Whether these words imply 
that even the site of Nineveh would in future 
ages be uncertain or unknown ; or, as they 
rather seem to intimate, that every vestige of 
the palaces of its monarchs, of the greatness 
of its nobles, and of the wealth of its nume- 
rous merchants, would wholly disappear ; the 
truth of the prediction cannot be invalidated 
under either interpretation. The avowed igno- 
rance respecting Nineveh, and the oblivion 
which passed over it, for many an age, con- 
joined with the meagreness of evidence to 
identify it, still prove that the place where it 
stood was long unknown, and that, even now, 
it can scarcely with certainty be determined. 
And if the only spot that bears its name, or that 
can be said to be the place where it was, be in- 
deed the site of one of the most extensive of cities 
on which the sun ever shone, and which con- 
tinued for many centuries to be the capital of 
Assyria, — the principal mounds, few in num- 
ber, which show neither bricks, stones, nor 
other materials of building, — but are in many 
places overgrown with grass, and resemble 
the mounds left by intrenchments and fortifi- 
cations of ancient Roman camps, and the ap- 
pearances of other mounds and ruins less 
marked than even these, extending for ten 
miles, and widely spread, and seeming to be 
the wreck of former buildings, — show that 
Nineveh is left without one monument of 
royalty, without any token whatever of its 



splendour or wealth ; that their place is not 
known where they were ; and that it is indeed 
a desolation, " empty, void, and waste," its 
very ruins perished, and less than the wreck 
of what it was. Such an utter ruin, in every 
view, has been made of it ; and such is the 
truth of the divine predictions ! 

NISAN, a month of the Hebrews, answer- 
ing to our March, and which sometimes takes 
from February or April, according to the course 
of the moon. It was made the first month of 
the sacred year, at the coming out of Egypt, 
Exod. xii, 2 ; and it was the seventh month 
of the civil year. By Moses it is called Abib. 
The name Nisan was introduced only since the 
time of Ezra, and the return from the captivity 
of Babylon. 

NISROCH, a god of the Assyrians. Sen- 
nacherib was killed by two of his sons,^while 
he was paying his adorations in the temple of 
this deity, 2 Kings xix, 37 ; Isaiah xxxvii, 38. 
It is uncertain who this god was. 

NITRE, inJ, Prov. xxv, 20; Jer. ii, 22. 
This is not the same that we call nitre, or salt- 
petre, but a native salt of a different kind, dis- 
tinguished among naturalists by the name of 
natram. The natrum of the ancients was an 
earthy alkaline salt. It was found in abund- 
ance separated from the water of the lake Na- 
tron in Egypt. It rises from the bottom of 
the lake to the top of the water, and is there 
condensed by the heat of the sun into the hard 
and dry form in which it is sold. This salt 
thus scummed off" is the same in all respects 
with the Smyrna soap earth. Pliny, Matthio- 
lus, and Agricola, have described it to us : 
Hippocrates, Galen, Dioscorides, and others, 
mention its uses. It is also found in great 
plenty in Sindy, a province in the inner part 
of Asia, and in many other parts of the east ; 
and might be had in any quantities. The learn- 
ed Michaelis plainly demonstrates, from the 
nature of the thing and the context, that this 
fossil and natural alkali must be that which 
the Hebrews called nether. Solomon must 
mean the same when he compares the effect 
which imseasonable mirth has upon a man in 
affliction to the action of vinegar upon nitre, 
Prov. xxv, 20 ; for vinegar has no effect upon 
what we call nitre, but upon the alkali in ques- 
tion has a great effect, making it rise up in 
bubbles with much effervescence. It is of a 
'soapy nature, and was used to take spots from 
clothes, and even from the face. Jeremiah 
alludes to this use of it, ii, 22. 

NO, or NO-AMMON, a city of Egypt, sup- 
posed to be Thebes. 

NOAH, the son of Lamech. Amidst the 
general corruption of the human race, Noah 
only was found righteous. Gen. vi, 9. He 
therefore " found grace in the sight of the 
Lord," and was directed for his preservation 
to make an ark, the shape and dimensions of 
which were prescribed by the Lord. In A. M. 
1656, and in the six hundredth year of his age, 
Noah, by divine appointment, entered the ark 
with his family, and all the animals collected 
for the renewal of the world. (See Deluge.) 
After the ark had stranded, and the earth was 



NOD 



707 



NOJSI 



in a measure dried, Noah offered a burnt-sacri- 
fice to the Lord, of the pure animals that were 
in the ark ; and the Lord was pleased to accept 
of his offering, and to give him assurance that 
he would no more destroy the world by water, 
Genesis ix. He gave Noah power over all 
the brute creation, and permitted him to kill 
and eat of them, as of the herbs and fruits of 
the eartli, except the blood, the use of which 
was prohibited. After the deluge Noah lived 
three hundred and fifty years ; and the whole 
time of his life having been nine hundred and 
fifly years, he died, A. M. 2006. According to 
common opinion, he divided the earth among 
his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. To 
Shem he gave Asia, to Ham Africa, and to 
Japheth Europe. Some will have it, that be- 
side these three sons he had several others. 
St. Peter calls Noah a preacher of righteous- 
ness, because before the deluge he was inces- 
santly preaching and declaring to men, not 
only by his discourses, but by the building of 
the ark, in which he was employed a hundred 
and twenty years, that the cloud of divine ven- 
geance was about to burst upon them. But 
his faithful ministry produced no effect, since, 
when the deluge came, it found mankind prac- 
tising their usual enormities, Matt, xxiv, 37. 
Several learned men have observed that the 
Heathens confounded Saturn, Deucalion, Ogy- 
ges, the god Coelus or Ouranus, Janus, Pro- 
theus, Prometheus, &c, with Noah. The fable 
of Deucalion and his v/ife Pyrrha is manifestly 
drawn from the history of Noah. The rab- 
bins pretend that God gave Noah and his sons 
certain general precepts, which contain, ac- 
cording to them, the natural duties which are 
common to all men indifferently, and the ob- 
servation of which alone will be sufficient to 
save them. After the law of Moses was given, 
the Hebrews would not suffer any stranger to 
dwell in their country, unless he would con- 
form to the precepts of Noah. In war, they 
put to death without quarter all who were 
ignorant of them. These precepts are seven 
in number : the first was against the worship 
of idols ; the second, against blasphemy, and 
required to bless the name of God ; the third, 
against murder ; the fourth, against incest and 
all uncle anness ; the fifth, against theft and ra- 
pine ; the sixth required the administration of 
justice ; the seventh was against eating flesh 
with life. But the antiquity of these precepts 
is doubted, since no mention of them is made 
in the Scripture, or in the writings of Jose- 
phus, or in Philo ; and none of the ancient 
fathers knew any thing of them. 

NOD, Land of, the country to which Cain 
withdrew after the murder of Abel. As the 
precise situation of this country cannot possibly 
be known, so it has given rise to much inge- 
nious speculation. All that we are told of it 
is, that it was " on the east of Eden," or, as it 
may be rendered, " before Eden ;" which very 
country of Eden is no sure guide for us, as the 
situation of that also is disputed. But, be it 
on the higher or lower Euphrates, (see Eden,) 
the land of Nod which stood before it with 
icspect to the place where Moses wrote, may 



still preserve the curse of barrenness passed on 
it for Cain's sake, namely, in the deserts of 
Syria or Arabia. The Chaldee interpreters 
render the word Nod, not as the proper name 
of a country, but as an appellative applied to 
Cain himself, signifying a vagabond or fugi 
tive, and read, " He dwelt a fugitive in the 
land." But the Hebrew reads expressly, " He 
dwelt in the land of Nod." 

NONCONFORMISTS, dissenters from the 
church of England ; but the term applies more 
particularly to those ministers who were eject- 
ed from their livings by the Act of Uniformity 
in 1662 ; the number of whom, according to 
Dr. Calamy, was nearly two thousand ; and to 
the laity who adhered to them. The celebrated 
Mr. Locke says, " Bartholomew-day (the day 
fixed by the Act of Uniformity") was fatal to 
our church and religion, by throwing out a 
very great number of worthy, learned, pious, 
and orthodox divines, who could not come up 
to this and other things in that act. And it is 
worth your knowledge, that so great was the 
zeal in carrying on this church affair, and so 
blind was the obedience required, that if you 
compare the time of passing the act with the 
time allowed for the clergy to subscribe the 
book of Common Prayer thereby established, 
you shall plainly find, it could not be printed 
and distributed, so as one man in forty could 
have seen and read the book before they did so 
perfectly assent and consent thereto." 

By this act, the clergy were required to sub- 
scribe, ex animo, [sincerely,] their " assent and 
consent to all and every thing contained in 
the book of Common Prayer," which had never 
before been insisted on, so rigidly as to deprive 
them of their livings and livelihood. Several 
other acts were passed about this time, very 
oppressive both to the clergy and laity. In the 
preceding year 1661, the Corporation Act in- 
capacitated all persons from offices of trust 
and honour in a corporation, who did not re- 
ceive the sacrament in the established church. 
The Conventicle Act, in 1663 and 1670, for- 
bade the attendance at conventicles ; that is, 
at places of worship other than the establish- 
ment, where more than five adults were present 
beside the resident family; and that under 
penalties of fine and imprisonment by the 
sentence of magistrates without a jury. The 
Oxford Act of 1665 banished nonconforming 
ministers five miles from any corporate town 
sending members to parliament, and prohibit- 
ed them from keeping or teaching schools. 
The Test Act of the same year required all 
persons, accepting any office under govern- 
ment, to receive the sacrament in the establish- 
ed chuTch. 

Such were the dreadful consequences of 
this intolerant spirit, that it is supposed that 
near eight thousand died in prison in the reign 
of Charles II. It is said that Mr. Jeremiah 
White had carefully collected a list of those 
who had suffered between Cliarles II. and the 
revolution, which amounted to sixty thousand. 
The same persecutions were carried on in 
Scotland ; and there, as well as in England, 
numbers, to avoid the persecution, left their 



NUM 



708 



OAK 



country. But, notwithstanding all these dread- 
ful and furious attacks upon the dissenters, 
they were not extirpated. Their very perse- 
cution was in their favour. The infamous 
character of their informers and persecutors ; 
their piety, zeal, and fortitude, no doubt, had 
influence on considerate minds ; and, indeed, 
they had additions from the established church, 
which several clergymen in this reign deserted 
as a persecuting church, and took their lot 
among them. King William coming to the 
throne, the famous Toleration Act passed, by 
which they were exempted from suffering the 
penalties above mentioned, and permission 
was given them to worship God according to 
the dictates of their own consciences. In the 
reign of George III., the Act for the Protec- 
tion of Religious Worship superseded the Act 
of Toleration, by still more liberal provisions 
in favour of religious liberty ; and in the last 
reign the Test and Corporation Acts were re- 
pealed. 

NOPH, Memphis, a celebrated city of Egypt, 
and, till the time of the Ptolemies, who re- 
moved to Alexandria, the residence of the an- 
cient kings of Egypt. It stood above the 
dividing of the river Nile, where the Delta be- 
gins. Toward the south of this city stood the 
famous pyramids, two of which were esteemed 
the wonders of the world ; and in this city was 
fed the ox Apis, which Cambyses slew, in con- 
tempt of the Egyptians who worshipped it as 
a deity. The kings of Egypt took much plea- 
sure in adorning this city ; and it continued in 
all its beauty till the Arabians made a conquest 
of Egypt under the Caliph Omar. The gene- 
ral who took it built another city near it, 
named Fustal, merely because his tefl.t had 
been a long time set up in that place ; and the 
Fatimite caliphs, when they became masters of 
Egypt, added another to it, which is known 
to us at this day by the name of Grand Cairo. 
This occasioned the utter decay of Memphis, 
and led to the fulfilment of the prophecy, that 
it should be " waste and without inhabitant." 
The prophets often speak of this city, and 
foretel the miseries it was to suffer from the 
kings of Chaldea and Persia, Isaiah xix, 13 ; 
Jer. xliv, 1 ; xlvi, 14, 19 ; Hosea ix, 6 ; Ezek. 
«xx, 13, 16. 

NOVATIANS, the followers of Novatian, 
a priest of Rome, and of Novatus, a priest of 
Carthage, in the third century. They were 
distinguished merely by their discipline ; for 
their religious and doctrinal tenets do not ap- 
pear to be at all different from those of the 
church. They condemned second marriages, 
and for ever excluded from their communion 
all those v/ho after baptism had fallen into 
sin. They affected very superior purity ; and, 
though they conceived that the worst might 
possibly hope for eternal life, they absolutely 
refused to readmit into their communion any 
who had lapsed into sin. They separated from 
the church of Rome, because the members of 
it admitted into their communion many who 
had, during a season of persecution, rejected 
the Christian faith. 

NUMBERS, a canonical book of the Old 



Testament, being the fourth of the Penta- 
teuch, or five books of Moses ; and receives 
its denomination from the numbering of the 
families of Israel by Moses and Aaron, who 
mustered the tribes, and marshalled the army, 
of the Hebrews in their passage through the 
wilderness. A great part of this book is his. 
torical, relating several remarkable events 
which happened in that journey, and also 
mentioning various of their journeyings in the 
wilderness. This book comprehends the his- 
tory of about thirty-eight years, though the 
greater part of the things recorded fell out in 
the first and last of those years ; and it does 
not appear when those things were done 
which are recorded in the middle of the book. 
See Pentateuch. 

NURSE. The nurse in an eastern family 
is always an important personage. Modern 
travellers inform us, that in Syria she is con- 
sidered as a sort of second parent, whether 
she has been foster-mother or otherwise. She 
always accompanies the bride to her husband's 
house, and ever remains there an honoured 
character. Thus it was in ancient Greece. 
This will serve to explain Genesis xxiv, 59: 
"And they sent away Rebekah their sister, 
and her nurse." In Hindostan the nurse is 
not looked upon as a stranger, but. becomes 
one of the family, and passes the remainder 
of her life in the midst of the children she has 
suckled, by whom she is honoured and che- 
rished as a second mother. In many parts of 
Hindostan are mosques and mausoleums, built 
by the Mohammedan princes, near the sepul- 
chres of their nurses. They are excited by a 
grateful affection to erect these structures in 
memory of those who with maternal anxiety 
watched over their helpless infancy : thus it 
has been from time immemorial. 

OAK. The religious veneration paid to 
this tree, by the original natives of our island 
in the -time of the Druids, is well known to 
every reader of British history. We have rea- 
son to think that this veneration was brought 
from the east ; and that the Druids did no 
more than transfer the sentiments their pro- 
genitors had received in oriental countries. It 
should appear that the Patriarch Abraham re- 
sided under an oak, or a grove of oaks, which 
our translators render the plain of Mamre ; 
and that he planted a grove of this tree, Gen. 
xiii, 18. In fact, since in hot countries 
nothing is more desirable than shade, nothing 
more refreshing than the shade of a tree, we 
may easily suppose the inhabitants would re. 
sort for such enjoyment to 

^Vlierc'er the oak's thick branches spread 
A deeper, darker shade. 
Oaks, and groves of oaks, were esteemed pro- 
per places for religious services ; altars were 
set up under them, Joshua xxiv, 26 ; and, 
probably, in the east as well as in the west, 
appointments to meet at conspicuous oaks 
were made, and many affairs were transacted 
or treated of under their shade, as we read in 
Homer, Theocritus and other poets. It was 
common among the Hebrews to sit under oaks, 



OAT 



709 



OAT 



Judges vi, 11; 1 Kings xiii, 14. Jacob buried 
idolatrous images under an oak, Gen. xxxv, 4; 
and Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, was buried 
under one of these trees, Genesis xxxv. 8, 
See 1 Chron. x, 12. Abimelech was made 
king under an oak. Judges ix, 6. Idolatry 
was practised under oaks, Isaiah i, 29 ; Ivii, 5 ; 
Hosea iv, 13. Idols were made of oaks, Isa. 
xliv, 14. 

OATH, a solemn invocation of a superior 
power, admitted to be acquainted with all the 
secrets of our hearts, with our inward thoughts 
as well as our outward actions, to witness the 
truth of what we assert, and to inflict his ven- 
geance upon us if we assert what is not true, 
or promise what we do not mean to perform. 
Almost all nations, whether savage or civilized, 
whether enjoying the light of revelation or led 
only by the light of reason, knowing the im- 
portance of truth, and willing to obtain a 
barrier against falsehood, have had recourse 
to oaths, by which they have endeavoured to 
make men fearful of uttering lies, under the 
dread of an avenging Deity. Among Chris- 
tians, an oath is a solemn appeal for the truth 
of our assertions, the sincerity of our promises, 
and the fidelity of our engagements, to the one 
only God, the Judge of the Vv^hole earth, who 
is every where present, and sees, and hears, 
and knows, whatever is said, or done, or 
thought in any part of the world. Such is 
that Being whom Christians, when they take 
«.n oath, invoke to bear testimony to the truth 
of their words, and the integrity of their hearts. 
Surely, then, if oaths be a matter of so much 
moment, it Avell behoves us not to treat them 
with levity, nor ever to take them without due 
consideration. Hence we ought, with the ut- 
most vigilance, to abstain from mingling oaths 
in our ordinary discourse, and from associating 
the name of God with low or disgusting images, 
or using it on trivial occasions, as not only a 
profane levity in itself, but tending to destroy 
that reverence for the supreme Majesty which 
ought to prevail in society, and to dv^ell in our 
own hearts. 

" The forms of oaths," says Dr. Paley, " like 
other religious ceremonies, have in all ages 
been various ; consisting, however, for the 
most part of some bodily action, and of a pre- 
scribed form of words." Among the Jews, 
the juror held up his right hand toward heaven, 
Psalm cxliv, 8 ; Rev. x, 5. The same form is 
retained in Scotland still. Among the Jews, 
also, an oath of fidelity was taken by the ser- 
vant's putting his hand under the thigh of his 
lord, Genesis xxiv, 2. Among the Greeks and 
Romans, the form varied with the subject and 
occasion of the oath : in private contracts, the 
parties took hold of each other's hands, while 
they swore to the performance ; or they 
touched the altar of the god by whose 
divinity they swore : upon more solemn occa- 
sions, it was the custom to slay a victim ; and 
the beast being struck down with certain cere- 
monies and invocations, gave birth to the ex- 
pression, ferire pactum ; and to our English 
phrase, translated from this, of " striking a 
lin." The form of oaths in Christian 



countries is also very different ; but in no 
country in the world worse contrived, either 
to convey the meaning or impress the obliga- 
tion of an oath, than in our own. The juror 
with us, after repeating the promise or affirm- 
ation which the oath is intended to confirm, 
adds, " So help me God ;" or, more frequently, 
the substance of the oath is repeated to the 
juror by the magistrate, who adds in the con- 
clusion, " So help you God." The energy of 
this sentence resides in the particle so : So, 
that is, Mc lege, upon condition of my speak- 
ing the truth, or performing this promise, and 
not otherwise, may God help me I The juror, 
while he hears or repeats the words of the 
oath, holds his right hand upon a Bible, or 
other book containing the Gospels, and at the 
conclusion kisses the book. This obscure and 
elliptical form, together with the levity and 
frequency of them, has brought about a gene- 
ral inadvertency to the obligation of oaths, 
which, both in a religious and political view, 
is much to be lamented ; and it merits public 
consideration, whether the requiring of oaths 
upon so many frivolous occasions, especially 
in the customs, and in the qualification for 
petty ofiices, has any other effect than to make 
such sanctions cheap in the minds of the peo- 
ple. A pound of tea cannot travel regularly 
from the ship to the consumer, without cost- 
ing half a dozen oaths at least ; and the same 
security for the due discharge of their office, 
namely, that of an oath, is required from a 
churchwarden and an archbishop; from a 
petty constable and the chief justice of Eng. 
land. Oaths, however, are lawful ; and, what- 
ever be the form, the signification is the same. 
Historians have justly remarked, that when 
the reverence for an oath began to diminish 
among the Romans, and the loose epicurean 
system, which discarded the belief of provi- 
dence, was introduced, the Roman honour 
and prosperity from that period began so de- 
cline. The Quakers refuse to swear upon any 
occasion, founding their scruples concernmg 
the lawfulness of oaths upon our Saviour's 
prohibition, " Swear not at all," Matt, v, 34. 
But it seems our Lord there referred to the 
vicious, wanton, and unauthorized swearing 
in common discourse, and not to judicial 
oaths ; for he himself answered, when mterro- 
gated, upon oath. Matt. xxvi. 63, 64 ; Mark 
xiv, 61. The Apostle Paul a/so makes use 
of expressions v/hich contain the nature of 
oaths, Romans i, 9 ; 1 Cor. xv, 31 ; 2 Cor. i, 
18 ; Gal. i, 20 ; Heb. vi, 13-17. The adminis- 
tration of oaths supposes that God will punish 
false swearing with more severity than a simple 
lie, or breach of promise ; for which belief there 
are the following reasons: 1. Perjury is a sin 
of greater deliberation. 2. It violates a su- 
perior confidence. 3. God directed the Israel- 
ites to swear by his name, Deut. vi, 13 ; x, 20 ; 
and was pleased to confirm his covenant with 
that people by an oath ; neither of which, it is 
probable, he would have done, had he not in- 
tended to represent oaths as having some 
meaning and effect beyond the obligation of a 
bare promise. 



OFF 



710 



OFF 



BADIAH the prophet is thought to have 
been the same as the governor of Ahab's house, 
1 Kings xviii, 3, &c ; and some are of opinion, 
he was that Obadiah whom Josiah made over- 
seer of the works of the temple, 2 Chron. 
xxxiv, 12. Indeed, the age in which this 
prophet hved is very uncertain. Some think 
that he was contemporary with Hosea, Amos, 
and Joel; while others are of opinion that he 
lived in the time of Jeremiah and E:d.ekiel, 
and that he delivered his prophecy about B. C. 
585, soon after the destruction of Jerusalem 
by Nebuchadnezzar. His book, which con. 
sists of a single chapter, is written with great 
beauty and elegance, and contains predictions 
of the utter destruction of the Edomites, and 
of the future restoration and prosperity of the 
Jews. 

OBED-EDOM, son of Jeduthun, a Levite, 

1 Chron. xvi, 38, and the father of Shemaiah 
and others, 1 Chron. xvi, 5. We learn that 
the Lord blessed this man exceedingly, on 
account of the ark resting under his roof, 

2 Sam. vi, 10, 11. David having removed the 
ark to the place he had previously prepared 
for its reception, Obed-Edom and his sons 
were appointed to be keepers of the doors of 
the temple, 1 Chron. xv, 18, 21. Obed-Edom 
is called the Gittite, probably because he was 
of Gathrimmon, a city of the Levites beyond 
Jordan, Joshua xxi, 24, 25. 

ODED, a prophet of the Lord, who, being 
at Samaria when the Israelites of the ten tribes 
returned from the war with their King Pekah, 
together with two hundred thousand, of the 
people of Judah, whom they had taken captive, 
went out to meet them ; and through his re- 
monstrances the captives were liberated, 
2 Chron. xxviii. This circumstance is all 
that is recorded concerning Oded. 

OFFERINGS. Among the Jews, under 
the Mosaic law, a variety of offerings of dif- 
ferent kinds were appointed, which are accu- 
rately and fully described in the beginning of 
the book of Leviticus. 

Burnt-oiFerings, or holocausts, sacrifices in 
which the victims were wholly consumed, 
were expiatory, and more ancient than any 
others, and were, for that reason, held in 
special honour. It was in consideration of 
these circumstances that Moses gave precepts 
in regard to this kind of sacrifices first. Lev. 
i, 3, Holocausts might be offered by means 
of the Hebrew priests, when brought by the 
Heathen, or those who had originated from 
another nation ; such persons being unable to 
offer sin or trespass-ofterings, since this sort 
of sacrifices had particular reference to some 
neglect or violation of the Mosaic law, by 
whose authority they did not acknowledge 
themselves bound. Holocausts were expiatory, 
and we accordingly find that they were offer- 
ed sometimes for the whole people ; for in- 
stance, the morning and the evening sacrifices ; 
and sometimes by an individual for himself 
alone, either from the free impulse of his feel- 
ings, or in fulfilment of a vow, Psalm li, 19 ; 
Ixvi, 13, 14. They were required to be offered 
under certain combinations of circumstances 



pointed out in the Mosaic laws ; namely, by 
a Nazarite, who had been unexpectedly ren- 
dered unclean, or who had completed the days 
of his separation. Num. vi, 11-16 ; by those 
who had been healed of leprosy ; and by wo- 
men after child-birth, Lev. xii, 6, 8. The 
victims immolated at a holocaust were bullocks 
of three years old, goats and lambs of a year 
old, turtle doves, and young pigeons. Not 
only the parts which were expressly destined 
for the altar, but also the other parts of the 
victims, were bui-ned. A libation of wine was 
poured out upon the altar. It was the practice 
among the Gentile nations, (an allusion to 
which occurs in Phil, ii, 17, and 2 Tim. iv, 
6,) to pour the wine out between the horns of 
the victims which they immolated to their idols. 
The priest partially wrung or cut off the heads 
of the turtle doves and young pigeons, sprinkled 
the blood on the side of the altar, plucked out 
the feathers and the crop, and cast them to 
the east of the altar into the place for the re- 
ception of ashes, and placed the remainder, 
after having cleft or broken the wings, upon 
the fire. Lev. i, 3-17. 

Drink-offerings. With a bullock, half a bin 
of wine, with three-tenth deals of flour, and 
half a hin of oil. With a ram, one-third of a 
bin of wine, with two-tenth deals of flour, and 
one-third of a hin of oil. With a lamb or a 
kid of the goats, one quarter of a hin of wine, 
one4enth deal of flour, and one quarter of a 
hin ,of oil. With a sheaf of the first-fruits, 
one quarter of a hin of wine, one-tenth deal 
of flour, with oil. 

Meat-offerings. These, like the drink-offer- 
ings, were appendages to the sacrifices. They 
were of thin cakes or wafers. In some in- 
stances they were offered alone. 

Heave-offerings. So called from the sacri- 
fice being lifted up toward heaven, in token of 
its being devoted to Jehovah. 

Peace-offerings, Bullocks, heifers, goats, 
rams, and sheep, were the only animals sacri- 
ficed on these occasions, Lev. iii, 1-17 ; vii, 
23-27. These sacrifices, which were offered 
as an indication of gratitude, were accompa- 
nied with urileavened cakes, covered with oil, 
by pouring it upon them ; with thin cakes or 
wafers, likewise unleavened, and besmeared 
with oil ; also with another kind of cakes, 
made of fine meal, and kneaded with oil. The 
priest, who sprinkled the blood, presented one 
of each of these kinds of cakes as an offering, 
Ley. vii, 11-14, 28-35. The remainder of the 
animal substance and of the cakes was con 
verted by the person who made the offering 
into an entertainment, to which widows, 
orphans, the poor, slaves, and Levites were 
invited. What was not eaten on the day of 
the offering might be reserved till the succeed- 
ing; but that which remained till the third 
was to be burned : a regulation which was 
made in order to prevent the omission or put- 
ting oft' of the season of this benevolence and 
joy. Lev. vii, 15-21 ; Deut. xii, 18. This feast 
could be celebrated beyond the limits of the 
tabernacle, or temple, but not beyond the city. 
Sin-ofterings were for expiation of particular 



OIL 



711 



OLI 



sins, or legal imperfections, called therefore 
sin-oiferings : the first sort were for sins of 
ignorance or surprise, either from the high 
priest, or body of the community, from the 
rulers, or any one of the common people. 
The other sort of sin-offerings were for volun- 
tary sins ; but as to the more capital violations 
of the moral law, as murder, adultery, or the 
worship of idols, no expiatory sacrifice was 
admitted. 

Trespass-oflrerings were not required of the 
people as a body. They were to be offered by 
individuals, who, through ignorance, mistake, 
or want of reflection, had neglected some of 
the ceremonial precepts of Moses, or some of 
those natural laws, which had been introduced 
into his code, and sanctioned with the penalty 
of death ; and who were subsequently con- 
scious of their error. The person who, being 
sworn as a witness, concealed the truth by 
keeping silent ; the man who, having become 
contaminated without knowing it, had omit- 
ted purification, but had afterward become 
acquainted with the fact ; the person who had 
rashly sworn to do a thing, and had not done 
it ; all these delinquents offered a lamb or kid, 
or, in case of poverty, two doves or young 
pigeons, the one for a trespass, the other for a 
sin-offering. In case the person was unusually 
poor, he was required to offer merely the tenth 
part of an ephah of fine meal, without oil or 
frankincense. Lev. iii, 1-16. Whoever appro- 
priated to himself any thing consecrated, or 
any thing that was promised, or found, or 
stolen, or deposited in his possession for keep- 
ing; whoever swore falsely, or omitted to re, 
store the goods that belonged to another, or 
injured him in any other way, presented for 
his trespass a ram, which had been submitted 
to the estimation of the priest, and not only 
made restitution, but allowed an additional 
amount of a fifi:h part by way of indemnifica. 
tion. He who had committed fornication with 
a. betrothed bondmaid, previously to her being 
redeemed from servitude, offered a ram for the 
trespass. Lev. xix, 20-22. Nazarites, who had 
been unexpectedly rendered unclean, presented 
a lamb of a year old, Num. vi, 11. Finally, 
lepers, when restored to health, and purified, 
sacrificed a ram, Lev. xiv, 10-14. The cere- 
monies were the same as in the sin-offerings. 

Wave-offering. It was so called, because 
it was waved up and down, and toward the 
east, west, north, and south, to signify, that 
he to whom it was offered was Lord of the 
universe, the God who fills all space, and to 
whom all things of right belong. See Sacri- 
fices. 

OG, a king of Bashan ; being a giant of the 
race of the Rephaim. Moses records the con- 
quest of Og, and his destruction. After which 
his country was given to the tribe of Reuben, 
Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, Num. 
xxi, 3.3. See Giants. 

OIL, jDiy. The invention and use of oil is 
of the highest antiquity. It is said that Jacob 
poured oil upon the pillar which he erected at 
Bethel, Gen. xxviii, 18. The earliest kind was 
that which is extracted from olives, Before 



the invention of mills, this was obtained by 
pounding them in a mortar, Exod. xxvii, 20 ; 
and sometimes by treading them with the feet 
in the same manner as were grapes, Deut. 
xxxiii, 24 ; Micah vi, 15. The Hebrews used 
common oil with their food, in their meat- 
offerings, for burning in their lamps, &c. As 
vast quantities of oil were made by the ancient 
.Tews, it became an article of exportation. 
The great demand for it 'n Egypt led the Jews 
to send it thither. The Prophet Hosea thus 
upbraids his degenerate nation with the ser- 
vility and folly of their conduct : " Ephraim 
feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east 
wind ; he daily increaseth falsehood and 
vanity : and a league is made with Assyria, 
and oil carried into Egypt," Hosea xii, 1. 
The Israelites, in the decline of their national 
glory, carried the produce of their olive plant- 
ations into Egypt as a tribute to their ancient 
oppressors, or as a present to conciliate their 
favour, and obtain their assistance in the san- 
guinary wars which they were often compelled 
to wage with the neighbouring states. There 
was an unguent, very precious and sacred, 
used in anointing the priests, the tabernacle, 
and furniture. This was compounded of spicy 
drugs ; namely, myrrh, sweet cinnamon, sweet 
calamus, and cassia, mixed with oil olive. 

OLIVE TREE, n>i, eXaia, Matt, xxi, 1; 
Rom. xi, 17, 24; James iii, 12; aypa'Aatoj, 
oleaster, the wild olive, Rom, xi, 17, 24. Tour- 
nefort mentions eighteen kinds of olives ; but 
in the Scripture we only read of the cultivated 
and wild olive. The cultivated olive is of a 
moderate height, and thrives best in a sunny 
and warm soil. Its trunk is knotty ; its bark 
is smooth, and of an ash colour ; its wood is 
solid, and yellowish ; its leaves are oblong, 
and almost like those of the willow, of a dark 
green -colour on the upper side, and a whitish 
below. In the month of June it puts forth 
white flowers, growing in bunches, each of 
one piece, and widening toward the top, and 
dividing into four parts. After this flower 
succeeds the fruit, which is oblong and plump. 
It is first green, then pale, and, when quite 
ripe, becomes black. Within it is enclosed a 
hard stone, filled with oblong seeds. The wild 
olives were of a less kind. Canaan much 
abounded with olives. It seems almost every 
proprietor, whether kings or subjects, had their 
olive yards. The olive branch was, from most 
ancient times, used as the symbol of recon, 
ciliation and peace. 

OLIVES. The Mount of Olives was situ- 
ated to the east of Jerusalem, and divided from 
the city only by the brook Kidron, and by the 
valley of Jehoshaphat, v.'hich stretches out 
from the north to the south. It was upon this 
mount that Solomon built temples to the gods 
of the Ammonites, 1 Kings xi, 7, and the 
Moabites, out of complaisance to his wives of 
those nations. Hence it is that the Mount of 
Olives is called the mountain of corruption, 
2 Kings xxiii, 13. The Mount of Olives forms 
part of a ridge of limestone hills, extending to 
the north and the south west. Pococke de. 
scribes it as having four summits. On the» 



OLI 



712 



OMN 



lowest and most northerly of these, which, he 
tells us, is called Sulman Tashy, the stone of 
Solomon, there is a large domed sepulchre, 
and several other Mohammedan tombs. The 
ascent to this point, which is to the north-east 
of the city, he describes as very gradual, 
through pleasant corn fields, planted with olive 
trees. The second summit is that which 
overlooks the £ity : the path to it rises from 
the ruined gardens of Gethsemane, which 
occupy part of the valley. About halfway up 
the ascent is a ruined monastery, built, as the 
monks tell us, on the spot where our Saviour 
wept over Jerusalem. From this point, the 
spectator enjoys, perhaps, the best view of the 
holy city. On reaching the summit, an ex- 
tensive view is obtained toward the east, em- 
bracing the fertile plain of Jericho, watered 
by the Jordan, and the Dead Sea, enclosed by 
mountains of considerable grandeur. Here 
there is a small village, surrounded by some 
tolerable corn land. This summit is not rela- 
tively high, and would more properly be term- 
ed a hill than a mountain : it is not above 
two miles distant from Jerusalem. At a short 
distance from the summit is shown the sup- 
posed print of our Saviour's left foot ; Cha- 
teaubriand says the mark of the right was 
once visible, and Bernard de Breidenbach saw 
it in 1483 ! This is the spot fixed upon by the 
mother of Constantine, as that from which our 
Lord ascended, and over which she accord- 
ingly erected a church and monastery, the 
ruins of which still remain. Pococke describes 
the building which was standing in his time, 
as a small Gothic chapel, round within, and 
octagonal without, and tells us that it was con- 
verted into a mosque. The Turks, for a 
stipulated sum, permit the Christian pilgrims 
to take an impression of the foot print in wax 
or plaster, to carry home. "Twice," says 
Dr. Richardson, " I visited this memorable 
spot ; and each time it was crowded with de. 
vout pilgrims, taking casts of the holy vestige. 
They had to purchase permission of the Turks ; 
but, had it not been in the possession of the 
Turks, they would have had to purchase it 
from the more mercenary and not less merci- 
less Romans or Greeks." On ascension eve, 
the Christians come and encamp in the court, 
and that night they perform the offices of the 
ascension. Here, however, as with regard to 
Calvary and almost all the supposed sacred 
places, superstition has blindly followed the 
blind. That this is not the place of the ascen- 
sion, is certain from the words of St. Luke, 
who says that our Lord led out his disciples 
"as far as Bethany, and lifted up his hands, 
and blessed them. And it came to pass, while 
he blessed them, he was parted from them, 
and carried up to heaven," Acts i. Bethany 
is a small village to the east of the Mount of 
Olives, on the road to Jericho, not farther from 
Jerusalem than the pinnacle of the hill. There 
are two roads to it ; one passes over the Mount 
of Olives ; the other, which is the shorter and 
easier, winds round the eastern end, having 
the greater part of the hiH on the north or left 
hand, and on the right the elevation called by 



some writers the Mount of Offence, which is, 
however, very little above the valley of Jeho- 
shaphat. The village of Bethany is small and 
poor, and the cultivation of the soil is much 
neglected ; but it is a pleasant and somewhat 
romantic spot, sheltered by Mount Olivet on 
the north, and abounding with trees and long 
grass. The inhabitants are Arabs. 

The olive is still found growing in patches 
at the foot of the mount to which it gives jts 
name ; and " as a spontaneous produce, unin- 
terruptedly resulting from the original growth 
of this part of the mountain, it is impossible," 
says Dr. E. D. Clarke, " to view even these 
trees with indifference." Titus cut down all the 
wood in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem ; but 
there would seem to have been constantly 
springing up a succession of these hardy trees. 
"It is truly a curious and interesting fact," 
adds the learned traveller, " that, during a 
period of little more than two thousand years, 
Hebrews, Assyrians, Romans, Moslems, and 
Christians, have been successively in posses, 
sion of the rocky mountains of Palestine ; yet, 
the olive still vindicates its paternal soil, and 
is found, at this day, upon the same spot which 
was called by the Hebrew writers Mount Olivet 
and the Mount of Olives, eleven centuries before 
the Christian era," 2 Sam. xv, 30 ; Zech. xiv, 4. 

OMEGA, the last letter in the Greek alpha- 
bet, Rev. i, 8 ; a title of Christ. 

OMNIPOTENCE. See Almighty. 

OMNIPRESENCE, that attribute of God 
by which he is present in all places. The 
statement of this doctrine in the inspired re- 
cords, like that of all the other attributes of 
God, is made in their own peculiar tone and 
emphasis of majesty and sublimity. "Whither 
shall I go from thy Spirit, or whither shall I 
flee from thy presence ? If I ascpnd up to 
heaven, tliou art there ; if I make my bed in 
hell, behold thou art there ; if I take the wings 
of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost 
parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand 
lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. 
Can any hide himself in secret places that I 
shall not see him ? Do not I fill heaven and 
earth, saith the Lord ? Am I a God at hand, 
saitli the Lord, and not a God afar off?" " Thus 
saith the Lord, Behold, heaven is my throne, 
and the earth is my footstool." " Behold, 
heaven, and the heaven of heavens cannot 
contain thee." " Though he dig into hell, 
thence shall my hand take him ; though ho 
climb up into heaven, thence will I bring him 
down ; and though he hide himself in the top 
of Carmel, I will search and take him out from 
thence." " In him we live, and move, and have 
our being." " He fiUeth all things." 

Some striking passages on the ubiquity of 
the divine presence may be found in the writ- 
ings of some of the Greek philosophers, arising 
out of this notion, that God was the soul of the 
world ; but their very connection with this spe- 
culation, notwithstanding tlie imposing phrase 
occasionally adopted, strikingly marks the dif- 
ference between their most exalted views, and 
those of the Hebrew prophets on this subject. 
To a large proportion of those who hold a dis- 



OMN 



713 



OMN 



tinguished rank among the ancient theistical 
philosophers, the idea of the personality of the 
Deity was in a great measure unknown. The 
Deity by them was considered not so much an 
intelligent Being, as an animating power, dif- 
fused throughout the world, and was introduced 
into their speculative system to account for the 
motion of that passive mass of matter, which 
was supposed coeval, and indeed coexistent, 
with himself. These defective notions are 
confessed by Gibbon, a writer not disposed to 
undervalue their attainments : " The philoso- 
phers of Greece deduced their morals from the 
nature of man, rather than from that of God. 
They meditated, however, on the divine nature, 
as a very curious and important speculation ; 
and, in the profound inquiry, they displayed 
the strength and weakness of the human under- 
standing. Of the four most considerable sects, 
the Stoics and the Platonicians endeavoured to 
reconcile the jarring interests of reason and 
piety. They have left us the most sublime 
proofs of the existence and perfections of the 
First Cause ; but as it was impossible for them 
to conceive the creation of matter, the work- 
man, in the Stoic philosophy, was not suffi- 
ciently distinguished from the work ; while, on 
the contrary, the spiritual god of Plato and 
his disciples resembled more an idea than a 
substance." 

Similar errors have been revived in the 
infidel philosophy of modern times, from Spi- 
noza down to the later offspring of the German 
and French schools. The same remark applies 
also to the oriental philosophy, which presents 
at this day a perfect view of the boasted wis- 
dom of ancient Greece, which was "brought 
to nought" by "the foolishness" of apostolic 
preaching. But in the Scriptures there is 
nothing confused in the doctrine of the divine 
ubiquity. God is every where, but he is not 
every thing. All things have their being in 
him, but he is distinct from all things ; he fills 
the universe, but is not mingled with it. He 
is the intelligence which guides, and the power 
which sustains ; but his personality is preserved, 
and he is independent of the works of his hands, 
however vast and noble. So far is his presence 
from being bounded by the universe itself, that, 
as we are taught in the passage above quoted 
from the Psalms, were it possible for us to wing 
our way into the immeasurable depths and 
breadths of space, God would there surround 
•us, in as absolute a sense as that in which he 
is said to be about our bed and our path in that 
part of the world where his will has placed us. 
On this, as on all similar subjects, the Scrip- 
tures use terms which are taken in their com- 
mon-sense acceptation among mankind ; and 
though the vanity of the human mind disposes 
many to seek a philosophy in the doctrine thus 
announced deeper than that which its popular 
terms convey, we are bound to conclude, if we 
would pay but a common respect to an admit- 
ted revelation, that, where no manifest figure 
of speech occurs, the truth of the doctrine lies 
in the tenor of the terms by which it is ex- 
pressed. Otherwise there would be no revela- 
tioji, we do not say of the modus, [manner,] 



(for that is confessedly incomprehensible,) but 
of the fact. In the case before us, the terms 
presence and place are used according to com- 
mon notions ; and must be so taken, if the 
Scriptures are intelligible. Metaphysical re- 
fmements are not Scriptural doctrines, when 
they give to the terms chosen by the Holy 
Spirit an acceptation out of their general and 
proper use, and make them the signs of a per- 
fectly distinct class of ideas ; if, indeed, all dis- 
tinctness of idea is not lost in the attempt. It 
is therefore in the popular and just, because 
Scriptural, manner, that we are to conceive 
of the omnipresence of God. If we reflect 
upon ourselves, we may observe that we fill 
but a small space, and that our knowledge or 
power reaches but a little way. We can act at 
one time in one place only, and the sphere of 
our influence is narrow at largest. Would we 
be witnesses to what is done at any distance 
from us, or exert there our active powers, we 
must remove ourselves thither. For this rea- 
son we are necessarily ignorant of a thousand 
things which pass around us, incapable of 
attending and managing any great variety of 
affairs, or performing at the same time any 
number of actions, for our own good, or for 
the benefit of others. Although we feel this 
to be the present condition of our being, and 
the limited state of our intelligent and active 
powers, yet we can easily conceive there may 
exist beings more perfect, and whose presence 
may extend far and wide : any one of whom, 
present in what are to us various places, at the 
same time, may know at once what is done in 
all these, and act in all of them ; and thus be 
able to regard and direct a variety of affairs at 
the same instant: and who farther being qua- 
lified, by the purity and activity of their nature, 
to pass from one place to another, with great 
ease and swiftness, may thus fill a large sphere 
of action, direct a great variety of affairs, con- 
fer a great number of benefits, and observe a 
multitude of actions at the same time, or in so 
swift a succession as to us would appear but 
one instant. Thus perfect we may readily 
believe the angels of God. 

We can farther conceive this extent of 
presence, and of ability for knowledge and 
action, to admit of degrees of ascending per- 
fection approaching to infinite. And when 
v/e have thus raised our thoughts to the idea 
of a being, who is not only present throughout 
a large empire, but throughout our world ; and 
not only in every part of our world, but in every 
part of all the numberless suns and worlds 
which roll in the starry heavens, — who is not 
only able to enliven and actuate the plants, 
animals, and men who live upon this globe^ but 
countless varieties of creatures every where in 
an immense universe, — yea, whose presence is 
not confined to the universe, immeasurable as 
that is by any finite mind, but who is present 
every where in infinite space ; and who is 
therefore able to create still new worlds, and 
fill them with proper inhabitants, attend, sup. 
ply, and govern them all, — when we have thus 
gradually raised and enlarged our conceptions, 
we have the best idea we can form of the uni... 



OMN 



714 



OMN 



versal presence of the great Jehovah, who 
fiUeth heaven and earth. There is no part of 
the universe, no portion of space, uninhabited 
by God ; none wlierein this Being of perfect 
power, wisdom, and benevolence is not essen- 
tially present. Could we with the swiftness 
of a sun beam dart ourselves beyond the limits 
of the creation, and for ages continue our 
progress in infinite space, we should still be 
surrounded with the divine presence ; nor ever 
be able to reach that space where God is not. 
His presence also penetrates every part of 
our world ; the most solid parts of the earth 
cannot exclude it ; for it pierces as easily the 
centre of the globe as the empty air. All 
creatures live and move and have their being 
in him. And the inmost recesses of the human 
heart can no more exclude his presence, or 
conceal a thought from his knowledge, than 
the deepest caverns of the earth. 

The illustrations and confirmatory proofs of 
this doctrine which the material world fur- 
nishes, are numerous and striking. It is a 
most evident and acknowledged truth that a 
being cannot act where it is not : if, therefore, 
actions and effects, which manifest the highest 
wisdom, power, and goodness in the author of 
them, are continually produced every where, 
the author of these actions, or God, must be 
continually present with us, and wherever he 
thus acts. The matter which composes the 
world is evidently lifeless and thoughtless : it 
must therefore be incapable of moving itself, 
or designing or producing any effects which 
require wisdom or power. The matter of our 
world, or the small parts which constitute the 
air, the earth, and the waters, is yet continu- 
ally moved, so as to produce effects of this 
kind ; such are the innumerable herbs, and 
trees, and fruits which adorn the earth, and 
support the countless millions of creatures 
who inhabit it. There must therefore be con- 
stantly present, all over the earth, a most 
wise, mighty, and good Being, the author 
and director of these motions. 

We cannot, it is true, see him with our 
bodily eyes, because he is a pure Spirit ; yet 
this is not any proof that he is not present. 
A judicious discourse, a series of kind actions, 
convince us of the presence of a friend, a per- 
son of prudence and benevolence. We cannot 
see the present mind, the seat and principle of 
these qualities ; yet the constant regular mo- 
tion of the tongue, the hand, and the whole 
bod}?^, (which are the instruments of our souls, 
as the material universe and all the various 
bodies in it are the instruments of the Deity,) 
will not suffer us to doubt that there is an 
intelligent and benevolent principle within the 
body which produces all these skilful motions 
and kind actions. The sun, the air, the earth, 
and the waters, are no more able to move 
themselves, and produce all that beautiful and 
useful variety of plants, and fruits, and trees, 
with which our earth is covered, than the 
body of a man, when the soul hath left it, is 
able to move itself, form an instrument, plough 
0, field, or build a house. If the laving out 
Judiciously and well cultivating a small estate. 



sowing it with proper grain at the best time of 
the year, watering it in due season and quan- 
tities, and gathering in the fruits when ripe, 
and laying them up in the best manner, — if 
all these effects prove the estate to have a 
manager, and the manager possessed of skill 
and strength, — certainly the enlightening and 
warming the whole earth by the sun, and so 
directing its motion and the motion of the 
earth as to produce in a constant useful sue- 
cession day and night, summer and winter, 
seed time and harvest ; the watering the earth 
continually by the clouds, and thus bringing 
forth immense quantities of herbage, grain, 
and fruits, — certainly all these effects continu- 
ally produced, must prove that a Being of the 
greatest power, wisdom, and benevolence is 
continually present throughout our world, 
which he thus supports, moves, actuates, and 
makes fruitful. 

The fire which warms us knows nothing of 
its serviceableness to this purpose, nor of the 
wise laws according to which its particles are 
moved to produce this effect. And that it 19 
placed in such a part of the house, where it 
may be greatly beneficial and no way hurtful, 
is ascribed without hesitation to the contriv- 
ance and labour of a person who knew its 
proper place and uses. And if we came daily 
into a house wherein we saw this was regu- 
larly done, though we never saw an inhabitant 
in it, we could not doubt that the house was 
occupied by a rational inhabitant. That huge 
globe of fire in the heavens, which we call the 
sun, and on the light and influences of which 
the fertility of our world, and the life and 
pleasure of all animals, depend, knows nothing 
of its serviceableness to these purposes, nor of 
the wise laws according to which its beams 
are dispensed, nor what place or motions were 
requisite for these beneficial purposes. Yet its 
beams are darted constantly in infinite num- 
bers, every one according to those well chosen 
laws, and its proper place and motion arc 
maintained. Must not, then, its place be 
appointed, its motion regulated, and beams 
darted, by almighty wisdom and goodness, 
which prevent the sun's ever wandering in the 
boundless spaces of the heavens, so as to leave 
us in disconsolate cold and dai^ness, or coming 
so near, or emitting his rays in such a manner, 
as to burn us up ? Must not the great Being 
who enlightens and warms us by the sun, his 
instrument, who raises and sends down the. 
vapours, brings forth and ripens the grain and 
fruits, and who is thus ever acting around us 
for our benefit, be always present in the sun, 
throughout the air, and all over the earth, 
which he thus moves and actuates ? 

This earth is in itself a dead, motionless 
mass, and void of all counsel ; yet proper parts 
of it are continually raised through the small 
pipes which compose the bodies of plants and 
trees, and are made to contribute to their 
growth, to open and shine in blossoms and 
leaves, and to swell and hai-don into fruit. 
Could blind, thoughtless particles thus con- 
tinually keep on their way, through numberless 
windings, without once blundering, if they 



OMN 



715 



OMN 



were not guided by an unerring hand ? Can 
the most perfect human skill from earth and 
water form one grain, much more a variety of 
beautiful and relishing fruits ? Must not the 
directing mind, who does all this constantly, 
be most wise, mighty, and benevolent ? Must 
not the Being who thus continually exerts his 
skill and energy around us, for our benefit, be 
confessed to be always present and concerned 
for our welfare ? Can these effects be ascribed 
to any thing below an all- wise and almighty 
cause ? And must not this cause be present 
wherever he acts ? Were God to speak to us 
every month from heaven, and with a voice 
loud as thunder declare that he observes, pro- 
vides for, and governs us ; this would not be a 
proof, in the judgment of sound reason, by 
many degrees so valid : since much less wis- 
dom and power are required to form such 
sounds in the air, than to produce these 
effects ; and to give, not merely verbal decla- 
rations, but substantial evidences of his pre- 
sence and care over us. In every part and 
place of the universe, with which we are ac- 
quainted, we perceive the exertion of a power, 
which we believe, mediately or immediately, 
to proceed from the Deity. For instance : in 
what part or point of space, that has ever been 
explored, do we not discover attraction ? In 
what regions do we not find light ? In what 
accessible portion of our globe do we not meet 
with gravity, magnetism, electricity ; together 
with the properties also and powers of organ- 
ized substances, of vegetable or of animated 
nature ? Nay, farther, what kingdom is there 
of nature, what corner of space, in which there 
is any thing that can be examined by us, where 
we do not fall upon contrivance and design ? 
The only reflection, perhaps, which arises in 
our minds from this view of the world around 
us, is, that the laws of nature every where pre- 
vail ; that they are uniform and universal. 
But what do we mean by the laws of nature, 
or by any law ? Effects are produced by power, 
not by laws. A law cannot execute itself. 
A law refers us to an agent. 

The usual argument a priori, on this at- 
tribute of the divine nature, has been stated as 
follows ; but, amidst such a mass of demon- 
stration of a much higher kind, it cannot be 
of any great value : — The First Cause, the su- 
preme all-perfect Mind, as he could not derive 
his being from any other cause, must be inde- 
pendent of all other, and therefore unlimited. 
He exists by an absolute necessity of nature ; 
and as all the parts of infinite space are exactly 
uniform and alike, for the same reason that he 
exists in any one part he must exist in all. 
No reason can be assigned for excluding him 
from one part, which would not exclude him 
from all. But that he is present in some 
parts of space, the evident effects of his wis- 
dom, power, and benevolence continually pro- 
duced, demonstrate beyond all rational doubt. 
He must therefore be alike present every where, 
and fill infinite space with his infinite Being. 

Among metaphysicians, it has been matter 
of dispute, whether God is present every where 
bv an infinite extension of^ his essence. This 



is the opinion of Newton, Dr, S, Clarke, and 
their followers ; others have objected to tl\is 
notion, that it might then be said, God is 
neither in heaven nor in earth, but only a part 
of God in each. The former opinion, how- 
ever, appears most in harmony with the Scrip- 
tures ; though the term extension, through 
the inadequacy of language, conA'^eys too ma- 
terial an idea. The objection just stated is 
wholly grounded on notions taken from ma- 
terial objects, and is therefore of little weight, 
because it is not applicable to an immaterial 
substance. It is best to confess with one who 
had thought deeply on the subject, "There is 
an incomprehensibleness in the manner of 
every thing about which no controversy can 
or ought to be concerned," That we cannot 
comprehend how God is fully, and completely, 
and undividedly present every where, need not 
surprise us, when we reflect that the manner 
in which our own minds are present with our 
bodies is as incomprehensible as the manner 
in which the supreme Mind is present with 
every thing in the universe. 

OMNISCIENCE. This attribute of God 
is constantly connected in Scripture with his 
omnipresence, and forms a part of almost 
every description of that attribute ; for, as 
God is a Spirit, and therefore intelligent, if 
he is every where, if nothing can exclude him, 
not even the most solid bodies, nor the minds 
of intelligent beings, then are all things naked 
and opened to the eyes of him with whom we 
have to do. Where he acts, he is ; and where 
he is, he perceives. He understands and con- 
siders things absolutely, and as they are in their 
own natures, powers, properties, differences, 
together with all the circumstances belonging 
to them. " Known unto him are all his works 
from the beginning of the world," rather, ar 
aLUivog, from all eternity ; known, before they 
were made, in their possible, and known, now 
they are made, in their actual, existence. 
" Lord, thou hast searched me and known me ; 
thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up- 
rising, thou understandest my thought afar 
ofl". Thou compassest my path and my lying 
dov/n, and art acquainted with all my ways. 
For there is not a word in my tongue, bat lo, 
O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. The 
darkness hideth not from thee ; but the night 
shineth as the day. The ways of man are 
before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth 
all his goings ; he searcheth their hearts, and 
understandeth every imagination of their 
thoughts," Nor is this perfect knovledge to 
be confined to men or angels ; li reaches 
into the state of the dead, and penetrates 
the regions of the damned, " Hell," hades, 
" is naked before him ; and destruction," the 
seats of destruction, "hath no covering." 
No limits at all are to be set to this perfec- 
tion : " Great is the Lord, his understanding 
is infinite." 

In Psalm xciv, the knowledge of God is 
argued from the communication of it to men : 
" Understand, ye brutish among the people ; 
and, ye fools, when will ye be wise ? He that 
planted the ear, shall he not hear ? He that 



OMN 



716 



OMN 



formed the eye, shall he not see ? He that 
chastiseth the Heathen, shall not he correct ? 
He that teacheth man knowledge, shall not 
he know ?" This argument is as easy as it is 
conclusive, obliging all who acknowledge a 
First Cause, to admit his perfect intelligence, 
qr to take refuge in atheism itself. It fetches 
not the proof from a distance, but refers us to 
our bosoms for the constant demonstration 
that the Lord is a God of knowledge, and that 
by him actions are weighed. We find in our- 
selves such qualities as thought and intelli- 
gence, power and freedom, &c, for which we 
have the evi.dence of consciousness as much 
as for our own existence. Indeed, it is only 
by our consciousness of these, that our exist- 
ence is known to ourselves. We know, like- 
wise, that these are perfections, and that to 
have them is better than to be without them. 
We find also that they have not been in us 
from eternity. They must, therefore, have had 
a beginning, and consequently some cause, for 
the very same reason tlaat a being beginning 
to exist in time requires a cause. Now this 
cause, as it must be superior to its effect, must 
have those perfections in a superior degree ; 
and if it be the First Cause it must have them 
in an infinite or unlimited degree, since bounds 
or limitations, without a limiter, would be an 
effect without a cause. If God gives wisdom 
to the wise, and knowledge to men of under- 
standing: if he communicates this perfection 
to his creatures, the inference must be that he 
himself is possessed of it in a much more emi- 
nent degree than they; that his knowledge 
is deep and intimate, reaching to the very 
essence of things, theirs but slight and super- 
ficial; his clear and distinct, theirs confused 
and dark ; his certain and infallible, theirs 
doubtful and liable to mistake ; his easy and 
permanent, theirs obtained with much pains, 
and soon lost again by the defects of memory 
or age ; his universal and extending to all ob- 
jects, theirs short and narrow, reaching only 
to some few things, while that which is 
wanting cannot be numbered ; and therefore, 
as the heavens are higher than the earth, so, 
as the prophet Jias told us, are his ways 
abo\e our ways, and his thoughts above our 
thoughts. 

But his understanding is infinite ; a doctrine 
v/hicl: the sacred writers not only authorita- 
tively announce, but confirm by referring to 
the wisdom displayed in his works. The only 
. differerce between v/isdom and knowledge is, 
that tht former alwa3''s supposes action, and 
action. directed to an end. But wherever there 
is wisdora there must be knowledge ; and as the 
wisdom cf God in the creation consists in the 
formation of things which, by themselves, or in 
combination with others, shall produce certain 
effects, and that in a variety of operation which 
is to us boundless, the previous knowledge of 
the possible qualities and effiects inevitably 
supposes a knowledge which can have no 
limit. For as creation out of nothing argues 
a power which is omnipotent ; so the know- 
ledge of the possibilities of things which are 
not, (a knowledge which, from the effect, \ye 



are sure must exist in God,) argues that such 
a Being must be omniscient. For all things 
being not only present to him, but also 
entirely depending upon him, and having re- 
ceived both their being itself, and all their 
powers and faculties from him ; it is manifest 
that, as he knows all things that are, so he . 
must likewise know all possibilities of things, 
that is, all effects that can be. For, being 
himself alone self-existent, and having alone 
given to all things all the powers and faculties 
they are endued with ; it is evident he must of 
necessity know perfectly what all and each of 
those pov/ers and faculties, which are derived 
wholly from himself, can possibly produce ; 
and seeing, at one boundless view, all the pos- 
sible compositions and divisions, variations 
and changes, circumstances and dependencies 
of things ; all their possible relations one to 
another, and their dispositions or fitnesses to 
certain and respective ends, he must, without 
possibility of error, know exactly what is best 
and properest in every one of the infinite pos» 
sible cases or methods of disposing things ; 
and understand perfectly how to orc»3r and 
direct the respective means, to bring about 
what he so knows to be, in its kind, or in the 
whole, the best and fittest in the end. This is 
what we mean by infinite wisdom. 

On the subject of the divine omniscience, 
many fine sentiments are to be found in the 
writings of Pagans ; for an intelligent First 
Cause being in any sense admitted, it was most 
natural and obvious to ascribe to him a perfect 
knowledge of all things. They acknowledge 
that nothing is hid from God, who is intimate 
to our minds, and mingles himself with our 
very thoughts ; nor were they all unaware of 
the practical tendency of such a doctrine, and 
of the motive it affords to a cautious and vir- 
tuous conduct. But among them it was not 
held, as by the sacred writers, in connection 
with other right views of the divine nature, 
which are essential to give to this its full moral 
effect. Not only on this subject does the man- 
ner in which the Scriptures state the doctrine 
far transcend that of the wisest Pagan theists ; 
but the moral of the sentiment is infinitely 
more comprehensive and impressive. With 
them it is connected with man's state of trial ; 
with a holy law, all the violations of which, in 
thought, word, and deed, are both infallibly 
known, and strictly marked ; with promises of 
grace, and of a mild and protecting government 
as to all who have sought and found the mercy 
of God in forgiving their sins and admitting 
them into his family. The wicked are thus 
reminded, that their hearts are searched, and 
their sins noted ; that the eyes of the Lord are 
upon their ways ; and that their most secret 
works will be brought to light in the d^y when 
God the witness shall become God the judge. 
But as to the righteous, the eyes of the Lord 
are said to be over them ; that they are kept 
by him who never slumbers or sleeps ; that he 
is never far from them ; that his eyes run to 
and fro throughout the whole earth, to show 
himself strong in their behalf; that foes, to 
them invisible, are seen by his eye, and 



ON 



717 



ONI 



controlled by his arm; and that this great 
attribute, so appalling to wicked men, affords 
to them, not only the most influential reason 
for a perfectly holy temper and conduct, but 
the strongest motive to trust, and joy, and 
hope, amidst the changes and afflictions of the 
present life. Socrates, as well as other philo- 
sophers, could express themselves well, so 
long as they expressed themselves generally, 
on this subject. The former could say, " Let 
your own frame instruct you. Does the mind 
inhabiting your body dispose and govern it 
with ease ? Ought you not then to conclude, 
that the universal Mind with equal ease actu- 
ates and governs universal nature ; and that, 
when you can at once consider the interest of 
the Athenians at home, in Egypt, and in Sici- 
ly, it is not too much for the divine wisdom to 
take care of the universe ? These reflections 
will soon convince you, that the greatness of 
the divine mind is such, as at once to see all 
things, hear all things, be present every where, 
and direct all the affairs of the world." These 
views are just, but they wanted that connection 
with otliers relative both to the divine nature 
and government, which we see only in the 
Bible, to render them influential ; they neither 
gave correct moral distinctions nor led to a 
virtuous practice, no, not in Socrates, who, on 
some subjects, and especially on the person- 
ality of the Deity, and his independence on 
matter, raised himself far above the rest of his 
philosophic brethren, but in moral feeling and 
practice was perhaps as censurable as they. 
See PriEsciENCE. 

ON, or AVEN, a city of Egypt, situated in 
the land of Goshen, on the east of the Nile, 
and about five miles from the modern Cairo. 
It was called Heliopolis by the Greeks, and 
Bethshemeth by the Hebrews, Jer. xliii, 13 ; 
both of which names, as well as its Egyptian 
one of On, imply the city or house of the sun. 
The inhabitants of this city are represented by 
Herodotus as the wisest of the Egyptians ; and 
here Moses resided, and received that education 
which made him " learned in all the wisdom 
of the Egyptians." But notwithstanding its 
being the seat of the sciences, such were its 
egregious idolatries, that it was nicknamed 
Aven, or Beth-Aven, "the house of vanity," 
or idolatry, by the Jews. A village standing 
on part of its site, at the present day, is called 
Matarea; while the spring of excellent water, 
or fountain of the sun, which is supposed to 
have given rise to the city, is still called Ain 
Shems, or fountain of the sun, by the Arabs. 
This is one of the most ancient cities of the 
world of which any distinct vestige can now be 
traced. It was visited eighteen hundred and 
fifty years ago by Strabo, whose description 
proves it to have been nearly as desolate then 
as now. Most of the ruins of this once famous 
city, described by that geographer, are buried 
in the accumulation of the soil : but that which 
marks its site, and is, perhaps, the most an- 
cient work at this time existing in the world, 
in a perfect state, is a column of red granite, 
seventy feet high, and covered with hierogly- 
phics. Dr. E. D. Clarke has given a very 



good representation of this column ; to whom, 
also, the curious reader is referred for a learn- 
ed dissertation on the characters engraved 
upon it. 

The city On, according to Josephus, was 
given to the Israelites to dwell in, when they 
first went into Egypt ; and it was a daughter 
of a priest of the temple of the sun at this 
place, who was given in marriage to Joseph 
by Pharaoh. Here, also, in the time of Pto- 
lemy Philadelphus, leave was obtained of that 
king by Onias, high priest of the Jews, to build 
a temple, when dispossessed of his office by 
Antiochus ; which was long used by the Hel- 
lenist Jews. It was predicted by Jeremiah, 
xliii, 13, and by Ezekiel, xxx, 17, that this 
place, with its temples and inhabitants, should 
be destroyed ; which was probably fulfilled by 
Nebuchadnezzar. See Noph. 

ONESIMUS was a Phrygian by nation, a 
slave to Philemon, and a disciple of the Apostle 
Paul. Onesimus having run away from his 
master, and also having robbed him, Philemon 
V, 18, went to Rome while St. Paul was there 
in prison the first time. As Onesimus knew 
him by repute, (his master Philemon being a 
Christian,) he sought him out. St. Paul 
brought him to a serise of the greatness of his 
crime, instructed him, baptized him, and sent 
him back to his master Philemon with a letter, 
inserted among St. Paul's epistles, which is 
universally acknowledged as canonical. This 
letter had all the good success he could desire. 
Philemon not only received Onesimus as a 
faithful servant, but rather as a brother and a 
friend. A little lime after, he sent him back 
to Rome to St. Paul, that he might continue 
to be serviceable to hhn in his prison. And 
we see that after this Onesimus was employed 
to carry such epistles as the Apostle wrote at 
that time. He carried, for example, that which 
was written to the Colossians, while St. Paul 
was yet in his bonds. 

ONESIPHORUS is mentioned, 2 Tim. i, 
16, 17, and highly commended by St. Paul. 

ONION, h-i2, Num. xi, 5; a well known 
garden plant with a bulbous root. Onions 
and garlics were highly esteemed in Egypt ; 
and not without reason, this country being 
admirably adapted to their culture. The allium 
cepa, called by the Arabs basal, Hasselquist 
thinks one. of the species of onions for which 
the Israelites longed. He would infer this 
from the quantities still used in Egypt, and 
their goodness. " Whoever has tasted onions 
in Egypt," says he, " must allow that none 
can be had better in any part of the universe. 
Here they are sweet ; in other countries they 
are nauseous and strong. Here they are soft; 
whereas in the northern and other parts they 
are hard, and their coats so compact that they 
are difficult of digestion. Hence tiiey cannot 
in any place be eaten v/ith less prejudice, 
and more satisfaction, than in Egypt." The 
Egyptians are reproached with swearing by 
the leeks and onions of their gardens. Juvenal 
ridicules some of these superstitious people who 
did not dare to eat leeks, garlic, or onions, for 
fear of injuring their gods: — 



ONY 



718 



ORA 



Q.uis nesciti Volusi Bythynice, qualia de^nens 
^gyptus portenta colit 1 

Porram et cepe nefas violare aut f rang ere morsu ; 
O sanctas gentes quibus h(zc nascuntur in hortis 
Numina! Sat. xv. 

" How Egypt, mad with superstition grown, 
Makes gods of monsters, but too well is known. 
'Tis mortal sin an onion to devour ; 
Each clove of garlic has a sacred power. 
Religious nation, sure ! and blest abodes, 
Where ev'ry garden is o'eri'un with gods !" 
So Lucian in his Jupiter, where he is giving 
an account of the different deities worshipped 
by the several inhabitants of Egypt, says, 
llrfK-ivaio}Taig 61 KpOfifivov, " those of Pelusium 
worship the onion." Hence arises a question, 
how the Israelites durst venture to violate the 
national worship, by eating those sacred plants. 
We may answer, in the first place, that what- 
ever might be the case of the Egyptians in 
later ages, it is not probable that they were 
arrived at such a pitch of superstition in the 
time of Moses ; for we find no indications of 
this in Herodotus, the most ancient of the 
Greek historians : secondly, the writers here 
quoted appear to be mistaken in imagining 
these plants to have been generally the objects 
of religious worship. The priests, indeed, 
•abstained from the use of them, and several 
other vegetables ; and this might give rise to 
the opinion of their being reverenced as divini- 
ties : but the use of them was not prohibited 
to the people, as is plain from the testimonies 
of ancient authors, particularly of Diodorus 
Siculus. 

ONYX, anty, Gen. ii, 12 ; Exod. xxv, 7 ; 
xxviii, 9, 20 ; xxxv, 27 ; xxxix, 6 ; 1 Chron. 
xxix, 2 ; Job xxviii, 16 ; Ezekiel xxviii, 13. 
A precious stone, so called from, the Greek 
ovv\, the- nail, to the colour of which it nearly 
approaches. It is first mentioned with the 
gold and bdellium of the river Pison in Eden ; 
but the meaning of the Hebrew word is not 
easily determined. The Septuagint render it, 
in different places, the sardius, beryl, sapphire, 
emerald, &c. Such names are often ambigu- 
ous, even in Greek and Latin, and no wonder 
if they are more so in Hebrew. In Exodus 
xxviii, 9, 10, a direction is given that two 
onyx stones should be fastened on the ephod 
of the high priest, on which were to be graven 
the names of the children of Israel, like the 
engravings on a signet ; six of the names on 
one stone, and six on the other. In 1 Chron. 
xxix, 2, onyx stones are among the things 
prepared by David for the temple. The au- 
thor of " Scripture Illustrated" observes, upon 
this passage, that "the word onyx is equivocal ; 
signifying, first, a precious stone or gem ; and, 
secondly, a marble called in Greek onychites, 
which Pliny mentions as a stone of Caramania. 
Antiquity gave both these stones this name, 
because of their resemblance to the nail of the 
fingers. The onyx of the high priest's pectoral 
was, no doubt, the gem onyx ; the stone pre- 
pared by David was the marble onyx, or rather 
onychus ; for one would hardly think that gems 
of any kind were used externally in such a 
building, but variegated marble may readily be 
admitted." 



OPHIR, a place or country remote from 
Judea, to which the ships of Solomon traded. 
There has been much discussion respecting 
the situation of this place ; some supposing it 
to have been the island of Socotora, without 
the straits of Babelmandel ; others, that an. 
ciently called Tabrobana, which is supposed 
by some to have been Ceylon, and by others 
Sumatra ; while others fix its situation on the 
continent of India. M. Huet and, after him, 
Bruce, place Ophir at Sofala, in South Africa, 
where mines of gold and silver have been 
found, which show marks of having been very 
anciently and extensively worked. The latter 
says, also, that the situation of this place ex- 
plains the period of three years which the 
Ophir ships were absent, from the different 
courses of the monsoons and trade winds, 
which they would have to encounter going 
and returning. Ruins of ancient buildings 
have also been found in the neighbourhood of 
these mines. In confirmation of this opinion, 
Bruce says there was a place called Tarshish 
near Melinda. 

In the same direction with Ophir lay Tar- 
shish ; the voyage to both places being accom- 
plished under one, and always, as it Would 
seem, in the same space of time, three years ; 
by which it may be inferred that, notwith- 
standing the imperfect navigation of the times, 
they must be at a considerable distance from 
the ports of Judea. But the true situation of 
these places must ever remain matter of con- 
jecture ; and all that can be considered as cer- 
tain respecting them is, that from the articles 
imported from them, namely, gold, silver, 
ivory, apes, peacocks, and precious stones, 
they must have been situated in the tropical 
parts of either Africa or Asia. 

ORACLE denotes something delivered by 
supernatural wisdom ; and the term is also 
used in the Old Testament to signify the most 
holy place from whence the Lord revealed his 
will to ancient Israel, 1 Kings vi, 5, 19-21, 23, 
But when the word occurs in the plural num- 
ber, as it mostly does, it denotes the revela- 
tions contained in the sacred writings of 
which the nation of Israel were the deposita- 
ries. So Moses is said by Stephen to have 
received the " lively oracles" to give unto the> 
Israelites. These oracles contained the law, 
both moral and ceremonial, with all the types 
and promises relating to the Messiah which 
are to be found in the writings of Moses. 
They also contained all the intimations of the 
divine mind which he was pleased to com- 
municate by means of the succeeding prophets 
who prophesied beforehand of the coming and 
of the sufferings of the Messiah with the glory 
that should follow. The Jews were a highly 
privileged people in many and various respects, 
Rom. ix, 4, 5 ; but the Apostle Paul mentions 
it as their chief advantage that "unto them 
were committed the oracles of God," Romans 
iii, 2. " What nation," says Moses, " is there 
that hath statutes and judgments so righteous 
as all this law which I set before you this 
day ?" Deut. iv, 8. The psalmist David enu- 
merates their excellent properties under various 



ORA 



719 



ORA 



epithets ; such as the law of the Lord, his 
testimony, his statutes, his commandments, 
his judgments, &c. Their properties are ex- 
tolled as perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true, 
and righteous altogether ; more to be desired 
than much fine gold ; sweeter than honey and 
the honey comb. Their salutary effects are 
all mentioned ; such as their converting the 
soul, making wise the simple, rejoicing the 
heart, enlightening the eyes ; and the keeping 
of them is connected with a great reward. 
Psalm xix. The hundred and nineteenth 
Psalm abounds with praises of the lively 
oracles, the word of the living God ; it 
abounds with the warmest expressions of love 
to it, of delight in it, and the most fervent 
petitions for divine illumination in the know- 
ledge of it. Such was the esteem and vene- 
ration which the faithful entertained for the 
lively oracles under the former dispensation, 
when they had only Moses and the prophets ; 
how, then, ought they to be prized by Chris- 
tians, who have also Christ and his Apostles ! 
Among the Heathen the term oracle is 
usually taken to signify an answer, generally 
couched in very dark and ambiguous terms, 
supposed to be given by demons of old, either 
by the mouths of their idols, or by those of 
their priests, to the people, who consulted 
them on things to come. Oracle is also used 
for the demon who gave the answer, and the 
place where it was given. Seneca defines 
oracles to be enunciations by the mouths of 
men of the will of the gods ; and Cicero simply 
calls them, deorum oratio, the language of the 
gods. Among the Pagans they were held in 
high estimation ; and they were consulted on 
a variety of occasions pertaining to national 
enterprises and private life. When they made 
peace or war, enacted laws, reformed states, 
or changed the constitution, they had in all 
these cases recourse to the oracle by public 
authority. Also, in private life, if a man 
wished to marry, if he proposed to take a 
journey, or to engage in any business of im- 
portance,. he repaired to the oracle for counsel. 
Mankind have had always a propensity to ex- 
plore futurity ; and conceiving that future 
events were known to their gods, who pos- 
sessed the gift of prophecy, they sought in- 
formation and advice from the oracles, which, 
in their opinion, were supernatural and divine 
communications. The institution of oracles 
seemed to gratify the prevalent curiosity of 
mankind, and proved a source of immense 
wealth, as well as authority and influence, to 
those who had the command of them. Ac- 
cordingly, every nation, in which idolatry has 
subsisted, had its oracles, by means of which 
imposture practised on superstition and cre- 
dulity. The principal oracles of antiquity are, 
that of Aba?, mentioned by Herodotus ; that 
of Amphiaraus, at Oropus in Macedonia ; that 
of the BranchidsB at Didymeum ; that of the 
camps at Lacedsemon ; that of Dodona ; that 
of Jupiter Amnion ; that of Nabarca in the 
country of the Anariaci, near the Caspian Sea; 
that of Trophonius, mentioned by Herodotus ; 
thai of Chrysopolis ; that of Claros, in Ionia ; 



that of Amphilochus at Mallos ; that of Pe- 
tarea ; that of Pella in Macedonia ; that of 
Phaselides in Cilicia ; that of Sinope in Paph- 
lagonia ; that of Orpheus's head at Lesbos, 
mentioned by Philostratus. But of all oracles, 
the oracle of Apollo Pythius at Delphi was 
the most celebrated ; this was consulted in the 
dernier resort by most of tlie princes of those 
ages. 

Most of the Pagan deities had their appro- 
priate oracles. Apollo had the greatest num- 
ber : such as those of Claros, of the Branchidss, 
of the suburbs of Daphne at Antioch, of Delos, 
of Argos, of Troas, jEolis, &c, of Baise in 
Italy, and others in Cilicia, in Egypt, in the 
Alps, in Thrace, at Corinth, in Arcadia, in 
Laconia, and in many other places enumerated 
by Van Dale. Jupiter, beside that of Dodona 
and some others, the honour of which he 
shared with Apollo, had one in Boeotia under 
the name of Jupiter the Thunderer, and another 
in Elis, one at Thebes and at Meroe, one near 
Antioch, and several others, ^sculapius was 
consulted in Cilicia, at Apollonia, in the isle 
of Cos, at Epidaurus, Pergamos, Rome, and 
elsewhere. Mercury had oracles at Patras, 
upon HaaiTiyon, and in other places ; Mars, in 
Thrace, Egypt, and elsewhere ; Hercules, at 
Cadiz, Athens, in Egypt, at Tivoli, in Meso- 
potamia, where he issued his oracles by dreams, 
whence he was called Somnialis. Isis, Osiris, 
and Serapis delivered in like manner their 
oracles by dreams, as we learn from Pausa- 
nias, Tacitus, Arrian, and other writers ; that 
of Amphilochus was also delivered by dreams ; 
the ox Apis had also his oracle in Egypt. The 
gods, called Cabiri, had their oracle in Boeotia. 
Diana, the sister of Apollo, had several oracles 
in Egypt, Cilicia, Ephesus, &c. Those of 
fortune at Prsneste, and of the lots at An- 
tium are well known. The fountains also 
delivered oracles, for to each of them a divinity 
was ascribed : such was the fountain of Cas- 
talia at Delphi, another of the same name in 
the suburbs of Antioch, and the prophetic 
fountain near the temple of Ceres in Achaia. 
Juno had several oracles : one near Corinth, 
one at Nysa, and others at different places. 
Latona had one at Butis in Egypt ; Leucothea 
had one in Colchis ; Memnon in Egypt ; Ma- 
chaon at Gerania in Laconia ; Minerva had 
one in Egypt, in Spain, upon mount J5tna, at 
MycenaB and Colchis, and in other places. 
Those of Neptune were at Delphos, at Calauria, 
near Neocesarea, and elsewhere. The nymphs 
had theirs in the cave of Corycia. Pan had 
several, the most famous of which was that in 
Arcadia. That of the Palici was in Sicily. 
Pluto had one at Nysa. Saturn had oracles in 
several places, but the most famous were those 
of Cumse in Italy, and of Alexandria in Egypt. 
Those of Venus were dispersed in several 
places, at Gaza, upon Mount Libanus, at Pa- 
phos, in Cyprus, &c. Serapis had one at 
Alexandria, consulted by Vespasian. Venus 
Aphacite had one at Aphaca between Heliopo- 
lis and Byblus. Geryon, the three-headed 
monster slain by Hercules, had an oracle in 
Italy near Padua, consulted by Tiberius ; that 



ORA 



720 



ORA 



of Hercules was at Tivoli, and was given by 
Jots, like those of Prseneste and Antium. The 
demi-gods and heroes had likewise their oracles, 
such were those of Castor and Pollux at La- 
ced^mon, of Amphiaraus, of Mopsus in Cilicia, 
of Ulysses, Amphilochus, Sarpedon in Troas, 
Hermione in Macedonia, Pasiphae in Laconia, 
Chalcas in Italy, Aristseus in Bceotia, Auto- 
lycus at Sinope, Phryxus among the Colchi, 
Zamolxis among the Getse, Hephsestion the 
minion of Alexander, and Antinous, &c. 

The responses of oracles were delivered in a 
variety of ways : at Delphi, they interpreted 
and put into verse what the priestess pro- 
nounced in the time of her furor. Mr. Bayle 
observes that at first this oracle gave its an- 
swers in verse ; and that it fell at length to 
prose, upon the people's beginning to laugh at 
the poorness of its versification. The Epicu- 
reans made this the subject of their jests, and 
said, in raillery, it was surprising enough, that 
Apollo, the god of poetry, should be a much 
worse poet than Homer, whom he himself had 
inspired. By the railleries of these philoso- 
phers, and particularly by those of the Cynics 
and Peripatetics, the priests were at length 
obliged to desist from the practice of versifying 
the responses of the Pythia, which, according 
to Plutarch, was one of the principal causes of 
the declension of the oracle of Delphos. At 
the oracle of Amnion, the priests pronounced 
the response of their god ; at Dodona, the 
response was issued from the hollow of an 
oak ; at the cave of Trophonius, the oracle 
was inferred from what the suppliant said 
before he recovered his senses ; at Memphis, 
they drew a good or bad omen, according as 
the ox Apis received or rejected what was pre- 
sented to hini, which was also the case with 
the fishes of the fountain of Limyra. The 
suppliant's, who consulted the oracles, were 
not allowed to enter the sanctuaries where 
they were given ; and, accordingly, care was 
taken that neither the Epicureans no"r Chris- 
tians should come near them. In several 
places, the oracles were given by letters sealed 
up, as in that of Mopsus, and at Mallus in 
Cilicia. Oracles were frequently given by lot, 
the mode of doing which was as follows : the 
lots were a kind of dice, on which were en- 
graven certain characters or words, Avhose 
explanations they were to seek on tables made 
for the purpose. The way of using these dice 
for knowing futurity, was different, according 
to the places where they were used. In some 
temples, the person threw them himself; in 
others, they were dropped from a box ; whence 
came the proverbial expression, " The lot is 
fallen." This playing with dice was always 
preceded by sacrifices and other customary 
ceremonies. The ambiguity of the oracles in 
their responses, and their double meaning, 
contributed to their support. 

Ablancourt observes, that the study or re- 
search of the meaning of oracles was but a 
fruitless thing ; and that they were never un- 
derstood till after their accomplishment. His- 
torians relate, that Croesus was tricked by the 
ambiguity and equivocation of the oracle; 



Kpoiffoj "A\vv 6ia6ug i^eydXtjv ap'^fiv Kara'XvacL. 
Thus rendered in Latin : 
" Croisus Halym superans magnam pervertet 
opum vim." 

[If Croesus cross the Halys he will overthrow a great 
empire.] 

Thus, if the Lydian monarch had conquered 
Cyrus, he overthrew the Assyrian empire ; if 
he himself was routed, he overturned his own. 
That delivered to Pyrrhus, which is comprised 
in this Latin verse, 

" Credo equidem JEacidas Romanos vincere posse," 

[I believe indeed that the sons of ^acus the Romans 
will conquer,] 

had the same advantage ; for, according to the 
rules of syntax, either of the two accusatives 
may be governed by the verb, and the verse be 
explained, either by saying the Romans shall 
conquer the ^Eacidss, of whom Pyrrhus was 
descended, or those shall conquer the Romans. 
When Alexander fell sick at Babylon, some 
of his courtiers who happened to be in Egypt, 
or who went thither on purpose, passed the 
night in the temple of Serapis, to inquire if it 
would not be proper to bring Alexander to be 
cured by him. The god answered, it was 
better that Alexander should remain where he 
was. This in all events was a very prudent 
and safe answer. If the king recovered hi^ 
health, what glory must Serapis have gained 
by saving him the fatigue of the journey ! If 
he. died, it was but saying he died in a favour- 
able juncture after so many conquests; which, 
had he lived, he could neither have. enlarged 
nor preserved. This is actually the construc- 
tion they put upon the response ; whereas had 
Alexander undertaken the journey, and died in 
the temple, or by the way, nothing could have 
been said in favour of Serapis. When Trajan 
had formed the design of his expedition against 
the Parthians, he was advised to consult the 
oracle of Heliopolis, to which he had no more 
to do but send a note under a seal. That 
prince, who had no great faith in oracles, sent 
thither a blank note ; and they returned him 
another of the same kind. By this Trajan was 
convinced of the divinity of the oracle. He 
sent back a second note to the god, in which 
he inquired whether he should return to Rome 
after finishing the war he had in view. The 
god, as Macrobius tells the story, ordered a 
vine, which was among the offerings of his 
temple, to be divided into pieces, and brought 
to Trajan. The event justified the oracle ; 
for the emperor dying in that war, his bones 
were carried to Rome, which had been repre- 
sented by that broken vine. As the priests of 
that oracle knew Trajan's design, which was 
no secret, they happily devised that response, 
which, in all events, was capable of a favour- 
able interpretation, whether he routed and cut 
the Parthians in pieces, or if his army met 
with the same fate. Sometimes the responses 
of the oracles were mere banter, as in the case 
of the man who wished to know by what means 
he might become rich, and who received for 
answer from the god, that he had only to make 
himself master of all that lay between Sicyoa 



ORA 



721 



ORA 



and Corinth. Another, wanting a cure for the 
gout, was answered by the oracle, that he was 
to drink nothing but cold water. 

There are two points in dispute on the sub- 
ject of oracles ; namely, whether they were 
human, or diabolical machines ; and whether 
or not they ceased upon the publication or 
preaching of the Gospel. Most of the fathers 
of the church supposed that the devil issued 
oracles ; and looked on it as a pleasure he took 
to give dubious and equivocal answers, in 
order to have a handle to laugh at them. Vos- 
sius allows that it was the devil who spoke in 
oracles ; but thinks that the obscurity of his 
answers was owing to his ignorance as to the 
precise circumstances of events. That artful 
and studied obscurity in which the answers 
were couched, says he, showed the embarrass. 
ment the devil was under; as those double 
meanings they usually bore provided for their 
accomplishment. Where the thing foretold 
did not happen accordingly, the oracle, for- 
sooth, was misunderstood. Eusebius has pre- 
served some fragments of a philosopher, called 
OEnoniaus ; who, out of resentment for his hav- 
ing been so often fooled by the oracles, wrote an 
ample confutation of all their impertinencies : 
" When we come to consult thee," says he to 
Apollo, " if thou seest what is in futurity, why 
dost thou use expressions that will not be un- 
derstood ? Dost thou not know, that they will 
not be understood ? If thou dost, thou takest 
pleasure in abusing us ; if thou dost not, be 
informed of us, and learn to speak more clearly. 
I tell thee, that if thou intendest an equivoque, 
the Greek word whereby thou affirmedst that 
Croesus should overthrow a great empire was 
ill chosen ; and that it could signify nothing 
but Croesus's conquering Cyrus. If things 
must necessarily come to pass, why dost thou 
amuse us with thy ambiguities ? What doest 
thou, wretch as thou art, at Delphi ? employed 
in muttering idle prophecies !" But CEnomaus 
is still more out of humour with the oracle, for 
the answer which Apollo gave the Athenians, 
when Xerxes was about to attack Greece with 
all the strength of Asia. The Pythian declared, 
that Minerva, the protectress of Athens, had en- 
deavoure(> in vain to appease the wrath of 
Jupiter; yet that Jupiter, in complaisance to 
his daughter, was willing the Athenians should 
save themselves within wooden walls ; and that 
Salamis should behold the loss of a great many 
children, dear to their mothers, either when 
Ceres was spread abroad, or gathered together. 
Here CEnomaus loses all patience with the god 
of Delphi. " This contest," says he, "between 
father and daughter is very becoming the 
deities ! It is excellent, that there should be 
contrary inclinations and interests in heaven. 
Poor wizard, thou art ignorant whose the 
children are that Salamis shall see perish ; 
whether Greeks or Persians. It is certain 
they must be either one or the other ; but thou 
needest not to have told so openly, that thou 
knewest not which. Thou concealest the time 
of the battle under those fine poetical expres- 
sione, ' either when Ceres is spread abroad, or 
gathered together ;' and wouldest thou cajole 
47 



us with such pompous language ? Who knows 
not, that if there be a sea fight, it must either 
be in seed time or harvest ? It is certain it 
cannot be in winter. Let things go how they 
will, thou wilt secure thyself by this Jupiter 
whom Minerva is endeavouring to appease. 
If the Greeks lose the battle, Jupiter proved 
inexorable to the last; if they gain it, why 
then Minerva at length prevailed." 

It is a very general opinion among the more 
learned, that oracles were all mere cheats and 
impostures ; either calculated to serve the 
avaricious ends of the Heathen priests, or the 
political views of the princes. Bayle says posi- 
tively, they were mere human artificers, in 
which the devil had no hand. He was strong- 
ly supported by Van Dale and Fontenelle, who 
have written expressly on the subject. Father 
Balthus, a Jesuit, wrote a treatise in defence 
of the fathers with regard to the origin of ora- 
cles ; but without denying the imposture of 
the priests, often blended with the oracles. 
He maintains the intervention of the devil in 
some predictions, which could not be ascribed 
to the cheats of the priests alone. The Abb^ 
Banier espouses the same side of the question, 
and objects that oracles would not have lasted 
so long, and supported themselves with so 
much splendour and reputation, if they had 
been merely owing to the forgeries of the 
priests. Bishop Sherlock, in his "Discourses 
concerning the Use and Intent of Prophecy," 
expresses his opinion, that it is impious to dis- 
believe the Heathen oracles, and to deny them 
to have been given out by the devil ; to which 
assertion. Dr. Middleton,^ in his " Examina. 
tion," &c, replies, that he is guilty of this im- 
piety, and that he thinks himself warranted to 
pronounce from the authority of the best and 
wisest of the Heathens themselves, and the 
evidence of plain facts, which are recorded of 
those oracles, as well as from the nature of the 
thing itself, that they were all mere imposture, 
wholly invented and supported by human craft, 
without any supernatural aid or interposition 
whatsoever. He alleges, that Cicero, speaking 
of the Delphic oracle, the most revered of any 
in the Heathen world, declares, that nothing 
was become more contemptible, not only in 
his days, but long before him; that Demos- 
thenes, who lived about three hundred years 
earlier, affirmed of the same oracle, in a public 
speech to the people of Athens, that it was 
gained to the interests of King Philip, an ene- 
my to that city ; that the Greek historians tell 
us, how, on several other occasions, it had 
been corrupted by money, to serve the views 
of particular persons and parties, and the pro- 
phetess sometimes had been deposed for bribe- 
ry and lewdness ; that there were some great 
sects of philosophers, v/ho, on principle, dis- 
avowed the authority of all oracles ; agreeably 
to all which Strabo tells us, that divination in 
general and oracles had been in high credit 
among the ancients, but in his days were treat- 
ed with much contempt ; lastly, that Eusebius 
also, the great historian of the primitive church, 
declares, that there were six hundred writers 
among the Heathens themselves who had pub- 



ORA 



722 



ORD 



licly written against the reality of them. Plu- 
tarch has a treatise on the ceasing of some 
oracles ; and Van Dale, a Dutch physician, 
has a volume to prove they did not cease at 
the coming of Christ ; but that many of them 
ceased long before, and that others held till the 
fall of Paganism, under the empire of Theodo- 
sius the Great, when Paganism being dissi- 
pated, these institutions could no longer sub- 
sist. Van Dale was answered by a German, 
one McEbius, professor of theology at Leipsic, 
in 1685. Fontenelle espoused Van Dale's sys- 
tem, and improved upon it in his " History of 
Oracles ;" and showed the weakness of the 
argument used by many writers in behalf of 
Christianity, drawn from the ceasing of ora. 
cles. Cicero says, the oracles became dumb 
in proportion as people, growing less credu- 
lous, began to suspect them for cheats. Plu- 
tarch alleges two reasons for the ceasing of 
oracles : the one was Apollo's chagrin ; who, 
it seems, took it in dudgeon to be interrogated 
about so many trifles. The other was, that in 
proportion as the genii, or demons, who had 
the management of the oracles, died, and be- 
came extinct, the oracles nmst necessarily 
cease. He adds a third and inore natural cause 
for the ceasing of oracles ; namely, the forlorn 
state of Greece, ruined and desolated by wars ; 
for, hence, the smallness of the gains let the 
priests sink into a poverty and contempt too 
bare to cover the fraud. That the oracles 
were silenced about or soon after the time of 
our Saviour's advent, may be proved, says Dr. 
Leland, in the first volume of his learned work 
on " The Necessity and Advantage of Revela- 
tion," &c, from express testimonies, not only 
of Christian but of Heathen authors. Lucan, 
who wrote his " Pharsalia" in the reign of 
Nero, scarcely thirty years after our Lord's 
crucifixion, laments it as one of the greatest 
misfortunes of that age, that the Delphian ora- 
cle, which he represents as one of the choicest 
gifts of the gods, was become silent. 

Non ullo scBCula dono 
Nostra carent majore Deum, quara Delphica sedes 
Quod sileat. Pharsal. lib. v, 111. 

" Of all the wants with which the age is curst, 
The Delphic silence surely is tlie worst." RowE. 

In like manner, Juvenal says, 

Delphis oracula cessant, 
Ei genus huvianum damnat caligo futuri. 

Sat. vi, 554. 
" Since Delphi now, if we may credit fame, 
Gives no responses, and a long dark night 
Conceals the future hour from mortal sight." 

GiFFOED. 

Lucian says, that when he was at Delphi, the 
oracle gave no answer, nor was the priestess in- 
spired. This likewise appears from Plutarch's 
treatise, why the oracles cease to give answers, 
already cited ; whence it is also manifest, that 
the most learned Heathens were very much at 
a loss how to give a tolerable account of it. 
Porphyry, in a passage cited from him by Eu- 
sebius, says, " The city of Rome was overrun 
with sickness, ^sculapius and the rest of the 
gods having withdrawn their converse with 
men ; because since Jesus began to be wor- 



shipped, no man had received any public help 
or benefit from the gods." With respect to the 
origin of oracles, they were probably imita- 
tions, first, of the answers given to the holy 
patriarchs from the divine presence or She. 
chinah, and secondly, of the responses to the 
Jewish high priest from the mercy seat : for 
all Paganism is a parody of the true religion. 

ORDINATION, the act of conferringlioly 
orders, or of initiating a person into the minis- 
try of the Gospel, by prayer and with or with, 
out the laying on of hands. In the church of 
England, ordination has always been esteemed 
the principal prerogative of bishops; and 
bishops still retain the function as a mark of 
their spiritual sovereignty in their diocess. 
Without ordination no person can receive any 
benefice, parsonage, vicarage, &c. A person 
must be twenty-three years of age, or near it, 
before he can be ordained deacon, or have any 
share in the , ministry ; and full twenty-four 
before he can be ordained priest, and by that 
means be permitted to administer the holy 
communion. A bishop, on the ordination of 
clergymen, is to examine them in the presence 
of the ministers, who in the ordination of priests, 
but not of deacons, assist him at the imposi. 
tion of hands ; but this is only done as a mark 
of assent, not because it is thought necessary. 
In case any crime, as drunkenness, perjury, 
forgery, &c, is alleged against any one that 
is to be ordained, either priest or deacon, the 
bishop ought to desist from ordaining him. 
The person to be ordained is to bring a testi- 
monial of his life and doctrine to tlie bishop, 
and to give an account of his faith in Latin ; 
and both priests and deacons are obliged to 
subscribe to the thirty-nine articles. In the 
ancient discipline there was no such thing as a 
vague and absolute ordination ; but every one 
was to have a church, whereof he was to b& 
ordained clerk or priest. In the twelfth cen- 
tury the bishops grew more remiss, and ordain- 
ed without any title or benefice. The council 
of Trent, however, restored the ancient disci- 
pline, and appointed that none should be or- 
dained but those who were provided with a 
benefice ; which practice still obtains in the- 
church of England. 

The reformed held the call of the people the 
only thing essential to the validity of the 
ministry ; and teach, that ordination is only a 
ceremony, which renders the call more august 
and authentic. Accordingly the Protestant 
churches of Scotland, France, Holland, Swit- 
zerland, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Den- 
mark, &c, have no episcopal ordination. For 
Luther, Calvin, Bucer, Melancthon, &c, and 
all the first reformers and founders of these 
churches, who ordained ministers among them, 
were themselves presbyters, and no other. 
And though in some of these churches there 
are ministers called superintendents, or 
bishops, yet these are only primi inter pares, 
the first among equals ; not pretending to any 
superiority of orders. Having themselves no 
other orders than what either presbyters gave 
them, or what was given them as presbyters, 
they can convey no other to those they ordain^ 



ORD 



723 



OSS 



On this ground the Protestant Dissenters plead 
that their ordination, though not episcopal, is 
the same with that of all the illustrious Pro- 
testant churches abroad ; and object, that a 
priest ordained by a popish bishop should be 
received into the church of England as a valid 
minister, rightfully ordained ; while the orders 
of another, ordained by the most learned reli- 
gious presbyter, Avhich any foreign country 
can boast, are pronounced not valid, and he is 
required to submit to be ordained afresh. In 
opposition to episcopal ordination, they urge 
that Timothy was ordained by the laying on 
of the hands of the presbytery, 1 Tim. iv, 14 ; 
that Paul and Barnabas were ordained by cer- 
tain prophets and teachers in the church of 
Antioch, and not by any bishop presiding in 
that city. Acts xiii, 1-3 ; and that it is a well 
known fact, that presbyters in the church of 
Alexandria ordained even their own bishops 
for more than two hundred years in the earliest 
ages of Christianity. They farther argue, that 
bishops and presbyters are in Scripture the 
same, and not denominations of distinct orders 
or offices in the church, referring to Phil, 
i, 1 ; Titus i, 5, 7 ; Acts xx, 27, 28 ; 1 Peter 
V, 1, 2. To the same purpose they maintain, 
that the superiority of bishops to presbyters is 
not pretended to be of divine, but of human, 
institution ; not grounded on Scripture, but 
only upon the custom or ordinances of this 
realm, by the first reformers and founders of 
the church of England ; nor by many of its 
most learned and eminent doctors since. See 
Stillingfleet's Irenicum, in which the learned 
author affirms and shows this to be the senti- 
ment of Cranmer, and other chief reformers 
both in Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth's 
reign, of Archbishop Whitgift, Bishop Bridges, 
Lee, Hooker, SutclifF, Hales, Chillingworth, 
&c. Moreover, the book entitled, the " Insti- 
tution of a Christian Man," subscribed by the 
clergy in convocation, and confirmed by par- 
liament, owns bishops and presbyters by Scrip- 
ture to be tire same. Beside, the Protestant 
Dissenters allege, that if episcopal ordination 
be really necessary to constitute a valid minis- 
ter, it does not seem to be enjoined by the 
constitution of the church of England ; because 
the power of ordination which the bishops ex- 
ercise in this kingdom, is derived entirely and 
only from the civil magistrate ; and he autho- 
ritatively prescribes how, and to whom ordina- 
tion is to be given : that if an ordination should 
be conducted in other manner and form than 
that prescribed by him, such ordination would 
be illegal, and of no authority in the church. 
Accordingly the bishop at the ordination of 
the candidate asks, " Are you called according 
to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the 
due order of this realm?" The constitution 
and law of England seem to know nothing of 
uninterrupted lineal descent, but considers the 
king vested, by act of parliament, or the suf- 
frage of the people, with a fulness of all power 
ecclesiastical in these realms, as empowering 
and authorizing bishops to ordain : and this 
power of ordination was once delegated to 
Cromwell, a layman, as vicegerent to the king. 



They fartlier think it strange, that the validity 
of orders and ministrations should be derived, 
as some have contended, from a succession of 
popish bishops ; bishops of a church, which, 
by the definition of the nineteenth article of 
the church, can be no part of the true visible 
church of Christ, and bishops, likewise, who 
consider the Protestant clergy, although or- 
dained by Protestant bishops, as mere common 
unconsecrated laymen. 

On reviewing the whole of this controversy, 
says Dr. Watts, that since there are some texts 
in the New Testament, wherein single person^, 
either Apostles, as Paul and Barnabas, ordained 
ministers in the churches, or evangelists, as 
Timothy and Titus ; and since other missions 
or ordinations are intimated to be performed by 
several persons, namely, prophets, teachers, 
elders, or a presbytery, Acts xiii, 1 ; 1 Timothy 
iv, 14 ; since there is sometimes mention made 
of the imposition of hands in the mission of a 
minister, and sometimes no mention is made 
of it ; and since it is evident that in some cases 
popular ordinations are and must be valid with- 
out any bishop or elder, — I think none of these 
differences should be made a matter of violent 
contest among Christians ; nor ought any words 
to be pronounced against each other by those' 
of the episcopal, presbyterian, or independent 
way. Surely all may agree thus far, that va- 
rious forms or modes, seeming to be used in 
the mission or ordination of ministers in pri- 
mitive times, may give a reasonable occasion 
or colour for sincere and honest searchers after 
truth to follow different opinions on this head, 
and do therefore demand our candid and chari- 
table sentiments concerning those who differ 
from us. Among the Wesleyan Methodists, 
the ordination of their ministers is in the 
annual conference, with a president at its 
head, and is by prayer without imposition of 
hands. The latter they hold to be a circum- 
stance of ordination, not an essential. They 
sometimes therefore use it, and at others omit 
it. The missionaries sent out by that body, if 
not previously ordained by the conference, 
are set apart by a few senior ministers ; and 
ordinarily in this case, the service of tlie church 
of England, with some alterations, is used, 
with imposition of the hands of the ministers 
present. 

OSSIFRAGE, Difl, Lev. xi, 13; Deut. 
xiv, 12. Interpreters are not agreed on this 
bird; some read "vulture," others "the black 
eagle," others " the falcon." The name peres, 
by which it is called in Hebrew, denotes " to 
crush, to break;" and this name agrees with 
our version, which implies " the bone-breaker," 
which name is given to a kind of eagle, from 
the circumstance of its habit of breaking the 
bones of its prey, after it has eaten the flesh : 
some say also, that he even swallows the bones 
thus broken. Onkelos uses a word which sig- 
nifies " naked," and leads us to the vulture : 
indeed, if we were to take the classes of birds 
in any thing like a natural order in the pas- 
sages here referred to, the vulture should follow 
the eagle as an unclean bird. The Septu- 
agint interpreter also renders vulture; and 



OST 



724 



OWL 



so do Munster, Schindler, and the Zurick ver- 
sions. 

OSTRICH, njy> ; in Arabic neamah; in 
Greek <^^ndoKdpj\os, the camel bird; and still in 
the east, says Niebuhr, it is called thar edsjam- 
7nel, "the camel bird," Lev. xi, 16; Deut. 
xiv, 15 ; Job xxx, 29 ; Isaiah xiii, 21 ; xxxiv, 13 ; 
xliii, 20 ; Jer. 1, 39 ; Lam. iv, 3 ; Micah i, 8 ; 
CD''JJ1, Job xxxix, 13. The first name in the 
places above quoted is, by our own translators, 
generally rendered "owls." " Now it should 
be recollected," says the author of " Scripture 
Illustrated," " that the owl is not a desert bird, 
but rather resides in places not far from habita- 
tions, and that it is not the companion of ser- 
pents ; whereas, in several of these passages, 
the joneh is associated with deserts, dry, exten- 
sive, thirsty deserts, and with serpents, which 
are their natural inhabitants. Our ignorance 
of the natural history of the countries which 
the ostrich inhabits has undoubtedly perverted 
the import of the above passages ; but let any 
one peruse them afresh, and exchange the owl 
for the ostrich, and he will immediately discover 
■a vigour of description, and an imagery much 
beyond what he had formerly perceived." The 
Hebrew phrase T}2])'<n n3, means "the daughter 
of vociferation," and is understood to be the 
female ostrich, probably so called from the 
noise which this bird makes. It is affirmed by 
travellers of good credit, that ostriches make 
a fearful, screeching, lamentable noise. 

Ostriches are inhabitants of the deserts of 
Arabia, where they live chiefly upon vegetables; 
lead a social and inoffensive life, the male as- 
sorting with the female with connubial fidelity. 
Their eggs are very large, some of them mea- 
suring above five inches in diameter, and weigh- 
ing twelve or fifteen pounds. Those birds are 
very prolific, laying forty or fifty eggs at a 
clutch. They will devour leather, grass, hair, 
stones, metals, or any thing that is given to 
them ; but those substances which the coats 
of the stomach cannot act upon pass whole. 
It is so unclean an animal as to eat its own 
ordure as soon as it voids it. This is a suffi- 
cient reason, were others wanting, why such 
a fowl should be reputed unclean, and its use 
as an article of diet prohibited. " The ostrich," 
says M. Buffon, " was known in the remotest 
ages, and mentioned in the most ancient books. 
How indeed could an animal so remarkably 
large, and so wonderfully prolific, and pecu- 
liarly suited to the climate as is the ostrich, 
remain unknown in Africa, and part of Asia, 
countries peopled from the earliest ages, full 
of deserts indeed, but where there is not a spot 
which has not been traversed by the foot of 
man ? The family of the ostrich, therefore, is 
of great antiquity. Nor in the course of ages 
has it varied or degenerated from its native 
purity. It has always remained on its pater- 
nal estate ; and its lustre has been transmitted 
unsullied by foreign intercourse. In short, it 
is among the birds what the elephant is among 
the quadrupeds, a distinct race, widely separated 
from all the others by characters as striking 
as they are invariable." " On the least noise," 
says Dr. Shaw, " or trivial occasion, she for- 



sakes her eggs, or her young ones ; to which 
perhaps she never returns ; or if she does, it 
may be too late either to restore life to the one, 
or to preserve the lives of the others. Agree- 
ably to this account the Arabs meet sometimes 
with whole nests of these eggs undisturbed : 
some of them are sweet and good, others are 
addle and corrupted ; others again have their 
young ones of different growth, according to 
the time, it may be presumed, they have been 
forsaken of the dam. The Arabs often meet 
with a few of the little ones no bigger than 
well grown pullets, half starved, straggling and 
moaning about like so many distressed orphans 
for their mother. In this manner the ostrich 
may be said to be hardened against her young 
ones as though they were not hers ; her labour, 
in hatching and attending them so far, being 
vain, without fear, or the least concern of what 
becomes of them afterward. This want of 
affection is also recorded, Lam. iv, 3, 'the 
daughter of my people is become cruel, like 
ostriches in the wilderness ;' that is, by ap. 
parently deserting their own, and receiv- 
ing others in return." Natural affection and 
sagacious instinct are the grand instruments 
by which providence continues the race of 
other animals : but no limits can be set to the 
wisdom and powder of God. He preserveth 
the breed of the ostrich without those means, 
and even in a penury of all the necessaries of 
life. Notwithstanding the stupidity of this 
animal, its Creator hath amply provided for its 
safety, by endowing it with extraordinary, swift- 
ness, and a surprising apparatus for escaping 
from its enemy. They, when they raise them- 
selves up for flight, " laugh at the horse and 
his rider." They afford him an opportunity 
only of admiring at a distance the extraordinary 
agility and the stateliness likewise of their 
motions, the richness of their plumage, and 
the great propriety there was in ascribing to 
them an expanded quivering wing. Nothing 
certainly can be more entertaining than such 
a sight, the wings, by their rapid but unwearied 
vibrations, equally serving them for sails and 
oars ; while their feet, no less assisting in con- 
veying them out of sight, seem to be insensible 
of fatigue. 

OWL. There are several varieties of this 
species, all too well known to need a particular 
description. They are nocturnal birds of prey, 
and have their eyes better adapted for discern- 
ing objects in the evening or twilight than in 
the glare of day. 1. Dp, Lev. xi, 17; Deut. 
xiv, 16 ; Psalm cii, 6, is in our version rendered 
"the little owl." Aquila, Theodotion, Jerom, 
Kimchi, and most of the older interpreters, are 
quoted to justify this rendering. Michaelis, at 
some length, supports the opinion that it is 
the horned owl. Bochart, though with some 
hesitation, suspected it to be the onocrotalus, a 
kind of pelican, because the Hebrew name 
signifies cup, and the pelican is remarkable for 
a pouch or bag under the lower jaw ; but there 
are good reasons for supposing tliat bird to be 
the riNp of the next verse. Dr. Geddes thinks 
this bird the cormorant ; and as it begins the 
list of water fowl, and is mentioned always in 



WMB^f^^l 



.m^i.. \j.mmmmi.mmB^ ^.miMw^m 



ox 



725 



PAL 



the same contexts with nN|->, confessedly a 
water bird, his opinion maybe adopted. 2. t]WJ\ 
Lev. xi, 17; Deut. xiv, 16; Isaiah xxxiv, 11. 
In the two first places our translators render 
this " the great owl," which is strangely placed 
after the little owl, and among water birds. 
" Our translators," says the author of " Scrip- 
ture Illustrated," " seem to have thought the 
owl a convenient bird, as we have three owls 
in two verses." Some critics think it means 
a species of night bird, because the word may 
be derived from r^tyj, which signifies the twi- 
light, the time when owls fly about. But this 
interpretation, says Parkhurst, seems very 
forced ; and since it is mentioned among 
water fowls, and the LXX. have, in the first 
and last of those texts, rendered it by I'St?, the 
ibis, we are disposed to adopt -it here, and 
think the evidence strengthened by this, that 
in a Coptic version of Lev. xi, 17, it is called 
ip or hip, which, with a Greek termination, 
would very easily make i6ls. 3. pDp, which 
occurs only in Isaiah xxxiv, 15, is in our ver- 
sion rendered "the great owl." 4. ni^-"^, Isa. 
xxxiv, 14, in our version "the screech owl." 
The root signifies night ; and as undoubtedly 
a bird frequenting dark places and ruins is 
referred to, we must admit some kind of owl. 

A place of lonely desolation, where 

The screeching tribe and pelicans abide, 

And the dun ravens croak mid ruins drear, 
And moaning owls from man tlie farthest hide. 
OX, np3, in Arabic hceJcerre and hykar, the 
male of horned cattle of the beeve kind, at full 
age, when fit for the plough. Younger ones 
are called bullocks. Michaelis, in his elabo- 
rate work on the laws of Moses, has proved 
that castration was never practised. The 
rural economy of the Israelites led them to 
value the ox as by far the most important of 
domestic animals, from the consideration of 
his great use in all the operations of farming. 
In the patriarchal ages, the ox constituted no 
inconsiderable portion of their wealth. Thus 
Abraham is said to be very rich in cattle. Gen. 
xxiv, 35. Men of every age and country have 
been much indebted to the labours of this ani- 
mal. So early as in the days of Job, who was 
probably contemporary with Isaac, "the oxen 
were ploughing, and the asses were feeding 
beside them," when the Sabeans fell upon 
them, and took them away. In times long 
posterior, when Elijah was commissioned to 
anoint Elisha, the son of Shaphat, prophet in 
his stead, he found him ploughing with twelve 
yoke of oxen, 1 Kings xix, 19. For many ages 
the hopes of oriental husbandmen depended 
entirely on their labours. This was so much 
the case in the time of Solomon, that he ob- 
serves, in one of his proverbs, "Where no 
oxen are, the crib is clean," or rather empty ; 
" but much increase is by the strength of the 
ox," Prov. xiv, 4. The ass, in the course of 
ages was compelled to bend his stubborn neck 
to the yoke, and share the labours of the ox ; 
but still the preparation of the ground in the 
time of spring depended chiefly on the more 
powerful exertions of the latter. When this 
animal was employed in bringing home the 



produce of the liarvest, he was regaled with a 
mixture of chaff", chopped straw, and various 
kinds of grain, moistened with acidulated 
water. But among the Jews, the ox was best 
fed when employed in treading out the corn ; 
for the divine law, in many of whose precepts 
the benevolence of the Deity conspicuously 
shines, forbad to muzzle him, and, by conse- 
quence, to prevent him from eating what he 
would of the grain he was employed to sepa- 
rate from the husks. The ox was also com- 
pelled to the labour of dragging the cart or 
wagon. The number of oxen commonly 
yoked to one cart appears to have been two, 
Num. vii, 3, 7, 8 ; 1 Sam. vi, 7 ; 2 Sam. vi, 3, 6. 
The wild ox, iNn, Deut. xiv, 5, is supposed 
to be the oryx of the Greeks, which is a species 
of large stag. 

PADAN-ARAM, called also Sedan- Aram, 
in Hosea ; both names denoting Aram or Syria 
the fruitful, or cultivated, and apply to the 
northern part of Mesopotamia, in which Ha- 
ran or Charran was situated. See Mesopo- 
tamia. 

PAGANS, Heathens, and particularly those 
who worship idols. The term came into use 
after the establishment of Christianity, the 
cities and great towns affording the first con- 
verts. The Heathens, were called Pagans, 
from pagus, " a village," because they were 
then found chiefly in remote country places ; 
but we use the term commonly for all who do 
not receive the Jewish, Christian, or Moham- 
medan religions. • 

PAINTING THE FACE, 2 Kings ix, SQ. 
See Eyes. 

PALESTINE, taken in a limited sense, de- 
notes the country of the Philistines or Pales- 
tines, including that part of the land of promise 
which extended along the Mediterranean Sea, 
from Gaza south to Lydda north. The LXX. 
were of opinion that the word Philistiimj 
which they generally translate Allophyli, sig. 
nified "strangers," or men of another tribe. 
Palestine, taken in a more general sense, sig- 
nifies the whole country of Canaan, the whole 
land of promise, as well beyond as on this side 
Jordan, though pretty frequently it is restrained 
to the country on this side that river ; so that 
in later times the words Judea and Palestine 
were synonymous. We find, also, the name 
of Syria Palestina given to the land of promise, 
and even sometimes this province is compre- 
hended in Coelo-Syria, or the Lower Syria. 
Herodotus is the most ancient writer we 
know that speaks of Syria Palestina. He 
places it between Phenicia and Egypt. See 
Canaan. 

PALM TREE, nnn. Exodus xv, 27, &c. 
This tree, sometimes called the date tree, 
grows plentifully in the east. It rises to a 
great height. The stalks are generally full 
of rugged knots, which are the vestiges of the 
decayed leaves ; for the trunk of this tree is 
not solid, like other trees, but its centre is 
filled with pith, round which is a tough bark 
full of strong fibres when young, which, as 
the tree grows old, hardens and becomes lig. 



PAL 



726 



PAL 



jieous. To this bark the leaves are closely 
joined, which in the centre rise erect ; but, 
after they are advanced above the vagina 
which surrounds them, they expand very wide 
on every side the stem ; and, as the older 
leaves decay, the stalk advances in height. 
The leaves, when the tree has grown to a size 
for bearing fruit, are six or eight feet long, 
are very broad when spread out, and are used 
for covering the tops of houses, &c. The fruit, 
which is called date, grows below the leaves 
in clusters and is of a sweet and agreeable 
taste. The learned Keempfer, as a botanist, 
an antiquary, and a traveller, has exhausted 
the whole subject of palm trees. " The dili- 
gent natives," says Mr. Gibbon, " celebrated, 
either in verse or prose, the three hundred and 
sixty uses to which the trunk, the branches, 
the leaves, the juice, and the fruit, were skil- 
fully applied." "The extensive importance 
of the date tree," says Dr. E. D. Clarke, " is 
one of the ijiost curious subjects to which a 
traveller can direct his attention. A consider- 
able part of the inhabitants of Egypt, of Ara- 
bia, and Persia, subsist almost entirely upon 
its fruit. They boast also of its medicinal vir- 
tues. Their camels feed upon the date stone. 
From the leaves they make couches, baskets, 
bags, mats, and brushes ; from the branches, 
cages for their poultry, and fences for their 
gardens ; from the fibres of the boughs, thread, 
ropes, and rigging ; from the sap is prepared 
a spirituous liquor ; and the body of the tree 
furnishes fuel. It is even said that from one 
variety 6f the palm tree, the phoenix farinif era, 
meal has been extracted, which is found among 
the fibres of the trunk, and has been used for 
food." 

In the temple of Solomon were pilasters 
made in the form of palm trees, 1 Kings vi, 29. 
It was under a tree of this kind that Deborah 
dwelt between Ramah and Bethel, Judges iv, 5. 
To the fair, flourishing, and fruitful condition 
of this tree, the psalmist very aptly compares 
the votary of virtue, Psalm xcii, 12, 13, 14 : — 

The righteous shall fiourish like a palm tree. 
Those that are planted in the house of Jehovah, 
In the courts of our God, shall flourish ; 
In old age they shall still put forth buds, 
They shall be full of sap and vigorous. 

The palm tree is crowned at its top with a 
large tuft of spiring leaves about four feet 
long, which never fall off*, but always continue 
in the same flourishing verdure. The tree, as 
Dr. Shaw was informed, is in its greatest 
vigour about thirty years after it is planted, 
and continues in full vigour seventy years 
longer ; bearing all this while, every year, 
about three or four hundred pounds' weight 
of dates. The trunk of the tree is remarkably 
straight and lofty. Jeremiah, speaking of the 
idals that were carried in procession, says they 
were upright as the palm tree, Jer. x, 5. And 
for erect stature and slenderness of form, the 
spouse, in Canticles vii, 7, is compared to this 
tree : — 

How framed, O mv love, for delights ! 
Lo, thy stature is like a palm tree, 
And thy bosom Uke clusters of dates. 



On this passage Mr. Good observes, that "the 
very word tamar, here used for the palm tree, 
and whose radical meaning is ' straight,' or 
' upright,' (whence it was afterward applied to 
pillars or columns, as well as to the palm,) 
was also a general name among the ladies of 
Palestine, and unquestionably adopted in ho. 
nour of the stature they had already acquired, 
or gave a fair promise of attaining." 

A branch of palm was a signal of victory, 
and was carried before conquerors in tha 
triumphs. To this, allusion is made, Rev. 
vii, 9 : and for this purpose were they borne 
before Christ in his way to Jerusalem, John 
xii, 13. From the inspissated sap of the tree, 
a kind of honey, or dispse, as it is called, is 
produced, little inferior to that of bees. The 
same juice, after fermentation, makes a sort 
of wine much used in the east. It is once 
mentioned as wine, Num. xxviii, 7 ; Exodus 
xxix, 40 ; and by it is intended the strong 
drink, Isaiah v, 11 ; xxiv, 9. Theodoret and 
Chrysostom, on these places, both Syrians, 
and unexceptionable witnesses in what belongs 
to their own country, confirm this declaration, 
"This liquor," says Dr. Shaw, "which has a 
more luscious sweetness than honey, is of the 
consistence of a thin syrup, but quickly grows 
tart and ropy, acquiring an intoxicating quality, 
and giving by distillation an agreeable spirit, 
or ardky, according to the general name of 
these people for all hot liquors, extracted by 
the alembic.'* Its Hebrew name is iDiJ', the 
ciKcpa of the Greeks ; and from its sweetness, pro- 
bably, the saccharum of the Romans. Jerom in- 
forms us that in Hebrew " any inebriating liquor 
is called sicera, whether made of grain, the juice 
of apples, honey, dates, or any other fruit." 

This tree was formerly of great value and 
esteem among the Israelites, and so very 
much cultivated in Judea, that, in after times, 
it became the emblem of that country, as may 
be seen in a medal of the Emperor Vespasian 
upon the conquest of Judea. It represents a 
captive woman sitting under a palm tree, with 
this inscription, '■'■ Judea ca/pta ;" [Judea capti- 
vated ;] and upon a Greek coin, likewise, of 
his son Titus, struck upon the like occasion, 
we see a shield suspended upon a palm tree, 
with a Victory writing upon it. Pliny also 
calls Judea palmis inclyta, " renowned for 
palms." Jerich-o, in particular, was called 
" the city of p^lms," Deut. xxxiv, 3 ; 2 Chron. 
xxviii, 15 ; because, as Josephus, Strabo, and 
Pliny, have remarked, it anciently abounded 
in palm trees. And so Dr. Shaw remarks, 
that, though these trees are not now either 
plentiful or fruitful in other parts of the holy 
land, yet there are several of them at Jericho, 
where there is the conveniency they require 
of being often watered ; where, likewise, the 
climate is warm, and the soil sandy, such as 
they thrive and delight in. Tamar, a city 
built in the desert by Solomon, 1 Kings ix, 18 ; 
Ezekiel xlvii, 19 ; xlviii, 28, was probably so 
named from the palm trees growing about it ; 
as it was afterward by the Romans called 
Palmyra, or rather Palmira, on the same ac« 
count, from palma, "a palm tree'" * 



PAP 



727 



PAR 



PALMER WORM, au, Joel i, 4 ; Amos 
iv, 9. Bochart says that it is a kind of locust, 
furnished with very sharp teeth, with which it 
gnaws off grass, corn, leaves of trees, and even 
their bark. The Jews support this idea by 
deriving the word from nJ or ]?j, to cut, to 
shear, or mince. Notwithstanding the unani- 
mous sentiments of the Jews that this is a 
locust, yet the LXX. read KdjxTrr], and the Vul- 
gate eruca, " a caterpillar ;" which rendering 
is supported by Fuller. Michaelis agrees with 
this opinion, and thinks that the sharp cutting 
teeth of tJie caterpillar, which, like a sickle, clear 
away all before them, might give name to this 
insect. Caterpillars also begin their ravages 
before the locust, which seems to coincide with 
the nature of the creature here intended. 

PALSY. See Diseases. 

PAMPHYLIA, a province of Asia Minor 
which gives name to that part of the Mediter- 
ranean Sea which washes its coast. Acts xxvii, 
5. To the south it is bounded by the Mediter- 
ranean, and to the north by Pisidia ; having 
Lycia to the west, and Ciiicia to the east. 
Paul and Barnabas preached at Perga, in 
Pamphylia, Acts xiii, 13 ; xiv, 24. 

PANTHEISM, a doctrine into which some 
of the sages of antiquity fell by revolting at 
the monstrous absurdities of Polytheism. Not 
knowing the true God as an infinite and per- 
sonal subsistence, a cause above and distinct 
from all effects, they believed that God was 
every thing, and every thing God. This 
monstrous, and in its effects immoral, notion, 
is still held by the Brahmins of India. 

PAPER REED, ndj, Exod. ii, 3 ; Job viii, 
11 ; Isaiah xviii, 2 ; xxxv, 7. When the outer 
skin, or bark, is taken off", there are several 
films, or inner pellicles, one within another. 
These, when separated from the stalk, were 
laid on a table artfully matched and flatted 
together, and moistened with the water of the 
Nile, which, dissolving the glutinous juices of 
the plant, caused them to adhere closely to- 
gether. They were afterward pressed, and 
then dried in the sun, and thus were prepared 
sheets or leaves for writing upon in characters 
marked by a coloured liquid passing through 
a hollow reed. The best papyrus was called 
kpariKfi, or paper of the priests. On this the 
sacred documents of Egypt were written. 
Ancient books were written on papyrus, and 
those of the New Testament among the rest. 
In the fourth century however these sacred 
writings are found on skins. This was pre- 
ferred for durability ; and many decayed copies 
of the New Testament, belonging to libraries, 
were early transferred to parchment. Finally 
came paper, the name of which was taken from 
the Egyptian reed ; but the materials of which 
it was fabricated were cotton and linen. See 
Bulrush and Book. 

PAPHOS, a celebrated city of Cyprus, lying 
on the western coast of the island, where 
Venus (who from hence took the name of 
Paphia) had her most ancient and most famous 
temple ; and here the Roman proconsul, Ser- 
gius Paulus, resided, whom St. Paul converted 
to Christianity, Acts xiii, 6. 



PARABLE, zsapa6o\ri, formed from zsapaSdX.. 
\eiv, to oppose or compare, an allegorical in- 
struction, founded on something real or appa- 
rent in nature or history, from which a moral 
is drawn, by comparhig it with some other 
thing in which the people are more immedi- 
ately concerned. (See Allegory,) Aristotle 
defines parable, a similitude drawn from form 
to form. Cicero calls it a collation ; others, a 
simile. F. de Colonia calls it a rational fable ; 
but it may be founded on real occurrences, as 
many parables of our Saviour were. The 
Hebrews call it '?ti'D, from a word which signi- 
fies either to predominate or to assimilate ; the 
Proverbs of Solomon are by them also called 
D^'^a'D, parables, or proverbs. 

Parable, according to the eminently learned 
Bishop Lowth, is that kind of allegory which 
consists of a continued narration of a fictitious 
or accommodated event, applied to the illustra- 
tion of some important truth. The Greeks 
call these ahoi, allegories, or apologues; the 
Latins, fabulcB, or " fables ;" and the writings 
of the Phrygian sage, or those composed in 
imitation of him, have acquired the greatest 
celebrity. Nor has our Saviour himself dis- 
dained to adopt the same method of instruc- 
tion ; of whose parables it is doubtful whether 
they excel most in wisdom and utility, or in 
sweetness, elegance, and perspicuity. As the 
appellation of parable has been applied to his 
discourses of this kind, the term is now re, 
stricted from its former extensive signification 
to a more confined sense. But this species of 
composition occurs very frequently in the pro- 
phetic poetry, and particularly in that of 
Ezekiel. If to us they should sometimes ap- 
pear obscure, we must remember, that, in those 
early times when the prophetical writings 
were indited, it was universally the mode 
throughout all the eastern nations to convey 
sacred truths under mysterious figures and 
representations. In order to our forming a 
more certain judgment upon this subject. Dr. 
Lowth has briefly explained some of the pri- 
mary qualities of the poetic parables; so that, 
by considering the general nature of them, we 
may decide more accurately on the merits of 
particular examples. 

It is the first excellence of a parable to turn 
upon an image well known and applicable to 
the subject, the meaning of which is clear and 
definite ; for this circumstance will give it 
perspicuity, which is essential to every species 
of allegory. If the parables of the sacred pro- 
phets are examined by this rule, they will not 
be found deficient. They are in general 
founded upon such imagery as is frequently 
used, and similarly applied by way of metaphor 
and comparison in the Hebrew poetry. Ex- 
amples of this kind occur in the parable of the 
deceitful vineyard, Isaiah v, 1-7, and of the 
useless vine, Ezek. xv ; xix, 10-14 ; for under 
this imagery the ungrateful people of God are 
more than once described ; Ezek. xix, 1-9 ; 
xxxi ; xvi ; xxiii. Moreover, the image must 
not only be apt and familiar, but it must be 
also elegant and beautiful in itself; since it is 
the purpose of a poetic parable, not only tq 



PAR 



728 



PAS 



fixplaia more perfectly some proposition, but 
frequently to give it some animation and 
splendour. As the imagery from natural ob- 
jects is in this respect superior to all others, 
the parables of the sacred poets consist chiefly 
.of this kind of imagery. It is also essential 
to the elegance of a parable, that the imagery 
should not only be apt and beautiful, but that 
all its parts and appendages should be per^ 
spicuous and pertinent. Of all these excel- 
lencies, there cannot be more perfect examples 
than the parables that have been just specified ; 
to which we may add the well known parable 
jof Nathan, 2 Sam. xii, 1-4, although written 
in prose, as well as that of Jotham, Judges ix, 
7-15, which appears to be the most ancient 
extant, and approaches somewhat nearer to 
the poetical form. It is iso the criterion of 
a parable, that it be consistent throughout, 
and thait the literal be never confounded with 
,the figurative sense ; and in this respect it 
materially differs from that species of allegory, 
called the continued metaphor, Isaiah v, 1-7. 
it should be considered, that the continued 
metaphor and the parable have a very differ- 
ent view. The sole intention of the former is 
to embellish a subject, to represent it more 
magnificently, or at the most to illustrate it, 
that, by describing it in more elevated lan- 
guage, it may strike the mind more forcibly ; 
but the intent of the latter is to withdraw the 
truth for a moment from our sight, in order to 
conceal whatever it may contain ungrateful 
or reproving, and to enable it secretly to in- 
sinuate itself, and obtain an ascendency as it 
were by stealth. There is, however, a species 
,of parable, the intent of which is only to illus- 
trate the subject ; such is that remarkable one 
iof the cedar of Lebanon, Ezek. xxxi ; than 
which, if we consider the imagery itself, none 
w^as ever more apt or more beautiful ; or the 
description and colouring, none was ever 
more elegant or splendid ; in which, however, 
the poet has occasionally allowed himself to 
blend the figurative with the literal descrip^. 
tion, verses 11, 14-17 ; whether he has done 
this because the peculiar nature of thi^ kind 
of parable required it, or whether his own fer- 
vid imagination alone, which disdained the 
stricter rules of composition, was his guide, 
our learned author can scarcely presume to 
determine. 

In the New Testament, the word parable is 
used variously : in Luke iv, 23, for a proverb, 
or adage ; in Matt, xv, 15, for a thing darkly 
and figuratively expressed ; in Heb. ix, 9, &c, 
for a type ; in Luke xiv, 7, &c, for a special 
instruction ; in Matt, xxiv, 32, for a similitude 
or comparison. 

PARADISE, according to the original 
meaning of the term, whether it be of Hebrew, 
Chaldee, or Persian derivation, signifies, " a 
place enclosed for pleasure and delight." The 
LXX., or Greek translators of the Old Testa- 
ment, make use of the word paradise, when 
they speak of the garden of Eden, which Je- 
hovah planted at the creation, and in which 
he placed our first parents. There are three 
places in the Hebrew text of the Old Testa- 



ment where this word is found, namely, Neh. 
ii, 8 ; Cant, iv, 13 ; Eccles. ii, 5. The term 
paradise is obviously used in the New Testa- 
ment, as another word for heaven ; by our 
Lord, Luke xxiii, 43; by the Apostle Paul, 
2 Cor. xii, 4; and in the Apocalypse, ii, 7. 
See Eden. 

PARAN, Desert of, a "great and terrible 
wilderness" which the children of Israel en- 
tered after leaving Mount Sinai, Num. x, 12; 
Deut. i, 19 ; and in which thirty-eight of their 
forty years of wandering were spent. It ex- 
tended from Mount Sinai on the south, to the 
southern border of the land of Canaan on the 
north; having the desert of Shur, with its 
subdivisions, the deserts of Etham and Sin, 
on the west, and the eastern branch of the 
Red Sea, the desert of Zin and Mount Seir, 
on the east, Burckhardt represents this desert, 
which he entered from that of Zin, or valley 
of El Araba, about the parallel of Suez, as a 
dreary expanse of calcareous soil, covered with 
black flints. 

PARTRIDGE, nip, 1 Samuel xxvi, 20 ; Jer. 
xvii, 11 ; aipdi^, Ecclus. xi, 30. In the first of 
these places David says, " The king of Israel 
is come out to hunt a partridge on the mount, 
ains ;" and in the second, "The partridge sit- 
teth," on eggs, " and produceth," or hatcheth, 
" not ; so he that getteth riches, and not by 
right, shall leave them in the midst of his 
days, and at his end shall be contemptible." 
This passage does not necessarily imply that 
the partridge hatches the eggs of a stranger, 
but only that she often fails in her attempts to 
bring forth her young. To such disappoint- 
ments she is greatly exposed from the position 
of her nest on the ground, v/here her eggs are 
often spoiled by the wet, or crushed by the 
foot. So he that broods over his ill-gotten 
gains will often find them unproductive ; or, 
if he leaves them, as a bird occasionally driven 
from her nest, may be despoiled of their pos- 
session. As to the hunting of the partridge, 
which. Dr. Shaw observes, is the greater, or 
red-legged kind, the traveller says : " The 
Arabs have another, though a more laborious, 
method of catching these birds ; for, observing 
that they become languid and fatigued after 
they have been hastily put up twice or thrice, 
they immediately run in upon them, and knock 
them down with their zerioattys, or bludgeons 
as we should call them." Precisely in this 
manner Saul hunted David, coming hastily 
upon him, putting him up incessantly, in hopes 
that at length his strength and resources 
would fail, and he would become an easy prey 
to his pursuer. Forskal mentions a partridge 
whose name in Arabic is kvrr ; and Latham 
says, that, in the province of Andalusia in 
Spain, the name of the partridge is churr; 
both taken, no doubt, like the Hebrew, from 
its note. 

PASSOVER, noo, signifies leap, passage. 
The passover was a solemn festival of the 
Jews, instituted in commemoration of their 
coming out of Egypt ; because the night before 
their departure the destroying angel that slew 
the first-born of the Egyptians passed over the 



PAS 



729 



PAU 



houses of the Hebrews without entering them, 
because they were marked with the blood of 
the lamb, which, for this reason, was called 
the paschal lamb. The following is what God 
ordained concerning the passover : the month 
of the coming out of Egypt was after this to 
be the first month of the sacred or ecclesiastical 
year ; and the fourteenth day of this month, 
between the two evenings, that is, between the 
sun's decline and its setting, or rather, accord- 
ing to our reckoning, between three o'clock in 
the afternoon and six in the evening, at the 
equinox, they were to kill the paschal lamb, 
and to abstain from leavened bread. The day 
following, being the fifteenth, reckoned from 
six o'clock of the preceding evening, was the 
grand feast of the passover, which continued 
seven days ; but only the first and seventh days 
were peculiarly solemn. The slain lamb was 
to be without defect, a male, and of that year. 
If no lamb could be found, they might take a 
kid. They killed a lamb or a kid in each family ; 
and if the number of the family was not suffi. 
cient to eat the lamb, they might associate two 
families together. With the blood of the lamb 
they sprinkled the door posts and lintel of every 
house, that the destroying angel at the sight of 
the blood might pass over them. They were 
to eat the lamb the same night, roasted, with 
unleavened bread, and a sallad of wild lettuces, 
or bitter herbs. It was forbid to eat any part 
of it raw, or boiled ; nor were they to break a 
bone ; but it was to be eaten entire, even with 
the head, the feet, and the bowels. If any 
thing remained to the day following it was 
thrown into the fire, Exod. xii, 46 ; Num. ix, 12 ; 
John xix, 36. They who ate it were to be in 
the posture of travellers, having their reins girt, 
shoes on their feet, staves in their hands, and 
eating in a hurry. This last part of the cere- 
mony was but little observed ; at least, it was 
of no obligation after that night when they 
came out of Egypt. During the whole eight 
days of the passover no leavened bread was to 
be used. They kept the first and last day of 
the feast ; yet it was allowed to dress victuals, 
which was forbidden on the Sabbath day. The 
obligation of keeping the passover was so 
strict, that whoever should neglect it was con- 
demned to death, Num. ix, 13. But those who 
had any lawful impediment, as a journey, sick- 
ness, or uncleanness, voluntary or involuntary, 
for example, those who had been present at a 
funeral, &c, were to defer the celebration of 
the passover till the second month of the eccle- 
siastical year, the fourteenth day of the month 
Jair, which answers to April and May. We 
see an example of this postponed passover 
under Hezekiah, 2 Chron. xxx, 2, 3, &c. 

The modern Jews observe in general the 
ceremonies practised by their ancestors in the 
celebration of the passover. While the temple 
was in existence, the Jews brought their lambs 
thither, and there sacrificed them ; and they 
offered their blood to the priest, who poured it 
out at the foot of the altar. The paschal lamb 
was an illustrious type of Christ, who became 
a sacrifice for the redemption of a lost world 
from sin and misery ; but resemblances between 



the type and antitype have been strained by 
many writers into a great number of fanciful 
particulars. It is enough for us to be assured, 
that as Christ is called "our passover;" and 
the "Lamb of God," without "spot," by the 
"sprinkling of whose blood" we are delivered 
from guilt and punishment ; and as faith in 
him is represented to us as "eating the flesh 
of Christ," with evident allusion to the eating 
of the paschal sacrifice ; so, in these leading 
particulars, the mystery of our redemption was 
set forth. The paschal lamb therefore pre- 
figured the offering of the spotless Son of God, 
the appointed propitiation for the sins of the 
whole world ; by virtue of which, when re- 
ceived by faith, we are delivered from the 
bondage of guilt and misery ; and nourished 
with strength for our heavenly journey to that 
land of rest, of which Canaan, as early as the 
days of Abiaham, became the divinely insti- 
tuted figure. 

PATMOS, a small rocky island in the 
^gean Sea, about eighteen miles in circum- 
ference ; which, on account of its dreary and 
desolate character, was used by the Roman 
emperors as a place of confinement for crimi- 
nals. To this island St. John was banished 
by the Emperor Domitian ; and here he had 
his revelation, recorded in the Apocalypse. 

PATRIARCHS. This name is given to the 
ancient fathers, chiefly those who lived before 
Moses, as Adam, Lamech, Noah, Shem, &c, 
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the sons of Jacob, and 
heads of the tribes. The Hebrews call them 
princes of the tribes, or heads of the fathers. 
The name patriarch is derived from the Greek 
patriarcha, "head of a family." 

PAUL was born at Tarsus, the principal 
city of Cilicia, and was by birth both a Jew 
and a citizen of Rome, Acts xxi, 39 ; xxii, 25. 
He was of the tribe of Benjamin, and of the 
sect of the Pharisees, Phil, iii, 5. In his 
youth he appears to have been taught the art 
of tent making. Acts xviii, 3 ; but we must 
remember that among the Jews of those days 
a liberal education was often accompanied by 
instruction in some mechanical trade. It is 
probable that St. Paul laid the foundation of 
those literary attainments, for which he was 
so eminent in the future part of his life, at his 
native city of Tarsus ; and he afterward studied 
the law of Moses, and the traditions of the 
elders, at Jerusalem, under Gamaliel, a cele- 
brated rabbi. Acts xxii, 4. St. Paul is not 
mentioned in the Gospels ; nor is it known 
whether he ever heard our Saviour preach, or 
saw him perform any miracle. His name first 
occurs in the account given in the Acts of the 
martyrdom of St. Stephen, A. D. 34, to which 
he is said to have consented, Acts viii, 1 : he 
is upon that occasion called a young man ; but 
we are no where informed what was then his 
precise age. The death of St. Stephen was 
followed by a severe persecution of the church 
at Jerusalem, and St. Paul became distinguished 
among its enemies by his activity and violence, 
Acts viii, 3. Not contented with displaying 
his hatred to the Gospel in Judea, he obtained 
authority from the high priest to go to Damas- 



^iifPiiiiiiiiiiiii M 




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cus, and to bring back with him bound any 
Christians whom he might find in that city. 
As he was upon his journey thither, A. D. 35, 
his miraculous conversion took place, the cir- 
cumstances of which are recorded in Acts ix, 
and are frequently alluded to in his epistles, 
1 Cor. XV, 9 ; Gal. i, 13 ; 1 Tim. i, 12, 13. 

Soon after St. Paul was baptized at Da- 
mascus, he went into Arabia ; but we are not 
informed Jiow long he remained there. He re- 
turned to Damascus ; and being supernaturally 
qualified to be a preacher of the Gospel, he 
immediately entered upon his ministry in that 
city. The boldness and success with which 
he enforced the truths of Christianity so irri- 
tated the unbelieving Jews, that they resolved 
to put him to death. Acts ix, 23 ; but, this 
design being known, the disciples conveyed 
him privately out of Damascus, and he went 
to Jerusalem, A. D. 38. The Christians of 
Jerusalem, remembering St. Paul's former hos- 
tility to the Gospel, and having no authentic 
account of any change in his sentiments or 
conduct, at first refused to receive him ; but 
being assured by Barnabas of St. Paul's real 
conversion, and of his exertions at Damascus, 
they acknowledged him as a disciple, Acts 
ix, 27. He remained only fifteen days among 
them. Gal. i, 18 ; and he saw none of the 
Apostles except St. Peter and St. James. It 
is probable that the other Apostles were at this 
time absent from Jerusalem, exercising their 
ministry at different places. The zeal with 
which St. Paul preached at Jerusalem had the 
same effect as at Damascus : he became so 
obnoxious to the Hellenistic Jews, that they 
began to consider how they might kill him. 
Acts ix, 29 ; which when the brethren knew, 
they thought it right that he should leave the 
city. They accompanied him to Caesarea, and 
thence he went into the regions of Syria and 
Cilicia, where he preached the faith which 
once he destroyed. Gal. i, 21, 23. 

Hitherto the preaching of St. Paul, as well 
as of the other Apostles and teachers, had been 
confined to the Jews ; but the conversion of 
Cornelius, the first Gentile convert, A. D. 40, 
having convinced all the Apostles that " to the 
Gentiles, also, God had granted repentance 
unto life," St. Paul was soon after conducted 
by Barnabas from Tarsus, which had probably 
been the principal place of his residence since 
he left Jerusalem, and they both began to 
preach the Gospel to the Gentiles at Antioch, 
A. D. 42, Acts xi, 25. Their preaching was 
attended with great success. The first Gentile 
church was now established at Antioch ; and 
in that city, and at this time, the disciples 
were first called Christians, Acts xi, 26. When 
these two Apostles had been thus employed 
about a year, a prophet called Agabus predicted 
an approaching famine, which would affect 
the whole land of Judea. Upon the prospect 
of this calamity, the Christians of Antioch 
made a contribution for their brethren in 
Judea, and sent the money to the elders at 
Jerusalem by St. Paul and Barnabas, A. D. 44, 
Acts xi, 28, &c. This famine happened soon 
after, in the fourth or fifth year of the Empe- 



ror Claudius, It is supposed that St. Paui 
had the vision, mentioned in Acts xxii, 17, 
while he was now at Jerusalem this second 
time after his conversion, 

St. Paul and Barnabas, having executed 
their commission, returned to Antioch ; and 
soon after their arrival in that city they were 
separated, by the express direction of the Holy 
Ghost, from the other Christian teachers and 
prophets, for the purpose of carrying the glad 
tidings of the Gospel to the Gentiles of various 
countries, Acts xiii, 1. Thus divinely appointed 
to this important office, they set out from An- 
tioch, A. D. 45, and preached the Gospel suc- 
cessively at Salamis and Paphos, two cities of 
the isle of Cyprus, at Perga in Pamphylia, 
Antiocli in Pisidia, and at Iconium, Lystra, 
and Derbe, three cities of Lycaonia. They 
returned to Antioch in Syria, A. D. 47, nearly 
by the same route. This first apostolical 
journey of St. Paul, in which he was accom- 
panied and assisted by Barnabas, is supposed 
to have occupied about two years ; and in the 
course of it many, both Jews and Gentiles, 
were converted to the Gospel. 

Paul and Barnabas continued at Antioch a 
considerable time ; and while they were there, 
a dispute arose between them and some Jewish 
Christians of Judea. These men asserted, that 
the Gentile converts could not obtain salvation 
through the Gospel, unless they were circum- 
cised ; Paul and Barnabas maintained the con- 
trary opinion. Acts xv, 1, 2. This dispute was 
carried on for some time with great earnest- 
ness ; and it being a question in which not 
only the present but all future Gentile converts 
were concerned, it was thought right that St. 
Paul and Barnabas, with some others, should 
go up to Jerusalem to consult the Apostles and 
elders concerning it. They passed through 
Phenicia and Samaria, and upon their arrival 
at Jerusalem, A.D.49, a council was assembled 
for the purpose of discussing this important 
point, Gal. ii, 1. St. Peter and St. James the 
less were present, and delivered their senti- 
ments, which coincided with those of St. Paul 
and Barnabas ; and after much deliberation it 
was agreed, that neither . circumcision, nor 
conformity to any part of the ritual la^v of 
Moses, was necessary in Gentile converts ; but 
that it should be recommended to them to ab- 
stain from certain specified things prohibited 
by that law, lest their indulgence in them 
should give offence to their brethren of the 
circumcision, who were still very zealous for 
the observance of the ceremonial part of their 
ancient religion. This decision which was 
declared to have the sanction of the Holy 
Ghost, was communicated to the Gentile 
Christians of Syria and Cilicia by a letter 
written in the name of the Apostles, elders, and 
whole church at Jerusalem, and conveyed by 
Judas and Silas, who accompanied St. Paul 
and Barnabas to Antioch for that purpose. 

St. Paul, having preached a short time at 
Antioch, proposed to Barnabas that they should 
visit the churches which they had founded in 
different cities, Acts xv, 36. Barnabas readily 
consented ; but while they were preparing for 



PAU 



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PAU 



the journey, there arose a disagreement be- 
tween them, which ended in their separation. 
In consequence of this dispute with Barnabas, 
St. Paul chose Silas for his companion, and 
they set out together from Antioch, A, D. 50. 
They travelled through Syria and Cilicia, con- 
firming the churches, and then came to Derbe 
and Lystra, Acts xvi. Thence they went 
through Phrygia and Galatia ; and, being de- 
sirous of going into Asia Propria, or the Pro- 
consular Asia, they were forbidden by the 
Holy Ghost. They therefore went into Mysia ; 
and, not being permitted by the Holy Ghost to 
go into Bithynia as they had intended, they 
went to Troas. While St. Paul was there, a 
vision appeared to him in the night : " There 
stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, 
saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us." 
St. Paul knew this vision to be a command from 
Heaven, and in obedience to it immediately sail- 
ed from Troas to Samothracia, and the next day 
to Neapolis, a city of Thrace ; and thence he 
went to Philippi, the principal city of that part 
of Macedonia. St. Paul remained some time 
at Philippi, preaching the Gospel ; and several 
occurrences which took place in that city, are 
recorded in Acts xvii. Thence he went through 
Amphipolis and Apollonia to Thessalonica, 
Acts xvii, where he preached in the synagogues 
of the Jews on three successive Sabbath days. 
Some of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles 
of both sexes, embraced the Gospel ; but the 
unbelieving Jews, moved with envy and indig- 
nation at the success of St. Paul's preaching, 
excited a great disturbance in the city, and 
irritated the populace so much against him, 
ttiat the brethren, anxious for his safety, 
thought it prudent to send him to Berea, where 
he met with a better reception than he had 
experienced at Thessalonica. The Bereans 
heard his instructions with attention and can- 
dour, and having compared his doctrines with 
the ancient Scriptures, and being satisfied that 
Jesus, whom he preached, was the promised 
Messiah, they embraced the Gospel ; but his 
enemies at Thessalonica, being informed of his 
success at Berea, came thither, and, by their 
endeavours to stir up the people against him, 
compelled him to leave that city also. He 
went thence to Athens, where he delivered that 
discourse recorded in Acts xvii. From Athens, 
Paul went to Corinth, Acts xviii, A. D. 51, 
and lived in the house of Aquila and Priscilla, 
two Jews, who, being compelled to leave 
Rome in consequence of Claudius's edict 
against the Jews, had lately settled at Corinth. 
St. Paul was induced to take up his residence 
with them, because, like himself, they v/ere 
tent makers. At first he preached to the Jews 
in their synagogue ; but upon their violently 
opposing his doctrine, he declared that from 
that time he would preach to the Gentiles only ; 
and, accordingly, he afterward delivered his 
instructions in the house of one Justus, who 
lived near the synagogue. Among the few 
Jews who embraced the Gospel, were Crispus, 
the ruler of the synagogue, and his family ; 
and many of the Gentile Corinthians " hearing 
believed, and were baptized." St. Paul was 



encouraged in a vision to persevere in his ex- 
ertions to convert the inhabitants of Corinth ; 
and although he met with great opposition and 
disturbance from the unbelieving Jews, and 
was accused by them before Gallio, the Roman 
governor of Achaia, he continued there a year 
and six months, "teaching the word of God." 
During this time he supported himself by work- 
ing at his trade of tent making, that he might 
not be burdensome to the disciples. From 
Corinth St. Paul sailed into Syria, and thence 
he went to Ephesus : thence to CsBsarea ; and is 
supposed to have arrived at Jerusalem just be- 
fore the feast of pentecost. After the feast he 
went to Antioch, A. D. 53 ; and this was the 
conclusion of his second apostolical journey, 
in which he was accompanied by Silas ; and 
in part of it, Luke and Timothy were also 
with him. 

Having made a short stay at Antioch, St. 
Paul set out upon his third apostolical jour- 
ney. He passed through Galatia, and Phry- 
gia, A. D. 54, confirming the Christians of 
those countries ; and thence, according to his 
promise, he went to Ephesus, Acts xix. He 
found there some disciples, who had only been 
baptized with John's baptism : he directed that 
they should be baptized in the name of Jesus, 
and then he communicated to them the Holy 
Ghost. He preached for the space of three 
months in the synagogue ; but the Jews being 
hardened beyond conviction, and speaking re- 
proachfully of the Christian religion before the 
multitude, he left them ; and from that time 
he delivered his instructions in the school of 
a person called Tyrannus, who was probably 
a Gentile. St. Paul continued to preach in 
this place about two years, so that all the in- 
habitants of that part of Asia Minor " heard 
the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and 
Greeks." He also performed many miracles at 
Ephesus ; and not only great numbers of peo- 
ple were converted to Christianity, but many 
also of those w^ho in this superstitious city 
used incantations and magical arts, professed 
their belief in the Gospel, and renounced their 
former practices by publicly burning their 
books. Previous to the disturbance raised by 
Demetrius, Paul had intended to continue at 
Ephesus till Titus should return, whom he had 
sent to inquire into the state of the church at 
Corinth, 2 Cor. xii, 18. He now thought it 
prudent to go from Ephesus immediately, Acts 
XX, A, D. 56 ; and having taken an affection- 
ate leave of the disciples, he set out for Troas, 
2 Cor. ii, 12, 13, where he expected to meet 
Titus. Titus, however, from some cause which 
is not known, did not come to Troas ; and 
Paul was encouraged to pass over into Mace- 
donia, with the hope of making converts. St. 
Paul, after preaching in Macedonia, receiving 
from the Christians of that country liberal 
contributions for their poor brethren in Judea, 
2 Cor. viii, 1, went to Corinth, A. D. 57, and 
remained there about three months. The 
Christians also of Corinth, and of the rest of 
Achaia, contributed to the relief of their bre- 
thren in Judea. St. Paul's intention was to 
have sailed from Corinth into Syria ; but be- 



PAU 



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mg informed that some unbelieving Jews, who 
had discovered his intention, lay in wait for 
him, he changed his plan, passed through Ma- 
cedonia, and sailed from Philippi to Troas in 
five days, A. D. 58. He stayed at Troas seven 
days, and preached to the Christians on the 
first day of the week, the day on which they 
were accustomed to meet for the purpose of 
religious worship. From Troas he went by 
land to Assos ; and thence he sailed to Mity- 
lene ; and from Mitylene to Miletus. Being 
desirous of reaching Jerusalem before the feast 
of pentecost, he would not allow time to go 
to Ephesus, and therefore he sent for the elders 
of the Ephesian church to Miletus, and gave 
them instructions, and prayed with them. He 
told them that he should see them no more, 
which impressed them with the deepest sorrow. 
From Miletus he sailed by Cos, Rhodes, and 
Patara in Lycia, to Tyre, Acts xxi. Finding 
some disciples at Tyre, he stayed with them 
several days, and then went to Ptolemais, and 
thence to Caesarea. While St. Paul was at 
Caesarea, the Prophet Agabus foretold by the 
Holy Ghost, that St. Paul, if he went to Jeru- 
salem, would suffer much from the Jews. This 
prediction caused great uneasiness to St. Paul's 
friends, and they endeavoured to dissuade him 
from his intention of going thither. St. Paul, 
however, would not listen to their entreaties, 
but declared that he was ready to die at Jeru- 
salem, if it were necessary, for the name of the 
Lord Jesus. Seeing him thus resolute, they 
desisted from their importunities, and accom. 
panied him to Jerusalem, w^here he is supposed 
to have arrived just before the feast of pen- 
tecost, A. D. 58. This may be considered as 
the end of St. Paul's third apostolical journey. 
St. Paul was received by the Apostles and 
other Christians at Jerusalem with great joy 
and affection ; and his account of the success 
of his ministry, and of the collections which 
he had made among the Christians of Macedo- 
nia and Achaia, for the relief of their brethren 
in Judea, afforded them much satisfaction ; but 
not long after his arrival at Jerusalem, some 
Jews of Asia, who had probably in their own 
covmtry witnessed St. Paul's zeal in spreading 
Christianity among the Gentiles, seeing him 
one day in the temple, endeavoured to excite 
a tumult, by crying out that he was the man 
who was aiming to destroy all distinction be- 
tween Jew and Gentile ; who taught things 
contrary to the law of Moses ; and who had 
polluted the holy temple, by bringing into it 
uncircumcised Heathens. This representation 
did not fail to enrage the multitude against St. 
Paul ; they seized him, dragged him out of the 
temple, beat him, and were upon the point of 
putting him to death, when he was rescued out 
of their hands by Lysias, a Roman tribune, and 
the principal military officer then at Jerusalem. 
What followed, — his defence before Felix and 
Agrippa, — his long detention at Csesarea, and 
his appeal to the emperor, which occasioned 
his voyage to Rome, are all circumstantially 
stated in the latter chapters of the Acts. Upon 
his arrival at Rome, St. Paul was committed to 
ihe care of the captain of the guard, A. D. 61. 



The Scriptures do not inform us whether he 
was ever tried before Nero, who was at this 
time emperor of Rome ; and the learned are 
much divided in their opinion upon that point. 
St. Luke only says, "Paul was suffered to dwell 
by himself with a soldier that kept him. And 
Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired 
house, and received all that came in unto him, 
preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching 
those things which concern the Lord Jesus 
Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding 
him." During his confinement he converted 
some Jews resident at Rome, and many Gen- 
tiles, and, among the rest, several persons be- 
longing to the emperor's household, Phil, iv, 22. 

The Scripture history ends with the release 
of St. Paul from his two years' imprisonment 
at Rome, A. D. 63 ; and no ancient author 
has left us any parti^.ulars of the remaining 
part of this Apostle's life. It seems probable, 
that, immediately after he recovered his liber- 
ty, he went to Jerusalem ; and that afterward 
he travelled through Asia Minor, Crete, Mace- 
donia, and Greece, confirming his converts, 
and regulating the affairs of the different 
churches which he had planted in those coun- 
tries. Whether at this time he also preached 
the Gospel in Spain, as some have imagined, 
is very uncertain. It was the unanimous tra- 
dition of the church, that St. Paul returned to 
Rome, that he underwent a second imprison- 
ment there, and at last was put to death by the 
Emperor Nero. Tacitus and Suetonius have 
mentioned a dreadful fire which happened at 
Rome in the time of Nero. It was - believed, 
though probably without any reason, that the 
emperor himself was the author of that fire ; but 
to remove the odium from himself, he chose to 
attribute it to the Christians; and, to give some 
colour to that unjust imputation, he persecuted 
them with the utmost cruelty. In this persecu- 
tion St. Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom, 
probably, A. D. 65 ; and if we may credit Sulpi- 
tius Severus, a writer of the fifth century, the 
former was crucified, and the latter beheaded. 

St. Paul was a person of great natural abili- 
ties, of quick apprehension, strong feelings, 
firm resolution, and irreproachable life. He 
was conversant with Grecian and Jewish lite- 
rature ; and gave early proofs of an active and 
zealous disposition. If we may be allowed to 
consider his character independent of his su- 
pernatural endowments, we may pronounce 
that he was well qualified to have risen to 
distinction and eminence, and that he was by- 
nature peculiarly adapted to the high office 
to which it pleased God to call him. As a 
minister of the Gospel, he displayed the most 
unwearied perseverance and undaunted cou- 
rage. He was deterred by no difficulty or 
danger, and endured a great variety of perse- 
cutions with patience and cheerfulness. He 
gloried in being thought worthy of suffering 
for the name of Jesus, and continued with 
unabated zeal to maintain the truth of Chris- 
tianity against its bitterest and most powerful 
enemies. He was the principal instrument 
under Providence of spreading the Gospel 
among the Gentiles ; and we have seen tliat 



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his labours lasted through many years, and 
reached over a considerable extent of country. 
Though emphatically styled the great Apostle 
of the Gentiles, he began his ministry, in 
almost every city, by preaching in the syna- 
gogue of the Jews ; and though he owed by 
far the greater part of his persecutions to the 
opposition and malice of that proud and obsti- 
nate people, whose resentment he particularly 
incurred by maintaining that the Gentiles were 
to be admitted to an indiscriminate participa- 
tion of the benefits of the new dispensation, 
yet it rarely happened in any place, that some 
of the Jews did not yield to his arguments, 
and embrace the Gospel. He watched with 
paternal care over the churches which he had 
founded ; and was always ready to strengthen 
the faith, and regulate the conduct of his con- 
verts, by such directions and advice as their 
circumstances might require. 

The exertions of St. Paul in the cause of 
Christianity were not confined to personal 
instruction : he also wrote fourteen epistles 
to individuals or churches which are now 
extant, and form a part of our canon. These 
letters furnish evidence of the soundness and 
sobriety of his judgment. His caution in dis- 
tinguishing between the occasional sugges- 
tions of inspiration, and the ordinary exertions 
of his natural understanding, is without ex- 
ample in the history of enthusiasm. His mo- 
rality is every where calm, pure, and rational ; 
adapted to the condition, the activity, and the 
business of social life, and of its various rela- 
tions ; free from the overscrupulousness and 
austerities of superstition, and from, what was 
more perhaps to be apprehended, the abstrac- 
tions of quietism, and the soarings or extrava- 
gancies of fanaticism. His judgment con. 
cerning a hesitating conscience, his opinion 
of the moral indifferency of many actions, yet 
of the prudence and even the duty of com- 
pliance, where non-compliance would produce 
evil eifects upon the minds of the persons who 
observed it, are all in proof of the calm and 
discriminating character of his mind; and the 
universal applicability of his precepts affords 
strong presumption of his inspiration. What 
Lord Lyttleton has remarked of the preference 
ascribed by St. Paul to rectitude of principle 
above every other religious accomplishment, 
is weighty : " Though I speak with the tongues 
of men and of angels, and have not charity, I 
am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling 
cymbal," &c, 1 Cor. xiii, 1-3. Did ever en- 
thusiast prefer that universal benevolence, 
meant by charity here, (which, we may add, 
is attainable by every man,) to faith, and to 
miracles, to those religious opinions which he 
had embraced, and to those supernatural graces 
and gifts which he imagined he had acquired, 
nay, even to the merit of martyrdom ? Is it 
not the genius of entliusiasm to set moral 
virtues infinitely below the merit of faith ; and 
of all moral virtues to value that least which 
is most particularly enforced by St. Paul, a 
spirit of candour, moderation, and peace ? 
Certainly, neither the temper nor the opinions 
of a man subject to fanatic delusions are to be 



found in this passage. His letters, indeed, 
every where discover great zeal and earnest- 
ness in the cause in which he was engaged ; 
that is to say, he was convinced of the truth 
of what he taught ; he was deeply impressed, 
but not more so than the occasion merited, 
with a sense of its importance. This produces 
a corresponding animation and solicitude in 
the exercise of his ministry. But would not 
these considerations, supposing them to have 
been well founded, have holden the same 
place, and produced the same effect, in a mind 
the strongest and the most sedate ? Here, 
then, we have a man of liberal attainments, 
and in other respects of sound judgment, who 
had addicted his life to the service of the Gos- 
pel. We see him in the prosecution of his 
purpose, travelling from country to country, 
enduring every species of hardship, encoun- 
tering every extremity of danger, assaulted by 
the populace, punished by the magistrates, 
scourged, beaten, stoned, left for dead ; ex- 
pecting, wherever he came, a renewal of the 
same treatment, and the same dangers ; yet, 
when driven from one city, preaching in the 
next ; spending his whole time in the employ- 
ment ; sacrificing to it his pleasures, his ease, 
his safety ; persisting in this course to old 
age, unaltered by the experience of perverse- 
ness, ingratitude, prejudice, desertion ; unsub- 
dued by anxiety, want, labour, persecutions ; 
unwearied by long confinement ; undismayed 
by the prospect of death. Such was St. Paul ; 
and such were " the proofs of Apostleship 
found in him." 

The following remarks of Hug on the cha- 
racter of this Apostle are equally just and elo- 
quent : This most violent man, having such 
terrible propensities, whose turbulent impulses 
rendered him of a most enterprising character, 
would have become nothing better than a John 
of Gishala, a blood-intoxicated zealot, iixTrvewv 
aiiciXrig Kal (pSvov, breathing out threatenings and 
slaughter. Acts ix, 1, had not his whole soul 
been changed. The harsh tone of his mind 
inclined him to the principles of Pharisaism, 
which had all the appearance of severity, and 
was the predominant party among the Jews. 
Nature had not withholden from him the ex- 
ternal endowments of eloquence, although he 
afterward spoke very modestly of them. At 
Lystra he was deemed the tutelar god of el'o- 
quence. This character, qualified for great 
things, but, not master of himself from excess 
of internal power, was an extreme of human 
dispositions, and, according to the natural 
course, was prone to absolute extremities. 
His religion was a destructive zeal, his anger 
was fierceness, his fury required victims. A 
ferocity so boisterous did not psychologically 
qualify him for a Christian nor a philanthropist; 
but, least of all, for a quietly enduring man. 
He, nevertheless, became all this on his con- 
version to Christianity, and each bursting 
emotion of his mind subsided directly into a 
well regulated and noble character. Formerly 
hasty and irritable, now only spirited and re- 
solved ; formerly violent, now full of energy 
and enterprising: once ungovernably refrae- 



PAU 



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PEL 



tory against every thing which obstructed 
him, now only persevering ; once fanatical 
and morose, now only serious ; once cruel, 
now only firm ; once a harsh zealot, now 
fearing God; formerly unrelenting, deaf to 
sympathy and commiseration, now himself 
acquainted with tears, which he had seen 
without eifect in others. Formerly the friend 
of none, now the brother of mankind, benevo- 
lent, compassionate, sympathizing ; yet never 
weak, always great ; in the midst of sadness 
and sorrow manly and noble ; so he showed 
himself at his deeply moving departure from 
Miletus, Acts xx : it is like the departure of 
Moses, like the resignation of Samuel, sincere 
and heart-felt, full of self-recollection, and in 
the midst of pain full of dignity. His vv^rit- 
ings are a true expression of this character, 
with regard to the tone predominant in them. 
Severity, manly seriousness, and sentiments 
which ennoble the heart, are interchanged 
with mildness, affability, and sympathy : and 
their transitions are such as nature begets in 
the heart of a man penetrated by his subject, 
noble and discerning. He exhorts, reproaches, 
and consoles again ; he attacks with energy, 
urges with impetuosity, then again he speaks 
kindly to the soul ; he displays his finer feel- 
ings for the welfare of others, his forbearance 
and his fear of afflicting any body : all as the 
subject, time, opposite dispositions, and cir- 
cumstances require. There prevails through- 
out in them an importuning language, an 
earnest and lively communication. Rom. i, 
26-32, is a comprehensive and vigorous de- 
scription of morals. His antithesis, Rom. ii, 
21-24; 2 Cor. iv, 8-12; vi, 9-11; ix, 22-30; 
his enumerations, 1 Cor. xiii, 4-10 ; 2 Cor. vi, 
4-7 ; 2 Tim. iii, 1-5 ; Eph. iv, 4-7 ; v, 3-6 ; 
his gradations, Romans viii, 29, 30 ; Titus iii, 
3, 4 ; the interrogations, exclamations, and 
comparisons, sometimes animate his language 
even so as to give a visible existence to it. 
That, however, which we principally perceive 
in Paul, and from which his whole actions 
and operations become intelligible, is the pe- 
culiar impression which the idea of a universal 
religion has wrought upon his mind. This idea 
of establishing a religion for the world had not 
so profoundly engrossed any soul, no where 
kindled so much vigour, and projected it into 
such a constant energy. In this he was no 
man's scholar ; this he had immediately re- 
ceived from the Spirit of his Master ; it was a 
spark of the divine light which enkindled him. 
It was this which never allowed him to remain 
in Palestine and in Syria, which so powerfully 
impelled him to foreign parts. The portion 
of some others was Judea and its environs : 
but his mission was directed to the nations, 
and his allotment was the whole of the Hea- 
then world. Thus he began his career among 
the different nations of Asia Minor, and when 
this limit also became too confined for him, he 
went with equal confidence to Europe, among 
other nations, ordinances, sciences, and cus- 
toms ; and here likewise he finally with the 
same indefatigable spirit circulated his plans, 
even to the pillars of Herculea. In this man- 



ner Paul prepared the overthrow of two reli- 
gions, that of his ancestors, and that of the 

PEACOCK, QMDin, 1 Kings x, 22 ; 2 Chron. 
ix, 21 ; a bird distinguished by the length of its 
tail, and the brilliant spots with which it is 
adorned ; which displays all that dazzles in the 
sparkling lustre of gems, and all that astonishes 
in the rainbow. The peacock is a bird origin- 
ally of India ; thence brought into Persia and 
Media. Aristophanes mentions Persian pea- 
cocks ; and Suidas calls the peacock the Median 
bird. From Persia it was gradually dispersed 
into Judea, Egypt, Greece, and Europe. If 
the fleet of Solomon visited India, they might 
easily procure this bird, whether from India 
itself, or from Persia ; and certainly the bird 
by its beauty was likely to attract attention, 
and to be brought among other rarities of na- 
tural history by Solomon's servants, who-would 
be instructed to collect every curiosity in the 
countries they visited. 

PEARL, a hard, white, shining body, usually 
roundish, found in a shell fish resembling an 
oyster. The oriental pearls have a fine polished 
gloss, and are tinged with an elegant blush of 
red. They are esteemed in the east beyond all 
other jewels. 

PELAGIANS, a sect that arose in the fifth 
century. Pelagius was a British monk, of 
some- rank, and very exalted reputation. He, 
with his friend Celestius, travelled to Rome, 
where they resided very early in the fifth cen- 
tury, and opposed with warmth certain received 
notions respecting original sin, and .the neces- 
sity of divine grace. What reception their 
doctrines met with at Rome does not appear ; 
but their virtue excited general approbation. 
On the appi;oach of the Goths, they retired to 
Africa, where Celestius remained, with a view 
of gaining admittance as a presbyter into the 
church of Carthage. Pelagius proceeded to 
Palestine, where he enjoyed the favour and 
protection of John, bishop of Jerusalem. But 
his friend and his opinions met with a very 
different reception from St. Augustine, the 
celebrated bishop of Hippo. Whatever parts 
were visited by these unorthodox friends, they 
still asserted their peculiar opinions; and they 
were gradually engaged in a warm contest, in 
the course of which they were probably led to 
advance more than had originally occurred to 
them. In contending for the truth of their 
doctrines, they are said to have asserted, " that 
mankind derived no injury from the sin of 
Adam ; that we are now as capable of obe- 
dience to the will of God as he was ; that, 
otherwise, it would have been cruel and absurd 
to propose to mankind the performance of 
certain duties, with the sanction of rewards, 
and the denunciation of punishments ; and 
that, consequently, men are born without vice, 
as well as without virtue." Pelagius is charged 
also with having maintained, " that it is possi- 
ble for men, provided they fully employ the 
powers and faculties with which they are en- 
dued, to live without sin ;" and though he did 
not deny that external grace, or the doctrines 
and motives of the Gospel, are necessary, yet 



PEL 



735 



PEL 



he is said to have rejected the necessity of 
internal grace, or the aids of the divine Spirit. 
He acknowledged, " that the pov/er we possess 
of obeying the will of God, is a divine gift ;" 
but asserted, "that the direction of this power 
depends upon ourselves ; that natural death is 
not a consequence of the sin of Adam, but of 
the frame of man ; and that Adam w^ould have 
died, though he had not sinned." Isidore, 
Chrysostom, and Augustine strenuously op- 
posed these opinions ; and the latter procured 
their condemnation in a synod held at Carthage 
in 412. They were, however, favourably re- 
ceived at Rome, and Pope Zozimus was at the 
head of the Pelagian party : but his decision 
against the African bishops, who had opposed 
Pelagianism, was disregarded by them, and the 
pontiff yielded at length to their reasonings 
and remonstrances, and condemned the men 
whom he had before honoured with his appro- 
bation. The council of Ephesus likewise con. 
demned the opinions of Pelagius andCelestius ; 
and the Emperor Honorius, in 418, published 
an edict, which ordained that the leaders of 
the sect should be expelled from. Rome, and 
their followers exiled. Some of the Pelagians 
taught that Christ was a mere man, and that 
men might lead sinless lives, because Christ 
did so ; that Jesus became Christ after his 
baptism, and God after his resurrection ; the 
one arising from his unction, the other from 
the merit of his passion. The Pelagian con- 
troversy, which began with the doctrines of 
grace and original sin, was extended to pre- 
destination, and excited continual discord and 
division in the church. It must however be 
recollected, that we are acquainted with the 
sentiments of Pelagius only through the me. 
dium of his opponents ; and that it is probable 
that they were much misrepresented. See 
Augustine. 

The followers of the truly evangelical Ar. 
minius, or those who hold the tenet of general 
redemption with its concomitants, have often 
been greatly traduced, by the ignorant among 
their doctrinal opponents, as Pelagians, or at 
least as Semi-Pelagians. It may therefore 
serve the cause of truth to exhibit the appro- 
priate reply which the Dutch Arminians gave 
to this charge when urged against them at the 
synod of Dort, and which they verified and 
maintained by arguments and authorities that 
were unanswerable. In their concluding ob- 
servations they say, " From all these remarks 
a judgment may easily be formed at what an 
immense distance our sentiments stand from 
the dogmatical assertions of the Pelagians and 
Semi-Pelagians on the grace of God in the con- 
version of man. Pelagius, in the first instance, 
attributed all things to nature : but we acknow- 
ledge nothing but grace. When Pelagius was 
blamed for not acknowledging grace, he began 
indeed to speak of it, but it is evident that by 
grace he understood the power of nature as 
created by God, that is, the rational will : but 
by grace we understand a supernatural gift. 
Pelagius, when afterward pressed with passage? 
of Scripture, also admitted this supernatural 
grace \ but he placed it solely in the external 



teaching of the law : though we affirm that 
God offers his word to men, yet we likewise 
affirm that he inwardly causes the understand- 
ing to believe. Subsequently Pelagius joined 
to this external grace that hy xvhich sins are 
pardoned : we acknowledge not only the grace 
by which sins are forgiven, but also that by 
which men are assisted to refrain from the 
commission of sin. In addition to his previous 
concessions Pelagius granted, that the grace of 
Christ was requisite beside the two kinds which 
he had enumerated ; but he attributed it en- 
tirely to the doctrine and example of Christ 
that' we are aided in our endeavours not to 
commit sin : w^e likewise admit that the doc- 
trine and example of Christ afford us some aid 
in refraining from sin, but in addition to their 
influence we also place the gift of the H0I5' 
Spirit with which God endues us, and which 
enlightens our understandings, and confers 
strength and power upon our wull to abstain 
from sinning. When Pelagius afterward owned 
the assistance of divine power inwardly work- 
ing in man by the Holy Spirit, he placed it 
solely in the enlightening of the understand- 
ing : but we believe, that it is not only neces- 
sary for us to know or understand what we 
ought to do, but that it is also requisite for us 
to implore the aid of the Holy Spirit that we 
may be rendered capable of performing, and 
may deliglit in the performance of, that which 
it is our duty to do. Pelagius admitted grace, — 
but it has been a question v."ith some whether 
he meant only illumination, or, beside this, a 
power comm-unicated to the will ; — he admitted 
grace, but he did this only to show that by 
means of it man can with greater ease act 
aright : we, on the contrary, affirm that grace 
is bestowed, not that we may be able with 
greater ease to act aright, (which is as though 
we can do this even without grace,) but that 
grace is absolutely necessary to enable us to 
act at all aright. Pelagius asserted, that man, 
so far from requiring the aid of grace for the 
performance of good actions, is, through the 
powers implanted in him at the time of his 
creation, capable of fulfilling the whole law, 
of loving God, and of overcoming all tempta- 
tions : we, on the contrary, assert that the 
grace of God is required for the performance 
of every act of piety. Pelagius declared, that 
by the works of nature man renders himself 
worthy of grace : but we, in common with the 
church universal, condemn this dogma. When 
Pelagius afterward liimself condemned this 
tenet, he understood by grace, partly natural 
grace, which is antecedent to all merit, and 
partly remission of sins, which he acknow- 
ledged to be gratuitous; but he added, that 
through works performed by the powers of 
nature alone, at least through the desire of 
good and the imperfect longing after it, men 
merit that spiritual grace by which they are 
assisted in good works : but we declare, that 
men will that which is good on account of 
God's prevenience or going before tbern by his 
grace, and exciting within them a longing 
after good ; otherv/ise grace would no longer 
be grace, because it would not be gratuitously 



PEN 



736 



PEN 



bestowed, but only on account of the merit of 
man" That many who have held some tenets 
in common with the true Arminians have 
been, in different degrees, followers of Pela- 
gius is well known ; but the original Armi- 
nians were in truth as far from Pelagian or 
Semi-Pelagian errors, granting the opinions 
of Pelagius to be fairly reported by his adver- 
saries, as the Calvinists themselves. This is 
also the case with the whole body of Wesley an 
Methodists, and of the cognate societies to 
which they have given rise, both in Great 
Britain and America. 

PELICAN, nap, Lev. xi, 18 ; Deut. xiv, 17 ; 
Psa. cii, 7 ; Isa. xxxiv, 11 ; Zeph. ii, 14 ; a very 
remarkable aquatic bird, of the size of a large 
goose. Its colour is a grayish v*?^hite, except 
that the neck looks a little yellowish, and the 
middle of the back feathers are blackish. The 
bill is long, and hooked at the end, and has 
under it a lax membrane, extended to the 
throat, which makes a bag or sack, capable 
of holding a very large quantity. Feeding her 
young from this bag has so much the appear- 
ance of feeding them with her own blood, that 
it caused this fabulous opinion to be propa- 
gated, and made the pelican an emblem of 
paternal, as the stork had been before chosen, 
more justly, of filial affection. The voice of 
this bird is harsh and dissonant, which some 
Bay resembles that of a man grievously com- 
plaining. David compares his groaning to it. 
Psalm cii, 7. 

PENTATEUCH. This word, which is de- 
rived from the Greek nevrdrev^og, from Zoivre, 
Jive, and revxog, a volume, signifies the collec- 
tion of the five books of Moses, which are 
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and 
Deuteronomy. That the Jews have acknow- 
ledged the authenticity of the Pentateuch, 
from the present time back to the era of their 
return from the Babylonish captivity, a period 
of more than two thousand three hundred 
years, admits not a possibility of doubt. The 
five books of Moses have been during that 
period constantly placed at the head of the 
Jewish sacred volume, and divided into fixed 
portions, one of which was read and explained 
in their synagogues, not only every Sabbath 
with the other Scriptures, but in many places 
twice a week, and not unfrequently every 
evening, when they alone were read. They 
have been received as divinely inspired by 
every Jewish sect, even by the Sadducees, who 
questioned the divinity of the remaining works 
of the Old Testament. In truth, the venera- 
tion of the Jews for their Scriptures, and above 
all for the Pentateuch, seems to have risen 
almost to a superstitious reverence. Extracts 
from the Mosaic law were written on pieces 
of parchment, and placed on the borders of 
their garments, or round their wrists and fore- 
heads : nay, they at a later period counted, 
with the minutest exactness, not only the 
chapters and paragraphs, but the words and 
letters, which each book of their Scriptures 
contains. Thus also the translation, first of 
the Pentateuch, and afterward of the remain- 
ing works of the Old Testament, into Greek, 



for the use of the Alexandrian Jews, dissemi- 
nated this sacred volume over a great part of 
the civilized world, in the language most uni- 
versally understood, and rendered it accessible 
to the learned and inquisitive in every coun. 
try ; so as to preclude all suspicion that it 
could be materially altered by either Jews or 
Christians, to support their respective opinions 
as to the person and character of the Messiah ; 
the substance of the text being, by this trans- 
lation, fixed and authenticated at least two 
hundred and seventy years before the appear- 
ance of our Lord. 

But, long previous to the captivity, two par- 
ticular examples, deserving peculiar attention, 
occur in the Jev/ish history, of the public and 
solemn homage paid to the sacredness of the 
Mosaic law as promulgated in the Pentateuch ; 
and which, by consequence, afford the fullest 
testimony to the authenticity of the Penta- 
teuch itself: the one in the reign of Hezekiah, 
while the separate kingdoms of Judah and 
Israel still subsisted ; and the other in the 
reign of his great grandson Josiah, subsequent 
to the captivity of Israel. In the former we 
see the pious monarch of Judah assembling 
the priests and Levites and the rulers of the 
people ; to deplore with him the trespasses of 
their fathers against the divine law, to acknow- 
ledge the justice of those chastisements which, 
according to the prophetic warnings of that 
law, had been inflicted upon them ; to open 
the house of God which his father had im- 
piously shut, and restore the true worship 
therein according to the Mosaic ritual, 2 Kings 
xviii ; 2 Chron. xxix ; xxx ; with the minutest 
particulars of which he complied, in the sin. 
offerings and the peace-offerings which, in 
conjunction with his people, he offered for the 
kingdom and the sanctuary and the people, to 
make atonement to God for them and for all 
Israel ; restoring the service of God as it had 
been performed in the purest times. "And 
Hezekiah," says the sacred narrative, " re- 
joiced, and all the people, that God had pre- 
pared the people ; for the thing was done 
suddenly," 2 Chron. xxix, 36 ; immediately on 
the king's accession to the throne, on the first 
declaration of his pious resolution. How 
clear a proof does this exhibit of the previous 
existence and clearly acknowledged authority 
of those laws which the Pentateuch contains ! 

But a yet more remarkable part of this trans- 
action still remains. At this time Hoshea 
was king of Israel, and so far disposed to 
countenance the worship of the true God, 
that he appears to have made no opposition to 
the pious zeal of Hezekiah ; who, with the 
concurrence of the whole congregation which 
he had assembled, sent out letters and made a 
proclamation, not only to his own people of 
Judah, 2 Chron. xxx, 1, " but to Ephraim and 
Manasseh and all Israel, from Beersheba even 
unto Dan, that they should come to the house 
of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the passover 
unto the Lord God of Israel ; saying, Ye 
children of Isro.el, turn again to the Lord God 
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he will re- 
turn to the remnant of you who are escaped 



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out of the hands of the kings of Assyria ; and 
be not ye like your fathers and your brethren, 
which trespassed against the Lord God of their 
fathers, who therefore gave them up to deso- 
lation as ye see. Now be ye not stiff-necked, 
as your fathers were ; but yield yourselves un- 
to the Lord, and enter into his sanctuary 
which he hath sanctified for ever, and serve 
the Lord your God, that the fierceness of his 
wrath may turn away from you. So the posts 
passed from city to city through the country 
of Epliraim and Manasseh even unto Zebu- 
lun," 2 Chron. xxx, 6, &c. 

Now, can v^re conceive that such an attempt 
as this could have been made, if the Penta- 
teuch containing the Mosaic code had not 
been as certainly recognized through the ten 
tribes of Israel as in the kingdom of Judah? 
The success was exactly such as we might 
reasonably expect if it were so acknowledged ; 
for, though many of the ten tribes laughed to 
scorn and mocked the messengers of Hezekiah, 
who invited them to the solemnity of the pass- 
over, from the impious contempt which 
through long disuse they had conceived for it ; 
" Nevertheless," says the sacred narrative, 
"divers of Asher and Manasseh and'of Zebu- 
lun humbled themselves and came to Jerusa- 
lem ; and there assembled at Jerusalem much 
people, to keep the feast of unleavened bread 
in the second month, a very great congrega- 
tion ; and they killed the passover, and the 
priests and Levites stood in their places after 
their manner, according to the law of Moses, 
the man of God. So there was great joy in 
Jerusalem ; for since the time of Solomon, the 
son of David, king of Israel, there was not 
the like at Jerusalem : and when all this was 
finished, all Israel that were present went out 
to the cities of Judah, and brake the images in 
pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw 
down the high places and the altars out of all 
Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and 
Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed 
them all," 2 Chronicles xxx, 11 ; xxxi. Can 
any clearer proof than this be desired of the 
constant and universal acknowledgment of 
the divine authority of the Pentateuch through- 
out the entire nation of the Jews, notwith- 
standing the idolatries and corruptions which 
so often prevented its receiving such obedience 
as that acknowledgment ought to have pro- 
duced ? The argument from this certain an- 
tiquity of the Pentateuch, a copy of which 
existed in the old Samaritan character as well 
as in the modern Hebrew, is most conclusive 
as to the numerous prophecies of Christ, and 
the future and present condition of the Jews 
which it contains. These are proved to have 
been delivered many ages before they were 
accomplished; they could be only the result 
of divine prescience, and the uttering of them 
by Moses proves therefore the inspiration and 
the authority of his writings. See Law, and 

MoSES. 

PENTECOST, UcvreKo^ij, a solemn festival 
of the Jews ; so called, because it was cele. 
brated on the fiftieth day after the sixteenth 



passover. The Hebrews call it the feast of 
weeks, because it was kept seven weeks after 
the passover. They then offered the first 
fruits of the wheat harvest, which was then 
completed; beside which, they pi-esented at 
the temple seven lambs of that year, one calf, 
and two rams for a burnt-offering ; two lambs 
for a peace-offering ; and a goat for a sin- 
offering, Lev, xxiii, 15, 16 ; Exod. xxxiv, 22 ; 
Deut, xvi, 9, 10. The feast of pentecost was 
instituted among the Israelites, first, to oblige 
them to repair to the temple of the Lord, there 
to acknowledge his absolute dominion over 
the whole country, by offering him the first 
fruits of the harvest ; and, secondly, to com- 
memorate and give thanks to God for the law 
which he had given them from Sinai, on the 
fiftieth day after their coming out of Egypt. 
The modern Jews celebrate the pentecost for 
two days. They deck the synagogues, where 
the law is read, and their own houses, with 
garlands of flowers. They hear an oration in 
praise of the law, and read from the Penta- 
teuch and prophets lessons which have a rela- 
tion to this festival, and accommodate their 
prayers to the same occasion. It was on the 
feast of pentecost that the Holy Ghost de. 
seended in the miraculous manner related, 
Acts ii. 

PERGAMUS, a city of Troas, very con. 
siderable in the time of John the evangelist, 
Rev. ii, 12, 13. This city was, for the space 
of one hundred and fifty years, the capital of 
a kingdom of the same name founded by Phi- 
letaerus, B. C. 283 ; who treacherously made 
use of the treasures committed to his care by 
Lysimachus after the battle of Ipsus, and, 
seizing on Pergamus, established an independ- 
ent kingdom. After Philetaerus were five kings 
of the same race ; the last of whom. Attains 
Philopater, left his kingdom, which compre- 
hended Mysia, ^Solis, Ionia, Lydia, and Caria, 
to the Roman empire ; to which it belonged 
when the first Christian church was established 
there. This church early became corrupted 
by the Nicolaitans, for which it was reproved 
by St. John, and charged quickly to repent, 
Rev. ii, 14-16. Pergamus, now called Ber- 
gamo, like most other places which have been 
cursed by the presence of the Turks, is reduced 
to comparative decay, containing a poor popu- 
lation, who are too indolent or too oppressed 
to profit by the richness of their soil and the 
beauty of the climate. The number of inhabit, 
ants, however, is still said to amount to thirty 
thousand, of whom three thousand are Greek 
Christians. Many remains of former magnifii 
cence are still to be found ; among which are 
those of several Christian churches. It is 
about sixty miles north of Smyrna. The 
celebrated physician Galen was a native of 
this place. 

PERIZZITES. The ancient inhabitants 
of Palestine, mingled with the Canaanites. 
There is also a great probability that they 
themselves were Canaanites, but, having no 
fixed habitations, were wandering about here 
and there, and scattered over all the country. 



of Nisan, which was the second day of the Thus, in the time of Abraham and Lot, the 
48 



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Canaanite and Perizzite were in the land, 
Gen. xiii, 7 ; Josh, xvii, 15. Solomon subdued 
the remains of the Canaanites and Perizzites, 
which the children of Israel had not rooted 
out, and made them tributary to him, 1 Kings 
ix, 20, 21 ; 2 Chron. viii, 7. There still re. 
mained some of this people as late as the time 
of Ezra, ix, 1. 

PERSECUTION is any pain or affliction 
which a person designedly inflicts upon an- 
other ; and, in a more restrained sense, the 
sufferings of Christians on account of their 
i-eligion. The establishment of Christianity 
was opposed by the powers of the world, and 
occasioned several severe persecutions against 
Christians, during the reigns of several Ro- 
man emperors. Though the absurdities of 
polytheism were openly derided and exposed 
by the Apostles and their successors, yet it 
does not appear that any public laws were 
enacted against Christianity till the reign of 
Nero, A. D. 64, by which time it had acquired 
considerable stability and extent. As far the 
greater number of the first converts to Chris- 
tianity were of the Jewish nation, one second- 
ary cause for their being so long preserved 
from persecution may probably be deduced 
from their appearing to the Roman governors 
only as a sect of Jews, who had seceded from 
the rest of their brethren on account of some 
opinion, trifling in its importance, and perhaps 
difficult to be understood. Nor, when their 
brethren were fully discovered to have cast off 
the religion of the synagogue, did the Jews 
find it easy to infuse into the breasts of the 
Roman magistrates that rancour and malice 
which they themselves experienced. But the 
steady and uniform opposition made by the 
Christians to Heathen superstition could not 
long pass unnoticed. Their open attacks upon 
Paganism made them extremely obnoxious to 
the populace, by whom they were represented 
as a society of atheists, who, by attacking the 
religious constitution of the empire, merited 
the severest animadversion of the civil ma. 
gistrate. Horrid tales of their abominations 
Avere circulated throughout the empire ; and 
the minds of the Pagans were, from all these 
circumstances, prepared to regard with plea- 
sure or indifference every cruelty which could 
be inflicted upon this despised sect. His. 
torians usually reckon ten general persecu. 
tions. 

First general 'persecution. — Nero selected the 
Christians as a grateful sacrifice to the Roman 
people, and endeavoured to transfer to this 
hated sect the guilt of which he was strongly 
suspected ; that of having caused and enjoyed 
the fire wliich had nearly desolated the city. 
(See Nero.) This persecution was not con. 
fined to Rome : the emperor issued edicts 
against the Christians throughout most of the 
provinces of the empire. He was far, how- 
eVer, from obtaining the object of his hopes 
and expectations ; and the virtues of the 
Christians, their zeal for the truth, and their 
constancy in suffering, must have considerably 
contributed to make their tenets more gene- 
rally known. 



Second general persecution. — From the 
death of Nero to the reign of Domitian, the 
Christians remained unmolested and daily 
increasing ; but toward the close of the first 
century, they were again involved in all the 
horrors of persecution. In this persecution 
many eminent Christians suffered ; but the 
death of Domitian soon delivered them from 
this calamity. 

Third general persecution. — This persecu. 
tion began in the third year of the Emperor 
Trajan, A. D. 100. Many things contributed 
toward it ; as the laws of the empire, the em- 
peror's zeal for his religion, and aversion to 
Christianity, and the prejudices of the Pagans, 
supported by falsehoods and calumnies against 
the Christians. Under the plausible pretence 
of their holding illegal meetings and societies, 
they were severely persecuted by the governors 
and other officers ; in which persecution great 
numbers fell by the rage of popular tumult, as 
well as by laws and processes. This persecu. 
tion continued several years, with different 
degrees of severity in many parts of the em. 
pire ; and was so much the more afflicting, 
because the Christians generally suffered under 
the notipn of malefactors and traitors, and 
under an emperor famed for his singular jus- 
tice and moderation. The most noted martyr 
in this persecution was Clement, bishop of 
Rome. After some time the fury of this per. 
secution was abated, but did not cease during 
the whole reign of Trajan. In the eighth 
year of his successor Adrian, it broke out with 
new rage. This is by some called the fourth 
general persecution ; but is more cbnmionly 
considered as a revival or continuance of the 
third. 

Fourth, general persecution. — This took place 
under Antoninus the philosopher ; and at dif- 
ferent places, with- several intermissions, and 
different degrees of severity, it continued the 
greater part of his reign. Antoninus himself 
has been much excused as to this persecution. 
As the character of the virtuous Trajan, how- 
ever, is sullied by the martyrdom of Ignatius,, 
so the reign of the philosophic Marcus is for 
ever disgraced by the sacrifice of the venerable 
Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, the friend and 
companion of St. John. A few days previous 
to his death, he is said to have dreamed that 
his pillow was on fire. When urged by the 
proconsul to renounce Christ, he replied, 
" Fourscore and six years have I served him, 
and he has never done me an injury : can I 
blaspheme my King and my Saviour ?" Seve- 
ral miracles are reported to have happened at 
his death. The flames, as if unwilling to injure 
his sacred person, are said to have arched over 
his head ; and it is added, that at length, being 
despatched with a sword, a dove flew out of 
the wound ; and that from the pile proceeded 
a most fragrant smell. It is obvious that the 
arching of the flames might be an accidental 
effect, which the enthusiastic veneration of his 
disciples might convert into a miracle ; and as 
to the story of the dove, &c, Eusebias himself 
apparently did not credit it ; since he has omit- 
ted it in his narrative of the transaction. Among" 



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many other victims of persecution in this phi- 
losophic reign, we rtiust also record that of the 
excellent and learned Justin. But it was at 
Lyons and Vienne in Gaul, that the most 
shocking scenes were acted. Among many 
nameless sufferers, history has preserved from 
oblivion Pothinus, the respectable bishop of 
Lyons, who was then more than ninety years 
of age ; Sanctus, a deacon of Vienne ; Attains, 
a native of Pergamus ; Maturus, and Alexan- 
der ; some of whom were devoured by wild 
beasts, and some of them tortured in an iron 
chair made red hot. Some females, also, and 
particularly Biblias and Blandina, reflected 
honour both upon^ their sex and religion by 
their constancy and courage. 

Fifth general persecution. — A considerable 
part of the reign of Severus proved so far 
favourable to the Christians, that no additions 
were made to the severe edicts already in force 
against them. For this lenity they were pro- 
bably indebted to Proculus, a Christian, who, 
in a very extraordinary manner, cured the 
emperor of a dangerous distemper by the ap- 
plication of oil. But this degree of peace, 
precarious as it v/as, and frequently interrupt- 
ed by the partial execution of severe laws, was 
terminated by an edict, A. D. 197, which pro- 
hibited every subject of the empire, under 
severe penalties, from embracing the Jewish 
or Cliristian faith. This law appears, upon a 
first view, designed merely to impede the far- 
ther progress of Christianity ; but it incited 
the magistracy to enforce the laws of former 
emperors, which were still existing, against 
the Christians ; and during seven years they 
were exposed to a rigorous persecution in 
Palestine, Egypt, the rest of Africa, Italy, 
Gaul, and other parts. In this persecution 
Leonidas, the father of Origen, and IrenaBus, 
bishop of Lyons, suffered martyrdom. On this 
occasion Te,rtu.llian composed his " Apology." 
Th€ violence of Pagan intolerance was most 
severely felt in Egypt, and particularly at 
Alexandria. 

Sixth general persecution. — This persecution 
began with the reign of the Emperor Maxi- 
minus, A. D. 235, and seems to have arisen 
from that prince's hatred to his predecessor, 
Alexaxuder, in whose family many Christians 
had found shelter and patronage. Though 
this persecution was very severe in some 
places, yet we have the names of only a few 
martyrs. Origen at this time v/as very indus- 
trious in supporting the Christians under these 
fiery trials. 

Seventh general persecution. — This was the 
most dreadful persecution that ever had been 
known in the church. During the short reign 
of Decius, the Christians were exposed to 
greater calamities than any they had hitherto 
suffered. It has been said, and with some 
probability, that the Christians were involved 
in this persecution by their attachment to the 
family of the Emperor Philip. Considerable 
numbers were publicly destroyed ; several pur- 
chased safety by bribes, or secured it by flight ; 
and many desbited from the faith, and will- 
ingly consented to burn incense on the ajtars of 



the gods. Tlie city of Alexandria, the great 
theatre of persecution, had even anticipated 
the edicts of the emperor, and had put to death 
a number of innocent persons, among whom 
were some women. The imperial edict for 
persecuting the Christians was published A. D. 
249 ; and shortly after, Fabianus, bishop of 
Rome, with a number of his followers, was put 
to death. The venerable bishops of Jerusalem 
and Antioch died in prison, the most cruel 
tortures were employed, and the numbers that 
perished are by all parties confessed to have 
been very considerable. 

Eighth general persecution. — The Emperor 
Valerian, in the fourth year of his reign, A. D, 
257, listening to the suggestions of Macrinus, 
a magician of Egypt, was prevailed upon to 
persecute the Christiuns, on pretence that by 
their wicked and execrable charms they hin- 
dered the prosperity of the emperor. Macrinus 
advised him to perform many impious rites, 
sacrifices, and incantations ; to cut the throats 
of infants, &c ; and edicts were published in 
all places against the Christians, who were 
exposed without protection to the common 
rage. VVe have the names of several martyrs, 
among whom were the famous St. Laurence, 
archdeacon of Rome, and the great St. Cyp- 
rian, bishop of Carthage. 

Ninth general persecution. — This persecution 
took place under the Emperor Aurelian, A. D. 
274 ; but it was so small and inconsiderable, 
that it gave little interruption to the peace of 
the church. 

Tenth general persecution. — The tenth and 
last genera] persecution of the Christians began 
in the nineteenth year of the Emperor Diocle- 
tian, A. D. 303. The most violent promoters 
of it were Hieroclcs the philosopher, who 
wrote against the Christian religion, and Ga- 
lerius, whom Diocletian had declared Caesar. 
This latter was excited not only by his own 
cruelty and superstition, but likevv^ise by his 
mother, who was a zealous Pagan. Diocletian, 
contrary to his inclination, was prevailed upon 
to authorize the persecution by his edicts. 
Accordingly, it began in the city of Nicomedia, 
whence it spread into other cities and provinces, 
and became at last universal. Great numbers 
of Christians suffered the severest tortures in 
this persecution, though the accounts given 
of it by succeeding historians are probably 
exaggerated. There is, however, sufficient 
of well authenticated facts to assure us amply 
of the cruel and intolerant disposition of the 
professors of Pagan philosophy. The human 
imagination was, indeed, almost exhausted in 
inventing a variety of tortures. Some were 
impaled alive ; some had their limbs broken, 
and in that condition were left to expire. 
Some were roasted by slow fires ; and some 
suspended by their feet with their heads down- 
ward, and, a fire being placed under them, 
were suffocated by the smoke. Some had 
melted lead poured down their throats, and 
the flesh of some was torn off with shells, and 
others had splinters of reeds thrust under the 
nails of their fingers and toes. The few who 
were not capitally punished had their limbs 



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and their features mutilated. It would be 
endless to enumerate the victims of supersti- 
tion. The bishops of Nicomedia, of Tyre, of 
Sidon, of Emesa, several matrons and virgins 
of the purest character, and a nameless num- 
ber of plebians, arrived at immortality through 
the flames of martyrdom. At last it pleased 
God that the Emperor Constantine, who him- 
self afterward became a Ciiristian, openly de- 
clared for the Christians, and published the 
first law in favour of them. The death of 
Maximin, emperor of the east, soon after put a 
period to all their troubles ; and this was the 
great epoch when Christianity triumphantly 
got possession of the thrones of princes. 

The guilt of persecution has, however, been 
attached to professing Christians. Had men 
been guided solely by the spirit and the precepts 
of the Gospel, the conduct of its blessed Author, 
and the writings and example of his immediate 
disciples, we might have boldly affirmed that 
among Christians there could be no tendency 
to encroach upon freedom of discussion, and 
no approach to persecution. The Gospel, in 
every page of it, inculcates tenderness and 
mercy ; it exhibits the most unwearied induL 
gence to the frailties and errors of men ; and 
it represents charity as the badge of those who 
in sincerity profess it. In St. Paul's inimitable 
description of this grace he has drawn a picture 
of mutual forbearance and kindness and tole- 
ration, upon which it is scarcely possible to 
dwell, without being raised superior to every 
contracted sentiment, and glowing with the 
most diffusive benevolence. In the churches 
which he planted he had often to counteract 
the efforts of teachers who had laboured to 
subvert the foundation which he had laid, to 
misrepresent his motives, and to inculcate 
doctrines which, through the inspiration that 
was imparted to him, he discerned to proceed 
from the most perverted views, and to be 
inconsistent with the great designs of the Gos- 
pel. These teachers he strenuously and con- 
scientiously opposed ; he endeavoured to show 
the great im.portance of those to whom he wrote 
being on their guard against them ; and he 
evinced the most ardent zeal in resisting their 
insidious purposes : but he never, in the most 
distant manner, insinuated that they should 
be persecuted, adhering always to the maxim 
which he had laid down, that the weapons of 
a Christian's warfare are not carnal but spirit, 
ual. He does, indeed, sometimes speak of 
heretics; and he even exhorts that, after ex- 
postulation with him, a heretic should be re- 
jected, and not acknowledged to be a member 
of the church to which he had once belonged. 
But that precept of the Apostle has no refer- 
ence to the persecution which it has sometimes 
been conceived to sanction, and which has 
been generally directed against men quite sin- 
cere in their belief, however erroneous that 
belief may be esteemed. 

Upon a subject thus enforced by precept and 
example, it is not to be supposed that the first 
converts, deriving their notions of Christianity 
immediately from our Lord or his Apostles, 
could have any opinion different in theory, at 



least, from that which has been now established. 
Accordingly, we find that the primitive fathers, 
although, in many respects, they erred, un- 
equivocally express themselves in favour of the 
most ample liberty as to religious sentiment, 
and highly disapprove of every attempt to con- 
trolit. Passages from many of these writers 
might be quoted to establish that this was 
almost the universal sentiment till the age of 
Constantine. Lactantius in particular has, 
with great force and beauty, delivered his 
opinion against persecution : " There is no 
need of compulsion and violence, because 
religion cannot be forced^; and men must be 
made willing, not by stripe^ but by arguments. 
Slaughter and piety are quite opposite to each 
other ; nor can truth consist with violence, or 
justice with cruelty. They are convinced that 
nothing is more excellent than religion, and 
therefore think that it ought to be defended 
with force ; but they are mistaken, both in the 
nature of religion, and in proper methods to 
support it ; for religion is to be defended, not 
by murder, but by persuasion ; not by cruelty, 
but by patience ; not by wickedness, but by 
faith. If you attempt to defend religion by 
blood, and torments, and evil, this is not to 
defend, but to violate and pollute it ; for there 
is nothing that should be more free than the 
choice of religion, in which, if consent be 
wanting, it becomes entirely void and inef- 
fectual." 

The general conduct of Christians during 
the first three centuries was in conformity with 
the admirable maxims now quoted. Eusebius 
has recorded that Polycarp, after in vain 
endeavouring to persuade Anicetus, who was 
bishop of Rome, to embrace his opinion as to 
some point with respect to. which they differed, 
gave him, notwithstanding, the kiss of peace, 
while Anicetus coimiiunicated with the mar- 
tyr; and Ireneeus mentions that although 
Polycarp was much offended with the Gnostic 
heretics, who abounded in his days, he con- 
verted numbers of them, not by the application 
of constraint or violence, but by the facts &nd 
arguments which he calmly submitted for their 
consideration. It must be admitted, however, 
that even during the second century some 
traces of persecution are to be found. Victor, 
one of the early pontiffs, because the Asiatic 
bishops differed from him about the rule for 
the observa,tion of Easter, excommunicated 
them as guilty of heresy ; and he acted in the 
same manner toward a person who heM what 
he considered as erroneous notions respecting 
the trinity. This stretch of authority was, 
indeed, reprobated hj the generality of Chris- 
tians, and remonstrances against it were ac- 
cordingly presented. There was, however, in 
this proceeding of Victor, too clear a proof 
that the church was beginning to deviate from 
the perfect charity by which it had been 
adorned, and too sure an indication that the 
example of one who held so high an office, 
when it was in harmony with the corruption 
or with the worst passions of our nature, would 
be extensively followed. But still there was, 
in the excommunication rashly pronounced 



PET 



741 



PET 



by the pope, merely an exertion of ecclesiasti- 
cal power, not interfering with the personal se- 
curity, with the property, or with the lives of 
those against whom it was directed ; and we 
may, notwithstanding this slight exception, 
consider the first three centuries as marked by 
the candour and the benevolence implied in 
the charity which judgeth not, and thinketh 
no evil. 

It was after Christianity had been established 
as the religion of the empire, and after wealth 
and honour had been conferred on its ministers, 
that the monstrous evil of persecution acquired 
gigantic strength, and threw its blasting influ- 
ence over the religion of the Gospel. The 
causes of this are apparent. Men exalted in 
the scale of society were eager to extend the 
power which had been intrusted to them ; and 
they sought to do so by exacting from the peo- 
ple acquiescence in the peculiar interpretations 
of tenets and doctrines which they chose to 
publish as articles of faith. The moment that 
this was attempted, the foundation was laid 
for the most inflexible intolerance ; because 
reluctance to submit was no longer regarded 
solely as a matter of conscience, but as inter- 
fering with the interest and the dominion of 
the ruling party. It was therefore proceeded 
against with all the eagerness which men so 
unequivocally display when the temporal bless- 
ings that gratify their ambition or add to their 
comfort are attempted to be wrested from them. 
To other dictates than those of the word of 
God the members of the church now listened; 
and opinions were viewed, not in reference to 
that word, but to the effect which they might 
}>roduce upon the w^orldly advancement or 
prosperity of those by whom they were avowed. 
From the era, then, of the conversion of Con- 
stantino wo may date, if not altogether the 
introduction, at least the decisive influence of 
persecution. 

PERSIA, an ancient kingdom of Asia, 
bounded on the north by Media, on the west 
by Susiana, on the east by Carmania, and on 
the south by the Persiaii Gulf The Persians 
became very famous from the time of Cyrus, 
the founder of the Persian monarchy. Their 
ancient name was Elamites, and in the time 
of the Roman emperors they went by the name 
of Parthians ; but now Persians, ^ee Cyrus ; 
and for the religion of the ancient Persians, 
Magi. 

PESTILENCE, or plague, generally is used 
by the Hebrews for all epidemic or contagious 
diseases. Tiie prophets usually connect to- 
gether sword, pestilence, and famine, being 
three of the most grievous inflictions of the 
Almighty upon a guilty people. See Diseases. 
_ PETER, the great Apostle of the circum- 
cision, was the son of Jona, and born at Beth- 
saida, a town situated on the western shore of 
the lake of Gennesareth, but in what particular 
year we are not informed, John i, 42, 43. His 
original name was Simon or Simeon, which 
his divine Master, when he called him to the 
Apostleship, changed for that of Cephas, 
a Syriac word signifying a stone or rock; 
in Latin, fetra, from whence is derived the 



term Peter. Pie was a married man, and had 
his house, his mother-in-law, and his wife, at 
Capernaum, on the lake of Gennesareth, 
Matt, viii, 14 ; Mark i, 29 ; Luke iv, 38. He 
had also a brother of the name of Andrew, who 
had been a disciple of John the Baptist, and 
was called to the knowledge of the Saviour 
prior to himself. Andrew was present when 
the venerable Baptist pointed his disciples to 
Jesus, and added, "Behold the Lamb of God 
that taketh away the sin of the world ;" and, 
meeting Simon shortly afterward, said, "We 
have found the Messiah," and then brought 
him to Jesus, John i, 41. When the tv/o bro- 
thers had passed one day with the Lord Jesus, 
they took their leave of him, and returned to 
their ordinary occupation of fishing. This 
appears to have taken place in the thirtieth 
year of the Christian era. Toward the end of 
the same year, as Jesus was one morning stand- 
ing on the shore of the lake of Gennesareth, 
he saw Andrew and Peter engaged about their 
employment. They had been fishing during 
the whole night, but without the smallest suc- 
cess ; and, after this fruitless expedition, were 
in the act of washing their nets, Luke v, 1-3. 
Jesus entered into their boat, and bade Peter 
throw out his net into the sea, which he did ; 
and now, to his astonishment, the multitude 
of fishes was so immense that their own vessel, 
and that of the sons of Zebedee, were filled 
with them, Peter evidently saw there was 
something supernatural in this, and, throwing 
himself at the feet of Jesus, he exclaimed, 
" Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful 
man." The miracle was no doubt intended 
for a sign to the four disciples of what success 
should afterward follow their ministry in 
preaching the doctrine of his kingdom ; and 
therefore Jesus said unto them, "Follow me, 
and I will make you fishers of men ;" on which 
they quitted their boats and nets, and thence, 
forth became the constant associates of the 
Saviour, during the whole of his public minis- 
try, Luke xviii, 28. 

From the instant of his entering upon the 
apostolic office, we find St. Peter on almost 
every occasion evincing the strength of his 
faith in Jesus as the Messiah, and the most 
extraordinary zeal in his service, of which 
many examples are extant in the Gospels. 
When Jesus in private asked his disciples, first, 
what opinion the people entertained of him ; 
next, what was their own opinion : " Simon 
Peter answered and said. Thou art the Christ, 
the Son of the living God," Matt, xvi, 16. 
Having received this answer, Jesus declared 
Peter blessed on account of his faith ; and in 
allusion to the signification of his name, added, 
"Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will 
build my church ; and I will give thee the keys 
of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever 
thou shalt bind on earth," &c. Many think 
these things were spoken to St. Peter alone, 
for the purpose of conferring on him privileges 
and powers not granted to the rest of the 
Apostles. But others, with more reason, sup- 
pose that, though Jesus directed his discourse 
j to St. Peter, it was intended for them all ; and 



PET 



742 



PET 



that the honours and powers granted to St. 
Peter by name were conferred on them all 
equally. For no one will say that Christ's 
church was built upon St. Peter singlj'- : it was 
built on the foundation of all the Apostles 
and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the 
chief corner stone. As little can any one say 
that the power of binding and loosing was 
confined to St. Peter, seeing it was declared 
afterward to belong to all the Apostles, Matt. 
xviii, 18 ; John xx, 23. To these things add 
this, that as St. Peter made his confession in 
answer to a question which Jesus put to all 
the Apostles, that confession v/as certainly 
made in the name of the v;hole ; and, there- 
fore, what Jesus said to him in reply was 
designed for the whole without distinction ; 
excepting this, which was peculiar to him, 
that he was to be the first who, after the de- 
scent of the Holy Ghost, should preach the 
Gospel to the Jews, and then to the Gentiles : 
an honour which was conferred on St. Pe- 
ter in the expression, " I will give thee the 
keys," &c. 

St. Peter was one of tlie three Apostles 
whom Jesus admitted to witness the resurrec- 
iion of Jairus's daughter, and before whom he 
was transfigured, and with whom he retired to 
pray in the garden the night before he suffer- 
ed. He was the person who in the fervour of 
his zeal for his Master cut oS the ear of the 
high priest's slave, when the armed band came 
to apprehend him. Yet this same Peter, a few 
hours after that, denied his Master three differ- 
ent times in the, high priest's palace, and that 
with oaths. In the awfal defection of the 
Apostle on this occasion we have melancholy 
proof of the power of human depravity even 
in regenerate men, and of the v\^eakness of 
human resolutions when left to ourselves. St. 
Peter was fully warned by his divine Master 
of his approaching danger ; but confident in 
his own strength, he declared himself ready to 
accompany his Lord to prison and even to 
judgment. After the third denial " Jesus turn- 
ed and looked upon Peter;" that look pierced 
him to the heart ; and, stung witli deep re- 
jnorse, " he went out, and wept bitterly." St. 
Peter, however, obtained forgiveness ; and, 
when Jesus had risen from the dead, he order- 
ed the glad tidings of his resurrection to be 
conveyed to St. Peter by name : " Go tell my 
disciples and Peter," Mark xvi, 8. He after- 
ward received repeated assurances of his Sa- 
viour's love, and from that time uniformly 
showed the greatest zeal and fortitude in his 
Master's service. 

Sopn ailer our Lord's ascension, in a nume- 
rous assembly of the Apostles and brethren, 
St. Peter gave it as liis opinion, that one 
should be chosen to be an Apostle in the room 
of Judas. To this they all agreed ; and, by 
lot, chose Matthias, whom on that occasion 
they numbered with the eleven Apostles. On 
the day of pentecost following, when the Holy 
Spirit fell on the Apostles and disciples, St. 
Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his 
voice ; that is, St. Peter, rising up, spake with 
a loud voice, in the name of the Apostles, as 



he had done on various occasions in his Mas- 
ter's lifetime, and gave the multitude an ac- 
count of that great miracle, Acts ii, 14. St. 
Peter now began to experience the fulfilment 
of Christ's promise to make him a fisher of 
men, and also that he would give him the keys 
of the kingdom of heaven. His sermon on this 
occasion produced an abundant harvest of 
converts to Christ. Three thousand of his 
audience were pricked to the heart, and cried 
out, " Men and brethren, what shall we do ?" 
St. Peter proclaimed to them the riches of 
pardoning mercy through the divine blood of 
the Son of God ; and they that gladly received 
his doctrine were baptized and added to the 
church, Acts ii, 37-43. The effects produced 
on the mind of this great Apostle of the cir 
cumcision by the resurrection of his divine 
Master, and the consequent effusion of the 
Holy Spirit, were evidently of the most extra- 
ordinary kind, and such as it is impossible to 
account for upon natural prirfciples. He was 
raised superior to all considerations of personal 
danger and the fear of man. And though all 
the Apostles could now say, " God hath not 
given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and 
of love, and of a sound mind ;" yet an attentive 
reader of the Acts of the Apostles cannot fail 
to perceive that upon almost every occasion 
of difficulty St. Peter is exhibited to our view 
as standing foremost in the rank of Apostles. 
When St. Peter and John were brought before 
the council to be examined concerning the 
miracle wr.ought on the impotent man, St. Pe- 
ter spake. It was St. Peter who questioned 
Ananias and Sapphira about the price of their 
lands ; and, for their lying in that matter, 
punished them miraculously with death. It is 
remarkable, also, that although by the hands 
of the Apostles many signs and wonders were 
ivrought, it was by St. Peter's shadow alone 
that the sick, who were laid in the streets of 
Jerusalem, were healed as he passed by. Last- 
ly : It was St. Peter who replied to the council 
in the name of the Apostles, not obeying their 
command to preach no more in the name of 
Jesus. 

St. Peter's fame was now become so great, 
that the brethren of Joppa, hearing of his be- 
ing in Lydda, and of his having cured Eneas 
miraculously of a palsy, sent, desiring him to 
come and restore a disciple to life, named Ta- 
bitha, which he did. During his abode in Jop- 
pa, the Roman centurion, Cornelius, directed 
by an angel, sent for him to come and preach 
to him. On that occasion the Holy Ghost fell 
on Cornelius and his company, while St. Peter 
spake. St. Peter, by his zeal and success in 
preaching the Gospel, having attracted the 
notice of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Herod 
Agrippa, who, to please the Jews, had killed 
St. James, the brother of St. John, still farther 
to gratify them, cast St. Peter into prison. 
But an angel brought him out ; after which he 
concealed himself in the city, or in some neigh- 
bouring town, till Herod's death, which hap- 
pened about the end of the year. Some learn- 
ed men think St. Peter at that time went to 
Antioch or to Rome. But if he had gone to 



PHA 



743 



PHA 



£ny celebrated city, St. Luke, as L'Enfiint ob- 
serves, would probably have mentioned it. 
Beside, we find him in the council of Jerusa- 
lem, which met not long after this to deter- 
mine the famous question concerning the cir- 
cumcision of the Gentiles. The council being 
ended, St. Peter went to Antioch, where he 
gave great offence, by refusing to eat with the 
converted Gentiles. But St. Paul withstood 
him to the face, rebuking him before the whole 
church for his pi^sillanimity and hypocrisy. 
Gal. ii, 11-21. 

In the Acts of the Apostles, no mention is 
made of St. Peter after the council of Jerusa- 
lem. But from Gal. ii, 11, it appears that after 
that council he was with St. Paul at Antioch. 
He is likewise mentioned by St. Paul, 1 Cor. 
i, 12 ; iii, 22, It is generally supposed that 
after St. Peter was at Antioch with St. Paul, 
he returned to Jerusalem. What happened to 
him after that is not told in the Scriptures. 
But Eusebius informs us that Origen wrote to 
this purpose : St. Peter is supposed to have 
preached to the Jews of the dispersion in Pon- 
tus, Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Asia ; 
and at length, coming to Rome, was crucified 
with his head downward. 

We are indebted to this Apostle for two 
epistles, which constitute a valuable part of 
the inspired writings. The first epistle of St. 
Peter has always been considered as canonical ; 
and in proof of its genuineness we may observe 
that it is referred to by Clement of Rome, 
Hermas, and Polycarp ; that we are assured 
by Eusebius, that it was quoted by Papias ; and 
that it is expressly mentioned by Irena;us, Cle- 
ment of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, and 
most of the later fathers. The authority of 
the second epistle of St. Peter was for some 
time disputed, as we learn from Origen, Eu- 
sebius, and Jerom ; but since the fourth cen- 
tury it has , been universally received, except 
by the Syriac Christians. It is addressed to 
the same persons as the former epistle, and 
the design of it was to encourage them to ad- 
here to the genuine faith and practice of the 
Gospel. 

PETHOR, a city of Mesopotamia, of which 
the Prophet Balaam was a native. The He- 
brews call this city Pcthura, Ptolemy calls it 
Pachora ; and Eusebius, Pathara. He places 
it in the Upper Mesopotamia. 

PHARAOH, a common name of the kings 
of Egypt. We meet with it as early as Gen. 
xii, 15. Josephus says, that all the kings of 
Egypt, from Minseus, the founder of Memphis, 
who lived several ages before Abraham, always 
had the name of Pharaoh, down to the time of 
Solomon, for more than three thousand three 
hundred years. He adds, that, in the Epyptian 
language, the word Pharaoh means king, and 
that these princes did not assume the name 
until they ascended the throne, at which time 
they quitted their former name. 

PHARISEES, a sect of the Jews. The ear- 
liest mention of them is by Josephus, who tells 
us that they were a sect of considerable weight 
when John Hyrcanus was high priest, B. C. 
108. They were the most numerous, distin- 



guished, and popular sect among the Jews 
the time when they first appeared is not 
known, but it is supposed to liave been not 
long after the institution of the Sadducees, if, 
indeed the two sects did not gradually spring 
up together. They derived their narhe from 
the Hebrew word pharash, which signifies 
" separated," or " set apart ;" because they 
separated themselves from the rest of the Jews 
to superior strictness in religious observances. 
They boasted that, from their accurate know- 
ledge of religion, they were the favourites of 
Heaven ; and thus, trusting in themselves that 
they were righteous, despised others, Luke 
xi, 52; xviii, 9, 11. Among the tenets incul- 
cated by this sect, we may enumerate the fol- 
lowing : namely, they ascribed all things to 
fate or providence ; yet not so absolutely as to 
take away the free will of man ; for fate does 
not cooperate in every action, Acts v, 38, 39. 
They also believed in the existence of angels 
and spirits, and in the resurrection of the dead ; 
Acts xxiii, 8. Lastly : the Pharisees contend- 
ed that God stood eiagaged to bless the Jews, 
to make them all partakers of the terrestrial, 
kingdom of the Messiah, to justify them, and 
make them eternally happy. The cause of 
their justification they derived from the merits 
of Abraham, from their knowledge of God, 
from their practising the rite of circumcision, 
and from the sacrifices they offei-ed. And as 
they conceived works to be meritorious, they 
had invented a great number of supererogatory 
ones, to which they attached greater merit 
than to the observance of the law itself. To 
this notion St. Paul ha^ some allusions in those 
parts of his Epistle to the Romans, in which 
h,e combats the erroneous suppositions of the 
Jews, Rom. i-xi. 

The Pharisees were the strictest of the three 
principal sects that divided the Jewish nation, 
Acts xxvi, 5, and affected a singular probitj'^ 
of manners according to their system ; which, 
however, was, for the most part, both lax and 
corrupt. Thus many things which Moses had 
tolerated in civil life, in order to avoid a greater 
evil, the Pharisees determined to be morally 
right : for instance, the law of divorce from a 
wife for any cause. Matt, v, 31, &c ; xix, 3-12. 
(See Divorce.) Farther : they interpreted cer- 
tain of the Mosaic laws most literally, and dis- 
torted their meaning so as to favour their own 
selfish system. Thus, the law of loving their 
neighbour, they expounded solely of the love of 
their friends, that is, of the whole Jewish race ; 
all other persons being considered by them as 
natural enemies, whom they were in no respect 
bound to assist, Matt, v, 43 ; Luke x, 31-33. 
They also trifled with oaths. Dr. Lightfoot 
has cited a striking illustration of this from 
Maimonides. An oath, in which the name 
of God was not distinctly specified, they taught 
was not binding. Matt, v, 33 ; maintaining 
that a man might even swear with his lips, 
and at the same time annul it in his heart ! 
And yet so rigorously did they understand tho 
command of observing the Sabbath day, that 
they accounted it unlawful to pluck ears of 
corn, and heal the sick, &c, Matt, xii ; Luke - 



FHA 



744 



PHE 



vi, 6y &c ; xiv. Many moral rules they ac- ' 
counted inferior to the ceremonial laws, to 
the total neglect of- mercy and fidelity, Matt. 
V, 19 ; XV, 4 ; xxiii, 23,. Hence they account- 
ed causeless anger and impure desires as trifles 
of no moment, Matt, v, 21, 22, 27-30 ; they 
compassed sea and land to make proselytes to 
the Jewish religion from among the Gentiles, 
that they might rule over their consciences 
and wealth ; and these proselytes, through the 
influence of their own scandalous examples 
and characters, they soon rendered more pro- 
fligate and abandoned than ever they were be- 
fore their conversion, Matt, xxiii, 15. Esteem, 
ing temporal happiness and riches as the 
highest good, they scrupled not to accumulate 
wealth by every means, legal or illegal. Matt. 
V, 1-12 ; xxiii, 5 ; Luke xyi, 14 ; James ii, 
1-8 ; vain and ambitious of popular applause, 
they offered up lopg prayers in public places, 
but not without self-complacency in their own 
holiness, Matt, vi, 2-5 ; Luke xviii, 11 ; under 
a sanctimonious appearance of respect for the 
memories of the prophets whom their ancestors 
had slain, they repaired and beautified their 
sepulchres, Matt, xxiii, 29 ; and such was their 
idea of their own sanctity, that they thought 
themselves defiled if they but touched or con- 
versed with sinners, that is, with publicans or 
tax-gatherers, and persons of loose and irregu- 
lar lives, Luke vii, 39 ; xv, 1. 

But, above all their other tenets, the Phari- 
sees were conspicuous for their reverential 
observance of the traditions or decrees of the 
elders : these traditions, they pretended, had 
been handed down from Moses through every 
generation, but v/ere not committed to writing; 
and they were npt merely considered as of 
equal authority with the divine law, but even 
preferable to it.- "The words of the scribes," 
said they, " are lovely above the words of the 
law ; for the words of the law are weighty and 
light, but the words of the scribes are oil 
weighty." Among the traditions thus sancti- 
moniously observed by the Pharisees, we may 
briefly notice the following : the washing of 
hands up to the wrist before and after meat, 
Matthew xv, 2 ; Mark vii, 3 ; which they ac- 
counted not merely a religious duty, but con- 
sidered its omission as a crime equal to forni- 
cation, and punishable by excommunication : 
the purification of the cups, vessels, and 
couches used at their meals by ablutions or 
washings, Mark vii, 4 ; for v/hich purpose the 
six large water pots mentioned by St. John, 
ii, 6, were destined : their fasting twice a 
week with great appearance of austerity, Luke 
xviii, 12; Matt, vi, 16; thus converting that 
exercise into religion which is only a help 
toward the performance of its hallowed duties : 
their punctilious payment of tithes, (temple- 
offerings,) even of the most trifling things, 
Luke xviii, 12 ; Matt, xxiii, 23. And their wear- 
ing broader phylacteries and larger fringes to 
their garments than the rest of the Jews, Matt, 
xxiii, 5. See Phylacteries. 

With all their pretensions to piety, the Pha- 
risees entertained the most sovereign contempt 
for the people ; whom, being ignorant of the 



law, they pronounced to be accursed, John 
vii, 49. Yet such was the esteem and vene- 
ration in which they were held by the popu- 
lace, that they may almost be said to have 
given what direction they pleased to public 
affairs ; and hence the great men dreaded their 
power and authority.. It is unquestionable, 
as Mosheim has well remarked, that the reli- 
gion of the Pharisees was, for the most part, 
founded in consummate hypocrisy ; and that, 
at the bottom, they were generally the slaves 
of every vicious appetite, proM, arrogant, and 
avaricious, consulting only the gratification 
of their lusts, even at the very moment when 
they professed themselves to be engaged in 
the service of their Maker. These odious 
features in the character of the Pharisees 
caused them to be reprehended by our Sa- 
viour with the utmost severity, even more so 
tha^n the Sadducees ; who, although they had 
departed widely from the genuine principles 
of religion, yet did not impose on mankind by 
a pretended sanctity, or devote themselves 
with insatiate greediness to the acquisition 
of honours and riches. A few, and a few- 
only of the sect of the Pharisees in those 
times, might be of better character, — men 
who, though self-righteous and deluded and 
bigoted, were not like the rest, hypocritical. 
Of this number was Saul of Tarsus; but as a 
body their attachment to traditions ; their pas- 
sionate expectation of deliverance from the 
Roman yoke by the Messiah, and the splen- 
dour of his civil reign, their pride, and above 
all their vices, sufficiently account for that 
unconquerable unbelief which had possessed 
their minds as to the claims of Christ, and 
their resistance to the evidence of his miracles. 
The sect of the Pharisees was not extinguished 
by the ruin of the Jewish commonwealth. The 
greater part of the Jews are still Pharisees, be- 
ing as much devoted to traditions, or the oral 
law, as their ancestors were. 
PHARPAK. See Abana. 
PHEBE, a deaconess of the port of Corinth, 
called Cenchrea. St. Paul had a particular 
esteem for this holy woman ; and Theodoret 
thinks the Apostle lodged at her house for 
some time, while he continued in or near 
Corinth. It is thought she carried the epistle 
to Rome, which he wrote to the church of that 
city, in which she is so highly commended, 
Rom. xvi, 1, 2. It is thought that, in quality 
of deaconess, she was employed by the church 
in some ministrations suitable to her sex and 
condition ; as to visit and instruct the Chris- 
tian women, and attend them in their sick- 
ness, and distribute alms to them in their 
necessities. 

PHENICIA, a province of Syria, the limits 
of which have been differently represented. 
Sometimes it has been defined as exijpnding 
from north to south, from Orthosia as far as 
Pelusium. At other times its southern limit 
is said to have been Mount Carmel and Ptole- 
mais. It is certain that, from the conquest of 
Palestine by the Hebrews, its limits were nar- 
row, containing no part of the country of the 
Philistines, which occupied all the coast from 



PHI 



745 



PHI 



Mount Carmel along the Mediterranean, as 
far as the borders of Egypt. It liad also very 
little extent on the land side, because the 
Israelites, who possessed all Galilee, confined 
it to the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The 
chief cities of Phenicia were Sidon, Tyre, 
Ptolemais, Ecdippe, Sarepta, Berythe, Biblos, 
Tripoli, Orthosia, Simira, Aradus. They 
formerly had possession of some cities in 
Libanus : and sometimes the Greek authors 
comprehend all Judea under the name of Phe- 
nicia. Phenicia may be considered as the 
birthplace of commerce, if not also of letters 
and the arts. It was a Phenician who intro- 
duced into Greece the knowledge and the use 
of letters. Phenician v/orkmen built the temple 
of Solomon ; Phenician sailors navigated his 
ships; Phenician pilots directed, them ; and 
before other nations had ventured to lose 
sight of their own shores, colonies of Phe- 
nicians were established in the most distant 
parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. These 
early advantages were owing, doubtless, in 
part to their own enterprising character, and 
in part also to their central situation, which 
enabled them to draw into their own narrow 
territory all the commerce between the east 
and the west. Bochart has laboured to show 
that -they sent colonies to almost all the isles 
and coasts of the Mediterranean Sea ; but the 
most famous of all their colonies was that of 
Carthage. 

PHILADELPHIA, a city of Lydia, in Asia 
Minor, and one of the seven churches of Asia. 
It derived its name from Attains Philadelphus, 
its founder ; and was seated on a branch of 
Mount Tmolus, about twenty-five miles south- 
east of Sardis, and seventy, in nearly the 
same direction, from Smyrna. It suffered 
greatly, in common with all this part of Asia, 
in the terrible earthquake during the reign of 
Tiberius, and in the seventeenth year of the 
Christian era. It has, however, retained a 
better fate than most of its neighbours ; for 
under the name of Alahsher, or the city of 
God, it is still a piace of some repute, chiefly 
supported by trade, it being in the route of the 
caravans to Smyrna. "Among the Greek 
colonies and churches of Asia," says Gibbon, 
"Philadelphia is stih erect, a column in a 
scene of ruins." Although this city is now 
in the possession of the Turks, it has about a 
thousand Christian iniiabitants, chiefly Greeks ; 
who have five churches with a resident bishop, 
and inferior clergy. 

PHILEMON was an inhabitant of Colosse; 
and from the manner in which he is addressed 
by St. Paul in his epistle to him, it is probable 
that he was a person of some consideration 
in that city. St. Paul seems to have been the 
means of converting him to the belief of the 
Gospel, Philemon 19: He calls him his fellow- 
labourer ; and from that expression some have 
thought that he was bishop or deacon of the 
church at Colosse ; but others have been of 
opinion, thai he was only a private Christian, 
vyho had shown a zealous and active disposi- 
tion in the cause of Christianity, without 
holding any ecclesiastical office. We learn 



from this epistle itself, that it was written 
when St. Paul was a prisoner, and when he 
had hope of soon recovering liis liberty, Phile- 
mon 1, 22 ; and thence we conclude that it 
was written toward the end of his first con- 
finement at Rome. This epistle has always 
been deservedly admired for the delicacy and 
address with which it is written ; and it places 
St. Paul's character in a very amiable point of 
view. He had converted a fugitive slave to 
the Christian faith ; and he here intercedes 
with his master in the most earnest and affec- 
tionate manner for his pardon ; he speaks of 
Onesimus in terms calculated to soften Phile. 
mon's resentment, engages to make full com- 
pensation for any injury which he might have 
sustained from him, and conjures him to recon- 
ciliation and forgiveness by the now endearing 
connection of Christian brotheriiood. See 
Onesimus. 

PHILIP, the Apostle, was a native of Beth- 
saida in Galilee. Jesus Christ having seen 
him, said to him, " Follow me," John i, 43, 44. 
Philip folio v/ed him ; he was present at the 
marriage of Cana in Galilee. Philip was 
called at the beginning of our Saviour's mis- 
sion. He is mentioned, Luke vi, 13 ; Matt. 
X, 3 ; Jolm vi, 5-7. Some Gentiles having a 
curiosity to see Jesus, a little before his pas- 
sion, addressed themselves to Philip, Johnxii, 
21, 22, who mentioned it to Andrew, and these 
two to Christ. At the last supper Philip de- 
sired the Saviour to show them the Father, 
John xiv, 8-10. This is all that we find con- 
corning Philip in the Gospel. 

2. Philip, the second of the seven deacons. 
Acts vi, 5, was, some say, of Csesarea in Pales- 
tine. It is certain his daughters lived in that 
city, Acts xxi, 8, 9. After the death of Ste- 
phen all the Christians, except the Apostles, 
having left Jerusalem, and being dispersed in 
several places, Philip went to preach at Se- 
baste or Samaria, where he performed several 
miracles, and converted many persons. Acts 
yiii, 1-3, &c. He baptized them ; but informed 
the Apostles at Jerusalem that Samaria had 
received the word of God, that they might 
come and communicate the Holy Ghost to 
them. Peter and John came thither for that 
purpose. Philip was, probably, at Samaria, 
when an angel commanded him to go on the 
road that leads from Jerusalem to old Gaza. 
Philip obeyed, and there met with an Ethio- 
pian eunuch, belonging to Candace, queen of 
Ethiopia, whom he converted and baptized, 
Acts viii, 26. Being come out of the water, 
the Spirit of the Lord took away Philip, and 
the eunuch saw him no more. 

PHILIPPI, one of the chief cities of Mace- 
donia, lying on the north-west of Neapolis, 
and formerly called Datum or Dates, but 
afterward taking its name from Philip, the 
celebrated king of Macedon, by whom it was 
repaired and beautified. In process of time, it 
became a Roman colony. It was the first place 
at which St. Paul preached the Gospel upon 
the continent of Europe, A. D. 51. He made 
many converts there, who soon afterward 
gave strong proofs of their attachment to hira, 



PHI 



746 



PHI 



Phil, iv, 15. He was at Philippi a second 
time, but nothing which then occurred is 
recorded. The Philippian Christians having 
heard of St. Paul's imprisonment at Rome, 
with their accustomed zeal, sent Epaphroditus 
to assure him of the continuance of their 
regard, and to offer him a supply of money. 
His epistle was written in consequence of that 
act of kindness ; and it is remarkable for its 
strong expressions of affection. As the Apos- 
tle tells the Philippians that he hoped to see 
them shortly, Phil, ii, 24, and there are plain 
intimations in this epistle of his having been 
some time at Rome, Phil, i, 12 ; ii, 26, it is 
probable that it was written A. D. 62, toward 
the end of his confinement. 

" It is a strong proof," says Chrysostom, 
"of the virtuous conduct of the Philippians, 
that they did not aiFord the Apostle a single 
subject of complaint ; for, in the whole epistle 
which he wrote to them, there is nothing but 
exhortation and encouragement, without the 
mixture of any censure whatever." 

PHILISTIM, or PHILISTINES, a people 
who are commonly said to have descended 
from Casluhim, the son of Mizraim or Mizr, 
who peopled Egypt. The Philistines, it is 
probable, continued with their progenitors in 
Egypt until they were sufficiently numerous 
and powerful to stretch themselves along the 
coast of Canaan ; doubtless by driving out that 
portion of the family of Ham. It is certain 
that, in the time of Abraham, the Canaanites 
were in possession of the rest of the land, to 
which they gave their name : but the extreme 
south of Philistia, or Palestine, was even then 
possessed by the Philistines, whose king, Abi- 
melech, reigned at Gerar. After this, in the 
time of Joshua, we find their country divided 
into five lordships or principalities ; namely, 
Gaza, Askelon, Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron ; 
giving sometimes also, as it appears, the title 
of king to their respective rulers ; Achish being 
termed king of Gath, 1 Sam. xxi, 10. The 
time of their coming to Palestine is unknown ; 
but they had been long in Canaan when Abra- 
ham came thither, in the year of the world 
2083. The name Philistine is not Hebrew. 
The Septuagirit generally translate it 'aXXo- 
(pv'Xoi, strangers. The Pelethites and Chere- 
thites were also Philistines ; and the Septuagint 
sometimes translate Cherethmi, Kprjrai, Cretes. 
They were not of the cursed seed of Canaan. 
However, Joshua did not forbear to give their 
land to the Hebrews, and to attack them by 
command from the Lord, because they pos- 
sessed a country promised to Israel. But these 
conquests of Joshua must have been ill main- 
tained, since, under the Judges, under Saul, 
and at the beginning of the reign of King 
David, the Philistines had their kings, and 
their lords, whom they called Sazenini ; since 
their state was divided into five little kingdoms, 
or satrapies ; and since they oppressed the 
Israelites during the government of the high 
priest Eli, and of Samuel, and during the reign 
of Saul, for about a hundred and twenty years, 
from A. M. 2848 to A. M. 2960. True it is, 
that Shamgar, Samson, Samuel, and Saul, op. 



posed them, and killed some of their people, 
but did not reduce their power. They con- 
tinued independent till the time of David, who 
subdued them, 2 Sam. v, 17 ; viii, 1, 2, &.c. 

They continued in subjection to the'kings 
of Judah down to the reign of Jehoram, son of 
Jehoshaphat, about two hundred and forty-six 
years, when they revolted from Jehoram, 
2 Chron. xxi, 16. Jehoram made war against 
them, and probably reduced them to his obe- 
dience again ; because it is observed in Scrip- 
ture, that they revolted again from Uzziah, 
who kept them to their duty during his whole, 
reign, 2 Chron. xxvi, 6, 7. Uzziah began to 
reign A. M. 3194. During the unfortunate 
reign of Ahaz, the Philistines made great 
havoc in the territory of Judah ; but his son 
and successor Hezekiah subdued them again, 
2 Chron. xxviii, 18 ; 2 Kings xviii, 8, Lastly, 
they regained their full liberty under the later 
kings of Judah ; and we may see, by the me- 
naces made against them by the Prophets 
Isaiah, Amos, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, and Eze- 
kiel, that they brought a thousand hardships 
and calamities on the children of Israel, for 
which God threatened to punish them with 
great misfortunes. 

Esar-haddon, successor to Sennacherib, be- 
sieged Ashdod, or Azoth, and took it by* the 
arms of his general, Thasthan, or Tartan. 
Psammetichus, king of Egypt, took the same 
city after a siege of twenty-nine years, accord- 
ing to Herodotus. During the siege of Tyre, 
which held out thirteen years, Nebuchadnezzar 
used part of his army to subdue the Ammon- 
ites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and other 
nations bordering on the Jews. There is great 
probability that the Philistines could not with, 
stand him, but were reduced to' his obedience, 
as well as the other people of Syria, Phenicia, 
and Palestine. Afterward they fell under the 
dominion of the Persians ; then under that of 
Alexander the Great, who destroyed the city 
of Gaza, the only city of the Phenicians that 
dared to oppose him. After the persecution 
of Antiochus Epiphanes, the Asmoneans took 
by degrees several cities from the country of 
the Philistines, which tliey subjected. Try- 
phon, regent of the kingdom of Syria, gave to 
Jonathan, the Asraonean, the government of 
the whole coast of the Mediterranean, from 
Tyre to Egypt ; consequently, all the country 
of the Philistines. 

The land of the Philistines bordered on the 
v/est and south-west of Judea, and lies on the 
south-east point of the Mediterranean Sea, 
The country to the north of Gaza is very fer- 
tile ; and, long after the Christian era, it 
possessed a very numerous population, and 
strongly fortified cities. No human probability, 
says Keith, could have existed, in the time of 
the prophets, or at a much more recent date, 
of its eventual desolation. But it has belied, 
for many ages, every promise which the fer- 
tility of its soil, and the excellence both of its 
climate and situation, gave for many preceding 
centuries of its permanency as a rich and 
well cultivated region. And the voice of pro- 
phecy, which was not silent respecting it, 



PHI 



747 



PHI 



proclaimed the fate that awaited it, in terms as 
contradictory, at the time, to every natural 
suggestion, as they are descriptive of what 
Philistia now actually is. " I will stretch out 
my hand upon the Philistines, and destroy the 
remnant of the sea coasts," Ezek. xxv, 16. 
"Baldness is come upon Gaza; Ashkelon is 
cut off with the remnant of their valley," Jer. 
xlvii, 5. " Thus saith the Lord, For three 
transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not 
turn away the punishment thereof. I will send 
a fire upon the wall of Gaza, which shall de- 
vour the palaces thereof. And I will cut off 
the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that 
holdeth the sceptre from Ashkelon ; and I will 
turn my hand against Ekron ; and the rem- 
nant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the 
Lord God," Amos i, 6, 7, 8. " For Ashkelon 
shall be a desolation ;" it shall be cut off with 
the remnant of the. valley ; "and Ekron shall 
be rooted up. — O Canaan, the land of the Phi- 
listines, I will even destroy thee, that there 
shall be no inhabitant ; and the sea coast sliall 
be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and 
folds for flocks," Zeph. ii, 4, 5, 6. " The king 
shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not 
be inhabited," Zech. ix, 5. 

The land of the Philistines was to be de- 
stroyed. It partakes of the general desolation 
common to it with Judea and other neighbour- 
ing states. While ruins are to be found in all 
Syria, they are particularly abundant along 
the sea coast, which formed, on the south, the 
realm of the Philistines. But its aspect pre- 
sents some existing peculiarities, which travel- 
lers fail not to particularize, and which, in 
reference both to the state of the country and 
the fate of its different cities, the prophets 
failed not to discriminate as justly as if their 
description had been drawn both with all the 
accuracy which ocular observation, and all the 
certainty which authenticated history, could 
give. Volney, (though, like one who in an- 
cient times was instrumental to the fulfilment 
of a special prediction, " he meant not so, nei- 
ther did his heart think so,") from the manner 
in which he generalizes his observations, and 
marks the peculiar features of the different 
districts of Syria, with greater acuteness and 
perspicuity than any other traveller whatever, 
is the ever ready purveyor of evidence in all 
the cases which came within the range of his 
topographical description of the wide field of 
prophecy: while, at the same time, fi-om his 
known, open, and zealous hostility to tlife Chris- 
tian cause, his testimony is alike decisive and 
unquestionable : and the vindication of the truth 
of the following predictions may safely be com. 
mitted to this redoubted champion of infidelity. 
" In the plain between Ramla and Gaza," the 
very plain of the Philistines along the sea coast, 
" we met with a number of villages badly built, 
of dried mud, and which, like the inhabitants, 
exhibit every mark of poverty and wretched, 
ness. The houses, on a nearer view, are only 
so Inany huts, (cottages,) sometimes detached, 
at others ranged in the form of cells, around a 
court yard, enclosed by a mud wall. In win- 
ter, they and their cattle may be said to live 



together ; the part of the dwelling allotted to 
themselves being only raised two feet above 
that in which they lodge their beasts :" — 
"dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and 
folds for flocks." — " Except the environs of 
these villages, all the rest of the country is a 
desert, and abandoned to the Bedouin Arabs, 
who feed their flocks on it."; — Thus accom- 
plishing the words of prophecy, " The remnant 
sliall perish ; the land of the Philistines shall 
be destroyed, that there shall be no inhabitant ; 
and the sea coast shall be dwellings and cot- 
tages for shepherds, and folds for flocks." 
"The ruins of white marble, sometimes found 
at Gaza, prove that it was formerly the abode 
of luxury and opulence. It has shared in the 
general destruction ; and, notwithstanding its 
proud title of the capital of Palestine, it is now 
no more than a defenceless village," (baldness 
has come upon it,) " peopled by, at most, only 
two thousand inhabitants." — " It is forsaken," 
says the prophet, "and bereaved of its king." 
" The sea coast, by which it was formerly 
washed, is every day removing farther from 
the deserted ruins of Ashkelon." "Amidst 
the various successive ruins, those of Edzoud," 
Ashdod, " so powerful under the Philistines, 
are now remarkable for their scorpions." — 
Here again v^^^e are reminded of the words of 
inspiration : " The inhabitants shall be cut off 
from Ashdod." 

Thus Volney becomes an unconscious com- 
mentator upon prophecy. But let us hear a 
Christian traveller. "Ashkelon," says Rich- 
ardson, "was one of the proudest satrapies of 
the lords of the Philistines : now there is not 
an inhabitant within its walls ; and the pro- 
phecy of Zechariah is fulfilled : ' The king 
shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not 
be inhabited.' When the prophecy was utteted, 
both cities were in an equally flourishing con- 
dition ; and nothing but the prescience of 
Heaven could pronounce on which of the two, 
and in what manner, the vial of its wrath 
should be poured out. Gaza is truly without 
a king. The lofty towers of Ashkelon lie 
scattered on the ground, and the ruins within 
its walls do not shelter a human being. How 
is the wrath of man made to praise his Creator ! 
Hath he not said, and shall he not do it ? The 
oracle was delivered by the mouth of the pro- 
phet more than five hundred years before the 
Christian era, and we beheld its accomplish- 
ment eighteen hundred years after that event." 
There is yet another city which was noted by 
the prophets, the very want of any information 
respecting which, and the absence of its name 
from several modern maps of Palestine, while 
the sites of other ruined cities are marked, are 
really the best confirmation of the truth of 
the prophecy that could possibly be given. 
" Ekron shall be rooted up." It is rooted up. 
It was one of the chief cities of the Philistines ; 
but, though Gaza still subsists, and while Ash- 
kelon and Ashdod retain their names in their 
ruins, the very name of Ekron is missing. 

PHILOSOPHY, in general, is defined, " the 
knowledge and study of nature and morality, 
founded on reason and experience," Philoso- 



PHI 



748 



PHI 



pliy owes its name to the modesty of Pythago- 
ras, who refused the high title of ao^pdi, wise, 
given to his predecessors, Thales, Pherecydes, 
&.C, as too assuming ; and contented himself 
with the simple appellation of (pi\6ao<pog, quasi 
(piXos rrjs coipiag, a friend or lover of wisdom : but 
Chauvin rather chooses to derive the name 
from (pikia, desire to study, and aotpia, studium 
sapientice; and says that Pythagoras, conceiv- 
ing that the application of the human mind 
ought rather to be called study than science, 
set aside the appellation of v/ise, and, in lieu 
thereof, took that of philosopher. 

A knowledge of the animal, vegetable, and 
mineral kingdoms, or the science of natural 
history, was always an object of interest. We 
are informed that Solomon himself had given 
a description of the animal and vegetable 
kingdoms, 1 Kings iv, 33. Traces of philoso- 
phy,,, strictly so called, that is, the system of 
prevailing moral opinions, may be found in 
the book of Job, in the thirty-seventh, thirty- 
ninth, and seventy-third Psalms ; also in the 
books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, but chiefly 
in the apocryphal book of Wisdom, and the 
writings of the son of Sirach. During the 
captivity, the Jews acquired many new no- 
tions, particularly from the Mahestani, and 
appropriated them, as occasion offered, to 
their own purposes. They at length became 
acquainted with the philosophy of the Greeks, 
which makes its appearance abundantly in the 
book of Wisdom. After the captivity, the 
language in Vvrhich the sacred books were 
written was no longer vernacular. Hence 
arose the need of an interpreter on the sab- 
batic year, a time when the whole lav/ was 
read, and also on the Sabbath in the syna- 
gogues, which some think had been recently 
erected, in order to make the people under- 
stand what was read. These interpreters 
learned the Hebrew language at the schools. 
The teachers of these schools, who, for the 
two generations preceding the time of Christ, 
had maintained some acquaintance with the 
Greek philosophy, were not satisfied with a 
simple interpretation of the Hebrew idiom, as 
it stood, but shaped the interpretation so as to 
render it conformable to their philosophy. 
Thus arose contentions, which gave occasion 
for the various sects of Pharisees, Sadducees, 
and Essenes. In the time of our Saviour, 
divisions had arisen among the Pharisees them- 
selves. No less than eighteen nice questions, 
if we may believe the Jewish rabbins, were 
contested at that period between the schools 
of Hillel and Shammai ; one of which questions 
was an inquiry, what cause was sufficient for 
a bill of divorce. If the Shammai and Hillel 
of the Talmud are the same with the learned 
men mentioned in Josephus, namely, Sameas 
and Pollio, who flourished thirty-four years 
before Christ, then Shammai or Sameas is 
undoubtedly the same with the Simeon who is 
mentioned, Luke li, 25-35 ; and his son Gama- 
liel, so celebrated in the Talmud, is the same 
with the Gamaliel mentioned, Acts v, 34; 
xxii, 3. 

Anciently, learned men were denominated 



among the Hebrews a>DDn, as among the 
Greeks they were called ao(po'i, loise men. In 
the time of Christ, the common appellative for 
men of that description was ypanixartx)';, in the 
Hebrew idid, a scribe. They were addressed 
by the honorary title of ra66i, >31, "great," or 
"master." The Jews, in imitation of the 
Greeks, had their seven wise men, who were 
called rabboni. Gamaliel was one of the num- 
ber. They called themselves the children of 
wisdom ; expressions which correspond very 
nearly to the Greek (pildtrocpog, Matthew xi, 19 ; 
Luke vii, 35. The heads of sects were called 
"fathers;" the disciples were denominated 
"sons," or "children," Matt, xii, 27; xxiii, 
1-9. The Jewish teachers, at least some of 
them, had private lecture rooms ; but they also 
taught and disputed in synagogues, in temples, 
and, in fact, wherever they could find an au- 
dience. The method of .these teachers was 
the same with that which prevailed among the 
Greeks. Any disciple who chose might pro- 
pose questions, upon which it was the duty of 
the teachers to remark and give their opinions, 
Luke ii, 46. The teachers were not invested 
with their functions by any formal act of the 
church, or of the civil authority : they were 
self-constituted. They received no other salarj' 
than some voluntary present from the disciples, 
which was called an " honorary," rt«^, honora- 
rium, 1 Tim. V, 17. They acquired a subsist. 
ence, in the main, by the exercise of some art 
or handicraft. That they took a higher seat 
than their auditors, although it was probably 
the case, does not follow, as is sometimes sup- 
posed, from Luke ii, 46. According to the 
Talmudists, they were bound to hold no con- 
versation with women, and to refuse to sit at 
table with the lower class of people. Matt, ix, 
11 ; John iv, 27. The subjects on which they 
taught were numerous, commonly intricate, 
and of no great consequence; of which there 
are abundant examples in the Talmud. 

St. Paul bids the Colossians beware lest any 
man should spoil them "through philosophy 
and vain deceit ;" that is, a vain and deceitful 
philosophy, such as was popular in that day, 
and had been compounded out of all preceding 
systems, Grecian and oriental. An explana- 
tion of this philosophy is given under Gnos- 
tics, and Cabbala. 

On these ancient systems of pretended wis- 
dom. Dr. Burton justly remarks : " Philosophy 
is indeed the noblest stretch of intellect which 
God has vouchsafed to man ;" and it is only 
when man forgets that he received his reason- 
ing powers from God, that he is in danger of 
losing himself in darkness when he sought for 
light. To measure that which is infinite, is 
as impossible in metaphysics as in physics. If 
it had not been for revelation, we should have 
known no more of the Deity than the Heathen 
philosophers knew before : and to what did 
their knowledge amount ? They felt the ne- 
cessity of a First Cause, and they saw that that 
Cause must be intrinsically good; but when 
they came to systems, they never went farther 
than the point from which they first set out, 
that evil is not good, and good is not evil. 



PHY 



749 



PIE 



The Gnostics thought to secure the triumph 
of their scheme by veiling its weaker points in 
mystery, and by borrowing a part from almost 
every system. But popular, and even success. 
ful, as this attempt may have been, we may 
say with truth, that the scheme which flattered 
the vanity of human wisdom, and which strove 
to conciliate all opinions, has died away, and 
is forgotten ; while the Gospel, the unpresum- 
ing, the uncompromising doctrine of the Gos- 
pel, aided by no human wisdom, and address- 
ing itself not merely to the head, but to the 
heart, has triumphed over all systems and all 
philosophers ; and still leads its followers to 
that true knowledge which some have endea- 
voured to teach ' after the tradition of men, 
after the rudiments of the world, and not after 
Christ.' " 

PHINEHAS, son of Eleazar, and grandson 
of Aaron, third high priest of the Jews, A. M. 
2571 to about A. M. 2590, B. C. 1414. He is 
particularly commended in Scripture for zeal 
in vindicating the glory of God, when the 
Midianites had sent their daughters into the 
camp of Israel, to tempt the Hebrews to forni- 
cation and idolatry. Num. xxv, 7. On this 
account the Lord promised the priesthood to 
Phinehas by perpetual covenant ; evidently 
including this tacit condition, that his children 
should continue faithful and obedient : for we 
know the priesthood passed out of the family 
of Eleazar and Phinehas to that of Ithamar, 
and that it returned not to the posterity of 
Eleazar until after about a hundred and fifty 
vears. 

PHUT or PUT, the posterity of Phut, the 
son of Ham, Gen. x, 6. Calmet is of opinion 
that Phut, the third son of Ham, peopled 
either the canton of Phtemphu, Phtemphti, 
Phterabuti, of Pliny and Ptolemy, whose 
capital was Thara, in Lower Egypt, inclining 
toward Libya ; or the canton called Phtenotes, 
of which Buthas was the capital. The pro- 
phets often speak of Phut. In the time of 
Jeremiah, xivi, 9, Phut was under the obedi- 
ence of Necho, king of Egypt. Nahum, iii, 
9, reckons this people in the number of those 
who ought to come to the assistance of No- 
Ammon, or Diospolis. 

PHYLACTERIES, called by the Jews 
j"''7Dn, are little scrolls of parchment, in which 
are written certain sentences of the law, en- 
closed in leather cases, and bound with thongs 
on the forehead and on the left arm. They 
are called in Greek (pv'KaKTfi^ia, from (hv'XdTTw, 
custodio, either because they were supposed to 
preserve the law in memory, or rather because 
they were looked upon as a kind of amulets 
or charms to keep them from danger. The 
making and wearing these phylacteries, as the 
Jews still do in their private devotions, is 
owing to a misinterpretation of those texts, on 
which they ground the practice, namely, God's 
commanding them " to bind the law for a sign 
on their hands, and to let it be as frontlets be- 
tween their eyes," &c, Deut. vi, 8. The com- 
mand ought doubtless to be understood meta- 
phorically, as a charge to remember it, to 
meditate upon it, to have it as it were con- 



tinually before their eyes, and to conduct their 
lives by it ; as when Solomon says, concern- 
ing the commandments of God in general, 
" Bind them about thy neck, write them upon 
the table of thy heart," Pro v. iii, 1, 3; vi, 21. 
However, the Jews understanding the precept 
literally, wrote out the several passages 
wherever it occurs, and to which it seems to 
refer, and bound them upon their foreheads 
and upon their arms. It seems the Pharisees 
used to " make broad their phylacteries." This 
some understand of the knots of the thongs 
by which they were fastened, which were tied 
very artificially in the form of Hebrew letters; 
and that the pride of the Pharisees induced 
them to have these knots larger than ordinary, 
as a peculiar ornament. The Pharisees are 
farther said to "enlarge the borders of their 
garments," ra Kpaa-neSa rwv ijxaTiwv, Matt, xxiii, 
5. These KpaamSa v.'ere the n"'3"'5, the fringes 
which the Jews are commanded to wear upon 
the borders of their garments, Num. xv, 38, 
39. The Targum of Onkelos calls them 
pnSJDiiD, which has so near an afiinity with the 
Greek word KpacrzeSov, that there is no doubt 
but it signifies the same thing ; which is, there- 
fore, an evidence that the Kpaa-mSa were the 
n"'S^-:f. These were worn by our Saviour, as 
appears from the following passage : " Behold, 
a woman, which was diseased with an issue 
of blood twelve years, came behind liim, and 
touched the hem of his garment," KpaiTKe6ov tov 
ifjiaTiov, Matt, ix, 20. Again : the inhabitants 
of Gennesare* are said to have brought unto 
him their diseased, and to have " besought 
him, that they might only touch the hem of 
his garment," Kpdaireoov tov lixariov, Matt, xiv, 
36. Koda-rreiov tov IjjiaTiov is, in both these pas- 
sages, very improperly translated the " hem 
of his garment." It should have been render- 
ed " the fringe." The Pharisees are censured 
by our Saviour for enlarging these fringes of 
their garments, which we may suppose they 
did partly from pride, and partly from hy. 
pocrisy, as pretending thereby an extraor- 
dinary regard for the precepts of the law. 
It is reported by Jerom, as quoted by God- 
win, that they used to have fringes extrava- 
gantly long ; sticking thorns in them, that, 
by pricking their legs as they walked, they 
might put them in mind of the law. See 
Frontlets. 

PIETISTS, Protestant, a denomination in 
the seventeenth century, which owed its origin 
to "the pious and learned Spener," as Dr. 
Mosheim calls him, who formed private devo- 
tional societies at Frankfort, in order to culti- 
vate vital and practical religion ; and publish- 
ed a book entitled " Pious Desires," which 
greatly promoted this object. His followers 
laid it down as an essential maxim, that none 
should be admitted into the ministry but those 
who not only had received a proper education, 
but were also distinguished by their wisdom 
and sanctity of manners, and had hearts filled 
with divine love. Hence they proposed an 
alteration in the schools of divinity, which 
embraced the following points: 1. That the 
scholastic theology, which reigned in the acade- 



PIH 



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PIL 



mxes, and was composed of intricate and dis- 
putable doctrines, and obscure and unusual 
forms of expression, should be totally abolish- 
ed. 2, That polemical divinity, which com- 
prehended the controversies subsisting between 
Christians of different communions, should be 
less eagerly studied, and less frequently treat- 
ed, though not entirely neglected. 3. That all 
mixture of philosophy and human science with 
divine wisdom, was to be most carefully avoid- 
ed; that is, that Pagan philosophy and classical 
learning should be kept 'distinct from, and by 
no means supersede. Biblical theology. But, 
4. That, on the .contrary, all those students, 
who were designed for the ministry, should be 
accustomed from their early youth to the 
perusal and study of the Holy Scriptures, and 
be taught a plain system of theology, drawn 
from these unerring sources of truth. 5. That 
the whole course of their education was to be 
so directed as to render them useful in life, by 
the practical power of their doctrine, and the 
commanding influence of their example^ Such, 
in substance, is Mosheim's account of the me- 
ditated reforms in the public schools. But it 
was not intended to confine these reforms to 
students and the clergy. Religious persons of 
every class and rank were encouraged to meet 
in what were called Biblical colleges, or col- 
leges of piety, (we might call them prayer 
meetings,) where some exercised in reading 
the Scriptures, singing, and prayer, and others 
engaged in the exposition of the Scriptures ; 
not in a dry and critical way, but in a strain 
of practical and experimental piety, by which 
they mutually edified each other. This prac- 
tice, which always more or less obtains where 
religion flourishes, as, for instance, at the Re- 
formation, raised the same sort of outcry as at 
the rise of Methodism ; and those who entered 
not into the spirit of the design, were eager to 
catch at every instance of weakness or impru- 
dence, to bring disgrace on that which, in fact, 
brought disgrace upon themselves, as luke- 
warm and formal Christians. "In so saying. 
Master, thou reproachest us also." This work 
began about 1670. In 1691 Dr. Spener re- 
moved from Dresden to Berlin, where he propa- 
gated the same principles, which widely spread, 
and were well supported in many parts of Ger- 
many by the excellent Professor Francke and 
others, until the general decline of religion 
which has unhappily prevailed in Germany for 
the last half century. See Neology. 

PI-HAHIROTH. The Hebrew pi answers 
to the modern Arabic word fuin, signifying 
"mouth;" and is generally applied to the 
passes in the mountains. In the English and 
Septuagint versions, Hahiroth is taken as a pro- 
per name ; and the whole word would imply the 
mouth or pass of Hahiroth or Hiroth, whatever 
particular origin or signification may belong 
to that word. The name, however, sufficiently 
explains the situation of the children of Israel ; 
who were hemmed in at this place, between 
the sea in front, and a narrow mountain pass 
behind ; which no doubt encouraged Pharaoh 
to make his attack upon them in so disadvan- 
tageous a position ; thinking that they must 



inevitably fall an easy prey into his hands, or be 
cut to pieces : when their deliverance, and his 
own destruction, were unexpectedly wrought 
by the parting of the waters of the sea. The 
place where this miracle is supposed to have 
happened, is still called Bahral-Kolsum, or the 
Sea of Destruction ; and just opposite to the 
situation which answers to the opening called 
Pi-hahiroth, is a bay, where the north cape is 
called Ras Musa, or the Cape of Moses. That 
part of the western or Heroopoiitan branch of 
the Red Sea where, from these coincidences, 
the passage most probably took place, is de- 
scribed by Bruce as about three leagues over, 
with fourteen fathoms of water in the channel, 
nine at the sides, and good anchorage every 
where. The farther side is also represented 
as a low sandy coast, and an easy landing 
place. See Red Sea. 

PILATE. It is not known of what coun- 
try or family Pontius Pilate was, but it is be- 
lieved that he was of Rome, or, at least, of 
Italy. He was sent to govern Judea in the room 
of Gratus, A. D. 26, or 27. He presided over 
this province for ten years, from the twelfth 
or thirteenth year of Tiberius, to the twenty- 
second of the same emperor. He is represent- 
ed, both by Philo and Josephus, as a man of 
an impetuous and obstinate temper, and, as a 
judge, one who used to sell justice, and, for 
money, to pronounce any sentence that was 
desired. The same authors make mention of 
his japines, his injuries, his murders, the tor- 
ments that he inflicted upon the innocent, and 
the persons he put to death without any form 
of process. Philo, in particular, describes him 
as a man that exercised an excessive cruelty 
during the whole time of his government ; 
who disturbed the repose of Judea ; and was 
the occasion of the troubles and revolt that 
followed. St. Luke acquaints us, that Pilate 
had mingled the blood of the Galileans with 
their sacrifices ; and that the matter, having 
been related to Jesus Christ, he introduced the 
subject into his discourse, Luke xiii. The 
reason why Pilate treated them in this manner, 
while sacrificing in the temple, is not known. 
At the time of our Saviour's passion, Pilate 
made some attempts to deliver him out of the 
hands of the Jews. He knew the reasons of 
their enmity against him, Matthew xxvii, 18. 
His wife, also, having had a dream that 
alarmed her, requested he would not stain his 
hands with the blood of that just person, verse 
19. He therefore attempted to appease the 
wrath of the Jews by scourging Jesus, John 
xix, 1 ; Matt, xxvii, 26 ; and also tried to take 
him out of their hands by proposing to deliver 
him or Barabbas on the day of the passover. 
Lastly, he thought to discharge himself from 
pronouncing judgment against him, by send- 
ing him to Herod, king of Galilee, Luke xxiii, 
7, 8. When he saw all this would not satisfy 
the Jews, and that they even threatened him 
in some manner, saying, he could be no friend 
to the emperor if he suffered Jesus to be set at 
liberty, John xix, 12-15, he caused water ta 
be brought, and washed his hands before all 
the people, and publicly declared himself inno- 



PIL 



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cent of the blood of that just person, Matthew 
xxvii, 23, 24. Yet at the same time he deliver- 
ed him to his soldiers that they might crucify 
him. This was enough to justify Jesus Christ, 
as Calmet observes, and to prove that he held 
him as innocent ; but it was not enough to 
vindicate the conscience and integrity of a 
judge, whose duty it was as well to assert the 
cause of oppressed innocence, as to punish the 
guilty. He ordered the inscription to be placed 
over the head of our Saviour, John xix, 19 ; 
and when requested by the Jews to alter it, 
peremptorily refused. He also gave leave for 
the removal of our Lord's body, and to place 
a guard over the sepulchre, Matthew xxvii, 65. 
These are all the particulars that we learn 
concerning Pilate from the writers of the 
Gospels. 

The extreme reluctance of Pilate to con- 
demn Christ, considering his merciless charac- 
ter, is signally remarkable, and still more his 
repeated protestations of the innocence of his 
prisoner; although, on occasions of massacre, 
he made no scruple of c'onfounding the inno- 
cent with the guilty. But he was unquestion- 
ably influenced by the overruling providence 
of God, to' make the righteousness of his Son 
appear as clear as the noon day, even when 
condemned and executed as a malefactor, by 
the fullest, the most authentic, and the most 
public evidence : 1. By the testnnony even of 
his judges, Pilate and Herod, after examina- 
tion of evidence. 2. By the message of Pilate's 
wife, delivered to him on the tribunal. 3. By 
the testimony of the traitor Judas, who hang- 
ed himself in despair, for betraying the inno- 
cent blood. 4. By the testimony of the Roman 
centurion and guard, at his crucifixion, to his 
divinity and righteousness. And, 5. Of his 
fellow sufferer on the cross. Never was inno- 
cence so attested as his innocence. 

Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Eusebius, and 
after them several others, both ancient and 
modern, assure us that it was formerly the 
custom for Roman magistrates to prepare 
copies of all verbal processes and judical acts, 
which they passed in their several provinces, 
and to send them to the emperor. And Pilate, 
in compliance with the custom, having sent 
word to Tiberius of what had passed relating 
to Jesus Christ, the emperor wrote an account 
of it to the senate, in a manner that gave rea- 
son to judge that he thought favourably of 
the religion of Jesus Christ, and showed that 
he should be willing for them to confer divine 
honours upon him ; but the senate was not of 
the same opinion, and so the matter dropped. 
It appears by what Justin says of these acts, 
that the miracles of Christ were mentioned 
there, and even that the soldiers had divided 
his garments among them. Eusebius insinu- 
ates that they spoke of his resurrection and 
ascension. Tertullian and Justin refer to these 
acts with so much confidence, as would make 
one believe they had read and handled them. 
However, neither Eusebius nor Jerom, who 
were both inquisitive and understanding per- 
sons, nor any other autlior who wrote afler- 
ward, seems to have seen them, at least not 



the true and original acts. For as to what we 
have now in great number, they are not au- 
thentic, being neither ancient nor uniform. 
There are also some pretended letters of Pilate 
to Tiberius, giving a history of our Saviour ; 
but they are universally allowed to be spurious. 
Pilate being a man who, by his excessive cru- 
elties and rapine, had disturbed the repose of 
Judea, during the whole time of his govern- 
ment, was at length deposed by Vitellius, the 
proconsul of Syria, A. D. 36, and sent to Rome 
to give an account of his conduct to the em- 
peror. But, though Tiberius died before Pi- 
late arrived at Rome, yet his successor Caligula 
banished him to Vienne in Gaul, where he 
was reduced to such extremity that he laid 
violent hands upon himself. The evangelists 
call him governor, though in reality he was 
nothing more than procurator of Judea, not 
only because governor was a name of general 
use, but because Pilate, in effect, acted as one, 
by taking upon him to judge in criminal mat- 
ters, as his predecessors had done, and as other 
procurators in the small provinces of the em- 
pire, where there was no proconsul, constantly 
did. - 

PILLAR properly means a column raised 
to support a building ; but in Scripture the 
term mostly occurs in a metaphorical or figu- 
rative sense. Thus we have a pillar of cloud, 
a pillar of fire, a pillar of smoke, &c ; signify- 
ing a cloud, a fire, a smoke raised up toward 
heaven in the form or shape of a pillar, Exod. 
xiii, 21 ; Judges xx, 40. Job speaks of the 
pillars of heaven and the pillars of the earth, 
Job ix, 6; xxvi, 11; which are strong meta- 
phorical expressions, that suppose the heavens 
and the earth to be an edifice raised by the 
hand of the aln:ighty Creator, and founded 
upon its basis. St. Paul speaks of the Chris- 
tian church under the similitude of a pillar or 
column on which the truth, or doctrine of the 
glorious Gospel is inscribed, 1 Tim. iii, 15. 

PILLOAVS. The prophet speaks of "sew- 
ing pillows to arm holes." There is here, 
probably, an allusion to the easy indulgence 
of the great. To this day in the east they 
cover the floors of their houses with carpets : 
and along the sides of the wall or floor, a 
range of narrow beds or mattresses is often 
placed upon these carpets ; and, for their 
farther ease and convenience, several velvet 
or damask bolsters are placed upon these 
carpets or mattresses, — indulgences that seem 
to be alluded to by the stretching of them- 
selves upon couches, and by " the sewing 
of pillows to arm holes," Ezekiel xiii, 18 ; 
Amos vi, 4. 

PINE TREE. The pine appears in our 
translation three times, Neh. viii, 15 ; Isaiah 
xli, 19 ; Ix, 13. Nehemiah, viii, 15, giving 
directions for observing the feast of taber- 
nacles, says, " Fetch olive branches, pine 
branches, myrtle branches, and branches of 
thick trees, to make booths." The Hebrew 
phrase jDiy fj', means literally branches of oily 
or gummy i/lants.''^ The LXX. say cypress. 
Scheuchzer says the Turks call the cypress 
zemin. The author of " Scripture Illustrated'* 



PIT 



752 



PLA 



says, " I should prefer the whole species called 
jasmin, on account of its verdure, its fragrance, 
and its flowers, which are highly esteemed. 
The word jasmin and jasemin of the Turks, 
resembles strongly tire shenien of the Hebrew 
original here. The Persians also name this 
plant semen and shnsyk." The authority, 
however, of the Septuagint must prevail. In 
Isa. xli, 19 ; Ix, 13, the Hebrew word is nmn ; 
a tree, says Parkhurst, so called from the 
springiness or elasticity of its wood. Luther 
thought it the elm, which is a lofty and spread- 
ing tree ; and Dr. Stock renders it the ash. 
After all, it may be thought advisable to retain 
the pine. La Roche, describing, a valley near 
to Mount Lebanon, has this observation : "ia 
continuelle verdure des pins et des chines verds 
fait toujours sa beaute.''^ [The perpetual ver- 
dure of the pines and the live oaks makes it 
ever beautiful.] 

PISGAH, a part of Mount Nebo, so called, 
being, in all probability, a distinct, and most 
likely the highest, summit of that mountain. 
Here Moses climbed to view the land of Ca- 
naan ; and here he died. 

PISIDIA, a province of Asia Minor, hav- 
ing Lycaonia to the north, Pamphylia to the 
south, Cilicia and Cappadocia to the east, and 
the province of Asia to the Avest. St. Paul 
preached at Antioch in Pisidia, Acts xiii, 14 ; 
xiv, 24. 

PITCH, nsi, Exod. ii, 3 ; Isaiah xxxiv, 9 ; 
Septuagint dc<pa\T0i; a fat, combustible, oily 
matter, sometimes called asphaltos, from the 
lake Asphaltites, or Dead Sea, in Judea, on 
the surface of which it rises in the nature of 
liquid pitch, and floats like other oleaginous 
bodies ; but is condensed by degrees, through 
the heat of the sun, and grows dry and hard. 
The word which our translators have rendered 
pitch in Gen. vi, 14, and -iDn, slime, Gen. xi, 
3 ; xiv, 10, is generally supposed to be bitu- 
men. In the first of these places it is men- 
tioned as used for smearing the ark, and 
closing its interstices. It was peculiarly 
adapted to this purpose. Being at first soft, 
viscous, and pliable, it might be thrust into 
every chasm and crevice with the greatest 
ease ; but would soon acquire a tenacity and 
hardness superior to those of our pitch. A 
coat of it spread over both the inside and out- 
side of the ark would make it perfectly water 
proof. The longer it was kept in the water, 
the harder and stronger it would grow. The 
Arabs still use it for careening their vessels. 
In the second passage it is described as ap- 
plied for cement in building the tower of 
Babel. It was much used in ancient build- 
ings in that region ; and, in the ruins of Baby- 
lon, large masses of brick work cem.ented with 
it are discovered. It is known that the plain 
of Shinar did abound with it, both in its liquid 
and solid state ; that there was there a cave 
and fountain which was continually casting it 
out ; and that the famous tower and no less 
famous walls of Babylon were built by this 
kind of cement, is confirmed by the testimony 
of several ancient authors. The slime pits of 
Siddim, Gen. xiv, 10, were holes out of which 



issued this liquid bitumen, or naphtha. Bitu- 
men was formerly much used by the Egyp- 
tians and Jews in embalming the bodies of 
their dead. 

PITHOM, one of the cities that the Israel, 
ites built for Pharaoh in Egypt, during the 
time of their servitude, Exod. i, 11. 

PLAGUES OF EGYPT. The design of 
these visitations, growing more awful and tre- 
mendous in their progress, was to make Pha- 
raoh know, ft.nd confess, that the God of the 
Hebrews was the supreme Lord, and to exhibit 
his power and his justice in the strongest light 
to all the nations of the earth, Exod. ix, 16 ; 
1 Sam. iv, 8, &c ; to execute judgment upon 
the Egyptians and upon all their gods, inani- 
mate and bestial, for their cruelty to the Israel- 
ites, and for their grovelling polytheism and 
idolatry, Exod. vii, 14-17 ; xii, 12. The Nile 
was the principal divinity of the Egyptians. 
According to Heliodorus. they paid divine 
honours to this river, and revered it as the 
first of their gods. They declared him to be 
the rival of heavenf since he watered the 
country without the aid of the clouds and 
rain. His principal festival was at the summer 
solstice, when the inundation cohimenced ; 
at which season, in the dog days, by a cruel 
idolatrous rite, they sacrificed red-haired per- 
sons, principally foreigners, to Typhon, or the 
power that presided over tempests, at Busiris, 
Heliopolis, &c, by burning them alive, and 
scattering their ashes in the air, for the good 
of the people, as we learn from Plutarch. 
Hence Bryant infers the probability, that these 
victims were chosen from among the Israelites, 
during their residence in Egypt. The judg- 
ment then inflicted upon the river, and all the 
waters of Egypt, in the presence of Pharaoh 
and of his servants, as foretold, — when, as 
soon as Aaron had smitten the waters of the 
river, they were turned into blood, and con- 
tinued in that state for seven days, so that all 
the fish died, and the Egyptians could not 
drink of the waters of the river, in which they 
delighted as the most wholesome of all waters, 
but were forced to dig wells for pure water to 
drink — was a significant sign of God's dis- 
pleasure for their senseless idolatry in wor- 
shipping the river and its fish, and also " a 
manifest reproof of that bloody edict whereby 
the infants were slain," Wisdom xi, 7. 

In the plagiie of frogs, their sacred river 
itself was made an active instrument of their 
punishment, together with another of their 
gods. The frog was one of their sacred ani- 
mals, consecrated to the sun, and considered 
as an emblem of divine inspiration in its in- 
flations. 

The plague of lice, which was produced 
without any previous intimation to Pharaoh, 
was peculiarly offensive to a people so super- 
stitiously nice and cleanly as the Egyptians ; 
and, above all, to their priests, who used to 
shave their whole body every third day, that 
neither louse, nor any other vermin, might be 
found upon them while they were employed 
in serving their gods, as we learn from Hero, 
dolus ; and Plutarch informs us, tiiat they 



PLA 



753 



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never wore woollen garments, but linen only, 
because linen is least apt to produce lice. This 
plague, therefore, was particularly disgraceful 
to the magicians themselves ; and when they 
tried to imitate it, but failed, on account of 
the minuteness of the objects, (not like ser- 
pents, water, or frogs, of a sensible bulk that 
could be handled,) they were forced to confess 
that this was no human feat of legerdemain, 
but rather "the finger of God." Thus were 
" the illusions of their magic put down, and 
their vaunting in wisdom reproved with dis- 
grace," Wisdom rxvii, 7. " Their folly was 
manifest unto all men," in absurdly and wick- 
edly attempting at first to place the feats of 
human art on a level with the stupendous 
operations of divine power, in the first two 
plagues ; and being foiled in tlie third, by 
shamefully miscarrying, they exposed them, 
selves to the contempt of their admirers. 
Philo, the Jew, has a fine observation on the 
plagues of Egypt : " Some, perhaps, may 
inquire, Why did God punish the country by 
such minute and contemptible animals as 
frogs, lice, flies, rather than by bears, lions, 
leopards, or other kinds of savage beasts 
w^hich prey on human flesh ? Or, if not by 
these, why not by the Egyptian asp, whose bite 
is instant death ? But let him learn, if he be 
ignorant, first, that God chose rather to cor- 
rect than to destroy the inhabitants ; for, if he 
desired to annihilate them utterly, he had no 
need to have made use of animals as his aux- 
iliaries, but of the divinely inflicted evils of 
famine and pestilence. Next, let him farther 
learn that lesson so necessary for every state 
of life, namely, that men, when they war, seek 
the most powerful aid to supply their own 
weakness ; but God, the highest and the great. 
est power, who stands in need of nothing, if 
at any tune he chooses to employ instruments, 
as it were, to inflict chastisement, chooses not 
the. strongest and greatest, disregarding their 
strength, but rather the mean and the minute, 
whom he endues with invincible and irresistible 
power to chastise ofienders." The first three 
plagues were common to the Egyptians and 
the Israelites, to convince both that " there 
was none like the Lord ;" and to wean the 
latter from their Egyptian idolatries, and 
induce them to return to the Lord their God. 
And when this end was answered, the Israel- 
ites were exempted from the ensuing plagues ; 
for the Lord severed the land of Goshen from 
the rest of Egypt ; whence the ensuing plagues, 
confined to the latter, more plainly appeared 
to have been inflicted by the God of the He- 
brews, Exodus viii, 20-23, to convince!both 
more clearly of "the goodness and severity of 
God," Rom. xi, 22 ; that " great plagues re- 
main for the ungodly, but mercy embraceth 
the righteous on every side," Psalm xxxii, 10. 
The visitation of flies, of the gad fly, or 
hornet, was more intolerable than any of the 
preceding. By this, his minute, but mighty 
army, God afterward drove out some of the 
devoted nations of Canaan before JoshUa, 
Exod. xxiii, 28 ; Deut. vii, 20 ; Josh, xxiv, 12. 
This insect was worshipped in Palestine and 

4a 



elsewhere under the title of Baal-zebub, " lord 
of the gad fly," 2 Kings i, 1, 2. Egypt, we 
learn from Herodotus, abounded with prodi- 
gious swarms of flies, or gnats ; but this was 
in the heat of summer, during the dog days ; 
whence this fly is called by the Septuagint 
KvvSjjivia, the dog jly. But the appointed time 
of this plague was in the middle of winter ; 
and, accordingly, this plague extorted Pha- 
raoh's partial consent, " Go ye, sacrifice to 
your God, but in the land ;" and when Moses 
and Aaron objected the offence they would 
give to the Egyptians, who would stone them 
for sacrificing "the abomination of the Egj^- 
tians," namely, animal sacrifices, he reluctantly 
consented, " only ye shall not go very far 
away ;" for he was apprehensive of their flight, 
like his predecessor, who first enslaved the 
Israelites, Exod. i, 10 ; and he again desired 
them to " entreat for him." But he again 
dealt deceitfully ; and after the flies were 
removed so effectually that not one was left, 
when Moses "entreated the Lord, Pharaoh 
hardened his heart this fifth time also, neither 
would he let the people go." 

This second breach of promise on the part 
of Pharaoh drew down a plague of a more 
deadly description than the preceding. The 
fifth plague of murrain destroyed all the cattle 
of Egypt, but of " the cattle of the Israelites 
died not one." It was immediately inflicted 
by God himself, after previous notification, 
and without the agency of Moses and Aaron, 
to manifest the divine indignation at Pharaoh's 
falsehood. And though the king sent and 
found that not one of the Israelites was dead, 
yet his heart was hardened this sixth time 
also, and he would not let the people go, 
Exod. ix, 1-7. 

At length, after Pharaoh had repeatedly 
abused the gracious respites and warnings 
vouchsafed to him and his servants, a sorer 
set of plagues, affecting themselves, began to 
be inflicted ; and Moses now, for the first tune, 
appears as the executioner of divine vengeance ; 
for in the presence of Pharaoh, by the divine 
command, he sprinkled aslies of the furnace 
toward heaven, and it became a boil, breaking 
forth with blains upon man and upon beast. 
And the magicians could not stand before 
Moses because of the boil, which affected them 
and all the Egyptians, Exod. ix, 8-11. This 
was a very sig-nificant plague : the furnace 
from which ihe ashes were taken aptly repre- 
sented "the iron furnace" of Egyptian bond- 
age, Deut. iv, 20 , and the scattering of the 
ashes in the air might have referred to the 
usage of the Egyptians in their Typhonian 
sacrifices of human victims ; v^^hile it converted 
another of the elements, and of their gods, the 
air, or ether, into an instrument of their chas- 
tisement. And nov7 " the Lord," for the first 
time, "hardened the heart of Pharaoh," after 
he had so repeatedly hardened it himself, " and 
he hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had 
foretold unto Moses," Exod. ix, 12. Though 
Pharaoh probably felt the scourge of the boil, 
as well as his people, it did not soften nor 
humble his heart; and when he wilfully and 



PLA 



754 



PLA 



obstinately turned away from the light, and 
shut his eyes against the luminous evidences 
vouchsafed to him of the supremacy of the God 
of the Hebrews, and had twice broken his pro- 
mise when he was indulged with a respite, and 
dealt deceitfully, he became a just object of 
punishment ; and God now began to increase 
the hardness or obduracy of his heart. And 
such is the usual and the righteous course of 
his providence ; when nations or individuals 
despise the warnings of Heaven, abuse their 
best gifts, and resist the means of grace, God 
then "delivers them over to a reprobate" or 
undiscerning "mind, to work all uncleanness 
with greediness," Rom. i, 28. 

In the tremendous plague of hail, the united 
elements of air, water, and fire, were em.ployed 
to terrify and punish the Egyptians by their 
principal divinities. This plague was formally 
announced to Pharaoh and his people : " I 
will at this season send all my plagues upon 
thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon 
thy people, that thou mayest know that there 
is none like me in all the earth. For now I 
could stretch out my hand, and smite thee and 
thy people with pestilence," or destroy thee at 
once, like thy cattle with the murrain, " and 
thou shouldest be cut off from the earth ; but, 
in truth, for this cause have I sustained thee, 
that I might manifest in thee my power, and 
that my name might be declared throughout 
the whole earth," Exod. ix, 13-16. This ren- 
dering of the passage is more conformable to 
the context) the Chaldee paraphrase, and to 
Philo, than the received translation, " For 
now I will stretch out my hand, that I may 
smite thee and thy people with pestilence ;" 
for surely Pharaoh and his people were not 
smitten with pestilence; and " they were pre- 
served" or kept from immediate destruction, 
according to the Septuagint, Sierrip^Oijt;, "to 
manifest the divine power," by the number and 
variety of their plagues. Still, however, in the 
midst of judgment, God remembered mercy ; 
he gave a gracious warning to tlie Egyptians, 
to avoid, if they chose, the threatened calamity: 
" Send, therefore, now, and gather thy cattle, 
and all that thoa hast in the field ; every man 
and beast that shc^ll be found in the field, and 
shall not be brought home, the hail shall come 
down upon them, and tlwy shall die." And 
this warning had some effect: "He that feared 
the word of the Lord among the servants of 
Pharaoh, made his servants and his cattle flee 
into the houses ; and he thui regarded not the 
wurd of the Lord, left his servants ai\d his 
cattle in the field," Exod. ix, 17-21. But it 
may be asked. If all tlie cattle of the Egyptiaivs 
were destroyed by the foregoing plague of 
murrain, as asserted Exod. ix, 6, how came 
there to be any cattle left ? Surely the Egyp- 
tians might have recruited their stock from 
the land of Goshen, where "not one of the 
cattle of the Israelites died." And this justifies 
the supposition, that there was some respite, 
or interval, between the several plagues, and 
confirms the conjecture of the duration of the 
whole, about a (quarter of a year. And that 
the warning, in this case, was respected by 



many of the Egyptians, we may infer from the 
number of chariots and horsemen that went in 
pursuit of the Israelites afterward. This was 
foretold to be " a very grievous hail, such as liad 
not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof: 
and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the 
fire ran along the ground ; and the hail smote 
throughout all the land of Egypt all that was 
in the field, both man and beast ; and the hail 
smde every herb of the field, and brake every 
tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, 
where the children of Israel were, there was 
no hail." Pharaoh sent and called for Moses 
and Aaron, and said unto them, " I have sinned 
this time ; the Lord is righteous, and I and my 
people are wicked : entreat the Lord," for it is 
enough, " that there might be no more mighty 
thunderings and hail ; and I will let you go, 
and ye shall stay no longer." But when there 
was respite, Pharaoh " sinned yet more, and 
hardened his heart, he and his servants ; neither 
would he let the people go," Exod. ix, 27-35. 
In this instance, there is a remarkable suspen- 
sion of the judicial infatuation. Pharaoh had 
humbled himself, and acknowledged his own 
and his people's guilt, and the justice of the 
divine plague : the Lord, therefore, forbore 
this time to harden his heart. But he abused 
the long sufferance of God, and this additional 
respite ; he sinned yet more, because he now 
sinned wilfully, after he had received informa- 
tion of the truth ; he relapsed, and hardened 
his own heart a seventh time. He became, 
therefore, " a vessel of wrath, fitted to destruc- 
tion," Heb. x, 26 ; Rom. ix, 22. 

The design of the eighth and the ensuing 
plagues, was to confirm the faith of the Israel- 
ites : "That thou mayest tell in the ears of 
thy son, and of thy son's son, what I have 
wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have 
done among them ; that ye may know how 
that I am the Lord." This plague of locusts, 
inflicted on the now devoted Egyptians and 
their king, completed the havoc begun by the 
hail; by this "the wheat and rye were de- 
stroyed, and every herb of the land, and all 
the fruit of the trees which the hail had left : 
and there remained not any verdure in the 
trees, nor in the herbs of the field, throughout 
the land of Egypt. Very grievous were they ; 
before them were no such locusts as they, 
neither after them shall there be sijch," Exod. 
X, 3-15. 

The awful plague of darkness over all the 
land of Egypt, for three days, "a thick dark- 
ness which might be felt," in the emphatic 
language of Scripture, was inflicted on the 
Egyptians, and their chief god, the sun ; and 
was, indeed, a most significant sign of the 
divine displeasure, and of that mental darkness 
under which they now laboured. Their con- 
sternution thereat is strongly represented by 
their total inaction ; neither rose any from his 
place for three days, petrified, as they were, 
with horror. They were also " scared with 
strange apparitions and visions, Avhile a heavy 
night was s{)read over them, an image of that 
darkness which should afterward receive them. 
But yet, they were unto themselves mors 



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grievous than that darkness," Wisdom xvii, 
3-21 ; Psahn Ixxviii, 49. This terrific and 
horrible plague compelled Pharaoh to relax ; 
lie offered to let the men and their families 
go ; but he wished to keep the flocks and herds 
as security for their return ; but Moses per- 
emptorily declared, that not a hoof should be 
left behind. Again "the Lord hardened Pha- 
raoh's heart, so that he would not let them 
go," Exod. X, 21-27. "And the Lord said 
unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto 
you, that my wonders may be multiplied in 
the land of Egypt. And Moses and Aaron 
did all these wonders before Pharaoh ; and the 
Lord" ultimately " hardened Pharaoh's heart, 
so that he would not let the children of Israel 
go out of his land/' Exod. xi, 9, 10. This 
passage forms the conclusion to the nine 
plagues, and should properly follow the pre- 
ceding ; for the result of the tenth and last 
plague was foretold, that Pharaoh should not 
only let them go, but surely thrust them out 
altogether, Exod. xi, 1. 

The tenth plague was announced to Plia- 
raoh with much solemnity: "Thus saith the 
Lord, About midnight will I go out into the 
midst of Egypt, and all the first-born in the 
land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of 
Riaraoh that sitteth upon his throne, even to 
the first-born of the maid-servant that is behind 
the mill ; and all the first-born of cattle. And 
there shall be a great cry throughout the land 
of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor 
shall be any more. But against any of the 
children of Israel shall not a dog move his 
tongue, against man or beast; that ye may 
know, how that the Lord doth make a differ, 
ence between the Egyptians and Israel. And 
all these thy servants shall come down unto 
me, and bow themselves unto me, saying, Get 
thee out, and all the people that follow thee. 
And after that I will go out," Exod. xi, 4-8. 
Such a threat, delivered in so high a tone, 
both in the name of the God of Israel and of 
Moses, did not fail to exasperate the infatuated 
Pharaoh, and he said, "Get thee from me; 
take heed to thyself; see my face no more : 
for in the day thou seest my face thou shalt die. 
And Moses said, Be it so as thou hast spoken ; 
I will see thy face again no more. And he 
went out from Pharaoh in great anger," Exod. 
X, 28, 29 ; xi, 8. " And at midnight the Lord 
smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt ; 
and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there 
was not a house in which there was not one 
dead," Exod. xii, 1-30, This last tremendous 
judgment is described with much sublimity in 
the book of Wisdom, xviii, 14-18. 

"For when all things were wrapt in still silence, 

And night, in her proper speed, holding her mid course, 

Thy all powerful oracle leapt dov/n from heaven, 

Out of the royal throne, a fierce warrior, 

Into the midst of the land of destruction. 

Wielding a sharp sword, thine unfeigned command, 

And standing up, he filled the whole with death. 

He touched the heavens, indeed, but trod upon the earth !" 

•' And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and 
all his servants, and all the Egyptians ; and 
he called for," or sent to, " Moses and Aaron 



by night, and said, Get you forth from among 
my people, both ye and the children of Israel ; 
and go, serve the Lord, as ye said ; take also 
your flocks and your herds, and be gone ; and 
bless me also. And the Egyptians also were 
urgent upon the people, to send them out of 
the land in haste ; for they said, We shall all 
ba dead." It is evident from the extreme ur- 
gency of the occasion, when all the Egyptians 
apprehended total destruction, if the departure 
of the Israelites was delayed any longer, that 
Pharaoh had no personal interview with Mo- 
ses and Aaron, which would have wasted time, 
and was quite unnecessary ; he only sent them 
a peremptory mandate to be gone on their own 
terms. "And the children of Israel did ac- 
cording to the word of Moses ; and they asked 
of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels 
of gold, and raiment. And the Lord gave the 
people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so 
that they freely gave what they required, and 
they spoiled the Egyptians," Exod. xii, 31-36, 
as originally foretold to Abraham, Gen. xv, 14 ; 
and to Moses before the plagues began. This 
was an act of perfect retributive justice, to 
make the Egyptians pay for the long and la- 
borious services of the Israelites, whom they 
had unjustly enslaved, in violation of their 
charter. 

The Israelites were thrust out of Egypt on 
the fifteenth day of the first month, " about 
six hundred thousand men on foot, beside 
women and children. And a mixed multitude 
went up also with them ; and flocks and herds, 
even very much cattle," Exod. xii, 37-38 ; 
Num. xi, 4 ; xxxiii, 3. " And they went out 
with a high hand ; for the Lord vi^ent before 
them by day, in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them 
the way ; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give 
them light, to go by day and night. He took 
not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor 
the pillar of fire by night, from before the peo- 
ple," Exod. xiii, 22; Num. ix, 15-23. And 
the motion or rest of this divine guide regulated 
their marches, and their stations or encamp- 
ments during the whole of their route, Num. 
X, 33-36. See Rei> Sea. 

PLATONISTS. The Platonic philosophy 
is denominated from Plato, who was born about 
B.C. 426. He founded the old academy on the 
opinions of Heraclitus, Pythagofas, and So- 
crates ; and by adding the information he had 
acquired to their discoveries, he established a 
sect of philosophers, who were esteemed more 
perfect than any who had before appeared in 
the world. The outlines of Plato's philoso- 
phical system were as follows : — that there is 
one God, eternal, immutable, and immaterial ; 
perfect in wisdom and goodness, omniscient, 
and omnipresent : that this all-perfect Being 
formed the universe out of a mass of eternally 
preexisting matter, to which he gave form and 
arrangement : that there is in matter a neces- 
sary, but blind and refractory force, which 
resists the will of the supreme Artificer, so 
that he cannot perfectly execute his designs ; 
and this is the cause of the mixture of good 
and evil which is found in the material world : 
that the soul of man was derived by emanation 



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from God ; but that this emanation was not 
immediate, but through the intervention of the 
soul of the world, which was itself debased by- 
some material admixture : that the relation 
which the human soul, in its original consti- 
tution, bears to matter, is the source of moral 
evil ; that when God formed the universe, he 
separated from the soul of the world inferior 
souls, equal in number to the stars, and assigned 
to each its proper celestial abode : that these 
souls were sent down to earth to be imprisoned 
in mortal bodies ; hence arose the depravity and 
misery to which human nature is liable : that 
the soul is immortal ; and by disengaging itself 
from all animal passions, and rising above sen- 
sible objects to the contemplation of the world 
of intelligence, it may be prepared to return to 
its original habitation : that matter never suf- 
fers annihilation, but that the world will remain 
for ever ; and that by the action of its animat- 
ing principle it accomplishes certain periods, 
within which every thing returns to its ancient 
place and state. This periodical revolution of 
nature is called the Platonic, or great year. 

The Platonic system makes the perfection 
of morality to consist in living in conformity 
to the will of God, the only standard of truth, 
and teaches that our highest good consists in 
the contemplation and knowledge of the su- 
preme Being. In this divine Being Plato 
admitted a sort of trinity of three hypostases. 
The first he considered as self-existent, calling 
him, by way of eminence, 70' bV, the Being, or 
TO ev, the One. The only attribute which he 
acknowledged in this person was goodness ; 
and therefore he frequently styles him, to 
dyaObv, the good. The second he considered 
as, vovt, the mind, or, \oyds, the toisdom or rea- 
son of the former, and the ^>)/xtypyoV, maker of 
the world. The third he always speaks of as, 
^vxh, the soul of the world. He taught that 
the second is a necessary emanation from the 
first, and the third from the second, or perhaps 
from both ; comparing these emanations to 
the ; of light and heat from the sun. From 
the above use of Logos for the second person 
of the Platonic trinity, it has been thought 
that St. John borrowed the term from Plato ; 
but it is not likely that this Apostle was con. 
versant with his writings, and therefore both 
Le Clerc and Dr. Campbell think it more pro- 
bable that he took it from the Old Testament. 
The end of all knowledge, or philosophy, ac- 
cording to Plato, was to make us resemble the 
Deity as much as is compatible with human 
nature. This likeness consists in the posses- 
sion and practice of all the moral virtues. 
After the death of Plato, many of his disciples 
deviated from his doctrines. His school was 
then divided into the old, the middle, and the 
new academy. The old academy strictly 
adhered to his tenets. The middle academy 
partially receded from his system, without 
entirely deserting it. The new academy 
almost entirely relinquished the original doc- 
trines of Plato, and verged toward the skep- 
tical philosophy. An infusion of Platonisin, 
though in a perverted form, is seen in the 
philosophy most prevalent in the times of the 



Apostles. It was Judaized by the contempla. 
tive Hellenists, and, through them, their native 
Judaism was Platonized. The eclectic philo- 
sophy added other ingredients to the com- 
pound, from the oriental systems. All how- 
ever issued in pride, and the domination of 
bewildering and monstrous imaginations. 

PLOUGH. The Syrian plough, which was 
probably used in all the regions around, is a 
very simple frame, and commonly so light, 
that a man of moderate strength might carry 
it in one hand. Volney states that in Syria it 
is often nothing else than the branch of a tree 
cut below a bifurcation, and used without 
wheels. It is drawn by asses and cows, sel- 
dom by oxen. And Dr. Russel informs us, 
the ploughing of Syria is performed often by 
a little cow, at most with two, and sometimes 
only by an ass. In Persia it is for the most 
part drawn by one ox only, and not unfre- 
quently even by an ass, although it is more 
ponderous than in Palestine. With such an 
imperfect instrument, the Syrian husbandman 
can do little more than scratch the surface of 
his field, or clear away the stones or weeds 
that encumber it, and prevent the seed from 
reaching the soil. The ploughshare is a " piece 
of iron, broad, but not large, which tips the 
end of the shaft." So much does it resemble 
the short sword used by the ancient v/arriors, 
that it may with very little trouble, be con- 
verted into that deadly weapon ; 'and when 
the work of destruction is over, reduced again 
into its former shape, and applied to the pur- 
poses of agriculture. In allusion to- the first 
operation, the Prophet Joel summons the na- 
tions to leave their peaceful employments in 
the cultivated field, and buckle on their arm- 
our : " Beat your ploughshares into swords, 
and your pruning hooks into spears," Joel 
iii, 10. This beautiful image the Prophet 
Isaiah has reversed, and applied to the esta- 
blishment of that profound and lasting peace 
which" is to bless the church of Christ in the 
latter days : " And they shall beat their swords 
into ploughshares, and their spears into pru- 
ning hooks ; nation shall not lift up sword 
against nation, neither shall they learn war 
any more," Isaiah ii, 4. The plough used in 
Syria is so light and simple in its construction, 
that the husbandman is under the necessity of 
guiding it with great care, bending over it, 
and loading it with his own weight, else the 
share would glide along the surface vfithout 
making any incision. His mind should be 
wholly intent on his work, at once to press 
the plough into the ground, and direct it in a 
straight line. " Let the ploughman," said 
Hesiod, " attend to his charge, and look before 
him ; not turn aside to look on his associates, 
but make straight furrows, and have his mind 
attentive to his work." And Pliny : "Unless 
the ploughman stoop forward," to press his 
plough into the soil, and conduct it properly, 
" he will turn it aside." To such careful and 
incessant exertion, our Lord alludes in that 
declaration, " No man having put his hand to 
the plough, and looking back, is fit for the 
kingdom of Ueaveu»" Luke ix, 62. 



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POETRY OF THE HEBREWS. Among 
the books of the Old Testament, says Bishop 
Lowth, there is such an apparent diversity in 
style, as sufficiently discovers which of them 
are to be considered as poetical, and which as 
prose. While the historical books and legis- 
lative writings of Moses are evidently prosaic 
compositions, the book of Job, the Psalms of 
David, the Song of Solomon, the Lamentations 
of Jeremiah, a great part of the prophetical 
writings, and several passages scattered occa- 
sionally through the historical books, carry the 
most plain and distinguishing marks of poetical 
writing-. There is not the least reason for 
doubting that originally these were written in 
verse, or some kind of measured numbers ; 
though, as the ancient pronunciation of the 
Hebrew language is now lost, we -are not able 
to ascertain the nature of the Hebrew verse, 
or at most can ascertain it but imperfectly. 
Let any person read the historical introduction 
to the book of Job, contained in the first and 
second chapters, and then go on to Job's 
speech, in the beginning of the third chapter, 
and he cannot avoid being sensible that he 
passes all at once from the region of prose to 
that of poetry. From the earliest times music 
and poetry were cultivated among the He- 
brews. In the days of the judges mention is 
made of the schools or colleges of the prophets, 
where one part of the employment of the per- 
sons trained in such schools was to sing the 
praises of God, accompanied with various in. 
struments. But in the days of King David 
music and poetry were carried to the greatest 
height. In 1 Chron. xxv, an account is given 
of David's institutions relating to the sacred 
music and poetry, which were certainly more 
costly, more splendid and magnificent, than 
ever obtained in the public service of any other 
nation. See Psalms. 

The general construction of the Hebrew 
poetry is of a singular nature, and peculiar to 
itself. It consists in dividing every period 
into correspondent, for the most part into 
equal, members, which answer to one another 
both in sense and sound. In the first member 
of the period a sentiment is expressed ; and in 
the second member the same sentiment is am- 
plified, or is repeated in different terms, or 
sometimes contrasted with its opposite ; but in 
such a manner, that the same structure, and 
nearly the same number of words, is preserved. 
This is the general strain of all the Hebrew 
poetry. Instances of it occur every where on 
opening the Old Testament. Thus, in Psalm 
xcvi : — 

"Sing unto the Lord a new song. 

Sing unto the Lord, all the earth. 
Sing unto the Lord, and bless his name. 

Show forth his salvation from day to day. 
Declare his glory among the Heathen, 

His wonders among all the people. 
For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised. 

He is to be feared above all the gods. 
Honour and majesty are before him; 

Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary." 
It is owing in a great measure to this form 
of composition, that our version, though in 
prose, retains so much of a poetical cast : for. 



the version being strictly word for word after 
the original, the form and order of the original 
sentence are preserved; which, by this arti- 
ficial structure, this regular alternation and 
correspondence of parts, makes the ear sensi- 
ble of a departure from the common style and 
tone of prose. The origin of this form of 
poetical composition among the Hebrews is 
clearly to be deduced from the manner in 
which their sacred hymns were wont to be 
sung. They were accompanied with music, 
and they were performed by choirs or bands of 
singers and musicians, who answered alter- 
nately to each other. When, for instance, 
one band began the hymn thus : " The Lord 
reigneth, let the earth rejoice ;" the chorus, 
or semi-chorus, took up the corresponding ver. 
side, " Let the multitude of the isles be glad 
thereof." "Clouds and darkness are round 
about him," sung the one ; the other replied, 
"Judgment and righteousness are the habita- 
tion of his throne." And in this manner 
their poetry, when set to music, naturally di- 
vided itself into a succession of strophes and 
antistrophes correspondent to each other ; 
whence it is probable the antiphon, or respon- 
sory, in the public religious service of so many 
Christian churches, derived its origin. The 
twenty-fourth Psalm, in particular, which is 
thought to have been composed on the great 
and solemn occasion of the ark of the cove- 
nant being brought back to Mount Zion, must 
have had a noble effect when performed after 
this manner, as Dr. Lowth has illustrated it. 
The whole people are supposed to be attend- 
ing the procession. The Levites and singers, 
divided into their several courses, and accom- 
panied with all their musical instruments, led 
the way. After the introduction to the Psalm, 
in the two first verses, when the procession 
begins to ascend the sacred mount, the ques- 
tion is put, as by a semi-chorus, "Who shall 
ascend into the hill of the Lord, and who shall 
stand in his holy place ?" The response is 
made by the full fchorus with the greatest dig- 
nity : " He that hath clean hands and a pure 
heart; who hath not lifted up his soul to 
vanity, nor sworn deceitfully." As the pro- 
cession approaches to the doors of the taber- 
nacle, the chorus, with all their instruments, 
join in this exclamation : '* Lift up your heads, 
ye gates, and be ye luted up, ye everlasting 
doors, and the Kin?- of glory shall tome in." 
Here the semi-chorus plainly breaks in, as 
with a lower i-oice, " Who is this King of 
glory ?" Ana" at the moment when the ark is 
introduced into the tabernacle, the response is 
made by f^be burst of the whole chorus : " The 
Lord, strong and mighty ; the Lord, mighty 
in battle." 

The method of composition which has been 
explained, by correspondent versicles being 
universally introduced into the hymns or mu- 
sical poetry of ^ the Jews, easily spread itself 
through their other poetical writings, which 
were not designed to be sung in alternate 
portions, and which, therefore, did not so 
much require this mode of composition. But 
the mode became familiar to their ears, and 



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carried with it a certain solemn majesty of 
-style, particularly suited to sacred subjects. 
Hence, throughout the prophetical writings, 
we find it prevailing as much as in the Psalms 
of David. This form of vv^riting is one of the 
great characteristics of the ancient Hebrew 
poetry ; very different from, and even opposite 
to, the style of the Greek and Roman poets. 
Independently of this peculiar mode of con- 
struction, the sacred poetry is distinguished 
by the highest beauties of strong, concise, 
bold, and figurative expression. Conciseness 
and strength are two of its most remarkable 
characters. One might, indeed, imagine that 
the practice of the Hebrew poets, of always 
amplifying the same thought, by repetition or 
contrast, might tend to enfeeble their style. 
But they conduct themselves so as not to pro- 
duce this effect. Their sentences are always 
short. Few superfluous words are used. The 
same thought is never dwelt upon long. To 
their conciseness and sobriety of expression 
their poetry is indebted for much of its sub- 
limity ; and all writers who attempt the sublime 
might profit much by imitating, in this re- 
spect, the style of the Old Testament. 

No writings whatever abound so much with 
the most bold and animated figures as the 
sacred books. In order to do justice to these, 
it is necessary that we transport ourselves as 
much as we can into the land of Judea, and 
place before our eyes that scenery and those 
objects with which the Hebrew writers were 
conversant. Natural objects are in some mea- 
sure common to them with poets of all ages 
and countries. Light and darkness, trees and 
flowers, the forest and the cultivated field, 
suggest to them many beautiful figures. But, 
in order to relish their figures of this kind, 
we must take notice that several of them arise 
from the particular circumstances of the land 
of Judea. During the summer months little 
or no rain falls throughout all that region. 
While the heats continued, the country was 
intolerably parched ; want of water was a great 
distress ; and a plentiful shower falling, or a 
rivulet breaking forth, altered the whole face 
of nature, and introduced much higher ideas 
of refreshment and pleasure than the like 
causes can suggest to us. Hence, to repre- 
sent distress, such frequent allusions among 
them, "to a dry and thirsty land v/here no 
water is;" and hence, \o describe a change 
from distress to prosperit>-, their metaphors 
are founded on the falling of «]iowers, and the 
bursting out of springs in the ^sert. Thus : 
" The wilderness and the solitary place shall 
be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blos- 
som as the rose. For in the wildernesis shall 
waters break out, and streams in the desert ; 
and the parched ground shall become a pool, 
and the thirsty land, springs of water ; in the 
habitation of dragons there shall be grass, 
with ; rushes and reeds,?' Isaiah xxxv, 1, 6, 7. 
Images of this nature are very familiar to 
Isaiah, and occur in many parts of his book. 
Again : as Judea was a hilly country, it was, 
during the rainy months, exposed to frequent 
inundations by the rushing of torrents, which 



came down suddenly from the mountains, and 
carried every thing before them ; and Jordan, 
their only great river, annually overflowed its 
banks. Hence the frequent allusions to " the 
noise, and to the rushings of many waters ;" 
and hence great calamities so often compared 
to the overflowing torrent, which, in such a 
country, must have been images particularly 
striking: " Deep calleth unto deep at the noise 
of thy water spouts ; all thy waves ^nd thy 
billows are gone over me," Psalm xlii, 7. The 
two most remarkable mountains of the country 
were Lebanon and Carmel ; the former noted 
for its height, and the woods of lofty cedars 
that covered it ; the latter, for its beauty an(J 
fertility, the richness of its vines and olives. 
Hence, with the greatest propriety, Lebanon 
is employed as an image of whatever is great, 
strong, or magnificent ; Carmel, of what is 
smiling and beautiful. " The glory of Leba- 
non shall be given to it, and the excellency of 
Carmel," Isaiah xxxv, 2. Lebanon is often 
put metaphorically for the whole state or 
people of Israel, for the temple, for the king 
of Assyria ; Carmel, for the blessings of peace 
and prosperity. " His countenance is as 
Lebanon," says Solornon, speaking of the dig- 
nity of a man's appearance ; but when ho 
describes female beauty, " Thine head is like 
Mount Carmel," Cant, v, 15; vii, 5. It is 
farther to be remarked under this head, that, 
in the images of the awful and terrible kind, 
with which the sacred poets abound, they 
plainly draw their descriptions from that vio- 
lence of the elements, and those great con- 
cussions of nature, with which their climate 
rendered them acquainted. Earthquakes were 
not unfrequent; and the tempests of hail, 
thunder, and lightning, in Judea and Arabia, 
accompanied with whirlwinds and darkness, 
far exceed any thing of that sort which hap- 
pens in more temperate regions. Isaiah, xxiv, 
20, describes, with great majesty, the earth, 
"reeling to and fro like a drunkard, and re- 
moved like a cottage." And in those circum- 
stances of terror, with which an appearance of 
the Almighty is described, in Psalm xviii, 
when his pavilion round about him was dark- 
ness ; when hail stones and coals of fire were 
his voice ; and when, at his rebuke, the chan- 
nels of the waters are said to be seen, and the 
foundations of the hills discovered ; though 
there may be some reference, as Dr. Lowth 
thinks, to the history of God's descent upon 
Mount Sinai ; yet it seems more probable that 
the figures were taken directly from those 
commotions of nature with which the author 
was acquainted, and which suggested stronger 
and nobler^ images than those which now 
occur to us. 

Beside the natural objects of their own 
country, we find the rites of their religion, 
and the arts and employments of their com- 
mon life, frequently employed as grounds of 
imagery among the Hebrews. Hence flowed, 
of course, th'^ many allusions to pastoral life, 
to the "green pastures and the still waters," 
and to the care and watchfulness of a shepherd 
oyer his flock, whiph carry to this day so much 



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beauty and tenderness in them, in Psalm xxiii, 
and in many other passages of the poetical 
writings of Scripture. Hence all the images 
founded upon rural employments, upon the 
wine press, the threshing floor, the stubble 
and the chaff. To disrelish all such images is 
the effect of false delicacy. Homer is at least 
as frequent, and much more minute and par- 
ticular, in his similes, founded on what we 
now call low life ; but, in his management of 
them, far inferior to the sacred writers, who 
generally mix with their comparisons of this 
kind somewhat of dignity and grandeur to en- 
noble them. What inexpressible grandeur 
does the following rural image in Isaiah, for 
instance, receive from the intervention of the 
Deity \- — " The nations shall rush like the rush- 
ings of many waters ; but God shall rebuke 
them, and they shall fly far off; and they shall 
be chased as the chaff of the mountain before 
the wind, and like the down of the thistle be- 
fore the whirlwind." Figurative allusions, 
too, we frequently find to the rites and cere- 
monies of their religion, to the legal distinc- 
tions of things clean and unclean, to the mode 
of their temple service, to the dress of their 
priests, and to the most noted incidents record- 
ed in their sacred history ; as, to the destruc- 
tion of Sodom, the descent of God upon Mount 
Sinai, and the miraculous passage of the Is- 
raelites through the Red Sea. Tlie religion of 
the Hebrews included the whole of their laws 
and civil constitution. It was fiill of splendid 
external rites, that occupied their senses ; it 
was connected with every part of their national 
history and establishment ; and hence, all ideas 
founded on religion possessed in this nation a 
dignity and importance peculiar to themselves, 
and were uncommonly suited to impress the 
imagination. 

From all this it results that the imagery of 
the sacred poets is, in a high degree, express. 
ive and natural ; it is copied directly from real 
objects that were before their eyes ; it has this 
advantage, of being more complete within 
itself, more entirely founded on national ideas 
and manners, than that of the most of other 
poets. In reading their works we find our- 
•selves continually in the land of Judea. The 
palm trees, and the cedars of Lebanon, are 
ever rising in our view. The face of their 
territory, the circumstances of their climate, 
the manners of the people, and the august 
ceremonies of their religion, constantly pass 
under different forms before us. The com- 
parisons employed by the sacred poets are 
generally short, touching on one point only 
of resemblance, rather than branching out 
into little episodes. In this respect they have 
an advantage over the Greek and Roman au- 
thors ; whose comparisons, by the length to 
which they are extended, sometimes interrupt 
the narration too much, and carry too visible 
marks of study and labour ; whereas, in the 
Hebrew poets, they appear more like the 
glowings of a lively fancy, just glancing aside 
to some resembling object, and presently re- 
turning to its track. Such is the following 
fine comparison, introduced to describe the 



happy influence of good government upon a 
people, in what are called the last words of 
David: "He that ruleth over men must be 
just, ruling in the fear of God ; and he shall 
be as the light of the morning when the sun 
riseth, even a morning v/ithout clouds ; as the 
tender grass springing out of the earth, by 
clear shining after rain," 2 Sam. xxiii, 3. 
This is one of the most regular and formal 
comparisons in the sacred books. 

Allegory, likewise, is a figure frequently 
found in them. But the poetical figure which, 
beyond all others, elevates the style of Scrip- 
ture, and gives it a peculiar boldness and sub- 
limity, is prosopopceia, or personification. No 
personifications employed by any poets are so 
magnificent and striking as those of the inspir- 
ed writers. On great occasions they animate 
every part of nature, especially when any ap- 
pearance or operation of the Almighty is con- 
cerned. " Before him went the pestilence." 
"The waters saw thee, O God, and were 
afraid." " The mountains saw thee, and they 
trembled." " The overflowing of the Avater 
passed by." " The deep uttered his voice, and 
lifted up his hands on high." When inquiry 
is made about the place of wisdom, Job intro- 
duces the deep, saying, " It is not in me ; and 
the sea saith, It is not in me. Destruction and 
deatli say. We have heard the fame thereof 
with our ears." That noted sublime passage 
in the book of Isaiah, which describes the fall 
of the king of Assyria, is full of personified 
objects ; the fir trees and cedars of Lebanon 
breaking forth into exultation on the fall of 
the tyrant ; hell from beneath stirring up all 
the dead to meet him at his coming ; and the 
dead kings introduced as speaking and joining 
in the triumph. In the same strain are those 
many lively and passionate apostrophes to 
cities and countries, to persons and things, 
with which the prophetical writings every 
where abound. "O thou sword of the Lord, 
how long will it be ere thou be quiet ? Put 
thyself up into the scabbard, rest, and be stilL 
How can it be quiet," as the reply is instantly 
made, "seeing the Lord hath given it a 
charge against Askelon, and the sea shore ? 
there hath he appointed it," Jer. xlvii, 6. In 
general, for it would carry us too far to en- 
large upon all the instances, the style of the 
poetical books of the Old Testament is, beyond 
the style of all other poetical works, fervid, 
bold, and animated. It is extremely different 
from that regular correct expression to which 
our ears are accustomed in modern poetry. It 
is the burst of inspiration. The scenes are not 
coolly described, but represented as passing be- 
fore our eyes. Every object and every person 
is addressed and spoken to, as if present. The 
transition is often abrupt ; the connection often 
obscure ; the persons are often changed ; 
figures crowded, and heaped upon one another. 
Bold sublimity, not correct elegance, is its 
character We see the spirit of the writer 
raised beyond himself, and labouring to find 
vent for ideas too mighty for his utterance. 

The several kinds of poetical composition 
which we find in Scripture are chiefly the 



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didactic, elegiac, pastoral, and lyric. Of the 
didactic species of poetry, the book of Proverbs 
is tlie principal instance. The first nine chap- 
ters of that book are highly poetical, adorned 
with many distinguished graces, and figures of 
expression. The book of Ecclesiastes comes, 
likewise, under this head ; and some of the 
Psalms, as the hundred and nineteenth in par- 
ticular. Of elegiac poetry, many very beauti- 
ful specimens occur in Scripture ; such as the 
lamentation of David over his friend Jonathan ; 
several passages in the prophetical books ; and 
several of David's Psalms, composed on occa- 
sions of distress and mourning. The forty- 
second Psalm, in particular, is, in the highest 
degree, tender and plaintive. But the most regu- 
lar and perfect elegiac composition in the Scrip- 
ture, perhaps in the whole world, is the Lament- 
ations of Jeremiah. As the prophet mourns, in 
that book, over the destruction of the temple and 
tlie holy city, and the overthrow of the whole 
state, he assembles all the affecting images 
which a subject so melancholy could suggest. 
The Song of Solomon affords us a high ex. 
emplification of pastoral poetry. Considered 
with respect to its spiritual meaning, it is un- 
doubtedly a mystical allegory ; in its form it 
is a dramatic pastoral, or a perpetual dialogue 
between personages in the character of shep- 
lierds ; and, suitably to that form, it is full of 
rural and pastoral imagesfrombeginningto end. 
Of lyric poetry, or that which is intended to 
be accompanied with music, the Old Testa- 
ment is full. Beside a great number of hymns 
and songs, which we find scattered in the his- 
torical and prophetical books, such as the 
song of Moses, the song of Deborah, and many 
others of like nature, the whole book of Psalms 
is to be considered as a collection of sacred 
odes. In these we find the ode exhibited in 
all the varieties of its form., and supported with 
the highest spirit of lyric poetry ; sometimes 
sprightly, cheerful, and triumphant; some- 
times solemn and magnificent ; sometimes 
tender and soft. From these instances it 
clearly appears, that there are contained in 
the Holy Scriptures full exemplifications of 
several of the chief kinds of poetical writing. 

POLLUX, a tutelar deity of mariners in an- 
cient times. Acts xxviii, 11, whose image was 
placed either at the prow or stern of the ship. 

POMEGRANATE, ]^D-\, Numbers xiii, 23 ; 
XX, 5 ; 1 Sam. xiv, 2, &c, a low tree growing 
very common in Palestine, and in other parts 
of the east. Its branches are very thick and 
bushy ; some of them are armed with sharp 
thorns. They are garnished with narrow spear- 
shaped leaves. Its flowers are of an elegant 
red colour, resembling a rose. It is chiefly 
valued for the fruit, which is as big as a large 
apple, is quite round, and has the general 
qualities of other summer fruits, allaying heat 
and quenching thirst. The high estimation 
in which it was held by the people of Israel, 
may be inferred from its being one of the three 
kinds of fruit brought by the spies from Eshcol 
, to Moses and the congregation in the wilder- 
ness, Num. xiii, 23 ; xx, 5 ; and from its being 
specified by that rebellious people as one of the 



greatest luxuries which they enjoyed in Egypt^ 
the want of which they felt so severely in the 
sandy desert. The pomegranate, classed by 
Moses with wheat and barley, vines and figs, 
oil olive and honey, was, in his account, one 
principal recommendation of the promised 
land, Deut. viii, 8. The form of this fruit was 
so beautiful, as to be honoured with a place at 
the bottom of the high priest's robe, Exodus 
xxviii, 33 ; Ecclus. xlv, 9 ; and was the princi- 
pal ornament of the stately columns of Solo- 
mon's temple. The inside is full of small 
kernels, replenished with a generous liquor. 
In short there is scarcely any part of the 
pomegranate which does not delight and re- 
create the senses. 

PORTERS OF THE TEMPLE. The Le- 
vites discharged the office of porters of the 
temple both day and night, and had the care 
both of the treasure and offerings. The office 
of porter was in some sort military ; properly 
speaking, they were the soldiers of the Lord, 
and the guards of his house, to whose charge 
the several gates of the courts of the sanctua- 
ry were appointed by lot, 1 Chronicles xxvi, 1, 
13, 19. " They waited at every gate ; and 
were not permitted to depart from their ser- 
vice," 2 Chron. xxxv, 15 ; and they attended 
by turns in their courses, as the other Levites 
did, 2 Chron. viii, 14. Their proper business 
was to open and shut the gates, and to attend 
at them by day, as a sort of peace officers, in 
order to prevent any tumult among the people ; 
to keep strangers and the excommunicated and 
unclean persons, from entering into tlie holy 
court ; and, in short, to prevent whatever might 
be prejudicial to the safety, peace, and purity 
of the holy place and service. They also kept 
guard by night about the temple and its courts ; 
and they are said to have been twenty-four, in- 
cluding three priests, who stood sentry at so 
many different places. There . was a superior 
officer over the whole guard, called by Maimon- 
ides, " the man of the mountain of the house ;" 
he walked the round as often as he pleased ; 
when he passed a sentmel that was standing, 
he said, " Peace be unto you ;" but if he found 
one asleep, he struck him, and he had liberty 
to set fire to his garment. This custom may, 
perhaps, be alluded to in the following pas- 
sage : " Behold, I come as a thief," that is, 
unawares ; " blessed is he that watcheth and 
keepeth his garments," Rev. xvi, 15. Psalm 
cxxxiv, seems to be addressed to these watch- 
men of the temple, " who by night stand in the 
house of the Lord ;" in which they are exhort, 
ed to employ their waking hours in acts of 
praise and devotion. 

POST, a messenger or regulated courier, 
appointed to carry with expedition the des- 
patches of princes, or the letters of private per- 
sons in general. Job ix, 25 ; Jer. li, 31 ; 2 Chron. 
XXX, 6 ; Esther iii, 13, &c. It is thought that 
the use of posts is derived from the Persians. 
Diodorus Siculus observes, that the kings of 
Persia, in order to have intelligence of what 
was passed through all the provinces of their 
vast dominions, placed centinels at eminences, 
at convenient distances, where towers were 



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built. These centinels gave notice of public 
occurrences from one to another, with a very 
loud and shrill voice, by which news was trans- 
mitted from one extremity of the kingdom to 
another with great expedition. But as this 
could not be practised, except in the case of 
general news, which it was expedient that the 
whole nation should be acquainted with, Cy- 
rus, as Xenophon relates, appointed couriers 
and places for post horses, building on purpose 
on all the high roads houses for the reception 
of the couriers, where they were to deliver 
their packets to the next, and so on. This 
they did night and day, so that no inclemency 
of weather was to stop them ; and they are 
represented as moving with astonishing speed. 
In the judgment of many they went faster 
than cranes could fly. Herodotus owns, that 
nothing swifter was known for a journey by 
land. Xerxes, in his famous expedition against 
Greece, planted posts from the JEgean Sea to 
Shushan, or Susa, to send notice thither of 
what might happen to his army; he placed 
these piessengers from station to station, to 
convey his packets, at such distances from 
each other as a horse might easily travel. 

POTTER, Frequent mention is made of 
the potter in Scripture, Jer. xviii, 3 ; Ecclus. 
xxxviii, 29, 30. Homer says, that the potter 
turns his wheel, with- his hands. But at the 
present day, the wheel on which the work is 
formed is turned by another. 

POTTER'S FIELD, the land that v^as 
bought with the money for which Judas ^old 
our Saviour, Matt, xxvii, 7, 10, and which he 
returned. See Aceldama. 

PRAYER has been well defined, t}« offer- 
ing up of our desires unto God, fci" things 
agreeable to his will, in the name or through 
the mediation of Jesus Christ, by tne help of 
the Holy Spirit, with a confession of our sins, 
and a thankful acknowledgment of his mercies. 
1. Prayer is in itself a becoming acknowledg- 
ment of the all-sufiiciency of God, and of our 
dependence upon him. It is his appointed 
means for the obtaining of both temporal and 
spiritual blessings. He could bless his crea- 
tures in another way : but he will be inquired 
of, to do for them those things of which they 
stand in need, Ezek. xxxvi, 37. It is the act 
of an indigent creature, seeking relief from 
the fountain of mercy. A sense of want ex- 
cites desire, and desire is the very essence of 
prayer. " One thing have I desired of the 
Lord," says David : " that will I seek after." 
Prayer without desire is like an altar without 
a sacrifice, or without the fire from heaven to 
consume it. When all our wants are supplied, 
prayer will be converted into praise ; till then 
Christians must live by prayer, and dwell at 
the mercy seat. God alone is able to hear 
and to supply their every want. The revela- 
tion which he has given of his goodness lays 
a foundation for our asking with confidence 
the blessings we need, and his ability encou- 
rages us to hope for their bestowment. '* O 
thou that hearest prayer ; unto thee shall all 
flesh come," Psalm Ixv, 2. 2. Prayer is a 
spiritual exercise, and can only be performed 



acceptably by the assistance of the Holy Spirit, 
Rom. viii, 26. " The sacrifice of the wicked 
is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer 
of the upright is his delight." The Holy Spirit 
is the great agent in the world of grace, and 
without his special influence there is no ac- 
ceptable prayer. Hence he is called the Spirit 
of grace and of supplication : for he it is that 
enables us to draw nigh unto God, filling our 
mouth with arguments, and teaching us to 
order our cause before him, Zech. xii, 10. 
3. All acceptable prayer must be offered in 
faith, or a believing frame of mind. "If any 
man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who 
giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, 
and it shall be given him. But let him ask in 
faith, nothing w^avering — for let not the waver- 
ing man think that he shall receive any thing 
of the Lord," James i, 5-7. " He that cometli 
unto God must believe that he is, and that he 
is a rewarder of them that diligently seek 
him," Heb. xi, 6. It must be offered in the 
name of Christ, believing in him as revealed 
in the word of God, placing in him all our 
hope of acceptance, and exercising unfeigned 
confidence in his atoning sacrifice and preva- 
lent intercession. 4. Prayer is to be offered 
for "things agreeable to the will of God." So 
the Apostle says : " This is the confidence 
diat we have in him, that, if we ask any thing 
according to his will, he heareth us ; and if 
we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, 
we know that we have the petitions that we 
desired of him," 1 John v, 14, 15. Our prayers 
must therefore be regulated by the revealed 
will of God, and come within the compass of 
the promises. These are to be the matter and 
the ground of our supplications. What God 
has not particularly promised he may never- 
theless possibly bestow ; but what he has 
promised he will assuredly perform. Of the 
good things promised to Israel of old not one 
failed, but all came to pass ; and in due time 
the same shall be said of all the rest. 5. All 
this must be accompanied with confession of 
our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of 
God's mercies. These are two necessary in- 
gredients in acceptable prayer. " I prayed," 
says the Prophet Daniel, " and made confes- 
sion." Sin is a burden, of which confession 
unloads the soul. " Father," said the return- 
ing prodigal, " I have sinned against Heaven 
and in thy sight." Thanksgiving is also as 
necessary as confession ; by the one we take 
shame to ourselves ; by the other, we give 
glory to God. By the one, we abase the 
creature ; by the other we exalt the Creator, 
In petitioning favours from God, we act like 
dependent creatures ; in confession, like sin- 
ners ; but in thanksgiving, like angels. 

The reason on which this great and effica- 
cious duty rests, has been a subject of some 
debate. On this point, however, we have 
nothing stated in the Scriptures. From them 
we learn only, that God has appointed it ; that 
he enjoms it to be oflfered in faith, that is, faith 
in Christ, whose atonement is the meritorious 
and procuring cause of all the blessings to 
which our desires can be directed ; and that 



PRA 



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prayer so offered is an indispensable condition 
of our obtaining the blessings for which we 
ask. As a matter of inference, however, we 
may discover some glimpses of the reason in 
the divine Mind on which its appointment 
rests. That reason has sometimes been said 
to be the moral preparation and state of fitness 
produced in the soul for the reception of the 
divine mercies which the act and, more espe- 
cially the habit of prayer must induce. Against 
this stands the strong, and, in a Scriptural view, 
fatal objection, that an efiiciency is thus as- 
cribed to the mere act of a creature to pro- 
duce those great, and, in many respects, radical 
changes in the character of man, which we 
are taught, by inspired authority, to refer to 
the direct influences of the Holy Spirit. What 
is it that fits man for forgiveness, but simply 
repentance ? Yet that is expressly said to be 
the " gift " of Christ, and supposes strong 
operations of the illuminating and convincing 
Spirit of truth, the Lord and Giver of spiritual 
life ; and if the mere acts and habit of prayer 
had efficiency enough to produce a Scriptural 
repentance, then every formalist attending 
with ordinary seriousness to his devotions 
must, in consequence, become a penitent. 
Again : if we pray for spiritual blessings 
aright, that is, with an earnestness of desire 
which arises from a due apprehension of theii 
importance, and a preference of them to all 
earthly good, who does not see that this im- 
plies such a deliverance from the earthly and 
carnal disposition which characterizes our de- 
generate nature, that an agency far above our 
own, however we may employ it, must be sup- 
posed ? or else, if our own prayers could be 
efficient up to this point, we might, by the 
continual application of this instrument, com- 
plete our regeneration, independent of that 
grace of God, which, after all, this theory 
brings in. It may indeed be said, that the 
grace of God operates by our prayers to pro- 
duce in us a state of moral fitness to receive 
the blessings we ask. But this gives up the 
point contended for, the moral efficiency of 
prayer; and refers the efficiency to another 
agent working by our prayers as an instru- 
ment. Still, however, it may be affirmed, that 
the Scriptures no where represent prayer as 
an instrument for improving our moral state, 
in any other way than as the means of bring- 
ing into the soul new supplies of spiritual life 
and strength. It is therefore more properly 
to be considered as a condition of our obtain- 
ing that grace by which such effects are 
wrought, than as the instrument by which it 
effects them. In fact, all genuine acts of 
prayer depend upon a grace previously be- 
stowed, and from which alone the disposition 
and the power to pray proceed. So it was 
said of Saul of Tarsus, " Behold, he prayeth !" 
He prayed in fact then for the first time ; but 
that was in consequence of the illumination 
of his mind as to his spiritual danger, effected 
by the miracle on the way to Damascus, and 
the grace of God which accompanied the 
miracle. Nor does the miraculous character 
.of the means by which conviction was pro- 



duced in his mind, affect the relevancy of this 
to ordinary cases. By whatever means God 
may be pleased to fasten the conviction of our 
spiritual danger upon our minds, and to awaken 
us out of the long sleep of sin, that conviction 
must precede real prayer, and comes from the 
influence of his grace, rendering the means 
of conviction effectual. Thus it is not the 
prayer which produces the conviction, but the 
conviction which gives birth to the prayer ; 
and if we pursue the matter into its subse- 
quent stages, we shall come to the same re- 
sult. We pray for what we feel we want ; 
that is, for something not in our possession ; 
we obtain this either by impartation from 
God, to whom we look up as the only Being 
able to bestow the good for which we ask 
him ; or else we obtain it, according to this 
theory, by some moral efficiency being given 
to the exercise of prayer to work it in us. 
Now, the latter hypothesis is in many cases 
manifestly absurd. We ask for pardon of sin, 
for instance ; but this is an act of God done 
for us, quite distinct from any moral change 
which prayer may be said to produce in us, 
whatever efficiency we may ascribe to it ; for 
no such change in us can be pardon, since 
that must proceed from the party offended. 
We ask for increase of spiritual strength ; and 
prayer is the expression of that want. But if 
it supply this want by its own moral efficiency, 
]*; must supply it in proportion to its intensity 
aiid earnestness ; which intensity and earnest- 
nesB can only be called forth by the degree in 
which the want is felt, so that the case sup- 
posed is contradictory and absurd, as it makes 
the setse of want to be in proportion to the 
supply which ought to abate or remove it. 
And if \\ be urged, that prayer at least pro- 
duces in m a fitness for the supply of spiritual 
strength, because it is excited by a sense of 
our wants, tlie answer is, that the fitness con- 
tended for consists in that sense of want itself 
which 'must be produced in us by the previous 
agency of grace, or we should never pray for 
supplies. There is, in fact, nothing in prayer 
simply which appears to have any adaptation, 
as an instrument, to effect a moral change in 
man, although it should be supposed to be 
made use of by the influence of the Holy 
Spirit. The word of God is properly an 
instrument, because it contains the doctrine 
which that Spirit explains and applies, and 
the motives to faith and obedience which he 
enforces upon the conscience and affections ; 
and although prayer brings these truths and 
motives before us, prayer cannot properly be 
said to be an instrument of our regeneration, 
because that which is thus brought by prayer 
to bear upon our case is the word of God itself 
introduced into our prayers, which derive their 
sole influence in that respect from that cir- 
cumstance. Prayer simply is the application 
of an insufficient to a sufficient Being for the 
good which the former cannot otherwise ob- 
tain, and which the latter only can supply; 
and as that supply is dependent upon prayer, 
and in the nature of the thing consequent, 
prayer can in no good sense be said to be the 



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Instrument of supplying our wants, or fitting 
us for their supply, except relatively, as a mere 
condition appointed by the Donor. 

If we must inquire into the reason of the 
appointment of prayer, and it can scarcely be 
considered as a purely arbitrary institution, 
that reason seems to be, the preservation in 
the minds of men of a solemn and impressive 
sense of God's agency in the world, and the 
dependence of all creatures upon him. Per- 
fectly pure and glorified beings, no longer in a 
state of probation, and therefore exposed to no 
temptations, may not need this institution ; 
but men in their fallen state are constantly 
prone to forget God ; to rest in the agency of 
second causes ; and to build upon a sufficiency 
in themselves. This is at once a denial to 
God of the glory which he rightly claims, and 
a destructive delusion to creatures, who, in 
forsaking God as the object of their constant 
affiance, trust but in broken reeds, and attempt 
to drink from " broken cisterns which can hold 
no water." It is then equally in mercy to us, 
as in respect to his own honour and acknow- 
ledgment, that the divine Being has suspended 
so many of his blessings, and those of the 
highest necessity to us, upon the exercise of 
prayer ; an act which acknowledges his un- 
controllable agency, and the dependence of all 
creatures upon him ; our insufficiency, and his 
fulness ; and lays the foundation of that habit 
of gratitude and thanksgiving w hich is at once 
60 meliorating to our own feelings, and so 
conducive to a cheerful obedience to the will 
of God. And if this reason for the injunction 
of prayer is no where in Scripture stated in so 
many words, it is a principle uniformly sup- 
posed as the foundation of the whole scheme 
of religion which they have revealed. 

To this duty objections have been sometimes 
offered, at which it may be well at least to 
glance. One has been grounded upon a sup- 
posed predestination of ail things which come 
to pass ; and the argument is, that as this 
established predetermination of all things can- 
not be altered, prayer, which supposes that God 
will depart from it, is vain and useless. The 
answer which a pious predestinarian would 
give to this objection is, that the argument 
drawn from the predestination of God lies with 
the same force against every other human 
effort, as against prayer; and that as God's 
predetermination to give food to man does not 
render the cultivation of the earth useless and 
impertinent, so neither does the predestination 
of things shut out the necessity and efficacy 
of prayer. It would also be urged, that God 
has ordained the means as well as the end ; 
and although he is an unchangeable Being, it 
is a part of the unchangeable system which he 
has established, that prayer shall be heard and 
accepted. Those who have not these views 
of predestination will answer the objection 
differeitly ; for if the premises of such a pre- 
destinat'.on as is assumed by the objection, and 
conceded in the answer, be allowed, the an- 
swer is unsatisfactory. The Scriptures repre- 
sent God, for instance, as' purposing to inflict 
a judgment upon an individual or a nation, 



which purpose is o^'ten changed by prayer. In 
this case either God's purpose must be denied, 
and then his threatenings are reduced to words 
without meaning; or the purpose nmst be 
allowed ; in which case either prayer breaks 
in upon predestination, if understood abso- 
lutely, or it is vain and useless. To the objec- 
tion so drawn out it is clear that no answer 
is given by saying that the means as well as 
the end are predestinated, since prayer in such 
eases is not a means to the end, but an instru- 
ment of thwarting it ; or is a means to one 
end in opposition to another end, which, if 
equally predestinated with the same absolute, 
ness, is a contradiction. The true answer is, 
that although God has absolutely predetermined 
some things, there are others which respect 
his government of free and accountable agents, 
which he has but conditionally predetermined. 
The true immutability of God consists, not in 
his adherence to his purposes, but in his never 
changing the principles of his administration ; 
and he may therefore, in perfect accordance 
with his preordination of things, and the immu- 
tability of his nature, purpose to do, under 
certain conditions dependent upon the free 
agency of man, what he will not do under 
others ; and for this reason, that an immutable 
adherence to the principles of a wise, just, and 
gracious government requires it. Prayer is 
in Scripture made one of these conditions; 
and if God has established it as one of the 
principles of his moral government to accept 
prayer, in every case in which he has given us 
authority to ask, he has not, we may be assured, 
entangled his actual government of the world 
with the bonds of such an eternal predestina- 
tion of particular events, as either to reduce 
prayer to a mere form of words, or not to be 
able himself, consistently with his decrees, to 
answer it, whenever it is encouraged by his 
express engagements. 

A second objection is, that as God is infi- 
nitely wise and good, his wisdom and justice 
will lead him to bestow " whatever is fit for 
us without praying ; and if any thing be not 
fit for us, we cannot obtain it by praying." 
To this Dr. Paley very well replies, "that it 
may be agreeable to perfect wisdom to grant 
that to our prayers which it would not have 
been agreeable to the same wisdom to have 
given us without praying for." This, inde- 
pendent of the question of the authority of the 
Scriptures which explicitly enjoin prayer, is 
the best answer which can be given to the 
objection ; and it is no small confirmation of 
it, that it is obvious to every reflecting man, 
that for God to withhold favours till asked for, 
" tends," as the same writer observes, " to 
encourage devotion among his rational crea- 
tures, and to keep up and circulate a know- 
ledge and sense of their dependency upon 
him." But it is urged, " God will always do 
what is best from the moral perfection of his 
nature, whether we pray or not." This ob- 
jection, however, supposes that there is but 
one mode of acting for the best, and that the 
divine will is necessarily determined to that 
mode only; "both which positions," says Pa- 



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ley, " presume a knowledge of universal na- 
ture, much beyond what we are capable of 
attaining." It is, indeed, a very unsatisfactory 
mode of speaking, to say, God will always do 
what is best ; since we can conceive him 
capable in all cases of doing what is still 
better for the creature, and also that the crea- 
ture is capable of receiving more and more 
from his infinite fulness for ever. All that 
can be rationally meant by such a phrase is, 
that, in the circumstances of the case, God 
will always do what" is most consistent with 
his own wisdom, holiness, and goodness ; but 
then the disposition to pray, and the act of 
praying, add a new circumstance to every case, 
and often bring many other new circumstances 
along with them. It supposes humility, con- 
trition, and trust, on the part of the creature; 
and an acknowledgment of the power and 
compassion of God, and of the merit of the 
atonement of Christ : all which are manifestly 
new positions, so to speak, of the circum- 
stances of the creature, which, upon the very 
principle of the objection, rationally under- 
stood, must be taken into consideration. 

But if the efficacy of prayer as to ourselves 
be granted, its influence upon the case of 
others is said to be more difficult to conceive. 
This may be allowed without at all affecting 
the duty. Those who bow to the authority 
of the Scriptures will see, that the duty of 
praying for ourselves and for others rests upon 
the same divine appointment ; and to those 
who ask for the reason of such intercession in 
behalf of others, it is sufficient to reply, that 
the efficacy of prayer being established in one 
case, there is the same reason to conclude that 
our prayers may benefit others, as any other 
effiDrt we may use. It can only be by divine 
appointment that one creature is made depend- 
ent upon another for any advantage, since it 
was doubtless in the power of the Creator to 
have rendered each independent of all but 
himself. Whatever reason, therefore, might 
lead him to connect and interweave the inte- 
rests of one man with the benevolence of an- 
other, will be the leading reason for that kind 
of mutual dependence which is implied in the 
benefit of mutual prayer. Were it only that a 
previous sympathy, charity, and good will, are 
implied in the duty, and must, indeed, be cul- 
tivated in order to it, and be strengthened by 
it, the wisd6m and benevolence of the institu- 
tion would, it is presumed, be apparent to every 
well constituted mind. That all prayer for 
others must proceed upon a less perfect know- 
ledge of them than we have of ourselves, is 
certain ; that all our petitions must be, even in 
our own mind, more conditional than those 
which respect ourselves, though many of these 
must be subjected to the principles of a general 
administration, which we but partially appre- 
hend ; and that all spiritual influences upon 
others, when they are subject to our prayers, 
will be understood by us as liable to the con- 
trol of their free agency, must also be con- 
ceded ; and, therefore, when others are con- 
cerned, our prayers may often be partially or 
wholly fruitless. He who believes the Scriptures 



will, however^ be encouraged by the declara- 
tion that "the efiectual fervent prayer of a 
righteous man," for his fellow creatures, " avail, 
eth much ;" and he who demands something 
beyond mere authoritative declaration, as he 
cannot deny that prayer is one of those instrui 
ments by which another may be benefited, must 
acknowledge that, like the giving of counsel, 
it may be of great utility in some cases, although 
it should fail in others ; and that as no man can 
tell how much good counsel may influence an- 
other, or in many cases say whether it has 
ultimately failed or not, so it is with prayer. 
It is a part of the divine plan, as revealed in 
his word, to give many blessings to man inde- 
pendent of his own prayers, leaving the subse- 
quent improvement of them to himself. They 
are given in honour of the intercession of 
Christ, man's great "Advocate ;" and they are 
given, subordinately, in acceptance of the 
prayers of Christ's church, and of righteous 
individuals. And when many or few devout 
individuals become thus the instruments of 
good to communities, or to whole nationSj 
there is no greater mystery in this than in the 
obvious fact, that the happiness or misery of 
large masses of mankind is often greatly affected 
by the wisdom or the errors, the skill or the 
incompetence, the good or the bad conduct, 
of a few persons, and often of one. 

PREACHING is the discoursing publicly 
on any religious subject. From the sacred 
records, says Robert Robinson, we learn that 
when men began to associate for the purpose 
of worshipping the Deity, Enoch prophesied, 
Jude 14, 15. We have a very short account 
of this prophet and his doctrine ; enough, how- 
ever, to convince us that he taught the prin- 
cipal truths of natural and revealed religion. 
Conviction of sin was in his doctrine, and 
communion with God was exemplified in his 
conduct. Gen. v, 24 ; Heb. xi, 5, 6. From the 
days of Enoch to the time of Moses, each 
patriarch worshipped God with his family : 
probably several assembled at new moons, 
and alternately instructed the whole company. 
"Noah," it is said, "was a preacher of right- 
eousness," 1 Peter iii, 19, 20; 2 Peter ii, 5. 
Abraham commanded his household after him 
to keep the way of the Lord, and to do justice 
and judgment. Gen. xviii, 19 ; and Jacob, when 
his house lapsed to idolatry, remonstrated 
against it, and exhorted all them that were 
with him to put away the strange gods, and 
go up with him to Bethel, Gen. xxxv, 2, 3. 
Melchisedec, also, we may consider as the 
father, the priest, and the prince, of his people ; 
publishing the glad tidings of peace and salva- 
tion. Gen. xiv; Heb. vii. 

Moses was a most eminent prophet and 
preacher, raised up by the authority of God, 
and by whom, it was said, came the laW; John 
i, 17. This great man had much at heart the 
promulgation of his doctrine: he directed it 
to be inscribed on pillars, to be transcribed in 
books, and to be taught both in public and pri- 
vate by word of mouth, Deut. iv, 9 ; vi, 9 ; 
xvii, 18 ; xxvii, 8 ; xxxi, 19 ; Num. v, 23. He 
himself set the example of each ; and how he 



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and Aaron preached, we may see by several 
parts of his writings. The first discourse was 
heard with profound reverence and attention ; 
the last was both uttered and received with 
raptures, Exod. iv, 31 ; Deut. xxxiii, 7, 8, &c. 
Public preaching does not appear under this 
economy to have been attached to the priest- 
hood : priests v/ere not officially preachers ; 
and we have innumerable instances of dis- 
courses delivered in assemblies by men of other 
tribes beside that of Levi, Psalm Ixviii, 11. 
Joshua was an Ephraimite ; but, being full of 
the spirit of wisdom, he gathered the tribes to 
Shechem, and harangued the people of God, 
Deut. xxxiv, 9 ; Joshua xxiv. Solomon was 
a prince of the house of Judah ; Amos, a herds- 
man of Tekoa ; yet both were preachers, and 
one at least was a prophet, 1 Kings ii ; Amos 
vii, 14, 15. When the ignorant notions of 
Pagans, the vices of their practice, and the 
idolatry of their pretended worship, were in 
some sad periods incorporated into the Jewish 
religion by the princes of that nation, the pro- 
phets and all the seers protested against this 
apostasy; and they were persecuted for so 
doing. Shemaiah preached to Rehoboam, the 
princes, and all the people at Jerusalem, 
2 Chron. xii, 5 ; Azariali and Hanani preached 
to Asa and his army, 2 Chron. xv, 1 ; xvi, 7 ; 
Micaiah, to Ahab. Some of them opened 
schools, or houses of instruction ; and there to 
their disciples they taught the pure religion of 
Moses. At Naioth, in the suburbs of Ramah, 
there was one where Samuel dwelt ; and there 
was one at Jericho, and a third at Bethel, 
to which Elijah and Elisha often resorted. 
Thither the people went on Sabbath days and 
at new moons, and received public lessons of 
piety and morality, 1 Sam. xix, 18 ; 2 Kings 
ii, 2, 5 ; iv, 2, 3. Through all this period, 
however, there was a dismal confusion of the 
useful ordinance of public preaching. Some- 
times they had no open vision, and the word 
of the Lord was precious, or scarce; the peo- 
ple heard it only now and then. At other 
times they were left without a teaching priest, 
and without law. And at other seasons again, 
itinerants, both princes, priests, and Lcvites, 
were sent through all the country, to carry 
the book of the law, and to teach in the cities. 
In a word, preaching flourished when pure 
religion grew ; and when the last decayed, the 
first was suppressed. Moses had not appro- 
priated preaching to any order of men : per- 
sons, places, times, and manners, were all left 
open and discretional. Many of the discourses 
were preached in camps and courts, in streets, 
schools, cities, villages ; sometimes, with great 
composure and coolness ; at other times, with 
vehement action and rapturous energy ; some- 
times, in a plain, blunt style ; at other times, 
in all the magnificent pomp of eastern allegory. 
On some occasions, the preachers appeared in 
public with visible signs, with implements 
of war, with yokes of slavery, or something 
adapted to their subject. They gave lectures 
on these, held them up to viev/, girded them 
on, broke them in pieces, rent their garments, 
rolled in the dust, and endeavoured, by all the 



methods they could devise, agreeably to the 
customs of their country, to impress the minds 
of their auditors with the nature and importance 
of their doctrines. These men were highly es- 
teemed by the pious part of the nation ; and 
princes thought proper to keep seers and others 
who were scribes, who read and expounded the 
law, 2 Chron. xxxiv, 29, 30 ; xxxv, 15. Hence, 
false prophets, bad men, who found their ac- 
count in pretending to be good, crowded the 
courts of princes. Jezebel, an idolatress, had 
four hundred prophets of Baal ; and Ahab, a 
pretended worshipper of Jehovah, had as many 
pretended prophets of his own profession, 
2 Chron. xviii, 5. 

When the Jews were carried captive into 
Babylon, the prophets who were with them 
inculcated the principles of religion, and en- 
deavoured to possess their minds with- an 
aversion to idolatry ; and, to the success of 
preaching, we may attribute the re-conversion 
of the Jews to the belief and worship of one 
God; a conversion that remains to this day. 
The Jews have since fallen into horrid crimes ; 
but they have never since this period lapsed 
into gross idolatry, Hosea ii, iii ; Ezekiel 
ii, iii, xxxiv. There were not wanting, how- 
ever, multitudes of false prophets among them, 
whose characters are strikingly delineated by 
the true prophets, and which the reader may 
see in Ezek. xiii ; Isa. Ivi ; Jer. xxiii. When 
the seventy years of the captivity were expired, 
the good prophets and preachers, Zerubbabel, 
Joshua, Haggai, and others, having confidence 
in the word of God, and being concerned to 
possess their natural, civil, and religious rights, 
endeavoured, by all means, to extricate them- 
selves and their countrymen from that mor- 
tifying state into which the crimes of their 
ancestors had brought them. They wept, 
fasted, prayed, preached, prophesied, and at 
length prevailed. The chief instruments were 
Nehemiah and Ezra ; the former was governor, 
and reformed the civil state ; the latter was a 
scribe of the law of the God of heaven, and 
applied himself to ecclesiastical matters, in 
which he rendered the noblest service to his 
country, and to all posterity. He collected 
a.nd collated MSS. of the sacred writings, and 
arranged and published the books of the holy 
canon in their present form. To this he added 
a second work, as necessary as the former : he 
revised and new modelled public teaching, and, 
exemplified his plan in his own person. The 
Jews had almost lost, in the seventy years' 
captivity, their original language ; that was 
now become dead ; and they spoke a jargon 
made up of their own language and that of the 
Chaldeans, and other nations, with whom they 
had been mingled. Formerly, preachers had 
only explained subjects : now they were obliged 
to explain words ; words which, in the sacred 
code, were become obsolete, equivocal, or dead. 
Houses were now opened, not for ceremonial 
worship, as sacrificing, for this was confined 
to the temple ; but for moral and religious 
instruction, as praying, preaching, reading the 
law, divine worship, and social duties. TlievSe 
houses were ca,lled .synagogues : the people 



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repaired thither for morning and evening 
prayer ; and on Sabbaths and festivals, the law 
was read and expounded to them. We have a 
short but beautiful description of the manner 
of Ezra's first preaching, Neh. viii. Upward 
of fifty thousand people assembled in a street, 
or large square, near the water gate. It was 
early in the morning of a Sabbath day, A 
pulpit of wood, in the fashion of a small tower, 
was placed there on purpose for the preacher ; 
and this turret was supported by a scaffold, or 
temporary galleiy, where, in a wing on the 
right hand of the pulpit, sat six of the principal 
preachers ; and in another on the left, seven. 
Thirteen other principal teachers, and many 
Levites, were present also, on scaffolds erected 
for the purpose, alternately to officiate. When 
Ezra ascended the pulpit, he produced and 
opened the book of the law, and the whole 
congregation instantly rose up from their seats, 
and stood. Then he offered up prayer and 
praise to God. The people bowing their heads 
and worshipping the Lord with their faces to 
the ground ; and at the close of the prayer, 
with uplifted hands, they solemnly pronounced, 
" Amen ! Amen I" Then all standing, Ezra, 
assisted at times by the Levites, read the law 
distinctly, gave the sense, and caused them 
to understand the reading. The sermons de- 
livered so affected the hearers, that they wept 
excessively ; and about noon the sorrow be- 
came so exuberant and immeasurable, that it 
was thought necessary by the governor, the 
preacher, and the Levites, to restrain it. " Go 
your way," said they, " eat the fat, and drink 
the sweet, send portions to them for whom 
nothing is prepared." The wise and benevo- 
lent sentiments of these noble souls were im- 
bibed by the whole congregation, and fifty 
thousand troubled hearts were calmed in a 
moment. Home they returned, to eat, to 
drink, to send portions, and rejoice, because 
they had understood the words that were 
declared unto them. Plato was living at this 
time, teaching dull philosophy to cold aca- 
demics; but what was he, and what was 
Xenophon, or Demosthenes, or any of the 
Pagan orators, in comparison with these men ? 
From this period to that of the appearance of 
Jesus Christ, public preaching was universal ; 
synagogues were multiplied, vast numbers at- 
tended, and elders and rulers were appointed 
for the purpose of order and instruction. 

The most celebrated preacher that arose be- 
fore the appearance of Jesus Christ was John 
the Baptist. He was commissioned from hea- 
ven to be the harbinger of the Messiah. His 
subjects were few, plain, and important. His 
style was vehement, his images bold, his de- 
portment solemn, his action eager, and his 
morals strict. But this bright morning star 
gave way to the illustrious Sun of Righteous- 
ness, who nov/ arose on a benighted world. 
Jesus Christ certainly was the Prince of teach- 
ers. Who but can admire the simplicity and 
majesty of his style, the beauty of his images, 
the altei'natc softness and severity of his 
address, the choice of his subjects, the grace- 
fulness of his deportment, and the indefati- 



gableness of his zeal ? Let the reader charm 
and solace himself in the study and contem- 
plation of the character, excellency, and dig- 
nity of this divine teacher, as he will find them 
delineated in the evangelists. 

The Apostles copied their divine Master. 
They formed multitudes of religious societies, 
and were abundantly successful in their la- 
bours. They confined their attention to 
religion, and left the schools to dispute, and 
politicians to intrigue. The doctrines they 
preached they supported entirely by evidence ; 
and neither had nor required such assistance 
as human laws or worldly policy, the eloquence 
of schools or the terror of arms, could afibrd 
them. 

The Apostles being dead, every thing came 
to pass as they had foretold ; the whole Chris- 
tian system, in time, underwent a miserable 
change ; preaching shared the fate of other 
institutions, and the glory of the primitive 
church gradually degenerated. Those writers 
whom we call the fathers, however, held up to 
view by some as models for imitation, do not 
deserve that indiscriminate praise ascribed to 
them. Christianity, it is true, is found in their 
writings ; but how sadly incorporated with 
Pagan philosophy and Jewish allegory ! It 
must, indeed, be allowed, that, in general, the 
simplicity of Christianity was maintained, 
though under gradual decay, during the first 
three centuries. The next five centuries pro- 
duced many pious and excelleiit preachers, 
both in the Latin and Greek church, though 
the doctrine continued to degenerate. The 
Greek pulpit was adorned with some eloquent 
orators. Basil, bishop of Caesarea, John Chry- 
sostom, preacher at Antioch, and aflerward 
patriarch, as he was called, of Constantinople, 
and Gregory Nazianzen, who all flourished in 
the fourth century, seem to have led the 
fashion of preaching in the Greek church ; 
Jerom and Augustine did the same in the 
Latin" church. The first preachers diffei-ed 
much in pulpit action; the greater part used 
very moderate and sober gestures. They de- 
livered their sermons all extempore, v/hile there 
were notaries who took down what they said. 
Sermons in those days were all in the vulgar 
tongue : the Greeks preached in Greek, the 
Latins in Latin. They did not preach by 
the clock, so to speak, but were short or long 
as they saw occasion ; though an hour was 
about the usual time. Sermons were generally 
both preached and heard standing ; but some- 
times both speaker and auditors sat, especially 
the aged and the infirm. The fathers were 
fond of allegory; for Origen, that everlasting 
allegorizer, had set them the example. Before 
preaching, the preacher usually went into a 
vestry to pray, and afterward to speak to such 
as came to salute him. He prayed with his 
eyes shut in the pulpit. The first word the 
preacher uttered to the people when he as- 
cended the pulpit was, " Peace be with you;" 
or, " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the 
love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy 
Ghost, be with you all ;" to whom the assembly 
first added, " Amen," and in after times they 



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answered, •• And with thy spirit." Degenerate, 
however, as these days were, in comparison 
of those of the Apostles, yet they were golden 
ages in comparison witn the times that fol- 
lowed, when metaphysical reasoning, mystical 
divinity, yea, Aristotelian categories, and read- 
ing the lives of saints, were substituted in the 
place of sermons. The pulpit became a stage 
where ludicrous priests obtained the vulgar 
laugh by the lowest kind of wit, especially at 
the festivals of Christmas and Easter. 

But the glorious Reformation was the off- 
spring of preaching, by which mankind were 
reformed ; there was a standard, and the reli- 
gion of the times was pat to the trial by it. 
The avidity of the common people to read the 
Scriptures, and to hear them expounded, was 
wonderful ; and the papists were so fully con- 
vinced of the benefits of frequent public in- 
struction, that they, who were justly called 
unpreaching prelates, and whose pulpits to 
use an expression of Latimer, had been " bells 
without clappers" for many a long year, were 
obliged for shame to set up regular preaching 
again. The church of Rome has produced 
some great preachers since the Reformation, 
but none equal to tlie reformed preachers. 
And a question naturally arises here, which it 
would be unpardonable to pass over in silence, 
concerning the singular effect of the preaching 
of the reformed, which was general, national, 
universal reformation. In tire dark times of 
popery there had arisen now and thea some 
famous popular preachers, who had zealously 
inveighed against the vices of the times, and 
whose sermons had produced sudden and 
amazing effects on their auditors ; but all 
these effects had died away with the preachers 
who had produced them, and all things had 
gone back into their old state. Law, learning, 
commerce, society at large had not been im. 
proved. Here a new scene opens ; preachers 
arise less popular, perhaps less indefatigable 
and exemplary ; their sermons produce less 
striking mimediate effects ; and yet their audi- 
tors go away and agree by whole nations to 
reform. Jerom Savonarola, Jerom Narni, 
Capistran, Connecte, and many others, had 
produced, by their sermons, great immediate 
effects. When Connecte preached, the ladies 
lowered their head dresses, and committed 
quilled caps by hundreds to the flames. When 
Narni taught the people in lent, from the pul- 
pits of Rome, half the city went from his ser- 
mons crying along the streets, " Lord, have 
mercy upon us ;" so that in only one passion 
week, two thousand crowns' worth of ropes 
were sold to make scourges with ; and when 
he preached before the pope to the cardinals 
and bishops, and painted the sin of non-resi- 
dence in its own colours, he frightened thirty 
or forty bishops, who heard him, home to their 
diocesses. In the pulpit of the university of 
Salamanca, he induced eight hundred students 
to quit all worldly prospects of honour, riches, 
and pleasure, and to become penitents in 
divers monasteries. We know the fate of 
Savonarola, and others might be added ; but 
all lamented the momentary duration of the 



effects produced by their labours. Narni him- 
self was so disgusted with his office, that he 
renounced preaching, and shut himself up in 
his cell to mourn over his irreclaimable con- 
temporaries ; for bishops went back to the 
court, and rope makers lay idle again. 

Our reformers taught all the good doctrines 
which had been taught by these men, and they 
added two or three more, by which they laid 
the axe to the root of the apostasy, and pro- 
duced general reformation. Instead of ap- 
pealing to popes and canons, and founders and 
fathers, they only quoted them, and referred 
their auditors to the Holy Scriptures for law. 
Pope Leo X. did not know this when he told 
Prierio, who complained of Luther's heresy, 
" Friar Martin has a fine genius." They also 
taught the people what little they knew of 
Christian liberty ; and so led them into a be- 
lief that they might follow their own ideas in 
religion, without the consent of a confessor, 
a diocesan, a pope, or a council. They went 
farther, and laid the stress of all religion on 
justifying faith. 

Since the reformers we have had multitudes 
who have entered into their views with disin- 
terestedness and success ; and in the present 
times, both in the church and among other 
religious societies, names might be mentioned 
which would do honour to any nation ; for 
though there are too many who do not fill up 
that important station with proportionate piety 
and talents, yet we have men who are con- 
spicuous for their extent of knowledge, depth 
of experience, originality of thought, fervency 
of zeal, consistency of deportment, and great 
usefulness in the Christian church. 

The preceding sketch will show how mighty 
an agent preaching has been in all ages, in 
raising, and maintaining, and reviving the spirit 
of religion. Wherever it has had this power, 
let it however he remarked, it has consisted 
in the declaration, the proclamation, of the 
truth of God, as contained in his early revela- 
tions to man, and afterward embodied in the 
Holy Scriptures. The effect too has been pro. 
duced by preachers living themselves under 
the influence of this truth, and filled " with 
faith and the Holy Ghost," depending wholly 
upon God's blessing for success, and going 
forth in his name, with ardent longing to 
"win souls," and to build up the church in 
knowledge and holiness. For preaching is 
not a profession ; but a work of divine ap- 
pointment, to be rightly discharged only by 
him who receives a commission from God, 
and fulfils it as under his eye, and in depend- 
ence upon his promise, " Lo, I am with you 
alway." 

PREDESTINATION, according to some, 
is a judgment, or decree of God, by which he 
has resolved, from all eternity, to save a cer- 
tain number of persons, hence named elect. 
Others define it, a decree to give faith in Jesus 
Christ to a certain number of men, and to 
leave the rest to their own malice and hard, 
ness of heart. A third, more Scripturally, 
God's eternal purpose to save all that " truly 
repent and unfeignedly believe his holy 



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Gospel," — according to the Apostle Paul, 
" Whom he did foreknow" as believers " them 
he also did predestinate to be conformed to 
the image of his Son ;" to his moral image 
here, and to the image of his glorified hu- 
manity in heaven. According to the Calvin- 
istical scheme, the reason of God's predesti- 
nating some to everlasting life is not founded 
in a foresight of their faith and obedience ; 
nevertheless, it is also maintained on this 
scheme, that the means are decreed as well as 
the end, and tliat God purposes to save none 
but such as by his grace he shall prepare for 
salvation by sanctification. The Remonstrants 
define predestination to be God's decree to 
save believers, and condemn unbelievers. 
Some represent the election and predestina- 
tion spoken of in Scripture, as belonging only 
to nations, or, at least, bodies of men, and not 
to particular persons. The greatest difficulties 
with which the modern theology is clogged 
turn on predestination ; both the Romish 
and Reformed churches are divided about it ; 
the Lutherans speak of it with horror ; the 
Calvinists contend for it with the greatest 
zeal ; the Molinists and Jesuits preach it down 
as a most dangerous doctrine ; the Jansenists 
assert it as an article of faith ; the Arminians, 
Remonstrants, and many others, are all avowed 
enemies of absolute predestination. Those 
strenuous patrons of Jansenism, the Port- 
royalists, taught, that God predestinates those 
whom he foresees will cooperate with his grace 
to the end. Dupin adds, that men do not fall 
into sin because not predestinated to life, but 
they are not predestinated because God fore- 
saw their sins. See Calvinism. 

This doctrine has been already treated of. 
We shall here therefore merely subjoin a 
sketch of its history previous to the Reforma- 
tion. The apostolic fathers, men little accus- 
tomed to the intricacy of metaphysical disqui- 
sition, deeply impressed with the truth of the 
Gospel, powerfully influenced by its spirit, and 
from their particular situation naturally dwell- 
ing much upon it as a system of direction and 
consolation, do not, in their writings, at all 
advert to the origin of evil, or to predestina- 
tion, so closely allied to it. They press, with 
much earnestness, upon those in whom they 
weve interested the vast importance of prac- 
tical holiness, exhibit the motives which ap- 
peared to them calculated to secure it, and 
represent the blessedness which awaits good 
men, and the condemnation reserved for the 
wicked ; but they do not once attempt to de- 
termine whether the sin which they were 
solicitous to remove could be accounted for, 
in consistency with the essential holiness and 
the unbounded mercy of the Deity. In short, 
they just took that view of this subject which 
every man takes when he is not seeking to 
enter into philosophical disquisition ; never for 
one moment doubting that whatever is wrong 
was ultimately to be referred to man, and that 
the economy of grace proceeding from God 
was the most convincing proof of the tender- 
ness of his compassion for nuinkind. 

Wlien, however, the church received within 



its communion those who had been educated 
in the schools of philosophy, and to whom the 
question as to the origin of evil must, while 
they frequented these schools, have become 
familiar, it was not to be supposed that, even 
although they were convinced that we should 
be chiefly solicitous about the formation of the 
Christian character, there would be no allusion 
to what had formerly interested them, or that 
they would refrain from delivering their senti- 
ments upon it. Agreeably to this, we find, in 
the works of Justin Martyr, Tatian, Irenajus, 
Tertullian, and Origen, sufficient intimations 
that ithey had directed their attention to the 
difficulty now under review ; and that, whe- 
ther upon adequate grounds or not, they had 
come to a decision as to the way in which it 
should be explained consistently with the 
divine perfections. It is evident that they 
did not investigate the subject to the depth to 
which it is requisite for the full discussion of 
it to go ; and that various questions which 
must be put before it can be brought com- 
pletely before us, they either did not put, or 
hastily regarded as of very little moment : but 
it is enough to dwell upon the fact, that they 
did employ their thoughts upon it, and have 
so expressed themselves as to leave no doubt 
of the light in which it was contemplated by 
them. Justin, in his dialogue with Trypho, 
remarks that " they who were foreknown as 
to become wicked, whether angels or men, did 
so not from any fault of God, diria tov Qcov, 
but from their own blame ;" by which obser- 
vation he shows it to have been his opinion 
that God foresaw in what manner his intelli- 
gent creatures would act ; but that this did not. 
affect their liberty, and did not diminish their 
guilt. A little after he says more fully, that 
" God created angels and men free to the 
practice of righteousness, having planted in 
them reason, through which they knew by 
whom they were created and through whom 
they existed, when before they were not, and 
who prescribed to them a law by which 
they were to be judged, if they acted contrary 
to right reason. Wherefore, we, angels and 
men, are through ourselves convicted as being 
wicked, if we do not lay hold of repentance. 
But if the Logos of God foretels that some 
angels and men would go to be punished, he 
does so because he foreknew that they would 
certainly become vncked by no means, how- 
ever, because God made them such." Justin 
thus admits that man is wholly dependent 
upon God, deriving existence and every thing 
which he has from the Almighty ; but he is 
persuaded that we were perfectly able to retain 
our integrity, and that, although it was fore- 
seen that we should not do so, this did not 
abridge our moral power, or fijc any imputa- 
tion on the Deity in corxsequence of our trans- 
gression. Tatian, in his oration against the 
Greeks, an excellent work which, although 
composed after the death of Justin, was writ- 
ten, in all probability, before its author had 
adopted the wild opinions which he defended 
toward the conclusion of his life, expresses 
very mucli the same sentiments avowed by 



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Justin. He says, " Both men and angels were 
created free, so that man becoming wicked 
through his own fault may be deservedly 
punished, while a good man, who, from the 
right exercise of his free will, does not trans- 
gress the law of God, is entitled to praise ; 
that the power of the divine Logos having in 
himself the knowledge of what was to hap- 
pen, not through fate or unavoidable necessity, 
but from free choice, predicted future things, 
condemning the wicked and praising the 
righteous." 

Ireneeus, in the third book of his work 
against heresies, has taken an opportunity to 
state his notions about the origin of evil. The 
seventy-first chapter of that book is entitled, 
" A proof that man is free, and has power to 
this extent, that of himself he can choose what 
is good or the contrary." In illustration of 
this he remarks, " God gave to man the power 
of election as he did to the angels. They, 
therefore, who do not obey are justly not 
found v/ith the good, and receive deserved 
punishment, because God having given them 
what was good, they did not keep it, but de- 
spised the riches of the divine mercy." The 
next chapter is entitled, " A proof that some 
men are not good by nature, and others wicked, 
and that what is good is within the choice of 
man." In treating on this subject, Irenosus 
observes, that "if the reverse were the case, 
the good would not merit praise nor the wicked 
blame, because being merely what, without any 
will of theirs, they had been made, they could 
not be considered as voluntary agents. But," 
he adds, " since all have the same nature, and 
are able to retain and to do what is good, and 
may, on the other hand, lose it and not do it, 
some are, even in the sight of men, and much 
more in that of God, deservedly praised and 
others blamed." In support of this he intro- 
duces a great variety of passages from Scrip- 
ture.. It appears, however, that the real 
difficulty attending the subject had suggested 
itself to his mind ; for he inquires in the 
seventy-third chapter, why God had not from 
the beginning made man perfect, all things 
being possible to him. He gives to this ques- 
tion a metaphysical and unsatisfactory answer, 
but which so far satisfied himself as to con- 
vince him that there could not, on this ground, 
be any imputation justly cast on the perfections 
of the Almighty, and that, consequently, a suf- 
ficient explanation of the origin of evil and of 
the justice of punishing it, was to be found in 
the nature of man as a free agent, or in the 
abiise of that liberty w^ith which man had been 
endowed. TertulUan had also speculated upon 
the moral condition of man, and has recorded 
his sentiments with respect to it. He ex- 
plicitly asserts the freedom of the will ; lays 
down the position, that, if this be denied, there 
can be neither reward nor punishment ; and, 
in answer to an objection, that since free will 
has been productive of such melancholy con- 
sequences, it would have been better that it 
had not been bestowed, he enters into a formal 
vindication of this part of our constitution. In 
reply to another suggestion, that God might 
50 



have interposed to prevent the choice which 
was to be productive of sin and misery, he 
maintains that this could not have been done 
without destroying that admirable constitution 
by which alone the interests of virtue can be 
really promoted. He thus thought that sin was 
to be imputed wholly to man, and that it was 
perfectly consistent with the attributes of God, 
or rather illustrated these attributes, that there 
should be a system under which sin was pos- 
sible, because without this possibility there 
could have been no accountable agents. 

From what has been stated on this subject, 
it seems unquestionable that the apostolic 
fathers did not at all enter upon the subject 
of the origin of evil ; that the writers by 
whom they .were succeeded were satisfied that, 
in the sense in which the term is now most 
commonly used, there was no such thing as 
predestination ; that they uniformly represent- 
ed the destiny of man as regulated by the use 
or abuse of his free will ; that, with the ex- 
ception of IrenaBUs, they did not attempt to 
explain why such a creature as man, who was 
to fall into sin, was created by a Being of infi- 
nite goodness ; that the sole objection to their 
doctrine seemed to them to be, that prescience 
was incompatible with liberty, and that, when 
they answered this, they considered that no- 
thing more was requisite for receiving, with- 
out hesitation, the view of man upon which they 
often and fondly dwelt, as a free and accounta- 
ble agent, whoraighthaveheldfast his integrity, 
and whose fall from that integrity was to be as- 
cribed solely to himself, as it did not at all re- 
sult from any appointment of the supreme Being. 

Although opinions respecting original sin, 
directly tending to a very different view of the 
subject than had been previously taken, had 
been stated by Cyprian, yet a thorough inves- 
tigation of it, and the sentiments which after- 
ward were widely received in the Christian 
church, took their rise from the discussions to 
which the Pelagian controversy gave occasion. 
Previous to the part which Augustine took in 
that controversy, he seems to have been very 
much of the same sentiments with Origen and 
the other early fathers. But, either from what 
he considered as a more deliberate and com. 
plete examination of Scripture, or from per- 
ceiving the necessity imposed on him, in con- 
sequence of some of the positions which he 
had laid down in his writings against Pelagius, 
he soon changed his opinion, and advanced a 
notion more in harmony with these positions. 
Having to show the absolute necessity of 
divine grace, he inculcated that, in conse- 
quence of original sin, man was infallibly 
determined to evil, and was therefore in a 
state of condemnation, and he thus took away 
the foundation upon which the prevailing 
tenets rested ; because it was impossible that 
men could be predestined to life, or the reverse, 
from prescience of their actions, when, with- 
out the special grace of God, they were abso- 
lutely incapacitated for obedience to the divine 
law. To get rid of this difficulty, Augustine, 
in some degree, transferred the search for the 
origin of sin from the state of man to the puv- 



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poses of God, asserting that from all eternity 
the Almighty had determined to choose from 
the mass of mankind, lost in guilt and corrup- 
tion, a certain number to be transformed to 
holiness, and to be admitted after this life to 
eternal happiness ; that he did this to promote 
his own glory ; and that, by the operation of 
his Spirit, granted of his own free and unde- 
served mercy, he produced in the elect or 
chosen the fruits of righteousness, and quali- 
fied them for the enjoyment of heaven. The 
whole of the remainder of the human race 
were, according to this system, left in their 
condition by nature, or in other words, were 
given up to endless misery. There imme- 
diately arose out of this view of the subject, 
the formidable and heart-rending objection, 
that God was really the author of sin ; that, 
having so created mankind that of themselves 
they could not be holy, there was on the part 
of those delivered no virtue, as there was on 
the other part no blame ; the case being quite 
different from what it would have been had 
God interposed with respect to creatures who 
had not received from himself their physical and 
moral constitution. Accordingly, it has been 
asserted that a sect did arise, which, carrying 
out, as the members of it affirmed, the princi- 
ples of Augustine, maintained that God not 
only predestinated the wicked to eternal 
punishment, but also to the guilt and trans- 
gression for which they were punished ; that 
the human race was thus wholly passive, the 
good and bad actions of men, or what were 
commonly termed such, being determined from 
all eternity by a divine decree, or fixed by hope- 
less, irresistible necessity. These opinions it is 
said that the venerable and enlightened bishop 
of Hippo zealously opposed, labouring to show 
that they were not fairly deduced from what 
he had taught, making a distinction probably 
between his account of free will and the ne- 
cessity here confounded with it, and perhaps 
reluctant to push his tenets so far as apparently 
they might be carried. The fact is, that 
although the doctrine of absolute predestina- 
tion is occasionally clearly taught by Augus- 
tine, and obviously follows from his other 
principles, yet he does not alv/ays write con- 
sistently with regard to it ; or, at least, there 
is sometimes so much vagueness in his asser- 
tions and illustrations, that his authority has 
been claimed in support of their peculiar tenets 
both by the Jansenists and the Jesuits, opposite 
to each other as the sentiments of these two 
orders are upon the subject of which we are 
treating. Still it is beyond a question that 
this celebrated theologian did fix the attention 
of the church upon that subject much more 
closely than before his age had been the case, 
and gave rise to those discussions in relation 
to it which have so often agitated Christians, 
and tended much more to destroy the mild 
and tolerant spirit af the Gospel, than to throw 
light upon its momentous truths. The subject 
of predestination, however, was long regarded 
as one which it was not esteemed requisite 
absolutely to define, and which might be very 
much left open to speculation ; for £t,lthougli 



in different countries decrees were passed, 
guarding against what were viewed as errors 
resulting from it, it is plain, from what took 
place upon the revival of the controversy in 
an after age, that there had not been formed 
any standard to which ecclesiastical authority 
required that all who were esteemed orthodox 
should strictly conform. See Augustine. 

In the ninth century, Godeschalchus, a man 
of illustrious birth, who had, contrary to his 
inclinations, been devoted by his parents to a 
monastic life, and who had, with unwearied 
diligence, studied the science of theology, in- 
flamed by an unhappy desire to unravel all the 
difficulties with which that science abounds, 
occupied his mind with the consideration of 
the question of predestination, and finally 
adopted, with regard to it, the doctrine of 
Augustine. Not satisfied with having con- 
vinced himself, he conceived it to be his duty 
to labour for the conviction of others ; and he 
accordingly openly and zealously inculcated 
that the elect were predestinated to life, and 
the rest of mankind to everlasting misery. 
Rabanus, archbishop of Mentz, who had for 
some reason before this been inspired with 
enmity to Godeschalchus, having been in- 
formed of the tenets which he was publishing, 
and, as has too often been the case, veiling 
private antipathy under the cloak of anxiety 
for the purity of divine truth, opposed him 
with the utmost vehemence ; and, having as- 
sembled a council in his own metropolitan 
city, procured the condemnation of the views 
which he reprobated. The matter was after- 
ward taken up by Hincmar, archbishop of 
Rheims, who was the zealous friend of Raba- 
nus ; and he also having procured the meeting 
of a council, confirmed the sentence that had 
been already passed. Not satisfied with this, 
he degraded Godeschalchus from the priest- 
hood ; and, with an inhumanity infinitely 
more detestable than heresy, he put the unfor- 
tunate monk to the torture. The fortitude of 
Godeschalchus was for a moment overpower- 
ed, and he consented to commit to the flames 
a justification of his opinions which he had 
presented to his execrable tormentors. It was 
not to be supposed that by atrocious violence 
like this sincere conviction could be produced 
in the person against whom it was directed, or 
that others would be disposed universally to 
submit to it. The controversy, accordingly, 
soon was renewed ; writers on both sides of 
the question contended with the utmost 
warmth, and eagerly displayed the extent of 
their erudition. New councils were summoned, 
by which the decrees of former councils were 
reversed, and the tenets of Godeschalchus 
were confirmed ; and the whole agitation ier- 
minated by leaving the subject in the same 
undefined state on the part of the church in 
which it had been before it was thus intem- 
perately- and cruelly discussed. 

To the schoolmen, who delighted much 
more in losing themselves amidst inextricable 
difficulties and endless distinctions, than in 
opening the sources of knowledge and remov- 
ing the difficulties with which these were sur- 



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rounded, this subject, from its intricate or 
inexplicable nature, was admirably adapted j 
and they did not fail to exercise upon it their 
diligence and their ingenuity. Thomas Aqui- 
nas, who flourished during the thirteenth 
century, was a man who in more enlightened 
times would have really merited the high repu- 
tation which he enjoyed, and which procured 
for him from his contemporaries the appella- 
tion of the Angelic Doctor. He was capable 
of vast mental exertion, and, amidst all his 
avocations, produced works so voluminous 
that in modern days even students would 
shrink from the perusal of them as an over- 
whelming task. He wrote largely upon the 
nature of grace, and predestination, so inti- 
mately connected with it. His opinions upon 
these subjects were nearly the same with those 
of Augustine ; and so much, indeed, was he 
conceived to resemble in genius and under- 
standing that distinguished prelate, that it was 
asserted the soul of Augustine had been sent 
into the body of Aquinas. He taught that 
God had, from all eternity, and without any 
regard ' to their works, predestinated a certain, 
number to life and happiness ; but he found 
great delight in endeavouring to reconcile this 
position with the freedom of the human will. 
His celebrated antagonist, John Duns Scotus, 
an inhabitant of Britain, surnamed, from the 
acuteness and bent of his mind, the Subtile 
Doctor, also directed his attention, in the sub- 
sequent century, to the same thorny specula- 
tions, taking a different view of them from 
Aquinas ; and we find in the works of these 
two brilliant lights of the schoolmen all that 
the most learned in the dark ages thought 
upon them. 

It is unnecessary to trace the various shades 
of opinion which existed in the church as to 
predestination from this era till the Reforma- 
tion : it is enough to remark, that, after all 
which had been ^yritten upon it, it does not 
appear that any peculiar sentiments with re- 
spect to it were, by the reformers, judged 
essential to orthodoxy. It was more wisely 
considered that, upon a point involved in im- 
penetrable difficulties, and raised far above 
Ixuman comprehension, men might be allowed 
to differ, while their attachment to the best 
interests of pure religion could not be called in 
question. See Calvinism and Lutherans. 

The seventeenth article of the cliurch of 
England is often adduced by Calvinists as fa- 
vourable to their peculiar views of absolute 
predestination ; but such a representation of 
it is rendered plausible only by adding to its 
various clauses qualifying expressions to suit 
that purpose. Under the articles Church of 
England^ Confessions, and Calvinism, have 
been exhibited, the just and liberal views of 
Cranrner and the principal English reformers 
on this subject, — the sources from which they 
drew the articles of religion and the public 
formularies of devotion, — and some of the 
futile attempts of the high predestinarians in 
the church to inoculate the public creed with 
their dogmas. Cartwright and his followers, 
in their second "Admonition to the Parlia- 



ment" in 1572, complained that the articles 
speak dangerously of "falling from grace;" 
and in 1587 they preferred a similar complaint. 
The labours of the Westminster Assembly at 
a subsequent period, and their abortive result, 
in relation to this subject, are well known. 
Long before Arminius had turned his thoughts 
to the consideration of general redemption, a 
great number of the English clergy had pub- 
licly taught and defended the same doctrine. 
It was about 1571 when Dr. Peter Baroe, "a 
zealous Anti-Calvinian," as one of our church 
historians observes, was made Margaret Pro- 
fessor of Divinity iv the university of Cam- 
bridge ; and "he went on teaching in his 
lectures, preaching in his sermons, determin- 
ing in the schools, and printing in several 
books, divers points contrary to Calvinism. 
And this he did for several years, without any 
manner of disturbance or interruption. The 
heads of the university, in a letter to the Lord 
Burleigh, dated March 8, 1595, say, he had 
done it for fourteen or fifteen years preceding 
and they might have said twenty ; for he 
printed some of his lectures in 1574, and the 
prosecution he was at last under, which will 
be considered hereafter, was not till 1595. In 
1584, Mr. Harsnet, afterward archbishop of 
York, preached against absolute reprobation 
at St. Paul's Cross, the greatest audience then 
in the kingdom ; as did the judicious Mr. 
Hooker at the Temple in the year following. 
In the year 1594, Mr. Barret preached at St. 
Mary's in Cambridge against Calvinism, with 
very smart reflections upon Calvin himself, 
Beza, Zanchy, and several others of the most 
noted writers in that scheme. In the same 
year. Dr. Baroe preached at the same place to 
the same purpose. By this time Calvinism had 
gained considerable ground, being much pro- 
moted by the learned Whitaker and Mr. Per- 
kins ; and several of the heads of the univer- 
sity being in that scheme, they complained of 
the two sermons above mentioned to the Lord 
Burleigh their chancellor. Their heads en- 
deavoured to bring Barret to a retraction, to 
which whether he ever submitted according to 
the form they drew up, may reasonably be 
doubted. At length the matter was laid before 
Archbishop Whitgift, who was offended at 
their proceedings, and writes to the Lord Bur- 
leigh, that some of the points which the heads 
had enjoined Barret to retract were such as 
the most learned Protestants, then living, 
varied in judgment upon; and that the most 
ancient and best divines in the land were in the 
chiefest points in opinion against the heads and 
their resolutions. Another letter he sent to 
the heads themselves, telling them that they 
had enjoined Barret to affirm that which was 
contrary to the doctrine holden and expressed 
by many sound and learned divines in the 
church of England, and in other churches 
likewise men of best account ; and that which 
for his own payt he thought to be false and 
contrary to the Scriptures ; for the Scriptures 
are plain, that God by his absolute will did not 
hate and reject any man. There might be 
impiety in believing the one, there could h& 



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none in believing the other ; neither was it 
contrary to any article of religion established 
by authority in this church of England, but 
rather agreeable thereto. This testimony of 
the archbishop is very remarkable ; and though 
he afterward countenanced the Lambeth arti- 
cles, that is of little or no weight in the case. 
The question is not about any man's private 
opinion, but about the doctrine of the church ; 
and supposing the archbishop to be a Calvin- 
ist, as he seems to have been at least in some 
points, this only adds the greater weight to 
his testimony, that our church has no where 
declared in favour of that scheme. The arch- 
bishop descended to the particulars charged 
against Barret, asking the heads v/hat article 
of the church was contradicted by this or that 
notion of his ; and Whitaker in his reply does 
not appeal to one of the articles, as against 
Barret, but forms his plea upon the doctrines 
which then generally obtained in pulpits. His 
words are, ' We are fully persuaded that Mr. 
Barret hath taught untruth, if not against the 
articles, yet against the religion, of our church, 
publicly received, and always held in her 
majesty's reign, and maintained in all ser- 
mons, disputations, and lectures.' And even 
this pretence of his, weak as it would have 
been thougli true, is utterly false, directly con- 
trary, not only to what has been already shown 
to be the facts of the case, but also to what 
the archbishop affirmed, and that too, as must 
be supposed, upon his own knowledge. As 
to Dr. Baroe, he met with many friends, who 
espoused his cause. Mr. Strype particularly 
mentions four, Mr. Overal, Dr. Clayton, Mr. 
Harsnet, Dr. Andrews ; all of them great and 
learned men, men of renown, and famous in 
their generation. How many more there were, 
nobody can tell. The heads in their letter to 
the Lord Burleigh do not pretend that the 
preaching against Calvinism gave a general 
offence, but that it offended many ; which im- 
plies that there were many others on the op- 
posite side ; and they expressly say there were 
divers in the Anti-Calvinian scheme, whom 
they represent as maintaining it with great 
boldness. But what put a stop to this prose- 
eution against Baroe was, a reprimand from 
their chancellor, the Lord Burleigh, who 
wrote to the heads, that as good and as an- 
cient were of another judgment, and that they 
might punish him, but it would be for well 
doing." 

But Dr. Whitaker, Regius Professor of Di- 
vinity in Cambridge,- could not endure the 
farther prevalence of the doctrines of general 
redemption in that university ; he therefore, in 
1595, drew up nine affirmations, elucidatory 
of his views of predestination, and obtained 
for them the sanction of several Calvinian 
heads of houses, with whom he repaired to 
Archbishop Whitgift. Having heard their ex 
parte statement, his grace summoned Bishops 
Flecher and Vaughan, and Dr. Tyndal, dean 
of Ely, to meet Dr. Whitaker and the Cam- 
bridge deputation at his palace in Lambeth, on 
the tenth of November, 1595; where, after 
much Dolishing and altering, they produced 



Whitaker's affirmation in the following form, 
called the " Lambeth Articles," from the place 
in which their secret sittings had been held : — 
" 1. God from eternity hath predestinated cer- 
tain men unto life ; certain men he hath repro- 
bated. 2. The moving or efficient cause of 
predestination unto life is not the foresight of 
faith or of perseverance, or of good works, or 
of any thing that is in the person predesti- 
nated ; but it is only the good will and pleasure 
of God. 3. A certain number of the predes- 
tinate is predetermined, which can neither be 
augmented nor diminished. 4. Those who 
are not predestinated to salvation shall be 
necessarily damned for their sins. 5. A true, 
living, and justifying faith, and the Spirit of 
God justifying, is not extinguished, doth not 
fall off, or vanish away, in the elect, either 
totally or finally. 6. A man who is a true 
believer, that is, one who is endued with a 
justifying faith, is assured with a plerophory, 
or firm persuasion, of faith concerning the 
remission of his sins, and his eternal salvation 
through Christ. 7. Saving grace is neither 
given, communicated, nor granted to all men, 
by which they can be saved if they will. 8. No 
one is able to come unto Christ unless it shall 
be given unto him, and unless the Father shall 
draw him ; and all men are not drawn by the 
Father, that they may come unto the Son, 
9. It is not placed in the choice, will, or ca- 
pacity of every one to be saved." Dr. Whita. 
ker died a few days after his return from 
Lambeth, with the nine articles to which he 
had procured the patronage of tlie primate, 
After his demise, two competitors appeared 
for the vacant King's Professorship, Dr. Wot- 
ton, of King's College, a professed Calvinian, 
and Dr. Overal of Trinity College, " almost as 
far," says Heylin, " from the Calvinian doc- 
trine in the main platform of predestination as 
Baroe, Harsnet, or Barret are conceived to be. 
But when it came to the vote of the university, 
the place was carried for Overal by the major 
part; which plainly shows, that though the 
doctrines of Calvin were so hotly stickled here 
by most of the heads, yet the greater part of 
the learned body entertained them not." " The 
Lambeth articles," it is well observed, " are no 
part of the doctrine of the church of England, 
having never had any the least sanction either 
from the parliament or the convocation. They 
were drawn up by Professor Whitaker ; and 
though they were afterward approved by Arch- 
bishop Whitgift, and six or eight of the inferior 
clergy, in a meeting they had at Lambeth, yet 
this meeting was only in a private manner, and 
without any authority from the queen; who 
was so far from approving of their proceedings, 
that she not only ordered the articles to be 
suppressed, but was resolutely bent for some 
time to bring the archbishop and his associates 
under a premunire, for presuming to make them 
without any warrant or legal authority." 
Such, in brief, was the origin and such the 
fate of the Lambeth articles, without the coun- 
tenance of which the defenders of Calvinism in 
the church of England could find no semblance 
of support for their manifold affirmations on 



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predestination and its kindred topics. These 
articles afFord another instructive instance of 
the extreme ignorance of the real sentiments 
of tlieir opponents, which often betrays itself 
in the conduct of many eminent men, when 
they rashly begin to fence off the reputed 
heterodoxy of their brethren from the sacred 
precincts of their own orthodoxy. Two of 
the ablest and most consistent Arminians of 
the old English school, Baroe and Plaifere, 
have lucidly shown how every one of these 
nine assertions may, without difficulty, be 
interpreted in accordance with their individual 
belief. Faroe's clever dissertation on this 
subject will be found in Strype's " Life of 
Whitgift;" and that of Plaifere, in his own 
unanswerable '■'■ Apello Evangelium." 

PRE-EXISTENCE OF JESUS CHRIST 
is his existence before he %vas born of the 
Virgin Mary. That he really did exist, is 
plain from John iii, 13 ; vi, 50, &c ; viii, 58 ; 
xvii, 5, 24 ; 1 John i, 2 ; but there are various 
opinions respecting this existence. Some ac- 
knowledging, with the orthodox, that in Jesus 
Christ there is a divine nature, a rational soul, 
and a human body, go into an opinion peculiar 
to themselves. His body was formed in the 
virgin's womb ; but his human soul, they sup- 
-pose, was the first and most excellent of all 
the works of God; was brought into existence 
before the creation of the world, and subsisted 
in happy union in heaven with the second per- 
son of the Godhead, till his incai-nation. These 
divines differ from those called Arians, for the 
latter ascribe to Christ only a created deity, 
whereas the former hold his true and proper 
divinity. They differ from the Socinians, who 
believe no existence of Jesus Christ before his 
incarnation : they differ from the Sabellians, 
who only own a trinity of names : they difler 
also from the generally received opinion, which 
is, that Christ's human soul began to exist in 
the v/omb of his mother, in exact conformity 
to that likeness unto his brethren of which St. 
Paul speaks, Heb. ii, 17. The writers in favour 
of the preexistence of Christ's human soul 
recommend their opinion by these arguments : 
1. Christ is represented as his Father's mes- 
senger, or angel, being distinct from his Father, 
sent by his Father, long before his incarnation, 
to perform actions which seem to be too low 
for the dignity of pure Godhead. The appear- 
ances of Christ to the patriarchs are described 
like the appearance of an angel, or man really 
distinct from 'God ; yet onCj in whom God, 
or Jehovah, had a peculiar indwelling, or 
with whom the divine nature had a personal 
union. 2. Christ, when he came into the 
world, Is said, in several passages of Scripture, 
to have divested himself of some glory v/hich 
he had before his incarnation. Now if there 
had existed before this time nothing but his 
divine nature, this divine nature, it is argued, 
could not properly have divested itself of any 
glory, John xvii, 4, 5; 2 Cor. viii, 9. It can- 
not be said of God that he became poor : he is 
infinitely self-sufficient ; he is necessarily and 
eternally rich in perfections and glories. Nor 
can it be said of Christ, as man, that he was 



rich, if he were never in a richer state before 
than while he was on earth. 3. It seems 
needful, say those who embrace this opinion,, 
that the soul of Jesus Christ should preexist, 
that it might have an opportunity to give its 
previous actual consent to the great and pain- 
ful undertaking of making atonement for our 
sins. On the other side, it is affirmed that the 
doctrine of the preexistence of the human soul 
of Christ weakens and subverts that of his 
divine personality. 1. A pure intelligent spirit, 
the -first, the most ancient, and the most excel- 
lent of creatures, created before the foundation 
of the world, so exactly resembles the second 
person of the Arian trinity, tliat it is impossi- 
ble to show the least difference except in name. 
2. This preexistent intelligence, supposed in 
this doctrine, is so confounded with those other 
intelligences called angels, that there is great 
danger of mistaking this human soul for an 
angel, and so of making the person of Christ 
to consist of three natures. 3. If Jesus Christ 
had nothing in common like the rest of man- 
kind except a body, how could this semi-con- 
formity make him a real man ? 4. The pas- 
sages quoted in proof of the preexistence of the 
human soul of Jesus Christ, are of the same 
sort with those which others allege in proof 
of the preexistence of all human souls. 5. This 
opinion, by ascribing the dignity of the work 
of redemption to this sublime human soul, 
detracts from the deity of Christ, and renders 
the last as passive as the first is active. 6. This 
notion is contrary to the Scripture. St. Paul 
says, " In all things it behoved him to be made 
like unto his brethren," Heb. ii, 17 : he partook 
of a,ll our infirmities, except sin. St. Luke 
says, " He increased in stature and wisdom," 
Luke ii, 52. Upon the v/hole, this scheme, 
adopted to relieve the difficulties which must 
always surround mysteries so great, only cre- 
ates new ones. This is the usual fate of 
similar speculations, and shows the wisdom 
of resting in the plain interpretation of the 
word of God. 

PRESBYTERIANS are those that affirm 
there is no order in the church, as established 
by Christ and his Apostles, superior to that of 
presbyters ; that all ministers, being ambassa- 
dors, are equal by their commission ; and that 
elder, or presbyter, and bishop, are the same 
in name and office, and the terms synonymous. 
Their arguments against the Episcopalians are 
as follows : — With respect to the successors 
of the Apostles, they seem to have been placed 
on a footing of perfect equality, the 6idKovot, or 
deacons, not being included among the teach- 
ers. They were inferior officers, whose pro- 
vince it originally was to care for the poor, 
and to discharge those secular duties arising 
out of the formation of Christian communities, 
which could not be discharged by the minis- 
ters without interfering with the much higher 
duties which they had to perform. These 
ministers are sometimes in the New Testament 
styled apeaSvTEpot, or presbyters, at other times 
hidKoirot, or bishops ; but the two appellations 
were indiscriminately applied to all the pastors 
who were the instructors of the different 



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churches. Of this various examples may be 
given from the sacred writings. The Apostle 
Paul, upon a very affecting occasion, when he 
was convinced that he could never again have 
an opportunity of addressing them, sent for 
the elders or presbyters of Ephesus, the per- 
sons to whom the m.inistry in that church had 
been committed ; and after mentioning all that 
he had done, and intimating to them the suf- 
ferings which awaited him, he addressed to 
them what may be considered as his dying 
advice, and as comprehending in it all that he 
judged it most essential for them to do. " Take 
heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the 
flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made 
you bishops or overseers, to feed the church 
of God," Acts XX, 17, 28. Here they whose 
duty it was to feed the church of God, as 
having been set apart through the Holy Spirit 
for that interesting work, are termed by the 
Apostle presbyters and bishops, and there is 
not the slightest allusion to the existence of 
any other hiaKOTTOi, or bishop, superior to those 
iiriCKciroL, or bishops, to whom he gives the 
moving charge novv recorded. In his epistle 
to Titus, St. Paul thus writes : " For this pur- 
pose I left thee in Crete," where, as yet, it is 
probable that no teachers had been appointed, 
"that thou shouldest ordain elders, or pres- 
byters, in every city." He then points out 
the class of men from wltich the presbyters 
were to be selected, adding, as the reason of 
this, "for a bishop must be blameless as the 
steward of God," Titus i, 5, 7. It is quite 
plain that the epithet bishop is here applicable 
to the same persons who w^ere a little before 
styled elders, and both are declared to be the 
stewards of God, the guardians and instructors 
of his church. The Apostle Peter, in his first 
epistle addressed to the Jewish converts, has 
these words : " The elders which are among 
you I exhort, who am also an elder, b cvinrpta- 
6vT£pos, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, 
feed the flock of God which is among you, 
taking the oversight of it, hiaK->TrovvTeg, being 
bishops of it, not by constraint but willingly," 
1 Peter v, 1, 2. This passage is a very strong 
one. The Apostle speaks of himself in his 
extraordinary capacity, a witness of the suf- 
ferings of Christ, and in his ordinary capacity 
as a teacher ; showing, by the use of a very 
significant term, that as to it he was on a foot- 
ing of equality with the other pastors or pres- 
byters. He gives it in charge to them to feed 
the flock of God; the charge which, under 
racst.particular and affecting circumstances, he 
had received from the Lord after the resurrec- 
tion, and v/hieh includes in it the performance 
of every thing requisite for the comfort and the 
edification of Christians ; and he accordingly 
expresses this by the word hiaKOTTovvTeg, being 
bishops over them. It cannot, with any shadow 
of reason, be supposed that the Apostle would 
exhort the elders or presbyters to take to them- 
selves the office, and to perform the duties, of 
a bishop, if that term really marked out a dis- 
tinct and higher order ; or that he would have 
considered the presbyters as fitted for the dis- 
charge of the whole ministerial office, if there 



were parts of that office which he knew that it 
was uot lawful for them to exercise. 

It seems, by the passages that have been 
quoted, to be placed beyond a doubt, that, dn 
what the Apostles said respecting the minis- 
ters of Christ's religion, they taught that the 
kiticKoiroL and the Tzgtc^vTtpoi were the same class 
of instructors ; and that there were, in fact, 
only two orders pointed out by them, bishops 
or presbyters, and deacons. This being the 
case, even although it should appear that there 
were bishops, in the common sense of that 
term, recognized in the apostolic age, all that 
could be deduced from the fact would be, that 
the equality at first instituted among the teach- 
ers, had, for prudential reasons, or under pecu- 
liar circumstances, been interrupted ; but it 
would not follow either that the positive and 
general declarations on the subject by the 
inspired writers were not true, or that it was 
incumbent at all times, and upon all Chris- 
tians, to disregard them. It has been stren- 
uously contended that there were such bishops 
in the infancy of the church, and that allusion 
is made to them in Scripture ; but without 
directly opposing the assertion, this much 
must be admitted, that the proof of it is less 
clear than that bishops and presbyters were 
represented as the same in rank and in autho- 
rity. Indeed, there does not appear to have been 
any occasion for this higher order. To presby- 
ters was actually committed the most im.portant 
charge of feeding the church of God, tliat is, 
of promoting the spiritual improvement of 
mankind ; and it is remarkable that their privi 
lege of separating from the people by ordination 
the ministers of religion, is explicitly acknow- 
ledged in the case of Timothy, whom the 
Apostle admonishes not to neglect the gift 
that was in him, and which had been given 
by prophecy, and by the laying on of the 
hands of the presbytery ; by which can be 
meant only the laying on of the hands of those 
who were denominated presbyters or bishops. 
But although all the parts of the ministerial duty 
had been intrusted to presbyters, it is still con- 
tended that the New Testament indicates the 
existence of bishops as a higher order. There 
has, however, been much diversity of opinion 
in relation to this point by those who contend 
for the divine institution of episco{)acy. Some 
of them maintain that the Apostles, while they 
lived, were the bishops of the Christian church ; 
but this, and upon irrefragable grounds, is 
denied by others. Some urge that Timothy 
and Titus were, in what they call the true 
sense of the term, bishops ; but many deny 
that, founding their denial upon these evan- 
gelists not having resided within the bounds, 
or been limited to the administration of any 
one church, being sent wherever it was resolved 
to bring men to the knowledge of divine truth. 
Many conceive that the question is settled by 
the epistles in the book of Revelation being 
addressed, to the angels of the respective 
churches named by the Apostle. But it is far 
from being obvious what is implied under the 
appellation angel; there has been much dis- 
pute about this point, and it is certainly a 



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deviation from all the usual rules by which we 
are guided in interpreting Scripture, to bring 
an obacure and doubtful passage in illustration 
of one, about the import of which, if we attend 
to the language used, there can be no doubt. 
It may, therefore, be safely affirmed that there 
is nothing clear and specitic in the writings of 
the New Testament which qualifies the posi- 
tive declarations that bishops and presbyters 
were the same officers ; that the ground upon 
which the distinction between them is placed, 
is, at least, far from obviously supporting it; 
and that there is not the slightest intimation 
that the observance of such a distinction is at 
all important, much less absolutely essential 
to a true Christian church, insomuch that, 
where it is disregarded, the ordinances of divine 
appointment cannot be properly dispensed. If 
therefore it be established, — and some of the 
most learned and zealous advocates for the 
hierarchy which afterward arose have been 
compelled to admit it, — that Scripture has not 
recognized any difference of rank or order 
between the ordinary teachers of the Gospel, 
all other means of fnaintaining this difference 
should be with Protestants of no force. It 
may be shown that the admission of the dis- 
tinction is not incompatible with the great 
ends for which a ministry was appointed, and 
even in particular cases may tend to promote 
them ; but still it is merely a matter of human 
regulation, not binding upon Christians, and 
not in any way connected with the vital influ- 
ence of the Gospel dispensation. The whole 
of the writers of antiquity may be urged in 
support of it, if that could be done ; and, after 
all, every private Christian would be entitled 
to judge for himself, and to be directed by his 
own judgment, unless it be maintained that 
where Scripture has affirmed the existence of 
equality, this is to be counteracted and set 
at nought by the testimonies and assertions 
of a set of writers, who, although honoured 
with the name of fathers, are very far, indeed, 
from being infallible, and who have, in fact, 
often delivered sentiments which even they 
who, upon a particular emergency, cling to 
them, must confess to be directly at variance 
with all that is sound in reason, or venerable 
and sublime in religion. It also follows, from 
the Scriptural identity of bishops and presby- 
ters, that no church in which this identity is 
preserved, can on that account be considered 
as having departed from the apostolic model, 
or its ministers be viewed, at least with any 
good reason, as having less ground to hope 
for the blessing of God upon their spiritual 
labours ; because if we admit the contrary, we 
must also admit that the inspired writers, 
instead of properly regulating the church, 
betrayed it into error, by omitting to make a 
distinction closely allied with the essence of 
religion. What is this but to say that it is 
safer to follow the erring direction of frail 
mortals, than to follow the admonitions of 
those who, it is universally allowed, were 
inspired by the Holy Spirit, or commissioned 
by him to be the instructers of the world ? 
It is to be observed, however, that although 



bishops and presbyters were the same when 
the epistles of the New Testament were writ- 
ten, it would be going too far to contend that 
no departure from this should ever take place ; 
because, to justify such a position, it would be 
requisite that a positive injunction should have 
been given that equality must at all times be 
carefully preserved. There is, however, no 
such injunction. Unlike the Old Testament, 
which specified every thing, even the most 
minute, in relation to the priesthood, the New 
only alludes in general terms, and very seldom, 
to the ministry ; and the reason probably is, 
that, being intended for all nations, it left 
Christians at liberty to make such modifica. 
tions in the ecclesiastical constitution as in 
their peculiar situation appeared best adapted 
for religious edification. The simple test to 
be applied to the varying or varied forms of 
church government is that indicated by our 
Lord himself: " By their fruits ye shall know 
them." Wherever the regulations respecting 
the ministry are such as to divert it from the 
purposes for which it was destined, to separate 
those who form it from the flock of Christ, to 
relax their diligence in teaching, and to destroy 
tlie connection between them and their people, 
so as to render their exertions of little or of 
no use, there we find a church not apostolical. 
But wherever the blessed fruits of Gospel teach- 
ing are in abundance produced, where the 
people and the ministers are cordially united, 
and where every regulation is calculated to 
give efficacy to the labours of those who have 
entered into the vineyard, we have an apos- 
tolical church, or, to speak more properly, a 
church of Christ, built upon a rock, because 
devoted to the beneficent objects for which 
our Saviour came into the world. 

The form of church government among the 
Scotch Presbyterians is as follows : — The kirk 
session, consisting of the minister and lay 
elders of the congregation, is the lowest eccle- 
siastical judicature. The next is the presbytery, 
which consists of all the pastors within a cer- 
tain district, and one ruling elder from each 
parish. The provincial synods, of which there 
are fifteen, meet twice in the year, and are 
composed of the members of the several pres- 
byteries within the respective provinces. From 
the kirk sessions appeal lies to the presbyteries, 
from these to the synods, and from them to the 
general assembly, which meets annually, and 
is the highest ecclesiastical authority in the 
kingdom. This is composed of delegates from 
each presbytery, from every royal borough, 
and from each of the Scotch universities ; and 
the king presides by a commission of his own 
appointment. The Scotch ordain by the " lay- 
ing on of the hands of the presbytery," before 
which persons may be licensed to preach as 
probationers, but cannot administer the sacra- 
ments. The clergy are maintained by the 
state, and nominated to livings by patrons, as 
in other establishments. Those properly called 
the English Presbyterians, have no connection 
with the Scotch kirk. They are now indeed 
broken into separate churches, and follow the 
same form of church government as the Con, 



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gregationalists or Independentf?. The name 
Presbyterian, therefore, is now inapplicable to 
them although retained. So Dr. Doddridge: 
" Those who hold every pastor to be so a bishop 
or overseer of his own congregation, as that 
no other person or body of men have, by divine 
institution, a power to exercise any superior or 
pastoral office in it, may, properly speaking, 
be called, so far at least, congregational ; and 
it is by a vulgar mistake that any such are 
called Presbyterians." See Episcopalians. 

PRESCIENCE, or foreknowledge, an attri- 
bute of God. (See 07nni science.) On this 
subject three Icadingtheories have been resorted 
to, in order to evade the difficulties which are 
supposed to be involved in the opinion com- 
monly received. The Chevalier Ramsay, 
among his other speculations, holds it a mat- 
ter of choice in God, to think of finite ideas; 
and similar opinions, though variously worded, 
have been occasionally adopted. In substance 
these opinions are, that though the knowledge 
of God be infinite as his power is infinite, there 
is no more reason to conclude, that his know- 
ledge !-jhould be always exerted to the full extent 
of its capacity, than that his power should be 
employed to the extent of his omnipotence ; 
and that if we suppose him to clioose not to 
know some contingencies, the infinitoness of 
his knowledge is not thereby impugned. To 
this it may be ansv^ered, that the infinite pov/er 
of God is in Scripture represented, as in the 
nature of things it must be, as an infinite capa- 
city, and not ^s infinite in act ; but that the 
knowledge of God is on the contrary never 
represented there to us as a capacity to acquire 
knowledge, but as actually comprehending all 
things that are, and all things that can be. 
2. That the notion of God's choosing to know 
some things, and not to know others, supposes 
a reason why he refuses to know any class of 
things or events ; which reason, it would seem, 
can only arise out of their nature and circum- 
stances, and therefore supposes at least a par- 
tial knowledge of them, from which the reason 
for his not choosing to know them arises. The 
doctrine is therefore somewhat contradictory. 
But, 3. It is fatal to this opinion that it does 
not at all meet the difficulty arising out of the 
question of the consistency of divine prescience, 
and the free actions of men ; since some con- 
tingent actions, for which men have been 
made accountable, we are sure, have been 
foreknown by God, because by his Spirit in 
the prophets they were foretold ; and if the 
freedom of man can in these cases be recon- 
ciled to the prescience of God, there is no 
greater difficulty in any other case which can 
possibly occur. 

A second theory is, that the foreknowledge 
of contingent events, being in its own nature 
impossible, because it implies a contradiction, 
it does no dishonour to the divine Being to 
affirm, that of such events he has, and can 
have, no prescience whatever ; and thus the 
prescience of God, as to moral actions, being 
wholly denied, the difficulty in question is got 
rid of. To this the same answer must be 
given as to the former. It docs not meet the 



case, so long as the Scriptures are allowed to 
contain prophecies of rewardable and punish- 
able actions. The great fallacy in the argument, 
that the certain prescience of a moral action 
destroys its contingent nature, lies in suppos- 
ing that contingency and certainty are the 
opposites of each other. It is, perhaps, unfor- 
tunate, that a word which is of figurative ety- 
mology, and which consequently can only 
have an ideal application to such subjects, 
should have grown into common use in this 
discussion, because it is more liable, on that 
account, to present itself to different minds 
under different shades of meaning. If, how- 
ever, the terra contingent in this controversy 
has any definite meaning at all, as applied to 
the moral actions of men, it must mean their 
freedom, and stands opposed, not to certainty, 
but to necessity. A free action is a voluntary 
one ; and an action which results from the 
choice of the agent, is distinguished from a 
necessary one in this, that it might not have 
been, or have been otherwise, according to the 
self-determining power of the agent. It is 
with reference to this specific quality of a free 
action, that the term contingency is used ; it 
might have been otherwise, in other words, it 
was not necessitated. Contingency in moral 
actions is, therefore, their freedom, and is 
opposed, not to certainty, but to constraint. 
The very nature of this controversy fixes this 
as the precise meaning of the term. The ques- 
tion is not, in point of fact, about the certainty 
of moral actions, that is, whether they wUl 
happen or not ; but about the nature-of them, 
whether free or constrained, whether they must 
happen or not. Those who advocate this 
theory, care not about the certainty of actions, 
simply considered, that is, whether they will 
take place or not ; the reason why they object 
to a certain prescience of moral actions, is 
this, — they conclude, that such a prescience 
render's them necessary. It is the quality of 
the action for which they contend, not whether 
it will happen or not. If contingency meant 
uncertainty, the sense in wliich such theorists 
take it, the dispute would be at an end. But 
though an uncertain action cannot be foreseen 
as certain, a free, unneqessitated action may ; 
for there is nothing in the knowledge of the 
action, in the least, to affect its nature. Simple 
knowledge is, in no sense, a cause of action, 
nor can it be conceived to be causal, uncon- 
nected with exerted power : for mere know- 
ledge, therefore, an action remains free or 
necessitated as the case may be. A necessi- 
tated action is not made a voluntary one by its 
being foreknown ; a free action is not made a 
necessary one. Free actions foreknown will 
not, therefore, cease to be contingent. But 
how stands the case as to their certainty ? Pre- 
cisely on the same ground. The certainty of 
a necessary action foreknown, does not result 
from the knowledge of the action, but from the 
operation of the necessitating cause ; and, in 
like manner, the certainty of a free action does 
not result from the knowledge of it, which is no 
cause at all, but from the voluntary cause, that 
is, the determination of the will. It alters not 



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the case in the least, to say that the voluntary 
action might have been otherwise. Had it been 
otherwise, tlie knowledge of it would have 
been otherwise; but as the will which gives 
birth to the action, is not dependent upo-n the 
previous knowledge of God, but the knowledge 
of the action upon foresight oi' the choice of 
the will, neither the will nor the act is controlled 
by the knowledge ; and the action, though fore-, 
seen, is still free or contingent. The fore- 
knowledge of God has then no influence upon 
either the freedom or the certainty of actions, 
for this plain reason, that it is knowledge, and 
not influence ; and actions may be certainly 
foreknown, without their being rendered ne- 
cessary by that foreknowledge. But here it is 
said, "If the result of an absolute contingen- 
cy be certainly foreknown, it can have no 
other result, it cannot happen otherwise." 
This is not the true inference. It will not 
happen otherwise ; but it may be asked. Why 
can it not happen otherwise ? Can is an expres- 
sion of potentiality, it denotes power or possi- 
bility., The objection is, that it is not possible 
that the action should otherwise happen. But 
why not ? What deprives it of that power ? If 
a necessary action were in question, it could 
not otherwise happen than as the necessitating 
cause shall compel ; but then that would arise 
from the necessitating cause solely, and not 
from the prescience of the action which is not 
causal. But if the action be free, and it enter 
into the very nature of a voluntary action to be 
unconstrained, then it might have happened 
in a thousand other ways, or not have hap- 
pened at all; the foreknowledge of it no more 
affects its nature in this case than in the other. 
All its potentiality, so to speak, still remains, 
independent of foreknowledge, which neither 
adds to its power of happening otherwise, 
nor diminishes it. But then we are told, 
that " the prescience of it, in that case, must 
be uncertain." Not unless any person can 
prove, that the divine prescience is unable to 
dart through all the workings of the human 
mind, all its comparison of things in the judg- 
ment, all the influences of motives on the 
affections, all the hesitances and baitings of 
the will, to its final choice. " Such know- 
ledge is too wonderful for us," but it is the 
knowledge of Him " who understandeth the 
thoughts of man afar off." "But if a contin- 
gency ivill have a given result, to that result 
it must be determined." Not in the least. We 
have seen that it cannot be determined to a 
given result by mere precognition ; for we 
have evidence in our own minds that mere 
knowledge is not causal to the actions of an- 
other. It is determined to its result by the 
will of the agent ; but even in that case, it can- 
not be said, that it must be determined to that 
result, because it is of the nature of freedom 
to be unconstrained : so that here we have an 
instance in the case of a free agent that he 
will act in some particular manner ; but it by 
no means follows from what will be, whether 
foreseen or not, that it must be. 

The third theory amounts, in brief, to this, 
that the foreknowledge of God must be sup- 



posed to differ so much from any tiling of the 
kind which we perceive in ourselves, and from 
any ideas which we can possibly form of that 
property of the divine nature, tlmt Jio argu- 
ment respecting it can be grounded upon our 
imperfect notions ; and that all controversy on 
suDJects connected with it, is idle and fruitless. 
But though foreknowledge in God should be 
admitted to be something of a "very different 
nature" to the same quality in man, yet as it 
is represented as something equivalent to fore- 
knowledge, whatever that something may be, 
since in consequence of it, prophecies have 
actually been uttered and fulhlled, and of such 
a kind, too, as relate to actions for which men 
have in fact been held accountable ; all the 
original difficulty of reconciling contingent 
events to this something, of which human 
foTeknowledge is a "kind of shadow," as "a 
map of China is to China itself," remains in 
full force. The difficulty is shifted, but not 
removed. It may, therefore, be certainly con- 
cluded, if at least the Holy Scriptures are to be 
our guide, that the omniscience of God com- 
prehends his certain prescience of all events 
however contingent ; and if any thing more 
were necessary to strengthen the argument 
above given, it miglit be drawn from the irra- 
tional, and, above all, the unscriptural conse- 
quences, which would follow from the denial 
of this doctrine. These are forcibly stated by 
President Edwards: — " It would follow from 
this notion, (namely, that the Almighty doth 
not foreknow what will be the result of future 
contingencies,) that as God is liable to be con- 
tinually repenting what he has done ; so he 
must be exposed to be constantly changing 
his mind and intentions as to his future con- 
duct ; altering his measures, relinquishing his 
old designs, and forming new schemes and 
projections. For his purposes, even as to the 
main parts of his scheme, namely, such as be- 
long to the state of his moral kingdom, must 
be always liable to be broken, through want 
of foresight ; and he must be continually put- 
ting his system to rights, as it gets out of order, 
through the contingence of the actions of 
moral agents : he must be a Being who, instead 
of being absolutely immutable, must necessa- 
rily be the subject of infinitely the most nume- 
rous acts of repentance, and changes of inten- 
tion, of any being whatsoever ; for this plain 
reason, tbat his vastly extensive charge com- 
prehends an infinitely greater number of those 
things which are to him contingent and un. 
certain. In such a situation he must have 
little else to do, but to mend broken links as 
well as he can, and be rectifying his disjointed 
frame and disordered movements, in the best 
manner the case will allow. The supreme 
Lord of all things must needs be under great 
and miserable disadvantages, in governing the 
world which he has made, and has the care of, 
through his being utterly unable to find out 
things of chief importance, which hereafter 
shall befall his system ; which, if he did but 
know, he might make seasonable provision 
for. In many cases, there may be very great 
necessity that he should make provision, in 



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the manner of his ordering and disposing 
things, for some great events which are to 
happen, of vast and extensive influence, and 
endless consequence to the universe ; which he 
may see afterward, when it is too late, and 
may wish in vain that he had known before- 
hand, that he might have ordered his affairs 
accordingly. And it is in the power of man, 
on these principles, by his devices, purposes, 
and actions, thus to disappoint God, break his 
measures, make him continually to change his 
mind, subject him to vexation, and bring him 
into confusion." 

Socinus and his early followers would not 
allow that God possesses any knowledge of 
future contingencies. The schoolmen, in re- 
ference to this species of knowledge in God, 
invented that called scientia media, and which 
they " define as that by which God knows sub 
conditione, what men or angels will do accord- 
ing to the liberty which they have, when they 
are placed in these or those circumstances, or 
in this or in that order of things." When Goma- 
rus, the opponent of Arminius, found that his 
opinion concerning the object of reprobation 
was clogged with this absurdity — that it made 
God to be the author of Adam's sin, he very 
astutely took refuge in this conditionate fore, 
knowledge, and, in his corrected theses on 
predestination, published after the death of 
Arminius, he describes it as "that by which 
God, through the infinite light of his own 
knowledge, foreknows some future things, not 
absolutely, but as placed under a certain con- 
dition." Walgeus, the celebrated antagonist 
of Episcopius, had recourse to the same expe- 
dient. This distinction has been adopted by 
very few of those who Espouse the doctrines 
of general redemption ; and who believe that 
every event, how contingent soever to the 
creature, is, with respect to God, certainly 
foreknown. An old English divine thinks, 
that, " in the sacred Scriptures certain not ob- 
scure vestiges are apparent of this kind of 
knowledge, of things that will happen thus or 
otherwise, on the supposition of the occurrence 
of this or that circumstance. Omitting the 
well known example of David in Keilah, 1 Sam. 
xxii, 12, and of Chorazin and Bethsaida, Matt. 
xi, 21 ; Luke x, 13, consult, among other say- 
ings of the same description, the answer of 
our Saviour to the chief priests and scribes, 
who had asked, ' Art thou the Christ ? Tell 
us.' And he said unto them, ' If I tell you, ye 
will not believe.' In the subsequent verse he 
adds, ' If I also ask you, ye will not answer 
me, nor let me go,' Luke xxii, 67, 68. You 
have here three events specified, which yet 
will not occur even on the supposition of 
Christ our Lord himself" This kind of know- 
ledge might very well be included in that of 
scientia visionis, because the latter ought to 
include, not what God will do and what his 
creatures will do under his appointment, but 
what they will do by his permission as free 
agents, and what he will do, as a consequence 
of this, in his character of Governor and Lord. 
But since the predestinarians had confounded 
scientia visionis with a predestinating decree, 



the scientia media well expressed what they 
had left quite unaccounted for, and which they 
had assumed did not really exist, — the actions 
of creatures endowed with free will, and the 
acts of Deity which from eternity were con- 
sequent upon them. If such actions do not 
take place, then men are not free ; and if the 
rectoral acts of God are not consequent upon 
■the actions of the creature in the order of the 
divine intention, and the conduct of the crea- 
ture is consequent upon the foreordained recto- 
ral acts of God, then we reach a necessitating 
eternal decree, which in fact, the predestinarian 
contends for ; but it unfortunately brings after 
it consequences which no subtleties have ever 
been able to shake off, — that the only actor in 
the universe is God himself; and that the only 
distinction among events is, that one class is 
brought to pass by God directly, and the other 
indirectly, not by the agency, but by the mere 
instrumentality, of his creatures. 

PRIEST, a general name for the minister 
of religion. The priest under the law was, 
among the Hebrews, a person consecrated and 
ordained of God to offer up sacrifices for his 
own sins and those of the people. Lev. iv, 
5, 6. The priesthood was not annexed to a 
certain family till after the promulgation of 
the law of Moses. Before that time the first- 
born of every family, the fathers, the princes, 
the kings were priests. Cain and Abel, Noah, 
Abraham, Job, Abimelech and Laban, Isaac 
and Jacob, offered themselves their own sacri- 
fices. In the solemnity of the covenant that 
the Lord made with his people at the foot of 
Mount Sinai, Moses performed the office of 
mediator, Exod. xxiv, 5, 6 ; and young men 
were chosen from among the children of Israel 
to perform the office of priests. But after the 
Lord had chosen the tribe of Levi to serve 
him in his tabernacle, and the priesthood was 
annexed to the family of Aaron, then the right 
of offering sacrifices to God was reserved to 
the priests alone of this family. The Lord or- 
dained. Num. xvi, 40, that no stranger, which 
was not of the seed of Aaron, should come 
near to offer incense unto the Lord, that he 
might not be as Korah and his company. The 
punishment of Uzziah is well known, 2 Chron. 
xxvi, 19, who, having presumed to offer incense 
to the Lord, was suddenly smitten with a lep- 
rosy, put out of his palace, and excluded from 
the administration of affairs to the day of his 
death. However, it seems that, on certain 
occasions, the judges and the kings of the He- 
brews offered sacrifices unto the Lord, espe- 
cially before a constant place of worship was 
fixed at Jerusalem ; for in 1 Sam. vii, 8, we are 
told that Samuel, who was no priest, offered 
a lamb for a burnt-sacrifice to the Lord ; and in 
1 Sam. ix, 13, it is said that this prophet was 
to bless the offering of the people, which should 
seem to be a function appropriated to the 
priests; lastly, 1 Sam. xvi, 5, he goes to Beth- 
lehem, where he offers a sacrifice at the inau- 
guration or anointing of David. Saul himself 
offered a burnt-offering to the Lord, perhaps 
as being king of Israel, 1 Sam. xiii, 9, 10. 
Elijah also offered a burnt-offering upon Mount 



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Carmel, 1 Kings xviii, 33. David himself 
sacrificed, (at least the text expresses it so,) 
at the ceremony of bringing the ark to Jeru- 
salem, and at the floor of Araunah, 2 Sam. 
vi, 13. Solomon went up to the brazen altar 
that was at Gibeon, and there offered sacri- 
fices, 2 Chron. i, 5. It is true the above pas- 
sages are commonly explained by supposing 
that these princes offered their sacrifices by 
the hands of the priests ; but the sacred text 
will by no means favour such explanations ; 
and it is very natural to imagine, that in the 
quality of kings and heads of the people, they 
had the privilege of performing some sacerdo- 
tal functions, upon some extraordinary occa- 
sions ; thus we see David clothed with the 
priestly ephod, and consulting the Lord ; and 
upon another occasion we find David and 
Solomon pronounce solemn benedictions on 
the people, 2 Sam. vi, 18 ; 1 Kings viii, 55. 
God having reserved to himself the first-born 
of all Israel, because he had preserved them 
from the hand of the destroying angel in 
Egypt, by way of exchange or compensation 
accepted of the tribe of Levi for the service'of 
the tabernacle. Numbers iii, 41. Of the three 
sons of Levi, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, 
the Lord chose the family of Kohath, and out 
of this the house of Aaron, to exercise the 
functions of the priesthood. All the rest of 
the family of Kohath, even the children of 
Moses and their descendants, remained of the 
order of mere Levites. See Levites. 

The posterity of the sons of Aaron, namely, 
Eleazar and Ithamar, Lev. x, 1-5 ; 1 Chron. 
xxiv, 1, 2, had so increased in number in the 
time of David, that they were divided into 
twenty-four classes, which officiated a week at 
a time alternately. Sixteen classes were of the 
family of Eleazar, and eight of the family of 
Ithamar. Each class obeyed its own prefect or 
ruler. The class Jojarib was the first in order, 
and the class Abia was the eighth, 1 Mac. ii, 1 ; 
Luke i, 5 ; 1 Chron. xxiv, 3-19. This division 
of the priesthood was continued as a permanent 
arrangement after the time of David, 2 Chron. 
viii, 14 ; xxxi, 2 ; xxxv, 4, 5. Indeed, although 
only four classes returned from the captivity, 
the distinction between them, and also the an- 
cient names, were still retained, Ezra ii, 36- 
39 ; Neh. vii, 39-42 ; xii, 1. 

Aaron, the high priest was set apart to his 
office by the same ceremonies with which his 
sons the priests were, with this exception, that 
the former was clothed in his robes, and the 
sacred oil was poured upon his head, Exod. 
xxix, 5-9 ; Lev. viii, 2. The other ceremonies 
were as follows. The priests, all of them with 
their bodies washed, and clad in their appro- 
priate dress, assembled before the altar, where 
a bullock, two rams, unleavened bread, and 
wafers of two kinds in baskets, were in readi- 
ness. When they had placed their hands 
upon the head of the bullock, he was slain by 
Moses as a sin-oflTering. He touched the horns 
of the altar with the blood, poured the remain- 
der of it round its base, and placed the parts 
which were to compose the sacrifice on its 
top. The remaining parts of the aninial were 



all burned without the camp, Exod. xxix, 10-14; 
Lev. viii, 2, 3, 14-17. They in like manner 
placed their hands on the head of one of the 
rams, which was also slain by Moses for a 
whole burnt-offering, the blood was sprinkled 
around the altar, and the parts of the ram 
were separated and burned upon it, Exod. xxix, 
15-18 ; Lev. viii, 18-21. The other ram, when 
the priests had laid their hands upon him, was 
likewise slain by Moses for the sacrifice of con- 
secration. He touched with the blood the tip 
of the right ear of the priests, the thumb of 
the right hand, and the great toe of the right 
foot. The rest of the blood he sprinkled in 
part upon the bottom of the altar, and a part 
he mingled with the consecrated oil, and 
sprinkled on the priests and their garments. 
He anointed the high priest by pouring a pro- 
fusion of oil upon his head ; whence he is call- 
ed the anointed, Lev. v, 3, 5, 16; vi, 15; 
Psalm cxxxiii, 2. Certain parts of the sacri- 
fice, namely, the fat, the kidneys, the haunches, 
the caul above the liver, and the right shoulder, 
also one cal.e of unleavened bread, a cake of 
oiled bread, and a wafer, were placed by Mo- 
ses upon the hands of the priests, that they 
might offer them to God. This ceremony- 
was called " filling the hands," expressions 
which accordingly in a number of passages 
mean the same as consecrating, Exod. xxxii, 
29 ; Leviticus xvi, 32 ; 1 Chronicles xxix, 5. 
All the parts which have been m-cntioned as 
being placed in the hands of the priests, were 
at last burned upon the altar. This ceremony, 
which continued for eight days, for ever sepa- 
rated the priests from all the other Israelites, 
not excepting the Levites ; so that there was 
subsequently no need of any farther consecra- 
tion, neither for themselves nor their posterity. 
Exodus xxix, 35-37 ; Lev. x, 7 ; Rom. i, 1 ; 
Eph. iii, 3 ; Acts xiii, 2, 3. That the ceremo- 
nies of inauguration or consecration, however, 
were practised at every new accession of a 
high priest to his office, seems to be hinted in 
the following passages, Exod. xxix, 29; Lev. 
xvi, 32 ; xxi, 10 ; Num. xx, 26-28 ; xxxv, 25. 

It was not customary for the priests to wear 
the sacerdotal dress except when performing 
their official duties, Exod. xxviii, 4, 43 ; Ezek. 
xlii, 14 ; xliv, 19. The description of the 
dress of tha priests which is given in Exodus 
xxviii, is by some thought defective, as many 
things are passed in silence, apparently for 
the reason that they were at that time suffi- 
ciently well known, without being expressly 
stated. Some additional information is com- 
municated to us by Josephus ; but the dress of 
the priests, as he describes it, may have been 
in some respects of recent origin. It was as 
follows : 1. A sort of hose, made of cotton or 
linen, which was fastened round the loins, and 
extended down so as to cover the thighs. Lev. 
vi, 10 ; Ezek. xliv, 18. 2. A tunic of cotton 
which extended, in the days of Josephus, down 
to the ankles. It was furnished with sleeves, 
and was fabricated all of one piece without 
being sewn, Exod, xxviii, 39, 41 ; xxix, 5 ; John 
xix, 23. 3. The girdle. According to Jose- 
phus it was a hand's breadth in width, woven 



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m such a manner as to exhibit the appearance 
of scales, and ornamented with embroidered 
flowers in purple, dark blue, scarlet, and white. 
It was worn a little below the breast, encircled 
the body twice, and was tied in a knot before. 
The extremities of the girdle hung down nearly 
to the ankle. The priest, whan engaged in 
his sacred functions, in order to prevent his 
being' impeded by them, threw them over his 
left shoulder, Exod. xxxix, 27-29. 4. The 
mitre or turban was originally acuminated in 
its shape, was lofty, and v/as bound upon the 
head, Exod. xxviii, 8, 40 ; xxix, 9 ; Lev. viii, 13. 
In the time of Josephus the shape of the mitre^ 
had become somewhat altered ; it was circular, 
was covered with a piece of fine linen, and sat 
so closely on the upper part of the head, (for 
it did not cover the whole of the head,) that it 
would not fall off when the body was bent 
down. The Hebrew priests, like those of 
Egypt and other nations, performed their sa- 
cred duties with naked feet ; a symbol of reve. 
rence and veneration, Exod. iii, 5 ; Josh, v, 15. 
The ordinary priests served immediately at 
the altar, oifered sacrifices, killed and flayed 
them, and poured the blood at the foot of the 
altar, 2 Chron. xxix, 34; xxxv, 11. They kept 
a perpetual fire burning upon the altar of 
burnt-sacrifices, and in the lamps of the golden 
candlestick that was in the sanctuary; they 
prepared the loaves of shew bread, baked them, 
and changed them every Sabbath day. Every 
day, night, and morning, a priest appointed 
by casting lots at the beginning of the week, 
brought into the sanctuary a smoking censer, 
and set it upon the golden table, otherwise 
called the altar of perfumes, Luke i, 9. The 
priests were not suffered to offer incense to 
the Lord with strange fire. Lev. x, 1,2; that 
is, with any other fire than what should be 
taken from the altar of burnt-sacrifices. It is 
well known with what severity God chastised 
Nadab and Abihu for having failed in this. 
Those that would dedicate themselves to per- 
petual service in the temple were well receiv- 
ed, and were maintained by the constant and 
daily offerings, Deut. xviii, 6-8. The Lord 
had given no lands of inheritance to the tribe 
of Levi in the distribution of the land of pro- 
mise. He designed that they should be sup- 
ported by the tithes, the first fruits, the offer- 
ings that were made in the temple, by their 
share of the sin-offerings, and thanksgiving, 
offerings that were sacrificed in the temple, of 
which certain parts were appropriated to the 
priests. They had also a share in the wool 
when the sheep were shorn. All the first- 
born, both of man and beast, belonged to the 
Lord, that is, to his priests. The men were 
redeemed for the sum of five shekels, Num. 
xviii, 15, 16. The first-born of impure ani- 
mals w^ere redeemed or exchanged, but the 
clean animals were not redeemed ; they were 
sacrificed to the Lord, their blood was sprinkled 
about the altar, and all the rest belonged to the 
priest. Num. xviii, 17-19. The first fruits of 
trees, Lev. xix, 23, 24, that is, those that 
came on the fourth year, belonged also to the 
priest. They gave also to the priests and Le- 



vites an allowance out of the dough that they 
kneaded. They had the tithe of all the fruits 
of the land, and of all animals which were fed 
under the shepherd's crook, Lev. xxvii, 31, 
32. God also provided them with houses and 
accommodations, by appointing them forty- 
eight cities for their habitations. Num. xxxv, 
1-3. In the precincts of these cities they pos- 
sessed as far as a thousand cubits beyond the 
walls. Of these forty-eight cities six were 
appointed to be cities of refuge, for the sake 
of those who should commit any casual or 
involuntary manslaughter; the priests had 
thirteen of these for their share, and all the 
others belonged to the Levites, Josh, xxi, 19, 
One of the chief employments of the priests, 
next to attending upon the sacrifices and the 
service of the tabernacle or temple, was the 
instruction of the people and the deciding con- 
troversies, distinguishing the several sorts of 
leprosy, the causes of divorce, the waters of 
jealousy, vows, all causes relating to the law, 
the uncleannesses that were contracted seve- 
ral ways ; all these things were brought before 
the priests, Hosea iv, 6 ; Mai. ii, 7, &c ; Lev. 
xiil, 14 ; Num. v, 14, 15. They publicly bless- 
ed the people in the name of the Lord. In 
time of war their business was to carry the 
ark of the covenant, to consult the Lord, to 
sound the holy trumpets, and encourage and 
harangue the army. 

The term priest is most properly given to 
Christ, of whom the high priests under the 
law were types and figures, he being the high 
priest especially ordained of God, who, by the 
sacrifice of himself, and by his intercession, 
opens the way to reconciliation with God, 
Heb. viii, 17 ; ix, 11-25. The word is also 
applied to every true believer who is enabled 
to offer up himself "a spiritual sacrifice ac- 
ceptable to God through Christ," 1 Pet. ii, 5 ; 
Rev. i, 6. But it is likewise improperly applied 
to Christian ministers, who have no sacrifices 
to offer ; unless, indeed, when it is considered 
as contracted from presbyter, which signifies 
an elder, and is the name given in the New 
Testament to those who were appointed to 
the office of teaching and ruling in the church 
of God. See Aaron. 

PRISCILLA, a Christian woman, well 
known in the Acts, and in St. Paul's epistles ; 
sometimes placed before her husband Aquila. 
From Ephesus this pious pair went to Rome, 
where they were when St. Paul wrote his 
epistle to the Romans, A. D. 58. He salutes 
them the first of all, v/ith great commenda- 
tions, Rom. xvi, 3. They returned into Asia 
some time afterward ; and St. Paul, writing to 
Timothy, desires him to salute them on his 
behalf, 2 Tim. iv, 19, A. D. 65. 

PROFANE, an epithet applied to those who 
abuse and contemn holy things. The Scrip- 
ture calls Esau profane, because he sold his 
birthright, which was considered a holy thing, 
not only because the priesthood was annexed 
to it, but also because it was a privilege relat- 
ing to Christ, and a type of the title of be- 
lievers to the heavenly inheritance, Heb. xii, 
16. The priests of the race of Aaron were 



PRO 



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PRO. 



enjoined to distinguish between sacred and 
profane, between pure and polluted, Lev. x, 
10 ; xix, 7, 8. Hence they were prohibited the 
use of wine during their attendance on the 
temple service, that their spirits might not be 
discomposed by excitement. To profane the 
temple, to profane the Sabbath, to profane the 
altar, are common expressions to denote the 
violation of the rest of the Sabbath, the enter- 
ing of foreigners into the temple, or the want 
of reverence in those that entered it, and the 
impious sacrifices that jvere offered on the 
altar of the Lord. 

PROMISE, an assurance given by God, in 
his Avord, of bestowing blessings upon his 
people, 2 Pet. i, 4. The word in the New 
Testament is usually taken for the promises 
that God heretofore made to Abraham, and the 
other patriarchs, of sending the Messiah, and 
conferring his Holy Spirit and eternal life on 
those that should believe on him. It is in this 
sense that the Apostle Paul commonly uses 
the word promise, Rom. iv, 13, 14 ; Gal. iii, 
14, 17, 18, 21, 22, 29. The promises of the 
new covenant are called better than those of 
the old, Heb. viii, 6, because they are more 
spiritual, clear, comprehensive, and universal 
than those of the Mosaic covenant. The time 
of the promise. Acts vii, 17, is uhe time of ful- 
filling tiie promise. The " children of the 
promise" are, 1. The Israelites descended from 
Isaac, in opposition to the Ishmaelites de- 
scended from Islunael and Hagar. 2. The 
Jews converted to Christianity, in opposition 
to the obstinate Jews, who would not believe 
in Christ. 3. All true believers Avho are born 
again by the supernatural power of God, and 
who by faith lay hold on the promise of salva- 
tion in 'Jesus Christ. 

PROPHECY, the prediction of future 
events ; it is especially understood of those 
predictions which are contained in the Holy 
Scriptures ; all of which claim divine inspira- 
tion, and by their wonderful fulfilment are 
proved to have proceeded from God, who only 
with certainty can know the future. Prophecy 
is one great branch of the external evidence of 
the truth of the Scriptures ; and the nature 
and force of tliis kind of evidence may here 
be properly pointed out. No argument a priori 
against the possibility of prophecy can be 
attempted by any one who believes in the ex- 
istence and infinitely perfect nature of God. 
The infidel author of " The Moral Philoso- 
pher," indeed, rather insinuates than attempts 
fully to establish a dilemma Avith which to 
perplex those who regard prophecy as one of 
the proofs of a divine revelation. He thinks 
that either prophecy must respect events ne- 
cessary, as depending upon necessary causes, 
which might be certainly foreknoAvn and pre- 
dicted; or that, if human actions are free, and 
effects contingent, the possibility of prophecy 
must be given up, as it implies foreknowledge, 
which, if gi-anted, would render them neces- 
sary. The first part of this objection might 
be allowed, were there no predictions to be 
adduced in favour of a professed revelation, 
except such as related to events which human 



experience has taught to be dependent upon 
some cause, the existence and necessary ope- 
ration of which are within the compass of 
human knowledge. But to foretel such events 
would not be to prophesy, any more than to 
say that it will be light to-morrow at noon, or 
that on a certain day and hour next year there 
will occur an eclipse of the sun or moon, when 
that event has been previously ascertained by 
astronomical calculation. If, however, it were 
allowed that all events depended upon a chain 
of necessary causes, yet, in a variety of in- 
stances, the argument from prophecy would 
not be at all affected ; for the foretelling of 
necessary results in certain circumstances is 
beyond human intelligence, because they can 
only be known to him by whose power those 
necessary causes on which they depend have 
been arranged, and who has prescribed the 
times of their operation. To borrow a case, 
for the sake of illustration, from the Scripr 
tures, though the claims of their predictions 
are not now in question ; let us allow that 
such a prophecy as that of Isaiah respecting 
the taking of Babylon by Cyrus was uttered, 
as it purports to be, more than a century be- 
fore Cyrus was born, and that all the actions 
of Cyrus and his army, and those of the Baby- 
lonian monarch and his people, w^ere neces- 
sitated ; is it to be maintained that the chain 
of necessitating causes running tlirough more 
than a century could be traced by a human 
mind, so as to describe the precise manner in 
which that fatality would unfold itself, even 
to the turning of the river, the drunken carousal 
of the inhabitants, and the neglect of shutting 
the gates of the city ? This being by uniform 
and universal experience known to be above 
all human apprehension, would therefore prove 
that the prediction was made in consequence 
of a communication from a superior and divine 
Intelligence. Were events, therefore, sub- 
jected to invincible fate and necessity, there 
might nevertheless be prophecy. 

The other branch of the dilemma is founded 
on the notion that if we allow the moral free- 
dom of human actions, prophecy is impossible, 
because certain foreknowledge is contrary to 
that freedom, and fixes and renders the event 
necessary. To this the reply is, that the ob- 
jection is founded on a false assumption, the 
divine foreknowledge having no more influence 
in effectuating or making certain any event 
than human foreknowledge in the degree in 
which it may exist, there being no moral 
causality at all in knowledge. This lies in the 
will, which is the determining acting principle 
in every agent ; or, as Dr. Samuel Clarke has 
expressed it, in answer to another kind of ob- 
jector, " God's infallible judgment concerning 
contingent trutlis does no more alter the nature 
of the things, and cause them to be necessary, 
than our judging right at any time concerning 
a contingent truth makes it cease to be con- 
tingent ; or than our science of afjresent truth 
is any cause of its being either true or present. 
Here, therefore, lies the fallacy of our author's 
argument. Because, from God's foreknowing 
the existence of things depending upon a chain 



PRO 



T82 



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of necessary causes, it follows that the exist- 
ence of the things must needs be necessary ; 
therefore, from God's judging infallibly con- 
cerning thing's which depend not on necessary 
hut free causes, he concludes that these things 
also depend not upon free but necessary causes. 
Contrary, I say, to the supposition in the argu- 
ment ; for it must not be first supposed that 
things are in their own nature necessary; but 
from the power of judging infallibly concern- 
ing free events, it must be proved that things, 
otherwise supposed free, will thereby unavoid- 
ably become necessary." The whole question 
lies in this. Is the simple knowledge of an ac- 
tion a necessitating cause of the action ? And 
the answer must be in the negative, as every 
man's consciousness will assure him. If the 
causality of influence, either immediate, or by 
the arrangement of compelling events, be 
mixed up with this, the ground is shifted ; and 
it is no longer a question which respects sim- 
ple prescience. (See Prescience.) This meta- 
physical objection having no foundation in 
truth, the force of the evidence arising from 
predictions of events, distant, and beyond the 
power of human sagacity to anticipate, and 
uttered as authentications of a divine commis- 
sion, is apparent. " Such predictions, whether 
in the form of declaration, description, or re- 
presentation of things future," as Mr. Boyle 
justly observes, " are supernatural things, and 
may properly be ranked among miracles." For 
when, for instance, the events are distant 
many years or ages from the uttering of the 
prediction itself, depending on causes not so 
much as existing when the prophecy was 
spoken and recorded, and likewise upon vari- 
ous circumstances and a long arbitrary series 
of things, and the fluctuating uncertainties of 
human volitions, and especially when they 
depend not at all upon any external circum- 
stances nor upon any created being, but arise 
merely from the counsels and appointment of 
God himself, — such events can be foreknov/n 
only by that Being, one of whose attributes is 
omniscience, and can be foretold by him only 
to whom the " Father of lights" shall reveal 
them ; so that whoever is manifestly endued 
with that predictive power must, in that in- 
stance, speak and act by divine inspiration, 
and what he pronounces of that kind must be 
received as the word of God ; nothing more 
being necessary to assure us of this than cre- 
dible testimony that such predictions were 
uttered before the event, or conclusive evidence 
that the records which contain them are of the 
antiquity to which they pretend. 

The distinction between the prophecies of 
Scripture and the oracles of Heathenism is 
marked and essential. In the Heathen oracles 
we cannot discern any clear and unequivocal 
tokens of genuine prophecy. They were des- 
titute of dignity and importance, had no con- 
nection with each other, tended to no object of 
general concern, and never looked into times 
remote from their own. We read only of some 
few predictions and prognostications, scattered 
among the writings of poets and philosophers, 
most of which, beside being very weakly au- 



thenticated, appear to have been answers to 
questions of merely local, personal, and tem- 
porary concern, relating to the issue of affairs 
then actually in hand, and to events speedily 
to be determined. Far from attempting to 
form any chain of prophecies, respecting things 
far distant as to time or place, or matters con- 
trary to human probability, and requiring su- 
pernatural agency to effect them, the Heathen 
priests and soothsayers did not even pretend to 
a systematic and connected plan. They hardly 
dared, indeed, to assume the prophetic charac- 
ter in its full force, but stood trembling, as it 
were, on the brink of futurity, conscious of 
their inability to venture beyond the depths of 
human conjecture. Hence their predictions 
became so fleeting, so futile, so uninteresting, 
that, though they were collected together as 
worthy of preservation, they soon fell into dis- 
repute and almost total oblivion. (See Ora^ 
cles.) The Scripture prophecies, on the other 
hand, constitute a series of divine predictions, 
relating principally to one grand object, of 
universal importance, the work of man's re 
demption, and carried on in regular progres- 
sion through the patriarchal, Jewish, and 
Christian dispensations, with a harmony and 
uniformity of design, clearly indicating one 
and the same divine Author. They speak of 
the agents to be employed in it, and es*pecially 
of the great agent, the Redeemer himself; and 
of those mighty and awful proceedings of Pro- 
vidence as to the nations of the earth, by which 
judgment and mercy are exercised with refer- 
ence both to the ordinary principles of moral 
government, and especially to this restoring 
economy, to its struggles, its oppositions, and 
its triumphs. They all meet in Christ, as in 
their proper centre, and in him only-; how- 
ever many of the single lines, when considered 
apart, may be imagined to have another direc- 
tion, and though they may pass through inter- 
mediate events. If we look, says Bishop Hurd, 
into the prophetic writings, we find that pro- 
phecy is of a prodigious extent ; that it com- 
menced from the fall of man, and reaches to 
the consummation of all things ; that for many 
ages it was delivered darkly to a few persons, 
and with large intervals from the date of one 
prophecy to that of another ; but, at length, 
became more clear, more frequent, and was 
uniformly carried on in the line of one people, 
separated from the rest of the world, — among 
other reasons assigned, for this principally, to 
be the repository of the divine oracles ; that, 
with some intermission, the spirit of prophecy 
subsisted among that people to the coming of 
Christ; that he himself and his Apostles exer- 
cised this power in the most conspicuous man- 
ner, and left behind them many predictions, 
recorded in the books of the New Testament, 
which profess to respect very distant events, 
and even run out to the end of time, or, in St. 
John's expression, to that period "when the 
mystery of God shall be perfected." Farther, 
beside the extent of this prophetic scheme, the 
dignity of the Person whom it concerns de- 
serves our consideration. He is described in 
terms which excite the most august and mag- 



PRO 



783 



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nificent ideas. He is spoken ot, indeed, some- 
times as being " the seed of the woman," and 
as " the Son of man ;" yet so as being at the 
same time of more than mortal extraction. He 
is even represented to us as being superior to 
men and angels ; as far above all principality 
and power ; above all that is accounted great, 
whether in heaven or in earth ; as the word 
and wisdom of God ; as the eternal Son of the 
Father ; as the Heir of all things, by whom he 
made the worlds ; as the brightness of his glory, 
and the express image of his person. We 
have no words to denote greater ideas than 
these ; the mind of man cannot elevate itself 
to nobler conceptions. Of such transcendent 
worth and excellence is that Jesus said to be, 
to whom all the prophets bear witness ! Lastly, 
the declared purpose for which the Messiah, 
prefigured by so long a train of prophecy, came 
into the world, corresponds to all the rest of 
the representation. It was not to deliver an 
oppressed nation from civil tyranny, or to erect 
a great civil empire, that is, to achieve one of 
those acts which history accounts most heroic. 
No : it was not a mighty state, a victor people, 

Non res Rommi(£, perituraque regna, 
[Not the empire of Rome and kingdoms about to perish,] 
that was worthy to enter into the contempla- 
tion of this divine Person. It was another and 
far sublimer purpose, which he came to accom- 
plish; a purpose, in comparison of which all 
our policies are poor and little, and all the per- 
formances of man as nothing. It was to de- 
liver a world from ruin ; to abolish sin and 
death ; to purify and immortalize human na- 
ture ; and thus, in the most exalted sense of 
the words, to be the Saviour of men and the 
blessing of all nations. There is no exaggera- 
tion in this account : a spirit of prophecy per- 
vading all time, characterizing one Person of 
the highest dignity, and proclaiming the ac- 
complishment of one purpose, the most benefi- 
cent, the most divine, the imagination itself 
can project. Such is the Scriptural delineation 
of that economy which we call prophetic. 

The advantage of this species of evidence 
belongs then exclusively to our revelation. 
Heathenism never made any clear and well 
founded pretensions to it. Mohammedanism, 
though it stands itself as a proof of the truth 
of Scripture prophecy, is unsupported by a 
single prediction of its own. 

The objection which has been raised to 
Scripture prophecy, from its supposed, ob- 
scurity, has no solid foundation. There is, it 
is true, a prophetic language of symbol and 
emblem ; but it is a language which is definite 
and not equivocal in its meaning, and as easily 
mastered as the language of poetry, by atten- 
tive persons. This, however, is not always 
used. The style of the prophecies of Scripture 
very often differs in nothing from the ordinary 
style of the Hebrew poets ; and, in not a few 
cases, and those too on which the Christian 
builds most in the argument, it sinks into the 
plainness of historical narrative. Some degree 
of obscurity is essential to prophecy : for the 
end of it was not to gratify human curiosity, 
by a detail of future events and circumstances ; 



and too great clearness and speciality might 
have led to many artful attempts to fulfil the 
predictions, and so far the evidence of their 
accomplishment would have been weakened. 
The two great ends of prophecy are, to excite 
expectation before the event, and then to con- 
firm the truth by a striking and unequivocal 
fulfilment ; and it is a sufficient answer to the 
allegation of the obscurity of the prophecies 
of Scripture, that they have abundantly ac- 
complished those objects, among the most 
intelligent and investigating, as well as among 
the simple and unlearned, in all ages. It can- 
not be denied, for instance, leaving out par- 
ticular cases which might be given, that by 
means of these predictions the expectation of 
the incarnation and appearance of a divine 
Restorer was kept up among the people to 
whom they were given, and spread even to 
the neighbouring nations ; that as these pro- 
phecies multiplied, the hope became more 
intense ; and that at the time of our Lord's 
coming, the expectation of the birth of a very 
extraordinary person prevailed, not only among 
the Jews, but among other nations. This pur- 
pose was then sufficiently answered, and an 
answer is given to the objection. In like man- 
ner prophecy serves as the basis of our hope 
in things yet to come ; in the final triumph of 
truth and righteousness on earth, the universal 
establishment of the kingdom of our Lord, and 
the rewards of eternal life to be bestowed at 
his second appearing. In these all true Chris- 
tians agree ; and their hope could not have 
been so uniformly supported in all ages and 
under all circumstances, had not the prophecies 
and predictive promises conveyed with suffi- 
cient clearness the general knowledge of tho 
good for which they looked, though many of 
its particulars be unrevealed. The second end 
of prophecy is, to confirm the truth by the 
subsequent event. Here the question of the 
actual fiilfilment of Scripture prophecy is 
involved ; and it is no argument against the 
unequivocal fulfilment of several prophecies, 
that many have doubted or denied what the 
believers in revelation have on this subject so 
strenuously contended for. How few of man- 
kind have read the Scriptures with serious 
attention, or been at the pains to compare 
their prophecies with the statements in history. 
How few, especially of the objectors to the 
Bible, have read it in this manner ! How many 
of them have confessed unblushingly their un- 
acquaintance with its contents, or have proved 
what they have not confessed by the mistakes 
and misrepresentations into which they have 
fallen ! As for the Jews, the evident dominion 
of their prejudices, their general averseness to 
discussion, and the extravagant principles of 
Interpretation they have adopted for many 
ages, which set all sober criticism at defiance, 
render nugatory any authority which might 
be ascribed to their denial of the fulfilment of 
certain prophecies in the sense adopted by 
Christians. We may add to this, that among 
Christian critics themselves there may be much 
disagreement. Eccentricities and absurdities 
are found among the learned in every depart- 



PRQ 



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iiient of knowledge, and much of this way- 
wardness and affectation of singularity has 
infected interpreters of Scripture. But, after 
all, there is a truth and reason in every subject, 
which the understandings of the generality of 
men will apprehend and acknowledge when- 
ever it is fully understood and impartially con- 
sidered ; to this in all such cases the appeal 
can only be made, and here it may be made 
with confidence. Instances of the signal ful- 
filment of numerous prophecies are scattered 
through various articles in this volume ; so 
that it is not necessary to repeat them here. 
A few words on the double sense of prophecy 
may, however, be added. 

For want of a right apprehension of the 
trae rxjeaning of this somewhat unfortunate 
term which has obtained in theology, an ob- 
jection of another kind has been raised, as 
though no definite meaning could be assigned 
to the prophecies of Scripture. Nothing can 
be luore unfounded. The double sense of many 
prophecies in the Old Testament, says an able 
writer, has been made a pretext by ill disposed 
men, for representing them as of uncertain 
meaning, and resembling the ambiguity of the 
Pagan oracles. But whoever considers the 
subject with due attention, will perceive how 
little ground there is for such an accusation. 
The equivocations of the Heathen oracles 
manifestly arose from their ignorance of 
future events, and from their endeavours to 
conceal that ignorance by such indefinite ex- 
pressions, as might be equally applicable to 
two or more events of a contrary description. 
But the double sense of the Scripture prophe- 
cies, far from originating in any doubt or un- 
certainty, as to the fulfilment of them, in either 
sense, springs from a foreknowledge of their 
accomplishment in both ; whence the predic- 
tion is purposely so framed as to include both 
events, which, so far from being contrary to 
each other, are typical the one of the other, 
and are thus connected together by a mutual 
dependency or relation. This has often been 
satisfactorily proved, with respect to those 
prophecies which referred, in their primary 
sense, to the events of the Old Testament, 
and, in their farth-er and more complex signi- 
fication, to those of the New : and on this 
double accomplishment of some prophecies is 
grounded our firm expectation of the comple- 
tion of others, which remain yet unfulfilled in 
their secondary sense, but which we justly 
consider as equally uncertain in their issue as 
those which are already past. So far, then, 
from any valid objection lying against the 
credibility of the Scripture prophecies, from 
these seeming ambiguities of meaning, we may 
urge them as additional proofs of their coming 
from God. For, who but the Being that is 
infinite in knowledge and in counsel could so 
construct predictions as to give them a two- 
fold application, to events distant from, and, 
to human foresight, unconnected with, each 
other ? What power less than divine could so 
frame them as to make the accomplishment 
of them in one instance a solenm pledge and 
assurance of their completion in another in- 



stance, of still higher and more universal im- 
portance ? Whei'e will the scoffer find any 
thing like this in the artifices of Heathen 
oracles, to conceal their ignorance, and to 
impose on the credulity of mankind ? See 
Oracles. 

On this subject it may be observed, by way 
of general illustration, that the remarkable 
personages under the old dispensation were 
sometimes in the description of their charac- 
ters, and in the events of their lives, the repre- 
sentatives of the future dispensers of evan- 
gelical blessings, as Moses and David were 
unquestionably types of Christ, Ezek. xxxiv, 
23 ; Matt, xi, 14 ; Heb. vi, 20 ; vii, 1-3. Per- 
sons likewise were sometimes descriptive of 
things, as Sarah and Hagar were allegorical 
figures of the two covenants, Gal. iv, 22-31 ; 
Rom. ix, 8-13. And, on the other hand, 
things were used to symbolize persons, as the 
brazen serpent and the paschal lamb were 
signs of our healing and spotless Redeemer, 
Exodus xii, 46 ; John iii, 14 ; xix, 36. And 
so, lastly, ceremonial appointments and legal 
circumstances were preordained as signifi- 
cant of Gospel institutions, 1 Cor. x, 1-11 ; 
Heb. viii, 5 ; ix, x ; 1 Pet. iii, 20, 22. Hence 
it was that many of the descriptions of the 
prophets had a twofold character ; bearing 
often an immediate reference to present cir- 
cumstances, and yet being in their nature pre- 
dictive of future occurrences. What they 
reported of the type was often in a more signal 
manner applicable to the thing typified, Psahn 
xxi, 4-6 ; xl, 1, 7-10 ; xh, 4: Lam. xiii, 1-30; 
John xiii, 18 ; Dan. xi, 36, 37 ; what they 
spoke literally of present, was figuratively de- 
scriptive of faiture particulars ; and what was 
applied in a figurative sense to existing per- 
sons, was often actually characteristic of their 
distant archetypes. Psalm xxii, 16-18, &c. 
jMany passages then in the Old Testament, 
which in their first aspect appear to be his- 
torical, are in fact prophetic, and they are so 
cited in the New Testament, not by way of 
ordinary accommodation, or casual coinci- 
dence, but as intentionally predictive, as hav- 
ing a double sense, a literal and a mystical 
interpretation, Hosea xi, 1 ; Matt, ii, 15. 

Beside these historical passages, of which 
the covert allusions were explained by the 
interpretation of the Gospel writers, who were 
enlightened by the Spirit to unfold the myste- 
ries, of Scripture, the prophets often uttered 
positive predictions which, in consequence of 
the correspondence established between the 
two dispensations, were descriptive of a double 
event, however they might be themselves ig- 
norant of the full extent of those prophecies 
which they delivered. For instance, their 
promises of present success and deliverances 
were often significant of distant benefits, and 
secular consolations conveyed assurances of 
evangelical blessings, 2 Sam. vii, 13, 14 ; Heb. 
i, 5. Thus their prophecies received comple- 
tion in a first and secondary view. As being 
in part signs to excite confidence, they had an 
immediate accomplishment, but were after- 
ward fulfilled in a more illustrious sense, 



PRO 



785 



PRO 



1 Kings xiii, 2, 3 ; Isaiah Vii, 14 ; Matt, i, 22 ; 
Dan. ix, 27; xii, 7; 1 Mace, i, 54; Matt, 
xxiv, 15 ; the prophets being inspired, by the 
suggestions of the Spirit, to use expressions 
magnificent enough to include the substance 
in the description of the figure. That many 
of the prophecies in the Old Testament were 
direct, and singly and exclusively applicable to, 
and accomplished in, our Saviour, is certain, 
Gen. xlix, 10 ; Psalm xlii, xlv ; Isaiah lii, liii ; 
Daniel vii, 13, 14 ; Micah v, 2 ; Zech. ix, 9 ; 
Mai. iii, 1. 

It requires much attention to comprehend 
the full import and extent of this typical dis- 
pensation, and the chief obscurities which 
prevail in the sacred writings are to be attri- 
buted to the double character of prophecy. 
To unravel this is, however, an- interesting 
and instructive study ; thougli an admiration 
of the spiritual meaning should never lead us 
to disregard or undervalue the first and evi- 
dent signification ; for many great men have 
been so dazzled by their discoveries in this 
mode of explication, as to be hurried into wild 
and extravagant excess ; as is evident from 
the writings of Origen and Jerom ; as also 
from the Commentaries of Austin, who ac- 
knowledges that he had too far indulged in the 
fancies of an exuberant imagination, declaring 
that the other parts of Scripture are the best 
commentaries. The Apostles and the evan. 
gelists are, indeed, the best expositors ; and 
where those infallible guides have led the way, 
we need not hesitate to follow their steps by 
the light of clear reason and just analogy. 

It is this double character of prophecy 
which occasions those unexpected "transitions 
and sudden interchanges of circumstance so 
observable in the prophetic books. Hence 
different predictions are sometimes blended 
and mixed together ; temporal and spiritual 
deliverances are foretold in one prophecy ; and 
greater and smaller events are combined in 
one point of view. Hence, likewise, one chain 
of connected design runs through the whole 
scheme of prophecy, and a continuation of 
events successively fulfilling, and successively 
branching out into new predictions, continued 
to confirm the faith, and to keep alive the ex- 
pectations, of the jews. Hence was it the 
character of the prophetic spirit to be rapid in 
its description, and regardless of the order of 
history ; to pass with quick and unexpected 
celerity from subject to subject, and from 
period to period. "And we must allow," says 
Lord Bacon, "for that latitude that is agreea- 
ble and familiar to prophecy, which is of the 
nature of its Author, with whom a thousand 
years are but as one day." The whole of the 
great scheme must have been at once present 
to the divine Mind ; but God described its parts 
in detail to mankind, in such measures and in 
such proportions, that the connection of every 
link was obvious, and its relations apparent in 
every point of view, till the harmony and en- 
tire consistency of the plan were displayed to 



proper sense, was one to whom the knowledge 
of secret things was revealed, that he might 
declare them to others, whether they were 
things past, or present, or to come. The woman 
of Samaria perceived our Saviour was a pro- 
phet, by his telling her the secrets of her past 
life, John iv, 19. The Prophet Elisha had 
the present conduct of his servant Gehazi 
revealed to him, 2 Kings v, 26. And most of 
the prophets had revelations concerning/ufMre 
events ; above all, concerning the coming and 
kingdom of the Messiah: "He has raised up 
a horn of salvation for us in the house of his 
servant David, as he spake by the mouth of 
his holy prophets, which have been since the 
world began," Luke i, 69, 70. Nevertheless, 
in a more lax or analogical sense, the title 
prophet is sometimes given to persons who 
had no such revelation, nor were properly in- 
spired. Thus Aaron is said to be Moses's 
prophet: "The Lord said unto Moses, See, I 
have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron 
thy brother shall be thy prophet," Exod. vii, 1 : 
because Aaron received the divine messages, 
which he carried immediately from Moses ; 
whereas other prophets receive their messages 
immediately froni God himself. In this respect, 
as Moses stood in the place of God to Pha. 
raoh, so Aaron acted in the character of his 
prophet. The title of prophets is given also 
to the sacred musicians, who sung the praises 
of God, or who accompanied the song with 
musical instruments. Thus "the sons of 
Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun," are 
said to " prophesy wuth harps, with psalteries, 
and with cymbals," 1 Chron. xxv, 1 ; and they 
prophesied, it is said, " according to the order 
of the king." Perhaps Miriam, the sister of 
Aaron, may be called a prophetess only on 
this account, that she led the concert of the 
women, who sung the song of Moses with 
timbrels and with dances. Exodus xv, 20, 21. 
Thus the Heathen poets, who sung or com. 
posed verses in praise of their gods, were called 
by the Romans vates, or po-ophets ; which is 
of the same import with the Greek rzpo(prjTt]s, a 
title which St. Paul gives to Epimenides, a 
Cretan poet, Titus i, 12. 

Godwin observes, that, for the propagation 
of learning, colleges and schools were in divers 
places erected for the prophets. The first inti 
mation we have in Scripture of these schools 
is in 1 Sam. x, 5, where we read of " a com- 
pany of prophets coming down from the high 
place with a psaltery, a tabret, a pipe, and a 
harp before them, and they did prophesy." 
They are supposed to be the students in a 
college of prophets at nj'Jj, or " the hill," as 
we render it, " of God." Our translators else- 
where retain the same Hebrew word, as sup- 
posing it to be the proper name of a place, 
"Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philis- 
tines that was in Geba," 1 Sam. xiii, 3. Some 
persons have imagined that the ark, or at least 
a synagogue, or some place of public worship, 
was at this time at Geba, and that this is the 



those who witnessed its perfection in the ad- 1 reason of its being styled in the former pas. 
vent of Christ. sage Q>n'7Nn n}}23, the hill of God. We read 

PROPHETS. A prophet, in the strict andj afterward of such another company of pro- 
51 



PRO 



786 



PRO 



phets at Naioth in Ramah, " prophesying, and 
Samuel standing as appointed over them," 

1 Sam. xix, 19, 20. The students in these 
colleges were called sons of th€ prophets, who 
are frequently mentioned in after ages, even 
in the most degenerate times. Thus we read 
of the sons of the prophets that were at 
Bethel ; and of another school at Jericho ; 
and of the sons of the prophets at Gilgal, 

2 Kings ii, 3, 5 ; iv, 38. It should seem, that 
these sons of the prophets v/ere very nume- 
rous ; for of this sort were probably the pro- 
phets of the Lord, whom Jezebel cut off ; " but 
Obadiah took a hundred of them, and hid them 
by fifty in a cave," 1 Kings xviii, 4. In these 
schools young men were educated under a 
proper master, who was commonly, if not 
always, an inspired prophet, in the knowledge 
of religion, and in sacred music, 1 Sam. x, 5 ; 
xix, 20, and were thereby qualified to be pub- 
lic preachers, which seems to have been part 
of the business of the prophets on the Sabbath 
days and festivals, 2 Kings iv, 23. It should 
seem, that God generally chose the prophets, 
whom he inspired, out of these schools. Amos, 
therefore, speaks of it as an extraordinary case, 
that though he was not one of the sons of the 
prophets, but a herdsman, "yet the Lord took 
him as he followed the flock, and said unto 
him, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel," 
Amos vii, 14, 15. That it was usual for some 
of these schools, or at least for their tutors, to 
be endued with a prophetic spirit, appears from 
the relation of the prophecies concerning the 
ascent of Elijah, delivered to Elisha by the 
sons of the prophets, both at Jericho and at 
Bethel, 2 Kings ii, 3, 5. 

The Hebrew prophets present a succession 
of men at once the most singular and the most 
venerable that ever appeared, in so long a line 
of time, in the world. They had special com- 
munion with God ; they laid open the scenes 
of the future ; they were ministers of the pro- 
mised Christ. They upheld religion and piety 
in the worst times, and at the greatest risks ; 
and their disinterestedness was only equalled 
by their patriotism. The houses in which 
they lived were generally mean, and of their 
own building, 2 Kings vi, 2-4. Their food 
was chiefly pottage of herbs, unless Avhen th« 
people sent them some better provision, as 
bread, parched corn, honey, dried fruits, and 
the like, 1 Kings xiv, 3 ; 2 Kings iv, 38, 39, 
42. Their dress was plain and coarse, tied 
about with a leathern girdle, Zech. xiii, 4 ; 
2 Kings i, 8. Riches were no temptation to 
them ; therefore Elisha not only refused Naa. 
man's presents, but punished his servant Ge- 
hazi very severely for clandestinely obtaining 
a small share of them, 2 Kings v, 15, &c. To 
succeeding ages they have left a character 
consecrated by holiness, and " visions of the 
Holy One," which still unveil to the church 
his most glorious attributes, and his deepest 
designs. " Prophecy," says the Apostle Peter, 
" came not of old time by the will of man : 
but holy men of God spake as they were 
moved by the Holy Ghost," 2 Pet. i, 21. They 
flourished in a continued succession during a 



period of more than a thousand years, reckon- 
ing from Moses to Malachi, all cooperating in 
the same designs, uniting in one spirit to de- 
liver the same doctrines, and to predict the 
same blessings to mankind. Their claims to 
a divine commission were demonstrated by 
the intrinsic excellency of their doctrine ; by 
the disinterested zeal and undaunted courage 
with which they prosecuted their ministry, 
and persevered in their great design, and by 
the unimpeachable integrity of their conduct. 
But even those credentials of a divine mission 
were still farther confirmed by the exercise of 
miraculous powers, and by the completion of 
many less important predictions which they 
uttered, Deut. xiii, 1-3 ; xviii, 22 ; Joshua x, 
13 J 1 Sam. xii, 8 ; 2 Kings i, 10 ; Isa. xxxviii, 
8 ; xiii, 9 ; 1 Sam, ix, 6 ; 1 Kings xiii, 3 ; Jer. 
xxviii, 9 ; Ezek. xxxiii, 33. When not imme- 
diately employed in the discharge of their sacred 
office, they lived sequestered from the world, 
in religious communities, or wandered " in 
deserts, in mountains, and in caves of the 
earth ;" distinguished by their apparel, and 
by the general simplicity of their style of life, 
2 Kings i, 8 ; iv, 10, 38 ; vi, 1 ; Isa. xx, 2 ; Matt, 
iii, 4; Heb,. xi, 38; Rev. xi, 3. They were 
the established oracles of their country, and 
consulted upon all occasions when it was 
necessary to collect the divine will on any 
civil or religious question. These illustrious 
personages were likewise as well the types as 
the harbingers of that greater Prophet whom 
they foretold ; and in the general outline of 
their character, as well as in particular events 
of their lives, they prefigured to the Jews the 
future Teacher of mankind. Like him, also, 
they laboured by every exertion to instruct 
and reclaim ; reproving and threatening the 
sinful, however exalted in rank, or encircled 
by power, with such fearless confidence and 
sincerity as often excited respect. The most 
intemperate princes were sometimes compelled 
unwillingly to hear and to obey their direc- 
tions, 1 Kings xii, 21-24 ; xiii, 2-6 ; xx, 42,. 
43; xxi, 27; 2 Chron. xxviii, 9-14; though 
often so incensed by their rebuke, as to resent 
it by the severest persecutions. Then it was 
that the prophets exhibited the integrity of 
their characters, by zealously encountering 
oppression, hatred, and death, in the cause of 
religion. Then it was that they firmly sup- 
ported "trial of cruel raockings and scourg- 
ings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprison-^ 
ment. They were stoned, they were sawn 
asunder, were tempted, were slain with the 
sword ; they wandered about, destitute, afflict- 
ed, tormented," evil intreated for those virtues 
of which the memorial should flourish to pos- 
terity, and martyred for righteousness, which, 
whenever resentment should subside, it would 
be deemed honourable to reverence, Matthew 
xxiii, 27-29. 

The manner in which the prophets published 
their predictions was, either by uttering them 
aloud in some public place, or by affixing them 
on the gates of the temple, Jer. vii, 2 ; Ezek, 
iii, 10, where they might be generally seen 
and read. Upon some important occasions^, 



PRO 



787 



PRO 



tvhen it was necessary to rouse the fears of a 
disobedient people, and to recall them to repent- 
ance, the prophets, as objects of universal at- 
tention, appear to have walked about publicly 
in sackcloth, and with every external mark of 
humiliation and sorrow. They then adopted 
extraordinary modes of expressing their con- 
victions of unpending wrath, and endeavoured 
to awaken the apprehensions of their country, 
by the most strildng illustration of threatened 
punishment. Thus Jeremiah made bonds and 
yokes, and put them upon his neck, Jer. xxvii, 
strongly to intimate the subjection that God 
would bring on the nations whom Nebuchad- 
nezzar should subdue. Isaiah likewise walked 
naked, that is, without the rough garment of 
the prophet, and barefoot, as a sign of the dis. 
tress that awaited the Egyptians, Isa. xx. So 
Jeremiah broke the potter's vessel, Jer, xix ; 
and Ezekiel publicly removed his household 
goods from the city, 2 Kings xxv, 4, 5 ; Ezek. 
xii, 7 ; more forcibly to represent by those ac- 
tions some correspondent calamities ready to 
fall on nations obnoxious to' God's wratJi ; this 
mode of expressing important circumstances 
hj action, being customary and familiar among 
all eastern nations. ' The great object of pro- 
phecy was, as has been before observed, a 
description of the Messiah, and of his kingdom, 
Matt, xxvi, 56 ; Luke i, 70 ; xviii, 31 ; xxiv, 
44; John i, 45; Acts iii, 18, 24; x, 43; xiii, 
29 ; XV, 15 ; xxviii, 23 ; 1 Pet. i, 10-12. These 
were gradually unfolded by successive pro- 
phets in predictions more and more distinct. 
They were at first held forth in general pro- 
mises; they were afterward described by figures, 
and shadowed out under types and allusive 
institutions, and finally foretold in the full 
lustre of descriptive prophecy. The Hebrew 
prophets were chosen of God to testify before- 
hand of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory 
that should follow. See Prophecy. 

PROPITIATION. To propitiate is to ap- 
pease, to atone, to turn away the wrath of an 
offended person. In the case before us, the 
■wrath turned away is the wrath of God ; the 
person making the propitiation is Christ ; the 
propitiating offering or sacrifice is his blood. 
All this is expressed in most explicit terras in 
the following passages : " And he is the pro- 
pitiation for our sins," 1 John ii, 2. "Herein 
is love, not that we loved God, but that he 
loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitia- 
tion for our sins," 1 John iv, 10. "Whom 
God iiath set forth to be a propitiation through 
faith in his blood," Rom. iii, 25. The word 
used in the two former passages is IXaapioi ; in 
the last iXas-»7f)iov. Both are from the verb iAa'a«w, 
so often used by Greek writers to express the 
action of a person who, in some appointed 
•way, turned away the wrath of a deity ; and 
therefore cannot bear the sense which Socinus 
•would put upon it, — the destruction of sin. 
This is not supported by a single example. 
With all Greek authorities, whether poets, 
historians, or others, the word means to pro- 
jpitiate, and is, for the most part, construed 
with an accusative case, designating the per- 
son whose displeasure is averted. As this 



could not be denied, Crellius comes to the aid 
of Socinus, and contends that the sense oi 
this word was not to be taken from its com. 
mon use in the Greek tongue, but from the 
Hellenistic use of it in the Greek of the New 
Testament, the LXX. and the Apocrypha. But 
this will not serve him ; for both by the LXX. 
and in the Apocrypha, it is used in the same 
sense as in the Greek classic writers. " He 
shall offer his iXaaixdv, sin-offering, saith the 
Lord God," Ezek. xliv, 27. " And the priest 
shall take the blood of the i^iXaajxov, sin-offer- 
ing" Ezek. xlv, 19. Kpio? tov iXacr/xoV, " The 
ram of the atonemient," Num. v, 8. To which 
may be added, out of the Apocrypha, "Now 
as the high priest was making IXacrixbv, an 
atonement" 2 Mace, iii, 33= 

The propitiatory sense of the word IXaaixSg 
being thus fixed, the modern Socinians have 
conceded, in their note on 1 John ii, 2, in their 
Improved Version, that it means the " pacify- 
ing of an offended party;" but they subjoin, 
that Christ is a propitiation, because by his 
Gospel he brings sinners to repentance, and 
thus averts the divine displeasure. The con- 
cession is important ; and tlie comment can- 
not weaken it, because of its absurdity ; for, in 
that interpretation of propitiation, Moses, or 
any of the Apostles, or any minister of the 
Gospel now, who succeeds in bringing sinners 
to repentance, is as truly a propitiation for sin 
as Christ himself. On Rom. iii, 25, however, 
the authors of the Improved Version continue 
to follow their master Socinus, and translate 
the passage, "whom God hath set forth a pro- 
pitiation, through faith in his blood," "whom 
God hath set forth as a mercy seat in his own 
blood," and lay great stress upon this render- 
ing, as removing that countenance ta the doc- 
trine of atonement by vicarious sufferings which 
the common translation affords. The word 
IXas-npiov is used in the Septuagint version, and 
in the Epistle to the Hebrews, to express the 
mercy seat or covering of the ark. But so 
little is to be gained by taking it in this sense 
in this passage, that this rendering is adopted 
by several orthodox commentators as express- 
ing, by a figure, or rather by emphatically sup- 
plying a type to the antitype, — ^the doctrine of 
onr Lord's atonement. The mercy seat was 
so called, because, under the Old Testament, 
it was the place where the high priest, on the 
feast of expiation, sprinkled the blood of the 
sin-offerings, in order to make an atonement 
for himself and the whole congregation; and, 
since God accepted the offering which was 
then made, it was, for this reason, accounted 
the medium through which God showed him. 
self propitious to the people. With reference 
to this, Jesus Christ may be called a mercy 
seat, as being the person in or through whom 
God shows himself propitious to mankind. 
And as, under the law, God was propitious to 
those who came to him by appearing before 
his mercy seat with the blood of theii* sin-offer- 
ings ; so, under the Gospel dispensation, he is 
propitious to those who come unto him by Je- 
sus Christ, through faith in that blood which i» 
elsewhere called " the blood of sprinkling,P 



PRO 



788 



PRO 



and which he shed for the remission of sins. 
Some able critics have, however, argued, from 
the force of the context, that the word ought 
to be taken actively, and not merely declara- 
tively ; not as " a propitiatory," but as " a pro. 
pitiation," which, says Grotius, is show^n by the 
mention which is afterward made of blood, to 
which the power of propitiation is ascribed. 
Others supply &vfxa or Upelov, and render it expia- 
tory sacrifice. But, whichever of these render- 
ings be adopted, the same doctrine is held forth 
to us. The covering of the ark was rendered 
a propitiatory only by the blood of the victims 
sprinkled before and upon it ; and when the 
Apostle says, that God hath set forth Jesus 
Christ to be a propitiatory, he immediately 
adds, having the ceremonies of the temple in 
his view, "through faith in his blood," The 
text, therefore, contains no exhibition of any 
means of obtaining mercy but through the 
blood of sacrifice, according to the rule laid 
down in the Epistle to the Hebrews, " With- 
out shedding of blood there is no remission ;" 
and is in strict accordance with Ephesians i, 7, 
*' We have redemption through his blood, the 
remission of sins." It is only by his blood 
that Christ reconciles us to God. 

Unable as they who deny the vicarious na- 
ture of the sufferings of Christ are to evade the 
testimony of the above passages which speak 
of our Lord as " a propitiation," their next re- 
source often is to deny the existence of wrath 
in God, in the hope of proving that propitia- 
tion, in a proper sense, cannot be the doctrine 
of Scripture, whatever may be the force of the 
mere terras which the sacred writers employ. 
In order to give plausibility to their statement, 
they pervert the opinion of the orthodox, and 
argue as though it formed a part-of the doc- 
trine of Christ's propitiation and oblation for 
sin, to represent God as naturally an implaca- 
ble and vengeful being, and only made placa- 
ble and disposed to show mercy by satisfaction 
being made to his displeasure through our 
Lord's sufferings and death. This is as con- 
trary to Scripture as it is to the opinons of all 
sober persons who hold the doctrine of Christ's 
atonement. God is love ; but it is not neces- 
sary, in order to support this truth, to assume 
that he is nothing else. He has other attri- 
butes, which harmonize with this and with 
each other ; though, assuredly, that harmony 
cannot be established by any who deny the 
propitiation for sin made by the death of 
Christ. It sufficiently proves that there is not 
only no implacability in God, but a most ten- 
der and placable affection toward the sinning 
human race itself, and that the Son of God, 
by whom the propitiation was made, was the 
free gift of the Father to us. This is the most 
eminent proof of his love, that, for our sakes, 
and that mercy might be extended to us, "He 
spared not his own Son ; but delivered him 
up freely for us all." Thus he is the fountain 
and first moving cause of that scheme of 
recovery and salvation which the incarnation 
and death of our Lord brought into full and 
efficient operation. The true questions are, 
indeed, not whether God is love, or whether 



he is of a placable nature ; but whether Go( 
is holy and just ; whether we, his creatures 
are under law or not ; whether this law has 
any penalty, and whether God, in his rectora 
character, is bound to execute and uphold thai 
law. As the justice of God is punitive, (am 
if it is not punitive, his laws are a dead letter,' 
then is there wrath in God ; then is God angr] 
with the wicked ; then is man, as a sinner 
obnoxious to this anger ; and so a propitiatior 
becomes necessary to turn it away from him 
Nor are these terms unscriptural ; they are 
used in the New Testament as emphatically 
as in the Old ; though, the former is, in a spe 
cial sense, a revelation of the mercy of God t( 
man. John declares that, if any man believetl 
not on the Son of God, "the wrath of Go( 
abideth upon him ;" and St. Paul affirms, tha 
"the wrath of God is revealed from heavei 
against all ungodliness and unrighteousnesj 
of men." The day of judgment is, with refer 
ence to the ungodly, said to be "the day oi 
wrath ;" God is called " a consuming fire ;' 
and, as such, is the object of " reverence am 
godly fear." Nor is this his displeasure light 
and the consequences of it a trifling and tem 
porary inconvenience. When we only regar( 
the consequences which have followed sin ii 
society, from the earliest ages, and in even 
part of the world, and add to these the man] 
direct and fearful inflictions of punishmen 
which have proceeded from the "Judge of thi 
whole earth," then, to use the language oi 
Scripture, " our flesh may well tremble becaus< 
of his judgments." But when we look at th( 
future state of the wicked as represented ii 
Scripture, though it is expressed generally 
and surrounded with the mystery of a place 
and a condition of being, unknown to us ii 
the present state, all evils which history ha; 
crow^ded into the lot of man appear insignifi 
cant in comparison of banishment from God 
separation from good men, public condemna 
tion, torment of spirit, "weeping, wailing, an( 
gnashing of teeth," "everlasting destruction,' 
" everlasting fire." Let men talk ever s( 
much or eloquently of the pure benevolence oi 
God, they cannot abolish the facts recorded ir 
the history of human suffering in this woric 
as the effects of transgression ; nor can thej 
discharge these fearful comminations from th( 
pages of the book of God. These cannot be cri 
ticised away ; and if it is " Jesus who saves U! 
from this wrath to come," that is, from thosf 
effects of the wrath of God which are to come 
then, but for him, we should have been liabk 
to them. That principle in God, from whicl 
such effects follow, the Scriptures call wrath 
and they who deny the existence of wrath ir 
God, deny, therefore, the Scriptures. 

It by no means follows, however, that this 
wrath is a passion in God ; or that, though w( 
contend that the awful attribute of his justice 
requires satisfaction, in order to the forgiveness 
of the guilty, we afford reason to any to charge 
us with attributing vengeful affections to the 
divine Being. " Our adversaries," says Bishof 
Stillingfleet, " first make opinions for us, anc 
then show that they are unreasonable. Thej, 



PRO 



789 



PRO 



first suppose that anger in God is to be con- 
sidered as a passion, and ftiat passion a desire 
of revenge ; and then tell us, that if we do not 
prove that this desire of revenge can be satis- 
fied by the sufferings of Christ, then we can 
never prove the doctrine of satisfaction to be 
true ; whereas, we do not mean by God's an- 
ger, any such passion, but the just declaration 
of God's will to punish, upon our provocation 
of him by our sins ; we do not make the design 
of the satisfaction to be that God may please 
himself in revenging the sins of the guilty upon 
the most innocent person, because we make 
the design of punishment not to be the satisfac- 
tion of anger as a desire of revenge, but to be 
the vindication of the honour and rights of the 
offended person by such a way as he himself 
shall judge satisfactory to the enda of his gov- 
ernment." See Atonement and Expiation. 

PROPITIATORY, among the Jews, was 
the cover or lid of the ark of the covenant, 
which was lined both within and without with 
plates of gold, insomuch that there was no 
wood to be seen. Some even take it to have 
been one piece of massive gold. The cheru- 
bim s spread their wings over the propitiatory. 
This propitiatory was a type or figure of Christ. 
See Propitiation. 

PROSELYTE, Upoa/jXv-og, signifies a stran- 
ger, a foreigner ; the Hebrew word 1J, or -ioj, 
also denotes a stranger, one who comes from 
abroad, or from another place. In the lan- 
guage of the Jews, those were called by this 
name who came to dwell in their country, or 
who embraced their religion, being not Jevsis 
by birth. In the New Testament they are 
called sometimes proselytes, and sometimes 
Gentiles, fearing God, Acts ii, 5 ; x, ii, 22 ; 
xiii, 16, 50. The Jews distinguish two kinds 
of proselytes. The first, proselytes of the gate ; 
the others, proselytes of justice or righteous- 
ness. The first dwelt in the land of Israel, or 
even out of that country, and, without oblig- 
ing themselves to circumcision, or to any other 
ceremony of the law, feared and worshipped 
the true God, observing the rules imposed on 
Noah. These were, according to the rabbins, 
1. To abstain from idolatry; 2. From blas- 
phemy ; 3. From murder ; 4. From adultery ; 
5. From theft ; 6. To appoint just and upright 
judges ; 7. Not to eat the flesh of any animal 
cut off while it was alive. Maimonides says, 
that the first six of these precepts were given 
to Adam, and the seventh to Noah. The pri- 
vileges of proselytes of the gate v>^ere, first, 
that through holiness they might have hope 
of eternal life. Secondly, they could dwell in 
the land of Israel, and share in the outward 
prosperities of it. It is said they did not dwell 
in the cities, but only in the suburbs and the 
villages ; but it is certain that the Jews often 
admitted into their cities, not only proselytes 
of habitation, but also Gentiles and idolaters, 
as appears by the reproaches on this account, 
throughout the Scriptures. 

Proselytes of justice or of righteousness were 
those converted to Judaism, who had engaged 
themselves to receive circumcision, and to 
observe the whole law of Moses. Thus were 



they admitted to all the prerogatives of the 
people of the Lord. The rabbins inform us 
that, before circumcision was administered to 
them, and before they were admitted into the 
religion of the Hebrews, they were examined 
about the motives of their conversion ; whether 
the change was voluntary, or whether it pro- 
ceeded from interest, fear, ambition, &c. When 
the proselyte was well proved and instructed, 
they gave him circumcision ; and when the 
wound of his circumcision healed, they gave 
him baptism, by plunging his whole body into 
a cistern of water, by only one immersion. 
Boys under twelve years of age, and girls un- 
der thirteen, could not become proselytes till 
they had obtained the consent of their parents, 
or, in case of refusal, the concurrence of the 
officers of justice. Baptism in respect of girls 
had the same effect as circumcision in respect 
of boys. Each of them, by means of this, 
received, as it were, a new birth, so that those 
who were their parents before were no longer 
regarded as such after this ceremony, and those 
who before were slaves now became free. 

Many, however, are of opinion that there 
appears to be no ground whatever in Scripture 
for this distinction of proselytes of the gate, 
and proselytes of righteousness. "According 
to my idea," says Dr. Tomline, " proselytes 
were those, and those only, who took upon 
themselves the obligation of the whole Mosaic 
law, but retained that name till they were ad- 
mitted into the congregation of the Lord as 
adopted children. Gentiles were allowed to 
worship and offer sacrifices to the God of 
Israel in the outer court of the temple ; and 
some of them, persuaded of the sole and uni- 
versal sovereignty of the Lord Jehovah, might 
renounce idolatry without embracing the Mo- 
saic law ; but such persons appear to me never 
to be called proselytes in Scripture, or in any 
ancient Christian writer." He also observes that 
" the term proselytes of the gate is derived from 
an expression frequent in the Old Testament ; 
namely, ' the stranger that is within thy gates ;' 
but I think it evident that the strangers were 
those Gentiles who were permitted to live 
among the Jews under certain restrictions, 
and whom the Jews were forbidden ' to vex or 
oppress,' so long as they live in a peaceable 
manner." Dr. Lardner says, " I do not believe 
that the notion of two sorts of Jewish prose- 
lytes can be found in any Christian writer 
before the fourteenth century or later." Dr. 
Jennings also observes that "there does not 
appear to be sufficient evidence in the Scrip- 
ture history of the existence of such proselytes 
of the gate, as the rabbins mention ; nor, 
indeed, of any who with propriety can be 
styled proselytes, except such as fully embraced 
the Jewish religion." 

PROSEUCHiE. That the Jews had houses, 
or places for prayer, called zs^oatvxah appears 
from a variety of passages in Philo ; and, par- 
ticularly in his oration against Flaccus, he 
complains that their ropoo-iu^ai were pulled down, 
and there was no place left in which they might 
worship God and pray for Caesar. Among those 
who make the synagogues and proseuchix. to be 



mo 



790 



PRO 



different places, are the learned Mr. Joseph 
Mede and Dr. Prideaux ; and they think the 
difference consists partly in the form of the 
edifice ; a synagogue, they say, being roofed 
like our houses or churches ; and a proseucha 
being only encompassed with a wall, or some 
other mound or enclosure, and open at the 
top, like our courts. They make them to 
differ in situation ; synagogues being in towns 
and cities, proseucha in the fields, and fre- 
quently by the river side. Dr. Prideaux men- 
tions another distinction in respect to the 
service performed in them. In synagogues, 
he says, the prayers were offered up in public 
forms in common for the whole congregation ; 
but in the proseuchcs they prayed, as in the 
temple, every one apart for himself. And thus 
our Saviour prayed in the proseucha into which 
tie entered. Yet, after all, the proof in favour 
of this notion is not so strong, but that it still 
remains a question with some, whether the 
synagogues and the proseuchcs were any thing 
more than two different names for the same 
place ; the one taken from the people's as- 
sembling in theih, the other from the service to 
which they were more immediately appropri- 
ated, namely, prayer. Nevertheless, the name 
proseuchcB will not prove that they were appro- 
priated only to prayer, and therefore were differ- 
ent from synagogues, in which the Scriptures 
were also read and expounded ; since the temple, 
in which sacrifices were offered, and all the parts 
of divine service were performed, is called oJkos 
zspoctvxrig, a house of prayer, Matt, xxi, 13. 

PROTESTANT. The Emperor Charles V. 
called a diet at Spire, in 1529, to request aid 
from the German princes against the Turks, 
and to devise the most effectual means for 
allaying the religious disputes which then 
raged in consequence of Luther's opposition 
to the established religion. In this diet it was 
decreed by Ferdinand, archduke of Austria, 
and other popish princes, that in the countries 
which had embraced the new religion it should 
be lawful to continue in it till the meeting of 
a council ; but that no Roman Catholic should 
be allowed to turn Lutheran, and that the 
reformers should deliver nothing in their ser- 
mons contrary to the received doctrine of the 
church. Against this decree, six Lutheran 
princes, namely, John and George, the elect- 
ors of Saxony and Brandenburg, Ernest and 
Francis, the two dukes of Lunenburg, the 
landgrave of Hesse, and the prince of Anhalt, 
with the deputies of thirteen imperial towns, 
namely, Strasburg, Ulm, Nuremberg, Con- 
stance, Rottingen, Windsheim, Memmingen, 
Nortlingen, Lindaw, Kempten, Hailbron, Wis. 
semburg, and St. Gall, formally and solemnly 
protested and declared that they appealed to a 
general council ; and hence the name of Pro- 
testants, by which the followers of Luther 
have ever since been known. Nor was it con- 
fined to them; for it soon after included the 
Calvinists, and has nov/ of a long time been 
applied generally to the Christian sects, of 
whatever denomination, and in whatever coun- 
try they may be found, which have separated 
from the see of Rome. 



Mr. Chillingwortli, addressing himself to a 
writer in favour of the church of Rome, speaks 
of the religion of the Protestants in the follow- 
ing excellent terms: "Know then, sir, that- 
when I say the religion of Protestants is in 
prudence to be preferred before yours, on the 
one side, I do not understand by your religion 
the doctrine of Bellarmine, or Baronius, or 
any other private man among you, nor the 
doctrine of the Sorbonne, of the Jesuits, or of 
the Dominicans, or of any other particular 
company among you, but that wherein you all 
agree, or profess to agree, the doctrine of the 
council of Trent; so, accordingly, on the 
other side, by the religion of Protestants, I 
do not understand the doctrine of Luther, or 
Calvin, or Melancthon, nor the confession of 
Augsburg, or Geneva, nor the catechism of 
Heidelberg, nor the articles of the church of 
Engla^nd ; no, nor the harmony of Protestant 
confessions ; but that in which they all agree, 
and which they all subscribe with a greater 
harmony, as a perfect rule of faith and action j 
that is, the Bible. The Bible, I say, the Bible 
only, is the religion of Protestants. Whatso- 
ever else they believe beside it, and the plain, 
irrefragable, indubitable consequences of it, 
well may they hold it as a matter of opinion ; 
but as a matter of faith and religion, neither 
can they with coherence to their own grounds 
believe ic themselves, nor require belief of it 
of others, without most high and most schis- 
matical presumption. I, for my part, after a 
long, and, as I verily believe and hope, impar- 
tial, search of the true way to eternal happiness, 
do profess plainly that i cannot find any rest 
for the sole of my foot but upon this rock only. 
I see plainly, and with my own eyes, that there 
are popes against popes, and councils against 
councils ; some fathers against other fathers, 
the same fathers against themselves; a con. 
sent of fathers of one age against a consent of 
fathers of another age ; traditive interpreta- 
tions of Scripture are pretended, but there are 
few or none to be found ; no tradition but that 
of Scripture can derive itself from the fountain, 
but may be plainly proved either to have been 
brought in in such an age after Christ, or that 
in such an age it was not in. In a word, there 
is no sufficient certainty but of Scripture only 
for any considering man to build upon. This, 
therefore, and this only, I have reason to be- 
lieve. This I will profess ; according to this 
I will live ; and for this, if there be occasion, 
I will not only willingly, but even gladly, lose 
my life, though I should be sorry that Chris- 
tians should take it from me. Propose me any 
thing out of this book, and require whether I 
believe or no, and, seem it never so incompre- 
hensible to human reason, I will subscribe it 
with hand and heart, as knowing no demon- 
stration can be strongSr than this, God hath 
said so, therefore it is true. In other things, 
I will take no man's liberty of judging from 
him ; neither shall any man take mine from me.'' 
Under such views the Bible is held as the 
only sure foundation upon which all true Pro- 
testants build every article of the faith which 
they profess, and every point of doctrine which 



PRO 



791 



PRO 



they teach ; and all other foundations, whether 
they be the decisions of councils, the confes- 
sions of churches, the prescripts of popes, or 
the expositions of private men, are considered 
by them as sandy and unsafe, or as in nowise 
to be ultimately relied on. Yet, on the other 
hand, they by no means fastidiously reject 
them as of no use ; for while they admit the 
Bible, or the Scriptures of the Old and New 
Testament, to be the only infallible rule by 
which we must measure the truth or falsehood 
of every religious opinion, they are sensible 
that all men are not equally fitted to under- 
stand or to apply this rule ; and that the wisest 
men want, on many occasions, all the helps 
afforded by the learning and research of others 
to enable them to understand its precise nature, 
and to define its certain extent. .These helps 
are great and numerous, having been supplied, 
in every age of the church, by the united labours 
of learned men in every country, and by none 
in greater abundance than by those in Protest- 
ant communions. 

PROVERBS, short aphorisms, and senten- 
tious moral and prudential maxims, usually 
expressed in numbers, or rhythm, or antithesis, 
as being more easily remembered, and of more 
use, than abstruse and methodical discourses. 
This method of instruction appears to be pecu- 
liarly suited to the disposition and genius of 
the Asiatics, among whom it has prevailed 
from the earliest ag3s. The Gymnosophists 
of India delivered their philosophy in brief 
enigmatical sentences ; a practice a,dopted and 
carried to a great extent by the ancient Egyp- 
tians. The mode of conveying instruction by 
compendious maxims obtained among the Jews, 
from the first dawn of their literature, to its 
final extinction in the east through the power 
of the Mohammedan arms ; and it was familiar 
to the inhabitants of Syria and Palestine, as 
we learn from the testimony of St. Jerom. 
The eloquence of Arabia was mostly exhibited 
in detached and unconnected sentences, which, 
like so many loose gems, attracted attention 
fey the fulness of the periods, the elegance of 
the phraseology, and the acuteness of pro. 
verbial sayings. Nor do the Asiatics at present 
differ, in this repect, from their ancestors, as 
numerous amthdl, or moral sentences, are in 
circulation throughout the regions of the east, 
some of which have been published by Het- 
tinger, Erpenius, the younger Schultens, and 
others who have distinguished themselves by 
the pursuit of oriental learning. "The moral- 
ists of the east," says Sir William Jones, "have, 
in general, chosen to deliver their precepts in 
short sententious maxims, to illustrate them by 
sprightly comparisons, or to inculcate them in 
the very ancient forms of agreeable apologues : 
there are, indeed, both in Arabic and Persian, 
philosophical tracts on ethics, written with 
sound ratiocination and elegant perspicuity; 
but in every part of the eastern world, from 
Pekin to Damascus, the popular teachers of 
moral wisdom have immemorially been poets ; 
and there would be no end of enumerating 
their works, which are still extant in the five 
principal languages of Asia." The ingenious 



but ever disputing and loquacious Greeks were 
indebted to the same means for their earliest 
instruction in wisdom. The sayings of the 
seven wise men, the golden verses of Pytha- 
goras, the remains of Theognis and Phocylides, 
if genuine, and the gnomai of the older poets, 
testify the prevalence of aphorisms in ancient 
Greece. Had no specimens remained of Hel- 
lenic proverbs, we might have concluded this 
to have been the case ; for the Greeks bor- 
rowed the rudiments, if not the principal part, 
of their knowledge from those whom they 
arrogantly termed barbarians ; and it is only 
through the medium of compendious maxims 
and brief sentences that traditionary knowledge 
can be preserved. This mode of communi- 
cating moral and practical wisdom accorded 
with the sedate and deliberative character of 
the Romans ; and, in truth, from its influence 
over the mind, and its fitness for popular 
instruction, proverbial expressions exist in all 
ages and in all languages. 

Proverbs, in the Hebrew language, are 
called meshalim, which is derived from a verb 
signifying both " to rule," " to have dominion," 
and " to compare," "to liken," " to assimilate:" 
hence the term denotes the highly figurative 
and poetical style in general, and likewise 
those compendious and authoritative sentences 
in particular which are commonly denominated 
proverbs. This term, which our translators 
have adopted after the Vulgate, denotes, ac- 
cording to our great lexicographer, " a short 
sentence frequently repeated by the people, a 
saw, an adage ;" and no other word can, per- 
haps, be substituted more accurately expressing 
the force of the Hebrew; or, if there could, it 
has been so long familiarized by constant use, 
that a change is totally inadmissible. 

The Meshalim, or Proverbs of Solomon, on 
account of their intrinsic merit, as well as of 
the rank and renown of their author, would be 
received with submissive deference ; in conse- 
quence of which, they would rapidly spread 
through every part of the Jewish territories. 
The pious instructions of the king would be 
listened to with the attention and respect they 
deserve, and, no doubt, would be carefully re- 
corded l3y a people attached to his person, and 
holding his wisdom in the highest admiration. 
These, either preserved in writing, or handed 
down by oral communication, were subse- 
quently collected into one volume, and con- 
stitute the book in the sacred canon, entitled, 
"The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, 
king of Israel." The genuineness and authen- 
ticity of this title, and those in chap, x, 1, and 
XXV, 1, cannot be disputed ; not the smallest 
reason appears for calling them in question. 
One portion of the book, from the twenty-fifth 
chapter to the end of the twenty-ninth, was 
compiled by the men of Hezekiah, as appears 
fi-om the title prefixed to it. Eliakim, Shebna, 
Joah, Isaiah, Hosea, and Micah, personages 
of eminence and worth, were contemporary 
with Hezekiah ; but whether these or others 
executed the compilation, it is now impossible 
to determine. They were persons, however, 
as we may reasonably suppose, well qualified 



PRO 



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for the undertaking, who collected what were 
known to be the genuine proverbs of Solomon 
from the various writings in which they were 
dispersed, and arranged them in their present 
order. Whether the preceding twenty-four 
chapters, which, doubtless, existed in a com- 
bined form previous to the additional collec- 
tion, were compiled by the author, or some 
other person, is quite uncertain. Both collec- 
tions, however, being made at so early a period, 
is a satisfactory evidence that the Proverbs 
are the genuine production of Solomon, to 
whom they are ascribed ; for, from the death 
of Solomon to the reign of Hezekiah, accord- 
ing to the Bible chronology, was a period of 
two hundred and forty-nine years, or, accord- 
ing to Dr. Hales, two hundred and sixty-five 
years ; too short a space to admit of any 
forgery or material error, as either must have 
been immediately detected by the worthies 
who flourished during the virtuous reign of 
Hezekiah. 

PROVIDENCE, the conduct and direction 
of the several parts of the universe, by a su- 
perior intelligent Being. The notion of a 
providence is founded upon this truth, that 
the Creator has not so fixed and ascertained 
the laws of nature, nor so connected the chain 
of second causes, as to leave the world to 
itself, but that he still preserves the reins in 
his own hands, and occasionally intervenes, 
alters, restrains, enforces, suspends, &c, those 
laws by a particular providence. Some use 
the word providence in a more general sense, 
signifying by it that power or action by which 
the several parts of the creation are ordinarily 
directed. Thus Damascenus defines provi- 
dence to be that divine will by which all 
things are ordered and directed to the proper 
end: which notion of providence supposes no 
laws at all fixed by the author of nature at the 
creation, but that he reserved it at large, to 
be governed by himself immediately. The 
Epicureans denied any divine providence, as 
thinking it inconsistent with the ease and re- 
pose of the divine nature to meddle at all with 
human affairs. Simplicius argues thus for a 
providence : If God does not look to the affairs 
of the world, it is either because he cannot or 
will not; but the first is absurd, since, to 
govern cannot be difiicult where to create was 
easy ; and the latter is both absurd and blas- 
phemous. In Plato's Tenth Dialogue of Laws, 
he teaches excellently, that (sir^ce what is self. 
moving is, by its nature, before that which 
moves only in consequence of being moved) 
mind must be prior to matter, and the cause 
of all its modifications and changes ; and that, 
therefore, there is a universal Mind possessed 
of all perfection, v/hich produced and which 
actuates all things. After this he shows that 
the Deity exercises a particular providence 
over the world, taking care of small no less 
than great things. In proving this he observes 
"that a superior nature of such excellence as 
the divine, which hears, sees, and knows all 
things, cannot, in any instance, be subject to 
negligence or sloth ; that the meanest and the 
greatest part of the world are all equally his 



work or possession ; that great things cannot 
be rightly taken care of without taking care 
of small ; and that, in all cases, the more able 
and perfect any artist is, (as a physician, an 
architect, or the ruler of the state,) the more 
his skill and care appear in little as well as 
great things. Let us not, then," says he, 
" conceive of God as worse than even mortal 
artists." 

The terra providence, in. its primary signifi^ 
cation, simply denotes foresight ; and if we 
allow the existence of a supreme Being who 
formed the universe at first, we must neces- 
sarily allow that he has a perfect foresight of 
every event which at any time takes place in 
the natural or moral world. Matter can have 
no motion, nor spirit any energy, but what is 
derived from him ; nor can he be ignorant of 
the effects which they will, either separately 
or conjointly, produce. A common mechanic 
has knowledge of the work of his own hands: 
when he puts the machine which he has made 
in motion, he foresees how long it will go, 
and what will be the state and position of its 
several parts at any particular point of time ; 
or, if he is not perfectly able to do this, it is 
because he is not perfectly acquainted with all 
the powers of the materials which he has used 
in its construction : they are not of his mak- 
ing, and they may therefore have qualities 
which he does not understand, and conse- 
quently cannot regulate. But in the immense 
machine of the universe there is nothing ex- 
cept that which God has made ; all the powers 
and properties, relations and dependencies, 
which created things have, they have, both in 
kind and degree, from him. Nothing, there- 
fore, it should seem, can come to pass at any 
time, or in any part of the universe, which its 
incomprehensible Architect did not, from the 
moment his almighty fiat called it into exist- 
ence, clearly foresee. The providence of God 
is implied in his very existence as an intelli- 
gent Creator ; and it imports not only an ab- 
stract foresight of all possible events, but such 
a predisposition of causes and effects, such an 
adjustment of means and ends, as seems to us 
to exclude that contingency of human actions 
with which, as expectants of positive rewards 
and punishments in another world, we firmly 
believe it to be altogether consistent. 

By providence we may understand, not 
merely foresight, but a uniform and constant 
operation of God subsequent to the act of crea- 
tion. Thus, in every machine formed by hu- 
man ingenuity, there is a necessity for the 
action of some extraneous power to put the 
machine in motion : a proper construction and 
disposition of parts not being sufficient to effect 
the end : there must be a spring, or a weight, 
or an impulse of air or water, or some sub- 
stance or other, on which the motion of the 
several parts of the machine must depend. In 
like manner, the machine of the universe de- 
pends upon its Creator for the commencement 
and the conservation of the motion of ita 
several parts. The power by which the in- 
sensible particles of matter coalesce into sen- 
sible lumps, as well as that by which the great 



PRO 



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PRO 



orbs of the universe are reluctantly, as it were, 
retained in their courses, admits not an expla- 
nation from mechanical causes : the effects of 
both of them are different from such as mere 
matter and motion can produce ; they must 
ultimately be referred to God. Vegetable and 
animal life and increase cannot be accounted 
for, without recurring to him as the primary 
cause of both. In all these respects the pro- 
vidence of God is something more than fore- 
sight ; it is a continual influence, a universal 
agency ; " by him all things consist," and " in 
him we live, and move, and have our being." 
Much labour has been employed to account 
for all the plienomena of nature by the powers 
of mechanism, or the necessary laws of matter 
and motion. But this, as we imagine, cannot 
be done. The primary causes of things must 
certainly be some powers and principles not 
mechanical, otherwise we shall be reduced to 
the necessity of maintaining an endless pro- 
gression of motions communicated from matter 
to matter, without any first mover; or of say- 
ing that the first impelling matter moved itself. 
The former is an absurdity too great to be 
embraced by any one ; and there is reason to 
hope that the essential inactivity of matter is 
at present so well understood, and so generally 
allowed, notwithstanding some modern op- 
pugners of this hypothesis, that there can be 
but few who will care to assert the latter. All 
our reasonings about bodies, and the whole of 
natural philosophy, are founded on the three 
laws of motion laid down by Sir Isa.ac Newton, 
at the beginning of the ^* Principia" These 
laws express the plainest truths; but they 
would have neither evidence nor meaning, 
were not inactivity contained in our idea of 
matter. Should it be said that matter, though 
naturally inert, may be made to be otherwise 
by divine power, this would be the same with 
saying that matter may be made not to be 
matter. If inactivity belong to it at all, it 
must belong to it as matter, or solid extension, 
lind therefore must be inseparable from it. 
Matter is figured, movable, discerptable, inac- 
tive, and capable of communicating motion by 
impulse to other matter : these are not acci- 
dental but primary qualities of matter. Beside, 
matter void of inactivity, if we were to suppose 
it possible, could produce no effects. The 
communication of motion, its direction, the 
resistance it suffers, and its cessation, in a 
word, the whole doctrine of motion cannot be 
consistently explained or clearly understood 
without supposing the inertia of matter. Self, 
moving matter must have thought and design, 
because, whenever matter moves, it must move 
in some particular direction, and with some 
precise degree of velocity ; and as there is an 
infinity of these equally possible, it cannot 
move itself without selecting one of these 
preferably to and exclusively of all others, and 
therefore not without design. Moreover, it 
may be plainly proved that matter cannot be 
the ultimate cause of the phenomena of nature, 
or the agent which, by any powers inherent in 
itself, produces the general laws of nature, 
without possessing the highest degree of 



knowledge and wisdom ; which might be easily 
evinced or exemplified by adverting to the par- 
ticular law of gravitation. " The philosopher," 
says an excellent writer, " who overlooks the 
laws of an all-governing Deity in nature, con- 
tenting himself with the appearance of the 
material universe only, and the mechanical 
laws of motion, neglects what is most excel- 
lent, and prefers what is imperfect to what is 
supremely perfect, finitude to infinity, what is 
narrow and weak to what is unlimited and 
almighty, and what is perishing to what en- 
dures for ever. Sir Isaac Newton thought it 
most unaccountable to exclude the Deity only 
out of the universe. It appeared to him much 
more just and reasonable to suppose that the 
whole chain of causes, or the several series of 
them, should centre in him as their source ; 
and the whole system appear depending on 
him the only independent cause." If, then, 
the Deity pervades and actuates the material 
world, and his unremitting energy is the cause 
to which every effect in it must be traced ; the 
spiritual world, which is of greater conse- 
quence, cannot be disregarded by him. Is 
there not one atom of matter on which he does 
not act ; and is there one living being about 
which he has no concern ? Does not a stone 
fall without him ; and does, then, a man suffer 
without him ? The inanimate world is of no 
consequence, abstracted from its subserviency 
to the animate and reasonable world : the for- 
mer, therefore, must be preserved and governed 
entirely with a view to the latter. But it is 
not mere energy or the constant exertion of 
power that is discernible in the frame or laws 
of the universe, in maintaining the succession 
of men, and in producing men and other be- 
ings ; but wisdom and skill are also conspicu- 
ous in the structure of every object in the 
inanimate creation. After a survey of the 
beauty and elegance of the works of nature, 
aided by the perusal of Matt, vi, 28, &c, we 
may ask ourselves. Has God, in the lowest of 
his works, been lavish of wisdom, beauty, 
and skill ; and is he sparing of these in the 
concerns of reasonable beings ? Or does he 
less regard order, propriety, and fitness in the 
determination of their states ? The answer is 
obvious. Providence also implies a particular 
interposition of God in administering the affairs 
of individuals and nations, and wholly distinct 
from that general and incessant exertion of his 
power, by which he sustains the universe in 
existence. 

The doctrine of providence may be evinced 
from the consideration of the divine perfec- 
tions. The first cause of all things must be 
regarded as a being absolutely perfect ; and 
the idea of absolute perfection comprehends 
infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; hence 
we deduce the doctrine of providence. The 
Deity cannot be an indifferent spectator of the 
series of events in that world to which he has 
given being. His goodness will as certainly 
engage him to direct them agreeably to the 
ends of goodness, as his wisdom and power 
enable him to do it in the most effectual man- 
ner. This conclusion is conformable to all 



PRO 



794 



PSA 



our ideas of those attributes. Could we call 
that being good who would refuse to do any- 
good which he is able to do without the least 
labour or difficulty? God is present every 
where. He sees all that happens, and it is in 
his power, with perfect ease, to order all for 
the best. Can he then possess goodness, and 
at the same time not do this ? A God without 
a providence is undoubtedly a contradiction. 
Nothing is plainer than that a being of perfect 
reason will, in every instance, take such care 
of the universe as perfect reason requires. 
That supreme intelligence and love, which are 
present to all things, and from whence all 
things sprung, must govern all occurrences. 
These considerations prove what has been 
called a particular, in opposition to a general, 
providence. We cannot conceive of any rea- 
sons that can influence the Deity to exercise 
any providence over the world, which are not 
likewise reasons for extending it to all that 
happens in the world. As far as it is confined 
to generals, or overlooks any individual, or any 
event, it is incomplete, and therefore unsuita- 
ble to the idea of a perfect being. 

One common prejudice against this doctrine 
arises from the apprehension that it is below 
the dignity of the Deity to watcli over, in the 
manner implied in it, the meanest beings, and 
the minutest aflpairs. To which it may be 
replied, that a great number of minute affairs, 
if they are each of them of some consequence, 
make up a sum which is of great consequence ; 
and that there is no way of taking care of this 
sum, without taking care of each particular. 
This objection, therefore, under the appearance 
of honouring God, plainly dishonours him. 
Nothing is absolutely trifling in which the 
happiness of any individual, even the most 
insignificant, is at all concerned ; nor is it 
beneath a wise and good being to interpose in 
any thing of this kind. To suppose the Deity 
above this, is to suppose him above acting up 
to the full extent of goodness and rectitude. 
The same eternal benevolence that first en- 
gaged him to produce beings, must also engage 
him to exercise a particular providence over 
them ; and the very lowest beings, as well as 
the highest, seem to have a kind of right to his 
superintendence, from the act itself of bring- 
ing them into existence. Every apprehension 
that this is too great a condescension in him 
is founded on the poorest ideas ; for, surely, 
whatever it was not too great condescension 
in him to create, it cannot be too great a con- 
descension in him to take care of. Beside, 
with regard to God, all distinctions in the 
creation vanish. All beings are infinitely, that 
is, equally, inferior to him. 

Accident, and chance, and fortune, are 
words which we often hear mentioned, and 
much is ascribed to them in the life of man. 
But they are words without meaning ; or, as 
far as they have any signification, they are no 
other than names for the unknown operations 
of providence ; for it is certain that in God's 
universe nothing comes to pass causelessly, or 
in vain. Every event has its own determined 
<;lirectiorii. That chaos of human affairs and 



intrigues where we can see no light, that mass 
of disorder and confusion which they often 
present to our view, is all clearness and order 
in the sight of Him who is governing and 
directing the whole, and bringing forward 
every event in its due time and place. " The 
Lord sitteth on the flood. The Lord maketh 
the wrath of man to praise him," as he maketh 
the " hail and rain to obey his word. He hath 
prepared his throne in the heavens; and his 
kingdom ruleth over all. A man's heart de- 
viseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps." 
No other principle than this, embraced with a 
steady faith, and attended with a suitable 
practice, can ever be able to give repose and 
tranquillity to the mind ; to animate our hopes, 
or extinguish our fears; to give us any true 
satisfaction in the enjoyments of life, or to 
minister consolation under its adversities. If 
we are persuaded that God governs the world, 
that he has the superintendence and direction 
of all events, and that we are the objects of his 
providential care ; whatever may be our distress 
or our danger, we can never want consolation ; 
we may always have a fund of hope, always a 
prospect of relief. But take away this hope 
and this prospect, take away the belief of God 
and of a superintending providence, a^id man 
would be of all creatures the most miserable ; 
destitute of every comfort, every support, un., 
der present sufferings, and of every security 
against future dangers. 

PSALMS. The book of Psalms is a col, 
lection of hymns, or sacred songs, in praise 
of God, and consists of poems of various kinds. 
They are the productions of different persons, 
but are generally called the Psalms of David, 
because a great part of them was composed by 
him, and David himself is distinguished by the 
name of the Psalmist. We cannot now ascer, 
tain all the Psalms written by David, but their 
number probably exceeds seventy ; and much 
less are we able to discover the authors of the 
other Psalms, or the occasions upon which 
they were composed. A few of them were 
written after the return from the Babylonian 
captivity. The titles prefixed to them are of 
very questionable authority ; and in many cases 
they are not intended to denote the writer but 
refer only to the person who was appointed to 
set them to music. David first introduced the 
practice of singing sacred hymns in the public 
service of God ; and it was restored by Ezra. 
The authority of the Psalms is established not 
only by their rank among the sacred writings, 
and by the unvaried testimony of ages, but 
likewise by many intrinsic proofs of inspi- 
ration. Not only do they breathe through 
every part a divine spirit of eloquence, but 
they contain numberless illustrious prophecies 
that were remarkably accomplished, and are 
frequently appealed to by the evangelical writ- 
ers. The sacred character of the whole book 
is established by the testimony of our Saviour 
and his Apostles, who, in various parts of the 
New Testament, appropriate the predictions 
of the Psalms as obviously apposite to the cirr 
cumstances of their lives, and as intentionally 
composed to describe them. The veneratiprt 



PSA 



795 



PSA 



for the Psalms has in all ages of the church 
been considerable. The fathers assure us, that 
in the earlier times the whole book of Psalms 
was generally learned by heart ; and that the 
ministers of every gradation were expected to 
be able to repeat them from memory. These 
invaluable Scriptures are daily repeated with- 
out weariness, though their beauties are often 
overlooked in familiar and habitual perusal. 
As hymns immediately addressed to the Deity, 
they reduce righteousness to practice ; and 
while we acquire the sentiments, we perform 
the offices of piety ; while we supplicate for 
blessings, we celebrate the memorial of former 
mercies; and while in the exercise of devotion, 
faith is enlivened by the display of prophecy. 
Josephus asserts, and most of the ancient writ- 
ers maintain, that the Psalms were composed 
in metre. They have undoubtedly a peculiar 
conformation of sentences, and a measured 
distribution of parts. Many of them are elegiac, 
and most of David's are of the lyric kind. 
There is no sufficient reason however to be- 
lieve, as some writers have imagined, that they 
were written in rhyme, or in any of the Gre- 
cian measures. Some of them are acrostic ; 
and though the regulations of the Hebrew 
measure are now lost, there can be no doubt, 
from their harmonious modulation, that they 
were written with some kind of metrical order ; 
and they must have been composed in accom- 
modation to the measure to Avhich they were 
set. (See Poetry of the Hebrews.) The Hebrew 
copies and the Septuagint version of this book 
contain the same number of Psalms ; only the 
Septuagint translators have, for some reason 
which does not appear, thrown the ninth and 
tenth into one, as also the one hundred and 
fourteenth and one hundred and fifteenth, and 
have divided the one hundred and sixteenth 
and one huadred and forty-seventh each into 
two. 

It is very justly observed by Dr. Allix, that, 
" although the sense of near fifty Psalms be 
fixed and settled by divine authors, yet Christ 
and his Apostles did not undertake to quote 
all the Psalms they could, but only to give a 
key to their hea,rers, by which they might 
apply to the same subjects the Psalms of the 
same composure and expression." With re- 
gard to the Jews, Bishop Chandler very perti- 
nently remarks, that "they must have under- 
stood David, their prince, to have been a 
figure of Messiah. They would not otherwise 
have made his Psalms part of their daily wor- 
ship ; nor would David have delivered them to 
the church to be so employed, were it not to 
instruct and support them in the knowledge 
and belief of this fundamental article. Were 
the Messiah not concerned in the Psalms, it 
would have been absurd to celebrate twice a 
day, in their public devotions, the events of 
one man's life, who was deceased so long ago, 
as to have no relation now to the Jews and 
the circumstances of their affairs ; or to tran- 
scribe whole passages from them into their 
prayers for the coming of the Messiah." Upon 
the same principle it is easily seen that the 
objections, which may seem to lie against the 



use of Jewish services in Christian congrega- 
tions, may cease at once. Thus it may be 
said. Are we concerned with the affairs of 
David and of Israel ? Have we any thing to 
do with the ark and the temple ? They are no 
more. Are we to go up to Jerusalem, and to 
worship on Sion ? They are desolated, and 
trodden under foot by the Turks. Are we to 
sacrifice young bullocks according to the law ? 
The law is abolished, never to be observed, 
again. Do we pray for victory over Moab, 
Edom, and Philistia; or for deliverance from 
Babylon ? There are no such nations, no such 
places in the world. What then do we mean, 
when, taking such expressions into our mouths, 
we utter them in our own persons, as parts of 
our devotions, before God ? Assuredly we must 
mean a spiritual Jerusalem and Sion ; a spirit- 
ual ark and temple ; a spiritual law ; spiritual 
sacrifices ; and spiritual victories over spiritual 
enemies ; all described under the old names, 
which are still retained, though " old things 
are passed away, and all things are become 
new," 2 Cor. v, 17. By substituting Messiah 
for David, the Gospel for the law, the church 
Christian for that of Israel, and the enemies 
of the one for those of the other, the Psalms 
are made our own. Nay, they are with more 
fiilness and propriety applied now to the sub- 
stance, than they were of old to the " shadow 
of good things then to come," Heb. x, 1. For 
let it not pass unobserved, that when, upon the 
first publication of the Gospel, the Apostles 
had occasion to utter their transports of joy, 
on their being counted worthy to suffer for 
the name of their Lord and Master, which was 
then opposed by Jew and Gentile, they brake 
forth into an application of the second Psalm 
to the transactions then before their eyes. 
Acts iv, 25. The Psalms, thus applied, have 
advantages which no fresh compositions, how- 
ever finely executed, can possibly have ; since, 
beside their incomparable fitness to express 
our sentiments, they are at the same time 
memorials of, and appeals to, former mercies 
and deliverances ; they are acknowledgments 
of prophecies accomplished ; they point out 
the connection between the old and new dis- 
pensations, thereby teaching us to admire and 
adore the wisdom of God displayed in both, 
and furnishing while we read or sing them, an 
inexhaustible variety of the noblest matter that 
can engage the contemplations of man. 

Very few of the Psalms, comparatively, ap- 
pear to be simply prophetical, and to belong 
only to Messiah, without the intervention of 
any other person. Most of them, it is appre. 
hended, have a double sense, which stands 
upon this ground' and foundation, that the an- 
cient patriarchs, prophets, priests, and kings, 
were typical characters, in their several offices, 
and in the more remarkable passages of their 
lives, their extraordinary depressions and mi- 
raculous exaltations foreshowing him who 
was to arise as the head of the holy family, 
the great prophet, the true priest, the ever- 
lasting king. The Israelitish polity, and the 
law of Moses, were purposely framed after the 
example and shadow of things spiritual and 



PSA 



796 



PSA 



heavenly ; and the events which happened to 
the ancient people of God were designed to 
shadow out parallel occurrences, which should 
afterward take place in the accomplishment 
of man's redemption, and the rise a,nd progress 
of the Christian church. (See Prophecy.) For 
this reason, the Psalms composed for the use 
of Israel, and by them accordingly used at the 
time, do admit of an application to us, who are 
now "the Israel of God," Gal. vi, 16, and to 
our Redeemer, who is the King of this Israel. 
It would be an arduous and adventurous un- 
dertaking to attempt to lay down the rules 
observed in the conduct of the mystic allegory, 
so diverse are the modes in which the Holy 
Spirit has thought proper to communicate his 
counsels to different persons on different occa. 
sions ; inspiring and directing the minds of the 
prophets according to his good pleasure ; at 
one time vouchsafing more full and free dis- 
coveries of future events ; while, at another, 
he is more obscure and sparing in his intima- 
tions. From hence, of course, arises a great 
variety in the Scripture usage of this kind of 
allegory as to the manner in which the spiritual 
sense is couched under the other. Sometimes 
it can hardly break forth and show itself at 
intervals through the literal, which meets, the 
eye as the ruling sense, and seems to have 
taken entire possession of the words and 
phrases. On the contrary, it is much oftener 
the capital figure in the piece, and stands con- 
fessed at once by such splendour of language, 
that the letter, in its turn, is thrown into shade, 
and almost totally disappears. Sometimes it 
shines with a constant equable light, and 
sometimes it darts upon us on a sudden, like 
a flash of lightning from the clouds. But a 
composition is never more truly elegant and 
beautiful, than when the two senses, alike con- 
spicuous, run parallel together through the 
whole poem, mutually corresponding with and 
illustrating each other. 

Thus the establishment of David upon his 
throne, notwithstanding the opposition made to 
it by his enemies, is the subject of the second 
Psalm. David sustains in it a twofold charac- 
ter, literal and allegorical. If we read over 
the Psalm first with an eye to the literal David, 
the meaning is obvious, and put out of all dis- 
pute by the sacred history. There is indeed 
an uncommon glow in the expression, and 
sublimity in the figures; and the diction is 
now and then exaggerated, as it were, on pur- 
pose to intimate and lead us to the contempla- 
tion of higher and more important matters 
concealed within. In compliance with this 
admonition, if we take another survey of the 
Psalm, as relative to the person and concerns 
of the spiritual David, a nobler series of events 
instantly rises to view, and the meaning be- 
comes more evident, as well as exalted. The 
colouring, which may perhaps seem too bold 
and glaring for the king of Israel, will no 
longer appear so, when laid upon his great 
antitype. After we have thus attentively con- 
sidered the subject apart, let us look at them 
together, and we shall behold the full beauty 
and majesty of this most charming poem. We 



shall perceive the two senses very distinct from 
each other, yet conspiring in perfect harmony, 
and bearing a wonderful resemblance in every 
feature and lineament, while the analogy be- 
tween them is so exactly preserved, that either 
may pass for the original, from whence the 
other was copied. New light is continually 
cast upon the phraseology, fresh weight and 
dignity are added to the sentiment, till gradu- 
ally ascending from things below to things 
above, from human affairs to those which are 
divine, they bear the great important theme 
upward with them, and at length place it in. 
the height and brightness of heaven. What 
has been observed with regard to this Psalm, 
may also be applied to the seventy-second ; 
the subject of which is of the same kind, and 
treated in the same manner. Its title might 
be, "The Inauguration of Solomon." The 
scheme of the allegory is alike in both ; but a 
diversity of matter occasions an alteration in 
the diction. For whereas one is employed in 
celebrating the magnificent triumphs of vic- 
tory, it is the design of the other to draw a 
pleasing picture of peace, and of that felicity 
which is her inseparable attendant. The style 
is therefore of a more even and temperate sort, 
and more richly ornamented. It abounds not 
with those sudden changes of the person 
speaking which dazzle and astonish ; but the 
imagery is borroAved from the delightful scenes 
with which creation cheers the sight, and the 
pencil of the divine artist is dipped in the softer 
colours of nature. And here we may take 
notice how peculiarly adapted to the genius 
of this kind of allegory the parabolical style 
is, on account of that great variety of natural 
images to be found in it. For as these images 
are capable of being employed in the illustra- 
tion of things divine and human, between 
Avhich there is a certain analogy maintained, 
so they easily afford that ambiguity which is 
necessary in this species of composition, where 
the language is applicable to each sense, and 
obscure in neither ; it comprehends both parts 
of the allegory, and may be clearly and dis- 
tinctly referred to one or the other. 

On this book Bishop Horsley remarks : — 
These Psalms go, in general, under the name 
of the Psalms of David. King David gave a 
regular and noble form to the musical part of 
the Jewish service. He was himself a great 
composer, both in poetry and music, and a 
munificent patron, no doubt, of arts in which 
he himself so much delighted and excelled. 
The Psalms, however, appear to be composi- 
tions of various authors, in various ages ; some 
much more ancient than the times of King 
David, some of a much later age. Of many, 
David himself was undoubtedly the author ; 
and that those of his composition were pro- 
phetic, we have David's own authority, which 
may be allowed to overpower a host of modern 
expositors. For thus King David, at the close 
of his life, describes himself and his sacred 
songs : " David, the son of Jesse, said, and 
the man who was raised up on high, the 
anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet 
psalmist of Israel, said, The Spirit of Jehovah 



PSA 



797 



PSA 



spake by me, and his word was in my tongue,' 
It was the word, therefore, of Jehovah's Spirit 
which was uttered by David's tongue. But it 
should seem, the Spirit of Jehovah would not 
be wanting to enable a mere man to make 
complaint of his own enemies, to describe his 
own sufferings just as he felt them, and his 
own escapes just as they happened. But the 
Spirit of Jehovah described by David's utter- 
ance what was known to that Spirit only, and 
that Spirit only could describe. So that, if 
David be allowed to have had any knowledge 
of the true subject of his own compositions, 
it was nothing in his own life, but something 
put into his mind by the Holy Spirit of God ; 
and the misapplication of the Psalms to the 
literal David has done more mischief than the 
misapplication of any other parts of the Scrip- 
tures among those who profess the belief of 
the Christian religion. 

The Psalms are all poems of the lyric kind, 
that is, adapted to music, but with great variety 
in the style of composition. Some are simply 
odes. . An ode is a dignified sort of song, nar- 
rative of the facts, either of public history or 
private life, in a highly adorned and figured 
style. But the figure in the Psalms is that 
which is peculiar to the Hebrew language, in 
which the figure gives its meaning Avith as 
much perspicuity as the plainest speech. Some 
are of the sort called elegiac, which are pa. 
thetic compositions upon mournful subjects. 
Some are ethic, delivering grave maxims of 
life, or the precepts of religion, in solemn, but 
for the most part simple, strains. Some are 
enigmatic, delivering the doctrines of religion 
in enigmata, contrived to strike the imagina- 
tion forcibly, and yet easy to be understood. 
In all these the author delivers the whole mat- 
ter in his own person. But a very great, I 
believe the far greater, part are a sort of dra- 
matic ode, consisting of dialogues between per- 
sons sustaining^certain characters. In these 
dialogue Psalms the persons are frequently the 
psalmist himself, or the chorus of priests and 
Levites, or the leader of the Levitical band, 
opening the ode with a proem declarative of 
the subject, and very often closing the whole 
with a solemn admonition drawn from what 
the other persons say. The other persons are 
Jehovah, sometimes as one, sometimes as an- 
other, of the three Persons ; Christ in his in- 
carnate state, sometimes before, sometimes 
after, his resurrection ; the human soul of 
Christ as distinguished from the divine essence. 
Christ, in his incarnate state, is personated 
sometimes as a priest, sometanes as a king, 
sometimes as a conqueror ; and in those Psalms 
in which he is introduced as a conqueror, the 
resemblance is very remarkable between this 
conqueror in the book of Psalms and the wai. 
rior on the white horse in the book of Revela- 
tion, who goes forth with a crown on his head, 
and a bow in his hand, conquering and to 
conquer. And the conquest in the Psalms is 
followed, like the conquest in the Revelation, 
by the marriage of the conqueror. These are 
circumstances of similitude which,, to any one 
versed in the prophetic style, prove beyond a 



doubt that the mystical conqueror is the same 
personage in both. 

PSALMODY. The service of the ancient 
Christian church usually began with reading 
or with the singing of psalms. We are not to 
understand this as if their psalmody was per- 
formed in one course of many psalms together, 
without intermission, but rather, with some 
respite, and a mixture of other parts of divine 
service, to make the whole more agreeable and 
delightful. As to the persons concerned in sing- 
ing the Psalms publicly in the church, they may 
be considered in four different respects, accord- 
ing to the different ways of psalmody ; for some- 
times the Psalms were sung by one person 
alone ; and sometimes the whole assembly 
joined together, men, women, and children : 
this was the most ancient and general practice. 
At other times the Psalms were sung alternate- 
ly ; the congregation dividing themselves into 
two parts, and singing verse for verse. Beside 
all these, there was yet a fourth way of singing, 
pretty common in the fourth century, which 
was, when a single person began the verse, 
and the people joined with him in the close. 

Psalmody was always esteemed a consider- 
able part of devotion, and upon that account 
was usually performed in the standing posture. 
As to the voice or pronunciation, used in 
singing, it was of two sorts, the plain song, 
and the more artificial ; the plain song was 
only a gentle inflexion, or turn of the voice, 
not very different from the chanting in our 
cathedrals ; the artificial song seems to have 
been a regular musical composition, like our 
anthems. It was no objection against the 
psalmody of the church, that she sometimes 
made use of psalms and hymns of human com- 
position, beside those of the inspired writers. 
St. Augustine himself made a psalm of many 
parts, in imitation of the hundred and nine- 
teenth, to preserve his people from the errors 
of the Donatists. St. Hilary and St, Ambrose 
likewise made many hymns, which were sung 
in their respective churches. But two corrup- 
tions crept into the psalmody, which the fa- 
thers declaim against with great zeal. The 
first was, the introducing secular music, or 
an imitation of the light airs of the theatre, 
in the devotions of the church. The other 
was, the regarding more the sweetness of the 
composition than the sense and meaning ; 
thereby pleasing the ear, without raising the 
affections of the soul. 

The use of musical instruments in singing 
of psalms, seems to be as ancient as psalmody 
itself. The first psalm we read of was sung 
to a timbrel, namely, that which Moses and 
Miriam sung after the deliverance of the chil- 
dren of Israel from Egypt ; and afterward, at 
Jerusalem, when the temple was built, musical 
instruments were constantly used at their pub- 
lie services. And this has been the common 
practice in all ages of the church. When the 
use of organs was first introduced, is not cer 
tainly known ; but we find, that about A. D, 
660, Constantino Copronymus, emperor of 
Constantinople, sent a present of an organ to 
King Pepin of France. 



PSA 



79S 



PUB 



Clement Marot, groom of the bed chamber 
to Francis I., king of France, was the first 
who engaged in translating the Psalms into 
metre. He versified the first fifty at the insti- 
gation of Vatablus, Hebrew professor at Paris ; 
and afterward, upon his return to Geneva, he 
made an acquaintance with Beza, who versified 
the rest, and had tunes set to them ; and thus 
they began to be sung in private houses, and 
afterward were brought into the churches of 
the French and other countries. In imitation 
of this version, Sternhold, one of the grooms 
of the privy chamber to our King Edward VI., 
undertook a translation of the Psalms into 
metre. He went through but thirty-seven of 
them, the rest being soon after finished by 
Hopkins and others. This translation was at 
first discountenanced by many of the clergy, 
who looked upon it as done in opposition to 
the practice of chanting the Psalms in the 
cathedrals. 

Early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 
metrical psalmody was introduced into this 
country. The new morning prayer began at 
St. Antholin's, London, when a psalm was 
sung in the Geneva fashion, all the congrega- 
tion, men, women, and boys singing together. 
Bishop Jewel says, that "the singing of psalms, 
begun in one church in London, did quickly 
spread itself, not only through the city, but in 
the neighbouring places ; sometimes at Paul's 
Cross six thousand people singing together," 

A curious controversy on this subject arose 
among the Dissenters in the end of the seven- 
teenth century. Whether singing in public 
worship had been partially discontinued dur- 
ing the times of persecution to avoid informers, 
or whether the miserable manner in which it 
was performed gave persons a distaste to it, so 
it appears, that in 1691, Mr. Benjamin Keach 
published a tract entitled, " The Breach Re- 
paired in God's Worship : or. Psalms, Hymns, 
&c, proved to be a Holy Ordinance of Jesus 
Christ." To us it may appear strange that 
such a point should be disputed ; but Mr. 
Keach was obliged to labour earnestly, and 
with a great deal of prudence and caution, to 
obtain the consent of his people to sing a 
hymn at the conclusion of the Lord's Supper. 
After six years more, they agreed to sing on 
the thanksgiving days ; but it required still 
fourteen years more before he could persuade 
them to sing every Lord's day ; and then it 
was only after the last prayer, that those who 
chose it might withdraw without joining in 
it ! Nor did even this satisfy these scrupulous 
consciences ; for, after all, a separation took 
place, and the inharmonious seceders formed 
a new church in May's Pond, where it was 
above twenty years longer before singing the 
praises of God could be endured. It is diffi- 
cult at this period to believe it ; but Mr. Ivimey 
quotes Mr. Crosby, as saying, that Mr. Keach's 
was the first church in which psalm singing 
was introduced. This remark, however, must 
probably be confined to the Baptist churches. 
The Presbyterians, it seems, were not quite so 
unmusical ; for the Directory of the Westmin- 
ster divines distinctly stated, that " it is the duty 



of Christians to praise God publicly by singing 
of Psalms together in the congregation." And 
beside the old Scotch Psalms, Dr. John Patrick, 
of the Charter house, made a version which 
was in veiy general use among Dissenters, 
Presbyterians, and Independents, before it was 
superseded by the far superior compositions of 
Dr. Watts. These Psalms, however, like those 
of the English and Scotch establishment, were 
drawled out in notes of equal length, without 
accent or variety. Even the introduction of 
the triple-time tunes, probably about the time 
of Dr. Watts's psalms^ gave also great offence 
to some people, because it marked the accent 
of the measure. Old Mr. Thomas Bradbury 
used to call this time "a long leg and a short 
one." The beautiful compositions of Dr. Watts, 
Mr. C. Wesley, and others, have produced a 
considerable revolution in modern psalmody. 
Better versions of the Psalms, and many excel- 
lent collections of hymns, are now in use, and 
may be considered as highly important gifts 
bestowed upon the modern church of God. 

PSALTERY. See Music. 

PTOLEMAIS. See Accho. 

PUBLICAN, a collector or receiver of the 
Roman revenues. Judea being added to the 
provinces of the Roman empire, and the taxes 
paid by the Jews directly to the emperor, the 
publicans were the officers appointed to collect 
them. The ordinary taxes which the Romans 
levied in the provinces were of three sorts : 
1, Customs upon goods imported and exported ; 
which tribute was therefore called portorium, 
from partus, " a haven." 2. A tax.upon cat- 
tle fed in certain pastures belonging to the 
Roman state, the number of which being kept 
in writing, this tribute was called scriptura. 
3. A tax upon corn, of which the government 
demanded a tenth part. This tribute was call- 
ed decuma^ These publicans are distinguished 
by Sigonius into three sorts or degree«y-^the 
farmers of the revenue, their partners, and 
their- securities ; in which he follows Polybius. 
These are called the mancipes, socii, and prcBdes, 
who were all under the quastore scerarii, that 
presided over the finances at Rome. The 
mancipes farmed the revenue of large districts 
or provinces, had the oversight of the inferior 
publicans, received their accounts and collec- 
tions, and transmitted them to the qucBstores 
CRrarii. They often let out their provinces in 
smaller parcels to the socii ; so called, because 
they were admitted to a share in the contract, 
perhaps for the sake of more easily raising the 
purchase money ; at least to assist in collect- 
ing the tribute. Both the mancipes and socii 
are therefore properly styled TcAwvai, from Ti\oiy 
trihutmn, and wvioixai, emo. They were obliged 
to procure prtBdes, or sureties, who gave secu- 
rity to the government for the fulfilment of the 
contract. The distribution of Sigonius, there- 
fore, or rather of Polybius, is not quite exact, 
since there were properly but two sorts of pub- 
licans, the mancipes and the socii. The former 
are, probably, those whom the Greeks call 
ap;^tr£Ao;va(, chiefs of the publicans; of which 
sort was Zaccheus. As they were superior to 
the common publicans in dignity, being mostly 



PUL 



799 



PUR 



of the equestrian order, so they were generally 
in their moral character. But as for the com- 
mon publicans, the collectors or receivers, as 
many of the socii were, they are spoken of 
with great contempt, by Heathens as well as 
Jews ; and particularly by Theocritus, who 
said, that " among the beasts of the wilder- 
ness, bears and lions are the most cruel ; 
among the beasts of the city, the publican and 
parasite." The reason of the general hatred 
to them was, doubtlegs, their rapine and ex- 
tortion. For, having a share in the farm of 
the tribute, at a certain rate, they were apt to 
oppress the people with illegal exactions, to 
raise as large a fortune as they could for them- 
selves. Beside, publicans were particularly 
odious to the Jews, who looked upon them to 
be the instruments of their subjection to the 
Roman emperors, to which they generally held 
it sinful for them to submit. They considered 
it as incompatible with their liberty to pay 
tribute to any foreign power, Luke xx, 22, &.c ; 
and those of their own nation that engaged in 
this employment they regarded as Heathens, 
Matthew xviii, 17. It is even said, that they 
would not allow them to enter into their tem- 
pie or synagogues, nor to join in prayers, nor 
even allow their evidence in a court of justice 
on any trial ; nor would they accept of their 
offerings in the temple. 

It appears by the Gospel that there were 
many publicans in Judea at the time of our 
Saviour. Zaccheus, probably, was one of the 
principal receivers, since he is called the chief 
of the publicans, Luke xix, 2 ; but St. Matthew 
was only an inferior publican. The Jews re- 
proached our Saviour for showing kindness to 
these persons, Luke vii, 34; and he himself 
ranks them with harlots, Matt, xxi, 31. Some 
of them, it should seem, had humbling views 
of themselves, Luke xviii, 10. Zaccheus as- 
sures our Lord, who had honoured him with a 
visit, that he was ready to give the half of his 
goods to the poor, Luke xix, 8, and to return 
fourfold of whatever he had unjustly acquired. 

PUBLIUS, the governor of Melita, Acts 
xxviii, 7-S. When St. Paul was shipwrecked 
on this island, Publius received him and his 
company into his house very kindly, and 
treated them for three days with great hu- 
manity. 

PUL, king of Assyria. He came into the 
land of Israel in the time of Man ahem, king 
of the ten tribes, 2 Kings xv, 19, &c, and 
invaded the kingdom' on the other side of 
Jordan. But Manahem, by a present of one 
thousand talents of silver, prevailed on the 
king of Assyria, not only to withdraw his 
forces, but to recognize his title to the crown 
of Israel before he left the kingdom. This is 
the first time that we find any mention made 
of the kingdom of Assyria since the days of 
Nimrod ; and Pul is the first monarch of that 
nation who invaded Israel, and began their 
transportation out of their own country. 

PULSE, >^p, Lev. xxiii, 14 ; 1 Sara, xvii, 17 ; 
2 Sam. xvii, 2S ; a term applied to those grains 
or seeds which grow in pods, as beans, peas, 
vetches, &c, from 'jic, a bean. The Vulgate 



renders this kali in 2 Sam. xvii, 28, frixum 
cicer, "parched peas." In Daniel i, 12, 16, 
the word O'plj, rendered pulse, may signify 
seeds in general. 

PUNISHMENTS OF THE HEBREWS. 
There were several sorts of punishments in 
use among the Jews which are mentioned in 
the Scripture. 1. The punishment of the 
cross. (See Cross.) 2. Suspension, Esther 
vii, 10 ; Joshua viii, 29 ; 2 Samuel xxi, 12. 
3. Stoning. 4. Fire. This punishment was 
common, Gen. xxxviii, 24 ; Leviticus xxi, 9. 
5. The rack or tympanum, mentioned Heb. 
xi, 35. Commentators are much divided about 
the meaning of this punishment ; but most of 
them are of opinion that the bastinado, or the 
punishment of the stick, is intended, and that 
the Apostle alludes to the cruelties exercised 
upon old Eleazar ; for, in 2 Mac. vi, 19, where 
his martyrdom is spoken of, it is said that he 
came to the tympanum. 6. The precipice, or 
throwing persons headlong from a rock, with 
a stone tied about the neck, 2 Chron. xxv, 12. 
7. Decapitation, Gen. xl, 19 ; Judges ix, 5 ; 
2 Kings X, 7 ; Matt, xiv, 8. 8. The punish- 
ment of the saw, or to be cut asunder in the 
middle, Heb. xi, 37. This punishment was 
not unknown to the Hebrews. Some think it 
was originally from the Persians or Chaldeans. 
9. Plucking out the eyes, Exod. xxi, 24. Some 
think this punishment was seldom executed, 
but the offender was made to suffer in his pro- 
perty rather than in his person : yet there are 
some instances on record. Judges xvi, 21 ; 
1 Sam. xi, 2 ; 2 Kings xxv, 7. 10. The cut- 
ting off the extremities of the feet and hands, 
Judges i, 5-7 ; 2 Sam. iv, 12. 

PUR, nic, KXrjpos, signifies lot. Pur, Phur, 
or Purim, was a solemn feast of the Jews, 
instituted in memory of the lots cast by 
Haman, the enemy of the Jews, Esther iii, 7. 
These lots were cast in the first month of the 
year, and gave the twelfth month of the same 
year for the execution of Haman's design, to 
destroy all the Jews in Persia. Thus the su- 
perstition of Haman, in crediting these lotSy 
caused his own ruin, and the preservation of 
the Jews, who, by means of Esther, had time 
to avert this blow. The Jews have exactly 
kept this feast down to our times. See Ha- 
MAN, Esther, and Mordecai. 

PURGATORY, a place in which, according 
to the church of Rome, the just, who depart 
out of this life, are supposed to expiate certain 
offences which do not merit eternal damnation. 
Broughton has e'hdeavoured to prove that this 
notion has been held by Pagans, Jews, and 
Mohammedans, as well as by Christians ; and 
that in the days of the Maccabees, the Jews 
believed that sin might be expiated by sacrifice 
after the death of the sinner. The arguments 
advanced for purgatory by the papists are 
these : Every sin, how slight soever, though 
no more than an idle word, as it is an offence 
to God, deserves punishment from him, and 
will be punished by him hereafter, if not can- 
celled by repentance here. 2. Such small sins 
do not deserve eternal punishment. 3. Few 
depart this life so pure as to be totally exempt 



PUR 



800 



PUR 



from spots of this nature, and from every kind 
of debt due to God's justice. 4. Therefore, 
few will escape without suffering something 
from his justice for such debts as they have 
carried with them out of this world, according 
to the rule of divine justice, by which he treats 
every soul hereafter according to his works, 
and according to the state in which he finds it 
in death. From these positions, which the 
papist considers as so many self-evident truths, 
he infers that there must be some third place 
of punishment ; for since the infinite holiness 
of God can admit nothing into heaven that is 
not clean and pure from all sin, both great and 
small, and his infinite justice can permit none 
to receive the reward of bliss, who as yet are 
not out of debt, but have something in justice 
to suffer, there must, of necessity, be some 
place or state, where souls departing this life, 
pardoned as to the eternal guilt of sin, yet 
obnoxious to some temporal penalty, or with 
the guilt of some venial faults, are purged and 
purified before their admittance into heaven. 
And this is what he is taught concerning pur- 
gatory ; though he know not where it is, of 
what nature the pains are, or how long each 
soul is detained there, yet he believes that 
those who are in this place are relieved by the 
pra,yers of their fellow members here on earth, 
as also by alms and masses offered up to God 
for their souls. And as for such as have no 
relations or friends to pray for them, or give 
alms to procure masses for their relief, they 
are not neglected by the church, which makes 
a general commemoration of all the faithful 
departed, in every mass, and in every one of 
the canonical hours of the divine office. Be- 
side the above arguments, the following pas- 
sages are alleged as proofs : 2 Mace, xii, 43-4.5 ; 
Matt, xii, 31, 32 ; 1 Cor. iii, 15 ; 1 Peter iii, 19. 
But it may be observed, 1. That the books of 
Maccabees have no evidence of inspiration, 
therefore quotations from them are not to be 
regarded. 2. If they were, the texts referred to 
would rather prove that there is no such place 
as. purgatory, since Judas did not expect the 
souls departed to reap any benefit from the 
sin-offering till the resurrection. The texts 
quoted from the Scriptures have no reference 
to the doctrine, as may be seen by consulting 
the context, and any just commentator upon 
it. 3. The Scriptures, in general, speak of 
departed souls going immediately, at death, to 
a fixed state of happiness or misery, and give 
us no idea of purgatory, Isaiah Ivii, 2 ; Rev. 
xiv, 13 ; Luke xvi, 22 ; 2 Cor. v, 8. 4. It is 
derogatory from the doctrine of the satisfac- 
tion of Christ, If Christ died for us, and re- 
deemed us from sin and hell, as the Scripture 
speaks, then the idea of farther meritorious 
suffering detracts from the perfection of his 
sacrifice, and places merit still in the creature ; 
a doctrine exactly opposite to the Scriptures. 

PURITANS. In England, the term Puri- 
tans was applied to those who wished for a 
farther degree of reformation in the church 
than was adopted by Queen Elizabeth ; and a 
purer form, not of faith, but of discipline and 
worship. It was a common name given to all 



who, from conscientious motives, though on 
different grounds, disapproved of the established 
religion, from the reformation under Elizabeth, 
to the Act of Uniformity in 1662. From that 
time to the revolution in 1688, as many as 
refused to comply with the established worship, 
(among whom were about two thousand clergy, 
men, and perhaps five hundred thousand peo- 
ple,) were denominated Nonconformists. From 
the passing of the Act of Toleration on the 
accession of William and Mary, the name of 
Nonconformists was changed to that of Pro- 
testant Dissenters. Prior to the grand rebellion 
in 1640, the Puritans were, almost without 
exception. Episcopalians ; but after the famous 
"League and Covenant" of those turbulent 
times the greater part of them became Presby- 
terians. Some, however, were Independents, 
and some Baptists. The objections of the lat- 
ter were more fundamental ; they disapproved 
of all national churches, as such, and disavowed 
the authority of human legislation in matters 
of faith and worship. The persecutions carried 
on against the Puritans during the reigns of 
Elizabeth and the Stuarts served to lay the 
foundation of a new empire, and eventually a 
vast republic, in the western world. Thither, 
as into a wilderness, they fled from the face of 
their persecutors ; and, being protected in the 
free exercise of their religion, continued to in- 
crease, until at length they became an inde- 
pendent nation. The different principles, 
however, on which they had originally divided 
from the church establishment at home, ope- 
rated in a way that might have been expected, 
when they came to the possession of the civil 
power abroad. Those who formed the colony 
of Massachusetts having never relinquished 
the principle of a national church, and of the 
pov/er of the civil magistrate in matters of faith 
and.worship, were less tolerant than those who 
settled at New Plymouth, at Rhode Island, and 
Providence Plantations. The very men who 
had-just escaped the persecutions of the English 
prelates, now, in their turn, persecuted others 
who dissented from them ; until, at length, the 
liberal system of toleration established in the 
parent country at the revolution, extended to 
the colonies, and in a good measure put an end 
to these censurable proceedings. 

PURPLE, pJiN, Exodus xxv, 4, &c ; zsop- 
(pvpa, Mark xv, 17, 20 ; Luke xvi, 19 ; John 
xix, 2, 5 ; Rev. xvii, 4 ; xviii, 12, 16. This is 
supposed to be the very precious colour ex- 
tracted from the purpura or murex, a species 
of shell fish ; and the same with the famous 
Tyrian dye, so costly, and so much celebrated 
in antiquity. The purple dye is called in 
1 Mace, iv, 23, " purple of the sea," or sea 
purple ; it being the blood or juice of a tur- 
binated shell fish, which the Jews call \'\t)n. 
(See Scarlet.) Among the blessings pro- 
nounced by Moses upon the tribes of Israel, 
those of Zebulun and Issachar are, "They 
shall suck of the abundance of the seas, and 
of the treasures hid in the sand," Dent, xxxiii, 
19. Jonathan Ben Uzziel explains the latter 
clause thus : " From the sand are produced 
looking glasses, and glass in general; the 



QUA 



801 



QUI 



treasures, the method of finding and working 
which, was revealed to these tribes." Several 
ancient writers inform us, that there were 
havens in the coasts of the Zebulunites, in 
which the sand proper for making glass was 
found. The words of Tacitus are remarkable : 
" Et Belus amnis Judaico mari illabitia; circa 
ejus OS lect(B arencR adynixto nitro in vitrum ex~ 
coquuntur." " The river Belus falls into the 
Jewish sea, about whose mouth those sands 
mixed with nitre are collected, out of which 
glass is formed." But it seems much more 
natural to explain "the treasures hid in the 
sand," of those highly valuable 'miirices and 
■purpurcB which were found on the sea coast, 
near the country of Zebulun and Issachar, and 
of which those tribes partook in common with 
their Heathen neighbours of Tyre, who ren- 
dered the curious dyes made from those shell 
fish so famous among the Romans by the 
names of Sarranum ostrmn, Tyrii colores. In 
reference to the purple vestment, Luke xvi, 
19, it may be observed that this was not ap- 
propriately a royal robe. In the earlier times 
it. was the dress of any of high rank. Thus all 
the courtiers wei-e styled by the historians pwr- 
purati. This colour is more properly crimson 
than purple ; for the LXX., Josephus, and 
Phik), constantly use rzopcp^pav to express the 
Hebrew jDJix, by which the Talmudists under- 
stood crimson ; and that this Hebrew word 
expressed, not the Tyrian purple, but that 
brought to the city from another country, ap- 
pears from Ezek. xxvii, 7. The purple robe 
put on our Saviour, John xix, 2, 5, is explain- 
ed by a Roman custom, the dressing of a per- 
son in the robes of state, as the investiture of 
office. Hence the robe brought by Herod's or 
the Roman soldiers, scoffingly, was as though 
it had been the pictce vestes usually sent by 
the Roman senate. In Acts xvi, 14, Lydia is 
said to be "a seller of purple." Mr. Harmer 
styles purple the most sublime of all earthly 
colours, having the gaudiness of red, of which 
it retains a shade, softened with the gravity of 
blue. 

PUTEOLI, so called from its baths of hot 
water, a city of Campania, in Italy ; now call- 
ed Pozzuoli, in a province of the kingdom of 
Naples, called Terra di Lavoro, and about 
eight miles from Naples. St. Paul stayed a 
week with the Christians of this place, in his* 
journey as a prisoner to Rome, Acts xxviii, 
13. The Alexandrian merchant vessels pre- 
ferred Puteoli to all the harbours in Italy, and 
here they deposited their rich freights. They 
conducted the ships adorned with wreaths and 
festive garments, in the form of a fleet, one 
after another, into the harbour, where they 
were received with the greatest demonstrations 
of friendship. Such was the case with the 
sale of Alexandrian commodities throughout 
Italy. According to the course then pursued, 
the vessel in which St. Paul sailed went direct 
into this harbour. 

QUAIL, iVif, Exod. xvi, 13 ; Num. xi, 31, 
32 ; Psalm cv, 10 ; a bird of the gallinaceous 
kind. Hasselfjuist, mentioning the quail of 
52 



the larger kind, says, " It is of the size of the 
turtle dove. I have met with it in the wilder- 
ness of Palestine, near the shores of the Dead 
Sea and the Jordan, between Jordan and 
Jericho, and in the deserts of Arabia Petrea. 
If the food of the Israelites was a bird, this is 
certainly it ; being so common in the places 
through which they passed." It is said that 
God gave quails to his people in the wilder- 
ness upon two occasions : first, within a few 
days after they had passed the Red Sea, Exod,- 
xvi, 3-13. The second time was at the en^ 
campment at the place called in Hebrew, 
Kibroth-hataavah, the graves of lust. Num. 
xi, 32 ; Psalm cv, 40. Both of these happened 
in the spring, when the quails passed from 
Asia into Europe. They are then to be found 
in great quantities upon the coast of the Red 
Sea and Mediterranean. God caused a wind 
to arise that drove them within and about the 
camp of the Israelites ; and it is in this that 
the miracle consists, that they were brought 
so seasonably to this place, and in so great 
number as to furnish food for above a million 
of persons for more than a month. The He- 
brew word shalav signifies " a quail," by the 
agreement of the ancient interpreters. And 
the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic languages 
call them nearly by the same name. The Sep. 
tuagint, Symmachus, and most of commenta- 
tors, both ancient and modern, understand it 
in the same manner; and with them agree 
Philo, Josephus, ApoUinaris, and the rabbins ; 
but Ludolphus has endeavoured to prove that 
a species of locust is spoken of by Moses. 
Dr. Shaw answers, that the holy psalmist, in 
describing this particular food of the Israelites, 
by calling the animals feathered fowls, entirely 
confutes this supposition. And it slrould be 
recollected, that this miracle was performed in 
compliance with the wish of the people that 
they might have flesh to eat. 

QUAKERS. See Friends. 

QUESTIONS. Among the ancients no 
pastime was more common than that of pro- 
posing and answering difficult questions. The 
person who solved the question was honoured 
with a reward ; he who failed in the attempt 
suffered a certain punishment; both the re- 
wards and penalties were varied according to 
the disposition of the company. That the' 
custom of proposing riddles was very ancient, 
and derived from the eastern nations, appears 
from the story of Samson, in the book of 
Judges, who proposed one to the Philistines at 
his nuptial feast. Nor were these question^ 
confined to entertainments, but, in the primi- 
tive times, were proposed on other occasions^ 
by those who desired to make proof of another's 
wisdom and learning. Agreeably to this cus- 
tom, the queen of Sheba came to prove Solo- 
mon with hard questions, I Kings x, 1. 

QUIETISTS, the disciples of Michael de 
Molinos, a Spanish priest, who flourished in 
the seventeenth century, and wrote a book 
called " The Spiritual Guide." He had many 
disciples in Spain, Italy, France, and the 
Netherlands. Some pretend that he borrowed 
his principles from the Spanish IllumJBattJ 



RAB 



802 



RAB 



and M. Gregoire will have it that they came 
originally from the Persian Soofees ; while 
others no less confidently derive them from the 
Greek Hesycasts. The Quietists, however, 
deduce their principles from the Scriptures. 
They argue thus : "The Apostle tells us, that 
* the Spirit makes intercession for' or in ' us.' 
Now if the Spirit pray in us, v/e must resign 
ourselves to his impulses, by remaining in a 
state of absolute rest, or quietude, till we 
attain the perfection of the unitive life," a life 
of union with, and, as it should seem, of ab. 
sorption in, the Deity. They contend, that 
true religion consists in the present calm and 
tranquillity of a mind removed from all external 
and finite things, and centered in God; and in 
such a pure love of the supreme Being, as is 
independent of all prospect of interest or re- 
ward. To prove that our love to the Deity 
must be disinterested, they allege, that the 
Lord hath made all things for himself, assaith 
the Scripture ; and it is for his glory that he 
wills our happiness. To conform, therefore, 
to the great end of our creation, we must pre- 
fer God to ourselves, and not desire our own 
happiness but for his glory ; otherwise we 
shall go contrary to his order. As the per- 
fections of the Deity are intrinsically amiable, 
it is our glory and perfection to go out of our- 
selves, to be lost and absorbed in the pure love 
of infinite beauty. Madam Guion, a woman 
of fashion in France, born 1648, becoming 
pious, was a warm advocate of these princi- 
ples. She asserted, that the means of arriving 
at this perfect love, are prayer and the self- 
denial enjoined in the Gospel. Prayer she 
defines to be the entire bent of the soul toward 
its divine origin. Some of her pious canticles 
were translated by the poet Cowper, and repre- 
sent her sentiments to the best advantage. 
Fenelon, the amiable archbishop of Cambray, 
also favoured these sentiments in liis celebrated 
publication, entitled, "The Maxims of the 
Baints." The distinguishing tenet in his 
theology was the doctrine of the disinterested 
love of God for his own excellencies, inde- 
pendent of his relative benevolence : an im- 
portant feature also in the system of Madam 
Guion, who, with the good archbishop, was 
persecuted by the pope and by Bossuet. See 
Mystics. 

RAB. The title rabbi, with several others 
from the same root, 22~\, magnus est, vel mul- 
tiplicatus est, began first to be assumed, ac- 
cording to Godwin, as a distinguishing title of 
honour by men of learning, about the time of 
the birth of Christ. We find it anciently 
given, indeed, to several magistrates and 
officers of state. In Esther i, 8, it is said, the 
king appointed inu 2v'73, which we render 
" all the officers of his house." In Jeremiah 
xli, 1, we read of the -|'7Dn i^n, "the princes of 
the king." In Job xxxii, 9, it is said, that the 
C301, which we render " great men, are not 
always wise ;" a rendering which well ex- 
presses the original meaning of the word. It 
was not therefore in those days properly a 
title of honour, belonging to any particular 



office or dignity, in church or state ; but all 
who were of superior rank and condition in 
life were called ao-i. We do not find the 
prophets, or other men of learning in the Old 
Testament, affecting any title beside that 
which denoted their oflace ; and they were 
contented to be addressed by their bare names. 
The first Jewish rabbi, said to have been dis- 
tinguished with any title of honour, was 
Simeon, the son of Hillel, who succeeded his 
father as president of the sanhedrim ; and his 
title was that of rabban. The later rabbies 
tell us, this title was conferred with a good 
deal of ceremony. When a person had gone 
through the schools and was thought worthy 
of the degree of rabbi, he Avas first placed in a 
chair somewhat raised above the company ; 
then were delivered to him a key and a table 
book : the key, as a symbol of the power or 
authority now conferred upon him, to teach 
that knowledge to others which he had learned 
himself; and this key he afterward wore as a 
badge of his honour, and when he died it was 
buried with him : the table book was a symbol 
of his diligence in his studies, and of his en- 
deavouring to make farther improvements in 
learning. The next ceremony in the creation 
of a rabbi was the imposition of hands on him 
by the delegates of the sanhedrim, practised in 
imitation of Moses's ordaining Joshua by this 
rite, to succeed him in his office. Num. xxvif, 
18 ; Deut. xxxiv, 9. And then they proclaim- 
ed his title. 

According to Maimonides, the imposition 
of hands was not looked upon to be essential ; 
but was sometimes omitted. They did not 
always, saith he, lay their hands on the head 
of the elder to be ordained ; but called him 
rabbi, and said, " Behold thou art ordained, 
and hast power," &c. We find this title given 
to John the Baptist, John iii, 2G ; and fre- 
quently to our blessed Saviour ; as by John's 
disciples, by Nicodemus, and by the people 
that followed, John i, 38 ; iii, 2 ; vi, 20. The 
reason of our Saviour's prohibiting his disci- 
ples to be called rabbi is expressed in these 
words : " Be not ye called rabbi, for one is 
your master, even Christ," KaOrjYrjrfjg, your 
guide and conductor, on whose word and 
instructions alone you are to depend in mat- 
ters of rehgion and salvation. Accordingly 
the inspired Apostles pretend to nothing more 
than, as the ambassadors of Christ, to deliver 
his instructions ; and, for their own part, they 
expressly disclaim all dominion over the faith 
and consciences of men, 2 Cor. i, 24; v, 20. 
The Jewish writers distinguish between the 
titles rab, rabbi, rabban. As for rab and rabbi, 
the only difference between them is, that rab 
was the title of such as had had their educa- 
tion, and taken their degree, in some foreign 
Jewish school ; suppose at Babylon, where 
there was a scliool or academy of considerable 
note ; rabbi was the title of such as were edu- 
cated in the land of Judea, who were accounted 
more honourable than the others. But as for 
rabban, it was the highest title ; which, they 
say, was never conferred on more than seven 
persons, namely, on R. Simeon,, five of his 



RAB 



803 



RAI 



descendants, and on R. Jochanan, who was of 
a different family. It was on this account, it 
should seem, that the blind man gave this title 
to Christ, Mark x, 51 ; being convinced that 
he was possessed of divine power, and worthy 
of the most honourable distinctions. And 
Mary Magdalene, when she saw Christ after 
his resurrection, "said unto him, Rabboni," 
John XX, 16, that is, my rabban, like my lord 
in English ; for rabbon is the same with rab- 
ban, only pronounced according to the Syriac 
dialect. 

* There were several gradations among the 
Jews before the dignity of rabbin, as among 
us, before the degree of doctor. The head of a 
school was called chacham, or wise. He had 
the head seat in the assemblies and in the syna- 
gogues. He reprimanded the disobedient, and 
could excommunicate them ; and this procured 
him great respect. In their schools they sat 
upon raised chairs, and their scholars were 
seated at their feet. Hence St. Paul is said 
to have studied at the feet of Rabbi Gamaliel, 
Acts xxii, 3. The studies of the rabbins are 
employed either on the text of the law, or the 
traditions, or the cabbala ; these three objects 
form so many different schools and different 
sorts of rabbins. Those who chiefly apply to 
the letter of Scripture are called Caraites, 
Literalists. Those who chiefly study the tra- 
ditions and oral laws of the Talmud are called 
Rabbanists. Those who give themselves to 
their secret and mysterious divinity, letters 
and numbers, are called Cabbalists, Tradition- 
aries. The rabbins are generally very ignorant 
m history, chronology, philology, antiquity, 
and geography. They understand the holy 
language but imperfectly. They know not 
the true signification of a multitude of words 
in the sacred text. They are prodigiously 
conceited about their traditions, so that there 
is very little profit in reading them ; and ex- 
perience shows that most who have applied 
themselves to peruse their books, have been 
but little benefited by tliem, and have enter- 
tained a perfect contempt of their understand- 
ing and their works. The chief function of 
the rabbins is to preach in the synagogue, to 
make public prayers there, and io interpret 
the law ; they have the power of binding and 
loosing, that is, of declaring what is forbidden, 
and what allowed. When the synagogue is 
poor and small, there is but one rabbin, who 
at the same time discharges the office of a 
judge and a teacher. But when the Jews are 
numerous and powerful, they appoint three 
pastors, and a house of judgment, where all 
their civil affairs are determ_ined. Then the 
rabbin applies himself to instruction only, un- 
less it be thought proper to call him into the 
council to give his advice, in Vv'hich case he 
takes the chief place. 

RABBATH, or RABBAT-AMMON, the 
capital city of the Ammonites, situated beyond 
Jordan. See Ammon. 

RABBATH-MOAB, the capital city of the 
Moabites, calied otherwise Ar, or Areopolis. 
See MoAB. 

RABBI. SeeRAB. 



RABSHAKEII, a chief butler, or cupbearel'. 
This is a term of dignity, and not a proper 
name. Rabshakeh was sent by Sennacherib^, 
king of Assyria, to summon Hezekiah to sur- 
render Jerusalem, 2 Kings xviii, 17, 18 ; xix, 4; 
Isaiah xxxvi. 

RACA, a Syriac word which properly signi- 
fies empty, vain, beggarly, foolish, and which 
includes in it a strong idea of contempt. Our 
Saviour pronounces a censure on every person 
using this term to his neighbour, Matt, v, 22-. 
Lightfoot assures us that, in the writings of 
the Jews, the wordVoca is a term of the utmost 
contempt, and that it was usual to pronounce 
it with marked signs of indignation. 

RACHEL, the daughter of Laban, and sister 
of Leah. The Prophet Jeremiah, xxxi, 15, and 
St. Mattiiew, ii, 18, have put Rachel for the 
tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, the children 
of Joseph, the son of Rachel. This prophecy 
was completed when these two tribes were 
carried into captivity beyond the Euphrates ; 
and St. Matthew made application of it to what 
happened at Bethlehem, when Herod put to 
death the children of two years old and under. 
Then Rachel, who was buried there, might be 
said to make her lamentations for the death 
of so many innocent children sacrificed to the 
jealousy of a wicked monarch. 

RAHAB was a hostess of the city of Jericho-, 
who received and concealed the spies sent by 
Joshua. The Hebrew calls her Zona, Joshua 
ii, 1, which Jerom and many others understand 
of a prostitute. Others think she was only a 
hostess or innkeeper, and that this is the true 
signification of the original word. Had she 
been a woman of ill fame, would Salmon, a 
prince of the tribe of Judah, have taken her 
to wife ? Or could he have done it by the law ? 
Beside, the spies of Joshua would hardly have 
gone to lodge with a common harlot, they 
who were charged with so nice and dangerous 
a commission. Those who maintain that she 
was a harlot, pretend that she was perhaps 
one of those women who prostituted them- 
selves in honour of the Pagan deities ; as if 
this could extenuate her crime, or the scandal 
of her profession if she was a public woman. 
It is also observable that su<jh women are 
called kadeshah, not zona, in the Hebrew. 
Rahab married Salmon, a prince of Judah, by 
whom she had Boaz, from whom descended 
Obed, Jesse, and David. Thus Jesus Christ 
condescended to reckon this Canaanitish wo- 
man among his ancestors. St. Paul magnifies 
the faith of Rahab, Heb. xi, 31. 

Rahab is also a name of Egypt, Isa. xxx, 7 ; 
Ii, 9. 

RAIMENT. In addition to what occurs 
under the article Habits, it may be observed 
that to make presents of changes of raiment, 
Gen.xlv, 22, has always been common among 
all ranks of orientals. The perfuming of rai- 
ment with sweet-scented spices or extracts is 
also still a custom, which explains the smell 
of Jacob's raiment. A coat or robe of many 
colours, such as Jacob gave to Joseph, is 
also a mark of distinction. The Turks at 
Aleppo thus array their sons ; and, in the time 



RAV 



804 



RAV 



of Sisera, a coat of divers colours is mentioned 
among the rich spoils which fell to the con- 
querors. A frequent change of garments is 
also very common both to show respect and 
to display opulence. Is there an allusion to 
this in Psalm cii, 26 : " As a vesture shalt thou 
change them, and they shall be changed ?" 
If so, it conveys the magnificent idea of the 
almighty Creator investing himself with the 
whole creation as with a robe, and having laid 
that aside, by new creations, or the successive 
production of beings, clothing himself with 
others, at his pleasure. 

RAIN, the vapours exhaled by the sun, 
vii^hich descend from the clouds to water the 
earth, Eccles. xi, 3. The sacred writers often 
speak of the rain of the former and latter sea- 
son, Deut. xi, 14 ; Hosea vi, 3. Twice in the 
year there generally fell plenty of rain in 
Judea ; in the beginning of the civil year, 
about September or October ; and half a year 
after, in the month of Abib, or March, which 
was the first month in the ecclesiastical or 
sacred year, whence it is called the latter rain 
in the first month, Joel ii, 23. (See Canaan.) 
The ancient Hebrews compared elocution, and 
even learning or doctrine, to rain : " My doc- 
trine shall drop as the rain," Deut. xxxii, 2. 

RAMESES, or RAAMSES, a city supposed 
to have been situated in the eastern part of 
Egypt, called the land of Goshen, which was 
also hence termed the land of Rameses. It 
was one of the cities built by the Israelites as 
a treasure city, as it is translated in our Bibles ; 
probably a store city, or, as others interpret it, 
a fortress. Its position may be fixed about six 
or eight miles above the modern Cairo, a little 
to the south of the Babylon of the Persians, 
the ancient Letopolis ; as Josephus says that 
the children of Israel, after quitting this place, 
in their first march to Succoth, passed by the 
latter city. 

RAMOTH, a famous city in the mountains 
of Gilead, 1 Kings iv, 13. It is often called 
Ramoth-Gilead. Josephus calls it Ramathan, 
or Aramatha. The city belonged to the tribe 
of Gad, Deut. iv, 43. It was assigned for a 
dwelling of the Levites, and was one of the 
cities of refuge beyond Jordan, Joshua xx, 8 ; 
xxi, 38. It became famous during the reigns 
of the latter kings of Israel, and was the occa- 
sion of several wars between them and the 
kings of Damascus, who had made a conquest 
of it, which the sovereigns of Israel endea- 
voured to regain, 1 Kings xxii, 3-5. Eusebius 
says, that Ramoth was fifteen miles from Phila- 
delphia toward the east. St. Jerom places it 
in the neighbourhood of Jabbok, and conse- 
quently to the north of Philadelphia. 

RAVEN, 3-113;, in Chaidee, orha, in Syriac, 
croac, in Latin, corvus, Gen. viii, 7 ; Lev. xi, 
15 ; Deut. xiv, 14 ; 1 Kings xvii, 4, 6 ; Job 
xxxviii, 41 ; Psalm cxlvii, 9 ; Prov. xxx, 17 ; 
Cant. V, 11 ; Isa, xxxiv, 11 ; Kopa^, Luke xii, 24; 
a well known bird of prey. All the interpret- 
ers agree that oreb signifies the raven, from 
oreh, "evening," on account of its colour. 
Michaelis, in proposing a question respecting 
certain birds, says of the orch, " II est decide, 



que c'est le corheaii ; il seroit done superflu de le 
demander. Mais je desirerois plus de certitude 
sur le nom Syriaque des corbeauz.''^ [It is set- 
tled that this is the raven ; it would therefore 
be superfluous to investigate it. But I could 
wish more certainty respecting the Syriac 
name of ravens.] One can hardly doubt that 
it is taken from the note of this bird. On the 
decrease of the waters of the flood, so that the 
tops of the mountains became visible, Noah 
sent forth out of one of the windows of the ark 
a raven, a bold and adventurous bird, by w^y 
of experiment, to see whether the waters were 
sunk or abated. Forty days the violent rain 
had continued ; and he might think this, there- 
fore, a likely time for the waters to run off 
again. In the original text, in the Samaritan, 
in the Chaidee and Arabic, it is said that the 
raven "returned" to the ark; but the Greek 
interpreters, the Syriac, the Latin, and most 
of the eminent fathers and commentators, say 
that it did not return any more. Here are 
great authorities on both sides , but the latter 
reading, though so contrary in sense to the 
other, yet in the Hebrew is not very different 
in the form of the letters, and appears to be 
the better reading of the two. For if the raven 
had returned, what occasion had Noah to send 
forth a dove ? Or why did he not take the 
raven in unto him into the ark, as he did after- 
ward the dove ? Or why did he not send forth 
the same raven again, as he did afterward the 
same dove again ? It is not improperly ex- 
pressed in our translation, that "the raven 
went forth to and fro," flying hither and 
thither, "until the waters were dried up from 
off" the face of the earth." He found, perhaps, 
in the higher grounds, some of the carcasses 
of those who had perished in the deluge. 

The Prophet Elijah was in his retirement 
fed by this bird. A writer, indeed, in the Me- 
moirs of Literature, for April, 1710, endea- 
vours to show, from many authors, that there 
was in the country of Bethschan, in Decapo- 
lis, by the brook Cherith or Carith, a little 
town called Aorabi or Orbo, Judges vii, 25 ; 
Isa. X, 6 ; and he therefore explains the word 
orebim, which, in 1 Kings xvii, 4, we translate 
" ravens," of the inhabitants of that village, 
some of whom, he contends, daily carried 
bread and flesh to Elijah, who had retired to 
and lay in a cave in the neighbourhood. On 
the other hand, Scheuchzer ably vindicates 
the commonly received opinion. The editor 
of Calmet, also, in the appendix, under the 
article Elijah, has some pertinent observations 
on this subject. " We ought to consider," says 
he, " 1. That Ahab sought Elijah with avidity, 
and took an oath of every people, no doubt, 
also, in his dominions, that he was not con- 
cealed among its inhabitants ; his situation, 
therefore, required the utmost privacy, even to 
solitude. 2. That when the brook Cherith 
was dried up, the prophet was obliged to quit 
his asylum, which he needed not to have done, 
had a people been his suppliers, for they could 
have brought him water as well as food." 

In Psalm cxlvii, 9, it is said, "The Lord 
giveth to the beast his food, and to the young 



REA 



805 



REA 



ravens which cry." And in Job xxxviii, 41, 
"Who provideth for the raven his food, when 
his young ones cry unto God, wandering for 
want of meat?" Job and the psalmist may 
ailude to what is said by some naturalists, that 
the ravens drive out their young ones early 
from their nests, and oblige them to seek food 
for their own sustenance. The same kind 
Providence which furnishes support to his 
intelligent offspring is not unmindful of the 
wants, or inattentive to the desires, of the 
meanest of his creatures. 

Lo, the young ravens, from their nest exiled, 

On hunger's wing attempt the aerial wild ! 

Who leads their wanderings, and their least supplies'? 

To God ascend their importuning cries. 

Christ instructs his disciples, from the same 
circumstance, to trust in the care a4:id kindness 
of Heaven : " Consider the ravens ; for they 
neither sow nor reap, neither have storehouse, 
nor barn ; and God feedeth them. How much 
better are ye than the fowls !" Luke xii, 24. 
Solomon, speaking of the peculiar regard and 
veneration due to the worthy persons and 
salutary instructions of parents, observes, that 
an untimely fate,, and the want of decent inter- 
ment, may be expected from contrary con- 
duct ; and that the leering eye, which throws 
wicked contempt on a good father, and inso- 
lent disdain on a tender mother, shall be dug 
out of the unburied exposed corpse by the 
ravens of the valley, and eaten up by the 
young eagles, Prov. xxx, 17. It was a com- 
mon punishment in the east, and one which 
the orientals dreaded above all others, to ex- 
pose in the open fields the bodies of evil doers 
that had suffered by the laws of their offended 
country, to be devoured by the beasts of the 
field, and the fowls of heaven. The wise man 
insinuates that the raven makes his first and 
keenest attack on the eye, which perfectly 
corresponds with his habits, for he always 
begins his banquet with that part. Isiodore 
says of him. Prima in cadaveribus occulum 
petit; [he attacks first the eye of the dead;] 
and Epictetus, Ol fiev KopdKCi rmv TZT£\£VTriK6T(i)v 
Toiis 6(pda\novg \vixaiv6vTaL, " the ravens devour 
the eyes of the dead." Many other testimo- 
nies might be adduced, but these are sufficient 
to justify the allusion in the proverb. 

The raven, it is well known, delights in 
solitude. He frequents the ruined tower or 
the deserted habitation. In Isaiah, xxxiv, 11, 
it is accordingly foretold that the raven, with 
other birds of similar dispositions, should fix 
his abode in the desolate houses of Edom. In 
the Septuagint and other versions the Hebrew 
word for desolation is rendered raven. The 
meaning is, that in those splendid palaces, 
where the voice of joy and gladness was heard, 
and every sound which could ravish the ear 
and subdue the heart, silence was, for the 
wickedness of their inhabitants, to hold her 
reign for ever, interrupted only by the scream 
of the cormorant and the croaking of the 
raven. 

READING. In the countries of the Levant 
the people never read silently, but go on in a 
kind of singing voice, aloud. The eunuch 



was probably thus reading when Philip over- 
heard him, and finding that he was reading 
the Scriptures, said, " Understandest thou 
what thou readest ?" 

REASON, Use of, in Religion. . The sub- 
lime, incomprehensible nature of some of che 
Christian doctrines has so completely subdued 
the understanding of many pious men, as to 
make them think it presumptuous to apply 
reason in any way to the revelations of God ; 
and the many instances in which the simplicity 
of truth has been corrupted by an alliance 
with philosophy confirm them in the belief 
that it is safer, as well as more respectable, to 
resign their minds to devout impressions, than 
to exercise their understandings in any specu- 
lations upon sacred subjects. Enthusiasts and 
fanatics of all different names and sects agree 
in decrying the use of reason, because it is the 
very essence of fanaticism to substitute, in 
place of the sober deductions of reason, the 
extravagant fancies of a disordered imagina- 
tion, and to consider these fancies as the 
immediate illumination of the Spirit of God. 
Insidious writers in the deistical controversy 
have pretended to adopt those sentiments of 
humility and reverence, which are inseparable 
from true Christians, and even that total sub- 
jection of reason to faith which characterizes 
enthusiasts. A pamphlet was published about 
the middle of the last century that made a 
noise in its day, although it is now forgotten, 
entitled, " Christianity not founded on Argu- 
ment," which, while to a careless reader it 
may seem to magnify the Gospel, does in 
reality tend to undermine our faith, by sepa- 
rating it from a rational assent ; and Mr. 
Hume, in the spirit of this pamphlet, concludes 
his Essay on Miracles with calling those dan- 
gerous friends or disguised enemies to the 
Christian religion who have undertaken to 
defend it by the principles of human reason : 
"Our most holy religion," he says, with a 
disingenuity very unbecoming his respectable 
talents, " is founded on faitli, not on reason ;" 
and, "mere reason is insufficient to convince 
us of its veracity." The church of Rome, in 
order to subject the minds of her votaries to 
her authority, has reprobated the use of reason 
in matters of religion. She has revived an 
ancient position, that things may be true in 
theology which are false in philosophy; and 
she has, in some instances, made the merit of 
faith to consist in the absurdity of that which 
was believed. 

The extravagance of these positions has 
produced, since the Reformation, an opposite 
extreme. While those who deny the truth of 
revelation consider reason as in all respects a 
sufficient guide, the Socinians, who admit that 
a revelation has been made, employ reason as 
the supreme judge of its doctrines, and boldly 
strike out of their creed every article that is 
not altogether conformable to those notions 
which may be derived from the exercise of 
reason. These controversies concerning the 
use of reason in matters of religion are dis- 
putes, not about words, but about the essence 
of Christianity. But a few plain observations 



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are sufficient to ascertain where the truth lies 
in this subject. 

The first use of reason in matters of religion 
is to examine the evidences of revelation. For, 
the more entire the submission which we con- 
sider as due to every thing that is revealed, we 
have the more need to be satisfied that any 
system which professes to be a divine revela- 
tion does really come from God. 

After the exercise of reason has established 
in our minds a firm belief that Christianity is 
of divine original, the second use of reason is 
to learn what are the truths revealed. As 
these truths are not in our days communicated 
to any by immediate inspiration, the knowledge 
of them is to be acquired only from books 
transmitted to us with satisfying evidence that 
they were written above seventeen hundred 
years ago, in a remote country and foreign 
language, under the direction of the Spirit of 
God. In order to attain the meaning of these 
books we must study the language in which 
they were written ; and we must study also 
the manners of the times, and the state of the 
countries, in which the writers lived ; because 
these are circumstances to which an original 
author is often alluding, and by which his 
phraseology is generally affected ; we must lay 
together different passages in which the same 
word or phrase occurs, because without this 
labour we cannot ascertain its precise signifi- 
cation ; and we must mark the difference of 
style and manner which characterizes different 
writers, because a right apprehension of their 
meaning often depends upon attention to this 
difference. All this supposes the application 
of grammar, history, geography, chronology, 
and criticism in matters of religion ; that is, 
it supposes that the reason of man had been 
previously exercised in pursuing these different 
branches of knowledge, and that our success 
in attaining the true sense of Scripture depends 
upon the diligence with which we avail our- 
selves of the progress that has been made in 
them. It is obvious that every Cliristian is 
not capable of making this application. But 
this is no argument against the use of reason, 
of which we are now speaking. For they who 
use translations and commentaries rely only 
upon the reason of others, instead of exer- 
cising their own. The several branches of 
knowledge have been applied in every age by 
some persons for the benefit of others ; and 
the progress in sacred criticism, which dis- 
tinguishes the present times, is nothing else 
but the continued application, in elucidating 
the Scripture, of reason enlightened by every 
kind of subsidiary knowledge, and very much 
improved in this kind of exercise by the em- 
ployment which the ancient classics have 
given it since the revival of letters. 

After the two uses of reason that have been 
illustrated, a third comes to be mentioned, 
which may be considered as compounded of 
both. Reason is of eminent use in repelling 
the attacks of the adversaries of Christianity. 
When men of erudition, of philosophical acute- 
ness, and of accomplished taste, direct their 
talents against our religion, the cause is very 



much hurt by an unskilful defender. He can- 
not unravel their sophistry ; he does not see 
the amount and the effect of the concessions 
which he makes to them ; he is bewildered by 
their quotations, and he is often led by their 
artifice upon dangerous ground. In all ages 
of the church there have been weak defenders 
of Christianity ; and the only triumphs of the 
enemies of our religion have arisen from their 
being able to expose the defects of those 
methods of defending the truth which some of 
its advocates had unwarily chosen. A mind 
trained to accurate and philosophical views of 
the nature and the amount of evidence, en- 
riched with historical knowledge, accustomed 
to throw out of a subject all that is minute and 
irrelative, to collect what is of importance 
within a short compass, and to form the com- 
prehension of a whole, is the mind qualified to 
contend with the learning, the wnt, and the 
sophistry of infidelity. Many such minds have 
appeared in this honourable controversy during 
the course of this and the last century ; and the 
success has corresponded to the completeness of 
the furniture with which they engaged in the 
combat. The Christian doctrine has been vindi- 
cated by their masterly exposition from various 
misrepresentations ; the arguments for its di- 
vine original have been placed in their true 
light ; and the attempts to confound the mira- 
cles and prophecies upon which Christianity 
rests its claim, with the delusions of imposture, 
have been effectually repelled. Christianity 
has, in this way, received the most important 
advantages from the attacks of its enemies ; 
and it is not improbable that its doctrines would 
never have been so thoroughly cleared from all 
the corruptions and subtleties which had at- 
tached to them in the progress of ages, nor the 
evidences of its truths have been so accurately 
understood, nor its peculiar character been so 
perfectly discriminated, had not the zeal and 
abilities which have been employed against it 
called forth in its defence some of the most dis- 
tinguished masters of reason. They brought 
into the service of Christianity the same wea- 
pons which had been drawn for her destruc- 
tion, and, wielding them with confidence and 
skill in a good cause, became the successful 
champions of the truth. 

The fourth use of reason consists in judging 
of the truths of religion. Every thing which 
is revealed by God comes to his creatures from 
so high an authority, that it may be rested in 
with perfect assurance as true. Nothing can 
be received by us as true which is contrary to 
the dictates of reason, because it is impossible 
for us to receive at the same time the truth 
and the falsehood of a proposition. But many 
things are true wiiich we do not fully compre- 
hend; and many propositions, which appear 
incredible when they are first enunciated, are 
found, upon examination, such as our imder- 
standings can readily admit. These principles 
embrace the whole of the subject, and they 
mark out the steps by which reason is to pro- 
ceed in judging of the truths of religion. We 
first examine the evidences of revelation. If 
these satisfy our understandings, we are certain 



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that there can be no contradiction between the 
doctrines of this true religion, and the dictates 
of right reason. If any such contradiction 
appear, there must be some mistake; by not 
making a proper use of our reason in the inter- 
pretation of the Gospel, we suppose that it con- 
tains doctrines which it does not teach ; or we 
give the name of riglit reason to some narrow 
prejudices which deeper reflection, and more 
enlarged knowledge, will dissipate ; or we con- 
sider a proposition as implying a contradiction, 
when, in truth, it is only imperfectly under- 
stood. Here, as in every other case, mistakes 
are to be connected by measuring back our steps. 
We must examine closely and impartially the 
meaning of those passages which appear to 
contain the doctrine ; we must compare them 
with one another ; we must endeavour to derive 
light from the general phraseology of Scripture 
and the analogy of faith ; and we shall gene- 
rally be able, in this way, to separate the doc- 
trine from all those adventitious circumstances 
which give it the appearance of absurdity. If 
a doctrine which, upon the closest examination, 
appears unquestionably to be taught in Scrip, 
ture, still does not approve itself to our under- 
standing, we must consider carefully what it is 
that prevents us from receiving it. There may 
be preconceived notions hastily taken up which 
that doctrine opposes ; there may be pride of 
understanding that does not readily submit to 
the views which it communicates ; or reason 
may need to be reminded, that we must expect 
to find in religion many things which we are 
not able to comprehend. One of the most 
important offices of reason is to recognize her 
own limits. She never can be moved, by any 
authority, to receive as true what she perceives 
to be absurd. But, if she has formed a just 
estimate of human knowledge, she will not 
shelter her prestimption in rejecting the truths 
of revelation under the pretence of contradic- 
tions that do not really exist ; she will readily 
admit that there may be in a subject some points 
which she knows, and others of which she is 
ignorant; she will not allow her ignorance of 
the latter to shake the. evidence of the former, 
but will yield a firm assent to that which she 
does understand, without presuming to deny 
what is beyond her comprehension. And thus, 
availing hejrself of all the light which she now 
has, she will wait in humble hope for the time 
when a larger measure shall be imparted. 

REBEKAH, the wife of Isaac. See Isaac. 

RECEIPT OF CUSTOM. Matthew, when 
called, was sitting at the receipt of custom, or 
dues on merchandise. He was a publican or 
tax-gatherer, or, as we should say, a custom 
house officer. The publicans had houses or 
booths built for them at the foot of bridges, at 
the mouth of rivers, by the sea shore, and the 
parts of the lake of Gennesareth, or sea of 
Tiberias, to collect the taxes on passengers and 
merchandise. See Publican. 

RECHABITES. The Rechabites, though 
they dwelt among the Israelites, did not belong 
to any of their tribes ; for they were Kenites, 
as appears from 1 Chron. ii, 55, where the 
Kenites are said to have cqme of "Hemath, 



the father of the house of Rechab." These 
Kenites, afterward styled Rechabites, were of 
the family of Jethro, otherwise called Hobab, 
whose daughter Moses married; for "the chil 
dren of the Kenite, Moses's father-in-law," it 
is said, "went up out of the city of palm trees 
with the children of Judah, and dwelt among 
the people," Judges i, 16 ; and we read of 
" Heber the Kenite, who was of the childreii 
of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses, who had 
severed himself from the Kenites," or from the 
bulk of them who settled in the tribe of Judah, 
" and pitched his tent in the plain of Zaanaim," 
Judges iv, 11. They appear to have sprung 
Irom Midian, the son of Abraham by Keturah, 
Gen. XXV, 2 ; for Jethro, from whom they are 
descended, is called a Midianite, Num. x, 23. 
Of this family was Jehonadab, the son of 
Rechab, a man of eminent zeal for the pure 
worship of God against idolatry, who assisted 
King Jehu in destroying the house of Ahab, 
and the worshippers of Baal, 2 Kings x, 15, 
16, 23, &c. It was he who gave that rule of 
life to his children and posterity which we read 
of in Jer. xxxv, 6, 7. It consisted of these 
three articles : that they should drink no wine ; 
that they should neither possess nor occupy 
any houses, fields, or vineyards ; that they 
should dwell in tents. This was the institution 
of the children of Rechab ; and this they con- 
tinued to observe for iipward of three hundred 
years, from the time of Jehu to that of Jehoia- 
kim, .king of Judah, when Nebuchadnezzar 
coming to besiege Jerusalem, the Rechabites 
were obliged to leave the country and take 
refuge in the city. In Jer. xxxv, there is a 
promise made to this people, that Jonadab, the 
son of Rechab, should not want a man to stand 
before the Lord ; that is, that his posterity 
should not fail : , and to this day this tribe is 
found among the Arabians of the desert, dis- 
tinct, free, and practising exactly the institu- 
tions of Jonadab, whose name they bear, and 
of whose institutions th-ey boast. This is a re- 
markable instance of the exact fulfilment of a mi- 
nute and isolate'd prophecy. See Beni KhaibiPw 
RECONCILIATION. The expressions 
"reconciliation" and "making peace" neces- 
sarily suppose a previous state of hostility 
between God and man, which is reciprocal. 
This is sometimes called enmity, a term, as it 
respects God, rather unfortunate, since enmity 
is almost fixed in our language to signify a 
malignant and revengeful feeling. Of this, 
the oppugners of the doctrine of the atonement 
have availed themselves to argue, that as there 
can be no such affection in the divine nature, 
therefore, reconciliation in Scripture does not 
mean the reconciliation of God to man, but of 
man to God, whose enmity the example and 
teaching of Christ, they tell us, is veiy effectual 
to subdue. It is, indeed, a sad and humbling 
truth, and one which the Socinians in their 
discussions on the natural innocence of man 
are not willing to admit, that by the infection 
of sin "the carnal mind is erfmity to God," 
that human nature is malignantly hostile to' 
God and to the control of his law ; but this is 
far from efcpressing the whole of that relatioa 



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of man in which, in Scripture, he is said to be 
at enmity with God, and so to need a recon- 
ciliation, the making of peace between God 
and him. That relation is a legal one, as that 
of a sovereign in his judicial capacity, and a 
criminal who has violated his laws and risen 
up against his authority, and who is, therefore, 
treated as an enemy. The word ex^pds is used 
in this passive sense, both in the Greek writers 
and in the New Testament. So, in Romans 
xi, 28, the Jews, rejected and punished for 
refusing the Gospel, are said by the Apostle, 
" as concerning the Gospel," to be " enemies 
for your sakes ;" treated and accounted such ; 
" but, as touching the election, they are beloved 
for the- fathers' sakes." In the same epistle, 
V, 10, the term is used precisely in the same 
sense, and that with reference to the recon- 
ciliation by Christ : " For if when we were 
enemies we were reconciled to God by the 
death of his Son ;" that is, when we were 
objects of the divine judicial displeasure, ac- 
counted as enemies, and liable to be capitally 
treated as such. Enmity, in the sense of ma. 
lignity and the sentiment of hatred, is added to 
this relation in the case of man ; but it is no 
part of the relation itself ; it is rather a cause 
of it, as it is one of the actings of a corrupt 
nature which render man obnoxious to the 
displeasure of God, and the penalty of his law, 
and place him in the condition of an enemy. 
It is tlais judicial variance and opposition be- 
tween God and man which is referred to in the 
term reconciliation, and in the phrase " making 
peace," in the New Testament ; and the hos- 
tility is, therefore, in its own nature, mutual. 
But that there is no truth in the notion, that 
reconciliation means no more than our laying 
aside oui' enmity to God, may also be shown 
from several express passages. The first is the 
passage we have above cited :■ " For if when 
we were enemies we were reconciled to God," 
Rom. V, 10. Here the act of reconciling is 
ascribed to God, and not to us ; but if this 
reconciliation consisted in the laying aside of 
our own enmity, the act would be ours alone : 
and, farther, that it could not be the laying 
aside of our enmity, is clear from the text, 
which speaks of reconciliation while we were 
yet enemies. The reconciliation spoken of 
here is not, as Socinus and his followers have 
said, our conversion. For that the Apostle is 
speaking of a benefit obtained for us previous 
to our conversion, appears evident from the 
opposite members of the two sentences, "much 
more, being justified, we shall be saved from 
wrath through him," " much more, being 
reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." The 
Apostle argues from the greater to the less. 
If God were so benign to us before our con- 
version, what may we not expect from him 
now we are converted? To reconcile here 
cannot mean to convert ; for the Apostle evi- 
dently speaks of something greatly remarkable 
in the act of Christ ; but to convert sinners is 
nothing remarkable, since none but sinners 
can be ever converted ; whereas it was a rare 
and singular thing for Christ to die for sinners, 
and to reconcile sinners to God by his death, 



when there have been but very few good men 
who have died for their friends. In the next 
place, conversion is referred more properly to 
his glorious life, than to his shameful death ; 
but this reconciliation is attributed to his 
death, as contradistinguished from his glori- 
ous life, as is evident from the antithesis con- 
tained in the two verses. Beside, it is from the 
latter benefit that we learn the nature of the 
former. The latter, which belongs only to 
the converted, consists of the peace of God, 
and salvation from wrath, Rom. v, 9, 10. This 
the Apostle afterward calls receiving the recon- 
ciliation. And what is it to receive the recon- 
ciliation, but to receive the remission of sins ? 
Acts X, 43. To receive conversion is a mode 
of speaking entirely unknown. If, then, to 
receive the reconciliation is to receive the re- 
mission of sins, and in effect to be delivered 
from wrath or punishment, to be reconciled 
must have a corresponding signification, 

*'God was in Christ reconciling the world 
to himself, not imputing their trespasses unto- 
them," 2 Cor. v, 19, Here the manner of this 
reconciliation is expressly said to be, not our 
laying aside our enmity, but the non-imputa- 
tion of our trespasses to us by God ; in other 
words, the pardoning of our offences and re, 
storing us to favour. The promise, on God'8 
part, to do this, is expressive of his previous 
reconciliation to the world by the death of 
Christ ; for our actual reconciliation is distin- 
guished from this by what follows, "and hath 
committed to us the ministry of reconciliation," 
by virtue of which all men were, by the Apos- 
tles, entreated and besought to be reconciled 
to God. The reason, too, of this reconcilia- 
tion of God to the world, by virtue of which he 
promises not to impute sin, is grounded by the 
Apostle, in the last verse of the chapter, not 
upon the laying aside of enmity by men, but 
upon the sacrifice of Christ: "For he hath 
made him to be sin," a sin-offering, " for us, 
who knew no sin, that we might be made the 
righteousness of God in him." " And that he 
might reconcile both unto God in one body 
by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby," 
Eph. ii, 16. Here the act of reconciling is 
attributed to Christ. Man is not spoken of as 
reconciling himself to God; but Christ is said 
to reconcile Jews and Gentiles together, and 
both to God, "by his cross." Thus, says the 
Apostle, "he is our peace ;" but in v/hat man- 
ner is the peace effected ? Not, in the first 
instance, by subduing the enmity of man's 
heart, but by removing the enmity of "the 
law," " Having abolished in " or by " his 
flesh the enmity, even the law of command- 
ments," The ceremonial law only is here, 
probably meant ; for by its abolition, through 
its fulfilment in Christ, the enmity between 
Jews and Gentiles was taken away ; but still 
it was not only necessary to reconcile Jew 
and Gentile together, but to "reconcile both 
unto God." This he did by the same act ; 
abolishing the ceremonial law by becoming the 
antitype of all its sacrifices, and thus, by the 
sacrifice of himself, effecting the reconcilia- 
tipn of all to God, "slaying the enmity by his 



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cross," taking away whatever hindered the 
reconciliation of the guilty to God, which, as 
we have seen, was not enmity and hatred to 
God in the human mind only, but that judicial 
hostility and variance which separated God 
and man as Judge and criminal. The feeble 
criticism of Socinus, on this passage, in which 
he has been followed by his adherents to this 
day, is thus answered by Grotius : " In this 
passage the dative Gew, to God, can only be 
governed by the verb aiTOKardWa^ri, that he might 
reconcile; for the interpretation of Socinus, 
which makes to God stand by itself, or that 
to reconcile to God is to reconcile them among 
themselves, that they might serve God, is dis- 
torted and without example. Nor is the argu- 
ment valid which is drawn from thence, that 
in this place St, Paul properly treats of the 
peace made between Jews and Gentiles ; for 
neither does it follow from this argument, 
that it was beside his purpose to mention the 
peace made for each with God. For the two 
opposites which are joined, are so joined among 
themselves, that they should be primarily and 
chiefly joined by that bond ; for they are not 
united among themselves, except by and for 
that bond. Gentiles and Jews, therefore, are 
made friends arrtong themselves by friendship 
with God." 

Here also a critical remark will be appro- 
priate. The above passages will show how 
falsely it has been asserted that God is no 
where in Scripture said to be reconciled to 
us, and that they only declare that we are 
reconciled to God ; but the fact is, that the very 
phrase of our being reconciled to God imports 
the turning away of his wrath from us. Whitby 
observes, on the words KaraWdTTeiv and KaraX- 
Xaytj, " that they naturally import the recon- 
ciliation of one that is angry or displeased with 
us, both in profane and Jewish writers." When 
the Philistines suspected that David would 
appease the anger of Saul, by becoming their 
adversary, they said, "Wherewith should he 
reconcile himself to his master ? Should it not be 
with the heads of these men ?" not, surely, How 
shall he remove his own anger against his mas- 
ter ? but, how shall he remove his master's anger 
against him ? How shall he restore himself to 
his master's favour ? " If thou brin^ thy gift to 
the altar, and there rememberest that thy bro- 
ther hath aught against thee," not, that thou 
hast aught against thy brother, " first be recon- 
ciled to thy brother ;" that is, appease and con- 
ciliate him ; so that the words, in fact, import, 
" See that thy brother be reconciled to thee," 
since that which goes before is, not that he 
hath done thee an injury, but thou him. Thus, 
then, for us to be reconciled to God is to avail 
ourselves of the means by which the anger of 
God toward us is to be appeased, which the 
New Testament expressly declares to be me- 
ritoriously "the sin-offering" of Him "who 
knew no sin," and instrumentally, as to each 
individual personally, " faith in his blood." 
See Propitiation. 



enemy, and delivers man from death and the 
power of the grave, which the human avenger 
could not do. The right of the institution of 
goel was only in a relative, one of the same 
blood ; and hence our Saviour's assumption of 
our nature is alluded to and implied under this 
term. There was also the right of buying back 
the family inheritance when alienated ; and 
this also applies to Christ, our Goel, who 
has purchased back the heavenly inheritance 
into the human family. Under these views 
Job joyfully exclaims, " I know that my Re- 
deemer," my Goel, " liveth," &c. See Goel, 
Mediator, and Jesus Christ. 

REDEMPTION denotes our recovery from 
sin and death by the obedience and sacrifice 
of Christ, who, on this account, is called the 
Redeemer. " Being justified freely by his 
grace, through the redemption that is in Christ 
Jesus," Rom. iii, 24. "Christ hath redeemed 
us from the curse of the law, being made a 
curse for us," Gal. iii, 13. " In whom we 
have redemption through his blood, the for- 
giveness of sins, according to the riches of his 
grace," Eph. i, 7. " Forasmuch as ye know 
that ye were not redeemed with corruptible 
things, as silver and gold, from your vain 
conversation received by tradition from your 
fathers ; but with the precious blood of Christ, 
as of a lamb without blemish, and without 
spot," 1 Pet. i, 18, 19. " And ye are not your 
own, for ye are bought with a price," 1 Cor. 
vi, 19, 20. 

By redemption, those who deny the atone- 
ment made by Christ wish to understand de- 
liverance merely, regarding only the effect, and 
studiously putting out of sight the cause from 
which it flows. But the very terms used in 
the above cited passages, " to redeem," and 
" to be bought with a price," will each be 
found to refute this notion of a gratuitous de- 
liverance, whether from sin or punishment, or 
both. Our English word, to redeem, literally 
means "to buy back;" and AurpJo, to redeem, 
and aTro\vrpu)cng, redemption, are, both in Greek 
writers and in the New Testament, used for 
the act of setting free a captive, by paying 
XvTpov, a ransom or redemption price. But, as 
Grotius has fiilly shown, by reference to the 
use of the words both in sacred and profane 
writers, redemption signifies not merely " the 
liberation of captives," but deliverance from 
exile, death, and every other evil from which 
we may be freed ; and XiiTpov signifies every 
thing which satisfies another, so as to effect 
this deliverance. The nature of this redemp. 
tion or purchased deliverance, (for it is not 
gratuitous liberation, as will presently appear,) 
is, therefore, to be ascertained by the circum- 
stances of those who are the subjects of it. 
The subjects in the case before us are sinful 
men. They are under guilt, under " the curse 
of the law," the servants of sin, under the 
power and dominion of the devil, and " taken 
captive by him at his will," liable to the death 
of the body and to eternal punishment. To 



REDEEMER. The Hebrew goel is thus the whole of this case, the redemption, the 



rendered, and the title is applied to Christ, as 
he is the Avenger of man upon his spiritual 



purchased deliverance of man, as proclaimed 
in the Gospel, applies itself. Hence, in the 



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810 



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above cited and other passages, it is said, "We 
have redemption through his blood, the for- 
giveness of sins," in opposition to guilt ; re- 
demption from " the curse of the law ;" 
deliverance from sin, that "we should be set 
free from sin ;" deliverance from the power of 
Satan ; from death, by a resurrection ; and 
from future "wrath," by the gift of eternal 
life. Throughout the whole of this glorious 
doctrine of our redemption from these tre- 
mendous evils there is, however, in the New 
Testament, a constant reference to the Xvrpov, 
the redemption price, v/hich 'XvTpov is as con- 
stantly declared to be the death of Christ, 
which he endured in our stead. " The Son 
of man came to give his life a ransom for 
many," Matt, xx, 28. " Who gave himself a 
ransom for all," 1 Tim. ii, 6. " In whom we 
have redemption through his blood," Eph. i, 7. 
"Ye were noiredeeynedwiih. corruptible things, 
as silver and gold, but with the precious blood 
of Christ," 1 Pet. i, 18, 19. That deliverance of 
man from sin, misery, and all other penal evils 
of his transgression, which constitutes our 
redemption by Christ, is not, therefore, a gra- 
tuitous deliverance, granted without a con- 
sideration, as an act of mere prerogative ; the 
ransom, the redemption price, was exacted 
and paid ; one thing was given for another, 
the precious blood of Christ for captive and 
condemned men. Of the same import are 
those passages which represent us as having 
been " bought," or "purchased" by Christ. 
St. Peter speaks of those " who denied the 
Lord Tov ayopdaavTa avTQvg, that bought them ;" 
and St. Paul, in the passage above cited, says, 
" Ye are bought with a price, riyopduOriTs ;" 
which price is expressly said by St. John to 
be the blood of Christ : " Thou wast slain, 
and hast redeemed us to God {riydpaua?, hast 
purchased us) by thy blood," Rev. v, 9. 

RED SEA, celebrated chiefly for the mira- 
culous passage of the Israelites through its 
waters. They were thrust out of Egypt, says 
Dr. Hales, on the fifteenth day of the first 
month ; " about six hundred thousand men on 
foot, beside women and children. And a 
mixed multitude went up also with them ; and 
flocks and herds, even very much cattle," 
Exod. xii, 37-39 ; Num. xi, 4; xxxiii, 3, After 
they set out from Rameses, in the land of 
Goshen, in the neighbourhood of Cairo, their 
first encampment was at Succoth, signifying 
" booths," or an " enclosure for cattle," after a 
stage of about thirty miles ; their second, at 
Etham, or Adsjerud, on the edge of the wilder- 
ness, about sixty miles farther ; "for the Lord 
led them not by the way of the' land of the 
Philistines, although that was near; for God 
said, Lest peradventure the people repent when 
they see war, and they return to Egypt : but 
God led the people about by the way of the 
wilderness of the Red Sea," or by a circuitous 
rout to the land of promise, in order to train 
tliem and instruct them, in the solitudes of 
Arabia Petraea, Exodus xiii, 17-20; Deut. 
xxxij, 10. Instead of proceeding from Etham, 
round the head of the Red Sea, and coasting 
along its eastern shore, the Lord jinade them I 



turn southward along its western shore, and, 
after a stage of about twenty or thirty miles, 
to encamp in the valley of Bedea, where there 
was an opening in the great chain of mount- 
ains that line the western coast, called Pi-hahi- 
roth, the mouth of the ridge between Migdol 
westward, and the sea eastward, " over against 
Baal-zephon," on the eastern coast ; to tempt 
Pharaoh, whose heart he finally hardened, to 
pursue them when they were "entangled in 
the land," and shut in by the wilderness on 
their rear and flanks, and by the sea in their 
front. The leading motive with Pharaoh and 
his servants was to bring back the Israelites to 
bondage, and of the Egyptians in general, to 
recover the treasures of which they had been 
spoiled, Exod. xiv, 1-5. So Pharaoh pursued 
the Israelites by the direct way of Migdol, 
with six hundred chariots, his horsemen, and 
his army, and overtook them encamping by 
the sea, beside Pi-hahir6th, over against Baal- 
zephon. When their destruction, or their re- 
turn to bondage, seemed to be inevitable, the 
Lord interposed and fought for Israel. He 
opened for them a passage across, the Red Sea, 
where it was about twelve miles wide, and 
brought them through in safety ; while he 
drowned the Egyptians, who blindly followed 
them to their own destruction. Psalm Ixxvii, 
18, &c. 

On this memorable deliverance Moses com • 
posed a thanksgiving, which he and the Israel, 
ites sung unto the Lord. It is also a sublime 
prophecy, foretelling the powerful effect of 
this tremendous judgment on the neighbour- 
ing nations of Edom, Moab, Palestine, and 
Canaan, the future settlemejit of the Israelites 
in the promised land ; and the erection of the 
temple and sanctuary on Mount Zion, and the 
perpetuity of the dominion and worship of God. 

The precise place of this passage has been 
much contested. Some place it near Suez, at 
the head of the gulf; others, with more proba- 
bility, about ten hours' journey lower down, at 
Clysma, or the vale of Bedea. The day be- 
fore the passage, by the divine command, the 
Israelites encamped beside Pi-hahiroth, " be- 
tween Migdol and the sea, over against Baal- 
zephon," Exodus xiv, 2 ; Num. xxxiii, 7. Pi- 
hahiroth signifies " the mouth of the ridge," or 
chain of mountains, which line the western 
coast of the Red Sea, called Attaka, "deliver, 
ance," in which was a gap, which formed the 
extremity of the valley of Bedea, ending at the 
sea eastward, and running westward to some 
distance, toward Cairo ; Migdol, signifying "a 
tower," probably lay in that direction ; and 
Baal-zephon, signifying "the northern Baal," 
was probably a temple on the opposite pro- 
montory, built on the eastern coast of the Red 
Sea. And the modern names of places in the 
vicinity tend to confirm these expositions of 
the ancient. Beside Attaka, on the eastern 
coast opposite, is a head land, called Ras Musa^ 
or "the Cape of Moses ;" somewhat lower, 
Hamam Faraun, " Pharaoh's Springs ;" below 
Girondel, a reach of the gulf, called Birket 
Faraun; and the general name of the gulf is 
Bahr al Kolsum, "the Bay of Submersion." 



RED 



811 



RED 



These names indicate that the passage was 
considerably below Suez, according to the tra- 
dition of the natives. The depth and breadth 
of the gulf, from Suez downward, is thus de- 
scribed by Niebuhr : "I have not found in this 
sea, from Suez southward, any bank or isthmus 
under water. When we departed from Suez, we 
sailed as far as Girondel, without fear of en- 
countering any such. We had in the first place, 
the road of Suez, four fathom and half; at three 
German leagues from Suez, in the middle of the 
gulf, four fathoms ; and about Girondel, near 
the shore, even to ten fathoms." Bruce, also, 
describing the place of passage opposite Ras 
Musa, or a little below it, says, " There is here 
about fourteen fathom of water in the channel, 
and about nine in the sides, and good anchorage 
•every where. The farthest sidcj the eastern, 
is a low sandy coast, and a very easy landing 
place." Shaw reckons the breadth of the gulf 
at this place about ten miles ; Neibuhr, three 
leagues and more ; Bruce, something less than 
four leagues : we may therefore estimate it 
about twelve miles, from their joint reports. 
But this space the host of the Israelites could 
easily have passed in the course of a night, 
from the evening to the ensuing morning 
watch, or dawn of day, according to the Mo- 
saical account. And surely the depth of the 
sea was no impediment, when the Lord divided 
it by " a strong east wind," which blew across 
the sea ail that night, and made the bottom of 
the sea dry land; "and the children of Israel 
went into the midst of the sea upon the dry 
ground, and the waters were a wall unto them, 
on their right hand and on their left," Exodus 
xiv, 21, 22. 

In the queries of Michaelis, sent to Niebuhr, 
when in Egypt, it was proposed to him to in. 
quire upon the spot, whether there were not 
some ridges of rocks where the water was shal- 
low, so that an army at particular times may 
pass over ; secondly, whether the Etesian 
winds, which blow strongly all summer from 
the north-west, could not blow so violently 
against the sea as to keep it back on a heap, 
so that the Israelites might have passed with- 
out a miracle. And a copy of these queries 
was left, also, for Bruce, to join his inquiries 
likewise ; his observations on which are excel- 
lent : "I must confess, however learned the 
gentlemen were who proposed these doubts, I 
did not think they merited any attention to 
solve them. This passage is told us by Scrip- 
ture to be a miraculous one ; and if so, we 
have nothing to do with natural causes. If we 
do not believe Moses, we need not believe the 
transaction at all, seeing that it is from his au- 
thority alone we derive it. If we believe in 
God, that he made the sea, we must believe he 
could divide it when he sees proper reason ; 
and of that he must be the only judge. It is 
no greater miracle to divide the Red Sea than 
to divide the river Jordan. If the Etesian 
wind, blowing from the north-west in summer, 
could keep up the sea as a wall on the right, 
or to the south, of fifty feet high, still the diffi- 
culty would remain of building the wall on the 
left band, or to the north. Beside, water stand- 



ing in that position for a day must have lost 
the nature of fluid. Whence came that cohe- 
sion of particles which hindered that wall to 
escape at the sides ? Tliis is as great a miracle 
as that of Moses. If the Etesian winds had 
done this once, they must have repeated it 
many a time before and since, from the same 
cavises. Yet Diodorus Siculus says the Troglo- 
dytes, the indigenous inhabitants of that very 
spot, had a tradition from father to son, from 
their very earliest ages, that ' once this division 
of the sea did happen there ; and that, after 
leaving its bottom some time dry, the sea again 
came back, and covered it with great fury.' 
The words of this author are of the most re- 
markable kind : we cannot think this Heathen 
is writing in favour of revelation : he knew 
not Moses, nor says a word about Pharaoh and 
his host ; but records the miracle of the divi- 
sion of the sea in words nearly as strong as 
those of Moses, from the mouths of unbiassed, 
undesigning Pagans." Still skeptical queries 
have their use ; they lead to a stricter investi- 
gation of facts, and thereby lend strongly to 
confirm the veracity of the history they mean 
to impeach. Thus it appears from the accu- 
rate observations of Niebuhr and Bruce, that 
there is no ledge of rocks running across the 
gulf any where, to afiford a shallov/ passage. 
And the second query, about the Etesian or 
northerly wind, is refuted by the express men- 
tion of a strong easterly wind blowing across, 
and scooping out a dry passage ; not that it 
was necessary for Omnipotence to employ it 
there as an instrument, any more than at Jor- 
dan ; but it seems to be introduced in the sa- 
cred history by way of anticipation, to exclude 
the natural agency that might in after times 
be employed for solving the miracle ; and it is 
remarkable that the monsoon in the Red Sea 
blows tlie summer half of the year from the 
north, tie winter half from the south, neither 
of whick therefore, even if wind could be sup- 
posed to operate so violently upon the waters, 
could produce the miracle in question. 

Wishing to diminish, though not to deny, 
the miracle, Niebuhr adopts the opinion of 
those who contend for a higher passage near 
Suez. " For," says he, " the miracle would 
be less if they crossed the sea there than near 
Bedea. But whosoever should suppose that 
the multitude of the Israelites could be able to 
cross it here without a prodigy would deceive 
himself; for, even in our days, no caravan 
passes that way to go from Cairo to Mount 
Sinai, although it would considerably shorten 
the journey. The passage would have been 
naturally more difficult for the Israelites some 
thousands of years back, when the gulf was 
probably larger, deeper, and more extended 
toward the north ; for, in all appearance, the 
water has retired, and the ground near this 
end has been raised by the sands of the neigh- 
bouring desert." But it sufficiently appears, 
even from Niebuhr's own statement, that the 
passage of the Israelites could not have been 
taken near Suez; for, 1. He evidently con- 
founded the town of Kolsum, the ruins of 
which he places near Suez, and where he 



RED 



812 



RED 



supposed the passage to be made, with the 
bay of Kolsum, which began about forty-five 
miles lower down ; as Bryant has satisfactorily 
proved, from the astronomical observations of 
Ptolemy and of Ulug Beigh, made at Heroum, 
the ancient head of the gulf. 2. Instead of 
crossing the sea at or near Ethan, their second 
station, the Israelites turned southward, along 
the western shore ; and their third station at 
Pi-hahiroth, or Bedea, was at least a full day's 
journey below Ethan, as Bryant has satisfac 
torily proved from Scripture, Exodus xiv, 2. 
And it was this unexpected change in the di- 
rection of their march, and the apparently dis- 
advantageous situation in which they were 
then placed, entangled in the land, and shut 
in by the wilderness, with a deep sea in front, 
the mountains of Attaka on the sides, and the 
enemy in their rear, that tempted the Egyptians 
to pursue them through the valley of Bedea, 
by the direct route from Cairo, who overtook 
them encamping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, 
opposite to Ball-zephon, Exod. xiv, 2-9. 

Niebuhr wonders how the Israelites could 
suffer themselves to be brought into such a 
disadvantageous situation, or be led blindfold 
by Moses to their apparent destruction. " One 
need only travel with a caravan," says he, 
*' which meets with the least obstacle, namely, 
a small torrent, to be convinced that the ori- 
entals do not let themselves be led, like fools, 
by their caravan baschi," or leader of the cara. 
van. But the Israelites went out of Egypt 
with *' a high hand," though led by Moses, yet 
under the visible guidance and protection of 
"the Lord God of the Hebrews," who "went 
before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, and 
by night in a pillar of fire ;" and who, for their 
encouragement, to enter the passage of the sea 
miraculously prepared for them, removed the 
cloud which went before the camp of Israel 
hitherto, and placed it behind them. '' And it 
came between the camp of the Egyptians and 
the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and 
darkness to the one, but gave light by night to 
the other : so that the one came not near the 
other all the night," Exod. xiv, 8-20. 

Niebuhr wonders, also, how Pharaoh and 
the Egyptians could be led to follow the Israel- 
ites. " Pharaoh must have wanted prudence, 
if, after having seen so many prodigies in 
Egypt, he had entered into a sea of more than 
three leagues wide : all the Egyptians, too, 
must have been bereft of understanding, in 
wishing to pursue the Israelites into such a sea. 
Doubtless they knew their own country well 
enough to distinguish the bottom of a large 
sea, which bounds Egypt on that side, from a 
desert." But Pharaoh and the Egyptians pro- 
bably did not know their situation. The cloud 
which separated them from the Israelites in- 
creased the darkness of the night ; and they 
probably did not enter into the sea till about 
midnight, by which time the van of the Israel- 
ites might have reached the eastern shore. 
Meanwhile, the bed of the sea, now beaten by 
the feet of the immense multitude of men and 
cattle that had gone before, might not have 
been easily distinguishable from the desert. 



If we ask, Why did the Egyptians venture to 
pursue the Israelites by night ? Why did they 
not wait till day light, when they could see 
whither they were going? Niebuhr himself 
has unwittingly answered the question : Pha- 
raoh wanted " prudence," indeed, and the 
Egyptians were "bereft of understanding." 
And this is the Scriptural solution ; for God 
hardened the heart of Pharaoh to follow after 
them, that he might be honoured upon Pharaoh 
and all his host ; and that, by their miraculous 
destruction, the Egyptians might know that 
he was the Lord supreme, Exod. xiv, 4-18. 
The Egyptians did not find out their mistake 
till the "morning appeared," or till day-break, 
when the rear of the Israelites had gained the 
shore, and the Egyptians had reached the mid- 
dle of the sea, and their whole host had entered 
into it : then, indeed, they attempted to fly 
back, but in vain ; for " their chariot wheels 
were broken off, so that they drave them 
heavily, and their host was troubled" by the 
Lord, who looked or frowned upon them 
through the cloudy pillar of fire, and over- 
v/helmed all their host in the midst of the sea ; 
when the sea suddenly returned to his strength 
at the signal of Moses stretching forth his 
hand over it, Exod. xiv, 24-28. 

The particulars of this transaction demon- 
strate, that neither the host of the Israelites, 
nor the host of Pharaoh, could possibly have 
passed at the head of the gulf near Suez ; where 
the sea was only half a league broad, accord- 
ing to Niebuhr's own supposition, and con- 
sequently too narrow to contain the whole 
host of Pharaoh at once; whose six hundred 
chariots alone, exclusive of his cavalry and 
infantry, must have occupied more ground. 
Manetho, and the Egyptian writers, have 
passed over in silence this tremendous visita- 
tion of their nation. An ancient writer, how- 
ever, Artapanus, who wrote a history of the 
Jews, about B. C. 130, has preserved the fol- 
lowing curious Egyptian traditions: — "The 
Memphites relate, that Moses, being well ac 
quainted with the country, watched the influx 
of the tide, and made the multitude pass through 
the dry bed of the sea. But the Heliopolitans 
relate, that the king, with a great army, ac- 
companied by the sacred animals, pursued after 
the Jews, who had carried off with them the 
substance of the Egyptians ; and that Moses, 
having been directed by a divine voice to strike 
the sea with his rod, when he heard it, touched 
the water with his rod ; and so the fluid divided, 
and the host passed over through a dry way. 
But when the Egyptians entered along with 
them, and pursued them, it is said, that fire 
flashed against them in front, and the sea, 
returning back, overwhelmed the passage. 
Thus the Egyptians perished, both by the fire, 
and by the reflux of the tide." 

The latter account is extremely curious : it 
not only confirms Scripture, but it notices three 
additional circumstances: 1. That for their 
protection against the God of Israel, the Egyp- 
tians brought with them the sacred animals ; 
and by this means God executed judgment 
upon all the bestial gods of Egypt, as foretold, 



REE 



813 



REF 



Exod. xii, 12, that perished with their infatu- 
ated votaries ; completing the destruction of 
both, which began with smiting the first-born 
both of man and beast. 2. That the recovery 
of the jewels of silver and jewels of gold, and 
raiment, which they asked and obtained of the 
Egyptians, according to the divine command, 
Exod, xii, 35, 36, was a leading motive with 
the Egyptians to pursue them ; as the bringing 
back the Israelites to slavery had been with 
Pharaoh and his servants, or officers. 3. That 
the destruction of the Egyptians was partly 
occasioned by lightning and thunderbolts from 
the presence of the Lord ; exactly correspond- 
ing to the psalmist's sublime description : 
" The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw 
thee ; they were afraid : the depths also were 
troubled. The clouds poured out water, the 
air thundered, thine arrows also went abroad. 
Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; 
he shot forth lightnings, hail stones, and coals 
of fire, and discomfited them. Then the chan- 
nels of waters were seen, and the foundations 
of the world were discovered, at thy rebuke, O 
Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils," 
Psalm Ixxvii, 16, 17; xviii, 13-15. 

The Red Sea derived its name from Edom, 
signifying "red," a title of Esau, to whom 
the bordering country of Edom, or Idumasa, be- 
longed. Gen. XXV, 30 ; xxxvi, 31-40. It was also 
called Yam Suph, " the weedy sea," in several 
passages. Num. xxxiii, 10 ; Psalm cvi, 9, &c, 
which are improperly rendered " the Red Sea." 
Some learned authors have supposed that it 
was so named from the quantity of weeds in it. 
"But in contradiction to this," says Bruce, 
" I must confess, that I never in my life, and 
I have seen the whole extent of it, saw a weed 
of any sort in it. And indeed, upon the slight, 
est consideration, it will appear to any one, 
that a narrow gulf, under the immediate influ- 
ence of monsoons, blowing from contrary 
points six months each year, would have too 
much agitation to produce such vegetables, 
seldom found but in stagnant water, and sel- 
domer, if ever, found in salt ones. My opinion 
then is, that it is from the large trees, or plants, 
of white coral, perfectly in imitation of plants- 
on land, that the sea has taken the name 
' weedy.' I saw one of these, which, from a 
root nearly central, threw out ramifications in 
a nearly central form, measuring twenty- six 
feet diameter every way." This seems to be 
the most probable solution that has been 
hitherto proposed of the name. The tides in 
this sea are but moderate. At Suez the dif- 
ference between high and low water did not 
exceed from three to four feet, according to 
Niebuhr's observations on the tides in that 
gulf, during the years 1762 and 1763. 

REED, pDJN, Job xl, 21 ; xii, 2, 20 ; Isaiah 
ix, 14 ; xix, 15 ; Iviii, 5 ; /cdXa/ioj, Matt, xi, 7 ; 
a plant growing in fenny and watery places ; 
very weak and slender, and bending with the 
least breath of wind. Matt, xi, 7 ; Luke vii, 24. 
Thus it is threatened, " The Lord shall smite 
Israel as a reed is shaken in the water, and he 
shall root up Ifsrael out of the good land which 
he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them 



beyond the river, because* they have made 
their idol groves, provoking him to anger," 
1 Kings xiv, 15. The slenderness and fra- 
gility of the reed is mentioned in 2 Kings 
xviii, 21 ; Isaiah xxxvi, 6 ; and is referred to 
in Matt, xii, 20, where the remark, illustrating 
the gentleness of our Saviour, is quoted from 
the prophecy of Isaiah, xlii, 3. The Hebrew 
word in these places is nJp, as also in Job 
xl, 21 ; Isaiah xix, 6 ; xxxv, 7 ; Ezek. xxix, 6. 
See Bulrush. 

REFORMATION, usually spoken of the 
great Reformation in the church, begun by 
Luther in 1517. The sad departure from the 
standard of holiness which the Romish hierar- 
chy should have placed before them, combined 
with the indecency and arrogance with which 
they trampled upon the rights of sovereigns, 
and upon the property and the comfort of all 
classes of men, had, for a considerable period, 
produced a general conviction, that a reforma- 
tion of the church in its head and members, to 
use the expression which was then prevalent, 
was absolutely requisite : and some steps to 
accomplish this had been actually taken. The 
celebrated council of Constance, while, in its 
efforts to heal the schism which had so long 
grieved and scandalized the Catholic world, it 
set aside the rival pontiffs who claimed to be 
the successors of St. Peter, laid down the 
important maxim, that a general council was 
superior to a pope, and that its decisions can 
restrain his power ; and this doctrine, which 
might otherwise have appeared to arise out of 
the extraordinary circumstances under which 
it was declared, was fully confirmed by the 
council of Basil, which met several years after, 
and which decided the point upon grounds that 
might at all times be urged. The popes, in- 
deed, remonstrated against this, but still they 
were compelled to lower their tone ; and they 
were often reminded, even within the precincts 
of their own court, that the period was fast 
approaching when the fallacy of many of their 
pretensions would be ascertained and exposed. 
It had become common, before the election of 
a new pontiff", to frame certain articles of re- 
formation, which the successful candidate was 
required to swear that he would carry into 
effect ; and although the oath was uniformly 
disregarded or violated, the views which led 
to the imposition of it indicated the existence 
of a spirit which could not be eradicated^ 
and which might, • from events that could 
not be foreseen, and could not be controlled,, 
acquire a vigour which no exertion of power 
could resist. Such, under the beneficent 
arrangement of Providence, was soon act- 
ually the case. In the progress of the oppo- 
sition made to some of the worst abuses of 
Rome, they who conducted that opposition 
were guided to the word of life ; they studie($ 
it with avidity and with delight ; and they 
found themselves furnished by it with sufficient 
armour for the mighty contest in which they 
were to engage. They discovered in the New 
Testament what Christianity really was ; their 
representations of it were received with won- 
der, and read with avidity ; the secession from 



REF 



814 



REF 



the cliurch of Rome became much more rapid 
and much more extensive than it had previously 
been, and all possibility of reconciliation with 
that church was done away. Of this the popes 
were fully awar6 ; and as the only way of 
counteracting that which was to them so for- 
midable, they attempted, by various devices, to 
fetter the press, to prevent the circulation of 
the Bible, and thus again to plunge the world 
into that intellectual darkness from which it 
had been happily delivered. The scheme was 
impracticable. The '■'■Indices Expurgaiorii" 
in which they pointed out the works that they 
condemned, and which they declared it to be 
heresy and pollution to peruse, increased the 
desire to become acquainted with them ; and 
although some who indulged that curiosity 
suffered the punishment denounced by the 
inquisition against the enemies of papal super- 
stition, there was an immense proportion which 
even spiritual tyranny could not reach; so 
that the light which had been kindled daily 
brightened, till it shone with unclouded lustre 
through many of the most powerful and the 
most refined nations of Europe. 

It is worthy of careful observation, that the 
resistance which ultimately proved so success- 
ful, was first occasioned by practices that had 
been devised for establisliing the monstrous 
despotism of the popes; that when it com- 
menced, it was directed against what was con- 
ceived to be an abuse of power, without the 
slightest suspicion being entertained that the 
power itself was unchristian ; that the reform- 
ers gradually advanced ; every additional in- 
quiry to which they were conducted enlarging 
their views, and bringing them acquainted 
with fresh proofs of that daring usurpation to 
which men had long submitted, till at length 
the foundation Upon which the whole system, 
venerated through ages, rested, was disclosed to 
them, and perceived to be a foundation of sand. 
The consequenc-3 Vv'as, that the supremacy of 
the pope was by multitudes abjured ; that he 
was branded as antichrist ; that communion 
with the popish church was avoided as sinful, 
and that the form of ecclesiastical polity, the 
essential principle of which was the infallibility 
of the bishop of Rome, was for ever renounced. 
The wonderful manner in which this signal, 
revolution, so fraught with blessings to man- 
kind, was accomplished, the various events 
which mark its history, and the characters and 
exertions of the men by whose agency it was 
effected, cannot be too often surveyed, or too 
deeply fixed in the memory. The whole, even 
with reference to the illumination of the hu- 
man mind and the improvement of the social 
state of the world, is in a high degree interest- 
ing ; and that interest is unspeakably increased 
by our discerning the most striking evidence 
of the gracious interposition of Providence 
dissipating the cloud which obscured divine 
truth, and restoring to mankind that sacred 
treasure which is suflicient to make all who 
seriously examine it wise unto salvation. It 
does not, however, come within the province 
of this work to give a minute history of the 
origin and progress of the Reformation, to 



trace the steps of Zuinglius and of Luther, 
and to detail the circumstances which advanced 
or retarded them in the glorious career upon 
which they had entered. Much discussion 
has taken place with respect to the motives by 
which Luther was actuated. This point, in 
reference to what he accomplished, is really 
of little moment ; but there cannot be a doubt 
that although he might, throughout his ardu- 
ous struggle, be guided occasionally by inferior 
considerations, he was eventually, at least, 
chiefly animated by the noble and disinterested 
wish to emancipate his fellow creatures from 
what he was convinced was the direct and 
most infatuated spiritual oppression ; that he 
looked to Heaven for support, and that such 
support he largely received. 

REFUGE, Cities of. In order to provide 
for the security of those who, without design, 
might happen to kill a person in whatever 
manner it should be, the Lord commanded 
Moses to appoint six cities of refuge, Exod. 
xxi, 18; Num. xxxv, 11, &c, that whoever 
should undesignedly spill the blood of a fellow 
creature, might retire thither, and have time 
to prepare for his defence before the judges ; 
so that the relatives of the deceased might not 
pursue and kill him. Of these cities there 
were three on each side Jordan. Those on 
this side Jordan were Kedesh of Naphtali, 
Hebron, and Shechem ; those beyond Jordan 
were Bezer, Golan,, and Ramoth-Gilead, Joshua 
XX, 7, 8. They served not only for the He- 
brews, but for strangers also that should dwell 
in their country. These cities were to be of 
easy access, and to have good roads to them, 
and bridges wherever there should be occa- 
sion. The width of these roads was, at least, 
to be two-and-thirty cubits, or eight-and-forty 
feet. When there v/ere any cross roads, they 
were careful to erect posts with an inscription 
pointing to the city of refuge. Every year, 
on the fifteenth of the month Adar, which 
answ.ers to our February moon, the magistrates 
of the city visited the roads, to see if they 
were in good condition. The city was to be 
well supplied with water and provisions. It 
was not allowed to make any weapons there, 
lest the relatives of the deceased should be 
furnished wuth arms for the gratifying of their 
revenge> Lastly, it was necessary that who- 
ever took refuge there, should understand a 
trade or calling, that he might not be charge, 
able to the inhabitants. They were wont to 
send some prudent persons to meet those who 
were pursuing their revenge for the relations,, 
that they might dispose them to clemency, and 
persuade them to wait the decision of justice, j 

Though the man-slayer had fled to the city 
of refuge, yet he was not on this account ex- 
empted from the pursuit of justice. An infor- 
mation was preferred against him, Num. xxxv, 
12.; he v/as summoned before the judges, and 
before the people, to clear himself, and to 
prove that the nuirder was merely casual and 
involuntary. If he was found innocent, he 
dwelt safely in the city to which he had 
retired ; if otherwise, he was put to death ac- 
cording to the severity of the la.w. The fol- 



REG 



815 



REH 



lowing texts of Scripture are not very explicit 
whetiier the aiFair was under the cognizance 
of the judges of the place where the murder 
was committed, or of the judges of the city of 
refuge to which the murderer had fled, Deut. 
xix, 11, 12 ; Joshua xx, 4-6 ; Num. xxxv, 25 ; 
and the commentators are at variance in this 
.matter. But it appears, from a passage of 
Joshua, that the man-slayer was to undergo 
two trials ; first, in the city of refuge, where 
the judges summarily examined the affair, and 
heard his allegations at his first arrival ; 
secondly, when he was taken back to his own 
city, to be judged by the magistrates of the 
place, who took the cause under a more strict 
and scrupulous examination. If the latter 
judges declared him innocent, they had him 
reconducted, under a strong guard, to the city 
of refuge to which he had before fled. He 
was not, however, immediately liberated ; but, 
to inspire the greater horror even of involun- 
tary murder, it seems as if the lav/ would 
punish it by a kind of banishment ; for he was 
obliged to dwell in the city, without going out 
of it, till the death of the high priest; and if 
before that time he was imprudent enough to 
leave the city, the avenger of blood might 
safely kill him ; but after the death of the high 
priest, he was at liberty to go whither he 
pleased without molestation. 

It is a curious fact, that the North Ameri- 
can Indian nations have most of them either 
a house or town of refuge, which is a sure 
asylum to protect a man-slayer, or the unfor- 
tunate captive, if they can once enter it. "In 
almost every Indian nation," says Adair, 
" there are several peaceable towns which are 
called old, beloved, ancient, holy, or white 
towns : (white being their fixed emblem of 
peace, friendship, prosperity, happiness, purity, 
&c :) they seem to have been formerly towns 
of refuge ; for it is not in the memory of their 
oldest people that ever human blood was shed 
in them, although they often force persons 
from thence, and put them to death elsewhere." 
Sanctuaries affording security for criminals 
are still known in the east, and anciently 
were established in Europe. 

REGENERATION, a new birth; that 
work of the Holy Spirit by which we expe- 
rience a change of heart. It is expressed in 
Scripture by being born again, John iii, 7 ; 
born from above ; being quickened, Eph. ii, 1 ; 
by Christ being formed in the heart. Gal. iv, 
19; by our partaking of the divine nature, 
2 Peter i, 4. The efficient cause of regenera- 
tion is the divine Spirit. That man is not 
the author of it, is evident fi-om John i, 12, 
13 ; iii, 4 ; Eph. ii, 8, 10. The instrumental 
cause is the word of God, James i, 18 ; 1 Peter 
i, 23 ; 1 Cor. iv, 15. Tlie change in regenera- 
tion consists in the recovery of the moral 
image of God upon the heart ; that is to say, 
so as to love him supremely and serve him 
ultimately as our highest end, and to delight 
in him superlatively as our chief good. The 
sum of the moral law is to love the Lord our 
God with all our heart, and soul, and strength, 
and mind. This is the duty of every rational 



creature ; and in order to obey it perfectly, no 
part of our inv/ard affection or actual service 
ought to be, at any time, or in the least degree, 
misapplied. Regeneration consists in the prin- 
ciple being implanted, obtaining the ascend- 
ancy, and habitually prevailing over its oppo- 
site. It may be remarked, that though the 
inspired writers use various terms and modes 
of speech in order to describe this change of 
mind, sometimes terming it conversion, re- 
generation, a new creation, or the new crea- 
ture, putting oft" the old man with his deeds, 
and putting on the new man, w^alking not 
after the flesh, but after the Spirit, &c ; yet it 
is all effected by the word of truth, or the 
Gospel of salvation, gaining an entrance into 
the mind, through divine teaching, so as to 
possess the understanding, subdue the will, 
and reign in the aftections. In a word, it is 
fiiith working by love that constitutes the new 
creature, the regenerate man, Gal. v, 6; 1 
John V, 1-5. Regeneration is to be distin- 
guished from our justification, although it is 
connected with it. Every one v/ho is justi- 
fied, is also regenerated ; but the one places 
us in a new relation, and the other in a new 
moral state. Our Lord, in one instance, uses 
the term regeneration for the resurrection 
state : " Ye which have followed me, in the 
regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit 
on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit 
upon twelve thrones, judging," Matt, xix, 28. 
And, accordingly, Dr. Campbell translates the 
passage thus: "At the renovation, when the 
Son of man shall be seated on the glorious 
throne, ye, my followers, sitting also upon 
twelve thrones, shall judge." We are accus- 
tomed, says he, to apply the term solely to tlie 
conversion of individuals ; whereas its relation 
here is to the general state of things. The 
principal completion will be at the general 
resurrection, when there will be, in the most 
important sense, a renovation or regeneration 
of heaven and earth, when all things shall 
become new. 

REHOBOAM, the son and successor of 
Solomon ; his mother was Naamah, an Am- 
monitish woman, whom Solomon had married, 
1 Kings xiv, 20, 21. He was forty-one years 
of age when he began to reign, and, conse- 
quently, was born in the first year of his 
father's reign, A. M. 29S0, or the year before. 
This prince reigned seventeen years at Jerusa- 
lem, and died A. M. 3046. After the death 
of Solomon, Rehoboam came to Shechem, 
because all Israel was there assembled to make 
him king, 1 Kings xii. Jeroboam, the son of 
Nebat, w^ho had headed a sedition against So. 
lomon, and had been compelled, toward the 
close of his reign, to take refuge in Egypt, as 
soon as he heard that this prince was dead, 
returned into Judea, and came to the assembly 
of the people of Shechem. The Israelites 
would have made tenus with Rehoboam ; but, 
being a poor politician, and following the ad- 
vice of some junior counsellors, he managed 
his business so imprudently that he lost the 
whole house of Israel, save the tribes of Judah 
and Benjamin. 



REM. 



816 



REP 



RELIGION. See Christianity. 

REMONSTRANTS have obtained this 
name, particularly on the continent, because, 
in 1610, they presented to the states of Hol- 
land a petition, entitled their Remonstrance, 
in which they stated their grievances, and 
prayed for relief. They are also called Armi- 
nians, because they maintained the doctrines 
respecting predestination and grace, which 
were embraced and defended by James Har- 
raenson or Arminius, an eminent Protestant 
divine, and a native of Holland, who was born 
in 1560, and died in 1609. He first studied at 
Leyden, and then at Geneva. While at the 
university of Geneva, he studied under Beza, 
by whom he was instructed in the doctrines 
of Calvin ; and having been judged by Martin 
Lydius, professor of divinity at Franeker, a 
proper person to refute a work in which the 
Calvinistic doctrine of predestination had been 
attacked by some ministers of Delft, he under- 
took the task. On a strict examination of the 
reasons on both sides, however, he became a 
convert to the opinions which he was em- 
ployed to refute. The result of his inquiries 
on this, and other subjects connected with it, 
was, that, thinking the doctrine of Calvin with 
respect to free will, predestination, and grace, 
too severe, he expressed his doubts respecting 
them in the year 1591, and at length adopted 
the religious system of those who extend the 
love of God, and the merits of his Son, to all 
mankind. After his appointment to the theo- 
logical chair of Leyden, in 1603, he avowed 
and vindicated the principles which he had 
embraced ; but the prudence and caution with 
which he published and defended them could 
not screen him from the resentment of those 
who adhered to the theological system of Cal- 
vin, and in particular from the opposition of 
Gomar his colleague. After the death of Ar- 
minius, the controversy, thus begun, became 
more general, and threatened to involve the 
United Provinces in civil discord. However, 
the Arminian tenets gained ground, and were 
adopted by several persons of merit and dis- 
tinction. The Calvinists or Gomarists as they 
were now called, appealed to a national synod. 
Accordingly, a synod was at length convened 
at Dordrecht or Dort, and was composed of 
ecclesiastical and lay deputies from the United 
Provinces, and also of ecclesiastical deputies 
from the reformed churches of England, Swit- 
zerland, Bremen, Hesse, and the Palatinate. 
This synod sat from the first of November, 
1618, to the twenty-sixth of April, 1619. The 
principal advocate in favour of the Arminians 
was Episcopius, who was at that time professor 
of divinity at Leyden. The religious principles 
of the Arminians have insinuated themselves 
more or less into the established church in 
Holland, and imbued the theological system 
of many of those pastors who are appointed to 
maintain the doctrine and authority of the 
synod of Dort. The principles of Arminius 
were early introduced into various other coun- 
tries, as Great Britain, France, Geneva, and 
many parts of Switzerland ; but their progress 
is said to have been rather retarded of late, 



especially in Germany and several parts f»f 
Switzerland, by the prevalence of the Leib- 
nitzian and Wolfian philosophy, which is 
more favourable to Calvinism. The distin- 
guishing tenets of the Remonstrants may be 
said to consist chiefly in the different light in 
which they view the subjects of the five points, 
or in the different explanation which they give 
to them, and comprised in the five following 
articles : predestination, universal redemption, 
the operation of grace, the freedom of the will, 
and perseverance. They believe that God, 
having an equal regard for all his creatures, 
sent his Son to die for the sins not of the elect 
only, but of the whole world ; that no mortal 
is rendered finally unhappy by an eternal and 
invincible decree, but that the misery of those 
who perish arises from themselves ; and that, 
in this present imperfect state, believers, if 
not vigilant, may, through the force of tempt- 
ation, and the influence of Satan, fall from 
grace, and sink into final perdition. See 
Arminianism. 

REMPHAN, IVD 'F£[i(pa, signifies an idol, 
according to the Septuagint. Amos, v, 26, 
upbraids the Hebrews with having carried, 
during their wanderings in the wilderness, the 
tabernacle of their Moloch and Chiun, their 
images, the star of their god, which they made 
to them-selves, according to our version of the 
Bible. St. Stephen, quoting this passage of 
Amos, says, " Ye took up the tabernacle of 
Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan," 
Acts vii, 43, which has given occasion to a 
variety of conjectures. Grotius thinks it to 
have iDeen some deity, as Rimmon ; and Ca- 
pellus and Hammond take this Remphan to be 
a king of Egypt, deified by his subjects ; a late 
writer is of opinion, that God here refers to 
the idolatries to which in succeeding ages the 
Jews were gradually given up, after having 
begun to revolt in the wilderness by the sin 
of the golden calf. 

REPENTANCE is sometimes used gene- 
rally for a change of mind, and an earnest 
wishing that something were undone that has 
been done. Esau found no place for repent, 
ance, though he sought it carefully with tears ; 
he could not move his father Isaac to repent 
of what he had done, or to recall the blessing 
from Jacob and confer it on himself, Heb. xii, 
17 ; Matt, iii, 2 ; iv, 17. Taken in a religious 
sense it signifies conviction of sin and sorrow 
for it. But there is, 1. A partial or worldly 
repentance, wherein one is grieved for and 
turns from his sin, merely on account of the 
hurt it has done, or is likely to do, him : so a 
malefactor, who still loves his sin, repents of 
doing it, because it brings him to punishment. 
2. An evangelical repentance, which is a godly 
sorrow wrought in the heart of a sinful person 
by the word and Spirit of God, whereby, from 
a sense of his sin, as offensive to God, and de- 
filing and endangering to his own soul, and 
from an apprehension of the mercy of God in 
Christ, he, with grief and hatred of all his 
known sins, turns from them to God, as his 
Saviour and Lord. This is called " repentance 
toward God," as therein we tuin from sin t» 



REP 



817 



REP 



him ; and " repentance unto life," as it leads 
to spiritual life, and is the first step to eternal 
life. Matt, iii, 2 ; Acts iii, 19 ; xi, 18 ; xx, 12. 
God himself is said to repent, but this can 
only be understood of his altering his conduct 
toward his creatures, either in the bestowing 
of good or the infliction of evil : which change 
in the divine conduct is founded on a change 
in his creatures ; and thus, speaking after the 
manner of men, God is said to repent. 

REPETITIONS IN PRAYER. These are 
forbidden by our Lord, and were well styled 
"vain," if they consisted, as among the Mo- 
hammedans, in tlie repetition of Avords and 
phrases. Richardson mentions an old man 
who travelled with him, who was thought to 
be of peculiar sanctity, and most devout in 
prayer : " Certainly he did not pray in secret, 
communing with his heart, but called aloud 
with all his might, and repeated the words as 
fast as his tongue could give them utterance. 
The form and words of his prayer were the 
same with those of the others ; but this good 
man had made a vow to repeat certain words 
of the- prayer a given number of times, both 
night and morning. The word rabboni, for 
example, answering to our word Lord, he 
would bind himself to repeat a hundred or 
two hundred times, twice a day ; and, accord- 
ingly, went on in the hearing of all the party ; 
and, on his knees sometimes with his face 
directed steadily to heaven, and at other times 
bowing dov/n to the ground, and calling out 
rabboni, rabboni, rabboni, rabboni, rabboni, 
&c, as fast as he could articulate the words 
after each other, like a school boy going 
through his task, not like a man who, praying 
with the heart and the understanding also, con- 
tinues longer on his knees, in the rapture of 
devotion, whose soul is a flame of fire, en- 
kindled by his Maker, and fixing upon his 
God, like Jacob, will not let him go until he 
bless him. Having settled his accounts with 
the word rabboni, which the telling of his 
beads enabled him to know when he had done, 
he proceeded to dispose of his other vows in a 
similar manner. Allah houakhar, perhaps, 
came next, ' God most great ;' and he would 
go on, as with the other, Allah houaJcbar, 
Allah houakhar, Allah houakhar, Allah houak- 
bar, &c, repeating them as fast as he could 
frame his organs to pronounce them." 

REPHAIM. The Rephaim were the an- 
cient giants of the land of Canaan. There 
were anciently several families of them in this 
country. It is commonly thought that they 
were descended from one called Rephah or 
Rapha ; but others imagine that the word 
Rephaim properly signifies giants, in the an- 
cient language of this people. There were 
some of the Rephaim beyond Jordan, at Ash- 
teroth Karnaim, in the time of Abraham, when 
Chedorlaomer made war against them. Gen. 
xiv, 5. There were also some of them in the 
country in the days of Moses. Og, king of 
Bashan, was one of the posterity of the Re- 
phaim, Joshua xii, 4. Also in the time of 
Joshua there were some of their descendants 
in the land of Canaan, Joshua xvii, 15. Lastly, 
63 



we hear of them still in David's time, in the 
city of Gath, 1 Chron. xx, 4-6. The giants 
Goliah, Sippai, Lahmi, and others, were some 
remains of the Rephaim ; their magnitude and 
strength are known from Scripture. See 
Giants. 

REPHIDIM, a station or encampment ot 
the Israelites, Exod. xvii, 1. At this station, 
adjoining to Mount Horeb, the people again 
murmured for want of water ; and they chid 
Moses, saying, " Give us water that we may 
drink." And "they tempted the Lord, say- 
ing. Is the Lord among us or not ?" Moses, 
therefore, to convince them that he was, by 
a more obvious miracle than at.Marah, smote 
the rock with his rod, by the divine command, 
and brought water out of it for the people to 
drink: wherefore, he called the place Meri- 
bah, "chiding," and the rock Massah, "tempt- 
ation," On their way to Rephidim, the 
Amalekites, the original inhabitants of the 
country, who are noticed in Abraham's days, 
Gen. xiv, 7, not having the fear of God before 
their eyes, nor regarding the judgments re- 
cently inflicted on the Egyptians, attacked 
the rear of the Israelites when they were faint 
and weary ; but were defeated by a chosen 
party, under the command of Joshua, the faith- 
ful lieutenant of Moses, who is first noticed 
on this occasion, and even then pointed out 
by the Lord as his successor. This victory 
was miraculous ; for while Moses held up his 
hand Israel prevailed, but when he let it down 
Amalek prevailed. So Aaron and Hur (the 
husband of Miriam, according to Josephus) 
held up both his hands steadily till sunset, and 
thereby gave a decided victory to Israel. This 
unprovoked aggression of the Amalekites drew 
down upon them from the Lord the sentence 
of " war from generation to generation," be- 
tween them and the Israelites, and of final 
extermination, which was commanded to be 
written or registered in a book, for a memorial 
to Joshua and his successors, the judges and 
kings of Israel, and was carried into execution 
by Saul, 1 Sam. xv, 8, by David, 1 Sam. xxx, 
17, and finally accomplished by the Simeonites 
in Hezekiah's reign, Exod. xvii, 8-13; Deut. 
XXV, 17 ; 1 Chron. iv, 43. While the Israelites 
were encamped at Rephidim, on the western 
side of Horeb, the mount of God, Jethro, the 
father-in-law of Moses, who lived in that 
neighbourhood, and was priest and prince of 
Midian, came to visit him, with his wife Zip- 
porah, and his two sons, Eleazar and Gershom, 
who had accompanied him part of the way to 
Egypt, but returned home again ; and they 
rejoiced with him " for all the goodness which 
the Lord had done for Israel, whom he had 
delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians ;" 
and upon this occasion, Jethro, as " a priest 
of the most high God," ©f the order of Mel- 
chizedek, " offered a burnt-offering and sacri- 
fices of thanksgiving to God, at which Aaron 
and all the elders of Israel ate bread with 
Jethro before God," by a repetition of the 
eucharistic feast upon a sacrifice which Mel- 
chizedek formerly administered to Abraham, 
Gen. xiv, 18; Exod. xviii, 1-12. Thus was 



REP 



818 



REP 



fulfilled the prophetic sign which the Lord 
had given to Moses when he first appeared to 
him in the burning bush : " This shall be a 
token unto thee that I have sent thee : when 
thou hast brought forth the people out of 
Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this moun- 
tain," Exod. iii, 12. The speedy accomplish- 
ment, therefore, of this sign, at the beginning 
of their journey, was well calculated to 
strengthen their faith or reliance on the di- 
vine protection throughout. Jethro appears 
to have been distinguished not only for his 
piety, but also for his political wisdom. B}'^ 
his advice, which also was approved by the 
Lord, Moses, to relieve himself from the 
fatigue of administering justice to the people, 
the whole day, from morning until evening, 
instituted inferior judges or magistrates over 
thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, as his 
deputies, who were to relieve him from the 
burden of judging the smaller causes, but to 
refer the greater or more difiicult to Moses, 
for his decision. 

REPROBATION is equivalent to rejection. 
Rejection always implies a cause : " Reprobate 
silver shall men call them, insomuch that the 
Lord hath rejected them," Jer. vi, 30 ; that is, 
they are base metal, which will not bear the 
proof. Conditional reprobation, or rejecting 
men from the divine mercy, because of their 
impenitence or refusal of salvation, is a Scrip- 
tural doctrine ; but to the unconditional, abso- 
lute reprobation of the rigid Calvinists, the 
following objections may be urged : — 

1. It cannot be reconciled to the love of 
God. " God is love." " He is loving to every 
man, and his tender mercies are over all his 
works." 

2. Nor to the wisdom of God ; for the bring- 
ing into being a vast number of intelligent 
creatures under a necessity of sinning, and of 
being eternally lost, teaches no moral lesson 
to the world ; and contradicts all those notions 
of wisdom in the ends and processes of gov- 
ernment, which we are taught to look for, 
not only from natural reason, but from the 
Scriptures. 

3. Nor to the grace of God, which is so 
often magnified in the Scriptures; for doth it 
argue any sovereign or high strain, any super- 
abounding richness of grace or mercy in any 
man, when ten thousand have equally offended 
him, only to pardon one or two of them ? Or 
in what sense has " the grace of God appeared 
unto all men," or even to one-millionth part 
of them ? 

4. Nor can this merciless reprobation be 
reconciled to any of those numerous passages 
in which almighty God is represented as ten- 
derly compassionate and pitiful to the worst 
and mostunworthy of his creatures, even them 
who finally perish. " I have no pleasure in 
the death of him that dieth." " Being grieved 
at the hardness of their hearts." " How often 
would I have gathered thy children together, 
as a hen gathereth her chickens under her 
wings, and ye would not !" " The Lord is 
long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any 
should perish." " Or despisest thou the riches 



of his goodness, and forbearance, and long- 
suffering; not knowing that the goodness of 
God leadeth thee to repentance?" 

5. It is as manifestly contrary to his justice. 
Here, indeed, we would not assume to measure 
this attribute of God by unauthorized human 
conceptions ; but when God himself has ap- ^ 
pealed to those established notions of justice ; 
and equity which have been received among ' 
all enlightened persons, in all ages, as the ■ 
measure and nile of his own, we cannot be 
charged with this presumption. " Shall not 
the Judge of all the earth do right?" "Are 
not my ways equal ? saith the Lord." We may 
then be bold to affirm that justice and equity 
in God are what they are taken to be among 
reasonable men ; and if all men every where 
would condemn it, as most contrary to justice 
and right, that a sovereign should condemn to 
death one or more of his subjects for not obey- 
ing laws which it is absolutely impossible for 
them, under any circumstances which they 
can possibly avail themselves of, to obey, and 
much more the greater part of his subjects ; 
and to require them, on pain of aggravated 
punishment, to do something in order to the 
pardon and remission of their offences, which 
he knows they cannot do, say to stop the tide 
or to remove a mountain ; it implies a charge 
as obviously unjust against God, who is "just 
in the judgments which he executeth," to sup- 
pose him to act precisely in the same manner 
in regard to those whom he has passed by and 
rejected, without any avoidable fault of their 
own ; to destroy them by the simple rule of 
his own sovereignty, or, in other words, to 
show that he has power to do it. In whatever 
light the subject be viewed, no fault, in any 
right construction, can be chargeable upon the 
persons so punished, or, as we may rather say, 
destroyed, since punishment supposes a judicial 
proceeding, which this act shuts out. For 
either the reprobates are destroyed for a pure 
reason of sovereignty without any reference to 
their sinfulness, and thus all criminality is left 
out of the consideration ; or they are destroyed 
for the sin of Adam, to which they were not 
consenting ; or for personal faults resulting 
from a corruption of nature which they brought 
into the world with them, and which God wills 
not to correct, and which they have no power 
to correct themselves. Every received notion 
of justice is thus violated. We grant, indeed, 
that some proceedings of the Almighty may 
appear at first irreconcilable with justice, which 
are not so ; as that we should suffer pain and 
death, and be infected with a morally corrupt 
nature, inconsequence of the transgression of 
our first progenitors ; that children should 
sufier for their parents' faults in the ordinary 
course of providence ; and that in general 
calamities the comparatively innocent should 
suffer the same evils as the guilty. But none 
of these are parallel cases. For the " free 
gift" has come upon all men, " to justification 
of life," through "the righteousness" of the 
second Adam, so that the terms of our proba- 
tion are but changed. None are doomed to 
inevitable ruin, or the above words of ths 



REP 



819 



REP 



Apostle would have no meaning ; and pain 
and death, as to all who avail themselves of 
the remedy, are made the instruments of a 
higher life, and of a superabounding of grace 
through Christ. The same observation may- 
be made as to children who suffer evils for 
their parents' faults. This circumstance alters 
the terms of their probation ; but if every con. 
dition of probation leaves to men the possi- 
bility and the hope of eternal life, and the 
circumstances of all are balanced and weighed 
by Him who administers the affairs of indi- 
viduals on principles, the end of which is to 
turn all the evils of life into spiritual and 
liigher blessings, there is, obviously, no im- 
peachment of justice in the circumstances of 
the probation assigned to any person whatever. 
As to the innocent suffering equally with the 
guilty in general calamities, the persons so 
suffering are but comparatively innocent, and 
their personal transgressions against God de- 
serve a higher punishment than any which 
this life witnesses ; this may also as to them 
be overruled for merciful purposes, and a 
future life presents its manifold compensations. 
But as to the non-elect, the whole case, in this 
scheme of sovereign reprobation, or sovereign 
preterition, is supposed to be before us. Their 
state is fixed, their afflictions in this life will 
not in any instance be overruled for ends 
of edification and salvation ; they are left 
under a necessity of sinning in every condi- 
tion ; and a future life presents no compensa- 
tion, but. a fearful looking for of fiery and 
quenchless indignation. It is surely not pos- 
sible for the ingenuity of man to reconcile this 
to any notion of just government which has 
ever obtained ; and by the established notions 
of justice and equity in human affairs, we are 
taught by the Scriptures themselves to judge 
of the divine proceedings in all completely 
stated and comprehensible cases. 

6. Equally impossible is it to reconcile this 
notion to the sincerity of God in offering sal- 
vation by Christ to all w^ho hear the Gospel, 
of whom this scheme supposes the majority, 
or at least great numbers to be among the re- 
probate. The Gospel, as we have seen, is 
commanded to be preached to every creature ; 
which publication of good news to every crea- 
ture is an offer of salvation to every creature, 
accompanied with earnest invitations to em. 
brace it, and admonitory comminations lest 
any should neglect and despise it. But does 
it not involve a serious reflection upon the 
truth and sincerity of God which men ought 
to shudder at, to assume, t'lat at the very time 
the Gospel is thus preached, no part of this 
good news was ever designed to benefit the 
majority, or any great part, of those to whom 
it is addressed ? that they to whom this love 
of God in Christ is proclaimed were never 
loved by God ? that he has decreed that many 
to whom he offers salvation, and whom he in. 
vites to receive it, shall never be saved ? and 
that he will consider their sins aggravated by 
rejecting that which they never could receive, 
^nd which he never designed them to receive ? 
It is no answer to this to say that we also 



admit that the offers of mercy are made by 
God to many whom he, by virtue of his pre- 
science, knows will never receive them. We 
grant this ; but it is enough to reply, that in 
this case there is no insincerity. On the Cal- 
vinian scheme the offer of salvation is made 
to those for whose sins Christ made no atone- 
ment; on the other, he made atonement for 
the sins of all. On the former, the offer is 
made to those whom God never designed to 
embrace it ; on the latter to none but those 
whom God seriously and in truth wills that 
they should avail themselves of it ; on one 
theory, the bar to the salvation of the non. 
elect lies in the want of a provided sacrifice for 
sin ; on the other, it rests solely in men them, 
selves ; one consists, therefore, with a perfect 
sincerity of offer, the other cannot be main, 
tained without bringing the sincerity of God 
into question, and fixing a stigma upon his 
moral truth. 

7. Unconditional reprobation cannot be re 
conciled with that frequent declaration of 
Scripture, that " God is no respecter of per- 
sons." This phrase, we grant, is not to be 
interpreted as though the bounties of the Al- 
mighty were dispensed in equal measures to 
his creatures. In the administration of favour, 
there is place for the exercise of that preroga- 
tive which, in a just sense, is called the sove- 
reignty of God ; but justice knows but of one 
rule ; it is, in its nature, settled and fixed, and 
looks not at the person, but the ease. To have 
respect of persons is a phrase, therefore, in 
Scripture, which sometimes refers to judicial 
proceedings, and signifies to judge from par- 
tiality and affection, and not upon the merits 
of the question. It is also used by St. Peter 
with reference to the acceptance of Cornelius : 
" Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter 
of persons ; but in every nation he that feareth 
him, and worketh righteousness,, is accepted 
with him." Here it is clear, that to respect 
persons, would be to reject or accept them 
without regard to their moral qualities, and on 
some national and other prejudice or partiality 
which forms no moral rule of any kind. But, 
if the doctrine of absolute election and repro- 
bation be true ; if we are to understand that 
men like Jacob and Esau, in the Calvinistic 
construction of the passage, while in the womb 
of their mother, nay, from eternity, are loved 
and hated, elected or reprobated, before they 
have done " good or evil," then it necessarily 
follows, that there is precisely this kind of re- 
spect of persons with God ; for his acceptance 
or rejection of men stands on some ground of 
aversion or dislike, which cannot be resolved 
into any moral rule, and has no respect to the 
merits of the case itself; and if the Scripture 
affirms that there is no such respect of persons 
with God, then the doctrine which implies it 
is contradicted by inspired authority. 

8. The doctrine of which we are showing 
the difficulties, brings with it the repulsive and 
shocking opinion of the eternal punishment 
of infants. Some Calvinists have, indeed, to 
get rid of the difficulty, or rather to put it out 
of sight, consigned them to annihilation ; but 



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of the annihilation of any human being there 
is no intimation in the word of God. In order, 
therefore, to avoid the fearful consequence of 
admitting the punishment of beings innocent 
as to all actual sin, there is no other way than 
to suppose all children, dying in infancy, to be 
an elected portion of mankind, which, how- 
ever, would be a mere hypothesis brought in 
to serve a theory without any evidence. That 
some of those who, as they suppose, are under 
this sentence of reprobation, die in their infan- 
cy, is, probably, what most Calvinists allow ; 
and, if their doctrine be received, cannot be 
denied ; and it follows, therefore, that all such 
infants are eternally lost. Now, we know 
that infants are not lost, because our Lord 
gave it as a reason why little children ought 
not to be hindered from coming unto him, that 
" of such is the kingdom of heaven." On 
which Calvin himself remarks, "In this word, 
'for of such is the kingdom of heaven,' Christ 
comprehends as well little children themselves, 
as those who in disposition resemble them. 
Hac vocei tarn parvulos, quam eorum similes, 
comprehendit." We are assured of the salva- 
tion of infants, also, because "the free gift has 
come upon all men to," in order to, " justifica- 
tion of life," and because children are not 
capable of rejecting that blessing, and must, 
therefore, derive benefit from it. The point, 
also, on which we have just now touched, that 
"there is no respect of persons with God," 
demonstrates it. For, as it will be acknow- 
ledged, that some children, dying in infancy, 
are saved, it must follow, from this principle 
and axiom in the divine government, that all 
infants are saved ; for the case of all infants, 
as to innocence or guilt, siii or righteousness, 
being the same, and God as a judge, being 
"no respecter of persons," but regarding only 
the merits of the case, he cannot make this 
awful distinction as to them, that one part shall 
be eternally saved and the other eternally lost. 
That doctrine, therefore, which implies the 
perdition of infants, cannot be congruous to 
the Scriptures of truth, but is utterly abhorrent 
to them. 

Finally, not to multiply these instances of 
the difficulties which accompany the doctrine 
of absolute reprobation, or of preterition, (to 
use the milder term, though the argument is 
not in the least changed by it,) it destroys the 
end of punitive justice. That end can only be, 
to deter men from offence, and to add strength 
to the law of God. But if the whole body of 
the reprobate are left to the influence of their 
fallen nature without remedy, they cannot be 
deterred from sin by threats of inevitable pun- 
ishment ; nor can they ever submit to the 
dominion of the law of God : their doom is 
fixed, and threats and examples can avail 
nothing. 

RESTITUTION, that act of justice by 
which we restore to our neighbour whatever we 
have unjustly deprived him of, Exod. xxii, 1 ; 
Luke xix, 8. Moralists observe, respecting 
restitution, 1. That where it can be made in 
kind, or the injury can be certainly valued, we 
are to restore the thing or the value. 2. We 



are bound to restore the thing with the natural 
increase of it, that is, to satisfy for the loss 
sustained in the mean time, and the gain hin- 
dered. 3. When the thing cannot be restored, 
and the value of it is not certain, we are to 
give reasonable satisfaction, according to a 
liberal estimation. 4. We are at least to give, 
by way of restitution, what the law would 
give ; for that is generally equal, and in most 
cases rather favourable than rigorous. 5. A 
man is not only bound to make restitution for 
the injury he did, but for all that directly fol- 
lows upon the injurious act : for the first in- 
jury being wilful, we are supposed to will all 
that which follows upon it. 

RESURRECTION. The belief of a gene- 
ral resurrection of the dead, which will come 
to pass at the end of the world, and will be 
followed with an immortality either of happi- 
ness or misery, is an article of religion in com- 
mon to Jews and Christians. It is very ex- 
pressly taught both in the Old and New Testa- 
ments, Psalm xvi, 10 ; Job xix, 25, &c ; Ezek. 
xxxvii, 1, &c ; Isaiah xxvi, 19 ; John v, 28, 
29 ; and to these maybe added, Wisdom iii, 1, 
&c ; iv, 15 ; 2 Mace, vii, 14, 23, 29, &c. At 
the time when our Saviour appeared in Judea, 
the resurrection from the dead was received as 
one of the principal articles of the Jewish re- 
ligion by the whole body of the nation, the 
Sadducees excepted, Matt, xxii, 23 ; Luke xx, 
28 ; Mark xii, 18 ; John xi, 23, 24 ; Acts xxiii, 
6, 8. Our Saviour arose himself from the dead, 
to give us, in his own person, a proof, a pledge, 
and a pattern of our future resurrection. St. 
Paul, in almost all his epistles, speaks of a 
general resurrection, refutes those who denied 
or opposed it, and proves and explains it b;y 
several circumstances, Rom. vi, 5 ; 1 Cor. xv, 
12-15 ; Phil, iii, 10, 11 ; Heb. xi, 35 ; 1 Thess. 
iv, 13-17, &c. 

On this subject no point of discussion, of 
any importance, arises among those who admit 
the truth of Scripture, except as to the way in 
which the doctrine of the resurrection of the 
body is to be understood ; — whether a resur- 
rection of the substance of the body be meant, 
or some minute and indestructible part of it. 
The latter theory has been adopted for the sake 
of avoiding certain supposed difficulties. It can- 
not however fail to strike every impartial reader 
of the New Testament, that the doctrine of the 
resurrection is there taught without any nice 
distinctions. It is always exhibited as a miracu- 
lous work ; and represents the same body which 
is laid in the grave as the subject of this change 
from death to life, by the power of Christ. 
Thus our Lord was raised in the same body in 
which he died, and his resurrection is con. 
stantly held forth as the model of ours ; and 
the Apostle Paul expressly says, "Who shall 
change our vile body, that it may be fashioned 
like unto his glorious body." The only pas- 
sage of Scripture which appears to favour the 
notion of the rising of the immortal body from 
some indestructible germ, is 1 Cor. xv, 35, &c : 
" But some men will say, How are the dead 
raised up, and with what body do they come ? 
Thou fool, that which thou sowcst is not 



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quickened except it die ; and that which thou 
sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall 
be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or 
of some other grain," &c. If, however, it had 
been the intention of the Apostle, holding this 
view of the case, to meet objections to the doc- 
trine of the resurrection, grounded upon the 
difficulties of conceiving how the same body, 
in the popular sense, could be raised up in sub- 
stance, we might have expected him to correct 
this misapprehension by declaring, that this 
was not the Christian doctrine ; but that some 
small parts of the body only, bearing as little 
proportion to the whole as the germ of a seed 
to the plant, would be preserved, and be un- 
folded into the perfected body at the resurrec- 
tion. Instead of this, he goes on immediately 
to remind the objector of the diiferences which 
exist between material bodies as they now ex- 
ist ; between the plant and the bare or naked 
grain ; between one plant and another ; be- 
tween the flesh of men, of beasts, of fishes, and 
of birds ; between celestial and terrestrial bo- 
dies ; and between the lesser and greater celes. 
tial' luminaries themselves. Still farther he 
proceeds to state the difference, not between 
the germ of the body to be raised, and the hody 
given at the resurrection ; but between the 
body itself, understood popularly, which dies, 
and the body which shall be raised. "It is 
sown in corruption, it is raised in incorrup- 
tion," which would not be true of the supposed 
incorruptible and imperishable germ of this hy- 
pothesis ; and can only be affirmed of the body 
itself, considered in substance, and, in its pre- 
sent state, corruptible. Farther : the question 
put by the objector, — " How are the dead 
raised up ?" does not refer to the modus agendi 
of the resurrection, or the process or manner 
in which the thing is to be effected, as the ad- 
vocates of the germ hypothesis appear to 
assume. This is manifest from the answer of 
the Apostle, who goes on immediately to state, 
not in what manner the resurrection is to be 
effected, but what shall be the state or condi. 
Hon of the resurrection body ; which is no an- 
swer at all to the question, if it be taken in 
that sense. 

Thus, in the argument, the Apostle confines 
himself wholly to the possibility of the resur- 
rection of the body in a refined and glorified 
state ; but omits all reference to the mode in 
which the thing will be effected, as being out 
of the line of the objector's questions, and in 
itself above human thought, and wholly mi- 
raculous. It is, however, clear, that when he 
speaks of the body, as the subject of this 
wondrous " change," he speaks of it popularly, 
as the same body in substance, whatever 
changes in its qualities or figure may be im- 
pressed upon it. Great general changes it will 
experience, as from corruption to incorruption, 
from mortality to immortality ; great changes of 
a 'particular kind will also take place, as its 
being freed from deformities and defects, and 
the accidental varieties produced by climate, 
aliments, labour, and hereditary diseases. It 
is also laid down by our Lord, that "in the 
resurrection they shall neither marry nor be 



given in marriage, but be like to the angels of 
God;" and this also implies a certain change 
of structure ; and we may gather from the 
declaration of the Apostle, that though "the 
stomach" is now adapted " to meats, and meats 
to the stomach," yet God will " destroy both it 
and them;" that the animal appetite for food 
will be removed, and the organ now adapted 
to that appetite will have no place in the 
renewed frame. But great as these changes 
are, the human form will be retained in its 
perfection, after the model of our Lord's " glo- 
rious body," and the substance of the matter 
of which it is composed will not thereby be 
affected. That the same body which was laid 
in the grave shall arise out of it, is the mani- 
fest doctrine of the Scriptures. The notion of 
an incorruptible germ, or that of an original 
and unchangeable stamen, out of which a new 
and glorious body, at the resurrection, is to 
spring, appears to have been borrowed from 
the speculations of some of the Jewish rabbins. 
But if by this hypothesis it was designed to 
remove the difficulty of conceiving how the 
scattered parts of one body could be preserved 
from becoming integral parts of other bodies, 
it supposes that the constant care of Providence 
is exerted to maintain the incorruptibility of 
those individual germs, or stamina, so as to 
prevent their assimilation with each other. 
Now, if they have this by original quality, 
then the same quality may just as easily be 
supposed to appertain to every particle which 
composes a human body ; so that, though it be 
used for food, it shall not be capable of assimi- 
lation, in any circumstances, v/ith another 
human body. But if these germs, or stamina, 
have not this quality by their original nature, 
they can only be prevented from assimilating 
with each other by that operation of God which 
is present to all his works, and which must 
always be directed to secure the execution of 
his own ultimate designs. If this viev/ be 
adopted, then, if the resort must at last be to 
the superintendence of a Being of infinite 
power and wisdom, there is no greater difficulty 
in supposing that his care to secure this object 
may extend to a million as easily as to a hun- 
dred particles of matter. This is, in fact, the 
true and rational answer to the objection that 
the same piece of matter may happen to be a 
part of two or more bodies, as in the instances 
of men feeding upon animals which have fed 
upon men, and of men feeding upon one 
another. The question here is one which 
simply respects the frustrating a final purpose 
of the Almighty by an operation of nature. 
To suppose that he cannot prevent this, is to 
deny his power ; to suppose him inattentive to 
it, is to suppose him indifferent to his own 
designs ; and to assume that he employs care 
to prevent it, is to assume nothing greater, 
nothing in fact so great, as many instances of 
control, which are always occurring; as, for 
instance, the regulation of the proportion of 
the sexes in human births, which cannot be 
attributed to chance, but must either be referred 
to superintendence, or to some original law. 
Another objection to the resurrection of the 



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body has been drawn from the changes of its 
substance during life ; the answer to which is, 
that, allowing a frequent and total change of 
the substance of the body (which, however, is 
but an hypothesis) to take place, it affects not the 
doctrine of Scripture, which i^, that the body 
which is laid in the grave shall be raised up. 
But then, we are told, that if our bodies have in 
fact undergone successive changes during life, 
the bodies in which we have sinned or performed 
rewardable actions may not be, in many in- 
stances, the same bodies as those which will 
be actually rewarded or punished. We answer, 
that rewards and punishments have their re- 
lation to the body, not so much as it is the 
subject but as it is the instrument of reward 
and punishment. It is the soul only which 
perceives pain or pleasure, which suffers or 
enjoys, and is, therefore, the only rewardable 
subject. Were we, therefore, to admit such 
corporeal mutations as are assumed in this 
objection, they aifect not the case of our ac- 
countability. The personal identity or same- 
ness of a rational being, as Mr. Locke has 
observed, consists in self-consciousness : " By 
this every one is to himself what he calls self, 
without considering whether that self be con- 
tinued in the same or divers substances. It 
was by the same self which reflects on an 
action done many years ago, that the action 
was performed." If there were indeed any 
weight in this objection, it would aflect the 
proceedings of human criminal courts in all 
cases of offences committed at some distance 
of time ; but it contradicts the common sense, 
because it contradicts the common conscious- 
ness and experience, of mankind. 

Our Lord has assured us, that " the hour is 
coming in which all that are in their graves 
shall hear his voice, and come forth ; they that 
have done good, unto the resurrection of life, 
and they that have done evil, unto the resur- 
rection of damnation." Then we shall "all be 
changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an 
eye, at the last trump," and " the dead shall be 
raised incorruptible " It is probable that the 
bodies of the righteous and the wicked, though 
each shall in some respects be the same as 
before, will each be in other respects not the 
same, but undergo some change conformable 
to the character of the individual, and suited 
to his future state of existence ; yet both, a,s 
the passage just quoted clearly teaches, are 
then rendered indestructible. Respecting the 
good it is said, " When Christ, who is our life, 
shall appear, we shall appear with him in 
glory," " we shall be like him ; our body shall 
be fashioned like his glorious body ;" yet, not- 
withstanding this, " it doth not yet fully appear 
what we shall be," Col. iii, 4 ; 1 John iii, 2 ; 
Phil, iii, 21. This has a very obvious reason. 
Our present manaier of knowing depends upon 
our present constitution, and we know not the 
exact relation which subsists between this con- 
stitution and the manner of being in a future 
world ; we derive oup idea^ through the me- 
dium of the senses; the senses are necessarily 
conversant with terrestrial objects only ; our 
language is suited to the communication of 



present ideas ; and thus it follows that the ob- 
jects of the future world may in some respects 
(whether few or many we cannot say) differ 
so extremely from terrestrial objects, that lan- 
guage cannot communicate to us any such 
ideas as would render those matters compre- 
hensible. But language may suggest striking 
and pleasing analogies ; and with such we are 
presented by the holy Apostle: "All flesh," 
says he, "is not the same flesh: but there is 
one flesh of men, another of beasts, another 
of fishes, and another of birds ;" and yet 
all these are fashioned out of the same 
kind of substance, mere inert matter, till 
God gives it life and activity. It is sown 
an animal body ; a body which previously 
existed with all the organs, faculties, and pro 
pensities, requisite to procure, receive, and 
appropriate nutriment, as well as to perpetuate 
the species ; but it shall be raised a spiritual 
body, refined from the dregs of matter, freed 
from the organs and senses required only in 
its former state, and probably possessing the 
remaining senses in greater perfection, together 
with new and more exquisite faculties, fitted 
for the exalted state of existence and enjoy- 
ment to which it is now rising. In the present 
state the organs and senses appointed to trans- 
mit the impressions of objects to the mind, 
have a manifest relation to the respective 
objects : the eye and seeing, for example, to 
light ; the ear and hearing, to sound. In the 
refined and glorious sta,te of existence to which 
good men are tending, where the objects which 
solicit attention will be infinitely inore nu- 
merous, interesting, and delightful, may not 
the new organs, faculties, and senses, b(3 pro- 
portionally refined, acute, susceptible, or pene- 
trating? Human industry and invention have 
placed us, in a manner, in new worlds ; what, 
then, may not a spiritual body, with sharpened 
faculties, and the grandest possible objects of 
contemplation, effect in the celestial regions 
to which Christians are invited ? There the 
senses will no longer degrade the affections, 
the imagination no longer corrupt the heart ; 
the magnificent scenery thrown open to view 
will animate the attention, give a glow and 
vigour to- the sentiments ; that roused attention 
will never tire ; those glowing sentiments will 
never cloy ; but the man, now constituted of 
an indestructible body, as well as of an immor- 
tal soul, may visit in eternal succession the 
streets of the celestial city, may "drink of the 
pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, 
proceeding out of the throne of God, and of 
the Lamb ;" and dwell for ever in those abodes 
of harmony and peace, which, though "eye 
hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered 
into the imagination of man to conceive," we 
are assured " God hath prepared for them that 
love him," 1 Cor. ii, 9. 

REUBEN, Tribe of. This tribe, having 
much cattle, solicited and obtained from Mo- 
ses possessions east of the Jordan ; by which 
river it was separated from the main body of 
Israel: it was, in consequence, exposed to 
various inroads and oppressions from which 
the western tribes were free ; and it was among 



RIV 



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tlie first carried into captivity by Tiglath pile- 
ser, 1 Chron. v, 26. 

REVELATION, or APOCALYPSIS, is 
the name given to a canonical book of the 
New Testament. See Apocalypse. 

RHODES, an island lying south of the pro- 
vince of Caria, in Lesser Asia, and, among 
the Asiatic islands, is accounted for dignity 
next to Cyprus and Lesbos. It is pleasant and 
healthful, and was anciently celebrated for the 
skill of its inhabitants in navigation, but most, 
for its prodigious statue of brass consecrated 
to the sun, and called the Colossus. This 
statue was seventy cubits high, and bestrode 
the mouth of the harbour, so that ships could 
sail between its legs, and it was accounted one 
of the seven wonders of the world. St. Paul, 
on his way to Jerusalem, A. D. 58, went from 
Miletus to Coos, from Coos to Rhodes, and 
from thence to Patara, in Lycia, Acts xxi, 1. 

RIGHTEOUSNESS, justice, holiness. 
The righteousness of God is the essential per- 
fection of his nature ; sometimes it is put for 
his justice. The righteousness of Christ de- 
notes,' not only his absolute perfection, but, is 
taken for his perfect obedience unto death, 
and his suffering the penalty of the law in our 
stead. The righteousness of the law is that 
obedience which the law requires. The right- 
eousness of faith is the justification which is 
received by faith. 

RIMMON. SeeNAAMAN. 

RINGS. The antiquity of rings appears 
from Scripture and from profane authors. 
Judah left his ring with Tamar, Gen. xxxviii, 
18. When Pharaoh committed the govern- 
ment of Egypt to Joseph, he took his ring 
from his finger and gave it to Joseph, Gen. 
xli, 42, After the victory of the Israelites 
over the Midianites, they offered to the Lord 
the rings, the bracelets, and the golden neck- 
laces, taken from the enemy. Num. xxxi, 50. 
The Israelitish women wore rings, not only 
on their fingers, but also in their nostrils and 
their ears. St. James distinguishes a man of 
wealth and dignity by the ring of gold on his 
finger, James ii, 2. At the return of the 
prodigal son, his father orders him to be dress. 
ed in a new suit of clothes, and to have a ring 
put on his finger, Luke xv, 22. When God 
threatened Jeconiah with the utmost effects of 
his anger, he tells him, that though he were 
the signet or ring on his finger, yet he should 
be torn off, Jer. xxii, 24. The ring was used 
chiefly to seal with, and Scripture generally 
assigns it to princes and great persons ; as the 
king of Egypt, Joseph, Ahaz, Jezebel, King 
Ahasuerus, his favourite Haman, Mordecai, 
King Darius, 1 Kings xxi, 8 ; Esther iii, 10, 
Sic ; Dan. vi, 17. The patents and orders of 
these princes were sealed with their rings or 
signets, an impression from which was their 
confirmation. The ring was one mark of 
sovereign authority. Pharaoh gave his ring 
to Joseph, as a token of authority. When 
Alexander the Great gave his ring to Perdic- 
cas, this was understood as nominating him 
his successor. 

RIVER. The Hebrews give the name of 



" the river," without any addition, sometimes 
to the Nile, sometimes to the Euplirates, and 
sometimes to Jordan. It is the tenor of the 
discourse that must determine the sense of 
this vague and uncertain way of speaking. 
They give also the name of river to brooks 
and rivulets that are not considerable. The 
name of river is sometimes given to the sea, 
Hab. iii, 8 ; Psalm Ixxviii, 16. It is also used 
as a symbol for plenty, Job xxix, 6 ; Psalm 
xxxvi, 8. 

ROCK. Palestine, being a mountainous 
country, had also many rocks, which formed 
a part of the country's defence ; for in time of 
danger the people retired to them, and found 
a refuge against any sudden irruption of the 
enemy. The Benjamites took shelter in the 
rock Rimmon, Judges xx, 47. Samson kept 
garrison in the rock of Etham, Judges xv, 8. 
David found shelter in the rocks of Maon, 
Engedi, &c, 1 Sam. xxii, 1 ; xxiii, 25, 28 ; 
xxiv, 2-5. Jerom says that the southern parts 
of Judea were full of caves under ground, and 
of caverns in the mountains, to which the 
people retired in time of danger. The Ken- 
ites dwelt in the hollow places of the rocks, 
Num. xxiv, 21. Even at this day the villages of 
this country are subterraneous, or in the rocks. 
Josephus in several places speaks of hollow 
rocks, where thieves and robbers had their 
haunts ; and travellers still find a great num. 
her of them in Palestine, and in the adjoining 
provinces. Toward Lebanon, the mountains 
are high, but covered in many places with as 
much earth as fits them for cultivation. Among 
the crags of the rocks, the beautiful and far- 
famed cedar waves its lofty top, and extends 
its powerful arms, surrounded by the fir and 
the oak, the fig and the vine. On the road to 
Jerusalem, the mountains are not so lofty nor 
so rugged, but become fitter for tillage. They 
rise again to the south-east of Mount Carmel ; 
are covered with woods, and afford very pic- 
turesque views ; but advancing toward Judea, 
they lose their verdure, the valleys become 
narrow, dry, and stony, and terminate at the 
Dead Sea in a pile of desolate rocks, precipices, 
and caverns. These vast excavations, some 
of which will contain fifteen hundred men, 
are the grottoes of Engedi, which have been 
a refuge to the oppressed or the discontented 
in all ages. Westward of Jordan and the lake 
Asphaltites, another chain of rocks, still 
loftier and more rugged, presents a yet more 
gloomy aspect, and announces the distant en- 
trance of the desert, and the termination of 
the habitable regions. 

The name of rock is also given to God, by 
way of metaphor, because God is the strength, 
the refuge, and defence of Israel, as those 
places were to the people who resided among 
them. Psalm xviii, 2, 31 ; xxxi, 2, 3 ; Deut, 
xxxii, 15, 18, 30, 31 ; Psalm Ixi, 2, &c. 

ROD. This word is used sometimes for the 
branches of a tree : " And Jacob took him 
rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and 
chesnut tree," Gen. xxx, 37 ; sometimes for a 
staff or wand : " And thou shalt,takc this rod 
in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs. 



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824 



ROM 



And Moses took the rod of God in his hand," 
Exod. iv, 17, 20 ; or for a shepherd's crook : 
"And concerning the tithe of tlie herd, or of 
the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under 
the rod ; the tenth shall be holy unto the 
Lord," Lev. xxvii, 32 ; or for a rod, properly 
so called, which God makes use of to correct 
men : " If he commit iniquity, I will chasten 
him with the rod of men, and Vv^ith the stripes 
of the children of men," 2 Sam. vii, 14. "Let 
him take his rod away from me," Job ix, 34. 
The empire of the Messiah is sometimes re- 
presented by a rod of iron, to show its power 
and its might, Psalm ii, 9 ; Rev. ii, 27 ; xii, 5 ; 
xix, 15. Rod is sometimes put to signify a 
tribe or a people : "Remember thy congrega- 
tion which thou hast purchased of old, the rod 
of thine inheritance which thou hast redeem- 
ed," Psalm Ixxiv, 2. " Israel is the rod of his 
inheritance," Jer. x, 16. The rod of Aaron is 
the staff commonly used by the high priest. 
This is the rod that budded and blossomed like 
an almond tree. Num. xvii. See Aaron. 

ROMAN CATHOLICS, or members of the 
church of Rome, otherwise called papists, 
from the pope being considered by them as 
the supreme head of the universal church, the 
successor of St. Peter, and the fountain of 
theological truth and ecclesiastical honours. 
He keeps his court in great state at the palace 
of the Vatican, and is attended by seventy 
cardinals as his privy counsellors, in imitation 
of the seventy disciples of our Lord. The 
pope's authority in other kingdoms is merely 
spiritual, but in Italy he is a temporal sove- 
reign, Louis XVIII. and the allies having, in 
1814, restored him to his throne, and to those 
temporalities of which he was deprived by 
Buonaparte and the French revolution. On 
resuming his government. Pope Pius VII. soon 
restored the order of Jesuits and the inquisi- 
tion; so that the Roman Catholic religion is 
now reinstated in its ancient splendour and 
authority. The principal dogmas of this re- 
ligion are as follows: 1. That St. Peter was 
deputed by Christ to be his vicar, and the head 
of the catholic church ; and that the bishops 
of Rome, being his successors, have the same 
apostolical authority ; for our Saviour declares, 
in Matt, xvi, IS, " Thou art Peter, and upon 
this rock will I build my church ;" by which 
rock they understand St. Peter himself, as the 
name signifies, and not his confession, as the 
Protestants explain it. And a succession in 
the church being now supposed necessary 
under the New Testament, as Aaron had his 
succession under the old dispensation, which 
was a figure of the new, this succession can 
now, they contend, be shown only in the chair 
of St. Peter at Rome, where it is asserted he 
presided twenty-five years previous to his 
death ; therefore, the bishops of Rome are his 
true successors. 2, That the Roman Catholic 
church is the mother and mistress of all 
churches, and cannot possibly err in matters 
of faith ; for the churcli has the promise of the 
Spirit of God to lead it into all truth, John 
xvi, 13 ; " and the gates of hell shall not pre- 
vail against it," Matt, xvi, 18. Christ also, 



who is himself the truth, has promised to the 
pastors and teachers of the church to be with 
them " ahvays, even to the end of the world," 
Matt, xxviii, 20. " It is from the testimonj/- 
and authority of the church, therefore," say 
they, " that we receive the Scriptures as the 
word of God." 3. That the Scriptures thus 
received on the authority of the church are 
not sufficient to our faith without apostolical 
traditions, which are of equal authority with 
the Scriptures ; for St. Peter assures us, that 
in St. Paul's epistles there " are some things 
hard to be understood, which they who are 
unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also 
the other scriptures, to their own destruc- 
tion," 2 Peter iii, 16. We are directed by St. 
Paul to "stand fast, and hold the traditions 
which we have been taught, whether by word 
or by epistle," 2 Thess. ii, 15. 4. That seven 
sacraments were instituted by Jesus Christ, 
namely, baptism, confirmation, eucharist, pe- 
nance, extreme unction, orders, and matri- 
mony ; and that they confer grace. To prove 
that confirmation, or imposition of hands, is a 
sacrament, they quote Acts viii, 17 : " They," 
the Apostles, " laid their hands on them," be- 
lievers, " and tbey received the Holy Ghost." 
Penance is a sacrament in which the sins we 
commit after baptism, duly repented of, and 
confessed to a priest, are forgiven ; and which 
they think was instituted by Christ himself 
when he breathed upon his Apostles after his 
resurrection, and said, " Receive ye the Holy 
Ghost : whose sins ye remit, are remitted ; 
and whose sins ye retain, are retained," John 
XX, 23. In favour of extreme unction, or 
anointing the sick with oil, they argue from 
James i, 14, 15, which is thus rendered in the 
Vulgate : " Is any sick among you ? Let him 
call for the priests of the church, and let them 
pray over him, anointing him with oil," &c. 
The sacrament of holy orders is inferred from 
1 Tim. iv, 14 : " Neglect not the gift that is 
in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, 
with the laying on the hands of the presby- 
tery," or priesthood, as they render it. That 
marriage is a sacrament, they think evident 
from Ephes. v, 32: "This is a great mys- 
tery," representing the mystical union of 
Christ and his church. " Matrimony," say 
they, " is here the sign of a holy thing, and 
therefore it is a sacrament." Notwithstand- 
ing this, they enjoin celibacy upon the clergy,' 
because they do not think it proper that those 
vv^ho, by their office and function,, ought to be 
wholly devoted to God, should be diverted 
from those duties by the distractions of a mar- 
ried life, 1 Cor. vii, 32, 33. 5. That in the 
mass, or public service, there is offered unto 
God a true and propitiatory sacrifice for the 
quick and dead ; and that in the sacrament of 
the eucharist, under the forms of bread and 
wine, are really and substantially present the 
body and blood, together with the soul and 
divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and that 
there is a conversion made of the whole sub- 
stance of the bread into his body, and of the 
wine into his blood, which is called transub- 
stantiation ; according to our Lojd's words to 



ROM 



825 



ROM 



his disciples, " This is my body," &c, Matt. 
xxvi, 26 ; wherefore it becomes with them an 
object of adoration. Farther : it is a matter 
of discipline, not of doctrine, in the Roman 
church, that the laity receive the eucharist 
in one kind, that is, in bread only. This sa- 
crifice of the mass was, they think, predicted 
by the Prophet Malachi, i, 11, who says, "In 
every place incense shall be offered unto my 
name, and a pure offering." 6. That there is 
a purgatory; and that souls kept prisoners 
there do receive help by the suffrages of the 
faithful. For it is said, in 1 Cor. iii, 15, "If 
any man's work shalLbe burned, he shall suf- 
fer loss ; but he himself shall be saved, yet so 
as by fire;" which they understand of the 
flames of purgatory. They also believe that 
souls are released from purgatory by the pray- 
ers and alms which are offered for them, prin- 
cipally by the holy sacrifice of the mass. 
They call purgatory a middle state of souls, 
into which those enter who depart this life in 
God's grace ; yet not without some less stains 
of guilt, which retard them from entering 
heaven, where nothing unclea,n can enter. 

7. Th^t the saints reigning with Christ (and 
especially the blessed virgin) are to be hon- 
oured and invoked ; that they offer prayers 
unto God for us ; and that their relics are to 
be had in veneration. These honours, how- 
ever, are not divine, but relative, and redound 
to the divine glory, Rev. v, 8 ; viii, 4, &c. 

8. That the image of Christ, of the blessed vir- 
gin, the mother of God, and of other saints, 
ought to be retained in churches, and honour 
and veneration ought to be given unto them. 
And as the images of cherubims were allov/ed 
in the temples, so images should be placed in 
churches, and had in veneration. 9. That the 
power of indulgences was left by Christ to the 
church, and that the use of them is very bene- 
ficial to Christian people ; according to Matt. 
xvi, 19 : "I will give thee the keys of the king- 
dom of heaven." By indulgences they do not 
mean leave to commit sin, nor pardon for sins 
to come ; but only releasing, by the power of 
the keys committed to the church, the debt of 
temporal punishment which may remain due 
upon account of our sins, after the sins them- 
selves, as to their guilt and eternal punish- 
ment, have been already remitted through 
repentance and confession, and by virtue of 
the merit of Christ, and of all the saints. By 
their indulgences they assert that they apply 
to their souls the merits of Christ, and of the 
saints and martyrs through him. 

The ceremonies of this church are numerous 
and splendid, as, 1. They make use of the sign 
of the cross in all their sacraments, to give us 
to understand, that they have their whole force 
and efficacy from the cross. 2. Sprinkling of 
the holy water by the priest on solemn days is 
used likewise by every one going in or coming 
out of church. 3. The ceremony of blessing 
bells is, by the Catholics, called christening 
them ; because the name of some saint is as- 
cribed to them, by virtue of whose invocation 
they are presented, in order that they may 
obtain his favour and protection. 4. They 



always bow at the name of Jesus, (which is 
also done as regularly in the church of Eng- 
land,) and they found the practice on Phil, ii, 
10 : " That at the name of Jesus every knee' 
should bow." 5. They keep a number of 
lamps and wax candles continually burning 
before the shrines and images of the saints. 
6. They make use of incense, and have lighted 
candles upon the altar at the celebration of the 
mass. 7. The practice of washing the poor's 
feet, in imitation of our Lord's washing the 
feet of his disciples, is solemnized on Holy 
Thursday by all the princes of the Romish 
religion in Europe. The church of Rome 
also professes to keep the fast of Lent with 
great strictness, and observes a much greater 
number both of feasts and festivals than the 
church of England. 

The church of Rome assumes the title of 
Catholic, or universal, as answering to that 
article in the Apostles' Creed, " I believe in 
the holy Catholic church." The above is per- 
haps a sufficient account of the Roman Catho- 
lic faith ; but as the creed of Pope Pius IV. is 
universally admitted to be the true standard 
of that faith, it would be decidedly wrong to 
conclude without inserting it. Mr. Butler 
says it contains a succinct and explicit sum- 
mary of the canons of the council of Trent, 
and was published in the form of a papal bull, 
in 1564. Pie adds, " It is received throughout 
the whole Roman Catholic church ; every one 
who is admitted into that church, publicly 
reads and professes his assent to it." This 
document commences with reciting tlie Nicene 
Creed, which, as it is admitted by the Protest- 
ant ciiurch of England, and inserted in the 
Common Prayer Book, need not be here re- 
peated. It then proceeds with the twelve 
following articles, in addition to those of the 
Apostles' Creed, which they also reckon 
twelve : "13. I most firmly admit and em- 
brace apostolical and ecclesiastical traditions, 
and all other constitutions and observances of 
the same church. I also admit the sacred 
Scriptures according to the sense which the 
holy mother church has held, and does hold, 
to whom it belongs to judge of the true sense 
and interpretation of the Holy Scriptures ; nor 
will I ever take and interpret them otherwise 
than according to the unanimous consent of 
the fathers. 14. I profess also that there are 
truly and properly seven sacraments of the 
new law, instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord, 
and for the salvation of mankind, (though all 
are not necessary for every one,) namely, bap. 
tism, confirmation, eucharist, penance, ex- 
treme unction, order, and matrimony ; and 
that they confer grace ; and of these, baptism, 
confirmation, and order cannot be reiterated 
without sacrilege. 15. I also receive and ad- 
mit the ceremonies of the Catholic church, 
received and approved in the solemn adminis- 
tration of all the above said sacraments. 
16. I receive and embrace all and every one 
of the things which have been defined and 
declared in the holy council of Trent, con- 
cerning original sin and justification. 17. I 
profess, likewise, that in the mass, is offered 



ROM 



826 



ROM 



to God a true, proper, and propitiatory sacri- 
fice for the living and the dead ; and that in 
the most holy sacrament of the evicharist there 
is truly, really, and substantially the body and 
blood, together with the soul and divinity, of 
our Lord Jesus Christ ; and that there is made 
a conversion of the whole substance of the 
bread into the body, and of the whole sub- 
stance of the wine into the blood, which con. 
version the Catholic church calls transubstan- 
tiation. 18. I confess, also, that under either 
kind alone, Christ whole and entire, and a 
true sacrament, is received. 19. I constantly 
hold that there is a purgatory, and that the 
souls detained therein are helped by the 
suffrages of the faithful. 20. Likewise, that 
the saints reigning together with Christ are 
to be honoured and invocated ; that they offer 
prayers to God for us, and that their relics 
are to be venerated. 21. I most firmly assert, 
that the images of Christ, and of the mother 
of Christ, ever a virgin, and also of the other 
saints, are to be had and retained, and that 
due honour and veneration are to be given to 
them. 22. I also affirm, that the power of 
indulgences was left by Christ in the church, 
and that the use of them is most wholesome 
to Christian people. 23. I acknowledge the 
holy Catholic and apostolic Roman church, 
the mother and mistress of all churches ; and 
I promise and swear true obedience to the 
bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter, 
prince of the Apostles, and vicar of Jesus 
Christ. 24. I also profess, and undoubtedly 
receive, all other things, delivered, defined, 
and declared by the sacred canons and general 
councils, and particularly by the holy council 
of Trent ; and likewise, I also condemn, re- 
ject, and anathematize all things contrary 
thereto ; and all heresies whatsoever, con- 
demned and anathematized by the church. 
This true catholic faith, out of which none 
can be saved, which I now freely profess, and 
truly hold, I, N., promise, vow, and swear 
most constantly to hold and profess the same, 
whole and entire, with God's assistance, to 
the end of my life. Amen." 

Such is the avowed and accredited faith of 
the church of Rome ; but it seems a most ex- 
traordinary circumstance, that, while this 
church has so enlarged the creed, it has re- 
duced the number of the commandments, 
omitting altogether the second, " Thou shalt 
not make unto thee a graven image," &c, 
Exod. XX, 3-6 ; as if the Catholics were con- 
scious it could by no means be reconciled with 
the twenty-first article of the above recited 
creed. And then, to prevent alarm, as every 
body must know there should be ten com- 
mandments, the last is divided into two, to 
make up the number. This is said to have 
been done, even before the Reformation. It 
was done in the French National Catechism, 
published in 1806, and sanctioned by Pope 
Pius VII., by the archbishop of Paris, and by 
the Emperor Napoleon. It is remarkable, 
also, that in Dr. Chalenor's " Garden of the 
Soul," printed in London by Coglan, in 1787, 
in a form of self-examination for the penitent 



upon each commandment, there is no reference 
to the one omitted ; nor is there any reference 
to it in Bossuet's famous " Exposition of the 
Doctrines of the Cathohc Church," when 
treating upon images, and the manner in 
which they are directed to be honoured. 
Lastly, in Butler's Catechism, the eighth edi- 
tion, printed at Dublin in 1811, and sanctioned 
by four Roman Catholic archbishops, the com- 
mandments stand literally as follows: "1. I 
am the Lord thy God ; thou shalt have no 
strange gods before me. 2. Thou shalt not 
take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. 
3. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath 
day. 4. Honour thy father and thy mother. 
5. Thou shalt not kill. 6. Thou shalt not 
commit adultery. 7. Thou shalt not steal. 
8. Thou shalt not bear false witness against 
thy neighbour. 9. Thou shalt not covet thy 
neighbour's wife. 10. Thou shalt not covet 
thy neighbour's goods." Here it may be add. 
ed, that by omitting the second command, the 
others are numbered differently from what they 
are by us. Thus, the third is brought in for 
the second, the fourth is made the third, &c, 
till tliey come to the last which is divided in 
two, for the purpose above mentioned. The 
gross and antiscriptural errors, leading to 
superstition, idolatry, and many other evils, 
which are contained in the peculiarities of the 
papistical faith, are abundantly pointed out 
and refuted by the leading Protestant Vi^riters. 
ROMANS, Epistle to the. This epistle 
was written from Corinth, A. D. 58, being the 
fourth year of the Emperor Nero, just before 
St. Paul set out for Jerusalem with the contri, 
butions which the Christians of Macedonia 
and Achaia had made for the relief of their 
poor brethren in Judea, Acts xx, 1 ; Rom. xv, 
25, 26. It was transcribed or written as St. 
Paul dictated it, by Tertius ; and the person 
who conveyed it to Rome was Phoebe, a dea- 
coness of the church of Cenchrea, which was 
the eastern port of the city of Corinth, Rom. 
xvi, 1, 22. It is addressed to the church at 
Rome, which consisted partly of Jewish and 
partly of Heathen converts ; and throughout 
the epistle it is evident that the Apostle has 
regard to both these descriptions of Christians. 
St. Paul, when he wrote this epistle had not 
been at Rome. Rom. i, 13 ; xv, 23 ; but he had 
heard an account of the state of the church in 
that city from Aquila and Priscilla, two Chris- 
tians who were banished from thence by the 
edict of Claudius, and with whom he lived 
during his first visit to Corinth. Whether 
any other Apostle had at this time preached 
the Gospel at Rome, cannot now be ascer- 
tained. Among those who witnessed the 
effect of the first effusion of the Holy Ghost 
are mentioned " strangers of Rome, Jews and 
proselytes," Acts ii, 10 ; that is, persons of the 
Jewish religion, who usually resided at Rome, 
but who had come to Jerusalem to be present 
at the feast of pentecost. It is highly probable 
that tliese men, upon their return home, pror 
claimed the Gospel of Christ ; and we may 
farther suppose that many Christians who 
had been converted at other places afterward 



ROO 



827 



ROS 



settled at Rome, and were the cause of others 
embracing the Gospel. But, by whatever 
means Christianity had been introduced into 
Rome, it seems to have flourished there in 
great purity ; for we learn from the beginning 
of this epistle that the faith of the Roman 
Christians was at this time much celebrated, 
Rom. i, 8. To confirm them in that faith, and 
to guard them against the errors of Judaizing 
Christians, was the object of this letter, in 
which St. Paul takes occasion to enlarge upon 
the nature of the Mosaic institution ; to ex- 
plain the fundamental principles and doctrines 
of Christianity ; and to shov/ that the whole 
human race, formerly divided into Jews and 
Gentiles, were now to be admitted into the 
religion of Jesus, indiscriminately, and free 
from every other obligation. Tlie Apostle, 
after expressing his aftection to the Roman 
Christians, and asserting that the Gospel is 
the power of God unto salvation to all who 
believe, takes a comprehensive view of the 
conduct and condition of men under the differ- 
ent dispensations of Providence ; he shows 
that all" mankind, both Jews and Gentiles, 
were equally "under sin," and liable to the 
wrath and punishment of God; that therefore 
there was a necessity for a universal propitia- 
tion and redemption, which were now offered 
to the whole race of men, without any prefer- 
ence or exception, by the mercy of him who is 
the God of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews ; 
that faith in Jesus Christ, the universal Re- 
deemer, was the only means of obtaining this 
salvation, which the deeds of the law were 
wholly incompetent to procure ; that as the 
sins of the whole world originated from the 
disobedience of Adam, so the justification 
from those sins was to be derived from the 
obedience of Christ ; that all distinction be- 
tween Jew and Gentile was now abolished, 
and the ceremonial law entirely abrogated ; 
that the unbelieving Jews would be excluded 
from the benefits of the Gospel, while the be- 
lieving Gentiles would be partakers of them ; 
and that this rejection of the Jews, and call 
of the Gentiles, were predicted by the Jewish 
Prophets Hosea and Isaiah. He then points 
out the superiority of the Christian over the 
Jewish religion, and earnestly exhorts the 
Romans to abandon every species of wicked- 
ness, and to practise the duties of righteous- 
ness and holiness, which were now enjoined 
upon higher sanctions, and enforced by more 
powerful motives. In the latter part of the 
epistle, St. Paul gives some practical instruc- 
tions, and recommends some particular virtues; 
and he concludes with a salutation and a dox- 
ology. This epistle is most valuable, on ac- 
count of the arguments and truths which it 
contains, relative to the necessity, nature, 
and universality of the Gospel dispensation. 

ROOFS. The letting down of the paralytic 
through the roof of the house where Jesus was, 
is satisfactorily explained by the following 
extract from Shaw's Travels: "The houses 
throughout the east are low, having generally 
a ground floor only, or one upper story, and 
flat-roofed, the roof being covered with a strong 



coat of plaster of terrace. They are built round 
a paved court, into which the entrance from the 
street is through a gateway or passage room 
furnished with benches, and sufficiently large 
to be used for receiving visits or transacting 
business. The stairs which lead to the roof 
are never placed on the outside of the house in 
the street, but usually in the gateway, or pas- 
sage room to the court, sometimes at the en- 
trance within the court. This court is now 
called, in Arabic, el woost, or ' the middle of 
the house,' literally answering to tS ixia-ov of St. 
Luke, V, 19. It is customary to fix cords from 
the parapet walls, Deut. xxii, 8, of the flat 
roofs across this court, and upon them to ex- 
pand a veil or covering, as a shelter from the 
heat. In this area, probably, our Saviour 
taught. The paralytic was brought on to the 
roof by making a way through the crowd to 
the stairs in the gateway, or by the terraces 
of the adjoining houses. They rolled back the 
veil, and let the sick man down over the para- 
pet of the roof into the area or court of the 
house, before Jesus." The windows of the 
eastern houses being chiefly within, facing 
the court, in order to see what was going on 
without in the streets of the city, the only way 
was to run up to the flat roof. Hence the fi-e- 
quent expression in Scripture, v/hen allusion is 
made to sudden tumults and calamities, to get 
up to "the house top." See Houses. 

ROSE, nbi-^n, Cant, ii, 1 ; Isaiah xxxv, 1. 
The rose, so much and so often sung by the 
poets of Persia, Arabia, Greece, and Rome, is, 
indeed, the pride of the garden for elegance 
of form, for glow of colour, and fragrance of 
smell. Tournefort mentions fifty-three kinds, 
of which the Dama^us rose, and the rose of 
Sharon, are the finest. The beauty of these 
flowers is too well known to be insisted on; 
and they are at this day much admired in the 
east, where they are extremely fragrant. In 
what esteem the rose was among the Greeks, 
may be learned from the fifth and fifty-third 
odes of Anacreon. Among the ancients it 
occupied a conspicuous place in every chaplet ; 
it was a principal ornament in every festive 
meeting, and at every solemn sacrifice ; and 
the comparisons in Ecclesiasticus xxiv, 14, 
and 1, 8, show that the Jews were likewise 
much delighted with it. The rose bud, or 
opening rose, seems in particular a favourite 
ornament. The Jewish sensualists, in Wis- 
dom 'ii, 8, are introduced saying, " Let us fill 
ourselves with costly wine and ointments ; and 
let no flower of the spring pass by us. Let us 
crown ourselves with rose buds before they are 
withered." 

ROSH. The Hebrew speaks of a people 
called Rosh, Ezek. xxxviii, 2, 3. "The ori- 
entals hold, says D'Herbelot, "that Japheth 
had a son called Rous, not mentioned by Mo- 
ses, who peopled Russia, that is, Muscovy." 
We question, not but Rosh, or Ros, signifies 
Russia, or the people that dwell on the Araxes, 
called Rosch by the inhabitants ; which was 
the habitation of the Scythians. It deserves 
notice, that the LXX. render the passage in 
Ezekiel, Toiy, ao;^nvra 'Pwf, Mcaox, Kal Go^fX, Gog^ 



RUS 



828 



RUT 



the chief of Ros, Mesoch, and Thobel ; and Je- 
rom, not absolutely to reject this name, inserts 
both renderings : Gog, terram Magog, princi- 
fern capitis {sive Ros) Mosoch, et Thuhal. 
Symmachus and Theodotion also perceived 
Ros to be in this place the name of a people ; 
and this is now the prevailing judgment of in- 
terpreters. Bochart, about A. D. 1640, con- 
tended that Russia was the nation meant by 
the term Ros ; and this opinion is supported 
by the testimony of various Greek writers, who 
describe " the Ros as a Scythian nation, bor- 
dering on the northern Taurus." Mosok, or 
Mesech, appears to be the same as the Mosk- 
wa, or Moscow, of the moderns ; and we know, 
that not only is this the name of the city, but 
also of the river on which it stands. See Gog. 

RUBY, a beautiful gem, whose colour is 
red, with an admixture of purple, and is, in its 
most perfect state, a gem of extreme value. In 
hardness it is equal to the sapphire, and second 
only to the diamond. It is mentioned in Job 
xxviii, 18, and Prov. viii, 11, &c. 

RUE, Tz-fj-yavov, Luke xi, 42, a small shrubby 
plant, common in gardens. It has a strong, 
unpleasant smell, and a bitterish, penetrating 
taste. 

RUSH, NDj, Exodus ii, 3; Job viii, 11; 
Isaiah xviii, 2 ; xxxv, 7 ; a plant growing in 
the water at the sides of rivers, and in marshy 
grounds. 

RUSSIAN CHURCH. The Russians, like 
other nations, were originally Pagans, and 
worshipped fire, which they considered as the 
cause of thunder, under the name of Perun, 
and the earth under the name Volata ; at the 
same time having some notions of a future 
state of rewards and punishments. Chris, 
tianity was first professed by the Princess Olga, 
who was baptized at Constantinople. She 
recommended it to her grandson Vladimir, on 
whose baptism, in 988, it was adopted by the 
nation generally ; and from that time the Greek 
church has been the established religion 
throughout Russia, and Greek literature greatly 
encouraged. During the middle ages, ho\vever, 
the doctrine of transubstantiation, andi'some 
other popish peculiarities, were covertly, intro- 
duced ; and, by the irruption of the Mongol 
Tartars, in the fifteenth centuxy, a stop was put 
to learning and civilization for full two cen- 
turies ; but, on the accession of the present 
dynasty in 1613, civilization and Christianity 
were restored, and schools established for the 
education of the clergy. The Russian clergy 
are divided into regular and secular ; the for- 
mer are all monks, and the latter are the paro- 
chial clergy. The superior clergy are called 
archires ; but the title of metropolitan, or 
bishop, is personal, and not properly attached 
to the see, as in the western church. Next 
after the archires rank the black clergy, in- 
cluding the chiefs of monasteries and convents, 
and after them the monks. The secular priests 
are called the white clergy, including the pro- 
toires, or proto-popes, priests, and deacons, 
together with the readers and sacristans. 
These amounted, in 1805, throughout the em- 
pire, to ninety-eight thousand seven hundred 



and twenty-six. The white clergy must be 
married before they can be ordained, but must 
not marry a second time ; they are at liberty 
then to enter among the black clergy, and a 
way is thus opened for their accession to the 
higher orders. The whole empire is divided 
into thirty-six diocesses, or eparchies, in which 
are four hundred and eighty-three cathedrals, 
and twenty-six thousand, five hundred and 
ninety-eight churches. The churches are di- 
vided into three parts. 1. The altar, where 
stands the holy table, crucifix, &c, which is 
separated from the body of the church by a 
large screen, on which are painted our Saviour, 
the virgin, the Apostles, and other saints. 
Upon a platform before this are placed the 
readers and singers, and here the preacher 
generally stands behind a movable desk. 2. The 
nave, or body of the church, which may be 
called the inner court. 3. The trapeza, or 
outer court. The two last are designed for 
the congregation, but neither have any seats. 
The walls of the church are highly embellished 
with Scripture paintings, ornamented with 
gold, silver, and precious stones, but no 
images. 

The church service is contained in twenty- 
four volumes, folio, in the Slavonian language, 
which is not well understood by the common 
people. Parts of the Scriptures are read in the 
service; but few, even of the ecclesiastics, 
possess a complete Bible. The patriarch of 
Russia was formerly almost equal in authority 
with the czar himself ; but Peter the Great, on 
the death of the patriarch in 1700, abolished 
his office, and appointed an exarch. In 1721 
he abolished this office also, and appointed a 
" holy legislative synod" for the government 
of the church, at the head of which is always 
placed a layman of rank and eminence. The 
monastic life was once so prevalent in this 
country, that there were four hundred and 
seventy-nine convents for men, and seventy- 
four for women, in which there were about 
seventy thousand monks and nuns, &c ; but 
this kind of life was so much discouraged by 
Peter the Great and the Empress Catherine, 
that the religious are now reduced to about 
five thousand monks and seventeen hundred 
nuns. Great part of their revenues has also 
been alienated, and appropriated to the support 
of hospitals and houses for the poor. 

RUTH. The book of Ruth is so called 
from the name of the person, a native of Moab, 
whose history it contains. It may be consi- 
dered as a supplement to the book of Judges, to 
which it was joined in the Hebrew canon, and 
the latter part of which it greatly resembles, 
being a detached story belonging to the same 
period. Ruth had a son called Obed, who was 
the grandfather of David, which circumstance 
probably occasioned her history to be written, 
as the genealogy of David, from Pharez, the 
son of Judah, from whom the Messiah was to 
spring, is here given ; and some commentators 
have thought, that the descent of our Saviour 
from Ruth, a Gentile woman, was an intimation 
of the comprehensive nature of the Christian 
dispensation. We are no where informed 



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when Ruth lived ; but as King David was her 
great-grandson, we may place her history about 
B. C. 1250. This book was certainly Avritten 
after the birth of David, and probably by the 
Prophet Samuel, though some have attributed 
it to Hezekiah, and others to Ezra. The story 
related in this book is extremely interesting ; 
the widowed distress of Naomi, her affectionate 
concern for her daughters, the reluctant de- 
parture of Orpah, the dutiful attachment of 
Ruth, and the sorrowful return to Bethlehem, 
are very beautifully told. The simplicity of 
manners, likewise, which is shown in Ruth's 
industry and attention to Naomi ; the elegant 
charity of Boaz ; and his acknowledgment of 
his kindred with Ruth, afford a pleasing con- 
trast to the turbulent scenes described in the 
book of the Judges. The respect, likewise, 
which the Israelites paid to the law "of Moses, 
and their observance of ancient customs, are 
represented in a very lively and animated man- 
ner, Ruth iv. It is a pleasing digression from 
the general thread of the sacred history. 

SABAOTH, or rather Zabaoth, a Hebrew 
word, signifying hosts or armies, niNJS mn\ 
Jehovah Sabaoth, The Lord of Hosts. By this 
phrase we may understand the host of heaven, 
or the angels and ministers of the Lord ; or 
the stars and planets, which, as an army ranged 
in battle array, perform the will of God ; or, 
lastly, the people of the Lofd, both of the old 
and new covenant, which is truly a great army, 
of which God is the Lord and commander. 

SABBATH. The obligation of a sabbatical 
institution upon Christians, as well as the ex- 
tent of it, have been the subjects of much con- 
troversy. Christian churches themselves have 
differed ; and the theologians of the same 
church. Much has been written upon the sub- 
ject on each side, and much research and learn- 
ing employed, sometimes to darken a very plain 
subject. The question respects the will of 
God as to this particular point, — Whether one 
day in seven is to be wholly devoted to reli- 
gion, exclusive of worldly business and worldly 
pleasures. Now, there are but two ways in 
which the will of God can be collected from 
his word ; either by some explicit injunction 
upon all, or by incidental circumstances. Let 
us then allow, for a moment, that we have no 
such explicit injunction ; yet we have certainly 
none to the contrary : let us allow that we 
have only for our guidance, in inferring the 
will of God in this particular, certain circum- 
stances declarative of liis will ; yet this import- 
ant conclusion is inevitable, that all such 
indicative circumstances are in favour of a 
sabbatical institution, and that there is not one 
which exhibits any thing contrary to it. The 
seventh day was hallowed at the close of the 
creation ; its sanctity was afterv/ard marked 
by the withholding of the manna on that day, 
and the provision of a double supply on the 
sixth, and that previous to the giving of the 
law from Sinai : it was then made a part of 
that great epitome of religious and moral duty, 
which God wrote with his own finger on tables 
of stone ; it was a part of the pubhc political 



law of the only people to whom almighty God 
ever made himself a political Head and Ruler; 
its observance is connected throughout the 
prophetic age with the highest promises, its 
violations with the severest maledictions ; it 
was among the Jews in our Lord's time a day 
of solemn religious assembling, and was so ob- 
served by him ; when changed to the first day 
of the week, it was the day on which the first, 
Christians assembled ; it was called, by way 
of eminence, "the Lord's day;" and we have 
inspired authority to say, that both under the 
Old and New Testament dispensations, it is 
used as an expressive type of the heavenly and 
eternal rest. Now, against all these circum. 
stances so strongly declarative of the will of 
God, as to the observance of a sabbatical in- 
stitution, what circumstance or passage of 
Scripture can be opposed, as bearing upon it 
a contrary indication ? Certainly, not one ; 
for those passages in St. Paul, in which he 
speaks of Jewish Sabbaths, with their Levitical 
rites, and of a distinction of days, the observ- 
ance of which marked a weak or a criminal 
adherence to the abolished ceremonial dispen- 
sation ; touch not the Sabbath as a branch of 
the moral law, or as it was changed, by the 
authority of the Apostles, to the first day of 
the week. If, then, we were left to determine 
the point by inference, the conclusion must be 
irresistibly in favour of the institution. 

It may also be observed, that those who 
will so strenuously insist upon the absence of 
an express command as to the Sabbath in the 
writings of the evangelists and Apostles, as 
explicit as that of the decalogue, assume, that 
the will of God is only obligatory when mani- 
fested in some one mode, which they judge to 
be most fit. But this is a dangerous hypothe- 
sis ; for, however the will of God may be 
manifested, if it is with such clearness as to 
exclude all reasonable doubt, it is equally obli- 
gatory as when it assumes the formality of 
legal promulgation. Thus the Bible is not. 
all in the form of express and authoritative 
command ; it teaches by examples, by proverbs, 
by songs, by incidental allusions and occur- 
rences ; and yet is, throughout, a manifestation 
of the will of God as to morals and religion in 
their various branches, and, if disregarded, it 
will be so at every man's peril. But strong as 
this ground is, we quit it for a still stronger. It 
is wholly a mistake, that the Sabbath, because 
not reenacted with the formality of the deca- 
logue, is not explicitly enjoined upon Chris, 
tians, and that the testimony of Scripture to 
such an injunction is not unequivocal and irre- 
fragable. The Sabbath was appointed at the 
creation of the world, and sanctified, or set 
apart for holy purposes, "for man," for all 
men, and therefore for Christians ; since there 
was never any repeal of the original institu- 
tion. To this we add, that if the moral law 
be the law of Christians, then is the Sabbath 
as explicitly enjoined upon them as upon the 
Jews. But that the moral law is our law, as 
well as the law of the Jews, all but Antino- 
mians must acknowledge ; and few, we sup- 
pose, will be inclined to run into the fearful 



SAB 



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mazes of that error, in order to support lax 
notions as to the obligation of the Sabbath ; 
into which, however, they must be plunged, 
if they deny the law of the decalogue to be 
binding. That it is so bound upon us, a few 
passages of Scripture will prove as well as 
many. Our Lord declares, that he " came not 
to destroy the law and the prophets, but to 
fulfil." Take it, that by "the law," he meant 
both the moral and the ceremonial ; ceremo- 
nial law could only be fulfilled in him, by 
realizing its types ; and moral law, by uphold- 
ing its authority. For " the prophets," they 
admit of a similar distinction ; they either en- 
join morality, or utter prophecies of Christ ; 
the latter of which were fulfilled in the sense 
of accomplishment, the former by being sanc- 
tioned and enforced. That the observance of 
the Sabbath is a part of the moral law, is clear 
from its being found in the decalogue, the doc- 
trine of which our Lord sums up in the moral 
duties of loving God and our neighbour ; and 
for this reason the injunctions of the pro- 
phets, on the subject of the Sabbath, are to be 
regarded as a part of their moral teaching. 
Some divines have, it is true, called the ob- 
servance of the Sabbath a positive, and not a 
moral precept. If it were so, its obligation is 
precisely the same, in all cases where God 
himself has not relaxed it ; and if a positive 
precept only, it has surely a special eminence 
given to it, by being placed in the list of the 
ten commandments, and being capable, with 
them, of an epitome which resolves them into 
the love of God and our neighbour. The truth 
seems to be, that it is a mixed precept, and 
not wholly positive, but intimately, perhaps 
essentially connected with several moral prin- 
ciples of homage to God, and mercy to men ; 
with the obligation of religious ivorskip, of 
public religious worship, and of un distracted 
public worship : and this will account for its 
collocation in the decalogue with the highest 
duties of religion, and the leading rules of per- 
sonal and social morality. The passage from 
our Lord's sermon on the mount, with its con- 
text, is a sufficiently explicit enforcement of 
the moral law, generally, upon his followers ; 
but when he says, " The Sabbath was made 
for man," he clearly refers to its original insti- 
tution, as a universal law, and not to its obli- 
gation upon the Jews only, in consequence of 
the enactments of the law of Moses. It " was 
made for man," not as he may be a Jew, or a 
Christian ; but as man, a creature bound to 
love, worship, and obey his God and Maker, 
and on his trial for eternity. 

Another explicit proof that the law of the 
ten commandments, and, consequently, the 
law of the Sabbath, is obligatory upon Chris- 
tians, is found in the answer of the Apostle to 
an objection to the doctrine of justification by 
faith : " Do we then make void the law through 
faith ?" Rom. iii, 31 ; which is equivalent to 
asking. Does Christianity teach that the law is 
no longer obligatory on Christians, because it 
teaches that no man can be justified by it ? 
To tbis he answers, in the most solemn form 
of expression, "God forbid; yea, we establish 



the law." Now, the sense in which the Apos- 
tie uses the term, "the law," in this argument, 
is indubitably marked in Rom. vii, 7 : "I had 
not known sin bu"t by the law ; for I had not- 
known lust, except the law had said. Thou 
shalt not covet :" which, being a plain refer- 
ence to the tenth command of the decalogue, 
as plainly shows that the decalogue is "the 
law" of which he speaks. This, then, is the 
law which is established by the Gospel ; and 
this can mean nothing else but the establish- 
ment and confirmation of its authority, as the 
rule of all inward and outward holiness. Who- 
ever, therefore, denies the obligation of the 
Sabbath on Christians, denies the obligation 
j of the whole decalogue; and there is no real 
medium between the acknowledgment of the 
divine authority of this sacred institution, as a 
universal law, and that gross corruption of 
Christianity, generally designated Antinomi- 
anism. 

Nor is there any force in the dilemma into 
which the anti-sabbatarians would push us, 
when they argue, that, if the case be so, then 
are we bound to the same circumstantial exacti- 
tude of obedience with regard to this command, 
as to the other precepts of the decalogue ; and, 
therefore, that we are bound to observe the 
seventh day, reckoning from Saturday, as tlie 
Sabbath day. But, as the command is partly 
positive, and partly moral, it may have circum- 
stances which a,re capable of being altered in 
perfect accordance with the moral principles 
on which it rests, and the moral ends which it 
proposes. Such circumstances are not indeed 
to be judged of on our own authority. We 
must either have such general principles for 
our guidance as have been revealed by God, and 
cannot therefore be questioned, or some spe- 
cial authority from which there can be no just 
appeal. Now, though there is not on record 
any divine command issued to the Apostles, to 
change the Sabbath from the day on v/hich it 
was held by the Jews, to the first day of the 
week ; yet, when we see that this was done 
in the apostolic age, and that St. Paul speaks 
of the Jewish Sabbaths as not being obligatory 
upon Christians, while he yet contends that 
the whole moral law is obligatory upon them ; 
the fair inference is, that this change of the 
day was made by divine direction. It is indeed 
more than inference that the change was made 
under the sanction of inspired men ; and those 
men, the appointed rulers in the church of 
Christ ; whose business it was to " set all 
things in order," which pertained to its wor- 
ship and moral government. We may there- 
fore rest well enough satisfied with this, — that 
as a Sabbath is obligatory upon us, we act un- 
der apostolic authority for observing it on the 
first day of the week, and thus commemorate 
at once the creation and the redemption of 
the world. 

Thus, even if it were conceded, that the 
change of the day was made by the agreement 
of the Apostles, without express directions 
from Christ, which is not probable, it is cer- 
tain that it was not done without that general 
authority which was confided to them by 



SAB 



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SAB 



Christ ; but it would not follow even from this 
change, that they did in reality make any 
alteration in thd law of the Sabbath, either as 
it stood at the time of its original institution 
at the close of the creation, or in the deca. 
logue of Moses. The same portion of time 
which constituted the seventh day from the 
creation could not be observed in all parts of 
the earth ; and it is not probable, therefore, 
that the original law expresses more, than 
that a seventh day, or one day in seven, the 
seventh day after six days of labour, should 
be thus appropriated, from whatever point the 
enumeration might set out, or the hebdomadal 
cycle begin. For if more had been intended, 
then it would have been necessary to establish 
*^ rule for the reckoning of da)^s themselves, 
which has been different in different nations ; 
some reckoning from evening to evening, as 
the Jews now do, others from midnight to 
midnight, &c. So that those persons in this 
country and in America, who hold their Sab- 
bath on Saturday, under the notion of exactly 
conforming to the Old Testament, and yet 
calculate the days from midnight to midnight, 
have no assurance at all that they do not 
desecrate a part of the original Sabbath, which 
might begin, as the Jewish Sabbath now, on 
Friday evening, and, on the contrary, hallow 
a portion of a common day, by extending the 
Sabbath beyond Saturday evening. Even if 
this were ascertained, the differences of lati- 
tude and longitude would throw the whole 
into disorder ; and it is not probable that a 
universal law should have been fettered with 
that circumstantial exactness, which would 
have rendered difficult, and sometimes doubt, 
ful, astronomical calculations necessary in 
order to its being obeyed according to the 
intention of the lawgiver. Accordingly we 
find, says Mr. Holden, that in the original 
institution it is stated in general terms, that 
God blessed and sanctified the seventh day, 
which must undoubtedly imply the sanctity of 
every seventh day ; but not that it is to be 
subsequently reckoned from the first demiurgic 
day. Had this been included in the command 
of the Almighty, something, it is probable, 
would have been added declaratory of the 
intention ; whereas expressions the most un- 
defined are employed ; not a syllable is uttered 
concerning the order and number of the days; 
and it cannot reasonably be disputed that the 
command is truly obeyed by the separation of 
every seventh day, from common to sacred 
purposes, at whatever given time the cycle 
may commence. The difference in the mode of 
expression here, frojn that which the sacred 
historian has used in the first chapter, is very 
remarkable. At the conclusion of each division 
of the work of creation, he says, " The even- 
ing and the morning were the first day," and 
so on ; but at the termination of the whole, he 
merely calls it the seventh day ; a diversity of 
phrase, which, as it would be inconsistent 
with every idea of inspiration to suppose it 
undesigned, must have been intended to de- 
note a day, leaving it to each people as to 
what manner it is to be reckoned. The term 



obviously imports the period of the earth's 
rotation round its axis, while it is left unde- 
termined, whether it shall be counted from 
evening or morning, from noon or midnight. 
The terms of the law are, "Remember the 
Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt 
thou labour, and do all thy work ; but the 
seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy 
God. For in six days the Lord made heaven 
and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and 
rested the seventh day ; wherefore the Lord 
blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." 
With respect to time, it is here mentioned in 
the same indefinite manner as at its primeval 
institution, nothing more being expressly re- 
quired than to observe a day of sacred rest 
after every six days of labour. The seventh 
day is to be kept holy ; but not a word is said 
as to what epoch the commencement of the 
series is to be referred ; nor could the Hebrews 
have determined from the decalogue what day 
of the week was to be kept as their Sabbath. 
The precept is not. Remember the seventh day 
of the week, to keep it holy, but, " Remember 
the Sabbath day, to keep it holy ;" and in the 
following explication of these expressions, it 
is not said that the seventh day of the week is 
the Sabbath, but without restriction, " The 
seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy 
God ;" not the seventh according to any par- 
ticular method of computing the septenary 
cycle, but, in reference to the six before men- 
tioned, every seventh day in rotation after six 
of labour. 

Thus that part of the Jewish law, the deca- 
logue, which, on the authority of the New 
Testament, we have shown to be obligatory 
upon Christians, leaves the computation of 
the hebdomadal cycle undetermined ; and, 
after six days of labour, enjoins the seventh 
as the Sabbath, to which the Christian prac- 
tice as exactly conforms as the Jewish. It is 
not, however, left to every individual to de. 
termine which day should be his Sabbath, 
though he should fulfil the law so far as to ab- 
stract the seventh part of his time from labour. 
It was ordained for worship, for public wor. 
ship ; and it is therefore necessary that the 
Sabbath should be uniformly observed by a 
whole community at the same time. The 
divine Legislator of the Jews interposed for 
this end, by special direction, as to his people. 
The first Sabbath kept in the wilderness was 
calculated from the first day in which the 
manna fell ; and with no apparent reference 
to the creation of the world. By apostolic 
authority, it is now fixed to be held on the first 
day of the week ; and thus one of the great 
ends for which it was established, that it 
should be a day of "holy convocation," is 
secured. 

Traces of the original appointment of the 
Sabbath, and of its observance prior to the 
giving forth of the law of Moses, have been 
found by the learned in the tradition which 
universally prevailed of the sacredness of the 
number seven, and the fixing of the first period 
of time to the revoli>tion of seven days. The 
measuring of time by a day and night is pointed 



SAB 



832 



SAB 



out to the common sense of mankind by the 
diurnal course of the sun. Lunar months and 
solar years are equally obvious to all rational 
creatures ; so that the reason why time has 
been computed by days, months, and years, is 
readily given ; but how the division of time 
into weeks of seven days, and this from the 
beginning, came to obtain universally among 
mankind, no man can account for, without 
•having respect to some impressions on the 
minds of men from the constitution and law of 
nature, with the tradition of a sabbatical rest 
from the foundation of the world. Yet plain 
intimations of this weekly revolution of time 
are to be found in the earliest Greek poets : 
Hesiod, Homer, Linus, as well as among the 
nations of the Chaldeans, Egyptians, Greeks, 
and Romans. It deserves consideration, too, 
on this subject, that Noah, in sending forth 
the dove out of the ark, observed the septenary 
revolution of days. Gen. viii, 10, 12 ; and at a 
subsequent period, in the days of the Patriarch 
Jacob, a week is spoken of as a well known 
period of time, Gen. xxix, 27 ; Judges xiv, 12, 
15, 17. These considerations are surely suffi- 
cient to evince the futility of the arguments 
which are sometimes plausibly urged for the 
first institution of the Sabbath under the law ; 
and the design of which, in most cases is, to 
set aside the moral obligation of appropriating 
one day in seven to the purposes of the public 
worship of God, and the observation of divine 
ordinances. But the truth is, that the seventh 
day was set apart from the beginning as a day 
of rest ; and it was also strictly enjoined upon 
the Israelites in their law, both on the ground 
of its original institution, Exod. xx, 8-11, and 
also to commemorate their deliverance from 
the bondage of Egypt, Deut. v, 15. 

"A Sabbath day's journey" was reckoned 
to be two thousand cubits, or one mile. Acts 
i, 12. The sabbatical year was celebrated 
among the Jews every seventh year when the 
land was left without culture, Exod. xxii, 10. 
God appointed the observation of the sabbati- 
cal year, to preserve the remembrance of the 
creation of the world, to enforce the acknow- 
ledgment of his sovereign authority over all 
things, and in particular over the land of Ca- 
naan, which he had given to the Israelites, by 
delivering up the fruits to the poor and the 
stranger. It was a sort of tribute, or small rent, 
by which they held the possession. Beside, 
he intended to inculcate humanity upon his 
people, by commanding that they should re- 
sign to the slaves, the poor, and the strangers, 
and to the brutes, the produce of their fields, 
of their vineyards, and of their gardens. In 
the sabbatical year all debts were remitted, 
and the slaves were liberated, Exodus xxi, 2 ; 
Deut. XV, 2. 

SABEANS, or "men of stature," Isa. xlv, 
14. These men were probably the Sabeans 
of Arabia Felix, or of Asia. They submitted 
to Cyrus. The Sabeans of Arabia were de- 
scended from Saba ; but as there are several 
of this name, who were all heads of peoples, 
or of tribes, we must distinguish several kinds 
of Sabeans. 1. Those Sabeans who seized the 



flocks of Job, i, 15, were, probably, a people 
of Arabia Deserta, about Bozra ; or, perhaps, 
a flying troop of Sabeans which infested that 
country. 2. Sabeans, descendants from Sheba, 
son of Cush, Gen. x, 7, are probably of Arabia 
Felix : they were famous for spices ; the' poets 
gave them the epithet of soft and effeminate, 
and say they were governed by women : 
Medis, levibusque Sabczis 
Imperat hie sexus. 
[This sex governs the Medes, and the gentle Sabeans.] 
Several are of opinion, that from them came 
the queen of Sheba, 1 Kings x, 1, 2 ; and that 
of these Sabeans the psalmist speaks. Psalm 
Ixxii, 10, " The kings of Arabia and Sheba 
shall give gifts ;" and Jeremiah, vi, 20 : " What 
are the perfumes of Sheba to me ?" and Isaiah, 
Ix, 6: "All who come from Sheba shall offer 
gold and perfumes." 3. Sabeans, sons of 
Shebah, son of Reumah, Gen. x, 7, probably- 
dwelt in Arabia Felix. Probably it is of these 
Ezekiel speaks, xxvii, 22, who came with their 
merchandise to the fairs of Tyre : and Joel, 
iii, 8 : "I will deliver up your children to the 
tribe of Judah, who shall sell them to the Sa- 
beans, a very distant nation." 4. Sabeans, 
descendants from Joktan, may very well be 
those mentioned by Ezekiel, xxvii, 23 : " Saba, 
Assur, and Chelmad, thy dealers." They are 
thought to have inhabited beyond the Eu- 
phrates ; whence they are connected with 
Asshur and Cliihnad, Gen. x, 28 ; 1 Chron. i, 
22. 5. Sabeans are also placed in Africa, in 
the isle of Meroe. Josephus brings the queen 
of Sheba from thence, and pretends that it 
had the name of Shebah, or Saba, before that 
of Meroe. 

SABELLIANS were so called from Sabel. 
lius, a presbyter, or, according to others, a 
bishop, of Upper Egypt, who was the founder 
of the sect. As, from their doctrine, it follows 
that God the Father suffered, they were hence 
called by their adversaries, Patripassians ; and, 
as their idea of the trinity was by some called 
a modal trinity, they have likewise been call- 
ed Modalists. Sabellius having been a dis- 
ciple of Noetus, Noetians is another name by 
which his followers have sometimes been 
known; and as, from their fears of infringing 
on the fundam.ental doctrine of all true reli- 
gion, the unity of God, they neglected all dis- 
tinctions of persons, and taught the notion of 
one God with three names, they may hence 
be also considered as a species of Unitarians. 
Sabellius flourished about the middle of the 
third century, and his doctrine seems to have 
had many followers for a short time. Its 
growth, however, was soon checked by the 
opposition made to it by Dionysius, bishop of 
Alexandria, and the sentence of condemnation 
pronounced upon its author by Pope Dionysius, 
in a council held at Rome, A. D. 263. Sabel- 
lius taught that there is but one person in the 
Godhead ; and, in confirmation of this doctrine, 
he made use of this comparison : As man, 
though composed of body and soul, is but one 
person, so God, though he is Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost, is but one person. Hence the 
Sabellians reduced the three persons in the 



SAC 



833 



SAC 



trinity to three characters or relations, and 
maintained that the Word and Holy Spirit are 
only virtues, emanations, or functions, of the 
Deity ; that he who is in heaven is the Father 
of all things ; that he descended into the vir- 
gin, became a child, and was born of her as a 
son; and that, having accomplished the mys- 
tery of our redemption, he effused himself 
upon the Apostles in tongues of fire, and was 
then denominated the Holy Ghost. This they 
explain by resembling God to the sun, the 
illuminative virtue or quality of which was the 
word, and its quickening virtue the Holy 
Spirit. The word, according to their doc- 
trine, was darted, like a divine ray, to accom- 
plish the work of redemption ; " and having 
reascended to heaven, the influences of the 
Father were communicated, after a like man- 
ner, to the Apostles. They also attempted to 
illustrate this mystery, by one light kindled by 
another ; by the fountain and stream, and by 
the stock and branch. With respect to the 
sentiments of Sabellius himself, the accounts 
are various. According to some, he taught 
that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, were 
one subsistence, and one person, with three 
names ; and that, in the Old Testament, the 
Deity delivered the law as the Father ; in the 
New Testament dwelt among men as the 
Son ; and descended on the Apostles as the 
Holy Spirit. According to Mosheim, his sen- 
timents differed from those of Noetus, in this, 
that the latter was of opinion, that the person 
of the Father had assumed the human nature 
of Christ ; whereas Sabellius maintained, that 
a certain energy only proceeded from the 
supreme Parent, or a certain portion of the 
divine nature was united to the Son of God, 
the man Jesus ; and he considered, in the 
same manner, the Holy Ghost as a portion of 
the everlasting Father. 

Between the system of Sabellianism and 
what is termed the indwelling scheme, there 
appears to be a considerable resemblance, if it 
be not precisely the same, differently explain- 
ed. The indwelling scheme is chiefly founded 
on that passage in the New Testament, where 
the Apostle speaking of Christ says, "In him 
dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." 
Dr. Watts, toward the close of his life, adopt- 
ed this opinion, and wrote several pieces in 
its defence. His sentiments on the trinity 
appear to have been, that the Godhead, the 
Dgity itself, personally distinguished as the 
Father, was united to the man Christ Jesus ; 
in consequence of which union or indwelling 
of the Godhead, he became properly God. 
Mr. Palmer observes, that Dr. Watts con- 
ceived- this union to have subsisted before the 
Saviour's appearance in the flesh, and that the 
human soul of Christ existed Avith the Father 
from before the foundation of the world : on 
which ground he maintains the real descent 
of Christ from heaven to earth, and the whole 
scene of his humiliation, which he thought 
incompatible with the common opinion con- 
cerning him. 

SACKCLOTH, a sort of mourning worn at 
the death of a friend or relation. In great 
54 



calamities, in penitence, in trouble also, they 
wore sackcloth about their bodies : " Gird 
yourselves with sackcloth, and mourn for 
Abner," 2 Sam. iii, 31. "Let us gird our- 
selves with sackcloth ; and let us go and im- 
plore the clemency of the king of Israel," 
1 Kings XX, 31. Ahab rent his clothes, put 
on a shirt of haircloth next to his skin, fasted, 
and lay upon sackcloth, 1 Kings xxi, 27 
When Mordecai was informed of the destruc- 
tion threatened to his nation, he put on sack 
cloth, and covered his head with ashes, Es- 
ther iv. On the contrary, in time of joy, or 
on hearing good news, those who were clad in 
sackcloth tore it from their bodies, and cast it 
from them. Psalm xxx, 11. The prophets 
were often clothed in sackcloth, and generally 
in coarse clothing. The Lord bids Isaiah to 
put off the sackcloth from about his body, an^ 
to go naked, that is, without his upper gar- 
ment, Isaiah xx, 2. Zechariah says that false 
prophets shall no longer prophesy in sackcloth,^ 
to deceive the simple, Zech. xiii, 4. 

SACRAMENT. There is no word in the 
Bible which corresponds to the word sacra- 
ment. It is a Latin word ; and, agreeably to 
its derivation, it was applied by the early 
writers of the western church to any ceremony 
of our holy religion, especially if it were figu- 
rative or mystical. But a more confined sig- 
nification of this word by degrees prevailed, 
and in that stricter sense it has been always 
used by the divines of modern times. Sacra- 
ments, says Dr. Hill, are conceived in the 
church of Rome to consist of matter, deriving, 
from the action of the priest in pronouncing 
certain words, a divine virtue, by which grace 
is conveyed to the soul of every person who 
receives them. It is supposed to be necessary 
that the priest, in pronouncing the words, has 
the intention of giving to the matter that 
divine virtue ; otherwise it remains in its 
original state. On the part of those who re- 
ceive the sacrament, it is required that they be 
free from any of those sins, called in the church 
of Rome mortal ; but it is not required of them 
to exercise any good disposition, to possess 
faith, or to resolve that they shall amend their 
lives ; for such is conceived to be the physical 
virtue of a sacrament administered by a priest 
with a good intention, that, unless when it is 
opposed by the obstacle of a mortal sin, the 
very act of receiving it is sufficient. This act 
was called, in the language of the schools, 
opus operatum, the work done independently 
of any disposition of mind attending the deed ; 
and the superiority of the sacraments of the 
New Testament over the sacraments of the 
Old was thus expressed, that the sacraments 
of the Old Testament were effectual ex opere 
operantis, from the piety and faith of the per- 
sons to whom they were administered ; while 
the sacraments of the New Testament convey 
grace, ex opere operato, from their own intrinsic 
virtue, and an immediate physical influence 
upon the mind of him who receives them. 
This notion represents the sacraments as a 
mere charm, the use of which, being totally 
disjoined from every mental exercise, cannot 



SAC 



834 



SAC 



be regarded as a reasonable service. It gives 
men the hope of receiving, by the use of a 
charm, the full participation of the grace of 
God, although they continue to indulge that 
very large class of sins, to vi^hich the accom- 
modating morality of the church of Rome ex- 
tends the name of venial ; and yet it makes 
this high privilege entirely dependent upon the 
intention of another, who, although he per- 
forms all the outward acts which belong to 
the sacrament, may, if he chooses, withhold 
the communication of that physical virtue, 
without which the sacrameut is of none avail. 
The Socinian doctrine concerning the na- 
ture of the sacraments is founded upon a sense 
of the absurdity and danger of the popish doc- 
trine, and a solicitude to avoid any approach 
to it, and runs into the opposite extreme. It 
is conceived that the sacraments are not es- 
sentially distinct from any other rites or cere- 
monies ; that, as they consist of a symbolical 
action, in which something external and ma- 
terial is employed to represent what is spirit- 
ual and invisible, they may by this address to 
the senses be of use in reviving the remem- 
brance of past events, and in cherishing pious 
sentiments ; but that their effect is purely moral, 
and that they contribute, by that moral effect, 
to the improvement of the individual in the 
same manner with reading the Scriptures, and 
many other exercises of religion. It is admit- 
ted, indeed, by the Socinians, that the sacra- 
ments are of farther advantage to the whole 
society of Christians, as being the solemn 
badges by which the disciples of Jesus are dis- 
criminated from other men, and the appointed 
method of declaring that faith in Christ, by 
the public profession of which Christians mi- 
nister to the improvement of one another. But 
in these two points, the moral effect upon the 
individual^ and the advantage to society, is 
contained all that a Socinian holds concern- 
ing the general nature of the sacraments. 
This doctrine, like all other parts of the So- 
cinian system, represents religion in the simple 
view of being a lesson of righteousness, and 
loses sight of that character of the Gospel, 
which is meant to be implied in calling it a 
covenant of grace. The greater part of Pro- 
testants, therefore, following an expression of 
the Apostle, Rom. iv, 11, when he is speaking 
of circumcision^ consider the sacraments as 
not only signs, but also seals, of the covenant 
of grace. Those who apply this phrase to the 
sacraments of the New Testament, admit 
every part of the Socinian doctrine concern- 
ing the nature of sacraments, and are accus- 
tomed to employ that doctrine to correct those 
popish errors upon this subject which are not 
yet eradicated from the minds of many of the 
people. But although they admit that the 
Socinian doctrine is true as far as it goes, 
they consider it as incomplete. For, while 
they hold that the sacraments yield no benefit 
to those upon whom the signs employed in 
them do not produce the proper moral effect, 
they regard these signs as intended to repre- 
sent an inward invisible grace, which pro- 
eeeds from him by whom they are ^appointed, 



and as pledges that that grace will be convey, 
ed to all in whom the moral effect is produced. 
The sacraments, therefore, in their opinion. 
constitute federal acts, in which the persons 
who receive them with proper dispositions, 
solemnly engage to fulfil their part of the cove 
nant, and God confirms his promise to them 
in a sensible manner; not as if the promise of 
God -were of itself insufficient to render any 
event certain, but because this manner of ex- 
hibiting the blessings promised gives a stronger 
impression of the truth of the promise, and 
convej'^s to the mind an assurance that it will 
be fulfilled. According to this account of the 
sacraments, the express institution of God is 
essentially requisite to constitute their nature ; 
and in this respect sacraments are distinguish, 
ed from what may be called the ceremonies of 
religion. Ceremonies are in their nature 
arbitrary ; and different means may be em- 
ployed by different persons with success, 
according to their constitution, their educa- 
tion, and their circumstances, to cherish the 
sentiments of devotion, and to confirm good 
purposes. But no rite which is not ordained 
by God can be conceived to be a seal of his 
promise, or the pledge of any event that de- 
pends upon his good pleasure. Hence, that 
any rite may come up to our idea of a sacra- 
ment, v/e require in it, not merely a vague 
and general resemblance between the external 
matter which is the visible substance of the 
rite, and the thing thereby signified, but also 
words of institution, and a promise by which 
the two are connected together ; and hence 
we reject five of the seven sacraments that 
are numbered in the church of Rome, because 
in some of the five we do not find any matter 
w^ithout which there is not that sign which 
enters into our definition of a sacrament; and 
in others w^e do not find any promise connect- 
ing the matter used with the grace said to be 
thereby signified, although upon this con- 
nection the essence of a sacrament depends. 

SACRIFICE, properly so called, is the 
solemn infliction of death on a living creature, 
generally by the effusion of its blood, in a 
way of religious worship ; and the presenting 
of this act to God, as a supplication for the 
pardon of sin, and a supposed means of com- 
pensation for the insult and injury thereby 
offered to his majesty and government. Sacri- 
fices have, in all ages, and by almost every 
nation, been regarded as necessary to placate 
the divine anger, and render the Deity pro- 
pitious. Though the Gentiles had lost the 
knowledge of the true God, they still retained 
such a dread of liim, that they sometimes 
sacrificed their own offspring for the purpose 
of averting his anger. Unhappy and bewildered 
mortals, seeking relief from their guilty fears, 
hoped to atone for past crimes by committing 
others still more awful ; they gave their first- 
born for their transgression, the fruit of their 
body for the sin of their soul. The Scriptures 
sufficiently indicate that sacrifices were insti- 
tuted by divine appointment, iimnediately after 
the entrance of sin, to prefigure the sacrifice 
of Christ. Accordingly, we find Abel, Noah, 



SAQ 



' 835 



SAD 



Abraham, Job, and others, offering sacrifices 
in the faith of the Messiah ; and the divine 
acceptance of their sacrifices is particularly 
recorded. But, in religious institutions, the 
Most High has ever been jealous of his pre- 
rogative. He alone -prescribes his own wor- 
fcihip ; and he regards as vain arid presumptuous 
every pretence of honouring him which he has 
not commanded. The sacrifice of blood and 
death could not have been offered to him with- 
out impiety, nor would he have accepted it, 
had not his high authority pointed the way by 
an explicit prescription. 

Under the law, sacrifices of various kinds 
were appointed for the children of Israel ; the 
paschal lamb, Exod. xii, 3 ; the holocaust, or 
whole burnt-offering. Lev. vii, 8 \ the sin-offer- 
ing, or sacrifice of expiation. Lev. iv, 3, 4 ; 
and the peace-offering, or sacrifice of thanks- 
giving. Lev. vii, 11, 12; all of which emblem, 
atically set forth the sacrifice of Christ, being 
the instituted types and shadows of it, Heb. 
ix, 9-l5 ; X, 1. Accordingly, Christ abolished 
the whole of them when he offered his own 
sacrifice. "Above, when he said, Sacrifice, 
and offering, and barnt-offerings, and offering 
for sin, thou wouldest not, neither hadst plea- 
sure therein, which are offered by the law ; 
then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. 
He taketh away the first, that he may establish 
the second. By the which will we are sanc- 
tified through the offering of the body of Christ 
once for all," Heb. x, 8-10; 1 Cor. v, 7. In 
illustrating this fundamental doctrine of Chris- 
tianity, the Apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the 
Hebrews, sets forth the excellency of the sacri- 
fice of our great High Priest above those of the 
law in various particulars. The legal sacrifices 
were only brute animals, such as bullocks, 
heifers, goats, lambs, (fee ; but the sacrifice of 
Christ was himself, a person^f infinite dignity 
and worth, Heb. ix, 12, 13 ; i, 3 ; ix, 14, 2G ; x, 10. 
The former, thoug-h they cleansed from cere, 
monial uncleanness, could not possibly expiate 
sin, or purify the conscience from the guilt of 
it; and so it is said that God was not well 
pleased in them, Heb. x, 4, 5, 8, 11. But 
Christ, by the sacrifice of himself, hath effect- 
ually, and for ever, put away sin, having made 
an adequate atonement unto God for it, and 
by means of faith in it he also purges the con- 
science from dead works to serve the living 
God, Heb. ix, 10-26 ; Ephes. v, 2. The legal 
sacrifices were statedly offered, year after year, 
by which their insufiiciency was indicated, and 
an intimation given that God was still calling 
sins to his remembrance, Heb. x, 3 ; but the 
last required no repetition, because it fully and 
at once answered all the ends of sacrifice, on 
which account God hath declared that he will 
remember the sins and iniquities of his people 
no more. 

The term sacrifice is often used in a second- 
ary or metaphorical sense, and applied to the 
good works of believers, and to the duties of 
prayer and praise, as in the following passages : 
" But to do good, and to communicate, forget 
not ; for with such sacrifices God is well 
pleased," Heb, xiii, 16. "Having received of 



Epaphroditus the things which ye sent, an odour 
of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well 
pleasing to God," Phil, iv, 18. "Ye are built 
up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer 
up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by 
Jesus Christ," 1 Peter ii, 5. -"By him, there, 
fore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God 
continually ; that is, the fruit of our lips, giv- 
ing thanks to his name," Heb. xiii, 15. " I 
beseech you, by the mercies of God, that ye 
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy ac- 
ceptable unto God, which is your reasonable 
service," Rom. xii, 1. "There is a peculiar 
reason," says Dr. Owen, "for assigning this 
appellation to moral duties ; for in every sacri- 
fice there was a presentation of something unto 
God. The worshipper was not to offer that 
which cost him nothing ; part of his substance 
was to be transferred from himself unto God. 
So it is in these duties ; they cannot be pro- 
perly observed without the alienation of some- 
thing that was our own, — our time, ease, pro- 
perty, &:.c, and a dedication of it to the Lord, 
Hence they have the general nature of sacri, 
fices," The ceremonies used in offering the 
Jewish sacrifices require to be noticed as illus- 
trative of many texts of Scripture, and some 
points of important doctrine. See Atonement, 
Offerings, Expiation, Propitiation, Recon-* 
ciLiATioN, and Redemption. 

SADDUCEES, a sect among the Jews. It 
is said that the principles of the Sadducees 
were derived from Antigonus Sochaeus, presi^ 
dent of the sanhedrim, about B. C. 250, who, 
rejecting the traditionary doctrines of the 
scribes, taught that man ought to serve God 
out of pure love, and not from hope of reward,- 
or fear of punishment ; and that they derived 
their name from Sadoe, onie of his followers, 
who, mistaking or perverting this doctrine', 
maintained that there was no future state of 
rewards and punishments. Whatever found=< 
ation there may be for this account of the 
origin of the sect, it is certain, that in the 
time of our Saviour the Sadducees denied the 
resurrection of the dead. Acts xxiii, 8, and 
the existence of angels and spirits, or souls of 
departed men ; though, as Mr. Hume observes, 
it is not easy to comprehend how they covild 
at the same time admit the authority of the 
law of Moses. They carried their ideas of 
human freedom so far as to assert that men^ 
were absolutely masters of their own actions,- 
and at full liberty to do either good or evil. 
Josephus even says that they denied the essen- 
tial difference between good and evil; and, 
though they believed that God created and 
preserved the world, they se>em to have denied 
his particular providence. These tenets, which 
resemble the Epicurean philosophy, led, as 
might be expected, to great profligacy of life ;- 
and we find the licentious wickedness of the' 
Sadducees frequently condemned in the New 
Testament ; yet they professed themselves 
obliged to observe the Mosaic law, because of 
the temporal rewards and punishments annexed 
to such observance; and hence thsy were 
always severe in their punishment of any 
crimes which tended to disturb the public Iran* 



SAL 



836 



SAL 



quillity. The Sadducees rejected all tradition, 
and some authors have contended that they 
admitted only the books of Moses ; but there 
seems no ground for that opinion, either in 
the Scriptures or in any ancient Avriter. Even 
Josephus, who was himself a Pharisee, and 
took every opportunity of reproaching the Sad- 
ducees, does not mention that they rejected 
any part of the Scriptures ; he only says that 
" the Pharisees have delivered to the people 
many institutions as received from the fathers, 
which are not written in the law of Moses. 
For this reason the Sadducees reject these 
things, asserting that those things are binding 
which are written, but that the things received 
by tradition from the fathers are not to be ob- 
served." Beside, it is generally believed that 
the Sadducees expected the Messiah with great 
impatience, which seems to imply their belief 
in the prophecies, though they misinterpreted 
their meaning. Confining all their hopes to 
this present world, enjoying its riches, and 
devoting themselves to its pleasures, they 
might well be particularly anxious that their 
lot of life should be cast in the splendid reign 
of this expected temporal king, v/ith the hope 
of sharing in his conquests and glory ; but this 
expectation was so contrary to the lowly ap- 
pearance of our Saviour, that they joined their 
inveterate enemies, the Pharisees, in persecut- 
ing him and his religion. Josephus says, that 
the Sadducees were able to draw over to them 
the rich only, the people not following them ; 
and he elsewhere mentions that this sect spread 
chiefly among the young. The Sadducees were 
far less numerous than the Pharisees, but they 
were in general persons of greater opulence 
and dignity. The council before whom our 
Saviour and St. Paul were carried consisted 
partly of Pharisees and partly of Sadducees. 

SALAMIS, once a famous city in the isle 
of Cyprus, opposite to Seleucia, on the Syrian 
coast ; and as it was the first place where the 
Gospel was preached, it was in the primitive 
times made the see of the primate of the whole 
island. It was destroyed by the Saracens, and 
from the ruins was built Famagusta, which 
was taken by the Turks in 1570. Here St. 
Paul preached, A. D. 44, Acts xiii, 5. 

SALMON, son of Nahshon : he married 
Rahab, by whom he had Boaz, 1 Chron. ii, 
11, 51, 54; Ruth iv, 20, 21; Matt, i, 4. He 
is named ihe father of Bethlehem, because his 
descendants peopled Bethlehem. 

SALOME, the wife of Zebedee, and mother 
of St. James the greater, and St. John the 
evangelist, Matthew xxvii, 56 ; and one of 
those holy women who used to attend upon 
our Saviour in his journeyings, and to minis- 
ter to him. She was the person who requested 
of Jesus Christ, that her two sons, James and 
John, might sit on his right and left hand v\^hen 
he should enter upon his kingdom, having then 
but the same obscure views as the rest of the 
disciples ; but she gave proof of her faith when 
she followed Christ to Calvary, and did not 
forsake him even at the cross, Mark xv, 40 ; 
Matt, xxvii, 55, 56. She was also one of the 
women that brought perfumes to embalm him. 



and who came, for this purpose, to the sepul- 
chre "early in the morning," Mark xvi, 1, 2. 
At the tomb they saw tv/o angels, who informed 
them that Jesus was risen. Returning to Jeru- 
salem, Jesus appeared to them on the way, and 
said to them, "Be not afraid : go, tell my bre- 
thren that they go into Galilee, and there shall 
they see me." 

SALT. God appointed that salt should be 
used in all the sacrifices that were offered to 
him, Leviticus ii, 13. Salt is esteemed the 
symbol of wisdom and grace, Colossians iv, 6 ; 
Mark ix, 50 ; also of perpetuity and incorrup- 
tion. Numbers xviii, 19 ; 2 Chronicles xiii, 5. 
The orientals were accustomed also to ratify 
their federal engagements by salt. This sub- 
stance was, among the ancients, the emblem 
of friendship and fidelity, and therefore used 
in all their sacrifices and covenants. It was a 
sacred pledge of hospitality which they never 
ventured to violate. Numerous instances oc- 
cur of travellers in Arabia, after being plunder- 
ed and stripped by the wandering tribes of the 
desert, claiming the protection of some civil- 
ized Arab, who, afi;er receiving them into his 
tent, and giving them salt, instantly relieves 
their distress, and never forsakes them till he 
has placed them in safety. An agreement, thus 
ratified, is called, in Scripture, " a covenant 
of salt." The obligation which this symbol 
imposes on the mind of an oriental, is well 
illustrated by the Baron du Tott in the follow- 
ing anecdote : One who was desirous of his 
acquaintance promised in a short time to re- 
turn. The baron had already attended him 
half way down the staircase, when stopping, 
and turning briskly to one of his domestics, 
"Bring me directly," said he, "some bread 
and salt." What he requested was brought ; 
when, taking a little salt between his fingers, 
and putting it with a mysterious air on a bit 
of bread, he ate it with a devout gravity, assur- 
ing du Tott he might now rely on him. 

Although salt, in small quantities, may con- 
tribute to the communicating and fertilizing 
of some kinds of stubborn soil, yet, according 
to the observations of Pliny, " all places in 
which salt is found are barren and produce 
nothing.'' The effect of salt, where it abounds, 
on vegetation, is described by burning, in Dent. 
xxix, 23, "The whole land thereof is brim- 
stone, and salt of burning." Thus Volney, 
speaking of the borders of the Asphaltic lake, 
or Dead Sea, says, " The true cause of the 
absence of vegetables and animals is the acrid 
saltness of its waters, which is infinitely greater 
than that of the sea. The land surrounding 
the lake, being equally impregnated with that 
saltness, refuses to produce plants ; the air it- 
self, which is by evaporation loaded with it, 
and which moreover receives vapours of sul- 
phur and bitumen, cannot suit vegetation ; 
whence that dead appearance which reigns 
afound the lake." So a salt land, Jer. xvii, 6, 
is the same as the "parched places of the 
wilderness," and is descriptive of barrenness, 
as saltness also is. Job xxxix, 6 ; Psalm cvii, 
34; Ezek. xlvii, 11 ; Zech. ii, 9. Hence the 
ancient custom of sowing an enemy's city. 



SAL 



837 



SAL 



when taken, with salt, in token of perpetual 
desolation, Judges iv, 45 ; and thus in after 
times the city of Milan was burned, razed, sown 
with salt, and ploughed by the exasperated 
emperor, Frederic Barbarossa. The salt used 
by the ancients was what we call rock or fossil 
salt ; and also that left by the evaporation of 
salt lakes. Both these kinds were impure, 
being mixed with earth, sand, &c, and lost 
their strength by deliquescence. Maundrell, 
describing the valley of salt, says, "On the 
side toward Gibul there is a small precipice, 
occasioned by the continual taking away of 
the salt ; and in tliis you may see how the 
veins of it lie. I broke a piece of it, of which 
that part that was exposed to the sun, rahi, 
and air, though it had the sparks and particles 
of salt, yet it had perfectly last its savour ; 
the inner part, which was connected with the 
rock, retained its savour, as I found by proof." 
Christ reminds his disciples, Matt, v, 13, " Ye 
are the salt of the earth ; but if the salt have 
lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted ? 
It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be 
cast out, and to be trodden under foot of 
men." This is spoken of the mineral salt as 
mentioned by Maundrell, a great deal of which 
was made use of in offerings at the temple ; 
such of it as had become insipid was thrown 
out to repair the road. The existence of such a 
salt, and its application to such a use, Schoet- 
genius has largely proved in his " HorcB He- 
braiccB." The salt unfit for the land, Luke xvi, 
34, Le Clerc conjectures to be that made of 
wood ashes, which easil}'^ loses its savour, and 
becomes no longer serviceable. 

Effatos cinerem immundum jactare per agros. 

Virgil. Georg. i, 81. 
" But blush not fattening dung to cast around, 
Or sordid ashes o'er th' exhausted ground." 

Warton. 
SALUTATIONS at meeting are not less 
common in the east than in the countries of 
Europe, but are generally confined to those of 
their own nation or religious party. When 
the Arabs salute each other, it is generally in 
these terms : Salinn aleikum, " Peace be with 
you ;" laying, as they utter the words, the right 
hand on the heart. The answer is, Aleiltum 
essaluTH, " With you be peace ;" to which 
aged people are inclined to add, " and the mer- 
cy and blessing of God." The Mohammedans 
of Egypt and S)-ria never salute a Christian 
in these terms : they content themselves with 
saying to them, "Good day to you;" or, 
" Friend, how do you do ?" Niebuhr's state- 
ment is confirmed by Mr. Bruce, who says that 
some Arabs, to whom he gave the salam, or 
salutation of peace, either made no reply, or 
expressed their astonishment at his impudence 
in using such freedom. Thus it appears that 
the orientals have two kinds of salutations ; 
one for strangers, and the other for their 
own countrymen, or persons of their own re- 
ligious profession. The Jews in the days of 
our Lord seem to have generally observed the 
same custom ; they would not address the usual 
compliment of, "Peace be with you," to either 
Heathens or publicans ; the publicans of the 



Jewish nation would use it to their country- 
men who were publicans, but not to Heathens, 
though the more rigid Jews refused to do it 
either to publicans or Heathens. Our Lord 
required his disciples to lay aside the morose, 
ness of Jews, and cherish a benevolent dispo- 
sition toward all around them: "If ye salute 
your brethren only, what do ye more than 
others ? Do not even the publicans so ?" They 
were bound by the same authority to embrace 
their brethren in Christ with a special affec- 
tion, yet they were to look upon every man as 
a brother, to feel a sincere and cordial interest 
in his welfare, and at meeting to express their 
benevolence, in language corresponding with 
the feelings of their hearts. This precept is 
not inconsistent with the charge which the 
Prophet Elisha gave to his servant Gehazi, not 
to salute any man he met, nor return his salu. 
tation ; for he wished him to make all the 
haste in his power to restore the child of the 
Shunamite, who had laid him under so many 
obligations. The manners of the country 
rendered Elisha's precautions particularly pro 
per and necessary, as the salutations of the 
east oflen take up a long time. For a similar 
reason our Lord himself commanded his disci, 
pies on one occasion to salute no man by the 
way : it is not to be supposed that he would 
require his followers to violate or neglect an 
innocent custom, still less one of his own 
precepts ; he only directed them to make the 
best use of their time in executing his work. 
This precaution was rendered necessary bj^^ the 
length of time which their tedious forms of salu. 
tation required. They begin their salutations 
at a considerable distance, by bringing the hand 
down to the knees, and then carrying it to the 
stomach. They express their d^^rotedness to 
a person by holding dovv'n the hand, as they 
do their affection by raising it afterward to the 
heart. When they come close together, they 
take each other by the hand in token of friend- 
ship. The country people at meeting clap 
each other's hands very smartly twenty or 
thirty times together, without saying any thing 
more than, " How do ye do ? I wish you good 
health." Afler this first compliment, many 
other friendly questions about the health of 
the family, mentioning each of the children 
distinctly, whose names they know. To avoid 
this useless waste of time, our Lord command- 
ed them to avoid the customary salutations of 
those whom they might happen to meet by the 
way. All the forms of salutation now observed 
appear to have been in general use in the days 
of our Lord ; for he represents a servant as 
falling down at the feet of his master, when 
he had a favour to ask ; and an inferior serv- 
ant, as paying the same compliment to the 
first, who belonged, it would seem, to a higher 
class; "The servant, therefore, fell down and 
worshipped him, saying. Lord, have patience 
with nie, and I will pay thee all. And his fel- 
low servant fell down at his feet, and besought 
him, saying. Have patience with me, and I 
will pay thee all," Matt, xviii, 26, 29. When 
Jairus solicited the Saviour to go and heal his 
daughter, he fell down at his feet : tlie Apostle 



SAL 



838 



SAM 



Peter, on another occasion, seems to have 
fallen down at his knees, in the same manner 
as the modern Arabs fall down at the knees of 
a superior. The woman who was afflicted with 
an issue of blood touched the hem of his gar- 
ment, and the Syro-Phenician woman fell 
down at his feet. In Persia, the salutation 
among intimate friends is made by inclining 
ihe neck over each other's neck, and then in- 
clining cheek to cheek ; which Mr. Morier 
thinks is most likely the falling upon the neck 
and kissing, so frequently mentioned in Scrip- 
ture, Gen. xxxiii, 4; xlv, 14; Luke xv, 20. 

SALVATION imports, in general, some 
great deliverance from any evil or danger. 
Thus, the conducting the Israelites through 
the Red Sea, and delivering them out of the 
hands of the Egyptians, is called a great salva- 
tion. But salvation by way of eminence, is 
applied to that wonderful deliverance which 
our blessed Saviour procured for mankind, by 
saving them from the punishment of their sins ; 
and in the New Testament is the same as our 
redemption by Christ. This is that salvation 
referred to by St. Paul : " How shall we escape 
if we neglect so great salvation ?" The sal- 
vation which Christ purchased, and the Gospel 
tenders to every creature, comprehends the 
greatest blessings which God can bestow ; a de- 
liverance frcnithe most dreadful evils that man- 
kind can suffer. It contains all that can make 
ihe nature of man perfect or his life happy, 
and secures him from whatever can render his 
condition miserable. The blessings of it are 
inexpressible, and beyond imagination. " Eye 
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have en- 
tered into the heart of man, the things which 
God hath prepared for them that love him." 
For, to be saved as Christ saves, is to have all 
pur innumerable sins and transgressions for- 
given and blotted out ; all those heavy loads 
of guilt which oppressed our souls perfectly 
removed from our minds. It is to be recon- 
ciled to God, and restored to his favour, so 
that he will be no longer angry, tevrible, and 
retributive, but a most kind, compassionate, 
and tender Father. It is to be at peace with 
him and with our consciences ; to have a title 
to his peculiar love, care, and protection, 
all our days ; to be rescued from the bondage 
and dominion of sin, and the tyranny of the 
devil. It is to be translated from the power 
of darkness, into the kingdom of Christ ; so 
that sin shall reign no longer in our mortal 
bodies, but we shall be enabled to serve God 
in newness of life. It is to be placed in a state 
of true freedom and liberty, to be no longer 
under the control of blind passions, and hurried 
on by our impetuous lusts to do what our rea- 
son condemns. It is to have a new principle 
of life infused into our souls ; to have the Holy 
Spirit resident in our hearts, whose comfort- 
able influence must ever cheer and refresh us, 
and by v/hose counsels we may be always ad- 
vised, directed, and governed. It is to be 
transformed into the image of God ; and to be 
made like him in wisdom, righteousness, and 
all other perfections of which man's nature is 
capable. 



Finally, to be saved as Christ came to save 
mankind, is to be translated, after this life is 
ended, into a state of eternal felicity, never 
more to die or suffer, never more to know pain 
and sickness, grief and sorrow, labour and 
weariness, disquiet, or vexation, but to live in 
perfect peace, freedom, and liberty, and to en- 
joy the greatest good after the most perfect 
manner for ever. It is to have our bodies 
raised again, and reiinited to our souls ; so that 
they shall be no longer gross, earthly, corruptible 
bodies, but spiritual, heavenly, Immortal ones, 
fashioned like unto Christ's glorious body, in 
which he now sits at the right hand of God. 
It is to live in the city of the great King, the 
heavenly Jerusalem, where the glory of the 
Lord fills the place with perpetual light and 
bliss. It is to spend eternity in the most noble 
and hallowed employments, in viewing and 
contemplating the wonderful works of God, 
admiring the wisdom of his providence, ador- 
ing his infinite love to the sons of men, reflect- 
ing on our own inexpressible happiness, and 
singing everlasting hymns of praise, joy, and 
triumph to ^ God and our Lord Jesus Christ 
for vouchsafing all these blessings. It is to 
dwell for ever in a place, where no objects of 
pity or compassion, of anger or e^ivy, of hatred 
or distrust, are to be found ; but where all will 
increase the happiness of each other, by mutual 
love and kindness. It is to converse with the 
most perfect society, to be restored to the fel- 
lowship of our friends and relations who have 
died in the faith of Christ, and to be with Jesus 
Christ, to behold his glory, to live for .ever in 
seeing and enjoying tlie great God, in "whose 
presence is fulness of joy, and at whose right 
hand are pleasures for evermore." This is 
the salvation that Christ has purchased for 
us ; and which his Gospel offers to all man- 
kind. 

SAMARIA, one of the three divisions of 
the Holy Land, having Galilee on the north, 
Judea on the south, the river Jordan on the 
east, and the Mediterranean Sea on the west. 
It took its name from its capital city, Samaria ; 
and formed, together with Galilee and some 
cantons on the east of Jordan, during the 
reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah, the 
kingdom of the former. The general aspect 
and produce of the country are nearly the same 
as those of Judea. But Mr. Buckingham ob- 
serves, that " while in Judea the hills are 
mostly as bare as the imagination can paint 
them, and a few of the narrow valleys only 
are fertile, in Samaria, the very summits of 
the eminences are as well clothed as the sides 
of them. These, with the luxuriant valleys 
which they enclose, present scenes of imbro- 
ken verdure in almost every point of view, 
which are delightfully variegated by the pic- 
turesque forms of the hills and vales them- 
selves, enriched by the occasional sight of 
wood and water, in clusters of olive and other 
trees, and rills and torrents running among 
them." 

2. Samaria, the capital city of tlie kingdom 
of the ten tribes that revolted from the house 
of David. It was built by Omri, king of Israel, 



SAM 



S39 



SAM 



who began to reign A. M. 3079, and who died 
3086. He bought the hill Samaria of Shemcr 
for two talents of silver, or for the sura of 
684Z. 7s. 6d. It took the name of Samaria 
from Shemer, the owner of tlie hili, 1 Kings 
xvi, 24. Some think, however, that there 
were before this some beginnings of a city in 
that place, because, antecedent to the reign 
of Omri, there is mention made of Samaria, 
1 Kings xiii, 32, A. M.'3030. But others take 
this for a prolepsis, or an anticipation, in the 
discourse of the man of God. However this 
may be, it is certain that Samaria was no con- 
siderable place, and did not become the capital 
of the kingdom, till after the reign of Omri. 
Before him, the kings of Israel dwelt at She- 
chem or at Tirzah. Samaria was advantage- 
ously situated upon an agreeable and fruitful 
hill, twelve miles from Dothaim,- twelve from 
Merrom, and four from Atharath. Josephus 
says it was a day's journey from Jerusalem. 
The kings of Samaria omitted nothing to make 
this city the strongest, the finest, and the 
richest that was possible. Ahab built there a 
palace of ivory, 1 Kings xxii, 39 ; that is, in 
which there were many ivory ornaments ; and, 
according to Amos, iii, 15 ; iv, 1, 2, it became 
the seat of luxury and effeminacy. Benhadad, 
king of Syria, built public places, called 
" streets," in Samaria, 1 Kings xx, 34 ; pro- 
bably bazaars for trade, and quarters where 
his people dwelt to pursue commerce. His 
son Benhadad besieged this place under the 
reign of Ahab, 1 Kings xx, A. M. 3103. It 
was besieged by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, 
in the ninth year of the reign of Hoshea, king 
of Israel, 2 Kings xvii, 6, &c, which was the 
fourth of Hezekiah, king of Judah. It was 
taken three years after, A. M. 3283. The 
Prophet Hosea, x, 4, 8, 9, speaks of the 
cruelties exercised by Shalmaneser against 
the besieged; and Micah, i, 6, says that the 
city was reduced to a heap of stones. The 
Cuthites that were sent by Esar-haddon to 
inhabit the country of Samaria did not think 
it worth their while to repair the ruined city : 
they dwelt at Shechem, which they made the 
capital city of their state. They were in this 
condition when Alexander the Great came into 
Phenicia and Judea. However, the Cuthites 
had rebuilt some of the houses of Samaria, 
even from the time of the return of the Jews 
from the captivity, since the inhabitants of 
Samaria are spoken of, Ezra iv, 17 ; Neh. iv, 2. 
And the Samaritans, being jealous of the Jews, 
on account of the favours that Alexander the 
Great had conferred on them, revolted from 
him, while he was in Egypt, and burned An- 
dromachus alive, whom he had left governor 
of Syria. Alexander soon marched against 
them, took Samaria, and appointed Macedo- 
nians to inhabit it, giving the country round 
it to the Jews ; and to encourage them in the 
cultivation, he exempted them from tribute. 
The kings of Egypt and Syria, who succeeded 
Alexander, deprived them of the property of 
this country. But Alexander Balas, king of 
Syria, restored to Jonathan Maccabaeus the 
cities of Lydda, Ephrem, and Ramatha, which 



he cut off from the country of Samana, 
1 Mace. X, 30, 38; xi, 28, 34. Lastly, the 
Jews reent-ered into the full possession of this 
whole country under John Hircanus, the As- 
monean, who took Samaria, and, according to 
Josephus, made the river run through its 
ruins. It continued in this state till A. M. 
3947, when Aulus Gabinius, the proconsul of 
Syria, rebuilt it, and gave it the name of Ga- 
biniana. Yet it remained very inconsiderable 
till Herod the Great restored it to its ancient 
splendour. 

The sacred authors of the New Testament 
speak but little of Samaria ; and when they 
do mention it, the country is rather to be un- 
derstood than the city, Luke xvii, 11 ; John 
iv, 4, 5. After the death of Stephen, Acts 
viii, 1, 2, .3, when the disciples were dispersed 
through the cities of Judea and Samaria, Philip 
made several converts in this city. There it 
was that Simon Magus resided, and thither 
Peter and John went to communicate the gifts 
of the Holy Spirit. 

Travellers give the following account of its 
present state : — Sebaste is the name which 
Herod gave to the name of the ancient Sa- 
maria, the imperial city of the ten tribes, in 
honour of Augustus (Sebastos) Caesar, when 
he rebuilt and fortified it, converting the 
greater part of it into a citadel, and erecting 
here a noble temple. ' " The situation," says 
Dr. Richardson, "is extremely beautiful, and 
strong by nature ; more so, I think, than Je- 
rusalem. It stands on a fine, large, insulated 
hill, compassed all around by a broad deep 
valley ; and when fortified, as it is stated to 
have been by Herod, one would have imagined 
that, in the ancient system of warfare, nothing 
but famine could have reduced such a placie. 
The valley is surrounded by four hills, one on 
each side, which are cultivated in terraces up 
to the top, sown with grain, and planted with 
fig and olive trees, as is also the valley. The 
hill of Samaria likewise rises in terraces to a 
height equal to any of the adjoining mount- 
ains. The present village is small and poor, 
and, after passing the valley, the ascent to it 
is very steep. Viewed from the station of our 
tents, it is extremely interesting, both from its 
natural situation, and from the picturesque 
remains of a ruined convent, of good Gothic 
architecture. Having passed the village, to- 
ward the middle of the first terrace, there is a 
number of columns still standing. I counted 
twelve in one row, beside several that stood 
apart, the brotherless remains of other rows. 
The situation is extremely delightful, and my 
guide informed me, that they belonged to the 
serai, or palace. On the next terrace there 
are no remains of solid building, but heaps of 
stone and lime and rubbish mixed with the 
soil in great profusion. Ascending to the 
third or highest terrace, the traces of former 
building were not so numerous, but we en- 
joyed a delightful view of the surrounding 
country. The eye passed over the deep val- 
ley that encompasses the hill of Sebaste, and 
rested on the mountains beyond, that retreated 
as they rose with a gentle slope, and met the 



SAM 



840 



feAM 



view in every direction, like a book laid out 
for perusal on a reading desk. This was the 
seat of the capital of the short-lived and wicked 
kingdom of Israel ; and on the face of these 
mountains the eye surveys the scene of many 
bloody conflicts and many memorable events. 
Here those holy men of God, Elijah and 
Elisha, spoke their tremendous warnings in 
the ears of their incorrigible rulers, and wrought 
their miracles in the sight of all the people. 
From this lofty eminence we descended to 
the south side of the hill, where we saw the 
remains of a stately colonnade that stretches 
along this beautiful exposure from east to west. 
Sixty columns are still standing in one row. 
The shafts are plain ; and fragments of Ionic 
volutes, that lie scattered about, testify the 
order to which they belonged. These are 
probably the relics of sorne of the magnificent 
structures with which Herod the Great adorned 
Samaria. None of the walls remain." Mr. 
Buckingham mentions a current tradition, 
that the avenue of columns formed a part of 
Herod's palace. According to his account, 
there were eighty-three of these columns erect 
in 1816, beside others prostrate; all without 
capitals. Josephus states, that, about the 
middle of the city, Herod built " a sacred 
place, of a furlong and a half in circuit, and 
adorned it with all sorts of decorations ; and 
therein erected a temple, illustrious for both 
jts largeness and beauty." It is probable that 
these columns belonged to it. On the eastern 
pide of the same summit are the remains, Mr. 
Buckingham states, of another building, " of 
which eight large and eight small columns are 
still standing, with many others fallen near 
them. These also are without capitals, and 
are of a smaller size and of an inferior stone to 
the others." " In the walls of the humble 
dwellings forming the modern village, por- 
tions of sculptured blocks of stone are per- 
.ceived, and even fragments of granite pillars 
have been worked into the masonry." 

SAMARITANS, an ancient sect among the 
Jeyvs, still subsisting in some parts of the Le- 
vant, under the same name. Its origin was in 
the time of Rehoboam, under whose reign a 
idivision was made of the people of Israel into 
two distinct kingdoms. One of these kingdoms, 
called Judah, consisted of such as adhered to 
Rehoboam and the house of David ; the other 
retained the ancient name of Israelites, under 
the command of Jeroboam. The capital of the 
state of these latter was Samaria ; and hence 
it was that they were denominated Samaritans. 
Some affirm that Salmanazar, king of Assyria, 
having conquered Samaria, led the whole peo- 
ple captive into the remotest parts of his 
empire, and filled their places with colonies of 
Babylonians, Cutheans, and other idolaters. 
These finding themselves daily destroyed by 
wild beasts, it is said, desired an Israelitish 
priest to instruct them in the ancient laws and 
customs of the land they inhabited. This was 
granted them ; and they thenceforth ceased to 
be incommoded with any beasts. However, 
with the law of Moses, they still retained 
somewhat of their ancient idolatry. The rab- 



bins say, they adored the figure of a dove on 
Mount Gerizim. As the revolted tribes had 
no more of the Scriptures than the five books 
of Moses, so the priest could bring no others 
with him beside those books written in the old 
Phenician letters. 

Upon the return of the Jews from the 
Babylonish captivity, and the rebuilding of 
Jerusalem and the temple, the religion of the 
Samaritans received another alteration on the 
following occasion : one of the sons of Je- 
hoiada, the high priest, whom Josephus calls 
Manasseh, married the daughter of Sanballat 
the Horonite ; but the law of God having for- 
bidden the intermarriages of the Israelites with 
any other nation, Nehemiah set himself to 
reform this corruption, which had spread into 
many Jewish families, and obliged ail that had 
taken strange wives immediately to part with 
them, Neh. xiii, 23-30. Manasseh, unwilling 
to surrender his wife, fled to Samaria ; and 
many others in the same circumstances, and 
with similar disposition, went and settled under 
the protection of Sanballat, governor of Sa- 
maria. Manasseh brought with him some 
other apostate priests, with many other Jews, 
who disliked the regulations made by Nehe- 
miah at Jerusalem ; and now the Samaritans, 
having obtained a high priest, and other priests 
of the descendants from Aaron, were soon 
brought off" from the worship of the false gods, 
and becaine as much enemies to idolatry as the 
best of the Jews. However, Manasseh gave 
them no other Scriptures beside the Pentateuch, 
lest, if they had the other Scriptures, they 
should then find that Jerusalem was the only 
place where they should offer their sacrifices. 
From that time the worship of the Samaritans 
came much nearer to that of the Jev;s, and 
they afterward obtained lea^ve of Alexander 
the Great to build a temple on Mount Gerizim, 
near the city of Samaria, in imitation of the 
temple at Jerusalem, where they practised the 
same form.s of worship. To this mountain 
and temple the Samaritan woman of Sychar 
refers in her discourse with our Saviour, John 
iv, 20. The Samaritans soon after revolted 
froin Alexander, who drove them out of Sa- 
maria, introduced Macedonians in their room, 
and gave the province of Samaria to the Jews. 
This circumstance contributed in no small 
degree to increase the hatred and animosity 
Jjetween those two people. - When any Isi-aeL 
ite deserved punishment on account of the 
violation of some important point of the law, 
he presently took refuge in Samaria or She- 
chem, and embraced the worship at the temple 
of Gerizim. When the affairs of the Jews 
were prosperous, the Samaritans did not fail 
to call themselves Hebre^vs, and of the race of 
Abraham. But when the Jews suffered perse- 
cution, the Samaritans disowned them, and 
alleged that they were Phenicians originally, 
or descended from Joseph, or Manasseh his 
son. This was their practice in the time of 
Antiochus Epiphanes. It is certain, the 
modern Samaritans are far from idolatry? 
some of the most learned among the Jewish 
doctors own, that they observe the law of 



SAM 



841 



SAN 



Moses more rigidly than the Jews themselves. 
They have a Hebrew copy of the Pentateuch, 
differing in some respects from that of the 
Jews ; and written in different characters, 
commonly called Samaritan characters ; which 
Origen, Jerom, and other fathers and critics, 
ancient and modern, take to be the primitive 
character of the ancient Hebrews, though 
others maintain the contrary. The point of 
preference, as to purity, antiquity, &c, of the 
two Fentateuchs, is also much disputed by 
modern critics. 

The Samaritans are now few in number ; 
though it is not very long since they pretended 
to have priests descended directly from the 
family of Aaron. They were chiefly found 
at Gaza, Neapolis or Shechem, (the ancient 
Sichem or Naplouse,) Damascus, Cairo, &c. 
They had a temple, or chapel, on Mount Ge- 
rizim, where they performed their sacrifices. 
They have also synagogues in other parts of 
Palestine, and also in Egypt. Joseph Scali- 
ger, being curious to know their usages, wrote 
to the Samaritans oC Egypt, and to the high 
priest, of the whole sect, who resided at Neapo- 
lis. They returned two answers, dated in the 
year 998 of the Hegira of Mohammed. These 
answers never came to the hands of Scaiiger. 
They are now in the library at Paris, and have 
been translated into Latin by Father Morin, 
priest of the oratory ; and printed in the col- 
lection of letters of that father in England, 
1662, under the title of ^^ Antiquitates Ecclesice. 
Orientalis" M. Simon has inserted a French 
translation in the first edition of " Ceremonies 
et Coutumes des Juifs," in the manner of a 
supplement to Leo de Modena. In the first 
of these answers, written in the name of the 
assembly of Israel, in Egypt, they declare that 
they celebrate the passover every year, on the 
fourteenth day of the first month, on Mount 
Gerizim, and that he who then did the office 
of high priest was called Eleazar, a descendant 
of Phinehas, son of Aaron. In the second 
answer, which is in the name of the high priest 
Eleazar, and the synagogue of Shechem, they 
declare, that they keep the Sabbath in all the 
rigour with which it is enjoined in the book 
of Exodus ; none among them stirring out of 
doors, but to the synagogue. They add, that 
they begin the feast of the passover with the 
sacrifice appointed for that purpose in Exodus ; 
that they sacrifice no where else but on Mount 
Gerizim ; that they observe the feasts of har- 
vest, the expiation, the tabernacles, &c. They 
add farther, that they never defer circumcision 
beyond the eighth day ; never marry their 
nieces, as the Jews do ; have but one wife ; and, 
in fine, do nothing but what is commanded in 
the law : whereas the Jews frequently abandon 
the law to follow the inventions of their rab- 
bins. At the time when they wrote to Scaiiger, 
they reckoned one hundred and twenty-two 
high priests ; affirmed that the Jews had no 
high priests of the race of Phinehas ; and that 
the Jews belied them in calling them Cutheans ; 
for that they are descended from the tribe of 
Joseph by Ephraim. 

SAMSON, son of Manoah, of the tribe of 



Dan, Judges xiii, 2, &c. We are no where 
acquainted with the name of his mother. He 
was born, A. M. 2849, and was a Nazarite from 
his infancy, by the divine command. He was 
brought up in a place called the camp of Dan, 
between Zorah and Estaol, Judges xiii, 2.5. 
His extraordinary achievements are particu- 
larly recorded in Judges xiv-xvi. " Faith" is 
attributed to him by St. Paul, though whether 
he retained it to the end of his life may be 
doubted. He is not inaptly called by an old 
writer, " a rough believer." 

SAMUEL, the son of Elkanah and of Han- 
nah, of the tribe of Levi, and family of Kohath, 
was born, A. M. 2848. He was an eminent 
inspired prophet, historian, and the seven- 
teenth and last Judge of Israel ; and died in 
the ninety-eighth year of his age, two years 
before Saul, A. M. 2947, 1 Sam. xxv. To 
Samuel are ascribed the book of Judges, that 
of Ruth, and the first book of Samuel. There 
is, indeed, great probability that he composed 
the first twenty-four chapters of the first book 
of Samuel ; since they contain nothing but 
what he might have written, and such transac- 
tions as he was chiefly concerned in. How- 
ever, in these chapters there are some small 
8.dditions, which seem to have been inserted 
after his death. Samuel began the order of 
the prophets, which was never discontinued 
till the death of Zechariah and Malachi, Acts 
iii, 24. From early youth to hoary years, the 
character of Samuel is one on which the mind 
rests with veneration and delight. 

SANBALLAT, the governor of the Cuth- 
ites or Samaritans, and an enemy to the Jews. 
He was a native of Horon, a city beyond 
Jordan, in the country of the Moabites, Neh. 
ii, 10, 19 ; iv, vi. 

SANCTIFICATION, that work of God's 
grace by which we are renewed after the image 
of God, set apart for his service, and enabled 
to die unto sin and live unto righteousness. 
Sanctification is either of nature, whereby we 
are renewed after the image of God, in know- 
ledge, righteousness, and true holiness, Eph. 
iv, 24; Col. iii, 19, or of practice, whereby we 
die unto sin, have its power destroyed in us, 
cease from the love and practice of it, hate it 
as abominable, and live unto righteousness, 
loving and studying good works, Tit. ii, 11, 12. 
Sanctification comprehends all the graces of 
knowledge, faith, repentance, love, humility, 
zeal, patience, &c, and the exercise of them 
in our conduct toward God or man. Gal. 
V, 22-24 ; 1 Peter i, 15, 16 ; Matt, v, vi, vii. 
Sanctification in this world must be complete ; 
the whole nature must be sanctified, all sin 
must be utterly abolished, or the soul can never 
be admitted into the glorious presence of God, 
Heb. xii, 14 ; 1 Peter i, 15 ; Rev. xxi, 27 ; yet 
the saints, while here, are in a state of spiritual 
warfare with Satan and his temptations, with 
the world and its influence, 2 Cor. ii, 11 ; Gal. 
V, 17, 24; Rom. vii, 23; 1 John ii, 15, 16. 

SANCTIFY. In the Old Testament, to 
sanctify often denotes to separate from a com- 
mon to a holy purpose ; to set apart or consecrate 
to God as his special property, and for his ser- 



SAN 



842 



SAN 



vice. Our Lord also uses this term, when he 
says, '* For their sakes I sanctify myself," John 
xvii, 19 ; that is, I separate and dedicate myself 
to be a sacrifice to God for them, " that they 
also may be sanctified through the truth ;" that 
is, that they may be cleansed from the guilt of 
sin. Under the law of Moses, there v/as a 
church purity, or ceremonial sanctification, 
which might be obtained by the observance of 
external rites and ordinances, while persons 
were destitute of internal purity or holiness. 
Every defiled person was made " common," 
and excluded from the privilege of a right to 
draw nigh to God in his solemn worship; but 
in his purification he was again separated to 
him, and restored to his sacred right. Hence 
St. Paul speaks of "the blood of bulls and goats, 
and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the un- 
clean, as sanctifying anto the purifying of the 
flesh," Heb. ix, 13. These things were in re- 
ality of no moral worth or value ; they were 
merely typical institutions, intended to repre- 
sent the blessings of the new and better cove- 
nant, those " good things that were to come ;" 
and therefore God is frequently spoken of in 
the prophets as despising them, namely, in any 
other view than that for which his wisdom had 
ordained them, Isaiah i, 11-15 ; Psalm 1, 8, 9 ; 
li, 16. But that dispensation is now at an end ; 
under the New Testament, the state of things 
is changed, for now "neither circumcision 
availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a 
new creature." The thing signified, namely, 
internal purity and holiness, is no less neces- 
sary to a right to the privileges of the Gospel, 
than the observance of those external rites was 
unto the privileges of the law. 
SANCTUARY. See Teiuple. 
SANDALS, at first, were only soles tied to 
the feet with strings or thongs ; afterward they 
were covered ; and at last they called even shoes 
sandals. "When Judith went to the camp of 
Holofernes, she put sandals on her feet ; and 
her sandals ravished his eyes, Judith x, 4 ; 
xvi, 9. They were a magnificent kind of bus- 
kins proper only to ladies of condition, and 
such as dressed themselves for admiration. But 
there were sandals also belonging to men, and 
of mean value. We read, " If the man like 
not to take his brother's wife, then let his 
brother's wife go up to the gate unto the 
elders, and say, My husband's brother will 
not perform the duty of a husband's brother ; 
then shall his brother's wife come unto him, 
in the presence of the elders, and loose his 
shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face ; and 
shall say. So shall it be done unto that man that 
will not build up his brother's house. And his 
name shall be called in Israel, The house of 
him who hath had his shoe loosed," Deutero- 
nomy XXV, 7. A late writer observes that the 
word rendered " shoe," usually means "sandal," 
that is, a mere sole fastened on the foot in a 
very simple manner ; and that the primary and 
radical meaning of the word rendered face, is 
surface, the superficies of any thing. Hence 
he would submit, that the passage may be to 
the following purpose : The brother's wife shall 
Ipose the sandal from off the foot of her hus- 



band's brother ; and shall spit upon its face or 
surface, (that is, of the shoe,) and shall say, 
&c. This ceremony is coincident with certain 
customs among the Turks. We are told that 
in a complaint against her own husband, for 
withholding himself from her intimacy, the wife 
when before the judge takes off her own shoe, 
and spits upon it ; but in case of complaint 
against her husband's brother, she takes off his 
shoe and spits upon it. 

The business of untying and carrying the 
sandals being that of a servant, the expressions 
of the Baptist, "whose shoes I am not worthy 
to bear," "whose shoe latchet I am not worthy 
to unloose," was an acknowledgment of his 
great inferiority to Christ, and that Christ was 
his Lord. To pull off" the sandals on entering 
a sacred place, or the house of a person of dis- 
tinction, was the usual mark of respect. They 
were taken care of by the attendant servant. 
At the doors of an Indian pagoda, there are as 
many sandals and slippers hung up, as there 
are hats in our places of worship. 

SANHEDRIM, SANHEDRIN, or SYN. 
EDRIUM, among the ancient Jews, the su. 
preme council, or court of judicature, of that 
republic ; in which were despatched all the 
great affairs both of religion and policy. The 
word is derived from the Greek cwi^^iov, a coun- 
cil, assembly, or company of people sitting to- 
gether ; from aiv, together, and rj^pa, a seat. 
Many of the learned agree, that it was insti- 
tuted by Moses, Numbers xi ; and consisted at 
first of seventy elders, who judged finally of 
all causes and affairs ; and that they subsisted, 
without intermission, from Moses to Ezra, 
Deut. xxvii, 1 ; xxxi, 9 ; Josh, xxiv, 1, 31 ; Judg, 
ii, 7; 2 Chron. xix, 8; Ezek. viii, 11. Others 
will have it, that the council of seventy elders, 
established by Moses, was temporary, and did 
not hold after his death ; adding, that we find 
no sign of any such perpetual and infallible 
tribunal throughout the whole Old Testament ; 
and that tlie sanhedrim was first set up in 
the time when the Maccabees, or Asmoneans, 
took upon themselves the administration of the 
government under the title of high priests, and 
afterward of kings, that is, after the persecu- 
tion of Antiochus. This is by far the most 
probable opinion. The Jews, however, con- 
tend strenuously for the antiquity of their great 
sanhedrim : M. Simon strengthens and defends 
their proofs, and M. Ld Clerc attacks them. 
Whatever may be the origin and estabhshment 
of the sanhedrim, it is certain that it was sub- 
sisting in the time of our Saviour, since it is 
spoken of in the Gospels, Matt, v, 21 ; Mark 
xiii, 9 ; xiv, 55 ; xv, 1 ; and since Jesus Christ 
himself was arraigned and condemned by it ; 
that it was held at Jerusalem ; and that the 
decision of all the most important aff'airs among 
the Jews belonged to it. The president of this 
assembly was called nasi, or prince ; his deputy 
was called abbeth-din, father of the house of judg- 
ment ; and the sub-deputy was called chacan, the 
wise : the rest were denominated tzekanim, elders 
or senators. The room in which they sat was 
a rotunda, half of which was built without the 
temple, and half within ; that is, one semicircle 



SAN 



843 



SAP 



of the room was within the compass of the 
temple ; and as it was never alloAved to sit 
down in the temple, they tell us this part was 
for those who stood up ; the other half, or semi- 
circle, extended without the holy place, and 
here the judges sat. The nasi, or prince, sat 
on a throne at the end of the hall, having his 
deputy at his right hand, and his sub-deputy at 
his left ; the other senators were ranged in 
order on each side. 

The sanhedrim subsisted until the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem, but its authority was almost 
reduced to nothing, from the time in which the 
Jewish nation became subject to the Roman 
empire. The rabbins pretend, that the sanhe- 
drim has always subsisted in their nation from 
the time of Moses to the destruction of the 
temple by the Romans ; and they maintain that 
it consisted of seventy counsellors, six out of 
each tribe, and Moses as president ; and thus 
the number was seventy-one : but six senators 
out of each tribe make the number seventy-two, 
which, with the president, constitute a coun- 
cil of ?eventy-three persons, and therefore it 
has been the opinion of some authors that this 
was the number of the members of the sanhe- 
drim. As to the personal qualifications of the 
judges of this court, it was required that they 
should be of untainted birth ; and they were 
often of the race of the priests or Levites, or of 
the number of inferior judges, or of the lesser 
sanhedrim, which consisted of twenty-three 
judges. They were to be skilful in the written 
and traditional law ; and they were obliged to 
study magic, divination, fortune telling, physic, 
astrology, arithmetic, and languages. It was 
also required, that none of them should be 
eunuchs, usurers, decrepid or deformed, or 
gamesters ; and that they should be of mature 
age, rich, and of good countenance and body. 
Thus say the rabbins. 

The authority of the sanhedrim was very 
extensive. This council decided causes brought 
before it by appeal from inferior courts. The 
king, high priest, and prophets were subject to 
its jurisdiction. The general officers of the 
nation were brought before the sanhedrim. 
How far their right of judging in capital cases 
extended, and how long it continued, have 
been subjects of controversy. Among the rab- 
bins it has been a generally received opinion, 
that about forty years before the destruction 
of Jerusalem, their nation had been deprived of 
the power of life and death. And most au- 
thors assert, that this privilege was taken from 
them ever since Judea was made a province of 
the Roman empire, that is, after the banish- 
ment of Archelaus. Others, however, main- 
tain that the Jews had still the power of life 
and death ; but that this privilege was restrict- 
ed to crimes committed against their law, and 
depended upon the governor's will and pleasure. 
In the time of Moses, this council was held at 
the door of the tabernacle of the testimony. 
As soon as the people were in possession of 
the land of promise, the sanhedrim followed 
the tabernacle, and it continued at Jerusalem, 
whither it was removed, till the captivity. 
During the captivity it was kept at Babylon. 



Afler the return from Babylon, it remained at 
Jerusalem, a^ it is said, to the time of the 
sicarii or assassins ; afterward it was removed 
to Jamnia, thence to Jericho, to Uzzah, to 
Sepharvaim, to Bethsamia, to Sephoris, and 
last of all to Tiberias, where it continued till 
its utter extinction. Such is the account which 
the Jews give of their sanhedrim. But, as 
stated above, much of this is disputed. Petau 
fixes the beginning of the sanhedrim to the 
period when Gabinius was governor of Judea, 
by whom were erected tribunals in the five 
cities of Judea, namely, Jerusalem, Gadara, 
Amathus, Jericho, and Sephoris. Grotius 
agrees in the date of its commencement with 
the rabbins, but he fixes its termination at the 
beginning of Herod's reign. Basnage places 
it under Judas Maccabaeus and his brother Jona- 
than. Upon the whole, it may be observed, 
that the origin of the sanhedrim has not bee^n 
satisfactorily ascertained ; and that the council 
of the seventy elders, established by Moses, was 
not what the Hebrews understood by the name 
of sanhedrim. 

Before the death of our Saviour, two very 
famous rabbins had been presidents of the san- 
hedrim, namely Hillel and Schammai, who en- 
tertained very different opinions on several 
subjects, and particularly that of divorce. This 
g'ave occasion to the question which the Pha. 
risees put to Jesus Christ upon that head. Matt, 
xix, 3. (See Divorce.) Hillel had Menahem 
for his associate in the presidency of the san- 
hedrim. But the latter afterward deserted that 
honourable post, and joined himself with a 
great number of his disciples, to the party of 
Herod Antipas, who promoted the levying of 
taxes for the use of the Roman emperors with 
all his might. These were probably the He- 
rodians mentioned in the Gospel, Matt, xxii, 16. 
To Hillel succeeded Simeon his son, who by 
some is supposed to have been the person who 
took Jesus Christ in his arms, Luke ii, 28, and 
publicly acknowledged him to be the Messiah. 
If this be the case, the Jewish sanhedrim had for 
president a person that was entirely disposed to 
embrace Christianity. Gamaliel, the son and 
successor of Simeon, seems to have been also 
of a candid disposition and character. There 
were several inferior sanhedrims in Palestine, 
all depending on the great sanhedrim at Jeru- 
salem. The inferior sanhedrim consisted each 
of twenty-three persons ; and there was one 
in each city and town. Some say, that to have 
a right to hold a sanhedrim, it was requisite 
there should be one hundred snd twenty inha- 
bitants in the place. Where the inhabitants 
came short of the number of one hundred and 
twenty, they only established three judges. In 
the great as well as the inferior sanhedrim 
were two scribes ; the one to write down the 
suffrages of those who were for condemnation, 
the other to take down the suffrages of those 
who were for absolution. 

SAPPHIRE, -1100, Exod. xxiv, 10; xxviii, 
18; Job xxviii, 6, 16; Cantic. v, 14; Isa. liv, 
11; Ezek. i, 26; x, 1 ; xxviii, 13, ada(pEipos, 
Rev. xxi, 19, only. That this is the sapphire, 
there can be no doubt. The Sepluagint, ths 



SAT 



844 



SCA 



Vulgate, and the general run of commentators, 
ancient and modem, agree in this. The sap- 
phire is a pellucid gem. In its finest state it 
is extremely beautiful and valuable, and second 
only to the diamond in lustre, hardness, and 
value. Its proper colour is pure blue ; in the 
choicest specimens it is of the deepest azure ; 
and in others varies into paleness, in shades 
of all degrees between that and a pure crystal 
brightness, without the least tinge of colour, 
but with a lustre much superior to the crystal. 
The oriental sapphire is the most beautiful 
and valuable. It is transparent, of a fine sky 
colour, sometimes variegated with veins of a 
white sparry substance, and distinct separate 
spots of a gold colour. Whence it is that the pro- 
phets describe the throne of God like unto sap- 
phire, Ezek. i, 26 ; x, 1. Isaiah, liv, 11, 12, pro- 
phesying the future grandeur of Jerusalem, says, 

" Behold, I lay thy stones in cement of vermilion, 
And thy foundations with sapphires : 
And I \vill make thy battlements of rubies, 
And thy gates of carbuncles ; 

And the whole circuit of thy walls shall be of precious 
stones." 

"These seem," says Bishop Lowth, "to be 
general images to express beauty, magnificence, 
purity, strength, and solidity, agreeably to the 
ideas of the eastern nations ; and to have never 
been intended to be strictly scrutinized, or mi- 
nutely and particularly explained, as if they 
had each of them some precise moral or spirit- 
ual meaning." Tobit, xiii, 16, 17, in his pro- 
phecy of the final restoration of Israel, describes 
the New Jerusalem in the same oriental man- 
ner : " For Jerusalem shall be built up with 
sapphires, and emeralds, and precious stones ; 
thy walls, and towers, and battlements, with 
pure gold. And the streets of Jerusalem shall 
be paved with the beryl and carbuncle, and 
with stones of Ophir," Rev. xxi, 18-21. 

SARAH, the wife of Abraham, and his sis- 
ter, as he himself informs us, by the same 
father, but not the same mother. Gen. xx, 12. 
See Abraham. 

SARDIS, a city of Asia Minor, and formerly 
the capital of Croesus, king of the Lydians. 
The church of Sardis was one of the seven 
churches of Asia, to which the writer of the 
Apocalypse was directed to send an epistle, 
Rev. iii, 1-3. 

SARDIUS, Q'l^*, so called from its redness, 
Exod. xxviii, 17 ; xxxix, 10 ; Ezek. xxviii, 13 ; 
cdpSios, Rev. xxi, 20 ; a precious stone of a 
blood-red colour. It took its Greek name from 
Sardis, where the best of them were found. 

SARDONYX, (xapSdvv^, Rev. xxi, 20. A pre- 
cious stone which seems to have its name from 
its resemblance partly to the sardius and partly 
to the onyx. It is generally tinged with black 
and blood colour, which are distinguished from 
each other by circles or rows, so distinct that 
they appear to be the effect of art. 

SATAN signifies an adversary or enemy, 
and is commonly applied in the Scriptures to 
the devil, or the chief of the fallen angels. By 
collecting the passages where Satan, or the 
devil, is mentioned, it may be concluded, that 
he fell from heaven with his company ; that 



God cast him down from thence for the punish- 
ment of his pride ; that by his envy and 
malice, sin, death, and all other evils came 
into the world ; that, by the permission of 
God he exercises a sort of government in the 
world over subordinate apostate angels like 
himself; that God makes use of him to prove 
good men, and chastise bad ones ; that he is a 
lying spirit in the mouth of false prophets and 
seducers ; that it is he, or his agents, that tor- 
ment or possess men, and inspire them with 
evil designs, as when he suggested to David, 
the numbering of the people, to Judas to be- 
tray his Lord and Master, and to Ananias and 
Sapphira to conceal the price of their field ; 
that he is full of rage like a roaring lion, and 
of subtlety like a serpent, to tempt, to betray, 
to destroy, and to involve us in guilt and wick, 
edness ; that his power and malice are restain- 
ed within certain limits, and controlled by the 
will of God ; in a word, that he is an enemy to 
God and man, and uses his utmost endeavours 
to rob God of his glory, and men of their souls. 
See Devil and Demoniacs. 

SAUL, the son of Kish, of the tribe of Ben. 
jamin, the first king of the Israelites, 1 Sam. 
ix, 1, 2, &c. Saul's fruitless journey when 
seeking his father's asses ; (See Ass;) his meet- 
ing the Prophet Samuel ; the particulars fore- 
told to him, with his being anointed as king, 
about A. M. 2909 ; his prophesying along with 
the young prophets ; his appointment by the 
lot ; his modesty in hiding himself; his first 
victory over the Ammonites ; his rash sacrifice 
in the absence of Samuel ; his equally rash 
curse ; his victories over the Philistines and 
Amalekites ; his sparing of King Agag with the 
judgment denounced against him for it ; his 
jealousy and persecution of David ; his barba- 
rous massacre of the priests and people of Nob ; 
his repeated confessions of his injustice to Da- 
vid, &c, are recorded in 1 Sam. ix-xxxi. He 
reigned forty years, but exhibited to posterity 
a melancholy example of a monarch, elevated 
to the summit of worldly grandeur, who, hav- 
ing cast off" the fear of God, gradually became 
the slave of jealousy, duplicity, treachery, and 
the most malignant and diabolical tempers. 
His behaviour toward David shows him to have 
been destitute of every generous and noble 
sentiment that can dignifiy human nature ; and 
it is not an easy task to speak with any mode- 
ration of the atrocity and baseness which uni- 
formly mark it. His character is that of a 
wicked man, " waxing worse and worse ;" but 
while we are shocked at its deformity, it should 
be our study to profit by it, which we can only do 
by using it as a beacon to warn us. "lest we also 
be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." 

SCARLET, ny^in, Gen. xxxviii, 28 ; Exod. 
XXV, 4. This tincture or colour expressed by 
a word which signifies worm colour, was pro^ 
duced from a worm or insect which grew in a 
coccus, or excrescence of a shrub of the ilex 
kind, which Pliny ca.lls "coccus scolecius," 
the wormy berry, and Dioscorides terms " a 
small dry twig, to which the grains adhere like 
lentiles :" but these grains, as a great author 
observes on Solinus, " are within full of little 



SCO 



845 



SCO 



worms or maggots, whose juice is remarkable 
for dying scarlet, and making that famous 
colour which we admire, and with which the 
ancients were enraptured. We retain the 
name in the cochineal, from the opuntia of 
America ; but we improperly call a mineral 
colour "vermilion," which is derived from ?;er- 
miculus, a little worm. The shrub on which 
the cochineal insect is found is sometimes call- 
ed the "kermez oak," from kerrnez, the Arabic 
word both for the worm and the colour ; 
whence " carmasinus," the French " cramoisi," 
and the English "crimson." 

SCEPTRE, a word derived from the Greek, 
properly signifiep. a rod of command, a staff of 
authority, which is supposed to be in the hands 
of kings, governors of a province, or of the 
chief of a people. Gen. xlix, 10; Numb, xxiv, 
17 ; Isa. xiv, 5. The sceptre is put for the rod 
of correction, and for the sovereign authority 
that punishes and humbles. Psalm ii, 9 ; Prov. 
xxii, 15. The term sceptre is frequently used 
for a tribe, probably because the prince of each 
tribe carried a sceptre, or a wand of command, 
to show his dignity. 

SCEVA, a Jew, and chief of the priests, 
Acts xix, 14, 15, 16. He was probably a per- 
son of authority in the synagogue at Ephesus, 
and had seven sons. 

SCHISM, from cxiV/ia, a rent or fissure. In 
its general meaning, it signifies division or 
separation ; and in particular, on account of 
religion. Schism, is properly a division among 
those who stand in one connection or fellow, 
ship ; but when the difference is carried so far 
that the parties concerned entirely break off* 
all communion and intercourse one with an- 
other, and form distinct connections for obtain- 
ing the general ends of that religious fellowship 
which they once cultivated ; it is undeniable 
there is something different from the schism 
spoken of in the New Testament. This is a 
separation from the body. Dr. Campbell shows 
that the word schism in Scripture does not 
usuallv signify an open separation, but that 
men may be guilty of schism by such an aliena- 
tion of affection from their brethren as violates 
the internal union in the hearts of Christians, 
though there be no error in doctrine, nor sepa- 
ration from communion. 

SCORPION, z-^py, Deut. viii, 15 ; 1 Kings 
xii, 11, 14; 2Chron. x, 11, 14; Ezek. ii, 6, 
oKoprziio?, Luke X, 19 ; xi, 12 ; Rev. ix, 3 ; Ecclus. 
xxvi, 7 ; xxxix, 30. Parkhurst derives the 
name from pj?, to press, squeeze, and 2"), much, 
greatly, or anp, near, close. Calmet remarks, 
that "it fixes so violently on such persons as 
it seizes upon, that it cannot be plucked off 
without difficulty ;" and Martinius declares : 
Habent scorpii forjices seu furcas tanquam bra- 
cJiia, quibus retinent quod apprehendunt, post- 
quam caudcB aculeo punxerunt : " Scorpions 
have pincers or nippers, with which they keep 
hold of what they seize after they have wound- 
ed it with their sting." 

The scorpion, el-akerb, is generally two 
inches in length, and resembles so much the 
lobster in form, that the latter is called by the 
Ardihs akerbd^elbahar, the " sea scorpion." It 



has several joints or divisions in its tail, which 
are supposed to be indicative of its age ; thus, 
if it have five, it is considered to be five years 
old. The poison of this animal is in its tail, 
at the end of which is a small, curved, sharp- 
pointed sting, similar to the prickle of a buck- 
thorn tree ; the curve being downward, it turns 
its tail upward when it strikes a blow. The 
scorpion delights in stony places and in old 
ruins. Some are of a yellow colour, others 
brown, and some black. The yellow possess 
the strongest poison, but the venom of each 
affects the part wounded, with frigidity, which 
takes place soon after the sting has been in- 
flicted. Dioscorides thus describes the effect 
produced: "Where the scorpion has stung, 
the place becomes inflamed and hardened ; it 
reddens by tension, and is painful by intervals, 
being now chilly, now burning. The pain 
soon rises high, and rages, sometimes more, 
sometimes less. A sweating succeeds, attend- 
ed by a shivering and trembling ; the extremi- 
ties of the body become cold ; the groin swells ; 
the hair stands on end ; the visage becomes 
pale ; and the skin feels, throughout it, the sen- 
sation of perpetual prickling, as if by needles." 
This description strikingly illustrates Revela- 
tion ix, 3-5, 10, in its mention of "the torment 
of a scorpion, when he striketh a man." 

Some writers consider the scorpion as a spe- 
cies of serpent, because the poison of it is 
equally powerful : so the sacred writers com- 
monly join the scorpion and serpent together 
in their descriptions. Thus Moses, in his 
farewell address to Israel, Deut. viii, 15, re- 
minds them, that God "led them through the 
great and terrible wilderness, wherein were 
fiery serpents and scorpions." We find them 
again united in the commission of our Lord to 
his disciples, Luke x, 19, " I give you power 
to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over 
all the power of the enemy ;" and in his direc- 
tions concerning the duty of prayer, Luke xi, 
11, 12, " If a son shall ask bread of any of you 
that is a father, will he give him a stone ? or 
if he shall ask an egg, will be offer him a 
scorpion ?" 

The scorpion is contrasted with an egg, on 
account of the oval shape of its body. The 
body of the scorpion, says Lamy, is very like 
an egg, as its head can scarcely be distinguish- 
ed ; especially if it be a scorpion of the white 
kind, which is the first species mentioned by 
iElian, Avicenna, and others. Bochart has 
produced testimonies to prove that the scor=. 
pions in Judea were about the bigness of an 
egg. So the similitude is preserved between 
the thing asked and given. The Greeks have 
a proverb, dvTi TzipKris aKcrpiriov, instead of a perchf 
or fish, a scorpion. 

SCOURGE or WHIP. This punishment 
was very common among the Jews, Deut. xxvy 
1-3. There were two ways of giving the lash^ 
one with thongs, or Avhips, made of ropes' 
ends, or straps of leather ; the other with rods, 
or twigs. St. Paul informs us, that at five 
different times he received thirty-nine stripes 
from the Jews, 2 Cor. xi, 24, namely, in their 
synagogues, and before their courts of judg- 



SCR 



846 



SCR 



ment. For, according to the law, punishment 
by stripes was restricted to forty at one beat- 
ing, Deut. XXV, 3. But the whip,, with which 
these stripes were given, consisting of three 
separate cords, and each stroke being account- 
ed as three stripes, thirteen strokes made thirty- 
nine stripes, beyond which they never went. 
He adds, that he had been thrice beaten with 
rods, namely, by the Roman lictors, or beadles, 
at the command of the superior magistrates. 

SCRIBES. The scribes are mentioned very 
early in the sacred history, and many authors 
suppose that they were of two descriptions, 
the one ecclesiastical, the other civil. It is 
said, " Out of Zebulon come they that handle 
the pen of the writer," Judges v, 14 ; and the 
rabbins state, that the scribes were chiefly of 
the tribe of Simeon ; but it is thought that only 
those of thq tribe of Levi were allowed to 
transcribe the Holy Scriptures. These scribes 
are very frequently called wise men, and coun- 
sellors ; and those of them who were remark- 
able for writing well were held in great esteem. 
In the reign of David, Seraiah, 2 Sam. viii, 
17, in the reign of Hezekiah, Shebna, 2 Kings 
xviii, 18, and in the reign of Josiah, Shaphan, 
2 Kings xxii, 3, are called scribes, and are 
ranked with the chief officers of the kingdom; 
and Elishama the scribe, Jer. xxxvi, 12, in the 
reign of Jehoiakim, is mentioned among the 
princes. We read also of the " principal scribe 
of the host," or army, Jer. lii, 25 ,• and it is 
probable that there were scribes in other de- 
partments of the state. Previous to the Baby- 
lonian captivity, the word scribe seems to have 
been applied to any person who was concern- 
ed in writing, in the same manner as the word 
secretary is with us. The civil scribes are not 
mentioned in the New Testament. 

It appears that the office of the ecclesiasti- 
cal scribes, if this distinction be allowed, was 
originally confined to writing copies of the 
law, as their name imports ; but the knowledge, 
thus necessarily acquired, soon led them to be- 
come instructors of the people in the written 
law, which, it is believed, tliey publicly read. 
Baruch was an amanuensis or scribe to Jere- 
miah; and Ezra is called "a ready scribe in 
the law of Moses, having prepared his heart to 
seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to 
teach in Israel statutes and judgments," Ezra 
vii, 6, 10 ; but there is no mention of the scribes 
being formed into a distinct body of men till 
after the cessation of prophecy. When, how- 
ever, there were no inspired teachers in Israel, 
no divine oracle in the temple, the scribes pre- 
sumed to interpret, expound, and comment 
upon the law and the prophets in the schools 
and in the synagogues. Hence arose those 
numberless glosses, and interpretations, and 
opinions, which so much perplexed and pervert- 
ed the text instead of explaining it ; and hence 
arose that unauthorized maxim, which was the 
principal source of all the Jewish sects, that 
the oral or traditionary law was of Divine ori- 
gin, as well as the written law of Moses. Ezra 
had examined the various traditions concern- 
ing the ancient and approved usages of the 
Jewish church, which had been in practice be- 



fore the captivity, and were remembered by the 
chief and most aged of the elders of the peo- 
ple ; and he had given to some of these tra- 
ditionary customs and opinions the sanctio,n 
of his authority. The scribes, therefore, who 
lived after the time of Simon the Just, in order 
to give weight to their various interpretations 
of the law, at first pretended that they also 
were founded upon tradition, and added them 
to the opinions v/hich Ezra had established as 
authentic ; and in process of time it came to 
be assorted, that when Moses was forty days 
on Mount Sinai, he received from God two 
laws, the one in writing, the other oral ; that 
this oral law was communicated by Moses to 
Aaron and Joshua, and that it passed unim- 
paired and uncorrupted from generation to 
generation, b}?- the tradition of the elders, or 
great national council, established in the time 
of Moses ; and that this oral law was to bo 
considered as supplemental and explanatory 
of the written law, which was represented as 
being in many places obscure^ scanty, and 
defective. In some cases they were led to 
expound the law by the traditions, in direct 
opposition to its true intent and meaning ; 
and it may be supposed that the intercourse of 
the Jews with the Greeks, after the death of 
Alexander, contributed much to increase those 
vain subtleties with which they had perplexe^^d 
and burdened the doctrines of religion. Dur- 
ing our Saviour's ministry, the scrioes were 
those who made the law of Moses their par- 
ticular study, and who were employed in in- 
structing the people. Their reputed skill in 
the Scriptures induced Herod, Matt, ii, 4, to 
consult them concerning the time "at which 
the Messiah was to be born. And our Saviour 
speaks of them as sitting in Moses's seat, Matt, 
xxiii, 2, which implies that they taught the 
law ; and he foretold that he should be betray- 
ed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, 
Matt, xvi, 21, and that they should put him, to 
dtath, which shows that they were men of 
great .power and authority among the Jews. 
Scribes, doctors of law, and lawyers, were 
only different names for the same class of per- 
sons. Those who in Luke v, are called Phari- 
sees and doctors of the law, are soon aflerward 
called Pharisees and scribes ; and he who, in 
Matt, xxii, 35, is called a lawyer, is, in Mark 
xii, 28, called one of the scribes. They had 
scholars under their care, whom they taught 
the knowledge of the law, and who, in their 
schools, sat on low stools just beneath their 
seats ; which explains St. Paul's expression 
that he was " brought up at the feet of Gama- 
liel," Acts xxii, 3. We find that our Saviour's 
mamier of teaching was contrasted with that 
of those vain disputers ; for it is said, when he 
had ended his sermon upon the mount, "the 
people were astonished at his doctrine ; for he 
taught them as one having authority, and not" 
as the scribes," Matt, vii, 29. By the time of 
our Saviour, the scribes had, indeed, in a man- 
ner, laid aside the written law, having no far- 
ther regard to that than as it agi-eed with their 
traditionary expositions of it; and thus, by their 
additions, corruptions, and misinterpretations. 



SEA 



847 



SEC 



they had made " the word of God of none effect 
through their traditions," Matt, xv, 6. It may 
be observed, that this in a great measure ac- 
counts for the extreme blindness of the Jews 
with respect to their Messiah, whom they had 
been taught by these commentators upon the 
prophecies to expect as a temporal prince. 
Thus, when our Saviour asserts his divine 
nature, and appeals to " Moses and the pro- 
phets who spake of him, the people sought to 
slay him," John v ; and he expresses no sur- 
prise at their intention. But when he converses 
with Nicodemus, John iii, who appears to have 
been convinced by his miracles that he was " a 
teacher sent from God," when he "came to 
Jesus by night," anxious to obtain farther in- 
formation concerning his nature and his doc- 
trine, our Lord, after intimating the necessity 
of laying aside all prejudices against the spi- 
ritual nature of his kingdom, asks, "Art thou 
a master in Israel, and knowest not these 
things?" that is, knowest not that Moses and 
the prophets describe the Messiah as the Son 
of God ? and he then proceeds to explain in 
very clear language the dignity of his person 
and office, and the purpose for which he came 
into the world, referring to the predictions of 
the ancient Scriptures. And Stephen, Acts 
vii, just before his death, addresses the multi- 
tude by -an appeal to the law and the prophets, 
and reprobates in the most severe terms the 
teachers who misled the people. Our Lord, 
when speaking of " them of old time," classed 
the " prophets, and wise men, and scribes," to- 
gether. Matt, xxiii, 34 ; but of the later scribes 
he uniformly speaks with censure and indig- 
nation, and usually joins them with the Pha. 
risees, to which sect they in general belonged. 
St. Paul asks, 1 Cor. i, 20, " Where is the wise ? 
Where is the scribe ? Where is the disputer of 
this world ?" with evident contempt for such 
as, " professing themselves wise above what 
was written, became fools." 

-SCRIPTURE, a term most commonly used 
to denote the writings of the Old and New 
Testament, which are sometimes called The 
Scriptures, sometimes the sacred or holy wri- 
tings, and sometimes canonical scripture. See 
Bible. 

SEA. The Hebrews gave the name of sea 
to all great collections of water, to great lakes 
or pools. Thus the sea of Galilee, or of Tibe- 
rias, or of Cinnereth, is no other than the lake 
of Tiberias, or Gennesareth, in Galilee. The 
Dead Sea, the sea of the Wilderness, the sea of 
the East, the sea of Sodom, the sea of Salt, or 
the Salt Sea, the sea of Asphaltites, or of bitu- 
men, is no other than the lake of Sodom. The 
Arabians and orientals in general frequently 
gave the name of sea to great rivers, as the 
Nile, the Euphrates, the Tigris, and others, 
which, by their magnitude, and hy the extent 
of their overflowings, seemed as little seas, or 
great lakes. In Isa. xi, 15, these words par- 
ticularly apply to the Nile at the Delta. 

SEAL. The ancient Hebrev/s wore their 
seals or signets, in rings on their fingers, or in 
bracelets on their arms, as is now the custom 
in the east. Haman sealed the decree of King 



Ahasuerus against the Jews witli the king's 
seal, Esther iii, 12. The priests of Bel desired 
the king to seal the door of their temple with 
his own seal. The spouse in the Canticles, 
viii, 6, wishes that his spouse would wear him 
as a signet on her arm. Pliny observes, that the 
use of seals or signets was rare at the time of 
the Trojan war, and that they were under the 
necessity of closing their letters with several 
knots. But among the Hebrews they are much 
more ancient. Judah left his seal as a pledge 
with Tamar, Gen. xxxviii, 25. Moses says, 
Deut. xxxii, 34, that God keeps sealed up in 
his treasuries, under his own seal, the instru« 
ments of his vengeance. Job says, ix, 7, that 
he keeps the stars as under his seal, and allows 
them to appear when he thinks proper. He 
says also, " My transgression is sealed up in 
a bag," Job xiv, 7. W^hen they intended to seal 
up a letter, or a book, they wrapped it round 
with flax, or thread, then applied the wax to 
it, and afterward the seal. The Lord com- 
manded Isaiah to tie up or wrap up the book 
in which his prophecies were written, and to 
seal them till the time he should bid him pub- 
lish them, Isaiah viii, 16, 17. He gives the 
same command to Daniel, xii, 4. The book 
that was shown to St. John the evangelist, 
Rev. V, 1 ; vi, 1, 2, &c, was sealed with seven 
seals. It was a rare thing to affix such a num- 
ber of seals; but this insinuated the great im- 
portance and secrecy of the matter. In civil 
contracts they generally made two originals : 
one continued open, and was kept by him for 
whose interest the contract was made ; the 
other was sealed and deposited in some public 
office. 

SECEDERS, a numerous body of Presbyte. 
rians in Scotland, who, in the last century, 
seceded from the Scotch establishment. They 
did not, as they have uniformly declared, 
secede from the principles of the church of 
Scotland, as they are represented in her con- 
fession of faith, catechisms, longer and shorter, 
directory for worship, and form of Presbyte- 
rian government ; but only from her present 
judicatories, that, they suppose, have departed 
from her true principles. A sermon preached 
by Mr. Ebenezer Erskine, of Stirling, at the 
opening of the synod of Perth and Sterling, in 
1732, gave rise to this party. In this discourse, 
founded on Psalm cxviii, 22, " The stone which 
the builders refused," &cc, he boldly testified 
against what he supposed corruptions in the 
national church ; for which freedom the synod 
voted him censurable, and ordered him to be 
rebuked at their bar. He, and three other 
ministers, protested against this sentence, and 
appealed to the next assembly. The assembly, 
which met in May, 1733, approved of the pro- 
ceedings of the synod, and ordered Mr. Erskine 
to be rebuked at their bar. He refused to sub- 
mit to the rebuke ; whence he and his brethren 
were, by the sentence of the assembly, sus>> 
pended from the ministry. Against this, hs 
and his friends protested ; and, being joined by 
many others, both ministers and elders, declar- 
ing their secession from the national church, 
they did, in 1736, constitute themselves into 



SEC 



848 



SEI 



an ecclesiastical court, which they called the I SEEING. To see, in Scripture, is often 
Associate Presbytery, and published a defence used to express the sense of vision, knowledge 



of their proceedings. They admit that, the 
people have a right to choose their own pas- 
tors ; that the Scriptures are the supreme judge 
by which all controversies must be determined ; 
and that Jesus Christ is the only Head of his 
church, and the only King in Zion. 

In 1745, the seceding ministers were become 
so numerous, that they were erected into three 
different presbyteries, under one synod. In 
1747, through a difference in civil matters, 
they were divided into Burghers and Anti- 
Burghers. Of these two classes, the latter 
were the most rigid in their sentiments, and 
associated, therefore, the least with any other 
body of Christians. But this difference has 
been lately healed, and no longer subsists, 
either in Scotland or America. 

SECHEM, SICHEM, SYCHEM, or SHE- 
CHEM, called also Sychar in the New Testa, 
ment, afterward Neapolis, and in the present 
day Nablous, Naplous, Napolose, and Naplosa, 
(for it is thus variously written,) a city of Sa- 
maria, near the parcel of ground which Jacob 
bought of Hamor, the father of Shechem, and 
gave to his son Joseph. Here Joseph's bones 
were brought out of Egypt to be interred ; and 
on the same piece of ground was the well call- 
ed Jacob's well, at which our Saviour sat down 
when he had the memorable conversation with 
the woman of Samaria, John iv, which caused 
her, and many other inhabitants of Sechem, 
or Sychar, as it is there called, to receive him 
as the Messiah. On contemplating this place 
and its vicinity. Dr. E. D. Clarke says, "The 
traveller directing his footsteps toward its an- 
cient sepulchres, as everlasting as the rocks in 
which they are hewn, is permitted, upon the 
authority of sacred and indisputable record, to 
contemplate the spot where the remains of Jo- 
seph, of Eleazer, and of Joshua, were severally 
deposited. If any thing connected with the 
memory of past ages be calculated to awaken 
local enthusiasm, the land around this city is 
preeminently entitled to consideration. The 
sacred story of events transacted in the field 
of Sichem, from our earliest years, is remem- 
bered with delight ; but with the territory be- 
fore our eyes where those events took place, 
and in the v"ew of objects existing as they 
were described above three thousand years ago, 
the grateful impression kindles into ecstacy. 
Along the valley, we beheld ' a company of 
Ishmaelites coming from Gilead,' as in the days 
of Reuben and Judah, ' with their camels bear- 
ing spicery, and balm, and myrrh,' who would 
gladly have purchased another Joseph of his 
brethren, and conveyed him as a slave to some 
l*otiphar in Egypt. Upon the hills around flocks 
and herds were feeding, as of old ; nor in the 
simple garb of the shepherds of Samaria was 
there any thing repugnant to the notions we 
may entertain of the appearance presented by 
the sons of Jacob." The celebrated well called 
Jacob's well, but which, with the inhabitants 
of Sechem, is known by the name of Bir Sa- 
raaria, or the "Well of Samaria," is situated 
about half an hour's walk east of the town. 



of spiritual things, and even the supernatural 
knowledge of hidden things, of prophecy, of 
visions, of ecstacies. Whence it is that form- 
erly those were called seers who afterward were 
termed, nahi, or prophets ; and that prophecies 
were called visions. Moreover, to see, is used 
for expressing all kinds of sensations. It is 
said in Exodus, xx, 18, that the Israelites saw 
voices, thunder, lightning, the sounding of the 
trumpet, and the whole mountain of Sinai 
covered with clouds, or smoke. And St. Aus- 
tin observes, that the verb, to see, is applied to 
all the five natural senses ; to see, to hear, to 
smell, to taste, to touch. " To see goodness," 
is to enjoy it. " To see the goodness of the 
Lord," Psalm xxvii, 13 ; that is, to enjoy the 
mercy or blessing which God hath promised. 
" Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall 
see God ;" that is, they shall have the perfect 
and immediate fruition of the glorious presence 
of God in heaven ; or they shall understand the 
mysteries of salvation ; they shall perceive the 
loving kindness of God toward them in this 
life, and shall at length perfectly enjoy him in 
heaven. 

SEIR, the Horite, whose dwelling was to 
the east and south of the Dead Sea, in the 
mountains of Seir, Genesis xiv, 6 ; xxxvi, 20 ; 
Deuteronomy ii, 12 ; where at first reigned the 
descendants of Seir the Horite, of whom Moses 
gives us a list in Genesis xxxvi, 20, 21-30; 
1 Chron. 38, 39, &c. The posterity of Esau 
afterward were in possession of the mountains 
of Seir, and Esau himself dwelt there when 
Jacob returned from Mesopotamia, Gen. xxxiii, 
3 ; xxxiii, 14 ; xxxvi, 8, 9. 

Seir, Mount, a mountainous tract, extend- 
ing from the southern extremity of the Dead 
Sea, to the gulf of Acaba, or Ezion-Geber. 
The whole of this tract was probably before 
called Mount Hor, and was inhabited by the 
Horites, the descendants, as it is thought, of 
Hor, who is no otherwise known, and whose 
name is now only retained in that part of the 
plain where Aaron died. These people were 
driven out from their country by the Edom- 
ites, or the children of Esau, who dwelt there 
in their stead, and were in possession of this 
region when the Israelites passed by in their 
passage from Egypt to the land of Canaan. 
The country had, however, been previously 
overrun, and no doubt very much depopulated, 
by the invasion of Chedorlaomer, king of Elam. 
At what time the name of Hor was changed to 
that of Seir cannot be ascertained. Mount 
Seir rises abruptly on its western side from the 
valleys of El Ghor and El Araba ; presenting 
an impregnable front to the strong country of 
the Edomite mountaineers, which compelled 
the Israelites, who were unable (if permitted 
by their leader) to force a passage through this 
mountain barrier, to skirt its western base, 
along the great valley of the Ghor and Araba, 
and so to " compass the land of Edom by the 
v/ay of the Red Sea," that is, to descend to its 
southern extremity at Ezion-Geber, as they 
could not penetrate it higher up. To the south- 



SEP 



S49 



SEP 



ward of this place Burckhardt observed an 
opening in the mountains, where he supposed 
the Israelites to have passed. This passage 
brought them into the high plains on the east 
of Mount Seir, which are so much higher than 
the valley on the west, that the mountainous 
territory of the Edomites was every where 
more accessible : a circumstance which perhaps 
contributed to make them more afraid of the 
Israelites on this border, whom they had set 
at defiance on the opposite one. The mean 
elevation of this chain cannot be estimated at 
less than four thousand feet. In the summer it 
produces most of the European fruits, namely, 
apricots, figs, pomegranates, olives, apples, and 
peaches ; while in winter deep snows occasion- 
ally fall, with frosts, to the middle of March. 
The inhabitants, like those of most mountain- 
ous regions, are very healthy. Burckhardt 
says, that there was no part of Syria in which 
he saw so few invalids : a circumstance which 
did not escape the observation of the ancients ; 
who denominated it, PalcBstina tertia sive 
salutaris. [Palestine the third or the healthy.] 

SELAH. This expression is found in the 
Psalms seventy-four times, and thrice in the 
Prophet Habakkuk. The interpreters Sym. 
machus and Theodotion generally translate 
selah by diapsahna, which signifies "a rest" or 
" pause" in singing. Jerom and Aquila trans- 
late it " for ever." Some moderns pretend that 
selah has no signification, and that it is only a 
note of the ancient music, whose use is no 
longer known ; and, indeed, selah may be taken 
away from all the places where it is found 
without interrupting the sense of the psalm. 
Calmet says it intimates the end, or a pause, 
and that is its proper signification ; but as it is 
not always found at the conclusion of the 
sense, or of the psalm or song, so it is highly 
probable the ancient musicians put selah in the 
margin of their psalters, to show where a mu- 
sical pause was to be made, or where the tune 
ended. 

SELEUCIA, a city of Syria, situated upon 
the Mediterranean, near the place where the 
Orontes discharges itself into the sea. St. 
Paul and Barnabas were at this place wJien 
4;hey embajked for Cyprus, Acts xiii, 4. The 
same city is mentioned in 1 Mac. xi, 8. 

SENNACHERIB, king of Assyria, son and 
successor of Shalmaneser. He began his reign 
A. M. 3290, and reigned only four years. He- 
zekiah, king of Judah, having refused to pay 
him tribute, though he afterward submitted, 
he invaded Judea with a great army, took 
several forts, and after repeated, insolent, and 
blasphemous messages, besieged Jerusalem ; 
but his army being suddenly smitten with a 
pestilence, which cut off a hundred and eighty- 
five thousand in a single night, he returned to 
Nineveh, where he was murdered in the tern- 
pie of Nisroch by his sons Adrammelech and 
Sharezer, and was succeeded by his other son, 
Esar-haddon, 2 Kings xix, 7, 13, 37. 

SEPHARVAIM, a country of Assyria, 

2 Kings xvii, 24, 31. This province cannot 

now be exactly delineated in respect to its 

situation. The Scripture speaks of the king of 

55 



the city of Sepharvaim, which probably was 
the capital of the people of this name, 2 King's 
xix, 13 ; Isaiah xxxvii, 13. 

SEPTUAGINT. Among the Greek ver- 
sions of the Old Testament, says Mr. Home, 
the Alexandrian or Septuagint is the most 
ancient and valuable, and was held in so much 
esteem both by the Jews as well as by the first 
Christians, as to be constantly read in the syna- 
gogues and churches. Hence it is uniformly 
cited by the early fathers, whether Greek or 
Latin ; and from this version all the transla- 
tions into other languages which were anciently 
approved by the Christian church were execut- 
ed, with the exception of the Syriac ; as the 
Arabic, Armenian, Ethiopic, Gothic, and old 
Italic or the Latin version in use before tlie 
time of Jerom ; and to this day th6 Septuagint 
is exclusively read in the Greek and most other 
oriental churches. This version has derived 
its name either from the Jewish account of 
seventy-two persons having been employed to 
make it, or from its having received the appro- 
bation of the sanhedrim or great council of 
the Jews, which consisted of seventy, or, moro 
correctly, of seventy-two persons. Much un- 
certainty, however, has prevailed contjernin^ 
the real history of this ancient version*, and 
while some have strenuously advocated its 
miraculous and Divine origin, other eminent 
philologists have laboured to prove that it must 
have been executed by several persons and at 
different times. According to one account, 
Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, caused 
this translation to be made for the use of 
the library which he had founded at Alex- 
andria, at the request and with the advice 
of the celebrated Demetrius Phalereus, his 
principal librarian. For this purpose, it is re- 
ported, that he sent Aristeas and Andreas, two' 
distinguished officers of his court, to Jerusa- 
lem, on an embassy to Eleazar, then high 
priest of the Jews, to request of the latter a 
copy of the Hebrew Scriptures, and that there 
might also be sent to him seventy-two persons, 
six chosen out of each of the twelve tribes, 
who were equally well skilled in the Hebrew 
and Greek languages. These learned men 
were accordingly shut up in the island of Pha- 
ros ; where, having agreed in a tfanslatidn of 
each period after a mutual conference, Deme- 
trius wrote down their version as they dictated 
it to him ; and thus, in the space of seventy, 
two days, the whole was accomplished. This 
relation is derived from a letter ascribed to 
Aristeas himself, the authenticity 6f which 
has been greatly disputed. If, as there is every 
reason to believe is the case, this piece is a 
forgery, it was made at a Very early period; 
for it was in existence in the time of Josephus, 
■who has made use of it in his Jewish Antiqui- 
ties. The veracity of Aristeas's narrative was 
not questioned until the seventeenth or eigh- 
teenth century, at which time, indeed, Biblical 
criticism v/as, comparatively, in its infancy, 
Vives, Scaliger, Van Dale, Dr. Prideaux, and, 
above all, Dr. Hody, were the principal writers 
in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 
who attacked the genuineness of the pretended 



SEP 



860 



SEP 



narrative of Aristeas ; and though it was ably 
vindicated by Bishop Walton, Isaac Vossius, 
Whiston, Brett, and other modern writers, the 
majority of the learned of our own time are 
fully agreed in considering it as fictitious. 
Philo, the Jew, who also notices the Septua- 
gint version, was ignorant of most of the cir- 
cumstances narrated by Aristeas ; but he relates 
others which appear not less extraordinary. 
According to him, Ptolemy Philadelphus sent 
to Palestine for some learned Jews, whose 
number he does not specify ; and these, going 
over to the island of Pharos, there executed so 
many distinct versions, all of which so exactly 
and uniformly agreed in sense, phrases, and 
words, as proved them to have been not com- 
mon interpreters, but men prophetically in- 
spired and divinely directed, who had every 
word dictated to them by the Spirit of God 
throughout the entire translation. He adds, 
that an annual festival was celebrated by the 
Alexandrian Jews in the isle of Pharos, where 
the version was made, until his time, to pre- 
serve the memory of it, and to thank. God for 
so great a benefit. 

It is not a little remarkable that the Samari- 
tans have traditions in favour of their version 
of the Pentateuch, equally extravagant with 
these preserved by the Jews. In the Samari- 
tan chronicle of Abul Phatach, which was 
compiled in the fourteenth century from an- 
cient and modern authors, both Hebrew and 
Arabic, there is a story to the following effect : 
that Ptolemy Philadelphus, in the tenth year 
of his reign, directed his attention to the dif. 
ference subsisting between the Samaritans and 
Jews concerning the lav/, the former receiving 
only the Pentateuch, and rejecting every other 
work ascribed to the prophets by the Jews. 
In order to determine this difference, he com- 
manded the two nations to send deputies to 
Alexandria. The Jews entrusted this mission 
to Osar, the Samaritans to Aaron, to whom 
several other associates vvere added. Separate 
apartments in a particular quarter of Alexan- 
dria were assigned to each of these strangers, 
who were prohibited from having any personal 
intercourse, and each of them had a Greek 
scribe to write his version. Thus were the 
law and other Scriptures translated by the 
Samaritans; whose version being most care, 
fully examined, the king v/as convinced that 
their text was more complete than that of the 
Jews. Such is the narrative of Abul Phatach, 
divested, however, of numerous marvellous 
circumstances with which it has been deco- 
rated by the Samaritans, who are not surpassed, 
even by the Jews, in their partiality for idle 
legends. 

A fact, buried under such a mass of foibles 
as the translation of the Septuagint has been 
by the historians who have pretended to record 
it, necessarily loses all its historical character, 
which, indeed, we are fully justified in disre- 
garding altogether. Although there is no 
doubt but that some truth is concealed under 
this load of fables, yet it is by no means an 
easy task to discern the truth from what is 
false :, the following, however, is the result 



of our researches concerning this celebrated 
version : — 

It is probable that the seventy interpreters, 
as they are called, executed their version of the 
Pentateuch during the joint reigns of Ptolemy 
Lagus and his son Philadelphus. The pseudo 
Aristeas, Josephus, Philo, and many other 
writers whom it were tedious to enumerate, 
relate that this version was made during the 
reign of Ptolemy II., or Philadelphus ; Joseph 
Ben Gorion, hov/ever, among the rabbins, 
Theodoret, and many other Christian writers, 
refer its date to the time of Ptolemy Lagus. 
Now, these two traditions can be reconciled 
only by supposing the version to have been 
performed during the two years when Ptolemy 
Philadelphus shared the throne with his father; 
which date coincides with the third and fourth 
years of the hundred and twenty-third Olym- 
piad, that is, about B. C. 286 and 285. Farther, 
this version was neither made by the command 
of Ptolemy, nor at the request nor under the 
superintendence of Demetrius Phalereus ; but 
was voluntarily undertaken by the Jews for the 
use of their countrymen. It is well known, 
that, at the period above noticed, there was a 
great number of Jews settled in Egypt, par- 
ticularly at Alexandria : these, being most 
strictly observant of the religious institutions 
and usages of their forefathers, had their san- 
hedrim or grand council composed of seventy 
or seventy-two members, and very numerous 
synagogues, in which the law was read to them 
on every Sabbath ; and as the bulk of the com- 
mon people were no longer acquainted with 
Biblical Hebrew, the Greek language alone 
being used in their ordinary intercourse, it be- 
came necessary to translate the Pentateuch 
into Greek for their use. This is a far more 
probable account of the origin of the Alexan- 
drian version than the traditions above stated. 
If this translation had been made by public 
authority, it would unquestionably have been 
performed under the direction of the sanhedrim, 
who would have examined and perhaps cor- 
rected it, if it had been the work of a single 
individual, previously to giving it the stamp of 
their approbation, and introducing it into their 
synagogues. In either case the translation 
would probably be denominated the Septuagint, 
because the sanhedrim was composed of seventy 
or seventy-two members. It is even possible 
that the sanhedrim, in order to ascertain the 
fidelity of the work, might have sent to Pales- 
tine for some learned men, of whose assistance 
and advice they would have availed themselves 
in- examining tire version. This fact, if it 
could be proved, for it is offered as a mere con- 
jecture, would account for the story of tho 
king of Egypt's sending an embassy to Jerusa- 
lem : there is, howe\wr, one circumstance 
which proves that, in executing this transla- 
tion, the synagogues were originally in con- 
templation, namely, that all the ancient writers 
\inanimously concur in saying that the Penta- 
teuch v/as first translated. The five books of 
Moses, indeed, were the only books read in the 
synagogues until the time of Antiochus Epi- 
phane?, king of Syria; who having forbidden 



SEP 



851 



SEP 



that practice in Palestine, the Jews evaded 
his commands by substituting for the Pen- 
tateuch the reading- of the prophetic books. 
When, afterward, the Jews were delivered 
from the tyranny of the kings of Syria, they 
read the law and the prophets alternately 
in the synagogues ; and the same custom 
was adopted by the Hellenistic or Grascising 
Jews. 

But, whatever was the real number of the 
authors of the version, their introduction of 
Coptic words, such as o?0£ a;^£ pcjjKpilv, &c, as 
well as their rendering of ideas purely Hebrew 
altogether in the Egyptian manner, clearly 
prove that they were natives of Egypt. Thus, 
they express the creation of the world, not by 
the proper Greek word ktIc-ls, but by ytvemg, a 
term employed by the philosophers of Alexan- 
dria to express the origin of the* universe. The 
Hebrew word thummim, Exodus xxviii, 30, 
which signifies " perfections," they render 
a\fidua, truth. The difference of style also 
indicates the version to have been the work 
not of one but of several translators, and to 
have been executed at different times. The 
best qualified and most able among them was 
the translator of the Pentateuch, who was 
evidently master of both Greek and Hebrew : 
he has religiously followed the Hebrew text, 
and has in various instances introduced the 
Hiost suitable and best chosen expressions. 
From the very close resemblance subsisting 
between the text of the Greek version and the 
text of the Samaritan Pentateuch, Louis De 
Dieu, Selden, Whiston, Hassencarap, and 
Bauer, are of opinion that the author of the 
Alexandrian version made it from the Samari- 
tan Pentateuch. And in proportion as these 
two correspond, the Greek differs from the 
Hebrew. This opinion is farther supported by 
the declarations of Origen and Jerom, that the 
translator found the venerable name of Jeho- 
vah, not in the letters in common use, but in 
Very ancient characters ; and also by the fact 
that those consonants in the Septuagint are 
frequently confounded together, the shapes of 
which are similar in the Samaritan, but notin the 
Hebrew, alphabet. This hypothesis, however 
ingenious and plausible, is by no means deter- 
minate ; and what militates most against it is, 
the inveterate enmity subsisting between the 
Jews and Samaritans, added to the constant 
and unvarying testimony of antiquity, that the 
Greek version of the Pentateuch was executed 
by Jews. There is no other way by which 
to reconcile these conflicting opinions than by 
supposing either that the manuscript used by 
the Egyptian Jews approximated toward the 
letters and text of the Samaritan Pentateuch, 
or that the translators of the Septuagint made 
use of manuscripts written in ancient charac- 
ters. Next to the Pentateuch, for ability and 
fidelity of execution, ranks the translation of 
the book of Proverbs, the author of which was 
well skilled in the two languages : Michaelis 
is of opinion that, of all the books of the Sep- 
tuagint, the style of the Proverbs is the best, the 
translator having clothed the most ingenious 
thoughts in as neat and elegant language as 



was ever used by a Pythagorean sage, to ex- 
press his philosophical maxims. 

The Septuagint version, though originally 
made for the use of the Egyptian Jews, gra- 
dually acquired the highest authority among 
the Jews of Palestine, who were acquainted 
with the Greek language, and subsequently also 
among Christians : it appears, indeed, that the 
legend above confuted, of the translators hav- 
ing been divinely inspired, was invented in 
order that the LXX. might be held in the 
greater estimation. Philo, the Jew, a native of 
Egypt, has evidently followed it in his allego- 
rical expositions of the Mosaic law ; and though 
Dr. Hody was of opinion that Josephus, who 
was a native of Palestine, corroborated his 
work on Jev/ish antiquities from the Hebrew 
text, yet Salmasius, Bochart, Bauer, and others, 
have shown that he has adhered to the Septu^ 
agint throughout that work. How extensively 
this version was in use among the Jews, ap= 
pears from the solemn sanction given to it by 
the inspired writers of the New Testament, who 
have in very many passages quoted the Greek 
version of the Old Testament. Their example 
was followed by the earlier fathers and doctors 
of the church, who, with the exception of Origen 
and Jerom, v;ere unacquainted with Hebrew : 
notwithstanding their zeal for the word of God, 
they did not exert themselves to learn the 
original language of the sacred writings, but 
acquiesced in the Greek representation of them, 
judging it, no doubt, to be fully sufficient for all 
the purposes of their pious labours. The Greek 
Scriptures v/ere the only Scriptures known ta 
or valued by the Greeks. This was the text 
commented on by Chrysostom and Theodoret ;■ 
it was this which furnished topics to Athana- 
sius, Nazianzen, and Basil. From this fount- 
ain the stream was derived to the Latin church, 
first by the Italic or Vulgate translation of the 
Scriptures, which was made from the Septua- 
gint, and not from the Hebrew; and, secondly, 
by the study of the Greek fathers. It was by 
this borrowed light that the Latin fathers illu= 
mined the western hemisphere ; and, when th^ 
age of Cyprian, Ambrose, Augustine, and 
Gregory, successively passed away, this was- 
the light put into the hands of the next dynasty 
of theologists, the schoolmen, who carried on 
the work of theological disquisition by the aid 
of this luminary, and none other. So that, 
either in Greek or in Latin, it was still the Sep- 
tuagint Scriptures that were read, explained, 
and quoted as authority, for a period of fifteert 
hundred years. 

SEPTUAGINT CHRONOLOGY is tha€ 
which is formed from the dates and periods of 
time mentioned in the Septuagrnt translation 
of the Old Testament. It reckons one thousand 
five hundred years more from the creation tcr 
Abraham than the Hebrew Bible. Dr. Kenni- 
cott, in the dissertation prefixed to his Hebrew 
Bible, has shown it to be very probable, that 
the chronology of the Hebrew Scriptures, since 
the period just mentioned, was corrupted' by 
the Jews between A. D. 175 and 200 ; and that 
the chronology of the Septuagint is more 
agreeable to truth. It is a fact, that, during 



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the second and third centuries, the Hebrew 
Scriptures were almost entirely in the hands 
of the Jews, while the Septuagint was confined 
to the Christians. The Jews had, therefore, a 
very favourable opportunity for this corruption. 
The following is the reason which is given by 
the oriental writers : It being a very ancient 
tradition that Messiah was to come in the sixth 
chiliad, because he was to come in the last 
days, founded on a mystical application of the 
six days of the creation, the contrivance was 
to shorten the age of the world from about 
5500 to 3760; and thence to prove that Jesus 
could not be the Messiah. Dr. Kennicott adds, 
that some Hebrew copies, having the larger 
chronology, were extant till the time of Euse- 
bins, and some till the year 700. 

SEPULCHRES. The descriptions of the 
eastern sepulchres, by travellers, serve to 
explain several passages of Scripture. Shaw 
says, "If we except a few persons who are 
buried within the precincts of some sanctuary, 
the rest are carried out at a small distance 
from their cities and villages, where a great 
extent of ground is allotted for that purpose. 
Each family has a particular portion of it, 
walled in like a garden, where the bones of 
their ancestors have remained undisturbed for 
many generations : for in these inclosures the 
graves are all distinct and separate, having each 
of them a stone placed upright, both at the 
head and feet, inscribed with the name of the 
person who lieth there interred, while the in- 
termediate space is either planted with flowers, 
bordered round with stone, or paved all over 
with tiles. The graves of the principal citizens 
are farther distinguished by some square cham- 
bers or cupolas that are built over them, Mark 
V, 3. Now, as all these different sorts of tombs 
and sepulchres, with the very walls likewise of 
the inclosures, are constantly kept clean, 
white-washed, and beautified, they continue to 
this day to be an excellent comment upon that 
expression of our Saviour, where he mentions 
the garnishing of the sepulchres, Matt, xxiii, 
29 ; and again, verse 27, where he compares 
the scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites, to 
whited sepulchres." With respect to the demo- 
niacs who are said by St. Matthew to come out 
of the tombs. Light observes, "I trod the 
ground celebrated for the miracle of the un- 
clean spirit, driven by our Saviour among the 
swine. The tombs still exist in the form of 
caverns, on the sides of the hills that rise from 
the shore of the lake ; and from their wild ap. 
pearance may well be considered the habita- 
tion of men exceeding fierce, possessed by a 
devil ; they extend at a distance for more than 
a mile from the present town." In the account 
we have of the resurrection of Lazarus, when 
Mary went suddenly out to meet Jesus, the 
Jews supposed that she was gone to the grave, 
" to weep there." The following extract from 
Buckingham illustrates this : " Not far from 
the spot at which we halted to enjoy this en- 
chanting view, was an extensive cemetry, at 
which we noticed the custom so prevalent 
among eastern nations of visiting the tombs of 
their deceased friends. These wer^ formed 



with great care, and finished with extraordina- 
ry neatness : and at the foot of each grave was 
enclosed a small earthen vessel, in which was 
planted a sprig of myrtle, regularly watered 
every day by the mourning friend who visited 
it. Throughout the whole of this extensive 
place of burial we did not observe a single grave 
to which this token of respect and sorrow was 
not attached ; and, scattered among the tombs, 
in different quarters of the cemetry, we saw from 
twenty to thirty parties of females, sitting near 
the honoured remains of some recently lost 
and deeply regretted relative or friend, and 
either watering their myrtle plants, or strewing 
flowers over the green turf that closed upon 
their heads." See Burial. 

SERPENT. In Egypt and other oriental 
countries, a serpent was the common symbol 
of a powerful monarch ; it was embroidered on 
the robes of princes, and blazoned on their 
diadem, to signify their absolute power and 
invincible might, and that, as the wound in- 
flicted by the basilisk is incurable, so the fatal 
effects of their displeasure were neither to be 
avoided nor endured. These are the allusions 
involved in the address of the prophet, to the 
irreconcilable enemies of his nation: "Rejoice 
not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of 
him that smote thee is broken ; for out of the 
serpent's roots shall come forth a cockatrice, 
and his fruit sliall be a fiery flying serpent," 
Isaiah xiv, 29. Uzziah, the king of Judah, 
had subdued the Philistines ; but taking advan- 
tage of the weak reign of Ahaz, they again 
invaded the kingdom of Judea, and reduced 
some cities in the southern part of the country 
under their dominion. On the death of Ahaz, 
Isaiah delivers this prophecy, threatening them 
with a more severe chastisement from the hand 
of Hezekiah, the grandson of Uzziah, by whose 
victorious arms they had been reduced to sue 
for peace ; which he accomplished, when " he 
smote the Philistines, even unto Gaza and the 
borders thereof," 2 Kings xviii, 8. Uzziah, 
therefore, must be meant by the rod that smote 
them, and by the serpent from whom should 
spring the fiery flying serpent, that is, Heze- 
kiah, a much more terrible enemy than even 
Uzziah had been. But the symbol of regal 
power which the oriental kings preferred to all- 
others, was the basilisk. This fioct is attested 
by its Arabian name melecha, from the Hebrew 
verb malach, " to reign ;" from its Greek name 
Baai'XiffKog, and its Latin name regulus : all ol 
which, it is asserted, referred to the conspicu- 
ous place it occupied among the regal orna- 
ments of the east. The basilisk is of a reddish 
colour, and its head is decorated with a crest 
in the form of a crown ; it is not entirely pros- 
trate, like other serpents, but moves along with 
its head and half the body erect; the other 
parts sweep the ground behind. 

And wind its spacious back in rolling spires. 

All the other species of serpents are said to 
acknowledge tlie superiority of the real or the 
fabled basilisk, by flying from its presence, and 
hiding themselves in the dust. It is also sup- 
posed to live longer than any other serpent ; 



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the ancient Heathens therefore pronounced it 
immortal, and placed it in the number of their 
deities ; and because it had the dangerous 
power, in general belief, of killing with its 
pestiferous breath the strongest animals, it 
seemed to them invested with the power of 
life and death. It became, therefore, the 
favourite symbol of kings ; and was employed 
by the prophet, to symbolize the great and 
good Hezekiah, with strict propriety. 

2. The cerastes, or horned snake. The only 
allusion to this species of serpent in the sacred 
volume occurs in the valedictory predictions 
of Jacob, where he describes the character 
and actions of Dan and his posterity : " Dan 
shall be a serpent by the way, an adder, jiiD^at:>, 
in the path, that biteth the horse's heels, so 
that his rider shall fall backward," Gen. xlix, 
17. It is indisputably clear, that the patriarch 
intended some kind of serpent ; for the circum- 
stances will not apply to a freebooter watch- 
ing for his prey. It only remains to investi- 
gate the species to which it belongs. The 
principal care of the Jewish writers is to ascer- 
tain the etymology of the name, about which 
their sentiments are much divided. The Ara- 
bian authors quoted by Bochart inform us, that 
the sephiphon is a most pernicious reptile, and 
very dangerous to man. It is of a sandy colour, 
variegated with black and white spots. The 
particulars in the character of Dan, however, 
agree better with the cerastes, or horned snake, 
than with any other species of serpent. It lies 
in wait for passengers in the sand, or in the 
rut of the wheels on the highway. From its 
lurking place it treacherously bites the horse's 
heels, so that the rider falls backward, in con- 
sequence of the animal's hinder legs becoming 
almost immediately torpid by the dreadful 
activity of the poison. The cerastes is equally 
formidable to man and the lower animals ; 
and the more dangerous, because it is not easy 
to distinguish him froxn the sand in which he 
lies ; and he never spares the helpless traveller 
who unwarily comes within his reach. Like the 
cerasteSjDan was to excel in cunning and artifice, 
to prevail against his enemies rather by his policy 
in the cabinet than by his valour in the field. 

3. The seraph, or fiery flying serpent, to a 
Biblical student, is one of the most interesting 
creatures that has yet been mentioned. It 
bears the name of an order among the hosts 
of heaven, whom Isaiah beheld in vision, 
placed above the throne of Jehovah in the 
temple ; the brazen figure of this serpent is 
supposed to be a type of our blessed Redeemer, 
who was for our salvation lifted up upon the 
cross, as the serpent was elevated in the camp 
of Israel, for the preservation of that people. 
It is the only species of serpent which the 
almighty Creator has provided with wings, by 
means of which, instead of creeping or leaping, 
it rises from the ground, and leaning upon the 
extremity of its tail, moves with great velocity. 
It is a native of Egypt, and the deserts of 
Arabia; and receives its name from the He. 
brew verb seraph, which signifies to burn, in 
allusion to the violent inflammation which its 
poison produces, or rather to its fiery colour, 



which the brazen serpent was intended to 
represent. Bochart is of opinion, that the 
seraph is the same as thft hydrus, or, as Cicero 
calls it, the serpent of the waters. For, in the 
book of Isaiah, the land qf Egypt is called the 
region from whence come the viper and flying- 
seraph, or burning serpent, ^lian says, they 
come from the deserts of Libya and Arabia, to 
inhabit the streams of the Nile ; and that they 
have the form of the hydrus. 

The existence of winged serpents is attested 
by many writers of modern times. A kind of 
snakes were discovered among the Pyrenees, 
from whose sides proceeded cartilages in the 
form of wings ; and Scaliger mentions a pea. 
sant who killed a serpent of the same species 
which attacked him, and presented it to the 
king of France. Le Blanc, as quoted by Bo- 
chart, says, at the head of lake Chiamay are 
extensive woods and vast marshes, which it is 
very dangerous to approach, because they are 
infested with very large serpents, which, raised 
from the ground on wings resembling those of 
bats, and leaning on the extremity of their tails, 
move with great rapidity. They exist, it is 
reported, about these places in so great num. 
bers, that they have almost laid waste the 
neighbouring province. And, in the same 
work, Le Blanc afiirms that he had seen some 
of them of immense size, which, when hungry, 
rushed impetuously on sheep and other tame 
animals. But the original term f|ai;?D does not 
always signify flying with wings ; it often ex- 
presses vibration, swinging backward and for^ 
ward, a tremulous motion, a fluttering ; and 
this is precisely the motion of a serpent, when 
he springs from one tree to another. Niebuhr 
mentions a sort of serpent at Bassorah, which 
they call heie thiare. " They commonly keep 
upon the date trees ; and as it would be labori- 
ous for them to come down from a very high 
tree, in order to ascend another, they twist 
themselves by the tail to a branch of the 
former, which, making a spring by the motion 
they give it, throws them to the branches of 
the second. Hence it is that the modern Arabs 
call them flying serpents, heie thiare. Admiral 
Anson also speaks of the flying serpents that 
he met with at the island of Quibo, but which 
were without wings." From this account it 
may be inferred, that the flying serpent men- 
tioned in the prophet was of that species of 
serpents which, from their swift darting mo- 
tion, the Greeks call aconitias, and the Romans, 
jaculus. The original phrase will bear another 
interpretation, which, perhaps, approaches still 
nearer the truth. The verb siy sometimes 
means to sparkle, to emit coruscations of light. 
In this sense, the noun r\BVr\ frequently occurs 
in the sacred volume ; thus Zophar says : "The 
coruscation, nsi^n, shall be as the morning." 
The word in the verse under consideration 
may therefore refer to the ruddy colour of that 
serpent, and express the sparkling of the 
blazing sunbeams u^on its scales, which are 
extremely brilliant. 

4. The dragon. In Hebrew, the word pjn 
signifies either a dragon or a whale. As the 
name of a serpent, it frequently denotes onQ 



SER 



854 



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of any species ; as when the rod of Moses is I 
said to have been turned into a serpent, ]tjnV. | 
But, in its more strict and appropriate appli- 
cation, it is the proper name of the dragon, 
which differs from iiie serpent chiefly in its 
size. " Three kinds of dragons were formerly 
distinguished iu India. 1. Those of the hills 
and mountains. 2. Those of the valleys and 
caves. 3. Those of the fens and marshes. 
The first is the largest, and covered with scales 
resplendent as burnished gold. They have a 
kind of beard hanging from their lower jaw, 
their aspect is frightful, their cry loud and 
shrill, their crest bright yellow, and they have 
a protuberance on their heads, as the colour 
of a burning coal. Those of the flat country 
are of a silver colour, and frequent rivers, to 
which the former never come. Those of the 
marshes are black, slow, and have no crest. 
Their bite is not venomous, though the crea- 
tures be dreadful." This description agrees in 
every particular with the boa, which is justly 
considered as the proper dragon. But so great 
is the inconsistency of the human mind, that 
the creature which is now an object of uni- 
versal dislike was, in early times, honoured 
with religious worship by every nation of the 
earth. Rites were devised and temples built 
to its honour ; and priests were appointed to 
conduct the ceremonies. These miserable 
idolaters appeared before the altars of their 
contemptible deity in gorgeous vestments, 
their heads adorned with serpents, or with the 
figures of serpents embroidered on their tiaras, 
when the creatures themselves were not to be 
had I and in their frantic exclamations cried 
out, in evident allusion to the triumph which 
the old serpent obtained over our first mother, 
Eva, Eva. So completely was Satan permit- 
ted to insult our fallen race, that the serpent, 
his chosen agent in accomplishing our ruin, 
was actually raised to the first place among the 
deities of the Heathen world, and reverenced 
by the most solemn acts of worship. The 
figure of the serpent adorned the portals of the 
proudest temples in the east. 

The serpent was a very common symbol of the 
sun ; and he is represented biting his tail, and 
with his body formed into a circle, in order to 
indicate the ordinary course of this luminary ; 
and under this form it was an emblem of time 
and eternity. The serpent was also the sym- 
bol of medicine, and of the gods which pre- 
sided over it, as of Apollo and ^Esculapius. In 
most of the ancient rites we find some allusion 
to the serpent, under the several titles of Ob, 
Ops, Python, &LC. This idolatry is alluded to 
by Moses, Lev. xx, 27. The woman of Endor, 
who had a familiar spirit, is called Oub, or Ob, 
and it is interpreted Pythonissa : the place 
where she resided, says the learned Mr. Bryant, 
seems to have heen named from the worship 
then instituted ; for Endor is compounded of 
En-ador, and signifies /ows pithonis, the "foun- 
tain of light," the oracle of the god Ador ; 
which oracle was probably founded by the 
Canaanites, and had never bsen totally sup- 
pressed. His pillar was also called Abbadir, 
or Abadir, compounded of ab and adir, and 



meaning the sferpent deity Addir, the same as 
Adorus. In the orgies of Bacchus, the persons 
who partook of the ceremony, used to carry 
serpents in their hands, and with horrid screams 
call upon Eva ! Eva ! Eva being, according to 
the writer just mentioned, the same as epha, 
or opha, which the Greeks rendered ophis, and 
by it denoted a serpent, and containing no 
allusion to Eve, as above conjectured. These 
ceremonies, and this symbolic worship, began 
among the magi, who were the sons of Chus ; 
and by them they were propagated in various 
parts. Wherever the Ammonians founded any 
places of worship, and introduced their rites, 
there was generally some story of a serpent. 
There was a legend about a serpent at Colchis, 
at Thebes, and at Delphi ; and likewise in other 
places. The Greeks called Apollo himself Py- 
thon, which is the same as Oupis, Opis, or Oub. 
In Egypt there was a serpent named Thermu- 
this, which was looked upon as very sacred ; 
and the natives are said to have made use of it 
as a royal tiara, with which they ornamented 
the statues of Isis. The kings of Egypt wore 
high bonnets, terminating in a round ball, and 
surrounded with figures of asps ; and the priests 
likewise had the representation of serpents 
upon their bonnets. Abadon, or Abaddon, 
mentioned in the Revelation, ix, 11, is sup. 
posed by Mr. Bryant to have been the name 
of the Ophite god, with whose worship the 
world had been so long infected. This wor- 
ship began among the people of Chaldea, who 
built the city of Ophis upon the Tigris, and 
were greatly addicted to divination, and to the 
worship of the serpent. From Chaldea the 
worship passed into Egypt, where the serpent 
deity was called Canoph, Can-eph, and C'neph ; 
it also had the name of Ob, or Oub, and Avas 
the same as the Basiliscus, or royal serpent, 
the same as the Thermuthis, and made use of 
by way of ornament to the statues of their gods. 
The chief deity of Egypt is said to have been 
Vulcan, who was styled Opas ; he was the 
same as Osiris, the sun, and he^ce was often 
called Ob-el, or Pytho, sol; and there were 
pillars sacred to him, with curious hiero- 
glyphical inscriptions bearing the same name, 
whence among the Greeks, who copied from 
the Egyptians, every thing gradually tapering 
to a point was styled ohelos, or obeliscus. As 
the worship of the serpent began among the 
sons of Chus, Mr. Bryant conjectures that from 
thence they were denominated Ethiopians and 
Aithiopians, from Ath-ope, or Ath-opes, the 
god whom they worshipped, and not from their 
complexion : the Ethiopes brought these rites 
into Greece, and called the island where they 
first established them, Ellopia, Solis Serpentis 
insula, the same with Eubcea, or Oubaia, that 
is, the Serpent Island. The same learned writer 
discovers traces of the serpent worship among 
the Hyperboreans, at Rhodes, named Ophiusa, 
in Phrygia, and upon the Hellespont, in the 
island Cyprus, in Crete, among the Athenians, 
in the naine of Cccrops, among the natives of 
Thqbes in Bocotia, among the Lacedoemonians, 
in Italy, in Syria, &c, and in the names of 
many places, as well as the people where the 



SER 



855 



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Ophites settled. One of the most early here- 
sies introduced into the Christian church was 
that of the Ophitoe, who introduced serpents 
emblematically among their rites. This is seen 
in many of the medals, the relics of Gnosticism 
which are still preserved. 

The form assumed by th^ tempter when he 
seduced o\ir first parents, has been handed 
down in the traditions of most ancient nations ; 
and, though animals of the serpent tribe were 
very generally worshipped by the Pagans, as 
symbols of the Agathodemon ; they were like- 
wise viewed as types or figures of the evil 
principle. 1. One of the most remarkable 
accounts of the primeval tempter under the 
shape of a serpent occurs in the Zend-Avesta 
of the ancient Persians. 2. To the dracontian 
Ahrim^an of the Persians, the malignant serpent 
caliya of Hindoo theology appears to be very 
closely allied. He is represented, at least, as 
the decided enemy of the mediatorial god : 
whom he persecutes with the utmost virulence, 
though he is finally vanquished by his celestial 
adversary. 3. The serpent typhon of the Egyp- 
tians, who is sometimes identified with the 
ocean, because the deluge was esteemed the 
work of the evil principle ; and the serpent 
python of the Greeks, who is evidently the 
same as the monster typhon ; appear to have 
similarly originated, in the first instance, from 
some remembrance of the form which Satan 
assumed when in paradise. Perhaps also the 
notion, that python was oracular, — a notion 
which caused the so frequent use of serpents 
in the rites of divination, may have sprung 
from a recollection of the vocal responses 
which the tempter gave to Eve under the bor- 
rowed figure of that reptile. 4. We may still 
ascribe to the same source that rebellious ser- 
pent whose treason seems to have been so well 
remembered among thei inhabitants of Syria. 
Pherecydes, a native of that country, bestows 
upon him. the Greek name of ophioneus, or the 
" serpent god ;" which, in fact, is a mere trans, 
lation of the Syriac or Chaldaic nachash. He 
represents him as being the prince of those 
evil spirits who contended with the supreme 
god Cronus, and who in consequence were 
ejected from heaven. Their happiness being 
thus justly forfeited, they were henceforth 
plunged in the depths of Tartarus, hateful and 
mutually hating each other. From Syria and 
the east the legend passed into Greece, mingled, 
however, with allusions to the deluge. 5. The 
same evil being, in the same form, appears 
again in the mythology of the Goths or Scy- 
tMans. We are told by the ancient Scalds, 
that the bad principle, whom they denominate 
lokc, unites great personal beauty with a m.a- 
lignant and inconstant nature : and he is 
described as surpassing all creatures in the 
depth of his cunning and the artfulness of his 
perfidy. Here the pristine glory and majesty 
of Satan, before the lineaments of celestial 
beauty were defaced by his rebellious apostasy, 
seem not obscurely to be alluded to ; while the 
craft and malevolence, which mark his charac- 
ter as a fallen angel, are depicted with sufficient 
accuracy. 



The most remarkable corroboration, how- 
ever, of the Mosaic history is to be found in 
those fables which involve the mythological 
serpent, and in the worship which was so 
generally offered to him throughout the world. 
The worship of the serpent may be traced in 
almost every religion through ancient Asia, 
Europe, Africa, America. But how an object 
of abhorrence could have been exalted into an 
object of veneration, must be referred to the 
subtlety of the arch enemy himself, whose con- 
stant endeavour has been rather to corrupt than 
obliterate the true faith, that, in the perpetual 
conflict between truth and error, the mind of 
man might be more surely confounded and de- 
based. Among other devices, that of elevating 
himself into an object of adoration, has ever 
been the most cherished. It was that which 
he proposed to our Lord: "All these things 
will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and 
v/orship me." We cannot, therefore, wonder 
that the same being who had the presumption 
to make this proposal to the Son of God, should 
have had the address to insinuate himself into 
the worship of the children of men. In this 
he was unhappily but too well seconded by the 
natural tendency of human corruption. The 
unenlightened Heathen, in obedience to the 
voice of nature, acknowledged his dependence 
upon, a superior being. His reason assured 
him that there must be a God ; his conscience 
assured him that God was good ; but he felt 
and acknowledged the prevalence of evil, and 
attributed it, naturally to an evil agent. But 
as the evil spirit, to his unillumined mind, 
seemed as omnipotent as the good agent, he 
worshipped both ; the one, that he might pro- 
pitiate his kindness ; the other that he might 
avert his displeasure. The great point of devil 
worship being gained, namely, the acknow- 
ledgment of the evil spirit as God, the transition 
to idolatry became easy. The mind, once dark- 
ened by the admission of an allegiance divided 
between God and Satan, became gradually 
more feeble and superstitious, until at length 
sensible objects were called in to aid the weak- 
ness of degraded intellect ; and from their first 
form as symbols, passed rapidly through the 
successive stages of apotheosis, until they were 
elevated into gods. Of these the most remark- 
able was the serpent ; upon the basis of tradi- 
tion, regarded, first as the symbol of the 
malignant being; subsequently considered ta- 
lismanic and oracular ; and lastly, venerated 
and worshipped as divine. 

SERPENT, Brazen. This was a figure of 
a serpent, called above the seraph, which Moses 
caused to be put on the top of a pole. Num. 
xxi, 9, that all those bitten by the serpent, who 
should look upon this image, might be healed. 
Our Saviour, in the Gospel of St. John, iii, 14, 
declares, that "as Moses lifted up the serpent 
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of 
man be lifted up," alluding to his own death 
which, through faith, was to give life to the 
world. The brazen serpent was preserved 
among the Israelites down to the time of He- 
zekiah ; who, being informed that the people 
paid a superstitious worship to it, had it broker^ 



SEV 



856 



SHA 



in pieces, and by way of contempt gave it the 
name of Nehushtan, that is to say, a brazen 
bauble or trifle, 2 Kings xviii, 4. See Type. 

SERVANT. This word generally signifies 
a slave. For formerly among the Hebrews, 
and the neighbouring nations, the greater part 
of servants were slaves, that is to say, they 
belonged absolutely to their masters, who had 
a right to dispose of their persons, their bodies, 
goods, and even of their lives, in some cases. 
The Hebrews had two sorts of servants or 
slaves, Leviticus xxv, 44, 45, &c. Some were 
strangers, either bought, or taken in the wars. 
The others were Hebrew slaves, who, being 
poor, sold themselves, or were sold to pay their 
debts ; or were delivered up for slaves by their 
parents, in cases of necessity. This sort of 
Hebrew slaves continued in slavery but to the 
year of jubilee ; then they might return to lib. 
erty again, and their masters could not retain 
them against their wills. If they would con- 
tinue voluntarily with their masters, they were 
brought before the judges ; there they made a 
declaration, that for this time they disclaimed 
the privilege of the law, had their ears bored 
with an awl, by applying them to the door- 
posts of their master, Exod. xxi, 2, 5-7, &c ; 
and after that they had no longer any power 
of recovering their liberty, except at the next 
year of jubilee. Servant is also taken for a 
man that dedicates himself to the service of 
another, by the choice of his own will and in- 
clination. Thus Joshua was the servant of 
Moses, Elisha of Elijah, Gehazi of Elisha ; St. 
Peter, St. Andrew, St. Philip, and the rest, 
were servants of Jesus Christ. 

SETH, son of Adam and of Eve, was born 
A. M. 130, Gen. v, 3, 6, 10, 11. Seth, at the 
age of one hundred and five years, begat Enos, 
A- M. 235. He lived after this eight hundred 
and seven years, in all nine hundred and twelve 
years, and died A. M. 1042. Seth v/as the chief 
of "the children of God," as the Scripture 
,calls them. Gen. vi, 2; that is, those who be- 
fore the flood preserved true religion and piety 
in the world, while the descendants of Cain 
gave themselves up to wickedness. The inven- 
tion of letters and writing is by the rabbins 
ascribed to this patriarch. 

SEVEN. The number seven is consecrated, 
in the holy books and in the religion of the 
Jews, by a great number of events and myste- 
rious circumstances. God created the v/orld 
in the space of seven days, and consecrated 
the seventh day to repose. This rest of the 
seventh day, according to St. Paul, Heb. iv, 4, 
intimates eternal rest. And not only the 
seventh day is honoured among the Jews, by 
the repose of the Sabbath, but every seventh 
year is also consecrated to the rest of the earth, 
by the name of a sabbatical year ; as also the 
seven times seventh year, or forty-ninth year, 
is the year of jubilee. In the prophetic style, 
a week often stands for seven years, Dan. ix, 
24-26. Jacob served his father-in-law Laban 
seven years for each of his daughters. Pha- 
raoh's mysterious dream represented to his 
imagination seven fat oxen, and seven lean. 
ones ; seven full ears of corn, and as many 



that were empty and shrivelled. These stood 
for seven years of plenty, and seven of scarci- 
ty. The number of seven days is observed 
in the octaves of the great solemnities of the 
passover, of tabernacles, and of the dedica. 
tion of the tabernacle and the temple ; the 
seven branches of the golden candlestick, the 
number of seven sacrifices appointed on seve- 
ral occasions. Numbers xxvii, 11; xxix, 17-21, 
&c. Seven trumpets, seven priests that sound- 
ed them, seven days to surround the walls of 
Jericho, Joshua vi, 4, 6, 8. In the Revelation, 
are the seven churches, seven candlesticks, 
seven spirits, seven stars, seven lamps, seven 
seals, seven angels, seven phials, seven plagues, 
&c. In certain passages, the number seven is 
put for a great number. Isaiah, iv, 1, says 
that seven women should lay hold on one man, 
to ask him to marry them. Hannah, the mo- 
ther of Samuel, says, 1 Sam. ii, 5, that she 
who was barren should have seven children, 
Jeremiah, xv, 9, makes use of the same expres- 
sion. God threatens his people to smite them 
seven times for their transgressions, Lev. xxvi, 
24, that is to say several times. The Psalmist, 
speaking of very pure silver, says it is "puri- 
fied seven times," Psalm xii, 6. And elsewhere, 
" Render unto our neigubours sevenfold into 
their bosom," Psalm Ixxix, 12 ; punish them 
severely, and as often as they deserve it. The 
slayer of Cain was to be punished seven times ; 
but of Lamech seventy times seven times. Gen. 
iv, 15, 24. The slothful man thinks himself 
wiser than seven men, that set forth proverbs, 
Prov. xxvi, 16; he thinks himself of more 
worth than many wise men. St, Peter asks 
our Saviour, Matthew xviii, 21, 22, How many 
times should he forgive his brother ? till seven 
times ? And Christ answers him, I say not 
only seven times, but seventy times seven; 
meaning, as often as he may offend, however 
frequent it may be. 

SHARON, Plain of, a beautiful and spa- 
cious plain, extending from Csesarea to Joppa 
on the sea coast, and eastward to the mount- 
ains of Judea ; and is celebrated for its wines, 
its flowers, and its pastures. It still preserves 
some portions of its natural beauty, and is 
adorned in the spring with the white and red 
rose, the narcissus, the white and orange lily, 
the carnation and other flowers ; but for the 
rest of the year it appears little better than a 
desert, with here and there a ruined village, 
and some clumps of olive trees and sycamores. 
This name was almost become a provei-b, to 
express a place of extraordinary beauty and 
frnitfulness, Isaiah xxxiii, 9 ; xxxv, 2. But 
there are three cantons of Palestine known by 
the name of Sharon. The first, according to 
Eusebius and St. Jerom, is a canton between 
Mount Tabor and the sea of Tiberias. The 
second, a canton between the city of Csesarea 
of Palestine and Joppa. And the third a can- 
ton beyond Jordan, in the country of Basan, 
and in the division of the tribe of Gad, Modern 
travellers give this name also to the plain that 
lies between Ecdippe and Ptolemais. 

SHAVING. In time of mourning the Jews 
shaved their heads, and neglected to trim their 



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beards. The king of the Ammonites shaved off 
half the beards of David's ambassadors, which 
was the greatest insult he could offer. This will 
appear from the regard which the easterns have 
ever paid to the beard. D'Arvieux gives a re- 
markable instance of an Arab who, having re- 
ceived a wound in his jaw, chose to hazard his 
life rather than to suffer his surgeon to take 
off his beard. It was one of the most infamous 
punishments of cowardice in Sparta, tJiat they 
who turned their backs in the day of battle 
were obliged to appear abroad with one half of 
their beard shaved, and the other half unshaved. 
The easterns considered the beard as venera- 
ble, because it distinguished men from women, 
and v/as the mark of freemen in opposition to 
slaves. It was still, in times comparatively 
modern, the greatest indignity that could be 
offered in Persia. Shah Abbas,- king of that 
country, enraged that the emperor of Hindos- 
tan had inadvertently addressed him by a title 
far inferior to that of the great shah-in-shah, or 
king of kings, ordered the beards'of the ambas- 
sadors to be shaved off, and sent them home to 
their master. "One of the buffoons of the 
bashaw," says Belzoni, "took it into his head 
one day, for a frolic, to shave his beard, which 
is no trifle among the Turks ; for some of 
them, I really believe, would sooner have their 
head cut off than their beard. In this state he 
went home to his women, who actually thrust 
him out of the door ; and such was the disgrace 
of cutting off his beard, that even his fellow 
buffoons would not eat with him till it was 
grown again." 

SHEAF. After the feast of the passover the 
Jews brought a sheaf into the temple, as the 
first fruits of the barley harvest. Lev. xxiii, 10, 
12 ; and these were the ceremonies that were 
then performed. On the 16th of the month 
Nisan, in the evening, when the feast day of 
the passover was ended, and the second day 
was begun, which was a working day, the house 
of judgment deputed three men to go in so- 
lemnity, and gather the sheaf of barley. The 
inhabitants of the neighbouring cities came 
together, to be present at the ceremony. The 
barley was gathered in the territory of Jeru- 
salem. The deputies demanded three times 
successively if the sun was set ; and were 
as often answered that it was. Then they 
demanded three times if they might be per- 
mitted to cut the sheaf, and permission was as 
often granted. They reaped it out of three 
different fields, with three different sickels, 
and put the ears into three boxes to carry to 
the temple. This sheaf was threshed in the 
court ; and of the grain they took a full omer, 
and after it had been winnowed, parched, and 
bruised, they sprinkled oil over it, and added a 
handful of incense; then the priest who 
received the offering, waved it before the 
Lord to the four quarters of the world, cross- 
wise ; he cast part of it upon the altar, and the 
rest was his own. After this every one might 
begin to reap the harvest. 

SHEBA. Of "the queen of Sheba," mention 
is made 1 Kings x, 1, 2, &lc ; 2Chron. ix, 1, 2, 
&c ; Matt, xii, 42; Luke xi, 31. She is called 



"queen of the south," and was, according to 
some, a queen of Arabia; and, according to 
others, a queen of Ethiopia. Josephus says, 
that Sheba was the ancient name of the city 
of Meroe, before Cambyses gave it that of his 
sister ; and that it was from thence the queen 
came of whom we are speaking. This opinion 
has much prevailed. The Abyssinian s at this 
day, maintain, that this princess was of their 
country, and that her posterity reigned there 
a long time. They preserve a catalogue of 
them, their names and successions. 

SHEEP, r\^, occurs frequently, and jN2f, a 
general name for both sheep and goats, con- 
sidered collectively in a flock, Arabic zain. 
The sheep is a well known animal. The bene, 
fits which mankind owe to it are numerous. Its 
fleece, its skin, its flesh, its tallow, and even its 
horns and bowels are articles of great utility to 
human life and happiness. Its mildness and 
inoffensiveness of temper, strongly recommend 
it to human affection and regard ; and have 
designated it the pattern and emblem of meek- 
ness, innocence, patience, and submission. It 
is a social animal. The flock follow the ram 
as their leader ; who frequently displays the 
most impetuous courage in their defence : 
dogs, and even men, when attempting to mo- 
lest them, have often suffered from his saga, 
cious and generous valour. There are two 
varieties of sheep found in Syria. The first, 
called the "Bidoween sheep," differs little-from 
the large breed among us, except that the tail 
is somewhat longer and thicker. The second 
is much more common, and is more valued on 
account of the extraordinary bulk of its tail, 
which has been remarked by all the eastern 
travellers. The carcass of one of these sheep, 
without including the head, feet, entrails, and 
skin, weighs from fifty to sixty pounds, of 
which the tail makes up fifteen pounds. Some 
of a larger size, fattened with care, will some- 
times weigh one hundred and fifty pounds, 
the tail alone composing one third of the whole 
weight. It is of a substance between fat and 
marrow, and is not eaten separately, but mixed 
with the lean meat in many of their dishes, and 
often also used instead of butter. A reference 
to this part is made in Exod. xxix, 22; Lev. iii, 
9 ; where the fat and the tail were to be burnt 
on the altar of sacrifice. Mr. Street considers 
this precept to have had respect to the health 
of the Israelites ; observing that " bilious dis- 
orders are very frequent in hot countries ; the 
eating of fat meat is a great encouragement 
and excitement to them ; and though the fat 
of the tail is now considered as a delicacy, it 
is really unwholesome." The conclusion of 
the seventeenth verse, which is, "Ye shall eat 
neither fat nor blood," justifies this opinion. 
The prohibition of eating fat, that is of fat 
unmixed with the flesh, the omentum or caul, 
is given also. Lev. vii, 23. 

SHEKEL, 'jpty, signifies weight, money, 
shekel, siclus, a Hebrew weight and money, 
Exod. XXX, 23, 24; 2 Sam. xiv, 26. Shekel 
is used to denote the weight of any thing ; as 
iron, hair, spices, &.c. Dr. Arbuthnot makes 
the weight of the shekel equal to 9 dwt. 2^ gr. 



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English troy weight ; and the value equal to 
2s. 3|d. sterling money : but the golden she- 
kel was worth 11. 16s. 6d. English money. 
Some are of opinion that the Jews had two 
kinds of shekels, namely, the common one 
already noticed, and the shekel of the sanctu- 
ary, which last they make double the former. 
But most authors make them the same, and 
think that the word sanctuary is added to ex- 
press a just and exact weight, according to the 
standards kept in the temple or tabernacle. 
Moses, Num. xviii, 16, and Ezekiel, xlv, 12, 
say, that the skekel was worth twenty gerahs. 
SHEM, the son of Noah, Gen. vi, 10. He 
was born A. M. 1558. It is the opinion of the 
generality of commentators, that Shem was 
younger than Japheth, and the second son of 
Noah, for reasons given under the article Ja- 
pheth. See also Gen. ix, 23-25. He lived 
six hundred years, and died A. M. 2158. The 
posterity of Shem obtained their portion in the 
best parts of Asia. The Jews ascribe to Shem 
the theological tradition of the things that 
Noah had learned from the first men. Shem 
communicated them to his children, and by 
this means the true religion was preserved in 
the world. Some have thought Shem the same 
as Melchisedec, and that he himself had been 
at the school of Methuselah before the deluge : 
that he gave to Abraham the whole tradition, 
the ceremonies of the sacrifices of religion, 
according to which this patriarch afterward 
offered his sacrifices. But this opinion has no 
adequate support. Lastly, the Jews say, that 
he taught men the law of justice, and the man- 
ner of reckoning months and years, and the 
intercalations of the months. All that can be 
said as to these speculations is, that Noah and 
all his sons were the depositaries of the know- 
ledge which existed among men before the 
flood, and were perhaps both specially qualified 
by God first to attain it, and then to transmit 
it to their descendants. Shem had five sons, 
Elam, Asher, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aran, who 
peopled the richest provinces of Asia. 

SHEPHERDS. The patriarchal shepherds, 
rich in fiiocks and herds, in silver and gold, 
and attended by a numerous train of servants 
purchased with their money, or hired from the 
neighbouring towns and villages, acknowledge 
no civil superior ; they held the rank, and ex- 
ercised the rights, of sovereign princes ; they 
concluded alliances with the kings in whose 
territories they tended their flocks ; they made 
peace or war with the surrounding states ; and, 
in fine, they wanted nothing of sovereign au- 
thority but the name. Unfettered by the cum- 
brous ceremonies of regal power, they led a 
plain and laborious life, in perfect freedom and 
overflowing abundance. Refiising to confine 
themselves to any particular spot, (for the pas- 
tures were not yet appropriated,) they lived in 
tents, and removed from one place to another 
in search of pasture for their cattle. Strangers 
in the countries where they sojourned, they 
refused to mingle with the permanent settlers, 
to occupy their towns, and to form with them 
one people. They were conscious of their 
plrength, and jealous of their independence ; 



and although patient and forbearing, their con- 
duct proved," on several occasions, that they 
wanted neither skill nor courage to vindicate 
their rights and avenge their wrongs. In the 
wealth, the power, and the splendour of patri. 
Srchal shepherds, we discover the rudiments 
of regal grandeur and authority ; and in their 
numerous and hardy retainers, the germ of 
potent empires. Hence the custom so preva- 
lent among the ancients, of distinguishing the 
office and duties of their kings and princes, by 
terms borrowed from the pastoral life : Aga- 
memnon, shepherd of the people, 'Aya[if[ivova 
xsoiixkva \awv, is a phrase frequently used in the 
strains of Homer. The sacred writers very 
often speak of kings under the name of shep- 
herds, and compare the royal sceptre to the 
shepherd's crook: "He chose David also his 
servant, and took him from the sheep folds ; 
from following the ewes great with young, he 
brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Is- 
rael his inheritance. So he fed them accord- 
ing to the integrity of his heart, and guided 
them by the skilfulness of his, hands." And 
Jehovah said to David himself : " Thou shalt 
feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a cap- 
tain over Israel." The royal Psalmist, on the 
other hand, celebrates under the same allu- 
sions, the special care and goodness of God 
toward himself, and also toward his ancient 
people. " The Lord is my shepherd, I shall 
not want." " Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, 
thou that leadest Joseph like a flock ; thou that 
dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth." 
In many other places of Scripture, the church 
is compared to a sheep fold, the saints to sheep, 
and the ministers of religion to shepherds, who 
must render, at last, an account of their ad- 
ministration to the Shepherd and Overseer to 
whom they owe their authority. 

The patriarchs did not commit their flocks 
and herds solely to the care of menial serv- 
ants and strangers ; they tended them in per- 
son, or placed them under the superintendence 
of their sons and their daughters, who were 
bred to the same laborious employment, and 
taught to perform, without reluctance, the 
meanest services. Rebecca, the only daugh. 
ter of a shepherd prince, went to a consider, 
able distance to draw water ; and it is evident, 
from the readiness and address with which she 
let down her pitcher from her shoulder, and 
gave drink to the servant of Abraham, and 
afterward drew for all his camels, that she had 
been long accustomed to that humble employ- 
ment. From the same authority we know 
that Rachel, the daughter of Laban, kept her 
father's flocks, and submitted to the various 
privations and hardships of the pastoral life, 
in the deserts of Syria. The patriarch Jacob, 
though he was the son of a shepherd prince, 
kept the flocks of Laban, his maternal uncle ; 
and his own sons followed the same business, 
both in Mesopotamia, and after his return to 
the land of Canaan. This primeval simplicity 
was long retained among the Greeks. Homer 
often sends the daughters of princes and nobles 
to tend the flocks, to wash the clothes of the 
family at the fountain, or in the flowing stream, 



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and to perform many other menial services, 
Adonis, the son of Cinyras, a king of Cyprus, 
fed his flocks by the streaming rivers : 
Et fornwsus oves adfluviina pavit Adonis. 

ViK. Eel. X, 1. 18. 
"Along the streams his flock Adonis fed." 

Deyden. 
Andromache, the M^ife of Hector, complains 
that Achilles had slain her seven brothers 
when they were tending their flocks and herds. 
jEneas pastured his oxen on Mount Ida, when 
Achilles seized them, and forced the Trojan 
hero to flee. Phcebus himself was a keeper of 
oxen in the groves and valleys of Mount Ida. 
This custom has descended to modern times ; 
for in Syria the daughters of the Turcoman 
and Arabian shepherds, and in India the Brah- 
min women of distinction, are seen drawing 
water at the village wells, and tending their 
cattle to the lakes and rivers. 

The flocks and herds of these shepherds 
were immensely numerous. The sheep of 
the Bedoween Arabs in Egypt, and probably 
throughout the east, are very fine, black-faced 
and white-faced, and many of them clothed in 
a brown coloured fleece : and of this superior 
breed the ample flocks of the Syrian shepherds 
consisted. So great was the stock of Abraham 
and Lot, that they were obliged to separate, 
because " the land was not able to bear them." 
From the present which Jacob made to his 
brother Esau, consisting of five hundred and 
eighty head of different sorts, we may form 
some idea of the countless numbers of great 
and small cattle which he had acquired in the 
service of Laban. In modern times, the num- 
bers of cattle in the Turcoman flocks, which 
feed on the fertile plains of Syria, are almost 
incredible. They sometimes occupy three or 
four days in passing from one part of the 
country to another. Chardin had an oppor- 
tunity of seeing a clan of Turcoman shepherds 
on their march, about two days' distance from 
Aleppo. The whole country was covered with 
them. Many of their principal people with 
whom he conversed on the road, assured him, 
that there were four hundred thousand beasts 
of carriage, camels, horses, oxen, cows, and 
asses, and three millions of sheep and goats. 
This astonishing account of Chardin is con- 
firmed by Dr. Shaw, who states, that several 
Arabian tribes, who can bring no more than 
three or four hundred horses into the field, 
are possessed of more than as many thousand 
camels, and triple the number of sheep and 
black cattle. Russel, in his "History of 
Aleppo," speaks of vast flocks which pass that 
city every year, of which many sheep are sold 
to supply the inhabitants. The flocks and herds 
which belonged to the Jewish patriarchs were 
not more numerous. 

The care of such overgrown flocks, says 
Paxton, required many shepherds. These 
were of difterent kinds ; the master of the 
, family and his children, with a number of 
herdsmen who were hired to assist them, and 
felt but little interest in the preservation and 
increase of their charge. In Hebrew, these 
persons, so diflTerent in station and feeling, 



were not distinguished by appropriate names ; 
the master, the slave, and the hired servant, 
were all known by the common appellation of 
shepherds. The distinction, not sufficiently 
important to require the invention of a particu- 
lar term, is expressed among every people by 
a periphrasis. The only instance in the Old 
Testament, in which the hired servant is distin- 
guished from the master, or one of his family, 
occurs in the history of David, where he is 
said to have left the sheep, "ima' h]}, "in the 
hand of a keeper," while he went down to 
visit his brethren, and the armies who were 
fighting against the Philistines under the ban- 
ners of Saul, 1 Samuel xvii, 20. This word 
exactly corresponds with the Latin term custos, 
" a keeper," which Virgil uses to denote a hire- 
ling shepherd, in his tenth Eclogue : 

Atque utinam ex voids unus vesirique fuissem, 
Aut custos gregis, aut maturcB vinitor uvcc. 

" O that your birth and business bad been mine, 
To feed the flock and prune the spreading vine !" 

Wharton. 

In such extensive pastoral concerns, the vigi- 
lance and activity of the master were often 
insufficient for directing the operations of so 
many shepherds, who were not unfrequently 
scattered over a considerable extent of coun- 
try. An upper servant was therefore appoint- 
ed to superintend their labours, and take care 
that his master suffered no injury. In the 
house of Abraham, this honourable station was 
held by Eliezer, a native of Damascus, a serv- 
ant in every respect worthy of so great and 
good a master. The numerous flocks of Pha- 
raoh seem to have required the superintending 
care of many overseers. Gen. xlvii, 6. Doeg, 
an Edomite, was entrusted with the whole 
pastoral establishment of Saul, 1 Sam. xxi, 7. 
But in the reign of David, the important office 
of chief herdsman was abolished, and the vast 
flocks and herds of that monarch were entrust- 
ed to a number of superintendents; animals of 
the same species forming a separate flock, un- 
der its proper overseer, 1 Chronicles xxvii, 29. 
These overseers, in the language of the He- 
brews, were called the princes of the flock ; they 
were treated with great distinction, and seem 
to have been selected in the reign of David 
from among the nobles of his court. Eumaeus, 
a person of noble birth, agreeably to this cus- 
tom, was charged with the care of the herds 
of swine belonging to Ulysses. The office of 
chief shepherd is frequently mentioned by the 
classic authors of antiquity. Diodorus relates 
from Ctesias, that Simma was overseer of the 
royal flocks under Ninus, king of Assyria, 
According to Plutarch, one Samo managed the 
flocks and herds of Neoptolemus, the king of 
the Molossians. The office of chief shepherd 
was also known among the Latins; for, in the 
seventh ^neid, Tyrrheus is named as governor 
of the royal flocks : 

Tyrrheusque pater, cut regia paretit 
Armenia, et late custodia credita camp. 

" Their father, Tyrrheus, did his fodder bring ; 
Tyrrheus, chief ranger to the Latian king." 

Dryden. 

And Livy informs us, that Faustulus held the 



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same office ur^der Numitor, king of the Latins. 
But it is needless to multiply quotations ; every 
scholar knows that the Greek and Roman 
classics abound with allusions to this office, 
which in those days was one of great import- 
ance and dignity, on the faithful discharge of 
which the power and splendour of an eastern 
potentate greatly depended. The office of 
chief shepherd, therefore, being in pastoral 
countries one of great trust, of high responsi- 
bility, and of distinguished honour, is with 
great propriety applied to our Lord by the 
Apostle Peter : " And when the chief shepherd 
shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory 
which fadeth not away," 1 Peter v, 4. The 
same allusion occurs in these words of Paul : 
" Now the God of peace, that brought again 
from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that 
great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood 
of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect 
in every good work to do his will," Hebrews 
xiii, 20. 

SHIBBOLETH, « an ear of corn," was a 
word which the Gileadites used as the test of 
an Ephraimite. For the Ephraimites could 
not, from disuse, pronounce the Hebrew letter 
shin ; therefore, they said Sibboleth instead of 
Shibboleth, Judges xii, 6. The Greeks, says 
Hartley, have not the sound sh in their lan- 
guage : hence they are liable to be detected, 
like the Ephraimites. I was struck with this 
circumstance, in learning Turkish from a 
Greek tutor ; pasha, he pronounced pasa, ; 
shimdi, he called simdi; Dervish, Dervis, &c. 
Shibboleth he would, of course, pronounce 
Sibboleth. 

SHIELD. See Arms. 

SHILOH, Gen. xlix, 10. The Hebrew text 
is, "until Shiloh come." All Christian com- 
mentators agree, that this word ought to be 
understood of the Messiah, that is, of Jesus 
Christ. The LXX. read it, "Until the coming 
of him to whom it is reserved." It must be 
owned that the signification of the Hebrew 
word Shiloh is not well known. Some trans, 
late the clause, "The sceptre shall not depart 
from Judah, till he comes to whom it belongs ;" 
others, "till the coming of the peacemaker, or 
the pacific, or prosperity;" and some, "The 
sceptre shall not depart from Judah till its end, 
its ruin," till the downfall of the kingdom of 
the Jews. However, this much is clear, that 
the ancient Jews are in this matter agreed with 
the Christians, in acknowledging that the word 
stands for Messiah, the King. It is thus that 
the paraphrasts, Onkelos and Jonathan, and 
the ancient Hebrew commentaries upon Gene- 
sis, and the Talmudists explain it. If Jesus 
Christ and his Apostles did not make use of 
this passage to prove the coming of the Mes- 
siah, it was because then the completion of 
this prophecy was not sufficiently manifest. 
The sceptre still continued among the Jews ; 
they had still kings of their own nation, in 
the persons of the Herods ; but soon after the 
sceptre was entirely taken away from them, 
and a people began to be gathered to Christ, 
out of the Gentile nations. 

2. Shiloh, a celebrated city of the tribe of 



Ephraim, twelve miles from Shechem, Joshua 
xviii, xix, xxi. It was in this place that the 
tabernacle of the Lord was set up, when the 
people were settled in the country. The ark 
and the tabernacle of the Lord continued at 
Shiloh from A. M. 2560 till 2888, when it was 
taken by the Philistines, under the administra- 
tion of the high priest Eli, 1 Sam. iv. Here 
the Prophet Ahijah dwelt, 1 Kings xiv, 2. 

SHINAR, a province of Babylonia, where 
men undertook to build^ the tower of Babel, 
Genesis xi, 2 ; x, 10. Calneh was built in 
this country. Amraphel was king of Shinar 
in the days of Abraham, Genesis xiv, 1. See 
Babylon. 

SHISHAK, king of Egypt, declared war 
against Rehoboam in the fifth year of the reign 
of that prince, 2 Chron. xii, 2, 3, &c. This 
Shishak, according to Sir Isaac Newton, was 
the greatest conqueror, and the most celebrated 
hero, of all antiquity, being the son of Am- 
mon, or the Egyptian Jupiter, and known to 
the Gi-eeks by the name of Bacchus, Osiris, 
and Hercules ; v^as the Belus of the Chaldeans, 
and the Mars or Mavors of the Thracians, &c. 
He made great conquests in India, Assyria, 
Media, Scythia, Phenicia, Syria, Judea, &c. 
His army was at last routed in Greece by Ver- 
sens ; which, with other circumstances, com- 
pelled him to return home. 

SHITTIM, SITTIM, SITTAH, Dv^tjs 
r\i2\i;, Exod. xxv, 5, 10, 13, 23, 28 ; xxvi, 26, 32, 
37; xxvii, 1, 6; xxx, 5; xxxv, 7, 24; xxxvi, 
20, 31, 36; xxxvii, 1, 4, 10, 15,25, 28; xxxviii, 
1, 6 ; Deut. x, 3 ; Isaiah xii, 19. What par- 
ticular species of wood this is, interpreters are 
not agreed. The LXX. render aVjjrrra |i'Aa, in- 
corruptible wood. St. Jerom says, the shittim 
wood grows in the deserts of Arabia, and is 
like white thorn, as to its colour and leaves : 
but the tree is so large as to furnish very long 
planks. The wood is hard, tough, smooth, 
and extremely beautiful. It is thought that 
this wood is the black acacia, because that, it 
is said, is the most common tree growing in 
the deserts of Arabia ; and agrees with what 
the Scriptures say of the shittim wood. The 
acacia vera grows abundantly in Egypt, in 
places far from the sea ; in the mountains of 
Sinai, near the Red Sea, and in the deserts. 
It is of the size of a large mulberry tree. The 
spreading branches and larger limbs are armed 
with thorns which grow three together ; the 
bark is rough ; the leaves are oblong, and stand 
opposite each other ; the flowers, though some- 
times white, are generally of a bright yellow ; 
and the fruit which resembles a bean, is con- 
tained in pods like those of the lupin. " The 
acacia tree," says Dr. Shaw, " being by much 
the largest and most common tree in these 
deserts, Arabia Petrcea, we have some reason 
to conjecture, that the shittim wood was the 
wood of the acacia ; especially as its flowers 
are of an excellent smell, for the shittah tree 
is, in Isaiah xii, 19, joined with the myrtle and 
other fragrant shrubs." 

SHOES. To put off" the shoes from one's 
feet, was an act of reverence to the Divine 
majesty of God, Exod. iii, 5. It was likewise 



SHU 



861 



SID 



a sign of mourning and humiliation. David 
went up the ascent of Mount Olivet barefoot, 
2 Sam. XV, 30; Isa. xx, 2, 4; Ezek. xxiv, 17. 
See Sandal. 

SHOULDER. To give or lend the shoulder 
for the bearing of a burden, signifies to submit 
to servitude. " Issachar bowed his shoulder 
to bear, and became a servant unto tribute," 
Gen. xlix, 15. And Isaiah, x, 27, comforting 
Israel with the promise of deliverance from 
Assyria, says, "His burden shall be taken away 
from off thy shoulder." The Scripture calls that 
a rebellious shoulder, a withdrawing shoulder, 
which will not submit to the yoke ; and to 
bear it together with joint consent, is termed 
"serving with one shoulder." To bear any 
thing upon the shoulder, is to sustain it, and this 
is applied to government and authority. Thus 
Messiah was to bear the government upon his 
shoulder : "For unto us a child is born, unto 
us a son is given : and the government shall 
be upon his shoulder : and his name shall be 
called Wonderful, Counsellor," &c, Isa. ix, 6 ; 
and God promises Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 
to give .him the key of the house of David, 
and to lay it upon his shoulder ; " so he shall 
open, and none shall shut, and he shall shut, and 
none shall open ;" that is, the sole authorit}'^ 
shall rest upon him. 

SHUSHAN, or SUSA, the ancient capital 
of Persia, seated on the river Ulai, the modern 
Abzal. After the union of the kingdoms of 
Media and Persia by Cyrus, Susa was made the 
winter residence of the kings of Persia, from 
its southern position, and the shelter afforded 
by a range of mountains on the north and east, 
which rendered the heat insupportable in the 
summer season ; while Ecbatana, in Media, 
from its greater elevation, and more northern 
situation, was preferred at this season, as being 
more cool and agreeable. Here the transac- 
tions occurred related in the book of T^sther. 
Here also Daniel had the vision of the ram 
with two horns, and the goat with one horn, 
&c, in the third year of Belshazzar's reign. 
Susa was situated in the ancient province of 
Elam, or Elymais, called also Susiana, and 
now forming a part of Kuzestan. It has for 
several hundred years, like Babylon, been re- 
duced to a heap of undistinguished ruins. Mr. 
Kinneir says, "About seven or eight miles to 
the west of Dezphoul, commence the ruins of 
Shus, stretching not less, perhaps, than twelve 
miles, from one extremity to the other. They 
extend as far as the eastern bank of the Kerah ; 
occupying an immense space between that 
river and the Abzal ; and, like the ruins of 
Ctesiphon, Babylon, and Kufa, consist of 
hillocks of earth and rubbish, covered with 
broken pieces of brick and coloured tile. The 
largest and most remarkable of these mounds 
stand at the distance of about two miles from, 
the Kerah. The first is, at the lowest computa- 
tion, a mile in circumference, and nearly a 
hundred feet in height ; and the other, although 
not quite so high, is double the circuit of the 
former. These mounds bear some resemblance 
to the pyramids of Babylon ; with this difference, 
that instead of being entirely made of brick, 



they are formed of clay and pieces of tile, with 
irregular layers of brick and mortar, five or six 
feet in thickness, to serve, it should seem, as 
a kind of prop to the mass. Large blocks of 
marble, covered with hieroglyphics, are not 
unfrequently here discovered by the Arabs 
when digging in search of hidden treasure ; 
and at the foot of the most elevated of the 
pyramids stands the tomb of Daniel, a small 
and apparently a modern building, erected on 
the spot where the relics of that prophet are 
believed to rest. The site of the city of Shus 
is now a gloomy wilderness, infested by lions, 
hyasnas, and other beasts of prey. The dread of 
these furious animals compelled Mr. Monteith 
and myself to take shelter for the night within 
the walls that encompass Daniel's tomb." Of 
this tomb Sir John Malcom observes, that " it 
is a small building, but sufficient to shelter 
some dervishes who watch the remains of the 
prophet, and are supported by the alms of 
pious pilgrims who visit the holy sepulchre. 
These dervishes are now the only inhabitants 
of Susa ; and every species of wild beast roams 
at large over that spot on which some of the 
proudest palaces ever raised by human art 
once stood." He also observes, respecting the 
authenticity of this tomb, that " although the 
building at the tomb of Daniel be comparatively 
modern, nothing could have led to its being 
built where it is, but a belief that this was the 
real site of the prophet's sepulchre." 

SIDON, or ZIDON, a celebrated city and 
port of Phenicia, and one of the most ancient 
cities in the world ; as it is supposed to have 
been founded by Sidon, the eldest son of Ca- 
naan, "which will carry it up to above two 
thousand years before Christ. But if it was 
founded by Sidon, his descendants were driven 
out by a body of Phenician colonists, or Cushim 
from the east ; who are supposed either to have 
given it its name, or to have retained the old 
one in compliment to their god Siton, or Da- 
gon. Its inhabitants appear to have early 
acquired a preeminence in arts, manufactures, 
and commerce; and from their superior skill 
in hev/ing timber, by which must be understood 
their cutting it out and preparing it for build- 
ing, as well as the mere act of felling it, Sido- 
nian workmen were hired by Solomon to 
prepare the wood for the building of his temple. 
The Sidonians are said to have been the first 
manufacturers of glass ; and Homer often 
speaks of them as excelling in many useful 
and ingenious arts, giving them the title of 
Ilo'kvSaiSdXoi. Add to this, they were, if not 
the first shipwrights and navigators, the first 
who ventured beyond their own coasts, and in 
those early ages engrossed the greatest part of 
the then commerce of the world. The natural 
result of these exclusive advantages to the; 
inhabitants of Sidon was, a high degree of 
wealth aud prosperity ; and content with the 
riches which their trade and manufactures 
brought them, they lived in ease and luxury, 
trusting the defence of their city and property, 
like the Tyrians after them, to hired troops } 
so that to live in ease and security, is said irv 
Scripture to be after the manner of the Sido- 



^ SIL 



862 



SIM 



nians. In all these respects, however, Sidpn 
was totally eclipsed by her neighbour and 
rival Tyre ; whose more enterprising inhabit, 
ants pushed their commercial dealings to the 
extremities of the known world, raised their 
city to a rank in power and opulence unknown 
before, and converted it into a luxurious metro- 
polis, and the emporium of the produce of all 
nations. After the subversion of the Grecian 
empire by the Romans, Sidon fell into the 
hands of the latter; who, to put an end to the 
frequent revolt of the inhabitants, deprived it 
of its freedom. It then fell successively under 
the power of the Saracens, the Seljukian 
Turks, and the sultans of Egypt ; who, in 
1289, that they might never more afford shelter 
to the Christians, destroyed both it and Tyre, 
But it again somewhat revived, and has ever 
since been in the possession of the Ottoman 
Turks. 

SIGN. This word is used in the sense of 
token and pledge ; as, when the Lord gave to 
Noah the rainbow, as a sign of his covenant. 
Gen. ix, 12, 13 ; and when he appointed to 
Abraham the use of circumcision, as the seal 
of the covenant he had made with him and his 
posterity, Gen. xvii, 11. Sign is also put for 
a miracle : " Thou shalt do these signs and 
wonders in the midst of Egypt," Exodus iv, 
7-9, &c. A sign or token is often put for the 
proof or evidence of a thing : For example, 
" This shall be a token or sign unto thee, that 

1 have sent thee," Exod. iii, 12. "Shew me 
a sign, that thou talkest with me," Judges vi, 
17, that is a proof. " What shall be the sign," 
or evidence, " that the Lord will heal me ?" 

2 Kings XX, 8. This acceptation agrees with 
the first above mentioned ; as also what is said 
in Gen. iv, 15, " And the Lord set a mark or 
sign upon Cain ;" he gave him a pledge that 
his life should not be taken away. The signs 
of heaven, and the signs of the magicians, are 
the phenomena of the heavens, and the impos- 
tures of magicians, which they made use of 
for the purposes of deception : " The Lord 
frustrateth tlie tokens or signs of the liars, and 
maketh diviners mad," Isaiah xliv, 25. " Be 
not dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the 
Heathen are dismayed at them," Jer. x, 2. To 
be a sign was farther to be a type, or predic- 
tion, of what should happen. Thus the Pro- 
phet Isaiah, viii, 18, " Behold, I and the children 
whom the Lord hath given me, are for signs and 
for wonders in Israel." See also Ezek. iv, 3. 

SILAS, or Sylvanus, was, according to St. 
Luke,' Acts xv, 22, one of the " chief men 
among the brethren," which makes it probable, 
that he was of the number of the seventy dis- 
ciples. When a dispute was raised at Antioch 
about the observation of the legal ceremonies, 
they chose Paul, Barnabas, Judas, and Silas, 
to go to Jerusalem, to advise with the Apostles 
concerning this question. He is thought to 
be the same Silas v/ho is mentioned by the 
name of Sylvanus, in the title of the two epis- 
tles of St. Paul to the Thessalonians. St. Peter 
sent his first epistle by him from Rome, wherein 
he styles him "a faithful brother." Silas joined 
himself to St. Paul ; and after Saul and Bar- 



nabas had parted, on account of John Mark, 
Acts XV, 37-41, Silas followed St. Paul, and 
went with him to visit the churches of Syria 
and Cilicia. 

SILENCE. This word not only signifies 
to refrain from speaking; but also in the style 
of the Hebrews, it is taken for, "to be quiet, 
to remain immovable." As for example : 
" Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon," in He- 
brew, be silent. " And the sun stood still, and 
the moon stayed," Joshua x, 12, 13, or were 
silent, at the commandment of Joshua. 

SILO AH, the same as Siloam, Neh. iii, 15 ; 
Luke xiii, 4 ; a fountain under the walls of 
Jerusalem, toward the east, between the city 
and the brook Kidron, perhaps the same with 
Enrogel. Near this was a tower, Luke xiii, 4= 

SILK, 'i;:'D. As the word which is render- 
ed "silk" in our version more probably meant 
cotton, or rather muslin, it is doubtful whether 
silk is mentioned expressly in the Scripture^ 
unless, perhaps, in Isaiah xix, 9, where we 
find the Hebrew word mpni:', from pity, yeh 
lowish, tawny; which is generally the natural 
colour of raw silk ; hence the Latin sericum : 
or it may be from the Seres, a nation whence 
the Greeks and Romans first obtained the arti- 
cle silk. Calmet remarks that the ancient 
Greeks and Romans had but little knowledge 
of the nature- of silk. The Seres communi- 
cated their silk to the Persians, from whom it 
passed to the Greeks, and from them to the 
Romans. But the Persians and orientals for a 
long time kept the secret of manufacturing it 
among themselves. Silk was first brought into 
Greece after Alexander's conquest of Persia, 
and came into Italy during the flourishing 
times of the Roman empire ; but was long so 
dear in all these parts as to be worth its weight 
in gold. At length the emperor Justinian, 
who died in the year 365, by means of two 
monks, whom he sent into India for that pur- 
pose, procured great quantities of silk worms' 
eggs to be brought to Constantinople, and from 
these have sprung all the silk worms and all 
the silk trade that have been since in Europe, 
See Flax. 

SILVER, f^D3, Gen. xx, 16 ; apyvpiov, 1 Pet, 
i, 18 ; Acts iii, 4 ; xx, 33 ; a well known metal, 
of a vr hite shining colour ; next in value to 
gold. It does not appear to have been in use 
before the deluge ; at least Moses says nothing • 
of it : he speaks only of the metals brass and 
iron, Gen. iv, 22. But in Abraham's time it 
was become common, and traffic was carried 
on with it. Gen. xxiii, 2, 15. Yet it was not 
then coined, but was only in bars or ingots ; 
and in commerce was always weighed. 

SIMEON, son of Jacob and Leah, was 
born A. M. 2247, Genesis xxix, 33; xxxiv, 25 
Jacob, on his death bed, showed his indigna- 
tion against Simeon and Levi for their cruelty 
to the Shechemites, Gen. xlix, 5 : "I will divide 
them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel." 
And in effect these two tribes were scattered 
in Israel. As to Levi, he never had any fixed 
lot or portion ; and Simeon received only a 
canton that was dismembered from the tribe 
oi Judah, Joshua xix, 1, &c, and some other / 



SIM 



86^ 



SIM 



lands they went to conquer in the mountains 
of Seir, and the desert of Gedor, 1 Chronicles 
iv, 27, 39, 42. 

2. Simeon, a holy man, who was at Jerusa- 
lem, full of the Holy Ghost, and expecting the 
redemption of Israel, Luke ii, 25, 26, &c. The 
Holy Ghost had assured him, that he should 
not die before he had seen the Christ of the 
Lord ; he therefore came into the temple, 
prompted by inspiration, just at the time when' 
Joseph and Mary presented Jesus Christ there, 
in obedience to the law. Simeon took the 
child into his arms, gave thanks to God, and 
then blessed Joseph and Mary. It is believed, 
with good reason, that he died soon after he 
had given his testimony to Jesus Christ. Some 
have conjectured, that Simeon, who received 
Jesus Christ into his arms, was the same as 
Simeon the Just, the son of Hillel, and master 
of Gamaliel, whose disciple St. Paul was. See 
Sanhedrim. 

SIMON MACCABEUS, surnamed Thossi, 
son of Mattathias, and brother of Judas and 
Jonathan. He was chief prince and pontiff of 
the Jews from A. M. 3860 to 3869, and was 
succeeded by John Hyrcanus. For the par- 
ticulars of his life and transactions, see 1 Mac. 
ii, 65 ; V, 17 ; x, 74-82 ; xii, 33, &c ; xiii, 1, 
&-C ; xiv, 4, <Sic ; xv, 1, &c. 

2. Simon, the Canaanite, an Apostle of Jesus 
Christ. It is doubtful whether the name of 
Canaanite was derived to him from the city 
Cana in Galilee, or whether it should not be 
taken according to its signification in the He- 
brew, by deriving it from the root hana, "to 
be zealous," and this is the opinion of some 
learned men. See Luke vi, 15 ; Acts i, 13, 
where he is surnamed Zelotes ; see also Matt. 
X, 4 ; Mark iii, 18. 

3. Simon, brother of our Lord, Matt, xiii, 
55 ; Mark vi, 3 ; that is to say, his cousin- 
german, being son of Mary, sister to the holy 
virgin. He is thought to be the same with 
Simeon, bishop of Jerusalem, and son of 
Cleopas. 

4. Simon Magus. Of this heretic, or rather 
father of heresy, Dr. Burton gives the follow- 
ing account : — Justin Martyr, about A. D. 140, 
presented a defence of Christianity to the em- 
peror Antoninus Pius, in which he mentions, 
as a well known fact, that Simon, a native of 
Gittum, a village in Samaria, came to Rome in 
the reign of Claudius, was looked upon there 
as a god, and had a statue erected to him, with 
a I^atin inscription, in the river Tiber, between 
the two bridges. Justin adds, that nearly all 
the Samaritans, and a few also in other na- 
tions, acknowledged and worshipped him as 
the supreme God. There is in this passage 
such a minute detail, such a confident appeal 
to the emperor's own knovv^ledge of wha.t the 
apologist was saying, that we can hardly sup- 
pose the story to be false, when not only the 
emperor, but every person in Rome would have 
been able to detect it. I would observe, also, 
that Justin Martyr was himself a native of Sa- 
maria ; hence he was able to name the very 
place where Simon was born ; and when he 
says, in his second defence, which was pre- 



sented a few years later, " I have deflpised thd 
impious and false doctrine of Simon which is 
in my country;" when we see the shame which 
he felt at the name of Christian being assumed 
by the followers of that impostor ; we can never 
believe that he would have countenanced the 
story, if the truth of it had not been notorious, 
much less would he have given to his own 
country the disgrace of originating the evil. 

Simon Magus was a native of Gittum, a 
town in Samaria ; and it is stated in a suspi- 
cious document of ancient though doubtful 
date, that he studied for some time at Alex- 
andria. Concerning the time of his birth, and 
of his first rising into notice, little can now be 
known. The only contemporary document 
which mentions him is the Acts of the Apos- 
ties ; and we there read, that, when Philip the 
deacon preached the Gospel in Samaria after 
the death of Stephen, "there was a certain 
man, called Simon, which beforetime in the 
same city used sorcery, and bewitched the peo- 
ple of Samaria, giving out that himself was 
some great one ; to whom they all gave heed, 
from the least to the greatest, saying. This man 
is the great power of God. And to him they 
had regard, because that of long time he had 
bewitched them with sorceries," Acts viii, 9-11 . 
According to my calculation, the death of Ste 
phen happened in the same year with the cru- 
cifixion of our Lord ; and it appears from the 
passage now quoted, that Simon's celebrity had 
begun some time before. We are then told that 
" Simon himself believed also ; and when he 
was baptized, he continued with Philip, and 
wondered, beholding the miracles and signs 
which were done," Acts viii, 13. I need not 
mention how he shortly fell away from the 
faith which he had embraced, and how St. 
Peter rebuked him for thinking that the gifl 
of God might be purchased for money. Acts ' 
viii, 20 ; but I would observe, that some of 
those, persons who insist upon the fact that 
Simon was not a Christian appear to have for- 
gotten that he was actually baptized. For a 
time, at least, he believed in Jesus Christ ; and 
part af this belief he appears always to have 
retained ; that is, he always believed that Jesus 
Christ was a being more than human, who 
came from God. If these events happened^ as 
I have supposed, within a short time of our 
Lord's ascension, the fathers had good reason 
to call Simon Magus the parent of all heresies ; 
for he must then have been among the first 
persons, beyond the limits of Jerusalem, who 
embraced the Gospel ; and we might hope that 
there was no one before him who perverted the 
faith which he had professed. 

From the detailed account which we have 
of Simon in the Acts of the Apostles, I should 
be inclined to infer these two things: 1. That 
St. Luke knew -no earlier instance of apostasy 
from the Gospel ; and he mentions this because 
it was the first : and 2. That when St. Luke 
wrote the Acts of the Apostles the heresy of 
Simon was widely spread ; and therefore he 
tells his readers how it had begun. Concerning 
the remainder of Simon's life we know little, 
and in that little it is difticult to separate truth 



SIM 



864 



SIM 



from fiction. I should be inclined, for the rea- 
sons given above, to believe the account of Jus. 
tin Martyr, who says that Simon Magus went 
to Rome in the reign of Claudius, and attracted 
numerous followers. Eusebius quotes this pas- 
sage of Justin Martyr ; but he adds, upon some 
other authority, which he does not name, that 
St. Peter came to Rome at the same time ; and 
that, in consequence of his preaching, the 
popularity of the impostor was entirely destroy- 
ed. This would be a most interesting and im- 
portant fact, if we were certain of its being 
true ; but Eusebius contradicts himself in his 
account of Simon Magus going to Rome ; and 
later writers have so embellished the story of 
this meeting, and made the death of Simon so 
astonishingly miraculous, that criticism is at a 
loss to know what to believe. The account 
which we have of Simon's death is, in a few 
words, as follows : St. Peter and St. Paul be. 
ing both at Rome, Simon Magus gave out that 
he was Christ ; and, in proof of his assertion, 
he undertook to raise himself aloft into the 
air. The attempt at first appeared as if it 
would succeed ; but the two Apostles address- 
ing themselves in prayer to God, the impostor 
fell to the ground, and his death ensued shortly 
after. It is difficult to give this marvellous 
narration, without forgetting that we are treat- 
ing of a grave and sacred subject ; and the 
question for us to consider is, whether we are 
to look upon the whole as a fiction, or whether, 
as is most probable, it contains a basis and 
groundwork of truth. I must observe, in the 
first place, that Arnobius, who did not write 
till the fourth century, is the first person who 
says anything of Simon's death at all approach- 
ing to this story ; nor does he by any means 
give it all the particulars which later writers 
have supplied. It will be observed, also, that 
Eusebius, who wrote after Arnobius, does not 
say any thing of Simon's extraordinary end ; 
but merely states that his credit and influence 
were extinguished, as soon as St. Peter began 
to preach in Rome. It is probable, therefore, 
that no Greek writer before the time of Euse- 
bius had mentioned this story ; but, on the 
other hand, there is such a host of evidence, 
that the death of Simon Magus was in some 
way or other connected with the presence of 
St. Peter and St. Paul at Rome, that we might 
be carrying our skepticism too far if we re- 
jected it. 

With respect to the doctrines of Simon 
Magus, we know for certain that Christ held 
a conspicuous place in the philosophy which 
he taught; but to define with accuracy the 
various points of this philosophy, is a difficult, 
if not impossible, task. The fathers perhaps 
may be suspected of laying too many impieties 
to the charge of this heretic ; and some of their 
accounts cannot be reconciled with each other. 
Still, however, we may extract from their 
writings an outline of the truth ; and in this 
instance, as before, I would attach particular 
weight to the authority of Justin Martyr. That 
writer says that nearly all the inhabitants of 
Samaria, and a few persons in other countries, 
acknowledged and worshipped Simon Magus 



as the first or supreme God : and in another 
place he says that they styled hira God, above 
all dominion and authority and power. Later 
writers have increased the blasphemy of this 
doctrine, and said that Simon declared himself 
to the Samaritans as the Father, to the Jews 
as the Son, and to the rest of the world as the 
Holy Ghost. But I cannot bring myself to 
believe that he ever advanced so far in wick- 
edness or absurdity. The true state of the 
case may perhaps be collected from the words 
of St. Luke, who tells us that Simon gave 
himself out to be " som.e great one," and that 
the people said of him, " This man is the great 
power of God," Acts viii, 10. Such is the 
title which he bore before he had heard of - 
Christ ; and there is no reason to think that he 
afterward raised his pretensions, and identified 
himself with God. He gave himself out as 
"the great power of God," that is, a person 
in whom divine power resided : and, aftoi' he 
had heard the Apostles, he seems to have so 
far enlarged his doctrine, as to have said, that 
the God whose minister he was, and who had 
always been worshipped in Samaria, had re- 
vealed himself to the Jews by his Son, and to 
the rest of the world by the Holy Ghost. There 
is reason to believe that he declared himself 
to be the Christ who appeared to the Jews ; 
or rather, he said that the same spirit which 
descended upon Jesus had descended afterward 
upon himself; for he did not believe that Jesus 
had a real body, but he taught that he was 
only a phantom. To this- he added, that the 
Holy Ghost, by which God was revealed to the 
Gentiles, resided in himself: and this Itake to 
be the real origin of the story, that he was the 
God who revealed himself as the Father to the 
Samaritans, as the Son to the Jews, and as the 
Holy Ghost to the rest of the world. 

Another charge, which is equally difficult to 
believe, relates to a female companion, whom 
he is said to have declared to be the first idea, 
or conception, which he, as God, put forth 
from his mind. By another mental process, 
in which this first idea was a partner, he pro- 
duced the angels, and they created the world. 
All this was highly mystical, and writers have 
had recourse to different allegories, by which the 
absurdity may be explained. That Simon never 
identified a real living person with an idea 
emanating from the mind of God, may, I think, 
be assumed as certain. But we see, in this 
story, evident traces of the Gnostic doctrines. 
Valentinus, in the second century, made the 
first cause, or Bythus, act upon Styi), or 'Rwoia, 
that is, upon his own mind, and produce the 
first pair of seons. This then was the doc 
trine of Simon : the supreme God, by a mental 
process, produced different orders of angels, 
and they created the world. It was this same 
God, whose first or principal power resided in 
Simon Magus. But when later Avriters had said 
that he actually proclaimed himself as God, it 
followed that it was he, who, by an operation 
of his own mind, produced the angels. If I 
have argued rightly, I have freed the doctrine 
of Simon Magus from some of its impieties; 
but there is still much which is absurd, and 



' sm 



865 



sm 



much wliich is impious ; for he believed that 
the world was created, not by the supreme 
God, but by inferior beings : he taught also, 
that Christ was one of those successive gene, 
rations of aeons which were derived from God ; 
not the seon Avhich created the world ; but he 
was sent from God to rescue mankind from 
the tyranny of the demiurgus, or creative aeon. 
Simon was also inventor of the strange notion, 
that the Jesus who was said to be born and 
crucified had not a material body, but was only 
a phantom. His other doctrines were, that the 
writers of the Old Testament were not inspired 
by the supreme God, the Fountain of good, but 
by those inferior beings who created the world, 
and who were the authors of evil. He denied a 
general resurrection ; and the lives of himself 
and his followers are said to have been a con- 
tinued course of impure and vicious conduct. 

Such was the doctrine and the practice of 
Simon Magus, from whom all the pseudo- 
Christian or Gnostic heresies were said to be 
derived. Simon himself seems to have been 
one of those Jews who, as we learn from 
the Acts of the Apostles, travelled about the 
country, exorcising evil spirits. But he was 
also a man of speculative mind ; and, having 
studied the doctrines of Plato, he entered into 
the questions which were then so commonly 
agitated, concerning the eternity of matter, 
and the origin of evil. Hence we find him 
embracing the opinion, that the world was 
created by angels, who were themselves pro- 
duced from God. This was a corrupted Pla- 
tonism. Plato imagined that the ideas which 
were in the mind of the Deity created intellect- 
ual beings : Simon taught that the supreme God 
by an operation of his own mind produced the 
angels. The first intelligences of Plato were 
employed by God to create the world : Simon 
also taught that the angels, or Eeons, created 
the world ; but in one respect the Gnostics had 
totally changed the philosophy of Plato ; for 
they taught that the angel, or angels, who 
created tlie world, acted contrary to the wishes 
of the supreme God. 

SIN, the transgression of the law, or %vant 
of conformity to the will of God, 1 John iii, 4. 
Original sin is that whereby our whole nature 
is corrupted, and rendered contrary to the 
nature and law of God ; or, according to the 
ninth article of the church of England, "It is 
that whereby man is very far gone from ori- 
ginal righteousness, and is, of his own nature, 
inclined to evil." This is sometimes called, 
"indwelling sin," Rom. vii. The imputation 
of the sin of Adam to his posterity, is also 
what divines call, with some latitude of ex. 
pression, original sin. Actual sin is a direct 
violation of God's law, and generally applied 
to those who are capable of committing moral 
evil; as opposed to idiots or children, who have 
not the right use of their powers. Sins of 
omission consist in leaving those things undone 
which ought to be done. Sins of commission 
are those which are committed against affirma- 
tive precepts, or doing what should not be 
done. Sins of infi.rmity are those which arise 
from ignorance, surprise, &c. Secret sins are 
.56 



those committed in secret, or those of which, 
through blindness or prejudice, we do not 
see the evil. Psalm xix, 7-12. Presumptuous 
sins are those which are done boldlv against. 
light and conviction. The unpardonable sin 
is, according to some, the ascribing to tha 
devil the miracles which Christ wrought by 
the power of the Holy Ghost. This sin, ot 
blasphemy, as it should rather be called, many 
scribes and Pharisees were guilty of, who, be- 
holding our Lord do his miracles, affirmed that 
he wrought them by Beelzebub, the prince of 
devils, which was, in effect, calling the Holy 
Ghost Satan, a most horrible blasphemy ; and, 
as on this ground they rejected Christ, and 
salvation by him, their sin could certainly have 
no forgiveness, Mark iii, 22-30. No one there, 
fore could be guilty of this blasphemy, except 
those who were spectators of Christ's miracles. 
There is, however, another view of this un- 
pardonable offence, which deserves considera- 
tion : The sin or blasphemy against the Holy 
Ghost, says Bishop Tomline, is mentioned in 
the first three Gospels. It appears that all the 
three evangelists agree in representing the siir 
or blasphemy against the Holy Ghost as a 
crime which would not be forgiven ; but no 
one of them affirms that those who had ascribed 
Christ's power of casting out devils to Beelze- 
bub, had been guilty of that sin, and in St. 
Luke it is not mentioned that any such charg-e 
had been made. Our Saviour, according ta 
the account in St. Matthew and St. Mark, en.^ 
deavoured to convince the Jews of their error ;- 
but so far from accusing them of having com- 
mitted an unpardonable sin in what they had 
said concerning him, he declares that "whoso- 
ever speaketh a word against the Son of man,- 
it shall be forgiven him ;" that is, whatever 
reproaches men may uttor against the Son of 
man during his ministry, however they may 
calumniate the authority upon which he acts, 
it is still possible that hereafter they may re- 
pent and believe, and all their sins may be 
forgiven them ; but the reviling of the Holy 
Ghost is described as an offence of a far more 
heinous nature : " The blasphemy against the 
Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men." 
"He that shall blaspheme against the Holy 
Ghost hath never forgiveness." " Unto him 
that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it 
shall not be forgiven." It is plain that this 
sin against the Holy Ghost could not be com- 
mitted while our Saviour^ was upon earth, since 
he always speaks of the Holy Ghost as not 
being to come till af^er his ascension into 
heaven. A few days after that great event, 
the descent of the Holy Ghost enabled the 
Apostles to vs^ork miracles, and communicated 
to them a variety of other supernatural gifls. 
If men should ascribe these powers to Beelze- 
bub, or in any respect reject their authority, 
they would blaspheme the Holy Ghost, from 
whom they were derived ; and that sin would 
be unpardonable, because this was the comple- 
tion of the evidence of the divine authority of 
Christ and his religion ; and they who rejected 
these last means of conviction, could have no 
other opportunity of being brought to faith in 



SIN 



866 



SIN 



Glirist, the only appointed condition of pardon 
feind forgiveness. The greater heinousn 3ss of 
the sin of these men would consist in th 3ir re- 
jecting a greater body of testimony ; for they 
are supposed to be acquainted with the resur- 
rection of our Saviour from the dead, with his 
ascension into heaven, with the miraculous 
descent of the Holy Ghost, and with the super- 
natural powers which it communicated ; cir- 
cumstances, all of which were enforced by the 
Apostles when they preached the Gospel ; but 
none of which could be known to those who 
refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Mes- 
siah during his actual ministry. Though this 
was a great sin, it was not an unpardonable 
one, it might be remedied by subsequent belief, 
by yielding to subsequent testimony. But, 
- on the other hand, they who finally rejected 
the accumulated and complete evidence of 
Jesus being the Messiah, as exhibited by the 
inspired Apostles, precluded themselves from 
the possibility of conviction, because no farther 
testimony would be afforded them, and conse- 
quently, there being no means af repentance, 
they would be incapable of forgiveness and 
redemption. Hence it appears that the sin 
against the Holy Ghost consisted in finally 
rejecting the Gospel as preached by the Apos- 
tles, who confirmed the truth of the doctrine 
which they taught " by signs and wonders, 
and divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy 
Ghost," Heb. ii, 4. It was unpardonable, be- 
cause this Avas the consummation of the proofs 
afforded to the men of that generation of the 
divine mission of Christ. This sin was mani- 
festly distinct from all other sins ; it indicated 
an invincible obstinacy of mind, an impious 
and unalterable determination to refuse the 
offered mercy of God. It would appear from 
this, that those only committed or could com- 
mit this irremissible offence, who were wit- 
nesses of the mighty works wrought by the 
Holy Spirit in the Apostles after Christ's as- 
cension and the day of pentecost. Our Lord's 
declaration appears chiefly to respect the Jews. 
This view will serve to explain those passages 
in the Epistle to the Hebrews, in which the 
hopeless case of Jewish apostates is described. 
But see Blasphebiy. 

SIN, Desert of. To this the tenth station 
the Israelites came exactly a month after they 
left Egypt. And here again they murmured 
for " the bread and the flesh-pots of Egypt." 
So the Lord gave them quails for a day, and 
manna for forty years, till they came to the 
borders of Canaan. On this occasion the in- 
stitution of the Sabbath was revived, as a day 
of rest, which had been intermitted during 
their Egyptian bondage. On this day there 
fell no manna, but on the preceding they were 
directed to gather two days' provision. To 
perpetuate the memorial of " this bread from 
heaven" to future generations, a pot of manna, 
which was preserved fresh, by a standing mira. 
cle, was ordered to be laid up beside the ark of 
the covenant, in the sanctuary, Exod. xvi. 

SINAI, a famous mountain of Arabia Pe- 
trjea, on which God gave the law to Moses, 
Exod. XIX, 1 ; xxiv, 16 ; xxxi, 18 ; xxxiv, 2, 4, 



&c ; Lev. xxv, 1 ; xxvi, 46. It stands in a 
kind of peninsula, formed by the- two arms of 
the Red Sea; one extending north, called the 
Gulf of Kolsom ; the other extending east, 
called the Gulf of Elan. The Arabs call 
Mount Sinai by the name of Tor, that is, the 
mountain, by way of excellence; or Gibel 
Mousa, " the mountain of Moses." It is two 
hundred and sixty miles from Cairo, which is 
a journey of ten days. The wilderness of Si'- 
nai, where the Israelites continued encamped 
almost a year, and where Moses erected the 
tabernacle of the covenant, is considerably 
elevated above the rest of the country ; the 
ascent to it is very craggy, the greater part 
cut out of the rock ; then one comes to alarg'e 
space of ground, which is a plain surrounded 
on all sides by rocks and eminences, whose 
length is nearly twelve miles; Toward the 
extremity of this plain, on the north, two high 
mountains appear ; the highest is called Sinai, 
the other Horeb. They are of very steep as- 
cent, and do not stand on much ground in 
comparison to their extraordinary height. SK 
nai is at least one third part higher than the 
other, and its ascent more upright and diffi- 
cult. The top of the mountain terminates in 
an uneven and rugged space, which might 
contain about sixty persons. On this eminence 
is built a little chapel, called St. Catherine's, 
where it is thought the body of this saint 
rested for three hundred and sixty years ; but 
afterward it was removed into a church at the 
foot of the mountain. Near this chapel issues 
a fountain of very good fresh water ; it is look- 
ed upon as miraculous, it not being conceiva- 
ble how water can flow from the brow of so 
high and so barren a mountain. Mount Horeb 
stands Avest of Sinai ; so that at sun-rising the 
shadow of Sinai covers Horeb. Beside the 
little fountain at the top of Sinai, there is an- 
other at the foot of Horeb, which supplies the 
monastery of St. Catherine. Five or six paces 
from thence they show a stone, whose height 
is four or five feet, and breadth about three, 
which they say is the very stone from whence 
Moses caused the water to gush out. Its colour 
is of a spotted grey ; and it is, as it were, set hi 
a kind of earth, where no other rock appears. 
This stone has twelve holes or channels, which 
are about a foot wide, from whence they say 
the water issued which the Israelites drank. 

"Sinai," says Sandys, "has three tops of a 
mavellous height ; that on the west side, where 
God appeared to Moses in a bush, fruitful in 
pasturage, far lower than the middlemost, and 
shadowed when the sun riseth thereon ; Avhicli 
is that whereon God gave the law to Moses, 
and which is now called the Mount of Moses, 
at the foot of which stands the monastery 
called St. Catherine's, from which there were- 
steps formerly up to the very top of the mount- 
ain, and were computed fourteen thousand in 
number. At present some of them are broken, 
but those that remain are well made, and easy 
to go up and down. There are, in several 
places of the ascent, good cisterns ; and espe- 
cially near the top, a fair and good one. The 
third or most easterly summit is called by the 



SIO 



867 



SLE 



religious in those parts, Mount Catherine ; on 
the top of which there is a dome, under which 
they say was interred the body of this saint, 
brought thither by angels after she was be-, 
headed at Alexandria." One may judge of the 
height of St. Catherine's Mount, which cer- 
tainly is not so high as that of Moses by a 
third part, from this circumstance, that Theve- 
not found much snow on both when he was 
there, which was in February. The monastery 
of St. Catherine is from Cairo some eight days' 
journey over the deserts. 

SION, or ZION, Mount, a mount or hill on 
the south of Old Jerusalem or Salem, and 
higher than that on which the ancient city 
stood. This hill was, perhaps, on this account, 
made choice of by the Jebusites for building 
a fort or citadel upon ; which fort was taken 
by David, who transferred his court thither 
from Hebron, and brought the ark of the Lord 
and set it in a tabernacle or tent pitched for it. 
On this account it is, that this hill is so fre- 
quently styled in the Psalms the " holy hill ;" 
and, by way of excellence, is used in the poeti- 
cal language of Scripture to denote the whole 
city of Jerusalem. Here David built a palace, 
and a city, called after him the city of David ; 
and which subsequently formed a part of 
Jerusalem, enclosed within the same walls, 
although a great part of the hill is now left 
without them ; while, on the contrary, Cal- 
vary, which is supposed to have stood formerly 
without the walls, is now enclosed within 
them, the city having drawn it«elf round about 
this sacred mount. " This hill," says M. Cha- 
teaubriand, "is of a yellowish colour, and bar- 
ren appearance ; open in form of a crescent, 
toward Jerusalem ; and is about as high as 
Montmartre at Paris, but rounder at the top. 
This sacred summit is distinguished by three 
monuments, or, more properly, by three ruins, 
the house of Caiaphas, the place where Christ 
celebrated his last supper, and the tomb or 
palace of David. From the top of the hill 
you see, to the south, the valley of Den Hin- 
nom ; beyond this, the field of blood, purchased 
with the thirty pieces of silver given to Judas ; 
the hill of Evil Counsel, tlie tombs of the 
judges, and the whole desert toward Hebron 
and Bethlehem. To the north, the wall of 
Jerusalem, which passes over the top of Sion, 
intercepts the view of the city, the site of 
which gradually slopes toward the Valley of 
Jehoshaphat." 

Dr. Richardson observes of Sion, "At the 
time when I visited this sacred ground, one 
part of it supported a crop of barley, another 
was undergoing the labour of the plough, and 
the soil turned up consisted of stones and lime 
mixed with earth, such as is usually met with 
in the foundations of ruined cities. It i« nearly 
a mile in circumference, is highest on the west 
side, and toward the east falk down in broad 
terraces on the upper part of the mountain, 
and narrow ones on the side as it slopes down 
toward the brook Kedron. Each terrace is di- 
vided from throne above it by a low wall of dry- 
stone, built of the ruins of this celebrated spot. 
The terraces near the bottom of the hill are 



used as gardens, and are watered from the pool 
of Siloam. We have here another remarkable 
instance of the special fulfilment of prophecy, 
' Therefore shall Zion for your sakes be plough- 
ed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps/ 
Micah iii, 12." Mr. Jolliffe represents the hill 
of Sion as not more raised above the oity than 
the Aventine hill above the Roman forum; 
but conjectures that its height, from its base 
in the Valley of Gehinnon, from which it rises 
abruptly, may be equivalent to some of the 
lowest hills which encompass Bath ; that is, 
if the estimate be correct, about three hundred 
and sixty feet, which is the height of the low- 
est of the hills above that city,- 

SISTER, in the style of the Hebrews, has 
equal latitude as brother. It is used not only 
for a sister by natural relation from the same 
father and mother, but also for a sister only 
by the same father or by the same mother, or 
a near relation only. Sarah is called sister to 
Abraham, Gen. xii, 13 ; xx, 12, though only 
his niece according to some, or sister by the 
father's side according to others. In the law. 
Lev. xviii, 18, it is forbidden to take to wife 
the sister of a wife ; to marry two sisters ; or^ 
according to some interpreters, to marry a 
second wife, having one already. Literally, 
" Thou shalt not take a wife over her sister to 
afflict her ;" as if meaning to forbid polygamy. 
In the Gospels, the brothers and sisters of Jesua 
Christ are his cousins, children of the sisters of 
the holy virgin. Matt, xiii, 56 ; Mark vi, 3v ; 
SLAVE. See Servant. ■ 

SLEEP, Sleeping, Slumbering, is taken- 
either for the sleep or repose of the body ; or 
for the sleep of the soul, which is supineness^; 
indolence, stupidity ; or for the sleep of deaths 
" You shall sleep with your fathers ;" you shall 
die, as they are dead. Jeremiah, li, 3&, threat- 
ens Babylon, tn the name of the Lord, with a 
perpetual sleep, out of which they shall not 
awake. Daniel, xii, 2, speaks of those that 
sleep in the dust of the grave. "Lazarus our 
friend sleepeth ; let us go and awake hiin,'* 
John xi, 11 ; he is dead, let us go and raise 
him up. "Awake, thou that sleepest, and 
arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee 
light," Eph. V, 14. Here St, Paul speaks to- 
those that were dead in nin and infidelity. St. 
Peter says of the wicked, " Their damnation 
slumbereth not," 2 Peter ii, 3. God is not 
asleep, he will not forget to punish them in 
his ov7n due time. Isaiah, Ixv, 4, speaks of a 
superstitious practice amdng the Pagans, who 
went to sleep in the temples of their idols, to' 
obtain prophetic dreams : "They remain among 
the graves, and lodge in the monuments." The 
word, which we translate "monuments," sig- 
nifies places "kept" or " observed." Some in- 
terpret it of idol temples, some of caves and 
dens, in which the Heathens used to worship 
their idols ; and some of tombs or monuments 
for dead persons. Thus also the superstitious 
and idolatrous Jews, in contempt of the pro- 
phets, and of the temple of the Lord, went 
into the tombs and temples of idols to sleep 
there, and to have dreams that might discover 
future events to them. The Pagans fox this 



soc 



86S 



SOC 



purpose used to lie upon the skins of the sacri- 
ficed victims. 

SLINGS. See Arms. 

SMYRNA, a city of Asia Minor, and one 
of the finest in all the Levant. It contended 
for the honour of giving birth to Homer, and 
its title is by many thought to be the best 
founded. The Christian church in Smyrna 
was one of the seven churches of Asia to 
which the Apostle John was commanded to 
address an epistle, Rev. ii, 8-10. The present 
Smyrna, which the Turks call Esmir, is about 
four miles in circumference, and contains a 
population of about a hundred thousand souls. 
It is less remarkable for the elegance of its 
buildings than for the beauty of its situation, 
the extent of its commerce, and the riches of 
its inhabitants. 

SOCINIANS, a sect so called from Faustus 
Socinus, who died in Poland in 1604. This 
celebrated man was born in Tuscany, and was 
descended from an ancient and noble family. 
In the earlier period of his life he devoted lit- 
tle time to literary acquisitions, but he was 
possessed of a vigorous understanding, and of 
that steady fortitude which qualified him for the 
memorable part which he afterward acted. His 
connection with his uncle Lselius probably gave 
a bias to his mind with respect to religion. He 
warmly embraced his tenets, and he spent a 
great part of his days in studying and dissemi- 
Bating them. Having left his native country, 
he visited Poland ; and finally he settled in it 
for the express purpose of propagating his own 
peculiar views of religious truth. The funda- 
mental principles which he assumed were, the 
rejection of all mystery from revelation, and 
the necessity of trjang its doctrines by the 
light of reason ; and he rigorously applied this 
latter maxim in conducting his theological in- 
vestigations. He inculcated in the strictest 
sense, the unity of God ; considered the Word 
and the Holy Ghost as attributes of the su- 
preme Being ; taught that Christ was a man 
peculiarly honoured by the Almighty, having 
been born through the operation of the Spirit ; 
and that he was so highly exalted, in conse- 
quence of his ofiice as the Saviour of the world, 
that he might be styled the Son of God, and 
ought to be worshipped. Struck with several 
declarations of our Lord which seemed to im. 
ply that he liEtd descended from heaven, and 
which militated against his leading tenet re- 
specting Jesus, he endeavoured to evade the 
application of them, by supposing or affirming 
that, previous to the commencement of our 
Saviour's ministry, he had, through the power 
of God, been taken up to the celestial regions, 
and had in them received from the Almighty the 
truths which he was commissioned to reveal. 

The first reception of Socinus in Poland, 
even by those who might have been expected 
to welcome him, was most discouraging. The 
Unitarian churches which had been previously 
established in that kingdom, differing from 
him in several points, would not admit him 
into their communion ; and he had to encoun- 
ter the enmity of the great majority of Chris- 
tians, who abhorred liis tenets, and branded 



them as impious. But, notwithstanding all 
this, and although he was visited with much 
suffering and affliction, his perseverance, his 
talents, and his zeal soon excited admiration ; 
his views were adopted by many even in the 
highest stations of life ; his principles were 
embodied in a catechism, which, though not 
imposed upon his followers, they read with 
very extensive acquiescence ; and he had the 
satisfaction of beholding the sentiments which 
he had long cherished, embraced by various 
churches enjoying the protection of govern, 
ment, and permitted to establish seminaries 
of education by which the impression made on 
the public mind might be preserved and deep- 
ened. There was not, however, perfect una- 
nimity of faith among all his associates who 
united in denying the divinit57^ of our Lord. 
Vast numbers of these, previous to their having 
perused the papers of Laelius Socinus, had so 
far received the system of Arianism, that they 
believed Christ to have existed before he en- 
tered into the world ; and although many, in 
consequence of the reasonings and representa- 
tions of Socinus, abandoned this doctrine, it 
was retained by some, who, from their leader, 
were called Farnovians. Socinus conducted 
himself toward these men with admirable ad- 
dress. Fully aware that the tendency of their 
having departed so far from the orthodox te- 
nets was to lead them to still farther recession, 
and sensible that his own system naturally and 
consequentially resulted from what they rea- 
dily admitted, he used every method to conci 
liate them, and he permitted them to remain 
with his followers, upon condition of their not 
openly insisting on the preexistence of Christ. 
They did, however, at length separate from 
the great body of his adherents ; but they gra- 
dually approached nearer and nearer to them, 
and, upon the death of Farnovius, most of them 
incorporated themselves with the Socinians, 
and all trace of them as a distinct party was 
obliterated. 

Socinus was much more agitated by the pro- 
mulgation of an opinion very opposite to tJiose 
now mentioned. As might have been antici- 
pated, there were some who, having adopted 
the sentiments of Laelius Socinus as to the 
simple humanity of Christ, deduced from this 
tenet consequences which appeared to them 
obviously to flow from it, although these had 
not been perceived or admitted by Laelius him- 
self. A striking example of this took place in 
tlie time of Faustus Socinus. Francis David, 
a man of considerable influence among the 
Unitarians, being the superintendent of their 
churches in Transylvania, maintained that, as 
Christ was born just like other men, so he con- 
tinued, notwithstanding his exaltation, to be 
merely a human being; and that therefore all 
invocation of him, and Vi^orship paid to him, 
were to be shunned as impiety or idolatry. 
Socinus inveighed with the utmost warmth 
against this opinion ; he used every method to 
induce David to i-enounce it ; and, at the de. 
sire of one of his friends, he resided for a con- 
siderable time at the house of his opponent, 
that the subject at issue might be fully and 



soc 



869 



SOC 



calmly discussed. He failed, however, in ac- 
complishing his object. David persisted, as 
he had, upon the ground which he had taken, 
good reason to do, in asserting the doctrine 
which he had announced ; and he was soon 
after this thrown by the prince of Transylvania 
into prison, where he lingered for several years, 
and then died at an advanced age. It has been 
insinuated that Socinus was accessary to this 
cruel deed of detestable persecution ; and, al- 
though attempts have been made to wipe off the 
imputation, tliere is too much cause to think 
that it is not wholly unfounded. Most certain 
it is, that he had it much at heart to root out 
what he viewed as the heresy of David, and 
that the support of it after the death of the 
unhappy sufferer by some distinguished Unita- 
rians gave him much uneasiness. It is not 
unlikely that the zeal which he thus displayed 
arose from his apprehension that the tenets 
which he opposed would supplant his own, and 
from the difficulty that he must have experi- 
enced in turning aside the inferences which 
were affirmed to follow from what he admitted. 
If such was the case, and it seems in many re. 
spects more probable than the conjecture of 
Mosheim, that it is to be attributed to the dread 
of rendering the sect more odious than it actu- 
ally was, we have astrikingproof of his discern- 
ment, though at the expense of his candour ; 
for the present creed of Unitarianism ap. 
preaches much nearer to that of David than 
to the doctrines of the founder of Socinianism 
himself. 

But, while he was thus disquieted by oppo- 
sition Avhich, after the liberty with which he 
had himself departed from the faith of the most 
ancient and numerous Christian churches, 
should have created no surprise, he was highly 
gratified by the zeal and the establishment of 
his followers. Under the protection of the am- 
ple toleration which they enjoyed in Poland 
they were sedulous in their attempts to im- 
print their tenets upon those among whom 
they lived, and to send these tenets abroad to 
foreign nations. The Anti-trinitarians in Po- 
land had early translated the Scriptures, and 
their successors under Socinus composed many 
works with the design of defending the prin- 
ciples of their faith. They also sent missiona- 
ries to propagate their views and to disseminate 
the books wjiich supported them, anticipating 
success similar to that which had accompanied 
their efforts in Transylvania. But in Hungary 
and in Austria they were successfully opposed 
by the united and cordial efforts of Catholics 
and Protestants. In Holland they were more 
fortunate ; and in England they established only 
one congregation, which differed in some points 
from the parent sect, and which soon dwindled 
away. 

These failures, which the ardour, the ability, 
and the high rank of many who engaged in 
the diffusion of Socinianism were unable to 
prevent, were soon followed by their expulsion 
from the country in which they had so long 
remained in security and peace. Toward the 
middle of the seventeenth century some of the 
students attending the academy at Racow, 



wantonly insulted the feelings and tlie princi- 
ples of the Catholics, by a contemptible act of 
outrage against a crucifix, which, with stones, 
they threw down from the place in which it 
had been erected. By men warmly attached 
to their own religion, and who had at all times 
regarded the Socinians as undermining its 
foundation, this youthful excess was repre- 
sented as confirming all the charges that had 
been made against the community to which 
the perpetrators belonged, and they determined 
to exert themselves to procure their punish- 
ment or extirpation. The supporters of the 
established religion accordingly applied to the 
diet at Warsaw ; and, notwithstanding the pow- 
erful influence used in favour of the Socinians, 
a cruel edict was passed, abolishing their acade- 
my at Racow, banishing the learned men who 
had taught in it, breaking the printing presses, 
and shutting up the churches. This edict was 
carried into effect with much severity; but it 
did not exhaust the enmity now cherished 
against the sect ; for within a few years after, 
by a solemn act of the Polish diet, they were 
banished from the territories of the republic, 
and, with sad departure from the tolerant and 
beneficent spirit of the Gospel, death was de- 
nounced against all who held their opinions, 
or who even sheltered and protected those v/ho 
entertained them. A short time was allowed 
to the unfortunate victims to arrange their af- 
fairs before they bade an eternal adieu to scenes 
which all the ties of human life must liave en- 
deared to them ; but this period was abridged. 
Some, however, had escaped the operation of 
the law, and had remained in Poland ; but three 
years after the edict was renewed, and the 
Socinians who still lingered in their beloved 
country were driven from it with a rigour and 
an inhumanity reflecting infamy upon those 
who were guilty of them, and leading to the 
most melancholy reflections upon that dismal 
perversion of all that is amiable in our nature, 
which has so often been effected by a mistaken 
zeal for a religion breathing the tenderest con- 
cern for the happiness of mankind. The 
principles of Socinus were, notwithstanding, 
secretly fostered, and various causes tended to 
perpetuate them even where in profession they 
were abjured. The propensity, so natural to 
man, of dissipating every shade of mystery, and 
casting the light of his own understanding 
around the subjects of his contemplation, did 
not cease to operate ; and the application of 
this principle, so gratifying to the pride of hu- 
man reason, carried many farther than even 
Socinus had probably anticipated. 

The Socinians hold, that Jesus Christ was 
a mere man, who had no existence before he 
was born of the virgin Mary; that the Holy 
Ghost is no distinct person ; but tliat the Fa- 
ther only is truly and properly God. They 
own that the name of God is given in Scripture 
to Jesus Clirist, but contend that it is only a de- 
puted title ; wliich, however, invests him with 
a great authority over all creatures. They 
deny the docfrine of satisfaction and imputed 
righteousness, and say, that Christ only preach- 
ed the truth to mankind, set l)efore them in 



SOL 



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himself an example of heroic virtue, and sealed 
his doctrines with his blood. Original sin they 
epteera a mere scholastic chimera. Some of 
them, likewise, maintain the sleep of the soul, 
which, they say, becomes insensible at death, 
and is raised again with the body at the resur- 
rection, when the good shall be established in 
the possession of eternal felicity, while the 
wicked shall be consigned to a fire that will 
torment them, not eternally, but for a certain 
duration, proportioned to their demerits. 

SODOM, the capital of Pentapoiis, which 
for some time was the residence of Lot, the 
nephew of Abraham. The history of its de- 
struction is given in the book of Genesis. See 
Abraham, Lot, and Dead Sea. 

SOLOMON, or SALOMON, son of David 
and Bathsheba, was born A.M. 2971. The 
Lord loved him, and sent Nathan to David to 
give Solomon the name of Jedidiah, or, " be- 
loved of the Lord,^' 2 Sam. xii, 24, 25. This 
was probably when Nathan assured David that 
his son should succeed him, and that he should 
inherit those promises which had been made to 
him some years before, when he had conceived 
the design of building a temple to the Lord; 
for then God declared, by the prophet Nathan, 
that the iionour of building a temple should be 
reserved for his son, 2 Sam. vii, 5, &c. Solo- 
mon, being confirmed in his kingdom, con- 
tracted an alliance with Pharaoh, king of 
Egypt, and married his daughter, A.M. 2291. 
He brought her to Jerusalem, and had apart- 
jnents for her in the city of David, till he 
should build her a palace, which he did some 
years afterward, when he had finislied the 
temple. It is thought that on occasion of this 
marriage, Solomon composed the Canticles, 
which are a kind of epithalamium. The Scrip- 
ture speaks of the daughter of Pharaoh, as 
contributing to pervert Solomon, 1 Kings xi, 
1, 2; Neh. xiii, 26; and it is very likely, that 
if at first this princess might seem converted 
to the Lord, she afterward might retain her 
private disposition to idolatry, and might en- 
gage her husband in it. 

Solomon, accompanied by his troops and ail 
Israel, went up to Gibeon, where was then the 
hrazen altar, upon which he offered a thousand 
hurnt-offerings. The night following, God ap- 
peared to him in a dream, and said, " Ask of 
jne what thou wilt." Solomon begged of God 
a wise and understanding heart, and such qua- 
lities as were necessary for the government of 
the people committed to him. This request 
pleased the Lord, and was fully granted by 
him. Solomon returned to Jerusalem, where 
he offered a great number of sacrifices on the 
altar before the ark of the Lord, and made a 
great feast for his servants. He enjoyed a 
profound peace throughout his dominions ; 
Judah and Israel lived in security ; and his 
neighbours either paid him tribute, or were his 
allies ; he ruled over all the countries and 
kingdoms from the Euphrates to the Nile, and 
his dominions extended even beyond the for. 
mer ; he had abundance of horses and chariots 
of war ; he exceeded the orientals, and all the 
Egyptians, in wisdom and prudence ; he was 



the wisest of mankind, and his reputation was 
spread through all nations. He composed or 
collected, three thousand proverbs, and one 
thousand and five canticles. He knew the 
nature of plants and trees, from the cedar on 
Libanus to the hyssop on the wall; also of 
beasts, of birds, of reptiles, of fishes. There 
was a concourse of strangers from ail countries 
to hear his wisdom, and ambassadors from the 
most remote princes. 

When Hiram, king of Tyre, knew that So- 
lomon was made king of Israel, he sent am- 
bassadors to congratulate him on his accession 
to the crown. Some time afterward, Solomon 
desired him to supply wood and workmen, to 
assist in building a temple to the Lord. Hiram 
gladly undertook this service, and Solomon, 
on his part, obliged himself to give twenty 
thousand measures of wheat, and twenty thou- 
sand measures of oil. The Hebrew and the 
Vulgate have only twenty measures of oil ; 
but the reading ought no doubt to be twenty 
thousand. Solomon began to build the tem- 
ple in the fourth year of his reign, and the se- 
cond after the death of David ; four hundred 
and eighty years after the exodus from Egypt. 
He employed in this great work seventy thou- 
sand proselytes, descendants of the ancient 
Canaanites, in carrying burdens, fourscore 
thousand in catting stones out of the quarries, 
and three thousand six hundred overseers of 
the works ; beside thirty thousand Israelites 
in the quarries of Libanus. 

The temple was completed in the eleventh 
year of Solomon, so that he was but seven 
years in performing this vast work. The dedi- 
cation was made the year following, A. M. 3001 . 
To make this ceremony the more august, So- 
lomon chose for it the eighth day of the se- 
venth month of the holy year, which was the 
first of the civil year, and answered to our 
October. The ceremony of the dedication 
lasted seven days, at the end of which began 
the feast of tabernacles, which continued seven 
days longer ; so that the people continued- at 
Jerusalem fourteen or fifteen days, from the 
eighth to the twenty-second of the seventh 
month. When the ark was placed in the sane? 
tuary, while the priests and Levites were cele- 
brating the praises of the Lord, the temple wag 
filled with a miraculous cloud, so that the 
priests could no longer stand to perform the 
functions of their ministry. Then Solomon, 
being on his throne, prostrated himself with 
his face to the ground; and rising up, and 
turning toward the sanctuary, he addressed 
his prayer to God, and besought him that the 
house which he had built might be acceptable 
to him, that he would bless and sanctify it, 
and hear the prayers of those who should ad- 
dress him from this holy place. He besought 
him also to fulfil the promises he had made to 
David his servant in favour of his family, and 
of the kings his successors. Then turning 
himself to the people, he solemnly blessed 
them. Fire coming down from heaven con- 
sumed the victims and burnt sacrifices on the 
altar, and the glory of the Lord filled the whole 
temple. On this day the king caused to be 



SOL 



871 



SPI 



sacrificed twenty-two thousand oxen, and one 
hundred and twenty thousand sheep for peace- 
ofFerings. And because the altar of burnt-of. 
ferings was not sufficient for all these victims, 
the king consecrated the court of the people. 

Solomon afterward built a palace for him- 
self, and another for his queen, the king of 
Egypt's daughter. He was thirteen years in 
finishing these buildings, and employed in 
them whatever the most exquisite art, or the 
most profuse riches, could furnish. The pa- 
lace in which he generally resided was called 
the house of the forest of Lebanon : probably 
because of the great quantity of cedar used in 
it. Solomon also built the walls of .Jerusalem, 
and the place called Millo in this city ; he re- 
paired and fortified Hazor, Megiddo, Gezer, 
the two Bethhorons, Upper and Lower, Baal- 
ath, and Palmyra in the desert of Syria. He 
also fortified the cities where he had maga- 
zines of corn, wine, and oil ; and those where 
his horses and chariots were kept. He brought 
under his government the Hittites, the Hivites, 
the Amorites, and the Perizzites, which re- 
mained in the land of Israel. He made them 
tributaries, and compelled them to work at the 
public works. He fitted out a fleet at Ezion- 
Geber, and at Elath, on the Red Sea, to go to 
Ophir. Hiram, king of Tyre, furnished him 
with mariners, who instructed the subjects of 
Solomon. They performed this voyage in 
three years, and brought back gold, ivory, 
ebony, precious wood, peacocks, apes, and 
other curiosities. In one voyage they brought 
Solomon four hundred and fifty talents of gold, 
2 Chron. ix, 21. About the same time, the 
queen of Sheba came to Jerusalem, attracted 
fey the great fame of the king. She brought 
rich presents of gold, spices, and precious 
stones ; and proposed several enigmas and 
'hard questions, to which Solomon gave her 
such satisfactory answers, that she owned 
what had been told her of his wisdom and 
magnificence was far short of what she had 
found. The king, on his part, made her rich 
presents in return. 

Solomon was one of the richest, if not the 
very richest, of all princes that have ever 
lived ; and the Scripture expressly tells us he 
exceeded in riches and wisdom all the kings 
of the earth. His annual revenues were six 
hundred and sixty-six talents of gold, without 
reckoning tributes from kings and nations, or 
paid by Israelites, or sums received for cus- 
toms. The bucklers of his guards, and the 
throne he sat on, were overlaid with gold. 
All the vessels of his table, and the utensils of 
his palaces, were of gold. From all parts he 
received presents, vessels of gold and silver, 
precious stuffs, spiees, arms, horses, and mules ; 
and the whole earth desired to see his face, and 
to hear the wisdom which God had put into 
his heart. But the latter actions of his life 
disgraced his character. Beside Pharaoh's 
daughter, he married wives from among the 
Moabites, Ammonites, Idumeans, Sidonians, 
and Hittites. He had seven hundred wives, 
who were so many queens, beside three hun- 
dred concubines. Tliese women perverted his 



heart in his declining age, so that he worsliip- 
ped Ashtoreth, goddess of the Sidonians, Mo- 
loch, idol of the Ammonites, and Chemosh, 
god of the Moabites. To these he built tem- 
ples on the Mount of Olives, over against and 
east of Jerusalem, and thus insulted openly 
the Majesty he had adored. 

Solomon died after he had reigned forty 
years, A. M. 3029. He might be about fifty, 
eight years of age ; for he was about eighteen 
when he began to reign. Josephus makes 
him to have reigned eighty years and to have 
lived ninety-four years ; but this is a manifest 
error. The history of this prince was written 
by the prophets Nathan, Ahijah, and Iddo. 
He was buried in the city of David ; and Re- 
hoboam his son reigned in his stead. Of all 
the ingenious works composed by Solomon, we 
have nothing remaining but his Proverbs, Ec- 
clesiastes, and the Canticles ; that is,, every 
literary monument respecting him has perish- 
ed, except those written under inspiration — the 
inspired history which registers his apostasy, 
and his own inspired works, which, in all the 
principles they contain, condemn his vices. 
Some have ascribed to him the book of Wis- 
dom, and Ecclesiasticus ; but these were writ- 
ten by Hellenistic Jews. 

SOUL, that immortal, immaterial, active 
substance or principle in man, whereby he 
perceives, remembers, reasons, and wills. See 
Materialism. 

SOWING. Our Lord, in his parable of the 
sower, says, " Some seeds fell by the wayside, 
and the fow^ls came and devoured them." 
Buckingham, in his Travels in Palestine, re- 
marks, " We ascended to an elevated plain 
where husbandmen were sowing, and some 
thousands of starlings covered the ground, as 
the wild pigeons do in Egypt, laying a heavy 
contribution on the grain thrown into the fur- 
rows, which are not covered by harrowing, as 
in Europe." The sowing " beside all waters," 
mentioned by Isaiah, seems to refer to the 
sowing of rice, which is done on low grounds 
flooded, and prepared for sowing by being 
trodden by oxen and asses, mid-leg deep ; thus, 
they send " forth thither the feet of the ox and 
the ass." 

SPARROW, -MDX, Gen. vii, 14, and after- 
ward frequently ; s'povOlov, Matt, x, 29 ; Luke 
xii, 6, 7 ; a little bird every where known. The 
Hebrew word is used not only for a sparrow, 
but for all sorts of clean birds, or for those the 
use of which was not forbidden by the law. 
That the sparrow is not intended in Psalm cii, 
7, is evident from several circumstances ; for 
that is intimated to be a bird of night, one that 
is both solitary and mournful ; none of which 
characteristics is applicable to the sparrow, 
which rests by night, is gregarious and cheer- 
ful. It seems rather to mean a bird melan- 
choly and drooping, much like one confined 
in a cage. See Swallow\ 

SPEECH. See Language. 

SPIDER, tyoDy, Job riii, 14; Isa. lix, 5. 
An insect well known, remarkable for the 
thread which it spins, with which it forms a 
web of curious texture, but so frail that it i$ 



SPI 



872 



STO 



exposed to be broken and destroyed by the 
slightest accident. To the slenderness of this 
filmy workmanship, Job compares the hope of 
the wicked. This, says Dr. Good, was " doubt- 
Jess a proverbial allusion ; and so exquisite, 
that it is impossible to conceive any figure 
that can more fully describe the utter vanity 
of the hopes and prosperity of the wicked." 
"Deceiving bliss ! in bitter shame it ends, 
His prop a cobweb, which an iasect rends." 

So Isaiah says, " They weave the web of 
the spider ; of their webs no garment shall be 
jmade ; neither shall they cover themselves 
with their works." 

SPIKENARD, -]-):. By this was meant a 
highly aromatic plant growing in the Indies, 
called " nardostachys," by Dioscorides and 
Galen ; from whence was made the very valu- 
able extract or unguent, or favourite perfume, 
used at the ancient baths and feasts, unguen- 
turn nardinum, unguentum narili sp'icatcB, [the 
perfume or unction of spikenard,] which it ap- 
pears from a passage in Horace, was so valu- 
able, that as much of it as could be contained 
in a small box of precious stone, was con- 
sidered as a -Sort of equivalent for a large ves- 
sel of wine, and a handsome quota for a guest 
to contribute at an entertainment, according 
to the custom of antiquity : 
Nardo vina merebere : 

Nardi parvus onyx eliciet cadum. 

;*' Bring you the odours, and a cask is thine. 
, Thy little box of ointment shall produce 
' A mighty cask." Francis. 

St. Mark, xiv, 3, mentions " ointment of 
spikenard very precious," which is said to be 
worth more than three hundred denarii ; and 
John, xii, 3, mentions a pound of ointment of 
spikenard, very costly ; the house was filled 
with the odour of the ointment ; it was worth 
three hundred denarii. It is not to be sup, 
posed that this was a Syrian production, but 
the true " atar" of Indian spikenard ; an un. 
guent, containing the very essence of the 
plant, and brought at a great expense from a 
lemoie country. 

SPIRIT, in Hebrew, ni"i, in Greek, zsvevna, 
and in Latin^ sjpiritus, is in the Scriptures 
sometimes taken for the Holy Ghost, the third 
person of the Holy Trinity. The word signi- 
fies also the reasonable soul which animates 
us, and continues in existence even after the 
death of the body : that spiritual, thinking and 
reasoning substance, which is capable of eter- 
nal happiness, Num. xvi, 22 ; Acts vii, 59. 
The term spirit is also often used for an angel, 
a demon, and a ghost, or soul separate from 
the body. It is said, in Acts xxiii, 8, that the 
Sadducees denied the existence of angels and 
spirits. Jesus Christ appearing to his diciples, 
said to them, Luke xxiv 39, " Handle me and 
see, for a spirit hath not ilesh and bones, as ye 
see me have." And St. Paul calls the good 
angels "ministering spirits," Heb. i, 14. In 
1 Sam. xvi, 14 ; xviii, 10 ; xix 9, it is said that 
an evil spirit from the Lord troubled Saul : and 
we have also the expression unclean spirits. 
Add to this, spirit is sometimes put for the dis- 
j)ositio2i of the hoart or mind : see Num. y 



14; Zech. xii, 10; Luke xiii, 11; Isa. xi, 2 
Discerning of spirits, or the secret charactei 
and thoughts of men, was a gift of God, ano 
placed among the miraculous gifts of the Holy 
Ghost, 1 Cor. xii, 10; 1 John iv, 1. 

STAR, in Hebrew, 2Ta- Under the name 
of stars, the ancient Hebrews comprehended 
all the heavenly bodies, constellations, and 
planets ; in a word, all the luminaries, the sun 
and moon excepted. The number of the stars 
was looked upon as infinite. And the Psalm- 
ist, to exalt the power and magnificence of 
God, says, that he numbers the stars and calls 
them by their names ; and so are they put to 
express a vast multitude, Gen. xv^ 5 ; xxii, 17 ; 
Exod. xxxiii, 13. 

STEPHEN, the first martyr. He is always 
put at the head of the seven deacons; and 
it is believed he had studied at the feet of 
Gamaliel. As he was full of the Holy Ghost, 
and of zeal. Acts vi, 5, 6, &c, he performed 
many wonderful miracles : and those of the 
synagogue of the Libertines, of the Cyrenians, 
of the Alexandrians, and_ others, disputing 
with him, could not withstand the wisdom 
and the power with which he spoke. Then 
having suborned false witnesses, to testify that 
they had heard him blaspheme against Moses, 
and against God, they drew him before the 
sanhedrim. Stephen appeared in the midst of 
this assembly, with a countenance like that of 
an angel ; and the high priest asking him 
what he had to answer, in his defence ho 
rapidly traced the history of the Jews, show= 
ing that they had always opposed themselves 
to God and his prophets ; faithfally upbraided 
them with the hardness of their hearts, with 
their putting the prophets to death, and, lastly, 
with slaying Christ himself. At these words 
they v/ere filled with rage, and gnashed their 
teeth against him. But Stephen, lifting up 
his eyes to heaven, calmly exclaimed, " I see 
the heavens opened, and the Son of man stand- 
ing at the right hand of God." Then the Jews 
cried out, and stopped their ears as though 
they had heard blasphemy, and falling on 
him, they drew him out of the city, and 
stoned him. The witnesses laid down their 
clothes at the feet of a young man called Saul, 
afterward St. Paul, who then appears to have 
commenced his career of persecution. " And 
they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and 
saying. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit ; and he 
kneeled down and cried with a loud voicCj 
Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And 
when he had said this, he fell asleep," an ex- 
ample of the majesty and meekness of true 
Christian heroism, and as the first, so also the 
pattern, of all subsequent martys. His Chris- 
tian brethren forsook not the remains of this 
holy man ; bvtt took care to bury him, and 
accompanied his funeral with great mourning, 
Acts viii, 2. 

STOICS, a sect of Heathen philosophers, 
Acts xvii, 18, Their distinguishing tenets 
were, that God is underived, incorruptible, 
and eternal ; possessed of infinite wisdom and 
goodness ; the efficient cause of all the quali- 
ties and forms of things; and the constant 



STO 



873 



STO 



"j>reservex and governor of the world : That 
matter, in its original elements, is also unde- 
rived and eternal : and is by the powerful en- 
ergy of the Deity impressed with motion and 
form : That though God and matter subsisted 
from eternity, the present regular frame of 
nature had a beginning originating in the gross 
and dark chaos, and will terminate in a univer- 
sal conflagration, that will reduce the world 
to its pristine state : That at this period all 
material forms will be lost in one chaotic mass ; 
and all animated nature be reunited to the 
Deity : That from this chaotic state, however, 
the world will again emerge by the energy of 
the efficient principle ; and gods, and men, and 
all forms of regulated nature be renewed and 
dissolved, in endless succession : And that 
after the revolution of the great year all things 
will be restored, and the race of- men will re- 
turn to life. Some imagined, that each indi- 
vidual would return to its former body ; while 
others supposed, that similar souls would be 
placed in similar bodies. Those among the 
stoics who maintained the existence of the soul 
after death, supposed it to be removed into the 
celestial regions of the gods, where it remains 
until, at the general conflagration, all souls, 
both human and divine, shall be absorbed in 
the Deity. But many imagined that, before 
they were admitted among the divinities, they 
must purge away their inherent vices and im- 
perfections, by a temporary residence in some 
aerial regions between the earth and the plan- 
ets. According to the general doctrine of the 
stoics, all things are subject to a stern irresisti- 
ble fatality, even the gods themselves. Some 
of them explained this fate as an eternal chain 
of causes and effects ; while others, more ap- 
proaching the Christian system, describe it as 
resulting from the divine decrees — the fiat of 
an eternal providence. Considering the sys- 
tem practically, it was the object of this philo- 
sophy to divest men of their passions and 
aflTections. They taught, therefore, that a wise 
man might be happy in the midst of torture ; 
and that ail external things were to him in- 
diflferent. Their virtues all arose from, and 
centred in, themselves ; and self approbation 
was their great reward. 

STONE. This word is sometimes taken in 
the sense of rock, and is applied figuratively to 
God, as the refuge of his people. See Rock. 
The Hebrews gave the name of "stones" to 
the weights used in commerce ; no doubt be- 
cause they were originally formed of stone. 
*' Just weights," is therefijre in Hebrew^ "just 
stones." "The corner stone," or "the head 
stone of the corner," is a figurative representa- 
tion of Christ. It is the stone at the angle of 
a building, whether at the foundation or the 
top of the wall. Christ was that corner stone, 
which, though rejected by the Jews, became 
the corner stone of the church, and the stone 
that binds and unites the synagogue and the 
Gentiles in the unity of the same faith. Some 
have thought the showers of stones cast down 
by the Lord out of heaven, mentioned several 
times in the Old Testament, to be showers of 
hail of extraordinary size ; which was proba- 



bly the case, as they even now sometimes oc- 
cur in those countries in a most terrific and 
destructive form, and show how irresistible an 
agent this meteor is in the hands of an offended 
God. The knives of stone that were made use 
of by tlie Jews in circumcision, M-ere not en- 
joined by the law ; but the use of them was 
founded, either upon custom, or upon the ex- 
perience that this kind of instrument is found 
to be less dangerous than those made of metal. 
Zipporah made use of a stone to circumcise 
her sons, Exod. iv, 25. Joshua, v, 2, did the 
same, when he caused such of the Israelites to 
be circumcised at Gilgal, as had not received 
circumcision during their journey in the wil- 
derness. The Egyptians, according to Hero- 
dotus, made use of knives of stone to open 
dead bodies that were to be embalmed ; and 
Pliny assures us, that the priests of the mother 
of the gods had sharp stones, with which they 
cut and slashed themselves, which they thought 
they could not do with any thing else without 
danger. Great heaps of stones, raised up for 
a witness of any memorable event, and to pre- 
serve the remembrance of some matter of great 
importance, are among the most ancient monu- 
ments. In those elder ages, before the use of 
writing, these monuments were instead of in- 
scriptions, p3'^ramids, medals, or histories. Ja- 
cob and Laban raised such a monument upon 
Mount Gilead in memory of their covenant. 
Gen. xxxi, 46, Joshua erected one at Gilgal, 
made of stones taken out of the Jordan, to 
preserve the memorial of his miraculous pas- 
sage over this river. Josh, iv, 5-7. The Israel- 
ites that dwelt beyond Jordan also raised one 
upon the banks of the river, as a testimony 
that they constituted but one nation with their 
brethren on the other side, Joshua xxii, 10. 
Sometimes they heaped up such a collection 
of stones upon the burying place of some 
odious persons, as was done in the case of 
Achan and Absalom, Joshua vii, 26 ; 2 Kings 
xviii, 17. 

A " heart of stone" may be understood seve- 
ral ways. Job, xli, 24, speaking of the levia- 
than, says, that " his heart is as firm as a 
stone, yea as hard as a piece of the nether 
millstone :" that is, he is of a very extraordi- 
nary strength, boldness, and courage. It is 
said, 1 Sam. xxv, 37, that Nabal's heart died 
within him, and he became as a stone, when 
he was told of the danger he had incurred by 
his imprudence ; his heart became contracted 
or convulsed, and this was the occasion of his 
death. Ezekiel, xxxvi, 26, says, that the Lord 
will take away from his people their heart of 
stone, and give them a heart of flesh ; that is, 
he will render them contrite, and sensible to 
spiritual things. " I will give him a white 
stone," Rev. ii, 17 ; that is, I will give him 
full and public pardon and absolution. It is 
spoken in allusion to an ancient custom of de- 
livering a white stone to such as they acquitted 
in judgment. They used likewise to give a 
white stone to such as conquered in the Gre- 
cian games. 

STORK, n-i>Dn, Lev. xi, 19 ; Deut. xiv, 18 ; 
Job xxxix, 1.3; Psalm civ, 17.; Jer. viii, 7; 



STR 



874 



STU 



Zech. V, 9 ; a bird similar to the crane in size, 
has the same formation as to the bill, neck, legs, 
and body, but is rather more corpulent. The 
colour of the crane is ash and black ; that of 
the stork is white and brown. The nails of 
its toes are also very peculiar; not being claw- 
ed like those of other birds, but flat like the 
nails of a man. It has a very long beak, and 
long red legs. It feeds upon serpents, frogs, 
and insects, and on this account might be 
reckoned by Moses among unclean birds. As 
it seeks for these in watery places, nature has 
provided it with long legs ; and as it flies away, 
as well as the crane and heron, to its nest with 
its plunder, therefore its bill is strong and jag- 
ged, the sharp hooks of which enable it to 
retain its slippery prey. It has long been re- 
markable for its love to its parents, whom it 
never forsakes, but tenderly feeds and cherishes 
when they have become old, and unable to pro- 
vide for themselves. The very learned and 
judicious Bochart has collected a variety of 
passages from the ancients, in which they tes- 
tify this curious particular. Its very name in 
the Hebrew language, chasida, signifies mercy 
or piety : and its English name is taken, if not 
directly, yet secondarily, through the Saxon, 
from the Greek word aTopyr), which is often 
used for natural affection. 

The stork 's an emblem of true piety ; 
Becaiise, Avhen age has seized and made his dam 
Unfit for flight, the grateful young one takes 
His mother on his back, provides her food, 
Repaying thus her tender care of him 
Ere he was fit to fly. Beaumont. 

It is a bird of passage, and is spoken of as 
such in Scripture: "The stork knoweth her 
appointed time," Jer. viii, 7. 

Who bid the stork, Columbus-like, explore 
Heavens not its own, and worlds unknown before 7 
Who calls the council, states the certain day, 
Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way 1 

Pope. 
Bochart has collected several testimonies of 
the migration of storks, .^lian says, that in 
summer time they remain stationary, but at 
the close of autumn they repair to Egypt, Li- 
bya, and Ethiopia. " For about the space of a 
fortnight before they pass from one country to 
another," says Dr. Shaw, " they constantly 
resort together, from all the adjacent parts, in 
a certain plain ; and there forming themselves, 
once every day, into a ' douwanne,' or council, 
(according to the phrase of these eastern na- 
tions,) are said to determine the exact time of 
their departure, and the place of their future 
abodes." See Swallow. 

STRANGER. Moses inculcated and en- 
forced by numerous and by powerful consi- 
derations, as well as by various examples of 
benevolent hospitality, mentioned in the book 
of Genesis, the exhibition of kindness and hu- 
manity to strangers. There were two classes 
of persons who, in reference to this subject, 
were denominated strangers, onj. One class 
were those who, whether Hebrews or foreign- 
ers, were destitute of a home, in Hebrew 
Di3!y"in. The others were persons who, though 
Bot natives, had a home in Palestine ; the lat- 
t,er were onj, strangers or foreigners, in the 



strict sense of the word. Both of these classes, 
according to the civil code of Moses, were to 
be treated with kindness, and were to enjoy 
the same rights with other citizens, Lev. xix, 
33, 34; xxiv, 16, 22; Num. ix, 14; xv, 14; 
Deut. X, 18 ; xxiii, 7 ; xxiv, 17 ; xxvii, 19. In 
the earlier periods of the Hebrew state, persons 
who were natives of another country, but who 
had come, either from choice or from necessity, 
to take up their residence among the Hebrews, 
appear to have been placed in favourable 
circumstances. At a later period, namely, in 
the reigns of David and Solomon, they were 
compelled to labour on the religious edifices 
which were erected by those princes ; as we 
may learn from such passages as these : "And 
Solomon numbered all the strangers that were 
in the land of Israel, after the numbering 
wherewith David his father had numbered 
them ; and they were found a hundred and 
fifty thousand and three thousand and six 
hundred; and he set three score and ten thou- 
sand of them to be bearers of burdens," &c, 
1 Chron. xxii, 2 ; 2 Chron. ii, 1, 16, 17. The 
exaction of such laborious services from fo- 
reigners was probably limited to those who 
had been taken prisoners in war ; and who, 
according to the rights of war, as they were 
understood at that period, could be justly em- 
ployed in any offices, however low and how- 
ever laborious, which the conqueror thought 
proper to impose. In the time of Christ, the 
degenerate Jews did not find it convenient to 
render to the strangers from a foreign country 
those deeds of kindness and humanity which 
were not only their due, but which were de- 
manded in their behalf by the laws of Moses. 
They were in the habit of understanding by 
the word pn, neighbour, their friends merely, 
and accordingly restricted the exercise of their 
benevolence by the same narrow limits that 
bounded in this case their interpretation ; con- 
trary as both were to the spirit of those pas- 
sages which have been adduced above, Lev. 
xix, 18-. 

STREETS, Corners of. Our Lord reproves 
the Pharisees for praying in the corners of the 
streets, that is, choosing public places for what 
ought to have been private devotion. The 
Hindoos, Mohammedans, and others still have 
this practice. "Both Hindoos and Mussul- 
mans ofi'er their devotions in the most public 
places ; as, at the landing places of rivers, in 
the public streets, and on the roofs of boats, 
without the least modesty or attempt at con- 
cealment." "An aged Turk," observes Rich- 
ardson, " is particularly proud of a long flow- 
ing white beard, a well shaved cheek and 
head, and a clean turban. It is a common 
thing to see such characters, far past the 
bloom of life, mounted on stone seats, with a 
bit of Persian carpet, at the corner of the 
streets, or in front of their bazaars, combing 
their beards, smoking their pipes, or drinking 
their coffee, with a pitcher of water standing 
beside them, or saying their prayers, or read- 
ing the Koran." 

STUMBLING, Stone of. "We set out 
from Argos very early in the mernin|f," says 



STU 



875 



STU 



Hartley, •' and were almost eleven hours in 
reacliing Tripolitza. The road is, for the most 
part, dreary; leading over lofty and barren 
hills, the principal of which is Mount Parthe- 
nius. In England, where the roads are so 
excellent, we do not readily perceive the force 
and just application of the Scriptural figures, 
derived from a ' stone of stumbling, and a rock 
of offence,' Isaiah viii, 14, and similar pas- 
sages ; but in the east, where the roads are, 
for the most part, nothing more than an ac- 
customed track, the constant danger and im- 
pediment arising to travellers from stones and 
rocks fully explain the allusion." 

In the grand description which Isaiah gives, 
Ixiii, 13, of God " with his glorious arm" lead- 
ing his people through the Red Sea, it is said, 
•' That led them through the deep, as a horse 
in the wilderness, that they should not stum- 
ble ;" that is, who preserved them from falling 
amidst the numerous inequalities in the bed of 
the sea, caused in some instances by deep ca- 
vities, and in others by abrupt intervening 
rocks. The figure is a very natural one, es- 
pecially in the east, where the Arabs and 
Tartars are famed for their dexterity in the 
management of even bad horses. A curious 
instance of this occurs in Colonel Campbell's 
" Overland Journey to the East Indies." Speak- 
ing of the Tartar, an accredited courier of the 
Turkish government, under whose guidance 
he travelled in disguise across the desert from 
Aleppo to Masul, he says, "One day, after 
riding about four miles from a caravansera, at 
which we had changed our cattle, I found that 
a most execrably bad horse had fallen to my 
lot. He was stiff, feeble, and foundered ; in 
consequence of which he stumbled very much, 
and I every minute expected that he would fall 
and roll over me. I therefore proposed to the 
guide to exchange with me ; a favour which 
he had hitherto never refused, and for which 
I was the .more anxious as the beast that he 
rode was of the very best kind. To my utter 
astonishment, he peremptorily refused ; and as 
this had been a day of unusual taciturnity on 
his part, I attributed his refusal to peevishness 
and ill temper, and was resolved not to let the 
matter rest there. I therefore desired the in- 
terpreter to inform him, that as he had at 
Aleppo agreed to change horses with me as 
often as I pleased, I should consider our agree- 
ment infringed if he did not comply, and 
would write to the consul at Aleppo to that 
effect. As soon as this was conveyed to him, 
he seemed strongly agitated by anger, yet en- 
deavoured to conceal his emotions under af- 
fected contempt and derision, which produced 
from him one of the most singular grins that 
ever yet marred the human physiognomy. At 
length he broke forth: — 'You will write to 
Aleppo, will you ? Foolish Frank I they will 
not believe you,' &c. — ' Why do you not, then,' 
said I, interrupting him ; ' why do you not 
perform your promise by changing horses, 
when you are convinced in your conscience 
(if you have any) that it was part of our agree- 
ment V — ' Once for all, I tell you,' interrupted 
he, ' I will not give up this horse. There is 



not,' said he gasconadingly, ' there is not a Mus- 
sulman that ever wore a beard, not to talk of 
a wretched Frank, who should get this horse 
from under me. I would not yield him to the 
Commander of the Faithful this minute, were 
he in your place ; and I have my own reasons 
for it.' — ' I dare say you have,' returned I, ' iove 
of your ease, and fear of your bones.' At hear- 
ing this he grew quite outrageous; called Mo- 
hammed and Allah to witness, that he did not 
know what it v/as to fear any thing; declared 
that he was convinced some infernal spirit had 
that day got possession of me, &c. At lengtli 
observing that I looked at him with sneering 
contemptuous defiance, he rode up alongside 
of me. I thought it was to strike, and pre- 
pared to defend myself. I was however mis. 
taken : he snatched the reins out of my hand, 
and caught hold of them collected close at the 
horse's jaw, then began to flog my horse and 
to spur his own, till he got them both into full 
speed : nor did he stop there, but continued to 
belabour mine with his whip and to spur his 
own, driving headlong over every impediment 
that came in our way, till I really thought he 
had run mad, or designed to kill me. Several 
times I was on the point of striking him with 
my whip, in order to knock him off his horse ; 
but as often patience providentially came in to 
my assistance, and whispered to me to forbear, 
and see it out. Meantime I considered my- 
self as being in some danger ; and yet such 
was the power which he had over the cattle, 
that I found it impossible to stop him. So, 
resigning the event to the direction of Provi- 
dence, I suffered him, without a farther effort, 
to proceed. He continued this for some miles, 
over an uncultivated tract, here and there in- 
tersected with channels formed by rills of wa- 
ter in the periodical rains, thickly set with low 
furze, ferns, and other dwarf bushes, and bro- 
ken up and down into little hills. His horse 
carried him clear over all; and though mine 
was every minute stumbling and nearly down, 
yet, with a dexterity inexpressible and a vigour 
altogether amazing, he kept him up by the 
bridle, and, I may say, carried him gallantly 
over every thing. At all this I was very much 
astonished ; and, toward the end, as much 
pleased as astonished ; which he perceiving, 
cried out frequently and triumphantly, 'Be- 
hold, Frank, behold !' and at last, drawing in 
the horses, stopping short, and looking me full 
in the face, he exclaimed, ' Frank, what say 
you now?' For some time I was incapable 
of making him any answer, but continued sur- 
veying him from head to foot as the most ex- 
traordinary savage I had ever beheld ; while 
he stroked his whiskers with great self-com- 
placency and composure, and nodded his head 
every now and then, as much as to say, 'Look 
at me ! Am I not a very capital fellow ?' We 
alighted on the brow of a small hill, whence 
was to be seen a full and uninterrupted pros- 
pect of the country all round. The interpreter 
coming up, the Tartar called to him, and de- 
sired him to explain to me carefully the mean- 
ing of what he was about to say. ' Yon see 
those mountains,' said he, pointing to the ^ast j 



SUP 



876 



SUP 



* they are in the province of Kurdestan, and 
inhabited by a vile race of robbers, who pay 
homage to a god of their own, and worship the 
devil from fear. They live by plunder ; and 
often descend from those mountains, cross 
the Tigris which runs between them and us, 
and plunder and ravage this country in bands 
of great number and formidable strength, car- 
rying away into slavery all they can catch, 
and killing all who resist them. This country 
therefore, for some distance round us, is very 
dangerous to travellers, whose only safety lies 
in flight. Now it was our misfortune this 
morning to get a veiy bad horse. Should we 
meet with a band of those Curds, what could 
we do but fly ? And if you, Frank, rode this 
horse, and I that, we could never escape ; for 
I doubt you could not keep him v,jp from falling 
under me, as I did under you. I should there- 
fore come down and be taken ; you would lose 
your guide and miss your way ; and all of us 
would be undone.' As soon as the interpreter 
had explained this to me, ' Well,' continued 
the Tartar, ' what does he say to it now ?' — 
' Why, I say,' returned I, ' that you have 
spoken good sense and sound reason ; and I 
am obliged to you.' This, when fully inter- 
preted, operated most pleasingly upon him, 
and his features relaxed into a broad look of 
satisfaction." 

SUPERSTITION may be described to be 
either the careful and anxious observation of 
numerous and unauthorized ceremonies in re- 
ligion, under the idea that they possess s'ome 
virtue to propitiate God and obtain his favour, 
orf as among Pagans and others, the worship 
of imaginary deities, and the various means of 
averting evil by religious ceremonies, which a 
heart oppressed with fears, and a perverted 
fancy, may dictate to those ignorant of the 
true God, and the doctrines of salvation. Dr. 
Neander observes, The consideration of human 
nature and history shows us that the transition 
from unbelief to superstition is always easy. 
Both these conditions of the human heart pro- 
ceed from the self-same ground, the want of 
that which may be properly called faith, the 
want of a life in God, of a lively communion 
with divine things by means of the inward 
life ; that is, by means of the feelings. Man, 
whose inward feelings are estranged from the 
divine nature, is inclined, sometimes to deny the 
reality of that of which he has nothing within 
him, and for the conception and application 
of which to himself he has no organ. Or else, 
the irresistible force of his inward nature im- 
pels man to recognize that higher power from 
which he would fain free himself entirely, and 
to seek that connection with it which he cannot 
but feel needful to his comfort ; but, inasmuch 
as he is without any real inw^ard sympathy of 
disposition with the Divinity, and wants a true 
Bense of holiness, the Divinity appears to his 
darkened religious conscience only under the 
form of power and arbitrary rule. His con- 
science paints to him this power as an angry 
and avenging power. But as he has no idea 
of that which the Divinity really is, he cannot 
duly understand this feeling of estrangement 



from God, this consciousness of divine wrath 
and, instead of seeking in moral things the 
source of this unquiet feeling, which leaves 
him no rest by day or night, and from which 
there is no escape, he fancies that by this or 
that action, which of itself is perfectly indiffer- 
ent, he may have offended this higher power, 
and he seeks by outward observances again to 
reconcile the offended power. Religion here 
becomes a source, not of life, but of death ; 
the source, not of consolation and blessing, but 
of the most unspeakable anxiety which tor- 
ments man day and night with the spectres 
of his own imagination. Religion here is no 
source of sanctification, but may unite in man's 
heart with every kind of untruth, and serve to 
promote it. There is one kind of superstition 
in which, while man torments himself to the 
utmost, he still remains estranged from the 
true nature of inward holiness ; and while he 
is restrained from many good works of charity 
by his constant attendance on mischievous, 
arbitrary, and outward observances, he is still 
actuated by a horror of any great sin, a super- 
stition in which man avoids pleasure so com- 
pletely that he falls into the opposite extreme ; 
and even the most innocent enjoyments, 
which a childlike simplicity would receive with 
thankfulness from the hand of a heavenly Fa- 
ther, he dares not indulge in. But there is 
also another kind of superstition, which makes 
it easy for man, by certain outward observ- 
ances, to silence his conscience under all kinds 
of sin, and which therefore serves as a welcome 
support to it. 

SUPPER, Lord's, derives its name from 
having been instituted by Jesus, after he had 
supped with his Apostles, immediately before 
he went out to be delivered into the hands of 
his enemies. In Egypt, for every house of 
the children of Israel, a lamb was slain upon 
that night, when the Almighty punished the 
cruelty and obstinacy of the Egyptians by kill- 
ing their first-born, but charged the destroy- 
ing angel to pass over the houses upon which 
the blood of the lamb was sprinkled. This 
was the original sacrifice of the passover. In 
commemoration of it, the Jews observed the 
annual festival of the passover, when all the 
males of Judea assembled before the Lord in 
Jerusalem. A lamb was slain for every house, 
the representative of that whose blood had 
been sprinkled in the night of the escape from 
Egypt. After the blood was poured under the 
altar by the priests, the lambs were carried 
home to be eaten by the people in their tents 
or houses at a domestic feast, where every 
master of a family took the cup of thanksgiv- 
ing, and gave thanks with his family to the 
God of Israel. Jesus having fulfilled the law 
of Moses, to v/hich in all things he submitted, 
by eating the paschal supper with his disciples, 
proceeded after supper to institute a rite, which, 
to any person that reads the words of the in- 
stitution without having formed a previous 
opinion upon the subject, will probably appear 
to have been intended by him as a memorial 
of that event which was to happen not many 
hours after. " Ho took bread, and gave thanks, 



sup 



877 



SUR 



and brake it, and gave it unto them, saying. 
This is my body which is given for you : this 
do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the 
cup after supper, saying, Tliis cup is the new 
testament in my blood, which is shed for you," 
Luke xxii, 19, 20. He took the bread which 
was then on the table, and the wine, of which 
some had been used in sending round the cup 
of thanksgiving ; and by saying, "This is my 
body, this is my Islood, do this in remembrance 
of me," he declared to his Apostles that this 
was the representation of his death by which 
he wished them to commemorate that event. 
The Apostle Paul, not having been present at 
the institution, received it by immediate reve. 
lation from the Lord Jesus ; and the manner 
in which he delivers it to the Corinthians, 
1 Cor. xi, 23-26, implies that it was not a 
rite confined to the Apostles whovi^ere present 
when it was instituted, but that it was meant 
to be observed by all Christians till the end of 
the world. " As often as ye eat this bread, 
and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death 
till he come." Whether we consider these 
words as part of the revelation made to St. 
Paul, or as his own commentary upon the 
nature of the ordinance which was revealed to 
him, they mark, with equal significancy and 
propriety, the extent and the perpetuity of the 
obligation to observe that rite which was first 
instituted in presence of the Apostles. 

There is a striking correspondence between 
this view of the Lord's Supper, as a rite by 
which it was intended that all Christians 
should commemorate the death of Christ, and 
the circumstances attending the institution of 
the feast of the passover. Like the Jev/s, we 
have the original sacrifice : " Christ our pass- 
over is sacrificed for us," and by his substitu- 
tion our souls are delivered from death. Like 
the Jews, we have a feast in which that sacri- 
fice, and the deliverance purchased by it, are 
remembered. Hence the Lord's Supper was 
early called the eucharist, from its being said 
by St. Luke, "Jesus, when he took the bread, 
gave thanks ;" and his disciples in all ages, 
when they receive the bread, keep a feast of 
thanksgiving. To Christians, as to Jews, there 
is " a night to be much observed unto the 
Lord," in all generations. To Christians, as 
to Jews, the manner of observing the night is 
appointed. To both it is accompanied with 
thanksgiving. 

The Lord's Supper exhibits, by a significant 
action, the characteristical doctrine of the 
Christian faith, that the death of its author, 
which seemed to be the completion of the rage 
of his enemies, was a voluntary sacrifice, so 
efficacious as to supersede the necessity of 
every other ; and that his blood was shed for 
the remission of sins. By partaking of this 
rite, his disciples publish an event most inte- 
resting to all the kindreds of the earth ; they 
declare that, far from being ashamed of the 
sufiering of their Master, they glory in his 
cross ; and, while they thus perform the office 
implied in that expression of the Apostle, " Ye 
do show forth the Lord's death," they at the 
same time cherish the sentiments by which 



their religion ministers to their own consola, 
tion and improvement. They cannot remem- 
ber the death of Christ, the circumstances 
which rendered that event necessary, the dis- 
interested love and the exalted virtues of their 
deliverer, without feeling their obligations to 
him. Unless the vilest hypocrisy accompany 
an action, which, by its very nature, professes 
to flow from warm affection, the love of Christ 
will constrain them to fulfil the purposes of 
his death, by "living unto him who died for 
them ;" and we have reason to hope, that, in 
the places where he causes his name to be re-* 
membered, he will come and bless his people. 
As the object of faith is thus explicitly set be- 
fore them in every commemoration, so the 
renewed exercise of that faith, which the ordi- 
nance is designed to excite, must bring renew- 
ed life, and a deeper experience of the "great 
salvation." See Sacrament. 

SURETY, in common speech, is one who 
gives security for another ; and hence it has 
become prevalent among theological writers to 
confound it with the terms substitute and re- 
presentative, when applied to Christ. In fact, 
the word " surety" occurs only once in our 
translation of the Scriptures, namely, Heb. vii, 
22 : " By so much was Jesus made the surety 
of a better covenant." It is certainly true that 
the Son of God, in all that he has done or is 
still doing as Mediator, may be justly viewed 
as the surety of the new and everlasting cove- 
nant, and as affording the utmost security to 
believers that, as the Father hath given all 
things into his hands, they will be conducted 
with effect, and all the exceeding great and 
precious promises of that covenant assuredly be 
accomplished. But this does not appear to be 
the precise idea which the Apostle has in view 
in the above passage. This has been suffi- 
ciently evinced by many critics and commen- 
tators, particularly by Pierce, Macknight, and 
M'Lean, in their notes on the place. The sub- 
stance of their remarks is, that the original 
term employed by the Apostle, and which oc- 
curs no where else in Scripture, is 'iyyvos, which 
is derived from iyyirs, near, and signifies one 
who draws near, or who brings others near; 
which sense of the word will not very well ac- 
cord with that of a substitute or representative. 
The Greek commentators very properly ex. 
plain the word by litaiTni, a mediator. Now, 
as in this passage a comparison is stated be- 
tween Jesus, as a high priest, and the Levitical 
high priests ; and as the latter were considered 
by the Apostle to be the mediators of the Sinai 
covenant, because through their mediation the 
Israelites worshipped God with sacrifices ; it is 
evident that the Apostle in this passage tenns 
Jesus the High Priest or Mediator of the better 
covenant, because, through his mediation, or 
in virtue of the sacrifice which he offered of 
liimself to God, believers receive all the bless, 
ings of the new covenant. And as in verse IQ 
the Apostle had said that " by the introduction 
of a better hope we draw near to God," he, in 
verse 22, very properly calls Jesus 'iyyvoi, " he 
by whom we draw nigh," thereby denoting the 
effect of his mediation. From the whol^, 



SWA 



878 



SWE 



therefore, it is plain that the word " surety" 
in this place is equivalent with that of media- 
tor or high priest. 

SWALLOWS, D-'D, a bird too well known to 
need description. Our translators of the Bible 
have given this name to two different Hebrew 
words. The first, -ini, in Psalm Ixxxiv, 3, 
and Prov. xxvi, 2, is probably the bird which 
Forskal mentions among the migratory birds 
of Alexandria, by the name of dururi; and the 
second, luj?, Isa. xxxviii, 14, and Jer. viii, 7, 
is the crane ; but the word D"'D, in the two last 
places rendered in our version " crane," is 
really the swallow. So the Septuagint, Vul- 
gate, and two ancient manuscripts, Theodo- 
tion, and Jerom, render it, and Bochart and 
Lowth follow them. Bochart assigns the note 
of this bird for the reason of its name, and 
ingeniously remarks that the Italians about 
Venice call a swallow zizilla, and its twitter- 
ing zizillare. The swallow being a plaintive 
bird, and a bird of passage, perfectly agrees 
with the meaning of Isaiah and Jeremiah. 
The annual migration of the swallow has been 
familiarly known in every age, and perhaps in 
every region of the earth. In Psalm Ixxxiv, 3, 
it is said, " The sparrow hath found a house, 
and the swallow a nest for herself, where she 
may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord 
of hosts." By the altars of Jehovah we are to 
understand the temple. The words probably 
refer to the custom of several nations of anti- 
quity, — that birds which built their nests on 
the temples, or within the limits of them, were 
not suffered to be driven away, much less 
killed ; but found a secure and uninterrupted 
dwelling. Hence, when Aristodicus disturbed 
the birds' nests of the temple of Kumse, and 
took the young from them, a voice, according 
to a tradition preserved by Herodotus, is said 
to have spoken these words from the interior 
of th& temple : "Most villainous of men, how 
darest thou to drive away such as seek refuge 
in my temple ?" The Athenians were so en- 
raged at Atarbes, who had killed a sparrow 
which built on the temple of iEsculapius, that 
they killed him. Among the Arabs, who are 
more closely related to the Hebrews, birds 
which build their nests on the temple of Mecca 
have been inviolable from the earliest times. 
In the very ancient poem of a Dschorhamidish 
prince, published by a Schulten, in which he 
laments that his tribe had been deprived of the 
protection of the sanctuary of Mecca, it is 
said, 

" We lament, the house, whose dove 
Was never sufFer'd to be hurt : 
She remain'd there secure ; in it, also, 
The sparrow built its nest." 
In another ancient Arabian poet, Nabega, the 
Dhobianit swears " by the sanctuary which 
affords shelter to the birds which seek it there." 
Niebuhr says, "I will observe, that among the 
Mohammedans, not only is the Jcaba a refuge for 
the pigeons, but also on the mosques over the 
graves of Ali and Hassein, on the Dsjamea, or 
chief mosque, at Helle, and in other cities, 
they are equally undisturbed." And Thevenot 
remarks: "Within a mosque at Oudjicum lies 



interred the son of a king, called Schah-Zadeh- 
Imam Dgiafer, whom they reckon a saint. The 
dome is rough cast over ; before the mosque 
there is a court, well planted with many high 
plane trees, on which we saw a great many 
storks, that haunt thereabout all the year 
round." See Sparrow. 

SWAN, DDti'jn, Lev. xi, 18; Deut. xiv, 16. 
The Hebrew word is very ambiguous, for in 
the first of these places, it is ranked among 
water-fowls ; and by the Vulgate, which our 
version follows, rendered " swan," and in the 
thirtieth verse, the same word is rendered 
" mole," and ranked among reptiles. Some 
translate it in the former place, " the bat," 
which they justify by the affinity which there 
is between the bat and the mole. The LXX, 
in the former verse render it zsopcpvpluyva, the 
porphyrion, or " purple bird," probably the 
"flamingo ;" and in the latter, " ibis." Park- 
hurst shows that the name is given from the 
creature's breathing in a strong and audible 
manner ; and Michaelis learnedly conjectures, 
that inverse eighteen^ and Deut. xiv, 16, it may 
mean the "goose," which every one knows is 
remarkable for its manner of ""breathing out" 
or " hissing," when approached.^ 

SWEDENBORGIANS denote that particuv 
lar denomination of Christians who admit the 
testimony of Baron Swedenborg, and receive 
the doctrines taught in the theoh)gical writings 
of that author. Emanuel Swedenborg was the 
son of a bishop of West Gothnia, in the king- 
dom of Sweden, whose name was Swedberg, a 
man of considerable learning and celebrity in 
his time. The son was born at Stockholm. 
January 29, 1688. He enjoyed early the ad- 
vantages of a liberal education, and being na- 
turally endowed with uncommon talents for 
the acquirement of learning, his progress in 
the sciences was rapid and extensive ; and he 
soon distinguished himself by several piiblica- 
tions in the Latin language, which gave proof 
of equal genius and erudition. It may reason- 
ably be supposed that under the care of his 
pious and reverend father our author's religious 
instruction was not neglected. This, indeed, 
appears plain from the general tenor of his 
life and writings, which are marked with 
strong and lively characters of a mind deeply 
impressed with a sense of the divine Being, 
and of all the relative duties thence resulting.f 
He was ennobled in the year 1719, by Queen 
Ulrica Eleonora, and named Swedenborg, from 
which time he took his seat with the nobles of 
the equestrian order, in the triennial assembly 
of the states. The philosophical works, pub- 
lished in Latin, by Baron Swedenborg, are nu- 
merous ; but his theological works are said to 
be still more so. 

1. Tlie first and principal distinguishing 
doctrine contained in the writings of Baron 
Swedenborg, and maintained by his followers, 
relates to the person and character of Jesus 
Christ, and to the redemption wrought by him. 
On this subject it is insisted that Jesus Christ 
is Jehovah, manifested in the flesh; and that 
he came into the world to glorify his human 
nature, by making it one with the divine. It 



SWE 



879 



SWE 



is therefore insisted farther that the humanity 
of Jesus Christ is itself divine, by virtue of its 
indissoluble union with the indwelling Father, 
agreeably to the testimony of St. Paul, that, 
"in Jesus Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the 
Godhead bodily," Col. ii, 9 ; and tiiat thus, as 
to his humanity, he is the Mediator between 
God and man, since there is now no other 
medium of God's access to man, or of man's 
access to God, but this divine humanity, which 
was assumed for this purpose. Thus it is 
taught, that in the person of Jesus Christ 
dwells the whole Trinity of Father, Son, and 
Holy Spirit ; the Father constituting the soul 
of the above humanity, while the humanity 
itself is the Son, and the divine virtue or ope- 
ration proceeding from it is the Holy Spirit ; 
forming altogether one God, just as the soul, 
the body, and operation of man, form one man. 
On the subject of the redemption wrought by 
this incarnate God, it is lastly taught that it 
consisted not in the vicarious sacrifice of 
Christ, but in the real subjugation of the pow- 
ers of darkness and their removal from man, 
by continual combats and victories over them, 
during his abode in the world ; and in the con. 
sequent descent to man of divine power and 
life, which was brought near to him in the 
thus glorified humanity of this victorious God. 
They who receive this testimony concerning 
Jesus Christ therefore acknowledge no other 
God but him ; and believe that in approaching 
his divine humanity, they approach, at the 
same time, and have communication with, all 
the fulness of the Godhead, seeing and wor- 
shipping the invisible in the visible, agreeably 
to the tenor of those words of Jesus Christ : 
"He that belie veth on me belie veth not on me, 
but on him that sent me ; and he that seeth me, 
seeth him that sent me," John xii, 44, 45. 

2. A second doctrine taught by the same 
author relates to the sacied Scripture, or word 
of God, which is maintained to be divinely in- 
spired throughout, and, consequently, to be 
the repository of the whole will and wisdom 
of the most high God. It is, however, insisted, 
that this will and wisdom are not in all places 
discoverable from the letter or history of the 
sacred pages, but lie deeply concealed under 
the letter. For it is taught by Baron Sweden- 
borg, that the sense of the letter of the holy 
Word is the basis, the continent, and the firm a- 
ment, of its spiritual and celestial senses, being 
written according to the doctrine of corres- 
pondencies between things spiritual and things 
natural, and thus designed by the Most High 
as the vehicle of communication of the eternal 
spiritual truths of his kingdom to the minds of 
men. It is farther endeavoured to be shown 
that Jesus Christ spake continually according 
to this same doctrine, veiling divine and spi- 
ritual truths under natural images, especially in 
his parables, and thus communicating to man 
the most important mysteries relative to him- 
self and his kingdom, under the reost beautiful 
and edifying figures taken from the natural 
things of this world. Thus, according to Ba- 
ron Swedenborg, even the historical parts both 
of the Old and New Testament contain vast 



stores of important and spiritual wisdom under 
the outward letter; and this consideration, as 
he farther asserts, justifies the pages of divirte 
revelation, even in those parts which to a 
common observer appear trifling, nugatory, 
and contradictory. It is lastly maintained, 
on this subject, that the sacred Scripture, or 
word of God, is the only medium of communi- 
cation and conjunction between God and man, 
and is likewise the only source of all genuine 
truth and knowledge respecting God, his king- 
dom, and operation, and the only sure guide 
for man's understanding, in whatever relates 
to his spiritual or eternal concerns. 

3. The next branch of the system is practi- 
cal, and relates to the life, or to that rule of 
conduct on the part of man which is truly ac- 
ceptable to the Deity, and at the same time 
conducive to man's eternal happiness and sal- 
vation, by conjoining him with his God. This 
rule is taught to be simply this : to shun all 
known evils as sins against God, and at the 
same time to love, to cherish, and to practise 
whatsoever is wise, virtuous, and holy, as 
being most agreeable to the will of God, and 
to the spirit of his precepts. On this subject 
it is strongly and repeatedly insisted that evil 
must of necessity remain with man, and prove 
his eternal destruction, unless it be removed 
by sincere repentance, leading him to note 
what is disorderly in his own mind and life ; 
and, when he has discovered it, to fight reso- 
lutely against its influence, in dependence on 
the aid and grace of Jesus Christ. It is insisted- 
farther, that this opposition to evil ought to 
be grounded on the consideration that all evil 
is against God, since, if evil be combated from 
any inferior motive, it is not radically removed, 
but only concealed, and on that account is 
even more dangerous and destructive than 
before. It is added, that when man has done 
the work of repentance, by shunning his he- 
reditary evils as sins against God, he ought to 
set himself to the practice of what is wise and 
good by a faithful, diligent, and conscientious 
discharge of all the duties of his station ; by 
which means his mind is preserved from a 
return of the power of disorder, and kept in 
the order of heaven, and the fulfilment of the 
great law of charity. 

4. A fourth doctrine inculcated in the same 
writings, is the cooperation on the part of man 
with the divine grace or agency of Jesus 
Christ. On this subject it is insisted that man 
ought not indolently to hang down his hands, 
under the idle expectation that God will do 
every thing for him in the way of purification 
and regeneration, without any exertion of his 
own ; but that he is bound by the above law 
of cooperation to exert himself, as if the whole 
progress of his purification and regeneration 
depended entirely on his owr^ exertions ; yet, 
in exerting himself, he is continually to recol- 
lect, and humbly to acknowledge, that all his 
power to do so is from above, agreeably to the 
declaration of Jesus Christ, "Without me yof 
can do nothing," John xv, 5. 

5. A fifth and last distinguishijig doctrine 
taught in the theological writings of our author. 



SWE 



880 



SWI 



relates to man's connection with the other 
world, and its various inhabitants. On this 
subject, it is insisted, not only from his view of 
the sacred Scriptures, but also from the expe- 
rience of the author himself, that every man 
is in continual association with angels and 
spirits, and that without such association he 
could not possibly think or exert any living 
faculty. It is insisted farther, that man, ac- 
cording to his life in the world, takes up his 
eternal abode, either with angels of light, or 
with the spirits of darkness ; with the former, if 
he is wise to live according to the precepts 
of God's holy word ; or with the latter, if, 
through folly and transgression, he rejects the 
counsel and guidance of the Most High. 

Some other peculiar doctrines of minor im- 
portance might be enlarged on in this place 
if it was deemed necessary; such as the doc- 
trine concerning the human soul, as being in a 
human form; concerning the marriage of the 
good and the true, as existing in the holy word, 
and in all things in nature. But it may be 
observed generally, that the fundamental error 
of the system is a denial of the divinity of Christ, 
while it appears to be acknowledged, and of the 
doctrine of the atonement. Many true things 
are said also of the figurative and typical cha- 
racter of the word of God ; but the interpreta- 
tion of it in this view runs into the wildest 
extravagance for want of principles ; while the 
whole is clothed with mysticism on the one 
hand and gross and carnal conceptions of 
spiritual things on the other. There is, indeed, 
much in which this sect agrees with other 
Christians, and much, therefore, that is true in 
their strange system; bat it is unconnected 
with other great and vital truths of the Gospel ; 
and is joined also with great errors. It is a 
dreamy delusion, which defies all rational de- 
fence : it rests upon the assumed experience of 
a man of genius, it is true, but one who was 
not always in his wits. 

In London, and some of the other cities and 
great towns in England, places of public worship 
have been opened, for the express purpose of 
preaching the preceding doctrines. In all 
such places particular forms of prayer have 
been adopted, in agreement with the ideas of the 
worshippers, as grounded in the xcligious sen- 
timents above stated, especially respecting the 
supreme object of adoration, who is acknow- 
ledged to be the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 
in his divine humanity. But in no place have 
any peculiar rites and ceremonies been intro- 
duced, the worshippers being content with 
retaining the celebration of the two sacra-' 
ments of baptism and the holy supper, since no 
other rites are insisted on by the author whose 
testimony they receive. It is believed, by a 
large majority of them, that it was never his 
intention that any particular sect should be 
formed upon his doctrines, but that all who 
receive them, whether in the establishment, or 
in any other commmiion of Christians, should 
be at perfect liberty either to continue in their 
former communion, or to quit it, as their con- 
science dictates. England appears to be the 
country where the system has been most ge- 



nerally received. Baron Swedenborg had many 
eccentricities ; but perhaps the most remark- 
able circumstance respecting him, was his 
asserting, that, during the uninterrupted period 
of twenty-seven years, he enjoyed open inter- 
course with the world of departed spirits, and 
during that time was instructed in the internal 
sense of the sacred Scriptures, hitherto undis- 
covered ! This is a correspondence with the 
invisible world, to which few or no writers, 
before or since his time, ever pretended, if we 
except the Arabian prophet. 

SWINE, ^.^n, Lev. xi, 7; Deut. xiv, 8; 
Psalm Ixxx, 13; Prov. xi, 22; Isaiah Ixv, 4; 
Ixvi, 3, 17 ; xo'^po?. Matt, vii, 6; viii, 30 ; Mark 
V, 14 ; Luke viii, 33 ; xv, 15 ; the plural of 
hog, an animal well known. In impurity and 
grossness of manners, this creature stands 
almost unrivalled among the order of quad- 
rupeds ; and the meanness of his appearance 
corresponds to the grossness of his' manners. 
He has a most indiscriminate, voracious, and 
insatiable appetite. The Prophet Isaiah, Ixv, 
4, charges his degenerate people with eating 
swine's flesh, and having broth of abomin- 
able things in their vessels, Isaiah Ixvi, 3, 
Conduct so contrary to their solemn engage, 
ments, so hateful in the sight of the Holy One, 
though long endured, was not always to pass 
with impunity. " They that sanctify them- 
selves, and purify themselves in the gardens, 
behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's 
flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall 
be consumed together, saith the Lord," Isaiah 
Ixvi, 17. Such a sacrifice was an abomination 
to the Lord, because the eating of the blood 
was prohibited, and because the sacrifice con- 
sisted of swine's flesh. To these precepts and 
threatenings, which were often enforced by 
severe judgments may be traced the habitual 
and unconquerable aversion of the latter Jews 
to the use of swine's flesh; an aversion w'hich 
the most alluring promises and the most cruel 
sufferings have been found alike insufficient 
to subdue. 

In such detestation was the hog held by 
the Jews that they w^onld not so much as pro- 
nounce its name, but called it " the strange 
thing;" and we read in the history of the 
Maccabees, that Eleazer, a principal scribe, 
being compelled by Antiochus Epiphanes to 
open his mouth and receive swine's flesh, spit 
it forth, and went of his own accord to the 
torment, choosing rather to suffer death than 
to break the law of God, and give offence to 
his nation, 2 Mac. vi, 18 ; vii, 1. It is ob. 
served that when Adrian rebuilt Jerusalem,^ 
he set up the image of a hog, in bas-relief, upon 
the gates of the city, to drive the Jews away 
from it, and to express the greater contempt 
for tliat miserable people. It was avarice, a 
contempt of the law of Moses, and a design to 
supply the neighbouring idolaters with victims, 
that caused whole herds of swine to be fed on 
the borders of Galilee. Whence the reason is 
plain of Christ's permitting the devils to throw 
the swine headlong into the lake of Genosa- 
reth, Matthew viii, 32. We read, in Matthew 
vii, 6, "Give not that which is holy unto tlie 



src 



8S1 



SYC 



doge, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, 
lest they trample them under their feet, and 
turn again and rend you." There is a similar 
maxim in the Talmudical writings : " Do not 
cast pearls before swine ; " to which is added, 
by way of explanation, " Do not offer wisdom 
to one who knows not the value of it, but pro- 
fanes its glory." 

SYCAMINE, cvKdnivos, in Arabic soJcam, 
Luke xvii, 6. This is a different tree from the 
sycamore, mentioned Luke xix, 4. Dios. 
corides says that this tree is the mulberry, 
though he allows that some apprehend that it 
is the same with the sycamore. Galen has a 
separate article on the sycamorus, which he 
speaks of as rare, and mentions as having seen 
it at Alexandria in Egypt. The Greeks name 
the moras the sycamine. Grotius says the 
word GVKdixivos has no connection with uvKir}^ the 
fig-tree, but is entirely Syrian, pDpiy, in He- 
brew, CDiDpty. It should seem, indeed, to be 
very similar to the mulberry, as not only the 
Latin, but the Syriac and the Arabic, render 
it by morus ; and thus Coverdale's, the Rheim's, 
and Purver's English Lranalatione render it by 
the mulberry ; and so it is in Bishop Wilson's 
Bible, 

SYCAMORE, niDptt', Q^Dptt', 1 Kings x, 27; 
IChron. xxvii, 28; 2 Chron. i, 15; Psalm 
Ixxviii, 47 ; Isa. ix, 9 ; Amos viii, 14; (^vKOjxopia, 
Luke xix, 4; a large tree, according to the 
description of Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and 
Galen, resembling the mulberry-tree - in the 
leaf, and the fig in its fruit; hence its name, 
compounded of avKfrj fig, and ixdpos, mulberry ; 
and some have fancied that it was originally 
produced by ingrafting the one tree upon the 
other. Its fruit is palatable. When ripe it is 
soft, watery, somewhat sweet, with a little of 
an aromatic taste. The trees are very com. 
mon in Palestine, Arabia, and Egypt; grow 
large, and to a great height ; and though their 
grain is coarse are much used in building. To 
change sycamores into cedars, Isa. ix, 10, 
means, to render the buildings of cities, and 
the state of the nation, much more magnifi- 
cent than before. Dr. Shaw remarks, that as 
the grain and texture of the sycamore is re- 
markably coarse and spongy, it could therefore 
stand in no competition at all with the cedar 
for beauty and ornament. We meet with the 
same opposition of cedars to sycamores in 
1 Kings X, 27, where Solomon is said to have 
made silver as the stones, and cedars as the 
sycamores of the vale for abundance. " By this 
maslial, or figurative and sententious speech," 
says Bishop Lowth, "they boast, in this place 
of Isaiah, that they shall be easily able to re- 
pair their present losses, suffered, perhaps, by 
the first Assyrian invasion under Tiglath-Pi- 
leser, and to bring their affairs to a more flou- 
rishing condition than ever." The wood of this 
tree is very durable. " The mummy chests," 
says Dr. Shaw, " and whatever figures and in- 
struments of wood are found in the catacombs, 
are all of them of sycamore, which, though 
spongy and porous to appearance, has, not- 
withstanding, continued entire and uncorrupt- 
ed for at least three thousand years. From its 
57 



value in furnishing wood for various uses, from 
the grateful shade which its wide-spreading 
branches afforded, and on account of the fruit 
which Mallet says the Egyptians hold in the 
highest estimation, we perceive the loss which 
the ancient inhabitants of Egypt must have 
felt when their vines were destroyed with hail, 
and their sycamore trees with frost," Psalm 
Ixxviii, 47. "The sycamore," says Mr. Nor- 
den, "is of the height of a beech, and bears 
its fruit in a manner quite different from other 
trees ; it has them on the trunk itself, which 
shoots out little sprigs, in form of grape stalks, 
at the end of which grow the fruit close to one 
another, almost like clusters of grapes. The 
tree is always green, and bears fruit several 
times in the year, without observing any cer- 
tain seasons ; for I have seen some sycamores 
that have given fruit two months after others. 
The fruit has the figure and smell of real figs, 
but is inferior to them in the taste, having a dis- 
gustful sweetness. Its colour is a yellow, in- 
clining to an ochre, shadowed by a flesh co- 
lour. In the inside it resembles the common 
figs, excepting that it has a blackish colouring 
with yellow spots. This sort of tree is pretty 
common in Egypt; the people, for the greater 
part, live upon its fruit, and think themselves 
Well regaled when they have a piece of bread, 
a couple of sycamore figs, and a pitcher of 
water." There might be many of these trees 
in Judea. David appointed a particular offi- 
cer, whose sole duty it was to watch over 
the plantations of sycamore and olive-trees, 
1 Chron. xxviii, 28 ; and being joined with the 
olive, the high estimation in which it was held is 
intimated; for the olive is considered as one 
of the most precious gifts which the God of 
nature has bestowed on the oriental nations.- 
There seem to have been great numbers of 
them in Solomon's time, 1 Kings x, 27; and in 
the Talmud they are mentioned as growing in 
the plains of Jericho. 

One curious particular in the cultivation of 
the fruit must not be passed over. Pliny, 
Dioscorides, and Theophrastus observe that the 
fruit must be cut er scratched, either with the 
nail or with iron, or it will not ripen ; but four 
days after this process it will become ripe. To" 
this same purpose Jerom, on Amos vii, 14, 
says, that without this management the figs' 
are excessively bitter. These testimonies, to- 
gether with the Septuagint and Vulgate ver- 
sion, are adduced to settle the meaning of the 
word d'713, in Amos vii, 14, which must sig- 
nify scraping, or making incisions in the syca- 
more fruit ; an employment of Amos before he 
was called to the prophetic oflBce : "I was no 
prophet, neither was I a prophet's son ; but I 
was a herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore 
fruit." Hasselquist, describing the ficus syca- 
morus, or Scripture sycamore, says, " It buds 
the latter end of March, and the fruit ripens 
in the beginning of June. At the time when 
the fruit has arrived to the size of an inch di- 
ameter, the inhabitants pare off a part at the 
centre point. They say that without this paring 
it would not come to maturity." The figs 
thus prematurely ripened are called djumeis 



SYN 



882 



SYN 



hadri, that is, " precocious sycamore figs." As 
the sycamore is a large spreading tree, some- 
times shooting up to a considerable height, 
we see the reason why Zaccheus climbed up 
into a sycamore tree to get a sight of our Sa- 
viour. This incident also furnishes a proof 
that the sycamore was still common in Pales- 
tine ; for this tree stood to protect the travel- 
ler by the side of the highway. 

SYENE, a city of Egypt, now called Assou- 
an, situated at its southern extremity. Eze- 
kiel, xxix, 10, describing the desolation to be 
brought upon Egypt says, " Therefore thus 
saith the Lord, Behold, 1 will make the land 
of Egypt utterly desolate, from the tower of 
Syene even to the border of Cush," or Arabia, 
or, as some read it, " from Migdol to Syene^'" 
implying, according to either version of the 
passage, the whole length of the country from 
north to south. The latitude of Syene, accord- i 
ing to Bruce, is 24° 0' 45" ; that of Alexan- j 
andria, 31° 11' 33" ; difference 7° 10' 48", equal I 
to four hundred and thirty geographical miles i, 
on the meridian, or about five hundred British 
miles ; but the real length of the valley of 
Egypt, as it follows the windings of the Nile, 
is full six hundred miles. 

SYNAGOGUE, awaywyrj, "an assembly," 
Rev. ii, 9 ; iii, 9. The word often occurs in 
the Gospels and in the Acts, because Jesus 
Christ and his Apostles generally went to 
preach in those places. Although the sacri- 
fices could not be offered, except in the taber- 
nacle or the temple, the other exercises of 
religion were restricted to no particular place. 
Accordingly we find that the praises of God 
were sung, at a very ancient period, in the 
schools of the prophets ; and those who felt 
any particular interest in religion, were assem- 
bled by the seers on the Sabbath, and the new 
moons, for prayers and religious instruction, 
1 Sam. X, 5-11; xix, 18-24; 2 Kings iv, 23. 
During the Babylonish captivity, the Jews, 
who were then deprived of their customary re- 
ligious privileges, were wont to collect around 
some prophet or other pious man, who taught 
them and their children in religion, exhorted to 
good conduct, and read out of the sacred books, 
Ezek, xiv, 1 ; xx, 1 ; Dan. vi, 11 ; Neh. viii, 18. 
These assemblies, or meetings, became, in pro- 
gress of time, fixed to certain places, and a 
regular order was observed in them. Such 
appears to have been the origin of synagogues. 

In speaking of synagogues, it is worthy to be 
noticed, that there is nothing said in respect 
to the existence of such buildings in Palestine, 
during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes. 
They are, therefore, by some supposed to have 
been first erected under the Maccabean prin- 
ces, but that, in foreign countries, they were 
much more ancient. Whether this statement 
be correct or not, it is nevertheless certain, 
that in the time of tlie Apostles, there were 
synagogues wherever there were Jews. They 
were built, in imitation of the temple of Jeru- 
salem, with a court and porches, as is the case 
v/ith the synagogues in the east at the present 
day. In the centre of the court is a chapel, 
svipported by four columns, in which, on an 



elevation prepared for it, is placed the book of 
the law, rolled up. This, on the appointed 
days, is publicly read. In addition to the 
chape], there is erected within the court a large 
covered hall or vestry, into which the people 
retire, when the weather happens to be cold 
and stormy, and each family has its particular 
seat. The uppermost seats in the synagogue, 
that is, those which were nearest the chapel 
where the sacred books were kept, were es- 
teemed peculiarly honourable. Matt, xxiii, &; 
James ii, 3. The " proseuchse," z:;poa£vxai, are 
understood by some to be smaller synagogues, 
but by others are supposed to be particular 
places under the open sky, where the Jews as- 
sembled for religious exercise. But Josephus 
calls the proseucha of Tiberias a large house, 
which held very many persons. See Proseu- 
ch(B. The Apostles preached the Gospel in 
synagogues and proseuchse, and with their 
adherents performed in them all the religious 
services. When excluded, they imitated the 
lews in those places, where they were too poor 
to erect these buildings, and held their reli- 
gious meetings in the houses of individuals. 
Hence we not only hear of synagogues in 
houses in the Talmud, but of churches in 
houses in the New Testament, Rom. xvi, 5 ; 
1 Cor, xvi, 19 ; Col. iv, 15 ; Phil, ii ; Acts iii, 
46; V, 42. The Apostles sometimes hired a 
house, in which they performed religious ser- 
vices, and taught daily, Acts xix, 9 ; xx, 8. 
Hvvaytayr) means literally a convention or assem- 
bly, but by metonymy, was eventually used for 
the place of assembling ; in the same way, 
that hKXrjcia, which means literally a calling 
together, or convocation, signifies also at the 
present time the place of convocation. Syna- 
gogues v^^ere sometimes called by the Jews 
schools ; but they were careful to make an 
accurate distinction between such, and the 
schools, properly so called, the aityiiD, or 
" sublimer schools," in which the Talmud was 
read, while the law merely was read in the 
synagogues, which they placed far behind the 
Talmud. 

The mode of conducting religious instruc- 
tion and worship in the primitive Christian 
churches was derived for the most part from 
the practice which anciently prevailed in syna. 
gogues. But there were no regular teachers 
in the synagogues who were officially qualified 
to pronounce discourses before the people ; al- 
though there were interpreters who rendered 
into the vernacular tongue, namely, the He- 
brfpo-aramean, the sections, which had been 
publicly read in the Hebrew. 

The " synagogue preacher," fty*n, whose 
business it is, in consequence of his office, to 
g,ddress the people, is an official personage that 
has been introduced in later times ; at least we 
find no mention of such a one in the New 
Testament. On the contrary, in the time of 
Christ, the person who read the section for the 
Sabbath, or any other person who was respect, 
able for learning and had a readiness of speech, 
addressed the people, Luke iv, 16-21 ; Acts 
xiii, 5, 15 ; xv, 21 ; Matt, iv, 23. 

The other persons who were employed in the 



SYN 



883 



SYN 



services and government of the synagogue, in 
addition to the one who read the Scriptures, and 
the person who rendered them into the verna- 
cular tongue, were as follows: 1. "The ruler 
of the synagogue," ap;:^;(cruvaywyo?, noJan K'N-l, 
who presided over the assembly, and invited 
readers and speakers, unless some persons who 
were acceptable voluntarily offered themselves, 
Mark v, 22, 35-38 ; Luke viii, 41 ; xiii, 14, 15 ; 
Acts xiii, 15. 2. "The elders of the syna- 
gogue," CD''jpi, zsp£ff(3vTepoi. They appear to have 
been the counsellors of the head or ruler of 
the synagogue, and were chosen from among 
the most powerful and learned of the people, 
and are hence called apx^^'wiy'^yot, Acts xiii, 
15. The council of elders not only took a part 
in the management of the internal concerns 
of the synagogue, but also punished transgres- 
sors of the public laws, either by- turning them 
out of the synagogue, or decreeing the punish- 
ment of thirty-nine stripes, John xii, 42 ; xvi, 
2 ; 2 Cor. xi, 24. 3. " The collectors of alms," 
npis ^NJJ, ^ta^oi/ot, "deacons." Although every 
thing which is said of them by the Jews was 
not true concerning them in the time of the 
Apostles, there can be no doubt that there were 
such officers in the synagogues at that time. 
Acts vi. 4. " The servants of the synagogue," 
jrn, vnripeTTii, Luke iv, 20 ; whose business it 
was to reach the book of the law to the person 
who was to read it, and to receive it back 
again, and to perform other services. The 
ceremonies which prevail in the synagogues 
at the present day in presenting the law 
were not observed in the time of our Saviour. 
5. "The messenger or legate of the syna- 
gogue," i>3S r\^ho. This was a person who 
was sent from synagogues abroad, to carry alms 
to Jerusalem. The name, messenger of the 
synagogue, was applied likewise to any per- 
son, who was commissioned by a synagogue, 
and sent forth to propagate religious know- 
ledge. A person likewise was denominated 
the messenger, or angel, ayyeWos, t^j ayyeWos 
(KKXTjaiag, &c, who was selected by the assembly 
to recite for them the prayers ; the same that 
is called by the Jews of modern times the syna. 
gogue singer, or cantilator. Rev. ii, 1, 8, 12, 
18; iii, 1, 7, 14. 

The Jews anciently called those persons 
who, from their superior erudition, were capa- 
ble of teaching in the synagogue, qidJID, 
"shepherds," or "pastors." They applied the 
same term, at least in more recent times, to 
the elders of the synagogue, and also to the 
collectors of alms, or deacons. The ground 
of the application of this term in such a way, 
is as follows : the word OJiD is, without doubt, 
derived from the Greek word roupi/oj, " bread," 
or "a fragment of bread ;" and, as it is use^ 
in the Targums, it corresponds to the Hebrew 
verb nyi, "to feed." It is easy to see, there- 
fore, how the word dJ"id might be applied to 
persons who sustained offices in the syna- 
gogue, in the same way as nyi is applied to 
kings, &,e. 

We do not find mentioor made of public wor- 
ship in the synagogues, except on the Sabbath, 
Matthew xii, 9 ; Mark i, 21 ; iii, 1 ; vi, 2 ; Luke 



iv, 16, 32, 33; vi, 6; xiii, 10; Acta xiii, 14; 
XV, 21 ; xvi, 13-25 ; xvii, 2 ; xviii, 4. What 
is said of St. Paul's hiring the school of one 
Tyrannus at Ephesus, and teaching in it daily, 
is a peculiar instance, Acts xix, 9, 10. Yet 
there can be no doubt that those Jews who 
were unable to go to Jerusalem attended wor- 
ship on their festival days, as well as on tha 
Sabbath, in their own synagogues. Individuals 
sometimes offered their private prayers in the 
synagogue. When an assembly was collected 
together for worship, the services began, after 
the customary greeting, with a doxology. A 
section was then read from the Mosaic law. 
Then followed, after the singing of a second 
doxology, the reading of a portion from the 
prophets. Acts xv, 31 ; Luke iv, 16, The per- 
son whose duty it was to perform the reading, 
placed upon his head, as is done at the present 
day, a covering called tallith, to which St. Paul 
alludes, 2 Cor. iii, 15. The sections which 
had been read in the Hebrew were rendered 
by an interpreter into the vernacular tongue, 
and the reader or some other man then ad- 
dressed the people, Luke iv, 16; Acts xiii, 15. 
It was on such occasions as these, that Jesus, 
and afterward the Apostles, taught the GospeL 
The meeting, as far as the religious exercises, 
were concerned, was ended with a prayer, to 
which the people responded Amen, when a 
collection was taken for the poor. 

The cust&ms which prevail at the .present 
day, and which Vitringa has treated of, were 
not all of them practised in ancient timesi 
The readers, for instance, were not then, as 
they are at the present day, called upon to per- 
form, but presented themselves voluntarily, 
Luke iv, 16 ; the persons also who addressed 
the people were not rabbins expressly appointed 
for that purpose, but were either invited from: 
those present, or offered themselves. Acts xiii, 
15 ; Luke iv, 17. The parts to be publicly 
read, likewise, do not appear to have been prej 
viously pointed out, although the book was 
selected by the ruler of the synagogue, Luke 
iv, 16. Furthermore, the forms of prayer that 
are used by the Jews at the present timff 
do not appear to have been in existence in- 
the time of Christ; unless this may perhaps 
have been the case in respect to the substance 
of some of them, especially the one called 
np Y'^'^^ concerning which the Talmudists, at 
a very early period, gave many, precepts. 

It was by ministering in synagogues that 
the Apostles gathered the churches. They re- 
tained also essentially the same mode of wor- 
ship with that of the synagogues, excepting' 
that the Lord's Supper was made an additional 
institution, agreeably to the example of Christ, 
Acts ii, 42; XX, 7-11; 1 Cor. xi, 16-34. 
They were at length excluded from the syna- 
gogue and assembled at evening in the house of 
some Christian, which was lighted for the pur- 
pose with lamps, Actsxx, 7-11. The Apostle, 
with the elders, when engaged in public wor- 
ship, took a position where they would be 
most likely to be heard by all. The first ser* 
vice was merely a salutation or blessing, 
namely, " The Lord be with you," or, " Peace 



SYN 



884 



SYN 



be with you." Then followed the doxologies 
and prelexions, the same as in the synagogues. 
The Apostle then addressed the people on 
the subject of religion, and urged upon them 
that purity of life which it required. Prayer 
succeeded, which was followed by the com- 
memoration of the Saviour's death in the break- 
ing and distribution of bread. The meeting 
was ended by taking a collection for the poor, 
especially those at Jerusalem, 2 Cor. ix, 1-15. 

Those who held some office in the church 
were the regularly qualified instructers in 
these religious meetings ; and yet laymen 
had liberty to address their brethren on these 
occasions the same as in the synagogues ; also 
to sing hymns, and to pray; which, in truth, 
many of them did, especially those who were 
supernaturally gifted, not excepting the wo- 
men. Those females who were not under a 
supernatural influence were forbidden by the 
Apostle Paul to make an address on such oc- 
casions, or to propose questions; and it was 
enjoined on those who did speak, not to lay 
aside their veils, 1 Cor. xi, 5 ; xiv, 34-40. 
The reader and the speaker stood; the others 
sat ; all arose in the time of prayer. What- 
ever was stated in a foreign tongue was imme- 
diately rendered by an interpreter into the 
speech in common use. This was so neces- 
sary, that Paul enjoined silence on a person 
who was even endowed with supernatural gifts, 
provided an interpreter was not at hand, 1 Cor. 
xiv, 1—33. It was the practice among the 
Greek Christians to uncover their heads when 
attending divine service, 1 Cor. xi, 11-16; 
but in the east, the ancient custom of worship- 
ping with the head covered was retained. In- 
deed, it is the practice among the oriental 
Christians to the present day, not to uncover 
their heads in their religious meetings, except 
when they receive the eucharist. 

It is affirmed that in the city of Jerusalem 
alone there were no less than four hundred 
and sixty or four hundred and eighty syna- 
gogues. Every trading company had one of 
its own, and even strangers built some for 
those of their own nation. Hence we find 
synagogues of the Cyrenians, Alexandrians, 
Cilicians, and Asiatics, appointed for such as 
came up to Jerusalem from those countries, 
Acts vi, 9. 

SY]?iODS, though actually synonymous with 
Councils, are in common historical parlance 
employed to designate minor ecclesiastical 
, conventions. In virtue of this distinction 
Gouncil& have usually claimed for themselves 
the ample epithet of cecumenical or general, 
while synods have long been known only by 
the humbler term of local or provincial. In the 
a-postolic age four local assemblies were held, 
which some have called councils and others 
synods. The first was convened for the elec- 
tion of a successor to Judas in the apostleship, 
Acts i, 26. At the second, seven deacons 
v/ere chosen, Acts vi, 5. The third, like the 
two which preceded it, was held at Jerusalem, 
according to some authors, A. D. 47, but, ac- 
cording to others, A. D. 51 ; that is, at the 
latest, eighteen years after Christ's ascension. 



It origiriated in the attempt made to oblige the 
Gentile converts at Antioch to submit to the 
rite of circumcision. St. Paul and Barnabas 
opposed this attempt ; and, after " no small 
dissension and disputation," it was determined, 
that the question should be referred to the 
judgment of the Apostles and elders at Jerusa- 
lem. Accordingly, some of the Apostles and 
several of"the " elders came together" to deli- 
berate on the propriety of dispensing with the 
ceremonial law. The result of their delibera- 
tions was, that the Mosaic ordinances, being 
too rigorous, should be abrogated ; and that 
their decision should be communicated to " the 
brethren which were of the Gentiles," Acts xv, 
1-30. The fourth apostolic synod was con- 
vened in reference to the toleration of legal 
rites. Acts xxi, 18. With respect to all'these, 
the fact is, that, instead of being councils or 
synods in any proper sense, they were mere 
meetings of the church at Jerusalem, and all of 
them ordinary meetings except the third, when 
they assembled upon the request of the depu- 
ties from Antioch who came to ask advice. 

Dr. Neander, speaking of the origin, use, 
and abuse of synods, says, — As a closer bond of 
union was early formed between the churches 
of the same province, so also the Christian 
catholic spirit introduced the custom that, in 
all pressing matters, controversies on doctrinal 
points, things relating to the ecclesiastical life, 
and very commonly in those relating to church 
discipline, general deliberettions should be held 
by deputies from these churches. Such assem- 
blies become familiar to us in the controversies 
about the time of celebrating Easter, and in^the 
transactions about the Montanistic prophecies, 
in the last half of the second century. But 
these provincial synods appear, for the first 
time, as a constant and regular institution, 
fixed to definite times, about the end of the 
second or the beginning of the third century ; 
and it was in this case a peculiarity of one 
country, where particular local causes may 
have introduced such an arrangement earlier 
than in other regions. This country was, in 
fact, exactly Greece, where, from the time of 
the Achaic league, the system of confederation 
had maintained itself; and as Christianity is 
able to connect itself with all the peculiarities 
of a people, provided they contain nothing im- 
moral, and, entering into them, to take itself 
a peculiar form resembling them, so, also, it 
might easily happen that here the civil federal 
spirit which already existed worked upon the 
ecclesiastical catholic spirit, and gave it ear- 
lier than in other regions a tolerably good 
form, so that out of the representative assem- 
blies of the civil communities^ the Amphicty- 
onic councils, were formed the representative 
assemblies of the ecclesiastical communities, 
that is, the provincial synods. As the Chris- 
tians, in the consciousness that they are no- 
thing, and can do nothing, without the Spirit 
from above, were accustomed to begin all im- 
portant business with prayer, they prepared 
themselves here, also, for their general delibe- 
rations by common prayer, at the opening of 
these assemblies, to Uim who has promised 



SYN 



885 



SYN 



that he will enlighten and guide, by his Spirit, 
those who believe in him, if they will give 
themselves up to him wholly, and that he will 
be among them, where they are gathered to- 
gether in his name. It appears tliat this regu- 
lar institution met at first with opposition as 
an innovation, so that Tertullian felt himself 
called upon to stand up in its defence. Never- 
theless, the ruling spirit of the church decided 
for this institution ; and, down to the middle 
of the third century, the annual provincial 
synods appear to have been general in the 
church, as we may conclude, because we find 
them prevalent, at the same time, in parts of 
the church as far distant from each other as 
North Africa and Cappadocia. 

These provincial s3'^nods might certainly be- 
come very useful for the churches ; and, in 
many respects, they did become so. By means 
of a general deliberation, the views of indi- 
viduals might mutually be enlarged and cor- 
rected ; wants, abuses, and necessary reforms, 
might thus more easily be mutually communi- 
cated, and be deliberated on in many different 
points of view ; and the experience of every 
individual, by being communicated, might be 
made useful to all. Certainly, men had every 
right to trust that Christ would be among 
them, according to his promise, and would 
lead those who were assembled in his name by 
his Spirit. Certainly it was neither enthusi- 
asm nor hierarchical presumption, if the depu- 
ties, collected together to consult upon the 
affairs of their churches, and the pastors of 
these churches, hoped that a higher Spirit than 
that of man, by his illumination, would show 
them what they could never find by their own 
reason, whose insufficiency they felt deeply, if 
it were left to itself. It would far rather have 
been a proud self-confidence, had they been so 
little acquainted with the shallowness of their 
own heart, the poverty of human reason, and 
the self-deceits of human wisdom, as to expect 
that without the influence of that higher Spirit 
of holiness and truth they could provide suffi- 
ciently for the advantage of their churches. 
But this confidence, in itself just and salutary, 
took a false and destructive turn, when it was 
not constantly accompanied by the spirit of 
humility and self-watchfulness, with fear and 
trembling ; when men were not constantly 
mindful of the important condition under 
which alone man could hope to share in the 
fulfilment of that promise, in that divine illu- 
mination and guidance, — the condition, that 
they were really assembled in the name of 
Christ, in lively faith in him, and honest devo- 
tion to him, and prepared to sacrifice their 
own wills ; and when the people gave them- 
selves up to the fancy, that such an assembly, 
whatever might be the hearts of those who 
were assembled, had unalienable claims to the 
illumination of the Ho^y Spirit; for then, in 
the confusion and the intermixture of human 
and divine, men were abandoned to every kind 
of self-delusion ; and tlie formula, " Spiritu 
Sancto suggerente,^^ " By the suggestion of 
the Holy Spirit," might become a pretence 
and sanction for all the suggestions of man's 



own v/ill. And farther, the provincial synods 
would necessarily become prejudicial to the 
progress of the churches, if, instead of provid- 
ing for the advantage of the churches accord- 
ing to the changing wants of each period, they 
v/ished to lay down unchanging laws in 
changeable thmgs. Evil was it at last, that 
the participation of the churches wa.s entirely 
excluded from these synods, that at length the 
bishops alone decided every thing in them, 
and that their power, by means of their con- 
nection with each other in these synods, was 
constantly on the increase. As the provincial 
synods were also accustomed to communicate 
their I'esolutions to distant bishops in weighty 
matters of general concernment, they were 
serviceable, at the same time, toward setting 
distant parts of the church in connection with 
each other, and maintaining that connection. 
In the second century after the birth of 
Christ, eight local synods v/ere held on church 
affairs, about which little information is now 
extant, except that they related to the heresy 
of Montanus, the rebaptizing of heretics, and 
the time for celebrating the festival of Easter. 
In the third century eighteen synods were held ; 
the principal of which were, that of Alexan- 
dria, against Origen ; that of Africa, against 
the schismatic Novatus ; that of Antioch, 
against the heresy of Sabellius, and another 
in the same city against .Paul of Samosata ; 
that of Carthage, against such persons as fell 
away in time of persecution ; and that of Rome, 
against Novatian and other schismatics. Prior 
to the assembling of the first general council 
at Nice, A. D. 325, three synods were held at 
Sinuessa, Cirtha, and Alexandria, the subjects 
discussed in which are unworthy of notice. 
Others were held, the discussions in which are 
so far interesting as they show how desirous 
the Ante-Nicene fathers were to regulate the 
doctrine and practice of the church according 
to the apostolic model. The fourth was that 
of Elvira, which rejected by its thirty-sixth 
canon any use whatever even of pictures. 
"We would not," say they, *'have pictures 
placed in churches, that the object of our 
worship and adoration should not be painted 
on their walls." The synod at Carthage not 
having brought the rival pretensions of Caeci- 
lian and Majorinus to the episcopate of that 
city to a favourable issue, the Emperors Con- 
stantino appointed a commission (there being 
so few bishops present, it could not deserve 
any other title) to sit, first at Rome, and after- 
ward at Aj-les, for the purpose of rehearing 
the matter. At Aries, it was decreed, that 
Easter should be celebrated on the same Sun- 
day throughout the world; and that heretics, 
who had been baptized in the name of the Tri- 
nity, should not be rebaptized. The synods 
of Ancyra and Neo-Csesarea followed. The 
tenth canon, decreed by the latter, shows the 
sense of the fathers on the subject of celibacy • 
namely, " If deacons declare at the time of 
their ordination that they would marry, they 
should not be deprived of their function if they 
did marry." .Rigid decrees were passed gene 
rally against such of the clergy as ate meats 



SYN 



886 



SYN 



which had been sacrificed to idols. After the 
forcBientioned synods, two were convened at 
Alexandria, A. D. 322, against Arius. But 
their acts merge in the subsequent proceedings 
of the church. From the termination of the 
council of Nice to the next oecumenical coun- 
cil, A. D. 381, no fewer than forty-three sy- 
nods, eastern and western were convened. 
The professed object of these meetings was the 
tranquillity of the church ; yet, from the un- 
happy divisions which prevailed in these as. 
semblies, their deliberations were conducted 
with much of the violence of party feeling ; 
and, according as the one party or the other 
prevailed, they severally hurled spiritual thun- 
der-bolts against their doctrinal rivals, as if 
againsit the enemies of God himself. Of the 
gynod of Sardica a separate and more particu- 
lar account will be subsequently given, be- 
cause on the authority of that unimportant 
assembly the church of Rome grounds the 
right of appeal to itself before any other church. 
In the whole, no fewer than eighty-one sy- 
jaods were assembled throughout the universal 
church in this century. The principal sub- 
jects which engaged their attention related to 
Arianism, which was generally rejected by the 
western church ; but experienced various vicis- 
situdes in the east, according to the view taken 
of it by the reigning power. Unfortunately 
for the peace of th^ church, this heresy gave 
birth to numerous others. Marcellus, Photi- 
jius, Macedonius, and Priscilian, were seve- 
rally betrayed by their violence into systems no 
less revolting to reason and common sense 
.than the Arian impieties. Of sixty synods 
.which were convened to regulate the afTaii's of 
Jhe church between tlip second and third gene- 
ral councils, A. D. 381-431, more than half of 
Ihat number were assembled in Africa : — no 
inconsiderable proof of the vigilance exercised 
by the local bishops over the interests of that 
portion of the church universal committed to 
their care. In the latter part of the fifth cen- 
tury niany synods were held, some eastern and 
others western, but none of them possessed 
peculiar interest. In the commencement of 
this century, Zosimus, bishop of Kome, ab- 
solved the heresiarchs, Pelagius andXDaslestius, 
and by this act confirmed their errors. On the 
latter appealing to hira for support, Zosimus 
sent the Sardican canon to a council held at 
the time in Carthage, as if that canon had been 
decreed by the council of Nice ; because it 
j,llowed the right of appeal to the see of Rome. 
The African council rejected it with disdain, 
having found, on reference to the eastern pa- 
triarchs, that no such canons belonged to the 
Nicene council, or were ever before heard of. 
Thus was the reputed infallible head of an 
equally infallible church detected in a gross 
act of imposition ; so gross as to compel our 
good Bishop Jewel to call Zosimus " a forger 
and falsifier of councils." The same pope pro- 
nounced his unerring judgment in the dispute 
between the bishops of Aries and Vincennes ; 
while Boniface, his successor, under the influ- 
ence of the same inerrant principle and in the 
plenitude of the same apostolic power, reversed 



that judgment. In the year 498, Symmachus 
and Laurentius were elected to the pontificate 
on the same day by different parties ; and while 
they maintained the validity of their respective 
elections, they reciprocally denounced each 
other. Where, then, did infallibility reside be- 
fore Theodoric, king of the Goths, gave it a 
supposed habitation in the person of Symma- 
chus ? Theodoric, an Arian, and consequently 
a heretic in the eyes of the Romish church, 
awarded the keys of St. Peter to Symmachus ; 
a circumstance which must have vitiated the 
boasted apostolic succession in the bishops of 
Rome, and therefore have destroyed their title 
to infallibility ! Cabals and intrigues for being 
elected to the popedom disgraced the com 
mencement of the sixth century. Their pre. 
vention in future, however, was decreed ; and 
certain rules, having in view the peace and 
order of the western church, were laid down 
by two synods convened at Rome about the 
same time. From this period to the middle of 
the century, upward of twenty local meetings 
of the clergy were held in different parts of 
Europe, fifteen in Asia, and only four in Afri- 
ca. The directions for the married clergy, 
which occasionally present themselves to view 
in the proceedings of these synods, prove that 
celibacy was not at this period a general regu- 
lation ; while commnnion in both kinds appears 
to have been an established usage. The synods 
vi'hich were held during the remainder of the 
sixth century were confined to France and 
Spain. They amount in number to twenty- 
six ; and, like the rest of the minor class which 
preceded them, canons are interspersed among 
then- acts which have in view the security of 
church property, and the rights, privileges, 
and powers of the different ranks of the cler- 
gy. The remaining canons relate to discipline, 
with the exception of the few which were at 
different times ordained for the suppression of 
heretical opinions, for the regulation of both 
the married and celibate clergy, and of the 
fees to' which they should be entitled on the 
performance of certain duties. In none of 
them is to be found the least authority for the 
distinguishing tenets of the modern church of 
Rome ; so that, to the very close of the sixth 
century, she may be considered as being ortho- 
dox, pure, and uncorrupt. Whatever defer- 
ence she might claim as an elder branch of 
the church of Christ, she raised no pretensioiis 
to a Lordly preeminence over the rights and 
privileges of other churches. Her jurisdiction 
was circumscribed within her own diocesan 
boundaries ; and, beyond them, none was de- 
manded. After the commencement of the 
seventh century, however, a complete change 
took place in this respect, so that if a compari- 
son be instituted between the tenets which the 
church of Rome held in the first ages, and those 
which she subsequently professed, the precise 
period at which the novelties commenced which 
now distinguish her from her former self might 
easily be ascertained. The order of St. Benedict, 
which served as a model for the other monastic 
fraternities that were subsequently instituted, 
was founded in the early part of this century 



SYN 



887 



SYN 



As the liistDry of synods after the sixth can- 
tury dwindles down into a meagre narrative of 
the unjust incroachments and corrupt inno- 
vations of the church of Rome, and of the 
ineffectual struggles of Christian churches in 
various parts of Europe to resist his usurpa- 
tion, we shall close this article with an account 
of the popish synod of Sardica and of the Pro- 
testant synod of Dort. After a long night of 
darkness, the glimmerings of a bright day were 
perceived at a distance, when, in the fourteenth 
century, our celebrated countryman, the im- 
mortal Wickliffe, appeared as the precursor of 
the reformation from popery. The light in- 
creased during the succeeding century, when 
those brave witnesses for the truth, John Huss 
and Jerome of Prague, suffered martyrdom ; 
and the sixteenth century was favoured with 
the full blaze of day when Luthe.r and Melanc- 
thon were encouraged and supported in their 
benevolent and arduous undertaking, and suc- 
ceeded in putting down the shadowy forms of 
superstition and idolatry. Soon was the great- 
est part of irradiated Europe called upon to 
rejoice in this light ; and to some of the best 
patriots in those countries that slighted such 
an opportunity, their own culpable supineness 
or neglect has been a source of deep national 
regret from one generation to another. 

The Synod of Sardica was held A. D. 347. 
The Emperors Constans and Constantius, being 
anxious to restore that peace to the church of 
which it was deprived by the continuance of 
Arius's heresy, agreed to convene an ecclesi- 
astical assembly in Sardica, a city of Ma3sia on 
the verge of their respective empires. About 
E. hundred western and seventy eastern bishops 
attended; but altercation, and not debate, en- 
sued. The smaller party, apprehensive for 
their personal safety, withdrew to a town in 
Thrace; a circumstance that disclosed the first 
symptoms of discord and schism between the 
Greek and Latin churches. Before this period 
the right of appeal from all other churches to 
the see of Rome had not been claimed; but 
from it we date the first aspirations of Roman 
pontiffs to lordl}'- preeminence, and they bent 
their restless energies to establish a spiritual 
tyranny over all the nations of the earth. 
Ecclesiastics, excommunicated by the oriental 
or African churches, fled to Rome for refuge, 
one after another ; and as the bishop of that 
city afforded them his protection, gratified as 
he was at every occasion which made it neces. 
sary, they, in order to testify their gratitude, 
unwittingly compromised the rights of the 
clergy, when, to the extent of their individual 
sanction, they invested him with the appellant 
jurisdiction. Among the refugees at Rome was 
the celebrated bishop of Alexandria. Athana- 
sius, persecuted by the Arian party in the east, 
knelt as a suppliant on the threshold of the 
Vatican. Julius gladly espoused his cause, 
and declared him to have been illegally con- 
demned; a declaration that seemed to come 
with authority, but which the eastern bishops 
opposed as an usurpation of undue power. 
They went so far as even to excommunicate 
Hosius, Gaudentius, Julius the bishop of Rome, 



and others, on the alleged assumption of au, 
thority. They maintained the principle laid 
down in the canons, that the judgment passed 
on any individual, either by an eastern or 
western synod, ought to be confirmed by the 
other. And while they complained that the 
bishops of the west should disturb the whole 
church, on account of one or two troublesome 
fellows, they accused them of arrogantly at- 
tempting to establish a new law for the pur- 
pose of empowering themselves to reexamine 
what had been already determined. Chry. 
sostom, too, in his distress, implored, at a 
subsequent period, the interference of Inno. 
cent, the then occupant of the papal chair, 
with the emperor of the east, for the purpose 
of procuring a reversal of the sentence of de- 
position pronounced against him by an obscure 
synod in the suburbs of Chalcedon. But that 
father never once supposed that the Roman 
pontiff had any right to hear his cause. His 
appeal lay to the supreme tribunal of a free 
and general council, from a packed assembly 
which the empress Eudoxia had been instru- 
mental in calling together, in order to effect 
his ruin. As these two cases of Athanasius 
and Chrys-ostom are pleaded by Romish wri- 
ters in support of the appellant authority with 
which they invest the bishop of Rome, it is a 
matter of importance to examine the stability 
of this ground-work, on which is laid the im- 
mense structure of papal supremacy. Hosius, 
who presided in the Sardican synod, as he did 
at every council where he happened to be pre- 
sent, is reported to have proposed that an ap- 
peal should be made to Rome out of respect to 
the chair of St. Peter, and not, as was ruled 
at the council of Nice, to the bishops of the 
neighbouring province, when any decision had 
been come to in a provincial synod. But what 
is the language of the proposition made by 
Hosius ? " If it be a favourite object with you^ 
let us honour the memory of Peter, so that a 
letter may be addressed to Julius, bishop of 
Rome, by those who decided on the mattery 
that, if necessary, the judgment may be re- 
viewed by the bishops in his neighbourhood, 
and that he may appoint some to hear the 
cause." Here neither canon nor Scripture is 
referred to ; while it is left optional with the 
assembly whether deference was or was not to 
be paid to Julius, who is simply styled awtirla. 
Kozog, "a fellow bishop." The fourth canon 
of this synod ordains, "that an archbishop, 
&c, deposed by a provincial synod, must not 
be expelled, until the bishop of Rome shall 
determine whether the cause shall be reexam, 
ined ;" and the fifth canon decrees, " that the 
bishop of Rome, if he deem it proper, shall 
order a rehearing of the matter; that, if con- 
venient, he shall send deputies for the purpose ; 
if not, that he should leave the decision of the 
case to the synod itself." From the third and 
fourth canons it appears that a novelty in dis- 
cipline is established, and made obligatory on 
the churches of both empires, but only by a 
handful of bishops belonging to one of them; 
and from the fifth, that the bishop of Rome, if 
he deemed a judgment erroneous, might coni. 



SYN 



888 



SYN 



vene a new council and send deputies to it, for 
the purpose of reconsidering the matter. These 
canons, no doubt, were very flattering to the 
ambition of the Roman pontiff, and, accord- 
ingly, they are pleaded in behalf of his supre- 
macy; but how preposterous is it to ascribe 
that to a human law, which, it is asserted, 
belongs to him by the law of God ! There are 
other canons regulating the intercourse be- 
tween bishops and the imperial court ; after 
such a manner, however, as to make the bishop 
of Rome the judge of the propriety of the pe- 
titions which they intended to prefer. Not- 
withstanding all this, they can never be rescued 
from the imputation of being forgeries. For, 1. 
They were never received by either the eastern 
or African church as general laws. At the 
sixth council of Carthage, Austin strenuously 
denied the right of appeal to the Roman see, 
although a letter has been forged in his name, 
strenuously contending for it, which is now 
deposited among the pious frauds of the Vati- 
can. It happened, also, in the early part of 
the fifth century, that Appiarius, who had been 
excommunicated by the African bishops, ap- 
plied to Zosiraus, bishop of Rome. This pon- 
tiff forthwith sent them the Sardican canon, 
which conferred on him the right of appeal. 
This they indignantly rejected, inasmuch as 
their predecessors, who attended the council 
of Sardica, left no record of it ; and because 
the eastern patriarchs, whom they consulted 
on the occasion, not only disclaimed all know- 
ledge of any such canon being in existence, 
but furnished their brethren with an exact 
copy of the Nicene canons, among which the 
Sardican one was not to be found. '2. The 
Sardican canons were not inserted in the code 
of canons approved of by the council of Ghal- 
cedon. 3. The council which passed them is 
not reckoned, even by the church of Rome, as 
one of the eighteen general councils, whose 
authority it acknowledges ; nor does Bellar- 
mine himself say that it is one of those coun- 
cils which his church receives in part and 
rejects in part. 4. When the western bishops 
entreated the Emperor Theodosius to summon a 
council, A.D. 407, so far were they from making 
any allusion to the doctrine of an appeal to the 
Roman see, that they distin-ctly disclaimed 
the thought of such a prerogative, and only 
sought the fellowship of a common arbitration. 
5. Lastly, if, as the historian Sozpmen says, 
the Sardican synod wrote to Julius, bishop of 
Rome, to apprize him of what they had done, 
and of their decrees being drawn up in the 
spirit of the council of Nice, the purport of the 
letter was not so strong as that which they ad- 
dressed to the church of Alexandria, in which 
they pray it to give its suffrage to the deter- 
mination of the council, additional suspicions 
are created. From all these circumstances 
taken together, it is evident that no value is to 
be attached to the decrees of this obscure 
council ; and that, although due respect was 
paid to St. Peter's chair, it was no acknow- 
ledgment of the superiority of its possessor as 
to ecclesiastical authority or jurisdiction. 
The Synod of Dort. The Dutch churches 



forsook the communion of the corrupt church 
of Rome^oon after the church of England had 
cast off the papal yoke ; and they were gene, 
rously aided in their endeavours to recover their 
civil and religious liberties by our good Queen 
Elizabeth and her wise counsellors. The first 
Christian teachers among them were Luthe- 
rans ; but in process of time, the celebrity of 
Geneva as a place of public instruction for 
ministers of religion induced the majority of 
the candidates for the ministry to repair to 
that university ; and, as might naturally be ex- 
pected, they imported into the Low Countries 
the peculiar views of Calvin and Beza on the 
subject of predestination. It is justly observed 
by Le Vassor, " Some learned Hollanders had 
boldly defended this doctrine, before Arminius 
became a minister at Amsterdam and a profes- 
sor at Leyden, and likewise before Gomarus 
had risen up against him. Their writings are 
still extant ; although it is true that certain mi- 
nisters, who were too hasty, exerted themselves 
to bring those authors and their productions into 
disrepute ; but the states of Holland uniformly 
checked this impetuous zeal. The professors 
of Leyden were allowed a perfect liberty of 
teaching conformably to the sentiments ,of 
Melancthon ; and when Arminius was called 
to that university, his opinions were generally 
known ; for he had declared them in the church 
of Amsterdam, from the consistory of which 
he received very honourable testimonials. Go- 
marus, and many others of the same opinion, 
having entered into conversation with Armi- 
nius, made no scruple of acknowledging im- 
mediately that the difference of sentiments 
which existed between them did not at all 
concern the foundations of the Reformation. 
True it is, that Gomarus did not remain long 
on good terms with Arminius. Whether he 
had taken umbrage at the reputation of his 
new colleague, or the enemies of Arminius 
had found means to provoke the anger of Go= 
marus by some artful insinuation or other , 
he violently set his face against a man whotUs 
some time before, he looked upon as orthodox." 
The struggles of the party of Arminius in Hoi- 
land, after the death of that great man, to 
obtain a toleration for their opinions, are mat- 
ters of history. The political circumstances 
of that country and of Europe in general were 
at that period very peculiar, and exercised 
great influence in the convening and conduct, 
ing of that famous ecclesiastical assembly, the 
synod of Dort ; but in a sketch like this, they 
can only be briefly mentioned. Frederic, the 
elector Palatine, married Elizabeth, the only 
daughter of our King James the First ; he was 
nephew to Maurice the prince of Orange : and 
he sent his Heidelberg divines to the synod to 
assist his uncle in the condemnation of the 
Remonstrant party, as the Arminians were 
generally called, and to gratify his polemical 
father-in-law in the overthrow of the heretical 
Vorstius. In return, he natxirally expected 
both of his relations to aid him in his grand 
enterprise of seizing on the crown of Bohe- 
mia ; in which, soon after the banishment of 
the Remonstrants, he completely succeeded, — 



SYN 



889 



SYN 



though he subsequently lost tliat crown and 
all his hereditary possessions, and embroiled 
nearly the whole of Protestant Europe in the 
famous thirty years' war. 

The Remonstrants, according to Nichols, 
in the ample notes to his translation of the 
" Works of Arminius," had long wished to 
have their " Five Points" of doctrine brought 
for adjudication either before a provincial sy- 
nod, to prepare matters for a national one ; or 
to have them brought at once before a gene- 
ral council of Protestant divines. But the Cal- 
vinists would listen to neither of these equitable 
proposals. If a provincial synod were con- 
vened, especially in that province (Holland) 
which most needed such a remedy, these men 
well knew, from trial, how difficult it would 
be to combat and refute the strong and popu- 
lar arguments of the Remonstrants, when both 
parties were placed nearly on an equality in 
the same assembly ; and if a general council of 
Protestants was summoned together, they were 
eertain that the principles of Arminius would, 
without demur, be recognized as integral parts 
of Scripture verity, and consequently entitled 
not only to toleration, (which was all that the 
Remonstrants had desired,) but to the especial 
patronage of the civil authorities. The latter 
result was, anticipated, from the immense pre- 
ponderance which the Lutheran divines, from 
all the small states of Germany, and from other 
parts of the north of Europe, would have had 
in such a council. Numerous state papers on 
this subject were written by the public function- 
aries of the different provinces in the year 
1617; among which those of the composition 
of the learned Grotius, who conducted the 
arguments in favour of a general council, are 
very conspicuous for the superior ability which 
they display. A national synod was therefore 
the sole rem.edy which the wisdom, or rather 
the worldly prudence, of the Calvinists could 
discover for removing the maladies under 
which the churches of Holland were at that 
time labouring. In showing cause for their 
preference, they were placed in an awkward 
dilemma ; for they perceived, that the strong- 
est reasons to be adduced for the adoption of 
this measure would extend too far, and might, 
in the hands of their able antagonists, be made 
to apply with greater cogency to the conven- 
ing of a general council. 

The designs which Prince Maurice had long 
cherished against the ancient liberties and in- 
ternal jurisdiction of the states, (each of which 
possessed by the act of union the complete 
management of its own affairs,) were then in 
a course of execution. By the forcible and 
illegal removal of the old burgomasters and 
governors, and the appointment of new ones ; 
by the preponderance which these newly elected 
individuals gave to their own party in their 
election of persons to fill the higher offices of 
state in the various towns which had been ill- 
affected toward Calvinism and arbitrary power; 
-and by the untrue and scandalous reports which 
were invented and industriously propagated re- 
specting the alleged secret intentions of Bar- 
nevelt and the Arminians to deliver up their 



country to the Spaniards ; the prince was 
enabled to succeed in his ambitious enterprises. 
To the party, therefore, that had forwarded his 
views he willingly gave all the weight of his 
influence, and that of tlie States General, the 
majority of whom, in virtue of the late unlaw- 
ful changes effected in the provinces, were 
favourable, not only to Calvinism, but to any 
measure which the prince might think fit to 
propose. It was in allusion to the revolution, 
thus craftily completed, that Bogerman, as 
president of the synod of Dort, told Episcopius, 
in a sarcastic style, as Hales tells us, "You 
may remember what you told the foreign di- 
vines in your letter to them, that there had of 
late been a great metamorphosis in the state ; 
you are no longer judges and men in power, 
but persons under citation." In such a state 
of affairs, an ordinance of government was 
easily obtained for convening a national synod, 
which was to consist of native divines appointed 
by the different classes and presbyteries, of civil 
deputies chosen out of each province by the 
states, and of foreign divines deputed by such 
churches as had adopted both the platform and 
the doctrine of Geneva. The temper and in- 
tolerant conduct of the various ecclesiastical 
meetings with whom rested the inland appoint- 
ments, had been but too apparent ; and time 
had not mollified their intolerant principles ; 
for, under the new order of things, and with 
the sanction of the fresh race of magistrates, 
they were emboldened to effect a schism in 
many of the chief towns, and forcibly to exclude 
the Arminian ministers from the churches 
which they occupied. In other towns, in 
which these bold practices could not be at- 
tempted with any probability of success, they 
employed the ecclesiastical arms of the classes, 
provincial synods, and other packed vestry- 
meetings, the members of which (consisting 
generally of Calvinists) summoned before them 
all the chief Arminian pastors in the various 
districts, accused them of holding heterodox 
opinions on the subject of predestination, and 
suspended or expelled them from the ministry 
This work of expulsion and suspension was 
carried on by the dominant party, even during 
the time in which the fate of Arminianism was 
in a course of determination by the synod of 
Dort : so that, had that far-famed and reverend 
assembly decided in favour of a toleration of 
the Arminian doctrines, the minor church 
meetings had left few" ministers of that per- 
secuted denomination to profit from such a 
decision. The Calvinistic account of this 
summary and iniquitous process is thus given, 
in the preface to the acts of the National Sy- 
nod : " And since there were several pastors in 
that province, [Guelderland,] some of whom 
had been suspected of many other errors beside 
the Five Points of the Remonstrants, others of 
them had illegally intruded into the office of 
the ministry, while others were men of profli- 
gate habits ; certain persons of this description 
being cited before the [provincial] synod [of 
Guelderland and Zutphen, held at Arnheim, in 
July, 1618,] were suspended from the ministry 
for some of the before-mentioned reasons, and 



SYN 



890 



SYN 



by no means on account of the opinion con- 
tained in the Five Points of the Remonstrants, 
which was reserved for the cognizance of the 
national synod. The trial of the rest of these 
men being dismissed in the name of the synod, 
was committed to a deputation from their body, 
to-whom the states added certain of their own 
delegates. When they had fully investigated 
the cases of these men in their- classes, they 
suspended some of them from the ministry, and 
entirely removed others." In the very able 
memorial which the Remonstrants, on their 
arrival at the synod, presented to the foreign 
members, it is justly observed, respecting those 
who were accused of having taught, beside the 
Five Points, those doctrines which were con- 
trary to the fundamentals of faith : " Such 
particular cases do not in any manner affect 
the common cause of the Remonstrants, but 
concern those alone who may be found guilty 
of them. Nor are we adverse to the issuing 
of ecclesiastical censures against such persons, 
provided they be lawfully put upon their trials, 
and fairly heard in defence of themselves 
against such charges." Because the members 
of these Calvinistic provincial synods could 
not be long absent from their respective con- 
gregations, such galloping commissions as 
these, endowed with ample powers, were ap. 
pointed to traverse every province in which 
Arminianism had been planted ; and they soon 
showed to the world the most compendious 
method of rooting out reputed heresies. Their 
track through the land resembled that of the 
angel of destruction ; it was marked by an- 
guish, mourning, and desolation. After this 
detail, established by the synodical documents 
themselves, few words will suffice to point out 
the purely Calvinistic constitution of the synod 
of Dort. When very few Remonstrant minis- 
ters remained in the land, except such as were 
ejected from the church or under suspension, 
it was no difficult matter to procure an assem- 
blage of men that were of one heart respecting 
the main object that was then sought to be 
accomplished. 

In the original order for holding the synod, 
and in the list appended to it, as they were 
both passed by the States General, no mention 
was made of inviting any other churches, ex- 
cept those of England, France, the Palatinate, 
Hesse, and Switzerland, and it was a matter 
postponed for farther deliberation, whether 
any invitation should be transmitted to the 
churches of Bremen, Brandenburgh, Geneva, 
and Nassau. The clergy of the principality 
of Anhalt were not invited to the synod, be- 
cause their opinions were understood to be 
similar to those of the Remonstrants, the an- 
cient confession adopted by their churches 
being decided on the subject of conditional 
predestination. The divines of Bremen were 
viewed as men inclined too much to moderate 
counsels, and on that account improper repre- 
sentatives in an assembly that intended to carry 
every proposition with the unanimity offeree. 
The divines of Brandenburgh were the last of 
those invited. Indeed no invitation was trans- 
pjjtted to them, till the state and temper of 



their churches had been ascertained with' tole- 
rable accuracy; and when it was generally 
thought that the deputies from that electorate 
were tractable and would follow in the train 
of the Contra-Remonstrants, it was determined 
to summon them to the synod. It was for 
some time a matter of doubt with the leading 
men of Holland, whether they ought to invite 
the divines of Geneva and Nassau, two of the 
greatest nurseries of Calvinism, to be present 
at the synod. The cause of this demur was, 
to avoid the appearance of partiality, which 
they justly thought all the world would have 
imputed to them had they convened an assem- 
bly consisting only of Calvinistic doctors. To 
keep up this semblance of moderation, the sy. 
nodical summons was not transmitted to those 
divines when they were sent to the churches 
of other states and countries. But when 
Prince Maurice's schemes of secular aggran- 
dizement and political power had succeeded 
beyond his utmost wishes, they no longer 
studied to "avoid the appearance of evil," but 
boldly summoned all those divines about whose 
presence at the synod they had formerly hesi- 
tated. This was a most notable and certain 
method of procuring a strict Calvinian unifor- 
mity in the members. On this topic, Hales, in 
his letters from Dort, to the English ambassa- 
dor at the Hague, says, " For a general con- 
fession of faith, at least so far as those churches 
stretch who have delegates here in the synod, 
I think his project very possible, there being 
no point of faith in which they differ." Great 
interest was made at the court of France, to 
procure the attendance of deputies from the re- 
formed churches of that country ; but the king 
of Fi-ance prohibited the Protestant clergy 
within his dominions from becoming members 
of the synod, or assisting at its deliberations. 

The letters of the States General, invitmg 
the foreign divines to the national synod, were 
issued on the 25th of June, 1618 ; and the 
members were summoned to meet together in 
the city of Dort, on the first day of November 
in the same year. The letters of invitation to 
the divines of the united provinces were dated 
Sept. 20th, and the synod of Dort was formally 
opened Nov. 13th. Whosoever casts his eye 
over the list of the foreign divines that com- 
posed this last of Protestant councils, will find 
scarcely one man who had not distinguished 
himself by his decided opposition to the doc- 
trine of conditional predestination, and who 
was not consequently disqualified from acting 
the part of an impartial judge of the existing 
religious differences, or that of a peace-maker. 
This caused the famous Daniel Tilenus to ob- 
serve, that *'no persons were summoned to 
Dort who were not well known to be zealous 
promoters of Calvin's predestination. In for- 
mer ages, men were accustomed, first to go to the 
councils, and then to declare their sentiments : 
just the reverse of this is the practice in our 
days; for no one could be admitted into the 
synod of Dort unless he had previously mani- 
fested the bearing of his opinions." 

It will be perceived from the preceding state- 
ment, by what kind of ecclesiastical manage^ 



SYN 



891 



SYN 



ment the Remonstrants had been excluded from 
having any deputies in the synod of Dort. So 
completely had the Calvinistic plan of exclu- 
sion succeeded, that three of the members 
from Utrecht were the only Remonstrants in 
that sjmod. The reason of their being- there 
at all, was, because that province was almost 
equally divided between Remonstrant and Cal- 
vinist churches, and it had been agreed that 
three of each denomination should be summon- 
ed. But so obnoxious were the persons as 
well as the doctrines of the Remonstrants to 
their adversaries, that they would not allow 
even those three individuals to have a place in 
the seat of judgment. In the twenty-fourth 
session, it was unanimously declared, that 
they could only be reputed as cited persons ; 
however, as the Acts express it, " that this 
synod might not be exposed to calumnies, as if 
they wished to exclude them, it was allowed 
them to sit among the judges" on five condi- 
tions, the chief of v/hich were, " that while the 
affairs of the Remonstrants were under discus- 
sion, they should not disturb the proceedings 
of the synod by unseasonable interruptions, 
and not acquaint their party with any thing 
done or said in the synod, which concerned 
their cause." Two of them, after a day's de- 
libei-ation, united themselves with their suffer- 
ing brethren ; and the third, who was a lay. 
man, had seen enough of the partial conduct 
of that venerable assembly to induce him to 
absent himself from their farther deliberations. 
As the Remonstrants formed no part of the 
members convened, it was debated, in the 
fourth session, how they ought to be summon- 
ed. It was proposed and resolved, that a let- 
ler should be composed and sent to the whole 
body, that they might depute three out of each 
province as deputies to the synod. The presi- 
dent Bogerman then inquired, if all the Re- 
monstrants were to be admitted ; the president 
of the lay commissioners answered, that the 
ecclesiastical president and the secretaries 
should receive a private explanation from him 
respecting their numbers. In the interview 
which the two presidents and the secretaries 
iiad together, they concerted matters so v/ell, 
that next day the preceding resolution for wri- 
ting to the whole body was withdrawn for 
amendment ; and it was finally agreed, that it 
should be left to the determination of the lay 
commissioners, what persons, and how many, 
should be convened. These gentlemen select- 
ed thirteen of the Remonstrants, to each of 
whom they addressed a letter of citation, com- 
manding them to appear before ,the synod, 
"within fourteen days after the receipt of it 
without any tergiversation, excuse, or excep- 
tion, that in it they might freely propose, ex- 
plain, and defend the before-mentioned five 
points as far as they were able and should deem 
to be necessary." In the mean time the Re- 
monstrants, without knowing the resolution 
of the svnod, had deputed three of their body 
from Ley den, to obtain leave for their appear- 
ance at the synod, in a competent number and 
under safe conduct to defend their cause. On 
making their request known to the lay com- 1 



raissioners, they werp informed of the resolu- 
tion which had passed the synod only the pre- 
ceding day. To which they replied, that it 
was unreasonable to cite those to justify them- 
selves who were both ready and willing to 
come of their own accord ; and that if they 
persisted in proceeding with their plan of cita- 
tion, they would by that act furnish just cause, 
not only to them, but to all good men, to en- 
tertain strange notions and suspicions of the 
synodical proceedings. Not being permitted to 
choose those men from their own body whom 
they deemed the best qualified to state and 
defend their cause, they accounted it an addi- 
tional hardship, that their enemies should as- 
sume that unlawful authority to themselves. 
But neither at that time nor afterward, when 
they wished to add two of the most accom- 
plished of the brethren to their number, were 
their representations of the least avail. On 
the sixth of December these valiant defenders 
of the truth arrived, and requested, by a depu- 
tation, to be allowed a few days to unpack 
their books, arrange their papers, &c. But 
they were commanded immediately to appear 
in a body before the synod, and to prefer their 
own request. They were introduced by their 
brethren of Utrecht, and ordered to sit down 
at a long table placed in the middle of the hall. 
Episcopius then, with the permission of the 
president, addressed an apostolic greeting to the 
synod ; and, having repeated the request pre- 
viously made, he said, that " the cited Remon- 
strants appeared there to defend their good and 
righteous cause before that venerable assem- 
bly, by reasons and arguments drawn from the 
word of God, — or else to be confuted and better 
informed from the same word. la reference 
to the favour which they had asked, they left it 
to the discretion of the commissioners of the 
States General, being ready on their parts, im- 
mediately and without delay, to engage in a 
conference, if that should be required." Then 
were they desired to withdraw into a chamber 
prepared for them adjoining the hall of the sy- 
nod. After some time spent in deliberation, they 
were recalled, and informed by the president, 
that they would be expected at the synod next 
morning at nine o'clock. He added, according 
to Hales, "that they came not to conference, 
neither did the synod profess themselves an 
adverse party against them. Conferences had 
been heretofore held to no purpose.. They ought 
to have heeded the words of the letters by which 
they were cited. They were called not to con- 
ference, but to propose their opinions with 
their reasons, and leave it with the synod to 
judge of them." Episcopius replied, that it 
was not necessary so nicely to criticise the 
word conference, and that they had come there 
with no other view than to treat about the doc- 
trines which were controverted, according to 
the summons which they had received. The 
next day, December 7th, the Remonstrants 
were called in, when after Episoopius had de- 
sired and obtained leave to speak, he uttered 
an oration, the delivery of which occupied 
nearly two hours, and which, on account of 
the noble sentiments contained in it, deseryeg 



SYN 



892 



SYN 



to be recorded in letters of gold. The grace- 
fulness, force, and energy with which it was 
spoken, made such an impression on the audi- 
tory as drew tears from several of them, and 
even from some of the states' deputies. This 
effect gave mighty umbrage to the choleric 
Bogerman, who, as president, according to Mr. 
Hales's account, " signified unto Episcopius, 
that, because there were in his speech many 
things considerable, he was therefore to deliver 
the copy of it. Episcopius replied, that he had 
none handsomely written : if the synod would 
have patience, he would cause a fair transcript 
to be drawn for them. But this excuse would 
not serve ; fair or foul, deliver it up he must, 
and so he did." In the session, December 10, 
after the president had ceased to speak, he de- 
sired the Remonstrants to proceed with their 
explanation and defence of the five points. 
They requested leave to have a paper read by 
Episcopius. Bogerman would not consent to 
this ; but the lay president ordered another of 
the Remonstrants, Bernard Dwinglo, to read 
it. This very convincing document was ad- 
dressed to the synod, and consisted of two 
parts. It may be seen at full length in the 
acts, and is in every respect worthy of the 
great men whose holy cause it defended. The 
first part declared, that the Remonstrants did 
not own the members of the synod for lawful 
judges, because the great majority of them, 
with the exception of the foreign divines, were 
their professed enemies ; and that most of the 
inland divines then assembled, as well as those 
whose representatives they were, had been 
guilty of the unliappy schism which was made 
in the churches of Holland. The second part 
contained the twelve qualifications, of which the 
Remonstrants thought a well constituted synod 
should consist. The observance of the stipu- 
lations proposed in it, they would gladly have 
obtained from the synod, averring that they 
were exceedingly equitable, and that the Pro- 
testants had offered similar C9nditions for the 
guidance of the Papists, and the Calvinists for 
the direction of the Lutherans. The produc- 
tion of such a mass of evidence from writers 
of the Calvinistic persuasion, in favour of a 
toleration and moderate measures, and against 
the principle of interested parties usurping the 
place of judges, — gave dreadful offence to that 
powerful body in the synod, and especially 
when they were charged with being at once 
plaintiff, judge, and jury. No one can form 
an adequate conception of the scene which fol- 
lowed the reading of this document. Boger- 
man, the Remonstrants, the lay president, and 
the commissioners, were warm interlocutors 
during that session and the succeeding one 
which was held in the afternoon of the same 
day. Bogerman laboured hard to show, that, 
by denying the competency and impartial con- 
stitution of the tribunal before which they were 
summoned, they in reality were guilty of dis- 
affection to the higher powers, who had ap- 
pointed and convened the synod ; and that, by 
charging the majority of the members with be- 
ing the authors of the schism, they had in 
effect accused the prince of Orange and the 



States General, because those great personages 
had frequented the separate meetings. In re- 
ference to the latter circumstance, which ex- 
ceedingly galled him and the inland divines, he 
said, "The proper time has not yet arrived for 
discussing it. But when it shall have been 
proved to the synod, what kind of doctrine is 
sanctioned by the church, those who have 
departed from it, and who are consequently 
guilty of the schism, will appear in their true 
colours." Charles Niellius, one of the Walloon 
ministers, answered in behalf of the Remon. 
strants, that though they acknowledged the 
authority of the states, and held the synod in 
due estimation, yet it was as lawful for them 
to challenge this synod, as for several of the 
Christian fathers who challenged some of the 
ancient councils, and their ancestors that of 
Trent. The laws themselves allowed men for 
certain reasons to challenge even sworn judges. 
But it was never known, that any law allowed 
parties to be judges. Nor was it equitable, 
that those who had previously separated from 
the Remonstrants should sit in the synod to try 
them, after they had by such separation pre- 
judged their doctrine and entered into mutual 
engagements to procure its condemnation. 
Episcopius then said, " Mr. President, if you 
were in our places and we in yours, would you 
submit to our judgment ?" Bogerman replied, 
"If it had so happened, we must have endured 
it ; and since government has ordered mat- 
ters in a different way, it becomes you to bear 
it with patience." Episcopius rejoined, " It is 
one thing to acknowledge a person for a judge, 
and it is another to bear with patience the 
sentence which he may impose. We also will 
endure it ; but our consciences cannot be per- 
suaded to acknowledge you for the judges of 
our doctrines, since you are our sworn adversa- 
ries, and have churches totally separated from 
ours." 

On the morning of the next day, the Remon- 
strants, being called in, were urged by the 
synod'to present their objections in writing 
against the Confession and Catechism. Before 
they proceeded to do that, they craved permis- 
sion to read another document : after some 
demur, leave was granted, when Dwinglo read 
a paper which commenced thus : " The cele'- 
brated Parseus, in his Irenicum, prudently ob- 
serves, that he would advise no man to approach 
any council in which the same persons had to 
appear in the character of both adversaries and 
judges." The rest of the paper was occupied 
in wiping off the aspersions which had been 
cast upon them in the four preceding sessions, 
and particularly the foul charge of their want 
of respect for the constituted authorities of 
their country. They declared, that in case 
men of peaceable dispositions had been deputed 
to the synod, as the States General had intended, 
and such men as had never been concerned in 
making or promoting these unhappy divisions, 
they would have had little reason to offer ex- 
ceptions against such a synod. This document 
concluded with a protest. After the delivery 
of this protest, tjhe synod invented various 
methods to vex the cited Remonstrants and to 



SYN 



893 



SYN 



impede the prosecution of their cause. Among 
those methods one of the most artful was, to 
ask them questions singly, and not in a body, 
with an evident design to entrap them in their 
answers. They had with the greatest injustice 
chosen those Remonstrants whom they thought 
proper, to be cited as guilty persons at the bar 
of the synod, without the least regard to the 
useful or splendid qualifications of the indi- 
viduals thus selected. Of the six prudent and 
accomplished men who had represented the 
Remonstrant party at the celebrated Hague 
Conference in 1611, only three were summoned 
to the present synod; and though those who 
appeared on this occasion were generally men 
of good natural talents and sound understand- 
ings, and well versed in the matters under dis- 
cussion, yet they were not all endowed with 
the gift of rendering a ready arid extempore 
reply in Latin to every question that might be 
suddenly asked ; and if they had possessed such 
a gift in an eminent degree, it would still have 
been necessary that they should have had time 
for reflection, and for each to compare his own 
views and reasons with those of his brethren. 
This request, however, which cannot be viewed 
as a favour but as an act of justice, was almost 
without exception refused. Having presented 
to the synod their opinions relaiive to the Five 
Points and their remarks on the Catechism and 
Confession, the Remonstrants wished to enter 
on the " proposing, explanation, and defence 
of them, as far as they were able or should 
think necessary," according to the very terms 
of the letters by which they had been cited ; but 
the synod in opposition to the plain and obvi- 
ous meaning which those expressions conveyed, 
decided that it was a privilege belonging to 
themselves alone to judge how far the Remon- 
strants might be permitted to enter into the 
explanation and defence of their doctrines. 
This was accounted an act of great injustice 
by the Remonstrants, who also alleged, that 
"they did not feel many scruples about the 
doctrine of election, but that it was reprobation 
in which the chief difficulty lay." They were 
very desirous, therefore, of having reprobation 
discussed in the first instance : but the Calvin- 
ists of those days wished to keep unconditional 
reprobation enshrined in the dark penetralia of 
their temples, only to be produced, as oppor- 
tunity might serve, for their own private pur- 
poses, either to terrify the careless among their 
hearers, or to quicken the occasionally sluggish 
current of congregational benevolence. It was 
not to be expected, therefore, that the Calvin- 
ists of the synod would allow the Remonstrants 
to give reprobation that prominence in their dis- 
cussions to which it was justly entitled. In 
one of the debates which these two questions 
produced, Bogcrman again took advantage of 
the disingenuous trickery which we have just 
exposed, and asked Pynakker, one of the cited 
ministers, •' Do you imagine the synod will 
suffer the Remonstrants to examine the doc- 
trine of reprobation ?" Pynakker replied, 
" Yes, I do : because, as this is the chief source 
of the troubles of the church, it ought to be 
first discussed," Perceiving either that his 



meaning was not correctly understood, or that 
he had expressed it in an imperfect manner, 
Pynakker immediately explained himself by 
adding, that hj first he meant chiefiy, (both of 
which significations the Latin word conveys,) 
and by acknowledging that election ought to 
have the precedence of discussion. When 
relating this occurrence, Poppius remarks, 
" This, being received in a wrong sense, was 
imputed to all of us, as though we were unani 
mously of opinion, that the discussion of the 
doctrine of reprobation ought to precede that 
of election. Upon this question the foreign 
divines and others were desired by the president 
to deliver their sentiments. However, the ex. 
pression imputed to us was employed by none 
of us, much less by all. But this was their 
manner : if one of us, in the name of all, said 
any thing that proved advantageous to the rest, 
the president seemed much displeased at our 
unanimity : then we were told that we were 
cited singly and personally, and that we did 
not compose a society or corporation. But 
when any of us happened to employ a word 
that was capable of being wrested to our com. 
mon injury and misconstrued, then what was 
said by one was certain to be imputed to all ! " 
After gaining a favourable opportunity like 
this, Bogerman always hastily dismissed the 
cited persons; and on this occasion he dwelt 
largely, in their absence, on Pynakker's expres- 
sion, and persuaded the foreign divines that the 
proposal of the Remonstrants, to treat of repro- 
bation before election, was a sine qua non, and 
that without it was granted to them they would 
not proceed. This alarmed all the Calvinistic 
brotherhood, who rose vi et arm'is, deMvered 
seriatim their objections to such a bold pro- 
ceeding, and thought, with the professor of 
Heidelberg, "that it was unreasonable for the 
Remonstrants to disturb the consciences of the 
elect on account of God's judgments against 
the reprobated, and to plead the cause of the 
latter, as though they had been hired to under- 
take the defence of those who had by the just 
judgment of God been rejected ; and that for 
these reasons the synod neither could nor 
ought to grant the Remonstrant brethren any 
farther liberty, unless the members designed ta 
expose the orthodox doctrine of predestination- 
to be openly ridiculed." Finding this great 
aversion in the synod to the precedence of 
reprobation, the Remonstrants proposed, since 
they were forbidden to explain or defend their 
sentiments vivCi voce, "to explain their doc- 
trines in writing, beginning with the article 
of election, and proceeding to that of repro- 
bation ; to defend their doctrines, and to refute 
the contrary opinions of the Contra-Remon- 
strants and of those whom they consider 
orthodox : but that, in case this explanatiorj 
or defence seems to be defective, they would 
answer in writing the questions which the 
president might think proper to propose to; 
them, or in oral communications by those of 
their body whom they might judge best quali- 
fied for that purpose. And that the liberty 
which they desired might not appear unlimited, 
they bound themselves to proceed in such s 



SYN 



894 



6^ 



manner as should not savour in the least of an 
insolent licentiousness : and that their discus- 
sions might not be extended too far, the lay 
comniissioners'were empowered to curtail them 
at pleasure." But these very equitable terms, 
which were much worse than those which the 
unsophisticated and grammatical sense of the 
citatory letters held out to them, were rejected 
by the synod, at the instigation and by the 
management of the president, who, after having 
had recourse to his old trick of propounding 
questions to each of the cited persons, and 
after procuring against them three or four 
synodical censures, had them at length, (Jan. 
14th,) dismissed from the synod, with every 
mark of contumely and scorn which he could 
invent. Bogerman had previously busied him- 
self in extracting the opinions of the Remon. 
strants from such writings of theirs as had 
been published long before, and in forming 
them into articles, to be separately discussed 
by the synod. This passing of judgment on 
the Remonstrants from the testimony of their 
own writings, was an employment which 
Deodatus and his colleague from Geneva had 
at one of the earliest sessions mentioned as 
very desirable, and in which they appeared 
eager to engage. Any one who attentively 
reads the Acts of the synod, and compares 
them with the private accounts both of Re- 
monstrants and Contra-Remonstrants will find, 
that this had also been the intention of the 
president from the very commencement, and 
that all his shifting schemes and boisterous 
conduct was intended to irritate the Remon- 
strants, who possessed more patience than he 
had contemplated, and who were therefore to 
be removed from the synod by a greater exer- 
cise of art and with greater difficulty. But one 
of the greatest injuries of which the Remon- 
strants had to complain, was, that the book 
from which their supposed opinions were 
chiefly collected, was the production of a 
declared enemy, who wrote a highly coloured 
account of a conference respecting the Five 
Points, in which he pretended that the Cal- 
vinists had obtained a complete victory. A 
Remonstrant author had also written an able 
statement of the same conference, and had 
claimed a triumph for his party. The latter 
would therefore have certainly been the most 
proper authority from which to extract the real 
opinions of his body. 

But though dismissed from their farther 
attendance on the synod, the Remonstrants 
were not permitted to depart from Dort ; the 
states' commissioners having charged them 
not to quit the town, without their special per- 
mission. The president, in his speech dimissory, 
had said, that they would receive an intimation 
when the synod had any farther occasion for 
them. When a Remonstrant deputy, by leave 
of the acting burgomaster of Dort, who was 
one of the commissioners, had hastily gone to 
Utrecht, to visit one of his children that was 
expected soon to die, he was on his return 
called to an account for his conduct, and the 
former order repeated. In the course of their 
detention at Dort during eight months, they 



were as strictly watched as if they had been 
condemned malefactors. One of them whose 
sister lay on her death-bed and earnestly de- 
sired to see him, could not obtain permission 
to visit her while she lived ; and after her de- 
cease he was not allowed to attend her funeraL 
Another, whose wife was near the time of her 
accouchment, wished, like a good family man, 
to be at home for a few days at that critical 
period ; but his request was refused. When 
the uncle of another of them was at the point 
of death, he longed for the presence of his 
nephew, to receive his dying commands, and 
to benefit him by his counsels and prayers j 
but the wishes of the good old man could not 
be gratified. After his death, the nephew was 
not allowed to look after the pressing concerns 
of his orphan cousins, although his uncle had 
appointed him their legal guardian. None of 
these favours, though reasonable and asked' 
v/ith much humility, could be obtained from' 
the high bigots, in whose hands, at that time^ 
was vested the personal liberty of the perse- 
cuted and cited Remonstrants. Toward the 
close ol February, the magistrates of different 
towns deposed from the ministry three of the 
cited Remonstrant ministers who were present 
at the synod, and sent regular notices to their 
families, speedily to quit the paraonage houses 
which they severally occupied. These three 
good men, being heartily tired of the strict 
durance in which they had been held since 
their arrival at Dort, represented to the states' 
commissioners, that, as they were not now in 
the ministry, they could no longer be con- 
sidered amenable to the jurisdiction of the 
synod : this was the very argument of the 
commissioners, when, at the commencement 
of the synod, the Remonstrants had wished to 
have associated with them the two recently 
deposed ministers, Grevinchovius and Goulart. 
Though, for very obvious reasons, at that early 
stage of the business, they would permit no 
Remonstrants to appear among the cited, " ex- 
cept such as were actually in the exercise of 
the ministry ;" yet they would not listen to the 
same argument when it militated against their 
favourite purposes : and the three ministers 
were commanded to remain at Dort with their 
brethren. One of the three, however, whose 
wife then far advanced in pregnancy, had been 
ordered to leave her house within eight days, 
ventured to return to Horn, and to assist her 
to remove from their former dwelling. But, 
on his arrival, he found her already removed to 
another house ; and his return to Dort was 
speedily required by the higher powers. To 
expedite his departure, two or three of the Cal. 
vinist magistrates employed their official au- 
thority in a manner the most reprehensible : 
they placed him, like a criminal, in the town 
wagon openly before his own door, though he 
had provided a carriage for himself on the out- 
side of the town, to which he wished to have 
retired privately and without noise. A tumult 
ensued between the populace who were at. 
tached to their good pastor, and the soldiers 
whom the magistrates had placed before his 
house two hours before his departure. On bi» 



SYN 



895 



SYN 



return to Dort, he was severely examined be- 
fore the commissioners respecting the unhappy- 
commotion ; but being convinced that he had 
not been at all to blame in that affair, they 
passed it over in silence. At different times 
the Remonstrants wished to depute a few of 
their small body to the Hague, to make a proper 
representation of the manner in which they 
were treated by the synod ; but this indulgence 
was invariably refused. Their only resource 
then was, to write to their high mightinesses an 
account of their proceedings, and to implore 
their interference and protection. But such 
an attempt, in that posture of their affairs, was 
unavailing ; for their doom was already sealed. 
Soon after their appearance at Dort, the magis. 
trates of that city issued a proclamation, com- 
manding the inhabitants, all of whom were 
celebrated for their attachment to Calvin, to 
refrain from insulting any of the foreign or 
native professors, divines, or other persons that 
were called to appear at the synod, on pain of 
summary punishment to the offenders. This 
document was not required for the protection 
of the Calvinists ; but the persecuted Remon- 
strants were such objects of hatred to the 
populace, as scarcely to be allowed to pass 
along the streets without being maltreated. 
This bad spirit was excited and encouraged by 
the violent sermons which were fulminated 
against them, from the different pulpits in the 
city. Whenever these good men were required 
to be in attendance, (and they were liable to be 
summoned from their lodgings at a few minutes' 
notice,) they were not permitted to enter the 
large hall in which the synodical sessions v/ere 
held, but were ordered to wait the pleasure of 
that venerable body in an ante-chamber, the 
door of which was generally locked, and the 
passage leading to it guarded by two or three 
of the police, who hindered them from holding 
any communication with their friends, and 
kept them in as strict durance as if they had 
been convicted of some capital offence. At 
the formal conclusion of the principal business 
of the synod, May the 6th, when the farther 
attendance of the foreign divines was declared 
to be no longer necessary, the Remonstrants 
were summoned from their lodgings, and waited 
upon the lay commissioners, at six o'clock in 
the evening, when the resolution and censure of 
the synod were read to them in Latin by Hein- 
sius, the secretary ; in which they were accused 
of "having corruptedthe true religion, dissolved 
the unity of the church, given grievous cause 
of scandal, and shown themselves contuma- 
cious and disobedient : for these several reasons, 
the synod prohibited them from the farther 
exercise of their ministry, deprived them of 
their offices in the church and universit)'', and 
declared them incapable of performing any 
ecclesiastical function, till, by sincere repent- 
ance, they should have given the church full 
satisfaction, and, being thus reconciled to her, 
should be re-admitted into her communion." 
They were then required to wait at Dort till 
farther orders from their high mightinesses ; 
and when they requested to have a copy of the 
eynodical censure and sentence against them, 



they were as usual refused. On the 24th of 
May, the cited Remonstrants were summoned 
to appear before three new commissioners 
whom the States General had deputed from 
their body, when each of them was called into 
the room and separately interrogated ; after 
which, he who had been last called in was 
ordered into another room, and prevented from 
holding any communication with those who 
had not been ushered into the presence of the 
commissioners. The proposal and questions 
addressed to each of them were in substance 
the following : " Since you have been deprived 
by the synod, the States General have directed 
us to ask you the following questions : Whether 
you are, notwithstanding this decision, resolved 
to act as ministers ? Or whether you will be 
content in future to lead quiet and peaceable 
lives in obedience to the government, aa pri- 
vate burghers, without any place or office, 
abstaining from all ecclesiastical ministrations 
in any meeting of the people of your sect, from 
all manner of teaching and preaching, exhort- 
ing, reading, administering the sacraments, 
visiting the sick, writing letters, or transmit- 
ting papers ? — It is the intention of their high 
mightinesses to allow to those who shall con- 
form to these requisitions such a competency 
as may enable them to live comfortably either 
in or out of these united provinces, as their 
own choice may determine." In addition to 
these things, Episcopius was required to pro- 
mise, " not to write either letters or books to 
confirm the people in the Sentiments of the 
Remonstrants, or to seduce them from the doc- 
trine of the synod." All of them professed their 
willingness to obey their governors in all such 
matters as might be performed with a safe con- 
science, to live peaceably themselves, and to 
exhort all others to the same practice. They 
also expressed their readiness to refrain from 
the exercise of their ecclesiastical functions in 
the public churches; but none of them, except 
Leo, could reconcile it to their consciences to 
abstain from feeding in smaller assemblies the 
flock of Christ over which the Holy Ghost had 
made them overseers. The majority of them 
added, " Not only those who abuse or squander 
away their talent will be punished, but those 
also who bury it in the earth, either through 
fear of trouble or hope of advantage. It is 
therefore our duty to place our lights on can- 
dlesticks, and not to hide or smother them 
under a bushel or an easy bed ; and we hope 
your lordships will neither hinder us, nor be 
displeased with us for so doing." In a sub^ 
sequent interview with the commissioners, the 
Remonstrants proved, that their reasons for 
continuing the exercise of their ministry had 
formerly received the sanction of the States 
General themselves : for at the treaty of Co- 
logne, in 1579, their high mightinesses had 
insisted, "that subjects who professed any 
religion different from that which was esta- 
blished, could not satisfy their consciences by 
foregoing its exercise." But, after several 
unavailing conferences together, the commis- 
sioners left them in a state of suspense and 
confinement, about twenty days longer. During 



SYN 



896 



SYN 



that time, several reports were brought to them 
from various quarters, " that some great ca- 
lamity was impending ;" and they were seri- 
ously advised to avoid it by a timely flight. 
They were likewise informed of Barneveldt's 
execution, and of the perpetual imprisonment 
to which Grotius and Hogerbeets had been 
sentenced ; and that several of their brethren 
in the ministry, who had lately attended a 
meeting at Rotterdam about their affairs in 
general, had been taken into custody, and 
brought to the Hague, for that offence. They 
thought, however, that all these reports were 
only intended to create an artificial alarm, and 
to induce them to attempt an escape, — thus 
delivering their enemies from the hatred to 
which they would be exposed by their farther 
rigorous proceedings. But their firmness on 
that occasion corresponded with all their pre- 
vious conduct, and they refused to dishonour 
their good cause by flight, or any other act of 
cowardice. On the 3d of July, after having 
been, summoned from Dort to the Hague, they 
appeared before the States General, and when 
they had been called in singly before their lord- 
ships, some time was spent to induce each of 
them to sign the act of cessation from the 
ministry. But to these renewed solicitations 
they separately returned the same modest 
answer as that which they had delivered at 
Dort. After allowing them two days for far- 
ther deliberation, their lordships on the fifth 
of the same month, having heard a repetition 
of their refusal, passed a resolution to banish 
them " out of the united provinces and the 
jurisdiction thereof, without ever being allowed 
to return till the said states be fully satisfied 
that they are ready to subscribe the said act of 
cessation, and till they have obtained special 
leave from their high mightinesses for that 
purpose, on pain, in case of non-compliance, 
of being treated as disturbers of the public 
peace, for an example to others." Episcopius 
delivered a short speech, in which, among 
other matters, he reminded their high mighti- 
nesses, "that they had been invited to a free 
synod, and had received frequent verbal pro- 
mises of a safe conduct." To this speech they 
did not deign a reply, but ordered the Remon- 
strants to be conducted into another room, and 
to hsve the door locked and bolted, while the 
provost and his ofiicers attended on the outside 
for purposes of intimidation. After being kept 
some time in this kind of imprisonment they 
were at length permitted to depute to their high 
mightinesses two of their body, who requested 
that they might have leave to adjust their do- 
mestic affairs, to collect what was owing to 
them, and to pay their debts, that their wives 
and children might not be rendered miserable 
and turned naked into the streets. They offered 
to give unexceptionable security for their re- 
turn at such a period and to such places as their 
lordships might require. While they were 
preferring this request, the Heer Muis often 
interrupted them, and at last sarcastically told 
them "not to be so greatly concerned about 
their families; for if they had received an 
extraordinary call from God to serve his 



church, he would undoubtedly support them 
after an extraordinary manner." But the only 
favour which the Remonstrants could obtain, 
was, the deferring of their departure till four 
o'clock the next morning, provided each of 
them would promise to retire to his lodgings 
without speaking to any body, and to be ready 
at the appointed early hour next day. Each 
of them had fifty guilders allowed for lais travel, 
ling expenses, and a copy of the sentence of 
the States General. But it was between nine 
and ten o'clock the next day, before the magis- 
trates removed them in nine wagons toward 
Walwick in Brabant, the place of banishment 
which they had desired, where they arrived 
after a journey of three days. The canons of 
Dort, as the grand test of Calvinism, were then 
carried triumphantly by the synodists through- 
out the land ; and every clergyman, professor, 
and schoolmaster, that refused to sign them, 
was deprived of his benefice and compelled to 
lay aside his functions. Several of them, in 
addition to their deprivation, were also banished 
out of the country, to various parts on the con- 
tinent. So ended these proceedings of the 
Synod of Dort as to these suffering men ; pro- _ 
ceedings which would have disgraced the worst 
age of popery ! 

While in a state of banishment, these ex- 
cellent ministers of Christ Jesus provided for 
the spiritual wants of their destitute flocks ; 
and, at the imminent hazard of life and liberty, 
discharged in person, as often as they found 
opportunity, the duties of the pastoral office. 
After the death of Prince Maurice, in 1631, 
they were permitted to return to thfiir native 
country, and to resume the peaceable exercise 
of their ministry. But the immense literary 
labours in which they were compelled to en- 
gage during this troublous period have, by the 
admirably over-ruling acts of Divine Provi- 
dence, been rendered most valuable blessings 
to the whole of Christendom. Such doctrines 
and principles were then brought under dis- 
cussion, as served to enlighten every country 
in Europe on the grand subject of civil and 
religious liberty, the true nature of which has 
from that time been better understood, and its 
beneficial effects more generally appreciated 
and enjoyed. 

We subjoin their opinions" on the " Five 
Points" in dispute between them and the 
Contra- Remonstrants, translated from the La- 
tin papers w^hich they presented to the synod. 
It is, however, necessary for the reader to be 
apprized, that, in framing these doctrinal ar- 
tides, which served them as texts or theses 
for some most valuable dissertations on various 
cognate subjects, they intended rather to ex- 
pose the unguarded assertions and extravagant 
dogmas of their theological adversaries, than 
to exhibit a simple statement of their own 
sentiments. 

I. On predestination. 1. God has not de- 
creed to elect any one to eternal life or to 
reprobate any man from it, in an order prior 
to that by which he has decreed to create that 
man, without any insight into any antecedent 
obedience or disobedience, but according to his 



SYN 



897 



SYN 



own good pleasure, to demonstrate the glory 
of his mercy and justice, or of his power or 
absolute dominion. 2. As the decree of God 
concerning both the salvation and the destruc- 
tion of every man is not the decree of an end 
absolutely [intenti] fixed, it follows that neither 
are such means subordinated to that decree as 
through them both the elect and the reprobate 
may efficaciously and inevitably be brought to 
the destined end. 3. Wherefore, neither did 
God with this design in one man Adam create 
all men in an upright condition, nor did he or- 
dain the fall or even its permission, nor did he 
withdraw from Adam necessary and sufficient 
grace, nor does he now cause the Gospel to be 
preached and men to be outwardly called, nor 
does he confer on them the gifts of the Holy 
Spirit, — [he has done none of these things with 
the design] that they should be means by which 
he migJit bring some of mankind to life ever- 
lasting, and leave others of them destitute of 
eternal life. Christ the Mediator is not only 
the executor of election, but also the founda- 
tion of the very decree of election itself. The 
reason, [cawsa] why some men are efficaciously 
called, justified, persevere in faith, and are 
glorified, is not because they are absolutely 
elected to life eternal : nor is the reason why 
others are deserted and left in the fall, have 
not Christ bestowed upon them, or, farther, 
why they are inefficaciously called, are hard- 
ened and damned, because these men are ab- 
solutely reprobated from eternal life. 4. God 
has not decreed, withou.t the intervening of 
actual sins, to leave by far the greater part of 
mankind in the fall, and excluded from all 
hope of salvation. 5. God has ordained that 
Christ shall be the propitiation for the sins of 
the whole world; and, in virtue of this decree, 
he has determined to justify and save those 
who believe in him, and to administer to men 
the means which are necessary and sufficient 
for faith, in, such a manner as he knows to be 
befitting his wisdom and justice. But he has 
not in any wise determined, in virtue of an 
absolute decree, to give Christ as a Mediator 
for the elect only, and to endow them alone 
with faith through an effectual call, to justify 
them, to preserve them in the faith, and to 
glorify them. 6. Neither is any man by some 
absolute antecedent decree rejected from life 
eternal, nor from means sufficient to attain 
it : so that the merits of Christ, calling, and 
all the gifts of the Spirit, are c"apable of pro- 
fiting all men for their salvation, and are in 
reality profitable to all men, unless by an abuse 
of these blessings they pervert them to their 
own destruction. But no man whatever is des- 
tined to unbelief, impiety, or the commission 
of sin, as the means and causes of his damna- 
tion. 7. The election of particular persons is 
[peremptoria] absolute, from consideration of 
their faith in Jesus Christ and their perse- 
verance, but not without consideration of their 
faith and of their perseverance in true faith as 
a prerequisite condition in electing them. 8. 
Keprobation from eternal life is made accord- 
ing to the consideration of preceding unbelief 
.and perseverance in unbelief, but not without 
58 



consideration of preceding unbelief or perse- 
verance in unbelief. 9. All the children of 
believers are sanctified in Christ ; so that not 
one of them perishes who departs out of this 
life prior to the use of reason. But some chil- 
dren of believers who depart out of this life in 
their infancy, and before they have in their 
own persons committed any sin, are on no ac- 
count to be reckoned in the number of the re- 
probate : so that neither is the sacred laver of 
baptism, nor are the prayers of the church, by 
any means capable of profiting them to salva- 
tion. 10. No children of believers who have 
been baptized in the name of the Father, of 
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and who live 
in the state of their infancy, are by an absolute 
decree numbered among the reprobate. 

II. On the universality of the merit of Christ. 

1. The price of redemption which Christ of- 
fered to his Father is in and of itself not only 
sufficient for the redemption of the whole hu- 
man race, but it has also, through the decree, 
the will, and the grace of God the Father, been 
paid for all men and every man ; and there- 
fore no one is by an absolute and antecedent 
decree of God positively excluded from all 
participation Iti the fruits of the death of Christ. 

2. Christ, by the merit of his death, has [hac-' 
tenus] thus far reconciled God the Father to the 
whole of mankind, — that he can and will, with- 
Gt^t injury to his justice and truth, enter inta 
and establish a new covenant of grace with 
sinners and men obnoxious to damnation. 3. 
Though Christ has merited for all men and 
for every man reconciliation with God and for- 
giveness of sins, yet, according to [pactum] 
the tenor or terms of the new and gracious co= 
venant, no man is in reality made a partaker of 
the benefits procured by the death of Christ irt 
any other way than through faith ; neither are 
the trespasses and offences of sinful men forgiv- 
en prior to their actually and truly believing in 
Christ. 4. Those only for whom Christ has 
died are obliged to believe that Christ has die(i 
for them. But those whom they call repro- 
bates, and for whom Christ has not died, can' 
neither be obliged so to believe, nor can they 
be justly condemned for the contrary unbelief; 
but if such persons were reprobates, they 
would be obliged to believe that Christ has 
not died for them. 

III. & IV. On the operation of grace in the 
conversion of man, 1. Man has not having 
faith from and of himself, nor has he it from' 
the powers of his own free will ; because in a 
state of sin he is able from' and of himself ta 
think, will, or do nothing that is good, nothing 
that is indeed saving good ; of which descrip- 
tion, in the first place, is saving faith. But it 
is necessary that, by God in Christ through 
his Holy Spirit, he should be regenerated and 
renewed in his understanding, affections, will, 
and in all his powers, that he may be capable 
of rightly understanding, meditating, willing, 
and performing such things as are savingly 
good. 2. We propound the grace of God to be 
the beginning, the progress, and the comple- 
tion of every good thing ; so that even the man 
who is born again is not able without this pre- 



SYN 



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SYN 



ceding and prevenient, this exciting and fol- 
lowing, this accompanying and cooperating 
grace, to think, to will, or to perform any good, 
or to resist any temptations to evil : so that 
good works, and the good actions which any 
one is able to find out by thinking, are to be 
ascribed to the grace of God in Christ. 3. 
Yet we do not believe that all the zeal, care, 
study, and pains, which are employed to obtain 
salvation, before faiih and the Spirit of reno- 
vation, are vain and useless ; much less do we 
believe that they are more hurtful to man than 
useful and profitable. But, on the contrary, 
we consider that to hear the word of God, to 
mourn on account of the commission of sin, 
and earnestly to seek and desire saving grace 
and the Spirit of renovation, (none of which 
is any man capable of doing without divine 
grace,) are not only not hurtful and useless, 
but that they are rather most useful and ex- 
ceedingly necessary for obtaining faith and the 
Spirit of renovation. 4. The will of man in a 
lapsed or fallen state, and before the eall of 
God, has not the capability and liberty of 
willing any good that is of a saving nature ; 
and therefore we deny that the liberty of will- 
ing as well what is a saving good as what is an 
evil is present to the human will in every state 
or condition. 5. Efficacious grace, by which 
any man is converted, is not irresistible : and 
though God so affects the will of man by his 
word and the inward operation of his Spirit, as 
to confer upon him a capability of believing, 
©r supernatural power, and actually [faciat] 
causes man to believe ; yet man is of himself 
capable to spurn and reject this grace and not 
believe, and therefore, also, to perish through 
his own culpability. 6. Although, according 
to the most free and unrestrained v/ill of God, 
there is very great disparity or inequality of 
divine grace, yet the Holy Spirit either be- 
stows, or is ready to bestow, upon all and upon 
every one to whom the word of faith is preach- 
ed, as much grace as is sufficient to promote 
[suis gradibus] in its gradations the conversion 
of men ; and tlierefore grace sufficient for faith 
and conversion is conceded not only to those 
whom God is said to be willing to save ac- 
cording to his decree of absolute election, but 
likewise to those wiio are in reality not con- 
verted. 7. Man is able, by the grace of the 
Holy Spirit, to do more good than he actually 
does, and to omit more evil than he actually 
omits. Neither do we believe that God [si?n- 
pliciter] absolutely wills that man should do no 
more good than that which he does, and to 
omit no more evil than that which he omits ; 
nor do we believe it to have been determinateiy 
decreed from all eternity that each of such acts 
should be so done or omitted. 8. Whomsoever 
God calls he calls them seriously, that is, with 
a sincere and not with a dissembled intention 
and will of saving them. Neither do we sub- 
scribe to tlie opinion of those parsons who 
assert that God outwardly calls certain men 
whom he does not will to call inwardly, that 
is, whom he is unAvilling to be truly converted, 
even prior to their rejection of the grace of 
eailjng. 9. There is not in God a secret will 



of that kind which is so opposed to his will 
revealed in his word, that according to this 
same secret will he does not will the conver- 
sion and salvation of the greatest part of those 
whom, by the word of his Gospel, and by his 
revealed will, he seriously calls and invites to 
faith and salvation. 10. Neither [Mc] on this 
point do we admit of a holy dissimulation, as 
it is the manner of some men to speak, or of 
a twofold person in the Deity. 11. It is not 
true, that, through the force and efficacy of 
the secret will of God or of the divine decree, 
not only are all good things necessarily done, 
but likewise all evil things ; so that whosoever 
commit sin, they are not able, in respect to the 
divine decree, to do otherwise than commit 
sin ; and that God wills, decrees, and [procurat] 
is the manager of men's sins, and of their in- 
sane, foolish, and cruel actions, also of the 
sacrilegious blasphemy of his own name ; that 
he moves the tongues of men to blaspheme, 
&c. 12. We also consider it to be a false and 
horrible dogma, that God by secret means im- 
pels men to the commission of those sins 
which he openly prohibits ; that those who sin 
do not act in opposition to the true will of God 
and that which is properly so called ; that what 
is unjust, that is, what is contrary to God's 
command, is agreeable to his will ; nay, far- 
ther, that it is a real and capital fault to do the 
will of God. 

V. On the perseverance of true believers in 
faith. 1. The perseverance of believers in 
faith is not the effect of that absolute decree 
of God by which he is said to have elected or 
chosen particular persons circumscribed with 
no condition of their obedience. 2. God fur- 
nishes true believers with supernatural powers 
or strength of grace, as much as according to 
his infinite wisdom he judges to suffice for 
their perseverance, and for their overcoming 
the temptations of the devil, the flesh, and tlie 
world ; and on the part of God stands nothing 
to hinder them from persevering. 3. It is 
possible for tru-e believers to fall away from 
true faith, and to fall into sins of such a de- 
scription as cannot consist with a true and 
justifying faith; nor is it only possible for 
them thus to fall, but such lapses not unfrc- 
quently occur. 4. True believers are capable 
by their own fault of falling, into flagrant 
crimes and atrocious wickedness, to persevere 
and die in them, and therefore finally to fall 
aw^ay and to perish. 5. Yet though true be- 
lievers sometimes fall into grievous sins, and 
such as destroy the conscience, we do not be- 
lieve that they immediately fall aw^ay from all 
hope of repentance ; but we acknowledge this 
to be an event not impossible to occur, — that 
God, according to the multitude of his mercies 
may again call tliem by his grace to repent- 
ance ; nay, we are of opinion that such a re- 
calling has often occurred, although such fallen 
believers cannot be "most fully persuaded" 
about this matter that it will certainly and 
undoubtedly take place. 6. Therefore do we 
with our whole heart and soul reject the fol- 
lowing dogmas, which are daily affirmed in va- 
rious publications extensively circulated among 



SYN 



899 



SYN 



the people : namely, (1.) "True believers can- 
not possibly sin with deliberate counsel and 
design, but only through ignorance and infir- 
mity." (2.) " It is impossible for true believers, 
through any sins of theirs, to fall away from 
the grace of God." (3.) "A thousand sins, 
nay, all the sins of the whole world, are not 
capable of rendering election vain and void." 
If to this be added, " Men of every description 
are bound to believe that they are elected to 
salvation, and tlxerefore are incapable of fall- 
ing from that election," we leave men to think 
what a wide Avindow such a dogma opens to 
carnal security. (4.) " No sins, however great 
and grievous they may be, are imputed to be- 
lievers ; nay, farther, all sins, both present and 
future, are remitted to them.." (5.) " Though 
true believers fall into destructive heresies, 
into dreadful and most atrocious sins, such as 
adultery and murder, on account of which the 
church, according to the institution of Christ, 
is compelled to testify that it cannot tolerate 
them in its outward communion, and that un- 
less such persons be converted, they will have 
no part in the kingdoiii of Christ ; yet it is 
impossible for them totally and finally to fall 
away from faith." 7. As a true believer is 
capable at the present time of being assured 
concei-ning the integrity of his faith and con- 
science, so he is able and ought to be at this 
time assured of his ow^n salvation and of the 
saving good will of God toward him. On this 
point we highly disapprove of the opinion of 
the papists. 8. A true believer, respecting 
the time to come, can and ought, indeed, to 
be assured that he is able, by means of watch- 
ing, prayer, and other holy exercises, to perse- 
vere in the true faith ; and that divine grace 
will never fail to assist him in persevering. 
But we cannot see how it is possible for him 
to be assured that he will never afterward be 
deficient in his duty, but that he will persevere, 
in this school of Christian warfare, in the per- 
formance of acts of faith, piety, and charity, 
as becomes believers; neither do we consider 
it to be a matter of necessity that a believer 
should be assured of such perseverance. 

Under the article Pelagians has been shown 
the line of distinction which the Remonstrants 
drew between their doctrines and those of 
Pelagius ; and the following are the just dis- 
tinctions, which they presented to the synod 
of Dort, between Semi-Pelagianism and Ar- 
minianism : " But we must declare, likewise, 
what our judgment is respecting Semi-Pela- 
gianism. The Massilians, after the time of 
Pelagius, partly corrected his error and partly 
retained it ; on which account they received 
from Prosper the appellation of the relics or 
remains of Pelagius, and are commonly styled 
Semi-Pelagians. They allowed the existence 
of prevenient grace, but only that which pre- 
cedes or goes before good works ; not that 
also which precedes the commencement of 
faith and of a good will, by which they be- 
lieved that man preceded God, — yet this not 
always, but only sometimes : On the contrary 
we say, that God precedes or goes before the 
beginning of faith and of a good will ; and that 



it is of grace both that our will be excited to 
begin well, and likewise, that, bei'ng thus pre- 
pared, it be led through to the grace of rege- 
neration. The Semi-Pelagians asserted, that 
man, through the previous dispositions which 
had been implanted in his nature, obtained 
grace as a reward ; and, however they might 
sometimes decline the use of the term merit, 
they by no means excluded merit itself: But 
we deny, that, through the endeavours of na- 
ture, man merits grace. The opinion of the 
Semi-Pelagians was, that, for the preservation' 
of the grace of the Holy Spirit, we want no- 
thing more than that which either by nature 
we may have, or that which we may once ob- 
tain in conjunction with grace : But we ac- 
knowledge, that, in order to our perseverance 
in good, special grace is likev/ise required. 

" Wherefore we are unjustly accused of 
Semi-Pelagianism by the Contra-Remonstrants, 
since we condemn in the Semi-Pelagians those 
things which the church universal formerly 
condemned in them. Yet these are gi-eat 
signs of inconstancy and consequently of a 
false judgment, — that while some among them 
fasten Pelagianism upon us and others Semi- 
Pelagianism, there are others who declare that 
we are nearly and almost Semi-Pelagians, all 
of them having chosen and employed these 
epithets only for purposes of odium. Our con- 
clusion therefore is, that we derogate nothing 
from divine grace, but acknowledge its super- 
natural and unmerited acts, and their absolute 
necessity for the work of conversion. But, on' 
the other hand, we frankly confess, that the 
indifFerency or liberty of the will is not taken 
away by grace, but that it is perfected fox the 
better ; and that the will is not necessitated, or 
so determined toward good as not to be able 
to do the opposite. 

" This was also the judgment of all anti- 
quity and of the church universal ; and the 
ortiiodox accounted this way to be the safest, 
which lay between two precipices, the one 
that of the Manichees, the other that of the 
Pelagians. St. Jerom says, 'We thus preserve 
free will, that we do not deny to it the help- 
which rt requires in evei-y thing which it per- 
forms,' Dialog, adversus Pelagium. And St. 
Augustine, who v/as at other times a most 
fierce defender of absolute election, judiciously 
observes, in his forty-sixth letter to Valenti- 
nus, ' If there be no grace of God, how does 
he save the world ? And if there be no free 
will, how does he judge the world V And, as 
St. Bernard says, in the commencement of his 
book Oji Grace and Free Will, 'Take away 
free will, and there will be nothing to be saved ; 
take away grace, and there will then be no- 
thing from which salvation can come.' We 
have had regard to both of them ; lest, if we 
denied the existence of freedom in the will, we 
should encourage the sloth and listlessness of 
men ; or if the existence of grace, we should 
give up the reins to pride and haughtiness. — 
From these quotations [and others Which they 
give] it is evident that the opinion of the fa. 
thers was, that free will and grace so com- 
pletely conspire together, that free will is 



SYR 



900 



TAB 



perfected by grace, and not destroyed; the 
destruction of the will in this case being a 
calumny invented by the Pelagians, which was 
generally refuted by the patrons of grace." 

For other particulars relating to general re- 
demption consult the articles Arminianism, 
Baxterianism, Calvinism, Church of England, 
and Lutherans, 

SYRACUSE, a famous city of Sicily, seated 
on the east side of the island. Acts xxviii, 12. 

SYRIA, that part of Asia which, bathed by 
the Mediterranean on the west, had to the 
north Mount Taurus, to the east the Euphrates 
and a small portian of Arabia, and to the south 
Judea, or Palestine. The orientals called it 
Aram. The name, which has been transmitted 
to us by the Greeks, is a corruption or abridg- 
ment of Assyria, which was first adopted by 
the lonians, who frequented these coasts after 
the Assyrians of Nineveh had reduced that 
country to be a province of their empire, about 
B. C. 750. By the appellation of Syria is ordi- 
narily meant the kingdom of Syria, of which, 
since the reign of the Seleucidee, Antioch has 
been the capital. The government of Syria 
was for a long time monarchical ; but some of 
its towns, which formed several states, were 
republics. With regard to religion, the Sy- 
rians were idolaters. The central place of 
their worship was Hieropolis, in which was a 
magnificent temple, and near the temple a lake 
that was reputed sacred. In this temple was 
an oracle, the credit of which the priests used 
every method to support. The priests v/ere 
distributed into various classes, and among 
them were those who v/ere denominated Galli, 
and who voluntarily renounced the power of 
transmitting the succession in their own fa- 
milies. The Syrians had bloody sacrifices. 
Among the religious ceremonies of the Sy- 
rians, one was that any one who undertook a 
journey to Hieropolis began with shaving his 
head and eye-brows. He was not allowed to 
bathe, except in cold water, to drink any 
liquor, nor to lie on any but a hard bed, before 
the term of his pilgrimage was finished. When 
the pilgrims arrived, they were maintained at 
the public expense, and lodged with those who 
engaged to instruct them in the sacred rites 
and ceremonies. All the pilgrims were marked 
on the neck and wrists. The yo-uth conse- 
crated to the goddess the first-fruits of their 
beard and hair, which was preserved in the 
temple, in a vessel of gold or silver, on which 
was inscribed the name of the person who 
made the offering. The sight of a dead per- 
son rendered it unfit for any one to enter into 
the temple during the whole day. The dy- 
nasties of Syria may be distributed into two 
classes; those that are made known to us in 
the sacred writings, or in the works of Jose- 
phus, acknowledged by the orientals ; and the 
Seleucidan kings, successors of Alexander, 
with whom we are acquainted by Greek au- 
thors. The monarchy of Syria continued two 
hundred and fifty-seven years. 

SYRO-PHENICIA, or PHENICIA PRO- 
PER, called Syro or Syrian Phenicia from 
being included in the kingdom of Syria. It 



implies that part of the coast of Canaan on the 
Mediterranean in which the cities of Tyre and 
Sidon were situated ; and this same country, 
called Syro-Phenicia in the Acts, is iri the 
Gospels called the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. 
The woman also called a Syro-Phenician in 
Mark vii, 26, is in Matt, xv, 22, called a Ca- 
naanitish woman, because that country was 
still inhabited by the descendants of Canaan, 
of whom Sidon was the eldest son, 

TABERNACLE, in Hebrew, hr\ii, in Greek, 
cKrivri, a word which properly signifies a tent, but 
is particularly applied by the Hebrews to a kind 
of building in the form of a tent, set up by the 
express command of God, for the performance 
of religious worship, sacrifices, &c, during the 
journeyings of the Israelites in the wilderness ; 
and after their settlement in the land of Ca- 
naan made use of for the same purpose, till 
the temple was built in Jerusalem. The taber- 
nacle was covered with curtains and skins. It 
was divided into two parts, the one covered^ 
and properly called the tabernacle, and the 
other open, called the court. The covered part 
was again divided into two parts, the one call- 
ed holy, and the other called the holy of holies. 
The curtains which covered it were made of 
linen of several colours embroidered. There 
were ten curtains, twenty-eight cubits long, 
and four in breadth. Five curtains together 
made two coverings, which, being made fast 
together, enveloped all the tabernacle. Over 
the rest there were two other coverings, the 
one of goat's hair, and the other of sheep skins. 
These vails or coverings were laid on a square 
frame of planks, resting on bases. There were 
forty-eight large j)lank9, each a cubit and a 
half wide, and ten cubits high ; twenty of them 
on each side, and six at one end to the west- 
ward ; each plank was supported by two silver 
bases ; they were let into one another, and held 
by bars running the length of the planks. The 
holy of holies was parted from the rest of the 
tabernacle by a curtain, made fast to four pillars 
standing ten cubits from the end. The whole 
length of the tabernacle was thirty-two cubits, 
that is, about fifty feet ; and the breadth twelve 
cubits, or nineteen feet^ The end was thirty cu- 
bits high ; the upper curtain hung on the north 
and south sides eight cubits, and on the east 
and west four cubits. The court was a place a 
hundred cubits long, and fifty in breadth, in- 
closed by twenty columns, each of them twenty 
cubits high, and ten in breadth, covered with 
silver, and standing on copper bases, five cu- 
bits distant from each other, between which 
there were curtains drawn, and fastened with 
hooks. At the east end was an entrance' 
twenty cubits wide, covered with a curtain 
hanging loose. In the tabernacle was the ark 
of the covenant, the table of shew bread, the 
golden candlestick, and the altar of incense ; 
and in the court opposite to the entrance of 
the tabernacle, or holy place, stood the altar 
of burnt-offerings, and the laver or bason for 
the use of the priests. 

The tabernacle was finished on the first day 
of the first month of the second year after the 



TAB 



901 



TAB 



departure out of Egypt, A. M. 2514. When 
it was set up, a dark cloud covered it by day, 
and a fiery cloud by night. Moses went into 
the tabernacle to consult the Lord. It was 
placed in the midst of the camp, and the He- 
brews were ranged in order about it, according 
to their several tribes. When the cloud arose 
from off the tabernacle, they decamped ; the 
priests carried those things which were most 
sacred, and the Levites all the several parts of 
the tabernacle. Part of the tribes went before, 
and the rest followed after, and the baggage 
of the tabernacle marched in the centre. The 
tabernacle was brought into the land of Canaan 
by Joshua, and set up at Gilgal. Here it rest- 
ed till the land was conquered. Then it was 
removed to Sliiloh, and afterward to Nob, Its 
next station was Gibeah, and here it continued 
till the ark was removed to the temple. 

The word also means a frail dwelling. Job 
xi, 14; and is put for our bodies, 2 Cor. v, 1. 
TABERNACLES, Feast of, a solemn fes- 
tival of the Hebrews, observed after harvest, 
on the fifteenth day of the month Tisri, Lev, 
xxiii, .34-44. It was one of the three great 
solemnities, wherein all the males of the Is- 
raelites were obliged to present themselves 
before the Lord ; and it was instituted to com- 
memorate the goodness of God, who protected 
them in the wilderness, and made them dwell 
in tents or booths after they came out of Egypt. 
(See Feasts.) This feast continued eight days, 
of which the first and last days were the most 
solemn. Lev. xxiii, 34, &c. It was not allowed 
to do any labour oa this feast, and particular 
sacrifices were offered, which, together with 
the other ceremonies used in celebrating this 
festival, were as follows : The first day of the 
feast they cut down branches of the hand- 
somest trees, with their fruit, branches of palm 
trees, and such as were fullest of leaves, and 
boughs of the willow trees that grew upon the 
sides of brooks, Neh. viii, 16. These they 
brought together, and waved them toward the 
four quarters of the world, singing certain 
songs. These branches were also called ho- 
sanna, because when they carried them and 
waved them, they cried Hosanna ; not unlike 
what the Jews did at our Saviour's entry into 
Jerusalem, Matthew xxi, 8, 9. On the eighth 
day they performed this ceremony oftener, and 
with greater solemnity, than upon the other 
days of the feast. They called this day hosanna 
rabba, or "the great hosanna." 

TABLES OF THE LAW. Those that 
were given to Moses upon Mount Sinai were 
written by the finger of God, and contained the 
decalogue or ten commandments of the law, 
as they are rehearsed in Exodus xx. Many 
questions have been started about these tables ; 
about their matter, their form, their number, 
he that wrote them, and what they contained. 
Some oriental authors make them amount to 
ten in number, others to seven ; but the He- 
brews reckon but two. Some suppose them to 
have been of wood, and others of precious 
stones. Moses observes, Exod. xxxii, 15, that 
these tables were written on both sides. Many 
think they were transparent, so that they might 



be read through ; on one side toward the 
right, and on the other side toward the left. 
Others will have it, that the lawgiver only 
makes this observation, that the tables were 
written on both sides, because generally in 
writing tables they only wrote on one side. 
Others thus translate the Hebrew text : " They 
were written on the two parts that were con- 
tiguous to each other ;" because, being shut 
upon one another, the two faces that were 
written upon touched one another, so that no 
writing was seen on the outside. Some think 
that the same ten commandments were written 
on each of the two tables, others that the ten 
were divided, and only five on one table, and 
five on the other. The words which intimate 
that the tables were written by the finger of 
God, some understand simply and literally ; 
others, of the ministry of an angel ; and others 
explain them merely to signify an order of God 
to Moses to write them. The expression, 
however, in Scripture always signifies imme- 
diate divine agency. See Decalogue. 

TABOR, a mountain not far from Kadesh, 
in the tribe of Zebulun, and in the confines of 
Issachar and Naphtali. It has its name from 
its eminence, because it rises up in the midst 
of a wide champaign country, called the Valley 
of Jezreel, or the great plain. Maundrell tells 
us that the area at the top of this mountain is 
enclosed with trees, except to the south, from 
whence there is the most agreeable prospect 
in the world. Many have believed that our 
Lord's transfiguration took place on this mount- 
ain. This place is mentioned, 1 Sam. x, 3, It 
is minutely described by both Pococke and 
Maundrell. The road from Nazareth lies for 
two hours between low hills ; it then opens into 
the plain of Esdraelon. At about two or three 
furlongs within the plain, and six miles from 
Nazareth, rises this singular mount, which is 
almost entirely insulated, its figure represent- 
ing a half sphere. " It is," says Pococke, 
" one of the finest hills I ever beheld, being a 
rich soil that produces excellent herbage, and 
is most beautifully adorned with groves and 
clumps of trees. The ascent is so easy, that 
we rode up the north side by a winding road. 
Some authors mention it as near four miles 
high, others as about two : the former may be 
true, as to the winding ascent up the hill. The 
top of it, about half a mile long, and near a 
quarter of a mile broad, is encompassed with a 
wall, which Josephus says was built in forty 
days : there was also a wall along the middle 
of it, which divided the south part, on which 
the city stood, from the north part, which is 
lower, and is called the meidan, or place, being 
probably used for exercises when there was a 
citj"^ here, which Josephus mentions by the 
name of Ataburion. AVitliin the outer wall oia 
the north side are several deep fosses, out of 
which, it is probable, the stones were dug to 
build the walls ; and these fosses seem to have 
answered the end of cisterns, to preserve the 
rain water, and were also some defence to the _ 
city. There are likewise a great number of 
cisterns under ground for preserving the rain 
water. To the south, where the ascent was 



TAB 



902 



TAD 



most easy, there are fosses cut on the outside, 
to render the access to the walls more difficult. 
Some of the gates, also, of the old city remain, 
as Bah-el-houah, ' the gate of the winds,' to 
the west ; and Bab-el-kubbe, ' the arched gate,' 
a small one to the south. Antiochus, king of 
Syria, took the fortress on the top of this hill. 
Vespasian, also, got possession of it; and, after 
that, Josephus fortified it with strong walls. 
But what has made it more famous than any 
thing else is the common opinion, from the 
time of St. Jerom, that the transfiguration of 
our Saviour was on this mountain." Van Eg- 
mont and Heyman give the following account : 
" This mountain, though somewiiat rugged and 
difficult, we ascended on horseback, making 
several circuits round it, which took us up 
about three quarters of an hour. It is one of 
the highest in the whole country, being thirty 
Btadia, or about four English miles, a circum- 
stance that rendered it more famous. And it 
is the most beautiful I ever saw, with regard 
to verdure, being every where decorated with 
small oak trees, and the ground universally 
enamelled with a variety of plants and flow- 
ers, except on the south side, where it is not 
so fully covered with verdure. On this mount, 
ain are great numbers of red partridges, and 
some wild boars ; and we were so fortunate as 
to see the Arabs hunting them. We left, but 
not without reluctancy, this delightful place, 
and found at the bottom of it a mean village, 
called Deboura, or Tabour, a name said to be 
derived from the celebrated Deborah mentioned 
in Judges." 

Pococke notices this village, which stands 
on a rising gl-ound at the foot of Mount Tabor 
westward ; and the learned traveller thinks, 
that it may be the same as the Daberath, or 
Daberah mentioned in the book of Joshua, as 
on the borders of Zabulon and Issachar. 
"Any one," he adds, "who examines the 
fourth chapter of Judges, may sec that this is 
probably the spot where Barak and Deborah 
met at Mount Tabor with their forces, and 
went to pursue Sisera ; and on this account, 
it might have its name from that great pro- 
phetess, who then judged and governed Israel ; 
for Josephus relates, that Deborah and Barak 
gathered the army together at this mountain." 
" From the top of Tabor," says Maundrell, 
"you have a prospect which, if nothing else, 
will reward the labour of ascending it. It is 
impossible for man's eyes to behold a higher 
gratification of this nature. On the north- 
west you discern at a distance the Mediterra- 
nean, and all round you have the spacious and 
beautiful plains of Esdraelon and Galilee. 
Turning a little southward, you have in view 
the high mountains of Gilboa, fatal to Saul and 
his sons. Due east you discover the sea of 
Tiberias, distant about one day's journey. A 
few points to the north appears that which 
they call the mount of Beatitudes. Not far 
from this little hill is the city Saphet : it stands 
upon a very eminent and conspicuous mount- 
ain, and is seen far and near." Beyond this 
is seen a much higher mountain, capped with 
^now, a part of the chain of Antilibanus. To 



the south-west is Carmel, and on the south tl\e 
hills of Samaria. 

TADMOR, a city built by Solomon, 1 Kings 
ix, 18, afterward called Palmyra ; situated in 
a wilderness of Syria, upon the borders of 
Arabia Deserta, inclining toward the Eu- 
phrates. Josephus places it two days' jour- 
ney from the Euphrates, and six days' journey 
from Babylon. He says there is no water any 
where else in the wilderness, but in this place. 
At the present day there are to be seen vast 
ruins of this city. There was nothing more 
magnificent in the whole east. There are still 
found a great number of inscriptions, the most 
of which are Greek, and the other in the Pal- 
myrenian character. Nothing relating to the 
Jews is seen in the Greek inscriptions; and 
the Palmyrenian inscriptions are entirely un- 
known, as well as the language and the cha 
racter of that country. The city of Tadnior 
preserved this name to the time of the conquest 
by Alexander the Great : then it had the name 
of Palmyra given to it, v/hich it preserved for 
several ages. About the middle of the third 
century, it became famous, because Odenatus 
and Zenobia, his queen, made it the seat of 
their empire. When the Saracens became 
masters of the east, they restored its ancient 
name of Tadmor to it again, which it has al- 
ways preserved since. It is surrounded by 
sandy deserts on all sides. It is not known 
when, nor by whom, it was reduced to the 
ruinous condition in which it is nov/ found. 
It may be said to consist at present of a forest 
of Corinthian pillars, erect and fallen. So 
numerous are these, consisting of many thou- 
sands, that the spectator is at a loss to connect 
or arrange them in any order or symmetry, or 
to conceive what purpose or design they could 
have answered. " In the space covered by 
these ruins," says Volney, "w^e sometimes find 
a palace of which nothing remains but the 
court and walls ; sometimes a temple, whose 
peristyle is half thrown down ; and now a 
portico, a gallery, or triumphal arch. Here 
stand groups of columns, whose symmetry is 
destroyed by the fall of many of them ; there 
we see them ranged in rows of such length, 
that, similar to rows of trees, they deceive 
the sight, and assume the appearance of con- 
tinued walls. If from this striking scene we 
cast our eyes upon the ground, another almost 
as varied presents itself. On all sides we be- 
hold nothing but subverted shafts, some whole, 
others shattered to pieces or dislocated in their 
joints; and on which side soever we look, the 
earth is strewed with vast stones half buried, 
with broken entablatures, mutilated friezes, 
disfigured reliefs, effii-ced sculptures, violated 
tombs, and altars defiled by dust." 

It is probable, says Mansford, that, although 
Tadmor is said to have been built by Solomon, 
or, in other words, to have been erected by 
him into a city, it was a watering station be- 
tween Syria and Mesopotamia before ; with 
perhaps accommodations suited to the mode of 
travelling in those times, as we read of palm, 
trees being found there, which are not trees 
that come by chance in these desert regions. 



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The mere circumstance of wholesome water 
being afforded by any spot in such a country 
was sufficient to give it importance, and to 
draw toward it the stream of communication, 
for whatever purpose. This was probably the 
condition of Tivdmor long before it received 
its name and its honours from Solomon. But, 
after all, what motive could there be to induce 
a peaceable king, like Solomon, to undertake 
a work so distant, difficult, and dangerous ? 
There is but one which at all accords with his 
character, or the history of the times, — com- 
mercial enterprise. Solomon was at great 
pains to secure himself in the possession of 
the ports of Elath and Ezion-Geber on the Red 
Sea, and to establish a navy for his Indian com- 
merce, or trade to Ophir, — in all ages the great 
source of wealth. The riches of India, thus 
brought into Judea, were from thence dissem- 
inated over those countries of the north and 
west at that time inhabited or known ; while 
the same country, Judea, became, for a season, 
like Tyre, the point of return and exchange 
of the money and the commodities of those 
countries, the centre of communication be- 
tween the east and the w^est. 

TALENT, a measure of weight among the 
ancients, equivalent to sixty maneh, or one 
hundred and thirteen pounds ten ounces one 
pennyweight and ten grains. The value of a 
talent of silver was three hundred and forty-two 
pounds three shillings and nine-pence, and a 
talent of gold was equal to five thousand four 
hundred and seventy-five pounds sterling. In 
the writings of the evangelists, the term is em- 
ployed to denote the various gifts or opportu- 
nities for usefulness which the Lord of heaven 
■confers upon his servants, and for which he 
will call them to give in their account at the 
last day, Matt, xxv, 15; Luke xix, 12. 

TALITHA-CUMI, the words that Jesus 
Christ made use of when he raised up the 
daughter of Jairus, chief of the synagogue of 
Capernaum. They are not pure Hebrew, but 
Syriac, and signify, " My daughter, arise," 
Mark v, 4L 

TALMUD. See Jews. 

TARE, Matt, xiii, 25-27, 29, 30, 36, 38, 
40. It is not easy to determine what plant or 
weed is here intended, as the word zizania is 
neither mentioned in any other part of -Scrip- 
. ture, nor in any ancient Greek writer. Some 
Greek and Latin fathers have made use of it, 
as have also Suidas and Phavorinus : but it is 
probable that they have all derived it from this 
text. As this Gospel was first written in Syriac, 
it is probably a word belonging to that lan- 
guage. Buxtorf gives several interpretations, 
but at last concludes with submitting it to the 
decisfon of others. In a treatise in the Mish- 
na, called "Kilayim," which treats expressly 
of different kinds of seeds, a bastard or de- 
generate wheat is mentioned by the name 
of □"'J1I, which the very sound, in pronouncing, 
proves to be the same as the zizanion ; and 
which may lead to the true derivation of the 
word, that is, from the Chaldee ^r, "a kind," or 
" species" of grain, namely, whence the corrupt 
Hebrew or Syriac n^j^, which in the ancient 



Syriac version answers to the Greek ^i^avM, 
Matt, xiii, 25, &c. In Psalm cxliv, 13, the 
words |?-VvX ]iD, are translated, " all manner of 
store ;" but they properly signify " from species 
to species." Might not the Chaldee word poir, 
and the Grook word (,L(,dviov, come from the 
psalmist's jf-j?, whick might have signified a 
" mixture" of grain of any kind, and be here 
used to point out the mixing bastard or dege- 
nerate wheat among the good seed-wheat ? 
Mintert says, that "it is a kind of plant, not 
unhke corn or wheat, having at first the .same 
sort of stalk, and the same viridity, but bring- 
ing forth no fruit, at least none good :" and he 
adds, from John Melchior, " ^li^dviov does not 
signify every weed in general which grows 
among corn, but a particular seed, known in 
Canaan, which was not unlike wheat, but, 
being put into the ground, degenerated, and 
assumed another nature and form." Park- 
hurst, and Dr. Campbell, render it "the dar- 
nel," ^'■lolium temulentum.^'' The same plant 
is called " zizana" by the Spaniards ; as it 
appears to be zuvan, by the Turks and Arabs. 
" It is well known to the people at Aleppo," 
says M. Forskal; "it grows among corn. If 
the seeds remain mixed with the meal, they 
occasion dizziness to those who eat of the 
bread. The reapers do not separate the plant ; 
but after the threshing, they reject the seeds 
by means of a van or sieve." Other travellers 
mention, that in some parts of Syria, the plant 
is drawn up by the hand in the time of harvest, 
along with the wheat, and is then gathered 
out, and bound up in separate bundles. In the 
parable of the tares, our Lord states the very 
same circumstances. They grew among the 
grain ; they were not separated by the tillers, 
but suffered to grow up together till the har- 
vest ; they were then gathered from among the 
wheat with the hand, and bound up in bundles. 
TARGUM. See Jews. 
TARSHISH, a country of this name, 
whither Solomon sent his fleets, 1 Kings x, 
22 ; 2 Chron. ix, 11. There is a multitude of 
different opinions concerning this country- 
Josephus, and the Chaldee and Arabic para- 
phrasts, explain it of Tarsus, a city of Cilicia; 
the Septuagint, St. Jerom, and Theodoret, un- 
derstand it of Carthage. The Arabian ge- 
ographer will have it to be Tunis in Africa. 
Bochart makes it to be Tartessus, an island in 
the Straits of Gades. By Tarshish, M. Le 
Clerc understands Thassus, an island and city 
in the jEgean sea. Grotius thinks that the 
whole ocean was called Tarshish, because of 
the famous city of Tartessus, now mentioned. 
Sanctius believes the sea in general to be called 
Tarshish, and that the ships of Tarshish were 
those that are employed in voyages at sea, in 
opposition to the small vessels that are used 
only in most navigable rivers. The LXX. 
translate Tarshish sometimes by " the sea ;" 
and the Scripture gives the names of ships ot 
Tarshish to those that were fitted out at Ezion- 
Geber, on the Red Sea, and which sailed upon 
the ocean, as well as to those that were fitted 
out at Joppa, and in the ports of the Mediter- 
ranean. Therefore, when we see ships fitted 



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out upon the Red Sea, or at Ezion-Geber, in 
order to go to Tarshish, we must conclude one 
of these two things, either that there were two 
countries called Tarshish, one upon the ocean, 
and another upon the Mediterranean, or that 
ships of Tarshish in general signifies nothing 
else but ships able to bear a long voyage ; large 
merchant ships, in opposition to the small craft 
intended for a home trade in navigable rivers, 
TARSUS, the capital of Cilicia, and the 
native city of St. Paul, Acts ix, 11 ; xxi, 39. 
Some think it obtained the privileges of a Ro- 
man colony because of its firm adherence to 
Julius Csesar ; and this procured the inhabitants 
the favour of being acknowledged citizens of 
Rome, which St. Paul enjoyed by being born 
in it. Others maintain that Tarsus was only 
a free city, but not a Roman colony, in the 
time of St. Paul, and that his privilege as a 
Roman citizen was founded upon some other 
right, perhaps gained by his ancestors. 

TEARS. The prayer of David, "Put my 
tears into thy bottle," is unintelligible without 
an acquaintance with ancient customs. " This 
passage," says Burder, " seems to intimate that 
the custom of putting tears into the ampullae, 
or urnal iachrymales, so well known among 
the Romans, was more anciently in use among 
the eastern nations, and particularly the He- 
brews. These urns were of different materials, 
some of glass, some of earth ; as may be seen 
in the work of Montfaucon, where also may 
be seen the various forms or shapes of them. 
These urns were placed on the sepulchres of 
the deceased, as a memorial of the distress and 
affection of their surviving relations and 
friends. It will be difficult to account for this 
expression of the psalmist, but upon this sup- 
position. If this be allowed, the meaning will 
fee, ' Let my distress, and the tears I shed in 
consequence of it, be ever before thee, excite 
thy kind remembrance of me, and plead v/ith 
thee to grant the relief I stand in need of.' " 

TEMPLE, the house of God ; properly the 
temple of Solomon. David first conceived the 
design of building a house somewhat worthy 
of the divine majesty, and opened his mind to 
the Prophet Nathan, 2 Sam. vii ; 1 Chron. 
xvii ; xxii, 8, &c. God accepted of his good 
intentions, but refused him the honour. Solo- 
mon laid the foundation of the temple, A. M. 
2992, completed it in 3000, and dedicated it in 
3001, 1 Kings viii, 2 ; 2 Chron. v, vi, vii. Ac- 
cording to the opinion of some writers, there 
were three temples, namely, the first, erected 
by Solomon ; the second, by Zerubbabel, and 
Joshua the high priest ; and the third, by Herod, 
a few years before the birth of Christ. But 
this opinion is, very properly, i-ejected by the 
Jews ; who do not allow the third to be a new 
temple, but only the second temple repaired 
and beautified : and this opinion corresponds 
with the prophecy of Haggai, ii, 9, "that the 
glory of this latter house," the temple built by 
Zerubbabel, "should be greater than that of 
the former;" which prediction was uttered 
with reference to the Messiah's honouring it 
with his presence and ministry. The first tem. 
pie is that which usually bears the name of 



Solomon ; the materials for which were pro- 
vided by David before his death, though the 
edifice was raised by his son. It stood on 
Mount Moriah, an eminence of the mountain- 
ous ridge in the Scriptures termed Mount Zion, 
Psalm cxxxii, 13, 14, which had been purchased 
by Araunah, or Oman, the Jebusite, 2 Sam. 
xxiv, 23, 24 ; 1 Chron. xxi, 25. The plan, and 
the whole model of this superb structure, were 
formed afler that of the tabernacle, but of much 
larger dimensions. It was surrounded, except 
at the front or east end, by three stories of 
chambers, each five cubits square, which 
reached to half the height of the temple ; and 
the front was ornamented with a magnificent 
portico, which rose to the height of one hun- 
dred and twenty cubits : so that the form of 
the whole edifice was not unlike that of some 
ancient churches, which have a lofty tower in 
the front, and a low aisle running along each 
side of the building. The utensils for the sa- 
cred service were the same ; excepting that 
several of them, as the altar, candlestick, &.c, 
were larger, in proportion to the more spacious 
edifice to which they belonged. Seven years 
and six rnonths were occupied in the erection 
of the superb and magnificent temple of Solo- 
mon, by whom it was dedicated, A. M. 3001, 
B. C. 999, with peculiar solemnity, to the wor- 
ship of the Most High ; who on this occasion 
vouchsafed to honour it with the Shechinah, or 
visible manifestation of his presence. Various 
attempts have been made to describe the pro- 
portions and several parts of this structure ; but 
as scarcely any two writers agree on this sub- 
ject, a minute description of it is designedly 
omitted. It retained its pristine splendour only 
thirty-three or thirty-four years, when Shishak, 
king of Egypt, took Jerusalem, and carried 
away the treasures of the temple ; and after 
undergoing subsequent profanations and pil- 
lages, this stupendous building was finally 
plundered and burnt by the Chaldeans under 
Nebuchadnezzar, A. M. 3416, or B. C. 584, 
2 Kings XXV, 13-15 ; 2 Chron. xxxvi, 17-20. 

After the captivity, the temple emerged from 
its ruins being rebuilt by Zerubbabel, but with 
vastly inferior and diminished glory; as appears 
from the tears of the aged men who had beheld 
the former structure in all its grandeur, Ezra 
iii, 12. The second temple was profaned by 
order of Antiochus Epiphanes, A. M. 3837, 
B. C. 163, who caused tho daily sacrifices to be 
discontinued, and erected the image of Jupiter 
Olympus on the altar of burnt-offering. In 
this condition it continued three years, 1 Mac. 
iv, 42, when Judas Maccabseus purified and 
repaired it, and restored the sacrifices and true 
worship of Jehovah. Some years before the 
birth of our Saviour, the repairing and beau- 
tifying of this second temple, which had become 
decayed in the lapse of five centuries, was under- 
taken by Herod the Great, who for nine years 
employed eighty thousand workmen upon it, 
and spared no expense to render it equal, if not 
superior, in magnitude, splendour, and beauty, 
to any thing among mankind. Josephus calls - 
it a work the most admirable of any that had 
ever been seen or heard of, both for its curious 



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structure and its magnitude, and also for the 
vast wealth expended upon it, as well as for 
the universal reputation of its sanctity. But 
though Herod accomplished his original design 
in the time above specified, yet the Jews con- 
tinued to ornament and enlarge it, expending 
the sacred treasure in annexing additional 
buildings to it ; so that they might with great 
propriety assert, that their temple had been 
forty and six years in building, John ii, 20. 

Before we proceed to describe this venerable 
edifice, it may be proper to remark, that by the 
temple is to be understood not only the fabric 
or house itself, which by way of eminence is 
called the temple, namely, the holy of holies, 
the sanctuary, and the several courts both of 
the priests and Israelites, but also all the nu- 
merous chambers and rooms which this pro- 
digious edifice comprehended ; - and each of 
which had its respective degree of holiness, 
increasing in proportion to its contiguity to 
the holy of holies. This remark it will be 
necessary to bear in mind, lest the reader of 
Scripture should be led to suppose, that what- 
ever is there said to be transacted in the temple 
was actually done in the interior of that sacred 
edifice. To this infinite number of apartments, 
into Avhich the temple was disposed, our Lord 
refers, John xiv, 2 ; and by a very striking and 
magnificent simile, borrowed from them, he 
represents those numerous seats and mansions 
of heavenly bliss which his Father's house con- 
tained, and which were prepared for the ever- 
lasting abode of the righteous. The imagery 
is singularly beautiful and happy, when con- 
sidered as an allusion to the temple, which our 
Lord not unfrequently called his Father's house. 
The second temple, originally built by Ze- 
rubbabei after the captivity, and repaired by 
Herod, differed in several respects from that 
erected by Solomon, although they agreed in 
others. 

The temple erected by Solomon was more 
splendid and magnificent than the second tem- 
ple, which was deficient in five remarkable 
things that constituted the chief glory of the 
first : these were, the ark and the mercy seat ; 
the shechinah, or manifestation of the divine 
presence, in the holy of holies ; the sacred fire 
on the altar, which had been first kindled from 
heaven ; the urim and thummira ; and the spirit 
of prophecy. But the second temple surpassed 
the first in glory ; being honoured by the fre- 
quent presence of our divine Saviour, agreeably 
to the prediction of Haggai, ii, 9. Both, how- 
ever, were erected upon the same site, a very 
hard rock, encompassed by a very frightful 
procipice ; and the foundation was laid with 
incredible expense and labour. The super- 
structure was not inferior to this great work : 
the height of the temple wall, especially on the 
south side, was stupendous. In the lowest 
places it was three hundred cubits, or four 
hundred and fifty feet, and in some places even 
greater. This most magnificent pile was con- 
structed with hard white stones of prodigious 
magnitude. The temple itself, strictly so called, 
which comprised the portico, the sanctuary, and 
the holy of holies formed only a small part of 



the sacred edifice on Mount Moriah, being sur- 
rounded by spacious courts, making a square of 
half a mile in circumference. It was entered 
through nine gates, which were on every side 
thickly coated with gold and silver ; but there 
was one gate without the holy house, which 
was of Corinthian brass, the most precious 
metal in ancient times, and which far surpassed 
the others in beauty. For while these were of 
equal magnitude, the gate composed of Corin- 
thian brass was much larger ; its height being 
fifty cubits, and its doors forty cubits, and its 
ornaments both of gold and silver being far 
more costly and massive. This is supposed to 
have been the "gate called Beautiful" in Acts 
iii, 2, where Peter and John, in the name of 
Christ, healed a man who had been lame from 
his birth. The first or outer court, which en 
compassed the holy house and the other courts, 
was named the court of the Gentiles ; because 
the latter were allowed to enter into it, but 
were prohibited from advancing farther. It 
was surrounded by a range of porticoes, or 
cloisters, above which were galleries, or apart- 
ments, supported by pillars of white marble, 
each consisting of a single piece, and twent}'-- 
five cubits in height. One of these was called 
Solomon's porch, or piazza, because it stood 
on a vast terrace, which he had originally raised 
from a valley beneath, four hundred cubits high, 
in order to enlarge the area on the top of the 
mountain, and make it equal to the plan of 
his intended building; and as this terrace was 
the only work of Solomon that remained in 
the second temple, the piazza which stood 
upon it retained the name of that prince. Here 
it was that our Lord was walking at the feast 
of dedication, John x, 23; and that the lame 
man, when healed by Peter and John, glorified 
God before all the people. Acts iii, 11. This 
superb portico is termed the royal portico by 
Josephus, who represents it as the noblest 
work beneath the sun, being elevated to such 
a prodigious height, that no one could look 
down from its flat roof to the valley below, 
without being seized with dizziness ; the sight 
not reaching to such an immeasurable depth. 
The south-east corner of the roof of this por- 
tico, where the height was the greatest, is sup- 
posed to have been the rsTspvyiov, pinnacle, or 
extreme angle, whence Satan tempted our 
Saviour to precipitate himself. Matt, iv, 5 ; 
Luke iv, 9. This also was the spot where it 
was predicted that the abomination of deso- 
lation, or the Roman ensigns, should stand, 
Daniel ix, 27 ; Matt, xxiv, 15. Solomon's por- 
tico was situated in the eastern front of the 
temple, opposite to the mount of Olives, where 
our Saviour is said to have sat when his disci- 
ples came to show him the grandeur of its 
various buildings, of which, grand as they 
were, he said, the time was approaching when 
one stone should not be left upon another, 
Matt, xxiv, 1-3. This outer court being as- 
signed to the Gentile proselytes, the Jews, who 
did not worship in it themselves, conceived that 
it might lawfully be put to profane uses : for 
here we find that the buyers and sellers of 
animals for sacrifices, and also the money. 



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eliangers, had stationed themselves ; until 
Jesus Christ, awing them into submission by 
the grandeur and dignity of his person and 
behaviour, expelled them ; telling them that it 
was the house of prayer for all nations, and 
was not to be profaned, Matt, xxi, 12, 13 ; 
Mark xi, 15-17. Within the court of the Gen- 
tiles stood the court of the Israelites, divided 
into two parts, or courts ; the outer one being 
appropriated to the women, and the inner one 
to the men. The court of the women was 
separated from that of the Gentiles by a low 
stone wall, or partition, of elegant construe 
tion, on which stood pillars at equal distances, 
with inscriptions in Greek and Latin, importing 
that no alien should enter into the holy place. 
To this wail St. Paul most evidently alludes in 
Eph. ii, 13, 14 : " But now in Christ Jesus, ye, 
who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by 
the blood of Christ : for he is our peace, who 
hath made both one, (united both Jews and 
Gentiles into one church,) and hath broken 
down the middle wall of partition between us ;" 
having abolished the law of ordinances, by 
which, as by the wall of separation, both Jews 
and Gentiles were not only kept asunder, but 
also at variance. In this covirt was the trea. 
sury, over against which Christ sat, and beheld 
how the people threw their voluntary oiferings 
into it, for furnishing the victims and other 
things necessary for the sacrifices, Mark xii, 41 ; 
John viii, 20. From the court of the women, 
which was on higher ground than that of the 
Gentiles, there was an ascent of fifteen steps 
into the inner or men's court : and so called 
because it was appropriated to the worship of 
the male Israelites. In these two courts, col- 
lectively termed the court of the Israelites, were 
the people praying, each apart by himself, for 
the pardon of his sins, while Zacharias was 
offering incense within the sanctuary, Luke 
i, 10. Within the court of the Israelites was 
that of the priests, which was separated from 
it by a low wall, one cubit in height. This 
enclosure surrounded the altar of burnt-offer- 
ings, and to it the people brought their oblations 
and sacrifices ; but the priests alone were per- 
mitted to enter it. From this court twelve 
steps ascended to the temple, strictly so called ; 
which was divided into three parts, the portico, 
the outer sanctuary, and the holy place. In 
the portico was suspended the splendid votive 
offerings made by the piety of various individu- 
als. Among other treasures, there was a golden 
table given by Pompey, and several golden 
vines of exquisite workmanship, as well as of 
. immense size ; for Josephus relates, that there 
were clusters as tall as a man. And he adds, 
that all around were fixed up and displayed the 
spoils and trophies taken by Herod from the 
barbarians and Arabians. These votive offer- 
ings, it should seem, were visible at a distance ; 
for when Jesus Christ was sitting on the mount 
of Olives, and his disciples called his attention 
to the temple, they pointed out to him the gifts 
with which it was adorned, Luke xxi, 5. This 
porch had a very large portal or gate, which, 
instead of folding doors, was furnished with a 
costly Babylonian veil, of many colours, that 



mystically denoted the universe. From this the 
sanctuary, or holy place, was separated from 
the holy of holies by a double veil, which is 
supposed to have been the veil that was rent 
in twain at our Saviour's crucifixion ; thus em- 
blematically pointing out that the separation 
between Jews and Gentiles was abolished ; and 
that the privilege of the high priest was com. 
municated to all mankind, who might hence- 
forth have access to the throne of grace through 
the one great Mediator, Jesus Christ, Heb. x, 
19-22. The holy of holies was twenty cubits 
square : into it no person was admitted but the 
high priest, who entered it once a year on the 
great day of atonement, Exod. xxx, 10 ; Lev. 
xvi, 2, 15, 34 ; Heb. ix, 2-7. 

Magnificent as the rest of the sacred edifice 
was, it was infinitely surpassed in splendour 
by the inner temple, or sanctuary. Its appear- 
ance, according to Josephus, had every thing 
that could strike the mind, or astonish the 
sight : for it was covered on every side with 
plates of gold ; so that when the sun rose upon 
it, it reflected so strong and dazzling an efful- 
gence, that the eye of the spectator was 
obliged to turn away, being no more able to 
sustain its radiance than the splendour of the 
sun. To strangers who were approaching, it 
appeared at a distance like a mountain covered 
with snow ; for where it was not decorated 
with plates of gold, it was extremely white 
and glistering. On the top it had sharp-pointed 
spikes of gold, to prevent any bird from resting 
upon it, and polluting it. There were, con- 
tinues the Jewish historian, in that building, 
several stones which were forty-five cubits in 
length, five in height, and six in breadth. 
" When all these things are considered," says 
Harwood, *' how natural is the exclamation of 
the disciples, when viewing this immense build, 
ing at a distance : ' Master, see what manner 
of stones' (aoraTTol )ki6oi, ' what very large ones') 
' and what buildings are here !' Mark xiii, 1 : 
and how wonderful is the declaration of our 
Lord upon this, how unlikely to be accomplished 
before the race of men who were then living 
should cease to exist ! ' Seest thou these great 
buildings ? There shall not be left one stone 
upon another that shall not be thrown down.* 
Improbable as this prediction must have ap- 
peared to the disciples at that time, in the short 
space of about thirty years after it was exactly 
accomplished ; and this most magnificent tem- 
pie, which the Jews had literally turned into a 
den of thieves, through the righteous judg. 
ment of God upon that wicked and abandoned 
nation, was utterly destroyed by the Romans 
A. D. 70, or 73 of the vulgar era, on the same 
month, and on the same day of the month, 
when Solomon's temple had been razed to the 
ground by the Babylonians !" 

Both the first and second temples were con- 
templated by the Jews with the highest reve- 
rence. Of their affectionate regard for the first 
temple, and for Jerusalem, within whose walls 
it was built, we have several instances in those 
Psalms which were composed during the Ba- 
bylonish captivity; and of their profound 
veneration for the second temple we have 



TER 



907 



TES 



repeated examples in the New Testament. 
They could not bear any disrespectful or dis- 
honourable thing to be said of it. The least 
injurious slight of it, real or apprehended, in- 
stantly awakened all the choler of a Jew, and 
was an affront never to be forgiven. Our Sa- 
viour, in the course of his public instructions, 
having said, " Destroy this temple, and in three 
Jays I will raise it up again," John ii, 19, it was 
construed into a contemptuous disrespect, de- 
signedly thrown out against the temple ; his 
words instantly descended into the heart of the 
Jews, and kept rankling there for some years ; 
for, upon his trial, this declaration, which it 
was impossible for a Jew ever to forget or to 
forgive, was immediately alleged against him, 
as big with the most atrocious guilt and im- 
piety : they told the court they had heard him 
publicly assert, "I am able to destroy this 
temple," Matt, xxvi, 61. The rancour and 
virulence they had conceived against him 
for this speech, was not softened by all the 
affecting circumstances of that wretched death 
they saw him die ; even as he hung upon the 
cross, with triumph, scorn, and exultation, 
they upbraided him with it, contemptuously 
shaking their heads, and saying, " Thou that 
destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three 
days, save thyself I If thou be the Son of 
God, come down from the cross !" Matt, xxvii, 
40. It only remains to add, that it appears, 
from several passages of Scripture, that the 
Jews had a body of soldiers who guarded the 
temple, to prevent any disturbances during 
.the ministration of such an immense number 
of priests and Levites. To this guard Pilate 
referred, when he said to the chief priests and 
Pharisees who waited upon him to desire he 
would make the sepulchre secure, "Ye have a 
watch, go your way, and make it as secure as 
ye can," Matt, xxvii, 65. Over these guards 
one person had the supreme command, v/ho in 
several places is called the captain of the tem- 
ple, or officer of the temple guard. " And as 
they spake unto the people, the priests and the 
captain of the temple and the Sadducees came 
upon them," Acts iv, 1 ; v, 25, 26 ; John xviii, 
12. Josephus mentions such an officer. 

TENT MAKER. St. Paul, according to the 
practice of the Jews, who, however opulent, 
always taught their children some trade, ap- 
pears to have been a tent maker. This, how- 
ever, is understood by some moderns to mean 
a maker of tent cloth, St. Paul being a Cilician, 
a country which produced a species of rough- 
haired goats, from which the Cilicians manu- 
factured a thick and coarse cloth, much used for 
tents. The fathers, however, say that he made 
military teiits, the material of which was skins. 
TERAPHIM. It is said. Gen. xxxi, 19, that 
Rachel had stolen the images {teraphhn) of 
her father. What then were these teraphim ? 
The Septuagint translate this word by "oracle," 
and sometimes by " vain figures." Aquila ge- 
nerally translates it by " figures." It appears, 
indeed, from all the passages in which this 
word is used, that they were idols or supersti- 
tious figures. Some Jewish writers tell us the 
teraphim were human heads placed in niches, 



and consulted by way of oracles. Others think 
they were talismans or figures of metal cast 
and engraven under certain aspects of the pla- 
nets, to which they ascribed extraordinary 
effects. All the eastern people are much ad- 
dicted to this superstition, and the Persians 
still call them telefin, a name nearly approach, 
ing to teraphim. M. Jurieu supposes them to - 
have been a sort of dii penates, or household 
gods ; and this appears to be, perhaps, the 
most probable opinion. 

TESTAMENT. The property or estate of 
the father fell, after his decease, into the pos- 
session of his sons, who divided it among them- 
selves equally, with this exception, that the 
eldest son had two portions. The father ex- 
pressed his last wishes or will in the presence 
of witnesses, and probably in the presence of 
the heirs, 2 Kings xx, 1. At a more recent 
period the will was made out in writing. 
The portion that was given to the sons of con- 
cubines depended altogether upon the feelings 
of the father. Abraham gave presents to 
what amount is not known, both to Ishmael 
and to the sons whom he had by Keturah, and 
sent them away before his death. It does not 
appear that they had any other portion in the 
estate. But Jacob made the sons whom he 
had by his concubines heirs as well as the 
others. Gen. xxi, 8-21 ; xxv, 1-6 ; xlix, 1-27. 
Moses laid no restrictions upon the choice of 
fathers in this respect ; and v/e should infer 
that the sons of concubines, for the most part, 
received an equal share with the other sons, 
from the fact, that Jephtha, the son of a concu. 
bine, complained that he was excluded without 
any portion from his father's house, Judg. xi, 
1-7. The daughters net only had no portion 
in the estate, but, if they were unmarried, were 
considered as making a part of it, and were 
sold by their brothers into matrimony. If they 
had no brothers, or if they had died, the daugh- 
ters then took the estate, Num. xxvii, 1-8. If 
any one died intestate, and without offspring, 
the property was disposed of according to 
Num. xxvii, 8-11. The servants or the slaves 
in a family could not claim any share in the 
estate as a right ; but the person who made a 
will, might, if he chose, make them his heirs. 
Gen. XV, 3. Indeed, in some instances, those 
who had heirs, recognized as such by law, did 
not deem it unbecoming to bestow the whole 
or a portion of their estates on faithful and 
deserving servants, Prov. xvii, 2. The widow 
of the deceased, like his daughters, had no 
legal right to a share in the estate. The sons, 
however, or other relations, were bound to 
afford her an adequate maintenance, unless it 
had been otherwise arranged in the will. She 
sometimes returned back again to her father's 
house, particularly if the support which the 
heirs gave her was not such as had been pro- 
mised, or was not sufficient. Gen. xxxviii, 11. 
See also the story of Ruth. The prophets very 
frequently, and undoubtedly not without cause, 
exclaim against the neglect and injustice shown 
to widows, Isa. i, 17 ; x, 2 ; Jer. vii, 6 ; xxii, 3; 
Ezek. xxii, 7 ; Exod. xxii, 22-24 ; Deut. x, 18; 
xxiv, 17. 



THE 



908 



THE 



TESTIMONY, a witnessing, evidence, or 
proof, Acts xiv, 3. The whole Scripture or 
word of God, which declares what is to be 
believed, practised, and expected by us, is 
called God's "testimony," and sometimes in 
the plural "testimonies," Psalm xix, 7. The 
two tables of stone on which the law or ten 
commandments were written, which were wit- 
nesses of that covenant made between God 
and his people, and testified what it was that 
God had required of them, have the same title, 
Exod. XXV, 16, 21 ; xxxi, 18. 

TETRARCH, a sovereign prince that has 
the fourth part of a state, province, or king- 
dom under his dominion, without wearing the 
diadem, or bearing the title of king, Matt, xiv, 
1; Luke iii, 1, 19; ix, 7; Acts xiii, 1. 

THEOPHILUS, one to whom St. Luke 
addresses the books of his Gospel and Acts of 
the Apostles, which he composed, Acts i, 1 ; 
Luke i, 3. It is doubted whether the name 
Theophilus be here the proper name of a man, 
or an appellative or common name, which, ac- 
cording to its etymology, may stand for any 
good man, or a lover of God. Some think 
this name is generic, and that St. Luke's de- 
sign here is to address his work to those that 
love God; but it is much more probable that 
this Theophilus was a Christian to whom the 
evangelist has dedicated those two works ; and 
the epithet of " most excellent," which is given 
to him, shows him to have been a man of great 
quality. (Ecumenius concludes from thence 
that he was governor or intendant of some 
province, because such a personage had gene, 
rally the title of "most excellent" given to 
him. Grotius conjectures he might be a magis- 
trate of Achaia, converted by St. Luke. 

THERAPEUT^. One particular pheno- 
menon which resulted from the theosophico- 
ascetic spirit among the Alexandrian Jews, 
was the sect of the Therapeutae. Their head 
quarters were at no great distance from Alex- 
andria, in a quiet pleasant spot on the shores 
of the Lake Moeris, where they lived, like the 
anchorites in later periods, shut up in se- 
parate cells, and employed themselves in no. 
thing but prayer, and the contemplation of 
divine things. An allegorical interpretation 
of Scripture was the foundation of their specu- 
lations ; and they had old theosophical writings 
which gave them this turn. They lived only 
on bread and water, and accustomed themselves 
to fasting. They only ate in the evening, and 
many fasted for several days together. They 
met together every Sabbath day, and every 
seven weeks they held a still more solemn as- 
sembly, because the number seven was pecu. 
liarly holy in their estimation. They then 
celebrated a simple love-feast, consisting of 
bread with salt and hyssop ; theosophical dis- 
cussions v/ere held, and the hymns which they 
had from their old traditions were sung ; and 
mystical dances, bearing reference to the won- 
derful works of God with the fathers of their 
people, were continued, amidst choral songs, 
to a late hour in the night. Many men of dis- 
tinguished learning have considered this sect 



up under the peculiar influence of the Egyp- 
tian spirit. 

THESSALONIANS, Christians of Thessa- 
lonica, to whom St. Paul sent two epistles. It 
is recorded in the Acts, that St. Paul, in his 
first journey upon the continent of Europe, 
preached the Gospel at Thessalonica, at that 
time the capital of Macedonia, with considera- 
ble success ; but that after a short stay he was 
driven thence by the malice and violence of 
the unbelieving Jews. From Thessalonica St. 
Paul went to Berea, and thence to Athens, at 
both which places he remained but a short 
time. From Athens he sent Timothy to Thes- 
salonica, to confirm the new converts in their 
faith, and to inquire into their conduct. Time 
thy, upon his return, found St. Paul at Corinth. 
Thence, probably in A. D. 52, St. Paul wrote 
the First Epistle to the Thessalonians ; and it 
is to be supposed that the subjects of which it 
treats, were suggested by the account which 
he received from Timothy. It is now generally 
believed that this was written the first of all 
St. Paul's epistles, but it is not known by 
whom it was sent to Thessalonica. The 
church there consisted chiefly of Gentile con- 
verts, 1 Thess. i, 9. St. Paul, after saluting 
the Thessalonian Christians in the name of 
himself, Silas, and Timothy, assures them that 
he constantly returned thanks to God on their 
account, and mentioned them in his prayers ; 
he acknowledges the readiness and sincerity 
with which they embraced the Gospel, and the 
great reputation which they had acquired by 
turning from idols to serve the living God, 
1 Thess. i ; he reminds them of the bold and 
disinterested manner in which he had preached 
among them ; comforts them under the perse- 
cutions which they, like other Christians, had 
experienced from their unbelieving country- 
men, and informs them of two ineffectual at- 
tempts which he had made to visit them again, 
1 Thess. ii ; and that, being thus disappointed, 
he had sent Timothy to confirm their faith, 
and inquire into their conduct; he tells them 
that Timothy's account of them had given 
him the greatest consolation and joy in the 
midst of his affliction and distress, and that he 
continually prayed to God for an opportunity of 
seeing them again, and for their perfect estab- 
lishment in the Gospel, 1 Thess. iii ; he exhorts 
to purity, justice, love, and quietness, and dis- 
suades them against excessive grief for their 
deceased friends, 1 Thess. iv ; hence he takes 
occasion to recommend preparation for the 
last judgment, the time of which is always 
uncertain ; and adds a variety of practical pre- 
cepts. He concludes with his usual benedic- 
tion. This epistle is written in terms of high 
commendation, earnestness, and affection. 

It is generally believed that the messenger 
who carried the former epistle into Macedonia, 
upon his return to Corinth, informed St. Paul 
that the Thessalonians had inferred, from 
some expressions in it, that the coming of 
Christ and the final judgment were near at 
hand, and would happen in the time of many 
who were then alive, 1 Thess. iv, 15, 17 ; v, 6. 



sxs nothing but a scion of the Essenes, trained | The principal design of the Second Epistle to 



THO 



909 



THO 



the Thessalonians was to correct that error, 
and prevent the mischief which it would natu- 
rally occasion. It was written from Corinth, 
probably at the end of A. D. 52. St. Paul 
begins with the same salutation as in the for- 
mer epistle, and then expresses his devout 
acknowledgments to God for the increasing 
faith and mutual love of the Thessalonians in 
the midst of persecution ; he represents to 
them the rewards which will be bestowed upon 
the faithful, and the punishment which will 
be inflicted upon the disobedient, at the com- 
ing of Christ, 2 Thess.i; he earnestly entreats 
them not to suppose, as upon authority from 
him, or upon any other ground, that the last 
day is at hand ; he assures them, that before 
that awful period a great apostasy will take 
place, and reminds them of some information 
which he had given them upon, that subject 
when he was at Thessalonica ; he exhorts them 
to steadfastness in their faith, and prays to 
God to comfort their hearts, and establish them 
in every good word and work, 2 Thess. ii ; he 
desires their prayers for the success of his 
^ministry, and expresses his confidence in their 
sincerity ; he cautions them against associating 
with idle and disorderly persons, and recom. 
mends diligence and quietness. He adds a 
salutation in his own hand, and concludes with 
his usual benediction. 

THESSALONICA, a celebrated city in Ma- 
viedonia, and capital of that kingdom, standing 
upon the Thesraaic Sea. Stephen of Bjza.n- 
tium says that it was improved and beautified 
by Philip, king of Macedon, and called Thes- 
salonica in memory of the victory that he ob- 
tained over the Thessalians. Its old name was 
Thesma. The Jews had a synagogue here, 
and their number was considerable. Acts xvii. 

THIEF. Among the Hebrews theft was 
not punished with death : " Men do not de- 
spise a thief if he steal to satisfy his soul when 
he is hungry. But if he be found, he shall re- 
store sevenfold ; he shall give all the substance 
of his house," Prov. vi, 30,31. The law al- 
lowed the killing of a night-robber, becaase it 
was supposed his intention was to murder as 
well as to rob, Exod. xxii, 2. It condenmed a 
common thief to make double restitution, Exod. 
xxii, 4. If he stole an ox he was to restore 
it fivefold ; if a sheep, only fourfold, Exod. 
xxii, 1 ; 2 Sam. xii, 6. But if the animal that 
was stolen was found alive in his house he 
only rendered the double of it. If he did not 
make restitution, they seized what was in his 
house, put it up to sale, and even sold the per- 
son himself if he had not wherewithal to make 
satisfaction, Exod. xxii, 3. 

THOMAS, the Apostle, otherwise called 
Didymus, which in Greek signifies a twin, 
Matt. X, 3; Luke vi, 15. We know no par- 
ticulars of his life till A. D. 33, John xi, 16; 
xiv, 5, 6; XX, 24-25; xxi, 1-13. Ancient tra- 
dition says, that in the distribution which the 
Apostles made of the several parts of the 
world, wherein they were to preach the Gos- 
pel, the country of the Parthians fell to the 
share of St. Thomas. It is added, that he 
preached to the Medea, Persians, Carmanians, 



Hircanians, Bactrians, «fcc. Several of the 
fathers inform us that he also preached in the 
East Indies, &c. 

THORN. A general name for several kinds 
of prickly plants. 1. In the curse denounced 
against the earth. Gen. iii, 18, its produce is 
threatened to be "thorns and thistles," i-n-n y^p, 
in the Septuagint aKcwdas Kal -pL66Xovs. St, Paul 
uses the same words, Heb. vi, 8, where the last 
is rendered "briers ;" they are also found Hos. 
X, 8. The word kutz is put for " thorns," in 
other places, as Exod. xxii, 6; Judges viii, 7; 
Ezek, ii, 6 ; xxviii, 24 ; but we are uncertain 
whether it means a specific kind of thorn, or 
may be a generic name for all plants of a 
thorny kind. In the present instance it seems 
to be general for all those obnoxious plants, 
shrubs, &c, by which the labours of the hus- 
bandman are impeded, and which are only fit 
for burning. If the word denotes a particular 
plant, it maybe the "rest-harrow," a perni- 
cious prickly weed, which grows promiscu- 
ously with the large thistles in the uncultivated 
grounds, and covers entire fields and plains, 
in Egypt and Palestine. From the resem- 
blance of the Hebrew dardar, to the Arabic 
word dardargi, Scheuchzer supposes the cnicus 
to be intended. 2. nin, from its etymology, 
must be a kind of thorn, with incurvated 
spines, like fish hooks, similar to those of the 
North American " witch hazel." Celsius says 
that the same w^ord, and of the same original 
in Arabic, is the "black thorn," or " sloe tree," 
the prunus spinosa of Liinnsdns. 3, di-cd. It 
is impossible to determine what plants are 
intended by this word. Meninski says that 
serhin, in the Persic language, is the name of 
a tree bearing thorns. In Eccles. vii, 6, and 
Nahum i, 10, they are mentioned as fuel which 
quickly burns up ; and in Hosea ii, 6, as ob- 
structions or hedges ; it may be the lycium 
Afrum. 4. pSo, mentioned Josh, xxiii, 13; 
Ezek. ii, 6, xxviii, 24. From the vexatious 
character ascribed to this thorn in the places 
just referred to, compared- with Num. xxxiii, 55 ; 
Judges ii, 3 ; it is probably the Jcantuffa, as 
described by Bruce. 5. By CDOty, Num. xxxiii, 
55, may be intended goads, or ^sharp-pointed 
sticks, like those with which cattle were 
driven. 6. The n^!i', Isa. v, 6 ; x, 17, must 
mean some noxious plant that overruns waste 
grounds. 7. The word o>jx. Num. xxxiii, 55 ; 
Josh, xxiii, 13 ; Isa. v, 5. It seems, from its 
application, to describe a bad kind of thorn, 
Hiller supposes it to be the vepris. Perhaps it 
is the rhamnus paliurus, a deciduous plant or 
tree, a native of Palestine, Spain, and Italy, 
It will grow nearly to the height of fourteen^ 
feet, and is armed with sharp thorns, two oF 
which are at the insertion of each branch, one 
of them straight and upright, the other bent 
backward. 8. Dijpnj, translated " briers," 
Judges viii, 16. "There is no doubt but this- 
v/ord means a sharp, jagged kind of plant : the 
diflSculty is to fix on one, where so many offer 
themselves. The Septuagint preserves the 
original word. We should hardly think Gide- 
on went far to seek these plants. The thorns 
are expressly said to be from the wilderness^ 



THO 



910 



THR 



or common hard by ; probably the barkanim 
were from the same place. In our country 
this would lead us to the blackberry bushes on 
our commons ; but it might not be so around 
Succoth. There is a plant mentioned by Has- 
selquist, whose name and properties somewhat 
resemble those which are required in the bar- 
kanim of this passage : " Nabka paUurus Athe- 
n<zi, is the nabka of the Arabs. There is every 
appearance that this is the tree which furnished 
the crown of thorns which was put on the 
head of our Lord. It is common in the east. 
A plant more proper for this purpose could not 
be selected; for it is armed with thorns, its 
branches are pliant, and its leaf of a deep green 
like that of ivy. Perhaps the enemies of 
Christ chose this plant, in order to add insult 
to injury by employing a wreath approaching 
in appearance that which was used to crown 
emperors and generals." In the New Testa- 
ment, the Greek word translated " thorn," is 
qKavda', Matt, vii, 16, xiii, 7, xxvii, 29, John 
xix, 2. The note of Bishop Pearce on Matt, 
xxvii, 29, is this : " The word aicav&Sv may as 
well be the plural genitive case of the word 
aKavdog, as of oKavQa ; if of the latter, it is rightly 
translated ' of thorns,' but the former would 
signify what we call ' bear's foot,' and the 
French branche ursine. This is not of the 
thorny kind of plants, but is soft and smooth. 
Virgil calls it mollis acanthus. So does Pliny : 
and Pliny the elder says that it is Icbvis, 
" smooth ;" and that it is one of those plants 
that are cultivated in gardens. I have some- 
where read, but cannot at present recollect 
where, that this soft and smooth herb was very 
common in and about Jerusalem. I find no- 
thing in the New Testament concerning this 
crown which Pilate's soldiers put on the head 
of Jesus, to incline one to think that it v/as of 
thorns, and intended, as is usually supposed, 
to put him to pain. The reed put into his 
hand, and the scarlet robe on his back, were 
meant only as marks of mockery and contempt. 
One may also reasonably judge by the soldiers 
being said to plat this crown, that it was not 
composed of such twigs and leaves as were of 
a thorny nature. I do not find that it is men- 
tioned by any of the primitive Christian wri- 
ters as an instance of the cruelty used toward 
our Saviour before he was led to crucifixion, 
till the time of Tertullian, who lived after 
Jesus' death at the distance of above one hun- 
dred and sixty years. He indeed seems to have 
understood aKavdwv in the sense of thorns, and 
says, ' Quale oro te, Jesus Christus sertum pro 
utrogue sexu subiit ? Ex spinis, opinor, et tri- 
bulls J* [What kind of a crown, I beseech you, 
did Jesus Christ sustain ? One made of thorns 
and thistles, I think.] The total silence of 
Polycarp, Barnabas, Clemens Romanus, and 
all the other Christian writers whose works are 
now extant, and who wrote before Tertullian, 
in particular, will give some weight to incline 
one to think that this crown was not platted 
with thorns. But as this is a point on which 
we have not sufficient evidence, I leave it al- 
most in the same state of uncertainty in which 
1 found it." See Garden. 



THRESHING FLOORS, among the an- 
cient Jews, were only, as they are to this day 
in the east, round level plats of ground in the 
open air, where the corn was trodden out by 
oxen, the libyccE. arecB of Horace. Thus, Gi- 
deon's floor. Judges vi, 37, appears to have 
been in the open air ; as was likewise that of 
Araunah the Jebusite ; else it would not have 
been a proper place for erecting an altar and 
offering sacrifice. In Hosea xiii, 3, we read 
of the chaff" which is driven by the whirlwind 
from the floor. This circumstance of the 
threshing floor's being exposed to the agitation 
of the wind seems to be the principal reason 
of its Hebrew name ; which may be farther 
illustrated by the direction which Hesiod gives 
his husbandman to thresh his corn in a place 
well exposed to the wind. From the above 
account it appears that a threshing floor (ren- 
dered in our textual translation " a void place") 
might well be near the entrance of the gate of 
Samaria, and that it might afford no improper 
place in which the kings of Israel and Judah 
could hear the prophets, 1 Kings xxii, 10 ; 2 
Chron. xviii, 9 ; Psalm i, 4. 

THRONE is used for that magnificent seafe 
on which sovereign princes usually sit to re- 
ceive the homage of their subjects, or to give 
audience to ambassadors ; where they appear 
with pomp and ceremony, and from whence 
they dispense justice ; in a word, the throne, 
the sceptre^ the crown, are the ordinary sym- 
bols of royalty and regal authority. The 
Scripture commonly represents the Lord as 
sitting upon a throne ; sometimes it is said that 
the heaven is his throne, and the earth his 
footstool, Isaiah Ixvi, 1. The Son of God is 
also represented as sitting upon a throne, at 
the right hand of his Father, Psalm ex, 1 ; 
Heb. i, 8 ; Rev. iii, 21. And Jesus Christ 
assures his Apostles that they should sit upon 
twelve thrones, to judge the twelve tribes of 
Israel, Luke xxii, 30. Though a throne and 
royal dignity seem to be correlatives, or terms 
that stand in reciprocal relation to each other, 
yet the privilege of sitting on a throne has been, 
sometimes granted to those that were not 
kings, particularly to some governors of im- 
portant provinces. We read of the throne of 
the governor of this side the river ; the throne, 
in other words, of the governor for the king of 
Persia of the provinces belonging to that em- 
pire on the west of the Euphrates. So D'Her- 
belot tells us that a Persian monarch of 
aftertimes gave the governor of one of his 
provinces permisdon to seat himself in a gilded 
chair, when he administered justice ; which 
distinction was granted him on account of the 
importance of that post, to which the guarding 
a pass of great consequence was committed. 
This province, he tells us, is now called Shir- 
van, but was formerly named Serir-aldhahab, 
which signifies, in Arabic, "the throne of 
gold." To which he adds, that this privilege 
was granted to the governor of this province, 
as being the place through which the northern 
nations used to make their way into Persia ; 
on which account, also, a mighty rampart cr 
wall was raised there. 



TIM 



911 



TIM 



In the Revelation of St. John, we find the 
twenty.four elders sitting upon as many thrones 
in the presence of the Lord ; " and they fall 
down before him that sat on the throne, &lc, 
and cast their crowns before the throne." 
Many of the travellers in eastern countries 
have given descriptions highly illustrative of 
this mode of adoration. Thus Bruce, in his 
Travels, says, " The next remarkable ceremony 
in which these two nations (of Persia and 
Abyssinia) agreed is that of adoration, invio- 
lably observed in Abyssinia to this day, as often 
as you enter the sovereign's presence. This is 
not only kneeling, but absolute prostration ; 
you first fall upon your knees, then upon the 
palms of your hands, then incline your head and 
body till your forehead touches the ground ; 
and, in case you have an answer to expect, you 
lie in that posture till the king, or somebody 
from him, desires you to rise." " And Stewart 
observes, " We marched toward the emperor 
with our music playing, till we came within 
about eighty yards of him, when the old mo- 
narch, alighting from his horse, prostrated 
himself on the earth to pray, and continued 
some minutes with his face so close to the 
earth, that, when we came up to liim, the dust 
remained upon his nose." 

The circumstance of " casting their crowns 
before the throne" may be illustrated by several 
cases which occur in history. That of Herod, 
in the presence of Augustus, has been already 
mentioned. (See Herod.) Tiridates, in this 
manner, did homage to Nero, laying the ensigns 
of his royalty at the statue of Caesar, to receive 
them again from his hand. Tigranes, king of 
Armenia, did the same to Pompey. In the 
inauguration of the Byzantine Caesars, when 
the emperor comes to receive the sacrament, 
he puts off his crown. " This short expedi- 
tion," says Malcolm, " was brought to a close 
by the personal submission of Abool Fyze 
Khan, wlao, attended by all his court, proceeded 
to the tents of Nadir Shah, and laid his crown, 
and other ensigns of royalty, at the feet of the 
conqueror, who assigned him an honourable 
place in his assembly, and in a few days after- 
ward restored him to his throne." 

THYATIRA, a city of Lydia, in Asia Mi 
nor, and the seat of one of the seven churches 
in Asia. It was situated nearly midway be- 
tween Pergamos and Sardis, and is still a 
toleiable town, considering that it is in the 
hands of the Turks, and enjoys some trade, 
chiefly in cottons. It is called by that people 
Ak-hisar, or White Castle. 

TIBERIAS, a city situated in a small plain, 
surrounded by mountains, on the western coast 
of the sea of Galilee, which, from this city, 
was also called the sea of Tiberias. Tiberias 
was erected by Herod Antipas, and so called 
in honour of Tiberius Caesar. He is supposed 
to have chosen, for the erection of his new 
city, a spot where before stood a more obscure 
place called Chenereth or Cinnereth, which 
also gave its name to the adjoining lake or sea. 

TIMBRELS. See Music. 

TIMOTHEUS, commonly called Timothy, 
a disciple of St. Paul. He was a native of 



Lystra in Lycaonia. His father was a Gentile ; 
but his mother, whose name was Eunice, was 
a Jewess, Acts xvi, 1, and educated her son 
with great care in her own religion, 2 Tim. i, 
5 ; iii, 15. To this young disciple St. Paul 
addressed two epistles ; in the first of which 
he calls him his " own son in the faith," 1 
Tim. i, 2 ; from which expression it is inferred 
that St. Paul was the person who converted 
him to the belief of the Gospel ; and as, upon 
St. Paul's second arrival at Lystra, Timothy is 
mentioned as being then a disciple, and as 
having distinguished himself among the Chris^ 
tians of that neighbourhood, his conversion, 
as well as that of Eunice his mother, and Lois 
his grandmother, must have taken place when 
St. Paul first preached at Lystra, A. D. 46, 
Upon St. Paul's leaving Lystra, in the course 
of his second apostolical journey, he was in- 
duced to take Timothy with him, on account 
of his excellent character, and the zeal which, 
young as he was, he had already shown in the 
cause of Christianity ; but before they set out, 
St. Paul caused him to be circumcised, not as 
a thing necessary to his salvation, but to avoid 
giving ofifence to the Jews, as he was a Jew by 
the mother's side, and it was an established 
rule among the Jews that partus sequitur 
ventrem. Timothy was regularly appointed to 
the ministerial office by the laying on of hands^ 
not only by St. Paul himself, but also by the 
presbytery, 1 Tim. iv, 14; 2 Tim. i, 6. From 
this time Timothy acted as a minister of the 
Gospel 'r he generally attended St. Paul, but 
was sometimes employed by him in other 
places ; he was very diligent and useful, and is 
always mentioned with great esteem and affec- 
tion by St. Paul, who joins his name with his 
own in the inscription of six of his epistles. He 
is sometimes called bishop of Ephesus, and it 
has been said that he suffered martyrdom in 
that city, some years after the death of St, 
Paul. 

The principal design of St. Paul's First Epis- 
tle to Timothy was to give him instructions 
concerning the management of the church of 
Ephesus ; and it was probably intended that it 
should be read publicly to the Ephesians, that 
they might know upon what authority Timo- 
thy acted. After saluting him in an affection- 
ate manner, and reminding him of the reason 
for which he was left at Ephesus, the Apostle 
tak-es occasion, from the frivolous disputes 
which some Judaizing teachers had introduced 
among the Ephesians, to assert the practical 
nature of the Gospel, and to show its superi- 
ority over the law ; he returns thanks to God 
for his own appointment to the apostleship, 
and recommends to Timothy fidelity in the dis- 
charge of his sacred office ; he exhorts that 
prayers should be made for all men, and espe- 
cially for magistrates ; he gives directions for 
the conduct of women, and forbids their teach- 
ing in public ; he describes the qualifications 
necessary for bishops and deacons, and speaks 
of the mysterious nature of the Gospel dispen- 
sation ; he foretels that there will be apostates 
from the truth, and false teachers in the latte? 
times, and recommends to Timothy purity of 



TIM 



912 



TIM 



riianners and improvement of his spiritual gifls ; 
he gives him particular directions for his be. 
haviour toward persons in different situations 
in life, and instructs him in several points of 
Christian discipline ; he cautions him against 
false teachers, gives him several precepts, and 
solemnly charges him to be faithful to his trust. 
That the Second Epistle to Timothy was 
written while St. Paul was under confinement 
at Rome, appears from the two following pas- 
sages : " Be not thou therefore ashamed of the 
testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner," 
2 Timothy i, 8. " The Lord give mercy unto 
the house of Onesiphorus ; for he oft refreshed 
me, and was not ashamed of my chain ; but 
when he was at Rome, he sought me out very 
diligently, and found me," 2 Tim. i, 16, 17. 
The epistle itself will furnish us with several 
arguments to prove that it could not have been 
written during St. Paul's first imprisonment. 
1. It is universally agreed that St. Paul wrote 
his epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians, Phi- 
lippians, and to Philemon, while he was con- 
fined the first time at Rome. In no one of 
these epistles does he express any apprehen- 
sion for his life ; and in the two last mention, 
ed v/e have seen that, on the contrary, he 
expresses a confident hope of being soon libe. 
rated ; but in this epistle he holds a very difFer- 
ent language : " I am now ready to be offered, 
and the time of my departure is at hand. I 
have fought a good fight, I have finished my 
course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth 
there is laid up for me a crown of righteous- 
ness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, 
shall give me at that day," 2 Tim. iv, 6, &c. 
The danger in which St. Paul now was, is evi- 
dent from the conduct of his friends, when he 
made his defence : "At my first answer no man 
stood with me, but all men forsook me," 2 Tim. 
Iv, 16. This expectation of death, and this 
imminent danger, cannot be reconciled either 
with the general tenor of his epistles written 
during his first confinement at Rome, with the 
nature of the charge laid against him when he 
was carried thither from Jerusalem, or with 
St. Luke's account of his confinement there ; 
for we must remember that in A. D. 63, Nero 
had not begun to persecute the Christians ; 
that none of the Roman magistrates and offi- 
cers Avho heard the accusations against St. 
Paul at Jerusalem thought that he had com- 
mitted any offence against the Roman govern- 
ment ; that at Rome St. Paul was completely 
out of the power of the Jews ; and, so little 
was he there considered as having been guilty 
of any capital crime, that he v/as suffered to 
dwell "two whole years," that is, the whole 
time of his confinement, " in his own hired 
house, and to receive all that came m unto 
him, preaching the word of God, and teaching 
those things which concern the Lord Jesus 
Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding 
him," Acts xxviii, 30, 31. 2. From the inscrip- 
tions of the epistles to the Colossians, Philip, 
plans, and Philemon, it is certain that Timothy 
was with St. Paul in his first imprisonment at 
Rome ; but this epistle implies that Timothy 
was absent. 3. St. Paul tells the Colossians 



that Mark salutes them, and therefore he was 
at Rome witli St. Paul in his first imprison- 
ment ; but he was not at Rome when this epis- 
tle was written, for Timothy is directed to 
bring him with him, 2 Tim. iv, 11. 4. Demas, 
also, was with St. Paul when he wrote to the 
Colossians : " Luke, the beloved physician, 
and Demas, greet you," Col. iv, 14. In this 
epistle he says, " Demas has forsaken me, hav- 
ing loved this present world, and is departed 
into Thessalonica," 2 Tim, iv, 10. It may be 
said that this epistle might have been written 
before the others, and that in the intermediate 
time Timothy and Mark might have come to 
Rome, more especially as St. Paul desires 
Timothy to come shortly, and bring Mark with 
him. But this hypothesis is not consistent 
with what is said of Demas, who was with St. 
Paul when he wrote to the Colossians, and had 
left him when he wrote this second epistle to 
Timothy ; consequently the epistle to Timothy 
must be posterior to that addressed to the Co- 
lossians. The case of Demas seems to have 
been, that he continued faithful to St. Paul 
during his first imprisonment, which was at- 
tended with little or no danger ; but deserted 
him in the second, when Nero was persecuting 
the Cliristians, and St. Paul evidently consider- 
ed himself in great danger. 5. St. Paul tells 
Timothy, " Erastus abode at Corinth, but Tro- 
phimus have I left at Miletum sick," 2 Tim. 
iv, 20. These were plainly two circumstances 
which had happened in some journey which 
St. Paul had taken not long before he wrote 
this epistle, and since he and Timothy had 
seen each other ; but the last time St. Paul 
was at Corinth and Miletum, prior to his first 
imprisonment at Rome, Timothy was with him 
at both places ; and Trophimus could not have 
been then left at Miletum, for we find him at 
Jerusalem immediately after St. Paul's arrival 
in that city; "for they had seen before with 
him in the city Trophimus, an Ephesian, whom 
they supposed that Paul had brought into the 
temple," Acts xxi, 29. These two facts must 
therefore refer to some journey subsequent to 
the first imprisonment ; and, consequently, this 
epistle was written during St. Paul's second im- 
prisonment at Rome, and probably in A. D. 65, 
not long before his death. It is by no means 
certain where Timothy was when this epistle 
was written to him. It seems most probable 
that he was somewhere in Asia Minor, since 
St. Paul desires him to bring the cloak with 
him which he had left at Troas, 2 Tim. iv, 13 ; 
and also at the end of the"first chapter, he speaks 
of several persons whose residence was in Asia. 
Many have thought that he was at Ephesus ; 
but others have rejected that opinion, because 
Troas does not lie in the way from Ephesus to 
Rome, whither he was directed to go as quickly 
as he could. St. Paul, after his usual saluta- 
tion, assures Timothy of his most affectionate 
remembrance ; he speaks, of his own apostle- 
ship and of his sufferings ; exhorts Timothy to 
be steadfast in the true faith, to be constant 
and diligent in the discharge of his ministerial 
oflSce, to avoid foolish and unlearned questions, 
and to practise and inculcate the great duties of 



TIT 



913 



TIT 



the Gospel ; he describes the apostasy and gene- 
ral wickedness of the last days, and highly com- 
mends the Holy Scriptures ; he again solemnly 
exhorts Timothy to diligence ; speaks of his 
own danger, and of his hope of future reward ; 
and concludes with several private directions, 
and with salutations. 

TIN, byi2, Num. xxxi, 22 ; Isa. i, 25 ; Ezek. 
xxii, 18, 20 ; xxvii, 12 ; a well-known coarse 
metal, harder than lead. Mr. Parkhurst ob- 
serves, that Moses, in Num. xxxi, 22, enume. 
rates all the six species of metals. The Lord, 
by the Prophet Isaiah, having compared the 
Jewish people to silver, declares, "I will turn 
my hand upon thee, and purge away thy dross, 
and remove all 'i"''?"!-;!, thy particles of tin ;" 
where Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion 
have KaaaiTtpov aov, and the Vulgate stanniim 
tuum, " thy tin ;" but the LXX. dvdfxovs, wicked 
ones. This denunciation, by a comparison of 
the preceding and following context, appears 
to signify that God would, by a process of 
judgment, purify those among the Jews who 
were capable of purification, as well as destroy 
the reprobate and incorrigible, Jer. vi, 29, 30 ; 
ix, 7 ; Mai. iii, 3 ; Ezek. xii, 18, 20. In Ezek. 
xxvii, 12, Tarshish is mentioned as furnishing 
'7n3 ; and Bochart proves from the testimonies 
of Diodorus, Pliny, and Stephanus, that Tar- 
tessus in Spain, which he supposes the an- 
cient Tarshish, anciently furnished tin. As 
Cornwall in very ancient times was resorted to 
for this metal, and probably first by the Pheni- 
cians, some have thought that peninsula to be 
the Tarshish of the Scriptures ; a subject which, 
however, from the vague use of the word, is 
involved in much uncertainty. See Tarshish. 

TITHES. We have nothing more ancient 
concerning tithes, than what we find in Gen. 
xiv, 20, that Abraham gave tithes to Melchise 
dec, king of Salem, at his return from his ex. 
pedition against Chedorlaomer, and the four 
kings in confederacy with him. Abraham 
gave him tithe of all the booty he had taken 
from the enemy. Jacob imitated this piety of 
his grandfather, when he vowed to the Lord 
the tithe of all the substance he might ac- 
quire in Mesopotamia, Gen. xxviii, 22. Un- 
der the law, Moses ordained, "All the tithe 
of the land, whether of the seed of the land, 
or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's ; 
it is holy unto the Lord. And if a man will at 
all redeem aught of his tithes, he shall add 
thereto the fifth part thereof. And concerning 
the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of 
whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth 
shall be wholly unto the Lord," Lev. xxvii, 
30-32. The Pharisees, in the time of Jesus 
Christ, to distinguish themselves by a more 
scrupulous observance of the law, did not con- 
tent themselves with paying the tithe of the 
grain and fruits growing in the fields ; but they 
also paid tithe of the pulse and herbs growing 
in their gardens, which was more than the 
law required of them. The tithes were taken 
from what remained, after the offerings and 
first fruits were paid. They brought the tithes 
to the Levites in the city of Jerusalem, as ap- 
peal's from Josephus and Tobit, i, 6. The Le- 
59 



vites set apart the tenth part of their tithes for 
the priest ; because the priests did not receive 
them immediately from the people, and the 
Levites were not to meddle with the tithes they 
had received, before they had given the priests 
such a part as the law assigned them. Of those 
nine parts that remained to the proprietors, 
after the tithe was paid to the Levites, they 
took still another tenth part, which was either 
sent to Jerusalem in kind, or, if it was too far, 
they sent the value in money ; adding to it a 
fifth from the whole as the rabbins inform us. 
This tenth part was applied toward celebrating 
the festivals in the temple, which bore a near 
resemblance to the agapcB, or love feasts of the 
first Christians. Thus are those words of Deu- 
teronomy understood by the rabbins : " Thou 
shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, 
that the field bringeth forth year by year. And 
thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God, in the 
place which he shall choose to place his name 
there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and 
of thy oil, and of the firstlings of thy herds and 
of thy flocks : that thou mayest learn to fear 
the Lord thy God always," I>eut. xiv, 22, 23. 
Tobit i, 6, says, that every three years he 
punctually paid his tithe to strangers and pro- 
selytes. This was probably because there 
were neither priests nor Levites in the city 
where he dwelt. Moses speaks of this last 
kind of tithe : "At the end of three years thou 
shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase 
the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy 
gates. And the Levite, (because he hath no part 
nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, 
and the fatherless, and the widow, which are 
within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and 
be satisfied ; that the Lord thy God may bless 
thee in all the work of thine hand which thou 
doest," Deut. xiv, 28 ; xxvi, 12. It is thought' 
that this tithe was not diflferent from the second; 
kind before noticed, except that in the third 
year it was not brought to the temple, but was 
used upon the spot by every one in the city of 
his habitation. So, properly speaking, there 
were only two sorts of tithes, that which was 
given to the Levites and priests, and that which 
was applied to making feasts of charity, either 
in the temple of Jerusalem, or in other cities. 
Samuel tells the children of Israel, that the 
king they had a mind to have over them would 
" take the tenth of their seed, and of their vine- 
yards, and give to his officers, and his serv- 
ants. He will take the tenth of your sheep, 
and ye shall be his servants," 1 Sam. viii, 15, 
17. Yet it does not clearly appear from the 
history of the Jews, that they regularly paid 
any tithe to their princes. But the manner in 
which Samuel expresses himself, seems to in- 
sinuate that it was looked upon as a common 
right among the kings of the east. At this 
day, the Jews no longer pay any tithe ; at least 
they do not think themselves obliged to do it, 
except it be those who are settled in the terri- 
tory of Jerusalem, and the ancient Judea. For 
there are few Jews now that have any lands 
of their own, or any flocks. They only give 
something for the redemption of the first-born, 
to those who have any proofs of their being 



TIT 



914 



TOB 



descended from the race of the priests or Levites. 
However, we are assured, that such among the 
Jews as would be thought to be very strict and 
religious give the tenth part of their whole in- 
come to the poor. 

TITUS. It is remarkable that Titus is not 
mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. The 
few particulars which are known of him, are 
collected from the epistles of St. Paul. We 
learn from them that he was a Greek, Gal. ii, 3 ; 
but it is not recorded to what city or country 
he belonged. From St. Paul's calling him " his 
own son according to the common faith," Ti- 
tus i, 4, it is concluded tliat he was converted 
by him; but we have no account of the time 
or place of his conversion. He is first men- 
tioned as going from Antiocli to the council at 
Jerusalem, A. D. 49, Gal. ii, 1, &.c ; and upon 
that occasion St. Paul says that he would not 
allow him to be circumcised, because he was 
born of Gentile parents. He probably accom- 
panied St. Paul in his second apostolical jour- 
ney, and from that time he seems to have been 
constantly employed by him in the propagation 
of the Gospel ; he calls him his partner and 
fellow-helper, 2 Cor. viii, 23. St. Paul sent 
him from Ephesus with his First Epistle to the 
Corinthians, and with a commission to inquire 
into the state of the church at Corinth ; and he 
sent him tliither again from Macedonia with 
liis Second Epistle, and to forward the collec- 
tions for the saints in Judea. From this time 
we hear nothing of Titus till he was left by 
St. Paul in Crete, after his first imprisonment 
at Rome, to " set in order the things that were 
wanting, and to ordain elders in every city," 
Titus i, 5. It is probable that he went thence 
to join St. Paul at Nicopolis, Titus iii, 12 ; that 
tliey went together to Crete to visit the churches 
there, and thence to Rome. During St. Paul's 
second imprisonment at Rome Titus went into 
Dalmatia, 2 Tim. iv, 10 ; and after the apostle's 
death, he is said to have returned into Crete, 
and to have died therein the ninety.fourth 
year of his age : he is often called bishop of 
Crete by ecclesiastical writers. St. Paul always 
speaks of Titus in terms of high regard, and 
intrusted him, as we have seen, with commis- 
sions of great importance. It is by no means 
certain from what place St. Paul wrote this 
epistle ; but as he desires Titus to come to him 
at Nicopolis, and declares his intention of 
passing the winter there, some have supposed 
that, when he wrote it he was in the neigh- 
bourhood of that city, either in Greece or 
Macedonia ; others have imagined that he 
wrote it from Colosse, but it is difficult to say 
upon what ground. As it appears that St. 
Paul, not long before he wrote this epistle, had 
left Titus in Crete for the purpose of regulating 
the affairs of the church, and at the time he 
wrote it had determined to pass the approaching 
winter at Nicopolis, and as the Acts of the 
Apostles do not give any account of St. Paul's 
preaching in that island, or of visiting that city, 
it is concluded that this epistle was written after 
his first imprisonment at Rome, and probably 
in A. D. 64. It may be considered as some 
confirmation of that opinion, that there is a 



great similarity between the sentiments and 
expressions of this epistle and of the Fir»t 
Epistle to Timothy, which was written in that 
year. It is not known at what time a Christian 
church was first planted in Crete ; but as some 
Cretans were present at the first effusion of the 
Holy Ghost at Jerusalem, Acts ii, 11, it is not 
improbable that, upon their return home, they 
might be the means of introducing the Gospel 
among their countrymen. Crete is said to have 
abounded with Jews; and from the latter part 
of the first chapter of this epistle it appears 
that many of them were persons of very profli- 
gate lives, even after they had embraced the 
Gospel. The principal design of this epistle 
was to give instructions to Titus concerning 
the management of the churches in the difl 
ferent cities of the island of Crete, and it was 
probably intended to be read publicly to the 
Cretans, that they might know upon what 
authority Titus acted, St. Paul, after his usu^l 
salutation, intimates that he was appointed an 
apostle by the express command of God, and 
reminds Titus of the reason of his being left 
in Crete ; he describes the qualifications neces- 
sary for bishops, and cautions him against per- 
sons of bad principles, especially Judaizing 
teachers, whom he directs Titus to reprove 
with severity ; he informs him what instruc- 
tions he should give to people in different 
situations of life, and exhorts him to be ex- 
emplary in his own conduct ; he points out the 
pure and practical nature of the Gospel, and 
enumerates some particular virtues which he 
was to inculcate, avoiding foolish questions and 
frivolous disputes ; he instructs him how ho is 
to behave toward heretics and concludes with 
salutations. 

TIZRI, or TISRI, the first Hebrew month 
of the civil year, and the seventh of the sacred 
year, ansv/ering to the moon of September. 
On the first day of this month was kept the 
feast of trumpets, because the beginning of 
the civil year was proclaimed with the sound 
of trumpets. 

TOB, a country of Palestine, lying beyond 
.Jordan, in the northern part of the portion of 
Manasseh. To this district Jephthah retired, 
when he was driven away by his brethren, 
Judges xi, 3, 5. It is also called Tobie, or 
Tubin, 1 Mac. v, 13 ; and the inhabitants of 
this canton were called Tubieni. It is sup. 
posed to be tiie same as Ishtob, one of the 
small principalities of Syria, which appears,, 
like the other little kingdoms in its neighbour- 
hood, to have been swallowed up in the king- 
dom of Damascus. This principality furnished 
twelve thousand men to the confederacy formed- 
by the Syrians and Ammonites against David, 
2 Sam. X. 

TOBIAH, an Ammonite, an enemy to the 
Jews. He was one of those who strenuously 
opposed the I'ebuilding of the temple, after the 
return from the captivity of Babylon, Neh. ii, 
10 ; iv, 3 ; v, 1, 12, 14. This Tobiah is called 
"the servant," or "slave," in some parts of 
Nehemiah ; probably because he was of a ser- 
vile condition. However, he was of great 
consideration in the land of the Samaritans, 



TOK 



916 



TOP 



of _\vhich he was governor with Sanballat. 
This Tobiah married the daughter of Shecha- 
niah, one of the principal Jews of Jerusalem, 
Neh. vi, 18, and had a powerful party in Jeru- 
salem itself, who were opposed to that of Nehe- 
miah. He maintained a correspondence by 
letter with this party against the interest of 
Nehemiah, vi, 17-19 ; but that prudent gover- 
nor, by his wisdom and moderation, defeated 
all their machinations. After some time, Ne- 
hemiah was obliged to return to Babylon, 
subsequent to having repaired th« walls of 
Jerusalem. Tobiah took this opportunity to 
come and dwell at Jerusalem ; and even obtained 
of Eliashib, who had the care of tJie house 
of the Lord, to have an apartment in the tem- 
ple. But at Nehemiah's I'eturn from Babylon, 
some years after, he drove Tobiah out of the 
courts of the temple, and threw his goods out 
of the holy place, Neh. xiii, 4-8. From this 
time the Scripture makes no farther mention 
of Tobiah. It is probable he retired to San- 
ballat at Samaria, 

TOGARMAH, the third son of Gomer, Gen. 
X, 4. The learned are divided as to what coun- 
try he' peopled. Josephus and St. Jerom were 
of opinion, that Togarmah was the father of 
the Phrygians : Eusebius, Theodoret, and Isi- 
dorus of Seville, that he peopled Armenia : the 
Chaldee and the Talmudists are for Germany. 
Several moderns believe that the children of 
Togarmah peopled Turcomania in Tartary and 
Scythia. Bochart is for Cappadocia : he builds 
upon Avhat is said in Ezeldel xxvii, 14, " They 
of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs," 
that is, at Tyre, "with horses and horsemen 
and mules." He proves that Cappadocia was 
famous for its excellent horses and its asses. 
He observes also, that certain Gauls, under 
the conduct of Trocmus, made a settlement 
at Cappadocia, and were called Trocmi^ or 
Throgmi. The opinion, says Calmet, which 
places Togarmah in Scythia and Turcomania, 
seems to stand upon the best foundation. 

TOKENS, TESSERiE, or TICKETS, 
were written testimonials to character, much 
in use in the primitive church. By means of 
letters, and of brethren who travelled about, 
even the most remote churches of the Roman 
empire were connected together. When a 
Christian arrived in a strange town, he first 
inquired for the church ; and he was here re- 
ceived as a brother, and provided with every 
thing needful for his spiritual or corporeal 
sustenance. But since deceivers, spies with 
evil intentions, and false teachers abused the 
confidence and the kindness of Christians, 
some measure of precaution became necessary, 
in order to avert the many injuries which might 
result from this conduct. An arrangement was 
therefore introduced, that only such travelling 
Christians should be received as brethren into 
churches where they were strangers, as could 
produce a testimonial from the bishop of the 
church from which they came. They called 
these church letters, which were a kind of tes- 
eercB hospitales, [tickets of hospitality,] by which 
the Christians of all quarters of the world were 
brought mto connection, epistoloe, or litens 



formaice, [formal letters,] ypd[jijxaTa TtTUTidj}xeva, 
because, in order to avoid forgery, they were 
made after a certain schema, (rvtros., forma,) or 
else, epistolcB communicators, [epistles of fel- 
lowship,] y^ajxnara KoivwviKa, because they con- 
tained a proof that those who brought thenl 
were in the communion of the church, as well 
as that the bisliops, who mutually sent and 
received such letters, were in connection toge- 
ther by the communion of the church ; and 
afterward these church letters, epistolce clericcB, 
were divided into different classes, according 
to the difference of their purposes. 

TONGUE. This word is taken in three- 
different senses. 1. For the material tongue, or 
organ of speech, James iii, 5. 2. For the tongue 
or language that is spoken in any country, 
Deut. xxviii, 49. (See Language.) 3. For good 
or bad discourses, Prov. xii, 18 ; xvii, 20. 
Tongue of the sea signifies a gulf. To gnaw 
the tongue, Rev. xvi, 10, is a token of fury, 
despair, and torment. The gift of tongues wae 
that which God granted to the apostles and 
disciples assembled at Jerusalem on the day of 
pentecost. Acts ii. The tongue of angels, a 
kind of hyperbole made use of by St. Paul,- 
1 Cor. xiii, 1. 

TOOTH. It was ordered by the law of reta- 
liation, that they should give tooth for tooth, 
Exod. xxi, 24. The opinion that it is every 
man's right and duty to do himself justice, and 
to revenge his own injuries, is by no means 
eradicated from among the Afghans, a people 
of India, to the southward of Cashmere, and' 
according to a paper in the Asiatic Researches, 
supposed to be descended from the Jews ; and 
the right of society, even to restrain the rea- 
sonable passions of individuals, and to take 
the redress of wrongs and the punishment of 
crimes into its own hands, is still very imper- 
fectly understood ; or, if it is understood, is 
seldom present to the thoughts of the people ; 
for although, in most parts of their country, 
justice might now be obtained by other means, 
and though private revenge is every where 
preached against by the mollahs, priests, and 
forbidden by the government, yet it is still- 
lawful, and even honourable in the eyes of the 
people, to seek that mode of redress. The in- 
jured party is considered to be entitled to strict 
retaliation on the aggressor. If the oflfender 
be out of his power, he m.ay wreak his ven- 
geance on a relation, and, in some cases, on- 
any man in the tribe. If no opportunity of 
exercising this right occurs, he may defer his 
revenge- for years ; but it is disgraceful to ne- 
glect or abandon it entirely ; and it is incum- 
bent on his relations, and sometimes on his 
tribe, to assist him in his retaliation. To gnash' 
the teeth is a token of sorrow, rage, despair, 
Psalm XXXV, 16, &c. God breaks the teeth of 
the wicked. Psalm iii, 7. Cleanness of teetlt 
denotes famine, Amos iv, &. The wicked com- 
plain, that the " fathers have eaten sour grapes, 
and their children's teeth are set on edge," 
Ezek. xviii, 2, to signify, that the children have 
suffered for their transgressions, 

TOPAZ, mtoo, Exod. xxviii, 17; xxxix, K); 
Job xxviii. 19 ; Ezek. xxviii, 13; roird^iov, Rev. 



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xxi, 20 ; a precious stone of a pale dead green, 
with a mixture of yellow ; and sometimes of 
fine yellow, like gold. It is very hard, and 
takes a fine polish. We have the authority of 
the Septuagint and Josephus for -a,scertaining 
this stone. The oriental topazes are most es- 
teemed. Those of Ethiopia were celebrated for 
their wonderfiil lustre. Job xxviii, 19. 

TOPHET. It is thought that Tophet was 
the butchery, or place of slaughter, at Jerusa- 
lem, lying to the south of the city, in the valley 
of the children of Hinnom. It is also said, 
that a large fire was constantly kept there for 
burning carcasses, garbage, and other filth 
brought thither from the city. It was the place 
where they burned the remains of images and 
false gods, &c, Isa. xxx, 33. Others think the 
name Tophet was given to the valley of Hin- 
nom, from the beating of drums, (the word 
toph signifying a drum,) which accompanied 
the sacrifices of infants that were offered there 
to the god Moloch. For the manner of per- 
forming those sacrifices in Tophet, see Moloch, 

TOWER. "The tower of the flock," or the 
tower of Ader, Micah iv, 8. It is said this 
tower was in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem, 
Gen. XXXV, 21, and that the shepherds, to whom 
the angel revealed the birth of our Saviour, 
were near to this tower, Luke ii, 8, 15. Many 
interpreters assert, that the passage of Micah, 
in which mention is made of the tower of the 
flock: "And thou tower of the flock, the 
strong hold of the daughter of Zion," is to be 
understood of the city of Bethlehem, out of 
which our tSaviour was to come. Others main, 
tain, that the prophet speaks of the city of 
Jerusalem, in which there was a tower of this 
name, through which the flocks of sheep were 
driven to the sheep-market. " From the tower 
of the watchmen to the fenced city," 2 Kings 
xvii, 9. This form of speaking expresses in 
general all the places of the country, from the 
least to the greatest. The towers of the watch- 
men, or of the shepherds, stood alone in the 
midst of the pkin, in which the shepherds and 
herdsmen who looked after the flocks, or 
watchmen, might lodge. King Uzziah caused 
several towers to be built for the shepherds in 
the desert, and made many cisterns there, 
because he had a great number of flocks, 2 
Chronicles xxvi, 10. The tower of the flock, 
and that which Isaiah, v, 2, notices, which 
was built in the midst of a vineyard, were of 
the same kind. 

Tower of Babel. See Babel. 

Tower of Sheciiem was a citadel, or fortress, 
standing upon a higher ground than the rest 
of the city, and capacious enough to contain 
above a thousand persons. This tower, filled 
with the inhabitants of Shechem, was burned 
by Abimelech down to the very ground, toge- 
ther with those who had taken refuge in it. 

TRACHONITIS, Luke iii, 1. This province 
had Arabia Deserta to the east, Batanea to the 
west, Iturea to the south, and the country of 
Damascus to the north. It belonged rather to 
Arabia than Palestine ; was a rocky province, 
and served as a shelter for thieves and depre- 
dators. 



TRADITION. See Cabbala. 

TRANSFIGURATION OF CHRIST. This 
event relates to a very remarkable occurrence 
in the history of our Lord's life, which is re- 
corded by three of the evangelists, Matthew 
xvii; Markix; Luke ix. The substance of 
what we learn from their accounts is, that upon 
a certain occasion Jesus took Peter, James, and 
John, into a high mountain apart from all other 
society, and that he was there transfigured 
before them ; his face shining as the sun, and 
his raiment white as the light ; that moreover 
there appeared unto them Moses and Elias, 
conversing with him ; and that while they 
spake together on the subject of his death, 
which was soon afterward to take place at 
Jerusalem, a bright cloud overshadowed them, 
and a voice out of the cloud proclaimed, " This 
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 
The Apostle Peter, adverting to this memorable 
occurrence, says, "We have not followed cun- 
ningly devised fables, when we made known 
unto you the power and coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his 
majesty. For he received from God the Father 
honour and glory, when there came such a 
voice to him from the excellent glory. This is 
my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 
And this voice which came from heaven we 
heard, when we were with him in the holy 
mount," 2 Peter i, 16-18. This event is to be 
considered : 1. As a solemn confirmation of 
the prophetic oflice of Christ. 2. As designed 
to support the faith of the disciples, which was 
to be deeply tried by his approaching humilia- 
tions ; and to afford consolation to the human 
nature of our Lord himself, by giving him a 
foretaste of "the joy set before him." 3. As 
an emblem of humanity glorified at the resur- 
rection. 4. As declaring Christ to be superior 
to Moses and Elias, the giver and the restorer 
of the law. 5. As an evidence to the disciples 
of the existence of a separate state, in which 
good men consciously enjoy the felicity of 
heaven-. 6. As a proof that the bodies of good 
men shall be so refined and changed, as, like 
Elias, to live in a state of immortality, and in 
the presence of God. 7. As exhibiting the 
sympathy which exists between the church in 
heaven and the church on earth, and the in- 
struction which the former receives from the 
events which take place in the latter : — Moses 
and Elias conversed with our Lord on his ap- 
proaching death, doubtless to receive, not to 
convey information. 8. As maintaining the 
grand distinction, the infinite difference, be- 
tween Christ and all other prophets : he is 
"the son." '■^ This is my beloved Son, hear 
him." It has been observed, with much truth, 
that the condition in which Jesus Christ ap- 
peared among men, humble, weak, poor, and' 
despised, was a true and continual transfigUr 
ration ; whereas, the transfiguration itself, in 
which he showed himself in the real splendour 
of his glory, was his true and natural condition. 

TRANSUBSTANTIATION. The Lord's 
Supper being observed in commemoration of 
the' death of Christ, which was the sacrifice 
offered for the sins of men, the idea of a sacri- 



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fice was early conjoined with it ; and finally, it 
came to be regarded not merely as the symbol 
of a sacrifice, but in some sense a sacrifice 
itself. There was also another cause which 
contributed to this belief. It was the anxious 
wish of some of the fathers to give to their 
religion a degree of splendour, which might 
make a powerful impression upon the senses. 
Under the Jewish economy, the numerous sacri- 
fices that were offered, in a remarkable degree 
riveted the attention ; and, with reference to 
this, it became customary to hold forth the 
Lord's Supper as the great sacrifice in the 
Christian clmrch. This mode of speaking 
quickly gained ground ; it is often used by 
Cyprian, although he plainly understood it in 
a mystical sense ; and the ordinance of the 
supper was not unfrequently styled the eucha- 
ristical sacrifice. It was very early the practice 
to hold up the elements, previous to their being 
distributed, to the view of the people, probably 
to excite in them more eflTectually devout and 
reverential feelings ; and this laid the founda- 
tion for that adoration of them which was, at 
a subsequent period, as we shall soon find, ex- 
tensively introduced. 

For several ages, says Dr. Cook, the state of 
opinion respecting the sacramental elements 
was, that they were memorials of Christ's 
death, but that, agreeably to his own declara- 
tion, his body and blood were, in some sense, 
present with them. The questions, however, 
what was the nature of that presence ? and 
what were the physical consequences as to the 
bread and the wine ? however much we may 
conceive these points to have been involved in 
the opinion actually held, or the language ac- 
tually used, seem not to have been for a long 
period much agitated, or, at all events, not 
authoritatively decided, although the Roman 
Catholic writers gladly and triumphantly bring 
forward the expressions that were so often 
used from the earliest age, in support of the 
tenet which their church at length espoused. 
But it was not to be supposed that the curiosity 
of man would be permanently arrested at the 
threshold of this most mysterious inquiry ; 
and accordingly a definite theory, with respect 
to it, was, in the ninth century, avowed, and 
zealously defended. Pascasius Radbert, a 
monk, and afterward abbot of Corbey in 
Picardy, published a treatise concerning the 
sacramenfof the body and blood of Christ, in 
which he did not hesitate to maintain the fol- 
lowing most extraordinary positions : "That 
after the consecration of the bread and wine 
in the Lord's Supper, nothing remained of 
these symbols but the outward form or figure 
under which the body and blood of Christ were 
really and locally present; and that this body 
so present was the identical body that had 
been born of the Virgin Mary, had suffered on 
the cross, and had been raised from the dead." 
The publication of notions so decidedly at 
war with all which human beings must credit, 
excited, as might have been expected, as- 
tonishment and indignation ; and, accordingly, 
many writers exerted their talents against it. 
Among these was the celebrated Johannes 



Scotus, who laid the axe to the root of the 
tree, and, shaking off all that figurative lan- 
guage which had been so sadly abused, dis- 
tinctly and powerfully stated, that the bread 
and wine used in the eucharist were the signs 
or symbols of the absent body and blood of 
Christ. The light of reason and truth was, 
however, too feeble to penetrate through the 
darkness which during this age was spread 
over the minds and understandings of men. 
No public declaration, indeed, as to the nature 
of the sacramental elements was made ; and 
even the popes did not interpose their high and 
revered authority with regard to it ; but there 
seems little doubt that the opinion of Pascasius 
was adopted by the greater part of the western 
church, although it is not likely that much 
deference was paid to his explanations of it. 
The question was again agitated, and attracted 
more notice than it had ever before done, in 
the course of the eleventh century. Several 
theologians, distinguished for the period at 
which they lived, shocked with the grossness 
and absurdity of the conversion which had 
been defended, strenuously opposed it. Among 
these Berenger holds the most conspicuous 
place, both on account of the zeal and ability 
which he displayed, and the cruel and un 
christian manner in which he was resisted. 
About the commencement of the century, he 
began to inculcate that the bread and wine of 
the eucharist were not truly and actually, but 
only figuratively, and by similitude, the body 
and blood of Christ ; and a doctrine so rational 
obtained many adherents in France, Italy, and 
England. He was, however, encountered by 
a host of opponents, numbers of whom pos- 
sessed the highest situations in the church ; 
and the church itself, either from having per- 
ceived that the doctrine which he laboured to 
confute was grateful to the people, or, what is 
more likely, tended to exalt the powers and to 
increase the influence and wealth of the priest- 
hood, declared against him, various councils 
having been assembled, and having pronounced 
their solemn decrees in condemnation of what 
he taught. The councils did not rest their 
hope of overcoming Berenger upon the strength 
of the reasoning which they could urge against 
him : they took a much more summary method, 
and threatened to put him to death if he did 
not recant. At one synod held at Rome, under 
the immediate eye of the pope, the fathers of 
whom it consisted so successfully alarmed 
Berenger, that, not having sufficient vigour of 
mind to stand firm against their cruelty, he 
confessed that he had been in error, and subscri- 
bed the following declaration composed by one 
of the cardinals : " The bread and wine which 
are placed on the^ altar are, after consecration, 
not merely a sacrament, symbol, or figure, but 
even the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, which is handled by the hands of the 
priests, and broken and chewed by the teeth 
of the faithful." He had no sooner escaped 
from the violence which he had dreaded, than 
he shrunk from the tenet to which he bad been 
forced to give his assent, and he again avowed 
his original sentiments ; but he was aflerward 



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turned aside from his integrity by the arts and 
the infamous persecution of new councils, al- 
though he died adhering to the spirituality of 
Christ's presence in the eucharist. From this 
time the strange opinion of Pascasius rapidly 
gained ground, being supported by all the in- 
fluence of popes and councils ; but there had 
not yet been devised a term which clearly ex- 
pressed what was really implied in thatx)pinion. 
In the next century, the ingenuity of some 
theologian invented what was wanting ; tJie 
change tliat takes place on the elements after 
consecration having been denominated by him 
transubstantiation. Still, however, some lati- 
tude was afforded to those who interpreted the 
epithet ; but this in the thirteenth century was 
taken away, a celebrated council of the Late- 
ran, attended by no fewer than four hundred 
and twelve bishops, and eight hundred abbots 
and priors, having, at the instigation of Inno- 
cent the Third, one of the most arrogant and 
presumptuous of the pontiffs, explicitly adopted 
transubstantiation as an article of faith, in the 
monstrous form in which it is now held in the 
popish church, and denounced anathemas 
against all v/ho hesitated to give their assent. 
The opposition which after this was made to 
a doctrine so revolting to the senses and the 
reason, was very feeble, insomuch that it may, 
in consequence of the decree of the Lateran 
council, be considered as having become the 
established faith of the western church. In 
the Greek church it was long resisted, and, 
indeed, was not embraced till the seventeenth 
century, a time at which it might have been 
thought that it could not have extended the 
range of its influence. 

After tran3i:^3stantiation was thus sanction- 
ed, a change necessarily took place with 
respect to various parts of the service used in 
administering the eucharist. That solenm 
service was now viev/ed as an actual sacrifice 
or offering of the body of Christ for the sins 
of men, and the elevation of the host was held 
forth as calling for the adoration and worship 
of believers ; so that an ordinance mercifully 
designed to preserve the pure influence of the 
most spiritual and elevated religion, became 
the instrument, in the hands of ignorant or 
corrupt men, of introducing the most senseless 
and degrading idolatry. "Wlien the Reforma- 
tion shook the influence of the church, and 
brought into exercise the intellectual faculties 
9f man, the subject of the eucharist demanded 
and received the closest and most anxious 
attention. It might have been naturally sup- 
posed, that when Luther directed his vigorous 
mind to point out and to condemn the abuses 
which had been sanctioned in the popish 
church, he would not have spared a doctrine 
the most irrational and objectionable which 
that church avows, and that he would have 
vindicated the holy ordinance of the Lord's 
Supper from the abomination with which it had 
been associated. He did, indeed, object to 
transubstantiation, but he did so w4th a degree 
of hesitation truly astonishing, although that 
hesitation was displayed by many of the first 
reformers. He declared that he saw no war- 



rant for believing that the bread and wine were 
actually changed into the body and blood of 
Christ ; but he adhered to the literal import of 
our Saviour's words, teaching that his body 
and blood were received, and that they were 
in some incomprehensible manner conjoined 
or united with the bread and wine. It is quite 
evident, that although this system got rid of 
one difficulty by leaving the testimony of the 
senses as to the bread and wine unchallenged, 
yet it is just as incomprehensible as the other, 
assumes as a 'fact what the senses cannot dis- 
cern, and involves in it difficulties equally 
repugnant to the plainest dictates of reason. 
Powerful accordingly as most deservedly was 
his ascendency, and great as was the venera- 
tion with which he was contemplated, he was 
upon this point happily opposed ; his colleague, 
the celebrated Carlostadt, openly avowing, 
that when our Lord said of the bread, " This 
is my body," he pointed to his own person, 
and thus taught that the bread wa-s merely the 
sign or emblem of it. Luther warmly resisted 
this opinion ; Carlostadt was obliged, surely in 
little consistency with the fundamental princi- 
ple of Protestantism, in consequence of having 
professed it, to leave Wirtemberg ; and although 
it procured some adherents, yet as it rested 
upon an assertion of which there could be no 
proof, it was never extensively disseminated, 
and was ultimately abandoned by Carlostadt 
himself. The discussion, however, which he 
had commenced stimulated others to the con- 
sideration of the subject, and led Zuinglius, 
who had previously often -^meditated upon it, 
and CEcolampadius, two of the most distin- 
guished reformers, to submit to the public the 
doctrine, that the bread and wine are only 
symbols of Christ's body and blood, but that 
the body of our Lord was in heaven, to which 
after his resurrection he had ascended, Luther 
composed several works to confute the opinions 
of Zuinglius. At the commencement of the 
controversy respecting the eucharist among 
the defenders of the Protestant faith, there 
seem to have been only two opinions, that of 
Luther, asserting that the body and blood of 
Christ were actually with the bread and wine, 
and that of Zuinglius, CEcolampadius, and 
Bucer, that the bread and wine were the em- 
blems or signs of Christ's body and blood, no 
other advantage being derived from partaking 
of them than the moral effect naturally result- 
ing from the commemoration of an event so 
awful and so deeply interesting as the cruci- 
fixion of our Redeemer. Calvin soon published 
what may be regarded as a new view of the 
subject. Admitting the justness of the inter- 
pretation of our Lord's words given by Zuin- 
glius, he maintained that spiritual influence 
was conveyed to worthy partakers of the Lord's 
Supper, insomuch that Christ may be said to 
be spiritually present with the outward ele- 
ments. The sentiments of this most eminent 
theologian made a deep impression upon the 
public mind ; and although the churches of 
Zurich and Berne long a,dhered to the creed of 
Zuinglius, yet, through the perseverance and 
dexterity of Calvin, the Swiss Protestant 



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churches at length united with that of Geneva 
in assenting to the spiritual presence of Christ 
in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. In 
other countries, too, he saw many adhering to 
what he had taught, and carrying to as great 
length as it could be carried what, under his 
system, must be termed tlie allegorical language 
which he recommended. The French Pro- 
testants in their confession thus express them- 
selves : "We affirm that the holy supper of 
our Lord is a witness to us of our union with 
the Lord Jesus Christ, because that he is not 
only once dead and raised up again from the 
dead for us, but also he doth indeed feed and 
nourish us with his flesh and blood. And 
although he be now in heaven, and shall re- 
main there till he come to judge the world, yet 
we believe that, by the secret and incompre- 
hensible virtue of his Spirit, he -doth nourish 
and quicken us with the substance of his body 
and blood. But we say that this is done in a 
spiritual manner ; nor do we hereby substitute 
in place of the effect and truth an idle fancy 
and conceit of our own ; but rather, because 
this mystery of our union with Christ is so 
high a thing that it surmounteth all our senses, 
yea and the whole order of nature, and in 
short, because it is celestial, it cannot be com- 
prehended but by faith." Knox, who revered 
Calvin, carried into Scotland the opinions of 
that reformer; and in the original Scottish 
confessions, similar language, though some- 
what more guarded than that which has been 
just quoted, is used: "We assuredly believe 
that in the sapper rightly used, Christ Jesus is 
so joined v/ith us, that he becometh the very 
nourishment and food of our souls. Not that 
we imagine any tra.nsubstantiation, — but this 
union and communion w^hich we have with the 
body and blood of Christ Jesus in the right use 
of the sacrament, is wrought by the operation 
ef the Holj'- Ghost, who by true faith carrieth 
us above all things that are visible, carnal, and 
earthly, and maketh us to feed upon the bod}'- 
and blood of Christ Jesus. We most assuredly 
believe that the bread which we break is the 
communion of Christ's body, and the cup 
which we bless is the communion of his blood; 
so that we confess and undoubtedly believe, 
that the faithful in the right use of the Lord's 
table so do eat the body and drink the blood 
of the Lord Jesus, that he remaineth in them 
and they in him ; yea, that they are so made 
fiesh of his flesh, and bones of liis bones, that 
as the eternal Godhead hath given to the flesh 
of Christ Jesus life and immortality, so doth 
Christ Jesus's flesh and blood, eaten and 
drunken by us, give to us the same preroga- 
tives." The church of Scotland, which did 
not long use this first confession, seems to 
have seen, in the course of the following cen- 
tury, the propriety, if not of relinquishing, yet 
of more cautiously employing the phraseology 
now brought into view ; for in the Westminster 
confession, which is still the standard of faith 
in that church, there is unquestionably a great 
improvement in the style which has been 
adopted in treating of this subject. In it the 
compilers declare, that "the outward elements 



in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper duly set 
apart to the uses ordained by Christ, have such 
relation to him crucified, as that truly, yet 
sacramentally only, they are sometimes called 
by the name of the things they represent ; 
namely the body and blood of Christ, albeit in 
substance and nature they still remain truly 
and only bread and wine, as they were before." 
Then after most powerfully exposing the ab- 
surdity of transubstantiation, representing it 
as repugnant not to Scripture alone, but to 
reason and common sense, they proceed : 
"Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of 
the visible elements in this sacrament, do then, 
also inwardly by faith, really and indeed, yet 
not carnally and corporally, but spiritually, re- 
ceive and feed upon Christ crucified, and all 
benefits of his death : the body and blood of 
Christ being then not corporally or carnally 
in, with, or under the bread and wine, yet as 
really but spiritually present to the faith of 
believers in that ordinance., as the elements 
themselves are to their outward senses." The 
church of England was in its first reformation 
from popery inclined to adhere to the Lu- 
therans ; but in the time of Edward the Sixth, 
a more correct and Scriptural view seems to 
have been taken. In the thirty-nine articles, 
the present creed of the English church, it is 
said of this ordinance : " The supper of the 
Lord is not only a sign of the love that Chris- 
tians ought to have among themselves one to 
another, but rather it is a sacrament of our 
redemption by Christ's death ; insomuch that, 
to such as rightly, v/orthily, and with faith 
receive the same, the bread which we bjeak is 
a partaking of the body of Christ, and like- 
wise the cup is a partaking of the blood of 
Christ." This strong language is, however, 
in the same article, so modified, as to show 
that all which was intended by it was to repre- 
sent the spiritual influence conveyed through 
the Lord's Supper; for it is taught, "that the 
body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in 
the supper, only after a heavenly and spiritual 
manner." The idea of Zuinglius, that the 
Lord's Supper is merely a commemoration of 
Clirist's death, naturally producing a moral 
oflect upon the serious and considerate mind, 
has been held by members of both the esta- 
blished churches in Great Britain. It was 
vigorously defended, about the beginning of 
last century, by Bishop Hoadl}^ in a work 
which he entitled, "A plain Account of the 
Nature and Ends of the Sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper ;" and it has more recently been 
supported by -Dr. Bell, in a treatise denomi- 
nated "An Attempt to ascertain the Autho- 
rity, Nature, and Design of the Lord's Supper." 
The ingenuity of particular individuals has 
been exerted in giving other peculiar illustra- 
tions of the subject. Cudworth and Bishop 
Warburton, for example, represented the sacra- 
ment of the supper under the view of a feast 
upon a sacrifice ; but such speculations have 
not influenced the faith of any large denomina, 
tion of Christians. 

TRAVELLING. The mode in which the 
patriarchs performed their pastoral migrations 



TRE 



920 



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will be illustrated, with several differences in 
circumstances, by the following extract from 
Parsons' Travels : "Itv/as entertaining enough 
to see the horde of Arabs decamp, as nothing 
could be more regular. First went the sheep 
and goat herds, each with their flocks in divi- 
sions, according as the chief of each family 
directed ; then followed the camels and asses, 
loaded with the tents, furniture, and kitchen 
utensils ; these were followed by the old men, 
women, boys, and girls, on foot. The children 
that cannot walk are carried on the backs of 
the young women, or the boys and girls ; and 
the smallest of the lambs and kids are carried 
under the arms of the children. To each tent 
belong many dogs, among which are some 
greyhounds ; some tents have from teri to 
fourteen dogs, and from twenty to thirty men, 
women, and children, belonging to it. The 
procession is closed by the chief of the tjibe, 
whom they call emir and father, (emir means 
prince,) mounted on the very best horse, and 
surrounded by the heads of each family, all on 
horses, with many servants on foot. Between 
each family is a division or space of one hun. 
dred yards, or more, when they migrate ; and 
such great regularity is observed, that neither 
camels, asses, sheep, nor dogs, mix, but each 
Jteeps to the division to which it belongs, with- 
out the least trouble. They had been here 
eight days, and were going four hours' journey 
to the north-west, ta another spring of water. 
This tribe consisted of about eight hundred 
and fifty men, women, and children. Their 
flocks of sheep and goats were about five 
thousand, beside a great number of camels, 
horses, and asses. Horses and greyhounds 
they breed and train up for sale : they neither 
kill nor sell their ewe lambs. At set times a 
chapter in the Koran is read by the chief of 
each family, either in or near each tent, the 
whole family being gathered round, and very 
attentive." Instead of the Koran of modern 
times, let us conceive of Abraham, and other 
patriarchal emirs, collecting their numerous 
dependents and teaching them the true reli- 
gion, and we then see with what truth they 
are called the Lord's "prophets." 

TREASURE. The Hebrew word signifies 
any thing collected together, provisions, or 
magazines. So they say, a treasure of corn, 
of wine, of oil, of honey, Jer. xli, 8 ; treasures 
of gold, silver, brass, Ezek. xxviii, 4; Dan. 
xi, 43. Snov/, winds, hail, rain, waters, are 
in the treasuries of God, Psalm cxxxv, 7 ; Jer. 
li, 16. The wise men opened their treasures. 
Matt, ii, 11, that is, their packets, or bundles, 
to offer presents to our Saviour. Joseph ac- 
quainted his brethren, when they found their 
money returned in their sacks, that God had 
given them treasures, Genesis xliii, 23. The 
treasures of the house of God, whether in sil- 
ver, corn, wine, or oil, were under the care of 
the Levites. The kings of Judah had also 
keepers of the treasures both in city and coun- 
try, 1 Chron. xxvii, 25 ; and the places where 
these magazines were laid up were called trea- 
sure cities. Pharaoh compelled the Hebrews 
to build him trea.sure cities, or magazines. 



TREE is the first and largest of the vege. 
table kind, consisting of a single trunk, out of 
which spring forth branches and leaves. Heat 
is so essential to the growth of trees, that we 
see them grow larger and smaller in a sort of 
gradation as the climates in which they stand 
are more or less hot. The hottest countries 
yield, in general, the largest and tallest trees, 
and those, also, in much greater beauty and 
variety than the colder do ; and even those 
plants which are common to both arrive at a 
much greater bulk in the southern than in the 
northern climates ; nay, there are some regions 
so bleak and chill, that they raise no vegetables 
at all to any censiderable height. Greenland, 
Iceland, and similar places, afford no trees at 
all ; and the shrubs which grow in them are 
always little and low. In the warmer climates, 
where trees grow to a moderate size, any acci- 
dental diminution of the common heat is found 
very greatly to impede vegetation ; and even 
in England the cold summers we sometimes 
have give us an evident proof of this in the 
scarcity of produce from all our large fruit 
trees. Heat, whatever be the producing cause, 
acts as well upon vegetation one way as an- 
other. Thus the heat of manure, and the 
artificial heat of coal fires in stoves, are found 
to supply the place of the sun. Great numbers 
of the eastern trees, in their native soil, flower 
twice in a year, and some flower and bear ripe 
fruit all the year round ; and it is observed of 
these last, that they are at once the most fre- 
quent and the most useful to the inhabitants ; 
their fruits, which always hang on them in 
readiness, containing cool juices, which are 
good in fevers, and other of the common dis- 
eases of hot countries. The umbrageous 
foliage, with which the God of providence has 
generally furnished all trees in warm climates, 
affords a most refreshing and grateful shade to 
those who seek relief from the direct and hurt- 
ful rays of a tropical sun. 

The Land of Promise cannot boast, like 
many other countries, of extensive woods ; but 
considerable thickets of trees and of reeds some- 
times arise to diversify and adorn the scene. 
Between the Lake Samochonites and the sea 
of Tiberias, the river Jordan is almost con- 
cealed by shady trees from the view of the 
traveller. When the waters of the Jordan are 
low, the Lake Samochonites is only a marsh, 
for the most part dry and overgrown with 
shrubs and reeds. In these thickets, among 
other ferocious animals, tlie wild boar seeks a 
covert from the burning rays of the sun. Large 
herds of them are sometimes to be seen on the 
banks of the river, near the sea of Tiberias, 
lying among the reeds, or feeding under the 
trees. Such moist and shady places are in all 
countries the favourite haunts of these fierce 
and dangerous animals. Those marshy coverts 
are styled woods in the saci-ed Scriptures ; for 
the wild boar of the wood is the name which 
that creature receives from the royal psalmist : 
" The boar out of the wood doth waste it ; and 
the wild beast of the field doth devour it," 
Psalm Ixxx, 13. The wood of Ephraim, where 
the battle was fought between the forces of 



TRE 



921 



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Absalom and the servants of David, was pro- 
bably a place of the same kind; for the sacred 
historian observes, that the wood devoured 
more people that day than the sword, 2 Sam. 
xviii, 8. Some have supposed the meaning of 
this passage to be, that the soldiers of Absalom 
were destroyed by the wild beasts of the wood ; 
but it can scarcely be supposed, that in the 
reign of David, when the Holy Land was 
crowded with inhabitants, the wild beasts could 
be so numerous in one of the woods as to cause 
such a destruction. But, supposing the wood 
of Ephraim to have been a morass covered with 
trees and bushes, like the haunts of the wild 
boar near the banks of Jordan, the difficulty is 
easily removed. It is certain that such a place 
has more than once proved fatal to contending 
armies, partly by suffocating those who in the 
hurry of flight inadvertently venture over places 
incapable of supporting them, and partly by 
retarding them till their pursuers come up and 
cut them to pieces. In this manner a greater 
number of men than fell in the heat of battle 
may be destroyed. It is probable, however, 
that nothing more is intended by the sacred 
historian, than the mention of a fact familiar 
to military men in all ages, and whatever kind 
of weapons were then employed in warfare, — 
that forests, especially such thick and impassa- 
ble forests as are common in warm countries, 
constitute the very worst ground along which 
a discomfited army can be compelled to retreat. 
Their orderly ranks are broken ; the direction 
which each warrior for his own safety must 
take is uncertain ; and while one tumultuous 
mass is making a pass for itself through inter- 
vening brushwood and closely matted jungle, 
and another is hurrying along a different path 
and encountering similar or perhaps greater 
impediments, the cool and deliberate pursuers, 
whether archers or sharp sliooters, enjoy an 
immense advantage in being able to choose 
their own points of annoyance, and by flank 
or cross attacks to kill their retreating foes, 
with scarcely any risk to themselves, but with 
immense carnage to the routed army. 

Several critics imagine that by mn V>'j ren- 
dered " goodly trees," Lev. xxiii, 40, the citron 
tree is intended, n^;; yy, rendered "thick 
trees" in the same verse, and in Neh. viii, 15 ; 
Ezek. XX, 28, is the myrtle, according to the 
rabbins, the Chaldee paraphrase, Syriac ver- 
sion, and Decdatus. The word VtS'N, translated 
" grove" in Gen. xxi, 33, has been variously 
translated. Parkhurst renders it an oak, and 
says, that from this word may be derived the 
name of the famous asylum, opened by Romu- 
lus between two groves of oak at Rome. On 
the other hand, Celsius, Michaelis, and Dr. 
Geddes render it the tamarisk, which is a lofty 
and beautiful tree, and grows abundantly in 
Egypt and Arabia. The same word in 1 Sam. 
xxii, 6 ; xxxi, 13, is rendered " a tree." It 
must be noted too, that in the first of these 
places, the common version is equally obscure 
and contradictory, by making ramah a proper 
name : it signifies hillock or bank. Of the 
trees that produced precious balsams there was 
one in particular that long flourished in Judea, 



having been supposed to have been an object 
of great attention to Solomon, which was after- 
ward transplanted to Matarea, in Egypt, where 
it continued till -about two hundred and fifty 
years ago, according to Maillet, who gives a 
description of it, drawn, it is supposed, from 
the Arabian authors, in which he says, "This 
shrub had two very differently coloured barks, 
the one red, the other perfectly green ; that 
they tasted strongly like incense and turpen- 
tine, and when bruised between the fingers 
they smelt very nearly like cardamoms. This 
balsam, which was extremely precious and 
celebrated, and was used by the Coptic church 
in their chrism, was produced by a very low 
shrub ; and it is said, that all those shrubs that 
produced balsams are every where low, and do 
not exceed two or three cubits in height." 

Descriptions of the principal trees and shrubs 
mentioned in Holy Writ the reader will find 
noticed in distinct articles under their several 
denominations. 

TRIBE. Jacob having twelve sons, who 
were the heads of so many great families, which 
altogether formed a great nation ; every one 
of these families was called a tribe. But Ja- 
cob on his death bed adopted Ephraim and 
Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, and would have 
them also to constitute two tribes of Israel, 
Gen. xlviii, 5. Instead of tv^^elve tribes, there 
were now thirteen, that of Joseph being divided 
into two. However, in the distribution of 
lands to each which Joshua made by the order 
of God, they counted but twelve tribes, and 
made but twelve lots. For the tribe of Levi, 
which was appointed to the service of the ta- 
bernacle of the Lord, had no share in the dis- 
tribution of the land, but only some cities in 
which to dwell, and the first fruits, tithes, and 
oblations of the people, which was all their 
subsistence. The twelve tribes continued 
united under one head, making but one state, 
one people, and one monarchy, till after the 
death of Solomon. Then ten of the tribes of 
Israel revolted from the house of David, and 
received for their king Jeroboam, the son of 
Nebat ; and only the tribes of Judah and Ben. 
jamin continued under the government of Re- 
hoboam. This separation may be looked upon 
as the chief cause of those great misfortunes 
that afterward happened '.,0 those two king- 
doms, and to the whole Hebrew nation. For, 
first, it was the cause of the alteration and 
change of the old religion, and of the ancient 
worship of their forefathers. Jeroboam the 
son of Nebat substituted the worship of golden 
calves for the worship of the true God ; which 
was the occasion of the ten tribes forsaking 
the temple of the Lord. Secondly, this schism 
caused an irreconcilable hatred between the ten 
tribes, and those of Judah and Benjamin, and 
created numerous wars and disputes between 
them. The Lord, being provoked, delivered 
them up to their enemies. Tiglath-Pileser 
first took away captive the tribes of Reuben, 
Gad, Naphtali, and the half tribe of Manasseh, 
which were beyond Jordan, and carried them 
beyond the Euphrates, 2 Kings xv, 29 ; 1 Chron. 
V, 26 ; A. M. 3264. Some years after, ShaL 



TRl 



922 



TRI 



maneser king of Assyria took the city of Sa- 
maria, destroyed it, took away the rest of the 
inhabitants of Israel, carried them beyond the 
Euphrates, and sent other inhabitants into the 
country to cultivate and possess it, 2 Kings 
xvii, 6 ; xviii, 10, 11. Thus ended the king, 
dom of the ten tribes of Israel, A. M. 3283. 
As to the tribes of Judah and Benjan^in, who 
remained under the government of the kings 
of the family of David, they continued a much 
longer time in their own country. But at last, 
after they had filled up the measure of their 
iiiiquity, God delivered them all into the hands 
of their enemies. Nebuchadnezzar took the 
oity of Jerusalem, entirely ruined it, and took 
away all the inhabitants of Judah and Benja- 
min to Babylon, and the other provinces of his 
empire, A. M. 3416. The return from this 
captivity is stated in the books of Ezra and 
Nehemiah. See Jews. 

TRIBUTE. The Hebrews acknowledged 
none for sovereign over them but God alone ; 
whence Josephus calls their government a the- 
ocracy, or divine government. They acknow- 
ledged the sovereign dominion of God by a 
tribute, or capitation tax, of half a shekel a 
head, which every Israelite paid yearly, Exod. 
XXX, 13. Our Saviour, in the Gospel, thus 
reasons with St. Peter: " What thinkest thou, 
Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth 
take custom or tribute ? of their own children, 
or of strangers?" Matt, xvii, 25, meaning, that 
as he was the Son of God, he ought to be ex- 
empt from this capitation tax. We do not 
find that either the kings or the judges of the 
Hebrews, when they were themselves Jews, 
demanded any tribute of them. Solomon, at 
the beginning of his reign, 1 Kings xi, 22, 33 ; 
2 Chron. viii, 9, compelled the Canaanites, 
who were left in the country, to pay him tri- 
bute, and to perform the drudgery of the pub. 
lie works he had undertaken. As to the chil- 
dren of Israel, he would not suffer one of them 
to be employed upon them, but made them his 
soldiers, ministers, and chief ofiicers, to com- 
mand his armies, his chariots, and his horse- 
men. Yet, afterward, toward the end of his 
reign, he imposed a tribute upon them, and 
made them work at the public buildings, 
1 Kings V, 13, 14 ; ix, 15 ; xi, 27 ; which much 
alienated their minds from him, and sowed the 
seeds of that discontent which afterward ap- 
peared in an open revolt, by the rebellion of 
Jeroboam, the son of Nebat ; who was at first 
indeed obliged to take shelter in Egypt. But 
afterward the defection became general, by the 
total revolt of the ten tribes. Hence it was, 
that the Israelites said to Rehoboam the son 
of Solomon, " Thy father made our yoke griev- 
ous ; now therefore, make thou the grievous 
service of thy father, and the heavy yoke 
which he put upon us, lighter, and we will 
serve thee," 1 Kings xii, 4. It is needless to 
observe, that the Israelites were frequently 
subdued by foreign princes, who laid great 
taxes and tribute upon them, to which fear 
and necessity compelled them to submit. Yet 
in the latter times, that is, after Archelaus had 
been banished to Vienne in France, in the sixth 



year of the vulgar era, and after Judea was re- 
duced to a province, Augustus sent Quirinius 
into this country to take a new poll of the 
people, and to make a new estimate of their 
substance, that he might thereby regulate the 
tribute that every one was to pay to the Ro. 
mans. -Then Judas, surnamed the Galilean, 
formed a sedition, and made an insurrection, 
to oppose the levying of this tribute. See in' 
St. Matthew xxii, 16, 17, &c, the answer that 
Jesus Christ returned to the Pharisee, who 
came with an insidious design of tempting 
him, and asked him, whether or not it was 
lawful to pay tribute to Caesar ? and in John 
viii, 33, where the Jews boast of having never 
been slaves to any body, of being a free na- 
tion, that acknowledged God only for master 
and sovereign. 

TRINITY. That nearly all the Pagan na- 
tions of antiquity, says Bishop Tomline, in their 
various theological systems, acknowledged a 
kind of Trinity, has been fully evinced by those 
learned men who have made the Heathen my- 
thology the subject of their elaborate inquiries. 
The almost universal prevalence of this doc- 
trine in the Gentile kingdoms must be con- 
sidered as a strong argument in favour of its 
truth. The doctrine itself bears such striking 
internal marks of a divine original, and is so 
very unlikely to have been the invention of 
mere human reason, that there is no way of 
accounting for the general adoption of so sin. 
gular a belief, but by supposing that it was re- 
vealed by God to the early patriarchs, and that 
it was transmitted by them to their posterity. 
In its progress, indeed, to remote countries, 
and to distant generations, this belief became 
depraved and corrupted in the highest degree ; 
and he alone who brought " life and immoi*- 
tality to light," could restore it to its original 
simplicity and purity. The discovery of the 
existence of this doctrine in the early ages, 
among the nations whose records have been 
the best preserved, has been of great service to 
the cause of Christianity, and completely re- 
futes the assertion of infidels and skeptics, that 
the sublime and mysterious doctrine of the 
Trinity owes its origin to the philosophers of 
Greece. " If we extend," says Mr. Maurice, 
" our eye through the remote region of anti- 
quity, we shall find this very doctrine, which 
the primitive Christians are said to have bor- 
rowed from the Platonic school, universally 
and immemorially flourishing in all those coun- 
tries where history and tradition have united 
to fix those virtuous ancestors of the human 
race, who, for their distinguished attainments 
in piety, were admitted to a familiar inter- 
course with Jehovah and the angels, the divine 
heralds of his commands." The same learned 
author justly considers the first two verses of 
the Old Testament as containing very strong, 
if not decisive, evidence in support of the truth 
of this doctrine : Elohim, a noun substantive 
of the plural number, by which the Creator is 
expressed, appears as evidently to point to- 
ward a plurality of persons in the divine na- 
ture, as the verb in the singular, with which 
it is joined, does to the unity of that nature : 



TRI 



923 



TRI 



"In the beginning God created;" with strict 
attention to grammatical propriety, the passage 
should be rendered, "In the beginning Gods 
created," but our belief in the unity of God for- 
bids us thus to translate the word Elohim. 
Since, therefore, Elohim is plural, and no plu- 
ral can consist of less than two in number, 
and since creation can alone be the work of 
Deity, we are to understand by this term so 
particularly used in this place, God the Father, 
and the eternal Logos, or Word of God ; that 
Logos whom St. John, supplying us with an 
excellent comment upon this passage, says, 
was in the beginning with God, and who also 
was God. As the Father and the Son are ex- 
pressly pointed out in the first verse of this 
chapter, so is the Third Person in the blessed 
Trinity not less decisively revealed to us in 
Gen. i, 2 : " And the Spirit of God moved upon 
the face of the waters :" " brooded upon" the 
water, incubavit, as a hen broods over her eggs. 
Thus we see the Spirit exerted upon this oc- 
casion an active effectual energy, by that ener- 
gy agitating the vast abyss, and infusing into 
it a powerful vital principle. 

Elohim seems to be the general appellation 
by which the Triune Godhead is collectively 
distinguished in Scripture ; and in the concise 
history of the creation only, the expression, 
bara Elokivi, " the Gods created," is used above 
thirty times. The combining this plural noun 
with a verb in the singular would not appear 
so remarkable, if Moses had uniformly adhered 
to that mode of expression ; for then it would 
be evident that he adopted the mode used by 
the Gentiles in speaking of their false gods in 
the plural number, but by joining with it a 
singular verb or adjective, rectified a phrase 
that might appear to give a direct sanction to 
the error of polytheism. But, in reality, the 
reverse is the fact ; for in Deut. xxxii, 15, 17, 
and other places, he uses the singular number 
of this very noun to express the Deity, though 
not employed in the august work of creation : 
••'He forsook God," Eioah; "they sacrificed 
to devils not to God," Eloah. But farther, 
Moses himself uses this very word Elohim 
with verbs and adjectives in the plural. Of 
this usage Dr. Allix enumerates many other 
striking instances that might be brought from 
the Pentateuch ; and other inspired writers use 
it in the same manner in various parts of the 
Old Testament, Job xxxv, 10 ; Joshua xxiv, 19 ; 
Psalm cix, 1 ; Ecclesiastes xii, 3 ; 2 Samuel 
vii, 23. It must appear, therefore, to every 
reader of reflection, exceedingly singular, that 
when Moses was endeavouring to establish a 
theological system, of which the unity of the 
Godhead was the leading principle, and in 
which it differed from all other systems, he 
should make use of terms directly implicative 
of a plurality in it ; yet so deeply was the awful 
truth under consideration impressed upon the 
mind of the Hebrew legislator, that this is con- 
stantly done by him ; and, indeed, as Allix has 
observed, there is scarcely any method of 
speakiuig from which a plurality in Deity may 
be inferred, that is not used either by himself 
in the Pentateuch, or by the other inspired 



writers in various parts of the Old Testament. 
A plural is joined with a verb singular, as in 
the passage cited before from Genesis i, 1 ; a 
plural is joined with a verb plural, as in Gen. 
xxxv, 7, " And Jacob called the name of the 
place El-beth-el, because the Gods there ap- 
peared to him ;" a plural is joined with an 
adjective plural, Joshua xxiv, 19, " You cannot 
serve the Lord ; for he is the holy Gods." To 
these passages, if we add that remarkable one 
from Ecclesiastes, " Remember thy Creators in 
the days of thy youth," and the predominant 
use of the terms, Jehovah Elohim, or, the 
"Lord thy Gods," which occur a hundred 
times in the law, (the word Jehovah implying 
the unity of the essence, and Elohim a plu- 
rality in that unity,) we must allow that nothing 
can be more plainly marked than this doctrine 
in the ancient Scriptures. 

Though the august name of Jehovah in a 
more peculiar manner belongs to God the 
Father, yet is that name, in various parts of 
Scripture,, applied to each person in the holy 
Trinity. The Hebrews considered that name 
in so sacred a light, that they never pro- 
nounced it, and used the word Adonai instead 
of it. It was, indeed, a name that ranked first 
among their profoundest cabala ; a mystery, 
sublime, ineffable, incommunicable. It was 
called tetragrammaton, or the name of four 
letters, and these letters are jod, he, vau, he, 
the proper pronunciation of which, from long 
disuse, is said to be no longer known to the 
Jews themselves. This awful name was first 
revealed by God to Moses from the centre of 
the burning bush ; and Josephus, who, as well 
as Scripture, relates this circumstance, evinces 
his veneration for it, by calling it the name 
which his religion did not permit him to men. 
tion. From this word the Pagan title of lao 
and Jove is, with the greatest probability, sup- 
posed to have been originally formed ; and in 
the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, there is an 
oath still extant to this purpose, " By Him who 
has the four letters." As the name Jehovah, 
however, in some instances applied to the Son 
and the Holy Spirit, was the proper name of 
God the Father, so is Logos in as peculiar a 
manner the appropriated name of God the Son. 
The Chaldee Paraphrasts translate the original 
Hebrew text by Mimra da Jehovah, literally, 
"the Word of Jehovah," a term totally dif- 
ferent, as Bishop Kidder has incontestably 
proved, in its signification, and in its general 
application among the Jews, from the Hebrew 
dabar, which simply means a discourse or 
decree, and is properly rendered by pithgam. 
In the Septuagint translation of tlie Bible, a 
work supposed by the Jews to have been under- 
taken by men immediately inspired from above, 
the former term is universally rendered A6yof, 
and it is so rendered and so understood by 
Philo and all the more ancient rabbins. The 
name of the third person in the ever blessed 
Trinity has descended unaltered from the days 
of Moses to our own time ; for, as well in the 
sacred writings as by the Targumists, and by 
the modern doctors of the Jewish church, he 
is styled Ruach Hakhodesh, the Holy Spirit, 



TRI 



924 



TRI 



He is sometimes, however, in tlie rabbinical 
books, denominated by Shechinah, or glory of 
Jehovah ; in some places he is called Sephirah, 
or Wisdom ; and in others the Binah, or Under- 
standing. From the enumeration of these cir- 
cumstances, it must be sufficiently evident to 
the mind which unites piety and reflection, that 
so far from being silent upon the subject, the 
ancient Scriptures commence with an avowal 
of this doctrine, and that, in fact, the creation 
was the result of the joint operations of the 
Trinity. 

If the argument above offered should still ap- 
pear inconclusive, the twenty-sixth verse of the 
first chapter of Genesis contains so pointed an 
attestation to the truth of it, that, when duly 
considered, it must stagger the most hardened 
skeptic ; for in that text not only the plurality 
is unequivocally expressed, but the act which 
is the peculiar prerogative of Deity is men- 
tioned together with that plurality, the one 
circumstance illustrating the other, and both 
being highly elucidatory of this doctrine : 
*' And God (Elohim) said, Let us make man in 
our image, after our likeness." Why the Deity 
should speak of himself in the plural number, 
unless that Deity consisted of more than one 
person, it is difficult to conceive ; for the 
answer given by the modern Jews, that this is 
only a figurative mode of expression, implying 
the high dignity of the speaker, and that it is 
usual for earthly sovereigns to use this language 
by way of distinction, is futile, for two reasons. 
In the first place it is highly degrading to the 
Supreme Majesty to suppose he would take his 
model of speaking and thinking from man, 
though it is highly consistent with the vanity 
of man to arrogate to himself, as doubtless 
was the case in the licentiousness of succeed- 
ing ages, the style and imagined conceptions 
of Deity ; and it will be remembered, that these 
solemn words were spoken before the creation 
of any of those mortals, whose false notions of 
greatness and sublimity the Almighty is thus 
impiously supposed to adopt. In truth, there 
does not seem to be any real dignity in an ex- 
pression, which, when used by a human sove- 
reign in relation to himself, approaches very 
near to absurdity. The genuine fact, however, 
appears to be this. When the tyrants of the 
east first began to assume divine honours, they 
assumed likewise the majestic language appro- 
priated to, and highly becoming, the Deity, but 
totally inapplicable to man. The error was 
propagated from age to age through a long 
succession of despots, and at length Judaic 
apostasy arrived at such a pitch of profane 
absurdity, as to affirm that very phraseology 
to be borrov/ed from man which was the ori- 
ginal and peculiar language of the Divinity. 
It was, indeed, remarkably pertinent when 
applied to Deity ; for, in a succeeding chapter, 
we have more decisive authority for what is 
thus asserted, where the Lord God himself 
says, "Behold, the man is become as one of 
us ;" a very singular expression, which some 
Jewish commentators, with equal effrontery, 
contend was spoken by the Deity to the coun- 
cil of angels, that, according to their assertions, 



attended him at the creation. From the name 
of the Lord God being used in so emphatical a 
manner, it evidently appears to be addressed to 
those sacred persons to whom it was before 
said, "Let us make man;" for would indeed 
the omnipotent Jehovah, presiding in a less 
dignified council, use words that have such an 
evident tendency to place the Deity on a level 
with created beings ? 

Tlie first passage to be adduced from the 
New Testament in proof of this important doc- 
trine of the Trinity, is, the charge and com- 
mission which our Saviour gave to his apostles, 
to " go and teach all nations, baptizing them 
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
of the Holy Ghost," Matt, xxviii, 19. The Gos- 
pel is every where in Scripture represented as 
a covenant or conditional offer of eternal sal. 
vation from God to man ; and baptism was the 
appointed ordinance by which men were to be 
admitted into that covenant, by which that 
offer was made and accepted. This covenant 
being to be made with God himself, the ordi- 
nance must of course be performed in his name ; 
but Christ directed that it should be performed 
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
of the Holy Ghost ; and therefore we conclude 
that God is the same as the Father, the Son, 
and the Holy Ghost. Since baptism is to be 
performed in the name of the Father, the Son, 
and the Holy Ghost, they must be all three 
persons ; and since no superiority or difference 
whatever is mentioned in this solemn form of 
baptism, we conclude that these three persons 
are all of one substance, power, and eternity. 
Are we to be baptized in the name .of the 
Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, 
and is it possible that the Father should be 
self-existent, eternal, the Lord God Omnipo- 
tent ; and that the Son, in whose name we are 
equally baptized, should be a mere man, born 
of a woman, and subject to all the frailties and 
imperfections of human nature ? or, is it pos- 
sible that the Holy Ghost, in whose n'ame also 
we are equally baptized, should be a bare energy 
or operation, a quality or power, without even 
personal existence ? Our feelings, as well as our 
reason, revolt from the idea of such disparity.] 
This argument will derive great strength 
from the practice of the early ages, and from 
the observations which we meet with in several 
of the ancient fathers relative to it. We learn 
from Ambrose, that persons at the time of their 
baptism, declared their belief in the three per- 
sons of the Holy Trinity, and that they were 
dipped in the water three times. In his Treatise 
upon the Sacraments he says, " Thou wast 
asked at thy baptism. Dost thou believe in God 
the Father Almighty ? and thou didst reply, I 
believe, and thou wast dipped; and a second 
time thou wast asked, Dost thou believe in 
Jesus Christ the Lord ? thou didst answer 
again, I believe, and thou wast dipped; a third 
time the question was repeated. Dost thou be- 
lieve in the Holy Ghost ? and the answer was, 
I believe, then thou wast dipped a third time." 
It is to be noticed, that the belief, here ex- 
pressed separately, in the three persons of the 
Trmity, is precisely the same in all. Tertul. 



TRI 



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TRI 



lian, Basil, and Jerom, all mention this prac- 
tice of trine immersion as ancient; and Jerom 
says, " We are thrice dipped in the water, that 
the mystery of the Trinity may appear to be 
but one. We are not baptized in the names 
of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but in one 
name, which is God's ; and, therefore, though 
we be thrice put under water to represent the 
mystery of the Trinity, yet it is reputed but 
one baptism." Thus the mysterious union 
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, 
as one God, was, in the opinion of the purer 
ages of the Christian church, clearly expressed 
in this form of baptism. By it the primitive 
Christians understood the Father's gracious 
acceptance of the atonement offered liy the 
Messiah ; the peculiar protection of the Son, 
our great High Priest and Intercessor ; and 
the readiness of the Holy Ghost to sanctify, to 
assist, and to comfort all the obedient follow- 
ers of Christ, confirmed by the visible gift of 
tongues,^ of prophecy, and divers other gifts to 
the first disciples. And as their great Master's 
instructions evidently distinguished these per- 
sons, from each other, without any difference 
in their authority or power, all standing forth as 
equally dispensing the benefits of Christianity, 
as equally the objects of the faith required in 
converts upon admission into the church, they 
clearly understood that the Father, the Son, 
and the Holy Ghost, were likewise equally the 
objects of their grateful worship : this fully 
appears from their prayers, doxologies, hymns, 
a-nd creeds, which are still extant. 

The second passage to be produced in sup- 
port of the doctrine now under consideration, 
is, the doxology at the conclusion of St. Paul's 
Second Epistle to the Corinthians, "The grace 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and 
the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with you." 
The manner in which Christ and the Holy 
Ghost are here mentioned, implies that they 
are persons, for none but persons can confer 
grace or fellowship ; and these three great 
blessings of grace, love, and fellowship, being 
respectively prayed for by the inspired apostle 
from Jesas Christ, God the Father, and the 
Holy Ghost, without any intimation of dis- 
parity, we conclude that these three persons 
are equal and Divine. This solemn benedic- 
tion may therefore be considered as another 
proof of the Trinity, since it acknowledges the 
divinity of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Ghost. 
The third passage is the following salutation 
or benediction in the beginning of the Revela- 
tion of St. John : " Grace and peace from Him 
which is, and which was, and which is to come ; 
and from the seven spirits which are before 
his throne, and from Jesus Christ." Here the 
Father is described by a periphrasis taken 
from his attribute of eternity; and "the seven 
spirits" is a mystical expression for the Holy 
Ghost, used upon this occasion either because 
the salutation is addressed to seven churches, 
every one of which had partaken of the Spirit, 
or because seven was a sacred number among 
the Jews, denoting both variety and perfection, 
and in this case alluding to the various gifts, 
administrations, and operations of the Holy 



Ghost. Since grace and peace are prayed for 
from these three persons jointly and without 
discrimination, we infer an equality in their 
power to dispense those blessings ; and we 
farther conclude that these three persons toge- 
ther constitute the Supreme Being, who is 
alone the object of prayer, and is alone the 
Giver of every good and of every perfect gift. 
It might be right to remark, that the seven 
spirits cannot mean angels, since prayers are 
never in Scripture addressed to angels, nor are 
blessings ever pronounced in their name. It 
is unnecessary to quote any of the numerous 
passages in which the Father is singly called 
God, as some of them must be recollected by 
every one, and the divinity of the Father is 
not called in question by any sect of Chris- 
tians ; and those passages which prove the 
divinity of the Son and of the Holy Ghost 
separately, will be more properly considered 
under those heads. In the mean time we may 
observe, that if it shall appear from Scripture, 
that Christ is God, and the Holy Ghost is God, 
it will follow, since we are assured that there 
is but one God, that the three persons, the 
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, by a 
mysterious union, constitute the one God, or, 
as it is expressed in the first article of the 
church of England: "There is a Trinity in 
Unity ; and in the unity of this Godhead there 
be three Persons of one substance, power, and 
eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost." 

The word Trinity does not occur in Scrip, 
ture, nor do we find it in any of the early 
confessions of faith ; but this is no argument 
against the doctine itself, since we learn from 
the fathers of the first three centuries, that the 
divinity of the Son and of the Holy Ghost was, 
from the days of the Apostles, acknowledged 
by the catholic church, and that those who 
maintained a contrary opinion were considered 
as heretics ; and as every one knows that nei- 
ther the divinity of the Father, nor the unity 
of the Godhead, was ever called in question at 
any period, it follows that the doctrine of the 
Trinity in Unity has been in substance, in 
all its constituent parts, always known among 
Christians. In the fourth century it became 
the subject of eager and general controversy ; 
and it was not till then that this doctrine was 
particularly discussed. While there was na 
denial or dispute, proof and defence were un-^ 
necessary : Nunquid enim perfects de Trinitate 
tractatum est, antequam ohlatrarent Ariani 7 
But this doctrine is positively mentioned as 
being admitted among catholic Christians, by 
writers who lived long before that age of con- 
troversy. Justin Martyr, in refuting the charge 
of atheism urged against Christians, because 
they did not believe in the gods of the Heathen,- 
expressly says, " We worship and adore the 
Father, and the Son who came from him and 
taught us these things, and the prophetic 
Spirit ;" and soon after, in the same apology, 
he undertakes to show the reasonableness of 
the honour paid by Christians to the Father in 
the first place, to the Son in the second, and 
to the Holy Ghost in the third ; and says, that 



TRI 



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their assigning the second place to a crucified 
man, was, by unbelievers, denominated mad- 
ness, because they were ignorant of the mystery, 
which he then proceeds to explain. Athena- 
goras, in replying to the same charge of atheism 
urged against Christians, because they refused 
to worship the false gods of the Heathen, says, 
" Who would not wonder, when he knows that 
we, who call upon God the Father, and God 
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, showing 
their power in the unity, and their distinction 
in order, should be called atheists ?" Clement 
of Alexandria not only mentions three, divine 
persons, but invokes them as one only God. 
Praxeas, Sabellius, and other Unitarians, ac- 
cused the orthodox Christians of tritheism, 
which is of itself a clear proof that the ortho- 
dox worshipped the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Ghost; and though in reality they con- 
sidered these three persons as constituting the 
one true God, it is obvious that their enemies 
might easily represent that worship as an ac- 
knowledgment of three Gods. Tertullian, in 
writing against Praxeas, maintains, that a 
Trinity rationally conceived is consistent with 
truth, and that unity irrationally conceived 
forms heresy. He had before said, in speak- 
ing of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that 
"there are three of one substance, and of one 
condition, and of one power, because there is 
one God :" and he afterward adds, "The con- 
nection of the Father in the Son, and of the 
Son in the Comforter, makes three united 
together, the one with the other ; which three 
are one thing, not one person ; as it is said, I 
and the Father are one thing, with regard to 
the unity of substance, not to the singularity 
of number :" and he also expressly says, " The 
Father is God, and the Son is God, and the 
Holy Ghost is God ;" and again, " The Father, 
the Son, and the Holy Ghost, believed to be 
three, constitute one God." And in another 
part of his works he says, "There is a Trinity 
of one Divinity, the Father, and the Son, and 
the Holy Ghost." And Tertullian not only 
maintains these doctrines, but asserts that they 
were prior to any heresy, and had, indeed, been 
the faith of Christians from the first promul- 
gation of the Gospel. To these writers of the 
second century, we may add Origen and 
Cyprian in the third; the former of whom 
mentions baptism (alluding to its appointed 
form) as " the source and fountain of graces 
to him who dedicates himself to the divinity 
of the adorable Trinity." And the latter, after 
reciting the same form of baptism, says that 
" by it Christ delivered the doctrine of the 
Trinity, unto which mystery or sacrament the 
nations were to be baptized." It would be easy 
lo multiply quotations upon this subject ; but 
these are amply sufficient to show the opinions 
of the early fathers, and to refute the assertion 
that the doctrine of the Trinity was an inven- 
tion of the fourth century. To these positive 
testimonies may be subjoined a negative argu- 
ment : those who acknowledged the divinity 
of Christ and of the Holy Ghost, are never 
called heretics by any writer of the first three 
centuries; and this circumstance is Eurely a 



strolig proof that the doctrine of the Trinity 
was the doctrine of the primitive church; more 
especially, since the names of those who first 
denied the divinity of Christ and of the Holy 
Ghost, are transmitted to us as of persons 
who dissented from the common faith of Chris- 
tians, 

But while we contend that the doctrine of 
the Trinity in Unity is founded in Scripture, 
and supported by the authority of the early 
Christians, we must acknowledge that it is not 
given to man to understand in what manner 
the three persons are united, or how, separately 
and jointly, they are God. It would, perhaps, 
have been well, if divines, in treating this 
awful and mysterious subject, had confined 
themselves to the expressions of Scripture ; for 
the moment we begin to explain it beyond the 
written word of God, we plunge ourselves into 
inextricable difficulties. And how can it be 
otherwise ? Is it to be expected that our finite 
understandings should be competent to the full 
comprehension of the nature and properties of 
an infinite Being ? " Can we find out the 
Almighty to perfection," Job xi, 7 ; or pene- 
trate into the essence of the Most High ? "God 
is a Spirit," John iv, 24, and our gross concep- 
tions are but ill-adapted to the contemplation 
of a pure and spiritual Being. We know not 
the essence of our own mind, nor the precise 
distinction of its several faculties ; and why 
then should we hope to comprehend the per- 
sonal characters which exist in the Godhead ? 
" If I tell you earthly things, and you vinder- 
stand them not, how shall ye understand if I 
tell you heavenly things ? " When we .attempt 
to investigate the nature of the Deity, whose 
existence is commensurate with eternity, by 
whose power the universe was created, and by 
whose wisdom it is governed ; whose presence 
fills all space, and whose knowledge extends to 
the thoughts of every man in every age, and 
to the events of all places, past, present, and to 
come, the mind is quickly lost in the vastness 
of these ideas, and, unable to find any sure- 
guide to direct its progress, it becomes, at every 
step, more bewildered and entangled in the 
endless mazes of metaphysical abstraction. 
"God is a God that hideth himself." "We 
cannot by searching find out God." " Behold, 
God is great, and we know him not," Job xxiii, 
9 ; xi, 7 ; xxxvi, 26. " Such knowledge is too 
wonderful and excellent for us ; it is high ; we 
cannot attain unto it," Psalm cxxxix, 6. It is 
for us, simply and in that docile spirit which 
becomes us, to receive the testimony of God as 
to himself, and to fix ourselves upon that firm- 
est of all foundations, and most rational of all 
evidence, "Thus saith the Lord." 

TRIUMPHS, Military. The Hebrews, un. 
der the direction of inspired prophets, celebra- 
ted their victories by triumphal processions,, 
the women and children dancing, and playing 
upon musical instruments, and singing hymns 
and songs of triumph to the living and true 
God. The song of Moses at the Red Sea, 
which was sung by Miriam and the women of 
Israel to the dulcet beat of the timbrel, is a 
majestic example of the triumphal hymns of 



TRl 



927 



TRI 



the ancient Hebrews, The song of Deborah 
and Barak, after the decisive battle in which 
Sisera lost his life, and Jabin his dominion over 
the tribes of Israel, is a production of the same 
sort, in which the spirit of genuine heroism 
and of true religion are admirably combined. 
But the song which the women of Israel 
chanted when they went out to meet Saul and 
his victorious army, after the death of Goliath, 
and the discomfiture of the Philistines, pos- 
sesses somewhat of a different character, turn- 
ing chiefly on the valorous exploits of Saul 
and the youthful champion of Israel: "And it 
came to pass, as they came, when David was 
returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, 
that the v/omen came out of all the cities of 
Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul 
with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of 
music : and the women answered one another 
as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his 
thousands, and David his ten thousands," 1 
Sam. xviii, 6, 7. But the most remarkable fes- 
tivity, perhaps, on the records of history, was 
celebrated by Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, 
in a succeeding age. When that religious 
prince led forth his army to battle against a 
powerful confederacy of his neighbours, he 
appointed a band of sacred music to march in 
front, praising the beauty of holiness as they 
went before the army, " and to say. Praise the 
Lord, for his mercy endureth for ever." After 
the discomfiture of their enemies, he assembled 
his army in the valley of Beracha, near the 
scene of victory, where they resumed the an- 
them of religious praise : "Then they returned, 
every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jeho- 
shaphat in the fore front of them, to go again 
to Jerusalem with joy ; for the Lord had made 
them to rejoice over their enemies. And they 
came to Jerusalem with psalteries, and harps, 
and trumpets, unto the house of the Lord," 
2 Chron. xx, 21, 27. Instead of celebrating his 
own heroism, or the valour of his troops, on 
this memorable occasion, that excellent prince 
sung with his whole army the praises of the 
Lord of hosts, who disposes of the victory 
according to his pleasure. This conduct was 
becoming the descendant and successor of Da- 
vid, the man according to God's own heart, 
and a religious people, the peculiar inheritance 
of Jehovah.. 

The Roman conquerors used to carry branch- 
es of palm in their hands when they went in 
triumph to the capitoI ; and sometimes wore 
the toga pahnata, a garment with the figures of 
palm trees upon it, which were interwoven in 
the fabric. In the same triumphant attitude, 
the Apostle John beheld in vision those who 
had overcome by the blood of the lamb, stand- 
ing "before the throne, clothed with white 
robes, and palms in their hands," Rev. vii, 9. 
The highest military honour which could be 
obtained in the Roman state, was a triumph, 
or solemn procession, in which a victorious 
general and his army advanced thrcugli the 
city to the capitol. He set out from the Cam. 
pus Martius, and proceeded along the Via 
Triumphalis, and from thence through the most 
public places of the city. The streets were 



strewed with flowers, and the altars smoked 
with incense. First went a numerous band of 
music, singing and playing triumphal songs ; 
next were led the oxen to be sacrificed, having 
their horns gilt, and their heads adorned with 
fillets and garlands ; then, in carriages, were 
brought the spoils taken from the enemy; also 
golden crowns sent by the allied and tributary 
states. The titles of the vanquished nations 
were inscribed on wooden frames ; and images 
or representations of the conquered countries 
and cities were exhibited. The captive leaders 
followed in chains, with their children and 
attendants ; after the captives came the lictors, 
having their faces wreathed with laurel, fol- 
lowed by a great company of musicians and 
dancers, dressed like satyrs, and wearing crowns 
of gold ; in the midst of whom was a panto- 
mime, clothed in a female garb, whose business 
it was, with his looks and gestures, to insult 
the vanquished ; a long train of persons fol. 
lowed, carrying perfumes ; after them came the 
general, dressed in purple, embroidered with 
gold, with a crown of laurel on his head, a 
branch of laurel in his right hand, and in his 
left an ivory sceptre, with an eagle on the top, 
his face painted with vermilion, and a golden 
ball hanging from his neck on his breast ; he 
stood upright in a gilded chariot, adorned with 
ivory, and drawn by four white horses, attended 
by his relations, and a great crowd of citizens, 
all in white. His children rode in the chariot 
along with him ; his lieutenants and military 
tribunes, commonly by his side. After the ge- 
neral followed the consuls and senators, on 
foot f and the whole procession was closed by 
the victorious army drawn up in order, crowned 
with laurel^ and decorated with the gifts which 
they had received for their valour, singing 
their own and their general's praises. The 
triumphal procession was not confined to the 
Romans ; the Greeks had a similar custom ; 
for the conquerors used to make a procession 
through the middle of their city, crowned with 
garlands, repeating hymns and songs, and 
brandishing their spears ; the captives followed 
in chains, and all their spoils were exposed to 
public view. 

The great Apostle of the Gentiles alludes to 
these splendid triumphal scenes in his Epistle 
to the Ephesians, where he mentions the glo- 
rious ascension of his Redeemer into heaven : 
" When he ascended up on high, he led capti- 
vity captive, and gave gifts unto men," Eph. 
iv, 8. These words are a quotation from the 
sixty-eighth Psalm, where David in spirit de- 
scribes the ascension of Messiah in very glow- 
ing colours : " The chariots of God are twenty 
thousand, even thousands of angels : the Lord 
is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place. 
Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led 
captivity captive," or an immense number of 
captives ; " thou hast received gifts for men ; 
yea, for the rebellious also ; that the Lord God 
might dwell among them. Blessed be the Lord, 
who daily loadeth us with his benefits, even 
the God of our salvation. Selah," Psalm Ixviii, 
17-19. Knowing the deep impression which 
such an allusion is calculated to make on tho: 



TRO 



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TRU 



mind of a people familiarly acquainted with 
triumphal scenes, the Apostle returns to it in 
his Epistle to the Colossians, which was written 
about the same time : " Having spoiled princi- 
palities and powers, he made a show of them 
openly, triumphing over them in it," Col. ii, 15. 
After obtaining a complete victory over all his 
enemies, he ascended in splendour and triumph 
into his Father's presence on the clouds of 
heaven, the chariots of the Most High, thou, 
sands of holy angels attending in his train ; he 
led the devil and all his angels, together with 
sin, the world, and death, as his spoils of w^ar, 
and captives in chains, and exposed them to 
open contempt and shame, in the view of all 
his angelic attendants, triumphing like a glo- 
rious conqueror over them, in virtue of his 
cross, upon which he made complete satisfac- 
tion for sin, and by his own strength, without 
the assistance of any creature, destroyed him 
that had the power of death, that is, the devil. 
And as mighty princes were accustomed to 
S'catter largesses among the people, and reward 
their companions in arms with a liberal hand, 
when, laden with the spoils of vanquished na- 
tions, they returned in triumph to their capital ; 
so the Conqueror of death and hell, when he 
ascended far above all heavens, and sat down 
in the midst of the throne, shed forth blessings 
of his grace and Holy Spirit, upon people of 
every tongue and of every nation. 

The officers and soldiers, also, were rewarded 
according to their merit. Among the Romans, 
the noblest reward which a soldier could re- 
ceive, was the crown, made of leaves. Alluding 
to this high distinction, the Apostle says to his 
son Timothy, " I have fought a good fight ; 
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of 
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous 
Judge, will give me at that day ; and not to 
me only, but unto all them also that love his 
appearing," 2 Tim. iv, 7, 8. And lest any one 
should imagine that the Christian's crown is 
perishable in its nature, and soon fades away, 
like a crown of oak leaves, the Apostle Peter 
assures the faithful soldier of Christ that his 
crown is infinitely more valuable and lasting : 
" Ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth 
not away," 1 Peter v, 4. And this account is 
confirmed by St. James : " Blessed is the man 
that endureth temptation ; for when he is tried, 
he shall receive the crown of life, which the 
Lord hath proYnised to them that love him," 
James i, 12. The military crowns were con- 
ferred by the general in presence of his army ; 
and such as received them, after a public eulo- 
gium on their valour, were placed next his 
person. The Christian also receives his un- 
merited reward from the hand of the Captain 
of his salvation : " Be thou faithful unto death, 
and I will give thes a crov/n of life," Rev. ii, 10. 
And, like the brave veteran of ancient times, 
he is promoted to a place near his Lord : "To 
him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with 
me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and 
am set down with my Father on his throne," 
Rev. iii, 21. 

TRO AS, a city of Phrygia, or of Mysia, 
upon the Hellespont, having the old city of 



Troy to the north, and that of Assos to the 
south. Sometimes the name of Troas is put 
for the province, wherein the city of Troy 
stood. St. Paul was at Troas, when he had 
the vision of the Macedonian inviting him to 
come and preach in that kingdom, Acts xvi, 8. 
Beside this, the Apostle was several times at 
Troas ; but we know nothing particular of his 
transactions there. Acts xx, 5, 6 ; 2 Cor. ii, 14 ; 
2 Tim. iv, 13. 

TROPHIMUS, a disciple of St. Paul, and an 
Ephesian by birth. He came from Ephesus to 
Corinth with the Apostle, and kept him company 
in his whole journey from Corinth to Jerusalem, 
A. D. 58, Acts XX, 4. When St. Paul was in 
the temple there, the Jews laid hold of him, 
crying out, "Men of Israel, help; this is the 
man that teacheth all men every where against 
the people, and the law, and this place ; and 
farther, brought Greeks also into the temple, 
and hath polluted this holy place," Acts xxi, 
28, 29. And this they said, because certain 
Jews of Ephesus having seen Trophimus with 
St. Paul in the city, whom they looked upon 
as a Gentile, imagined that St. Paul had intro- 
duced him into the temple. The whole city 
was immediately in an uproar, and St. Paul was 
secured. Trophimus afterward accompanied 
St. Paul ; for that Apostle writes to Timothy, 
that he had left Trophimus sick at Miletus, 
2 Tim. iv, 20. 

TRUMPET. The Lord commanded Moses 
to make two trumpets of beaten silver, to be 
employed in calling the people together when 
they were to decamp, Num. x, 2, 3, &c. They 
also chiefly made use of these trumpets, to 
proclaim the beginning of the civil year, the 
beginning of the Sabbatical year, and the 
beginning of the jubilee. Lev. sxv, 9, 10. 
Josephus says, that these trumpets were near 
a cubit long ; and had a tube, or pipe, of the 
thickness of a common flute. Their mouths 
were only Avide enough to be blown into, and 
their ends were like those of a modern trum- 
pet. At first there were but two in the camp, 
but afterward a greater number were made. 
Even in the time of Joshua there were seven 
of them, Joshua vi, 4. At the dedication of 
the temple of Solomon six-score priests sounded 
as many trumpets, 2 Chron. v, 12. Beside the 
sacred trumpets of the temple, the use of which 
was restrained to the priests only, in war there 
were others, which the generals sometimes 
employed for gathering their troops together. 
For example, Ehud sounded the trumpet, to 
assemble the Israelites against the Moabites, 
who oppressed them, and whose king Eglon 
he had lately slain, Judg. vi, 27. Gideon took 
a trumpet in his hand, and gave ever)'' one of 
his people one, when he assaulted the Mi- 
dianites. Judges vii, 2, 16. Joab sounded the 
trumpet, to give the signal of retreat to his 
soldiers, in the battle against those of Abner's 
party, and in that against Absalom ; and lastly, 
in the pursuit of Sheba the son of Bichri, . 
2 Sam. ii, 28; xviii, 16; xx, 22. The feast 
of trumpets was kept on the first day of the 
seventh month of the sacred year, the first of 
the civil year. See Music. 



TYC 



929 



TYP 



TRUTH is used, 1. In opposition to false- 
hood, lies, or deceit, Prov, xii, 17, &c. 2. It 
signifies fidelity, sincerity, and punctuality in 
keeping promises ; and to truth taken in this 
sense is generally joined mercy or kindness, as 
in Gen. xxiv, 27, and other places of Scripture. 
3. Truth is put for the true doctrine of the 
Gospel, Galatians iii, 1. 4. Truth is put for 
the substance of tiie types and ceremonies of 
the law, John i, 17. 

TUBAL, the fifth son of Japheth. The 
Scripture commonly joins together Tubal and 
Meshech, which makes it thought that they 
peopled countries bordering upon each other. 
The Chaldee interpreters, by Tubal and Me- 
shech understand Italy and Asia, oi rather Au. 
sonia. Josephus accounts them to be Iberia 
and Cappadocia. St. Jerom affirms that Tubal 
represents the Spaniards, heretofore called 
Iberians. Bochart is very copious in proving, 
that by Meshech and Tubal are intended the 
Muscovites and the Tibarenians. 

TUBAL-CAIN, or THUBAL-CAIN, son 
of Lamech the bigamous, and of Zillah, 
Gen. ix, 29. The Scriptures tell us, that he 
was the father and inventor, or master, of 
the art of forging and managing iron, and of 
making all kinds of iron-work. There is great 
reason to believe that this was the Vulcan of 
the Heathens. 

TURTLE, vn, rprywv. Gen. xv, 9 ; Lev. i, 14 ; 
V, 7, 11 ; xii, 6, 8 ; xiv, 22, 30 ; xv, 14, 29 ; 
Num. vi, 10 ; Psalm Ixxiv, 19 ; Cant, ii, 12 ; 
Jer. viii, 7 ; Tpvyibv, Luke ii, 24. We have the 
authority of the Septuagint, the Targum, and 
of all the ancient interpreters, for understand, 
ing this of the turtle. Indeed, it is one of 
those evident instances in which the name of 
the bird is by onomatopoeia formed from its note 
or cry. The turtle is mentioned among mi- 
gratory birds by Jeremiah viii, 7, and in this 
sense differs from the rest of its family, which 
are ail stationary. The fact to which the pro- 
phet alludes is attested by Aristotle in these 
words : " The pigeon and the dove are always 
present, but the turtle only in summer : that 
bird is not seen in winter." And in another 
part of his work, he asserts that the dove 
remains, while the turtle migrates. Varro, and 
other ancient writers, make the like statement. 
Thus Solomon, Cant, ii, 12, mentions the return 
of this bird as one of the indications of spring : 
" The voice of the turtle is heard in the land." 
See Dove. 

TYCHICUS, a disciple of St. Paul, whom 
the Apostle often employed to carr)'^ his letters 
to the several churches. He was of the province 
of Asia, and accompanied St. Paul, when, in 
A. D. 58, he made his journey from Corinth 
to Jerusalem, Acts xx, 4. It was he that 
carried the epistle to the Colossians, that to 
the Ephesians, and the first to Timothy. St. 
Paul did not send him merely to carry his let- 
ters, but also to learn the state of the churches, 
and to bring him an account of them. Where- 
fore he calls him his dear brother, a faithful 
minister of the Lord, and his companion in the 
service of God, Eph. vi, 21, 22; Col. iv, 7, 8. 
He had thoughts also of sending him into Crete, 
60 



to preside over that church in the absence of 
Titus, iii, 12. 

TYPE. This word is not frequently used 
in Scripture ; but what it signifies is supposed 
to be very frequently implied. We usually 
consider a type as an example, pattern, or 
general similitude to a person, event, or thing 
which is to come ; and in this it differs from a 
representation, memorial, or commemoration 
of an event, &c, which is past. The Spirit of 
God has adopted a variety of means to indicate 
his perfect foreknowledge of all events, and 
his power to control them. This is some- 
times declared by express verbal prophecy ; 
sometimes by specific actions performed by 
divine command ; and sometimes by those 
peculiar events, in the lives of individuals, and 
the history or religious observances of the Is- 
raelites, which were caused to bear a designed 
reference to some parts of the Gospel history. 
The main point, says Chevallier, in an inquiry 
into these historical types, is to establish the 
fact of a preconcerted connection between the 
two series of events. No similarity, in itself, 
is sufficient to prove such a correspondence. 
Even those recorded in Scripture are recorded 
under very different circumstances. If the first 
event be declared to be typical, at the time 
v/hen it occurs, and the second correspond 
with the prediction so delivered, there can be 
no doubt that the correspondence was designed. 
If, before the occurrence of the second event, 
there be delivered a distinct prophecy, that it 
will happen, and will correspond with some 
previous event ; the fulfilment of the prophecy 
furnishes an intrinsic proof, that the person 
who gave it spake by divine inspiration. It 
may not, from this fact, follow, that the two 
events were connected by a design formed 
before either of them occurred : but it certainly 
does follow, that the second event, in some 
measure, had respect to the first ; and that 
whatever degree of connection Was, by such a 
prophet, assumed to exist, did really exist. If, 
again, no specific declaration be made, respect, 
ing the typical character of any event or per- 
son, until after the second event has occurred, 
which is then declared to have been prefigured ; 
the fact of preconcerted connection will rest 
solely upon the authority of the person who 
advances the assertion. But, if we know, from 
other sources, that his words are the words of 
truth, our only inquiry will be, if he either dis. 
tinctly asserts, or plainly infers, the existence 
of a designed correspondence. The fact, then, 
of a preconcerted connection between two 
series of events, is capable of being established 
in three ways : and the historical types may be 
accordingly arranged in three principal di- 
visions. Some of them afford intrinsic evi- 
dence, that the Scriptures, which record them, 
are given by inspiration of God ; the others 
can be proved to exist only by assuming that 
fact : but all, when once established, display 
the astonishing power and wisdom of God; 
and the importance of that scheme of redemp. 
tion, which was ushered into the world with 
such magnificent preparations. In contem- 
plating this wonderful system, we discern one 



TYP 



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great intention interwoven, not only into the 
Verbal prophecies and extraordinary events 
of the history of the Israelites, but into the 
ordinary transactions of the lives of selected 
individuals, even from the creation of the 
world. Adam was "the figure of him tha,t 
was to come," Romans v, 14. Melchisedec 
was "made like unto the Son of God," Heb. 
vii, 3. Abraham, in tho course of events in 
which he was engaged by the especial command 
of Heaven, was enabled to see Christ's day, 
John viii, 56 ; and Isaac was received from 
the dead " in a figure," Heb. xi, 19. At a later 
period, the paschal lamb was ordained to be 
sacrificed, not only as a memorial of the im- 
mediate deliverance, which it was instituted to 
procure and to commemorate, but also as a 
continued memorial of that which was to be 
" fulfilled in the kingdom of God," Luke xxii, 
16. Moses was raised up to deliver the people 
of Israel ; to be to them a lawgiver, a prophet, 
a priest ; and to possess the regal authority, if 
not the title of king. But, during the early 
period of his life, he was himself taught, that 
one great prophet should be raised up like unto 
him : before his death he delivered the same 
prophecy to the people : and, after that event, 
the Israelites continually looked for that faith- 
fiil prophet, who should return answer to their 
inquiries, 1 Mace, iv, 46; xiv, 41. Their pro- 
phets all pointed to some greater lawgiver, who 
should, introduce a new law into their hearts, 
and inscribe them upon their minds, Jer. xxxi, 
33. The whole people of Israel were also 
made, in some instances, designedly repre- 
sentative of Christ : and the events, vv^hich 
occurred in their national history, distinctly 
referred to him. During th«ir wanderings in 
the wilderness, God left not himself without 
witness, which should bear reference to the 
great scheme of the Gospel. They ate spiritual 
meat. It was an emblem of the trne bread of 
life, Vi^hich came down from heaven, John vi, 
32. "They drank of that spiritual Rock that 
followed them : and that Rock was Christ," 
1 Cor. X, 4. They were destroyed of serpents ; 
and a brazen serpent was lifted up on a pole, 
that whosoever looked might live. It was a 
sensible figure of the Son of man, v/ho was, 
in like manner to be lifted up ; " that wliosoever 
believeth in him should not perish, but have 
eternal life," John iii, 15. Beside, their re- 
ligious ordinances were only " a figure for the 
time then present," Heb. ix, 9. Their taber- 
nacle was made after the pattern of heavenly 
things, Heb. viii, 5 ; Exod. xxv, 9, 40 ; and 
was intended to prefigure the " greater and 
more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands," 
Heb. ix, 11. The high priest was a living re- 
presentative of "the great " High Priest of our 
profession," Heb. iii, 1 : and the Levitical 
sacrifices plainly had respect to the one grea,t 
sacrifice for sins. Joshua the son of Nun 
represented Jesus in name : and by his earthly 
conquests in some measure prefigured the 
heavenly triumphs of his Lord. In a sub- 
sequent period, David was no indistinct type 
of "the Messiah the Prince," Dan. ix, 25, for 
along time humbled, and at length triumphant 



over his enemies. And the peaceable dominion 
of Solomon prefigured that eternal rest and 
peace, which remaineth to the people of God. 
In a still later age, the miraculous preservation 
of the Prophet Jonah displayed a sign, which 
was fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ. And 
when the temple was rebuilt, Joshua, the son of 
Josedech, the high priest, and his fellows, were 
set forth as " men of sign," representatives of 
the Branch, which should, in the fulness of time, 
be raised up to the stem of Jesse, Zech. iii, 8 ; 
Isa. xi, 1. The illustration^ then, to be derived 
from the historical types of the Old Testament, 
is found diff'used over the whole period, which 
extends from the creation of the world, to the 
time when vision and prophecy were sealed. 
And all the light, which emanates from so 
many various points, is concentrated in^ the 
person of Christ. 

TYRANNUS. It is said in Acts xix, 9 
that St. Paul being at Ephesus, and seeing that 
the Jews to whom he preached, instead of 
being converted, were rather more hardened 
and obstinate, he withdrew from their society, 
nor went to preach in their synagogue, but 
taught every day in the school of one Tyran- 
nus. It is inquired, Who was this Tyrannus? 
Some think him to have been a prince or great 
lord, who accommodated the Apostle with his 
house, in which to receive and instruct his 
disciples. But the generality conclude, that 
Tyrannus was a converted Gentile, a friend 
of St. Paul, to whom he withdrew. 

TYRE, or Tyrus, v;a& a famous city of Phe- 
nicia. Its Hebrew name is "its or ~i:f, which 
signifies a rock. The city of Tyre was-allotted 
to the tribe of Asher, Joshua xix, 29, with the 
other maritime cities of the same coast; but it 
does not appear that the Asherites ever drove 
out the Canaanites. Isaiah, xxiii, 12, calls 
Tyre the daughter of Sidon, that is, a colony 
from it. Homer never speaks of Tyre, but 
only of Sidon. Josephus says, that Tyre was 
built not above two hundred and forty years 
before the temple of Solomon ; which would 
be in A. M. 2760, two hundred years after 
Joshua. Tyre was twofold, insular and conti- 
nental. Insular Tyre was certainly the most 
ancient ; for this it was which was noticed 
by Joshua : the continental city, however, as 
being more commodiously situated, first grew 
into consideration, and assumed the name of 
Palcetyrus, or Old Tyre. Want of sufficient 
attention to this distinction, has embarrassed 
both the Tyrian chronology and geography. 
Insular Tyre was confined to a small rocky 
island, eight hundred paces long, and four 
huiidred broad, and could never exceed two 
miles in circumference. But Tyre, on the op- 
posite coast, about half a mile from the sea, 
was a city of vast extent, since many centuries 
after its demolition by Nebuchadnezzar, the 
scattered ruins measured nineteen miles round, 
as we learn from Pliny and Strabo. Of these, 
the most curious and surprising are, the cis- 
terns of Roselayne, designed to supply the city 
with water; of which there are three still en- 
tire ; about one or two furlongs from the 
sea, so well described by Maundrell, for their 



TYR 



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ciinous construction and solid masonry. Old 
Tyre witlistood tho mighty Assyrian power, 
having been besieged in vain, by Shalmaneser, 
for five years ; although he cut off their sup. 
plies of water from the cisterns ; which they 
remedied by digging wells within the city. It 
afterward held out thirteen years against Ne- 
buchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and was at 
length taken ; but not until the Tyrians had 
removed-thei? effects to the insular town, and 
left nothing but the bare walls to the victor, 
which he demolished. What completed the 
destruction of the city was, that Alexander 
afterward made use of these materials to build 
a prodigious causeway, or isthmus, above half 
a mile long, to the insular city, which revived, 
as the phcenix, from the ashes of the old, and 
grew to great power and opulence, as a mari- 
time state ; and which he stormed after a most 
obstinate siege of five months. Pococke ob- 
serves, that "there are no signs of the ancient 
city ; and as it is a sandy shore, the face of 
every thing is altered, and the great aqueduct 
is in many parts almost buried in the sand." 
Thus has been fulfilled the prophecy of Eze- 
kiel : " Thou shalt be built no more : though 
thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be 
found again," Ezek. xxvi, 21. The fate of 
insular Tyre has been no less remarkable. 
When Alexander stormed the city, he set fire 
to it. This circum.stance was foretold. "Tyre 
did build herself a strong hold, and heaped up 
silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of 
the streets. Behold, the Lord will cast her 
out, and he will smite her power in the sea, 
and she shall be devoui-ed with fire," Zech. ix, 
3, 4. After this terrible calamity, Tyre again 
retrieved her losses. Only eighteen years after, 
she had recovered such a share of her ancient 
commerce and opulence, as enabled her to 
stand a siege of fourteen months against An- 
tigonus, before he could reduce the city ; but 
after this. Tyre fell alternately under the do- 
minion of the kings of Syria and Egypt, and 
then of the Romans, until it was taken by the 
Saracens, about A. D. 639, retaken by the 
Crusaders, A. D. 1124; and at length sacked 
and razed by the Mamelukes of Egypt, with 
Sidon, and other strong tov^ns, that they might 
no longer harbour the Christians, A. D. 1289. 

The final desolation of Tyre was thus fore- 
told : "I will scrape her dust from her, and 
make her like the top of a rock : it shall be a 
place for the spreading of nets in the midst of 
the sea : for I have spoken it, saith the Lord 
God." " I will make thee like the top of a 
rock : thou shalt be a place to spread nets 
upon: thou shalt be built no more; for I the 
Lord have spoken it, saith the Lord God." 
Nothing can be more literally and astonish, 
ingly executed than this sentence. Huetius 
relates of one Hadrianus Parvillerius, that 
" when he approached the ruins of Tyre, and 
beheld the rocks stretched forth to the sea, and 
the great stones scattered up and down on the 
shore, made clean and smooth by the sun and 
waves and wind, and useful only for the drying 
of fishermen's nets, many of which happened 
at that time to be spread thereon, it brought to 



his memory the prophecy of Ezekiel concern, 
ing Tyre, that such should be its fate." Maun- 
drell, who visited the Holy Land, A. D. 1697, 
describes it thus : " This city, standing in the 
sea upon a peninsula, promises at a distance', 
something very magnificent ; but when you 
come to it, you find no similitude of that glory 
for which it was so renowned in ancient times; 
and which the Prophet Ezekiel describes, xxvr, 
xxvii, xxviii. On the north side it has an old 
Turkish ungarrisoned castle ; beside which, 
you see nothing here but a mere Babel of 
broken walls,' pillars, vaults, &c ; there being 
not so much as one entire house left ! Its pre^ 
sent inhabitants are only a few poor wretches 
harbouring themselves in the vaults, and 
subsisting chiefly by fishing : v/ho seem to be 
preserved in this place by Divine Providence; 
as a visible argument how God has fulfilled his 
word concerning Tyre, namely, that it should 
be as the top of a rock ; a place for fishers to 
dry their nets upon, Ezek. xxvi, 14." Hassel- 
quist, who saw it since, in A. D. 1751, observes 
as follows : " None of those cities which were 
formerly famous are so totally ruined as Tyre,' 
now called Zur^ except Troy. Zur now scarcely 
can be called a miserable village, though it was 
formerly Tyre, the queen of the sea. Here 
are about ten inhabitants, Turks and Chris- 
tians, who live by fishing." Bruce, who visited 
this country about eighty years after Maun- 
drell, says, that " passing by Tyre from curi- 
osity, I came to be a mournful witness of the 
truth of that prophecy, that Tyre, the queen^ 
of nations, should be a rock for fishers to dry 
their nets on." Mr. Buckingham, who visited 
it in 1815, represents it as containing about 
eight hundred substantial stone-built houses,- 
and from five to eight thousand inhabitants. 
But ?flr. Jowett, on the authority of the Greek 
archbishop, reduces this number to less tharf 
four thousand ; namely, one thousand two 
hundred Greek Catholics, one hundred Maron- 
ites, one hundred Greeks, one thousand Mon- 
tonalis, and one hundred Turks. Mr. Jowett 
observed numerous and beautiful columns 
stretched along the beach, or standing in frag- 
ments half buried in the sand, that has been 
accumulating for ages : "the broken aqueduct, 
and the ruins which appear in its neighbour- 
hood, exist as an affecting monument of the 
fragile and transitory nature of earthly gran- 
deur." Mr. Joliffe states, that there now exist 
scarcely any traces of this once powerful city.- 
" Some miserable cabins, ranged in irregular 
lines, dignified with the name of streets, and 
a few buildings of a rather better description, 
occupied by the officers of government, com- 
pose nearly the whole of the town. It still 
makes, indeed, some languishing efforts at 
commerce, and contrives to export annually 
to Alexandria cargoes of silk and tobacco; 
but the amount merits no consideration:. The 
noble dust of Alexander, traced by the imagi- 
nation till found stopping a beer barrel, would 
scarcely afford a stronger contrast of grandeur 
and debasement, than Tyre, at the period of 
being besieged by that conqueror, and the mo. 
dern town of Tsour erected on its ashes." 



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As commercial cities, says Mansford, an- 
cient Alexandria and London may be consi- 
dered as approaching the nearest to Tyre. But 
Alexandria, during the whole of her prosper- 
ous days, was subject to foreign rule ; and 
London, great as are her commerce and her 
wealth, and possessing as she does almost a 
monopoly of what has in all ages been the 
most enviable and most lucrative branch of 
trade, that with the east, does not centre in 
herself, as Tyre did, without a rival and with- 
out competition, the trade of all nations, and 
hold an absolute monopoly, not of one, but of 
every branch of commerce. Fur the long pe- 
riod of a thousand years, not a single produc- 
tion of the east passed to the west, or of the 
west to the east, but by the merchants of Tyre. 
Nor for many ages were any ships found but 
those of Tyre daring enough to pass the straits 
of the Red Sea on one side, or of the Mediter- 
ranean on the other. While the vessels of 
other countries were groping along their coasts, 
clinging to their landmarks, and frightened at 
a breeze, the ships of Tyre were found from 
Spain, if not from Britain, on the west, to the 
coast of Malabar and Sofala on the east and 
south. No wonder that her merchants were 
princes, and that they lived in a style of mag- 
nificence unknown in any other country in 
the same age ; or that she should be considered 
a desirable prey by the conquerors of the times. 
But enterprise and wealth did not alone com- 
plete the character of the Tyrians; they had 
an undoubted claim to valour of no common 
order. Their city, which possessed scarcely 
any territory beyond their own walls, main- 
tained a siege of thirteen years (the longest in 
history except that of Ashdod) against the 
whole power of Babylon ; and another of seven 
months against Alexander, whose successes 
had afforded no instance of similar delay. 
And in neither case had the captors much to 
boast of, as the Tyrians had shipped off their 
most valuable propei-ty to Carthage ; and in 
the former particularly, as has been already 
related, they so effectually secured or sacri- 
ficed the whole, that the soldiers of Nebuchad- 
nezzar found nothing to reward them for their 
length of labour, during which, by excessive 
toil and heat, " their heads were made bald, 
and their very shoulders peeled," but vacant 
streets, and houses already sacked. Carthage, 
Utica, and Cadiz, are celebrated monuments 
of the power of Tyre on the Mediterranean, 
and in the west. She extended her navigation 
even into the ocean, and carried her commerce 
beyond England to the north, and the Canaries 
to the south. Her connections v/ith the east, 
though less known, were not less consider- 
able ; the islands of Tyrus and Aradus, (the 
modern Barhain,) in the Persian Gulf. The 
cities of Faran and Phoenicum Oppidum, on 
the Red Sea, in ruins even in the time of the 
Greeks, prove that the Tyrians had long fre. 
quented the coast of Arabia and the Indian 
Sea, But, through the vicissitudes of time, 
Tyre, reduced to a miserable village, has no 
other trade than the exportation of a few sacks 
of corn and raw cotton, nor any merchant, | 



says Volney, but a single Greek factor in the 
service of the French Saide, (Sidon,) who 
scarcely makes sufficient profit to maintain 
his family. In allusion to Tyre in her better 
days, Forbes observes, when speaking of Su- 
rat, "The bazars, filled with costly merchan- 
disc ; picturesque and interesting groups of 
natives on elephants, camels, horses, and 
mules ; strangers from all parts of the globe, 
in their respective costume ; vessels building 
on the stocks, others navigating the river; to- 
gether with Turks, Persians, and Armenians, 
on Arabian chargers ; European ladies in splen- 
did carriages, the Asiatic females in hackeries 
drawn by oxen ; and the motley appearance of 
the English and nabob's troops on the fortifi- 
cations, remind us of the following description 
of Tyre, ' O thou that art situate at the entry 
of the sea, which art a merchant of the peo- 
ple for many i«les,' &c, Ezek. xxvii, 3. This 
is a true picture of oriental commerce in an- 
cient times ; and a very exact description of 
the port and the bazars of Surat, at the pre- 
sent day." 

Dr. Vincent has given the following able 
illustration of the trade of Tyre as described 
in Ezek. xxvii, which must be considered as 
one of the most ample and early accounts ex- 
tant. The learned author has rendered the 
Hebrew names into others better known in the 
geography of more recent times : — Tyre pro- 
duced from Hermon, and the mountains near 
it, fir for planking ; and from Libanus, cedars 
for, masts. From Bashan, east of the sea of 
Galilee, oaks for oars. From Greece, or the 
Grecian isles, ivory to adorn the benches or the 
waists of the galleys. From Egypt, linen, or- 
namented with different colours, for sails, or 
flags, or ensigns. From Peloponnesus, blue and 
purple cloths for awnings. From Sidon and 
Aradus, mariners ; but Tyre itself furnished 
pilots and commanders. From Gebal, or Bib- 
les, on the coast between Tripolis and Berytus, 
caulkers. From Persia and Africa, mercenary 
troops.. From Aradus, the troops that garri- 
soned Tyre with the Gamadim. From Tar- 
shish, or by distant voyages toward the west, 
and toward the east, great wealth, iron, tin, 
lead, and silver. Tin implies Britain or Spain, 
or at least a voyage beyond the Straits of Her- 
cules. From Greece, and the countries bor- 
dering on Pontus, slaves, and brass ware. 
From Armenia, horses, horsemen, and mules. 
From the Gulf of Persia, and the isles within 
that gulf, horns (tusks) of ivory, and ebony. 
The export to these isles was the manufac- 
ture of Tyre. From Syria, emeralds, purple, 
broidered work, fine linen, coral, and agate. 
The exports to Syria were the manufactures 
of Tyre in great quantities. From Judah and 
Israel, the finest wheat, honey, oil, and bal- 
sam. From Damascus, wine of Chalybon, 
(the country bordering on the modern Alep. 
po,) and wool in the fleece. The exports to 
Damascus were costly and various manufac- 
tures. From the tribe of Dan, situated near- 
est to the Philistines, the produce of Arabia, 
bright or wrought iron, cassia or cinnamon, and 
the calamus aramaticus. In conducting the 



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transport of these articles, Dan went t© and 
fro, that is, formed or conducted the caravans. 
By one interpretation, they are said to come 
from Uzal ; and Uzal is said to be Sana, the 
capital of Yemen, or Arabia Felix. From the 
Gulf of Persia, rich cloth for the decoration 
of chariots or horsemen. From Arabia Pe- 
traea and Hedjaz, lambs, and rams, and goats. 
From Sabea and Oman, the best of spices. 
From India, gold, and precious stones. From 
Mesopotamia, from Carrhse, and Babylonia, 
the Assyrians brought all sorts of exquisite 
things ; that is, fine manufacture, blue cloth, 
and broidered work, or fabric of various co- 
lours, in chests of cedar bound with cords, 
containing rich apparel. If these articles were 
obtained fartlier from the east, may they not 
be the fabrics of India, first brought to Assy. 
ria by the Gulf of Persia, or by caravans from 
Karmania and the Indus, and then conveyed 
by the Assyrians, in other caravans, to Tyre 
and Syria ? In this view, the care of package, 
the chests of cedar, and the cording of the 
chests, are all correspondent to the nature of 
such. a transport. From Tarshish the ships 
came that rejoiced in the markets of Tyre : 
they replenished the city, and made it glorious 
in the midst of the sea, Ezek. xxvii, 5-25. 
Dr. Vincent observes, that from the Tarshish 
last mentioned the ships returned to the ports 
in the Red Sea ; as from the nineteenth to the 
twenty-fourth verse every particular relates to 
the east, while that referred to in the twelfth 
implies the west — Spain, or beyond. We have 
here some light thrown on the obscurity 
which surrounds the situation of this distant 
and unknown place. There is, indeed, a clear 
reference to two distinct places, or parts of the 
world, denominated Tarshish ; perhaps from 
those very circumstances, their distance, and 
the little that was known respecting them. 
That one was situated westward, and reached 
by a passage across the Mediterranean, is cer- 
tain ffom other parts of Scripture ; that the 
other was eastward, or southward, on the coast 
of Arabia, India, or Africa, is equally certain. 
See Tarshish, and Ophir. 

UNBELIEF or INFIDELITY is a want 
of credence in the word of God ; or it may be 
defined, a calling in question the divine vera- 
city, in what God hath either testified, pro- 
mised, or threatened ; and thus it is the opposite 
of faith, which consists in crediting what God 
hath said, John iii, 18, 33. It is said that the 
Jews could not enter into the promised land, 
"because of their unbelief," Heb. iii, 18, 19. 
And the Apostle, teaching the believing He- 
brews what instruction they should deduce 
from that portion of the liistory of their fore- 
fathers, says, as the words literally translated 
would run, "We are evangelized as well as 
they were ; but the word which they heard did 
not profit them, not being mixed with faith in 
them that heard it," Heb. iv, 2. The meaning 
is, We Christians are favoured with the good 
news of the heavenly rest, as well as Israel in 
the wilderness were with the good news of the 
earthly rest in Canaan ; but the word which 



they heard concerning that rest did not profit 
them, because they did not believe it. Hence 
it appears that faith and unbelief are not con- 
fined to the spiritual truths and promises of the 
Gospel of Christ, but respect any truth which 
God may reveal, or any promise which he may 
make even concerning temporal things. It is 
a crediting or discrediting God in what he 
says, whatever be the subject. Christ could 
not do many mighty works in his own coun- 
try, because of their unbelief, Matt, vi, 5, G ; 
their mean opinion of h-im, and contempt of 
his miracles, rendered them unfit objects to 
have miracles wrought upon or among them. 
The Apostles' distrust of Christ's promises, of 
enabling them to cast out devils, rendered them 
incapable of casting one out, Mark xvii, 16 ; 
and St. Peter's distrust of his Master's power 
occasioned his sinking in the water. Matt, xiv, 
30, 31. The unbelief for which the Jews were 
broken off from their being a church was their 
denial of Christ's Messiahship, their contempt 
and refusal of him, and their violent persecu- 
tion of his cause and members, Rom. xi, 20. 
Adverting to the infidelity which prevailed 
among the educated class of Heathens when 
Christianity first appeared in the world, Dr. 
Neander observes : — It was Christianity which 
first presented religion under the form of ob- 
jective truth, as a system of doctrines perfectly 
independent of all individual conceptions of 
man's imagination, and calculated to meet the 
moral and religious wants of man's nature, 
and in that nature every where to find some 
point on which it might attach itself. The re 
ligions of antiquity, on the contrary, consist of 
many elements of various kinds, which, either 
by the skill of the first promulgator, or, in the 
length of years, by the impress of national pe- 
culiarities, were moulded together into one 
whole. By the transmission of tales, half 
mythical, and half historical, by forms and 
statutes bearing the impress of religious feel 
ings or ideas, mingled with multifarious poems., 
which showed a powerful imaginative spirit, 
rugged indeed, or, if animated by the spirit of 
beauty, at least devoid of that of holiness, — all 
these varied materials were interwoven so com- 
pletely into all the characters, customs, and 
relations of social life, that the religious mat- 
ter could no longer be separated from the mix- 
ed mass, nor be disentangled from the indi- 
vidual nature of the life and political character 
of each people with which it was interwoven. 
There was no religion generally adapted to 
human nature, only religions fitted to each 
people. The Divinity appeared here, not as 
free and elevated above nature ; not as that 
which, overruling nature, might form and illu- 
minate the nature of man ; but was lowered to 
the level of nature, and made subservient to it. 
Through this principle of deifying the powers 
of nature, by Vv'hich every exertion of bare pow- 
er, even though immoral, might be received 
among the objects of religious veneration, the 
idea of holiness which beams forth from man's 
conscience must continually have been thrown 
into the back ground and overshadowed. The 
old lawgivers were well aware how closely the 



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maintenance of an individual state religion 
depends on the maintenance of the individual 
character of the people, and their civil and 
domestic virtues. They were well aware that 
7-vhen once this union is dissolved no power 
can restore it again. Therefore we find, espe- 
cially in Rome, where politics were the ruling 
passion, a watchfulness after the most puncti- 
lious observance of traditional religious cere- 
monies, and a jealous aversion to any innova- 
tions in religion. The belief of a divine origin 
of all existence is a first principle in man's 
nature, and he is irresistibly impelled to ascend 
from many to One. This very feeling showed 
itself even in the polytheism of national reli- 
gions, under the idea of a highest God, or a 
father of the gods. Among those who gave 
themselves up to the consideration of divine 
things, and to reflection upon them, this idea 
of an original unity must have been more clear- 
ly recognized, and must have formed the cen- 
tre point of all their inward religious life and 
thought. The imagination of the people was 
to be engaged with the numerous powers and 
energies flowing forth from that one highest 
Being, while to the contemplation of that uni- 
ty, only a small number of exalted spirits, the 
initiated leaders of the multitude, could elevate 
themselves. The one God was the God of 
philosophers alone. The ruling opinion of all 
the thinking m,en of antiquity, from which all 
religious legislation proceeded, was, that pure 
religious truth could not be proposed to the 
multitude, but only such a mixture of fiction, 
poetry, and truth, as would serve to rej^resent 
religious notions in such a manner that they 
might make an impression on men, whose only 
guide was their senses. The principle of a so 
called fr aus pia [pious fraud] was prevalent in 
all the legislation of antiquity. But how 
miserable would be the case of mankind, if 
tjie higher bond, connecting human affairs 
with heaven, could only be united by means 
of lies ; if lies were necessary in order to re- 
strain the greater portion of mankind from 
evil ! And what could their religion in such 
q. case eflfect ? Jt could not impart holy dispo- 
sitions to the inward heart of man ; it could 
only restrain the open outbreaking of evil that 
existed in the heart, by the power of fear. 
Falsehood, which cannot be arbitrarily im- 
posed on human nature, would never have 
'^een able to obtain this influence, had not a 
truth, y/hich js sure to make itself felt by hu- 
man nature, been working through it,— had 
ijot the belief in an unseen God, on whom man 
universally feels himself dependent, and to 
whom he feels himself attracted, — had not the 
impulse toward an invisible world, which is 
implanted in the human heart, — been able to 
work also through this covering of supersti- 
tjon= The geographer Strabo thinks that, in 
the same manner that mythical tales and fables 
are needfu] for children, so also they are neces- 
sary for the uneducated and uninformed, who 
are in some sort children, and also for those 
who are half educated ; for even with them 
reason is not sufilciently powerful, and they 
are not able to free themselves from the habits 



they liay^ acquired as children. This is, m. 
deed, a sad condition of humanity, when the 
seed of holiness, which can develope itself only 
in the whole course of a life, cannot be strewn 
in the heart of the child, and when mature 
reason must- destroy that v/hich was planted in 
the early years of infancy ! when holy truth 
cannot form the foundation of the future de. 
velopement of life from the earliest dawn of 
childish consciousness ! The thinking Roman 
statesmen also of the time at which Christian, 
ity appeared, asVarro, for instance, distinguish 
between the theologia philosophica [philosophi- 
cal theology] and the theologia civilis, [civil 
theolog}^,] which contradicts the principles of 
the former, as Cotta in Cicero distinguished 
between the belief of Cotta, and the belief of 
the Pontifex. The philosopher required in re- 
ligion a persuasion grounded ori reasoning ; 
the citizen, the statesman, followed the tradi 
tion of his ancestors without inquiry. Sup- 
pose now this theologia civilis, and this theolo- 
gia philosophica to proceed together, without 
a man's Avishing to set the opposition between 
the two in a very clear light to himself; that 
the citizen and the statesman, the philosopher 
and the man, could be united in the same indi- 
vidual with contradictory sentiments, (a divi- 
sion which in the same man is very unnatural,) 
and then he would perhaps say, " Philosophi- 
cal reason conducts to a difierent result from 
that which is established by the state religion ; 
but the latter has in its favour the good for- 
tune which the state has enjoyed in the exercise 
of religion handed down from our ancestors. 
Let us follow experience even where we do 
not thoroughly understand." Thus speaks 
Cotta, and thus also many Romans of educa. 
tion in his time, either more or less explicitly. 
Or perhaps we may suppose, that men openly 
expressed this contradiction, and did not scruple 
to assign the pure truth to the theologia philo- 
sophica, and to declare the theologia civilis only 
a matter of politics. In the east, which is less 
subject' to commotions, where tranquil habits 
of life were more common, and where a mysti- 
cal spirit of contemplation, accoixipanying and 
spiritualizing the symbolical religion of the 
people, was more prevalent than an intellectual 
cultivation opposed to it, and developing itself 
independently, it was possible that this kind of 
esoteric and exoteric religion should proceed 
hand in hand without change for many cen- 
turies. But it was otherwise with the more 
stirring spirits and habits of the west. Here 
this independently proceeding developement of 
the intellect must have been at open war with 
the religion of the people ; and as intellectual 
culture spread itself more widely, so also must 
a disbelief of the popular religion have been 
move extensively diflused ; and, in consequence 
of the intercourse between the people and the 
educated classes, this disbelief must also have 
found its way at last among the people them- 
selves ; more especially since, as this percep- 
tion of the nothingness of the popular rehgion 
spread itself more widely, there would naturally 
be many who would not, with the precaution 
of the m.en of old, hide their new illumination 



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fi-om the multitude, but would think themselves 
bound to procure for it new adherents, without 
Siny regard to tlie iiijury of which they might 
be laying the foundations, without inquiring 
of themselves, whether they had any thing to 
offer to the people in the room of that of which 
they robbed them ; in the room of their then 
source of tranquillity under the storms of life ; 
instead of that which taught them moderation 
under affliction ; and, lastly, in the place of 
their then counterpoise against the power of 
wild desires and passions. Men saw, in the 
religious systems of different nations which 
then came into contact with each other in the 
enormous empire of Rome, nothing but utter 
contradiction and opposition. The philosophi- 
cal systems also exhibited nothing but opposi- 
tion of sentiments, and left those who could 
see iu the moral consciousness i>o criterion of 
truth to doubt whether there were any such 
thing or not. In this sense, as representing 
the opinions of many eminent and cultivated 
Romans, with a sneer at all desire for truth, 
Pilate made the sarcastic inquiry, ," What is 
truth.?" Many contented themselves with a 
shallow lifeless deism, which usually takes its 
rise where the thirst after a living union with 
heaven is wanting ; a system which, although 
it denies not the existence of a God, yet drives 
it as far into the back ground as possible ; a 
listless God ! who suffers every thing to take 
its own course, so that all belief in any inward 
connection between this Divinity and man, 
any communication of this Divinity to man, 
would seem to this system fancy and enthusi- 
asm ! The world and human nature remain at 
least free from God. This belief in God, if we 
can call it a belief, remains dead and fruitless, 
exercising no influence over the life of man. 
The belief in God here produced neither the 
desire afler that ideal perfection of holiness, 
the contemplation of which shows at the same 
time to man the corruption of his own nature, 
so opposite to that holiness ; nor that con. 
sciousness of guilt by which man, contemplat- 
ing the holiness of God within him, feels him- 
self estranged from God ; nor does this belief 
impart any lively power of sanctification. Man 
is not struck by the inquiry, " Hov/ shall I, 
unclean as I am, approach the holy God, and 
stand before him, when he judges me accord- 
ing to the holy law which he has himself en- 
graven on my conscience ? What shall I do 
to become free from the guilt v/hich oppresses 
me, and again to attain to communion with 
him ?" To make inquiries such as these, this 
spirit of deism considers as fanaticism ; and it 
casts away from itself all notions of God's an- 
ger, judgments, or punishments, as representa- 
tions arising only from the limited nature of 
the human understanding. More lively and 
penetrating spirits, who felt in the world an 
infinite Spirit which animated all things, fell 
into an error of quite an opposite nature to this 
deism, which removed God too far from the 
world ; namely into a pantheism, which con- 
fiised God and the world, which was just as 
little calculated to bestow tranquillity and con- 
solation. They conceived God only as the in- 



finite Being elevated above frail man, and not 
as being connected with him, attracting him 
to himself, and lowering himself down to him. 
It was only the greatness, not the holiness nor 
the love, of God which filled their souls. Yet 
the history of all ages proves that man cannot 
for any length of time disown the desire for 
religion implanted in his nature. AVhenever 
man, entirely devoted to the world, has for a 
long time wholly overwhelmed the perception 
of the Divinity which exists in his nature, and 
has long entirely estranged himself from divino 
things, these at last prevail over humanity with 
greater force. Man feels that something is 
wanting to his heart, which can be replaced to 
him by nothing else ; he feels a hollowness 
within him which can never be satisfied by 
earthly things, and can find satisfaction and 
blessing suited to his condition in the Divinity 
alone, and an irresistible desire impels him to 
seek again his lost connection with Heaven. 
The times of the dominion of superstition also, 
as history teaches us, are always times of 
earthly calamity ; for the moral corruption 
which accompanies superstition necessarily, 
also, destroys all the foundations of earthly 
prosperity. Thus the times in which supersti- 
tion extended itself among the Romans were 
those of the downfall of civil freedom, and of 
public suffering under cruel despots. But, how- 
ever, the consequences of these evils conducted 
man, also to their remedy ; for by distress from 
without man is brought to the consciousness of 
his own weakness, and his dependence on a 
higher than earthly pov/er ; and w^hen he is for- 
saken by human help, he is compelled to seek it 
here. Man becomes induced to look upon his 
misfortunes as the punishments of a higher Be 
ing, and to seek for means by which he may se- 
cure again for himself the favour of that Being. 
The need of a connection with Heaven, from 
which man felt himself estranged, and dissatis- 
faction with the cold and joyless present, ob- 
tained a more ready belief for the picture which 
mythology presented, of a golden age, when 
gods and men lived together in intimate union ; 
and warm imaginations looked back on such a 
state with longing and desire. This belief and 
this desire, it must be owned, were founded on 
a great truth which man could rightly appre- 
hend only through Christianity ; and this de- 
sire was a kind of intimation which pointed to 
Christianity. From the nature of the case, 
however, it is clear that a fanatical zeal, where 
the heat of passion concealed from man the 
hollowness and falsehood of his faith, might 
be created for a religion, to which man only 
betook himself as a refuge in his misery, and 
in his dread of the abyss of unbelief ; a religion 
which no longer served for the developement 
of man's nature, and into which, nevertheless, 
he felt himself driven back from the want of 
any other ; and that men must use every kind 
of power and art to uphold that which was in 
danger of falling from its own internal weak- 
ness, and to defend that which was unable to 
defend itself by its own pow^r. Fanaticism 
was therefore obliged to avail itself of every 
kind of power in the struggle with Christianity, 



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in order to uphold Heathenism, which was fast 
sinking by its own weakness. Although the 
Romans had from the oldest times been noted 
for their repugnance to all foreign sorts of re- 
ligious worship, yet this trait of the old Roman 
character had with many altogether disappear- 
ed. Because the old national temples of the 
Jlomans had lost their respect, in many dispo- 
sitions man was inclined to bring in to their 
assistance foreign modes of worship. Those 
which obtained the readiest admission were 
such as consisted of mysterious, symbolical 
customs, and striking, sounding forms. As is 
always the case, men looked for some special 
^nd higher power in what is dark and myste- 
rious. The very simplicity of Christianity be- 
came therefore a ground of hatred to it. 

UNICORN, CDN^, Num. xxiii, 22 ; xxiv, 8 ; 
Deut. xxxiii, 17 ; Job xxxix, 9, 10 ; Psalm xxii, 
21 ; xxix, 6 ; xcii, 10 ; Isa. xxxiv, 7. In each 
of these places it is rendered in the Septuagint 
fiov6Ksp<j,)g, except in Isaiah, where it is aSpoi, the 
great or mighty ones. Barrow, in his "Travels 
in Southern Africa," has given a drawing of 
the head of the unicorn, " a beast with a single 
horn projecting from the forehead;" accom- 
panied with such details as, he thinks, offer 
strong arguments for the existence of such 
animals in the country of the Bosjesmans. 
He observes that this creature is represented 
as a " solid-ungulous animal resembling a horse, 
wjth an elegantly shaped body, marked from 
the shoulders to the flanks with longitudinal 
stripes or bands." Still he acknowledges-that 
the animal to which the writer of the book of 
Job, who was no mean natural historian, makes 
a poetical allusion, has been supposed, with 
griBat plausibility, to be the one-horned rhino- 
ceros ; and that Moses also very probably meant 
the rhinoceros, when he mentions the unicorn 
as having the strength of God. 

"There are two animals," says Bruce, 
, " named frequently in Scripture, without 
jiaturalists being agreed what they are. The 
one is the behemoth, the other the reem; both 
mentioned as types of sta-ength, courage, and 
independence oii man ; and, as such, exempted 
frorn the ordinary lot of beasts, to be subdued 
Isy him, or reduced under his dominion. The 
behemoth, then, I take to be the elephant ; his 
history is well known, and my only business 
is with the reem, which I suppose to be the 
rhinoceros. The derivation of this word, both 
in the Hebrew and Ethippic, seems to be from 
erectness, or standing straight. This is cer- 
tainly no particular quality in the anirnal itself, 
which }.s not more, nor even so much erect as 
many other quadrupeds^ for its knees are rather 
crooked ; but it is from the circumstance and 
manner in which his horn is placed. The 
horns of all other animals are inclined to some 
degree of parallelism with the nose, or osfrontis, 
[front bone.] The horn of the rhinoceros alone 
is erect and perpendicular to this bone, on 
which it stands at right angles ; thereby pos- 
sessing a greater purchase or power, as a lever, 
than any horn could possibly have in any other 
position. This situation of the horn is very 
happily alluded to in the sacred writings : ' My 



horn shait thou exalt like the horn of a reem," 
Psalm xcii, 10. And the horn here alluded to 
is n.ot wholly figurative, but was really an 
ornament worn by great men in the days of 
victory, preferment, or rejoicing, when they 
were anointed with new, sweet, or fresh oil ; 
a circumstance which David joins with that of 
erecting the horn. Balaam, a priest of Midian, 
and so in the neighbourhood of the haunts of 
the rhinoceros, and intimately connected with 
Ethiopia, for they themselves were shepherds 
of that country, in a transport, from contem- 
plating the strength of Israel, whom he was 
brought to curse, says, that they had as it were 
the strength of the reem, Num. xxiii, 22. Job, 
xxxix, 9, 10, makes frequent allusion to his 
great strength, ferocity, and indocility. Isaiah, 
xxxiv, 7, who of all the prophets seems to have 
known Egypt and Ethiopia the best, when 
prophesying about the destruction of Idumea, 
says, that the reem shall come down with the 
fat cattle : a proof that he knew his habitation 
was in the neighbourhood. In the same man- 
ner as when foretelling the desolation of Egypt, 
he mentions, as one manner of effecting it, the 
bringing down the fly from Ethiopia, Isa. vii, 
18, 19, to meet the cattle in the desert and 
among the bushes, and destroy them there, 
where that insect did not ordinarily come but 
on command. Exodus viii, 22, and where the 
cattle fled every year, to save themselves from 
that insect. 

" The rhinoceros in Geez is called arwiharish, 
and in the Amharic auraris, both which names 
signify the large wild beast with the horn. 
This would seem as if applied to the- species 
that had but one horn. The Ethiopic text 
renders the word reem, arwe harish, and this 
the Septuagint translates fxovdKEpios, or unicorn. 
If the Abyssinian rhinoceros had invariably 
two horns, it seems to me improbable the Sep- 
tuagint would call him ixovdKEpws, especially as 
they must have seen an animal of this kind 
exposed at Alexandria in their time, when first 
mentioned in history, at an exhibition given 
to Ptolemy Philadelphus, at his accession to 
the crown, before the death of his father. The 
principal reason for translating the word reem 
unicorn, and not rhinoceros, is from a preju- 
dice that he must have but one horn. But 
this is by no means so well founded, as to be 
admitted as tlie only argument for establishing 
the existence of an animal, which never has 
appeared after the search of so many ages. 
Scripture speaks of the horns of the unicorn, 
Deut. xxxiii, 17 ; Psalm xxii, 21 ; so that even 
from this circumstance the reem may be the 
rhinoceros as the rhinoceros may be the uni- 
corn." 

In the book of Job, xxxix, 9, 10, the reem is 
represented as an unmanageable animal, which, 
although possessed of sufficient strength to 
labour, sternly and pertinaciously refused to 
bend his neck to the yoke. 

Will tlie reem submit to serve thee? 

Will he, indeed, abide at thy crib'? 

Canst thoa make his harness bindthe reem to thefurrowl 

Will he, forsooth, plough up the valleys for theel 

Wilt thou rely on him for his great strength, 



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And commit thy labour unto him ? • 

Wilt thou trust him that he may bring home thy grain, 

And gather in thy harvest? 

The rhinoceros, in size, is only exceeded by 
the elephant ; and in strength and power is 
inferior to no other creature. He is at least 
twelve feet in length, from the extremity of 
the snout to the insertion of the tail ; six or 
seven feet in height, and the circumference of 
the body is nearly equal to its length. He is 
particularly distinguished from the elephant 
and all other animals by the remarkable and 
offensive weapon he carries upon his nose. 
This is a very hard horn, solid throughout, 
directed forward, and has been seen four feet 
in length. Mr. Browne, in his Travels, says, 
that the Arabians call the rhinoceros abu-kurn, 
'■' father of the one horn." The rhinoceros is 
very hurtful, by the prodigious devastation 
which he makes in the fields. This, circum- 
stance peculiarly illustrates the passage from 
Job. Instead of trusting him to bring home 
the grain, the husbandman will endeavour to 
prevent his entry into the fields, and hinder 
his destructive ravages. In a note upon this 
passage, Mr. Good says, " The original reem, 
by all the older translators rendered rhinoceros, 
or unicorn, is by some modern writers supposed 
to be the bubalus, bison, or wild ox. There 
can be no doubt that rhinoceros is the proper 
term ; for this animal is universally known in 
Arabia, by the name of reem, to the present 
day." The rhinoceros, though next in size, 
yet in docility and ingenuity greatly inferior, 
to the elephant, has never yet been tamed, so 
as to assist the labours of mankind, or to ap- 
pear in the ranks of war. The rhinoceros is 
perfectly indocile and untractable, though nei- 
ther ferocious nor carnivorous. He is among 
large animals what the hog is among smaller 
ones, brutal and insensible ; fond of wallowing 
in the mire, and delighting in moist and marshy 
situations near the banks of rivers. He is, 
however, of a pacific disposition ; and, as he 
feeds on vegetables, has few occasions for con- 
flict. He neither disturbs the less, nor fears 
the greater, beasts of the forest, but lives 
amicably with all. He subsists principally on 
large succulent plants, prickly shrubs, and the 
branches of trees ; and lives to the age of 
seventy or eighty years. 

UNITARIANS, a comprehensive terra, in- 
cluding all who believe the Deity to subsist in 
one person only. The chief article in the reli- 
gious system of the Unitarians is, that Christ 
was a mere man. But they consider him as 
the great instrument in the hands of God of 
reversing all the effects of the fall ; as the ob- 
ject of all the prophecies from Moses to his 
own time ; as the great bond of union to vir- 
tuous and good men, who, as Christians, make 
one body in a peculiar sense. The Socinian 
creed was reduced to what Dr. Priestley calls 
Humanitarianism, by denying the miraculous 
conception, the infallibility, and the impecca- 
bility of the Saviour ; and, consequently, his 
right to any divine honours or religious wor- 
ship. As to those texts which declare that 
Jesus Christ " knew no sin," &c, his followers 



explain them in the sense in which it is said 
of believers, "Whosoever is born of God doth 
not commit sin," 1 John iii, 9. Or, if this be 
not satisfactory. Dr. Priestley refers us to the 
"Theological Repository," "in which," he 
says, " I think I have shown that the Apostle 
Paul often reasons inconclusively ; and, there- 
fore, that he wrote as any other person of his 
turn of mind or thinking, and in his situation, 
would have written, without any particular 
inspiration. Facts, such as I think I have 
there alleged, are stubborn things, and all 
hypotheses must be accommodated to them." 
Nor is this sentiment peculiar to Dr. Priestley. 
Mr. Belsham says, " The Unitarian doctrine 
is, that Jesus of Nazareth was a man consti- 
tuted in all respects like other men, subject to 
the same infirmities, the same ignorance, pre- 
judices, and frailties ; descended from the 
family of David, the son of Joseph and Mary, 
though some indeed still adhere to the popular 
opinion of the miraculous conception ; that he 
was born in low circumstances, having no 
peculiar advantages of education or learning, 
but that he was a man of exemplary character ; 
and that, in conformity to ancient prophecy, 
he was chosen and appointed by God to intro- 
duce a new moral dispensation into the world, 
the design of which was to abolish the Jewish 
economy, and to place believing Gentiles upon 
an equal ground of privilege and favour with 
the posterity of Abraham ; in other words, he 
was authorized to reveal to all mankind, with- 
out distinction, the great doctrine of a future 
life, in v/hich men shall be rewarded according 
to their works." Mr. Belsham goes on to 
state the Unitarian opinion to be, that Jesus 
was not conscious of his high character till 
after his baptism ; that he afterward spent 
some time in the wilderness, where he was 
invested with miraculous powers, and favoured 
with heavenly visions, like St. Paul, 2 Cor. xii, 
in which he supposed himself taken up into 
heaven, and in consequence of which he speaks 
of his descent from heaven ; that he exercised 
his ministry on earth for the space of a year 
or more, and then suffered death upon the 
cross, not to exhibit the evil of sin, or in any 
sense to make atonement for it, but as a martyr 
to the truth, and as a necessary preliminary 
to his resurrection, which they consider as a 
pledge of the resurrection of mankind. Many 
also believe that Jesus maintained some per- 
sonal and sensible connection with the church 
during the apostolic age, and the continuance 
of miraculous powers in the church. They 
farther believe that he is appointed to revisit 
the earth, and to judge the world, — a difficult 
task one would suppose, if " he be constituted," 
as said above, " in all respects like other men, 
subject to the same ignorance, prejudices, 
frailties," &c ! So this blasphemous system 
contains, in this respect, and in almost every 
other, its own refutation. See Socinians. 

The creed which the celebrated council of 
Nice established, says Grier, in his " Epitome 
of General Councils," is that which Christians 
now profess ; the errors and impieties which it 
condemned are those which, according to the 



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938 



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refinements of Socinus, his followers of the 
present day have moulded into their antichris- 
tian system. Arius, a presbyter in the church 
of Alexandria, a man of consummate talent 
and address, but of a cold and speculative 
mind, impiously maintained that there had 
been a time when the Son of God was not ; 
that he was capable of virtue and vice ; and 
that he was a creature, and mutable as creatures 
are ! It is true that Arius^ held a qualified 
preexistence, when he said that God created 
the Son from nothing before he created the 
world ; in other words, that the Son was the 
first of created beings ; but such preexistence 
does not imply coexistence or coeternity with 
the Father. After this manner did he deny 
the divinity of the Son, and his coeternity 
with the Father. Seduced by the pride of 
reasoning, no less than by his fondness for 
novelty, did he likewise reject the hjioovaiav, as 
it is called, or the tenet of the Son being of 
the same substance with the Father. The 
blasphemies of Arius consisted in the denial 
of Christ's being either co-eternal or consub- 
stantial with God. After a lapse of twelve 
centuries, Socinus lowered him another step 
by declaring his inferiority to the Father ; for 
that he, as well as all other things, was sub. 
ject to the supreme Creator of the universe ; 
and although he held his mere humanity, yet, 
inconsistently enough, he would offer him 
divine worship ! Inconsistently it may be 
said, because the Socinian, on his own princi- 
ples, thereby incurs the guilt of idolatry as 
much as the Roman Catholic who worships 
the Virgin Mary, a mere created being. The 
Unitarian, or Humanitarian, sinks the cha- 
racter of the Saviour still lower, by withholding 
all worship from him ; and while he considers 
him as a mere man, and therefore as not pos- 
sessing the attributes of the Deity, with an 
inconsistency as singular as that of Socinus, 
he acknowledges his divinity so as to call him 
God ; as if the term-s Deity and Divinity bore 
different significations, or as if the principle 
which constituted the essence of the Godhead 
were separable from the Godhead itself! It 
should be observed, that the lowest denomina- 
tion of unbelievers in the descending scale, 
namely, the modern Unitarian, combines with 
his own peculiar errors and impieties all the 
errors and impieties of both Arius and Socinus, 
together with an absolute denial of the Holy 
Ghost being a divine Person. Having touched 
on the shades of difference which exist between 
the followers of Arius and Socinus, a more 
minute detail of the division and subdivision 
of the classes into which they may be ranged 
may not be unacceptable to the reader : Arians 
and Semi- Arians constituted the original dis- 
tinction ; that of a subsequent da,y was high 
and low Arians. The high Arians entertain 
the highest views of the mediatorial influence 
of Christ, and believe in the entire Scriptures ; 
the low Arians run into the opposite extreme, 
yet neither high nor low Arians consider 
Christ to be truly God. The old Socinians 
admitted the miraculous conception, and the 
worship of the Son ; the modern Socinians do | 



not ; a circumstance that identifies the modern 
Socinian with the Unitarian. Some high 
Arians, such as Dr. Samuel Clarke, &-c, 
thought that Christ might be worshipped ; 
others of them affect to have no distinct notion 
of what the Holy Ghost meant, and to believe 
that woi-ship is not to be addressed to Christ, 
but through Christ ! These variations in the 
Unitarian creed have been deduced from the 
evidence of Unitarians themselves, given before 
the Commissioners of Education Inquiry in 
Irela,nd in 1826^ as detailed in their Report to 
Parliament ; a circumstance that renders them 
the more valuable, as it imparts to them a living, 
speaking authority. It must, however, be ob- 
served, that motley as they are, they all ter- 
minate in one point, the rejection of Christ's 
divinity ; and that, diversified as the distinctions 
appear to be, they all will be ultimately found 
to be without a shadow of difference. In 
short, Arians, Socinians, Unitarians, «fec, not 
only agree with each other in their anti- 
christian scheme ; but can scarcely be said to 
differ from the infidel Musselmans, who are 
taught by their Koran to regard Christ as a 
great prophet, and the forerunner of their 
own. With Deism doubtless Unitarianism has' 
an intimate alliance. For Deists reject all the 
doctrines of the Christian revelation, while 
Unitarians reject all its peculiar doctrines : 

1. The Trinity of Persons in the Godhead. 

2. The divinity of Christ. 3. The personality 
of the Holy Spirit. 4. The miraculous birth 
of Christ. 5. The atonement of Christ. 6. 
The sanctification of the Spirit. 7. The ex- 
istence of angels and spirits ; 8. And, therefore, 
of the devil and his angels. " In what, then," 
says the learned Dr. Burgess, bishop of Salis- 
bury, after this enumeration of the peculiar 
doctrines of Christianity-, " does Unitarianism 
differ from Deism ? Deists deny the essential 
doctrines of Christianity by rejecting the whole 
of the Christian revelation ; Unitarians reject 
the Christian revelation by denying all its pe, 
culiar and essential doctrines." 

UNIVERSALISTS. Those who believe 
that Christ so died for all, that, before he shall 
have delivered up his mediatorial kingdom, all 
fallen creatures shall be brought to a partici- 
pation of the benefits of his death, in their 
restoration to holiness and happiness. They 
are called also Universal Restorationists, and 
their doctrine, the doctrine of universal restora- 
tion. Some of its friends have maintained it, 
also, under the name of universal salvation ; 
but perhaps the former name is that by which 
it should be distinguished; for the Universalists 
do not hold any universal exemption from 
future punishment, but merely the recovery of 
all those that shall have been exposed to it.* 
They have likewise a just claim to this title on 
other grounds ; for their doctrine, which in- 
cludes the restoration, or "restitution of all 
the intelligent offspring of God," or of all 

* This may be true in respect to the Universalists in 
Europe ; but in America there are those who deny any 
future punishment whatever. la this country also they 
have formed themselves into separate and distinct 
societies. Am. Ed. 



UNI 



939 



UPP 



"lapsed intelligences," seems to embrace even 
the fallen angels. They admit the reality and 
equity of future punishment ; but they contend 
that it will be corrective in its nature, and 
limited in its duration. They teach the doc- 
trine of election, but not in the exclusive 
Calvinistic sense of it. They suppose that 
God has chosen some for the good of all ; and 
that his final purpose toward all is intimated 
by his calling his elect the first-born and the 
iirst-fruits of his creatures, which, say they, 
implies other branches of his family, and a 
future ingathering of the harvest of mankind. 
They teach, also, that the righteous shall have 
part in the first resurrection, shall be blessed 
and happy, and be made priests and kings to 
.God and to Christ in the millennial kingdom, 
and that over them the second death shall have 
no power ; that the wicked will receive a 
punishment apportioned to their crimes ; that 
punishment itself is a mediatorial work, and 
founded upon mercy, and, consequently, that 
it is a means of humbling, subduing, and finally 
reconciling the sinner to God, They add, that 
the words rendered "eternal," "everlasting," 
"for ever," and "for ever and ever," in the 
Scriptures, are frequently used to express the 
duration of things that have ended or must 
end ; and if it is contended that these words 
are sometimes used to express proper eternity, 
they answer, that then the subject with which 
the words are connected must determine the 
sense of them ; and as there is nothing in the 
cature of future punishment which can be 
offered as a reason why it should be endless, 
they infer that the above words ought always 
to be taken in a limited sense when connected 
with the infliction of misery. 

Those who deny the eternity of future pun- 
ishments have not formed themselves into any 
separate body or distinct society ; but are to 
be found in most Christian countries, and 
among several denominations. Their doc- 
trines form part of the creed of some Arians, 
as of Mr. Whiston ; of many Deists, as of Mr. 
Hobbes, Mr. Tindal, &c ; and of most So- 
cinians. Nor need we be surprised that liber- 
tines and atheists hold it, and that they strive 
to bring others over to their opinion. " The 
tyranny of priests," said Dupont the atheist, 
in the national convention, December, 1792, 
" extends their opinion to another life, of 
which they have no other idea than that of 
eternal punishment ; a doctrine which some 
men have hitherto had the good nature to 
believe. But these prejudices must now fall ; 
we must destroy them, or they will destro}'^ us." 
The Mennonites in Holland have long held the 
doctrine of the Universalists ; the people called 
Dunkers, or Tunkers, in America, descended 
from the German Baptists, hold it ; and also 
the Shakers. Excellent refutations of this 
specious system have been published by the 
Rev. S. Jerram, and the Rev. Daniel Isaac. 

The Arminians are sometimes called " Uni- 
versaliets," on account of their holding the 
tenet of general redemption ; in opposition to 
the Calvinists, who, from their specifically 
restricting the saving grace of God to certain 



fore ordained individuals, receive the deno- 
mination of " Particularists." By the epithet 
" Hypothetical Universalists," are designated 
on the continent those who have adopted the 
theological system of Amyraut and Cameron, 
but who are better known in this country as 
" Baxterians." See Amyraut, Baxterianism, 
and Cameron. 

UPPER ROOM. The principal room.s an- 
ciently in Judea were those above, as they are 
to this day at Aleppo ; the ground floor being 
chiefly made use of for their horses and ser- 
vants. " The house in which I am at present 
living," says, .Tovvett, " gives what seems to be 
a correct idea of the scene of Eutychus' falling 
from the upper loft while St. Paixl was preach- 
ing. Acts XX, 6-12. According to our idea of 
houses, the scene is very far from intelligible ; 
and, beside this, the circumstance of preach- 
ing generally leaves on the mind of cursory 
readers the notion of a church. To describe 
this house, which is not many miles distant 
from the Troad, and perhaps, from the un- 
changing character of oriental customs, nearly 
resembles the houses then built, will fully 
illustrate the narrative. On entering my 
host's door, we find the first floor entirely used 
as a store : it is filled with large barrels of oil, 
the produce of the rich country for many miles 
round : this space, so far from being habitable, 
is sometimes so dirty with the dripping of the 
oil, that it is difficult to pick out a clean footing 
from the door to the first step of the staircase. 
On ascending, we find the first floor, consisting 
of an humble suit of rooms, not very high ; 
thegc are occupied by the family for their daily 
use. It is on the next story that all their 
expense is lavished : here ifly courteous host 
has appointed my lodging : beautiful curtains 
and mats, and cushions to the divan, display 
the respect wuth which they mean to receive 
their guest. Here, likewise, their splendour, 
being at the top of the house, is enjoyed by the 
poor Greeks with more retirement, and less 
chance of molestation from the intrusion of 
Turks : here, when the professors of the college 
waited upon me to pay their respects, they 
were received in ceremony, and sat at the 
window. The room is both higher and also 
larger than those below ; it has two projecting 
windows ; and the whole floor is so much 
extended in front beyond the lower part of the 
building, that the projecting v/indows consid- 
erably overhang the street. In such an upper 
room, secluded, spacious, and commodious, St. 
Paul was invited to preach his parting dis- 
course. The divan, or raised seat, with mats 
or cushions, encircles the interior of each 
projecting v/indow ; a%d I have remarked that 
when the company is numerous, they some- 
times place large cushions behind the company 
seated on the divan ; so that a second tier of 
company, with their feet upon the seat of the 
divan, are sitting behind, higher than the front / 

row. Eutychus, thus sitting, would be on a 
level with the open window ; and, being over- 
come with sleep, he would easily fall out from 
the third loft of the house into the street, and 
be almost certain, from such a heights to losa 



URI 



940 



URI 



his life. Thither St. Paul went down, and 
comforted the alarmed company by bringing 
up Eutyehus alive. It is noted that 'there 
were many lights in the upper chamber.' The 
very great plenty of oil in this neighbourhood 
would enable them to aiford many lamps ; the 
heat of these and so much company would 
cause the drowsiness of Eutyehus, at that late 
hour, and be the occasion, likewise, of the 
windows being open." 

URIM AND THUMMIM. The high 
priests of the Jews, we are told, consulted God 
in the most important affairs of their common- 
wealth, and received answers by the Urim and 
Thummim. What these were, is disputed 
among the critics. Josephus, and some others, 
imagine the answer was returned by the stones 
of the breastplate appearing with an unusual 
lustre when it was favourable, or in the con- 
trary case dim. Others suppose, that the Urim 
and Thummim were something enclosed be- 
tween the folding of the breastplate ; this some 
will have to be the tetragrammaton, or the 
word nms Jehovah. Christophorus de Castro, 
and after him Dr. Spencer, maintain them to 
be two little images shut up in the doubling of 
the breastplate, which gave the oracular answer 
from thence by an articulate voice. Accord- 
ingly, they derive them from the Egyptians, 
who consulted their lares, and had an oracle, 
or teraphim, which they called Truth. This 
opinion, however, has been sufficiently confuted 
by the learned Dr. Pococke and by Witsius. 
The more common opinion among Christians 
concerning the oracle by Urim and Thummim, 
and which Dr. Prideaux espouses, is, that when 
the high priest appeared before the veil, clothed 
with his ephod and breastplate, to ask counsel 
of God, the answer was given with an audible 
voice from the mercy seat, within the veil ; but, 
it has been observed, that this account will by 
no means agree with the history of David's 
consulting the oracle by Abiathar, 1 Sam. xxiii, 
9, 11 ; XXX, 7, 8 ; because the ark, on which 
was the mercy seat, was then at Kirjathjearim ; 
whereas David was in the one case at Ziklag, 
and in the other in the forest of Hareth. 
Braunius and Hettinger have adopted another 
opinion : they suppose, that, when Moses is 
commanded to put in the breastplate the Urim 
and Thummim, signifying lights and perfec- 
tions in the plural number, it was meant that 
he should make choice of the most perfect set 
of stones, and have them so polished as to give 
the brightest lustre ; and, on this hypothesis, 
the use of the Urim and Thummim, or of these 
exquisitely polished jewels, was only to be a 
symbol of the divine presence, and of the light 
and perfection of the prophetic inspiration ; 
and, as such, constantly to be worn by the high 
priest in the exercise of his sacred function, 
especially in consulting the oracle. 

Michaelis observes : That in making distri- 
butions of property, and in cases of disputes 
relative to meum [mine] and tuum, [thine,] re- 
course was had to the lot, in default of any 
other means of decision, will naturally be sup- 
posed. The whole land was partitioned by lot ; 
and that, in after times, the lot continued to j 



be used, even in courts of justice, we see fi-om 
Prov. xvi, 33 fxviii, 18 ; where we are expressly 
taught to remember, that it is Providence which 
maketh the choice, and that therefore we ought 
to be satisfied with the decision of the lot, as 
the will of God. It was for judicial purposes, 
in a particular manner, that the sacred lot 
called Urim and Thummim was employed ; and 
on this account the costly embroidered pouch, 
in which the priest carried this sacred lot on 
his breast, was called the judicial ornament. 
" But was this sacred lot used likewise in cri- 
minal trials ?" Yes, says Michaelis, only to 
discover the guilty, to convict them ; for in 
the only two instances of its use in such cases 
which occur in the whole Bible, namely, in 
Joshua vii, 14-18, 1 Sam. xiv, 37-45, we find 
the confessions of the two delinquents, Achan 
and Jonathan, annexed. It appears also to 
have been used only in the case of an oath 
being transgressed which the whole people had 
taken, or the leader of the host in their name, 
but not in the case of other crimes ; for an 
unknown murder, for example, was not to be 
discovered by recourse to the sacred lot. 

The inner sanctuary, within the veil of the 
tabernacle, observes Dr. Hales, or most holy 
place, was called the oracle, 1 Kings vi, 16, 
because there the Lord communed w^ith Moses, 
face to face, and gave him instructions in cases 
of legal difficulty or sudden emergency, Exod. 
XXV, 22 ; Num. vii, 89 ; ix, 8 ; Exod. xxxiii, 11 ; 
a high privilege granted to none of his succes- 
sors. After the death of Moses a different 
mode was appointed for consulting the oracle 
by the high priest, who put on "thebreast- 
plate of judgment," Or principal part of the 
pontifical dress, on which were inscribed the 
words Urim and Thummim, emblematical of 
divine illumination ; as the inscription on his 
mitre, "Holiness to the Lord," was of sancti- 
fication, Exod. xxviii, 30-37 ; Lev. viii, 8. Thus 
prepared, he presented himself before the Lord 
to ask counsel on public matters, not in the 
inner sanctuary, which he presumed not to 
enter, except on the great day of national 
atonement, but without the veil, with his face 
toward the ark of the covenant, inside ; and 
behind him, at some distance, without the sane- 
tuary, stood Joshua, the judge, or person who 
wanted the response, which seems to have been 
given with an audible voice from within the 
veil, Num. xxvii, 21, as in the case of Joshua, 
vi, 6-15; of the Israelites during the civil war 
with Benjamin, Judges xx, 27, 28 ; on the ap- 
pointment of Saul to be king, when he hid 
himself, 1 Sam. x, 22-24 ; of David, 1 Sam. 
xxii, 10 ; xxiii, 2-12 ; xxx, 8 ; 2 Sam. v, 23, 24 ; 
of Saul, 1 Sam. xxviii, 6. This mode of con- 
sultation subsisted under the tabernacle erected 
by Moses in the wilderness, and until the 
building of Solomon's temple ; after which we 
find no instances of it. The oracles of the 
Lord were thenceforth delivered by the pro- 
phets ; as by Ahijah to Jeroboam, 1 Kings xi, 
29 ; by Shemaiah to Rehoboam, 1 Kings xii, 22 ; 
by Elijah to Ahab, 1 Kings xvii, 1 ; xxi, 17-29 ; 
b}'^ Michaiah to Ahab and Jehoshaphat, 1 Kings 
xxii, 7 ; by Elisha to Jehoshaphat and Jehoram, 



uz 



941 



VEI 



2 Kings iii, 11-14 ; by Isaiah to Hezekiah, 2 
Kings xix, 6-34; xx, 1-11; by Huldah to 
Josiah, 2 Kings xxii, 13-20 ; by Jeremiah to 
Zedekiah, Jer. xxxii, 3-5, &c. After the Ba- 
bylonish captivity, and the last of the prophets, 
Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, the oracle 
ceased ; but its revival was foretold by Ezra, 
ii, 63, and accomplished by Christ, who was 
himself the oracle, under the old and new cove- 
nants. Gen. XV, 1 ; John i, 1. See Breastplate. 

USURY, profit or gain from lending money 
or goods. Moses enacted a law to the effect 
that interest should not be taken from a poor 
person, neither for borrowed money, nor for 
articles of consumption, for instance, grain, 
which was borrowed with the expectation of 
being returned, Exod. xxii, 25 ; Lev. xxv, 35-37. 
A difficulty arose in determining who was to 
be considered a poor person in -a case of this 
kind ; and the law was accordingly altered in 
Deut. xxiii, 20, 21, and extended in its opera- 
tion to all the Hebrews, whether they had more 
or less property ; so that interest could be 
lawfully taken only of foreigners. As the 
system of the Jews went to secure every man's 
paternal inheritance to his own family, they 
could not exact it from their brethren, but only 
from strangers. As the law of nature does not 
forbid the receipt of moderate interest in the 
shape of rent, for the use of lands or houses, 
neither does it prohibit it for the loan of money 
or goods. When one man trades with the 
capital of another, and obtains a profit from it, 
he is bound in justice to return a part of it to 
his benefactor, who, in the hands of God, has 
been a second cause of " giving him power to 
get wealth." But should Divine Providence 
not favour the endeavours of some who have 
borrowed money, the duty of the lenders is to 
deal gently with them, and to be content with 
sharing in their losses, as they have been 
sharers in their gains. The Hebrews were 
therefore exhorted to lend money, &c, as a 
deed of mercy and brotherly kindness, Deut. 
XV, 7-11 ; xxiv, 13. And hence it happens that 
we find encomiums every where bestowed upon 
those who were willing to lend without insist- 
ing upon interest for the use of the thing lent. 
Psalm XV, 15; xxxvii, 21, 26; cxii, 5; Prov. 
xix, 17 ; Ezek. xviii, 8. This regulation in re- 
gard to taking interest was very well suited to 
the condition of a state that had been recently 
founded, and which had but very little mer- 
cantile dealings ; and its principle, though not 
capable of being generally introduced into com- 
munities that are much engaged in commerce, 
may still be exercised toward those who stand 
toward us in the relation of brethren. 

UZ, Lanit of, the country of Job. As there 
were three persons of this name, namely, the 
son of Aram, the son of Nahor, and the grand- 
son of Seir the Horite, commentators are di- 
vided in their opinion as to the situation of the 
country meant by the land of Uz. Bochart, 
Spanheim, Calmet, Wells, and others, place it 
in Arabia Deserta. Michaelis places it in the 
valley of Damascus ; which city was, in fact, 
built by Uz, the grandson of Shem, Archbishop 
Magce, Bishop Lowth, Dr. Hales, Dr. Good, 



and others with more reason, fix the scene of 
the history of Job in Idumea. This is also the 
opinion of Mr. Home, who refers for a confir- 
mation of it to Lam. iv, 21, where Uz is ex- 
pressly said to be in Edom ; and to Jer. xlix, 

7, 8, 20 ; Ezek. xxv, 13 ; Amos i, 11, 12 ; Obad. 

8, 9, where both Teman and Dedan are de- 
scribed as inhabitants of Edom. In effect, says 
Mr. Home, nothing is clearer than that the 
history of an inhabitant of Idumea is the sub- 
ject of the poem which bears the name of Job, 
and that all the persons introduced into it were 
Idumeans, dwelling in Idumea ; in other words, 
Edomite Arabs, 

VEIL. Women were wont to cover their 
faces with veils in token of modesty, of re- 
verence, and subjection to their husbands. 
Gen. xxiv, 65 ; 1 Cor. xi, 3, &c. In modern 
times, the women of Syria never appear in the 
streets without their veils. These are of two 
kinds, the furragi and the common Aleppo 
veil ; the former being worn by some of the 
Turkish women only, the latter indiscrimi- 
nately by all. The first is in the form of a large 
cloak, with long straight sleeves, and a square 
hood hanging flat on the back ; it is sometimes 
made of linen, sometimes of a shawl or cloth. 
This veil, reaching to the heels, conceals the 
whole of the dress, from the neck downward ; 
while the head and face are covered by a large 
white handkerchief over the head dress and 
forehead, and a smaller one tied transversely 
over the lower part of the face, hanging down 
on the neck. Many of the Turkish women, 
instead of the smaller handkerchief, use a long 
piece of black crape stiffened, which, sloping 
a little from the forehead, leaves room to 
breathe more freely. In this last way, the 
ladies are completely disguised ; in the former, 
the eyes and nose remaining visible, they are 
easily known by their acquaintances. The 
radid is a species of veil, which Calmet sup- 
poses is worn by married women, as a token 
of their submission and dependence, and 
descends low down on the person. To lift up 
the veil of a virgin is reckoned a gross insult 'f 
but to take away the veil of a married woman 
is one of the greatest indignities that she can 
receive, because it deprives her of the badge 
which distinguishes and dignifies her in that 
character, and betokens her alliance to her 
husband, and her interest in his affections. 
This is the reason why the spouse so feelingly 
complains: "They took away my veil, m-t, 
from me," Cant, v, 1, When it is foixibly 
taken away by the husband, it is equivalent to 
divorce, and justly reckoned a most severe 
calamity ; therefore, God threatened to take 
away the ornamental dresses of the daughters 
of Zion, including the radidim, the low descend- 
ing veils : "In thatday the Lord will takeaway'' 
the changeable suits ofapparel, and the man- 
tles, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the- 
veils," Isaiah iii, 18, &c. 

The ordinary Aleppo veil is a linen sheet, 
large enough to cover the whole habit from 
head to foot, and is brought over the face in a 
manner to conceal all but one eye. This is 



VIN 



942 



VIN 



Iserhaps alluded to by the bridegroom in these 
words : " Thoil hast ravished my heart with 
one of thine eyes," Cant, iv, 9. In Barbary, 
when the ladies appear in public, they always 
fold themselves up so closely in their hykes, 
that, even without their veils, one can discover 
very little of their faces. But, in the summer 
months, when they retire to their country seats, 
they walk abroad with less caution ; though, 
even then, on the approach of a stranger, they 
always drop their veils, as Rebekah did on the 
approach of Isaac. But, although they are so 
closely wrapped up, that those who look at 
them cannot see even their hands, still less 
their face, yet it is reckoned indecent in a man 
to fix his eyes upon them ; he must let them 
pass without seeming at all to observe them. 
When a lady of distinction, says Hanway, 
travels on horseback, she is not only veiled, 
but has generally a servant, who runs or rides 
before her to clear the way ; and on such 
occasions the men, even in the market places, 
always turn their backs till the w omen are past, 
it being thought the highest ill manners to look 
at them. A lady in the east considers herself 
degraded when she is exposed to the gaze of 
the other sex, which accounts for the conduct 
of Vashti in refusing to obey the command of 
the king. Their ideas of decency, on the other 
hand, forbid a virtuous woman to lay aside or 
even to lift up her veil in the presence of the 
other sex. She who ventures to disregard this 
prohibition inevitably ruins her character. 
From that moment she is noted as a woman 
of easy virtue, and her act is regarded as a 
signal for intrigue. Pitts informs us that in 
Barbary the courtezan appears in public with- 
out her veil ; and, in Prov. vii, 13, 14, the 
harlot exposes herself in the same indecent 
manner : "So she caught him, and kissed him, 
and with an impudent face," a face uncovered 
and shameless, " said unto him, I have peace, 
offerings with me, this day have I paid my 
vows." But it must nevertheless be remarked, 
that, at different times, and in different parts 
of the east, the use, or partial use of the veil 
has greatly varied. 

VINE, j£3J, Gen. xl, 9 ; a^TrsXoj, Matt, xxvi, 29; 
Mark xiv, 25 ; Luke xxii, 18 ; John xv, 4, 5 ; 
James iii, 12; Rev. xiv, 19; a noble plant of 
the creeping kind, famous for its fruit, or 
grapes, and the liquor they afford. Tlie vine 
is a common name or genus, including several 
species under it ; and Moses, to distinguish the 
true vine, or that from which wine is made, 
from the rest, calls it, the wine vine. Num. vi, 4. 
Some of the other sorts were of a poisonous 
quality, as appears from the story related 
among the miraculous acts of Elisha, 2 Kings 
iv, 39, 41. (See Grapes.) The expression of 
" sitting every man under his own vine," pro- 
bably alludes to the delightful eastern arbours, 
which were partly composed of vines. Capt. 
Norden, in like manner, speaks of vine arbours 
as common in the Egjrptian gardens ; and the 
Prsenestine pavement in Dr. Shaw gives us the 
figure of an ancient one. Plantations of trees 
about houses are found very useful in hot coun. 
tries, to give them an agreeable coolness. The 



ancient Israelites seem to have made use of the 
same means, and probably planted fruit trees, 
rather than other kinds, to produce that effect. 
" It is their manner in many places," says Si? 
Thomas Rowe's chaplain, speaking of the 
country of the Great Mogul, "to plant about 
and among their buildings, trees which grow 
high and broad, the shadow whereof keeps 
their houses by far more cool : this I observed 
in a special manner, when we were ready to 
enter Amadavar ; for it appeared to us as if we 
had been entering a wood rather than a city." 
" Immediately on entering," says Turner, " I 
was ushered into the court yard of the aga, 
whom I found smoking under a vine, sur- 
rounded by horses, servants, and dogs, among 
which I distinguished an English pointer." 

There were in Palestine many excellent 
vineyards. Scripture celebrates the vines of 
Sorek, of Sebamah, of Jazer, of Abel. Pro- 
fane authors mention the excellent wines of 
Gaza, Sarepta, Libanus, Saron, Ascalon, and 
Tyre. Jacob, in the blessing which he gave 
Judah, "Binding his foal unto the vine, and 
his ass's colt unto the choice vine, he washed 
his garments in wine, and his clothes in the 
blood of grapes," Gen. xlix, 11 ; he showed the 
abundance of vines that should fall to his lot., 
"Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful 
bough by a well, whose branehes hang over 
the wall," Gen. xlix, 22. "To the northward 
and westward," says Morier, "are several vil- 
lages, interspersed v/Ith extensive orchards and 
vineyards, the latter of which are generally en- 
closed by high walls. The Persian vine dressers 
do all in their power to make the vine run up 
the wall, and curl over on the other side, which 
they do by tying stones to the extremity of the 
tendril. The vine, particularly in Turkey and 
Greece, is frequently made to entwine on trel- 
lises around a well, where, in the heat of the 
day, whole families collect themselves, and sit 
under the shade." 

Noah planted the vine after the deluge, and is 
supposed to have been the first who cultivated it^ 
Gen. ix, 20. Many are of opinion that wine was 
not unknown before the deluge ; and that this 
patriarch only continued to cultivate the vine 
after that event, as he had done before 1+ : but 
the fathers think that he knew not the force 
of wine, having never used it before, nor having 
ever seen any one use it. He was the first that 
gathered the juice of the grape, and preserved 
it till by fermentation it became a potable liquor. 
Before him men only ate the grapes like other 
fruit. The law of Moses did not allow the 
planters of vineyards to eat the fruit before the 
fifth year. Lev. xix, 24, 25. The Israelites were 
also required to indulge the poor, the orphan, 
and the stranger, with the use of the grapes on 
the seventh year. A traveller was allowed to 
gather and eat the grapes in a vineyard as he 
passed along, but he was not permitted to carry 
any away, Deut. xxiii, 24. The scarcity of 
fuel, especially wood, in most parts of the east, 
is so great, that they supply it with fevery thing 
capable of burning; cow dung dried, roots, 
parings of fruits, withered stalks of herbs and 
flowers, Matthew vi, 30. Vine twigs are par^ 



VIN 



943 



VOC 



ticularly mentioned as used for fuel in dressing 
their food, by D'Arvieux, La Roque, and others : 
Ezekiel says, in his parable of the vine, used 
figuratively for the people of God, " Shall wood 
be taken thereof to do any work ? Or will men 
take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon ? 
Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel," Ezekiel 
XV, 3, 4. " If a man abide not in me," saith 
our Lord, " he is cast forth as a branch" of the 
vine, " and is withered ; and men gather them, 
and cast them into the fire, and they are burned," 
John XV, 6. 

VINEGAR, ron, Num. vi, 3 ; Ruth ii, 14 ; 
Psalm Ixix, 21 ; Pro v. x, 26 ; xxv, 20 ; b^og, 
Matt, xxvii, 48 ; Mark xv, 36 ; John xix, 29, 30 ; 
an acid produced by a second fermentation of 
vinous liquors. The law of the Nazarite was 
that he should " separate himself from wine and 
strong drink, and should drink jio vinegar of 
w^ine, nor vinegar of strong drink, nor any liquor 
of grapes." This is exactly the same prohibition 
that was given in the case of John the Baptist, 
Luke i, 15, olvov kol c'lKspa 01! fxi] zutrj, wine and sikera 
he shall not drink. Any inebriating liquor, says 
Jerom, is called sicera, whether made of corn, 
apples, honey, dates, or other fruits. One of 
the four prohibited drinks among the Moham. 
medans in India is called sakar, which signifies 
inebriating drink in general, but especially date 
wine. From the original word, probably, we 
have our term cider or sider, which among us, 
exclusively means the fermented juice of apples. 
Vinegar was used by harvesters for their re- 
freshment. Boaz told Ruth that she might 
come and dip her bread in vinegar with his 
people. Pliny says, " Aceto summa vis in refri- 
gei-ando" [There is the greatest power in 
vinegar, in cooling.] It made a very cooling 
beverage. It was generally diluted with water. 
When very strong, it affected the teeth disa- 
greeably, Prov. X, 26. In Proverbs xxv, 20, 
the singing of songs to a heavy heart is finely 
compared to the contrariety or colluctation 
between vinegar and nitre ; untimely mirth to 
one in anxiety serves only to exasperate, and 
as it w^ere put into a ferment by the intrusion. 

The Emperor Pescennius Niger gave orders 
that his soldiers should drink nothing but 
vinegar on their marches. That v/hich the 
Roman soldiers offered to our Saviour at his 
crucifixion, was, probably, the vinegar they 
made use of for their own drinking. Constan- 
tine the Great allowed them wine and vinegar 
alternately, m'^ery day. This vinegar was not 
of that sort which we use for salads and sauces ; 
but it was a tart wine called pesca, or sera. 
They make great use of it in Spain and Italy, 
in harvest time. They use it also in Holland, 
and on shipboard, to correct the ill taste of 
the water. 

VIPER, nysN, Job xx, 16 ; Isaiah xxx, 6 ; 
lix, 5 ; ex^^i'a, Matt, iii, 7 ; xii, 34 ; xxiii, 33 ; 
Luke iii, 7 ; Acts xxviii, 3 ; a serpent famed 
for the venomousness of its bite, which is one 
of the most dangerous poisons in the animal 
kingdom. So remarkable, says Dr. Mead, has 
the viper been for its venom, that the remotest 
antiquity made it an emblem of what is hurtful 
and destructive. Nay, so terrible was the na- 



ture of these creatures, that they were very 
commonly thought to be sent as executioners of 
divine vengeance upon mankind, for enormous 
crimes which had escaped the course of justice^ 
An instance of such an opinion as this we have 
in the history of St. Paul, Acts xxviii, whom 
the people of Melita, when they saw the viper 
leap upon his hand, presently concluded to be 
a murderer ; and as readily made a god of him 
when, instead of having his hand inflamed, or 
falling down dead, one or other of which is 
usually the effect of these bites, he without 
any harm shook the reptile into the fire : it 
being obvious enough to imagine that he must 
stand in a near relation at least to the gods 
themselves, who could thus command the mes- 
sengers of their vengeance, and counterwork 
the effects of such powerful agents. 

VISION, the act of seeing ; but, in Scripture, 
it generally signifies a supernatural appearance, 
either by dream or in reality, by which God- 
made known his will and pleasure to those t& 
whom it was vouchsafed. Acts ix, 10, 12 ; xvi, 
9 , xxvi, 13 ; 2 Cor. xii, 1. Thus, in the earli^ 
est times, to patriarchs, prophets, and holy 
men God sent angels, he appeared to them 
himself by night in dreams, he illuminated 
their minds, he made his voice to be heard by 
them, he sent them ecstasies, and transported 
them beyond themselves, and made them hear 
things that eye had not seen, ear had not heard, 
and which had not entered into the heart of 
man. The Lord showed himself to Moses, 
and spoke to him when he was at the mouth 
of the cave. Jesus Christ manifested himself 
to his Apostles, in his transfiguration upon the 
mount, and on several other occasions after his 
resurrection. God appeared to Abraham under 
the form of three travellers ; he showed him- 
self to Isaiah and Ezekiel, in the splendour of 
his glory. Vision is also used for the prophe- 
cies written by the prophets.^ The beatific 
vision denotes the act of angels and glorified 
spirits beholding in heaven the unveiled splen- 
dours of the Lord Jehovah, and privileged to 
contemplate his perfections and plans in and 
by himself. 

VOCATION, or CALLING, is a gracious 
act of God in Christ, by which, through hia 
word and Spirit, he calls forth sinful men, who 
are liable to condemnation and placed under 
the dominion of sin, from the condition of the 
animal life, and from the pollutions and cor- 
ruptions of this world, 2 Tim. i, 9 ; Matt, xi, 
28 ; 1 Peter ii, 9, 10 ; Gal. i, 4 ; 2 Peter ii, 20 ; 
Romans x, 13-15 ; 1 Peter iii, 19 ; Gen. vi, 3, 
unto "the fellowship of Jesus Christ," and of 
his kingdom and its benefits ; that, being united 
unto him as their head, they may derive 
from him life, sensation, motion, and a pleni- 
tude of every spiritual blessing, to the glory of 
God and their own salvation, 1 Cor. i, 9 ; Gal. 
ii, 20 ; Eph. i, 3, 6 ; 2 Thess. ii, 13, 14. The 
end intended is, that they who have been called 
answer by faith to God and to Christ who give 
the call, and that they thus become the cove- 
nanted people of God through Christ the Me- 
diator of the new covenant ; and, after having 
become believers and parties to the covenant, 



vow 



944 



VUL 



that they love, fear, honour, and worship God 
and Christ, render in all things obedience to 
the divine precepts " in righteousness and true 
holiness," and that by this means they "make 
their calling and election sure," Prov. i, 24 ; 
Heb. iii, 7 ; Rev. iii, 20 ; Eph. ii, 11-16 ; Titus 
lii, 8 ; Deut. vi, 4, 5 ; Jer. xxxii, 38, 39 ; Luke 
i, 74, 75; 2 Peter i, 1, 10. The glory of God, 
vifho is supremely wise, good, merciful, just, 
and powerful, is so luminously displayed in 
this communication both of his grace and 
glory, as deservedly to raise into rapturous 
admiration the minds of angels and of men, 
and to employ their loosened tongues in cele- 
brating the praises of Jehovah, Rev. iv, 8-11 ; 
y, 8-10. See Calling. 

VOW, a promise made to God, of doing 
some good thing hereafter. The use of vows 
is observable throughout Scripture. When 
Jacob went into Mesopotamia, he vowed to 
God the tenth of his estate, and promised to 
offer it at Bethel, to the honour of God, Gen. 
xxviii, 22. Moses enacts several laws for the 
regulation and execution of vows. A man 
might devote himself, or his children, to the 
Lord. Jephthah devoted his daughter. Judges 
xi, 30, 31. Samuel was vowed or consecrated 
to the service of the Lord before his birth, by 
his pious mother Hannah ; and was really 
offered to him, to serve in the tabernacle, 
1 Sam. i, 21, &c. If a man and woman vowed 
themselves to the Lord, they were obliged to 
adhere strictly to his service, according to the 
conditions of the vow ; but in some cases they 
might be redeemed. A man from twenty years 
of age till sixty, gave fifty shekels of silver ; 
and a woman thirty. Lev. xxvii, 3. From the 
age of five years to twenty, a man gave twenty 
shekels, and a woman ten ; from a month old 
to five years, they gave for a boy five shekels, 
and for a girl three. A man of sixty years old, 
or upward, gave fifteen shekels, and a woman 
of the same age gave ten. If the person was 
poor, and could not procure this sum, the priest 
imposed a ransom upon him, according to his 
abilities. If any one liad vowed an animal 
that was clean, he had not the liberty of re- 
deeming it, or of exchanging it, but was obliged 
to sacrifice it to the Lord. If it was an unclean 
animal, and such as was not allowed to be 
sacrificed, the priest made a valuation of it ; 
and if the proprietor would redeem it, he added 
a fifth part to the value, by way of forfeit. 
They did the same in proportion, when the 
thing vowed was a house or a field. They 
could not devote the first born, because in their 
own nature they belonged to the Lord, Lev. 
xxvii, 28, 29. Whatever was devoted by way 
of anathema, could not be redeemed, of what- 
ever nature or quality it was. An animal was 
put to death, and other things were devoted 
for ever to the Lord. The consecration of 
Nazarites was a particular kind of vow. The 
vows and promises of children were void, of 
course, except they were ratified either by the 
express or tacit consent of their parents. It 
was the same with the vows of a married wo- 
man ; they were of no validity, except con- 
firmed by the express or tacit consent of her 



husband. Num. xxx. But widows, or liberated 
wives, were bound by their vows, whatever 
they were. 

Whosoever invokes the awful name of God 
to witness any untruth, knowing it to be such, 
is guilty of taking it in vain. Our Lord did not 
mean to preclude solemn appeals to heaven, 
whether oaths or vows, in courts of justice, or 
in important compacts. For an oath, or appeal 
to the greatest of all beings, as the Searcher 
of hearts, to witness a transaction, and to 
punish falsehood or perjury, is necessary, for 
putting an end to all strife or controversy 
among men, to promote confirmation or se- 
curity of property, Heb. vi, 16. And it was 
sanctioned by the example of God, swearing 
by himself. Genesis xxii, 15 ; Heb. vi, 17, 18 ; 
and by the example of the patriarchs and saints 
of old ; thus Abraham swore by the most high 
God, Creator of heaven and earth, Gen. xiv, 
22 ; the transjordanite tribes, by the God of 
gods, the Lord, Joshua xxii, 22. And the law 
prescribed, "Thou shalt fea;r the Lord thy God, 
and serve him, and shalt swear by his name," 
Deut. vi, 13. And afterward, "All Judah re- 
joiced at the oath, for they had sworn unto 
the Lord with a loud voice, with all their heart, 
and sought him with their whole desire : and 
he was found of them ; and the Lord gave 
them rest round about," 2 Chron. xv, 14, 15. 
And a highly gifted Apostle uses the following 
most solemn asseveration, " The God and 
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed 
for evermore, knoweth that I lie not," 2 Cor. 
xi, 31. See the vows of the priests and Levites, 
to put away strange wives, Ezra x, 5 ; and to 
take no usury fi-om their brethren, Neh. x, 29. 
St. Paul also vowed a vow, which he performed, 
Acts xviii, 18 ; xxi, 23. Our Lord, therefore, 
reenacted the law, while he guarded against 
the abuse of it, by prohibiting all oaths in com- 
mon conversation, as a profanation either of 
God's name, where that was irreverently used, 
or where any of his works was substituted 
instead of the awful and terrible name of the 
Lord, which the Jews, through superstitious 
dread, at length ceased to use, from misinter- 
pretation of Deut. xxviii, 58 : " But I say unto 
you. Swear not at all," in common conversa- 
tion, by any of your usual oaths, " neither by 
heaven, for it is God's throne ; nor by the earth, 
for it is his footstool," &e. For, by the de- 
testable casuistry of the scribes and Pharisees, 
some oaths were reckoned binding, others not, 
as we learn from the sequel ; thus, to swear by 
the temple, the altar, heaven, &c, they con- 
sidered as not binding : but to swear by the 
gold of the temple, by the gift on the altar, &:.c, 
they cansid'ered as binding ; the absurdity and 
impiety of which practice is well exposed by 
our Lord in Matt, xxiii, 16-22. 

VULGATE, a very ancient Latin transla- 
tion of the Bible ; and the only one the church 
of Rome acknowledges to be authentic. The 
ancient Vulgate of the Old Testament wa& 
translated almost word for word, from the 
Greek of the Septuagint. The author of the 
version is not known. It was a long time 
known by the name of the Italic, or old ver- 



VUL 



945 



VUL 



sion ; as being of very great antiquity in the 
Latin cliurcli. It was the common, or vulgar 
version, before St. Jerom made a new one from 
the Hebrew original, with occasional references 
to the Septuagint ; whence it has its name 
Vulgate. Nobilius, in 1558, and F. Morin, in 
1628, gave new editions of it ; pretending to 
have restored and re-collated it from the an- 
cients who had cited it. It has since been 
retouched from the correction of St. Jerora ; 
and it is this mixture of the ancient Italic ver- 
sion, and some corrections of St. Jerom, that 
is now called the Vulgate, and which the coun- 
cil of Trent has declared to be authentic. It 
is this Vulgate alone that is used in the Romish 
church, excepting some passages of the ancient 
Vulgate, which were left in the Missal and the 
Psalms, and which are still sung according to 
the old Italic version. St. Jerom'declares that, 
in his revisal of the Italic version, he used great 
care and circumspection, never varying from 
that version but when he thought it misrepre- 
sented the sense. But as the Greek copies to 
which he had access were not so ancient as 
those from which the Italic version had been 
made, some learned authors have been of 
opinion that it would have been much better 
if he had collected all the copies, and, by com- 
paring them, have restored that translation to 
its original purity. It is plain that he never 
completed this work, and that he even left 
some faults in it, for fear of varying too much 
from the ancient version, since he renders in 
his commentaries some words otherwise than 
he has done in his translation. This version 
was not introduced into the church but by 
degrees, for fear of offending weak persons. 
Rufinus, notwithstanding his enmity to St. 
Jerom, and his having exclaimed much against 
this performance, was one of the first to prefer 
it to the vulgar or Italian. This translation 
gained at last so great an authority, by the 
approbation of Pope Gregory I., and his de- 
clared preference of it to every other, that it 
was subsequently brought into public use 
through all the western churches. Although 
it was not regarded as authentic, except by the 
council of Trent, it is certainly of some use, 
as serving to illustrate several passages both 
of the 0]d and New Testament. 

The two principal popish editions of the 
Vulgate are those of pope Sixtus V. and Cle- 
ment VIII. : the former was printed in 1590, 
after Pope Sixtus had collected the most an- 
cient MSS. and best printed copies, summoned 
the most learned men out of all the nations of 
the Christian world, assembled a congregation 
of cardinals for their assistance and counsel, 
and presided over the whole himself. This 
edition was declared to be corrected in the 
very best manner possible, and published with 
a tremendous excommunication against every 
person who should presume ever afterward to 
alter the least particle of the edition thus au- 
thentically promulgated by his holiness, sitting 
in that chair, in qua Petri vivit potestas, et 
excellit auctoritas, [in which the power of Pe- 
ter lived, and bis authority excelled.] The 
other edition was published in 1592, by Pope 



Clement VIII. ; which was so different from 
that of Sixtus, as to contain two tliousand va- 
riations, some of whole verses, and many 
others clearly and designedly contradictory in 
sense ; and yet this edition is also, ex cathedra, 
[from the chair,] pronounced as the only au- 
thentic one, and enforced by the same sentence 
of excommunication with the former. Clement 
suppressed the edition of his predecessor ; so 
that copies of the Sixtine Vulgate are now 
very scarce, and have long been reckoned 
among literary rarities. Our learned country- 
man. Dr. James, the celebrated correspondent 
and able coadjutor of Archbishop Usher, re- 
lates, with all the ardour of a hard student, 
the delight which he experienced on unexpect- 
edly obtaining a Sixtine copy ; and he used it 
to good and effective purpose in his very clever 
book, entitled " Bellum Papale" in which he 
has pointed out numerous additions, omis- 
sions, contradictions, and glaring differences 
between the Sixtine and Clementine editions. 
All the popish champions are exceedingly shy 
about recognizing this irreconcilable conflict 
between the productions of two such infallible 
personages ; and the boldest of them wish to 
represent it as a thing of nought. But it is no 
light matter thus to tamper with the word of 
God. 

The Romanists generally hold the Vulgate 
of the New Testament preferable to tlie com- 
mon Greek text ; because it is this alone, and 
not the Greek text, that the council of Trent 
has declared authentic : accordingly that 
church has, as it were, adopted this edition, 
and the priests read no other at the altar, the 
preachers quote no other in the pulpit, nor the 
divines in the schools. Yet some of their best 
authors, F. Bouhours for instance, own, that 
among the differences that are found between 
the common Greek and the Vulgate, there are 
some in which the Greek reading appears more 
clear and natural than that of the Latin ; so 
that the second might be corrected from the 
first, if the holy see should think fit. But those 
differences, taken in general, only consist in a 
few syllables or words; they rarely concern 
the sense. Beside, in some of the most con- 
siderable, the Vulgate is authorized by several 
ancient manuscripts. Bouhours spent the last 
years of his life in giving a French translation 
of the New Testament according to the Vul. 
gate. It is probable that at the time the an- 
cient Italic or Vulgate version of the New 
Testament was made, and at the time it was 
afterward compared with the Greek manu- 
scripts by St. Jerom, as they were then nearer 
the times ef the Apostles, they had more accu. 
rate Greek copies, and those better kept, than 
any of those used when printing was invented. 

" Highly as the Latin Vulgate is extolled by 
the church of Rome," says Michaelis, " it was 
depreci*ated beyond measure at the beginning 
of the sixteenth century by several learned 
Protestants, whose example has been followed 
by men of inferior abilities. At the restora- 
tion of learning, when the faculty of writing 
elegant Latin was the highest accomplishment 
of a scholar, the Vulgate was regarded with 



WAI/ 



946 



WAL 



contempt, as not written with classical purity. 
But after the Greek manuscripts were disco- 
vered, their readings were preferred to those 
of the Latin, because the New Testament was 
written in Greek, and the Latin was only a 
version ; but it was not considered that these 
Greek manuscripts were modern in compari- 
son of those originals from which the Latin 
was taken; nor was it known at that time, 
that the more ancient the Greek manuscripts 
and the other versions were, the closer was 
their agreement with the Vulgate. Our ablest 
writers, such as Mill and Bengel, have been 
induced by F. Simon's treatise to abandon the 
opinion of their predecessors, and have as- 
cribed to the Latin Vulgate a value perhaps 
greater than it deserves." 

VULTURE, T}H% and nxn. Lev. xi, 14 ; Isa. 
xxxiv, 15 ; a large bird of prey, somewhat re. 
cembling the eagle. There are several birds 
of the vulturine kind, which, though they dif- 
fer much in respect to colour and dimensions, 
yet are all easily distinguished by their naked 
heads, and beaks partly straight and partly 
crooked. They are frequent in Arabia, Egypt, 
and many parts of Africa and Asia. They 
have a most indelicate voracity, preying more 
upon carrion than live animals. They were 
declared unclean in the Levitical constitution. 

WALDENSES, WALLENSES, or ALBL 
GENSES, the Vaudois, of inhabitants of the 
beautiful valleys of the Alps, between Italy 
and Provence. Many have supposed that they 
derived their name from Peter Waldo, or Val- 
do, a merchant of Lyons, in the twelfth cen- 
tury, and one of their leaders and patrons ; but 
their history has been traced considerably far- 
ther back, which has led others to suppose 
that, on the contrary, he derived his name 
from them, as Peter the Waldensian, or Peter 
of the Valleys. The learned Dr. Allix, in his 
" History of the Churches of Piedmont," gives 
this account : For three hundred years or 
more, th« bishop of Rome attempted to subju- 
gate the church of Milan under his jurisdiction ; 
and at last the interest of Rome grew too po- 
tent for the church of Milan, planted by one 
of the disciples ; insomuch that the bishop and 
the people, rather than own their jurisdiction, 
retired to the valleys of Lucerne and Angrogne, 
and thence were called Vallenses, Wallenses, 
or. The People in the Valleys. From a con- 
fession of their faith, of the early date, A. D. 
1120, we extract the following particulars : 

1. That the Scriptures teach that there is one 
God, almighty, all-wise, and all-good, who 
made all things by his goodness ; for he formed 
Adam in his own image and likeness ; but that 
by the envy of the devil sin entered into the 
world, and that we are sinners in and by Adam. 

2. That Christ was promised to our fathers, 
who received the law ; that so knowing by the 
law their unrighteousness and insufficiency, 
they might desire the coming of Christ, to sa. 
tisfy for their sins, and accomplish the law by 
himself. 3. That Christ was born in the time 
appointed by God the Father ; that is to say, 
in the time when all iniquity abounded, that 



he might show us grace and mercy, as being 
faithful. 4. That Christ is our life, truth, 
peace, and righteousness ; as also our pastor, 
advocate, and priest, who died for the salvation 
of all who believe, and is risen for our justifi. 
cation. 5. That there is no mediator and ad. 
vocate with God the Father, save Jesus Christ. 
6. That after this life there are only two places, 
the one for the saved, and the other for the 
damned. 7. That the feasts, the vigils of 
saints, the water which they call holy, as 
also to abstain from flesh on certain days, 
and the like, but especially the masses, are the 
inventions of men, and ought to be rejected. 
8. That the sacraments are signs of the holy 
thing, visible forms of the invisible grace ; and 
that it is good for the faithful to use those 
signs or visible forms ; but th<it they are not 
essential to salvation. 9. That there are no 
other sacraments but baptism and the Lord'is 
Supper. 10. That we ought to honour the 
secular powers by subjection, ready obedience, 
and paying of tribute. On the subject of in- 
fant baptism, they held diiferent opinions, as^ 
Christians do in the present day. 

For bearing this noble testimony against the 
church of Rome, these pious people were for 
many centuries the subjects of a most cruel 
persecution ; and in the thirteenth century the 
pope instituted a crusade against them, and 
they were pursued with a fury perfectly dia- 
bolical. Their principles, however, continued 
unsubdued, and at the Reformation their de- 
scendants were reckoned among the Protest- 
tants, with whom they were in doctrine so 
congenial ; but in the seventeenth century the 
flames of persecution were again rekindled 
against them by the cruelty of Louis XIV. At 
the revocation of the edict of Nantz, about fif- 
teen thousand perished in the prisons of Pigne- 
rol, beside great numbers who perished among 
the mountains. They received, however, the 
powerful protection and support of England 
under William III. But still the house of 
Saxony continued to treat them as heretics, 
and they were oppressed by a variety of cruel 
edicts. 

When Piedmont was subjected to France in 
1800, the French government, Buonaparte 
being first consul, placed them on the same 
plan of toleration with the rest of France; but 
on the return of the king of Sardinia to Genoa, 
notv^ithstanding the intercession of Lord Wil- 
liam Bentinck, the old persecuting edicts were 
revived in the end of 1814; and though they 
have not been subjected to fire and faggot as 
aforetime, their worship has been restrained, 
and they were not only stripped of all employ- 
ments, but, by a most providential circum- 
stance only, saved from a general massacre. 
Since then they have been visited by some 
pious and benevolent Englishmen; and the 
number of Waldenses, or Vaudois, has been 
taken at nineteen thousand seren hundred 
and ten, beside about fifty families residing at 
Turin. 

Mr. Milner very properly connects this peo- 
ple with the Cathari, or Paulicians, of the 
seventh century, who resided chiefly in the 



WAR 



947 



WAR 



valleys of Piedmont, and who, in the twelfth 
century, according to this valuable historian, 
received a great accession of members frum 
the leai'ned labours and godly zeal of Peter 
Waldo, a pious man of unusual learning for a 
layman at that period. His thoughts being 
turned to divine things by the sudden death of 
a friend, he applied himself to the study of the 
Scriptures, and was, according to Mr. Milner, 
the first who, in the west of Europe, translated 
the Bible into a modern language. Waldo was 
rich, and distributed his wealth among the 
poor, and with it the bread of life, which en- 
deared him to the lower classes ; and it was 
probably the great increase of these pious peo- 
ple, in consequence of his exertions, which 
brought upon them the horrible crusade in the 
next century. This was, however, wholly on 
account of their pretended heresies, — their bit- 
terest enemies bearing testimony to the purity 
of their life and m.anners. Thus a pontifical 
inquisitor, quoted by Usher, says, " These he- 
retics are known by their manners and con- 
versation ; for they are orderly and modest in 
their behaviour and deportment; they avoid 
all appearance of pride in their dress ; they are 
chaste, temperate, and sober ; they seek not to 
amass riches ; they abstain from anger ; and, 
even wliile at work, arc either learning or 
teaching." Seysillius, another popish writer, 
says of them, " Their heresy excepted, they 
generally live a purer life than other Chris- 
tians." Liclenstenius, a Dominican, says, " In 
morals and life they are good ; true in words ; 
unanimous ia brotherly love; but their faith is 
incorrigible and vile, as I have shown you in 
my treatise." But most remarkable is the tes- 
timony of Reinerus, an inquisitor of the thir- 
teenth century : " Of all the sects which have 
been, or now exist, none is more injurious to 
the church, (that is, of Rome,) for three rea- 
sons : 1. Because it is more ancient. Some 
say it has continued from the time of Silves- 
ter ; others from the time of the Apostles. 2. 
Because it is more general. There is scarcely 
any country into which this sect has not crept. 
3. Because all other heretics excite horror by 
the greatness of their blasphemies against God ; 
but these have a great appearance of piety, as 
they live justly before men, and believe rightly- 
all things concerning God, and all the articles 
wliich are contained in the creed." 

WAR, or WARFARE, the attempt to decide 
a contest or difference between princes, states, 
or large bodies of people, by resorting to ex. 
tensive acts of violence, or, as the phrase is, by 
an appeal to arms. The Hebrews were for- 
merly a very warlike nation. The books that 
inform "us of their wars display neither igno- 
rance nor flattery ; but are writings inspired 
by the Spirit of truth and wisdom. Their 
warriors were none of those fabulous heroes or 
professed conquerors, whose business it was 
fo ravage cities and provinces, and to reduce 
foreign nations under their dominion, merely 
for the sake of governing, or purchasing a 
name for themselves. Tliey were commonly 
wise and valiant generals, raised up by God 
"to fight the battles of the Lord," and to 



exterminate his enemies. Such were Joshua, 
Caleb, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, David, 
Josiah, and the Maccabees, whose names alone 
are their own sufficient encomiums. Their 
wars were not undertaken upon slight occa- 
sions, or performed with a handful of people. 
Under Joshua the affair was of no less import, 
ance than to make himself master of a vast 
country which God had given up to him ; and 
to root out several powerful nations that 
God had devoted to an anathema ; and 
to vindicate an offended Deity, and human 
nature which had been debased by a wicked 
and corrupt people, who had filled up the 
measure of their iniquities. Under the Judges, 
the matter was to assert their liberty, by shaking 
off the yoke of powerful tyrants, who kept them 
in subjection. Under Saul and David the same 
motives prevailed to undertake war ; and to 
these were added a farther motive, of making 
a conquest of such provinces as God had pro- 
mised to his people. Far was it from their 
intention merely to reduce the power of the 
Philistines, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the 
Idumeans, the Arabians, the Syrians, and the 
several princes that were in possession of those 
countries. In the later times of the kingdoms 
of Israel and Judah, we observe their kings 
bearing the shock of the greatest powers of 
Asia, of the kings of Assyria and Chaldea, 
Shalmaneser, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and' 
Nebuchadnezzar, who made the whole east 
tremble. Under the Maccabees a handful of 
men opposed the Avhole power of the kings of 
Syria, and against them maintained the religion- 
of their fathers, and shook ofi" the yoke of their 
oppressors, who had a design both against their 
religion and liberty. In still later times, with- 
what courage, intrepidity, and constancy, did 
they sustain the war against the Romans, who 
were then masters of the world ! 

We may distinguish two kinds of wars 
among the Hebrews : some were of obligation, 
as being expressly commanded by the Lord ; 
but others were free and voluntary. The first 
were such as God appointed them to undertake : 
for example, against the Amalekites and the 
Canaanites, which were nations devoted to an 
anathema. The others were undertaken by 
the captains of the people, to revenge some 
injuries offered to the nation, to punish some 
insults or offences, or to defend their allies. 
Such was that which the Hebrews made against 
the city of Gibeah, and against the tribe of 
Benjamin, which would support them in their 
fault ; that which David made against the 
Ammonites, whose king had affronted his 
ambassadors ; and that of Joshua against the 
kings of the Canaanites, to protect the Gibe- 
onites. Whatever reasons authorize a nation 
or a prince to make war against another, ob- 
tained, likewise, among the Hebrews ; for all 
the laws of Moses suppose that the Israelites 
might make war, and might defend themselves, 
against their enemies. When a war was re- 
solved upon, all the people that were capable 
of bearing arms were collected together, or 
only part of them, dccording as the exigence 
of the existing case a,nd the necessity and im- 



WAR 



948 



WAR 



portance of the enterprise required. For it 
does not appear that, before the reign of King 
David, there were any regular troops or maga- 
zines in Israel. A general rendezvous was 
appointed, a review was made of the people by- 
tribes and by families, and then they marched 
against the enemy. When Saul, at the begin- 
ning of his reign, was informed of the cruel 
proposal that the Ammonites had made to the 
men of the city of Jabesh-Gilead, he cut in 
pieces the oxen belonging to his plough, and 
sent them through the country, saying, " Who- 
soever Cometh not forth after Saul and Samuel, 
to the relief of Jabesh-Gilead, so shall it be 
done unto his oxen," 1 Sam. xi, 7. In ancient 
times, those that went to war generally carried 
their own provisions along with them, or they 
took them from the enemy. Hence these wars 
were generally of short continuance ; because it 
was hardly possible to subsist a large body of 
troops for a long time with such provisions as 
e\ery one carried along with him. When Da- 
vid, Jesse's younger son, stayed behind to look 
after his father's flocks while his elder brothers 
went to the wars along with Saul, Jesse sent Da- 
vid to carry provisions to his brothers, 1 Sam. 
xvii, 13. We suppose that this way of making 
war prevailed also under Joshua, the Judges, 
Saul, David at the beginning of his reign, the 
kings of Judah and Israel who were successors 
to Rehoboam and Jeroboam, and under the Mac- 
cabees, till the time of Simon Maccabseus, 
prince and high priest of the Jews, who had 
mercenary troops, that is, soldiers who received 
pay, 1 Mac. xiv, 32. Every one also provided 
his own arms for the war. The kings of the 
Hebrews went to the wars in person, and, in 
earlier times, fought on foot, as well as the 
meanest of their soldiers ; no horses being used 
in the armies of Israel before David. The 
officers of war among the Hebrews were the 
general of the army, and the princes of the 
tribes or of the families of Israel, beside other 
princes or captains, some of a thousand, some 
of a hundred, some of fifty, and some of ten, 
men. They had also their scribes, who were a 
kind of commissaries that kept the muster roll 
of the troops ; and these had others under 
them who acted by their direction. 

Military fortifications were at first nothing 
more than a trench or ditch, dug round a few 
cottages on a hill or mountain, together with 
the mound, which was formed by the sand dug 
out of it ; except, perhaps, there might have 
sometimes been an elevated scaffolding for the 
purpose of throwing stones with the greater 
effect against the enemy. In the age of Moses 
and Joshua, the walls which surrounded cities 
were elevated to no inconsiderable height, and 
were furnished with towers. The art of forti- 
fication was encouraged and patronized by the 
Hebrew kings, and Jerusalem was always well 
defended, especially Mount Zion. In later 
times the temple itself was uised as a castle. 
The principal parts of a fortification were, 1. 
The wall, which, in some instances, was triple 
and double, 2 Chron. xxxii, 5. Walls were 
commonly made lofty and broad, so as to be 
neither readily passed over nor broken through. 



Jer. li, 58. The main wall terminated at the 
top in a parapet for the accommodation of the 
soldiers, which opened at intervals in a sort of 
embrasures, so as to give them an opportunity 
of fighting with missile weapons. 2. Towers, 
vv'hich were erected at certain distances from 
each other on the top of walls, and ascended 
to a great height, terminated at the top in a 
flat roof, and were surrounded with a parapet, 
which exhibited openings similar to those in 
the parapet of the walls. Towers of this kind 
were erected, likewise, over the gates of cities. 
In these towers guards were kept constantly 
stationed ; at least, this was the case in the 
time of the kings. It was their business to 
make known any thing that they discovered at 
a distance ; and whenever they noticed an 
irruption from an enemy, they blew the trumpet, 
to arouse the citizens, 2 Sam. xiii, 34; xviii, 
26, 27; 2 Kings ix, 17-19; Nahum ii, 1 ; 2 
Chron. xvii, 2. Towers, likewise, which were 
somewhat larger in size, were erected in dif- 
ferent parts of the country, particularly on 
places which were elevated; and these were 
guarded by a military force, Judges viii, 9, 17 ; 
ix, 46, 49, 51 ; Isaiah xxi, 6 ; Hab. ii, 1 ; 
Hosea v, 8 ; Jer. xxxi, 6. We find, even to 
this day, that the circular edifices of this sort, 
which are still erected in the solitudes of Arabia 
Felix, bear their ancient name of castles or 
towers. 3. The walls were erected in such a 
way as to curve inward; the extremities of 
them, consequently, projected outward, and 
formed a kind of bastions. The object of 
forming the walls so as to present, such pro- 
jections, was to enable the inhabitants of the 
besieged city to attack the assailants in flank. 
We learn from the history of Tacitus, that the 
walls of Jerusalem, at the time of its being 
attacked by the Romans, were built in this 
manner. These projections were introduced 
byKingUzziah, B.C. 810, and are subsequently 
mentioned in Zeph. i, 16. 4. The digging of 
a fosse put it in the power of the inhabitants 
of a city to increase the elevation of the walls, 
and of itself threw a serious difficulty in the 
way of an enemy's approach, 2 Sara, xx, 15 ; 
Isaiah xxvi, 1; Neh. iii, 8; Psalm xlviii, 13. 
The fosse, if the situation of the place admitted 
it, was filled with water. This was the case 
at Babylon. 5. The gates were at first made 
of wood, and were small in size. They were 
constructed in the manner of valve doors, and 
were secured by means of wooden bars. Sub- 
sequently, they were made larger and stronger ; 
and, in order to prevent their being burned, were 
covered with plates of brass or iron. The 
bars were covered in the same manner, in 
order to prevent their being cut asunder ; but 
it was sometimes the case that they were made 
wholly of iron. The bars were secured by a 
sort of lock, Psalm cvii, 16 ; Isaiah xlv, 2. 

Previously to commencing war, the Hea- 
then nations consulted oracles, soothsayers, 
necromancers, and also the lot, which was 
ascertained by shooting arrows of different 
colours, 1 Sam. xxviii, 1-10 ; Isaiah xli, 21-24 ; 
Ezek. XXV, 11. The Hebrews, to whom thing? 
of this kind were interdicted, were in the habit. 



WAR 



949 



WAT 



in the early part of their history, of inquiring 
of God by means of Urim and Tliummiin, 
Judges i, 1 ; xx, 27, 28 ; 1 Sam. xxiii, 2 ; xxviii, 
6 ; xxx, 8. After the time of David, the kings 
who reigned in Palestine consulted, according 
to the different characters which they sustained, 
and the feelings which they exercised, some- 
times true prophets, and sometimes false, in 
respect to the issue of war, 1 Kings xxii, 6-13 ; 

2 Kings xix, 2, &-c. Sacrifices were also offered, 
in reference to which the soldiers were said to 
consecrate themselves to the war, Isaiah xiii, 

3 ; Jer. vi, 4 ; li, 27 ; Joel iii, 9 ; Obad. 1. There 
are instances of formal declarations of war, and 
sometimes of previous negotiations, 2 Kings 
xiv, 8 ; 2 Chron. xxv, 27 ; Judges xi, 12-28 ; 
but ceremonies of this kind were not always 
observed, 2 Sam. x, 1-12. When the enemy 
made a sudden incursion, or when the war was 
unexpectedly commenced, the alarm was given 
to the people by messengers rapidly sent forth, 
by the sound of warlike trumpets, by standards 
floating on the loftiest places, by the clamour 
of many voices on the mountains, that echoed 
from summit to summit. Judges iii, 27 ; vi, 34 ; 
vii, 22 ; xix, 29, 30 ; 1 Sam. xi, 7, 8 ; Isaiah 
V, 26 ; xiii, 2 ; xviii, 3 ; xxx, 17 ; xlix, 2 ; Ixii, 10. 
Military expeditions commonly commenced in 
the spring, 2 Sam. xi, 1, and were continued in 
the summer, but in the winter the soldiers went 
into quarters. The firm persuasion that God 
fights for the good against the wicked, discovers 
itself in the Old Testament, and accounts for 
the fact, that, not only in the Hebrew, but also 
in the Arabic, Syriac, and Chaldaic languages, 
words, which originally signify justice, inno- 
cence, or uprightness, signify likewise victory ; 
and that words, whose usual meaning is injus- 
tice or wickedness, also mean defeat or over- 
throw. The same may be said in respect to 
words which signify help or aid, inasmuch as 
the nation which conquered received aid from 
God, and God was its helper. Psalm vii, 9 ; ix, 
9 ; XX, 6 ; xxvi, 1 ; xxxv, 24 ; xliii, 1 ; xliv, 5 ; 
Ixxv, 3 ; Ixxvi, 13 ; Ixxviii, 9 ; Ixxxii, 8 ; 1 Sam. 
xiv, 45 ; 2 Kings v, 1 ; Isa. lix, 17 ; Hab. iii, 8. 

The attack of the orientals in battle has 
always been, and is to this day, characterized 
by vehemence and impetuosity. In case the 
enemy sustain an unaltered front, they retreat, 
but it is not long before they return again with 
renewed ardour. It was the practice of the 
Roman armies to stand still in the order of 
battle, and to receive the shock of their op. 
posers. To this practice there are allusions in 
the following passages : 1 Cor. xvi, 13 ; Gal. 
V, 1 ; Eph. vi, 14 ; Phil, i, 27 ; 1 Thess. iii, 8 ; 
2 Thess. ii, 15. The Greeks, while they were 
yet three or four furlongs distant from the 
enemy, commenced the song of war ; some- 
thing resembling which occurs in 2 Chron. xx, 
21. They then raised a shout, which was also 
done among the Hebrews, 1 Sam. xvii, 52; 
Joshua vi, 6 ; Isa. v, 29, 30 ; xvii, 12 ; Jer. iv, 
19 ; xxv, 30. The war shout in Judges vii, 20, 
was as follows, " The sword of the Lord and 
of Gideon." In some instances it seems to have 
been a mere yell or inarticulate cry. The mere 
march of armies with their weapons, chariots, 



and trampling coursers, occasioned a-great and 
confused noise, which is compared by the pro- 
phets to the roaring of the ocean, and the dash, 
ing of the mountain torrents, Isa. xvii, 12, 13 ; 
xxvii, 2. The descriptions of battles in the 
Bible are very brief; but although there is 
nothing especially said, in respect to the order 
in which the battle commenced and was con- 
ducted, there is hardly a doubt that the light- 
armed troops, as was the case in other nations, 
were the first in the engagement. The main 
body followed them, and, with their spears ex- 
tended, made a rapid and impetuous movement 
upon the enemy. Hence swiftness of foot in 
a soldier is mentioned as a ground of great 
commendation, not only in Homer, but in the 
Bible, 2 Sam. ii, 19-24 ; 1 Chron. xii, 8 ; Psalm 
xviii, 33. Those who obtained the victory 
were intoxicated with joy ; the shout of tri- 
umph resounded from mountain to mountain, 
Isa. xiii, 11 ; Iii, 7, 8 ; Jer. 1, 2 ; Ezek. vii, 7 ; 
Nahum i, 15. The whole of the people, not 
excepting the women, went out to meet the 
returning conquerors with singing and with 
dancing. Judges xi, 34-37 ; 1 Sam. xviii, 6, 7. 
Triumphal songs were uttered for the living, 
and elegies for the dead, 2 Sam. i, 17, 18 ; 
2 Chron. xxxv, 25 ; Judges v, 1-31 ; Exod. xv, 
1-21. Monuments in honour of the victory were 
erected, 2 Sam. viii, 13; Psalm Ix, 1 ; and the 
arms of the enem.y were hung up as trophies in 
the tabernacle, 1 Sam. xxxi, 10 ; 2 Kings xi, 10. 
The soldiers who conducted themselves meri- 
toriously were honoured with presents, and 
had the opportunity of entering into honourable 
matrimonial connections, Joshua xiv ; 1 Sam, 
xvii, 25; xxviii, 17; 2 Sam. xviii, 11. See 
Armies, and Arms. 

WATER. In the sacred Scriptures, bread 
and water are commonly mentioned as the 
chief supports of human life ; and to provide 
a sufficient quantity of water, to prepare it for 
use, and to deal it out to the thirsty, are among 
the principal cares of an oriental householder. 
The Moabites and Ammonites are reproached 
for not meeting the Israelites with bread and 
water ; that is, with proper refreshments, Deut. 
xxxiii, 4. Nabal says in an insulting manner 
to David's messengers, " Shall I then take my 
bread and my water, and my flesh that I have 
killed for my shearers, and give it unto men 
whom I know not whence they be ?" 1 Sam. 
xxv, 11. To furnish travellers with water is, 
even in present times, reckoned of so great im- 
portance, that many of the eastern philanthro- 
pists have been at considerable expense to 
procure them that enjoyment. The nature of 
the climate, and the general aspect of the ori- 
ental regions, require numerous fountains to 
excite and sustain the languid powers of vege- 
tation ; and the sun, burning with intense heat 
in a cloudless sky, demands for the fainting 
inhabitants the verdure, shade, and coolness 
which vegetation produces. Hence fountains 
of living water are met with in the towns and 
villages, in the fields and gardens, and by the 
sides of the roads and of the beaten tracks on 
the mountains ; and a cup of cold water from 
these wells is no contemptible nresent. " Fa, 



WAT 



950 



WAY 



tigued with heat and thirst," says Carne, " we 
came to a few cottages in a palin wood, and 
stopped to drink of a fountain of delicious 
water In this northern eiimate no idea can 
be formed of tlie luxury of drinking in Egypt-: 
little appetite for food is felt ; but when, after 
crossing the burning sands, you reach the rich 
line of woods on the brink of the Nile, and 
pluck the fresh limes, and, mixing their juice 
with Egyptian sugar and the soft river water, 
drink repeated bowls of lemonade, you feel 
that every other pleasure of the senses must 
yield to this One then perceives the beauty 
and force of those similes in Scripture, where 
the sweetest emotions of the heart are com- 
pared to the assuaging of thirst in a thirsty 
land." In Arabia, equal attention is paid, by 
the wealthy and benevolent, to the refreshment 
of the traveller. On one of the mountains of 
Arabia, Niebuhr found three little recervoirs, 
which are always kept full of fine w^ater for 
the use of passengers. These reservoirs, which 
are about two feet and a half square, and from 
five to seven feet high, are round, or pointed 
at the top, of mason's work, having only a 
small opening in one of the sides, by which 
they pour v^^ater into them. Sometimes he 
found, near these places of Arab refreshment, 
a piece of a ground shell, or a little scoop of 
wood, for lifting the water. The same atten- 
tion to the comfort of travellers is manifested 
in Egypt, w^here public buildings are set apart 
in some of their cities, the business of whose 
inhabitants is to supply the passengers with 
water free of expense. Some of these houses 
make a very handsome appearance ; and the 
persons appointed to wait on the passengers 
are required to have some vessels of copper, 
curiously tinned and filled with v\'ater, always 
ready on the window next the street. Some 
of the Mohammedan villages in Palestine, not 
far from Nazareth, brought Mr. Buckingham 
and his party bread and v/ater, while on horse- 
back, withoul even being solicited to do so ; 
and when they halted to accept it, both com- 
pliments and blessings w^ere mutually inter- 
changed. "Here, as in every other part of 
Nubia," says Burckhardt, " the thirsty travel- 
ler finds, at short distances, water jars placed 
by the road side under a low roof. Every vil- 
lage pays a small monthly stipend to some 
person to fill these jars in the morning, and 
again toward evening. The same custom pre- 
vails in Upper Egypt, but on a larger scale : 
and there are caravanserais often found near 
the wells which supply travellers v,-ith water." 
In India the Hindoos go sometimes a great 
way to fetch water, and then boil it, that it 
may not be hurtful to travellers that are hot ; 
and after this. stand from morning till night in 
some great road, where there is neither pit nor 
rivulet, and offer it in honour of their gods, to 
be drunk by the passengers. This necessary 
work of charity in these hot countries seems 
to have been practised among the more pious 
and humane Jews ; and our Lord assures them, 
that if they do this in his name, they shall not 
lose their reward. Hence a cup of water is a 
present in the east of great value, though there 



are some other refreshments of a superior 
quality. It is still the proper business of the 
females to supply the family with water. 
From this drudgery, however, the married 
w^omen are exempted, unless when single 
women are wanting. The proper time for 
drawing water in those burning climates is in 
the morning, or v/hen the sun is going down ; 
then they go forth to perform that humble 
office adorned with their trinkets, some of 
which are often of great value. Agreeably to 
this custom Rebecca went instead of her mother 
to fetch water from the well, and the servant 
of Abraham expected to meet an unmarried 
female there who might prove a suitable match 
for his master's son. In the East Indies, the 
women also draw water at the public w^ells, as 
Rebecca did, on that occasion, for travellers, 
their servants and their cattle ; and women of 
no mean rank literally illustrate the conduct 
of an unfortunate princess in the Jewish his- 
tory, by performing the services of a menial, 
2 Sam. xiii, 8. The young women of Guzerat 
daily draw water from the v^^ells, and carry the 
jars upon the- head; but those of high rank 
carry them upon the shoulder. In the same 
way Rebecca carried her pitcher ; and probably 
for the same reason, because she was the daugh- 
ter of an eastern prince. Gen. xxiv, 45. 

Water sometimes signifies the element of 
water. Gen. i, 10 ; and metaphorically, trouble 
and afflictions, Psalm Ixix, 1. In the language 
of the prophets, w^aters often denote a great 
multitude of people, Isa. viii, 7 ; Rev. xvii, 15. 
Water is put for children or posterity. Num. 
xxiv, 7 ; Isa. xlviii, 1 ; for the clouds. Psalm 
civ, 3. Waters sometimes stand for tears, Jer. 
ix, 1, 7 ; for the ordinances of the Gospel, Isa. 
xii, 3 ; XXXV, 6, 7 ; Iv, 1 ; John vii, 37, 38. 
"Stolen waters" denote unlawful pleasures 
with strange w^omen, Prov. ix, 17. The Is- 
raelites are reproached wath having forsaken 
the fountain of living water, to quench their 
thirst, at broken cisterns, Jer. ii, 13; that is, 
with having quitted the worship of God for the 
worship of false and ridiculous deities. Waters 
of Meribah, or the waters of strife, were so 
calbd because of the quarrelling or contention 
and murmuring of the Israelites against Mo- 
ses and against God. When they came to 
Kadesh, and there happened to be in want 
of water, they made a sedition against him and 
his brother Aaron, Numbers xx, 1, &c. Upon 
this occasion Moses committed that great sin 
with which God was so much displeased, that 
he deprived him of the honour of introducing 
his people into the land of promise. 

WAX, Jjn, Psalm xxii, 14 ; Ixviii, 2 ; xcvii, 
5 ; Micah i, 4. Thus the LXX. throughout, 
Kripdg, and vulgate cera ; so there is no room to 
doubt but this is the true meaning of the word : 
and the idea of the root appears to be sofl, 
melting, yielding, or the like, which properties 
are not only well known to belong to wax, but 
are also intimated in all the passages of Scrip- 
ture in which this word occurs. 

WAYFARING MEN. In the primitive 
ages of the world there were no public inns or 
t&;yerns. lu those days the voluntary exhi- 



WAY 



951 



WAY 



bition of hospitality to one who stood in need 
of it was highly honourable. The glory of an 
open-hearted and generous hospitality con- 
tinued even after public inns or caravanserais 
were erected, and continues to this day in the 
east, Job xxii, 7; xxxi, 17; Gen. xviii, 3-9; 
xix, 2-10 ; Exodus ii, 20 ; Judges xix, 2-10 ; 
Acts xvi, 15 ; xvii, 7 ; xxviii, 7 ; Matt, xxv, 
35 ; Mark ix, 41 ; Rom. xii, 13 ; 1 Tim. iii, 2 ; 
v, 10 ; Heb. xiii, 2. Buckingham in his " Tra- 
vels among the Arab Tribes," says, "Afoot 
passenger coujd make his way at little or no 
expense, as travellers and wayfarers of every 
description halt at the sheikh's dwelling, where, 
whatever may be the rank or condition of the 
stranger, before any questions are asked him 
as to where he comes from, or whither he is 
going, coffee is served to him from a large pot 
always on the fire ; and a meal of bread, milk, 
oil, honey, or butter, is set before him, for 
which no payment is ever demanded or even 
expected by the host, who, in this manner, 
feeds at least twenty persons on an average 
every day in the year from his own purse ; at 
least, I could not learn that he was remune- 
rated in any manner for this expenditure, 
though it is considered as a necessary conse- 
quence of his situation, as chief of the com- 
munity, that he should maintain this ancient 
practice of hospitality to strangers. — We had 
been directed to the house of Eesa, or Jesus. 
Our horses were taken into the court yard of 
the house, and unburdened of their saddles, 
without a single question being asked on either 
side ; and it was not until we had seated our- 
selves that our intention to remain here for the 
night was communicated to the master of the 
house : so much is it regarded a matter of 
course, that those who have a house to shelter 
themselves in, and food to partake of, should 
share those comforts with wayfarers." • The 
passage in Isa. xxxv, S, " The wayfaring men, 
though fools, shall not err therein," receives 
elucidation from some of the accounts of mo- 
dern travellers. Irwin, speaking- of his pass- 
ing through the deserts on the eastern side of 
the Nile, in his going from Upper Egypt to 
Cairo, tells us, that, after leaving a certain 
valley, which he mentions, their road lay over 
level ground. "As it would be next to an 
impossibility to find the way over these stony 
flats, where the heavy foot of a camel leaves 
no impression, the different bands of robbers," 
wild Arabs, he means, who frequent that de. 
sert, " have heaped up stones at unequal dis- 
tances for their direction through this desert. 
We have derived great assistance from the 
robbers in this respect, who are our guides 
when the marks either fail, or are uninteUigi- 
ble to us." " It was on the 24th of March," 
says Hoste, " that I departed from Alexandria 
for Rosetta : it was a good day's journey 
thither, over a level country, but a perfect de- 
sert, so that the wind plays with the sand, and 
there is no trace of a road. We travel first 
six leagues along the sea coast; but when 
we leave this, it is about six leagues more 
to Rosetta, and from thence to the town 
there are high stone or bark pillars, in a 



line, according to which travellers direct their 
journey." 

WAYS, in Scripture, means conduct : for 
example : " Make your paths straight." The 
paths of the wicked are crooked. To forsake 
the ways of the Lord, is to forsake his laws. 
Ways also signifies custom, manners, and way 
of life : " All flesh had corrupted his way upon 
the earth," Gen. vi, 12 ; xix, 31 ; Jer. xxxii, 19. 
The way of the Lord expresses his conduct tcr 
us : " My tlioughts are not your thoughts, 
neither are your ways my ways, saith the 
Lord," Isa. Iv, 8. We find through the whole 
of Scripture this kind of expressions : TJie way 
of peace, of justice, of iniquity, of truth, of 
darkness. To go the way of all the earth, 
Joshua xxiii, 14, signifies dying and the grave. 
A hard way represents the way of sinners, a 
way of impiety. Judges ii, 19. Jesus Christ is 
called the Way, John xiv, G, because it is by 
him alone that believers obtain eternal life, and 
an entrance into heaven. The psalmist says, 
"Thou wilt show me the path of life," Psalm 
xvi, 11 ; that is, Thou wilt raise my body from 
death to life, and conduct me to the place and 
state of everlasting happiness. When a great 
prince in the east sets out on a journey, it is 
usual to send a party of men before him, to 
clear the way. The state of those countries 
in every age, where roads are almost unknown^ 
and, from the vv^ant of cultivation, in many 
parts overgrown with brambles, and other 
thorny plants, which renders travelling, espe- 
cially with a large retinue, very incommodious, 
requires this precaution. The emperor of Hin- 
dostan, in his progress through his dominions, 
as described in the narrative of Sir Thomas 
Roe's embassy to the court of Delhi, was pre- 
ceded by a very great company, sent before 
him to cut up the trees and bushes, to level 
and smooth the road, and prepare their place 
of encampment. Balin, who swayed the im- 
perial sceptre of India, had five hundred chosen 
men, in rich livery, with their drawn sabres, 
who ran before him, proclaiming his approach, 
and clearing the way. Nor was this honour 
reserved exclusively for the reigning emperor; 
it was often shown to persons of royal birth. 
When an Indian princess made a visit to her 
father, the roads were directed to be repaired, 
and made clear for her journey ; fruit trees 
were planted, water vessels placed in the road 
side, and great illuminations prepared for the 
occasion. Mr. Bruce gives nearly the same 
account of a journey, which the king of Abys- 
sinia made through a part of his dominions. 
The chief magistrate of every district through 
which he had to pass was, by his office, 
obliged to have the roads cleared, levelled, and 
smoothed ; and he mentions, that a magistrate 
of one of the districts, having failed in this 
part of his duty, was, together with his son, 
immediately put to death on the spot, where a 
thorn happened to catch the garment, and in- 
terrupt for a moment the progress of his majes- 
ty. This custom is easily recognized in that 
beautiful prediction : " The voice of him that 
crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way 
of the Lord, make straiglit in the desert ^ 



WEA 



952 



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highway for our God. Every valley shall be 
exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be 
brought low ; and the croolced shall be made 
straight, and the rougli places plain ; and the 
glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all 
flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the 
Lord hath spoken it," Isa, xl, 3-5. We shall 
be able, perhaps, to form a more clear and 
precise idea, from the account which Diodorus 
gives of the marches of Semiramis, the cele- 
brated queen of Babylon, into Media and 
Persia. In her march to Ecbatane, says the 
historian, she came to the Zarcean mountain, 
which, extending many furlongs, and being 
full of craggy precipices and deep hollows, 
could not be passed without taking a great 
compass. Being therefore desirous of leaving 
an everlasting memorial of herself, as well as of 
shortening the way, she ordered the precipices 
to be digged down, and the hollows to be filled 
np ; and at great expense she made a shorter 
and more expeditious road ; which to this day 
is called, from her, the road of Semiramis. 
Afterward she went into Persia, and all the 
other countries of Asia subject to her domi- 
nion ; and wherever she went, she ordered the 
mountains and the precipices to be levelled, 
and raised causeways in the plain country, and 
at a great expense made the ways passable. 
Whatever may be in this story, the following 
statement is entitled to the fullest credit : " All 
eastern potentates have their precursors and a 
number of pioneers to clear the road, by re- 
moving obstacles, and filling up the ravines 
and the hollow ways in their route. In the 
days of Mogul splendour, the emperor caused 
the hills and mountains to be levelled, and the 
valleys to be filled up for his convenience. 
This beautifully illustrates the figurative lan- 
guage in the approach of the Prince of Peace, 
wlien every valley shall be exalted, and every 
mountain and hill shall be made low, and the 
crooked shall be made straight, and the rough 
places plain." 

WEAVING. The combined arts of spin- 
ning and weaving are among the first essen- 
tials of civilized society, and we find both to 
be of very ancient origin. The fabulous story 
of Penelope's web, and, still more, the frequent 
allusions to this art in the sacred writings, tend 
to show that the fabrication of cloth from 
threads, hair, &c, is a very ancient invention. 
It has, however, like other useful arts, under- 
gone a vast succession of improvements, both 
as to the preparation of the materials of which 
cloth is made, and the apparatus necessary in 
its construction, as well as in the particular 
modes of operation by the artist. \Veaving, 
when reduced to its original principle, is no- 
thing more than the interlacing of the weft or 
cross threads into the parallel threads of the 
warp, so as to tie them together, and form a 
web or piece of cloth. This art is doubtless 
more ancient than that of spinning ; and the 
first cloth was what we now call matting, that 
is, made by weaving together the shreds of the 
bark, or fibrous parts of plants, or the stalks, 
such as rushes and straws. This is still the 
substitute for cloth among most rude and sa- 



vage nations. When they have advanced a 
step farther in civilization than the state of 
hunters, the skins of animals become scarce, 
and they require some more artificial substance 
for clothing, and which they can procure in 
greater quantities. When it was discovered 
that the delicate and short fibres which ani- 
mals and vegetables afford could be so firmly 
united together by twisting, as to form threads 
of any required length and strength, the weal- 
ing art was placed on a very permanent foun- 
dation. By the process of spinning, which 
was very simple in the origin, the weaver is 
fiirnished with threads far superior to any na- 
tural vegetable fibres in lightness, strength, and 
flexibility ; and he has only to combine them 
together in the most advantageous manner. 
In the beautiful description which is given, in 
the last chapter of Solomon's Proverbs, of the 
domestic economy of the virtuous woman, it 
is said, " She seeketh wool and flax, and work- 
eth willingly with her hands : she layeth her 
hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the 
distaff". She maketh herself coverings of tapes- 
try," &c. Such is the occupation of females 
in the east in the present day. Not only do 
they employ themselves in working rich em- 
broideries, but in making carpets filled with 
flowers and other pleasing figures. Dr. Shaw 
gives us an account of the last : " Carpets, 
which are much coarser than those from Tur- 
key, are made here in great numbers, and of 
all sizes. But the chief branch of their manu- 
factories is the making of hykes, or blankets, 
as we should call them. The women alone 
are employed in this work, (as Andromache 
and Penelope were of old,) who do not use the 
shuttle, but conduct every thread of the woof 
with their fingers." Hezekiah says, " I have 
cut off" like a weaver my life," Isa. xxxviii, 12. 
Mr. Harmer suggests whether the simile here 
used may not refer to the weaving of a carpet 
filled with flowers and other ingenious devices ; 
and that the meaning may be, that, just as a 
weaver, after having wrought many decora- 
tions into a piece of carpeting, suddenly cuts 
it off", while the figures were rising into view 
fresh and beautiful, and the spectator expecting 
he would proceed in his work ; so, after a vari- 
ety of pleasing transactions in the course of life, 
it suddenly and unexpectedly comes to its end. 
WEEKS. A period of seven days, under 
the usual name of a week, nyaa', is mentioned 
as far back as the time of the deluge. Gen. vii, 
4, 10 ; viii, 10, 12 ; xxix, 27, 28. It must, there- 
fore, be considered a very ancient division of 
time, especially as the various nations among 
whom it has been noticed, for instance, the 
Nigri in Africa, appear to have received it 
from the sons of Noah. The enumeration of 
the days of the week commenced at Sunday. 
Saturday was the last or seventh, and was the 
Hebrew Sabbath, or day of rest. The Egyp- 
tians gave to the days of the week the same 
names that they assigned to the planets. 
From the circumstance that the Sabbath was 
the principal day of the week, the whole period 
of seven days was likewise called noiy, in Sy- 
riac vNpatr, in the New Testament cd6C,aTov and 



WEL 



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auttara. The Jews, accordingly, in designat- 
ing the successive days of the week, were ac- 
customed to say, the first day of the Sabbath, 
tliat is, of the week ; the second day of the 
Sabbath, that is, Sunday, Monday, &c, Mark 
xvi, 2, 9 ; Luke xxiv, 1 ; John xx, i, 19. In 
addition to the week of days, the Jews had 
three other seasons, denominated weeks. Lev. 
XXV, 1-17 ; Dent, xvi, 9-10 : 1. The week of 
weeks. It was a period of seven weeks or 
forty-nine days, which was succeeded on the 
fiftieth day by the feast of pentecost, zsevrriKos-fi, 
"fifty," Deut. xvi, 9, 10. 2. The week of 
years. This was a period of seven years, du- 
ring the last of which the land remained un- 
tilled, and the people enjoyed a Sabbath or 
season of rest. 3, The week of seven sabba- 
tical years. It was a period of forty-nine 
years, and was succeeded by the year of jubi- 
lee. Lev. XXV, 1-22 ; xxvi, 34. See Year. 

WEIGHTS. See " Table of Weights and 
Measures" at the end of the volume. 

WELLS. Wlien the pool, the fountain, and 
the river fail, the oriental shepherd is reduced 
to the necessity of digging wells ; and, in the 
patriarchal age, the discovery of water was 
reckoned of sufficient importance to be the 
subject of a formal report to the master of the 
flock, who commonly distinguished the spot 
by an appropriate name. A remarkable in- 
stance of this kind is recorded by Moses in 
these terms: "And Isaac departed thence, 
and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, 
and dwelt there. And Isaac digged again the 
wells of water which they had digged in the 
days of Abraham his father ; for the Philis- 
tines had stopped them after the death of 
Abraham ; and he called their names after the 
names by which his father had called them. 
And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and 
found there a well of springing water. And 
the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's 
herdmen, saying. The water is ours ; and he 
called the name of the well Ezek, because they 
strove with him. And they digged another 
well; and they strove for that also, and he 
called the name of it Sitnah, (opposition ;) and 
he removed from thence and digged another 
well : and for that they strove not ; and he 
called the name of it Rehoboth, (room ;) and 
he said, For now the Lord hath made room for 
us, and we shall be fruitful in the land," Gen. 
xxvi, 17, &LC. "Strife," says Dr. Richardson, 
" between the different villagers and the differ- 
ent herdsmen here, exists still, as it did in the 
days of Abraham and Lot : the country has 
often changed masters ; but the habits of the 
natives, both in this and other respects, have 
been nearly stationary." So important was 
the successful operation of sinking a well in 
Canaan, that the sacred historian remarks in 
another passage: "And it came to pass the 
same day, (that Isaac and Abimelech had con- 
cluded their treaty,) that Isaac's servants came 
and told him concerning the well which they 
had digged, and said unto him, We have found 
water; and he called it Shebah, (the oath,) 
therefore the name of the city is Beershebah 
unto this day," Gen. xxvi, 33. To prevent the 



sand, which is raised from the parched surface 
of tire ground by the winds, from filling tip 
their wells, they were obliged to cover tliera 
with a stone. In this manner the well was 
covered, from which the flocks of Laban were 
commonly watered : and the shepherds, care- 
ful not to leave them open at any time, pa- 
tiently waited.till all the flocks were gathered 
together, before they removed the covering, 
and then, having drawn a sufficient quantity 
of water, they replaced the stone inuuediately. 
The extreme scarcity of water in these arid 
regions, entirely justifies such vigilant and 
parsimonious care in the management of this 
precious fluid ; and accounts for the fierce con- 
tentions about the possession of a well, which 
so frequently happened between the shepherds 
of different masters. But after the question 
of right, or of possession, was decided, it would 
seem the shepherds were often detected in 
fraudulently watering their flocks and herds 
from their neighbour's well. To prevent this, 
they secured the cover witli a lock, which 
continued in use so late as the days of Char- 
din, who frequently saw such precautions used 
in different parts of Asia, on account of the 
real scarcity of water there. According to 
that intelligent traveller, when the wells and 
cisterns were not locked up, some person was 
so far the proprietor that no one dared to open 
a well or cistern but in his presence. This 
was probably the reason that the shepherds 'jf 
Padanaram declined the invitation of Jacob 
to water the flocks, before they were all as- 
sembled ; either they had not the key of the 
lock which secured the stone, or, if they had^ 
they durst not open it but in the presence of 
Rachel, to whose father the well belonged. It 
is ridiculous to suppose the stone was so heavy 
that the united strength of several Mesopota- 
mian shepherds could not roll it from the 
mouth of the well, when Jacob had strength 
or address to remove it alone ; or that, though 
a stranger, he ventured to break a standing 
rule for watering the flocks, which the natives 
did not dare to do, and that without opposition. 
The oriental shepherds were not on other oc- 
casions so passive, as the violent conduct of 
the men of Gerar sufficiently proves. 

Twice in the day they led their flocks to the 
wells ; at noon, and when the sun was going 
down. To water the flocks was an operation 
of much labour, and occupied a considerable 
space of time. It was, therefore, an office of 
great kindness with which Jacob introduced 
himself to the notice of his relations, to roll 
back the stone which lay upon the mouth of 
the well, and draw water for the flocks which 
Rachel tended. Some of these wells are fur- 
nished with troughs and flights of steps down 
to the water, and other contrivances to facili- 
tate the labour of watering the cattle. It is 
evident the well to which Rebekah went to 
draw water, near the city of Nahor, had some 
convenience of this kind; for it is written, 
" Rebekah hasted and emptied her pitcher into 
the trough, and ran again unto the well to 
draw water, and drew for all his camels," Gen. 
xxiv, 20. A trough was also placed by tho 



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well, from which the daughters of Jcthro wa- 
tered his flocks, Exod. ii, IG; and, if we may 
judge from circumstances, was a usual contri- 
vance in every part of the east. In modern 
times, Mr. Park found a trough near the well, 
from which the Moors watered their cattle, in 
the sandy deserts of Sahara. Dr. Shaw, speak- 
ing of the occupation of the Moorish women 
in Barbary, says, " To finish the day, at the 
time of the evening, even at the time that the 
women go out to draw water, they are still to 
fit themselves with a pitcher or goat skin, and 
tying their sucking children behind them, 
trudge it in this manner two or three miles to 
fetch water." " The women in Persia," says 
Morier, " go in troops to draw water for the 
place. I have seen the elder ones sitting and 
chatting at the well, and spinning the coarse 
cotton of the country, while the young girls 
filled the skins which contain the water, and 
which they all carry on their backs into the 
town." "A public well," says Forbes, "with- 
out the gate of Diamonds, in the city Dhuboy, 
was a place of great resort : there, most travel- 
lers halted for shade and refreshment : the wo- 
men frequented the fountains and reservoirs 
morning and evening, to draw water. Many 
of the Gwzerat wells have steps leading down 
to the surface of the water ; others have not, 
nor do I recollect any furnished with buckets 
and ropes for the convenience of a stranger ; 
most travellers are therefore provided with 
them, and halcarras and religious pilgrims fre- 
quently carry a small brass pot affixed to a 
long string for this purpose." 

WHALE, p and ^jn. Gen. i, 21 ; Job vii, 
12 ; Ezek. xxxii, 2 ; kT^oc, Matt, xii, 40 ; the 
largest of all the inhabitants of the water. A 
late author, in a dissertation expressly for the 
purpose, has proved that the crocodile, and 
not the whale, is spoken of in Gen. i, 21. The 
word in Job vii, 12, must also be taken for the 
crocodile. It must mean some terrible ani- 
mal, which, but for the watchful care of Di- 
vine Providence, would be very destructive. 
Our translators render it by dragon in Isaiah 
xxvii, 1, where the prophet gives this name to 
the king of Egypt : " He shall slay the dragon 
that is in the sea." The sea there is the river 
Nile, and the dragon the crocodile, Ezek. 
xxxii, 2. On this passage Bochart remarks, 
*•• The i^jn is not a whale, as people imagine ; 
for a whale has neither feet nor scales, neither 
is it to be found in the rivers of Egypt ; nei- 
ther does it ascend therefrom upon the land ; 
neither is it taken in the meshes of a net ; all 
of which properties are ascribed by Ezekiel to 
the ]"ijn of Egypt. Whence it is plain that it 
is not a whale that is here spoken of, but the 
crocodile. Merrick supposes David, in Psalm 
Ixxiv, 13, to speak of the iunnie, a kind of 
whale, with which he v/as probably acquainted ; 
and Bochart thinks it has its Greek name 
ihunnos from the Hebrew thanot. The last- 
mentioned fish is undoubtedly that spoken of 
in Psalm civ, 26. We are told, that, in order 
to preserve the Prophet Jonah when he was 
thrown overboard by the mariners, " the Lord 
jbrepared a great fish to swallow him up." 



What kind of fish it was, is not specified ; but 
the Greek translators take the liberty to give 
us the word Krjrog, lohale ; and though St. Mat- 
thew, xii, 40, makes use of the same word, M^e 
may probably conclude that he did so in a gene- 
ral sense; and that we are not to understand 
it as an appropriated term, to point out the 
particular species of fish. It is notorious that 
sharks are common in the Mediterranean. 

WHEAT, nton. Gen. xxx, 14 ; Deut. viii, 8 ; 
cIto^, Matt, xiii, 25 ; Luke xvi, 7 ; 1 Cor. xv, 
37 ; the principal and the most valuable kind 
of grain for the service of man. (See Barley, 
and Fitches.) In Lev. ii, directions are given 
for oblations, which in our translation are 
called meat-offerings ; but as meat means flesh, 
and all kinds of ofterings there specified, were 
made of wheat, it had been better to render it 
"wheaten offerings." Calmet has observed, 
that there were five kinds of these, simple 
flour, oven cakes, cakes of the fire plate, cakes 
of the frying pan, and green ears of corn. 
The word ij, translated corn, Gen. xii, 35, 
and wheat in Jer. xxiii, 28 ; Joel ii, 24 ; Amos 
V, 11, (fee, is undoubtedly the hurr, or wild 
corn of the Arabs, mentioned by Forskal. 

WHIRLWIND, a wind which rises sud- 
denly from almost every point, is exceedingly 
impetuous and rapid, and imparts a whirling 
motion to dust, sand, water, and occasionally 
to bodies of great weight and bulk, carrying 
them either upward or downward, and scat- 
tering them about in different directions. 
Whirlwinds and water spouts are supposed to 
proceed from the same cause ; their only dif- 
ference being, that the latter pass over the 
water, and the former over the land. Both of 
them have a progressive as well as a circular 
motion, generally rise after calms and great 
heats, and occur most frequently in warm 
latitudes. The wind blows in every direction 
from a large surrounding space, both toward 
the water spout and the whirlwind; and a 
water spout has been known to pass, in its 
progressive motion, from sea to land, and, 
when it has reached the latter, to produce all 
the phenomena and effects of a whirlwind. 
There is no doubt, therefore, of their arising 
from a similar cause, as they are both expli- 
cable on the same general principles. In the 
imagery employed by the sacred writers, these 
frightful hurricanes are introduced as the 
immediate instruments of the divine indigna- 
tion : " He shall take them away as with a 
whirlwind, both living and in his wrath," 
Psalm Iviii, 9. " God shall rebuke them, and 
they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as 
the chaff of the mountains before the wind, 
and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind,'* 
Isaiah xvii, 13. "The Lord hath his way in 
the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds 
are the dust of his feet," Nahura i, 3. All 
these are familiar images to the inhabitants of 
eastern countries, and receive some elucidation 
from the subjoined descriptions of English 
travellers. "On the 25th," says Bruce, "at 
four o'clock in the afternoon, we set out from 
the villages of the Nuba, intending to arrive at 
Basbock, where is the ferry over the Njle ; 



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but we had scarcely advanced two miles into 
the plain, when we were enclosed in a violent 
whirlwind, or what is called at sea the Avater 
spout. The plain was red earth, wJiich had 
been plentifully moistened by a shower in the 
night time. The unfortunate camel tliat had 
been taken by Cohala seemed to be nearly in 
the centre of its vortex; it was lifted and 
thrown down at a considerable distance, and 
several of its ribs broken ; although, as far as I 
could guess, I was not near the centre, it whirled 
me off my feet, and threw me down upon my 
face, so as to make my nose gush out with 
blood : two of the servants, likewise, had the 
same fate. It plastered us all over with mud, 
almost as smoothly as could have been done 
with a trowel. It took away ray sense and 
breathing for an instant ; and my mouth and 
nose were full of mud when I recovered. I 
guess th® sphere of its action to be about two 
hundred feet. It demolished one half of a 
small hut, as if it jiad been cut through with 
a knife, and dispersed the materials all over 
the plain, leaving the other half standing." 
" When there was a perfect calm," observes 
Morier, " partial and strong currents of air 
would arise, and form whirlwinds, w^iich pro- 
duced liigh columns of sand all over the plain. 
Those that we saw at Shiraz were formed and 
dissipated in a few minutes : nor is it the nature 
of this phenomenon to travel far ; it being a 
current of air that takes its way in a capricious 
and sudden manner, and is dissolved by the 
very nature of its formation. Whenever one 
of them took our tents, it generally disturbed 
them very materially, and frequently threw 
them down. Their appearance was that of 
water spouts at sea, and perhaps they are pro- 
duced in the same manner." And Burchell 
remarks: "The hottest days are often the 
most calm ; and at such times the stillness of 
the atmosphere was sometimes suddenly dis- 
turbed in an extraordinary manner. Whirl- 
winds, raising up columns of dust to a great 
height in the air, and sweeping over the plains 
with momentary fury, were no unusual occur- 
rence. As they were always harmless, it was 
an amufeing sight to watch these tall pillars of 
dust as they rapidly passed by, carrying up 
every light substance to the height of from one 
to even three or four hundred feet. The rate 
at which they travelled varied from five to ten 
miles in the hour : their form was seldom 
straight, nor were they quite perpendicular, 
but uncertain and changing. Whenever they 
happened to pass over our fire, all the ashes 
were scattered in an instant, and nothing re- 
mained but the heavier sticks and logs. Some- 
times they were observed to disappear, and in 
a minute or two afterward to make their re- 
appearance at a distance farther on. This 
occurred whenever they passed over rocky 
ground, or a surface on which there was no 
dust, nor other substances sufficiently light to 
be carried up in the vortex. Sometimes they 
changed their colour, according to that of the 
scil or dust which lay in their march ; and 
when they crossed a tract of country where 
the grass had lately been burned, they assuu^ed 



a corresponding blackness. But to-day the 
calm and heat of the air was only the prelude 
to a violent wind, which commenced as soon 
as the sun had sunk, and continued during the 
greater part of the night. The great heat and 
long-protracted drought of the season had 
evaporated all moisture from the earth, and 
rendered the sandy soil excessively light and 
dusty. Astonishing quantities of the finer 
particles of this sand were carried up by the 
wind, and filled the whole atnjosphere, where, 
at a great height, they were borne along by 
the tempest, and seemed to be real clouds, 
although of a reddish hue ; Avhile the heavier 
particles, descending again, presented, at a 
distance, tlie appearance of mist or driving 
rains." 

WHITE, a favourite and emblematical 
colour in Palestine. See Habits. 

WIDOW. Among the Hebrews, even be- 
fore the lavv^, a widow who had no children by 
her husband was to marry the brother of her 
deceased spouse, in order to raise up children 
who might inherit his goods and perpetuate 
his name and family. We find the practice of 
this custom before the law in the person of 
Tamar, who married successively Er and 
Onan, the sons of Judah, and who was like. 
wise to have married Selah, the third son of 
this patriarch, after the two former were dead 
without issue. Gen. xxxviii, 6-11. The law 
that appoints these marriages is Deut. xxv, 5, 
&c. Two motives prevailed to the enacting 
of this law. The first was, the continuation 
of estates in the same family ; and the other 
was to perpetuate a man's name in Israel. It 
was looked upon as a great misfortune for a 
man to die without an heir, or to see his in- 
heritance pass into another family. This law 
was not confined to brothers-in-law only, but 
was extended to more distant relations of the 
same kind ; as we see in tlie example of Ruth, 
who married Boaz after she had been refused 
by a nearer kinsman. See Sandals. 

WILL. " In his primitive condition as he 
came out of the hands of his Creator, man 
was endowed with such a portion of knowledge, 
holiness, and power, as enabled him to under- 
stand, esteem, consider, will, and to perform 
the true good, according to the commandment 
delivered to him : yet none of these acts could 
he do, except through the assistance of divine 
grace. But in his lapsed and sinfiil state, man 
is not capable, of and by himself, either to 
think, to will, or to do that which is really 
good ; but it is necessary for him to be re- 
generated and renewed in his intellect, affec- 
tions or will, and in all his powers, by God in 
Christ through the Holy Spirit, that he may 
be qualified rightly to understand, esteem, 
consider, will, and perform whatever is truly 
good. When he is made a partaker of this 
regeneration, or renovation, since he is de- 
livered from sin, he is capable of thinking, 
willing, and doing that which is good, but yet 
not without the continued aids of divine grace." 
Such w^ere the sentiments of the often mis- 
represented Arminius on this subject ; to which 
is only to be added, to complete the Scriptural 



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956 



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view, that a degree of grace to consider his 
ways, and to return to God, is through the 
merit of Christ vouchsafed to every man. 
Every one must be conscious that he possesses 
free will, and that he is a free agent ; that is, 
that he is capable of considering and reflecting 
upon the objects which are presented to his 
mind, and of acting, in such cases as are possi- 
ble, according to the determination of his will. 
And, indeed, without this free agency, actions 
cannot be morally good or bad ; nor can the 
agents be responsible for their conduct. But 
the corruption introduced into our nature by 
the fall of Adam has so weakened our mental 
powers, has given such force to our passions, 
and such perverseness to our wills, that a man 
"cannot turn and prepare himself by his own 
natural strength and good works to faith and 
calling upon God." The most pious of those 
who lived under the Mosaic dispensation often 
acknowledged the necessity of extraordinary 
assistance from God : David prays to God to 
open his eyes, to guide and direct him ; to 
create in him a clean heart, and renew a right 
spirit within him, Psalm li, 10; cxix, 18, 33, 
35. Even we, whose minds are enlightened 
by the pure precepts of the Gospel, and urged 
by the motives v/hich it suggests, must still be 
convinced of our weakness and depravity, and 
confess, in the words of the tenth article, that 
" we have no power to do good works pleasant 
and acceptable to ^ God, without the grace of 
God preventing us, that we may have a good 
will, and working with us when we have that 
good will." The necessity of divine grace to 
strengthen and regulate our wills, and to co- 
operate with our endeavours after righteous- 
ness, is clearly asserted in the New Testament : 
" They that are in the flesh cannot please 
God," Rom. viii, 8. " Abide in me," says our 
Saviour, " and I in you. As the branch can- 
not bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the 
vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 
I am the vine, and ye are the branches : he 
that abideth in me, and I in him, the same 
bringeth forth much fruit ; for without me ye 
can do nothing," John xv, 4, 5. " No man 
can come to me, except the Father, which hath 
sent me, draw him." " It is God that worketh 
in you, both to will and to do of his good 
pleasure," Phil, ii, 13. " Not that we are 
sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of 
ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God," 2 
Cor. iii, 5. "We know not what to pray for 
as we ought, but the Spirit helpeth our in- 
firmities," Rom. viii, 26. We are said to be 
"led by the Spirit," and to "walk in the 
Spirit," Rom. viii, 14; Gal. v, 16, 25. These 
texts sufficiently prove that we stand in need 
both ,of a prevenient and of a cooperating 
grace- This doctrine we find asserted in many 
of the ancient fathers, and particularly in 
Ambrose, who, in speaking of the effects of 
the fall, uses these words : " Thence was de- 
rived mortality, and no less a multitude of 
miseries than of crimes. Faith being lost, 
hope being abandoned, the understanding 
blinded, and the will made captive, no one 
found in himself the means of repairing these 



things. Without the worship of the true God, 
even that which seems to be virtue is sin ; nor 
can any one please God without God. But 
whom does he please who does not please God, 
except himself and Satan ? The nature there- 
fore, which v/as good is made bad by habit : 
man would not return unless God turned him." 
And Cyprian says, " We pray day and night 
that the sanctification and enlivening, which 
springs from the grace of God, may be pre- 
served by his protection." Dr. Nicholls, after 
quoting many authorities to show that the 
doctrine of divine grace always prevailed in ths 
catholic church, adds, " I have spent, perhaps, 
more time in these testimonies than was 
absolutely necessary ; but whatever I have done 
is to show that the doctrine of divine grace is 
so essential a doctrine of Christianity, that 
not only the Holy Scriptures and the primitive 
fathers assert it, but likewise that the Christians 
could not in any age maintain their religion 
without it, — it being necessary, not only for 
the discharge of Christian duties, but for the 
performance of our ordinary devotions." And 
this seems to have been the opinion of the com- 
pilers of our excellent liturgy, in many parts of 
which both a prevenient and a cooperating; 
grace is unequivocally acknowledged ; parti* 
cularly in the second collect for the evening 
service ; in the fourth collect at the end of 
the communion service ; in the collect for 
Easter day ; in the collect for the fifth Sunday 
after Easter ; in the collects for the third, ninth,, 
seventeenth, nineteenth, and twenty-fifth Sun- 
days after Trinity. This assistance of divine 
grace is not inconsistent with the free agency 
of men : it does not place them under an irre- 
sistible restraint, or compel them to act con- 
trary to their will. Our own exertions are 
necessary to enable us to work out our salva- 
tion ; but our sufficiency for that purpose is 
from God. It is, however, impossible to 
ascertain the precise boundary between our 
natural efforts and the divine assistance, 
w^hether that assistance be considered as a co- 
operating or a prevenient grace. ^Without 
destroying our character as free and account, 
able beings, God may be mercifully pleased to 
counteract the depravity of our hearts by the 
suggestions of his Spirit ; but still it remains 
with us to choose whether we will listen to 
those suggestions, or obey the lusts of the 
flesh. We may rest assured that he will, by 
the communication of his grace, varied often 
as to power and distinctness, help our in- 
firmities, invigorate our resolutions, and supply 
our defects. The promises that if we draw 
nigh to God, God will draw nigh to us, and 
pour out his Spirit upon us, James iv, 8 ; Acts 
ii, 17, and that he will give his Holy Spirit to 
every one that asketh him, Luke xi, 13, imply 
that God is ever ready to work upon our 
hearts, and to aid our well-doing through the 
powerful, though invisible, operation of his 
Spirit r " The wind bloweth where it listeth, 
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst 
not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth ; 
so is every one that is born of the Spirit," 
John iii, 8. The joint agency of God and 



WIL 



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man, in the work of human salvation, is 
pointed out in the following passage : " Work 
out your own salvation with fear and trem- 
bling ; for it is God that worketh in you both 
to will and to do of his good pleasure," Phil, 
ii, 12, 13 ; and therefore we may assure our- 
selves that free will and grace are not incom- 
patible, though the mode and degree of their 
cooperation be utterly inexplicable, and though 
at different times one may appear for a season 
to overwhelm the other. This doctrine has, 
however, been the subject of much dispute 
among Christians : some sects contend for the 
irresistible impulses of grace, and others reject 
the idea of any influence of the divine Spirit 
upon the human mind. The former opinion 
seems irreconcilable with the free agency of 
man, if held as the constant unvarying mode 
in which he carries on his work iii the soul of 
man, and the latter contradicts the authority 
of Scripture ; " and therefore," says Veneer, 
"let us neither ascribe nothing to freewill, 
nor too much ; let us not, with the defenders 
of irresistible grace, deny free will, or make it 
of no' effect, not only before, but even under, 
grace ; nor let us suffer the efficacy of saving 
grace, on the other hand, to be swallowed up 
in the strength and freedom of our wills ; but, 
allowing the government or superiority to the 
grace of God, let the will of man be admitted 
to be its handmaid, but such a one as is free, 
and freely obeys ; by w^iich, when it is freely 
excited by the admonitions of prevenient grace, 
when it is prepared as to its affections, strength- 
ened and assisted as to its po*wers and faculties, 
a man freely and willingly cooperates with 
God, that the grace of God be not received in 
vain." "All men are also to be admonished," 
observes Cranmer, in his "Necessary Doc- 
trine," " and chiefly preachers, that in this high 
matter they, looking on both sides, so temper 
and moderate themselves, that they neither so 
preach the grace of God that they take away 
thereby free will, nor on the other side so extol 
free will, that injury be done to the grace of 
God." And Jortin remarks : " Thus do the 
doctrine of divine grace and the doctrine of 
free will or human liberty unite and conspire, 
in a friendly manner, to our everlasting good. 
The first is adapted to excite in us gratitude, 
faith, and humility ; the second, to awaken 
our caution and quicken our diligence." 

Many, indeed, relying on mere abstract ar- 
guments, deny free will, in the strict meaning 
of the term, altogether, and define the mental 
faculties of man according to their various 
fancies. But the existence and nature of our 
moral and rational powers are and ought to be, 
in true philosophy, the subject of mental ob- 
servation, not the sport of hypothesis. Those 
who love metaphysical abstractions may people 
the worlds of their imagination with beings of 
whatsoever character they prefer ; but the na- 
ture and capabilities of man, as he really is, 
must be determined not by speculation but by 
experience. It is true that this experience is 
the object of consciousness, not of the senses ; 
and, accordingly, each man is, in some respect, 
the judge in his own case, and may, if he 



chooses, deny his own freedom and his power 
of self control, or of using those means which 
God hath appointed to lead to this result. But 
this is seldom done in ordinary life, except by 
those abandoned individuals who seek, in such 
a statement, an excuse for capricious or un- 
principled conduct, — an excuse which is never 
admitted by the majority of reasoning persons, 
much less by the truly pious. The latter, in- 
deed, will always be found attributing any thing 
good they achieve to the cooperating efiicacy 
of superior assistance. But they will, with 
equal sincerity, blame themselves for what 
they have done amiss ; or, in other words, ac- 
knowledge that they should and might have 
willed and acted otherwise ; and this is exactly 
the practical question, the very turning point, 
on which the whole controversy hinges. The 
only competent judges in such a question, says 
Dr. R. H. Graves, are those who have made it 
the subject of mental observation, exertion, and 
pursuit ; or, in other words, those who have 
sought after righteousness, under whatever 
dispensation, Acts x, 35 ; Romans ii, 7, 10. 
And surely the confessions, the prayers, the 
repentance, and the sacrifices, of the humble 
and pious of all ages show that they felt, not 
only that they were themselves to blame for 
their actions, and therefore that they might 
have done otherwise, that is, they had a free 
will, but that, to make this will operative in 
spiritual matters, they required an aid beyond 
the reach of mere human attainment. Some 
may fancy this statement inconsistent in itself; 
and I allow that it cannot satisfy the mere 
speculative supporters either of free will or its 
opponents. But to me it seems the testimony 
of conscience and experience, which, in natm'al 
religion, must, as I conceive, be preferred to 
abstract hypothesis. The inquiry is not how 
the mind may he, but how it is actually, con- 
stituted. This surely is a question of fact, not 
of conjecture, and must therefore be decided 
by an appeal to common sense and experience, 
not by random speculation. Again : even 
those who in theory contend for the doctrine 
of necessity, yet in all the affairs of life where 
their interests, comforts, or gratifications are 
concerned, both speak and act as if they dis- 
believed it, and as if they really imagined 
themselves capable of such self determination 
and self control, as to improve their talents, 
their opportunities, and their acquirements, and 
so to exercise a material influence on their 
worldly fortunes. But suppose the assertion* 
of individuals, as \o their consciousness in this 
particular, to disagree. It is then evident, that, 
the question being as to the nature of man in 
general, it must be determined by the voice of 
preponderating testimony. But how, it may 
be asked, are the suffrages to be collected ? 
Since the judgment of each individual must in 
this scheme be considered as a separate fact^ 
how is a sufficiently extensive induction to be 
made ? In answer, it may be asserted, that in 
every civilized nation the induction has been 
already made, the suffrages have been taken, 
the case has been tried, and the decision is on 
record. And the verdict is the most impartial 



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that can be looked for in such a case, because 
given without ;iny reference to the controversy 
in dispute. All human laws, forbidding, con- 
demning, and punishing vicious actions, are 
grounded on the acknowledged supposition that 
man is possessed of a self control, a self deter- 
mining power, by which he could, both in will 
and in deed, have avoided the very actions for 
which he is condemned, and in the very cir- 
cumstances in which he has committed them. 
Nor v^ould it be easy to find a case where the 
criminal has deceived himself, or hoped to de- 
ceive his judges, by pleading that he laboured 
under a fatal necessity, which rendered liis 
crimes unavoidable, and therefore excusable. 
The justice of all legislative enactments evi- 
dently and essentially depends on the principle, 
that the things prohibited can be avoided, or, 
in other words, might have been done other- 
wise than they were done ; and this is the very 
turning point of the controversy. Accordingly, 
in whatever instances such freedom of will is 
not presupposed, (as in the cases of idiots and 
madmen,) the operation of such enactments is 
suspended. All nations, therefore, who con- 
sent to frame and abide by such laws, do thereby 
testify their deliberate and solemn assent to the 
truth of this principle, and, consequently, to 
the existence of free will in man ; and do certify 
the sincerity of their conviction by staking 
upon it their properties, their liberties, and their 
lives. Numberless other instances might be 
adduced in which the practice of mankind 
implies their belief in this principle. And so 
conscious of this are the opponents of free will, 
that they generally deprecate appeals. to com- 
mon sense and experience, and resort to meta- 
physical arguments to examine what is in truth 
a matter of truth, not of conjecture ; or, in 
other words, to determine, not what man is, 
but what they imagine he must he. In their 
reasonings they differ, as might have been 
expected, as much from each other as they do 
from truth and reality. But the experience of 
common sense and conscience will always 
decide, that no man can conscientiously make 
this excuse for his crimes, that he could not 
have willed or acted otherwise than he did. 
The existence of the above faculties in tlae 
human mind once ecknowledged leads, by 
necessary inference, to the admission, that 
there exists in the great First Cause a power to 
create them. Not, indeed, that these faculties 
themselves exist in him in the same manner as 
in us, but the power of originating and pro- 
ducing them in all possible variety. We can 
indeed conclude, that having created all these 
in us, his nature must be so perfect that we 
cannot attribute to him any liiie of conduct 
inconsistent with whatever is excellent in the 
exercise of these faculties in ourselves. And 
therefore we cannot ascribe to him, as his 
special act, any thing we should perceive to be 
unworthy of any just or merciful, any wise or 
upright, being. But this furnishes no clue 
whatever to a knowledge of the real constitu- 
tion of his nature, or of the manner in which 
his divine attributes exist together. In truth, 
we no more comprehend how he wills than how 



he acts, and thoi'efore we have no better right to 
assert that he wills evil than that he does evil. 
Again : we as little understand how he knows 
as how he sees, and therefore might as well 
argue that all things exist in consequence of 
his beholding them, as that all events arise in 
consequence of his foreknowing them. In 
short, all that can be inferred by reason con- 
cerning the intrinsic nature of the invisible, 
unsearchable Deity, must be admitted by the 
candid inquirer to be no better than conjecture. 
And he who should hope from such doubtful 
support as his fancied insight into the unknown 
operations of the divine mind to suspend a sys- 
tem of irrespective decrees, embracing the 
moral government of the world, would but too 
much resemble him who should imagine the 
material globe adequately sustained if upheld 
by a chain whose highest links were wrapped 
in clouds and darkness. Thus our affirmative 
knowledge of the Deity, as derived from this 
part of our inquiry, consists in the certainty, 
(though his nature is unknown to us,) that he 
is the creative source of all that is great, glo- 
rious, and good in heaven or in earth ; while 
we may negatively conclude, that his moral 
government shall, on the whole, be conducted 
in a manner not inconsistent with whatever is 
excellent in the exercise of power and wisdom, 
justice and mercy, goodness and truth. Nor 
is it a little important, as connected with the 
present inquiry, to keep in mind this dis- 
tinction between our affirmative and negative 
knowledge in this matter. For it shows vis 
that as, on the one side, we cannot pretend to 
such an insight into the nature and- character 
of the divine knowledge as to deduce therefrom 
a system of eternal and irrespective decrees ; 
so neither, on the other, can this system of 
moral government be ascribed to the Deity, 
because it would be manifestly unworthy, not 
merely of him who has created all moral ex- 
cellence, but of any of those beings on whom 
he has conferred the most ordinary degrees of 
mercy and justice. The natural benefits or 
evils arising out of mc ral or immoral practices 
are, in fact, so many rewards or punishments, 
exhibiting the Being who has so constituted 
our nature as a moral governor. This part of 
his government may not be so clearly discern- 
ible in individual instances, because much of 
the happiness and unhappiness attending vir- 
tue and vice is mental and invisible. In the 
case of nations, however, considered merely as 
bodies politic, the internal sanction of an ap- 
proving or reproaching conscience, of subdued 
or distracting passions, can have no existence ; 
and therefore the external sanctions are more 
uniformly enforced. Hence, whoever carefully 
examines the dealings of Providence with the 
human race will admit, that national prosperity 
has ever kept pace with national wisdom and 
integrity ; whereas, the greatest empires, when 
once corrupted, have soon become the prey of 
internal strife or foreign domination. Again : 
man is made for society, and cannot exist with- 
out it : consequently, all the regulations which 
are really conducive to the maintenance of 
civil policy and social order must be regarded 



WIN 



959 



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as evident consequences of our nature, when 
enlightened to the rational pursuit of its own 
advantage ; and therefore should be considered 
as intimations of a moral government, carried 
on through tlieir intervention. In addition to 
which, it ought to he observed, that these laws 
may be regarded in another point of view, — as 
a most important class of moral plienomena ; 
inasmuch as they virtually exhibit the most 
unexceptionable declarations of reason on tliis 
subject, because they are collected from the 
common consent of mankind, and therefore 
rendered, in a great measure, independent of 
the obliquities of individual intellect, the errors 
of private judgment, and the partial views of 
self interest, prejudice, or passion. But all the 
laws of civilized nations, both in their enact- 
ment and administration, not only presuppose 
certain notions concerning the freedom and 
accountableness of man, the merit and demerit 
of human actions, and the inseparable con- 
nection of virtue and vice with rewards and 
punishments, but greatly contribute to fix and 
perpetuate these notions. It is therefore evi- 
dently. the intention of that part of the moral 
government v/ith which we are acquainted, to 
impress these principles deeply on the human 
mind, and to induce the human race to regulate 
their conduct accordingly. I'he laws, then, of 
this moral government under which we find 
ourselves placed, and from which w^e cannot 
escape, correspond witli and corroborate the 
conclusions deduced from the observation of 
mental phenomena. And from both we con- 
clude that similar principles of government 
will be adopted, (so far, at least, as man is con. 
cerned,) in other worlds and in future ages ; 
only more developed, and therefore more evi- 
dently free from its present apparent imper- 
fections. Upon this account we look, in another 
life, for some such general . disclosure and 
consummation of the ways and wisdom of 
Providence as shall vindicate, even in the 
minor details, the grand principles upon which, 
generally speaking, the government of God is 
at present obviously conducted. How this may 
be done, with many questions connected there- 
with, reason without revelation could, as I 
conceive, do little more than form plausible 
conjectures. Though now that it has pleased 
God in Christ to bring " life and immortality 
to light through the Gospel," it is possible for 
reason to estimate the beauty and the mercy 
and the wisdom of the dispensation by w'hicii 
it has been effected. 

WIND. The Hebrews, like us, acknowledge 
four principal winds, Ezek. xlii, lG-18 : the east 
wind, the north wind, the south wind, and the 
west wind, or that from the Mediterranean sea. 
See WiiiiiLwiND. 

WINDOWS. The method of building both 
in Barbary and the Levant seems to have con- 
tinued the same from the earliest ages. All 
the windows open into priva.te courts, if we 
except sometunes a latticed window or balcony 
toward the street. It is only during the cele- 
bration of some zeenah, or public festival, that 
these houses and their latticed windows are left 
open ; for this being a time of great liberty, 



revelling, and extravagance, each family is 
ambitious of adorning both the inside and out- 
side of their houses with the richest part of 
their furniture ; while crowds of both sexes, 
dressed out in their best apparel, and laying 
aside all ceremony and restraint, go in and out 
where they please. The account we have, 
2 Kings ix, 30, of Jezebel's painting her face, 
tiring her head, and looking out at a window 
upon Jehu's public entry into Jezreel, gives us 
a lively idea of an eastern lady at one of those 
solemnities. 

WINE, pi, Gen. xix, 32, oivo^, Matt, ix, 17, 
a liquor expressed from grapes. The art of 
refining wine upon the lees was known to the 
Jews. The particular process, as it is now prac- 
tised in the island of Cyprus, is described in 
Mariti's Travels. The wine is put immediately 
from the vat into large vases of potters' ware, 
pointed at the bottom, till they are nearly full, 
when they are covered tight and buried. At the 
end of a year what is designed for sale is drawn 
into wooden casks. The dregs in the vases are 
put into wooden casks destined to receive wine, 
with as much of the liquor as is necessary to 
prevent them from becoming dry before use. 
Casks thus prepared are very valuable. When 
the wine a year old is put in, the dregs rise, and 
make it appear muddy, but afterward they sub- 
side and carry down all the other feculences. 
The dregs are so much valued that they are not 
sold with the wine in the vase, unless particu- 
larly mentioned. 

The "new wine," or "must," is mentioned, 
Isa. xlix, 26 ; Joel i, 5 ; iiir 18 ; and Amos ix, 
13, under the name c^uy. The "mixed wine," 
1DDD, Prov. xxiii, 30, and in Isaiah Ixv, 11 
rendered "drink-offering," may mean wine 
made stronger and more inebriating by the ad- 
dition of higher and more powerful ingredients, 
such as honey, spices, defrutum, or wine in- 
spissated by boiling it down, myrrh, mandra- 
gora, and other strong drugs. Thus the drunk- 
ard is properly described as one that seeketh 
"mixed wine," Prov. xxiii, 30, and is mighty 
to "mingle strong drink," Isa. v, 22 ; and hence 
the psalmist took that highly poetical and 
sublime image of the cup of God's wrath, called 
by Isaiah, li, 17, "the cup of trembling," con- 
taining, as St. John expresses it, Rev. xiv, 10, 
pure wine made yet stronger by a mixture of 
powerful ingredients : " In the hand of Jehovah 
is a cup, and the wine is turbid ; it is full of a 
mixed liquor, and he poureth out of it," or 
rather, " he poureth it out of one vessel into 
another," to mix it perfectly ; " verily the dregs 
thereof," the thickest sediment of the strong 
ingredients mingled with it, "all the ungodly 
of the earth shall wring them out, and drink 
them." " Spiced wine," Cant, viii, 2, was v/ine 
rendered more palatable and fragant with aro- 
matics. This was considered as a gpoat delicacy. 
Spiced wines were not peculiar to the Jews ; 
Hafiz speaks of w4nes "richly bitter, richly 
sweet." The Romans lined their vessels, am- 
phorcB, with odorous gums, to give the wine a 
warm bitter flavour : and the orientals now use 
the admixture of spices to give their wines a 
favourite relish. The "wine of Helbon,'* 



WIN 



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WIS 



Ezek. xxvii, 18, was an excellent kind of wine, 
known to the ancients by the name of chali. 
ionium vinum. It was made at Damascus ; the 
Persians had planted vineyards there on pur- 
pose, says Posidosius, quoted by Athenaeus. 
This author says that the kings of Persia used 
no other wine. Hosea, xiv, 7, mentions the 
wine of Lebanon. The wines from the vine- 
yards on that mount are even to this day in 
repute ; but some think that this may mean a 
sweet-scented wine, or wine flavoured with 
fragrant gums. 

WINE PRESS. The vintage in Syria 
commences about the middle of September, 
and continues till the middle of November. 
But grapes in Palestine, we are informed, were 
ripe sometimes even in June or July, which 
arose perhaps from a triple pruning, in which 
case there was also a third vintage. The first 
vintage was in August, the second in Septem- 
ber, and the third in October. The grapes 
when not gathered were sometimes found on 
the vines until November and December. The 
Hebrews were required to leave gleanings for 
the poor. Lev. xix, 10. The season of vintage 
was a most joyful one, Judges ix, 27 ; Isaiah 
xvi, 10 ; Jer. xxv, 30 ; xlviii, 33. With shout- 
ings on all sides, the grapes were plucked off 
and carried to the wine press, nii5, m^S, X>?vo;, 
which was in the vineyard, Isa. liii, 3 ; Zech. 
xiv, 10; Haggai ii, 16; Matt, xxi, 33; Rev. 
xiv, 19, 20. The presses ^consisted of two 
receptacles, which were either built of stones 
and covered with plaster, or hewn out of a large 
rock. The upper receptacle, called nJ, as it is 
constructed at the present time in Persia, is 
nearly eight feet square and four feet high. 
Into this the grapes are thrown and trodden 
out by five men. The juice flows out into the 
lower receptacle, through a grated aperture, 
which is made in the side near the bottom of 
the upper one. The treading of the wine press 
was laborious, and not very favourable to clean- 
liness ; the garments of the persons thus em- 
ployed were stained with the red juice, and yet 
the employment was a joyful one. It was 
performed with singing, accompanied with 
musical instruments ; and the treaders, as they 
jumped, exclaimed, •n\i, Isa. xvi, 9, 10 ; Jer. 
xxv, 30 ; xlviii, 32, 33. Figuratively, vintage, 
gleaning, and treading the wine press, signified 
battles and great slaughters, Isa. xvii, 6 ; Ixiii, 
1-3 ; Jer. xlix, 9 ; Lam. i, 15. The must, as is 
customary in the east at the present day, was 
preserved in large firkins, which were buried in 
the earth. The wine cellars were not subter- 
ranean, but built upon the earth. When de- 
posited in these, the firkins, as is done at the 
present time in Persia, were sometimes buried 
in the ground, and sometimes left standing 
upon it. Formerly, also, new wine or must 
was preserved in leathern bottles ; and, lest 
they should be broken by fermentation, the 
people were very careful that the bottles should 
be new, Job xxxii, 19 ; Matt, ix, 17 ; Mark ii, 22. 
Sometimes the must was boiled and made into 
syrup, which is comprehended under the 
term ^^3*^, although it is commonly rendered 
"honpy," Gen, xliii, 11; 2 Chron, xx.mI, 5. 



Sometimes the grapes were dried in the sun 
and preserved in masses, which were called 
"bunches or clusters of raisins," 1 Sam. xxv, 
18 ; 2 Sam. xvi, 1 ; 1 Chron. xii, 40 ; Hosea 
iii, 1. From these dried grapes, when soaked 
in wine and pressed a second time, was manu- 
factured sweet wine, which is also called new 
wine, y\evKos, Acts ii, 13. 

WISDOM is put for that prudence and 
discretion which enables a man to perceive 
that which is fit to be done, according to the 
circumstances of time, place, persons, man- 
ners, and end of doing, Eccles. ii, 13, 14. It 
was this sort of wisdom that Solomon intreated 
of God with so much earnestness, and which 
God granted him with such divine liberality, 

1 Kings iii, 9, 12, 28. It also signifies quick- 
ness of invention, and dexterity in the execu- 
tion of several works, which require not so 
much strength of body, as industry, and labour 
of the mind. For example, God told Moses, 
Exod. xxxi, 3, that he had filled Bezaleel and 
Aholiab with wisdom, and understanding, and 
knowledge, to invent and perform several sorts 
of work for completing the tabernacle. It is 
used for craft, cunning, and stratagem, and 
that whether good or evil. Thus it is said by 
Moses, that Pharaoh dealt wisely with the 
Israelites, when he opposed them in Egypt, 
Exodus i, 10 : it is observed of Jonadab, the 
friend of Ammon, and nephew of David, that 
he was very wise, that is, very subtle and crafty, 

2 Sam. xiii, 3; and Job, v, 13, says, that God 
"taketh the wise in their own craftiness." Wis- 
dom means also doctrine, learning, and expe- 
rience : " With the ancient is wisdom, and in 
length of days understanding," Job xii, 12. It 
is put for true piety, or the fear of God, which 
is spiritual wisdom : " So teach us to number 
our days, that we may apply our hearts unto 
wisdom," Psalm xc, 12 ; " The fear of the Lord 
that is wisdom," Job xxvii, 28. Wisdom is put 
for the eternal Wisdom, the Word of God. 
It was by wisdom that God established the 
heavens, and founded the earth, Prov. iii, 19. 
How magnificently does Solomon describe the 
primeval birth of the eternal Son of God, under 
the character of Wisdom personified ; to which 
so many references and allusions are to be 
found in the Old and New Testament ! " The 
Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, 
before his works of old. I was set up from 
everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the 
earth was. When there were no depths, I was 
brought forth ; when there were no fountains 
abounding with water. Before the mountains 
were settled, before the hills was I brought 
forth," Prov. viii, 22-25, The apocryphal 
book of Wisdom introduces, by a reference to 
this passage, the following admirable invoca- 
tion. Wisdom ix, 9, 10 : — 

" O send forth wisdom, out of thy holy heaveus, 
Even from the throne of thy glory ; 
That being present she may labour with me, 
That I may know what is pleasing in thy sight !" 

And our Lord assumes the title of Wisdom, 
Luke xi, 49 ; Matt, xxiii, 34 ; and declares that 
♦' wisdom shall be justified of all her children," 
Matt. xi. 19 ; Luke vii, 35.- 



WOL 



961 



WOR 



WISDOM, Book of, an apocryphal book 
of Scripture, so called on account of the wise 
maxims contained in it. This book has been 
commonly ascribed to Solomon, either because 
the author imitated that king's manner of writ- 
ing, or because he sometimes speaks in his 
name. But it is certain Solomon was not the 
author of it ; for it was not written in Hebrew, 
nor was it inserted in the Jewish canon, nor 
is the style like that of Solomon ; and there- 
fore St. Jerom observes justly that it smells 
strong of the Grecian eloquence ; that it is 
composed with art and method, after the man- 
ner of the Greek philosophers, very different 
from that noble simplicity so full of life and 
energy to be found in the Hebrew books. It 
has been ascribed by many of the ancients to 
Philo. 

WOLF, 3NT, in Arabic, zeeh, Gen. xlix, 27 ; 
Isa. xi, 6 ; Ixv, 25 ; Jer. v, 6 ; Ezek. xxii, 27 ; 
Zeph. iii, 3; Hab. i, 8; XOraj, Matt, vii, 15; 
X, 16 ; Luke x, 3 ; John x, 12 ; Acts xx, 29 ; 
Eccles. xiii, 17. M. Majus derives it from the 
Arabic word zaab or daaba, "to frighten;" 
and hence, perhaps, the German word dieb, 
*' a thief." The wolf is a fierce, strong, cun- 
ning, mischievous, and carnivorous quadruped; 
externally and internally so nearly resembling 
the dog, that they seem modelled alike, yet 
have a perfect antipathy to each other. The 
Scripture observes of the wolf, that it lives 
upon rapine ; is violent, bloody, cruel, vora- 
cious, and greedy ; goes abroad by night to 
seek its prey, and is a great enemy to flocks 
of sheep. Indeed, this animal is fierce without 
cause, kills without remorse, and by its indis- 
criminate slaughter seems to satisfy its ma- 
lignity rather than its hunger. The wolf is 
weaker than the lion or the bear, and less 
courageous than the leopard ; but he scarcely 
yields to them in cruelty and rapaciousness. 
His ravenous temper prompts him to destruc- 
tive and sanguinary depredations ; and these 
are perpetrated principally in the night. This 
circumstance is expressly mentioned in several 
passages of Scripture. "The great men have 
altogether broken the yoke and burst the 
bonds ; wherefore, a lion out of the forest 
shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings 
shall spoil them," Jer. v, 6. The rapacious 
and cruel conduct of the princes of Israel is 
compared by Ezekiel, xxii, 27, to the mis- 
chievous inroads of the same animal ; " Her 
princes in the midst thereof are like wolves 
ravening the prey, to shed blood, to destroy 
lives, to get dishonest gain ;" and Zephaniah, 
iii, 3, says, "Her princes within her are roar- 
ing lions, her judges are evening wolves: they 
gnaw not the bone^ till the morrow." Instead 
of protecting the innocent and restraining the 
evil doer, or punishing him according to the 
demerit of his crimes, they delight in violence 
and oppression, in blood and rapine ; and so 
insatiable is their cupidity, that, like the eve- 
ning wolf, they destroy more than they are 
able to possess. The dispositions of the wolf 
to attack the weaker animals, especially those 
which are under the protection of man, is 
alluded to by our Saviour in the parable of the 



hireling shepherd : " The wolf catcheth them, 
and ^cattereth the flock," Matt, vii, 15. And 
the Apostle Paul, in his address to the elders 
of Ephesus, gives the name of this insidious 
and cruel animal to the false teachers who 
disturbed the peace and perverted the faith of 
their people : "I know this, that afler my 
departing shall grievous wolves enter in among 
you, not sparing the flock," Acts xx, 29. 

WORD. Sometimes the Scripture ascribes 
to the word of God certain supernatural effects, 
and often represents it as animated and active : 
" He sent his word and healed them," Psalm 
cvii, 20. It also signifies what is written in 
the sacred books of the Old and New Testa- 
ment, Luke xi, 28 ; James i, 22 ; the divine law 
which teaches and commands good things, and 
forbids evil, Psalm cxix, 101 ; and is used to 
express every promise of God, Psalm cxix, 25, 
&c, and prophecy or vision, Isaiah, ii, 1. This 
term is likewise consecrated and appropriated 
to signify the only Son of the Father, the un- 
created Wisdom, the second Person of the 
most holy Trinity, equal to and consubstantial 
with the Father. St. John the evangelist, more 
expressly than any other, has opened to us the 
mystery of the Word of God, when he tells us, 
" In the beginning was the Word, and the 
Word was with God, and the Word was God. 
The same was in the beginning with God. 
All things were made by him, and without 
him was not any thing made that was made," 
John i, 1-3. The Chaldee paraphrasts, the 
most ancient .Jewish writers extant, generally 
make use of the word memra, which signifies 
" the Word," in those places where Moses puts 
the name Jehovah. They say, for example, 
that it was the Memra, or the Word, which 
created the world, which appeared to Moses 
on Mount Sinai, which gave hira the law, 
v/hich spoke to him face to face, which brought 
Israel out of Egypt, which marched before the 
people, and which wrought all those miracles 
that are recorded in Exodus. It was the same 
Word that appeared to Abraham in the plain 
of Mamre, that was seen of Jacob at Bethel, 
to whom Jacob made his vow, and acknow- 
ledged as God, saying, " If God will be with 
me, and will keep me in this way that I go, 
then shall the Lord be my God," Gen. xxviii, 
20, 21. The manner in which St. John com- 
mences his Gospel is strikingly different from, 
the introductions to the histories of Christ by 
the other evangelists ; and no less striking and 
peculiar is the title under which he announces 
him — "the Word." It has therefore been a 
subject of much inquiry and discussion, from 
whence this evangelist drew the use of this 
appellation, and what reasons led him, as 
though intending to solicit particular atten- 
tion, to place it at the very head of his Gospel. 
That it was for the purpose of establishing an 
express opinion, as to the personal character 
of him it is used to designate, is made more 
than probable from the predominant character 
of the whole Gospel, which is more copiously 
doctrinal, and contains a record more full of 
what Jesus " said'''' than the others. As to tho 
source from which the term Logos was drawn 



WOR 



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by the Apostle, some have held it to be taken 
from the Jewish Scriptures ; others, from the 
Chaldee paraphrases ; others, from Philo and 
the Hellenizing Jews. The most natural con- 
clusion certainly appears to be, that, as St. 
John was a plain, "unlearned" man, chiefly 
conversant in the Holy Scriptures, he derived 
this term from the sacred books of his own 
nation, in which the Hebrew phrase, Dabar 
Jehovah, " the Word of Jehovah," frequently 
occurs in passages which must be understood 
to speak of a personal Word, and which phrase 
is rendered Aoyos Kvpiov [the word of the Lord] 
by the Septuagint interpreters. Certainly, there 
is not the least evidence in his writings, or in 
his traditional history, that he ever acquainted 
himself with Philo or with Plato ; and none, 
therefore, that he borrowed the term from 
them, or used it in any sense approaching to 
or suggested by these refinements : — in the 
writings of St. Paul there are allusions to 
poets and philosophers ; in those of St. Jolm, 
none, except to the rising sects afterward 
known under the appellation of Gnostics. 
The Hebrew Scriptures contain frequent inti- 
mations of a distinction of Persons in the God- 
head ; one of these Divine Persons is called 
Jehovah ; and, though manifestly represented 
as existing distinct from the Father, is yet 
arrayed with attributes of divinity, and was 
acknowledged by the ancient Jews to be, in 
the highest sense, "their God," the God with 
whom, through all their history, they chiefly 
"had' to do." This Divine Person is proved 
to have been spoken of by the prophets as the 
future Christ ; the evangelists vend Apostles 
represent Jesus as that Divine Person of the 
prophets ; and if, in the writings of the Old 
Testam.ent, he is also called the Word, the 
application of this term to our Lord is natu- 
rally accounted for. It will then appear to be 
a theological, not a philosophic appellation, 
and one which, previously even to the time of 
the Apostle, had been stamped with the au- 
thority of inspiration. 

Celebrated as this title of the Logos was in 
the Jewish theology, it is not, however, the 
appellation by which the Spirit of inspiration 
has chosen that our Saviour should be princi- 
pally designated. It occurs but a very few 
times, and principally and emphatically in the 
introduction to St. John's Gospel. A cogent 
reason can be given why this Apostle adopts it ; 
a.nd we are not without a probable reason why, 
in the New Testament, the title " Son of God" 
should have been preferred, which is a frequent 
title of the Logos in the writings also of Philo. 
Originating from the spiritual principle of con- 
nection, between the first and the second Being 
in the Godhead ; marking this, by a spiritual 
idea of connection ; and considering it to be 
as close and as necessary as the Word is to the 
energetic mind of God, which cannot bury its 
intellectual energies in silence, but must put 
them forth in speech ; it is too spiritual in itself, 
to be addressed to the faith of the multitude. 
If with so full a reference to our bodily ideas, 
and so positive a filiation of the second Being 
to the first, we have seen the attempts of Arian 



criticism endeavouring to resolve the doctrine 
into the mere dust of a figure ; how much more 
ready would it have been to do so, if we had 
only such a spiritual denomination as this for 
the second ! This would certainly have been 
considered by it as too unsubstantial for distinct 
personality, and therefore too evanescent for 
equal divinity. One of the first teachers of 
this system was Cerinthus. We have not any 
particular account of all the branches of his 
system ; and it is possible that we may ascribe 
to him some of those tenets by which later sects 
of Gnostics were discriminated. But we have 
authority for saying, that the general principle 
of tlae Gnostic scheme was openly taught by 
Cerinthus before the publication of the Gospel 
of St. John. The authority is that of Irenaeus, 
a bishop who lived in the second century, who 
in his youth bad heard Polycarp, the disciple of 
the Apostle John, and who retained the dis- 
courses of Polycarp in his memory till hi« 
death. There are yet extant of the works of 
Irenseus, five books which he wrote against 
heresies, one of the most authentic and valu- 
able monuments of theological erudition. In 
one place of tha,t work he says, that Cerinthus 
taught in Asia that the world was not made by 
the Supreme God, but by a certain power very 
separate and far removed from the Sovereign 
of the universe, and ignorant of his nature. In 
another place, he says that John the Apostle 
wished, by his Gospel-, to extirpate the error 
which had been spread among, men by Cerin- 
thus ; and Jerom, who lived in the fourth cen- 
tury, says that St. John wrote his Gospel, at 
the desire of the bishops of Asia, against Ce- 
rinthus and other heretics, and chiefly against 
the doctrines of the Ebionites, tlien springing, 
up, who said that Christ did not exist before he 
was born of Mary. 

"It appears," says Dr. Hill, "to have been 
the tradition of the Christian church, that St. 
John, who lived to a great age, and who resided 
at Ephesus, in Proconsular Asia, was moved 
by the growth of the Gnostic heresies, and by 
the solicitations of the Christian teachers, to 
bear his testimony to the truth in writing, and 
particularly to recollect those discourses and 
actions of our Lord, which might furnish the 
clearest refutation of the persons who denied 
his preexistence. This tradition is a key to a 
great part of his Gospel. Matthew, Mark, and 
Luke had given a detail of those actions of 
Jesus which are the evidences of his divine 
mission ; of those events in his life upon earth 
which are most interesting to the human race ; 
and of those moral discourses in which the 
wisdom, the grace, and the sanctity of the: 
Teacher shine with united lustre. Their whole 
narration implies that Jesus was more than 
man. But as it is distinguished by a beautiful 
simplicity, which adds very much to their credit 
as historians, they have not, with the exception 
of a few incidental expressions, formally stated 
the conclusion that Jesus was more than man ; 
but have left the Christian world to draw it for 
themselves from the facts narrated, or to re- 
ceive it by the teaching and the writings of 
the Apostles. St. John, who was preserved by 



WOR 



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God to see this conclusiop, which had been 
drawn by the great body of Christians, and had 
been established in the epistles, denied by dif- 
ferent heretics, brings forward, in the form of a 
history of Jesus, a view of his exalted character, 
and draws our attention particularly to the truth 
of that which had been denied. When you 
come to analyze the Gospel of St. John, you 
will find that the first eighteen verses contain 
the positions laid down by the Apostle, in order 
to meet the errors of Cerintlms ; that these 
positions, which are merely affirmed in the 
introduction, are proved in the progress of the 
Gospel, by the testimony of John the Baptist, 
and by the words and the actions of our Lord ; 
and that after the proof is concluded by the 
declaration of Thomas, who, upon being con- 
vinced that Jesus had risen, said to him, ' My 
Lord, and my God,' St. John sums up the 
amount of his Gospel in these few words : 
* These are written that ye might believe that 
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God;' that is, 
that Jesus and the Christ are not distinct per- 
sons, and that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 
The Apostle does not condescend to mention 
the name of Cerinthus, because that would 
havp preserved, as long as the world lasts, the 
memory of a name which might otherwise be 
forgotten. But, although there is dignity and 
propriety in omitting the mention of his name, 
it was necessary, in laying down the positions 
that were to meet his errors, to adopt some of 
his words, because the Christians of those days 
Would not so readily have applied the doctrine 
of the Apostle to the refutation of those heresies 
which Cerinthus was spreading among them, 
if they had not found in the exposition of that 
doctrine some of the terms in which the heresy 
was delivered ; and as the chief of these terms, 
Logos, which Cerinthus applied to an inferior 
spirit, was equivalent to a phrase in common 
use among the Jews, 'the Word of Jehovah,' 
and was probably borrowed from thence, John 
by his use of Logos rescues it from the de- 
graded use of Cerinthus, and restores it to a 
sense corresponding to the dignity of the Jewish 
phrase." 

The Logos was no fanciful term, merely in- 
vented by St. John, pro re natd, [according to 
circumstances,] or even suggested by the Holy 
Spirit, as a suitable title for a prophet by whom 
God chose to reveal himself or his Word. It 
was a term diversely understood in the world 
before St. John began his Gospel. Is it pos- 
sible, therefore, that he should have used the 
term without some express allusion to these 
prevailing opinions ? Had he contradicted them 
all, it would, of course, have been a plain proof, 
that they were all equally fabulous and fanciful ; 
but by adopting the term, he certainly meant to 
show, that the error did not consist in believing 
that there was a Logos, or Word of God, but 
in thinking amiss of it. We might, indeed, 
have wondered much had he decidedly adopted 
the Platonic or Gnostic notions, in preference 
to the Jewish ; but that he should harmonize 
with the latter, is by no means surprising ; first, 
because he was a Jew himself; and, secondly, 
hiecause Christianity was plainly to be shown 



to be connected with, and, as it were, regularly 
to have sprung out of, Judaism. It is certainly, 
then, in the highest degree consistent with all 
we could reasonably expect, to find St. John 
and others of the sacred writers expressing 
themselves in terms not only familiar to the 
Jews under the old covenant, but, in such as 
might tend, by a perfect revelation of the truth, 
to give instruction to all parties ; correcting 
the errors of the Platonic and oriental systems, 
and confirming, in the clearest manner, the 
hopes and expectations of the Jews. 

While the reasons for the use of this ietm. 
by St. John are obvious, the argument from it 
is irresistible ; for, first, the Logos of the evan- 
gelist is a person, not an attribute, as many 
Socinians have said, who have, therefore, some- 
times chosen to render it wisdom. For if it be 
an attribute, it were a mere truism to say, that 
" it was in the beginning with God ;" because 
God could never be without his attributes. The 
Apostle also declares, that the Logos was the 
Light ; but that John Baptist was not the light. 
Here is a kind of parallel supposed, and it pre- 
sumes, also, that it was possible that the same 
character might be erroneously ascribed to both. 
Between person and person this may, undoubt • 
edly, be the case ; but what species of parallel 
can exist between man and an attribute ? Nor 
will the difficulty be obviated by suggesting, 
that wisdom here means not the attribute itself, 
but him whom that attribute inspired, tlie man 
Jesus Christ, because the name of our Saviour 
has not yet been mentioned ; because that rule 
of interpretation must be inadmissible, which 
at one time would explain the term Logos by 
an attribute, at another by a man, as best suits 
the convenience of hypothesis ; and because, 
if it be, in this instance, conceived to mdicate 
our Saviour, it must follow,- that our Saviour 
created the world, (which the Unitarians will 
by no means admit,) for the Logos, 'v/ho was 
that which John the Baptist was not, the true 
Light, is expressly declared to have made the 
world. Again : the Logos was made flesh, that 
is, became man ; but in what possible sense 
could an attribute become man ? The Logos 
is "the only begotten of the Father ;" but it 
would be uncouth to say of any attribute, that it 
is begotten ; and, if that were passed over, it 
would follow, from this notion, either that God 
has only one attribute, or that wisdom is not 
his only begotten attribute. Farther : St. John 
uses terms decisively personal, as that he i& 
God, not divine as an attribute, but God per- 
sonally ; not that he was in God, which would 
properly have been said of an attribute, but luitk 
God, which he could only say of a person ; that 
"all things were made by him;" that he was 
" in the world ;" that " he came to his own ;" 
that he was "in the bosom of the Father;'" 
and that " he hath declared the Father." The 
absurdity of representing the Logos of St. John 
as an attribute seems, at length, to have been 
perceived by the Socinians themselves, and 
their new version accordingly regards it as a 
personal term. 

If the Logos be a person, then is he Divine ; 
for, first, eternity is ascribed to him r "In th® 



WOR 



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WOR 



feegmning was the Word." The Unitarian 
comment is, " from the beginning of his mi- 
nistry," or "the commencement of the Gospel 
dispensation ;" which makes St. John use ano- 
ther trifling truism, and solemnly tell his read- 
ers, that our Saviour, when he began his 
ministry, was in existence ! " in the beginning 
of his ministry the Word was .'" It is true, that 
apx^i " the beginning," is used for the begin- 
ning of Christ's ministry, when he says that 
the Apostles had been with him from the be- 
ginning ; and it may be used for the beginning 
of any thing whatever. It is a term which 
must be determined in its meaning by the con- 
text ; and the question, therefore, is, how the 
connection here determines it. Almost imme- 
diately it is added, " All things were made by 
him ;" which can only mean the creation of 
universal nature. He, then, who made all 
things was prior to all created things ; he ivas 
when they began to be, and before they began 
to be ; and, if he existed before all created 
things, he was not himself created, and was, 
therefore, eternal. Secondly, he is expressly 
called God ; and, thirdly, he is as explicitly 
said to be the Creator of all things. The two 
last particulars have often been largely esta- 
blished, and nothing need be added, except, as 
another proof that the Scriptures can only be 
fairly explained by the doctrine of a distinction 
of divine Persons in the Godhead, the decla- 
ration of St. John may be adduced, that " the 
Word VvT^as with God, and the Word was God." 
What hypothesis but this goes a single step to 
explain this wonderful language ? Arianism, 
which allows the preexistence of Christ with 
God, accords with the first clause, but contra- 
dicts the second. Sabellianism, which reduces 
the personal to an official, and therefore a tem: 
poral, distinction, accords with the second 
clause, but contradicts the first ; for Christ, 
according to this theory, was not with God in 
the beginning, that is in eternity. Socinianism 
contradicts both clauses ; for on that scheme 
Christ was neither with God in the beginning, 
nor was he God. "The faith of God's elect" 
agrees with both clauses, and by both it is es- 
tablished : " The Word was with God, and the 
Word was God," See Unitarians. 

WORM, the general name in Scripture for 
little creeping insects. Several kinds are 
spoken of: 1. Those that breed in putrefied 
bodies, nm, Exod. xvi, 20, 24; Job vii, 5; 
xvii, 14 ; xxi, 26 ; xxiv, 20 ; xxv, 6 ; Isa. xiv, 
11 ; crKwX??!, Ecclus. vii, 17 ; x, 11 ; 1 Mac. ii, 
62 ; 2 Mac. ix, 9 ; Judith xvi, 17; Mark ix, 44, 
46, 48; Acts xii, 23. 2. That which eats 
woollen garments, Da, Isa. li, 8; o-???, Matt, vi, 
19, 20 ; Luke xii, 33. 3. That which, perfo- 
rating the leaves and bark of trees, causes the 
little excrescences called kermes, whence is 
made a crimson dye, }}^^D, Dent, xxviii, 39; 
Job xxv, 6 ; Psalm xxii, 6 ; Isa. xiv, 11 ; xli, 14 ; 
Ixvi, 24 ; Exod. xvi, 20 ; Jonah iv, 7. 4. The 
worm destructive of the vines, referred to in 
Deut. xxviii, 39 ; which was the pyralis vitana, 
or pyralis fasciana, of Forskal, the vine weevil, 
a small insect extremely hurtful to the vines. 

WORMWOOD, nay^Deut.xxix, 18; Prov. 



v, 4 ; Jer. ix, 15 ; xxiii, 15 ; Lam. iii, 1.5, 19 ; 
Amos V, 7 ; vi, 12 ; aipivOov, Rev. viii, 11. In 
the Septuagint the original word is variously 
rendered, and generally by terms expressive of 
its figurative sense, for what is oflTensive, 
odious, or deleterious ; but in the Syriac and 
Arabic versions, and in the Latin Vulgate, it 
is rendered "wormwood;" and this is adopted 
by Celsius, who names it the ahsinthium san- 
tonicum Judaicum, [bitter v/ormwood of Judea.] 
From the passages of - Scripture, however, 
where this plant is mentioned, something more 
than the bitterness of its qualities seems to be 
intimated, and effects are attributed to it 
greater than can be produced by the worm, 
wood of Europe. The Chaldee paraphrase 
gives it even the character of "the wormwood 
of death." It may therefore mean a plant al- 
lied, perhaps, to the absinthium in appearance 
and in taste, but possessing more nauseous, 
hurtful, and formidable properties. 

WORSHIP. The Scriptural obligation of 
public worship is partly founded upon example, 
and partly upon precept; so that no person 
who admits that authority, can question this 
great duty without manifest and criminal in- 
consistency. The institution of public wor- 
ship under the law, and the practice of syna- 
gogue worship among the Jews, from at least 
the time of Ezra, cannot be questioned ; both 
of which were sanctioned by the practice of 
our Lord and his Apostles. The preceptive 
authority for our regular attendance upon pub- 
lic worship, is either inferential or direct. 
The command to publish the Gospel includes 
the obligation of assembling to hear it; the 
name by which a Christian society is desig- 
nated in Scripture is a church ; which signifies 
an assembly for the transaction of business ; 
and, in the case of a Christian assembly, that 
business must necessarily be spiritual, and in- 
clude the sacred exercises of prayer, praise, 
and hearing the Scriptures. But we have more 
direct j)recepts, although the practice was 
obviously continued from Judaism, and was 
therefore consuetudinary. Some of the epis- 
tles of St. Paul are commanded to be read in 
the churches. The singing of psalms, hymns, 
and spiritual songs is enjoined as an act of 
solemn worship to the Lord ; and St. Paul 
cautions the Hebrews that they "forsake not 
the assembling of themselves together." The 
practice of the primitive age is also manifest 
from the epistles of St. Paul. The Lord's 
Supper was celebrated by the body of believers 
collectively ; and this Apostle prescribes to the 
Corinthians regulations for the exercises of 
prayer and prophesyings, "when they came 
together in the church," — the assembly. The 
statedness and order of these holy offices in 
the primitive church, appear also from the 
apostolical epistle of St. Clement : " We ought 
also, looking into the depths of the divine 
knowledge, to do all things in order, whatso- 
ever the Lord hath commanded to be done. 
We ought to make our oblations, and perform 
our holy offices, at their appointed seasons ; 
for these he hath commanded to be done, not 
irregularly or by chance, but at determinate 



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times and hours ; as he hath likewise ordained 
by his supreme will, where, and by what per- 
sons, they shall be performed ; that so all 
things being done according to his pleasure, 
may be acceptable in his sight." This passage 
is remarkable for urging a divine authority for 
the public services of the church, by which 
St. Clement, no doubt, means the authority of 
the inspired directions of the Apostles. The 
ends of the institution of public worship are 
of such obvious importance, that it must ev«r 
be considered as one of the most condescend- 
ing and gracious dispensations of God to man. 
By this his church confesses his name before 
the world ; by this the public teaching of his 
word is associated with acts calculated to af- 
fect the mind with that solemnity which is the 
best preparation for hearing it to edification. 
It is thus that the ignorant and the vicious are 
collected together, and instructed and warned ; 
the invitations of mercy are published to the 
guilty, and the sorrowful and afflicted are 
comforted. In these assemblies God, by his 
Holy Spirit, diffuses his vital and sanctifying 
influence, and takes the devout into a fellow- 
ship with himself, from which they derive 
strength to do and to suffer his wall in the 
various scenes of life, while he there affords 
them a foretaste of the deep and hallowed 
pleasures which are reserved for them at his 
right hand for evermore. Prayers and inter- 
cessions are offered for national and public 
interests ; and w^hile the benefit of these exer- 
cises descends upon a country, all are kept 
sensible of the dependence of every public and 
personal interest upon God. Praise calls forth 
the grateful emotions, and gives cheerfulness 
to piety ; and that instruction in righteousness 
which is so perpetually repeated, diffuses the 
principles of morality and religion throughout 
society ; enlightens and gives activity to con- 
science ; raises the standard of morals ; at- 
taches shame to vice, and praise to virtue ; and 
thus exerts a powerfully purifying influence 
upon mankind. Laws thus receive a force, 
which, in other circumstances, they could not 
acquire, even were they enacted in as great 
perfection ; and the administration of justice 
is aided by the strongest possible obligation 
and sanction being given to legal oaths. The 
domestic relations are rendered more strong 
and interesting by the very habit of the attend- 
ance of families upon the sacred services of the 
sanctuary of the Lord ; and the rich and the 
poor meeting together, and standing on the 
same common ground as sinners before God, 
equally dependent upon him, and equally suing 
for his mercy, has a powerful, though often an 
insensible, influence in humbling the pride 
which is nourished by superior rank, and in 
raising the lower classes above abjectness of 
spirit, without injuring their humility. Piety, 
benevolence, and patriotism are equally de- 
pendent for their purity and vigour upon the 
regular and devout worship of God in the sim. 
plicity of the Christian dispensation. 

The following is an abridgment of Dr. 
Neander's account of the mode of conducting 
public worship among the primitive Christians, 



which, though questionable on some points, is 
upon the whole just and interesting: — Since 
the religion of the New Testament did not 
admit of any peculiar outward priesthood, 
similar to that of the Old, the same outward 
kind of worship, dependent on certain places, 
times, and outward actions and demeanours, 
would also have no place in its composition. 
The kingdom of God, the temple of the Lord, 
were to be present, not in this or that place, 
but in every place where Christ himself is 
active in the Spirit, and where through him the 
worship of God in spirit and in truth is esta- 
blished. Every Christian in particular, and 
every church in general, were to represent a 
spiritual temple of the Lord ; the true worship 
of God was to be only in the inward heart, and 
the whole life proceeding from such inward 
disposition, sanctified by faith, was to be a 
continued spiritual service ; this is the great 
fundamental idea of the Gospel, which prevails 
throughout the New Testament, by which the 
whole outward appearance of religion was to 
assume a different form, and all that once was 
carnal was to be converted into spiritual, and 
ennobled. This notion came forward most 
strongly in the original inward life of the first 
Christians, particularly when contrasted with 
Judaism, and still more so v,'hen contrasted 
with Heathenism ; a contrast which taught the "^ 
Christians to avoid all pomp that caught the 
eye, and all multiplication of means of devo- 
tion addressed to the senses, while it made them 
hold fast the simple, spiritual character of the 
Christian worship of God. It was this which 
always struck the Heathen so much in the 
Christian worship ; namely, that nothing was 
found among them of the outward pomp of 
all other religions ; no temples, no altars, no 
images. This reproach was made to the Chris- 
tians by Celsus, and answered thus by Origen : 
" In the highest sense the temple and image 
of God are in the human nature of Christ ; and 
hence, also, in all the faithful, who are ani- 
mated by the Spirit of Christ, — living images ! 
with which no statue of Jove by Phidias is fit 
to be compared." Christianity impelled men 
frequently to seek for the stillness of the in- 
ward sanctuary, and here to pour forth their 
heart to God, who dwells in such temples ; but 
then the flames of love were also lighted in 
their hearts, which sought communion in order 
to strengthen each other mutually, and to unite 
themselves into one holy flame which pointed 
toward heaven. The communion of prayer 
and devotion was thought a source of sanctifi- 
cation, inasmuch as men knew that the Lord 
was present by his Spirit among those who 
were gathered together in his name ; but then 
they were far from ascribing any peculiar sa- 
credness and sanctity to the place of assembly. 
Such an idf-a would appear to partake of Hea- 
thenism ; and men were at first in less danger 
of being seduced into such an idea, because 
the first general places of assembly of the 
Christians were only common rooms in private 
houses, just according as it happened that any 
member of the church had sufficient accom- 
modation for the purpose. Thus Gaius of Co^ 



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rinth, Rom. xvi, is called the host of the church, 
because the church was in the habit of assem- 
bling in a room of his house. Origen says, 
*' The place where believers come together to 
pray has something agreeable and useful about 
it ;" but then he only says this in respect to 
that spix'itual communion. Man, we must 
avow, is very easily led to fall away from the 
worship of God in spirit and in truth, and to 
connect the religion of the Spirit with out- 
ward and earthly things ; as the Apostle says, 
" Having begun in the Spirit, to wish to end 
in the flesh." Watchfulness on this point was 
constantly needed, lest the Jewish or the Hea- 
then notions should here intrude themselves 
on those of the Gospel, which was likely 
jenough to happen as soon as the Old and the 
New Testament notions of the priesthood had 
been confused. Even in the time of Clemens 
of Alexandria he found himself obliged to 
combat the notion, which allowed the essen- 
tials of a Christian life to be of one kind in, 
and of another out of, the church. "The dis- 
ciples of Christ," he says, "must form the 
whole course of their life and conduct on the 
model which they assume in the churches, for 
the sake of propriety ; they must be such, and 
not merely seem so ; as mild, as pious, and as 
charitable. But now, I know not how it is, 
they change their habits and their manners 
with the change of place, as the polypus, they 
say, changes its colour, and becomes like the 
rock on which it hangs. They lay aside the 
spiritual habit which they had assumed in the 
church, as soon as they have left the church, 
and assimilate themselves to the multitude 
among whom they live. I should rather say, 
that they convict themselves of hypocrisy, and 
show what they really are in their inward na- 
ture, by laying aside the mask of piety which 
they had assumed ; and while they honour the 
word of God, they leave it behind them in the 
place where they heard it." 

The Christian places of assembly were, at 
first, in the rooms of private houses ; it may 
perhaps be the ca-se, that in large towns, where 
the number of Christians was soon considera- 
ble, and no member of the church had any 
room in his house sufficient to contain all his 
brethren, or in places where men did not fear 
any prejudicial consequences from large as- 
semblies, the church divided itself into differ, 
jent sections, according to the habitations of 
its members, of which each section held its 
assemblies in one particular chamber of the 
house of some wealthy member of the church ; 
or, perhaps, while it was usual to unite on 
Sundays in one general assembly, yet each 
individual part of the church met together 
daily in the rooms which lay the most conve- 
nient to it. Perhaps the passages in St. Paul's 
epistles, which speak of churches in the houses 
of particular persons, are thus to be understood. 
The answer of Justin Martyr to the question 
of the prefect, " Where do you assemble V 
exactly corresponds to the genuine Christian 
spirit on this point. This answer was, "Where 
each one can and will. You believe, no doubt, 
Jhat we all meet together in one place ; but it 



is not so, for the God of the Christians is not 
shut up in a room, but, being invisible, he fills 
both heaven and earth, and is honoured every 
where by the faithful." Justin adds, that when 
he came to Rome, he was accustomed to dwell 
in one particular spot, and that those Chris- 
tians who were instructed by him, and wished 
to hear his discourses, assembled at his house. 
He had not visited any other congregations of 
the church. The arrangements which the pe- 
culiarities of the Christian worship required, 
v/ere gradually made in these places of assem. 
bly, such as an elevated seat for the purpose 
of reading the Scriptures and preaching, a 
table for the distribution of the sacrament, to 
which as early as tlie time of Tertullian the 
name of altar, ara or altare, was given, and 
perhaps not without some mixture of the 
unevangelical Old Testament notion of a 
sacrifice ; or at least this idea might easily 
attach itself to this name. When the churches 
increased, and their circumstances improved, 
there were, during the course of the third cen- 
tury, already separate church buildings for the 
Christians, as the name 3■pl^aK£V(n[xot. -oirdi, [reli- 
gious places,] of the Christians occurs in the 
edict of Gallienus. In the time of the external 
prosperity of the cjiurch, during the reign of 
Diocletian, many handsome churches arose in 
the great towns. The use of images was origi- 
nally quite foreign to the Christian worship 
and churches, and it remained so during this 
vv^hole period. The intermixture of art and 
religion, and the use jof images for the latter, 
appeared to the first Christians a Heathenish 
practice. As in Heathenism the divine be- 
comes desecrated and tarnished by intermix- 
ture with the natural ; and as men have often 
paid homage to the beauties of nature, with 
injury to the cause of holiness, the first warmth 
of Christian zeal, which opposed the idolatry 
of nature, so common to Heathenism, and 
sought to maintaii:! the divine in all its purity 
and elevation, was inclined rather to set holi- 
ness in the strongest contrast with what is 
beautiful by nature, than to endeavour to 
grace it by lending it a beautiful form. Men 
were more inclined in general to carry into 
extremes the idea of the appearance of the 
Divinity in the form of a servant, which suited 
the oppressed condition of the church in these 
centuries than to throw it into the back ground, 
and overwhelm it under the predominance of 
their aesthetic dispositions, and their love of art. 
This is peculiarly shown by the general belief 
of the early church, that Christ had clothed 
his inward divine glory in a mean outward 
form, which was in direct contradiction to it ; 
a conclusion which was drawn from interpret- 
ing the prophecy of the Messiah in Isa. liii, 2, 
too literally. Thus, Clemens of Alexandria 
warns the Christians, from the example of 
Christ, not to attribute too much value to out- 
v/ard beauty : " The Lord himself was mean 
in outward form ; and who is better than the 
Lord ? But he revealed himself not in the 
beauty of the body, perceptible to our senses, 
but in the true beauty of the soul as well as of 
the body; the beauty of the soul consisting in 



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benevolence, and that of the body in immor- 
tality i" Fathers of entirely opposite habits of 
mind, the adherents of two different systems 
of conceiving divine things, were nevertheless 
united on this point by their common opposi- 
tion to the mixture of the natural and the 
divine in Heathenism, and by the endeavour 
to maintain the devotion to God, in spirit and 
in truth, pure and undefiled. Clemens of 
Alexandria is as little favourable as Tertullian 
to the use ef images. Heathens, who, like 
Alexander Severus, saw something divine in 
Christ's personal form, and sects which mixed 
Heathenism and Christianity together, were 
the first who made use of images of Christ ; 
as, for instance, the Gnostic sect of the follow- 
ers of Carpocratian, who put his image beside 
those of Plato and Aristotle, The use of reli. 
gious images among the Christians did not 
proceed from their ecclesiastical but from their 
domestic life. In the intercourse of daily life, 
the Christians saw themselves every where 
surrounded by objects of Heathen mythology, 
or by such as shocked their moral and Chris- 
tian feelings. Similar objects adorned the 
walls of chambers, the drinking vessels, and 
the signet rings, (on which the Heathen had 
constantly idolatrous images,) to which, when- 
ever they pleased, they could address their 
devotions ; and the Christians naturally felt 
themselves obliged to replace these objects, 
which wounded their moral and religious feel- 
ings, with others more suited to those feelings. 
Therefore, they gladly put the likeness of a 
shepherd carrying a lamb upon his shoulders, 
on their cups, as a eymbol of the Redeemer, 
Vv^ho saves the sinners that return to him, ac 
cording to the parable in the Gospel. And 
Clemens of Alexandria says, in referenoe to 
the signet rings of the Christians, " Let our 
signet rings consist of a dove," the emblem of 
tlie Holy Ghost, "or a fish, or a ship sailing 
toward heaven," the emblem of the Christian 
church, or of individual Christian souls, " or a 
lyre," the emblem of Christian joy, " or an 
anchor," the emblem of Christian hope ; "and 
he who is a fisherman, let him remember the 
Apostle, and the children who were dragged 
out from the water ; for those men ought not 
to engrave idolatrous forms, to whom the use 
of them is forbidden ; those can engrave no 
sword and no bow, who seek for peace ; the 
friends of temperance cannot engrave drinking 
cups." And yet, perhaps, rehgious images 
made their way from domestic life into the 
churches as early as the end of the third cen- 
tury, and the walls of the churches were painted 
izi the same way. The council of Elvira set 
itself against this innovation as an abuse, for 
it made the following order : " Objects of reve- 
rence and worship shall not be painted on the 
walls," It is probable that the visible repre- 
sentation of the cross found its way very early 
into domestic and ecclesiastical life. This 
token was remarkably common among them ; 
it was used to consecrate their rising and their 
going to bed, their going out and their coming 
in, and all the actions of daily life ; it was the 
sign which Christians made involuntarily when- 



ever any thing of a fearful nature surprised 
them. This was a mode of expressing, by 
means perceptible to the senses, the purely 
Christian idea, that all the actions of Chris- 
tians, as well as the whole course of their life, 
must be sanctified by faith in the crucified 
Jesus, and by dependence upon him ; and that 
this faith is the most powerful means of con- 
quering all evil, and preserving oneself against 
it. But here also, again, men w^^ere too apt to 
confuse the idea and the token which repre- 
sented it ; and they attributed the effects of 
faith in the crucified Redeemer to the outv/ard 
sign, to which they ascribed a supernatural, 
sanctifying, and preservative power; an error 
of which we find traces as early as the third 
century. 

We now pass from the consideration of the 
places of public worship, to that of the seasons 
of worship, and the festivals of the early Chris- 
tians. It is here shown again, that the Gos- 
pel, as it remodelled the former conceptions 
of the priesthood, of v/orship in general, and 
of holy places, also entirely changed the then 
views of sacred seasons. And here again, also, 
the character of the theocracy of the New 
Testament revealed itself, a theocracy spirit- 
ualized, ennobled, and freed from its outward 
garb of sense, and from the limits which 
bounded its generaliKation, The Jewish law^s 
relating to their festivals were not merely ab- 
rogated by the Gospel, in such a manner as to 
transfer these festivals to different seasons ; but 
they were entirely abolished, as far as fixing 
religious worship to particular times is con- 
cerned. St. Paul expressly declares all sancti- 
fying of certain seasons, as far as men deduced 
this from the divine command, to be Jewish 
and unevangeiical, and to be like returning to 
the slavery of the law, and to captivity to out- 
ward precepts. Such was the opinion of the 
early church. At first the churches assembled 
every day ; as, for instance, the first church of 
Jerusalem, which assembled daily for prayer 
in common, and for the public consideration 
of the divine word, for the common celebration 
of the Lord's Supper and the agapce, as well 
as to maintain the connection between the 
common head of the spiritual body of the 
church and themselves, and between one an- 
other as members of this body. Traces of this 
are also found in later times in the daily as- 
sembiing of the churches for the purpose of 
hearing the Scriptures read, and of celebrating 
the communion. Although, in order to meet 
the wants of human nature generally, consist- 
ing as it does of sense as well as soul, and 
those of a large body of Christians in particular, 
w'ho were only in a state of education, and 
were to be brought up to the ripeness of Chris- 
tian manhood, men soon selected definite times 
[beside the authorized Christian Sabbath, the 
first day of the week] for religious admonitions, 
and to consecrate them to a fuller occupation 
with religious things, as well as to public de- 
votion, with the intention, that the influence 
of these definite times should animate and 
sanctify the rest of their lives, and that 
Christians who withdrew themselves from ths 



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VVOR 



distractions of business on these days, and 
collected their hearts before God in the still- 
ness of solitude, as well as in public devotion, 
might make these seasons of service to tlie 
other parts of their life ; yet this was in itself, 
and of itself, nothing unevangelieal. It was 
only a dropping down from the purely spiritual 
point of view, on which even the Christian, as 
he still carries about two natures in himself, 
cannot always maintain himself, to the carnal ; 
a dropping down which became constantly 
more necessary, the more the fire of the first 
animation and the warmth of the first love of 
the Christians died away. It was no more 
unevangelic than the gradual limitation of the 
exercise of many rights, belonging to the com- 
mon priesthood of all Christians, to a certain 
class in the church, which circumstances ren- 
dered necessary. But just as the unevangelic 
made its appearance, men supposed certain 
days distinguished from others, and hallowed 
by divine right, when they introduced a dis- 
tinction between holy and common days into 
the life of the Christian, and in this distinction 
forgot his calling to sanctify all days alike. 
When the Montanists wished to introduce and 
make imperative new fasts, which were fixed 
to certain days, the Epistle to the Galatians 
was very properly brought to oppose them ; 
but Tertullian, who stood on the boundary 
between the original pure evangelic times and 
those when the intermixture of Jewish and 
Christian notions first took place, confuses 
here the views of the two religions, because 
he makes the evangelical to consist, not in a 
wholly diiferent method of considering festi- 
vals altogether, but in the celebration of differ- 
ent particular festivals ; and he makes the 
Judaizing, which the Apostle condemns, to 
consist only in the observation of the Jewish 
instead of the peculiarly Christian festivals. 
The weekly and the yearly festivals originally 
arose from the self-same fundamental idea, 
which was the centre point of the whole Chris. 
tian life ; the idea of imitating Christ, the 
crucified and the risen ; to follow him in his 
death, by appropriating to ourselves, in peni- 
tence and faith, the effects of his death, by 
dying to ourselves and to the world ; to follow 
him in his resurrection, by rising again with 
him, by faith in him and by his power, to a 
new and holy life, devoted to God, which, be- 
ginning here below in the seed, is matured in 
heaven. Hence the festival of joy was the 
festival of the resurrection ; and the prepara- 
tion for it, the remembrance of the sufferings 
of Christ, with mortification and crucifixion 
of the flesh, was the day of fasting and peni- 
tence. Thus in the week the Sunday was the 
joyful festival ; and the preparation for it was 
a day of penitence and prayer, consecrated to 
remembrance of the sufferings of Christ and 
the preparations for them, and this was cele- 
brated on the Friday ; and thus also the yearly 
festivals were to celebrate the resurrection of 
Christ, and the operations of the Redeemer 
after he had risen again ; the preparation for 
this day was in commemoration of the suffer- 
^pgs and fastings of our Saviour. Allusion Ls 



made to Sunday under the character of a festi- 
val, as a symbol of a new life, consecrated to 
the Lord in opposition to the old Sabbath, in 
the epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians : " If 
they who were brought up under the Old Tes. 
taraent have attained to a new hope, 3>nd no 
longer -keep [Jewish] Sabbaths holy, but have 
consecrated their life to the day of the Lord, 
on which also our life rose up in him, how 
shall we be able to live without him ?" Sunday 
was distinguished as a day of joy by the cir» 
cumstances, that men did not fast upon it, and 
that they prayed standing up and not kneeling, 
as Christ had raised up fallen man to heaven 
again through his resurrection. And farther : 
two other days in the week, Friday and Wed- 
nesday, particularly the former, were conse- 
crated to the remembrance of the sufferings of 
Christ, and of the circumstances preparatory 
to them ; congregations were held on them, 
and a fast till three o'clock in the afternoon, 
but nothing was positively appointed concerning 
them ; in respect to joining in these solemni- 
ties every one consulted his own convenience 
or inclination. Such fasts, joined with prayer, 
were considered as the watches of the milites 
Chrisii [soldiers of Christ] on their post by the 
Christians, who compared their calling to a 
warfare, the militia Christi, and they were 
stationes, and the days on which they took place 
were called dies stationum, [day of their sta- 
tions.] The churches, which were a graft of a 
Christian on a Jewish spirit, although they 
received tlie Sunday, retained also that of the 
Sabbath ; and from them the custom spread 
abroad in the oriental church, of distinguishing 
this day, as well as the Sunday, by not fasting 
and by praying in an erect posture ; in the 
v/estern churches, particularly the Roman, 
where opposition to Judaism was the prevail- 
ing tendency, this very opposition produced 
the custom of celebrating the Saturday in par- 
ticular as a fast day, This difference in customs 
would of course be striking, where members 
of the oriental church spent their Sabbath day 
in the Vv^estern church. It was only too soon 
that men lost sight of the principle of the 
apostolic church, which retained the unity of 
faith and spirit in the bond of love, but al- 
lowed all kinds of difference in external things ; 
and then they began to require uniformity in 
these things. The first yearly festivals of the 
Christians proceeded from similar views ; and 
at first the contrast which had in early times 
the most powerful influenae on the develope- 
ment as well 6f the churchly life, as of the 
doctrines of Christianity, is peculiarly promi, 
nent ; I mean the contrast between the Jewish 
churches and those of the Gentile converts. 
The former retained all the Jewish festivals as 
well as the whole ceremonial law ; although 
by degrees they introduced into them a Chris- 
tian meaning which spontaneously offered 
itself. On the contrary, there was probably 
no yearly festival at all, from the beginning, 
among the Heathen converts ; for no trace of 
any thing of the sort is found in the whole of 
the New Testament. The passover of the Old 
Testament was easily ennobled and converted 



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to a passover which suited the New Testament, 
by merely substituting the idea of deliverance 
from spiritual bondage, that is, from the 
slavery of sin, for that of deliverance from 
earthly bondage. The paschal lamb was a 
type of Christ, by whom that deliverance was 
wrought. These representations went on the 
supposition, that Christ had partaken his last 
meal with his disciples, as a proper passover, 
at the very time that the Jews were celebrating 
theirs. This passover was, therefore, always 
celebrated on the night between the fourteenth 
and fifteenth of the Jewish month Nisan, as a 
remembrance at the same time of the last sup- 
per of Christ. This was the fundam.ental 
notion of the whole Jewish Christian passover, 
on which all the rest was built. The day fol- 
lowing this passover was consecrated to the 
remembrance of the sufferings of Christ, and 
the third day from it to the remembrance of his 
resurrection. On the contrary, in the greater 
number of Heathen churches, as soon as men 
began to celebrate yearly festivals, (a time 
which cannot be determined very precisely,) 
they followed the method observed in the 
weekly festivals. They appointed one Sunday 
in the year for the festival of the resurrection, 
and one Friday as a day of penitence and fast- 
ing preparatory to this Sunday, in remembrance 
of the sufferings of Christ ; and they gradually 
lengthened this time of penitence and fasting, 
as a preparation for that high and joyful festi- 
val. In these churches they were more inclined 
to take up a kind of antithetical turn against 
the Jewish festivals, than to graft Christian 
ones upon them. It was far from their no- 
tions to think of observing a yearly passover 
with the Jews. The following was the view 
which they took of the matter: " Every typical 
feast has lost its true meaning by the realiza- 
tion of that which is typified ; in the sacrifice 
of Christ, the Lord's Supper, as the nev/ cove- 
nant, has taken the place of that of the old 
covenant." This difference of outward cus- 
toms between the Jewish Christian churches 
and the churches allied to them on the one 
hand, and the Heathen Christian churches 
founded by St. Paul on the other, existed at 
first without its being supposed that external 
things of this nature were of importance enough 
to lead to a controversy. A fast formed the 
introduction to tlie passover ; and this was the 
only fast formally established by the church. 
The necessity of this fast was deduced from 
Matthew ix, 15 ; but it was by a carnal inter- 
pretation of the passage, and an application of 
it quite contrary to its real sense. For it does 
not relate to the time of Christ's suffering, but 
to the time when he should be with his disci- 
ples no more. As long as they enjoyed his 
society they were to give themselves up to joy, 
and to be disturbed in it by no forced asceti- 
cism. But a time of sorrow was to follow this 
time of joy, although only for a season, after 
which a time of higher and imperishable joy, 
in invisible communion with him, was to fol- 
low, John xvi, 22. The duration of this fast, 
however, was not determined ; the imitation 
of the temptation of our Lord for forty days 



introduced the custom of fasting forty hours 
in sonae places, which afterward was extended 
to forty days ; and thus the fast of forty days, 
the quadrigesimal fast, arose. The festival of 
pentecost, Whitsuntide, was closely connected 
with that of the resurrection; and this was 
dedicated to commemorating the first visible 
effects of the operations of the glorified Christ 
upon human nature, now also ennobled by 
him, the lively proofs of his resurrection and 
reception into glory ; and therefore Origen 
joins the festivals of the resurrection and of 
pentecost together as one whole. The means 
of transition from an Old Testament festival 
to one befitting the New Testament, were here 
near at hand. The first fruits of harvest in the 
kingdom of nature ; the first fruits of harvest in 
the kingdom of grace; the law of the letter from 
Mount Sinai — the law of the Spirit from the 
heavenly Jerusalem. This festival originally 
embraced the whole season of fifty days from 
Easter, and was celebrated like a Sunday, that 
is to say, no fasts were kept during the whole 
of it, and men prayed standing, and not kneel, 
ing ; and perhaps also in some places assem. 
blies of the church were held, and the com- 
munion was celebrated every day. Afterward, 
two peculiar points of time, the ascension of 
Christ and the effusion of the Holy Spirit, were 
selected from this whole interval. These were 
the only festivals generally celebrated at that 
time, as the passage cited from Origen proves. 
The fundamental notion of the whole Chris, 
tian life, which referred every thing to the 
suffering, the resurrection, and the glorifica. 
tion of Christ, as well as the adherence, or, on 
the other hand, the opposition, to the Jewish 
celebration of festivals, were the cause that 
these were the only general festivals. The 
notion of a birth-day festival was far from the 
ideas of the Christians of this period in gene- 
ral ; they looked upon the second birth as the 
true birth of men. The case must have been 
somewliat different with the birth of the Re- 
deemer ; human nature was to be sanctified by 
him from its first developement ; but then this 
last notion could not at first come so promi. 
nently forward among the early Christians, 
because so many of them were first converted 
to Christianity when well advanced in years, 
after some decisive excitement of their life ; 
but then it may have entered generally into 
domestic life, though at first gradually. Never- 
theless, we find in this period apparently one 
trace of Christmas as a festival. Its history is 
intimately connected with the history of a 
kindred festival ; the festival of the manifesta- 
tion of Jesus in his character of Messiah, his 
consecration to the office of Messiah by the 
baptism of John, and the beginning of his pub- 
lie ministry as the Messiah, v/hich was after- 
ward called Epiphany, the tvprr] rwv iirKpavlwv, or 
T^j eiTKpavclag rod Xpi^ov, [the festival of Epiphany, 
or of the appearance of Christ.] We find in later 
times that these festivals extended themselves in 
opposite directions, that of Christmas spreading 
from west to east, and the other from east to 
west. Clemens of Alexandria merely relates, 
that the Gnostic f^ect of the Basilidians cele- 



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brated the festival of the Epiphany at Alex- 
andria in his time. We can hardly suppose 
that this sect invented the festival, although 
they may have had some dogmatical reason for 
celebrating it ; for it is highly improbable that 
the catholic church should have afterward 
received a festival from the Gnostics ; and 
these Gnostics most probably received it from 
the Jewish Christian churches in Palestine or 
Syria. For this time of our Saviour's life 
would appear the most important to the no- 
tions of the Jewish Christians ; and the Gnos- 
tics would afterward explain it according to 
their own ideas* 

The character of a spiritual worship of God 
distinguished the Christian worship from that of 
other religions, which consisted in symbolical 
pageantry and lifeless ceremonies. As a 
general elevation of spirit and sanctiiication of 
heart was the object of every thing in this re- 
ligion, instruction and edification, through a 
common study of the diyine word, and through 
prayer in common, were the leading features 
in the Christian worship. And in this respect 
it might in its form adhere to the arrangements 
made about the congregations in the Jewish 
synagogues, in which also the element of a 
spiritual religious worship was the prevailing 
ingredient. As the reading of portions of the 
Old Testament had formed the ground work of 
religious instruction in the Jewish synagogues, 
this custom also passed into the Christian eon- 
gregations. First the Old Testament, and espe- 
cially the prophetic parts of it, were read as 
things that pointed to the Messiah ; then 
followed the Gospels, and after that the 
epistles of the Apostles. The reading of the 
Scriptuj-es was of still greater consequence 
then, because it was desirable that every 
Christian should be acquainted with them ; 
and yet, by reason of the rarity and dearness 
of manuscripts, and the poverty of a great pro- 
portion of the Christians, or perhaps also 
because all were not able to read, the Bible 
itself could not be put into the hands of all. 
Frequent hearing was therefore with many to 
supply the place of their own reading. The 
Scriptures were therefore read in the language 
which all could understand, and that was, in 
most parts of the Roman empire, the Greek or 
the Latin. In very early times different trans- 
lations of the Bible into Latin were in ex- 
istence ; as every one who knew a little of 
Greek, found it needful to have his own Bible 
in his own mother tongue. In places where 
the Greek or the Latin language was under- 
stood only by a part of the church, that is to 
say, by the educated classes, while the rest 
understood only their native language, as was 
the case in many Egyptian and Syrian towns, 
church interpreters were appointed, as in the 
Jewish synagogues, and they immediately 
translated what had been read into the language 
of the country, so that it might be intelligible 
to all. After the reading of the Scripture 
there followed, as there had previously in the 
Jewish synagogues, short, and at first very 
simple, addresses in familiar language, the 
momentary effusions of the heart, which con- 



tained an explanation and application of what 
had just been read. Justin Martyr expresses 
himself thus on the subject : " After the reading 
of the Scriptures, the president instructs the 
people in a discourse, and incites them to the 
imitation of these good examples." Among 
the Greeks, where the taste was more rhetorical, 
the sermon from the 7/ery earliest times was of 
a more lengthened kind, and formed a very 
important part of the service. Singing also 
passed from the Jewish service into that of 
the Christian church. St. Paul exhorts the 
early churches to sing spiritual songs. What 
was used for this purpose were partly the 
Psalms of the Old Testament, and partly songs 
composed with this very object, especially 
songs of praise and thanks to God and Christ ; 
and these, we know, Pliny found to be cus- 
ternary among the Christians. In the contro- 
versies with the Unitarians, about the end of 
the second century, and the beginning of the 
third, the hymns, in which from early times 
Christ had been honoured as a God, were 
appealed to. The power of church singing 
over the heart was soon recognized; and hence 
those who wished to propagate any peculiar 
opinions, like Bardasanes, or Paul of Samosata, 
endeavoured to spread them, by m.eans of 
hymns. In compliance with the infirmities 
of human nature, composed as it is of sense 
and spirit, the divine Founder of the church, 
beside his word, ordained two outward signs, 
as symbols of the invisible communion which 
existed between him, the Head of the spiritual 
body, and the faithful, its members ; and also 
of the connection of these members, as with 
him, so also with one another. These were 
visible means to represent the invisible, 
heavenly benefits to be bestowed on the mem- 
bers of this body through him ; and while man 
received in faith the sign presented to his 
senses, the enjoyment of that heavenly com- 
munion and those heavenly advantages was 
to gladden his inward heart. As nothing in 
all Christianity and in the whole Christian life 
stands isolated, but all forms one whole, pro- 
ceeding from one centre, therefore, also, that 
which this outward sign represented must be 
something which should continue through the 
whole of the inward Christian life, something 
which, spreading itself forth from this one 
moment over the whole Christian life, should 
be capable of being especially excited again 
and promoted in return, by the influence of 
isolated moments. Thus, baptism was to be 
the sign of a first entrance into communion 
with the Redeemer, and with the church, the 
first appropriation of those advantages which 
Christ has bestowed on man, namely, of the 
forgiveness of sins and the inward union of 
life, which proceeds from it, as well as of the 
participation in a sanctifying divine Spirit of 
life. And the Lord's Supper was to be the 
sign of a constant continuance in this com- 
munion, in the appropriation and enjoyment 
of these advantages ; and thus were represented 
the essentials of the whole inward Christian 
life, in its earliest rise and its continued pro. 
gress. The whole peculiar spirit of Christianity 



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was particularly stamped in the mode in which 
these external things were administered ; and 
the mode of their administration in return 
exerted a powerful influence on the whole 
nature of the Christian worship. The con- 
nection of the moments, represented by these 
signs, with tlie whole Christian life, the con- 
cection of inward and divine things with the 
outward act was present to the lively Christian 
feelings of4;he first Christians. 

WRITING. In regard to alphabetic writ- 
izig, all the ancient writers attribute the in- 
vention of it to some very early age, and some 
country of the east ; but they do not pretend 
to designate preciselj'- either the time or the 
place. They say, farther, that Cadmus intro. 
duced letters from Phenicia into Greece, if we 
may credit the Parisian Chronicle, B. C. 1519, 
that is, forty-five years after the death of 
Moses. Anticlides asserts, and attempts to 
prove, that letters were invented in Egypt fifteen 
yeais before Phoroneus, the most ancient king 
of Greece ; that is, four hundred and nine 
years after the deluge, and in the one hundred 
and seventeenth year of Abraham. On this it 
may be remarked that they might have been 
introdu^ced into Egypt at this time, but they 
had been previously invented by the Pheni- 
cians. Epigenes, who, in the estimation of 
Pliny, is weighty authority, informs us that 
observations, made upon the heavenly bodies 
for seven hundred and twenty 3'^ears at Babylon, 
were written down upon baked tiles ; but 
Berosus and Critodemus, also referred to by 
Pliny, make the number of years four hundred 
and eighty. Pliny from these statements 
draws the conclusion that the use of letters, as 
he expresses it, must have been eternal, that 
is, beyond all records. Simplicius, who lived 
in the fifth century, states, on the authority of 
Porphyry, an acute historian, that Callisthenes, 
the companion of Alexander, found at Babylon 
a record of observations on the heavenly bodies 
for one thousand nine hundred and three 
years. Of course the record must have been 
begun B. C. 2234, that is, the eighty-ninth 
year of Abraham. This statement receives 
some confirmation from the fact that the month 
of March is called Adar in. the Chaldaic dia- 
lect; and at the time mentioned, namely, the 
eighty-ninth year of Abraham, tlie sun, during 
the whole month of March, was in the sign of 
the zodiac called Aries, or the Ram. The word 
Adar means the same with Aries. But, as 
letters would be unquestionably first used for 
the purposes of general intercourse, they must 
have been known long before they were em- 
ployed to transmit the motions of the stars. 
Of this we have an evidence in the bill of sale, 
which, as we have reason to suppose from the 
expressions used in Gen. xxiii, 20, was given 
to Abraham by the sons of Heth. Hence it is 
not at all wonderful that books and writings 
are spoken of in the time of Moses, as if well 
known, Exodus xvii, 14 ; xxiv, 4 ; xxviii, 9-11 ; 
xxxii, 32 ; xxxiv, 27, 28 ; Numbers xxxiii, 2 ; 
Deut. xxvii, 8. Nor is it a matter of surprise 
that long before his time there had been public 
spribes, who kept written genealogies : they 



were called by tlie Hebrews Qnait;;, Exod. v, 
14 ; Deut. xx, 5-9. Even in the time of Jacob, 
seals, upon which names are engraved in the 
east, were in use. Gen. xxxviii, 18; xli, 42 ; 
which is another probable testimony to the 
great antiquity of letters. 

Letters, which had thus become known at 
the earliest period, were communicated by 
means of the Phenician merchants and colo- 
nies, and subsequently by Egyptian emigrants, 
through all the east and the west. A strong 
evidence of this is to be found in the different 
alphabets themselves, which betray by their 
resemblance a common origin. That the pos- 
terity of the Hebrew patriarchs preserved a 
knowledge of alphabetical writing during their 
abode in Egypt, where essentially the same 
alphabet was in use, is evident from the fact, 
that the Hebrews while remaining there always 
had public genealogists. The law, also, was 
ordered to be inscribed on stones ; a fact which 
implies a knowledge of alphabetical writing. 
The Vv^riting thus engraven upon stones is 
designated by its appropriate name, namely, 
nnn, Exodus xxxii, 16, 32. Not a few of the 
Hebrews might be unable to read and write. 
Judges viii, 14; but those who were capable 
of writing wrote for others, when necessary. 
Such persons were commonly priests, who, as 
they do to this day in the east, bear an inkhorn 
in their girdle, Ezek. x, 2, 3, 11. In the ink- 
horn were the materials for writing, and a knife 
for sharpening the pen, Jer. xxxvi, 23. The 
rich and noble had scribes of their own, and 
readers also ; whence there is more frequent 
mention made of hearing than of reading, 
1 Kings iv, 3 ; 2 Kings xii, 10 ; Isa. xxix, 18 ; 
Jer. xxxvi, 4; Rom. ii, 13; James v, 11 ; Rev. 
i, 3. The scribes took youth under their care, 
who learned from them the art of writing. Some 
of the scribes seem to have held public schools 
for instruction ; some of which, under the care 
of Samuel and other prophets, became in time 
quite illustrious, and were called the schools 
of the prophets, 1 Sam. xix, 16, &c ; 2 Kings 
ii, 3, 5; iv, 38; vi, 1. The disciples in these 
schools were not children or boys, but young 
men, who inhabited separate edifices, as is the 
case in the Persian academies. They were 
taught music and singing, and without doubt 
writing also, the Mosaic law and poetry. They 
were denominated, in reference to their in- 
structers, the sons of the prophets; teachers and 
prophets being sometimes called fathers. After 
the captivity there were schools for instruction 
either near the synagogues or in them. 

The materials and instruments of writing 
were, 1. The leaves of trees. 2. The bark of 
trees, from which, in the process of time, a sort 
of paper was manufactured. 3. A table of 
wood, TTU'al, mV, Deut. ix, 9 ; Ezek. xxxvii, 5 ; 
Luke i, 63. In the east, these tables were not 
covered with wax as they were in the w^est; or 
at any rate very rarely so. 4. Linen was first 
used for the object in question at Rome. Linen 
books are mentioned by Livy. Cotton cloth 
also, which was used for the bandages of 
Egyptian mummies, and inscribed with hiero- 
glyphics, was one of the materials for writing 



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upon. 5. The paper made from the reed papy- 1 if we may credit Cicero and Pereius, the ink 



rus, which, as Pliny has shown, was used before 
the Trojan war. 6. The skins of various ani- 
mals ; but they were poorly prepared for the 
purpose, until some improved methods of 
manufacture were invented at Pergamus, 
during the reign of Eumenes, about B. C. 300. 
Hence the skins of animals, prepared for writ- 
ing, are called in Latin pergamena, in English 
parchment, to this day, from the city Pergamus. 
They are sometimes denominated in Greek, 
fiE[xPpdva, 2 Tim. iv, 13. 7. Tables of lead, 
mc;;, Job xix, 24. 8. Tables of brass, SiXroi 
%aX/ca?. Of all the materials, brass was con- 
sidered among the most durable, and was 
employed for those inscriptions which were 
designed to last the longest, 1 Mace, viii, 22 ; 
xiv, 20-27. 9. Stones or rocks, upon which 
public laws, &c, were written. Sometimes the 
letters engraved were filled up with lime, Exod. 
xxiv, 12; xxxi, 18; xxxii, 19; xxxiv, 1; Deut. 
xxvii, 1-9 ; Joshua viii, 32 ; Job xix, 24. 

10. Tiles. The inscriptions were rAade upon 
the tiles first, and afterward they v^^ere baked 
in the fire. They are yet to be found in the 
ruins of Babylon ; others of later origin are 
to be found in many countries in the east. 

11. The sand of the earth, in which the chil- 
dren in India to this day learn the art of writing, 
and in which Archimedes himself delineated 
his mathematical figures, John viii, 1-8. If in 
Ezekiel iii, 1, and in Revelation x, 9, we are 
informed that books were eaten, we must re- 
member that the descriptions are figurative, 
and that they were eaten in vision ; and con- 
sequently we are not at liberty to draw the 
conclusion from these passages, that any sub. 
stance was used as materials for v/riting upon, 
which was at the same time used for food. 
The representations alluded to are symbolic, 
introduced to denote a communication or reve- 
lation from God. 

As to the instruments used in writing, when 
it was necessary to write upon hard materials, 
as tables of stone and brass, the style was made 
of iron, and sometimes tipped with diamond, 
Jer. xvii. 1. The letters were formed upon 
tablets of wood, (when they were covered with 
wax,) with a style sharpened at one end, broad 
and smooth at the other ; by.means of which 
the letters, when badly written, might be rubbed 
out and the wax smoothed down. 2. Wax, how- 
ever, was but rarely used for the purpose of 
covering writing tables in warm regions. 
When this was not the case, the letters were 
painted on the wood with black tincture or 
ink. 3. On linen, cotton cloth, paper, skins, 
and parchment, the letters were painted with a 
very small brush, afterward with a reed, which 
was split. The orientals use this elegant in- 
strument to the present day instead of a pen. 
/n/r, called ri, is spoken of in Num. v, 23, as 
well known and common, Jer. xxxvi, 18, and 
was prepared in various ways, which are related 
by Pliny. The most simple, and consequently 
the most ancient, method of preparation was a 
mixture of water with coals broken to pieces, 
or with soot, with an addition of gum. The 
ancients used other tinctures also ; particularly, 



extracted from the cuttle fish, although their 
assertion is in opposition to Pliny. The He- 
brews went so far as to write their sacred books 
in gold, as we may learn from Josephus com- 
pared with Pliny. 

Hieroglyphics, that is, sacred sculptures or 
engravings, received that appellation, because 
it was once, and indeed till very lately, thought, 
that they were used only to express, in a man- 
ner hidden from the vulgar, what was exclu- 
sively religious ; and which it was thought 
proper to conceal from all but the learned. 
The fact, however, is, that the hieroglyphic 
was a kind of picture writing, which passed 
through various modifications, and was applied 
alike to sacred and to civil purposes ; to the 
emblazonment of the attributes of idols, the 
exploits of warriors, and the events of illustri- 
ous history. Rudiments of the same art have 
been found among almost all savages. Among 
the semi-civilized Mexicans history was pic- 
torial; and in Ceylon and Continental India 
the same vehicle of instruction is made use of 
on the walls of their temples, to convey moral 
lessons, or to indicate the character and ex- 
ploits of their deities. In Egypt, however, the 
art was carried into a more perfect system, and 
was more ostensibly set before the public eye 
on the massive and almost eternal monuments 
which cover the country. There, too, it 
ascends to ages of the world with which the 
Scriptures have made us familiar, and stands 
associated with royal dynasties, and vicissitudes 
of conquest, more intimately blended with that 
stream of civil history, along the margin of 
which European education conducts us. These 
mystic characters have acquired an adventitious 
interest also, from the circumstance that the key 
to them was for so many ages lost. This know- 
ledge perished among that people themselves, 
the records of whose kings and conquests lay 
hid under the inexplicable symbol, or the fan- 
ciful representation of letters and sounds which 
were still familiar to the lips of those to whom 
the signs had become wholly unmeaning. Age 
after age they were gazed at by the curious ; 
conjectures respecting their nature and use 
were offered by the learned, some absurd and 
some approaching the truth, but all failing to 
throw light upon a mystery, which at length 
was surrendered, by common consent, to the 
receptacle of lost and irrecoverable knowledge. 
Whether the hieroglyphics were symbols only, 
or words, or picturesque alphabetical charac- 
ters, or expressed the popular tongue, or one 
known only to the priests, were questions 
answered at random by the prompt and dog. 
matic ; and even the more modest and probable 
solutions of the cautious had so little collateral 
evidence to support them, that they led to no 
result. As to their intent, one thought that 
they involved the mysteries of magic ; another, 
that they were a form of the Chinese language ; 
a third, that they veiled the doctrines of the 
true patriarchal religion; a fourth, that they 
enveloped the dogmatic arcana of the Egyptian 
priesthood. The great point, however, to be de- 
termined was, whether the hieroglyphics were 



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the signs of a language ; that is, of the sounds 
of any language ; and, if so, whether the lan- 
guage was now known, or knowable, from 
books still extant. Each of these points was 
of equal importance ; for in vain would it have 
been ascertained that these signs represented 
the sounds of a tongue once spoken, if that 
tongue had perished from the earth. Clement 
of Alexandria, who lived about the end of the 
second century, asserted that the Egyptians 
had three modes of writing, — the epistolo- 
graphic, or common characters ; the hieratic, 
or sacerdotal, employed chiefly by the priest- 
hood in writing books; and the hieroglyphic, 
used on public monuments. The symbolical 
he again distributes into imitative, which 
represent the plain figure of an object, as a 
circle to express the sun, and a half circle the 
moon ; tropical, — which have recourse to ana- 
logy for the representation of the object ; and 
enigmatical, — as " a serpent, to signify the 
oblique course of the stars." This writer could 
not so accurately have expressed the truth of 
the case, unless he had known much more than 
he has written ; and we may presume, that if 
he had been more liberal in his communications, 
the present age would not have had the honour 
of throwing open the gate to this branch of 
ancient learning. The notion which has 
generally prevailed, that by whatever rule the 
hieroglyphics were composed, they were in- 
vented by the Egyptian priests to conceal their 
wisdom from the vulgar, was combated by 
Bishop Warburton, with his usual acuteness. 
According to him, the first kind of hierogly- 
phics were mere pictures ; because the most 
natural way of communicating our conceptions 
by marks or figures was, to trace out the images 
of things. But the hieroglyphics invented by 
the Egyptians were an improvement on this 
rude and inconvenient essay toward writing; 
for they contrived to make them both pictures 
and characters. He proceeds to other obser- 
vations, which have lost their interest in con- 
sequence of the recent discoveries ; but he 
argues conclusively, that hieroglyphics could 
not, in a vast number of cases, have been 
resorted to for purposes of secresy, since they 
were employed to record openly and plainly 
their laws, history, and all kinds of civil mat- 
ters. This, as a general view, has been proved 
to be correct ; but still no key to the reading 
of these characters was found. The figures of 
deities might, in many instances, be deciphered 
by their attributes ; other symbols were not 
difficult to explain, as they spoke a universal 
language. Thus two hands, one holding a 
bow, and another a shield, suggested a battle ; 
an eye and a sceptre, a monarch of intelligence 
and vigilance ; a ship and a pilot, the governor 
of a state if associated with a man, the ruler of 
the universe if associated with a deity. A lion 
was a natural emblem of strength and courage ; 
a bullock, of agriculture ; a horse, of liberty ; 
a sphynx, of subtlety. But still those hiero- 
glyphics were in the greatest number which 
appeared to represent letters ; and m.any might 
prove, at the same time, both emblematic and 
alphabetical. Approaches to the truth of the 



case had been, indeed, made. Warburton, from 
an attentive perusal of what Clemens Alexan- 
drinus had said on the subject, had, in fact, 
concluded, in a way highly creditable to his 
acuteness, that hieroglyphics were a real writ- 
ten language, applicable to the purposes of 
history and common life, as well as to those of 
religion ; and that, among the different sorts 
of hieroglyphics, the Egyptians possessed those 
which were used phonetically, or alphabetic- 
ally, as letters ; but, till recently, the means of 
following out this ingenious and correct con- 
jecture were wanting to the learned. The first 
effectual step was taken by M. Quattermere, 
who proved, in his work Sur la Langue et Lit- 
terature de VEgypte, [Concerning the Language 
and Literature of Egypt,] that the Coptic, a lan- 
guage of easy attainment, at least to a con- 
siderable extent, was the language of the an- 
cient Egyptians. The second favouring cir- 
cumstance of modern times was, the publication 
of the researches made as to the monuments of 
Egypt by the literary men and artists who 
accompanied the French expedition to that 
country. Previous to this, the specimens which 
had been brought to Europe were few, and the 
impressions and the fac similes of them incor- 
rect. Some, too, were imitations, and others 
spurious. In the works published in France 
after this expedition, the representations of 
Egyptian monuments were numerous ; and the 
inscriptions were given with perfect exactness 
and fidelity. Still, however, those would have 
remained as unintelligible as the originals but 
for the discovery of the Rosetta stone, now 
among the Egyptian antiquities in the gallery 
of the British museum. This stone was dug 
up by the French, near Rosetta, and contained 
an inscription in three sets of characters : one 
in hieroglyphics ; a second in a sort of running 
hand, called enchorial, that is, in the common 
characters of the country ; and a third in Greek. 
The latter appearing, from the disposition of 
the whole, to be a translation of the enchorial 
inscription, as that was of the hieroglyphic, the 
importance of this stone was at once seen by 
the French savans ; but by the fortune of war, 
it v/as taken, with other valuables, by the 
British troops, and was sent to this country. 
The Antiquarian Society had it immediately 
engraved ; and the fac similes, which were 
circulated through Europe attracted great at- 
tention. Dr. Young has, however, the honour 
of being the discoverer of the nature and use 
of the hieroglyphical inscription. M. de Sacy,, 
and more especially Mr. Ackerblad, a Danish 
gentleman, made some progress in identifying 
the sense of several parts of the second inscrip. 
tion, or that in demotic or enchorial characters, 
but made no progress in the hieroglyphics ; and 
it was left for British industry to convert t& 
permanent profit a monument which had beert 
a useless, though a glorious, monument of 
British valour. The inscription upon thiB- 
celebrated stone proved to be a decree of the 
Egyptian priests, solemnly assembled in the 
temple, to record upon a monument, as a pub- 
lie expression of their gratitude, all the events 
of the reign of Ptolemy Epiphanes; his liber- 



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ality to the temples and to the gods ; his suc- 
cess against his rebellious subjects ; his clemen- 
cy toward some of the traitors ; his measures 
against the fatal consequences of excessive in^ 
undations of the Nile ; and his munificence to- 
ward the college of the priests, by remitting the 
arrears of several years' payment of taxes. It 
was an important circumstance, that the whole 
concludes by ordering that this decree "shall be 
engraved on a hard stone in sacred characters, 
in common characters, and in Greek." By this 
it was ascertained that the second and third 
inscriptions v/ere translations of the first j and 
that the second inscription was in the common 
character of the country. It was this that led 
Ackerblad to the investigation of the enchorial 
text, in order to discover its alphabet ; in which 
he partially succeeded. His labours were, how- 
ever, for some time unnoticed ; but in 1814, 
Dr. Young published, in the Archseologia, an 
improvement on the alphabet of Ackerblad, 
and a translation of the Egyptian inscription. 
Difficulties of no ordinary kind, beside those 
arising from the mutilated state of the stone, 
presented themselves to all who had applied 
to make out even the second, or enchorial 
inscription. 

" The method," says the Marquis Spineto, 
" pursued by our learned men in this Herculean 
task of deciphering the Rosetta stone, deserves 
to be noticed ; it may serve to give you a pro- 
per idea of the infinite labour to which they 
have been obliged to submit ; a labour which 
at first seemed calculated to deter the most 
indefatigable scholar. Figure to yourself, for 
a moment, the fashion introduced of writing 
the English language with the omission of most 
of its vowels, and then suppose our alphabet to 
be entirely lost or forgotten, a new mode of 
writing introduced, letters totally different from 
those we use, and then conceive what our la- 
bour would be, if, after the lapse of fifteen 
hundred years, when the English language, by 
the operation of ages, and the intercourse with 
foreigners, was much altered from what it now 
is, we should be required, by the help of a Greek 
translation, to decipher a bill of parliament 
written in this old, forgotten, and persecuted 
alphabet, in every word of which we should 
find, and even this not always, the regular 
number of consonants, but most of the vowels 
left out. And yet this is precisely what our 
learned antiquarians have been obliged to do. 
The Egyptians, like most of the orientals, left 
out many of the vowels in writing. The en- 
chorial, or demotic alphabet, which they used, 
has been laid aside since the second or third 
century of our era. From that time to this, 
that is, for nearly sixteen hundred years, the 
Coptic alphabet has been used ; and yet in this 
Coptic language, and in these very enchorial 
or demotic characters, was engraved on the 
Rosetta stone the inscription which they have 
deciphered." 

The steps of this interesting process are given 
by Dr. Young, in the Supplement to the En- 
cyclopaedia Britannica. The substance is as 
follows : "As the demotic characters showed 
something like the shape of letters, it was 



shrev/dly suspected that they might have been 
used as an alphabet. By comparing, therefore, 
its different parts with each other, and with the 
Greek, it was observed that the two groups in 
the fourth and seventeenth lines of the Greek 
inscription, in which Alexander and Alexandria 
occur, coi-responded with two other groups in 
the second and the tenth line of the demotic 
inscription. These two groups, therefore, were 
considered as representing these two names, 
and thus not less than seven characters, or let. 
ters, were ascertained. Again : it was observed 
that a small group of character occurs very 
often in almost every line. At first it was sup- 
posed that this group was either a termination, 
or some very common particle ; and after some 
words had been identified, it was found to mean- 
the conjunction and. It was then observed, 
that the next remarkable collection of charac- 
ters was repeated twenty-nine or thirt}'- times 
in the enchorial inscription ; and nothing found- 
to occur so often in the Greek, except the word 
king, which with its compounds, is repeated 
about thirty-seven times. A fourth assemblage 
of characters was found fourteen times in the 
enchorial inscription, agreeing suflaciently well 
in frequency with the name of Ptolemy, which 
occurs eleven times in the Greek, and generally 
in passages corresponding to those of the en- 
chorial text, in their relative situation ; and, by 
a similar comparison, the name of Egypt Vv'^aa 
identified. Having thus obtained a sufficient 
number of common points of subdivision, the 
nest step was to write the Greek text over the 
enchorial, in such a manner that the passages 
ascertained should coincide as nearly- as pos- 
sible ; taking, however, a proper care to observe 
that the lines of the demotic or enchorial 
inscription are written from right to left, while 
those of the Greek run in a contrary direction 
from left to right. At first sight this difficulty 
seemed very great ; but it was conquered by 
proper attention and practice ; because, after 
some trouble, the division of the several words 
and phrases plainly indicated the direction in 
which they were to be read. Thus it waa 
obvious that the intermediate parts of each 
inscription stood then very near to the corres- 
ponding passages of the other." 

By means of the process above mentioned,. 
Ackerblad, De Sacy, and Dr. Young, among 
whom a correspondence had been carried on, 
obtained a sort of alphabet from the enchorial 
characters, which might aid them in future 
researches. This result was published by Dr. 
Young in 1814. The examination of another 
stone at Menoup, containing an inscription in 
enchorial and in Greek characters, enabled Dr. 
Young to confirm the accuracy of former dis- 
coveries, and to add several new characters to 
the enchorial or demotic alphabet. Dr. Young 
next turned his attention to the hieroglyphics ; 
and, though not with equal success, yet so as to 
demonstrate that they were phonetic or alpha- 
betical, and to spell several proper names. The 
difficulty here, indeed, was how to begin ; but 
his success opened a certain way to future pro- 
gress ; and it was upon Dr. Young's discovery 
that Champollion afterward engrafted his sys. 



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tem, and was enabled to carry his researches 
into Egyptian antiquities and Egyptian hiero- 
^glyphics, to an extent which is now deeply 
engaging the attention of the literary world. 

Two practical ends appear to have been 
answered already by the deciphering of the 
mystic monuments of Egypt. The first is, 
that the inscriptions which have been read by 
Champollion, afford assistance in settling some 
questions of ancient chronology ; the other is, 
that important collateral proof has been afforded 
of the historical accuracy of the Old Testament, 
and the antiquity of its books. It is presumptive 
in favour of the genuineness and antiquity of 
the writings of Moses, that such proper Egyp- 
tian names as are found in no other ancient 
writings beside his own, such as On, and Ra- 
meses, and Potipherah, and Asenath, should 
now be read in hieroglyphic characters on 
monuments still standing in the same country. 
But the confirmatory evidence goes still farther. 
In one- inscription the names of two of the 
Pharaohs, Osorgon and Scheschonk, are exhi- 
bited. Of the characters which compose this 
legend some are phonetic, some figurative, and 
some symbolic. The whole reading in Coptic, 
is, " Ouah an Amon-re soten annenoute Osorchon 
pri (or pre) ce or ci an ouah an Amon-re Souten 
Scheschonk-re Soten Nebto, {Amonmai Osor- 
chon,) " &c. The meaning of which is, " The 
pure by Amon-re, king of the gods, Osorchon 
deceased, son of the pure, by Amon-re, king of 
the gods, Scheschonk deceased, son of king of 
the world, (beloved by Amon-re, Osorchon,) 
imparting life, like the sun, for ever." This 
Osorchon seems to have been the Zarah, or 
Zarach, the king of Ethiopia, recorded in the 
Second Book of Chronicles, who, with a host 
of a thousand thousand and three hundred 
chariots, came to make war against Asa, the 
grandson of Jeroboam, and was defeated at 
Mareshah. Although the Greek historians have 
never mentioned either the name or exploits of 
Osorchon, this fact is attested by an hierogly- 
phical manuscript, published by Denon. It is 
a funeral legend, loaded with figures, on and 
round which there are several hieroglyphical 
inscriptions. With respect to the other Pha- 
raoh, Champollion, speaking of the temple of 
Karnac, says, " In this marvellous place I saw 
the portraits of most of the ancient Pharaohs, 
known by their great actions. They are real 
portraits, represented a hundred times on the 
basso-relievos of the outer and inner walls. 
Each of them has his peculiar physiognomy, 
different from that of his predecessors and suc- 
cessors. Thus, in colossal representations, the 
sculpture of which is lively, grand, and heroic, 
more perfect than can be believed in Europe, 
we see the Pharaoh Mandouei combating the 
nations hostile to Egypt, and returning tri- 
umphant to his country. Farther on, the 
campaigns of Rhamses Sesostris ; elsewhere 
Sesonchis, or Shishak, dragging to the feet 
of the Theban Trinity, Ammon, Mouth, and 
Khous, the chiefs of thirty conquered nations, 
among which is found, written in letters at 
full length, the word Joudahamalek, that is, the 
kingdojn of the Jews, or the kingdom of Judah. 



This is a commentary on the fourteenth chapter 
of the First Book of Kings, which relates the 
arrival of Shishak at Jerusalem, and his success 
there. Thus the identity between the Egyptian 
Sheschonk, the Sesonchis of Manetho, and the 
Sesac, or Schischak of the Bible, is confirmed 
in the most satisfactory manner." 

YEAR. The Hebrews had always years, 
of twelve months each. But at the beginning, 
and in the time of Moses, these were solar 
years, of twelve months ; each having thirty 
days, except the twelfth which had thirty-five. 
We see, by the reckoning that Moses gives us 
of the days of the deluge. Gen. vii, that the 
Hebrew year consisted of three hundred and 
sixty-five days. It is supposed that they had 
an intercalary month at the end of one hun- 
dred and twenty years ; at which time the 
beginning of their year would be out of its 
place full thirty days. But it must be owned, 
that no mention is made in Scripture of the 
thirteenth month, or of any intercalation. It 
is not improbable that Moses retained the order 
of the Egyptian year, since he himself came 
out of Egypt, was born in that country, had 
been instructed and brought up there, and 
since the people of Israel, whose chief he w^as, 
had been for a long time accustomed to this 
kind of year. But the Egyptian year was 
solar, and consisted of twelve months of thirty 
days each, and that for a very long time before. 
After the time of Alexander the Great, and 
the reign of the Grecians in Asia, the Jews 
reckoned by lunar months, chiefly in what 
related to religion, and the order of the festivals. 
St. John, in his Revelation, xi, 2, 3 ; xii, 6, 14 ; 
xiii, 5, assigns but twelve hundred and sixty 
days to three years and a half, and conse- 
quently just thirty days to every month, and 
just three hundred and sixty days to every 
year. Maimonides tells us, that the years of 
the Jews were solar, and their months lunar. 
Since the completing of the Talmud, they have 
made use of years that are purely lunar, having 
alternately a full month of thirty days, and 
then a defective month of twenty-nine days. 
And to accommodate this lunar year to the 
com-se of the sun, at the end of three years 
they intercalate a whole month after Adar ; 
which intercalated month they call Ve-adar, 
or the second Adar. 

The beginning of the year was various 
among different nations: the ancient Chal- 
deans, Babylonians, Modes, Persians, Arme- 
nians, and Syrians, began their year about the 
vernal equinox ; and the Chinese in the east, 
and Latins and Romans in the west, originally 
followed the same usage. The Egyptians, and 
from them the Jews, began their civil year 
about the autumnal equinox. The Athenians 
and Greeks in general began theirs about the 
summer solstice ; and the Chinese, and the 
Romans after Numa's correction, abovit the 
winter solstice. At which of these the prim^ 
eval year, instituted at the creation, began, has 
been long contested among astronomers and 
chronologers. Philo, Eusebius., Cyril, Augus- 
tine, Abulfaragi, Kepler, Capellus, Simpson^ 



YEA 



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YEA 



Lange, and Jackson, contend for the vernal 
equinox ; and Josephus, Scaliger, Petavius, 
Usher, Bedford, Kennedy, &c, for the autum- 
nal. The weight of ancient authorities, and 
also of argument, seems to preponderate in 
favour of the former opinion. 1. All the 
ancient nations, except the Egyptians, began 
their civil year about the vernal equinox : but 
the deviation of the Egyptians from the general 
usage may easily be accounted for, from a 
local circumstance peculiar to their country ; 
namely, that the annual inundation of the 
Nile rises to its greatest height at the autumnal 
equinox. 2. Josephus, the only ancient autho. 
rity of any weight on the other side seems to 
be inconsistent with himself, in supposing that 
the deluge began in the second civil month, 
Dius, or Marheshvan, rather than in the second 
sacred month ; because Ptioses, throughout the 
Pentateuch, uniformly adopts the sacred year ; 
and fixes its first month by an indelible and 
unequivocal character, calling it Abib, as 
ushering in the season of green corn. And as 
Josephus calls the second month elsewhere 
Artemisius, or lar, in conformity with Scrip- 
ture, there is no reason why he should deviate 
from the same usage in the case of the deluge. 

3. To the authority of Josephus, we may oppose 
that of the great Jewish antiquary, Philo, in 
the generation before him ; who thus accounts 
for the institution of the sacred year by 
Moses : — "This month, Abib, being the seventh 
in number and order according to the sun's 
course, or civil year, reckoned from the 
autumnal equinox, is virtually the first, and is 
therefore called ' the first month' in the sacred 
books. And the reason, I think, is this : be. 
cause the vernal equinox is the image and 
representative of the original epoch of the 
creation of the world. Thereby God noti- 
fied the spring, in which all things bloom 
and blossomj to be an annual memorial of 
the world's creation. Wherefore this month 
is properly called the first in the law, as being 
the image of the first original month, stamped 
upon it, as it were, by that archetypal seal." 

4. The first sacrifice on record seems to decide 
the question. The time of the sacrifice of 
Cain and Abel appears to have been spring; 
when Cain, who was a "tiller of the ground," 
brought the first fruits of his tillage, or a sheaf 
of new corn ; and Abel, who was " a feeder of 
sheep," "the firstlings of his flock," lambs: 
and this was done " at the end of days," or " at 
the end of the year ;" which is the correct 
meaning of the phrase O'lOt fpD, and not the 
indefinite expression, " in process of time," 
Gen. iv, 3. It is a remarkable proof of the ac 
curacy of Moses, and a confirmation of this 
expression, that he expresses the end of the 
eivil year, or "ingathering of the harvest," by 
different phrases, r\Wr, risXXJ, " at the going out 
of the year," Exod. xxiii, 16; and njtyn noipn, 
*' at the revolution of the year," Exod. xxxiv, 
22 ; as those phrases may more critically be 
rendered. But, in process of time, it was 
found that the primeval year of three hundred 
and sixty days was shorter than the tropical 
year ; and the first discovery was, that it was 



deficient five entire days, which therefore it 
was necessary to intercalate, in order to keep 
up the correspondence of the civil year to the 
stated seasons of the principal festivals. How 
early this discovery and intercalation was 
made, is nowhere recorded. It might have 
been known and practised before the deluge. 
The apocryphal book of Enoch, which proba- 
bly was as old as the Septuagint translation of 
the Pentateuch, stated that "the archangel 
Ariel, president of the stars, discovered the 
nature of the month and of the year to Enoch, 
in the one hundred and sixty-fifth year of his 
age, and A. M. 1286." And it is remarkable, 
that Enoch's age at his translation, three hun- 
dred and sixty-five years, expressed the number 
of entire days in a tropical year. This know- 
ledge might have been handed down to Noah 
and his descendants ; and that it was early 
communicated indeed to the primitive Egyp- 
tians, Chaldeans, and Chinese, we learn from 
ancient tradition. 

This article would be rendered too prolix 
were we to notice the various inventions of 
eminent men in different ages to rectify the 
calendar by adjusting the difference between 
lunar and tropical years ; which -at length was 
effected by Gregory XIII. in 1583. This 
Gregorian, or reformed Julian year, was not 
adopted in England until A. D. 1751, when, 
the deficiency from the time of the council of 
Nice then amounting to eleven days, this 
number was struck out of the month of Sep. 
tember, by act of parliament ; and the third 
day was counted the fourteenth, in that year 
of confusion. The next year, A. D. 1752, 
was the first of the new style. Russia is the 
only country in Europe which retains the old 
style. 

The civil year of the Hebrews has always 
begun at autumn, at the month they now call 
Tisri, which answers to our September, and 
sometimes enters into October, according as 
the lunations happen. But their sacred years, 
by which the festivals, assemblies, and all other 
religious acts, were regulated, begin in the 
spring, at the month Nisan, which answers to 
March, and sometimes takes up a part of 
April, according to the course of the moon. 
See Months. 

Nothing is more equivocal among the 
ancients, than the term year. It always has 
been, and still is, a source of disputes among 
the learned, whether on account of its dura- 
tion, its beginning, or its end. Some people 
heretofore made their year consist only of one 
month, others of four, others of six, others of 
ten, and others of twelve. Some have divided 
one of our years into two, and have made one 
year of winter, another of summer. The be- 
ginning of the year was fixed sometimes at 
autumn, sometimes at the spring, and some- 
times at midwinter. Some people have used 
lunar months, others solar. Even the days 
have been differently divided : some people 
beginning them at evening, others at morning, 
others at noon, and others at midnight. With 
some the hours were equal, both in winter and 
summer ; with others, they were unequal. 



YEA 



977 



YEA 



They counted twelve hours to the day, and as 
jnany to the night. In summer the hours of 
the day were longer than those of the night ; 
but, on the contrary, in winter the hours of the 
night were longer than those of the day. 

While the Jews continued in the land of 
Canaan, the beginnings of their months and 
years were not settled by any astronomical 
rules or calculations, but by the phasis, or 
actual appearance of the new moon. AVhen 
they saw the new moon, they began the month. 
Persons were therefore appointed to watch on 
the tops of the mountain for the first appear- 
ance of the moon after the change. As soon 
as they saw it, they informed the sanhedrim, 
and public notice was given by lighting beacons 
throughout the land ; though after they had 
been often deceived by the Samaritans, who 
kindled false fires, they used, say .the Mishnical 
rabbins, to proclaim its appearance by sending 
messengers. Yet as they had no months 
longer than thirty days, if they did not see the 
new moon the night following the thirtieth 
day, they concluded the appearance was ob- 
structed by the clouds, and, without watching 
any longer, made the next day the first of the 
following month. But after the Jews became 
dispersed through all nations, where they had 
no opportunity of being informed of the first 
appearance of the new moon, as they formerly 
had, they were forced to make use of astrono- 
mical calculations and cycles for fixing the 
beginning of their months and years. The 
first cycle they made use of for this purpose 
was of eighty-four years. But that being dis- 
covered to be faulty, they came afterward into 
the use of Meto's cycle of nineteen years, 
which was established by the authority of 
Rabbi Hillel Hannasi, or prince of the sanhe- 
drim, about A. D. 360. This they still use, 
and say it is to be observed till the coming of 
the Messiah. In the compass of this cycle 
there are twelve common years, consisting of 
twelve months, and seven intercalary years, 
consisting of thirteen months. We find the 
Jews and their ancestors computing their years 
from diiferent eras, in different parts of the 
Old Testament ; as from the birth of the 
patriarchs, for instance, of Noah, Gen. vii, 11 ; 
viii, 13 ; afterward from their exit out of 
Egypt, Num. xxxiii, 38 ; 1 Kings vi, 1 ; then 
from the building of Solomon's temple, 2 
Chron. viii, 1 ; and from the reigns of the kings 
of Judah and Israel. In latter times the 
Babylonish captivity furnished them with a 
new epocha, from whence they computed their 
years, Ezek. xxxiii, 21 ; xl, 1. But since the 
times of the Talmudical rabbins, they have 
constantly used the era of the creation. 

There is not a more prolific source of confu- 
sion and embarrassment in ancient chronology, 
than the substitution of the cardinal numbers, 
one, two, three, for the ordinals, first, second, 
third, &c, which frequently occurs in the sacred 
and profane historians. Thus Noah was six 
hundred years old when the deluge began. Gen. 
vii, 6 ; and presently after, in his six hundredth 
year : confounding complete and current years. 
And the dispute whether A. D. 1800, or A. D. 
63 



1801, was the first of the nineteenth century, 
should be decided in favour of the latter ; the 
former being in reality the last of the eighteenth 
century ; which is usually, but improperly, 
called the year one thousand eight hundred, 
complete ; whereas it is really the one thou- 
sandth, eight hundredth ; as in Latin we say,. 
Anno Domini millesimo octingentesimo. There 
is also another and a prevailing error, arising 
from mistranslation of the current phrases, 
fxeQ' )7//t\-)aj 0/cTw, jxtru rpt'is vjj^ipag, &.C, usually ren- 
dered, " after eight days," " after three days," 
&c ; but which ought to be rendered "eight 
days after," "three days after," as in other 
places, [jteTa nvds {jixipai, jxer^ ov ttoXAos fjufpas, 
which are correctly rendered " some days after," 
" not many days after," in our English Bible, 
Acts XV, 36 ; Luke xv, 13, the extreme days 
being included. Such phrases seem to be ellip- 
tical, and the ellipsis is supplied, Luke ix, 28, 
speaking of our Lord's transfiguration, juera tovs 
\oyovs Toirovgj wael r^jxipai 6ktG): "After these 
sayings, about eight days," or rather about the 
eighth day, counted inclusively ; for in the pa- 
rallel passages, Matt, xvii, 1, Mark ix, 2, there 
are only " six daji-s," counted exclusively, or 
omitting the extremes. Thus, circumcision is 
prescribed, Gen. xvii, 11, when the child is 
" eight days old ;" but in Lev. xii, 3, "on tTie 
eighth day." And Jesus accordingly was cir- 
cumcised, oTt hhiaBrjffav f]nipai 6ktw, "when eight 
days were accomplished," Luke ii, 21 ; whereas 
John the Baptist, ;]] oySor] vi^ipa, " on the eighth 
day." The last, which was the constant usage, 
explains the meaning of the former. This 
critically reconciles our Lord's resurrection, 
[xETu Tpels rjh^pai, "three days after," according 
to Matt, xxvii, 63 ; Mark viii, 31 ; with his re- 
surrection, TV rpiTTj fiixipq, " on the third day,'* 
according to Matt, xvi, 21 ; Luke ix, 22 ; and 
according to fact : for our Lord was crucified 
on Good Friday, about the third hour ; and he 
arose before sunrise, rpw;?, " early," on Sunday ; 
so that the interval, though extending through 
three calendar days current, did not in reality 
amount to two entire days, or forty-eight hours. 
This phraseology is frequent among the most 
correct classic writers. Some learned com- 
mentators, Beza, Grotius, Campbell, Newcome, 
render such phrases, " within eight days," 
" within three days;" which certainly conveys 
the meaning, but not the literal translation, of 
the preposition /itri, "after." In memory of 
the primeval week of creation, revived among 
the Jews, after their departure from Egypt* 
their principal festivals, the passover, pente- 
cost, and tabernacles, lasted a week each. 
They had weeks of seven years a pi«ce, at the 
term of which was the sabbatical year ; as also 
weeks of seven times seven years, that were 
terminated by the year of jubilee ; and finally 
weeks of seven days. And it is remarkable 
that, from the earliest times, sacrifices were 
offered by sevens. Thus, in the patriarch Job's 
days, "seven bullocks and seven rams were 
offered up for a burnt offering" of atonement, 
by the divine command. Job xlii, 8. The Chal- 
dean diviner, Balaam, built seven altars, and 
prepared seven bullocks and seven rams, Nainy 



YEA 



978 



ZAB 



xxiii, 1. And the Cumsean sibyl, who came 
from Chaldea, or Babylonia, gives the same 
directions to ^Eneas, that Balaam did to Balak : 

Nunc grege de. intacto septem mactare juvencos 

PrcBStiterit, totidem lecias, de more, bidentes. 
*' Seven bullocks, yet unyoked, foi Phoebus choose, 

And for Diana seven unspotted ewes." 

Dryden. 
And when the ark was brought home by David, 
the Levites offered seven bullocks and seven 
rams, 1 Chronicles xv, 26. And hence v:e may 
account for the peculiar sanctity of the seventh 
day, among the older Heathen writers, even 
after the institution of the Sabbath fell into 
disuse, and was lost among them. 

The Fallow or Sabbatic Year. Agricultu- 
ral labour among the Jews ceased every seventh 
year. Nothing was sown and nothing reaped ; 
the vines and the olives were not pruned ; there 
was no vintage and no gathering of fruits, even 
of what grew wild ; but whatever spontaneous 
productions there were, were left to the poor, 
the traveller, and the wild beast, Lev. xxv, 1-7 ; 
Deut. XV, 1-10. The object of this regulation 
seems to have been, among others, to let the 
ground recover its strength, and to teach the 
Hebrews to be provident of their income and to 
look out for the future. It is true, that extra- 
ordinary fruitfulness was promised on the sixth 
year, but in such a way as not to exclude care 
and foresight, Lev. xxv, 20-24. We are not to 
suppose, however, that the Hebrews spent the 
seventh year in absolute idleness : they could 
fish, hunt, take care of tlieir bees and flocks, 
repair their buildings and furniture, manufac- 
ture cloths of wool, linen, and of the hair of 
goats and camels, and carry on commerce. 
Finally, they were obliged to remain longer in 
the tabernacle or temple this year, during which 
the whole Mosaic law was read,, in order to be 
instructed in religious and moral duties, and 
tiie history of their nation, and the wonderful 
works and blessings of God, Deut. xxxi, 10-13. 
This seventh year's rest, as Moses predicted, 
Lev. xxvi, 34, 35, was for a long time neglected, 
2 Chron. xxxvi, 21 ; after the captivity it was 
iHore scrupulously observed. 

As a period af seven days was every week 
completed by the Sabbath, so was a period of 
seven years completed by the sabbatic year. 
It seems to have been the design of thi^ institu- 
tion, to afford a longer opportunity than would 
otherwise have been enjoyed for impressing on 
the memory the great truth, that God the Cre- 
ator is alone to be worshipped. The com- 
mencement of this year was on the first day of 
the seventh month Tishri, or October. During 
the continuance of the feast of tabernacles this 
year, the law was to be publicly read for eight 
days together, either in tlie tabernacle or tem- 
ple, Deut, xxxi, 10-13. Debts, on account of 
there being no income from the soil, were not 
collected, Deut. xv, 1, 2 ; they were not, how- 
ever, cancelled, as was imagined by the Tal- 
mudists, for we find in Deut. xv, 9, that the 
Hebrews are admonished not to deny money 
to the poor on account of the approach of the 
sabbatical year, during which it could not be 
exacted ; but nothing farther than this can be 



educed from that passage. Nor were servants 
manumitted on this year, but on the seventh 
year of their service, Exodus xxi, 2; Deut. 
XV, 12 ; Jer. xxxiv, 14. 

The Year of Jubilee followed seven sabbatic 
years ; it was on the fiftieth year, Lev. xxv, 
8-11. To this statement agree the Jews gene- 
rally, their rabbins, and the Caraites ; and say 
farther, that the argument of those who main- 
tain that it was on the forty-ninth, for the reason 
that the omission to till the ground for two 
years in succession, namely, the forty-ninth 
and fiftieth, would produce a famine, is not to 
be attended to. It is not to be attended to, 
simply because these years of rest being known 
long beforehand, the people would of courselay 
up provision for them. It may be remarked 
farther in reference to this point, that certain 
trees produced their fruits spontaneously, par- 
ticulai-ly the fig and sycamore, which yield half 
the year round, and that those fruits could be 
preserved for some months ; which explains at 
once how a considerable number of the people 
might have obtained no inconsiderable portion 
of their support. The return of the year of 
jubilee was announced on the tenth day of the 
seventh month, or Tishri, October, being the 
day of propitiation or atonement, by the sound 
of trumpet. Lev. xxv, 8-13 ; xxvii, 24 ; Num. 
xxxvi, 4 ; Isa. Ixi, 1, 2. Beside the regulations 
which obtained on the sabbatic year, there were 
others which concerned the year ef jubilee 
exclusively : 1. All the servants of Hebrew 
origin on the year of jubilee obtained their 
freedom, Lev. xxv, 39-46 ; Jer. xxxiv, 7, «&c. 
2. All the fields throughout the country, and 
the houses in the cities and villages of the 
Levites and priests which had been sold on the 
preceding years, were returned on the year of 
jubilee to the sellers, with the exception of 
those which had been consecrated to God, and- 
had not been redeemed before the return of the 
said year. Lev. xxv, 10, 13-17, 24-28 ; xxvii, 
16-21. 3. Debtors, for the most part, pledged 
or mortgaged their lands to the creditor, and 
left it to his use till the time of payment, so- 
that it was in effect sold to the creditor, and 
was, accordingly, restored to the debtor on the" 
year of jubilee. In other words, the debts for 
which land was pledged were cancelled; the 
same as those of persons who had recovered 
their freedom after having been sold into sla. 
very, on account of not being able to pay. 
Hence it usually happened in the later periods 
of Jewish history, as we learn from Josephus, 
that, at the return of jubilee, there was a ge- 
neral cancelling of debtsi 

ZABII, or ZABiBANS, or ZABIANS, or 

SABIANS. The Sabians mentioned in Scrip- 
ture were evidently a nation, or perhaps a 
wandering horde, such as fell upon Job's cat- 
tle, Job i, 15; men of stature, Isa. xlv, 14; a 
people afar off, Joel iii, 8. But we speak here 
of the Zabians as a sect, probably the first cor- 
rupters of the patriarchal religion ; and so 
called, as is believed, from tsahiim, the " hosts," 
that is, of heaven ; namely, the sun, mooiir 
and starS; to whom they rendered worsliipj. 



ZAB 



979 



ZAB 



first immediately, and afterward through the 
medium of images ; tliis particularly distin- 
guished them from the magi, whose idolatry 
was confined to the solar orb, and its earthly 
representative, the fire. If the above deriva- 
tion be right, the Zabians were originally 
Chaldeans, though afterward the same sect 
arose in Arabia. Their study of the heavenly 
bodies led them, not only to astronomy, but to 
astrology, its degenerate daughter, which was 
for many ages the favourite pursuit of the 
oriental nations. 

The following account is abridged from Dr. 
Townley's " Essays :" — The Zabii, or Zabians, 
were a sect of idolaters who flourished in the 
early ages of the world, considerable in their 
numbers, and extensive in their influence. 
The denomination of Zabii, given to these 
idolaters, appears to have been derived from 
the Hebrew N3s, a host; with reference to the 
Q^Dtrn Na^f, or, host of heaven, which they wor- 
shipped ; though others have derived it from 
the Arabic tsaba " to apostatize," " to turn 
from one religion to another ;" or from D"J2f, 
or the Arabic Tsabin, "Chaldeans," or "in. 
habitants of the east." Lactantius considers 
Ham, the son of Noah, as the first seceder 
from the true religion after the flood ; and sup- 
poses Egypt, which was peopled by his de- 
scendants, to have been the country in which 
Zabaism, or the worship of the stars, first pre- 
vailed. That the worship of the heavenly bo- 
dies prevailed in the east at a very early period, 
is xertain from the words of Job, who thus 
exculpates himself from the charge of idolatry : 
" If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the 
moon walking in brightness, and my heart 
hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath 
kissed my hand ; this also were an iniquity to 
be punished by the judge : for I should have 
denied the God that is above," Job xxii, 26-28. 
It would appear that the idolatrous opinions 
of the Zabii originated with the posterity of 
Ham, at a very early period after the flood, in 
Egypt or Chaldea ; but spread so rapidly and 
extensively, that in a very short time nearly 
the whole of the descendants of Noah were 
infected with their pestiferous sentiments and 
practices. JVIaimonides says, " This people," 
that is, the Zabii, "had filled the whole world." 
Their first and principal adoration was directed 
to the host of heaven, or the stars. They were 
ignicolcB, or " worshippers of fire." The city 
of Ur, in Chaldea, seems to have had its name 
from the inhabitants being devoted to the wor- 
ship of fire. They dedicated images to the 
sun and the other celestial orbs, supposing that, 
by a formal consecration of them to those lu- 
minaries, a divine virtue was infused into them, 
by which they acquired the faculty of under- 
standing, and the power of conferring pro- 
phecy and other gifts upon their worshippers. 
These images were formed of various metals, 
according to the particular star to which any 
of them was dedicated. They also regarded 
certain trees as being appropriated to particu- 
lar stars, and, when idolatrously dedicated, as 
being possessed of very singular virtues. From 
these opinions sprang the adoption of astrolo- 



gy by them, in all its various forms. They 
maintained the doctrine of the eternity of the 
world. "All the Zabii," says Maimonides, 
"believe in the eternity of the world; for, ac- 
cording to them, the heavens are God." Hold^ 
ing the eternity of the world, they easily 
became Pre-Adamites, affirming that Adam 
was not the first man. They also fabled con- 
cerning him, that he was the apostle of the 
moon, and the author of several works on hus- 
bandry. Of Noah, they taught, that he was a 
husbandman, and was imprisoned for dissenting 
from their opinions. They add, that Seth was 
another of those v/ho forsook the worship of the 
moon. They held agriculture in the highest es- 
timation, regarding it as intimately connected 
with the worship of the heavenly bodies. On 
this account, it was deemed criminal, by the 
major part of them, to slay or feed upon cattle. 
Goats were also reputed to be sacred animals, be- 
cause the demons whom they worshipped were 
said to appear in the woods and deserts in the 
forms of goats or of satyrs. Of their supersti. 
tious practices, some were dangerous, as the 
sacrifices of lions, tigers, and other wild beastSo 
Certain of their rites were cruel, as the passing 
of their children through the fire, and branding 
themselves also with fire. Some of their prac«. 
tices were loathsome and disgustful ; such as. 
eating blood, believing it to be the food of 
demons, &c. Others were frivolous and te- 
dious ; as offering bats and mice to the sun, 
various and frequent ablutions, lustrations, &c. 
Some of them were obscene and beastly, as 
the rites practised on engrafting a tree, or to' 
obtain rain. Many of the rites were magical. 
These Maimonides divides into three kinds :— 
" The first is that which respects plants, ani- 
mals, and metals. The second consists in the 
limitation and determination of the times in 
which certain works ought to be performed. 
The third consists in human gestures and ac- 
tions, as leaping, clapping the hands, shouting,- 
laughing, lying down, or stretching at full 
length upon the ground, burning particular 
things, raising a smoke, and, lastly, repeating 
certain intelligible or unintelligible words. 
Some things cannot be completed without the 
use of all these rites." It is generally acknow- 
ledged that some traces of Zabianism are still 
to be found both among the Hindoos and Chi- 
nese in the east, and the Mexicans and other 
nations in the south. The Guebres, or Par- 
sees, who inhabit Persia, and are scattered 
through various parts of Hindostan, are the 
acknowledged worshippers of fire, or the su- 
preme Deity under that symbol. " That the 
Persians," says Hyde, "were formerly Sabians 
or Zabii, is rendered probable by Ibn Phacred- 
din Angjou, a Persian, who, in his book 
' Pharhangh Gjihavghiri,'' treating of the Per- 
sians descended from Shem, says in the preface, 
' Their religion, at that time, was Zabianism ; 
but at length they became magi, and built fire 
temples.' And the author of the book ' Mu'gju 
zat Pharsi,' adopts the same opinion : ' In 
ancient times, the Persians were of the Zabiarv 
religion, worshipping the stars, until the time 
of Gushtasp, son of Lohrasp.' For then Zoro- 



ZEA 



980 



ZEB 



aster reformed their religion." Tiie modern 
Sabians, who inhabit the country round about 
Mount Libanus, believe the unity of God, but 
pay an adoration to the stars, or the angels 
and intelligences which they suppose reside in 
them, and govern the world under the supreme 
Deity. They are obliged to pray three times 
a day, and they fast three times a year. They 
offer many sacrifices, but eat no part of them ; 
and abstain from beans, garlic, and some 
other pulse and vegetables. They greatly 
respect the temple of Mecca and the pyramids 
of Egypt, fancying these last to be the sepul- 
chres of Seth, and of Enoch and Sabi, his two 
sons, whom they look on as the first propa- 
gators of their religion. At these structures, 
they sacrifice a cock and a black calf, and 
offer up incense. Their principal pilgrimage, 
however, is to Haran, the supposed birth place 
of Abraham. Such is the account of this sect 
given by Sale, D'Herbelot, and Hyde. 

ZACCHEUS, chief of the publicans ; that 
is, farmer general of the revenues, Luke xix, 
1, &c. This is all that is known concerning 
this person. See Publicans and Sycamore. 

ZADOK, son of Ahitub, high priest of the 
Jews, of the race of Eleazar. At the death 
of Ahimelech, or Abiathar, he came to the 
pontificate, A. M. 2944. For some time there 
were two high priests in Israel, 2 Sam. viii, 17 ; 
XV, 24, &c ; xix, 11, 12 ; 1 Kings i, 8, &c. 
After the death of David, 1 Kings ii, 35, Solo- 
mon excluded Abiathar from the high priest- 
hood, because he espoused the party of Ado- 
nijah, and made Zadok high priest alone. 

ZAMZUMMIM, or ZUZIM, a gigantic 
race of people, who, together with the Re- 
phaim and Emim, men of like stature, occu- 
pied, in the time of Abraham, the country east 
of Jordan and the Dead Sea, where they were 
routed by Chedorlaomer, and from which they 
were afterward expelled by the Ammonites, 
Deut. ii, 20, 21. These, together with the 
Anakim, another family of giants, were all 
evidently of a race foreign to the original in- 
habitants of the countries where they were 
found ; they were probably tribes of invading 
Cushites. The Vulgate and the Septuagint say, 
they were conquered with the Rephaim in 
Ashteroth-Karnaim. The Chaldee interpret- 
ers have taken Zuzim in the sense of an appel- 
lative, for stout and valiant men ; and the 
Septuagint have rendered the word Zuzim, 
'idvfj iV;)^upa, robust nations. We meet with the 
Word Zuzim only in Gen. xiv, 5. 

ZEAL. The original word, in its primary 
signification, means heat ; such as the heat of 
boiling water. When it is figuratively applied 
to the mind, it means any warm emotion or 
affection. Sometimes it is taken for envy : so 
we render it. Acts v, 17, where we read, " The 
high priest, and all that were with him, were 
filled with envy," inMaOv^av ^fjXou : although it 
miglit as well be rendered, "were filled with 
zeal." Sometimes it is taken for anger and 
indignation ; sometimes, for vehement desire. 
And when any of our passions are strongly 
moved on a religious account, whether for any 
thing good, or against any thing which we 



conceive to be evil, this we term religious zeal. 
But it is not all that is called religious zeal 
which is worthy of that name. It is not pro. 
perly religious or Christian zeal, if it be not 
joined with charity. A fine writer (Bishop 
Sprat) carries the matter farther still. " It 
has been affirmed," says he, "no zeal is right, 
which is not charitable, but is mostly so. 
Charity, or love, is not only one ingredient, 
but the chief ingredient, in its composition." 
May we not go farther still ? May we not 
say, that true zeal is not mostly charitable, but 
wholly so? that is, if we take charity, in St. 
Paul's sense, for love ; the love of God and 
our neighbour. For it is a certain truth, 
although little understood in the world, that 
Christian zeal is all love. It is nothing else. 
The love of God and man fills up its whole 
nature. Yet it is not every degree of 
that love to which this appellation is given. 
There may be some love, a small degree of it, 
where there is no zeal. But it is, properly, 
love in a higher degree. It is fervent love. 
True Christian zeal is no other than the flame 
of love. This is the nature, the inmost essence 
of it. Phinehas is commended for having ex- 
I pressed much zeal against those wicked per- 
sons that violated the law of the Lord, Num. 
XXV, 11, 13 ; and in Psalm Ixix, 9, the psalmist 
says, " The zeal of thine house hath eaten me 
up ;" my earnest desire to have all things duly 
ordered about thy worship, and my just dis» 
pleasure and indignation at all abuses in it, 
have wasted my natural moisture and vital 
spirits. 

ZEBOIM, one of the four cities of the Pen. 
tapolis, consumed by fire from heaven, Gen. 
xiv, 2 ; xix, 24. Eusebius and St. Jerom speak 
of Zeboim as of a city remaining in their time, 
upon the western shores of the Dead Sea. Con- 
sequently, after the time of Lot this city must 
have been rebuilt near the place where it had 
stood before. Mention is made of the valley 
of Zeboim, 1 Sam. xiii, 18, and of a city of 
the same- name in the tribe of Benjamin, Neh. 
xi, 34. 

ZEBULUN, the sixth son of Jacob and 
Leah, Gen. xxx, 20. He was born in Meso- 
potamia, about A. M. 2256. His sons were 
Sered, Elon, and Jahleel, Gen. xlvi, 14. Mo- 
ses acquaints us with no particulars of his life ; 
but Jacob, in his last blessing, said of Zebulun, 
" Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; 
and he shall be for a haven of ships ; and his 
border shall be unto Zidon," Gen. xlix, 13. 
His portion extended along the coast of the 
Mediterranean Sea, one end of it bordering on 
this sea, and the other on the sea of Tiberias, 
Joshua xix, 10, &c. In the last words of Mo- 
ses, he joins Zebulun and Issachar together, 
saying, "Rejoice Zebulun, in thy going out, 
and Issachar in thy tents. They shall call the 
people unto the mountain, there shall they offer 
sacrifices of righteousness. For they shall suck 
of the abundance of the seas, and of treasures 
hid in the sand," Deut. xxxiii, 18; meaning, 
that these two tribes being at the greatest dis- 
tance north, should come together to the tem- 
ple at Jerusalem, to the holy mountain, and 



ZEC 



981 



ZED 



should bring with them such of the other tribes 
as dwelt in their way ; and that being situated 
on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, they 
ehould apply themselves to trade and navi- 
gation, and to the melting of metals and glass, 
denoted by those words, " treasures hid in the 
sand." The river Belus, whose sand v/as very 
fit for making glass, was in this tribe. When 
the tribe of Zebulun left Egypt, it had for its 
chief Eliab the son of Elon, and comprehended 
fifty-seven thousand four hundred men able to 
bear arms, Num. i, 9-30. In another review 
thirty-nine years afterward, this tribe amounted 
to sixty thousand five hundred men of age to 
bear arms. Num. xxvi, 26, 27. The tribes of 
Zebulun and Naphtali distinguished them- 
selves in the war of Barak and Deborah against 
Sisera, the general of the armies of Jabin, 
Judges iv, 5, 6, 10; v, 14, 18. It is thought 
these tribes were the first carried into captivity 
beyond the Euphrates by Pul and Tiglath Pile- 
ser, kings of Assyria, 1 Chron. v, 26. Tliey 
had also the advantage of hearing and seeing 
Jesus Christ in their country, oftener and 
logger than any other of the twelve tribes, 
Isa. ix, 1 ; Matthew iv, 13, 15. 

ZECHARIAH, king of Israel, 2 Kings 
xiv, 29. He succeeded his father Jeroboam 
II. A. M. 3220. He reigned but six months, 
and was murdered. 

2. Zechariah, son of Jehoiada, high priest 
of the Jews ; probably the same as Azariah, 
1 Chron. vi, 10, 11. He was put to death by 
the order of Joash, A. M. 3164, 2 Chron. xxiv, 
20-22. Some think this is the Zacharias men- 
tioned Matt, xxiii, 35. 

3. Zechariah, the eleventh of the twelve 
lesser prophets, was the son of Barachiah, and 
the grandson of Iddo. He was born during 
the captivity, and came to Jerusalem when the 
Jews were permitted by Cyrus to return to 
their own country. He began to prophesy two 
months later than Haggai, and continued to 
exercise his office about two years. Like his 
contemporary Haggai, Zechariah begins with 
exhorting the Jews to proceed in the rebuild- 
ing of the temple ; he promises them the aid 
and protection of God, and assures them of the 
speedy increase and prosperity of Jerusalem ; 
he then emblematically describes the four great 
empires, and foretels the glory of the Christian 

' church when Jews and Gentiles shall be united 
under their great High Priest and Governor, 
Jesus Christ, of whom Joshua the high priest, 
and Zerubbabel the governor, were types ; he 
predicts many particulars relative to our Sa- 
viour and his kingdom, and to the future con- 
dition of the Jews. Many moral instructions 
and admonitions are interspersed throughout 
tho work. Several learned men have been of 
opinion that the last six chapters were not 
written by Zechariah ; but whoever wrote them, 
their inspired authority is established by their 
being quoted in three of the Gospels, Matt. 
xxvi, 31 ; Mark xiv, 27 ; John xix, 37. The 
style of Zechariah is so remarkably similar to 
that of Jeremiah, that the Jews were accus- 
tomed to observe, that the spirit of Jeremiah 
had passed into him. By far the greater part 



of this book is prosaic ; but toward the conclu- 
sion there are some poetical passages which 
are highly ornamented. The diction is in 
general perspicuous, and the transitions to the 
different subjects are easily discerned. 

ZEDEKIAH, or MATTANIAH, was the 
last king of Judah before the captivity of 
Babylon. He was the son of Josiah, and 
uncle to Jehoiachin his predecessor, 2 Kings 
xxiv, 17, 19. When Nebuchadnezzar took 
Jerusalem, he carried Jehoiachin to Babylon, 
with his wives, children, officers, and the best 
artificers in Judea, and put in his place his 
uncle Mattaniah, v/hose name he changed into 
Zedekiah, and made him promise, with an oath, 
that he would continue in fidelity to him, A. M, 
3405, 2 Chron. xxxvi, 13 ; Ezek. xvii, 12, 14, 18. 
He was twenty-one years old when he began 
to reign at Jerusalem, and he reigned there 
eleven years. He did evil in the sight of the 
Lord, committing the same crimes as Jehoia- 
kim, 2 Kings xxiv, 18-20 ; 2 Chron. xxxvi, 
11-13; and regarded not the menaces of the 
Prophet Jeremiah, from the Lord ; but hardened 
his heart. The prmces of the people, and the 
inhabitants of Jerusalem, imitated his impiety, 
and abandoned themselves to all the abomina.. 
tions of the Gentiles. In the first year of his 
reign, Zedekiah sent to Babylon Elasah, the 
son of Shaphan, and Gemariah, the son of 
Hilkiah, probably to carry his tribute to Nebti- 
chadnezzar. By these messengers Jeremiah 
sent a letter to the captives at Babylon, Jen 
xxix, 1-23. Four years afterward, either 
Zedekiah went thither himself, or at least he 
sent thither ; for the Hebrew text may admit 
either of these interpretations, Jer. li, 59 ; Ba- 
ruch i, 1 ; Jer. xxxii, 12. The chief design of 
this deputation was to entreat Nebuchadnezzar 
to return the sacred vessels of the temple, 
Baruch i, 8. In the ninth year of his reign, 
he revolted against Nebuchadnezzar, 2 Kings 
XXV. It was a sabbatical year, in which the 
people should set their slaves at liberty, 
according to the law, Exod. xxi, 2 ; Deut. 
XV, 1, 2, 12; Jer. xxxiv, 8-10. Then King 
Nebuchadnezzar marched his army against 
Zedekiah, and took all the fortified places of 
his kingdom, except Lachish, Azekah, and 
Jerusalem. He sat down before the last- 
mentioned city on the tenth day of the tenth 
month of the holy year, which answers to our 
January. Some time afterward, Pharaoh 
Hophrah, king of Egypt, marched to assist 
Zedekiah, Jer. xxxvii, 3-5, 10. Nebuchad- 
nezzar left Jerusalem, and went to meet him, 
defeated him, and obliged him to return into 
Egypt ; after which he resumed tlie siege of 
Jerusalem. In the mean while, the people of 
Jerusalem, as if freed from the fear of Nebu- 
chadnezzar, retook the slaves whom they had 
set at liberty, which drew upon them great 
reproaches and threatenings from Jeremiah, 
xxxiv, 11, 22. During the siege Zedekiah 
often consulted Jeremiah, who advised him to 
surrender, and pronounced the greatest woes 
against him if he should persist in his rebellions 
Jer. xxxvii, 3, 10; xxi. But this unfortunate 
prince had neither patience to hear, nor res.Q 



ZEP 



982 



zuz 



lution to follow, good counsels. In the eleventh 
year of Zedekiah, on the ninth day of the fourth 
mojith, (July,) Jerusalem was taken, 2 Kings 
XXV, 2-4 ; Jer. xxxix, 2, 3 ; lii, 5-7. Zedekiah 
and his people endeavoured to escape by favour 
of the night ; but the Chaldean troops pursuing 
them, they were overtaken in the plains of 
Jericho. He was seized and carried to Nebu- 
chadnezzar, then at Riblah, a city of Syria. 
The king of Chaldea, reproaching him with his 
perfidy, caused all his children to be s^in be- 
fore his face, and his eyes to be put ouT; then 
loading him with chains of brass, he ordered 
him to be sent to Babylon, 2 Kings xxv, 4-7 ; 
Jer. xxxii, 4-7; lii, 4-11. Thus were accom- 
plished two prophecies which seemed contradic- 
tory : one of Jeremiah, who said that Zedekiah 
should see and yet not see, Nebuchadnezzar 
with his eyes, Jer. xxxii, 4, 5 ; xxxiv, 3 ; and the 
other of Ezek. xii, 13, which intimated that he 
should not gee Babylon, though he should die 
there. The year of his death is not known. 
Jeremiah had assured him that he should die 
in peace ; that his body should be burned, as 
.those of the kings of Judah usually were ; and 
that they should mourn for him, saying, " Ah, 
lord !" Jer. xxxiv, 4, 5. 

ZEPHANIAH was the son of Cushi, and 
was probably of a noble family of the tribe of 
Simeon. He prophesied in the reign of Josiah, 
about B. C. 630. He denounces the judgments 
of God against the idolatry and sins of his 
countrymen, and exhorts them to repentance ; 
he predicts the punishment of the Philistines, 
Moabites, Ammonites, and Ethiopians, and 
foietels the destruction of Nineveh; he again 
inveighs against the corruptions of Jerusalem, 
and with his threats mixes promises of future 
favour and prosperity to his people ; whose 
recall from their dispersion shall glorify the 
name of God throughout the world. The 
style of Zephaniah is poetical ; but it is not 
distinguished by any peculiar elegance or 
beauty, though generally animated and im. 



ZERUBBABEL, or ZEROBABEL, was 

son of Salathiel, of the royal race of David. 
St. Matthew, i 12, and 1 Chron. iii, 17, 19, 
make Jeconiah king of Judah to be father to 
Salathiel ; but they do not agree as to the father 
of Zerubbabel. The Chionicles say Pedaiah 
was father of Zerubbabel ; but St. Matthew, 
St. Luke, Ezra, and Haggai, constantly make 
Salathiel his father. We must tlaerefore take 
the name of son in the sense of grandson, and 
say that Salathiel having educated Zerubbabel, 
he was always afterward looked upon as his 
father. Some think that Zerubbabel had also 
the name of Sheshbazzar, and that he has this 
name in Ezra i, 8. Zerubbabel returned to 
Jerusalem long before the reign of Darius, son 
of Hystaspes. He i*eturned at the beginning 
of the reign of Cyrus, A. M. 3468, fifteen years 
before Darius. Cyrus committed to his care 
the sacred vessels of the temple with which he 
returned to Jerusalem, Ezra i, 11. He is 
always named first, as being the chief of the 
Jews that returned to their own country, Ezra 
ii, 2 ; iii, 8 ; v, 2 ; he laid the foundations of 
the temple, Ezra iii, 8, 9 ; Zech. iv, 9, &c ; and 
restored the worship of the Lord, and the usual 
sacrifices. When the Samaritans offered to 
assist in rebuilding the temple, Zerubbabel and 
the principal men of Judah refused them this 
honour, since Cyrus had granted his commis- 
sion to the Jews only, Ezra iv, 2, 3. 

ZIKLAG, a city of the Philistines, first as. 
signed to the tribe of Judah, and afterward to 
that of Simeon, Joshua xv, 31 ; xix, 5 ; but it 
does not appear that the Philistines were ever 
driven out ; as, when David fled into -their 
country from Saul, Achish gave the city to 
him, 1 Sam. xxvii, 5, 6. It was afterward 
burned by the Amalekites, 1 Sam. xxx, 1. But 
it appears to have been rebuilt, as the author 
of the First Book of Samuel, when relating its 
being given to David, adds, that it pertained 
to the kings of Judah in his time. 

ZION. See Sion. 

ZUZIM-. See Zamzummim. 



AN ALPHABETICAL 

TABLE OF THE PROPER NAMES 

IN 

THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS; 

WITH 

THEIR PRONUNCIATION, 

AND 

THE CHIEF MEANING OR LEADING SIGNIFICATION OF EACH WORD IN 
ITS ORIGINAL LANGUAGE. 



In those words whose pronunciation cannot be mistalcen by any ofle, such as Aener, Addon, Assos, &c, only 
the accentuation is marked. 



In the explanation of the different 



attention has been given to the leading meaning, whether simple or 



metaphorical; and the reader is not here presented with the converse of each signification, such as "Abiah, 
the Lord is nay Father, or the Father of the Lord ;" "Eliam, the people of God, or the God of the people;" 
because in the Hebrew, as in most of the oriental languages, the choice of these meanings is determinable 
principally by the juxta-position of the words as they stand in different sentences, and by other circumstances 
of a similar kind. 



ABI 

AARON, Ay'-ron, lofty, mountainous. 

Abad'bon, tlie destroyer. 

Abagtha, Ah-ag'-tha, father of the wine press. 

Abana, Ab-ay'-nah, stony. 

Abarim, Ab'-a-ritn, passages. 

Ab'aron, strength. 

Ab'ba, father. 

Ab'da, a servant. 

Ab'di, my servant. 

Abdiel, Ab'.de-el, a servant of God. 

Ab'don, a servant. 

Abed-nego, A-bed'-ne-go, servant of light. 

A'bel, vanity, vapour, mourning. 

Abel-beth-maachah, Ay'.bel-beth-ma-ay'-kah, 

mourning of the house of Maachah. 
A'bel-ma'im, the mourning of the waters. 
Abel-meholah, Ay'-bel-me-ho'.lah, mourning of 

weakness, of sickness. 
Abel-mizraim, Ay'-bel-miz.ra'.im, the mourning 

of the Egyptians. 
A'bel-shit'tim, mourning of the thorns. 
A^bez, an egg, muddy. 
Abi, A'-be, my father. 
Abiah, Ab-i'-ah, the Lord is my father, 
Abi'ahil, the father of light or praise. 
Abi-albon, Ab-e-al'.bon, intelligent father. 
Ab'iam, the father of the sea. 
Abi-as'aph, a gathering or consuming father. 
Abiathar, Ab-i'-a-thar, excellent father. 
A'bib, green fruits, ears of corn. 
Abi'dah, father of knowledge. 
Abi'dan, father of judgment. 
Abiel, Ab'-e-el, God my father. 
Abiezer, Ab.e-e'-zpr, father of help. 
Abi-ezritk, Ab-e-ez'-rite. 
Abigail, Ab'-e-gal, the joy of the father. 
Abi'-gibeon, the father of the cup, father of 

Gibe on. 
Abihail, Ab.e-hay'.il, the father of strength. 
Abi'hu, he is my father, or his father. 



ACH 

Abi'hud, the father of praise or confession. 
Abijah, Ab-i'-jah, the will of the Lord. 
Abi' JAM, father of the sea. 
Abilene, Ab-e-le'-ne, the father of the apart- 

ment, or of mourning. s > 

Abimael, Ab-be-may'-el, a father sent from God, 

my father comes from God. 
Abimelech, Ab-hn'-me-lek, father of the king. 
Abinadab, Ab-in'-na-dab, father of willingness, 

my father is a prince. 
Abinoam, Ab-in' -no-am, father of beauty or 

comehness, my father is beautiful. 
Abiram, Ab-i'-ram, a high father, father of 

fraud. 
Abishag, Ab'-be-shag, ignorance of the father. 
Abishai, Ab-bish'-a-i, the present of my father, 

the father of the sacrifice. 
Abishalom, Ab-bish! -a-lom, the father of peace, 

the recompence of the father. 
Abishua, Ab-bish' -u-a, father of salvation or of 

magnificence. 
Abishur, Ab'-be-shur, the father of the wall or 

of uprightness. 
Abital, Ab'-be-tal, the father of the dew. 
Abitub, Ab' -be-tub, father of goodness. 
Abiud, Ab'-be-ud, father of praise. 
Ab'ner, father of light, the son of the father. 
A'braham, the father of a great multitude. 
A'bram, a high father, the father of elevation. 
Ab'salom, father of peace. 
Accad, Ahf-ad, a pitcher, a sparkle. 
AccHO, Ak'-ko, close, pressed together. 
Aceldama, A-keV -da-mah, the field of blood. 
AcHAiA, A-kay'-yah, grief, trouble. 
AcHAicus, A-kay'rC-kus, a native of Acliaia. 
AcHAN, AcHAR, A' -kun, A'-kar, he that troubles 

and bruises. 
AcHBOR, AV-bor, a rat, bruising. 
AcHiM, A'-khn, preparing, confirming, reveng, 

ing. 



AHA 



984 



ALE 



AcHiR, A' -her, the brother's hght. 

AcHisH, A'-kish, thus it is, how is this ? 

AcHMETHA, Ak' -me-thah. 

AcHOR, A'-kor, trouble. 

AcijSAH, Ak'-sah, adorned, bursting of the veil. 

AcHSHAPH, Ak' -shaph, poison, tricks, one that 

breaks, the brim of any thing. 
AcHziB, Ak'-zib, liar, one that runs. 
Adadah, Ad'-a-dah, the testimony of tlie as- 

sembly. 
Adah, Ay'-dah, an assembly. 
Adaiah, Ad-a'-yah, the witness of the Lord. 
Adaliah, Ad-a-ly'-ah, one that draws water, 

poverty, cloud, death. 
Ad'am, earthy, taken out of red earth. 
Adamah, Ad'.da-mah, red earth. 
Adami, Ad'-da-my, my man, red, earthy. 
A'bar, high, eminent. 
Adbeel, Ad'-he-el, a vapour, a cloud of God, a 

vexer of God. 
Ad'di, ray witness, adorned, passage, prey. 
Ad'don, basis, foundation, the Lord. 
Adiel, Ad'-i-el, the witness of the Lord. 
Adin, Ad'-din, adorned, dainty. 
AT)iTHAiM,Ad.e-tkay'-i7n, assemblies, testimonies 
Adlai, Ad-lay' -i, my witness, my ornament. 
Ad'mah, earthy, red earth. 
Admatha, Ad'-ma-thah, a cloud of death, a 

mortal vapour. 
Ad'nah, rest, testimony, eternal. 
Adona'i, my Lord. 

Adoni-bezek, Ad'-o-ne-hee'-zek, the lightning 
, of the Lord, the Lord of Bezek. 
Adonijah, Ad-o-ny'-jah, the Lord is my master. 
Adonikam, Ad.o-ny'-ka7n, the Lord is raised, my 

Lord hath raised me. 
Adoniram, Ad-o-ny'-ram, ray Lord is most high, 

the Lord of might and elevation, 
Adoni-zedek, Ad'-o-ne-zee'.dek, justice of the 

Lord. 
Adoraim, Ad-o-ray'-im, strength or power of 

the sea. 
Aboram, Ad.o'.ram, their beauty, their power, 
. their praise. 
Adrammelech, Ad-ram'-me-lek, the cloak or 

glory of the king. 
Adr,amyttium, Ad-ra-mii'-te-um, the court of 

death. 
Adria, Ay'-dre-ah, the name of a city, which 

gives name to the Adriatic Sea, now the 

Gulf of Venice. 
A'driel, the flock of God. 
Adullam, Ad-ul'-lam, their testimony, their 

prey, their ornament. 
Adum'mjm, earthly or bloody things. 
JE'neas, praised. 
Agabus, Ag'-ga-hus, a locust, the feast of the 

father. 
Agag, Ay' -gag, roof, floor. 
A'gagite, of the race of Agag. 
Aga'p^, love feasts. 
Agar, see Hagar. 
Agi'e, a valley, deepness. 
Agrippa, A-grijp'.pah, one who at his birth 

causes great pain. 
A'gur, a stranger, gathering. 
A'hab, the brother of the father. 
Aha'rah, a sweet brother, an odoriferous mea- 
dow. 



Ahar'hel, another -host, another sorrow, the 
sleep of the brother. 

Ahasba'i, trusting in me, brother compassing. 
In Syriac, a brother of age. 

Ahasuerus, A-has-u-e'-rus, prince, chief. 

Ahava, A-hay' -vah, essence, generation. 

A'haz, one that takes and possesses. 

Ahaziah, A-ha-zy'-ah, possession, vision of the 
Lord. 

Am, my brother, my brethren. 

Ahiah, A-hy'-ah, brother of the Lord. 

Ahiam, A-hy'am, brother of the mother, bro- 
ther of the nation. 

Ahian, J[-7iy'-a/2, brother of wine. 

Ahie'zer, brother of assistance. 

Ahi'hud, brother of vanity, a brother of praise. 

Ahijah, the same as Ahiah. 

Ahikam, A-hy'-kam, a brother that raises up. 

Ahi'lud, a brother born. 

Ahim'aaz, brother of the council. 

Ahi'man, a brother prepared. 

Ahimelech, A-him'-me-lek, my brother is a king. 

Ahimoth, A'-he-moth, brother of death. 

Ahin'adab, a willing brother, a brother of a 
vow, brother of the prince. 

Ahinoam, A-hin'-no-am, the beauty and come- 
liness of the brother. 

Ahi'o, his brother, his brethren. 

Ahior. See Achior. 

Ahira, A-hy'-rah, brother of iniquity or of the 
shepherd. 

Ahiram, A-hy'-ram, brother of craft, protection. 

Ahisamach, A-his'-sa-mak, brother of strength 
or of support. 

Ahishabar, A-his'-sa-har, brother of the morn- 
ing or dew, brother of blackness. 

Ahi'shar, brother of a prince. 

AHiTHppijEL,^-Azf '.io-/eZ,brother of ruin or folly. 

Ahi'tub, brother of goodness. 

Ah'lab, which is of milkj is fat. 

Ah^lai, beseeching, sorrowing, beginning, bro- 
ther to me. 

Aho'ah, a thistle, a thorn, a fish hook, bro- 
therhood. 

Aho'hi, a living brother, my thistle or thorn. 

Aho'lah, his tabernacle, his tent. 

Aholiab, A-ho'-le-ab, the tent or tabernacle of 
the father. 

Aholibah, A-ho'-le-bah, my tent and my taber- 
nacle in her. 

Aholibamah, A-ho'-le-lay'-mah, my tabernacle 
is exalted. 

Ahran. See Charan. 

Ahu'mar, a meadow of waters, brother of waters. 

Ahu'zam, their taking possession, vision. 

Ahuz'zah, possession, apprehension, vision. 

At, or Hai, Ay'-i, mass, heap. 

Ai'ah, a raven, a vultiire, alas, where is it ? 

Ai'ath, an hour. 

Ai'n, an eye, a fountain. 

AiOTH, the same as Ai. 

Ajalon, Ad'-ja-lon, a chain, strength, a stag. 

Ak'kub, the print of the foot where any crea- 
ture hath gone, supplantation. 

Alammelech, Al-am'-me-lek, God is king. 

Al'gimus, strong, of strength. 

Al'emeth, a hiding, youth, worlds, upon the 
dead. 

Al'emis, strength. 



ANT 



985 



ASH 



Alexan'der, one that assists men, one that 
turns away evil. 

Alexandria, Al-ex-an'-dre-a, the city of Alex- 
ander. 

Alleluia, Al-le-lu' -yah, praise the Lord. 

A'lian, high. 

Al^'lon, an oak. 

Allon-bachuth, AV-lon-hak'-kuth, the oak of 
weeping. 

Almo'dad, measure of God. 

Al'mon, hidden. 

Al'mon-dib'lathaim, a hiding, aheap of fig trees. 

Alpha, Al'-fah, the first letter of the Greek al- 
phabet, marked A. 

Alpheus, Al-fe'-us, a thousand, chief. 

A'mad, a people of witness, people everlasting. 

Am'alek, a people that licks up or uses ill. 

Amal'ekites, people descended from Amalek. 

A'mam, mother, fear of them, people. 

Amana, Am-ay'-nah, integrity and truth. 

Amariah, Am-a-ry'-ah, the Lord says, the ex- 
cellency of the Lord. 

Amasa, Am-ay' sah, a forgiving people, the bur- 
den of the people. 

Amaziah, Am-a-zy' -ah, the strength of the Lord. 

A'mi. See Amam. 

Am'mah, my people. 

Ammi, the same as Ammah. 

Ammihud, Am'-me-hud, people of praise. 

Amminadab, Am-min'-na-dab, prince of the peo- 
ple, a people that vows. 

Ammishaddai, Am-me-shad'-day-i, the people 
of the Almighty. 

Am'mon, the son of my people. 

Am'monites, a people descended from Benam- 
mi, son of Lot. 

Am'non, faithful and true, foster father. 

Amon, Ay'-mon, faithfiil, true. 

Am'orite, bitter, a rebel, a babbler. 

Amos, Ay'-mos, loading, weighty, 

Amoz, Ay'-moz, strong, robust. 

Amphipolis, Am-fip'-po-lis, a city encompass- 
ed by the sea. 

Amplias, Am'-ple-as, large, extensive. 

Am'ram, an exalted people, handfiuls of corn. 

Amraphel, Am'.ra-fel, one that speaks of hid- 
den things or of ruin. 

Am'zi, strong, mighty. 

A'nab, a grape, a knot. 

Anah, Ay'-nah, one who answers or sings, 
poor, afflicted. 

Anak, Ay'-nak, a collar, an ornament. 

Anakims, An'-ak-ims. See Anak. 

Anammelech, An-am'-me-lek, answer, song of 
the king. 

A'nan, a cloud, a prophecy. 

Ananias, An-a-ny'-as, the cloud of the Lord. 

Anathoth, An'-a-thoth, answer, affliction. 

Andrew, An'drue, a stout and strong man. 

Andronicus, An-dron'-ne-kuSf a man excelling 
others- 

Aner, Ay'-ner, answer, song, affliction. 

An'na, gracious, mwrciful. 

An'nas, one that answers, that afflicts. 

An'tichrist, an adversary to Christ. 

Antioch, An'-te-ok, instead of a chariot. 

An'tipas, against all. 

Antipatris, An-te-pay'-tris, against his own 
father. 



Apelles, A-peV-lees, to exclude, to separate, 
Aphek, Ay'-fek, a stream, vigour. 
Apollonia, Ap-po-lo'-ne-ah, perdition. 
Apol'los, one that destroys and lays waste. 
Apollyon, A-poV-le-on, one that exterminates 

or destroys. 
Apphia, Af'-e-ak, that is fruitful. 
Appii-forum, Ap'.pe-i-fo'.rum, a town so called 
from Appius Claudius, whose statue was 
erected there. 
Aquila, Ak'-we-lah, an eagle. 
Ar, awaking, uncovering. 
Ara'bia, evening, a place wild and desert ; mix- 
tures, because this country was inhabited by 
different kinds of people. 
Ara'bian, an inhabitant of Arabia. 
A'rad, a wild ass, a dragon. 
A'ram, magnificence, one that deceives. 
Ararat, Ar'-ra-rat, the curse of trembling. 
Araunah, A-raw'-nah, ark, song, curse. 
Ar'ba, the city of the four. 
Archelaus, Ar-ke' -lay-US, the prince of the 

people. 
Archippus, Ar-kip'-pus, governor of horses. 
Arcturus, Ark-tew' -rus, a gathering together. 
Ard, one that commands. 
Areli, Ar-e'.lie, the light or vision of God. 
Areopagite, A-re-op'-a-gyte, belonging to the 

council called Areopagus. 
Areopagus, A-re-op'-a-gus, the hill of Mars ; a 
place where the magistrates of Athens held 
their supreme council ; from a^tioi, *' of 
Mars," and Tzdyoq, " a hill." 
Aretas, A-re'-tas, one that is agreeable or vir- 
tuous. 
Ar'gob, a turf of earth, curse of the well. 
Ariel, Ay' -re-el, the altar, light, lion of God. 
Arimathea, Ar-re-ma-the'-ah, a lion dead to the 
Lord. Ramath, or Ramah, a city where 
Samuel dwelt. 
Arioch, Ar'-e-ok, long, your drunkenness, your 

lion. 
Aristarchus, A-ris-tar'-kus, the best prince. 
Aristobulus, A-ris-tob'-bu-lus, a good coun- 

seller. 
Armageddon, Arrma-ged'-don, the mountain of 

Megiddo, of the gospel, of fruits. 
Armenia, Ar-me' -ne-ah, a province which is 

supposed to take its name from Aram. 
Ar'non, rejoicing, their ark. 
Ar'oer, heath, tamarisk, the nakedness of the 

skin or of the enemy. 
Ar'pad, the light of redemption, that lies down. 
Arphaxad, Ar-fak's-ad, one that heals or re- 
leases. 
Artaxerxes, Ar-taks-erk's-es, in Hehrew, Ar- 

tachsasta, the silence of light. 
Artemas, Ar'-te-mas, whole, sound. 
Asa, Ay'.sah, physician, cure. 
AsAHEL, As'-a-el, the work or creature of God. 
AsAiAH, As'-a-i-ah, the Lord hath wrought. 
Asaph, Ay'-saf, one that assembles together. 
Asenath, As'-e-nath, peril, misfortune. 
A'shan, vapour, smoke. 
Ash'dod, inclination, a wild open place. 
Ash'er, blessedness. 
As'hiel, the work of God. 
Ashima, Ash'-e-mah, crime, position, fire of the 



BAG 



986 



BET 



AsHKENAZ, Ash'-Tce-naz, a fire that distils or 

spreads. 
AsHTAROTH, Ash' -tu-roth, flocks, riches. 
Ash'ur, one that is happy. 
Ash'vath, making vestments. 
Asia, Ay'-she-a, muddy, boggy. 
As'kelon, weight, balance, fire of infamy. 
Asnap'per, unhappiness, fruitless. 
AssiR, prisoner, fettered. 
As'sos, approaching. 
Assyria, As-sir'-re-a. 
Assyrian, As-sir' -re-an- 
Asyncritus, A-sin'-kre-tus, incomparable. 
A'tad, a thorn. 

Ata'roth, crowns, counsel of making full. 
Athaliah, Ath-a-ly'-ah, the time of the Lord. 
Athenians, Ath-ee'-ne-ans, inhabitants of 

Athens. 
Ath'ens, so called from Athene, Minerva. 
Attalia, At-ta-ly'-ah, that increases or sends. 
A'ven, iniquity, force, riches. 
Augus'tus, increased, majestic. 
AzARiAH, Az-a-ry'-ah, assistance, he that hears 

the Lord. 
Az^KAXi^Az-ee'-kali, strength of walls. 
Az'gad, a strong army, a gang of robbers. 
Aznoth-tabor, Az'-noth-tay'-bor, the ears of 

Tabor, of choice, purity, contrition. 
Azo'tus, the same as Ashdod. 
A'zUR, he that assists, that is assisted. 

Baal, Bay'-al, he that rules and subdues. 

Baalah, Bay'-al-ah, her idol, a spouse ; the 
name of a city. 

Baal-berith, Bay'-al-he'-rith, idol of the cove^ 
nant. 

Baal-gad, Bay'-aJ-gad', the idol of the troop, 
the Lord is master of the troop. 

Baal-hamon, Bay'-al-hay'-mon, one that rules 
a multitude, a populous place. 

Baal-hazer, Bay'-al-hay'-zer, lord of court, 
possessor of grace. 

Ba'al-Her'mon, the possessor of destruction, of 
a thing devoted to God. 

Ba'ali, my idol, or master. 

Ba'alim, idols, masters, 

Ba'alis, a rejoicing, proud lord. 

Baal-meon, Bay'-cU-me'-on, the idol, the master 
of the house. 

Baal-peor, Bay'-al-pe'-or, master of the open- 
ing. 

Baal-perazim, Bay'-al-per'-a-zim, master, or 
god of divisions. 

Baal-shalisha, Bay'-al-shal'-e-shah, the third 
idol, the third husband. 

Baal-tamar, Bay'-al-tay'-mar^ master of the 
palm tree. 

Baal-zebu?, Bay'-al-ze'-buh, the master of flies. 

Baal-zephon, Bay'-al-ze'rfon, the idol of the 

■ north, secret. 

Baanah, Bay'-a-nah, in the answer, in affliction. 

Baa'rah, a flame, purging. 

Baashah, Ba-ay'-shah, in the work, he that de- 
mands, who lays waste. 

Ba'bel, confusion, mixture. 

Babylon, Bah'-he-lon. See Babel. 

Babylonians, Bah-be-lo'-ne-ans, 

^abylonish, Bab-he-lo'-nish. 

Paca, Bay'.kah, mulberry tree. 



Bahurim, Ba-hew'-rim., choice, warlike. 

Ba'jith, a house. 

Balaam, Bay' -lam, the old age or ancient of the 

people, without the people. 
Bala'dan, one without rule or judgment, an- 

cient in judgment. 
Ba'lak, who lays waste, who laps. 
Ba'mah, an eminence. 
Barabbas, Bar-ab'-bas, son of the father or of 

confusion. 
Barachel, Bar'-a-kel, who blesses God. 
Barachias, Bar'-a-ky-as, the same as Barachel. 
Ba'rak, thunder, in vain. 
Bar-je'sus, son of Jesus. 
Bar-jo'na, son of Jona or of a dove. 
Bar'nabas, the son of the prophet or of con- 
solation. 
Bar'sabas, son of return, of rest, of swearing. 
Barthol'omew, a son that suspends the waters. 
Bartimeus, Bar-te-me'-us, the son of Timeus or 

of the honourable. 
Baruch, Bay'-ruk, who is blessed, who bends 

the knee. 
Barzillai, Bar-zil'-la-i, made of iron, son of 

contempt. 
Ba'shan, in the tooth, in the change or sleep. 
Bashemath, Bash'-e-math, perfumed, in desola- 

tion. 
Bath-sheba, Bath-she'-bah or Bath'-she-bah, the 

seventh daughter, the daughter of an oath 
Bathshu'a, the daughter of salvation. 
Be'dad, alone, in friendship. 
Be 'dan, only, in the judgment. 
Beel-zebub, Be-eV-ze-bub. See Baal-zebub. 
Beer, Be'-er, a well, the name of a city. 
Beer-lahai-roi, Be'-er-la-hay'-e-roy, the-well of 

him that liveth and seeth me. 
Beer-sheba, Be'-er-she'-bah, the well of an 

oath, of satiety, the seventh well- 
Be'kah, half a shekel. 
Bel, ancient, nothing, subject to change, 
Belial, Bee'-le-al, wicked, the devil. 
Belshaz'zar, master of the treasure. 
Belteshaz'zar, who lays up treasures in se- 
cret, secretly endur.es pain and pressure. 
Benaiah, Ben-ay' -yah, son of the Lord, the 

Lord's building. 
Ben-am'mi, the son of my people. 
Benha'dad, the son of Hadad, of noise. 
Ben'jamin, the son of the right hand. 
Ben'jamite, a descendant of Benjamin. j 

Benoni, Ben-o'-ny, son of my grief, ■■■ .K\ 

Be'or, burning, mad, beast. 
Berachah, Ber'-a-kah, blessing. 
Ber^ea, Be-ree'-ah, heavy, from ISdpos. 
Be'rith, covenant. 

Bernice, Ber-ny'-se, one that brings victory. 
Be'sor, glad news, incarnation. 
Be'tah, confidence. 
Bethabara, Beth-ab'-ba-rak, the house of pas- 

sage, of anger. 
BETH'A^Jy, the house of song, of affliction, of 

obedience, the grace of the Ijord. 
Beth-a'ven, the house of vanity, of strength. 
Beth-birei, Beth-bir'-re-i, the house of my 

Creator. 
Beth'-car, the house of the lamb, of knowledge. 
Beth-da'gon, the house of corn, of the fish, ofj 

the god Dagon. 



CAL 



987 



€lh 



Beth-diblathaim, BetTi-dih-la-t'hay'.im, the 
house of dry figs. 

Beth'el, the house of God. 

Bethelite, Beth'-el-ite, an inhabitant of Bethel. 

Be'ther, division, in the turtle, in the trial. 

Bethes'da, the house of effusion, of pity. 

Beth-e'zel, a neighbour's house. 

Beth-gamul, Beth-gay' -mul, the house of re- 
compense, of the weaned, of the camel. 

Beth-haccerem, Beth-hak'-ke-rem, the house of 
the vineyard. 

Beth-ho'ron, the house of wrath, of the hole, 
of liberty. 

Bethjesh'imoth, the house of desolation. 

Beth'-lehem, the house of bread, of war. 

BETH-LEHEai-EPHRATAH, jBei^'-Ze-yiem.ejf-ray'-fcr/i 
or eff'-ra-tah. 

BETH'-LEHEiM-JU'DAH. 

Beth'-lehemite, an inhabitant of Bethlehem. 

Beth-pe'or, the house of gaping. 

Bethphage, Beth'-fa-je, the house of the mouth, 
of early figs. 

Bethsaida, Beth-say' -dah, the house of fruits, 
of hunters. 

Beth'-shan, the house of the tooth, of change, 
of sleep. 

Beth-she'mesk, the house of the sun. 

Bethuel, Beth-ew'-el, filiation of God. 

Beulah, Bew'-lah, married. 

Bezaleel, Bez-a-lee'-el, in the shadow of God. 

Be'zek, lightning, in chains. 

BiCHRi, Bick'-ry, first-born, in the ram. 

Bid'kar, in compunction, in sharp pain. 

Big'than, giving meat. 

Bil'dad, old friendship. 

Bil'hah, who is old, troubled, confused. 

Bir'sha, in evil, son that beholds. 

BiTHiAH, Be-thy'-ah, daughter of the Lord. 

Bith'ron, division, in his examination, daugh- 
ter of the song, of anger, of liberty. 

BiTHYNiA., Be-thin'-e-ah, violent precipitation. 

Blas^tus, one that sprouts and brings forth. 

Boanerges, Bo-a-ner'-jes, the sons of thunder ; 
Jatnes and John, the sons of Zebedee. 

Bo'az, or Bo'oz, in strength, in the goat. 

BocHiM, Bo'-kim, the place of weeping, of mul- 
berry trees. 

Bo'zEZ, mud, in the flower. 

Boz'rah, in tribulation or distress. 

BuL, changeable, perishing. 

Buz, despised, plundered. 

Buzi, Bew'-zye, my contempt. 

BuziTE, Bew'-zyte, a descendant from Buz. 

Cabul, Kay'-hul, displeasing, dirt. 

C^SAR, See'-sar, one cut out. 

C^SA-REA, Ses.a-ree'-a, a bush of hair. 

Caiaphas, Kay'-a-fas, a searcher. 

Cain, Kay'n, possession. 

Cainan, Kay'-nan, possessor, one that laments. 

Ca'lah, good opportunity, as the verdure. 

Ca'leb, a dog, a crow, a basket. 

Galeb-ephratah, Kay'-leh-ef-ray'-tah or ef'-ra- 
tah, a place so called by a conjunction of 
the names of Caleb and his wife Ephratah. 

Calneh, Kal'-nay, our consummation, all we, 
as murmuring. 

Cal'no, our consummation, quite himself. 

Cal'varv, the place of a skull. 



Ca'mon, his resurrection. 
Ca'na, zeal, possession, nest, cane. 
Canaan, Kay'-nan, a merchant, a trader. The 
son of Ham, who gave name to the land of 
Canaan. 
Canaanite, Kay'-naurite, an inhabitant of Ca- 
naan. 
Candace, Kan-day'-se, who possesses contri- 
tion. 
Capernaum, Ka-per'-na-um, the field of repent. 

ance, city of comfort. 
Caphtor, Kaf'-tor, a sphere, a buckle, a hand, 

doves, those that seek and inquire. 
CAVPABOciAjKap-pa-do'-she-a, in Hebrew, Caph- 

tor. 
Carcas, Kar'-kas, the covering of a lamb. 
Carchemish, Kar'-ke.misk, a lamb, as taken 

away. 
Car'mel, a circumcised lamb, harvest, vineyard 

of God. 
Carmelite, Kar'-me-lyte, an inhabitant of 

Mount Carmel. 
Car'mi, my vineyard, the knowledge or the 

lamb of the waters. 
Car'pus, fruit, fruitful. 
Casiphia, Ka-se-fy'-a, money, covetousness. 
Cas'tor, a beaver. 

Cedron, See'-dron or Kee'-dron, black, sad. 
Cenchrea, Senk'-re-a, millet, small pulse. 
Cephas, See'-fas or Kee'-fas, a rock or stone. 
Ce'sar. See Csesar. 
Cesarea, Ses.a-ree'-a. See Caesarea. 
Chalcol, Kal'-kol, who nourishes, sustains the 

whole. 
Chaldea, Kal-dee'-a, as demons, as robbers. 
Chaldean, Kal-dee'-an, an inhabitant of Chal- 
dea. 
Chaldees, Kal-deez', the same as Chaldeans. 
Charran, Kar'-ran, a singing, the heat of wrath, 
Chebar, Ke'-bar, strength or power. 
Chedorlaomer, Ke'-dor-la-o'-mer, as a genera- 

tion of servitude. 
Chemarims, Kem'.a-rims, the name of Baal's 

priests. 
Chemosh, Ke'-mosh, as handling, as taking away. 
Chenania, Ke-na-ny'-ah, preparation, rectitude 

of the Lord. 
Cherethims, iCer'-ef^-zms, who cuts, tears away. 
Cherethites, Ker'-eth-ites. See Cherethims. 
Cherith, Ke'-rith, cutting, piercing, slaying. 
Chesed, Ke'-sed, as a devil, a destroyer. 
Chileab, Kil'-le-ah, totality or perfection of 

the father. 
Chilion, Kil'-le-on, finished, complete. 
Chilmad, KiP-mad, as teaching or learning. 
Chimham, Kim'-ham, as they, like to them. 
Chios, Ky'-os, open, opening. 
Chisleu, Kis'-lu, rashness, confidence. 
Chittim, Chit'-tim, those that bruise, gold, 

staining. 
Chiun, Ky'-un, an Egyptian god, whom some 

think to be Saturn. 
Chloe, Klo'-e, green herb. 
Chorazin, Ko-rai/'-zin, the secret, here is a 

mystery. 
CausKAN-KisnATnAiMfKew'.shan-rish.a.thay'-m, 

Ethiopian, blackness of iniquities. 
Chuza, Kew'-zahf the prophet, Ethiopian. 
CiLiciA, Sil-ish'.e-a, which rolls or overturns. 



DIO 



988 



ELI 



Clauda, Klaw^-dah, a broken voice, a lament- 
able voice. 

Claudia, Klaw'-de-ah, lame. 

Cle'ment, mild, good, merciful. 

Cleopiias, Klee'-o-fas, the whole glory. 

CoLossE, Ko-los'-see, punishment, correction. 

CoNiAH, Ko-ny'-ah, the strength or stability of 
the Lord. 

Co'rinth, which is satisfied, beauty. 

CopvIn'thians, inhabitants of Corinth. 

Corne'lius, a horn. 

Coz'bi, a liar, as sliding away. 

Crescens, Kres'-sens, growing, increasing. 

Crete, Kree't, carnal, fleshly. 

Cretes, Kree'ts, inhabitants of Crete. 

Cretians, Kree'-she-ans, the same as Cretes. 

Crispus, Kris'.pus, curled. 

CusH, Ethiopian, black. 

Cusii'an, Ethiopia, blackness, heat. 

Cush'i, the same as Cushan. 

Cyprus, Sy'.prus, fair, fairness. 

Cyrene, Sy-re'-ne, a wall, coldness, meeting, 
a floor. 

Cyreneans, Sy-re'-ne-ans, people of Cp-ene. 

Cyrenius, Sy-re'-ne-us, who governs. 

Cyrus, Sy'-rus, as miserable, as heir, the belly. 

Daeeasheth, Dab'-ha-shetJi, flowing with honey, 

causing infamy. 
Daberath, Dab' -he-rath, word, tiling, bee, sub- 
missive. 
Da'gon, corn, a fish. 
Dalmanutha, Dal-ma-new'-thah, a bucket, lean 

ness, branch. 
Dalmatia, Dal-may'-she-a, deceitful lamps, vain 

brightness. 
Damaris, Dam'-a.ris, a little woman. 
Damascus, a sack full of blood, similitude of 

burning. 
Dan, judgment, he that judges. 
Dan'iel, judgment of God. 
Da'ra, generation, house of the shepherd, com- 

panion, race of wickedness. 
Darius, Da-ry'-us, he that inquires and informs 

himself, 
Da'than, laws, rites. 
Da'vid, beloved, dear. 
Deb'orah, a word, a bee. 
Decapojcis, De-kap'-po-lis, a Greek word com. 

pounded of Ssku, ten, and zsdXis, a city, be- 
cause this country contained ten cities. 
De'dan, their breasts, friendship, uncle. 
Dedanim, Ded'-an-im, descendants of Dedan. 
Del'ilah, poor, head of hair, bucket. 
De'mas, popular. 
Demetrius, De-me'-tre-us, belonging to Ceres, 

to corn. 
Der'be, a sting. 

Deuel, De-ew'-el, the knowledge of God. 
Diana, Dy-ay'-nah, luminous, perfect. 
Di'bon, understanding, abundance of building. 
Di'bon-gad, abundance of sons, happy and 

powerful. 
DiDYMUS, Did'-e-mus, a twin. 
Di'mon, where it is red. 
Di'nah, judgment, who judges. 
Din'habah, she gives judgment. 
DioNYSius, Dy.o.nish'.e-us, divinely touched ; 
from Shi^divine, and yevw, / move. 



DioTREPiiES, Di-ot'-re-feez, nourished by Jupi- 
ter ; from 5ios, of Jupiter, and rpf^os, a foster- 
cJdld. 

Do'eg, who acts with uneasiness, a fisherman. 

Dor, generation, habitation. 

Dor'cas, the female of a roe-buck. 

Do'than, the law, custom. 

Drusilla, Drew-sil'-lah, watered by the dew ; 
from 6p6aos, the dew. 

DuMAH, Dew'-mah, silence, resemblance. 

Dura, Dew'-rah, generation, habitation. 

Easter, Ee's-ter, the passover, a feast of the 
Jews, 

E'bal, a heap, collection of old age. 

E'bed, a servant or labourer. 

Ebed-melech, Ee'-hed-me'-lelc, the king's serv- 
ant. 

Eben-ezer, Eb-en-ee'-zer, the stone of help. 

E'ber, one that passes, anger, wrath. 

Ebiasaph, E-by'-a-saf, a father that gathers to- 
gether. 

Ed, witness. 

E'den, pleasure, delight. 

E'dom, red, earthy, red earth. 

E'domite, a descendant of Esau, of Edom. 

Edrei, Ed'-re-i, a very great mass, cloud, de^th 
of the wicked. 

Eg'lah, heifer, chariot, round. 

Eglaim, Eg-lay'-im, drops of the sea. 

Eg'lon, the same as Eglah. 

E'gypt, in Hebrew, Mizraim ; that binds or 
straitens, that troubles or oppresses, 

Egyp'tian, an inhabitant of Egypt. 

E'hud, he that praises. 

Ek'ron, barrenness, torn away. 

Ek'ronites, inhabitants of Ekron. 

E'lah, an oak, oath, imprecation. 

E'lam, a young man, a virgin, secret, an age. 

E'lamites, descendants of Elam. 

E'lath, a hind, strength, an oak. 

El-beth'el, the God of Bethel. 

El'dad, loved or favoured of God. 

Elealeh, El-e.ay'-leh ascension or burnt-offer- 
ing of God, 

Eleazar, El-e-ay'-zar, the help or court of God. 

El-elohe-israel, El-el-ho'-he-is'-ra-el, God, the 
God of Israel. 

Elha'nan, grace, gift, or mercy of God. 

E'li, E'li, my God, my God. 

E'li, the offering or lifting up. 

Eli'ab, God ray father. 

Eliada, E-ly'-a.da or E-le-ay'-da, the know- 
ledge of God. 

Eliakim, E-ly'.a-kim, the resurrection pf God, 
God the avenger. 

Eli'am, the people of God. 

Eli'as. See Elijah. 

Eliashib, E-ly'-a-shib, the God of conversion. 

Eliathah, E-ly'-a-thah, thou art my God, my 
God comes. 

Eliezer, E-le-ec'.xp.r, help or court of my God. 

Elihoreph, E-le-ho'-ref, iho God of winter, of 
youth. 

Eli'hu, he is my God himself. 

Eli'jah, God the Lord, the strong Lord. 

Eli'ka, pelican of God. 

E'lim, the rams, the strong, the stags, the val- 
leys. 



ESA 



989 



GAT 



Elimei^ech, E-lim'-me-leJc, my God is king. 
Elioenai, El-e-o'-en-a-i, toward him are my 
eyes, my fountains, toward him is my pover- 
ty or misery. 
Eliphalet, E-lif -fa-let, the God of deliverance. 
Eliphaz, E-ly'-faz, the endeavour of God. 
Elisabeth, E-liz'-a-beth, God hath sworn, the 

fulness of God. 
Eli'sha, salvation of God. 
Eli'shah, son of Javan; it is God, God that 

gives help. 
Elishamah, E-lish'-a-mah, God hearing. 
Elisheba, E-lish'-e-ha. See Elisabeth. 
Elishua, El-e-shew'-ah, God is my salvation. 
Eliud, E-ly'-ud, God is my praise. 
Eli'zur, God is my strength, my rock. 
Eeka'nah, God the jealous, the reed of God. 
Elmo'dam, the God of measure, of the garment. 
Elna'than, God has given. 
E'lon, oak, grove, strong. 
E'lujo, cry, outcry. 

Eluzai, E-lu'-za-i, God is my strength. 
Elymas, El'-e-mas, in Arabic, a magician. 
E'mims, fears of terrors, people. 
Emmaus, Em-may'.us or Em'-ma-us, people de- 
spised. 
Em'mor, an ass. 

E'nam, a fountain or well, the eyes of them. 
En'dor, fountain or eye of generation. 
Ene'as, laudable ; from ati^fw, " I praise." 
En-eglaim, En-eg-lay'.im, the eye of the calves, 

of the chariots, of roundness. 
En-gedi, En-ge'-dy, fou"itain of the goat, of 

happiness. 
En-mish'pat, fountain of judgment. 
Enoch, Ee'-nok, dedicated, disciplined, well re- 
gulated. 
Enon, Ee'-non, cloud, his fountain. 
Enos, Ee'-nos, fallen man, subject to all kind 

of evil. 
En.rogel, En-ro'-gel, the fuller's fountain. 
En-shemesh, En-she'-mesh, fountain of the sun. 
Epaphras, Ep'-pa-fras, covered with foam. 
ETAtHKomruSjE-paf.ro-dy'.tus, agreeable, hand- 
some. 
Epenetus, E-pe-nee'-tus, laudable, worthy of 

praise. 
Ephah, Ee'-fah, weary, to fly as a bird. 
Ephes-dammim, E'-fez.dam'-mim, the effusion or 

drop of blood. 
Ephesians, E-fee'-se-ans, the people of Ephesus. 
Ephesus, Ef'-fesus, desirable ; chief city of 

Asia Minor. 
Ephphatha, Ef'-fa-tha, be opened. 
EpHRAiM, Ee'-fra-im, that brings forth fruit or 

grows. 
E'phraimite, a descendant of Ephraim. 
Ephratah, Eff-ray'-tah, abundance, bearing 

fruit. 
Ephrath,' E/'-raf ^. See Ephratah. 
Ephrathite, Eff'-ratJt-ite, an inhabitant of Eph- 

ratah, or a descendant from Ephraim. 
Ephron, Ef'-ron, dust. 

Epicureans, Ep-e-Jcew-re'-ans, who gives assist- 
ance ; from the Greek hLKupio}, I help. 
Er, watch, enemy. 
Eras'tus, lovely, amiable. 
E'rech, length, health. 
EsAiAs, E-zay'-e-as. See Isaiah. 



EsAR-HADDON, E'-sar.JiadJdon^ that binds, joy, 

or closes the point, 
E'sAu, he that does or finishes. 
E'sEK, contention. 
Esh-ba'al, the fire of the idol. 
Esh'col, a bunch of grapes. 
Eshtaol, Esh'-ta-ol, stout, strong woman. 
EsiiTEMOA, Esh-te-jno'-a, which is heard, the 

bosom of a woman. 
Es'li, near me, he that separates. , 

Es'rom, the dart of joy, division of the song 
Esther, Ess'-ter, secret, hidden. 
E'tam, their bird or covering. 
E'tham, their strength or sign. 
E'than, strong, the gift of the island. 
Ethanim, Eth'-an-im, strong, valiant. 
Ethbaal, Eth-bay'-al, toward the idol, he that 

rules. 
Ethiopia, Ee-the-o'-pe-a, in Hebrew, Cush, 

blackness ; in Greek it signifies heat, from 

aiOoi, I burn, and Sipig, face. 
Ethiopians, Ee-the-o'-pe-ans, Africans. 
EuBULUs, Yew'-bu-lus, a prudent counsellor. 
Eunice, Yew-ny'-se, good victory. 
EuoDiAS, Yew-o'-de-as, sweet scent. 
Euphrates, Yew-fray'.tes, that makes fruitful. 
Euroc'lydon, the north-east wind. 
Eutychus, Yew'-te.kus, happy, fortunate. 
Eve, living, enlivening. 
Evil-merodach, Ee'-vil-me-ro'-daJc, or mer'-o- 

daJc, the fool of Merodach, despising the 

bitterness of the fool. 
EzEKiEL, E-zee'-ke-el, the strength of God. 
E'zEL, going abroad, distillation. 
Ezion-Geber, E'-ze-on-ge'-ber, the wood of the 

man, counsel of the man, of the strong. 
Ez'ra, a helper. 

Fe'lix, happy, prosperous. 
Fes'tus, festival, joyfhl. 
Fortuna'tus, happy, prosperous. 

Gaal, Gay'al, contempt, abomination. 

Gaash, Gay'-ash, tempest, overthrow. 

Gabbatha, Gab'-ba-tha, high, elevated. In 
Greek, lithostrotos, paved with stones. 

Ga'briel, God is my strength. 

Gad, a band, happy, armed and prepared. 

Gadarenes, Gad-a-ree'ns, surrounded, walled. 

Gad'di, my happiness, my troop, a kid. 

Gadbiel, Gad'-de-el, goat of God, the Lord is 
my array. 

Gadites, Gad'-dites, descendants of Gad. 

Gaius, Gay'-e-us, lord, an earthly man. 

Galatia, Gal-ay' -she-a, white, of the colour of 
milk. 

Galatians, Gal-ay' -she -ans, born in Galatia. 

Galbanum, Gal'-ba-num, a gum, sweet spice. 

Galeed, GaV-e-ed, the heap of witness. 

Galilee, Gal'-le-lee, wheel, revolution, heap?. 

Galileans, Gal-le-lee'-ans, inhabitants of Ga- 
lilee. 

Gal'lim, who heap up, cover, roll. 

Gal'lio, he that sucks or lives upon milk. 

Gama'liel, recompense, camel, weaned of God. 

Gam'madims, soldiers placed in the towers of 
Tyrus ; men who came from Gammade, a? 
town of Phenicia. 

Ga'tam, their lowing, their touch. 



HAC 



990 



HEM 



Gath, a press. 

Oath-rim'mon, the press of the granite, exalted 

press. 
Ga'za, strong, a goat. 
Ge'ba, a hill, a cup< 
Ge'bal, bound, limit. 
Ge'bim, grasshoppers, height. 
Gedaliah, Ged-a- ly'-ah, God is my greatness, 

fringe of the Lord. 
GEHAzi,G^e-^ay-z3/e,valleyofsight, of the breast. 
Gemari'ah, accomplishment of the Lord. 
Gennesaret, Gen-ness'-a-ret, or Jen-ness'-a-ret, 

the garden or protection of the prince 
Genubath, Gen'-u-hath, theft, garden or pro- 

tection of the daughter. 
Ge'ra, pilgrimage, dispute. 
Ge'rah, the twentieth part of a shekel. 
Ge'rar. See Gera. 
Gergesenes, Ger'-ge-seens, those who eome 

from pilgrimage or from fight. 
Gerizim, Ger'.re-zim, cutters. 
Ger'shom, a stranger there, a traveller of re- 

putation. 
Ger'shon, his banishment, the change of pil- 
grimage. 
Ge'shur, the sight of the valley, the vale of the 

ox or the wall, 
Geshurites, Gesh'-u-rytes, inhabitants of 

Geshur. 
Ge'ther, the vale of trial, of searching, the 

press of inquiry. 
Gethsemane, Geth-sem'-a~ne, a very fat valley. 
Giah, Gy'-ah, to guide, draw out, a sigh. 
Gibeah, Gih'.e-ah, a hill. 
Gib'eon, hill, cup, that which is without. 
Gib'eonites, people of Gibeon. 
Gid'eon, he that bruises, cutting off iniquity. 
GiHON, Gy'-hon, valley of grace, impetuous. 
Gilboah, Gil'-bo-ah, revolution of inquiry. 
GiLEAD, Gil'-le-ad, the mass of testimony. 
Gileadites, GiV-le-ad-ites, the inhabitants of 

Gilead. 
Gil'gal, wheel, revolution, heap. 
GiLOH, Gy'-loh, he that rejoices, overturns, or 

discovers. 
GiLONiTE, Gy'-lo-nite. 
GiRGASHiTE, Gir'-ga-shite, who arrives from 

pilgrimage. 
GiTTiTE, Git'-tite, a wine press. 
Gob, cistern, grasshopper, eminence. 
Gog, roof, covering. 
Go'lan, passage, revolution. 
Gol'gotha, a heap of skulls. 
Goli'ath, revolution, discovery^ heap. 
Go'mer, to finish, accomplish, a consumer. 
Gomor'rah, a rebellious people. 
Go'sHEN, approaching, drawing near. 
Go'zAN, fleece, pasture, nourishing the body. 
-Grecia, Gree'.she-a, Greece, the country of the 

Greeks. 
Grecians, Gree'-she-ans, Greeks, the inhabit- 
ants of Greece. 
GuR, the young of a beast, dwelling, fear. 
Gurba'al, the whelp of the governor. 

Habakkuk, Hab'-a.huTc, he that embraces, a 

wrestler. 
Hachaliah, Hak-a-ly'-ah, who waits for the 

Lord. 



Hachilah, Hak'.e.lah, my trust is in her. 
Ha'dad, joy, noise. 

Hadadezer, Hay'-dad-ee'-zer, the beauty of as- 
sistance. 
Hadad-rimmon, Hay'. dad-rim' -mon, the voice 

of height, the invocation of Rimmon, a god 

of the Syrians. 
Hadas'sah, a myrtle, joy. 
Hado'ram, their beauty, power, pi'aise. 
Hadrach, Hay'-drak, point, joy of tenderness^ 

your chamber. 
Ha'gar, a stranger, that fears. 
Hagarenes, Hay'-gar-eens, of the family of 

Hagar. 
Hagarites, Hay'-gar-ites. See Hagarenes. 
Haggai, Hag'-ga-i, feast, solemnity. 
Hag'gith, rejoicing. 
Hak'katan, little. 

Halleluiah, Hal-le-lu'-yah, praise the Lord; 
Ham, hot, brown. 

Ha'man, noise, tumult, he that prepares. 
Ha'math, anger, heat, a wall. 
Hammedatha, Ham-med' -a-thah, or Ham-me^ 

day'.thah, he that troubles the law* 
Ha'mon-gog, the multitude of Go^. 
Ha'mor, an ass, clay, wine. 
Ha'mul, godly, merciful. 
Hamu'tal, the shadow of his heat, the heat of 

the dew. 
Hanameel, Han-am'-e-el, or Han-am-ee'-el, grace 

or pity from God. 
Hananeel, Han-an-ee'-el, mercy of God. 
Hanani, Han-ay'-ny, mj grace or mercy, 
Hanani'aii, grace or mercy of the Lord. 
Han'nah, gracious, merciful, taking rest. 
Ha'noch, dedicated. 

Ha 'nun, gracious, merciful, he that rests.^ 
Ha'ran, mountainous country, which is en- 
closed. 
Harbo'nah, his destruction or dryness. 
Ha'rod, astonishment, fear. 
Harosheth, Har-o'-sheth, agriculture, silence^ 

vessel of earth, forest. 
Hashmo'nah, diligence, enumeration, embassy,. 

pres.ent. 
Ha'tack, he that strikes, 
Havilah, Hav'-e-lah, that suffers pain, brings 

forth, declares to her. 
Havoth-jair, Hay'.voth-jay'-ir, villages that 

enlighten. 
Hazael, Haz'-a-el, that sees God. 
Hazarmaveth, Hay'-zar-may'-veth, court or 

dwelling of death. 
Hazelelponi, Hay'-zel-el.po'-ny, shade, sorrow 

of the face. 
Hazeroth, Haz-ee'-rotJi, villages, court. 
Ha'zor, court, hay. 
He'ber, one that passes, anger. 
He'brews, descended from Heber. 
He'bron, society, friendship, enchantment. 
Hegai, or Hege, Heg'-a-iy meditation, word, 

separation. 
He'lam, their army, trouble, or expectation. 
Hel'bon, milk, fatness. 
Heldai, Hel'-da-i, or Hel-day'-i, the world. 
He'li, ascending, climbing up. 
Hel'kath-haz'urim, the field of strong meh, of 

rocks. 
He'man, their trouble, their tumult, much. 



IKA 



991 



JED 



Hen, grace, quiet. 

Hjspher, Hee'-fer, a digger or delver. 

Hephzi-bah, Hef'-ze-hah, my pleasure. 

Her'mes, Mercury, gain, refuge. 

Hermogenes, Her-moj'.e-nes, begotten of Mer- 
cury, of lucre. 

Her'jvion, anathema, destruction. 

Her'jionites, the inhabitants of Hermon. 

Herod, Her' -rod, the glory of the skin. 

Herobians, He-ro'-de-ans. 

Hero'dias, the wife of Herod. 

Herodion, He-ro'-de-on, song of Juno. 

Hesh'bon, invention, industry, thought, he that 
hastens to understand. 

Heth, trembling, fear. 

Heth'lon, fearful dwelling, his covering. 

Hezeki'ah, strong in the Lord. 

Hez'ron, the dart of joy, division of the song. 

HiDDAi, Hid'-da-i, praise, cry. 

Hiddekel, Hid'-de-kel, a sharp voice 

Hi'el, the life of God. 

Hierapolis, Hy-er-ap'-po-lis, holy city. 

HiGGAioN, Hig-gay'-e-on, meditation. 

Hilki'ah, God is my portion, the Lord's gentle- 
ness. 

Hil'lel, praising folly, Lucifer. 

Hin'nom, there they are, their riches. 

Hi'ram, exaltation of life, their whiteness, he 
that destroys. 

Hit'tites, who are broken or fear. 

Hi'viTES, wicked, bad, wickedness. 

Ho'bab, favoured and beloved. 

Ho'bah, love, friendship, secrecy. 

Hog'lah, his festival, his dance. 

Hophni, Hoff'-ni, he that covers, my fist. 

Hor, who conceives, shows. 

Ho'reb, desert, destruction, dryness. 

Hor-hagidgad, Hor-ha-gidd' -gad, hill of feli- 
city. 

Hor'siah, devoted to God, destruction, 

HoRONAiM, Hor-o-nay'.im, anger, raging. 

Horonite, Hor'-o-nyte, anger, fury, liberty. 

HosEA, and Hoshea, Ho-zee'-a, and Ho-shee'-a, 
Saviour. 

Hul, infirmity, bringing forth children. 

Hul'dah, the world, a prophetess. 

HuR, liberty, whiteness, cavern. 

Hushai, Heio'-sha-i, their haste, sensuality, or 
silence. 

Huz'zab, molten. 

Hymeneus, Hy-men-ee'-us, nuptial, marriage. 

Ib'har, election, he that is chosen. 

IcHABOD, Ik'-a-bod, where is the glory ? 

IcoNiUM, I-ko'-ne-um, from kw, " I come." 

Id'do, his hand, power, praise, witness. 

Idumea, Id-ew-viee'-a, red, earthy. 

Igdali'a, the greatness of the Lord. 

I'joN, look, eye, fountain. 

Illyricum, Il-lir'-re-kum, joy, rejoicing. 

Im'lah, plenitude, repletion, circumcision. 

Lmman'uel, a name given to our Lord Jesus 
Christ, signifying, God with us. 

Im'rah, a rebel, changing. 

India, In'-de-a, praise, law. 

Iphedeiah, If-fe-dy'-ah, or If-fe-dee'-ah, the re- 
demption of the Lord. 

I'ra, city, watch, spoil, heap of vision. 

I'rad, wild ass, heap of descents, of empire^ 



Irijah, I-ry'.jah, the fear, vision, or protection 

of the Lord. 
Isaac, I'-zak, laughter. 
Isaiah, I-zay'-yah, or I-zay'-e-ah, the salv.ation 

of the Lord. 
IscAH, Is'-kah, he that anoints, or covers- 
IscARioT, Is-kar'-re-ot, is thought to signify a 

native of the town of Iscarioth. 
Ish'bak, empty, forsaken, abandoned. 
Ishbi-benob, Ish'-by-bee'-nob, he that sits in the 

prophecy, conversion. 
Ish-bosheth, Ish'-bo-sheth, a man of shame. 
IsHMAEL, Ish'-ma-el, God who hears. 
IsHMAELiTES, Ish'-mu-el-ites, the posterity of 

Ishmael. 
Israel, Is'-ra-el, a prince with God, prevailing 

with God, that wrestleth with God. 
Israelites, Is' -ra-el-ites, the posterity of Israel, 

or Jacob. 
IssACHAR, Is'-sa-kar, price, reward. 
Italian, I-tal'-e-an, belonging to Italy. 
Italy, It'-ta-le, a Latin word that has its origi- 

nal from vitulus, or vitula, " a calf," or from 

a king called Italus. 
Ith'amar, island of the palm tree, wo to the 

palm or change. 
Ithiel, Ith'-e-el, God with me, sign. 
Ithream, Ith'-re-am, excellence of the people. 
Iturea, It-u-ree'-a, which is guarded, a country 

of mountains. 
I'vAH, iniquity. 

Jaalam, Ja-ay'-lam, hidden, young man, kids. 
Jaazania, Ja-az-a-ny'-ah, whom the Lord will 

hear, the balances, the arms. 
Ja'bal, which glides away, produces. 
Jab'bok, evacuation, dissipation. 
Ja'besh, dryness, confusion, shame. 
Jabesh-gilead, Jay'-besh-giV-e-ad. 
Ja'bez, sorrow, trouble. 
Ja'bin, he that understands, he that builds, 
Jabneel, Jab'-ne-el, building, or understanding. 

of God. 

Jachin, Jay'-kin, that strengthens. 
Ja'cob, he that supplants, the heel. 
Ja'el, he that ascends, a kid. 
Jah, the everlasting God. 
Ja'haz, dispute, going out of the Lord. 
Jahaza, Ja-hay'-za, the same as Jahaz. 
Jair, Jay'-er, my light, who diffuses light. 
Jairus, Jay'-e-rus or Ja4'-rus, is enlightened 
Jam'bres, the sea with peverty. 
James, the same as Jacob. 
Jan'na, who speaks, who answers, affliction. 
Jannes, Jan'-nez, the same as Janna. 
Japheth, Jay'-feth, persuades, handsome. 
Japhia, Ja-fy'-ah, which enlightens, groans. 
Ja'reb, a revenger. 

Jarred, he that descends or commands. 
Ja'sher, righteous. 

Ja'son, he that cures, that gives medicines. 
Ja'van, that deceives, clay. 
Ja'zer, assistance, he that helps. 
Je'bus, treads under foot, contemns. 
Jeb'usites, inhabitants of Jebus. 
Jeconi'ah, preparation or steadfastness of fh« 

Lord. 
Jeddi'el, the knowledge or joy of God. 
Jedidah, Jed-dy'-dah, well-beloved, amiable. 



JID 



992 



KIR 



Jedidiah, Jed-e-dy'^ah, beloved (^f the Lord. 
Jeduthun, Jed-ew'-thun or Jed'-ew-thun, his 

law, who gives praise. 
Jegar-sahadutha, Je'-gar-say-ha-dew'-tka, the 

heap of witnessing. 
Jehoahaz, Je-ho-ay'-haz, the prize or possession 

of the Lord. 
Jeho'ash, the fire or victim of the Lord. 
Jehoiachin, Je-hoy'-a-kin, preparation or 

strength of the Lord. 
Jehoiada, Je-hoy'-a-dah, knowledge of the Lord. 
Jehoiakim, Je-hoy'-a-kmiy the resurrection of 

the Lord. ^ 

Jehon'adab. See Jonadab. 
Jeho'ram, exaltation, rejected of the Lord. 
Jehosh'aphat, God judges. 
Jeho'vah, the incommunicable name of God, 

self-existing. 
Jehovah-jireh, Je-Jio'-vah-jy'-rey, the Lord will 

see or provide, will be manifested. 
Jeho'vah-nis'si, the Lord my banner. 
Jehovah-shalom, Je-ho'-vah-shay'-lom or shaV- 

lom, the Lord send peace. 
Jeho'vah-sham'mah, the Lord is there. 
Jeho'vah-tsid'kenu, the Lord our righteous- 



Jehu, Je'-hew, he that is or exists. 
jEmjDiJAH, Je-hew-di'-jah, praise of the Lord. 
Jemi'ma, handsome as the day. 
Jephthah, Jef-thaJi, he that opens. 
Jephunneh, Je-fun'-neh, he that beholds. 
Je'rah, the moon, to scent or smell. 
Jerahmeel, Je-ram'-me-el, mercy or love of God. 
Jeremi'ah, grandeur of the Lord. 
Jericho, Jer'-re-ko, his moon, sweet smell. 
Jer'imoth, eminences, he that fears or rejects 

death. 
Jerobo'am, fighting against, increasing the 

people. 
Jerubbaal, Jer-ub-hay'-al, he that revenges the 

idol, let Baal defend his cause. 
Jerubbesheth, Je-rub'-be-sheth, let the idol of 

confusion defend itself. 
Jeru'salem, the vision or possession of peace. 
Jeru'sha, he that possesses the inheritance, 

exiled. 
Jeshimon, Jesh'-e-mon, solitude, desolation. 
Jeshua, Jesh'-u-a, a Saviour. 
Jeshurun, Jesh-ew'-run, upright. 
Jes'se, to be, my present. 
Jesui, Jes'-u-i, who is equal, flat country. 
Jesuites, Jes'-u-ites, the posterity of Jesui. 
Je'sus, the holy name Jesus, Saviour, who 

saveth his people from their sins. 
Je'ther, he that excels, remains, searches. 
Jeth'ro, his excellence or posterity. 
Je'tur, he that keeps, succession, mountainous. 
Je'ush, devoured, gnawed by the moth. 
Jew, Jews, so called from Judah. 
Jew'ess, Jew'ish, Jew'ry. 
Jez'ebel, island of the habitation, wo to the 

habitation, isle of the dunghill. 
Jezrahiah, Jez-ra-hy'-ah, the Lord is the east, 

the Lord arises. 
Jezreel, Jez' -re-el or Jez-ree'-el, seed of God, 

dropping of the friendship of God. 
Jezreelite, Jez'-re-el-ite or Jez-ree'-el-ite, an 

inhabitant of Jezreel. 
JiDLApH, Jid'-loft he that distils, hands joined. 



Jo'ab, paternity, having a father, voluntary. 
Jo'ah, who has a brother, brother of the Lord. 
Joan'na, the grace or mercy of the Lord. 
Jo'ash, who despairs, burns, is on fire. 
Job, he that weeps, cries, or speaks out of a 

hollo v/ place. 
JocHEBED, Jok'-kB'bed, glorious, honourable, a 

person of merit, the glory of the Lord. 
Jo'el, that wills, commands, or swears. 
JoEZER, Jo-ee'-zer, he that aids. 
Jo'ha, who enlivens and gives life. 
Joha'nan, who is liberal and grants favour 
John, the gift or mercy of the Lord. 
Jok'shan, hard, difficult, scandalous. 
Jok'tan, small, disgust, weariness, dispute. 
Jon'adab, who acts in good earnest. 
Jo'nah, or Jo'nas, a dove, he that oppresses. 
Jon'athan, given of God. 
Jop'pA, beauty, comeliness. 
Jo'ram, to cast, elevated. 
Jor'dan, the river of judgment, that rejects 

judgment, descent. 
Jo'rim, he that exalts the Lord. 
Jo'sE, raised, who exists, or pardons, Saviour, 
Joseph, Jo'-sef, increase, addition. 
JosES, Jo'-sez. See Jose. 
Josh'ua, the Lord, the Saviour. 
Josi'ah, the fire of the Lord. 
Jo'tham, perfection of the Lord. 
Jubal, Jew'-bal, he that runs, he that produces, 

a trumpet. 
Jubilee, Jew'-be-lee, a feast of the Jews, every 

fiftieth year ; in Hebrew, Jobel, a ram's horn, 

or a trumpet by which the jubilee year was 

proclaimed. 
Ju'dah, the praise of the Lord. 
Ju'das, the same as Judah. , 

Judea, Jew-dee'-a, a country. 
Ju'lia, downy; from hvXos, "down." 
Ju'lius, the same as Julia. 
Ju'nia, from Juno, or from juventus, youth. 
Jupiter, Jeio'-pe-ter, as if it wexe juvans pater, 

the father that helpeth. 
Jus'tus, just, upright. 



Kabzeel, Kab'-ze-el, the congregation of God. 

Ka'desh, holiness. 

Kadesh-barnea, Kay'-desh-har'-ne-a or bar-nee'- 

aJi, holiness of an inconstant son, of the corn, 

of purity. 
Kad'mielj God of rising. 
Ke'dar, blackness, sorrow. 
Kedemah, Ked'-de-mah, oriental.' 
Kedemoth, Ked'-de-math, old age, orientals. 
Keilah, Ky'-lah, she that divides or cuts. 
Kemuel, Kem'-u-el, God is risen. 
Ke'naz, this nest, lamentation, possession. 
Ke'nites, possession, lamentation, nest. 
Keren-happuch, Kee'-ren-hap'-puk, the horn or 

child of beauty. 
Kerioth, Ker'-re-oth, the cities, the callings. 
Keturah, Ke-tew'-rah, he that burns or makes 

the incense to fume, odoriferous. 
Keziah, Ke-zy'-ah, superficies, angle, cassia. 
Ke'ziz, end, extremity. 
Kibroth-hattaavah, Kib'-roth-kat-tay'~a-vah, 

the graves of lust. 
Kid'ron, obscurity, obscure. 
Kir, a city, a wall, a meeting^i 



MAA 



993 



MEM 



Km-HARASETH, Kir-har'-ra^seth, the city of the 

sun. 
KiRiATHAiM, Kir'-e-ath-ay'-im, the two cities, 

the callings. 
Kir'-jath, city, vocation, lesson, meeting. 
Kir'-jath-ar'ba, the city of four. 
Kir'jath-a'rim, city of cities, the city of those 

that watch. 
Kir'jath-ba'al, the city of Baal, of those that 

command, of those that possess. 
KiRJATH-jEARiM, Kir'-jath-je'.a-rim, the city of 

woods. 
Kir'jath-san'nah, the city of the bush, of en- 
mity. 
KiRJATH-SEPHER, KW -j ath-sec' -fer , the city of 

letters, of the book. 
KisH, hard, difficult, straw. 
Kis'ron, making sweet, perfuming, 
Kit'tim, they that bruise, gold, colouring. 
Ko'hath, congregation, obedience, to make 

blunt. 
KoHATHiTES, Ko'-katk-ites, the posterity of Ko- 

hath. 
Ko'rah, bald, frozen. 

La'ban, white, shining, gentle. 

Lachish, Lay'-kish, she walks, who exists of 
himself. 

La'el, to God, to the Almighty. 

Lah'mi, my bread, my war. 

La'ish, a lion. 

La'mech, poor, made low, who is struck. 

liAODicEA, Lay-o-de-see'.a, just people. 

Laodiceans, Lay-o-de-see'-ans, inhabitants of 
Laodicea. 

Lapidoth, Lap'.pe-dotk, enlightened, lamps. 

Lazarus, Laz'-za-rus, the help of God, 

Le'ah, weary, tired. 

Leb'anon, white, incense. 

Lebeeus, Leb-bee'-us, a man of heart. 

Lehabim, Le'-ha-bim or Le-hay'-bim, flames, the 
points of a sword. 

Le'hi, jaw bone. 

Lem'uel, God with them. 

Le'vi, who is held and associated 

Le'vites, the posterity of Levi. 

Lib'nah, Lib'ni, white, whiteness. 

Libya, Lib'.e-a, in Hebrew, Lubim, the heart 
of the sea. 

Libyans, Lib'-e-ans, the people of Libya. 

Li'nus, nets. 

Lo-am'mi, not my people. 

Lo'is, better. 

Lo-ruhamah, Lo-ru-hay'-mah, not having ob- 
tained mercy, not pitied. 

Lot, wrapt up, myrrh, rosin. 

Lu'cas, luminous. 

Lu'ciFER, Lu'-se-fer, bringing light. 

Lucius, Lu'-she-us. See Lucas. 

LuD, maturity, generation. 

Luke, See Lucas. 

Luz, separation, departure. 

Lycaonia, Ly-lca-o'-ne-a, she-wolf. 

Lyjj'da, the name of a city. 

Lysa'nias, that drives away sorrow. 

Lys'tra, that dissolves or disperses. 

Maachaii, May'.a.kak, to squeeze. 
Maaseiah, Ma-a-sy'-ah, the work of the Lord. 
64 



Macedonia, Mas-se-do'-ne-a, adoration, prostra. 
tion. 

Machir, May'-kir, he that sells or knows. 

Machpelah, Mak-pee'-lah, double. 

Magdala, Mag'-da-lah, tower^ greatness. 

Magdalene, Mag'-da-le'-ne, tower, grand, ele- 
vated. 

Ma'gog, roof, that dissolves. 

Magor-missabib, May'-gor-mis'-sa-bib, fear, 
round about. 

Mahalaleel, Ma-ha4a4ee'-el, he that praises 
God. 

Mahalath, Ma-hay' -lath, melodious song, in- 
firmity. 

Mahanaim, Ma-ha-nay'-im, the two fields or 
armies. 

Maher-shalal-hash-baz, May'-er-shal'-al-hash'- 
baz, making speed to the spoil. 

Mah'lah, the same as Mahalath. 

Mah'lon, song, infirmity. 

Makkedah, Mak'-ke-dahi adoration, prostra- 
tion. 

Malcham7 Mal'-kam, their king. 

Malchi-shua, Mal'-ke-shew'-ah, my king is a 
saviour. 

Malchus, Mal'-kus, king or kingdom. 

Mam'mon, riches. 

Mam're, rebellious, bitter, that changes. 

Manaen, Man'-a-en, or Ma-nay'-en, a comforter, 
he that conducts them. 

Manas'seh, forgetfulness, he that is forgotten. 

Maneh, May'-neh, a species of money. 

Manoah, Ma-no'-ah, rest, a present. 

Ma'on, house, crime, 

Ma'ra, bitterness. 

Ma'rah, the same as Mara. 

Mar'cus, polite, shining. 

Mark, the same as Mai'cus. 

Mars-hill', the place where the judges of 
Athens held their supreme council. 

Mar'tha, who becomes bitter. 

Ma'ry, esalted, bitterness of the sea, mistress 
of the sea. 

Masrekah, Mas'-re-kah, whistling, hissing. 

Mas'sah, temptation. 

Ma'tri, rain, prison. 

Mat'tan, the reins, the death of them. 

Mattathias, Mat-ta-thy'-as. the gift of the 
Lord. 

Mat'that, gift, he that gives. 

Matth'ew, given, a reward. 

Matthias, Ma-thy'-as. See Mattathias. 

Maz'zaroth, the twelve signs. 

Me'dad, he that measures, the water of love. 

Me'dan, judgment, process, measure, covering. 

Medes, Mee'ds, people of Media. 

Media, Mee'.de-a, measure, covering, abund- 
ance. 

MEGiDjiOfMe-gid'-do, that declares, his precious 
fruit. 

Megiddon, Me-gid'-don, the same as Megiddo. 

Mehetabel, Me-het'-ta-ble, how good is God ! 

Mehujael, Me-hu-jay'-el, who proclaims God, 
God that blots out. 

Melchi, MeV-ky, my king, my counsel. 

Melchizedek, Mel-kiz'-ze-dek, king of right- 
eousness, 

Melita, Me-ly'-ta or Me-lee'-ta, afl'ording honey. 

Memphis, Mem'-fis, by the mouth, 



■■ 



MIS 



994 



NEH 



Memucan, Me-mew'-lcan, impoverished, to pre- 
pare, certain, true. 
Menahem, Men'-na-hem, comforter, who con- 
ducts them. 
Mene, Mee'ne, who reckons, who is counted. 
Mephibosheth, Me-Jib'-bo-sheth, out of my 

mouth proceeds reproach. 
Me'rab, he that fights, he that multiplies. 
Merari, Me-ray'-ry, bitter, to provoke. 
Mercu'rius, a false god ; from the Latin word 
mercari, " to buy or sell," because he pre- 
sided over merchandise ; in Greek, hermes, 
"orator" or "interpreter." 
Merib-baal, Mer-ib'-ba-al or Mer'-ib-bay'-al, re- 
bellion, he that resists Baal, and strives 
against the idol. 
Meribah, Mer'-re-bah, dispute, quarrel. 
Merodach, Mer'-ro-dak, bitter, contrition ; in 

Syriac, the little lord. 
Merodach-baladan, Mer'-ro-daJc-baV-la-dan or 
ba-lay'-dan, who creates contrition, the son 
of death, of thy vapour. 
Me'rom, eminences, elevations. 
Me'roz, secret, leanness. 
Meshach, Mee'-shak, that draws with force, 

that surrounds the waters. 
Meshech, Mee'-shek, who is drawn by force, 
t shut up, surrounded. 

Meshelemiah, Mesh-el-e-my'-ah, peace, perfec- 
tion, retribution of the Lord. 
Mesopotamia, Mes-o-po-tay' -me-a, in Hebrew, 
Aramnaharaim, that is, " Syria of the two 
rivers." In Greek it also signifies " between 
two rivers ;" from jiiaos, " middle," and tsdra- 
[xos, "river." 
Messiah, Mes-sy'-ah, anointed. 
Me'theg-am'mah, the bridle of bondage. 
Methusael, Me-thew'-sa-el, who demands his 

death. 
Methuselah, Me-thew' -se-lah, he has sent his 

death. 
Mi'cAH, poor, humble, who strikes, is there. 
Micaiah, My-kay'-e-ah, who is like to God ? the 

lowliness of God. 
Michaiah, My-kay'-e-ak, Michael, My'-ka-el, 

the same as Micaiah. 
MicHAL, My'-kal, who is it that has all ? who 

is perfect ? 
MicHMASH, Mik'-masTi, he that strikes, the poor 

taken away. 
MiDiAN, Mid'-de-an, judgment, measure, cover- 
ing. 
MiDiANiTES, Mid'-de-an-ites, people of Midian. 
Mig'dol, a tower, greatness. 
Mig'ron, fear, a barn, from the throat. 
?*Iil'cah, queen. 
Mil'com, their king. 
MiLETUM, My-lee'-tum, red, scarlet. 
Mil'lo, fulness, repletion, 
Min'ni, disposed, reckoned. 
Min'nith, counted, prepared. 
Miriam, Mir'-re-am, exalted, bitterness of the 

sea, mistress of the sea. 
Mis'gab, the high fort or rock. 
Mishael, Mish'-a-el, asked for, lent, God takes 

away. 
Misrephoth-maim, Mis'-re-foth-may'-im, the 
burnings of the waters, furnaces where me- 
tals are melted. 



Mitylene, Mit-e-lee'-ne, purity, press, 

Mi'zAR, little. 

Miz'pah, a sentinel, speculation, that waits for. 

Miz'peh, the same as Mizpah. 

Mizraim, Miz-ray'-i?n, tribulations, in straits. 

MxAsoN, Nay'-son, a diligent seeker, betroth- 
ing, an exhorter. 

Mo'ab, of the father. 

Mo'abites, Mo'-ab-ites, the descendants of Moab. 

MoLADAH, Mol'-a-dah, or Mo-lay'-dah, birth, ge- 
neration. 

Molech, Mo'-lek, king. 

Moloch, Mo'-lok, the same as Molech. 

MoRDECAi, Mor'-de-kay, contrition, bitter bruis- 
ing ; in Syriac, pure myrrh. 

Mori'ah, bitterness or fear of the Lord. 

Mosera, Mo-see'-ra, Moseroth, Mo-see' -rotky 
erudition, discipline, bond. 

Mo'sES, taken out of the water. 

Mu'shi, he that touches, withdraws himself. 

My'ra, from /.tjJpa), IJlow, pour out, weep. 

Mysia, Mish'-e-a, criminal, abominable. 

Naaman, Na-ay'-man, beautiful, agreeable, that 

prepares himself to motion. 
Naamathite, Na-ay'-ma-thite, of Naamath. 
Naashon, Na-ash'-on, that foretels, serpent. 
Na'bal, a fool, senseless. 
Na'both, words, prophecies, fruits. 
Na'dab, free and voluntary gift, prince. 
Nagge, Nag'-gee, brightness. 
Naharai, Na-har'-ra-i or Na-ha-ray'-i, my nos- 
trils, hoarse, hot. 
Nahash, Nay' -hash, snake, one that foretels, 

brass. 
Na'hor, hoarse, hot, angry. 
Nahshon, Nay'-shon. See Naashan. 
Na'hum, comforter, penitent, their guide. 
Na'in, beauty, pleasantness. 
Naioth, Nay'-e-oth, beauties, habitations. 
Naomi, Na-o'-my, beautiful, agreeable. 
Naphish, Nay'-fish, the soul, he that refreshes 
himself, that respires ; in Syriac, that mul- 
tiplies. 
Naphtali, Naf-ta-ly, comparison, likeness, that 

fights. 
Narcissus, Nar-sis'-sus, astonishment. 
Na'than, who gives, or is given. 
Nathanael, Na-than'-yel, the gift of God. 
Nathan-melech, Nay'-than-me'-lek, gift of the 

king. 
Na'um. See Nahum. 
Nazarene, Naz-a-ree'n, kept, flower. 
Nazareth, Naz'-a-reth, separated, sanctified. 
Neapolis, Ne-ap' -po-lis, new city. 
Nebaioth, Ne-bay'-yoih, prophecies, fruits. 
Ne'bat, that beholds. 

Ne'bo, that speaks, prophesies, or fructifies. 
Nebuchadnezzar, Neb-ew-kad-nez'-zar, tears 

and groans of judgment. 
Nebuzar-adan, Neb-ew-zar'-ra'dan, fruits or 
prophecies of judgment, winnowed, spread. 
Necho, Nee'-ko, lame, who was beaten. 
Nehelamite, Ne-hel'-a-myte, dreamer, vale, 

brook. 
Nehemiah, Ne-he-my'-ah, consolation, repent- 
ance, or rest of the Lord. 
Nehiloth, Ne-hce'-loth, flute, hautboy, cornet. 
Nehusuta, Nc-hush'-tahj snake, soothsayer. 



OZI 



995 



PHI 



Nehush'tan, which is of brass or copper, a 

trifle of brass. 
Ner, lamp, brightness, land new tilled. 

Nereus, Nee'-re-us. See Ner. 
Neri, Nee'-ry, my light. 
Neri'ah, light and lamp of the Lord, 
Nethaneel, Ne-than'-ne-el. See Nathanael. 
Nethania, Neth-a-ny'-ah, the gift of the Lord. 
Nethinims, Neth'-e-nims, given, offered. 
Nib'haz, that fructifies, to prophesy, to speak. 
Nicanor, Ny-kay'-nor, a conqueror, victorious. 
Nicodemus, Nik-o-dee'-mus, innocent blood ; in 

Greek, the victory of the people. 
NicoLAiTANs, Nik-0-lay' -e-ianz, the followers 

of Nicolas. 
Nicolas, Nik'-o-las, victor of the people; from 

vLKdu), I overcome, and \abs, the people. 
NicopoLis, Ny-kop'-po-lis, the city of victory. 
Niger, Ny'.jer, black. 
Nim'rim, leopard, rebellion, change. 
Nim'rod, rebellious, sleep of descent. 
Nim'shi, rescued from danger, that touches. 
Nineveh, Nin'-ne-veh, agreeable dwelling. 
Ninevites, Nin'-ne-vites, people of Nineveh. 
Ni'sAN, banner ; in Syriac, a miracle. 
Nis'roch, flight, standard, proof. 
No, stirring up, a forbidding. 
Noadi'ah, witness of the Lord. 
No'ah, repose, rest, consolation. 
Nob, discourse, prophecy. , 

No'bah, that barks or yelps. 
Nod, vagabond. 

NoPH, Noff, honey comb, a sieve, that drops. 
Nun, son, posterity, durable. 
Nymphas, Nim'-fas, spouse, bridegroom. 

Obadi'ah, servant of the Lord. 

O'bal, inconvenience of old age, of the flux, 

O'bed, a servant. 

O'bed-e'dom, the servant of Edom, the Idume- 
an, labourer of the man. 

0'b(l, that weeps, deserves to be bewailed, an- 
cient. 

Oc'ran, disturber. 

O'ded, to sustain, to lift up. 

Og, a cake, bread baked in the ashes, 

O'hel, tent, tabernacle, brightness. 

Olympas, O-lim'-pas, heavenly. 

O'MAR, he that speaks, bitter. 

Omega, O-mee'-ga, the last letter of the Greek 
alphabet. 

Om'ri, a sheaf of corn, rebellion, bitter. 

On, pain, force, iniquity. 

O'nan, pain, strength, iniquity. 

Onesimus, O-nes'-se-mus, profitable, useful. 

Onesiphorus, On-ne-sif'-fo-rus, who brings 
profit. 

Ophel, O'-fel, tower, obscurity. 

Ophir, O'-fir, ashes. 

OpHRAH, Off'.rah, dust, fawn, lead. 

O'reb, a raven, caution, evening. 

OrioxN, O-ry'-on, the name of a constellation. 

Or'nan, that rejoices, their bow or ark. 

Or'pah, the neck, skull, nakedness of the 
mouth. 

Oth'ni, my time, my hour. 

Othniel, Oth'-ne-el, the hour of God. 

O'zem, that fasts, their eagerness. 

OziAs, O-zy'-as, strength from the Lord. 



Paarai, Pay'-a-ray or Pay-a'-ry, opening. 
Padan-aram, Pay' -dan-ay' -ram, Padan of the 

field, and Ara^n Syria. 
Pagiel, Pay'-je-el, prevention or prayer of God. 
Palestina, Pal-es^ty' -na, which is covered. 
Pal'ti, deliverance, flight. 
Pamphylia, Pam,-fil'-le-a, a nation made up of 

every tribe ; from roas, all, and ^vX??, a tribe. 
Paphos, Pay'-fos, which boils, is very hot. 
Pa'ran, beauty, glory, ornament. 
Par'bar, a gate or building belonging to the 

temple. 
Par'menas, that abides and is permanent. 
Parosh, Pay'-rob-h, a flea, fruit of the moth. 
Parshandatiia, Par-shan'-da-tha, revelation of 

corporeal impurities, of his trouble. 
Parthians, Par'-the-ans, horsemen, 
Paruah, Pa-rew'-ah, flourishing, that flies 

away. 
Parva'im, supposed to be Peru or Ceylon. 
Pash'ur, that extends the hole, whiteness. 
Patara, Pa-tay'-rah, which is trodden under 

foot; from Tzariw, I tread underfoot. 
Pathros, Path'-ros or Pay'-thros, mouthful of 

dew. 
Pat'mos, mortal. 
Patrobas, Pat'-ro-bas, paternal, that pursues 

the steps of his father, 
Pau, Pay'.ew, that cries aloud, appears. 
Paul, Paul'us, a worker. His former name 

was Saul, a sepulchre, a destroyer. 
Pedahzur, Ped-ah'-zur, saviour, strong and 

powerful, stone of redemption. 
Pedaiah, PecZ-a?/'-e-aA, redemption of the Lord. 
Pe'kah, he that opens, or is at liberty. 
Pekahiah, Pek.a-hy' -ah, it is the Lord that 

opens. 
Pe'kod, noble, rulers. 
Pelati'ah, let the Lord deliver. 
Pe'leg, division. 

Pelethites, Pel'-eth-ites, judges, destroyers. 
Peniel, Pe-ny'-el, face or vision of God. 
Penin'nah, precious stone, his face. 
Penu'el. See Peniel. 
Peor, Pee'-or, hold, opening. 
Per'ga, very earthy. 
Per'gamos, height, elevation. 
Perizzites, Per'-iz-zytes, the name of a people 

who dwell in villages. 
Per'sia, Per'sis, that cuts, nail, horseman. 
Pe'ter, a rock, a stone. 
Pethu'el, mouth or persuasion of God. 
Phalec, Fay'-lek. See Peleg. 
Phallu, FaV-lu, admirable, hidden. 
Phalti, Fal'-ty, deliverance, flight. 
Phanuel, Fa-new'-el, face or vision of God. 
Pharaoh, Fay'-ro, that disperses, that disco- 
vers ; according to the Syriac, the revenger, 

the king, the crocodile. 
Pharez, Fay'-rez, division, rupture. 
Pharpar, Far'-par, that produces fruits, fall of 

the bull. 
Phebe, Fee'-be, shining, pure. 
Phenice, Fe-ny'-se, red, purple. 
Phichol, Fy'.kol, the mouth of all, perfection. 
Philadelphia, Fil-a-deV -fe-a, the love of a bro- 

ther ; from fiKia, love, and a6(\<poi, a brother. 
Philemon, Fil-ee'-mon, or Fy-lee'-mon, that is 

affectionate. 



RAM 



996 



SAL 



Philetus, Fil-ee'-tus or Fy-lee'-tus, amiable, be- 
loved. 

Phil'ip, warlike, a lover of hor.ses. 

Philippi, Fil-lip'-'py, the same as Philip. 

Philistia, Fil-Us'-te-a or Fy-Us'-te-a, the coun- 
try of the Philistines. 

Philistines, Fil-lis'-tines or Fil-iis'-tins, those 
that dwell in villages. 

Philologus, Fil-lol'-lo-gus, lover of learning. 

Phinehas, Fin'-ne-has, a bold countenance. 

Phlegon, Fle'-gon, zealous, burning. 

Phrygia, Frij'-e-a, dry, barren. 

Phurah, Feio'-rah, that bears fruit, that grows. 

PiiYGELLUs, Fy-jel'-lus, fugitive. 

Pi-be'seth, the mouth of despite. 

Pi-HAHiROTH, Py-ha-hy'-roth, the mouth, the 
pass of Hiroth, the opening of liberty. 

Pi'late, who is armed with a dart. 

Pi'non, gem, that beholds. 

Pirathon, Pir'-a-thon, his dissipation, depriva- 
tion ; in Syriac, his vengeance. 

Pis'gah, hill, eminence, fortress. 

PisiDiA, Py-sid'-e-a, pitch, pitchy. 

Pi'soN, changing, doubling, extended. 

Pi'thom, their mouthfal, bit, consummation. 

Pi'thon, his mouth, his persuasion. 

Pol'lux, a boxer. 

Pontius, Poa'-ske-vs, marine, belonging to the 
sea. 

Pon'tus, the sea ; from tzSpto?. 

PoRATHA, Por'-a-tha, fruitful. 

PoRCius, Por'-she-us. 

Potiphar, Pot'-te-far, bull of Africa, fat bull. 

PoTi-PHERAH, Pot-if'-fe-rah or Pot-e-fee'-rah, 
tiiat scatters or demolishes the fat. 

Prisca, Pris'-kah, ancient. 

Priscilla, Pris-sil'-lah, the same as Prisca. 

Prochop.us, Prok'-o-rus, he that presides over 
the choirs. 

PuBLius, Pub'-le-us, coramo3i. 

PuDENs, Pew' -dens, shamefaced. 

PuL, bean, destruction. 

Pu'non, precious stone, that beholds. 

Pur, lot. 

Puteoli, Pew-tee'~o-ly, a city in Campania. 

Putiel, Pew'.te-el, God is my fatness. 

Quar'tus, the fourth. 

Raamah, Ray'-a-mah or Ra-ay'?-mah, greatness, 
thunder, evil, bruising. 

Raamses, Ra-am'-ses. See Rameses. 

Rab'bah, powerful, contentious. 

Rab'-mag, who overthrows a multitude, chief 
of the magicians. 

Rab'-saris, grand master of the eunuchs. 

Rab'-shakeh, cup-bearer of the prince, cham- 
berlain. 

Rachab, Ray'-kab, proud, strong, enlarged. 

Racual, Ray'-kal, injurious, perfumer. 

Rachel, Ray'-tshel, a sheep. 

Ragau, Ray'-gaw, a friend, a neighbour.^ 

Raguel, Rag-ew'-el, shepherd or friend of God. 

Ra'hab, proud, strong, quarrelsome. 

Ra'hab, large, extended, public place. 

Rak'kath, empty, spittle. 

Rak'kon, vain, mountain of lamentations. 

Ram, elevated, who rejects. 

Ramah, Rrty'-mah, the same as Ram, 



Ramath, Ray'-malh, raised, lofly. 
Ramathaim-zophim, Ra-math-ay'-im-zo'-fim, the 

same as Ramah. 
Ra'math-le'hi, elevation of the jaw bone. 
Rameses, Ram'.e-ses, thunder, he that destroys 

evil. 
Ramiah, Ram-V-ak, exaltation of the Lord. 
Ra'moth, high places. 
Rapha, Ray' -fa, relaxation, physic. 
Raphael, Ray-fay'-el. See Rephael. 
Raphu, Ray'-few, cured, comforted. 
Re'ba, the fourth, a square, that stoops. 
Rebek'ah, fat, quarrel appeased. 
Rechab, Re'-kab, square, chariot, rider. 
Rechabites, Re'-kab-iteSj the posterity of Re- 

chab. 
Re'gem, Re'-jem, that stones, purple. 
Regem-melech, Re-jem'-me-lek, he that stones 

the king, the purple of the king. 
Rehabi'ah, breadth, place of the Lord. 
Re'hob, breadth, extent. 
Rehobo'am, who sets the people at liberty, 

space of the people. 
Reho'both, spaces, places. 
Re'hum, compassionate, friendly. 
Re'i, my shepherd, companion, my evil. 
Remali'ah, the exaltation of the Lord. 
Rem'mon, greatness, a pomegranate tree. 
Remphan, Rem' -fan, the name of an idol, which 

some think to be Saturn. 
Rephael, Re'-fa-el, the medicine of God. 
Rephaim, Rephaims, Re-fay'-im, giant, physi- 
cian, relaxed. 
Rephidim, Ref'-e-dim, beds, places of rest. 
Resin, Ree'-sen, a bridle or bit. 
Reu, Ree'-ew, his friend, his shepherd. " 
Reuben, Rew'-ben, who sees the son, vision of 

tiie son. 
Reu'benites, the posterity of Reuben. 
Reuel, Re-yew' -el, shepherd or friend of God. 
Reumah, Re-yew'-mah, lofly, sublime. 
Rezeph, Ree'-zeff, a pavement, burning Cjoal. 
Re'zin, voluntary, runner. 
Re'zon, lean, secret, prince. 
Rhegium, Ree'-je-um, rupture, fracture. 
Rhesa, Ree'-sah, will, course. 
Rhoda, Ro'-dah, a rose. 
Rhodes, Ro'des, the same as Rhoda. 
Rib'lah, quarrel that increases or spreads. 
Rim'mon, exalted, pomegranate. 
Riphath, Ry'.fath, remedy, release. 
Ris'sAH, watering, distillation, dew. 
Riz'pah, bed, extension, coal. 
RoGEL, Ro'-jel, a foot ; in Syriac, custom. 
Romamti-ezer, Ro-mam-te-ee' -zer, exultation of 

help. 
Ro'man, strong, powerful. 
Rome, strength, power ; from ^w//^. 
RosH, the head, the beginning. 
Ru'euS, red. 

RuHAMAH, Ru-hay'-mah, having obtained mercy. 
Ru'mah, exalted, rejected. 
Ruth, filled, satisfied. 

Sabe'ans, captivity, conversion, old age. 
Sabtecha, Sab'-te-kah, that surrounds. 
Sa'doc, just, justified. 

Sa'lah, mission, dart; according to the Syriac, 
that spoils. 



SHA 



997 



SHE 



Salamis, Sal'.la-niis, shaken, tossed, beaten. 

Salathiel, Sal.ay'-the-el, I have asked of God. 

Sa'i,em, complete, peace. 

Sa'lim. See ShaHm. 

SAL'iMOxX, peaceable, perfect, that rewards. 

Saxmone, Sal-mo'.ne, peaceable. 

Salome, Sa-lo'-me. See Salmon. 

Samaria, Sa-ma.y'.re-a, his guard, prison, or 

diamond ; in Hebrew, Shomeron. 
Samar'itans, people of Samaria. 
Sam'lah, raiment, his left hand, his name. 
Sa'mos, fuli of gravel. 

Samothracia, Sam-o-thray'-she-a, an island so 
called because it was peopled by Samians 
and Thracians. 
Sam'son, his sun ; according to the Syriac, his 

service, here the second time. 
Sam'uel, heard or asked of God. 
Sanbal'lat, bush or enemy in secret. 
Saph, Saff, rushes, end, threshold. 
Saphir, Saf'fir or Say' -fir, a city. 
Sapphira, Saf-fy'-rah, that tells, that writes 

books. 
Sa'rah, lady, princess of the multitude. 
Sarai, Say'-ray, my lady, my princess. 
Sar'dis, prince or song of joy, what remains ; 

in Syriac, a pot or kettle. 
Sarep'ta, a goldsmith's shop, where metals 

used to be melted and tried. 
Sar'gon, who takes away protection, who takes 
away the garden ; according to the Syriac, 
nets, snares. 
Sa'ron. See Sharon. 

Sarsechim, Sar-see' -Tcim, master of the ward- 
robe, of the perfumes. 
Saruch, Say'-ruk, branch, layer, twining. 
Sa'tan, contrary, adversary, an accuser. 
Saul, demanded, sepulchre, destroyer. 
ScEVA, See'-vah, disposed, prepared. 
Scythian, Sith'-e-an, tanner, leather-dresser. 
Se'ba, drunkard, that surrounds ; according to 

the Syriac, old man. 
Se'bat, twig, sceptre, tribe. 
Se'cundus, the second. 
Se'gub, fortified, raised; 
Seir, See'.er, hairy, demon, tempest, barley. 
Se'lah, a rock. 
Seleucia, Se -lew' -she -a, beaten by waves, runs 

as a river. 
Semei, (Sem'-me-i, or ^Se-mee'-z, hearing, obeying. 
Se'neh, bush. 

Se'nir, a sleeping candle, a changing. 
Sennacherib, Sen-nak'-ke-rlb, bush of the de- 
struction of the sword, of drought. 
Sephar, See' -far, a book, scribe; in Syriac, a 

haven. 
Sepharad, See-fay'-rad, a book, descending, 

ruling. 
Sepharvaim, Sef-ar-vay'-im, two books, two 

scribes. 
Se'rah, lady of scent, -ong, th© morning. 
Seraiah, Se-ra-i'-ah or Se -ray' -yah., prince of 

the Lord. 
Sergius, Ser'-je-us, a net. 
Se'rug. See Saruch. 
Seth, put, who puts. 

Shaalbim, Shay-alb'. im, that beholds the heart. 
Shaaraim, Shay-a-ray'-im, gates, valuation, 
hairs, barley, tempests, demons. 



Shaashgaz, Shay-ash'-gaz, he that presses the 

fleece. 
Shadrach, Shay'-drak, tender nipple, tender 

field. 
Sha'lim, fox, fist, path. 

Shalisua, ShaV-e-shah, three, the third, prince. 
Shal'lecheth, a casting out. 
Shal'lum, perfect, peaceable. 
Shal'man, peaceable, perfect, that rewards. 
Shalmanezer, Shal-ma-nee'-zer, peace tied, per- 

fection and retribution. 
Sham'gar, named a stranger, he is here a stran- 
ger, surprise of the stranger. 
Sham'huth, desolation, astonishment. 
Sha'mir, prison, bush, lees. 
Sham'mah, loss, desolation, astonishment. 
Shammuah, Sham'-mew-ah, that is heard or 

obeyed. . 
Shaphan, Shay'-fan, a rabbit, wild rat, their lip. 
Shaphat, Shay'-fai, a judge. 
Sharai, Shar'-a-i or Sha-ray'-i, my lord, my 

song. 
Sharezer, Shar-ee'-zer, overseer of the trea- 

^ury. 
Sha'ron, his plain, field, song. 
Sha'shak, a bag of linen, the sixth bag. 
Sha'veh, the plain, that makes equality. 
Shealtiel, She-aV-te-el, I have asked of God. 
Sheariah, She-a-ry'-ah, gate or tempest of the 

Lord. 
She'ar-ja'shub, the remnant shall return. 
She'ba, captivity, compassing about, repose, 

old age. 
Shebaniah, Sheb-a-ny'-ah, the Lord that con. 
verts, that recals from captivity, that under- 
stands. 
Sheb'na, who rests himself, who is now cap- 

tive. 
Shechem, Shee'-kem, portion, the back, shoul- 
ders. 
Shedeur, Shee'.de-ur or Shed'-e-ur, field, de- 

stroyer of fire. 
She'lah, that breaks, that undresses. 
Shelemiah, Shel-le-my'.ah, God is my perfec- 
tion, my happiness. 
Sheleph, Shee'-lef, who draws out. 
Shel'omith, my happiness, my recompense. 
Shelumiel, Shel-ew-my'-el, happiness, retribu 

tion of God. 
Shem, name, renown, he that places. 
Shemaiah, She-ma-i'.ah or Shem-ay'-yah, that 

obeys the Lord. 
Shemariah, Shem-a-ry'-ah, God is my guard, 

diamond. 
Shemeber, Shem'-me-ber, name of force, fame 

of the strong. 
Shemer, Shee'-mer, guardian, thorn. 
Shemida, She-my'-dah, name of knowledge, 
that puts knowledge, the science of the 
heavens. 
Sheminith, Shem'-me-nith, the eighth. 
Shemiramoth, She-mir' -ra-moth, the height of 

the heavens, the elevation of the name. 
Shen, tooth, change, he that sleeps. 
Shenir, Shee'-nir, lantern, light that sleeps, he 

that shows. 
Shephatiah, Shef.a-ty'.ah, the Lord that judges. 
Sheshach, Shee'-shak, bag of flax, the sixth 



SOD 



998 



TEK 



Sheshbazzar, Shesh-baz'-zar, joy in tribulation, 

or of vintage. 
Sheth. See Setli. 
Shether-boznai, Shee'-ther-boz'-na-i, that 

makes to rot and corrupt. 
She'va, vanity, elevation, fame, tumult. 
Shibboleth, Shib'-bo-leth, burden, ear of corn. 
Shicron, Shy'-kron, drunkenness, his wages. 
Shiggaion, iShig-gay'-yon, a song of trouble. 
Shigionoth, Shig-gy'-on-oth, mournful music. 
Shiloah, Shy-lo'-ah. See Siloah. 
Shi'loh, sent, the Apostle. 
Shi'jloh, peace, abundance. 
Shilonite, Shy'-lo-nyte, of the city of Shiloh. 
Shimeah, Shim'-me-ah, that hears, that obeys. 
Shimei, Shim'-me-i, that hears, name of the 

heap, my reputation. 
Shimsh.-I, Shim' -shay, my sun. 
Shinar, Shy^-nar, the watching of him that 

sleeps, change of the city. 
Shiphrah, Shif'-rah, handsome, trumpet, that 

does good. 
Shi'shak, present of the bag, of the pot, of the 

thigh. 
Shit'tim, that turn away, scourges, rods. 
Sho'a, tyrants. 

Sho'bab, returned, turned back. 
Sho'bach, your bonds, your nets, his captivity ; 

according to the Syriac, a dove house. 
Shochoh, Sho'-koh, defence, a bough. 
Shoshan'nim, lilies of the testimony. 
Shu'ah, pit, humiliation, meditation. 
Shu'al, fox, hand, fist, traces, way. 
Shu'hite, a descendant of Shuah. 
Shu'lamite, peaceable, perfect, that recom- 

penses. 
Shu'namite, a native of Shunem. 
Shu'nem, their change, their sleep. 
Shur, wall, ox. 
Shu'shan, lily, rose, joy. 
Shu'thelah, plant, verdure, moist pot. 
Sib'mah, conversion, captivity, old age, rest. 
SicHEM, Sy'-kem. See Shechem. 
Si'don, hunting, fishing, venison. 
Sigionoth, Sig-gy'-o-noth, according to variable 

tunes. 
Si'hon, rooting out, conclusion. 
Si'hor, black, trouble, early in the morn. 
Si'las, three, the third. 
SiLOAs, Sil'-o-as or Sy-lo'-as, Siloam, Sil'-o-am 

or Sy-lo'-am, sent, dart, branch. 
SiLOE, Sil'-o-e or Sy-lo'-e, the same as Siloas. 
Silva'nus, one who loves the woods. 
Sim'eon, that hears or obeys. 
Si'mon, that hears or obeys. 
Sin, bush. 
Sinai, Sy'-nay or Sy'-nay-i, bush, according to 

the Syriac, enmity. 
Si'nim, the south country. 
Si'oN, noise, tumult. 
Si'rah, turning aside, rebellion. 
Sirion, Sir'-re-on, a breastplate, deliverance. 
SisERA, Sis'-se-rah, that sees a horse or swal- 
low. 
Si'vAN, bush, thorn. 
Smyr'na, myrrh. 

So, a measure for grain or dry matters. 
So'coH, tents, tabernacles. 
^o'di, my secret. 



Sodom, Sod'.dom, their secret, their lime, their 
cement. 

Sodomites, Sod'-dom-ites, inhabitants of So- 
dom. 

Sol'omon, peaceable, perfect, one who recom- 
penses. 

SoPATER, So-pay'-ter, who defends or saves his 
father. 

So'rek, hissing, a colour inclining to yellow. 

SosiPATER, So-se-pay'-ter. See Sopater. 

Sosthenes, Sos'-the-nes, a strong and power- 
ful saviour. 

Spain, rare, precious. 

Stachys, Stay'-kis, spike ; from s'dx^S' 

Stephanas, Stef'-fa-nas, a crown, crowned. 

Ste'phen, the same as Stephanas. 

Suc'coth, tents, tabernacles. 

Suc'coth-be'noth, the tabernacles of young 
women. 

Suk'kiims, covered, shadowed. 

SuR, that withdraws or departs. 

Susan'na, a lily, a rose, joy. 

Susi, Su'-sy, horse, swallow, moth. 

Sychar, Sy'.kar, the name of a city. 

Syene, Sy-ee'-ne, bush ; according to the Sy- 
riac, enmity. 

Syntyche, Sin'-te-ke, that speaks or discourses. 

Syracuse, Sir'-ra-kewse, that draws violently, 

Syria, Sir'-re-a, in Hebrew, Aram, sublime, de- 
ceiving. 

Syriac, Syrian, Sir'-re-ak, Sir'-re-an, of Syria. 

Syrians, Sir'-re-ans, inhabitants of Syria. 

Syro-phenician, Sy'.ro-fe-nish'-e-an, purple, 
drawn to ; from svpw, J draw^ and ^olvi^, red 
palm tree. 

Taanach, Tay'-a-nak, or Ta-ay'-naJc, who hum- 

bles or answers thee. 
Tab'bath, good, goodness. 
Tabeal, Tay'-be-al or Tab-ee'-al, good God. 
Tabeel, Tay'-be-el or Tab-ee'-el, the same as 

Tabeal. 
Taberah, Tab'-e-rah or Tab-ee'-rah, burning. 
Tabitha, Tab'-e-tha, in Syriac, clear sighted; 

she Is also called Dorcas, wild goat. 
Ta'bor, choice ; in Syriac, contrition. 
Tabrimon, Tab'-re-mon, good promegranate. 
Tad'mor, palm tree, change. 
Tahapanes, Ta-hap'-pa-nes, secret temptation. 
Tahpenes, Tah'-pe-nes, standard, flight. 
Talitha-cumi, Tal'-le-tha-kew'-my, young wo- 

man, arise. 
Talmai, Tal'-may, my furrow, heap of waters. 
Ta'mar, a palm, palm tree. 
Tam'muz, abstruse, concealed. 
Tanhumeth, Tan-hew' -meth or Tan' -hu-meth^ 

consolation, repentance. 
Taphath, Tay'-fath, little girl. 
Tar'pelites, ravishers, wearied. 
TAR'airtsH, contemplation of the marble 
Tar'sus, wingod, feathered. 
Tar'tak, chained, bound, shut up. 
Tar'tan, that searches the gift of the turtle. 
Tatnai, Tat'-nay, that gives. 
Te'bah, murder, a cook. 
Te'beth, the Babylonish name of the tenth 

month of the Hebrews. 
Te'kel, weight. 
Tekoa, TeM-.ah, sound of the trumpet. 



TRO 



999 



ZEL 



Tel'abid, a heap of new grain. 

Tel-harsa, Tel-har'~sa.h, heap, suspension of 

the plough or of the head. 
Te'lieth, goodness. 
Tel-melah, Tel'-me-lah or TeUmee'-lah, heap 

of salt or of mariners. 
Te'ma, admiration, perfection. 
Te'man, the south, Africa. 
Te'manite, an inhabitant of Teman. 
Te'rah, to breathe, to scent, to blow 
Teraphim, Ter'-ra-fim, an image, an idol. 
Tertius, Ter'-she-us, the third. 
Tertul'lus, a liar, an impostor. 
Tetrarch, Tet'-rark or Tee'-trarck, governor 

of a fourth part of a kingdom. 
Thaddeus, Thad-dee'-us, that praises. 
Tha'hash, that makes haste, or keeps silence. 
Tha'mah, that blots out or suppresses. 
Tha'mar. See Tamar. 
Tham'muz. See Tammuz. 
The'bez, muddy, silk. 
Thelasar, The-lass'-ar, that unbinds and grants 

the suspension or heap. 
Theophilus, The-of'.fe-lus, a friend of God. 
Thessalonica, Thes-sa-lo-ny'-kah, victory 

against the Thessalians. 
Theudas, Thew'-das, a false teacher. 
Thomas, Tom'-mas, a twin. 
Thum'mim, truth, perfection. 
Thyatira, Thy-a-ty'-rah, a sweet savour of la- 
bour or sacrifice of contrition. 
Tiberias, Ti-hee'-rc-as., good vision. 
Tiberius, Ti-bee'-re-us, son of Tiber. 
Tib'ni, straw, understanding. 
Ti'dal, that breaks the yoke. 
Tiglath-pileser, Tig'-lath-pLlee'-zer, that 
takes away captivity, miraculous. 

Tik'vah, hope, a congregatioij. 

Timeus, Ti-mee'-us, in Greek, perfect, honour- 
able ; in Hebrew, admirable. 

Tim'-nath, image, enumeration. 

TiMNATH-HEREs, Tim'-nath-hee'-res, image of 
the dumb. 

Ti'mon, honourable. 

Timo'theus, honour of God, valued of God. 

Tiphsah, Tif'-sah, passage, passover. 

TiRHAKAH, Tir-kay'-kah or Tir'-ha-kah, in- 
quirer, law made dull. 

TiRSHATHA, Tir-sha'y-tha, that overturns the 
foundation; in Syriac, that beholds the 
time. 

Tir'zah, benevolent, pleasant. 

Tish'bite, that makes captives, that dwells. 

Ti'tus, honourable ; from rt'w, / honour. 

To'ah, a weapon. 

Tob, good, goodness. 

ToB-ADONUAK, Tob'-ad.o-ny'-jah, my good God. 

Tobi'ah, the Lord is good. 

Togar'mah, which is all bone, strong. 

To'hu, that lives or declares. 

Toi, To'-i, who wanders. 

To'la, worm, scarlet. 

To'lad, nativity. 

Tophel, To'.fei, ruin, folly, insipid. 

TopHET, To'-fet, a drum, betraying. 

Tro'as, penetrated. 

Trogvllium, Tro-jil'.le.um, a city in the isle of 
Samos. 

TRorHiMus, Trof'-fe-ynus, well educated. 



Tryphena, Try-fee'-nah, delicate. 

Trypho'sa, thrice shining. 

Tu'bal, the earth, confusion. 

Tu'bal-cai'n, worldly possession, jealous of con- 
fusion. 

Tychicus, Tik'-e-kus, casual, happening. 

Tyran'nus, a prince, one that reigns. 

Tyre, Ty'rus, in Hebrew, Sor or Tzur^ 
strength. 

• 

UcAL, Yew'-kal, power, prevalency. 

Ulai, Yew'-la-i or Yew-lay', strength. 

Ulam, Yew'-lam, the porch, their strength. 

Ul'la, elevation, holocaust, leaf. 

Un'ni, poor, afflicted. 

Uphaz, Yew'-faz, gold of Phasis or Pison. 

Ur, fire, light. 

Urba'nus, civil, courteous. 

Uri, Yew'-ry, my light or fire. 

Uriah, Urijah, Yew-ry'.ah, Yew-ry'-jah, the 
Lord is my light or fire. 

Uri'el, God is my light or fire. 

Urim and Thummim, Yew'-rim and Tkum'-mim, 
lights and perfection. 

Uz, counsel ; in Syriac, to fix. 

Uz'zah, strength, a goat. 

Uzzen-sherah, Uz'-zen-shee'-rah, ear of the 
flesh or of the parent. 

Uz'zi, my strength, my kid. 

Uzzi'ah, the strength of the Lord. 

Uzzi'el, the strength of God. 

Uzzielites, Uz-zy'.el-ites, the posterity of Uz- 
ziel. 

Vash'ni, the second. 

Vash'ti, that drinks, thread. 

VopHSi, Vof'-sy, fragment, diminution. 

Zaana'nim, movings. 

Za'bad, a dowry. 

Zab'di, portion, dowry. 

Zaccheus, Zak-kee'-us, pure, justified. 

Zachari'ah, memory of the Lord. 

Za'dok, just, justified. 

Za'ham, crime, impurity. 

Zair, Zay'-ir, little, afflicted. 

Zal'mon, his shade, obscurity. 

Zalmo'nah, the shade, your image. 

Zalmun'na, shadow, image. 

Zamzum'mims, thinking, wickedness. 

Zano'ah, forgetfulness, this rest. 

Zaphnath-paaneah, Zaf'-nath-pay-a-nee'-ah, 
one that discovers hidden things; in the 
Egyptian tongue, a saviour of the world. 

Za'rah, east, brightness. 

Zarephath, Zar'-re-fath, ambush of the mouth. 

Zare'tan, tribulation, perplexity. 

Za'za, belonging to all; in Syriac, going back, 

Zebadi'ah, portion of the Lord. 

Ze'bah, victim, immolation. 

Zeb'edee, abundant portion. 

Zebo'im, deer, goats. 

Ze'bul, a habitation. 

Zeb'ulun, dwelling, habitation. 

Zechari'ah. See Zachariah. 

Ze'dad, his side, his hunting. 

Zedeki'ah, the Lord is my justice. 

Zeeb, Zee'-eh, wolf. 

Ze'lek, the noise of him that licks or laps 



ZIL 



1000 



zuz 



Zelophehad, Ze.lo'-fe-ad, the shade or tingling 
of fear. 

Zelotes, Ze-lo'-tes, }Gdlo\xs, full of zeal. 

Zel'zah, noontide. 

Ze'nas, living. 

Zephani'ah, the Lord is my secret, the mouth 
of the Lord. 

Zephath, Zee'-fath, which beholds, attends. 

Ze'pho, that sees and observes. 

Zer, perplexity, tril^lation, a rock. 

Ze'pvAH. See Zarah. 

Zeredah, Zer'-e-dah or Ze-ree'-dah, ambush. 

Ze'resh, misery, stranger. 

Ze'ror, root, that straitens, a stone. 

Zeru'aii, leprous, hornet. 

Zerubbabel, Ze-ruh'-ba-hel, banished, a stran- 
ger at Babylon, dispersion of confusion. 

Zeruiah, Zer-ew-i'.ah, pain, tribulation. 

Ze'than, their olive. 

Ze'thar, he that examines or beholds. 

Zi'ba, army, fight, strength, stag. 

Zib'eon, iniquity that dwells, the seventh. 

Zib'iah, deer, goat, honourable and fine. 

ZiCHRi, Zic'-ry, that remembers, a male. 

Zid'dim, huntings ; in Syriac, destructions. 

Zi'don, hunting, fishing, venison. 

Zido'nians, inhabitants of Zidon. 

Zip, this, that ; according to the Syriac, bright- 
ness. 

Zik'lag, measure pressed down. 

Zil'lah, shadow, which is roasted, the tingling 
of the ear. 



Zil'pah, distillation, contempt of the mouth. 

Zim'ra??, song, singer, vine. 

Zim'ri, my field, my vine, my branch. 

ZiN, buckler, coldness. 

Zi'oN, a monument, sepulchre, turret. 

Zi'oR, ship of him that watches, ship of the 
enemy. 

ZiPH, Ziff, this mouth, mouthful. 

Zip'poR, bird, crown ; according to the Syriac, 
early in the morning, goat. 

Zip'poRAH, beauty, trumpet. 

Zith'ri, to hide, overturned. 

Ziz, flower, a lock of hair; according to the 
Syriac, wing, feather. 

Zi'zA. See Zaza. 

Zo'an, motion. 

Zo'ar, little, small. 

Zo'bah, an army, a swelling. 

Zo'har, white, shining, dryness. 

Zohe'leth, that creeps or draws. 

ZopHAR, Zo'-far, rising early, crown ; in Syriac, 
sparrow, goat. 

Zo'rah, leprosy, scab. 

ZoROBABEL, Zo-roh'-ba-bcl. See Zerubbabel. 

ZuAR, Zew'-ar, small. 

ZupH, that observes, roof. 

ZuR, stone, plan, form. 

Zuri'el, the rock or strength of God. 

ZuRisHADDAi, Zew'-ryshod'-da-i, the Almighty 
is my rock, splendour, beauty. 

Zu'ziMs, the posts of a door, splendour ; in Sy- 
riac, departing, money ; in Chaldce, strong. 



TABLES 

OF 

THE WEIGHTS, MEASURES, AND MONEY, 

MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE. 



JEWISH WEIGHTS, REDUCED TO ENGLISH TROY WEIGHT. 

lbs. 0Z3. pen. gr. 

The Gerah, the twentieth part of a Shekel 12 

The Bekah, half a Shekel 0050 

The Shekel 10 

The Maneh, sixty Shekels 2600 

The Talent, fifty Maneh, or three thousand Shekels 125 

According to the bishop of Peterborough's calculations, the Gerah is nearly equal to 11 grains 
Troy ; the Bekah, to about 4| pennyweights ■; and the Shekel, to about 9^ pennyweights. 



TABLES OF SCRIPTURE MEASURES OF LENGTH, REDUCED TO 
ENGLISH MEASURE. 

SHORT MEASURES. 

English feet. Inches. 
Digit 0.912 

4 I Palm , 3.684 

12 j 3 ] Span 10.944 

24 I 6 I 3 I Cubi t 1 9.888 

96 I 24 I 6 I 2 I Fatho m 7 3.552 

144 I 36 I 12 I 6 I 1.5 | Ezek iePs reed 10 11.328 

192 I 48 I 16 I 8 I 2 I 1.3 I Arab ian pole 14 7.104 

1920 I 480 I 160 I 80 I 20 | 13.3 | 10 | Schcenus's meas'ng line 145 11.04 



LONG MEASURES. 



Cubit 



400 I Stadiu m or Furlong 

2000 |_ 5 I Sabb ath day's journey . 

4000 I 10 I 2 I East ern mile 1 

3 I Parasang 4 

A day's journey 33 

1056= 



12000 I 30 I 6 I 



96000 I 240 I 48 I 24 | 8 



English miles. Paces. 

. . . 
145 
729 
403 
153 
172 



Feet. 

1.824 

4.6 

3.0 

1.0 

3.0 

4.0 



=1 mile. 
According to the bishop of Peterborough, a Parasang is equal to 4 miles, 116 paces. 

FOR TABLES OP TIME SEE THE ARTICLES " MONTHS" AND "DAY." 



TABLES OF SCRIPTURE MEASURES OF CAPACITY. 

MEASURES FOR LIQUIDS, REDUCED TO ENGLISH WINE MEASURE. 

Gallons. Pints. 
Caph > 0.625 

1.3 I Log 0.833 

5.3 I 4 I Cab 3.333 

16 I 12 I 3 I Hin 12 

32 I 24 I 6 I 2 I Seah 2 4 

96 I 72 I 18 I 6 I 3 I Bat h or Epha 7 4 

960 I 720 I 180 I 60 I 20 | 10 | Chomer, Homer, Kor, or Cores ... 75 5 
" 65 



1002 

The Omer was one-tenth of an Epha, and contained 6 pints; the Metretes of Syria, trans 
lated in John ii, 6, "firkins," 7! pints; and the eastern Cotyla, half a pint. This Cotyla, 
says the bishop of Peterborough, contains just 10 ounces Averdupois of rain water ; the 
Omer, 100 ounces ; the Epha, 1000 ; and the Chomer, 10,000 ounces. So by these weights 
;a,ll these measures of capacity may be expeditiously recovered to a near exactness. 

MEASURES FOR THINGS CRT, REDUCED TO ENGUSH CORN MEASURE. 

Pecks. Gals. Pints. 
Gachal 0.1416 

20 I Cab 2.8333 



36 I 1.8 I Omer o r Gomer 5.1 

120 I 6 I 3.3 I Sea h 101 

360 I 18 I 10 I 3 I Eph a .303 

1800 I 90 I 50 I 15 I 5 JLetech 16 



3600 I 180 I 100 I 30 I 10 | 2 | Chomer, Homer, &c. ... 32 



TABLES OF MONEY. 

JEWISH MONET, REDUCED TO THE ENGLISH STANDARD. 

£. S. d. 

Gerah 1.3687 

~W\ Bekah 1 1.6875 

20 I 2 I Shekel 02 3.375 



1200 I 120 I 50 I Maneh, or Mina Hebraica 5 14 0.75 

60,000 I 6000 I 3000 | 60" | Talent 342 3 9 



0.5 



Solidus Aureus, or Sextula, was worth ? }? c 

Siclns Aureus, or Gold Shekel ' ' ' . ^ 5 " 

Talent of Gold 5475 

The bishop of Peterborough makes the Mina Hebraica to contain 60 Shekels, and to weigh 
27 oz. 7i dwts. ; which, at 5s. per ounce, will amount to 6Z. 16s. lO^c/. ; and the Talent of 
Silver to contain 50 MIueb, which, at 5«., will equal the amount in this table, 342Z. 3*. 9d 

ROMAN MONEY, MENTIONED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, REDUCED TO THE 
ENGLISH STANDARD. 

£. s. d. far. 

Mite (Assarium) n 2 l! 

Farthing, (Quadrans,) about n n 7 i 

Penny, or Denarius (Silver) ooin 

Popnd, or Mina S 2 b i) 

According to the bishop of Peterborough, the Roman Mite is one-third of our farthing ; Quad, 
rans, three-fourths of a farthing; the Assarium, a farthing and a half; and the Assis three 
farthings. 

*^* In the preceding Tables, Silver is valued at 5s., and Gold at £i. per ounce. 

Since the publication, in 1727, of Dr. Arbutbnot's "Tables of Ancient Coins, Weights, and 
Measures," that celebrated work has been regarded by the best divines as the general standard 
on these difficult subjects. More recently the bishop of Peterborough has rendered good 
service to this part of Biblical antiquity by entering into several nice and extensive calcula- 
tions on the weights and measures mentioned in the Bible, which have, with very few 
exceptions, confirmed the previous investigations .of Dr. Arbxathnot: and as the axiom, 
"What is new in theology is false," holds good only in regard to the doctrines of Scripture, 
and not to its statics and nurnisma.tics, no hesitation has been felt in presenting the reader, 
under each of the preceding Tables, with some of the most important of the results which 
the bishop has thus obtained. , , j i . i i 

In the abstruse department of mensuration of superficies, the same learned prelate has also 
ably demonstrated, that the altar of incense, described in Exodus xxx, 2, as consisting of a 
cubit in length, and a cubit in breadth, and yet " four-square," contained exactly one square 
cubit, that is, three English square feet, and about forty-seven square inches ;— that the table o} 



1003 

shew bread, described in Exodus xxv, 23, as being two cuLits long and one broad, and rec 
tangular, contained above six English square feet; — ^that the boards of the tabernacle, described 
in Exodus xxvi, 16, as ten cubits in length and a cubit and a half in breadth, and rectangular, 
contained nearly fifty square feet of English measure ; — that the mercy seat, which Moses is 
directed to make " two cubits and a half the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth 
thereof," Exodus xxv, 17, contained twelve and a half square feet ; — that the altar of incense, 
which was directed to be "a cubit the length thereof and a cubit the breadth thereof,* and 
four square," Exodus xxx, 2, contained upward of three square feet ; — that the court of the 
tabernacle, the orders concerning which were, "The length of the court shall be a hundred 
cubits, and the breadth fifty every where," Exodus xxvii, 18, comprised upward of sixteen 
thousand six hundred and thirty- four square feet, or in English land measure one rood, 
twenty-one perches, and twenty-seven and a half feet ; — and that the Levites' glebe, which 
is thus described in Numbers xxxv, 3-5 : "The cities they shall have to dwell in : and the 
suburbs of them shall be for their cattle, and for their goods, and for all their beasts. And 
the suburbs of the cities, which ye shall give unto the Levites, shall reach from the wall of 
the city and outward a thousand cubits round about. And ye shall measure from without 
the city on the east side two thousand cubits, and on the south side two thousand cubits," 
&c ; " and the city shall be in the midst ;" contained three hundred and five acres, two roods, 
and one perch, which was, for each of the four sides, seventy-six acres, one rood, twenty 
perches, and eighty square feet. 
Respecting the Egyptian aroura, which is sometimes mistranslated " acre," the bishop remarks, 
"Reflecting upon Hoses' measure by cubits, and," in the case of the court of the tabernacle, 
" finding them to be precisely five thousand square cubits, I observed that they were just 
half ten thousand, which I had observed from Herodotus to be the area of the Egyptian 
aroura, by which their land was as generally measured as ours is by acres and roods. I 
called also to mind a passage in Manetho, an Egyptian priest, cited by Josephus, in his first 
book against Apion, where he affirms, that Manetho, in his history of the reign, wars, and 
expulsion of the Pastors, (whom Africanus affirms to be Phenicians or Canaanites, and 
Josephus vainly believed to be Jews,) wrote out of the public records of Egypt, that these 
Pastors made at Abaris a very large and strong encampment, that encompassed ten thousand 
aroura, sufficient to contain two hundred and forty thousand men, and long to maintain 
their cattle. Hence it appears, that not only the Egyptians, but also the Phenicians or 
Canaanites, that had dwelt among them, and had reigned there during the time of six kings 
successively, used this measure of land called aroura. Now this was long before the time 
of Moses ; for the beginning of Amosis or Tethmosis, who expelled them out of Egypt, was 
very near the time of Abraham's death. Wherefore I believe that Moses, who was skilled 
in all Egyptian learning, especially in surveying, did of choice make the court of the taber- 
nacle to be just half an aroura, which was a known measure to him and his people, and that 
divine authority directed him so to do." In another part of his work he reduces the Egyp- 
tian aroura into English measure, and finds it to be three roods, two perches, and fifty-five 
and a quarter square feet. 



THE END. 



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